The federal website created to host the U.S. national climate assessments, congressionally-mandated and peer-reviewed reports that cover the effects of climate change in the U.S. has been inaccessible so far this week.

A Fox News Digital review found that the websites for the U.S. Global Change Research Program and the pages for the national assessments were down on Tuesday without any links or referrals to other websites. 

The White House said the climate-related reports will be located within the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) going forward. However, searches for the assessments did not bring anything up on the NASA website, according to The Associated Press.

The U.S. national climate assessments, of which five have been created to date, are published every four years. Some scientists argue the reports save money and lives, AP reported.

‘It’s critical for decision-makers across the country to know what the science in the National Climate Assessment is,’ University of Arizona climate scientist Kathy Jacobs said in a statement. ‘That is the most reliable and well-reviewed source of information about climate that exists for the United States.’

In March, President Donald Trump’s energy chief vowed a reversal of ‘politically polarizing’ Biden-era climate policies as the new administration approaches climate change as ‘a global physical phenomenon.’

‘I am a climate realist,’ Energy Secretary Chris Wright said at S&P Global’s CERAWeek conference in Houston in March. ‘The Trump administration will treat climate change for what it is, a global physical phenomenon that is a side effect of building the modern world.’

In February, the Trump administration similarly revamped agency websites to be rid of climate change-filled content, amid a widespread rebranding of federal departments from content deemed as not aligning with Trump’s agenda.

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

Once a revolutionary militia, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps built power through ideology and fear. Now, after devastating losses, its future is uncertain.

After major military setbacks, Iran’s IRGC faces a turning point. Experts explain its roots, power, and whether its reign of repression and terror can endure.

Once a fringe militia born of revolution, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has grown into the regime’s most feared and powerful force. But according to Dr. Afshon Ostovar, a leading expert on Iran and author of ‘Vanguard of the Imam: Religion, Politics, and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards,’ said the recent U.S. and Israeli strikes in Iran may have permanently altered its trajectory.

‘What the IRGC tried to achieve over the last 25 years is basically toast,’ Ostovar told Fox News Digital, ‘Their campaign to build a military deterrent at home through missiles and nuclear enrichment, and to expand regionally through proxies, has essentially collapsed.’

Founded in the wake of the 1979 revolution, the IRGC was created to safeguard and spread the Islamic Republic’s values — often through violence. Ostovar describes how its legitimacy evolved over time, initially drawn from the overthrow of the Shah, then the Iran-Iraq War, and later through the manufactured narrative of an eternal struggle with the U.S. and Israel.

Behnam Ben Taleblu, Senior Director of FDD’s Iran Program Behnam Ben Taleblu, told Fox News Digital the IRGC’s origin reflects a deep mistrust of Iran’s traditional military, which had remained loyal to the Shah. 

‘The IRGC were created through efforts to collect pro-regime armed gangs called Komitehs. They enforced revolutionary edicts and developed a parallel and ideological military force due to clerical skepticism in the national army,’ he explained.

‘The IRGC are tasked with preserving and defending the revolution in Iran,’ Taleblu said. ‘That’s one reason why the 1979 Islamic Revolution has not been tamed, nor has the regime’s extremism lost any luster. If anything, terrorism and hostage-taking have continued.’

‘They created a boogeyman in the U.S. and Israel,’ Ostovar added. ‘But today, that ideology no longer resonates with most Iranians. The majority want better relations with the West and are tired of the regime’s isolationist stance.’

Today, the IRGC is deeply intertwined with the clerical elite. ‘The IRGC and the clerical elite are partners in power, treating Iran as a springboard to export their revolution,’ Taleblu noted.

Over the past year, Iran has suffered a series of strategic defeats: Hezbollah has been degraded in Lebanon, Hamas crippled in Gaza, Syria effectively lost, and Iranian military infrastructure — including nuclear and missile sites — destroyed in many cases by U.S. and Israeli strikes. Ostovar says these losses have decimated the IRGC’s regional footprint and forced the regime to reevaluate its strategy.

‘They can try to rebuild everything — but that would take too long and be too difficult,’ he said. ‘More likely, we’ll see them repress harder at home and lean on China and Russia to rebuild conventional military capabilities like air defense and advanced jets.’

Internally, the IRGC’s economic empire is also under growing strain. Sanctions, cyberattacks, and battlefield losses have made operations far more difficult. Ostovar said that foreign banks avoid any connection with Iran out of fear they may inadvertently deal with IRGC-linked entities, forcing the group to operate through front companies abroad. ‘They’ve lost a lot, and now they’ll have to redirect their limited resources to rebuild. That’s going to stretch them even thinner.’

Despite these pressures, both Ostovar and Taleblu agree that the IRGC is unlikely to turn against the regime. ‘Much like the regime elite, the IRGC is at a crossroads,’ Taleblu said. ‘They have lost much of their strategic brain trust, but are likely to remain loyal for a combination of ideological and material reasons — so long as the status quo doesn’t change.’

Looking ahead, Iran may shift focus inward, relying more on domestic repression than on external terror. ‘They can’t get weapons into Gaza. They’ve lost access to Lebanon. They may still attempt terrorism, but they’ve failed repeatedly — especially against Israeli targets,’ Ostovar said. ‘In contrast, repressing their own people is something they can do easily.’

He warns that Iran could become ‘more insular, more autocratic — more like North Korea than what it is today.’ While regime collapse is always a possibility, Ostovar believes autocracies are often resilient. ‘Look at Venezuela or Cuba — they’ve run their countries into the ground but still hold on to power.’

Ostovar thinks change — and not for the better — could come via generational shift. ‘The IRGC’s younger cadre is less religious but no less hardline,’ he said. ‘They may not care about hijabs, but they’ve spent the last two decades fighting the U.S. and Israel in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon. That’s the war they know.’

Some reformist elements within the regime envision a different path — one focused on normalization and growth. ‘They want to preserve the regime not by fighting the world, but by opening up to it,’ Ostovar said. ‘They look more to Vietnam or China as models.’

Taleblu warned that despite recent setbacks, the IRGC’s grip remains strong. ‘Right now, the Guards have power without accountability, wielding political, economic, and military influence in Iranian policy. How this influence is channeled by the next generation of Guardsmen remains to be seen.’

The State Department is launching a new ‘America First’ rebranding initiative to consolidate all the logos for its offices under a singular one depicting the American flag — an effort that aligns with the agency’s massive overhaul plans. 

Whereas separate logos existed previously for offices, including embassies, bureaus and programs under the U.S. Agency for International Development, the rebranding effort seeks to establish ‘consistent branding’ across all these platforms to best reflect American contributions abroad, according to a State Department official. 

‘The redesign is very simple, and that was to recenter and re-anchor the visual identity of American efforts overseas in the American flag,’ Darren Beattie, undersecretary for public diplomacy at the State Department, told Fox News Digital Tuesday. 

Beattie said that inconsistent branding across State Department offices and programs has meant that sometimes U.S. efforts abroad aren’t as widely recognized, while other countries that do have uniformity in branding receive greater credit. 

‘There’s some things you look at it, and you have no clue that’s associated with the United States government at all, and that’s obviously contrary to our purposes,’ Beattie said. ‘If we’re contributing something great overseas, we want that positivity and that contribution to be immediately visually distinguished as something associated with the United States.’

The State Department rolled out guidance on the rebranding effort Wednesday — just a day after Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that USAID would officially no longer continue to provide foreign assistance. 

Fox News Digital first reported in March that the State Department would absorb remaining functions from the previously independent organization, which delivered aid to impoverished countries and development assistance. 

Compliance with the rebranding effort across State Department offices and bureaus is slated for Oct. 1, according to Beattie. 

The effort seeks to visually complement the State Department’s reorganization already underway, which officials have said is the largest restructuring of the agency since the Cold War. 

Rubio unveiled plans in April to revamp the agency because the department was ‘bloated, bureaucratic, and unable to perform its essential diplomatic mission.’

Additionally, Rubio told lawmakers on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee overseeing foreign affairs in May that the restructuring aimed to ’empower’ regional bureaus and embassies who are responsible for spearheading the ‘best innovations.’ 

‘They are identifying problems and opportunities well in advance of some memo that works its way to me,’ Rubio told lawmakers. ‘We want to get back to a situation or we want to get to a situation where we are empowering ideas and action at the embassy level and through our regional bureaus. Those are literally the front lines of American diplomacy. And so we have structured a State Department that can deliver on that.’

Fox News Digital first reported in May that the agency’s reorganization plans would involve cutting or consolidating more than 300 of the agency’s 700 offices and bureaus in an attempt to streamline operations. 

The reorganization involves axing roughly 3,400 State Department personnel, amounting to approximately 15% to 20% of the agency’s domestic headcount, State Department officials previously told Fox News Digital. 

An Iran-linked cyber group is threatening to release a trove of emails it claims to have stolen from top Trump officials and allies. 

The hackers previously released a batch of stolen emails to the media during the 2024 campaign. 

Under the pseudonym Robert, the hackers first told Reuters they had roughly 100 gigabytes of emails from White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, President Donald Trump confidante Roger Stone, Trump lawyer Lindsey Halligan and Stormy Daniels, the porn star who claims to have had an affair with Trump. 

Attorney General Pam Bondi called the hack an ‘unconscionable cyberattack’ and said government agencies would work to ‘protect the officials targeted by this rogue group.’

FBI Director Kash Patel added in a statement, ‘Safeguarding our administration officials’ ability to securely communicate to accomplish the president’s mission is a top priority.’  

‘Anyone associated with any kind of breach of national security will be fully investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.’

Marci McCarthy, spokesperson for the Cyber and Infrastructure Security Agency, called Iran’s threat ‘an effort to distract, discredit and divide.’ 

‘These criminals will be brought to justice,’ she said in a statement. Let this be a warning to others there will be no refuge, tolerance or leniency for these actions

‘A hostile foreign adversary is threatening to illegally exploit purportedly stolen and unverified material in an effort to distract, discredit and divide. This so-called ‘cyber attack’ is nothing more than digital propaganda, and the targets are no coincidence. This is a calculated smear campaign meant to damage President Trump and discredit honorable public servants.’ 

Last summer, at the height of the 2024 election, Iranian-linked hackers sent material stolen from the Trump campaign to individuals associated with the Biden campaign and to U.S. media organizations. In an indictment in September, the Biden Justice Department accused three members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps of being behind the leak. 

In May, the hackers behind ‘Robert’ signaled to Reuters they would not be leaking any more documents. ‘I am retired, man.’ 

However, the group reached back out after Israel and the U.S. attacked Iran’s nuclear sites. They said they were organizing a sale of the stolen communications and asked Reuters to publicize it.

U.S. cyber officials warned on Monday that U.S. companies and critical infrastructure operators may still be in Iran’s crosshairs. Experts have suggested Iran may be looking for non-military ways to punish the U.S. for its strikes. 

‘Despite a declared ceasefire and ongoing negotiations towards a permanent solution, Iranian-affiliated cyber actors and hacktivist groups may still conduct malicious cyber activity,’ U.S. agencies said in an advisory. 

The new threat comes as Trump insists he is not speaking to Iran and has offered them nothing for nuclear negotiations. He has said Iran’s facilities were ‘totally obliterated.’ 

Fox News’ David Spunt contributed to this report. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., forced a name change for President Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ moments before the legislative package passed the upper chamber of Congress. 

While Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., was chairing the Senate, Schumer raised a point of order against lines three to five on the first page of the legislative proposal that said, ‘SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the ‘’One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” 

Schumer argued the title of the bill violated Section 313 B1A of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, or what’s commonly referred to as the ‘Byrd Rule.’ 

Ricketts said the point of order was sustained, meaning that text will be stricken from the bill. 

‘This is not a ‘big, beautiful bill’ at all. That’s why I moved down the floor to strike the title. It is now called ‘the act.’ That’s what it’s called. But it is really the ‘big ugly betrayal,’ and the American people know it,’ Schumer told reporters. ‘This vote will haunt our Republican colleagues for years to come. Because of this bill, tens of millions will lose health insurance. Millions of jobs will disappear. People will get sick and die, kids will go hungry and the debt will explode to levels we have never seen.

‘This bill is so irredeemable that one Republican literally chose to retire rather than vote yes and decimate his own state,’ Schumer added, referring to Sen. Thom Tills, R-N.C.

Asked whether he hoped to irritate Trump by changing the name of the bill, Schumer responded, ‘I didn’t even think of President Trump. I thought of the truth. This is not a beautiful bill. Anyone who loses their health insurance doesn’t think it’s beautiful. Any worker in the clean energy industry who loses their job does not think it’s beautiful. Any mom who can’t feed her kid on $5 a day doesn’t think it’s beautiful. We wanted the American people to know the truth.’

The Senate narrowly passed Trump’s $3.3 trillion spending package by a 51-50 vote on Tuesday after an all-night voting session. 

Vice President JD Vance was the tiebreaking vote. No Senate Democrats crossed the aisle to support the legislation. Tillis and Republican senators Rand Paul of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine opposed the megabill. 

Democrats condemned the bill’s passage, including Schumer’s fellow New Yorker, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. She has not confirmed a primary run. 

‘JD Vance was the deciding vote to cut Medicaid across the country,’ the progressive ‘Squad’ member wrote on X. ‘An absolute and utter betrayal of working families.’ 

Vance championed the bill as securing ‘massive tax cuts, especially no tax on tips and overtime. And most importantly, big money for border security.’ 

‘This is a big win for the American people,’ the vice president wrote. 

He also approved an assessment by longtime GOP operative Roger Stone.

‘The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects Trump’s reconciliation bill would add $3.3 trillion to the national debt over the next decade by extending the president’s tax cuts that he first implemented in 2017. In fact, federal revenues spiked after the 2017 Trump tax cuts just like they did after Reagan and JFK implemented across-the-board tax cuts,’ Stone wrote.

‘The deficit is caused by excess spending which the administration is addressing in a series of recision bills. PS the CBO is always wrong.’ 

Despite initial reservations, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, voted in favor of the legislation after Republicans added Alaska-specific provisions to curry her favor. 

The bill now heads back to the House for final approval. Congress must reconcile differences between the Senate and House versions of the bill, namely on Medicaid. Republican leaders are aiming to get it to the president’s desk by Friday, July 4.

The Trump administration released data on Tuesday morning showing that it had slashed the federal government workforce, while promising that there is more to come as Trump continues his push to rid the government of waste. 

Data released by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) shows that the United States employs 2,289,472 federal workers as of March 31, which is down from 2,313,216 on September 30, 2024. 

The reduction of more than 23,000 positions ‘reflects the administration’s early efforts to streamline government and eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy,’ OPM said in a press release. 

‘The American people deserve a government that is lean, efficient, and focused on core priorities,’ Acting OPM Director Charles Ezell said in a statement.

‘This data marks the first measurable step toward President Trump’s vision of a disciplined, accountable federal workforce, and it’s only the beginning.’

Trump signed an executive order in February instructing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to coordinate with federal agencies and execute massive cuts in federal government staffing numbers.  

That order is reflected in the new data, OPM said, showing that agencies averaged 23,000 new monthly hires from April 2024 to January 2025 but dropped by nearly 70% to just 7,385 per month once the freeze was fully implemented. 

The agency said the cuts saved the taxpayers ‘billions.’

OPM added that ‘hundreds of thousands more workers’ will drop from the rolls in October 2025, when more workers depart via the Deferred Resignation Program that was offered to employees in an effort to trim the workforce. 

Tens of thousands of employees who are in the process of being terminated remain on the government payroll due to court orders that are currently being challenged by the administration, OPM says. 

Trump’s effort to shrink the federal workforce has faced stiff resistance from Democrats and various courts, with critics saying that the administration is cutting critical jobs.

‘It’s a judge that’s putting himself in the position of the President of the United States, who was elected by close to 80 million votes,’ Trump said aboard Air Force One on a flight back to Washington in March, after a federal judge blocked one of his efforts to fire federal workers.

‘That’s a very dangerous thing for our country. And I would suspect that we’re going to have to get a decision from the Supreme Court.’

Last month, OPM unveiled a new rule it said will make it easier to terminate federal employees for serious misconduct by cutting through the red tape that currently impedes that process. 

Fox News Digital reported in 2023 that under current law, the vast majority of the federal workforce is not at-will and may only be terminated for misconduct, poor performance, medical inability or reduction in force. Federal employees are also entitled to sweeping due process rights when fired, which can create a cumbersome process for agencies to remove a worker.

A pair of Republican oversight hawks escalated a complaint on Tuesday about a district court judge who is presiding over one of the Trump administration’s cases, alleging the judge has a financial conflict of interest.

Reps. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman and member of the House Judiciary Committee, respectively, asked the judicial council for the First Circuit Court of Appeals to investigate Judge John McConnell, according to a letter obtained by Fox News Digital.

McConnell, an Obama appointee, has been presiding over a pivotal funding freeze case in Rhode Island brought by 22 states with Democratic attorneys general. The case centers on the Office of Management and Budget’s order in January that federal agencies implement a multibillion-dollar suspension of federal benefits.

The states’ lawsuit argued the funding freeze was illegal because Congress had already approved the funds for use. McConnell agreed with the states and blocked the administration from suspending the funds, and the case is now sitting before the First Circuit Court of Appeals.

McConnell wrote in an order in March that the Trump administration’s funding suspension ‘fundamentally undermines the distinct constitutional roles of each branch of our government.’ 

The judge said the freeze lacked ‘rationality’ and showed no ‘thoughtful consideration of practical consequences’ because it threatened states’ ‘ability to provide vital services, including but not limited to public safety, health care, education, childcare, and transportation infrastructure.’

Issa and Jordan said McConnell’s long-standing leadership roles with Crossroads Rhode Island, a nonprofit that has received millions of dollars in federal and state grants, raised the possibility of a judicial ethics violation.

‘Given Crossroads’s reliance on federal funds, Judge McConnell’s rulings had the effect of restoring funding to Crossroads, directly benefitting the organization and creating a conflict of interest,’ Jordan and Issa wrote.

Their letter was directed to Judge David Barron, chief judge of the First Circuit and chair of the First Circuit Judicial Council.

McConnell was quick to become one of Trump’s judicial nemeses when he became involved with the funding freeze case. His initial order blocking the freeze and subsequent orders to enforce his injunction and unfreeze FEMA funds fueled criticism from Trump’s allies.

The Trump-aligned group America First Legal has been highlighting McConnell’s ties to Crossroads Rhode Island for months through its own investigation and complaint to the First Circuit.

Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., filed articles of impeachment against the judge in March, though impeachment as a solution for judges with whom Republicans take issue has not garnered widespread support among the broader Republican conference.

Vocal Trump supporter Laura Loomer targeted the judge’s daughter on social media, and X CEO Elon Musk elevated her grievance on his platform.

One of McConnell’s local newspapers, the Providence Journal, described the judge as a man ‘well-known’ in Democratic political circles and a major donor to Democratic politicians and organizations before he was confirmed to the bench in 2011.

McConnell included Crossroads Rhode Island and his membership as a board member in his recent public annual financial disclosure reports. No parties in the case have actively sought his recusal at this stage.

An aide for the judge did not respond to a request for comment.