There’s growing unrest in Cuba as the communist government struggles to deal with island-wide blackouts and a collapsing economy. As President Donald Trump alludes to change on the island, the Cuban community in Miami is left wondering what is next.

The island has experienced 67 years of authoritarian rule where the Communist Party of Cuba is the only legal party. Last week, protesters attacked a Communist Party headquarters on the island overnight, ransacking the building and attempting to set it on fire, according to local reports.

“The protesters are more brave today than before,” said Jose Collazo, a Cuban migrant who left the island in the 1960’s. “But if you remember four years ago when they came out, they were brutally repressed.”

TRUMP SAYS HE BELIEVES HE HAS ‘HONOR’ OF ‘TAKING CUBA,’ CALLS CARIBBEAN ISLAND A ‘VERY WEAKENED NATION’

Collazo often spends time at Domino Park in the heart of Little Havana, a neighborhood in Miami with a large population of Cuban immigrants. He and other Cuban Americans meet up for friendly — but highly competitive — games of dominoes and to discuss current affairs.

Lately, there’s been a lot of chatter about the situation in Cuba. On Monday, a nationwide power grid collapse left roughly 10 million people without electricity, according to U.S. Embassy statements and Cuban authorities. Cuban officials have said the outages are linked to fuel shortages and failures at aging power plants.

Then, there’s the ongoing economic crisis which has been made even worse in recent months after President Trump threatened tariffs on any country that sends oil to Cuba. 

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“They’re living like in the Stone Age. Cave people. That’s how they live. It’s sad to see the people  [living with] malnutrition, living in ragged clothes,” said Collazo.

The escalating tension on the island comes amid remarks by Trump that he expects to have the “honor” of “taking Cuba in some form” and “I can do anything I want” with the neighboring country.

“Cuba right now is in very bad shape. They’re talking to Marco,” Trump told reporters, “We’ll be doing something with Cuba very soon.… We’re dealing with Cuba.”

On Tuesday, Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, also made comments about the island, saying “they have to get new people in charge” in Havana. 

Meanwhile, Pentagon officials told lawmakers there are no plans to invade Cuba, even as they described it as a long-standing security concern.

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“In all the years I’ve been here— I’m going on 47 years— I think this is the first time I’ve seen really good things happening for Cuba,” said Francisco Botella, a Cuban migrant who lives in Miami. “You can tell it’s a very precarious situation this time around. Now the system is going down, way down.”

Hearing U.S. leaders discuss the situation brings members of the Cuban exile community like Botella and Collazo hope.

“I think this is the end for Cuba. I really think it’s over. Either the communist leaders leave, or what happened to Maduro will happen to them,” said Botella.

Cuban officials have continued to blame U.S. sanctions for the country’s economic hardships, while analysts say the government is facing mounting pressure from ongoing blackouts, shortages of basic goods, and growing public frustration.

Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas., turned away questions on Wednesday about why her office had hired a security guard with a criminal history after news broke that he had been shot and killed in an armed standoff with law enforcement in Dallas, Texas.

“I’m going to refer you to my page,” Crockett told Fox News Digital.

“I made a statement and I said there would be no additional statements. You need someone to read it for you? I can find someone to do that.”

The criminal history of Crockett’s bodyguard, Diamon-Mazairre Robinson, 39, who went by the alias “Mike King,” drew national attention last week when details emerged that he had a track record of run-ins with the law for theft, violating probation and impersonating law enforcement.

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Robinson was killed in a standoff with SWAT last week after he barricaded himself inside the garage of a children’s hospital as local police were looking to detain him while investigating an active warrant.

Local authorities said they had recovered 11 firearms during their investigation.

Crockett, who said she had known Robinson under the name, Mike King, said he had been employed by her office “for years” and that during that time he had not given her reason to suspect him of wrongdoing.

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Crockett said her team had vetted Robinson according to standards laid out for lawmaker security, according to a statement put out by her office.

“We are saddened and shocked by some of the concerning revelations. Our team followed all protocols outlined by the House to contract additional security. We were approved to use this vendor who also provided security services for additional entities in the local community and worked closely with law enforcement agencies, including Capitol Police,” Crockett said in a statement.

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She noted that she was surprised that her office hadn’t discovered his background until the time of his death.

“The fact that an individual was able to somehow circumvent the vetting processes for something as sensitive as security for members of Congress highlights the loopholes and shortcomings in many of our systems,” her office’s statement read.

EXCLUSIVE: The White House on Friday unveiled its first national policy framework for artificial intelligence — a legislative outline to establish a “consistent” national standard for AI development across the nation that prevents censorship and protects free speech and children, Fox News Digital has learned.

Fox News Digital exclusively obtained the legislative framework that the White House will share with congressional leadership Friday as the White House pushes Congress to advance and codify its “commonsense” proposals into law “this year.”

“This year. As fast as we can,” White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview Thursday evening. “Congress has a lot of priorities they’re trying to make happen, but we believe this can receive bipartisan support.”

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White House sources told Fox News Digital that the framework was designed to reduce regulatory uncertainty, sustain U.S. dominance in the AI space, prevent censorship and protect free speech.

“We need one national policy — not a 50-state patchwork of laws,” Kratsios told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview Thursday evening. “This legislative proposal delivers on that.” 

“In December, President Trump signed an Executive Order tasking us with the development of a national framework for AI, what he called ‘One Rulebook,’” White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks told Fox News Digital. “This was in response to a growing patchwork of 50 different state regulatory regimes that threaten to stifle innovation and jeopardize America’s lead in the AI race.”

The White House is urging Congress to “preempt state AI laws that impose undue burdens to ensure a minimally burdensome national standard consistent with these recommendations, not fifty discordant ones,” according to the official framework obtained by Fox News Digital.

“This national standard should respect key principles of federalism and not preempt the traditional police powers retained by the states to enforce laws of general applicability against AI developers and users, including particular laws to protect children, prevent fraud, and protect consumers,” the framework states, adding it should also not preempt “state zoning laws, including state authorities, to determine the placement of AI infrastructure.”

The framework said that “preemption must ensure that state laws do not govern areas better suited to the Federal Government or act contrary to the United States’ national strategy to achieve global AI dominance.” 

The White House stresses that states “should not be permitted to regulate AI development, because it is an inherently interstate phenomenon with key foreign policy and national security implications.”

“States should not unduly burden Americans’ use of AI for activity that would be lawful if performed without AI,” the framework says. “States should not be permitted to penalize AI developers for a third party’s unlawful conduct involving their models.”

Beyond the regulatory structure, the framework also focuses on protections for children.

The White House is urging Congress to build on and codify actions taken throughout the Trump administration to protect children from AI harms and empower parents with robust tools to manage their children’s privacy settings, screen time, content exposure and account controls.

Sacks told Fox News Digital that the framework helps parents to “safeguard their children from online harm, shield communities from higher electric bills, protect our First Amendment rights from AI censorship, and ensure that all Americans benefit from this transformative technology.”

The legislative proposal includes establishing commercially reasonable, privacy protective, age-assurance requirements — like parental attestation — for AI platforms and services likely to be accessed by minors.

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In addition, the White House is calling for legislation requiring AI platforms to implement features that reduce the risk of sexual exploitation and self-harm to minors.

“We are calling on Congress to ensure parents are empowered to shape and protect their children’s digital upbringing,” Kratsios told Fox News Digital.

Kratsios pointed to first lady Melania Trump’s efforts surrounding the passage and signing of the “Take it Down Act” last year. That legislation punishes internet abuse involving nonconsensual, explicit imagery and garnered strong bipartisan support.

The framework also addresses energy costs tied to AI infrastructure.

Meanwhile, the White House is pushing Congress to codify its Ratepayer Protection Pledge into law. The pledge ensures that tech giants protect Americans from higher electricity bills tied to data center power demand. It also requires companies to “build, bring, or buy new generation resources and cover the cost of all power delivery infrastructure upgrades required for data centers.”

The pledge came amid concern that the creation of new data centers will cause mounting energy prices for everyday Americans.

The pledge works to protect Americans against spiking electricity bills. It also has companies vowing against passing expenses to American households and commits companies to hiring and training talent from within communities where they build and operate data centers — a move that could create thousands of jobs.

“We’re calling on Congress to codify this Ratepayer Protection Pledge,” Kratsios said.

Meanwhile, the White House is also calling on Congress to augment existing law enforcement efforts to combat AI-enabled impersonation scams and fraud that target vulnerable populations, such as seniors.

The framework also addresses national security concerns tied to advanced AI systems.

As for national security, the White House is urging Congress to ensure the appropriate federal agencies have sufficient technical capacity to understand frontier AI model capabilities and any associated national security considerations. The White House is also calling on Congress to establish plans to mitigate potential national security concerns.

Another key area is intellectual property and creator protections.

Another section of the White House’s legislative framework urges Congress to draft language to protect American creators, publishers and innovators from AI-generated outputs that infringe their protected content. This recommendation specifically asks Congress to respect those intellectual property rights, without undermining lawful innovation and free expression.

“Although the Administration believes that training of AI models on copyrighted material does not violate copyright laws, it acknowledges arguments to the contrary exist and therefore supports allowing the Courts to resolve this issue,” the White House framework states. “Similarly, Congress should not take any actions that would impact the judiciary’s resolution of whether training on copyrighted material constitutes fair use.”

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As for imitation, the framework urges Congress to consider a “federal framework protecting individuals from the unauthorized distribution or commercial use of AI-generated digital replicas of their voice, likeness, or other identifiable attributes, while providing clear exceptions for parody, satire, news reporting, and other expressive works protected by the First Amendment.”

“Congress should prevent persons from abusing such a framework to stifle free speech online,” the proposal states, while urging Congress to continue to “carefully monitor” the development of copyright precedents and enforcement.

The White House is also urging Congress to defend free speech and First Amendment protections, while preventing AI systems from being used to “silence or censor lawful political expression or dissent.”

“Congress should prevent the United States government from coercing technology providers, including AI providers, to ban, compel, or alter content based on partisan or ideological agendas,” the framework states, adding that Congress should provide an effective means for Americans to “seek redress from the Federal Government for agency efforts to censor expression on AI platforms or dictate the information provided by an AI platform.”

Kratsios told Fox News Digital that the United States is “still ahead” in the global AI race and is “doing everything we possibly can to maintain and grow that lead.”

The White House is also calling on Congress to provide AI resources to small businesses, such as grants, tax incentives and technical assistance programs to support wider deployment of AI tools across American industry.

Fox News Digital sat for an exclusive interview with Kratsios last year as director of the White House Office of Science & Technology. He reflected on his first year on the job during the interview Thursday.

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“The first pillar of our work was around AI innovation, and part of that was to make sure we have a regulatory framework in the United States that provides certainty to our innovators,” Kratsios said. “This legislative framework is a big deliverable and if Congress is able to pass this into law this year it would be a big step forward for the country.”

Sacks told Fox News Digital that the White House team plans to work with Congress to “turn the principles we are announcing today into legislation.”

Kratsios and Sacks have been working with lawmakers over the past few weeks on the effort, including meetings with House and Senate leadership.

“We spoke with the House Majority and Senate Majority leadership, and we think they’ll be excited,” Kratsios said.

In December, President Trump issued an executive order to ensure the National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence.

The new framework, according to White House officials, “delivers on the executive order while also expanding workforce and education opportunities to ensure American workers benefit from AI-driven growth.” 

Democrats have been stockpiling ideas for months on how to retaliate against companies and figures that have aligned themselves closely to President Donald Trump’s political agenda, telegraphing that merger breakups and committee investigations will play a central role in their efforts to push back against the administration should they regain power.

Most recently, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., took to social media to highlight his most recent entry on that list.

“Brendan Carr is a corrupt political hack and fake chair of the FCC,” Jeffries said in a post to X. “This guy (and the entities he promotes) will find himself on the wrong side of a congressional investigation in short order.”

Jeffries’ comments were made in response to a post from Carr, suggesting the administration would more closely review license renewals for broadcasters perpetuating “fake news.”

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The struggle over political alignment isn’t unique to Carr.

The comments have piled up as the nation inches closer to the November midterms — a critical opportunity for Democrats to break a Republican governing trifecta and more visibly push back against the Trump administration. Even regaining control of just one chamber of Congress could enable Democrats to carry out their list of retaliation.

Democrats like Sen. Ruben Gallego hope to pressure companies that have received approval for mergers under Trump’s watch.

“Once we take power, whoever the president is, we’re going to break up your companies,” Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., told Semafor.

“So, all the investment you did to create these mergers are going to be for naught. Your investors are going to be pissed at you, and you’re likely going to end up getting fired as the CEO because you wasted so much money and corrupted yourself in the process,” Gallego said.

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Under Trump’s administration, notable mergers have included Paramount’s $82.7 billion acquisition of Warner Bros., Capital One’s $35 billion acquisition of Discover and Nippon Steel’s acquisition of U.S. Steel for $14.9 billion.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., similarly echoed Gallego’s thinking in a X post.

“Paramount should enjoy its growing news monopoly while they have it, because when Democrats win back power we are going to break up these anti-democratic information conglomerates,” Murphy wrote. “All of them.”

Skydance Media, the parent company of Paramount, has close ties to the Trump administration through its CEO, David Ellison — a figure who appeared as a Republican guest at the 2026 State of the Union and who has been a frequent guest at the White House.

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Susan Rice, a former top official in the Biden and Obama administrations, also recently caused a stir after she appeared to vow political retribution during a Vox interview last month against companies once Democrats regain control of Congress and the White House.

“They’re going to be held accountable by those who come in opposition to Trump and win at the ballot box,” Rice said.

“I think whether you’re a law firm, whether you’re a university, whether you’re a media entity, whether you’re a big corporation, whether you’re big tech, you need to play a long game, not this short game that has been so detrimental,” Rice added.

Subpoena powers also make up a part of how Democrats will also look to pursue their objectives if they regain power.

Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., the third most powerful Democrat in the House of Representatives, noted that using the subpoena powers to bring in former President Bill Clinton likely clears the way for lawmakers to compel high-profile testimony from Trump’s orbit.

“It sets an interesting precedent on who is subject to come into Oversight, and we will see what the next year holds for Trump Inc. and the Trump family,” Aguilar said, alluding to the requests Democrats might make if they hold a majority in 2027.

The targets for Democrats extend to the private sector as well.

During a House Oversight Committee hearing last year, Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, interrupted proceedings to demand lawmakers subpoena billionaire Elon Musk over his work with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). 

“The motion was to subpoena Elon Musk, who is heading DOGE who is the one who made the recommendations for these [spending] cuts,” Crockett said. 

Her calls were taken up in the Senate where Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., introduced a very similar motion, citing Musk’s closeness to the president and influence in efforts to slim down government operations.

“Mr. Chairman, if we are serious about exercising our constitutional responsibilities, which I hope all of us are, it is critical for our committee to hear from the person who is in fact in charge of the federal government,” Sanders said in committee. 

Democrats reached by Fox News Digital did not respond to a request for comment on their plans to implement their past comments.

FIRST ON FOX: Senate Republicans launched a test of Senate Democrats’ resolve against voter ID legislation, and while it may not look like what many wanted, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., argued it was the only path forward.

Thune has been pressured by President Donald Trump, a cohort in the Senate GOP, and a fervent online network of conservatives demanding that he activate the talking filibuster to pass the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act.

But it’s a floor tactic that Thune argued has never proven successful in passing legislation.

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“Nobody really knows how this ends, and the people who are out there saying they do, don’t,” Thune told Fox News Digital in an interview. “Because it’s never been done, or at least hasn’t been done in modern history.”

Proponents of the talking filibuster view it as a method to blow through the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster threshold and ensure that the SAVE America Act is passed. But it comes at the steep price of the upper chamber’s most valuable currency — floor time — which, during an ongoing shutdown, is not something lawmakers would want to give up.

Thune added that Senate Democrats have also considered the move in the past under former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and noted that they “opted against it in both cases because I think they felt like the price that we would make them pay wasn’t worth whatever it was they were trying to get done.”

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“If I saw a pathway, even if it was a small-percentage pathway of getting an outcome, I’d be more inclined to do it,” Thune said. “But we looked at it, ran all the contingencies, gamed it out, mapped it out, what it would look like on the floor, did the research, studied the history, and couldn’t find a single example in modern Senate history where a talking filibuster actually led to a piece of legislation passing.”

Instead, Thune and Senate Republicans are doing a version of the talking filibuster that does allow for unlimited debate but prevents an unlimited number of amendments from Senate Democrats that would drastically alter the bill and that Republicans know they don’t have the votes to kill.

It’s not a move he made on his own, either. The nature of Thune’s leadership style, which helped secure him the top spot in the Senate GOP, is to avoid unilateral decision-making and instead allow Republicans to come to an agreement on a plan.

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Still, there are critics who are unhappy with the plan Republicans landed on given that it doesn’t lower the threshold to pass the bill. But the pressure Thune felt from all sides wasn’t enough to make him cave and pull the trigger on the talking filibuster.

“I think there’s a sort of a leadership guru who, one of his main points is, the first responsibility of a leader is to define reality, and so I try and figure out what’s achievable,” he said. “And there are a lot of folks out there who are over-promising and creating false expectations about what we can get done here.”

Republicans’ plan has seen the Senate engage in three straight days of debate on the SAVE America Act in a bid to force Senate Democrats to argue against the legislation. When that debate comes to an end is still in the air.

Some, like Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who is the lead sponsor of the bill, want the Senate to spend time on the bill for “as long as it takes” to wear down Senate Democrats.

“And if we’re not there yet, we need to continue debating it,” Lee said.

EXCLUSIVE — As he praises President Donald Trump for “taking the fight directly” to Iran, former Vice President Mike also argues that the attacks show that the president isn’t listening to the isolationist wing of the Republican Party.

“It’s one of the things I give President Trump great credit for,” Pence said this week in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital.

Pence’s comments come nearly three weeks into the military strikes against Iran, as some loud voices in the MAGA and America First orbits have pilloried the president over the attacks.

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The former vice president, who has long been a proponent of strong American deterrence around the world, highlighted that “around this administration, and to some extent in this administration, there have been some increasingly loud voices calling for America to pull back from our role as leader of the free world. Isolationist voices have taken hold in some quarters of the Republican Party.”

“But fortunately, President Trump turned a deaf ear to those voices last year when he struck Iran, and this year, when he launched Operation Epic Fury,” Pence emphasized. “I think it’s greatly to his credit.”

Pence argued that it’s “reflective of where the overwhelming majority of Republicans are. Republicans understand that America is the arsenal of democracy, that we’re the leader of the free world, that we have obligations to lead.”

And pointing to his former boss during Trump’s first administration, Pence said, “I’ve told people many times, I’m proud of President Trump for making the decision to launch operation Epic Fury. But I’m not surprised, because the President I serve with is no isolationist.”

The military attacks by the U.S. and Israel have resulted in the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and other top officials, and the decimation of the country’s military.

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But Iran has retaliated with attacks against Israel and many of its other neighbors in the volatile Middle East.

Iran has also targeted energy facilities with missile and drone attacks in a number of Persian Gulf nations. It has also made the Strait of Hormuz nearly impassable to commercial shipping, bringing to a halt roughly 20% of the world’s oil supply, which has sent fuel prices skyrocketing in the U.S. and across the globe.

But Pence emphasized that he “couldn’t be more proud of President Donald Trump for making the decision to send our troops directly against an enemy that has literally claimed thousands of American lives, including nearly 1,000 service members.”

The former vice president said Trump has “unleashed the armed forces of the United States to take the fight directly to the source of global terrorism. And I think at the end of the day, the American people understand that this is a fight that we have to win, and it’s going to be important that we finish the threat that Iran has posed to the American people, to our cherished ally, Israel, to nations across the region and across the West, once and for all.”

And Pence said that if he were advising Trump, he would urge the president “to finish the threat that the mullahs and Tehran have posed to the people of this country once and for all.”

Nuclear fusion originates in our sun and other stars. Immense pressure and high temperatures in the core create a reaction, ultimately preventing it from collapsing under the force of gravity.

“The fusion here on Earth has a lot of corollaries to how we understand how the stars work in things like astrophysics,” Commonwealth Fusion Systems CEO Bob Mumgaard said.

“They both rely on studying plasma, the fourth state of matter. They both have the same types of reactions, and we use some of what we learn in how the stars work to inform how to build better fusion machines on Earth.”

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The company is working to replicate the sun’s fusion energy here on earth, a quest that has been long in the making.

“When it first started out, it was as much a science experiment as fission was. The question at that time was, is this possible?” said Adam Stein, director of nuclear energy innovation at the Breakthrough Institute. “There was more scientific curiosity than optimism (that) this would ever become a source of power for the world.”

The quest for nuclear power began in the 1950s when scientists started designing machines to conduct their experiments. More than 70 years later, scientists have not been able to make fusion power viable for electricity.

“The biggest misconception is thinking that fusion is right around the corner. Or that people think, on the other hand, that it’s a total failure. And it’s neither. It’s real progress combined with real uncertainty,” Stein said.

As the demand for energy continues to rise, fusion scientists believe fusion power plants could help ease some of the strain.

“We need every electron on this system. And if and when fusion becomes commercially viable, it should also be in that equation because it’s that important,” Exelon CEO Calvin Butler said. “If you increase the supply and the demand is there, costs will go down. And I think fusion being in that equation is a good.”

To create nuclear fusion on earth, a lot of power is needed to generate plasmas that reach temperatures hotter than the sun. Scientists have spent decades developing the right environment for fusion reactions, but building materials that can endure the intense heat while keeping the plasma stable are among the many challenges.

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“Right now, the machines consume more energy than they produce. So that’s not a power plant. You don’t want to build that as a power plant. That’s a power user. But the output of that is learning, right? And we’re getting better and better at it,” Mumgaard said. 

Critics say fusion power has been 20-30 years away for decades now, but Commonwealth Fusion Systems is hoping to change that timeline, saying it could have a viable reactor by the early 2030s. 

“We’ve learned a lot about what it takes to make these machines,” Mumgaard said. “The scientific advance has happened. And we’re now at the stage where we have confidence in that science, that, you know, fusion is turning more to an engineering problem.”

In 2022, the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory demonstrated fusion could generate more energy than it used, but it was just a small amount, about enough power to keep a small LED light bulb on for 20 hours. Scientists also estimate it takes about 100 times more energy to run the facility than the amount used in the experiment. 

“NIF (National Ignition Facility) put in enough energy to power roughly a thousand homes and got enough out to power an LED. Because the overall system has inefficiency,” Stein said. 

Fusion and other energy sources have seen advancements in the past decade, thanks to artificial intelligence.

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“I think AI in and of itself is a good thing. Economic developments, growth, all good things. What we have to do is get the policy right,” Butler said. 

“We’ve also learned a lot from our technology partners in how to use technology to deliver energy more efficiently. Are we using grid-enhancing technology to increase the capacity of the transmission system? What are we doing to serve our customers more intuitively? All of that is coming with the advent of AI and the technology, and we need to utilize that as energy companies.”

At Commonwealth Fusion Systems, NVIDIA software monitors and maps fusion plants in real time. Google Deepmind’s technology helps better control plasma. 

“Whether that’s to make the computer simulations run faster or to make the control systems for the plasma able to react faster, gain insights in how to build the machines. And, so, you see that in our company but in fusion labs around the world that AI is having an accelerating factor in this whole field,” Mumgaard said.  

The fusion industry has gotten increased interest and funding. Companies raised $2.6 billion in private and public funding in the 12 months leading to July 2025. But that is just a fraction of the amount invested in energy already on the grid. In 2025, spending on nuclear was estimated at $70 billion. Solar was expected to reach $450 billion.  

“Fusion isn’t a near-term energy solution. It’s not science fiction either, but it’s a long-horizon, high-risk, high-reward option with unavoidable uncertainty,” Stein said. “The near-term solution is fission and other energy sources that we already know how to build. But that does not mean that we shouldn’t pursue fusion for mid to long-term energy needs.” 

Some fusion critics have speculated that the energy source could never be viable for the electric grid. Elon Musk has called the effort a “pet science project” and called for further investments in solar energy. But some energy companies, lawmakers in both parties and the Trump administration are expressing optimism. 

“Definitely, in the next several years, we’re gonna see at scale much more energy come out than goes in in fusion devices. It’s a little bit of time after that to make it commercial and machines and all that, but it’s coming,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said at Semafor’s World Economy Summit in April 2025. 

“It’s not a maybe someday always 20 years away thing. Watch the news. Fusion energy in the next four years can be very exciting.”

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy bashed Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom over an unfinished wildlife crossing bridge in the Golden State that is running $21 million over budget.

Duffy shared a post from the X account End Wokeness showing video of the unfinished project stretching across 10 lanes of the 101 Freeway in Southern California. The video shows the incomplete bridge, which is intended to provide safe passage for animals such as cougars to cross over the highway.

“Bridges to nowhere. Trains to nowhere. Leave the building to us @GavinNewsom,” Duffy wrote on X.

Construction of the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing (WAWC) was supposed to be wrapped up by 2025, with the total cost of the project estimated at $92 million. That cost estimate has since jumped to $114 million. A press release from the governor’s office states the project should be completed by fall 2026.

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At the groundbreaking ceremony held in April 2022, Newsom pledged $54 million of state funding to build the crossing and later added another $10 million. However, in February, the California Transportation Commission announced it was allocating an additional $18.8 million to complete construction.

Wallis Annenberg and the Annenberg Foundation, the namesake of the bridge, provided $25 million for its construction in 2021. Beth Pratt, director of the National Wildlife Federation and part of the leadership team overseeing the project, attributed delays in the project’s construction to rising costs in a video posted to X.

Pratt said in a statement to Fox News Digital that the crossing project “experienced significant increases in costs” related to “tariffs, inflation and other factors” that were responsible for delayed construction.

MARYLAND BRIDGE REBUILD COSTS SOAR TO $5.2B, MORE THAN DOUBLE ORIGINAL ESTIMATE OFFICIALS PROVIDED

She added that these increased costs were consistent with other construction projects, citing the FHWA National Highway Construction Cost Index, which shows highway construction costs have increased by 67% since 2021. Pratt said the project team took steps to reduce costs as part of a “rigorous redesign process” funded by private donations, not public funds.

Newsom’s press office rejected criticism of the project’s ballooning costs, also pointing to tariffs from the Trump administration as the culprit.

“The cost estimate held until last year when inflation — in part driven by TRUMP’s TARIFFS — increased construction costs. The increase is vastly LOWER than the 67% national average increase in highway construction costs,” Newsom’s team wrote on X.

The governor also said the delay was due to “severe weather.”

“The timeline shifted by just ONE YEAR largely due to severe weather last year — five years of work is far from a ‘boondoggle,” Newsom’s press office wrote on X.

Heightened attention on the construction of the wildlife crossing bridge comes as the state faces continued scrutiny over other failed projects. Last year, the Department of Transportation canceled $4 billion in federal funding after the state spent $15 billion in funding for high-speed rail construction projects despite never laying a single track.

Newsom, a 2028 presidential prospect, is also having to navigate a projected $2.9 billion budget deficit for the 2026–2027 fiscal year.

Democrats are facing a reckoning after casting César Chavez as a near-sacred figure of the American left for decades— honoring him in DNC statements, White House proclamations and annual public tributes — but that long-running celebration is now colliding with newly surfaced abuse allegations serious enough that even the United Farm Workers and the Cesar Chavez Foundation have backed away from holding events honoring the late labor and civil rights leader. 

Allegations that a 45-year-old Chavez sexually abused and groomed minors and adults, including one girl who was as young as 13 at the time of the abuse and another who became pregnant twice following their encounters, broke Wednesday after the New York Times published allegations from Chavez’s victims who largely remained silent for decades. 

After the news, the labor union César Chavez helped found, United Farm Workers, called the allegations “profoundly shocking” and decided to cancel its upcoming annual celebrations honoring him. Meanwhile, the César Chavez Foundation opted to do the same, describing the allegations as “disturbing” and noting they were “deeply shocked and saddened.” 

CESAR CHAVEZ DAY CANCELED BY UNIONS AFTER ‘TROUBLING’ SEXUAL ALLEGATIONS AGAINST CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER

In 2010, President Barack Obama issued a presidential proclamation declaring March 31 César Chavez Day. You would have to go back to Bill Clinton, before César Chavez Day even existed, to find a Democratic Party president who did not honor him during the month of March. Obama began the tradition in 2009, issuing an official White House statement explicitly commemorating “César Chavez’s birthday” and praising his legacy as a civil rights and labor leader. 

The following year, he announced the first official César Chavez Day to be held March 31 every year, and then subsequently, every year thereafter, put out a statement in honor of him. The tradition was then picked up when former President Joe Biden took office in 2021.

“The hypocrisy is rich, and Democrats’ praise for an abuser and rapist has-been is now exposed,” a national GOP strategist told Fox News Digital. “Any refusal to apologize or retract statements will be taken as Democrats supporting his disgusting behavior.”

After the allegations broke Wednsday, Fox News Digital reached out to a slew of Democrats, as well as the Democrat National Committee (DNC), all of whom recently professed public praise and support for Chavez.   

“A movement is about the people—not any one person—and its strength lies in the values it upholds. We can honor the farmworker movement—and the generations who sacrificed to build it—while also confronting painful truths,” said Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, who touted Chavez as a “champion for justice and dignity” on César Chavez Day in 2024. “No legacy is above accountability.”

“The farm workers movement and a labor movement are much bigger than one man — and we celebrate that and that will be our focus as we process what the next steps are,” said California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who, alongside his wife Jennifer, posted a video tribute to Chavez on March 31 of last year praising him as “a leader who fought for justice, dignity and fairness.” 

However, in light of the new allegations, a source familiar with Newsom’s thinking said the governor was open to conversations with California lawmakers about proposed statutory changes in response. 

SCALISE ACCUSES DEMOCRATS OF REVIVING ‘DEFUND THE POLICE’ PUSH WITH DHS FUNDING GAMBIT

“I am keeping Dolores Huerta, Ana Murguia, and Debra Rojas in my heart, and I honor their strength and that of every woman and girl horrifically harmed by those in power,” said Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who posted a photo of herself with the late civil rights and labor union leader last year on his March 31 day of remembrance instituted by Obama. 

“The sickening reality is that what Dolores, Ana, and Debra endured is not isolated, nor is it of the past. Real progress requires more than moments of reckoning – it demands sustained action to dismantle social, cultural, economic, and political structures that have hurt women throughout our history,” Bass continued.  “Dolores and leaders like her inspired so many of us to activism. Mr. Chavez’s crimes do not diminish the courage of farm workers and workers everywhere who fight for their rights, equality for Latinos, and a stronger nation for everyone.”

On Thursday, Bass signed a proclamation of her own to rename César Chavez Day to “Farm Workers Day.” Meanwhile, Colorado Democrat Gov. Jared Polis, who also praised the activist on March 31 last year, said his state would not be celebrating the honorary holiday for Chavez “this year.” 

“Nor does he plan to direct state agencies to take action to celebrate Cesar Chavez in light of these heinous allegations,” a Polis spokesperson added. “Further, he would encourage the legislature to consider drafting legislation to change the optional state holiday, which is in law.”  

Other Democrats scrambled to put out statements after news of the accusations broke, with many mirroring the language from top Democrats that the movement Chavez helped create is bigger than just him. 

The allegations against Chavez remained out of the public’s eye for many years, although, per the New York Times, there were earlier signs. According to their reporting, the victims they spoke to were not only embarrassed but also scared of tarnishing the reputation of someone so important to so many others and to the labor union and civil rights movements.

On Wednesday afternoon, Republican Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, said that Texas will no longer be observing César Chavez Day on March 31, and that he was instructing all state agencies to comply. The Texas governor added that he plans to work in the upcoming legislative session to remove the day of remembrance from state law completely.

“Reports of the horrific and widely acknowledged sexual assault allegations against Cesar Chavez rightfully dismantle the myth of this progressive hero and undermine the narrative that elevated Chavez as a figure worthy of official state celebration,” Abbot said. 

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass, is throwing her weight behind newcomer Graham Platner in Maine’s high-stakes Democratic primary in June, a pivotal showdown that will determine who will face incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins in November.

Warren’s endorsement, announced Wednesday in a video statement posted by Platner’s campaign, is a significant boost for Platner as he continues to gain traction in the race against his chief rival, Gov. Janet Mills, who has the full backing of party leadership.

Citing his roots as an oyster farmer and his service as a combat veteran, Warren framed Platner as a hard-working outsider who would be a natural disruptor in Washington. 

By emphasizing that he will not simply “go along to get along,” she drew a sharp contrast with Mills, whom progressives have increasingly labeled a creature of the party establishment.

WHAT SUSAN COLLINS TOLD FOX NEWS AS SHE LAUNCHED HER RE-ELECTION BID

“I endorse Graham Platner because I know he is a fighter on behalf of working families and because he doesn’t take any corporate PAC money, and we need more people here in Washington who are less about go along to get along and more about fighting to make the kind of changes that families need,” Warren said.

“Graham knows the consequences of Donald Trump sending our service members to fight endless wars in the Middle East,” she added. “He’s a combat veteran who was deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

DEM PRIMARY TURNS UGLY: MILLS UNLEASHES BRUTAL ATTACK ON SANDERS-BACKED PLATNER IN CRUCIAL SENATE SHOWDOWN

Warren’s endorsement comes at a critical moment for Platner’s populist, progressive campaign after a series of controversies that surfaced in recent weeks and added new scrutiny to his bid.

The Mills campaign recently launched a massive ad buy highlighting controversial comments Platner allegedly made on Reddit over a decade ago, including crude remarks about sexual assault, and a tattoo on his chest that resembled a Nazi symbol. 

Platner has since apologized and addressed the tattoo, while also firing back at Mills, calling her ad a “desperate” reach from a governor “who is trailing an oyster farmer in every recent poll.”

Warren also acknowledged Platner’s Reddit posts during an interview with HuffPost Thursday, noting she believes his apology was sincere.  

“Look, he has apologized for that, and he’s out there talking to the people of Maine every single day,” Warren said.

The victor of the June 9 primary will challenge Collins, a Republican senator in a state that did not vote for Donald Trump in any of his three presidential campaigns.

With Republicans holding a narrow Senate majority, Democrats view Maine as one of their best opportunities to flip a seat, prompting national groups to pour millions into the race and turn the contest into a proxy battle for control of the U.S. Senate.

Amid broader concerns about the current political climate in Maine and the state’s ranked-choice voting system, Collins faces a significant challenge in her bid to secure a sixth term.