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Reporter’s Notebook: Ukrainian spiritual leader says Russian Orthodox Church extension of Kremlin

As President Donald Trump’s administration works toward a diplomatic end to the war in Ukraine, the leaders of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) are warning that Vladimir Putin’s Russia believes it’s actually fighting a “holy war” against the West.

A delegation from the OCU was in the United States recently for the International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington, D.C. The group was led by His Beatitude Metropolitan Epiphany, leader of Kyiv and all of Ukraine.

His translator spoke to Fox News about the spiritual war raging between Russia and Ukraine, which has played a big role in why the battle began and continues to escalate.

HEAD OF EASTERN ORTHODOXY CONDEMNS PUTIN, RUSSIAN INVASION OF UKRAINE

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends Easter Orthodox service at the Christ the Savior Cathedral, April 16, 2023 in Moscow. (Contributor/Getty Images)

His eminence Metropolitan Yevstratiy, the deputy head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine’s external church relations, says of Russia, “From the point of religious view, this is a liberation of Ukrainians from [the] Godless West, from the evil. And Russia brings to Ukraine the light and truth.”

Yevstratiy, and other church watchers like Catholic intellectual George Weigel, have accused the Russian Orthodox Church of being nothing more than an arm of the Kremlin, dressed in religious vestments but doing Putin’s bidding.

Writing in the magazine First Things, Weigel noted “… Ukraine mounted and sustained a fierce resistance that denied Russia the quick victory Putin anticipated in February 2022, Russian justifications for the war began to take on a new coloration: The war was now a crusade in defense of Christian civilization.”

On Lighthouse Faith podcast, Yevstratiy recalled how at the start of the war, Moscow’s Patriarch Kirill sermonized to Russian soldiers fighting against Ukraine that if they die in battle they would immediately go to paradise… all sins forgiven. Even to an outsider looking at the complexity of Orthodox Christianity, that sounds more like ‘Political Jihad’ than the Gospel.

In 2019, Ukraine’s Orthodox Church was granted independence from the Russian Orthodox Church by the ecumenical patriarch in Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey). It caused an uproar in Moscow. Kirill and Putin refused to recognize the authority of Patriarch Bartholomew.

‘PUTIN’S CONFESSOR’ NAMED BISHOP OF ANNEXED UKRAINIAN TERRITORY

Metropolitan Epiphanius conducts the liturgical service and the Church of St. Andrew the First-Called consecration on Aug. 25, 2024, in Bucha, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. (Andrii Nesterenko/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)

Yevstratiy also revealed a scarier version of the war in Ukraine. He says Putin’s ultimate goal is more than the reunification of the Soviet Union, or the defense of Christian civilization. It’s actually more apocalyptic. He’s focused on ushering in the third and final Rome…. in Moscow, which means, labeling the rest of Christianity, Catholics and Protestants alike… as heretics and pagans.

Describing the inner workings of the Orthodox churches may seem a little like ‘inside baseball’. But these are the oldest churches of Christianity. They emerged from the five ancient churches led by the apostles who knew Jesus personally.

Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill conducts the Easter service at the Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow on Saturday, April 23. (Sergei Vlasov, Russian Orthodox Church Press Service via AP)

The apostle Andrew went to the east in Constantinople; Mark to Alexandria (Egypt); Peter to Antioch (Rome); James to Jerusalem, and Barnabas to Cyprus. From these men, along with the itinerant Apostle Paul, Christianity spread throughout the globe. So, this conflict between Russia and Ukraine has deep spiritual roots. And Putin knows it.

Yestratiy and Epiphany were present at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C. and heard President Trump declare his desire to be a peacemaker.

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Vestratiy said, “We pray and we ask God Almighty to bless this very good and Christian desire.”

Adding, “May God bless Ukraine. May God bless America.”

The full interview is on Lauren Green’s Lighthouse Faith podcast, available on Apple, Spotify and here.

February 16, 2025
Trump targets McConnell’s mental acuity as former leader joins Dems against key nominees

President Donald Trump derided former Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., as “not equipped mentally” after he went from being the face of the GOP in the upper chamber to opposing his entire conference and voting with the Democrats on Trump’s key Cabinet nominations in just a matter of months.

“He wasn’t equipped ten years ago, mentally, in my opinion,” Trump told reporters at the White House after McConnell refused to vote in favor of confirming his controversial Health and Human Services (HHS) pick, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

“He’s a, you know, very bitter guy,” Trump added of McConnell, with whom he has had a strained relationship with over the years, including during his previous presidency.

TRUMP AGRICULTURE PICK CONFIRMED AS PRESIDENT RACKS UP CABINET WINS

The GOP’s recent and longest-serving Senate party leader has stood in opposition to his conference multiple times, demonstrating the party’s significant transformation in the age of Trump. (Reuters)

While such a shift from GOP leader to defiant Republican might be optically jarring, the move was unsurprising to Jim Manley, former senior communications advisor and spokesman for former Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the Senate Democratic Caucus.

“He was living on borrowed time the last couple of years,” he told Fox News Digital of McConnell. Manley speculated that if he hadn’t decided to step down from leadership voluntarily before the 119th Congress, he would have had significant trouble being re-elected. “[I]t’s evident just how exactly out of step he is with the caucus,” he said, noting that it has become “much more conservative.”

In three pivotal Senate votes on Trump’s most vulnerable Cabinet nominees in the last few weeks, McConnell bucked his party. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s nomination was confirmed by a razor-thin margin, 51-50, after Vice President JD Vance was called in to break the tie.

TULSI GABBARD SWORN IN AT WHITE HOUSE HOURS AFTER SENATE CONFIRMATION

McConnell and Trump have had a thorny relationship. (Reuters)

Moderate GOP Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, joined him in voting against the controversial defense pick.

However, McConnell was the only Republican to vote against the similarly controversial Director of National Intelligence (DNI) nominee Tulsi Gabbard and HHS pick Kennedy. Even Collins, Murkowski, and several other senators with reputations for being somewhat hesitant got behind them.

“If Senator McConnell was looking to accelerate the deterioration of his legacy as the former Republican Senate leader, he’s succeeded,” a Senate GOP source remarked. They described the Kentucky Republican’s actions as “an attempt to embarrass the president and the Republican Party” and evidence “of why he was no longer fit to lead our conference.”

McConnell released lengthy statements following each vote, explaining his reasoning. He also wished each of them well and committed to working with them.

DOGE ‘PLAYBOOK’ UNVEILED BY GOP SENATOR AS MUSK-LED AGENCY SHAKES UP FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

Hegseth was confirmed after JD Vance cast a tie-breaking vote. (Omar Marques/Getty Images)

A defense hawk and chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, McConnell was unconvinced that Hegseth or Gabbard were the best national security selections.

As for Kennedy, McConnell recalled his childhood experience with polio and touted the effectiveness of vaccines, of which the now-HHS secretary has been consistently critical.

McConnell did vote in favor of Trump’s other, less-controversial and lesser-known Cabinet nominees.

Republican strategist Matt Dole called the former leader “an enigma.”

“[H]e sought to rule the Republican Caucus with an iron fist when he was leader,” he pointed out.

“That makes his own, lonely, votes stand out as all the more egregious.”

McConnell’s successor, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., reacted to the “no” votes in an interview with Fox News Digital. “I think he knows better than anybody how hard it is to lead a place like the United States Senate, where it takes 60 votes to get most things done, and that you got to have everybody, sort of functioning as a team,” he said.

According to Thune, McConnell “is still active up here and still a strong voice on issues he’s passionate about, including national security, and so when it comes to those issues, he has outsized influence and a voice that we all pay attention to.”

DEM LOOKS TO CODIFY NEW AG BONDI’S DESIRED CRACKDOWN ON ‘ZOMBIE DRUG’ XYLAZINE

Thune succeeded McConnell as Senate GOP leader. (Reuters)

He explained that while the conference doesn’t necessarily agree with him, “we respect his positions on these, some of these [nominations], and I know that a lot of big stuff ahead of us, he’s going to be with us. He’s a team player.”

One former top Senate Republican strategist explained the former leader has “nothing to lose” at this point. In fact, they said, the feelings he is expressing about Trump’s most controversial selections actually reflects those of a number of other senators. But they can’t oppose the picks themselves “for fear of retribution by Trump or primary voters that will make a difference on whether or not they remain in power.”

“Not being in leadership can be quite liberating,” GOP strategist John Feehery added.

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According to Grant Reeher, a political science professor at Syracuse University, “I think he wants to make a symbolic statement in favor of an older Reagan-era type of conservatism and a more traditional Republican Party—this is the way he wants to be remembered.”

McConnell’s office declined to comment to Fox News Digital.

Julia Johnson is a politics writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business, leading coverage of the U.S. Senate. She was previously a politics reporter at the Washington Examiner.

Follow Julia’s reporting on X at @JuliaaJohnson_ and send tips to [email protected].

February 16, 2025
Egg farmers facing the ‘worst bird flu outbreak’ in ‘history,’ industry leader fears

Vice president of Eggs Unlimited Brian Moscogiuri explains why egg prices will continue to soar as the bird flu outbreak slows production.

American farmers and those in the agricultural business continue to reel over the spread of H5N1 bird flu, which apparently shows no sign of slowing to “disaster” status.

“The real crisis is that we’re going through the worst bird flu outbreak that we’ve had in the last 10 years since 2015, potentially the worst bird flu outbreak that we’ve ever had in the history of this country,” Eggs Unlimited Vice President Brian Moscogiuri said on “Fox & Friends” Thursday.

“We’ve lost 120 million birds since the beginning of 2022. In the last few months alone, since the middle of October, we’ve lost 45 million egg-laying hens,” he added. “We’ve lost a significant amount of production, more than 13%. So we’re just dealing with supply shortages. And it’s just a disaster right now because this virus is in three of the top egg-laying states in the country. It doesn’t seem like it’s stopping anytime soon.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), bird flu detections have been made in dairy cattle, wild birds, poultry flocks and other mammals, while 68 human cases have been confirmed as well as one death.

EGG PRICES AREN’T COMING DOWN ANYTIME SOON, EXPERTS SAY

Companies recently started imposing limits on egg sales as the shortage caused by outbreaks persists, causing a frenzy among shoppers. Droves of viral videos have surfaced in recent weeks, showing shoppers stockpiling eggs. One video posted on TikTok claimed that an entire section of eggs at a Costco was gone in less than 10 minutes.

A grocery store worker rearranges items in the depleted egg section on January 23, 2025 in Miami, Florida. (Getty Images)

Other grocery and restaurant chains like Trader Joe’s, Korger, Whole Foods and Waffle House have been limiting customer purchases or adding egg surcharges as the nationwide supply dwindles.

“We’re just trying to figure out, and the farmers are trying to figure out, how the virus is getting in… there’s several different catalysts, including wild migratory birds that have been flying over the country in the fall, in the spring each year… And we’re also wondering, is it in the ground? Is it in the air on these farms? Some of these farms that have been able to clean out and are working on repopulating have actually been hit again,” Moscogiuri said.

Carlo’s Bakery owner Buddy Valastro opens up about the soaring price of eggs on ‘The Claman Countdown.’

“The farms really need help in identifying where the virus is coming in from, and then,” he expanded, “solutions to stopping the virus so that they can repopulate, resupply and ultimately help to bring the egg prices back down.”

Since January, average egg prices have risen 15% and are up 53% year-over-year, data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Bureau of Labor Statistics shows.

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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday that the high prices of eggs is directly related to a lack of chicken supply which the Biden administration contributed to.

Eggs Unlimited is one of the largest international suppliers of eggs, servicing major retailers, distributors and food service companies while also serving as a sort of egg “broker,” according to Moscogiuri.

Business is understandably “difficult” right now, he said.

“There’s less eggs available. Right now, we’re really focused on making sure that our customers are getting the orders and their supply, and making sure that they have eggs on their shelves. For consumers, [we’re] trying to limit their impact with the pricing and the supply chain shortages that we’re currently seeing right now.”

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FOX Business’ Daniella Genovese contributed to this report.

February 15, 2025
Jon Taffer schools Democrat leader after blaming Trump for rising prices

‘Bar Rescue’ host Jon Taffer joins the ‘Big Money Show’ panel as they discuss the impact of inflation on multiple industries, Sen. Chuck Schumer’s comments and the ‘Make America Healthy Again’ movement as RFK Jr. is confirmed as the HHS Secretary.

The pressure is mounting on President Donald Trump to deliver on his promise of lower prices, but some business leaders argue that stability is just as critical as affordability.

“Donald Trump has not kept his promise that on Day One, prices will start going down,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on Capitol Hill.

“Prices went up 3%. The price of groceries went up. The price of buying a car went up.”

While rising costs have fueled frustration, entrepreneur and “Bar Rescue” host Jon Taffer warns that unpredictable price swings can be just as damaging as high costs.

TRUMP SIGNS ‘RECIPROCAL’ TARIFF PLAN FOR COUNTRIES THAT TAX US GOODS

“We can’t survive when the prices are going up and down,” Taffer said on “The Big Money Show” Thursday. “You can’t run a business that way because you can’t boomerang your customers in that fashion.”

Taffer argues that businesses can adapt to higher costs, as long as those costs are stable.

“If stability is at [the] current level, so be it. We can build our business models around [the] current level. What we can’t build a business model around is a lack of stability. That’s what’s killing us all,” he stressed.

FOX Business’ Lydia Hu reports on the surge in the egg prices and the limited supply due to a bird flu outbreak.

FIXING AMERICA’S CHICKEN AND EGG CRISIS

The cost of everyday essentials like eggs, coffee, vegetables, and milk has soared in recent months, putting additional strain on restaurants and small businesses.

“Restaurants can’t spend more than 33% of their revenues on food costs,” Taffer explained. “That means it’s a $3 price increase for every $1 cost increase. So, if my burger goes up $3 in price, to me, I have to charge you $9 more for that burger. That creates a resistance at the customer level.”

Rising labor, insurance and energy costs have also made it increasingly difficult for businesses to keep prices reasonable. In response, President Trump has laid out a multistep plan to lower costs, including tax cuts, reduced government spending, and increased oil production to bring down energy prices.

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Taffer acknowledges the importance of lowering costs but stresses that any changes must be sustainable.

“Sustainability and predictability I think is the most important things that Trump needs to bring to the marketplace,” he said.

For businesses, the bottom line isn’t just about lower prices, it’s about knowing what to expect, Taffer concluded.

Carlo’s Bakery owner Buddy Valastro opens up about the soaring price of eggs on ‘The Claman Countdown.’

February 14, 2025
Senate Majority Leader Thune says this is the reason why he and Trump are working well together

EXCLUSIVE: Senate Majority Leader John Thune is getting a tough job done.

“Senate Republicans have been committed to getting President Trump’s nominees through,” Thune, who’s been on the job steering the Senate for six weeks, told Fox News in an exclusive national digital interview.

Thune was interviewed ahead of Brooke Rollins’s confirmation as secretary of agriculture, which brought to 16 the number of Trump nominees approved by the Senate.

Only 11 Cabinet nominees were approved by this date eight years ago during Trump’s first term in the White House.

SENATE CONFIRMS ANOTHER CONTROVERSIAL TRUMP CABINET NOMINEE

Senate Majority Leader Sen. John Thune of South Dakota speaks to reporters on Feb. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

And on this date four years ago, the Senate had confirmed only seven of then-President Biden’s Cabinet nominees.

Rollins’ confirmation followed the confirmations of two of Donald Trump’s most controversial nominees: former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of health and human services.

Gabbard and Kennedy were confirmed on near party-line votes in a chamber the GOP controls with a 53-47 majority.

“I think that the Senate Republicans have proven that we are united,” the South Dakota Republican said.

Thune, a two-decade Senate veteran who served in GOP leadership the past few years before succeeding longtime leader Sen. Mitch McConnell as the top Republican in the chamber, emphasized the team effort.

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“What you try and do is just try and make the people around you better,” Thune said. “We’ve got a lot of talent in the Senate, people who … we want to deploy and utilize and let them use their gifts and talents [to] get things done around here that need to be done.”

The senator pointed to his father, a former college athlete and coach, who he said would advise him to “make the extra pass if somebody’s got a better shot. So what we’ve been trying to do is look for an opportunity to make the extra pass. And I think that it does really utilize the great talent we have here in the Senate.”

Thune says he’s been meeting “fairly regularly” with the president, in person, on the phone and through text.

President Donald Trump talks to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., left, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., after speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington on Feb. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

“It’s a regular pipeline,” he said. “His team has been really good, too, about working with our team here. I think we’ve had a very constructive working relationship. And I tell people, our incentives are aligned. We all want to get to the same destination.”

Thune hasn’t always had a constructive relationship with the often unpredictable Trump.

Trump was critical of Thune in the years after his first term and briefly considered backing a primary challenge against the senator as he ran for re-election in 2022.

Thune said that “like a lot of people,” he’s had “differences with the president in the past.”

“But I think right now, we understand the things that we want to get done in the course of his term and the opportunity that we have, which is rare in politics, to have unified control of the government, House, Senate and White House. We need to maximize that, and in order to do that, we’ve got to have a very constructive relationship in which there’s regular communication,” Thune emphasized.

McConnell was the only Senate Republican to vote against confirming Kennedy and Gabbard. McConnell, who suffered from polio as a child and is a major proponent of vaccines, was critical of Kennedy’s history of high-profile vaccine skepticism.

Mitch McConnell (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

“I’m a survivor of childhood polio. In my lifetime, I’ve watched vaccines save millions of lives from devastating diseases across America and around the world. I will not condone the re-litigation of proven cures and neither will millions of Americans who credit their survival and quality of life to scientific miracles,” McConnell said after the Kennedy vote.

Trump, who’s long criticized McConnell, took aim again.

“I have no idea if he had polio. All I can tell you about him is he shouldn’t have been a leader. He knows that. He voted against Bobby. He votes against almost everything. He’s a very bitter guy,” Trump charged.

Thune, interviewed after Gabbard’s confirmation and ahead of the final vote on Kennedy, said the 82-year-old McConnell is “still active up here and still a strong voice on issues he’s passionate about, including national security.”

“So when it comes to those issues, he has outsized influence and a voice that we all pay attention to,” Thune said. “He’s got views on some of these nominees that maybe don’t track exactly with where I or other Republicans have come down, but we respect his positions on these, some of these noms, and I know that on a lot of big stuff ahead of us, he’s going to be with us. He’s a team player.”

Thune added, “I’ve had plenty of consultations with him through the years and in recent months and weeks, and we’ll continue to reach out to him when we think it makes sense to get a lay of the land that, based on his experience, he can help us navigate.”

Senate Majority Leader Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, right, speaks to reporters, Feb. 11, 2025, after a Senate policy luncheon on Capitol Hill. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

While he’s enjoyed a slew of confirmation victories this week, Thune is realistic.

“I feel good about how it’s gone so far, but we’ve got some really hard sledding ahead. We know that, and we just have to keep our heads down and do the work,” he cautioned.

While confirming Trump’s Cabinet is currently job No. 1, Thune is juggling numerous tasks.

“Obviously, most of our time has been occupied moving the president’s team and getting his nominees confirmed, and we’ll continue to do that. But as we go about that process, we’re looking for windows, too, to move important legislation,” he said.

He pointed to the Laken Riley Act, quickly passed by the Senate and the House and signed into law by Trump.

The controversial measure, which is named after a nursing student who was killed by an illegal immigrant while jogging on the University of Georgia’s campus, requires federal immigration authorities to detain illegal immigrants found guilty of theft-related crimes.

Thune pointed out that the legislation grabbed bipartisan support, but he added that it’s “a bill that was responsive to the election mandate, and it was a bill that divided Democrats and united Republicans.”

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He also chastised his predecessor as Senate majority leader, Democrat Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York.

Thune argued that during Schumer’s tenure “the floor would get bogged down. You know, votes would take forever. We’re just trying to make more efficient use of people’s time and get this place kind of operating on a schedule again. We’re going to continue to do that and getting back to regular order.”

Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in New Hampshire.

February 14, 2025
DRAIN THE SWAMP Act seeks to move DC bureaucracy ‘out of crazy town,’ House DOGE leader says

EXCLUSIVE: House DOGE Caucus founder Aaron Bean, R-Fla., will put forward the DRAIN THE SWAMP Act this week as part of continuing legislative attempts to target government waste.

The bill aims to require that federal agency heads relocate about one-third of headquarters-based employees “outside the Beltway” while finding ways to save taxpayer money through moves like selling underused Washington, D.C., office space.

Bean, who launched the bipartisan DOGE caucus in November, said his bill, which stands for the Decentralizing and Reorganizing Agency Infrastructure Nationwide To Harness Efficient Services, Workforce Administration and Management Priorities Act is what is needed to bring more accountability to Washington’s bureaucracy.

“The swamp is thick and deep here in crazy town, and I’m here to drain it,” Bean told Fox News Digital Wednesday.

DOGE MEETS CONGRESS: FL REP LAUNCHES CAUCUS TO HELP MUSK

The Congressional DOGE Caucus was founded by Florida Congressman Aaron Bean. (House of Representatives/Getty Images)

“It is time to remind Washington that our duty is to serve the American people,” the Fernandina Beach lawmaker added.

Agencies exempt from the legislation include the Pentagon, DHS, CIA and NSA, which is based at Fort George G. Meade near Glen Burnie, Maryland.

The remaining 70% of the federal workforce allowed to remain in and around the district would be required to work in person 100% of the time under the legislation.

EDUCATION BILL WOULD REQUIRE PARENTAL NOTIFICATION TO TRACE FOREIGN FUNDING OF CURRICULUM AS CHINA LOOKS ON

The Office of Management and Budget, an executive cabinet agency, would then be directed to work toward selling — or not renewing leases on — office space vacated by the relocated bureaucrats, saving taxpayer funds.

Bean quipped that the DRAIN THE SWAMP Act will ensure the federal government works for the people “and not the other way around.”

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, Bean’s DOGE counterpart in the upper chamber, also put forward companion legislation, which helps speed up the process of reconciling House and Senate versions of a bill to make it to the president’s desk.

Washington, D.C.-bound commuters sit in traffic on I-270 near the Capitol Beltway in Bethesda, Md. (Getty)

“The federal workforce has shown they clearly don’t want to work in D.C., and I am going to make their dreams come true,” said Ernst, who previously highlighted waste, fraud and abuse through her “Squeal Awards” that root out government “pork.”

Since founding the DOGE caucus, Bean has added two GOP co-chairmen to the ranks — representatives Pete Sessions of Texas and Blake Moore of Utah.

Sessions, chairman of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Government Operations, previously highlighted the $2.7 trillion in reported fraud and improper government payments over the past 20 years.

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“This is an absolutely unacceptable misuse of taxpayer dollars. Hardworking Americans deserve a government that works efficiently and effectively,” Sessions said at the time.

In that regard, the executive branch’s DOGE leader, Elon Musk, said Tuesday from the Oval Office that finding and ending improper and sometimes anonymous payments will save U.S. taxpayers a lot of money.

Musk added DOGE oversight led to the discovery that, in at least one instance, Social Security payments were being made to people recorded to be 150 years old.

Moore holds key roles on the Budget and Ways & Means Committee.

Charles Creitz is a reporter for Fox News Digital.

He joined Fox News in 2013 as a writer and production assistant.

Charles covers media, politics and culture for Fox News Digital.

Charles is a Pennsylvania native and graduated from Temple University with a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism. Story tips can be sent to [email protected].

February 13, 2025
Nokia picks Intel’s AI and data center leader Justin Hotard as new CEO
Vice President JD Vance told world leaders in Paris that AI must be ‘free from ideological bias,’ and that American tech won’t be a censorship tool. (Credit: Reuters)
- Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark will step down and be replaced by Justin Hotard, the Finnish telecoms company said on Monday.
- Hotard is currently the executive vice president and general manager of Data Center & AI Group at Intel, according to the chipmaker’s website.
- Nokia shares are up 27.85% over the past year, but are down more than 90% since peaking in June 2000.
Finnish telecoms company Nokia on Monday said Pekka Lundmark would step down as CEO, and that it has appointed Justin Hotard to take over his role.

Hotard, who will take up the position on April 1, is currently the executive vice president and general manager of Data Center & AI Group at Intel, according to the chipmaker’s website.

Telecom gear makers, struggling with lower sales of 5G equipment, have been looking for ways to diversify their markets and break into growing areas such as artificial intelligence.

AI WILL HELP LOWER PRICES, BUT COULD BE USED BY AUTHORITARIAN GOVERNMENTS, OPENAI CEO SAM ALTMAN SAYS

“He has a strong track record of accelerating growth in technology companies along with vast expertise in AI and data center markets, which are critical areas for Nokia’s future growth,” Nokia’s Chair Sari Baldauf said in a statement.

Shares were up 1.6% at 4.7 euros by 0854 GMT on Helsinki’s stock exchange, which was up just 0.45%.

JPMorgan analysts called the CEO transition a surprise as they said Lundmark had been successful at “steadying the ship.”

Nokia’s current President and Chief Executive Officer, Pekka Lundmark, Nokia’s Chair of the Board of Directors Sari Baldauf and the next President and Chief Executive Officer of Nokia, Justin Hotard, attend the company’s press conference in Espoo, Fi (Lehtikuva/Markku Ulander/via Reuters / Reuters)

“Given that a new CEO has already been appointed, it looks like this transition was in the works for some time. With the Datacentre and AI background of the new CEO, it is clear which areas Nokia wants to focus on,” they said in a note.

This view was echoed by analysts at Inderes, who see the change as a strategic shift towards Nokia’s Network Infrastructure unit, where data centers and AI investments are fostering new growth opportunities.

Last year, Nokia made a move to buy U.S. optical networking gear maker Infinera in a $2.3 billion deal to gain from the billions of dollars in investment pouring into data centers to cater to the rise of artificial intelligence.

Lundmark, who was appointed as Nokia’s CEO in 2020, will stay on as an advisor to Hotard until the end of the year, the company said.

In September, Nokia declined media reports saying the company was looking for a new chief executive.

“The planning for this leadership transition was initiated when Pekka indicated to the Board that he would like to consider moving on from executive roles when the repositioning of the business was in a more advanced stage, and when the right successor had been identified,” Baldauf said.

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Nokia shares are up 27.85% over the past year, but are down more than 90% since peaking in June 2000.

Its infrastructure business, increasingly integrating AI technologies, focuses on building and maintaining communication systems, including data centers, servers and routers.

Its mobile networks unit concentrates on technologies and services enabling mobile communication, including the development and management of cell towers and 5G technologies.
February 11, 2025
‘Born leader’: Ohio governor nominates former legendary college football coach as lieutenant governor

Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine announced on Monday that he is nominating former Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel to serve as the state’s lieutenant governor.

“Jim Tressel is Ohio values,” DeWine said at a news conference announcing the nomination of Tressel to replace former Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, who DeWine appointed to the U.S. Senate last month.

“He’s a hard worker and shares that vision (I have) for the future of Ohio. He has the ability to pull people together. He has the ability to lead. He will enable me to be assured that if something happens to me, he can walk in and be governor that day and that would be seamless.”

Tressel, who DeWine called a “born leader,” was head coach of Ohio State University’s football team from 2001 to 2010. The Buckeyes won the 2002 national championship during Tressel’s tenure along with six Big Ten championships and a record of 9-1 against rival Michigan.

NEXT OHIO SENATOR, A ‘FISCAL CONSERVATIVE,’ AIMS TO ‘GET GOVERNMENT OUT OF PEOPLE’S LIVES’

Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel, Left, and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine. right (Getty/AP)

Tressel, 72, retired a year and a half ago as president of Youngstown State University, a job he had held since 2014. Since then, he has been engaged in workforce and economic development activities.

“With his wealth of experience in the education field, Jim understands its importance in building Ohio’s workforce of tomorrow,” Ohio Chamber President & CEO Steve Stivers said in a statement, saying Tressel would prioritize workforce development “for the benefit of the business community and all Ohioans.”

SENATORS BACK VIVEK RAMASWAMY FOR OHIO GOVERNOR AHEAD OF EXPECTED GUBERNATORIAL BID

Former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel is carried on the shoulders of his 2002 national championship team during the second quarter of an NCAA college football game between Notre Dame and Ohio State, Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/David Dermer)

Tressel’s nomination must now be approved by the Ohio Senate and Ohio House, which are both led by Republican supermajorities.

“I want to study a little bit about what Jon Husted has going on, and so I want to learn the business, if you will,” Tressel, a political newcomer, said at the press conference. “And then it’s up to when you sit down with the team and the staff and everyone else trying to figure out who plays what position best. And I’d be more than happy to to help wherever I can.”

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Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is seen onstage at the Fiserv Forum during preparations for the Republican National Convention (RNC) on July 14, 2024, in Milwaukee, Wisc. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich congratulated Tressel in an X post saying, “Jim Tressel always puts one foot in front of the other trying to improve our world. Good luck, @JimTressel5.”

DeWine, who must retire in 2026 due to term limits, said the two have not discussed if Tressel plans to run for governor, which would put him in a race against the state’s Republican attorney general, Dave Yost, and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who is expected to jump into the race this month.

Former Ohio Health Director Dr. Amy Acton is running as a Democrat.

Associated Press contributed to this report

Andrew Mark Miller is a reporter at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to [email protected].

February 10, 2025
AZ Senate leader urges Burgum to reverse Biden-Obama ‘land grabs’ on uranium sites

Arizona’s Senate president will urge Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to undo former President Joe Biden’s “land grab” in the Grand Canyon State that he said wrongly cordoned off nearly 1 million acres in the state for future energy exploration.

State Sen. Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert, said in a letter to President Donald Trump’s new Cabinet official – and obtained by Fox News Digital – that he will take swift and sweeping actions like undoing certain national monument designations to “Make America Energy Dominant Again.”

“On his first day in office, President Trump directed you and the rest of his cabinet to immediately identify and rescind all agency actions that impose an undue burden on the development of domestic energy resources like critical minerals and nuclear energy resources,” Petersen wrote.

Biden’s proclamation making 900,000 acres near the Grand Canyon the “Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni” or “Ancestral Footprints National Monument” nixed any exploration of what scientists believe is more than 300 million pounds of uranium, according to Petersen.

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Undoing that “land grab” would both make the U.S. less reliant on foreign uranium and be a potential energy source breakthrough.

Notably, during Trump’s first administration, Attorney General Jeff Sessions looked into allegations of a “racketeering scheme” involving Russian entities trying to forward Moscow’s energy goals within the U.S., in relation to the sale of the company Uranium One to Russian energy giant Rosatom – in what Trump called the “Real Russia Story” of the 2016 election cycle.

In 2017, Hillary Clinton maintained allegations of Clinton or Clinton Foundation involvement in the Uranium One situation were “debunked repeatedly.”

According to the left-wing Center for American Progress, the Biden administration issued protections for 28 million acres in Alaska to keep them from the reach of oil and gas interests, as well as 625 marine acres along coastlines for similar reasons.

“Virtually all of the uranium used in America comes from foreign powers,” Petersen wrote, adding that former President Barack Obama also enacted a ban on domestic uranium mining during his term.

“President Biden’s action made this prohibition permanent,” he said.

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In 2018, the Supreme Court declined to hear a case in which the Ninth Circuit ruled against the GOP and mining interests as they hoped to nix the ban – announced by then-Interior Secretary Kenneth Salazar as a block on new mining on federal lands near the Grand Canyon for 20 years.

Petersen estimated the uranium beneath Ancestral Footprints is equivalent to 13 billion barrels of oil in an area the size of Rhode Island – and that he and other Arizona officials have fought such “land grabs” for more than a decade.

As leader of Arizona’s upper chamber, Petersen said the feds already own nearly half of the land in his state. The newest national monument does nothing to protect the Grand Canyon, as critics reportedly claimed.

Included among the justifications for the new monument, he said, was the protection of the northern grasshopper mouse, which can reportedly carry fleas infected with the plague.

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Petersen told Fox News Digital on Monday that the previous administration “trashed the Constitution to steal land and critical resources from Arizonans” and that he led the fight against such “generational theft” from the people of Arizona.

“I look forward to working with the Trump Administration to reverse the rampant federal overreach and allow Arizona to regain control over its Tenth Amendment rights.”

“We know President Trump and Secretary Burgum will help make Arizona great again as our state and nation heal from the unconstitutional onslaught of the previous administration.”

Charles Creitz is a reporter for Fox News Digital.

He joined Fox News in 2013 as a writer and production assistant.

Charles covers media, politics and culture for Fox News Digital.

Charles is a Pennsylvania native and graduated from Temple University with a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism. Story tips can be sent to [email protected].

February 10, 2025
Iran’s supreme leader says nuclear talks with Trump admin would not be ‘wise’

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told air force officers in Teheran on Friday that nuclear talks with the U.S. “are not intelligent, wise or honorable.”

Khamenei added that “there should be no negotiations with such a government,” but did not issue an order to not engage with the U.S., according to The Associated Press.

Khamenei’s remarks on Friday seem to contradict his previous indications that he was open to negotiating with the U.S. over Iran’s nuclear program. In August, Khamenei seemed to open the door to nuclear talks with the U.S., telling his country’s civilian government that there was “no harm” in engaging with its “enemy,” the AP reported.

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President Donald Trump floated the idea of a “verified nuclear peace agreement” with Teheran in a post on his Truth Social platform. In the same post, he also slammed “greatly exaggerated” reports claiming that the U.S. and Israel were going to “blow Iran into smithereens.”

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, left, and President Donald Trump. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz/File Photo)

“I would much prefer a Verified Nuclear Peace Agreement, which will let Iran peacefully grow and prosper. We should start working on it immediately, and have a big Middle East Celebration when it is signed and completed,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

In 2018, during his first term, Trump exited the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran Nuclear Deal, saying that it was not strong enough to restrain Iran’s nuclear development. At the time, President Trump argued that the deal, which was made during former President Barack Obama’s second term, was “one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into.”

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei alongside a look inside a Uranium plant. (Getty Images)

Just days before his call for a “verified nuclear peace agreement” with Iran, Trump signed an executive order urging the government to put pressure on the Islamic republic. He also told reporters that if Iran were to assassinate him, they would be “obliterated,” as per his alleged instructions.

According to the AP, on Friday, Khamenei slammed the U.S. because, in his eyes, “the Americans did not hold up their end of the deal.” Furthermore, Iran’s supreme leader referenced Trump’s withdrawal from the JCPOA, saying that he “tore up the agreement.”

“We negotiated, we gave concessions, we compromised— but we did not achieve the results we aimed for.”

Iran has insisted for years that its nuclear program was aimed at civilian and peaceful purposes, not weapons. However, it has enriched its uranium to up to 60% purity, which is around 90% the level that would be considered weapons grade.

An Iranian military truck carries surface-to-air missiles past a portrait of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a parade on the occasion of the country’s annual army day on April 18, 2018, in Tehran, Iran. (ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images)

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International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi told Reuters in December 2024 that it was “regrettable” that there was no “diplomatic process ongoing which could lead to a de-escalation, or a more stable equation.”

In addition to his remarks on Iran, President Trump made global headlines with his proposal that the US take over Gaza as the Israel-Hamas war rages on. Khamenei, according to the AP, also seemed to reference the president’s remarks on Gaza without mentioning them outright.

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“The Americans sit, redrawing the map of the world — but only on paper, as it has no basis in reality,” Khamenei told air force officers, according to the AP. “They make statements about us, express opinions and issue threats. If they threaten us, we will threaten them in return. If they act on their threats, we will act on ours. If they violate the security of our nation, we will, without a doubt, respond in kind.”

Rachel Wolf is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital and FOX Business.

February 7, 2025