Video: Mexican man punched through closet wall to attack Georgia teen: Police
Georgia police are commending a 15-year-old girl who fought off a man federal officials allege is in the United States illegally after he reportedly broke through the wall of an apartment and assaulted the teen.
Obed Reyes faces multiple charges, including burglary, aggravated assault, attempted rape, kidnapping and two counts of cruelty to children.
Reyes, a Mexican national, was arrested after police say he punched through drywall in a closet from another apartment last week.
Police said that Reyes then allegedly grabbed a 15-year-old girl by the hair and punched her.
Reyes then threatened to rape the girl after she managed to escape.
The girl was home babysitting two other family members, who are ages 5 and 7, police said.
Reyes lived in the same apartment complex as the teen girl, but police said that the two did not know one another before the attack.
“This young lady did everything right. She went to get help. She ran out. She made a commotion. She fought this offender off as best she could, and she was able to hang on long enough for help to get there,” Police Capt. Justin Martin told a local television station last week.
Witnesses called 911 after seeing a man dragging the teen by her hair and repeatedly hitting her as she screamed during the struggle.
Responding officers say they arrived to find the assault still happening and immediately took Reyes into custody.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has lodged a detainer with local police at the Hall County Jail since he is allegedly in the country illegally.
Gainesville Police Chief Jay Parish praised witnesses for calling 911 quickly and said his officers responded in a timely fashion to take a violent criminal off the streets…
Tehran Accuses Qatar of Holding Three Iranian Pilots as POWs; Doha Denies Allegations
Iran has claimed Qatar is holding three of its pilots who have been missing since March.
According to the Missing Persons Committee of Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff, Qatar’s armed forces had captured and were holding three pilots who went missing in March when their jets were downed.
Until now, Tehran had said it had no information about their fate.
This is the first known case in the war where Iran has said a regional country is holding its fighters.
Saturday’s statement alleged that Qatar had violated the men’s rights by not allowing the prisoners to meet or communicate with their families or with Iranian officials handling their cases, despite diplomatic efforts and repeated follow-ups
There was no immediate response from Qatar.
Meanwhile, the tanker owned by Abu Dhabi’s state-owned oil and gas company Adnoc was attacked while transiting the Strait of Hormuz, the Emirati state-run Wam news agency said on Saturday.
There were no injuries in the Friday evening attack, the agency reported.
It was the third such attack on a vessel operated by Adnoc in the critical waterway in the last week.
The United Arab Emirates in a statement called on Iran to stop the unprovoked strikes…
Ukraine Energy Company Says Its Facilities Seriously Damaged After 13 Russian Strikes in Week
Russia attacked facilities of Ukraine’s Naftogaz Group 13 times over the past week and has targeted its premises almost 300 times since the start of the year, the state energy company said Monday.
Russia has repeatedly battered the Ukrainian power grid since its all-out invasion more than four years ago.
Moscow hopes to sap Ukraine’s will to fight by denying civilians light, heating and running water during the bitter winter months.
Ukrainian officials, who say Russia is “weaponizing winter,” fear Moscow will pursue its campaign through the coming winter, too.
Russian drones and missiles struck facilities in several regions of the country, with one asset hit multiple times during the week, Naftogaz said, reporting serious damage to equipment and production capacity.
No employees were hurt in the attacks, the company said.
With troops largely bogged down by drones and robots along the roughly 1,250-kilometer (780-mile) front line, both Russia and Ukraine are expanding their aerial campaigns and devising new long-range weapons.
Ukrainian long-range attacks on Russia killed seven people, while four civilians died in Ukraine after strikes by Moscow’s forces, officials said Monday as they collated overnight attacks.
Ukraine depended heavily on foreign military aid after Russia’s full-scale invasion of February 2022 but has gradually increased its domestically produced firepower, firing a salvo of more than 800 long-range drones at Russia on Sunday.
Ukraine also has successfully targeted depots owned by Wildberries, Russia’s main online retailer, as far as 2,000 kilometers (1,242 miles) from Ukraine’s border.
Russian forces have increasingly hit apartment blocks, ports, schools and hospitals, among other urban targets, killing close to 17,000 civilians, according to the United Nations.
The death toll of 437 Ukrainian civilians in July was 70% higher than the same month in 2025, it said last week, as Russia’s barrages intensified.
Russia has exploited Ukraine’s severe shortage of U.S.-made Patriot air defense interceptors, which are the only way of countering ballistic missiles.
But Kyiv is swiftly innovating, with Ukraine now developing its own ballistic missile to hit back at Russia and working with European countries on developing more anti-ballistic air defenses.
Pres Trump answers reporter questions in the Oval Office
Monday, Pres. Trump answered questions from reporters regarding joint military exercises with South Korea, the Iran War, and more.
German Companies Cut US Investment to Three-Year Low, Data Show
German companies slashed investments in the United States to a three-year low in the first half of 2026, as Trump administration policies fed uncertainty between the transatlantic trading partners.
First-half direct investments plunged by nearly two-thirds year-on-year to €4.3 billion ($5 billion), the lowest level since 2023, according to calculations by the German Economic Institute, or IW, seen by Reuters.
Compared with the same period in 2024, that represents a drop of nearly 80%, said the report, which is based on data from Germany’s central bank.
“This continues the downward trend that has been evident since the start of Donald Trump’s second term in January 2025,” IW researcher Samina Sultan told Reuters.
Since returning to office, Trump has threatened most of the United States’ international trading partners with import tariffs in an attempt to secure concessions favorable to Washington.
In a bid to avoid heavy duties on its exports to the U.S., for example, the European Union agreed a deal last year that included a $600 billion investment pledge.
In the five years before the COVID-19 pandemic, first-half investments by German companies in the U.S. averaged €15.8 billion, the data showed, almost four times the 2026 level.
That said, the 2020 to 2023 period was shaped by the “exceptional circumstance” of the pandemic, Sultan said, with some years marked by net investment outflows.
The researchers also examined the composition of investment flows over 2025 and found that both direct-investment loans and reinvested earnings were exceptionally high, while equity capital in the narrower sense – the balance of new investments and liquidations – remained below average.
“Companies that are already active in the United States are therefore continuing to reinvest the profits they earn there in the country,” Sultan said. “This suggests that the U.S. remains an attractive market overall.”
However, companies were hesitant to commit new capital, she said.
($1 = 0.8645 euros)
Kushner demands Hamas disarmament; Iran offers bounty on Americans – TV7 Israel News – 17 Aug.
1) U.S. Special Envoy Jared Kushner meets with Hamas senior officials in Cairo to covey a clear message demanding disarmament in exchange for the IDF’s withdrawal.
2) The Iranian Army’s Commander in Chief announces a bounty of thirty-thousand dollars for the capture or murder of any American.
3) President Donald Trump says American will have to cope with higher oil prices for a little longer – as the Ayatollah regime reaches a point of evident distress.
Trump: Freed American Missionary Set to Fly Home
President Donald Trump said Sunday that American missionary Kevin Rideout is preparing to return to the United States after being freed from captivity in Niger and reunited with his wife.
“I am happy to reveal that former hostage Kevin Rideout is getting ready to fly home to the United States after having been reunited with his beautiful wife, Krista,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trump said Rideout’s release marked the 110th American captive freed since he began his second term.
“I look forward to seeing Kevin and Krista at the White House soon!” Trump added.
Rideout, an American missionary, was kidnapped in Niger’s capital, Niamey, on Oct. 21 by three armed individuals and was believed to have been taken out of the city.
SIM International, Rideout’s missionary organization, announced Friday that he had been released and was “in good health in the care of U.S. officials.”
No armed group claimed responsibility for Rideout’s abduction.
Niger and other countries across Africa’s Sahel region have struggled with violence from armed groups, including jihadists affiliated with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group.
The day after Rideout was abducted, the U.S. Embassy in Niamey issued a security alert warning that Americans faced a “heightened risk of kidnapping throughout Niger, including in the capital city.”…
RACHEL RODRIGUEZ: Republican Candidate for Florida Governor | Lara Logan | Election Special
Making her mark in Florida’s crowded race for Governor, Attorney Rachel Rodriguez is not afraid of a fight.
Rachel discusses her legal battles against COVID-19 mandates, her fight for medical freedom, and her efforts to expose corruption within Florida’s child protective services.
She shares her personal story rooted in Cuban and Slovak heritage, emphasizing the importance of protecting individual rights and parental freedoms.
Rachel encourages grassroots activism and voter engagement, urging Floridians to participate in the August 18th Republican primary, where she aims to succeed term-limited Governor Ron DeSantis
August 16, 2026 – Cover Story: Covid Concerns
Muslim Brotherhood
NATALIE WINTERS: Stanford Aerospace Chief Who Oversaw F-22 And F-35 Development Secretly Lectured At Blacklisted Chinese University Tied To Missile And Drone Programs
JOHN SOLOMON: The FBI Knew Fang Fang Had Close Relationships With China’s MSS And That Her Parents Were Senior Executives In The Intelligence Service
‘DAMNING’: New Fauci texts, emails raise RED FLAGS
‘Fox & Friends’ co-hosts Ainsley Earhardt, Brian Kilmeade and Lawrence Jones examine newly unveiled emails from former FDA chief Jane Woodcock raising concerns to Dr. Anthony Fauci about COVID-19 vaccine adverse events.
Nolte: July Deadliest Month Along Mexico-Arizona Border in ‘Two Years’
That number is deceiving, as is using only two years as a measurement standard.
“[T]he remains of 73 people have been located this year in Arizona, compared with 59 this time last year and 103 for all of 2025,” Humane Borders claims. “The group has documented over 4,500 deaths along the Arizona-Mexico border over the last 25 years.”
“There’s this narrative that I’m sure you’ve heard that the border is effectively closed — that nobody is crossing. Well, this is pretty clear evidence that, not only are people crossing, like crossing recently, within the last few months- but also dying,” Brad Jones, a Humane Borders board member, said.
This, of course, is dreadful news. No one wants to see anyone die, especially out in the desert of exposure to some of the harshest elements on Earth.
But.
Other than discouraging people from attempting to make this dangerous journey, which the Trump Administration is doing with more clarity than any Administration in my lifetime, what are we supposed to do about it?
Keep in mind that border enforcement has zero to do with these deaths. If people make it to the U.S. border, they are taken care of by Border Patrol.
Therefore, no matter how high or low the border wall is, no matter how lax or stringent asylum requirements are, the people who die on the way still would have died on the way.
Let’s also add some context to this two-year number.
Last year, the first full year of Donald Trump’s second term, by Humane Borders own numbers, only 103 people died at the border through all of 2025. That is the lowest number of annual deaths since Humane Borders began tracking these deaths.
I would add that that number is likely as low as it is because Trump’s border enforcement discourages people from making that dangerous journey.
The highest number of recorded annual deaths, since tracking began, is 229 in 2021, which is the first year of Joe Biden’s presidency, the year he opened the border and encouraged people to make that perilous journey.
By contrast, during his first year in office, Trump cut that number to 103 total annual deaths, or by more than half.
What’s more, those 19 deaths this July only sound high when compared to July of 2024, when only ten people died.
During the four years of Biden’s open border, the number of July deaths was 21 in 2021, 31 in 2022, 42 in 2023, and 36 in 2024.
The only thing America can do to decrease these deaths is to discourage these journeys by making it clear there will be no reward at the other end.
Biden told people there would be a reward, and the result was more deaths.
Report: Trump Threatens to Bomb Oman If It ‘Gets In the Way’ of Iran War
“If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the s**t out of them,” Yingst said Trump told him during a telephone interview. Yingst did not publish an audio recording of the remarks.
Trump was allegedly reacting to Iran’s frequent statements that it has nearly worked out a deal for joint control of the Strait of Hormuz with Oman, including a scheme for the two nations to extort “fees” from international shipping and divide the proceeds between them.
In June, the Iranian and Omani foreign ministries issued a joint statement announcing the formation of a “Strait of Hormuz Committee” that would draw up plans for “future management of shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, the associated services to be provided, and the fees for the services.”
Oman reportedly gave Iran a proposal for joint stewardship of the strait that Tehran rejected, in part because Iran did not want Oman to have the option of using its territorial waters to help ships avoid Iran’s ransom demands.
Instead, Iran demanded a system under which outbound traffic from the Persian Gulf would travel along the Omani coast, while incoming traffic would be under Iran’s control.
The United States has resolutely opposed any scheme for extorting “fees” from traffic through the vital international waterway, and Trump’s comments suggested he has grown exasperated with Oman working on a bilateral deal with Iran to control Hormuz, even as the Omanis claim to be impartial mediators between the U.S. and Iran.
According to Yingst, Trump said Iran must “put up the white flag of surrender” to end the crisis, and he was willing to be patient and give the U.S. blockade time to degrade Iran’s economy until it surrenders.
“I have no time schedule. I’m not in a hurry,” Trump said.
“The midterms have nothing to do with my thinking,” he said, responding to a common theory that Iran believes Trump will fold before the U.S. midterm elections in November because he does not want high gas prices and inflation to turn voters against his party.
Trump told Yingst that the U.S. has a “direct backchannel” to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for negotiations, despite public pronouncements from Tehran that it has no interest in negotiating with the United States.
“They’re good poker players, but they’re dying,” Trump said….
NEW DETAILS: Iran prepping for BIGGER war
Fox News’ Alexandria Hoff reports the latest from the White House. Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., also weighed in on the conflict during ‘America’s Newsroom’ as the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran expires.
Trump Orders Reduced South Korea Military Exercises, Citing Friendship with Kim Jong-un
The exercises typically take place to maintain combat readiness given the context of South Korea still being in a state of war with neighboring North Korea.
The Korean War that began in 1950 was temporarily halted in 1953 with an armistice agreement, but no peace treaty or surrender has taken place.
The United States is an active party in the war on South Korea’s side, while China is North Korea’s core ally in the conflict.
The communist tyranny of North Korea regularly protests Ulchi Freedom Shield.
Last week, neighboring states documented the North Korean armed forces shooting a ballistic missile out into the East Sea (Sea of Japan), an act that had no major consequences but was seen as a symbolic protest against the upcoming exercises.
The government of communist dictator Kim Jong-un has not explicitly confirmed that ballistic missile test and thus not linked it to the military exercises, but the report follows a pattern of documented North Korean behavior.
Trump suggested in his message on Sunday that the government of South Korea, under leftist President Lee Jae-myung, had also not done enough to reinforce the U.S.-South Korean alliance, accusing him of being insufficiently supportive in the war against Iran.
Iran and North Korea are close allies and the North Korean government has repeatedly condemned the Trump administration for launched its conflict against the Iranian terror state.
“Based on my very good relationship with Kim Jong Un, of North Korea, I am not happy with the fact that the United States has, long ago, agreed to participate in Joint Military Exercises with South Korea,” Trump declared on his website, Truth Social.
“These exercises are not only costly, with much of these costs paid for by the United States of America (as usual!), but send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile,” he continued, “to a Country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful.”
Trump announced that he had formally told Hegseth to limit the scale of the exercises, lamenting that it was “too late to cancel,” and added, “While somewhat unrelated (?), I recently asked the President of South Korea if they would like to join us in the Denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and they said, ‘No thanks!’”
Prior to that announcement, Trump posted a photo of himself scowling alongside Kim Jong-un during one of their several in-person meetings during Trump’s first term, joking,
“Despite the unfriendly look on this particular picture, there are many where we’re smiling, Kim Jong Un and I get along GREAT!”…
US awards Raytheon $22.9B Tomahawk deal as Trump dismisses weapons stockpile concerns
The news came after President Donald Trump pushed back on concerns over the strain the Iran conflict might be placing on U.S. weapons stockpiles.
“What we’ve used is peanuts,” Trump told Fox News’ Trey Yingst in an exclusive phone interview earlier Monday. “We have a lot of mid-level weapons.”
The massive Tomahawk award is intended to give RTX the stability needed to expand its workforce, increase manufacturing output and strengthen supply chains while speeding deliveries of the long-range cruise missile to U.S. forces, according to the department.
“The Department called upon industry to expand munitions production, and RTX has answered that call,” Under Secretary of War for Acquisition and Sustainment Michael Duffey wrote in a statement. “This Tomahawk award increases our ability to equip the Joint Force, ensuring our Warfighters never face a fair fight.”
Pentagon officials have increasingly focused on expanding the U.S. defense industrial base and shortening the time required to produce key weapons as military operations and heightened global tensions put renewed attention on the size and resilience of American weapons stockpiles.
“Guaranteeing our naval and joint forces have the lethal firepower they need to deter aggression and protect the homeland is paramount,” acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao wrote in a statement. “This landmark $22.9 billion investment will accelerate Tomahawk missile delivery to our warfighters at unprecedented speed.
“By working closely with industry to expand our munitions industrial base’s capacity, the Department is utilizing every available tool to meet the demands of our current operations, ensuring they are equipped to fight, win, and come home safe.
The Navy said the agreement also supports the Department of War’s Acquisition Transformation Strategy, which is aimed at accelerating weapons deliveries and reducing procurement lead times….
Several Massachusetts Democrats Break with Party over ‘Barbaric’ New Law Legalizing Abortions Up Until Birth
Gov. Maura Healey (D) signed the Prioritizing Patient Access to Care Act on August 10 after the bill passed the state House 119-33 in late July.
The bill allows unborn babies to be aborted throughout pregnancy and strikes down the state’s 24-week limit, which had exceptions for the life of the mother and a deadly fetal diagnosis.
Under the bill, doctors have the discretion to decide whether or not to perform a late-term abortion.
The governor was surrounded by a gaggle of grinning women who applauded ecstatically as she signed the radical bill.
Healey’s stamp of approval aligned Massachusetts with Alaska, Vermont, Oregon, New Mexico, Colorado, Minnesota, Michigan, Maryland, New Jersey, and Washington, DC, in allowing unborn babies to be aborted up to the moment of birth.
Nine state House Democrats voted against the bill alongside their Republican colleagues.
In speaking to Fox News Digital, several of the Democrats who voted against the bill cited legal and ethical concerns and said it does not align with most of their constituents’ beliefs about abortion.
“This new law represents an extremist and dangerous position,” State Rep. Jeffrey Turco of Winthrop told the outlet. “To be clear, it allows abortion anytime, unrestricted, and in many cases, publicly funded until the moment of birth.”…
3rd Trimester Late-Term Abortion | Induction Abortion | What Is Abortion?
Pro-life publisher facing demands to retract calling abortion ‘killing’ fires back: ‘The answer is No’
A prominent pro-life organization is refusing demands to remove years of abortion-related reporting and to issue sweeping retractions after attorneys representing 13 abortion-rights advocates accused it of publishing false and defamatory claims about their pregnancies.
“The answer is ‘No,’” attorneys for Live Action wrote in a fiery response obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital ahead of its public release Monday.
The Thomas More Society, representing Live Action, argues that much of the disputed coverage is constitutionally protected speech, including the organization’s use of terms such as “killing” to describe abortion, and signals that it is prepared to defend Live Action in court if the dispute escalates.
“Live Action will not cease reporting on abortion,” the response says, rejecting demands to delete its archive, publish sweeping retractions or agree to restrictions on future coverage.
Peter Breen, executive vice president and head of litigation at Thomas More Society, told Fox News Digital that he believes the dispute raises a fundamental free-speech issue.
“The other side’s argument is that somehow, by using the word kill or calling abortion killing, that you have a problem that you can create that could then be remedied in court,” Breen said.
“The issue is every single final court decision to deal with this has previously said that’s not defamatory,” he added. “It’s not legally wrong to call abortion killing.”….
ICE Boston arrests Brazilian illegal alien wanted for murder days before Gov Healy signed Protect Act
An illegal alien wanted for aggravated murder in Brazil was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Massachusetts just two days before Democrat Gov. Maura Healey signed a law to block certain ICE operations in the state.
Maycon Souto Dos Reis, 54, was convicted of aggravated murder in Brazil on Sept. 14, 2024, and sentenced to 14 years and three months in prison when an arrest warrant was issued.
The Brazilian national fled Brazil and crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally in June 2024, when he was apprehended but subsequently released into the United States under then-President Joe Biden’s open-border policies, according to ICE.
“This is yet another example of what the media often characterizes as a non-criminal, when in reality, many of these individuals are murderers, sexual predators, gang members and more: They simply do not have a criminal record in the United States,” Acting ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Boston Field Office Director David Wesling wrote in a statement.
“We will continue to pursue these dangerous criminal aliens that sanctuary politicians fight to protect.”
The timing of the Aug. 3 Boston-area arrest corresponded to Healey’s Aug. 5 signing of the PROTECT Act, which keeps ICE out of courthouses, schools, childcare centers, hospitals and healthcare facilities, while also providing stronger protections for parents in case they are detained or deported, banning new 287(g) agreements and allowing civil rights claims to be made against government officials, including ICE agents.
“The PROTECT Act is the strongest law in the country to protect people from ICE, because no one should be afraid to send their child to school, seek medical care or fear reporting a crime or appearing in court,” Healey wrote Aug. 5 in a statement announcing the signing of the new restrictions on ICE operations in her state.
“It makes us all less safe. So we are getting ICE out of our courthouses, schools and hospitals. This bill is a testament to the hard work and advocacy of so many people across our state. We’re going to keep working together to make Massachusetts and this country the place we all want it to be.”
Dos Reis initially came to ERO Boston’s attention following his May 29 arrest for unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle in Southborough, Massachusetts.
ICE officers arrested him Aug. 3 during a targeted operation at Westborough District Court in Westborough.
ICE officials said Dos Reis had been living in Massachusetts, which has been at the center of clashes between state and federal officials over immigration enforcement.
The agency characterized the jurisdiction as one where local policies can complicate federal efforts to locate and arrest immigration offenders….
Texas dad faces murder charge after estranged wife found dead at suburban home: police
Jake Bigoni, 37, was taken into custody Wednesday after officers performing a welfare check for his estranged wife, Eliana Bigoni, discovered her dead inside his Plano, Texas, apartment.
He was initially booked on a felony abuse of corpse charge before authorities later added a murder charge, police said in a news release.
Authorities initiated the welfare check after one of Eliana’s friends reported that she had not appeared for a scheduled breakfast at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday and could not be reached, according to an arrest warrant obtained by FOX 4.
The friend informed authorities that Jake and Eliana Bigoni were separated and that Eliana had been on her way to pick up their 2- and 5-year-old children.
The two were in the process of a divorce when Bigoni was found dead.
Jake Bigoni’s mother later called police, saying her son had phoned her and allegedly said, “I have something to tell you. She’s dead. We got in a fight and she’s dead.”
Upon arriving at Jake Bigoni’s apartment, officers allegedly observed what appeared to be a large blood stain on his shirt, which he said was the result of cleaning.
Eliana Bigoni’s body was found in the trunk of a white Hyundai in the apartment’s garage, with officials adding she had major damage to her head and face….
Reporter’s Notebook: Daylight saving time fight puts Senate up against a ticking clock
The U.S. Senate is on the clock. In a matter of speaking. Or ticking.
The House of Representatives approved a bill earlier this year to thrust the nation onto permanent daylight saving time.
In other words, the House voted to ditch the twice-a-year ritual of springing forward and falling back.
Now it’s up to the Senate to sync up.
“Around the country, people are going to be excited because they don’t have to go back and forth,” opined Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., one of the biggest advocates of shifting to year-round daylight saving time.
Under this temporal regime, Florida and many southern states would benefit from “more” sun later in the afternoon and evening in the winter.
Scott isn’t the only one who says time should expire for daylight saving time.
“People are sick and tired of having to change their clocks twice a year. It is foolish, inconvenient and, in some cases, very costly. For Cities and States with Watchtowers, and hard to reach places, it costs Millions of Dollars,” declared President Donald Trump in a post on his social media site Truth Social.
It’s unclear whether Trump was trying to reach voters with allegiances to Jimi Hendrix or Bob Dylan when writing about “Watchtowers.”
But if the president has his way, the times won’t be “A Changin’,” later this fall. We’d be welded to daylight saving time.
President Trump continued….
GOP freshman firebrand targets global consulting giant over ‘plainly illegal’ DEI practices
A top House GOP firebrand is accusing a multibillion-dollar global corporation of injecting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) into the U.S. economy at a time when Americans are struggling with rising cost of living.
Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, who chairs the House Oversight Committee’s Task Force on Defending Constitutional Rights and Exposing Institutional Abuses, is targeting McKinsey & Company in a new probe over DEI reports that he says were “highly influential in American corporations.”
He’s accusing the massive consulting firm of publishing reports that say race- and gender-based hiring practices are beneficial to U.S. companies, which he argues are a violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Meanwhile, Americans are at the mercy of many of the same companies as they grapple with high prices across housing, food and other areas.
“These McKinsey reports have been highly influential, being cited by publicly traded companies, asset managers, proxy advisory firms, and banking institutions, among others, as cause for embedding illegal racial and sex-based targets into hiring, promotion, executive compensation, and asset manager proxy voting policies,” Gill wrote in a letter sent Monday.
“With the support of the previous administration, progressive activists cited McKinsey’s reports to push companies, governments, and stock exchanges to implement rules which forced or incentivized illegal corporate racial or gender-based hiring and disclosure policies.”
Gill also questioned whether the findings of that report were legitimate.
“Although in 2024 McKinsey stated that it ‘stands by its findings,’ other researchers have found zero statistical correlation between a company’s gender and racial diversity and its financial performance,” the letter said. “Racial discrimination in the employment context, including under the guise of DEI, has been pervasive despite being plainly illegal for over half a century.
It comes just after Gill’s panel led high-profile hearings into the Smithsonian Institution’s teaching of American history, bringing national attention to what Republicans are calling a warped and politicized version of the U.S….
