More US troops being deployed to Middle East amid Operation Epic Fury, Pentagon says
More U.S. forces are headed to the Middle East, according to Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as the U.S. escalates its campaign against Iran.
“The flow of forces continues today. In fact, Adm. Cooper will receive additional forces even today,” Caine said during a Pentagon briefing Monday morning, referring to Central Command chief Brad Cooper.
Caine declined to provide troop numbers, saying, “I don’t want to talk specifics, because that would tip the enemy off. We have more tactical aviation flowing into theater just based on the time it took to get it out there.”
“I think we’re just about where we want to be in terms of total combat capacity and total combat power for Adm. Cooper.”
Caine said the additional forces build on a monthlong repositioning of U.S. assets across the region, including carrier strike groups, advanced fighter aircraft and air defense systems, as the U.S. prosecutes what officials described as “major combat operations” that have already resulted in the death of 555 Iranians, according to an Associated Press count, as of Monday morning.
Caine said the U.S. mission in Iran is to “prevent Iran from (the) ability to project power outside its borders.”
“This is not a so-called regime change war, but the regime sure did change and the world is better off for it today,” added War Secretary Pete Hegseth.
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Hegseth said the mission was to destroy Iranian missiles and missile production, destroy its navy and ensure it has no capability to pursue a nuclear weapon.
The general warned the operation “will take some time” and acknowledged, “We expect to take additional losses.” Four U.S. service members have been killed in the operation that began in the early hours of Saturday Eastern Time.
Hegseth said the service members were struck by an Iranian missile that penetrated air defenses at a tactical command center.
Asked whether there are American boots on the ground in Iran, Hegseth replied, “no,” but said the administration would not telegraph future options.
It’s “one of the fallacies” that “this department or presidents or others should tell the American people — and our enemies, by the way — ‘here’s exactly what we’ll do,'” Hegseth said. “It’s foolishness.”
At the start of the operation known as Epic Fury, Caine said more than 100 aircraft launched from land and sea in a synchronized wave, including fighters, tankers, electronic attack aircraft, bombers and unmanned platforms. U.S. cyber and space forces first conducted non-kinetic operations designed to disrupt and degrade Iran’s ability to communicate and respond, he said.
Tomahawk missiles fired from U.S. Navy vessels struck Iranian naval forces along the southern flank, while coordinated precision strikes targeted command and control infrastructure, ballistic missile sites and intelligence facilities.
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Caine said the opening phase struck more than 1,000 targets in the first 24 hours. American B-2 bombers flew 37-hour round-trip missions from the continental United States to hit underground facilities with penetrating munitions, he added.
“We are now roughly 57 hours into the operation,” Caine said Monday, adding that U.S. forces have launched hundreds of missions and delivered tens of thousands of pieces of ordnance as the campaign continues to scale.
Imam prays to ‘destroy all nonbelievers,’ sees conflict with Iran as ‘end times’
MANASSAS, Va. – FIRST ON FOX: For many, the war with Iran — and the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — might seem like the climactic end to a long, brutal reign of terror by the theological clerics who have run the country since 1979.
But a Fox News Digital investigation reveals that, for certain hardline Shiite ideologues, including in the U.S., this is not an ending but a prophetic showdown that will usher in the arrival of the “Mahdi,” a messiah, according to Islamic eschatology, or the theology of end times.
In this prophecy, Mahdi will emerge to battle Dajjal, the Islamic equivalent of the Antichrist, in a final battle of Armageddon. For many of these ideologues, President Donald Trump is Dajjal.
At a recent Friday sermon at a local Shiite mosque in northern Virginia, an imam closed prayer with an earnest plea, before war broke out in Iran: “May Allah destroy all the nonbelievers – or kafiroon or munafiqoon,” he said, using Arabic words that refer to “nonbelievers” and “hypocrites.”
He asked for this victory “before the arrival of Imam Mahdi.”
Fox News Digital observed the sermon and also witnessed a special table of honor in the middle of the mosque’s main prayer hall, featuring framed photos of Khamenei embracing Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrullah, also killed by Israel for orchestrating terrorist attacks.
The Friday service at the Manassas Mosque reveals a theological dynamic that Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned about in early February, noting that the Islamic Republic of Iran’s leaders are guided not merely by geopolitics and national security considerations, but by “pure theology.”
“We have to understand that Iran ultimately is governed, and its decisions are governed by Shiite clerics — radical Shiite clerics — who make policy decisions on the basis of pure theology,” Rubio said.
In its investigation, Fox News Digital conducted a digital analysis of hours of sermons and scores of pages of pro-regime protest slogans, messaging and social media posts, using large-language models, and found clerics, community leaders and media platforms in the U.S. framing tensions with Iran in explicitly apocalyptic terms rooted in eschatology, or Islamist end-times theology.
The investigation found that precepts shaping Tehran’s worldview, from its clerics to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, are also being preached on American soil by proxies for Iran’s propaganda.
From the mosque in northern Virginia to religious institutions in Michigan and Texas, clerics aligned with the Islamic Republic are advancing a doomsday interpretation of faith that casts geopolitical and military confrontation with the U.S. as part of a prophetic destiny tied to the return of the Mahdi.
After war broke out Friday night, Fox News Digital witnessed pro-regime chats on messaging platforms, like Telegram, filled with prayers, awaiting “the arrival” of Mahdi.
“We need Al Mahdi…His return with Jesus will be the final win permanently,” one read.
“The saviour the warrior the dominator ‘ imam mahdi ’ [sic] will arrive,” read another.
Last summer, the Manassas Mosque co-organized a White House protest with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the ANSWER Coalition, CodePink and other far-left groups to support the Iranian regime. The groups are now again protesting Trump’s military action against Iran.
One demonstrator, wearing a black-and-white Palestinian keffiyeh scarf over her face, carried a flag last summer that read “Labayk ya Mahdi” in Arabic, meaning, “At your service, oh, Mahdi.”
In Farsi, Arabic and English, the flag also had the message, “I dedicate every single of my steps to your reappearance.”
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Pro-regime mosques, K-12 schools and local community organizations in the U.S. are “producing messaging that mirrors Tehran’s talking points almost word for word,” warned Andrew Ghalili, policy director at the National Union for Democracy in Iran, an advocacy group led by Iranian Americans who oppose the theocratic regime running Iran.
In an upcoming report, “The Ayatollahs’ Influence Network in the United States,” reviewed by Fox News Digital, the group’s researchers conclude the Islamic Republic of Iran spreads “Tehran’s messaging” in a network of institutions it supports in the U.S., for example, pitting Trump as the Dajjal fighting defenders of the Mahdi, like Khamenei and now his successors.
“What we’re seeing is years of deliberate investment by the Islamic Republic inside the United States,” Ghalili told Fox News Digital.
“This is happening on American soil, and it’s just another way in which the regime poses a direct threat to the United States, this time not with missiles but through infiltration,” he said.
A gunman just killed three in Austin, Texas, wearing a sweater that said, “PROPERTY OF ALLAH.” According to media reports, law enforcement officials found the flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran and photos of its leaders in his home.
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After the recent Friday service, two community leaders at the Manassas mosque declined to speak for attribution but told Fox News Digital that the rhetoric of destroying “nonbelievers” and the photos of Khamenei and the terrorist group leaders are meant to challenge “injustice” before the Mahdi appears.
A Harvard University report on “The Hidden Imam and the End of Time” recognizes the world’s two billion Muslims hold a range of beliefs regarding eschatology and many reject strict or literal interpretations.
In the majority Sunni sect and the minority Shiite sect of Islam, clerics describe the Mahdi’s army traveling from modern-day Iran to Damascus, Syria, where Jesus would appear at the Umayyad Mosque and pray behind the Mahdi. The Mahdi’s forces would battle Dajjal in Syria and kill him in Lod, Israel, conquering the world.
Days ago, Iran’s state-run Islamic Republic News Agency repeated the end-times narrative, quoting Hezbollah Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem, claiming the regime is the “government of Imam Mahdi” and its anti-U.S. “resistance is the path to hastening his reappearance.”
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For women’s rights activist Sara Ghorbani, a writer who fled Iran’s rigid theocratic rule in 2010, the regime’s death grip on power is disturbing.
“We’re fighting an evil that the world doesn’t truly comprehend in its belief that it has a divine mandate to usher in a day of apocalypse,” Ghorbani told Fox News Digital.
“Our brave people in Iran are fighting a tyranny that believes it is God’s salvation for this earth when, in fact, it is a cruel and ungodly regime that is actually their own prophecy of Dajjal,” added Ghorbani, who created a short video of children the Iranian regime allegedly killed in recent weeks.
In Dearborn, Michigan, Usama Abdulghani, imam at the Hadi Institute, recently posted a controversial video on a YouTube channel for “Light of Guidance,” which says on its YouTube page that its content isn’t connected to any other organization.
Before war broke out, he warned congregants that “the empire is now right outside the door” of Iran, in the form of U.S. forces. The Hadi Institute and the Light of Guidance didn’t respond to requests for comment about the cleric’s statements.
In another lecture, he reassured congregants, “Iran has been waiting for the mother of all battles for 47 years,” since 1979. He said Americans shouldn’t fight “for this empire.”
He urged congregants to engage in a “clarification jihad” and convert Americans to Islam “before Imam Mahdi returns.”
In its report, the National Union for Democracy in Iran alleges that the Hadi Institute is a “rhetorically aggressive node in the pro-Iran ecosystem.” It has a publishing enterprise that says on its website that its staff “deliver an unfiltered message in promoting an Islamic worldview in preparation of the Mahdi.” The Hadi Institute and its publishing initiative didn’t respond to questions about the criticisms about its work.
The National Union for Democracy in Iran alleges anti-U.S. propaganda, like the doomsday scenario, is often expressed at venues supported by a pro-regime New York-based 501(c)(3) organization, the Alavi Foundation, which it alleges has built “durable, institution-based influence networks operating inside the United States through religious, educational and nonprofit structures.”
In its latest IRS Form 990 filing, the Alavi Foundation, headquartered on Fifth Avenue in midtown Manhattan, reported $58 million in assets. The Alavi Foundation didn’t respond to a request for comment about the allegations that it promotes propaganda that supports the regime in Iran.
At one point, Abdulghani reassured his congregation that Iran would defeat U.S. forces, saying, “Iran has something for these guys. Don’t be worried about Iran. Iran has been waiting for the mother of all battles for 47 years. They’ve been waiting for this. Iran is prepared. Don’t worry about that. Iran’s going to be able to handle its business.”
In a new report, researchers at the National Contagion Research Institute, based in Princeton, N.J., analyzed regime narratives alleging the CIA and Israel’s Mossad spy agency, fomented January’s protests against the regime, an allegation that Abdulghani repeated. They found “decentralized influence networks,” including in the U.S., “operationalize and amplify” pro-regime narratives.
The pro-regime messaging even invokes the end-times narrative to children. In late December, the “Muslim Student Association Persian-Speaking Group of North America” shared a video showing children coloring paper masks, swords and shields labeled “Ya Mahdi, Labayk,” or “Oh Mahdi, come.” The children staged mock attacks with their paper weapons amid Legos and glitter.
A few years ago, a video from the Islamic Education Center of Houston went viral in Iran, featuring students saying they would be soldiers for Imam Mahdi, singing, “I make an oath to be your martyr.” The center didn’t respond to requests for comment, but an academic told the local media the video was metaphorical allegiance to a religious figure.
The messianic messaging also extends to pro-regime media platforms. Earlier this month, a media website, TMJ News Network, published an article headlined, “The Promise of Justice Amid Corruption,” featuring an image of convicted child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein alongside a green-cloaked silhouette and images of other figures referenced in documents released by the Justice Department. Only Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell has been implicated in illegal conduct in connection with the Epstein case.
The article stated that “against this backdrop, the Mahdist movement represents a promise of justice.”
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On the anniversary of the 1979 Revolution, the pro-regime Light of Guidance hosted an assistant imam, Hassan Salamey, who invoked “the Epstein list” to denounce “the Satanic” West.
“The Islamic Republic is the system that is working to prepare the grounds for the saviors who will come side by side: Jesus, the son of Mary, and the Mahdi from the final prophet’s line,” he said. “This is the transitional government that will lead the fight to save us all.”
Back at the Manassas Mosque in northern Virginia, congregation members closed their prayers seeking to “destroy all the nonbelievers,” the portraits of Khamenei, Sinwar and Nasrullah over their shoulders.
Former Secret Service agent warns sleeper cells preparing to strike America
A national security expert is urging the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to raise the national terror threat level following a shooting that investigators say may be linked to terrorism, warning that sleeper cell activity within the United States poses an escalating danger.
“We are facing a wide variety of threats here, and the problem is, they’re all located within our own borders right now,” former DHS advisor Charles Marino said Monday.
Marino, a former Secret Service supervisory agent, joined “Fox & Friends First” following joint U.S.-Israeli strikes that killed several Iranian leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The unrest prompted retaliation threats along with warnings from security officials who say sleeper cells that have infiltrated the U.S. may be preparing to strike.
“There’s no doubt that law enforcement and intelligence agencies are operating at an elevated threat level here in the United States,” Marino said.
“That’s based on the correct operating assumption that the United States has been allowed to be infiltrated with a myriad of threats from around the globe, thanks in large part to the policies of the Biden administration, which turned our borders into a sieve.”
Marino blamed several border policies for what he described as an increasingly vulnerable domestic threat environment, including “the undercutting and exploitation” of asylum and temporary protective status programs and weakness in the legal immigration process.
“What you have is you now have communities comprised of immigrants in the United States that have been allowed to segregate themselves based on culture and ideologies, and what this leads to is an ability to become radicalized,” he continued.
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“And as reported, sometimes this radicalization is focused on those with mental health issues, those going through a tough time in their lives… this also impacts American citizens as well, who are open to becoming radicalized.”
Marino said he remains confident in federal law enforcement’s ability to respond but warned that potential adversaries could target critical infrastructure and cybersecurity systems.
He reiterated his call for DHS to formally elevate the National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS) level and urged Americans to stay vigilant and cooperate with authorities.
Marino’s comments come as federal authorities investigate a deadly Texas bar shooting as a possible act of terrorism, while funding battles in Congress threaten DHS operations.
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Former ATF Special Agent in Charge Bernard Zapor warned Sunday that the U.S. faces growing vulnerabilities, particularly as DHS contends with funding uncertainty.
“It makes no practical sense whatsoever, and it puts our country and our communities down to something like a restaurant or a bar in Austin, Texas potentially at risk for a really unnecessary and ridiculous motive, I would say, political,” he said.
“Our public safety has to be paramount above all. National security and public safety are the paramounts of our democracy, and it’s something we have to treat with ultimate care and that nothing like politics interferes with the ability to protect our citizens.”
Iranian-American journalist tells NYC mayor to ‘stay quiet’ over response to strikes
Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad called out New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Saturday over his reaction to the U.S. and Israel carrying out strikes against Iran.
“To you, Zohran Mamdani! You stayed quiet when we have faced massacre, when Islamic Republic assassins were sent here in New York to kill us, stay quiet now! STOP lecturing us Iranians about peace,” Alinejad wrote on X. “I don’t feel safe in New York listening to someone like you, Mamdani, who sympathizes with the regime that killed more than 30,000 unarmed Iranians in less than 24 hours.”
Mamdani spoke out against the strikes on Saturday in a statement on social media.
“Today’s military strikes on Iran — carried out by the United States and Israel — mark a catastrophic escalation in an illegal war of aggression. Bombing cities. Killing civilians. Opening a new theater of war. Americans do not want this. They do not want another war in pursuit of regime change. They want relief from the affordability crisis. They want peace,” he wrote.
Alinejad referenced Mamdani’s remarks about “safety” in the city, and said “safety without justice” meant nothing.
“The people of Iran want to be free. Where were you when they needed solidarity? New York belongs to people who stand against terrorism not those who excuse it,” Alinejad continued.
Alinejad was the target of an Iranian assassination plot in 2024, as a critic of the Iranian regime.
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The Iranian-American journalist spoke to CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday alongside Moj Mahdara, an Iranian-American entrepreneur and co-founder of the Iranian Diaspora Collective.
Mahdara said Democrats needed to get over their dislike of President Donald Trump while speaking about the mixed reactions from members of the party.
“I think that it is imperative the Democratic Party wake up and get past their dislike of Donald Trump, President Trump, and their feelings of international conflicts going on. This is about national security. This is about what is possible in the Middle East. This is about being a good neighbor, good partner to the Gulf States and what their aspirations are,” she said.
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The strikes on Saturday targeted several top Iranian leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed.
New York City’s Mayor’s Office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Prince William ‘ready to go to war with press’ after Kate topless photos: author
Prince William was “ready to go to war with the press” after paparazzi secretly photographed Kate Middleton topless while sunbathing on vacation.
The claim comes from Russell Myers, royal editor of the Daily Mirror and author of the new book “William and Catherine,” which examines how the Prince and Princess of Wales have weathered the storms that have rocked the House of Windsor.
It became a lengthy legal battle for the couple — one that began in 2012 — and was a fight the future king was determined to pursue relentlessly and see through to the very end to protect his wife.
“William has always had a different relationship with the press, not necessarily as public as his brother,” Myers explained to Fox News Digital. “Certainly, in his formative years, William was very clear that he didn’t want to go back to the really destructive period of his parents’ relationship, which had a huge effect on him and Harry.”
“The breakdown of Charles and Diana’s marriage was played out in the media on an almost daily basis,” said Myers. “As I say in the book, he [met] with a group of national journalists who were ready to go on an engagement the night before. He walked into a pub where they were all just having a drink after an evening meal and said to them, ‘We are not going to go down the same road.’”
“I think he felt that he not only needed to protect his own mental health and his own well-being, but also protect Catherine in that sense,” Myers continued.
WATCH: PRINCE WILLIAM VOWED TO SHIELD KATE MIDDLETON FROM MEDIA SCRUTINY: AUTHOR
“It’s very clear from what he said, ‘I will stop at nothing to protect my family, and you have to realize this.’ Even before he had children, William’s real sense of urgency to try to make the media understand his views on that was very apparent.”
In 2012, a year after their wedding, William and Kate decided to take a mini-break in the South of France. They were unwinding before embarking on a nine-day tour of Southeast Asia as part of Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee. Myers wrote that they stayed at the Château d’Autet, a 19th-century hunting lodge in the Luberon hills of Provence.
While sunbathing at the property, Kate didn’t know that about a mile away, a paparazzo was lurking in the shadows, capturing the private moment with a long-range lens camera. Soon after, Myers wrote, the couple’s “world came crashing down.” They were informed that Closer, a French magazine, had published the intrusive photographs. One former aide told Myers it was “as if time stood still” for them.
Myers told Fox News Digital that from the very beginning, Kate was relentlessly targeted by the press long before she married William in 2011. But this time, it crossed a line — and everything changed.
“When you’re an outsider coming into an institution such as the royal family, as we’ve seen time and time again, it can be a very daunting prospect,” he explained. “I think for Catherine, the world’s media was very keen to know who she was, who the next possible girlfriend of Prince William was.”
“There was an intense pressure,” he shared. “And when the relationship started getting more serious, there were obviously questions about who this new woman in William’s life could be, who the next Princess of Wales or future queen could be as well.
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“It was an uncomfortable situation to be in for Catherine. She was from a very small village in the center of England. She really hadn’t been exposed to any level of celebrity or the crazy attention that the British monarchy has the world over.”
According to Myers’ book, William, horrified by “the utter violation,” immediately made “frantic” calls to his father, then-Prince Charles, and grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II. The prince informed them that not only was he immediately releasing a public statement, but he would sue the magazine, taking the legal action “all the way” over the “monstrous behavior.”
“Years before, William had gone against the grain when he warned the Fleet Street photographers that he would not tolerate a life of intrusion,” Myers wrote. “This time, he was ready to go to war with the press.”
Myers described Kate as deeply upset over the incredible invasion of privacy, but kept busy immersing herself in royal duties to support the monarchy. To the public, Kate smiled and shook hands, never letting anyone in on how hurt she was. Palace insiders told Myers they were impressed by how she displayed “a quiet reassurance,” appearing calm and in control.
But William, whose “anger was palpable,” appeared to be “under unimaginable stress,” as he demanded to be kept informed of every action being taken by his lawyers. Days later, the Italian magazine Chi published the images, as well as the Irish version of the British Daily Star.
“Palace staff reacted furiously, suggesting the clock had been turned back 15 years to the dark days of Princess Diana being hounded to her death by the paparazzi,” Myers wrote.
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“Aides, describing the publication as ‘grotesque and totally unjustifiable,’ said the couple were ‘livid’ and felt ‘violated,’ and would pursue full criminal proceedings.”
According to the book, William instructed his lawyers to pursue the most serious damages possible, which would be donated to charity.
“Sources close to the prince suggest he felt a deep sense of personal responsibility over the issue, questioning whether he had offered too much of his life to the press, and whether the event would have happened if he had previously taken a stronger stance with the media,” Myers wrote.
Closer stood their ground after the palace immediately sued.
“The photographs we have selected are by no means degrading,” the magazine said in a statement, as quoted by The Standard. “They show a beautiful, in love, modern holidaying young couple in their normal life. The article reports on the couple’s recent stay in the South of France.”
In 2017, a judge ordered the French outlet to pay the couple €100,000 [$117,892.55] in damages — far less than the roughly €1.5 million [$1.7 million] they had sought — and fined two staffers a combined €90,000 [$106,077.60], Vogue.com reported. Kensington Palace was “pleased” by the ruling, the outlet reported.
The ruling was no doubt a warning to other tabloids that William will always protect Kate, no matter the cost.
“[At the beginning of the relationship], she felt, ‘If I’m going to put myself forward for something like this, then I not only need the support of William, but also the support of the institution,’” Myers told Fox News Digital. “And as I tell in the book, William was absolutely integral to that, to say to her, ‘I will support you,’ and to have the mechanism of the palace supporting her as well.”
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“You can certainly argue, and I’m sure that Prince Harry has felt like this, that Meghan [Markle] didn’t get that support early in their relationship,” said Myers. “He can rightly feel aggrieved at that, because I think, when you’re looking at the heir and the spare, certainly there were differences afforded to Catherine that were not afforded to Meghan at the time.”
Today, the Prince and Princess of Wales are proud parents of three children as they support King Charles III, who ascended to the throne in 2022.
Kennedy heir tells Dems to ‘take the gloves off’ after targeting Vance family
Democratic congressional candidate Jack Schlossberg defended targeting Vice President JD Vance‘s wife in a social media post on “CBS News Sunday Morning.”
Schlossberg, the grandson of the late former President John F. Kennedy, was asked by CBS about his social media posts which have been described as “creepy” and polarizing, particularly regarding Vance’s wife Usha. In one post, Schlossberg superimposed his face on one of Usha Vance’s children.
He denied, however, that he was “crossing a line” by involving the vice president’s wife.
“I think what’s crossing a line is the propaganda that we see issued every single day by the White House and Vance,” Schlossberg replied. “So, what are we going to do, hold back? Hold back on our sense of humor and not tease them, make fun of them back?”
He added, “First of all, I don’t think anyone was seriously thinking that I meant that we did actually have a love child! You can point at anything I posted, I will point you back at a president who shares pictures of himself bombing U.S. citizens with fecal matter. This is a new era we’re living in.”
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Schlossberg encouraged other Democrats to “take the gloves off” while attacking the Trump administration, citing attacks against his family as justification.
“My grandmother wasn’t elected; my Uncle John wasn’t elected. People feel absolute free reign to say whatever they want about them. So, I’m gonna throw it right back at you. Because you know what? The time is not now to hold back, sit on your hands and say, ‘Hmm, okay. Well, why don’t we just play it safe?’ Absolutely not! We’re gonna get these people out of here,” Schlossberg said.
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Fox News Digital reached out to the vice president’s office for comment.
Schlossberg is currently running to be the Democratic congressional candidate for New York’s 12th Congressional District to replace retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler. He is also among several Democratic figures who have taken a harsher tone when it comes to using social media.
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“You need to be aggressive right now to get your message through,” Schlossberg said.
Jim Carrey’s dramatic new look at Paris awards sparks wild body double theories
Jim Carrey‘s recent public outing has sparked a wave of speculation, with some fans questioning his dramatic new look.
During an appearance at the 51st Cesar Awards in Paris on Thursday, Carrey — who was awarded the lifetime achievement Cesar d’honneur — spoke with reporters after his acceptance speech, but left social media scratching their heads.
In a video circulating online, Carrey spoke eloquently about what the evening meant to him.
“It’s a wonderful feeling… I took on a big challenge trying to do my speech in French,” he told reporters. “It was a brilliant evening, a really brilliant evening.”
“This is not the same person right?” one fan asked on X.
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“Does EVERY celebrity have a body double, now? THAT is NOT Jim Carey,” another commented.
“Nope. Not in a million years is that Jim,” another added.
Though some fans were quick to squash any online rumors.
“He’s older and may have had some work done, but I believe that Jim,” one user wrote on X.
“It’s him. Facelift, eye tuck or whatever it’s called, and brown eyes can appear lighter in different lighting. Hairline changes with age and also gets wider with the facelift due to skin pulling back. Same voice, same mannerisms, next.”
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A representative for Carrey did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
In 2022, ahead of the release of “Sonic 2,” Carrey announced that he was taking a break from acting and revealed the only thing that would ever bring him back.
“Well, I’m retiring. Yeah, probably. I’m being fairly serious,” Carrey told Access Hollywood at the time. “It depends. If the angels bring some sort of script that’s written in gold ink that says to me that it’s going to be really important for people to see, I might continue down the road, but I’m taking a break.”
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He continued, “I really like my quiet life and I really like putting paint on canvas and I really love my spiritual life and I feel like — and this is something you might never hear another celebrity say as long as time exists — I have enough. I’ve done enough. I am enough.”
Media vehicle leads decorated US runner off course, costing her championship victory
Jess McClain is a decorated American runner who has made the podium in several events over the course of her career and was looking to score a victory at the U.S. Half Marathon Championships in Atlanta over the weekend.
McClain was leading the race with about two miles remaining. But her race was thrown off course as she was led off the path by a media vehicle, according to Athletics Illustrated. McClain reportedly followed the media vehicle, a police motorcycle and a motorcycle with a camera.
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McClain, Emma Grace Hurley and Ednah Kurgat were all thrown off. By the time they got back onto the right course, McClain’s lead was gone.
She finished in ninth place while Hurley and Kurgat finished in 12th and 13th respectively.
Atlanta Track Club CEO Rich Kenah took the blame for the error.
“In the women’s race, a pace vehicle left the official course during Mile 11,” he said in a statement to The Athletic. “As Race Director, I take full responsibility for what occurred. Athletes should never have to make a split-second decision between following a pace vehicle or trusting the official course.
“We are conducting a full review to determine exactly how and why the vehicle left the course to strengthen safeguards moving forward.”
U.S. Track and Field (USATF) said it would review the events “carefully” as the team for the World Road Running Championships has not been selected. The organization said that protests were denied and a jury of appeals found that “the event did not meet USATF Rule 243 and that the course was not adequately marked at the point of misdirection. This violation contributed to the misdirection taken by the athletes within the top four at the time of misdirection.
“However, the jury of appeals finds no recourse within the USATF rulebook to alter the results order of finish. The results order of finish as posted is considered final.”
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McClain finished fourth in the 2025 Half Marathon Championships and eighth in the World Athletics Championships.