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European officials pitch new idea to shore up defenses with Trump’s return

As NATO member states struggle to meet their defense spending goals and war rages on Europe’s eastern front, officials are struggling to agree on a plan to shore up hundreds of billions of dollars to bolster defenses.  Eight NATO countries did not meet their 2% target for defense spending in 2024. And as many member states struggle with chronically stressed budgets, calls to meet those goals are not being heeded quickly.  The European Commission estimates about 500 billion euros, the equivalent of $524 billion in investments, are needed in the coming decade to defend Europe against evolving threats.  NATO LEADERS PREDICT ERA OF 2% DEFENSE SPENDING ‘PROBABLY HISTORY’ AS TRUMP REPORTEDLY FLOATS HIGHER TARGET The EU’s budget cannot be used to fund defense directly, and some European officials and NATO experts are proposing a global defense bank to dole out funds for military modernization.  A defense, security and resilience (DSR) bank would issue bonds backed by AAA ratings for financially strapped countries to upgrade their defenses and would provide guarantees for commercial banks to offer credit to defense suppliers.  “This is not a substitute to raising defense spending in each of these countries. I think it should be a supplemental tool,” Giedrimas Jeglinskas, chairman of the national security committee in the Lithuanian parliament and a former NATO official, told Fox News Digital.  His remarks echo those of incoming President Trump, who has long threatened to pull the U.S. out of NATO due to the number of nations missing the mark on the 2% goal for defense spending.  “I think we have to look at it also as an opportunity for the U.S. as well,” Jeglinskas added. “I understand the skepticism by Donald Trump of the World Bank and then the IMF [International Monetary Fund] and IFC [International Finance Corporation] and other institutions. I think there’s been a lot of capital deployed and a lot of investments that these banks or institutions do. The real impact is, at best, questionable. So, I think we have to have very clear KPIs [key performance indicators]. We need to build defense.”  The United States’ $824 billion defense budget in 2023 equaled half of total defense spending by all NATO member states combined at $1.47 trillion. PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA READY TO COMPROMISE WITH TRUMP ON UKRAINE WAR The return of Trump to the White House, coupled with a U.S. push to refocus on China, has left Europeans wondering whether the U.S. will have less of an appetite to defend Europe in years to come.  More EU defense chiefs and foreign ministers have pitched the idea of issuing joint debt through bonds to finance military projects.  But some countries like Germany have voiced concerns about maintaining their own sovereignty and a disproportionate financial burden on some countries.  The DSR bank idea is explained at length in a new Atlantic Council report by defense fellow Rob Murray. “For allies across both the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific regions, the bank could go beyond offering low-interest loans for defense modernization to facilitating equipment leasing, currency hedging, and supporting critical infrastructure and rebuilding efforts in conflict zones like Ukraine,” Murray wrote.  “An additional critical function of the DSR bank would be to underwrite the risk for commercial banks, enabling them to extend financing to defense companies across the supply chain.” The goal would be to offer financing to small and medium-sized defense companies that often struggle with access to funds.  “By providing loans with extended maturities, the bank would offer predictable and sustainable funding for defence modernisation. Its governance structures would align funding with collective security goals, such as upgrading arsenals and investing in emerging technologies,” Jeglinskas wrote in a recent op-ed for the Financial Times. Asked how the DSR bank would get countries to agree on defense funding priorities, Jeglinskas likened the idea to the U.K.-led Joint Expeditionary Force, a military alliance that includes Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. Jeglinskas noted the 33 trillion euros in European assets under management across the continent.  “There’s really no political will, no risk appetite to move them anywhere besides the kind of bond markets where they rest now,” he said. “But several nations need to build that initial capital, and then, by using the sovereign rating to get to hopefully AAA in capital markets, raise that money from bond markets and to start funding defense programs.” The European Investment Bank has doled out long-term loans and guarantees to European nations’ projects that align with EU policy goals.  “But even they are struggling with kind of shifting their mandate towards more dual-use technologies is still not allowed in their funding package,” said Jeglinskas.  “Of course, every other bank in Europe is looking at EIB for their signals. That signaling hasn’t been there yet. So, that’s the point. We need to create some sort of mechanism, and that kind of global defense bank would be one of the tools that we could use to rally the capital and really direct it toward defense. So, it’s really creating another multilateral lending institution.”

Billionaires cozy up to Trump with seven-figure inaugural donations after past feuds with incoming president

Companies that previously feuded with President-elect Trump are now making seven-figure donations to his 2025 inauguration. Trump has butted heads with several Fortune 500 company executives over the years, but following his presidential election victory in November, some of those same big-business leaders are dropping major cash on the incoming president’s exclusive inaugural festivities.  “In the first term, everyone was fighting me. This time, everyone wants to be my friend,” Trump recently said at Mar-a-Lago, according to The Washington Post. Meta, the world’s largest social media network headed by Mark Zuckerberg, suspended Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts in 2021 after the events of Jan. 6 — which Trump called an “insult” to his voters. In his new book, titled “Save America,” Trump accused Zuckerberg of “plotting” against him in 2020.  DOJ SEEKS TO BLOCK JAN. 6 DEFENDANTS FROM ATTENDING TRUMP INAUGURATION “He told me there was nobody like Trump on Facebook. But at the same time, and for whatever reason, steered it against me,” Trump wrote. “We are watching him closely, and if he does anything illegal this time he will spend the rest of his life in prison — as will others who cheat in the 2024 Presidential Election.” Trump, in his book, also accused Zuckerberg of “always plotting to install shameful Lock Boxes in a true PLOT AGAINST THE PRESIDENT.” However, the relationship appeared to change course as the election drew nearer. After Trump’s Butler, Pennsylvania, assassination attempt in July, Zuckerberg said Trump’s fist pump in the air after suffering a bullet wound to the ear was “one of the most bada– things I’ve ever seen in my life.” Shortly after Trump won the election in November, Zuckerberg met with the incoming president at Mar-a-Lago. Just weeks later, Meta donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund.  JOHNSON ALLIES URGE TRUMP TO INTERVENE AS MESSY SPEAKER BATTLE THREATENS TO DELAY 2024 CERTIFICATION “Mark Zuckerberg has been very clear about his desire to be a supporter of and a participant in this change that we’re seeing all around America, all around the world with this reform movement that Donald Trump is leading,” Trump adviser Stephen Miller said during an appearance on “The Ingraham Angle.” Despite a yearlong clash between Amazon’s billionaire founder, Jeff Bezos — who also owns The Washington Post — and the incoming president, the e-commerce company recently pledged to donate $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund. After Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity in 2016 that Amazon was “getting away with murder, tax-wise,” Bezos fired back at the then-presidential candidate. Bezos, appearing at a technology conference, said that Trump’s comments were “not an appropriate way for a presidential candidate to behave.” “Washington Post employees want to go on strike because Bezos isn’t paying them enough. I think a really long strike would be a great idea,” Trump wrote in another hit at the billionaire on X, then Twitter, in June 2018. “Employees would get more money and we would get rid of Fake News for an extended period of time! Is @WaPo a registered lobbyist?” The mood appeared to have shifted following the 2024 election, when Bezos said he was “very optimistic” about Trump’s regulatory agenda. “I’m very hopeful — he seems to have a lot of energy around reducing regulation,” Bezos said at the New York Times DealBook Summit. “My point of view is, if I can help him do that, I’m going to help him.” When Ford agreed to make a deal to meet California’s efficiency standards, the company defied then-President Trump’s plans to push back on the state setting its own green energy standards for automakers.  Trump voiced his opposition to the auto giant’s decision, saying that Henry Ford, the company’s founder, would be “very disappointed if he saw his modern-day descendants wanting to build a much more expensive car that is far less safe and doesn’t work as well, because execs don’t want to fight California regulators.”   Ford, one of the world’s largest automakers, recently announced it will be making a seven-figure donation to Trump’s inauguration in January.  Other major automakers, such as GM and Toyota, will also make individual donations of $1 million to Trump. Trump will also receive a $1 million inauguration donation from Intuit, whose stock recently dropped in November after it was reported that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was considering creating a free tax-filing app.

At least 120 killed in S Korea as plane crashes on landing at Muan airport

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY, The crash occurred as the Jeju Air flight from Bangkok, Thailand, landed at Muan International Airport in South Korea. At least 124 people have been killed when a passenger plane caught fire after skidding off a runway and crashing at an airport in South Korea’s Muan city, the country’s National Fire Agency said. The accident occurred on Sunday at 9.03am local time (00:03 GMT) as the Jeju Air flight, carrying 175 passengers and six crew from the Thai capital Bangkok, landed at Muan International Airport located about 289km (179 miles) southwest of the capital Seoul. The National Fire Agency confirmed that 124 people – 57 women, 54 men and 13 others whose genders weren’t immediately identifiable – have been killed, and two people have been rescued – both crew members. The fire that engulfed the plane has been extinguished, the agency said. Citing fire agency officials, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said that hopes are fading for survivors. “There seems to have been some kind of malfunction with the landing gear and images which have been on the media here do appear to show the plane landing on its belly, skidding along the runway, followed then by a huge explosion,” Al Jazeera’s Rob McBride, reporting from Seoul, said. Advertisement “Eyewitness accounts have talked then about a series of explosions and certainly images that we have been seeing have shown a catastrophic fire,” he said. The plane, a 15-year-old Boeing 737-800 jet, was reported to be carrying two Thai passengers and the rest were believed to be South Koreans. Thailand’s Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra has expressed deep condolences to the families of the crash victims. Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been ordered to investigate if Thai passengers were on the plane and to provide “assistance immediately”, the prime minister said in a post on social media. One photo shared by local media showed thick clouds of black smoke coming out of the plane. Another showed the tail section of the jet engulfed in flames on what appeared to be the side of the runway, with firefighters and emergency vehicles nearby. The Yonhap news agency reports that the crash is believed to have been caused by “contact with birds, resulting in malfunctioning landing gear” as the plane attempted to land at the airport. The country’s News1 agency reported that a passenger texted a relative to say a bird was stuck in the wing. The person’s final message was, “Should I say my last words?” Black smoke billows into the air from the airport in Muan, South Jeolla Province, South Korea, after the plane crash on December 29, 2024 [Yonhap via Reuters] An official from South Korea’s Transport Ministry’s aviation department said a bird strike was among several theories for the accident that have not been verified and that an investigation was ongoing. Advertisement South Korea’s Acting President Choi Sang-mok, meanwhile, ordered “all-out efforts for rescue operations” at Muan airport. “All related agencies… must mobilise all available resources to save the personnel,” he told officials in a statement. Jeju Air, one of South Korea’s largest low-cost carriers, which was set up in 2005, issued an apology for the crash, saying it would “do everything in our power in response to this accident”. The crash is the first fatal accident for Jeju Air, though in August 2007, a Bombardier Q400 operated by the airline and carrying 74 passengers came off the runway due to strong winds at the southern Busan-Gimhae airport, resulting in a dozen injuries. Experts say that South Korea’s aviation industry has a solid track record for safety. A woman watches a TV screen broadcasting footage of the aircraft crash at Muan International Airport, at a railway station in Seoul, South Korea, December 29, 2024 [Kim Soo-hyeon/Reuters] Adblock test (Why?)

Chad votes in first parliamentary election in over a decade: What to know

Chadians are voting in parliamentary, regional and municipal elections for the first time in more than a decade, continuing the former military-turned-civilian government’s push to put the Central African country on a democratic path. But opposition party members are sceptical. Officials in N’djamena say Sunday’s vote will formally end a three-year “transitional period” that followed the 2021 death of longtime leader Idriss Deby Itno and the forceful takeover by his son, Mahamat Idriss Deby, who was confirmed as the country’s president after an election in May. However, many opposition parties are boycotting the polls, calling them a “masquerade” and accusing the Patriotic Salvation Movement (MPS) government of trying to legitimise what they call a political dynasty. Chad, one of Africa’s poorest countries, is the first in a string of coup-hit states in the Sahel to hold elections as promised, even if polls were severely delayed. The country is no stranger to coups or repressive governments and has been ruled by the Deby family since 1991. Advertisement Sunday’s vote comes amid a barrage of security challenges: Sudan’s war is raging along the eastern border; the Boko Haram armed group is attacking security locations around Lake Chad; and N’Djamena recently broke a military pact with former colonial master and strong ally, France. Rights groups say without full opposition participation, the election is not likely to be fair. “It will be difficult to have a credible election without inclusivity,” Isa Sanusi, Amnesty International’s country director in neighbouring Nigeria, told Al Jazeera. “That some are boycotting the election shows that there must be a review of the process and system to ensure that a level playing field is provided to accommodate all Chadians.” Here’s what you need to know about the parliamentary elections and why the country’s fledgling steps towards democracy are controversial: A supporter of the Patriotic Salvation Movement (MPS) waves a party flag as he attends a political rally, in N’Djamena in 2021 [File: Marco Longari/AP] How will voters elect? Some 8.3 million registered voters of the country’s 18-million population will vote for legislators in the country’s 188-seat parliament. Parties need 95 seats for a majority. More than 100 political parties have put forward some 1,100 candidates for the parliamentary elections. Winners are elected by a first-past-the-post or a more-than-half majority method, depending on the constituency size. Voters will also choose regional and local governments across 22 regions and the capital, N’Djamena. The Transformers Party, as well as dozens of other opposition parties, are boycotting the elections, arguing that the vote will neither be free nor fair. Advertisement Why were there no parliamentary elections in more than a decade? Parliamentary elections were last held in 2011. Although the term for the legislators was meant to end in 2015, the government indefinitely postponed polls, claiming there were no funds to organise elections. Although the landlocked country is an oil producer, it ranks fourth from the bottom in the United Nations Human Development Index due to years of stagnant economic activity and harsh climate conditions. Despite a clamour by opposition members to hold the elections promptly, former President Deby continued to postpone them. In 2019, the newly established National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) finally promised to hold elections in 2020. However, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted those plans. Following his father’s death at the hands of rebels in May 2021, General Mahamat Idriss Deby, 40, seized power, despite loud calls for elections from opposition parties. The military disbanded parliament and put a one-year Transitional Military Council in place, headed by Deby. In October 2022, the leader disappointed many Chadians when he extended the transition period to 2024. Thousands, especially youth, took to the streets in protest, but security forces opened fire on them, killing more than 100 people. Succes Masra, the young leader of the opposition Transformers Party, was at the forefront of the protests. Masra fled to the United States following the killings. Mahamat Idriss Deby speaks at a stadium in the Dombao district, in Moundou, Chad, in April 2024 [File: Joris Bolomey / AFP] Have there been other elections? Yes, authorities held a successful referendum in December 2023 that supported a new constitution and, in effect, new elections. Advertisement In May this year, Deby swept to victory in controversial presidential elections, amid claims his party rigged the vote with the help of the National Election Management Agency (ANGE). Critics also accused Deby of murdering opposition candidates before the elections. Chadian security forces killed Yaya Dillo, Deby’s cousin and a leading opposition member of the Socialist Party Without Borders (PSF) in February. He was widely seen as the president’s biggest challenger at the time. Officials claimed Dillo led a deadly attack on the headquarters of the country’s intelligence agency on February 28, but Dillo denied the allegations. Dillo was killed in a shootout the following day, along with several other PSF members. Many members are still detained in the notorious Koro Toro maximum security prison, according to Amnesty International. Organisations like Human Rights Watch in 2022 documented how prison officials tortured and murdered detained protesters in the facility.  Deby won 61.3 percent of the vote to the anger of opposition groups who claimed the elections were rigged. International rights groups, such as the International Federation for Human Rights, said the presidential elections were “neither credible, free, nor democratic”. The president placed well ahead of his biggest opponent, candidate Masra of the Transformers Party, who came second with 18.5 percent of the vote. Masra had returned to the country in January this year following a peace agreement and was named prime minister in what many saw as Deby’s attempt to win over opposition members. Tensions returned, however, when the two faced each other in the elections. Masra resigned as prime minister and has since returned to leading the opposition. Advertisement Which parties are running in this election? Patriotic Salvation Movement (MPS): Led by agricultural expert and former Prime Minister Haroun Kabadi, who currently heads the Transitional Council, the MPS is the governing party. It was

Passenger plane crashes at South Korean airport, killing 120

At least 120 people have been killed when a passenger plane caught fire after skidding off a runway and slamming into a concrete fence at a South Korean airport. Two crew members were rescued after the accident that occurred on Sunday at 9:03am local time (00:03 GMT). The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said the plane – a 15-year-old Boeing 737-800 jet – was returning from Bangkok and its passengers included two Thai nationals. The National Fire Agency said rescuers raced to pull people out of the Jeju Air plane carrying 181 passengers at the airport in the town of Muan, about 290km (180 miles) south of Seoul. The fire agency deployed 32 fire trucks and several helicopters to contain the fire, it said. At least 120 people – 57 women, 54 men and nine others whose genders weren’t immediately identifiable – died in the fire, the fire agency said. The death toll is expected to rise further as the rest of the passengers on board the plane remain missing about six hours after the incident – making it one of the worst airline disasters to hit South Korea. Advertisement Footage of the crash aired by YTN television showed the Jeju Air plane skidding across the airstrip, apparently with its landing gear still closed, and colliding head-on with a concrete wall on the outskirts of the airport. Other local TV stations aired footage showing thick pillars of black smoke from the plane engulfed in flames. Lee Jeong-hyeon, chief of the Muan fire station, told a televised briefing that rescue workers are continuing to search for bodies scattered by the crash impact. The plane was destroyed, with only the tail assembly remaining recognizable among the wreckage, he said. Workers were looking into various possibilities about what caused the crash, including whether the aircraft was struck by birds that caused mechanical problems, Lee said. Senior Transport Ministry official Joo Jong-wan separately told reporters that government investigators arrived at the site to investigate the cause of the crash and fire. Adblock test (Why?)

Retired IPS officer Acharya Kishore Kunal passes away in Patna: Who was he?

Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary expressed his condolences, calling Kunal’s death ‘an irreparable loss to society’

State attorneys general ask SCOTUS to uphold TikTok divest-or-ban law amid Trump request to pause ban

The Republican attorneys general of Virginia and Montana recently filed an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to require TikTok to sever its ties with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as the fate of the social media platform in the U.S. remains uncertain. The amicus brief, filed Friday, came the same day President-elect Trump filed an amicus brief of his own, asking the Supreme Court to pause the TikTok ban and allow him to make executive decisions about TikTok once he is inaugurated. In an announcement, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares said he, along with Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen and other state legal officials, had recently petitioned the Supreme Court to uphold the divest-or-ban law against TikTok. The social media company has been intensely scrutinized over its parent company, ByteDance, which is connected to the CCP. In his brief, Miyares argued whistleblower reports prove ByteDance has shared sensitive information with the CCP, including Americans’ browsing habits and facial recognition data. TRUMP NOMINATES PAIR TO HELP LEAD DOJ, ANNOUNCES FEDERAL RAILROAD ADMINISTRATION PICK “Allowing TikTok to operate in the United States without severing its ties to the Chinese Communist Party exposes Americans to the undeniable risks of having their data accessed and exploited by the Chinese Communist Party,” Miyares said in a statement. “Virginians deserve a government that stands firm in protecting their privacy and security. “The Supreme Court now has the chance to affirm Congress’s authority to protect Americans from foreign threats while ensuring that the First Amendment doesn’t become a tool to defend foreign adversaries’ exploitative practices.” GET TO KNOW DONALD TRUMP’S CABINET: WHO HAS THE PRESIDENT-ELECT PICKED SO FAR? Trump’s brief said it was “supporting neither party” and argued the future president has the right to make decisions about TikTok’s fate. Steven Cheung, Trump’s spokesman and the incoming White House communications director, told Fox News Digital Trump’s decision-making would “preserve American national security.” “[The brief asked] the court to extend the deadline that would cause TikTok’s imminent shutdown and allow President Trump the opportunity to resolve the issue in a way that saves TikTok and preserves American national security once he resumes office as president of the United States on Jan. 20, 2025,” Cheung said. Trump’s brief notes he “has a unique interest in the First Amendment issues raised in this case” and that the case “presents an unprecedented, novel, and difficult tension between free-speech rights on one side, and foreign policy and national-security concerns on the other.” “As the incoming Chief Executive, President Trump has a particularly powerful interest in and responsibility for those national-security and foreign-policy questions, and he is the right constitutional actor to resolve the dispute through political means,” Trump’s brief said. Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report. 

Biden still regrets dropping out of 2024 presidential race, believes he could have beaten Trump: report

President Biden still regrets dropping out of the 2024 presidential race last summer after mounting pressure from Democrats to step aside, according to a report.  The president recently told people that he still believes he could have beaten Trump in the November election, despite his rough debate performance in June and his low approval numbers that forced him to leave the race, according to the Washington Post, citing people familiar with the conversations.  Following the June 27 debate, more and more Democrats began to call for him to drop out every day, so another person could run in his place.  The president also saw much of his funding dry up last summer as donors began to doubt his chances of beating Trump.  DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSMAN WHO RAN AGAINST BIDEN CITING ‘PHYSICAL DECLINE’ DEFENDS HIS DECISION: ‘VINDICATION’ Biden left the race on July 21, and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, who had just over three months to campaign before the election.  Trump beat Harris by 2.2 million votes.  Biden has been careful not to blame Harris while insisting to aides that he could have won, the Post reported.  TRUMP TEASES DAY ONE ORDERS TO CANCEL ‘INSANE’ BIDEN POLICIES Even when he dropped out, Biden still believed he could beat Trump – whom he defeated for his first term in 2020, according to the New York Times in September. Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., may disagree.  Clyburn, who met with Biden earlier this year, told the Post that he had told the president, “Your style does not lend itself well to the environment we’re currently in,” while speaking of style versus substance.  Biden national security advisor Jake Sullivan told the Post: “How to govern at this moment to set the U.S. up for long-term success has one answer, and how to govern to deal with midterm and presidential elections in the very short-term might have a different answer. The president went with doing the things that really put America in a strong position.” Among acknowledgments of other mistakes – including his debate performance – Biden has also said that he regrets picking Merrick Garland as attorney general, the Post reported.  CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Convinced to do so by aides who said that Garland would be a consensus pick, Biden has privately said that he feels Garland moved too slowly on prosecuting Trump, while also claiming his son Hunter had been prosecuted too aggressively. Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment. 

Trump says he is a ‘believer’ in H-1B visas for skilled migrant workers as right spars on immigration: report

President-elect Trump appeared to agree with Elon Musk in support of H-1B visas for skilled workers in the U.S., as the right spars on the ongoing immigration debate. “I’ve always liked the visas, I have always been in favor of the visas. That’s why we have them,” Trump told the New York Post Saturday. Trump said that he recognizes the visas on his properties, saying, “I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It’s a great program.” MUSK INFLAMES X WITH PROFANE MOVIE QUOTE IN DEFENSE OF H1-B VISA Trump’s comments come as the right clashes over immigration and the place of foreign workers in the U.S. labor market. Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who have been tapped by Trump to lead his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), argued earlier this week that American culture has not prioritized education enough, and therefore that foreign workers are needed for tech companies like Musk’s SpaceX and Tesla.  Many tech companies have embraced the H-1B visa program, which allows U.S. companies to hire foreign workers in specialty occupations, but critics of the program say H-1B holders are often chosen over U.S. citizens for jobs.  One such critic, Laura Loomer, set off a firestorm on X when criticizing Trump’s selection of Sriram Krishnan, an Indian American venture capitalist, to be an adviser on artificial intelligence policy. MUSK AND RAMASWAMY IGNITE MAGA WAR OVER SKILLED IMMIGRATION AND AMERICAN ‘MEDIOCRITY’ In a post, she said she was concerned that Krishnan, a U.S. citizen, would have an influence on the Trump administration’s immigration policies. “It’s alarming to see the number of career leftists who are now being appointed to serve in Trump’s admin when they share views that are in direct opposition to Trump’s America First agenda,” she wrote. Musk has doubled-down on his position, taking to X on Friday to blast a user who showed a video of him discussing SpaceX processes to go after the billionaire’s stance on the visa program.   “The reason I’m in America along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H1B,” Musk wrote on X. He then went on to quote the 2008 action-comedy movie, “Tropic Thunder,” which was a box office hit.  “Take a big step back and F— YOURSELF in the face,” Musk railed.  Ramaswamy has similarly been pro-H-1B visa, writing: “American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence.” Fox News Digital has reached out to the Trump Transition Team for comment. Fox News Digital’s Michael Dorgan contributed to this report.

When burning hospitals are no longer news

This morning, I opened social media to search for Gaza news. I had to scroll for a while through my newsfeed before seeing the first mention of my homeland. Yet, the news we receive from Gaza through friends, family and social media is no less grim than it was a year ago. Its people continue to cry out for help, hoping the world would hear them. For three months, Dr Hussam Abu Safia, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza, sent appeals for help to the world, as the Israeli army besieged the hospital, cut off supplies, bombarded it, slaughtered people in its vicinity and injured some of the medical staff and patients inside. In a video appeal posted on December 12, Dr Abu Safia lamented: “We are now without any capacity and providing a low-level service. I hope that there are listening ears. We hope that there is a living conscience that hears our plea and facilitates a humanitarian corridor to the hospital so that Kamal Adwan Hospital continues its work to provide services.” Advertisement But his cries for help fell on deaf ears. The day after Christmas, Israeli bombardment killed a woman at the hospital’s front gate and five medical workers: Dr Ahmed Samour, a paediatrician; Esraa Abu Zaidah, a laboratory technician; Abdul Majid Abu al-Eish and Maher al-Ajrami, paramedics; and Fares al-Houdali, a maintenance technician. Shrapnel shattered the skull of nurse Hassan Dabous inside the hospital, putting his life in danger. Yesterday, Israeli soldiers stormed the hospital and set it on fire, expelling 350 patients and kidnapping Dr Abu Safia and other medical staff. This horrific news barely made a blip in international media; there were no reactions from foreign governments or leading institutions, except a few Middle Eastern states and the WHO. Israel has clearly been successful in normalising its brutal attacks, destruction of Palestinian hospitals, and killing of Palestinian patients and medical staff. There was also no reaction from the world when earlier this month, Dr Said Joudeh, the last remaining orthopaedic surgeon in north Gaza, was assassinated on his way to work at the barely functioning al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia refugee camp. Dr Joudeh was a retired surgeon who felt compelled to return to work because of the desperate shortage of doctors caused by Israel’s targeted killings. Just a week before his murder, he had learned that his son, Majd, had been killed. Despite his grief, Dr Joudeh continued his work. Israel is seeking to eliminate all aspects of civilian life in northern Gaza as part of a policy to depopulate it. For this reason, it is targeting civilian infrastructure across the north and obstructing its functioning. The few medical facilities were the last remaining vestiges of civilian life. Advertisement Apart from trying to exterminate medical workers, the Israeli army is also systematically blocking civil defence teams and ambulances from saving lives in the north, often hitting and killing them when they try to do so. And it is not just appeals from the north that are being ignored. The whole of Gaza has been stricken by famine as Israel has dramatically decreased the number of humanitarian and commercial trucks entering the Gaza Strip. Hunger is omnipresent and is affecting even those who may have some means to buy food but cannot find any. My cousin, an UNRWA teacher, recently told me about his visit to his sister, who was ill and displaced in Deir el-Balah. While he was visiting, he could not sleep. He had not eaten bread for 15 days, but it was not his own gnawing hunger as a diabetic that kept him up. It was the cries of his sister’s children who begged for just a piece of bread. Desperate to comfort them, my cousin told them story after story until they drifted to sleep. But he remained awake, haunted by their hunger and his own. Apart from food, Israel is also blocking the delivery of much-needed materials to build shelters. Four babies have already frozen to death since the start of this month. Amid the famine and harsh winter, Israeli bombardment of homes and tents of the displaced has not stopped. On December 7, a distant relative, Dr Muhammad al-Nairab, lost his wife and three daughters when the Israeli army hit their home in Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, west of Gaza City. Two of his daughters, Sally and Sahar, were doctors, helping save lives. They no longer can. Advertisement When my niece, Nour, a mother of two, reached out to her uncle, Dr Muhammad, to extend her condolences, she found the pain of his loss intolerable. I spoke to her shortly after. Her words pierced through the despair like a scream: “When will the world hear us and see us? When will these massacres matter? Are we not human?” On December 11, another family was hit not far from Dr Muhammad’s home in Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood. That Israeli attack killed Palestinian journalist Iman al-Shanti, along with her husband and three children. Days before her murder, Iman shared a video of herself reflecting on the reality of genocide. “Is it possible for this level of failure to exist? Is the blood of the people of Gaza so cheap to you?” she asked the world. There was no answer. Just like war crimes against Palestinians have been normalised, so has Palestinian death and pain. This normalisation not only silences their suffering but also denies their humanity. Yet for Palestinians, the pain of loss is anything but normal – it lingers, sinking into the soul, raw and unrelenting, carried in the echoes of those they have lost, both inside and outside Gaza. It is a transnational pain, a grief that crosses borders and defies boundaries, binding Palestinians in exile to those enduring the horrors of genocide. In a December 3 social media post, journalist Dayana al-Mughrabi, who is currently displaced in Egypt, captured the unending grief of Gaza’s people: “Our loved ones don’t die once, they die many times after