Florida women discover they’re flying solo after Southwest ‘forgot about’ them
Two blind women from Florida recently discovered they were the only passengers aboard their Southwest Airlines flight from New Orleans to Orlando, saying the company needs to improve how it communicates with passengers who have disabilities.
Sherri Brun and Camille Tate were traveling together on Southwest Flight 2637, scheduled to depart New Orleans on July 14. Following a nearly five-hour delay, the two friends finally boarded their flight, only to discover they were the only two people on the plane, FOX 35 reported.
TERRIFIED PASSENGERS ‘FLEW OUT OF THEIR SEATS’ DURING DRAMATIC SOUTHWEST NOSEDIVE TO AVOID MID-AIR CRASH
“You’re the only two people on this flight because they forgot about you,” Brun said the two women were told.
Brun and Tate said they had waited by their assigned gate, checking Southwest’s app for updates. However, unbeknownst to them, nearly all the other passengers had been rebooked on a separate Southwest flight to Orlando that departed earlier from a nearby gate, FOX 35 reported.
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, airlines must provide prompt and effective communication for passengers with visual impairments, especially during delays or rebookings and boarding changes a federal law under the Air Carrier Access Act.
Brun and Tate said that requirement was far from met. “Nobody said a word to us about another flight,” Brun said. “We were just waiting at the gate, checking the app, like everyone else.”
MOM PULLS OFF SNEAKY AIRLINE SEAT HACK THAT HAS OTHER TRAVELERS IN DISBELIEF
“There needs to be some improvement in how they communicate with their passengers, especially those that have disabilities,” Tate said.
“We have seen inaccurate accounts that suggest we ‘forgot’ the two customers, or that we sent a plane back to get them,” a Southwest spokesperson told Fox News Digital in an email. “Neither of these is the case. … The Customers were scheduled on Flight 2637. Although it ran almost five hours late that day, it remained their same flight number throughout.”
FLIGHT PASSENGER’S RANT ABOUT AIRLINE STANDBY PRACTICES GOES VIRAL AS RECORD SUMMER TRAVEL GETS UNDERWAY
Southwest said it offered each of the women a $100 travel voucher as compensation for the delay.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“We apologize for the inconvenience,” Southwest told Fox News Digital. “Southwest is always looking for ways to improve our customers’ travel experiences, and we’re active in the airline industry in sharing best practices about how to best accommodate Passengers with disabilities.”
Trump weighs major marijuana policy move that would reclassify the plant
President Donald Trump is weighing whether to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, according to a report.
Trump told attendees at a $1 million-a-plate fundraiser at his New Jersey golf club earlier this month he was interested in making a change to the plant’s classification, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.
This comes after cannabis companies have committed millions of dollars to the president’s political groups, according to the report.
FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS OREGON LAW REQUIRING MARIJUANA BUSINESS WORKERS SET UP LABOR AGREEMENTS WITH WORKERS
The guests at Trump’s fundraiser included Kim Rivers, chief executive of Trulieve, one of the largest marijuana companies. Rivers urged the president to make the change and expand medical marijuana research, the newspaper noted.
The potential move to remove marijuana from the list of Schedule I controlled substances and make it a Schedule III drug would make it significantly easier to buy and sell cannabis and make the industry more profitable.
The Biden administration had begun pursuing the reclassification of marijuana but did not enact the change before leaving office.
There have also been several bills introduced in Congress by Democrats and Republicans to either lower the classification of marijuana to a Schedule III drug or remove it from the list of controlled substances altogether. Federal lawmakers have also sought to decriminalize the plant.
CANNABIS CEO URGES TEXAS GOV TO VETO SWEEPING THC BAN, PUSH FOR REGULATIONS
GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE
But these measures have not been signed into law.
At least 40 states have legalized medical marijuana, while 24 states and Washington, D.C., have also legalized recreational marijuana.
‘Progressive snowflake era’ over as Hollywood studios abandon woke programming
Hollywood’s “progressive snowflake era” is over, with studios turning away from DEI and socially conscious programming, a New York Times column argued on Saturday.
“Hollywood is rapidly shifting away from the socially conscious framework that for more than a decade has driven its narratives, casting and green lights,” editor-in-chief for The Wrap, Sharon Waxman, wrote in a guest essay for The New York Times.
Waxman pointed to the recent sale of an “anti-woke” reboot of the 1992 Paul Veerhoven film “Basic Instinct” as an example of how Hollywood is pivoting away not just from diversity, equality and inclusion in its business practices, but from a social justice-oriented outlook at the box office as well.
She cited the Netflix show “The Hunting Wives” as evidence that Hollywood is no longer woke — proclaiming that everyone on the series is “hot, horny and white.”
BACKLASH AGAINST SYDNEY SWEENEY ‘JEANS/GENES’ AD GETS MOCKED BY WH: AMERICANS ARE ‘TIRED OF THIS BULLS—’
Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle ad is further evidence of Hollywood’s anti-woke shift, Waxman claimed. Upon the launch of the advertisement, both Sweeney and American Eagle received backlash, with critics claiming the ad was hinting at eugenics.
However, according to Waxman, it failed to penetrate the Hollywood power centers in Burbank or Beverly Hills, and Sweeney was left unscathed from the controversy.
“It’s had no echo in Burbank or Beverly Hills, where not so long ago, Ms. Sweeney might have had to apologize for her insensitivity and make a donation to the A.C.L.U,” she wrote.
Waxman claimed that after a string of controversies that beset Hollywood — including the #OscarsSoWhite campaign and criticism of a lack of diversity among creators — the industry set out to course-correct by emphasizing diversity in its hiring practices and storytelling. Yet, the efforts to hire additional non-White directors, screenwriters and showrunners left many creatives in Hollywood feeling like they’d been pushed aside.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTURE
“The new rules resulted in a strict if unspoken set of boundaries that tacitly put certain topics and categories outside the accepted circles of casting and green lights. It isn’t only that conservative groups gripe that “their” stories… don’t get produced,” Waxman said. “But I also can’t count the number of times I’ve heard quiet frustration from a reasonably accomplished white male screenwriter who felt cast out by the top talent agencies. In the process of “recentering” Hollywood, some people suddenly felt shunted to the side.”
Waxman said Hollywood’s shift had been a long time coming, predating President Donald Trump’s return to office. However, with the president’s return to the White House, the trend has accelerated. His administration’s fight against DEI has contributed to Hollywood studios abandoning the controversial policies.
“At the talent agencies where Hollywood’s hustlers are out selling scripts and projects, no longer are queer writers of color, for example, so much in demand. No longer are preferred pronouns expected on your email signature,” Waxman said.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Massive space object could be alien probe on ‘reconnaissance mission,’ expert warns
Astronomers recently discovered a rare interstellar object passing through our solar system, and a Harvard physicist is sounding the alarm that its strange characteristics might indicate it’s more than just a typical comet.
“Maybe the trajectory was designed,” Dr. Avi Loeb, science professor at Harvard University, told Fox News Digital. “If it had an objective to sort of to be on a reconnaissance mission, to either send mini probes to those planets or monitor them… It seems quite anomalous.”
The object — dubbed 3I/ATLAS — was first detected in early July by an Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, or ATLAS, telescope located in Chile. The discovery marked only the third time an interstellar object has been observed entering our solar system, according to NASA.
Although NASA has classified the object as a comet, Loeb noted that an image of the cosmic visitor indicated an unexpected glow appearing in front of the object, rather than trailing behind it — something he described as “quite surprising.”
METEORITE FRAGMENT THAT SLAMMED THROUGH HOMEOWNER’S ROOF IS BILLIONS OF YEARS OLD, PREDATES EARTH: PROFESSOR
“Usually with comets you have a tail, a cometary tail, where dust and gas are shining, reflecting sunlight, and that’s the signature of a comet,” Loeb told Fox News Digital. “Here, you see a glow in front of it, not behind it.”
Measuring about 20 kilometers across, making it larger than Manhattan, 3I/ATLAS is also unusually bright for its distance. However, according to Loeb, its most unusual characteristic is its trajectory.
RARE JUPITER-SIZED PLANET DISCOVERED 3,200 LIGHT-YEARS AWAY USING EINSTEIN’S SPACE-TIME WARPING METHOD
“If you imagine objects entering the solar system from random directions, just one in 500 of them would be aligned so well with the orbits of the planets,” he said.
The interstellar object, which comes fromthe center of the Milky Way galaxy, is also expected to pass near to Mars, Venus and Jupiter — something that is also highly improbable to happen at random, according to Loeb.
“It also comes close to each of them, with a probability of one in 20,000,” he said.
ASTRONOMERS MAKE GROUNDBREAKING DISCOVERY ABOUT LARGEST COMET EVER OBSERVED FLYING THROUGH DEEP SPACE
The 3I/ATLAS object will reach its closest point to our sun — about 130 million miles away — on October 30, according to NASA.
“If it turns out to be technological, it would obviously have a big impact on the future of humanity,” Loeb said. “We have to decide how to respond to that.”
In January, seven years after SpaceX CEO Elon Musk launched a Tesla Roadster into orbit, astronomers from the Minor Planet Center at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Massachusetts confused it with an asteroid.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
A spokesperson for NASA did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Illinois Gov Pritzker pressed on billionaire status by NBC’s Kristen Welker
Gov. JB Pritzker, D-Ill., was pressed by NBC’s Kristen Welker on his billionaire status as other members of the Democratic Party, including New York City mayor candidate Zohran Mamdani, continue to rail against billionaires.
“Some in your party are openly questioning whether billionaires such as yourself should exist at all, governor,” Welker said before she played a clip of Mamdani saying the United States shouldn’t have billionaires.
Welker asked the Democratic governor if the party should be embracing an anti-billionaire message.
“Look, how much money you have doesn’t determine what your values are, and I’m a Democrat because I believe that everyone deserves health care. I’m a Democrat because I believe we’ve got to fund education and have a free public education available to every kid in this country. I’m a Democrat because I believe that we’ve got to stand up for our democracy and against the MAGA Republicans who are literally trying to take away people’s rights around this country. It does not matter what your income level is, what matters is what your values are and that’s what makes me a Democrat,” Pritzker responded.
NEW YORK MAYORAL HOPEFUL ZOHRAN MAMDANI SLAMS CAPITALISM ON CNN, CITES MLK TO DEFEND SOCIALISM
Other liberals, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., have also been vocal in criticizing billionaires. Sanders has been touring the country on a “Fighting Oligarchy” tour since President Donald Trump took office.
Sanders started the tour to “take on the Oligarchs and corporate interests who have so much power and influence in this country.”
Other Democrats, like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., have spoken out in favor of increasing taxes on billionaires.
Warren fiercely defended Mamdani’s plan to increase taxes on billionaires should he be elected mayor during an interview on CNBC earlier this week.
MAMDANI CONFRONTED ON STREETS OF NYC ABOUT ‘COMMUNIST’ LABEL, REFUSES TO ANSWER
Welker also pressed Pritzker on the Republican redistricting efforts in Texas and whether Democrats were being hypocritical.
“I do want to look at the map of Illinois. Let’s take a look at this. Despite President Trump winning 44% of the statewide vote in 2024, Republicans hold only three of Illinois’s 17 districts. These districts seem to be to maximize Democratic advantage. What do you say to those who argue it’s hypocritical for you to criticize Texas for partisanship when your state also drew maps to boost your party’s standing?” Welker asked.
“Well, remember that what Texas is trying to do is, again, violate the Voting Rights Act. We didn’t. We held public hearings, legislative hearings. People attended them. They spoke out. There was a map that was put out. There were actually changes made to the map and a map was passed, and it was done at the end of the census, the decennial census, so that’s how it’s done in this country,” Pritzker responded.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTURE
Welker said that groups who grade the fairness of congressional maps have given Illinois an F. She pointed to one government watchdog who said Illinois’ map “represents a nearly perfect model for everything that can go wrong with redistricting.”
“You talk about preserving democracy, how do you preserve democracy, if you’re using the same tactics that you’ve criticized Texas Republicans for?” Welker asked.
Pritzker said again that the Texas Republicans were attempting to violate the Voting Rights Act.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“Democracy is at stake and these Texas Democrats are standing up to what the GOP is attempting to do which is to, to steal seats because they know what they’ve done is wrong. They know that they’ve made an enormous mistake,” he said.
Australia will recognize Palestinian state at UN next month with conditions
Australia plans to recognize Palestinian statehood at the United Nations General Assembly next month, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed Monday.
“Australia will recognize the right of the Palestinian people to a state of their own, predicated on the commitments Australia has received from the Palestinian Authority,” Albanese said, referring to the governing entity of part of the West Bank.
Those commitments, he said, included the demilitarization of Gaza and the holding of elections – with no role for Hamas in a Palestinian government. Australia has designated Hamas a terrorist entity and Albanese repeated Monday his government’s calls for the group to return Israeli hostages held since the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre.
Albanese said Australia will work with the international community to make the right of Palestinian statehood a “reality.”
RECOGNIZING A PALESTINIAN STATE NOW WILL COMPLICATE FUTURE PEACE EFFORTS, EXPERTS WARN
“A two-state solution is humanity’s best hope to break the cycle of violence in the Middle East and to bring an end to the conflict, suffering and starvation in Gaza,” Albanese said.
CANADA PLANS TO RECOGNIZE PALESTINIAN STATE IN SEPTEMBER, PM CARNEY SAYS
The prime minister said the situation there “has gone beyond the world’s worst fears.” He accused the Israeli government of continuing “to defy international law and deny sufficient aid, food and water to desperate people, including children.”
Albanese’s announcement followed similar declarations from the leaders of France, Britain and Canada. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized Australia and other European countries for the move, accusing them of marching into a “rabbit hole.”
HOSTAGE FAMILIES BLAST UK AND FRANCE FOR MOVES TO RECOGNIZE PALESTINIAN STATE
“[T]his canard, is disappointing and I think it’s actually shameful,” the Israeli leader said Sunday.
Australia’s government, in turn, has criticized Netanyahu’s plans announced in recent days for a sweeping new military offensive in Gaza.
The Australian leader last week spoke to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who agreed to conditions with Western leaders as they prepared to recognize a Palestinian state.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“This is an opportunity to deliver self-determination for the people of Palestine in a way isolates Hamas, disarms it and drives it out of the region once and for all,” Albanese said.
To date, nearly 150 of the 193 United Nations members have recognized the State of Palestine – many of whom did so decades ago. The U.S. and many of its Western allies have held off, arguing that Palestinian statehood should be the final stage of ending the conflict that has been ongoing since 1948.
Israeli leaders, meanwhile, have pushed back on recognizing a Palestinian state, arguing that it would reward terrorism and do little to strengthen the position of the Palestinian Authority, which lost control of the Gaza Strip after a violent conflict with Hamas in 2007. The terrorist group has ruled Gaza ever since.
The 2025 sessions of the UN General Assembly will begin on September 9 and last until September 25.
Actor with colorectal cancer shares simple sign that he ignored: ‘I had no idea’
James van der Beek has revealed the first warning sign of his colon cancer — and it’s one that did not seem alarming at the time.
The “Dawson’s Creek” actor, 48, who announced his colorectal cancer diagnosis in November 2024, recently told Healthline that “there wasn’t any red flag or something glaring.”
“I was healthy. I was doing the cold plunge,” he said. “I was in amazing cardiovascular shape, and I had stage 3 cancer, and I had no idea.”
COLORECTAL CANCER DIAGNOSES SOAR AMONG YOUNGER ADULTS FOR ONE KEY REASON
The one symptom that he did experience was a change in bowel movements, which the actor chalked up to an effect of his coffee consumption.
“Before my diagnosis, I didn’t know much about colorectal cancer,” van der Beek said. “I didn’t even realize the screening age [had] dropped to 45; I thought it was still 50.”
He ultimately underwent a colonoscopy, which revealed that the actor had stage 3 colon cancer.
Professor Eitan Friedman, M.D., Ph.D., an oncologist and founder of The Suzanne Levy-Gertner Oncogenetics Unit at the Sheba Medical Center in Israel, confirmed that changes in bowel habits is the primary red flag that should raise the suspicion of colorectal cancer.
Others include fatigue as a result of anemia, blood in stool, weight loss, loss of appetite and abdominal discomfort, Friedman, who has not treated van der Beek, told Fox News Digital.
“I was in amazing cardiovascular shape, and I had stage 3 cancer, and I had no idea.”
Dr. Erica Barnell, M.D., Ph.D., a physician-scientist at Washington University School of Medicine — and co-founder and chief medical officer at Geneoscopy — noted that van der Beek’s experience of having no “glaring” signs is common.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“Many colorectal cancers develop silently, without obvious symptoms,” Barnell, who also did not treat the actor, told Fox News Digital. “By the time symptoms appear, the disease may already be advanced.”
Symptoms are “especially worrisome” for those 45 and older who have at least one first-degree relative with colon cancer or other GI malignancies, and those with active inflammatory bowel disease, such as ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease, added Friedman, who is also an advisory board member at SpotitEarly, a startup that offers an at-home breath test to detect early-stage cancer signals.
Early detection is key
The overall chance of an average-risk person getting colorectal cancer over a lifetime is 4% to 5%, according to Friedman.
“Colonoscopy at age 45 onwards, at five- to 10-year intervals, has been shown to lead to early detection of polyps that have the potential to become malignant, and to allow for their removal as an effective means of minimizing the risk of malignant transformation,” he said.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR HEALTH NEWSLETTER
Unfortunately, Barnell noted, “screening compliance in the U.S. remains below national targets, and gaps are widest in rural, low-income and minority communities.”
To help close those gaps, she called for greater access to “accurate, noninvasive screening technologies,” along with efforts to increase public awareness.
“Most people don’t like talking about bowel habits, but paying attention to changes can save your life,” Barnell said. “Screening gives us the chance to find problems early — often before you feel sick — and that can make all the difference.”
Fox News Digital reached out to van der Beek’s representative for comment.
Loyal fans revolt as Cracker Barrel’s new look draws millions of angry views
As Cracker Barrel Old Country Store restaurants continue to undergo a physical transformation, more customers are noticing – and they’re not embracing the changes.
Cracker Barrel chief marketing officer Sarah Moore told Fox News Digital earlier this year that the Tennessee restaurant chain has been testing “various levels of remodels.”
“We’ve been very transparent about our goal of making our stores feel brighter and even more welcoming than they already are, while maintaining that country hospitality and charm that we’re known for,” Moore said. (See the video at the top of this article.)
CRACKER BARREL FAN’S VIRAL TIKTOK SPARKS BACKLASH OVER RESTAURANT MAKEOVER
But some Cracker Barrel lovers on social media have expressed their displeasure with the changes.
A recent Instagram video shared by Cracker Barrel includes a caption that reads, “Nothin’ a little Cracker Barrel can’t fix.”
It elicited several negative responses to the alterations.
“The remodel is 🤮,” one person wrote.
“Now this place looks like every other chain restaurant. Bland and boring,” wrote another person.
8 SIGNS THAT YOU SHOULD LEAVE A RESTAURANT, EXPERTS SAY
“WHAT are you thinking with that interior?!” someone else said.
Moore told Fox News Digital that the “physical guest experience” is “rooted in our brand DNA” and that the changes being made are based on “guest feedback.”
She continued, “Items like our rocking chairs, our biscuits, our peg games, antiquities on the wall, none of that is going away. We’re just looking at ways to freshen up the experience so that we can open our door a bit wider for more guests.”
Rachel Love, a content creator living in Tennessee, caught the restaurant chain’s attention with her social media video showing off the new interior.
The video has been viewed over 2 million times and has fetched nearly 4,000 comments since May.
Another eight-second video posted by @thecoachduggs earlier this month shows the interior of a remodeled Cracker Barrel. The caption reads, “At a remodeled Cracker Barrel. I hate it.”
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER
The viral video has been viewed more than 6 million times since Aug. 2.
It led to a follow-up post directed at Cracker Barrel.
“The people have spoken. Stop it,” @thecoachduggs wrote.
“HATE IT,” one person commented in the post.
“What a disaster!!” another person commented.
Moore reiterated that Cracker Barrel welcomes the feedback.
“We love feedback,” she said. “We take feedback from all channels very seriously. So, throughout this past year, when we talk about testing and all the development we’ve been doing, we have constantly pulsed various guest segments along the way.”
She said that includes loyal customers, lapsed guests and prospective diners.
“We truly want to understand how they feel about all the elements, whether it’s about the remodels or the menu or the full brand transformation framework,” she said.
“This includes understanding … the social media narrative and really digging deep into what our fan base is saying about us.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
But, she added, “The things you love about us will stay.”
“The things that make us truly who we are — that’s not changing.”
Nvidia and AMD strike deal to share AI chip profits with US government
Nvidia and AMD have reportedly agreed to share 15% of revenue from sales from AI chip sales to China with the U.S. government.
The agreement is said to cover revenue from chips such as Nvidia’s H20, which is designed for artificial intelligence applications, a U.S. official told Reuters on Sunday.
The arrangement was reportedly discussed following a meeting between Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and President Trump two days prior to an announcement that the Commerce Department would begin to start issuing H20 export licenses.
CHINA IS EXPLOITING OUR GOVERNMENT’S TECH WEAKNESS. WE NEED A RAPID REBOOT
Exports of the chip had previously been halted by the Trump administration due to national security concerns. While Nvidia has not confirmed the revenue-sharing arrangement directly, it confirmed to Reuters in an email that it is committed to compliance.
“Nvidia follows rules the U.S. government sets for our participation in worldwide markets. While we haven’t shipped H20 to China for months, we hope export control rules will let America compete in China and worldwide,” Nvidia said in an email.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CHINESE NATIONAL TRIED STEALING SENSITIVE AI MICROCHIPS, DOJ SAYS
The Financial Times, which first reported the deal, said it opens the door for resuming exports, but that the Trump administration has not yet clarified how the revenue will be allocated.
Experts say this type of financial concession as a condition for export approval is highly unusual and may blur the lines between national security policy and economic strategy.
CLICK HERE TO GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO
China remains a key market for both chipmakers. Nvidia earned approximately $17 billion in revenue from China in its last fiscal year, accounting for 13% of total sales. AMD reported $6.2 billion in Chinese revenue in 2024, or 24% of its total.
If sales return to previous levels, the U.S. government could collect hundreds of millions per quarter under the 15% arrangement, analysts say.