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A U.S. service member was killed Saturday during an operation involving explosive remnants from a downed Iranian drone in northern Iraq, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced Sunday. 

A second U.S. service member was also wounded in the incident, officials said. 

The announcement came as CENTCOM confirmed unidentified remains were found Sunday during the search for a U.S. service member reported missing in Jordan following a separate Iranian attack on Friday. 

TWO US SERVICE MEMBERS KILLED IN IRANIAN STRIKES ON JORDAN, CENTCOM SAYS

According to officials, the incident in Iraq happened after U.S. forces recovered a downed Iranian drone and began handling the explosive material left behind. 

"A U.S. service member in northern Iraq was killed in action July 18 during a controlled detonation of unexploded ordnance from a downed Iranian one-way attack drone," CENTCOM wrote in a post on X. 

LEAKED IRAN REPORT FINDS RECORD PUBLIC ANGER AS REGIME FOCUSES ON HOLDING POWER

The military did not immediately release further details about the incident, but said the other service member injured in the operation is receiving medical treatment. 

In Jordan, officials said the unidentified remains recovered Sunday will also undergo an examination to determine their identity. 

"After a thorough search, U.S. military personnel found unidentified remains at the location earlier today," CENTCOM said. "An examination process to verify the remains is ongoing."

Friday's Iranian attack on a U.S. base in Jordan killed two U.S. service members, CENTCOM previously said. 

Four American service members were also medically evacuated to Jordanian hospitals, officials said. They have since been discharged. 

"CENTCOM is withholding additional information, including the identities of the missing and fallen warriors, out of respect for the families during the notification process," the agency said. 

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office is accusing New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani of attacking the Jewish state to distract from his record in New York after calling Netanyahu a "war criminal."

The prime minister's office fired back Sunday after the Democratic mayor said his administration was exploring whether it could arrest the Israeli leader during an expected visit to the city under the International Criminal Court's warrant.

"The ICC is a kangaroo court that has no jurisdiction over Americans or Israelis," Netanyahu's office wrote in an X post Sunday, amid recent reports he is nearing a trip to the White House to meet with President Donald Trump.

POTENTIAL 2028 DEM CONTENDER UNLOADS ON NETANYAHU, ADMITS US-ISRAEL TIES AT 'CROSSROADS'

"Its bogus arrest warrant against Prime Minister Netanyahu was issued by a disgraced former ICC Prosecutor, Karim Khan, a few days before allegations of sexual misconduct against him became public," Netanyahu's office said. "It was a clear attempt by Khan to divert public attention and seek protection from scrutiny."

Mamdani is following the same playbook, the office added.

"Instead of backing Khan's criminal behaviour, Mr. Mamdani should focus on fixing the damage his policies have caused New York," the post concluded. "Like Karim Khan, Mamdani appears interested in diverting public attention from his follies and attacking the leader of the Jewish state and the only democracy in the Middle East."

MAMDANI SPARKS FIERCE BACKLASH FOR WORLD CUP STUNT 'PALLING AROUND' WITH RIKERS ISLAND CONVICTS

Israel vowed to ignore the ICC warrant while it roots Hamas, "a genocidal terrorist organization ," out of Gaza.

"Under Prime Minister Netanyahu's leadership, Israel has taken unprecedented wartime measures to minimize harm to civilians while confronting Hamas, a genocidal terrorist organization that uses Palestinians as human shields and deliberately targets innocent Israeli civilians," the office's post read.

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News' "Fox & Friends Weekend" earlier Sunday that Mamdani is ostensibly hyperbolizing for "political theater."

"This is a communist, antisemitic mayor trying to make news for his own audience," Pompeo said. "There's nothing more than that. This is no chance he's going to arrest Prime Minister Netanyahu when he comes to New York in September for the U.N. General Assembly.

"It's just simply not going to happen, and he knows it."

Even some Democrats have rejected Mamdani's stance, warning it could embolden terrorists at home and abroad.

"This isn’t a college protest," former Democrat Mayor Eric Adams wrote on X. "This is the City of New York."

"Threatening to arrest the democratically elected leader of one of America’s closest allies during U.N. General Assembly week isn’t bold. It’s reckless," Adams continued. "American diplomats, service members, and officials are stationed in dangerous places around the world. Irresponsible rhetoric like this doesn’t stay in New York. It can put Americans at greater risk abroad. Leadership means understanding that your words have consequences. Reckless political theater can have very real-world costs."

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., has long broken with Democrats on becoming the "anti-Israel party," telling the "clown" Mamdani to "sit down."

"It's such a tough guy to say that kind of thing," Fetterman told Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures." "He has no way to do that, of course. Obviously, America is not even part of that corrupt court. And so he's just a clown to even say that. So he won't try that. Just sit down and focus on other the problems that they have in New York. That's really not your purview. You and I know that. Sit down."

A powerful earthquake ripped through Peru's Andes region overnight, killing at least five people and leaving hundreds displaced as homes and a church collapsed, with authorities warning Sunday that an unknown number of people remain missing.

The magnitude 5.5 quake struck shortly after 9:20 p.m. Saturday near the city of Sicaya in central Peru, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake injured more than 20 people and forced at least 300 residents from their homes, Peru's National Civil Defense Institute said.

Officials were still trying to account for missing residents Sunday after several buildings collapsed or were left unsafe, including a local church and convent.

SECURITY GUARD SURVIVES EIGHT DAYS BENEATH COLLAPSED SHOPPING CENTER AFTER VENEZUELA EARTHQUAKES

Authorities said the region's widespread use of traditional adobe construction likely made the damage worse. Luis Vásquez, head of the local civil defense office, said the rustic building materials "contributed to the greater impact and damage."

Images from the hard-hit farming community of Chongo Bajo showed families wrapped in blankets outside damaged homes as neighbors picked through the rubble. Animals could also be seen trapped beneath collapsed buildings.

BOY, 2, PULLED ALIVE FROM RUBBLE SIX DAYS AFTER VENEZUELA'S DEVASTATING TWIN EARTHQUAKES

"My home has been destroyed," resident Hermenegilda Guamalato told local radio while looking for shelter with her three children in the neighboring province of Huayucachi.

Peru sits along the Pacific "Ring of Fire," one of the world's most active earthquake zones. In 2007, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake struck the coastal province of Pisco, killing nearly 600 people.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

UNITED NATIONS — The Trump administration says it has secured more than $1 billion in cuts to United Nations budgets in just six months, calling the reductions evidence that an institution long considered resistant to change is finally beginning to reform.

The latest milestone came June 30, when all 193 U.N. member states approved a peacekeeping budget of approximately $5.1 billion for the coming fiscal year — about $550 million, or 9.7%, less than the previous year.

Combined with a 15% reduction to the U.N.'s regular budget approved in December, U.S. officials say the agreements amount to more than $1 billion in cuts to assessed U.N. budgets, a level they describe as unprecedented.

INTERNATIONAL ‘DEEP STATE’ PRIME TARGET OF TRUMP-STYLE CANDIDATE FOR UN CHIEF

Assessed budgets are funded through mandatory contributions charged to member states under a formula based largely on the size of their economies.

"On June 30th, with U.S. leadership, all 193 countries came together again for the second time in six months," U.S. Ambassador for U.N. Management and Reform Jeff Bartos told Fox News Digital. "We've achieved over a billion dollars of savings in six months, which is unprecedented. Any one cut would be unprecedented. The totality of the reforms is monumental."

The agreement comes as the United Nations faces mounting financial pressure and prepares for a leadership transition in 2027, with Secretary-General António Guterres set to leave office at the end of his second term. At the same time, the Trump administration has made reform a central pillar of its U.N. strategy, arguing the organization has become overly bureaucratic and inefficient.

In response to questions from Fox News Digital, U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric confirmed that the peacekeeping budget was reduced by roughly $550 million and the regular budget by 15%, describing both as "unprecedented reductions."

US URGES DONORS TO ABANDON UNRWA FUNDING AS UN DEFENDS AGENCY'S MISSION

Bartos argues the reforms reflect sustained pressure from the Trump administration and months of negotiations led by the U.S. Mission.

"The new budget, this reformed budget, the enhanced efficiency changes the culture of how the U.N. looks at peacekeeping," Bartos said. "Every dollar has to achieve impact on the ground."

He pointed to the U.N. Mission in South Sudan as an example, saying the United States worked to streamline the mission's mandate before reducing its budget accordingly.

Another reform highlighted by the administration changes how the U.N. handles unused budget credits.

Until now, U.N. financial rules required the organization to return unspent funds to member states even if those contributions had never actually been paid, a practice critics said worsened the organization's recurring liquidity crisis.

The General Assembly voted on June 30 to introduce, on a four-year trial basis, a new methodology under which unspent funds will be returned only when backed by cash actually received.

Bartos said the change could save the organization more than $1 billion over the next three years. That projected figure is separate from the more than $1 billion in budget reductions already approved over the past six months.

He called the change another example of "common-sense" reform and said it could save the organization more than $1 billion over the next three years.

The United Nations likewise welcomed the change, though officials noted it had been a longstanding priority of Secretary-General António Guterres.

TRUMP CELEBRATES AFTER UN CLIMATE COMMITTEE MOVES AWAY FROM ITS MOST EXTREME GLOBAL WARMING SCENARIO

"I have been pushing for this reform for almost a decade," Guterres said after the vote. He described the previous system as a "Kafkaesque cycle" in which the organization was expected "to give back cash that did not exist."

Dujarric said the reform would allow the U.N. to manage resources "in a more predictable and responsible way" while helping ensure operational continuity, particularly for peacekeeping missions.

Bartos insists the latest budget agreements are only the beginning.

Among the administration's next priorities are reforms to staff compensation, employee benefits and the U.N. pension system, areas he argues consume resources that could otherwise support humanitarian operations and peacekeeping missions.

"We're going to continue to see us push whether it's on benefits, whether it's on staff compensation, whether it's on the pension system," Bartos said. "There's massive numbers of additional reforms that our team is working on right now."

He also suggested reform will remain a central issue as member states begin selecting the next secretary-general.

"We're going to select the next secretary-general," Bartos said. "That reform momentum that has been growing over the last 15, 18 months ... you'll see that continuing in 2027 with the new secretary-general."

Since the beginning of the month, France and Spain have been hit by massive wildfires. Some observed the fires looked like a scene from Armageddon. The infernos destroyed buildings and forests alike, where the epic heat wave in Europe has hit record levels in many parts of the bloc. The heat has already led to thousands of deaths. However, the fires are not just due to the record heat.

Notably, last week, the famous Fontainebleau Forest near Paris was set alight, destroying 2,000 hectares (4,942 acres) of woodland. Approximately 1,000 people were evacuated, and 850 emergency firefighters were deployed — efforts to end the fire could take weeks.

The latest data from France's Ministry of Agriculture says nine out of 10 wildfires are caused by people. Often it's campfires, unextinguished cigarettes or similar negligence. That was exacerbated by the extreme heat this year in France and Spain, which in many cases turned scrub grassland into a tinderbox. It's also true that both countries have regulations that prohibit clearing of certain protected lands, according to information from each country. "Policies of nature restoration and building have made it hard in some cases to clear the brush that piles up," Daniel Lacalle, chief economist at Madrid-based investment company Tressis, told Fox News Digital.

1,700 EVACUATED, FIREFIGHTER DEAD AS TURKEY WILDFIRES TEAR THROUGH MAJOR CITY

The causes of fires in the U.S. are quite similar to those in France. According to data from the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) and the U.S. Forest Service, 85% of fires are caused by people. However, the total wildfire burns in the U.S. from lightning-caused fires tends to burn more acreage because they often strike in remote, hard-to-reach areas. 

France’s Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said experts found 10 points around a little more than half of a mile radius that were used for ignition, according to a report by France Insider. It also found that pattern "suggests a voluntary origin," the minister reportedly said.

France 24 reported that dozens of people have been arrested across the nation for either accidentally or deliberately starting fires. On a visit to the Fontainebleau forest last week, French President Emmanuel Macron said the country "has never faced so many outbreaks of fire across the country since the end of World War II." He added, according to the France 24 report, "Here, as everywhere else in France, there will be zero tolerance" for arsonists, "because it is, of course, our national territory that is under attack every time a fire breaks out."

Meanwhile, Spain has been dealing with three separate wildfires, one of which has been stopped. A fire in Zaragoza destroyed 12,000 hectares (29,653 acres) and resulted in the evacuation of six separate villages. Fires in Madrid and Guadalajara impacted at least 2,000 people. "The speed of these fires is something that even the most experienced firefighters are saying they have never seen anything like this," Lacalle told Fox News Digital.

THREE MAJOR US CITIES RANK AMONG WORST AIR QUALITY IN THE WORLD AS CANADIAN WILDFIRE SMOKE INVADES AMERICA

A fire in the Spanish Andalusia region killed at least 13 people, including a 93-year-old woman who was injured in the fire at Los Gallardos.

Spain has vast areas of unused land with most of the population living in cities. "Some unused areas have not been cleaned up," Lacalle told Fox News Digital. "Because they have uncleared scrub land, there is a higher likelihood of a disastrous fire." That uncleared scrub that gets dried out by an extreme heat wave effectively creates a tinderbox that ignites quickly, even with a partially smoked cigarette.

Are there more wildfires happening across the globe than there used to be? Not necessarily. The volume of land burned declined 26% between 2002 and 2021, according to data from Global Wildfire Information System (2026). "It seems to be getting more attention," Gilbertie told Fox News Digital. "It’s also the manifestation of the increased weather volatility.

The number of people exposed to wildfires has grown by an average of 382,700 per year during the period from 2002 to 2021, an increase of 40%, according to a study by the University of East Anglia in England. The study says, "This surge in human exposure was driven mainly by population growth and migration into fire-prone landscapes." Over the same period, the amount of land burned decreased by 26%, according to the UEA study. 

Separately, the extreme heat across France over the last month has caused a high death rate. The Guardian reported that some 2,000 people died at the end of June. The heat wave is forecast to continue through August.

France is the epicenter of the excessive heat, which has resulted in many outdoor events being canceled, especially in the south of the country. "Europe is being hit by a unique situation," Hackett told Fox News Digital. "The extreme heat and dryness are mainly being driven by the warm surface in the Mediterranean Sea and the cold-water Atlantic." And that situation of warm dry weather will continue into August.

As smoke from Canadian wildfires continues to drift across parts of the United States, forestry experts say Canada could reduce the severity of some fires through more aggressive forest management.

The issue reached the White House Friday, with President Donald Trump accusing Canada of failing to properly manage its forests and threatening to factor the economic cost of the smoke into tariffs on Canadian imports.

"We are holding Canada responsible for the fact that they are not properly maintaining their Forests, and Brush therein, and the United States is being unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air," Trump wrote on Truth Social. He said he planned to call Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and accused Canada of refusing to engage in "basic Forest Management and Debris Removal," calling it "Willful Negligence."

TRUMP SHOULD EXPAND HIS BORDER CRACKDOWN. TIMING IS PERFECT TO REIN IN CANADA AND MEXICO

Andrew Hale, a Canadian fellow at Advancing American Freedom, argued that Canada’s wildfire policies have failed to prioritize forest management.

"Canada has a policy of not keeping reservoirs. They also will not cut firebreaks and will not thin their forests," Hale told Fox News Digital. "This is the result of the undue influence of environmental groups who are firmly politically motivated and have divorced themselves from science and good stewardship. Canada and the rest of North America is suffering as a result," he said.

Earlier this week, four Republican members of Michigan's congressional delegation — Reps. Jack Bergman, John James, Lisa McClain and John Moolenaar — sent a letter to Carney saying residents in their state were once again experiencing unhealthy air because of smoke drifting south from Canadian wildfires.

"We are done accepting apologies in place of action," the lawmakers wrote, accusing Canada of underinvesting in forest thinning, fuel reduction and prescribed burns while calling for measurable plans to reduce future wildfire smoke crossing the border.

The criticism comes as Canada's own Senate has reached a similar conclusion on one point: while it says climate change is making wildfire seasons longer and more severe, the country also needs to do substantially more to prepare its forests before fires ignite.

FOX WEATHER CORRESPONDENT BOB VAN DILLEN WEIGHS IN ON EFFECT OF CANADIAN WILDFIRES ON

The Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry released a report in June titled Canada on Fire: The Catastrophic and Escalating Effects of Wildfires on Lives and Communities after holding 17 meetings, hearing testimony from 79 witnesses and receiving 23 written briefs from scientists, government officials, Indigenous leaders and industry experts.

The committee concluded that Canada's three most recent wildfire seasons demonstrated that climate change was accelerating fire behavior "beyond the capacity of existing systems." At the same time, it found that prevention efforts have not kept pace with the growing threat.

Much of the report focuses on what experts call "fuel management" — reducing the amount of dry grass, dead trees, fallen branches and other vegetation that allows small fires to become large, destructive wildfires.

"Several witnesses agreed that prescribed fire is the most important risk-reduction tool for helping to manage or slow wildfire on the landscape and restoring ecological integrity," the report said.

METS AND PHILLIES STARS SHOW CONCERNS ABOUT PLAYING IN UNHEALTHY AIR QUALITY: 'NOT THE GREATEST IDEA'

One witness, Paul Hessburg, a professor at the University of Washington's School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, said that climate change is making wildfire conditions worse but does not eliminate the value of proactive forest management.

"The punchline is, with climate change, these conditions will intensify with less snowpack, more fires, bigger fires, hotter fires," Hessburg told the committee. "The question is: Can we restore resilience? We can. We can bring back these elements and put the governors back into the landscape that historically regulated the flow of fire."

Jason Hayes, a senior research fellow in energy and environmental policy at the Heritage Foundation, said the practical solution is to spend more time managing forests before fires begin rather than relying primarily on emergency response after they start.

"The best thing to do is get out, space and thin, do prescribed burns and recognize that these are renewable resources," Hayes told Fox News Digital. "If we did that, then we would have much less intense wildfires."

Hayes acknowledged that carrying out those recommendations across Canada would be far more difficult than simply identifying them. He said many fires burn in remote areas of northern Ontario and other parts of Canada that are difficult to reach because they are far from roads and population centers.

"You have to fly in, and it's just difficult to do," Hayes said.

Witnesses to the Canadian Senate committee also warned that Canada faces practical challenges beyond forest management, including shortages of wildfire-management expertise and an aging fleet of firefighting aircraft. The report cited testimony that provincial fleets still include 22 older CL-215 aircraft and that at least 20 aircraft require immediate replacement.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Office of Prime Minister Mark Carney but did not receive a comment in time for publication. 

Britain’s incoming Prime Minister Andy Burnham used his first speech as Labour leader Friday to condemn the economic model established in the 1980s by Margaret Thatcher and promise greater public control of essential services, signaling a shift to the left from outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmer. 

Burnham, who will formally become prime minister Monday, said that Britain had taken "a series of wrong turns in the 1980s," when political power was centralized and economic power was transferred to private companies. He was unopposed to run as party leader, having been nominated by 379 Members of Parliament to lead it.

"The country surrendered control of the essentials — housing, water, energy, transport — and left people exposed to higher costs," Burnham said during the July 17 speech in London, according to a transcript of his remarks.

WHO IS ANDY BURNHAM? THE TRUMP CRITIC SET TO BECOME THE U.K.'S NEXT PRIME MINISTER

He declared that four decades of neoliberal economic policy had "not been kind" to the working-class and industrial communities that traditionally supported Labour and described his ascent as the country’s most significant political turning point in 40 years.

"The government I lead will confidently lay that path out starting next week," Burnham said. "That is why this change today is the most significant change moment in our politics for 40 years.

Alan Mendoza, executive director of the Henry Jackson Society, said Burnham’s speech offered a clear ideological signal but little detail about how his government would carry it out. "With Burnham, there is a lot of light and heat, but not much actual substance," he added. "We are all still waiting to see what that substance might be."
 

Mendoza said, "If he thinks Britain has been on the wrong track for the last 40 years, what is the right track? Is it socialism of a past kind? Is it some form of statism? What does he actually intend to do?"

Burnham's speech offered the clearest indication yet that the former Greater Manchester mayor intends to move the party away from Starmer’s more cautious economic positioning and toward greater state ownership, expanded council and social housing, giving more power to regional government and increased state involvement in essential services.

FARAGE SAYS MASS MIGRATION HAS CHANGED THE UK ‘LITERALLY BEYOND RECOGNITION,’ BELIEVES PARTY CAN WIN ELECTION
 

Burnham said Labour would no longer attempt to imitate the right and far-left parties. "We won’t try to out-Green the Greens or out-Reform Reform."

Although he did not explicitly advocate returning Britain to the 1970s or refer to the late Lady Thatcher by name, free-market critics portrayed his attack on her reforms as an effort to revive the state-dominated economic policies that preceded her government.

Britain experienced the Winter of Discontent in 1978-79, when millions of workers participated in widespread strikes over pay that disrupted daily life. The strikes left trash uncollected, reduced hospital services and affected public transportation. The unrest is widely seen as a major factor in the election of Margaret Thatcher's Conservatives in 1979 as voters turned against the unions and the Labour government of that time.

KEIR STARMER RESIGNS AS BRITISH PRIME MINISTER AFTER DEVASTATING LABOUR REVOLT AND LOCAL ELECTION LOSSES

The Adam Smith Institute responded to his speech by publishing a lengthy defense of the Thatcher era, highlighting reductions in income and corporate tax rates, privatizations, rising homeownership and fewer days lost to labor strikes.

"Since you mentioned the 1980s, Andy Burnham, here’s a reminder of what was achieved," the free-market think tank wrote before listing economic indicators it said improved during the period.

According to the free-market think tank, the top rate of income tax fell from 83% to 40%, the basic rate dropped from 33% to 25%, and corporation tax was reduced from 52% to 35%. It said inflation declined from a peak of 21.9% in 1980 to 2.4% in 1986, while the number of working days lost to strikes fell from 29.5 million in 1979 to 1.9 million in 1990. The institute also said homeownership rose from 55% to 67%, the number of individual shareholders increased from 3 million to 11 million, and national debt fell from 47% of gross domestic product to 28%.

Emma Schubart, a research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society who previously worked at the Adam Smith Institute, told Fox News Digital that Burnham’s speech demonstrated what she described as a fundamental misunderstanding of taxation and economic incentives.

"The biggest takeaway is that he comes across as pretty economically illiterate," Schubart said in an interview Friday. She called Burnham’s "demonization" of Thatcher polices "strange and needless."

Schubart argued that Burnham’s message was internally contradictory because he presented his leadership as a national renewal while proposing to dismantle reforms associated with the 1980s.

"He keeps saying he’s bringing a renewal to the U.K. and a new chapter," she said. "But then he also says, ‘We’re going to go back to the ’70s.’ You have to pick one."

Burnham nevertheless insisted he would be a "pro-business leader," while calling for greater public control of essential services, new powers for regional governments and closer cooperation with private businesses.

The ideological shift presents an immediate political gamble. Burnham must unite Labour’s competing factions, reassure financial markets and respond to Reform UK’s growing challenge — all while taking office without winning a national election. 

Mendoza warned that Burnham’s effort to appeal to the left could complicate relations with the Trump administration. "The government could most definitely clash with the United States under Burnham’s vision, because the voters he is trying to bring back into his tent include many of those who are deeply hostile to America.

"If he adopts U.S.-friendly policies, he risks alienating the voting coalition he is trying to create," he continued. "But if he decides to pick fights with the United States, he risks damaging British national security and the alliance with America, which matters far more to the country than any electoral coalition."

Burnham is expected to be sworn in as prime minister on Monday by King Charles III.

A confidential report prepared for Iran’s presidency is raising a consequential question for Washington and its allies: Do extraordinary levels of public anger and support for systemic change justify reassessing whether the Islamic Republic may be more vulnerable to regime change than previously believed?

The classified document, titled "What Iran Wants," reportedly found that only 9% of respondents supported maintaining the status quo, with 53% calling for fundamental or structural reforms and more than 19% favoring changing the political system outright.

Taken together, nearly three-quarters of those surveyed reportedly supported either deep structural reform or replacement of the existing system — findings that could strengthen arguments that Iran’s political crisis has moved beyond dissatisfaction with individual leaders or policies.

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IranWire reported on July 13 that it had obtained the document, which was compiled by Ali Rabiei, President Masoud Pezeshkian’s social adviser and a former government spokesman. It was based on polling conducted by the Ara Opinion Research Center in May 2026 and circulated among institutions within Iran’s governing structure in June, according to the outlet.

Miad Maleki, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital that the report should prompt a fresh assessment of the potential for political upheaval inside Iran.

"If anything, this research understates the depth of Iranians’ rage," Maleki said. "And that is what makes it remarkable: even a survey prepared for the regime’s own president, by its own pollsters, records anger levels above 63%, well beyond the highest rate Gallup has ever recorded anywhere in the world, alongside 81% struggling to put food on the table and a majority expressing hopelessness."

Maleki cautioned that polling conducted under an authoritarian government cannot be treated as precise because respondents may fear the consequences of expressing opposition.

"In a police state where expressing the wrong opinion can cost you your job, your freedom, or your life, respondents self-censor, which means these findings are best read as a floor, not a ceiling," he said.

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The complete survey methodology was not included in the material obtained by IranWire. The report reportedly did not disclose how respondents were selected, who was questioned or whether the sample reflected Iran’s geographic and demographic makeup.

Its findings therefore cannot be independently verified or treated as definitive measurements of Iranian opinion. The report also cannot establish that dissatisfaction will translate into an organized movement capable of removing the government.

Still, its findings portray multiple pressures converging at once.

Approximately 64% of respondents reported persistent anger, up roughly 12% points from a previous government survey conducted in December 2025. Half reported hopelessness, approximately 48% reported sadness or depression and about 45% reported persistent fear or anxiety, according to IranWire.

Economic distress also appears central to the public anger.

More than 81% experienced severe or partial difficulty obtaining enough food, while 75% struggled to cover medical costs, IranWire reported. Fifty-four percent said their income did not cover current household expenses, and only 8% reported earning enough to save.

Respondents blamed domestic governance more frequently than international pressure. 46.9% cited government inefficiency as the cause of Iran’s economic problems, 26.3% blamed corruption and 20.7% cited foreign sanctions.

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That finding could be especially significant to the regime-change debate because it suggests many Iranians do not primarily blame outside powers for their deteriorating living conditions.

The document also points to a crisis of institutional confidence. Roughly 60% reportedly distrusted major government institutions, while 61.2% negatively assessed officials’ ability to solve Iran’s problems. Distrust of the government, parliament, judiciary and state television remained above 50%, IranWire reported.

The report’s recommendations, however, reportedly centered on managing dissatisfaction rather than addressing demands for systemic change.

Rabiei urged state institutions to better explain the impact of sanctions, moderate the rhetoric used by officials and religious platforms, present a more inclusive image through state television and avoid policies that place the government in direct confrontation with society.

IranWire’s follow-up analysis argued that the recommendations treated Iran’s crisis primarily as a communications and public-perception problem. The report offered few concrete proposals involving institutional accountability, political liberalization or fundamental economic reform, according to the outlet.

Maleki said the findings were consistent with the expanding scale of unrest, citing demonstrations that spread from more than 80 cities in 2017 to more than 200 cities across all 31 provinces this year, alongside what he described as a quadrupling of strikes.

"Iranians have moved from being skeptical of what another revolution might bring to concluding there is no alternative to one, because reform has proven impossible," Maleki said.

Yet the report does not resolve one of the largest obstacles to regime change: The Islamic Republic has spent decades building institutions designed to monitor, deter and violently suppress organized opposition.

"This regime was born of revolution, by revolutionaries," Maleki said. "Preventing and crushing the next one is the one thing they genuinely know how to do."

He nevertheless argued that further unrest was inevitable.

"So the discontent will translate into renewed protest," Maleki said. "The question is not if, but when, and whether anyone is prepared to stand with the Iranian people when it does."

Japan’s Parliament voted Friday to enshrine male-only succession for the imperial throne, part of a monarchy that traces its origins back roughly 1,500 years.

Lawmakers did so by revising an Imperial House Law dating back to the 1800s, despite warnings from experts that limiting succession to men in the paternal line will hasten the decline of Japan’s shrinking and aging imperial family, according to the Associated Press.

To address the dwindling number of eligible heirs, the revisions allow distant male relatives to be adopted into the imperial family to father future successors. However, strict rules remain in place limiting the throne to men with royal blood. The changes also allow princesses to retain their royal status after marrying commoners.

The new rules passed by Parliament come as many Japanese had been calling for Princess Aiko, Emperor Naruhito’s 24-year-old daughter, to be allowed to succeed him — now an impossibility.

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"The emperor is a symbolic figure, and I don’t see why women cannot serve in the role," Junichiro Tsujimaru, a 78-year-old sushi chain founder, told the AP.

Under current law, the 66-year-old emperor's younger brother is next in line. After that, his 19-year-old nephew, Prince Hisahito, will inherit the throne, and then the emperor's 90-year-old uncle.

Hisahito is the only boy to be born in four decades, and only five of the 16 adults in the imperial family are men.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and other conservatives say the male bloodline is the source of the emperor's authority and legitimacy.

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"It’s a declaration to prevent female monarchs … and to defend the male-lineage at all costs," Hideya Kawanishi, a Nagoya University expert on monarchy, told the AP. "They cannot say it’s male chauvinism, so they call it tradition."

Chizuko Ueno, a prominent feminist and sociologist, recently suggested it was ironic that Japan's first female prime minister was the one to ensure male-only succession.

Ueno said the new rules "treat male royals as stallions and put female royals under pressure as ‘childbearing machines’ to produce male offspring."

Japan has had eight empresses descended from the male line in its centuries-long history as a hereditary monarchy. The last woman to reign was Empress Go-Sakuramachi, who sat on the throne from 1762 until 1771, when she abdicated in favor of her nephew.

Female eligibility for the throne was first eliminated in 1890 under the original Imperial House Law.

That change was carried over into the modern Imperial House Law, enacted in 1947, the same year Japan’s new constitution stripped the emperor of governing authority after the country’s defeat in World War II.

Like Britain’s royal family, Japan’s imperial family remains an important national symbol.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

UNITED NATIONS — The Democratic Republic of Congo does not view growing American involvement in its critical minerals industry as a contest with China, the country’s foreign minister told Fox News Digital, arguing that Kinshasa needs multiple partners to transform its vast natural wealth into prosperity for its people.

"I don’t like talking about competition. I like talking about complementarity," Foreign Minister Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner said in an exclusive interview at the United Nations.

"A country as big as the USA, but also a country as big as the DRC and as big as China, they do not develop just with one single partner," she added. "They develop with different partnerships that respond to different needs and that bring different expertise to the table."

CHINA’S GRIP ON RARE-EARTH MAGNETS COULD CRUSH US DRONE INDUSTRY BEFORE IT GROWS

The comments come as the Trump administration seeks to increase American access to Congo’s copper, cobalt, lithium, gold and other strategic resources, while reducing U.S. reliance on mineral supply chains dominated by China.

A strategic partnership signed by Washington and Kinshasa Dec. 4, 2025, calls for increased economic cooperation, investment and the development of secure and transparent critical-mineral supply chains. The agreement accompanied a broader regional framework linking economic integration to efforts to end decades of conflict between Congo and Rwanda.

TRUMP ADMIN BACKS BOLIVIA STATE OF EMERGENCY AS LEFTIST EX-LEADER'S LOYALISTS FRACTURE NATION

A separate arrangement involving DR Congo’s state mining company Gécamines and commodities trader Mercuria could give U.S. buyers priority access to some copper and cobalt supplies, Reuters reported Dec. 5, 2025. The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation also expressed interest in taking a strategic stake in the partnership.

Kayikwamba Wagner said relations between the U.S. and DR Congo were taking "a more concrete shape" based on mutual economic interests.

She said Kinshasa welcomed "more U.S. interests in the DRC" that could help the country turn its mineral wealth into "tangible transformations for the lives of Congolese," while also delivering benefits to American partners.

Speaking separately at a high-level U.N. meeting on critical minerals Tuesday, Kayikwamba Wagner warned that the global shift toward clean energy must not reproduce an economic model in which raw materials leave Africa while processing, technology and most of the profits remain elsewhere.

"The global energy transition must not become another extractive transition," she said. "If it merely replaces one form of dependency with another, it will have fallen short of its promise."

She called for foreign partnerships to support local processing, infrastructure, technology transfers, research, industrialization and access to financing — not simply secure supplies of raw materials.

CHILL COMING FROM TRUMP’S SUMMIT WITH XI IS PROOF OF A NEW COLD WAR WITH CHINA

The minerals push is closely connected to the U.S.-mediated peace process between the DRC and Rwanda. The countries initially signed a peace agreement in Washington June 27, 2025, before presidents Félix Tshisekedi and Paul Kagame reaffirmed the deal and signed related economic agreements on Dec. 4. The framework was intended both to reduce fighting and attract Western investment to a region rich in cobalt, copper, tantalum and other minerals.

Kayikwamba Wagner acknowledged that the agreement had not ended the violence but said Washington’s willingness to impose consequences for violations showed that the process remained meaningful.

"This is a 30-year conflict we’re dealing with," she said. "It’s not going to happen overnight."

She praised the administration for sanctioning the Rwanda Defense Force and senior Rwandan officials over what the Treasury Department described as their support for the M23 rebel group. Treasury said in March that the RDF had supported, trained and fought alongside M23 as it seized territory and strategic mining locations in eastern Congo. Rwanda has repeatedly denied supporting M23.

"I find it encouraging to see that we have with us a partner that is not willing to give up at the first obstacle," Kayikwamba Wagner said.

She was in New York as the DRC, which holds the Security Council presidency for July, elevated the connection between natural resources, armed conflict and sexual violence.

Kayikwamba Wagner said rape and other forms of conflict-related sexual violence had risen sharply in areas held by M23 and Rwandan forces, affecting women and girls as well as men and boys.

Victims in occupied areas, she said, often lack access to courts, healthcare or other avenues for redress.

"This is also one of the reasons why we continue to be mobilized against this illegal occupation of eastern DRC," she said, arguing that restoring state authority was essential to providing survivors with justice and medical care.

In her U.N. remarks, she cited the Rubaya mining area, which is under M23 control and supplies a significant share of global tantalum demand. She said U.N. experts estimated that at least 1,400 tons of coltan were smuggled into Rwanda during the first year after the mines were seized, generating approximately $800,000 per month for the armed group.

The Treasury Department imposed additional sanctions on June 25 against a network it accused of working with M23 to smuggle minerals from eastern Congo into Rwanda, saying the action was intended to support the Washington peace framework and improve transparency in regional mineral supply chains.

Iran has reportedly instructed Yemen’s Houthi terrorists to prepare to close a critical Red Sea gateway if the United States attacks Iranian power infrastructure, Reuters reported, a threat experts warn could sharply disrupt global shipping even if the group cannot completely seal the waterway.

"This threat should be taken seriously," Nadwa Al-Dawsari of the Middle East Institute told Fox News Digital. "With recent escalation and U.S. strikes on Iran, Tehran has already signaled that the Bab al-Mandab could become part of its response."

Three sources told Reuters on Thursday that Iran’s leadership had discussed using the Houthis to shut the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and recently conveyed the request to the group. A source close to the Houthis said missiles and drones had been deployed near the waterway and that the group was awaiting an order to begin attacking shipping.

IRAN-BACKED TERROR PROXY HOUTHIS THREATEN FRESH ATTACKS AFTER YEMEN AIRPORT STRIKE

Edmund Fitton-Brown, a former British ambassador to Yemen and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, warned in a recent Fox News Digital report that a full resumption of the Houthi maritime campaign could trigger wider fighting.

"It will be interesting if the Houthis do go all in, and resume their campaign against Red Sea shipping with full intensity," Fitton-Brown said. "This will draw international anger and likely result in Israeli and U.S. strikes on Sana’a and Hodeida."

"There is potential for a general escalation if this happens, albeit one in which the allies have a clear military advantage," he added. 

Al-Dawsari said the Houthis have continued developing the weapons needed to threaten the narrow shipping corridor despite largely refraining from maritime attacks over the past year.

"While the Houthis have largely refrained from attacking shipping for about a year, they have continued to advance their maritime capabilities, including missiles, drones and sea mines," she said. "They may not be able to fully close the strait, but they could significantly disrupt shipping and raise costs and risks for commercial traffic."

US CLAWS BACK KEY CONCESSION TO IRAN AFTER FRESH ATTACKS ON COMMERCIAL SHIPS IN STRAIT OF HORMUZ

But the group would not necessarily need to physically control the waterway. Its previous missile and drone campaign demonstrated that repeated attacks — or even a credible threat of them — can push major shipping companies to reroute vessels around Africa, driving up insurance, fuel and freight costs.

The Bab el-Mandeb connects the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea and Suez Canal, making it one of the world’s most important maritime choke points. The consequences of renewed attacks would be especially severe because Iran has already disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, historically the principal route for roughly one-fifth of global energy supplies.

A substantial volume of Gulf oil has consequently been redirected through Saudi Arabia to the Red Sea port of Yanbu. Reuters reported that the Bab el-Mandeb route now carries approximately 7% of global energy supplies and that Saudi Arabia has shifted about 70% of its energy exports through Yanbu.

The reported instructions also raise new questions about how much control Tehran exercises over major Houthi military decisions. 

"Any decision to escalate in the Bab al-Mandab would be strategic and tied more to the interests of Iran and the Axis of Resistance than to Houthi interests alone," Al-Dawsari said. "Decisions of this magnitude are likely coordinated through the Axis’ joint operations room under IRGC oversight."

A source close to the Houthis claimed representatives of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Yemen would control the timing of any move against the strait, Reuters reported.

The latest warning follows earlier Houthi threats against maritime traffic. In the June 12 report, Fox News Digital reported that the group had announced a complete ban on Israeli-owned ships in the Red Sea and declared them "legitimate targets."

EXPERT WARNS OF 'GENERAL ESCALATION' OF FIGHTING IF HOUTHIS RESUME RED SEA CAMPAIGN

A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital at the time that the actions of Iran and the Houthis were "unacceptable" and "dangerous," warning that they could inflame regional tensions and further disrupt global supply chains.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has "repeatedly condemned" Houthis attacks against ships in the Red Sea and called on all parties Thursday to avoid further escalation, his spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, told Fox News Digital.

"Any disruptions or attacks would endanger the safety and security of seafarers, freedom of navigation and the stability of global supply chains and have a negative impact on the economic and humanitarian situation in Yemen and beyond," Dujarric said. "The Secretary-General underscores that U.N. Security Council Resolution 2722 (2024) must be fully respected in its entirety," he said on the resolution condemning at least two dozen Houthis attacks on commercial vessels since November 2023 and demanding an immediate end to the attacks. 

The emerging threat has also renewed scrutiny of the Iranian weapons networks that helped build the Houthis’ missile and drone arsenal.

Amr Al-Bidh, foreign affairs chief of the Southern Arabian Transitional Council, said that the reported threat also exposed broader failures in the handling of Yemen’s security crisis. "The fact that individuals convicted of trafficking Iranian weapons to the Houthis and leading terrorist operations are now being released under a U.N.-brokered deal only underscores how poorly the Yemen crisis is being managed," he said, "the main beneficiary of this vacuum is Iran, as seen in its credible threat to close the Bab al-Mandab Strait."

In a July 15 letter obtained by Fox News Digital, the Southern Arabian Transitional Council formerly known as the Southern Transitional Council, a southern Yemeni separatist movement that seeks greater autonomy or independence for the territory of the former South Yemen, warned U.N. Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg that a U.N.-facilitated detainee agreement may include people the council says were convicted of assisting Iranian weapons transfers to the Houthis.

An annex identifies individuals the council alleges were members of a cell that smuggled drones, aviation fuel and heavy and medium weapons from Iran to Sanaa.

The Office of the U.N. Special Envoy for Yemen said it received the letter only after the agreement had already been signed and stressed that it does not determine which detainees are released.

"We have received the letter after the agreement was signed," spokesperson Ismini Palla told Fox News Digital. "The United Nations – as well as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) – do not decide who is released and who remains in detention. Our role is limited to mediating the negotiations and ICRC leads on the implementation of the release operation."

Palla added that "the names of those released are proposed and agreed between the parties under the framework of the Stockholm Agreement on prisoners’ exchange of 2018."

Fox News Digital reached out to the State Department and the Iranian Mission to the United Nations on the latest developments.

Fox News' Paul Tilsley and Reuters contributed to this report.

FIRST ON FOX: Many African economies are accelerating – booming – since the Trump Administration shifted policy focus from aid to trade, a senior State Department official told Fox News Digital.

In some African countries, doom was forecast when the Trump administration severely cut back USAID funding, but instead there’s been unprecedented economic growth, credited to the Commercial Diplomacy Strategy, introduced at the beginning of President Trump’s second term.

Now, "nine of the 20 fastest-growing economies (in the world) are in Africa," Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of African Affairs Frank Garcia told Fox News Digital.

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Garcia added, "African economies are responding positively to the shift from aid to trade. In 2025, U.S. exports to sub-Saharan Africa increased by 23% to $22.6 billion. And continue to grow this year."

When the Administration cut USAID by 83% early last year, "The predictions were catastrophic: economies heavily dependent on foreign donors—from Ethiopia to South Sudan and Malawi — were expected to collapse. Instead, something quite different happened," Anna Mahjar-Barducci, Project Director at the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), told Fox News Digital.

"The African continent proved far more resilient than expected, citing Ethiopia, which revised its 2026 growth forecasts upward despite the funding cuts," Mahjar-Barducci continued. "According to projections by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to grow between 4.3% and 4.6% in 2026, outpacing Asia as a whole, whose growth is forecast at around 4.1%. Growth is propelled by massive hydroelectric investments, construction, mining and expanding coffee exports."

TRUMP GETS MAJOR WIN AGAINST CHINA IN AFRICAN RARE EARTH MINERALS RACE

"This is no minor detail," she continued. "For decades, we were told that without international aid Africa would collapse. Now that aid is genuinely drying up, much of the continent is not only avoiding collapse —i t is accelerating. This is precisely the argument that a long-standing school of African economic thought, now more relevant than ever, has advanced for years: aid is not the solution. In many cases, it is part of the problem."

Assistant Secretary Garcia explained how the strategy works:" We see this economic acceleration in Africa. In order to best capitalize on it, the United States is focused on driving private investment, sustainable growth in terms of partnership and treating African nations not as aid recipients, but as capable commercial partners."

He added "Our embassies (in Africa) work directly with the private sector to identify the policies, laws, and regulations constraining U.S. trade and investment. We then work with partner governments to develop practical reforms, identify the officials responsible for implementing them and determine where technical assistance may support implementation."

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It's a strategy that appears to be working, with Garcia adding, "The Bureau of African Affairs has worked on 37 commercial transactions that have closed since the beginning of the (current) Trump Administration, representing $25.67 billion in total value, with more still being reported. Embassies across the continent are actively working to close hundreds more. Top sectors include Energy 24%, ICT 19%, Critical Minerals and Mining 11%, Aerospace 8%, Agriculture 8%, Infrastructure 8%."

Mahjar-Barducci criticized the way USAID worked, telling Fox News Digital," When aid flows to governments rather than markets, it tends to finance projects designed in Brussels, Rome, or Washington which are not responding to the actual needs of local economies. Poverty cannot be overcome by treating people as permanent recipients of charity. Poverty can be reduced by recognizing people as entrepreneurs, workers and economic partners capable of building their own prosperity."

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Trade, rather than aid works, Mahjar-Barducci claimed. "The Trump administration's more transactional approach to aid — access to critical minerals, or to citizens' health data, in exchange for funding — should not be dismissed as merely cynical. Unconditional transfers have long been the deeper flaw in the traditional aid model: money with no strings attached removes any incentive for a recipient government to reform and often entrenches the same officials responsible for the underlying poverty."

Enter the America First Global Health Strategy. A senior State Department official told Fox News Digital this week that the administration "has signed 34 bilateral global health Memoranda of Understanding(MOU) representing more than $24 billion in new health funding, including more than $14.3 billion in U.S. assistance, alongside more than $9.6 billion in co-investment from recipient countries."

"24 of these MOUs were signed with sub-Saharan African countries," the official continued. "These new bilateral MOUs are designed to continue life-saving care, build resilient healthcare systems, reduce dependency on American taxpayers and strengthen country ownership."

The administration has also decided to cut funding for a U.S. anti-AIDS program known as PEPFAR. Africa has been hit hard by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. UNAIDS, the United Nations program that deals with the virus, reports that South Africa has the highest infection rate in the world. 

But the State Department official Fox News Digital spoke with says South Africa must take some of the blame for cutting help to its own people. "The United States has decided to initiate a phased drawdown of PEPFAR programming in South Africa, following South Africa’s failure to make demonstrable progress on policy requests by the administration. The United States communicated to [the] South African government multiple times at many levels that PEPFAR funding would be terminated if they failed to address President Trump’s concerns."

"PEPFAR was never intended to be permanent," the official added. "Its success is measured by countries' ability to sustain and build upon these gains. South Africa is a middle-income country and is more than capable of supporting its own health programs."

Fox News Digital reached out to the South African government, but received no response.

President Donald Trump said he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to reach an agreement to end the war in Ukraine, even as Moscow warned Wednesday that Western troops deployed to enforce any eventual peace deal would become Russian military targets.

"I say, ‘Vladimir, it’s time for you to stop. It’s time for this war to end,’" Trump told Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst in an interview released Tuesday. 

Trump said he believed Putin was "ready to make a deal" to end the fighting.

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Meanwhile, fighting continued across Ukraine and Russian-occupied territory. 

The intensifying drone war has forced both militaries to search for additional ways to intercept unmanned aircraft, sometimes using weapons designed decades before modern drones emerged.

A video supplied by East2West shows a Russian soldier apparently losing control of a Soviet-era YakB-12.7 rotary machine gun mounted on an improvised ground platform.

The weapon begins spinning violently, dragging the service member around before throwing him several yards from the mounting. Another soldier ducks as the gun swings in his direction. 

East2West reported that no one was injured, though Fox News Digital has not independently verified the location, date or circumstances of the footage.

The four-barrel machine gun was originally developed for use aboard the Soviet-designed Mi-24 Hind attack helicopter. Russian forces have reportedly attempted to repurpose such weapons as ground-based defenses against Ukrainian drones, East2West news reported.

TRUMP SAYS US WILL LET UKRAINE MAKE PATRIOT MISSILES IN MAJOR POLICY SHIFT

On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said any multinational force deployed by Ukraine’s allies after a ceasefire would be unacceptable to Moscow.

"We would regard such units as legitimate military targets," Zakharova said, according to a Reuters report published Wednesday.

Members of the Western "coalition of the willing" reaffirmed at a meeting in Paris this week that they intend to deploy a multinational force after hostilities end. The proposed force would seek to reassure Ukraine and help Kyiv rebuild its military.

Ukraine’s military said Wednesday that its forces struck the Balaklava thermal power station in Russian-occupied Crimea, a facility that accounts for nearly half of the peninsula’s electricity generation, according to Reuters. 

Russia, meanwhile, launched another major drone and missile attack against Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, killing three people, regional Governor Oleh Kiper said. He said civilian, industrial and port infrastructure had been targeted during five consecutive days of Russian attacks.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also said Wednesday that Ukraine expects to develop the technical capability to manufacture missiles for U.S.-made Patriot air-defense systems by the end of 2026.

Reuters contributed to this story.

U.S. troops unloaded what Fox News Digital is told was China's only aid flight sent to Venezuela so far as the country continues to reel from last month's back-to-back earthquakes.

Photos provided by the U.S. government show an Air China plane landing at Simón Bolívar Airport July 6, nearly two weeks after the quakes hit on June 24.

The supplies from the Chinese government were then taken off the aircraft by U.S. soldiers, who have been leading the disaster response and aid distribution efforts.

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In the photos provided to Fox News Digital, U.S. service members lifted large packages out of shipping containers, using large vehicles to move and organize pallets on the tarmac and loading boxes into trucks for transport.

"Secretary Rubio promised the Trump administration's response to the devastating earthquakes in Venezuela would be big, fast and effective. We continue to deliver on that commitment," State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

"While some countries say they'll deliver aid — weeks after natural disasters occur — America shows up, unloads the aid and ensures that assistance reaches the hands of those who truly need it thanks to our close coordination with the Department of War and the great public-private partnerships our Department has spearheaded."

The U.S. has moved more than 1.5 million pounds of assistance into Venezuela since the earthquakes struck June 24, according to the State Department.

A big part of that was repairing Simón Bolívar Airport, which sits just outside the capital city of Caracas after its runways were seriously damaged in the natural disaster.

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"The U.S. military was able to repair that airfield and get it up and running to allow for C-17 and other large aircraft to land there. And that’s very important as we continue to obviously get international relief supplies in," a senior State Department official told reporters in late June.

One runway is operational at the airport, and one of the first American flights into the airport was carrying forklifts to help get supplies unloaded off future flights, according to the State Department official.

Florida-based Global Empowerment Mission (GEM), one of the leading nonprofits gathering and sending aid to Venezuela, said it aims to deliver 100,000 boxes of supplies monthly for the next three to six months, according to The Associated Press.

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According to GEM's website, it has shipped nearly 1 million pounds of aid. This includes over 38,000 hygiene kits, more than 27,000 tents and tarps and 48 generators.

GEM founder and President Michael Capponi told the AP delivering aid to Venezuela now is a "whole different animal" compared to when he tried to send supplies during the reign of Nicolás Maduro.

Maduro, who was captured and deposed during a U.S.-led raid Jan. 3, did not allow Capponi into the country.

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"We land a private plane. It gets unloaded by U.S. soldiers. It goes in a truck we pay for and to a warehouse that we completely control. It doesn’t touch the hands of the Venezuelan government," he said.

The State Department said July 9 that the U.S. government has committed more than $386 million in financial assistance to Venezuela flowing through trusted partner groups. 

The Chinese foreign minister announced in late June a $14.72 million commitment for financial and material aid to Venezuela, according to Chinese state-run media.

Nearly two weeks after the earthquakes struck, Chinese state media reported about what they called the first batch of aid arriving at Simón Bolívar International Airport on July 6. State media said Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil and Chinese Ambassador to Venezuela Lan Hu received the shipment, said to include tents and generators, at the airport.

In late June, the U.S. also mobilized more than 300 search and rescue personnel throughout the country. 

The Miami Herald reported last week that those teams left after they "completed their mission."

As of Tuesday, 4,734 people have died from the earthquakes, according to figures released by the Venezuelan government, cited by Reuters. Additionally, there are at least 16,740 people injured, while nearly 18,000 people are homeless.

The earthquakes have destroyed 190 buildings and damaged over 850, Venezuelan officials told the AP.

Fox News Digital's Danielle Wallace, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Andy Burnham, the former Greater Manchester mayor who has frequently criticized President Donald Trump, became the United Kingdom's new prime minister after emerging as the only candidate to replace outgoing Labour leader Keir Starmer.

Burnham, 56, was formally confirmed as the prime minister on July 20th, following a meeting with King Charles III at Buckingham Palace, London. King Charles formally requested that Burnham form a new administration, and Burnham accepted.

Britain’s parliamentary system allows the governing party to replace its leader — and therefore the prime minister — without holding a national election. The next nationwide election does not have to be held until 2029.

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Burnham’s rapid path to Downing Street is drawing criticism from political opponents and foreign policy analysts who say he has not faced the scrutiny that would normally accompany either a competitive party leadership race or a general election campaign.

"Andy Burnham is the least scrutinized incoming U.K. Prime Minister of recent times," Alan Mendoza, executive director of the London-based Henry Jackson Society, told Fox News Digital.

"He has faced neither a general election nor an internal party leadership debate in order to establish his positions for wider consumption," Mendoza said. "He wasn’t even a candidate at the last general election."

Burnham did, however, win 54.8% of the vote in June’s Makerfield parliamentary by-election, defeating Reform UK’s candidate and returning to the House of Commons after nearly a decade away. Before returning to Parliament, he had been directly elected mayor of Greater Manchester three times.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage argued in a previous interview with Fox News Digital that Burnham should seek a new national mandate.

"The public are tired of the game of musical chairs that’s been taking place in 10 Downing Street over the last decade," Farage said.

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"Mr. Burnham will come in, he will have no mandate," he added. "I don’t even know what his policies are. Literally, I don’t. So, I think for all of those reasons, there ought to be a general election and a fresh mandate."

Farage made the comments before resigning his parliamentary seat this month to trigger an Aug. 13 by-election in Clacton, where he plans to run again. Farage said he wanted voters to judge him amid parliamentary scrutiny over allegations involving gifts from wealthy supporters. He has denied wrongdoing. Police are separately investigating donations made to Reform UK, but no arrests have been announced.

Burnham grew up in north-west England between Liverpool and Manchester. The son of a British Telecom engineer and a receptionist, he joined the Labour Party as a teenager, studied at Cambridge University and was first elected to Parliament in 2001, according to The Associated Press.

He rose through Labour’s ranks during the governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and served in several senior positions, including as culture secretary and health secretary.

Burnham ran unsuccessfully for the Labour leadership in 2010 and again in 2015. He left Parliament in 2017 after winning election as mayor of Greater Manchester, a regional position he used to build a national political profile.

As mayor, Burnham promoted greater regional control over transportation and public services. His administration brought Greater Manchester’s fragmented bus system under public control as part of the Bee Network, a regional transportation project that became one of his signature achievements.

He also became closely associated with the campaign for accountability over the 1989 Hillsborough stadium disaster, in which 97 Liverpool soccer fans were killed. Burnham supported victims’ families in their long-running effort to expose police failures and rebut false accusations originally directed at supporters.

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Burnham has repeatedly criticized President Donald Trump, accusing him of contributing to global instability while warning that Britain risks importing the polarization of American politics. In a 2025 interview with The London Economic, Burnham compared Trump’s return to office to the turmoil caused in Britain by former Prime Minister Liz Truss. 

"The instability that Liz Truss brought to Britain, I think Trump is bringing to the U.S. and the world," Burnham said in the interview. He also described several of Trump’s decisions, including his approach to the Russia-Ukraine war, as "out of order."

Burnham’s criticism of Trump dates back to the president’s first election in 2016. After Trump’s victory, Burnham described some of his rhetoric as "deeply troubling" but argued that politicians on the left should examine why working-class voters had turned to him rather than simply blaming the electorate. 

"We have to look closer to home," Burnham said, according to The Guardian.

His language became sharper following the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. As the attack unfolded, Burnham wrote on X that "any UK politician who gave Trump the time of day should be ashamed right now."

More recently, during his Makerfield parliamentary campaign, Burnham warned that Britain was moving toward "the politics of the United States of America," which he described as "a polarized, poisonous politics where people in communities don’t work together anymore."

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Despite those attacks, Burnham has stopped short of advocating a rupture with Washington. According to Time, he supported Starmer’s effort to maintain a working relationship with Trump, while arguing that Britain must be prepared to disagree with the United States. 

"Obviously, the relationship is important to the U.K., but not to the point where we just go along with anything they say," Burnham said. 

Trump has already responded dismissively to the likely incoming British leader. Asked in June what he knew about Burnham, Trump said, "I don’t know, I think I see that he was, I guess, the mayor of a town." Trump added that he had heard Burnham was "extremely liberal" and suggested that he would oppose expanded North Sea oil drilling, before declaring that "the U.K. is dying," according ton Reuters.

Burnham is generally regarded as being to the left of Starmer. He has said he wants to take what he calls "Manchesterism" nationwide, describing an approach that places "people and place before party" and transfers greater attention and authority from London to regions that have historically received less investment.

He has emphasized infrastructure, housing, transportation and regional economic development, while arguing against what he calls "trickle-down economics." The Associated Press reported that his priorities have also included vocational education, youth employment, lower energy bills and cheaper rail travel.

Mendoza said that Burnham’s past positions and recent statements suggest he would move the British government further to the left.

"What we can be certain of is that he will be looking to impose a fairly radical left-wing agenda for the country based on his past beliefs and recent pronouncements," Mendoza said.

"In no particular order, these include introduction of wealth taxes, changes to the electoral system, a vast expansion of social housing and attacks on hitherto allies of the U.K. like Israel."

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Burnham has sought to counter concerns about his limited recent national security experience. 

He has pledged continuity in Britain’s commitments to NATO, its nuclear deterrent, the United States and Ukraine, according to The Associated Press. 

He has also called for Britain to rebuild its military capabilities and domestic defense industry in response to what he described as an increasingly dangerous international environment.

On the war in Gaza, Burnham has criticized Labour’s earlier response and argued that the party was too slow to call for a ceasefire. The Associated Press reported that he has raised the possibility of additional sanctions and trade restrictions involving goods linked to Israeli settlements. Burnham has also condemned Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack against Israel.

Burnham has not served in Britain’s national government since 2010 and spent almost a decade outside Parliament, meaning his record is far more developed on domestic and regional policy than on current foreign policy and national security questions.

Burnham would not be required to call an immediate general election. Labour won a large parliamentary majority under Starmer in July 2024, allowing the party to remain in power until 2029 unless Burnham decides to seek an earlier mandate.

Mendoza predicted that Burnham could attempt to capitalize on the momentum surrounding his arrival at Downing Street.

"As he is never likelier to be more popular than on day one of his premiership, we should also be on the watch for his calling of an early general election in order to capitalize on this unique moment," Mendoza said.

Burnham would inherit an economy facing weak growth, pressure on public finances, strained health and welfare services and continuing concern over the cost of living.

He would also become Britain’s seventh prime minister in just over a decade, reflecting the rapid political turnover at Downing Street since the country’s 2016 vote to leave the European Union.

Fox News' Eric Mack contributed to this report.

Andy Burnham, the former Greater Manchester mayor who has frequently criticized President Donald Trump, is poised to become the United Kingdom's next prime minister after emerging as the only candidate to replace outgoing Labour leader Keir Starmer.

Burnham, 56, received nominations from 322 of Labour’s 403 Members of Parliament on the first day of the leadership process, far surpassing the 81 required to enter the contest and leaving potential rivals with virtually no path to qualify. He is expected to be formally confirmed as Labour leader Friday and appointed prime minister by King Charles III on Monday, July 20, following Starmer’s resignation.

Britain’s parliamentary system allows the governing party to replace its leader — and therefore the prime minister — without holding a national election. The next nationwide election does not have to be held until 2029.

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Burnham’s rapid path to Downing Street is drawing criticism from political opponents and foreign-policy analysts who say he has not faced the scrutiny that would normally accompany either a competitive party leadership race or a general-election campaign.

"Andy Burnham is the least scrutinized incoming U.K. Prime Minister of recent times," Alan Mendoza, executive director of the London-based Henry Jackson Society, told Fox News Digital.

"He has faced neither a general election nor an internal party leadership debate in order to establish his positions for wider consumption," Mendoza said. "He wasn’t even a candidate at the last General Election."

Burnham did, however, win 54.8% of the vote in June’s Makerfield parliamentary by-election, defeating Reform UK’s candidate and returning to the House of Commons after nearly a decade away. Before returning to Parliament, he had been directly elected mayor of Greater Manchester three times.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage argued in a previous interview with Fox News Digital that Burnham should seek a new national mandate.

"The public are tired of the game of musical chairs that’s been taking place in 10 Downing Street over the last decade," Farage said.

NIGEL FARAGE RESIGNING FROM UK PARLIAMENT

"Mr. Burnham will come in, he will have no mandate," he added. "I don’t even know what his policies are. Literally, I don’t. So I think for all of those reasons, there ought to be a general election and a fresh mandate."

Farage made the comments before resigning his parliamentary seat this month to trigger an Aug. 13 by-election in Clacton, where he plans to run again. Farage said he wanted voters to judge him amid parliamentary scrutiny over allegations involving gifts from wealthy supporters. He has denied wrongdoing. Police are separately investigating donations made to Reform UK, but no arrests have been announced.

Burnham grew up in north-west England between Liverpool and Manchester. The son of a British Telecom engineer and a receptionist, he joined the Labour Party as a teenager, studied at Cambridge University and was first elected to Parliament in 2001, according to The Associated Press.

He rose through Labour’s ranks during the governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and served in several senior positions, including as culture secretary and health secretary.

Burnham ran unsuccessfully for the Labour leadership in 2010 and again in 2015. He left Parliament in 2017 after winning election as mayor of Greater Manchester, a regional position he used to build a national political profile.

As mayor, Burnham promoted greater regional control over transportation and public services. His administration brought Greater Manchester’s fragmented bus system under public control as part of the Bee Network, a regional transportation project that became one of his signature achievements.

He also became closely associated with the campaign for accountability over the 1989 Hillsborough stadium disaster, in which 97 Liverpool soccer fans were killed. Burnham supported victims’ families in their long-running effort to expose police failures and rebut false accusations originally directed at supporters.

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Burnham has repeatedly criticized President Donald Trump, accusing him of contributing to global instability while warning that Britain risks importing the polarization of American politics. In a 2025 interview with The London Economic, Burnham compared Trump’s return to office to the turmoil caused in Britain by former Prime Minister Liz Truss. 

"The instability that Liz Truss brought to Britain, I think Trump is bringing to the U.S. and the world," Burnham said, in the interview. He also described several of Trump’s decisions, including his approach to the Russia-Ukraine war, as "out of order."

Burnham’s criticism of Trump dates back to the president’s first election in 2016. After Trump’s victory, Burnham described some of his rhetoric as "deeply troubling," but argued that politicians on the left should examine why working-class voters had turned to him rather than simply blaming the electorate. "We have to look closer to home," Burnham said, according to The Guardian.

His language became sharper following the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. As the attack unfolded, Burnham wrote on X that "any UK politician who gave Trump the time of day should be ashamed right now". More recently, during his Makerfield parliamentary campaign, Burnham warned that Britain was moving toward "the politics of the United States of America," which he described as "a polarized, poisonous politics where people in communities don’t work together anymore."

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Despite those attacks, Burnham has stopped short of advocating a rupture with Washington. According to TIME, he supported Starmer’s effort to maintain a working relationship with Trump, while arguing that Britain must be prepared to disagree with the United States. "Obviously, the relationship is important to the U.K., but not to the point where we just go along with anything they say," Burnham said. 

Trump has already responded dismissively to the likely incoming British leader. Asked in June what he knew about Burnham, Trump said, "I don’t know, I think I see that he was, I guess, the mayor of a town." Trump added that he had heard Burnham was "extremely liberal" and suggested that he would oppose expanded North Sea oil drilling, before declaring that "the UK is dying," according ton Reuters.

Burnham is generally regarded as being to the left of Starmer. He has said he wants to take what he calls "Manchesterism" nationwide, describing an approach that places "people and place before party" and transfers greater attention and authority from London to regions that have historically received less investment.

He has emphasized infrastructure, housing, transportation and regional economic development, while arguing against what he calls "trickle-down economics." The Associated Press reported that his priorities have also included vocational education, youth employment, lower energy bills and cheaper rail travel.

Mendoza said that Burnham’s past positions and recent statements suggest he would move the British government further to the left.

"What we can be certain of is that he will be looking to impose a fairly radical left-wing agenda for the country based on his past beliefs and recent pronouncements," Mendoza said.

"In no particular order, these include introduction of wealth taxes, changes to the electoral system, a vast expansion of social housing and attacks on hitherto allies of the U.K. like Israel."

FROM LONDON SYNAGOGUES TO NEW YORK PRESCHOOLS — ANTISEMITIC ATTACKS ESCALATING ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ATLANTIC

Burnham has sought to counter concerns about his limited recent national-security experience. He has pledged continuity in Britain’s commitments to NATO, its nuclear deterrent, the United States and Ukraine, according to the Associated Press. He has also called for Britain to rebuild its military capabilities and domestic defense industry in response to what he described as an increasingly dangerous international environment.

On the war in Gaza, Burnham has criticized Labour’s earlier response and argued that the party was too slow to call for a ceasefire. The Associated Press reported that he has raised the possibility of additional sanctions and trade restrictions involving goods linked to Israeli settlements. Burnham has also condemned Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack against Israel.

Burnham has not served in Britain’s national government since 2010 and spent almost a decade outside Parliament, meaning his record is far more developed on domestic and regional policy than on current foreign-policy and national-security questions.

Burnham would not be required to call an immediate general election. Labour won a large parliamentary majority under Starmer in July 2024, allowing the party to remain in power until 2029 unless Burnham decides to seek an earlier mandate.

Mendoza predicted that Burnham could attempt to capitalize on the momentum surrounding his arrival at Downing Street.

"As he is never likelier to be more popular than on day one of his Premiership, we should also be on the watch for his calling of an early General Election in order to capitalize on this unique moment," Mendoza said.

Burnham would inherit an economy facing weak growth, pressure on public finances, strained health and welfare services and continuing concern over the cost of living.

He would also become Britain’s seventh prime minister in just over a decade, reflecting the rapid political turnover at Downing Street since the country’s 2016 vote to leave the European Union.

American mother Jamey Carney was remembered at her funeral as a devoted parent who had built a happy life in Ireland before her life was violently cut short.

Carney, 43, a New York native who moved to Ireland in 2021 with her teenage daughter, was violently beaten and suffocated in her home in Killarney, County Kerry, last week. A Jordanian failed asylum seeker who was living in Ireland and was romantically involved with Carney was arrested in relation to the case in his home country after fleeing Ireland via Istanbul after her death, according to Irish media.

Mourners gathered at St. Mary's Cathedral in Killarney to pay their final respects during a service celebrating Carney's life. The service was livestreamed, allowing friends and family around the world to join in mourning before a private cremation.

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"Today we don't dwell on Jamey's death, but we dwell on her life," Fr. Kieran O'Brien told mourners.

During the service, O'Brien reflected on Carney's life growing up in New York alongside her sister, Devon, before recalling her "big decision" to move to Killarney—a choice he described as "the best decision of her life."

He said she and her daughter, Michaela, had found a place they proudly called home, with Michaela settling into school and becoming actively involved in Irish sports.

The priest described Carney as a woman whose "joy radiated" from her, saying she had built a close circle of friends after moving to Killarney and found happiness in simple things. He recalled her love of country music, travel, shopping, going to concerts and spending time with friends.

"She was happy in life and she was happy with life because life was good to her," he said.

"But her real love in life was you, Michaela," he added, addressing Carney's daughter.

"We thank God for Jamey's life, remembering at all times her joy, and the ray of sunshine that she brought to all of your lives," he added.

Family members carried a series of personal items to the altar celebrating Carney's life, including photographs of her daughter, Michaela, and her dog, Penny. A cowboy hat symbolizing her love of country music, the passports she and Michaela used to start their new life together in Ireland and an angel statue were also brought forward.

A framed photograph of Carney rested atop her coffin, which was positioned before the altar and draped in a white pall.

As Carney's coffin departed St. Mary's Cathedral following the funeral mass, young members of Dr. Crokes GAA Club formed a guard of honor outside the church. Carney's grieving sister, Devon, wearing a Kerry GAA jersey and clutching a sunflower, was distraught as family members gathered around the hearse.

The service centered on celebrating Carney's life, her family and the community she built in Ireland rather than the disturbing circumstances surrounding her death and subsequent murder investigation.

Detectives believe Carney was killed around 11 p.m. Monday, roughly 14 hours before her 13-year-old daughter discovered her body at about 1:30 p.m. Tuesday. By then, the man had traveled roughly 200 miles by bus to Dublin Airport and boarded a flight to Istanbul, according to the Irish Independent.

Irish police have yet to publicly identify the person they want to question in the investigation or release his name, photograph or any physical description.

Irish police confirmed to Fox News Digital they were aware "of the arrest of a male in Jordan by the Jordanian authorities," but did not identify the man or confirm he was the person of interest in the investigation. Police also confirmed they "have not made any request to the Jordanian authorities for the arrest of any person at this time."

WATCH: Person of interest detained in murder of US mom in Ireland

MIGRANT WHO FLED IRELAND AFTER AMERICAN MOTHER'S MURDER IS ARRESTED IN JORDAN

Irish media have widely identified the man as the person of interest in the investigation, though Irish police have not publicly confirmed his identity.

Ireland does not have an extradition treaty with Jordan, where the man is being detained, according to the Irish Independent.

Fox News Digital asked Irish police and Ireland's Department of Justice to confirm reports that the man had previously been refused asylum while appealing that decision. Neither agency confirmed the reports.

The man had been living in state-run accommodation for asylum seekers in Killarney before spending increasing amounts of time at Carney's home after they became romantically involved, according to the Irish Mirror.

He first arrived in the United Kingdom before traveling through Northern Ireland and eventually settling in County Kerry, according to the Irish Mirror.

His social media accounts contain posts from the United Kingdom and Turkey in recent years.

Meanwhile, the FBI told Fox News Digital it stands ready to assist Irish authorities if requested.

"Through our Legal Attaché in London, we have strong, established relationships and stand ready to assist in any way that the Irish government may request," the FBI said in a statement.

The State Department told Fox News Digital it is providing consular assistance to the family.

Ambassador Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, the U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, recently introduced "pro-Semitism," an educational vision centered on celebrating Jewish contributions to America alongside the continued fight against antisemitism.

Kaploun underlined his new push by saying, "the Jewish people are more than the hatred that defines us." His remarks came during America's 250th Birthday Shabbat Dinner, where government officials, Jewish leaders, educators and community members gathered to commemorate the nation's 250th anniversary.

The evening also served as the launch of the J250 Initiative, a landmark educational project dedicated to advancing public understanding of the profound, foundational role Jewish Americans have played in the American story.

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The launch comes as the FBI's most recent annual hate crime data shows anti-Jewish incidents reached their highest level since the bureau began tracking the statistics in 1991.

According to the FBI's 2024 Hate Crime Statistics, law enforcement agencies reported 1,938 anti-Jewish hate crime incidents. Although Jews comprise roughly 2% of the U.S. population, they were the targets of nearly 69% of all religion-based hate crimes reported nationwide. Organizers say that while antisemitism must continue to be confronted, educating Americans about Jewish contributions offers another powerful way to combat prejudice.

The J250 Initiative reflects what organizers describe as a shift away from a defensive, reactive approach to combating antisemitism and toward an inspiring, proactive celebration of Jewish contributions throughout American history. They say rather than allowing Jewish identity to be viewed primarily through the lens of persecution, the project highlights what organizers call the nation's "Jewish American Golden Age" by celebrating generations of Jewish patriots, entrepreneurs, scientists, physicians, public servants, soldiers, philanthropists and civic leaders whose contributions have helped shape and strengthen the fabric of the republic since its founding.

SIGN UP FOR ANTISEMITISM EXPOSED NEWSLETTER

The core mission of J250 is to uncover overlooked stories from the American Revolution through modern American history.

Among the first individuals to be featured are Haym Salomon, the Revolutionary War financier whose support helped sustain Gen. George Washington's army; Francis Salvador, widely recognized as the first Jewish American to die fighting for American independence; and Continental Army officer Solomon Bush. Organizers say these are only a few of the 250 stories that demonstrate the enduring impact Jewish Americans have had on the nation's history and development.

The initiative also highlights more recent Jewish Americans whose contributions helped shape the nation's culture, science, medicine and public life.

As a Jewish immigrant, Irving Berlin arrived in the United States as a child after fleeing persecution and went on to become one of America's most celebrated composers and songwriters. His classics, including "God Bless America," "White Christmas" and "There's No Business Like Show Business,: helped shape the soundtrack of the nation and remain woven into America's cultural identity.

The project also recognizes American Jewish physician Dr. Jonas Salk, whose development of the first successful polio vaccine stands among the greatest medical breakthroughs in history. His discovery saved millions of lives and transformed public health. By choosing not to patent the vaccine, he ensured it could be widely distributed, protecting generations of children from polio worldwide.

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Another featured Jewish American is baseball legend Sandy Koufax, who rose to become one of the greatest pitchers in history, leading the Los Angeles Dodgers to multiple World Series championships and earning three Cy Young Awards. At the height of his career in 1965, Koufax chose to sit out Game 1 of the World Series because it fell on Yom Kippur, a decision that became one of the defining moments in American sports. His decision inspired generations of athletes and became a lasting symbol of integrity, conviction and the freedom to live one's values.

"As I said in my Senate confirmation hearing, education is the best way to combat antisemitism," Kaploun told Fox News Digital, "Teaching the world about the greatest Jewish contributors to American history gives people the knowledge to counter those who spread hate and lies about the American Jewish community."

The initiative also includes a Jewish American Heritage curriculum, a national social media campaign and a student scholarship competition encouraging young Americans to explore Jewish history through the broader American story.

"Jewish Americans have helped build the America we love today, from the battlefields of the Revolution to the frontiers of modern science," said Arie Lipnick, co-founder of The J250 Foundation. "It is only by renewing these foundational lessons that we can ensure the promise of America burns brightly for the next 250 years."

Kaploun also reflected on his family's immigration to the United States. "My great-great-grandfather immigrated from Galicia in the 1880s. My great-grandfather immigrated to the United States in 1913," he said. "They could have never dreamed that their great or great-great grandson would one day be hosting America's Birthday Shabbat Dinner. But that is exactly the American dream."

He said America's founding ideals of religious liberty, freedom of speech and equal opportunity created an environment in which generations of immigrants, including Jewish Americans, could contribute to the nation's success while remaining faithful to their heritage.

Physician and philanthropist Dr. Miriam Adelson echoed the evening's themes of unity, gratitude and hope.

"I love America as I love Israel," Adelson told attendees. "We need to hope, we need to love each other. Maybe the next generation will be better and better."

Her remarks reinforced the initiative's message of fostering greater understanding, mutual respect and optimism for the future.

For organizers, J250 represents more than a historical project. It is an effort to ensure that Jewish history in America is not defined solely through the lens of antisemitism, but through the lens of patriotism, service, sacrifice, innovation, civic leadership and nation-building. The organizers say they hope to reclaim stories that have too often been overlooked and inspire a deeper appreciation for the role Jewish Americans have played in shaping the country over the past 250 years.

"If these last 250 years demanded we create the word 'antisemitism,'" Kaploun said, "let these next 250 years lead us to create a new word in its stead: ‘pro-semitism.’ Being proud to be Jewish, educating the world and respecting one another. That is what it means to be pro-semitic."

EXCLUSIVE: The Trump administration is laying out its clearest blueprint yet for what comes after decades of traditional U.S. foreign aid, arguing that private investment, trade and American business — not taxpayer-funded assistance — should become America's primary engine for development abroad.

At a U.S. Mission to the United Nations "Trade Over Aid" forum in New York Monday, Ambassador Mike Waltz, the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations, told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview that the administration is "completely reforming how we do aid" by moving away from taxpayer-funded programs and toward private-sector-led development.

"For too many years, the United States and other countries have poured billions and billions of dollars into these aid programs and got very little in return," Waltz said. "You go to these forums at the United Nations and at development agencies around the world, and you never find the private sector. You find NGOs and academics and governments, but you don’t find the creators of growth and the creators of jobs."

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Waltz said the new model is designed to "create jobs, to create business for American companies in line with America First," while also raising living standards abroad and reducing instability that can fuel terrorism and poverty.

The administration moved to dismantle USAID in 2025, arguing the agency was inefficient and too often disconnected from U.S. foreign policy. Asked directly whether "Trade Over Aid" is replacing USAID, Waltz said USAID’s functions had been folded into the State Department as part of a broader efficiency effort, but insisted the initiative is about something larger than one agency.

"What we’re doing, this isn’t about USAID or what replaces it," Waltz said. "That was an efficient effort to get our aid to serve our foreign policy, not the other way around. But what I think is more important is how do we help American businesses and how do (we) help create jobs around the world and reduce dependency."

The stakes are immediate: with USAID reorganized under the State Department and aid budgets under pressure, the Trump administration is trying to show that it has a replacement model for how the U.S. helps poorer and fragile countries. The answer it is pitching is not more traditional aid, but more private capital, more trade, more deals for American companies and fewer open-ended taxpayer commitments.

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The forum brought together representatives from dozens of countries, U.N. agencies, international financial institutions and major private-sector players, including Microsoft, Google, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Boeing, Walmart, Mastercard, Meta and others.

Czech Environment Minister Igor Cerveny, who attended the forum, said the idea resonated with his country’s own post-communist experience. 

After communism, he said, the Czech Republic had to rebuild through work, business, industry and innovation rather than dependency.

"If you work on your economy, on your industry, on your society, on nature as well, probably two, three, five years later, (you will) be in a better position," Cerveny told Fox News Digital. "You have your own money. You are not now the slave of (asking). You are now the master of your destiny."

Cerveny said trade gives countries an "opportunity to cooperate" rather than forcing them to return again and again with the same request: "Please give me some money."

Ambassador Dan Negrea, who is spearheading the initiative in the U.S. Mission, told Fox News Digital that shrinking aid budgets around the world make a new model necessary.

"We need to think differently about how we help developing countries in an environment in which, in the United States, we are indebted and we cannot continue to spend money on helping other countries the way we used to," Negrea said. "Development aid is going down not only in the U.S., but in countries around the world."

Negrea said the initiative has received less resistance from developing countries than from traditional donor nations. 

"Interestingly, there is less pushback from countries receiving aid than from some donor countries that like to continue in this attitude of charity, being magnanimous to other countries," he told Fox News Digital. "For years and years and for decades, many developing countries are saying that they want to end this status of recipient of charity and move to a much more dignified relationship of partners and development."

But some leaders from developing countries also warn that trade cannot replace aid overnight, especially in emergency settings. The Democratic Republic of Congo’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation, and Francophonie, Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner, told Fox News Digital that aid remains critical in crises such as the Ebola outbreak in eastern DRC.

"Aid sometimes can transform dramatically a situation," she said. "This is not something you can change overnight with trade. But yes, over a long term, trade is the pathway to create greater growth, greater economic prosperity, and therefore also more equal relationships between countries."

Kayikwamba Wagner added that the shift must be "adapted to circumstances" and not be "too abrupt."

The initiative already has drawn 46 countries, and launched a digital library with 63 capacity-building offers from private companies, governments, NGOs, philanthropies, academic institutions and international organizations.

But when pressed on what those offers have produced so far, Negrea acknowledged the initiative is still in its early stages. The library was inaugurated last week, he said, and the goal now is to turn offers into concrete outcomes.

"We want to see more deliverables," Negrea said. "We want to see actual transactions that were done. We want to see countries using the digital library to see usable capacity building offers coming from around the world. So we want to help without the cost to the U.S. taxpayers, but at the same time creating opportunities for American companies."

The central challenge facing the effort is whether private capital will go where aid has traditionally been most needed: fragile countries with weak institutions, unreliable infrastructure, corruption, conflict or markets too risky for major investors.

WALTZ CALLS U.N. A 'CESSPOOL FOR ANTISEMITISM' AS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION PUSHES MAJOR REFORMS

Waltz argued that is exactly where institutions such as the U.N. Development Program, the World Bank and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation can play a role.

"When we talk to organizations like J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs and others, they’re saying, we want to invest hundreds of millions into these industries abroad, but they need better laws, they need better arbitration," Waltz said. "We need to know that we can get our money out for our investors here in the United States."

He said the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and U.S. contributions to the World Bank can provide "risk insurance and guarantees" for investments in riskier markets, including critical minerals projects needed by the U.S. technology sector.

"It is incredibly risky," Waltz said. "Sometimes these capital providers like on Wall Street and in New York are only going to go to the safest place. Sometimes it makes sense, for example, as we’re looking for critical minerals for our tech industry, to go into risky places, but they need a little help."

The strongest note of caution came not from critics outside the room, but from inside the forum itself.

Alexander De Croo, the former Belgian prime minister who now leads United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), said trade and aid should not be treated as enemies. 

"Trade is a destination, but development is how we get to that destination," De Croo said. "Markets do not build themselves. They have to be built."

De Croo said investment flows when rules are predictable, institutions are trusted and workers have the skills to seize opportunity. He described UNDP’s role as helping countries build those foundations. "There is no country over the past decades that has successfully developed without a strong private sector and without trade being a big part of that," he said.

Christopher Sharrock, Microsoft’s vice president for United Nations and international organizations, also warned that aid still has a role that markets cannot fully replace.

"Aid does do an essential job and it does a job that possibly nothing else can do," Sharrock said, pointing to vaccination campaigns, famine response and natural disasters as areas where assistance remains critical.

For the Trump administration, "Trade Over Aid" is being pitched as a more disciplined, America First answer to development: fewer handouts, more deals, less dependency, more jobs for American companies and foreign partners alike.

But the test will be whether it can deliver not only in countries already ready for investment, but in the hardest places — the places where aid has long filled the gap because markets would not.

Hundreds of U.S. Marines storm ashore as helicopters thunder overhead, Navy warships and fighter jets establish overwhelming air and sea superiority, and commanders issue one final warning to Iranian forces: surrender or be overrun.

That is how military experts envision the opening hours of a potential U.S. operation to seize Iran's Kharg Island—the tiny but strategically vital island that handles roughly 90% of the Islamic Republic's crude oil exports and has become the centerpiece of Washington's economic pressure campaign against Tehran.

The scenario was thrust back into the spotlight Tuesday after President Donald Trump declined to rule out taking the island. "I can't say that to you because if I did, it would be foolish," Trump told Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst during an exclusive interview on ‘Special Report’ when asked directly whether he planned to seize Kharg island. He added that previous U.S. strikes intentionally avoided the island's oil facilities because they are "a chunk of the world economy."

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"There are a lot of ways to skin this cat," Vice Adm. (Ret.) Robert Harward, former deputy commander of U.S. Central Command, told Fox News Digital in an interview.

Harward explained a Marine Expeditionary Unit could conduct an amphibious assault while U.S. naval and air forces establish complete control over the battlespace, giving Iranian defenders an opportunity to surrender before major fighting begins. The goal, he said, would not simply be to capture the island but to preserve the oil infrastructure that could one day serve a post-Islamic Republic government.

"The real objective at the end of the day is to minimize risk," said Harward. "Not only to your own forces, but to the people you're coming in contact with," while also limiting damage to facilities that could eventually be handed over to "a government of Iran that is focused on supporting its people, as opposed to proliferating the Islamic Revolution."

Trump's remarks echoed Harward's assessment that preserving Kharg's oil facilities would likely be a key military objective. Trump said he had instructed U.S. forces during previous strikes to "hit everything, but the oil," explaining that damaging the export terminal could have significant consequences for the global economy.

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But military experts say capturing Kharg may be the easiest part of the mission.

Located just 16 miles off Iran's Gulf coast, the eight-square-mile island sits well within range of Iranian missiles, drones and shore-based anti-ship weapons. While analysts believe U.S. forces could likely seize the island within hours, holding it against sustained retaliation from the nearby mainland could require a far larger and longer military commitment—raising the risk of direct war with Iran itself.

Kharg's strategic importance predates Iran's modern oil industry. British forces briefly occupied the island during confrontations with Persia over Herat in 1838 and again during the Anglo-Persian War in 1856, using its location near the Iranian coast to apply pressure on Tehran. Nearly a century later, Iran selected Kharg as a deep-water oil terminal because its sheltered waters could accommodate large tankers. Construction began in the late 1950s, and the terminal entered service in 1960, transforming the island into the principal outlet for Iranian crude.

"Everybody talks about seizing Kharg," Nicholas Carl, assistant director of the Critical Threats Project at the American Enterprise Institute, told Fox News Digital. "Iran has spent decades investing in denial capabilities designed specifically to keep U.S. forces away from its shores." Those capabilities include anti-ship cruise missiles, drones, naval mines and hundreds of fast attack craft designed to overwhelm superior naval forces.

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Military planners have long viewed Iran's anti-access strategy as one of the most sophisticated in the Middle East. Rather than matching the U.S. Navy ship for ship, Tehran has invested heavily in asymmetric weapons intended to make any amphibious assault costly.

Harward, a former member of the National Security Council and current member of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America's Iran Policy Project, acknowledged that once American forces were on Kharg, the primary danger would shift from conventional naval combat to missile and drone attacks launched from the nearby mainland.

"Iran doesn't really have air power," Harward said. "The concern is whether they launch missiles and drones at the island with U.S. forces on the ground. That's the biggest risk."

Harward said the viability of the operation would ultimately depend on intelligence about the number and disposition of Iranian forces, whether they had prepared booby traps or improvised explosive devices, and how Tehran might respond once American troops were ashore.

Still, he argued, such retaliation would come at a price for Tehran.

"If they start striking Kharg itself, they become accountable for damaging their own economic lifeline," he said.

The challenge illustrates the distinction between tactical success and strategic success. Seizing an eight-square-mile island is one military problem. Defending it against sustained attacks only a short distance from Iranian territory is another.

Harward suggested Washington still has several options short of launching an amphibious assault.

With the U.S.-led blockade, reinforced Tuesday, already constraining Iran's oil exports, he argued that additional economic pressure could target overland transportation routes, border crossings and air traffic instead of committing ground troops.

"There is still a lot you could do to enhance the economic challenges to Iran," Harward said. "Synchronizing military, economic and political pressure is really the strategy."

Some strategists have also questioned whether Kharg is the most valuable military objective.

Mark Fox, a retired Vice Admiral and a former commander of the 5th Fleet, previously told Fox News Digital that Kharg is fundamentally an oil terminal rather than a military fortress. Instead, he argued, smaller islands such as Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa—disputed islands near the Strait of Hormuz—could present more manageable military objectives while creating a significant strategic dilemma for Tehran because of their location along one of the world's most important shipping lanes.

For Harward, however, the larger question extends beyond any single island.

"I think the only real end state to ensure long-term stability and security in the region is a government of Iran that renounces the Islamic Revolution and focuses on the Iranian people," he said. That would require ending Tehran's nuclear ambitions, halting support for proxy groups, protecting freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz and ending the regime's domestic repression.

Whether Washington ever decides to seize Kharg, military planners agree on one point: Capturing Iran's economic lifeline would likely be measured in hours, but successfully holding it—and managing the regional escalation that could follow — would be a far longer and more complex campaign.