Expert warns US air bases ‘criminally negligent’ as China readies for Pacific clash
From new stealth bombers to AI-enabled drones, the U.S. and China are reshaping airpower for a Pacific showdown – each betting its technology can keep the other out of the skies.
The U.S. is charging ahead with its next-generation F-47 fighter, while China scrambles to catch up with jets designed to match the F-35 and F-22.
After a brief program pause in 2024, the Air Force awarded Boeing the contract in March for the F-47, a manned sixth-generation fighter meant to anchor America’s next air superiority fleet. The first flight is expected in 2028.
At the same time, the B-21 Raider, the stealth successor to the B-2, is deep into testing at Edwards Air Force Base. The Air Force plans to buy at least 100 Raiders – each built to survive inside heavily defended Chinese airspace.
The Pentagon is also betting on Collaborative Combat Aircraft, or CCAs – drones designed to fly alongside fighters as “loyal wingmen.” Prototypes from Anduril and General Atomics are already in the air. Officials say CCAs will let one pilot control several drones at once.
China outpaces the rest of the world in the commercial drone market, but that doesn’t necessarily give it the advantage from a military perspective.
“I’m not sure that’s really true. In terms of high-end military drones that are really important to this fight, the U.S. still has a pretty significant edge.” said Eric Heginbotham, a research scientist at MIT’s Center for International Studies.
He pointed to the Air Force’s stealth reconnaissance platforms – the RQ-170 and RQ-180 – and upcoming “loyal wingman” drones designed to fly with fighters as proof that the U.S. still leads in advanced integration and stealth technology.
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China’s leap forward
China’s airpower modernization has accelerated as the U.S. reshapes its force. Beijing has zeroed in on three priorities – stealth, engines and carriers – the areas that long held its military back.
The Chengdu J-20, China’s flagship stealth fighter, is being fitted with the new WS-15 engine, a home-built powerplant meant to rival U.S. engines.
“It took them a while to get out of the blocks on fifth generation, especially to get performance anywhere near where U.S. fifth gen was,” Heginbotham said. “The J-20 really does not have a lot of the performance features that even the F-22 does, and we’ve had the F-22 for a long time.”
Meanwhile, China’s third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, was commissioned this fall – the first with electromagnetic catapults similar to U.S. Ford-class carriers. The move signals Beijing’s ambition to launch stealth jets from sea and project power well beyond its coast.
Together, the J-20, the carrier-based J-35, and the Fujian give China a layered airpower network – stealth jets on land and at sea backed by growing missile coverage.
Chinese military writings identify airfields as critical vulnerabilities. PLA campaign manuals call for striking runways early in a conflict to paralyze enemy air operations before they can begin. Analysts believe a few days of concentrated missile fire could cripple U.S. bases across Japan, Okinawa and Guam.
“The U.S. bases that are forward deployed – particularly on Okinawa, but also on the Japanese mainland and on Guam – are exposed to Chinese missile attack,” said Mark Cancian, a retired Marine colonel and senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “In our war games, the Chinese would periodically sweep these air bases with missiles and destroy dozens, in some cases even hundreds, of U.S. aircraft.”
Heginbotham said that missile-heavy strategy grew directly out of China’s early airpower weakness.
“They didn’t think that they could gain air superiority in a straight-up air-to-air fight,” he said. “So you need another way to get missiles out – and that another way is by building a lot of ground launchers.”
Different strategies, same goal
The two militaries are taking different paths to the same target: air dominance over the Pacific.
The U.S. approach relies on smaller numbers of highly advanced aircraft linked by sensors and artificial intelligence. The goal: strike first, from long range, and survive in contested skies.
China’s model depends on volume – mass-producing fighters, missiles, and carrier sorties to overwhelm U.S. defenses and logistics.
“U.S. fighter aircraft – F-35s, F-15s, F-22s – are relatively short-legged, so they have to get close to Taiwan if they’re going to be part of the fight,” Cancian said. “They can’t fight from Guam, and they certainly can’t fight from further away. So if they’re going to fight, they have to be inside that Chinese defensive bubble.”
Both sides face the same challenge: surviving inside that bubble. China’s expanding missile range is pushing U.S. aircraft farther from the fight, while American bombers and drones are designed to break back in.
The fight to survive
Heginbotham said survivability – not dogfighting – will define the next decade of air competition.
“We keep talking about aircraft as if it’s going to be like World War II – they go up, they fight each other. That’s not really our problem,” he said. “Our problem is the air bases themselves and the fact that aircraft can be destroyed on the air base.”
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China, he warned, is preparing for that reality while the U.S. is not.
“They practice runway strikes in exercises, they’re modeling this stuff constantly,” Heginbotham said. “Unlike the United States, China is hardening its air bases. The U.S. is criminally negligent in its refusal to harden its air bases.”
Cancian’s war-game findings echo that vulnerability. He said U.S. surface ships and aircraft would likely have to fall back under missile fire in the opening days of a conflict.
“At the initial stages of a conflict, China would have a distinct advantage,” Cancian said. “Now, over time, the U.S. would be able to reinforce its forces, and that would change.”
Looking ahead
The Pentagon’s fiscal 2026–27 budget will determine how fast the U.S. can build out its F-47s, B-21s and CCAs – systems that will shape American airpower through the 2030s.
China’s rapid modernization is closing what was once a wide gap, but the U.S. still holds advantages in stealth integration, combat experience and autonomous systems.
“The ability to protect our aircraft, whatever form those aircraft take, on the ground is going to be central to our ability to fight in the Asia theater,” Heginbotham said.
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“Survivability is going to be key… The ability to protect and disperse your firepower is going to be central to whether we can really stay in this game.”
For decades, U.S. air dominance was taken for granted. In the Pacific, that advantage is no longer guaranteed.
Teen makes explosive claim amid lawsuit for alleged retaliation to trans athlete protest
Nothing was going to stop Alexa Anderson from stepping off the medal podium that night on May 30. Not when a biological male would be there up too.
Anderson had just finished in third place in the girls’ state championship high jump, marking her final Oregon high school track performance after four intense years of competition and training. But she wouldn’t see the medal for all that hard work for several months, she claims.
After she and fellow high jump podium finisher Reese Eckard, who finished in fourth, stepped down from the podium to protest a trans athlete who finished fifth, Anderson alleged she was forced out of the championship photo, and never given her third-place medal.
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The allegations are at the center of an ongoing lawsuit, which has already passed one legal hurdle after a federal judge denied an Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA) motion to strike charges from the suit.
“I asked after the medal ceremony concluded, we went into kind of a tunnel that leads you back out to the audience, and I asked one of the officials, ‘Hey, are we going to get our medals?’ and she said they’d be shipped to our school. And then they were never shipped to our school,” Anderson told Fox News Digital.
Months of death threats followed. Anderson claims many critics even called her school, Tigard High School in Tigard, Oregon, lobbying for her expulsion, just before graduating.
She witnessed a childhood hero in Simone Biles attack and “bodyshame” Riley Gaines in defense of trans athletes in women’s sports – they very thing she was now getting threatened for standing up against. She witnessed a budding idol in Charlie Kirk get assassinated while speaking out about the trans community, all before she got her medal.
And she witnessed it all before getting her medal, allegedly.
She had to take the OSAA to court, suing over the alleged medal withholding and First Amendment violations, before finally getting her hardware.
“I did not receive my medal until recently,” Anderson said, adding the medals were sent directly to the law firm representing her in the legal battle, America First Policy Institute (AFPI).
Then, ceremoniously, the medals were presented to her and Eckard at the Fox Nation Patriot Awards earlier in November, when the two received the Most Valuable Patriot Award.
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After all that waiting, Anderson now chooses to leave the medal at her parents’ house in Oregon, while she warms up for her freshman season at the University of South Alabama.
“It’s definitely frustrating that we didn’t get them in the moment… but it kinda is what it is at this point. There’s more important things that we’re fighting for,” she said. “Of course I wanted that medal, I worked super hard to get to that place where I was on the podium… but also a part of me knew that it was part of the sacrifice that I was making when I stepped off that podium, and there were going to be consequences.”
The consequences began right away, but got tougher over time.
There were consequences as early as the very moments after she stepped down from the podium on May 30.
“There were people who just kinda attacked us and were like, ‘You guys are bullies, you’re horrible people.'”
Anderson previously told Fox News Digital in June that most of the online reception she got after the incident was positive. But that changed as her story spread in the following weeks and months.
She started to learn what life was really like at the center of the culture war to “Save Women’s Sports.”
“There were people who were calling my school asking for me to be expelled, not being allowed to walk at graduation,” Anderson alleged. “There were people messaging me personally, just saying horrible things, death threats even.
“‘I hope you die,'” read one message, she alleges, with another reading, “‘Your parents are definitely embarrassed of you…’
“It definitely hurt.”
But it never hurt enough to get her to stand down.
Anderson said none of the harassment was enough for her to fear taking things further with a lawsuit.
“Part of me expected this and knew that’s just what happens when you stand up for what you believe in,” she said.
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And now her and Eckard’s lawsuit is progressing.
U.S. District Court Judge Youlee Yim You denied the OSAA’s motion to strike a portion of the lawsuit that highlighted what forms of political speech the league does allow, including Black Lives Matter and pro-LGBTQ pride messaging, which was a key point in the plaintiffs’ argument.
Anderson said she regularly witnessed other athletes across her four-year high school career protest at events, without ever getting punished.
“I’ve seen a lot of speech about support and rights for the LGBTQ community, the trans community, a lot of the Black Lives Matter movement stuff … wearing shirts, flags, that kind of stuff,” she said. “I think it’s really harmful to students to only allow them to express certain viewpoints that you agree with.”
Still, she never saw anyone else step down from a podium in protest. That’s her signature.
As Anderson and Eckard advance their lawsuit, they are aiming to bring protection of the First Amendment for all the state’s students, regardless of their beliefs.
Her attorney at AFPI, Leigh’Ann O’Neill, told Fox News Digital what it would take to settle the lawsuit.
“OSAA needs to very affirmatively take a stand and demonstrate that they will respect all viewpoints from their athletes and participants in their other extracurricular activities in Oregon,” O’Neill said. “When are we going to see Oregon step up and make it clear to their athletes that it is OK for you to disagree with us?
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“There are nominal damages requested as part of the lawsuit, which is sort of a technicality, and it’s really about ensuring the protection of their free speech.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to the OSAA and Tigard High School for comment.
Trump admin unveils plan to power America’s nuclear comeback
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright announced Monday that the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office (LPO) will largely focus on financing nuclear power plants.
“By far the biggest use of those dollars will be for nuclear power plants to get those first plants built,” Wright said at a conference of the American Nuclear Society.
During President Trump’s first administration, the LPO, which provides financing for U.S. energy and manufacturing projects, was used only to finance reactors at the Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia.
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There are no commercial nuclear reactors being built in the U.S. However, several previously closed power plants plan to open again, and there are plans to build new large and small reactors.
Electricity demand from artificial intelligence and data centers will bring in billions of dollars of equity capital from “very creditworthy providers,” Wright said.
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That financing will be matched “3-to-1, maybe even up to 4-to-1, with low-cost debt dollars from the Loan Programs Office,” he added.
Earlier this year, Trump signed four executive orders aimed at accelerating the deployment of nuclear technologies in the U.S.
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“What we’re trying to accomplish here is unshackling this industry from stifling regulations that have held it back for too long,” a senior Trump administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told FOX Business in July. “This industry is ready to grow. It wants to run. It wants to innovate, and there is a lot of capital available.”
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During his second term, Trump has placed energy and artificial intelligence dominance at the core of his economic and national security agenda.
‘Landman’ star flees California for rural America: ‘We wanna be with our children’
Ali Larter is looking forward to heading back home to Idaho and relaxing with her family.
During a recent interview with Fox News Digital, the 49-year-old actress discussed season two of the hit Paramount+ show “Landman,” and the exact moment she and her husband Hayes MacArthur realized they wanted to stay in Idaho – after moving there during the COVID-19 lockdown.
“We went for two months thinking that the kids’ schools would be reopened in California, and they weren’t,” she recalled. “And so they were doing online, and the schools there were open. And so we were able to put our 6-year-old daughter in kindergarten for the spring semester.”
“And that was a huge thing for us because we just wanted her to be around other children and have that kindergarten experience, and during that time we met some amazing families just organically by the school,” she continued. “And living in the town and just skiing with our children. And we really spent a tremendous amount of time together as a family.”
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After living in Idaho during the latter half of the school year, Larter and her family returned to Los Angeles for the summer, and they realized that “there are so many demands as an actor” when living in the city.
She explained that actors not only audition frequently but are “expected to show up for so many things,” including parties and charity events. While she loves L.A. and says her “heart will always be there,” she wanted a more family-focused lifestyle.
WATCH: ‘Landman’ star Ali Larter details the moment she decided to make her move to Idaho permanent
“We just didn’t want to do that. We wanna be with our children,” she said. “And so that’s when I think the biggest change was we came back after that summer, and we just made a go for it and said, ‘Let’s try this and see if it works.'”
Larter is currently promoting the second season of “Landman,” in which she plays Angela, Billy Bob Thornton’s recently reconciled ex-wife, who often appears on camera in bikinis and tight dresses.
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When it comes to stepping into the character’s shoes, Larter says “preparation leads to relaxation,” so she puts in a lot of “the work before,” which includes working with a “dialect coach, acting coach, going to the gym, eating clean, taking care of myself.”
“Since the first season, I usually have a private room where I can just take time for myself before I have to walk out and really kind of own that moment,” she said. “And so for me, it’s being able to have, even if it’s five minutes, where I can just collect myself and calm my body and my nerves and kind of really start stepping into how this woman is so alive in her body.”
WATCH: Ali Larter shares how she gets into character when playing Angela on ‘Landman’
The actress previously opened up about what it’s like portraying Angela in a mirror selfie of her in a red bikini, shared on Instagram, which was taken from her trailer while filming the second season.
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In the caption of the post, Larter opened up about how “playing a character that is so comfortable in her body drives me,” sharing that she had recently filmed a bikini scene for the show and then shared how she preps for those scenes. Her prep included waking up at 5:30 in the morning and drinking celery juice and coffee, as well as a workout and spray tan.
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While the show keeps her busy, the “Legally Blonde” star has found plenty of ways to wind down when she’s back home with her kids, saying she can’t wait to start “doing kids pick up and drop off,” because it means she gets to see her kids at “the beginning and the end of the day.”
WATCH: Ali Larter shares how she unwinds when she’s not filming for ‘Landman’
Although she said she is “so excited for this press tour,” she can’t wait to go back home and enjoy the holidays with “some Billie Holiday playing, fire crackling” and some snow.
“We really do family dinners. So I’m home cooking and, you know, right now we’re moving into the most beautiful season. It’s the holidays. It’s my favorite time of year. So the fire’s going and it’s stews and chilies and Bolognese, and it is all that. So the kitchen is where I find, you know, where I get to relax.”
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Georgia Republican hopes to make amends with Trump amid public feud
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., told CNN on Sunday that she hoped she and President Donald Trump could make up amid their ongoing feud.
CNN host Dana Bash asked Greene if she thought she could make amends with the president during “State of the Union” on Sunday, and whether she felt she had a future in the GOP if she couldn’t.
“I certainly hope that we can make up. And, you know, again, I can only speak for myself. I‘m a Christian and one of the most important parts of our faith is forgiveness. And that’s something I’m committed to,” Greene said.
She added, “That‘s why I can easily come on your show that is watched all over the world, and I can say things I‘m sorry for, and I can try to set an example of how I think we should move forward as Americans. And so, of course, on my end, I believe in that. And I certainly hope to see that happen.”
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Greene has been a vocal, visible ally of Trump since 2020 and had even once been floated as a possible running mate. However, she has become more of a thorn in the side of Trump and fellow Republicans in recent months, particularly when it comes to her calls for the Justice Department to release the Epstein files.
Trump attacked Greene as a traitor and dropped his endorsement of her on social media on Friday.
The president claimed that Greene “has told many people that she is upset that I don’t return her phone calls anymore” in a long post where he ultimately vowed “Complete and Unyielding Support” to any conservative primary challenger in her north Georgia district leading into the 2026 midterm elections.
Trump claimed Greene had “gone Far Left,” citing her recent appearance on ABC’s “The View“, and gave her the new nickname “Wacky.”
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“She has told many people that she is upset that I don’t return her phone calls anymore, but with 219 Congressmen/women, 53 U.S. Senators, 24 Cabinet Members, almost 200 Countries, and an otherwise normal life to lead, I can’t take a ranting Lunatic’s call every day,” Trump added.
Greene responded immediately on social media, writing on X that “President Trump just attacked me and lied about me.”
“I don’t worship or serve Donald Trump,” Greene wrote on Friday. “I worship God, Jesus is my savior, and I serve my district GA14 and the American people.”
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The White House did not immediately return a request for comment.
Legal battle erupts over blue state city’s tribute to first responders
A Massachusetts community is split on allowing two towering bronze statues of Catholic saints outside its new public safety building.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Joe Davis, senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, said Quincy, Massachusetts’ plan to erect statues of St. Michael the Archangel and St. Florian reflects a centuries-old artistic and cultural tradition of honoring courage and sacrifice, not a violation of the Constitution’s separation of church and state.
“This case is about a city trying to beautify a public space and honor those who put their lives on the line every day,” Davis said. “These are figures that are important to firefighters and police officers around the world. The purpose of these statues is to inspire and encourage the people who work there.”
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Background on the dispute
The statues, each roughly 10 feet tall and costing a combined $850,000, were commissioned by Mayor Thomas P. Koch in 2023 and are slated to be installed on the façade of Quincy’s new Public Safety Building, a $150 million facility that will house the city’s police and fire departments.
The project has ignited months of heated debate across the south of Boston, with critics arguing that using taxpayer money to display Catholic imagery on government property violates both the Massachusetts Constitution and the First Amendment’s establishment clause.
In May 2025, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Massachusetts, joined by the Freedom From Religion Foundation and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, filed a lawsuit on behalf of 15 residents from a variety of faith traditions.
The plaintiffs argue that the statues send an “exclusionary message” that suggests that non-Catholic residents “are second-class citizens who should not feel safe or equally respected” by their own government.
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The ACLU had earlier warned city officials in a Feb. 24 letter that the plan “plainly violates” the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights.
“Placing larger-than-life statues of Catholic saints in front of a public building unequivocally advances one religion to the exclusion of all others,” the letter stated, noting that the imagery of St. Michael standing on a demon’s neck was “particularly abhorrent” and “reminiscent of brutal force.”
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Davis: ‘This is about honoring service, not promoting faith’
Davis rejected those claims, insisting that the city’s intent is consistent with long-standing American traditions of civic art that carry religious associations.
“If we say that a symbol cannot be displayed in public just because it has religious associations for some, that’s going to require us to take down quite a bit of public imagery across this country,” Davis said. “At the U.S. Supreme Court, there’s a statue of Moses holding the Ten Commandments. It has religious meaning, yes, but it also symbolizes law and justice. The same is true here.”
Davis compared Quincy’s statues to the Bladensburg Peace Cross, a World War I memorial in Maryland that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld in 2019 as constitutional.
“That cross honored the war dead. Quincy wants to honor firefighters and police officers,” he said.
The Becket Fund, which specializes in defending religious expression in public life, plans to appeal the injunction that has temporarily halted installation of the statues. Davis said the team hopes the case will clarify whether public symbols with religious origins can exist in civic spaces when used for secular or historical purposes.
“It could either go to the intermediate Massachusetts appeals court or straight to the Supreme Judicial Court, which is the high court of Massachusetts,” Davis said. “And that court is going to be asked to address an important question and to set an important precedent, which is whether public symbols can be scrubbed from the public square just because they have religious associations to some people. I don’t think that’s right. It would set a very dangerous precedent.”
Local reaction
Koch has maintained that the statues were chosen to “honor and protect” first responders, noting that many police officers and firefighters carry medals or prayer cards bearing the same saints’ images. The works are being sculpted in Italy by artist Sergey Eylanbekov, who also created public monuments of John Adams and John Hancock for the city.
Critics say the mayor commissioned the project without public notice or City Council approval. According to the lawsuit reviewed by Fox News Digital, the first payments to the artist were made in 2023, but most city officials and residents did not learn of the plan until February 2025, when a local newspaper published renderings of the building showing the two saints flanking its entrance.
A petition opposing the statues gathered more than 1,600 signatures, and an interfaith coalition of 19 clergy members from Catholic, Jewish, Unitarian and Protestant congregations issued a public statement warning that the display “sends a message that there are insiders and outsiders in this community.”
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The lawsuit contends that the statues fail all four parts of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s test for determining religious neutrality. Although the federal high court abandoned that test in 2022, Massachusetts courts continue to apply it under the state constitution.
Davis, however, said courts have long recognized that government displays can have mixed religious and secular meanings.
“It’s very troubling to say that because some people might view something as religious, it therefore has to be taken down. And in fact, that would give a really imbalanced and inaccurate presentation of our history and culture if the religious aspects had to be sort of scrubbed out,” he said.
What comes next
The case could soon land before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, where justices will weigh whether public art that incorporates religious imagery violates the state’s strict constitutional separation of church and state.
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For now, the statues remain in storage overseas, awaiting shipment to Quincy later this year. City officials have said they will “stay quiet on the affixing front” while the legal battle plays out.
“Quincy is doing what cities have done for centuries,” Davis said. “Using art to honor the people who protect and serve. That’s not a religious act. It’s an act of gratitude.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to the ACLU of Massachusetts and the city of Quincy for comment.
Putin reportedly built identical offices across Russia as war fears mount
Vladimir Putin is running Russia in hiding. A new investigation by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Sistema project claims that the Russian president has been filmed in at least three nearly identical offices — one at Novo-Ogaryovo near Moscow, another in Sochi and a third in Valdai — allowing the Kremlin to conceal his real location the investigation claims.
Researchers analyzed more than 700 Kremlin videos and found that many appearances described as being at Novo-Ogaryovo were actually recorded at the Valdai residence, roughly 250 miles northwest of Moscow. They identified telltale clues such as thermostat shapes, door-handle placement and decorative lines on the wall. Leaked itineraries of state TV crews confirmed travel to Sochi and Valdai on dates when official captions said “near Moscow.”
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Independent sociologist Konstantin Gaaze told RFE/RL that Putin’s current pattern of secret locations and information control “most resembles Saddam Hussein’s,” citing the creation of multiple identical rooms and hidden residences. Analysts noted that Valdai’s dense forest and isolation make it easier to protect with Pantsir-M air-defense systems than the Kremlin or Moscow suburbs.
Putin’s official estate, Novo-Ogaryovo, built in the 1950s, became his main workplace in the early 2000s. Satellite imagery shows it ringed by high walls, helipads and underground shelters. But since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, he has rarely been seen there. Instead, investigators and satellite images reviewed by Dagens and Charter97 indicate that he now spends most of his time at Valdai, a fortified lakeside complex hidden among forests between Moscow and St. Petersburg.
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His coastal residence, Bocharov Ruchey, in Sochi — once a preferred retreat — has been used less often since Ukrainian long-range drones reached Russia. Analysts say Valdai’s distance and cover make it a safer command center.
The Sistema report claimed that the three matching offices were built gradually: Novo-Ogaryovo’s original in about 2015, Valdai’s copy by 2018, and Sochi’s by 2020. Each features the same beige palette, identical furniture and the Russian flag behind Putin’s desk. The duplication lets Kremlin media maintain the illusion of a single, stable seat of power.
Russian opposition politician Maxim Katz told Fox News Digital that the findings reflect an obsession with personal safety, “He thinks NATO or the Ukrainians could strike him. For someone with a KGB background, it makes sense to have multiple identical rooms. They just didn’t execute it perfectly — you can see the differences.”
Katz said the same mentality governed Putin’s conduct during the pandemic.
“It’s well known that he’s obsessive about his security and health — it was most obvious during COVID. Even ministers and prime ministers had to isolate himself for a week or two before meeting him. That long table with French President Emmanuel Macron shows it perfectly — Macron refused a test, and Putin agreed to meet only at a very long table because he was afraid of infection.”
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He added that Putin “never comes close to the front, or anywhere Ukrainians might reach. He takes his safety seriously and avoids unnecessary risks.”
LeBron James’ inner circle caught up in NBA’s widening illegal sports gambling probe
The NBA is reportedly seeking cell phones and other property from multiple teams as part of its investigation into illegal sports gambling.
“The NBA engaged an independent law firm to investigate the allegations in the indictment once it was made public,” an NBA spokesman told The Athletic. “As is standard in these kinds of investigations, a number of different individuals and organizations were asked to preserve documents and records. Everyone has been fully cooperative.”
Los Angeles Lakers assistant trainer Mike Mancias and executive administrator Randy Mims, who each have close ties to superstar LeBron James, have reportedly already cooperated in handing over their cell phones to the outside law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, which has been contracted by the NBA to help carry out the investigation.
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Fox News Digital has reached out to the NBA and Lakers for comment.
The NBA is in the midst of handling a bombshell scandal that resulted in the federal indictment of Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and former NBA player and coach Damon Jones for their alleged roles in a criminal gambling scheme, last month.
Congress got involved when the House Committee on Commerce Friday sent a letter to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver requesting information and a briefing to obtain information related to the scandal. The bipartisan letter was signed by six members of Congress on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
The committee is seeking five key points of information from Silver:
“1. Details about the fraudulent, illegal, and alleged betting practices in connection with NBA players, coaches, and officials, including the actions of NBA players and coaches identified in the recent indictment; as well as prior instances, some of which are identified above,” the letter states.
“2. Actions the NBA intends to take to limit the disclosure of nonpublic information for illegal purposes. 3. Whether the NBA’s Code of Conduct for players and coaches effectively prohibits illegal activity, including the disclosure of non-public information for the purposes of illegal betting schemes. 4. An explanation of the gaps, if any, in existing regulations that allow illegal betting schemes to occur. 5. Whether and how the NBA is reevaluating the terms of its partnerships with sports betting companies.”
The letter also references comments made by Silver during an appearance Tuesday on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show,” where the commissioner expressed support for more federal sports betting regulation.
“I think, probably, there should be more regulation, frankly,” Silver said. “I wish there was federal legislation rather than state by state. I think you’ve got to monitor the amount of promotion, the amount of advertising around it.”
The Department of Justice listed seven NBA games that saw high-stakes wagers after non-public information was disclosed to gamblers.
Rozier’s alleged involvement came in a game March 23, 2023, when he told a childhood friend, Deniro Laster, that he would take himself out of a game early, citing an injury, so Laster could place wagers based on the information. Neither Hornets officials nor betting companies were made aware of Rozier’s plan, according to the indictment, and Rozier was not listed on the team’s injury report.
HEAT’S TERRY ROZIER ARRESTED AS PART OF FBI SPORTS BETTING PROBE
Laster then allegedly sold that information to other co-conspirators, and numerous people placed wagers totaling roughly $200,000 on Rozier’s “under” prop bets to hit in both parlay and straight wagers. After Rozier played just nine minutes and never returned, the bets won. Rozier and Laster counted cash winnings at Rozier’s home in Charlotte roughly a week later, an indictment says.
The DOJ says the player was eventually ruled out with a lower-body injury. LeBron James did not play that night due to an ankle injury that kept him out for two more games. The game in question was played two days after James scored 38 points to become the NBA’s all-time leading scorer.
Another game the DOJ mentioned was a Portland Trail Blazers–Chicago Bulls matchup March 24, 2023, the day after Rozier played nine minutes, and a co-conspirator, “an NBA coach at the time,” allegedly told a longtime friend, who is also a defendant in the rigged poker scheme, that the Blazers would be “tanking” that night for a better draft pick and would sit some of the team’s best players. The resting of the players had not yet been public information.
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Rozier and Jones were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The NBA announced that Rozier and Billups were placed on immediate leave from their teams, “and we will continue to cooperate with the relevant authorities.”
“The integrity of our game remains our top priority,” the NBA said.
Former world leader backs Trump’s plan to sue BBC: ‘They’ve lied, they’ve cheated’
Former United Kingdom Prime Minister Liz Truss is backing President Donald Trump’s plan to sue the BBC, saying, “They’ve lied, they’ve cheated, they’ve fiddled with footage” as the network faces fallout from an editing scandal.
The BBC is accused of combining two different parts of Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021, speech. It removed his call to march “peacefully and patriotically” and instead inserted the phrase “fight like hell” from nearly an hour later in the address.
“There are lots of people in Britain who are cheering President Trump on and who want him to sue the BBC because they’re a huge problem,” Truss told “Fox & Friends Weekend” Saturday.
Trump said he feels “obligated” to sue the British broadcaster for tampering with the footage. He’s threatened to sue the BBC for $1 billion in damages.
BBC APOLOGIZES TO TRUMP AMID $1 BILLION LEGAL THREAT
The BBC apologized to Trump and said it has no plans to rebroadcast the Panorama documentary, “Trump: A Second Chance?” with the edited clips. BBC Director-General Tim Davie and BBC News CEO Deborah Turness both resigned in the wake of the backlash.
A BBC spokesperson said the company’s chair, Samir Shah, has “separately sent a personal letter to the White House making clear to President Trump that he and the corporation are sorry for the edit of the president’s speech on 6 January 2021, which featured in the programme.”
The network, however, is rejecting Trump’s calls for compensation.
Despite the apology, Truss believes the president should still move forward with legal action.
BBC ROCKED BY JAN. 6 EDIT SCANDAL AS BRITISH JOURNALIST CALLS OUT NETWORK’S ‘REMARKABLY BRAZEN’ MOVE
“I want to see him progress with this legal suit because I don’t think they’ve been held to account,” Truss said.
“I bet they carry on printing and publishing and broadcasting fake news, not just about the president, but about the MAGA movement, about the changes that are going on in the world, which many of the British public want to see here in Britain.”
Truss accused the BBC of being politically biased against conservatives in both the United Kingdom and the United States. She also called for the network to be “defunded.”
TRUMP ANNOUNCES LAWSUIT OF UP TO $5 BILLION AGAINST BBC OVER EDITED JAN 6 SPEECH DOCUMENTARY
“The BBC used to be the paragon of journalism across the world. It was respected. It’s now become a laughingstock, and it needs to be put out of its misery,” she said.
Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett shared Truss’s view, saying an apology is not enough and calling for compensation from the BBC.
“This was clearly defamatory under British law. The BBC knows that, which is why the network apologized, removed the story,” said Jarrett.
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“That does not, however, erase the past damages that Trump sustained, which are considerable.”
Trump said he plans to discuss the matter with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer this weekend before filing his lawsuit.