GOP senators launch task force to crack down on fraud tied to Minnesota scandal

HELP Committee Republicans create three-pronged approach to root out fraudsters abusing taxpayer dollars in health, education and labor programs

By Alex Miller
Fox News

Published January 26, 2026 9:00am EST

FIRST ON FOX: A cohort of Senate Republicans plans to launch a targeted task force aimed at tackling fraudsters in the wake of the Minnesota fraud scandal.

Republican members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee announced that they would form a task force dedicated to rooting out fraudsters abusing federal funding.

The seven-member panel will be led by HELP Committee Chair Bill Cassidy, R-La., who has cranked up efforts in recent weeks to crack down on fraud, particularly in Minnesota.

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KEY SENATOR WON’T FUND DHS AS ICE, FEDERAL AGENTS ENTER HIS STATE

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Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., is launching a task force to investigate federal fraud with six other Senate Republicans in the wake of the Minnesota fraud scandal.(Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

“Our tax dollars are supposed to help American families, not line the pockets of fraudsters,” Cassidy said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “HELP Committee Republicans are committed to rooting out this fraud and ensuring Americans’ tax dollars are used responsibly.”

The long-running, nearly six-year-long investigation into alleged fraud in Minnesota gained new attention and traction among Republicans and the White House earlier this year.

The scandal, in which federal prosecutors estimate that up to $9 billion was stolen through a network of fraudulent fronts posing as daycare centers, food programs and health clinics, has dominated the bandwidth of many in the GOP and spurred the Trump administration’s deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents into Minneapolis.

The majority of those charged, so far, in the ongoing investigation are part of Minnesota’s Somali population. The Trump administration has taken steps outside the deploying of ICE agents to target Somalis in the area, too, including ending protected status for the population and launching investigations into whether the fraudulent activity is connected to al-Shabab, a terrorist organization based in Somalia.

SENATE DEMS REVOLT AGAINST DHS FUNDING BILL AMID MINNEAPOLIS CHAOS, HIKING GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN RISK

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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced that he would not be seeking re-election on Jan. 5, 2026, at a press conference at the State Capitol in St. Paul, Minn.(Jerry Holt/The Minnesota Star Tribune via Getty Images)

The task force will delineate its focus into three prongs: health, education and labor and pensions.

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Those three subgroups will be led by Sens. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., Roger Marshall, R-Kan., who will lead the health-focused section, Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., Jon Husted, who will lead the education-focused group, and R-Ohio, Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., and Tim Scott, R-S.C., who will chair the labor-and-pensions-focused section.

But the task force’s announcement comes at a precarious time, as lawmakers hurtle toward what could be another government shutdown fueled in large part by the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) actions in Minnesota.

SENATE DEMOCRATS REBEL AGAINST THEIR OWN LEADERSHIP OVER DHS FUNDING PACKAGE, INCREASING SHUTDOWN ODDS

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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced that Senate Democrats would not support a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security following a fatal shooting involving a border patrol agent in Minnesota on a Saturday.(Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

That situation comes after Senate Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., signaled their plan to reject the DHS funding bill following the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti on Saturday by a border patrol agent. Cassidy, along with a handful of other congressional Republicans, demanded that the incident receive a fulsome and thorough investigation.

Still, Cassidy’s effort is not the first time he’s forayed into the Minnesota fraud scandal.

Earlier this month, the lawmaker led the entire Senate GOP in a letter to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, demanding that he provide receipts on several issues, and warned that failure to do so could lead to several streams of federal money flowing to Minnesota drying up.

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That effort was centered on several requests, like how often the state conducted on-site monitoring, inspections or investigative visits to childcare facilities that received federal dollars.

Senate Republicans specifically wanted examples of any information uncovered on fake children, false attendance records, over-billing, ineligible enrollments, and shell or fake business structures, among other demands from Walz.

Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.

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Google to pay $68 million over allegations its voice assistant eavesdropped on users

Updated on: January 26, 2026 / 12:58 PM EST / CBS News

Google has agreed to pay $68 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that alleged the technology giant’s voice assistant had illegally recorded users and then shared their private conversations with advertisers.

The preliminary settlement, filed January 23 in federal court in San Jose, California, requires approval by U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman.

The settlement stems from a lawsuit filed by several Google device owners who claimed their conversations had been recorded without their knowledge. While Google stated that its voice assistant would only register people’s speech when consumers uttered an activation phrase, such as “Hey Google,” the consumers claimed that their devices recorded them even without using such language.

Some claimants alleged the Google devices recorded private conversations about financial issues, personal decisions and employment.

If the settlement is approved, Google will place $68 million in a fund that will pay all consumer claims, as well as court-approved attorneys’ fees and other costs.

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Alphabet-owned Google didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from CBS News.

Consumers will be able to submit claims for up to three Google devices, although how much individuals receive will depend on how many claims are submitted, according to the settlement.

The agreement is similar to an Apple class-action lawsuit that alleged its Siri voice assistant had eavesdropped on private or confidential conversations. Apple device owners are this month receiving payments from the $95 million settlement, ranging from about $8 to $40 per person.

Edited by Alain Sherter

Treasury cancels all Booz Allen Hamilton contracts

By Reuters
January 26, 2026 3:37 PM UTC Updated 10 hours ago

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Booz Allen Hamilton logo is seen in this illustration taken July 26, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

WASHINGTON, Jan 26 (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury Department said on Monday it had canceled all of its contracts with Booz Allen Hamilton, accusing the company of failing to protect sensitive data, including at the Internal Revenue Service.

The Treasury Department had 31 contracts worth $21 million with the consulting firm, a release announcing the cancellation said.

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“President Trump has entrusted his cabinet to root out waste, fraud, and abuse, and canceling these contracts is an essential step to increasing Americans’ trust in government,” said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.

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“Booz Allen failed to implement adequate safeguards to protect sensitive data, including the confidential taxpayer information it had access to through its contracts with the Internal Revenue Service.”

The department cited the case of Charles Littlejohn, a former contractor for the U.S. Internal Revenue Service who was sentenced to five years in prison in 2024 for leaking the tax records of Donald Trump and hundreds of thousands of other wealthy Americans to media organizations.

Littlejohn leaked the information between 2018 and 2020 while working as a Booz Allen Hamilton employee, it said. The IRS has determined that the data breach affected approximately 406,000 taxpayers to date, Treasury said on Monday.

Reporting by Susan Heavey and Katharine Jackson; editing by Doina Chiacu

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众院选战提名前夕 高市支持率下滑

发布时间：2026年1月26日 23:54 | 来源：联合早报

日本众议院选举提名日前夕发布的最新民调显示，日本首相高市早苗的支持率有所滑落，要重现自民党一党独大的局面仍面对一定挑战。

日本第51届众议院选举在星期二（1月27日）提名，2月8日投票。这是高市率领的自民党与原合作伙伴公明党拆伙后，与日本维新党合作的首个选战，也是高市巩固长期政权的大考场。

不过，日本《每日新闻》星期一（26日）发布的民调指出，高市宣布解散国会后，支持率大幅下降至57%，较上个月的67%下降10个百分点。

政治立场偏右的《读卖新闻》的民调则显示，高市政府的支持率跌幅较小，较上个月下降4个百分点至69%。

据《每日新闻》民调，多达41%的受访者对高市在国会复会首日解散国会以举行选举感到不满，认为这将耽误新财年预算案的通过。《日经新闻》的民调则显示，过半（56%）受访者对高市的减税提议表示质疑。

物价高涨是日本这次选举的核心议题之一。星期一举行的选前七党政治讨论会上，朝野政党围绕削减消费税、缓解生活费压力进行激烈交锋。高市承诺在2026财年抑制通胀，实现两年为限的食品“零消费税”。

截至目前，自民党的整体支持率仍遥遥领先其他政党。日经和东京电视台星期一发布的民调显示，自民党的支持率达40%。自民党最主要的对手、反对党立宪民主党和公明党组建的“中道改革联盟”则获13%民众支持。其他政党的支持率依序为国民民主党9%，参政党和日本维新党均为7%。

分析认为自民党若能单独斩获过半议席，就能让安倍晋三执政时的“自民党一强”光环重现。如果不是单独拿下过半议席，那么高市极可能会拉拢更多保守政党来组建政府。

高市星期一在七党政治讨论会上重申，她给自己定下的最低胜利线是执政联盟赢得过半议席，如果未能达到这个目标，她将立即辞职。

她也透露有意在选后吸收更多保守政党，其中之一是国民民主党。她说：“我早就向国民民主党求婚，认为它与我要推行的‘负责任且积极的财政政策’的理念高度契合。”

《读卖新闻》民调显示，国民民主党以及打出“日本人第一”口号的参政党在日本年轻选民中具吸引力。18至39岁的日本选民里有18%支持国民民主党，11%支持参政党。

京都大学教授待鸟聪史发表评论文章指出，中道改革联盟是否能成为对抗自民党的一股势力值得关注。如果自民党即便没有公明党的支持也能赢得压倒性胜利，那日本可能会回到自民党独大的时代。

他指出：“保守阵营目前是以自民党为中心，但近期也增加了日本维新以及国民民主党，不排除高市这次选战的另一意图是要让政坛上的保守势力大团结。”

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World Health Organization says US withdrawal makes the nation and the world ‘less safe’

‘We hope that in the future, the United States will return to active participation in WHO,’ the body noted

By Alex Nitzberg
Fox News

Published January 26, 2026 6:12am EST

The World Health Organization on Saturday warned that America’s withdrawal from the agency will make the country and the world “less safe.”

The globalist body said in part of a January 24 statement that it “regrets the United States’ notification of withdrawal from WHO – a decision that makes both the United States and the world less safe.”

“We hope that in the future, the United States will return to active participation in WHO,” the statement noted.

US FORMALLY EXITS WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION, LOCKING IN TRUMP’S BREAK FROM GLOBAL HEALTH BODY

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Left: World Health Organization logo. Right: President Donald Trump speaks during a briefing in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, 2026.(Left: Probst/ullstein bild via Getty Images; Right: SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty Images)

The U.S. announced its withdrawal from the WHO last week, after President Donald Trump got the ball rolling on his first day back in office last year.

“Today, the United States withdrew from the World Health Organization (WHO), freeing itself from its constraints, as President Trump promised on his first day in office by signing E.O. 14155,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in part of a January 22, 2026, joint statement.

UN CHIEF ACCUSES US OF DITCHING INTERNATIONAL LAW AS TRUMP BLASTS GLOBAL BODIES

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U.S. President Donald Trump attends a reception for business leaders at the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting on Jan. 21, 2026 in Davos, Switzerland.(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

“Going forward, U.S. engagement with the WHO will be limited strictly to effectuate our withdrawal and to safeguard the health and safety of the American people.All U.S. funding for, and staffing of, WHO initiatives has ceased,” their statement said.

They claimed the WHO “pursued a politicized, bureaucratic agenda driven by nations hostile to American interests.” But the WHO pushed back.

TRUMP FLOATS ‘BOARD OF PEACE’ TO REPLACE UN, SIGNALS MAJOR GLOBAL POWER SHIFT

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U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on March 24, 2025 in Washington, D.C.(Win McNamee/Getty Images)

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“This is untrue. As a specialized agency of the United Nations, governed by 194 Member States, WHO has always been and remains impartial and exists to serve all countries, with respect for their sovereignty, and without fear or favor,” the WHO said in its statement.

Alex Nitzberg is a writer for Fox News Digital.

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Feds yank contracts with Booz Allen Hamilton after Trump tax leak

January 26, 2026 / 12:36 PM EST / CBS/AP

The Department of the Treasury said Monday that it is canceling all contracts with Booz Allen Hamilton after a former contractor who worked for the consulting firm leaked tax information belonging to thousands of people, including President Trump.

In 2024, former IRS contractor Charles Edward Littlejohn of Washington, D.C. — who worked for Booz Allen Hamilton — was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to leaking tax information about Mr. Trump and others to news outlets.

Littlejohn gave data to The New York Times and ProPublica between 2018 and 2020 in leaks that appeared to be “unparalleled in the IRS’s history,” prosecutors said.

The Treasury Department said in a new release on Monday that the tax return leak affected roughly 406,000 people, citing IRS data. The agency did not note Littlejohn’s release of Mr. Trump’s tax info.

“President Trump has entrusted his cabinet to root out waste, fraud and abuse, and canceling these contracts is an essential step to increasing Americans’ trust in government,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. “Booz Allen failed to implement adequate safeguards to protect sensitive data, including the confidential taxpayer information it had access to through its contracts with the Internal Revenue Service.”

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A representative from Booz Allen Hamilton was not immediately available for comment.

In court documents, prosecutors said Littlejohn had applied to work as a contractor specifically to get Mr. Trump’s tax returns and figured out how to search and extract tax data to avoid triggering suspicions internally.

“I made my decision with full knowledge that I would likely end up in a courtroom to answer for my serious crime,” Littlejohn said at the time of his sentencing in January of 2024. “I used my skills to systematically violate the privacy of thousands of people.”

Treasury says the agency has 31 contracts with Booz Allen Hamilton totaling $4.8 million in annual spending and $21 million in total obligations.

Trump’s NATO warning pushes Europe to face the cost of defending itself

Ukrainian president delivers warning at Davos that continent isn’t ready to defend itself

By Morgan Phillips
Fox News

Published January 26, 2026 8:14am EST

Speaking to global leaders in Davos, Switzerland, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered a blunt warning to Europe about its self-defense.

“Europe needs to know how to defend itself,” he said, arguing that the continent still isn’t ready to stand on its own without U.S. backing.

Zelensky’s remarks reflected a growing anxiety across Europe — that decades of reliance on American protection left the continent ill-prepared for a more dangerous era. While European countries have contributed troops, weapons and money to conflicts from Afghanistan to Ukraine, the ultimate backstop for NATO’s security has remained Washington.

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President Donald Trump has openly challenged that assumption, repeatedly warning NATO allies that U.S. protection should not be taken for granted, and insisting the U.S. needed to take Greenland from Denmark

Before he ruled out the use of force to wrest control of the island, European officials had worried about a military dust-up between Western powers would mean the end of NATO.

“Maybe we should have put NATO to the test: Invoked Article 5, and forced NATO to come here and protect our Southern Border from further Invasions of Illegal Immigrants, thus freeing up large numbers of Border Patrol Agents for other tasks,” Trump mused on Truth Social Thursday.

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“Europe needs to know how to defend itself,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told European allies.(Danylo Antoniuk/AP)

Trump’s suggestion that the U.S. may not defend allies that fail to invest in their own security rattled the alliance and pushed European governments to pledge sharp increases in defense spending.

Even so, European leaders continue to acknowledge how central U.S. power remains to NATO’s defense. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has pointed to the American nuclear umbrella as the alliance’s “ultimate guarantor,” alongside a strong U.S. conventional presence in Europe.

“We are still having a strong, conventional U.S. presence in Europe,” Rutte said, “and, of course, the nuclear umbrella as our ultimate guarantor.”

TRUMP: EUROPE WILL ‘TAKE A LOT OF THE BURDEN’ IN PROVIDING SECURITY GUARANTEES FOR UKRAINE

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Security analysts say that long-standing guarantee shaped Europe’s choices over time.

“For much of the post–Cold War period, it is fair to say that Europeans underinvested in defense, partly because threats were low, and partly because a series of U.S. presidents did everything they could to convince Europeans that we would stay there forever,” Barry Posen, a professor of political science at MIT, told Fox News Digital.

“Trump was right to argue that Europeans have been slow to fix up their forces as the situation changed — as Russia pulled itself back together and became more demanding and threatening, and as China also grew its power,” Posen said.

But Posen warned that driving a wedge inside NATO carries risks. “The problem Trump faces is that ‘conditional commitments’ make challenges more likely,” he said. “And then we would still have to decide what to do. As a great power, in the event of an actual challenge, we might not wish to look weak.”

Over time, those choices carried political consequences. With American power serving as the backstop, defense spending was easier to restrain than politically popular domestic subsidies such as healthcare, pensions and education, which became entrenched in European politics.

As defense demands rise, governments are running into those constraints. In Italy, officials have warned that boosting military spending to meet NATO commitments would strain an already tight budget, where pensions and social benefits account for a large share of public spending.

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“We are still having a strong, conventional U.S. presence in Europe,” NATO chief Mark Rutte said, “and, of course, the nuclear umbrella as our ultimate guarantor.” (Denis Balibouse/Reuters)

ZELENSKYY BLASTS GLOBAL INACTION ON IRAN, CLAIMS EUROPE STUCK IN ‘GREENLAND MODE’

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Germany found a way to buy time. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Berlin created a €100 billion special defense fund — financed through new borrowing and kept outside the regular budget — to rebuild its military without immediately cutting other spending. The move jump-started rearmament while shielding popular social programs from near-term cuts. But the fund is temporary. Once it runs out, sustaining higher defense spending will require permanent budget decisions inside a system built around strict fiscal rules and expansive social commitments.

John Byrne of Concerned Veterans for America said Europe’s dependence on the United States runs deeper than defense budgets. Even as European governments pledge more spending, Byrne said they still lack the senior-level experience needed to run NATO operations without U.S. leadership.

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John Byrne said they still lack the senior-level experience needed to run NATO operations without U.S. leadership.(REUTERS/Claudia Greco)

“They don’t have the experience,” Byrne said, pointing to the fact that large, multinational military commands have overwhelmingly been led by American generals for decades. “That institutional knowledge still sits almost entirely with the United States.”

Byrne said that gap matters in a crisis. Running complex, coalition military operations requires years of practice at the highest levels, he said — something that cannot be fixed quickly, even with higher spending.

“You can buy equipment,” Byrne said. “You can’t instantly buy command experience.”

During his address at Davos on Thursday, Zelenskyy questioned whether Europe has the power or the will to act independently if assumptions about U.S. protection change.

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“Europe still feels more like geography, history, tradition, not a real political force, not a great power,” Zelenskyy said.

He warned that European leaders continue to plan around expectations that may no longer hold. “To believe that the United States will act, that it will not stand aside and will help,” Zelenskyy said. “But what if it doesn’t? This question is everywhere in the minds of European leaders.”

Republican drops bid for governor, citing GOP’s ‘retribution’ on Minnesota

2026-01-26T16:11:36.965Z / The Washington Post

Chris Madel said in a video posted to social media that ICE operations in his state have been an “unmitigated disaster” and that he “cannot support the national Republicans’ stated retribution on the citizens of our state, nor can I count myself a member of a party that would do so.”

Updated

January 26, 2026 at 12:52 p.m. EST yesterday at 12:52 p.m. EST

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Attorney Chris Madel made headlines earlier this month for providing legal counsel to Jonathan Ross, the ICE officer who fatally shot Renée Good. (Aaron Lavinsky/ZUMA Press Wire/Reuters)

By Amy B Wang

Chris Madel, a Minneapolis attorney who was running as a Republican for Minnesota governor, said Monday that he was ending his campaign because of the national GOP’s “retribution” on his state, describing Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations there as an “unmitigated disaster.”