Contributing to the saturation of wives-focused television series in the 2010s was "Mob Wives," a docu-series following the lives of Italian women married to men serving prison sentences for mob-related crimes.
The reality show starred main protagonists Drita D'Avanzo, Carla Facciolo, Karen Gravano and Renee Graziano, daughter of infamous Bonanno crime family consigliere Anthony Graziano, and detailed tumultuous friendships and marriages, chaos and brutal banter.
"I received a call from a producer," Kelly Gorsky, a specialist in therapy, psychology and anger management, told Fox News Digital. "He said, ‘I have a complicated situation, a complicated potential client. Can you handle a difficult person, and would you be open to possibly treating them on a TV show?"
Since 2007, Gorsky has treated clients through her private practice.
With over 1 million viewers per episode, Season One of "Mob Wives" aired recorded sit-down sessions between Gorsky and Graziano.
"I learned to be challenged," Gorsky said. "I actually learned composure, self-filtering, self-control, self-regulation, even when a client attempts to place you in very uncomfortable circumstances."
Season One offered viewers a look into the stages of grief as a major story line unfolded in Graziano’s life. Her former husband, Hector "Junior" Pagan, was revealed as an FBI informant who wore a wire and snitched on her father. Graziano detailed her struggles to Gorsky during weekly sessions.
She acknowledged one key takeaway was learning how to support a client through the most challenging and unusual circumstances.
"Whatever they wanted to use out of that 50-minute session, it was out of their discretion," she said. "They got to use whatever content they wanted."
Unsure about the value of sessions recorded in an industrial building for viewers’ entertainment, Gorksy didn’t sign on for additional seasons.
The show aired for six seasons. The final episode aired one month after beloved "Mob Wives" cast member Angela Raiola, known as "Big Ang," died from complications of lung cancer.
Gorsky authored the book "Anger Management: 101," providing insights on how individuals can avoid engaging in or propelling arguments. She details coping skills, tools and information for an alternative to anger, which she initially applied to her own life.
"I had a tremendous amount of anger, friction, yelling, screaming, arguing, and it was just a roller coaster," she said, describing her childhood. "It wouldn’t stop."
"Anger is a pretty healthy emotion that provides you with a cue that something is wrong," Gorsky said.
The court-approved book is written in short chapters, and clients are encouraged to work through them gradually.
"The end goal is to make better decisions because you have better skills to resolve conflicts," Gorsky said.
"Even if you’re the most reactive individual, most of the time, everything is preplanned," she said. "All your plans, situations, people, events, gatherings; you know whom you’re with. You know who the people are. You know what the usual conflicts are."
Gorsky recommends planning management of expectations and responses versus flying blind and welcoming the alternative.
"Usually circumstances are predictable," she said.
When I think of the farmers I grew up around, I think of resilience and stewardship. These are people who rise before the sun, work tirelessly to feed not only their families but all of us and endure hardships most of us cannot imagine. Yet the headlines about America’s farming recession remind us of just how much they shoulder — and how little recognition they often receive.
As an actor, recognition finds you whether you want it or not. While the work is meaningful, it can pale compared to the daily hours, grit and commitment farming families dedicate daily. There is no craft services table waiting for them — they are feeding everyone else.
Farming is not just a job — it is a calling. Theirs is often an unnoticed sacrifice, from the long hours and rising costs to the unpredictable weather and policy challenges. A single bag of corn seed now costs $230, nearly double the price of a few years ago. Combine that with declining crop prices, and farmers must navigate a system stacked against them. Yet they persevere because their work feeds millions and sustains communities.
My great-grandfather, Gulbrand Nelson, left Norway to settle in Wisconsin before moving to South Dakota, where our family farm still stands today. That upbringing instilled in me the importance of values, tradition and faith — ideals I see fading as time passes. If we let them fade long enough, they will vanish.
I’ve been blessed in my career with the ability to do things I believe in. At this stage in my life, it has become all the more important to work on projects that matter to me and the legacy I will leave to my children, grandchildren and those who have entrusted me with their viewing time over the years.
My family's heritage inspired me to take on one such project called "Green and Gold," a film that reflects the spirit of farming families and their struggles today. The project embodies what I value most: resilience, stewardship, and legacy. It is a tribute to the farmers who quietly hold our country together.
Growing up near farming communities, I saw firsthand what that perseverance looks like: long days in the fields, families working through mechanical failures or harsh weather, and a deep-rooted pride in their labor. Those experiences shaped my values and the stories I want to tell.
When I was offered the opportunity to be part of "Green and Gold," I knew it was more than a role — it was a chance to honor the legacy of farming families. The film highlights their resilience and quiet strength, reminding us of their vital contributions to our country.
Farmers are America's backbone. Their stewardship of the land reflects faith, responsibility and commitment to something greater than themselves. Yet, they are often left to face economic and policy challenges alone. This farming recession is not just a farming issue but a national one. Rural communities are struggling, and the ripple effects will touch us all. We must do more than recognize farmers in times of crisis. We must advocate for policies that support them, invest in rural infrastructure, and champion their contributions to our everyday lives.
Beyond the economic struggles, farming takes an emotional toll. In conversations with farmers, while preparing for "Green and Gold," I heard pride in their work and concern about the future. Who will carry on their legacy? Will their children want to inherit the struggles that come with it? These are not just questions — they are the realities shaping rural America today.
We owe so much to our farmers. They feed us, clothe us and sustain our economy. Their work is woven into the fabric of our history, yet their voices are often absent from national conversations. By telling their stories — on screen and off — we can honor their contributions and address their challenges.
Take a moment to reflect on the farmers behind the meals you eat and the clothes you wear. Support your local farmers’ markets, advocate for policies that uplift them, and express gratitude for their tireless work.
I have walked down many red carpets in my career, surrounded by accolades and recognition. Yet, may these words, in even the smallest way, serve as an amber wave of gratitude to honor farming families across our great land.
Apple’s closed ecosystem and strict App Store policies limit the risk of malware, and its centralized software updates ensure better security. In contrast, Android’s openness allows users to install apps from various sources, and updates are often rolled out at different times, making it more vulnerable to attacks.
However, iPhones aren’t immune to security flaws. Hackers occasionally find ways to exploit them, as seen in Apple’s latest advisory. The company recently discovered that a vulnerability in iOS had been exploited for over a year. While a fix has now been released, reports suggest that hackers may have already targeted high-value individuals.
Apple has uncovered hackers exploiting a vulnerability in iOS that appears to have been lingering for more than a year. The vulnerability is a "zero-day" flaw, meaning criminals may have already exploited it, according to the latest security advisory from the company. Zero-day flaws like this are especially dangerous because they are exploited before developers can issue fixes. Apple confirmed this marks its first zero-day patch of 2025. The vulnerability affects iPhones dating back to 2018’s XS model, as well as newer iPads, Macs, and even the Vision Pro headset.
The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-24085, resides in Apple’s Core Media framework, a software layer responsible for processing multimedia files. A "use after free" memory corruption error enabled hackers to manipulate the system into executing unstable code, granting them elevated privileges to bypass security protocols. Apple’s advisory suggests hackers weaponized the flaw through malicious apps disguised as legitimate media players. These apps likely abused the Core Media framework by triggering corrupted files, enabling attackers to infiltrate devices.
The attacks reportedly targeted iOS versions predating 17.2, released in December 2023, meaning the vulnerability may have been active since late 2022. Security experts speculate that hackers focused on high-value individuals — such as activists, executives or journalists — to avoid detection. The prolonged stealth of the campaign underscores the challenges of identifying sophisticated, narrowly tailored exploits.
This underscores the critical need for you to update your devices to iOS 17.2 or later, as these versions include essential fixes to safeguard against this actively exploited vulnerability.
In response, Apple has released fixes across its ecosystem, including iOS 18.3, macOS Sequoia, watchOS, tvOS and VisionOS. You should update your devices as soon as possible to stay protected. To install the update on your iPhone or iPad:
Pro Tip: I recommend you click Update Now and also turn on Automatic Updates to stay covered in the future.
While Apple has patched this issue, it’s a reminder that staying on top of updates is key. Hackers are always looking for security gaps, so keeping your software up to date is one of the best ways to stay safe.
Protecting your iPhone requires proactive security measures. By following these seven essential steps, you can significantly reduce the risk of cyber threats and keep your personal information secure.
1. Keep your iPhone updated: I can’t say this enough. Updating your iPhone regularly is one of the most effective ways to protect it from security threats. Apple frequently releases updates that fix vulnerabilities, including critical zero-day flaws.
2. Download apps only from the App Store: To minimize the risk of installing malware, only download apps from the official App Store. Apple’s strict app review process helps prevent malicious apps from being published, but some threats can still slip through. Always verify app details, check reviews and be cautious about app permissions before installation.
3. Enable lockdown mode for extra protection: For those of you who may be at higher risk, such as journalists or executives, Lockdown Mode provides an additional layer of security. This feature limits certain device functionalities to prevent sophisticated cyberattacks. It can be turned on via Settings > Privacy & Security > Lockdown Mode and is especially useful for those concerned about targeted threats.
4. Enable message filtering: Use your device's built-in filtering options to sort messages from unknown senders. This feature allows you to automatically sort messages from unknown senders, easily filter unread messages and manage your message inbox more efficiently. Here are steps:
5. Stay cautious of phishing attacks and install strong antivirus software: Phishing remains one of the most common tactics used by hackers. Be cautious when receiving unsolicited messages or emails on your iPhone, especially those with suspicious links or attachments. Always verify the sender before opening anything. The best way to safeguard yourself from malicious links that install malware, potentially accessing your private information, is to have antivirus software installed on all your devices. This protection can also alert you to phishing emails and ransomware scams, keeping your personal information and digital assets safe. Get my picks for the best 2025 antivirus protection winners for your Windows, Mac, Android and iOS devices.
6. Review your security and privacy settings: Regularly reviewing your iPhone’s security settings can help you maintain strong protection. You should also review app permissions in Settings > Privacy & Security to restrict access to sensitive data, such as location or contacts. Enable Face ID or Touch ID for secure access and turn on two-factor authentication (2FA) for Apple ID and other accounts. 2FA adds an extra layer of security to your accounts by requiring a second form of verification, such as a text message or authentication app, in addition to your password. This significantly reduces the risk of unauthorized access, even if your password is compromised.
7. Invest in personal data removal services: By reducing your online footprint, you make it harder for cybercriminals to obtain your contact information, potentially preventing them from sending you deceptive phishing texts and emails in the first place. While no service promises to remove all your data from the internet, having a removal service is great if you want to constantly monitor and automate the process of removing your information from hundreds of sites continuously over a longer period of time. Check out my top picks for data removal services here.
This iOS vulnerability is a serious reminder of the importance of staying up to date with software updates. If you’re using an iPhone from 2018 or later, make sure you’ve updated to iOS 17.2 or later as soon as possible. Hackers exploited a hidden flaw for over a year, using fake media apps to gain access to devices. While Apple has now patched the issue, the fact that it remained undetected for so long is concerning.
Do you think companies like Apple are doing enough to protect you from cyber threats? Let us know by writing us atCyberguy.com/Contact
For more of my tech tips and security alerts, subscribe to my free CyberGuy Report Newsletter by heading to Cyberguy.com/Newsletter
An Israeli student who attended graduate school at Harvard dealt with hostility due to his religious identity and found himself at odds with a professor who compared the idea of the Jewish state to "White supremacy."
Matan Yaffe is a founder of an organization that helped Israel's Bedouin Muslim population and came to Harvard so he could gain the skills to further his mission of Tikkun Olam or "healing the world." It didn't take long after his arrival for the trouble to begin.
"Pretty soon on the first day, there were already hints that something was kind of off," Matan Yaffe told Fox News Digital.
Yaffe, 40, accepted a scholarship to attend Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government in June 2022. Having founded Desert Stars, a non-governmental organization (NGO) that provides educational and employment opportunities to Israel’s Bedouin community. He was excited to attend the Ivy League school to gain skills he could apply back home.
Yaffe, an IDF officer, said his first impressions of Harvard were positive, but when he entered the Kennedy School’s "Organizing: People, Power, Change," course taught by Professor Marshall Ganz, he immediately became aware that his Israeli identity would become an issue.
Yaffe is barred from discussing Professor Ganz by name per the terms of a settlement Harvard just reached with the Brandeis Center, which represented the father of five along with other Israeli and Jewish students, but Ganz is named in the lawsuit.
Yaffe decided to team up with two other Israelis on a project entitled "Organizing a growing majority of Israelis acting in harmony building on a shared ethos of Israel, as a liberal Jewish democracy being a cultural, economic and security lighthouse."
The professor summoned the Israelis to his office and informed them that their project was "offensive" and were told they needed to change topics or face "consequences," Yaffe claimed. Ganz allegedly felt that the phrase "Jewish democracy" was at issue and likened the concept to "White supremacy."
Yaffe was aghast that his project, or homeland for that matter, could be compared to White supremacy, especially since he was hoping his research could help him return to the NGO world to help make Israeli society more inclusive.
"48% of the world’s nations define themselves by religion or ethnicity including all the Muslim states," Yaffe said in the tense meeting. "I asked him if he ever forced a student to change topics before, and he said no. The whole thing was bizarre," he told Fox News Digital.
The meeting concluded with Yaffe telling the professor that his behavior was antisemitic.
The entrepreneur said that he and his Israeli classmates were then subjected to a campaign of silencing from the professor. When a fellow classmate offered harsh criticisms of their homeland, they asked to be able to respond.
"You’ve already done enough damage," the professor allegedly replied. Yaffe asked the professor if he would prefer if the three Israeli students dropped his course, Ganz allegedly said he would.
Despite the professor’s seeming antagonism towards the Israeli students, Yaffe and his project-mates attempted to foster dialogue with their classmates regarding their home country. The three Israeli students invited their classmates for a dinner where they could freely discuss any issues they had about Israel or their project. While not all students attended, Yaffe said the dinner went well.
Yaffe and his Israeli classmates persisted in their choice of project, but were denied the opportunity to present in front of the class, the only students denied the opportunity to do so. Ultimately, the Israeli students all received grades that they felt were unjustly lower than their average.
"Harvard is the top of the academic world, you’d think it would be a very safe place to share their ideas," Yaffee told Fox News Digital.
While Yaffe felt that being an older student with life experience in the military and the business world helped protect him from what could have been a very traumatic experience, he felt compelled to fight back against what happened so a younger, more vulnerable student would never have to endure what he did.
"I’m relatively a lucky guy, I have many anchors in my life. I have kids, a wife, a state that I love. What would happen if I didn’t have all of these anchors, if I was a 20-year-old Jewish guy growing up in America not holding the identity of Israel as a backbone, and suddenly I became very alarmed. I understood that many people that might not have the anchors that I have, this kind of incident could be very traumatic on the personal level," Yaffe said.
An independent investigator concluded that the Harvard Kennedy School created a "hostile learning environment" for the Israeli students. Harvard accepted the finding's conclusions.
Harvard settled with the Brandeis Center on Tuesday. As part of the settlement, the university agreed to adopt the International Historical Remembrance Association’s definition of antisemitism.
"This is a very strong settlement, and a huge win. Not only will this have a major impact at Harvard University and the university’s stature, it will have a huge influence throughout American higher education," Brandeis Center Founder and Chairman Ken Marcus told Fox News Digital.
Fox News Digital reached out to Harvard and Professor Ganz for comment, but did not immediately hear back.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tulsi Gabbard and Kash Patel testified before Senate committees on Capitol Hill on Thursday as urgency builds to confirm President Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominations.
Kennedy, Trump’s nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), faced his second day of questioning on the Hill before the Senate Committee on Health, Education Labor & Pensions on Thursday. Kennedy clashed with Democratic senators over abortion and vaccines on Wednesday before the Senate Finance Committee, which will vote on his confirmation.
Patel, Trump's nominee for FBI director, appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, while Gabbard, Trump’s nominee for national intelligence director, appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Also on Thursday, Trump’s nominee for Army secretary, Daniel Driscoll, the relatively unknown soldier and former advisor to Vice President JD Vance, fielded questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Once nominees have testified before relevant Senate committees, that panel votes on whether to recommend the nominee before the full Senate. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., can then file a motion to end Senate floor debate on the nominee, triggering a cloture vote to halt deliberations. Once debate closes, senators make final confirmation votes.
For confirmation, a nominee needs a majority in the Senate, or 51 votes. Vance can settle a tie vote, as was the case with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s confirmation.
Agriculture Secretary nominee Brooke Rollins, nominee for Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, and nominee for Small Business administrator Kelly Loeffler have testified but await scheduling for Senate committee votes. Kennedy also awaits a vote by the Finance Committee as he testified before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on Thursday.
Elise Stefanik, nominee for United Nations ambassador, testified before the Foreign Relations Committee last week, and the committee voted to advance her nomination to the Senate floor on Thursday.
After a boycott by Democrats on the committee, Senate Budget Committee Republicans voted to approve Trump’s nominee for director of Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought, on Thursday. Thune scheduled Vought's procedural vote on the Senate floor for Monday night.
Nominees for Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Eric Turner; and for attorney general, Pam Bondi, have both been voted out of committee, passed the cloture vote, and await a vote on the Senate floor. Bondi's confirmation vote is scheduled for Monday night.
Trump’s nominees for Energy Secretary nominee Chris Wright and Veteran Affairs Secretary Doug Collins passed their cloture votes on Wednesday and await confirmation vote on the Senate floor. Wright's confirmation vote is scheduled for Monday.
As of Friday, the U.S. Senate has confirmed eight of Trump’s Cabinet nominations, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
The death of a 28-year-old Jefferies Group investment banker in Dallas, Texas, has prompted a police investigation into the "unexplained death."
The body of McIntosh, who was assigned to the firm's team covering technology, media and telecommunications companies, was found in a residential apartment building on Jan. 27, according to records from the Dallas County Medical Examiner's office. It was not immediately clear whether the apartment was McIntosh's.
"Based on the date, approximate time and location, this incident is being investigated as an unexplained death," Dallas police officer Michael Dennis, a public information officer for the department, told Fox News Digital.
Medical documents reviewed by Fox News Digital showed that McIntosh was found around 11 a.m. at the Dallas apartment complex. The cause of death is still not known.
Jefferies Group CEO Richard Handler, along with the firm's president Brian Friedman, confirmed McIntosh's death in a message sent to employees Tuesday.
"It is with tremendous sadness that we report we learned yesterday that Carter McIntosh, one of our talented associates in Dallas, has passed away," a copy of the memo obtained by Business Insider said. "Our most sincere condolences go out to his family, friends, and colleagues. We are in touch with Carter's family, who know we stand ready to support them in any way we can."
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Jefferies Group for comment.
Prior to joining Jefferies, McIntosh worked as an analyst for multiple companies, including Goldman Sachs, beginning in August 2018, according to his LinkedIn profile. He graduated from Seton Hall University, a private Catholic college in New Jersey, in 2018 with a bachelor's degree in finance.
McIntosh was at least the third young banker to die in the last 12 months.
Adnan Deumic, a 25-year-old Bank of America trader, unexpectedly died in May 2024 while playing soccer.
Deumic was based in the United Kingdom and had been with the organization as a credit portfolio and algorithmic trader since July 2022, according to his LinkedIn profile.
His death came just a couple of weeks after Leo Lukenas, 35, who was in the bank’s investment banking group in New York City, died of an acute coronary artery thrombus, according to the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
Lukenas had been working more than 100 hours a week and wanted to leave his job at the time of his death, a recruiter who had talked to him about a new job told Reuters.
The three deaths have brought into focus the grueling hours that bank workers are known for putting in, but none of their deaths has been officially linked to working long hours.
Fox News Digital's Brie Stimpson contributed to this report.
Washington Capitals and NHL superstar Alex Ovechkin is on the cusp of breaking a scoring record many believed would never be broken: the 894 goals scored by Wayne Gretzky over his illustrious career.
As of this writing, Ovechkin sits at 875 goals. Only he, Gretzky and Gordie Howe are members of the 800-goal club. With only 30 games left in the season – he missed 15 games this year with injuries – it will be tough, but not impossible to eclipse Gretzky’s record this year.
That said, if he does not, there is not a person in hockey who does not believe Ovechkin will break the record early next year and go on to score over 900 goals. A record I predict will never be broken.
Ovechkin is a phenom; the human equivalent of a brick wall at 6-foot-3 and 240 pounds; and arguably one of the top five players ever to skate in the NHL. The other four in my opinion are Gretzky, Howe, Bobby Orr and Mario Lemieux.
Ovechkin also has that elusive "It Factor," which has made him world famous. Most especially in his native Russia.
Way back in the day as a teenager, I had a dream to play in the NHL. I was fortunate enough to get invited to one NHL camp and several minor league camps. Only a complete lack of talent and a knee injury kept me from realizing that dream. But it was the love of hockey that inspired me to follow the truly amazing career of Ovechkin.
Years later, I executed a 180 away from sports and somehow ended up as a writer in the White House for two presidents, an official at the Pentagon, director of communications for former Sen. Bob Dole, a vice president of a well-known government relations firm, and a principal at the then largest law firm in the world, where I specialized in politics and government relations.
And it is because of that background, that I have been viewing Ovechkin through a totally different prism.
Anyone who has remotely followed the life and career of Ovechkin knows that he is a man of character. He is renowned for being a great husband, father, friend, teammate, and a giving philanthropist.
He is also renowned for loving his native Russia and her people. As he should.
Today – quite sadly – we live in a very polarized country and world where far too many people operate from personal and ideological silos separated from all others. As one who has worked in politics at a fairly high level, I will confess to not being a fan of either political party.
My "Party" for the last 15 years or so has been the "commonsense" Party. I strongly believe it is in the best interest of all of us to speak to each other in a civil manner while seeking out shared interests and solutions.
Over the last three years, one of the subjects that has become politicized and polarized is the war in Ukraine. This is not the forum to have a back and forth on that subject. That acknowledged, I will venture to say that we as a people and as a nation must make it clear that the people of Russia are not our enemy. Unfortunately, over the last three years, we have witnessed a number of athletes from Russia treated as the "enemy" by some.
Because of the war in Ukraine, some have chosen to rhetorically attack Ovechkin for his friendship with Vladimir Putin. While it’s always easy – especially in the age of social media – to attack someone on the floor of the "arena" from the peanut gallery in the stands or from 30,000 feet up, it’s also almost impossible to know the facts, the history, or someone’s heart from that distance.
Judgments of Putin aside, I find it admirable that Ovechkin – while making it clear multiple times that while he is not political, he does love his country and does not want to see war between Russia and Ukraine – has refused to walk away from his friendship with the Russian president.
And like it or not, it is that decision, along with his fame, charisma and personal generosity, which have made Ovechkin a beloved figure in Russia.
Today, as I operate from under my political hat, I am always scoping the landscape to assess who might be the best candidate for the Democrats and the Republicans come 2028. JD Vance for the Republicans. No idea for the splintered Democrats.
It is from under that same hat that I look at the landscape of Russia with the understanding that at some point, Putin will stand aside. And then what? Who might fill such a tremendous vacuum?
As someone who does have a fairly deep understanding of politics, all I can say is that Alexander Ovechkin checks a great many boxes. Never say "never."
Yarden Bibas is back in Israel more than 480 days after Hamas terrorists ripped him from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz and dragged him to the Gaza Strip. Bibas’ return, however, is bittersweet as his wife, Shiri, and their two young children, Ariel and Kfir, remain in Gaza. Their fate is unknown, and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has made it clear that there are "grave concerns about their wellbeing."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu celebrated Yarden Bibas’ return, while saying the nation’s thoughts are with Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas.
"Our thoughts are now with Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir Bibas, and all of our abductees. We will continue to work to bring them home," Netanyahu wrote on X.
"Yarden's reunion with his family is simply heartbreaking. We all remain deeply concerned for the fate of our beloved Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas - as an entire nation we hold them in our hearts. The people of Israel stand by Yarden and the whole family, with great concern and in heartfelt prayer," Herzog wrote in a post on X.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum also celebrated Yarden Bibas’ return, and vowed to continue demanding that his wife and two sons be released.
Early Saturday, Bibas was freed alongside American-Israeli Keith Siegel and French-Israeli Ofer Kalderon in the fourth round of hostage releases as part of phase one of Israel and Hamas’ ongoing ceasefire deal.
"From the moment Hamas launched its barbaric attack on October 7th, we have remained committed to one mission—bringing every hostage home," IDF International Spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani wrote on Substack. "We cannot and will not forget for a moment, the 79 hostages that remain in Hamas captivity."
The release of Bibas, Siegel and Kalderon looked different from previous hostages’ releases, which saw shocking scenes of crowds mobbing the captives as they were transferred to the Red Cross. This change is likely due to Netanyahu’s demand that mediators guarantee the hostages safe exits following the chaotic scenes.
While in captivity, Bibas was forced to make a hostage film in which he was seen breaking down as Hamas claimed his wife and children had been killed. Hamas often uses these types of videos as part of what the IDF calls "psychological terror." However, the terror organization included Shiri, Kfir and Ariel on the list of 33 hostages set to be released in the first phase of the ceasefire deal.
Upon his release, Yarden's family said that "a quarter of our heart has returned to us after 15 long months… Yarden has returned home, but the home remains incomplete."
As images and videos of Hamas’ brutal attacks on Oct. 7 began to spread, the Bibas family quickly became a symbol of the terror group’s cruelty. A video of Shiri Bibas holding her two red-headed children in her arms was spread across the globe. Those calling for the Bibas’ family’s release often used the color orange to symbolize the infant and toddler’s bright red hair.
At the time of their kidnapping, Kfir was 9 months old and Ariel was 4 years old. They are the only child hostages remaining in Gaza. Ariel is now 5 years old and Kfir marked his second birthday in Hamas captivity, where he has spent his two and only birthdays.
As of Saturday, 79 hostages remain in Gaza, 35 of whom have been declared dead and whose bodies remain in the hands of Hamas. Keith Siegel, who was freed on Saturday, is the first Israeli-American to be released. There are still six American citizens in Gaza, only two of whom are believed to be alive.
"Real Time" host Bill Maher called out the left's hesitancy to criticize China, declaring the foreign adversary as "the new Islam" in political discourse.
During Friday night's panel discussion, Maher sounded the alarm on China's AI advancements with the launch of DeepSeek, echoing references to the "Sputnik moment" for the US. He also cited comments from former FBI director Christopher Wray, who said the Chinese Communist Party was positioning "malware" against civilians and is development of Salt Typhoon that can "read the texts of every single American."
"And it is kind of an evil empire, you know," Maher said. "And this kind of gets back to the DEI thing because when you make everything about race, not good!"
"I mean, we couldn't look into the origins of COVID being from the lab, which now the CIA, this week, has joined the FBI and many other organizations saying it probably did come from a lab. I said it from the beginning. It's being studied in this lab where it breaks out. Really? We're gonna even wonder about this? Now, maybe it was a bat… [but] we couldn't say that because the New York Times said to even look into that is racist," Maher continued.
In 2021, A New York Times science and health reporter tweeted that the "lab leak" coronavirus theory had "racist roots" and was not "plausible."
Maher went on, "China's like the new Islam. We can't be honest about them because they're not White. And China, okay, I'm sorry, kids, they do some bad things, China. And we should just recognize that."
"This is one of the broader problems with this obsession of all of these ideologies from the left," British writer Dan Jones reacted, "is that it hamstrings you in terms of thinking common sense pol-"
"Thinking!" Maher blurted out.
"Thinking," Jones said in agreement, "because you know if you're framing it in terms of a war, you're fighting with one arm tied behind your back. You're just not thinking about the world as you see it, you're optimizing the signifying to the group around you."
Author Max Brooks went on to pan what he calls the "guilty Honkies" who are "only interested in assuaging their guilt."
"Now the good news about this country, we have people of every ethnicity. If you want to take on not China but the Chinese Communist Party, start with Chinese Americans who fled China, right, because they'll have honest conversations, and they're much American as all of us and they don't have guilty honkiness," Brooks said.
"Same with Muslims who fled Muslm countries," Maher responded.
"You want to talk s--- about Fidel Castro? Go down to Miami. You'll find plenty of people willing to have that conversation," Brooks added.
– Fox News Digital's David Rutz contributed to this report.
Amy Schumer once hopped on board the Ozempic trend, but the side effects were so intense she had to stop.
During a recent appearance on "The Howard Stern Show," the comedian, 43, opened up about her scary experience trying the medication for weight-loss purposes.
"I have this gene - GDF15 - which makes you extremely prone to nausea which is why I was so sick during my pregnancy. So, I tried Ozempic almost three years ago and I was like bedridden, I was vomiting and then you have no energy but other people take it and they're all good," she explained.
"I lost 30 pounds so quick," said Schumer, who is mom to 4-year-old son, Gene, whom she shares with husband, Chris Fischer. "I looked great and I couldn't lift my head off the pillow, so what's the point?"
Ozempic, which is a semaglutide injection, was originally approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes, but the medication has increasingly been prescribed off label for weight loss, along with several other similar medications.
The actress has been open about her Ozempic-use before and once blasted celebrities for saying they lost weight by simply eating "smaller portions" and "lying" about using the injectable drug.
"Like, shut the f--- up!" she said during an appearance on "Watch What Happens Live!" in 2023. "You are on Ozempic or one of those things or you got work done. Just stop."
"Like, a year ago, I tried it," she said. "It's like, you know, you try it. And I was one of those people that felt so sick and couldn’t play with my son. I was so skinny, and he’s throwing a ball at me and [I couldn’t]."
"And you're like, ‘OK, this isn’t livable for me,'" she added.
Schumer is not the only celebrity who has opened up about her experience using the drug.
During a recent episode of his "This Life of Mine" podcast, James Corden explained why it "didn't really work" for him.
"I tried Ozempic, and it won’t be surprising to you when you look at me now, that it didn’t really work," Corden told guest Richard Osman. "I tried it for a bit, and then what I realized was I was like, ‘Oh no, nothing about my eating has anything to do with being hungry.’ All this does is make you feel not hungry. But I am very rarely eating [because of hunger]."
"You are looking at someone who’s eaten a king size, and when I say king size [Cadbury] Dairy Milk — one you give someone for Christmas — in a carwash," the comedian added. "None of that was like, ‘Oh, I’m so hungry’. It is not that, it’s something else."
As health officials report a surge of winter viruses, health experts are warning that heart disease symptoms can sometimes mimic respiratory illnesses.
Four viruses are circulating in the U.S., sparking concerns of a possible "quademic."
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza, COVID-19 and norovirus are all at "very high levels" around the country, experts warn.
The American Heart Association (AHA) confirmed that certain viruses have been linked to increased risk of heart attack and stroke.
"The highest risk is within three days of infection, but remains heightened for up to 90 days," the AHA stated on its website.
Johanna Contreras, M.D., a cardiologist at Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital in New York City, said she has seen people mistaking virus symptoms for serious heart complications.
Some patients who experience shortness of breath, wheezing, coughing, swelling and palpitations may assume their symptoms are linked to a cold when these could be signs of heart failure, she said in a release sent to Fox News Digital.
Weakness, fever, dizziness and chest pain could also mask potentially life-threatening conditions.
Those may include pulmonary embolism (blood clot in the lungs), heart attack, pericarditis (inflammation around the lining of the heart), heart failure or viral myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle), according to Mount Sinai cardiologists.
Viruses can provoke an inflammatory condition, which can lead to or worsen cardiac conditions, according to Dr. Icilma Fergus, director of cardiovascular disparities for the Mount Sinai Health System in New York City.
"Typically, those [viruses] that make one sicker and promote a hypercoaguable state (an increased tendency to form blood clots) are more dangerous," she told Fox News Digital.
"The focus has now been increasingly placed on RSV and norovirus on top of the known influenza and COVID viruses."
Anuradha Lala, M.D., another cardiologist at Mount Sinai in New York City, noted that the body’s immune system creates an inflammatory response to fight and eliminate the virus — but this inflammation could inadvertently harm cardiac tissue.
"If you have a known heart condition, viral infections can bring on exacerbations — or a worsening of the underlying tissue — whether it is atrial fibrillation, coronary heart disease or heart failure," she noted in the release.
A recent patient at the hospital recently experienced severe shortness of breath, weakness, palpitations and fatigue, fearing they had heart failure, she noted.
"After they had bloodwork taken, there was a frantic moment when we could not reach the patient to share results that revealed a significantly elevated troponin level, which can be linked to a heart attack," she shared in the release.
"Although we suspected the worst, we eventually reached the patient and they were hospitalized with influenza A and severe viral myocarditis. They were treated appropriately and luckily there was a good outcome."
Older adults — as well as those who are immunocompromised or have a history of heart issues or other underlying conditions — are particularly at risk for cardiac complications, according to the Mount Sinai cardiologists.
"Anyone is susceptible, even healthcare providers — and anyone who is not paying attention to their symptoms may get sick with potentially life-threatening complications," Fergus said in the report.
Patients who notice persistent chest pain and palpitations after a viral illness should consider ruling out myocarditis, which is inflammation of the heart muscle, according to Contreras.
It is important to discuss any post-virus symptoms with a healthcare professional, especially for those in high-risk groups, health experts told Fox News Digital.
Specific symptoms that warrant emergency attention include chest pain, difficulty breathing or staying awake, feelings of passing out, or extremes of blood pressure.
Swelling of the legs may also be linked to cardiac events — especially if there is also an underlying heart condition or risk factors such as obesity, diabetes or a family history of heart disease, Lala stated in the Mount Sinai release.
During the cold, damp winter months, certain viruses may thrive and become more virulent, Fergus told Fox News Digital.
"People should stay vigilant and observe for symptoms of an impending cold," she advised. "Get tested to know what virus you have, as the antiviral treatments are different."
People should take measures to avoid exposure to winter illnesses and seek treatment if they become ill, especially if they have an underlying condition, Fergus advised.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro hit back at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) on Friday, after the activist group sent a letter to the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club promising to send them a vegan "weather reveal cake" if they agreed to stop pulling Punxsutawney Phil out of his burrow for his Feb. 2 prognostication.
"Come and take it," Shapiro tweeted in response to a New York Post story on PETA's demand.
Manuel Bonder, a spokesman for Shapiro, told Fox News Digital the governor stands by his comments and said he will again make the trip to Gobbler's Knob in Jefferson County on Sunday to witness Phil's 138th meteorological prediction.
Shapiro has been on-hand for every Groundhog Day ceremony in Punxsutawney since taking office in 2023.
PETA President Ingrid Newkirk told the Post that Phil is denied the traditional lifestyle of a groundhog "for a tired old gimmick."
Visitors to Punxsutawney year-round can visit Phil and his "wife," Phyllis, at the borough library. On this reporter's last visit to the area, the rodents had recently become proud parents to a new baby groundhog, as well.
While Groundhog Day is considered a national holiday and has even been popularized in the classic 1993 Bill Murray film of the same name, the day — and Phil himself — hold a special place in many Pennsylvanians' hearts.
In addition to the large ceremony in western PA, throughout the rest of the Commonwealth, many historically Pennsylvania German communities are home to a "Grundsau Lodsch" or Groundhog Lodge.
Each lodge holds an annual banquet or "Versommling" in honor of their totem – Phil – with "Lodsch Nummer Ains an de Lechau" (Lodge #1 on the Lehigh River) in Allentown hosting theirs annually on the February 2 holiday itself since 1934.
Nineteen other lodges based around the state have held "Versommlinge" for decades, as well.
However, three — "#2, Schibbach" in Montgomery County, "#3, Temple U." in Philadelphia County and "#5, Bind Bush" in Schuylkill County — have gone defunct in recent years as the Pennsylvania German language and culture see a decline in younger generations.
A March 2024 Versommling for "Lodge #18 an de Forelle Grick" (on Trout Creek) in Slatington featured local beer on tap, a traditional Pennsylvania German supper, stories and riddles from lodge elders told in the Pennsylvania German language, and, of course, representations of Phil himself.
Until recently, it was the custom of groundhog lodges to forbid English-speaking in favor of "Pennsilfaanisch," lest the violator toss a nickel in a donation jar on their table.
Other states' groundhogs have been less lucky than Phil, as then-New York Mayor Bill de Blasio infamously dropped Staten Island Chuck during a 2014 ceremony in West New Brighton. Chuck later died from internal injuries after appearing to land on his head.
With the importance Groundhog Day and Phil himself hold to Pennsylvania past-and-present, Bonder said Shapiro will continue to defend the groundhog and his tradition, and will be on hand for future wintertime prognostications in Punxsutawney.
LGBT activists and groups are already mobilizing to block gender-related executive orders President Donald Trump signed since taking office to fulfill one of his key campaign promises to crack down on "gender ideology extremism." And more legal challenges are expected in the coming weeks.
The executive orders, signed in late January, include a reinstatement of the ban on transgender troops in the military, a ban on federal funding for sex changes for minors and a directive requiring federal agencies to recognize only "two sexes," male and female, in official standard of conduct.
"This ban betrays fundamental American values of equal opportunity and judging people on their merit," Jennifer Levi, director of Transgender and Queer Rights at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD Law), said in a statement about the trans military ban.
"It slams the door on qualified patriots who meet every standard and want nothing more than to serve their country, simply to appease a political agenda."
GLAD Law and the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), were among the first groups to file a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration for its military ban. The lawsuit, Talbott v. Trump, was brought forward on equal protection grounds by six active-duty service members and two individuals attempting to enlist, according to the groups' announcement.
The plaintiffs include a Sailor of the Year honoree, a Bronze Star recipient and several who were awarded meritorious service medals. They were identified as U.S. Army Reservist Lt. Nicolas Talbott, Army Maj. Erica Vandal, Army Sgt. First Class Kate Cole, Army Capt. Gordon Herrero, Navy Ensign Dany Danridge, Air Force Master Sgt. Jamie Hash, Koda Nature and Cael Neary. The latter two are civilians who are seeking to enlist in the military.
Another lawsuit, filed by a transgender inmate receiving taxpayer-funded medical treatments, is challenging Trump's executive order that ends medical transgender treatments – such as hormones, sex changes and grooming accommodations – for federal prisoners.
The unnamed inmate, who goes by "Maria Moe" in court documents and is represented by GLAD Law, NCLR and Lowenstein Sandler LLP, is claiming Trump and the Bureau of Prisons are violating the Fifth and Eighth amendments and claims to be "at imminent risk of losing access to the medical care she needs to treat her gender dysphoria."
U.S. District Judge George O’Toole in Boston temporarily blocked BOP officials from transferring "Maria Moe" to a men's prison, according to a ruling released by the inmate's attorney Thursday. The temporary restraining order was issued Sunday, the same day the suit was filed.
Prison officials are expected to keep the inmate in the women's prison general population and maintain her transgender medical treatments, NBC first reported.
Multiple lawsuits have been filed against Trump's other executive orders, too, especially Trump's immigration-related policies. More are expected in the coming weeks.
A memo released Wednesday by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management provided guidance on directing federal agencies to acknowledge that women are biologically female and men are biologically male, Reuters reported. Trump said last week federal funds would not be used to promote "gender ideology."
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment on the litigation but did not hear back before publication.
Fox News Digital's Louis Casiano contributed to this report.
- Alibaba touts new AI model it says rivals DeepSeek, OpenAI, Meta's top offerings - DeepSeek is the newest front in the AI competition between the US and China - DeepSeek fallout: GOP Sen Josh Hawley seeks to cut off all US-China collaboration on AI development
HEATING UP: Chinese tech giant Alibaba is flexing its muscles in the global race for artificial intelligence dominance, claiming the latest version of its Qwen 2.5 can take on the top models from rivals both foreign and domestic.
NEWEST FRONT: OPINION: DeepSeek's release of a high-profile new AI model underscores a point we at OpenAI have been making for quite some time: the U.S. is in a competition with the Chinese Communist Party that will determine whether democratic AI wins over the Chinese Communist Party's authoritarian version of the technology. The U.S. must come out on top – and the stakes could not be higher.
DEEPSEEK DANGER: This week the U.S. tech sector was routed by the Chinese launch of DeepSeek, and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is putting forth legislation to prevent that from happening again.
'NEXT WEAPON': Ask Sage founder Nicolas Chaillan addresses the emergence of the Chinese A.I. app DeepSeek, its threat to American A.I. dominance and his skepticism over the model.
REAL-LIFE TETRIS: In a groundbreaking development for warehouse automation, Ambi Robotics just launched AmbiStack, a multipurpose robotic system that promises to transform the way items are stacked onto pallets and into containers.
Stay up to date on the latest AI technology advancements and learn about the challenges and opportunities AI presents now and for the future with Fox News here.
The former police officer, who went on to become Whitney Houston’s bodyguard, has written a memoir, "Protecting Whitney." It details how Welsh-born Roberts looked after the singer before their friendship came to an abrupt end.
Roberts was hired in 1988 for the superstar’s UK portion of the "Moment of Truth" world tour. He told Fox News Digital that Houston had one famous fan who made his adoration well known – Robert De Niro.
"Mr. De Niro was smitten with Ms. Houston," he recalled. "He kept sending her flowers. I don’t mean a bunch of flowers . . . it was a room full of flowers. And that was for a few months."
According to Roberts’ book, De Niro was "not an individual used to taking no for an answer." However, the "Raging Bull" star was no match for Houston’s mother, singer Cissy Houston.
"She called him up," Roberts claimed. "She told him to stop it – stop making a fool out of himself. And when Cissy Houston says stop it, you stop it. That was the end of that."
At the time, according to Roberts’ book, Houston was dating Eddie Murphy.
A spokesperson for De Niro, now 81, didn't immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment about Roberts' claims.
Houston herself once recalled how the Oscar winner attempted to win her over. During an appearance on "The Byron Allen Show" in 1990, she described how De Niro followed her "all the way to London."
"He sent me flowers and everything, and he’d been on my case," she said. "He’d been sweating me for a little while. . . . He was like, ‘Is Whitney here? How long ago did she leave?’' . . . He called me the night at Carnegie Hall. He did. He called backstage and wanted to talk to me that night. . . . He called me that night."
"He was a little bit shy, so he didn’t want to come to the show because he shies away from the public eye," she gushed. "But . . . he sent me some flowers and stuff, and he wanted to get to know me better. . . . [But] he’s going with Toukie Smith."
At the time, Houston claimed that De Niro wanted to "do a movie with her."
"It’s a really good script, and I’m looking at it," she said. "I think he’s a wonderful actor. One of the best."
There was another Bobby who did make Houston swoon – Bobby Brown. In his book, Roberts admitted that he had hoped Houston’s romance with the bad boy artist would end as quickly as it started.
"I wasn’t alone in my view," Roberts told Fox News Digital. "Bobby came from one element, Whitney came from another… you would never think that they could ever come together successfully."
"He could not come up to her standards. . . . So she went down to his standards to make him feel comfortable in her environment," he claimed. "But when you looked at them, you couldn’t help but think, ‘These two people don’t belong together, do they?’"
Houston met the ex-boy band member at the 1989 Soul Train Music Awards. They went on to marry in 1992. The union was tumultuous, and Brown was widely blamed by the press for introducing Houston to drugs. He denied the allegations in his 1997 memoir.
Brown later insisted that Houston was not the squeaky-clean pop princess she was made out to be.
Roberts claimed in his book that Houston was trying to keep up with Brown’s bad habits.
"In the seven and a half plus years that I was with Whitney, I never, ever saw her [with] any form of drugs at all, unless you consider a Heineken and a cigarette as a narcotic," said Roberts. "She was never affected by [them] in my presence. However, when Mr. Brown came into the scenario, the use of alcohol, in particular, became more profound, and that was self-evident."
"We were on tour in Europe and every two days, the management team would drop two crates of Heineken and a bottle of brandy, or whatever it was, in the room, and two days later she’d be too ill to come out," Roberts claimed. "And that was the touring scenario, and that was . . . bringing her down, in everybody’s view. It was not complimenting her. It was not helping her."
Brown and Houston welcomed a daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown, in 1993. However, the marriage was plagued with problems as the couple battled their own demons.
During the marriage, Brown was arrested on drug and alcohol charges, while Houston entered rehab on two occasions, Biography.com reported. According to the outlet, Brown was arrested in 2003 for allegedly striking Houston. She supported him in court, and he wasn’t convicted. The singer denied ever hitting her.
The pair separated in 2006, and their divorce was finalized in 2007. But Houston continued to be plagued by addiction. Her famous voice deteriorated through the years due to cocaine use, The New York Times reported.
Brown quit hard drugs while he was incarcerated in 2000, but he continued to struggle with alcohol addiction throughout the years. He last spent time at a treatment facility for alcohol abuse in 2020. In 2022, Brown, now 55, told Fox News Digital that he is sober.
Roberts believed that those within Houston’s circle, even after her divorce, turned a blind eye to her drug use.
"I was angry," he said. "The lady was hurting. She needed help. And those people who were in a significantly better position than I was to help her denied it to her. They denied it, in my opinion, because they were selfish and self-centered.
"This was a young lady whose voice box paid their mortgages. No way were they going to stop that… It was obvious that drugs were impacting her. . . . She was losing control of normalcy. She was falling under the pressure of what everybody wanted . . . what the entertainment industry wanted."
"It was a lot of pressure for a young lady to bear," Roberts shared. "She was a mother and wife who seldom saw her husband . . . it became unbearable for her. . . . How she broke was inevitable."
Roberts stopped serving as Houston’s bodyguard in 1995.
WATCH: DIONNE WARWICK RECALLS CALLING KEVIN COSTNER TO ASK HIM TO SPEAK AT WHITNEY HOUSTON'S FUNERAL
"I got a call," said Roberts. "I was told, ‘Houston is not considering any more international travel . . . . If she changes her mind, we’ll let you know.’ I think that was probably the greatest, ‘Thank you, and you’re fired.’"
Houston passed away in 2012 at age 48. She was found submerged in the bathtub of her hotel room a day before the Grammys. She died from drowning and the effects of atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use.
Roberts said he was heartbroken to hear of Houston's death, but wasn't surprised.
"We were all to blame – it’s just a question of degrees," said Roberts. "Those who could have done something immediately, those who could have done something in support, and those who could have done something later. But we did nothing. We just let it go.
"It’s the culture – once you leave the environment, it’s like you never existed. You were never there. . . . But I just remember seeing her emaciated, trying to carry on and perform on stage. You can’t help but think, ‘How could she look like that and still be alive?’ It was painful."
Roberts said that over the years, he felt guilty for not speaking out when he suspected Houston was spiraling. He now hopes his story will serve as a cautionary tale.
"I remain angry," he said. "That's why I'm speaking out now. I consider the entire scenario a failure of mine . . . I was paid to protect her. There was an anger in me, but writing this book was cathartic. . . . Still, she should be alive now, and we should be listening to her songs."
Barges are expected to arrive in the D.C. area on Saturday to help with salvage operations from Wednesday's deadly plane crash at Regan National Airport (DCA) as questions remain as to how an Army Black Hawk helicopter could have collided with an American Airlines plane midair, killing 67 people.
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) member Todd Inman said Friday the barges will help with salvage operations to ensure the remaining victims are recovered. He said their remains would immediately be turned over to them and the D.C. Medical Examiner's Office for identification and then returned to their families.
At least 40 bodies had been pulled from the Potomac River on Friday. Both black boxes have been recovered.
A new report by the New York Post suggests that the Black Hawk was flying nearly twice as high as it should have been and that the helicopter was not equipped with a new technology that would have alerted air traffic control to its dangerously deviated path. Meanwhile, a preliminary report indicated that staffing levels at the time of the collision were "not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic."
The Black Hawk chopper was flying more than 300 feet above the Potomac River at the time of the deadly smash, even though aviation guidelines require helicopters on that route to stay below 200 feet, the outlet reports.
The news would corroborate President Donald Trump’s view that the military aircraft was traveling too high.
"The Black Hawk helicopter was flying too high, by a lot. It was far above the 200-foot limit," Trump wrote on Truth Social Friday. "That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it???"
Trump on Thursday signed an executive order calling for an immediate assessment of aviation safety.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who chairs the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, which oversees the aviation industry, said he's been briefed by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and detailed the sequence of events that resulted in Wednesday's deadly midair collision.
"Flight 5342 was initially scheduled to land on Runway 1 at Reagan but was redirected to Runway 33," he wrote on X. "Meanwhile, the helicopter was traveling along Route 1 before being shifted to Route 4."
"We know that air traffic control confirmed with the helicopter crew that they had visual contact with the plane. Controllers then instructed the helicopter to move behind the plane," he added. "However, instead of complying, the helicopter moved in front of the aircraft. The two aircraft collided mid-air, resulting in a catastrophic explosion."
In an episode of "The Verdict" podcast, Cruz said the collision may have been avoided if the Army had outfitted the Black Hawk with an Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast device, a relatively new technology that allows air traffic control operators to see an aircraft’s altitude.
"The Black Hawk helicopter had a transponder, so it was appearing on radar. It did not have technology called ADS-B, which is technology that pings the location of an aircraft, and it does so using GPS rather than radar," he said. "ADS-B is more accurate and more reliable than simply a transponder that is pinging on radar."
Meanwhile, a preliminary FAA report indicated that a single air traffic controller was monitoring both airplanes and helicopters at the time of the devastating crash.
Staffing levels at the time of the collision were "not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic," the New York Times reports, citing the report. Additionally, a tower supervisor allegedly let another air traffic controller leave work early Wednesday night. The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) calls for one controller to monitor planes, while another monitors helicopters.
The Times report said the tower at the airport was nearly a third below targeted staff levels, with 19 fully certified controllers as of September 2023, citing the most recent Air Traffic Controller Workforce Plan, an annual report to Congress that contains target and actual staffing levels.
The targets set by the FAA and the controllers union call for 30.
Five current and former controllers told the outlet that the controller in the tower should have more proactively directed the helicopter and the plane to fly away from each other. Instead, the controller asked the helicopter to steer clear of the plane.
Another New York Times report suggests that more than 90% of the country's 313 air traffic control facilities operate below the staffing levels recommended by the FAA.
The New York Times reported that as of January, 285 facilities were below levels set by the FAA and the union that represents controllers. In at least 73 facilities, at least a quarter of the workforce is missing.
The Army has named the other soldiers killed in the collision. They were identified as Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, 39, of Great Mills, Maryland, and Staff Sgt. Ryan Austin O'Hara, 28, of Lilburn, Georgia.
The family of the third solider killed in Wednesday's deadly midair collision near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is requesting their identity not be publicly released, the Army said Friday.
The doomed American Airlines plane was carrying more than a dozen people returning from a training camp following the 2025 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas, where the flight originated. Those victims included Spencer LaneandJinna Han,both 16, who were promising skaters at The Skating Club of Boston in Norwood, Massachusetts, as well as Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov who together won a 1994 world championship in pairs figure skating.
Meanwhile, the Federal Aviation Administration will restrict helicopter traffic around DCA, effective Friday.
The decision was made with the support of Trump and in consultation with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, according to a post on X from Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Sean Duffy.
"Today’s decision will immediately help secure the airspace near Reagan Airport, ensuring the safety of airplane and helicopter traffic," Duffy wrote.
The restricted area includes Memorial Bridge to South Capitol Street Bridge, excluding the Tidal Basin, Haines Point to Wilson Bridge and over the top of DCA.
FIRST ON FOX: One of the top Republican lawmakers in the key swing state of Arizona has sent a letter to President Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requesting that the administration "prevent California from dictating the country’s energy policy."
"California’s radical rules will harm Arizona families by increasing costs, impacting jobs, and limiting consumer choice," Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen said in a letter to the EPA. "By taking swift action, EPA can reverse the Biden Administration’s erroneous approval of California’s extreme rules."
In the letter, Petersen praised Trump’s reversal of burdensome regulations thus far, saying that his executive orders, including rolling back the EV mandate, are "important energy steps that will help usher in America’s Golden Age."
However, Petersen warned in his letter that California environmental waivers and regulations create a ripple effect that harms other places in the country, including Arizona.
"Victims of California’s war on fossil fuels include Arizonans who conduct business or make purchases in California," Petersen wrote. "California’s radical rules also will indirectly affect Arizonans by increasing the cost, and decreasing the availability, of vehicles and products. Even Governor Katie Hobbs has been forced to recognize that California’s extreme policies can negatively impact Arizonans."
"California’s radical rules raise serious legal concerns relating to equal state sovereignty19 and the major "questions doctrine, among many others. EPA should take immediate action to remove these legal concerns, starting by submitting the approvals for California’s rules to Congress for evaluation under the Congressional Review Act," he continued. "According to legal experts, ‘Congress can quickly disapprove the waivers and send a resolution to the White House for presidential signature. Ballgame over.' As those experts note, Congressional Review Act decisions are final and unassailable in court because the Act expressly provides that ‘[n]o determination, finding, action, or omission under this chapter shall be subject to judicial review.’"
Petersen's letter continued, "Like it did during President Trump’s first administration, EPA also should revoke California’s ability to independently regulate greenhouse gases."
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Petersen said, "Over the past four years, the State of California and the Biden Administration teamed up to impose a radical environmental agenda on the United States, compromising our energy independence, crushing freedom of choice, and endangering our national security."
"I, like many of my fellow Arizonans and Americans, am thrilled to see the Trump Administration putting an end to these schemes. The State of Arizona looks forward to assisting our new president, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, and Members of Congress in their efforts to prioritize and protect our country's interests," he said.
Petersen, who has filed paperwork to run for attorney general in Arizona, also sent a letter to Arizona's congressional delegation voicing the same concerns.
"As President of the Arizona State Senate, I write to urge you to block radical California rules that ban gas-powered cars and leaf blowers," he wrote.
"These policies will harm Arizona families by increasing costs, impacting jobs, and limiting consumer choice. The Congressional Review Act empowers you to reverse the Biden Administration’s last-minute approval of these extreme policies, which I encourage you to do."
A fire pit is the heart of any outdoor space, providing warmth, ambiance and a gathering spot for friends and family—even in winter. Whether roasting marshmallows, telling campfire stories or simply enjoying the glow of a crackling fire, fire pits make outdoor living cozy and inviting year-round. If you’re short on space or not looking for the work and upkeep of a fire pit, there are plenty of other options, including electric and gas-powered patio heaters or low-maintenance gas fire bowls and tables.
To enhance the cozy atmosphere, brew up some hot cocoa, mulled cider or hot tea to serve to guests. Add seasonal decor around your outdoor space, such as pinecones, cranberry garlands or winter flowers. Include waterproof storage for blankets and cushions to keep everything dry and accessible. With some planning and creativity, your outdoor space can become a snug retreat, even in the coldest months. So grab your favorite blanket, curl up and enjoy the brisk beauty of the outdoors.
For larger spaces and gatherings, these tall and sleek propane-powered heaters at Amazon offer 40,000+ BTUs of heat and can cover a radius of 8–12 feet to keep 4-8 people warm and toasty. They come with adjustable heat controls, safety shut-off features and a budget-friendly price tag. Looking for something a little more modern and decorative? Check out this Master Forge version at Lowe’s to really elevate your patio style.
Check out this compact, portable tabletop patio heater from Cuisinart at Home Depot for more intimate dining set-ups. These heaters are perfect for placing on outdoor dining or coffee tables. They can provide 11,000 BTUs of warmth in smaller areas and double as a decorative centerpiece. If you’re on a tighter budget, try this AZ model in hammered bronze, which offers the same radiating warmth for about $20 less.
Covered patios or balconies with limited floor space can opt for energy-efficient and space-saving infrared wall-mounted heaters. These 1500-watt electric heaters at Walmart plug into any wall outlet and offer instant relief from the cold for the people in front of them instead of heating the surrounding air. If you’re looking for a little more power, try this Sun-Ray version at Lowe’s, which heats in 3 seconds and has a timer for worry-free use.
A pyramid flame heater is the way to go for modern and design-conscious spaces. The stylish patio heater at Amazon has a glass-enclosed ‘dancing’ flame that adds visual appeal while radiating heat to a 15’ diameter. These models are great conversation pieces for a high-end feel at an affordable price. If you don’t mind silver, you can grab the same heater for a little less at Walmart.
A wood-burning fire pit is a classic choice for warmth and ambiance, providing the nostalgic crackle of logs and an authentic campfire experience right in your own backyard. This contemporary Teamson model at Home Depot offers a clean, contained fire with a detachable bowl for easy cleaning. For a more rustic feel, check out this cauldron-style fire pit. Since you’re using it in the winter, don’t forget the cover to protect it from the elements.
If you’re looking for low maintenance, this Better Homes and Gardens gas-powered fire pit table at Walmart is clean-burning, functional, and convenient. There's no need to fuss with a fire—simply flick a switch, and it’s good to go. The fire pit is integrated into the table, offering warmth and a surface for drinks and snacks. Cover it when unused, and transform it into a ceramic tile-top coffee table. Don’t forget the 20 lb gas tank that fires it up; those are sold separately.
Opt for a portable fire bowl for more flexibility in your outdoor set-ups. Compact and lightweight, these fire pits can easily move around your space. They are ideal for small patios or on-the-go heating. This TerraFlame version at Amazon utilizes gel fuel for up to 3 hours of clean burning in small spaces. Who says s’mores are just for the summertime? If the sweet treat is your end goal, try this under $25 fire bowl that’s up for the task.
If you live in a densely populated area where clean air is a priority, look no further than this Solo Stove smokeless fire pit. Designed with airflow systems to minimize smoke while maximizing heat, these fire pits are perfect for keeping guests comfortable without smoky odors. It weighs just 20 pounds and has a convenient carrying case and all the necessary tools. You can also try this similar style smokeless fire pit for $148 at Walmart.
Classic and traditional, a clay chiminea like this one at Home Depot offers an authentic, functional, and decorative outdoor heating option. With its distinctive bulbous body and tall, narrow chimney, the freestanding, front-loading outdoor fireplace retains and radiates heat more effectively than an open fire pit. Its chimney directs smoke upward, keeping the surrounding area clear. Remember, though, that clay requires upkeep and protection from the elements. If you’re not up for that, this cast iron version is also available at Home Depot and may be more your speed.
Cozy blankets can make an outdoor gathering around the fire pit much more enjoyable. These durable, lidded resin containers are designed to keep items dry and safe from harsh winter weather. Best of all, you can use them year-round, as they’ll store patio cushions in the summer months. Grab a few of these plaid sherpa blankets at Home Depot for under $20 each to have on hand for appreciative guests.
Georgia’s Republican lieutenant governor has introduced a plan similar to the DOGE efforts taking place with the Trump administration that he tells Fox News Digital will bring much-needed government accountability to his state.
"I own my own business employing thousands of people, and I know one of the biggest things that we run into as small business owners is regulatory burdens. And that's regulatory burdens at the local, state and federal level," Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones told Fox News Digital of his Red Tape Rollback Act of 2025.
"We've been fortunate here in Georgia to be the No. 1 state to do business for 11 years running, and if we want to stay like that, we're going to have to always be retooling how we do things, improving how we do things, making government more efficient, making it try to work more like business."
Jones introduced the plan last year but was unable to move it through the Georgia Legislature. But he said Trump’s DOGE efforts provided an opportunity to pair the plan with the new DOGE brand that has become increasingly popular with Republicans and some Democrats in Washington, D.C.
"That's what the essence or the genesis behind red tape rollback, which is our state version of DOGE that the Trump administration is doing, and I'm excited about what they're doing with the first week of that administration," Jones said.
Jones explained to Fox News Digital what the priorities of his statewide DOGE plan would entail if successfully passed through the Legislature.
"The first thing we'd like to do is basically have a reset on all regulatory issues at every state agency. And what I mean by that is, instead of always adding more regulations, we'll start back at zero and then the agencies just add what they need," Jones said.
"There are so many regulations that are on the books that have been put there from decades worth of, you know, legislative laws that were passed or whatever. What our bill will do is basically have a reset just like you would on a computer game or whatever.
"And say there's a lot of things that are unneeded, whether we're talking about on the educational front, on the environment front, transportation, whatever it might be, just the entire blanket. Have a reset, and then make the agencies tell us what regulations are needed and which ones they're glad to get rid of."
Jones said in a press release his bill will "also give legislators the ability to request a ‘Small Business Impact Analysis’ for pending legislation to better understand how a bill might impact Georgia’s most important job creators."
Jones told Fox News Digital that statewide spending waste is at a much "smaller scale" than federal government waste, but he said he hopes his statewide efforts will help shine a light on waste in the federal government.
"There's no question D.C. is the elephant, so to speak, in the room that has gotten so bloated through duplicate agencies, duplicate services, whatever it might be," Jones said. "There's a lot of ways to trim the fat at the federal level.
"State government, it won't be anything like what you have at the federal level, but there's definitely inefficiencies that need to be addressed, whether it's in licensing, permitting processes, whatever it might be, regulatory codes and things that need to be repealed. Those are all things that are going to be on the table."
Elon Musk, the billionaire part entrepreneur and part Cabinet member known for his groundbreaking and disruptive innovations, including Tesla, SpaceX and Neuralink, has recently been vocal about his belief that the U.S. should eliminate the penny.
While he is not the first person to advocate for this change, Musk's influence and outspoken nature have brought renewed attention to the debate over whether the penny still has a place in the modern economy.
The argument for getting rid of the penny is not new. Economists, policymakers and financial experts have long debated its practicality. The last time I can remember using a penny was in the convenience store with a ‘give a penny, take a penny’ dish.
Here why Musk will be the ultimate impetus in removing the penny (and maybe other coins) from our daily lives.
One of the most compelling reasons to eliminate the penny is that it costs more to produce than its face value. According to the U.S. Mint, it costs about 2.7 cents to manufacture a single penny. Talk about DOGE!
This means that taxpayers are effectively losing money every time a new penny is minted. The U.S. government spends hundreds of millions of dollars producing pennies that are hardly used in daily transactions. DOGE said on X that in 2023 the number was 179 million.
Musk, who has built his career on optimizing efficiency – whether in electric vehicles, space travel or AI – sees this as an obvious waste of resources. And you know what, he’s right!
This is about a new government of common sense. From a business perspective, it makes little sense to continue producing an item that costs more than it's worth.
Aside from production costs, pennies slow down transactions. Whether at a cash register, a vending machine or a toll booth, handling pennies takes up time. Businesses and consumers alike waste countless hours each year counting and dealing with these low-value coins.
By removing a nearly worthless denomination, cash transactions could move faster, benefiting both businesses and customers. Most people thought checks would be obsolete at this point, but people still use them. But for sure, most people know that pennies have no place in our daily lives.
When the penny was first introduced in 1793, it had significant purchasing power. Today, it buys almost nothing. Inflation has eroded the penny’s value to the point where many people refuse to pick one up off the ground.
In an era where digital payments and credit cards dominate, the penny’s role in everyday commerce has dwindled. There’s a reason that Dollar Tree hardly has anything that costs a dollar anymore.
Society is evolving with technological advancements and many forms of digital payments. Most people use credit cards, debit cards, Venmo, Zelle, PayPal, and possibly cryptocurrency in the future.
What can you really buy for a penny anymore? When I was 20 years old, it was 12 CDs from Columbia House. Not anymore.
Why is Musk the leader to make this change? For one, his opinions carry weight, socially and politically. As the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink and other ventures, he has a massive following. When he speaks out on an issue – even one as seemingly minor as eliminating the penny – people pay attention.
Musk has used social media, particularly X (formerly Twitter), to express his thoughts on various economic and financial topics. His influence could help push policymakers to seriously consider eliminating the penny, especially if he continues to highlight its inefficiency.
However, not everyone agrees with Musk. Some Americans have a sentimental attachment to the penny, particularly because of its historical significance and association with President Abraham Lincoln. Others worry that eliminating the penny could lead to retailers rounding prices up rather than down, effectively raising costs for consumers.
If the U.S. were to follow Musk’s suggestion and get rid of the penny, several changes would occur:
Rounding Transactions: Prices would likely be rounded to the nearest five cents. Studies from other countries such as Canada, which eliminated its penny in 2013, have shown that this rounding tends to balance out, meaning consumers don’t lose out significantly.
Reduced Production Costs: The government could save millions of dollars each year by halting penny production.
Faster Transactions: Cash purchases would be quicker without the need to count and distribute pennies.
Elon Musk’s call to eliminate the penny is rooted in logic, efficiency and financial pragmatism. While the penny once served a meaningful purpose, inflation and technological progress have made it largely irrelevant.
Whether policymakers will act on this issue remains to be seen, but Musk’s influence has reignited the conversation about whether it’s time for the penny to become a thing of the past.
Oakland's $129.8 million budget deficit could eradicate up to 30% of its firefighting capacity, depleting a strapped department already stretched thin by station closures, according to sources on the ground.
Fire response times in the Democrat-controlled California city are already three times the national average after budget cuts that recently closed two fire stations and kept a newly renovated station from reopening.
City Councilmember Zac Unger, who was an Oakland firefighter for 27 years, told Fox Digital that four more stations could face closures because of deficits.
"We have three firehouses currently closed and another four slated to close ... which would represent about 30% of our firefighting capacity here in Oakland, an absolutely catastrophic potential for the city of Oakland," Unger said. "We simply cannot afford to lose 30% of our fire and emergency medical response."
Firefighters and city officials have been working overtime in "an all-hands-on-deck moment," Unger said, to identify available funds in the city’s budget and keep Oakland’s firehouses open. Fire Chief Damon Covington told Fox Digital inroads have been made to prevent the additional four fire stations from closing, but that's not to say closures won't come down the road.
"Seven firehouses would represent about 30% of our fire department," Covington said. "It's a tremendous threat because, ultimately, we need more fire service to cover our city adequately, and to lose two firehouses and a third that was under renovation, it taxes our workforce."
The fire department’s limited capacity has slowed response time, creating the potential for a disaster like the Palisades and Eaton wildfires, President of Oakland Firefighters Local 55 Seth Olyer said.
"We had a house fire in the end of east Oakland in Engine 28's area," he said. "Normally, that engine would have been able to get to the fire within four minutes. The closest fire engine took nearly 11 minutes to get there. With a fire doubling in size every minute, you can do the math. This went from a small fire inside the house to a total loss and nearly threatening the surrounding area and potentially starting a wildland fire, much like in L.A."
"Our firefighters do incredible work, and they will make do with whatever difficult circumstances you give them, but yes, we have seen slowed response times," Unger told Fox Digital. "There's simply no way to close firehouses and expect to receive the same level of service."
The interim mayor's office did not respond to a request for comment. But in its current budget proposal, the city cites one-time COVID-19 pandemic costs and retirement benefits, including OPEB liability and CalPERs benefits costs, as the "fiscal challenges leading to [a] projected deficit" of $129.8 million. Oakland’s 2024-2025 fiscal budget proposed fire station "brownouts" for six months beginning January 2025 to save the city $5.5 million.
But local firefighters say brownouts could come at a much higher cost.
"When you close firehouses, it creates a domino effect," Covington said in an interview with Fox Digital. "It's not just the firehouse that you're closing, it's the surrounding jurisdictions, the other firehouses that are close to that firehouse that have to cover the ground of that station."
Oakland firefighters say they face the same cuts that the Los Angeles Fire Department warned about ahead of the devastating Palisades and Eaton wildfires in January. Oakland is no stranger to fire devastation itself. The Oakland firestorm of 1991 killed 25 people, injured 150 and destroyed more than 3,000 homes. Olyer said the 1991 fire fundamentally changed fire department response tactics and how fire crews cooperate with surrounding agencies.
"That fire was so massive it took a herculean effort by the Bay Area and basically fire departments from all over the western U.S. to control," Olyer told Fox Digital. "You’re seeing the same thing with Los Angeles. It’s not realistic to think that any fire department would be able to stop any sort of huge fast-moving wildfire with hurricane force winds in conditions like that."
A quick, efficient and collaborative firefighting operation is possible with ample resources. In October, Olyer described how proper staffing and cooperation with CAL FIRE prevented the Keller Fire from becoming another California catastrophe.
"The Keller fire, which happened last October, was a perfect example of what a properly staffed fire department and early intensive action can do to really stop a fire before it gets out of control," Olyer said. The event, he said, showed what "cooperation among agencies looks like, with CAL FIRE doing water drops on top, helicopter drops on it and massive amounts of resources very early on."
"The department has been running bare bones in Oakland for decades," Olyer said. "We have fire engines driving around with nearly 300,000 miles, and they're literally falling apart. It’s just a matter of time until Oaklanders’ luck runs out."
"We're all pushing in the same direction. Everybody wants those firehouses open. It really does come down to dollars and cents," Covington said.
The Food and Drug Administration has reclassified a recall of chocolate products to its most serious level.
On Dec. 12, 2024, the Cal Yee Farm LLC of Suisun Valley, California, issued a recall for several of its chocolate and yogurt-covered products, as well as its trail mix and toffee, due to undeclared allergens.
"People who have an allergy or severe sensitivity to milk, soy, wheat, sesame, FD&C #6 and almonds run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they consume these products," according to a release from Cal Yee Farm that was published on the FDA's website at the time.
The products were sold in nine states — California, Arizona, Virginia, New Mexico, Texas, Tennessee, Oregon, Ohio and Pennsylvania — the release said.
The company also operates an online store.
In the Jan. 29 weekly enforcement report, the FDA classified the recall of eight Cal Yee Farm products as a "Class I" designation.
A "Class I" recall is "a situation in which there is a reasonable probability that the use of, or exposure to, a violative product will cause serious adverse health consequences or death," according to the FDA's website.
Two fruit basket products, various butter toffee products and a mango with chili product that were part of the initial recall announcement were not included in the FDA's most recent enforcement report and have not been classified.
No illnesses related to the candies have been reported, the FDA's website said.
"The recall was initiated after an FDA inspection of our facility where it was discovered that products containing milk, soy, wheat, sesame, FD&C #6 and almonds were distributed in packaging that did not reveal the presence of milk, soy, wheat, sesame, FD&C #6 and almonds," said a release from Cal Yee Farm that was published by the FDA.
Those with allergies to those foods and who believe they might have the recalled products "should not consume the product and should dispose of them or return them to us for a full refund," the release said.
Kyle Rudolph left the Minnesota Vikings a couple seasons before they went 14-3 in 2022, when they lost in the first round of the playoffs to the New York Giants.
"You got to make the plays when it matters most, and they just didn't do it each of those last playoff games," Rudolph told Fox News Digital in a recent interview.
Now, the Vikings have to decide whether to keep Sam Darnold or hand the keys to the offense to J.J. McCarthy.
Minnesota drafted McCarthy with the 10th selection of last year's NFL Draft, and he was in the running to start until a knee injury in the preseason ended his season. That gave the nod to Darnold, who took advantage of the opportunity and had, by far, the best season of his career.
Darnold was playing himself into a lucrative contract until his final two games. Now, who knows what he'll get on the open market?
At the very least, he may get a decent deal like Baker Mayfield's. But even that might be a lot for Minnesota, Rudolph said.
"Well, I think it really, so much in football comes down to the money piece. You know, when you have a salary cap, and you're trying to build a roster, unfortunately, you have to make decisions that are solely based on the ramifications of the salary cap and what that does for your roster," Rudolph said.
"So, when you look at Sam Darnold and the year that he had in Minnesota, there's just so many factors that go into it ultimately for Sam. Does he want to go to the highest bidder? Do I think Minnesota can be the highest bidder? No, I do not. You have so much other talent on that roster that they would like to keep and have to pay. If that's what Sam decides, and he wants to go to the highest bidder, I don't think Minnesota has a chance.
"If Sam says, ‘I love playing for Kevin O'Connell. This is the best year of my career. He brings the best out of me, I love being on this team,’ I think he would have to take some sort of a discount. And then the third piece that comes in is, ultimately, you always have the franchise tag.
"So, if they were decide to franchise tag Sam, they could keep him on that one-year franchise tag deal. But, again, that makes things really, really tough on the salary cap because that's a one-year full salary cap hit. So, it'll be interesting what they decide.
"To this point, Kevin [O'Connell] has proved that it really doesn't matter who the quarterback is. Jaren Hall, Josh Dobbs, Kirk Cousins, Sam Darnold — he's going to get the most out of him, and they're going to go win football games."
The Vikings will be home watching the Philadelphia Eagles try to dethrone the Kansas City Chiefs, who are in their fifth Super Bowl in the last six years with a chance to three-peat.
It's widely been argued Kansas City has the refs on their side. But Rudolph disputed the idea of any conspiracy or favoritism.
"If you go and look at the statistics and dive into kind of like where are the Chiefs compared to every other team in the NFL in terms of calls for and calls against, they're kind of right there in the middle of the pack," Rudolph said.
"But what is different about the Chiefs, they're on national TV almost every week. They're playing in primetime a whole lot. They're always making deep playoff runs, five out of six years in the Super Bowl. Obviously, you have all the off-the-field publicity with Travis [Kelce] and Taylor [Swift] and Patrick’s stardom. It’s just, you see it a lot more.
"They look for things that trigger, ‘Oh, that's a foul. That's a penalty.’ It’s the slightest jersey grab, but that’s something that triggers their psyche to say, 'Oh, I saw that jersey grab, I'm throwing the flag.’ It's just an immediate reaction to them. So, no, I don't think there's favoritism. Obviously, in the world that we're in today, if that were ever to be the case … we have all the resources in the world to find out … right? We would know."
Rudolph spoke to Fox News Digital on behalf of his own charity, Alltroo, where fans can donate to the campaign, and in turn, those dollars go directly to players' charities. But Rudolph and his partners have added a couple of twists.
This year, with just a $10 donation to Alltroo, fans can win both a trip to the Super Bowl with Drew Brees in New Orleans and an opportunity to announce a draft pick in Green Bay later this year if they donate to a Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee's charity.
Considering that 94% of people who donate to Alltroo had never donated to a nonprofit before, Rudolph says it's a "win-win" for everyone.
"What we wanted to create was an opportunity for die-hard sports fans, not just the high-net worth individuals or the big corporate brands, to have an opportunity to support us. And then the flip side is people are winning once-in-a lifetime experiences and items that may be out of reach.
"So, trying to create that win-win scenario where we're raising additional funds for charity that wouldn't otherwise be, and then, ultimately, offering these once-in-a lifetime experiences to fans that otherwise wouldn't be able to afford it," Rudolph said, noting that Super Bowl prices are "insanely out of price for a lot of people."
"Whatever you're willing to donate to these players’ causes, 100% of the proceeds will go directly to these player causes. So, we can just be the vehicle that passes through these donations and then, at the end of the day, a lucky fan's gonna have the opportunity to go up there and announce a draft pick at the draft and realize someone else's dream.
"So, all in all, super cool for me to have the opportunity as a former nominee to really spearhead this initiative on behalf of the league. For as little as a $10 donation, you have a chance to win."
Pro-life activists sentenced to prison under the Biden administration are speaking out after receiving pardons from President Donald Trump.
"I have never, ever, ever seen any violence on the part of pro-life people," Paulette Harlow said in an exclusive interview with "Outnumbered" co-host Kayleigh McEnany.
Harlow, 75 at the time of her conviction, was found guilty of federal civil rights conspiracy and violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.
"There were several things that were said to us. One was that this trial was not about abortion, which was sort of ridiculous, because that’s the reason that we were there, to stop abortions," Harlow said.
"To love the mothers and the children, but primarily to see if we could intervene and save the life of the babies. And saving the life of the baby, you often save the life of the mother as well."
Harlow was among several protesters sentenced for participating in an abortion clinic blockade in Washington, D.C., in October 2020. Prosecutors argued that Harlow and others forcefully entered the clinic, blocking doors with furniture, ropes, and their bodies. She was sentenced to 24 months in prison.
"These defendants conspired to use force to prevent fellow citizens from exercising rights protected by law," said U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves for the District of Columbia in a press release. "People cannot resort to using force and intimidation to prevent others from engaging in lawful activity simply because they disagree with the law."
The FACE Act, passed in 1994, prohibits threats, obstruction, and property damage intended to interfere with reproductive health care services. The law was enacted during a period of increasing protests and violence against abortion providers, including the 1993 murder of Dr. David Gunn.
Earlier this month, Trump pardoned more than two dozen anti-abortion activists, telling reporters, "We released 23 people that were unjustly put in and having to do with pro-life. And they will be released, and they’ll be out very shortly. It was disgraceful what happened."
"I was appalled watching Garland. He was isolating us and targeting us because of our pro-life stance. And especially, he was targeting Catholics," said Harlow.
Republican lawmakers have repeatedly accused the Department of Justice of holding an "anti-Catholic bias" in its handling of pro-life activists.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., echoed these concerns on X, writing, "No administration in history has targeted Christians like the Biden Admin. We saw one persecution after another, from shutting down churches during COVID to raiding pro-lifers' homes at the crack of dawn. EVERY pro-life prisoner Biden wrongly imprisoned should be pardoned."
When questioned by Hawley about the DOJ’s treatment of Catholics, then-Attorney General Merrick Garland defended the department, stating, "Our department protects all religions, all ideologies. It does not have any bias against any religion of any kind."
Many abortion rights advocates criticized the pardons, arguing they signal Trump's opposition to abortion access. However, Trump has stated on the campaign trail that he would veto a federal abortion ban if it reached his desk.
On social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, he posted: "Everyone knows that I would not support a federal abortion ban under any circumstances and would, in fact, veto it, because it is up to the states to decide based on the will of their voters (the will of the people!)."
Among those sentenced for the blockade was William Goodman, who described the conditions he faced while serving his 27-month sentence.
"We went over two weeks without toilet paper," Goodman said. "And some of the guys mentioned that some of the men who were there with gender dysphoria, wearing dresses, could get mascara, lipstick, and perfume—but we couldn’t even get toilet paper or basic needs. So there was a lot of neglect."
While prosecutors argued that some of the protesters acted violently, Jean Marshall, a former nurse and sister of Paulette Harlow, denies those claims. Marshall was also sentenced to 24 months.
She described her time in prison as difficult but said she relied on her faith for support.
"We had a Bible study going, and a couple of the women joined," Marshall told McEnany. "They were so enthusiastic and thankful. One of them even said, ‘Now I know why I wound up in prison, so that I could hear this Bible study.’"
Brady won more than half of his rings after turning 37, cementing himself in the conversation. But the chatter will be hot and heavy if the Kansas City Chiefs can finish a three-peat, something no team has done in the Super Bowl era.
Rob Gronkowski had a front-row seat for Brady's illustrious career, winning four titles with him, three in New England, and one more in Tampa Bay.
"Good thing I went back to football and did that," Gronkowski recalled in a recent interview with Fox News Digital.
But even Gronk knows his quarterback might be in trouble. However, it will be tough, and there's a reason why Brady has the upper hand for the time being.
"In order for Patrick Mahomes to dethrone (Brady), it’s gonna be tough because Tom beat him twice in playoff football. We absolutely demolished Patrick Mahomes," Gronkowski said, referring to the 2021 Super Bowl.
Advantage, Brady.
But that doesn't mean there's no chance for Mahomes. Gronk said Mahomes doesn't even need to match Brady in titles before being in the conversation.
"He’s gonna have to win about five, six championships in order to get in that conversation of being the greatest ahead of Tom Brady," Gronk said.
Those sentiments echo those of Victor Cruz, who already has Mahomes as the "No. 2" to Brady.
"To me, I can’t put him above [Tom] Brady just yet, but he’s right there. He’s 1A, 1B for me," Cruz told Fox News Digital in October.
"If he gets to five and he continues to keep his team relevant year in and year out, when we look up at the numbers, it’s gonna be insane just to see where he nets out and just to see when it’s all said and done where he is, because what he’s doing thus far, it's pretty special."
First, the Chiefs will have to get through the Philadelphia Eagles, who the Chiefs beat two years ago in the Super Bowl to get Mahomes his second title. He earned his third last year against the San Francisco 49ers, the same team Mahomes beat for his first ring.
