Author: Daniel

CHICO, Calif. – Voting began this week for a statewide special election that would drastically alter California’s congressional map. Proposition 50, or Prop 50, could add as many as five Democratic-held seats in Congress in time for the 2026 midterms.

The measure asks California voters to temporarily allow the legislature to decide the state’s district maps through 2030, after which the power would return to the independent California Citizens Redistricting Commission. If Prop 50 wins, it could leave as a few as four Republican-held seats across the state after 2026.

Recent polling shows Prop 50 will likely pass. Gov. Gavin Newsom and California Democrats say Prop 50 is a necessary countermeasure to Republican-led redistricting efforts in Texas.

ABBOTT SIGNS TEXAS REDISTRICTING MAP INTO LAW, SECURING MAJOR GOP VICTORY AHEAD OF 2026 MIDTERMS

However, UC Davis Professor Jim Adams warned a win for the Democrats in the short term could have negative long-term consequences.

“I think that even if Prop 50 does help the Democrats win a handful of additional seats in California, by winning the battle in California, the Democrats may make themselves lose the war nationally,” Adams told Fox.

Adams, a Democrat, said he agrees with Prop 50 supporters that he wants to see something done to curb Republican redistricting efforts in other parts of the country.

TRUMP-BACKED MAP VICTORY IN MISSOURI COULD TRIGGER REDISTRICTING BATTLES IN THESE STATES

“There is certainly a visceral satisfaction for the Democrats in feeling that Proposition 50 helps them to fight back. I don’t question the Democrats need to fight back. The question is, are they fighting smart with Proposition 50,” he added.

Prop 50 has the potential to spark political backlash, not only within California Republicans or independents in 2026, but on a national scale during the presidential election in 2028.

If Prop 50 passes, California’s northern districts risk going from mostly red to completely blue after the midterms.

Chico, California, sits in Republican-held District 1, which is represented by Rep. Doug LaMalfa. It’s one of the districts targeted in Prop 50. The proposed map would likely flip the district by pulling in voters from closer to the more Democrat-leaning Bay Area. 

In 2024, President Donald Trump won Butte County by about 3,000 votes over then-Vice President Kamala Harris. On the streets of downtown Chico, that political split showed when asking voters their feelings on Prop 50.

VOTING UNDERWAY IN 2025 ELECTION THAT MAY DETERMINE IF REPUBLICANS HOLD HOUSE IN 2026 MIDTERMS

Don Tarman and Martin Bettencourt both said they support the proposition, adding that it’s a reaction to Trump’s presidency.

“We agree with Gavin Newsom that Trump is trying to sway the election for the House. He picked up supposedly five votes in Texas. We’ll see how the vote comes out when we get to the election. But yeah, we’re not Trump fans. I think Gavin Newsom is trying to fight back a little bit,” Tarman said.

Bettencourt said he doesn’t typically support redistricting, but this is “a different time.”

“I don’t like redistricting. I think it’s mean to the voters. I think they take away power from them, because they move it around and adjust it,” he said. “I think we’re in kind of a different time, so we’re reacting off the top of the ticket, which is the president, and we have to do what we have to do to compensate for that until we get someone better in a position of power.”

Jim Henderson and Eleanor Engelbrecht are among those who don’t agree with the proposition – both of them saying that redistricting in California is not an ideal response to the efforts in Texas.

“When say they do it in Iowa, then do we have to have Oregon do the same thing and the next thing you know everything is being gerrymandered? It’s unfortunate the governor of Texas didn’t recognize that this wasn’t an appropriate way of dealing with the elections, but he made his decision, and I don’t think we should feel compelled to say, well, if you’re gonna do it, we’re gonna do it also,” Henderson said.

Engelbrecht said the country is going through enough change and things need to just “settle.”

“Right now, we’re going through a lot of change already, and I don’t think this is the time we need to be, I don’t know, dusting and cleaning really. I think that we really need to let things settle. I think where our country is at right now, there’s a lot of divide already, and I think really this comes down to defending fair elections,” she said.

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If Prop 50 passes, there will likely be a legal battle. California Republicans are already filing lawsuits against the measure.

A far-left activist organization with a history of causing anti-ICE and anti-Israel unrest is set to host an event next week on a college campus disparaging Charlie Kirk and pushing for George Floyd to be celebrated instead. 

“The federal government decided to celebrate Charlie Kirk Remembrance Day on George Floyd’s birthday (Oct. 14th),” the University of Minnesota Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) chapter posted on Facebook. 

“Instead of celebrating a white supremacist bigot, join us for a rally celebrating what would have been George Floyd’s 51st Birthday and continuing to tell UMN admin white supremacy is not allowed on campus.”

Flyers for the event were spotted on campus and posted on X by Alpha News editor Anthony Gockowski. “The Real Legacy of Charlie Kirk,” the flyer’s headline said. 

EXPERTS WARN LEFTIST CELEBRATIONS OF CHARLIE KIRK’S DEATH SIGNAL A DANGEROUS MAINSTREAM SHIFT IN POLITICS

SDS has been active so far this year organizing counter-protests, including in July when protesters clashed with conservatives at a Turning Point USA event in Tampa Bay, Florida, Fox News Digital reported.

In January, Fox News Digital reported that an SDS-related protest at a Turning Point USA event featuring a women’s rights speaker at the University of Washington devolved into chaos when protesters proceeded to bang on the windows of the classroom where the event was held, shattering one window. 

A noisemaker was thrown into the building, and a pulled fire alarm resulted in several moments of confusion and an eventual evacuation from the building, despite no visible fire, shortly after.

JIMMY KIMMEL CLAIMS HIS COMMENTS ON CHARLIE KIRK’S ALLEGED ASSASSIN WERE ‘MALICIOUSLY’ MISCHARACTERIZED

The Minnesota SDS chapter’s website, which doesn’t appear to have been updated since 2016, describes SDS as an “organization of progressive young people” that is seeking to “create a sustained community of educational and political concern; one bringing together liberals and radicals, activists and scholars, students and workers.”

Posts this year on the group’s Facebook page include instructions on how to identify and report ICE agents, mourning the “genocide” in Palestine, picketing with the Teamsters Union, and the organization of an event on Independence Day called, “F— The Fourth.”

Fox News Digital reached out to SDS at UMN for comment. 

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A spokesperson for the University of Minnesota told Fox News Digital that SDS is “not affiliated with the University nor is this an official university event.”

“As a public institution, the University is an open and public place that provides reasonable access to spaces on campus that are open to the public, subject to reasonable time, place and manner restrictions. This includes campus outdoor sidewalks and green spaces. The Guidelines for Demonstrations and Protests at this page has more specifics on our policies.”

College campuses have become a hot-bed of outrage directed at conservatives since the assassination of Charlie Kirk last month, which has spilled into the faculty on several occasions with professors ultimately terminated from employment due to their justification of Kirk’s killing.

Across the country, vigils and memorials for Kirk have been disrupted by protesters, including at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington in September where a mural honoring Kirk was defaced with paint, Fox News Digital reported. 

In September, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution declaring Oct. 14, 2025, Kirk’s birthday, as the National Day of Remembrance.

President Donald Trump’s use of the National Guard in Oregon and Illinois faced dual tests in court this week, as his administration argued the two Democrat-led states are obstructing federal immigration enforcement. 

Drawing on a well of constitutional provisions and court precedents, government lawyers have sought to justify deploying the National Guard in Portland and Chicago. Some legal experts say the president has the law on his side, while others worry Trump is threatening state sovereignty.

Democratic leaders have responded with outrage and indignation to Trump’s attempts to send federal troops to their jurisdictions. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson established “ICE-free zones” across Chicago to prevent federal agents from using any city-owned property in their ongoing operations. Conservative critics have compared this action and similar opposition to the Trump administration from Democratic leaders to attempts to nullify federal law, hearkening back to the 19th century. 

“Illinois’s own Abraham Lincoln had some ideas about how to deal with this John C. Calhoun-esque ‘nullification,’” attorney and conservative commentator Josh Hammer wrote on X. 

PRITZKER SUES TRUMP TO BLOCK NATIONAL GUARD ACTION IN ILLINOIS

Joshua Blackman, South Texas College of Law professor, said the federal government does not need permission from states to defend federal facilities. The Trump administration’s position is that it needs to deploy the National Guard to protect federal personnel and Immigration and Customs Enforcement buildings.

“This is a principle that goes back to the beginning of the Republic,” Blackman told Fox News Digital, pointing to the landmark case McCulloch v. Maryland, which found that Maryland could not tax a national bank created by Congress.

The high court said in that case that allowing a state to impose such a burden on a federal institution would violate the Constitution’s supremacy clause, which says federal law trumps state law.

The need for the National Guard

During one set of oral arguments this week before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, a Trump administration lawyer argued that unrest in Portland, prompted by ICE activity, justified the deployment of about 200 National Guard soldiers.

“For months, the ICE facility in Portland and the federal law enforcement officers who work there have faced a steady stream of violence, threats of violence and harassment from violent agitators bent on impeding federal immigration enforcement,” said Eric McArthur, arguing for the Justice Department. 

The rebellion statute that Trump is using to federalize the National Guard, which governors have shared authority over, can be invoked in those situations, McArthur argued.

He also said it was the government’s position that the courts had no say over Trump’s assessment of the need for the military. Blackman made a similar point.

“The statute lets the president make the judgment over the need. It’s not clear to me that a court can second-guess it,” Blackman said.

States are ‘frustrating’ immigration enforcement

In court papers, the Trump administration has also cited a case from 1890, Neagle v. Cunningham, which established that the president has authority under the Constitution’s take care clause to “take care” that federal laws be carried out, including by doing what is necessary to protect those executing immigration laws.

In Neagle, a U.S. marshal shot and killed a person who attacked a Supreme Court justice, and the Supreme Court found that the State of California could not prosecute the marshal for murder since the marshal was protecting a federal officer.

FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS TRUMP’S NATIONAL GUARD DEPLOYMENT TO PORTLAND AMID CONSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGE

Blackman said that states have for years been “frustrating” federal immigration enforcement and that these blue-state lawsuits trying to challenge the National Guard’s presence were an instance of that.

He said the states’ resistance did not “quite rise to the level of nullification,” like when states in the South tried to block integration of segregated schools, but that it was “in the ballpark.” If states were to defy court orders, that could escalate matters, Blackman said.

The lawsuits, which could rise to the Supreme Court, especially if the circuit courts were to rule against Trump in the coming days, could help to sharpen the dividing line between state and federal authority over law enforcement.

Policing falls under ‘state’s responsibilities’

Like Oregon and Illinois, Matt Cavedon, a director at the CATO Institute, said the 10th Amendment is also in play in these cases and that it implies that the Trump administration cannot typically take over a state’s law enforcement responsibilities.

Cavedon also said it was unusual, in his view, that a Republican government would adopt a more expanded view of federal power.

“It’s not usually conservatives who are arguing that there are just vast unenumerated federal powers belonging to the president, certainly in the domestic context,” Cavedon told Fox News Digital.

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Cavedon said the events in the two states are “really core issues of public security and safety, which are at the heart of what a state’s responsibilities are.” Oregon and Illinois leaders have made similar claims that nothing extraordinary was playing out crime-wise to warrant National Guard intervention.

“I think the 10th Amendment answers a question: Any powers that are not conferred on the federal government are reserved to the states, respectively,” Cavedon added.

Welcome to the Fox News Politics newsletter, with the latest updates on the Trump administration, Capitol Hill and more Fox News politics content. Here’s what’s happening…

-First lady Melania Trump announces 8 Ukrainian children reunited with families after being taken into Russia

-Pentagon agrees to host Qatari F-15 fighter jets and pilots at Idaho air base

–Ivy League professor who mocked Charlie Kirk’s death still employed despite public outcry and ‘resignation’

Can Jay Jones be replaced? Democrats’ defense of scandal-plagued candidate draws questions

When asked whether Virginia attorney general candidate Jay Jones should drop out of the race following violent text messages coming to light, many Democrats have either been silent or defended Jones’ candidacy while condemning the messages.

The situation raises questions about whether Democrats may be concerned about the idea of replacing Jones on the Democratic ticket against Republican incumbent Jason Miyares — and whether it is even legally possible.

Fox News Digital contacted the Commonwealth of Virginia about what could happen and whether Jones is locked on the ballot as his scandal unravels…READ MORE.

White House

‘COWARD’ CAUGHT: Bondi announces arrest of ‘coward’ who allegedly threatened conservative influencer following Kirk’s murder

‘CHAMPION OF PEACE’: Nobel Peace Prize goes to Maria Corina Machado despite calls for Trump to receive the award

PATRIOTS ANSWER CALL: EXCLUSIVE: USCIS sees massive surge in ‘homeland defender’ job applications

World Stage

ICE COLD WAR: US turns to Finland to close Arctic ‘icebreaker gap’ as Russia, China expand polar presence

TRADE WAR ERUPTS: Trump threatens ‘massive’ China tariffs, sees ‘no reason’ to meet with Xi

PEACE DIVIDEND: White House to begin work on new Abraham Accords ‘very soon’ after Gaza deal

GUNBOAT DIPLOMACY: Washington’s shadow war: How strikes on cartels threaten to collapse Maduro’s regime

Capitol Hill

PINK SLIPS: Sweeping layoffs ‘have begun’ as government shutdown drags on

PRIVACY QUESTIONS: Hagerty presses Verizon over FBI’s access to his phone records during Jack Smith probe

LIGHTS OUT DC: Johnson raises stakes on Schumer as government shutdown barrels into week 3

ENERGY UNDER SIEGE: Scalise leads GOP fight at SCOTUS to stop radical left’s ‘war on American energy’

NO PAYDAY: Senate leaves Washington as government shutdown nears 3rd week, military pay at risk

SHUTDOWN SHOWDOWN: GOP senators back Russ Vought’s hardball shutdown strategy as standoff intensifies

Across America 

GROUNDED IN GA: Georgia’s Mike Collins needles Ossoff in new ad over shutdown’s toll on airports, workers

HIGHWAY HAZARD: Blue state in the hot seat after ICE busts Illegal immigrant with ‘NO NAME GIVEN’ on license

CATCHING UP: New poll reveals Mamdani’s lead is shrinking as Cuomo gains ground in NYC showdown

CIRCLING THE WAGONS: Allies stand by Katie Porter despite controversial videos sparking political firestorm in California campaign

‘CROSSES THE LINE’: NJ Republican Ciattarelli threatens to sue Sherrill over opioid claim

NO MORAL COURAGE: Spanberger excoriated online as a ‘coward’ for refusal to ditch ‘unhinged’ Jay Jones

TRANSGENDER TENSION: ‘Nude men in locker rooms’: Earle-Sears blasts Spanberger over transgender locker room stance in heated debate

ALARM BELLS: Top Insurance CEO in the hot seat after scathing ad campaign exposes China ties

NO ANSWER GIVEN: Spanberger refuses to urge Jay Jones to exit race, dodges questions after ‘two bullets’ texts

OLD DOMINION CLASH: Earle-Sears comes out swinging in heated debate as Spanberger dodges Jay Jones questions

Get the latest updates on the Trump administration and Congress, exclusive interviews and more on FoxNews.com.

President Donald Trump is in “excellent overall health,” the president’s doctor said in a memorandum after a follow-up evaluation at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Friday. 

Earlier this week, the White House announced that Trump, 79, would undergo a “routine” semiannual physical on Friday. 

The president also met with troops while at the hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. 

TRUMP’S STAMINA IMPRESSES THE EXPERTS

“President Donald J. Trump successfully completed a scheduled follow-up evaluation at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center,” Navy Capt. Sean P. Barbabella, the physician to the president, wrote in a memorandum to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. 

Barbabella said that the visit was part of an ongoing health maintenance plan that included “advanced imaging, laboratory testing and preventative health assessments conducted by multidisciplinary team of specialists.” 

He added, “Comprehensive laboratory studies performed in conjunction with the visit were exceptional, including stable metabolic, hematologic and cardiac parameters.”

In his summary, Barbabella said Trump, “remains in exceptional health, exhibiting strong cardiovascular, pulmonary, neurological, and physical performance.” 

Barbabella also said Trump also received updated COVID-19 and flu shots in preparation for international travel. 

DOCTORS REACT TO ALLEGED TRUMP HEALTH CONCERNS AS PHOTOS SHOWING SWELLING AND BRUISING

“President Trump continues to demonstrate excellent overall health,” he wrote, adding that his cardiac age was found to be “approximately 14 years younger than his chronological age. He continues to maintain a demanding daily schedule without restriction.” 

The medical checkup will be Trump’s second this year. He had a similar exam in April, during which his physician stated that he “remains in excellent health.”

In July, the president was diagnosed with a vein condition known as chronic venous insufficiency. At the time, Leavitt said Trump had noticed “mild swelling” in his lower legs and was evaluated by the White House medical unit.

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Chronic venous insufficiency occurs when veins in the legs struggle to allow blood to flow back up to the heart.

Leavitt attributed the bruising on the president’s hand to “frequent handshaking and the use of aspirin.”

GREENBELT, MD— A federal judge in Maryland on Friday vowed to issue an order “as soon as possible” in a case involving the legal status of Salvadorian migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia and the Trump administration’s plans to deport him from the U.S. to a third country within days — capping an extraordinary marathon hearing in his case that stretched for nearly seven hours — and has dominated headlines and federal court dockets for as many months.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis adjourned the court Friday evening with a promise to order on the matter as quickly as possible. Much of the hearing, however, was punctuated by incredulous objections from Xinis and frequent requests to “sidebar” with lawyers arguing both sides of the case. 

For Xinis, a judge who has presided over various iterations of Abrego’s civil case since March, the frequent pauses were a bit of an abberration, which she acknowledged. 

“I’ve always been a proponent of smooth jazz,” she quipped.

Certain portions of the day went far less smoothly. Xinis upbraided the Trump administration for its failure to produce a witness for the court to testify about what steps it had taken to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s deportation to a third country, describing the official who appeared on the stand as a witness “who knows less than nothing” about the case, and the countries they are considering removing him to. 

“This appears to be in direct contravention of the court,” she noted pointedly, shortly before adjourning for the day.

ABREGO GARCIA REMAINS IN US FOR NOW AS JUDGE TAKES CASE UNDER ADVISEMENT

Xinis had ordered the evidentiary hearing Monday, with the stated goal of evaluating a request from Abrego Garcia’s lawyers, that he be released from immigration detention pending further action in his case, and to question a Trump administration official with “first-hand” knowledge of the government’s efforts to facilitate his deportation to the third country of Eswatini, where Trump officials said they intend to send him.

Still, the hearing was much more notable for what it failed to produce than what it did. Judge Xinis struggled to clarify seemingly contradictory statements and testimony from Trump officials, including what countries agreed or did not agree to accept Abrego Garcia, and when.

Lawyers for the Trump administration acknowledged to Xinis that they had previously identified three African countries — Uganda, Ghana, and Eswatini— as suitable third country locations to deport Abrego Garcia, pending dissolution of her emergency order keeping him in the U.S. 

But they mistakenly represented the positions of both Ghana and Eswatini. As of this writing, none of the three governments mentioned agreed to accept Abrego Garcia. 

Xinis honed in on this detail Friday evening. 

“Now that we know Costa Rica is on the table, have there been any conversations about removing him [there]?” she asked Justice Department lawyer Drew Ensign, who said that there had not been. 

“Why not?” Xinis pressed. “You don’t want him in the country — you’ve said that,” she said, referring more broadly to the views of the the Trump administration.  “You have a country that will take him. You have a plaintiff who says ‘I’ll go there.’”

That the government is still pressing for other nations to accept him, she said, is a notion that is a bit “hard to swallow.”

‘WOEFULLY INSUFFICIENT’: US JUDGE REAMS TRUMP ADMIN FOR DAYS-LATE DEPORTATION INFO

Many of the crucial details emerged after hours of grueling questioning with John Schultz, the deputy assistant director of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, whom the government produced as its witness.

Despite his 20 years of experience at DHS, he appeared to know little about the case in question. He failed to answer most of the questions Xinis asked about the government’s plans to deport Abrego Garcia — including basic questions on who within DHS’s ranks had been assigned to handle Abrego Garcia’s case, and the status of various requests for deportation and communications with the countries it had identified.

Asked if he had been involved at all in Abrego Garcia’s case prior to Tuesday, Schultz said only that he “looked into his case in March,” but could not recall “in what capacity.”

Trump officials also told Xinis during court Friday that Eswatini’s government had initially declined to accept Abrego Garcia, but that they are currently having “additional discussions” on the matter and had not reached consensus. 

Should Eswatini’s government agree to take Abrego Garcia, Trump officials said, they could facilitate a plane to transport him “within 72 hours,” pending Xinis’s dissolving of her court order requiring Abrego Garcia be kept in the continental U.S.

The other two countries, Uganda and Ghana, were much clearer in their denials. 

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION ASKS SUPREME COURT TO REVIEW EL SALVADOR DEPORTATION FLIGHT CASE

Ghana’s foreign minister, Sam Okudzeto Ablakwa, said on social media Friday morning that his country rejected the U.S. request to accept Abrego Garcia, something he said they “directly and unambiguously conveyed to U.S. authorities.”

Abrego Garcia’s lawyer, Andrew Rossman, pointed to the lack of assurances from the three African countries, including the two who have rejected his claim outright. 

The government’s goal, Rossman argued, has been to “to identify a series of countries that bear no connection to Abrego Garcia and that have not indicated any willingness to take him.” 

Rather, they argued, he should be sent to Costa Rica, the country DHS officials originally offered to send him to in coordination with a guilty plea in a separate criminal case in Nashville, where he was charged with two counts of smuggling.

Hours after he declined the plea offer, the government sent his lawyers a notice of removal to Uganda. Despite the language of the notice, Uganda’s government had not yet been asked to take Abrego Garcia, let alone agree to it. That detail was one of many unearthed, laboriously, over the course of many hours Friday.

Lawyers for Abrego Garcia, meanwhile, told the court he is “willing and able to board a plane immediately” to go to Costa Rica, if ICE agrees to send him there. 

His attorney, Andrew Rossman, argued that the court should order his release from immigration detention otherwise, arguing that “the government has not and is not currently detaining Mr. Abrego for purposes of effectuating his lawful removal,” but rather as a means of punishment.

The government of Costa Rica agreed to accept Abrego Garcia and outlined certain assurances it provided the U.S. in writing, including granting him refugee status there, and promises not to “refoul” him, or re-deport him to his home country of El Salvador, in keeping with an immigration judge’s 2019 court order.

100 DAYS OF INJUNCTIONS, TRIALS AND ‘TEFLON DON’: TRUMP SECOND TERM MEETS ITS BIGGEST TESTS IN COURT

 Xinis, for her part, appeared sympathetic to that view. 

She also expressed new frustration with the Trump administration’s lawyers, whom she noted had now twice failed to provide the court with a witness who could speak to Abrego Garcia’s case.

“Prior to Monday, what efforts did the government make to find a third country that would accept Abrego?” Xinis asked Trump administration officials at one point during the hearing. 

As they struggled to answer, she noted in response, “That’s very troubling to me.”

Lawyers for the Trump administration are free to appeal any order from Judge Xinis to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, as DOJ’s Ensign indicated they might do shortly before court adjourned. 

Xinis warned later on that the government, in her view, had little margin for error.

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“I’m trying really hard to give you the benefit of the doubt,” she told Ensign. But at this point, it’s “getting close to “three strikes, you’re out.”

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on Friday announced that the Department of War (DOW) is establishing a new counter-narcotics Joint Task Force in the Caribbean Sea. 

Hegseth said the task force’s aim would be to “crush the cartels, stop the poison and keep America safe. The message is clear: if you traffic drugs toward our shores, we will stop you cold.”

The task force is launching at the direction of President Donald Trump, he said, in the SOUTHCOM area, which covers the Caribbean and Latin America. 

US STRIKES ANOTHER ALLEGED DRUG-TRAFFICKING BOAT NEAR VENEZUELA, KILLING 4

The U.S. Southern Command said in a release that the task force was being launched under the II Marine Expeditionary Force on Friday “to synchronize and augment counter-narcotics efforts across the Western Hemisphere.”

“Transnational criminal organizations threaten the security, prosperity, and health of our hemisphere,” Admiral Alvin Holsey, the commander of SOUTHCOM, said in a statement. “By forming a JTF around II MEF headquarters, we enhance our ability to detect, disrupt, and dismantle illicit trafficking networks faster and at greater depth – together with our U.S. and partner-nation counterparts.”

TRUMP ORDERS ‘LETHAL KINETIC STRIKE’ ON DRUG TRAFFICKING BOAT IN INTERNATIONAL WATERS, THREE KILLED

This comes as the administration has begun strikes against boats in the Caribbean it says are linked to drug trafficking networks.

The administration has conducted a series of fatal strikes against four small boats believed to be carrying drugs over the last few months.

It said 21 people were killed in the strikes.  

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The attacks have alarmed Democratic lawmakers because the administration hasn’t detailed what evidence it had against the targeted boats or their passengers. 

Maine Democratic Gov. Janet Mills appeared to announce the launch of her campaign for the Senate on X on Friday, but then quickly deleted the post. 

In a since-deleted announcement video, the 77-year-old Maine governor asked, “Folks, do you want Democrats to take back the Senate? Well, I’m Gov. Janet Mills, and I’m running to flip Maine’s Senate seat blue.”

In the video, Mills took aim at incumbent Sen. Susan Collins, a moderate Republican, saying she has “sold out Maine and bowed down to special interests and to Donald Trump, but that ends now.”

The video directed supporters to donate to an ActBlue page that has also since been deleted.

On the donation page, Mills touted her bona fides, saying, “I’ve spent my career standing up for Maine families as prosecutor, Attorney General, and Governor. I’ve taken on Big Pharma, expanded health care access, and took Donald Trump to court – and won.”

SUSAN COLLINS FIRES BACK AT SCHUMER-LINKED PAC ADS ACCUSING HER OF STOCK ‘GREED’

After the posts were deleted, reactions started to flood in online.

“In a now deleted tweet at 4:30pm on a Friday before a holiday weekend, Janet Mills confirms she is in fact running for Senate … Some poor digital staffer is about to get fired!” posted National Republican Senatorial Committee staffer Joanna Rodriguez.

A progressive political commentator named Jack Cocchiarella commented, “If you thought democratic politics was missing geriatric candidates with no charisma, wait until you meet 77 year old Janet Mills Chuck Schumer’s pick for Senate. She posted this launch video today then deleted it after two hours.”

Mills’ announcement has been long anticipated. She is seen as the favored candidate by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

The top Democrat in the Senate urged Mills to run and sees her as the best candidate to defeat Collins, the only Republican senator up for re-election next year in a state the Democrats carried in the presidential election. A Collins defeat would be essential for the Democrats to have any chance of winning back the Senate majority.

DEM GOVERNOR’S BURIED COCAINE INVESTIGATION DOCS HIT WITH OFFICIAL INQUIRY AS QUESTIONS SWIRL OVER SENATE RUN

But before she reaches the general election, Mills first has to navigate a likely competitive and divisive primary among a crowded field of contenders that includes a much younger rising star on the left who’s backed by longtime progressive champion Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

Mills, a former elected county district attorney and former state lawmaker, made history serving as Maine’s first female attorney general.

She later won election in 2018 as Maine’s first female governor, and in 2022 comfortably defeated former Republican Gov. Paul LePage by double digits to win re-election. 

While she will be considered the frontrunner for the Democratic Senate nomination, thanks in part to her vast name recognition in blue-leaning Maine, she could face a serious challenge from 41-year-old Graham Platner, a U.S. Marine and Army veteran and oyster farmer who launched his campaign in August.

Platner, who hauled in over $3 million in fundraising during the first six weeks after declaring his candidacy, is backed by Sanders, the two-time Democratic presidential nomination runner-up, who recently stopped in Maine to headline a campaign rally.

In a warning to Mills, Sanders said on social media last week that “Graham Platner is a great working class candidate for Senate in Maine who will defeat Susan Collins.”

FOUR KEY SENATE SEATS THE GOP AIMS TO FLIP IN NEXT YEAR’S MIDTERM ELECTIONS

“It’s disappointing that some Democratic leaders are urging Governor Mills to run. We need to focus on winning that seat & not waste millions on an unnecessary & divisive primary,” Sanders added.

Other candidates vying for the Democratic Senate nomination include Dan Kleban, a co-founder of the Maine Beer Co., and former congressional staffer Jordan Wood, who raked in roughly $3 million during the July-September third quarter of fundraising.

Phil Rench, a former senior engineer for Elon Musk’s SpaceX, is running as an independent candidate.

Collins first won election to the Senate in 1996 and won comfortable double-digit re-elections in 2002, 2008, and 2014.

HEAD HERE FOR THE LATEST FOX NEWS REPORTING ON THE 2025 ELECTIONS

She currently chairs the influential Senate Appropriations Committee.

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In her 2020 re-election, Collins faced off against Democratic State House Speaker Sara Gideon, in a hotly contested race that became the most expensive in Maine history. While polls indicated Collins trailing her Democratic challenger, she ended up winning the election by more than eight points.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee for comment but did not immediately receive a response. 

FIRST ON FOX: A top fundraising group in the Virginia election doubled its investment in the state’s attorney general race following the revelation of Democrat Jay Jones’ violent text messages, a sign that the controversy could be having concrete effects on his candidacy.

The Republican Attorneys General Association invested $2.5 million in Republican incumbent Jason Miyares on Friday, after dropping $2 million in the race earlier this week, Fox News Digital has learned. Those figures bring the group’s total contributions to Miyares to a historic $8.5 million.

Spokesman Adam Piper said the texting incident has driven new interest from donors, which has allowed the group to up its investment in the race.

YOUNGKIN PRESSES DEMS TO PUSH JAY JONES OFF VIRGINIA AG TICKET AFTER ‘BEYOND DISQUALIFYING’ MESSAGES SURFACE

Piper, the group’s executive director, said the Republican Attorneys General Association has been “all in” on Miyares from the outset but that the text messages “completely changed the dynamics” of the race.

“Jason Miyares is surging in the polls and RAGA has been overwhelmed with millions in new donations, allowing us to double our investment in Virginia over the last week,” Piper told Fox News Digital.

The group has outspent all other political committees up and down the gubernatorial race ticket, according to the most updated data from the Virginia Public Access Project. It also broke its prior record of $7 million, which it spent on their attorney general candidate in 2017.

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The incidence of down-ticket donations overshadowing those for the governor’s race comes after Jones, a lawyer and former state delegate, fantasized in newly surfaced texts from 2022 about the violent death of a Republican lawmaker. 

The GOP attorneys general group this week released internal polling, conducted Oct. 6-7 by Cygnal, that found a sharp drop of 21 points in Jones’ favorability compared to one month ago. The poll found Miyares leading Jones by two points with one month until Election Day.

At the top of the ticket, recent polls have shown Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger leading Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears by roughly ten points while the attorney general race is slightly tighter.

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With early voting well underway, it is unclear how much, if it all, the texts from Jones will hurt him and other Democratic candidates’ chances of winning in a blue-leaning state. Jones has apologized for the texts but continues to face fierce backlash over them.

In addition to the new fundraising headwinds, Jones has been hit with widespread calls by Republicans to drop out of the race amid a heightened national concern over political violence. Democrats, including Spanberger, have disavowed the texts but stopped short of asking Jones to bow out.

A former NCAA swim captain from Virginia who has alleged retaliation by university officials after objecting to a transgender student joining her team said she is “100%” concerned about the results of the upcoming statewide elections and the impact they could have on women in sports.

Former Roanoke College swimmer Lily Mullens spoke to Fox News Digital ahead of Virginia’s upcoming elections about her experience raising concerns with her college about a transgender classmate, who was born a biological male, joining the school’s female collegiate swim team. 

The concerns about the matter fell on deaf ears and were brushed aside by college administrators, Mullens said, but she noted that Republican officials in the state came to her and her teammates’ defense.

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“Gov. Youngkin had reached out to the captains and I personally and asked how we were and how things kind of played out. And that was such a huge thing, because not even the president of my school was able to do so,” Mullens told Fox News Digital. “Seeing somebody who’s the leader of an entire state do that and then not have my school president, who’s only overseeing 2,000 people … it’s hard to describe. I was so shocked, and I was grateful at the same time.”

The state of Virginia is gearing up for several consequential statewide elections later this year, including a race for the governor’s seat and for attorney general. Incumbent Gov. Glenn Youngkin has reached his term limit, so Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears was handed the baton to keep the governor’s mansion Republican. 

She is facing off against former Rep. Abigail Spanberger. 

Current Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares is also up for re-election and is being challenged by Democrat Jay Jones, who is dealing with the fallout from resurfaced text messages showing him wishing death upon a Republican colleague.

Earlier this year, Miyares said he found reasonable cause to determine that Roanoke College discriminated against Mullens and her teammates on the basis of sex and retaliated after the girls spoke up. It was a finding the college subsequently contested, calling the allegations “unsubstantiated” in a press release the school put out at the time and sent to Fox News Digital.

The issue stemmed from a transgender student who previously swam on the school’s all-male swim team but wanted to switch to the all-female team following hormone therapy and other transitioning measures in the fall of 2023.

A meeting of the swim team and its members to discuss the new swimmer’s upcoming participation was one moment Mullens saw firsthand that her college’s administrators were unlikely to support her objections.

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“The purpose of the meeting was to bring us all together with this individual to, in a way, hash out whatever feelings or opinions we had to the individual with administrators in the room,” Mullens recalled to Fox News Digital in August. 

“At one point, it was discussed that this individual, without the transition, had thought about and gone through with planning a suicide. So, that was something that was told to all of us.”   

Mullens, who described herself as a religious person, said she and her teammates’ first reaction was confusion after the swimmer shared specific details about a suicide plan. 

“All of us felt emotionally confused. We didn’t know what to do,” Mullens previously shared with Fox News Digital.

Meanwhile, school administrators present at the meeting “didn’t say anything,” according to Mullens recollection of the event. And on-campus mental health professionals were never notified about the situation until after Mullens and others went public with the matter in a press conference. Following the press conference, Mullens and her teammates were denied opportunities to study abroad in locations of their choice despite good academic performance and a history of extensive extracurricular activities, according to Miyares’ findings. 

Mullens told Fox News Digital the explanations she and other swimmers got for their denials only added confusion to the whole matter even further. 

“Basically, it said, ‘Not only is the professor responsible for the student’s academics, but also for their behavior,’” Mullens said. “I had no idea what that means. I’ve never had any sort of disciplinary action to me.” 

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In additional conversations with Fox News Digital leading up to Virginia’s November elections, Mullens said she felt like the college simply brushed aside all of her concerns, while taking actions that suggested support for the transgender swimmer.  

“Every single email that was sent in response to us Roanoke girls speaking out — I remember our original press conference, as well as when we spoke at the Trump rally in Salem that he had last year — our president sent out emails where he said, ‘We love and support our LGBTQ students.’ So, it was like, ‘Well, if you preach inclusion and diversity that includes of ideals.’ So, when people kind of brush over that and then don’t say anything else about it, it’s so hypocritical to me and I don’t … I’ve never understood how we can have one without the other.

“We need leaders who are able to say, ‘Absolutely not, we’re just not going to let this happen,’” Mullens said.

Approximately a week ago, Youngkin issued Executive Directive 14, which directed the state board of health to begin drafting new policies requiring private spaces, such as locker rooms and bathrooms, and for sports teams to remain separated by students’ gender assigned at birth. 

Mullens said she feared that, just like a new president could overturn President Donald Trump’s plethora of executive orders, a new Democratic governor could do the same in her state. During a gubernatorial debate Thursday night, former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, Democratic Party candidate, would not answer definitively whether she would rescind Youngkin’s Executive Directive 14, but she did say she does not believe politicians should be determining rules for school districts. 

Her GOP opponent, Earle-Sears, unequivocally said she would not rescind the directive.

Mullens also expressed concern in her interview about the upcoming attorney general race in the state, pitting Miyares and Jones against each other. Recently, Jones came under fire after text messages from 2022 surfaced of him saying then-Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert should get “two bullets to the head.” 

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“I think it’s insane that somebody who is wanting to be the top person when it comes to the law in the state can say that there’s people he wishes death upon and things like that. That could very well turn into me. It could turn into my teammates,” Mullens said. “The top of the law in a state should be somebody who you know is going to defend every single citizen, no matter what.”

Mullens, meanwhile, called Miyares “instrumental” in supporting her and her teammates, including through helping get their story out to the broader public. 

“We were bullied. I mean, I have death threats that came into my direct messages on my personal social media accounts. I have anonymous messages that were sent to me by people who I could have been sitting next to in class, and it’s stuff like that that is so hard to deal with,” Mullens said. 

“When Attorney General Miyares came out and said, ‘Look, we’re going to investigate what the school did to these girls,’ we were just so grateful.”