The Department of Homeland Security released a second round of August funding for Hurricane Helene relief this week, even as the agency directs increased resources toward President Donald Trump’s «mass deportation» framework.

Secretary Kristi Noem’s latest $28 million allocation formally offered Sunday brings the month’s total to $124 million in funds from FEMA, which sits within DHS, for the deadly Category 4 hurricane that made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend and devastated the Smokies.

The funding will go to road repairs and critical infrastructure restoration – which is especially needed in North Carolina and Tennessee.

In that regard, a crucial stretch of Interstate 40 washed into the Pigeon River near that state line — cutting off the lone major trucking route over the mountains, as large vehicles are prohibited on Tail of the Dragon and other regional crossings.

SENATOR PETER WELCH: I’M A DEMOCRAT AND WE NEED TO FIX FEMA WITH LOCAL CONTROL

FEMA funds have also been allocated to debris removal and «life and property» concerns.

«North Carolina families suffering from this unimaginable tragedy were cruelly ignored by the Biden administration,» Noem deputy Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. 

«Under President Trump and Secretary Noem’s leadership, FEMA is moving faster than ever before to get Americans the relief they need. This move to continue supporting North Carolina victims of Hurricane Helene is a testament to that fact.»

Trump lambasted former President Joe Biden’s initial response to Helene, claiming he «didn’t like reports that [he was] getting about the federal government.»

Trump alleged that more conservative areas – of which the western half of North Carolina has many, with the notable exception of Asheville – were wrongly being underserved by the feds.

Biden, however, rejected the claim, cutting off a reporter who asked him about it at the time.

NOEM SAYS CRITICISM OF FEDERAL RESPONSE TO TEXAS FLOODING IS ‘ALL POLITICS’: ‘DISSERVICE TO OUR COUNTRY’

A stretch of eastbound Interstate 40 in Cocke County, Tenn., near the North Carolina line, collapsed into the raging Pigeon River during Hurricane Helene, stymieing regional commerce. (Brianna Paciorka/Knoxville News-Sentinel/IMAGN)

«He’s lying, and the governor told him he was lying. I’ve spoken to the governor. I spent time with him and he told me [Trump is] lying. I don’t know why he does this,» said Biden, who had recently spoken with then-North Carolina Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp around that time.

Republicans also lambasted then-DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas when he claimed FEMA was running out of funds amid allegations the agency spent large sums on the migrant crisis, according to the New York Post.

However, Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-N.C., who represents a swath of storm-ravaged communities, said in a «fact-check» on his congressional website that FEMA did not divert any disaster response to the border or to foreign aid.

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«FEMA’s non-disaster-related presence at the border has always been of major concern to me, even before Hurricane Helene, and I will continue to condemn their deployment of personnel to the southern border, but we must separate the two issues,» Edwards said, while adding that the agency informed him they had enough money for recovery needs.

«Secretary Mayorkas’ statement indicating otherwise was an irresponsible attempt to politicize a tragedy for personal gain,» Edwards said.

Trump later told a campaign rally in Pennsylvania that Biden’s response to Helene was worse than what followed Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Then-President George W. Bush was memorably lambasted for praising then-FEMA Director Michael Brown’s response – remarking «Brownie, you’re doing a heckuva job,» Bush said while surveying recovery efforts in Mobile.

María Corina Machado, líder política opositora al régimen dictatorial de Nicolás Maduro, agradeció este martes al presidente argentino Javier Milei el decreto que declaró como grupo terrorista al Cartel de los Soles.

Machado, perseguida por la dictadura de Maduro e imposibilitada de presentarse a elecciones, remarcó el compromiso del jefe de estado argentino que se sumó de esta forma a lo actuado por Ecuador y por Paraguay en las últimas semanas. «Querido Presidente Milei, en nombre de los venezolanos le agradezco su firme y decidido apoyo a la causa justa por la Libertad y la democracia de Venezuela, así como el respaldo y cariño del pueblo de la Argentina“, indica el texto publicado en X.

“Nuestro pueblo ha enfrentado con inmensa valentía y dignidad a un régimen criminal narco-terrorista que ha provocado intencionalmente miseria, violencia y la huida de millones de ciudadanos”, subrayó Machado.

La líder política de la oposición venezolana enfatizó además la voluntad de cambio definitivo que atraviesa el pueblo de su país, sumido en una severa crisis humama, social, política y económica. “Hoy tenemos una sociedad unida, organizada y decidida a conquistar su Libertad para traer a nuestros hijos de vuelta a casa”, dijo.

“Sabemos que también contamos con el apoyo de los pueblos hermanos de las Américas y con los genuinos líderes democráticos del mundo. ¡Venezuela será libre!“, concluyó.

El Gobierno argentino declaró organización terrorista al “Cártel de los Soles”, que comandan Maduro y Diosdado Cabello. La administración Milei dispuso esta mañana incluir a ese grupo narcocriminal en el Registro Público de Personas y Entidades vinculadas a Actos de Terrorismo y su Financiamiento (RePET).

La declaración de “organización terrorista”, según informó el Gobierno, responde a los compromisos internacionales asumidos por la República Argentina en materia de prevención y combate al terrorismo. Y se enmarca en la normativa vigente y busca fortalecer la protección del sistema financiero nacional.

La resolución fue adoptada tras una coordinación entre el Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, que encabeza Gerardo Werthein y el Ministerio de Seguridad, de Patricia Bullrich.

“Declaramos al Cártel de los Soles como organización terrorista y narcocriminal. Maduro y su séquito son narcoterroristas. Ni en la Argentina ni en ningún lugar del mundo van a poder llevar a cabo sus actividades criminales. Para este Gobierno, el que las hace, las paga. Acá o donde sea”, afirmó Bullrich, en un mensaje publicado en su cuenta de X.

El 14 de agosto, días después de que el Tesoro de los Estados Unidos dispusiera una recompensa de 50 millones de dólares para quien aportara información que lleve a la captura de Maduro, el gobierno de Daniel Noboa designó al Cartel de los Soles como organización terrorista.

La disposición se formalizó mediante un decreto ejecutivo y forma parte del estado de “conflicto armado interno” que el mandatario mantiene desde inicios de 2024.

Con la inclusión del Cartel de los Soles en la lista de organizaciones terroristas de Ecuador, el gobierno de Noboa amplía su ofensiva contra las redes criminales que operan en el país.

La estrategia, respaldada por operativos conjuntos de Policía y Fuerzas Armadas, ha implicado detenciones masivas y la ocupación de territorios considerados bajo control de grupos armados. Las autoridades no han precisado el alcance de la presencia del Cartel de los Soles en Ecuador, pero el CNI deberá presentar un informe con sus hallazgos y coordinar acciones con agencias extranjeras.

Por su parte, días después, fue el gobierno de Santiago Peña en Paraguay el que dispuso una medida similar. El decreto presidencial fue firmado el pasado 22 de agosto. En él, Peña señala: “Desígnase a la organización delictiva transnacional denominada ‘Cartel de los Soles’ como organización terrorista internacional. Refréndese el Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores“.

First on Fox: Nearly two dozen Republican state attorneys general sent a letter to Environmental Protection Agency chief Lee Zeldin Tuesday, calling on him to cancel funding to a left-wing environmental group accused of training and lobbying judges on climate policy, Fox News Digital exclusively learned. 

«As attorney general, I refuse to stand by while Americans’ tax dollars fund radical environmental training for judges across the country,» Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen told Fox News Digital of his push to encourage the EPA to end its funding of the Climate Judiciary Project. 

«The Environmental Law Institute’s Climate Judiciary Project is using woke climate propaganda, under the guise of what they call ‘neutral’ education, to persuade judges and push their wildly unpopular agenda through the court system,» he said. «I commend President Trump’s efforts to cut waste and abuse during the first eight months of his presidency, and I am optimistic that his Administration will do the right thing and halt all funding to ELI.» 

Knudsen spearheaded the letter sent to Zeldin Tuesday, which included the signatures of 22 other Republican state attorneys general, calling for the EPA to axe its funding to the left-wing environmental nonprofit, called the Environmental Law Institute, which oversees the Climate Judiciary Project (CJP). 

TOP ENERGY GROUP CALLS FOR PROBE INTO SECRETIVE ‘NATIONAL LAWFARE CAMPAIGN’ TO INFLUENCE JUDGES ON CLIMATE

The Environmental Law Institute founded the Climate Judiciary Project in 2018, which pitches itself as a «first-of-its-kind effort» that «provides judges with authoritative, objective, and trusted education on climate science, the impacts of climate change, and the ways climate science is arising in the law.» 

The group, however, has been accused of trying to manipulate judges to make them more amenable to left-wing climate litigation. 

The letter sent Tuesday called on the EPA specifically to end any grants and awards endowed to the group. 

«We write to bring to your attention grants made by EPA to the Environmental Law Institute (‘ELI’),» the letter reads. «According to its 2024 financial statements, ELI received approximately 13% of its revenue in 2023, and 8.4% in 2024, from EPA awards. ELI also apparently still expected to receive funds from the federal government; its financial statement warned that the collectability of federal grant funds ‘is subject to significant uncertainty related to collectability and continual funding due to (the federal grant) funding freeze or other federal actions.’»

CLIMATE GROUP SCRUBS JUDGES’ NAMES FROM WEBSITE AFTER UNEARTHED CHATS UNMASKED COZY TIES

The Environmental Law Institute received $637,591 from the EPA in 2024 and $866,402 in 2023 from the EPA, according to nonprofit tax documents published by ProPublica detailing the group’s federal expenditures that year. 

«The Climate Judiciary Project’s mission is clear: lobby judges in order to make climate change policy through the courts,» 23 state attorneys general wrote in the letter. «An alumni magazine profile said the quiet part out loud, writing that the Climate Judiciary Project co-founder was ‘explaining the science of climate change to a group of people with real power to act on it: judges.’ The Climate Judiciary Project’s tampering raises serious legal and ethical questions.» 

EPA administrator Lee Zeldin’s office was sent a letter Aug. 26, 2025, by 23 state attorneys general calling on the EPA to end funding to the Environmental Law Institute and its Climate Judiciary Project. (Al Drago)

The Environmental Law Institute, however, in recent comment to Fox News Digital, has maintained that its educational programs through Climate Judiciary Project are in accordance with the standards established by national judicial education institutions. 

Climate Judiciary Project educational events are done «in partnership with leading national judicial education institutions and state judicial authorities, in accordance with their accepted standards,» a spokesperson for the group said in an emailed statement in July. «Its curriculum is fact-based and science-first, grounded in consensus reports and developed with a robust peer review process that meets the highest scholarly standards.»

«CJP’s work is no different than the work of other continuing judicial education organizations that address important complex topics, including medicine, tech and neuroscience,» an Environmental Law Institute spokesperson previously told Fox News Digital when asked about its educational programs.

The call for EPA to slash any funds to the Environmental Law Institute was celebrated by leading groups such as the American Energy Institute and the Alliance for Consumers, who lamented in comment to Fox Digital that taxpayer funds should not be used to fund the group and that «courtroom maneuvering» threatens day-to-day life. 

«The State Attorneys General are right to call for the elimination of taxpayer funding for the Environmental Law Institute and its Climate Judiciary Project,» Jason Isaac, CEO of the American Energy Institute, told Fox Digital. «This is a coordinated campaign to advance the Green New Deal through the judiciary using so-called climate litigation in the courts. Its curriculum is developed by climate alarmist allies of the plaintiffs and delivered to judges behind closed doors. Public funds should never be used to finance political advocacy disguised as judicial education.»

O.H. Skinner, the executive director of Alliance for Consumers, which is a nonprofit focused on advocating on behalf of American consumers, remarked that «as we have long warned, the left has a plan to reshape American society by using lawsuits in courts all across the country, especially in places like Hawaii and other coastal enclaves.»

«The new wave of revelations about ELI is further concerning evidence of how committed the left is to imposing mandatory Progressive Lifestyle Choices through this courtroom maneuvering and how big a threat it really is to all our ways of life,» Skinner added. 

A climate protester scales the Wilson Building as part of an Earth Day rally against fossil fuels April 22, 2022.  (Getty Images)

CLIMATE LAWFARE CAMPAIGN DEALT BLOW IN SOUTH CAROLINA

The Tuesday letter specifically argued: «State consumer protection laws prohibit deceptive and misleading statements to market a product. ELI is representing its training as objective when reality shows that it is not. State Attorneys General are responsible for protecting consumers, and we are concerned by ELI’s statements.»

The EPA has taken a hatchet to millions of dollars doled out under the Biden administration to left-wing groups and other programs deemed a waste of taxpayer funds upon Zeldin’s Senate confirmation as EPA chief in January. 

The EPA under the Trump administration has canceled $20 billion in grants under the Inflation Reduction Act — which has led to an ongoing court battle. Zeldin said in March that the $20 billion in U.S. tax dollars were «parked at an outside financial institution in a deliberate effort to limit government oversight, doling out your money through just eight pass-through, politically connected, unqualified, and in some cases brand-new NGOs.»

The state attorneys general reflected on the previous cuts in their call to Zeldin to do the same to ELI funding. 

«Under President Trump’s bold leadership, federal agencies and the Department of Government Efficiency have saved an estimated $190 billion, including terminating more than 15,000 grants that saved approximately $44 billion,» the letter states. «You have heeded President Trump’s directive and achieved monumental savings for taxpayers. You canceled $20 billion in climate grants under the Inflation Reduction Act. You cancelled another $1.7 billion in diversity, equity, and inclusion grants.3 And you canceled 800 environmental justice grants.» 

CHINA’S CLIMATE LAWFARE SHOULD COME UNDER BONDI’S MICROSCOPE, KANSAS AG SAYS

Climate Judiciary Project and the Environmental Law Institute previously have come under fire from lawmakers such as Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who accused the groups of working to «train judges» and «make them agreeable to creative climate litigation tactics.»

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The Texas Republican recently has argued there is a «systematic campaign» launched by the Chinese Communist Party and American left-wing activists to weaponize the court systems to «undermine American energy dominance.»

 Climate Judiciary Project is a pivotal player in the «lawfare» as it works to secure «judicial capture,» according to Cruz, Fox Digital has previously reported.