Mongolia urges Russia, other nations to return cultural artefacts
Mongolia on Monday called for more support from Russia, Britain and other countries to repatriate hundreds of cultural artefacts, some dating back over two millennia.
Biden turns 81 as worries about his age weigh on re-election prospects
U.S. President Joe Biden turns 81 on Monday, a milestone likely to draw attention to his status as the oldest person to ever occupy the Oval Office, with opinion polls showing Americans worried he is too old for the post he is seeking reelection to.
Treasury yields rise as investors weigh economic outlook
U.S. Treasury yields were higher Monday as investors considered what could be ahead for the economy and Federal Reserve interest rates.
Kyiv suffers second night of drone attacks; Ukraine claims gains in Dnieper River battle
The Ukrainian capital Kyiv endured a second successive night of drone attacks on Sunday, local officials said.
Who is new OpenAI CEO Emmett Shear? All you need to know about the man replacing Sam Altman
After a weekend of rumor and speculation, Emmett Shear — former CEO of Twitch — confirmed he will take the top job at OpenAI.
Soros-backed ‘anti-police’ DA sparks outrage after showing up to fallen officer funeral: ‘Slap in the face’
FIRST ON FOX: A George Soros-backed district attorney in Austin, Texas, who has drawn intense criticism over his prosecution of police officers and his progressive sentencing reform agenda, sparked outrage from law enforcement after showing up at the funeral of a fallen Austin police officer and eventually leaving early, sources told Fox News Digital. Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza arrived at the funeral for Austin Police Officer and SWAT Team member Jorge Pastore, who was shot and killed Nov. 11 while responding to a call about a barricaded gunman holding three hostages, and multiple law enforcement sources say Garza left the funeral early after his presence sparked outrage. “When he came walking in, I thought what gall this man has to show up at a funeral for an officer killed in the line of duty when all he’s done since he’s been in office is go after cops,” funeral attendee Dennis Farris, president of the Austin Police Retired Officers Association, told Fox News Digital. Garza campaigned for district attorney by promising to prosecute police officers, and he fulfilled that promise by indicting 19 officers involved in quelling a Black Lives Matter riot that the department previously exonerated, which his critics say was politically motivated. Garza also went through on a promise to indict Austin Police Officer Christopher Taylor for murder in a move that critics called “more evidence of anti-police bias.” ‘STUNNED’ MOTHER OF DEPUTY KILLED BY MOTORIST BLASTS SOROS DA FOR NOT PURSUING CHARGES: ‘UNCONSCIONABLE’ Garza has also faced criticism for his progressive policies and lenient sentences that victims of crime and their families have said make the city less safe. One law enforcement source told Fox News Digital that Garza came to the funeral and was asked to leave a room set aside for first responders because he was “making people uncomfortable,” and then he went to an area set aside for the mayor and city council, where he was also “not supposed to be.” Another source said that after being told he was not welcome where he was, Garza was told he could watch the funeral in a room on television, at which point he chose to leave. It is unclear if Garza was specifically asked to leave the venue at any time, but sources say he was “asked to leave areas he never belonged in the first place” and eventually left early. FAMILY OF MURDERED TX MAN SAYS SOROS DA IGNORED THEIR WISHES, CUT DEALS WITH SUSPECTS: ‘ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED’ “It was a slap in the face to every officer there seeing Garza at the funeral,” an Austin police officer at the funeral who wished to remain anonymous told Fox News Digital. “Everyone I spoke to expressed anger, confusion or both given his relationship, or lack thereof, with the law enforcement community.” “What’s worse, it seemed as though Garza was genuinely confused as to why he was being asked to leave areas he didn’t belong, as though he didn’t understand all the problems he’s caused by unjustly indicting so many of our brothers and sisters. He should have just stayed home.” Fox News Digital reached out to Garza’s office for comment but did not receive a response. Garza was backed by progressive billionaire George Soros’ financial network during his campaign for office in 2020. Soros contributed $652,000 to the Texas Justice & Public Safety PAC in the months leading up to the 2020 Travis County DA election, according to campaign finance records. That same PAC spent almost $1 million on digital and mail advertisements to help Garza’s campaign. AUSTIN POLICE PAST AND PRESENT SOUND ALARM ON RIPPLE EFFECTS OF DEFUNDING POLICE: ‘IT’S CRUSHING MORALE’ “From my perspective, he wasn’t welcome and the fact that either he was asked to leave or he chose to leave on his own,” Farris said. “Whatever the case may be, I’m glad he left because he shouldn’t have shown up in the first place.” Garza’s brief appearance at the funeral also sparked a flurry of reactions on social media from accounts that called out the district attorney for his previous actions. “The most anti-Police DA in Austin history was asked to leave a police funeral,” Travis County GOP Chairman Matt Mackowiak posted on X, formerly Twitter. “Actions have consequences.” “DA Garza knew exactly what he was doing showing up at this funeral,” Austin-area attorney Adam Loewy posted on X. “He knew his presence would create controversy as a family mourned – but did it anyway. Troubling.” APD Officer Jorge “George” Pastore was laid to rest on Friday after a long motorcade made its way through a 16-mile circuit that ended at the Circuit of the Americas amphitheater where a large gathering of police officers from across the state was waiting to pay their final respects, Fox 7 Austin reported. “His dedication to our department, our community and his teammates was second to none. None. Pastore was always all in,” Austin Police Interim Chief Robin Henderson said at the funeral. “Pastore exemplified leadership, teamwork, inclusion, selflessness, passion and resiliency.”
Former Miss Pittsburgh launches super PAC to take on ‘Squad’ Democrats, oust anti-police politicians
FIRST ON FOX: Miss Pittsburgh is taking on Washington. Madison Campbell, the recently-crowned Miss Pittsburgh and CEO of Leda Health, launched the new Survivor PAC to help elect tough-on-crime candidates and oust anti-police politicians. One of the PAC’s first targets is none other than a freshman “Squad” member: Democrat Rep. Summer Lee of Pennsylvania. NORTH CAROLINA CONGRESSMAN, MISS USA TEAM UP TO PROMOTE STEM EDUCATION AT STATE OF THE UNION Campbell told Fox News Digital in a phone interview that she started the PAC after “seeing the potential” of the Pittsburgh area – which she has seen change dramatically since her youth. “I have to tell you, it reminds me of San Francisco,” Campbell said. “There are not only tons of homeless encampments, there are needles, there is feces.” The Allegheny County native recalled that, at the age of 12, she walked around downtown Pittsburgh by herself, but was “shocked” at how different the city had become after she returned from college. Campbell, a survivor of sexual assault, said she was “constantly in fear of walking alone” in San Francisco and always thought of Pittsburgh as different. “It’s very debilitating to me to see the city that I grew up in, that I love, that I used to walk around in, turn into what happened in San Francisco,” she continued. Campbell said her PAC’s polling shows that people in Allegheny County believe “crime has gotten significantly worse” in the last five years and that people are “really worried about sexual assault and rape.” Miss Pittsburgh also said the people of Allegheny County are concerned about rising antisemitism, especially in the wake of the Hamas surprise terrorist attacks in Israel on Oct. 7. Campbell noted the Oct. 27, 2018, massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh and said her community cares “about these issues.” “We polled what constituents think about antisemitism and the rise of hate speech happening in the Jewish population, and over 80% of Allegheny County extremely is worried about what happened after Oct. 7 and protecting their Jewish neighbors,” Campbell said. “And they have a very unfavorable appetite for Summer Lee returning,” she continued, adding that her “goal is to show data to the American public in specific races” that voters will come out to support tough-on-crime candidates who are “going to fight for the Jewish people.” Campbell said the “reason” she polled Lee is because she “has not been an advocate for Israel” and “has not really spoken up to a lot of the Jewish constituents” in Pittsburgh. “And I can tell you, anecdotally, from talking to a lot of my friends who are Jewish and living [in Pittsburgh,] they don’t feel represented by Summer Lee,” Campbell said. Campbell also said she polled Lee because she wanted to “put data behind” what she was hearing from the Jewish population of the “Squad” member’s district. Miss Pittsburgh said that Survivor PAC is “focused on victims of crime and creating innovative solutions” around them. “We want to endorse politicians that are going to think out of the box when it comes to crime,” Campbell said. “And that’s not just sexual assault. That’s all types of crime.” “And what we’re basically saying is the old way of thinking, trying to do the same thing for the last 50 years, is not going to work. We need innovative players here from a district attorney perspective, from a mayoral perspective, you name it.” “Like if we think about what happened in San Francisco over the last like what week, they managed to clean up all of San Francisco in, what, two, three days,” Campbell noted, saying “it shows that there is the political power to do that.” “There is political power to create innovative solutions to clean up our cities, but there needs to be willpower,” she added. “And a lot of these politicians lack willpower.” Lee’s campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Biden admin poised to green-light tribal gambling expansion despite opposition from Native Americans, Dems
The Biden administration is poised to move forward with a plan to allow a tribe in the Pacific Northwest to build a second casino far beyond its territory, a move other tribes and Democrats in the region have argued vehemently against. The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) is expected to issue a final environmental impact statement (EIS) potentially green-lighting the Oregon-based Coquille Indian Tribe’s proposal to develop and operate a casino outside its territory in Medford, Oregon, as soon as this week, people familiar with the federal review process told Fox News Digital. The BIA issued its draft EIS in November 2022 for the proposal and the public comment period for that action lasted until late February. A wide range of voices, including several regional tribes, tribes nationwide and bipartisan lawmakers, blasted the draft EIS which recommended the federal government approve Coquille’s move to build an off-reservation casino, the so-called Cedars at Bears Creek. “The Coquille Indian Tribe’s application to transfer fee land in Medford, Oregon into trust for gaming using the restored lands exception directly threatens the sovereign rights of tribal governments to operate gaming on their lands,” the Tribal Alliance of Sovereign Indian Nations, which represents 13 tribes in California, wrote to BIA Assistant Secretary Bryan Newland earlier this month. NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBE PLANS PROTESTS, CONSIDERS SUING BIDEN ADMIN OVER OIL-LEASING CRACKDOWN In a similar letter to Newland, the California Nations Indian Gaming Association, which represents dozens more federally-recognized tribal governments on issues related to gaming, similarly argued that finalizing the draft EIS would threaten its members’ “sovereign rights” as tribes. The issue over whether to approve the Coquille’s casino has been hotly-contested since the tribe first proposed the plan about a decade ago. The plan was proposed under an Obama administration policy that eased gaming and trust-land acquisition restrictions, an action that critics have worried the Biden administration is doubling down on. BIDEN TOUTS PRO-NATIVE AMERICAN EFFORTS DESPITE AXING OIL DRILLING THAT SUSTAINS TRIBES But opponents of the Cedars at Bear Creek proposal — including the California Nations Indian Gaming Association, Tribal Alliance of Sovereign Indian Nations, other tribes and lawmakers — have particularly argued that developing the project would infringe upon other nearby tribes’ rights and have the impact of lowering their gaming revenue. They have also said the move would set a dangerous precedent whereby tribes are able to freely build gaming venues on or near other tribes’ lands and reap the financial benefits. The Coquille already operate the Mill Casino in North Bend, Oregon, and the Cedars at Bear Creek casino would be the first off-reservation casino in Oregon. “The bottom line is if the Coquille Tribe is allowed to build another casino in Oregon, it will likely lead to allout gaming conflicts between Oregon and California tribes,” Democratic Oregon Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, and Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of California wrote last year to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland. “It would also have a detrimental impact on tribes in Oregon and California that rely on the income generated by their gaming facilities and utilize those funds to provide vital governmental services,” they continued. “This would have negative consequences in many of our communities if Oregon and California’s carefully crafted balance between producing gambling revenues and an overall focus of public good for our citizens were seriously compromised by the Department of Interior approving a second casino for the Coquille Tribe.” NATIVE AMERICAN LEADERS REBUKE BIDEN ADMIN OVER OIL LEASING BAN: ‘UNDERMINES OUR SOVEREIGNTY’ Democratic Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek and Reps. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore., Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., Jared Huffman, D-Calif., Cliff Bentz, R- Ore., and Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif., have also opposed the new Cedars at Bear Creek casino. In addition, a broad coalition of tribes in the region led by the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, whose territory is near the site of the proposed casino, and including the Karuk, Tolowa Dee-Ní, Smith River and Klamath Tribes, have appealed to the federal government to reject the proposal. The Cow Creek have noted Coquille’s own estimates that show Cow Creek’s Seven Feathers Casino Resort would suffer a 25% decrease in gaming revenue if Cedars at Bear Creek is constructed. “I want to emphasize the profound impact Coquille’s second casino would have on my Tribe and my people,” Cow Creek Chair Carla Keene said during a BIA-hosted public hearing late last year. “It will impact essential governmental services that the Tribe provides. It will impact our education program. It will impact our ability to provide healthcare and social services that many of our members rely upon.” “If approved, and the doors open, this will open the floodgates for additional casinos in the State by this one Tribe,” added Cow Creek CEO Michael Rondeau. “The other Tribes do not enjoy that ability to open second casinos. The casino is 150 miles from their reservation.” Stephen Dow Beckham, an expert of Native American history and the Pamplin Chair of History at Oregon State University’s Lewis & Clark College, said during a second public hearing in January 2023 that the proposal was “wrongheaded.” NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBES DEPENDENT ON FOSSIL FUEL RESOURCES RIP BIDEN ADMIN FOR DOUBLE STANDARD “Never have I seen a case of more blatant, glaring reservation-shopping than the proposal of the Coquille Tribe to reach 168 miles from North Bend, Oregon into the treaty cession area of the Rogue River tribes to try to justify a second casino and entertainment venue,” Beckham remarked at the time. “The Coquille Tribe was not an aboriginal tribe in the Rogue River Valley. It lived over on the coast of Oregon. This project will have deleterious impacts on neighboring tribes,” he continued. “The impacts of the Coquille casino will undermine the delivery of services to the Karuk, the Klamath, the Tolowa, the Smith River and the Cow Creek peoples; all so that another tribe from North Bend, Oregon can have a second casino and hotel.” And last week, Russell Attebery, the chair
Jailed Egyptian aid worker freed by Trump admin defends radical terrorist group: ‘I don’t condemn Hamas’
An Egyptian American woman freed from an Egyptian jail with help from the Trump administration in 2017 recently took to social media to praise Hamas and called it “morally abhorrent” to condemn them in the wake of their terrorist attack on Israel that killed more than 1,200. “I don’t condemn HAMAS and never will,” Aya Hijazi posted on X on Nov. 7, a month after Hamas massacred more than 1,200 Israelis. “I don’t condemn Palestinians who exhausted every peaceful way on earth to end their occupation and save their lives.” “I condemn anyone who asks the world to condemn HAMAS,” Hijazi added. “You are morally abhorrent with reverse standards. One for the Whites and ones for everyone else. And your standards of occupation, land theft, besiegement and mass murder don’t apply to me.” BIDEN OFFICIALS REBEL AGAINST PRESIDENT ON ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR, SIGN DISSENT LETTER Trump and his aides engaged in behind-the-scenes diplomatic efforts to secure Hijazi’s freedom in 2017 after attempts by the previous Obama administration failed. Hijazi, who was 30 years old at the time, was released after spending three years in Egyptian prison on human trafficking charges and was alleged to have ties to the radical Islamist group Muslim Brotherhood. “I asked the government to let her out,” Trump told The Associated Press at the time. “You know Obama worked on it for three years, got zippo, zero.” In May 2018, pro-Trump influencers Charlie Kirk and Scott Presler mentioned Hijazi while touting prisoners freed by Trump. Over the past couple of weeks, Hijazi’s social media accounts have been littered with posts supporting Hamas and Palestinians while slamming Israel. “There is no amount of ingratitude in the world that can beat Hijazi’s ungratefulness to her country that came to her rescue,” Hussain Abdul-Hussain, research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital. INTERNAL STATE DEPARTMENT MEMO ACCUSED BIDEN OF ‘MISINFORMATION’ ON ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR “Hijazi’s venom in her X posts is not directed against the U.S. only, but against the West at large, which she often depicts as the White Colonial Man,” Hussain added. “The irony is that, had the thought of this West – life, liberty and equality – not spread throughout the world, Hijazi would have been probably locked up at her father’s house, married shortly after puberty, then locked up again at her husband’s house, birthing a dozen children and running the household.” “Had it not been for this Western thought, Hijazi would have likely been illiterate, her voice never heard outside her family quarters. It was her U.S. citizenship that made the leader of the free world throw America’s weight behind her freedom, and then receive her like royalty in the Oval Office,” Hussain added. Hijazi endorsed Biden for president in 2020 in a social media post and claimed that Trump only freed her to bolster his “ego.” However, Hijazi walked back her support of Biden in a recent social media post, calling him “Genocide Joe” and saying there is “no way on earth” she will vote for him again due to his current support of Israel. Cynthia Farahat, author of “The Secret Apparatus: The Muslim Brotherhood’s Industry of Death,” told Fox News Digital that “no one should be surprised by Aya Hijazi pro Hamas stance.” “She has and does indeed support the Muslim Brotherhood, and this is why her comments are often featured positively on their official website, something the Brotherhood only does with its overt and covert members and agents,” Farahat said. “Hamas is the Palestinian wing of the Muslim Brotherhood. This is a fact not an opinion. This is why she will always be on their side even when they engage in horrific crimes against humanity like their barbaric terror attack against Israel.” Hijazi, a dual national, was born in Egypt and grew up in Falls Church, Virginia, a Washington suburb. She received a degree in conflict resolution from George Mason University in 2009. According to her Linkedin profile, she received her Master of Public Administration (MPA) from Harvard University in 2021 and served as a “leadership coach” there for 5 months “with a focus on anti black racism and anti sexism.” RASHIDA TLAIB MEMBER OF SECRET FACEBOOK GROUP WHERE HAMAS TERRORISTS GLORIFIED Farahat told Fox News Digital that the Trump administration was likely “unaware of her affiliation” with Muslim Brotherhood “and acted based on bad intelligence.” “Even if we were aware, we put her freedom ahead of her political affiliations. We argued that even if she were Muslim Brotherhood, she should be heard,” Hussain, who is of Iraqi and Lebanese origins and has spent time growing up and working there, told Fox News Digital. “But it turns out that we were wrong. These Islamists are not interested in making a point, they are after incitement to violence. They don’t argue. They spew venom against America and the West. You read her X posts and you wonder: Did she really grow up pledging allegiance to the flag and the Constitution? Because if she did, it does not really show in her posts.” In a statement to Fox News Digital, Hijazi said she is “always very grateful for being freed by the United States and the honorable treatment I received” but is also “heartbroken that the expectation of gratitude equates an expectation of silence over genocide and colonization.” Hijazi referred to Hussain’s conclusion as a “heartbreaking stereotype,” saying that her cousins in Egypt are all “college educated and fell in love with spouses of their own choosing.” “Indeed, I have huge critiques of many of the White Man’s vices, most notably colonization and foreign policy,” Hijazi continued. “At the same time, most of my time and life’s work is in fact dedicated to critiquing the practices of brown/Muslim/ Men. I don’t ascribe to the idea that any group should be immune to critique, including one’s own.” Fox News Digital reached out to the Trump campaign for comment and did not receive a response. The Associated Press and Reuters contributed
GOP lawmakers press TikTok CEO on ‘deluge of pro-Hamas content’ on platform
FIRST ON FOX: A group of House Republicans is demanding more transparency from TikTok about how content is amplified and how much insight China has into those processes as accusations mount against the social platform that it’s boosting antisemitic videos. “On October 7, the Palestinian terrorist organization, Hamas, brutally attacked Israel and killed more than 1,400 people. Since this terrorist attack, disinformation related to the conflict has run rampant on your platform, stoking antisemitism, support, and sympathy for Hamas,” they wrote to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew. The letter is being led by Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga. It comes just days after TikTok was under fire for facilitating a surge in viral videos expressing support for Usama bin Laden’s 2002 “Letter to America” written in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. TikTok said the content “clearly violates our rules on supporting any form of terrorism,” and that it would be removing the content. However, the company defended itself: “The number of videos on TikTok is small and reports of it trending on our platform are inaccurate. This is not unique to TikTok and has appeared across multiple platforms and the media.” BILL MAHER SCOLDS OBAMA’S ‘MORAL EQUIVALENCY’ ON ISRAEL-HAMAS: HE ‘DISAPPOINTED ME’ Carter cited reports that content flagged as pro-Palestinian was far more widely viewed than videos supporting Israel. “Many of the younger generations are turning to TikTok rather than search engines and other verifiable sources for their news. You have led these generations to believe that TikTok is an ‘unfiltered’ news source,” the GOP lawmakers wrote. National security hawks have been wary of TikTok’s connection to China, with its parent company ByteDance being based in Beijing. ISRAELI PM NETANYAHU WARNS AMERICA: ‘IF WE DON’T WIN NOW, THEN EUROPE IS NEXT AND YOU’RE NEXT’ “Earlier this year, while testifying before the Committee on Energy and Commerce, you stated that the [Chinese government] did not have control over TikTok. However, former TikTok employees reported that [China] has access to American user data and is closely involved in decision-making and product development,” the letter said. “This control, alongside troubling reports of privacy and data security breaches, such as monitoring American journalists’ locations, prove that the CCP is using TikTok as a surveillance and manipulation tool.” The lawmakers are demanding to know how many employees at TikTok have connections to ByteDance, how the platform screens for misinformation and anti-Israel content amid the conflict with Hamas, and how its algorithms are curated, among other queries. CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “Given that roughly half of TikTok’s U.S. user base is under 25 years old, American youth are being exposed to extremely violent and disturbing images and videos,” they wrote. “This deluge of pro-Hamas content is driving hateful antisemitic rhetoric and violent protests on campuses across the country. The CCP has already co-opted your platform, and it seems TikTok and TikTok’s employees are resigned to becoming a mouthpiece for antisemites, terrorists, and propaganda.” Fox News Digital has reached out to TikTok for comment.