Trump’s election win filled Hamas with ‘fear,’ hostage held like ‘slave’ for 505 days recounts
Omer Shem Tov was dancing with friends at the Nova Music Festival in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists launched a devastating attack, killing hundreds and loading Shem Tov and dozens of others onto the backs of pickup trucks bound for Gaza. The 20-year-old Israeli spent the next 505 days in Hamas captivity, serving as a slave in the terrorist group’s elaborate tunnels until “fear” filled their eyes on Nov. 5, 2024 — when President Donald Trump won the presidential election, he told Fox News Digital. Shem Tov recounted his months living in Hamas’ captivity in Gaza as war raged between the terrorist group and Israel, during a recent Zoom interview with Fox News Digital. He was released from captivity in February and traveled to the U.S. shortly afterward to meet with Trump in the Oval Office. “As soon as Trump was elected, I saw the fear in their eyes,” Shem Tov said. “They knew that everything on ground is gonna change, that something else is gonna happen, and they were scared. They were very scared.” AMERICAN-ISRAELI HELD HOSTAGE IN GAZA FOR OVER 580 DAYS SENDS MESSAGE TO HAMAS: ‘I’LL GIVE YOU HELL’ Shem Tov said that for roughly the last five months of his captivity, he lived in Hamas’ tunnel system beneath the Gaza Strip, where he was worked mercilessly. “I was digging for them, and I was cleaning for them, and I was moving around bombs from place to places, and (carrying) food. I can tell you, just so you know, crazy amounts of food. Amounts of food that I’ve never seen before,” he recounted. Shem Tov learned about the American presidential election from his Hamas captors, who watched Al Jazeera on a TV kept in the tunnels. “The last five months, the terrorists, they brought TV to the tunnel and most of the time they watched Al Jazeera. That’s the only thing they watch. And… they wouldn’t let me watch TV, yeah, but sometimes I would overhear the TV,” he said. He said he overheard the terrorists discussing the election and “how they want Kamala to win.” Once the election was decided, Shem Tov said, the terrorists changed the way they treated him, even offering him more food. He said he mostly survived on small biscuits throughout his captivity, despite Hamas controlling large amounts of food. IDF ANNOUNCES TRANSFER OF DECEASED ISRAELI HOSTAGE REMAINS THROUGH RED CROSS “So everything changed,” he said of how Hamas reacted to Trump’s win. “The amount of food that I got changed. The way they treated me changed. I could see just them preparing for something bigger.” Shem Tov recounted that he spent his 21st birthday in captivity, just weeks after he was first kidnapped. He said that between Oct. 7 and Oct. 30 of 2023, he did “not cry once,” but that he felt a swell of emotion when remembering his family on his birthday. “At my birthday, it was the 31st of October, it was the first time that I broke down, I cried. It’s for me, thinking of my family, that’s something that really hits me. Understanding that my family, they’re back home, they’re safe, yeah, but they have to worry about me.… They don’t know if if I’m alive, if I’m starving… they had no idea. And I can tell you that while I was there, I suffered. I truly suffered. I was abused, I was starved in the most extreme way,” he said. Since his release, Shem Tov has praised Trump for his role in freeing the hostages and pursuing peace in the Middle East. He told Fox News Digital that he had long heard Trump’s name and knew he was a “big supporter of Israel,” but had largely stayed out of politics before his kidnapping. There is currently a cease-fire between Israel and Gaza after Trump rolled out a 20-point plan to secure peace in the region in September. The plan included the release of all the hostages. All hostages have been released from Hamas captivity except one, slain police officer Ran Gvili, whose body remains in Gaza. TRUMP MEETS FREED ISRAELI HOSTAGES, CALLS THEM ‘HEROES’ IN WHITE HOUSE CEREMONY Shem Tov was among a handful of hostages who traveled to the White House to meet with Trump earlier in 2025, where he relayed that he and other hostages are “so grateful to him.” “I personally told him that me and my family, and I would say all of Israel, believe that he was sent by God to release those hostages and to help Israel,” Shem Tov recounted of what he told Trump during his meeting in February. “And he made that promise. He made that promise, he said that he will bring back all the hostages.” For Shem Tov, freedom after captivity has meant keeping close ties with fellow hostage survivors. “I would say they become like my family, like my brothers and sisters. We have many group chats and we see each other every once in a while and there are some who really become like brothers of mine,” Shem Tov said.
How fears of being labeled ‘racist’ helped ‘provide cover’ for the exploding Minnesota fraud scandal
MINNEAPOLIS, MN – In the aftermath of the massive Feeding Our Future scandal and broader allegations of systemic fraud in Minnesota’s social programs, a troubling theme has emerged: accusations of racism repeatedly used to deflect scrutiny, intimidate investigators and stall accountability. Rumors and reports of fraud in Minneapolis, primarily within the city’s exploding Somali community, have been circulating for at least a decade, but criticism of the fraud has been largely dismissed by elected Democrats as “racist” or being underpinned by animosity toward foreigners. News stories focused on Somali fraudsters in recent years were shot down as “racist.” “The whole story kind of died under these accusations that people were being racist,” Bill Glahn, policy fellow with Center of the American Experiment, told Fox News Digital. “Oh, maybe somebody stole a little bit here, a little bit there, but there’s nothing systemic going on.” Former assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Teirab, who helped take on federal prosecutions in the Feeding Our Future case, described to Fox News Digital how individuals implicated in fraud leaned on racial accusations as a shield. According to Teirab, suspects explicitly invoked race during a secretly recorded meeting with Attorney General Keith Ellison, asserting that investigators were targeting them “only because of race.” OMAR ACCUSED BY GOP OPPONENT OF OPENING UP THE DOOR TO MASSIVE MINNEAPOLIS FRAUD: ‘DEEP, DEEP TIES’ Teirab called this tactic both deliberate and cynical. In one trial, a juror was even approached with a $120,000 cash bribe, allegedly accompanied by messaging intended to frame the investigation as racially motivated. The goal wasn’t just to escape prosecution, it was to taint the system itself by threatening anyone pursuing the truth with the specter of racial bias. “It provided cover,” Teirab told Fox News Digital. “Fraudsters knew the issue of race and racism was something they could use as a cudgel… It’s disrespectful to use those terms when they’re not appropriate, especially in a case where fraud clearly happened.” Minnesota Republican State Sen. Mark Koran echoed Teirab’s concerns, emphasizing that investigators followed the evidence, not demographics. Fraud prosecutions disproportionately affected one community simply because that’s where significant fraud was uncovered, not because investigators targeted anyone based on race. “The average Minnesotan, average legislator, doesn’t care who’s committing the fraud,” Koran said. “All right, the evidence will lead you either to or from the perpetrator. And so, if the evidence leads to the perpetrator, we need to prosecute all of them.” Koran noted that public officials and agencies pursuing fraud were routinely branded racist for doing so. Some perpetrators were so “emboldened,” he said, that they sued the state to force the continuation of payments, even after red flags signaled massive irregularities. The scale, Koran argued, dwarfs what many Minnesotans understand. While federal authorities may ultimately prosecute around $2 billion in fraud, he suggested that the true annual losses across state programs could reach much higher when factoring in both blatant fraud and poor service delivery. Meanwhile, many families participated in related schemes by receiving kickbacks from fraudulent autism service providers, further complicating enforcement. Investigators simply lack the resources to chase every case, creating an environment where fraud becomes a low-risk, high-reward enterprise. MINNESOTA’S FRAUD SCANDAL WAS ‘SHOCKINGLY EASY’ TO PULL OFF, IS LIKELY WORSE THAN REPORTED: EX PROSECUTOR “For the average hardworking legal U.S. citizen doing everything right,” Koran said, “it’s a disgusting disservice… knowing there’s such blatant disregard for the value of that dollar.” Koran suggested that the racism claims so emboldened supporters of the status quo that it contributed to Feeding Our Future suing the state of Minnesota, accusing state officials of racism for investigating the alleged fraud. Glahn told Fox News Digital that state agencies were “cowering in fear” over being called racist and local politicians were acutely aware that the “racist label” is a “career kiss of death.” A legislative auditor’s report found Minnesota Department of Education officials felt they had to handle the nonprofit “carefully” because of these racism allegations and the risk of negative media coverage, and that this influenced which regulatory actions MDE did or did not take, CBS News reported. Political commentator and Townhall columnist Dustin Grage highlighted another factor enabling the fraud: media hesitation. Conservative reporters, he said, described to him hitting internal roadblocks when pitching stories about the Feeding Our Future scandal because editors feared being accused of racism. “In newsrooms, they’re told, ‘We can’t run that because we’re going to be accused of being racist,’” Grage explained. That fear, combined with political pressure, allowed the scandal to grow largely unchecked until federal indictments forced it into the spotlight. MINNESOTA LAWMAKERS VOW NEW CRACKDOWN AFTER $1B FRAUD MELTDOWN THEY SAY WALZ LET SPIRAL Grage pointed to an early pivotal moment: Minnesota’s Department of Education detected signs of fraud and briefly halted payments. Immediately, Minneapolis political figures Omar Fateh and Jamal Osman pushed back, claiming the stop was racially motivated. They even took the state to court, though their case was eventually thrown out. Yet the damage was done. Payments resumed, and crucially, Gov. Tim Walz declined to use his subpoena power to obtain Feeding Our Future’s bank records, despite having the authority to do so. That inaction, Grage noted, further delayed the exposure of the fraud. Glahn told Fox News Digital that in addition to fear of the “racist” label, politicians in Minnesota understand that it is difficult to win elections without the support of the Somali community. “The Somali community is very concentrated in Minnesota and very concentrated in Ilhan Omar’s congressional district, and a few other pockets where the Somali vote swings elections, and at the state level, they’re big enough that we’ve had some super close elections at the state level, and the Somali vote is very monolithic, votes Democrat,” Glahn explained. “They provided the difference in statewide elections, and then in local elections, where it’s all Democrats, they’re providing the difference in the primary. So if you’re running in a primary against other Democrats, if you don’t have the Somali vote on
FBI ousts reinstated whistleblower over unauthorized media talks, ‘poor judgment’
A former FBI agent and COVID-era whistleblower who was recently reinstated under President Donald Trump was fired Friday, according to a report. The FBI dismissed Steve Friend for “unprofessional conduct and poor judgment,” according to a copy of a termination letter posted on X by New York Post columnist Miranda Devine. An FBI source confirmed the firing but would not elaborate, saying it was a personnel matter. The FBI stated in the letter that Friend “participated in unauthorized interactions with the media, publicly disseminated media sources, and commented publicly on FBI matters and ongoing FBI investigations.” HOUSE REPUBLICANS ACCUSE BIDEN’S FBI OF RETALIATING AGAINST WHISTLEBLOWER WHO EXPOSED MISCONDUCT Friend was first suspended by the FBI in August 2022 and resigned in February 2023. He was reinstated in September. In the letter, the FBI stated that, in November, Friend “disseminated media sources and photographs identifying an alleged subject and discussed the alleged subject on your podcast, despite the lack of credible, verifiable evidence necessary to publicly identify the subject.” When reached for comment by Fox News Digital, Friend said his ouster was retaliation by FBI Director Kash Patel. EX-FBI AGENTS SAY BUREAU USED INTERNAL PROBES TO PUNISH WHISTLEBLOWERS Friend’s dismissal from the bureau came after his attorneys at Empower Oversight Whistleblowers & Research dropped him as a client Dec. 5. The nonprofit organization said in a letter to Friend that he had ignored its advice by commenting publicly on FBI matters, “risking further adverse administrative action” by the bureau. “In light of your apparent unwillingness to follow the free professional advice we have given you, we are even more convinced that our previously expressed inability to represent you regarding any legal matters other than your reinstatement was warranted,” the nonprofit wrote. “We are no longer willing or able to expend further time and resources representing your interests or providing counsel moving forward.”
Trump vows ‘very serious retaliation’ against ISIS after deadly Syrian ambush kills US soldiers
President Donald Trump sent a strong message to those accused of killing two U.S. Army soldiers and an American interpreter in Syria Saturday, noting the U.S. will retaliate against ISIS if forces are attacked again. As Trump departed the White House for the Army-Navy football game Saturday afternoon, he said the country is mourning the loss of the soldiers and a civilian U.S. interpreter, who were ambushed by a lone ISIS gunman. Three other soldiers were wounded but are “doing well,” according to the president. They were taken by helicopters to the al-Tanf garrison, which is near the border with Iraq and Jordan, The Associated Press reported, citing Syrian state media. SYRIANS MARK FIRST YEAR SINCE ASSAD’S FALL AS US SIGNALS NEW ERA IN RELATIONS Trump later posted to Truth Social, adding, “there will be very serious retaliation.” “This was an ISIS attack against the U.S., and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria, that is not fully controlled by them,” he wrote in the post. “The President of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, is extremely angry and disturbed by this attack. There will be very serious retaliation. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said the attack occurred as the soldiers were conducting a key leader engagement, part of their mission in support of ongoing counter-ISIS/counter-terrorism operations in the region. TRUMP TO HOST SYRIAN PRESIDENT IN HISTORIC WHITE HOUSE MEETING AMID PUSH FOR REGIONAL PEACE The gunman was killed by partner forces, according to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. The soldiers’ names, as well as identifying information about their units, are being withheld until 24 hours after the next of kin notification. Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for further comment. As of June, roughly 1,500 U.S. troops remained in Syria after Pentagon-directed withdrawals, with the force expected to decline to a few hundred personnel by year’s end, according to Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin. The U.S. initially operated eight bases in Syria to monitor ISIS after intervening in 2014 to prevent the group from establishing a caliphate. Three of those bases have since been closed or transferred to the Syrian Democratic Forces. Fox News’ Greg Norman, Ashley Oliver, Jennifer Griffin, Benjamin Weinthal and Ashley Carnahan contributed to this report.
Maduro trapped with few retaliation options after Trump administration seizes Venezuelan oil tanker
The Trump administration’s latest offensive move against Venezuela, the seizure of a tanker carrying U.S.-sanctioned oil, has triggered predictable outrage from Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government. But behind the rhetorical fire, analysts say the regime has few practical ways to hit back without doing even more damage to itself. Experts say that Maduro could target U.S. oil interests in Venezuela, but doing so would almost certainly inflict more pain on his own cash-starved regime than on the United States. Maduro could also halt U.S.-chartered deportation flights but again would be harming his own interests, experts say. MADURO’S FORCES FACE RENEWED SCRUTINY AS US TENSIONS RISE: ‘A FORTRESS BUILT ON SAND’ “Venezuelans are just leaving the country because of the terrible conditions the regime has created,” said Connor Pfeiffer, a Western Hemisphere analyst at FDD Action. “By having people come back, even if they’re on U.S. charter deportation flights, it kind of counters that narrative.” Western oil firms have significantly decreased their presence in Venezuela, home to world’s largest proven oil reserves, in recent years due to sanctions. But U.S.-owned Chevron does still maintain a license to operate there, on the condition that the Maduro regime does not financially benefit from its operations. Instead, Chevron hands over to Maduro half of its oil production as payment, according to multiple reports. “Chevron’s operations in Venezuela continue in full compliance with laws and regulations applicable to its business, as well as the sanctions frameworks provided for by the U.S. government,” a Chevron spokesperson told Fox News Digital. Imports of Venezuelan crude have declined to roughly 130,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 150,000 bpd in recent months, below the nearly 300,000 bpd imported under the prior petroleum licensing regime under the Biden administration. Most of Venezuela’s exports are now routed to Asia, with the bulk landing in China through intermediaries, according to data from Kpler. Despite that flow of crude, analysts say the idea of Caracas striking back at Chevron is more potent as a talking point than as a viable policy option. VENEZUELA ACCUSES US OF ‘PIRACY’ AFTER SEIZING MASSIVE OIL TANKER Shutting down or seizing the company’s operations would instantly cut off one of the few lifelines still feeding Venezuela’s collapsing oil sector. It also would risk triggering a swift and politically difficult American response, including a full reinstatement of the sanctions relief the regime has quietly relied on. Pfeiffer noted that the Maduro government has been “very supportive of Chevron continuing to operate” because the arrangement provides tens of thousands of barrels a day of oil with minimal investment from Venezuelan-owned Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. Other analysts say that reality sharply limits Maduro’s room to maneuver, and that any attack on Chevron would strike at his own revenue stream first. Another theoretical lever — military or maritime escalation — is widely viewed as even less credible. Venezuela has taken delivery of small Iranian-built fast attack craft equipped with anti-ship missiles, a fact that has fueled speculation Maduro could threaten U.S. or allied vessels. But Venezuela’s navy suffers from years of maintenance failures and lacks the ability to sustain operations against American forces deployed in the Caribbean. Any aggressive move at sea would almost certainly invite a U.S. military response the regime is in no position to absorb. Diplomatically, Caracas could suspend remaining channels with Washington or file legal challenges in U.S. courts or international forums. Yet previous efforts to contest sanctions-related seizures have gone nowhere, and Venezuela’s relationships in the hemisphere offer limited leverage. Regional bodies have little sway over U.S. sanctions law, and even supportive governments in Russia, China or Iran are unlikely to intervene beyond issuing critical statements. Beijing, now the primary destination for Venezuelan crude, has economic interests at stake but few practical avenues to challenge U.S. enforcement actions. Absent direct military strikes, cracking down on sanctioned oil exports is one of the most potent ways the U.S. can weaken the regime, according to Pfeiffer. “This is one of his main sources of revenue keeping the regime afloat,” he said.
Elon Musk blasts Newsom’s office, says his son is battling mental illness due to ‘evil woke mind virus’
Elon Musk is in a battle with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press office over the Tesla CEO’s transgender daughter, who goes by Vivian Jenna Wilson. The spat started when Musk’s America PAC reposted a clip of Newsom on “The Ezra Klein Show” in which he says, “There’s no governor that’s done more pro-trans legislation than I have.” The governor made the comment while discussing his stance on transgender athletes competing in women’s sports, an issue where Newsom has broken away from other prominent Democrats. While interviewing Turning Point USA CEO Charlie Kirk in the inaugural episode of his podcast, “This is Gavin Newsom,” the California governor made waves by saying it was “deeply unfair” to have transgender athletes in women’s sports. Newsom’s press office responded to America PAC’s commentary on the clip from “The Ezra Klein Show” by taking a jab at Musk. GAVIN NEWSOM TELLS DEMOCRATS THEY ‘WALKED AWAY’ FROM MASCULINITY CRISIS IMPACTING MEN AND BOYS “Correct. We’re sorry your daughter hates you, Elon,” the governor’s press office wrote on X, a platform that Musk owns. The SpaceX CEO came back with a blistering response, doubling down on his refusal to call Wilson his daughter. “I assume you’re referring to my son, Xavier, who has a tragic mental illness caused by the evil woke mind virus you push on vulnerable children. I love Xavier very much and hope he recovers,” Musk wrote. “My daughters are Azure, Exa (she goes by Y) and Arcadia, and they do indeed love me very much.” MUSK SAYS TRANS CHILD WAS FIGURATIVELY ‘KILLED BY THE WOKE MIND VIRUS,’ VOWS TO DESTROY IT: ‘MY SON IS DEAD’ The X owner then pinned a post on his profile in which he wrote, “If you have a womb, you are a woman. Otherwise, you are not.” Musk opened up about his thoughts on minors receiving gender surgery during a 2024 interview with Dr. Jordan Peterson. The Tesla CEO said he was “essentially tricked” into giving consent for Wilson to go on puberty blockers. “It happened to one of my older boys, where I was essentially tricked into signing documents for one of my older boys, Xavier. This is before I had any understanding of what was going on. COVID was going on, so there was a lot of confusion, and I was told Xavier might commit suicide if he doesn’t,” Musk told Peterson. He went on to talk about the concept of “deadnaming,” or calling a transgender person by their birth name. “I lost my son, essentially. They call it deadnaming for a reason,” Musk said. “The reason it’s called ‘deadnaming’ is because your son is dead. So, my son Xavier is dead, killed by the woke mind virus.” Musk added that, after what happened, he “vowed to destroy the woke mind virus.” Fox News’ Yael Halon contributed to this report.
House Republicans unveil national memorial plan honoring Americans killed by illegal immigrants
Almost a year after record heights of illegal border crossings, Republican lawmakers unveiled plans to construct a memorial honoring Americans who had lost loved ones to violence caused by illegal immigrants at a press event on Friday afternoon. Rep. Abe Hamadeh, R-Ariz., the lawmaker spearheading the effort, said it would serve as a reminder of the costs of bad policy. ALINA HABBA BLASTS BIDEN IMMIGRATION POLICIES AS ‘ABSOLUTE FAILURE’ AFTER DEADLY NATIONAL GUARD AMBUSH “Now, this bill authorizes a permanent national memorial in Washington, D.C. honoring U.S. citizens and lawful residents whose lives are taken by individuals unlawfully present in the United States,” Hamadeh said. “But in many ways, it also shames the politicians who allowed this situation to happen,” he added. Hamadeh was joined Friday by several angel families who had experienced personal loss and by members of The American Border Story (TABS), an organization dedicated to documenting the U.S. southern border crisis. TABS Executive Director Nicole Kiprilov thanked President Donald Trump for his efforts to tamp down immigration-related crime. “I’d like to thank President Trump for leading an historic administration that has put these victims and families at the center of our immigration agenda,” Kiprilov said. “Secretary Kristi Noem, border czar Tom Homan and the entirety of the Trump administration has been working night and day tirelessly to ensure that our border is secure and that these tragedies that the Biden administration allowed to happen will never happen again.” NATIONAL GUARD KILLING REIGNITES IMMIGRATION WAR IN CONGRESS AS REPUBLICANS DEMAND SWEEPING REFORMS Hamadeh said his proposal would serve as a contrast between the Biden and Trump administrations. His announcement comes as the Trump administration’s DHS announced this past week that it had deported more than 2.5 million illegal immigrants in under a year. According to data collected by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, encounters at the U.S. Southern Border peaked last year with over 300,000 encounters in December 2024. Almost a year later, encounters have dropped precipitously with just 11,600 encounters this past September. Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., one of the lawmakers who also attended Friday’s event, said those numbers demonstrate two different postures towards enforcing the country’s laws. “They ended the remain in Mexico policy, restarted catch and release,” Biggs said of the Biden administration’s decision to bring immigrants with pending asylum claims inside the United States before adjudicating them. TOP REPUBLICAN REBUKES NOTIONS TO ARREST DHS AGENTS WITH PLAN TO PULL FUNDING FROM PROBLEM CITIES Angel families of victims at the event expressed outrage that the remnants of those policies persisted in some cases. In particular, they decried efforts to protect illegal immigrants with criminal records. Jennifer Boss, one of the parents there, said that after authorities discovered her daughter’s remains in a trash can mixed with bleach, the man suspected of having committed the crime had been let go. “He was let go the day after he was arrested. Illinois gave him grace and freedom in the name of fairness with their policies. And let him go. They also protected him from being picked up from ICE. Again, because of their policies,” Boss said. Kiprilov said that in addition to pointing back to a chapter in American history, the memorial proposed by Hamadeh would serve as a reminder going forward of the importance of strong immigration policy. “Today’s legislation, the American Border Story Memorial, is about truth, memory and accountability,” Kiprilov said.
House Democrat pushes Senate to reverse Trump federal union order after GOP revolt by 20 Republicans
EXCLUSIVE: Bipartisan House lawmakers are actively lobbying the Senate to take action on a bill reversing President Donald Trump’s executive order on federal worker unions, a moderate Democrat said. Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, successfully forced a vote on his legislation Thursday evening despite little appetite from the majority of House Republicans. It passed, however, with 20 GOP lawmakers’ support — a significant number at a time when few in the party are willing to publicly butt heads with Trump. “When I said on the House floor that union collective bargaining rights are not a partisan issue, I meant it,” Golden told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview. “The greatest evidence of that is union members themselves. They vote Democrat, they vote Republican. They don’t all vote, but they might vote if they knew that someone supported their collective bargaining rights.” Golden introduced his bill in April and a companion was brought forward in the Senate in September. It has support from two Republicans as of now — Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Susan Collins, R-Maine — the latter of which appeared to sign on after House passage on Thursday evening. MODERATE REPUBLICANS STAGE OBAMACARE REBELLION AS HEALTH COST FRUSTRATIONS ERUPT IN HOUSE “I didn’t talk to her last night, but I’m really glad to see her on. It’s not a surprise to me. She’s supported unions on certain issues in the past, so she’s obviously a very important senator,” said Golden, who worked for Collins before coming to Congress himself. He did say he spoke with “a few” senators after the bill passed but added, “the real push is gonna be coming in the days and weeks ahead.” And Golden is not lobbying senators alone — he said Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., a moderate Republican who championed the bill in the House, is working alongside him. Fox News Digital reached out to Fitzpatrick’s office for comment. “As you probably saw, it was a long process in the House, so you’ve got to stay dogged and be patient. It’s important to do it in a way that’s bipartisan, to create space for members of both parties to work together,” Golden said. “I made sure all along that the Republican co-sponsors of the bill were comfortable with our messaging and also the steps that we were taking, so it’s gonna need to be just like that in the Senate, too.” Golden said he expected more Republican senators to sign on in the coming days. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., for instance, has not backed the legislation as of Friday afternoon, but Golden said he was a “great example” of someone who’s “shown himself to be pro-labor.” 58 HOUSE DEMS VOTE AGAINST RESOLUTION HONORING ‘LIFE AND LEGACY’ OF CHARLIE KIRK Hawley has also previously introduced his own bipartisan pro-union legislation earlier this year that would speed up the labor contract process for new unions. That bill is endorsed by Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien, a friend of the lawmaker’s. Fox News Digital reached out to Collins, Murkowski and Hawley’s offices for further comment. Golden got his bill passed by filing it as a discharge petition, which is designed to force a vote on legislation over the wishes of leadership, provided it gets support from a majority of House lawmakers. Discharge petitions are rarely successful in the House but have been used more frequently this year as Republicans grapple with a razor-thin majority. In Golden’s case, five House Republicans had signed onto the petition along with 213 Democrats — Fitzpatrick and Reps. Rob Bresnahan, R-Pa., Don Bacon, R-Neb., Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., and Nick LaLota, R-N.Y. Meanwhile, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., introduced the companion version of Golden’s legislation in September. He said in a statement to Fox News Digital, “The bipartisan momentum in the House only strengthens our hand in the Senate, and I intend to build on it.” Collins, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Golden have a relationship that dates back to his first time in Washington, D.C., not as a lawmaker, but as a staffer for the longtime Maine senator. They’re also both known to buck their respective parties. Just before Golden’s successful vote, Collins joined Senate Democrats to back their three-year extension of expiring Obamacare subsidies. But Warner’s bill has sat in the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, chaired by Sen. Rand Paul, for several months. Whether it survives committee is unclear, given that Paul has introduced several right-to-work bills over the years. Republican opponents of the bill have said federal workers’ unions are not the same as labor unions in the private sector, arguing that collective bargaining is a different scenario when working against Americans’ own elected officials rather than for-profit companies.
Inside Minnesota’s $1B fraud: fake offices, phony firms and a scandal hiding in plain sight
As a massive fraud scheme costing state and federal taxpayers at least $1 billion dollars continues to unfold in Minnesota, Fox News Digital visited several locations that received funding through programs like Feeding Our Future and found several inconsistencies exposing the depth of the scandal. The now-infamous Griggs-Midway Building housed an “unusual concentration” of fraudulent entities involved in the HSS scheme, according to Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson. Twenty-two “businesses” connected to the HSS program were registered to this single location. Thompson described these entities as “purely fictitious companies solely created to defraud the system.” These 22 fraudulent businesses collectively billed Medicaid for a staggering $8 million between January 2024 and May 2025. OMAR ACCUSED BY GOP OPPONENT OF OPENING UP THE DOOR TO MASSIVE MINNEAPOLIS FRAUD: ‘DEEP, DEEP TIES’ An in-person investigation by Fox News Digital of the building, located in St. Paul, Minnesota, showed huge swaths of the southern side of the building completely abandoned. A black and white banner advertising open spaces in the building was adorned atop the “Griggs-Midway Building” sign. Several men sat together and engaged in conversation at the building entrance. When approached, the men told Fox News Digital that they did not speak English. However, the western side of the building housed a number of seemingly legitimate businesses on the first floor, including a hair salon, a financial support and loan service for African immigrants and a property management office. Following extensive FBI searches of the building, the Minnesota Department of Human Services conducted approximately 40 investigations into providers associated with the larger Griggs-Midway building. Brilliant Minds Services allegedly submitted over $2.3 million of the $8 million in fraudulent claims from the Griggs-Midway location, ranking as one of the state’s highest-billing HSS providers last year. Four defendants, Moktar Hassan Aden, 30; Mustafa Dayib Ali, 29; Khalid Ahmed Dayib, 26; Abdifitah Mohamud Mohamed, 27, were charged in the fraud case. Mohamed was the owner of one of the other fraudulent businesses implicated, Foundation First Services LLC. ‘HE HAD YEARS TO STOP THIS’: GOP LAWMAKERS BLAST WALZ OVER MASSIVE MINNESOTA FRAUD SCHEME Another false claim location took Fox News Digital to a second-story walkup above a sushi shop just blocks away from the Mississippi River. The entryway was locked, and it was unclear whether the fraudster simply utilized the address to keep distance, or if the fraudster was actually located at the unit number listed on the claim. The second floor showed little sign of life. Though one window displayed a “No Kings, No Fascists” sign facing out onto the snowy city street. A large uniform reddish-brown brick building known as “Winsor Plaza” was the next destination of Fox News Digital’s trek through a brewing Minnesota snowstorm. The simple, box-like form of the building was centered by a red canopy protruding from the structure’s primary entrance. A white-water tower with “Roseville” painted in red letters rose in the distance through the fog. Inside, a directory showed dozens of legitimate businesses, including doctors’ offices and wealth management services. A search through the quiet halls of 1935 W County Road gave way to confusion. Unit 150, the office space listed on the false claim, was nowhere to be found. It appeared that in the building’s current configuration the suite simply did not exist. Not only was the claim fraudulent, so was the address. A similar situation occurred at 9120 Baltimore St N. The claims report noted that the fraudulent entity was operating out of suite 100. Upon arrival, 9120 was seen affixed to a stone pillar in the center of a business parking lot. However, there was no conglomerate of office spaces or apartment units, no numbers affixed to different storefronts. Only a singular, operational dental office. Another apparent fraudulent address. The trend was broken at the next two locations. 2756 Douglas Dr N is a commercial address in Crystal, Minnesota, housing businesses like Rock Bridge Counseling & Mental Health and All Kind Painting & Cleaning, offering services for teens in crisis and home improvement, respectively. These two businesses comprise suites A and B of the building but were not the fraudulent entities listed on location claims. A real building, with real businesses, but a fake company that appeared to never exist in that space. MINNESOTA LAWMAKERS VOW NEW CRACKDOWN AFTER $1B FRAUD MELTDOWN THEY SAY WALZ LET SPIRAL Another stop, 1541 Como Ave, was found inside a narrow St. Paul, Minnesota alleyway. The address housed a small, rusted garage affixed to the back of a church. The garage appeared vacant, with no mailbox or garbage cans. A picnic bench just outside the garage door was covered in leaves, snow and other debris. Several gentlemen inside a nearby local business told Fox News Digital that a man named “John” had used the location for a small pop-up gym and fitness center. He was often seen driving around in a fancy car. There was no indication as to whether this location was the legitimate operation center of the fraudulent claim. 4601 E 54th St, another location tied to the scandal, was visited by Fox News Digital only to find an empty parking lot. The address listed was in the 400s on the street. However, there are no 400s on that street, only 500s. Another location, 2720 E Lake St, was completely boarded up and covered in graffiti with a homeless individual sleeping out front. The building appeared to have been inoperable for a long period of time. “Most of that $500 million hasn’t served a single meal and some of the simple things are if they would have just gone to the facilities, you know, you hear of the thousands of people being served out of an apartment twice a day, all they would have to do is show up and look at it,” Minnesota Republican state Sen. Mark Koran told Fox News Digital about the fraud that was hiding in plain sight in Minneapolis. “There was an legislative auditor report that showed that 30 property
Bolivia pivots to US as it breaks from China, Maduro and years of leftist rule
EXCLUSIVE: After decades of strained relations, Bolivia is seeking a new partnership with the U.S. as it repositions itself in the region and works to reduce its dependence on China. The country’s pro-business conservative President, Rodrigo Paz, was sworn in last month, and made quick work of pivoting his country away from alliances with China and Venezuela and toward Western nations. Foreign Minister Fernando Aramayo spoke with Fox News Digital as he visited Washington this week to sign an agreement reestablishing diplomatic ties with Israel, which had been cut off during the war in Gaza by the previous government. HOUSE REPUBLICANS SPLIT OVER WHETHER TRUMP SHOULD PURSUE REGIME CHANGE IN VENEZUELA “We are looking for a long-term relationship with U.S., relations based on the same values and interests that we share, for democracy and to create a new alliance in South America,” Aramayo said. Paz’s victory followed the unraveling of nearly two decades of leftist rule under Evo Morales and Luis Arce, whose MAS party fractured amid economic crises, corruption scandals and mounting public anger over alleged narcotrafficking networks embedded in the state. The collapse of that political machine opened the door for a conservative, pro-business candidate — a dramatic turn for a country that had been one of China and Venezuela’s closest ideological allies in the region. Aramayo said his nation would institute new laws and regulations to attract U.S. investment and break up China’s “monopoly” on mining its natural resources, particularly lithium. The “U.S. has a lot of technology and has a lot of experience and sustainable extraction of resources,” Aramayo said. “We want to take advantage of that. Of course, we want to receive some technology transfers and to be part of the whole chain of production.” PUTIN DOUBLES DOWN ON BACKING MADURO AMID MOUNTING US PRESSURE ON VENEZUELA Aramayo said he “of course” shares U.S. concerns that China uses its investments in Latin America to extract leverage. “We want to diversify our portfolio and we want serious investors.” Aramayo said one of the region’s most urgent challenges is the growing influence of transnational criminal organizations, which he argues have flourished amid years of political instability. He warned that cartels have embedded themselves across South America and that Bolivia is still grappling with the legacy of what he described as “narco authorities” governing the country over the past two decades. “We’re very concerned about the presence of these cartels in South America,” he said, noting that criminal networks undermine confidence in state institutions and fuel cross-border instability. The interview comes as the U.S. steps up pressure on Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, striking what U.S. officials describe as narco-trafficking vessels linked to his regime and seizing an oil tanker allegedly used to evade sanctions. Aramayo did not criticize or oppose the U.S. actions, saying instead that Washington — like any government — “has the right to represent their own interests.” He added that South American nations broadly share concerns about Venezuela’s trajectory and are open to diplomatic efforts to defuse the crisis. Bolivia’s new administration, he said, intends to support a “democratic transition” in Venezuela and work with regional partners to help restore the “legitimacy and reliability” of its institutions after years of political repression and economic collapse.