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Rita Wilson learned about father’s tragic past, secret family in Bulgaria on TV show

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Rita Wilson is opening up about a painful chapter of her family’s history.

During a recent appearance on the “How to Fail with Elizabeth Day” podcast, the actress shared that her father had a wife and child in Bulgaria before meeting her mother.

“I did this show — it’s an English show, ‘Who Do You Think You Are,'” the 69-year-old said. “Usually, in those genealogy shows, they go back many, many generations. But what they found with my dad was that his story was so shocking and unusual that they stuck with his story.”

The star further recalled traveling to Bulgaria for the show, and after visiting the Hall of Records, news of her father’s secret family came to light.

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Upon learning that she had a sibling she previously had no knowledge of, Wilson was filled with excitement at the possibility of meeting a new family member. She then quickly learned about her father’s tragic backstory.

“My dad’s first wife, whose name was Alice, gave birth on Dec. 26, and she died three days later due to complications from delivery,” Wilson explained. “Her son, and my dad’s son, Emil, lived for four months. This was right after the war, and then he passed away. I don’t know the name of it, but it was like an infection.”

The “Now and Then” star then explained that both she and her sister gave birth to one of their children on Dec. 26, telling the podcast host that, looking back, “I think of my dad, all of those years, celebrating all those birthdays, and knowing that he had a child born on Dec. 26, Emil, who passed away.”

Wilson’s father died in 2009 at the age of 89 and never told the actress or other family members about his previous life.

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“I still can’t get over that. He never said anything to us,” she explained. “I wish I could’ve talked to him about that. They kept things so private.”

She previously discussed this family secret during an interview on “The BobbyCast” podcast in October 2022. In the interview, she shared that following the death of his wife and son, “he tried to escape Bulgaria. I think just out of sheer unhappiness.”

The patriarch was caught during his escape attempt and sent to a labor camp. After tricking a guard while on the night shift, he was able to run away with a fellow inmate. Wilson noted they “eventually got away [and] made their way to Turkey.”

“My dad got a job on a freighter boat shoveling coal and made his way to Philadelphia and jumped the ship,” she said. “But what he did was he took Richard with him as a stowaway because there was no work for Richard. And so, he was stowed away in basically the engine room. And Richard and my dad made it to America.”

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Eventually, Wilson’s father met and married her mother. They went on to have three children, including Wilson, her sister Lily and her brother Chris.

Wilson went on to find success as an actress and married Oscar winner Tom Hanks in April 1988. They share two sons, Chet and Truman Hanks. She is also a stepmother to his two children from a previous marriage, Colin and Elizabeth.

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Florida man allegedly shot woman in neck, dragged her back inside before hiding in backyard pool

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A Florida man is facing attempted murder charges after allegedly shooting a woman in the neck and dragging her back into her home, authorities said.

Officers with the Wildwood Police Department responded around 11:30 p.m. Saturday to reports of an argument followed by a gunshot, according to an arrest report cited by WKMG.

When police arrived, they found a woman with a gunshot wound to the neck lying in a driveway. She was airlifted to a hospital with life-threatening injuries.

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Robert Anthony Morgan, 40, was arrested and charged with attempted felony murder, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and discharging a firearm in public or on residential property.

Police said Morgan was seen crawling under a partially open garage door before jumping into a backyard pool. Officers pulled him from the water and took him into custody.

The victim’s mother told investigators there was a history of domestic violence between Morgan and the victim. She said she saw him drag the woman back onto the property after the shooting, according to WKMG.

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When she asked if he had called for help, Morgan allegedly replied, “She’s fine,” and threatened to shoot her if she contacted police.

Authorities recovered a rifle from the garage floor and found blood in the street leading to the home, WESH reported.

The woman’s four children were inside the home at the time of the incident, according to reports.

Morgan, who has a prior conviction for felony battery, made an initial court appearance Monday and is being held without bond.

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University of Nebraska at Kearney pulls trans-focused faculty training after governor’s threat

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The University of Nebraska at Kearney canceled a transgender-focused faculty training module after backlash erupted online and drew swift condemnation from Republican Gov. Jim Pillen.

The voluntary workshop, titled “How Can I Move From Supporting to Empowering Trans-spectrum Students?”, was part of the school’s Monday Morning Mentor series and referenced a 20-minute program developed by a North Carolina college aimed at helping professors create a more inclusive classroom environment.

The program drew attention after Libs of TikTok shared a university email about the training on X, criticizing the initiative and calling for the school to be defunded.

“University of Nebraska at Kearney … wants faculty to attend a meeting where they’ll be taught about Empowering Trans Students and creating a DEI-inclusive classroom,” the account posted. “This university receives our tax dollars … DEFUND … So sick of this trash.”

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Pillen reposted the criticism Monday and condemned the training.

“This nonsense is completely irrelevant and destructive to the University of Nebraska’s teaching mission, and out of touch with the values of the state it serves,” Pillen wrote on X. “University leaders must immediately root out this and all other similar programming across the entire system.”

He warned that failure to act could lead to investigations or funding cuts.

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“If the University cannot police its own ranks and rid itself of the woke disease that has degraded so many ‘elite’ higher education institutions, it risks investigations, cuts to its funding, and, most importantly, the loss of the confidence of the people it serves,” he added.

The university removed the module Tuesday, according to Nebraska Public Media.

UNK said its focus “remains on rigorous academics and student success through effective teaching and creating a welcoming environment for all students,” the outlet reported, and that “the module referenced has been removed.”

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“We have addressed the issue and corrected our review process moving forward,” the school said.

Pillen later called the decision “good news.”

“Following my post last night, the University of Nebraska at Kearney took down the objectionable content,” he wrote on X. “That is good news.”

He added that higher education institutions must remain aligned with public expectations.

“The mission of education in America is not the advancement of woke indoctrination — it’s to grow critical learners and thinkers prepared to become the next generation of leaders and business builders,” Pillen said. “That’s the mission, and we cannot allow Nebraska institutions to be distracted from it.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to the University of Nebraska at Kearney for comment.

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Why Iran talks are in limbo as Trump scrambles for a way out of the war he started

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The “peace talks” with Iran – if they can even be called that – are going nowhere fast.

First, President Donald Trump canceled a visit by JD Vance to the non-existent talks. Then he canceled the lower-level delegation of Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

Now the Iranians have come back with a proposal that entirely favors them – and which Trump has already rejected. 

The murderous mullahs say they want to end their blockade of the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. halts its blockade of Iranian ports. So far so good.

TRUMP PUSHES SHAKY DEAL WITH IRAN AS HORMUZ IS SHUT AGAIN, BUT OPPONENTS GIVE HIM NO CREDIT FOR PROGRESS

But then – guess what – they would put off the question of nuclear disarmament till some undetermined time in the future.

The president’s response to their pitch: How about never? Does never work for you?  

Trump has told advisers he is not satisfied with the proposal, submitted through the mediators in Pakistan. Frustrated might be a better word.

TRUMP’S LAST-MINUTE DELAY: WHY HE WAS NEVER GOING TO OBLITERATE IRAN IN THE FIRST PLACE

The president posted before Saturday’s attempted assassination: “Iran is having a very hard time figuring out who their leader is! They just don’t know! The infighting is between the ‘Hardliners,’ who have been losing BADLY on the battlefield, and the ‘Moderates,’ who are not very moderate at all (but gaining respect!), is CRAZY!”

Marco Rubio said: “What we’re dealing with here is a regime that’s run by a bunch of lunatics. They chant ‘death to America, ‘death to Israel,’ and we have to take that seriously.”

He added: “The goal here is simple: they can never have a nuclear weapon. And if you want to make sure they never have a nuclear weapon, you have to take away the things that would allow them to deliver one. That means their missiles, their drones, and their ability to threaten the region. So yes, that includes going after those capabilities.”

Since U.S. airstrikes killed all of Iran’s top leaders, Axios reports, the government is consumed by “warring factions” that cannot settle on a “coherent” position.

Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Ghalibaf, has been taking a hard line.

Meanwhile, despite a ceasefire orchestrated by Trump, Israel and Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy, continue to attack each other in Lebanon. Hezbollah has rejected the peace plan.

“The United States is no longer in a position to dictate its policy tto independent nations,” said Defense Ministry spokesman Reza Talaei-Nik, adding that the Trump administration “must abandon its illegal and irrational demands.”

Oil prices have shot up as the peace process remains in limbo. Gas prices rose yesterday to an average of $4.18 a gallon, their highest level in four years.

All this has fueled criticism that Trump, under pressure from Israel, launched the war impulsively and without a clear exit strategy.

The president keeps saying he’s won the war and “we have all the cards.”

But Trump is boxed in at the moment. He badly wants out of an unpopular war, but Iran, as usual, is being intransigent. And no agreement on nukes is worth anything without independent inspections. This was the same dilemma that faced the Obama administration.

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The United Arab Emirates, which just left OPEC, could provide additional oil shipments now freed from the alliance’s restrictions.

There is a political dimension to this standoff as well. If Trump can’t come to terms on Iran’s nuclear enrichment – the very reason for going to war – it will undermine his ability to claim victory, as Tehran well knows.

The president posted yesterday:

“Iran has just informed us that they are in a ‘State of Collapse.’ They want us to ‘Open the Hormuz Strait,’ as soon as possible.” Now why would they tell him that?

Here’s one thing I know from decades of covering the man: Despite his threats to destroy Iranian civilization, Trump will never do that. His heart isn’t in it. He doesn’t want to go down in the history books as having wiped out an ancient civilization.

That’s why Trump keeps extending the ceasefire deadlines in hopes of reaching anything he can pronounce a reasonable agreement.

The U.S. military, as the president says, has obliterated Iran’s air force and navy. In that sense, it’s been a major victory, even if Democrats and some of Trump’s former allies in conservative media don’t want to admit it.

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But Iran does have one card to play, and that is doing nothing.

Donald Trump started this war, and after two months, is still trying to figure out how to get out of it.

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