Dem champions possible Israel-Hamas hostage deal ahead of Thanksgiving, but staunchly rejects cease-fire calls
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., championed news of a possible deal to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas ahead of Thanksgiving, but rejected calls for a cease-fire in Gaza. Coons, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, made clear that there is a difference a cease-fire in Gaza and humanitarian pauses. “Well, let’s draw a distinction here,” Coons told “Fox News Sunday” host Shannon Bream, “between a cease-fire – some folks are calling for a cease-fire and protests across Europe and in our country, by which they mean Israel should stop fighting Hamas, should end their campaign in Gaza – or a pause that has been negotiated between Israel and Hamas to allow the release of hostages, Israeli and American and other nationality hostages, and allow them food and fuel and medicine to get into Gaza. A negotiated brief pause in the fighting, I think would be a good thing, and I would strongly support. A cease-fire, meaning an end to Israel’s campaign against Hamas. I don’t support and neither does the president.” DEMOCRATIC SENATOR CONFRONTED BY LEFT-WING REPORTER ON AMTRAK: ‘YOU ARE BOTHERING ME’ “News of a potential hostage deal, Shannon, is great news just before Thanksgiving for the 10 American families whose loved ones are being held hostage and the more than 230 others. I’ve met with those families, Shannon, in Tel Aviv, and in Washington, and it’s heartbreaking to be with parents who don’t know how their children are doing and who believe they are being held in tunnels… beneath Gaza,” he said. “This is a good development today.” The Washington Post first reported Saturday that the United States, Israel and Hamas had reached a tentative agreement to release an initial 50 or more hostages in smaller groups every 24 hours. The release could begin within the next several days, according to reports. In an op-ed in The Post published on Saturday, President Biden vowed that at the time of his writing, “my team and I are working hour by hour, doing everything we can to get the hostages released.” In the piece, titled, “The U.S. won’t back down from the challenge of Putin and Hamas,” Biden also declared, “Every innocent Palestinian life lost is a tragedy that rips apart families and communities,” and vowed, “Gaza must never again be used as a platform for terrorism.” NETANYAHU WAR CABINET STIFLES REVOLT FROM FAR RIGHT OVER SENDING GAZANS FUEL WITHOUT HOSTAGE DEAL: REPORT “As long as Hamas clings to its ideology of destruction, a cease-fire is not peace,” Biden wrote. “To Hamas’ members, every cease-fire is time they exploit to rebuild their stockpile of rockets, reposition fighters and restart the killing by attacking innocents again. An outcome that leaves Hamas in control of Gaza would once more perpetuate its hate and deny Palestinian civilians the chance to build something better for themselves.” The U.S. is providing weapons and intelligence support to Israel as it mounts an offensive into Gaza with the goal of rooting out Hamas following the Oct. 7 attack, which killed more than 1,200 people. Biden has spoken repeatedly with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and says he is working for the release of Hamas-held hostages, which include Americans. At least 11,400 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, according to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry in Gaza, which does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths. Demonstrators calling for a cease-fire in Gaza have staged protests around the country, including clashing this week with police outside the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee. Coons himself was confronted on camera while riding on a train by an activist demanding the senator agree to a cease-fire. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Voting begins in Argentina’s presidential runoff, may send Trump-admiring populist Milei into presidency
Voters in Argentina were heading to the polls Sunday in a presidential runoff election that will determine whether South America’s second-largest economy will take a rightward shift. Populist Javier Milei, an upstart candidate who got his start as a television talking head, has frequently been compared to former U.S. President Donald Trump. He faces Economy Minister Sergio Massa of the Peronist party, which has been a leading force in Argentine politics for decades. On Massa’s watch, inflation has soared to more than 140% and poverty has increased. Milei, a self-described anarcho-capitalist, proposes to slash the size of the state and rein in inflation, while Massa has warned people about the negative impacts of such policies. The highly polarizing election is forcing many to decide which of the two they consider to be the least bad option. ARGENTINA’S JAVIER MILEI COPIES TRUMP’S PLAYBOOK TO BECOME COUNTRY’S BIGGEST PRIMARY ELECTION VOTE-GETTER “Whatever happens in this election will be incredible,” said Lucas Romero, director of local political consultancy Synopsis. “It would be incredible for Massa to win in this economic context or for Milei to win facing a candidate as professional as Massa.” Voting stations opened at 8 a.m. (1100 GMT) and close 10 hours later. Voting is conducted with paper ballots, making the count unpredictable, but initial results were expected around three hours after polls close. Milei went from blasting the country’s “political caste” on TV to winning a lawmaker seat two years ago. The economist’s screeds resonated widely with Argentines angered by their struggle to make ends meet, particularly young men. “Money covers less and less each day. I’m a qualified individual, and my salary isn’t enough for anything,” Esteban Medina, a 26-year-old physical therapist from Ezeiza, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, told The Associated Press on the sidelines of a Milei rally earlier this week. Massa, as one of the most prominent figures in a deeply unpopular administration, was once seen as having little chance of victory. But he managed to mobilize the networks of his Peronist party and clinched a decisive first-place finish in the first round of voting. His campaign has cautioned Argentines that his libertarian opponent’s plan to eliminate key ministries and otherwise sharply curtail the state would threaten public services, including health and education, and welfare programs many rely on. Massa has also drawn attention to his opponent’s often aggressive rhetoric and has openly questioned his mental acuity; ahead of the first round, Milei sometimes carried a revving chainsaw at rallies. FORMER ROCKER NICKNAMED ‘ARGENTINE TRUMP’ GAINS ELECTION STEAM WITH ANTI-SOCIALIST MESSAGE Massa’s “only chance to win this election when people want change … is to make this election a referendum on whether Milei is fit to be president or not,” said Ana Iparraguirre, partner at pollster GBAO Strategies. Milei has accused Massa and his allies of running a “campaign of fear” and he has walked back some of his most controversial proposals, such as loosening gun control. In his final campaign ad, Milei looks at the camera and assures voters he has no plans to privatize education or health care. Most pre-election polls, which have been notoriously wrong at every step of this year’s campaign, show a statistical tie between the two candidates. Voters for first-round candidates who didn’t make the runoff will be key. Patricia Bullrich, who placed third, has endorsed Milei. Javier Rojas, a 36-year-old pediatrician who voted for Bullrich in October, told The Associated Press he’s leaning toward Milei, then added: “Well, to be honest, it’s more of a vote against the other side than anything else.” Underscoring the bitter division this campaign has brought to the fore, Milei received both jeers and cheers on Friday night at the legendary Colón Theater in Buenos Aires. The vote takes place amid Milei’s allegations of possible electoral fraud, reminiscent of those from Trump and former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Without providing evidence, Milei claimed that the first round of the presidential election was plagued by irregularities that affected the result. Experts say such irregularities cannot swing an election, and that his assertions are partly aimed at firing up his base and motivating his supporters to become monitors of voting stations. Such claims spread widely on social media and, at Milei’s rally in Ezeiza earlier this week, all those interviewed told the AP they were concerned about the integrity of the vote. “You don’t need to show statistically significant errors,” Fernanda Buril, of the Washington-based International Foundation for Electoral Systems, said in an e-mail. “If you draw enough attention to one problem in one polling station which likely doesn’t affect the results in any meaningful way, people are likely to overestimate the frequency and impact of that and other problems in the elections more generally.”
AIDS conspiracies to antisemitism: Inside Bin Laden’s deranged letter picking up new support online
Usama bin Laden, the Islamic jihadist who organized the 9/11 attacks against Americans over 20 years ago, has been back in the headlines this week after his “Letter to America” picked up attention on social media. But those promoting it appear to be glossing over the deranged conspiracy theories and threats that the terror honcho pushes in the diatribe. The two-decades-old piece of jihadist propaganda was wiped from The Guardian’s website earlier this week due to a surge in attention — “without full context” — it was getting after some influencers on TikTok began talking about it. Some users 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. GOP LAWMAKERS RENEW CALLS TO BAN TIKTOK AFTER USAMA BIN LADEN’S ‘LETTER TO AMERICA’ WENT 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. TikTok said the number of videos promoting the content is small and “reports of it trending on our platform are inaccurate.” The company said it was proactively and aggressively removing content and investigating how it got onto the platform. But the letter, unsurprisingly for something penned by a terrorist mastermind, is packed with extremist rhetoric, threats of violence, antisemitism and other language that would typically fall afoul of left-leaning online communities. In the rambling tirade, bin Laden justifies al-Qaeda’s attacks against the U.S. because “you attacked us” and “You attacked us in Palestine.” “The blood pouring out of Palestine must be equally revenged,” he threatens, before accusing the U.S. of occupying “our countries” and starving Muslims. Asking rhetorically “what do we want from you?” he answers: “The first thing that we are calling you to is Islam” before excoriating America for not being an Islamic theocracy. “You are the nation who, rather than ruling by the Shariah of Allah in its Constitution and Laws, choose to invent your own laws as you will and desire. You separate religion from your policies, contradicting the pure nature which affirms Absolute Authority to the Lord and your Creator.” “It is the religion of Jihad in the way of Allah so that Allah’s Word and religion reign Supreme,” he claims. He also calls for the end of “immortality and debauchery.” “We call you…to reject the immoral acts of fornication, homosexuality, intoxicants, gambling’s [sic], and trading with interest.” The now-deceased terrorist dives headfirst into antisemitic conspiracy theories, alleging that “the Jews” control “your policies, media and economy.” USAMA BIN LADEN’S INFAMOUS ‘LETTER TO AMERICA’ AFTER 9/11 PROMOTED BY TIKTOK INFLUENCERS, GOES VIRAL “As a result of this, in all its different forms and guises, the Jews have taken control of your economy, through which they have then taken control of your media, and now control all aspects of your life making you their servants and achieving their aims at your expense,” he says. Soon after, he accuses the U.S. of trading “sex in all its forms” before tapping into fringe conspiracy theories about HIV/AIDS: “Go ahead and boast to the nations of man, that you brought them AIDS as a Satanic American Invention.” He issues an exhaustive list of demands in terms of global policies and reducing the American footprint abroad, before threatening the U.S. in no uncertain terms. “If you fail to respond to all these conditions, then prepare for fight [sic] with the Islamic Nation,” he said. Bin Laden was killed by U.S. Navy SEAL Team 6 in May 2011. While the online influencers calling on Americans to “read” the letter have expressed how it changed the way they view the world, few if any have addressed the actual content of the terrorist propaganda they are urging people to read. Charles Cooke, a senior editor at National Review, was one of many who were critical of the revisionism Bin Laden’s work is being given — saying that “one would have thought that at least some of it ought to have been reflexively, presumptively, self-evidently abhorrent to the nobody-purer-than-me TikTok crowd.” CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “What is it about those ideas being expressed by someone foreign — someone who can plausibly (albeit stupidly) be cast as a victim — that causes otherwise exquisitely sensitive people to completely gloss over them?” he asked. “In quotidian American politics, the most inconsequential of sentiments are routinely cast as being a part of the ‘white, male, cisgendered hegemony.’ But Osama bin Laden starts talking about the evils of homosexuality and fornication, about the fusing of church and state, and about ‘complete submission to His Law,’ and it’s just…ignored,” he said. Fox News’ Jamie Joseph contributed to this report.
Scams targeting older Americans, most using AI, caused over $1 billion in losses in 2022
Older Americans reportedly lost $1.1 billion to fraud in 2022, according to the annual Senate Committee on Aging report released this month, and most of the scams utilized AI technology to clone the voices of people they knew and other AI-generated ploys. During a Thursday committee hearing on AI scams, committee chairman Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., published the group’s annual fraud book highlighting the top scams last year. It found that from January 2020 to June 2021, the FBI found “individuals reportedly lost $13 million to grandparent and person-in-need scams.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass, also a member of the committee, said the $1.1 billion figure in total losses is “almost surely an underestimate,” since it does not factor in the instances of victims who don’t report scams due to embarrassment. Casey said in a statement that “federal action” is needed to put up guardrails to protect consumers from AI-generated scams. There are currently very little regulations on AI capacities, which witnesses urged lawmakers to crack down on through legislation. WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)? “Any consumer, no matter their age, gender, or background, can fall victim to these ultra-convincing scams, and the stories we heard today from individuals across the country are heartbreaking,” he said. “As a parent and grandparent, I relate to the fear and concern these victims must feel.” The top 10 categories of scams reported in the fraud book were financial impersonation and fraud, robocalls, computer scams, catfishing on dating profiles, identity theft and others. The most prominent scams used AI technology to mimic people’s voices who then make calls to the victims, family members or loved ones, asking for money. Several testimonies from witnesses in the hearing said they received calls that sounded exactly like their loved one was in danger, was injured or was being held hostage. Tahir Ekin, PhD, director of the Texas State Center for Analytics and Data Science, who was present at the hearing, testified this deliberate strategy of impersonation catapults “their believability and emotional appeal.” US MILITARY NEEDS AI VEHICLES, WEAPON SYSTEMS TO BE ‘SUPERIOR’ GLOBAL FORCE: EXPERTS “Prioritizing the enhancement of data and AI literacy among older Americans, and actively involving them in prevention and detection efforts, stands as a cornerstone,” he said. One older couple, featured in a video testimony in the hearing, received a call from who they thought was their daughter. She sounded distressed and asked for help. “My daughter was, she was crying on the phone, profusely crying and saying, ‘mom, mom, mom,’ and of course my wife was saying, ‘LeAnn, LeAnn, what is the matter?’, and she repeated it again, ‘mom, mom, mom’ and it sounded exactly like her,” Terry Holtzapple, one of the victims, said. Gary Schildhorn, a Philadelphia-based attorney and another targeted victim of an AI voice clone scam, also testified at the hearing. He almost sent $9,000 to the scammer until he confirmed with his daughter-in-law it was an extortion attempt. The scammer, posing as an attorney, called Schildhorn requesting funds to bail his son out of jail for causing a car accident and failing a breathalyzer test. US, NOT CHINA, SHOULD TAKE LEAD ON AI “There was no doubt in my mind that it was his voice on the phone — it was the exact cadence with which he speaks,” he said. “I sat motionless in my car just trying to process these events. How did they get my son’s voice? The only conclusion I can come up with is that they used artificial intelligence, or AI, to clone his voice… it is manifestly apparent that this technology… provide[s] a riskless avenue for fraudsters to prey on us.” Since no money was sent, however, law enforcement told Schildhorn that no crime had been committed and no further action was taken. “With crypto and AI, law enforcement does not have a remedy,” Schildhorn said during the hearing. “There needs to be some legislation to allow these people to be identified… so that there’s a remedy for the harm that’s being caused. Currently, there’s no remedy,” he said. According to the Federal Trade Commission, elderly Americans are more likely to fall prey to online scams than younger people.
2024 battle for Senate majority: These five seats held by Democrats are most likely to flip
It was the announcement Senate Democrats were dreading. When it came, it appeared to strike a major blow to their hopes of holding their razor-thin Senate majority in the 2024 elections. “I have made one of the toughest decisions of my life and decided that I will not be running for re-election to the United States Senate,” Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia announced earlier this month. Manchin, a moderate Democrat and former governor, won over 60% of the vote in his 2012 re-election, but his margin of victory fell to just three points in 2018. CHECK OUT THE LATEST FOX NEWS 2024 POWER RANKINGS The consensus was that Manchin was the only Democrat who could win in West Virginia next year after his state shifted dramatically to the right over the past decade. Former President Donald Trump carried West Virginia by nearly 40 points in the 2020 election. Democrats control the U.S. Senate with a 51-49 majority, but Republicans are looking at a favorable Senate map in 2024, with Democrats defending 23 of the 34 seats up for grabs. Three of those seats are in red states that Trump carried in 2020 — West Virginia, Montana and Ohio. Five other blue-held seats are in key swing states narrowly carried by President Biden in 2020 — Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. WITH NINE WEEKS TO GO UNTIL THE FIRST VOTES, THIS CANDIDATE REMAINS THE COMMANDING FRONT-RUNNER IN THE GOP PRESIDENTIAL RACE “Democrats have multiple pathways to protect and strengthen our Senate majority and are in a strong position to achieve this goal,” Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesman David Bergstein argued in a statement after Manchin’s announcement. “In addition to defending our battle-tested incumbents, we’ve already expanded the battleground map to Texas and Florida,” Berstein added, pointing to what he called “unpopular Republican incumbents.” Texas and Florida, where incumbent senators Ted Cruz and Rick Scott are seeking re-election, appear to be the only potentially competitive GOP-held seats up for grabs next year. Here’s a look at the five seats most likely to flip in 2024. With Manchin not seeking re-election, National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) chairman Sen. Steve Daines said, “We like our odds in West Virginia.” Right now, the main action is in the Republican Senate primary, where popular Democrat-turned-Republican Gov. Jim Justice has the backing of the NRSC and Trump. Justice has rasied more money than his main rival, conservative Rep. Alex Mooney, who enjoys the support of the fiscally conservative Club for Growth. The first Democrat to jump into the race following Manchin’s departure is 32-year-old Zachary Shrewsbury, a native West Virginian and Marine Corps veteran. Democrats breathed a sigh of relief when Sen. Jon Tester of Montana announced earlier this year that he would seek re-election in 2024 in a state that Trump carried by 16 points three years ago. The Democratic incumbent has hauled in a formidable $15 million in fundraising so far this year. Tim Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL and Purple Heart recipient who notched more than 200 missions in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere around the globe, launched a Republican Senate bid in late June. Sheehy, the CEO of Bridger Aerospace, a Montana-based aerial firefighting and wildfire surveillance services company, enjoys the NRSC’s backing. Rep. Matt Rosendale, a hard-right congressman, is seriously mulling a bid. Rosendale narrowly lost to Tester in the 2018 Senate election. Longtime Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown is the only member of his party to win a non-judicial, statewide election in Ohio in the past decade. As Brown runs in 2024 for a fourth six-year term representing Ohio, he will be heavily targeted by Republicans in a state that was once a premier general election battleground but has shifted red over the past six years. Trump carried Ohio by eight points in his 2016 presidential election victory and his 2020 re-election defeat. Last year, Trump’s handpicked Senate candidate in Ohio — Sen. JD Vance — topped longtime Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan by six points despite Ryan running what political experts considered a nearly flawless campaign. Brown, who has served as a congressman, state lawmaker and Ohio secretary of state during his nearly half century career in elective politics, is well known across the Buckeye State. The senator, known as a champion for populist causes, raked in $3.6 million in contributions during the first three months of this year. Two Republicans who ran unsuccessfully for the 2022 GOP Senate nomination in Ohio are already in the race to oust Brown. State Sen. Matt Dolan, a former top county prosecutor and Ohio assistant attorney general, launched his campaign in January. Dolan, whose family owns Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Guardians, shelled out millions of his own money to run ads for his 2022 Senate bid. He surged near the end of the primary race, finishing third in a crowded field of Republican contenders, winning nearly a quarter of the vote. In April, Bernie Moreno, a successful Cleveland-based businessman and luxury auto dealership giant, declared his candidacy. Moreno, an immigrant who arrived in the U.S. legally from Colombia with his family as a 5-year-old boy, also shelled out millions of his own money to run TV commercials to try and boost his first Senate bid. But he suspended his campaign in February 2022 after requesting and holding a private meeting with Trump. In July, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose joined the race, launching a much-anticipated Senate campaign. With Democrat-turned-independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema appearing to gear up for a re-election campaign — even though she hasn’t officially announced a campaign — the Senate race in battleground Arizona could be the most complicated of the 2024 cycle. Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego is already running on the left and has raised more money than Sinema, although the incumbent enjoys a healthy cash-on-hand advantage. Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb recently became the first major GOP contender to launch a campaign. But 2022 GOP gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake instantly became the Republican front-runner when she
Humanitarian team describes Gaza’s Al Shifa Hospital as ‘death zone’- WHO
A humanitarian assessment team visited Al Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza and saw signs of shelling and gunfire in what was described as a “death zone,” the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Sunday.
El Salvador hosts Miss Universe as protesters denounce mass arrests
At least 300 people protested in El Salvador on Saturday against an anti-gang crackdown they said was putting innocent people behind bars, hours before the Central American country hosts the Miss Universe competition for the first time since 1975.
Dozens of migrants wait at Finland-Russia border after Helsinki blocks crossings
Dozens of migrants stood behind barriers at two crossings on Finland’s border with Russia on Saturday, the Finnish Border Guard said, after Helsinki erected barricades to halt a flow of asylum seekers it says was instigated by Moscow.
Iraq’s Kataeb Hezbollah says attacks aim to ‘drain’ US, sanctions ‘ridiculous’
Iraq’s Kataeb Hezbollah (KH) militia, a powerful armed faction with close ties to Iran, brushed off U.S. sanctions on the group over attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria and said on Saturday such strikes aimed to “drain the enemy”.
Biden says Palestinian Authority should ultimately govern Gaza and West Bank
U.S. President Joe Biden said on Saturday the Palestinian Authority should ultimately govern the Gaza Strip and the West Bank following the Israel-Hamas war.