Newsom’s admission that infamous COVID move was ‘insane’ triggers viral fury: ‘We all told you’
Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom generated fierce online backlash after admitting the state’s decision to close beaches amid the COVID-19 pandemic was “insane in hindsight” during an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper released this month. “Look, everyone’s a genius in hindsight, so, you know, coulda, woulda,” Newsom told Tapper while fly-fishing in a Montana river. When asked what he would have done differently, Newsom said people initially treated the pandemic like a “Purell-based crisis,” spending too much time on hand sanitizer shortages and price gouging instead of the virus. He added the beach closures are one of several decisions he regrets. ‘COVID 2.0’: LAWMAKERS PUSH BACK ON SWEEPING HEALTH ‘POLICE POWER’ IN KEY BATTLEGROUND STATE “The idea that we closed beaches was insane in hindsight,” he said, before adding that he also regrets that the state’s largest public school systems remained closed longer than they should have. The clip ignited a social media firestorm, with conservatives and some Californians accusing Newsom of acknowledging mistakes they argued were obvious during the pandemic. In a post on X, Republican former Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt wrote, “No, Gavin. It was insane then. We all told you it was insane then. You knew it was insane then. You’re just an insane person.” “Remember when I sued you in both state and federal court to open the beaches of Orange County that you maliciously closed, and you lifted the order so as to moot our cases before the hearings?” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon posted on X. “You knew it back then too, Governor.” FAUCI’S DIARY SHOWS HE FED QUESTIONS TO JOURNALISTS, BUILT FRIENDSHIPS WITH MEDIA FIGURES “Gavin Newsom had a man arrested for paddleboarding alone because apparently that put him at risk of getting COVID,” Benny Johnson, host of “The Benny Show,” posted on X. “He filled skate parks with sand, forced masks on your kids, made you show a vaccine card to go anywhere in public. Now he admits it was ‘insane’ six years later because he thinks he’s going to be president. America hasn’t forgotten.” “You are a sea captain who ran his tanker into the rocks, and now we can have a laugh as you explain that you didn’t know anything back then and that now you would like to be in charge of the fleet,” Comedian Adam Carolla posted on X. “Not just in hindsight!” Fox News political analyst Guy Benson posted on X. “What was insane was closing beach parking lots but allowing — even permitting — BLM protests in the same parking lots,” RealClearPolitics political correspondent Susan Crabtree posted on X. “It was also insane to see state beaches closed but city beaches right next door open and crammed with people. I’ll never forget that one.” COVID CASH MEANT TO GET KIDS BACK ON TRACK TOOK SURPRISING DETOUR IN BLUE-STATE SCHOOL DISTRICT California became the first state to issue a statewide stay-at-home order on March 19, 2020, affecting nearly 40 million residents, and was among the last states to resume full-time, in-person learning. Other restrictions included requiring masks, closing beaches and many businesses in an effort to slow the spread of the virus, with the state threatening to cut funding to some cities that refused to enforce them. Newsom also attended an upscale dinner in November 2020 while imposing the restrictions, which many critics called hypocritical. Fueled by frustration over his administration’s handling of the pandemic and its economic fallout, Newsom, who was elected in 2018, faced a recall election in 2021 but ultimately won. Newsom’s admission comes as questions about COVID-era government decisions continue. In July, Dr. Anthony Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment 111 times when asked about the government’s response while testifying before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Fox News Digital reached out to the governor’s office for comment.
Pro-life leader sounds alarm after doctor gets 6 months for forcing abortion pills on girlfriend
Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of SBA Pro-Life America, told Fox News Digital that U.S. law has not caught up with the growing availability of abortion medication, allowing predators who use the drugs to end pregnancies without women’s consent to face relatively light consequences. She pointed to the case of Hassan-James Abbas, an Ohio man accused of forcing abortion pills into his pregnant girlfriend’s mouth in December 2024. He was sentenced earlier this month to six months in prison. The woman, Jona Affholder, went to the hospital and ultimately lost the baby. “The fact that this guy got only six months in prison for his crime says a lot about the state of our culture right now,” Dannenfelser said. “This was a very much wanted pregnancy. She could support the baby on her own and didn’t need his help. But he had other ideas in mind.” PRO-LIFE CEO PREDICTS TRUMP FDA NOMINEE COULD BRING RENEWED SCRUTINY TO ABORTION DRUG RISKS Abbas, then a surgical resident at the University of Toledo, began dating Affholder in early October 2024, according to a lawsuit she filed against him. Sometime in December that year, Affholder got pregnant. Authorities said once he found out, he illegally obtained mifepristone and misoprostol using his estranged wife’s identification information. It is unclear whether Abbas prescribed the drugs himself. Taken together, the two medications terminate early pregnancies: mifepristone blocks progesterone, a hormone needed to sustain the pregnancy, while misoprostol causes contractions that expel the fetus. TRUMP-BACKED VIVEK RAMASWAMY WINS OHIO GOP GUBERNATORIAL PRIMARY, WILL FACE DEMOCRAT AMY ACTON Under current FDA rules, patients do not have to see a physician in person to receive a prescription, allowing mifepristone to be prescribed after a telehealth visit and mailed by a certified pharmacy. After getting his hands on the pills, he began offering Affholder hot chocolate and tea, “which was out of character for their relationship,” according to the Lucas County Prosecutor’s Office. On Dec. 18, 2024, Abbas invited her to his home in Holland, Ohio. Prosecutors said despite being aware of Affholder’s intention to keep the baby, he climbed on top of her in bed, held her down and shoved crushed abortion pills into her mouth. Court records show that when Affholder tried to call 911, he took the phone out of her hand and hung it up. Eventually, she was able to leave Abbas’s residence and get to the hospital. Affholder described this experience in a Daily Wire op-ed published in June 2026. HAWLEY SENDS CRIMINAL REFERRAL OF ‘LEFT-WING DARK-MONEY’ GROUP OVER MAILED ABORTION DRUGS “I fought him off and ran to call 911. He took my cell and my keys, blocking me from leaving. I rushed to the kitchen, trying to rinse the powder from my mouth. But he continued to restrain me, buying each minute for the drugs to do their intended purpose of killing our kid,” Affholder wrote. “When he assumed the drugs had sufficiently aborted our baby, he returned my belongings, and I went straight to the hospital,” she added. According to Affholder’s account, she began hemorrhaging after arriving at the hospital and ultimately miscarried. Abbas, who was arrested the next day, initially pleaded not guilty. In May 2026, he pleaded no contest to four felony charges: disrupting public services, unlawfully distributing abortion-inducing drugs, identity fraud and using deception to obtain a dangerous drug. As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors dropped charges of abduction and tampering with evidence. The state had alleged that Abbas drove away from the home on the night of the assault and threw the remaining pills out his car window. BLUE STATE SHIELD LAWS ALLOWED 330K ABORTION PILLS TO BE SENT TO ABORTION BAN STATES, PRO-LIFE GROUP FINDS Dannenfelser contrasted Abbas’ six-month sentence with Ohio’s penalties for rape, which can carry years or even life in prison depending on the circumstances. “But… this coercion and this attack that led to the death of her wanted child gets only six months,” she said. In February 2024, Mason Herring, of Texas, received the exact same sentence — six months — for slipping misoprostol into his then wife’s drinks. The baby survived but initially faced severe developmental delays. “If you are Amy Acton running for governor [of Ohio], if you are Sherrod Brown running for the Senate, you need to answer for this because their Republican opponents are very much for limiting these drugs or controlling them at least,” Dannenfelser added. Fox News Digital reached out to both campaigns for comment. Dannenfelser also criticized Planned Parenthood and pro-choice advocates, accusing them of failing to speak out about Affholder’s case and others like it. “Where are the advocates, the feminists, the people who are against the coercion of women, the people who are ‘my body, my choice,’ the people who say that medical care is all that they’re really looking for,” she said. Planned Parenthood does not appear to have publicly commented on Affholder’s case, but the organization has explicitly condemned the act of giving women abortion drugs without their knowledge or consent. Fox News Digital reached out to Planned Parenthood for comment. Dannenfelser said the Department of Justice should take a more active role in prosecuting cases involving forced abortions. “We do have every hope that the attorney general will move on this, and he’s referenced it at the Dallas convention that people who are pushing death in a pill will be disappointed,” she said. “That is the surest way to justice.” On Tuesday, Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, joined Dannenfelser in demanding Attorney General Todd Blanche take action, referencing Affholder’s case. “My constituent was held down and force-fed crushed-up mail-order abortion pills,” Moreno wrote to Blanche. “Unsurprisingly, reckless Biden-era mail-in abortion policies are responsible for this hell-on-earth tragedy.”
Lost in translation: Israel, Huckabee blast Macron over Hamas comments as France clarifies wording
President Donald Trump offered a roaring counterbalance to a spate of world leaders bashing Israel or appearing to equivocate between the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks and Jerusalem’s response — as one world leader was assailed for his comments on Hamas. Gaza dominated the opening day of the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, despite a ceasefire, as world leaders accused Israel of continuing to displace Palestinians and undermine prospects for peace. French President Emmanuel Macron accused Israel of violating Palestinian rights in the West Bank, questioning the justification for its actions and making a remark that was translated as “Hamas was never active in the West Bank.” MIDDLE EAST TAKES CENTER STAGE AT UN AS REGIONAL LEADERS CONFRONT IRAN WAR, GAZA AND HOUTHI THREAT Israeli U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon challenged his claim about Hamas’ presence in the West Bank. “French President Emmanuel Macron claimed from the UN podium that Hamas has ‘never been active’ in Judea and Samaria. Just two days ago, a French citizen was murdered there,” Danon wrote on X. “Mr. President, Emmanuel Macron, do your homework before lecturing Israel. Check the facts.” Asked by Fox News Digital to clarify Macron’s remarks, a French Foreign Ministry spokesperson said: “The president meant to say that Hamas does not govern the West Bank. His remarks should therefore not be misinterpreted.” In response to the comments, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee reposted Israel’s Minister of Diaspora and Combating Antisemitism. Huckabee stated, “Hard to imagine a more out of touch with reality speech than Macron at UN. @AmichaiChikli corrects the record. Hamas is an evil scourge, and they have killed innocent American citizens. Chickli’s post noted in part that, “Since 1990, Hamas has carried out more than 80 lethal terrorist attacks originating in or directed from Judea and Samaria, murdering more than 350 Israeli civilians.” Judea and Samaria is another term used for the West Bank. Macron also accused Israel of violating Palestinian rights in the West Bank and undermining the sovereignty of neighboring Lebanon, where he said villages in the south were being “razed.” Macron questioned the credibility of the international community’s recognition of Palestinian statehood if it failed to act on the situation in Gaza. “Some claim that peace has been achieved,” he said, calling the situation “shameful.” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, in his final address to the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) as secretary-general, opened fire on Israel’s response in Gaza, describing it as “a scale of killing and destruction unlike anything I have witnessed in all my years as Secretary-General.” “Amid the turmoil engulfing the region, we must not lose sight of the devastating situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” he said, as the world approaches three years since the Hamas terror attacks that sparked the Israeli military response he spent much of his speech criticizing. At the same time, Guterres lamented the ongoing conflict in Sudan, saying the war-torn East African nation is a place the “world looks away” from wrongly. Yet his decision to single out Gaza as “the worst” devastation he had witnessed during his tenure raised questions about the international community’s uneven attention to two of the world’s deadliest conflicts. Approximately 72,000 Palestinians have been reported killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry, compared with an estimated 150,000 people killed in Sudan’s civil war. Many of those killed in Gaza include terrorists. King Abdullah II of Jordan, a regional U.S. ally whose country signed a peace agreement with Israel in 1994, doubled down on the anti-Israel tenor, accusing Jerusalem of “war crimes.” “In my region, from Lebanon to Yemen, to Sudan, protracted conflict is deepening humanitarian suffering,” Abdullah said. “And if anyone had any doubt that a crisis in our part of the world stays there, just look at the energy and grocery bills of ordinary families, from Mumbai to Madrid to Minnesota.” WORLD LEADERS DESCEND ON NEW YORK FOR UNGA — BUT WHO REALLY HAS AMERICA’S EAR? Abdullah said Jordanian field hospitals had been targeted during the first 300 days of the “so-called ceasefire” and lamented the deaths of Palestinian children. He also praised Trump for “pushing hard for peace” while pivoting to fault Israel for “moving the goalposts” and allegedly destroying civilian infrastructure in Gaza. “The question is, is this the behavior of a democratic state governed by law? What is unfolding across the West Bank is not a series of isolated acts. It is elements of a single policy to compel an entire population to leave their land,” Abdullah said. “And there is a name for that: forced displacement. And that is a war crime.” Abdullah also accused Israel of harboring territorial ambitions in Syria, calling on the international community to act. Just before Abdullah, President Donald Trump offered a scathing counterweight to the invective directed at the Netanyahu administration and Israel’s response to Palestinian terrorism. BRITAIN’S DRAMATIC CRACKDOWN ON ISRAELI SETTLEMENTS SPARKS FIERCE RESPONSE AS US BLOWBACK LOOMS “Iran will never have a nuclear weapon” was a mantra repeated by Trump from the dais, as he noted that the Khamenei regime had also celebrated Oct. 7 as a “service to humanity” while murdering thousands of Iranian citizens in recent months, according to the president. “Just imagine such a vile regime, wherever empowered to carry out large-scale terror attacks from behind a nuclear shield. This was the reality we had to confront, the reality that far too many preferred to ignore,” he said, taking occasional swipes at nations — and previous U.S. leaders — who refused to help neutralize the Iranian threat. “Do I drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations?” he asked. “But I believe we’ll make a deal right after the election,” he added, suggesting Iran is waiting to see whether Republicans retain control of Congress while noting that he himself is not on the ballot. Meanwhile, criticism of Israel continued from the dais throughout the day. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said that
Harris keeps 2028 door open as she hits midterm campaign trail, warns ‘28 won’t matter’ without 2026
Former Vice President Kamala Harris said Tuesday that she has not decided whether she will run for president again in 2028, telling voters in Detroit that the upcoming midterm elections must come first. Harris was directly asked during a fireside chat whether she had thought about running for president in 2028 and whether another White House campaign was “on your plate.” “I have not decided if I’m going to run again,” Harris said before turning the focus to the midterms. “I do, I do sincerely believe 28 won’t matter if we don’t get through 26.” GAVIN NEWSOM SAYS HE WON’T RUN FOR PRESIDENT IN 2028 IF KAMALA HARRIS RUNS Harris said she was focused on traveling the country and reminding voters of the power of their voices ahead of the 2026 elections. “And I’m a big believer that you can be. When you focus on the thing out there, you trip on the thing over here.” The exchange came during Harris’ second event Tuesday in Detroit, where she participated in a fireside chat moderated by Rev. Dr. Wendell Anthony, president of the Detroit Branch NAACP and pastor of Fellowship Chapel, and Rev. Dr. Genetta Y. Hatcher, pastor of The Room Church. Before asking Harris about a possible 2028 campaign, Anthony encouraged those in attendance to vote and referenced early and mail-in voting. Harris was later presented with “take your souls to the polls” merchandise. KAMALA HARRIS CLAIMS GOP ‘CHEATING’ AHEAD OF MIDTERMS, SAYS SHE’S FOCUSED ON STOPPING THE ‘MADNESS’ Earlier Tuesday, Harris campaigned alongside Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed at a roundtable focused on Black maternal health and healthcare costs. Harris used the event to criticize President Donald Trump’s healthcare policies and voice support for El-Sayed. Harris’ remarks came as she focuses on the 2026 midterms while leaving open the possibility of another presidential campaign. Harris became the Democratic presidential nominee in 2024 after then-President Joe Biden ended his re-election campaign. She went on to lose the presidential election to Trump.
‘Big Sister’ warning resurfaces as Massachusetts expands home visits after Clancy trial
Twenty-seven years before Massachusetts proposed to dramatically expand a taxpayer-funded program sending nurses into the homes of families with newborns, legendary conservative firebrand and grassroots women’s leader Phyllis Schlafly posed a question that her daughter says now sounds remarkably familiar. “Are the American people willing to allow government agents to come into their homes to ‘advise’ them how to care for their babies?” Schlafly wrote in a March 1999 column titled, “Watch out for ‘Big Sister’ as Well as ‘Big Brother.’” The warning resurfaced as Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey seeks $2 million to expand the state’s Welcome Family program, which offers nurse visits following childbirth. The program serves approximately 3,000 births annually, and the expansion is intended to make visits available following roughly 68,000 births statewide per year. BLUE STATE GOV IGNITES ONLINE FIRESTORM WITH PLAN TO SEND GOV’T INTO HOMES OF NEWBORN BABIES: ‘LUNATIC LIBS’ The push comes in the aftermath of the Lindsay Clancy case, which put a searing spotlight on maternal mental illness. Clancy does not dispute that she killed her three young children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months — inside their Duxbury home in 2023. Clancy’s defense argued she was suffering from postpartum psychosis and was not criminally responsible, while prosecutors argued she knew her actions were wrong. The jury deadlocked, resulting in a mistrial. For Anne Schlafly, chairman of Eagle Forum and Phyllis Schlafly’s daughter, her mother’s warning has now taken on new resonance. “My mother was very prescient about the things that could happen if we let government intrude into our family lives,” Schlafly told Fox News Digital. TRUMP ADMINISTRATION TARGETS HEAD START BUREAUCRACY IN MOVE ADVOCATES SAY PUTS PARENTS IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT “Her point was a government agent or an agent of the government has no business in your home, in your castle, snooping around and determining whether or not you’re raising the children the way the government wants you to raise the children,” she said. “After all, the home is our castle.” Phyllis Schlafly’s 1999 column focused on Healthy Families America and similar home-visiting initiatives, warning about programs that screened families for risk factors, connected parents with health and social services and offered parenting guidance inside the home. She also questioned whether programs officially described as “voluntary” would always operate that way in practice. Massachusetts today describes Welcome Family as voluntary. Nurses assess the health of the “parents and caregivers” and newborn, answer questions about newborn care, screen for postpartum mental health concerns and connect families with additional services. MICHIGAN LAWMAKER MOVES TO SHUT DOWN ‘GUARDRAIL-FREE’ CASH HANDOUT PROGRAM FOR NEW MOTHERS Notably, Massachusetts lists “ensuring that your home is safe” among the subjects Welcome Family nurses may advise parents about, though the program’s family information page does not specify particular home safety criteria. The state has called Welcome Family an “entry point into the system of care” for families with newborns. Healthy Families America, the program at the center of Schlafly’s 1999 column, is also among the models Massachusetts lists within its broader Home Visiting Initiative, though it is separate from Welcome Family. Healey described her vision for the expansion in broader terms during an interview on Boston Public Radio. “Everybody in the state, when you have a baby, you’re going to have a home visit within days, weeks, and that will be an opportunity for a healthcare provider to make an assessment to see if you need some additional support and resources,” Healey said. FIERY VIEWS ON LINDSAY CLANCY AT WORK COULD GET YOU FIRED — AND BE PERFECTLY LEGAL, EMPLOYMENT LAWYER WARNS Anne Schlafly questioned what meaningful consent looks like shortly after childbirth. “Is it really voluntary if you don’t have true informed consent?” Schlafly said. “If you have just given birth, you’ve been in labor, you’ve been under sedation, can you really recognize what you were signing up for supposedly on a voluntary basis? “I think mothers need to have the full disclosure that this would be a government agent in the home.” The scale of the proposed expansion also concerns Schlafly. “If government is going to expand their reach and hire a whole bunch of more people and use taxpayer money to send out all these agents to the families, I mean, that’s quite an expansion,” she said. “This idea of coming in to inspect and see what’s going on in your home smacks of Big Sister and Big Brother both.” Massachusetts does not characterize the visits as inspections but as voluntary health and support services. State officials point to results from the existing program. In 2025, Welcome Family offered 1,620 postpartum depression screenings, with 208 positive screenings. The state says every person who screened positively received a referral for services. Schlafly said she does not object to families choosing to accept that help. “If people want to have this help from Governor Healey, then they can avail themselves of it,” she said. Her dividing line, she said, is whether parents retain the ability to refuse. “I think any time you make it compulsory, the line has been crossed,” Schlafly said. “I would say the only way that this Massachusetts program could be acceptable is if the parents could opt out at any time.” Massachusetts’ published materials describe participation as voluntary. Fox News Digital reached out to Healey’s office for comment and clarification about parents’ ability to decline visits, information collected during visits and whether information may be shared with other state agencies. Nearly three decades after her mother warned about “Big Sister” entering the family home, Schlafly said she believes she knows what her mother would tell Massachusetts parents today. “There’s no doubt that Phyllis Schlafly would advise parents to reject busybodies who want to inspect their home,” she said. “The home is a sacred and private area, and Governor Healey has no business in the homes of Massachusetts parents. “Let’s leave her to the state house and not the kitchen table.”
Kamala Harris says ‘attack on DEI is an attack on maternal care’ in appearance with El-Sayed
Former Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday declared that an attack on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is an attack on maternal care as she joined Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed in Detroit to rally support ahead of the November midterm elections. Harris made the remarks during a campaign roundtable with El-Sayed and several healthcare advocates focused on Black maternal health and healthcare costs. “An attack on DEI, to recognize diversity, equity and inclusion, is an attack by definition on maternal care, including the need to protect Black women in connection with their pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum care,” Harris said. She noted that maternal mortality rates are disproportionately higher among minority groups, with the risk of death increasing up to four times for Black women and three times for Native women. MICHIGAN SENATE CANDIDATE ABDUL EL-SAYED SAYS LEADERS MUST ADDRESS ‘UNPAID DEBTS’ TO BLACK COMMUNITIES “One in 12 women in America currently lives in a maternal care desert with limited or no access to maternal care,” she added. Harris then took aim at political leaders who tout “family values,” arguing that efforts to end DEI programs strip away protections aimed at supporting certain communities during pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum care. BIDEN-ERA DIRECTIVE FOR DIPLOMATS TO PEDDLE DEI ON FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS SCRAPPED BY STATE DEPARTMENT “As one of the most — some would say the most financially strong economies in the world — we have the distinction of also having one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world,” she said. “So, it raises the issue of disparities and also hypocrisy when there are leaders who otherwise walk around every day talking about their family values.” Harris also turned her criticism toward President Donald Trump’s health care legislation, which she referred to as the “Big Bad Bill,” arguing that it cut Medicaid spending with the support of former Rep. Mike Rogers, the Republican Senate nominee facing El-Sayed. DR. OZ UNVEILS MEDICAID OVERHAUL, CLAMPS DOWN ON $2B FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS AND MANDATES WORK FOR ABLE-BODIED “Medicaid is the largest funder for maternity care in America,” she said. “Donald Trump cut Medicaid funding by a trillion dollars. These are the facts Mike Rogers supported that cut through that ‘Big Bad Bill.’” Harris closed by reaffirming her support for El-Sayed in the Senate race, pointing to his position on maternal health and saying she believes he would be a “champion” on the issue. “I’m here to support Doctor El Sayed, because, on this subject, I know he will be a champion,” she said. “And I have a right to say that.”
From Austin to New York, pro-China network fuels week of anti-US protests as Xi meets Trump
As President Donald Trump readies for high-stakes negotiations with Chinese President Xi Jinping, a network of pro-China organizations funded by pro-communist tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham is taking to the streets from New York City to Austin, creating the image of rolling street unrest that lawmakers warn China can exploit to project a perception of chaos in the United States. Yesterday, Singham’s wife, Jodie Evans, wore a trademark fuchsia straw hat and protested across the street from the United Nations on E. 47th Street, between First and Second Avenue, under an arch at Katharine Hepburn Garden, smiling widely next to agitators from the far-left CodePink nonprofit she co-founded and her American-born husband helped fund from his base in Shanghai. As part of their elaborate weeklong calendar, the activists railed against the U.S. military and its “all-out climate and environmental devastation.” and then they marched to the offices of Open AI to demonstrate against data centers they allege “drive war” and “economic degradation.” The week’s protests reflect a pattern of rapid mobilization around breaking news and political flashpoints. The sequencing of events — combined with messaging sharply critical of the United States and silent about China’s human-rights, environmental and civil-liberties record — raises questions lawmakers debated last week about whether some activists function as “Trojan horses” for foreign adversaries such as China. Recently, Evans posted a video lauding China for building an economy that helps citizens “grow and thrive.” Last year, Singham delivered a speech in China supporting the Chinese Communist Party and Xi’s “new world order.” SOCIALIST, COMMUNIST GROUPS COORDINATE, PROMOTE ‘SPONTANEOUS’ ANTI-ICE PROTESTS IN AUSTIN Lawmakers have warned that the cumulative visibility of such actions shape public perceptions, project an image of instability and give foreign adversaries a potential messaging – and negotiating – advantage as Trump prepares for high-stakes talks with Xi this week. “The American people need to know that this is not just an organic movement,” Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, told Fox News Digital. “There has to be more transparency across all areas with these kinds of activities.” Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., chairman of the House Select Committee on China, told Fox News Digital the network’s grassroots image belies the serious funding infrastructure behind these groups. “In these situations where you have groups that portray themselves as grassroots, it’s really more Astroturf, very fake,” he said. He said the protests “raises serious concerns” about malign foreign influence in the U.S., especially “when you see them actively speaking out against American interests.” The protests are publicly framed as separate events involving immigration, climate change, artificial intelligence, militarism and Israel. But their shared sponsorships show how organizations within the broader Singham network move quickly from one issue to another, using national organizations, local chapters, social-media promotion and shared venues to create a cumulative impression of coordinated street activism. Moolenaar called for “clarification and transparency” regarding the organizations’ finances and questioned whether they should continue receiving tax-exempt status, adding that their political involvement may violate “campaign rules and political rules here in the United States.” LAWMAKERS RAISE ALARM OVER NEVILLE ROY SINGHAM’S $278M NETWORK SPREADING CCP PROPAGANDA IN THE U.S. HASAN PIKER DEFENDS PRO-COMMUNIST, ANTI-ICE SINGHAM NETWORK ACTIVISTS AS ‘WONDERFUL PEOPLE’ The significance of the week’s activity is heightened by the scale of Singham’s financial support for the network. A Fox News Digital investigation has documented how Singham has pumped $285 million through a donor-advised fund and shell companies into a broader network of six major nonprofits, media outlets and activist organizations that have promoted anti-American and pro-China messaging. In that network, Singham has given CodePink $1.33 million, while doling out $22.44 million to the People’s Forum, a hub for the protest activity this week, and $1.098 million to BreakThrough BT Media, a media arm of the network that is flooding social media with images and videos from the coordinated protests this week. As Fox News Digital reported exclusively, the Justice Department’s Southern District of New York has convened a federal grand jury investigation into Singham’s financial network, sources say. Prosecutors are examining whether Singham, the organizations he funded or their leaders engaged in alleged wire fraud, bank fraud or money laundering, according to sources. Singham hasn’t been charged with a crime, and the investigation doesn’t establish that he personally directed each protest. Singham, the People’s Forum, CodePink and BreakThrough News haven’t responded to repeated requests for comment. The sequence began Sunday night in Austin, where socialist and communist organizations rapidly promoted an anti-ICE protest after the shooting of Venezuelan national Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez. The Democratic Socialists of America, Freedom Road Socialist Organization and Party for Socialism and Liberation amplified calls for demonstrators to gather at 8121 Research Blvd. in Austin. Although media accounts described the protest as organic, the mobilization moved through an existing national activist infrastructure. The Singham network’s Party for Socialism and Liberation and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization circulated video and protest messaging, while Democratic Socialists of America promoted the gathering as “spontaneous” and called supporters to the streets. The protest later spread beyond Austin, with activists in Pearsall, Tex., pledging to put “boots on the ground.” In response to Fox News Digital’s reporting on the protests, the Party for Socialism and Liberation published a video with an activist “rejecting” criticism of its Austin protests as a “nefarious” coordinated event and called the protests the result of “righteous anger.” The Party for Socialism and Liberation, Democratic Socialists of America and Freedom Road Socialist Organization didn’t respond to requests for comment. CHINESE PROPAGANDA, SINGHAM NETWORK, FOREIGN DARK MONEY LINKED TO CAMPAIGNS AGAINST DATA CENTERS On Monday, the network’s actions moved to New York City, where Singham’s wife, Evans, and her cadre of CodePink activists began a week of demonstrations tied to Climate Week and the United Nations. CodePink co-founder Susan Medea Benjamin has led previous protests, including demonstrations supporting China. After the environmental activism led by Evans outside the UN, CodePink agitators joined an “Unplug OpenAI”
El-Sayed mocked for ‘word salad’ answer when pressed by conservative on voting for him: ‘Worse than Kamala’s’
Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed sparked mockery online over his “word salad” response in which he referred to a pregnant woman as “an adult” or “juvenile human” after a pro-life student asked why he should vote for a progressive candidate like him. El-Sayed, a vocal supporter of codifying Roe v. Wade into law and funding Planned Parenthood, was speaking to students and prospective voters during a “Students vs. Billionaires” town hall at Western Michigan University on Monday. “I respect your position insofar as it’s founded in the idea that you want to protect and empower life,” El-Sayed said to the student. “The question we have to ask ourselves is, what’s the best way to do that? And whose life gets destroyed in that process? “Because too often when government says that you cannot have reproductive care, you are creating a circumstance in which an adult, or sometimes even a juvenile human, is being reduced into simply a carrying vehicle for a fetus that has not ever breathed air,” El-Sayed continued. MICHIGAN GOP LAWMAKER CASTS DOUBT ON EL-SAYED’S SOCIALIST DENIAL AS POLICIES TELL ANOTHER STORY: ‘SHARP ODDS’ He went on to further emphasize that “the currently existing life of the mother” turns “that person simply into a carrying vehicle for a fetus” when abortion access is taken away. Conservative critics on social media also quickly weighed in on El-Sayed’s comments, accusing him of using dehumanizing language. EL-SAYED TORCHED ONLINE AFTER UNEASY UNION MEMBER STRUGGLES THROUGH CAMPAIGN EVENT In a post on X, RNC Research, an account managed by the Republican National Committee, wrote, “Abdul El-Sayed won’t even say the word woman while talking about pregnancy.” “Abdul El-Sayed just said abortion restrictions turn an ‘adult or juvenile human’ into ‘simply a carrying vehicle for a fetus that has not ever breathed air in the world,’” Mark Levin Show producer Rich Sementa also posted on X. “He won’t even say WOMAN. The baby hasn’t ‘breathed air’ so it’s just cargo. This is the Democrat Party in 2026.” “This might be worse than Kamala’s word salad,” Great Lakes HQ, an account run by the super PAC Great Lakes Conservatives Fund, posted on X. “So much euphemism and jargon in here that it’s hard to keep track, all in the cause of avoiding saying that women should be able to abort their babies with no restriction,” National Review’s Rich Lowry posted on X. “Nobody talks like that in real life,” Grabien Media founder Tom Elliott posted on X. MICHIGAN DEMOCRAT AWKWARDLY PIVOTS TO CIRCUMCISION DURING HEATED FOX NEWS DEBATE ON CHILD SEX CHANGES “And we’re supposed to believe that this guy is a doctor,” Amy Curtis, a writer at Townhall, posted on X. In a statement to Fox News Digital, former GOP gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon accused El-Sayed of trying to change the way people think about motherhood and having children. “Radicals like Abdul El-Sayed use language that removes the gentle, loving relationship between mothers and their children to achieve their goal of destroying the American family,” Dixon said. Ahead of the high-stakes November race that could determine control of the Senate, El-Sayed’s positions on abortion, LGBTQ+ rights and gender-affirming care for minors have been thrust into the spotlight. He has also repeatedly rejected the socialist label, describing himself as a capitalist. El-Sayed will face Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers for the seat being vacated by retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters. Fox News Digital reached out to El-Sayed’s campaign for comment.
Virginia school district faces probe over 9/11 teaching guide telling teachers not to ‘center the extremists’
EXCLUSIVE: America First Legal (AFL) has launched an investigation into Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) in Virginia after Fox News Digital first exposed controversial guidance for teaching the 9/11 terrorist attacks, seeking to determine who was responsible for developing instructions that tell teachers not to “center the extremists or the acts of the extremists.” The conservative legal group announced the investigation after Fox News Digital first reported on the FCPS guide ahead of the 25th anniversary of the attacks. The district’s guidance tells teachers not to “associate the 9/11 attacks with Islam or Muslims” or “center the extremists or the acts of the extremists.” LIBERAL VIRGINIA SCHOOL DISTRICT: DON’T LINK 9/11 TERROR ATTACKS TO ‘ISLAM or MUSLIMS’ “We wanna know where this comes from. We wanna know who the school is working with to develop these guidances,” America First Legal senior counsel Ian Prior told Fox News Digital. Prior said AFL is seeking to examine how FCPS arrived at the guidance and whether any outside organizations participated in its development, but acknowledged AFL has not yet determined whether that occurred. “We’re still seeking to determine how far this goes,” Prior said. “That’s why we’re investigating so that we can get to the bottom of it.” The investigation was directly prompted by Fox News Digital’s reporting, Prior said. CBC RELEASES POLICY CHANGE AFTER CONTROVERSY ABOUT REFUSING TO REFER TO 9/11 AS ‘TERRORIST ATTACKS’ “The reason why we’re investigating now is because this was just reported,” he said, adding that AFL saw the report “just like everybody else” and wanted to determine who FCPS was working with when the guidance was developed. In announcing its investigation, AFL is accusing the school district of attempting to “sanitize history” and calling for “full transparency regarding who is responsible” for the guidance. The group’s announcement directs readers to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, though the two-page release itself does not detail the records sought. The six-page FCPS guide, titled “25th Anniversary and Commemoration of 9/11,” was published Aug. 27 and edited Aug. 31. It directs teachers who choose to commemorate the attacks to carefully follow the district’s guidance and use only instructional resources available through the district’s Atlas site. FCPS tells educators that lessons about the attacks can unintentionally stigmatize Muslim and Middle Eastern students and instructs teachers to prepare for anti-Muslim rhetoric, create “safe spaces” for Muslim and Middle Eastern students and challenge expressions of bias. A GENERATION CANNOT REMEMBER 9/11. WE HAVE A DUTY TO MAKE SURE THEY LEARN Fairfax County Public Schools did not directly answer Fox News Digital’s questions about who authored and approved the guidance, whether outside organizations were involved in its development or whether the district has made or considered changes to the document. The district referred Fox News Digital to a statement published on Sept. 11. In that statement, Superintendent Michelle Reid said FCPS “unequivocally condemn[s]” the 9/11 terrorist attacks and emphasized the district’s connection to the Pentagon, military families, first responders and survivors. The statement also said FCPS was “reviewing our materials” in response to community feedback, while maintaining that “the actions of terrorists should not define the entirety of any faith, culture, or community.” FCPS’s Sept. 11 statement provides some information about how the materials were reviewed, but does not identify who authored the six-page guide or who approved its final language. Prior argued that schools can teach students about the ideology that motivated the Sept. 11 terrorists without assigning collective responsibility to Muslims. BROOKLYN TEACHERS WHO WITNESSED 9/11 AS CHILDREN REVEAL WHAT THEY WANT THE NEXT GENERATION TO REMEMBER The district’s guidance similarly states that teachers should make clear that al Qaeda carried out the attacks, while drawing a distinction between the terrorist organization and Muslims as a whole. “When discussing this topic with students, please make clear that the September 11 attacks were carried out by Al-Qaeda, a terrorist extremist organization,” the guide states. “Al-Qaeda’s ideology and actions should not be attributed to Islam or to Muslims as a religious community.” The dispute centers in part on how much emphasis teachers should place on the terrorists and their ideology when commemorating the attacks. FCPS tells teachers that “the commemoration of 9/11 focuses on those whose lives were lost and those who sacrificed to help others — not those who attacked the United States.” The guide encourages teachers to emphasize stories of “resilience, support, and resistance” and use age-appropriate details about the violence. CBC CAVES ON 9/11 ‘TERRORISM’ GUIDANCE AS US, CANADIAN OFFICIALS UNLEASH CROSS-BORDER BACKLASH For elementary students, the district suggests teachers could open by saying, “Twenty-five years ago today, there was an attack on the United States,” before allowing students’ questions to determine what additional information is shared at the teacher’s professional discretion. Its suggested language for older students is considerably more specific, stating that “members of the extremist group al-Qaeda hijacked four planes in a coordinated terrorist attack on the United States” before recounting the 2,977 people killed, including civilians, military personnel at the Pentagon and emergency workers. The guidance also highlights the passengers and crew of Flight 93 who fought back against the hijackers. FCPS said in the guide that its approach reflects the varied experiences of families in the Northern Virginia district, where some were personally affected by the attacks and the ensuing War on Terror. “Many families of military personnel and first responders experienced loss and hardship,” the document states, while also saying Muslim families worry about harassment and hate crimes surrounding the anniversary. AFL argues the district’s approach goes too far. “Fairfax County Public Schools is attempting to sanitize history and erase the radical Islamic terrorism that struck our nation on September 11, 2001,” AFL counsel Will Scolinos said in announcing the investigation. “Parents and the public must have full transparency regarding who is responsible for stripping truth from our children’s classrooms.” Prior said AFL has not determined what action could ultimately follow its investigation and that the group’s next steps will depend on what
Beyond killer robots: China’s real AI threat to America is already here, experts warn
While Americans brace for a futuristic AI war of killer robots and bioweapons, experts warn ahead of President Xi Jinping’s U.S. visit this week that Beijing is already actively undermining America’s global supremacy through AI without ever firing a shot. Experts who spoke with Fox News Digital outlined a stealthy, three-part playbook, which includes extracting the logic of American models, undercutting U.S. developers with free open-source software and ultimately weaponizing those systems for things like cognitive warfare. They laid out how China bypasses billions of dollars in U.S. research through labs that interrogate cutting-edge American AI and copy its capabilities, while simultaneously flooding the global market with free alternatives. “I think a ‘race’ is the wrong metaphor for this,” Leah Siskind, an AI research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital. “I think it’s kind of like a multi-front war. And in some places, we’re winning, and some places we’re losing.” XI PREPARES CHINA ‘FOR BATTLE’ AS EXPERT WARNS OF GRAVE DANGER FACING US AHEAD OF DC SUMMIT While top American tech firms have poured billions into building ultra-expensive, proprietary systems, China has focused heavily on distributing free, open-source models across the globe. Siskind warned that because American tech is costly and the U.S. sector has largely neglected open-source investment, many Fortune 500 companies are making the financial choice to run their operations on Chinese models, unwittingly opening the door to potential CCP censorship, hidden backdoors and, ultimately, global dominance. “How can you compete with something that’s free when American tech is very, very expensive?” Siskind said. “How can we ensure that a Chinese open-source model would be truly clean, that it’d be truly free of CCP censorship? We can’t be — we just wouldn’t know. And that’s by design. We wouldn’t know what sort of trick backdoors might be implanted and how that could rear its head later on.” China expert Gordon Chang warned that Beijing is intentionally using these free models to repeat an economic tactic it previously deployed to corner a different industry. “This is a tactic that China used with solar panels,” Chang told Fox News Digital. “Beijing sees that one day it will drive out the American models on cost and availability, and they will then dominate global AI.” CHAD WOLF: CONGRESS HAS A CHANCE TO STOP CHINA FROM TURNING YOUR CAR INTO A CHINESE SPY But to flood the market with free software, Beijing first needs the underlying technology and a way to bypass America’s massive lead in computing power. Chang noted that the U.S. possesses a commanding lead in physical infrastructure, boasting over 5,400 data centers compared to China’s roughly 450, along with far superior microchips. To work around the staggering hardware and energy costs required to train artificial intelligence from scratch, Siskind warned that Chinese labs are closing the gap through a process known as “knowledge distillation,” a method where a smaller model essentially interrogates a larger, smarter American model to copy its logic. “They are able to leapfrog the process by kind of stealing this information,” Siskind said, pointing to the Chinese model DeepSeek as a prime example. “This is how they were able to release models like DeepSeek in 2025, which was seismic news because they were able to show that they were really competing with cutting-edge American models and had invested a fraction of the resources.” US ADVERSARY TURNS UP THE HEAT ON AMERICA’S AI LEAD WITH AN UNDERESTIMATED EDGE The threat is not theoretical. Just last week, the Department of Homeland Security issued a joint cybersecurity advisory warning that Chinese companies are conducting “industrial-scale knowledge distillation campaigns” to extract proprietary capabilities from U.S. frontier models. Beyond economic undercutting and software theft, the experts also warned Beijing is simultaneously deploying artificial intelligence into physical supply chains and public influence campaigns. Rather than sci-fi “killer robots,” Siskind emphasized that China’s immediate physical priority is “embodied AI,” embedding artificial intelligence into real-world infrastructure like factory automation, commercial drones and autonomous supply chains. Chang warned that AI-enhanced propaganda poses a direct threat to American decision-making and democratic sovereignty. “They’re very good at cognitive warfare, and they can enhance their capabilities with artificial intelligence,” Chang said. “We do not want our elections determined in China. We do not want our critical national security decisions being made in Beijing. And that’s not impossible.” CHINA EXPERT WARNS BEIJING WANTS AMERICANS — NOT THE CCP — TO SPREAD ITS MESSAGE As President Xi Jinping arrives in the U.S. this week, the experts who spoke to Fox News Digital said the White House must treat these non-cinematic threats with the same urgency as traditional military posturing. To protect America’s remaining edge, Siskind said Washington must tighten chip export loopholes, blacklist foreign labs engaging in deceptive distillation and incentivize U.S. open-source development, emphasizing that “it is very important that the most advanced systems are developed under democracy and represent democratic values, as opposed to authoritarian values.” CHINA-LINKED HACKERS INFILTRATED US GOVERNMENT NETWORKS BEFORE FBI TAKEDOWN For Chang, the stakes of that technological defense extend far beyond standard economic competition. “Xi Jinping throughout this century has been pushing the Chinese imperial-era notion of Tianxia, or ‘all under heaven’ that China’s rulers have a right to rule the world,” Chang warned. “That sounds ludicrous to us, but a Chinese regime powered by AI might actually be able to accomplish that. We certainly do not want our decisions being made in the Chinese capital.” Addressing the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, President Donald Trump reiterated Washington’s goal of outpacing China, declaring that U.S. government documents will now refer to AI as “superintelligence.” “The United States totally rejects any attempt to construct a globalist scheme to control the artificial intelligence being spoken of,” Trump told world leaders. “Whoever wins superintelligence wins. And we’re leading now over China by a lot and everyone else. And we’re going to keep it that way.”