The Trump administration is being urged to go on offense and make sure the next United Nations chief is aligned with U.S. and Western values and doesn’t kowtow to what critics say is an increasingly anti-American institution.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres’ tenure ends Dec. 31, 2026. The former socialist prime minister of Portugal’s tenure has been beset with major wars and crises that have led to accusations of bias against him, especially when it comes to Israel. 

Experts agree the Trump administration needs to keep a close handle on who is best to serve the interests of the U.S.

Anne Bayefsky, director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust and president of Human Rights Voices, told Fox News Digital, ‘As long as the United States continues to make the mistake of being the largest bankroller of the United Nations and in keeping U.N. headquarters (some call a fifth column) a stone’s throw from our financial capital, it ought to care deeply about who leads the organization.’

Jonathan Wachtel, a former director of communications and a senior policy advisor at the United States Mission to the United Nations to U.S. ambassadors Nikki Haley and Kelly Craft, said, ‘Since its inception, the United Nations has been a frontline of the Cold War, and today it is increasingly a frontline of hostility toward the United States.

‘As the Security Council prepares for its mid‑2026 straw polls, we face the stark reality that Russia and China can veto any candidate who reflects our values, even as they work to undermine U.S. foreign policy and erode Western principles. The next secretary‑general must … be a leader with backbone and conviction to champion the ideals on which the U.N. was founded, and the United States has long stood — life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for as many people as possible.’

With just over a year to go for the selection process, member states have begun to nominate candidates who best fit their national interests. 

Brett Schaefer, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told Fox News Digital that of the candidates named thus far, few would be considered acceptable to the U.S. 

‘The announced and rumored candidates … are, for the most part, either U.N. insiders or on the left side of the political spectrum,’ Schaefer said. ‘It’s hard to say that the U.S. would be willing to support any of them at the current stage.’

As electioneering gets underway, Hugh Dugan, former National Security Council special assistant to the president and senior director for international organization affairs, told Fox News Digital, ‘After campaigns and a series of straw pulls and eliminations of candidates, members of the Security Council will present the U.N. General Assembly with a preferred candidate for their formal acceptance late next year.’

Dugan said that custom would indicate that the next secretary-general should come from Latin America. He also emphasized that there is an appetite to appoint a woman after 15 years of calls for a female secretary-general.

‘If they really are to take the helm of a suffering, more or less irrelevant and unmanageable organization like this, they’re going to have to show up as managers,’ Dugan said.

In the midst of the election’s ‘three-ring circus,’ he said, there are six candidates who have officially been named and an additional eight who are considered possible contenders for the role.

The declared candidates

Seemingly the most palatable candidate for the U.S. of those declared is the current head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi of Argentina. An Argentine diplomat, Grossi has been dealing with Iran’s ambition to develop nuclear weapons while also working to prevent a nuclear disaster in Russia’s war against Ukraine. 

Schaefer said Grossi is ‘probably the most acceptable among the candidates that have been listed so far’ given the ‘great deal of courage’ he has shown in his role at the IAEA.

Others include former Bolivian Vice President David Choquehuanca. A member of the Movement for Socialism, Choquehuanca once expressed his disdain for Western thinking after his election as Bolivia’s foreign minister. 

Former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet was the U.N. high commissioner for human rights between 2018 and 2022. U.N. Watch said that, in this role, Bachelet often condemned Israel and the U.S. but ‘turned a blind eye to widespread violations by China, Turkey, North Korea, Cuba, Eritrea’ and others.

According to Schaefer, it is ‘extraordinarily unlikely that [Bachelet] would receive support from the U.S.’ given her political leanings and her ‘remarkable lack of bravery in the conduct of her position as the high commissioner for human rights.’

Former Vice President of Costa Rica Rebeca Grynspan, who headed the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), had recommended regulation as a means ‘to address the deepening asymmetries’ of international finance.

Schaefer said Grynspan would not ‘be an ideal candidate from a U.S. perspective’ because her 30-year U.N. career makes her a ‘consummate insider’ who would likely be unwilling ‘to shake up the system.’

The field is rounded up by two outside candidates, Colombe Cahen-Salvador, a left-wing political activist and co-founder of the Atlas Movement, and Bruno Donat, a joint Mauritius-U.S. citizen and official at U.N. Mine Action Service.

Possible candidates

Though they have not been officially named by a member state, Dugan listed several other officials that are likely to be nominated in the coming months. Many come from the left of the political aisle and are unlikely to get the backing of the Trump administration. 

Jacinda Ardern is a former prime minister of New Zealand who resigned from the role but is considered ‘a global icon of the left.’ Schaefer noted that Ardern’s prior resignation is not ‘a ringing endorsement’ of her capability to take on the demanding role of secretary-general.

Mexico’s former top diplomat, Alicia Bárcena, has 14 years of experience as the head of the U.N.’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. She is the secretary of environment and natural resources. 

Other names include María Fernanda Espinosa, formerly defense and foreign minister of Ecuador; Nigeria’s Amina Mohammed, U.N. deputy secretary‑general; Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund since 2019 of Bulgaria; and former head of the U.N. Development Programme Achim Steiner of Germany.

‘A long list of anti-American secretaries-general, topped off by the profoundly hostile Antonio Guterres, have done enormous damage to America’s international relations, fueled antisemitism on a global scale and gravely diminished global peace and security,’ Bayefsky said.

‘We take a back seat in this election at our peril.’

The Federal Aviation Administration this week told airlines it will investigate whether they complied with orders from the Trump administration during the record-long government shutdown to cut flights.

The orders came in November after the shutdown had been going for a month and airports were facing shortages of air traffic control workers.

The emergency order affected 40 major airports in the U.S. and fluctuated between cuts of 3% to 6% for each airline before the shutdown ended on Nov. 12.

In a letter sent Monday to U.S. airlines, the FAA warned that they could face $75,000 fines for each flight over the allotted limit during the shutdown.

Airlines have 30 days to prove they complied with the required cuts.

Air traffic controllers, like most other government workers, weren’t paid during the 43-day shutdown, and many missed work, sparking safety concerns.

The FAA lifted the restrictions Nov. 16, four days after the shutdown ended.

Despite the shutdown still being in effect Nov. 14 — when 6% flight cuts were required — only 2% of flights were actually cut, according to Cirium, a flight analytics firm.

The cuts also had a major financial impact on airlines, with Delta reporting that it lost $200 million between Nov. 7 and Nov. 16 when the order was in effect.

More than 10,000 flights were canceled in the U.S. during the nine-day period.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

President Donald Trump ordered a sweeping federal review of every childhood vaccine recommendation in the United States Friday, just hours after a CDC advisory committee voted to end its long-standing guidance for infants to receive the hepatitis B vaccine at birth, calling the rule unnecessary for healthy newborns.

‘Today, the CDC Vaccine Committee made a very good decision to END their Hepatitis B Vaccine Recommendation for babies, the vast majority of whom are at NO RISK of Hepatitis B, a disease that is mostly transmitted sexually, or through dirty needles,’ Trump wrote.

The president also critiqued what he sees as a vaccine schedule that requires ‘far more than is necessary.’

‘The American Childhood Vaccine Schedule long required 72 ‘jabs,’ for perfectly healthy babies, far more than any other Country in the World, and far more than is necessary,’ the president added. ‘In fact, it is ridiculous! Many parents and scientists have been questioning the efficacy of this ‘schedule,’ as have I!’

Trump announced he signed a memo directing HHS to ‘fast track’ the current American vaccine schedule.

‘I have just signed a Presidential Memorandum directing the Department of Health and Human Services to ‘FAST TRACK’ a comprehensive evaluation of Vaccine Schedules from other Countries around the World, and better align the U.S. Vaccine Schedule, so it is finally rooted in the Gold Standard of Science and COMMON SENSE!’ Trump wrote.

Trump closed his message by reiterating his support for his HHS Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., writing, ‘I am fully confident Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and the CDC, will get this done, quickly and correctly, for our Nation’s Children.’

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

This is a developing story, check back later for updates.
 

A teenage girl who spent her final years advocating for young people battling cancer is forever memorialized in history, thanks to a key bill passed by the House of Representatives.

Mikaela Naylon was just 16 when she died five years after being diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer.

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, who helped lead the landmark legislation that became her namesake, said Mikaela spent much of that time fighting to give fellow children a chance to survive cancer.

He told Fox News Digital that he viewed childhood cancer patients as ‘the best advocates’ for their cause, calling them his ‘better angels.’

‘Mikaela was a great example of that,’ McCaul said. ‘She was very sick. She’d just undergone radiation and chemotherapy. She wasn’t feeling very well, and I could tell. But she still made the effort to come to Washington, to go to members’ offices and advocate for the legislation.’

The Mikaela Naylon Give Kids A Chance Act is aimed at expanding children’s access to existing cancer therapy trials, as well as incentivizing development of treatments and solutions for pediatric cancer.

It reauthorizes funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support pediatric disease research through fiscal year 2027, and extends the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) ability to expedite review of drugs aimed at helping certain pediatric illnesses.

‘It’s probably one of the most rewarding things I’ve done is to not only draw awareness to childhood cancer by forming the [Childhood Cancer Caucus] and then having an annual summit, but to be able to pass legislation that results in saving children’s lives. I don’t think there’s anything more important than that,’ McCaul said.

His bill passed the House unanimously on Monday, with both Republicans and Democrats speaking out in strong support for the legislation.

Mikaela’s family was in attendance to watch both its passage and the speeches lawmakers gave in favor of it.

‘Nothing will take the place of her. But it helped fill kind of a void, an emptiness they have right now. And they’re very proud of that, that her legacy is carried on through this legislation,’ McCaul, who also gave the Naylon family a tour of the U.S. Capitol, said.

Mikaela’s parents Kassandra and Doug, and her brother Ayden, told Fox News Digital that she had ‘faced every day with hope, purpose and a fierce determination to make the world better for the kids who would come after her.’

‘She believed that all children, no matter how rare their diagnosis, deserve access to the most promising treatments and a real chance at life. This legislation reflects that mission,’ the Naylon family told Fox News Digital.

They thanked McCaul as well as Reps. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., and Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., for championing the bill, as well as advocacy groups who also helped shepherd it forward.

‘Their commitment ensures that Mikaela‘s voice, and the voices of so many brave children like her, will forever be heard in the halls of Congress,’ the family said.

The Senate is quietly winning the battle over states’ abilities to craft their own artificial intelligence (AI) regulations, but there is still a desire to chart out a rough framework at the federal level. 

The issue of a blanket AI moratorium, which would have halted states from crafting their own AI regulations, was thought to have been put to bed over the summer. But the push was again revived by House Republicans, who were considering dropping it into the annual National Defense Authorization Act. 

However, Republicans in the lower chamber have pulled back from that push, even as the White House has pressed Congress to create a federal framework that would make regulations more cohesive across the country. 

A trio of Senate Republicans, Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, who banded together to block the original proposal, cheered the provision’s apparent rise from the grave.

Hawley told Fox News Digital that it was good news that the provision would not be included in the defense authorization bill, but warned that ‘vigilance is needed, and Congress needs to act.’

‘I mean, for everybody out there saying, ‘Well, Congress needs to act and create one standard,’ I agree with that,’ he said. ‘And we can start by banning chat bots for minors.’ 

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who chairs the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation committee, initially pushed for a moratorium to be included in Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill. His position on the issue has been to unchain AI to give the U.S. a competitive edge against foreign adversaries like China.

But that attempt was nearly unanimously defeated over the summer and stripped from the bill. And Cruz hasn’t given up.

‘The discussions are ongoing, but it is the White House that is driving,’ Cruz told Fox News Digital. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., acknowledged that getting the moratorium into the defense authorization bill would be difficult earlier in the week.

‘That’s controversial, as you know,’ Thune said. ‘So, I mean, I think the White House is working with senators and House members for that matter to try and come up with something that works but preserves states’ rights.’

Trump declared last month that the U.S. ‘MUST have one Federal Standard instead of a patchwork of 50 State Regulatory Regimes,’ and argued that over regulation at the state level was threatening the investment, and expected growth, of AI. 

The White House reportedly drafted an executive order that would have blocked states from regulating AI that would have withheld certain streams of federal funding from states that didn’t comply with the order, and enlisted the Department of Justice to sue states that crafted their own regulations.

So far, Trump has not taken action on the order. 

Blackburn, who was the leading player in thwarting Cruz’s previous attempt to assert an AI moratorium into Trump’s marquee tax bill, also wants some kind of federal framework, but one that is designed to ‘protect children, consumers, creators, and conservatives,’ a spokesperson for Blackburn told Fox News Digital in a statement. 

‘Senator Blackburn will continue her decade-long effort to work with her colleagues in both the House and Senate to pass federal standards to govern the virtual space and rein in Big Tech companies who are preying on children to turn a profit,’ the spokesperson said.

And Johnson, another key figure in blocking the moratorium earlier this year, argued to Fox News Digital that it was an ‘enormously complex problem. It’s my definition of a problem.’ 

But unlike his counterparts, he was more skeptical about Congress producing a framework that he would be comfortable with.

‘I’m not a real fan of this place,’ Johnson said. ‘And I think we’d be far better off if we passed a lot fewer laws. I’m not sure how often we get it right. Look at healthcare, look at how that’s been completely botched.’ 

‘What are we gonna do with AI? Hard to say, but we just don’t go through the problem-solving process,’ he continued. ‘And again, I’m concerned, the real experts on this have got vested interests. Whatever they’re advising is, can you really trust them?’

The suspect who allegedly planted pipe bombs blocks from the U.S. Capitol on January 5, 2021, has been identified as Brian Cole Jr. of Woodbridge, Va., according to two sources briefed on the arrest.

The sources say Cole, 30, is in FBI custody as of Thursday following roughly five years of investigation.

The FBI arrested Cole in northern Virginia. 

Authorities have not released further details about the man, but one federal law enforcement source told Fox that the FBI is carrying out ‘court-enforced activity’ at Cole’s residence.

Authorities discovered the two pipe bombs near the Republican and Democratic National Committees’ headquarters around the same time that thousands of protesters a few blocks away began to storm the Capitol over the 2020 election results.

Neither bomb detonated, but authorities say both were viable and dangerous.

Video footage released by the FBI showed the suspect placing the pipe bombs near the two headquarters more than 16 hours before law enforcement found them.

The suspect was seen wearing a gray hoodie, Nike Air Max Speed Turf sneakers, a mask, glasses and gloves, but Cole’s identity had long been unknown.

Senate Democrats attempted to derail a batch of dozens of President Donald Trump’s nominees but ended up giving Senate Republicans a surprise victory in the process.

Republicans were on the way to starting the long procedural process of confirming 88 of Trump’s picks but were blocked by Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., over an issue with one of the nominees in the group.

When Senate Republicans went nuclear and changed the rules surrounding the confirmation process earlier this year to break through Senate Democrats’ blockade, they limited the scope to only sub-cabinet level positions that would be advanced through a simple, 50-vote majority.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said ahead of the vote that Democrats’ failed blockade of Trump’s picks could be chalked up to ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome.’

‘Democrats and their base still can’t deal with the fact that President Trump won last November,’ Thune said. ‘And so they have held up every single one, every single one of his nominations in revenge. But Republicans have not been daunted. We’ve just continued plowing ahead on nominations, helping us rack up a historic number of votes this year in the process.’

But one of the nominees in the group, Sara Bailey, was considered a ‘level 1’ nominee, meaning she would hold a cabinet-level position. Trump tapped Bailey in March to be his drug czar as director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Her inclusion in the package meant that in order for the 87 other nominees to be confirmed, Republicans would have to break the 60-vote filibuster threshold, which was unlikely given Senate Democrats’ wholesale disapproval of many of Trump’s picks.

Senate Republicans took advantage of the opportunity and have decided to tack on even more of the president’s picks in a new, beefed-up package that will include 97 of Trump’s nominees. 

‘I think we’ll add some more and do it next week,’ Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., told Fox News Digital. ‘You know what happened was, you can’t have cabinet-level, and I think drug czar is a cabinet-level now, and so the name was on the list, we just sort of invalidated the list.’

Bennet’s objection still pushes back Senate Republicans’ timeline to confirm the batch of nominees. Lawmakers had planned to move through the procedural steps and finish the process by the end of next week, but now the timeline is expected to stretch into the third week of December.

Once the process is finished, Republicans will have confirmed over 400 of Trump’s picks, putting him well ahead of former President Joe Biden, who at the same point last year had roughly 350 of his nominees confirmed.

And even though Senate Democrats believed they scored a win against the administration, Republicans are relishing the unexpected victory.

‘Senate Republicans will now have the opportunity to confirm even more qualified nominees! Thank you to the Democrats for making this possible,’ a spokesperson for Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said.

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers on Thursday unveiled a two-year healthcare framework that would extend the Affordable Care Act (ACA) enhanced premium tax credits, which are set to expire at the end of the year.

‘We are talking about whether or not the federal government is subsidizing a plan to the tune of 78 percent or 88 percent. But that difference means a lot to the 24 million people who are impacted by it,’ said Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., at a press conference.

‘And so, we need to address that by having a two-year extension with reforms that will address some of the concerns that have been raised about these temporary tax credits that were put in place during COVID, while addressing some of the longer term issues with health care, including the insurance companies.’

The ‘CommonGround 2025: A Bipartisan Health Care Framework,’, co-led by Reps. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., and Jen Kiggans, R-Va., would include a one-year extension of the enhanced premium tax credits, with targeted modifications to be voted on by Dec. 18, in the House and Senate.

It also calls for new guardrails to prevent ‘ghost beneficiaries’ and crackdown on fraud.

The 35 House members supporting the healthcare plan sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., urging them to consider the framework.

Gottheimer said families have seen their health insurance premiums surge during open enrollment and warned that, with the expiring ACA tax credits, millions of families could see their health premiums rise an average of 26% next year.

‘In Jersey, where we live, it could be even rougher with a 175% increase. That’s $20,000 for a family of four. And that’s why we’re all here together to try to solve this problem, do something about it,’ he told reporters.

More than 160 House Democrats voted against a pair of bills Thursday aimed at keeping foreign influence out of U.S. schools.

Both pieces of legislation passed with bipartisan support, though Democrats’ top ranks opposed each one.

‘We just want to educate our children, focus on reading, writing and arithmetic, developing a holistic child, giving the ability to them to think critically,’ House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told Fox News Digital when asked about the pushback.

‘We’re not going to be lectured by a group of Republicans who are dismantling the Department of Education in real-time. Literally 90% of the Department of Education as it existed last year is now gone.’

He accused Republicans of ‘attacking public education just like they’re attacking public health and attacking public safety.’

One of the two bills was led by House GOP Policy Committee Chairman Kevin Hern, R-Okla., and would block federal funds from elementary and secondary schools that have programs, cultural exchanges or other class-related activities that get dollars from the Chinese government.

It would also block federal funds from schools that either directly or indirectly get any kind of support from entities or people related to the Chinese government.

That bill passed 247–166, with 33 Democrats in favor and 166 against.

The second piece of legislation, led by Rep. Aaron Bean, R-Fla., would require every public elementary and secondary school to notify parents that they have a right to request information about any ‘foreign influence’ in their child’s school.

The notification would have to come via the school’s local education agency (LEA), bodies such as school boards that have administrative control over that and other schools in the area.

The second bill passed 247–164, with 33 Democrats in favor and 164 against.

Republicans argued these were commonsense bills aimed at keeping malign foreign influence out of U.S. schools.

But Democrats criticized both during debate on the House floor.

‘The bill gives no guidance on what acting directly or indirectly on behalf of means, or how you are supposed to know and how a parent’s contribution to a school program should be evaluated,’ Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., said. ‘And really, are you supposed to scrutinize all parents’ contributions or just those from parents of Chinese American students?’

A Pentagon inspector general report concluded that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth sent sensitive, nonpublic strike information over the encrypted app Signal using his personal phone, a violation of department policy, even as the watchdog affirms he has broad authority to classify or declassify military information.

According to the report, Hegseth violated War Department protocol that bars officials from conducting government business on personal devices and from using commercial messaging applications to transmit nonpublic Pentagon information.

Investigators found that Hegseth’s March 15 messages to a Signal chat — which included an uncleared journalist — closely tracked timelines contained in a SECRET//NOFORN operational email from Central Command. As the Pentagon’s top classification authority, he has the discretion to declassify information, but policy still prohibits using nonsecure, nonofficial channels to send it.

‘This Inspector General review is a TOTAL exoneration of Secretary Hegseth and proves what we knew all along — no classified information was shared. This matter is resolved, and the case is closed,’ the department’s chief spokesperson said in response to the report.

The secretary sent operational details roughly two to four hours before U.S. forces carried out a coordinated strike campaign on Houthi targets in Yemen. The IG found that doing so ‘risks potential compromise’ and ‘could cause harm to DoD personnel and mission objectives.’

‘The Secretary sent information identifying the quantity and strike times of manned U.S. aircraft over hostile territory over an unapproved, unsecure network approximately 2 to 4 hours before the execution of those strikes. Although the Secretary wrote in his July 25 statement to the DoD OIG that ‘there were no details that would endanger our troops or the mission,’’ the report states.

‘If this information had fallen into the hands of U.S. adversaries, Houthi forces might have been able to counter U.S. forces or reposition personnel and assets to avoid planned U.S. strikes. Even though these events did not ultimately occur, the Secretary’s actions created a risk to operational security that could have resulted in failed U.S. mission objectives and potential harm to U.S. pilots.’

The report says Hegseth monitored the Yemen strikes from a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) at his home with two aides and communicated with U.S. CENTCOM via classified channels before posting what he later described as an unclassified ‘summary’ to the Signal group.

Several Pentagon officials told investigators that Hegseth participated in additional Signal group chats — including one labeled ‘Defense Team Huddle’ — to assign tasks, discuss internal matters and, in at least one case, share similar operational information.

Officials also installed a special tethering system that allowed Hegseth to view and operate his personal phone from inside his secure Pentagon suite while the device remained physically outside the classified space. The IG said it could not determine whether this setup met security requirements.

Read the report below. App users: Click here

The controversy began after then–National Security Advisor Mike Waltz inadvertently added Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to a Cabinet-level Signal chat in which Hegseth shared the strike details. The IG determined that including a journalist in the chat ‘risked U.S. personnel and security.’

Because many of the messages in the chat were auto-deleted before the Pentagon preserved them, the report also found that Hegseth violated federal record-keeping law, which requires officials to forward records from nonofficial messaging accounts to their government accounts within 20 days.