The UK government is set to unseal a first batch of key documents relating to Peter Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the U.S., MPs were told Monday.

The disclosure, set for ‘early March,’ follows a Commons motion ordering the release of files related to Mandelson’s vetting for the post and comes in the wake of his arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

‘The government expects to be able to publish the first tranche of documents very shortly, in early March,’ Darren Jones, chief secretary to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, told the House of Commons.

‘I should, however, inform the House that it remains the case that a subset of this first tranche of documents is currently subject to the ongoing Metropolitan Police investigation,’ he said.

Jones added that ‘a small portion of that material engages matters of national security or international relations’ and would be handled through the Intelligence and Security Committee, in line with the will of the House.

As previously reported by Fox News Digital, a Metropolitan Police spokesperson confirmed in a statement Monday that officers had arrested a 72-year-old man at an address in Camden and took him to a London police station for questioning.

The arrest follows revelations about Mandelson’s links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and comes days after former Prince Andrew was detained.

The investigation relates to allegations that Mandelson shared confidential government information with Epstein while serving as business secretary.

Police had opened a criminal inquiry after the government passed on communications between the former ambassador and the disgraced financier.

Emails released by the U.S. Department of Justice also appeared to show Mandelson sharing market-sensitive information with Epstein during the 2008 financial crisis.

Mandelson has denied wrongdoing and said he does not recall the alleged disclosures and apologized to Epstein’s victims for maintaining contact with him after his conviction.

On Feb. 4, Starmer told the Commons: ‘I’m as angry as anyone about what Mandelson has been up to. The disclosures … are utterly shocking and appalling. He has betrayed our country. He has lied repeatedly. He is responsible for a litany of deceit.’

Starmer later said that if he had known then what he knows now, Mandelson ‘would never have been anywhere near government.’

Mandelson, an architect of New Labour, was appointed U.S. ambassador before being dismissed in September 2025 as scrutiny over his links to Epstein intensified. 

He resigned from the Labour Party and stepped down from the House of Lords.

As U.S. ambassador, Mandelson scored an early victory by ensuring Britain was the first country to agree to a deal with the U.S. to lower some of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, but was fired a few months later.

Starmer has also faced calls to step down over Mandelson’s appointment, Reuters reported.

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A Republican lawmaker is teaming up with outspoken detransitioner Chloe Cole to push federal legislation that would block gender-related medical procedures for minors, saying that children are being rushed into receiving treatments with life-altering results.

The Chloe Cole Act is being introduced on Monday as federal legislation aimed at protecting minors from gender-related medical procedures. 

Rep. Bob Onder, R-Mo., who is behind the bill, has a medical degree and is sounding the alarm over the impact that gender-related treatments can have on minors. The congressman told Fox News Digital that his bill will not only protect minors from these treatments, but will also give children and parents the right to hold medical professionals accountable in court.

‘We know that in the last 15 years, the transgender movement has convinced tens of thousands of boys and girls that they are born in the wrong body…. And then a chain of transgender clinics has exploited these kids for the ideology and for the profit and really done permanent damage to the health of those kids with wrong sex hormones, puberty blockers and even mutilating surgeries,’ Onder told Fox News Digital.

The congressman said the Chloe Cole Act arises from President Donald Trump’s January 2025 order titled, ‘Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation.’ The order encouraged lawmakers to ‘work to draft, propose, and promote legislation to enact a private right of action for children and the parents of children whose healthy body parts have been damaged by medical professionals practicing chemical and surgical mutilation.’ The order noted that statutes of limitations for these cases should be ‘lengthy.’

Cole, who has become a prominent detransition advocate, told Fox News Digital that the legislation is ‘a vital step in our mission to ensure that no minor in America ever endures the kind of lasting, irreparable damage I experienced.’

‘While we’ve made significant strides in raising awareness and enacting protections in recent years, the fight is far from over. Too many children remain at risk of irreversible harm from puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgical procedures pushed on them before they can fully understand the consequences,’ Cole said in a statement provided exclusively to Fox News Digital.

‘We must finish what we’ve started and safeguard the next generation from these experimental and barbaric treatments,’ she added.

A recent legal judgment in New York has provided advocates like Cole some hope in holding medical providers accountable. Recently, a jury awarded 22-year-old Fox Varian $2 million in damages after she sued a plastic surgeon who performed a double mastectomy on her when she was a teenager. Varian’s lawsuit was also aimed at her psychologist. The New York Times noted that Varian claimed the 2019 double mastectomy left her disfigured. Varian, like Cole, was born female and at one point identified as a man. She is now undergoing the detransition process.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has previously expressed support for providing minors with gender-related medical treatment.

‘The AAP and other major medical organizations — including the American Medical Association, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the World Health Organization — support giving transgender adolescents access to the health care they need,’ a 2023 statement from the AAP read. ‘The AAP opposes any laws or regulations that discriminate against transgender and gender-diverse individuals, or that interfere in the doctor-patient relationship.’

Cole celebrated the judgment, and said in a Fox News Digital op-ed: ‘There are so many other young people like us. We were lied to by doctors, nurses and therapists when we were vulnerable and confused children. They did irreversible harm to our bodies and minds, making a mockery of the medical profession. They should absolutely be held accountable for sacrificing us in service to radical transgender ideology.’

In her op-ed, Cole brought up a subject that Onder also touched on during his interview with Fox News Digital: the prevalence of medical professionals warning parents that their child could harm themselves or even commit suicide if they are not allowed to undergo the procedures.

‘Those parents are being lied to,’ Onder said. ‘The words I hear quoted over and over again, by Chloe, by Luka Hein, by others, is that their parents were told, ‘Would you rather have a live son or a dead daughter?’ implying that the risk of suicide is approaching 100%, but nothing could be further from the truth. That is an utter lie,’ Onder said.

The congressman lambasted the industry behind gender-related medical procedures, wondering if children were being pushed into the surgeries because of ‘sick ideology’ or a ‘desire for profit.’

‘Parents are being lied to, the transgender clinics and the transgender doctors are making off with a lot of money. It’s really a despicable development in American medicine. And as a physician, I look forward to the day where it’s in our rearview mirror and no longer are kids being exploited,’ the congressman added.

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Government documents reveal the fall of drug kingpin ‘El Mencho’ over the weekend was the culmination of an aggressive, more than yearlong strategy of ‘total elimination’ pursued by the Trump administration against the ruthless Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), which is present in almost all 50 U.S. states.

Ruben ‘Nemesio’ Oseguera Cervantes, known as ‘El Mencho,’ the leader of the CJNG, was killed Sunday in a Mexican military operation in Tapalpa, Mexico, authorities said. Though the operation was carried out by Mexican forces, the United States laid the groundwork, making El Mencho’s fall possible.

On President Donald Trump’s first day in office, he signed an executive order directing the State Department to designate several cartels and international criminal groups ‘foreign terrorist organizations’ (FTOs), a designation unlocking military-grade surveillance and ‘material support’ prosecutions. Though lesser known than MS-13 or Tren de Aragua, CJNG was one of the groups designated an FTO by the administration.

Shortly after Trump’s executive order, on Feb. 5, Attorney General Pam Bondi sent a policy memorandum to all Department of Justice employees, announcing a ‘fundamental change in mindset and approach’ to cartels and transnational criminal organizations to a policy of ‘total elimination.’ 

Rather than simply seeking to mitigate the harms of cartel activity, Bondi said the DOJ would be suspending red tape to ’empower federal prosecutors throughout the country to work urgently with the Department of Homeland Security and other parts of the government toward the goal of eliminating these threats to U.S. sovereignty.’

The memo said the DOJ would be prioritizing cartel managers and leaders.

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment, CJNG is one of the most ruthless cartels in Mexico and a key supplier of fentanyl to the U.S., making it ‘one of the most significant threats to the public health, public safety, and national security of the United States.’

The DEA said CJNG operates vast distribution networks within the U.S., with associates, facilitators and affiliates operating in ‘almost all 50 U.S. states.’ The DEA also said CJNG has been increasing its involvement in non-drug crime, including extortion, taxing human smuggling and fraud schemes.

A 2019 DOJ statement to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs states that CJNG is ‘one of the most powerful and fastest growing cartels’ and operates key drug distribution hubs in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Atlanta. The Department of National Intelligence estimates the group has approximately 15,000–20,000 members.

Recognizing the threat posed by CJNG, the administration announced major results just over one month after Trump’s inauguration. On Feb. 27, Bondi announced the U.S. had secured the extradition of 29 high-ranking cartel leaders from Mexico, including top-tier CJNG leaders, a key money broker and a family member of El Mencho. Among those extradited and charged was Antonio Oseguera Cervantes, also known as ‘Tony Montana,’ El Mencho’s brother, who was charged in the District of Columbia for his alleged leadership role in the cartel.

On March 7, El Mencho’s son and heir apparent, Ruben Oseguera-Gonzalez, known as ‘El Menchito,’ was sentenced in Washington, D.C., to life in prison plus 30 years and ordered to forfeit $6 billion in drug proceeds. El Menchito had been extradited to the U.S. during the first Trump administration in 2020.

The next week, on March 15, the president again upped the ante against the cartels by designating fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction, authorizing the use of advanced military assets for supply-side interdiction at the border. The move had a major impact on CJNG’s drug smuggling operations.

June was another high-impact month in the fight against CJNG. El Mencho’s brother-in-law, José González Valencia, ‘La Chepa,’ was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison. Another high-ranking leader, José González Valencia, co-founder of the CJNG’s financial wing ‘Los Cuinis,’ was also sentenced to 30 years.

The same month, the Treasury Department used the FEND Off Fentanyl Act for the first time to cut off three major Mexican banks, CIBanco, Intercam and Vector, from the U.S. dollar system for allegedly laundering CJNG funds.

In August, the administration secured the extradition of another 26 high-ranking cartel leaders from Mexico, including Abigael González Valencia, another brother-in-law of El Mencho known as ‘El Cuini,’ who was the head of a major money-laundering organization for the cartel.

Not letting up, the next month, the DEA and Department of Homeland Security launched a massive, nationwide weeklong operational surge targeting CJNG distribution networks. The effort led to 670 arrests and the seizure of $18 million in currency and $29 million in assets. The operation also resulted in the seizure of 92.4 kilograms of fentanyl powder and 1,157,672 counterfeit fentanyl pills.

Announcing the seizures, DEA Administrator Terrance Cole said the administration ‘is targeting the Jalisco New Generation Cartel as what it is—a terrorist organization—at every level, from its leadership to its distribution networks and everyone in between.’

‘Let this serve as a warning,’ said Cole at the time. ‘DEA will not relent … This focused operation is only the beginning — we will carry this fight forward together until this threat is defeated.’

By the end of 2025, the DEA was reporting that it had seized a total of 47 million fentanyl pills, enough to represent more than 369 million lethal doses, from cartel smugglers, including CJNG.

At the start of 2026, the administration again increased its targeting of CJNG and other cartels. The Department of War established the Joint Interagency Task Force-Counter Cartel (JIATF-CC) under U.S. Northern Command as the ‘next step’ in the whole-of-government approach to ‘identify, disrupt, and dismantle cartel operations posing a threat to the United States along the U.S.-Mexico border.’

On Feb. 19, just 72 hours before the Tapalpa raid, the Treasury sanctioned Kovay Gardens, a CJNG-controlled resort in Puerto Vallarta, cutting off a $300 million revenue stream flowing into the cartel’s coffers.

Following the raid, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the U.S. provided intelligence support to the Mexican government to assist in the operation.

Leavitt added that Trump ‘has been very clear the United States will ensure narcoterrorists … are forced to face the wrath of justice they have long deserved.’

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The father and brother of a young woman killed by an illegal immigrant will be in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday night watching President Donald Trump deliver his State of the Union address, after his administration helped track down the man who ended the woman’s life.

Sarah Root, a 21-year-old Iowa native, was killed in Nebraska hours after she graduated from Bellevue University by a drunk driver whose blood alcohol content was more than three times the legal limit.

The man, Eswin Mejia, was in the U.S. illegally at the time of the incident in January 2016. He was arrested and released on bond the following month and fled the country, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Then-candidate Trump was critical of the Obama administration’s handling of the case.

The Trump administration later tracked Mejia down in Honduras and extradited him to the U.S. in March 2025. He was sentenced to more than 20 years in prison.

Sarah Root’s father and brother will attend in-person as Trump delivers his primetime address to Congress on Tuesday evening, thanks to an invitation from Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa.

‘I think that the message it sends is that, under President Trump, that we will find you. I mean, if you’re an illegal criminal in this state or in this country, we will find you, and you will get deported, or you will be prosecuted. I think that is the message loud and clear,’ Feenstra told Fox News Digital.

He said Sarah Root’s father, Scott Root, was present at the White House when Trump signed the Laken Riley Act into law last year. 

The anti-illegal immigrant bill also included an amendment named after Sarah Root that would require Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain illegal immigrants charged with seriously injuring or killing someone.

‘Scott was at the White House with me during the signing of the bill. And he got to know President Trump, so now to be there at the State of the Union — that is really, really a big deal,’ Feenstra said.

Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration has been a primary focus of his administration, after his criticism of how the issue was handled by former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

For two of Washington’s most diametrically opposed political figures, there is a newfound common ground: whether the truth is out there.

President Donald Trump and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have butted heads since the former came to Washington, D.C. But now both want to expose whether there is life beyond the stars.

Their newfound unity on the subject conjoins a passion of Schumer’s and a moment of expedience for Trump.

Trump, spurred by former President Barack Obama saying on a podcast that there was alien life — then walking it back shortly after — ordered Secretary of War Pete Hegseth late Thursday night to dump the government’s files on extraterrestrials.

‘Based on the tremendous interest shown, I will be directing the Secretary of War and other relevant Departments and Agencies to begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs), and any and all other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters,’ Trump said on Truth Social.

The timeline for release of the documents and the breadth and scope of materials that could become public were unclear, but chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told Fox News Digital in a statement, ‘The Department looks forward to working with the interagency to fulfill the President’s directive.’

For Schumer, it’s a passion project years in the making.

Seeking more transparency on UFOs and UAPs is a torch Schumer picked up from the late former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., a friend and mentor of the current top Senate Democrat. It’s also an issue he has prodded Trump to take up since last year.

‘Now do UFOs,’ Schumer said in response to Trump ordering files related to the assassinations of former President John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. to be declassified.

Reid gave the quest to unveil secrets surrounding UFOs and UAPs legitimacy in the late 2000s when he played a key role in funding the Pentagon’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program. That public program received millions to investigate unexplained phenomena.

Several years later, Schumer picked up where his predecessor left off. His most recent push came in 2023, when he served as Senate majority leader under former President Joe Biden.

He and Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., introduced legislation modeled after the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992.

That bill, meant to be an amendment to the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), would have created a review board at the National Archives and Records Administration to collect the government’s trove of documents on UFOs and UAPs and established a presumption of disclosure for the records, requiring the government to provide a compelling reason why they shouldn’t be released to the public.

Ultimately, their original version did not pass muster, and a more watered-down iteration of the bill became law — an outcome Schumer blasted as an ‘outrage’ at the time.

‘It means that declassification of UAP records will be largely up to the same entities that have blocked and obfuscated their disclosure for decades,’ Schumer said.