Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has firmly rejected proposals to concede land to Russian President Vladimir Putin, particularly the hotly-contested Donbas region.

The Donbas, which includes Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, is Ukraine’s industrial heartland where coal mining and steel production are the main drivers of economic growth. Ultimately, control of the region’s mines and factories would hand Moscow powerful leverage over Kyiv’s post-war economic survival.

‘Donbas offers both a military advantage and significant economic resources, making it a high-value target for the Kremlin,’ explained Elina Beketova, a fellow with the Democratic Resilience Program at the Center for European Policy Analysis.

‘The Donbas alone holds vast reserves of coal – especially anthracite, crucial for energy and metallurgy,’ Beketova said. ‘Of 114 mines in Donetsk region, only 15 remain functional,’ she pointed out, as many have been flooded, destroyed, or left inoperable by the war.

Coal tells only half the story. 

Perhaps the crown jewel is salt: the Soledar salt mines, with an estimated 4.5 billion tons of rock salt – making it the largest reserve in Europe. These mines and the Artyomsol plant, Europe’s largest salt producer, fell to Russian forces in 2022.

Beketova underscored that, in the long term, natural gas could be the most strategically important resource in the region.

‘The region includes the Yuzivka gas field in Donetsk and Kharkiv oblasts, with potential reserves of up to 4 trillion cubic meters – a direct challenge to Russian energy dominance, and likely another reason why Moscow wants full control of the area.’

‘Beyond coal, salt, and gas, the occupied territories of Donbas – as well as neighboring Zaporizhzhia and Kherson – are also rich in gypsum, chalk, marble, granite, sand and clay,’ Beketova said.

Russian forces currently occupy approximately one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory, primarily in the eastern and southeastern regions, including large swaths of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. These areas have been under partial or full Russian control at various points over the course of the Kremlin’s war. 

For Kyiv, the Donbas is more than contested ground – it is an economic lifeline, whose coal, salt and gas reserves could help bankroll recovery in a country already burdened with enormous post-war debts.

The most recent joint assessment by the United Nations, World Bank, European Commission, and Ukrainian government estimates that Kyiv faces $524 billion in postwar reconstruction over the next decade. 

Of the total long-term reconstruction and recovery needs, housing accounts for the largest share at nearly $84 billion, followed by $78 billion needed for the transportation industry and $68 billion for the energy sector.

Zelenskyy told reporters at the European Commission on Sunday that Putin has repeatedly tried and failed to seize the entirety of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine for a period of 12 years. 

Grace Mappes, an analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, noted that conceding the region would also mean relinquishing Ukraine’s ‘fortress belt,’ the fortified defensive line in Donetsk Oblast since 2014.

‘After trying and failing to occupy this strategically vital terrain for over a decade, Putin is now demanding that Ukraine concede this critical defensive position, which Russian forces currently have no means of rapidly enveloping or penetrating, apparently in exchange for nothing and with no guarantee that fighting will not resume.’

Mappes added that Ukraine’s substantial investment in reinforcing its ‘fortress belt’ with defensive structures, logistics hubs, and defense industrial facilities, underscores its central role in the country’s military resilience.

‘Putin’s proposal is not a compromise, rather a ploy to avoid the years-long, bloody campaign that would be necessary to seize the fortress belt and the rest of Donetsk militarily,’ she added.

Longtime Trump political foe Democrat Sen. Adam Schiff for years has been accused of leaking classified documents — long before the release of a ‘bombshell’ whistleblower testimony claiming the California lawmaker approved leaking classified information in order to discredit the president during the Russiagate probe, Fox News Digital found. 

Schiff, who served in the U.S. House for more than two decades before securing his spot in the U.S. Senate in 2024, is facing heightened scrutiny following FBI Director Kash Patel declassifying claims from a Democrat whistleblower that Schiff approved the release of classified information on Trump that allegedly ‘would be used to indict President TRUMP,’ according to the report. 

The whistleblower, who reportedly had worked for Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee for more than 10 years, made the claims to the FBI in 2017. Schiff had access to classified information while serving on the House Intelligence Committee during his tenure in the lower chamber, including serving as its chair from 2019 to 2023. 

‘In this meeting, SCHIFF stated the group would leak classified information which was derogatory to President of the United States DONALD J. TRUMP. SCHIFF stated the information would be used to indict President TRUMP,’ according to the whistleblower documents.

The whistleblower ‘stated this would be illegal and, upon hearing his concerns, unnamed members of the meeting reassured that they would not be caught leaking classified information,’ the report added.

Schiff has denied the allegations, with his office telling Fox News Digital Aug. 12 that the allegations were ‘absolutely and categorically false.’

But this isn’t the first time Schiff has been accused of leaking classified information to the public, with accusations following him since at least the first Trump administration. Fox News Digital took a look back at Schiff’s political history in recent years and gathered the times he previously had been accused of leaking classified materials. 

The August declassified whistleblower accusations are ‘just the latest in a series of defamatory attacks from the President and his allies meant to distract from their plummeting poll numbers and the Epstein files scandal,’ a Schiff spokesperson told Fox Digital when approached for comment on the allegations, after White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the whistleblower’s account a ‘bombshell.’ 

‘These baseless smears are based on allegations that were found to be not reliable, not credible, and unsubstantiated from a disgruntled former staffer who was fired by the House Intelligence Committee for cause in early 2017, including for harassment and potentially compromising activity on official travel for the Committee,’ the spokesperson continued. ‘Even Trump’s own Justice Department and an independent inspector general found this individual to not be credible, have ‘little support for their contentions’ and was of ‘unknown reliability,’ and concluded that his accusations against Members of Congress and congressional staff ‘were not ultimately substantiated.’’ 

‘Leaked classified information that had been provided to him’ 

Just days after former President Joe Biden was sworn in as president in January 2021, Trump’s former acting director of national intelligence and U.S. ambassador from his first administration, Ric Grenell, took to X to list out ‘facts’ regarding Schiff. 

‘Facts,’ a Jan. 22, 2021, post on X that is no longer available on the social media site read. The X post received media attention and was preserved in reports at the time, such as the Washington Examiner. 

He listed off: ‘Schiff wouldn’t return my call to coordinate on DNI reforms.– the reforms were asked for by career officials for years. – Schiff complained when I appointed the 1st female head of counterterrorism (a career person). – Schiff & team regularly leaked classified information.’

Grenell’s message was in response to Schiff claiming in an interview with The Hill that Grennell and former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe under the first Trump administration ‘bent intelligence work products to the president’s will.’

‘The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, probably the most devastated of all of the agencies by terrible leadership of people like Rick Grenell and John Ratcliffe,’ Schiff said during a video interview at the time. 

Fast-forward to 2023, former Secretary of State and CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who served under the first Trump administration, also accused Schiff of leaking classified docs. 

‘Adam Schiff lied to the American people, and during my time as CIA director and secretary of State, I know that he leaked classified information that had been provided to him,’ Pompeo said in January 2023 during a Fox News interview.

Pompeo continued that he ‘held back’ sharing information with the House Intelligence Committee due to not feeling ‘comfortable’ when Schiff led the panel. 

A representative for Pompeo told Fox Digital in August that the former Trump official stands by his 2023 comments on Schiff. 

Schiff’s office slammed Pompeo’s remarks at the time as ‘another patently false and defamatory statement.’ 

Trump had also accused Schiff of leaking classified documents under his first administration, claiming in 2018, he was the ‘one of the biggest liars and leakers in Washington.’

‘Adam leaves closed committee hearings to illegally leak confidential information. Must be stopped!’ Trump wrote in one X thread at the time. 

Schiff shot back at the time that Trump’s X post was a ‘false smear.’

‘Mr. President, I see you’ve had a busy morning of ‘Executive Time.’ Instead of tweeting false smears, the American people would appreciate it if you turned off the TV and helped solve the funding crisis, protected Dreamers or… really anything else,’ Schiff responded to Trump in February 2018. 

As Trump railed against the alleged leaks during his first term, reports spread that the Department of Justice subpoenaed Apple for account data of House Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, including Schiff, between 2017 and 2018. The DOJ, which was led by Jeff Sessions at the time, was searching for individuals who leaked to the media about Trump’s alleged ties to Russia. 

The investigation dragged, including after Bill Barr was tapped as Trump’s attorney general in 2019 through the end of Trump’s first term, the New York Times reported in 2021, citing sources familiar with the investigation. 

The Justice Department’s internal watchdog, under the Biden administration, opened an investigation into the subpoenas and published a report in 2024 that found the Trump DOJ did not comply with established procedures when it sought the records.

‘We are glad that the Department of Justice Inspector General conducted a thorough investigation, and that the Inspector General has recommended safeguards to further protect the media, and to safeguard the separation of powers,’ a spokesperson for Schiff said following the release of the report, according to Reuters in 2024. 

As the 2020 campaign heated up, Trump continued accusing Schiff and other House Democrats of leaking, with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence at the time scaling back its security briefings with Congress that year as high-profile Democrats promoted concerns that Russia was interfering in that election. 

‘Director Ratcliffe brought information into the committee, and the information leaked,’ Trump said in August 2020. ‘Whether it was Shifty Schiff or somebody else, they leaked the information.… And what’s even worse, they leaked the wrong information. And he got tired of it. So he wants to do it in a different forum, because you have leakers on the committee.’

Schiff denied leaking any classified intelligence in 2020, but said he could not confirm the same for other House Democrats.  

‘I haven’t. My staff hasn’t. I can’t speak for what all the members of the committee have done or not done, including a lot of the Republican members,’ Schiff told CNN’s Dana Bash in 2020, following Trump claiming ‘Shifty Schiff’ may have been behind another leak of intelligence given to the House Intelligence Committee at the time. 

The Trump administration continued its laser-focused hunt to identify and suss out internal federal government leakers during the second administration, with a White House official telling Axios in June, ‘We are declaring a war on leakers.’ 

The comment came in response to a leak of an internal assessment of the Trump administration’s bombing of a trio of Iranian nuclear facilities that claimed the strikes were not as effective as the president said. 

Federal agencies such as the FBI, Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security have leveraged using polygraph tests on staffers suspected of leaking information under the second Trump administration. 

Alleged mortgage fraud, ‘Russiagate’ 

Trump and Schiff have long been political foes. 

This was underscored during Trump’s first administration when Schiff served as the lead House manager during the first impeachment trial against Trump in 2020. It also was highlighted when Schiff repeatedly promoted claims that Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia. 

Schiff landed in hot water earlier this spring, when the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) sent a letter to the Department of Justice in May sounding the alarm that in ‘multiple instances,’ Schiff allegedly ‘falsified bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms, impacting payments from 2003-2019 for a Potomac, Maryland-based property.’

He is currently under criminal investigation for mortgage fraud, Fox Digital previously reported. The California Democrat has denied any wrongdoing, claiming the matter is a ‘baseless attempt at political retribution.’

Days after Trump first posted about Schiff’s mortgages in Maryland and California in July, the president’s director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, declassified documents that reportedly show ‘overwhelming evidence’ that then-President Barack Obama and his national security team allegedly laid the groundwork for what would be the yearslong Trump–Russia collusion probe after Trump’s election win against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016. 

‘It lays out, these over 100 documents that you’re referencing, that I declassified and released, spells out in great detail exactly what happens when you have some of the most powerful people in our country directly leading at the helm, President Obama and his senior-most national security cabinet, James Comey, John Brennan, James Clapper and Susan Rice and others, essentially making a very intentional decision to create this manufactured, politicized piece of intelligence with the objective of subverting the will of the American people,’ Gabbard told Fox News’ Sean Hannity in July following the release. 

Schiff was an incredibly vocal lawmaker amid the Russian collusion claims, most notably when the House censured him in 2023 over his promotion that Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia. Schiff served in the House representing California from 2001 to 2024, when he was sworn in as a senator after his successful 2024 campaign to serve in the nation’s upper chamber.

Schiff also served on the Jan. 6 select committee, which investigated the breach of the Capitol building in 2021 by Trump supporters following then-President Joe Biden’s election win. 

At the 11th hour of Biden’s tenure on Jan. 20, Schiff was among lawmakers who served on the committee who were granted preemptive pardons. The subcommittee concluded Trump’s actions played a key role in promoting the breach of the Capitol and recommended Trump be criminally prosecuted. 

Biden specifically granted preemptive pardons to ‘Members of Congress and staff who served on the Select Committee, and the U.S. Capitol and D.C. Metropolitan police officers who testified before the Select Committee.’

Schiff, however, had publicly railed against the prospect of Biden doling out preemptive pardons, saying it would set a poor precedent. 

‘First, those of us on the committee are very proud of the work we did. We were doing vital quintessential oversight of a violent attack on the Capitol,’ Schiff said during an interview on ABC News in December 2024. ‘So I think it’s unnecessary.’

‘But second, the precedent of giving blanket pardons, preemptive blanket pardons on the way out of an administration, I think is a precedent we don’t want to set,’ he added.

Charges stemming from the Jan. 6 case were dismissed following Trump’s decisive win in the 2024 presidential election against then-Vice President Kamala Harris. 

The White House responded to the whistleblower’s declassified testimony claiming Schiff approved the release of classified information to damage Trump, and doubled down on Trump’s stance that Schiff be ‘held accountable for the countless lies he told the American people in relation to the Russiagate scandal.’

‘This is obviously a bombshell whistleblower report,’ Leavitt said at a Tuesday White House press briefing. ‘Hopefully more people in this room will cover it as such.’

‘I understand Kash Patel, last night, declassified a 302 FBI document showing that a whistleblower, who is a Democrat, a career intelligence officer who worked for Democrats on the House Intel Committee for more than a decade, repeatedly warned the FBI in 2017 that then-Rep. Adam Schiff had approved leaking classified information to smear then-President Donald Trump over the Russiagate scandal,’ Leavitt said. 

In August, a representative for Schiff confirmed a legal defense fund was established for the senator in response to Trump and his allies. 

‘It’s clear that Donald Trump and his MAGA allies will continue weaponizing the justice process to attack Sen. Schiff for holding this corrupt administration accountable,’ Marisol Samayoa, a spokesperson for Schiff, told Fox News Digital Tuesday evening of the legal fund. ‘This fund will ensure he can fight back against these baseless smears while continuing to do his job.’

Titled ‘Senator Schiff Legal Defense Fund,’ the fund was filed with the Internal Revenue Service Thursday, The New York Times first reported. 

White House spokesman Harrison Fields called Schiff a ‘fraud’ and ‘corrupt politician’ when approached for comment Tuesday regarding the legal fund.

‘Adam Schiff is a sleazy and corrupt politician who betrayed his oath to the Constitution by prioritizing his selfish and personal animosity toward the president over the interests of the American people,’ Fields told Fox News Digital. ‘No amount of money can shield Adam from the truth that he is a fraud.’ 

Fox News Digital reached out to Schiff for additional comment on the matter but did not immediately receive a reply. 

Fox News Digital’s Andrea Margolis contributed to this report.  

A moderate House Democrat’s town hall devolved into chaos minutes after it began on Tuesday night, with pro-Palestinian activists clashing with both the congressman and fellow attendees in what became a near-constant torrent of interruptions and protests.

Rep. Wesley Bell, D-Mo., who defeated far-left ‘Squad’ member Cori Bush in the Democratic primary last year, repeatedly pleaded with protesters to allow him to speak while defending his position on Israel and Hamas.

‘Stop talking. This is not your town hall. You can leave,’ Bell told protesters roughly 20 minutes after he began speaking. He said soon after, ‘While we’re sitting here being divided and fighting one another, we’ve got other folks out there who are taking our democracy from us.’

At another point, his assertions that Hamas’ initial attack on Israel ‘was not just a terror attack, October 7 was an invasion’ was met with boos and jeers from the crowd.

Even calls to ‘surge aid’ to Gaza were drowned out by demonstrators, prompting Bell to respond, ‘You disagree with that?’

Despite repeated pleas for calm from both Bell and his moderator, protesters continued to call him a ‘war criminal’ and accuse him of supporting genocide.

The event grew more heated as the hour went on, reaching a fever pitch toward the end when Bell disputed a questioner labeling Israel’s invasion of Gaza a ‘genocide.’

‘You don’t get to set the genocide definition,’ an activist yelled.

Bell responded, ‘No, I don’t… and here’s the thing, people can disagree, that’s what makes our country great.’

‘When it comes to the word genocide, I kind of disagree with you… because Israel was attacked by an openly genocidal terrorist group,’ he said while protesters attempted to drown him out.

‘Hamas said openly that they want to destroy Israel… and so you’re accusing somebody of genocide, you’re standing with an organization that says they want to commit genocide. You don’t see that?’

He continued over boos, ‘We need to see a surge in humanitarian aid into Gaza, we need to see an end to the war. We need to see every single hostage returned, and we need to see a viable future for Gaza without Hamas.’

And while pro-Palestinian protesters took up a majority of the attention, there did appear to be a significant number of attendees who were supportive of Bell, particularly when he attempted to bring the conversation back to local issues.

‘The number one killer of kids in St. Louis between [ages] 1 and 17 is gun violence, and there’s people who want to talk about that too,’ he said, earning applause.

At one point, a woman attempted to confront the demonstrators directly.

‘Shut up with your White privilege,’ the woman could be heard yelling. ‘You’ve never been hungry, you’ve never had a child be hungry, and yet you want to stand here and diminish the work he’s doing?’ 

It’s not clear how or if the activists responded.

The town hall’s moderator tried to deescalate the situation early on, calling security to escort an unruly demonstrator out minutes after it began.

‘Let’s do this the Democratic way, the democracy way. You can’t hear anyone yelling. I hear you. As a mixed-race person, I hear you,’ she told activists. ‘We can’t get through this if you are yelling and barking and acting like you want to get physical.’

At the end of the night, however, Bell released a statement thanking all attendees for coming.

‘I want to thank everyone that came out to our town hall this evening – yes the conversations were passionate at times, but Democracy is messy and we have to passionately defend it,’ Bell wrote on X. ‘At the end of the day we’re going to continue to fight for the ST. LOUIS region and for our country.’

Fox News Digital reached out to Bell’s office for further comment.

‘oMg, diD tHe wHiTE hOuSE reALLy PosT tHis?’

That became one of the most common reactions across the White House’s feeds. The answer was always yes.

Serving as director of digital content for President Donald Trump was the most meaningful and intense chapter of my professional life. From the moment we rebooted the administration’s online presence on Inauguration Day, the mission was clear: speak in a voice that resonated with real Americans and make sure our MAGA message could not be ignored.

We did not build a cautious, government-style account. We built a fast, culturally fluent content machine designed to cut through the noise and win online. And it worked.

In just six months, the administration’s platforms added over 16 million new followers, with the fastest growth among Americans aged 18–34. We generated billions of video views and gained more than half a million new YouTube subscribers – nearly triple the previous administration’s total growth over four years.

But it was never just about numbers. Our success came from echoing the humor, passion and identity of a movement that was already alive. We did not invent the culture. We gave it a megaphone.

This was not entertainment for entertainment’s sake. Our meme-heavy, content-first strategy was aligned with the president’s priorities. Digital was not a sideshow. It was a frontline tool for shaping narratives, building momentum, and applying pressure. 

That was clearest during the push for President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. We were not writing legislation. We were making sure Americans understood what was at stake. We turned policy into content people wanted to share – and that shifted the conversation.

That agility was only possible because of President Trump. His decisiveness gave us the freedom to move fast and take risks. Whether it was an ASMR-style video of deportations, a Jedi Trump with a bicep vein battling the deep state, or a surreal ‘Make It Rain’ Gemini AI-generated storm of cash over the White House, every post had intention. Every choice matched the cultural moment.

These were not random stunts. They were designed to draw younger Americans, many of whom had tuned out politics, back into the conversation. And it worked.

We did not wait to react to headlines. We inspired them. From the 100-day mugshot display on the North Lawn to anime-style fentanyl dealers crying on camera, we pushed the boundaries of political communication. 

Major media outlets took notice. Even Democrats are playing catch-up. Gavin Newsom has pretty much stolen podcasts, memes and trolling tactics that came straight from the MAGA playbook. That is not coincidence. That is proof of impact.

Here is the truth. We did not go viral because we were chasing virality. We went viral because we paid attention. We knew our audience. We stayed sharp on the message. And we operated like creators, not bureaucrats.

That kind of approach takes a rare team. The White House digital staff I had the honor to serve with are some of the smartest and most imaginative minds in politics today. They understand what many still miss: politics and culture are inseparable. You move them together or you do not move them at all. 

I have full confidence in the team under White House deputy communications director Kaelan Dorr to continue winning, and as Dorr put it best: ‘The arrests will continue. The memes will continue.’

As I step away from my role at the White House and return to leading my public relations and digital firm, I do so with pride. We did not just manage accounts. We reinvented how people experience the presidency online. Others are only now beginning to understand that reality. We will continue to lead – because we not only understand the tools. We understand the Americans who use them.

President Trump told Brian Glenn of the conservative Real America’s Voice that he didn’t want to answer his question because it was ‘off-topic’ as he stood there with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders.

Then he proceeded to answer it at great length.

The idea, it turns out, began with Vladimir Putin, who has a bit of experience at keeping himself in power, which isn’t all that hard if you’re a dictator.

My source? Donald Trump.

He said Putin told him that ‘it’s impossible to have mail-in voting and have honest elections,’ in an interview with Fox’s Sean Hannity. He said Putin told him he won the 2020 election ‘by so much,’ as Trump has long claimed, ‘and you lost it because of mail-in voting. It was a rigged election.’

Music to the president’s ears.

So Trump was ready when a friendly reporter asked the question.

‘Mail-in ballots are corrupt,’ he declared. ‘Mail-in ballots, you can never have a real democracy with mail-in ballots, and we as a Republican Party are going to do everything possible that we get rid of mail-in ballots. We’re going to start with an executive order that’s being written right now by the best lawyers in the country to end mail-in ballots because they’re corrupt.’

He was just warming up.

And, you know, that we’re the only country in the world, I believe I may be wrong, but just about the only country in the world that uses [mail-in ballots] because of what’s happened, massive fraud all over the place. The other thing we want, change of the machines. For all of the money they spend, it’s approximately 10 times more expensive than paper ballots. And paper ballots are very sophisticated with the watermark paper and everything else, we would get secure elections. We get much faster results, the machines, I mean, they say we’re going to have the results in two weeks with paper ballots. You have the results that night. Most people almost have, but most people in many countries use paper ballots. It’s the most secure form.’

A little fact-checking is in order.

As Axios points out, many countries around the world have some form of mail-in voting. And millions of Americans who live overseas, such as military families, are eligible for mailing in their ballots.

Trump actually doesn’t have the power to do this. While he says the states are an ‘agent’ of the feds, the Constitution says the mechanics of holding elections ‘shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof.’ But Congress can change those requirements. Could the president get this through the narrow majorities in both chambers?

‘It’s a fraud,’ Trump said, adding: ‘It’s time that the Republicans get tough and stop it because the Democrats want it, it’s the only way they can get elected.’

Trump even invoked Jimmy Carter. In 2004, a commission set up by the former president and ex-Reagan aide James Baker III concluded that ‘absentee ballots remain the largest source of potential voter fraud.’

In 2020, Trump went all-out in favor of mail-in ballots, arguing that they would help Republicans. Of course, he may just have been trying to make the best of the tools already in place. No party believes in unilateral disarmament.

But his enthusiasm for mail-in ballots in that election stands in stark contrast to his current stance that they are corrupt and should be banned.

Trump wound up telling Brian Glenn, who is dating Marjorie Taylor Greene, ‘I’m glad you asked that question.’

The president doesn’t let himself be tied down by the rules of consistency that most conventional politicians have to obey. Until last Friday, he was insisting on a cease-fire between Russia and Ukraine as a precondition for any peace agreement. After the Alaska summit, he dropped the cease-fire idea that Zelensky had been demanding, given that his country is being bombarded every day, with significant civilian casualties, and adopted the Putin stance of allowing the war to continue to further freeze his military gains in the crucial Donbas region.

But that flexibility – what critics call flip-flopping – has put the president in the position where he has a shot at hammering out a peace agreement, though major obstacles remain.

So I expect we’ll hear a lot more about how mail-in ballots are horrible and evil in the coming months, though whether he can get his Hill allies to go along is very much an open question. 

Russia launched its largest attack of the month against Ukraine while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with U.S. President Donald Trump and European leaders at the White House.

The attack also comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s meeting with Trump in Alaska last Friday, during which Putin refused an immediate ceasefire and demanded that Ukraine give up its eastern Donetsk region in exchange for an end to the conflict that began with a February 2022 invasion by Moscow. Trump later said he had spoken on the phone with Putin about arrangements for a meeting between the Russian president and Zelenskyy.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 270 drones and 10 missiles into Ukraine on Monday night and into Tuesday, but that 230 drones and six missiles were intercepted or suppressed. The air force reported that 40 drones and four missiles struck across 16 locations, and debris was said to have fallen on three sites.

‘While hard work to advance peace was underway in Washington, D.C. … Moscow continued to do the opposite of peace: more strikes and destruction,’ Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X. ‘This once again demonstrates how critical it is to end the killing, achieve a lasting peace, and ensure robust security guarantees.’

Energy infrastructure in the central Poltava region was a target of the strikes, according to Ukraine’s Energy Ministry. The casualty figures were not immediately released by officials.

‘As a result of the attack, large-scale fires broke out,’ the ministry said in a statement.

Oil refining and gas facilities were attacked, the ministry added, saying the strikes were the latest ‘systematic terrorist attacks against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, which is a direct violation of international humanitarian law.’

The attack was the largest since Russia launched 309 drones and eight missiles into Ukraine on July 31, according to the air force.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces shot down 23 Ukrainian drones on Monday night and into Tuesday morning.

Both sides have been targeting infrastructure, including oil facilities.

Zelenskyy had criticized Moscow for earlier strikes on Monday ahead of his meeting at the White House in which at least 14 people were killed and dozens more were injured.

‘The Russian war machine continues to destroy lives despite everything. Putin will commit demonstrative killings to maintain pressure on Ukraine and Europe, as well as to humiliate diplomatic efforts. That is precisely why we are seeking assistance to put an end to the killings,’ he wrote Monday morning on X.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard on Tuesday announced her office had stripped security clearances from 37 current and former intelligence officials, accusing them of politicizing and manipulating intelligence.

A DNI memo sent out on Monday included the names of officials who worked at the CIA, NSA, State Department and National Security Council, including former Obama DNI James Clapper, who Gabbard claimed told officials to ‘compromise’ normal procedures to rush a 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment related to Russia’s influence in the 2016 election.

‘Being entrusted with a security clearance is a privilege, not a right,’ Gabbard wrote in an X post. ‘Those in the Intelligence Community who betray their oath to the Constitution and put their own interests ahead of the interests of the American people have broken the sacred trust they promised to uphold.’

Notable officials on the list include Brett M. Holmgren, former Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research; Richard H. Ledgett, former NSA Deputy Director; Stephanie O’Sullivan, former Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence; and Luke R. Hartig, former Senior Director for Counterterrorism at the National Security Council.

Also included was Yael Eisenstat, a former CIA officer and White House advisor known for her involvement in the Facebook election integrity operation.

Gabbard said the decision was made at President Donald Trump’s direction.

‘Our Intelligence Community must be committed to upholding the values and principles enshrined in the US Constitution and maintain a laser-like focus on our mission of ensuring the safety, security and freedom of the American people,’ Gabbard wrote on X.

The memo noted the revocation was effective immediately, and the officials’ access to classified systems, facilities, materials and information would be terminated.

The officials’ contracts or employment with the government are to be terminated and credentials surrendered to security officers, according to the memo.

Sen. Adam Schiff launched a legal defense fund as the California Democrat faces a federal investigation for alleged mortgage fraud and President Donald Trump repeatedly condemns him for years of allegedly promoting the ‘Russiagate’ hoax, according to a report published Tuesday. 

‘It’s clear that Donald Trump and his MAGA allies will continue weaponizing the justice process to attack Senator Schiff for holding this corrupt administration accountable,’ a spokeswoman for Schiff told the New York Times. ‘This fund will ensure he can fight back against these baseless smears while continuing to do his job.’

The legal fund, dubbed ‘Senator Schiff Legal Defense Fund,’ was filed with the Internal Revenue Service Thursday, according to the New York Times. 

Trump and Schiff have long been political foes, stretching back to the president’s first administration, when Schiff — who was serving in the U.S. House at the time — oversaw the first impeachment trial against Trump in 2020 for alleged abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, and for repeatedly promoting the narrative that Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia. 

‘Russia, Russia, Russia. Totally phony, created by Adam Schiff, Shifty Schiff, and Hillary Clinton and the whole group of them,’ Trump said from the Kennedy Center Wednesday. 

Trump was referring to recently declassified documents alleging the Obama administration ‘manufactured and politicized intelligence’ to create the narrative that Russia was attempting to influence the 2016 presidential election, despite information from the intelligence community stating otherwise. 

‘It made it very dangerous for our country because I was unable to really deal with Russia the way we should have been,’ Trump continued from the Kennedy Center, referring to Attorney General Pam Bondi. ‘And I’m looking at Pam because I hope something’s going to be done about it.’ 

Schiff also came under fire earlier in August when documents released to Congress by FBI Director Kash Patel reported that a Democratic whistleblower who worked for Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee for more than 10 years told the FBI in 2017 that Schiff allegedly approved leaking classified information on Trump that ‘would be used to indict President TRUMP.’

Schiff notably served on the Jan. 6 committee, which investigated the day in January 2021 when Trump supporters breached the U.S. Capitol, and was among lawmakers who were granted preemptive pardons on President Joe Biden’s final day in office in 2025. 

Schiff, however, had publicly condemned the prospect of Biden doling out preemptive pardons as ‘unnecessary’ and setting a bad precedent. 

‘First, those of us on the committee are very proud of the work we did. We were doing vital quintessential oversight of a violent attack on the Capitol,’ Schiff said during a media interview in December 2024. ‘So I think it’s unnecessary.’

‘But second, the precedent of giving blanket pardons, preemptive blanket pardons on the way out of an administration, I think is a precedent we don’t want to set,’ he added.

The California Democrat also is facing a federal investigation for mortgage fraud, Fox Digital previously reported. Schiff has denied any wrongdoing, claiming the matter is a ‘baseless attempt at political retribution.’

The U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) sent a criminal referral to the Department of Justice in May claiming that in ‘multiple instances,’ Schiff allegedly ‘falsified bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms, impacting payments from 2003-2019 for a Potomac, Maryland-based property.’

Fox News Digital reached out to Schiff’s office and the White House for comment on the legal fund but did not immediately receive replies. 

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report. 

Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett knows how to command an audience. 

This was crystallized Monday night at the Swissotel in Chicago, where she spoke for just three minutes to several hundred judges and legal professionals gathered for the Seventh Circuit Judicial Conference.

Her remarks, though short, were optimistic and warm. She urged the courts to keep their sense of ‘camaraderie and professionalism’ despite inevitable, sharp disagreements. This, she said, is ‘what enables the judicial system to work well.’ 

Barrett smiled fondly as she remembered her time on the 7th Circuit, where she served for several years prior to her nomination to the Supreme Court. She introduced the next speaker, who took the stage to another standing ovation.

And just as quickly as she entered the packed ballroom, she was gone.

As the youngest justice on the bench, Barrett’s ideology over her nearly five-term tenure on the Supreme Court has been the subject of furious speculation, and at times, just plain fury. 

Conservatives have panned her record as more moderate than that of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, for whom she once clerked. Liberals have been incensed by her reluctance to side more consistently with the court’s left-leaning justices on abortion, federal powers and other seminal cases.

Barrett’s voting record is more moderate than Scalia’s, according to a June New York Times data analysis that found she plays an ‘increasingly central role’ on the court.

Barrett used her time on Monday to implore the group of judges to maintain a sense of grace, decorum, and respect for colleagues, despite the inevitable, heated disagreements that will occur.

The warm, if somewhat lofty, sense of idealism on display is one that is expected to be echoed further in her forthcoming memoir, ‘Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution,’ slated for publication next month. 

The theme of Monday’s remarks, to the extent there was one, stressed working toward common goals, accepting ideological differences and embracing disagreement while keeping a broader perspective — a point echoed by Barrett and earlier speakers, who cited David Brooks repeatedly in praising purpose-driven public service.

The upside of so many hours spent in disagreement, Barrett said, is learning how to strike that balance.

‘We know how to argue well,’ she said. ‘We also know how to argue without letting it consume relationships.’

This has been especially true during Trump’s second term, as the Supreme Court presided over a record blitz of emergency appeals and orders filed by the administration and other aggrieved parties in response to the hundreds of executive orders signed in his first months in office.

The high court has ruled in Trump’s favor in the majority of emergency applications, allowing the administration to proceed with its ban on transgender service members in the military, its termination of millions of dollars in Education Department grants and its firing of probationary employees across the federal government, among many other actions.

Even so, it is Barrett who has emerged as the most-talked-about justice on the high court this term, confounding and frustrating observers as they tried and failed to predict how she would vote.

She’s been hailed as the ‘most interesting justice on the bench,’ a ‘trailblazer,’ and an iconoclast, among other things. 

But on Monday, she stressed that the commonalities among judges, both for the 7th Circuit and beyond, are far greater than what issues divide them. 

As for her own work, Barrett offered few details — her remarks began and ended in less time than it takes to microwave a burrito.

It’s unclear if, or to what extent, Barrett’s schedule may have changed at the eleventh hour — a reflection of the many demands placed on sitting Supreme Court justices, whose schedules are often subject to change or cancellation at a moment’s notice.

The 7th Circuit did not immediately respond to Fox News’s questions as to what, if anything, had changed on Barrett’s end. 

Questions swirled as she exited. Had she planned longer remarks? Was the agenda misread? Or is she saving details for her memoir and looming book tour, as one reporter suggested?

Her appearance, full of irony, left observers with more questions than answers. Whether she addresses them in the weeks ahead remains to be seen.

Israel took out a terrorist during an airstrike earlier this month who was involved in the abduction of an Israeli man on Oct. 7, 2023, authorities said Tuesday. 

The strike, which occurred in Gaza on Aug. 10, killed Jihad Kamal Salem Najjar, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, announced. 

‘A small part of my closure happened today. Thank you to the IDF, the Shin Bet, and everyone who took part in the elimination of one of the terrorists who kidnapped me on October 7,’ Yarden Bibas said in a statement provided by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. ‘Thanks to you, he will not be able to harm anyone else.

‘Please take care of yourselves, heroes. I am waiting for full closure with the return of my friends David and Ariel, and the remaining 48 hostages,’ he added. 

Najjar was involved in the invasion of the Kibbutz Nir Oz, one of the hardest hit during the deadly Oct. 7 attacks, where Bibas was kidnapped. Bibas’ family was kidnapped separately and was eventually murdered while in captivity. 

He spent 480 days as a hostage before he was released in January. His wife, Shiri, and their two young children, Ariel and Kfir, were killed before their bodies were returned to Israel. 

While in captivity, Bibas was forced to make a hostage film in which he was seen breaking down as Hamas claimed his wife and children had been killed. 

Hamas often uses hostage videos as part of what the IDF calls ‘psychological terror.’

Upon his release, Bibas’ family said that ‘a quarter of our heart has returned to us after 15 long months. … Yarden has returned home, but the home remains incomplete.’

In the aftermath of Hamas’ attack, the Bibas family became a symbol of the terror group’s cruelty. Video footage of Shiri Bibas holding her two red-headed children in her arms went viral across the globe. 

In April, Israel said it had killed Mohammed Hassan Mohammed Awad, a senior commander in the Palestinian Mujahideen terrorist organization and who helped lead ‘several’ attacks on the Nir Oz kibbutz.