Andrus Whitewing

Fox Weather correspondent Robert Ray described the scene along Florida’s Gulf Coast as dire and dangerous when Hurricane Ian approached landfall on Wednesday.

“My goodness, what's going to ensue in the next few days is going to be likely to be historic. You just don’t see powerful systems like this make landfall often here in the United States,” Ray said during a live stream from Fort Myers as part of Fox’s storm coverage. “To have it come in such a densely populated area … I just pray that people are okay and that they have hunkered down.”

Ray was interrupted by a large gust of wind which nearly knocked him down as he bent over to avoid being blown to the ground. During an earlier report for Fox Weather, the outlet’s streaming weather service, Ray was

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Wednesday downplayed the impact of abortion politics on the battle for the Senate majority, predicting that the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade will play differently in different states.

McConnell has sought to make the 2022 midterm election a referendum on President Biden by focusing on inflation, the influx of migrants across the Southern Border and rising crime rates in big cities.

But political handicappers now say that Democrats are favored to keep their Senate majority, in large part because Democrats are more eager to vote in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which struck down the right to abortion.

Asked Wednesday if he had been overly dismissive impact of abortion politics on the battle for the Senate, McConnell said: “I think that issue is playing out it in different ways in different states.”

But the GOP leader argued that other issues are doing more to move voters nationwide.

“The three big national issues that we’re going to be addressing here that people are most concerned about, nationally, are the ones that I mentioned: Inflation, crime and open borders. That’s clearly where we’re going to be putting the focus,” he said.

On the hot-button issue of abortion rights, McConnell said he’ll leave it to individual Senate candidates to craft their positions.

“I think every one of our candidates may have a different answer to that depending on where they are,” he said.

In May, McConnell defended the Supreme Court’s ruling on abortion rights and predicted the issue would be “a wash” in the November election.

But some Senate Republican strategists now concede the issue has revved up Democratic voters more than they expected.

A Washington Post/ABC News poll conducted from Sept. 18 to Sept. 19 showed that Republicans’ generic advantage over Democrats has slipped since February.

Forty-seven percent of respondents said they would vote for a Republican candidate in a generic House race over while 46 percent said they would vote for a Democrat. That’s a shift compared to a Washington Post/ABC News poll conducted in February that showed respondents favoring Republicans 49 percent to 42 percent.

People surveyed in the poll said by a three-point margin — 48 percent to 45 percent — that they would prefer Republicans control Congress next year. But the margin was 10 points in February — 50 percent to 40 percent.

The poll showed that Democrats see abortion as the second-most important issue heading into the election, trailing only climate change.

The poll also showed that voters trust Democrats more than Republicans by a 17-point margin to handle the abortion issue appropriately. Voters, however, gave Republicans the edge on crime, inflation and the economy.

McConnell in recent weeks has tried to manage expectations about Republicans’ chances of winning back control of the Senate.

He raised eyebrows in August when he said that Republicans are more likely to win control of the House than the Senate and cited “candidate quality,” a comment that was broadly seen as a subtle critique of some of the Senate Republican candidates who are closely aligned with former President Trump.

The GOP leader on Wednesday said “terrific candidates” always make a big difference in Senate races and predicted the battle for the Senate majority would be a toss-up.

“In every election every year, this year, past years, it’s great to have terrific candidates. We’re in a bunch of close races. I think we have a 50-50 shot of getting the Senate back. It’s going to be really, really close either way, in my view,” he said.

CIA Director William Burns

On Sept. 21, Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell increased the Fed fund rate by 0.75 percent and promised additional increases by year’s end to lower the present annual inflation

UMAN, Ukraine — For all but a week a year, the city of Uman is like any small city in Ukraine. The economy usually revolves around a bus factory and some grain processing facilities.

But every fall, thousands of Hasidic Jews from around the world transform a central neighborhood in Uman to celebrate Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year.

And this year, despite warnings from their home governments and Ukraine that the country is under invasion and could be dangerous, the festival went on. The crowd was about half the size as other years but still was...

President Joe Biden had deceased Rep. Jackie Walorski "top of mind" Wednesday when he looked for her in the audience at an event addressing hunger in the United States, according to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

Jean-Pierre fielded roughly 10 questions Wednesday about the president’s gaffe during the White House press briefing. Jean-Pierre told reporters 14 times that the president wasn’t confused about whether Walorski was alive and in the room, but he had her "top of mind" because he will be meeting with her family on Friday...

EXCLUSIVE: House Republicans are pushing Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Justice Department to investigate a string of politically motivated cyberattacks against pro-life and Christian websites after the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

GOP lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee said in a letter to Garland that cyber crimes against center-right groups are on the rise and aimed at intimidating and silencing conservative voters.

"The Department of Justice must investigate these attacks, which are likely unlawful and...

A new poll indicates that incumbent GOP Gov. Greg Abbott maintains his lead over his Democratic challenger, Beto O'Rourke, in the Texas gubernatorial race. The poll shows many voters in the state, Hispanics in particular, are concerned with conditions at the border and support the state's effort to bus migrants to other U.S. cities.

The Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday, which surveyed 1,327 likely Texas voters, revealed that if the election were held today, 53% of respondents would vote for Abbott and 46% would vote for O'Rourke.

Fifty...

President Biden will continue with his plans to attend a Democratic political fundraiser Wednesday night despite Hurricane Ian pounding Florida with devastating 150 mph sustained winds.

During Wednesday's White House press briefing, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked by a reporter if Biden would indeed attend the 7:00 p.m. EST Democratic Governors Association reception in Washington, D.C. amid the potentially devastating hurricane.

Jean-Pierre responded that the team didn't have "any changes in his schedule."

Biden is scheduled to...

Republican Tim Michels has put in another $5 million of his own money in the race for governor against Democratic incumbent Gov. Tony Evers, bringing the total he's spent on the race to nearly $16 million.

Evers raised $4.6 million over the same 37-day reporting period that ran from late July through the end of August, reports filed Tuesday with the state Ethics Commission showed. Evers has raised more than $26 million since last year, and about $15.7 million in 2022, on the race.

Michels co-owns Michels Corporation, the state's largest...

FIRST ON FOX: A controversial Washington, D.C. councilmember, who made national headlines a few years ago for suggesting that wealthy Jewish financiers control the weather, praised anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan in an Instagram video he posted last week at a private ceremony hosted by the Nation of Islam leader.

"Today we commemorated the relationship of the Honorable Marion Barry and the Honorable Louis Farrakhan in Washington DC that transformed the lives of many," Democratic Ward 8 Council member Trayon White Sr., said, captioning the video.

The...

The Department of Homeland Security, a huge agency charged with guarding the border, enforcing immigration laws, handling national emergencies and protecting air travelers, also finds time to serve as a life coach to its 240,000 employees.

The DHS website provides a constant stream of motherly lifestyle advice to its workers, much of which their actual mothers probably already told them. This week, DHS encouraged all workers to take care of their mental health and suggested that eating right and exercising might help.

"The food you eat has a direct...

Pennsylvania Democrat Rep. Susan Wild recently claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin is to blame for inflation in America, despite warnings that inflation was a political problem for Biden well before Russia invaded Ukraine.

During a candidate night event held by the Muslim Association of the Lehigh Valley last week, Wild, who currently represents Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District, insisted that inflation in the United States is nothing compared to what Europeans are experiencing, and that Putin is to blame for the financial strain...

The former president failed to derail the criminal investigation into his hoarding of sensitive documents and is stuck paying for a costly process that threatens to undermine his public claims.

Denmark will wear "toned down" jerseys for the World Cup to protest against Qatar's human rights record and treatment of migrant workers.