New polling shows former President Trump has a 9-point lead over Vice President Kamala Harris when it comes to handling the economy, the single most important issue for voters going into the 2024 presidential election.

The new poll from Gallup found that 54% of Americans say Trump is more capable of handling the economy, compared to 45% for Harris. The economy ranked as the most important issue for Republicans and for all Americans, but it didn’t rate in the top five for Democrats.

Veteran Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf says Democrats are simply confident in Harris’ plan to handle the economy.

‘Independents are looking for a reason to vote for a candidate, but they just haven’t found it yet,’ Sheinkopf told Fox News Digital in an interview. ‘Americans focus on the issue most important to them in every election. This time it’s their pockets. And they are still feeling pain no matter what candidates say. Time is running out for Harris to prove she can make it better.’

He went on to argue that the economy is no less politicized an issue as immigration or abortion, suggesting polarization has an outsized impact on voter’s opinions on the economy. 

For Republicans, the top issues after the economy are immigration, terrorism and national security, crime and taxes.

For Democrats, the top issue is democracy in the U.S., followed by the type of Supreme Court justices a candidate would pick, abortion, health care and education.

Trump also holds leads over Harris on immigration (54%-45%) and foreign affairs (52%-47%). Harris holds her own leads on the top issues for Democrats, however, including health care (54%-44%), abortion (56%-40%) and climate change (61%-35%).

Climate change ranks as the least important issue for Republicans, with just 5% saying it is a priority. The least important issues for Democrats are the federal budget deficit and trade with other nations, both tied at 16%.

Gallup conducted the poll from Sept. 16-28, surveying 941 registered voters via telephone interviews on cellphones and landlines. The poll advertises a margin of error of 4%.

A New York Times/Siena College survey released on Tuesday found that Harris has a slight lead over Trump in a national poll. The survey found that Harris stands at 49% support among likely voters nationwide, with the former president and GOP nominee at 46%.

According to the poll, Harris stands at 47% and Trump at 44% in a multi-candidate field. Green Party candidate Jill Stein and Libertarian Chase Oliver each grabbed 1%, with roughly 7% supporting another candidate or undecided.

Harris’ edge – which is within the survey’s sampling error – is up from the New York Times/Siena poll from last month, when the two major party nominees were deadlocked at 47%.

Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser and Ashley Papa contributed to this report

In a five-year span, thousands of minors had gender reassignment surgeries, puberty blockers or hormone treatments at a number of children’s hospitals and medical facilities across the country, a medical watchdog is reporting via their new national database.

Do No Harm, a national advocacy group of medical professionals against ‘woke’ hospital agendas, shared the database, called ‘Does My Hospital Transition Kids?’, with Fox News Digital this week. In total, the group conservatively identified 5,747 minor patients who received sex-change surgery, and 13,994 received some sort of gender reassignment treatment between 2019 and 2023.

The data, de-identified to meet HIPAA compliance rules, shows nearly $120 million total in charges for treatments like sex change surgeries and hormone blockers. 

‘This is a very, very important issue, and it’s a very important issue to get right,’ Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, Do No Harm’s chairman, said in a press conference this week. 

‘And I think, as you’ll hear, we’ve really been meticulous in trying to make sure that the data are as clear as possible and are as accurate as possible. And because of that, you’re going to find that, if anything, we’re showing the lower limits of what’s going on in this whole arena,’ he said.

‘And to be certain that we’re not overstating it one iota, we’re probably, and almost certainly, understating the nature of the problem,’ he added.

Researchers analyzed insurance claims from private insurance companies, Medicaid and Medicare, excluding data from Kaiser, self-pay and charity care. They also profiled 68 children’s hospitals across the country and identified what they called the ‘Dirty Dozen’ institutions, which is a ‘list of the 12 worst-offending children’s hospitals promoting sex change treatments for minors,’ according to the new website.

The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) was identified as number one, followed by the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, Children’s Minnesota, Seattle Children’s, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Boston Children’s Hospital, Rady Children’s Hospital, Children’s National Medical Center, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland, Children’s Hospital Colorado, UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

According to the data, there are massive differences state by state, particularly in more liberal areas.

In California, charges exceeded $28 million from over 2,000 minor patients, while Massachusetts saw around $10 million in expenses from 671 minor patients. New York also had one of the highest rates of transgender treatments for young people, with 1,154 minor patients undergoing sex changes between 2019 and 2023.

California, one of the first states to declare itself a ‘sanctuary state’ for transgender procedures, also had the most irreversible surgeries, with 1,359 minors undergoing surgical procedures, followed by Oregon with 357, Washington with 330, Pennsylvania with 316 and Massachusetts with 300.

‘Adults can do as they wish, but we feel very strongly that the science behind using these treatments in children is extraordinarily flawed and suggests that children are being harmed in that sense. One of the important issues is to develop some quantitative notion of what’s really happening in this arena,’ Goldfarb said. ‘And there are lots of myths that are out there, lots of ideas that this is a rare event, lots of ideas that this is localized to just a few places.’

Activist and detransitioner Chloe Cole, who underwent a double mastectomy at 15 years old and put on puberty blockers and testosterone at age 13, said the new database ‘proves the lies from the medical establishment and radical politicians who argue that cases like mine are rare.’

‘The stats in this database represent thousands of kids who are being treated like Guinea pigs for unproven, and sometimes dangerous, medical experiments. I hope politicians and parents alike use this database to see where these treatments are happening and protect their children from being rushed into irreversible, life-altering treatments,’ Cole said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital.

Some of the listed hospitals’ board members have openly advocated for transgender youth care over the years. CHOP also has a specific Gender and Sexuality Development Program department, which ‘supports children and teens up to age 21 who are gender nonconforming, gender expansive and transgender,’ according to its website.

Madeline Bell, president and chief operating officer of CHOP, affirmed at the time of the department’s launch in 2014 the hospital’s commitment to providing ‘culturally competent and affirming healthcare’ to LGBT patients and their families.

‘This is a tremendous honor that reflects CHOP’s dedication to provide culturally competent and affirming healthcare to our LGBT patients and families,’ Bell stated.

In June 2019, president of the American Board of Pediatrics, Dr. David Nichols, emphasized the increasing need for ‘specialized healthcare’ for the growing transgender youth population during the release of the 30th edition of the ‘KIDS COUNT Data Book,’ published by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. This annual report provides a comprehensive review of child well-being in the U.S.

‘We have a growing transgender youth population that is receiving healthcare, and the pediatric community has had to adapt to that with clinics and programs to care for these kids. This was not something that existed 30 years ago when ‘KIDS COUNT’ first started,’ Nichols said. 

Pressure from conservative politicians and activists has been mounting in recent years against medical providers who conduct transgender surgical procedures on children. Last month, a group of attorneys general across the country demanded that the American Academy of Pediatrics rescind its support for transgender procedures – such as puberty blockers and surgeries – on children. 

The database is just another tool to ‘expose the dangers of experimental pediatric gender medicine and bring the practice to an end,’ Do No Harm stated in a news release. 

For a year now, freeing the hostages taken by Hamas has been a top goal for Israel, but 101 still remain unaccounted for. Hope of a deal to get them homein the foreseeable future is waning quickly. 

Of the 240 people taken hostage from Israel by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, 117 have either been freed during temporary truces or rescued during Israel Defense Forces (IDF) missions. Dozens of the 101 who have not been freed are believed to be dead. 

Four Americans – Keith Siegel, 65, Sagui Dekel-Chen, 36, Omer Neutra, 22, and Edan Alexander, 21 – remain trapped among them.  

Many hostage families have lost faith in the U.S. and Israeli governments. ‘We don’t believe that Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu’s priority is to bring home the hostages,’ Hannaha Siegel, Keith Siegel’s niece, told CNN on Monday. 

‘The ability to negotiate with [Hamas Leader Yaya] Sinwar to try to get the hostages that remain alive out is extremely unlikely,’ said Mark Schwartz, a retired Army general and former U.S. security coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

‘There’s no strategic benefit at all for Hamas. The hostages are useful human shields and getting several hundred Palestinians out of prisons, big deal,’ he said, referring to a potential prisoner exchange. ‘That’s not going to extend the life of Hamas leadership that resides inside Gaza.’ 

President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have for months implored Netanyahu to agree to a cease-fire deal that would see the hostages returned home. 

However, as war spread from Gaza to Lebanon to Tel Aviv – and with Israel considering an aggressive response to Iran’s most recent missile attack – U.S. calls for a cease-fire increasingly rattle around an empty echo chamber. 

‘The mood is poor right now,’ said Michael Makovsky, president of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America.

‘What’s in Sinwar’s interest to make a deal? Hamas’ military capability is pretty much destroyed. I don’t think he thinks he’s ever going to get out alive. I don’t think he necessarily wants to leave Gaza alive anyway.’

Sinwar, Hamas’ shadowy leader and the architect of the Oct. 7 attacks, is believed to be alive and still committed to the destruction of Israel. 

On the eve of the anniversary of the attacks, Netanyahu held his first meeting on the plight of the hostages in a month. According to The Times of Israel, his officials warned him intel on the hostages was quickly drying up. They reportedly told him they believed half of the hostages remained alive and were subject to increasingly squalid conditions. They also warned that Hamas militants were under orders to execute them if they felt the IDF was closing in on their position. 

Hamas executed six hostages in a tunnel in Rafah in August as the IDF drew near. 

‘You want to hold out hope for someone to be rescued, but for a hostage deal, it’s not looking good,’ said Makovsky. 

‘I think Netanyahu should have demonstrated more sympathy towards the hostages early on, and then it became kind of entrenched that half the Israeli electorate didn’t like him anyway, so he didn’t care.

‘In fairness to him, he was the prime minister that cut what turned out to be a terrible deal – which they released over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners – for one Israeli hostage in Gaza,’ added Makovsky. ‘One of those prisoners was Sinwar.’

In 2011, Israel agreed to an exchange where it released 1,027 Palestinian prisoners – including Sinwar – for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Sinwar was 22 years into four life sentences he received in Israel for orchestrating the killing of two Israeli soldiers and four Palestinians he believed to be collaborators in 1989. 

Gershon Baskin, who led negotiations on that deal, said he believes Hamas is ready to strike an agreement – and it is not the one U.S. officials have worked on for months. 

‘It would end the war in three weeks with an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. They would release and return all the hostages, military, civilian, alive and dead, and there would be an agreed-upon release of Palestinian prisoners. Hamas has agreed to me in writing that they would transfer the governance in Gaza to a civilian, technocratic, professional government, which they will not be part of.’ 

Critics of such ideas say they fall short of eliminating Hamas, which could rebuild itself and once again threaten Israel.

Baskin does not work on behalf of Israel or Hamas in any official capacity, but he said U.S. officials are aware of the offer and need to pressure Netanyahu and Hamas to work it out between themselves. 

In May, Biden unveiled a three-phase deal that would see Hamas return 18–32 hostages in exchange for 800 Palestinian prisoners and a six-week pause in fighting. 

‘It’s a bad deal, and I know that the American leadership – [CIA Director Bill] Burns and [White House Middle East coordinator Brett] McGurk and others have invested themselves deeply in these negotiations, but they need to simply recognize that it’s not going anywhere,’ Baskin said. ‘It’s a dead deal, and they need to pick up another deal that might actually work.’ 

Efforts to reach the White House and the Israeli government for comment for purposes of this story were unsuccessful at press time. 

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant canceled a visit with Pentagon officials scheduled for Wednesday, amid a rapid escalation of the Israel-Hamas war in the Middle East.

Deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters during a briefing Tuesday that the Pentagon was informed Gallant had postponed his trip to Washington, D.C.

‘Minister Gallant was traveling to the U.S. and the secretary welcomed him to the Pentagon to host him here for a bilateral meeting,’ Singh said. ‘

One reporter asked Singh about reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked Gallant not to go to Washington, which Singh said she was aware of, but preferred to stay out of Israeli politics.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, she noted, has a ‘great relationship’ with Gallant, and the two have spoken in the neighborhood of 80 times.

‘The remain in constant communication, whether it be an in-person meeting here, or, you know, meetings, phone calls that need to be done remote,’ Singh explained. ‘That relationship still maintains and can be done…at any time, any place in the world…’

When asked if there were tensions between Austin and Gallant, Singh pushed back.

‘I don’t think there’s tension,’ she said. ‘You can have direct conversations with your friends. You’re not always going to agree on everything, but that doesn’t mean that there’s tensions.’

During an exchange with Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst on Sunday, Gallant promised that Israeli forces are considering all options in terms of its response to Iran’s attacks against Israel — even potentially striking Iranian nuclear sites.

The interview came days after Israel invaded Lebanon as part of a mission to eliminate Hezbollah, on the heels of several successful strikes against the terrorist group. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed that it had killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah last weekend — prompting Iran to launch 181 retaliatory missiles in response.

‘At the moment, everything is on the table,’ the Israeli official said. ‘Israel will respond to the unprecedented Iranian attack in the manner of our choosing, and at the time and place of our choosing.’

President Biden told reporters last week that he would not support a strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities, but said Israel had the right to act ‘proportionately’ to Iran. On Saturday, Vice President Kamala Harris vowed to send $157 million of ‘additional assistance’ to Lebanon, which, she claimed, is ‘facing an increasingly dire humanitarian situation.’

Amid the White House’s response to the IDF’s recent strikes, Gallant emphasized that he hopes the United States continues to cooperate with the Israeli military.

‘It is important for us to hold discussions on strategic cooperation between our countries and defense cooperation in light of the threats posed by Iran and its proxies,’ Gallant said. ‘We are powerful when we are aligned, and I want to make sure of it.’

Fox News Digital’s Andrea Margolis, Trey Yingst, Greg Norman, Stephen Sorace and Michael Lee contributed to this report.

A group that has labeled Vice President Harris a ‘pro-genocide candidate’ has endorsed third-party presidential candidate Jill Stein in the 2024 contest.

The ‘Abandon Harris’ campaign says America, as well as presidential candidates Harris and former President Trump, is supporting an ‘Israeli project of Palestinian annihilation’ and urges Muslim Americans and those who oppose genocide to cast their ballot for the Green Party this year.

‘In October 2023, under the darkening shadow of the U.S.-backed Israeli project of Palestinian annihilation, the Abandon Harris campaign – formerly Abandon Biden – was born. Our movement remains dedicated to ensuring that the American people, especially the Muslim-American community, recognize the responsibility we share in standing up against oppression and using all our power to stop genocide – wherever it may arise,’ the group declared in a press release.

‘We are confronting two destructive forces: one currently overseeing a genocide and another equally committed to continuing it. Both are determined to see it through. We call on Muslim-Americans and all those who stand firmly against genocide to vote for the Green Party in 2024,’ the press release states.

Stein has expressed her gratitude to the group and its support of her candidacy.

The Abandon Harris campaign says on its website that its ‘current goal is to hold Harris accountable for her continued support of genocide.’

‘It’s painfully obvious that Kamala Harris can only sound articulate and firm when parroting US support for Israel,’ the group wrote in an August post on X. ‘She fumbles through everything else, but when it comes to endorsing the killing of Palestinians, she suddenly finds a pristine level of eloquence,’ the post added.

Israel launched a war effort last year in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks perpetrated by Hamas terrorists who committed atrocities that included rapes, kidnappings and murders.

‘What Hamas did that day was pure evil – it was brutal and sickening,’ Harris said in a statement marking the one-year anniversary of the attack on Monday. ‘I will do everything in my power to ensure that the threat Hamas poses is eliminated, that it is never again able to govern Gaza, that it fails in its mission to annihilate Israel, and that the people of Gaza are free from the grip of Hamas,’ she declared in the statement.

‘Hamas’s terrorist attack on October 7 launched a war in Gaza. I am heartbroken over the scale of death and destruction in Gaza over the past year – tens of thousands of lives lost, children fleeing for safety over and over again, mothers and fathers struggling to obtain food, water, and medicine. It is far past time for a hostage and ceasefire deal to end the suffering of innocent people. And I will always fight for the Palestinian people to be able to realize their right to dignity, freedom, security, and self-determination,’ Harris said in the statement.

President Joe Biden praised GOP Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for being ‘cooperative’ and doing a ‘great job’ in his response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton, despite Vice President Kamala Harris slamming DeSantis for ‘playing political games’ instead of doing his job in response to the storms.

NBC News reported Monday that DeSantis was denying phone calls from Harris’ team. ‘People are in desperate need of support right now and playing political games with this moment, in these crisis situations, these are the height of emergency situations, it’s just utterly irresponsible, and it is selfish,’ Harris told reporters Monday. 

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, President Joe Biden’s opinion about the GOP Florida governor’s response to Hurricane Helene and his preparation for Milton, diverged substantially from that of his vice president’s. 

‘The governor of Florida has been cooperative. He said he’s gotten all that he needs. I talked to him again yesterday, and I said – no – you’re doing a great job, it’s all being done well and we thank you for it,’ Biden said at a press conference from the White House Tuesday. ‘There was a rough start in some places, but every governor, every governor – from Florida to North Carolina – has been fully cooperative and supportive.’

After a DeSantis staffer told NBC on Monday that the Florida governor had chosen not to take the vice president’s call, DeSantis later clarified that he was never even aware Harris was trying to contact him. 

DeSantis also shot back at Harris’ claims that he was playing politics with the storm, accusing her of being the actual culprit of engaging in political gamesmanship.  

‘I’ve worked on these hurricanes under both President Trump and President Biden. Neither of them ever tried to politicize it. She has never called on any of the storms we’ve had since she’s been vice president until apparently now,’ DeSantis told ‘Fox & Friends’ Tuesday morning following reports of the vice president’s criticism. ‘Why, all of the sudden, is she trying to parachute in and inject herself when she’s never shown any interest in the past? We know it’s because of politics, we know it’s because of her campaign.’

‘Harris is not even in the chain of command. She has no role in this,’ DeSantis added. ‘The idea that I should be, like, worrying about her when I’m focused on the task at hand is just quite frankly absurd.’

Biden, who has had multiple phone calls with DeSantis since Hurricane Helene began barreling down on the Southeast, told him and Tampa Mayor Jane Castor to ‘call him directly’ if any further support is needed. DeSantis, meanwhile, noted Tuesday morning that ‘every’ one of his federal requests for more support have been answered.  

DeSantis pointed out as well that, at the state level, he has been reallocating resources as necessary to help Florida’s smaller communities that have fewer resources. 

Gov. DeSantis’ office declined to comment to Fox News Digital on the record, but pointed to the governor’s comments on both ‘Fox & Friends’ and ‘Hannity,’ respectively. Fox News Digital also reached out to the Harris campaign for comment, but did not receive a response in advance of publication time. 

As Florida continues to clean up the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, it is now preparing for a potentially even worse storm in Hurricane Milton and is calling on millions of residents to evacuate.

‘Helene was a wake-up call – this is literally catastrophic,’ Castor said Tuesday. ‘And I can say without any dramatization whatsoever: If you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you are going to die.’

The Supreme Court offered clear support Tuesday for continued federal regulation of so-called ‘ghost guns’ that can be assembled from kits into a working firearm without a background check or the usual serial numbers.

At issue in oral arguments was whether the devices meet the federal definition of a ‘firearm’ and ‘frame and receiver,’ and whether the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) exceeded its authority to regulate and enforce their sale.

Ghost guns are do-it-yourself functional weapons that are often purchased online, and marketed by some sellers as easy to assemble.

The Justice Department said more than 19,000 hard-to-trace ghost guns were seized by law enforcement in 2021, a more than tenfold increase in just five years.

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That was driven in part by recent technological advances, many containing polymer-based unassembled firearm components.

Final home assembly typically requires the use of some readily available tools, including drilling holes and milling or sanding the unfinished frame or receiver, which enable the installation of parts.

U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar said the rising sale of untraceable ‘ghost guns’ had created a ‘public safety crisis’ with an ‘explosion’ of crimes committed using them.

Several justices in the 75-minute argument appeared to back much of the Biden administration’s arguments, suggesting nearly complete parts meet the ordinary definition of a firearm subject to regulation.

‘What is the purpose of selling a receiver without the holes drilled in it?’ said Chief Justice John Roberts, rejecting suggestions the kits were marketed at the weekend gun hobbyist. ‘Drilling a hole or two, I would think, doesn’t give the same sort of reward that you get from working on your car on the weekends. My understanding is that it’s not terribly difficult for someone to do this.’

Justice Brett Kavanaugh — who could be the key deciding vote — raised concerns someone ignorant of the law might inadvertently sell or buy a ghost gun kit.

‘What about the seller, for example, who is truly not aware, truly not aware that they are violating the law and gets criminally charged?’

But Kavanaugh also signaled some backing of the government’s position, telling Prelogar, ‘Your statutory interpretation has force.’

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The 1968 Gun Control Act was revised in 2022 to regulate the growing market for certain ‘buy build shoot’ kits.

The law defines a ‘firearm’ to include ‘any weapon… which will or is designed to or may readily be converted to expel a projectile by the action of an explosive,’ as well as ‘the frame or receiver of any such weapon.’

The administration said it was not seeking to ban the sale or use of these kits, merely requiring them to comply with the same requirements of other commercial firearms dealers. That includes serial numbers on the parts and background checks on the purchasers.

A federal appeals court late last year struck down the updated rules, after a legal challenge from kit sellers and buyers, but the Justice Department appealed to the Supreme Court.

Gun rights groups say that the rule is ‘unconstitutional and abusive,’ arguing the ghost gun kits consist of ‘non-firearm objects.’

Attorney Peter Patterson said only Congress can change the law over ghost gun regulations and added that 42 of 43 unlicensed manufacturers of the kits would be driven out of business if the rules go fully into effect.

The devices can also be made from 3D printers or from individual parts. That is part of separate legal challenges in the lower courts.

 SCOTUS kicks off historic term under scrutiny amid ethics code debate

In oral arguments, the high court wrestled with questions about the ease of assembling a ‘ghost gun’ from a kit, and whether judges should even be involved in the matter.

‘I’m worried about… the Court taking over what Congress may have intended for the agency to do in this situation,’ said Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. ‘I think it can’t be assumed that the agency exceeds its authority whenever it interprets a statutory term differently than we would such that all we have to do as a part of this claim here today is just decide what we think a firearm is.’

But others on the court questioned whether a bunch of unassembled parts really made them into a gun.

‘Here’s a blank pad and here’s a pen, all right? Is this a grocery list?’ asked Justice Samuel Alito.  ‘If I show you — I put out on a counter some eggs, some chopped-up ham, some chopped-up pepper, and onions. Is that a western omelet?’

Justice Amy Coney Barrett then appeared to blunt Alito’s argument, focusing on do-it-yourself kits.

‘Would your answer change if you ordered it from HelloFresh, and you got a kit, and it was like turkey chili, but all of the ingredients are in the kit?’ she asked, mentioning the ready-to-cook meal kits delivery service.

Barrett also appeared skeptical of the legal alternatives to the ATF rules, proposed by Patterson, the lawyer representing the gun rights supporters.

‘It seems a little made up,’ she said.

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Prelogar claimed the new rules had led to a dramatic drop in the online sales of the ready-to-assemble weapons.

The ATF’s rule requires unfinished parts of a firearm, like the frame of a handgun or the receiver of a long gun, to be treated like a completed firearm. These parts need to be licensed and must have serial numbers.

The rule also requires manufacturers to run background checks before selling these parts, as they are required to do for whole commercial firearms.

The Supreme Court had previously allowed the regulation to remain in effect while the lawsuit continued through the courts, with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett voting with the three liberal members of the court to form the majority.

The justices have been revisiting the Second Amendment in recent years, after the conservative majority in 2022 made it easier to carry handguns outside the home for protection.

In June, a federal ban on bump stocks, devices that can convert semi-automatic rifles into weapons that can fire hundreds of rounds a minute, was struck down by the high court.

But that same month, the justices upheld a federal ban on firearms possession for people subject to certain domestic violence restraining orders.

The case is Garland v. VanDerStok (23-852). A ruling is expected by summer 2025. 

Vice President Kamala Harris had harsh words for Iran in an interview Monday evening as she said the regime is America’s biggest foe. 

In a sit-down with CBS’ ’60 Minutes,’ the Democratic presidential nominee was asked to name the U.S.’s greatest foreign adversary. ‘I think there’s an obvious one in mind, which is Iran. Iran has American blood on their hands.’

‘This attack on Israel, 200 ballistic missiles. What we need to do to ensure that Iran never achieves the ability to be a nuclear power. That is one of my highest priorities.’

Harris declined to say whether she would take military action if given proof that Iran is building a nuclear weapon.

‘I’m not going to talk about hypotheticals at this moment,’ she told Bill Whitaker.

The suggestion that Iran was the greatest U.S. adversary raised some eyebrows — as China is thought by many to be foe No. 1. 

‘Iran is our biggest adversary, not China?,’ Mary Kissel, former adviser to ex-Sec. of State Mike Pompeo, wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. 

‘Harris is completely clueless for claiming that Iran is America’s greatest adversary rather than China,’ former Trump adviser Steve Cortes said. 

‘Really? It’s not Russia? It’s not China? A middle power is America’s greatest adversary?’ Iranian nuclear researcher Sina Azodi questioned. 

Harris also defended U.S. aid to Israel — at a time when many liberals are calling on her to halt that aid or put conditions on it amid the rising death tolls across Gaza and Lebanon. 

‘The aid that we have given Israel allowed Israel to defend itself against 200 ballistic missiles that were just meant to attack the Israelis and the people of Israel,’ she said. 

Harris highlighted threats from ‘Hamas, Hezbollah… Iran,’ asserting it is ‘without any question our imperative to do what we can to allow Israel to defend itself against those kinds of attacks.’

Still, she held out hope that Israel and its enemies could get to a ceasefire deal. 

‘The work that we do diplomatically with the leadership of Israel is an ongoing pursuit around making clear our principles, which include the need for humanitarian aid, the need for this war to end, the need for a deal to be done, which would release the hostages and create a ceasefire.’ She added, ‘We’re not going to stop in terms of putting that pressure on Israel and in the region, including Arab leaders.’

‘China is the far greater threat just about, I think, everyone’s estimation,’ said Rob Greenway, a former Trump aide and senior director of the National Security Council. ‘If you really do view Iran as a threat, then the behavior they’ve made makes absolutely no sense.’

Former President Donald Trump has blamed President Joe Biden and Harris for loosening sanctions on Iran, which he said made the U.S. adversary ‘very rich in a very short period,’ and prompted the turmoil that began with the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023.

During a rally last week, Trump tore into the September 2023 prisoner exchange between the U.S. and Iran that facilitated a detainee swap in Qatar and resulted in the release of $6 billion in frozen Iranian assets from oil sales. 

‘If they have somebody who was kidnapped, it’s always $6 billion. Whoever heard of that?’ Trump said. ‘Somebody else gets like $4,000.’

Iran said it had reached a ‘good understanding’ to access the money from a Qatari bank account on Monday.

The Biden administration, meanwhile, has long claimed it has not rolled back sanctions on Iran. But ‘it’s not enforcing any sanctions,’ according to Greenway. Iran is now bringing in nearly $36 billion per year from oil sales.

Last week, Iran rained down 200 missiles toward Tel Aviv, many of them intercepted by both Israeli Defense Forces and U.S. capabilities. Though Iran’s proxies have long attacked both Israeli and U.S. postures, it was the regime’s first direct attack on Israel since April. 

Harris was sharply critical of Trump for pulling out of the Iran deal in 2018. President Joe Biden campaigned on returning to the deal, but failed to do so in office. 

‘[Iran] made a tremendous amount of money. They have had doors opened by the U.S. administration,’ Greenway said. 

The Trump administration’s policies ‘brought them to the brink of financial collapse.’ 

After Biden rolled back sanctions on Iran, the regime went from 500 centrifuges needed to make a nuclear bomb to 7,000. It went from 5% enriched uranium to 60% (90% is needed for a nuclear weapon.) It went from exporting 400,000 barrels of oil per day in 2019 under the Trump administration’s harsh sanctions to 1.7 million barrels per day today.

Reports also suggest renewed activity in two nuclear weaponization sites in Iran – Sanjarian and Golab Dareh.

Last week, Biden warned Israel to make sure its response to the Iranian missile attacks was ‘proportional,’ and urged them not to go after Iranian nuclear facilities.

Trump on Friday said Israel should go after the nuclear facilities.

While speaking at a campaign event in Fayetteville, North Carolina, he said when Biden was asked about Israel attacking Iran, the president answered, ‘’As long as they don’t hit the nuclear stuff.’ That’s the thing you wanna hit, right? I said, ‘I think he’s got that one wrong. Isn’t that what you’re supposed to hit?’’

He added nuclear proliferation is the ‘biggest risk we have.’ 

Trump said when Biden was asked about Israel and Iran: ‘His answer should have been: ‘Hit the nuclear first. Worry about the rest later.”