博客

一艘超级油轮在霍尔木兹海峡爆炸 伊朗：触雷起火

2026年10月12日 11:33 / 联合早报

2月28日，美国和以色列联合袭击伊朗后，伊朗加强对霍尔木兹海峡的控制。 （路透社档案照片）

伊朗伊斯兰革命卫队海军宣布，一艘“违规”的超级油轮在霍尔木兹海峡以南触雷，发生爆炸。

新华社引述伊斯兰革命卫队海军星期天（10月11日）在官方新闻网站“塞帕新闻”（Sepah News）发布的声明说，爆炸导致油轮机舱起火。

blob:https://www.zaobao.com.sg/48c4c833-96e3-4868-801b-5f2bc002a1a2

声明也说，这艘载有原油的油轮当时关闭导航系统，并试图驶离霍尔木兹海峡。海军称，油轮违反海峡通行规定，进入“未经授权”的航道。

伊朗指出，该航线已被列为高风险航线，并警告称任何试图“无视”伊朗规定的违规油轮都将面临同样的命运。

伊朗海军指出，自星期六（10日）以来，这已是第三艘在海峡“未经授权”航道触雷并起火的“违规”油轮。

伊朗革命卫队：两艘油轮在霍尔木兹海峡爆炸起火
伊朗革命卫队：一艘油轮试图穿越海峡触雷爆炸

海军称，部队上星期五（9日）击中一艘名为“NV Sunshine”号的巨型液化石油气运输船，该船当时正试图通过霍尔木兹海峡以南的一条“非法”航线穿越该海峡。这艘船只的机舱和推进系统随后起火。

海军称，美军应对此类事件以及该地区日益紧张的海上局势负责，并警告称针对违规船只的行动将不再局限于霍尔木兹海峡，任何穿越未经授权航线的船只都将受到“惩罚”。

Secret Service’s deputy head says drone swarms are a “huge problem” the agency has not solved yet

2026-10-11T19:00:15-0400 / CBS News

By Norah O’Donnell

Norah O’Donnell is a multiple Emmy-Award winning “60 Minutes” correspondent and co-host of “CBS Mornings.” Previously, O’Donnell served as the managing editor and anchor of the “CBS Evening News” for more than five years, in addition to anchoring CBS News election specials. O’Donnell is also the host of “Healthful with Norah O’Donnell,” a CBS News podcast focused on women’s health.

Read Full Bio

Michael Rey, Julie Morse Goff, Matthew Riley, Jaime Woods

October 11, 2026 / 7:00 PM EDT / CBS News

The Secret Service is working out how to handle threats that have evolved beyond lone gunman to attack drones.

Deputy Director Matthew Quinn is leading the agency’s new multimillion-dollar program to develop offensive and defensive drone capabilities. Among the new tools in the agency’s arsenal is an artificial intelligence and radar-guided drone hunter, which disables enemy drones and captures them with a net.

“Swarms are a huge problem and a big threat,” Quinn said. “I’d love to tell you the swarm problem is solved. It’s not. I will tell you that at the White House, White House is the safest place on Earth.”

Drones and the Secret Service

The war in Ukraine has become a testing ground for the weaponization of drones. And that hasn’t gone unnoticed by the Secret Service.

“We know that technology is going to hit the homeland at some point,” Quinn said. “So we’re using lessons learned there to build our program and make sure we’re ahead of it before it gets here.”

Secret Service Director Sean Curran and Deputy Director Matthew Quinn 60 Minutes

It’s about planning ahead, Secret Service Director Sean Curran said.

“We have to assume that it’s possible,” Curran said. “The second we’re not, we’re going to get caught flat-footed.”

The concern is that a small, rudimentary drone could be weaponized with explosives and do serious damage to a large concert, sporting event or campaign rally. 60 Minutes has learned the Secret Service used electronic jamming equipment to take down a drone at the December Army-Navy game, where the president and members of Congress were in attendance.

Confronting a rise in threats to protectees

The Secret Service is confronting both new types and a rising number of threats.

There have been 10,000 threats made against Secret Service protectees so far this year; it’s a 40% year over year increase in cases involving full-time protectees, according to Curran.

“I think a lot of it has to do with the internet,” he said. “You know, people are more accessible. Information is more accessible.”

Mr. Trump, one of the most polarizing political figures in American history, has survived several attempts on his life, including at a Butler, Pennsylvania, campaign rally, at his Florida golf course, and at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

“I would say there’s people on both sides of the aisle that either love or hate any president. I think the biggest factor we’re dealing with today is mental health issues for sure,” Quinn said. “More people are being pushed over the edge in either direction.”

The agency doesn’t look at which side of the political aisle threats come from, Curran said.

Secret Service Director Sean Curran 60 Minutes

Research by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a bipartisan, nonprofit policy research organization, showed a spike in incidents from the left in 2025. It was the first time the number of attacks from the left have been higher than right-wing attacks in 30 years. This year, that trend has reversed, with more attacks coming from the right so far.

The Secret Service is also dealing with threats coming from outside the country, including threats from Iran. Top leaders there have vowed revenge against the U.S. for the killing of their supreme leader.

“Turn on the TV and you can see the funeral where there are massive banners saying ‘Kill President Trump.’ So do we recognize the threat environment has increased? Absolutely,” Quinn said. “How we do it and how we change, that’s where we prefer to stay in the background.”

Changes at Secret Service

The Secret Service has undergone internal changes in recent years after facing backlash for its failure to prevent Thomas Crooks’ attempt on Mr. Trump’s life in Butler in 2024. Curran was the lead agent in charge of protecting Mr. Trump that day. He said he had requested additional resources for the event, but that he’d “rather not get into the past.”

Kimberly Cheatle, who was head of the Secret Service during the Butler incident, stepped down. When Mr. Trump’s second term began, he appointed Curran as head of the agency.

This past June, the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General released a report on Butler. It found the Secret Service “missed multiple opportunities to detect, prevent, and disrupt the assassination attempt.”

Curran, guiding several changes at the agency, said he’s convinced nothing like the day’s events will happen again.

Many candidates are now in training for the Secret Service, which has been dangerously understaffed for years. A Homeland Security Inspector General’s report found the counter-sniper team is staffed 73% below the level needed to protect the nation’s most senior leaders. There are 942 people in training today compared to “maybe 200” last year, Quinn said.

Norah O’Donnell with Secret Service Director Sean Curran and Deputy Director Matthew Quinn 60 Minutes

And with the president back on the campaign trail ahead of the midterm elections, Curran has added new training for agents to avoid the mistakes of Butler.

Even the president’s limousine is getting regular updates, most of them classified. It weighs up to 10 tons, with bulletproof glass and defensive countermeasures.

“I don’t want to get into its capabilities. But it can do a lot,” Curran said.

He’s added a medical response truck, housing a trauma unit and a field surgeon ready to treat gunshot wounds. There’s also a new armored personnel carrier in the president’s motorcade.

“When you look at some of the significant civil disturbance events we’ve had, how do you move people? You look at getting teams to the Capitol during the January 6th event. This provides us the ability to get people where they need to be and take care of them. Keep them safe,” Quinn said.

“The mission is to protect the president of the United States”

That protection extends to the new Air Force One, a 747 donated by the Middle Eastern country of Qatar. It cost the U.S. nearly $400 million to add security enhancements to that plane, according to the U.S. Air Force.

Curran said the plane is trusted, but declined to explain what was behind that trust.

Despite his confidence, the Secret Service would not let the president fly home on that plane from Turkey in July after intelligence reports of an Iranian plot to fire a missile at the presidential jet. Mr. Trump was secretly slipped away to another plane, while Cabinet members, White House staff, the press and Secret Service agents were left on the decoy plane — the old Air Force One.

“That’s not the first time we’ve done that,” Curran said. “We wish that wasn’t reported, because that takes some of our tactics away from being able to do something similar again. It certainly wasn’t the first time where we did something like that.”

Curran wouldn’t specifically say whether Mr. Trump had been on a decoy plane on other occasions. Quinn stressed that the focus is on keeping the president safe.

“When you’re operating in any protective detail with the president of the United States, for any president, the priority is the president,” Quinn said. “Everyone else — staff, agents, media, personnel involved — are not the priority, including our own personnel. As hard as that may be for some to understand, the mission is to protect the president of the United States.”

Mojtaba Khamenei defies ‘malicious’ attacks as US Army zeroes in on Iran’s 350,000 troops

The ‘Know the Threat’ recognition guide details weapons American troops could encounter including Iranian-made Masaf-2 rifles

October 11, 2026 4:34pm EDT / Fox News

By Emma Bussey, Fox News

President Donald Trump says Iran’s military capabilities have been significantly degraded following U.S. strikes, claiming the country has fewer drones and missiles and asserting that Iran’s navy and air force have been destroyed.

NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

blob:https://www.foxnews.com/cce1090e-3b0e-4d0e-a7ad-ab4191ff3635

Listen to this article

5 min

Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei claimed Oct. 8 that U.S. and Israeli strikes had failed to undermine Iran’s domestic security forces, praising police personnel for resisting attacks launched in February under Operations Epic Fury and Roaring Lion.

Khamenei’s remarks on X also came as the U.S. Army released a new battlefield identification guide to help American troops recognize members of Iran’s conventional military, known as the Artesh, whose ground forces were estimated by the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security in June at 350,000 personnel.

“The criminal US-Zionist enemy’s desperate efforts and malicious attacks on the pillars of social order and security, which are unparalleled throughout history, have not caused the courageous personnel of the Police Force to waver even a fraction in their mission,” Khamenei wrote in a statement.

Khamenei specifically praised Iran’s Law Enforcement Command, known as FARAJA, accusing the United States and Israel of targeting the institution responsible for maintaining domestic order.

“The focus and persistence of the criminal US-Zionist enemy in striking at the Police Force at its various levels, from its highest command levels down to those who are on the frontline, has only served to underscore the paramount importance of this institution more than ever,” he wrote.

IRAN PROVES THAT IT MIGHT CHANGE ITS MILITARY LEADERS, BUT IT’S NOT CHANGING STRATEGY

Khamenei specifically praised Iran’s Law Enforcement Command, known as FARAJA, accusing the United States and Israel of targeting the institution responsible for maintaining domestic order.(Photo by Fars News Agency / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Iran’s security apparatus comprises three principal branches: the Artesh, responsible primarily for conventional territorial defense; the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), tasked with protecting the Islamic Republic and projecting military power; and FARAJA, responsible for domestic law enforcement and internal security.

IRAN’S GUTTED RANKS LEAVE LOYALISTS FILLING CRITICAL POSTS — WITH ONE GLARING PROBLEM

Iran’s FARAJA is responsible for domestic law enforcement and internal security.(REUTERS/Mohammed Salem Foreign media)

FARAJA, commanded by Brig. Gen. Ahmadreza Radan, is responsible for maintaining public order, enforcing the country’s laws and responding to civil unrest.

According to Iran Human Rights Monitor, the force has evolved into a powerful internal security institution involved in suppressing anti-government demonstrations, monitoring political activity and enforcing the regime’s ideological restrictions.

IRAN INSTALLS NEW WAR CHIEFS AS TEHRAN SIGNALS ‘PROLONGED CONFRONTATION,’ EXPERT WARNS

FARAJA is commanded by Brig. Gen. Ahmadreza Radan and is Iran’s principal domestic police organization, responsible for maintaining public order, enforcing the country’s laws and responding to civil unrest.((Photo by Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Radan has also been sanctioned by the United States for his role in human rights abuses.

The Treasury Department designated him in September 2010, citing his responsibility for beatings, killings and arbitrary arrests of protesters following Iran’s disputed 2009 presidential election.

Khamenei also called for strengthening FARAJA on Oct. 8 through additional personnel, equipment and technology, including the use of artificial intelligence for data analysis.

AFTER 47 YEARS OF CONFRONTING IRAN, DOES AMERICA HAVE A STRATEGY FOR ENDING THIS WAR?

His remarks come as the U.S. Army’s Training and Transformation Command published a “Know the Threat” recognition guide Sept. 24, highlighted by Defense News on Oct. 9.

The guide shows an Iranian special forces soldier and identifies weapons American troops could encounter, including AKM rifles, Iranian-made Masaf-2 rifles, German-designed G3 rifles, MG3 machine guns and RPG-7 rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

The Artesh, Iran’s regular military, is separate from the IRGC and its affiliated Basij militia. Its forces operate across four branches: the Ground Forces, Navy, Air Force and Air Defense Force.

A June assessment by the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security estimated the Artesh’s Ground Forces at approximately 350,000 personnel, including 220,000 conscripts.

The report found that the Artesh had suffered severe losses across its air, naval and air defense components during the opening phase of the U.S.-Israeli military campaign, while its ground forces remained structurally intact because there had been no ground invasion.

TRUMP OPENS HORMUZ UNDER FIRE WITH ‘PROJECT FREEDOM’ AS IRAN WARNS OF ATTACKS

The Artesh, Iran’s regular military, is separate from the IRGC and its affiliated Basij militia. Its forces operate across four branches: the Ground Forces, Navy, Air Force and Air Defense Force.(Photo by Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

The Artesh is commanded by Maj. Gen. Amir Hatami, a former Iranian defense minister who assumed command in June 2025.

Aside from Khamenei, Hatami issued his own warning Oct. 6, claiming Iran’s adversaries faced “historic confusion” after failing to halt military production during the conflict.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Hatami also claimed that Iranian defense production continued despite American and Israeli attacks, saying the country’s military production lines had continued operating during the conflict.

The extent of Iran’s military recovery remains unclear. The Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security assessed in June that the country’s conventional air, naval and air defense forces had suffered severe damage during the conflict.

President Donald Trump, meanwhile, said Oct. 8 that Washington would not resume military strikes against Iran before the Nov. 3 midterm elections, citing “productive discussions” between the two countries.

Emma Bussey is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital. Before joining Fox, she worked at The Telegraph with the U.S. overnight team, across desks including foreign, politics, news, sport and culture.

60 Minutes Transcript: The West Bank, where Israeli settler violence against Palestinians is surging

2026-10-11T19:00:16-0400 / CBS News

Israel has been at war with the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza, ever since the massacre of October 7, but there’s another increasingly volatile battleground: the West Bank, which has been under Israeli military occupation for six decades.

On the west bank of the Jordan River, it’s home to over 3 million Palestinians, who hope to make it the heart of their future state. It’s also home to over 500,000 Jews who call this Judea and Samaria, their biblical homeland. They built communities here called settlements in the hope of making this part of Israel.

In recent months, some militant settlers are ramping up their campaign to violently drive out the Palestinians who live there — often with impunity — the Israeli government showing an unwillingness to crack down on the violence. With the Israeli election two weeks away, we headed to the arid hilltops of the West Bank that have seen shepherds come and go for thousands of years.

This is a biblical story: you have two populations – Jewish and Arab; the descendants of Abraham’s sons: Isaac and Ishmael fighting over ancestral lands. But with all of today’s high tech warcraft – AI, drones, supersonic missiles – the weapons they’re using here are sticks and stones and sheep!

Mordehai Minster: Sheep are amazing. They’re dumb, but they’re amazing creatures.

Mordehai Minster cofounded this sheep farm. It’s a new kind of settlement here in the West Bank from where his herd is driven deeper and deeper into the surrounding Palestinian communities.

Lesley Stahl: So the idea is you send your sheep down to graze, and then you can say, “That’s my land because my sheep are grazing on it”?

Mordehai Minster: When you have sheep, everyone understands. Arabs tend to fight over grazing lands among themselves. It’s a language that we understand, and they understand. And it’s a way to delineate the border. This is where I graze my sheep. You don’t take your sheep here. You don’t plant here. You don’t build here.

Mordehai Minster and Lesley Stahl 60 Minutes

The sheep have taken over huge swaths of land: 20% of the West Bank. In one Palestinian village after the next, herds from these farms have pressed in, and the village shepherds pushed out. The mayor of Burq:

Sayel Kanan: They actually seized the land with the– their sheep.

The settlers even push sheep into people’s homes. A teacher in Al-Mughayyir:

Waheed Marsouq: They enter, they open the gate of the house and take the sheep inside to eat the trees around the house.

Some 200 sheep farms have popped up in recent years changing something fundamental: for decades Jewish settlers have put up fences to protect themselves from the active threat of Palestinian terrorism; now it’s the Palestinians who are penning themselves in.

Lesley Stahl: This is kind of new these kinds of farms dotting the West Bank.

Mordehai Minster: Correct

Lesley Stahl: And a lot of them,including this one, have used violence against the villages down around you.

Mordehai Minster: Whenever you have ethnic religious communities, especially in the Middle East, fighting over land and resources, that conflict sometimes gets ugly. The fact that violence exists doesn’t change the merit of the right that we have to this land.

The violence is often carried out by these young shepherds known as “Hilltop Youth,” who have flocked here for a sense of adventure, told they’re on a God-given mission to redeem the land.

So they routinely storm Palestinian fields and villages, harassing farmers and livestock, cutting olive trees — over 1,600 incidents so far this year. They’ve torched cars and destroyed property: there’s a hardcore of up to 500 of them. Up to a thousand more drift in and out.

Lesley Stahl: How did they get here? Who are they?

Mordehai Minster: Those are kids that are ranging age between, I don’t know, 15 and 25. They don’t do great in school. They don’t get into the army that easily ’cause maybe behavioral problems. So some of them end up in places like this, taking care of sheep, doing construction. Some of these kids may have drug problems. They smoke pot. They grow pot.

Lesley Stahl: The American ambassador to Israel has said that the violence against these Palestinian farmers is terrorism. He’s called it thuggish and disgusting.

Mordehai Minster: I wouldn’t classify it as terrorism, but are there some children who overreact and act in thuggish ways and need to be controlled and held in? Yeah, definitely.

Lesley Stahl: People have died.

Mordehai Minster: Yes. None of this is great and none of this changes the fact that our right to be here is legal and it’s ancient.

This is not how the Palestinians who live directly down the hill from his farm see it.

Mahmoud Faraj: They come over here and they shepherd here.

Mahmoud Faraj’s family has had the deed to this land for generations. We talked to him, his cousin Hassan, and Hassan’s daughter Salma, about their village called Jannatah, that means paradise.

Hassan Faraj: Actually it was a paradise until the 26th of March when a group of settlers invaders entered to our land, our property, private property, and they establish a tent. They were something like 20 people, 25 people. And they started to behave that they are the owners of everything.

Hilltop Boys set up this outpost — what Hassan calls a tent — literally in his backyard, cutting off access to one of their family’s houses.

Mahmoud: This is my cousin’s house over there. He’s not allowed to go there at all.

The young shepherds are trying to force the villagers to leave.

Hassan Faraj: They are succeeding. If you go around them you will see many houses, they just left really empty. Abandon, they abandoned their property. They steal electricity from the locals and they also steal water. This is their strategy, to make the area unlivable.

Every time the family tries to get near their house, they say teens from the outpost rush down to beat them up. In March, Hassan tried with his uncle and cousin Muhammad.

Faraj family members 60 Minutes

Hassan Faraj: Within few seconds they started to attack us in small groups with wood sticks and with stones. And they have tear gas. And three of them, they were armed. So one of the armed guys, he started to shoot. He shot my cousin in his head. And it didn’t stop here. They came and they started to beat my uncle and his son, who was dead, with wood– with wood sticks. [Sigh]

Lesley Stahl: Was anybody prosecuted for the death of your cousin?

Hassan Faraj: It’s an open case–what’s so-called.

Muhammad’s family is skeptical. Only a tiny number of these cases ever get prosecuted.

Muhammad’s brother, also named Hassan, tried to take us to the family’s house. But within seconds, the Hilltop Youth in their black hoodies came running down the hill, one after the other. Soon the teens were blocking Hassan from reaching the house in the distance – some were very young. As they shoved and rammed, Hassan kept his hands behind his back so they couldn’t accuse him of hitting them.

Lesley Stahl: That means I’m not fighting with you?

Roie: Yes.

A group of Jewish activists called Sons of Abraham were there as well. What they do is try to protect Palestinians under siege. They stepped between Hassan and the teens like human shields, the idea being that settlers would be more hesitant to attack other Jews, as opposed to Hassan.

Roie: They are trying to push us back. They don’t want us to enter with the cameras. So they are pushing and waiting for someone to react with their hands so they have an excuse for more extreme violence.

Most of the activists – like the settlers – grew up in right-wing religious homes. This young woman was once a Hilltop Youth herself, but Amana, Dvir and Roie say Judaism calls on them to protect, not expel, their neighbors.

Lesley Stahl: So here’s something that I heard, Amana, that when the settlers see you, they get even angrier because they see you as traitors.

Amana: (In Hebrew/English translation) I think they are angrier because we threaten them ideologically. And also, I’m not coming from the outside. I also grew up as a settler. I tell them//I changed my ways. I know what you’re doing and I know it’s not the right way.

Lesley Stahl: Do you know each other? And do they recognize you, you recognize them?

Amana: (In Hebrew/English translation) Yes, sometimes.

Lesley Stahl: You know them?

Amana: Yes.

Lesley Stahl: Yeah. It must be painful for you.

Roie: I think it’s painful for me to see how people I grew up with, and some of them were good friends of mine, behave.

Lesley Stahl: But he must say that about you.

Roie: Probably.

Sons of Abraham activists 60 Minutes

One of the older boys was particularly belligerent: so much for Jews not attacking Jews.

Bnaya: What are you?

Lesley Stahl: Oh I’m an American Journalist. Television.

Bnaya: And you in with Hamas?

Lesley Stahl: No.

He really got into it with Hassan, headbutting him in the face.

Lesley Stahl: Oh. They’re really hurting people now.

Roie: Yes.

Hassan shouted back: “This is my land and you won’t stay. These are my roots.” Then – he got bashed again, this time fracturing his nose. Hassan and the activists decided it was time to retreat, but the settlers blocked them.

Lesley Stahl: Are all your people out?

Roie: No no. There’s still two.

Lesley Stahl: Still two?

Roie:Yeah.

Just as things were getting out of hand, a captain in the Israeli army turned up, seemingly out of nowhere. The soldiers had to go down the road to rescue the last two activists and then he told all of us to clear out.

Lesley Stahl: But are you gonna let the boys go back there?

Captain: They are going to go back to where they are. That’s–

Lesley Stahl: From up there.

So Hassan was kicked off his own property. The Jewish youth got to stay. The army’s priority is the settlers. Some soldiers are settlers themselves and occasionally join the violence. Though there’ve also been cases where the soldiers have been attacked by the young settlers.

The Trump administration has called on Netanyahu to deal with the violence and he has condemned it. But his government has poured tens of millions of dollars into expanding the sheep farms, arming them and giving them American-made off-roaders.

Roie: People call it “settler violence.” I don’t agree with that. It is state violence. There is a violence of a government.

Hanging over all of this are the midterms in the U.S. in three weeks. If the Democrats win, they’re threatening to limit military aid to Israel in part because, they say, of the West Bank attacks.

Lesley Stahl: What about American public opinion. Do you worry that what’s going on–

Mordehai Minster: I do.

Lesley Stahl: –here is going to result in Israel losing military aid from the United States?

Mordehai Minster: I am bothered by the fact that America’s turning on us, and we’re turning on America. It’s, like, I see it as losing a friendship. And I’m also concerned that, as a military ally, as a political ally, we may lose America as well. It looks like it’s going in that direction. But Israel will find other allies.

Lesley Stahl: You’re not worried enough about it to dial back?

Mordehai Minster: No. I am worried about that. But I don’t look at it as– as an existential threat.

Meanwhile over 100 Palestinian communities have been displaced or erased by the settler violence and the ever-encroaching sheep.

Produced by Shachar Bar-On. Field producer, Roni Aboulafia. Associate producer, Jinsol Jung. Broadcast associate, Aria Een. Edited by Mike Levine. Assistant editor, Aisha Crespo

Trump and Rubio weigh firing Kimberly Guilfoyle as misconduct and donor bailout allegations mount

The US ambassador to Greece was accused of offering access to senior administration officials in exchange for payment

October 11, 2026 6:55pm EDT / Fox News

By Stepheny Price

U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle may soon be fired amid reports she sought a six-figure credit card bailout from a Trump donor while offering access to administration officials, adding to mounting allegations over her conduct in Athens.

President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are “extremely pissed off” by Guilfoyle’s reported conduct and are weighing her removal, The Associated Press reported Sunday, citing a senior U.S. official.

The official told the AP that a decision on what action to take would likely come this week after Monday’s Columbus Day holiday. No departure has been confirmed.

Guilfoyle, onetime fiancée of Donald Trump Jr., came under scrutiny this week after The Wall Street Journal reported that she asked Trump donor Eric Deters to pay off a $100,000 American Express bill shortly before her Senate confirmation hearing.

MARCO RUBIO ANNOUNCES SWEEPING FINANCIAL SANCTIONS AGAINST THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

US Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle (R) attends the opening of the sixth round of the Greece-US Strategic Dialogue, in Athens, on October 7, 2026.(Photo by Mark Schiefelbein / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)

According to messages reviewed by the Journal, Guilfoyle urged Deters to wire the money directly to American Express, saying the transaction would not leave a paper trail, while offering to help him gain access to senior Trump administration officials. Deters said he never made the payment.

Guilfoyle’s attorney, Jesse Binnall, disputed the authenticity of the messages.

The allegations followed an earlier Journal investigation into Guilfoyle’s conduct in Greece, including claims that she promoted the interests of Greek construction and energy company Aktor Group and allowed its registered lobbyist, Christos Marafatsos, to accompany her to private diplomatic meetings with senior officials.

FORMER TRUMP CABINET OFFICIAL HAD ‘INAPPROPRIATELY CLOSE’ RELATIONSHIP WITH BODYGUARD, IG FINDS

The Journal also reported that Guilfoyle suggested at a dinner with Greek officials that the U.S. would undermine their government, citing political developments in Romania. Greece’s foreign minister has since said there was no need to summon Guilfoyle for an explanation because the country’s energy minister denied that any threat had been made.

Separately, the State Department’s Office of Inspector General opened an investigation into allegations involving Guilfoyle’s treatment of embassy employees, private travel, acceptance of gifts and relationships with business interests, according to a report from the Daily Mail.

3 SECRET SERVICE OFFICIALS UNDER INTERNAL INVESTIGATION FOR POTENTIAL MISCONDUCT

FILE – The State Department’s Office of Inspector General reportedly opened an investigation into allegations involving Guilfoyle’s treatment of embassy employees.(Photo by Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Sources described a hostile workplace in which Guilfoyle allegedly threatened to fire employees. They also claim that she demoted members of her security detail over minor incidents, including an officer who reportedly failed to answer a 4 a.m. request for ice while she was vacationing in Mykonos.

The inspector general’s office declined to confirm or deny the existence of an investigation. Binnall told the Daily Mail that “any implication of wrongdoing by the Ambassador is unsupported.”

The allegations have drawn scrutiny from congressional Democrats, including Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., who have called for a review of Guilfoyle’s conduct. Meeks urged her removal if the allegations were substantiated.

Vice President JD Vance addressed the controversy Friday, cautioning against rushing to judgment while acknowledging that misconduct should carry consequences.

OHIO BAKERY WORKERS RECOUNT SURPRISE JD VANCE ENCOUNTER THAT TOOK AN UNEXPECTED TURN

“Let’s actually see what the facts are. Let’s see what the truth is,” Vance told reporters in Ohio. “And obviously, if there was something bad that happened, then people have to suffer consequences for it.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who visited Greece this week and delivered remarks with the backdrop of Acropolis, declined to address the allegations directly.

SEC MARCO RUBIO: THE WEST FORGOT WHAT MADE IT GREAT. WE MUST REDISCOVER OUR ROOTS BEFORE WE LOSE THEM

“You guys walk around thinking that because some source told you something and you reported it, it’s the gospel. It’s not the gospel,” Rubio told reporters Thursday.

Rubio had defended Guilfoyle’s performance a day earlier, saying, “Our ambassador has been a strong ambassador here.”

FOUR AMERICAN TOURISTS AMONG 6 KILLED AFTER EXPLOSION LEVELS BUILDING NEAR ATHENS’ ACROPOLIS

Republican vice presidential candidate, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) speaks to Donald Trump Jr. (L) as Kimberly Guilfoyle looks on, during preparations for the second day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum on July 16, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.(Getty Images)

Trump nominated Guilfoyle to the diplomatic post in December 2024. A former California prosecutor and Fox News Channel personality, she previously served as a prominent surrogate and fundraiser for the president.

DONALD TRUMP JR AND BETTINA ANDERSON CELEBRATE PRIVATE WEDDING IN BAHAMAS, SHARE SWEET PERSONAL PHOTO

Guilfoyle was almost Trump’s daughter-in-law. She was engaged to Don Jr. for four years, but the two publicly split in Dec. 2024 — the same month the president nominated her to be the ambassador to Greece.

The president’s eldest son married Palm Beach socialite Bettina Anderson in May of this year.

She was also previously married to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, from 2001 to 2006, when he was serving as mayor of San Francisco.

Stepheny Price is a Writer at Fox News with a focus on West Coast and Midwest news, missing persons, national and international crime stories, homicide cases, and border security.

blob:https://www.foxnews.com/34009d88-4e22-49a5-8b13-d43d2b654a0f

Some Israeli settlers use sheep as tool to push Palestinians from their West Bank homes

2026-10-11T19:00:18-0400 / https://www.cbsnews.com/news/west-bank-palestinians-israeli-settlers-sheep-violence-60-minutes/

The arid hilltops of the West Bank have seen shepherds come and go for thousands of years, and now some of these shepherds are behind settler violence against Palestinians.

The struggle for the West Bank is a biblical story. There are two populations – Jewish and Arab, the descendants of Abraham’s sons, Isaac and Ishmael – fighting over ancestral land. The West Bank, located on the west bank of the Jordan River, is home to more than 3 million Palestinians who hope to make it the heart of their future state. It is also home to over 500,000 Jews who call the area Judea and Samaria, their biblical homeland.

The area has been under Israeli military occupation for nearly six decades. Jewish settlers have built communities in the West Bank in hopes of making the land part of Israel.

With Israeli elections two weeks away, and midterms in the U.S. next month, how settler violence is handled could soon change.

Driving sheep herds into Palestinian communities

Mordehai Minster, who cofounded a sheep farm in the West Bank, is a new type of Israeli settler. His herd is driven deeper and deeper into surrounding Palestinian communities.

“When you have sheep, everyone understands. Arabs tend to fight over grazing lands among themselves. It’s a language that we understand, and they understand,” Minster said. “And it’s a way to delineate the border. ‘This is where I graze my sheep. You don’t take your sheep here. You don’t plant here. You don’t build here.’”

Mordehai Minster and Lesley Stahl 60 Minutes

Israeli sheep farms have taken over huge swathes of land: an estimated 20% of the West Bank. Some 200 sheep farms have popped up in recent years. Settlers even push sheep into Palestinian homes.

“They enter, they open the gate of the house and take the sheep inside to eat the trees around the house,” Waheed Marsouq, a Palestinian teacher in Al-Mughayyir, said.

For decades, Jewish settlers put up fences to protect themselves from the active threat of Palestinian terrorism. Now it’s the Palestinians who are penning themselves in. More than 100 Palestinian communities have been displaced or erased by the settler violence and the ever-encroaching sheep.

“Whenever you have ethnic religious communities, especially in the Middle East, fighting over land and resources, that conflict sometimes gets ugly,” Minster said. “The fact that violence exists doesn’t change the merit of the right that we have to this land.”

Who are the Israeli settlers?

Young shepherds, known as Hilltop Youth, are often behind the violence. They’ve flocked to the West Bank for a sense of adventure, and are told they’re on a God-given mission to redeem the land. They storm Palestinian fields and villages, cut down olive trees, torch cars and destroy property, and harass farmers and livestock. There have been more than 1,600 incidents so far this year, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

There’s a hardcore group of up to 500 settlers, and up to 1,000 more people drift in and out.

“Those are kids that are ranging in age between, I don’t know, 15 and 25,” Minster said. “They don’t do great in school. They don’t get into the army that easily because maybe behavioral problems. So some of them end up in places like this, taking care of sheep, doing construction. Some of these kids may have drug problems. They smoke pot. They grow pot.”

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has called the settler violence terrorism, describing it as thuggish and disgusting.

“I wouldn’t classify it as terrorism, but are there some children who overreact and act in thuggish ways and need to be controlled and held in? Yeah, definitely,” Minster said.

Palestinians have been killed by settler violence.

“Yes,” Minster acknowledged. “None of this is great and none of this changes the fact that our right to be here is legal and it’s ancient.”

“This is my land”

That is not how the Palestinians who live directly down the hill from Minster’s farm see it.

Mahmoud Faraj’s family has had the deed to this land for generations. 60 Minutes talked to him and his cousin Hassan about their village called Janata, which means paradise in Arabic.

The name was accurate until a group of 20 to 25 settlers showed up on March 26, entering the Faraj family’s land and setting up a “tent,” Hassan said.

“And they started to behave that they are the owners of everything,” Hassan said.

The Hilltop Youth outpost, which Hassan described as a “tent,” is in his backyard, cutting off access to one of their family’s houses.

“This is my cousin’s house over there. He’s not allowed to go there at all,” Mahmoud said.

Faraj family members 60 Minutes

The Israeli settlers are trying to force the villagers to leave, and they’re succeeding, Hassan said. Many homes have been abandoned.

“They steal electricity from the locals and they also steal water,” Hassan said of the settlers. “This is their strategy, to make the area unlivable.”

Every time the family tries to get near their house, they say teens from the outpost rush down to beat them up. In March, Hassan tried with his uncle and cousin Muhammad.

“They started to attack us in small groups with wood sticks and with stones. And they have tear gas. And three of them, they were armed. So one of the armed guys, he started to shoot. He shot my cousin in his head,” Hassan said. “And it didn’t stop here. They came and they started to beat my uncle and his son, who was dead, with wood, with wood sticks.”

The family is skeptical that anyone will be held responsible as only a tiny number of these cases ever get prosecuted.

On another day, Muhammad’s brother, also named Hassan, tried to take 60 Minutes to the family’s house. But within seconds, the Hilltop Youth in their black hoodies came running down the hill. Soon the teens were blocking Hassan from reaching the house in the distance. The teens shoved Hassan, who kept his hands behind his back so they couldn’t accuse him of hitting them.

“This is my land and you won’t stay. These are my roots,” Hassan shouted back in Hebrew.

He was hit again and his nose was broken. One of the Hilltop Youth headbutted Hassan.

Hassan tried to retreat, but he was blocked.

Israeli activists protecting Palestinians from settlers

Hassan wasn’t alone that day when he tried to visit his home. He was joined by a group of Jewish activists, called Sons of Abraham, who work to protect Palestinians under siege. They stepped between Hassan and the teenage settlers, acting as human shields. The idea is that the settlers would be more hesitant to attack other Jews.

“They are trying to push us back. They don’t want us to enter with the cameras. So they are pushing and waiting for someone to react with their hands, so they have an excuse for more extreme violence,” Roie, one of the activists, said.

Most of the activists, like the settlers, grew up in right-wing, religious homes. One of them, Amana, used to be a Hilltop Youth herself. But Amana, Dvir and Roie say Judaism calls on them to protect, not expel, their neighbors.

Sons of Abraham activists 60 Minutes

Some of the Hilltop Youth get angry when they see the Sons of Abraham.

“I think they are angrier because we threaten them ideologically,” Amana said in Hebrew. “And also, I’m not coming from the outside. I also grew up as a settler. I tell them, ‘I changed my ways. I know what you’re doing and I know it’s not the right way.’”

Sometimes the Sons of Abraham and Hilltop Youth recognize each other.

“I think it’s painful for me to see how people I grew up with, and some of them were good friends of mine, behave,” Roie said, acknowledging that they must say the same thing about him.

On the day Roie, Amana and Dvir accompanied Hassan, just as things were getting out of hand, a captain in the Israeli army turned up with soldiers.

In the end, Hassan was kicked off his own property. The Jewish settlers got to stay.

The army’s priority is the settlers, and some soldiers are settlers themselves, and occasionally join the violence.

Though there have also been cases where the soldiers have been attacked by the young settlers.

“People call it ‘settler violence.’ I don’t agree with that,” Roie said. “It is state violence. There is a violence of a government.”

Political landscape in Israel and in the U.S.

Elections in Israel are two weeks away and, so far, the Israeli government has shown an unwillingness to crack down on settler violence in the West Bank.

The Trump administration has called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to deal with the situation. Netanyahu has condemned the violence, but his government has also poured tens of millions of dollars into expanding sheep farms, arming them and giving them American-made off-roaders.

Midterm elections in the U.S. next month could also change the political landscape. If the Democrats win, they’re threatening to limit military aid to Israel in part, they say, because of the West Bank attacks.

Minster said he worries about American public opinion. While he’s concerned about the potential impact if Israel loses America’s support, he doesn’t look at it as an existential threat.

“I am bothered by the fact that America’s turning on us, and we’re turning on America. It’s, like, I see it as losing a friendship,” he said. “And I’m also concerned that, as a military ally, as a political ally, we may lose America as well. It looks like it’s going in that direction. But Israel will find other allies.”

Trump considering firing Kimberly Guilfoyle after embarrassing revelations, source says

2026-10-11T22:17:01.154Z / CNN

By Kevin Liptak

PUBLISHED Oct 11, 2026, 6:17 PM ET

US Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle speaks during a dedication ceremony at the chancery of the US Embassy in Athens, on October 7.

Mark Schiefelbein/AFP/Pool/Getty Images

President Donald Trump is weighing whether to dismiss Kimberly Guilfoyle from her position as US ambassador to Greece after a string of embarrassing revelations about her conduct, a person familiar with the matter said Sunday.

Trump has been monitoring reports claiming Guilfoyle, who was engaged to Trump’s eldest son Donald Trump Jr. for four years, accepted lavish gifts as ambassador and sought money in exchange for providing access to administration figures before she was confirmed.

The reports have irked senior administration officials, particularly since they emerged when Secretary of State Marco Rubio was visiting Athens for a high-profile speech on Western democracy delivered from the Acropolis.

Trump is expected to decide soon whether to fire Guilfoyle, the person said. The president offered no defense of Guilfoyle when questioned by CNN about the allegations Friday.

“I just heard about it. Too bad. I mean, I don’t know,” Trump said. “I just heard a little bit about it. I don’t know too much, but she was always very nice.”

CNN has reached out to the White House for comment.

Eric Deters, a former Trump donor, said Guilfoyle asked him in a text message to wire her $100,000 to pay off an American Express card in the days before her Senate confirmation. Deters ultimately did not wire Guilfoyle the money, saying he didn’t have the liquid assets at the time.

A lawyer for the ambassador told the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the messages, that Guilfoyle disputed the authenticity of the messages.

Guilfoyle denied to administration officials last week that she sent the messages, the person familiar said.

Guilfoyle has remained close to the Trump family. After her breakup with Donald Trump Jr., she received the plum assignment in Greece.

Allies of the president and his son told CNN they felt the episode is embarrassing, though it’s not clear whether there will be consequences for Guilfoyle. Trump has repeatedly made clear he is not happy when allies profit off of their relationship with him.

Vice President JD Vance on Friday withheld judgment on whether there should be consequences for Guilfoyle, saying he refused to “try people in the court of public opinion.”

But the vice president said, in general, he was uncomfortable with access-for-pay schemes. “Of course I don’t like anybody selling access to another government official, certainly a high-level government official,” he said.

“Let’s see what the truth is. And obviously, if there was something bad that happened, then people have to suffer consequences for it,” he said.

Trump Russia deal could fuel Putin’s war, ex-NATO commander warns as Zelenskyy says ‘nyet’

October 11, 2026 5:56pm EDT / Fox News

Retired Gen Philip Breedlove said Moscow is buying time through negotiations it has no intention of honoring

By Emma Bussey Fox News

Former NATO commander warns Trump’s diesel deal will help Putin fund Ukraine war

Retired Gen. Philip Breedlove warns Russia will use oil revenue to finance attacks while buying time at the negotiating table.

NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

President Donald Trump’s efforts to reach a diesel agreement with Russia could provide Russian President Vladimir Putin with fresh revenue to fund his war against Ukraine while allowing Moscow to buy time through negotiations it has little intention of honoring, a former NATO commander warned Sunday.

Retired Gen. Philip Breedlove, former NATO supreme allied commander Europe and head of U.S. European Command, told Fox News Digital that Washington also risks undermining Ukraine’s war effort by striking a deal with what he called “the enemy.”

“And so we are cutting a deal with the enemy,” Breedlove said, warning that “all of this money will go into fueling Mr. Putin’s continued attacks in Ukraine.”

The Russian government said Saturday it had partially lifted a ban on diesel exports with immediate effect, following the new agreement between Putin and Trump for Russia to supply the U.S. and global markets, Reuters reported.

As previously reported by Fox News Digital, Trump’s package calls for the release of 300,000 tonnes of diesel “to the American and global marketplace,” followed by 500,000 tonnes in November and another 1 million tonnes afterward.

KATIE ZACHARIA HITS GROUND RUNNING, PROMISES TRUMP DIESEL DEAL DELIVERS CHEAPER GAS FOR AMERICANS

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a briefing in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 17, 2025.(AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

The diesel agreement preceded Trump’s announcement Sunday of what he called an “energy ceasefire” between Russia and Ukraine, with the president saying both sides had agreed to halt attacks on energy infrastructure.

“Effective immediately, there is an ENERGY CEASEFIRE in the War between Russia and Ukraine. Both parties have agreed. Do not break it!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, however, indicated that Ukraine had not been informed of a finalized ceasefire agreement but expressed willingness to halt attacks on Russian energy facilities if Moscow reciprocated. He also accused Putin of repeatedly rejecting peace proposals and continuing strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

“Ukraine has proposed many de-escalatory steps. Putin had one answer to all of them – ‘nyet,’” Zelenskyy wrote on X.

“We do hope that he will finally say something to America, Ukraine, and the entire world that will lead to a real and dignified peace,” he added.

Zelenskyy also said Russian forces had carried out more than 200 strikes on Ukraine’s electricity generation and transmission facilities over the past week, along with 17 strikes targeting gas and oil infrastructure.

He said the attacks had killed more than 150 people and wounded more than 700 over the past week.

Trump’s “energy ceasefire” announcement followed tension between Washington and Kyiv over Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian oil refineries, a component of Ukraine’s strategy to weaken Moscow’s ability to finance its military campaign.

UKRAINE TARGETS RUSSIA WITH OVER 1,000 DRONES, KILLING 2 AS MOSCOW HOLDS LAST DAY OF ELECTIONS

A view of Russian President Vladimir Putin in front of the Kremlin.(Reuters/Tom Szlukovenyi | Photo by Contributor/Getty Images | Fox News Digital)

Breedlove argued that Russia and Ukraine are pursuing different objectives, accusing Moscow of targeting Ukrainian civilians and critical infrastructure while describing Kyiv’s attacks on Russian energy facilities as an effort to disrupt the revenue sustaining Putin’s war.

“Russia is carrying on a campaign of what we call counter value. In other words, Russia is attacking the Ukrainian people and trying to force their society to separate themselves from their president, President Zelenskyy,” Breedlove said.

Breedlove also predicted Washington would pressure Zelenskyy to suspend attacks on Russia’s oil industry despite their strategic importance.

“What I expect will happen is the United States will force or try to force Zelenskyy to stop bombing the petrochemical business in Russia,” he said.

TRUMP’S DIESEL IDEA COULD HAVE UNLEASHED A PROBLEM AMERICANS NEVER SAW COMING

Overnight, Russia launched its largest aerial assault on Ukraine since the war started as fires burned in Kyiv on May 25, 2025.(Reuters/Gleb Garanich)

Trump has vehemently criticized Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries, arguing that they are disrupting global diesel supplies and driving up costs for American farmers and ranchers.

Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent defended the administration’s efforts to increase diesel supplies.

“We’re going to do it with all the legal authorities we have,” Bessent said Sunday on Fox News. “This is good for the American people, bringing these diesel prices down,” he said of the new deal.

Separately, appearing on ABC News’ “This Week,” Zelenskyy offered to organize Ukrainian elections if Putin agreed to a reciprocal 60-day ceasefire, although holding a vote would face legal and logistical obstacles under Ukraine’s martial law.

Breedlove also expressed deep skepticism that Putin would honor any such ceasefire, citing what he described as a pattern of Russian attacks following negotiations with Trump. “Russia has never kept a promise to this president in this war,” Breedlove said.

UKRAINE’S ATTACKS ON RUSSIA ARE PUSHING PUTIN CLOSER TO NEGOTIATING TABLE, TRUMP NATO AMBASSADOR SAYS

U.S. President Donald Trump (R) greets Russian President Vladimir Putin as he arrives at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson on Aug. 15, 2025 in Anchorage, Alaska. The two leaders are meeting for peace talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.(Getty Images/ Andrew Harnik)

“He’s never changed his expectations, and he’s never delivered on his promises. Three out of four of the big cases, the very next day or that same night after the president and Mr. Putin talked, Mr. Putin launched huge attacks in Ukraine,” Breedlove continued.

Breedlove also called for a tougher U.S. response.

“We now need an administration that leads from power. We say all the time, ‘strength through power,’ but when it comes to Russia, our demonstrated position is continued conflict through weakness,” Breedlove warned.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

“He started this war. This war is to benefit Russia, and this war is to keep Mr. Putin in power. And our administration needs to tell him to stop.”

Emma Bussey is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital. Before joining Fox, she worked at The Telegraph with the U.S. overnight team, across desks including foreign, politics, news, sport and culture.

‘I had the flu’: Talarico returns to campaign trail and dismisses theories about absence

2026-10-11T21:27:31.842Z / CNN

By Austin Culpepper

Updated 19 min ago

Updated Oct 11, 2026, 7:43 PM ET

PUBLISHED Oct 11, 2026, 5:27 PM ET

State Representative James Talarico, a Democrat from Texas and US Senate candidate, arrives to speak during an event at a traveling exhibit that displays the publicly released Epstein files in Dallas, Texas, on Sept. 10.

Mark Felix/Bloomberg/Getty Images/File

Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico on Sunday denounced the wide-ranging speculation about his whereabouts in recent days as Republicans seized on his absence from the campaign trail.

“I had the flu. This is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. It’s wild that someone can just post something on the internet and then the media just runs with it,” Talarico told MS NOW.

The state representative, who is locked in a tight contest with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, said he had been working from home as he recovered and meeting with his team via Zoom. Talarico returned to public events over the weekend, seen speaking to attendees at the Austin City Limits music festival on Friday and in the front row of a Kacey Musgraves concert in Dallas on Saturday.

Paxton and his allies, however, have zeroed in on the Democrat’s absence during the final stretch of a race that could be critical to determining control of the Senate.

At a rally in San Antonio on Wednesday, the GOP Senate nominee started a “Where is James Talarico” chant in the crowd. Paxton’s campaign also published a flurry of social media posts claiming Talarico is “nowhere to be seen.” President Donald Trump has also chimed in, describing Talarico as “MISSING IN ACTION” in a Truth Social post.

A claim also circulated in conservative circles online that Talarico was receiving treatment for a stress-induced episode.

“That’s not true. I just had the flu and feel much better. But it’s a good reminder that you can’t believe everything you read on the internet,” Talarico told NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth on Sunday.

Related article Democratic candidate for US Senate James Talarico speaks during a campaign rally as part of his “New American Dream Tour” in Beeville, Texas, on August 22, 2026. Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images Send us your questions for Texas Senate candidate James Talarico 1 min read

Talarico revealed he had been diagnosed with the flu on September 30 during a virtual appearance at the United States Hispanic Business Council, an event he was supposed to attend in person. He said he had started to feel under the weather and visited urgent care in Dallas.

Before his reemergence this weekend, his last in-person campaign appearances took place on September 26, when he held a press conference in Texas and then on September 28, when a Talarico campaign source said the candidate attended a private fundraiser in New York City featuring actor Robert DeNiro.

In his interview with MS NOW on Sunday, he dismissed the speculation that there was another reason for his absence as “silly season in our politics” before turning the focus to Paxton, who has yet to agree to a debate.

“I’ve heard credible reports that Ken Paxton has a serious medical condition that causes clinical levels of cowardice,” Talarico joked. “He has asked for proof of life from me, I’m asking for proof of spine from him.”

Even after Talarico’s return to public events, Paxton continued to cast suspicion on his absence.

“I don’t know whether to believe him about the flu or not, I just know that … almost everything that he says has been false since the beginning of this campaign,” Paxton told Fox News on Sunday evening.

Talarico’s return to the campaign trail comes ahead of a town hall on Wednesday evening hosted by CNN and Jubilee Media and moderated by Erin Burnett, live in Fort Worth, Texas. The media outlets have also extended a town hall invitation to Paxton.

This story has been updated with additional details.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries says Democrats are “on the verge of taking back control” as he visits 2 key House battlegrounds

2026-10-11T16:10:21-0400 / https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jeffries-democrats-control-house-battleground-races

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries expressed growing confidence that his party will regain control of the House in November, as he visited two battleground districts in recent days to help Democratic candidates unseat Republican incumbents.

Jeffries campaigned Friday in New Jersey’s competitive 7th Congressional District alongside Democratic challenger Rebecca Bennett, a Navy veteran seeking to unseat Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr. The following day, he traveled to Pennsylvania’s 1st Congressional District to rally with Democrat Bob Harvie, a Bucks County commissioner challenging Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick.

The two districts are heavily suburban, fairly affluent and politically divided — and they’ve caused heartburn for Democrats in recent years. The moderate Fitzpatrick has a long history of outrunning other Republicans and winning crossover support since he was first elected in 2016. Control of Kean’s seat has flipped twice since 2018, but he narrowly won a competitive reelection two years ago.

U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) attends a meeting with New Jersey Democratic Congressional candidate Rebecca Bennett at Greater Mt. Moriah Baptist Church on Oct. 9, 2026, in Linden, New Jersey. Kena Betancur / Getty Images

Democrats have invested in both races this year and view both of them as highly competitive, as they hope to take advantage of an unfavorable political environment for President Trump’s party.

“We’re running through the finish line. We take nothing for granted, but we’re on the verge of taking back control of the House of Representatives,” Jeffries told reporters following Saturday’s event in Pennsylvania.

In a briefing with a small group of political reporters Wednesday, Jeffries pointed to a handful of districts in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York as opportunities for Democrats. He also said he plans to visit two South Texas districts.

Republicans control the House by a single-digit margin, so the outcome of the midterms could be decided by a fairly small number of races. Jeffries declined to predict how many seats his party could gain in November.

“I’m very confident that we’re going to take back the majority, but it remains to be seen what that looks like in terms of the number of seats that we pick up, which is going to depend on the conditions that exist over the next few weeks,” he said in the briefing.

During the rally in Bucks County, a perennial swing county that supported Mr. Trump by a razor-thin margin in 2024 after years of narrow Democratic victories, Harvie said: “It is not an accident that Hakeem Jeffries is here tonight.”

“He knows what we’re going to do with this district. He knows the potential,” he said.

Fitzpatrick’s campaign told CBS News that the Republican lawmaker “is aware of Hakeem’s visit, he still considers him a friend, and he looks forward to working with him in a bipartisan manner in the 120th Congress.”

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a Republican from Pennsylvania, speaks during a news conference at the US Capitol in Washington, D.C. Tierney L. Cross / Bloomberg via Getty Images

“Leader Jeffries is doing what he needs to do, and Brian completely understands that,” the campaign’s statement continued.

Fitzpatrick, who is seeking a sixth term, has cultivated a moderate image and put distance between himself and Mr. Trump, voting with House Democrats to rescind tariffs on Canada and restrict the Iran war. He also voted against final passage of the Trump administration’s signature “Big, Beautiful Bill” last year. Most recently, he pushed back last week on the president’s plan to buy diesel from Russia.

Democrats have argued Fitzpatrick hasn’t consistently opposed the president’s agenda, pointing to an earlier vote in favor of the “Big, Beautiful Bill.” Fitzpatrick said he voted against the final legislation after the Senate added steeper Medicaid cuts.

Judi Reiss, a Democratic local elected official in Lower Makefield Township, Pennsylvania, told CBS News at Saturday’s rally with Jeffries and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro that she has “no personal animosity toward Fitzpatrick whatsoever, but he hasn’t done anything. He’s been a rubber stamp for Donald Trump.”

“He has not been independent, and it’s very disappointing,” said Reiss, who sought the 2020 Democratic nomination for Fitzpatrick’s seat but dropped out before the primary.

Still, Fitzpatrick has survived on challenging terrain in the past — and overperformed other Republicans. Vice President Kamala Harris narrowly won his district in 2024, but Fitzpatrick won reelection the same year by a more than 12-point margin.

The Cook Political Report rated the Pennsylvania district “Leans Republican” on Friday, down from its previous “Likely Republican” assessment.

Bucks County resident Bill Craig, a Republican who plans to vote for Fitzpatrick, told CBS News he believes Harvie has a “slim chance” of winning the district, but he expects the race to be close due to heavy Democratic turnout.

“Brian Fitzpatrick could cure cancer right now, and they still wouldn’t vote for them,” Craig said. “He’s very middle-of-the-road. They’re trying to paint him as some kind of MAGA psycho.”

Jeffries visited Fitzpatrick’s district a day after campaigning for Bennett across the Delaware River, in a New Jersey seat that the Cook Political report sees as Democratic-leaning — a shift after it called the race a toss-up as recently as last month.

The GOP incumbent there, Kean, is seeking a third term representing a district that stretches from the New York City suburbs to the Pennsylvania border, with Mr. Trump’s Bedminster golf club sitting in the middle. He was first elected after the district was made slightly redder in 2022, and defeated Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski.

House Speaker Mike Johnson also campaigned with Kean in recent weeks.

Jeffries’ campaign stops illustrate the importance of suburban congressional districts that could help determine which party controls the House next year.

In last week’s briefing with reporters, the Democratic leader described all four competitive Republican-held districts in Pennsylvania as Democratic pickup opportunities. In addition to Fitzpatrick’s seat, Democrats are targeting a northeastern Pennsylvania district and two seats in eastern and central Pennsylvania.

He also singled out the race in New York’s 17th Congressional District, where Democrat Cait Conley is challenging Republican Rep. Mike Lawler.

Jeffries to campaign in South Texas races

Meanwhile, Democrats are defending two competitive districts in South Texas, and have signaled they plan to go on offense in two GOP-held districts in the region.

Republicans made substantial gains among Latinos in 2024, especially in South Texas, where some counties that were once Democratic strongholds became light-red.

Jeffries argued that Latino voters could swing back to Democrats, pointing to concerns over the cost of living and the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration policies.

He said the political environment has changed dramatically in the Rio Grande Valley, where Democratic Reps. Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez are seeking reelection.

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, poses for a photo at the Starr County Courthouse Annex Building on Oct. 2, 2026, in Rio Grande City, Texas. Gabriel V. Cárdenas/For The Washington Post via Getty Images

Jeffries said he also plans to campaign in the coming weeks for two Texas Democrats who hope to unseat Republicans. Tejano music star Bobby Pulido is running against Republican Rep. Monica De La Cruz in a toss-up district, and Democrat Johnny Garcia is challenging Republican nominee Carlos De La Cruz in a seat that’s viewed as redder.

The Democratic leader also rejected the notion that newly drawn Republican congressional maps in Texas and Florida would deliver the substantial gains GOP strategists had initially anticipated.

“Under no circumstances are Republicans winning five seats in Texas or four seats in Florida,” Jeffries told CBS News last week.

The National Republican Congressional Committee has disputed Democrats’ increasingly optimistic assessments of the battleground map, pointing to Republican campaign resources and ground game efforts in competitive districts.

If Democrats regain control of the House, Jeffries would be positioned to become the first Black speaker of the House in American history.

While the party that doesn’t control the White House almost always performs well in the midterms, the exact result is tougher to predict. In the 2022 midterms, when Republicans were buoyed by former President Joe Biden’s unpopularity, predictions of a sweeping GOP wave failed to materialize. Republicans narrowly won control of the House but failed to recapture the Senate until two years later.

Asked by CBS News whether Democrats risk that kind of election night disappointment, Jeffries acknowledged the outcome will depend on the political climate and spending.

He said that while the current environment appears favorable to Democrats, the amount of money being spent by Republican-aligned political groups could ultimately limit the number of seats his party gains.

House Republicans’ campaign committee had more cash on hand than the group’s Democratic counterpart at the end of August.

Jeffries disputed suggestions that Republicans hold an overwhelming financial advantage in House battlegrounds, arguing that Democrats are effectively at parity when spending by candidates, committees and outside groups is considered together.

On the GOP side, Johnson is also barnstorming frontline districts as Republicans fight to maintain their majority — and look for opportunities to unseat vulnerable Democrats.

Johnson said the other day he expects to visit about 40 districts this month.

In recent days, Johnson has visited Michigan and Pennsylvania with incumbent Republicans, and campaigned alongside two Iowa Republicans who are aiming to retain GOP-held districts: Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Joe Mitchell.

He also campaigned last week in Ohio with Derek Merrin, who is hoping to unseat longtime Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur in a toss-up district. It’s a rematch of 2024, when Merrin lost to Kaptur by around 2,400 votes.

During his visit to Ohio, Johnson said he expects control of the House to be determined by at least 22 seats that he sees as “jump-balls.” He has expressed optimism that Republicans can retain their majority.

“This will come down to the outcome of about 22 districts around the country, and I believe we can win those,” Johnson told reporters late last month.

Mr. Trump has also continued an aggressive campaign schedule aimed at boosting Republican candidates. Jeffries said he welcomes his increased involvement.

“The more Donald Trump campaigns for Republicans across the country, the better for the opportunity for Democrats to further convince the American people that we actually are the only ones determined to make life more affordable for them,” Jeffries said.