INTERNACIONAL
Former NCAA swim captain warns Virginia elections could decide future of women’s sports
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
A former NCAA swim captain from Virginia who has alleged retaliation by university officials after objecting to a transgender student joining her team said she is «100%» concerned about the results of the upcoming statewide elections and the impact they could have on women in sports.
Former Roanoke College swimmer Lily Mullens spoke to Fox News Digital ahead of Virginia’s upcoming elections about her experience raising concerns with her college about a transgender classmate, who was born a biological male, joining the school’s female collegiate swim team.
The concerns about the matter fell on deaf ears and were brushed aside by college administrators, Mullens said, but she noted that Republican officials in the state came to her and her teammates’ defense.
‘NUDE MEN IN LOCKER ROOMS’: EARLE-SEARS BLASTS SPANBERGER OVER TRANSGENDER LOCKER ROOM STANCE IN HEATED DEBATE
Ex-NCAA swim captain Lily Mullens (center) says she is «100%» concerned about what the upcoming statewide election in Virginia could mean for women’s sports. (Kristen Zeis/Anna Moneymaker via Getty Images; ICONS)
«Gov. Youngkin had reached out to the captains and I personally and asked how we were and how things kind of played out. And that was such a huge thing, because not even the president of my school was able to do so,» Mullens told Fox News Digital. «Seeing somebody who’s the leader of an entire state do that and then not have my school president, who’s only overseeing 2,000 people … it’s hard to describe. I was so shocked, and I was grateful at the same time.»
The state of Virginia is gearing up for several consequential statewide elections later this year, including a race for the governor’s seat and for attorney general. Incumbent Gov. Glenn Youngkin has reached his term limit, so Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears was handed the baton to keep the governor’s mansion Republican.
She is facing off against former Rep. Abigail Spanberger.
Current Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares is also up for re-election and is being challenged by Democrat Jay Jones, who is dealing with the fallout from resurfaced text messages showing him wishing death upon a Republican colleague.
Earlier this year, Miyares said he found reasonable cause to determine that Roanoke College discriminated against Mullens and her teammates on the basis of sex and retaliated after the girls spoke up. It was a finding the college subsequently contested, calling the allegations «unsubstantiated» in a press release the school put out at the time and sent to Fox News Digital.
The issue stemmed from a transgender student who previously swam on the school’s all-male swim team but wanted to switch to the all-female team following hormone therapy and other transitioning measures in the fall of 2023.
A meeting of the swim team and its members to discuss the new swimmer’s upcoming participation was one moment Mullens saw firsthand that her college’s administrators were unlikely to support her objections.
SPANBERGER REFUSES TO URGE JAY JONES TO EXIT RACE, DODGES QUESTIONS AFTER ‘TWO BULLETS’ TEXTS
«The purpose of the meeting was to bring us all together with this individual to, in a way, hash out whatever feelings or opinions we had to the individual with administrators in the room,» Mullens recalled to Fox News Digital in August.
«At one point, it was discussed that this individual, without the transition, had thought about and gone through with planning a suicide. So, that was something that was told to all of us.»
Mullens, who described herself as a religious person, said she and her teammates’ first reaction was confusion after the swimmer shared specific details about a suicide plan.
«All of us felt emotionally confused. We didn’t know what to do,» Mullens previously shared with Fox News Digital.
Former Roanoke women’s swim captain Lily Mullens. (Courtesy of ICONS)
Meanwhile, school administrators present at the meeting «didn’t say anything,» according to Mullens recollection of the event. And on-campus mental health professionals were never notified about the situation until after Mullens and others went public with the matter in a press conference. Following the press conference, Mullens and her teammates were denied opportunities to study abroad in locations of their choice despite good academic performance and a history of extensive extracurricular activities, according to Miyares’ findings.
Mullens told Fox News Digital the explanations she and other swimmers got for their denials only added confusion to the whole matter even further.
«Basically, it said, ‘Not only is the professor responsible for the student’s academics, but also for their behavior,’» Mullens said. «I had no idea what that means. I’ve never had any sort of disciplinary action to me.»
CAN JAY JONES BE REPLACED? DEMOCRATS’ DEFENSE OF SCANDAL-PLAGUED CANDIDATE DRAWS QUESTIONS
In additional conversations with Fox News Digital leading up to Virginia’s November elections, Mullens said she felt like the college simply brushed aside all of her concerns, while taking actions that suggested support for the transgender swimmer.
«Every single email that was sent in response to us Roanoke girls speaking out — I remember our original press conference, as well as when we spoke at the Trump rally in Salem that he had last year — our president sent out emails where he said, ‘We love and support our LGBTQ students.’ So, it was like, ‘Well, if you preach inclusion and diversity that includes of ideals.’ So, when people kind of brush over that and then don’t say anything else about it, it’s so hypocritical to me and I don’t … I’ve never understood how we can have one without the other.
«We need leaders who are able to say, ‘Absolutely not, we’re just not going to let this happen,’» Mullens said.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears, left, and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger, right. (Pool/Getty Images)
Approximately a week ago, Youngkin issued Executive Directive 14, which directed the state board of health to begin drafting new policies requiring private spaces, such as locker rooms and bathrooms, and for sports teams to remain separated by students’ gender assigned at birth.
Mullens said she feared that, just like a new president could overturn President Donald Trump’s plethora of executive orders, a new Democratic governor could do the same in her state. During a gubernatorial debate Thursday night, former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, Democratic Party candidate, would not answer definitively whether she would rescind Youngkin’s Executive Directive 14, but she did say she does not believe politicians should be determining rules for school districts.
Her GOP opponent, Earle-Sears, unequivocally said she would not rescind the directive.
Mullens also expressed concern in her interview about the upcoming attorney general race in the state, pitting Miyares and Jones against each other. Recently, Jones came under fire after text messages from 2022 surfaced of him saying then-Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert should get «two bullets to the head.»
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
«I think it’s insane that somebody who is wanting to be the top person when it comes to the law in the state can say that there’s people he wishes death upon and things like that. That could very well turn into me. It could turn into my teammates,» Mullens said. «The top of the law in a state should be somebody who you know is going to defend every single citizen, no matter what.»
Democratic Party candidate for Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones, left, and Republican candidate Jason Miyares (Getty Images)
Mullens, meanwhile, called Miyares «instrumental» in supporting her and her teammates, including through helping get their story out to the broader public.
«We were bullied. I mean, I have death threats that came into my direct messages on my personal social media accounts. I have anonymous messages that were sent to me by people who I could have been sitting next to in class, and it’s stuff like that that is so hard to deal with,» Mullens said.
«When Attorney General Miyares came out and said, ‘Look, we’re going to investigate what the school did to these girls,’ we were just so grateful.»
2025 2026 elections coverage,virginia governor race,virginia,winsome sears,abigail spanberger
INTERNACIONAL
More Democrat reps involved in ‘refuse illegal orders’ video report receiving inquiry from US attorney
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Three more Democratic lawmakers who participated in a video message encouraging service members to «refuse illegal orders» said they are being investigated by federal prosecutors.
Reps. Jason Crow, of Colorado, Chrissy Houlahan, of Pennsylvania, and Maggie Goodlander, of New Hampshire, all indicated Wednesday that they received inquiries from U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro asking for an interview with them or their attorneys, according to The New York Times.
«Trump’s political cronies at the Justice Department are trying to threaten and intimidate us,» Crow said in a post on X. «Well, he’s picked a fight with the wrong people. I will always uphold my oath to the Constitution.»
«We are not going to back away,» he added in a video message. «Our job, our duty is to make sure that the law is followed. We will not be threatened, we will not be intimidated, and we will not be silenced. I am more emboldened than ever to make sure that I am upholding my duty and I will not back down.»
DEM SENATOR SAYS SHE’S UNDER FEDERAL INVESTIGATION OVER ‘UNLAWFUL ORDERS’ VIDEO
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro speaks during a news conference at the Department of Justice on Dec. 4, 2025. (Daniel Heuer/AFP via Getty Images)
The controversial video, which was posted in November, featured Crow, Houlahan, Goodlander, Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., and Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Pa.
All the Democrats who participated in the video, which was slammed as a call to defy President Donald Trump and his Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, had military and intelligence backgrounds.
The video was released amid a nationwide debate about Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to various cities across the country.
Trump criticized the video and said in multiple Truth Social posts that the lawmakers who participated in it had engaged in «seditious behavior.»
«It’s called SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL. Each one of these traitors to our Country should be ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL. Their words cannot be allowed to stand — We won’t have a Country anymore!!! An example MUST BE SET,» the president wrote on Nov. 20.
The same day, Trump wrote in a separate Truth Social post, «SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!»
DEMOCRATIC SENATOR ‘NOT AWARE’ IF TRUMP GAVE ANY ILLEGAL MILITARY ORDERS AMID VIDEO CONTROVERSY
Six Democratic lawmakers, Sens. Elissa Slotkin and Mark Kelly, and Repa. Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander, Chrissy Houlahan and Jason Crow, released a video directed at service members and intelligence officers. (Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images; Mark Kelly; Elissa Slotkin; Congress)
The Times reported earlier this week that Pirro’s office sent an email to the Senate’s sergeant-at-arms requesting an interview with Slotkin or her private counsel.
«Facts matter little, but the threat matters quite a bit,» Slotkin told the Times. «The threat of legal action; the threat to your family; the threat to your staff; the threat to you.»
Pirro’s office would not confirm or deny the existence of the probe.
«No matter the threats, I’m not backing down,» Goodlander said in a video posted to X on Wednesday. «It is sad, telling and downright dangerous that simply stating a bedrock principle of American law caused the President, our Commander in Chief, to threaten violence against me and to weaponize the Department of Justice against me.»
President Donald Trump, alongside Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, holds a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Dec. 2, 2025. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
«Like my colleagues, I was contacted by federal prosecutors who are investigating me for making a video reminding servicemembers not to follow illegal orders,» Houlahan said in another X post. «The six of us are being targeted not because we said something untrue, but because we said something President Trump and Secretary Hegseth didn’t want anyone to hear.»
Fox News Digital’s Rachel Wolf and Louis Casiano contributed to this report.
democratic party,defense,military,donald trump,justice department,politics
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Iran appeared to reopen its airspace on Thursday after a sudden overnight closure disrupted flights across the region, even as airlines largely continued to avoid the country amid heightened security warnings and ongoing regional tensions.
The overnight closure lasted around five hours after a Notice to Air Missions, or NOTAM, was issued, according to the aviation risk-monitoring site Safe Airspace.
Safe Airspace warns that the main danger for civil aircraft in Iranian airspace is misidentification by air defense systems during heightened tensions, rating the overall risk level currently as «One — Do Not Fly.»
TRUMP SAYS THE U.S. WILL TAKE ‘VERY STRONG ACTION’ AGAINST IRAN IF THE REGIME STARTS HANGING PROTESTERS
Empty airspace over Iran is seen in this screengrab from FlightRadar24 on Jan. 15, 2026, amid heightened tensions and concerns about potential military action between the United States and Iran. (FlightRadar24.com/Handout via REUTERS)
President Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday that he was informed the killing of protesters in Iran was «stopping.»
«We have been notified and really strongly, but we’ll find out what that all means. But, we’ve been told that the killing in Iran is stopping,» he said.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., disagreed with Trump, writing on X that every indication he’s seen shows that the Iranian regime’s killing of anti-government protesters is «still very much in full swing.»
«The death toll is mounting by the hour. Hoping that help is on the way,» he wrote.
TRUMP ENVOY REPORTEDLY MEETS WITH EXILED IRANIAN PRINCE AS REGIME FACES PROTESTS
Iranians attend an anti-government protest in Tehran, Iran, Jan. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)
The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), which tracks human rights violations in Iran, said on Wednesday that nationwide protests continued into the 18th day as authorities maintained a near-total internet shutdown.
The group’s aggregated figures showed 617 protest gatherings in 187 cities across the country, the arrest of at least 18,470 people and the confirmed deaths of 2,615 individuals.
HRANA said 2,435 of those killed were protesters, including 13 children under the age of 18.
TOP IRANIAN OFFICIAL DOWNPLAYS DEATH TOLL, BLAMES ‘ISRAELI PLOT’ AS US CONSIDERS STRIKES
Cars burn in a street during a protest over the collapse of the currency’s value in Tehran, Iran, Jan. 8, 2026. (Stringer/West Asia News Agency via REUTERS)
Trump has threatened action against the regime, warning Tehran in multiple Truth Social posts to stop killing its people.
«We are locked and loaded and ready to go,» he wrote on New Year’s Day.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
The president said on Tuesday that he had canceled all meetings with Iranian officials and called on protesters to «TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!!»
«Save the names of the killers and abusers. They will pay a big price,» Trump wrote, adding, «HELP IS ON ITS WAY.»
iran,world protests,middle east,donald trump
INTERNACIONAL
Cuba cerró 2025 con casi 1.200 presos políticos: el informe que desnuda una represión que no se detiene
Cuba terminó el año 2025 con un saldo alarmante en materia de derechos humanos: 1.197 presos políticos y de conciencia, una cifra que no solo refleja la persistencia de la represión estatal, sino también su profundización.
Así lo revela el informe de cierre anual elaborado por la organización internacional Prisoners Defenders, que documenta 134 nuevas detenciones políticas solo durante 2025, en un contexto marcado por la falta absoluta de garantías judiciales y el uso sistemático del castigo físico y psicológico como herramienta de control social.
“Nuestra lista contiene personas sometidas a sentencias o disposiciones fiscales de privación de libertad sin supervisión judicial, sin debido proceso y sin defensa efectiva”, afirmó Javier Larrondo, presidente de Prisoners Defenders, durante la presentación del informe fechado el 15 de enero de 2026.
No se trata, aclara, de casos aislados ni de excesos individuales, sino de un sistema de persecución estructural que atraviesa todo el aparato estatal cubano.
Según el relevamiento, a lo largo de los doce meses de 2025 pasaron por las cárceles cubanas 1.290 prisioneros políticos, todos ellos sometidos a algún tipo de tortura, tal como la organización ya había demostrado en estudios previos. Solo en diciembre, diez nuevas personas fueron encarceladas —siete hombres y tres mujeres—, la mayoría en el oriente de la isla, acusadas en gran parte por el delito de “propaganda contra el orden constitucional”, una figura penal vaga y recurrente utilizada para criminalizar la disidencia.
El impacto humano de estas cifras es devastador.
Entre los casi 1.200 presos políticos identificados hay 128 mujeres y 32 personas que fueron detenidas siendo menores de edad: 29 varones y tres mujeres. A esto se suma un dato particularmente grave: 464 presos políticos presentan patologías médicas severas y 42 padecen trastornos graves de salud mental, sin recibir atención médica ni psiquiátrica adecuada. “Son dolencias causadas o agravadas deliberadamente por la mala alimentación, los maltratos y la falta de atención médica”, denunció Larrondo.
Uno de los ejes centrales del informe es la condena a 219 manifestantes acusados de “sedición”, con penas que promedian los diez años de cárcel. Entre ellos, 16 fueron detenidos cuando aún eran menores, lo que vuelve a poner en evidencia el incumplimiento sistemático de los compromisos internacionales asumidos por el Estado cubano en materia de protección de la infancia.
Pero el informe no se limita a describir la situación dentro de la isla.
Prisoners Defenders advierte que el modelo represivo cubano se está exportando, particularmente a Venezuela. La organización documentó la muerte de más de 64 militares cubanos integrados al anillo de seguridad del presidente Nicolás Maduro, lo que confirma, según sus investigaciones, la presencia masiva de fuerzas represivas cubanas en territorio venezolano, pese a las reiteradas negaciones oficiales.
“Estamos sumando testimonios sobre torturas diseñadas y ejecutadas por agentes cubanos en Venezuela”, sostuvo Larrondo, quien explicó que los relatos coinciden exactamente con los 15 patrones de tortura ya identificados en cárceles cubanas: agresiones físicas, privación del sueño, posturas forzadas, tortura sexual y amenazas constantes. La metodología, señala el informe, es la misma.
Otro punto clave es lo que Larrondo denomina el “fraude del lenguaje”. Tanto en Cuba como en Venezuela, los gobiernos anuncian “liberaciones” que en realidad son excarcelaciones condicionadas, bajo amenazas y control policial permanente. “No son liberaciones, porque las personas siguen teniendo causas abiertas y condenas vigentes”, remarcó. En Cuba, recuerda el informe, en enero de 2025 el gobierno anunció la liberación de 553 presos, pero solo 219 presos políticos fueron efectivamente excarcelados, sin que ello implicara el fin de la persecución.
El cierre del informe es una interpelación directa a la comunidad internacional. “Basta de normalizar lo inaceptable”, reclamó Larrondo, y exigió a la Unión Europea, a los gobiernos democráticos y a los organismos internacionales medidas concretas, verificables y urgentes. “Las víctimas necesitan protección, visibilidad y justicia”, subrayó, citando incluso la Declaración Universal de los Derechos Humanos, que reconoce el derecho a la rebelión frente a la tiranía y la opresión.
Fue campeón con el Bayern Munich, recibió una orden de arresto y regresaría para jugar en la Serie D de Italia
Ni helechos ni begonias: las plantas que resisten la sequía y el calor extremo
Se posterga la aplicación del nuevo esquema de subsidios a las tarifas de luz y gas
More Democrat reps involved in ‘refuse illegal orders’ video report receiving inquiry from US attorney
Tras criticar los festivales, Milei visita Jesús María mañana a la medianoche: evalúan la opción de que entre a caballo
Las Trillizas de Oro contaron cómo fue trabajar con Julio Iglesias tras las denuncias de abuso sexual y agresiones
La triste despedida de Jorge “Corcho” Rodríguez a Pía, su asistente por 30 años: “Gracias por tu amor”
La AFA giró US$8 millones a cinco empresas en Miami que ya no existen: un argentino disolvió hace seis días una firma clave
Con el respaldo de Axel Kicillof, Claudio “Chiqui” Tapia seguirá al frente del Ceamse con un sueldo millonario
Incendios en Chubut: el fiscal general aseguró que el responsable podría recibir hasta 20 años de prisión
CHIMENTOS3 días agoLa triste despedida de Jorge “Corcho” Rodríguez a Pía, su asistente por 30 años: “Gracias por tu amor”
- POLITICA2 días ago
La AFA giró US$8 millones a cinco empresas en Miami que ya no existen: un argentino disolvió hace seis días una firma clave
- POLITICA2 días ago
Con el respaldo de Axel Kicillof, Claudio “Chiqui” Tapia seguirá al frente del Ceamse con un sueldo millonario
