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DHS fires 3 more FEMA workers after IG report finds crew skipped homes with pro-Trump signs
The Department of Homeland Security fired three more FEMA workers on Thursday after an inspector general report found that FEMA crews skipped servicing homes with pro-Trump signs following Hurricane Milton.
DHS says the three firings were in addition to other firings carried out after the IG report released last week. An investigation by FEMA's Office of Professional Responsibility found that the three employees had "failed to meet FEMA's standards of conduct."
"Our job is to protect the American people, regardless of their political beliefs. This is especially important when it comes to disaster relief, where every second counts and lives are on the line," said DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin. "We’ve made sure that everyone responsible for this incident has been punished, and we’ll make sure that nothing like this ever happens again."
DEM GOV LASHES OUT AS TRUMP HUD SCRUTINIZES NEARLY $2B IN DISASTER FUNDS OVER FRAUD CONCERNS
"Thanks to President Trump, FEMA has been empowered to hold accountable those who are responsible and has changed how it conducts survivor outreach to ensure Americans are treated fairly and assistance is driven by need," said FEMA Administrator Cameron Hamilton.
"Under my watch, all parties involved in this situation have been held accountable. Political bias has no room in public service," he added.
The firings come after FEMA supervisor Marn’i Washington was fired for instructing personnel to avoid homes with Trump signage in Lake Placid, Florida, in 2024.
Washington maintains she did nothing wrong, arguing in statements to the Washington Post that she was looking to protect workers in a highly politicized environment.
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"I had never seen people so passionate during that political season, and what we were experiencing was not just conspiracy theories. People were physically charging at us with aggressive postures and accusations," Washington told the Post.
"People calling people on the phone saying FEMA was here. They would beat us to the fence and yell: ‘Don’t come here, you are part of Biden; we know what Biden is doing. You are taking our money and giving it to immigrants.’ ‘Drain the swamp’ was a common term," she said.
Washington claimed that her teams only avoided homes that showed both a Trump sign and further signs of so-called hostility, such as signs referencing guns.
Democrats hand Trump one power they spent years fighting
After raging against a key tool in President Donald Trump’s economic arsenal, Senate Democrats quietly green-lit the authority before they left Washington, D.C.
Democrats have bashed Trump’s use of tariffs since they were first floated during his campaign in 2024, and have taken every chance to challenge and push back against duties imposed on other countries throughout his second term.
But nearly the entire Senate Democratic caucus voted in favor of giving Trump limited tariff authority in exchange for bone-crushing sanctions against Russia. Only nine Democrats, and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., ultimately voted against the package.
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Now, Trump has ignited a trade war with Canada, introducing 50% tariffs against the country on roughly $20 billion worth of goods, which has reignited the debate on the campaign trail and as Democrats seek to flip the Senate and corral his authority.
Some warned that giving congressional approval would allow the administration to abuse the power.
"It gives Donald Trump massive new tariff authority that he can use to threaten our trading partners and raise prices on the American people," Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said on the Senate floor. "I believe senators will come to deeply regret voting to give Donald Trump this tariff authority."
Though not directly connected to the authority granted in the sanctions package, which directly deals with countries buying oil from Russia, Trump’s move to enter into a fight with one of America’s top trade partners is what he warned of: giving the White House congressional leeway.
TRUMP ALLIES PUSH TO ARM PRESIDENT WITH NEW TARIFF WEAPON TO PUNISH COUNTRIES 'RIPPING OFF' AMERICA
The tariff authority baked into the sanctions package would allow Trump to issue levies of up to 500% on Russian imports and tariffs of up to 100% on the top five countries buying Russian energy, like China and India.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who, alongside the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, pushed the package for nearly two years, told Fox News Digital that if Trump strays outside the legal confines built into the package, the courts will block him as they did with his sweeping tariffs unveiled on "Liberation Day" last year.
"If Donald Trump wants to break this law, he will be restrained by the courts, just as when he broke the law on tariffs previously," Blumenthal said. "We can't do any more than be explicit in limiting his authority to the top five purchasers, and only those countries, by the terms, specific in the legislation."
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who went on to vote against the package, told reporters last month that Trump "has shown what he will do with broad tariff authority."
TRUMP BET TARIFFS WOULD BRING BACK AMERICAN FACTORY JOBS. NEW REPORT SAYS IT DIDN'T WORK
"Heck, he’s shown what he’ll do even if he doesn’t have authority," she said.
And Paul, who has been one of the lone Republicans to consistently oppose Trump's use of tariffs, introduced an amendment alongside Wyden to strip them from the broader package, warning that the duties were nothing more than an additional tax on the American people.
"Do not let sympathy for Ukraine blind you to the reality of tariffs," Paul said.
One Senate Democrat, Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., received guarantees from U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer that the tariffs baked into the sanctions package would just be limited to the top five energy trading partners with the Kremlin.
He told Fox News Digital that the concern was that Trump could broadly bend the rules in the package and impose duties as he pleased, which is why he sought guardrails and commitments from the administration.
"It was important to hold [Vladimir] Putin accountable. He is a war criminal," Warnock said. "His aggression towards Ukraine has national security implications for us. But at the same time, it was important to put some guardrails on this president. And I think I made considerable progress in making sure that that happens."
DOJ announces 81 alleged gang members indicted after Puerto Rico drug trafficking takedown
Attorney General Todd Blanche announced Thursday the indictments of 81 alleged members of Los Baja Deo, or LBD, a Puerto Rican-based drug trafficking organization.
On Wednesday, the FBI and the Puerto Rico Police Department arrested 70 alleged LBD members on numerous charges. LBD has been active for years throughout the western side of the U.S. territory, Blanche said.
The indictments charged the suspects with drug possession and distribution in connection to activities prosecutors said began in 2021. Blanche said 21 of the defendants were also charged with illegal firearms possession.
They allegedly distributed "mass quantities" of cocaine, crack cocaine, fentanyl, heroin and marijuana, which generated $49 million in proceeds, Blanche said.
WATCH: BLACK HAWK ASSISTS TAKEDOWN OF MASSIVE COCAINE HAUL OFF COAST OF PUERTO RICO
Blanche said the defendants "maintained a steady supply of highly addictive and potentially lethal substances that endangered the community, fueled addiction and exposed entire public housing projects in Mayagüez and nearby neighborhoods to violence and chaos."
The takedown of the 70 alleged LBD members took place following a San Juan Homeland Security Task Force investigation, according to the attorney general.
Blanche called this "a great example of the success" Homeland Security has had in "combating violent crime and the illegal flow of narcotics."
"If there's additional co-conspirators or members of this organization that have not been charged, I promise you that this investigation doesn't stop because an indictment is returned," Blanche said. "We'll find out. And if I were them, I would probably not be sleeping well tonight."
Also announced at the press conference was an operation that took place Wednesday against Los Choneros and Los Lobos, Ecuador-based drug trafficking organizations.
There were 26 arrests, including of four leaders of the Los Lobos cartel, Blanche said. This comes after local police arrested Eduardo Gomez, another alleged leader of the gang, at his home in Quito on May 14.
Blanche said one metric ton of cocaine was seized from the two cartels, as well as around $1 million in U.S. currency.
Additionally, authorities said they recovered 35 rifles, 26 vehicles, over 40 cellphones and an airplane. Three clandestine airports and landing strips were also destroyed.
Los Choneros and Los Lobos have been U.S. designated terrorist groups since August of last year.
"President Trump called drug dealers terrorists, and that's because that's exactly what they are," Blanche said. "There are drug boats that are getting blown up because of trying to bring cocaine into our country."
Blanche also announced the extradition of Erick Randhiel Mosquea Polanco, a long-sought cocaine kingpin from the Dominican Republic.
He was transported from Colombia to San Juan to face charges in two separate cases. He also faces federal money laundering charges in New Jersey, Blanche said.
Popular weight-loss strategy shows surprising potential for chronic pain relief
Intermittent fasting has grown in popularity as a weight-loss strategy, but it could also unlock new ways to manage chronic pain by altering how the gut communicates with the brain.
A study published in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, revealed that the timing of meals affects the gut-brain axis, which is a communication system linking the gastrointestinal tract and the central nervous system.
Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern that focuses on when meals are consumed, typically involving extended periods without food, according to health institutions.
DAILY EATING HABIT LINKED TO BETTER BRAIN HEALTH IN OLDER ADULTS, NEW RESEARCH SUGGESTS
Chronic pain, defined by the Cleveland Clinic as pain persisting for longer than three months, is often accompanied by cognitive difficulties and anxiety.
While traditional treatments target inflammation or pain-signaling nerves, the new research suggests that meal timing may also influence chronic pain by changing gut bacteria and inflammation throughout the body.
Scientists at Zhengzhou University in China examined animal models during fasting cycles. They found that intermittent fasting strengthens the intestinal lining, which prevents inflammatory compounds from leaking into the bloodstream and reaching nervous system tissue.
SECRET TO WEIGHT LOSS MAY BE HIDING IN YOUR GUT, NEW STUDY SUGGESTS
Analysis of the gut microbiome found that fasting increased levels of a bacterium called Alistipes finegoldii. When researchers administered the live bacteria to animals that were not fasting, they saw similar improvements in pain and cognitive function.
POPULAR WEIGHT-LOSS DIET SHOWS SURPRISING IMPACT ON SERIOUS MENTAL HEALTH CONDITION
The researchers found that the bacterium produces compounds that the body can convert into hippuric acid, a chemical messenger linked to the observed benefits.
At the cellular level, hippuric acid acts on an inflammatory pathway called STING, short for Stimulator of Interferon Genes. When this pathway becomes overactive in the nervous system, it can fuel inflammation that worsens pain and interferes with brain function.
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The study demonstrated that hippuric acid turns down STING activity, quieting inflammatory signaling in the central nervous system and resolving behavioral symptoms.
Despite the findings, the research carries a few limitations, the research team acknowledged.
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First, observational and early-stage studies can identify a link between intermittent fasting and changes in gut-brain signaling, but they cannot prove that fasting directly causes those changes.
Also, individual responses to intermittent fasting vary based on each person's gut microbiome, underlying health conditions, daily nutrient intake and genetics.
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It can also be challenging for some people to adhere to fasting protocols, as strict eating windows may not be safe or feasible for everyone.
While fasting is not a cure for chronic pain, researchers said the findings could help guide future treatments that target the gut-brain connection.
They added that further trials will be necessary to establish specific dietary protocols tailored to individual patient needs.
Golden State Valkyries and New York Liberty headline two WNBA picks for tonight's slate
I was able to get a win yesterday on the diamond, and quite frankly, I needed it. After a few losses, it was nice to get back into the winning column. However, I am taking a break today because there are only a few games on the board that I like, and none of them that I feel overly confident in. Instead of going to the ballpark, we are going to the hardwood, where we have two WNBA games with some interesting matchups. Let's focus on those for tonight.
It might be a bit hard to believe, but one of the best teams in the WNBA is only in its second year of existence. Normally, expansion teams are terrible, but the Valkyries are showing how it can be done correctly. Hockey seems to have success with expansion teams as well, but the NBA and MLB tend to struggle for whatever reason. I think part of what makes them so successful is the balance the they have. They have both inside and outside presences that can put the ball in the bucket. What is crazy is that the team only has three scorers averaging more than 10 points per game. However, they have eight players averaging six or more per game, meaning it is really tough to match up with them as everyone can (and does) contribute.
The New York Liberty came into this season as the favorites to win the WNBA Championship. They've looked like anything but a championship team. Sure, they still have the star power with Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones, and Sabrina Ionescu, but the team is just 10-10 on the road. Some teams tend to struggle on the road, but you have to be able to win there if you want to hoist the trophy at the end of the year. The Liberty have been a bit streaky this year, but they are in the midst of a good streak, winning 10 of their past 13 games. They also are 13-5 at home this year with an average margin of victory of 13.5 points. I'm taking the Liberty tonight. The Valkyries have had the Liberty's number this season, but I like New York's form, home court advantage, and the need to avoid the season sweep. Give me New York -2.5.
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Washington isn't a franchise you think of in the WNBA as one with a ton of success. The Mystics haven't made the postseason since 2023, and their past few seasons have been really difficult. The team got some draft luck and took Sonia Citron last year. She has been very strong since coming into the league. They also drafted Kiki Iriafen last year, and she is turning out to be elite as well. The team has three scorers averaging over 15 points per game, so it is a bit different than the Valkyries, who spread out the scoring.
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The Phoenix Mercury have had a drop-off this season that is a bit unexplainable. Perhaps it was a fluke that the team went to the WNBA Finals last season. Whatever the case is, they have fallen off a cliff this year. They are just 13-25 this year and have been awful at home with a 5-13 record. I'm not entirely sure what happened with the team. Injuries probably explain a little bit of it. However, they still have good players like Kahleah Copper and Alyssa Thomas. DeWanna Bonner was recently released, and Kelsey Plum came over at the trade deadline, but she's had injury issues all season.
In this game, we have one team trying to win, and one team looking to position themselves for the upcoming WNBA Draft. The Mystics and Mercury just played each other two days ago, and Washington won by 10 points. I really don't see this game being much different. Give me Washington to cover the -3.5. There are too many questions and missing pieces for the Mercury.
For more sports betting information and plays, follow David on X/Twitter: @futureprez2024
12 races scramble Senate battlefield as Democrats eye comeback
With the clock quickly ticking toward Election Day 2026, Democrats are increasingly optimistic about recapturing the Senate majority in this year’s midterms.
"We are going to take back the Senate. Republicans thought they had the Senate locked down, but now Democrats, we are on the path to victory. We've blown the map wide open," longtime Senate Democratic Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York touted last week.
Schumer made his prediction to reporters after The Cook Political Report, a leading nonpartisan election handicapper, shifted crucial Senate races in Texas and Iowa from leaning towards the GOP to toss up.
Republicans — as the party currently in power — were already up against traditional political headwinds that have historically led to a loss of congressional seats during midterm election years. Add to that the challenging climate fueled by persistent inflation, high gas prices tied to what polls show is an unpopular war with Iran and President Donald Trump's underwater approval ratings.
CHECK OUT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POWER RANKINGS IN THE BATTLE FOR THE SENATE
But Democrats have problems of their own as they try to win back control of the Senate in the midterms, including a party brand that public opinion polling indicates is extremely unpopular. And high-profile victories this spring and summer by left-wing and socialist candidates over establishment rivals in Democratic primaries are giving Republicans extra ammunition to portray all Democrats as extremists.
The Democrats' path to the majority starts with holding the open seat in battleground Michigan, where far-left contender Abdul El-Sayed edged out more moderate Rep. Haley Stevens in this month's primary. El-Sayed's victory, and recent polling that suggests he's yet to unify his party's base while former Republican Rep. Mike Rogers cruised to the GOP nomination unopposed, pushed the race from leaning towards the Democrats to toss up in the latest Fox News Power Rankings.
The Power Rankings currently include six states where neither Democrats nor Republicans have an edge: Michigan, along with GOP-controlled seats in Iowa, Texas, Ohio, Maine, and Alaska.
Sen. Tim Scott, the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told Fox News Digital earlier this year that he was "incredibly optimistic" the GOP can not only hold but expand its current 53–47 majority in the upper chamber.
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Scott still feels optimistic, saying in an interview Sunday on NBC News' "Meet the Press," "I am very confident that we will be in the majority at the end of November this year."
Here's a look at the most competitive Senate seats in play that could potentially flip the balance of power in the chamber, starting with the races in the Fox News Power Rankings that are up for grabs.
The race in the Great Lakes battleground state, where Democratic Sen. Gary Peters is retiring, is a top flip opportunity for Republicans.
Rogers, who is the GOP Senate nominee for a second straight cycle, came within 20,000 votes of victory two years ago, out of roughly 5.5 million cast.
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As El-Sayed works to unify his party's base after a combustible primary battle with Stevens, Rogers is increasing his efforts to court disaffected Democrats who may not be thrilled with their nominee's far-left positions on key issues.
The national environment is also boosting state Rep. James Talarico, who is hoping to become the first Democrat since 1988 to win a U.S. Senate election in right-leaning Texas.
Talarico, who has hauled roughly $60 million in fundraising so far this year, an eye-popping figure, defeated Rep. Jasmine Crockett in the March primary to secure the Democratic nomination.
He's facing off in the general election against Trump-backed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
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The MAGA firebrand, carrying plenty of political baggage, ousted longtime Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas in an expensive and combustible GOP nomination battle that went into overtime.
The Fox News Power Rankings recently shifted the race in Texas from lean Republican to toss up.
Moderate Republican Sen. Susan Collins is running for re-election for a sixth six-year term in blue-leaning Maine.
Collins is the only Republican senator running for re-election this year in a state that then-Vice President Kamala Harris carried in her 2024 presidential election bid against Trump.
But the longtime senator, who has been a top Democrat target for multiple election cycles, has proven tough to beat.
Collins is being challenged by former Maine state Senate President Troy Jackson, the Democratic nominee.
Jackson was overwhelmingly backed for the nomination last month at a state party convention. He replaced oysterman and combat veteran Graham Platner, who won the June Democratic Senate primary but quit the race amid a slew of controversies, including an allegation of rape from a woman he previously dated, which he denied.
The race is rated a toss up in the Fox News Power Rankings.
Democrats scored a major recruiting victory last year when former Sen. Sherrod Brown announced he would challenge Republican Sen. Jon Husted.
A former lieutenant governor, Husted was appointed to the Senate a year ago after then-Sen. JD Vance stepped down to serve as vice president to Trump.
Ohio, once a premier general election battleground, has turned solidly red over the past decade, and Democrats view Brown as their only competitive candidate in the race to serve the remaining two years of Vance's term.
Brown lost re-election in 2024 by roughly four points while Trump carried Ohio by 11 points.
Ohio is listed as a toss up in the Fox News Power Rankings.
Republicans are defending an open seat in Iowa, a onetime swing state that's shifted to the right over the past decade.
But the GOP rallied around Rep. Ashley Hinson, who is backed by Trump, in the race to succeed retiring Republican Sen. Joni Ernst.
Hinson, a former local TV news anchor who flipped a Democratic-held seat in 2020, is seen as a rising star in the party.
State Rep. Josh Turek, a Paralympian, won a contested and expensive Democratic primary over more progressive state Sen. Zach Wahls. Turek is boosted by high inflation, soaring costs for farmer, and lagging economic growth, in one of the nation's top agricultural states.
Trump carried the state by double digits in 2024, but the Senate race is rated a toss-up in the Fox News Power Rankings.
Democrats were given a big boost in the red-leaning state when former Rep. Mary Peltola announced in February that she would challenge GOP incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan.
Peltola lost re-election in 2024 in the at-large district that covers the entire state by three points, while Trump carried Alaska by 11 points.
Benefiting Peltola, the first Alaska native to represent the state in Congress, is the appearance on the general election ballot of a second Dan Sullivan, a former teacher who announced his campaign in May.
Republicans have criticized the other Sullivan’s candidacy as a likely ploy to confuse voters in a crucial Senate race, which the candidate has denied.
The race in Alaska is rated a toss up in the Fox News Power Rankings.
Republicans are defending an open seat in the southeast battleground state, with GOP Sen. Thom Tillis retiring at the end of this year.
The GOP quickly rallied around former Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair Michael Whatley, who has Trump's backing after steering the national party committee in the 2024 election.
Democrats, meanwhile, landed their top recruit when former two-term Gov. Roy Cooper jumped into the race a year ago. Cooper enjoys tons of name recognition in North Carolina and is 6-0 when it comes to running statewide races.
North Carolina voted for Trump in the 2024 election, but the Fox News Power Rankings currently rate the race as lean Democrat.
Republicans see another flip opportunity in New Hampshire, where a long-held Democratic Senate seat in New England's only swing state is opening thanks to the retirement of Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, who is the first woman in U.S. history to be elected governor and senator.
Four-term Rep. Chris Pappas is expected to capture the Democratic Senate nomination in the state's early September primary.
Meanwhile, former Sen. John E. Sununu, who has Trump's endorsement, is favored to win the GOP primary over former Sen. Scott Brown, who served as Trump's first-term ambassador to New Zealand.
Sununu is the older brother to former Gov. Chris Sununu.
The Fox News Power Rankings currently rate the race as lean Democrat.
Republicans view first-term Sen. Jon Ossoff as the most vulnerable Democrat seeking re-election in 2026.
Ossoff, first elected in that 2020 race, built a massive war chest for his re-election in the southeastern battleground while the GOP faced a nasty three-way primary battle for its nomination in the crucial sunbelt battleground state.
In November's midterms, Ossoff will face Republican Rep. Mike Collins, who was backed by Trump days ahead of the state's June GOP primary runoff election.
Georgia narrowly voted for Trump in the 2024 election, but the Fox News Power Rankings currently rate the race as lean Democrat.
Republican incumbent Sen. Pete Ricketts, a former governor, is seeking a full six-year term in the Senate representing the red-leaning state.
He'll face off in the midterms with former union leader Dan Osborn, an independent candidate backed by Democratic-affiliated groups and donors, who is making his second straight run for the Senate.
Democratic nominee and former pharmacy technician Cindy Burbank dropped out of the race, in a move to boost Osborn.
The race is rated likely Republican in the Fox News Power Rankings.
GOP Sen. Roger Marshall is seeking a second term. He's being challenged by Democratic nominee Adam Hamilton, a pastor.
The Fox News Power Rankings recently moved the race from solid to likely Republican.
The retirement of Democratic Sen. Tina Smith is giving the GOP hopes they can flip the seat in the blue-leaning state.
Former NBC sports reporter turned conservative pundit and activist Michele Tafoya won the GOP nomination. She'll face off with progressive Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, who defeated more moderate Rep. Angie Craig in the Democratic primary.
The race is rated likely Democrat in the Fox News Power Rankings.
Campus antisemitism is an America First issue. Alumni must stay in the fight.
Earlier this month, a federal judge dismissed the Trump administration’s lawsuit against Harvard on the grounds that the antisemitism alleged by the Justice Department was "too isolated and episodic" to show that Harvard had violated federal law.
While this was a setback in the valiant effort by the federal government to address campus antisemitism, federal efforts alone will not result in meaningful change.
The root of the problem is a rotten academic culture that begins in the classroom and is protected and fueled by administrators. Whoever owns the classroom owns the culture, and that culture is primarily responsible for the threat to Jewish safety today.
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Recently, 170 Harvard faculty members — Jews and non-Jews alike — published an open letter highlighting antisemitic incidents that have taken place at the institution. These incidents included an Israeli undergraduate student at Harvard being "told to leave a classroom by an instructor because her being Israeli made other students uncomfortable."
Other Jewish students experienced demands to "renounce Zionism" and faced ostracism when they refused. Such incidents are allowed to happen by administrators who foster a culture of impunity.
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Antisemitism on campus is an America First issue because it is an outgrowth of the crisis in our education system.
Malign actors like Qatar have embedded themselves in American academia through lavish spending that university administrators happily accept. Qatar’s foreign influence operations directed at American universities raise concerns about national security, institutional integrity, and equal protection under law.
During the height of the "tentifada," the encampments and associated violations of student codes of conduct and criminal law were justified by many as displays of "free expression."
Signs and screams wishing away the existence of Israel and the presence of Jewish students violated the rights of Jewish students to free expression and religious liberty around the country.
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When I was a student at George Washington University, I found inversions of justice and perversions of language. A friend of mine standing peacefully across the street holding an Israeli flag was told to leave while the tents stayed up for weeks.
Later, a group known as Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine teamed up to defend the protesters as "peaceful."
Professors who mobilize students to harass, humiliate, and ostracize their classmates are not exercising 1st Amendment rights; they are violating their academic integrity codes and using academic freedom as a cover.
The public is generally not privy to the most insidious element of campus antisemitism: the syllabi. Course descriptions at Princeton and Stanford characterized the Israel-Hamas war as a Palestinian genocide.
In 2025, the University of California Berkeley offered an English comparative literature course that initially referred to the Israeli military in the Palestinian territory as the "Israeli Occupying Force" and Hamas militants as "revolutionary resistance forces" standing up against colonialism and imperialism.
The academic lexicon is rife with these descriptions, weaving a tapestry of lies that few dare to tear.
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A university is supposed to defend intellectual honesty and open minds. Instead, we find minds closing and a crisis of accountability that will continue unless administrators hold faculty to their codes, or are themselves held to account.
In May 2025, I sued GW over pervasive antisemitism. The complaint details the "pipeline of hate" that begins with academic culture and spills outward. That August, the DOJ's own investigation found GW had been "deliberately indifferent" to the hostile environment facing its Jewish and Israeli students.
Federal investigations and settlements provide some solace, yet they offer little remedy for what Jewish students are enduring now. Investigations take months, meaningful enforcement can take years, and a college career lasts only four. That’s why I refuse to treat commencement as the end of my role in this fight. Alumni should adopt the same mindset.
I was reminded of this at the Israel on Campus Coalition's National Leadership Summit. In my remarks to students, faculty, and community leaders, I stressed that addressing antisemitism is an America First issue, and doing so requires reinfusing academic freedom with academic integrity.
That is how we can inspire a new generation: a rededication to the American constitutional tradition, and a genuinely liberal education.
My conversations at ICC’s Summit also underscored the importance of alumni involvement: our guidance stems from rigorous trial and error in coalition building and university engagement. Graduates are obligated to pass the baton, mentor current students, build bonds with professors, and amplify their voices so the change we yearn for is realized.
The federal government has a real role to play, but it must do so thoughtfully and with the systemic nature of the issue in mind.
Federal law enforcement efforts must target classroom culture and administrative impunity that let antisemitism take root. Otherwise, the fight against antisemitism will be nothing more than an effort at pruning branches while the roots remain intact.
This work is my responsibility and that of all alumni who have faced down campus antisemitism.
Survivor's Christian Hubicki marvels at China's robotics games records: 'Willing to break the robots to do it'
The World Humanoid Robot Games made headlines this week, putting robotics experts in awe and leaving social media scrollers laughing at the robots’ histrionics, viral stumbles, and dramatic crashes and burns.
In its second year, it is making an annual event out of stress-testing the limits of technological advancement, while allaying fears to the public that SkyNet is not on the verge of taking over the world.
"The goal of this event really was to show how fast we can get robots to go," Christian Hubicki, Florida State University mechanical-engineering professor and robotics lab director, told Fox News Digital on the final day of the five-day event. "What happens to them afterwards? Well, as we can see, it's a bit dramatic.
"They didn't care so much how they stopped. In fact, they had this big wall that they just smashed into."
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The robots might be running faster than Usain Bolt before they know how to stop, but the tech is still at the stage of standing up from a crawl, according to Hubicki, who is also known for being a past contestant on the CBS reality TV show "Survivor."
"They wanted to break the record, and they're willing to break the robots to do it," Hubicki said. "You can see robots are sparking, limbs are flying off. It's incredibly kinetic. It's like these things are almost like missiles flying at this wall. All to break the record."
The record broken was Bolt's 9.58 seconds in the 100-meter dash, but in a show of just how fast the robots can go and technology can advance, Saturday's 9.39 mark only lasted a few days.
A Chinese humanoid robot – Tiangong Ultra, developed by the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Centre – on the event's final day won the large-size robot 100-meter final at 8.64 seconds, almost a second faster than Bolt's human world-record time.
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"This is a major milestone that people who work in specifically legged robotics, like I do, have wanted to see for a long time – just to prove that we could do this," Hubicki said. "So this is big deal. I watched this. This is incredible, how fast they get these robots to go.
"At the same time, we're not terribly surprised. We've known for a while that motors and gears and joints of robots could outperform people. We've known this. There have been papers specifically published that are titled, 'Why Robots Don't Outrun People Yet.' And the answer was we've just got to make them just a little bit smarter."
Artificial intelligence is helping, but the games also show how far the technology remains from reliable, practical use.
CHINESE HUMANOID ROBOT BREAKS USAIN BOLT'S 100M DASH RECORD AT 9.39 SECONDS
"There's still a lot of human intelligence built into how these things are moving around," Hubicki said. "They're being told exactly what to do, go forward, rotate around the course, right? The higher level intelligence, we would say, is still very limited. And you can see this in the other events as well.
"You can see when they're playing robot tennis – and by the way, I'm very impressed with what they've been able to accomplish – they had to have these sort of external cameras pointing out exactly where the ball is so they know where to hit the ball. And that's OK, it's work in progress," he said.
"There's still a lot of limited intelligence on the robots, but of course they are getting better."
As in human athletics, the 100 meters was one of the highlights of the Beijing games, underscoring advances in robot mobility, balance and control systems.
NEW AI BRAIN LETS ROBOTS MOVE LIKE HUMANS
"The organizers of this event did a great job of highlighting specifically the types of tasks that Chinese robotics companies are great at doing, which are the athletic events," Hubicki said. "They focus a lot on robots that do these fantastic athletic stunts."
"And you might be wondering, couldn't robots already go faster than people? Well, yes, wheeled robots absolutely could," he explained. "We have had RC cars that outpace people for a very long time. But the challenge with humanoids has been coordinating all the motors, all the joints.
"We are so good at this as people, but thanks to the AI boom of the last handful of years, we figured out smarter and smarter ways to make robots coordinate their motion so they don't fall down while moving faster and faster, and squeeze out every last bit of performance that you can out of the motors – and that's why we're starting to see faster and faster robots."
The event, dubbed the "Robot Olympics," brought together more than 2,000 robots from 666 teams, most of them Chinese. Its 51 disciplines included sports contests as well as task-based challenges in simulated factories, restaurants, offices and emergency settings.
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"They are getting smarter," he said. "The challenge is to get them smarter in a way that is really practical for us. I mean, it's fun for me to watch a robot going Usain Bolt speeds down a runway, but it doesn't really help us too much. The real challenge is how can we get them to be reliable and practical to help us."
Step one was to make them run as fast as they can – and look good doing it – before they knew how to stop.
"Last year's robots looked a little stiff and uncoordinated," Niu, 34, told Reuters. "This year, they are much better. They are like healthy newborn babies growing up."
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Eventually, the tech will require getting them to think for themselves about how to stop.
"The thing that's important to say about the smarts is it's a very specific kind of smarts – they're only figuring out how to coordinate their motion to the point where these robots, when they're running around, they don't even remember what happened a second ago," Hubicki said. "All they're looking at is like, 'Right now, what do I need to do to keep moving forward?'"
"And so I think it's important for people to realize that when we see something that kind of moves like a duck, quacks like a duck, like a person here, it's not actually thinking like a duck in this particular case – it's very purpose-built, specific intelligence to keep this thing running and boy does it go fast. It's incredible."
The kinetic robots will eventually have AI processing added in.
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"The AI of these robots is so much simpler than what you would experience interacting with like a chatbot or Chat GPT," according to Hubicki. "It frankly doesn't need to. It would take too long on the computer to think as hard as those things. They just have to go quick, quick, quick, quick. So it's very simple. It's just saying, 'Hey, what's my pose? How fast am I moving? Where do I put my leg?' That's it."
The intelligence tech still is artificial and just not "reliable" yet, Hubicki warned, as anyone who has seen the "nonsense" AI can sometimes produce.
"You'll use some of these tools and it'll come up with something like, 'Wow, that's actually pretty brilliant,' and sometimes you're like, ‘Wait a second, that is nonsense,’ and it's only as good as you can verify," he said.
"That's why it's not a particularly good fit right now to put on a robot – not because it's going to be coming up with some kind diabolical scheme but it just doesn't understand reality in the same way that we do."
HUMANOID ROBOT SKIN SENSES PEOPLE BEFORE CONTACT
Hubicki pointed to a viral social media video of a humanoid robot that looked like it went rogue.
"We do see what happens when you put these robots in the real world," he said. "There was one of these humanoids, it just went and just kicked a kid in the stomach, and it didn't know the kid was there.
"It wasn't even using the cameras. It's just interacting in a complicated world it doesn't even understand. So that's where a lot of the work has to go in order to actually have robots be able to interact with us in a way that is useful and helpful. Otherwise, you know, it's just a bull in a china shop."
Recently, there was a New York Times report of Russia using AI-guided drones that killed three civilians in Ukraine, leading a Ukrainian military leader to warn that "we will be living in a 'Terminator' movie" before long.
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"Certainly there's a lot of people, certainly governments are looking for all kinds of applications of AI and robotics, and that includes the battlefield," Hubicki said. "The war in Ukraine right now, it's a drone war. And I mean people talk about humanoid robots right now on the battlefield, there are unmanned aerial vehicles, little quadcopter drones that are just everywhere. And it's a brave new world.
"As much as these humanoids get a lot of headlines because they kind of hit us in a part of our brain where like, wow, that's a thing we can do, the robots can do that, there's a lot more practical and scary ways that robots are being used right here and right now."
Reuters contributed to this report.
LA Sparks star directs explicit rant at Enes Kanter Freedom over trans debate: 'Stupid piece of s---'
Los Angeles Sparks forward Cameron Brink sharply criticized Enes Kanter Freedom, using explicit language and calling the former NBA center "a stupid piece of s—" for challenging the WNBA’s draft eligibility rules.
The 2024 No. 2 overall pick dismissed the national debate over transgender athletes in women’s sports as a manufactured non-issue before directing her comments personally at Freedom.
Speaking with Mirror U.S. Sports, Brink framed the debate as an attack on the transgender community rather than a dispute over competitive fairness.
FORMER NBA FIRST ROUND PICK ENES KANTER FREEDOM DECLARES FOR 2027 WNBA DRAFT
"For me personally, I think when it comes to the trans issues that I believe you're talking about, I think it's a non-issue and I think it's people trying to just come for the trans community and I just don't stand for that," Brink said.
She then addressed Freedom directly.
"I don't even know what the fu*k his name is — Enes Kanter — he's a stupid piece of s—," Brink said. "And I think a lot of people think that, and he's just trying to stay relevant."
Brink accused Freedom of using the trans community to generate publicity.
ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON'T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW!
"I think people are tuned in for the right reasons," Brink said. "It's great that we can all talk about sports, but taking something that's a non-issue right now and trying to use it for clickbait, views, and likes by targeting a vulnerable community is just really low."
By declaring for the 2027 draft, Freedom checkmated league brass using Article XIII of their own CBA. The rules restrict play to women, yet fail to define "woman" biologically or enforce a standard of sex verification. It's a glaring loophole that leaves female athletes exposed and leadership completely cornered
The WNBA’s eligibility fight has put Freedom and Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham squarely in the crosshairs.
Cunningham has been booed on the road, confronted by protesters, and hammered online for supporting female-only categories.
Freedom, meanwhile, has drawn fire from players, commentators, and fans, who have branded his campaign "pathetic," disruptive, and a publicity stunt.
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In Seattle, Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton went after teenage Sophie Cunningham supporters over their pro-women’s-sports shirts, drawing a five-game suspension and $25,000 fine for the profanity-laced confrontation.
The tension with Enes Kanter spilled into an August game between the Chicago Sky and Indiana Fever at Wintrust Arena. Freedom sat courtside wearing a shirt reading, "WOMAN noun. adult human female." Late in the third quarter, Sky guard Natasha Cloud confronted Freedom from the court. When Freedom stepped toward the boundary with open arms, security escorted him out.
Sky owner Michael Alter subsequently issued Freedom an indefinite arena ban, labeling him a disruption and accusing him of seeking attention. Freedom maintains his campaign targets league policy, not individual players.
He said as much in an interview with OutKick.
"I am not anti-trans, I'm not anti-LGBTQ, I’m just pro-woman," Freedom said. "In this country we have First Amendment, freedom of speech, right? And I simply went to the game with my shirt on."
The eligibility debate continues to fall on players and coaches while the league office remains silent. On Tuesday, Phoenix Mercury head coach Nate Tibbetts declined to weigh in on the matter.
"Yeah, I’m going to leave that to the league office," Tibbetts said. "That’s their job."
While players like Brink view the debate as an unnecessary distraction and coaches defer to leadership, Freedom’s draft campaign keeps attention focused on the ambiguity in the WNBA rulebook.
Send us your thoughts: alejandro.avila@outkick.com / Follow along on X: @alejandroaveela
China-linked hackers infiltrated US government networks before FBI takedown
Chinese state-linked hackers stole sensitive data from more than 300 organizations, including U.S. defense contractors, financial institutions and universities, and breached three Energy Department laboratories, the NIH and an HHS agency before the FBI knocked their hacking platforms offline this week, newly unsealed court records show.
The group, known as QTFY, operated through a China-based company that the FBI says sold hacking services to clients including China’s Ministry of State Security and People’s Liberation Army. Former PLA members worked for the company and used military relationships to secure contracts and subcontracts for offensive cyber operations, according to an FBI affidavit.
QTFY paired mass internet scanning with a network of compromised routers, cameras and other internet-connected devices that helped disguise the origin of its attacks.
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By routing malicious traffic through devices near a victim’s network, the hackers could make attacks blend in with legitimate local traffic and become harder to trace, federal officials said.
The Justice Department and FBI seized three domains Wednesday that powered QTFY’s two main platforms: QScan, which hunted for vulnerable systems, and QTRouter, which masked hackers’ identities by routing their traffic through compromised devices.
Federal authorities said the seizures crippled both platforms by cutting off domains used for core communications and authentication.
The scale was massive.
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On a single day in 2024, QScan processed more than 2 million scanning and penetration-testing tasks, according to the FBI affidavit. The platform contained more than 200 proof-of-concept exploits and searched the internet for vulnerable software, exposed services and other openings hackers could exploit.
"QTFY is another example of how China’s cyber ecosystem has blurred the line between commercial cybersecurity and state-sponsored operations," Aaron Shraberg, senior intelligence team lead at Flashpoint, told Fox News Digital. "The commercialization of that ecosystem has helped turn capabilities that once relied on bespoke tradecraft into tools and services that can be developed, reused and deployed at scale."
Federal authorities said QTFY targeted NASA, the Justice Department, the Federal Reserve and Senate systems, along with power companies, hospitals, telecommunications providers, defense contractors and election infrastructure.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Chinese embassy for comment.
But not every attack worked.
In 2019, QTFY tried to break into NASA using a vulnerability in the agency’s virtual private network. The attempt failed because NASA had already patched the flaw, according to the affidavit.
A separate FBI, NSA and Cyber National Mission Force advisory said the group scanned Senate and hospital-system networks in March and a U.S. election system in June but failed to gain access.
Other attacks succeeded.
In May 2024, QTFY exploited a recently disclosed Check Point vulnerability while scanning U.S. power and telecommunications companies and stole data from more than 300 organizations in the United States and abroad, according to the advisory.
The government did not name the affected organizations or describe what information was taken. The advisory said victims included U.S. defense contractors, financial institutions and universities.
Four months later, hackers exploited zero-day flaws in Ivanti Cloud Services Appliance software to gain access to three Department of Energy national laboratories, the National Institutes of Health, the Health Resources and Services Administration and a U.S. security-device manufacturer, the advisory said.
FBI BRINGS ALLEGED CHINA-LINKED HACKER TO US IN RARE EXTRADITION AS PATEL DEFENDS ITALY TRIP
The advisory did not disclose what information was accessed, how long the hackers remained inside the networks or whether the breaches disrupted operations.
"State-sponsored malicious hackers preying on America’s critical infrastructure will be stopped and prosecuted," Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement announcing the seizures.
The takedown adds to a string of FBI operations aimed at dismantling infrastructure used by Chinese government-linked hacking groups.
In 2023, the FBI disrupted a botnet used by Volt Typhoon, a China-linked group accused of concealing its access to U.S. and foreign critical infrastructure.
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The following year, the bureau disabled a botnet made up of hundreds of thousands of infected internet-connected devices that federal officials said Flax Typhoon supplied to Chinese government customers.
Last year, the FBI said it removed PlugX surveillance malware from more than 4,000 U.S. computers infected by Mustang Panda, another China-linked hacking group.