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A 39-year-old man allegedly caught on surveillance video robbing a convenience store in Queensland, Australia, at gunpoint while wearing a Halloween clown mask has been arrested, police said on Saturday. 

The CCTV footage showed the suspect running through the parking lot into the store in Holland Park with the white mask with orange hair and a red nose around 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 29. 

The video shows the man, otherwise dressed in black, race into the store with his gun pointed. He then goes to the counter, demands money from the clerk, and reaches across the counter to grab the till after the clerk complies. 

FLORIDA SUSPECTS ‘TERRORIZED’ ELDERLY WOMAN WITH CLOWN MASKS, SLEDGEHAMMER: AUTHORITIES

He runs out of the store with the entire till, through the parking lot and hops a barrier back the way he came. 

PERSON TAKEN HOSTAGE IN SOUTHERN GERMANY, BUT RESCUED UNHARMED

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The Queensland Police Service released the CCTV footage on Jan. 18, and the unidentified suspect was arrested at a home in Mount Gravatt East, a suburb of Brisbane, on Friday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday claimed that a military transport plane carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war was shot down by Ukraine. But Ukrainian officials say there's no evidence to support Russia's story.

The Russian Defense Ministry said a plane transporting 65 Ukrainian POWs crashed in the Belgorod region near Ukraine on Wednesday. Six crew members and three Russian servicemen were also on the flight, according to the ministry.

"Knowing (the POWs were aboard), they attacked this plane. I don’t know whether they did it on purpose or by mistake, through thoughtlessness," Putin said of Ukraine at a meeting with students in St. Petersburg. He did not provide further details to support the allegation. 

It wasn't until Friday that Russia provided the Ukrainian agency that deals with prisoner exchanges a list of the POWs Moscow said died in the crash.

RUSSIAN TRANSPORT PLANE CRASHES NEAR UKRAINE WITH MORE THAN 60 UKRANIAN PRISONERS OF WAR ABOARD

Ukraine’s Coordination Staff for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said that relatives of the named POWs were unable to identify their loved ones in crash site photos provided by Russian authorities. The agency's update cited Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, Lt. Col. Kyrylo Budanov, as saying that Kyiv had no verifiable information about who had been on the plane.

Russia claims that missiles fired across the border from Ukraine brought the transport plane down. Local authorities in Belgorod said that all 74 people on board died in the crash. 

WALL STREET JOURNAL REPORTER EVAN GERSHKOVICH PASSES 300 DAYS IN RUSSIAN DETAINMENT

"We currently don’t have evidence that there could have been that many people onboard the aircraft. Russian propaganda’s claim that the IL-76 aircraft was transporting 65 Ukrainian POWs (heading) for a prisoner swap continues to raise a lot of questions," Budanov said.

Video of the crash was posted on social media and verified by the Associated Press and other news agencies. It showed a plane falling from the sky in a snowy, rural area and an explosion where it appeared to hit the ground.

WALL STREET JOURNAL REPORTER EVAN GERSHKOVICH PASSES 300 DAYS IN RUSSIAN DETAINMENT

Ukraine has neither confirmed nor denied that its forces shot down a Russian military transport plane that day. Russia's claim that the crash killed Ukranian POWs could not be verified, according to the AP.

Ukrainian officials did confirm earlier this week that a prisoner exchange had been scheduled to happen Wednesday, but said it had been called off. The officials added that Moscow had not requested for any airspace to be kept safe for a certain length of time, as it had for previous prisoner swaps.

Russian authorities have said they are investigating the crash.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for an international investigation into the crash, though Russia remains in sole control of the crash site.

Fox News Digital's Landon Mion and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

The head of European border agency Frontex this week told a German newspaper that "nothing can stop" migration across the continent as countries seek immigration reform. 

"This talk of ‘stopping people’ and ‘closing borders’ cannot be our narrative all the time," Frontex chief Hans Leijtens told the daily paper Die Welt. "To be clear: Nothing can stop people from crossing a border, not a wall, not a fence, not a sea, not a river." 

The German outlet reported that at least one million people applied for asylum in the European Union (EU) last year, most of them trying to enter Germany, which has struggled with the question of immigration since the 2011 migrant crisis hit Europe. 

Germany received the most applications from asylum seekers in November alone, with 37,000 — or 32% — of the 118,000 applications filed across the EU. 

CZECH REPUBLIC ADVANCES STRICTER GUN LAW TO SENATE FOLLOWING NATION'S WORST MASS SHOOTING

Leijtens took over as Executive Director of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency — often referred to as Frontex — in March 2023, but had served as a member of the agency’s management board for most of the previous decade as well as Governor of the Residency for The Hague.

He took a very liberal stance on the migration crisis in Europe, saying that politicians have a superficial approach to the situation. 

"Sometimes [they] pretend that you can simply put a cap on the top of the bottle, and then the migration will be stopped," Leijtens said, labeling it a "misconception." He argued that his job is to "strike a balance between effective border management and respect for fundamental rights."

GERMAN DEFENSE MINISTER SAYS COUNTRY IS NOT READY TO DEFEND ITSELF AGAINST RUSSIAN THREAT

European nations have already pursued their own avenues of reprieve regarding migration, from legal reform to snap initiatives, such as Britain’s highly contentious bill that seeks to deport migrants arriving in Britain without permission, from Rwanda. 

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak dismissed criticism and opposition to his bill, saying that he would outright ignore international law to see migrants deported. 

"The treaty with Rwanda is signed, and the legislation which deems Rwanda a safe country has been passed unamended in our elected chamber," Sunak said at a press briefing last week. The U.K. Supreme Court in November declared the policy unlawful.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, in a previous interview with Fox News Digital, discussed his country’s efforts to secure its border through "physical infrastructure" such as a wall. 

THOUSANDS TAKE TO STREETS IN SLOVAKIA IN NATIONWIDE ANTI-GOVERNMENT PROTESTS

"You have built some infrastructure to protect [the border], and this is the only way," Szijjarto said. "So, if you do not build a physical infrastructure with simple manpower, it is impossible to protect your border. So, physical infrastructure — be the fence, be the wall or be the buoys on the water — you have to do it. Otherwise, you are defenseless."

He said that Hungary is sticking to a right to decide who enters the country, calling it a "sovereign decision" to maintain the "character and the identity" of the country.

"We simply do not want to change the nature of the country. Hungary must remain the country of the Hungarians, and I understand that the conservatives, the Republicans here and in Texas, are standing up for this as well, and we understand that the liberals are going against [them], so it's very similar in Hungary and in the U.S.," he said.

THOUSANDS OF STUDENTS RALLY IN GREECE AGAINST GOVERNMENT PLANS TO ALLOW PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES

France, one of the more liberal nations in Europe, continues to promote its own controversial immigration bill, which would introduce measures such as restricting access to social benefits and strict immigration quotas, the AFP reported. 

Even some of French President Emmanuel Macron’s party members in parliament voted against it or abstained. 

Several measures have been rejected, with the final text of the bill published this week including measures that would simplify procedures for deporting delinquent foreigners. The bill does retain measures for regularizing undocumented workers in industries facing shortages, which has prompted anger from politicians on the right. 

Fox News Digital’s Michael Dorgan and Adam Shaw contributed to this report. 

A United Nations agency's alleged involvement in the October 7 terror attacks in Israel has led to widespread decisions to cut funding.

The United Kingdom, Canada, and other key Western powers have joined the United States in cutting funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine Refugees in the Near East after twelve employees were accused of being "involved" in the attack.

Italy, Australia and Switzerland have also joined the boycott following the accusations, which have already resulted in the termination of multiple staffers.

BIDEN ADMIN CUTS FUNDING TO CONTROVERSIAL UN AGENCY AMID ALLEGATIONS MEMBERS ASSISTED IN HAMAS MASSACRE

The United States temporarily paused "additional" funding for the key United Nations agency in the Gaza Strip over allegations that some of its members were "involved" in the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack in Israel. 

Twelve United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine Refugees in the Near East employees were allegedly "involved" in the attack, and the U.S. funding will resume subject to an investigation from the United Nations. 

"UNRWA can read the Beltway press well enough to know that Congress is moving to cut off U.S. funding," Richard Goldberg, former National Security Council (NSC) advisor during the Trump Administration, told Fox News Digital. 

UN'S TOP COURT ALLOWS ISRAEL TO KEEP FIGHTING IN GAZA, ORDERS IT TO ‘ADHERE TO THE GENOCIDE CONVENTION’

"This is a PR move designed to preempt congressional action. It does nothing to change the fact that UNRWA is complicit in Hamas war crimes and remains a key obstacle to peace," Goldberg, currently a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, added.

The State Department under former President Trump cut ties with UNRWA in 2018, but President Biden resumed the relationship shortly after taking office. He continued to improve spending for the organization, with funds exceeding $1 billion. 

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant praised the U.S. decision as "an important step in holding UNRWA accountable." 

"At least a dozen UNRWA employees participated in the horrific attack conducted on Oct. 7: These are ‘humanitarian workers,’ with salaries paid for by international donations, with blood on their hands," Gallant said in a press release following the State Department's announcement. 

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini expressed shock at the accusations, assuring the international community that "any UNRWA employee who was involved in acts of terror will be held accountable, including through criminal prosecution."

Israeli intelligence and investigations in the months following the terrorist attack led to the accusations, which were presented to the UN this week.

Fox News Digital's Peter Aitken contributed to the report.

Russia and Ukraine agreed Friday to swap deceased soldiers' remains, allowing each country to recover their bodies for proper burial. 

Approximately 132 soldiers were repatriated to their home countries after being killed in the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Government agencies in both countries worked with the Red Cross to arrange the mutual exchange.

RUSSIAN TRANSPORT PLANE CRASHES NEAR UKRAINE WITH MORE THAN 60 UKRAINIAN PRISONERS OF WAR ABOARD

Shamsayil Saraliyev, a member of the Russian parliament, told state media that the nation had received the remains of 55 deceased soldiers. 

Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War announced 77 bodies recovered from Russian custody.

"The preparations for the repatriation exchange had been underway for a long time," said the Ukrainian agency, according to the Moscow Times.

SENATE GOP IN 'QUANDARY' OVER BORDER SECURITY, UKRAINE AID PACKAGE: 'DESIGNED NOT TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM'

Ukraine’s forces have racked up notable success against Russia’s fearsome Black Sea fleet, leading to increased grain exports despite pessimistic expectations from allies. 

Western attention has largely focused on the results of Ukraine’s much-touted and discussed counteroffensive, which failed to produce the gains that many had anticipated. Instead, Ukraine has quietly worked on securing relatively safe exports through the Black Sea, ensuring that grain shipments continue during wartime. 

The United Nations brokered a deal in July 2022 to ensure that the "breadbasket of Europe," responsible for 30% of the global grain supply, would continue to ship vital grains despite a Russian blockade. 

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The deal collapsed one year later, and Russia started hitting grain silos, leaving many in fear of a food shortage crisis. However, as it had done throughout the conflict, Ukraine refused to simply fold to Moscow's pressure and worked tirelessly to create alternative means of shipment. 

Fox News Digital's Peter Aitken contributed to this report.

The U.S. is prepared to ensure the safety of its East Asian allies in the event of North Korean aggression, according to the National Security Council.

NSC Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby addressed the issue with journalists at a Friday press conference at the White House.

"We are going to do what we have to do to make sure we can protect the U.S. . . . protect our allies and partners," Kirby said.

NORTH KOREA FIRES SEVERAL CRUISE MISSILES INTO THE SEA AFTER DESTROYING PEACE SYMBOL, SOUTH KOREA SAYS

"The president has devoted more capabilities into the region and has worked really hard with our counterparts in Japan and South Korea, particularly on trilateral cooperation to be able to defend ourselves," he added.

North Korea conducted its first flight test of a new cruise missile, it said Thursday, as dictator Kim Jong Un looks to expand his military capabilities amid a deepening rift with South Korea and the United States.

According to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency, the launch of the Pulhwasal-3-31 missile did not pose a threat to neighbors as it is still in its development phase. The outlet said the missile could eventually carry nuclear weapons.

KIM JONG UN ADMITS LACK OF 'BASIC LIVING NECESSITIES' IS 'SERIOUS POLITICAL ISSUE' IN NORTH KOREA

"We know that the North Koreans continue to pursue advanced capabilities, including ballistic missile capabilities," Kirby told the press at the White House. "And they want to achieve long-range outcomes."

However, the U.S. has denied any real and direct military threat to the nation's interests and allies in East Asia.

"While we are not seeing indications of a direct military threat at this time, we continue to monitor for the risk of DPRK military action against the ROK and Japan, in close consultation with our ROK and Japanese allies," a U.S. official familiar with the situation told South Korean outlet Yonhap News Agency.

"DPRK" is an abbreviation for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North Korean nation's official name. "ROK" stands for South Korea's official name, the Republic of Korea.

Tensions in the region have increased in recent months as Kim continues to accelerate his weapons development and provocative threats to the U.S. and its Asian allies. In response, the United States, South Korea and Japan have been continuing their combined military exercises, which Kim condemns.

Fox News Digital's Lawrence Richard contributed to this report.

More than 40 former senior Israeli military commanders and intelligence officials, business leaders and diplomats are calling for the "immediate removal" of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from office.

In a letter delivered to Israeli President Isaac Herzog and the Knesset on Thursday, the group argues that Netanyahu poses a "clear and present danger" to the state of Israel for as long as he remains in leadership. 

"As key contributors to the country's defense and to one of the world's strongest economies over the past decades, we strongly believe that Netanyahu represents an existential and ongoing threat to the people and to the state of Israel, and that Israel has leaders capable of replacing him immediately," the letter states.

The 43 undersigned officials include former IDF chiefs Moshe Ya'alon and Dan Haloutz, Tamir Pardo and Danny Yatom, who were directors of the Mossad intelligence agency, and Nadav Argaman and Yaakov Peri, who led the Shin Bet security agency. 

NETANYAHU REJECTS PALESTINIAN STATE IN POSTWAR SCENARIO, PROMPTING CRITICISM FROM THE US

Several CEOs, former ambassadors and academics also signed the letter, including Nobel Prize Laureates Aaron Ciechanover, Avram Hershko and Dan Schectman. 

The coalition slams Netanyahu's government as being full of incompetent or corrupt ministers, accuses the prime minister of forming a coalition with "extremist parties" and asserts that he has undermined democracy in Israel by pushing a series of controversial judicial reforms. Further, they assign blame to Netanyahu for security lapses they say precipitated and enabled the October 7 attack, during which Hamas terrorists massacred 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians.

"We believe that Netanyahu bears primary responsibility for creating the circumstances leading to the brutal massacre of over 1,200 Israelis and others, the injury of over 4,500, and the kidnapping of more than 230 individuals, of whom over 130 are still held in Hamas captivity," the letter reads. "The victims' blood is on Netanyahu’s hands."

The letter was also sent to U.S. national security officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and members of Congress.

EU CHIEF SAYS ISRAEL WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR HAMAS' SURGE TO POWER IN GAZA: ‘FINANCED BY THE GOVERNMENT’

It comes as Netanyahu faces a "no confidence" motion filed by opposition leaders amid war against Hamas. Critics say Netanyahu has served as prime minister for too long — 13 of the last 14 years — and that he was responsible for appointing officials and developing security plans that failed to prevent the October 7 massacre. Even before the war, controversy over Netanyahu's judicial reform plan led to widespread unrest in Israel throughout the summer, with tens of thousands of citizens protesting the move. 

The Israeli Supreme Court dealt a blow to Netanyahu's judicial reform plans earlier this month, striking down a law that would have banned judges from overturning government decisions the court deems "unreasonable." In an 8-7 decision, the court ruled that the law threatened "severe and unprecedented harm to the core character of the State of Israel as a democratic country." 

The letter accuses Netanyahu of fomenting political unrest that has been exploited by Israel's enemies.

"Leaders of Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas openly praised what they correctly saw as a destabilizing and erosive process of Israel’s stability, led by Netanyahu, and seized the opportunity to harm and damage Israel’s security," it says. 

ISRAELI SUPREME COURT HANDS NETANYAHU A LOSS ON JUDICIAL OVERHAUL AS HAMAS WAR RAGES

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell voiced these criticisms last week, stating plainly that Netanyahu's government financed Hamas to weaken the then-governing Palestinian Authority. 

"Yes, Hamas was financed by the government of Israel in an attempt to weaken the Palestinian Authority led by Fatah," Borrell said during a speech at the University of Valladolid, according to Reuters. 

The letter elaborates, alleging that Netanyahu channeled hundreds of millions of dollars from Qatar to strengthen the military infrastructure of Hamas in the years before the terror group assumed control of Gaza and the West Bank. Netanyahu has previously denied such allegations.

"Netanyahu is incompetent," said Haim Tomer, a former Mossad intelligence division chief who signed the letter demanding Netanyahu's ouster. 

UN'S TOP COURT ALLOWS ISRAEL TO KEEP FIGHTING IN GAZA, ORDERS IT TO ‘ADHERE TO THE GENOCIDE CONVENTION’

"I think when you judge Netanyahu by deeds, by his activities, not by his speeches in American media or in Israeli media, but by his, I would say, activities, you see that he lacks strategy, even doesn't . . . he's not ready to discuss seriously what we call the end scenario or the endgame of the wars in Gaza and in Lebanon," Tomer told Fox News Digital in an interview. 

Tomer emphasized that those who signed the letter were not calling for violent action against Netanyahu or for the prime minister to be removed from office illegally. He said the coalition is urging a legal process in which a new prime minister and new government will be elected. 

"I think since the 7th of October, people started to understand . . . that this leadership is not taking the nation toward a positive and right direction," Tomer said. 

However, Caroline Glick, an Israeli Middle East expert, said that Netanyahu's unpopularity is overstated by his critics. 

"Polls from the past week published by Israel's Channel 14 show that the downward trend in support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his Likud Party and his right-religious coalition has been reversed. Netanyahu is leading his challengers Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid by eight and sixteen points, respectively," Glick told Fox News Digital. 

"During the ten months that preceded the Hamas invasion and slaughter, the same retired security chiefs and academics refused to accept the election results and played leading roles in an unprecedented assault on the right of Israel's citizens to elect the nation's leaders. They even tried to tear apart the IDF by calling for reservists not to serve. Their actions polarized and weakened Israel's leadership and social cohesion," Glick argued. 

"When seen in context, their latest letter makes sense in two ways. It is consistent with their longstanding effort to use any justification to nullify the results of the last election, and it is also an effort to deflect their responsibility for weakening the country onto their political opponents," she said. 

Fox News Digital's Lawrence Richard and Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report. 

A new U.N. report has outlined how the Taliban in Afghanistan brutally enforces restrictions on women’s rights to work, education and freedom of movement.

The report, published by the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), which covers October to December of 2023, says that officials from the Department for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice enforce strict compliance of the hijab and other dress requirements by visiting public places, offices and educational institutions, as well as establishing checkpoints to monitor the population under conditions of extreme fear. 

According to a U.N. press release, Roza Otunbayeva, Special Representative of the Secretary General and head of UNAMA stated, "Enforcement measures involving physical violence are especially demeaning and dangerous for Afghan women and girls. . . . Detentions carry an enormous stigma that put Afghan women at even greater risk. They also destroy public trust."

AFGHAN CHARITY EDUCATING GIRLS AMID TALIBAN SCHOOL BAN

The Taliban’s increasing oppression of women is alarming the human rights community, and the lack of response from the international community leave many in Afghanistan feeling unheard.

"I think the international community is increasingly looking away and refusing to be aware of Taliban abuses," Heather Barr, Women’s Rights Associate Director for Human Rights Watch, told Fox News Digital.

"There seems to be near total consensus in the international community that Taliban abuses against women and girls are unacceptable—and yet somehow this has not translated into anything resembling a coherent or urgent strategy to respond," Barr added.

The report is ripe with chilling examples of the morality police instilling fear throughout the country with their pervasive implementation of a strict dress code and other morality laws imposed following the Taliban’s takeover in August 2021.

The Taliban prevents women from working or accessing public services if they are unmarried or do not have a mahram, or male guardian. The reports details three female healthcare workers who were detained because they were going to work without a male guardian. Women without a male guardian were also prevented from going to health care facilities to seek treatment. Officials from the department routinely make visits to hospitals and other public venues to enforce the law.

In early December, the report notes that Vice and Virtue ministry officials warned a woman who worked at a healthcare facility that she needed to be married or risk losing her job because it is inappropriate for an unmarried woman to work. 

TALIBAN HAVE A 2-FRONT WAR HEADED THEIR WAY

Taliban officials are also enforcing their April 2022 hijab decree, arresting and detaining women around Kabul and other cities for violating the public dress mandate. Women are generally released after several hours once a male relative signs a decree promising that their female relative will obey the decree. 

"One of the things we have been very alarmed by in recent weeks is a wave of arrests of women and girls accused by the Taliban of ‘bad hijab,’" Barr said.

Barr believes that the Taliban’s crackdown continues to deepen, with no end in sight, and Afghan women and girls are seeing their lives become more difficult every day.

Some pro-democracy voices in Afghanistan are clamoring for greater U.S. and international assistance for the primary opposition against the Taliban, the National Resistance Front (NRF). So far, the calls for more involvement have fallen on deaf ears.

AFGHAN WOMEN SHOW SOLIDARITY WITH IRANIAN PROTESTERS, FACE HARSH TALIBAN CRACKDOWN

"The lack of international support for Afghan women in the National Resistance Front is bewildering," Jazz Cannon, Afghan American, women rights activist and advocate for Vets4NRF, a group of American veterans pressuring policymakers to support the efforts of the NRF, told Fox News Digital.

"I know that the Taliban will not grant Afghan women our rights, and neither will President Biden. But I know who will, and that’s Ahmad Massoud and the NRF. They are fighting for our rights at this very moment," Cannon added.

The NRF, led by Ahmad Massoud, remains the most formidable Afghan resistance unit fighting the Taliban and has vowed to continue the fight despite the impossible odds. 

"It's imperative for the international community and the people of Afghanistan to unite and support the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan in our crucial struggle to liberate our country from the Taliban's terrorism and oppression, to prevent Afghanistan from descending into a path of destruction," Ali Maisam Nazary, Head of Foreign Relations for the NRF, told Fox News Digital.

The U.S. military carried out a strike in Yemen on Saturday targeting a Houthi anti-ship missile that was aimed into the Red Sea and prepared to launch, according to U.S. Central Command.

The strike was conducted early Saturday morning in what CENTCOM described as a "self-defense" strike.

"On Jan. 27 at approximately 3:45 a.m. (Sanaa time), U.S. Central Command Forces conducted a strike against a Houthi anti-ship missile aimed into the Red Sea and which was prepared to launch," CENTCOM said in a statement.

US CARRIES OUT 'SELF-DEFENSE' STRIKE IN YEMEN AGAINST IRAN-BACKED HOUTHI MISSILES

"U.S. Forces identified the missile in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, and determined it presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and the U.S. Navy ships in the region," the statement continued. "U.S. Forces subsequently struck and destroyed the missile in self-defense. This action will protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for U.S. Navy vessels and merchant vessels."

This comes after Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists fired an anti-ship ballistic missile from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and struck the Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker M/V Marlin Luanda at about 7:45 p.m. Friday night Sanaa time, CENTCOM said. The ship made a distress call and reported damage but no injuries were reported.

HOUTHIS DEMAND US, UK AID WORKERS LEAVE YEMEN WITHIN 30 DAYS FOLLOWING 2ND COALITION STRIKE

The attack against the Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker is the 38th attack by the Houthis since November 19 and the second attack on Friday.

The Houthis' Al-Masirah satellite news channel said the strikes happened near the port city of Hodeida.

Fox News' Liz Friden contributed to this report.

The Mexican government has demanded an "urgent" investigation into how U.S.-grade weapons have ended up in the hands of drug cartels.

"Weapons like this present an extreme danger when they land in the hands of criminals," Kristina Mastropasqua, a spokesperson for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), told Fox News Digital. "A danger not only to the public, but to the law enforcement agents on both sides of the border as well."

"Operation Southbound is ATF’s primary operational initiative to disrupt the trafficking of firearms from the United States to Mexico," Mastropasqua explained. "Operation Southbound is focused on the four southwest border states, as the majority of the firearms being trafficked to Mexico originate from there, but it is not exclusive to just those states."

"Cross-border firearms trafficking is diffuse, does not only occur on the border, and does not always include dozens of firearms being illegally transported at once; often only a few are trafficked, and they originate in states far from the southwest border," she added. 

CARTEL HUMAN SMUGGLING BUSINESS IS TURNING ENTIRE BORDER TOWNS INTO WAR ZONES

Voice of America reported in June that the number of weapons smuggled into Mexico could top half a million a year, but the total remains uncertain. 

The issue has plagued the U.S. for years. President Obama in 2012 formalized the Border Enforcement Security Task Forces, which focused on tackling cartel activities, including and primarily focusing on arms smuggling, but the issue has not significantly abated, Mexican officials claim.

"The (Mexican) Defense Department has warned the United States about weapons entering Mexico that are for the exclusive use of the U.S. Army," Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena said.

The Mexican army said it has seized 221 fully automatic machine guns, 56 grenade launchers and a dozen rocket launchers from cartels since late 2018.

MEXICAN SOLDIERS FIND FACTORY PRODUCING DRONE BOMBS, GRENADE LAUNCHERS, FAKE MILITARY UNIFORMS

U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar on Monday told reporters that "70% of the weapons that cause violence here in Mexico come from the United States." He stressed that reducing the flow of weapons from the U.S. to Mexico remained a top priority for President Biden, the AFP reported. 

"We are going to look into it, we are committed to working with Sedena (Mexico’s Defense Department) to see what’s going on," Salazar said.

A Reuters report from Dec. 2023 delved into one example of a U.S. weapons factory in Wisconsin that in 2018 allegedly started supplying high-caliber weapons, including sniper rifles, to the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion. 

The report claimed that the cartel exploited "permissive federal and state-level gun control rules to buy some of the most powerful weapons available to American civilians," citing former U.S. ATF agents. 

BRIDE ARRESTED FOR EXTORTION SCHEME IN MEXICO, HANDCUFFED IN HER WEDDING DRESS: PROSECUTORS

Members of a local family in Racine, Wisconsin, with connections to a cousin in Mexico, would buy the guns and ship them to California, where they could then ship the weapons across the border, according to an indictment from Wisconsin’s Eastern District Court. 

Mexican authorities found that same cartel in possession of five rocket launchers during the summer of 2023, with four more launchers confiscated from the rival Sinaloa cartel and three more seized from other cartels. 

"In Mexico, too often, when firearms are diverted to unlawful markets, they are going to arm dangerous drug cartels," Mastropasqua said. "They are getting into the hands of extremely violent organizations that seek to use firearms to further other criminal and illicit activities."

"Many times these cartels are not looking for just any firearm to fuel their criminal enterprises," she continued. "They are seeking a level of weaponry that outguns Mexican law enforcement authorities, including weapons that are used by the American military."

32 MIGRANTS KIDNAPPED NEAR US-MEXICO BORDER WERE FREED, NOT RESCUED, AMLO CLARIFIES

"ATF’s Mexico Country Office works closely with Mexican authorities to increase the volume and timeliness of firearms tracing through ATF’s eTrace system: That is, tracing a crime gun back to its first known retail purchase," Mastropasqua added. "This capability is incredibly important because so many of the firearms recovered from crimes in Mexico originate in the United States. Between 2017 and 2022, trace submissions from Mexico nearly doubled."

A U.S. federal judge in 2022 dismissed Mexico’s $10 billion lawsuit against seven American gun manufacturers and one distributor, in which officials argued the companies knew the weapons they made would end up sold to traffickers and decided to profit. 

However, on Monday, an appeals court in Boston revived the lawsuit, saying the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which shields gun manufacturers from damages "resulting from the criminal or unlawful misuse" of a firearm, did not apply to such cases that occurred in Mexico. 

The Pentagon referred Fox News Digital to the Mexican government or the U.S. State Department when asked for comment. The State Department did not respond by time of publication. 

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

EXCLUSIVE: JERUSALEM – Israel’s Defense Ministry is taking advantage of its country’s vibrant high-tech scene to create an artificial intelligence-driven information platform that will help keep track of the increasingly deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, even as Israeli troops continue to battle the Iranian-backed Islamist terror group Hamas, Fox News Digital has learned.

Commissioned by Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, the NRTM system, which resembles ChatGPT and other AI platforms, relies on open-source information materials such as reports from international aid organizations, including those affiliated with the United Nations, satellite imagery, news stories and social media posts coming out of Gaza to create a real time picture of living conditions for some two million civilians in the Palestinian enclave. 

"The idea came from the minister, who has said that Israel’s war is against Hamas and not the people of Gaza," Hadar Peretz, a senior adviser at the Ministry of Defense, told Fox News Digital. "The minister wanted to make sure that we were collecting as much data as possible in order to make a full assessment of the situation."

Peretz said the goal was for this platform to become an additional tool to enable decision-making for Israeli leaders and for the minister to use in his myriad of meetings with world leaders, as well as with the heads of international organizations working to mitigate the chaos in Gaza and improve conditions. 

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Fox News Digital was given an exclusive view of the system, which is being developed by a team of top high-tech experts and leading Israeli health professionals. Work on NRTM began last October – not long after Hamas carried out its massacre in southern Israel sparking the current war – and will be available for use on mobile devices. Like other AI platforms, it features a "chatbot" that searches and collates the crucial information, as well as an option for the user to "improve" the answer. Currently, NRTM is available in English, French and Arabic but can be quickly adapted to other languages, the developers told Fox News Digital. 

The hope, inside the ministry, is that NRTM will become a useful – and more accurate tool – for world leaders, international aid organizations and journalists following the situation in Gaza and who, up until now, have relied heavily on information provided by the Hamas-run Health Ministry. With more factual information – free from the propaganda of a designated terrorist organization – Israel hopes that a clearer picture of what is really happening on the ground will emerge – and the needs of the population will be better addressed.

Among those from the high-tech world recruited to formulate the platform is Udi, an entrepreneur and VP for business development at an early-stage VC fund, who was brought in to oversee the project’s creation and its development. 

"What we have done in the past few months is essentially build a startup for Israel’s Ministry of Defense," Udi, who requested to use only his first name, said. He added that the name, NRTM, was based on a Hebrew acronym for "Monitoring the life conditions in Gaza via the web."

Udi explained that the ministry’s request was to build a comprehensive database relying on the most advanced tech tools in order to collect the most updated open-source information that would help keep track of the humanitarian situation developing in Gaza more accurately. The system is meant to be used in tandem with other sources, such as military intelligence and security information. 

"The platform tracks detailed data and metrics in four areas," Udi said, outlining those areas as water and food availability; medication and health care facilities; internally displaced; and energy. 

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Calling the professionals now working on the project, including experts in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), a "dream team," Udi explained that by contracting the work out to the private sector, the Defense Ministry bypassed the bureaucratic and security barriers of a government agency to get the system up and running in a relatively short time period. 

Maor Ahuvim, the lead senior software engineer on the project, told Fox News Digital that the sources included independent satellite imagery, as well as the social media accounts of both influencers and ordinary people inside Gaza, all of which offer a real-life picture of what is happening beyond Hamas’ propaganda. He said he was also working to incorporate video imagery into the AI’s search engine. 

Showcasing how the system works, Ahuvim shared with Fox News Digital aerial maps detailing buildings in the Strip that have been destroyed during the three months of fighting. According to the NRTM data viewed by Fox News Digital, some 8,693 buildings have been destroyed out of 185,000 buildings that stood before the war, with an additional 37,379 buildings partially damaged. These figures contradict slightly recent reports that 50% of the buildings in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed or rendered unlivable. 

Another example Ahuvim shared was a satellite image of civilians who have been internally displaced by the fighting. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has reported that some 1.9 million people, or nearly 85% of the Strip’s population, is now internally displaced, with the majority taking refuge in southern Gaza. NRTM’s data showed this number to be slightly less – closer to 1.3 million – based on a collation of materials that calculated the possible number of people per square meter in the south. 

Professor Eli Schwartz, the former director of the center for traveler medicine and tropical diseases at Tel Hashomer hospital in Tel Aviv, who has been working on the project from the health perspective, also said NRTM was useful in determining possible health crises, including malnutrition and outbreaks of infectious diseases. 

Last week, the heads of the World Food Programme (WFP), UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a joint statement calling on Israel to allow more aid into the Gaza Strip and warning that the territory was on the brink of starvation and famine if the current conditions persist. 

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Schwartz, however, said NRTM had pulled up old information published online showing that such claims were very similar to those made by the same organizations over the past two years. 

However, he said the platform would be vital in the coming months to help determine the health and sanitation conditions in the Strip and address any possible outbreaks of diseases, which, he said, were common in war situations. 

Ultimately, the NRTM team said the platform would be useful in providing both the military and the public sector in Israel, including the health and defense ministries, with a more vivid picture of what was happening in Gaza and allow government bodies to "check themselves" when making crucial decisions that will impact millions of people. 

And while, like other AI platforms, there is the danger of false information being pulled up by the system, the NRTM team said it was still working to "present results only from the best sites."

On Sunday, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, speaking at the Third South Summit of the G-77 plus China, said, "The number of civilian casualties, including women, children and our own staff, is unprecedented in such a brief period of time. It continues to rise, and hunger and disease are now adding to the toll."

Guterres said a humanitarian cease-fire was "the only way to end this nightmare for civilians in Gaza, facilitate the release of all hostages, and prevent the conflict from engulfing the entire region."

Israel has pushed back against such comments, saying there is no shortage of food, with hundreds of aid trucks entering the Strip daily, and that reports of infectious diseases were overblown. 

In an interview with Fox News Digital last week, Col. Moshe Tetro, who heads the army’s coordination and liaison administration (CLA) for Gaza, said such claims were politically motivated, and that each organization or individual was pushing their own interests. 

Currently, Tetro said, there were no restrictions on food or medicine entering the enclave. On Monday, COGAT, the military body that oversees Tetro’s unit, announced that 10,000th truck carrying humanitarian aid had entered Gaza. It said that since the start of the war, close to 99% of the coordinated trucks carrying such aid were approved for entry. 

Tetro’s unit, which facilitates a security inspection of every aid truck to ensure weapons or dual usage goods are not smuggled into the war-stricken territory, already monitors the situation on the ground very closely. It will be among the main beneficiaries of the NRTM platform, the Defense Ministry said.