Former President Joe Biden completed a round of radiation treatment for his aggressive form of prostate cancer on Monday.

Biden had been undergoing treatment at Penn Medicine Radiation Oncology in Philadelphia for several weeks. The former president’s daughter, Ashley Biden, hailed the milestone in a post on social media.

‘Rung the bell! Thank you to the incredible doctors, nurses, and staff at Penn Medicine. We are so grateful!’ she wrote on Instagram.

‘He rang the bell today,’ Biden spokeswoman Kelly Scully confirmed, according to CBS News.

‘Dad has been so damn brave throughout his treatment. Grateful,’ Ashley wrote in a follow-up post.

It is common practice for cancer treatment centers to have patients ring a bell when they complete a round of radiation treatment. It serves as both a mark of progress for the patient and a form of encouragement for other patients undergoing treatment in the facility.

It is unclear whether Biden will need to undergo further rounds of radiation therapy.

Biden announced his diagnosis with prostate cancer in May, saying it had already metastasized and spread to his bones. The announcement redoubled concerns that the White House was not being forthright about Biden’s health during his time in office.

Biden also underwent surgery Sept. 4 to remove cancerous skin cells through a procedure known as Mohs surgery.

During his presidency, Biden had a cancerous skin lesion removed from his chest, the White House previously said. Former White House physician Kevin O’Connor noted in February 2023 that a biopsy of skin tissue taken during a health assessment revealed cancerous cells, all of which were successfully removed.

Fox News’ Bonny Chu contributed to this report.

A House Republican exploring higher office is predicting the ongoing government shutdown will make the 2026 midterm field a more difficult one for Democrats.

‘Once all the dust settles, I think people will think, ‘Why did the Democrats shut it down? What was their reason? What did they get out of it?’’ Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, told Fox News Digital.

‘And I think once this all passes over the next two, three months, I think people will think, like, ‘Shame on all these partisan antics the government did and shame on [Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.] for going down this path, having no idea of how to get it reopened.’

Feenstra is expected to announce a run for Iowa governor, having already started gathering endorsements and creating a ‘Feenstra for Governor’ website.

He’s also one of the vast majority of House Republicans who voted to pass the GOP’s government funding bill on Sept. 19.

It was a seven-week extension of fiscal year (FY) 2025 federal funding levels called a continuing resolution (CR), aimed at giving congressional negotiators more time to strike a longer-term deal on FY2026 spending.

But in the Senate, where at least several Democrats are needed to reach the 60-vote threshold to break a filibuster, progress has stalled.

Senate Democrats have tanked the bill in the upper chamber 11 times since the House passed it.

Three members of the Senate Democratic caucus have been voting with Republicans, but under the current tally, at least five more are needed to hold a final vote on the bill.

Democrats are demanding that any funding bill be paired with significant concessions on healthcare, specifically an extension of Obamacare subsidies that were enhanced during the COVID-19 pandemic, which are set to expire at the end of this year.

‘I think it affects people up and down the ticket, because you have the Democrats … who say, ‘Schumer is right.’ You have these liberal progressives that no matter what happens, they just want to spend more money, and they want to make sure illegal immigrants get healthcare,’ Feenstra said.

‘It’s very concerning, I think once people understand that, I think it could have a really catastrophic effect on Democrats next election cycle,’ he said.

Democrats have called GOP accusations that they want to restore healthcare for illegal immigrants a lie. A counter-proposal for a CR introduced by Democrats last month would eliminate healthcare changes in Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act, some of which are aimed at keeping certain noncitizens from accessing government-funded healthcare.

Feenstra also criticized Democrats’ counter-proposal because it would eliminate a new $50 billion rural hospital fund established in Republicans’ policy bill.

‘Everybody’s really worried about our healthcare. There’s $50 billion in the ‘big, beautiful bill,’ [President Donald Trump’s] big, beautiful bill, to help critical access hospitals in the Midwest and in Iowa. That’s in jeopardy right now,’ Feenstra said.

‘So there’s a lot of concern right now in rural Iowa. And everybody understands that you’ve got to get the government open so that we can negotiate and figure this out.’

The Iowa Republican, whose district skews heavily rural, said he was also worried about critical programs for farmers that are endangered by the shutdown.

‘This is really affecting the farm community over in the Midwest,’ he said.

President Donald Trump said he believes Venezuela is ‘feeling heat’ amid his administration’s war against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean, which has taken out at least two vessels in just the past week. 

Although Trump has said the strikes are intended to curb the influx of drugs into the United States, experts and some lawmakers contend that they serve another purpose: to exert pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro so he’s ousted from power. 

‘The Trump administration is likely attempting to force Maduro to voluntarily leave office through a series of diplomatic moves, and now military action and the threat thereof,’ Brandan Buck, a foreign policy analyst at the Cato Institute, said in an email to Fox News Digital Thursday. ‘Whether this constitutes a ‘regime change’ or something else is a question of semantics.’ 

The Trump administration repeatedly has said it does not recognize Maduro as a legitimate head of state, but instead, a leader of a drug cartel. In August, the Trump administration upped the reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest to $50 million, labeling him ‘one of the largest narco-traffickers in the world.’

So far, the Trump administration has been tight-lipped when asked about Maduro, and Trump declined to answer Wednesday when asked if the CIA had the authority to ‘take out’ Maduro. 

However, Trump confirmed that he authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations in Venezuela, after the New York Times reported Wednesday he signed off on the move. Trump told reporters he did so because Venezuela has released prisoners into the U.S., and that drugs were coming into the U.S. from Venezuela through sea routes. 

Additionally, Trump confirmed Friday that Maduro offered to grant the U.S. access to Venezuelan oil and other natural resources, claiming the Venezuelan leader didn’t want to ‘f*** around’ with the U.S. 

Still, these recent strikes are unlikely to majorly undermine drug flow into the U.S., according to Buck. 

‘It is more likely that those strikes are part of this incremental effort to dislodge Maduro than merely an effort to wage war on the cartels,’ Buck said. ‘Pacific and overland routes through Mexico are considerably more prolific, and Venezuela itself is a relatively minor player, especially when it comes to fentanyl.’ 

The Trump administration has employed maritime forces to address drug threats, and has bolstered naval assets in the Caribbean in recent months. For example, Trump has sent several U.S. Navy guided missile destroyers to enhance the administration’s counter-narcotics efforts in the region starting in August.

Geoff Ramsey, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council international affairs think tank, said that the Trump administration wants these additional forces to encourage the Venezuelan military to take matters into their own hands. 

‘What President Trump is hoping is that this deployment will signal to the Venezuelan military that they should rise up against Maduro themselves,’ Ramsey said in a Thursday email to Fox News Digital. ‘The problem is that we haven’t seen this approach bear fruit in twenty years of trying. Maduro is terrible at governing, but good at keeping his upper ranks fat and happy while the people starve.’

‘What is needed here is some kind of a road map, or a blueprint for a transition, that can be more attractive to the ruling party and those around Maduro who might secretly want change but need to see a future for themselves in a democratic Venezuela,’ Ramsey said. 

Meanwhile, the second Trump administration has adopted a hard-line approach to address the flow of drugs into the U.S., and designated drug cartel groups like Tren de Aragua, Sinaloa and others as foreign terrorist organizations in February.

Additionally, the White House sent lawmakers a memo Sept. 30 informing them that the U.S. is now participating in a ‘non-international armed conflict’ with drug smugglers, and has conducted at least six strikes against vessels off the coast of Venezuela. The U.S. seized survivors from the most recent strike Thursday — the first one involving survivors. At least 28 other individuals have died from previous strikes. 

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have voiced concerns over the legality of the strikes, and Sens. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Tim Kaine, D-Va., filed a war powers resolution in September to bar U.S. forces from engaging in ‘hostilities’ against certain non-state organizations.

The resolution failed in the Senate by a 51–48 margin on Oct. 8, but Republicans Rand Paul of Kentucky and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted alongside their Democratic counterparts for the resolution.

On Friday, Schiff, Kaine and Paul introduced another narrower war powers resolution that would block U.S. armed forces from participating in ‘hostilities’ against Venezuela specifically. The lawmakers said the resolution came in response to Trump’s comments considering land operations in Venezuela. 

‘The Trump administration has made it clear they may launch military action inside Venezuela’s borders, and won’t stop at boat strikes in the Caribbean,’ Schiff said in a statement Friday. ‘In recent weeks we have seen increasingly concerning movements and reporting that undermine claims that this is merely about stopping drug smugglers. Congress has not authorized military force against Venezuela. And we must assert our authority to stop the United States from being dragged—intentionally or accidentally—into full-fledged war in South America.’

When asked about lawmakers’ concerns about the legality of the strikes, Trump dismissed them and said that lawmakers were informed the vessels carried drugs. 

‘But they are given information that they were loaded up with drugs,’ Trump said on Tuesday. ‘And that’s the thing that matters. When they’re loaded up with drugs, they’re fair game. And every one of those ships were and they’re not ships, they’re they’re boats.’ 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Two Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers were killed by terror operatives in Rafah, southern Gaza, threatening the ceasefire with Hamas, Israeli military sources confirmed to Fox News Digital on Sunday.

The soldiers, Major Yaniv Kula, 26, a company commander in the 932nd Battalion of the Nahal Brigade, and Staff Sergeant Itay Yavetz, 21, a combat soldier in the same battalion, were both based in Modi’in-Maccabim-Reut.

According to the initial IDF investigation, a militant cell had emerged from a tunnel and fired at an excavation vehicle, killing the two soldiers. A reserve soldier was also severely wounded and evacuated to a hospital, per The Times of Israel.

According to Professor Kobi Michael, senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) and the Misgav Institute, the attack showed the fragility of the ceasefire deal.

‘Today’s violation of the agreement was severe,’ Michael said. ‘I assume that this is not going to be the last one,’ he told Fox News Digital.

‘Israel complies [with President Trump’s] plan and wants to continue with the realization of the plan,’ he said.

‘This agreement was violated since the first day by Hamas,’ Michael added. ‘And it continued with their behavior with regard to the hostages, the dead hostages.’

‘All the manipulation that they are doing plays on the nerves of Israeli society,’ he continued, saying the terror group is ‘making themselves as if they are not able… to find the bodies where everybody knows that they can.’

Michael detailed how the first violation came immediately after the redeployment of the IDF along the so-called Yellow Line, ‘when Hamas first sent [civilian] children in order to provoke the IDF, in order to check if the IDF is aware enough and ready enough.’

‘And then they sent militants of Hamas, and some of them were even killed along the yellow line,’ he said.

‘They continue reconstituting themselves and attacking the IDF by using the tunnels, using the shafts going out, because they now feel much freer, because the IDF left the populated area,’ he explained.

Michael also cited Hamas’ ‘butchering’ of civilians ‘because they suspect that they collaborated with Israel, or because they are afraid that these hamulas or clans might oppose them in the future… and weaken them.’

In response to Sunday’s attack, the IDF launched air and ground strikes across southern Gaza.

‘The IDF also struck and dismantled six kilometers of underground terrorist infrastructure, using over 120 munitions. The underground site was used by the terrorist organization to advance attacks against the State of Israel,’ it said in a statement.

‘The IDF will continue to respond firmly and will operate to eliminate any threat to the State of Israel,’ it said.

Israel simultaneously announced a suspension of all humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. 

Michael warned that Hamas has no intention of dismantling itself and cooperating with the plan when it comes to demilitarizing the Gaza Strip and establishing a mechanism of alternative governance.

‘Hamas is still using the tunnels, and intends to reconstruct the tunnels that were destroyed by Israel, because they intend to continue the war against Israel,’ he said.

He said that the militant organization has been rebuilding its ranks and reasserting control in the Strip.

‘They immediately recruited [thousands] of people and deployed them and are butchering their own people,’ Michael said.

‘They do not intend to give up on their position and influence in the Gaza Strip. They do not accept the idea of dismantling themselves. And they do not accept the idea that a foreign force or board will govern the Gaza Strip,’ he concluded.

The incident comes just days after a U.S.-brokered ceasefire, which took effect Oct. 10, temporarily halted the two-year war between Israel and Hamas. 

Under the deal, hostages were released in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, and a ceasefire was declared.

Later on Sunday, the IDF announced the resumption of the ceasefire, following retaliatory strikes.

‘In accordance with the directive of the political echelon and following a series of significant strikes in response to Hamas’ violations, the IDF has begun the renewed enforcement of the ceasefire,’ a statement read.

‘The IDF will continue to uphold the ceasefire agreement and will respond firmly to any violation of it,’ the military added.

In a statement, Israeli UN Ambassador Danny Danon said: ‘Earlier today, two IDF soldiers, Maj. Yaniv Kula and Staff Sgt. Itay Yavetz, were killed by Hamas terrorists in Rafah in what was a flagrant violation of the ceasefire agreement.’

‘We mourn their loss and send our condolences to their families. Israel has abided by the terms of the ceasefire agreement, but we will make it clear to Hamas terrorists that the IDF will do whatever it takes to protect Israel’s security,’ Danon added.

Michael, meanwhile, predicted delays in reopening the Rafah Crossing, a critical entry point for aid and movement.

‘I don’t think Rafah Crossing will open tomorrow,’ he said. ‘It will take several days until it is opened,’ he said.