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Fox News Digital's News Quiz: December 26, 2025
Test your news knowledge with this week's Fox News Digital News Quiz, where Erika Kirk makes Turning Point USA's endorsement for the 2028 presidential election, and Johnny Carson's list of guests banned from "The Tonight Show" is exposed.
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From Prince Andrew to ‘Megxile’: The biggest royal family bombshells of 2025
The British royals can’t seem to escape controversy.
In 2025, the monarchy weathered one of its most headline-grabbing years yet, as King Charles III continued treatment for his undisclosed form of cancer. Family tensions simmered in public view, long-running rifts refused to mend, and several royals unexpectedly found themselves thrust under the media spotlight. One even suffered a dramatic fall from grace — losing his title entirely.
Here are the top 10 scandals that rocked the House of Windsor in 2025:
On Oct. 30, Buckingham Palace announced that King Charles III had stripped his disgraced brother Andrew of his princely title and evicted him from his Royal Lodge home. The late Queen’s favorite son is now styled as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
The announcement came after weeks of mounting pressure for the monarch to act on the ex-Duke of York’s relationship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The 65-year-old is expected to move to a property on the Sandringham estate and receive private financial support from Charles. Andrew’s ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, who had been living with him in the 30-room mansion, must find a new home.
Andrew previously stepped back as a senior royal in 2019 following a disastrous interview with the BBC in which he attempted to explain his friendship with Epstein.
Sarah Ferguson, formerly known as the Duchess of York, allegedly brought her daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, to visit Jeffrey Epstein after he was released from jail in 2009, according to a report, citing leaked emails.
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According to emails seen by the Mail on Sunday, the late convicted sex offender messaged his lawyer, Paul Tweed, in April 2011, claiming Ferguson "was the first" to celebrate his release from jail with her "two daughters in tow." In the summer of 2009, Epstein was released from a Florida jail after being sentenced to 18 months, following convictions for soliciting a minor for prostitution and soliciting prostitution.
A source told People magazine that Eugenie and Beatrice never met Epstein. Another source told The Telegraph that neither Ferguson nor her daughters remembers visiting Epstein after his release from jail. The alleged email exchange came a month after Ferguson, 66, gave an interview with the London Evening Standard in March 2011, issuing a "heartfelt apology" for accepting money from Epstein and claiming she wanted "nothing ever to do with Jeffrey Epstein ever again."
Other leaked emails circulated this year in which Ferguson reportedly called Epstein a "steadfast, generous and supreme friend." It prompted multiple charities to drop her as a patron. Ferguson has admitted to accepting money from Epstein in the past. In a statement to The Guardian, a representative for Ferguson said she stood by her public condemnation of Epstein.
On Sept. 10, Prince Harry reunited with his father, King Charles, for the first time in 18 months. Fox News Digital learned that the Duke of Sussex had a private tea with the king at Clarence House.
The meeting between father and son was significant, as sources close to Harry previously told People magazine that Charles was not answering his calls or letters. In May of this year, Harry told the BBC that he wanted to reconcile with his family.
"I would love reconciliation with my family. There’s no point in continuing to fight anymore. I don’t know how much longer my father has."
Harry has been estranged from his family since he and his wife, Meghan Markle, stepped back as senior royals in 2020 and moved to California. In July, the Daily Mail reported that Harry had quietly extended an olive branch to the royals by offering to share his official schedule of engagements. The outlet said this was meant to ease tensions with the king. The outlet also reported that Harry’s aides had a private meeting with the king’s communications secretary in London.
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The efforts to improve relations between Harry and Charles have been coined "Project Thaw" by The Daily Mail. However, royal experts told Fox News Digital that Harry and his older brother, Prince William, are still not on speaking terms, a sign of ongoing deep family tensions.
Meghan Markle’s rocky relationship with her father was back in the spotlight. In December, Thomas Markle, a former Hollywood lighting director who has reportedly undergone a left-leg amputation, told The Mail on Sunday he doesn’t want to die while alienated from his daughter.
A spokesperson for the Duchess of Sussex told Fox News Digital that the 44-year-old was able to send a letter to her 81-year-old father, who is currently hospitalized in the Philippines after undergoing emergency surgery.
Thomas and Meghan have been estranged since she married Prince Harry in 2018. People magazine reported that Meghan was trying to reach her father, but her calls and emails weren’t getting through.
The Mail on Sunday claimed Meghan didn’t have her father’s phone number and that he "never uses email." People magazine reported that Meghan called several hospitals in an effort to locate him. The Mail on Sunday noted that Thomas first shared news of his health condition with its reporter, not Meghan's half-siblings.
The patriarch claimed he was cut off by his daughter but had never stopped loving her. He said he suffered two heart attacks that prevented him from attending her royal wedding in the U.K. and that Meghan has never forgiven him. It's believed that the relationship between father and daughter is still strained. While Thomas has made persistent pleas publicly, he continues to speak out to the British press.
Kate Middleton stirred headlines in September when she made a public appearance in London with flowing, sun-kissed tresses, a departure from her chestnut-brown hair. It sparked a flood of online speculation that the Princess of Wales might have been wearing a wig or headpiece. Princess Diana’s personal hairstylist, Sam McKnight, took to Instagram and criticized those who mocked Kate’s look on social media.
"I am shocked, horrified, dismayed and disgusted by all the nasty comments about the Princess of Wales today," he wrote. "A woman's hair is very personal to her, it's armour, defence, confidence and so much more."
"I cannot believe how evil and lacking in any kind of empathy are the comments, the majority made apparently by other women, attacking a vulnerable other young woman, who has no choice, by dint of who she married, and the role she took on, to bravely face the public," McKnight continued.
"I'm sure she would rather be away from the public arena. She has brilliantly and quietly, unselfishly represented our country, the soft power we still have as a nation. Cancer affects individuals differently, but is life-changing for everyone. So FFS LEAVE HER ALONE. SHAME ON YOU."
The mother of three, who announced her cancer diagnosis in March 2024, revealed in January that she was now in remission.
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Prince Harry hasn’t given up his fight to win back his publicly funded security in the U.K. Months after the Duke of Sussex lost his appeal challenging the government’s decision to strip him of his security, the case is now reportedly set to be reviewed by the Home Office. The Guardian reported that Harry wrote privately to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, requesting a full security risk assessment.
Earlier this year, Harry made a rare appearance at a two-day hearing for his appeal challenging the government’s decision. In court, Harry’s lawyers said the Duke and Duchess of Sussex "felt forced to step back from the role of full-time official working members of the royal family" because they "were not being protected by the institution."
In May, Harry told the BBC that Charles wouldn’t speak to him because of "this security stuff."
"This, at the heart of it, is a family dispute," he noted.
Meghan launched her lifestyle brand, As Ever, and her Netflix series, "With Love, Meghan," earlier this year. However, there were plenty of bumps in the road for the Hollywood Duchess.
SARAH FERGUSON ‘MASSIVELY ON EDGE AND PANICKING’ AFTER EX-PRINCE ANDREW’S ROYAL EVICTION: EXPERT
As Ever drew early backlash because a small business in New York already operated under the same name. Meghan’s trademark application also ran into issues because it was similar to that of another retailer. Then the brand’s logo was criticized for resembling the coat of arms of a small Spanish town.
"With Love, Meghan" was quickly panned by critics, who called the series tone-deaf and unrelatable during times of economic hardship. Others argued that Meghan’s seemingly "down-to-earth" image was inauthentic and overly curated.
When Meghan corrected Mindy Kaling in an episode about her name, saying, "You know I’m Sussex now," online reactions erupted. Some mocked the moment, labeling it pretentious, while others accused the former actress of using her royal titles for financial gain.
Before Andrew lost his titles, his past came back to haunt him. A posthumous memoir by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, titled "Nobody’s Girl," revived her allegations of being trafficked by Epstein and having sex with Andrew when she was 17 — claims he has always denied.
The book, viewed as her final unfiltered account, intensified public attention and renewed scrutiny around Andrew, leading to the stripping of his prince title, which he had held since birth. Giuffre’s family welcomed the king’s decision.
Giuffre died in April at age 41.
EX-PRINCE ANDREW ‘VULNERABLE’ TO CRIMINAL CHARGES AFTER LOSING ROYAL PROTECTION STATUS: EXPERTS
"These censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him," the palace said. "Their Majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies are with and will remain with the victims and survivors of all forms of abuse."
Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie found themselves tangled in the fallout from their father’s ongoing scandals involving Epstein. The Daily Mail reported that while Beatrice has remained close to her mother, her relationship with Andrew has become strained. An insider told the outlet that "things are not warm between them." The 38-year-old invited her father to her daughter’s christening because "it would be cruel to deprive him of the chance," the insider said.
The sisters have kept a low profile while supporting King Charles with royal duties. They were noticeably absent from Kate’s "Together at Christmas" carol service. Fox News Digital previously reported that Kate had extended an olive branch to Andrew’s daughters, inviting them to her annual Christmas celebration amid the family’s ongoing turmoil.
"The royal family wants to be seen as united amid what has been a very difficult year," royal commentator and broadcaster Neil Sean told Fox News Digital.
Harry and Meghan’s appearance at Kris Jenner’s birthday bash didn’t go as planned. A rep for the couple reportedly requested the removal of their photos shared on Jenner’s social media accounts and Kim Kardashian’s platforms. A source told Page Six that the couple didn’t want to upset the monarchy by publicly flaunting their friendships.
Palace insiders allegedly thought the couple’s star-studded night out was "so tacky" and "so far removed from the rest of the family."
PRINCE ANDREW VANISHES FROM ROYAL WEBSITE AFTER KING CHARLES STRIPS ALL TITLES AND HONORS
Reports circulated that the photos were deleted because the royal couple didn't check off "no" on a photo consent form. However, a source told People magazine that "there were no consent forms."
In the post shared on social media, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex were seen mingling with the Kardashian matriarch, only for Jenner to delete the images from her account. Kardashian, 45, also shared a photo with the As Ever brand founder while Harry stood in the background — an image that was later deleted from her account.
President of TPUSA chapter twice denied by university's student government vows to fight: 'not backing down'
PHOENIX — A student at Loyola University New Orleans who has twice been denied the opportunity to start a Turning Point USA chapter on campus vowed at the conservative organization's annual AmericaFest conference that she would keep fighting.
Anistin Murray is a freshman at the Catholic school located in the heart of the Big Easy. She and two other would-be co-founders of the campus club have endured a monthslong battle with the school's student government association (SGA), which insists that Turning Point shouldn't have a presence on campus.
On Oct. 15, the TPUSA students were first denied an official charter. Murray and her fellow founders then enlisted the help of Loyola New Orleans law students to draft an appeal, saying that the decision was "subjective."
"Most of it was subjective reasoning," law student Ethan Estis told Fox News Digital at the time. "They didn't really root it in any of the laws or rules and regulations that they're supposed to follow, and it was purely subjective. And that was our basis in attack in the written appeal that we did."
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After the appeal succeeded in the school's Court of Review, the case was remanded back to the SGA, the same body that denied Murray and her co-founders in the first place. Following a second review earlier in December, the SGA again blocked the right-leaning students.
"They said that, you know, it does make a lot of the students feel uncomfortable and that it will bring a lot of hate and negativity and all this disruption to the university, which I find quite sad because that's not what an organization is meant to push," Murray told Fox News Digital at AmericaFest in Phoenix.
"You know, they say that they stand for the majority of the students and the student body at Loyola, but I think to undermine that, there were people who voted yes to have a Turning Point at Loyola," she said, adding that she feels like students who agree with TPUSA's values have been silenced.
Murray said that Turning Point stands for dialogue, not hatred.
"Just because people disagree with us does not mean that there needs to be uncivil discourse," she said. "Like, we can talk civilly and understand that we disagree, but we're hearing each other and understanding that we both come from different places, and I think that was the biggest part for [the SGA], and that was a very important question that got reiterated a lot."
BALDWIN WALLACE STUDENT GOVERNMENT VOTES DOWN TURNING POINT USA CHAPTER AFTER CAMPUS HOSTILITY
Murray said that the group is formulating a plan of action to proceed, despite the two denials.
A representative from the school previously told Fox News Digital that there is no limit to how many times the Turning Point students can appeal the SGA's decision.
Despite the denials, Murray remains undeterred. She wants to work with the school to find a positive solution. Part of moving forward, she said, includes having a conversation with the school on how to proceed within the university's guidelines.
"We don't want to step on our university's toes, but we are not backing down," said Murray.
"These people who are against us need to understand that just because they're against us, we're not against them. Turning Point is not just an outlet for conservative believers, but Turning Point does have faithfully driven values that do align with conservative values.
"Having this critical deliberation is the sense of learning and growing and what we need on this university's campus."
Loyola New Orleans told Fox News Digital that there are currently no updates on the situation.
"Following the December 3 appeal process, the Student Government Association Senate voted to deny the charter application, and the SGA President upheld the decision," the school said. "The students may pursue an additional appeal in the spring semester, and no new materials have been submitted since the SGA President upheld the decision."
The SGA has not responded to multiple requests for comment.
Travelers warned as dangerous airplane sleeping position gains popularity
A viral TikTok trend claiming to offer better sleep on airplanes is raising alarms over passenger safety.
Videos show passengers pulling their feet onto their seats and securing their legs with a seat belt while trying to sleep during flights — a position that has sparked debate about comfort, etiquette and potential health risks.
The trend has drawn mixed reactions across social media. Some users questioned whether the position would actually be comfortable, while others raised safety concerns.
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Several TikTok users said the position was not allowed by flight crews, noting that flight attendants intervened when they tried it onboard.
"I tried to do this and the flight attendant made me stop," one commenter wrote.
Another person recalled being "yelled at by a flight attendant" after attempting the setup.
Others who tested the trend said it came with drawbacks.
One video creator acknowledged that while the position felt comfortable at first, her legs fell asleep.
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Some commenters also pointed to other physical discomforts, with one joking, "My stomach could never" — referencing gas and digestive issues during flights.
Medical experts warn that the trend could pose serious health risks, particularly on longer flights.
Carole Lieberman, M.D., a Beverly Hills–based board-certified psychiatrist with experience in providing mental health programming for airline passengers, told Fox News Digital the position may increase the risk of deep vein thrombosis.
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"This trend is very dangerous because it keeps the legs in a tightly compressed position," Lieberman said.
She warned that blood clots can have life-threatening consequences.
"Deep vein thrombosis can cause pulmonary embolisms, which can be deadly," she said.
Prolonged sitting during flights can increase the risk of blood clots, according to the Mayo Clinic. Measures such as wearing compression socks and moving the legs regularly can help support circulation.
An etiquette expert said the practice conflicts with standard expectations of airplane etiquette.
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Jacqueline Whitmore, an etiquette expert and former flight attendant based in Florida, told Fox News Digital that placing feet on the airplane seats in front of you is generally considered poor etiquette.
She did say that, in her view, there are limited circumstances where it may be more acceptable.
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"Take your shoes off and put socks or slippers on. This protects the seat as well as your feet," she said. "You can also cover your feet with your jacket or a blanket."
Whitmore added that passengers should only consider doing so if no one is seated next to them. She also said it might be done to avoid discomfort, and said it is more appropriate on longer flights.
Fox News Digital reached out to several airlines for comment about the practice.
'Save Women's Sports' 2025 culture war timeline — the year the tides turned
Someway, somehow, "What is a woman?" became one of this decade's defining cultural questions. And now, the nation is in a full-scale legislative war over the argument of whether males should be allowed to play women's and girls' sports.
In 2025, that war escalated to historic heights.
President Donald Trump returned to office and unleashed a volley of countermeasures to "save women's sports." But many Democrats fought back, even as a majority of their base sided with Trump on the issue, per multiple polls.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM
And on the front lines, activists, athletes, celebrities and journalists dug a deepening cultural divide. Emotional arguments made their way to school board meetings, live interviews, the chambers of the capitol building, and plenty of social media threads.
Weeks before Trump's inauguration, The New York Times put out a poll that found the vast majority of Americans, including a majority of Democrats, don't think transgender athletes should be permitted to compete in women's sports.
"Thinking about transgender female athletes — meaning athletes who were male at birth but who currently identify as female — do you think they should or should not be allowed to compete in women’s sports?" the survey asked. Of the 2,128 people who participated, 79% said biological males who identify as women should not be allowed to participate in women's sports.
Of the 1,025 people who identified as Democrats or leaning Democrat, 67% said transgender athletes should not be allowed to compete with women.
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It was seen as one of the scapegoat issues highlighted for the Democrats' sweeping 2024 election defeat.
One of the first bills the GOP-controlled House of Representatives passed in the new year was the "Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act" on Jan. 14, which sought to establish a national policy that only females could compete in women's and girls' sports at tax-payer-funded institutions.
The bill passed the House with the support of two Democrat representatives. But party leaders, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were hard nos, making unsubstantiated arguments that the bill would somehow enable sexual predators to give genital exams to children. No language in the bill included any mention of genital exams.
The argument proved to alienate some Democrat voters, as the party saw waning public support and net losses in voter registration throughout the first month of the year.
Trump signed the "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports" executive order on Feb. 5 to tackle the issue, as the bill wouldn't reach the Senate for another month and a half.
The NCAA complied the very next day, changing its policy to only allow biological females to compete in women's sports across the college sports landscape.
But a handful of Democrat-controlled states did not comply, and instructed their public schools to continue following state policy that allows males in girls' sports. California, Maine, Minnesota and Illinois were among those states.
Maine's defiance of the order allowed for almost immediate consequences, when a trans athlete won an indoor girls' track and field state championship. The incident ignited attention from the Trump administration and a heated political feud within the state.
Maine lawmaker Laurel Libby was censured by the Democrat-controlled state legislature, and quickly became a symbol for conservative resistance in the state.
Trump engaged in an in-person spat with Gov. Janet Mills during a bipartisan meeting of governors at the White House on Feb. 21 after threatening to cut funding from the state. There, Mills defied Trump's order to enforce the executive order right to his face, so the president threatened to cut federal funding to Maine right to her face. Trump's department of Education launched a Title IX investigation into the state later that day.
But some Democrat-controlled states, including Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, complied with the order, passing reforms to their high school policies that complied to only allow females in girls' sports.
Senate Democrats united to block the "Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act" on March 3, via the filibuster. It left the floodgates open for states to defy Trump's executive order, and ensured thousands of American public schools continued to let males in girls' sports.
Minnesota's legislature blocked a similar bill that would have protected girls' sports on the state level that same week.
Later that week, at Trump's Joint Address to Congress, former girls' high school volleyball player Payton McNabb was a guest attendant, sitting right next to second lady Usha Vance. When Trump introduced McNabb and her story of suffering permanent brain damage when she was spiked in the face by a transgender opponent, only the GOP side of the room applauded her. The Democrats remained seated and silent.
It was one of the many controversial points of etiquette exhibited by Democrats during the speech, alongside not applauding childhood cancer patient DJ Daniels, and Rep. Al Green, D-Tex., being escorted out for shouting and pointing his cane at Trump early in the speech.
Just days after that, California Gov. Gavin Newsom threw a wrench into the debate when he, as one of the top figures within the Democrat party, hosted Charlie Kirk on his podcast and admitted to believing trans athletes in women's sports was "deeply unfair."
The comments pushed the conversation around the
Meanwhile, the feud within Maine had only just begun.
Libby filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn her censure on March 11. It would eventually go all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Trump administration made a series of unmet ultimatums with Maine's educational agencies. Behind the scenes, Maine's Department of Education was actively instructing schools not to follow Trump's executive order, as seen in public records obtained by Fox News Digital. By the end of the month, the state had been referred to the Department of Justice after noncompliance.
The March exchanges between Trump and Maine even included a temporary funding freeze to the Maine University System, before the system proved that it hadn't been allowing males in women's sports, and wouldn't be going forward in compliance with the NCAA's new policy.
But another institution got a much more consequential funding freeze.
The University of Pennsylvania saw $175 million in federal funds frozen as part of an investigation into the state's handling of infamous trans swimmer Lia Thomas in 2022. It would be one big domino in reaching a historic resolution, which came later in the year.
On the first day of April, California's Democrat-controlled state legislature blocked two bills that would have banned males from girls' sports in the state.
Every Democrat voted against it, with Assembly member Rick Chavez Zbur arguing that one of the bills "is really reminiscent to me of what happened in Nazi Germany in the 1930s." Zbur said this while in the presence of a descendant of a holocaust survivor, who had to excuse herself from the chamber, according to GOP Assembly member Kate Sanchez.
Newsom, who had admitted he didn't think males in girls' sports was fair the previous month, told reporters he "didn't pay any attention" to the bills the following day.
"Well, I didn't pay any attention to the committee yesterday. I was, literally, spent most of the day talking about LA fire recovery with our teams. And progress is being made there, by the way, but we're starting to run up into some of those ‘abundance’ conversations around permitting that's already starting to take shape, where most of my focus was yesterday," Newsom said.
Meanwhile, April 1 also saw the neighboring state of Nevada's high school sports league take action to change its policies to ban trans athletes from high school sports, complying with Trump's
On the second day of April, a budding hero was born when footage of fencer Stephanie Turner kneeling to protest a trans opponent at a USA Fencing event went viral. Turner was penalized and disqualified for refusing to face the trans athlete, and became a sudden martyr at the heart of the national "save women's sports" movement.
Turner's protest became a global news story that ignited widespread backlash against USA Fencing and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC). It would eventually culminate in a federal investigation and hearing the following month.
And on that same day, Trump's administration cut USDA funding directly to Maine, escalating the ongoing feud with the state.
Just two days after that, the Department of Education and Department of Justice announced it would be jointly launching a Title IX task forced dedicated to protection of women's and girls' sports and private spaces across the country. The move sent a message that the Trump administration was doubling-down on addressing the issue, as states continued to defy the White House.
On April 16, the Trump DOJ announced it was suing Maine for refusing to comply with Trump's executive order. Turner was present at the press conference to announce the lawsuit. The suit is set for its first hearing in January.
Later that month, Minnesota attorney general Keith Ellison went on the offensive, announcing he was suing Trump and the DOJ in order to protect the state's policies that allow males in girls' sports.
On May 7, the House Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE) brought the legislative war to the halls of congress with a hearing titled "Unfair Play: Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports." Marjorie Taylor Greene used the platform to hammer national governing bodies, specifically subpoenaing USA Fencing Board Chair Damien Lehfeldt.
Lehfeldt, who had previously avoided voluntary testimony, was forced to defend his organization’s inclusion policies while sitting just feet away from fencer Stephanie Turner and former volleyball player Payton McNabb.
The hearing put the growing partisan rift on display. Republicans tore into Lehfeldt's social media history and the organization's policy, while lauding McNabb and Turner as heroes for their activism. Democrats didn't direct any questions toward Turner or McNabb, and instead only made exchanges with other witnesses in defense of policies that enable trans inclusion, while also criticizing Trump on other issues.
On May 20, the Supreme Court ruled in the legal battle between Libby and Maine's Democrat-controlled legislature. In a 7-2 emergency ruling, the High Court ordered the Maine House to immediately restore Libby’s voting rights, which had been stripped since February after she refused to issue a "forced apology" for a social media post identifying a transgender athlete.
Libby, who had been silenced for over 80 days and missed hundreds of legislative votes, including on the state budget, hailed the decision in an interview with Fox News Digital as a "civil rights win" for both her constituents and for women’s sports advocates nationwide.
On the high school front, the spring sports season saw multiple controversies garner national attention as trans athletes advanced to state championships in multiple girls' sports.
In Minnesota, a trans softball pitcher garnered national notoriety amid dominant performances throughout the season and going into the playoffs, and prompted a lawsuit by three anonymous female players.
In California, a trans track and field athlete's dominance caused postseason meets to devolve into political rallies. As the athlete progressed through the postseason, and close to a championship, the situation eventually caught Trump's attention.
On May 27, Trump escalated the situation with a Truth Social, writing a "transitioned male athlete" was "practically unbeatable" and called the situation "NOT FAIR, AND TOTALLY DEMEANING TO WOMEN AND GIRLS." He even wrote that he was "ordering local authorities, if necessary, to not allow" the athlete to compete and threatened to cut off California’s federal funding "maybe permanently" if the state didn't fall in line.
Within hours of Trump’s post, the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) buckled under the pressure, announcing a desperate "pilot entry process" for the state championships. The new rule dictated that any "biological female" who narrowly missed qualifying because of a transgender competitor would be allowed to compete anyway. Furthermore, the CIF declared that if a trans athlete won a medal, the highest-finishing biological girl would also receive a gold medal.
The rule change would result in shared podium finishes when the athlete ultimately won two gold medals and one silver at the state championships in Clovis on the final day of May, capping off a championship meet that featured multiple competing protests, an airplane banner that advocated for the protection of girls' sports, and even the arrest of a pro-trans protester for alleged assault of an opposing protester.
In the aftermath of the track championships, on June 2, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, head of the Trump DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, issued a hard June 9 deadline for every public school district in California to "certify in writing" that they would not follow the state’s gender identity rules.
Meanwhile in Minnesota, the transgender pitcher was leading a dominant postseason run, securing their school's first-ever state tournament berth with a shutout victory in the sectional final.
The trans athlete would go on to lead their team to the state title, and the online reaction would domino into a much larger cultural event.
On June 9, Olympic gymnastics legend Simone Biles ignited a viral social media feud with Riley Gaines. Reacting to the Minnesota controversy and Gaines’s advocacy, Biles posted a scathing message on X, calling Gaines "truly sick" and suggesting she "bully someone your own size, which would ironically be a male."
The post backfired on Biles, drawing a mountain of backlash from conservative athletes and fans who accused Biles of abandoning the very women she inspired. Biles' own former Olympic teammate, MyKayla Skinner, even publicly condemned Biles as a "bully."
Biles ultimately settled for apologizing to Gaines.
Amid the chaos of the feud, it was revealed that USA Gymnastics deleted its transgender participation policy. It foreshadowed a much larger change that would come to USA Gymnastics the following month.
On July 1, the University of Pennsylvania reached a resolution agreement with the Trump administration’s Department of Education after a Title IX compliance battle rooted in the Lia Thomas controversy. UPenn agreed to bar transgender athletes from women’s teams and to revise its women’s swimming record books, erasing Thomas’s marks from the program’s history.
The settlement carried a blunt political message: if an elite university could be forced to retroactively "correct" what the government said was a Title IX violation, any school in the country could be next.
San Jose State University, which was embroiled in a similar national controversy in 2024 over Blaire Fleming, has also been under investigation since February. SJSU came under heavy scrutiny in July amid Fox News Digital reporting of how an investigation into misconduct allegations was carried out.
The White House, Department of Justice and multiple members of congress condemned the handlers that enabled the situation at SJSU.
On July 3, the U.S. Supreme Court of the United States agreed to take up multiple high-profile cases involving state bans on transgender athletes. The cases — Little v. Hecox from Idaho and West Virginia v. B.P.J. from West Virginia — asked the justices to decide whether laws prohibiting transgender girls and women from competing in girls’ and women’s sports violate the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause and federal civil rights law, Title IX.
On July 9, just like it had against Maine in April, the DOJ filed a lawsuit against the California Department of Education (CDE) and the CIF, alleging that the state’s policies allowing transgender girls to compete in girls’ sports violated Title IX.
The lawsuit also clarified what the Trump administration wanted the fight to be about: not just "sports fairness," but civil rights enforcement.
Arguably the biggest quake of the year on the issue happened on July 21. That day, the USOPC updated its athlete safety policies to comply with Trump's "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports" executive order.
USA Fencing, the subject of widespread criticism after Turner's protest, was one of the first US Olympic organizations to publicly announce it had updated its gender eligibility policy to comply with the USOPC's new guidance.
By the end of July, the movement to "save women's sports" had all the momentum. But resistance remained.
On Aug. 1, Wagner College quietly reached a resolution with the Trump administration to address the fact that the school rostered the transgender fencer that Turner protested earlier in the year. The private Staten Island school agreed to revise its athletic policies to comply with the administration’s interpretation of Title IX, barring males from women’s teams and aligning itself with the NCAA’s updated standards, similar to the resolution with UPenn.
The Wagner resolution was notable not because of the school’s size or athletic profile, but because it reinforced a growing pattern: universities were increasingly choosing settlement over resistance.
But resistance came via the trans athletes themselves.
A pair of trans athletes began to file their own lawsuits against institutions in response to allegedly being kept out of women's events. Trans athlete Evelyn Parts sued Swarthmore College for alleged removal from the women's track and field team, but the lawsuit also claimed Parts was added back onto the team later in the season, despite the NCAA's new guidelines.
Another trans athlete sued a smaller school that was not part of the NCAA, Westcliff University and the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletes (NAIA), alleging removal from the women's volleyball team.
Later in the month, Trump suggested that the U.S would push for mandatory gender testing at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, framing the move as a necessary safeguard to protect women’s sports on the world stage.
The statement marked the administration’s clearest signal yet that its definition of sex would not stop at American schools or governing bodies, but would be carried into global competition.
That philosophy went into effect on the global level that same month. World Boxing, the international governing body for the sport of boxing, announced a new policy mandating sex testing to ensure only females compete in the women's category.
The change came a year after the world watched Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting, two boxers who previously failed sex tests, win women's Olympic boxing gold medals in Paris, prompting global backlash.
Two girls' high school volleyball players in California thrust their school district into a national spotlight when they stepped away from their team in protest of a trans athlete, and later filed a lawsuit against the school district over their alleged experience with the trans athlete over the previous three years.
One of the girls, a Muslim American, added a new layer to the debate by pointing out that sharing a locker room with, and changing in front of, a male was a violation of her religious beliefs. Many critics on social media pointed out how the Democrats' ongoing support of trans athletes in girls' sports was now also compromising a person who belonged to a group they also claimed to champion in recent years.
Newsom's office ultimately addressed the situation and suggested the state's growing wave of trans athletes competing in girls' sports, and opposition to it, was not his responsibility.
"CIF is an independent nonprofit that governs high school sports. The California Department of Education is a separate constitutional office. Neither is under the Governor’s authority. CIF and the CDE have stated they follow existing state law — a law that was passed in 2013 and signed by Governor Jerry Brown (not Newsom) and in line with 21 other states. For the law to change, the legislature would need to send the Governor a bill. They have not," Newsom's office told Fox News Digital.
Another high-profile Democrat distanced themselves from the topic that same month. Former Vice President Kamala Harris, in her book "107 Days" set the record straight on her stance on the issue.
"I agree with the concerns expressed by parents and players that we have to take into account biological factors such as muscle mass and unfair student athletic advantage when we determine who plays on which teams, especially in contact sports," Harris wrote.
Toward the end of the month, a lawsuit brought by Gaines and a group of other current and former female college athletes against the NCAA over their experience competing against Thomas and other trans athletes reached a crucial procedural turning point.
U.S. District Judge Tiffany R. Johnson issued a ruling on Sept. 25 that dismissed most of the plaintiffs’ claims against the NCAA and other defendants, but allowed a central Title IX claim against the NCAA to proceed to the next phase of litigation.
Gaines' attorney Bill Bock told Fox News Digital that a key condition to settle the lawsuit would be the NCAA agreeing to a consent decree.
In early October, a coalition of Minnesota school board members launched a formal appeal to state authorities to bar transgender athletes assigned male at birth from competing in girls’ sports, urging compliance with a recent federal Title IX finding that the state’s inclusive policy violated federal nondiscrimination standards.
Signers — representing roughly 40 school districts across the state — sent a letter to the Minnesota Department of Education, the Minnesota State High School League, the state attorney general, and the governor calling for state policies to align with the federal government’s position and avoid the loss of education funding.
Minnesota had been one of the states most resistant to complying with Trump on the issue, and dying on that hill was starting to garner backlash from educators within the state, just as it had in Maine and California.
Weeks later, the Supreme Court cases set to define the future of transgender athlete bans continued moving forward. In Little v. Hecox, a federal judge rejected an attempt by transgender plaintiff Lindsay Hecox to dismiss the case before the justices could rule, despite arguments that the dispute was moot. The decision ensured Idaho’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act would remain before the Supreme Court alongside West Virginia v. B.P.J.
Culturally, the movement to "save women's sports" gained another high-profile ally. Olympic gymnast MyKayla Skinner announced she had joined XX-XY Athletics, a brand and advocacy group dedicated to protecting women’s sports based on biological sex.
In late October, USOPC leadership publicly acknowledged that sex-testing policies used internationally were being discussed at the highest levels, while stopping short of endorsing mandatory testing in the U.S. The comments signaled that even as the administration pushed for harder biological standards ahead of the 2028 Olympics, Olympic leadership remained cautious — aware the global and legal stakes were only rising.
Then, in the final days of the month, seemingly out of nowhere, Ocasio-Cortez went after Gaines, who had just given birth, in a series of disparaging social media posts.
Gaines initially posted a photo featuring Ocasio-Cortez, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, and New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. Gaines wrote, "We’re being destroyed from within."
Ocasio-Cortez responded, "Maybe if you channeled all this anger into swimming faster you wouldn’t have come in fifth," referencing Gaines' fifth-place tie with Thomas at the 2022 NCAA championships.
Ocasio-Cortez later suggested Gaines should "get a real job."
Gaines challenged the congresswoman to a debate on the subject, to which Ocasio-Cortez never accepted.
Early in November, reports indicated the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was actively considering changes to its transgender eligibility framework, moving away from its long-standing hands-off approach that left decisions to individual sports.
The shift came amid growing pressure from international federations that had already adopted sex-based eligibility rules, and with the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics looming.
On Capitol Hill, 130 congressional Democrats filed an amicus brief at the Supreme Court urging justices to strike down state laws barring transgender athletes from women’s sports. The brief argued such bans violated Title IX and equal protection, formally aligning Democratic leadership with the legal effort to preserve trans inclusion as the high court prepared to hear the lawsuits of Idaho and West Virginia.
The list of signees included Ocasio-Cortez, Jeffries, Nancy Pelosi and other members of the Democrat party's left wing like Ilhan Omar and Jasmine Crockett.
The Democrats who had suffered so much scrutiny for dying on the hill of trans athletes in women's sports dating back to the last election cycle weren't backing down. They doubled-down.
At a World’s Strongest Woman–affiliated competition, backlash erupted after a transgender athlete competed in the women’s division. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced an investigation into the event, examining whether allowing a male athlete to compete violated state law.
Meanwhile, USA Fencing, which had been the target of months-long backlash following the Turner incident, put out a statement suggesting it was looking to turn the page after a change to its gender eligibility policy and leadership.
"We recognize the challenges of the past several months and are focused on moving forward with integrity, transparency, and a clear vision for the future," read a statement provided to Fox News Digital
As 2025 came to a close, December proved to be a quieter month on the culture war's front lines.
The Supreme Court cases remained center stage in the conflict, and saw a handful of famed athletes jump into the fight.
Super Bowl-winning head coach Barry Switzer and 31 Olympians signed an amicus brief in support of the legal defense to "save women's sports." The signees also include 12 Olympic medalists, including eight gold medalists.
The brief has a total of 124 signatures, which also includes the family members of athletes who signed.
The cases are set for oral arguments on Jan. 13, 2026, and could prove to be the most consequential turning point to date in the nation's new obsession over who gets to compete in women's sports.
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2025 lookback: Media's credibility fractures again after Biden mental decline exposed
The media faced another reckoning in 2025 when details of former President Joe Biden’s apparent mental decline in office, and the cover-up orchestrated by his team, were revealed after years of pushback on the notion he wasn’t fit for office.
CNN anchor Jake Tapper and journalist Alex Thompson co-wrote "Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again," an account of the cover-up that features high-level Democratic sources. The book, which was released in May, was mocked by critics who noted CNN and other mainstream outlets downplayed or were even hostile to the suggestion that Biden could be losing his grip before the infamous debate against President Donald Trump.
Tapper’s network was among the most egregious offenders.
Videos of Biden freezing up or appearing confused at various events went viral throughout 2024, but the White House aggressively pushed back, saying some of them were edited in a misleading fashion or didn't show what they purported.
The term "cheap fakes" was popularized, and press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre noted from the podium that fact-checkers and mainstream outlets also embraced the term.
CNN White House correspondent Arlette Saenz pushed the White House’s narrative last year about a video of Biden appearing to freeze up at a fundraiser with Jimmy Kimmel, saying Biden had merely "looked out at the crowd for a few seconds" before walking offstage with President Barack Obama, adding that "Republicans and right-leaning media outlets" "used this moment to say that President Biden froze."
Moments later during a panel discussion, CNN commentator and former Kamala Harris adviser Jamal Simmons called Biden's fundraiser moment an "obviously selected video."
"These are cheap fakes, [as] the White House and Biden people are calling them," Simmons told CNN's Erin Burnett.
However, Tapper suggested he felt differently when promoting his book, which featured numerous anecdotes of Biden appearing confused, tired and out of step, all while his team publicly proclaimed he was completely fit. In one infamous moment confirmed by George Clooney, Biden appeared to forget who the famous actor was when they spoke face-to-face.
"The Biden White House falsely — when people showed that clip and asked what was going on — said it was a ‘cheap fake.’ They did this all the time when there was video that seemed to show Biden acting in an odd or unusual, seemingly out-of-it way, they would call it a ‘cheap fake.’ It was not fake. It was actual video," Tapper said in May.
Prior to Tapper’s about-face, CNN also cited experts expressing concern about "ageism," including in the aftermath of the Robert Hur report that portrayed Biden as forgetful and confused during an interview.
Ex-CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy repeatedly hammered proponents of the idea that Biden was in mental decline in his "Reliable Sources" newsletter before leaving CNN last year.
Some conservatives took aim at Tapper directly, alleging he was part of the cover-up and tried to "re-write history" with his book.
In October 2020, Tapper touted the Biden talking point, even showing a clip from the DNC convention of a 13-year-old Biden supporter with a severe stutter who turned to the Democratic nominee for inspiration, during a tense exchange with then-Trump 2020 campaign advisor Lara Trump (now a Fox News host), who drew attention to Biden's cognitive decline at a campaign event.
"How do you think it makes little kids with stutters feel when they see you make a comment like that?" Tapper asked indignantly after showing a clip of Lara Trump commenting on Biden struggling for words.
"First and foremost, I had no idea that Joe Biden ever suffered from a stutter," Lara Trump responded. "I think what we see on stage with Joe Biden, Jake, is very clearly a cognitive decline – "
"Okay," Tapper quickly interrupted while talking over her. "It's so amazing to me — a ‘cognitive decline.’ I think you were mocking his stutter. Yeah. I think you were mocking his stutter and I think you have absolutely no standing to diagnose somebody's cognitive decline. I would think somebody in the Trump family would be more sensitive to people who do not have medical licenses diagnosing politicians from afar."
After Lara Trump insisted Biden's cognitive decline was "very concerning," Tapper cut the interview short.
"Thank you, Lara. I'm sure it's from a place of concern. We all believe that," Tapper sarcastically told her before ending the interview.
Tapper has since said he feels "humility" about his past work on Biden and praised conservative media outlets for discussing what was in plain sight. Tapper has even suggested that he covers Trump’s age more aggressively to make up for overlooking Biden.
While Tapper’s book helped bring the issue to the forefront, CNN was hardly alone in its gentle coverage of Biden.
The Washington Post used the term "cheap fakes" line to shield Biden from scrutiny as early as July 2022 in a fact check accusing a Republican National Committee social media post of painting "a misleading picture of mental fitness" based on a viral moment Biden had while in Israel. It defined "cheap fakes" as "the practice of misrepresenting events that take place in a video by adding or leaving out context."
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Fast-forward to June 2024, when The Post published a lengthy report combating Republicans sharing embarrassing clips of Biden during his trip to Normandy, including when he awkwardly paused while bending to sit down as others remained standing.
"Such deceptively edited videos, known as ‘cheap fakes,’ have become staples of Republican attacks against the president," The Post told readers at the time.
NBC News accused Republicans of pushing a "false" narrative by claiming Biden was wandering aimlessly at the G7 summit.
"Experts have warned that while advanced technology like generative artificial intelligence can spread misinformation, so-called cheap fakes that often use only minor or selective editing can be more effective at spreading false narratives," NBC News wrote.
The New York Times ran a story with the headline "How Misleading Videos Are Trailing Biden as He Battles Age Doubts," insisting the viral clips were either "edited or lack[ed] context," and CBS News released a report sounding the alarm on "cheap fakes" and their impact on the upcoming election, echoing the White House's claim that Biden is "victim to a simpler version of ‘deepfakes.’"
MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace condemned the "highly misleading and selectively edited videos," calling out the "insidious" trend from right-wing media.
The Associated Press ran its own fact-check attempting to debunk the claim that Biden froze at the L.A. fundraiser.
"CLAIM: Biden froze onstage during his fundraiser in Los Angeles on Saturday night and had to be led away by Obama," AP wrote. "THE FACTS: Biden paused amid cheers and applause as he exited the stage with his predecessor following an interview moderated by late-night host Kimmel."
UPS plane crash in Louisville claims 15th victim weeks after fiery takeoff failure
A man who was severely injured in the fiery crash of a UPS cargo plane in Louisville, Kentucky, has died more than seven weeks later, bringing the total number of fatalities from the crash to 15.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg identified the victim as Alain Rodriguez Colina, saying that he died Thursday after suffering critical injuries in the crash.
"It is with great sadness that I just learned Alain Rodriguez Colina has passed," Greenberg wrote in an X post on Thursday evening. "Alain is the 15th victim of the UPS Flight 2976 accident. He suffered severe injuries at the time of the crash and passed earlier this Christmas Day. May Alain’s memory be a blessing."
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Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear reacted to the updated death toll on X, urging people to "pray for these families today and in the days, months and years to come so they know they are not alone and they are loved."
Colina’s death marks the latest development in one of the deadliest U.S. aviation disasters this year.
On Nov. 4, UPS Flight 2976 crashed moments after departing Louisville International Airport, slamming into a nearby industrial area and killing three crew members and 11 people on the ground.
A preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said that the Honolulu-bound cargo plane's left engine separated from the aircraft and burst into flames shortly after takeoff.
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Black box data indicates that the plane only reached just 30 feet above ground level before the crash.
Airport surveillance footage shows the left engine and pylon separating from the wing shortly after the airplane rotated, with a fire igniting on the left engine, according to the NTSB report.
The left engine later slammed onto the ground, and a fire ignited near the left pylon attachment to the wing, which continued until the plane crashed into a nearby storage yard and two buildings, the report said.
Investigators also said the left pylon’s aft mount broke, allowing the engine to detach, adding that they found tiny cracks that grew over time around boltholes in the mount, until it failed under normal stress.
Fox News Digital's Alexandra Koch contributed to this report.
SEC TURNER: Homeownership is making a comeback thanks to Trump, but there’s more to come
In his recent address to the American people, President Donald Trump said: "Eleven months ago, I inherited a mess. And I’m fixing it."
When it comes to the border, Trump inherited a catastrophe. Border security became a joke under the Biden administration, which allowed millions of illegal aliens to rush into our country. This travesty did not only make a mockery of our laws, it also increased demand for affordable housing, which in turn increased housing costs for American families.
A recent Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) report revealed that foreign-born migrants accounted for two-thirds of the growth in rental demand across the country. Some places, such as California and New York, saw a 100% growth in migrant-fueled rental demand.
Outrageously, some illegals even received HUD’s housing help, siphoning taxpayer dollars away from American citizens. Under Trump’s leadership, HUD is ending this insanity. We cut off illegals from receiving FHA-insured mortgages and announced a hotline to report illegal residents in HUD housing, along with other criminals, because public housing must be safe housing. We are taking decisive action to ensure HUD-funded programs and resources are not benefiting ineligible individuals or illegals.
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The mess that Trump is fixing goes beyond immigration, and over the past year, HUD has scored win after win to restore sanity and good sense to housing policy. We are putting the American Dream of homeownership back within the grasp of the American people by promoting deregulation, self-sufficiency and common sense.
We started by scrapping the Biden-era Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule. The Biden administration’s negligence in enforcing border security was only matched by its zeal in imposing burdensome regulations on innocent Americans, and the AFFH rule burdened America’s suburbs with red tape. Ending this regulation was a critical step in restoring freedom to local communities.
You cannot regulate your way to prosperity. But you can innovate.
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That is one of America’s core strengths, along with market-based solutions and private sector ingenuity. At Trump’s direction, we are recalibrating HUD away from overregulation and toward supporting these key tenets of our economy.
That is why I am a longtime champion of Opportunity Zones. This landmark policy has lifted more than 1 million Americans out of poverty. And Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which is the largest working family tax cut in modern history, enhances Opportunity Zones permanently. Opportunity Zones are now expected to support over $100 billion of investment, create more than 1 million new jobs and facilitate construction of hundreds of thousands of new homes.
I’ve personally been to 13 Opportunity Zones in Florida, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Georgia and other states, and I’ve witnessed how lives are being transformed.
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I visited a vacant factory space in Green Bay, Wisconsin, that was redeveloped into a mixed-use space with affordable homes and thriving businesses; a $5 billion development in Atlanta, Georgia, offering new housing and office spaces; and a factory using cutting-edge methods to build modular homes in Columbus, Ohio. I have spoken to business owners, workers and residents who have seen their downtown areas being rejuvenated, and I have seen the new life animating these places.
Of course, HUD still delivers crucial housing assistance and the numbers prove it.
This year we helped more than 1 million Americans achieve the American Dream of homeownership by insuring mortgages through HUD’s Federal Housing Administration. This is in addition to the work of HUD’s Government National Mortgage Association, or Ginnie Mae, which provided critical liquidity for more than 430,000 Veterans Affairs loans.
And to combat homelessness, we welcomed more than 350,000 faith-based organizations back to the table as partners to provide care for the most vulnerable and help them achieve self-sufficiency instead of permanent government dependence.
In addition to supporting homeownership, HUD also assists Americans whose homes were damaged or destroyed in natural disasters. This year, we delivered $12 billion in disaster recovery funds to hurting communities that were affected by floods, storms and other catastrophes.
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I personally visited California, North Carolina, and my own beloved state of Texas to meet with survivors of wildfires, storms and floods, hear their needs and see how HUD can help them recover from the wreckage.
But HUD cannot properly focus on such important work when our resources and energy are wasted by promoting radical political ideology.
That’s why our anti-wokeness campaign involved canceling $250 million in wasteful contracts and disbanding the PAVE task force, which disrupted housing markets to supposedly address so-called "systemic biases." We also restored safety to HUD shelters for vulnerable women by ending enforcement of a Biden-era rule that allowed men to invade these safe havens. Finally, in cities like Boston, we held local leaders accountable and launched an investigation into illegal, race-based housing policies.
There is more for us to do next year and beyond, but our achievements in 2025 have laid a foundation of success on which we will continue to build. As we approach our great nation’s 250th birthday, HUD will continue protecting and promoting independence and self-sufficiency as the keys to the American Dream of homeownership.
Grief, gratitude and God: A holiday message for those carrying heavy hearts
The holidays are often called "the most wonderful time of the year." Yet for many, they are also the hardest.
As families gather for dinners, services and celebrations, countless Americans will do so carrying the quiet ache of loss. Erika Kirk will face that reality this year, marking the season without her beloved Charlie. The lights, the laughter, the traditions, will all feel different.
She’s not alone. Across our nation, families will set one less place at the table, hang one less stocking or hear one less familiar voice. Some will grieve a recent loss; others will feel the echo of one that never fades. I understand that pain. My family has lived it.
When my uncle Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, our world was shaken. A few years later came more heartbreak: the murder of my grandmother, Mama King, and the untimely death of my father, A.D. King, whose passing was never fully investigated as it should have been.
Those losses left deep scars. Yet even in that sorrow, my grandfather, Rev. Martin Luther King Sr., whom we lovingly called "Daddy King," never lost his faith. I can still see him holding his Bible, tears in his eyes, saying the words that carried us through every storm: "Thank God for what we have left."
That simple sentence has echoed in my heart all my life. It was his message through heartbreak, injustice and grief, and it’s a message our world still needs today.
Even when life feels unfair, when grief clouds every memory and joy seems out of reach, God has not abandoned us. He is still Emmanuel, God with us. That truth doesn’t erase the pain, but it gives us a path through it.
Grief and gratitude can coexist. One doesn’t cancel the other. Real gratitude is often born out of sorrow when we learn to see the beauty in what remains.
For my family, that meant holding tighter to one another and to our faith. It meant remembering that even though hatred tried to silence love, the message of forgiveness and perseverance would live on.
For Erika, and for so many others walking through grief this holiday season, it will mean finding comfort in memories, strength in community and peace in the promise that this life is not the end.
As members of the one blood human race, as we pause to celebrate the season, from Thanksgiving’s reflection to Christmas’s joy to the hope of a new year, I’m reminded of Luke 2:14: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men."
That verse captures the spirit of the entire season. Even in a world filled with pain and division, God offers peace. Even when hope feels far away, His goodwill still shines through. The miracle of this time of year is that light can pierce even the darkest night.
The holidays are about the perfect love of God meeting us in an imperfect world. So how do we celebrate when our hearts are heavy?
We do it by remembering that the same God who gave us loved ones to cherish also gives us strength to endure when they’re gone. We do it by thanking Him for the people and the purpose that remain.
That’s what Daddy King meant when he said, "Thank God for what we have left." We thank Him for the memories, for the love that never dies, for the faith that sustains us and for the peace that passes understanding.
The holidays can stir up both tears and laughter, and that’s okay. Both are part of healing. But, as believers, we know grief doesn’t have the final word, grace does.
If you are walking through loss this season, know this: God sees you. He has not forgotten you. He knows your pain, and He promises to walk with you through it.
Let this be the year we reach out to those who are hurting, where we listen, comfort and pray for one another. That’s how peace and goodwill take root: not just in our hearts, but in our actions.
And as we look toward the year ahead, may we do so with renewed faith and hope. Let’s carry the light of Christ in defiance of despair. Let’s thank God for what remains. Let’s love fiercely, forgive quickly and keep faith alive in our homes, our communities and our nation.
We still have breath in our lungs. We still have people to love and serve. We still have a Savior who keeps His promises.
As Daddy King always said, and as my family still believes: "Thank God for what we have left."
A new year is ahead, and it can be brighter. As we close out this year, let's receive the gift of Christ and extend the olive branch of love and unity; for all.
I’m the new Virginia governor and affordability is what everyone needs
This November, Virginians elected me to be their 75th governor with the largest margin of victory for a Democrat in modern history, in part because I’ve been focused above all on one big issue: affordability.
Across Virginia, I heard from families in every community in every part of our commonwealth about the impact of high costs. I met seniors struggling to afford prescription drugs, parents worried about rising energy bills and graduates just breaking into the workforce who couldn't find housing that they could afford.
But I also heard a loud refrain from one other group: business leaders. No matter where I traveled, I met executives and entrepreneurs who were struggling to find the right candidates to fill job openings and increasingly worried that Virginia’s best employees and talent were being priced out of the commonwealth.
The numbers reflect those worries. More than 70% of Virginians believe there isn’t enough housing available that they can afford to rent or buy, according to recent polling. And nationwide, nearly half of Americans say that everyday costs are difficult to afford.
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Financial pressures don’t just strain household budgets; they shape where people can build their lives. The U.S. Census Bureau found that almost half of college students in Virginia leave within five years of graduation — a rate that’s above the national average. When people want to work here, they should be able to work, afford a home and ultimately afford to create a life here. They shouldn’t be forced to move across the country or wait on the sidelines because of the cost of their healthcare or housing.
High costs aren’t just a quality-of-life concern, but a matter of economic competitiveness. If we fail to act, we risk slower economic growth, lower tax revenue, and declining productivity — consequences that would disadvantage Virginia for decades to come.
That’s why I’ve said my incoming administration will be relentlessly focused on making Virginia more affordable — so we can attract and retain the best workers, companies and business leaders. As governor, I will make sure that Virginians have every reason to stay here and build their futures. At the same time, I will make it clear to workers and companies across the country why we are the best place to start a career or expand a business.
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Addressing the affordability crisis starts with ensuring Virginians know they can find a home or apartment that meets their needs and budget. My administration will work to eliminate outdated policies that make it harder to build, follow the success of other states by creating a revolving loan fund to encourage mixed-income development and give localities the power to protect affordable housing in their communities.
A thriving workforce also needs access to affordable and accessible healthcare. The threats to the Affordable Care Act, massive federal cuts to the healthcare safety net and fewer healthcare providers — particularly in rural Virginia — are putting Virginians’ health and safety at risk.
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These are tough challenges, but my administration is ready to find feasible solutions to protect Virginians’ access to affordable coverage — whether that is through the ACA Marketplace or Medicaid. We will also focus on lowering costs for patients at the pharmacy counter, in part by cracking down on predatory practices by pharmacy benefit managers that drive up the cost of prescription drugs.
Finally, both consumers and businesses deserve the certainty that comes with a predictable energy bill. Here in Virginia, we will prioritize increasing energy generation to meet rising demand, including by supporting our nation-leading offshore wind industry and making it easier to install solar in commonsense locations, such as rooftops and parking lots. We will also build on Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s work to encourage companies to develop the next generation of energy technology, like the world’s first commercial fusion power plant being built right here in Virginia.
By lowering the cost of living, we can give Virginians the confidence to bet on themselves and take the kind of risks that power our economy — whether that means developing new skills to match job opportunities in their area, pursuing an advanced degree to increase future earnings, or starting a business to give their families long-term financial freedom. As the next governor of Virginia, I’m ready to work with anyone, including President Donald Trump, to make life less expensive. Because high costs and the inability to retain and attract top talent to Virginia affect everyone — no matter your party affiliation, and no matter if your company has five employees or 5,000.
Virginia is competing against 49 states and the District of Columbia for both the best talent in America and the businesses that inevitably follow that talent. As governor, I intend for Virginia to dominate.