Japan’s Kishida, S. Korea’s Yoon talk tech, cooperation in Silicon Valley
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pledged cooperation on clean-energy supply chains, quantum computing and other innovative technology during a Silicon Valley roundtable on Friday.
Japan’s Daisaku Ikeda, longtime leader lay Buddhist Soka Gakkai, dies at 95
Daisaku Ikeda, who helped spread Buddhist thought around the world through Soka Gakkai – Japan’s largest religious organisation and an ally of the government – has died, Japanese media said on Saturday.
Israeli offensive in crowded south Gaza will put civilians in crosshairs
An Israeli military push into the crowded south of the Gaza Strip, expected in the coming days, may prove more complicated than its ground offensive in the north, with higher casualties likely for civilians and soldiers, a senior Israeli security source and two former top officials said.
The UN stops delivery of food and supplies to Gaza as a communications blackout hinders coordination
Israel has barred entry of fuel since the start of the war, saying it would be diverted by Hamas for military means.
Argentina on a knife-edge as presidential election offers clashing visions of the future
Opinion polls indicate a tight race and a deeply divided electorate.
Ramaswamy blasts GOP rival DeSantis for ‘shameful’ ban of pro-Palestinian campus groups
Ron DeSantis’ move to shut down pro-Palestinian campus groups is receiving pushback both from civil libertarian groups and at least one 2024 presidential hopeful. Earlier this week, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit against the Florida governor’s administration arguing its demand for public universities to “deactivate” local Students for Justice in Palestine chapters is an attempt to “stifle” student speech protected by the First Amendment. A spokesperson for the governor stood by DeSantis’ decision in light of the lawsuit, saying he was right “to disband a group that provides material support to a terrorist organization.” But a DeSantis’ rival for the Oval Office, Vivek Ramaswamy, slammed the order as “utter hypocrisy,” while a libertarian-leaning group that fights for free speech on college campuses is also weighing in critically of the move. DESANTIS HIT WITH LAWSUIT OVER DEACTIVATION OF UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA PRO-PALESTINIAN GROUP “Free speech doesn’t just protect the ideas we love. It protects the ideas we hate,” Ramaswamy told Fox News Digital in a statement. “The idiotic college ‘pro-Palestine’ student groups are dead wrong to excuse genocidal attacks against Jews and spout disgusting antisemitism, but one of the things that makes us different from Islamic terrorists is we don’t silence dissent,” he said. On Oct. 24, Chancellor Ray Rodrigues of the state university system, in consultation with DeSantis, sent a memo to all state university presidents, noting that, after the deadly Hamas attacks that terrorists labeled Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, the National Students for Justice in Palestine (National SJP) released a “toolkit” that refers to Operation Al-Aqsa Flood as “the resistance” and said, “Palestinian students in exile are PART of this movement, not in solidarity with this movement.” Having identified at least two local SJP chapters active in Florida schools, Rodrigues ordered that, because of National SJP’s support of terrorism, those local chapters “must be deactivated.” FORMER ACLU PRESIDENT CAUTIONS THAT AMERICAN SELF-CENSORSHIP IS ERODING FREE SPEECH The chancellor anchored his “deactivation” order for the student groups with Florida law, which makes it a felony to “knowingly provide material support … to a designated foreign terrorist organization.” “Here, National SJP has affirmatively identified it is part of the Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, a terrorist-led attack,” the chancellor said. The ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of an SJP chapter at the University of Florida (UF SJP), arguing the memo is “an attempt to stifle” students’ speech protected by the First Amendment and “fosters an atmosphere of mutual suspicion.” DESANTIS REJECTS DEMS’ CLAIM HE’S ACTING MORE LIKE PRESIDENT THAN GOVERNOR AFTER WEAPONRY SHIPPED TO ISRAEL “UF SJP is fully autonomous from both NSJP and other SJP chapters around the country. The Chancellor’s order provides no basis for attributing the speech of NSJP to Florida SJP chapters, including the UF SJP. Moreover, NSJP’s independent political advocacy — no matter its viewpoint — is fully protected by the First Amendment,” the ACLU said in a press release. “The deactivation order is an attempt to stifle student groups’ pro-Palestine advocacy on campus at a time when the Palestine–Israel conflict is a matter of vital public discourse and concern.” Ramaswamy called the memo “a shameful political ploy” by DeSantis “to ban the existence of pro-Palestinian student groups at Florida universities.” “It’s unconstitutional. It’s utter hypocrisy for someone who railed against left-wing cancel culture,” he said. “Conservatives should be allowed to criticize BLM or vaccine mandates, and crazy liberals should be able to criticize Israel or the West even if they’re dead wrong about it. If government can censor who can speak vs. not, the rest of it really doesn’t matter: We’re no different than those we pretend to fight.” Adam Steinbaugh, an attorney for the free-speech advocacy nonprofit Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), seems to agree, arguing “advocacy alone” does not amount to providing “material support.” “Public universities are bound by the First Amendment and cannot derecognize a student organization because of its protected expression,” said Steinbaugh. CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “Advocacy alone is not material support for terrorism and cannot be the basis to sanction students organizations.” FIRE issued a previous warning in October when the memo was issued, saying “if it goes unchallenged, no one’s political beliefs will be safe from government suppression.” FIRE added there’s no indication from the letter that any action from Florida’s SJP groups “went beyond expression fully protected by the First Amendment.”
GOP lawmakers renew calls to ban TikTok after Usama bin Laden’s ‘Letter to America’ trend went viral
GOP lawmakers are renewing their call for the federal government to ban the Chinese-owned app TikTok after Usama bin Laden’s 2002 “Letter to America” went viral on social media and received sympathy from hundreds of young users. The letter, published by The Guardian but taken offline Wednesday, blamed U.S. policies for the Sept. 11 attacks. “We should ban it,” Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., told Sean Hannity Thursday. “It tracks everything you do on your phone. It tracks everywhere you go, every text message you send, every email you write, and it’s — all that information — all of it’s available to the Chinese Communist Party. “It’s an espionage tool. It’s a propaganda machine, and we ought to ban it.” ‘THE VIEW’ CO-HOST WARNS TIKTOK IS ‘CREATING A RADICAL YOUNG MOVEMENT’ IN THE US Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., called the app “toxic” in a post on X, formerly Twitter, Thursday. “It’s outrageous that Chinese Communist Party controlled TikTok is pushing terrorist propaganda on American kids,” Cotton wrote. “This toxic app should have been banned years ago.” TikTok users reacted to the letter, and some said it changed their worldviews. Others went as far as to say they realized bin Laden “was right.” Part of bin Laden’s letter blamed America for supporting the “Israeli oppression of the Palestinians” and “the occupation” in the Holy Land. Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., condemned the trend on TikTok on Fox News Thursday, calling the sympathy “absolutely disgusting” and “further evidence that we need to ban TikTok or force a sale before a Chinese-controlled app, before the Chinese Communist Party, checkmates the free world by controlling the dominant media platform in America that can spread this dangerous, disgusting nonsense. “It is time for a ban or forced sale before it is too late.” USAMA BIN LADEN’S INFAMOUS ‘LETTER TO AMERICA’ AFTER 9/11 PROMOTED BY TIKTOK INFLUENCERS, GOES VIRAL After the trend gained some traction on TikTok, with 274 videos posted under the hashtag from Tuesday to Wednesday, a compilation of videos was uploaded again to X and gained over 35 million views, surpassing the 1.85 million views originally gained on TikTok. One TikTok influencer, Lynette Adkins, was banned from the app Friday morning after she shared a video of her reaction to reading the letter. She provided Fox News Digital with a statement. “I read the letter after some other creators shared it and was surprised because I never knew it existed,” Adkins said. “I posted it to my page so others could read it as well. “I did not share the letter to promote any form of hate or violence against anyone, nor do I agree with the extremism in it. I was just shocked by what I had read and wanted to have a conversation about it with my followers. I was 3 in 2001 and was always taught 9/11 happened because other people were jealous of our democracy in the U.S. “Now that I’m older and am able to learn about history beyond the narrative of mainstream media, I’m realizing that there is more to the story. I think we all deserve a right to access the information being presented to us and form our own conclusions without subscribing to extreme or radical ideologies. “The letter was taken off of The Guardian’s site after being on there for over 20 years. My TikTok was banned as of this morning, and many people who are sharing the letter are getting their videos removed as well. If we live in a true democracy, I think we should be allowed to have open and peaceful conversations about what’s happening in the world.” Montana is the only state to have passed legislation banning TikTok from all personal devices. More than 30 states have banned it from state-issued devices. And a bipartisan law drafted by Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., and John Thune, R-S.D., introduced earlier this year would crack down on communication technologies developed by foreign adversaries like China and Russia. ISRAELI PM NETANYAHU WARNS AMERICA: ‘IF WE DON’T WIN NOW, THEN EUROPE IS NEXT AND YOU’RE NEXT’ “I will never look at life the same, I will never look at this country the same,” one user said. “Please read it, and if you have read it let me know if you are going through an existential crisis in this moment.” “It becomes apparent to me that the actions of 9/11 and those acts committed against the USA and its people, were all just the build up of our government failing other nations,” another user said. CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP By Friday morning, the hashtag #lettertoamerica was removed from TikTok. “Content promoting this letter clearly violates our rules on supporting any form of terrorism,” a TikTok spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement. “We are proactively and aggressively removing this content and investigating how it got onto our platform. 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.” A spokesperson for The Guardian previously told Fox News Digital, “The transcript published on our website 20 years ago has been widely shared on social media without the full context. Therefore, we have decided to take it down and direct readers to the news article that originally contextualized it instead.”
Pompeo slams Biden admin officials who signed dissent letter on Israel-Hamas: ‘Moral compass is broken’
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo unleashed a fiery response to Biden administration officials who signed on to a dissent letter over President Biden’s pro-Israel stance in its fight against Hamas terrorists — with the former top diplomat saying their moral compass “is broken.” “People who serve our country in any government institution, whether in the military or the State Department, swear allegiance to the United States and should commit to the mission of the President — elected by the American people — and his Administration,” Pompeo said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “If they are unable or refuse to do so, they should resign or face termination.” Hundreds of government officials from 40 departments and agencies within the administration signed an anonymous letter demanding a “cease-fire” and opposing the president’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war. BIDEN OFFICIALS REBEL AGAINST PRESIDENT ON ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR, SIGN DISSENT LETTER “We call on President Biden to urgently demand a cease-fire; and to call for de-escalation of the current conflict by securing the immediate release of the Israeli hostages and arbitrarily detained Palestinians; the restoration of water, fuel, electricity and other basic services; and the passage of adequate humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip,” the letter reads, in part. Biden and others have argued that a cease-fire would only benefit Hamas, who launched a brutal terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, in which militants murdered over 1,000 Israeli civilians. The administration has pushed for humanitarian pauses in fighting, which Israel has carried out. Pompeo said the dissent was a problem that plagued him during his time in office “when hundreds of State Department employees worked to subvert the mission of the Trump administration.” “Then as now, these dissenting staff fundamentally misunderstand their role and authority. Not a single American voted for them or their personal views on foreign policy. Their job is to serve the State Department as it executes the elected President’s foreign policy objectives to keep America safe,” he said. “To do otherwise is not just inappropriate; it is deeply at odds with our Constitutional order and subverts the will of the American people.” BIDEN ALLIES CONDEMN FAR-LEFT CALLS FOR CEASE-FIRE IN ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR: ‘AMERICANS REMAIN PRO-ISRAEL’ Apart from their general outspokenness about government policy, Pompeo argued that the staff “are also dead wrong.” “Their moral compass is broken,” he said. “It is absolutely right for America to back Israel in its war against the barbaric Hamas terrorists who committed the worst massacre against Jews since the Holocaust. Supporting Israel right now isn’t about politics. It’s about enabling the triumph of good over true evil,” he asserted. “Any staffer who fails to recognize this does not deserve the honor of serving the American people at the State Department or any other government agency.” Meanwhile, President Biden on Wednesday said he believes that Israel’s military operation in Gaza will stop when Hamas “no longer maintains the capacity to murder, abuse, and do horrific things to the Israelis.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “Hamas said they plan to attack Israelis again and this is a terrible dilemma,” he said. Fox News’ Anders Hagstrom and Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.
State of the race: Game on in Iowa as Haley battles DeSantis for second place behind Trump
DES MOINES, Iowa – EXCLUSIVE – He trails former President Donald Trump by at least 25 points in the latest polls in the state that leads off the Republican presidential nominating calendar, but Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis remains confident. “We’re going to win here. We have what it takes,” DeSantis vowed in a Fox News interview in Iowa’s capital city. The Florida governor spoke minutes before he sat down with former ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and multi-millionaire biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy – two of his 2024 GOP White House rivals – in front of a large crowd of social conservative voters in a state where evangelicals play an outsized role in Republican politics. DeSantis is making a strong showing in Iowa central to his bid to defeat Trump, who remains the commanding Republican front-runner as he makes his third straight run for the White House. DESANTIS, HALEY, RAMASWAMY, GET PERSONAL AS THEY SIT SIDE-BY-SIDE But Haley, who’s enjoyed momentum in the polls in recent months thanks in part to well-received performances in the first three GOP presidential primary debates, has leapfrogged DeSantis for second place in New Hampshire – which holds the first primary and votes second in the Republican schedule – and her home state – which holds the first southern contest. Now, she aims to make a fight of it in Iowa, where she’s pulling even with DeSantis in some of the latest polls. “The momentum is real. The excitement is there. We’re going to keep working hard to win every Iowan’s vote. We’re not going to give up on Iowa,” Haley touted in a Fox News Digital interview Friday ahead of a town hall in Newton, Iowa. COULD THIS IOWA EVANGELICAL LEADER’S ENDORSEMENT PUT DENT IN TRUMP’S COMMANDING LEAD? With under two months to go until the January 15 caucuses, Haley returned to Iowa showcasing over 70 new Hawkeye State endorsements. And Haley is set to launch a $10 million ad blitz in Iowa and New Hampshire in two weeks. Asked what kind of finish she needs in Iowa, Haley responded, “we don’t look at it as what do we have to have. The way I look at it is, we’re not going to stop until we get every single person’s vote. That’s the focus.” But Haley, who only last month opened her headquarters in Iowa, is playing catch up with DeSantis, who been all-in on the Hawkeye State for months. Between his campaign and the DeSantis-aligned super PAC Never Back Down, the Florida governor has built up a formidable ground game. “We’re going to get the job done,” he pledged. In a major boost for DeSantis, the Florida governor landed the endorsement earlier this month of Gov. Kim Reynolds, who is very popular among Hawkeye State Republicans. Reynolds’ backing helped DeSantis alter a negative narrative. Reynolds is scheduled to spend Saturday campaigning with DeSantis at multiple stops in Iowa. DeSantis called the endorsement “a huge plus for us.” He’s also aiming to land the endorsement of Bob Vander Plaats, the president and CEO of The Family Leader, the influential social conservative group that hosted Friday’s presidential forum. Vander Plaats backed former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in 2008, former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania in 2012, and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas in 2016 — all three of whom went on to win the Iowa caucuses, but failed to capture the GOP presidential nomination. When asked about winning the support of Vander Plaats, DeSantis told Fox News “we would love that endorsement…I think after this forum, that may be a time when they want to dig in.” WITH NINE WEEKS TO GO UNTIL THE FIRST VOTES IN THE GOP PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION RACE, THIS CANDIDATE REMAINS IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT DeSantis, who earlier this year signed a six-week abortion ban into law in Florida, questioned Trump’s social conservative credentials and argued that “Haley has moved left on a lot of these issues, so I’m really the conservative choice at this point. I think the governor [Reynolds] endorsing me shows that. I think you’ll see us coalesce the support of conservatives on caucus night.” At the forum, Haley doubled down on comments on her stance on abortion that she made last week at the third Republican presidential debate, in which she urged Americans to find consensus when it comes to limiting abortions. Haley also reiterated that she is “unapologetically pro-life” and emphasized that “our overall goal is how do we save as many babies as possible and support as many moms as we can.” Nicole Schlinger, a longtime Iowa-based strategist with close ties to evangelicals, told Fox News that “this was the answer that I think Iowans were waiting for from Amb. Haley on life issues… I think that was very positive.” “Gov. DeSantis really came alive during the second half of this forum,” added Schlinger, who’s neutral in the GOP presidential nomination race. “This was a very pro-DeSantis crowd. He got the biggest applause.” A couple of hours before the presidential forum in Des Moines, Haley landed a surprise endorsement from another social conservative leader in Iowa. As Haley was taking questions from the audience at a town hall in Newton, Iowa, former state GOP executive director and former president of the Iowa Right to Life Marlys Popma stood to speak. “I was an undecided voter when I walked in here today, and I am no longer an undecided voter,” Popma said, as many in the crowd applauded. “I just want to tell Nikki that I wholeheartedly support you.” While Haley and DeSantis have repeatedly clashed in recent weeks as they battle for second place in the polls behind Trump, who remains the commanding front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination, there were no fireworks at the Family Leader forum. Asked if it’s getting personal between her and DeSantis, Haley told Fox News “no, it’s not personal. I think Ron’s been a good governor. I think we’re both fighting to save our country. I
Trump leads Biden on these key issues by massive margin: poll
A new poll suggests that significantly more voters trust former President Donald Trump in handling the ongoing crisis at the southern border compared to President Biden — just as the U.S. remains wracked by a historic migrant crisis. The Marquette Law School Poll asked respondents who would handle immigration and border security better. Of those polled, 50% said Trump, 27% said Biden, 7% said about the same and 16% said neither. Respondents also believed Trump to be better on the economy by a 21-point margin. It also found him preferred on the Israel-Hamas war, foreign relations and Medicare and Social Security by just one point. Biden was preferred on abortion policy and climate change. TRUMP SAYS HE WILL CARRY OUT THE ‘LARGEST DOMESTIC DEPORTATION OPERATION IN AMERICAN HISTORY’ IF ELECTED The poll comes as the U.S. continues to face a migrant crisis now deep into its third year. There were more than 249,000 migrant encounters in October, the highest October on record. That comes after more than 2.4 million migrant encounters in FY23 — itself an annual record – and more than 600,000 gotaways. Republicans have hammered the Biden administration for its handling of the migrant crisis, blaming it on its policies — including the rolling back of Trump-era policies like the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) and border wall construction, as well as decreased interior enforcement. In the House, Republicans have passed a sweeping bill that would strictly limit asylum and increase border security measures — including resuming wall construction. But it has not received support from Democrats, which would be needed for it to pass the Senate. Republicans have also moved to impeach DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas — although a bid to do that failed in the GOP-controlled House this week. Trump, running for the presidency in 2024, has promised to carry out the “largest domestic deportation operation in American history” if elected. THOUSANDS OF CHINESE NATIONALS, GOTAWAYS AT THE SOUTHER BORDER SINCE OCT 1: SOURCES Meanwhile, the Biden administration has said it is dealing with a hemisphere-wide crisis, and is in need of resources and immigration reform legislation to fix what it says is a “broken” immigration system. It also says it is using a strategy of implementing “consequences” for illegal entry while broadening “legal pathways” for migration. It has called for the passage of legislation it unveiled in early 2021, which not only would have broadened immigration paths but also would have granted amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants already in the country. It has yet to pick up any Republican support. The White House recently requested an extra $14 billion in supplemental funding for “border operations.” That includes money for for migrant services and housing, anti-fentanyl technology and more border agents. A fact sheet put out by the White House stressed that the Biden administration’s strategy is “focused on enforcement, deterrence and diplomacy” that includes a massive expansion of “lawful pathways” into the U.S. “The request we have made of Congress today provides critically needed funding to equip the Department of Homeland Security with the people and tools it needs to prevent cartels from moving fentanyl through our ports of entry and to enforce our immigration laws in an orderly and effective way,” Mayorkas said in a statement. Meanwhile, the crisis has not only affected border communities but also cities and states deeper in the interior. New York City on Thursday announced deep budget cuts, including to policing and education, which it blamed on the billions it is spending on dealing with the more than 110,000 migrants that have come through the “sanctuary” city in the last year.