White House special envoy Steve Witkoff said he is pushing for all hostages held in the Gaza Strip to be returned this week, though negotiations with Hamas still appear to be at an impasse. 

‘We adamantly want, and I’m following the president’s direction here when I say this, all of those hostages home this week,’ Witkoff told Fox News’ Bret Baier on ‘Special Report’ Tuesday night. 

‘There’s been a deal on the table for the last six or seven weeks that would have released 10 of the hostages out of the 20 who we think are alive,’ he said, noting that he believes Hamas is ‘100%’ to blame for the hold-up.

‘It was Hamas who slow played that process, and it is Hamas now who is saying we accept that deal,’ Witkoff added.

Witkoff did not go into detail on what specifically is holding up the return of the hostages who have been held captive in the Gaza Strip for nearly two years following the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. 

But reports on Tuesday suggested the Israeli security cabinet refused to review a deal that would see the partial release of hostages and Witkoff confirmed the ‘official position’ of Jerusalem is a full return of hostages or no ceasefire deal as it pushes forward with its plans to take Gaza City. 

In a statement to Fox News Digital on Wednesday, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a group that represents the families of the hostages, said it is ‘hopeful that with this deal on the table, we will finally see our loved ones return.’ 

‘Time is running out, and we know that only by finalizing this deal can we bring all 50 hostages home – those who are alive to begin their healing journey, and those who were tragically lost to receive a dignified burial,’ it added.  ‘We have no time left – let’s make this deal happen now.’

But the forum also issued a public statement on Tuesday after reports said Israel refused to review a partial return deal, and said, ‘It is deeply disappointing that on the very day when masses of Israelis take to the streets demanding the return of all hostages and an end to the war, the government continues to delay progress on the agreement, contrary to the people’s will.’ 

A demonstration of some 350,000 people took place in Israel’s Hostage Square in Tel Aviv on Tuesday night, according to the Forum, just days after another massive protest took to the streets of Tel Aviv, in which the families of the hostages and supporters again called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a deal with Hamas. 

Witkoff argued that there can be negotiations after the hostages are returned for ‘what next day… looks like in Gaza after this is all done and what the definition of Hamas is’ – suggesting these issues remain major hurdles as Israel has repeatedly vowed the complete destruction of Hamas.

The special envoy said it wasn’t his ‘call’ to say whether the terrorist network should be completely destroyed, but noted there was room for negotiations in returning the hostages as Palestinian prisoners would also be swapped in exchange. 

Fifty hostages continue to be held by Hamas, only 20 of whom are assessed to still be alive. 

President Donald Trump on Monday predicted there would be a ‘conclusive’ end to the war in Gaza within the next ‘two to three weeks,’ though he did not say how this would be accomplished. 

The Forum responded to the pronouncement and said, ‘We pray this is true and that you gave a deadline to end our suffering. You have committed directly to released hostages that you will bring all of the hostages home – now is the time to make that happen.’ 

Witkoff also said Trump would be hosting a meeting at the White House on Wednesday to discuss a ‘day after’ plan for Gaza, though it is unclear who will take part in this meeting. 

When pressed for details on the meeting, a White House official told Fox News Digital, ‘President Trump has been clear that he wants the war to end, and he wants peace and prosperity for everyone in the region. The White House has nothing additional to share on the meeting at this time.’

An upcoming iPhone update is raising alarms among Republican fundraisers who say a new text filtration system set to hit the market in September will disproportionately block conservative fundraising and voter outreach efforts, echoing past Big Tech controversies that put a target on the backs of GOP voters. 

‘It’s no surprise that Big Tech wants to stop Donald Trump and other Republicans from communicating with people, because they’ve tried every other method to interfere already,’ Sean Dollman, founding partner of American Made Media Company, the parent company of Launchpad Strategies, which was the exclusive digital firm for Trump 2024, told Fox News Digital. 

‘Big Tech has suppressed him, suspended him, and banned him outright. And now they’re trying to make it so he can’t text anybody either. But MAGA won’t be stopped, and MAGA will always find a way.’

Apple is expected to roll out its latest update, iOS 26, in September, which will include an updated text filtration system that siphons text messages from unknown numbers that have no chat history with the recipient to a separate message folder that will not generate an alert to the recipient, leaders from American Made Media Company and Launchpad explained to Fox News Digital of the upcoming update. Text messages from known numbers saved on an individual’s phone are expected to continue alerting recipients and sending the messages to their typical text app. 

Launchpad Strategies served as the Trump 2024 campaign’s exclusive digital firm handling online advertising and consulting during Trump’s decisive victory over former Vice President Kamala Harris, and continues operating as a ‘full-service Republican digital agency dedicated to helping campaigns win,’ according to its website. 

Launchpad raised $509 million for the Trump campaign in 2024 and an additional $18 million in funds from 40 other clients during the massive 2024 election year, Fox Digital learned. 

The update could affect election cycles themselves, as text messages concerning voter registration and campaign rallies are expected to also be punted to this new folder, according to fundraisers. 

Data from the 2024 election cycle showed Republicans leveraged text campaigns two-to-one compared to Democrats, putting them directly in the line of fire when the expected update takes effect in September — ahead of the midterms hitting a fever pitch as Democrats look to flip the House and Senate from Republican control.

The text filtration’s scope is expected to extend far beyond just politics, including potentially siphoning texts concerning real-life issues such as doctor appointments from a number not saved in a person’s phone. 

The National Republican Senate Committee, which serves as the Senate Republican’s campaigning arm, circulated an internal memo in July sounding the alarm that the iOS update could cost Republicans more than $25 million in revenue, Punchbowl News reported at the time. 

Apple filtering texts from unknown numbers is not new, with such a program already used within the current iOS 18 systems. The current filtration system is by default not activated until a user toggles a button within the ‘settings’ app. 

The iOS 26 update is also currently available to the public for beta testing, the outlet Fast Company reported in July. 

Under the new update, the filtration system will be renamed to ‘Screen Unknown Senders,’ but will use ongoing criteria to kick text messages to another folder, specifically: if the iPhone owner does not have a contact saved in their phone and if the user has never interacted with the unknown phone number trying to contact them, according to Fast Company. 

The visibility of the texts from unknown senders will get a facelift under the new update, with the filtered messages from unknown senders made more easily seen by users with a new filtration button at the top of Apple’s Messages app that will display a blue badge noting how many unread texts an iPhone user has received from unknown numbers, according to the Fast Company report, which sought to quell Republican fundraising concerns over the update. 

Fox News Digital reached out to Apple for comment on Monday. 

History repeating itself is of top concern to Republican fundraisers, who pointed to a seemingly similar filtration system with Gmail messages that first hit the public’s radar in 2022. Studies at the time found Gmail allowed the vast majority of emails from left-wing politicians to land in a user’s inbox, while more than two-thirds of messages from conservative candidates were marked as spam, according to data from North Carolina State University’s Department of Computer Science that was previously reported by Fox News Digital. 

The Gmail filtration system resulted in a $2 billion loss for Republican candidates between 2019 and 2022, Fox News Digital reported in April 2022 citing research from the Republican National Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee, National Republican Senate Committee.

‘Big Tech has been silencing conservative voices and actively working against Republicans for multiple cycles. Google’s e-mail suppression – which affects the GOP’s fundraising and GOTV efforts – is another egregious example. Silicon Valley oligarchs are suppressing free political speech,’ then-RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, then-NRSC Chairman Senator Rick Scott and then-NRCC Chairman Congressman Tom Emmer said in a joint statement back in 2022, Fox News Digital reported at the time. 

The research found that between 2019 and 2020, conservative candidates raised $737 million on Republican fundraising platform WinRed from Gmail. The data found that just 32% of fundraising emails actually reached recipients, with Republicans estimating they missed out on $1.5 billion in contributions during the 2020 election cycle alone. 

The update comes as the Democrat Party is in turmoil following the 2024 race, which saw former President Biden drop out of the election cycle with just over 100 days to go before passing the proverbial mantle to Vice President Kamala Harris before the loss to Trump. The party has since attempted to find its political footing after an exodus of the working-class vote to the GOP in 2024 and voters rejecting left-wing policies, most notably surrounding social issues. 

Republican fundraisers are already working on workarounds for the expected update, including having recipients add fundraising numbers to their phones. 

Screenshots of fundraising text messages reviewed by Fox News Digital in 2025 show texts touting Trump’s name, accompanied by messages that ask recipients to add the number to their contacts or respond to the text to build a chat history. 

The texts include messages such as, ‘From Trump: Did you save my number yet?’ or ‘Download the Trump Contact Card to add me to your address book’ or other interactive texts such as, ‘Trump: If you had 5 minutes with me, what would you say? No links. I just want your reply below.’ 

Welcome home, Uncle Herschel.

Responding to a weeklong barrage of complaints from its loyal customers, Cracker Barrel announced late Tuesday it was scrapping the restaurant’s rebranding campaign and returning to its classic logo.

‘We thank our guests for sharing their voices and love for Cracker Barrel,’ the company posted on X. ‘We said we would listen, and we have. Our new logo is going away and our ‘Old Timer’ will remain.’

Critics immediately pounced on social media, suggesting the company was caving to right-wing pressure, including a call earlier in the day from former President Donald Trump, who encouraged the company to reverse course before it was too late.

‘Cracker Barrel should go back to the old logo, admit a mistake based on customer response (the ultimate poll), and manage the company better than ever before,’ Trump urged early Tuesday. They got a billion dollars’ worth of free publicity if they play their cards right. Very tricky to do, but a great opportunity. Have a major news conference today. Make Cracker Barrel a WINNER again.’

Trump then acknowledged the company’s mea culpa Tuesday night.

‘Congratulations Cracker Barrel on changing your logo back to what it was. All of your fans very much appreciate it,’ Trump wrote. ‘Good luck in the future. Make lots of money and, most importantly, make your customers happy again!’

Company executives need to go beyond restoring the logo and acknowledge that Cracker Barrel was built on moral, commonsense values. 

Attributing the company’s decision to Trump’s remarks about the logo misses the larger concern. Returning Uncle Herschel to his chair beside the barrel is a start, but if that’s where the company retreat ends, Cracker Barrel will continue to sell fewer biscuits, fried chicken and Mama’s pancakes in the years to come.

Sadly, today’s Cracker Barrel isn’t your aunt or uncle’s wholesome highway pit stop it once was.

In recent years, Cracker Barrel has sponsored Pride events, partnered with the Human Rights Campaign to fan and normalize pronoun nonsense and sexual confusion and warmly embraced corporate DEI efforts. In the process, its stock price has dropped from a high of $147.91 in 2021 to the mid-$50s today.

Corporate rebranding and cultural firestorms often flow from internal ideological ignorance and progressive arrogance to outside firms obsessed with forcing their distorted and often woke worldview on everyone else.

Reports now suggest Cracker Barrel dismissed or ignored earlier warnings from investors. Sardar Biglari, one such entrepreneur, called the entire rebranding exercise ‘obvious folly.’

How did Cracker Barrel manage to go off its rocker?

If this story sounds familiar, it’s because we’ve seen it before. From Coca-Cola’s ‘New Coke’ fiasco in the 1980s to Bud Light’s tone-deaf campaign celebrating Dylan Mulvaney, there’s precedent for corporations committing unforced errors. It took decades for Bud Light to cultivate its brand and just 32 hours to destroy it.

While the company says the man in the logo is a composite, ‘Uncle Herschel’ was a real man and a real uncle of Danny Evins, the company’s founder. Cracker Barrel even calls him the ‘soul of Cracker Barrel.’ He was a salesman who frequented general stores all over the South and was known to ‘sit a spell’ and visit with customers. At company headquarters in Lebanon, Tenn., there’s even a statue of him standing beside an empty bench as if to invite you to sit and converse.

I think Herschel, who died in 1998, would have some thoughts about what’s been going on.

When Coca-Cola was fielding complaints after rolling out its new formula in 1985, company president Don Keough decided to take some of the protest calls himself. One was from an elderly woman. She was crying.

‘I said, ‘Honey, what’s the matter?’’ he recalled. ‘She said, ‘You’re taking away Coca-Cola … You’re playing around with my youth.’’

The late David Ogilvy, nicknamed the ‘Father of Advertising,’ knew well the lure and idiocy of trying to fix something that isn’t broken. ‘It takes uncommon guts to stick to one style in the face of all the pressures to come up with something new every six months,’ he warned. ‘It is tragically easy to be stampeded into change.’

Cracker Barrel underestimated the emotional tug and power of its familiar logo. In a world of constant change, Herschel remained a constant. In an economy that seems to celebrate the hard-charging, the old man represents those who are comfortable and content — a reprieve from the chaos and noisy churn everywhere else.

Company executives need to go beyond restoring the logo and acknowledge that Cracker Barrel was built on moral, commonsense values. They should politely pivot from politically correct corporate silliness and simply embrace the wholesome, sensible and timeless standards that have driven the company’s success: truth, fairness, kindness, respect and good old-fashioned hospitality.

The lesson here is simple: If you don’t want your company to go broke, resist the urge to go woke.

Cracker Barrel says it’s listening — but time will tell who the company is listening to in the days to come.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is hitting the road this week to promote President Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ to Americans across the country.

Among his first stops was Tennessee’s iconic Nashville Palace, where he spoke with employees about the massive GOP agenda bill’s provisions eliminating taxes on tipped and overtime wages.

‘We’re so glad to see y’all. We’re here to talk about the no tax on tips provision,’ Johnson said in a video obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital. ‘You know what this means, at the end of the day, everybody has more money in their pockets and less money they’ve got to send to Washington.’

The footage also shows Nashville Palace general manager Cole noting that his staff were ‘happier.’

‘Everybody’s a little more happy when they make a little more money,’ Cole said.

Johnson also spoke directly with workers Vince and Shelby at the event, with Shelby telling the speaker she was ‘really happy to hear’ about the new tax provisions.

‘We think the numbers for Tennessee are pretty extraordinary,’ Johnson replied, noting ‘there’s a lot of tipped workers in Music City.’

Bartender Vince noted that eliminating taxes on tips would make his life ‘easier,’ later noting that it would give him a chance to travel and worry less about money.

It comes as Republicans have launched a full-court press tour promoting Trump’s agenda bill, even as Democrats attempt to wield it as a political cudgel ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

Critics of the bill have positioned it as a tax giveaway for wealthy Americans at the expense of vulnerable Americans, citing provisions including new heightened work requirements for certain people on Medicaid and who receive federal food benefits.

Johnson took on those criticisms as well later that evening, while speaking at an event for the Tennessee Republican Party.

‘That’s real money for real people,’ Johnson said of the legislation. ‘Now, we can never forget. We never forget that every single Democrat in Congress – House and Senate – voted against every one of those big wins for the people. And we’ve got to remind the voters of that when the left lies about our bills.’

He accused Democrats of ‘lying’ about the legislation as their only political crutch.

‘How many of you know that’s all they got left? They don’t have a leader, no platform, no policies that are digestible by the American people. They just have to lie about what we’re doing,’ Johnson said.

‘Democrats voted against the prosperity and security of the American people. And they voted against working families’ tax cuts. It’s that simple, and they cannot escape it.’

Trump himself called the legislation ‘the largest working-class tax cuts in American history’ in comments to reporters ahead of a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

The bill passed the House and Senate just before GOP leaders’ self-imposed Fourth of July deadline, with Trump marking the holiday in a large signing ceremony.

But the Democratic opposition this August has been fierce. 

In addition to holding events in their own constituencies, both House and Senate Democrats have traveled across the country criticizing the bill.

‘Just spoke with seniors in Martinsville about some of the fallout from Trump’s Big Ugly Bill,’ Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., wrote on X of a recent event he held in his state. ‘When the impacts of this scam start, we’re all going to be stuck footing the bill with worse and more expensive health care.’

President Donald Trump boasted that he has raised more than $1.5 billion ‘in various forms and political entities’ following the 2024 presidential contest.

‘I am pleased to report that I have raised, since the Great Presidential Election of 2024, in various forms and political entities, in excess of 1.5 Billion Dollars. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!! President DJT,’ he wrote in a Truth Social post on Wednesday.

Trump, who is currently serving his second term in office, is constitutionally barred from being elected president a third time.

‘No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice,’ the 22nd Amendment states.

But despite being term-limited from running again, Trump remains a Republican juggernaut.

And with the 2026 midterms on the horizon, and the Republican majority in each chamber of Congress on the line, the money could help the GOP maintain its grip on power through the end of the president’s White House tenure.

Fox News Digital reported in late June that Trump had secured commitments for $1.4 billion following Election Day in 2024. ‘The president’s political operation, including the cash on hand at the Republican National Committee, has raised a historic $900 million since November, and other commitments will bring the total to more than $1.4 billion,’ the report noted.