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Brazilian lawmakers preparing to conduct official business found themselves sharing the halls of a state legislature with several uninvited — but unusually relaxed — guests.

A group of capybaras entered the Mato Grosso Legislative Assembly in Cuiabá on July 30, briefly drawing attention away from an upcoming vote as they explored the government building.

Video recorded by legislative staffer Nayara Bueno showed the animals moving calmly through the entrance while workers sought to steer them outside.

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"They show up here quite often, so we’ve gotten used to seeing them," Bueno told The Associated Press.

The rodents' guest appearance did not cause any damage to the Mato Grosso state legislature, according to officials.

The legislature borders a park that is home to wildlife, giving the animals easy access to the surrounding government complex. 

Native to South America, capybaras are semiaquatic mammals commonly found around wetlands and other bodies of water. They are highly social, generally travel in groups and can reach weights of about 175 pounds.

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The world's largest living rodents have also become internet favorites, with social media users frequently highlighting their laid-back behavior around other animals and people.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Iran’s rival political factions are increasingly invoking the authority of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei to attack their opponents and protect their own positions, even as questions persist over whether he is actively governing the country, according to an Iran expert.

The internal struggle surfaced in two reports published by Iran International concerning Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s relationship with the new supreme leader.

In the first report, senior cleric Mohammad-Bagher Kharrazi, a relative of the Khamenei family by marriage, claimed Pezeshkian had repeatedly threatened to resign and was warned that his next resignation would be accepted.

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"If he resigns one more time, I will approve it," Kharrazi quoted Khamenei as saying.

Pezeshkian’s office strongly denied the account. Mehdi Tabatabaei, the president’s deputy for communications and information, called the allegation "baseless and an outright lie," while another presidential advisor said Kharrazi had no contact with the supreme leader and was known for telling "strange stories."

Hours later, Iran International published a second report alleging Pezeshkian had met Mojtaba Khamenei only once, inside a vehicle with tinted windows at an undisclosed location in Tehran.

According to the outlet’s unnamed sources, the encounter lasted several minutes, the two men could not see each other and Pezeshkian was not permitted to shake Khamenei’s hand. The report alleged that the president later questioned whether the voice he heard had actually belonged to the supreme leader.

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The claims have not been independently verified. Pezeshkian previously described a substantially different encounter, saying publicly that he had spent approximately two and a half hours with Khamenei in a cordial atmosphere.

Kasra Aarabi, director of IRGC research at United Against Nuclear Iran, said the competing claims surrounding Pezeshkian and Mojtaba Khamenei reflected a deeper struggle inside what he described as an "Islamist oligarchic mafia system."

Under Ali Khamenei, Aarabi said, the supreme leader functioned as the system’s "godfather," arbitrating among rival Islamist factions and guaranteeing their access to power and money. His removal created a vacuum that Mojtaba Khamenei’s appointment was intended to fill, but the new supreme leader’s prolonged public absence has left rival factions uncertain about who is actually in charge.

"The very essence of this mafia system is built on a godfather," Aarabi said. "If the godfather is absent, whether because he is severely incapacitated or nonexistent, that vacuum… re-emerges between the various Islamist oligarchic clans."

Aarabi said those factions are not primarily divided by ideology.

"They’re not competing over ideology," he said. "They’re competing over raw power and economic interests."

In that environment, Aarabi said, Mojtaba Khamenei’s name has become a political instrument that competing factions can invoke to legitimize themselves, constrain their rivals or justify decisions whose true source remains unclear.

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"Mojtaba’s name is the glue that’s holding the system together right now," Aarabi said. "Each of these clans invokes his name to justify its existence, legitimize its position, and consolidate its place within this fragile system."

Exiled Iranian journalist Mehdi Ghadimi described the resignation claims as part of a recurring political strategy used by reformist administrations.

"This is a familiar cycle," Ghadimi said. "Whenever they feel that their usefulness to the supreme leader has come to an end, they start circulating these resignation rumors in an effort to build public sympathy and improve their image before being pushed aside."

Ghadimi said similar rumors surrounded former presidents Mohammad Khatami and Hassan Rouhani during the final years of their administrations. He argued that reformist-aligned media channels often continue circulating resignation claims even after a president’s office formally denies them, allowing officials later to portray themselves as having challenged the supreme leader.

On Mojtaba Khamenei’s status, Ghadimi went further than Aarabi, saying he did not believe there was "a functioning person by that name who is capable of thinking, making decisions or speaking."

"Either he is dead, or he is being kept alive in an extremely unstable and severely deteriorated condition," Ghadimi said.

Aarabi said the two reports illustrate that dynamic. A cleric opposed to or unaligned with Pezeshkian invoked Mojtaba Khamenei’s authority to weaken the president by claiming his next resignation would be accepted, while figures around Pezeshkian pushed back with an account portraying the president as having met directly with the supreme leader.

Mojtaba Khamenei has not appeared in any publicly released video or audio recording since succeeding his father, according to Iran International. Iranian officials have offered conflicting accounts about how often senior government figures have met him.

Aarabi cautioned that using Khamenei’s name as a source of authority will become increasingly difficult if his public absence continues.

"There’s only so many times you can use someone’s name without any proof of life that they actually exist," Aarabi said. "The longer Mojtaba is absent, the more questions develop over whether he is alive or able. And as soon as that doubt increases, you will see this infighting increase."

Thousands of migrants remained stranded in Spain’s North African city of Ceuta on Tuesday as the European Union offered emergency assistance to reinforce the enclave’s border and Spanish authorities investigated whether criminals or suspected jihadists used last week’s chaotic mass crossing to enter European territory.

Approximately 72,000 people entered Ceuta from Morocco, and about 70,000 have since returned, Spanish officials said Tuesday, leaving roughly 2,000 people in the small territory. Reception facilities remained overwhelmed as authorities struggled to shelter hundreds of migrant minors and determine the status of those who remained.

Local authorities were processing 862 migrant minors, who receive special protections under Spanish law and cannot be summarily returned. The Associated Press reported that children were begging for food or sleeping outside after the youth shelter became overwhelmed.

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The EU offered Spain assistance, including emergency financial support, to strengthen protection of its external border in Ceuta, European Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration Magnus Brunner said Tuesday following an emergency meeting of the bloc’s ministers in Brussels.

Brunner said the unprecedented crossing was fueled by criminal smuggling networks and disinformation spread through social media, as Spanish authorities were examining whether known criminals or suspected jihadists exploited the scale and disorder of the crossing to enter Ceuta undetected.

Spain’s National Police and Guardia Civil were reviewing video of the crossings and checking people who remained in the territory against criminal and counterterrorism databases, according to El Confidencial, which cited Spanish Interior Ministry sources.

The Spanish outlet reported that authorities were searching for known criminals and possible jihadists who may have entered among the tens of thousands who crossed. Interior Ministry sources acknowledged that the sheer scale of the surge created a genuine infiltration risk, according to the report.

El Confidencial said the concern was heightened by Ceuta’s proximity to Fnideq, also known as Castillejos, a Moroccan border town that has figured in previous jihadist recruitment investigations. Authorities have previously dismantled extremist cells operating across the Ceuta-Fnideq border area, while hundreds of people from northern Morocco traveled to join ISIS and other terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq during the mid-2010s, the outlet reported.

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The crisis is also creating an opening for Islamist movements seeking to weaken confidence in Morocco’s government, according to Zineb Riboua, a research fellow at the Hudson Institute.

Riboua said in an article that Moroccan Islamists have spent years portraying the monarchy as overly secular and pro-Western, attacking its relationships with the United States and Israel and encouraging the belief that young Moroccans have little future at home.

At the same time, she wrote, Islamist voices have promoted an idealized image of Europe as a place where prosperity and legal status can be easily obtained.

Riboua said the Ceuta crisis allows those movements to transform public frustration over migration, unemployment and economic conditions into a broader political attack on the Moroccan state ahead of the national elections in September.

Evidence has separately emerged that the mass crossing was preceded by an extensive online mobilization campaign.

An open-source intelligence report prepared by Golden Owl Intelligence traced weeks of activity across TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, including misleading interpretations of Spanish immigration law and practical information about routes, meeting points and recommended crossing times.

The report estimated that the content generated more than 11 million potential impressions through posts, videos, comments and interactions. It also identified messaging groups administered through telephone numbers carrying Algerian international codes.

The campaign accelerated after Spain’s Supreme Court issued a July 8 ruling concerning the immediate return of migrants intercepted at sea near Ceuta and Melilla, according to the report. Simplified and misleading interpretations of the decision, combined with confusion surrounding Spain’s policy to regularize hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants, were presented online as evidence that people who reached Spanish territory would be allowed to remain and eventually obtain legal status.

The investigation documented the later circulation of maps, swimming routes, transportation information and suggested departure points as tens of thousands of people began moving toward the border.

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Morocco’s Interior Ministry spokesman Rachid El Khalfi said at a news conference Sunday that the surge resulted from several overlapping factors, including the exploitation of digital platforms, misleading information, human-trafficking networks and inaccurate interpretations of legal and administrative developments.

Khalfi said the messaging created the false impression that the border was open and that people could reach European territory without legal consequences. He said Moroccan prosecutors had opened investigations to identify those responsible and determine the appropriate legal consequences.

Reuters and the Associated Press have independently documented cases in which online claims influenced people to travel toward Ceuta. Reuters interviewed a Moroccan teenager who said Instagram videos inspired him and his cousin to make the journey, while a Moroccan human-rights activist told the AP that social-media posts initially claimed the border was open and later promoted a misleading interpretation of the Supreme Court ruling.

The crisis has also placed Spain’s intelligence services and its relationship with Morocco under scrutiny.

El País and Cadena SER reported, citing officials familiar with Spain’s intelligence assessment, that Morocco did not plan the mass crossing but allowed it to unfold after border controls were gradually relaxed.

Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska said Spain’s foreign intelligence agency had not warned him of an imminent surge of that magnitude.

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Morocco has denied deliberately orchestrating the crossing. Interior Ministry spokesman Rachid Khalfi blamed the surge on online misinformation, human-trafficking networks and distorted interpretations of Spanish legal and administrative developments, according to The Jerusalem Post. The ministry said Morocco remained committed to international cooperation against irregular migration and human trafficking.

Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares defended Rabat’s response, saying Moroccan authorities quickly provided police support and helped facilitate the return of most of those who crossed.

Juan Jesus Vivas Lara, president of the autonomous city of Ceuta, offered a sharply different assessment, telling El País that many Ceuta residents believed Morocco had allowed, if not orchestrated, the surge.

"Morocco has shown us that it isn’t reliable," Vivas said. "There’s no alternative but to put in place whatever means are necessary to ensure it cannot do this again."

Fox News Digital reached out to the Moroccan government for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Built more than 2,000 years ago to supply Jerusalem with water, Solomon's Pools have become the center of a modern political dispute, with officials from the nearby Israeli town of Efrat accusing the Palestinian Authority of allowing the historic site to deteriorate after it was placed under Ramallah's jurisdiction following the 1993 Oslo Accords.

Most archaeologists date the construction of Solomon's Pools, three ancient reservoirs located between Efrat and Bethlehem, south of Israel's capital, to the Hasmonean period in the second century B.C. The reservoirs were built to supply water to Jerusalem during the Second Temple period. Herod the Great (37–4 B.C.) later expanded the system to provide water to his palace-fortress at Herodium.

"Solomon's Pools are not only the history of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel and the source of Jerusalem's living water, but also the future of Efrat in our ability to exercise our sovereignty, preserve Efrat's development space and sustain tourism for all religions in the area between Jerusalem and Hebron," Dovi Shefler, mayor of Efrat, told Fox News Digital.

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The three reservoirs collectively hold approximately 288,000 cubic meters of water, or more than 10 million cubic feet. They are fed by the Arrub and el-Biyar aqueducts, which, together with rainwater, historically supplied Jerusalem with water year-round. During the British Mandate, the pools underwent significant renovations and became known as "Jerusalem's beach" until the Oslo Accords.

Under the agreements, the West Bank was divided into Areas A, B and C. Solomon's Pools are located in Area A, which falls under Palestinian civil and security control.

Yonatan Marcus, chief of staff of the Efrat Municipality, told Fox News Digital that during the negotiations, then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin maintained that the pools would remain under Israeli control, alongside other archaeological sites of major Judeo-Christian significance such as Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem.

However, during the mapping process, he said, the words "Solomon's Pools" remained within Area C on zoomed-out maps, while the reservoirs themselves ultimately mistakenly fell inside Area A.

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Marcus said under Palestinian Authority control, things changed for the worse. "When you visit today, you can see that the place is neglected. Much of it has been destroyed. There are signs everywhere in Arabic stating that swimming is not permitted because the pools are filled with sewage water," he said.

He added that the sewage contamination was not natural, with wastewater deliberately diverted into the pools, replacing the fresh water that flowed there until the Oslo Accords. He said this occurred despite the PLO's commitment under the agreement to protect historical sites in Area A.

"Our main goal is to protect these magnificent pools. It's not just about Jewish history; it's about Judeo-Christian history and whoever believes in the people of the Bible who walked here," he said.

He described the reservoirs as the largest archaeological pools in Israel, saying they occupy a strategic location between the Western Wall and the Cave of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs along Route 60, known as the Biblical Highway.

Although the pools are located in Area A, Marcus said visits by Israelis take place only on coordinated tours secured by the IDF's Judea and Samaria Division, as permitted under the Oslo Accords.

He noted that visits by Israeli officials, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, have prompted improvements, saying the Palestinian Authority removed about 200 bags of garbage from the site following years of neglect.

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"If the pressure of our coming here is going to make them take care of the site, then wonderful. In the end, our goal is for it to be preserved," he said.

Ahmad Fattouh, a spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, rejected the allegations.

"It's absolutely audacious that the leadership of the colonial settlement of Efrat claims to be concerned about the condition of Burak Sulaymān's pools when they are the very reason behind its declining water levels," Fattouh told Fox News Digital. He said Israeli locals diverted the springs that feed the pools and argued that the Palestinian Authority has restored the site and developed it as a tourist destination.

Fattouh also accused Israeli officials of using the issue to justify taking control of the site, saying Smotrich's visit showed that the pools were not completely dry, contrary to claims by Efrat officials.

Yishai Fleisher, international spokesman for Hebron, said the pools are akin to rediscovering a lost part of the Jewish Temple, as they supplied Jerusalem with water for some 2,000 years.

He said preserving the site begins with attracting visitors, producing educational videos, improving access along the new road from northern Efrat, hosting senior Israeli officials and establishing a permanent presence with cameras, patrols and farms.

"Since the story started breaking, the P.A. is trying to build a mosque there. The goal of the P.A. is to stop Israeli presence in Judea and Samaria and the Land of Israel. They are not about developing anything for its own sake," Fleisher claimed to Fox News Digital.

Fleisher, who is an influential voice among the Israeli right, called for a radical change in policy. "What we really have to do is dismantle the P.A. and assert sovereignty over Judea and Samaria. In the meantime, the line should be redrawn so that Solomon's Pools, which are essentially archaeological sites, are placed under Israeli control in Area C," he said.

The alleged leader of a violent Mexican criminal cell has been arrested in connection with the assassination of a mayor, while authorities say the case also produced new evidence linking his organization to the livestreamed killing of a 23-year-old influencer.

Ramón Ángel Álvarez Ayala, also known as "El R-1," was taken into custody during a joint military and law enforcement operation, officials said.

Mexican authorities identified him as the leader of Los Rs, a criminal cell linked to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, or CJNG.

Officials allege Álvarez Ayala ordered and financed the November 2025 assassination of Uruapan Mayor Carlos Manzo. His criminal cell was also linked to the May 2025 killing of beauty influencer Valeria Márquez, whose former boyfriend is Álvarez Ayala’s son, according to authorities.

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Mexican Security Secretary Omar García Harfuch announced details of the investigation a day after the arrest.

"'El R-1' is identified as the main leader of Los Rs, one of the most violent criminal cells linked to the CJNG, with operations in Apatzingán, Uruapan and Morelia, Michoacán, as well as in Jalisco," García Harfuch said in a statement posted on X.

"This organization is involved in extortion, murders and drug trafficking, directly affecting producers, business owners and families in the region," he added.

As previously reported by Fox News Digital, Márquez, a popular TikTok creator with more than 100,000 followers, was shot and killed while livestreaming from her beauty salon in Zapopan, Jalisco.

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At the time, the killing was being investigated as a femicide, a gender-based crime under Mexican law.

Video appeared to show a man entering the salon, asking, "Are you Valeria?" before handing Márquez a gift.

The man then allegedly shot her in the chest and head. Márquez collapsed on camera before another person ended the livestream, the video appeared to show.

García Harfuch said the killing was linked to Francisco, who allegedly threatened Márquez several times after their relationship ended.

"This criminal cell allegedly participated under his orders in coordinating multiple violent acts in the region. Among them is the tragic feminicide of Valeria Márquez, which occurred in May 2025 in Zapopan, Jalisco, a crime linked to Francisco, the victim's former partner and Ramón Ángel's son," García Harfuch said.

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"With yesterday's arrest, we learned that R-1's son had a romantic relationship with Valeria. He had threatened her on several occasions and everything indicates, and this will be proven, that the son asked his father, R-1, to carry out the feminicide," he said, according to reports.

Álvarez Ayala is now in custody, while Francisco remains at large. Jalisco authorities have also arrested another man accused of participating in Márquez's killing.

In addition to Márquez's killing, Álvarez Ayala is accused of financing and orchestrating the assassination of Uruapan Mayor Carlos Manzo, who was shot during Day of the Dead celebrations in November 2025.

Manzo had been an outspoken critic of organized crime and worked to root out corruption within the local police force.

Authorities have arrested 31 people in connection with Manzo's killing, García Harfuch said.

Álvarez Ayala is being held at the Altiplano maximum-security prison while federal prosecutors pursue charges. Investigations into both killings are ongoing.

The Treasury Department said the CJNG was "one of the most powerful cartels in the world" and imposed sanctions on more than 50 individuals and entities in Mexico linked to the organization in July.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's drive to project "normalcy" in Moscow may have created a dangerous security blind spot, giving adversaries like Ukraine greater opportunities to target the Kremlin's military elite, an analyst said Monday.

The assessment came after a deadly explosion ripped through an upscale Moscow restaurant on Aug. 1, where a senior Russian general was reportedly attending a private celebration. Several Russian media outlets claimed the bombing targeted Col. Gen. Alexander Chaiko, who led the troops that made a botched attempt to storm the Ukrainian capital in 2022 and recently was appointed the chief of Russia’s aerospace forces. The claims could not be independently verified.

If Chaiko was indeed at the restaurant, "that would establish a compelling motive for Ukraine," Dr. Mark Episkopos, a Eurasia research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, told Fox News Digital. "But there has been an ongoing discourse inside Russia that, despite numerous such attacks, Russian elites and even military figures continue to flout [operational security] best practices by holding parties like this in the first place."

The Russian Embassy in Rome accused Kyiv of carrying out the attack and said in a statement Aug. 2 that the attack was "evidence that the Ukrainian terrorist contagion is already beginning to spread."

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"The other factor here is that Putin has done his best to preserve a sense of ‘normalcy’ in Moscow and St. Petersburg, cultivating a facade of stability that Ukraine has been able to exploit," Episkopos added.

Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee said an unidentified woman carried an improvised explosive device to the Balzi Rossi restaurant. The committee said the woman was stopped by security before the bomb was detonated near the restaurant's entrance. The Russian Embassy in Rome on Monday said five people were killed and 19 were injured in the attack.

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"This particular event did seem to have a substantial level of security, which is why the person carrying the explosive was reportedly stopped and questioned at the entrance," Episkopos noted.

Russian investigators suggested the courier may not have known she was transporting explosives and said the device was detonated remotely.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin condemned the "brutal terrorist attack," vowing that those responsible would be punished, according to Deutsche Welle.

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"The means by which this attack was executed — a remotely detonated explosive device delivered on-site by a civilian — are also consistent with other assassinations deep inside Russian territory previously attributed to Ukraine," Episkopos said.

"These include those of Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, Lt. Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik, Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, pro-Kremlin blogger Vladlen Tatarsky and others," he said.

Ukraine had not publicly commented on the restaurant bombing as of Monday afternoon, and no group had claimed responsibility.

Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Moscow has repeatedly accused Kyiv of targeting senior military officers, pro-war figures and Russian-installed officials.

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Episkopos noted that Kyiv has increasingly used unconventional tactics to offset Russia's superiority in conventional manpower and firepower.

"Ukraine has pioneered a new style of asymmetric warfare that plays to its strengths and Russia's weaknesses — relatively porous borders and vast territory that's difficult to monitor, let alone defend," he said. "Ukraine's interior is smaller and comparatively better controlled, and the intelligence it receives from Western partners plays a role here."

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Episkopos added: "This makes operations like this more difficult to pull off. Russia has generally relied on its advantage in raw firepower to conduct airstrikes, as opposed to covert assassinations, against high-value Ukrainian targets."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian called Hamas’ newly elected leader to congratulate him and pledge Tehran’s continued support for the group’s cause, Hamas said Monday — as President Donald Trump promotes a landmark agreement intended to strip the terrorist organization of its weapons and power in Gaza.

Pezeshkian congratulated Khalil al-Hayya on his election as head of the group’s political bureau and told him Iran would continue supporting the Palestinian cause, according to a Hamas statement posted in Arabic, and reviewed by Fox News Digital.

"We are with you, and we support you in every action you take, despite the attacks we are facing," Pezeshkian said, according to Hamas’ account of the call.

Fox News Digital has asked Iran’s mission to the United Nations to confirm that the call took place and provide an official readout.

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The reported conversation highlighted a central contradiction confronting Trump’s Gaza initiative: While the White House is presenting the roadmap as a landmark agreement to remove Hamas from power and secure its weapons, Iran — the group’s longtime military and financial patron — was simultaneously reaffirming its support for Hamas and its new leader. Tehran’s backing raises fresh questions about whether Hamas is prepared to surrender the arsenal at the core of its power and how the Board of Peace could enforce disarmament against a group that continues to receive political support from one of Washington’s principal regional adversaries.

Trump in recent days announced what he called a "HISTORIC agreement for the COMPLETE DISARMAMENT of Hamas and all other armed groups," presenting it as a breakthrough after nearly three years of war. The stakes extend far beyond the wording of the deal: Hamas’ weapons remain the central obstacle to rebuilding Gaza, and the agreement will test whether Trump’s Board of Peace can enforce a postwar transition or whether Hamas will exploit the process to survive, regroup and retain power.

At the center of the effort is Trump’s Board of Peace, the president’s handpicked vehicle for implementing his Gaza policy and potentially extending his approach to other global conflicts. Trump chairs the board, whose executive leadership includes Secretary of State Marco Rubio, special envoy Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The White House says the board will oversee Gaza’s transition, mobilize reconstruction funding and hold the parties accountable.

But the tensions intensified Monday also on the Israeli side, when Nickolay Mladenov, Board of Peace director-general and high representative for Gaza, and board advisor Aryeh Lightstone met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and urged Israel to halt its attacks in Gaza.

Israel appeared to reject the board’s two central demands shortly afterward.

"Israel will not withdraw from its current line in the Gaza Strip and will continue to thwart any threat to our civilians and soldiers," an Israeli political official said. The statement amounted to a rejection, at least for now, of demands that Israel return to the "yellow line" and halt targeted strikes in Gaza.

A Board of Peace official declined to discuss the meeting but said the body remained focused on carrying out the roadmap.

"We are focused on implementation," the official told Fox News Digital. "We have provided a pragmatic path forward to transform Gaza by removing Hamas from power and seeing it hand over its weapons. These steps would undoubtedly allow for the improvement of life in Gaza and enhancement of security in Israel. We remain determined to advance these objectives."

Meanwhile, the Hamas terrorist group says it has agreed only to a phased and conditional process involving the storage of weapons after Israel stops its attacks, withdraws its forces and allows more aid into Gaza. Hamas has avoided the word "disarmament" in its statements and insists its weapons would remain under Palestinian control rather than being surrendered to Israel or an international force.

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The board’s 15-point roadmap calls for Hamas to transfer Gaza’s civilian government and security responsibilities to a Palestinian technocratic body known as the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza. Hamas-run police would surrender their weapons to the committee, while heavy weapons, military production sites, weapons depots and tunnels would be addressed later through a phased decommissioning process linked to an Israeli withdrawal.

The intended endpoint is that only the new Palestinian authority would possess or control weapons in Gaza. But the roadmap leaves unresolved who will enforce the process, what constitutes compliance and which side must act first.

Hamas’ disarmament remains a central obstacle to rebuilding Gaza. Trump has tied reconstruction to the group laying down its weapons, while The Associated Press reported that the Board of Peace had secured approximately $7 billion in pledges by February — a fraction of the estimated $70 billion needed to rebuild the devastated territory.

Moumen al-Natour, a Palestinian lawyer from Gaza and co-founder of the anti-Hamas "We Want to Live" movement, said civilians desperately want the agreement to succeed but do not trust Hamas to relinquish power.

"Civilian people inside Gaza Strip… want safety, want to stop this war, want a new government, want to be alive," al-Natour told Fox News Digital.

But al-Natour, who previously was imprisoned by Hamas, warned that the group would use delays and violations to remain embedded in Gaza.

"I can’t trust Hamas because I know Hamas," he said, arguing that the group had repeatedly arrested and killed Palestinians who opposed its rule. He said an international force of only a few hundred personnel would be unable to secure Gaza or prevent Hamas from intimidating residents and that a much larger force and a new Palestinian police structure would be required.

Drawing on a grassroots network of thousands of Gazan professionals who reject Hamas’ ideology, the "We Want to Live" movement is promoting its own plan to rebuild Gaza’s civil society and is calling for cooperation with the Board of Peace and the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, the technocratic body tasked under the U.S.-backed transition plan with governing and rebuilding the enclave.

Al-Natour also proposed allowing civilians who want to escape Hamas-controlled areas to move into protected zones near the "yellow line" — the boundary separating Israeli-held territory from the rest of Gaza — where they could live under a new Palestinian administration backed by an international security force. He said the arrangement could provide Gazans with a safer alternative while a post-Hamas governing structure is established.

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Michael Milstein, a former military intelligence officer in Israel and now head of the Palestinian Studies Centre at Tel Aviv University, said the compromise has been developing for months under pressure from Qatar, Turkey and Egypt.

Milstein said Hamas may be prepared to give up control of Gaza’s day-to-day government and accept restrictions on heavy weapons but is unlikely to abandon its armed organization completely.

Under the model Hamas appears to favor, Milstein said, a technocratic government and international forces would assume responsibility for public services and reconstruction while Hamas preserves its personnel, infrastructure and political influence — an arrangement resembling Hezbollah’s longtime position in Lebanon.

"There is a very, very low chance that Hamas will completely disarm," Milstein told Fox News Digital, describing the roadmap as the kind of "gray area" Hamas has historically used to its advantage.

The Board of Peace also is pressing for an end to actions that could derail the plan. After Israeli strikes killed civilians and reportedly destroyed medical supplies over the weekend, Mladenov, the director-general of the Board of Peace, called for de-escalation but did not identify Israel by name.

"Two days of strikes across Gaza have killed civilians and destroyed medical supplies," Mladenov wrote on X, adding that he was working with the parties and regional mediators to "create the space for the full implementation of the President’s plan."

Israel, meanwhile, says it will not withdraw before Hamas genuinely disarms. Hamas says Israel must withdraw first.

The roadmap also faces resistance inside Israel’s government. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Settlements Minister Orit Strock urged Netanyahu on Monday to convene the security Cabinet immediately and block the international stabilization force from entering Gaza, according to Israel’s N12 news outlet.

In an urgent letter reported by N12 on Aug. 3, 2026, the ministers called the Board of Peace roadmap "dangerous to Israel" and argued that it contradicts Israel’s stated goals of disarming Hamas and demilitarizing Gaza. They objected that weapons would be placed under the authority of a new Palestinian body rather than removed from Gaza or handed to Israel and that Israeli troops would begin withdrawing while the disarmament process was still underway.

The far-right ministers also argued that the international force would monitor the separation between Israeli troops and the new Palestinian administration rather than directly disarm Hamas. They demanded that Netanyahu prevent implementation until the roadmap is revised to require full demilitarization before an Israeli withdrawal. The letter underscores that the plan’s obstacles extend beyond Hamas: Influential members of Netanyahu’s coalition are also challenging its sequencing, enforcement and security provisions.

That leaves Trump’s proclaimed milestone resting on the same question that has stalled previous Gaza negotiations: whether Hamas is truly preparing to surrender the weapons that underpin its power — or merely buying time to ensure that it remains standing when the rebuilding begins.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy renewed his appeal for U.S.-made Patriot missile interceptors after an overnight Russian missile and drone barrage on Kyiv killed at least 10 people and injured dozens more, Ukrainian officials said Aug. 1.

"The world has Patriot missiles. What matters now is for our partners to make the political decision to provide the necessary packages. The United States knows what we need. Europe knows what we need," Zelenskyy said in a video message shared on X.

"Anti-ballistic missiles must protect people – not sit in stockpiles," he added.

Zelenskyy's appeal came as a former Ukrainian government official told Fox News Digital that Ukraine's civilian protection crisis extends far beyond air defenses, describing "scandalous situations" amid a widening bomb shelter probe that has allegedly exposed deficiencies despite billions spent on construction and repairs.

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Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, is also auditing its shelter spending, according to local reports.

"It's not possible to keep begging for missiles all the time. This is not how one protects the population," ex-Ukrainian government spokesperson Luliia Mendel said. "Zelenskyy is shifting responsibility onto the United States and Western partners for the lack of protection inside Ukraine."

Mendel went on to describe how Ukrainians have been saying they are drawing their "anti-drone curtains" and closing their "anti-missile windows" simply to illustrate that their survival depends more on luck than on systematic protection from the state.

"Scandalous situations keep arising," she said, "where people have no chance to take cover."

"Many still lack shelters close enough to reach quickly every time danger strikes," Mendel added.

Ukraine and Finland launched the Civil Protection Shelter Coalition in May 2025 to help implement Ukraine's civil defense strategy through 2034.

At the coalition's inaugural meeting on Nov. 27, members pledged more than 22 million euros (about $25 million at the time) to support bomb shelter construction and modernization.

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Ukraine's Human Rights Commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets, said in June that his office inspected 1,066 bomb shelters nationwide and found deficiencies in 93% of them, according to The Ukrainian Week.

Some were locked, flooded or otherwise unusable, while others were inaccessible to people with disabilities, the outlet reported.

Prime Minister Sergii Koretskyi ordered a nationwide inspection of civil defense shelters on July 30 after a major Russian missile attack, following reports that some civilians were unable to access shelters during the assault. 

According to Reuters, Kyiv has spent billions of hryvnias on bomb shelters since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. 

Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the city allocated more than 1.1 billion hryvnias (about $26 million) for shelter repairs in 2026, after spending roughly 7 billion hryvnias from 2022 through 2025.

On July 10, he ordered an audit of how district administrations used those funds.

Some people have been sheltering in bathrooms or corridors, offering little to no protection from a direct hit. Others relocate to basements, risking being buried under rubble, Reuters reported.

One woman said she was denied entry to a shelter because of her dog, while another said she has to rent a hotel room to access its shelter. Many others resort to sleeping in underground parking garages, the outlet reported.

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"Thousands of shelters fail to meet basic standards, and mandatory evacuations from dozens of villages and towns in the front-line regions are being announced on a regular basis as Russia expands its fire control," Mendel explained.

"Ukraine's civilian population is largely unprotected, not solely because of shortages of missiles, but because of the absence of any comprehensive system that would give people reliable places to shelter and the means to survive."

Zelenskyy told Axios on July 29 that he had asked Trump for an emergency shipment of about 300 Patriot interceptors ahead of winter, saying Ukraine "needed the Patriots yesterday" and warning that producing them domestically could take one to five years.

"I'm not sure that 300 Patriot missiles would be helpful," Mendel said. "Russia has also intensified its use of guided aerial bombs across the front-line regions, from northern Sumy to southern Kherson, expanding its fire control. No missile system can stop that."

ZELENSKYY SAYS PUTIN 'LOST THE INITIATIVE' AS UKRAINE'S TECH INDUSTRY RESHAPES THE WAR

Mendel warned that without a comprehensive overhaul of Ukraine’s civilian defense system, the country faces an increasingly dire humanitarian situation.

"Zelenskyy and his government are already warning that the winter will be even harsher than the last one, preparing the public for a humanitarian catastrophe," Mendel said. "But Ukraine has not designed a system that would be able to protect its population. Zelenskyy will continue demanding more support and missiles while shifting responsibility."

During a recent appearance on Fox News’ "Hannity," Zelenskyy said Trump had "accepted that he will give us licenses" to produce the interceptors in Ukraine.

Trump later said no agreement had been reached and that the administration was still discussing the proposal.

"I don't think this would ever happen, but, you know, there's people that, you give that technology, they can someday turn on you," Trump told reporters at Camp David on July 31.

"So we have to be very careful," he warned.

At least 72 migrants are dead after a chaotic rush to storm the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, turning one of Europe's latest border crises into a humanitarian disaster that is reigniting debate over immigration across the continent.

Spanish authorities continued searching the waters off Ceuta over the weekend for additional victims after an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 migrants — most of them young men — poured into the tiny Spanish territory in North Africa. Officials said many of the victims drowned while attempting the crossing, while others were killed in a stampede near a breakwater barrier.

The mass crossing unfolded over several days, temporarily increasing Ceuta's population of roughly 84,000 by more than half. By Sunday, many migrants had returned to neighboring Morocco, while others remained in the city or tried to avoid authorities.

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The deaths have intensified the political fight over immigration in Spain and across Europe. Far-right leaders called for tighter border security and the removal of migrants who remained in the enclave.

Santiago Abascal, leader of Spain's nationalist Vox party, visited Ceuta on Sunday and blasted the country's government, calling the migrant influx "an invasion" and accusing officials of failing to protect Spain's borders.

Tensions were also on display Saturday when European Parliament member Alvise Pérez faced angry counterprotesters during a rally in Ceuta. Pérez eventually took shelter inside a nearby bar before police escorted him away.

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Many local residents expressed sorrow over the loss of life, even as the political debate intensified.

"It pains me deeply that young people are dying at sea. It's not right that, in the year 2026, women with children as young as two months old should be crossing the sea only to die," Karima Abenaz, a French national in Ceuta with family in Morocco, told Reuters.

"In Morocco, there's food, there's everything we need," she said. "If we don't have a decent job, we should go on strike and demand our rights from the government. We shouldn't be dying at sea. It's not right."

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Other local residents said the migrants themselves should not be blamed.

Mohamad Abdelkader Driss, a waiter in Ceuta, told The Associated Press that responsibility lies with the authorities.

"If you open the border, of course everyone comes in, but the young men aren't to blame. The authorities are responsible," he said.

Others said the events had tested Ceuta's reputation as a city where Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Hindu communities have long lived side by side. Some also voiced concerns about security and questioned whether another mass crossing could happen again.

The U.S. State Department on Saturday raised its Travel Advisory for Ceuta to Level 3: Reconsider Travel in response to the surge, warning that the "massive and uncontrolled arrival of migrants from Morocco to Ceuta may lead to unpredictable and dangerous security situations."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

A bombing at an upscale restaurant in Moscow that killed three people and wounded at least 21 others on Saturday was a "brutal terrorist act," according to the city’s mayor, who vowed to hunt down those responsible for the attack.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin made the declaration Sunday, a day after the explosion tore through the Balzi Rossi Italian restaurant in the Russian capital.

"Yesterday, a brutal terrorist act was committed in Moscow that claimed human lives. The victims are currently in the city’s hospitals, where they are receiving all necessary care," Sobyanin wrote on social media Sunday.

EXPLOSION AT RESTAURANT IN CENTRAL MOSCOW LEAVES THREE DEAD, MORE THAN A DOZEN INJURED

He added investigators are working to identify those behind the attack and vowed they "will certainly be found and will face the punishment they deserve."

Russian authorities have not identified any suspects, and no group had claimed responsibility as of Sunday.

Russia's National Anti-Terrorism Committee said the blast was caused by a homemade explosive device. Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, citing local officials, reported that a woman carrying the bomb tried to enter the restaurant but was stopped by a security guard before it exploded.

The blast killed the woman, the security guard and a restaurant patron, RIA Novosti reported. At least 21 other people were injured in the explosion, which happened around 8 p.m. local time at the restaurant on Kudrinskaya Square.

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The restaurant was closed to the public Saturday night for a private event, according to its website and Russian state media.

Video released by Russian state media showed heavily armed police officers, ambulances and other emergency vehicles outside the damaged restaurant as investigators examined the scene.

Earlier this year, Russia's Federal Security Service, or FSB, said it would tighten security for senior military and government officials following a series of assassination attempts in Russian cities since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Russian authorities have not linked the restaurant bombing to those earlier attacks or to the war in Ukraine.

Fox News Digital’s Brie Stimson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

A sanctioned tanker loaded with crude is leaving a growing trail of oil in protected waters off the coast of Oman, according to newly reviewed satellite images, as experts warn the stranded vessel could break apart during the region's rough monsoon season.

Satellite images reviewed by The Associated Press show an oil sheen covering roughly 20 square kilometers, or about 8 square miles, around Dhofar's Qibliyah Island, part of Oman's protected Hallaniyat Islands. Dark patches of crude have also reached the shoreline. Experts say the leak has worsened in recent days, fueling fears that rough weather could trigger a much larger spill.

"The last few days, the imagery indicates an increase in oil coming out, as the size of the sheen is growing," Wim Zwijnenburg, an environmental expert with the Dutch peace organization PAX, told the AP.

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He said the biggest risk is that the vessel could break apart as strong winds and rough seas during the annual monsoon season continue to pound the ship's hull.

The 899-foot, Cameroon-flagged Caroline Bezengi has been stranded off Oman's southern coast since June after its crew reported an onboard explosion, according to maritime news outlets. Reuters, citing maritime security sources, reported the vessel first ran into trouble on June 8 near the Yemeni port of Mukalla, where initial assessments suggested a blast may have occurred. The cause has not been confirmed.

Ship-tracking data reviewed by Reuters showed the tanker had loaded Russian crude at the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk before its latest voyage. The vessel has been sanctioned by the United Kingdom, the European Union, Canada and Switzerland for allegedly transporting Russian oil as part of Moscow's so-called "shadow fleet" — a network of aging tankers used to bypass Western sanctions imposed after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

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Zwijnenburg estimated the tanker is carrying more than 800,000 barrels of crude oil and said recent imagery suggests at least one section of the hull has been breached. Other maritime specialists who reviewed the images told Reuters the vessel also appears to be listing, adding to concerns that it could eventually break apart.

The spill threatens a protected marine reserve in the Arabian Sea that is home to endangered petrels and other rare wildlife. Greenpeace Germany warned that oil has already polluted stretches of coastline and damaged the area's fragile ecosystem.

"With oil apparently continuing to leak and the tanker stranded in a difficult location, there is a serious risk of a much larger oil disaster, with even more devastating consequences for the region's coastlines and marine ecosystems," Greenpeace Germany's Nina Noelle told the AP.

The U.N.'s International Maritime Organization said earlier this week it is monitoring the situation, adding that while the vessel has not broken apart, authorities are continuing to assess the safety and environmental risks.

Oman's Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology ordered the vessel's owners to remove the ship and its cargo by July 23. It is unclear whether that deadline was met or whether the owners have responded.

Nearly two decades before the latest war with Iran, an explosively formed penetrator tore through a U.S. Army vehicle on a Baghdad road, killing Staff Sgt. William Brooks and leaving Sgt. (Ret.) Robert Bartlett with injuries so severe that he says he "died three times."

The weapon was part of a broader Iranian campaign that armed and trained proxy forces to target American troops in Iraq, according to federal court findings. In cases involving hundreds of U.S. victims, judges found that Iran manufactured or supplied the weapons used in the attacks and that the assailants were trained or directed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

"It cut me in half from my temple down through my jaw, and then took my gunner’s legs off, and then took the top of my truck commander’s head off," Bartlett told Fox News Digital. "I would end up dying three times and spent four years at the old Walter Reed receiving surgeries, reconstruction and rebuilding."

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Bartlett was driving an armored Humvee on Route Pluto in Baghdad, May 3, 2005, when an explosively formed penetrator tore through the vehicle. Staff Sgt. William Brooks was killed, while Bartlett and two other soldiers were wounded. Bartlett suffered massive facial trauma.

The Army casualty report described Bartlett as "very seriously injured," with massive facial and dental trauma. He was the vehicle’s driver during the route-security mission when an explosive detonated from its right side.

Bartlett said the weapon was an Iranian-supplied explosively formed penetrator linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ campaign to arm militias attacking American forces in Iraq.

"When you’re blown up, you don’t know what’s hit you," he said. "You get the information after, when the intelligence reports come down and command lets you know what you got hit by."

Bartlett’s survival places him alongside two Gold Star families who say Iran’s long-running campaign against Americans did not begin with the latest fighting — and cannot be understood solely through the current headlines.

Capt. Shawn English was killed by an explosively formed penetrator in Baghdad Dec. 3, 2006. Maj. Stuart Wolfer was killed when a rocket struck a gym inside a U.S. base in Baghdad’s International Zone on April 6, 2008.

In the federal cases involving Sgt. (Ret.) Robert Bartlett, Capt. Shawn English and Maj. Stuart Wolfer, the courts found both that Iran manufactured or supplied the weapons used in the attacks and that the assailants were trained or directed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

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Federal courts later held Iran liable for providing weapons, training, financing and other material support to the proxy forces responsible for attacks on U.S. personnel in Iraq.

For their loved ones, those findings offered formal acknowledgment of Iran’s role. They did not end the grief.

"He really was my best friend," Wolfer’s sister, Beverly Wolfer Nerenberg, said in tears before her voice broke. "Sorry, even 18 years later, it doesn’t get easier to talk about."

At her wedding, she chose not to have bridesmaids. Instead, her brother stood beside her as her "man of honor."

"I couldn’t think of anybody else who I was closer to, who really understood me and knew me," she said.

Wolfer was 36 and the father of three young daughters when he was killed.

His sister said he had gone to exercise with a friend when an incoming-fire warning sounded. Those inside the gym had only seconds to react and dropped to the floor because there was no time to reach a protected space.

A military investigation found that a rocket struck the gym’s roof at approximately 3:28 p.m., sending shrapnel into the building. Wolfer and Col. Stephen Scott were almost directly beneath the point of impact and suffered severe injuries. Wolfer was transported to a combat support hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Wolfer’s daughters were approximately ages 5, 3 and 18 months old when their father died, according to his sister.

"I’m beyond grateful and proud of my nieces and how they’ve grown up," Wolfer Nerenberg said. "But it’s really hard to only have memories."

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She described the family as the keepers of Wolfer’s memory, preserving it for children who had little time to know him.

Her family was told soon after the attack that the rocket had come from the direction of Sadr City, Iraq, and was Iranian, she said.

"This war began a long time ago," Wolfer Nerenberg said. "For many of us, the past 18 years has been one long continuous war."

Tricia English said her husband understood the threat posed by explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs —sophisticated roadside bombs designed to punch through armored military vehicles — before one killed him.

During a period of leave shortly before his death, Capt. English appeared distracted and remained awake late into the night working on his computer, she recalled.

"He told me that there were these weapons —specifically called them EFPs — that they had discovered," she said. "They knew where they were coming from, and it was really bad."

"He knew it was Iranian," she added.

English was serving on a military transition team working with Iraqi forces when the EFP struck his vehicle during a convoy operation.

An Army investigation said his mixed American-Iraqi patrol was traveling north when an explosively formed projectile struck the right side of his vehicle. English was evacuated to a combat support hospital and died from his wounds.

His widow said he remained conscious during part of the evacuation and that she was told his last conscious message was: "Tell Trish and the boys that I love them."

"You think after 20 years it wouldn’t be this hard," she said, struggling to continue.

English said the military initially described the weapon simply as a roadside bomb or improvised explosive device. The legal proceedings later exposed her to evidence about the weapon, the people who supplied it and the broader network behind the attack.

"Sitting in the courtroom, I then got so much more information about what really happened and what this really looked like," she said. "That was traumatizing. But he deserved it. I needed to stand up for him."

Bartlett said he joined the litigation not only for himself, but for those who never returned.

"My buddy died, and plenty of my guys — plenty of people — died over there at the hands of the IRGC," he said.

"If I was sent back, if I died and saw the other side and came back, and I’m not doing right by them and their families who didn’t get to have their child come home, then I’m not doing justice," he said. "I’m not living my faith, and I’m not living what I fought to protect, which is the truth."

The legal cases were brought under the terrorism exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which allows certain American victims to sue designated state sponsors of terrorism.

Iran generally did not appear to defend the cases, resulting in default proceedings. However, the judges still required the plaintiffs to produce evidence demonstrating that Iran’s material support was a substantial factor in the attacks.

The resulting judgments found that Iran, acting through the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its Quds Force, supplied Shiite militia groups with funding, training, weapons and technical assistance used to target Americans. Iran has not voluntarily paid the judgments, and the plaintiffs continue to face significant obstacles collecting the money they were awarded.

Iran saw the fall of Saddam Hussein as both an opportunity and a threat.

With its longtime enemy removed and U.S. troops stationed next door, Tehran sought to shape Iraq’s political and security system, expand its regional influence and pressure Washington without confronting the U.S. military directly. The Quds Force cultivated Iraqi militias as proxies, providing weapons, funding and training that allowed Iran to attack American forces while maintaining a degree of deniability.

The Treasury Department has described the Quds Force as Iran’s main instrument for supporting militant groups to advance the regime’s national interests.

Tricia English said the distinction matters because American troops in Iraq were being targeted by a country against which the United States had not formally gone to war.

"We weren’t at war with Iran," she said.

The EFP attacks required Iran’s expertise, money, intelligence, manufacturing and organized networks to transport and deploy the weapons, she said.

"To have such a sophisticated, targeted, supported, funded (operation) — it was so sophisticated," she said. "I think it’s important for Americans to see that."

For Bartlett and the English and Wolfer families, the latest war is not the beginning of America’s confrontation with Iran. It is another chapter in a conflict they have carried in their bodies and families for nearly two decades.

"This war began a long time ago," Wolfer Nerenberg said. "For many of us, the past 18 years has been one long continuous war."

For those who buried their loved ones or carried the effects of Iranian-supplied weapons home in their bodies, Iran’s war against Americans did not begin with the latest fighting — and it has never truly ended.

The court cases presented evidence that the IRGC’s Quds Force built, funded, armed and directed Shiite militia networks, supplying them with sophisticated anti-armor weapons designed to penetrate American military vehicles. The litigation also examined Iranian support for Sunni terrorist organizations operating in Iraq.

The cases challenge the perception that the attacks were solely the work of an organic Iraqi insurgency. Instead, the court findings described a broader Iranian system of proxy warfare that allowed Tehran to target American personnel through militia groups operating on the ground.

She English said successive administrations have invoked Iran’s record of killing Americans when convenient, while the families have continued waiting for meaningful accountability.

"Shawn did his job every single time his country asked him to do it, regardless of who was in power," she said. "It’s been a little disheartening to watch our country — various administrations, people in power—not do theirs when it comes to this."

Bartlett said Americans exhausted by decades of war must still confront the history behind the current conflict.

"You can’t add to truth and you can’t take away from it," he said. "It just is what it is."

For the families, that truth is measured not only in court judgments or military reports, but in missing fathers, brothers and friends—and in wounds that still hurt as sharply as they did when the telephone first rang.

Twenty-eight children from across Israel who lost a parent killed while serving in the country's security forces participated in a three-week delegation to North America as part of the IDF Widows & Orphans Organization's annual Bar/Bat Mitzvah program.

The journey began last month in Chicago, where the children spent a weekend with host families before traveling to Camp Chi in Wisconsin for nearly a week of activities with American kids. They then continued to New York City, where they visited Times Square and saw The Lion King on Broadway, before heading to New Jersey. For many, it was their first visit to the United States.

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"Everything is planned very carefully. The Lion King, for instance, is more than a Broadway show for them. It’s the story of an orphan who is able to honor his father’s memory and move forward because of the support of his friends. Nothing about this trip is accidental. It is deliberately designed to give them as powerful and meaningful an experience as possible," Daniel Elbaum, executive director of the IDF Widows & Orphans Organization, told Fox News Digital.

With the United States home to the world’s largest Jewish population outside Israel, the trip gave the children an opportunity to meet people from diverse backgrounds and levels of religious observance while, for many, experiencing international travel independently for the first time — which Elbaum said reflects their entry into the covenant with the Jewish people in a tangible and meaningful way.

Although the trip was not designed as an initiative to combat antisemitism, Elbaum said fostering a strong Jewish identity, pride in Israel and solidarity with its people are among the most important ways to help American Jews confront the world's oldest hatred.

"As much as I think we are doing something important for these Israeli children, whose families have paid the highest price for Israel, what we are doing for the American children is almost as important in giving them a sense of pride and connection they might not otherwise experience," he added.

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Founded in 1991, the IDF Widows & Orphans Organization supports more than 18,000 widows, widowers and orphans through assistance programs, rehabilitation, advocacy and legislative efforts. Since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 massacre and the ensuing war, 359 widows and widowers — including 48 pregnant widows — and 910 new orphans have joined Israel’s circle of bereavement.

Among this year’s participants was 11½-year-old Tal Goldstein-Almog from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, who was taken hostage to Gaza with his mother and two siblings on Oct. 7 and held for 51 days. His father, Nadav, and sister Yam, an IDF soldier, were murdered during the attack.

Tal did not tell the other children he had been held captive until one evening, when he felt ready to share his experience.

"It’s not hard to tell people, but it’s not easy either. Once you’ve said it, you don’t know how others will react or treat you. That night, it felt safe to open up, and nothing has changed in the way they treat me since," he told Fox News Digital.

The trip was Tal's first extended journey without his family. He learned about the program from a friend from the kibbutz who also participated.

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"Now that I came, I think I will continue taking part in these things after meeting new kids, feeling comfortable around them and understanding that we experienced the same things," he said.

Tal said that since Oct. 7, the connections in his life have helped him maintain a sense of normalcy.

"My motto is that life is always going to continue," he added. "It feels refreshing to come to a new country and experience fun things here."

Shadan Knefiss first participated in the program as an IDF orphan and has since returned as a counselor, supporting the next generation of bereaved children. A member of Israel’s Druze community, she also joined the delegation to help translate for participants whose first language is Arabic.

"I met a lot of people here who don’t know about the Druze. We serve the country, we love our country, and we even die for it. We pay the same price as everyone else. Most terrorists in Israel are Arab, but because we speak Arabic and serve our country, it’s a bit of a twist," she told Fox News Digital.

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Shadan became an orphan at the age of three. Her father, a Border Police officer stationed in Jerusalem, transferred to northern Israel after her brother was born with a serious skin condition so he could be closer to the family. He was killed in a car accident during his first shift there.

"This program helped me in so many ways throughout my life. The people around me have not all lost their father, so sometimes I can’t relate to them. Sometimes I want to share how I feel, but they don’t understand. This program made me feel comfortable talking about things I can’t discuss with people in my everyday life," she said.

Noor, 13, was one of three participants whom Shadan helped during the trip. His father, Yosef Saleh, served in the IDF before joining the Israel Police, where he was killed in the line of duty in 2013.

Noor told Fox News Digital that it was his first trip to the United States. "My message to other children like us is to go on trips, meet new kids and make new friends," Noor said.

JOHANNESBURG: The U.S. is beating China in a high-tech trade war over data centers in a fierce battle being waged across Africa.

Major new deals have been engineered in a public-private partnership between the Trump administration and U.S. companies in Africa, while States across the U.S. clamp down on the centers over their massive reliance on electricity.

The administration’s Bureau of African Affairs has reported it has worked on 37 commercial transactions that have closed since the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term — representing $25.67 billion in total value, with more still being reported.

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Data centers are at the heart of today's global economy — fueling the massive demand for AI and hosting everything from video streaming to housing cloud networks.

In Lesotho, with U.S. help, an American company has won a $6.2 billion deal for a data center and hydropower plant. It is the largest transaction in this Southern African country’s history.

In Gabon, the U.S. Embassy helped win $600 million in business for American companies in 2025. And this year, the embassy in this central African country has assisted in securing a $100 million contract to supply two data centers and a gas-to-power plant, in the face of strong competition from China.

Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Frank Garcia, told Fox News Digital, "Under President Trump’s leadership, the United States is assisting U.S. companies to find new markets and flourish in Africa."

The main strategic competitor in Africa is China. While American goods traded with Africa last year were valued at $83.4 billion by the Office of the United States Trade Representative, Beijing’s General Administration of Customs claimed bilateral trade between China and Africa reached $348 billion for the same period.

But Garcia called out China for giving African countries a raw deal, saying "there are others (notably China) that trap, coerce and undermine. The choice to me is clear — partner with the United States for prosperity."

To drive this initiative, the State Department, through the Bureau of African Affairs, launched the Commercial Diplomacy Strategy in early 2025, with Garcia telling Fox News Digital the U.S. "is working worldwide to advance a level playing field for U.S. companies and address disparities in trade practices."

The playing fields in Lesotho are not level: Geographically because this is a mountain kingdom. Financially because China is historically deeply entrenched in life there. Beijing has dropped all tariffs on Lesotho’s exports. Payments between the two countries have been simplified, with Lesothans able to bank directly with the State-owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

Beijing has canceled debt on major projects in Lesotho, and among other major projects is building a new fire station, a solar power plant and even completed a police fingerprint examination laboratory.

CHINA IS BUILDING AN AI WAR MACHINE. WASHINGTON MUST WAKE UP BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE

This makes it all the more remarkable that, with the administration’s help, primarily through the local embassy, U.S. company Convalt Energy has secured a $6.2 billion agreement with the government of Lesotho.

Garcia told Fox News Digital that the "project includes a 1,200MW pumped-storage hydropower facility and a 900MW AI data center, increasing Lesotho's electricity generation capacity by approximately 1,600% and transforming the country into a net exporter of electricity. The project is expected to generate approximately $2 billion in U.S. energy equipment exports."

Convalt Energy’s President & CEO, Hari Achuthan, told Fox News Digital how U.S. companies such as his are beating China on their traditional turf "American companies can compete successfully by innovating faster, integrating hardware and software, and remaining intensely focused on the needs of the end customer."

A new data center, Achuthan believes, is not only at the heart of the project, but is essential for any country’s growth. "The next major cycle of economic growth will increasingly be driven by artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure and the energy systems required to support them. AI cannot scale without physical infrastructure. Every data center requires reliable power, water, fiber connectivity, land, cooling systems and resilient transmission infrastructure."

"The Trump administration’s emphasis on trade and private-sector investment, rather than relying primarily on grant funding, is closely aligned with our approach in Africa," Achuthan continued. "In Lesotho, we are pursuing a commercially sustainable infrastructure platform built around long-term investment, bilateral trade with a durable, sustainable operating business."

"At the same time," Achuthan added, "the project can create meaningful economic benefits in the United States. Convalt’s U.S. manufacturing facilities are being developed to serve domestic customers as well as international markets, particularly Africa, where demand for power, manufacturing capacity and digital infrastructure is growing rapidly."

The construction of two data centers is part of the $100 million deal Assistant Secretary Garcia says administration officials have helped American company Cybastion secure. Garcia added, "notably, the U.S. company prevailed over Huawei (a Chinese company) in a direct competition for the project."

Cybastion CEO Dr. Thierry Wandji believes U.S. companies can and are now coming to the fore. Earlier this month the U.S. embassy in the Ivory Coast confirmed an even larger deal for Cybastion. The $170 million contract will bring a data center, government digitalization platform and a cutting-edge border surveillance system to this West African country.

Wandji told Fox News Digital, "We believe we are the better option compared to other global competitors. Cybastion brings a unique understanding of the African context and local business environments."

"Africa has some of the world's fastest-growing economies," Wandji continued. "Across the continent, countries are prioritizing sovereign data centers, modernizing their government services through digitalization, and digital workforce development as part of their national development plans.

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"The U.S. tech sector offers global competitiveness unparalleled to any country in the world," Wandji added. "We deliver innovation, transparency and accountability in our business offerings, while creating new markets for U.S. companies."

Convalt’s Achuthan told Fox News Digital what’s working for U.S. business in Africa, "American companies must clearly communicate the value of quality, transparency, safety, responsible business practices and long-term community partnership. Competing solely on price is not enough going forward. Companies from the United States should compete on performance, reliability, innovation, institutional trust and the ability to create sustainable local economic benefits."

Famous mountaineer Nirmal Purja, who was the subject of a 2021 Netflix documentary, was among 10 climbers confirmed dead on Saturday on the world’s 12th-tallest mountain in Pakistan.

The climbers were killed when they were hit by an avalanche on the 26,414-foot-tall Broad Peak Thursday in the Karakoram mountain range.

"The world has lost one of mountaineering's greatest climbers," Elite Exped, the company involved in the expedition, said in a statement, adding, "we mourn not only Nims, but every life lost in this tragedy."

AMERICAN CLIMBER'S REMAINS FOUND AFTER AVALANCHE IN PAKISTAN, OTHER MOUNTAINEERS STILL MISSING

The company added, "No words can ease the pain of this unimaginable loss."

Purja had been leading the group up Broad Peak.

A Pakistani rescue team recovered three bodies on Friday, including American Sarah Mallory Geis, but had to temporarily halt the operation in the "remote and difficult" area due to weather conditions.

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The search resumed on Saturday and rescuers are attempting to recover the remaining seven bodies.

"The loss of these courageous climbers, who came from different nations united by their passion for the mountains, is an immeasurable loss to the global mountaineering fraternity," Irfan Arshad Khan, the president of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, said.

"The mountains inspire us with their beauty, but they also remind us of the immense risks faced by those who venture into the high Himalaya and Karakoram," he added, thanking the military, Sherpas and civilians who took part in the rescue mission.

Along with Purja, who was British-Nepali, and Geis, the other climbers were from Pakistan, Nepal and China.

Purja was featured in the 2021 Netflix documentary "14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible" in which he attempted to summit the world’s 14 tallest mountains in seven months.

British Defense Minister Wes Streeting called Purja an "inspirational ​man who served in our Armed Forces for many years — and whose incredible mountaineering adventures are known the world over."

The 43-year-old had served in the British army with the Gurkhas, Nepali soldiers recruited to serve with the U.K., and he later served in the British special forces.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

The State Department on Saturday raised its Travel Advisory for Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta to Level 3: Reconsider Travel after tens of thousands of migrants surged into the Spanish territory from neighboring Morocco, prompting a major security response.

The updated advisory warns that the "massive and uncontrolled arrival of migrants from Morocco to Ceuta may lead to unpredictable and dangerous security situations."

"Spain has deployed the Spanish military, Spanish National Police, and Guardia Civil as a result of this serious situation," the advisory states. "Americans should reconsider travel to the area given the risks posed to their safety and security."

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The advisory applies only to Ceuta, an autonomous Spanish city on the northern coast of Africa that borders Morocco. The rest of Spain remains under its existing travel advisory level.

Spanish officials have scrambled to respond after tens of thousands of migrants crossed into Ceuta this week. Ceuta President Juan Jesús Vivas said Friday that about 60,000 migrants entered the enclave over a 24-hour period, while Spain's Interior Ministry later estimated roughly 50,000 arrivals since Thursday. Authorities said thousands have since returned to Morocco.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Spain would boost the presence of security forces in Ceuta, deploy a physical sea barrier to help facilitate repatriations and continue working with Moroccan authorities to combat human trafficking networks.

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Authorities have linked the migrant surge to a recent Spanish Supreme Court ruling involving migrants arriving by sea. Sánchez said human trafficking organizations misrepresented the decision, triggering the influx.

The crisis also drew comments from President Donald Trump during a Cabinet meeting Friday at Camp David.

"You know, I saw Spain yesterday, and I watched the catastrophe that took place. It looks like an invasion of a country by hundreds of thousands of people. And that same thing is going to happen to us if the Republicans don't get elected," Trump said.

Earlier Friday, Trump also told Fox News chief White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich: "It's terrible. Remember that picture. That's going to be us in three years if the wrong side gets in."

Ceuta, along with the Spanish enclave of Melilla, has long been a flashpoint for illegal migration into Europe because both territories sit on the African mainland while remaining part of Spain and the European Union.

Three people were killed on Saturday at a restaurant in central Moscow following a massive explosion.

The explosion was caused by a homemade explosive device, Russia's National Anti-Terrorism Committee claimed.

The dead included a woman who attempted to bring the explosive device into the restaurant, a security guard and a patron, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported.

At least 21 more people were injured in the explosion, which happened around 8 p.m. on a ground floor terrace restaurant​ at Kudrinksaya Square, which includes seven skyscrapers built during the Stalin regime.

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A Russian outlet said the explosion happened at the Balzi Rossi ⁠Italian ​restaurant. Its website said it was closed Saturday for a private event.

Heavily armed law enforcement was seen at the scene.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez broadly blasted his fellow European leaders for their response to the surge of tens of thousands of migrants from Morocco to the Spanish border, seemingly criticizing Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni for deciding to resume European border controls in the wake of the incident.

Sánchez appeared to take issue with Italy's decision to temporarily suspend Schengen Area free-travel arrangements with Spain. The Schengen Area is an agreement between 29 European countries which abolishes passport controls and allows people to travel across European borders without providing documents.

"In the current international context, the European Union cannot afford this kind of selfish, polarising and unlawful reaction," Sánchez said in a letter obtained by the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news wire.

Sánchez, who leads the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, touted his country's quick turnaround in expelling nearly all of the 50,000-60,000 migrants who crossed the border back to Morocco.

"Despite these indisputable facts," Sánchez wrote, "the reaction of European governments over the past few hours has been rather asymmetric. Most have showed us their support and solidarity, and have offered their assistance. Others, however, have chosen to attack Spain and to call for its temporary exclusion from the Schengen Area."

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"Such an attitude — driven by prejudice, fake news, ignorance, or political interest — is not only contrary to European law, humanitarian law, and the principles of solidarity that bind us together," he reportedly wrote. "It is also contrary to Europe’s long-term interests and to the most basic common sense, because Ceuta is not part of the Schengen Area, because there are almost no irregular migrants left unreturned, and because Spain is, according to Frontex, one of the least porous external borders of the European Union, with a number of irregular entries that is half that recorded, for example, in Italy in recent years (2021–2026)."

Sánchez additionally requested a formal meeting of the interior ministers of all 27 European Union countries in the letter, which was addressed to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President António Costa and Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin.

Ireland is currently serving its one-year term as the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Sánchez's request followed a mass stampede of migrants from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, which shares a land border with Morocco in North Africa. Approximately 50,000-60,000 people illegally rush over the border into European territory, according to Spanish local and national authorities.

The shocking footage of the flood of people prompted a worldwide response, including from President Donald Trump.

Meloni, a conservative, announced the signing of a letter by 22 EU countries calling for stronger borders.

"The images arriving from Ceuta have once again demonstrated how urgent it is for Europe to respond to illegal immigration," Meloni wrote in a Saturday post on X.

"This is why Italy has promoted, together with Denmark, a letter signed by 22 EU member states, which calls for joint action to strengthen external borders, combat irregular immigration, fight human traffickers, make returns more effective, and eliminate any factor that could incentivize new illegal entries. It is an important signal: the line that Italy has long supported is today shared by an ever-growing number of European nation. Defending the external borders of the Union is not the interest of a single Nation. It is a shared responsibility of Europe," Meloni concluded.

Irish Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan, as part of Ireland's EU presidency, will convene a meeting of the EU's Justice and Home Affairs Council to respond to the crisis, Martin announced in a Saturday post on X.

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Ceuta's President Juan Jesús Vivas said at least 60,000 people — or about 70% of the territory's population — crossed over from Morocco. Spain's interior ministry released its own figures shortly after Vivas spoke Friday, estimating that some 50,000 people had crossed from Morocco since Thursday. It added that 48,300 had already returned to Morocco by Friday evening, with hundreds more going back by the hour.

Von der Leyen claimed none of the migrants who crossed into Ceuta made it to the European mainland and that virtually all of them had returned to Morocco.

"The good news is that the vast majority of those who arrived illegally have returned to Morocco, due to the effective work of Spanish and Moroccan law enforcement. Not a single person reached mainland Spain or the rest of the EU," she wrote in a Saturday morning post on X.

At least 67 people were killed in the border rush. As a result, Spain announced it was installing a 500-meter-long barrier in the sea to combat future migration pushes.

Fox News Digital contacted the offices of the Spanish, Italian and Irish prime ministers and the office of the European commissioner.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

JERUSALEM, Israel: New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is spreading hateful and antisemitic rhetoric and endangering the lives of New Yorkers, Israeli President Isaac Herzog told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview at his Jerusalem residence.

"Mamdani does not respect my nation's right for self-determination… the Jewish people's inherent right to have a nation of their own. And he's basically spreading blasphemy, hate, antisemitic rhetoric. He should understand that he's risking his own citizens, he’s risking their safety, well-being and life," Herzog said.

In an incident that drew global attention, Mamdani posted a video on social media on July 21 in which he called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "a war criminal" and "the architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people."

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"This cannot be accepted in New York, which is a city which is dear to our heart, dear to the Israelis, and dear to me personally," Herzog said.

"I think New York will continue way after Mamdani. And I hope he won't create an irreversible damage," he added.

On Iran, Herzog said the regime has for decades posed a strategic threat to global stability, and not only to Israel and the Middle East.

"They take their people's food and money and spend it on terror all over the world. It's a given fact," he said. "You ask yourself why a nation of this nature wants to have so much terror activity around the world, and that is because of ideology… The ideology does not accommodate any other religion or moderate Islam, for that matter. That is why it is so dangerous," he added.

The United States and Israel launched a joint military campaign against the Islamic Republic on Feb. 28, dubbed Operation Epic Fury by the Trump administration and codenamed Operation Roaring Lion by Israel, before Trump announced a ceasefire on April 7.

Herzog said Tehran’s missile program, activities around the Strait of Hormuz, nuclear ambitions, domestic repression and support for regional terror proxies as evidence of the regime’s major threat to U.S. national security interests. He added that many Americans had been killed by the Islamic Republic.

As some leading political voices in the U.S. have questioned the relationship with the Jewish state, the president stressed the important ties that have made the relationship so important.

"We both drink from this set of values which was commanded to all of us by these historic spiritual books given to us by the Almighty," he said.

The Israeli president highlighted what he described as Trump’s deep support for the Jewish state, demonstrated through both words and actions.

He pointed to Trump’s 2018 decision, during his first term, to relocate the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, as well as his subsequent recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

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Herzog praised Trump’s "endless" backing of Israeli positions "in so many issues" and his "immense support and friendship with Israel," adding that the two countries still more often than not see "eye to eye."

Herzog credited Trump with helping secure the return of 255 hostages held by Hamas following the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre. While acknowledging the efforts of many officials involved, he said Trump "put his foot down" and "pushed and negotiated brilliantly" to bring them home, adding that he had "huge respect" for the American leader.

That admiration among Israelis has not been diminished by any perceived political disagreements, Herzog said, adding that he believes the U.S.-Israel relationship transcends shifting attitudes and growing criticism of the Jewish state.

"I believe that there is something biblical and prophetic in the way our nations work together. And I truly believe that Israel should be a bipartisan issue of friendship and support," he added.

Herzog linked the reported decline in American support for Israel, particularly among younger people, to campaigns of well-funded disinformation on social media.

"It's very easy to smear Israel on TikTok, but that doesn't say the real truth. And I invite every young American to set foot in this country," he told Fox News Digital.

Herzog described Israel as a place where innovators flourish and great ideas are shared with the world, contributing enormously across fields including health, energy, science, agriculture and food security.

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"There's a reason why Americans who visit our country, young Americans, fall in love with this country. And my aim in this interview is to … take off the terrible mask which was placed on our face by terrible forces, some of them, of course, forces which work on it all the time to tell a distorted story."

"We're a nation seeking peace, we're a nation seeking innovation, we are a nation bringing ideas which will save humanity, and we are [a] nation trying to do good," he continued. "And I hope and pray that we will have peace with our neighbors in the entire region, with our Palestinian neighbors as well. But that requires that Israel will be accepted and people will understand that we have security needs."

Herzog addressed the House's recent passage of a $1.15 trillion annual defense policy bill, which largely split along party lines, with the fiscal year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act receiving only six Democratic votes.

He described the development as a "red light," but said it does not signal the end of relations between the American and Israeli public or of bipartisan dialogue and support.

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"Exactly three years ago, I spoke in the American Congress in front of a joint session of the House, marking 75 years of Israel's independence, and I had almost 30 standing ovations," he said.

"I'm aware … of the criticism, and aware of a huge campaign on campuses, and of huge money which was funneled to attack Israel, and also aware of our mistakes," he added.

Herzog said Israeli society is undergoing an evolution following Oct. 7, making it legitimate to ask difficult questions about the country’s future security after such a "horrendous, aggressive, cruel" attack.

At the same time, he said Americans are right to examine the bilateral relationship and Israel’s role in advancing U.S. national security interests.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Netanyahu traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with Trump and attend the memorial service for the late Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

"Lindsey was ever active, always coming with new ideas, brilliant, understood world affairs like no one else, and understood Israel's role in protecting Western values and values of the free world," Herzog told Fox News Digital.

He said Graham also knew how to voice criticism, which is legitimate between friends, and enjoyed support across the Israeli political spectrum.

"[Graham] knew how to fight empires and nations of evil, and to stand up to them without fear. I will always remember him, Israel will always remember him. The Jewish people will always cherish his memory," Herzog added.

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Herzog also raised the importance of how Israel values Christian communities in the Holy Land and is committed to strengthening interfaith dialogue. He added that these communities are a top priority.

According to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics, as of December 2025, Israel’s Christian population stood at approximately 184,200, representing 1.9% of the country’s total population. The community grew by 0.7% over the previous year.

"I myself met the Pope and spoke to him several times and went to the Holy See. I speak to all the heads of churches. I recently had the Greek Orthodox Patriarch and this morning the Cardinal of Jerusalem," Herzog said.

He continued, "I believe in real dialogue with our brothers and sisters from the Evangelical world in the United States and elsewhere. So, the Christian communities are a top priority in Israel and we are doing our best that they will flourish and grow."

Herzog spoke of a zero tolerance of anti-Christian behavior. "I know of cases where there was tension and we're dealing with it aggressively and there's a major reduction in moments of friction. Now we have to work hard throughout the region. Christian communities will be strong and will flourish because there is a movement to shun out Christian communities, especially in some of the Muslim world, in Palestinian communities and elsewhere. And we are dealing with it as well. And I'm here for any Christian community that needs support of any kind. People know it. And I speak to their leaders all the time."

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Herzog weighed in on the controversy surrounding the dismissal of the International Criminal Court’s Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, who issued the arrest warrants against Netanyahu, after member states voted to remove him over sexual misconduct allegations.

Herzog said Khan "absolutely" pushed forward with the arrest warrants to try to distract attention from the sexual assault allegations against him. He added that Khan had wanted to come to Israel to meet with various experts and leaders, including the Israeli president himself.

"Everybody got ready to talk to him and present the real story and the real truth," Herzog told Fox News Digital. "His staff were on their way to the airport and all of a sudden he issued these orders and writs against Prime Minister Netanyahu, [then] Defense Minister [Yoav] Gallant and others. And only in hindsight now we know clearly that it was in order to divert attention from the sexual allegations.

"The case has to be dropped and the ICC should ... not fall into the trap of hate and lies that Karim Khan presented simply to cover for himself," said Herzog.

Lawyers for Karim Khan have said they "will challenge the lawfulness and fairness of the decision through all available legal mechanisms."

Just hours before President Trump’s announcement that Hamas had agreed to a roadmap that includes disarmament on Thursday, Herzog praised the "enormous efforts" by the U.S. administration to advance the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire.

"This is something that can be a major breakthrough if it happens. Let's remember, the 20-point plan of President Trump was approved by the [United Nations] Security Council, and the next phase is disarming of Hamas," Herzog told Fox News Digital.

"The people of Gaza deserve a better life. And there is a real viable plan, including budget and efforts, how to change the course of the future," he added.

But one thing has to be made clear, he concluded: "Hamas cannot control Gaza and cannot turn it into a launching pad for terror and hate anymore."

ŠKOFJA LOKA, Slovenia: The Republic of Slovenia, the central European nation known for being the birthplace of First Lady Melania Trump and LA Lakers star Luka Dončić, is undergoing a radical shift in politics as the country comes to terms with its new larger-than-life prime minister. 

Prime Minister Janez Janša recently scraped together a coalition that did away with the country’s leftist leader, Robert Golob.

In what is his fourth term, Janša has begun what many see as Trump-like policy corrections. He has reversed Golob’s anti-Israel policies by announcing his intent to move the Slovenian embassy to Jerusalem, freezing Slovenia’s recognition of a Palestinian state and revoking a 2025 ban on military trade with Israel.

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Janša also believes in strong U.S. relations. During an America 250 event hosted by the U.S. Embassy in Ljubljana, and with the First Lady's father, Viktor Knavs, in attendance, Janša described how America was the beacon for Slovenian independence. "We imagined America, the United States of America, as the ideal embodiment of that free world... That Slovenia, too, would become the home of the brave in a land of the free." 

Domestically, he says his new government will reverse what he called the Golob government’s "inefficiency" and turn Slovenia into "a country of opportunity, prosperity and justice, where each responsible citizen will feel safe and accepted."

He has announced plans to reverse many anti-business policies, cut government red tape, support private education and healthcare, reform the pension system, decrease the size of government and invest in infrastructure projects, including a plan to build a second reactor at Slovenia’s Krško nuclear power plant.

Despite some policy disagreements, Janša was a close ally of former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. He has expressed support for Ukraine, traveling to Kyiv during his last term as prime minister in March 2022 with the then-Polish and Czech Prime Ministers in an early showing of EU solidarity against the Russian invasion and he recently returned to Kyiv to mark Ukraine Statehood Day as part of the Ukraine–Southeast Europe Summit.

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He supports increased military aid to the country and increased sanctions against Russia. And like Orbán, Janša was staunchly anti-immigrant during the huge Europe migration wave in 2015, when "Balkan Route" migrants practically marched through Slovenia on their way to other parts of Europe.

Janša often praises many of President Trump’s immigration policies. Although no reforms have yet made it through the Slovenian parliament, shortly after taking office, Janša joined 18 other EU leaders in signing a letter calling for "a fundamental change in immigration policy" and practice.

They called for reducing irregular migration, combatting human smuggling more effectively, increasing deportations, and strengthening cooperation with third countries. Janša said Slovenia is "finally joining" other countries calling for these reforms, writing, "The end is approaching for social tourism, overlooked people smuggling and the importation of voters for the European left."

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And, like Trump, Janša has his critics. He has been called "the greatest threat to Slovenia's sovereignty and democracy."

An aggressive user of X, where he comments on politics and criticizes his opponents in late night posting sprees, Janša has had battles with the country’s media, with many accusing him of undermining its independence.

Janša has also served time in jail, having been convicted and imprisoned in a case he called politically motivated.

Now serving a fourth non-consecutive term as prime minister— or predsednik vlade—he strangely lost the election that eventually put him back in office in June.

On two occasions, Janša and his party lost an election, yet he still became the prime minister. Think of it as losing the popular vote yet winning the Electoral College.

Slovenes went to the polls on March 22 after a tumultuous four-year term for then-Prime Minister Robert Golob and his far-left coalition partners. Polls that had initially forecast a landslide victory for Janša tightened quickly in the run-up to election day. Golob’s Gibanje Svoboda, or Freedom Movement, party would "win" by taking 29 seats of the 90-seat legislature with 28.7% of the vote. That was a net loss of 12 seats from the 41 seats and 34.5% of the vote the party won in 2022.

Janša’s Slovenska demokratska stranka, or Slovenian Democratic Party, the party he has led since 1993, took 28 seats with 27.9% of the vote. The same 29-28 outcome as in 2008, when Janša also "lost" yet was able to form a governing coalition.

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After a month of trying, Golob was unable to form a new ruling coalition. Slovenian President Nataša Pirc Musar said she would not nominate anyone for prime minister as no one was able to get the 46 votes needed in Parliament.

Enter Janša, who many analysts call a master coalition builder. After two weeks of discussions, his future government would end up receiving 51 votes in a secret ballot of the National Assembly: 48 from his coalition and their partners, two from the representatives of the Italian and Hungarian minorities in Slovenia… and, surprisingly, one from an anonymous member of the opposition.

Janša has been involved in Slovenian politics since before there was an independent Slovenia. In 1988, he was arrested, tried "in camera" in a military court, and imprisoned by the Yugoslav People’s Army in what became known as the "JBTZ affair". He was alleged to have shared military documents with journalists. After public outcry at the time, Janša was released after serving six months of an 18-month sentence.

In 1989, Janša helped form the Slovenian Democratic Union, one of the first opposition parties in the then-Socialist Republic of Slovenia. After Slovenia’s first free elections in May 1990, Janša was named minister of defense, helping lead Slovenia’s 10-day war of independence against Yugoslavia in the summer of 1991.

In June 2013, the Ljubljana District Court ruled Janša and two others had sought about €2million (about $2.3 million) from a Finnish firm, Patria, to help it win a 2006 military supply contract. Janša was sentenced to 2 years in the same prison in which he began his 1988 imprisonment. He called the case politically motivated and, again, he was released after serving 6 months. The conviction was unanimously overturned by the Constitutional Court in April 2015.

Janša is expected to come to the U.S. to address the United Nations General Assembly in September. It is not known if he will meet with President Trump and the First Lady.