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Senate Republicans target Obama-era trucking rule with new English proficiency bill

Senate Republicans target Obama-era trucking rule with new English proficiency bill

FIRST ON FOX: A Senate Republican wants to add stricter English proficiency requirements for truck drivers after an Obama-era rule change loosened standards. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., plans to introduce legislation that would add more stringent English proficiency rules for commercial truck drivers and an enforcement mechanism that would deem them “out of service” should they not meet the proposed standards. The bill would add several standards, including ensuring that truck drivers can converse with the public, understand highway traffic signs and signals in the English language, respond to official inquiries and make entries on reports and records. GOP REP TARGETS TRUCKER’S ENGLISH SKILLS AFTER ILLEGAL MIGRANT CHARGED IN DEADLY FLORIDA CRASH “Wyoming families and travelers deserve safe highways,” Lummis said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “I’m introducing this commonsense legislation to ensure commercial truck drivers operating heavy vehicles can simply read signs, understand traffic laws and communicate effectively with law enforcement and emergency responders.” The bill also comes on the heels of President Donald Trump’s executive order from earlier this year, which similarly added stricter English language requirements. Trump’s order and Lummis’ bill would also require that a person driving a commercial motor vehicle who does not meet those standards will be deemed out of service, a move meant to add enforcement following a change made in 2016 under then-President Barack Obama. ‘ENGLISH ISN’T OPTIONAL’: SENATE GOP BILL TAKES AIM AT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT TRUCKERS AFTER FLORIDA CRASH “This legislation will correct the major mistake the Obama administration made in undermining these rules and will codify President Trump’s Executive Order to make our highways safer for all Americans,” Lummis said. While English proficiency requirements have existed for truck drivers for decades, a 2016 memo from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration instructed inspectors to give warnings and citations to commercial vehicle drivers who did not meet the English proficiency requirements, rather than place them out of service. Lummis’ bill, which she and Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., plan to introduce, also has a companion version in the House, introduced by Rep. Harriet Haggeman, R-Wyo. TRUMP ADMIN THREATENS TO CUT MILLIONS IN FEDERAL FUNDING FROM 3 STATES OVER TRUCKER ENGLISH LANGUAGE RULES Both are named Connor’s Law, after 18-year-old Connor Dzion was killed in standstill traffic in Florida in 2017 when a Canadian truck driver, Yadwinder Sangha, slammed into the gridlocked vehicles. There was a similar incident earlier this year when Harjinder Singh, an illegal immigrant from India, allegedly struck and killed three people in a tractor-trailer while making an illegal U-turn on a Florida highway on Aug. 12. The trailer jackknifed and collided with a minivan, killing all three of its passengers. Sen. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., introduced legislation that would crack down on commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) going to illegal immigrants and bolster English proficiency requirements to get a commercial license.

Trump credits Iran nuclear strikes for kickstarting Israel-Hamas peace deal

Trump credits Iran nuclear strikes for kickstarting Israel-Hamas peace deal

President Donald Trump told Fox News in an exclusive interview Monday that he credits the U.S. strikes on key Iranian nuclear sites for making the Israel-Hamas peace deal possible. Trump made the comments to Fox News’ Trey Yingst in Israel after Hamas freed the remaining 20 living Israeli hostages from captivity in Gaza.  “I think it really started when we took out the nuclear capability of Iran,” Trump said, referring to the June strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites. “When you look at what they had, you couldn’t have made this deal with someone sitting over there with a nuclear weapon over your head.” Trump said that other countries around the Middle East were “fantastic” in helping the U.S. broker the peace deal, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Egypt. TRUMP WRITES MESSAGE TO ISRAELIS AFTER ALL LIVING HOSTAGES RELEASED BY HAMAS “That’s the amazing thing,” Trump said. “Everybody came together at this point. If you go back six months or seven months you would have said a thing like this was impossible.” Trump added that even with his impact as the U.S. president, the deal wouldn’t have happened if the dozens of countries that make up the Middle East did not want it to. “They all wanted this to happen,” Trump said, “and it’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen.” Yingst said Trump emphasized that the Gaza deal is only the beginning of what he hopes will become a wider movement toward peace across the Middle East. When asked about the state of Iran’s nuclear program today, Trump said it is nonexistent. “They don’t have a nuclear program,” Trump said of Iran. “It was obliterated.” In June, the U.S. launched Operation Midnight Hammer, the longest large-scale B-2 bombing mission in history, striking Iran’s nuclear sites with 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs. Trump had immediately proclaimed Iran’s nuclear program had been “completely and totally obliterated,” though skeptics and opponents of the strikes voiced caution about declaring the mission a success before a final damage assessment was finished. TRUMP HERALDS ‘GOLDEN AGE OF THE MIDDLE EAST’ IN ADDRESS TO ISRAELI KNESSET HOURS AFTER HOSTAGES COME HOME Trump arrived in Israel Monday morning to coincide with the prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas. The 20 living Israeli hostages were released as part of an agreement intended to end the conflict that began with the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas terrorists. Hamas terrorists killed more than 1,200 people and took around 240 hostages in southern Israel during the attack. Two years of fighting in Gaza followed, which resulted in tens of thousands estimated dead. In exchange for the remaining living hostages, Israel began releasing around 2,000 Palestinian detainees, including approximately 250 identified as terrorists. This is a breaking news story; check back for updates. Fox News Digital’s Morgan Phillips and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Mamdani raises money for UN organization that employed Oct 7 terrorists

Mamdani raises money for UN organization that employed Oct 7 terrorists

New York City Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani spent Sunday night raising money for a United Nations organization that employed Oct. 7 terrorists, just hours before the final living Israeli hostages were released from Hamas captivity. Mamdani ran in the NYC Gaza 5K, a fundraiser for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). The organization was infamously found to have employed terrorists in Gaza who participated in the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel. Mamdani’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. “This morning I ran the NYC Gaza 5K in Prospect Park for the third time, alongside the Harlem Run Club, to raise money for UNRWA USA, which delivers critical humanitarian aid and services to Palestinians in Gaza,” Mamdani wrote on social media. “I hope you’ll join me in donating,” he added. IDF KILLS HAMAS TERRORIST IT SAYS WORKED FOR UNRWA, LED CHARGE ON REIM BOMB SHELTER MASSACRE Mamdani included a donation link for his followers to send money to UNRWA. The State Department issued a devastating report to Congress on UNRWA in August, determining that the agency needs to be abolished and is beyond reform. UNRWA’s stated goal is to provide aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, but the report argues the organization “is irredeemably compromised” According to the State Department document, the Trump administration demanded in March 2025 that UNRWA “return all remaining unspent balances of U.S. funding in its accounts.” The UNRWA Washington office said it would do so, “but has not yet completed the action.” In May, the State Department said it is working “to cease U.S. participation in all working-level UNRWA bodies” at the United Nations. UN ACCUSED OF DOWNPLAYING HAMAS TERRORISTS’ USE OF GAZA HOSPITALS AS NEW REPORT IGNORES IMPORTANT DETAILS The U.S. government pulled the plug on UNRWA funding in January 2024 and has not resumed aid to the agency. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s move calling for the wholesale dissolution of UNRWA added a new layer of pressure on the U.N. and key donor nations to UNRWA, such as Japan and Germany, to reassess the viability of UNRWA. The Biden administration had given UNRWA $1 billion in U.S. taxpayer funding since 2021 before the freeze in 2024 went into effect. Former Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant said in February 2024 that dozens of individuals employed by UNRWA were directly involved in the atrocities carried out against Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, 2023. Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon told the U.N. in January that UNRWA must close its operations in Jerusalem. In August 2024, Fox News Digital reported the U.N. fired nine employees from UNRWA who likely participated in the Hamas slaughter of 1,200 people, including more than 30 Americans, on Oct. 7 in southern Israel. Fox News’ Benjamin Weinthal contributed to this report.

Kremlin warns it ‘could end badly for everyone’ if US supplies Ukraine long-range missiles

Kremlin warns it ‘could end badly for everyone’ if US supplies Ukraine long-range missiles

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned that if the U.S. supplies Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles, that “could end badly for everyone … most of all, for Trump himself,” according to a Google translation of his Russian-language Telegram post. “It’s been said a hundred times, in a manner understandable even to the star-spangled man, that it’s impossible to distinguish a nuclear Tomahawk missile from a conventional one in flight,” Russian Security Council Deputy Chair Medvedev noted. KIM JONG UN SHOWS OFF ‘MOST POWERFUL’ BALLISTIC MISSILE AS FOREIGN LEADERS WATCH NORTH KOREA MILITARY PARADE While speaking aboard Air Force One on Sunday, President Donald Trump raised the prospect of supplying Ukraine with the long-range weapons if the Russia-Ukraine war is not going to be settled. The U.S. commander in chief described Tomahawks as a “very offensive weapon,” noting, “honestly, Russia does not need that.” TRUMP MULLS TOMAHAWK DELIVERIES TO UKRAINE IF RUSSIA KEEPS WAR GOING Trump has been seeking to help broker peace between the two warring foreign nations. Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment. ZELENSKYY TOUTS ‘PRODUCTIVE’ TALKS WITH TRUMP ON STRENGTHENING UKRAINIAN AIR DEFENSE, LONG-RANGE CAPABILITIES CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP During an appearance on the Fox News Channel, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy indicated that Tomahawks would be utilized for “only military goals,” asserting that Ukraine never attacks Russian civilians.

GOP lawmaker pushes bill to punish cities that ditched Columbus Day after Trump proclamation

GOP lawmaker pushes bill to punish cities that ditched Columbus Day after Trump proclamation

A new House GOP proposal would withhold funding from U.S. jurisdictions that celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day instead of Columbus Day. It comes after President Donald Trump signed a proclamation last week declaring Oct. 13 Columbus Day in honor of the famed explorer as well as the heritage of Italian Americans across the U.S. “This is about every son and daughter of Italy, every Knights of Columbus, every pasta dinner on Sunday, and every communion — everything that makes our culture who we are, from Philadelphia to San Francisco,” Rep. Michael Rulli, R-Ohio, told Fox News Digital in an interview. “Every Little Italy neighborhood of this country celebrates Christopher Columbus. It’s so much more than the man. It’s the people.” CABINET SPONTANEOUSLY APPLAUDS AS TRUMP SIGNS COLUMBUS DAY PROCLAMATION: ‘WE’RE BACK, ITALIANS’ Rulli’s new bill would both reaffirm Columbus Day as a federal holiday and punish cities and states that replaced the celebration of it with Indigenous Peoples Day. “We are not going to allow any American municipality to think that they have power over the federal government,” he said. In 2021, then-President Joe Biden formally recognized the second Monday in October as both Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples Day. The move was lauded by progressive activists and historians who saw Christopher Columbus as the harbinger of a genocide against the land’s indigenous people, millions of whom were killed amid American colonization. But Rulli argued that Columbus Day was about honoring Italian Americans’ heritage, pointing out that part of the motivation for its founding in 1892 was the extrajudicial lynching of 11 Italian Americans in New Orleans after the death of a local police chief. He added his legislation was not meant to undercut the significance of Native Americans — whom he said deserve their own day of significance. “I mean, the Native Americans are some of the most amazing, dynamic cultural people that make up the fabric of America. But they need their own special day,” Rulli said. “And I would be willing to do that. I’m saying right now, I would be willing to get the indigenous people their own day, but not this day.” MAMDANI TAKES AIM AT TRUMP’S IMMIGRATION POLICIES IN FIERY STATEN ISLAND SPEECH: ‘WE ARE FIGHTING TO KEEP NYC A SANCTUARY CITY’ He further accused the Biden administration of undercutting the legacy of both peoples by declaring both holidays on the same day, while praising Trump for restoring Columbus Day’s original meaning. “I don’t care what party you’re in … if you come from Italian American descent, you love what President Trump did. It was a wonderful olive branch to all Italian Americans,” Rulli said. “By no means, no way, shape or form, is this bill meant to offend any of the indigenous people. They deserve their own day. We will get them their own day, but not Columbus Day. This has already been embedded in our fabric for 130 years,” he said.

Netanyahu to skip Trump’s Middle East peace summit in Egypt as new regional dynamics take shape

Netanyahu to skip Trump’s Middle East peace summit in Egypt as new regional dynamics take shape

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not attend Monday’s peace conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, where President Donald Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi will host more than 20 world leaders in a bid to cement an end to the war in Gaza. Netanyahu’s office said the prime minister was “unable to attend due to time constraints ahead of the start of the holiday.” October 13–15 marks Shemini Atzeret, followed by Simchat Torah on October 15. Leader of Israel’s left-wing Democrats, Yair Golan, condemned the decision. “I am appalled by Prime Minister Netanyahu’s decision to skip this historic event orchestrated by President Trump. Let it be clear: Netanyahu’s refusal to attend the peace summit in Egypt is driven purely by narrow political interests,” he said in a statement to Fox News.  “After two years of Israel’s most difficult war, we can not afford a leader guided by his personal interest.” WHITE HOUSE TURNS TO EXPANDING ABRAHAM ACCORDS AFTER ISRAEL-HAMAS CEASEFIRE The summit, set in the Red Sea resort town, is expected to draw leaders from Turkey, Jordan, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, and top representatives from the United Nations and the European Union. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is also slated to attend as regional powers press for a role in stabilizing postwar Gaza. The conference comes amid a renewed push by the Trump administration to expand the Abraham Accords framework once the conflict in Gaza is resolved. Four nations joined the normalization agreements with Israel during Trump’s first term, and senior White House officials have signaled optimism that additional Arab and Muslim-majority countries could follow. NETANYAHU CALLS TRUMP ISRAEL’S ‘GREATEST FRIEND’ AS FINAL LIVING HOSTAGES RELEASED Adding to that momentum, Israeli media reported Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto—the leader of the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation—was expected to visit Israel on Tuesday, raising speculation that Indonesia could be next to pursue an Abraham Accords-style peace and normalization agreement with Jerusalem. But Indonesian Foreign Minister Sugiono told Indonesian media “no such plan” is in place for a visit.  Subianto surprised observers with unusually warm remarks toward Israel during his address to the United Nations General Assembly last month, closing his speech with the Hebrew word “Shalom.” “We must also recognize, we must also respect, and we must also guarantee the safety and security of Israel,” Subianto said. “Only then can we have real peace.” Fox News’ Yonat Friling contributed to this report. 

Chip Roy and other Republicans push bill to block and deport Sharia law-adherent aliens: ‘Existential threat’

Chip Roy and other Republicans push bill to block and deport Sharia law-adherent aliens: ‘Existential threat’

GOP Rep. Chip Roy of Texas and several other House Republicans are pushing a bill to prohibit Sharia-law-adherent aliens from entering the U.S. and remove any such individuals who are present within the country. “America is facing an existential threat – the spread of Sharia Law. From Texas to every state in the union, instances of Sharia Law adherents have threatened the American way of life, seeking to replace our legal system and Constitution with an incompatible ideology that diminishes the rights of women, children, and individuals of different faiths,” Roy said, according to a press release. “Europe should be a wakeup call to America, showing what the spread of Sharia law looks like – the erosion of the West. America’s immigration system must be fortified to counter the importation of Sharia adherents – the preservation of our constitutional republic and its people depend on it,” he asserted. TRUMP ACCUSES LONDON OF WANTING ‘SHARIA LAW’ IN UN SPEECH, MAYOR HITS BACK Roy is currently running for Lone Star State attorney general. “The Secretary of State, Secretary of Homeland Security, and Attorney General, as applicable, shall deny any immigration benefit, visa, immigration relief, or admission to the United States to any alien who adheres to Sharia law,” the text of the measure declares. “Any alien in the United States found to be an adherent of Sharia law by the Secretary of State, Secretary of Homeland Security, or Attorney General shall have any immigration benefit, immigration relief, or visa revoked, be considered inadmissible or deportable, and shall be removed from the United States.” REPUBLICAN LABELS MAMDANI AS ‘LITTLE MORE THAN A MUSLIM TERRORIST,’ ADVOCATES YANKING CITIZENSHIP, DEPORTATION “Any alien who provides false statements under 18 U.S.C. § 1001 to the Secretary of State, Secretary of Homeland Security, Attorney General, or any Federal agency, or in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the United States, about the alien’s adherence to Sharia Law shall have the alien’s immigration benefit, immigration relief, or visa revoked, be considered inadmissible or deportable, and shall be removed from the United States,” the proposal declares. Original cosponsors of the legislation include Republican Reps. Randy Fine of Florida, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, and Keith Self of Texas.  PATRICIA HEATON WARNS AMERICA COULD FACE ‘ANOTHER 9/11’ IF NATION IGNORES RISING ANTISEMITISM, RADICAL ISLAM CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP GOP Reps. Barry Moore of Alabama, Mary Miller of Illinois, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Sheri Biggs of South Carolina, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma and Andrew Clyde of Georgia have joined as cosponsors, according to congress.gov.