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As part of a small group of journalists, Fox News embedded with the Israeli military in Gaza. I joined the IDF in Khan Younis, a current focal point of the Israeli operation.

Loading into vehicles, soldiers pull on gaiters and goggles to protect themselves on the dusty drive ahead.

Within a quarter of a mile into Gaza, troops stop to show the press the latest tunnel destroyed the night before. The ground’s been excavated. Wires are exposed. The IDF doesn’t elaborate on how it blew up this specific tunnel.

ISRAELI MILITARY SEES HAMAS WAR LASTING THROUGH ALL OF 2024: REPORT

Climbing down into the crater, soldiers show the soft texture of the soil. This tunnel was only narrow enough to fit one or two people.

It’s fortified with cement. The IDF says the narrow entrance without a lid, meant it would’ve been easy to climb in or out quickly.

Driving deeper into Gaza, rubble lines the road. The war has flattened the suburbs of Khan Younis.

The piercing sound of artillery is constant.

The few buildings still standing are riddled with bullet holes. Troops stop at one such building. It’s a primary school.

PENTAGON SAYS ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR ISN'T SPREADING DESPITE US SOLDIERS KILLED IN JORDAN, RED SEA ATTACKS

The IDF says a gun battle played out here. Israeli soldiers claim Hamas stashed weapons here and dug a tunnel under the playground. 

"We had a Hamas squad hiding in the basement of the school. They popped up and started shooting at us. And this is literally the story of this war," says Lt. Col. Anchy with the 55th Brigade.

There’s no front line in this war.

New plumes of smoke reveal the ground battles in every direction.

"We're just working very systematically, one zone after the other, dismantling their infrastructure," Anchy says.

 The IDF recently announced it had encircled the city of Khan Younis, as it urges civilians to flee south.

The war has displaced nearly 2 million people. According to the United Nations, half of the strip’s population is now sheltering in the southern city of Rafah.

Belgian farmers angry about rising costs, EU environmental policies and cheap food imports plan blocked access roads to the Zeebrugge container port on Tuesday.

Farmers organising the protest told Reuters they planned to bar access to the North Sea port, the country's second-largest, for at least 36 hours. They said the port was targeted because they feel it receives economic support at the expense of farmers.

A port authority spokesman said protesters had blocked five roads to trucks, but were letting cars through. He said it was not yet clear what the consequences on the operations of the port would be, and the port was indirectly in touch with the organisers through the police.

ROMANIAN TRUCKER CONVOY CONTINUES AS GOVERNMENT NEGOTIATION ATTEMPTS FALL THROUGH

The Algemeen Boerensyndicaat (ABS, General Farmers Syndicate) union has called on its members to join the protest.

"The farmers are desperate, really desperate. We've warned the government for years that this would happen," ABS policy officer Mark Wulfrancke said.

Wulfrancke urged policymakers to ensure the price of food reflects the additional costs European farmers face to comply with Europe's rising environmental standards.

"We want respect from our government, the European government. The only way to show that respect is to make a policy that is farmer friendly, food friendly. We need a correct price," he told Reuters.

The Belgian protest movement has been boosted by similar action in France, where farmers have set up dozens of roadblocks and disrupted traffic around Paris, putting the government under pressure.

Belgian farmers also disrupted traffic during the morning rush hour on Tuesday. One of the blockades was close to the Dutch border on the E19 highway, media said.

Prime Minister Alexander De Croo is set to meet with farmers' associations on Tuesday.

"It is important that they are listened to," De Croo told reporters, referring to the challenges farmers face.

He said Belgium, which currently holds the six-month presidency of the Council of the EU, will discuss a number of European agricultural rules with the European Commission.

A group of farmers blocking a square in central Brussels with tractors said they would stay put until at least Thursday, when EU government leaders meet in the city.

"We are asking them to review their laws," said Nicolas Fryers, a farmer at the protest. "They talk about being greener but if that happens then there will be land which isn't worked any more and it's difficult enough as it is."

The European Commission appeared poised to offer some policy changes in response, by proposing an exemption on Thursday on rules requiring farmers to leave part of their land fallow if they apply for EU subsidies.

The rules on fallow land were part of the grievances that led to protests in France and elsewhere in recent weeks.

The first United Arab Emirates ambassador to Damascus in nearly 13 years took up his post on Tuesday as Syria has been reintegrating into mainstream regional acceptance.

Syrian state media said the country’s Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad received Ambassador Hassan Ahmad al-Shihi's credentials.

The UAE embassy was re-opened in Syria in late 2018 and a charge d’affaires has been in charge of the diplomatic mission since then. Al-Shihi arrived in Damascus on Monday, reported the pro-government daily Al-Watan.

TOWER 22 EXPLAINED: WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE SITE OF THE LATEST ATTACK AGAINST US SOLDIERS IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Syrian President Bashar Assad visited the Gulf country in March 2022, the first Arab country to receive him since Syria's civil war erupted nearly 13 years ago. Following the Feb. 6, 2023 earthquake that killed more than 50,000 in Turkey and about 8,000 in Syria, the UAE sent dozens of planes loaded with aid to Syria.

In May, the 22-member Arab League agreed to reinstate Syria, ending a 12-year suspension and taking another step toward bringing Assad, a long-time regional pariah, back into the fold. Assad, who visited the UAE twice since 2022, took part in the Arab League summit in Saudi Arabia in May.

Al-Shihi's arrival came as Syria is in the grips of a severe economic crisis, part of it as a result of the conflict that has killed half a million people, displaced millions of others and left large parts of the country destroyed.

The reconciliation between Damascus and oil-rich Arab countries is not likely to lead to a flow of money into the war-torn country because of Western sanctions, which, along with the war and widespread corruption have led to Syria’s severe economic crisis.

The U.S. dollar now is worth 16,000 Syrian pounds. At the start of the conflict in March 2011, the dollar was trading at 47 pounds.

The United Nations estimates that 90% of Syrians in government-held areas live in poverty. More than half the population — some 12 million people — struggle to put food on the table, the U.N. estimates. Things could get worse now that the World Food Program said it will end in January its main assistance program across Syria.

The United Arab Emirates was a supporter of the Syrian opposition, which is now largely confined to the northwestern Idlib province after losing its strongholds elsewhere.

The UAE recalled its ambassador from Syria in 2011 after the start of the popular uprising against Assad. The Syrian Embassy in the UAE remained open.

Last month, Syria’s deputy foreign minister, Ayman Soussan, was named as the country’s new ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

A Belarusian journalist was sentenced to three years in prison Tuesday on an extremism charge related to his work covering protests, the latest move in a sweeping government crackdown on dissent.

The Minsk City Court convicted photojournalist Alyaksandr Zyankou on charges of "participation in an extremist group," an accusation widely used by authorities to target opposition members, civil society activists and independent journalists.

Zyankou has been in custody since his arrest in June, and his health has deteriorated behind bars, according to the independent Belarusian Association of Journalists.

BELARUSIAN JOURNALIST FACES TRIAL FOR COVERING PROTESTS AS GOVERNMENT INTENSIFIES CRACKDOWN ON DISSENT

"It's absurd that they sentenced a photographer to three years in prison for fulfilling his professional duty of taking pictures," said the association’s head, Andrei Bastunets. "The situation with freedom of speech in Belarus is the worst in Europe."

Zyankou refused to testify against himself during the trial held behind closed doors.

A total of 35 Belarusian journalists are in prison either awaiting trial or serving sentences.

PUTIN, LUKASHENKO TALK RUSSIA-BELARUS ALLIANCE IN ST. PETERSBURG

Belarusian authorities have cracked down on opponents of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko after huge protests triggered by the August 2020 election that gave him a sixth term. The balloting was viewed by the opposition and the West as fraudulent.

Protests swept the country for months, bringing hundreds of thousands into the streets. More than 35,000 people were arrested, thousands were beaten in police custody and hundreds of independent media outlets and nongovernmental organizations were shut down and outlawed.

More than 1,400 political prisoners remain behind bars, including leaders of opposition parties and renowned human rights advocate and 2022 Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski.

Spain's lower house of Parliament is to debate and vote Tuesday on an enormously divisive amnesty law that aims to sweep away the legal troubles of potentially hundreds of people who were involved in Catalonia’s unsuccessful 2017 independence bid.

Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez agreed to push through the law in exchange for parliamentary support from two small Catalan separatist parties, which enabled him to form a new minority leftist government late last year.

The bill could pave the way for the return of fugitive ex-Catalan President Carles Puigdemont — head of one of the separatist parties — who fled Spain to Belgium after leading the failed illegal secession bid in 2017 that brought the country to the brink.

SPAIN'S SÁNCHEZ DEFENDS CONTROVERSIAL AMNESTY DEAL BROKERED WITH CATALAN SEPARATISTS

A key question is whether Puigdemont's party will manage to include clauses in the bill that would cover him against all possible legal challenges if he returns. If it can´t, then it may shoot the bill down.

Puigdemont and the Catalan independence issue are anathema for many Spaniards, and the amnesty bill has roused the ire of the conservative and far-right opposition parties that represent roughly half the country’s population. Many in the judiciary and police are also opposed, as well as several top figures in Sánchez's own party.

Opposition parties have staged at least seven major demonstrations in recent months against the law.

Even if the bill is approved Tuesday, it is not known when the law might come into effect as it would have to go to the Senate, where the fiercely conservative leading opposition Popular Party has an absolute majority. The party has pledged to do all in its power to stall the bill in the Senate and challenge it in court.

Sánchez acknowledges that if he had not needed the Catalan separatists’ parliamentary support he would not have agreed to the amnesty. He also says that without their support, he could not have formed a government and the right wing could have gained office, having won most seats in the 2023 elections.

He now says that the amnesty will be positive for Spain because it will further calm waters inside Catalonia, and he boasts that his policies for Catalonia since taking office in 2018 have greatly eased tensions that existed between Madrid and Barcelona when the Popular Party was in office.

Sánchez's previous government granted pardons to several jailed leaders of the Catalan independence movement that helped heal wounds.

The vote needs to be passed by 176 lawmakers in the 350-seat lower house. Sánchez's minority coalition commands 147 seats but in principle has the backing of at least 30 more lawmakers.

Russia has developed and deployed new camouflage technology for its troops that many have nicknamed "invisibility cloaks," local news has reported. 

"This new ‘cloak-nevidimka’ is part of the Russian - and previously Soviet - doctrine of ‘maskirovka’ (translated literally as ‘disguise’ but conceptually, the etymology is ‘masquerade’), which is the foundational principle of the Russian military doctrine," Rebekah Koffler, a strategic military intelligence analyst and the author of Putin's Playbook, told Fox News Digital.

"The idea is to fool the adversary about everything you do - mislead him about the presence, position and size of troops, timing and place of attack, prevent him from distinguishing types of military hardware," Koffler said. 

"They place the premium on controlling and manipulating the adversary’s perception of what’s going on the battlefield," she continued. "The Russians spend a tremendous amount of resources on executing ‘maskirovka’ activities. Yes, they may not design an adequate military uniform to keep their soldiers warm, but they’d spend money on 'cloak-nevidimka.'"

UNITED NATIONS HIGH COURT TO DETERMINE JURISDICTION OVER UKRAINE'S CASE AGAINST RUSSIA OVER GENOCIDE CLAIMS

Russian outlet TASS released an interview with HiderX on Jan. 19, when the company described many aspects of the new military tech, including the fact that it weighs 350 grams – or roughly three-quarters of a pound – can fold up and fit in a person’s pocket and works through concealing a heat signature.

"We design a completely new product – a camouflage suit that dilutes the silhouette," Russian firm HiderX told TASS of its new product. "It is a completely Russian technology that coats the fabric with a specific mixture." 

ZELENSKYY WILL FACE ‘RECKONING’ WHEN WAR WITH RUSSIA ENDS, EXPERT SAYS

"It is our knowhow and we shall not disclose the details," the company claimed. "The suit screens the surrounding temperature of the objects. It effectively camouflages Russian soldiers against hostile heat seekers." 

HiderX claimed that trials are "ongoing and have to be completed by the end of January."

EUROPEAN UNION LEADERS GROW FRUSTRATED AS HUNGARY BLOCKS $54 BILLION IN AID FOR UKRAINE

Current tech allows for Russian troops to "isolate heat" but has proven "ineffective," according to HiderX, who claims their tech works on the "heat exchange [that] goes naturally as the fabric breathes." 

Koffler provided Fox News Digital with further details of the tech, noting that all such info derives from Russian sources, including TV Zvezda and Military review. 

First and foremost, Koffler clarified that "trials" included battlefield testing in Ukraine. The full suit includes a hood, cap and "special glasses" and provides effective cover as close as two meters away from the soldier using it. 

"The material itself has three layers: first, an internal layer, reflecting infrared (IR) radiation from the user's body; second, the middle layer, absorbing IR radiation; and an external, layer, reflecting IR radiation from the external environment," Koffler explained. "Cloak-Nevidimka was created at the RKhBZ Academy, which stands for Radiological Chemical Biological Defense." 

"There’s a reason why the Russians want us to know that they’ve got this," Koffler stressed. "It doesn’t mean they are lying."

French President Emmanuel Macron was welcomed Tuesday with pomp and ceremony at the start of a two-day state visit to Sweden during which he will meet Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and the Scandinavian country’s monarch, King Carl XVI Gustaf.

Macron and his wife, Brigitte, were greeted by the king in the inner courtyard of the downtown Stockholm royal castle that is the official residence of the Swedish royals. There, Macron and Carl Gustaf reviewed members of the Grenadier Guards that had lined up.

Macron noted that it had been too long since a French president visited Sweden — the last time was in 2014, when François Hollande traveled to the Scandinavian country.

PROTESTING FRENCH FARMERS PLAN 'SIEGE OF THE CAPITAL' IN PARIS, REJECTING GOVERNMENT CONCESSIONS

Later Tuesday, Macron is to discuss the future of European security at a military academy in Stockholm, together with Kristersson and the king. Russia's war on Ukraine and Sweden’s NATO application are likely to be on the table.

After more than a year of delays, Turkey earlier this month completed its ratification of Sweden’s bid to join NATO, meaning Hungary is now the last member of the military alliance not to have given its approval. All NATO countries must agree before a new member can join the alliance.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Sweden and neighboring Finland abandoned their traditional positions of military nonalignment to seek protection under NATO’s security umbrella. Finland joined the alliance last year.

On Wednesday, Macron and his wife are to travel to Malmö, Sweden’s third-largest city, in southern Sweden, where they will visit a European multidisciplinary research facility under construction and visit a company to discuss green technologies.

At home, Macron's government faces angry farmers who have camped out around Paris. They demand better pay, fewer constraints and lower costs. On Monday, they encircled Paris with traffic-snarling barricades, using hundreds of tractors and hay bales to block highways leading to the capital.

The French president initially was to travel to Sweden in late October, but the visit was postponed due to the Gaza war that began with Hamas’ attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7.

A man reportedly armed with a crossbow was fatally shot by officers in London on Tuesday as he broke into a home where he had threatened the occupants, the Metropolitan Police said.

The suspect, believed to be in his 30s, was reportedly armed and threatened people in the home in the Southwark part of the city. He was trying to break into the house when officers arrived.

UK MAN WHO KILLED 2 COLLEGE STUDENTS, JANITOR SENTENCED TO HIGH-SECURITY HOSPITAL

When the man threatened officers who attempted to speak with him, armed police were called in. He was shot as he got inside the property. The man died at the scene after officers and paramedics tried to provide first aid.

Two of the people inside the building received minor injuries, police said but did not disclose how those people were injured.

Police said the Independent Office for Police Conduct, or IOPC, was conducting an independent investigation into the shooting.

"I understand the local community will be concerned at the events that have taken place this morning," Detective Chief Superintendent Seb Adjei-Addoh said. "We will fully support the IOPC investigation into the full circumstances of what happened."

Indonesian police said Tuesday they have arrested three Mexicans for alleged robbery on the resort island of Bali that left a tourist from Turkey badly wounded.

The arrests were made Saturday at a villa in Ungasan village of Badung district in Bali where the Mexican men had been staying since Dec. 7 as tourists, Bali Police spokesperson Jansen Avitus Panjaitan said.

SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS MEET TO DISCUSS BURMESE CIVIL WAR, SOUTH CHINA SEA CONFLICTS

The three men who were arrested and a fourth Mexican man broke into a villa near the popular tourist spot of Kuta last week after pointing their guns at a security guard and forcing him to surrender, Panjaitan said.

The four men armed with three guns sprayed bullets toward several guests who ran out of the villa for safety. The suspects stole U.S. dollars and Indonesian currency worth about $5,900 from the villa, and shot a 39-year-old Turkish man in his stomach, left hand and left back chest, police said.

The suspects planned the robbery by preparing guns and surveilling the targeted villa, police said.

Surveillance camera recordings and witness accounts led police to the four Mexican suspects, one who was still being sought and three who were paraded at the news conference wearing handcuffs and orange vests.

Rockets fired by separatist insurgents killed a police officer and wounded a dozen other people overnight in southwestern Pakistan, officials said Tuesday, in apparent retaliation for Pakistani strikes on what it said were insurgent hideouts in Iran earlier in January.

Six insurgents were also killed in the ensuing shootout, according to the government.

The outlawed Baluchistan Liberation Army quickly claimed the attacks, writing that two of its fighters were killed.

IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER HEADING TO PAKISTAN FOR TALKS ON EXCHANGED MISSILE STRIKES

Authorities initially said that the attacks, in the district of Mach in Baluchistan, were foiled without causalities, but two local security officials said at least one policeman was killed and 15 members of the Pakistani security forces were wounded in multiple rocket attacks. The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media.

The BLA threatened to launch attacks on security forces in Baluchistan and elsewhere following Pakistan's Jan. 18 strikes on their camps in Iran, which killed at least nine people. Those strikes were made in response to an Iranian strike in Pakistan that appeared to target a different Baluch militant group with similar separatist goals.

Tuesday's attacks came hours after top Iranian diplomat Hossein Amirabdollahian held talks in Islamabad with his Pakistani counterpart, Jalil Abbas Jilani in an effort to resolve the diplomatic crisis that began with the exchange of cross-border strikes. The two countries vowed to work together against insurgents operating in their border areas.

There was no immediate comment from the military, but Jan Achakzai, a government spokesman in Baluchistan, wrote on social media that six insurgents were killed in a shootout and troops foiled the three coordinated attacks without casualties or damage.

Authorities sometimes downplay troop casualties in such attacks.

Pakistan’s Baluchistan province, as well as Iran’s neighboring Sistan and Baluchestan province, have faced a low-level insurgency by Baluch nationalists for more than two decades.

Although the government says it has quelled the insurgency, violence in the province has persisted.

Iran and Pakistan share a 560-mile, largely lawless, border, across which smugglers and militants freely roam. Quetta is the capital of Baluchistan province, where Baloch nationalists, Islamic militants and the Islamic State group have claimed responsibility for attacks on security forces in recent years.

Sri Lanka's police used tear gas and water cannons on Tuesday to disperse an opposition protest in the island nation facing its worst economic crisis while gearing up for a national election later this year.

Protesters from the main opposition United People’s Power party gathered in the capital, Colombo, and accused President Ranil Wickremesinghe's administration of overburdening citizens by increasing taxes, as well as hiking prices for electricity and fuel, causing a sharp spike in living costs.

"The government is not concerned with the people suffering and being unable to provide for themselves," said opposition lawmaker Sarath Fonseka who was at the protest. "People can no longer pay their bills or buy their children school supplies," he said.

SRI LANKA PRESIDENT FLEES COUNTRY, PROTESTERS STORM PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE AS STATE OF EMERGENCY IS DECLARED

Fonseka said that "people must rise" and vote against the current government in the coming election.

Earlier on Tuesday, at least two courts prohibited protesters from marching along roads leading to vital buildings including the president’s office, finance ministry and the central bank. Instead, two areas in the capital were assigned for the protest.

Police used tear gas and water canons twice to disperse the protesters as they tried to move out of the designated areas.

However, the opposition said it planned more protests across the country in the coming weeks.

US EXPRESSES CONCERNS OVER SRI LANKA'S CONTROVERSIAL INTERNET REGULATION LAW

Sri Lanka plunged into its worst-ever economic crisis in 2022. It had declared bankruptcy in April the same year with more than $83 billion in debt, leading to strident protests that caused the ouster of then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa The International Monetary Fund approved a four-year bailout program last March to help the South Asian country.

The government defended the measures taken, saying they were necessary to meet the IMF targets, assure the country's debt was sustainable, and win over the trust of the international community again.

Sri Lanka's parliament elected current President Ranil Wickremesinghe in July 2022 and under him, shortages of essential goods have largely been abated.

But the opposition accuses him of stifling dissent by cracking down on protesters. Last week, the parliament, where the ruling coalition enjoys majority, overwhelmingly approved an internet regulation bill that was highly criticized for creating "a very oppressive environment."

Several U.S. Olympians will receive gold medals for their performance at the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, officials announced Monday.

The U.S. Olympic figure skating team that competed more than 600 days ago will now be upgraded to gold medals after Russian skater Kamila Valieva, who initially won the gold medal, was disqualified over a positive test for a banned heart medicine.

Valieva, who was 15 when she won the gold medal, will end up empty-handed after the Court of Arbitration for Sport banned the Russian star for four years, dating back to the date she submitted the positive test, Dec. 25, 2021. The test was submitted six weeks before the Olympic Games. The sanction vacates any results after that date.

The Americans to receive the gold medals are Evan Bates, Karen Chen, Nathan Chen, Madison Chock, Zachary Donohue, Brandon Frazier, Madison Hubbell, Alexa Knierim and Vincent Zhou.

RUSSIAN FIGURE SKATING PHENOM KAMILA VALIEVA LEARNS FATE IN OLYMPICS DOPING SCANDAL

The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) received word that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) would award the gold to the U.S. for the team competition after Valieva's positive test was revealed.

The IOC told the USOPC that it had "great sympathy with the athletes who have had to wait for two years to get the final results of their competition," according to a copy of an email obtained by The Associated Press. "The IOC will contact the respective (national Olympic committees) in order to organize a dignified Olympic medal ceremony."

It is not immediately clear how Valieva’s disqualification will affect the silver and bronze medals. Japan finished the competition third and could then move to second.

Despite the positive test, the Russian team could still earn a medal in the competition, depending on how a scoring rule is interpreted. Should the committee deduct Valieva’s points from the two events she skated — instead of disqualifying her team’s performance completely — Russia would finish third, ahead of Canada.

RUSSIAN OFFICIALS RULE 'NO FAULT' FOR FIGURE SKATER KAMILA VALIEVA IN DOPING PROBE

It has been a long two years for all involved since the Olympics, and Chock and Bates, who won their fifth U.S. title over the weekend, were asked about the pending decision.

"I think two years is too long for this decision to be made, and we may never know why it has taken this long," Bates said. "We’re just looking forward to getting some closure after a long waiting period."

There was no immediate word on where a medal ceremony might take place. The USOPC is tasked with finding a suitable time and place to award its skaters the gold.

The Skating World Championships are in Montreal in March.

Valieva’s sanction will end about two months before the next Winter Games in Italy.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Authorities have arrested two people after finding a large weapons cache in their home in northern Greece, police said Tuesday.

HUMAN RIGHTS COURT CONDEMNS GREECE FOR IDING HIV-POSITIVE SEX WORKERS IN 2012 CRACKDOWN

The two – a 54-year-old man and a 57-year-old woman – face felony counts of weapons and explosives possession. Police searching their home in the city of Florina on Monday seized 29 weapons, 95 ammunition magazines, 11 hand grenades, five mortar rounds, over 158 pounds of gunpowder, more than 35,000 rifle cartridges of various calibers and an improvised bomb, authorities said.

The weapons included 14 assault rifles, three submachine guns, 11 handguns and one shotgun. Police also seized 910 pounds of empty cartridges, a rifle scope, three detonators, a bullet-proof vest and various flares. Such seizures are unusual in Greece.

Authorities are investigating how the couple acquired the military hardware and whether they have been involved in any crimes, police said.

China is closely watching the 2024 presidential race and could see a potential rematch between Republican frontrunner former President Trump and President Biden as having to choose from "two bowls of poison," an official said.

Neither candidate is particularly appealing to Beijing despite their respective foreign policy differences. Biden has looked for areas of cooperation with China, but Beijing has expressed concern over his efforts to unite Indo-Pacific allies against China and comments he has made about sending troops to Taiwan.

Conversely, Trump favors an isolationist approach to foreign policy and was tough on China economically. He encouraged U.S. businesses to remain in America, in exchange for tax, rather than allow them to relocate to China, where the cost to operate is significantly cheaper. He also offered tough, and sometimes unpredictable, rhetoric on China.  

"For China, no matter who won the U.S. presidential election, they would be two ‘bowls of poison,’" said Zhao Minghao, a professor of international relations at Fudan University in Shanghai.

SNOOP DOGG PRAISES DONALD TRUMP: 'NOTHING BUT LOVE AND RESPECT'

China’s woes in the presidential election also include the campaign itself, where the candidates are likely to talk tough on China.

Trump, who might be more hesitant to defend Taiwan, has repeatedly blamed China for the COVID-19 outbreak that tarnished the end of his term. It may have also contributed to costing him his 2020 re-election, as voters preferred Biden’s approach to handling the pandemic.

CHINA SENDS SEVERAL WARPLANES, NAVY SHIPS TOWARD TAIWAN AFTER US-CHINA TALKS

During Trump’s term as president, he angered China when he took a congratulatory call on his 2016 election victory from the president of Taiwan and when he imposed tariffs on Chinese imports in 2018. He also repeatedly blamed China for the COVID-19 pandemic, drawing rebukes from Beijing.

Despite the apparent frustrations from Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited then-President Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida in April 2017. Six months later, he hosted Trump in Beijing for a dinner at the Forbidden City, the former imperial palace.

Once in office, Biden kept his predecessor's China trade policy, keeping the tariffs in place and limiting access by Chinese companies to advanced technologies by sanctioning Chinese officials over human rights violations. He also expanded restrictions on China-bound U.S. money.

Biden's Secretary of State Antony Blinken also called China the "most serious long-term challenge to the international order" in 2022. In early 2023, tensions spiked again when the U.S. shot down a Chinese spy balloon.

Whoever ultimately wins the White House could have enormous consequences for the U.S.-China relationship as well as the rest of the Indo-Pacific region.

"No matter who takes office, it will not change the overall direction of America's strategic competition with China," predicted Sun Chenghao, a fellow at the Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University. "China doesn't have any preference for who will win the presidential election because China has experience dealing with either of them for four years."

To get to the 2024 general election, Trump still has to win the Republican nomination, where he is currently in a contest with former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Northern Ireland’s largest British unionist party has agreed to end a boycott that left the region’s people without a power-sharing administration for two years and rattled the foundations of the 25-year-old peace. The breakthrough could see the shuttered Belfast government restored within days.

After a marathon late-night meeting, Democratic Unionist Party leader Jeffrey Donaldson said Tuesday that the party’s executive had backed proposals to return to the government. He said agreements reached with the U.K. government in London "provide a basis for our party to nominate members to the Northern Ireland Executive, thus seeing the restoration of the locally elected institutions."

The breakthrough came after the U.K. government last week gave Northern Ireland politicians until Feb. 8 to restore the Northern Ireland Assembly and executive or face new elections.

UK GRANTS EXTENSION FOR NORTHERN IRELAND TO REVIVE ITS COLLAPSED GOVERNMENT

"All the conditions are in place for the Assembly to return," Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said. "The parties entitled to form an executive are meeting today to discuss these matters, and I hope to be able to finalize this deal with the political parties as soon as possible."

The DUP walked out in February 2022 in a dispute over post-Brexit trade rules. Ever since, it has refused to return to the government with the Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein. Under power-sharing rules established as part of Northern Ireland’s peace process, the administration must include both British unionists and Irish nationalists.

The walkout left Northern Ireland’s 1.9 million people without a functioning administration to make key decisions as the cost of living soared and backlogs strained the creaking public health system. Amid mounting public frustration, teachers, nurses and other public sector workers staged a 24-hour strike this month calling on politicians to return to the government and give them a long-delayed pay raise.

The British government has agreed to give Northern Ireland more than 3 billion pounds ($3.8 billion) for its public services, but only if the executive in Belfast gets back up and running.

The political impasse in Northern Ireland stems from the United Kingdom's decision to leave the European Union and its borderless trading bloc after decades of membership. The DUP quit the government in opposition to new trade rules put in place after the U.K. left the EU in 2020 that imposed customs checks and other hurdles on goods moving to Northern Ireland from the rest of the U.K.

The checks were imposed to maintain an open border between the north and its EU neighbor, the Republic of Ireland, a key pillar of the peace process that ended decades of violence in Northern Ireland. The DUP, though, says the new east-west customs border undermines Northern Ireland’s place in the U.K.

In February 2023, the U.K. and the EU agreed on a deal to ease customs checks and other hurdles for goods moving to Northern Ireland from the rest of the U.K. But it was not enough for the DUP, which continued its government boycott.

Donaldson said further measures agreed by the British government will "remove checks for goods moving within the U.K. and remaining in Northern Ireland and will end Northern Ireland automatically following future EU laws."

The DUP’s decision faces opposition from some hard-line unionists, who fiercely guard Northern Ireland’s place in the U.K. and say even light-touch post-Brexit checks create a de facto internal trade barrier. Dozens of protesters gathered outside the DUP meeting venue outside Belfast late Monday, waving placards saying, "Stop DUP sellout."

Details of the supposedly private five-hour meeting were live-tweeted by Jamie Bryson, editor of the Unionist Voice newsletter, who is opposed to Donaldson’s attempts at compromise.

Donaldson said last week that he had received threats over his attempts to negotiate a return to the government.

"I think my party has displayed far more courage than those who threaten or try to bully or try to misrepresent us," he said Tuesday. "We are determined to take our place in taking Northern Ireland forward."

IRISH SENATOR UNDER FIRE FOR ADVOCATING BILL TO RESTRICT FREE SPEECH

The situation has been complicated by Northern Ireland’s changing political landscape. Unionists were the largest force in the Northern Ireland Assembly from its establishment in 1998 until 2022, when Sinn Fein won the most seats in an election.

That gives the nationalist party, which seeks to take Northern Ireland out of the U.K. and unite it with the republic, the right to hold the post of first minister. The DUP would fill the post of deputy — a bitter pill for some unionists to swallow.

Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald said she was optimistic the Belfast government could return before the Feb. 8 deadline.

"It is vital there is political stability to address the scale of the crisis across our public services," she said. "Let’s now focus minds on the job at hand and to the solutions required to support workers and families who want and deserve functioning government."

Hong Kong began public consultation on a local National Security Law on Tuesday, more than three years after Beijing imposed a similar law that has all but wiped out dissent in the semi-autonomous city.

The new law could expand the government's ability to prosecute residents for offenses like collaborating with foreign forces to influence legislation or "publish misleading statements," and to close down civil society organizations. Some of its provisions threaten criminal prosecutions for acts committed anywhere in the world.

Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law, calls for the city to enact a national security law, but it's been delayed for decades because of widespread public opposition based on fears it would erode civil liberties. In 2003, an attempt to pass a version of the law sparked street protests that drew half a million people, and the legislation was shelved.

HONG KONG COURT REFUSES TO BAN PROTEST SONG, GOVERNMENT NOW ALLOWED TO APPEAL DECISION

But the city's crackdown on political opposition likely clears the way for the bill to pass easily. Since 2020, many of the city’s leading pro-democracy activists have been arrested, silenced or forced into exile. Dozens of civil society groups have been disbanded, and outspoken media outlets like Apple Daily and Stand News have been shut down.

The draft text will be written later based on input from public consultation, which will begin Tuesday and will end Feb. 28. But the city released a 110-page document Tuesday outlining its plans for the legislation.

City leader John Lee called the legislation a "constitutional responsibility."

"We shouldn’t wait any longer," he said during a news conference. "The threats to national security, they are real. We have experienced all these threats. We have suffered from them badly."

HONG KONG EYES STRONGER TIES WITH THAILAND TO BOOST ITS ECONOMIC GROWTH IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

Both the Hong Kong and Beijing governments have hailed the previous National Security Law for restoring stability after the massive pro-democracy protests in 2019.

Lee said a local version is still necessary to keep Hong Kong safe against "potential sabotage" and "undercurrents that try to create troubles," in particular surviving ideas about Hong Kong independence. Lee also said that some foreign agents may still be active in Hong Kong.

He said other countries, including the U.S., U.K. and Singapore, have similar laws to safeguard security and Hong Kong would draw from them.

Critics worry authorities will use a domestic national security law as another tool to crack down on dissidents, further eroding freedoms that were promised to the former British colony when it returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

The Beijing-imposed security law criminalized subversion, advocating secession, and collusion with foreign forces to intervene in the city’s affairs as well as terrorism, but did not cover all the offenses authorities wanted to target.

Eric Lai, a research fellow at the Georgetown Center for Asian Law, said that the one-month public consultation was shorter than the three months typical for important laws, saying it appeared to be "window dressing."

Highlights of the package include a ban on "threatening national security by collaborating with external forces to interfere in the affairs of our country or the HKSAR through improper means." The document also suggested that colluding with an "external force" to publish a misleading statement with the intent of endangering national security could be considered an espionage offence.

It also bans inciting public officials to abandon the Basic Law or their allegiance to Hong Kong and China, expanding an existing law that only covered members of the police and other security forces.

Lee promised that people could still criticize the Hong Kong government and express opinions, as long as they do not intend to endanger national security.

The government has already muzzled most dissent using existing laws. Hundreds of people have been arrested under the 2020 law.

Some 47 people were charged under the 2020 law for participating in an unofficial primary election, and two were convicted during the same time under an older sedition law for clapping in court and insulting a judge during a trial.

Lee said that the law will not provide for suspects to be transferred to mainland China for trial, unlike the 2020 law.

Security chief Chris Tang said the legislation would cover the use of computers and electronic systems to endanger national security, as well as disclosing state secrets and espionage, treason and sedition. The proposal includes an expanded definition of state secrets that covers the "economic and social development of Hong Kong," as well as defense and diplomatic activities.

The leader of the city’s largest pro-democracy party called for clarification about how the law will define state secrets. Democratic Party Chairman Lo Kin-hei asked if journalists could be liable when reporting on inside information from the government in the public interest.

The proposal also seeks to revise and update several existing laws covering treason, theft of state secrets and espionage. Parts of the proposed law are to be applied beyond Hong Kong’s borders.

The government suggested it may use the new law to cancel the passports of fugitives overseas, citing a similar U.S. law.

Such laws could affect the many activists who went into exile fearing arrest. The Hong Kong police have offered bounties of 1 million Hong Kong dollars ($128,000) on at least 13 activists abroad, including former lawmakers Nathan Law and Ted Hui, who they accuse of colluding with external forces to impose sanctions on Hong Kong and China.

The new law could also make it harder for civil society groups to operate in Hong Kong. The city's security chief would gain new powers to shut down such organizations in order to safeguard security.

HONG KONG MEDIA MOGUL JIMMY LAI PLEADS NOT GUILTY TO SEDITION AND COLLUSION CHARGES

Following the consultation period, the proposed legislation will be drafted as a bill that will be scrutinized by the Legislative Council. Once the proposed law reaches the legislature, lawmakers are expected to pass the domestic national security law without much opposition in the three readings given a lack of opposition lawmakers following an overhaul of Hong Kong's electoral system.

Lee did not give a timeline for enacting the law, other than that it should be done "as soon as possible."

Under Hong Kong's constitution, the city is required to enact laws "on its own" to prohibit seven types of acts: treason, secession, sedition, subversion against China's central government, theft of state secrets, foreign political organizations conducting political activities in the city, and local political organizations establishing ties with foreign political groups.

The Israeli military expects the war against Hamas to continue through the end of 2024 and possibly even into 2025, an Israeli intelligence official told reporters on Tuesday.

Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) are currently engaged in the heaviest fighting around the city of Khan Younis, the largest city in southern Gaza. The Israeli intelligence officer briefing reporters on Tuesday said the IDF has killed "at least a quarter" of Hamas' estimated fighting force of 35,000, and at least another quarter are wounded, according to Bloomberg.

Hamas' vast network of tunnels have allowed many of its troops and leaders to operate despite Israeli control of much of the territory.

The Israeli official said Israel remains far away from achieving its stated goals of capturing Hamas' leaders and ammunition reserves and rendering Hamas military bases and tunnels inoperative, Bloomberg reported.

AUSTRIA SUSPENDS PAYMENTS TO UNRWA AMID ISRAELI ALLEGATIONS UN WORKERS HELPED, CELEBRATED HAMAS

The city's network of tunnels is even more expansive than that of Gaza City to the north. Israeli operations have also gathered extensive intelligence on how Hamas operates, particularly in how it coordinates rocket attacks against Israel.

For weeks, Hamas has remained capable of launching barrages into Israel even from areas largely under Israeli control. The intelligence officer stated that Hamas terrorists, once given the order, will bring a timed detonator to a pre-prepared launch site, prime the rockets, and then leave. Some time later, the battery of rockets will fire, according to Bloomberg.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated at the beginning of January that the war will last "many more months," and vowed that Israel would not relent until Hamas is destroyed.

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar remains at large, though he is believed to be somewhere within Khan Younis.

The IDF also detailed an operation on Monday in which it blew up a Hamas tunnel underneath a cemetery.

ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTRY CALLS FOR UNRWA COMMISSIONER TO RESIGN AMID ALLEGATIONS ITS WORKERS ASSISTED HAMAS

Israeli soldiers raided the tunnel system in the Bani Suheila neighborhood in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, finding explosives, sliding doors and blast-proof doors, the IDF said. Terrorists were still inside, according to the Israeli military, and were killed.

The tunnels housed the office of a Hamas commander, an operations room, and living quarters for senior members of Hamas, according to the IDF. It said the tunnel was used to plan attacks against the military, as well as the deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

ISRAEL TO BAN REBUILDING OF ISRAELI SETTLEMENTS IN GAZA FOLLOWING CONCERNS FROM BIDEN ADMIN

As Israel moves forward with a ground and air campaign in Gaza, Hamas officials in the besieged enclave say over 26,000 Palestinians have been killed.

Fox News' Stephen Sorace contributed to this report

An Australian woman has suffered a "serious injury" to her right leg after being attacked by a suspected bull shark in Sydney Harbor, authorities say. 

The victim, identified in Australian media reports as 29-year-old Lauren O’Neill, was bitten on Monday night while swimming in the eastern Sydney suburb of Elizabeth Bay. Her neighbors reportedly dialed emergency services and came to her aid. 

"I looked outside and Lauren was sort of pulling herself off the side of the harbor and [was] trying to get to [safety]," one neighbor, Michael Porter, told Nine News, describing how he heard screaming in the area. "Her leg was trailing behind her and the water behind her was all red with blood." 

Another neighbor, veterinarian Fiona Crago, applied a tourniquet to O’Neill’s wounds, the station also reported. 

10-YEAR-OLD MARYLAND BOY ATTACKED BY SHARK IN BAHAMAS, POLICE SAY 

"She was severely mauled on her right leg and losing a lot of blood. I just focused what I had to do... which was stem the blood flow and bandaged the leg," Crago told Nine News. 

O’Neill lives in the area and witnesses say she was swimming close to moored boats but outside of a private, netted harbor pool near her apartment block, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. 

New South Wales police said in a statement that the victim suffered a "serious injury" to her right leg, Reuters reports. Authorities believe she was attacked by a bull shark and has since been taken to a hospital in stable condition, according to The Associated Press. 

SURFER KILLED IN HAWAII AFTER ENCOUNTER WITH SHARK 

Shark attacks in Sydney Harbor are rare but the area is known to be an important habitat for bull sharks and their young, the news agency says. 

In 2009, an Australian navy clearance diver was mauled by a bull shark during a training exercise in the harbor. The attack tore off his arm and part of his leg. 

In February 2022, a swimmer at a Sydney beach died after being attacked by what witnesses described as a 15-foot great white shark. It was Sydney's first fatal shark attack since 1963. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

A court sentenced former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday to 10 years in prison for revealing state secrets.

Khan, a former cricket star turned politician, is currently serving a three-year prison sentence in a graft case. He has been held in the garrison city of Rawalpindi since he was arrested in May 2023.

The verdict was announced by a special court set up at the prison, according to Zulfiqar Bukhari, chief spokesman for Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, or PTI.

Authorities said Khan and his party deputy Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who also received a 10-year sentence, have the right to appeal Tuesday’s ruling in the case. Khan’s legal team was planning to appeal the conviction before the Islamabad High Court on Wednesday.

PAKISTAN AND IRAN VOW COLLABORATION TO IMPROVE SECURITY AFTER FATAL AIRSTRIKES

Khan’s party said in a statement that it stands with Khan and Qureshi, "who defended Pakistan and stood for real independence."

This case against Khan, known commonly as the Cipher case, is one of more than 150 cases that he faces since he was ousted in a no-confidence vote in Parliament in April 2022. Other charges range from contempt of court to terrorism and inciting violence.

PAKISTAN CONDUCTS RETALIATORY MILITARY STRIKES AGAINST PAKISTANI TERRORISTS OPERATING IN IRAN

In the Cipher case, Khan is alleged to have waved a confidential document – a classified cable – at a rally after he was removed from office.

The document has not been made public by either the government or Khan’s lawyers, but was apparently diplomatic correspondence between the Pakistani ambassador to Washington and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad.

Khan has maintained his innocence and says he didn’t disclose the exact contents of the cable. The PTI feared Khan could be sentenced to death for treason.

The ruling comes ahead of the Feb. 8 parliamentary elections in Pakistan.

Although Khan is not on the ballot, as his criminal conviction bars him from running, he maintains tremendous sway over the country’s current political landscape and remains a potent political force because of his grassroots following and anti-establishment rhetoric.

Political analyst Muhammad Ali said the latest verdict was expected, for both Khan and his deputy. The two men, in his opinion, had "indeed damaged Pakistan’s diplomatic ties with the United States, and they also embarrassed the then-Pakistani Ambassador Asad Majeed to the United States," Ali said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Drug cartel violence and land disputes are making certain Mayan ruin sites in Mexico unreachable, according to the government. 

The drug violence in Chiapas, which has proliferated since last year, has left the Yaxchilán and Bonampak ruin sites completely cut off, the government said Friday. 

The latter ruin, famous for its murals, is inaccessible due to gunmen and checkpoints on the road leading to it, tour guides told The Associated Press. 

They said that travelers are forced to hand over identification and cellphones at cartel checkpoints to yet another archaeological site, Lagartero. 

Visitors also can't visit the towering pyramids at Tonina, because a landowner has shut off access his land while seeking payment from the government for granting the right of way.

MEXICO DEMANDS ANSWERS AMID FLOOD OF US MILITARY-GRADE WEAPONS TO DRUG CARTELS

Though no tourist has been harmed so far, and the government claims the sites are safe, many guides no longer take tour groups there.

One of the tour guides likened the suggestion to being told it was safe to go to the Gaza Strip. 

Both guides who spoke to The Associated Press stressed that the best-known and most spectacular Mayan ruin site in Chiapas, the imposing temple complex at Palenque, is open and perfectly safe for visitors. But starting around December, tourists have canceled about 5% of trips booked to the area.

Things that some tourists once enjoyed — like the more adventurous trips to ruins buried deep in the jungle, like Yaxchilán, on the banks of the Usumacinta river and reachable only by boat — are either no longer possible, or so risky that several guides have publicly announced they won't take tourists there.

Residents of the town of Frontera Comalapa, where the boats once picked up tourists to take them to Yaxchilan, closed the road in October because of constant incursions by gunmen.

Cartel battles increased in Chiapas in 2023, which coincides with the uptick in the number of migrants — now about a half-million annually — moving through the Darien Gap jungle from South America, through Central America and Mexico to the U.S. border.

Because many of the new wave of migrants are from Cuba, Asia and Africa, they can pay more than Central Americans, making the smuggling routes through Chiapas more valuable. The problem now seems to be beyond anyone's control.

The other tour guide said that was because the two warring drug cartels, Sinaloa and Jalisco, often recruit or force local people to act as foot soldiers and prevent National Guard troopers from entering their towns.

In Chiapas, residents are often members of Indigenous groups like the Choles or Lacandones, both descendants of the ancient Maya. The potential damage of using them as foot soldiers in cartel fights is grim, given that some groups have either very few remaining members or are already locked in land disputes.

The guide said the ruin sites have the added disadvantage of being in jungle areas where the cartels have carved out at least four clandestine landing strips to fly drugs in from South America.