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Following an election in which voters overwhelmingly rejected the fake competence of Vice President Kamala Harris and the fake lucidity of President Joe Biden, Democrats have opted to double down on fake.

Choreographed dance videos, duplicate social media posts, contrived town hall protesters and a sudden newfound aversion to zero-emission vehicles all scream insincerity. There is nothing genuine about it. 

This week, a devastating split screen went viral, featuring the erstwhile faces of Senators Schumer, Warren, and Booker, who had each recorded videos of themselves trying to sound natural while reading word-for-word from the exact same script. The words, (of unknown authorship), were emblematic of the lack of authenticity plaguing the flailing party.

No one is buying what Democrats are selling; it’s all fake. The outrage over some of Trump’s most popular policies is a sham. The juxtaposition of impotent Democrats against the breakneck pace of the current Trump administration does them no favors.

Voters can see that while Trump and Vance are having fun, Democrats are having conniptions. The contrast is stark. As the president and vice president appear to enjoy their verbal jousting with media and protesters, the progressive left seem to be losing their minds, flailing with fake tears of exasperation.

Democrats can’t fake cool.  

The reality is, their leaders come across childish, insincere, and desperate, not to mention old, tired, grumpy, and totally out of touch. Who can relate to the likes of Schumer, Sanders, Durbin, and Warren? 

Meanwhile, their protestors have lost the plot, projecting an embrace of violence, lawlessness, and government corruption. The party offers no home for traditional liberal Democrats, working-class people, privacy advocates, anti-war leftists, or Israel-supporting Jews.

Their carefully curated and choreographed messaging bears no resemblance to the urgent demands of a year ago. Supposedly, Democrats were all about electric vehicles. Not anymore.

Remember how Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was administering billions of dollars to build a national network of electric charging stations? (Americans got nothing for this boondoggle.) Democrats even advocated legislation to eliminate gas-powered vehicles in favor of electric vehicles. AOC personally bought a Tesla.  

Now, the message has reversed. Alas, their fealty to electric cars was also fake. Teslas are now bad; protesting and destroying them is good. Chaos is fine when they do it. 

Democratic women at the Joint Session of Congress wore pink, in theory, to support women, but they can’t define what a woman is, nor could they possibly support excluding men from participating in women’s sports. Their fake support of women falls apart when they actually have to stand up for women.

When President Trump tried to speak of the golden age of America that night, the Democrats couldn’t muster the strength to applaud. They failed to stand for a young cancer fighter, a man fulfilling his dream of attending West Point, a female victim of deep fake bullying pushing back, or a 95-year-old mother whose son was back from being held in Russia. Who are the Democrats really fighting for with their ‘resistance’ movement?

In 2024, they defended censorship to deal with ‘misinformation’ on social media – now they care deeply about the free speech of Hamas supporters, a designated terrorist organization, on US soil. Videos circulate of Democrats who previously criticized waste, fraud, and abuse now fighting to keep the gravy train running. We can all see that they’ve done a 180 from opposing to defending waste. The duplicity is lost on no one.

Coming off of a presidential campaign in which they all pretended to love Kamala Harris, who couldn’t string together an authentic sentence, these latest antics ooze insincerity.  

Contrast that with a President Trump who cheerfully pops in on White House tours, has candid, almost daily exchanges with the press, works the McDonald’s drive-through window, and shares irreverent memes on social media. It’s not even a fair fight. Donald Trump is unapologetically himself.

Voters are finished with the Democrats’ choreographed and curated leadership model. Their consultants, some of whom are their family members, are getting rich, but their efforts to rebuild and refresh their party are going backwards.

The party’s whole premise was based on division and class warfare. It was not about the very principles that make our country great.  

Far be it from me to give the Democrats advice. As long as they keep doing what they’re doing, the republic is likely safe from their fake leadership.

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U.S. special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff said Sunday that President Donald Trump will likely speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin this week. 

In an appearance on CNN’s ‘State of the Union,’ Witkoff was asked when a deal to end the war in Ukraine could be anticipated. 

‘The president uses the timeframe weeks, and I don’t disagree with him. I am really hopeful that we’re going to see some real progress here,’ Witkoff said. ‘Nobody expected progress this fast. This is a highly, very complicated situation, and yet we’re bridging the gap between two sides. So, lots of things that remain to be discussed, but I think the two presidents are going to have a really good and positive discussion this week.’ 

Trump’s special envoy met with Putin in Moscow on Thursday, days after U.S. and Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia agreed to the terms of a potential ceasefire with Russia. 

Witkoff said he met with Putin for between three and four hours and had a ‘positive’ and ‘solution-based’ discussion. 

‘Before this visit, there was another visit, and before that visit, the two sides were miles apart,’ Witkoff told CNN host Jake Tapper. ‘The two sides are, today, a lot closer. We had some really positive results coming out of the Saudi Arabia discussion led by our national security advisor, Mike Waltz, and our secretary of state, Marco Rubio.’ 

‘I describe my conversation with President Putin as equally positive,’ Witkoff said. ‘The two sides have… we’ve narrowed the differences between them, and now we’re sitting at the table. I was with the president all day yesterday, I’ll be with him today, we’re sitting with him, discussing how to narrow it even further.’  

It was the second time Witkoff had met with Putin in the last month. The first sit-down in mid-February resulted in the Russians releasing U.S. prisoner Marc Fogel. 

Witkoff said he briefed Trump, Vice President JD Vance, chief of staff Susie Wiles and Waltz from the U.S. embassy within five to 10 minutes of meeting with Putin last week. 

‘President Trump has been involved in every aspect and dimension of these discussions,’ Witkoff said. ‘The president is getting updates in real time on everything that’s happening, and he’s involved in every important decision here. I expect that there will be a call with both presidents this week, and we’re also continuing to engage and have conversations with the Ukrainians. We’re advising them on everything we’re thinking about.’ 

‘The four regions are of critical importance here,’ Witkoff said of the terms of the deal. ‘And we’re in discussions with Ukraine, we’re in discussions with all these stakeholder European countries, so that includes France, Britain, Norway, Finland… the whole host.… And we’re in discussions with the Russians too about those regions. We’re also in discussion with all other elements that would be encompassed in a ceasefire.’ 

 Witkoff flew to Moscow last week from Doha, Qatar, where he mediated negotiations between Israel and Hamas on a potential extension of their ceasefire agreement. 

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The acting administrator of DOGE detailed that Elon Musk is not an employee of the United States DOGE Service and does not report to the acting DOGE chief, a court filing shedding additional light on the internal workings of the office shows. 

‘Elon Musk does not work at USDS. I do not report to him, and he does not report to me. To my knowledge, he is a Senior Advisor to the White House,’ Amy Gleason, the acting administrator of DOGE, wrote in a declaration included in a court filing on Friday. 

Musk has been the public face of DOGE for months, as President Donald Trump celebrates the billions of dollars in savings his administration has secured through DOGE’s work to gut the federal government of overspending, mismanagement and fraud. Musk, however, ‘has no actual or formal authority to make government decisions himself’ and is working as a senior advisor to the president, a White House official said in a separate court filing in February.

The White House identified Gleason as the official acting chief of DOGE last month. Gleason, a little-known government employee who also worked in the first Trump administration, provided a declaration in a court filing involving a lawsuit against DOGE last week that further explains how the government office operates. 

‘In my role at USDS, I oversee all of USDS’s employees and detailees to USDS from other agencies,’ Gleason wrote in her declaration. ‘I report to the White House Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles.’

Gleason previously worked for the United States Digital Service, which was founded in 2014 by former President Barack Obama as a technology office within the Executive Office of the President. Trump signed an executive order in January that renamed the office to the United States DOGE Service, establishing DOGE. 

In addition to overseeing USDS, Gleason also oversees the U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization – an office established by Trump in January that sits under the USDS umbrella and will expire on July 4, 2026. 

Gleason explained in her declaration that under Trump’s executive order establishing DOGE, agency chiefs were charged with creating their own DOGE teams to find and eliminate overspending. Gleason said the respective agency DOGE teams are comprised of agency employees or detailees who do not report to her.  

‘Every member of an agency’s DOGE Team is an employee of the agency or a detailee to the agency. The DOGE Team members – whether employees of the agency or detailed to the agency – thus report to the agency heads or their designees, not to me or anyone else at USDS,’ she wrote. 

‘In some instances, members of agency DOGE Teams are detailees from USDS to the agency. Where USDS detailees are assigned to an agency DOGE Team and acting in their capacity as a detailee to the DOGE Team, they are supervised by personnel of the agency to which they are detailed,’ she added. 

Gleason has been described by former colleagues as ‘world-class talent’ who frequently works long hours and is apolitical. 

DOGE has saved an estimated $115 billion in government spending in the form of workforce reductions, contract cancellations, regulatory savings and other initiatives, according to its website. Trump has touted DOGE’s work repeatedly in public remarks, including rattling off a list of government grants that were axed since his inauguration during his first address to a joint session of Congress earlier this month. 

‘Forty-five million dollars for diversity, equity and inclusion scholarships in Burma,’ Trump said as he provided examples of federal waste on March 4 after thanking Musk and DOGE for its work. ‘Forty million to improve the social and economic inclusion of sedentary migrants. Nobody knows what that is. Eight million to promote LGBTQI+ in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of. Sixty million dollars for indigenous peoples and Afro-Colombian empowerment in Central America. Sixty million. Eight million for making mice transgender.’

Democrats and federal employees have railed against DOGE since the investigations and mass terminations at various agencies got underway following Trump’s inauguration, including staging protests outside federal buildings in Washington, D.C., and specifically protesting Musk for his involvement with DOGE. 

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President Donald Trump trolled former President Joe Biden in a social media post on Sunday, highlighting the controversy surrounding his alleged ‘autopen signatures’ during his presidency.

On Truth Social, Trump posted three images side-by-side – his official portrait from his first term, a picture of Biden’s autopen and then finally his official portrait for his second term.

Trump then pinned the post. 

‘The person who was the real President during the Biden years was the person who controlled the Autopen!’ Trump wrote in another post on his account. 

Trump spoke about the autopen signature issue while speaking from the Oval Office on Friday about NATO spending.

‘The man was grossly incompetent. All you have to do is take a look, he signs by autopen. Who was signing all this stuff by autopen? Who would think to sign important documents by autopen?’ Trump asked reporters. 

‘These are major documents you’re signing, you’re proud to sign, yet you have your signature on something and in 300 years, they say ‘oh look.’ Can you imagine everything was signing by autopen? Almost everything. Nobody has ever heard of such a thing. It should have never happened,’ Trump continued. 

The post sparked a firestorm on social media with many backing Trump as Democrats have faced backlash over accusations that they dismissed Biden’s health concerns and engaged in a cover-up throughout the end of his term.

‘President Trump JUST POSTED the AUTOPEN that ran the White House from 2021-2025 next to his portraits,’ one X user commented.

‘Biden was an illegitimate president. Who controlled the auto pen?’ another X used commented.

Vice President JD Vance also shared the image on X without any comment.

‘Corrupt establishment was running the country from 2021-2025. Who controlled the auto pen for Biden?’ Missouri Lieutenant Governor David Wasinger commented, sharing Vance’s post. 

Elon Musk also chimed in on the photo, posting on X, with two emojis – a bullseye and laughing face. 

Fox News Digital reached out to Biden’s team about Trump’s post featuring the autopen image, but did not receive a response.

In a new report published by an arm of the Heritage Foundation, it was revealed that the majority of official documents signed by Biden allegedly used the same autopen signature, reinvigorating concerns over the former president’s mental acuity and if he ‘actually ordered the signature of relevant legal documents.’ 

‘WHOEVER CONTROLLED THE AUTOPEN CONTROLLED THE PRESIDENCY,’ the Oversight Project, which is an initiative within the conservative Heritage Foundation that investigates the government to bolster transparency, posted to X on Thursday. 

‘We gathered every document we could find with Biden’s signature over the course of his presidency. All used the same autopen signature except for the announcement that the former President was dropping out of the race last year. Here is the autopen signature,’ the group claimed on X, accompanied by photo examples. 

The Oversight Project posted three examples showing Biden’s signature, including two executive orders and the president’s announcement he was bowing out of the 2024 presidential race. The signature on the two executive orders, one of which was signed in 2022 and the other in 2024, showed the same signature that included what appeared to be a line, followed by ‘R. Biden Jr.’

Fox News Digital reached out to Biden’s office for comment on the Oversight Project’s findings on the autopen investigation, but did not immediately receive a reply.

Fox News Digital also examined the signatures on President Donald Trump’s executive orders, which are often signed in public or in front of the media, during his first administration and second administration and found the signatures were also the same. 

The Oversight Project continued in its findings that investigators should determine ‘who controlled the autopen’ during the Biden administration. 

Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report. 

Stepheny Price is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. She covers topics including missing persons, homicides, national crime cases, illegal immigration, and more. Story tips and ideas can be sent to stepheny.price@fox.com

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U.S. warships have shot down roughly a dozen Houthi drones since President Donald Trump launched airstrikes against the terrorist organization on Saturday, Fox News has learned.

A senior defense official told Fox News of the developments on Sunday. The drones were aimed at the U.S. Navy’s Truman Carrier Strike Group, and were shot down ‘well before’ they posed a serious threat, the official added.

The latest military action came after nearly a year and a half of attacks from Houthis, both on commercial merchant vessels and U.S. military ships. In a Truth Social post on Saturday, Trump wrote that he had ‘ordered the United States Military to launch decisive and powerful Military action against the Houthi terrorists in Yemen.’

‘It has been over a year since a U.S.-flagged commercial ship safely sailed through the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, or the Gulf of Aden,’ Trump continued. ‘The last American Warship to go through the Red Sea, four months ago, was attacked by the Houthis over a dozen times.’

Trump wrote that the ‘relentless assaults have cost the U.S. and World Economy many BILLIONS of Dollars while, at the same time, putting innocent lives at risk.’

‘To all Houthi terrorists, YOUR TIME IS UP, AND YOUR ATTACKS MUST STOP, STARTING TODAY. IF THEY DON’T, HELL WILL RAIN DOWN UPON YOU LIKE NOTHING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN BEFORE!’ his post concluded.

Trump re-designated the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) in January. His first administration had named the Houthis as an FTO, but the Biden administration later reversed the move.

On Sunday, the White House released photos of Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz monitoring the strikes.

‘President Trump is taking action against the Houthis to defend US shipping assets and deter terrorist threats,’ the White House wrote on X. ‘For too long American economic & national threats have been under assault by the Houthis. Not under this presidency.’ 

Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.

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Flagging global sales and Elon Musk’s increasingly outspoken political activities are combining to rock the value of Tesla.

Shares in the once-trillion-dollar company saw their worst day in five years this week. Year to date, Tesla’s stock has plunged 36% — though it is still up by some 54% over the past 12 months.

For Musk, Tesla’s shares remain his primary source of paper wealth, though he has also turned his stake in SpaceX into a personal lending tool. But it was proceeds from selling Tesla shares that helped Musk complete his acquisition of Twitter, now known as X.

Musk’s wealth also allowed him to help vault Donald Trump into a second presidential term. Even as Musk’s net worth has diminished as a result of Tesla’s recent share-price declines, data suggests he is in no danger of losing his title as the world’s wealthiest person.

Musk has said on X that he is not concerned about Tesla’s recent drop in value. Still, evidence suggests the company is entering a period of transition.

A spokesperson for Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

Musk’s wealth has propelled him to a global presence that lacks precedent — and has polarized world opinion about the tech entrepreneur in the process. Any weakening of his financial position, therefore, could undercut his influence in the political and tech spaces where he now commands outsize attention.According to Bank of America, Tesla’s European sales plummeted by about 50% in January compared with the same month a year prior.

Some say this is attributable to a growing distaste for Musk, who has begun dabbling in the continent’s politics in the wake of his successful support of Trump’s candidacy last year.

Others note Tesla’s European market is facing increased competition from the Chinese electric-vehicle maker BYD, which has telegraphed ambitious plans for expansion on the continent.  

A more decisive blow to Tesla’s near-term fortunes may be emanating from China itself. There, Tesla’s shipments plunged 49% in February from a year earlier, to just 30,688 vehicles, according to official data cited by Bloomberg News. That’s the lowest monthly figure registered since July 2022 — amid the throes of Covid-19 — when it shipped just 28,217 EVs, Bloomberg said.

Donald Trump accompanied by Elon Musk speaks Tuesday next to a Tesla Model S on the South Lawn of the White House.Andrew Harnik / Getty Images

Tesla is now facing intense competition from other Chinese EV makers, including BYD.

Yet even there, a Chinese official also warned about the impact of Musk’s high-profile politicking.

“As a successful businessman, one should be embracing 100% of the market: Treat everyone nicely, and everyone will be nice in return,” the secretary of China’s Passenger Car Association, said in a briefing Monday, Bloomberg reported. “But if you look at it in terms of voting, then half of voters will be friendly to you and half of them won’t be.”

“This is the unavoidable risk that’s come after he got his personal glory,” the secretary, Cui Dongshu, said Monday, referring to Musk.

On Friday, Reuters reported Tesla was planning to sell a Model Y costing at least 20% less to produce to defend its China share.

And in the U.S., Tesla’s January sales were down about 11%, according to data from the S&P Global analytics group — an outlier at a time when EV sales for all other brands are trending higher in America.

Though he has long worn multiple proverbial hats, Musk’s role in the White House as nominal head of the Department of Government Efficiency may be his most consequential. And having influence with the Trump administration could be critical to Tesla’s fortunes. This week, Trump promised he would purchase a Tesla in a showy presentation on the White House lawn, seemingly further cementing the Trump-Musk alliance.

On X — the social media platform he owns — Musk’s frenetic posting is increasingly focused on politics and America’s culture wars, with an occasional nod to SpaceX launches.

His apparently undiminished role in the Trump administration — he was seen leaving the White House last weekend alongside Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick — has sparked boycotts in Europe, as well as protests and even acts of vandalism against auto owners in the U.S.

“When people’s cars are in jeopardy of being keyed or set on fire out there, even people who support Musk or are indifferent to Musk might think twice about buying a Tesla,” Ben Kallo, an analyst at Baird, told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” on Monday.

In a note to clients this week downgrading its estimate of deliveries, analysts with JPMorgan said the damage to Tesla’s brand has been serious.

“We struggle to think of anything analogous in the history of the automotive industry, in which a brand has lost so much value so quickly,” they wrote.

Tesla itself is warning about the fallout from retaliatory measures taken by countries targeted by Trump’s tariffs, saying in a letter to the U.S. trade representative this week that the company may be “exposed to disproportionate impacts when other countries respond to US trade actions.”

Already, the Canadian province of British Columbia has announced it was ending subsidies for Tesla’s products.

For all the oxygen Musk has taken up with his political activities, concerns about Tesla products themselves are equally keeping investors and analysts up at night.

Musk has “neglect[ed] the rest of Tesla’s automotive business as he thought that by the end of every year for the last 6 years, Tesla would be able to flip a switch and make all its vehicles self-driving — automatically increasing their value and making them infinitely more competitive than other vehicles,” Fred Lambert, who covers the company for the Electrek electric vehicle blog, wrote in a recent post.

Meanwhile, Musk decided to kill Tesla’s cheaper, $25,000 model while going all-in on the Cybertruck, whose sales have yet to take off, Lambert said.

“Tesla’s core business remains selling cars and batteries,” he wrote. “There’s no doubt that the business of selling cars is not going well for Tesla right now, and under Musk, there’s no clear path to improvement.”

By contrast, many analysts continue to take a much longer view of Tesla’s outlook. In his most recent note to clients about the company, Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas, one of the most closely watched observers of Tesla, summarized the long-term outlook that he says continues to justify the company’s eye-watering valuation.

“Tesla’s softer auto deliveries are emblematic of a company in the transition from an automotive ‘pure play’ to a highly diversified play on AI and robotics,” he wrote in a note March 2.

While that was before the most recent sell-off intensified, Jonas said he was already discounting market gyrations.

“While the journey may be volatile and non-linear, we believe 2025 will be a year where investors will continue to appreciate and value these existing and nascent industries of embodied AI where we believe Tesla has established a material competitive advantage,” he wrote.


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The Russian captain of the Solong cargo ship that crashed into a US-flagged tanker earlier this week in the North Sea appeared in an English court on Saturday on charges of gross negligence manslaughter.

The Portuguese-flagged Solong hit the Stena Immaculate on Monday while it was at anchor off England’s northeast coast and carrying huge amounts of jet fuel for the US military, setting fire to both vessels and prompting emergency rescue efforts by the British coastguard.

The Solong’s master, Vladimir Motin, a 59-year-old from St. Petersburg, appeared at Hull Magistrate’s Court on Saturday after being charged over the death of Mark Angelo Pernia, a 38-year-old Filipino crew member who could not be located after the crash and is presumed dead.

In a 35-minute hearing, the court heard how the Solong had careered into the Stena Immaculate, an incident that maritime experts have called a “mystery.”

Prosecutor Amelia Katz said Stena Immaculate had been anchored for more than 15 hours before the Solong, travelling at a speed of over 15 knots, crashed into it, Reuters reported.

“For a period of over 40 minutes before the collision, the Solong was on a direct route for impact with the Stena Immaculate, which was anchored and stationary,” Katz said.

“There were no communication attempts from the Solong to warn of the impending collision and the Solong did not adjust its course or speed at any point,” she added.

The full 23-person crew of the Stena Immaculate was rescued, while only 13 of the 14 people on board the Solong were brought to safety. Britain’s maritime minister Mike Kane said that a search and rescue operation for the missing crew member, later identified as Pernia, had been called off late Monday.

The Stena Immaculate, which Kane said was carrying 220,000 barrels of jet fuel when it crashed, is part of a fleet of 10 tankers involved in a US government program to supply its military with fuel.

US logistics firm Crowley, which manages the tanker, said the vessel is part of the US Defense Department’s “Tanker Security Program” which “ensures a commercial fleet can readily transport liquid fuel supplies in times of need.”

Britain’s coastguard said Wednesday that there was no fire visible on the Stena Immaculate, but by Friday there were still “small periodic pockets on fire” on the Solong.

Although the crash initially caused fears of huge damage to the environment, the coastguard said Friday that “there continues to be no cause for concern from pollution” from either ship.

Greenpeace said that an environmental disaster seems to have been “narrowly averted.”

“When a container ship the length of a football pitch rams into a tanker carrying thousands of tonnes of jet fuel at 16 knots close to sensitive nature sites, the potential for serious harm is huge,” Dr. Paul Johnston from the Greenpeace Research Laboratories said Wednesday.

“The priority should now be to ensure as far as possible that both ships remain afloat, that no further jet fuel leaks from the tanker and that the cargo of the container ship is fully characterised and secured,” he added.

Britain’s coastguard said the Stena Immaculate remains at anchor while the Solong was being held in a safe position offshore by a tugboat.

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Nimrod Cohen’s mother never got to ask him why he chose a raven for the tattoo he got in October 2023. Three days after getting inked, Nimrod was kidnapped and taken to Gaza.

The next time Cohen saw that bird was more than 500 days later, in a Hamas propaganda video.

“It was the first time we got a visual sign of life of Nimrod and I was so excited to see him standing, moving his body, the first time that we can see him after so long. It makes Nimrod more present and it makes Nimrod more alive, and it also makes me more worried and afraid.”

Nimrod Cohen is one of 24 hostages held in Gaza who are believed to be alive. As a young, healthy man with no children, Cohen has not been prioritized for release by Israeli negotiators, who insisted that women and children, the elderly and any injured hostages were freed first.

But for Vicky Cohen, there is no higher priority in the world than getting her son back. “I’m frightened and very worried but I’m not losing hope. I cannot lose hope. But also, I do believe that our government is not doing enough to bring him back,” she said.

Nimrod Cohen is among a handful of living hostages who were active-duty soldiers when abducted, alongside Edan Alexander, Matan Angrest and Tamir Nimrod. Hamas is also holding the bodies of several other soldiers, most of whom were killed during the October 7 terror attack.

Under the phased deal to which Israel and Hamas agreed in January, younger male hostages were going to be released during the latter stages of the ceasefire.

But they are now caught in limbo as the first phase of the deal expired without the two sides agreeing on what’s next.

Edan Alexander is the last of the American hostages in Gaza who is believed to be alive. The bodies of four more American citizens – Judi Weinstein Haggai and her husband Gad Haggai, and soldiers Itay Chan and Omer Maxim Neutra – are also still held by Hamas.

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office accused Hamas of engaging in “manipulation” and “psychological warfare” by announcing their willingness to release Alexander. Israeli ministers will meet on Saturday night to receive a detailed report from a negotiating team that spent the past week in Doha, and “to decide on the next steps for the release of the hostages.”

Adi Alexander, Edan’s father, has spent the past year and half lobbying for the release of his son and all of the other hostages. He said he and his wife have attended more than 300 meetings with American officials.

“But what about the hostages? We don’t want to go back into the situation with Gilad Shalit (whom) they kept for years and at the end of the day, the demands were the same – so the Israelis need to get out of this comfort zone and keep negotiating.”

Gilad Shalit is a former IDF soldier who was held by Hamas in Gaza for more than five years. He was released in 2011, in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners.

Trump’s ultimatum

Earlier this year, Israel and Hamas agreed to a phased ceasefire that would consist of three distinct stages. The initial phase of the truce ended in mid-February, after 38 hostages were freed from Gaza and 1,737 Palestinian prisoners and detainees were released from Israeli prisons.

The second phase was meant to include the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and the release of all remaining living hostages in exchange for more Palestinian prisoners and detainees. The details of how this would unfold were meant to be agreed during the first phase of the agreement, but that has not happened.

“What’s happening now, exactly? What is the plan? It obviously never went by the original plan to start negotiating after 16 days and be over with that within two weeks, we are far beyond that in this point, so what is the strategy?,” Alexander said.

“We are in no man’s land, leaving hostages under the ground, which is unacceptable.”

The Israeli government has suggested an extension to the first stage, demanding the release of half of the remaining Israeli living and deceased hostages in Gaza but without committing to end the war or withdraw Israeli troops. In return, Israel would release more Palestinian prisoners and detainees and allow more aid into the territory. According to this plan, the rest of the hostages would be released when, or if, an agreement is reached on a permanent ceasefire.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under pressure from his far-right coalition partners to return to war. Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, has threatened to withdraw from the government if Israel doesn’t restart the war. Itamar Ben Gvir quit his post as national security minister over the ceasefire.

Smotrich and Ben Gvir have argued that Israel should keep fighting Hamas until the group is “eliminated,” after which they want Israel to take over Gaza and build settlements there – an idea lent credence by US President Donald Trump, but dismissed by most other leaders.

Vicky Cohen said that she believes the Israeli government has prioritized the goal of defeating Hamas completely over the release of hostages, including her son.

“After more than one year of war, Hamas is still ruling Gaza. I understand the need (to stop) Hamas from ruling Gaza, so we won’t get to October 7 once again … but we need to pay a price and now, the main thing is to bring the hostages back home, even though it means to stop the war and withdraw from Gaza and deal with Hamas later on,” she said, adding that the idea of building Jewish settlements in Gaza was “nonsense.”

To put extra pressure on Hamas, Israel announced earlier this month that it would stop the entry of all humanitarian aid and electricity into Gaza.

The families of hostages still in Gaza are now pinning their hopes on Trump, who has sent US officials to negotiate directly with Hamas, in a notable U-turn from a long-standing policy of not talking to groups it considers terrorist organizations.

“We hear from the president that he is committed to bring all the hostages back, and we trust him, and we believe that’s what he is going to do – not because he loves the hostages, but because the wants to stop the war between a Russian and Ukraine crime and in Gaza, he wants to get a Nobel Prize of Peace,” Cohen said.

Earlier this month, Trump went as far as issuing what he said was a “last warning” to Hamas to release all hostages immediately, saying that “not a single Hamas member will be safe if you don’t do as I say.”

While Hamas said Trump’s words threatened to undermine the ceasefire, Adi Alexander said he had faith in Trump. Alexander is the only one of the five American hostages in Gaza, to be alive.

But Trump’s plan has not worked – at least not yet.

Instead, the US came up with a new proposal this week to extend the ceasefire in exchange for the release of a handful of living hostages.

The development was met with dismay by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which said reports of the proposal “raise serious concerns among the families of the hostages that their loved ones will be left in captivity for a long and unknown period.”

“We demand a comprehensive and immediate agreement that will return all 59 hostages in one fell swoop and leave no one behind,” the forum added in a statement.

Vicky Cohen said she has publicly turned to Netanyahu and other officials to “beg him to do the right thing.”

“There are people are still alive there, and even though Nimrod is a soldier, he is only 20 years old, and he is my son. I want to hug him. I want him back home. I miss the all the small things of life, hearing his voice, seeing his smile, seeing the mess in his room, and the empty packets of ice cream he leaves behind,” she said.

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Tens of thousands rallied on Saturday in downtown Belgrade against populist President Aleksandar Vucic and his government, the latest in a series of anti-corruption protests that have shaken his 13-year firm grip on power.

A deafening sound of whistles and vuvuzelas echoed throughout the Serbian capital, on high alert since the rally was announced, as people headed toward several agreed-on protest venues. Some carried banners that read, “He’s Finished!” Others chanted: “Pump it Up,” a slogan adopted during the four months of student-led protests.

It was probably the biggest anti-government rally ever held in the Balkan country.

“I expect that this will shake his authority and that Vucic will realize that people are no longer for him,” Milenko Kovacevic, a protester, said.

Reflecting mounting tensions, police said they arrested a man who rammed his car into protesters in a Belgrade suburb, injuring three people.

Ahead of the demonstration, Vucic repeatedly warned of alleged plans for unrest while threatening arrests and harsh sentences for any incidents.

In an apparent effort to prevent people from attending the rally, Belgrade city transport was canceled Saturday while huge columns of cars jammed the roads leading into the capital. The transport company said the cancellation was made “for security reasons.”

On Friday evening, tens of thousands of people staged a joyous welcome for the students who have been marching or cycling for days from across Serbia toward Belgrade for the main rally on Saturday afternoon. From early morning, people started assembling in various parts of the city, preparing to march toward the center.

Fueling fears of clashes, Vucic’s supporters have been camping in central Belgrade in front of his headquarters. The crowd included ex-members of a dreaded paramilitary unit involved in the assassination in 2003 of Serbia’s first democratic Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, as well as soccer hooligans who are known for causing violence.

Private N1 television on Saturday broadcast footage of dozens of young men with baseball caps going into the pro-Vucic camp.

Interior Minister Ivica Dacic told state RTS broadcaster that 13 people have been detained overnight but that no major incidents were reported on Friday. He said police detained six opposition activists for allegedly plotting to stage a coup and stir unrest on Saturday.

Protesting students have led the nationwide anti-graft movement, which started after a concrete canopy collapsed at a train station and killed 15 people in Serbia’s north on Nov. 1.

Many in Serbia blamed the crash on rampant government corruption, negligence and disrespect of construction safety regulations.

Vucic has been claiming that Western intelligence services were behind almost daily student-led protests with an aim to oust him from power.

Students have struck a chord among the citizens who are disillusioned with politicians and have lost faith in the state institutions. Previous student-led rallies in other Serbian cities have been peaceful while drawing huge crowds.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin’s response to a US-proposed ceasefire in Ukraine is “not good enough,” Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer said, after hosting a virtual summit aimed at drumming up support for Kyiv and piling pressure on Russia.

After hosting a meeting of the “coalition of the willing” – a group of Western nations that have pledged to help defend Ukraine against Russia – Starmer said leaders had agreed that “the ‘yes but’ from Russia is not good enough” and that Russia would have to come to the negotiating table sooner or later.

“We agreed collective pressure will be put on Russia from all of us who were in the meeting this morning,” he added.

Saturday’s meeting involved some 25 countries, including European nations, the EU Commission, NATO, Canada, Australia and New Zealand as well as Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.

After Kyiv this week accepted the terms of a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine – endorsed by US President Donald Trump – Moscow’s response was ambiguous, with Putin saying that “we agree with the proposal” but also that the deal “wasn’t complete.”

The meeting also comes at a critical time in the three-year war, with Russia advancing in its Kursk border region where it is attempting to reverse Ukraine’s gains.

While he offered few new details, Starmer announced that the militaries of Ukraine’s allies will meet in the United Kingdom on Thursday, to “put strong and robust plans in place” to keep the peace in the event a ceasefire is struck in Ukraine.

“We will now move into an operational phase,” Starmer said. “Our militaries will meet on Thursday this week here in the United Kingdom to put strong and robust plans in place to swing behind a peace deal and guarantee Ukraine’s future security.”

During Saturday’s talks, Starmer said that Ukraine’s allies agreed to “keep the military aid flowing to Ukraine, and keep tightening restrictions on Russia’s economy, to weaken Putin’s war machine and bring him to the table.”

Starmer said that Putin was delaying the US-backed ceasefire proposal that Ukraine agreed to this week, and that Ukraine “is the party of peace.”

US President Donald Trump “has offered Putin the way forward to a lasting peace – now we must make this a reality,” Starmer said.

Responding to a question from a journalist about US support, Starmer stressed that the “position on the US hasn’t changed,” and that achieving peace in Ukraine “needs to be done in conjunction with the United States.”

It comes after Starmer said in opening remarks to the “coalition of the willing” that “if Putin is serious about peace, it’s very simple: He has to stop his barbaric attacks on Ukraine and agree to a ceasefire.” He continued, “The world is watching. My feeling is that sooner or later he’s going to have to come to the table and engage in serious discussion.”

The “coalition of the willing,” a group of who have pledged to help defend Ukraine from Russian aggression in the face of dwindling and uncertain support from Washington, last met in London two weeks ago before reconvening Saturday for the virtual meeting.

Although Europe has shown considerable unity amid the blows the Trump administration has dealt to the transatlantic alliance, significant divisions remain over whether individual European countries are willing to deploy troops to Ukraine to keep the peace.

A statement from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s office said that Meloni, who joined Saturday’s virtual summit, does not envisage Italy’s participation in a possible military presence in Ukraine.

Trump said Friday that he got “pretty good news” on a potential ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, without elaborating, and that his administration had “very good calls” with both countries earlier in the day.

In a separate post on Truth Social, Trump said “there is a very good chance that this horrible, bloody war can finally come to an end.”

Putin met with US special envoy Steve Witkoff on Thursday in Moscow – a visit that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said gave “reason to be cautiously optimistic.”

With Kyiv losing its grip on the western Russian region of Kursk, its sole territorial bargaining chip, many believe that Putin may be delaying talks on the ceasefire proposal until the region is firmly back under Russian control.

Russian forces have retaken two more settlements in Kursk – Zaoleshenka and Rubanshchina – its defense ministry claimed on Saturday. It comes days after Russia recaptured the key town of Sudzha, the largest town Ukraine had occupied in the region.

Zelensky said Saturday his troops were holding back Russian and North Korean forces in Kursk and denied Russian claims that Ukraine’s army was surrounded.

Meanwhile the aerial assaults continued, with hundred of drones crossing the border.

Russia fired 178 drones and two ballistic missiles at Ukraine overnight, killing at least two people and injuring 44, according to Ukrainian officials. The two were killed in Kherson region, the head of its military administration said, after Russia targeted critical infrastructure and residential buildings, damaging seven high-rise buildings and 27 houses.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses had shot down 126 Ukrainian drones overnight, without saying how many drones bypassed its defenses.

This story has been updated.

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