A bill aimed at cracking down on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its practice of forced organ harvesting passed with overwhelming support on Wednesday – though one House lawmaker voted against it.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., was the lone Republican to oppose the Stop Forced Organ Harvesting Act, which passed 406-1.

‘It’s just another example of us trying to stick our nose in another country’s business and write their laws,’ Massie told Fox News Digital after the vote. ‘And at the end of the day, they’re gonna do what they’re gonna do, and it’s just sort of a virtue signal over here.’

Massie, a conservative libertarian, often votes against House bills that weigh in on another country’s affairs.

The Kentucky Republican pointed out that he opposed the legislation when it was up for a vote during a previous Congress.

But his pushback is also notable now given his status as an open critic of Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and at times, of President Donald Trump. 

The bill was introduced by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., and would authorize the Secretary of State to deny U.S. passports and visitor visas to people involved in organ trafficking circles.

It would also call for sanctions on entities and individuals found to have participated in the gruesome illicit industry.

U.S. lawmakers have accused China of forced organ harvesting of its ideological opponents, including Falun Gong practitioners and Uyghur Muslims. 

President Donald Trump wants India and Pakistan to cease fighting and is open to helping both countries broker a peace agreement, following strikes from India against Pakistan early Wednesday. 

India launched missiles against at least nine sites ‘where terrorist attacks against India have been planned,’ according to India’s Defense Ministry. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s military reported that the strikes killed at least 26 people — including women and children — and claimed the strikes amounted to an ‘act of war.’ 

‘Oh, it’s so terrible. My position is, I get along with both,’ Trump told reporters Wednesday. ‘I know both very well, and I want to see them work it out. I want to see them stop. And hopefully they can stop now. They’ve got a tit for tat, so hopefully they can stop now. But I know both. We get along with both countries very well. Good relationships with both. And I want to see it stop. And if I can do anything to help I will. I will be there as well.’

Tension between India and Pakistan escalated in April after a gunman killed 26 people who were primarily Indian Hindi tourists in the India-controlled portion of Kashmir. India pinned the blame on Pakistan, and a militant group India claims is affiliated with a Pakistani militant group ultimately claimed responsibility for the attack. 

After India’s Wednesday strikes, Pakistan said it shot down five Indian fighter jets, claiming that the move was justified given India’s actions. 

‘Pakistan has every right to give a robust response to this act of war imposed by India, and a strong response is indeed being given,’ Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said. 

The Associated Press, Fox News’ Greg Wehner and Nick Kalman contributed to this report. 

President Donald Trump revealed a new pick for surgeon general on Wednesday, saying he will now nominate Dr. Casey Means for the job.

‘Casey has impeccable ‘MAHA’ credentials, and will work closely with our wonderful Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to ensure a successful implementation of our Agenda in order to reverse the Chronic Disease Epidemic, and ensure Great Health, in the future, for ALL Americans,’ Trump said late Wednesday afternoon in a post on his social media platform Truth Social. ‘Dr. Casey Means has the potential to be one of the finest Surgeon Generals in United States History.’

Means, a vocal ‘Make America Healthy Again’ proponent, played a significant role in helping shape the administration’s agenda surrounding health, alongside her brother, Calley Means. She is a Stanford-trained physician and has made a name for herself as a wellness influencer alongside her brother. In 2024, both Casey and Calley co-wrote a book about the chronic disease epidemic titled ‘Good Energy,’ and Casey is also the co-founder of a health-tech company called Levels.

Calley Means was previously tapped by the administration to serve as a top special advisor to Secretary Kennedy.

Trump previously announced he would nominate Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, a former Fox News contributor, to be surgeon general.

It’s unclear why Nesheiwat’s nomination was pulled. Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for more information. 

Trump added in his post that Secretary Kennedy ‘looks forward to working with Dr. Janette Nesheiwat in another capacity at HHS.’

Meanwhile, in a follow-up post on X, Nesheiwat also said she was ‘looking forward’ to continuing to support Trump while working closely with Secretary Kennedy ‘in a senior policy role.’ 

‘My focus continues to be on improving the health and well-being of all Americans, and that mission hasn’t changed,’ Nesheiwat concluded in her public social media remarks.  

Nesheiwat is the sister-in-law of recently fired National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, who the president indicated he will now be nominating to be the next ambassador to the United Nations after dropping his initial nominee, New York GOP Congresswoman Elise Stefanik. 

President Donald Trump’s executive order ending diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in the federal government has returned financial power to the people, OJ Oleka, CEO of the State Financial Officers Foundation, told Fox News Digital. 

Oleka said there’s a ‘new sheriff in town’ and that Trump is ‘making good’ on his promise to eliminate DEI by shifting financial policies ‘away from the left and back to the center,’ empowering state financial officers and building trust with the American people. 

‘We know that when companies focus on business, their business does better. If their business does better, shareholders make more money, their employees have a better quality of life within their business and their consumers get a better product,’ Oleka told Fox News Digital at the State Financial Officers Foundation conference in Orlando, Florida. 

Oleka said focusing on financial returns and merit-based incentives over DEI or environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies creates ‘more money for shareholders, better culture in the office for employees and better products for consumers and customers,’ exactly what state financial officers have been asking for. 

‘The American people want every individual to succeed,’ Oleka said. ‘They want people to succeed on their merit, on their ability, on their skill. It’s very important to us as Americans. But what they don’t want is for people to get preferences just because of some political ideology.’ 

He said there are misconceptions about DEI ‘because people hear diversity, equity and inclusion, and they think, ‘Well, those are good things. I support diversity. I want people to be included, and people should have the resources that they need.’

‘To be very clear, when we’re talking about DEI, we’re saying that DEI is trying to provide racial or gender preferences for people based on past grievances. It effectively has nothing to do with merit or looking at somebody’s skill for a job or for an opportunity.’ 

Equal opportunity is giving people access to create their own opportunities, to try to be as successful as they can be with their skills, ability and merit, according to Oleka. 

Oleka explained that DEI is subjective because it prefers ‘folks based on what you think is important, based on your own politics.’

‘It’s bad to say, from a company’s perspective, ‘Let’s just hire people based on race, based on gender,’ as opposed to skill and ability,’ Oleka said.

‘It’s bad because it can harm the performance of what that company actually does with their business responsibilities. That matters to our financial officers because they invest in a lot of these companies. It’s their job as fiduciary leaders to make sure that the pensions that they invest, the public funds that they invest by virtue of their positions, are actually done so by companies and with funds where the returns are going to be high.

‘We can’t guarantee that the returns are going to be as high as they can be if the companies aren’t even focusing on their specific mandate, on their responsibility. Instead, they’re focusing on their politics and trying to force an ideology or social agenda through their businesses. That’s not what business is for.’ 

Oleka said his experience as someone with a Ph.D. in higher education who is also the son of Nigerian immigrants informs his rejection of political ideology or agendas in government-funded programs, including in public education, because these policies don’t improve students’ learning experience or academic performance. 

‘That doesn’t actually contribute to kids’ learning,’ Oleka said. ‘It doesn’t contribute to human flourishing. There really is no reason why people’s taxpayer dollars should be spent on that.’

Oleka told Fox News Digital the Orlando conference was critical to reminding state financial officers across the country they are not alone in pushing back against DEI and ESG policies that were promoted by former President Joe Biden’s administration. 

‘It goes back to what I think most Americans believe. Their state government is closer to them than the federal government,’ he said. ‘As a result, state leaders should have more power, as it relates to their finances, than the federal government, and what a state leader should do with that power is give it back to the people.’

By empowering state financial officers to focus on financial returns and fiduciary duty instead of ideology and politics, Oleka said more Americans are incentivized financially. 

‘It’s important that we have that same kind of leadership in the White House at the state level, making good on their promise to bring a Golden Age to America and to each state,’ he said. 

Three top committees within the House of Representatives are delivering an update to the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Wednesday about Republicans’ ongoing investigation into ActBlue.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Committee on House Administration Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wis., have been probing the Democratic fundraising platform for years.

‘The Committees write today to draw your attention to our ongoing investigation into ActBlue, a political action committee and fundraising platform for the Democrat Party,’ the letter said.

‘The oversight has uncovered that ActBlue has weak fraud-prevention practices and overlooks bad actors, including foreign actors, who take advantage of the platform to make illicit political donations.’

They said the platform’s ‘concerning activities’ could even have a ‘direct effect on U.S. political campaigns and elections.’

Steil first raised concerns about ActBlue in late 2023 after accusations surfaced that it did not require a card verification value (CVV) number to accept donations via credit card, something lawmakers said made donations significantly less secure.

The letter said ActBlue delivered a ‘lackluster response’ to queries on the matter. As recently as August 2024, however, the site had required CVV numbers for donations on pages observed by Fox News Digital, including former Vice President Kamala Harris’ White House campaign.

However, Republicans pressed ActBlue further, the letter pointed out.

Steil’s panel subpoenaed ActBlue for ‘documents relating to ActBlue’s donor verification policies, contributions originating outside of the United States, deplatformed entities, and reported unauthorized or fraudulent donations.’

‘ActBlue’s responsive documents confirmed that the platform accepted unverified payments during a period of record campaign fundraising,’ the letter said.

‘Although ActBlue has since updated its policies to reject donations without safeguards such as a CVV requirement, the Committees’ oversight found that ActBlue implemented these changes only after ensuring that they would not negatively impact Democrat donations.’

Subsequent inquiries into whether ActBlue and related entities were meaningfully deterring foreign actors ‘have shed some light on the nature of their operations, but many questions remain.’

The committees released a report last month, claiming ‘ActBlue executives and staff are aware that both foreign and domestic fraudulent actors are exploiting the platform but do not take the threat seriously.’

Fox News Digital reached out to ActBlue with a request for comment.

The platform previously dismissed Steil’s accusations as ‘inaccuracies and misrepresentations.’

‘We rigorously protect donors’ security and maintain strict anti-fraud compliance practices. We have zero tolerance for fraud on our platform,’ an ActBlue spokesperson said late last year.

A DOJ spokesperson confirmed receipt of the letter but declined to comment further.

President Donald Trump is reportedly to rename the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Gulf ahead of his trip to the Middle East in the coming days. 

The expected announcement was first reported Wednesday by the Associated Press, which clashed with the Trump administration earlier this year over the president renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment but did not immediately hear back. The AP cited two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter.

Iran’s foreign minister slammed the reported change, writing that, ‘politically motivated attempts to alter the historically established name of the Persian Gulf are indicative of hostile intent toward Iran and its people, and are firmly condemned.’

‘Such biased actions are an affront to all Iranians, regardless of their background or place of residence. Let’s hope that the absurd rumors about the PERSIAN Gulf that are going around are no more than a disinformation campaign by ‘forever warriors’ to anger Iranians all over the world and agitate them,’ Seyed Abbas Araghchi wrote on X. 

The foreign minister said the name Persian Gulf ‘is deeply rooted in human history’ and that Iran ‘has never objected to the use of names such as the Sea of Oman, Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea, or Red Sea.’

‘The use of these names does not imply ownership by any particular nation, but rather reflects a shared respect for the collective heritage of humanity,’ Abbas Araghchi wrote, adding that he is confident Trump ‘is aware that the name PERSIAN Gulf is centuries old and recognized by all cartographers and international bodies and was even used by all leaders of the region in their official communications until as recently as 1960’s.’ 

‘While any short-sighted step in this connection will have no validity or legal or geographical effect, it will only bring the wrath of all Iranians from all walks of life and political persuasion in Iran, the U.S. and across the world,’ he said. 

Trump is traveling in the coming days to the Middle East, where he will visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, which all lie on the body of water. 

U.S. and Iranian officials are also expected to meet for the fourth round of nuclear talks in Oman in the coming days. Vice President JD Vance said Wednesday the U.S. was negotiating toward a ‘complete cessation’ of Tehran’s nuclear program. 

Arab nations have pushed for a change to the geographic name of the body of water off the southern coast of Iran, while Iran has maintained its historic ties to the gulf under the Persian Empire. 

The Persian Gulf has been widely known by that name since the 16th century, although usage of ‘Gulf of Arabia’ and ‘Arabian Gulf’ is dominant in many countries in the Middle East, according to the AP. The government of Iran – formerly Persia – threatened to sue Google in 2012 over the company’s decision not to label the body of water at all on its maps.

On Google Maps in the U.S., the body of water appears as the ‘Persian Gulf’ followed by ‘Arabian Gulf’ in parentheses. Apple Maps only says the Persian Gulf.

The U.S. military for years has unilaterally referred to the Persian Gulf as the Arabian Gulf in statements and images it releases.

A spat developed in 2017 during Trump’s first term when he used the name Arabian Gulf for the waterway. Iran’s president at the time, Hassan Rouhani, suggested Trump needed to ‘study geography.’

‘Everyone knew Trump’s friendship was for sale to the highest bidder. We now know that his geography is, too,’ Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote online at the time.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Disgraced lawyer Michael Avenatti says life behind bars has changed him into a better person and is asking a federal judge to consider that personal transformation when he gets resentenced on May 27.

Avenatti was originally sentenced to 14 years in prison after pleading guilty to defrauding clients of millions of dollars and hiding millions more from the IRS. He appealed that sentence, and a new hearing was ordered by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which said the trial judge erred by ultimately giving Avenatti a too-lengthy sentence. 

‘Since his 2022 original sentencing, [Avenatti] has lived every day of his incarceration seeking to atone for the harm he caused and set his life on a different path,’ Avenatti’s lawyers wrote on Tuesday in their 41-page argument for a more lenient sentence.

That filing offers details about Avenatti’s life at the Terminal Island prison in Los Angeles. They described how Avenatti is trusted by prison officials to help other inmates – including serving as ‘suicide watch companion.’ He also completed a drug abuse program and ‘regularly attended AA meetings and religious services.’

Avenatti’s lawyers also included an internal Bureau of Prisons report, which says he ‘has been a model inmate….[and] has distinguished himself through his work in the library, where he has voluntarily assisted academically challenged inmates with legal matters.’  

The lawyers also claim Avenatti’s prison behavior is a true reflection of his character and done without regard to the upcoming resentencing hearing. ‘His actions demonstrate remorse, rehabilitation, and a strong desire to become a source of positive change,’ they wrote.

Federal guidelines allow for judges to consider an inmate’s good deeds behind bars when resentencing. Prosecutors argue Avenatti is still the same shady lawyer – now disbarred – and still deserves a long sentence.

‘Defendant’s egregious violations of his duties and the trust placed in him by his clients, his infliction of great harm by stealing millions of dollars from them, and his greed and arrogance leading to the calculated choices and deception that he carried out for years against his clients and the IRS, all remain the same,’ Assistant U.S. Attorneys Brett Sagel and Ranaee Katzenstein wrote in their filing submitted early Wednesday morning.

Avenatti’s release date is currently set for July 31, 2035. He is asking U.S. District Court Judge James Selna for a sentence that would have him released in just a few years. Prosecutors are asking for a sentence of only a few months less than the 14 years originally handed down.

Both filings offer detailed arguments about the different factors they want Selna to reconsider at the upcoming hearing, including determinations about how to properly assess how much money Avenatti’s clients actually lost. Those technical determinations are significant as they influence the severity of the sentence. In essence, as the financial amounts increase, so does the sentence. The appellate court ruled Selna miscalculated some of those losses at the original sentencing hearing.

‘Mr. Avenatti acknowledges that nothing can change how much he hurt the former clients he was entrusted to help,’ federal public defender Margaret Farrand wrote about her client. ‘Nothing can change the shame he still feels. But Mr. Avenatti has tried his best to show that his remorse and concern for others are real, not through his words, but through his actions while in custody.’

This case is separate from Avenatti’s other convictions for attempting to extort Nike and stealing money from his most famous client, Stormy Daniels. Avenatti’s attempts to get those convictions and sentences overturned on appeal all failed.

President Donald Trump – whose second-term agenda has been bogged down by judicial roadblocks – announced several judicial picks in Truth Social posts on Tuesday, and complained in a post on Wednesday that the judiciary is preventing him from executing the job Americans elected him to do.

‘Our Court System is not letting me do the job I was Elected to do. Activist judges must let the Trump Administration deport murderers, and other criminals who have come into our Country illegally, WITHOUT DELAY!!!’ he declared in a Wednesday post.

Trump announced Missouri Principal Deputy Solicitor General Maria Lanahan as a nominee to sit as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, calling her ‘a true patriot’ in a Tuesday post.

He also picked Judge Cristian Stevens to serve on the same court, calling Stevens, who currently serves on the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, ‘a Great Patriot,’ in another post.

The president also selected Zachary Bluestone to sit on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, referring to him as ‘a True Legal Warrior’ in a Tuesday post.  

A Tuesday White House press release notes that ‘Zachary Bluestone is appellate chief and a violent crimes prosecutor in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri.’ 

Trump is tapping Show-Me State Solicitor General Joshua Divine for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri as well as the Western District of Missouri.

‘I am proud to nominate Edward Aloysius O’Connell to serve as Associate Judge on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Eddie will help fix Violent Crime in the City by restoring the RULE OF LAW to Washington, D.C.,’ Trump declared in a post on Tuesday.

According to the White House release, ‘Edward Aloysius O’Connell is Chief of Staff and Deputy General Counsel of the Office of the Inspector General of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.’

The president’s judicial picks will need to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Last week, Trump announced his pick of Whitney Hermandorfer to sit on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, calling her ‘a Fighter who will inspire confidence in our Legal System.’ She is the Strategic Litigation Unit director with the office of the Tennessee state attorney general.

Fox News’ Luke Trevisan contributed to this report

Republican leaders in the House are increasingly concerned about China’s presence in Cuba and its capacity to spy on the U.S. from the island.

A new report analyzing open-source intelligence found the addition of what appears to be a circularly disposed antenna array (CDAA) at the Bejucal signals intelligence site near Havana, Cuba. The antenna could pinpoint radio signals from between 3,000 and 8,000 miles away, putting key U.S. military installations and even Washington, D.C., well within range. 

‘The CCP’s poisonous alliance with Cuba has posed significant threats to U.S. national security for decades,’ House Intel Chairman Rick Crawford, R-Ark., told Fox News Digital in an exclusive statement. 

‘Their alleged involvement in signals intelligence hubs in Cuba is outward, unconcealed adversarial behavior against the U.S. The CCP’s actions are becoming increasingly more bold and thereby detrimental to Western Hemisphere security.’ 

The chairman called on the U.S. and its partners to work to thwart CCP influence in the Western Hemisphere. 

The report’s authors at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said work on the CDAA is ongoing, but satellite imagery shows it is ‘already easily identifiable as a CDAA by its circular shape.’

A group of House leaders requested a briefing from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on the matter on Tuesday. 

‘The PRC is positioning itself to systematically erode U.S. strategic advantages without ever firing a shot,’ read a letter penned by Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., China Committee Chair John Moolenaar, R-Mich., Transportation and Maritime Security subcommittee Chair Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., and Rep. Sheri Biggs, R-S.C. 

‘The geographic proximity of suspected PRC-linked facilities in Cuba to sensitive U.S. installations, including Naval Station Guantánamo Bay, Kennedy Space Center, Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, may enable the PRC to monitor American detection and response capabilities, map electronic profiles of U.S. assets, and prepare the electromagnetic environment for potential future exploitation,’ the lawmakers wrote. 

Cuba has a history of allowing U.S. adversaries to use its soil to snoop on U.S. communications. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union operated a surveillance facility at the Lourdes Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) Complex near Havana. That site monitored U.S. satellites and intercepted sensitive military and commercial telecommunications. After Russia, China moved in – pouring $8 billion into infrastructure projects on the island, including telecoms networks built by Huawei and Zhongxing Telecommunication Equipment Corporation, which are sanctioned by the U.S. due to surveillance concerns. 

‘If left unchecked, the PRC’s activities in Cuba could establish a forward operating base for electronic warfare, enable intelligence collection, and influence operations that directly undermine U.S. national security interests,’ the lawmakers added. 

READ THE LETTER BELOW. APP USERS: CLICK HERE

Cuba offers Beijing a platform to ‘monitor U.S. military movements, disrupt critical communications in the event of a crisis, and shape political dynamics throughout the region to its advantage.’

China has denied having any ties to surveillance infrastructure in Cuba, and nothing in the unclassified space shows indisputable links to China. But U.S. officials have long warned about China’s access to spying facilities on the island. 

An earlier report from CSIS identified four SIGINT sites as ‘highly likely’ to be supporting CCP surveillance operations on the U.S. 

‘These sites have undergone observable upgrades in recent years, even as Cuba has faced increasingly dire economic prospects that have drawn it closer to China,’ that report’s authors said. 

WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance said that the concessions that Russia is seeking from Ukraine to end the conflict between the two are too stringent, but he believes there is a viable path forward for peace and wants both to find common ground. 

‘The step that we would like to make right now, is we would like both the Russians and the Ukrainians to actually agree on some basic guidelines for sitting down and talking to one another,’ Vance said here Wednesday at the Munich Leaders Meeting in Washington. 

‘We think that if cool heads prevail here, we can bring this thing to a durable peace that will be economically beneficial for both Ukrainians and the Russians,’ Vance said. 

Vance appeared for a discussion with Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger, president of the Foundation Council of the Munich Security Conference and the former German ambassador to the U.S. 

Russia’s demands include Ukraine never joining NATO, and preventing foreign peacekeeper troops from deploying to Ukraine following the conflict. Additionally, Russia is seeking to adjust some of the borders that previously were Ukraine’s. 

Additionally, Ukraine is on board with a 30-day ceasefire, while Russia refuses to participate. Vance said that the U.S. is seeking to find solutions beyond the ceasefire. 

‘We’ve tried to move beyond the obsession with the 30-day ceasefire, and more on what the long-term settlement look like, and we’ve tried to consistently advance the ball,’ Vance said. 

Vance has urged for European nations to bolster defense spending and increase European independence, aligning with the Trump administration’s ‘America First’ agenda that has pushed NATO allies to beef up their own military spending.

The event comes as Ischinger recently cautioned that any attempts to establish a peacekeeping force in Ukraine to end the conflict between Moscow and Kyiv absent the U.S. could mean the ‘de facto end of NATO,’ according to Politico. 

Should the U.K. and France send a peacekeeping force there like they’ve both discussed without U.S. involvement, that could prompt Russia to accuse Ukrainians of starting a conflict, Ischinger said in a Politico interview published Monday. 

‘And therefore the Europeans in Ukraine would possibly be shot at, and would need to reply, to engage without the United States on their side,’ Ischinger said. ‘Quite frankly, that would be the end of NATO as we know it.’

Vance previously appeared at the Munich Security Council in February, where he laid out the Trump administration’s stance that Europe ‘step up in a big way to provide for its own defense.’ 

He also cautioned that Russia and China don’t pose as great a threat to European nations as the ‘threat from within,’ in regard to issues like censorship and illegal immigration.

European leaders pushed back on the remarks at the time, with German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said he perceived the comments as a comparison to ‘conditions in parts of Europe with those in authoritarian regimes.’

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.