Pope Leo XIV has saidthe Catholic Church must establish a culture that refuses to tolerate abuse in “any form,” as he thanked a Peruvian journalist for reporting on allegations of abuse inside a powerful Catholic group.
Leo’s remarks, the first he has made publicly on the church’s abuse scandals since his election to the papacy on May 8, were contained in a message sent for the performance of a play which dramatizes the work of an investigative journalist, Paola Ugaz, who has faced a long campaign of legal actions and death threats due to her reporting.
“It is urgent to ingrain throughout the Church a culture of prevention that does not tolerate any form of abuse — neither of power or authority, nor of conscience or spirituality, nor sexual,” Leo wrote in a message read on 20 June. “This culture will only be authentic if it is born of active vigilance, transparent processes, and sincere listening to those who have been hurt.”
The pope said the work of journalism was essential to implementing that culture of prevention, as he praised Ugaz and other Peruvian journalists for their reporting on abuse scandals inside the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (Sodality of Christian Life, or SCV), a hugely influential Catholic society which had deep ties to Peru’s powerful and wealthy.
Pope Leo, who spent years working as a missionary and bishop in Peru, came face-to-face with the SCV case when working in the country with Ugaz, and several survivors have said he was crucial in ensuring action was taken against the now dissolved group.
In his message, the first American pope said it was vital the church followed “a concrete path of humility, truth, and reparation” when it came to tackling abuses and cited a landmark 2018 letter from Pope Francis, in which he pledged the church’s “commitment to guarantee the protection of minors and vulnerable adults”. Leo insisted that the response to abuse cannot simply be a “strategy” but requires a “conversion” by the church, which for decades has been grappling with devastating revelations of sexual abuse by priests and other church leaders.
The pope’s praise of journalists’ work in exposing abuse scandals is significant, given that some bishops have in the past criticized the media for its reporting on them. Leo XIV, however, said the journalists who had reported on the Sodalitium had done so with “courage, patience, and fidelity to the truth” and had faced “unjust attacks.”
The pope said the church recognized the “wound” in “so many children, young people, and adults who were betrayed where they sought solace” and “those who risked their freedom and their (good) names so that the truth would not be buried.”
The June 20 message from Leo was read at a performance in Lima, Peru, of the play “Proyecto Ugaz” (Project Ugaz), which highlights Ugaz’s years-long investigation into the Sodalitium. Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu, one of the Vatican investigators into the Sodalitium group, read out the message with Ugaz on stage alongside him.
The work of journalists is vital, Leo insisted, in ensuring the church is a place where “no one suffers in silence” and where “the truth is not seen as a threat, but as a path to liberation. He praised Ugaz and fellow journalists for their courage in exposing the abuses.
Pope Leo also referenced “tensions” in Peru, which have been heightened following the removal of President Pedro Castillo in 2022, and he underlined the importance of a free media in a country where journalists have faced intimidation and attacks.
“In this time of profound institutional and social tensions, defending free and ethical journalism is not only an act of justice, but a duty of all those who yearn for a solid and participatory democracy,” he said. “Wherever a journalist is silenced, the democratic soul of a country is weakened. Freedom of the press is an inalienable common good. Those who conscientiously exercise this vocation cannot see their voices silenced by petty interests or fear of the truth.”
A few days after his election, the pope met media representatives in the Vatican and during that gathering he stressed his support for a free press and called for the release of imprisoned journalists. Ugaz was among those present at the meeting, and after his speech she greeted Leo with a broad smile, as she handed him a box of chocolates and a Peruvian scarf.
That meeting with the media, Leo explained in his message on June 20, affirmed the “sacred mission” of journalists to “become bridges between the facts and the conscience of the people.”
A meticulously planned meal prepared in the home of an alleged killer is at the heart of a triple murder trial that’s nearing its dramatic conclusion in rural Australia.
For eight weeks, audiences have been glued to daily news reports and podcasts on an unusual case that alleges the world’s most toxic mushroom was used to kill.
A jury will soon decide if Erin Patterson, a 50-year-old mother of two, deliberately added death cap, or amanita phalloides, mushrooms to a Beef Wellington lunch she made for her estranged husband’s parents and his aunt and uncle in July 2023.
Three guests died within days of the meal, while a fourth recovered after spending several weeks in an induced coma. Patterson denies three counts of murder and one of attempted murder.
The prosecution and defense agree death cap mushrooms were in the meal.
The question is, how did they get there?
During eight days of testimony at Latrobe Valley Magistrates’ Court, Patterson acknowledged she repeatedly lied to police, dumped a dehydrator used to dry mushrooms, and reset her phone to delete images of mushrooms and the dehydrator from devices seized by investigators.
But she said she did not intend to kill.
Explaining her lies, Patterson told the jury she had a “stupid knee-jerk reaction to just dig deeper and keep lying.”
“I was just scared,” she said.
Defense lawyer Colin Mandy SC said Patterson accidentally added foraged mushrooms to the meal, along with ones she bought from an Asian grocer in Melbourne.
“What happened was a tragedy and a terrible accident,” he said.
In his closing arguments, Mandy said the prosecution’s case was based on “ridiculous” propositions, including that Patterson “would intend to kill these four people, blowing her entire life up in the process without a motive.”
The prosecution doesn’t need to prove a motive. But it does need to convince the 12-member jury beyond reasonable doubt that Patterson intended to kill the two elderly couples – including her children’s grandparents – and that she deliberately picked death cap mushrooms to do it.
A sumptuous lunch of Beef Wellington
On the morning of July 29, 2023, the smell of frying garlic and shallots likely filled Patterson’s kitchen in the small town of Leongatha in rural Victoria.
She was preparing a meal for two older married couples – Don and Gail Patterson and Heather and Ian Wilkinson.
Don and Gail were the parents of Erin’s estranged husband Simon. Heather and Ian were his aunt and uncle. Gail and Heather were sisters, and Ian the pastor of their local church.
The two couples lived close by in Korumburra, a country town home to fewer than 5,000 people in the scenic hills of southern Victoria.
Erin had asked Simon to come to the lunch, too, but he pulled out the night before, writing in a text that he felt “too uncomfortable” to attend.
Their relationship had become increasingly strained over finances and the children’s schooling, and he was living elsewhere, the court heard.
Erin told the jury she was “a bit hurt and a bit stressed” by Simon’s message, but the lunch went ahead the next day as planned. Patterson said she had started feeling left out of family gatherings and wanted to make more of an effort.
She said she chose to cook Beef Wellington because she remembered her mother preparing the meal for special occasions. It was Patterson’s first attempt at the dish, and she wanted to get it right.
To the garlic and shallots, she added store-bought button mushrooms that she had chopped up in a processor, before simmering the mixture on low for 45 minutes, she said.
The paste was used to coat the steaks, which she wrapped in pastry and baked in the oven.
The prosecution alleges she prepared poisoned parcels for her guests and reserved an untainted one for herself. Patterson insists she made just one batch.
An unexpected invitation
In the witness box, Ian Wilkinson, the only surviving lunch guest, told the court he’d been surprised but “very happy” to accept Patterson’s lunch invitation.
The 71-year-old said his relationship with Erin was “friendly” and “amicable.” He’d been a guest at her wedding in 2007 but considered her more of an acquaintance than a close friend.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Patterson helped to broadcast his church services on YouTube, and she attended his sermons, on and off, he said.
“She just seemed like an ordinary person,” he told the jury.
Wilkinson said he didn’t really understand why they’d been invited to lunch, but it became apparent when they’d finished eating the meal of Beef Wellington, beans and mash.
“Erin announced that she had cancer,” Wilkinson told the jury. “She said that she was very concerned because she believed it was very serious, life-threatening.”
Wilkinson said Patterson asked for advice about how to tell her children about, in her words, “the threat to my life.”
Wilkinson said Don Patterson offered some advice about being honest, but the conversation ended after about 10 minutes when one of the lunch guests noticed the children returning. Wilkinson suggested a quick prayer.
“I prayed a prayer asking God’s blessing on Erin, that she would get the treatment that she needed, that the kids would be okay, that she’d have wisdom in how she told the kids,” he testified.
Patterson had never been diagnosed with cancer, the court heard.
Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC put to Patterson on the stand: “I suggest that you never thought you would have to account for this lie about having cancer because you thought that the lunch guests would die.”
“That’s not true,” Patterson replied.
Patterson said she didn’t explicitly tell her guests that she had cancer, but acknowledged she allowed them to believe she may have a serious medical issue because she was exploring possible surgery for another problem – one that she was too embarrassed to reveal.
The secret Patterson hid for years
Patterson said she’d always been self-conscious about her weight.
As a child, her mother weighed her every week to make sure she wasn’t getting too heavy. “I never had a good relationship with food,” she said.
Since her 20s, Patterson said she would binge and purge. Around the time of the fatal lunch in July 2023, she said she was doing it two to three times a week, maybe more.
“Who knew about it?” her defense lawyer Mandy asked Patterson. “Nobody,” she said.
Patterson told the jury she had resolved to do something about her weight “once and for all,” and booked a consultation for potential gastric bypass surgery with a clinic in Melbourne in September. Evidence showed an appointment had been made.
“I didn’t want to tell anybody what I was going to have done,” Patterson told the court. “I was really embarrassed about it, so I thought perhaps letting (her in-laws) believe I had some serious issue that needed treatment might mean they’d be able to help me with the logistics around the kids,” she said.
Instead, it was her lunch guests who needed serious medical attention.
Hours after the meal Saturday, they started to become ill and went to hospital the next morning with vomiting and diarrhea, the court heard.
By Monday morning, their condition had deteriorated, and doctors arranged for their transfer to Austin Hospital, a larger facility that provides specialist liver care.
Death cap mushrooms contain toxins that stop the production of protein in liver cells and the cells begin to die, leading to possible liver failure and death.
Treatments are available, but none are 100% effective, said Dr Stephen Warrillow, director of Austin Health’s intensive care unit.
“Once the amanita poison is within the body, unfortunately the body tends to recycle it internally,” said Warrillow, who treated all four lunch guests.
Gail Patterson, 70, and Heather Wilkinson, 66, were considered too weak for a liver transplant and died on August 4 from multiple organ failure, he said. Don Patterson, 70, received a transplant but died on August 5.
Ian Wilkinson was in an induced coma on life support but responded to treatment and was eventually discharged in September.
“We thought he was going to die,” said Warrillow. “He was very close.”
Foraged mushrooms
Patterson told the court she took up foraging for mushrooms in early 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, when she would take long walks with her children in the countryside.
Native to Europe, death cap mushrooms arrived in Australia by accident, expert mycologist Tom May told the court. They grow near oak trees and only appear above ground for a couple of weeks before decaying, he said.
Most sightings in Victoria are in April and May, and some people upload photos of them to the citizen science website iNaturalist, May added.
Christine McKenzie, a retired former poisons information specialist at the Victorian Poisons Information Centre, told the court she spotted death cap mushrooms in Loch – about 28 kilometers (17 miles) from Patterson’s home – and uploaded them to iNaturalist on April 18, 2023.
She’d been out walking with her husband, grandson and dog, and said she disposed of the mushrooms to avoid accidental poisoning but conceded that more could grow.
Citing analysis of cellphone tower connections, the prosecution alleges it’s possible Patterson saw McKenzie’s post and went to the same location on April 28 to pick the mushrooms.
Store records show that within two hours of the alleged visit, Patterson bought a dehydrator, which the prosecution said she used to dry the toxic mushrooms.
Patterson concedes she bought the dehydrator, saying there is a “very small season” of availability for wild mushrooms and she wanted to preserve them, and “a whole range of things.” She denied foraging for mushrooms in Loch.
May, the fungus expert, said that on May 21, 2023, he saw death cap mushrooms growing in Outtrim, about 19 kilometers (11 miles) from Leongatha, and posted the sighting to iNaturalist.
“I don’t think I typed the street name in, but I put a very precise latitude-longitude geocode with the observation,” he said.
Prosecutors said analysis of Patterson’s cellphone movements placed her in the Outtrim region on May 22, when they say it’s possible Patterson picked the mushrooms.
The defense said broader analysis of her phone records suggests it’s possible her cellphone picked up different base-station signals within her own home. “These records are consistent with the accused never leaving the house,” said Mandy.
Patterson denied ever foraging for mushrooms in Outtrim, and said she couldn’t remember ever visiting the iNaturalist website and did not see the reported sightings.
Patterson’s explanation
On August 1, three days after the lunch, Patterson was in hospital, having been convinced by doctors to stay after earlier discharging herself against their advice.
They had impressed on her the importance of being treated for death cap mushroom poisoning because symptoms are known to worsen with time.
Her children should be there too, they said, because she said they had eaten some of the leftovers on Sunday night, albeit with the mushrooms and pastry scraped off.
It was in hospital on August 1 that Patterson said she had a conversation with Simon, her estranged husband, that made her start thinking about how toxic mushrooms had come to be in the meal.
Patterson said she told Simon that she had dried mushrooms in a dehydrator, and he replied: “Is that how you poisoned my parents, using that dehydrator?”
Erin Patterson told the jury that Simon’s comment had caused her to do “a lot of thinking about a lot of things.”
“It got me thinking about all the times that I’d used (the dehydrator), and how I had dried foraged mushrooms in it weeks earlier, and I was starting to think, what if they’d gone in the container with the Chinese mushrooms? Maybe, maybe that had happened.”
In his evidence, Simon Patterson denied ever suggesting to Erin that she poisoned his parents with the dehydrator. “I did not say that to Erin,” he said.
The next day, on August 2, Patterson dropped her children at school, then returned home, retrieved the dehydrator, and dumped it at a waste and recycling center. She was seen on closed-circuit television.
Asked about her actions, Patterson said child protection officers were due to visit her house that afternoon, and she was “scared” about having a conversation about the meal and the dehydrator.
“I was scared that they would blame me for it … for making everyone sick,” she said. “I was scared they’d remove the children,” she added.
Analysis showed remnants of death cap mushrooms in the dehydrator, the prosecution said.
Patterson acknowledged that when she dumped the dehydrator, she knew that doctors suspected death cap mushroom poisoning. She also accepted that she did not tell medical staff that foraged mushrooms may have been in the meal.
Patterson said she had diarrhea after the lunch but brushed it off as a bout of gastro. She was not as ill as her lunch guests – and during her testimony, she offered a reason why.
The orange cake
Gail Patterson had brought an orange cake to lunch to share, and Erin Patterson testified that after the guests left, she found herself eating slice, after slice, after slice.
After consuming about two-thirds of the cake, she made herself throw up, she told the court.
In her closing address, prosecutor Rogers said no evidence was offered suggesting expelling tainted food can lessen the impact of amanita toxin.
To the jury, she said, “we suggest (you) reject her evidence about vomiting after the meal as a lie.”
In his closing argument, defense lawyer Mandy asked why, if it was a lie, Patterson hadn’t been more precise about when she vomited? “She surely would have said to you that it happened as soon as the guests left, because the earlier the better,” he said to the jury.
During her testimony, Patterson also offered an explanation about how the death cap mushrooms came to be in the meal.
Patterson said she dried store-bought and foraged mushrooms in her dehydrator and would store them in plastic containers in the pantry. If one box was full, she’d start another, she said.
Patterson said that, back in April, she had bought dried mushrooms from an Asian grocer in Melbourne, but didn’t use them at the time because they were “too pungent.” Instead, she stored them in a plastic container in the pantry.
Mandy asked her: “Do you have a memory of putting wild mushrooms that you dehydrated in May or June of 2023 into a container which already contained other dried mushrooms?”
“Yes, I did do that,” Patterson said.
Patterson said that, on July 29, as she cooked the lunch, she tasted the mixture of garlic, shallots and mushrooms and decided it was “a little bland,” so she added dried mushrooms that had been stored in a plastic container in her pantry.
Mandy asked her what she had believed to be in the plastic container in the pantry.
“I believed it was just the mushrooms that I bought in Melbourne,” Patterson said.
“And now, what do you think might have been in that tub?” Mandy asked.
“Now I think that there was a possibility that there were foraged ones in there as well,” she said.
Closing arguments
The Crown contends there was no Asian grocer and that Patterson faked illness after the meal to suggest that she, too, had suffered symptoms of death cap mushroom poisoning.
Rogers alleged Patterson initially left hospital because she knew that neither she, nor her children, had consumed the poisoned lunch.
When Patterson was examined on Monday, July 31, a doctor found “no clinical or biochemical evidence of amanita poisoning or any other toxicological substance” in her system, Rogers said.
“By that stage, all four of the lunch guests were in induced comas,” she added.
Of allegations Patterson faked her illness following the lunch, Mandy said it made no sense that she’d refuse medical help and discharge herself from hospital early, if she was pretending to have eaten poisoned mushrooms.
“If you’re pretending to be sick, you’re going to be saying to the medical staff, ‘Hook me up, pump me full of drugs, I am very, very sick. Please,’” Mandy said.
Furthermore, he said it was possible to have milder symptoms of amanita poisoning, depending on how much was consumed, according to expert evidence that said weight and age were also factors.
Under cross-examination, Rogers put it to Patterson that she had two faces: A public one where she appeared to have a good relationship with her in-laws, and a private one expressed in her Facebook chat groups, where she vented to friends that she’d had enough of the family.
In messages to Facebook friends read out in court, Patterson expressed her frustration that her in-laws would not get involved in her dispute with Simon over child support.
“I’m sick of this shit I want nothing to do with them,” she wrote in December 2022. “I thought his parents would want him to do the right thing but it seems their concern about not wanting to feel uncomfortable and not wanting to get involved in their sons personal matters are overriding that so f*** em.”
And another message read: “This family I swear to f***ing god.”
Asked by her defense counsel Mandy how she felt about that statement now, an emotional Patterson said: “I wish I’d never said it … I feel ashamed for saying it, and I wish the family didn’t have to hear that I said that.
“They didn’t deserve it.”
In his closing arguments, Mandy characterized the terse exchanges as signs of a “brief spat” that was “resolved amicably.”
Mandy said there was no motive for triple murder, and that there were in fact several reasons why Patterson would not want to kill her guests. She had no money issues, lived in a big house, and had almost full-time custody of her two young children, who were very close to their grandparents, he said.
The defense argues that Patterson unknowingly picked death cap mushrooms, dried them in her dehydrator and stored them in the pantry, until the day she inadvertently threw them into the pan.
Mandy said some of the “ridiculous” propositions included that Patterson planned to kill four lunch guests and “thought it would all be passed off as some kind of strange case of gastro, where everyone died, except her.”
To the prosecution’s allegation that Patterson had “blitzed” the death cap mushrooms into a powder to hide them in the meal, he said: “Why would you need to hide mushrooms in a mushroom paste? It doesn’t make any sense.”
The moment in hospital when Erin said Simon asked her if she had used the dehydrator to poison his parents was “when the wheels start turning,” Mandy said.
“She starts panicking and she starts lying from that point,” he said.
“What followed from this moment were actions taken to conceal … the fact that foraged mushrooms went into the meal because she feared if that was found out, she would be held responsible.”
However, Rogers said Patterson had complete control over events and used it to “devastating effect.”
The cook had “told too many lies,” said Rogers, as she urged the jury to reject Patterson’s claims that she didn’t know the meal was laced with toxins.
“We say there is no reasonable alternative explanation for what happened to the lunch guests, other than the accused deliberately sourced death cap mushrooms and deliberately included them in the meal she served them, with an intention to kill them,” Rogers said.
The jury is expected to retire to consider their verdict this week – their decision must be unanimous.
President Donald Trump has reported to the West Wing’s Situation Room multiple times in recent days as the conflict in Iran comes to a rolling boil and the U.S. considers launching its own attacks on the Islamic Republic over mounting concerns it could produce a nuclear weapon in a short span of time.
‘Yes, I may do it. I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do. I can tell you this that Iran’s got a lot of trouble, and they want to negotiate,’ Trump told reporters Wednesday on the U.S. potentially striking Iran as it continues trading deadly strikes with Israel. ‘And I said, why didn’t you negotiate with me before all this death and destruction? Why didn’t you go? I said to people, why didn’t you negotiate with me two weeks ago? You could have done fine. You would have had a country. It’s very sad to watch this.’
Fox News Digital spoke to previous presidential administration officials — Fox News host and former Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who served under the first Trump administration, and former National Security Advisor under the first Trump administration John Bolton, who also served as ambassador to the U.N. under President George W. Bush’s administration. They both conveyed the serious and historic tone the room and its meetings typically hold.
The Situation Room is a high-tech 5,000-square-foot complex in the West Wing of the White House that includes multiple conference rooms. President John F. Kennedy commissioned the complex in 1961 following the failed Bay of Pigs invasion to overthrow the Castro regime in Cuba that same year, according to the National Archives. The complex was built in order to provide future presidents a dedicated area for crisis management, and was revamped in 2006 and renovated again in 2023.
‘I often would sit there and think about the Osama bin Laden raid,’ McEnany told Fox News Digital in a phone interview Thursday morning. ‘This is where we saw our heroic Special Forces take out Osama bin Laden during the Obama administration. And I think we’re at another point where similar decisions are being made, and even bigger decisions that may change the course of history are happening right now in that room.’
Trump again held a meeting in the Situation Room Thursday morning, when he received an intelligence briefing with national security advisers, which followed a Situation Room meeting on Wednesday afternoon, another meeting on Tuesday afternoon with national security advisers and a Monday evening meeting upon his abrupt return from the G7 summit in Canada this week.
Top national security officials, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, are among officials who have joined Trump in the meetings as the administration weighs the spiraling conflict.
Bolton explained to Fox Digital in a Thursday morning phone interview that two types of top-level meetings are held in the Situation Room.
The first is known as a ‘principals meeting,’ he said, which includes Cabinet secretaries, such as the secretary of state and secretary of defense, and is chaired by the national security advisor — a role currently filled by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
‘The principals committee usually meets to try and get everything sorted out so that they know what decisions the president is going to be confronted with,’ Bolton said. ‘They try and make sure all the information is pulled together so we can make an informed decision, set out the options they see, what the pros and cons are, and then have (the president) briefed.’
The second type of Situation Room meeting at the top level are official National Security Council meetings, which the president chairs.
‘He chairs a full NSC meeting, and people review the information, update the situation, and the president can go back and forth with the advisors about asking questions, probing about the analysis, asking for more detail on something, kind of picking and choosing among the options, or suggesting new options,’ said Bolton, who served as Trump’s national security advisor between April 2018 and September 2019.
‘And out of that could well come decisions,’ he added.
McEnany served as the first Trump administration’s top spokeswoman at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the Coronavirus Task Force operated out of the Situation Room as COVID-19 swept across the nation.
‘A lot of critical decisions were made during the pandemic,’ she said. ‘It’s a humbling encounter. Every time you go in, you leave your phone at the door. You go in, I think it’s like 5,000 square feet, you’re sitting there, there’s clocks up from every country around the world, the different time zones. And you’re just sitting there as critical decisions are made. And, in my case, it was regarding the pandemic, and there’s back and forth, there’s deliberation, and these decisions are made with the president there, obviously.’
She continued that during the pandemic, the task force would spend hours in the Situation Room on a daily basis as the team fielded an onslaught of updates from across the country. Trump frequently received the top lines from the meetings and joined the Situation Room during key decisions amid the spread of the virus.
‘When he was in there, absolutely, there’s a deference,’ she said, referring to how the tone of the room would change upon Trump’s arrival. ‘Yet, you had key officials who spoke up, who were not afraid to give their point of view to him. But I think there’s a recognition he’s the commander in chief.’
Press secretaries typically do not attend high-profile National Security Council meetings in the Situation Room, but have security clearances and can call into the room if needed, and are given updates from senior officials.
McEnany added that press secretaries wouldn’t typically want to be in the room for high-stakes talks because ‘you don’t want your head filled with these sensitive deliberations of classified information’ when speaking with the media.
Bolton explained that for an issue such as Iran, the Situation Room meetings are likely restrictive and include top national security officials, such as the secretary of defense, director of national intelligence and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
‘Sometimes it includes many more people, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Commerce Secretary, things like that,’ he said. ‘But in with this kind of decision, it could be very restrictive, so maybe just – well, there is no national security advisor – but, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, Director of National Intelligence, CIA Director, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, maybe the attorney general.’
Trump’s first national security advisor under the second administration, Mike Waltz, was removed from the role and nominated as the next U.S. ambassador to the UN in May, with Rubio taking on the additional role. The White House has also slashed NSC staffing since Trump took office, including after Rubio took the helm.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt held a press conference on Thursday — the first since Israel launched preemptive strikes on Iran June 12 — and said the next two weeks will be a critical time period as U.S. officials map out next steps.
‘I have a message directly from the president, and I quote: ‘Based on the fact that there’s a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future. I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks.’ That’s a quote directly from the president,’ she said Thursday.
Israel launched pre-emptive strikes on Iran June 12 after months of attempted and stalled nuclear negotiations and subsequent heightened concern that Iran was advancing its nuclear program. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared soon afterward that the strikes were necessary to ‘roll back the Iranian threat to Israel’s very survival.’
He added that if Israel had not acted, ‘Iran could produce a nuclear weapon in a very short time.’
Dubbed ‘Operation Rising Lion,’ the strikes targeted Iran’s nuclear and missile infrastructure and killed a handful of senior Iranian military leaders.
Trump repeatedly has urged Iran to make a deal on its nuclear program, but the country pulled out of ongoing talks with the U.S. scheduled for Sunday in Oman.
‘Iran should have signed the ‘deal’ I told them to sign,’ Trump posted to Truth Social Monday evening, when he abruptly left an ongoing G7 summit in Canada to better focus on the Israel–Iran conflict. ‘What a shame, and waste of human life. Simply stated, IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON. I said it over and over again! Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!’
Leavitt added during Thursday’s briefing that Trump is the ‘peacemaker-in-chief,’ while noting that he is also not one to shy from flexing America’s strength.
‘The president is always interested in a diplomatic solution to the problems in the global conflicts in this world. Again, he is a peacemaker in chief. He is the peace-through-strength president. And so, if there’s a chance for diplomacy, the president’s always going to grab it. But he’s not afraid to use strength as well,’ she said.
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for additional comment on the high-level talks but did not immediately receive a reply.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), an agency essentially dismantled by DOGE amid complaints from Democrats that cutting waste would harm impoverished countries, is at the center of a massive bribery scandal.
A federal contracting officer and three businessmen have pleaded guilty in a scheme involving bribes like cash, NBA tickets, and a country club wedding in a scandal the Department of Justice (DOJ) said was part of a $550 million scam, Fox News Chief Washington Correspondent Mike Emanuel reported Friday.
Roderick Watson, 57, worked as a USAID contracting officer, according to a DOJ press release, and pleaded guilty to ‘bribery of a public official.’
According to the DOJ, Watson sold his influence starting in 2013, with contractors Walter Barnes, owner of Vistant, and Darryl Britt, owner of Apprio, funneling payoffs through subcontractor Paul Young to hide their tracks.
‘During the scheme, Britt and Barnes paid bribes to Watson that were often concealed by passing them through Young, who was the president of another subcontractor to Apprio and Vistant,’ the press release explained.
‘Britt and Barnes also regularly funneled bribes to Watson, including cash, laptops, thousands of dollars in tickets to a suite at an NBA game, a country club wedding, downpayments on two residential mortgages, cellular phones, and jobs for relatives. The bribes were also often concealed through electronic bank transfers falsely listing Watson on payroll, incorporated shell companies, and false invoices. Watson is alleged to have received bribes valued at more than approximately $1 million as part of the scheme.’
Vistant was awarded in November 2023, as part of a joint venture, a contract worth up to $800 million with one of the focuses of that contract being to address ‘a variety of issues affecting the root causes of irregular migration from Central America to the United States,’ an issue that President Joe Biden tasked then-Vice President Kamala Harris with during his presidency.
Several days later, that contract was canceled after USAID published a notice that said Vistant was excluded from government contracting due to ‘evidence of conduct of a lack of business honesty or integrity.’
The joint venture then successfully sued the government over being put on that exclusion list and was re-awarded the contract and given a $10,000 payment in August 2024.
‘Corruption in government programs will not be tolerated. Watson abused his position of trust for personal gain while federal contractors engaged in a pay-to-play scheme,’ Acting Assistant Inspector General for Investigations Sean Bottary of the USAID Office of Inspector General (USAID-OIG) said in the press release.
‘USAID-OIG is firmly committed to rooting out fraud and corruption within U.S. foreign assistance programs. Today’s announcement underscores our unwavering focus on exposing criminal activity, including bribery schemes by those entrusted to faithfully award government contracts. We appreciate our longstanding partnership with the Department of Justice in holding accountable those who defraud American taxpayers.’
USAID was one of the public faces and most drastic examples of DOGE’s efforts to cut waste, fraud, and abuse in government, and the effort resulted in the agency’s programs being cut by 83%, while the programs deemed vital were moved to the State Department.
USAID’s website went dark, and employees were barred from entering its headquarters on Feb. 3, while others had their work put on hold. The Trump administration then announced that all USAID direct-hire personnel would be put on administrative leave.
The agency came under fire for many funding choices, including allocating $1.5 million for a program that sought to ‘advance diversity, equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities’ and a $70,000 program for a ‘DEI musical’ in Ireland.
During DOGE’s sweep, it was revealed that U.S. dollars were ending up in the hands of terror-linked groups, such as funds reportedly providing ‘full funding’ for al-Qaeda terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki to attend college in Colorado, Fox News Digital previously reported.
As DOGE was dismantling USAID, many Democrats and media outlets blasted the cuts, claiming they would harm impoverished recipients of aid across the globe and some, including U2 frontman Bono, who said the cuts would lead to over 300,000 deaths.
Several House and Senate Democrats protested outside of USAID’s headquarters in early February, expressing outrage over the layoffs and cuts, The Hill reported.
‘Anybody who cares about good and effective government should be concerned about the waste, fraud, and abuse in government agencies, including USAID,’ Matthew R. Galeotti, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said in the DOJ’s press release.
Fox News Digital’s Diana Stancy and Rachel Wolf contributed to this report.
Diplomats from Britain, France, Germany and the European Union met with Iran’s foreign minister on Friday, urging the country to continue diplomacy with the U.S. one week after stalled nuclear talks escalated into attacks between Iran and Israel.
‘We are keen to continue ongoing discussions and negotiations with Iran, and we urge Iran to continue their talks with the United States,’ British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said. ‘We were clear: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.’
The meeting, held in Geneva, Switzerland, was the first face-to-face with an Iranian leader since last weekend’s flashpoint.
‘The good result today is that we leave the room with the impression that the Iranian side is fundamentally ready to continue talking about all important issues,’ German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said. He said the two sides had held ‘very serious talks.’
The meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi lasted for more than three hours.
‘Military operations can slow Iran’s nuclear program but in no way can they eliminate it,’ French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said. ‘We know well — after having seen what happened in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Libya — how illusory and dangerous it is to want to impose regime change from outside.’
In a joint statement, France, the U.K., Germany and the E.U. said they shared their ‘grave concerns’ with Araghchi ‘with regard to the escalation of tensions in the Middle East and reiterated their firm commitment to Israel’s security,’ adding that ‘all sides should refrain from taking steps which lead to further escalation in the region, and urgently find a negotiated solution to ensure that Iran never obtains or acquires a nuclear weapon.’
Early last Friday, Israel launched airstrikes against Iranian nuclear sites after nuclear talks seemed to stall, causing Iran to retaliate. The two countries continue to trade strikes.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared soon afterward that the strikes were necessary to ‘roll back the Iranian threat to Israel’s very survival.’
The meeting also comes less than a month after a report from the International Atomic Energy Agency warned the country is swiftly increasing its stockpile of near weapons-grade enriched uranium.
On Friday, the European diplomats ‘reiterated their longstanding concerns about Iran’s expansion of its nuclear programme, which has no credible civilian purpose, in violation of almost all JCPoA provisions.’
They added that they ‘discussed avenues towards a negotiated solution to Iran’s nuclear programme, while emphasising the urgency of the matter. They expressed their willingness to continue discussing all questions relevant to Iran’s nuclear programme and broader issues,’ urging Iran to cooperate with the IAEA.
Earlier this week, U.S. President Donald Trump said he may consider a U.S. strike on Iran.
‘Yes, I may do it. I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do. I can tell you this that Iran’s got a lot of trouble, and they want to negotiate,’ Trump told reporters Wednesday on the U.S. potentially striking Iran as it continues trading deadly strikes with Israel. ‘And I said, why didn’t you negotiate with me before all this death and destruction? Why didn’t you go? I said to people, why didn’t you negotiate with me two weeks ago? You could have done fine. You would have had a country. It’s very sad to watch this.’
Trump on Friday told reporters the U.S. is ‘willing and able’ to talk to Iran, adding that Iran doesn’t want to talk to Europe. ‘They want to speak to us. Europe is not going to help,’ he said.
He added that while he was against the war in Iraq in 2003 because he didn’t believe there were weapons on mass destruction, he believes Iran is building a nuclear weapon, saying that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is ‘wrong’ in saying there isn’t enough evidence to conclude that.
‘The material that they’ve gathered already. It’s a tremendous amount of material. And I think within a matter of weeks, or certainly within a matter of months, they are going to be able to have a nuclear weapon,’ he said. ‘We can’t let that happen.’
On Friday, the U.K., France, Germany and EU diplomats, said they also ‘shared their support for discussions to continue’ with Iran and ‘welcomed ongoing US efforts to seek a negotiated solution. They expressed their willingness to meet again in the future.’
Fox News’ Emma Colton and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
European and Iranian negotiators ended their talks in Geneva, Switzerland, Friday without a clear breakthrough, but diplomats told The Associated Press they were hopeful of more discussions with the Iranians.
The talks with Iran come a day after White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt delivered a message from President Trump, stating, ‘Based on the fact that there’s a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks.’
One former Pentagon official says there is an important issue that is not being discussed.
‘If Iran gives up its nuclear program as Trump has demanded, there’s another problem we’re not talking about, which is how do we get all the nuclear material outside of Iran,’ Michael Rubin, an American Enterprise Institute senior fellow, told Fox News Digital.
Rubin, who has lived in post-revolution Iran, Yemen, and both pre- and postwar Iraq, mentioned that there are a few options available.
‘The United States could do it, but we don’t want boots on the ground.’
He said the International Atomic Energy Agency could be tasked with doing it, adding, ‘Who really trusts the United Nations and U.N. agencies?’
‘If Trump is serious about getting Iran to forfeit its nuclear program, it’s time to start having a conversation with other allies about who could take command, control and custody of this nuclear material until it’s outside of Iran.’
Rubin said he would nominate India to seize the nuclear material.
‘They are trusted by the Americans, they’re trusted by the Israelis and they’re trusted by the Iranians. But we need to start not only being reactive, but also proactive,’ said Rubin
Rubin cited a quote from Margaret Thatcher to George H.W. Bush in 1990 — ‘Don’t go wobbly on me now, George’ — when Saddam Hussein invaded Iraq.
‘I suspect Marco Rubio is filling Margaret Thatcher’s britches, that he is the one going around now to our European allies, saying, ‘Don’t go wobbly on me now.,’’ said Rubin.
‘[He] is saying this to everyone else within the European Union and the United Kingdom because if the Europeans have their choice, they’re going to choose quiet over common sense.’
On Thursday, Rubio spoke with counterparts to discuss the ongoing Israel-Iran conflict.
According to State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce, he spoke with Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong and French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot in separate conversations about the ongoing conflict.
They all agreed to ‘continue to work together closely to commit to a path of peace and ensure that Iran never develops a nuclear weapon,’ Bruce said.
Louis Casiano and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump told reporters Friday that his Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, is ‘wrong’ in her assessment that Iran is not close to building a nuclear weapon.
Trump’s comments came after he departed Air Force One en route to his Bedminister, New Jersey, golf club, when he stepped aside to take a few questions from reporters.
‘She’s wrong,’ Trump said after he was asked about Gabbard’s assessment that Iran is not close to building a nuclear weapon. ‘My intelligence community is wrong.’
Trump’s remarks were preceded by a question from a reporter asking the president, who publicly opposed the Iraq war roughly 20 years ago, what made this situation with Iran different – considering no weapons of mass destruction were ever found after the George W. Bush administration invaded Iraq.
‘There were no weapons of mass destruction. I never thought there were. That was somewhat pre-nuclear. You know, it was – there was a nuclear age, but nothing like it is today,’ Trump said. ‘And it looked like I’m right about the material that they’ve gathered already [in Iran]. It’s a tremendous amount of material. And I think within a matter of weeks, or certainly within a matter of months, [Iran was] going to be able to have a nuclear weapon. We can’t let that happen.’
In March, DNI Gabbard said during an opening statement to the Senate Intelligence Committee that that the intelligence community ‘continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003.’
Meanwhile, last week Gabbard posted a cryptic three and a half minute video on X last week, warning of the risks of a potential nuclear war, and blasting ‘warmongers’ for bringing the world ‘closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before.’
President Donald Trump said aboard Air Force One earlier this week that he doesn’t care what Gabbard says, ‘I think they were very close to having one,’ when pressed on the pair’s divergent opinions.
This week, according to The Guardian, Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said Gabbard’s assessment has been ‘reconfirmed’ by current intelligence.
Fox News Digital reached out to Gabbard’s office for comment but did not receive an immediate response.
While Democratic senators are blaming President Donald Trump for the ongoing Iran-Israel conflict, Republicans are urging the president to continue standing in support of Israel as it attempts to eliminate Iran’s nuclear weapon capabilities.
This comes as Israel and Iran, two major powers in the Middle East, are locked in a heavy missile war. Israel, a U.S. ally, has been targeting Iranian nuclear facilities with the intent of keeping Iran from utilizing nuclear weapons, something Trump has long advocated.
Following intense speculation that Trump would join the conflict by launching a U.S. strike on Iran, the White House issued a statement from the president in which he said there is a ‘substantial chance’ for renewed negotiations to end the conflict. In the statement, Trump said he would decide which path to take in the next two weeks.
The White House has said that any deal with Iran would have to include a full commitment to not developing nuclear weapons, including no uranium enrichment, a necessary step to developing nuclear weapons. Iran has said it will not accept an agreement with a zero enrichment provision.
Speaking with Fox News Digital in the halls of the Capitol, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., slammed Trump for pulling the U.S. out of a nuclear agreement of which Iran was a part during his first term.
‘The way to keep Iran from having a nuclear weapon is through negotiation,’ she said. ‘We actually had that deal, and Donald Trump threw it out the window.‘
That means we lost our inspectors, we lost the plans that had been made,’ she continued.
‘Right now, we need more deconfliction in the area. We need to bring down the temperature between Israel and Iran. That’s what’s best for Israel and Iran, it’s what’s best for the region and for the whole world,’ said Warren.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., also blamed Trump, saying, ‘He’s the one who put us out the deal in the first place,’ which she said ‘very much so’ contributed to the ongoing conflict.
While he said the U.S. should not be involved in bombing missions or any other military action against Iran, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said, What we should do is continue to provide Israel with all the tools they need to defend themselves.’
‘I hope the president will continue to promote a diplomatic solution that we had until he tore it up,’ said Kaine.
Meanwhile, Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, who caucuses with the Democrats, told Fox News Digital that the ‘question is can it be resolved without our involvement.’ He said he hopes Iran ‘will see the light and decide they don’t need to keep developing nuclear fuel.’
On the other side of the aisle, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital that he believes Trump ‘standing unshakably with the nation of Israel’ is the right move to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.
Israel is being incredibly effective with their military strike against Iran. They’ve taken out the senior military leadership, the leaders who would wage a war have been one after the other after the other surgically taken out by Israel. They are also taking out missile launch sites, and they’re taking out nuclear research sites, the sites where Iran is working to develop a nuclear weapon,’ Cruz explained.
‘Deterrence is always the key,’ said Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Ohio. ‘This president has been very clear he’s all about peace, and he doesn’t want to use the might of the United States unless we absolutely have to. I believe deterrence is the best foreign policy, because it shows peace through strength.’
That being said, Mullin said Trump has he’s been ‘very clear for over a decade: In no way are we going to allow the Iranian regime, who is the number one sponsor of terror around the world, to have a nuclear weapon.’
‘So, we need to be prepared to back up Israel if they’re not able to do the job, then we need to be able to finish it,’ he said.
Look, he has said this for 10 years. He has said Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, full stop,’ said Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala. ‘So, it is not just about [uranium] enrichment, which absolutely should have never happened and cannot happen, but it is also complete and total dismantlement of the nuclear program.’
President Donald Trump announced on Friday he and Secretary of State Marco Rubio had secured a ‘wonderful’ treaty between Rwanda and Congo, as Pakistan formally nominated him for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize.
‘I am very happy to report that I have arranged, along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a wonderful Treaty between the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Republic of Rwanda, in their War, which was known for violent bloodshed and death, more so even than most other Wars, and has gone on for decades,’ Trump wrote in a Truth Social announcement.
The president noted representatives from Rwanda and the Congo will be in Washington on Monday to sign documents.
He went on to discuss his chances at winning a Nobel Peace Prize, claiming he wouldn’t get one, ‘no matter what I do.’
‘This is a Great Day for Africa and, quite frankly, a Great Day for the World,’ Trump wrote in the post. ‘I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize for this, I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize for stopping the War between India and Pakistan, I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize for stopping the War between Serbia and Kosovo, I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize for keeping Peace between Egypt and Ethiopia (A massive Ethiopian built dam, stupidly financed by the United States of America, substantially reduces the water flowing into The Nile River), and I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize for doing the Abraham Accords in the Middle East which, if all goes well, will be loaded to the brim with additional Countries signing on, and will unify the Middle East for the first time in ‘The Ages!’
‘No, I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize no matter what I do, including Russia/Ukraine, and Israel/Iran, whatever those outcomes may be, but the people know, and that’s all that matters to me!’
On Wednesday, India refuted claims by Trump that he had stopped the war between Pakistan and India.
Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri wrote in a news release that ‘talks for ceasing military action happened directly between India and Pakistan through existing military channels, and on the insistence of Pakistan,’ according to a report from Reuters.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reiterated India ‘has not accepted mediation in the past and will never do,’ Misri noted in the statement.
The mention of a Nobel Peace Prize came nearly two hours after the Government of Pakistan published a lengthy post on X, formally recommending Trump for the honor.
‘The Government of Pakistan has decided to formally recommend President Donald J. Trump for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize, in recognition of his decisive diplomatic intervention and pivotal leadership during the recent India-Pakistan crisis,’ the post read. ‘The international community bore witness to unprovoked and unlawful Indian aggression, which constituted a grave violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, resulting in the tragic loss of innocent lives, including women, children, and the elderly.’
Pakistani leaders said at a moment of heightened regional turbulence, Trump demonstrated ‘great strategic foresight and stellar statesmanship’ through ‘robust diplomatic engagement’ with both Islamabad and New Delhi, securing a ceasefire.
‘This intervention stands as a testament to his role as a genuine peacemaker and his commitment to conflict resolution through dialogue,’ the post continued. ‘The Government of Pakistan also acknowledges and greatly admires President Trump’s sincere offers to help resolve the longstanding dispute of Jammu and Kashmir between India and Pakistan—an issue that lies at the heart of regional instability.
‘President Trump’s leadership during the 2025 Pakistan India crisis manifestly showcases the continuation of his legacy of pragmatic diplomacy and effective peace-building. Pakistan remains hopeful that his earnest efforts will continue to contribute towards regional and global stability, particularly in the context of ongoing crises in the Middle East, including the humanitarian tragedy unfolding in Gaza and the deteriorating escalation involving Iran.’
According to The Nobel Prize’s website, to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, a person must be a ‘qualified nominator,’ which includes national governments, heads of state, previous award winners, and members of specific international organizations.
The nomination process is confidential, and entries are due by Jan. 31, hence the 2026 nomination.
The State Department said Friday it had provided ‘information and support’ to over 25,000 people in Israel, the West Bank or Iran seeking guidance on what to do and how to get out.
When pressed on the matter during a State Department briefing Friday afternoon, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce declined to go into further detail about how many of those 25,000 people are American citizens or any other breakdown of the number.
News of the number of people the State Department has assisted comes after the agency announced the formation of a task force to assist Americans looking to leave Israel or other Middle Eastern countries.
Bruce said during a press briefing Friday that the United States does not intend to help transport American citizens directly from Iran, and they will have to make it out first before they can be assisted by the government.
United States Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said earlier this week the embassy in Jerusalem was ‘working on evacuation flights & cruise ship departures’ for Americans trying to leave Israel.
Huckabee released his statement hours after the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem wrote in its own X post that there was ‘no announcement about assisting private U.S. citizens to depart at this time,’ but it simultaneously acknowledged ‘the Department of State is always planning for contingencies to assist with private U.S. citizens’ departure from crisis areas.’
So far, the U.S. has not engaged in a large-scale effort to help Americans get out of Israel. But, according to ABC News, the military did assist in flying some American diplomats and family members from the U.S. Embassy this week.
Private flights for American citizens did begin landing in Florida Thursday after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis dispatched four planes to pick up U.S. citizens stuck in Israel during the ongoing violence. Other private options to get out of Israel are also available.
On Monday, the State Department raised its travel warning for Israel to the highest level possible.
