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US ally on Putin’s doorstep braces for war as Russia tensions take ominous turn

August 19, 2026 12:09pm EDT / Fox News

Deputy Defense Minister Cezary Tomczyk warned a large-scale Kremlin provocation could occur ‘within a few months’

Efrat Lachter
By Efrat Lachter Fox News

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Russia’s threat of “consequences” against Britain and a stark warning from a senior Polish defense official are intensifying concerns that Moscow could seek to test NATO directly as the war in Ukraine continues.

Polish Deputy Defense Minister Cezary Tomczyk said his country is actively preparing for the possibility of conflict, telling Super Express in an interview published Aug. 17: “We are preparing for war, hoping that it never happens.”

The Polish Embassy in Washington told Fox News Digital that Warsaw’s accelerated defense preparations are intended to deter potential aggression rather than signal that conflict is inevitable.

RUSSIA PREPARING HYBRID ATTACKS ON NATO’S EASTERN FLANK, INTELLIGENCE WARNS

Polish soldiers stand watch near the Belarus border, where officials say migration pressure has evolved into a form of hybrid warfare targeting NATO’s eastern flank, May 16, 2026.(Efrat Lachter/Fox News Digital)

The embassy pointed to Poland’s defense spending of nearly 5% of GDP and invoked the Latin principle Si vis pacem, para bellum — “If you want peace, prepare for war” — saying that, given Russia’s war in Ukraine and what Poland views as Moscow’s imperial ambitions, strengthening deterrence is the country’s only sound strategy.

A European diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, backed Tomczyk and said Poland sees a pattern of escalating Russian pressure on multiple fronts. “We are hurrying to be prepared for war since Russia is giving us and our neighbors constant signals that they want us back as their vassals, their colonial backyard,” the diplomat told Fox News Digital.

The diplomat pointed to what they described as Russian disinformation campaigns, cyberattacks, sabotage efforts and repeated tests of Poland’s air defenses, as well as increasingly frequent nuclear rhetoric from Russian officials and propagandists.

“Altogether, it shows quite clearly that if Russia or Belarus saw any chance to attack Poland to destroy an obstacle to restoring the Soviet or Tsarist Russian empire in Eastern Europe, they would do it without hesitation,” the diplomat said.

The diplomat added that Tomczyk therefore had “quite solid bases to state his prediction,” while stressing that the concern was not rooted in hostility toward ordinary Russians.

“We want to have Russia as a good neighbor, business partner. We would like to host their tourists. We want to have a cultural exchange with them,” the diplomat said. “But they — at least the imperialists who are the foundation of the Putin administration — would like to turn Poland, the Baltics and, of course, Ukraine back into their colonial part of Europe.”

UKRAINE POUNDS BLACK SEA FLEET’S ‘LAST MAJOR STRONGHOLD’ WHILE PUTIN FLEXES NAVAL POWER IN PACIFIC

A soldier launches an RQ-35 Heidrun drone used for reconnaissance and artillery fire correction in the Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on Feb. 22, 2026.(Dmytro Smolienko/Ukrinform/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Retired Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, who commanded U.S. European Command and served as NATO’s supreme allied commander Europe from 2013 to 2016, told Fox News Digital that Poland’s warning reflects a concern shared by many former military leaders.

“It’s a problem that many of us are worried about,” Breedlove said. “They’re trying to test the alliance: Is Italy going to go to war? Is Spain going to go to war? There are several places where Russia could try to snatch something. Their goal is to divide and ultimately break up the alliance.”

Breedlove warned Moscow could attempt a provocation calibrated to create uncertainty over whether NATO should respond collectively.

“It is likely that Russia will try to initiate a provocation that is just enough to raise the question of a NATO response,” he said, arguing that Moscow’s objective would be to expose divisions among allies.

NATO’s Article 4 allows members to request consultations when an ally’s territorial integrity, political independence or security is threatened. Article 5 provides for collective defense following an armed attack, although NATO says Article 4 consultations are not a prerequisite for action under Article 5.

The comments follow similar warnings from other eastern-flank governments. The Associated Press reported July 15 that Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda said intelligence pointed to possible limited Russian attacks on critical infrastructure in the Baltics or Poland. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Warsaw was preparing “very intensively for various scenarios,” according to AP. Russia rejected the allegations.

RUSSIA LINKED TO ARSON ATTACKS ON PROPERTIES CONNECTED TO UK PM KEIR STARMER, POLICE SAY

F-16 fighter jets take part in the NATO Air Shielding exercise near the air base in Lask, central Poland, on Oct. 12, 2022.(Radoslaw Jozwiak/AFP via Getty Images)

The warnings came as tensions between Moscow and London escalated Tuesday. Russia’s embassy in Britain threatened unspecified “consequences” after The Times reported British-made drones had been used by Ukraine for long-range strikes inside Russia, according to Reuters on Aug. 18. Britain’s Ministry of Defense did not confirm whether British drones were used, Reuters reported.

“London’s actions will inevitably carry consequences for which it will have to answer,” the Russian Embassy said. The British defense ministry responded that Britain stood “shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine,” according to Reuters.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov escalated the rhetoric later Tuesday, saying Moscow had the right to regard direct British involvement in strikes on Russian territory as participation in the war, according to Reuters on Aug. 18.

Separately, Russian state television host Vladimir Solovyov called for using Russia’s Poseidon weapon against Britain, saying: “Give the British three days to learn to breathe underwater, then hit them with Poseidon,” The Times reported Aug. 18. Poseidon is a nuclear-powered, nuclear-capable underwater weapon that Russia said it successfully tested in October 2025, Reuters reported at the time.

Breedlove described the rhetoric as part of a broader Russian information campaign aimed at coercing Western governments.

US MILITARY BASES ARE ‘ILL-EQUIPPED’ TO STOP DRONE SWARMS, TOP COMMANDER REVEALS AFTER RUBIO’S UAP WARNING

NATO’s largest annual maritime drill, Exercise Dynamic Mariner/Flotex 25, takes place in the Gulf of Cadiz off southern Spain on March 28, 2025.(Burak Akbulut/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“Without question, Russia is fighting an information war and trying to achieve what practitioners call ‘reflexive control’ to try to force NATO capitulation,” Breedlove said.

He argued that Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy, logistics and defense-industrial targets are creating growing pressure on the Kremlin and said President Vladimir Putin may increasingly seek to portray NATO itself as the external enemy.

Breedlove said NATO is capable of facing Russia in a conventional war but warned that the alliance faces a different vulnerability exposed by the conflict in Ukraine.

“What NATO is not ready for — and what the U.S. is not ready for — is the new kind of drone warfare that Russia is waging against Ukraine,” Breedlove said. “Our air defense capabilities in the West are not even close to what is needed for the level of drone warfare that Russia is waging against Ukraine.”

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An F-16 fighter jet takes part in the NATO Air Shielding exercise near the air base in Lask, central Poland, on Oct. 12, 2022.(Radoslaw Jozwiak/AFP via Getty Images)

Fox News Digital reached out to the Russian and British embassies for comment but did not receive responses in time for publication.

Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Efrat (Effie) Lachter is a reporter for Fox News Digital with more than 15 years of experience covering conflict, global affairs, human rights and political accountability.She has directed and produced more than 200 documentary segments across more than 40 countries, documenting conflicts, humanitarian crises, corruption, human trafficking, gender-based violence and the human stories behind major world events.

Lachter’s reporting has taken her into conflict zones and crisis areas across the Middle East, Europe, Asia and Africa. Her work has included uncovering human trafficking networks, revealing an ISIS underground torture prison in Syria, documenting the war in Ukraine and interviewing senior political figures and world leaders. She was also among the Western journalists who entered Russia after the war began to bring testimonies from Putin’s opposition. Lachter is the recipient of the 2022 Peres Center for Peace Award and was a 2023–2024 Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellow at the University of Michigan. She also won two Rockower Awards for Excellence in Reporting. She holds a bachelor’s degree in communication and a master’s degree in political science.

Fed policymakers’ inflation concerns increased at July meeting, minutes show

2026-08-19T18:04:30.599Z / Reuters

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh holds a press conference following a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), as the Federal Reserve holds interest rates steady, at the Federal Reserve, in Washington, D.C., U.S. July 29, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo

• Summary

• Fed kept policy rate unchanged in 3.50%-3.75% range at July 28-29 meeting
• Minutes of meeting show ‘many’ felt a rate hike would be needed if inflation did not decline
• Meeting was Warsh’s second as head of the Fed

WASHINGTON, Aug 19 (Reuters) – Concern about inflation deepened at the ​Federal Reserve’s meeting last month, with “several” policymakers ready to raise interest rates and “many” saying a hike in borrowing costs would be ‌needed if inflation does not decline to the U.S. central bank’s 2% target, the minutes of the session showed on Wednesday.

The policymakers who favored a rate increase at the meeting “remarked that price pressures appeared broad-based and judged that the (policy-setting) Committee should adopt a more restrictive policy stance to meet its commitment to achieving its price-stability and maximum employment goals on ​a sustained basis,” the minutes of the July 28-29 meeting said. Failure to do so, they argued, would risk “a steeper and potentially more ​costly sequence of tightening moves at a later stage.”

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The Fed voted at that meeting to hold its benchmark interest rate ⁠in the current 3.50%-3.75% range, but with three policymakers dissenting in favor of a quarter-percentage point hike.

A larger group of “many” participants “assessed that policy tightening would ​likely be necessary if inflation did not decline,” the minutes said.

The minutes, covering Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh’s second meeting as head of the central bank, showed ​central bankers already delving into some of the broader issues he wants to pursue as part of a possible overhaul of how the Fed operates.

Participants saw an upcoming task force review of how the Fed manages its balance sheet as an “opportunity for a comprehensive discussion,” though “many” participants at the meeting “reaffirmed that the primary means of adjusting the stance of ​monetary policy should be through changes in the target range for the federal funds rate,” not manipulating the Fed’s asset holdings.

Warsh also asked for “input from ​the Committee” on whether it would be better for the Fed to hold only six meetings a year rather than the current eight, allowing for a full two months ‌of data ⁠to accumulate each time. No decisions were made regarding this issue, the minutes said, and the 2026 schedule of meetings would not be altered.

The minutes drew little reaction in financial markets. An announcement earlier on Wednesday that the Treasury would double its buyback of longer-term U.S. government debt had eased upward pressure on yields and helped lift stocks after Tuesday’s rout.

Rate-futures markets continued to price better-than-even odds that the Fed will begin raising rates at its October 27-28 ​meeting and, failing that, a very high ​probability of a rate hike ⁠at its last meeting of the year in December.

POLICY DEBATE SHIFT

There was no mention in the minutes of support for a rate cut, a sign of how the Fed’s policy debate has shifted over the course of a year ​that began with an expectation that the central bank would be able to lower borrowing costs this year ​as inflation slowed.

Price pressures, ⁠however, have continued to build, particularly after the Trump administration joined Israel in a war with Iran. Shipments of oil and gas through the strategic Strait of Hormuz continue to be constrained almost six months after the start of the conflict.

The Fed is expected to hold its policy rate steady again at its September 15-16 ⁠meeting after recent ​data showed inflation easing slightly and firms unexpectedly shedding jobs in July. The data has left officials ​still divided over whether rate hikes will be needed to slow inflation further, but also more cautious about the strength of the labor market and the risks to their goal of maintaining ​full employment.

Warsh has been reluctant to talk about the path of monetary policy on his watch.

Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Paul Simao and Chizu Nomiyama

Moving pillowcase leads to discovery of venomous snakes, other reptiles hidden in car at border

August 19, 2026 / 1:10 PM EDT / CBS News

By Emily Mae Czachor News Editor

U.S. border agents found a collection of endangered reptiles when they noticed a pillowcase moving in a woman’s car after she was stopped at the border with Mexico due to an outstanding arrest warrant.

Georgina Bribiesca Chavez, 66, of Tijuana, Mexico, was arrested earlier this month on wildlife trafficking charges after allegedly participating in a yearslong reptile smuggling scheme. She is accused of bringing exotic reptiles into and out of the U.S. with her alleged trafficking partner, Salvador Pelayo, who was arrested in July on a federal charge similar to hers, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California.

Chavez was arrested while trying to cross the border from the U.S. into Mexico on Aug. 10, the office said. Realizing she had an outstanding arrest warrant related to a wildlife trafficking investigation, Customs and Border Protection officers took Chavez into custody and seized the vehicle.

As they searched the car the next day, officers discovered a hidden compartment behind one of its rear seats, which contained pillowcases that were tied and taped shut, according to the release. When one of the pillowcases appeared to move, the officers transferred them to the San Diego Zoo to be examined.

Staff at the zoo opened the pillowcases. Inside, they found 60 abronia lizards, four venomous yellow-blotched palm pit vipers, three caimans, one baby crocodile and one indigo snake. Several of those species are considered endangered or threatened, and are protected by international agreements.

Stolen exotic reptiles were found inside pillowcases in a car that was trying to cross the U.S. border into Mexico. U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California

The three caimans died before they could receive care at the San Diego Zoo, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

“Even after her arrest, Chavez never told CBP officers about the live animals in her car, leaving them abandoned for nearly 24 hours in the August heat in San Ysidro,” the news release said.

Officials said all of the other stolen reptiles were considered stable and under the care of the San Diego Zoo.

“These animals were not cargo — they were living creatures subjected to dangerous conditions for profit,” U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon said in a statement.

During her first court appearance on the trafficking charges on Tuesday, Chavez pleaded not guilty, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office. They said her alleged partner, 28-year-old Pelayo, has also pleaded not guilty.

Citing court documents, the office said Chavez and Pelayo started trafficking exotic reptiles into the U.S. in 2023 with the intent to sell them. Their activity prompted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to open an undercover investigation into the alleged scheme, which found that the two were involved in multiple undercover sales of protected turtles. They are accused of sending and receiving wildlife at shipping centers in the San Diego area.

Authorities have alleged that Chavez and Pelayo made tens of thousands of dollars from the sales of exotic animals.

Women are being left behind in high-paying AI jobs boom

August 19, 2026 3:39 PM EDT / CBS News

By Megan Cerullo Reporter, MoneyWatch

The artificial intelligence jobs boom is exacerbating the gender gap women already face in the technology industry, according to new research from the jobs and networking site LinkedIn, which shows that women are underrepresented among new hires for AI jobs.

In the U.S., women candidates accounted for just 26% of hires into jobs that require AI skills, which offer more lucrative salaries than non-AI roles, LinkedIn researchers found. That’s compared to 50% of women who were hired into non-AI positions.

Such jobs command a pay premium as corporations invest billions in the new tech, leading to a doubling in AI job postings on the site since 2023. The typical listing advertises a salary of about $177,000, compared to roughly $80,000 for a non-AI role, according to LinkedIn.

“AI is creating some of the fastest-growing, highest-paying, most consequential jobs in the global economy, but women are strikingly underrepresented in terms of who is getting hired, who benefits from the pay premium, and who is leading the development and deployment of this tech,” LinkedIn spokeswoman Sarah Steinberg told CBS News.

She said the tech industry’s gender gap is more pronounced in AI, with the field’s jobs boom “compounding barriers that women face.”

Broken ladder for women

The share of women in AI roles globally narrows as they move up the corporate ladder.

Across 27 countries, women hold just 13% of leadership roles at AI firms, whereas they account for 20% of job holders in the same roles in the broader tech industry. “It’s not great representation overall, but it’s worse when you look at AI specifically,” Steinberg added.

The trend is concerning for several reasons. First, research already shows that women are more likely to hold jobs that will be disrupted by AI, such as in customer service or administrative roles. For example, 86% of the 6.1 million workers, mostly in clerical and administrative roles that are vulnerable to AI takeover and have limited ability to adapt their skills, are women, according to The Brookings Institution, a nonprofit public policy organization.

“We have a world in which women are more likely to have their jobs changed or disrupted by AI, and they are also not benefiting from AI pay premiums, or moving into jobs that are created by AI,” Steinberg said. “That’s what keeps me up at night when it comes to women’s place in the economy.”

Skills-based hiring could help

A shift toward skills-based rather than credential-based hiring could help funnel more women into the AI job pipeline, according to Steinberg. If employers recruit candidates not based on the degrees they’ve earned or previous jobs they’ve held, but instead focus on the applicable skills they possess, more women could be brought into the fold, she said.

That’s in part because it’s relatively easy for workers interested in acquiring AI skills to take online courses or training, or to gain experience by using publicly available AI tools.

“Someone can have AI skills without having a related diploma or having held a previous job in AI,” she said.

Edited by Aimee Picchi

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/ai-data-centers-creating-temporary-blue-collar-jobs-surge/

ABC says intimidation by Trump’s FCC forced programming changes

2026-08-19 17:36:08 GMT / Reuters

Aug 19 (Reuters) – ABC is accusing U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration of employing pressure tactics that have forced the television network to make programming compromises such as refraining from booking political candidates on its popular daytime talk show, “The View,” for fear of retaliation.

The network and its parent ​company Disney

DIS.N sued the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday in an effort to block the agency’s unusual early review of broadcast licenses for eight Disney-owned local TV stations. They argue that the administration is ‌unlawfully seeking to punish the network over its broadcast content and force changes in its programming.

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In a Reuters interview, FCC Chair Brendan Carr denied that the agency was infringing on Disney’s free speech rights or responding to Trump’s dislike of specific content.

The legal fight highlights the volatile relationship that Trump and his administration have had with the media. Trump has repeatedly since 2024 called for the FCC to revoke the licenses of ABC stations, most recently after the network declined last month to air a prime-time address he gave on election security.

Disney and ABC said that demands ​made by the FCC during the license review process and Trump’s public threats already have chilled the network’s editorial decision-making.

The FCC, according to the lawsuit, has “waged a retaliatory campaign” against ABC because the Republican president, among other ​grievances, disapproves of its news coverage and objects to on-air comments by its late-night host, Jimmy Kimmel.

“Our job is to hold broadcasters accountable to the public interest standard,” Carr told ⁠Reuters, citing how the government long has granted stations free use of the airwaves in exchange for providing programming in the public interest. “You made a deal with the American people. You know, live up to your end of the deal.”

“The president ​has obviously every right to express his view on these matters,” Carr said, adding that any decision will be “based on the facts and the law and the record.”

Trump appointed Carr to the FCC in 2017 during his first term as president, and ​designated him as chair last year.

‘POLICY OF INTIMIDATION’

“The sad fact is that this policy of intimidation has already worked, to a certain extent, by forcing media organizations and others to cower and keep their heads down, rather than act as they normally would in accordance with their First Amendment rights,” said journalism professor Gabriel Kahn of the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

The U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment protects against government abridgment of free speech.

“The Administration has attacked ABC’s speech — the stories its journalists report and the viewpoints its network programs ​air,” the lawsuit stated.

The FCC, created by Congress in 1934, issues licenses to local broadcast television stations, typically requiring renewal after a period of eight years. The licenses for the eight Disney-owned stations — including some of its most profitable ones in ​cities including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston — were not due to expire until 2028 to 2031.

The FCC had not conducted early license reviews like the one involving these stations in a half century. The FCC has made 600 requests for information, yielding ‌13,000 pages of ⁠documents, and sought data on political donations made by staff.

DIRE CONSEQUENCES

The FCC’s license review means the network cannot afford to “ignore the consequences of any decision that might anger the Administration or the FCC Chairman,” the lawsuit stated.

For example, ABC decided not to broadcast Trump’s July 16 speech in which he revived his long-running attacks on U.S. election security. Trump for years has made false claims of widespread U.S. voting fraud including in his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

ABC instead opted to carry the speech live on its streaming service — something it said it ordinarily would not have done — as it “considered the risk of resulting Administration retaliation” over its decision not to broadcast it live. NBC also did not broadcast Trump’s speech live. Afterward, Trump called ​for both networks to lose their licenses.

GUESTS ON ‘THE VIEW’

“The View,” a ​show involving a regular panel of women discussing current ⁠events and entertainment along with guest interviewees, has not featured a political candidate since February, when James Talarico, a Democrat running for the U.S. Senate in Texas,

appeared, according to the lawsuit.

“Historically, decisions about which candidates or public figures to invite as guests were made based on newsworthiness, audience interest, and scheduling alone,” the lawsuit stated.

The lawsuit said that in light of the ​FCC scrutiny “ABC must now evaluate any invitation to a political candidate for its potential consequences.”

Trump himself has appeared multiple times as a guest on “The View” in the past. Trump’s ​vice president, JD Vance, appeared as ⁠a guest in June, though he was not a candidate for office at the time.

Talarico’s appearance triggered an FCC inquiry into whether it violated federal “equal-time” rules that require broadcasters to provide the same opportunity to all qualified candidates. The FCC during the Biden administration in 2022 had exempted “The View” from the rule, deeming it a “bona fide” news program.

The FCC asked the Disney-owned station in Houston to produce all communications between its segment producers, the executive producer, its on-air hosts and the booking staff, about Talarico’s appearance. The FCC ⁠also asked ABC ​to disclose the nature of any political donations made by its co-hosts and individual employees, including an itemized list going back four years.

As a ​result, the network has become “more circumspect” about booking political candidates as guests on “The View” or even broadcasting video clips that could constitute appearances, the lawsuit stated.

The Annenberg School’s Kahn said the lawsuit illustrates how federal agencies under the Trump administration have been “weaponized to go after perceived enemies.”

“The only course that companies ​like Disney have is to engage in lengthy and costly litigation in the courts. These are not good-faith actors,” Kahn said.

Reporting by Dawn Chmielewski and David Shepardson; Editing by Ed Lee and Will Dunham

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Safari helicopter crash kills 7 people in Kenya, including 5 Americans

2026-08-19 14:47 EDT / CBS News / AP

A helicopter taking tourists on a safari crashed Wednesday in a remote part of northern Kenya, killing all seven people on board. In a statement to CBS News, the State Department confirmed five Americans were killed in the crash.

“The U.S. Embassy is in touch with local authorities and is providing consular assistance,” the spokesperson said. “We extend our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones on their loss.”

The helicopter crashed at 9:13 a.m. while flying from the Loisaba Conservancy to the Ewaso Nyiro area in Samburu County, according to the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority, which said in a statement an investigation was underway. Six passengers and the pilot were on the helicopter.

David Nkoroi, the police commander for Samburu, told reporters all seven people on board had died but did not reveal their identities.

Later Wednesday, NBCUniversal said its journalist José Alberto Suárez — president and general manager of Telemundo 31, Telemundo 49 and Telemundo Fort Myers–Naples — was among those killed in the crash.

In a memo sent to staff obtained by CBS News, NBCUniversal called Suárez “a deeply respected leader and beloved friend and colleague.”

“José was an exceptional colleague and mentor to many,” the memo says. “He cared deeply about his teams, the communities they served and the essential role our stations play in people’s lives.”

A rescue official works at the site of a tourist helicopter crash that caused multiple casualties, according to the police, in Samburu County, Kenya, Aug. 19, 2026. Kenya Red Cross/Handout via Reuters

Separately, Ecuador’s transport minister said the nation’s intelligence chief, Michele Sensi-Contugi, and his wife were killed in the crash.

“Today Michele and Stephany left us too soon. Thinking of their family, especially their children and parents,” transport minister Roberto Luque wrote on X.

The helicopter crashed in a rugged area in the foothills of Mount Ololokwe, a popular tourist destination in the country, local media reported. The helicopter, owned by local company Lady Lori Helicopters, was carrying guests with travel company &Beyond. Lady Lori Helicopters said in a statement the aircraft was operating a charter flight when it crashed.

Tropic Air Kenya, a local safari operator, said in a statement it dispatched two of its helicopters to aid search and rescue operations.

The aviation authority said the aircraft was a Eurocopter EC130 B4.

The Kenya Red Cross said its emergency response teams were “participating in a multiagency response effort as rescue teams work to access the crash site.”

“Search and recovery efforts are ongoing, hampered by difficult terrain access and an active fire at the crash site,” the organization posted on social media along with images of the wreckage.

Helicopter crashes have happened with increasing regularity in Kenya, which has a vibrant tourism industry that depends on domestic carriers to ferry visitors to distant places like Mount Ololokwe.

In February, a legislator was among six people who died after a helicopter crash in a hilly area of western Kenya.

In 2019, four Americans and a local pilot were killed in Kenya when their helicopter crashed on an island in the north of the country.

Trump to nominate Dr Heidi Overton as next FDA commissioner

August 19, 2026 12:45pm EDT / Fox News

Dr. Heidi Overton, a board-certified physician, is known for her pro-life views

By James Cirrone, Fox News

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he is nominating Dr. Heidi Overton, his deputy assistant for domestic policy, as the next commissioner for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Trump said Overton, a physician known for her pro-life views, has been a “ROCKSTAR” in his administration so far.

“Dr. Overton will continue putting AMERICA FIRST, and creating a HEALTHY AMERICA,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.

“She has worked directly with Secretary Kennedy, Dr. Oz, and team, to deliver on the MOST TRANSFORMATIVE Health Agenda in History. She is known to take on the HARDEST issues, and bring me solutions that work best for the Country,” Trump added.

Heidi Overton, deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, during an executive order signing in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, Aug. 10, 2026.(Bonnie Cash/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

FDA PROPOSES NEW OVERSIGHT OF FOOD ADDITIVES

In Overton’s current role, she regularly briefs the president on various health issues.

Earlier this month, Overton was at Trump’s side in the Oval Office as he signed an executive order that aimed to overhaul how many vaccines are recommended to children.

A memo on the order recommends children receive immunizations for 11 diseases, fewer than the 18 current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines.

It also called for shots to be spaced out in separate visits, while ending recommendations that all minors receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

At the time, Overton urged blue states to adopt the Trump administration’s “gold standard” recommendations, despite pushback from doctors.

President Donald Trump, joined by (L-R) National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya, The Conservateur’s Jayme Leagh Franklin, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy Dr. Heidi Overton, after signing an executive order updating childhood vaccine recommendations on August 10, 2026.(Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

FDA-APPROVED FOCUSED ULTRASOUND THERAPY TARGETS PARKINSON’S DISEASE SYMPTOMS

“Heidi is ‘ALWAYS RIGHT,’ Secretary Kennedy recently said in the Oval Office!” Trump said, referring to the vaccine executive order signing event on Aug. 10. “We need her leadership at the FDA now to ensure that the U.S. remains the WORLD LEADER for Scientific Discovery and CURES.”

If confirmed by the Senate, Overton would replace former FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, who resigned from the role in May after he clashed with administration critics who had grown frustrated with his handling of several high-profile FDA decisions.

According to various media reports, acting FDA Commissioner Kyle Diamantas was not interested in taking the position permanently.

Overton, who also had a brief stint in the first Trump administration, has expressed opposition to abortion. If she becomes the head of the FDA, she will lead an agency that regulates abortion medication, most notably the drug Mifepristone.

Heidi Overton speaks during a healthcare affordability event in the South Court Auditorium of The White House in Washington, D.C., on May 18, 2026.(Kent NISHIMURA / AFP via Getty Images)

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Since Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022, women have increasingly turned to medication abortion to get around state bans.

In a February 2023 policy brief, Overton denounced what she called “chemical abortion.”

“Abortion is corrosive to children, women, and society broadly because it devalues and extinguishes innocent human life. Unfortunately, federal policymakers have recently expanded access to abortion pills, also called chemical abortions, which are far more dangerous to women, enabling rapid access to abortion,” she wrote at the time.

Overton would also take the reins at the FDA at a critical moment, as the U.S. grapples with a multistate outbreak of Cyclospora.

Before returning to serve in the White House, she served as vice chair and chief policy officer of the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank.

James Cirrone is a writer on the Breaking/Trending News team at Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to james.cirrone@fox.com.

US to provide $206 million for Gaza peacekeeping force, letters show

2026-08-19T19:00:45.16Z / reuters.com

WASHINGTON, Aug 19 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s administration has told Congress it is sending more than $206 million for a proposed Gaza peacekeeping force, the first significant funding for the stalled U.S. plan to rebuild the devastated enclave.

In two July 30-dated notifications seen by Reuters, the State Department informed Congress it will provide $200 million for the International Stabilization Force’s (ISF) equipment, infrastructure, vehicles and operational costs. An additional $6 million would repurpose U.S. armored vehicles to support the force.

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The notifications, which were addressed to key appropriations and foreign affairs committees in Congress, have not been previously reported.

The funding is the first concrete U.S. spending on the peacekeeping force and signals the administration’s determination to press ahead with Trump’s Gaza roadmap even as both Israel and Hamas have balked at conditions needed to advance the plan.

“The ISF will lead security operations, support comprehensive demilitarization, and enable the safe delivery of humanitarian aid and reconstruction material to Gaza,” one of the notifications said, while noting the final composition of the force was still being negotiated.

The administration has not said how much money will ultimately be needed to fund the force.

Trump set up a Board of Peace to oversee his ambitious plan to end Israel’s war in Gaza and rebuild the shattered territory. His plan envisioned that the peacekeeping force would deploy to Gaza to secure areas after Israeli forces withdraw and would train new Palestinian police forces and support aid deliveries.

Much of Gaza remains in ruins from two years of war triggered by the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.

But since the announcement of an agreement in late July, the effort has stalled, with both Israel and Hamas refusing to fulfill conditions that would allow the deal to move ahead.

Trump’s envoy and son-in-law Jared Kushner held meetings with Hamas officials on Sunday and Israeli leaders on Monday in Jerusalem but left without a breakthrough, with both sides standing firm on key demands.

An official from the Board of Peace described the last two weeks as a period of “significant advances” and said the board had sought additional funding pledges as a result.

The official, who was granted anonymity to speak freely with media, said the funding was needed for the construction of a base for forces inside Gaza among other reconstruction projects.

Member countries had initially pledged $17 billion for reconstruction efforts inside Gaza but Reuters reported in April that only a fraction of the funds had been received. The Board of Peace has not made public the amount that it has received so far.

The State Department did not immediately provide comment for this story.

STALLED PLAN

On July 30, Trump announced what he described as a breakthrough: that Hamas had agreed to lay down its arms in phases, as Israel’s military withdraws from Gaza. Hamas said it agreed to the roadmap but implementation depends on Israel first meeting its own commitments, including halting attacks and withdrawing.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose ruling coalition trails in opinion polls ahead of an October national election, rejected the deal this month, insisting that Israel would not pull back until Hamas is completely disarmed.

Five countries have committed troops to the ISF so far: Indonesia, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Kosovo and Albania, while Egypt and Jordan have committed to train police. It remains unclear when any troops would be able to deploy.

The first of the two congressional notifications addressed the $200 million in funding. The second, with the same date and worth around $6.3 million, said the U.S. was repurposing nine armored personnel carriers previously destined for Nepal to support the ISF and that Albania and Kosovo would be the initial recipients of this equipment as part of their role in the ISF.

The ceasefire plan reduced violence in Gaza but has not ended Israeli attacks or secured the militants’ disarmament. More than 1,200 Palestinians and four Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since a ceasefire was reached in October, according to Gazan health officials and the Israeli military.

Netanyahu and Kushner also agreed that Gaza’s reconstruction would not start until Hamas is disarmed, an Israeli official told Reuters earlier this week.

Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Don Durfee and Sanjeev Miglani

Trump nominates policy aide Dr. Heidi Overton as next FDA commissioner

August 19, 2026 / 12:41 PM EDT / CBS News

By Kathryn Watson

Kathryn Watson is a politics reporter for CBS News Digital, based in Washington, D.C.

Washington — President Trump on Wednesday announced he’s nominating Dr. Heidi Overton, a physician and deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy at the White House, to be the next head of the Food and Drug Administration.

Overton, who earned her doctor of medicine from the University of New Mexico, has worked closely with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Dr. Mehmet Oz, the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

In a post on Truth Social, Mr. Trump said she has helped them “to deliver on the MOST TRANSFORMATIVE Health Agenda in History.”

“She is known to take on the HARDEST issues, and bring me solutions that work best for the Country,” he wrote. “Heidi is ‘ALWAYS RIGHT,’ Secretary Kennedy recently said in the Oval Office! We need her leadership at the FDA now to ensure that the U.S. remains the WORLD LEADER for Scientific Discovery and CURES.”

Heidi Overton, deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, speaks about an executive order on vaccines on Monday, Aug. 10, 2026, in the Oval Office. AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

“Dr. Heidi will work with Secretary Kennedy and Dr. Oz to RAPIDLY deliver on my priorities of FASTER Cures, INCREASED American Innovation, MAJOR Clinical Trial Reforms, LOWER Drug Prices, and even more MAHA WINS!” he wrote.

Overton was among the few officials in the Oval Office earlier this month when Mr. Trump signed an executive order recommending limits and changes to childhood vaccines.

Overton completed her general surgery residency at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and was a White House fellow during Mr. Trump’s first term.

blob:https://www.cbsnews.com/e09f0bbb-7e79-4df6-92c1-d56e15cb299b

Overton will need to be confirmed by the Senate. The FDA currently has an acting commissioner, Kyle Diamantas, after former commissioner Dr. Marty Makary resigned in May amid tensions at the organization. At the time, one source familiar with the matter told CBS News that Makary was leaving over the internal debate over flavored e-cigarettes, saying that Makary didn’t want to approve the flavored varieties but had been forced to by other members of the administration. Critics of the flavored e-cigarettes worry about the attraction for children.

‘Very special stone’: Trump unveils another White House construction project

2026-08-19T16:56:06.515Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/19/politics/trump-construction-white-house-helipad

President Donald Trump unveiled a new White House construction project Wednesday, issuing an impromptu invitation to reporters to join him on the South Lawn and tour the replacement of the White House driveway as well as progress made on his new helipad.

During the tour, an animated Trump highlighted his personal investment in the projects with painstaking attention to details theoretically far below his pay grade: the placement of stanchions, the radial cut of granite, the elimination of potholes. The tour concluded with him signing a giant slab of granite that he said would be “flipped” and laid into the helipad.

But first, he detailed another project — previously unannounced — that was already finished.

“This was always asphalt, which is very basic, not appropriate for a great house — for a great place like the White House,” Trump said over the clanging noise of construction, gesturing at the surface he was walking on. The driveway has been redone, he added, with a California-mined white granite he described as a “very special stone.”

Trump also suggested he had been involved in the decision earlier this month to disassemble progress made on his helipad.

Construction on the landing zone began shortly after his UFC fight in June, but CNN observed the dismantling of the stone weeks later. The White House has previously declined to provide an explanation for the changes, but the president said Wednesday he was unhappy with its slope.

“I felt it was too much slope. It’s a slope for the rain, but I felt it was too much slope,” Trump said, announcing that it was now “dead flat.”

Later addressing a group of workers, Trump said, “Sorry to take an extra week-and-a-half, but lifting it up was one of the best things we’ve ever done, lifting it up, right? I’m sure you didn’t like that.”

The president guided the press toward an opening in a fence around the helipad, pausing the tour to direct attention to updates to the White House facade, where he said paint had been stripped and redone.

“If you take a look at the stone, look how perfect the stone is,” he said, adding he’s “very proud to do it.”

He stopped the tour again before reaching the unfinished helipad, touting the fresh topsoil and grass.

“If you’re grass, you’re very happy,” he said.

Trump’s favorite White House project — construction on his 90,000-square-foot ballroom — was not a stop on the tour, but the president still brought it up repeatedly. His administration has taken the project to the Supreme Court, arguing the structure and state-of-the-art bunker facility that would be housed underneath is a matter of national security. Recently, he and the White House have tried to emphasize that argument by referring to the ballroom as the “military complex.”

Trump downplayed any concerns that the nation’s highest court would rule against him and potentially halt construction, saying he “can’t imagine it happening.”

Construction has been progressing rapidly on the ballroom, with a 250-person crew working 20-hour days, seven days per week, according to a court filing submitted earlier this month. The filing put the complex at “65% complete in its entirety.”

The president continued along his granite path, joining construction workers in neon vests and hard hats atop the new carved granite helipad emblazoned with the presidential seal, which he compared to his restoration of the Wollman Rink in Central Park. He signed the back of a carved image of an eagle that will soon be placed inside the seal.

Trump’s tour of the ongoing projects, his second such impromptu excursion with reporters this year, underscored how central construction is to how he views his presidential legacy.

“One thing I know how to do is build. … I love construction, I love seeing things properly taken care of,” he said, adding that the projects “will be here long after we’re gone.”

A recent review from Politifact found that in 2026, the president has spent significant time talking about those projects during public remarks — more than any other topic, except for his war with Iran.

Trump also offered a holistic vision for how the new projects would be utilized when the White House welcomes dignitaries for state visits.

“Without even having to go into the White House, they get out of the car on the beautiful new roadway. They get out of the car and they walk down this path onto that [helipad], and they can have cocktails and everything outside of the White House, and then they go into the ballroom,” he said.