Author: NOVA Corp

U.S. Rep. David Scott, D-Ga., has died, Fox News learned Wednesday. He was aged 80.

Multiple sources confirmed Scott’s death to Fox News. The cause of death was not disclosed.

Scott, a longtime lawmaker, has represented Georgia’s 13th district in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2003. He previously served as a state senator for Georgia’s 36th district from 1983 to 2003 and as a state representative for the 37th district from 1975 to 1983.

Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., presided over the House on Wednesday afternoon and formally announced Scott’s death to the chamber.

INDICTED DEMOCRAT SHEILA CHERFILUS-MCCORMICK TO RESIGN FROM CONGRESS AMID EXPULSION THREAT

“The House will be in order,” Foxx said. “The chair announces to the House that, in light of the passing of the gentleman from Georgia, Mr. David Scott, the whole number of the house is 430.”

Scott had been, until the beginning of this Congress, the leading Democrat on the Agriculture Committee, acting as a prominent voice for his party on issues related to farm aid policy and food aid for consumers. He was also a prominent Black member of the party’s moderate Blue Dog caucus.

House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Angie Craig, D-Minn., shared a statement following Scott’s death.

“He was a strong voice for Georgia’s farmers, hungry veterans and young people – who he helped shape into the next generation of agricultural leaders through his fierce advocacy for the 1980’s Scholarship Program at historically Black colleges and universities,” Craig said. “The House Agriculture Committee will remember him for his strong faith, kindness and dedication to our nation’s farmers and working people. May his memory be a blessing.”

HOUSE AVOIDS UNPRECEDENTED FOUR-MEMBER EXPULSION WEEK AS SWALWELL AND GONZALES RESIGN INSTEAD

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters on Capitol Hill that the “news of Congressman Scott’s passing is deeply sad.”

“David Scott was a trailblazer who served district that he represented admirably, rose up from humble beginnings to become the first African American ever to chair the House Ag Committee,” Jeffries said. “He cared about the people that he represented. He was fiercely committed to getting things done for the people of the great state of Georgia, and he’ll be deeply missed.”

Scott is the 8th member of the House to die in less than two years, and the second this year alone. Seven of the eight legislators were Democrats, with three of the four Democrats having been ranking Democrats on their committees. 

Scott was seeking his 13th term in Congress despite challenges from within his party. He faced criticism and concerns in recent years because of declining health, enduring a primary challenge in 2024 and facing another one at the time of his death.

Scott’s death slightly widens Republicans’ narrow House majority going into the thick of this midterm election year.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Graham Platner, the frontrunner for the Maine Senate Democratic primary, said he would push to subpoena a wide swath of White House officials and to impeach Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito during a recent interview with NBC News.

“I want to shut the White House down,” he told NBC in an interview released Wednesday. “I want us to, for the next two years, be dragging every single person in the White House, every single person in all these agencies that have been conducting themselves in illegal and unconstitutional ways. They need to be dragged by subpoena in front of Senate committees over and over and over again.”

Among those he claimed were committing crimes or acting unconstitutionally were officials involved in deploying U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to U.S. cities and those involved in bombing campaigns in the Caribbean against alleged narcoterrorists, operations he referred to as “murder.”

He also said there is a “compelling case” to impeach both Thomas and Alito.

DEMOCRATIC MAINE SENATE CANDIDATE GRAHAM PLATNER CONFRONTED BY MS NOW HOST ABOUT TATTOO CONTROVERSY

“The relationship between Clarence Thomas and Harlan Crow is not hard to see as clearly corrupt, and Justice Thomas doesn’t even recuse himself from cases that impact Crow’s businesses,” he said. “These are absolutely reasons for removal.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House, the Supreme Court and the Department of Homeland Security, which houses ICE, for comment.

In 2024, Justice Thomas amended his 2019 financial disclosure after a ProPublica report revealed that he had received gifts in the form of travel and lodging from GOP mega-donor Harlan Crow. The report revealed that Crow had paid for lodging and transit on his private plane for trips to Bali, Indonesia and Sonoma County, California.

Thomas claimed he originally omitted the meals and rides from reports because he believed they fell under the personal hospitality exemption. The exemption stems from Judicial Conference guidance which states that “personal hospitality” from a friend does not need to be reported if the friend did not have business before the court.

FAR-LEFT CALIFORNIA CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE CLASHES WITH TRUMP SUPPORTERS IN HEATED EXCHANGE

“Harlan and Kathy Crow are among our dearest friends, and we have been friends for over twenty-five years,” Thomas said in a statement at the time.

“As friends do, we have joined them on a number of family trips during the more than quarter century we have known them. Early in my tenure at the Court, I sought guidance from my colleagues and others in the judiciary, and was advised that this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the Court, was not reportable,” he wrote.

The report also revealed that Thomas sold a trio of Savannah, Georgia, homes to Crow for $133,000 in 2014. Thomas said he did not list the sales because, after spending over $50,000 on renovations to one of the homes, the sale amounted to a financial loss.

TEXAS DEMOCRATS CALLED OUT OVER ‘EGREGIOUS CIRCULAR-FIRING SQUAD BEHAVIOR’ IN SENATE PRIMARY RACE

Platner did not specify in the interview what he believed Alito should be impeached for.

In 2023, Alito defended himself from criticisms over a 2009 trip he took on a private jet paid for by billionaire Paul Singer. Alito did not disclose the trip or recuse himself from future business Singer had in front of the Supreme Court. Alito argued that the trip “would not cause a reasonable and unbiased person to doubt my ability to decide the matters in question impartially.”

Thomas is not the only Supreme Court Justice to amend his financial disclosures.

In 2021, Justice Sonia Sotomayor updated her 2016 disclosure to include six trips to public universities paid for by the schools that she’d previously omitted. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson also updated a decade’s worth of disclosures during her nomination process. Omissions included her husband’s consulting income, her teacher’s salary and a gift she incurred from giving a speech.

Fox News Digital asked Platner’s campaign if he would support impeaching other justices, including Sotomayor and Jackson, but did not immediately receive a response.

JOURNALIST TURNED POTENTIAL HOUSE CANDIDATE SAYS FELLOW DEMOCRATS ‘KEEP LOSING’ BY FAILING WORKING CLASS

Platner also echoed an increasingly popular view on the left that the Democrats should support an expansion of the Supreme Court, telling NBC that he’s “definitely open to doing more, including to adding seats.”

While stating he supported the judicial impeachments, Platner added that the Democrats should not waste their time on impeaching President Donald Trump.

“If we don’t have the votes in the Senate to convict, I don’t think we should waste our time with it,” he told the outlet.

He also said that he does not want to see Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., repeat his term as the Democrats’ leader in the Senate. Schumer has publicly backed Maine Gov. Janet Mills, Platner’s primary opponent.

Platner floated four names to replace Schumer: Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn.; Mark Kelly, D-Ariz.; Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii; and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.

WHO IS HASAN PIKER? MEET THE FAR-LEFT STREAMER WHO IS STIRRING UP CONTROVERSY ONLINE AND DIVIDING DEMOCRATS

Platner, a self-described progressive, is backed by Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. He’s a combat veteran who did three tours in Iraq as a Marine and a tour in Afghanistan with the Maine National Guard.

He’s currently leading in the polls against both his Democratic primary opponent Mills and the incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins. But his campaign has not been entirely smooth sailing.

He’s had to confront numerous controversies in recent months, most notably perhaps the revelation that he once sported a large chest tattoo that resembled Nazi iconography.

In October, Platner covered up a skull-and-crossbones tattoo on his chest that strongly resembled the Totenkopf symbol used by Hitler’s SS forces. Platner claimed he got the tattoo as a veteran while drunk in Croatia and didn’t know it was akin to the Nazi symbol until media reports in 2024. He says he plans to remove it.

Platner also fessed up to running an edgy Reddit account that reportedly disparaged Black people and police and praised a raid executed by Hamas terrorists.

EXCLUSIVE: A conservative legal group urged the U.S. Postal Service this week to carry out President Donald Trump’s executive order on mail-in ballots, saying the USPS has an obligation to block possible “fraudulent ballots” ahead of this year’s midterms.

America First Legal laid out in a petition filed with the USPS and obtained by Fox News Digital that the postal service has the independent authority to impose restrictions on mail-in ballots, including by requiring barcode tracking on ballot envelopes and cross-checking ballot recipients against federally-approved voter registration lists.

The petition comes as part of a broader push by the Trump administration to tighten election security rules over concerns about ineligible voters casting ballots. It aims to ramp up pressure on the postal service to use its regulatory authority to unilaterally advance those efforts as the president’s executive order faces multiple lawsuits brought by blue states and voting rights groups.

TRUMP SIGNS EXECUTIVE ORDER OVERHAULING MAIL-IN VOTING IN MAJOR ELECTION INTEGRITY PUSH

“Federal law gives every interested individual the right to file a petition for rulemaking with federal agencies,” America First Legal senior counsel James Rogers said in a statement. “Our petition gives the Postal Service the authority to implement these common-sense reforms, even in the face of this frivolous litigation against President Trump.”

AFL’s petition came after Trump issued an executive order last month directing the USPS to work with states on mail-ballot procedures tied to state-submitted voter eligibility lists, while separately calling on DHS and the Social Security Administration to help states verify citizenship data.

The executive order, titled “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections,” also required the Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration to coordinate with states to create a master list of registered voters. The order has become the subject of intense litigation.

SENATE GOP EYES BLAME GAME AS TRUMP-BACKED SAVE ACT HEADS FOR DEFEAT

Voting rights groups immediately sued, calling it “an extraordinary and abusive assertion of executive power over the administration of federal elections” and arguing that the Constitution gives states, not the president, authority over federal election administration.

While the White House has framed the executive order as an effort to bolster election integrity, other lawsuits, brought by a coalition of blue states led by California, Democratic lawmakers and national Democratic campaign committees, accused Trump of attempting to reduce mail-in voting. Voting by mail has become more prevalent since the COVID-19 pandemic, when states expanded voters’ ability to cast ballots by mail because of what they said was a public health emergency. Trump called the policy changes an effort to “rig” the 2020 election, which he lost to former President Joe Biden.

“President Trump has tried again and again to rewrite election rules for his own perceived partisan advantage. If only he could ban mail voting—a favorite scapegoat for his 2020 electoral defeat—and impose other voting restrictions, he has proclaimed, Republicans will ‘never lose a race—for 50 years,’” one of the lawsuits, led by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, read.

Trump and Republicans have zeroed in on noncitizen voting, which is illegal, and have long argued it is a widespread problem. In addition to his executive order, Trump has been urging Congress to pass the SAVE Act before the 2026 midterms to impose a physical identification requirement on people registering to vote, though the bill lacks the needed support from Democratic senators to advance.

Fox News Digital reached out to the USPS press office for comment on AFL’s petition.

The DOJ’s fraud indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center is prompting swift reaction from groups named on its “hate map,” many casting the charges as vindication after years of being labeled extremist.

After a grand jury in the Middle District of Alabama returned an 11-count indictment charging the SPLC with six counts of wire fraud, four counts of bank fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, attention turned to groups the allegedly hate-group-linked organization itself has labeled as hate groups.

One of the more prominent names on SPLC’s “hate map” is the Family Research Council, which was the target of a 2012 attack by an armed man who allegedly found the group’s information on the SPLC’s website.

FRC President Tony Perkins said at the time that Floyd Lee Corkins II of Fairfax County — since sentenced to 25 years in prison — was responsible for wounding his building manager but believes “he was given a license by a group such as the Southern Poverty Law Center, who… labeled us a hate group because we defend the family and we stand for traditional, orthodox Christianity.”

‘WHITE SAVIORS” USE OF WHISTLES CAUSES BITTER INTERNAL RIFT INSIDE ANTI-ICE MOVEMENT

Corkins’ signed statement of offense acknowledged he targeted FRC because of its views, including advocacy against gay marriage, and intended to kill “as many employees” as he could.

The SPLC denied the connection at the time and did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the blowback from groups featured on its hate map.

On Tuesday, Perkins called the indictment of the SPLC a “welcome development” that marks the beginning of a “long pattern of misrepresentation and harm.”

“For years, the SPLC has used its platform to label and target organizations with whom it disagrees, often blurring the line between legitimate concern and ideological attack,” he said, before noting Corkins’ attack.

“With over $750 million in their endowment which includes offshore accounts, the SPLC should be held responsible not only for what was done, but for the damage left behind,” Perkins said.

Shannon Adcock, leader of the Midwestern parental rights group Awake Illinois, responded to SPLC’s indictment by noting it had posted “incredibly inflammatory rhetoric against us as parents simply for standing up for our parental rights and for our liberty.”

CORNELL UNIVERSITY HIT WITH FEDERAL CIVIL RIGHTS COMPLAINT OVER ALLEGED DISCRIMINATORY DEI PRACTICES

“Many of my friends across the country have been labeled by the Southern Poverty Law Center as well, while meanwhile there are legitimate terrorists that are running around this country and they are silent on those efforts while targeting law-abiding people such as Illinois and our friends Moms for Liberty, Parents of Indian Education, Courage is a Habit and many others,” Adcock said. “So we celebrate this news. This is a good move by the FBI.”

Adcock said she would purchase a bottle of Veuve Clicquot to celebrate.

Awake Illinois’ website used the indictment to solicit donations, suggesting new donors choose “Suck it, Southern Poverty Law Center, your hate can’t cancel us” as a reason on its dropdown menu.

PragerU, the education media nonprofit founded by conservative commentator Dennis Prager, was also featured on SPLC’s “hate map.”

Marissa Streit, the group’s CEO, told Fox News Digital on Wednesday that the DOJ’s indictment appears to confirm everything that people knew about the SPLC.

“The alleged shell game fraud reveals the Center as what it really is: a leftist political outfit and an actual hate group masquerading as one fighting for civil rights,” Streit said, as PragerU also highlighted its own recent video analysis of the SPLC: “The Anti-Hate Group That Is A Hate Group.”

TRUMP ADMIN CRACKS DOWN ANTISEMITISM AS DOJ OFFICIAL EXPOSES ‘VIOLENT RHETORIC’ OF RADICAL PROTESTERS

“Anyone paying any attention knows its ‘hate map’ is just a list of ideas the [SPLC] wants to destroy,” Streit added.

ACT for America, a group focused on combating the spread of radical Islamic ideology and threats from radical Islam, also responded via its founder Brigitte Gabriel.

“The SPLC labeled me and my organization, ACT for America a hate group year ago,” Gabriel said in a statement.

Gabriel founded the group after coming to America following years of living under threat of terrorism during the Lebanese Civil War, including attacks from Muslim militants who destroyed her house.

“[SPLC] considered us America’s largest hate group. A title we were proud to hold. It’s a wonderful thing to see the SPLC finally being held accountable for their lies.”

Moms for Liberty cofounder Tina Descovich said the organization’s affiliates make up more than half of the SPLC’s “hate map.”

“[That’s] simply because we’re empowering parents to get involved in their school board meetings and because we recognize the difference between boys and girls,” she told Fox News Digital.

“The SPLC’s hate map has been weaponized against us countless times, including by law enforcement where training manuals labeled us as an extremist group by citing the SPLC. We urge all who give to this dangerous organization to stop doing so immediately, and we call on all organizations who have used them in the past to condemn their actions.” 

Fox News Digital also reached out to the Center for Immigration Studies and its president, Mark Krikorian, for comment.

CIS pointed Fox News Digital to a column Krikorian wrote about being listed on the hate map in 2023, where he said the SPLC has been “lying low for some time, since the eruption of multiple humiliating scandals involving racism and sexual harassment that led to the firing of most of the group’s leadership, including founder Morris Dees.”

“The appearance of its annual ‘hate map’ was months late, raising suspicions that there were changes afoot. No such luck — the latest anathema was just pronounced. Google it yourself, if you want to see it,” he wrote.

“The Center for Immigration Studies is still there, of course; after operating for three decades, we graduated to ‘hate group’ status right after Trump’s election in 2016 — coincidentally.”

Fox News’ Kevin Ward, Alec Schemmel and David Spunt contributed to this report.

EXCLUSIVE: A coalition of pro-life groups, including Lila Rose’s Live Action, Students for Life, CatholicVote and others, is urging the Senate to take urgent action to enact a decade-long ban on federal funding for Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers before a July 4 deadline.

Senate Republicans hope to nail down the first step of their party-line funding package for immigration operations this week. 

The current prohibition on federal tax dollar funding for abortion businesses, which President Donald Trump signed as part of last year’s budget bill, is set to expire this Independence Day. With the deadline fast approaching and congressional majorities subject to change this November, the groups stressed in a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune that the lives of unborn children — and hundreds of millions in annual tax dollars — are at stake.

In their letter to Thune, the pro-life leaders wrote that extending the prohibition is a matter of urgent fiscal responsibility, saying the “financial stakes are significant” and that a 10-year extension “would represent one of the most meaningful pro-taxpayer reforms Congress can enact.”

PRO-LIFE GROUPS WARN TRUMP HYDE AMENDMENT IS ‘NON-NEGOTIABLE’ AFTER FLEXIBILITY REMARKS

Before the big, beautiful bill’s provision took effect, Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion business in America, received nearly $800 million annually in taxpayer funding, primarily through federal health programs.

The letter asserts that “at a time of historic federal debt and growing budgetary pressure, continuing to subsidize the abortion industry is neither fiscally responsible nor defensible.”

Though federal law bans taxpayer money from covering most abortions, many Republicans have long argued that abortion businesses such as Planned Parenthood use Medicaid money for other health services to subsidize abortion. Under the tax provision in Trump’s 2025 spending bill, Medicaid payments are barred from going to abortion businesses, including Planned Parenthood.

The letter states that this prohibition “reflected longstanding concerns that many of the nation’s largest abortion businesses engage in activities that extend beyond traditional healthcare services.” 

These services, the letter says, include “providing and promoting abortion as a core organizational activity,” offering or referring for gender transition interventions, including for minors, and delivering sex education programs that “promote inappropriate content to minors while denying parents meaningful transparency.”

The letter states that the budget reconciliation process “remains the appropriate and proven legislative vehicle to achieve this objective” and that “defunding provisions fall squarely within reconciliation’s fiscal and policy scope.”

“As the nation approaches the 250th anniversary of American independence,” the pro-life leaders argue that “Congress has an obligation to ensure that federal spending reflects fiscal discipline, accountability, and respect for life.”

PRO-LIFE ORGANIZATION CALLS ON HHS AND FDA TO SUSPEND ABORTION PILL APPROVAL, TIGHTEN SAFETY RULES

They further framed a ten-year extension as consistent with longstanding bipartisan precedent separating abortion from federal spending. Such an extension, the letter says, would also “provide long-term policy stability, protect taxpayers, and prevent future administrations from restoring funding through executive action alone.”

In response, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood shared a statement in which the organization slammed Republicans for including a provision to make the prohibition permanent in a 2026 reconciliation package framework released by the Republican Study Committee.

Planned Parenthood has said that 23 of its health clinics have been forced to close due to Trump’s spending bill. More than 50 clinics closed in 18 states last year, with most located in the Midwest.

The organization called the 2025 budget bill’s bar on federal dollars for abortion businesses “unconstitutional,” adding that the closure of its locations has left “thousands of patients with fewer options, higher costs, and less freedom to make their own decisions about their lives, bodies, and futures.”

Alexis McGill Johnson, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said that “any member of Congress who supports this proposal is choosing to sacrifice our health care system and Planned Parenthood health center patients who already struggle to get care, just so they can score points for their anti-abortion agenda,” adding that “people’s ability to get the health care they need is on the line.”

“President Trump and his backers in Congress have already caused irreparable harm when they passed a law ‘defunding’ Planned Parenthood,” said Johnson, concluding that “Planned Parenthood Action Fund will never stop fighting to protect everyone’s access to sexual and reproductive healthcare.”

SENATE GOP READYING PARTY-LINE FUNDING BILL DESPITE DIVISIONS, ANGER AT THE HOUSE

Meanwhile, Rose emphasized in a statement to Fox News Digital that “if Congress does not act, the abortion industry will once again have access to hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.”

“This letter makes clear why that cannot be allowed to happen,” wrote Rose, adding, “Planned Parenthood’s core business is abortion. It exists to kill preborn children for profit. It has also become a major promoter of gender ideology, including puberty blockers and cross sex hormones for minors.”

“The Senate should use reconciliation again and enact the strongest defunding measure possible under the law,” she added. “American taxpayers should never be forced to subsidize an industry that distributes cross sex hormones to vulnerable kids and kills millions of preborn American babies through abortion every year.”

In addition to Rose, the letter was signed by Students for Life President Kristan Hawkins, Catholic Vote President Kelsey Reinhardt, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser and 34 other pro-life leaders from across the country.

President Donald Trump said Iran is “starving for cash” after extending the ceasefire deadline, arguing that the regime is losing hundreds of millions of dollar a day due to the U.S.-enforced blockade.

Trump claims that that the foreign nation is “collapsing financially.”

“Iran doesn’t want the Strait of Hormuz closed, they want it open so they can make $500 Million Dollars a day (which is, therefore, what they are losing if it is closed!). They only say they want it closed because I have it totally BLOCKADED (CLOSED!), so they merely want to ‘save face.’ People approached me four days ago, saying, ‘Sir, Iran wants to open up the Strait, immediately.’ But if we do that, there can never be a Deal with Iran, unless we blow up the rest of their Country, their leaders included!” he declared in a Tuesday night Truth Social post.

IRAN THREATENS ‘NEW CARDS’ ON BATTLEFIELD AS CEASEFIRE WANES

“Iran is collapsing financially! They want the Strait of Hormuz opened immediately- Starving for cash! Losing 500 Million Dollars a day. Military and Police complaining that they are not getting paid. SOS!!!” the president claimed in another Tuesday night post.

Trump had indicated in a Tuesday afternoon Truth Social post that he would extend the ceasefire.

“Based on the fact that the Government of Iran is seriously fractured, not unexpectedly so and, upon the request of Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, of Pakistan, we have been asked to hold our Attack on the Country of Iran until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal,” Trump declared in the post.

“I have therefore directed our Military to continue the Blockade and, in all other respects, remain ready and able, and will therefore extend the Ceasefire until such time as their proposal is submitted, and discussions are concluded, one way or the other,” he added.

KEITH KELLOGG URGES US TO ‘FINISH THE JOB’ AGAINST IRAN BY SEIZING ISLANDS, STRANGLING ECONOMY

Earlier on Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi had declared in a post on X that “Blockading Iranian ports is an act of war and thus a violation of the ceasefire. Striking a commercial vessel and taking its crew hostage is an even greater violation. Iran knows how to neutralize restrictions, how to defend its interests, and how to resist bullying.”

Iran reportedly fired upon three ships in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday.

 The Associated Press contributed to this report

OUTnewcomers, an LGBTQ group in Boston, announced it returned city grant funding to the mayor’s office after its plans to offer LGBTQ migrants up to $500 in “wellness” perks, such as yoga classes and massages, clashed with local government’s expectations for the funding.

“OUTnewcomers will be ceasing all related programming and will return any funds received for this initiative,” the group said in a Friday press release.

The purpose and scope of the program, called “Belonging Matters,” clashed with statements from city officials about their expectations for the grant, prompting questions about how Boston distributes and oversees grants to outside advocacy groups.

“No funds have been distributed or directed for these purposes,” a city spokesperson told Fox News Digital in response to inquiries about the program.

BOSTON’S WU ORDERS RELEASE OF ICE SURVEILLANCE AND BODY CAM FOOTAGE, SAYS FED GOVERNMENT ‘HIDES BEHIND MASKS’

“This organization received a $7,500 grant through a city program to support mental health services. Those funds were not designated for and may not be used for the voucher program referenced,” the spokesperson said.

OUTnewcomers had been listed as one of 45 recipients of a larger $200,000 push to support LGBTQ communities in Boston. The $200,000 figure was approved by Wu last year as a part of the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ+ Advancement (MOLA).

According to Boston officials, OUTnewcomers was awarded a $7,500 mini-grant allocated from the 2026 budget.

DEM CITY USES ‘BAIT-AND-SWITCH’ TACTIC TO APPROVE HOMELESS SHELTER, LOCALS ERUPT

“These investments represent our continued dedication to uplifting LGBTQ+ Bostonians by putting resources directly into the hands of trusted community organizations,” Wu said in a press release at the time.

The mayor’s office declined to answer questions about the funds’ initial approval.

The registration form for Belonging Matters offered applicants yoga, breathwork and meditation, gym memberships, creative arts, peer support, storytelling, nature-based wellness and hairstyling. If approved, the program promised applicants $250 to $500 in “wellness allowances” evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

But the organization later described the program as offering vouchers of $50 or less, creating a discrepancy between how the initiative was initially presented and how it was later characterized.

Even before returning the city’s grant funding, OUTnewcomers announced that it has paused Belonging Matters, citing “security concerns.”

DEMOCRAT PROVIDENCE MAYOR SLAMS MURAL PROJECT DEDICATED TO SLAIN IRYNA ZARUTSKA

“This is an incredibly difficult decision,” said Sal Khan, Founder of OUTnewcomers.

“Our work has always been rooted in care, dignity, and community support. However, the severity of the threats we have received has made it impossible to continue this program safely. The safety of our team and community members must come first,” OUTnewcomers wrote in a press release.

Khan did not respond to requests for comment from Fox News Digital.

Iran seized two container ships in the Strait of Hormuz hours after President Donald Trump extended a ceasefire, as confrontations at sea continued under the truce.

Both ships were managed by Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC).

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said the vessels, identified as the MSC Francesca and the Epaminondas, were operating without proper authorization and had tampered with navigation systems, accusations that could not be independently verified. The ships had earlier reported coming under fire near the strait, underscoring the increasingly volatile conditions in one of the world’s most critical shipping lanes.

The Guard attacked a third ship, identified as the Euphoria, which had become “stranded” on the Iranian coast, Iranian media reported.

IRAN FIRES LIVE MISSILES INTO STRAIT OF HORMUZ AS TRUMP ENVOYS ARRIVE FOR NUCLEAR TALKS

In a turn of events Tuesday, Trump announced he would extend the two-week ceasefire with Iran. For how long is unclear, but a White House official told Fox News it would be several days. 

Despite heavy U.S. strikes that officials say severely degraded Iran’s conventional navy, Tehran maintains maritime capability through the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ fleet of fast-attack boats used for harassment and boarding operations in the narrow strait.

“We should think in the thousands,” Farzin Nadimi, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told Fox News Digital. “If you include very small boats up to more capable fast-attack craft, the total could reach 3,000 to 4,000 vessels.”

Those forces have been used to harass commercial ships, force them to stop, and take them into custody. Iranian state media said similar tactics were used when Revolutionary Guard units attacked multiple vessels before escorting at least two into Iranian waters.

The continued attacks highlight a gap between battlefield claims and reality.

In a Truth Social post April 13, Trump said, “Iran’s Navy is obliterated. It is laying at the bottom of the sea,” adding that U.S. forces did not need to target Iran’s “little fast-attack boats” because they were not a threat.

TRUMP WATCHES STRIKE ON IRAN-BACKED HOUTHIS IN YEMEN IN NEW WHITE HOUSE PICS AS LARGE-SCALE OP CONTINUES

But those smaller vessels, long a cornerstone of Iran’s asymmetric strategy, are now central to its ability to disrupt shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

The seizures mark the latest escalation in a widening maritime standoff between Iran and Washington. 

Both sides have targeted commercial and cargo vessels as part of a broader pressure campaign tied to stalled negotiations. U.S. forces have also moved to seize at least one Iranian-linked vessel in the region, with each side accusing the other of violating the terms of a fragile ceasefire.

The Strait of Hormuz is a vital artery for global oil shipments, with roughly 20% of the world’s supply passing through it. Traffic has slowed dramatically as ships reroute or avoid the area amid gunfire, seizures and conflicting directives from both militaries.

In a series of Truth Social posts Tuesday night, Trump claimed Iran privately wants the Strait of Hormuz reopened despite public threats to close it.

“Iran doesn’t want the Strait of Hormuz closed, they want it open so they can make $500 Million Dollars a day (which is, therefore, what they are losing if it is closed!),” he wrote.

“But if we do that, there can never be a Deal with Iran, unless we blow up the rest of their Country, their leaders included!”

Trump said he agreed to extend the ceasefire at the request of Pakistani officials while waiting for Iran’s leadership to present a unified position in negotiations.

“Based on the fact that the Government of Iran is seriously fractured, not unexpectedly so and, upon the request of Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, of Pakistan, we have been asked to hold our Attack on the Country of Iran until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“I have therefore directed our Military to continue the Blockade and, in all other respects, remain ready and able, and will therefore extend the Ceasefire until such time as their proposal is submitted, and discussions are concluded, one way or the other,” he added.

Plans for renewed peace talks remain in limbo, with Iran signaling it may not participate in a second round of negotiations while the U.S. maintains its naval blockade. The blockade remains a key sticking point driving the confrontation at sea.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called the naval blockade an “act of war,” accusing Washington of violating the ceasefire.

“Blockading Iranian ports is an act of war and thus a violation of the ceasefire. Striking a commercial vessel and taking its crew hostage is an even greater violation,” he wrote on X.

The comments came after U.S. forces moved to seize Iran’s M/V Touska vessel Monday, which Araghchi described as “an act of piracy.”

The seizures come as U.S.-Iran diplomacy appears increasingly uncertain, with a planned second round of talks in Islamabad thrown into doubt. Vice President JD Vance, who had been expected to lead the U.S. delegation, remained in Washington after Iran signaled it would not participate, scrapping plans for the delegation to travel to Pakistan.

The abrupt shift followed a day of mixed signals from Trump, who said Tuesday morning he did not want to extend the ceasefire as its deadline approached, warning time for negotiations was running out. By the afternoon, however, he reversed course and announced he would extend the truce to allow more time for diplomacy.

The reversal has further clouded fragile negotiations. 

No date has been set for renewed talks, and Iranian officials continue to insist they will not engage while the U.S. maintains its naval blockade. The confrontation has increasingly shifted from the negotiating table to the waters of the Strait of Hormuz, where the risk of miscalculation is rising.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment. 

Fox News’ Lucas Tomlinson contributed to this report. 

Republicans are pointing fingers after their narrow loss in Virginia’s high-stakes congressional redistricting referendum, which could give Democrats a significant boost in the battle for the House of Representatives majority in this year’s midterm elections.

Even though they were outraised and outspent by Democrats by a nearly three-to-one margin, Republicans came close to sinking the ballot initiative, which gives the Democrat-controlled Virginia legislature — rather than the state’s current nonpartisan commission — temporary redistricting power through the 2030 election.

Tuesday’s passage of the referendum could result in a 10-1 advantage for Democrats in Virginia’s congressional delegation, up from their current 6-5 edge. The referendum, which follows President Donald Trump‘s push for rare but not unheard-of mid-decade redistricting in Republican-led states over the past year, still faces a challenge in the state Supreme Court. But if it survives the legal hurdles, Democrats could gain four additional left-leaning U.S. House seats ahead of the midterms as they try to win back control of the chamber from the GOP, which currently holds a razor-thin majority.

“We didn’t get the help we needed to sink the referendum,” a Virginia based Republican strategist who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely told Fox News Digital. “National Republicans could have and should have done more.”

DEMOCRATS NARROWLY WIN CONGRESSIONAL REDISTRICTING SHOWDOWN IN VIRGINIA

Another Virginia-based Republican consultant, who was also granted anonymity, said, “It is bit shocking that there wasn’t a little bit more money spent earlier because once you peel back the top layer of the ballot language and stop Trump, the ‘yes’ campaign had nothing.”

“If we had a bit more money to educate, I think we could have won more of the persuasion bucket. And then for sure, if we have very well-funded ballot chase program to go turnout low proposition voters in southwest Virginia, a combination of aggressive field, text, and mail, we might have won.”

While Trump headlined a tele-rally on the eve of the referendum election, some fingers were also pointed towards the president and his political team.

“Victory has a thousand fathers and defeat is an orphan. So there’s going to be plenty of finger pointing and plenty of blame being assigned why this didn’t work out,” another GOP strategist who also asked for anonymity to speak candidly.

DEMOCRACY ’26: STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE FOX NEWS ELECTION HUB

The strategist emphasized that “ultimately, if you’re the White House, you started this redistricting fight last year and you better be sure that you’re giving all the people out there on your side the resources they need to finish the battle if this is going to be such a centerpiece of your historically narrow House majority.”

But a strategist with ties to the Republican team in Virginia that fought to sink the referendum disagreed, telling Fox News Digital “we got a lot of help from the Republican ecosystem… we received help from all corners.”

And the strategist shot down the idea that if Republicans had spent more money, it could have sunk the referendum. Referring to the team that pushed the referendum to victory, the strategist said “they’re just going to find more money. Democrats always do.”

And pointing to Trump, the strategist said “if the president had engaged right away, that would have made the entire debate about the president in a state that he lost in 2024….Our goal was to make this as much about Virginia as possible. Democrats tried to make it as much about the president as possible.”

Virginia was the battlefield in the high-stakes fight between Trump and the GOP versus Democrats over congressional redistricting.

Aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House, when Democrats reclaimed the House majority in the 2018 midterms, Trump a year ago first floated the idea of rare, but not unheard-of, mid-decade congressional redistricting.

Texas and California were the first major showdowns over redistricting, with Ohio, Missouri, North Carolina, Indiana, and Utah also getting into the scrum.

HEAD HERE FOR LIVE UPDATES ON THE CONGRESSIONAL REDISTRICTING BATTLE

Now the spotlight turns to Florida.

Matt Gorman, a veteran Republican strategist based in Virginia, told Fox News Digital that pointing fingers is absolutely useless. “The fact of the matter is we have to fight the next battle, and that’s in Florida.”

Two-term Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and state lawmakers in the GOP-dominated legislature are hoping to pick up an additional three to five right-leaning seats through a redistricting push during a special legislative session that kicks off next week.

And with the Democrats’ victory in Virginia, pressure is growing on DeSantis to deliver.

A chaotic situation unfolded on Tuesday night in Los Angeles as far-left activists and students disrupted and chastised a Department of Homeland Security attorney who was speaking to law students at a conservative group’s event at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

The incident took place at a speech hosted by the Federalist Society’s UCLA chapter, where James Percival, general counsel of the DHS, was speaking to law students. Over 150 protesters gathered outside the event chanting criticisms of the Trump administration, including “No ICE, No KKK, No Fascist U.S.A.” 

Inside the event, students booed Percival throughout his talk, and many held profane signs while he spoke. One sign read, “F— you loser.” The students also set off different sounds on their phones as part of the disruption, and at different points, yelled out the word “Nazi.” 

The event culminated in a question and answer session, for which most of the disruptors walked out in protest.

INSIDE ANTIFA-LINKED GROUP’S PLAN TO ‘STRUCTURALLY CHANGE’ THE US AS MAY DAY UNREST APPROACHES

“Yesterday, DHS General Counsel James Percival came to UCLA School of Law for a good-faith academic discussion and was met with personal attacks, repeated interruptions, and organized disruption that prevented him from speaking,” UCLA FedSoc chapter president Matthew Weinberg told Fox News Digital. 

“As President of the UCLA Law Federalist Society and the event organizer, I saw students who came to hear and question a senior federal official denied that opportunity. If this is what it looks like for conservative law students trying to host a speaker at an American law school in 2026, we are not staying silent about it.”

After the event was announced, left-wing campus groups circulated posts and online petitions containing rhetoric described as “threatening.” One of those radical leftist groups was By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), which on its website calls for a “militant new civil rights and immigrant rights movement,” posted a flyer on Instagram promoting a picketing event outside the law school.

 “UCLA must not give representatives of ICE and the Trump Administration a base to organize Trump’s campaign of racist ethnic cleansing of the U.S. and the Middle East,” the flyer said. 

“Stop the fascist takeover of the American federal government! Stop the Trump police state!” the caption on the social media post said. 

WATCHDOG EXPOSES TAXPAYER-FUNDED TEACHER PROGRAM FOR BANNING WHITE APPLICANTS: ‘LIKELY ILLEGAL’

The UCLE Latine Law Students Association also stoked hysteria around the event.

 “Many students at UCLA and UCLA Law have been impacted by ICE’s practice of stalking, kidnapping, and profiling individuals whom they suspect to be in the United States without authorization, primarily based on ethnicity,” the group said, later adding that inviting Percival to speak “utterly disregards the safety of our undocumented students and minimizes the great harm and trauma that has been inflicted on our communities over the decades.”

“By giving Mr. Percival a platform, The Federalist Society and UCLA Law are legitimizing and normalizing racially discriminatory policies that are actively harming both UCLA students and our broader community,” the group said. 

Video of the incident quickly made waves on social media after it was posted by recent UCLA law school graduate Yitzy Frankel and even got the attention of a top Justice Department official.

“Oh, @UCLA,” DOJ assistant attorney general for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon posted on X. “… Adding To The List …. And it’s the wrong list.”

“Some little punks tried this when I went to speak at UVA Law FedSoc, but school security cooperated with me in shutting down disruption during Q&A,” Dhillon added in another post. “Conservative campus speakers must sadly now expect this nonsense, and prepare accordingly.”

“When you don’t discipline this kind of behavior you get more of it,” Manhattan Institute’s Ilya Shapiro posted on X. “This isn’t hard.”

“So much for the ‘diversity of thought’ that the university says it ‘values,’” Judicial Network President Carrie Severino posted on X.  “That tolerance doesn’t extend to conservative legal arguments. It’s hard to imagine these students will be committed to the rule of law and upholding judicial independence.”

Fox News Digital reached out to UCLA for comment.

The incident highlights an ongoing trend of far-left students and activists disrupting conservative events and harassing conservative students on college campuses.

“FIRE’s 2026 college free speech survey shows that 91% of students now self-censor at least some of the time in conversations with classmates,” Fox News contributor William J. Bennett wrote in a recent Fox News op-ed discussing how conservatives don’t feel comfortable expressing themselves on college campuses. “Israel and Palestine are the most feared topics for open dissent, just ahead of abortion and transgender rights. At two prominent universities, 88% of students now pretend to be more progressive than they really are.”