Never lose cell service again with this space-age satellite tech

February 9, 2025

Imagine never being without a cell signal again, anywhere, any time on the planet.

That’s exactly what AST SpaceMobile is working to achieve. Founded in the heart of Texas in 2017, this innovative company is developing the world’s first global cellular broadband network that can connect directly to your everyday smartphone, no special equipment required.

Its mission? To ensure that no matter where you are around the globe — from remote mountain ranges to isolated islands — you’ll never be out of touch again.

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AST SpaceMobile message on smartphone (AST SpaceMobile)

A historic achievement

AST SpaceMobile made history in April 2023 by completing the first two-way phone call via space on an unmodified cell phone. This milestone was achieved using its low Earth orbit satellite, Blue Walker 3 (BW3), which was launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in September 2022.

A woman using AST SpaceMobile on her smartphone (AST SpaceMobile)

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Rapid progress and expansion

Since its inception, AST SpaceMobile has made remarkable technological advancements. In September 2023, it achieved a 14-Mbps data stream on the BW3 satellite. A year later, in September 2024, the company launched five additional satellites, BlueBird 1 through 5. The ultimate goal is to establish a constellation of 168 satellites, offering speeds up to 120 Mbps.

BlueBird 1 through 5 satellites (AST SpaceMobile)

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Partnerships and global reach

AST SpaceMobile has forged strategic partnerships with major telecom players across the globe. In the United States, it has partnered with AT&T and Verizon. Internationally, it has teamed up with Bell Canada, Rakuten, Vodafone and other telecommunications providers. These partnerships potentially give about 2.8 billion people worldwide access to its satellite network.

AST SpaceMobile strategic partnerships with major telecom players (AST SpaceMobile)

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Technology and manufacturing

AST SpaceMobile’s approach to satellite connectivity is uniquely innovative. It focuses solely on direct-to-cell service, distinguishing itself from other competitors. Its current BlueBird satellites unfold to approximately 700 square feet in space, with future satellites planned to be three times larger and offer ten times the data capacity. Impressively, 95% of its manufacturing process is completed in house in the United States.

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A woman using AST SpaceMobile on her smartphone

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Comparing with Starlink

While both AST SpaceMobile and Elon Musk’s Starlink aim to provide global connectivity, their approaches significantly differ. AST SpaceMobile is built for direct-to-cell service, requiring no special equipment for users.

Starlink, primarily a data-focused service, has only recently launched modified satellites for direct-to-cell capabilities. AST’s focus on unmodified smartphones gives it a unique advantage in accessibility.

Illustration of AST SpaceMobile satellites in space (AST SpaceMobile)

Potential challenges

Despite the promising technology, the company faces several challenges. The brightness of satellites like BW3 could potentially interfere with astronomical observations. There are concerns about possible interference with radio-quiet zones used for scientific research. The increasing number of satellites also contributes to growing space debris concerns.

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Illustration of AST SpaceMobile satellite in space (AST SpaceMobile)

Cost and availability

As of January 2025, AST SpaceMobile has not yet announced specific pricing for its services. However, given its partnerships with major carriers like AT&T and Verizon, it’s likely that the service will be offered as an add-on to existing cellular plans. The company aims to provide coverage to remote areas and eliminate dead zones, suggesting that pricing may be competitive to attract a wide user base.

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A man using AST SpaceMobile on her smartphone (AST SpaceMobile)

Kurt’s key takeaways

AST SpaceMobile’s innovative approach to global connectivity has the potential to revolutionize how we stay connected, especially in remote areas. While challenges remain, the benefits of ubiquitous communication, particularly in emergency situations, are compelling. As the company continues to expand its satellite network and partnerships, we may soon see a world where being “out of range” is a thing of the past.

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Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.

Ecuador’s Presidential Election: What to Know

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February 9, 2025

Daniel Noboa, Ecuador’s center-right president, is facing re-election after 15 months in office.

His predecessor, Guillermo Lasso, called for early elections in 2023 amid impeachment proceedings over embezzlement accusations.

Mr. Noboa, 37, a Harvard Kennedy School graduate who comes from one of Ecuador’s wealthiest families, rose unexpectedly in the polls to win election and serve out the remainder of Mr. Lasso’s term.

At stake is the direction the troubled nation of nearly 18 million will take as it grapples with drug-fueled violence and high unemployment, issues that have sent tens of thousands of Ecuadoreans to the United States.

Why is this election important?

Five years ago, Mr. Noboa was a political unknown. He was elected to the country’s legislature in 2021 and served one term.

During the 2023 elections to replace Mr. Lasso, he rose from the bottom of the polls in the first round of voting to score a second-place victory after a strong debate performance. He then beat a leftist establishment candidate, Luisa González, in the second round.

Ms. González is running again and represents the party of a powerful former president, Rafael Correa, a polarizing figure in Ecuador. Many voters express nostalgia over the low violence and strong economy that characterized his presidency, while others remember his authoritarian style and his conviction on corruption charges.

For years Mr. Correa’s leftist movement has defined Ecuadorean politics, but some analysts say that if Mr. Noboa wins he has the potential to create a movement of his own.

Mr. Noboa’s party, which was formed less than a year ago, is predicted in polls to win about a third of the seats in the legislature — the same as Mr. Correa’s party.

Who are the top candidates?

Mr. Noboa was first elected on the back of a desperate desire for change following an explosion of insecurity in Ecuador and a particularly bloody 2023 election cycle, including the assassination of another presidential candidate.

Though violence, along with unemployment, remain high, he has leaned on a deft social media strategy to project an image of youth and vigor that has captivated many of his constituents.

In an effort to quell spiraling violence and an outbreak of prison riots, Mr. Noboa last year imposed a state of internal armed conflict, allowing the military to patrol the streets and prisons.

He also sent the police into the Mexican Embassy in Quito, the capital, to arrest a politician seeking refuge from a prison sentence for corruption, in what was considered a brazen breach of diplomatic protocol. Some analysts saw the moves as an overreach of presidential authority and a threat to civil liberties.

But his supporters see him as a bold leader willing to break the rules and stand up to corrupt forces. In April, Ecuadoreans endorsed his hard-line approach when they approved a referendum enshrining the increased military presence into law.

“He has to be firm to make people respect him,” said Jessica Navarro, 34, a taxi driver in Quito.

Ms. González, the political opponent, has been defined by her relationship to Mr. Correa, who handpicked her to represent his party.

“When Rafael Correa was there, he really supported us a lot,” said Edgar Escobar, 28, a nursing student who is supporting Ms. González. “I would like to go back to that country that we had before.”

But Ledy Zúñiga, a former justice minister who is running for the National Assembly with Ms. González’s party, pushed back against the notion that she represents the past.

“It is not about going back to the past,’’ she said. “People are still eight years later blaming the things that happen to a government that is no longer here. More than going back to the past, the issue is to have a team with experience and technical knowledge, because public administration is not easy.”

What are the main issues?

Ecuador is facing persistent violence, chronic unemployment and an energy crisis. January saw more violent deaths than any month in the past three years, according to police data.

A drought last year in a country that largely depends on hydroelectric energy caused daily 14-hour power cuts for about three months. The crisis threatened water, cell and internet service, shut down businesses and endangered entire industries.

Over the past five years, the drug-trafficking industry has expanded in Ecuador, drawing in international criminal groups and unleashing extraordinary levels violence in the once-peaceful nation.

But Mr. Noboa’s campaign has generally been defined more by image — the country has been flooded with cardboard cutouts of him — and less by specific policy proposals to address his country’s challenges.

Mr. Noboa often speaks vaguely about throwing “the old Ecuador” in the trash.

Ms. González has emphasized addressing the security crisis by strengthening Ecuador’s institutions like the justice, health and education system.

When will the results be known?

Ecuadorean presidential elections typically feature two rounds of voting, with the two top candidates in the first round facing off in a second round. To win the first round outright, a candidate must receive more than 50 percent of the votes, or 40 percent of the votes with a 10-point margin over the nearest rival.

Polls show Mr. Noboa in the lead ahead of Sunday’s election, with the possibility that he could win enough votes to avoid a runoff.

Voting starts at 7 a.m. Sunday and ends at 5 p.m. Results are expected to start coming in around 6 p.m.

Where can I find out more information?

How Trump’s crackdown on DEI could eviscerate the EEOC’s work : NPR

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February 9, 2025

Former EEOC Commissioner Jocelyn Samuels, shown at right, President Trump’s pick in his first term to fill a Democratic seat on the commission, is sworn in by then-EEOC Chair Janet Dhillon, left, on October 14, 2020.

U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

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U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

When Jocelyn Samuels learned through an email late on the evening of Jan. 27 that she was being removed from her seat on the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, she was shocked.

She had heard rumblings that President Trump might try to oust commissioners of independent agencies, but she didn’t think it would happen to her.

After all, the veteran civil rights lawyer had worked for both Republican and Democratic administrations. What’s more, she had been Trump’s pick to fill a Democratic seat on the bipartisan commission during his first term.

Jennifer Abruzzo, general counsel for the National Labor Relations Board, sits at agency headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Monday, June 13, 2022.

“I did not hide my policy views or the way I go about legal interpretation when I was interviewed by the Trump White House back in 2020,” says Samuels. “I believe I exercised my responsibilities with integrity and competence and a real attention to the rule of law.”

Yet now, five years on, she’s been told that her “radical” views, including her position that diversity, equity and inclusion work is permissible under law, make her unfit to serve.

The about-face has led Samuels to one conclusion.

“I think it is the perspectives of this administration that have changed and become significantly more radical,” she says.

A closeup of President Trump's hands as he signs an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House.

Since returning to the White House three weeks ago, Trump has taken so many legally questionable actions to implement his agenda that Samuels’ removal, along with that of former EEOC Chair Charlotte Burrows, has not sparked the widespread public response that it might have in quieter times.

But people who work in civil rights warn the firings are part of a broad attempt to dismantle the infrastructure for addressing systemic inequalities in America.

An agency established to fight discrimination

The EEOC was created by Congress 60 years ago to enforce Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. With headquarters in Washington, D.C., and field offices all over the country, its mission is to eliminate unlawful discrimination in the workplace.

Every year, the EEOC investigates tens of thousands of discrimination complaints, facilitating mediation in some cases and taking employers to court in others.

“The EEOC as an institution plays a critical role in advancing and vindicating the rights of those who have been subject to discrimination — a role that individuals simply can’t make up by hiring their own lawyers and filing their own lawsuits,” says Samuels.

Historically, the agency has prioritized protecting vulnerable workers and people from underserved communities.

Samuels fears that focus will end, as Trump takes his crackdown on diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) into all corners of the federal government and beyond.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) headquarters in Washington, DC, on June 29, 2022. The US Supreme Court has four decisions left to announce this term, one of which could severely limit the EPA's authority to regulate power plant emissions. A ruling against the EPA, could curtail plans by the administration of President Joe Biden to combat climate change. (Photo by Stefani Reynolds / AFP) (Photo by STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)

Already, the Trump administration has halted DEIA-related work throughout the government, revoked a 1965 executive order aimed at preventing employment discrimination by federal contractors and ordered government websites scrubbed of “gender ideology” content, among other things. Federal employees have been told to strip pronouns from their email signatures.

Acting EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas, whom Trump also appointed to the commission in 2020, has already ended the use of the non-binary “X” gender option on forms used for filing discrimination claims.

And much bigger changes are ahead.

“Elections have consequences”

“I do think elections have consequences, and new administrations do have different priorities,” says Samuels. “I think what is going on now is an effort to eviscerate the underpinnings of EEOC policy… and the nature of the work that it is able to undertake in a way that is completely unprecedented.”

Currently, the EEOC cannot make any big policy changes. With only two commissioners remaining, it lacks a quorum.

But with vacant seats that Trump can fill, the commission is expected to soon gain a Republican majority. At that point, Samuels expects an upheaval.

A silhouette of a person with a telescope against a dark, starry sky.

Lucas has vowed to rescind portions of the EEOC’s harassment guidance that make clear that trans people are protected from harassment on the basis of gender identity.

Samuels views that guidance as a vital tool for protecting people who have experienced egregious treatment at work, “whether it’s through misgendering, or asking invasive questions about employees’ genitalia, or saying that people are not real men if they are trans men, or calling people ‘it.'”

Lucas, meanwhile, contends that the guidance puts women in danger by ignoring “biological realities.”

“The same agency that in the 1960s and 70s fought to ensure women had the right to their own restrooms, locker rooms, sleeping quarters, and other sex-specific workplace facilities — and established that it would be sex discrimination not to provide such women-only facilities — betrayed women by attacking their sex-based rights in the workplace,” Lucas said in a statement last month. “That must end.”

A decision to rescind the gender identity part of the guidance could put the commission at odds with the Supreme Court. In 2020, the court ruled, “it is impossible to discriminate against a person for being homosexual or transgender without discriminating against that individual based on sex.”

President Trump holds up the "No Men in Women's Sports" executive order after signing it in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 5. It became the latest in a series of executive orders focused on transgender rights, many of which also center on curbing "gender ideology."

A chilling effect on employers

Many also worry that the Trump EEOC will adopt a proposal from Project 2025 to end the requirement that employers with 100 or more employees provide the government with yearly data about the race, ethnicity, gender and job category of their workers. Without the data, the EEOC may not be able to prove that an employer’s hiring or promotion practices are discriminatory.

“I am deeply worried that the EEOC will no longer be an agency that is committed to protecting and vindicating the rights of vulnerable workers, and will instead be a barrier to their ability to be protected from discrimination,” says Samuels.

Even before any big policy changes are finalized, Samuels anticipates many employers will cease all kinds of efforts to address barriers to opportunity, even things like mentorship programs that are open to all.

A GMC pickup truck is displayed for sale on a lot at a General Motors dealership in Austin, Texas. Last year, General Motors told investors in its annual report that "we are committed to fostering a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion." But in its latest report, published last week, GM doesn't mention diversity once.

“Because the administration has offered no description of the kinds of initiatives that it is sweeping into the DEI rubric, employers may be chilled,” she says.

She fears that Trump’s executive orders, which include many references to “illegal DEI and DEIA policies” and a direct call to private sector employers to examine their own practices, may lead some companies to inadvertently violate anti-discrimination laws.

As an example, federal law requires that employers make accommodations for employees and job applicants with disabilities, unless those accommodations would impose an undue hardship.

“Clumping accessibility together with this Trump DEI, as if these are woke, ideological terms that have no relationship to legal requirements, I think just leads employers down the garden path to believe that complying with their accommodation obligations is discretionary,” she says.

A fight of her own

After a career fighting on behalf of other people, Samuels is now weighing whether to challenge her own firing in court.

“I’m going to be thinking very hard about appropriate next steps,” she says.

Federal Election Commission member Ellen Weintraub testifies on Capitol Hill on Sept. 20, 2023.

Ninety years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that presidents don’t have the power to fire commissioners of independent agencies.

Through multiple firings, Trump is setting up opportunities for courts to reconsider that decision.

Already, Gwynne Wilcox, a Democratic member of the National Labor Relations Board who was fired by Trump the same night as Samuels, has sued Trump, citing language in the National Labor Relations Act that allows the president to remove board members only for neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.

“We trust that the courts will uphold the law’s longstanding protections for agency independence,” Wilcox’s attorney Deepak Gupta said in a statement.

Denzel Washington bit his tongue ‘almost half-off’, says it’s ‘affecting my speech

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February 9, 2025

Denzel Washington is struggling with his speech after suffering a gruesome injury.

During a Saturday appearance on The New York Times’ “The Interview” podcast, the 70-year-old actor revealed that he is recovering after he severely damaged a crucial body organ.

“I bit my tongue almost half-off a few months ago,” Washington said.

Denzel Washington revealed that he “bit his tongue almost half off a few months ago.” (Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC Images)

“It’s affecting my speech,” he continued. “It forces me to slow down. I have to use it.”

Washington explained that his health issue has led to complications as he prepares for his titular role in the upcoming Broadway revival of William Shakespeare’s iconic play “Othello,” which also stars Jake Gyllenhaal.

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“I have a line: ‘Whither will you that I go to answer this your charge?’ It’s hard because my tongue is swollen,” the Academy Award winner said. “It has affected everything.”

Washington did not provide details as to how he injured his tongue or what medical attention he received to treat the wound.

However, the “Gladiator: 2” star shared that he was leaning on his faith to overcome his challenges in the wake of the incident.

“That’s why you pray every day,” he explained. “I’m like, ‘OK, Lord, I’m here, I think this is what you wanted me to do.’ Now I’m not sure why, but one can say coincidence and serendipity and all those things.”

Washington said that his injury is affecting “everything.” (Kevin Winter/Getty Images for WarnerMedia)

On Dec. 21, Washington, who is the son of a preacher, was baptized by Bishop James Pullings Jr. at the Kelly Temple in New York City. During his appearance on the podcast, the actor shared that he is taking courses to obtain his minister’s license.

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While reflecting on whether his work as an actor helps people, Washington explained that he is only seeking validation from a higher power.

“It has affected everything.”

— Denzel Washington

“At this point, everything I’m doing is through the lens of what God thinks, not what they think,” he said. “I don’t know what they think,” he said.

“You go down that hole, you’ll never come out of that,” Washington added. “When people say, ‘What do you want people to get from this movie?’ or ‘What do you want them to get from this play?’ I always say, ‘It depends upon what they bring to it.’ There’s some interesting themes [in ‘Othello’] of jealousy and envy and pain and death.”

“And Kenny [Leon], the brilliant director, he’s putting it in what he calls the near future. So all of those things — jealousy, envy — it takes on a whole new thing with the information age.”

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The actor stars opposite Jake Gyllenhaal in “Othello” (Eric Charbonneau/Getty Images for Sony Pictures)

Washington also expressed his belief that Gyllenhaal would be “brilliant’ in the role of Othello’s nemesis Iago.

“He’s nuts. I love him,” the Tony Award winner said of Gyllenhaal. “He’s complicated. But he’s already got a handle on it.”

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“I’m not worried about that, because I don’t like to learn the lines too soon,” he added. “I was telling a young actor who asked, ‘Why don’t you like to learn them too soon?’ I said: ‘Because then I’m the voice I’m listening to delivering the cues to myself.”

“I want to hear it from you, and that’s going to affect how I say what I say.’ For me, that works.”

“Othello” will premiere at New York City’s Ethel Barrymore Theatre on March 25 and will run through June 8.

Ashley Hume is an entertainment writer for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to [email protected] and on Twitter: @ashleyhume

Sam Nujoma of Namibia Dead at 95

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February 9, 2025

His father, Daniel Utoni Nujoma, and his mother, Mpingana-Helvi Kondombolo, worked the land. As a boy, Mr. Nujoma said in his memoir, he tended the family cattle and goats, carrying a baby on his back to free his mother to work in the fields.

With only modest formal education, Mr. Nujoma moved at age 17 to the coastal enclave of Walvis Bay, where he worked at a general store and a whaling station before relocating to Windhoek as a cleaner on the railroad system. After hours, he studied English at night school. In 1956, he married Theopoldine Kovambo Katjimne. They had three sons, and a daughter who died at 18 months. Mr. Nujoma was in exile by then and unable to attend her funeral, he wrote, because the police would have arrested him.

In the late 1950s, as Ghana’s independence from Britain in 1957 became an emblem of liberation for many Africans, Mr. Nujoma was associated with organizations that were forerunners of SWAPO, notably the Ovamboland People’s Organization. He left for exile in 1960 over his role in protests against the forced removal of Black people from one segregated township to another. In 1966, his organization launched the first tentative military operations of its armed struggle. Over the years, thousands of young Namibians joined the insurgents’ ranks.

South Africa sought to belittle its war with SWAPO as a low-intensity conflict, but that belied its increasing commitment of military forces. “Despite major efforts by South Africa over 20 years,” Bernard E. Trainor, a military correspondent for The New York Times, wrote in July, 1988, “the Namibian rebels’ strength, now estimated at 8,000, appears undiminished.”

SWAPO’s military traditions endured after independence when Namibia’s regular army was deployed in support of the Congolese president, Laurent Kabila, in 1998 and to put down a secessionist revolt in the northeastern Caprivi Strip in 1999.

Kevin Costner says making movies has ‘nothing to do with politics’

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February 9, 2025

Kevin Costner shared his view that American politics shouldn’t have any impact on how Hollywood movies are made.

Ahead of taking office on Jan. 20, President Donald Trump named Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson and Jon Voight as his special ambassadors to Hollywood with the aim of bringing back business that he said had been lost to “foreign countries.”

During an interview with Fox News Digital on Saturday, Costner, 70, explained that he didn’t believe any change was needed in Hollywood with the advent of the Trump administration and filmmakers should focus on theater-goers when creating content.

“I think you make the best movie you can for an audience and understand that…you have a chance. Every so often you have a chance to do something meaningful,” he said while attending Michael Rubin’s Fanatics Super Bowl party in New Orleans.

Kevin Costner believes that movie-making has “nothing to do with politics.” (Matt Winkelmeyer/WireImage)

Costner continued, “And sometimes it’s just pure fun. Movies don’t have to be important, but they have to have an audience in mind.”

KEVIN COSTNER’S ‘HORIZON 2’ AUGUST THEATRICAL RELEASE CANCELED AFTER FIRST FILM’S DISAPPOINTING EARNINGS

“I think it doesn’t matter about party in [the] office,” he added. “It’s about the people sitting in the dark. It’s got nothing to do with politics.”

In June, Costner left his hit show “Yellowstone” due to scheduling and contract issues that were preventing him from focusing on his four-part Civil War drama “Horizon: An American Saga,” which he starred in and directed. The actor backed the movie series with $38 million of his own money, calling it a passion project from nearly 30 years ago.

Actor Kevin Costner shoots a gun in country western drama.

Costner spent decades creating his four-part Western “Horizon: An American Saga.” (Warner Bros.)

“Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1” was released in theaters last August but disappointed at the box office and received mixed reviews from critics. On Friday, Costner premiered the second installment at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, but a wider theatrical release in the U.S. has not been announced.

After “Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1” performed poorly at the box office, Costner defended the film and asserted that audiences would come to appreciate the saga over time.

“It’s about the people sitting in the dark. It’s got nothing to do with politics.”

— Kevin Costner

“I’ve faced life with people being dismissive of me,” Costner told E! News. “But they can’t be dismissive of ‘Horizon,’ because now it’s out of their hands. And they might point to the finish line – well, this is what it did at the box office – but I know that this movie is going to play for the next 50 years.”

“There’s a moment in time where you want [your children] to see this movie,” he said. “To understand that this is what their [ancestors] went through. It’s not just a Western, it’s a history of migration and what they had to do to survive. And I’m really proud of it.”

Kayce Dutton (Luke Grims) and John Dutton (Kevin Costner) walk in stride in a shot from "Yellowstone"

Kevin Costner, right, as John Dutton in the hit series “Yellowstone.” He left the drama in June 2024. (Paramount Network)

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During a February 2024 interview with Forbes, Costner, who previously directed the movies “Dances With Wolves,” “Open Range,” and “The Postman,” explained his approach to filmmaking.

“I don’t play to my fan base as much as I play to people who are willing to still go to the theater and take them to a place they didn’t imagine,” he said. “I don’t ignore my fanbase on any level, but I don’t cater to the idea of anybody except myself, when it comes to a story that I want to share.”

The two-time Academy Award winner admitted that he doesn’t enjoy directing movies, saying that it “kills me.”

Actor Kevin Costner wears beige polo shirt.

The actor said filmmakers should make movies with the audience in mind. (Getty Images)

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“There’s only one joy – that you’re going to see the movie unfiltered,” he continued. “You’re going to see it unvarnished – you’re going to see it the way I want, and it won’t be manipulated. There won’t be some committee deciding, ‘Well, that’s too hard, or we need to go faster here, or we need to do that.’”

” I tried to arbitrate that for an audience. I try to become the audience while making it. I think what people don’t want is to be bored on any level, and I don’t think they like being talked down to,” Costner added.

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“I don’t think that they flinch from the hard parts of life because there’s not a person in that theater that isn’t bruised.”

Ashley Hume is an entertainment writer for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to [email protected] and on Twitter: @ashleyhume

Thai Hostages Return From Gaza

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February 9, 2025

At Gate 10 of the arrivals hall of the Bangkok airport, Wichayada Saeyang stroked her son’s hair, as if he were a small boy, not a grown man. A few feet away, Pongsak Thanna wrapped his arms around his father and did not let go. His tears dampened his father’s shoulder.

“To see my son, it’s indescribable,” said Vilas Thanna, Mr. Pongsak’s father. “I cannot say it in words.”

On Sunday morning, five hostages returned to Thailand after 15 months of captivity in Gaza. The family reunions at the airport were a happy culmination to an ordeal that has roiled a large community of Thai laborers since the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Despite having nothing to do with the conflict, Thais were, after Israelis, the biggest victims of the terror that Hamas unleashed. At least 39 Thai agricultural workers were killed on Oct. 7. More than 30 were taken hostage, with the majority released in November 2023. Two died during captivity; one final Thai hostage remains unaccounted for.

“Today is a very emotional day,” said Maris Sangiampongsa, Thailand’s foreign minister, who received the five hostages at the Bangkok airport, describing how wonderful it was “for a person to be able to come home to the warmth of their family.”

Poverty has compelled tens of thousands of people from Thailand, particularly from the rural northeast, to find work in Israel as farmhands. Their numbers climbed in the 1990s after the first intifada, or uprising, when farm owners were looking for replacements for Palestinian workers, and are now around 30,000. About 5,000 of them worked the fields near the border with Gaza, helping to grow much of the fresh produce eaten in Israel.

Salaries in Israel — for picking avocados, raising chickens, tending strawberries — are at least five times that of those back home in Isaan, as the northeast is known. So transformative is the money that thousands of Thais stayed in Israel even after the Oct. 7 killings. Others have continued to travel there on new contracts.

Danger continues to stalk them. In October, Hezbollah rockets killed four Thais in northern Israel. The same month, another Thai died near the Israel-Lebanon border when ordnance exploded in an orchard.

For months, Mr. Vilas made pilgrimages to Buddhist temples, pleading for the safety of his son, Mr. Pongsak. He grew practiced at the ritual of prayer: the incense, the marigolds, the hands brought together in supplication.

Just before midnight on Sunday, he boarded a van for the long drive to Bangkok to reunite with his son, arriving at the airport before dawn. His family could not afford a plane ticket, he said.

His son, he said, would soon be ordained as a monk to show his gratitude for survival.

“It felt like I died and I was reborn,” Mr. Pongsak said of his captivity and release.

At the Bangkok airport, Nukan Suwannakham, the mother of another hostage, Sathian Suwannakham, marveled that even after 15 months of captivity her son looked healthy.

“He even looks fatter,” Ms. Nukan said. “He has chubbier cheeks.”

Her son told her that all he did in captivity was “eat and sleep.”

The hostages survived mostly on pita, beans and vegetables, they said, along with a little meat. The flavors were far blander than the fiery cuisine of Isaan, with its chilies and fermented flourishes. Months indoors left the hostages lacking vitamin D, Thai diplomats said.

Anong Saethao, the 22-year-old wife of Bannawat Saethao, another hostage, held her husband’s hand at the airport. She stroked his back. She nestled into his shoulder. They have three children, ages 16 months, 4 and 6.

The children knew only that their father was working abroad, she said. They were too young to know the truth about his 15 months as a hostage, longer than the time he had actually worked as a farmhand in Israel.

Even if other Thai laborers have returned to Israel or are willing to do so, Ms. Anong said her family was different. No money is worth such risks.

“I will never allow him to work abroad again,” she said.

Russ Vought, tapped as CFPB’s acting director, directs bureau to issue no new rules, stop all investigations

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February 9, 2025

Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought is now also the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where he has directed staff to not issue any new rules, to suspend effective dates of all final rules and to stop any new investigations.

Vought, also a Project 2025 author, was named acting director of the CFPB on Friday.

“I am honored that President Trump designated me as Acting Director of the Bureau on February 7, 2025,” Vought said in an email to CFPB colleagues obtained by RealClearPolitics. “As Acting Director, I am committed to implementing the President’s policies, consistent with the law, and acting as a faithful steward of the Bureau’s resources.”

He issued several directives that, effective immediately, must be followed by all employees, contractors and other CFPB personnel “unless expressly approved by the Acting Director or required by law,” according to RealClearPolitics.

RUSSELL VOUGHT CONFIRMED TO HEAD GOVERNMENT’S LEADING BUDGET OFFICE AFTER DEMS HOLD 30-HOUR PROTEST

Russell Vought speaks during a Senate Budget Committee hearing on his nomination, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

The directives include not approving or issuing any proposed or final rules or formal or informal guidance and for the bureau to suspend the effective dates of all final rules that have been issued or published but have not gone into effect.

Vought also ordered the bureau not to “commence, take investigative activities related to, or settle enforcement actions.” CFPB must not open any new investigation in any manner and must cease any pending probes, he said.

The acting director said the CFPB shall not issue public communications of any type, including research papers.

Russell Vought is sworn in during the Senate Banking Committee nomination hearing in the Dirksen Senate Building on January 22, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)

Additionally, the CFPB must not approve or execute any material agreements, including those related to employee matters or contractors, and must not make or approve filings or appearances by the bureau in any litigation except to ask for a pause in proceedings.

The bureau was also told to cease all supervision and examination activity and to cease all stakeholder engagement.

Vought also sent a letter to the Federal Reserve requesting no money for the CFPB’s third quarter of fiscal year 2025.

SENATE DEMOCRATS SPEAK ALL NIGHT AGAINST TRUMP OMB NOMINEE, DELAYING CONFIRMATION VOTE

Russell Vought testifies during the Senate Banking Committee nomination hearing in the Dirksen Senate Building on January 22, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)

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“Pursuant to the Consumer Financial Protection Act, I have notified the Federal Reserve that CFPB will not be taking its next draw of unappropriated funding because it is not ‘reasonably necessary’ to carry out its duties,” Vought wrote on X. “The Bureau’s current balance of $711.6 billion is in fact excessive in the current fiscal environment. This spigot, long contributing to CFPB’s unaccountability, is now being turned off.”

This comes after Vought was confirmed by the Senate on Thursday to lead the Office of Management and Budget.

Fox News Digital has reached out to CFPB for further comment.

Falcons running backs discuss sharing time in backfield, praise Kirk Cousins for how he handled benching

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February 9, 2025

It may not be uncommon for two teammates who play the same position to secretly root against one another. But that’s not what’s happening with Bijan Robinson and Tyler Allgeier.

Allgeier ran for over 1,000 yards in his rookie season in 2022, but just a few months after his first campaign wrapped up, the Atlanta Falcons selected Robinson with the eighth overall selection in the NFL Draft.

With Robinson being a star in Texas, the writing was on the wall for Allgeier to complement Robinson.

But that was fine with him. Off the field, they are “the bestest of friends,” Robinson said.

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Atlanta Falcons running back Bijan Robinson (7) celebrates after a touchdown with running back Tyler Allgeier (25) against the New Orleans Saints in the second quarter at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. (Brett Davis/USA Today Sports)

“I feel like a work environment that’s cool, but having that off the field as well, it just brings us even closer. So, that work environment is easy. It’s not forced. I think having those relationships that aren’t forced is just so natural and awesome to have. To be Bijan’s boy, it’s just awesome to have a best friend on the team,” Allgeier said in a recent interview with Fox News Digital with Robinson by his side.

“Off the field, we became the bestest of friends,” Robinson added. “This is my brother. I can rely on him for everything and anything. That we’re here in the Super Bowl doing something together, that’s all you can ask for.”

Naturally, they partnered with Bounty to be each other’s wingman ahead of the Super Bowl.

“You can’t have football without wings, and you can’t have wings without Bounty. That’s the main thing. But having my wingman right here? Can’t get any better,” said Allgeier.

“I think our relationship is like Bounty and wings. It’s literally the same thing. You can’t have one without the other,” Robinson added. “For me, this is one of the best running backs in the league. There’s no backup in his title at all.

“For me to share the field with him, and for when I get tired, he goes in, when he gets tired, I’ll go in. We’re just trying to play off each other and just have fun with it. We have a coach that allows us to maximize our abilities.”

Much like the running backs, it was similar when the Falcons, just a months after signing Kirk Cousins, drafted Michael Penix with the eighth overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. Penix eventually took Cousins’ job, but there was nothing awkward between the two at all, the backs said.

Atlanta Falcons quarterbacks Michael Penix Jr., left, and Kirk Cousins on the field befor a game against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. (Dale Zanine/Imagn Images)

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“It was just good to see Kirk deal with that the right way. He never wavered, he never got mad or got disappointed,'” said Robinson. “He got right to work. He got right to helping Mike become who he wants to become. Even with Mike, he was so selfless and wanted to learn and get connections with all of us as players on the offense.

“I was never a love/hate, or hate, relationship at all. It was just support, and when you got a guy who can learn under a vet for a whole season really, then he comes in way more comfortable and way more prepared than just him having to start off right away being a rookie quarterback. They played off each other well, and we just love having both of them.”

Added Allgeier, “Being there the same time as Kirk, and especially having Kirk as the role model, I think he set the standard of what a vet and a great quarterback is to be in this league. Him being able to be under his wing and just chip away at it. It was dope to have. So, I think he was already preparing to be a starter. So, it was just a matter of timing and just his plan.”

Super Bowl LIX will be streamed on Tubi. (Tubi)

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It’s unclear what Cousins’ future in Atlanta is. But, after many were confused by Atlanta picking Penix, it seems like they made a smart move thinking outside the box.

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Scott Thompson is a sports writer for Fox News Digital.

Dolphins’ Tyreek Hill doubles down on ‘love’ for Miami, despite ‘frustration’ with regular season results

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February 9, 2025

Tyreek Hill appears to be interested in sticking with the Miami Dolphins for the foreseeable future.

On Friday, the star wide receiver expressed his “love” for Miami. “I don’t want to go nowhere. I love [Miami], my family loves it,” Hill said during an appearance on “Up & Adams.”

Hill’s latest comments come just weeks after he said he was “out” of Miami following the Dolphins’ season-ending loss to the New York Jets.

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Jan 5, 2025; East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA; Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill (10) on the field before the game against the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium. (Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images)

“I’m out, bro. It was great playing here, but at the end of the day, I’ve got to do what’s best for my career. … I’m too much of a competitor to be just out there,” Hill said in January. Hill later admitted he made those remarks during a moment of irritation.

“What y’all had heard at the end of the season was frustration,” Hill told ESPN last month.

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Hill cited the “special” nature of what the Dolphins were working to create as he further explained his hopes of remaining in Miami.

“It’s an amazing thing, man. We are really building something special in Miami. We made it to the playoffs the first two years. Obviously, this year was hard. If guys continue to buy in, to what coach is building and the culture that he’s trying to build, it’s going to be an amazing thing.”

Hill’s frustrations appeared to reach a tipping point when he pulled himself out of the second half of Miami’s aforementioned loss to the Jets on Jan. 5 when it became clear Miami would not clinch a playoff berth.

Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill (10) runs with the ball during the first half against the Tennessee Titans at Hard Rock Stadium. (J asen Vinlove-Imagn Images)

The five-time All-Pro selection expressed regret about his postgame comments.

“I could have handled the situation better,” Hill said. “Instead of saying I’m out, I could have obviously handled it better. And I wish I did. But in the heat of the moment, I just said whatever I had to say. And I’m taking full accountability of that.”

After leading the NFL with 1,799 receiving yards last season, Hill finished this season with just 959 on 81 catches. It was the first time he didn’t have 1,000 yards receiving since he had 860 with the Kansas City Chiefs in an injury-filled 2019 season. Injuries to quarterback Tua Tagovailoa contributed to Hill’s lack of production. Tagovailoa missed six games in 2024, including the Week 18 loss.

Hill said he has since spoken to Dolphins veterans such as left tackle Terron Armstead, cornerback Jalen Ramsey and running back Raheem Mostert, and offered a public apology Friday to his teammates and Tagovailoa.

“Tua, he’s my guy — always will be, no matter what,” Hill said. “I’m sure he understands my frustration, we all want to win … this is my public apology to you, Tua. I love you bro.”

He also spoke with McDaniel, who in his end-of-season press conference described the conversation as necessary to “clear the air in a rough and tumultuous situation.”

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Super Bowl LIX will be streamed on Tubi. (Tubi)

Hill agreed to a restructured contract this past offseason that raised his four-year total of fully guaranteed money to $106.5 million. His contract runs through 2026.

The Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles meet in the Super Bowl on Sunday, Feb. 9, at 6:30 p.m. ET on FOX.

FOX’s Super Bowl coverage begins at 1 p.m. ET. Coverage can also be streamed live on Tubi for the first time.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Chantz Martin is a sports writer for Fox News Digital.

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