A new study shows that more than a quarter of high school-aged students’ time spent on their smartphones occurs in school. It comes as state lawmakers across the country introduce and pass legislation aimed at cracking down on student cellphone usage in schools. 

The study, spearheaded by Seattle Children’s Hospital, found that among the more than 115 eighth- through 12th-grade students that it tracked, 25% of them spent more than two hours on their phones during a typical six-and-a-half hour school day. The study found that the average time spent among all the students they tracked was roughly 1.5 hours, which contributed to 27% of their average daily use.

The study’s findings come just several days after the state of Colorado introduced House Bill 1135, which would require school districts in the state to adopt policies that limit the use of cellphones by students during school hours. If passed, Colorado would join 19 other states that have adopted some type of cellphone restrictions for students, according to Democratic state Rep. Meghan Lukens. 

‘I’m not a big fan of government controlling people’s lives, but in this context, I’m all for it,’ psychotherapist Thomas Kersting told Fox News Digital. Kersting is a former school counselor who has lectured for 16 years about the adolescent impact of increased screen time. He wrote a bestselling book called ‘Disconnected,’ which posited that increased screen time for kids is re-wiring their brains. 

‘I started seeing an incredible influx of kids diagnosed with attention deficit disorder (ADHD) from when I was working as a high school counselor. It did not add up,’ Kersting said. ‘The chronic eight or nine hours a day of stimulation affects the executive functioning, executive functions of the brain, which is what you need to be able to concentrate, focus, retain, and all that stuff.’

Kersting pointed out that schools and school districts are also taking the lead in implementing various ways to cut down on students using their cellphones during class time, but added that state and local legislation can have the power to push schools that may be afraid to act due to parental concerns.

‘The phone has become the umbilical cord between parent and child,’ said Kersting. ‘So, the idea of a parent nowadays sending their kid to school is more terrifying and schools, I believe, are probably concerned about litigation, violation of rights and things of that nature.’

But while parents may be apprehensive, taking phones out of school can help improve students’ test scores, attention spans and socialization, while reducing the need for disciplinary intervention, Kersting said.

The study by Seattle Children’s Hospital found that, excluding web browsers, the top five apps or categories used by school-aged students were messaging, Instagram, video streaming, audio apps and email.

Tulsi Gabbard passed a key committee hurdle on Tuesday, and her nomination will now head to the Senate floor where she’ll get a final confirmation vote. 

President Donald Trump tapped Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman, to be Director of National Intelligence (DNI) in his second term. 

‘I’m pleased that the Senate Intelligence Committee voted to advance the nomination of Tulsi Gabbard to be the Director of National Intelligence. Once confirmed, I look forward to working with Ms. Gabbard to keep America safe and to bring badly needed reforms to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence,’ Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said in a statement. 

Gabbard was advanced out of the committee along party lines, 9-8.

She received a last-minute endorsement from Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., a member of the committee, minutes after the vote was scheduled to get underway.

‘I will be voting today for [Gabbard] to serve as President Trump’s Director of National Intelligence. I’ve had the opportunity to work with Tulsi throughout the confirmation process, and I’m confident she will bring a fresh perspective to President Trump’s national security team and the intelligence community. Tulsi and President Trump have my support,’ he wrote on X. 

Some issues the nominee has been pressed on during her confirmation process are her past meeting with former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, her previous FISA Section 702 stance and her past support for NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. 

She faced questions about each in her hearing last week. 

Gabbard managed to impress some Republicans on the Intel committee with her answers, as both Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Susan Collins, R-Maine, revealed afterward that they would vote to advance her. 

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., endorsed Trump’s DNI nominee last month after she announced her changed beliefs about section 702, a critical and controversial intelligence gathering tool. 

He reiterated this support after her hearing. 

However, there were remaining questions about certain senators up until the committee’s closed-door vote on Tuesday. Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., is one of the lawmakers that did not disclose how he would vote until hours before. 

In a statement to Fox News Digital on Tuesday, the senator said, ‘American intelligence officers around the globe deserve our respect and support. I appreciate Tulsi Gabbard’s engagement with me on a variety of issues to ensure that our intelligence professionals will be supported and policymakers will receive unbiased information under her leadership.’

‘I have done what the Framers envisioned for senators to do: use the consultative process to seek firm commitments, in this case commitments that will advance our national security, which is my top priority as a former Marine Corps intelligence officer. Having now secured these commitments, I will support Tulsi’s nomination and look forward to working with her to protect our national security,’ he added. 

In a since-deleted post on X the weekend prior, Trump-aligned billionaire Elon Musk slammed Young as a ‘deep state puppet’ in regard to his uncertainty about Gabbard. 

But the two seemed to patch things up on a phone call soon after.

A spokesperson for Young told Fox News Digital in a statement, ‘Senator Young and Mr. Musk had a great conversation on a number of subjects and policy areas where they have a shared interest, like DOGE.’

Musk also shared on X over the weekend, ‘Just had an excellent conversation with [Young]. I stand corrected. Senator Young will be a great ally in restoring power to the people from the vast, unelected bureaucracy.’ 

The Trump administration is eyeing an expansion of the Abraham Accords, hoping to bring new countries into the agreement, and the rebuilding of Gaza, senior administration officials said before the commander in chief’s meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

The meeting is set to take place at the White House on Tuesday afternoon, followed by a joint press conference with President Donald Trump and Netanyahu. The meeting and the joint press conference will be the first Trump has held with a world leader since taking office again in January. 

The two leaders are expected to discuss maintaining ceasefire deals and a joint commitment to freeing hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, senior administration officials said. 

Officials said Trump is focused on getting all hostages out and ensuring Hamas cannot continue to govern. 

Trump and Netanyahu are also expected to discuss the second phase of talks on the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal. 

‘There will be unity in how they intend to pursue that,’ one official said. 

Beyond the ceasefire agreement, the president is expected to raise the issue of rebuilding Gaza. 

A senior administration official said Trump sees Gaza as a ‘demolition site,’ and thinks it is ‘inhumane to force people to live’ there in its current state. 

Officials said Trump expects it to take between 10 years and 15 years to rebuild Gaza, but said the rebuild is not something the U.S. is going to solve unilaterally. 

Meanwhile, senior administration officials said the president hopes for an expansion of the Abraham Accords, which was brokered during the first Trump administration. 

The Abraham Accords was a historic peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates that normalized relations and created bilateral agreements regarding ‘investment, tourism, direct flights, security, telecommunications, technology, energy, health care, culture, the environment, the establishment of reciprocal embassies, and other areas of mutual benefit.’ 

‘We obviously hope that the expansion of the Abraham Accords will continue and flourish, in this administration,’ a senior administration official said, adding that the president sees ‘an opportunity throughout the region and throughout the world, to, to bring more countries into Abraham Accords.’ 

‘It’s going to take time. It’s not going to happen overnight. But that’s certainly on the top of the agenda,’ the official said.  

In 2018, the Trump administration moved the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem – a relocation long debated in Washington – and one that showed the U.S. officially recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.  

Also during the first Trump administration, the president recognized Israeli sovereignty of the Golan Heights and withdrew the U.S. from the U.N. Human Rights Council. 

The meeting between Trump and Netanyahu is the first since July, when Netanyahu visited Trump’s Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.

That meeting came during the Israeli prime minister’s visit to the U.S. During that visit, Netanyahu addressed Congress and met with former President Joe Biden to meet with families of American hostages held hostage by Hamas.

There are currently 79 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, including six dual U.S.-Israeli citizens. 

Netanyahu, upon traveling to the U.S., said of Trump: ‘The fact that this will be his first meeting with a leader of a foreign country since his inauguration holds great significance for the State of Israel.’ 

‘First of all, it indicates the strength of the alliance between Israel and the United States. Secondly, it also reflects the strength of our connection; a connection that has already yielded great things for the State of Israel and the region, and has also brought about the historic peace agreements between Israel and four Arab countries – the ‘Abraham Accords’ that President Trump led,’ the prime minister said. 

This comes nearly 16 months after the war in Gaza began, prompted by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack against Israel, leading to military retaliation from Israeli forces.

‘The decisions we made during the war, combined with the bravery of our IDF soldiers, have already changed the face of the Middle East,’ Netanyahu said. 

‘They have changed it beyond recognition. I believe that with hard work alongside President Trump, we can change it even more for the better,’ he said. 

Fox News’ Landon Mion, Yael Rotem-Kuriel and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

The top super PAC supporting House Democrats has created a $50 million fund aimed at finding ways to win back working-class voters thanks to some of the richest Democrats in the country. 

‘We’re laying a marker down now,’ Mike Smith, president of the House Majority PAC, told the New York Times about his group’s ‘Win Them Back Fund,’ which was created to appeal to working-class voters that shifted away from the party in the November election. 

‘This is a priority.’

The list of donors to the House Majority PAC over the last few years includes several Democratic billionaires such as businessman Michael Bloomberg, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, hedge fund manager Tom Steyer, and Linked In co-founder Reid Hoffman.

FEC records show that Bloomberg gave $13 million to the PAC between 2023 and 2024 to go along with $3 million from Pritzker and $2 million from Steyer.

Hoffman gave over $1.5 million to the PAC, according to FEC records. 

Other high-profile donations to the House Majority PAC include $10 million from philanthropist Fred Eychaner, $3.5 million from investor Stephen Mandel Jr., and $2 million from software developer Chris Wanstrath.

The PAC announced it will target roughly a dozen specific races, including GOP Reps. Nick Begich in Alaska; Eli Crane, in Arizona’s 2nd District; David Valadao, California’s 22nd District; Ken Calvert, California’s 41st District; Gabe Evans, Colorado’s 8th District; Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Iowa’s 1st District; John James, Michigan’s 10th District.

‘One of the major roadblocks we have faced as a party has been declining support among a multi-racial group of working class voters,’ HMP said in a press release this week. ‘That’s why HMP is today launching a 2026 Win Them Back Fund focused on ensuring that we win back working class voters across the congressional battlefield. ‘

‘While Democrats at the Presidential level have consistently lost ground with working class voters for over the last decade, House Democrats like Reps. Adam Gray, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, Don Davis, and Gabe Vasquez continue to overperform with this crucial bloc of voters. Their victories demonstrate that House Democrats can win back this coalition of voters with the support of strategic investments in recruitment, research, and programming.’

In a statement to Fox News Digital regarding the billionaires’ support, House Majority PAC communications director CJ Warnke said, ‘The Trump administration is currently being run by Ghislaine Maxwell’s BFF Elon Musk and the richest, most elite, and out-of-touch men on the planet.’

‘Their plan is to steal benefits from hardworking Americans and enrich themselves even further, and House Democrats will put an end to their scams and schemes,’ he continued.

A long list of polls, pundits and politicians have publicly concluded since the November election that the Democratic Party shifted away from working-class voters during the presidential campaign, causing Republican victories in key House and Senate races along with President Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

‘It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them,’ Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., posted on X after the election. ‘While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change. And they’re right.’

Pro-choice lawmakers, doctors and advocates have argued the science is settled when it comes to the controversial abortion pill mifepristone. They say the drug is safe and needs to be widely available with virtually no restrictions. Even some GOP lawmakers have shown support for retaining women’s access to the pill, which is much more widely available today than it was just a few years ago. 

President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has yet to stake out a formal position on how he will approach the controversial abortion pill. Although he took several measures in his first few days in office to prevent taxpayer dollars from funding or promoting abortion, he has yet to respond to pro-life demands to reinstate specific restrictions on mifepristone.

‘The potentially tragic results of these drugs have been illustrated by the recently reported deaths of Amber Thurman and Candi Miller,’ Dr. Christina Francis, CEO of the American Association of Pro-Life OBGYNs, told Fox News Digital. ‘Denying the risks of mifepristone will only ensure that more women like Amber and Candi are left to undergo painful and potentially dangerous drug-induced abortions without the bare minimum quality of medical care.’

While pro-choice advocates have suggested the deaths of Thurman and Miller were the result of anti-abortion laws and the chilling effect they have incurred on women seeking abortions, Francis said their deaths were instead the result of a powerful medication that lacks the necessary safeguards. 

‘Many of the studies that abortion advocates like to quote to state that mifepristone has very few complications don’t actually reflect real world use of mifepristone,’ she said. ‘Most of those studies, women will have had an in-person visit, as well as an ultrasound, actually documenting how far along they are in their pregnancy, as well as ensuring that they did not have an ectopic pregnancy before they receive those drugs. When, in fact, that’s not real-world use right now.’

Francis pointed out that real-world use actually ‘means that they order them online.’

When mifepristone was first approved in 2000 by the Food And Drug Administration (FDA), numerous safeguards were put in place. Those included requirements that the medication be dispensed in-person and that patients receive appropriate follow-up care. It also limited the gestational time frame during which pregnant women could use the pill to seven weeks. However, over time, those restrictions were loosened more and more. By 2021, women could get mifepristone without in-person visits, and it was left up to the doctor to trust the patient’s account of how far along her pregnancy was.

‘They’re not seen by any kind of medical professional to confirm their gestational age or to rule out an ectopic pregnancy, which we know happens in one in 50 pregnancies,’ Francis said. ‘If you look at the FDA’s own label – and again, this was when there was still the in-person dispensing requirement – their own label says that one in 25 women will go to the emergency room due to complications related to these drugs. That is not a safe drug. Safe drugs don’t send one in 25 people to the emergency room.’

‘The only way to tell the bleeding, cramping, and pain is from a miscarriage, the abortion pill, or even from an ectopic pregnancy, is to actually do an ultrasound,’ Dr. William Lile, a pro-life OB-GYN who has delivered more than 5,000 babies, told Fox News Digital.   

The removal of in-person visits is a major aspect of the more lax restrictions that people like Francis and Lile want to see reversed. A big reason for that is due to the similarity of the side effects exhibited by both mifepristone usage and life-threatening ectopic pregnancies, which have increased due to the growing prevalence of Intrauterane Devices (IUDs) and sexually transmitted diseases like chlamydia and gonorrhea, Francis wrote in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal.

‘If she has an ectopic pregnancy that’s undiagnosed, she starts having these symptoms. She’s going to think that it’s the result of the abortion drugs that she took, and it’s normal, and she’s going to stay home while she’s bleeding into her abdomen and losing precious time. That could be the difference between life and death,’ Francis said. 

Mifepristone is also prone to causing retained tissue and atypical sepsis as well, something Thurman suffered from before her death.

‘When we know that this drug carries these kinds of complications, we are saying women deserve better care and better oversight when they’re being given these drugs,’ Francis said. ‘These are not benign drugs. Women deserve follow-up care. They deserve ongoing care.’

Pro-choice advocates argue that mifepristone is safe, citing numerous studies showing its safety and effectiveness, including for treating miscarriages, from as far back as 1988. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists call the drug safe and effective for abortion and miscarriage care. 

Autumn Katz, interim director of litigation at the Center for Reproductive Rights, called claims against mifepristone ‘false,’ noting they have been ‘thoroughly debunked.’ 

‘It has been used in combination with misoprostol by over 5.9 million patients in the U.S.,’ she said. ‘Numerous studies have repeatedly proven its safety and effectiveness for ending an early pregnancy, and mifepristone is also frequently used as a safe and effective treatment for early miscarriage.’

Fox News Digital spoke to a pro-life emergency room doctor who said he uses mifepristone in conjunction with other drugs to remedy miscarriages. However, according to Lile and Francis, mifepristone’s assistance is not statistically significant, or necessary when treating miscarriages. Neither does it remove the need for in-person visits, they said. 

‘When people think of it outside of the abortion context, they understand how important that in-person evaluation is, how important it is to know exactly how far along someone is,’ Francis said. ‘So that’s what we’re calling for, and [in-person evaluations] being put back into place would not impact a physician’s ability to use that drug to treat miscarriage, if that is their protocol for treating miscarriage.’ 

President Donald Trump’s administration is taking aim at various Biden-era environmental rules and regulations by stripping the energy sector of ‘coercive’ climate policies and oil lease bans, and launching internal investigations into agency actions that ‘burden’ energy development.

Secretary of Interior Doug Burgum, who was sworn-in on Friday, spent his first full day on the job implementing six new orders that reinforce Trump’s agenda and set the tone for the department over the next four years.

The secretary’s orders include examining ways to eliminate ‘harmful’ and ‘coercive’ climate policies, lifting Biden-era bans on oil and gas leases, and conducting a review of the legislation that funded the former administration’s green energy agenda, known as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

‘Today marks the beginning of an exciting chapter for the Department of the Interior,’ Burgum said in a statement. ‘We are committed to working collaboratively to unlock America’s full potential in energy dominance and economic development to make life more affordable for every American family while showing the world the power of America’s natural resources and innovation.’

In a press release issued on Monday, Burgum announced the department’s first initiatives.

The DOI pledged to expedite the completion of all authorized infrastructure and environmental projects to address the National Energy Emergency, which was declared by Trump on Inauguration Day.

The department will also conduct a review of all appropriations from the IRA, after former President Joe Biden spent the remaining months of his presidency trying to rapidly dish out funds from the bill to fund green energy projects across the country. 

Additionally, the DOI said that for every new regulation issued, the department will eliminate at least 10 existing ones as part of Trump’s ‘deregulation agenda.’

Burgum also demanded ‘immediate compliance’ with Trump’s overturning of Biden’s oil and gas lease ban, specifically in the Outer Continental Shelf, and said the department will be conducting a review of all agency actions that ‘potentially burden the development of domestic energy resources.’

The DOI, on Monday, also withdrew a June 2021 Biden administration order that halted oil and gas leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a coastal plain that the first and second Trump administrations have eyed as an oil and gas resource. 

‘Together, we will ensure that our policies reflect the needs of our communities, respect tribal sovereignty, and drive innovation that will keep the U.S. at the forefront of energy and environmental leadership,’ Burgum said in a statement.

Climate activist groups, however, have not been supportive of Burgum’s nomination.

‘From opening more public lands for extraction to attacking countless protections of lands, water, and wildlife, it’s clear that President Trump is committed to expanding fossil fuels and catering to industry at the expense of our climate, public lands and waters, and wildlife,’ Earthjustice, an environmental law group, wrote in opposition to Burgum’s nomination.

Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., came out in support of Tulsi Gabbard to be Director of National Intelligence (DNI), just hours before her crucial committee vote. 

In a statement to Fox News Digital, the senator said, ‘American intelligence officers around the globe deserve our respect and support. I appreciate Tulsi Gabbard’s engagement with me on a variety of issues to ensure that our intelligence professionals will be supported and policymakers will receive unbiased information under her leadership.’

‘I have done what the Framers envisioned for senators to do: use the consultative process to seek firm commitments, in this case commitments that will advance our national security, which is my top priority as a former Marine Corps intelligence officer. Having now secured these commitments, I will support Tulsi’s nomination and look forward to working with her to protect our national security,’ he added. 

Gabbard will need the support of all Republicans on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in order to advance to the floor for a confirmation vote. 

That is assuming she does not get the votes of any Democrats. No Democrats on the committee have endorsed her for the role.