Congressional Democrats consider the Senate-passed plan to end the Homeland Security shutdown a victory, but they’re walking away empty-handed with none of their sought-after reforms to immigration enforcement.

Pushing for sweeping changes to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the wake of a pair of fatal shootings in Minnesota is why Democrats blocked more than a half-dozen attempts to prevent or end the second-longest shutdown in U.S. history.

But the window of opportunity to secure any reforms slammed shut just after 2 a.m. Friday.

DHS SHUTDOWN BREAKTHROUGH COMES AT COST FOR REPUBLICANS AS FUNDING FIGHTS NEARS END

“I mean, I think that ship has sailed, and they kind of kissed that opportunity goodbye by failing to provide funding for those agencies,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said.

At the onset of the shutdown in early February, Schumer and Democrats presented 10 categories of reforms they wanted to be implemented for ICE and immigration enforcement in order to earn their votes to fund DHS.

The proposals were in response to the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good and were designed to drastically rein in the power of ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents.

HOUSE CONSERVATIVES RAGE AGAINST SENATE DHS SHUTDOWN DEAL

Among them were requiring judicial warrants for agents, forcing agents to unmask, requiring agents to display identification, ending roving patrols, preventing agents from operating in certain areas like schools and hospitals, requiring body-worn cameras, increasing oversight of detention centers tied to funding, and several more.

The warrant requirements and unmasking were hard red lines for Republicans and the White House, but throughout negotiations, the GOP made concessions on several others, including limiting immigration enforcement at sensitive locations, allowing congressional oversight of DHS detention facilities, and enforcing the use of visible identification for DHS agents.

Democrats walked away with none of those offers that were on the table, aside from $20 million to purchase body-worn cameras, which was already in the original Homeland Security funding bill.

SCHUMER, DEMS BLOCK DHS FUNDING AGAIN, TRUMP INTERVENES TO PAY TSA AGENTS

“The Dems wanted reforms. We tried to work with them on reforms. They ended up getting no reforms,” Thune said.

Still, Schumer and congressional Democrats scored a political victory of sorts, with the legislation carving out funding for ICE and the border protection arm of CBP.

Republicans, however, front-loaded immigration enforcement funding last year with $75 billion over the next several years and plan a similar move using the same budget reconciliation process to extend funding for up to a decade.

And with a rebellion against the legislation fomenting among House Republicans — who are widely unhappy with immigration enforcement not being funded right away — all parties could be taken back to square one.

“This is exactly what we wanted,” Schumer said after the Senate advanced the bill. “This is what we asked for, and I’m very proud of my caucus. My caucus held the line.”

Saudi Arabia and other Gulf allies are showing signs of a quiet but consequential shift in their posture toward Iran, as escalating attacks across the region are testing years of careful balancing between Washington and Tehran.

For much of the past decade, countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) sought to avoid direct confrontation with Iran, maintaining diplomatic and economic ties even while relying on U.S. military backing. But that middle ground is increasingly under strain.

That strategy was designed to keep Gulf states out of direct confrontation. But officials and analysts say Iran’s expanding attacks are narrowing the space for neutrality, pushing some Gulf states closer to Washington.

One of the clearest signs of that shift is a reported move by Saudi Arabia to grant U.S. forces access to King Fahd Air Base in Taif, a western facility not used for American combat operations since the Gulf War era.

HEGSETH BLASTS BRITS, SAYS IRAN’S CHAOTIC RETALIATION HAS DRIVEN ITS OWN ALLIES ‘INTO THE AMERICAN ORBIT’

The shift is also visible across the region. The UAE has severed diplomatic ties with Tehran, shut down Iranian-linked institutions and launched a crackdown on networks tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps after a wave of attacks.

Bahrain, meanwhile, led efforts at the United Nations to pass a Security Council resolution condemning Iranian strikes on Gulf states, while multiple countries — including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait — have issued coordinated statements denouncing Iran’s actions and asserting their right to self-defense.

These Gulf states are in line with the U.S. view that Iran’s missile development, uranium enrichment programs and support for regional militant groups need to be “addressed and curtailed” but remain opposed to strikes on critical infrastructure inside Iran, a Gulf official told Fox News Digital. 

Qatar has also taken concrete steps in response to Iranian attacks, expelling Iranian military and security attachés and ordering them to leave the country after strikes on critical energy infrastructure. However, Qatar has stopped short of severing full diplomatic ties, maintaining its role as a mediator even as tensions rise.

The Qatari prime minister was in Washington for talks focused on defense cooperation and protecting critical energy infrastructure Thursday, an official briefed on the visit told Fox News. 

King Fahd Air Base’s location, deep inside Saudi territory and farther from Iran’s missile and drone reach, would offer strategic depth the U.S. has not relied on in decades. U.S. military posture in the region has long centered on more exposed bases along the Persian Gulf, including hubs in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Sources familiar with the matter cited in Wall Street Journal reporting said Saudi Arabia agreed to let American forces use the base. The Pentagon and the Saudi embassy declined to comment on the base. 

Combat aircraft routinely operate “dark” with transponders off in potential combat zones, so they would not appear on civilian flight radar. Saudi Arabia’s tightly controlled media environment also means there are few, if any, independent local reports of U.S. aircraft activity at King Fahd Air Base.

“Our primary concern today is to defend ourselves from the daily attacks on our people and our civilian infrastructure,” the Saudi government said in a statement on its posture toward Iran. “Iran has chosen dangerous brinkmanship over serious diplomatic solutions. This harms every stakeholder involved but none more than Iran itself.”

The reported basing shift is one of several signs that Gulf states are recalibrating their position as Iranian attacks escalate across the region.

While Gulf leaders are still stopping short of joining combat operations and continue to pursue diplomatic off-ramps, their actions — from expanding cooperation with U.S. forces to issuing more direct and coordinated condemnations of Iran — suggest growing frustrations with Iranian attacks on their territory. 

President Donald Trump said Thursday that countries across the region —   including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Oman— were “shocked” as Iranian attacks expanded beyond traditional flashpoints.

“They start shooting in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Oman,” he said at a Cabinet meeting. “They start shooting at them. And they were — they were. Everybody was shocked, including us. You know why? Because they’re sick. And they had a plan to take over the Middle East.”

Since late February, Iran has fired hundreds of missiles and drones across the Gulf, targeting countries from Saudi Arabia and the UAE to Qatar and Kuwait. After the launch of Operation Epic Fury Feb. 28, Iran warned it would retaliate against U.S. forces and their regional partners, a threat it quickly carried out with strikes on bases and infrastructure across the region.

Years of diplomatic outreach and de-escalation efforts in Gulf capitals failed to shield them from Iranian retaliation. 

Saudi Arabia signed an agreement in 2023 to restore diplomatic ties while the United Arab Emirates maintained economic channels that allowed limited commercial activity to continue.

At the same time, the steps Gulf countries have taken remain measured. 

The United States already operates from bases in Saudi Arabia, including Prince Sultan Air Base, which has served as a hub for U.S. air operations and force protection in the region. But those sites sit closer to the Gulf and are more exposed to Iranian missile and drone threats, while more interior locations like Taif provide greater depth and longer warning times against potential strikes.

“They have to be very careful even now,” former Israeli Defense Forces officer and national security analyst Ehud Eilam told Fox News Digital. “They know that they would have to live with Iran after the war.”

WHY GULF STATES AREN’T JOINING THE WAR AGAINST IRAN — DESPITE ATTACKS ON THEIR SOIL

“They can’t really strike back hard,” said James Robbins, Institute of World Politics dean and former special assistant to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. “They’re small countries, and they’re hard to defend.”

Robbins added that Gulf states face a long-term dilemma, warning that even a weakened Iran would likely regroup and pose a continued threat. 

“Iran will come back,” he said. “They will rebuild … and they will be out for revenge.”

Still, analysts say, Gulf states could expand cooperation with the U.S. if they wanted to. 

12 ARAB AND ISLAMIC COUNTRIES UNITE TO CONDEMN ‘HEINOUS’ IRANIAN ATTACKS

“They could increase the cooperation with the U.S. and Israel as far as air defense, intelligence, cyber and so on,” Eilam said.

They could also join in on a mission to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world’s oil typically passes. Shipping operations through the strait have ground to a standstill due to Iranian threats to vessels that attempt to pass.

“Their best mission would be securing the Strait of Hormuz, those types of missions, with whatever sea forces they have, Coast Guard-type forces and their air forces,” he said. 

Even as tensions rise, Gulf leaders have continued to pursue diplomatic off-ramps. 

Saudi Arabia recently hosted regional talks aimed at exploring a potential ceasefire, underscoring that Gulf states are still seeking to contain the conflict even as they bolster their security posture.

For now, Gulf states appear to be navigating a narrowing path, moving closer to Washington as Iranian attacks mount, while stopping short of full military alignment in a conflict that could shape the region long after the fighting ends.

President Donald Trump announced a series of actions Friday aimed at assisting farmers and food suppliers to help cut costs amid rising energy prices, promising a new “golden age” for the agricultural industry. 

Trump shared guidance on farm equipment regulations in an effort to cut costs and increase government loan guarantees for agricultural products, including tractors, among other reforms. 

He said much farm equipment has become unaffordable for many farmers.

“Every day we’re looking for new ways to support our farmers, reduce your costs, and to help lower the price of food for the American family,” Trump said on the South Lawn of the White House. “We’re going to prove that the golden age of American agriculture is right here and right now.”

I’M AN AMERICAN FARMER — EMPTY USDA OFFICES MEANS FEWER FAMILY FARMS

The Biden administration crippled the farming industry, Trump said, with harsh restrictions and a lack of trade deals. 

To help them, Trump said his administration recently used tariff money to give farmers $12 billion in relief. 

“I’m also asking Congress to quickly pass the new farm bill,” he said. “And today, I’m promising to request additional farm relief for our great patriots in the next funding bill.”

AMERICA’S QUIETEST CROP IS SET TO TAKE CENTER STAGE IN TRUMP–XI TALKS

In addition, the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) will alter guidelines around a system designed to limit diesel emissions that will save farmers billions of dollars, Trump said. 

He also announced new guidelines to limit Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF) rules, which mandate that modern diesel engines use selective catalytic reduction (SCR) technology to reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions.

“It was a basic disaster,” Trump said. 

Trump also highlighted the EPA’s efforts to boost renewable fuels from agricultural products, while criticizing environmental activists. 

“What they’ve done to you, and the country – what they’ve done to the country – is just incredible,” he said. “They are terrorists.”

Trump also announced new loan guarantees from the Small Business Administration (SBA) for small business in the agricultural industry, including food suppliers, farmers – including vegetable farmers, grain farmers and seed farmers – cattle, pig and poultry producers and grocery wholesalers.

President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order directing federal officials to ensure Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees receive back pay during the ongoing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown.

Trump described the situation as an “emergency,” citing severe strain on airport security operations. 

“Accordingly, I hereby direct the Secretary of Homeland Security, in coordination with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, to use funds that have a reasonable and logical nexus to TSA operations to provide TSA employees with the compensation and benefits that would have accrued to them if not for the Democrat-led DHS shutdown, consistent with applicable law, including 31 U.S.C. 1301(a),” Trump said.

This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

Part 3 of a five-part Fox News Digital series investigating the House of Singham documents the “Propaganda Work” that Mao Zedong taught as critical to winning the People’s War. This reporting includes analysis using cutting-edge technology, including large-language modeling.

Early Tuesday, CodePink professional activist Olivia DiNucci raised her fist as she stood on the deck of a boat renamed “Granma 2.0,” in a tribute to the yacht Fidel Castro’s guerrillas used to launch the Cuban Revolution in 1956.

Standing behind a banner reading “LET CUBA LIVE” as the boat arrived at the port of Havana, DiNucci, who normally organizes protests in Washington, D.C., mugged for the cameras with her fellow revolutionaries, chanting and pumping their fists in the air, as camera crews rolled.

Luis De Jesús, who writes for a site called BreakThrough News, recorded the arrival, part of days of coverage promoting the cause of pro-communism activists, including the Irish hip-hop trio Kneecap, and packaging the week’s activities not just as activism, but as revolutionary political “resistance” against the U.S. “empire.”

By afternoon, BreakThrough News posted a video of De Jesús’ report on the boat’s arrival, with a beaming DiNucci on board. Other pro-communist media platforms turned the staged event into a media moment, from the Cuban News Agency to Brazil de Fato.

The scene offered a real-time glimpse of how a network built by an American-born, China-based tech tycoon, Neville Roy Singham, turns activism into propaganda and then propaganda into political and psychological weapons. In this case, the story of the Granma 2.0 framed Cuba as a victim of the imperialist U.S., and Cuba’s communist benefactor and trading partner – China – as a liberator, providing rice to a hungry citizenry.

As he fought the People’s War in the late 1930s in China, infamous communist leader Mao Zedong emphasized the importance of “Propaganda Work” and “the practice of changing reality.”

Decades later, Chinese Premier Xi Jinping announced a strategy of “telling China’s story well.”

POWER COUPLE OF CHAOS: HOW A TYCOON AND ACTIVIST BUILT A ‘REVOLUTIONARY BASE’ AT THE HOUSE OF SINGHAM

Last fall, pro-China academics, like Vijay Prashad, a trusted communist in Singham’s inner circle, spoke at a conference of the Global South Academic Forum about creating a “New World Information and Communication Order,” an idea popularized in the 1980s by Third World countries now called the “Global South.” 

The conference was co-sponsored by Singham, Prashad’s Tricontinental Ltd. think tank and the Shanghai-based East China Normal University, and administered by the Chinese Communist Party. The university features a School of Marxism and teaches “Marxist journalism.” Singham, Prashad and conference attendees closed the conference, standing at attention as “The Internationale,” a communist anthem played, attendees pumping their fists in the air in solidarity.

A Fox News Digital investigation found that the “new information” strategy operates through a network of organizations that produce, fund and amplify messaging across borders. 

Fox News Digital has identified at least 200 organizations in Singham’s network of about 2,000 organizations that directly work on propaganda that parrots the anti-American messaging of the Chinese Communist Party but is dramatically homegrown in digital shops from New York City to Los Angeles.

The investigation found that three Singham-linked U.S. nonprofits sent a total of $9.1 million in seven payments to a pro-China propaganda firm, Shanghai Maku Cultural Communications Co. Ltd. The payments haven’t been reported before.

Using large-language models, Fox News Digital analyzed 223 transactions that moved $591 million in total across five continents from 2017 through 2025, the latest year for which figures are available, in the Singham network and found the money flows through five concentric rings of an ideological pipeline that spreads pro-China propaganda.

Eleven U.S. nonprofit organizations form a core hub of the work that pumps pro-China, anti-America propaganda into the world, with a total of about $401 million flowing from Singham and his network into these organizations. The organizations didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Fox News Digital previously documented $278 million that flowed directly from Singham into organizations that “sow discord” in the U.S., as House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith put it recently at a hearing on foreign malign influence in the nonprofit industry. The rest went through layers of funding.

The 11 nonprofits and their total revenue from within the Singham network, including direct contributions from Singham himself, make most of these organizations well-funded: 

• BreakThrough BT Media: $3.5 million, with $1.1 million directly from Singham
• CodePink Women for Peace: $1.8 million, with $1.3 million from SIngham
• Inter-Religious Foundation for Community Organization Inc.: $420,000
• Justice and Education Fund Inc.: $74.2 million, with $68.7 million from Singham
• People’s Dispatch: $1.9 million
• People’s Forum Inc.: $28 million, with $22.4 million from Singham
• People’s Support Foundation: $181.8 million, with $167.5 from Singham
• People’s Welfare Association: $70 million
• Progress Unity Fund: $442,524, with additional revenues from other sources
• Tricontinental Ltd.: $16.8 million from Singham
• United Community Fund: $21.8 million

Mao’s strategy relied on embedding revolutionary actors within social, cultural, labor and educational organizations to shape public consciousness, normalize radical narratives and gradually erode the legitimacy of the state from within. 

Similarly, experts say, Singham’s network cultivates activist ecosystems, using nonprofits and advocacy groups as force multipliers and framing local political and social conflicts as part of a broader systemic struggle. 

That same dynamic is visible in real time, as protests, trips and political events are filmed, packaged and circulated as part of a broader narrative. DiNucci is a key figure, for example, regularly getting filmed and then broadcast on Singham network social media channels, interrupting the dinners, hearings and events of Trump administration officials.

In this model, disruption and polarization aren’t incidental but strategic, designed to weaken societal cohesion and authority over time, precisely the conditions Mao argued are necessary for victory against a stronger adversary.

“There is a war waging for the brains of Americans. It’s critical that America shore up its defenses before the nation is hijacked by confusion, manipulation and malign narratives,” psychologist Orli Peter told Fox News Digital.

RED WEALTH, DARK MONEY: HOW AN AMERICAN TYCOON DEPLOYS MAO’S PLAYBOOK AGAINST THE WEST

‘Information Laundering Operation’

A Fox News Digital investigation, scouring scores of financial filings, writings and social media posts, shows not only money moving from Singham-funded entities into U.S. nonprofits, but these nonprofits in turn funding media production, political education and organizing campaigns that promote the narrative of the Chinese Communist Party. The U.S. nonprofits pushing the anti-America agenda benefit from tax-exempt status and tax-deductible donations.

What begins as content — videos, livestreams and commentary — often feeds directly into organizing and protest activity, creating a feedback loop between messaging and action.

“Neville Roy Singham and Jodie Evans are running an information laundering operation,” said Adam Sohn, co-founder of the Network Contagion Research Institute, a multidisciplinary lab in Princeton, N.J. “It’s a narrative laundering operation that is selling China’s story to the world and sowing discord in America.”

“Neville Roy Singham and Jodie Evans are running an information laundering operation. It’s a narrative laundering operation that is selling China’s story to the world and sowing discord in America.” – Adam Sohn, co-founder of the Network Contagion Research Institute, a multidisciplinary lab in Princeton, N.J.

A wedding in Jamaica in February 2017 between Singham and Jodie Evans, co-founder of CodePink Women for Peace, brought together ideologues who would later appear on the boards, funding streams and public messaging of this network. Tax filings document the transfers. The emergence of a network of “Liberation Centers” document the physical infrastructure.

That network has matured into a transnational protest and media machine. Nearly a decade later, its infrastructure is visible on American streets, coordinated, funded and amplified by groups built quietly, deliberately and in plain sight. Singham and Evans didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Last week, BreakThrough News broadcast DiNucci outside the White House protesting to support the regime that the U.S. and Israel are targeting with missile strikes in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

FAR-LEFT ACTIVIST GROUP FACES BACKLASH OVER ‘TONE-DEAF’ PROTESTS AT CUBA LUXURY HOTEL

Shanghai Maku Cultural Communications Co.

Part of that system operates overseas, where funding supports media production aligned with Chinese Communist Party narratives. Significantly, there are a series of two line items that reveal just how closely this supposed charitable network works with organizations tied to the Chinese Communist Party.

Buried inside the tax filings are the receipts on how three U.S. nonprofits from the Singham network sent seven payments totaling $9.1 million in money back to Shanghai to pay a pro-China propaganda firm, Shanghai Maku Cultural Communications Co. Ltd., housed in the same luxury building as Singham’s operation. It’s not far from the university where Singham’s sister holds an academic position.

Guo Xiao, a former executive at Thoughtworks, the tech company founded by Singham and sold in 2017 for nearly $800 million, sits on the board of Shanghai Maku Cultural Communications, according to company records. Xiao didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Shanghai Maku Cultural Communications Co. identifies itself as producing content aligned with Chinese Communist Party narratives. 

Beginning in 2021, according to Fox News Digital analysis, three organizations from Singham’s network sent over $9 million directly to Shanghai Maku Cultural Communications Co. in seven payments for “production of online news program,” according to its tax filing.

BreakThrough BT Media Inc. 

One of the key organizations inside the broader transnational media apparatus in the Singham network is BreakThrough News, whose reporter met the Granma 2.0 at the port in Havana.

In a letter he sent to BreakThrough News last month, Smith said the House Ways and Means Committee is concerned that BreakThrough News is “part of a larger multipronged effort from the CCP to sow discord in our country” and that it has been “funded and influenced by Mr. Singham’s CCP affiliations.”

In early December 2019, BreakThroughNews.org was registered online. Early the next year, in early March 2020, “Breakthrough / BT Media Inc.” was registered in Delaware as a new company. It got IRS 501(c)(3) nonprofit status in June 2020 as Breakthrough BT Media Inc. 

Singham gave a total of $1.1 million to BreakThrough BT Media Inc. over two years with the purpose of the tax-deductible donations written simply as “public service” and “medical / public services” in IRS Form 990 filings.

In its first IRS filing, documenting its 2020 work, Breakthrough BT Media Inc. listed familiar names among its three-person board of directors. Ben Becker, the son of another trusted Singham adviser, Brian Becker, was the chairman of the board. Today, Becker is on the Party for Socialism and Liberation’s “Central Committee.” Becker was also in Cuba this week to support the communist regime.

Another director was Claudia De La Cruz, a leader at the Party for Socialism and Liberation with Becker and a wedding guest.

Finally, a socialist leader named Karla Reyes was on the board. She is the daughter of immigrants from El Salvador and rose in the ranks from joining Occupy Wall Street protests to landing a spot on the Central Committee of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. She is today an active member of “ICE Out of New York,” started by the People’s Forum, its protests filmed regularly by BreakThrough News.

In his letter to Reyes, Smith demanded records related to the organization’s ties to Singham and the Chinese Communist Party. He requested that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent remove the nonprofit status of organizations in the Singham network. 

While BreakThrough News doesn’t usually name the Chinese Communist Party directly, it regularly lauds Xi’s regime. In 2021, BreakThrough News’ host Rania Khalek promoted the “Chinese government” and its “eradication of extreme poverty within its border.” She co-hosted the session with Tings Chak, a researcher at Tricontinental, the arm of the House of Singham that pumps out pro-China academic work.

The Singham network functions like a coordinated unit. In 2022, People’s Forum gave BreakThrough a “non-cash” lease worth $318,596 for studio space at its W. 37th Street address. 

BreakThrough’s mission statement claims to be “unbiased towards any political candidates,” but the far-left outlet even created videos during the 2024 presidential election highly critical of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris as wanting to “out-Trump Trump.”

What began as a small, ideologically driven news platform became a broad multimedia machine producing documentaries, podcasts and social media content that amplified protest movements, international solidarity campaigns, especially around Palestinian issues and “anti-imperialist,” anti-America narratives. 

It’s a member of the International People’s Media Network, another part of the global House of Singham and a coalition of media platforms often publishing anti-America, pro-China content and sharing personnel with Tricontinental.

In 2023, BreakThrough News sent representatives to a conference hosted by the School of Communications at the East China Normal University, the public institution funded by the Chinese Communist Party’s Ministry of Education. Singham’s sister, Shanti Singham, and his friend, Prashad, work closely with those institutions. 

Following the arrest of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, groups in Singham’s network organized protests within hours. BreakThrough News posted videos from the demonstrations. It did the same with protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

NewsClick

Fox News Digital has also tracked $10.5 million the Justice and Education Fund sent to New Delhi-based PPK NewsClick Studio Pvt. Ltd. in five payments from 2019 through 2023 when the government of India shut the operation down for allegedly using donations improperly to run an anti-India, pro-China propaganda media outlet.

The government of India has sent Singham a criminal summons for alleged election interference, money laundering and terrorism, alleging he engaged in schemes to sow discord in India. The NewsClick case is still awaiting a trial date.

National security experts say it is critical to understand the big picture to fully value the command control of this global propaganda war with a tech tycoon as the motherlode.

Back in Havana, as DiNucci stepped onto the dock and cameras rolled, the moment reflected more than a single act of activism.

It showed how the Singham network’s messaging system works in real time, capturing events, shaping narratives and distributing them to audiences far beyond the street or, in this case, the dock.

In Mao’s terms, it is “Propaganda Work,” not just reporting on the news, but helping define it.

From the dock in Havana, DiNucci played her role, shouting, “Viva la Cuba.”

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Caruto, Nikolas Lanum and Kyle Schmidbauer contributed to this report.

FIRST ON FOX: An unlikely bipartisan duo is teaming up to force defense contractors to prioritize military readiness over shareholder value.

Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., introduced legislation that would require major defense contractors to prioritize delivering weapons by fulfilling their contracts fueled by taxpayer dollars over rewarding shareholders, with stiffer guardrails and oversight on the companies.

Their bill, Prioritizing the Warfighter in Defense Contracting Act of 2026, would restrict stock buybacks, dividends and high executive pay unless companies meet Pentagon performance standards in their contracts.

TRUMP OVERHAULS US ARMS SALES TO FAVOR KEY ALLIES, PROTECT AMERICAN WEAPONS PRODUCTION

“America’s defense contractors should be focused on expanding production, not padding their bottom lines,” Hawley said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “But even as they make record profits, some firms have spent big on stock buybacks, dividend payouts and exorbitant executive salaries.”

The lawmakers argued that for several years, defense contractors have struggled to deliver weapons systems on time, on budget or in sufficient quantities for the military, and instead dumped the eye-popping sums of taxpayer money flowing to them into their own coffers, rather than invest in research and development that could speed up the process.

They pointed to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report published last year that found that defense acquisition programs were plagued by delays and cost overruns, with delays for major programs increasing “by 18 months” in just the last year, with combined cost estimates creeping over $49 billion during the same period.

TRUMP-BACKED AFFORDABLE HOUSING OVERHAUL CLEARS SENATE, WHILE HOUSE GOP RAISES RED FLAGS

Since 2021, the top four defense contractors — Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, General Dynamics and Boeing — have increased spending and spent $89 billion on stock buybacks and dividends. Two-thirds of that came from taxpayer dollars, according to Warren’s office.

“It makes no sense for the federal government to fork over billions in taxpayer dollars to giant military contractors while their executives buy back their own company’s stock instead of investing in our national defense,” Warren said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “This bipartisan bill will stop defense contractors from abusing the system at taxpayer expense and put our national security over Wall Street profits.”

The legislation also gives the Pentagon more oversight tools to identify underperforming defense contractors and require those contractors to submit a remediation plan.

GOP SENATOR PUSHES TRUMP’S 10% CREDIT CARD RATE CAP AS PARTY LEADERS PUSH BACK

It also grants the Department of War stronger enforcement powers for contractors that aren’t meeting the agency’s standards, including suspending contract payments, ending eligibility for progress payments or terminating contracts altogether.

Hawley and Warren’s bill would also require the Pentagon to provide public reports on the contractors subject to their law, which contractors were granted waivers from the change in requirements and which companies have violated the rules.

The legislation would also codify an executive order President Donald Trump signed earlier this year that required a similar crackdown on underperforming defense contractors.

“Earlier this year, President Trump led the way with an executive order barring underperforming defense companies from engaging in these practices,” Hawley said. “Now, it’s time for Congress to act by codifying the President’s executive order into law, ensuring that America’s warfighters are prioritized over corporate profit.”