U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry and former White House press secretary Jen Psaki chatted about the dire state of the planet and ‘Forrest Gump’ over ice cream Sunday on Psaki’s new MSNBC show.

Psaki, who served as Kerry’s spokesperson at the State Department during the Obama administration, introduced the segment on ‘Inside with Jen Psaki’ by saying she caught up with Kerry ‘on the National Mall for a wide-ranging discussion and a little dessert.’

The discussion remained very light, with Kerry recalling his mother’s influence on his environmental activism and him praising younger generations for leading the fight on climate change. Immediately after Kerry declared ‘the planet is at risk,’ Psaki suggested an ice cream break. —

‘It sounds kind of highfalutin, probably, to say that, but the planet is at risk. I mean, it is at risk,’ Kerry said.

‘Now,’ Psaki pivoted, ‘I remember well that you have a bit of a sweet tooth. Do you want to go get some ice cream over there?’

‘That would be hitting the nail on the head,’ Kerry responded.

‘Let’s do it,’ Psaki said.

Some jazz music then played in the segment as Psaki and Kerry strolled over to a mall vendor and looked over the menu. They both quickly settled on the $4.50 Dove bar.

‘What do we have here? A Dove bar,’ Psaki said.

‘Dove bar? Oh, Dove, I love Dove,’ Kerry exclaimed. ‘Dove bar – I’ll have a Dove bar. What do you want?’

‘I’ll have a Dove bar, too,’ Psaki replied.

The two then ate their ice cream as they walked along the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

‘So I know you like ‘Forrest Gump’ a little bit,’ Psaki said. ‘Does this remind you – you’ve lived a life a little bit like Forrest Gump.’

‘I’ve had some Forrest Gump moments,’ Kerry said. ‘Every time I’m around here I always think of him screaming to Jenny in the pool over here.’

At the end of the brief segment, Kerry and Psaki did a ‘cheers with Dove bars.’

The Republican National Committee mocked the ‘hard-hitting interview’ on Twitter.

Steve Guest, Sen. Cruz’s, R-Texas, special adviser for communications, recirculated a 2014 photo showing Psaki wearing a Russian hat bearing the communist hammer-and-sickle logo while posing with then-Secretary of State Kerry. 

Camryn Kinsey, who previously worked in the Trump administration and serves as the spokesperson for Maritime Classic Foundation, took a shot at Psaki, saying she couldn’t answer tough questions as White House press secretary and can’t ask tough questions at MSNBC.

The Biden administration is pushing full steam ahead to massively expand offshore wind development across millions of acres of federal waters, actions that critics warn would have dire ecological and economic impacts.

Days after taking office, President Biden issued an executive action ordering his administration to expand opportunities for the offshore wind industry as part of his aggressive climate agenda to curb greenhouse gas emissions and stop global warming. Months later, he outlined goals to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030, the most ambitious goal of its kind worldwide.

‘Two years ago, President Biden issued a bold challenge to move America towards a clean energy future,’ Deb Haaland, the secretary of the Department of the Interior (DOI), said earlier this month. ‘The Interior Department answered that call and is moving rapidly to create a robust and sustainable clean energy economy with good-paying union jobs.’

In May 2021, the DOI’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) approved the 800-megawatt Vineyard Wind project 12 miles off the coast of Massachusetts, marking the first ever large-scale offshore wind approval. Then, in November 2021, the agency approved the 130-megawatt Southfork Wind project off the coast of Long Island, New York, the second commercial-scale offshore project.

A number of other proposed offshore wind projects along the Atlantic coast are under development and in the federal permitting stage. The Biden administration has leased hundreds of thousands of acres to energy corporations and plans future lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of California.

‘This is an environmental wrecking ball,’ David Stevenson, the president of the American Coalition for Ocean Protection (ACOP), told Fox News Digital in an interview. ‘It’s an economic disaster. From an environmental — from a climate change standpoint, it’s also useless.’

‘It is going to turn the oceans into an industrial park, particularly at night when you’ve got red flashing lights. It’s going to look like the industrial area in northern New Jersey,’ added Stevenson, who founded ACOP to mount legal defenses in response to offshore wind development on behalf of local shoreline communities.

Stevenson and other opponents of large-scale offshore wind development have noted that BOEM has acknowledged the negative impacts of the proposals it has approved. 

According to a report ACOP published in February, BOEM has stated that wind turbine structures will lead to radar interference, increasing likelihood of vessel collisions and complicating search-and-rescue missions; likely harm wildlife; industrialize ocean views, possibly harming tourism industries; impede key military operations; and impair oceanic scientific research.

BOEM has admitted that the commercial fishing industry would shoulder millions of dollars in economic damages. 

‘While Vineyard Wind is not authorized to prevent free access to the entire wind development area, due to the placement of the turbines it is likely that the entire 75,614 acre area will be abandoned by commercial fisheries due to difficulties with navigation,’ BOEM stated in its May 10, 2021, record of decision green-lighting the Vineyard Wind project, for example.

‘The extent of impact to commercial fisheries and loss of economic income is estimated to total $14 million over the expected 30-year lifetime of the Project,’ it continued.

In another example, BOEM’s environmental impact analysis published last summer for Ocean Wind 1 — a 1,100-megawatt project proposed off the southern New Jersey coast — the agency concluded that impacts on commercial fisheries, navigation and views would all be ‘major.’

‘This is the industrialization of our oceans,’ Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, told Fox News Digital. 

‘This is creating a construction zone, pile-driving a 4,000-kilojoule hammer that’s about 30 to 40 feet wide, pounding giant steel, thousand-foot poles into the ocean floor and then jet-plowing, which is liquefying the ocean floor up to 10 or 12 feet, and laying giant 100,000-volt cables in the ocean floor and then turning on the switch and seeing what happens,’ she continued.

‘I mean, that’s a problem,’ Brady said. ‘These are areas of extreme productivity for not just fish, but marine mammals.’

Brady’s Long Island Commercial Fishing Association is a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit led by the Rhode Island-based fishing company Seafreeze challenging the Biden administration’s approval of Vineyard Wind. An attorney representing plaintiffs said the project was an example of the administration’s ‘stubborn pursuit of increasing renewable energy generation regardless of who it hurts.’

According to Brady, the federal wind lease area off the shores of Massachusetts and Rhode Island is larger than Rhode Island, Long Island and much of the 1,902-square-mile Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. And offshore wind turbines are massive, nearly three times the height of the Statue of Liberty.

‘Imagine that we’re all standing on that beautiful [Grand Canyon] vista and there’s a turbine a mile apart in every single direction, a thousand feet tall,’ Brady said. ‘There you go, that’s your picture. And that’s going to be the picture all up and down every single coastline.’

Overall, the Biden administration’s rapid development of offshore wind has faced resistance from environmental groups, fishing industry groups, federally-established fishery councils, small business organizations, local officials, lawmakers and, most recently, the Department of Defense.

Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., who represents New Jersey’s southern coastline, including Atlantic City, has criticized the White House over the last several months for looking the other way at wildlife impacts of offshore wind projects.

‘In Joe Biden’s mad rush to a net zero energy economy, federal agencies responsible for the implementation of offshore wind have hastily pushed forward these projects with little regard to industries like fishing and maritime transports, ignored the concerns of coastal communities who rely on the ocean for jobs and tourism, ignored the national security concerns raised by our own military, and have been negligent in properly studying the harmful impacts these turbines will have on our environment,’ Van Drew told Fox News Digital.

‘And despite these concerns and warnings from communities, stakeholders, and members of Congress, this administration pushes it aside with the sole excuse being that the industrialization of our oceans will save the planet by ‘stopping climate change,’’ he continued. 

Since the beginning of the year, more than 20 humpback whales and endangered North Atlantic right whales have been discovered dead along the East Coast, with most beaching in New Jersey, New York and Virginia, according to federal data. The uptick in whale deaths has led to calls from lawmakers, local officials and conservation organizations for a federal moratorium on wind development in the Atlantic Ocean.

While administration officials and some environmental groups have said there is no evidence suggesting that wind turbine construction is killing whales and that the deaths are part of an ‘unusual mortality event’ for both whale species dating back years, the region is on pace to far surpass death figures set since the mortality events were declared.

‘The agencies admit it themselves in their environmental impact statements that offshore wind will increase impacts on climate change unless it completely replaces the fossil fuel industry,’ Van Drew said. ‘That’s their goal — to make America completely reliant on an unreliable renewable energy source. And that’s the crux of this situation.’ 

‘These industrial wind grids are money grabs for major corporations and legacy builders for politicians,’ he added. ‘To replace fossil fuels, they will need to lease millions upon millions of acres of our oceans and lakes to generate the power we are already producing.’

‘Think about it: a wall of turbines lining our horizons for decades to come, generating more expensive energy for homes and businesses, killing sea life, destroying generational industries.’

Van Drew noted that wind turbine technology is mainly manufactured overseas and that, over the long-term, offshore wind projects will create a few dozen permanent jobs.

‘The warnings are clear, and our president and our government need to listen and act before it is too late.’

The Biden administration is reportedly finalizing a proposal that would force fossil fuel-fired power plants to substantially curb emissions or utilize costly carbon capture technology.

The proposal — which will soon be released by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) — is expected to require coal- and natural gas-fired power plants to cut or capture the vast majority of their carbon dioxide emissions by 2040, The New York Times reported on Saturday, citing officials briefed on a draft of the plan. The regulation, if finalized, would represent the first-ever federal action curbing power plant emissions.

‘EPA cannot comment because the proposals are currently under interagency review,’ EPA spokesperson Maria Michalos told Fox News Digital in a statement. 

‘But we have been clear from the start that we will use all of our legally-upheld tools, grounded in decades-old bipartisan laws, to address dangerous air pollution and protect the air our children breathe today and for generations to come,’ Michalos said.

An Office of Management and Budget filing from late last year stated that the EPA anticipates issuing a proposed rule for the action, described as a proposal to limit greenhouse gas emissions from existing fossil fuel-fired plants, in spring 2023 and promulgating a final rule by summer 2024. The filing noted there are no EPA regulations on the books limiting emissions from existing electric generating units.

Overall, there are 3,393 fossil fuel-fired power plants nationwide, the majority of which are natural gas plants, according to the most recent federal data. Those plants generate more than 60% of the nation’s electricity, compared to the roughly 14% of electricity generated by wind and solar projects.

However, EPA data shows that the electric power sector accounts for about 25% of total U.S. emissions, placing it behind only the transportation sector and slightly ahead of the industrial sector. As such, fossil fuel power plants have been targeted by environmentalists and Democratic lawmakers who argue that emissions must be reduced in an effort to stave off cataclysmic climate change.

Shortly after he took office, President Biden pledged to enable the nation to achieve an up to 52% total emission reduction by 2030 and to create a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035.

‘Setting effective, affordable power plant carbon standards under the Clean Air Act now can ensure that the power industry delivers the emissions reductions needed to help meet the climate crisis,’ argued an issue brief released this month by the Natural Resources Defense Council, an influential environmental group. ‘Time is of the essence.’ 

‘The EPA needs to move expeditiously, proposing power plant carbon standards soon as promised and finalizing them by early next year,’ the brief added. ‘This will allow states and power companies to get to work on implementing them, so we can curb this dangerous pollution and safeguard the climate as soon as possible.’

However, the fossil fuel industry has pushed back, arguing the U.S. power grid is still deeply reliant on coal, natural gas and petroleum.

‘The expected EPA regulation is just the latest in President Biden’s anti-fossil fuels agenda, coercing the retirement of electricity sources that are needed during the grid transition,’ Michelle Bloodworth, the president and CEO of America’s Power, a coal power trade group, told Fox News Digital. 

‘EPA’s actions are contrary to the concerns of grid operators and other energy experts who have warned about possible electricity shortages,’ she continued.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June 2022 that an Obama-era rule limiting power plant emissions under the Clean Air Act was unconstitutional, since Congress never granted the EPA the explicit power to issue such regulations. But the Inflation Reduction Act passed two months after that ruling allows the EPA to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

A Montana state representative condemned a transgender legislator’s ‘hate-filled remarks’ to Fox News Digital, accusing the representative of ‘seeking media attention.’

The controversy stems from comments made by State Rep. Zooey Zephyr during a Tuesday debate about a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for minors.

Zephyr accused the bill’s supporters of being complicit in the deaths of transgender youths.

‘The only thing I will say, is if you vote yes on this bill and yes on these amendments, I hope the next time there’s an invocation when you bow your heads in prayer, you see the blood on your hands,’ Zephyr said.

After her remarks, Republican Speaker Matt Regier refused to allow Zephyr to express her thoughts on a bill that would put binary definitions of sex in the state code. Zephyr was also barred from speaking at Thursday and Friday sessions.

‘Not only has my colleague violated decorum, but has broken the trust given by the other 99 Representatives,’ Montana state representative Braxton Mitchell told Fox News Digital. ‘The hate-filled remarks were an act of self-service, not public service.’

‘I applaud the Speaker and Majority Leader for giving my colleague opportunities to rectify the consequences of this stunt,’ the Republican lawmaker added. ‘Since the hateful attack on the House, the Representative has tried to create further opportunities to seek media attention. We will not stand for it.’

Regier reportedly demanded Zephyr to apologize before allowing her to speak in the sessions again. Zephyr stood by her remarks, accusing the bill of targeting her community.

‘When there are bills targeting the LGBTQ community, I stand up to defend my community,’ Zephyr said. ‘And I choose my words with clarity and precision and I spoke to the real harms that these bills bring.’

Fox News’ Adam Sabes and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Minnesota lawmakers on Thursday passed legislation that would establish the state as a ‘trans refuge’ for children who are seeking transgender medical procedures but who may be denied ‘gender-affirming care’ in other states.

In a party-line 68-62 vote, the Minnesota House passed HF 146, which had been introduced by Rep. Leigh Finke of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. Finke is the state’s first transgender lawmaker. The Minnesota Senate passed the legislation by a vote of 34-30 Friday evening.

Democrats supporting the bill say the legislation will protect transgender people, their families and health care providers from facing legal repercussions for traveling to Minnesota for cross-sex hormone prescriptions or sex-change procedures. 

Similar legislation has been introduced in California and other states with Democratic-controlled legislatures which seek to counter Republican states that have sought to ban transgender procedures for minors. 

‘Gender-affirming care is life-saving health care,’ Finke told reporters ahead of debate on the bill. ‘Withholding or delaying gender-affirming care can have a dramatic impact on the mental health of any individual who needs it. Rates of depression, suicide, substance abuse are dramatically higher in transgender and gender-expansive individuals who lack access to care.’

HF146 would prevent law enforcement from removing a child from parental custody in accordance with an order from outside Minnesota. 

The bill now heads to Democratic Gov. Tim Walz’s desk for his signature.

This legislation is meant to ensure that children undergoing gender transition procedures allowed under Minnesota law cannot be governed by child protection laws of other states. It’s a direct response to neighboring South Dakota, where Republican Gov. Kristi Noem signed a law banning puberty blockers, cross-sex hormone treatments and sex-change operations for transgender individuals under the age of 18. 

Advocates for transgender people say that denying ‘gender-affirming care’ to trans youth inflicts harm on a marginalized group that is already at a higher risk of suicide. 

‘The protections outlined in HF 146 are vital for health care providers, who can continue to provide gender-affirming health care to their patients consistent with best practices, without fear of interference or punishment from other states,’ said Jess Braverman, Legal Director for Gender Justice. 

‘Parents are being forced to make an impossible decision between staying in their homes and risking their child’s health and safety or uprooting their lives and relocating, often at great personal cost. We can do our part to help by making it clear that if families move to Minnesota, they and their children will be protected under the law.’ 

However, conservative groups and family law attorneys warn that the legislation is written in such a way as to open the door for Minnesota parents to lose custody of their children if they refuse to provide them with transgender care. 

‘The most insidious aspect of this bill is the language that adds children who are being denied ‘gender-affirming care’ (defined as everything from therapy to hormone blockers, to transition surgery) to what amounts to the definition for a child ‘in need of protection or services’ in Minnesota, allowing the courts to take ‘emergency custody’ of the child,’ said Bob Roby, a licensed attorney in Minnesota with more than 30 years experience in family and juvenile court.  

Roby has studied HF 146 extensively in preparation to testify before legislative committees. He said the way the bill is written, categorizing a child being denied transgender care with abuse, turns laws meant to protect children on their head. 

‘This kind of court power has a long-standing precedent in Minnesota for keeping children safe. When a child is at risk of being harmed by a parent or custodian, the state has immediate authority to remove and protect the child from harm. Without this, there would be no way to protect children in those situations,’ Roby told Fox News Digital in an email. ‘To add children who are being denied ‘gender affirming care’ to the definition of children in need of this kind of drastic emergency action is obviously unwarranted.’

Roby observed that courts do not recognize parental rights or any other right where a child is being abused. He accused the state legislature of ‘criminal negligence’ for failing to consider the impact of HF 146. 

Renee Carlson, general counsel of True North Legal, a legal initiative of Minnesota Family Council, warned that the bill as written will ‘create confusion and increased litigation for the courts, while stripping parents of their fundamental rights, disregarding informed consent and encouraging young children on a dangerous path to serious lifelong biological and medical consequences.’

Transgender issues are highly controversial, with strong feelings on both sides. Hundreds of supporters and opponents of the legislation protested at the state Capitol building as lawmakers debated the bill. Black signs with white text said, ‘Protect Kids’ as dozens yelled, ‘Vote no!’ Others shouted back, ‘Vote yes!’ and held signs with colors from the trans flag — baby blue and pink — that said, ‘You belong here.’

Whether gender-affirming care is right for minors has become a major flash point in the culture wars across the country. The unicameral Nebraska Legislature gave preliminary approval earlier Thursday to a ban on gender-affirming care for minors. Georgia’s governor, Republican Brian Kemp, signed a ban Thursday. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, another Republican, did so Wednesday. The Missouri Senate gave preliminary approval to a ban Tuesday. Bans were enacted earlier in South Dakota, Utah and Mississippi.

The ‘trans refuge’ bill, which seeks to counter those efforts, now heads to the Minnesota state Senate, where Democrats hold a one-seat majority. A similar bill is awaiting further action there after receiving a hearing last month. The chief Senate author, Sen. Erin Maye Quade of Apple Valley, told The Associated Press she expects a floor vote there soon.

The Associated Press and Fox News’ Timothy Nerozzi contributed to this report.

A transgender lawmaker in Montana was censured Thursday after she was accused of presenting a ‘hate-filled testimony’ while debating a bill that would ban transgender medical care for minors.

State Rep. Zooey Zephyr, a Democrat, had a message for those who voted in favor of the bill banning transgender medical care for minors.

‘The only thing I will say, is if you vote yes on this bill and yes on these amendments, I hope the next time there’s an invocation when you bow your heads in prayer, you see the blood on your hands,’ Zephyr said referencing the body’s opening prayer.

Republican Speaker Matt Regier then refused to acknowledge Zephyr when she wanted to express her opinion on a bill aiming to put a binary definition of male and female into the state code.

‘It is up to me to maintain decorum here on the House floor, to protect the dignity and integrity,’ Regier said. ‘And any representative that I don’t feel can do that will not be recognized.’

Regier said that the decision to not allow Zephyr to speak came after ‘multiple discussions’ with other lawmakers, adding that there have been similar problems.

Montana Freedom Caucus member Rep. Caleb Hinkle, one of the individuals who demanded the censure, said that ‘Hate-filled testimony has no place on the House floor.’

The bill that was being debated would ban transgender minors in the state from receiving surgical procedures, hormones, and puberty blockers.

Zephyr said on Thursday in a statement that the Montana GOP ‘is refusing to allow me to speak on any bill for the remainder of the legislative session.’

‘I want to be clear: no amount of silencing tactics will deter me from standing up for the rights of the transgender community,’ Zephyr said. ‘I will not apologize for speaking with clarity and precision about the harm these bills cause. Montana Republicans say they want an apology, but what they really want is silence as they take away the rights of trans and queer Montanans.’

The Montana House Freedom Caucus said in a statement earlier on Thursday that Zephyr should be censured.

‘The Montana Freedom Caucus demands Representative Zooey Zephyr of Missoula’s House District 100 be censured by the House for attempting to shame the Montana legislative body and by using inappropriate and uncalled-for language during a floor debate over amendments concerning Senate Bill 99 — to ban sex changes of minor children,’ a press release states. ‘This bill already passed the Montana House and Senate, and the debate was over amendments requested by the governor.’

Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte has signaled that he will sign the bill if it reaches his desk.

Fox News’ Kyle Morris and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

The Biden administration appears to have green-lit a project proposed by Chinese-controlled battery company Gotion to build a factory in the U.S. after a short review.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) — an interagency taskforce overseen by the Department of the Treasury and tasked with reviewing certain foreign investments that may pose a national security threat — determined a Gotion project in the southern U.S. was not subject to further review, according to the company’s top North America executive.

‘Gotion is pleased to share the news we received from the Department of Treasury yesterday regarding a voluntary Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, CFIUS, filing that we submitted in March for a proposed plant in the southern United States,’ said Chuck Thelen, Gotion’s vice president of North American operations. 

‘Following an almost four-week review process by the committee, which is a nine panel committee using all the intelligence agencies within the United States, CFIUS determined that our proposed transaction was not subject to further review and we may proceed with the proposed transaction,’ he continued.

Thelen’s comments came during a hearing Thursday before state lawmakers in Michigan where Gotion, a subsidiary of the Hefei City, China-based Gotion High-Tech, has proposed a separate electric vehicle battery project. That factory, which Gotion is set to begin building in Big Rapids, Michigan, this year, has faced heavy scrutiny given the company’s ties to China.

Thelen mentioned the CFIUS review for Gotion’s southern U.S. plant, the exact location of which he didn’t disclose, in an effort to assuage lawmakers’ concerns about the Michigan project. He also mentioned a voluntary CFIUS review concerning the Michigan plant is ongoing.

‘Our voluntary filing for the Big Rapids area plant was submitted April 13 as I have indicated previously and we expect a similar review period and outcome,’ he said. ‘So, the CFIUS for the southern United States has already been passed.’

Later in the hearing, in a 10-9 vote, the Michigan state Senate Appropriations Committee gave the final stamp of approval for granting Gotion $175 million in direct taxpayer funding to help build the facility. The vote, which only received support from Democratic lawmakers on the panel, was immediately slammed by Republicans who argued it was a corporate handout benefiting an adversary.

Republican state Sen. Lana Theis, one of the committee members who voted against the funding, said Gotion has ‘deep ties to and is directly influenced by the Chinese Communist Party’ and added that it wasn’t inconceivable that China might weaponize the plant ‘causing untold damage and security risks.’

‘Gotion crafted, in secret, a sweetheart deal with eager government bureaucrats that threatens our state and national sovereignty and security, the environment, and public health and safety, while essentially costing the company nothing in return,’ she said in a statement.

According to its corporate bylaws, Gotion High-Tech is required to ‘carry out Party activities in accordance with the Constitution of the Communist Party of China.’

And Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., who represents the district where the Big Rapids plant would be constructed, released communications between himself and the Treasury Department over a CFIUS review he requested in February. In an April 4 letter, Treasury Assistant Secretary Jonathan Davidson reiterated the importance of CFIUS, but didn’t address Moolenaar’s concerns.

‘Treasury’s response fails to provide information on CCP investment in Michigan and reflects how the federal review process is broken,’ Moolenaar said. ‘During the 46 days it took to craft this insufficient reply, CFIUS could have conducted a review of the CCP-affiliated Gotion project in Mecosta County.’ 

‘The lack of transparency in this process is concerning and people should be able to know that a company that is trying to come into their community is being reviewed for its ties,’ he added. ‘While it is welcome that Gotion recently requested a federal review on its own, the subsidiary of a parent company that pledges allegiance to the CCP should not pass a CFIUS review to build a facility in Michigan.’

The Michigan lawmaker later added that the Michigan legislature’s decision to give funding to Gotion was a ‘historic mistake.’

When asked about the status of the ongoing CFIUS reviews and the review Gotion touted on Thursday, the Treasury Department declined to directly comment.

‘CFIUS is committed to taking all necessary actions within its authority to safeguard U.S. national security,’ a Treasury Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital. ‘Consistent with law and practice, CFIUS does not publicly comment on transactions that it may or may not be reviewing.’

A new Vermont law that raises the eligibility age for marriage to 18 takes effect in July.

Republican Gov. Phil Scott signed the legislation on Thursday, making Vermont the eighth state in the country to end child marriage.

Supporters said it will reduce domestic violence and unwanted pregnancies and improve the education and lives of teenagers.

A New Jersey-based group has been lobbying to end child marriage across the country, calling it a ‘human rights abuse.’ It said between the years 2000 and 2018, nearly 300,000 children were married in the U.S., and most of the marriages were between girls and adult men. In Vermont, 289 children under the age of 18 were married between 2000 and 2021 and 80% of them were girls married to adult men, according to the organization.

Under existing law, Vermonters aged 16 and 17 can get married with the consent of one parent. That changes when the new law takes effect on July 1.

Democrat New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Friday the migrant crisis the country is facing under the Biden administration has ‘destroyed’ his city.

Adams made the comments during a panel discussion with the African American Mayors Association in Washington, D.C.

‘[The] city is being destroyed by the migrant crisis,’ Adams said during the discussion. 

Adams even appeared to take a hit at politicians from his own city, suggesting they aren’t doing much to fix the issue at hand.

‘None of my folks came to Washington, D.C., to fight for the resources, that’s going to undermine every agency in our city,’ Adams said.

Adams made similar comments Wednesday, when he said that the ‘national government has turned its back on New York City,’ adding that ‘every service in this city is going to be impacted by the asylum seeker crisis.’

In a memo from the New York City Office of Management, reported by the New York Post, the city will spend an estimated $4.2 billion on costs related to migrants and asylum seekers that would be spent through June 30, 2023, and the end of fiscal year 2024.

According to the internal city memo, Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s plan would reimburse the city for up to $1 billion in migrant aid, which only covers 29% of expected shelter costs.

New York City officials have applied for a FEMA grant worth $654 million, with a decision expected May 31.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, signed a bill this week officially abolishing the death penalty in the Pacific Northwest state nearly 10 years after he initiated a moratorium on capital punishment and five years after the state supreme court struck it down as ‘unconstitutional.’

‘It’s official,’ the governor wrote on Twitter Thursday. ‘The death penalty is no longer in state law. In 2014 I issued a moratorium. In 2018 the state Supreme Court deemed the death penalty unconstitutional. Now in 2023, passage of SB 5087 strikes it entirely from our statutes.’

Washington’s supreme court ruled the death penalty was arbitrary and racially-based in 2018 after a study at the University of Washington found that juries were four times as likely to sentence a Black defendant to death than a non-Black one. 

The court converted the sentences of the eight people on Washington’s death row to life in prison at the time. 

‘The death penalty is unequally applied — sometimes by where the crime took place, or the county of residence, or the available budgetary resources at any given point in time, or the race of the defendant,’ Chief Justice Mary Fairhurst wrote in the lead opinion.

FLORIDA GOV DESANTIS SIGNS BILL ALLOWING JURIES TO SENTENCE AN INMATE TO DEATH WITHOUT UNANIMOUS VOTE 

She added, ‘To the extent that race distinguishes the cases, it is clearly impermissible and unconstitutional.’ 

Defense lawyers had long challenged the death penalty on those grounds, noting the state’s worst mass murderers and serial killers, Green River killer Gary Ridgway among them, had received life terms, not death. In a 5-4 ruling in 2006, the justices rejected an argument from a death row inmate that he shouldn’t be executed because Ridgway hadn’t been executed.

Washington’s last execution took place in 2010 when Cal Brown was given a lethal injection for the brutal rape, torture and murder of 21-year-old Holly Washa in 1991.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Inslee’s office for comment. 

Neighboring Idaho is one of 27 states that still allows the death penalty and is the most recent to adopt the use of a firing squad execution amid a shortage of drugs used for lethal injections and controversy around the efficacy of lethal injections. 

Mississippi, Oklahoma, Utah and South Carolina also allow firing squads and have collectively executed three condemned prisoners by that method since 1976.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.