Democrats win healthcare battle as 17 GOP members help push Obamacare funding
The House of Representatives passed a bill to revive and extend COVID-19 pandemic-era enhanced Obamacare subsidies in a major victory for Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.
Seventeen House Republicans broke ranks with GOP leaders to support the legislation after Democrats were successful in forcing a vote via a mechanism called a privileged resolution. The bill passed 230-196.
A discharge petition is a mechanism for getting legislation considered on the House floor even if the majority’s leadership is opposed to it, provided the petition gets a majority of House lawmakers’ signatures.
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Jeffries filed a discharge petition late last year, which was then signed by four House Republicans — helping it clinch the critical majority threshold.
Five more House Republicans joined Democrats in a vote Wednesday evening to advance the legislation for final consideration Thursday.
The 17 Republicans who voted for the legislation were Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa.; Mike Lawler, R-N.Y.; Rob Bresnahan, R-Pa.; Ryan Mackenzie, R-Pa.; Mike Carey, R-Ohio; Monica De La Cruz, R-Texas; Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y.; Will Hurd, R-Colo.; Dave Joyce, R-Ohio; Tom Kean Jr., R-N.J., Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., Max Miller, R-Ohio; Zach Nunn, R-Iowa; Maria Salazar, R-Fla.; Dave Valadao, R-Calif.; Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis.; and Rob Wittman, R-Va.
It underscores the perilously slim margins Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is governing with.
House Republicans hold just a two-vote majority with full attendance on both sides, numbers that could easily shift when lawmakers are absent for personal or health reasons.
As Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., put to reporters on Wednesday morning, “We are one flu season away from losing the majority.”
The successful vote on Thursday is a blow for Johnson, who argued for weeks that the majority of House Republicans were opposed to extending the COVID-19 pandemic-era tax subsidies.
But a significant number of GOP moderates were frustrated that their party leaders in the House and Senate had done little to avert a price hike for millions of Americans’ insurance premiums.
A Democrat-controlled Congress voted twice, in 2020 and in 2021, to enhance Obamacare subsidies to give more people access to federal healthcare during the pandemic.
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Those subsidies were only extended through 2025, however.
The vast majority of Republicans believe the subsidies are a COVID-era relic of a long-broken federal healthcare system. Conservatives argued that the relatively small percentage of Americans who rely on Obamacare meant that an extension would do little to ease rising health costs that people across the country are experiencing.
But a core group of moderates has been arguing that a failure to extend a reformed version of them would force millions of Americans to grapple with skyrocketing healthcare costs this year.
Those moderates were also frustrated with Jeffries for not working with Republicans on a bipartisan solution to the subsidies but felt they were left with little choice but to support Democrats’ bid in the end.
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House Republicans passed a healthcare bill in mid-December aimed at lowering those costs for a broader swath of Americans, but that legislation has not been taken up in the Senate.
There’s also little chance the three-year extension will pass the upper chamber, however. Similar legislation led by Senate Democrats failed to reach the necessary 60-vote threshold to advance in December.
Trump team floats massive cash payments to Greenland residents in acquisition plan
The Trump administration is considering paying each Greenland resident thousands of dollars as part of a bid to encourage the territory to secede from Denmark and join the United States, according to Reuters.
U.S. officials, including White House aides, have discussed payment figures ranging from $10,000 to $100,000, the outlet reported, citing sources.
For an island with a population of roughly 57,000, the total cost could range from more than half a billion dollars to nearly $6 billion.
While discussions of a lump-sum payment are not new, Reuters reported that officials have become more serious in recent days and are considering higher amounts.
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The White House referred Fox News Digital on Thursday to remarks by Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who said during a Wednesday briefing that buying Greenland would benefit U.S. national security.
“The acquisition of Greenland by the United States is not a new idea,” Leavitt said.
“The president has been very open and clear with all of you and the world that he views it as in the best interest of the United States to deter Russian and Chinese aggression in the Arctic region,” she said. “That’s why his team is currently talking about what a potential purchase would look like.”
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that he plans to meet with his Danish counterpart next week to discuss Greenland.
Trump has long contended that the U.S. should acquire Greenland, arguing that its mineral resources are vital in advancing U.S. military technologies and that the Western Hemisphere should broadly fall under Washington’s geopolitical influence.
On Sunday, Trump told reporters Greenland is surrounded by Russian and Chinese ships and that Denmark, which governs Greenland, lacks the capability to provide the level of defense and oversight that meets U.S. national security standards.
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“It’s so strategic,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it.”
Authorities in Greenland and Denmark insist that Greenland is not for sale, and European leaders have criticized the proposal, arguing that it undermines trust between the U.S. and Denmark as NATO allies. Under the NATO defense agreement, allies are obliged to support one another militarily if attacked, making the idea of a sale particularly sensitive.
“This is enough,” Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday, responding to Trump’s Sunday remarks about acquiring the island. “No more pressure. No more hints. No more fantasies about annexation.”
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On Tuesday, Nielsen added that Greenland will remain part of Denmark despite U.S. efforts.
“Our country isn’t something you can deny or take over because you want to,” he added. “Once again, I urge the United States to seek respectful dialogue through the correct diplomatic and political channels and utilizing pre-existing forums that are based on agreements already in place with the United States. The dialogue must take place with respect to the fact that Greenland’s status is rooted in international law and the principle of territorial integrity.”
Mamdani adviser, Warren in the hot seat as collapse of Roomba maker shifts data to China
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and former Biden Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan are taking heat for helping to kill a deal for Amazon to acquire Roomba creator iRobot, ultimately leading to the company going bankrupt and likely falling under Chinese control.
Michael Lucci, founder and CEO of State Armor, a U.S. national security watchdog group, ripped into Warren and Khan over their opposition to the deal. Lucci told Fox News Digital that Warren and Khan’s opposition directly contributed to China’s “growing espionage foothold inside American homes” and that “now it’ll be even harder for American families to avoid CCP spy devices.”
In January 2024, iRobot announced that its deal to be acquired by Amazon had collapsed. At the time, iRobot cited regulatory difficulties, especially in Europe, for the deal falling through. In a joint Amazon-iRobot statement, the companies said the merger had “no path to regulatory approval in the European Union.”
This followed intense opposition from progressive lawmakers, including Warren, over “concerns about Amazon’s anticompetitive practices that put consumers and their privacy at risk.”
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The Massachusetts senator said, “I have serious concerns about the Amazon-iRobot deal – dominant companies like Amazon shouldn’t be allowed to just buy their way out of competing.”
“The FTC should oppose this proposed merger to protect competition, lower consumer prices, and rein in Amazon’s well-documented anticompetitive activities,” said Warren.
The FTC under Khan, who served as a top advisor to New York City socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani‘s transition team, also opposed the deal.
At the time, the FTC released a statement after the Amazon-iRobot merger fell through in which it said, “We are pleased that Amazon and iRobot have abandoned their proposed transaction.”
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The commission said that its “investigation revealed significant concerns about the transaction’s potential competitive effects,” adding, “The FTC will not hesitate to take action in enforcing the antitrust laws to ensure that competition remains robust.”
Two years later, after filing for bankruptcy in December, iRobot is set to be acquired by Chinese company Shenzhen Picea Robotics and affiliated Santrum Hong Kong. This has given rise to new concerns about iRobot’s sensitive home mapping data falling into the Chinese Communist Party’s hands.
As Shenzhen Picea Robotics and Santrum Hong Kong are Chinese-controlled companies, they are subject to CCP laws. This means that any U.S. consumer data the companies gain control of may be subject to China’s national intelligence laws, which can compel firms to provide information to the government without judicial oversight or public disclosure.
“While Lina Khan and Elizabeth Warren congratulate themselves for blocking Amazon’s iRobot acquisition, the real winner is Communist China,” Lucci told Fox News Digital.
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“iRobot collapsed into bankruptcy and now Beijing-linked buyers are snapping up its assets, including sensitive home-mapping data. That’s the end result of their so-called ‘consumer protection,’” he went on.
“In the end, American and European regulators played the role of useful idiots, handing China more access and leverage, and adding to a growing espionage foothold inside American homes,” he said. “Now it’ll be even harder for American families to avoid CCP spy devices.”
In a statement shared with Fox News Digital, Amazon Chief Global Affairs and Legal Officer David Zapolsky commented that “this is an unfortunate textbook example of regulators — in this case the European Commission and the FTC — losing the forest for the trees, resulting in the loss of an innovative American company, American jobs, and American IP.”
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“When mergers are deterred, it can have long-lasting negative effects on companies and workers,” said Zapolsky, adding, “These are the very things regulators say they are trying to protect, but when the processes become overburdensome and disproportionate, companies, workers, and consumers lose out.”
In another statement, iRobot co-founder Colin Angle, who stepped down from company leadership in 2024, lamented its filing for bankruptcy, saying, “Innovation doesn’t fail only when ideas are wrong—it can fail when the path to scale is removed.”
“When companies that create categories are denied viable ways to grow, everyone pays the price: consumers, employees, and the broader innovation economy,” said Angle.
Fox News Digital reached out to Warren, Khan and iRobot for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Trump orders $200B mortgage bond buys he says Biden wrecked economy badly
President Donald Trump said he is directing representatives to buy $200 billion in mortgage bonds to drive down rates, blaming former President Joe Biden for what he called a broken economy marked by inflation, crime and an “American Dream” he says his administration is restoring.
The comments came in a social media post Thursday in which Trump leveled a broader critique of the Biden-era economy while highlighting past decisions he said strengthened key housing institutions.
“Biden ignored the Housing Market, and instead was immersed with High Crime, Open Borders, runaway INFLATION, the Afghanistan Disaster, and a Military that he left in Chaos and Confusion,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Everything was broken, but I, as President of the United States, have already fixed it!
“Now, I am giving special attention to the Housing Market. Because I chose not to sell Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in my First Term, a truly great decision, and against the advice of the ‘experts,’ it is now worth many times that amount — AN ABSOLUTE FORTUNE — and has $200 BILLION DOLLARS IN CASH,” he continued. “Because of this, I am instructing my Representatives to BUY $200 BILLION DOLLARS IN MORTGAGE BONDS. This will drive Mortgage Rates DOWN, monthly payments DOWN, and make the cost of owning a home more affordable.
HOUSING MARKET EXPECTED TO OFFER LITTLE RELIEF FOR BUYERS IN 2026 DESPITE MODEST IMPROVEMENTS AHEAD
“It is one of my many steps in restoring Affordability, something that the Biden Administration absolutely destroyed,” Trump added. “We are bringing back the AMERICAN DREAM that was destroyed by the last Administration. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
In response to Trump’s post, Director of Federal Housing William Pulte said on X, “We are on it. Thanks to President Trump, Fannie and Freddie will be executing.”
The announcement followed Trump’s proposal to ban “large institutional investors” from purchasing single-family homes as part of a broader housing agenda.
Trump said high inflation has pushed homeownership out of reach for many Americans, particularly younger buyers, arguing the housing market has drifted away from its traditional role as a pathway to the American Dream.
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“People live in homes, not corporations,” Trump said.
Trump did not provide details on how or when the ban would be implemented but said he would discuss it further during his upcoming appearance at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Trump’s housing push comes as scrutiny has grown over comments made by a top housing official in New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration regarding homeownership.
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Cea Weaver, a longtime housing activist and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, was tapped by Mamdani to serve as director of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants.
Since taking office, Weaver has drawn attention to several past tweets posted on her since-deleted X account.
A screenshot of an Aug. 21, 2019, tweet shows Weaver writing that “private property, including and kind of ESPECIALLY homeownership is a weapon of white supremacy masquerading as ‘wealth building’ public policy.”
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In an earlier tweet from Dec. 18, 2017, Weaver also called for voters to “elect more communists.”
Bradley Cooper finally responds to years of speculation about his changing looks
Bradley Cooper is putting an end to the plastic surgery rumors — once and for all.
The 51-year-old actor addressed ongoing speculation about his appearance during the “SmartLess” podcast, revealing that the online chatter has spilled into his real life.
“Some people came up to me the last couple weeks,” Bradley told hosts Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett. “They’re like, ‘Oh, you look good!’”
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The comments prompted a response from Arnett, who made clear he’s fed up with the rumors surrounding his celebrity friend.
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“It made me mad because people say that all the time, and I’m like, it’s such a hilarious thing. Everybody thinks that they know. You know, you read that bulls–t stuff.”
The topic was brought up after Arnett was previously asked to name one fact about Cooper that people don’t already know.
“I said, ‘Well, there’s a lot’,” Arnett explained. “And then I was gonna say, because we keep reading it, ‘everybody thinks that Bradley’s had plastic surgery.’ Everybody keeps saying that. I’m like, ‘What people don’t know is that he hasn’t.’ Of course, he hasn’t!”
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The exchange marked the first time Cooper has publicly weighed in on plastic surgery rumors, though it’s not the first time his appearance has sparked debate.
The actor previously faced backlash for wearing a prosthetic nose while portraying legendary composer Leonard Bernstein in the 2023 film “Maestro,” a transformation that drew criticism and forced Cooper to publicly defend the creative choice.
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“The truth is I’ve done this whole project out of love,” he shared on CBS Mornings at the time. He said his intentions were perfectly clear. “My nose is very similar to Lenny, actually,” he added. “The prosthetic is like a silk sheet…”
“The Hangover” star has been romantically linked to model Gigi Hadid since 2023. The supermodel from Malibu has a 5-year-old daughter with former One Direction musician Zayn Malik, while Cooper and his ex, Irina Shayk, co-parent their 8-year-old daughter, Lea.
Jenny McCarthy says she won’t ‘step foot in that place’ again after ‘The View’ stint
Don’t expect to see Jenny McCarthy back on “The View” anytime soon.
McCarthy, who appeared as a co-host on Season 17, insisted she would never return to the talk show despite requests for the former Playboy model to come back for reunions.
“They’ve asked me to come back for, like, reunion shows,” she said during an appearance on “The Katie Miller Podcast.” “I was like, over my dead body would I ever step foot in that place.”
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McCarthy claimed she was brought onto “The View” in 2013 to help make the show less polarizing.
“The reason why they wanted to bring me on is because they, quote, said it was too polarizing,” she explained. “They thought it was too polarizing back then, you guys.”
“Well, that lasted a week. That lasted a whole week,” she said. “And back then, I didn’t consider myself to be a political person, which is why I thought I was perfect for the job. After a week, when they said they wanted to get political, I was like, ‘Oh my God, what am I going to do?'”
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McCarthy’s spot as a permanent panelist was meant to add “light, fluffy, and fun” commentary on topics like “The Bachelor” or “Dancing with the Stars,” but things quickly changed.
“They’re like, ‘Today we’re going to be discussing the hostage situation and whether the United States government should pay the ransom or not.’ And I was like, ‘What?'” McCarthy recalled. “I’m like, ‘I just know who won ‘Dancing with the Stars.’ So getting through that year was really difficult.”
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McCarthy recently revealed that she leans more conservative despite publicly identifying as politically independent. The former MTV host credited the latest administration as the reason she’s vocal and “much more political.”
“I’m much more political now in terms of having opinions because of — thank God — our latest administration has helped so much,” she explained.
“But back then? Ooh, I would not, I would never even,” McCarthy revealed.
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Oil giants battle ‘wacko’ $740M verdict as Supreme Court weighs jurisdiction
FIRST ON FOX: A landmark Supreme Court case set to decide whether Big Oil entities can move coastal erosion suits out of local and state courts and cement them in federal courts, as localities continue to seek billions from domestic oil companies, will have far-reaching repercussions, experts said.
Last year, a jury in coastal Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, ordered Chevron to pay more than $740 million for wetlands damage linked to operations by its former subsidiary Texaco in the mid-20th century.
While the Supreme Court case does not seek to overturn the fine and was filed before the Louisiana ruling, a decision by the high court could carry multibillion-dollar implications, several legal experts said.
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As Chevron argues the suits it is facing in certain Gulf Coast communities — where critics claim some local and state officials are in cahoots against them and aligned with friendly attorneys for the municipalities — many damage claims stem from World War II-era fuel production carried out under federal contract. The companies say that the link to the federal government, along with alleged local bias, means future cases must be heard at the federal level.
Plaquemines Parish argued the claims involve environmental harm that is beyond the control of Washington — meaning that the high court’s decision could reshape where massive suits against Big Oil can be heard; as many companies also seek to ramp up production in line with President Donald Trump’s “energy dominance agenda.”
“There is thus no denying that these petitioners are being sued in state court for production activities undertaken to fulfill their federal refining contracts,” a brief filed by Chevron and ExxonMobil said, in part.
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Prominent NYU law professor Richard Epstein said Wednesday that Plaquemines Parish has pointed to massive erosion dating back to the 1920s amid increased wartime operations, while also citing hurricanes’ devastating impact on the bayou’s already fragile landscape.
Companies used the area to produce “AvGas” for wartime aircraft, and that Louisiana officials calculated the erosion in the billions of gallons, but added that comparisons made to the BP Oil Spill were different because “pollution is very different than erosion.”
“Nobody wishes to deny it, but it had nothing to do with it. So what you do is you have the Supreme Court dealing with a very technical question,” he said.
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“Local bias issue is extremely powerful, which is why you have that statute. It’s the same reason why we have diversity jurisdiction; the home court advantage is really huge and there’s no place where it’s worse than in Louisiana — so you get the bias, you get these jury verdicts, which are completely wacko as far as I can tell,” he said.
He faulted Louisiana officials for siding with plaintiff’s lawyers in the fine-related case to oppose “anything that they bring into court” on such matters, calling it an “outright mischarge of duty” that requires high court intervention.
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Epstein said he is “reasonably confident” that the court will reverse a lower court’s ruling that the parish is the proper legal jurisdiction, warning that if not “it’s a bigger scandal than I think we’ve ever seen in terms of the litigation system.”
Mike Fragoso, an attorney at former Attorney General Bill Barr’s firm Torridon Law, said that there are more than 40 cases filed that allege oil and gas companies have caused erosion through exploration activities in the Gulf; totaling billions of dollars in claims.
Those hefty figures should be a warning against so-called “hometowning” — or the dynamic in which local juries tend to side with their neighbor plaintiffs and against “outsider” companies, Fragoso said.
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“The idea is to prevent local judges and juries from hometowning federal officials as they’re doing the work of the federal government,” he said.
“And Chevron’s view is that because they were in the AvGas business, at the direction of the federal government in World War II, they belong in federal court. The state of Louisiana and the plaintiffs disagree.”
While a supporter of U.S. energy development, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry sided with Plaquemines as attorney general when the saga began.
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Current AG Liz Murrill said in a statement that “virtually every federal court has rejected Chevron’s attempt to avoid liability for knowingly and intentionally violating state law.”
“I’ll fight Chevron in state or federal court — either way, they will not win,” she added.
John Carmouche, an attorney behind the Chevron case and other pending suits, said the appeal to the high bench doesn’t focus on the merits of the dispute itself.
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“It’s more delay, they’re going to fight till the end, and we’re going to continue to fight as well,” he told The Associated Press.
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ESPN’s Stephen A Smith reveals stance on ICE agent’s shooting of Minnesota woman
ESPN host Stephen A. Smith delivered his verdict about Wednesday’s shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent in Minnesota.
During an appearance on his podcast, Smith called the shooting “completely justified” from a legal perspective, but he also believes the agent could have shot the tires of the woman’s vehicle instead.
“I saw the video on numerous occasions and seeing what transpired from a lawful perspective as it pertains to a law enforcement official, don’t expect him to be prosecuted. He was completely justified,” Smith said.
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“From a humanitarian perspective, however, why did you have to do that? If you could move out the way, that means you could have shot the tires. That means you could have got a few feet away after you shot the tires. And if you were unsuccessful in doing that, you could have got her down the road.
“You didn’t have to do that. She wasn’t driving down the road coming at you 90 miles an hour. She was parked in the middle of the street, and rather than get out the car, she wrongfully tried to drive off and wrongfully disregarded a law enforcement official, which is exactly what ICE is, and, as a result, lost her life because of it.”
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Good was operating a vehicle at the time of her death. Agents ordered her to exit the vehicle, and she refused and “attempted to run them over and ram them with her vehicle,” according to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
“It was an act of domestic terrorism,” Noem said. “An officer of ours acted quickly and defensively, shot to protect himself and the people around him.”
Federal authorities said Good tried to run over ICE agents who were part of a 2,000-member team sent to the Twin Cities to round up and deport illegal immigrant criminals.
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Members of the Minneapolis City Council confirmed Good’s identity in a joint statement Wednesday, calling her “a member of our community” and demanding that ICE leave the city.
The Department of Homeland Security reported in December that assaults and violent attacks against ICE law enforcement officers have surged more than 1,150% compared to attacks under the Biden administration. It found there were 238 assaults on ICE officers between Jan. 21, 2025, to Nov. 21, 2025, up from just 19 during the same timeframe in 2024.
Britain blocks Venezuela’s gold stash as pressure for democracy shift
The U.K. has signaled over a billion dollars worth of Venezuelan gold could stay held in vaults at the Bank of England, despite the arrest of Nicolás Maduro and the appointment of interim leader, Delcy Rodríguez, according to reports.
Addressing Parliament on Jan. 5, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper suggested that because Britain does not recognize the current administration, the bullion is unlikely to be released.
“It is important that we have the pressure in place to have a transition to a democracy which is also about the will of the Venezuelan people,” Cooper said.
“Obviously, there are independent decisions for the Bank of England to take, but our principles are about maintaining and pursuing stability and a transition to democracy, and that is what is guiding our approach,” she said in her statement.
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The gold, which is part of Venezuela’s central bank reserves, has been frozen since 2020 amid competing claims over who has legal authority to access it.
“So the gold stays where it is,” Rhona O’Connell, head of market analysis for EMEA and Asia at StoneX, told Fox News Digital.
“This has implications for the gold that is frozen in the Bank of England, and which Maduro has been trying to get released.”
O’Connell claimed Venezuela had sold large quantities of gold between 2012 and 2016 as the country’s economic crisis deepened.
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“The last major tranche appears to have been 85 metric tons in the first half of 2016, with further small sales thereafter,” she said, adding that Venezuela last officially reported reserves to the International Monetary Fund in mid-2018.
“Figures picked up by the World Gold Council suggest net sales of 179t since 2022,” O’Connell said.
Maduro launched legal action against the Bank of England in 2020, prompting rival claims over who could represent Banco Central de Venezuela which owns the gold, but has been under U.S. sanctions since April 2019.
The UK High Court initially sided with the Bank of England, but the decision was later overturned by the Court of Appeal, with the UK Supreme Court ultimately ruling in favor of recognizing Juan Guaidó as president.
The Supreme Court documents have the value in 2020 at around $1.95bn. Given the price of gold has has increased since then, it could now likely be worth over $3 billion.
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Still, the gold has been frozen under London’s jurisdiction, consistent with the UK government’s recognition policy, per reports.
“This follows the One Voice doctrine, a UK ruling that means when a UK Government refuses to recognize another Head of State, the courts must do likewise,” O’Connell said,
Swiss authorities, meanwhile, have also frozen assets linked to Maduro and dozens of associates following his arrest by U.S. forces, though they have not disclosed the total value of those assets, according to Reuters.
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Between those years, Venezuela exported about 113 metric tonnes of gold worth roughly $5.2 billion to Switzerland, according to Swiss customs data, Reuters reported.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Bank of England and the U.K. Foreign Office for comment.