Fox News 2025-07-07 00:07:49


Woman swept 20 miles downstream found screaming for help as death toll climbs

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One Texas family helped save a woman’s life who was clinging to a tree for hours as deadly flash flooding struck Kerr County over the weekend. 

The woman, who was swept 20 miles downriver, caught the Jeter family’s attention when she saw Carl and began to “scream for help” while he was outside on his deck. 

“She spotted me, and she started to scream for help,” Carl told “Fox & Friends Weekend” on Sunday. “At first, I couldn’t… locate her. I thought she was in the river itself going downstream, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh,’ and then I finally was able to look across the river at the end of the tree and I spotted her, so I began to call out to her and tell her that I see her… ‘I got you. We’re going to get you some help. It’s going to be okay. Just hang on.'”

TEXAS RIVER FLOOD LEAVES DOZENS DEAD AS EMERGENCY CREWS RACE TO FIND OTHERS MISSING; KIDS CAMP EVACUATED 

The family was able to call for help and ultimately, Texas troopers rescued the woman from the tree after an hours-long nightmare. 

“There were multiple teams that showed up,” Josh said. “There was a Swiftwater Rescue from Bernie, Texas, team that showed, and then there were some Texas Parks and Wildlife game wardens that showed with boats as well. We were able to help launch those boats by hand into the water for them to get in and rescue her.”

“It was just kind of… you didn’t think about it. You just did what you needed to do to help them get into the water to save this young lady that’s clinging to life in a tree.”

The Jeters invited the woman into their home after the harrowing rescue. Carl said she was in “shock.”

“She was cut and bruised and banged up from the trek and cold,” he said. “So we wrapped her in blankets and towels and got her into the house, the dry spot because it was raining outside at the time, pretty good.”

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“She was just extremely upset, concerned, worried, and what have you.”

More than 50 people have been confirmed dead in Central Texas since the flash flooding began on Friday, and authorities are still frantically searching for more still missing. 

There are more than 27 young girls who remain missing in Kerr County who were staying at Camp Mystic, an all-girls private Christian retreat in Hunt, Texas. 

Five young girls who were staying at that camp have been confirmed dead. Authorities said about 850 people have been rescued so far.

Security expert warns of Iran’s ‘diplomatic capability’ after nuclear site damage

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Iran is preparing its next step in what one security expert warns remains its chief objective: developing a nuclear weapon.

“Repair, reconstitute and rebuild is going to be the modus operandi of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Behnam Ben Taleblu, Senior Director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Iran Program told Fox News Digital. “It just depends on how are they going to be doing it? While flirting with the international community? Are they going to go dark totally altogether?

“All of this remains to be seen,” he added.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR IRAN’S TERROR ARMY, THE IRGC, AFTER DEVASTATING MILITARY SETBACKS?

Spokesman for the regime, Fatemeh Mohajerani, confirmed this week that the Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz nuclear sites had been “seriously damaged” following the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear program last month. 

Questions remain over the extent of damage that was incurred, as well as skepticism over whether Iran was able to move any enriched uranium or centrifuges away from the heavily guarded sites prior to the strikes. 

Though the Trump administration said on Wednesday that it had “obliterated” the three facilities it struck, and has fervently rejected reports suggesting that Iranian officials may have been able to transfer some elements of the regime’s coveted nuclear program, Israeli officials confirmed this week that they are continuing to monitor the situation closely.

Experts in the U.S. and Israel have said they believe Iran is still assessing the extent of the damage from the “bunker busting” bombs, and that the regime will look to recover and repair what it can — meaning it may be looking to buy time.

“No doubt, the regime will still have a diplomatic strategy designed to rope-a-dope anybody, and to find as much time as possible for this government to do that,” Ben Taleblu said.

The Iranian regime this week suggested it remained open to negotiations with the U.S. after President Donald Trump signaled that the talks could begin as soon as next week, though multiple Iranian officials said that that timeframe was overly ambitious. 

“I don’t think negotiations will restart as quickly as that,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a CBS News interview. “The doors of diplomacy will never slam shut.” 

TRUMP COULD ARM ISRAEL WITH US B-2S AND BUNKER BUSTERS IF IRAN TRIES TO GO NUCLEAR UNDER NEW PROPOSAL

But the regime also took steps to further hinder the UN nuclear watchdog — which is tasked with tracking all nation’s nuclear programs — and suspended all interaction with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Wednesday. 

That same day, the State Department condemned the move, and spokesperson Tammy Bruce said it was “unacceptable that Iran chose to suspend cooperation with the IAEA at a time when it has a window of opportunity to reverse course and choose a path of peace and prosperity.”

Iran has limited IAEA access in the past and Ben Taleblu argued Tehran will likely look to do this again as it attempts to hold on to any bargaining chip it can.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran’s next step, and likely most dangerous capability right now, is its diplomatic capability,” the Iranian security expert argued. “This is the capability of the regime to either enter negotiations with a weak hand and leave with a strong hand, or try to prevent a military victory of its adversaries from becoming a political victory. 

“If negotiations do take place between the U.S. and the Iranians, be they direct or indirect, the Iranians are going to be dangling IAEA access. This is already their most important weapon,” he added. 

Ben Taleblu explained that using the IAEA as a bargaining chip not only enables Iran to play for time as it looks to re-establish its nuclear program, but to sow division in the U.S. by creating uncertainty. 

GEN. KEANE: IRANIANS HAVE NOT GIVEN UP ON A NUCLEAR WEAPON

“By diminishing the monitoring and by circumscribing and even cutting IAEA access to these facilities, the regime is trying to make America have to rely on intelligence alone,” he said. “And as you see from the very politicized debates over the battle damage assessment, relying on intelligence alone without sources on the ground inspecting the sites, inspecting the facilities, documenting the fissile material, can lead to drastically different conclusions being taken by similar but not the same intelligence organizations or representatives.”

Ultimately, Iran is not going to give up on its nuclear ambitions, Ben Taleblu warned, noting that Tehran’s security apparatus completely changed during its war with Iraq in the 1980s. 

“Everything that we face from the regime that is a security threat was started then — the ballistic missile program, the drone program, the maritime aggression, the transnational terrorist apparatus and the nuclear program all have their origins in the 1980s,” he said.  “By resurrecting this nuclear program, the Islamic Republic was not engaging in a science fair experiment. 

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“The Islamic Republic was seeking an ultimate deterrent,” Ben Taleblu continued. “It was seeking an ultimate deterrence because it had a vision for what the region and the world should look like, and it was willing to put foreign policy muscle and the resources of its state behind that vision.”

The expert on the Iranian regime warned that Iran’s 40-year “obsession” with developing its nuclear program to achieve its geopolitical aims is not going to change because of U.S. military intervention. 

Accused wife killer’s secretive life exposed as woman reveals encounter at local bar

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Over 600 miles away from Salida, Colorado, where Suzanne Morphew vanished on Mother’s Day in 2020, Barry Morphew found an escape from the state where prosecutors initially tried, but failed, to convict him of killing his wife.

Barry Morphew was indicted by a grand jury on charges of murder in the first degree after deliberation on June 20 in relation to the death of his wife, 49-year-old Suzanne Morphew, who was also the mother to two daughters. Barry Morphew was arrested in Goodyear, Arizona, almost 11 hours from where his wife went missing.

Barry Morphew settled down in Cave Creek, Arizona, after prosecutors dropped murder charges in 2022 relating to his wife’s disappearance. The charges were dropped after alleged prosecutorial misconduct and failure to comply with discovery rules, resulting in the judge barring several state witnesses from testifying.

One restaurant employee in Cave Creek, Arizona told Fox News Digital he didn’t know Barry Morphew by his first name – and thought he was an entirely different person. Charlie Loots, bar manager at Harold’s Cave Creek Corral, told Fox News Digital that Barry Morphew went by the name “Bruce.”

BARRY MORPHEW TO APPEAR IN COURT AFTER GRAND JURY INDICTMENT CHARGING HIM WITH WIFE’S MURDER

Loots didn’t know Barry Morphew’s real name until June 20, when news reports began to surface about murder charges relating to Suzanne Morphew’s death.

“I was shocked that, again, I mean, I was very caught off guard about all of it,” Loots said. “I spent, honestly, as soon as I found about it, I spent like two hours reading articles about it. I was like, I was so intrigued, because I was, like, this s— doesn’t happen,” he said.

Loots said he began seeing Barry Morphew, or Bruce, as he knew the murder suspect, after the Coronavirus pandemic. He said Barry Morphew’s go-to drink was beer, often switching between Miller Lite and Coors Light, adding that he was at the bar on June 13, exactly one week before his arrest.

Barry Morphew “always was approached by other women” at the bar, Loots said, adding that he would frequently approach other women and flirted with them. 

BARRY MORPHEW EXTRADITED TO COLORADO TO FACE MURDER CHARGES IN WIFE’S 2020 DISAPPEARANCE

Libby Spruill told Fox News Digital she was one of the women Barry Morphew flirted with at Harold’s Cave Creek Corral. Spruill said she was at Harold’s Cave Creek Corral in March 2024 when he asked if she wanted to dance.

“He walked out to me and he said, ‘hi.’ He’s like, ‘Do you want to dance?’ And I said, ‘You’re Barry Morphew,'” Spruill said. 

At the time, according to Spruill, Barry Morphew said “no, no, I think you have the wrong person.” A bit later, Spruill said an individual approached them and introduced Barry Morphew as “Lee” from Indiana.

BARRY MORPHEW ACCUSED OF WIFE SUZANNE’S MURDER: SEE HOW THE 5-YEAR COLORADO MURDER MYSTERY UNRAVELED

According to the June 20 grand jury indictment, Barry Morphew went by the alias “Lee Moore.” A local gas station clerk told Fox News Digital he knew Barry Morphew by the name “Lee.”

Public records indicate Barry Morphew paid property taxes at the Stardust Trailer park and was self-employed. In Colorado, he was a landscaper and independent contractor, but he didn’t hold any professional license to do either in Arizona.

Colin McCallin, a Colorado-based lawyer and former deputy district attorney for the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office in Colorado, told Fox News Digital the use of two aliases is uncommon.

“That’s weird,” McCallin said. “I mean, that certainly is evidence that this is a person who does not want to be known by his true name, maybe even, know, a little reckless with the use of those aliases.”

“It’s clear he did not want to be known by Barry,” he said, adding its possible Barry Morphew was trying to live a double life in Cave Creek, Arizona.

Prosecutors wrote in a June 20 indictment that the chemicals butorphanol, azaperone and medetomidine were found in Suzanne Morphew’s bone marrow. They alleged that Barry Morphew used “BAM” deer tranquilizer to sedate and transport deer on his farm when he lived in Indiana.

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Barry Morphew was also the only person with a prescription for the deer tranquilizer within the area of the state he lived in, prosecutors said. The only two other entities with access to the BAM compound within the surrounding counties were Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the National Park Service, officials said.

“Ultimately, the prescription records show that when Suzanne Morphew disappeared, only one private citizen living in that entire area of the state had access to BAM: Barry Morphew,” the indictment states.

Morphew’s attorney, David Beller, previously told Fox News Digital Morphew “maintains his innocence.”

“Yet again, the government allows their predetermined conclusion to lead their search for evidence,” Beller said. “The case has not changed, and the outcome will not either.”

Barry Morphew’s lawyer declined to comment.

Lia Thomas’ ex-teammate who had locker right next to trans athlete breaks silence

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Former University of Pennsylvania swimmer Monika Burzynska said she was assigned the locker just one over from Lia Thomas’ when the transgender athlete joined the women’s swim team in 2021. Burzynska previously knew the athlete as Will Thomas, a member of the men’s swimming team at UPenn. 

“He wasn’t very social,” Burzynska told Fox News Digital, adding she had only ever had short, passing conversations with Thomas

She thought Thomas had already graduated when her team was dealt the news that the athlete would be transitioning to join the women’s team starting in the 2021-22 season. 

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When that season eventually began, and Thomas became a fixture in the women’s locker room, Burzynska often retreated to the corner of the room to change. Other times, Burzynska timed exactly when she changed to coincide with when Thomas showered. Eventually, Burzynska opted to only change in the stalls or in the family locker across the hall. 

“Around Lia, I wasn’t going to risk anything,” Burzynska said, regarding the possibility of the trans athlete seeing her undress.

Burzynska has never spoken out about her experience of being on a team with Thomas until now, amid the recent news that UPenn agreed to apologize to all the female swimmers, rescind Thomas’ program records, and adopt a new policy that applies strict biological definitions for males and females.

She said the news gave her “a deep sense of peace and validation.” 

“Not only for me, but for all the girls on the team, for all the girls in the swim world and in the sport world. And I think this decision, it brought back – at least for me – a sense of fairness that had been lost,” Burzynska said. “Women’s records belong to women and that protecting the integrity of women’s sports still matters.”

Still, the memories of what Burzynska and others had to endure lingers. 

Burzynska identifies as someone with conservative values, but says she grew up feeling “compassion” for transgender people. Her views changed when she was placed next to Thomas in the locker room. 

“I thought it must be terrible to feel like you’re trapped in the wrong body. Just be so out of touch with who you really are,” Burzynska said. “You have these issues that are from afar and you never really quite think they’re going to touch you personally until you’re on a team with Lia Thomas and your locker is directly next to this biological male. And you would have never believed that you’d be facing this issue directly.

“And then when that happens, your views change where you still feel sorry for this person because they’re clearly so deeply lost. But then it turns into more, ‘OK, this is not fair,’” Burzynska added. 

As a native of Colonia, New Jersey, Burzynska explained that she grew up in a liberal environment with prominent pro-LGBTQ sentiment. Those values followed her when she went to UPenn in the deep blue city of Philadelphia

“We have a very, very, how should I call it, like deep LGBTQ presence on campus where the campus buildings or the dormitories, rather than flying the U.S. flag, the trans flag, the LGBTQ flag [were flown]. Whenever I visit Penn, I see it’s like this huge skyscraper dorm, and they have the biggest rainbow flag you could imagine,” Burzynska said. 

“So I guess, in a sense, you could say it encourages it if a person is very confused about their identity, and then there’s this group that seems so accepting, so loving, telling you could be whatever you want to be… that might kind of, yeah, encourage people to turn that way.”

Burzynska, and the other female swimmers on the team at the time, were allegedly coerced into silence and submission by UPenn administrators. 

A lawsuit by three other former Thomas teammates, Grace, Estabrook, Margot Kaczorowski and Ellen Holmquist, alleged that university officials pressured them not to speak out about their thoughts on Thomas joining the team publicly. 

“The UPenn administrators went on to tell the women that if the women spoke publicly about their concerns about Thomas’ participation on the Women’s Team, the reputation of those complaining about Thomas being on the team would be tainted with transphobia for the rest of their lives and they would probably never be able to get a job,’” the lawsuit alleged.

UPENN AGREES TO FOLLOW TRUMP’S MANDATE ON PROTECTING WOMEN’S SPORTS AFTER LIA THOMAS INVESTIGATION

Burzynska, having grown up in a liberal New Jersey town, was already accustomed to the consequences of sharing conservative values in a liberal setting. 

Burzynska recalls, from a young age, often being criticized for having “conservative or Republican values.” 

“I had been experiencing that forever. And even UPenn, I think it’s every university at this point, but UPenn is very, very left-leaning. And so I was kind of ready to embrace that, that my views wouldn’t be welcomed because, yeah, I’ve been conservative most of my life. My beliefs are grounded in faith.” 

Burzynska recalls a futile conversation she had with her head coach, Mike Schnur, when she confronted him with concerns about being on a team with Thomas. 

“We had this long meeting, I don’t know, almost two hours long. And he said, ‘Listen, Monika, I understand all your concerns. They’re all valid. I don’t think any of them would deter you from continuing onto your senior year and having a successful senior year. I think the one thing that would deter you is that Lia is changing in your locker room and there’s nothing you could do about it,'” Burzynska said. 

“I told him in that meeting, ‘What are you talking about? Like, how is this fair?’ And his response was, ‘It’s not fair, but if you have any issues with it, come to me… Don’t talk about it with everyone else. Come to me. We’ll talk through it'” 

Burzynska said she never took Schnur up on that offer, believing that he wouldn’t do anything about it anyway. 

Still, she alleges she witnessed her teammates having those futile conversations with Schnur, from a distance.

Then came the administrators that allegedly pressured the women’s swimmers who objected to Thomas to go to pro-LGBTQ counseling. Burzynska said she called the counseling session “brainwashing meetings.” 

She never attended the sessions. 

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Burzynska has since moved on from the situation and has embraced her life and career beyond it.

Still, she admits that parts of the situation instilled “trauma” in her, and she is grateful that President Donald Trump’s administration made it a priority to instill consequences on UPenn. 

“Those [women’s] rights at Penn were clearly compromised so it’s amazing that they looked into it and Trump took it so seriously,” Burzynska said. 

Fox News Digital has reached out to UPenn for a response to Burzynska’s statements. 

Father’s relentless pursuit leads to breakthrough in daughter’s mysterious vanishing

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Nearly two decades after a Florida woman vanished from her apartment building without a trace, authorities have announced a new break that could breathe new life into a formerly cold case. 

Jennifer Kesse, 24, vanished from her Orlando condo complex after leaving for work on the morning of Jan. 24, 2006, stumping both state and federal investigators as authorities raced to catch her abductor. 

“About an hour and a half into the workday, I received a call from her work,” Drew Kesse, Jennifer’s father, told Fox News Digital. “And they said, ‘Hey, Jennifer had a meeting this morning, it’s not like her to not show up. Do you know where she is?’” 

MISSING FLORIDA WOMAN JENNIFER KESSE’S FATHER HOPES FOR ANSWERS 18 YEARS AFTER 

Kesse immediately tried to reach his daughter – relying on a family rule that they would always answer each other’s calls – but her phone went straight to voicemail. 

“I knew something was wrong immediately,” Kesse said. 

Kesse and his wife, Joyce, quickly made the two-hour drive from their home in Tampa to Orlando, where they found their daughter’s apartment empty with several outfit choices laid out on the bed. 

DETECTIVES’ TRUE CRIME PODCAST HELPS DIG UP BREAKTHROUGH IN CASE THAT HAUNTED FAMILY: ‘DREW AUDIBLE GASP’

The parents immediately called the Orlando Police Department to report Jennifer missing. 

“They looked around her apartment, shrugged their shoulders and said, ‘She had a fight with her boyfriend probably, she’ll be back,’” Kesse said. “They walked out. And that was Jennifer’s last chance.” 

More than a decade later, the family filed a lawsuit against the City of Orlando, OPD and the mayor’s office, citing a botched investigation into Kesse’s disappearance and requesting documents pertaining to the search. 

MISSING JENNIFER KESSE’S FAMILY HOLDS OUT HOPE FOR POSSIBLE DNA EVIDENCE

OPD, the City of Orlando and the mayor’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

The lawsuit resulted in the first successful request for records involving an ongoing case, with the city handing over 16,000 pages of materials involved in the investigation. Drew Kesse compiled a team of 13 members of law enforcement – including former U.S. Secret Service and FBI agents – to continue advancing the search for his daughter. 

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In November 2022, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) took over the case, with any leads into Kesse’s disappearance eventually running cold. 

Until last month, when Kesse received a call from FDLE telling him that investigators had obtained new DNA evidence and, using a list compiled by Kesse’s team, narrowed down their persons of interest.

MISSING CALIFORNIA MOM’S FAMILY DIGS FOR HOMICIDE ‘COVER-UP OR CLEANUP’ AS POLICE EYE PERSONS OF INTEREST

“[FDLE] said that they no longer consider Jennifer’s case cold,” Kesse said. “It is active. They are on what they need to do and they truly believe that they are getting somewhere.”  

FDLE declined Fox News Digital’s request for comment, citing the ongoing investigation. 

Kesse credits the break in the case to his own team of investigators and new technology removing previous roadblocks pertaining to evidence. 

HUNT FOR MISSING MIDWEST NEWS ANCHOR FOCUSES ON FIGHT OVER UNSEALING EVIDENCE

The team asked NASA to enhance security footage revealing Jennifer’s car was removed from her apartment complex on the day of her disappearance, reemerging three days later at a separate condo parking lot one mile down the road, with the driver’s face obscured by a nearby gate where the vehicle was found. 

“We have film of that [car] being parked,” Kesse told Fox News Digital. “A person stays in it for 32 seconds, gets out and walks away.”  

Kesse hopes the use of artificial intelligence will lead investigators to identify the person of interest. 

Additionally, two witnesses previously reported seeing Jennifer and a man fighting while in the front seat of her black Chevy Malibu. Records obtained by the family also indicated the hood of Jennifer’s vehicle was covered with dust from ongoing construction at her condo complex and indicated signs of a struggle. 

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“An unidentified person of interest and possible suspect was photographed parking Jennifer Kesse’s vehicle and walking away. The unidentified person was approximately 5-foot-3 to 5-foot-5 and was wearing white clothes similar to a painter or a manual worker,” a missing persons flyer from the FDLE says. “Prior to Kesse’s disappearance, she had complained about some construction workers that were working on her apartment complex and were making her uneasy.”

For now, the family is anxiously awaiting any new information that could potentially reveal what happened to Jennifer. 

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“I want to know where Jennifer is,” Kesse said. “Dead or alive.” 

Anyone with information about Jennifer’s disappearance is encouraged to contact FDLE’s Orlando office at (407) 245-0888 or OROCColdCaseTips@fdle.state.fl.us.

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In light of Jennifer’s disappearance, the Florida House of Representatives unanimously passed “The Jennifer Kesse and Tiffany Sessions Missing Persons Act,” fundamentally reforming how missing persons reports are investigated in Florida by requiring law enforcement agencies to enact written policies for handling such cases. 

“Until authorities finally put [Jennifer’s disappearance] together, hopefully very soon, we’ll keep working,” Kesse told Fox News Digital. “We keep moving forward with the authorities, hopefully to bring her home someday.” 

Revolutionary document drafted in Philadelphia townhome changed human history forever

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Two hundred and forty-nine years ago, 56 men met in the Pennsylvania State House in Philadelphia to commit treason against the most powerful empire on Earth. 

Representing 13 colonies of that empire, these men – a mix of landowners, entrepreneurs, politicians and others – had become enamored with a new set of ideas flowing from enlightenment thinkers and Christian teaching. Those convictions led them to start a war no sane person believed they could win.

Remember what government looked like back then. We now live in the world those 56 men created – a world in which even dictatorships like North Korea cloak themselves in the language of “republic.” 

But in 1776, freedom, equality and self-governance were nascent concepts espoused by philosophers and adopted only incompletely in a few small enclaves. The vast majority of countries in the world were hereditary monarchies and empires under which equal rights and individual liberty were not contemplated. The Founders’ fight seemed incomprehensible.

UNCANCEL THE MINUTEMEN: CELEBRATE LEXINGTON AND CONCORD HEROES, BLACK AND WHITE, ON BATTLE’S 250TH ANNIVERSARY

In launching it, the Second Continental Congress largely tasked one man – Thomas Jefferson – with drafting the document that would articulate their vision for humanity and this new country and reshape history.

Imagine how he must have felt. Jefferson secluded himself from June 11 to June 28 in a rented home on Market Street to draft the document. He was 33 years old at the time. In isolation in that rented townhome he drafted what I think is one of the most beautiful passages in history:

Read it again. Read it as if you were living under a Spanish colony in South America or under the iron fist of the Qing dynasty in China. Read it as if you were a poor tenant farmer under the oppressive rule of King George in Virginia or an enslaved person in Georgia (whose freedom under the principles of the Declaration was still decades away). 

WHY THE MAGA MOVEMENT IS THE 1776 REVOLUTION OF OUR TIME

Read it as if you grew up in a system that assumed you were worth less than your neighbor by virtue of your social station, and under which your future was limited by the circumstances of your birth.

The Declaration was, in fact, a “revolutionary” statement articulating the ideological and factual basis for a coup against empire. But spiritually, it was more important than that. 

It was a revolution against history. It was a revolution against the idea that some men (and women) are worth more than others. It was a revolution for the idea of dignity, human rights, and equality before law.

And when Jefferson submitted his document to the Congress, and those 56 men signed it and shipped it off to King George and to others rulers around the world, they ignited a war in the America colonies that would become a centuries-long war to transform the globe from tyranny to liberty.

READ: THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

War they got. Five of the signers were captured, tortured and killed. Nine died from wounds or hardships fighting in the war. All were impacted – raked by violence, their homes and property ravaged, their children thrust into the violence they created. They starved. They lost battles.

They must have wondered if it was worth it – these ideals that had caused them to plunge a nation into violence. And then, unexpectedly, they won.

In creating America, those Founding Fathers reshaped history. We now live in a world in which nearly half of countries are democracies. The combination of political freedom, free markets and the technological innovation unleashed by those systems has lifted billions of people out of poverty – creating a world more than 100 times richer than the one that existed at the time of the Declaration of Independence. 

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The dominant ideology now globally is the one articulated in the Declaration. And the revolution in America has become a revolution in human history.

This weekend in the United States we celebrate Independence Day. We celebrate 56 men who risked everything. But we also solemnly reflect on the charge of the Declaration and its authors.

All people are created equal. We are all endowed by our Creator with inalienable rights. Each of us deserves life, liberty, and the ability to pursue our own unique paths to flourishing. But those inalienable rights are not guaranteed. As our forebears, we are called to embrace and fight for them. 

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Abraham Lincoln once noted that great men “thirst and burn for distinction” and will have it, “whether at the expense of emancipating slaves, or enslaving free men.” And around the world the powers that oppose liberty, dignity and opportunity fight ceaselessly to dominate others.

May we, on this Independence Day, fight back. May we have the audacity and conviction to oppose the enemies of liberty and to continue to fight for the promise of the Declaration and America’s spiritual foundation. May we do so out of love – for our neighbors and for the blessings of the Creator. And may we gain courage from the example of those 56 men, their hundreds of thousands of compatriots, and the unwinnable war they won. Happy Independence Day.

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‘God is my protector’: Corey Feldman exposes Hollywood’s dark secret societies

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Corey Feldman says that his faith in God has protected him and has helped him maintain a “positive attitude” towards his life and career, despite claiming to have seen the darker and seedier side of the entertainment world.

Feldman, who starred in beloved ’80s classics like “The Goonies,” “Stand By Me,” and “The ‘Burbs,” spoke to Fox News Digital about how his faith has given him the strength to endure during his 50-year career in Hollywood. In that time, he experienced some of the industry’s nastier sides. 

“You know what I’ve learned is that God is good. God is my protector, God keeps me strong,” Feldman told Fox News Digital.

COREY FELDMAN SLAMS DIDDY AMID SEX TRAFFICKING PROBE, VOWS TO FIGHT SEXUAL ABUSE IN HOLLYWOOD

The actor and musician recently marked the 50th anniversary of his time in entertainment, a time he said he looks back on both with gratitude and positivity, while also acknowledging the trauma and abuse he says he and his famous friends suffered at the hands of predatory people.

A longtime whistleblower on sexual abuse in Hollywood, his 2013 book “Coreyography” detailed rampant child sexual abuse that happened to him and others during his career. It recounted how he was thrust into a harsh business without strong family support. According to Feldman, he had a depressed, drug-addicted Playboy model mom, and a musician father who routinely encouraged his young son to get high with him.

Feldman has often recounted how he got sucked into drug addiction for two years while he was a teen actor and has claimed that he and his childhood friend and fellow actor, the late Corey Haim, were molested by powerful men in the industry. 

In the years since, Feldman has championed industry change so that child actors are protected from similar abuse.

WATCH ON FOX NATION: WHAT DIDDY DO?

When asked if he believes Hollywood still retains that undercurrent of darkness that he says he was victimized by decades earlier, he replied, “Absolutely.”

He said, “Wherever there’s power, there’s corruption. We know this, right? Wherever there is power, there’s corruption, and wherever there’s corruption, there is darkness. Wherever there is darkness, there was light. So, it’s always about being aware of what’s going on, trying our best to be aware and trying to put out those fires as we see them.”

Feldman only briefly touched on his Hollywood troubles while speaking with Fox. “You know, obviously, yes, I’ve said some things about Hollywood because some bad things did happen to me, did happen to my best friend in Hollywood. But that said, there are also a lot of beautiful people in Hollywood that know nothing of it.”

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The actor noted how much heat he has taken – and still takes – for having come forward with his allegations of child abuse in the industry. 

“That’s what makes secret societies secret societies, right? They hide in the shadows, and then they gaslight people who try to expose them. So that’s what happened to me. I’ve dealt with tons of blowback because I came forward – tons of abuse.”

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Though Feldman said that he can “always” feel the pressure of these negative forces trying to derail him, he mentioned how he has learned that God will protect him through it all. 

“So as long as you have faith in that, and you keep bringing your best foot forward, and a smile on your face, and a positive attitude, I believe we can get past all of those things. And I believe that good always wins over evil and that’s just the way it is.”

Elsewhere, he told Fox that despite his suffering and dark past, his life “is good” today.

“As a producer, I feel quite satisfied. As an artist, I feel pretty satisfied. I have a girlfriend who’s lovely. I have a child who’s doing great. He’s 20 years old and fully grown. I think I’ve made a pretty decent life for myself, and I plan on continuing that,” he said. 

“My life is good. I’m grateful to God for giving me this opportunity to breathe today and have a chance to make our lives better each day. And I think we should all remain grateful and remember to be grateful to God because that, I think, is the key to happiness above all other things.”

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Amateur player’s baserunning maneuver leaves announcer floored: ‘I have never seen that’

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You never know what you might see on a baseball field

Duluth Huskies third baseman Ethan Surowiec fielded a groundball, as a baserunner, during the team’s 5-4 win over the La Crosse Loggers on Tuesday at Wade Stadium in Duluth, Minnesota

The bases were loaded in the bottom of the inning with one out, and the Huskies were up to bat. Surowiec was the runner on second base when a ground ball was hit to Loggers shortstop Mikey Ryan III. 

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After the ball was hit, Surowiec took a couple of steps to his right and fielded the ball himself, like a shortstop, instead of letting it through to the actual shortstop, Ryan, to avoid a potential double-play. 

“Oh my goodness, I have never seen that on a baseball field,” the announcer said. 

“Ethan Surowiec picked up the baseball (and) purposefully gave himself up.”

The umpires deemed the play a “fielder’s choice 6,” which allowed for the bases to remain loaded. The runner on third base remained, while the runner on first base advanced to second base, and the batter went to first base.

Surowiec’s quick-thinking gave the Huskies a chance to capitalize, as giving himself up allowed the inning to continue. 

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However, according to the Baseball Rules Academy, the umpires got the call wrong. Rule 6.01(a)(6) states that both Surowiec and the batter should have been ruled out. 

“If, in the judgment of the umpire, a baserunner willfully and deliberately interferes with a batted ball or a fielder in the act of fielding a batted ball with the obvious intent to break up a double play, the ball is dead. The umpire shall call the runner out for interference and also call out the batter-runner because of the action of his teammate. In no event may bases be run or runs scored because of such action by a runner,” the rule states, according to the Baseball Rules Academy

If the umpires had enforced the rule according to what the Baseball Rules Academy stated, both Surowiec and the batter would have been called out to end the inning.

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Surowiec’s seemingly ingenious play would have resulted in the same outcome he was trying to prevent: an inning-ending double play. His deliberate play to interfere with the baseball ended up as a moot point, as designated hitter Paul Gutierrez Contreras then hit a flyout to right field and stranded the three runners. 

The Huskies improved to 3-1 with the win, and they sit atop the Great Plans East division in the Northwoods League, while the Loggers fell to 2-2 with the loss. 

Actress reveals her surprising contract demand for Playboy photoshoot

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As a sex symbol, Jenilee Harrison wasn’t keen on stripping down.

The actress, who replaced Suzanne Somers on “Three’s Company,” posed for the June 1987 issue of Playboy. While she was ready for her close-up, Harrison was determined to appear in the Hugh Hefner-led magazine on her terms.

Harrison, 67, is the co-host of a new podcast, “Stall Talk,” where women of various ages, “from the boomer to Gen Z,” share unfiltered stories and wisdom from personal experiences.

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“It was in my contract that, yes, I’ll do [Playboy], but I have to keep my clothes on,” Harrison told Fox News Digital.

“So I show up for this photo shoot in the Playboy building in Beverly Hills, and I go into the changing room to do my makeup and all that,” Harrison recalled. “And the photographer – a very famous photographer – comes in. He goes, ‘You’re all ready to go?’ And I said, ‘Well, yeah, where’s my wardrobe?’ And he looked shocked. He’s like, ‘Your wardrobe? No, we’re doing Playboy.’ And I said, ‘No, my contract says I’m wearing clothes.’ He was just shocked.”

“So everything stopped,” Harrison continued. “He had to get back on the phone. They had to regroup and bring in wardrobe… He didn’t even know. But I had to fight for that.”

Harrison became part of a small group of pinups who appeared in Playboy without going nude, including Dolly Parton and Barbra Streisand, among others.

The self-proclaimed tomboy admitted she struggled with being depicted as a sex symbol in front of cameras. She wanted to be recognized for her hard work in showbiz, not just for her beauty.

“I looked at being a sex symbol as just a wardrobe I had to put on to go into Hollywood and do this job,” she explained. 

‘THREE’S COMPANY’ ACTRESS SAYS SHE POSED FOR PLAYBOY ON HER OWN TERMS

“Your wardrobe is your outside, but it’s not what your core person is, what your soul is. But I had a large wardrobe because your wardrobe is the tool of the trade. I would say at 10 o’clock I had to be a nurse. At 12 o’clock, I had to be a secretary. At 3 o’clock, I had to be a Sports Illustrated model. At 5 o’clock, I had to be a hooker. And at 8 o’clock I had to be a nun. I had to be all those things. But was I uncomfortable? Absolutely, many times I was uncomfortable.”

Harrison clarified that she felt “blessed” to appear in Playboy without baring everything. It’s been one of many surprising moments for her in Hollywood.

“When I was very young – like 19 years old… my agent called me and said, ‘They want to see you – they’re replacing Suzanne Somers on ‘Three’s Company,’” said Harrison. “I thought, ‘Oh geez, why am I even going to the interview? I’m not going to get a role like that.'”

In 1980, after starring in four seasons of the hit sitcom, Somers asked for a raise, which she said was equal to what her co-star, John Ritter, was getting paid. The actress was quickly phased out of the show and then fired.

By then, Harrison, a former Rams cheerleader, had already appeared in commercials, as well as an episode in “CHiPs.” It only took her one interview to secure the role of Somers’ on-screen cousin, Cindy Snow.

“When I showed up for the audition… I tripped when I was walking in,” said Harrison. “I fell over things and grabbed something or whatever. They instantly thought, ‘Oh, here’s our klutzy cousin girl’… How lucky I was.”

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Harrison insisted she wasn’t fazed that she had big shoes to fill.

“I just live very much in the present,” said Harrison. “Luckily, I’m extremely disciplined… And whatever job I had, I looked at it in front of me and just did the work… And when I got on ‘Three’s Company,’ I was welcomed with open arms. They treated me lovely. They treated me like a little sister… And the girls [on set], we protected one another, and we supported one another.”

Harrison was eventually written out of the sitcom, but her luck didn’t end there. She later appeared in the hit soap opera “Dallas.”

“’Dallas’ was and is still such a joy,” she beamed. “And I worked with some of the people there… I remember visiting the set and Patrick [Duffy] was there with his boys. His kids started grabbing his shirt, and saying, ‘Dad, dad, that’s Jack Tripper’s maid!’ And Patrick’s going, ‘What are you talking about?’ The boys had been watching ‘Three’s Company’ and they were so excited. That broke the ice.”

According to Harrison, the cast of “Dallas” was keen to have her join their circle. Larry Hagman, who played ruthless oil tycoon J.R. Ewing, instantly welcomed her with his sense of humor.

She also saw a different side to the beloved TV villain.

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“He would not go out in public unless he had his hat on,” she said, referring to his character’s signature look.

“He had to have that cowboy hat because he said, ‘When I go out there, the people want to see J.R.’ He loved that character. And that hat was J.R. I remember one time we were all crammed in a limousine [heading] to some event. He left his hat or something, and he freaked out. We had to stop the car and everything. He said, ‘I need my hat!'”

Harrison said one of her favorite memories of Hagman was that, despite being the show’s star, he made sure to stay on set as long as he was needed to ensure the other actors could shoot their scenes with ease.

“Larry would not go home if his lines were needed,” she said. “Larry knew that the show’s success was not just about him. The show’s success was because of all the characters and how they interacted.”

“He had every right to be the number one star, leave the set and just have that air about him,” she continued. “And he didn’t. He was very down-to-earth, and he worked hard with all of us. And he continued to work. His whole life… he’d still do autograph shows and be out in public. He never took his role, his popularity in ‘Dallas,’ for granted… [He taught us] not to take it for granted. It could be gone tomorrow.”

Today, Harrison is “living the dream” running a sprawling ranch. But when she’s not tending to her animals, she’s sharing stories on “Stall Talk.”

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“It doesn’t matter if you’re a boomer or Gen Z, we’re sharing the most intimate, honest, relationship issues with ourselves, and we’re giggling, or we’re crying,” said Harrison. “But we’re sharing those stories… All of our guests just share real and honest questions about what women talk about when they go to the bathroom together.”

“The advice I always give [on the podcast] is go for your dreams, go for the opportunities,” Harrison reflected. “You have to persevere and remember that if you persevere, anything can happen. Anything is possible.”