First lady Melania Trump will recognize courageous women from all corners of the world at the State Department Tuesday and is expected to celebrate ‘the extraordinary strength of women who embody love in action around the globe.’ 

The first lady is returning to the State Department for her fifth year participating in the Secretary of State’s International Women of Courage Awards. 

The event will recognize women from around the globe who have ‘bravely stood up for many of the values we cherish here in the United States.’ 

The first lady is expected to focus on ‘love as a source of strength’ during her remarks Tuesday and is expected to call love a ‘universal language.’ 

The first lady is also expected to honor the courageous and ‘extraordinary’ women who will receive the annual awards. 

‘Mrs. Trump will highlight the profound connection between the love and courage shown by this year’s honorees,’ first lady spokesman Nick Clemens told Fox News Digital. ‘She looks forward to celebrating the extraordinary strength of women who embody love in action around the globe.’ 

Recipients include women from Burkina Faso in West Africa, Israel, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, South Sudan, Sri Lanka and Yemen. 

One of the recipients, Amit Soussana, was taken hostage by Hamas in Israel during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack. Soussana is an advocate for the hostages that remain under Hamas control. 

The IWOC Award is in its 19th year and recognizes women from around the world who have demonstrated ‘exceptional courage, strength, and leadership — often at great personal risk and sacrifice.’ 

The State Department said that since 2007, it has recognized more than 200 women from more than 90 countries with the IWOC Award. 

U.S. diplomatic missions overseas nominate one woman of courage from their respective host countries, and finalists are selected and approved by senior Department officials.  

As President Donald Trump edges closer to potentially bombing Tehran, Iran, the intelligence community does not yet believe Iran is moving toward a nuclear weapon. 

‘If they don’t do a deal, there will be bombing,’ Trump said Sunday. It was not clear whether that meant Israel or the U.S. would bomb Tehran. ‘There’s a chance that if they don’t make a deal, that I will do secondary tariffs on them like I did four years ago,’ he added. 

Secondary ‘tariffs,’ or sanctions, would mean slapping financial penalties on any country that does business with Iran. 

However, Trump’s threat of direct war on Tehran comes just after Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard insisted last week Iran is not building a nuclear weapon – at least not yet. 

‘The IC [intelligence community] continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapon program that he suspended in 2003,’ Gabbard told a worldwide threat hearing held by the Senate Intelligence Community last week. 

Experts believe Iran is enriching uranium to 60%, which puts it just below the 90% needed for a nuclear weapon, and have said there is no civilian use for 60% enriched uranium. 

‘The IC continues to monitor closely if Tehran decides to reauthorize its nuclear weapons program. In the past year we’ve seen an erosion in the decades-long taboo in Iran of discussing nuclear weapons in public, likely emboldening nuclear weapons advocates within Iran’s decision making apparatus,’ Gabbard said. 

She added that Iran’s uranium enrichment was ‘at its highest levels’ and is ‘unprecedented for a state without nuclear weapons.’ 

The IC’s annual threat assessment, released in conjunction with the hearing, predicted Iran would continue efforts to threaten U.S. citizens and conduct operations inside the U.S. 

‘Tehran will try to leverage its robust missile capability and expanded nuclear program, and its diplomatic outreach to regional states and U.S. rivals to bolster its regional influence and ensure regime survival,’ the report said. ‘However, regional and domestic challenges, most immediately tensions with Israel, are seriously testing Iran’s ambitions and capabilities.’

The report detailed the ‘lethality’ of Iran’s missiles and UAV systems but said little else about the threat of Iran’s nuclear program. 

It assessed Iran’s capabilities, degraded by Israel, would be able to deter further offensive Israeli actions. 

‘The IC assesses Iran’s prospects for reconstituting force losses and posing a credible deterrent, particularly to Israeli actions, are dim in the near-term,’ the report said.

JINSA President and CEO Michael Makovsky offered a separate assessment, telling Fox News Digital, ‘Their enrichment program is about as far as you can get, so that part is done. So the question is the weapons part.… the issue today is less weaponization and more about opportunity.’

Behnam Ben Taleblu, an analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, added a broader critique. ‘When the IC, reporters or open-source analysts fail to connect the dots between strategy, capability and intention when looking at Iran’s atomic infrastructure … they do a public disservice to the public national debate.’

He said that worldwide threat assessments ‘should but be politicized,’ but ‘intelligence officials must be asked, if Iran isn’t building a weapon, why has it invested so much time, labor and capital into this quest?’

Tehran’s moves toward an atomic weapon is not a dash, but a ‘slow and steady quest to develop the world’s most dangerous weapons as safely as possible,’ said Taleblu. 

The renewed threat comes as the U.S. is bolstering its forces in the Middle East. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth recently sent a second aircraft carrier, USS Carl Vinson, to join the USS Harry S. Truman carrier strike group, whose deployment was also extended. 

The U.S. also recently deployed two B-2 stealth bombers to the Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean, a warning to Iran and Yemen’s Houthi militia. The planes are capable of carrying 30,000-pound ‘bunker buster’ bombs and are now situated within range of Iran. 

In his first term, Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal signed by then-President Barack Obama, deeming it a ‘bad deal’ that did not curb Iran’s nuclear program. 

He has already ordered his administration to bring ‘maximum pressure’ back to Tehran, choking them financially from every lever of government. 

House Republicans are going all out this week to signal their support for the Trump administration amid multiple legal standoffs over White House policy.

A bill to limit U.S. district court judges’ ability to issue nationwide injunctions sailed through the House Rules Committee – the last gatekeeper for bills before a chamber-wide vote – in a party-line vote Monday evening, as expected.

On Tuesday morning, meanwhile, two high-profile panels on the House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing at 10 a.m. ET on ‘judicial overreach and constitutional limits on the federal courts.’

‘Clearly,our members are as angered as President Trump about some of these rogue judges,’ House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., the No. 2 House Republican, told Fox News Digital in a brief interview. ‘So we’re doing a number of things.’

The hearing will be held by the House Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on the Constitution, led by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and its subcommittee on courts, led by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif.

Notably, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., is expected to testify, as is a woman described as a victim of criminal activity perpetrated by the terrorist organization Tren de Aragua in Aurora, Colorado.

Her appearance is likely linked to the ongoing legal showdown between the Trump administration and U.S. District Judge James Boasberg after he issued an emergency 14-day pause on the White House’s deportation flights of suspected Tren de Aragua gang members to El Salvador.

‘We share the president’s concern that you’ve got some judges that have overstepped their boundaries,’ Scalise said. ‘I mean, you have a plane flying with hardened criminals … and Judge Boasberg orders the plane to turn around in mid-flight … and bring hardened criminals back to America who were already here illegally. That’s clearly judicial activism and a judge trying to become the executive. That’s not his role.’

Issa is also spearheading the No Rogue Rulings Act (NORRA Act) to get a House-wide vote this week, which would limit the ability of Boasberg and other district court judges from issuing rulings that affect Trump policies across the country, beyond their direct jurisdiction.

That legislation is likely to pass with little if any Republican dissent. Two people familiar with discussions told Fox News Digital this month that Capitol Hill aides were told Trump ‘likes’ the bill.

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., the No. 3 House Republican, also made clear leadership is united behind this week’s strategy.

‘Judges cannot act as pseudo-legislators to advance their political agenda; that’s not how our government works,’ Emmer told Fox News Digital exclusively in a written statement. ‘I’m grateful for Chairman Jordan and Congressman Issa’s leadership in House Republicans’ efforts to ensure impartiality on the bench.’

But it’s clear there’s an appetite among Republican judiciary hawks and conservatives to go further.

Scalise would not go into specifics but vowed, ‘Everything’s being looked at, and all options are on the table.’

Democrats are vowing to push back, with Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, accusing Trump of using judges as ‘scapegoats’ for his policy setbacks.

‘This week’s efforts to distract from Trump’s serial violations of the Spending Clause, the separation of powers, the Birthright Citizenship Clause, Equal Protection, the First Amendment freedom of speech, Fifth Amendment Due Process and Sixth Amendment right to counsel will include a House hearing made for Trump’s viewing pleasure and a vote on a Republican bill to ban nationwide injunctions,’ Raskin told Fox News Digital.

‘As my colleagues embark on this embarrassing diversion, Judiciary Democrats will remind them at every turn: it’s not the courts’ fault that Trump keeps losing these cases. No amount of finger pointing will shift responsibility from this rogue president who keeps deliberately trashing the Constitution and violating the rights and freedoms of the people of the United States.’

There have been over a dozen injunctions levied against various Trump policies across the country, from birthright citizenship reform to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., met privately with Republican judiciary committee members last week for what sources called a ‘brainstorming’ session.

Ideas raised by lawmakers included a fast-tracked appeals process, wielding Congress’ spending power over the judiciary, and limiting the ability to ‘judge shop.’

And some conservatives are eager to target specific judges they believe are abusing their power via the impeachment process, but House Republican leaders are wary of that route and believe it to be less effective than other legislative avenues.

Conservatives could still force Johnson’s hand by filing a ‘privileged’ impeachment resolution, meaning the House would have to at least hold a procedural vote on the measure within two legislative days.

Fox News Digital is not aware of any current plans to do so, and Johnson assured Republicans at their closed-door meeting last week that he was in contact with the White House every step of the way.

Trump’s GOP Senate allies are rolling out their own strategy to push back on activist judges in the coming days, with the Senate Judiciary Committee teeing up a similar hearing to the House’s Tuesday event.

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., spoke out against President Donald Trump and Elon Musk on the Senate floor throughout the night after beginning his marathon speech at 7 p.m. Monday.

The senator was still speaking on the floor at 6 a.m. Tuesday, 11 hours after he had begun.

Booker received some support from other Senate Democrats, whom he allowed to speak at times, during his hourslong show of opposition against the Trump administration.

Booker said toward the beginning of his speech that Trump, in 71 days, ‘has inflicted so much harm on Americans’ safety, financial stability, the core foundations of our democracy, and even our aspirations as a people for, from our highest offices, a sense of common decency.’

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who said he planned to join Booker ‘for the entirety of his speech,’ noted that he was ‘returning the favor’ as Booker joined him when he ‘launched a filibuster to demand action on gun violence nine years ago.’

Murphy was among the Democrats who provided Booker with some relief by speaking at times to punctuate the marathon session.

In the social media video, Murphy described his colleague’s effort as ‘extraordinary.’

Booker said in a video before he began his demonstration that he plans to continue speaking as long as he is ‘physically able.’

President Donald Trump said that the U.S. would continue to search for Austin Tice, an American journalist who disappeared in Syria in 2012. 

Tice, who previously served as a captain in the Marine Corps and was a student at Georgetown University Law Center, started working as an independent journalist for McClatchy, The Washington Post and other outlets in Syria in May 2012 before jihadist militants seized him near Damascus. 

Trump said that although there has been ‘virtually no sign’ of Tice, his administration would continue to try to secure Tice’s release. 

‘Until we find out something definitive, one way or the other, we’ll never stop looking,’ Trump told reporters Monday. ‘But we have been, and the response – it’s just a lot of dead ends. It’s been done for a long time. The problem is, there’s never been a sighting.’

Trump’s comments come after Tice’s mother, Debra, told reporters at the National Press Club in December that they’d received information suggesting that her son was still alive. 

‘We have from a significant source that has been vetted all over our government: Austin Tice is alive,’ his mother Debra Tice said Dec. 6. She later met with former President Joe Biden’s National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, at the White House to discuss her son’s wrongful detainment. 

Meanwhile, rebels also overthrew Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime in December, prompting the FBI to issue a statement reiterating its push from April 2018 for more information that could lead to Tice’s release. 

‘Given recent events in Syria, the FBI is renewing our call for information that could lead to the safe location, recovery, and return of Austin Bennett Tice, who was detained in Damascus in August 2012,’ the FBI said in a statement in December. 

‘The FBI and our government partners remain committed to bringing Austin home to his family, and we are still offering a reward of up to $1 million for information that leads to Austin’s safe return,’ the FBI said. 

Both Trump’s first administration and Biden’s administration have launched efforts to advance the release of Tice. Biden urged the Syrian government to release Tice in 2020, and said the U.S. knew ‘with certainty’ that the Syrian regime was holding him hostage. Syria has publicly denied it has detained Tice. 

There were 46 American nationals known to be held captive in 16 different countries in 2024, according to the nonprofit Foley Foundation, which advocates for U.S. hostages and was named after James Foley, a U.S. journalist kidnapped while reporting in Syria in 2012 and killed by ISIS in 2014. That number is now likely closer to the low 30s after the recent releases of hostages in January and February through efforts by the Trump administration. 

Fox News’ Michael Dorgan and Stephany Price contributed to this report. 

: Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., will vote to confirm President Donald Trump’s Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) nominee, Dr. Mehmet Oz, after securing commitments from him regarding transgender treatments for minors and abortion. 

‘On this basis, I will vote to confirm him. Now that I am confident that he has moved away from his previous positions, and he’s moved into alignment with the president, I feel comfortable voting for him,’ he told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview on Monday. 

The senator revealed that Oz responded to his inquiries and disavowed his past stances on transgender treatments for minors and abortion in a series of posts on X earlier in the day. 

‘Dr. Oz has responded to my questions re: past support for trans treatments for minors & his criticism of right to life. Oz now disavows his previous support for trans surgeries & drugs for minor children. He pledges to ‘end chemical and surgical mutilation of children,’’ Hawley wrote on X on Monday. 

‘He also walks back past criticism of state pro-life laws, says he supports the Dobbs decision, and is ‘unequivocally pro-life.’ He vows to enforce conscience protections, end the abuse of [the Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act], and work to end funding for abortion providers,’ he continued. 

‘This was really a big shift of position for him,’ he explained, adding that he was ‘delighted’ by Oz’s responses. 

‘When it comes to the [transgender] issue and the life issue, those are non-negotiable for me, just as I believe they are for the president,’ the Missouri Republican explained. ‘I want to know that these people are 100% clear.’ 

‘Every member of the Trump administration is working from the same playbook, President Trump’s playbook, to restore commonsense policies and put an end to left-wing ideological nonsense afflicting our government,’ White House spokesman Kush Desai told Fox News Digital in a statement. ‘We look forward to the Senate’s swift confirmation of Dr. Oz so he can join the rest of our all-star team at HHS working to Make America Healthy Again by restoring common sense, transparency, and confidence in our healthcare apparatus.’

Earlier in the month, Hawley sent Oz a list of questions, specifically probing him on those issues. As of last week, Hawley said the nominee hadn’t responded, which the senator called ‘strange.’ 

Oz previously used his television show as a platform for people who supported and promoted transgender treatments, particularly for minors. Specifically, he hosted two transgender children on his show in 2010 in a segment titled, ‘Transgender Kids: Too Young to Decide?’ 

He also expressed concerns about state laws to limit abortion during a 2019 interview on the popular radio show ‘The Breakfast Club.’

It’s ‘a hard issue for everybody,’ he said at the time. 

And while on ‘a personal level,’ Oz didn’t like abortion, he also believed he should not ‘interfere with everyone else’s stuff,’ he said. 

Oz also opposed government jurisdiction on the subject of abortion when he ran for Senate in Pennsylvania as a Republican in 2022.

‘I don’t want the federal government involved with that at all,’ he claimed during a debate with now-Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa. ‘I want women, doctors, local political leaders, letting the democracy that’s always allowed our nation to thrive, to put the best ideas forward, so states can decide for themselves.’

Hawley’s commitments from Oz are just the latest he’s received from Trump nominees as he considers them for confirmation. He previously got assurances from now-Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the same issues. 

When it came to now-leader of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Dr. Marty Makary, Hawley led a successful campaign to secure the resignation of a top lawyer with the FDA who previously argued in favor of abortion pill access in a high-profile case while in former President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ). 

‘I just view my role for those I have to vote on — I want to know that these people are going to align with the president,’ Hawley said, noting that he believes Trump has ‘moved really fast [and] really strong’ on the issues. 

President Donald Trump said he would ‘love’ to run against former President Barack Obama in a hypothetical third-term run for the presidency that he has floated in recent days. 

‘I know it’s hypothetical right now, but if you were allowed for some reason to run for a third term, is there a thought that the Democrats could try to run Barack Obama against you?’ Fox News’ Peter Doocy asked Trump on Monday evening from the Oval Office. 

‘I’d love that,’ Trump responded. ‘I’d love that …. That would be a good one. I’d like that. And no, people are asking me to run, and there’s a whole story about running for a third term. I don’t know, I never looked into it. They do say there’s a way you can do it, but I don’t know about that.’

Trump said that he has not looked into the potential legal avenues of running for a third presidency, saying he has nearly four years left of his term and is focused on doing a ‘fantastic job.’

The 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, which was ratified in 1951, prevents presidents from serving more than two terms. The amendment was ratified after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected as president for four terms. 

Roosevelt died during his fourth term and Vice President Harry Truman assumed the presidency. FDR is the only president in the nation’s history who has been elected and served more than two terms, which was largely due to the political and economic climate at home and abroad, with his presidency unfolding amid the Great Depression and the beginning of World War II. 

Trump teased he might run for a third term in an interview with NBC News on Sunday, saying he is ‘not joking’ about making another run for the Oval Office and enjoys working. 

‘There are methods which you could do it,’ Trump said when asked about how he could go about running for a third term. NBC News floated a possible method during the interview where Vice President JD Vance could run for the presidency, win and pass the torch to Trump. The president said such a scenario is one of the methods he could use to serve a third term. 

‘It is far too early to think about it,’ he added of another potential run. 

President Donald Trump signed an executive order to protect Americans from ‘exploitive ticket scalping’ in the concert and entertainment industry, Fox News Digital has learned. 

The president signed the order Monday evening in the Oval Office. Kid Rock joined the president for the signing ceremony. 

The president’s executive order directs the Federal Trade Commission to work with the attorney general to ensure that competition laws are enforced in the concert and entertainment industry. 

The order also enforces the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) act and promote its enforcement by state consumer protection authorities. 

The president’s order also ensures price transparency at all stages of the ticket-purchasing process, including through the secondary ticketing market; and will evaluate, and, if appropriate, take enforcement action to prevent ‘unfair, deceptive, and anti-competitive conduct’ in the secondary ticketing market.

The president’s order also directs the attorney general and Treasury secretary to ensure that ticket scalpers are operating in full compliance with the Internal Revenue Code and other laws. 

Under the order, the Treasury Department, DOJ, and the FTC will deliver a report within 180 days summarizing the actions taken to address the issue of unfair practices in live concert and entertainment industry and will recommend additional regulations or legislation needed to protect consumers. 

The order comes after President Trump, on the campaign trail, vowed to work to combat high ticket prices. While campaigning, the president described the current system where fans are priced out as ‘very unfortunate.’ 

A White House official told Fox News Digital that the president is ‘committed to making arts and entertainment that enrich Americans’ lives as accessible as possible.’ 

The official said that America’s live concert and entertainment industry has a total nationwide economic impact of $132.6 billion and supports 913,000 jobs. 

‘But it has become blighted by unscrupulous middle-men who impose egregious fees on fans with no benefit to artists,’ a White House official said. 

‘Ticket scalpers use bots and other unfair means to acquire large quantities of face-value tickets, then re-sell them at an enormous markup on the secondary market, price-gouging consumers and depriving fans of the opportunity to see their favorite artists without incurring extraordinary expenses,’ a White House official said. ‘By some reports, fans have paid as much as 70 times the face value of a ticket price to obtain a ticket.’ 

The official added that when this occurs, the artists ‘do not receive any additional profit—it goes solely to the scalper and the ticketing agency.’ 

‘Anyone who’s bought a concert ticket in the last decade, maybe 20 years, no matter what your politics are, knows it is a conundrum,’ Kid Rock said Monday. ‘If you buy a ticket for 100 bucks by the time you check it out, it’s 170. You don’t know what you can charge for it, but more importantly, these bots you know, they come in to get all the good tickets to your favorite shows you want to go to, and then they’re relisted immediately for sometimes a 4 or 500% markup.’ 

Kid Rock explained that the artists ‘don’t see any of that money.’ 

President Trump, upon signing the order, said that the move is ‘a big step to getting this stopped.’ 

In a statement late Monday, Live Nation said it supports the president’s action: ”Scalpers and bots prevent fans from getting tickets at the prices artists set, and we thank President Trump for taking them head-on. We support any meaningful resale reforms — including more enforcement of the BOTS act, caps on resale prices, and more.’

Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino posted on X, thanking President Trump and Kid Rock for ‘taking ticket-scalping head on.’

A Palestinian man protesting Hamas, the terror group that rules the Gaza Strip, was fatally tortured, with his body left on his family’s doorstep as a warning to others who are thinking of publicly opposing the organization. 

Uday Al Rabay, 22, was beaten and died after participating in an anti-Hamas protest in the Palestinian territories last week, said a senior officer affiliated with the opposition Fatah party, The New York Post reported.

‘Uday was martyred by the criminals of Hamas. And what’s his crime? He told the truth, because he refused to be silent on injustice, because he did not kneel to Hamas,’ said Mazen Shat, a police officer linked to Fatah, to the Telegraph.

Rabay was targeted allegedly after pictures purportedly of him were shared on the Telegram messaging app. He was allegedly kidnapped after the protest last week. 

‘Hamas is oppressing people in a brutal way,’ Shat said. ‘Like a puppy [with] a rope around his neck, they dragged [Uday’s body] to the door of his house and told his family that this is the punishment for those who complain about Hamas.’

Protests against Hamas happened in Gaza after Israel resumed its bombing of the territory following the collapse of a two-month ceasefire between Hamas and the Jewish state. 

Israel has bombarded Gaza since, prompted backlash against Hamas. 

‘People have been under Israeli bombing since October 2023, they don’t want the war to continue by all means,’ said Sam Habeeb, a London-based Gazan, to the Telegraph.

Protesters have called for Hamas to be removed from power.

‘The people do not want the rule of Hamas. The rule of Hamas is over,’ a protester said, according to the Akron Jewish News. ‘This Hamas rule has destroyed us, killed us and displaced all the people.’