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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that he had a “very warm” phone call with US President-elect Donald Trump, during which they spoke about the need for Israel’s victory in its war on Hamas in Gaza and its stance on Syria.

In a video statement, Israel’s leader said he discussed a range of issues with Trump during the call on Saturday evening, including Israel’s commitment to preventing Lebanon-based Hezbollah from rearming and Israel’s conflict with Hamas, which has killed nearly 45,000 Palestinians in the besieged Gaza strip.

The leaders also spoke of the need to bring home the remaining hostages in Gaza, Netanyahu said.

“I discussed all of this again last night with my friend, US President-elect Donald Trump,” Netanyahu said.

“It was a very friendly, very warm and very important conversation. We spoke about the need to complete Israel’s victory, and we also spoke at length about the efforts we are making to free our hostages.”

Hamas and other groups are believed to still be holding 100 hostages in Gaza, including seven Americans. All but four of the hostages were captured during Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

Netanyahu said that Israel continues to “work tirelessly to bring our hostages home, both the living and the dead. And I add, the less we talk about it, the better, and so with God’s help, we will succeed.”

‘No interest in confronting’ Syria

Regarding Syria, where a rebel coalition overthrew the regime of President Bashar al-Assad last weekend following a lightning advance through the country, Netanyahu said that Israel had “no interest in a conflict” the country, but would adjust its policy according to the “emerging reality on the ground.”

His latest comments come after Israeli forces following Assad’s fall took control of a long-standing buffer zone that had separated Israeli and Syrian forces for decades – a move the rebels now in charge of Syria and some of the country’s neighbors have criticized.

Israeli officials have said the measure is temporary and Netanyahu has previously insisted Israel has “no intention” of intervening in Syria’s internal affairs.

However, in his statement Sunday, the Israeli leader noted that Syria had “allowed Iran to arm Hezbollah through its territory” and said Israel was committed to preventing the militant group from rearming.

“This is an ongoing test for Israel, we must meet it – and we will meet it. I say to Hezbollah and Iran in no uncertain terms – to prevent you from harming us, we will continue to act against you as much as necessary, in every arena and at any time,” he said.

Israel reached a ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah in November after a 13-month conflict largely fought along Israel’s border with Lebanon which saw Israel kill a string of high-ranking Hezbollah commanders. Continuing tit-for-tat strikes have put strain on the deal.

Plan to expand Golan settlements

Israel’s control of the buffer zone has added to tensions with Syria over its decades-long presence in the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau in southwestern Syria that Israel has occupied since a war in 1967. Syria attempted to retake the territory in a surprise attack in 1973, but failed, and Israel annexed it in 1981.

Since the fall of Assad last week, the Israeli military has also taken control of Mount Hermon, which abuts the Golan Heights and lies within the buffer zone that had previously separated the two sides’ troops.

Despite Israel’s insistence the move is temporary, several Arab states have accused Israel of exploiting instability in Syria to execute a land grab, while the rebel coalition now in charge of Syria has accused it of “crossing the lines of engagement.”

Adding to those tensions, the Israeli government on Sunday approved a plan by Netanyahu to expand settlements in the occupied Golan Heights, according to a statement from the prime minister’s office.

“In light of the war and the new front against Syria, and out of a desire to double the population of the Golan Heights, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today submitted for government approval the first amendment to the plan to encourage demographic growth in the Golan Heights and Katzrin Heights,” the statement said. Katzrin is an Israeli settlement in the Golan.

The plan “will assist the Golan Regional Council in absorbing the new residents who will arrive,” the statement added.

“Strengthening the Golan Heights is strengthening the state of Israel, and it is especially important at this time. We will continue to hold on to it, make it flourish, and settle it,” Netanyahu said, according to the statement.

The occupation is illegal under international law, but the United States recognized Israel’s claim on the Golan during the Trump administration in 2019. Israel does not view its presence in the Golan as settlements.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar condemned the plan to expand the Golan settlement. Qatar said it considered the expansion plan a “blatant violation of international law” and a new aggression on Syrian territories; Saudi Arabia said the move would derail Syria’s chances of restoring security and stability.

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More than a week after Bashar al-Assad fled Syria and his regime collapsed, hundreds of thousands of Syrians still have no answer to two questions that have haunted them for years, even decades.

What happened to family members and friends after they vanished or were detained by Assad’s secret police? And how do we bring their torturers and killers to justice?

With every passing day, Syrians’ slim hopes finding a loved one still alive are fading. But they want some form of closure; they scour prison and hospital walls where lists of names and images of bodies are posted. They cling to a sliver of hope, yearn for a miracle.

But they also want retribution.

One of those waiting for news was Hazem Dakel from Idlib, who is now in Sweden. His uncle Najeeb was arrested in 2012 and was later confirmed by the family as having been killed. His brother Amer was detained the following year. Former detainees at the horrific Saydnaya prison near Damascus said Amer had disappeared in mid-April 2015 after being tortured there. But the regime never acknowledged his death.

“I want this (new Syrian) country to stand on its feet so we can hold them accountable through the law and courts.”

Amid the celebrations in Idlib after the fall of Assad, he said, there was also mourning. “They are mourning their children. Yes, the regime fell after resistance and struggle, but there was sorrow—like, where are our children?”

“Justice is coming, and our right will not be erased no matter how long it takes,” Dakel posted on Facebook. The family is now “certain” Amer died under torture in Saydnaya, he said.

Human rights groups have begun visiting the many prisons and detention centers across Syria where those perceived as regime critics were confined. An Amnesty International team scoured security branches of the former regime around Damascus this week.

Mazjoub also posted photographs on X of instruments of torture left behind.

“Nothing could have prepared us for what we saw,” said one of the team, Aya Mazjoub. In a series of posts on X she described “underground labyrinths (that) are literally hell on earth. They were overcrowded, crawling with cockroaches and other insects, lacked ventilation. They still smell of blood and death.”

“This is ‘bisat ar-reeh’, a notorious torture device where detainees would be strapped to a wooden slab that would be folded until their back cracked,” she wrote.

“This is the ‘doulab’. Detainees would be stuffed into the tyre and beaten, usually on the soles of their feet.”

Identifying the bodies that are found will require a legion of forensic pathologists. “Many are beyond recognition, mutilated by years of torture and starvation,” said Mazjoub.

Desperate relatives have taken to social media with details of sons, brothers, fathers and sisters who disappeared.

In a video posted on X, Lama Saud said her brother Abdullah was detained in 2012. Regime records had registered his death in 2014, but she said she still had hope he might be alive. “There are many detainees whose families were told they were dead but were later found to be alive,” she said.

“We hope to find them, my situation is like hundreds of thousands of Syrian families who are waiting for news about their loved ones, and we will not give up hope until now.”

So far, he has found no trace.

Al Shahabi also asked on Facebook where the recordings of surveillance cameras at regime security branches had gone, why some documents had been destroyed and why human rights groups had not done more to protect records.

Preserving whatever evidence is left in prisons and around possible burial sites is critical to documenting what happened and tracking down the perpetrators.

But following that trail of evidence is also a race against time. Several human rights groups issued a joint appeal last week, saying: “The real toll will only be known after mass graves and documents from the detention centers are examined and authenticated by trained experts. This documentation must be preserved from destruction.”

Based on the accounts of former prisoners, doctors and regime personnel, it said that an “olive-green Honda with a closed shed that could accommodate around 50 bodies” was used to take the bodies to a site in Najha near Damascus – “which has been called cemetery no.1 (the term used by regime forces is ‘cemetery of the bastards’).”

Bodies at the military hospital stayed for two or three days until there were “enough to transport to Najha graveyard, and sometimes to Al Qutayfah graveyard,” and other sites, according to the report.

The Association of Detainees and the Missing at Saydnaya prison, which describes itself as a coalition of prison survivors, victims, and their families, has meticulously documented what has happened there in recent years, based on witness accounts and other evidence, such as satellite imagery. It reported last year how bodies were taken from the prison and a military hospital to a mass burial site.

In 2020, a man known as “the Gravedigger” told a German court he was recruited by the Assad regime to bury hundreds of bodies in mass graves, including Najha, according to the International Commission on Missing Persons.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has said burial sites or mass graves “must be protected and preserved to allow organized exhumation” as soon as possible. “This is also crucial to identify and ascertain the fate of those missing and provide the much-awaited answers to their families.”

After its investigators found documents strewn all over Saydnaya prison, the ICRC appealed for all records to be safeguarded at hospitals and in security centers run by the ousted regime.

The ICRC has also asked relatives of the missing – abroad and in Syria – to register with it, as the mammoth task of identifying the dead begins.

The conflict had killed more than 350,000 since 2011 – an “under-count of the actual number of killings,” a United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said in 2021 – and sent nearly six million refugees out of the country. Other groups put the estimated number of dead higher. An Amnesty International investigation published in 2017 said that as many as 13,000 people, most of them civilians believed to be opposed to the government, were hanged in secret at Saydnaya between 2011 and 2015 alone. With reports of civilians killed under torture in the detention centers and prisons for decades, the numbers of those who have lost their lives are still being counted.

In all likelihood, the vast majority of the missing are indeed dead.

In a tearful statement on Syrian television last week, the head of The Syrian Network for Human Rights, Fadel Abulghany, said: “I apologize for the tenth and thousandth time, before this announcement…Most of the forcibly disappeared in Syria are dead – and I am sorry.”

Now the almost overwhelming mission is to find those who died, and to identify them and their killers.

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Reports of widespread damage are emerging from Mayotte after a 100-year cyclone ripped across the French archipelago Saturday, inflicting devastation that one resident likened to an atomic bomb, with hundreds and possibly even thousands of feared victims.

“We lost everything. The entire hotel is completely destroyed,” Garcia said. “There is nothing left. It’s as if an atomic bomb fell on Mayotte.”

Mayotte lies in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa, just west of Madagascar. Made up of two main islands, its land area is about twice the size of Washington DC.

Cyclone Chido, a category 4 storm, tore through the southwestern Indian Ocean over the weekend, impacting northern Madagascar before rapidly intensifying and slamming Mayotte with winds above 220 kilometers per hour (136 miles per hour), according to France’s weather service. It was the strongest storm to hit the islands in more than 90 years, Meteo-France said.

Chido then continued into northern Mozambique where it continued to cause damage, though the storm has now weakened.

The cyclone – the worst to hit the territory of just over 300,000 in at least 90 years – flattened neighborhoods, knocked out electrical grids, crushed hospitals and schools and damaged the airport’s control tower.

“Honestly, what we are experiencing is a tragedy, you feel like you are in the aftermath of a nuclear war… I saw an entire neighborhood disappear,” Mohamed Ishmael, a Mamoudzou resident, told Reuters.

At least 11 people have been confirmed dead by the French Interior Ministry, but the true death toll is expected to be much higher, with local officials predicting the number of victims could be in the hundreds or even thousands, the Associated Press reported.

“I think there are some several hundred dead, maybe we’ll get close to a thousand. Even thousands … given the violence of this event,″ Mayotte Prefect François-Xavier Bieuville told TV station Mayotte la 1ère.

The worst damage was to neighborhoods composed of metal shacks and informal structures that are found across Mayotte, Bieuville said.

Of the official death toll, Bieuville said “this figure is not plausible when you see the images of the slums.”

“Everything has been razed”

Debris from the storm has blocked access to roads across the archipelago, making aid delivery challenging and hindering the search for survivors, BMFTV reported.

About two thirds of the island is currently unreachable, Estelle Youssouffa, member of parliament for the first constituency of Mayotte told BMFTV.

“We must not confuse the villages that are cut off from communication (…) and the shanty towns, where there is very little chance of there being survivors. Everything has been razed,” Yousouffa said.

Desperate family members took to social media to search for news of their loved ones after the storm disrupted telecommunications networks.

As of Monday morning, Mayotte had been almost entirely offline for over 36 hours, according to the website NetBlocks.

Located about 5,000 miles from Paris, Mayotte is the poorest place in the European Union and has long struggled with poverty, unemployment, social unrest and water shortages.

Over 100,000 undocumented migrants live in Mayotte, according to France’s Interior Ministry.

Hundreds of rescuers, firefighters and police have been sent to the territory from France and the nearby French territory of Reunion, though damage to the airport’s control tower means only military planes can land there, the Associated Press reported.

Cyclones, also known as typhoons and called hurricanes in North America, are enormous heat engines of wind and rain that feed on warm ocean water and moist air. Cyclone season in the southwest Indian Ocean typically runs from mid-November to the end of April, according to France’s weather agency.

Scientists say climate change is making tropical cyclones more destructive, in part due to rising sea levels caused by greenhouse gas emissions.

In 2019, two powerful cyclones, Idai and Kenneth, pummeled Mozambique over a period of two months, killing hundreds and leaving millions in need of humanitarian assistance.

Chad Youyou, a resident in Hamjago in the north of Mayotte, posted videos to Facebook showing flattened trees and extensive damage to his village, the Associated Press reported.

“Mayotte is destroyed … we are destroyed,” he said.

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New Delhi (AP) — Zakir Hussain, one of India’s most accomplished classical musicians who defied genres and introduced tabla to global audiences, died on Sunday. He was 73.

The Indian classical music icon died from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a chronic lung disease, at a hospital in San Francisco, his family said in a statement.

“His prolific work as a teacher, mentor and educator has left an indelible mark on countless musicians. He hoped to inspire the next generation to go further. He leaves behind an unparalleled legacy as a cultural ambassador and one of the greatest musicians of all time,” the statement read.

Hussain was the most recognizable exponent of tabla, a pair of hand drums that is the main percussion instrument in Indian classical music.

Considered the greatest tabla player of his generation, Hussain had a career that spanned six decades in which he collaborated with the likes of singer-songwriter George Harrison, jazz saxophonist Charles Lloyd, drummer Mickey Hart and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

The son of legendary tabla artist Ustad Alla Rakha, Hussain was born in 1951 in Mumbai and was taught how to play the instrument by his father at the age of 7. A child prodigy, he began performing alongside India’s classical music legends during his teens.

In 1973, Hussain formed the Indian jazz fusion band “Shakti” with jazz guitarist John McLaughlin. The band played acoustic fusion music that combined Indian music with elements of jazz, introducing a new sound to Western audiences.

In 2024, Hussain became the first musician from India to win three Grammy awards in the same year.

Hussain’s “Shakti” won Best Global Music Album, and his collaboration with Edgar Meyer, Béla Fleck and flutist Rakesh Chaurasia won Best Global Music Performance and Best Contemporary Instrumental Album. He had earlier won a Grammy in 2009.

In 2023, Hussain received the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second-highest civilian award.

Hussain is survived by his wife and two daughters.

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Seven tourists are being treated for suspected poisoning after drinking cocktails at a bar in an upscale Fiji resort that’s now being investigated by police.

Four Australians ages 18 to 56, along with other three people believed to be foreign nationals, were taken to the hospital after being served drinks made at a bar at the Warwick Fiji on Saturday.

The tourists suffered nausea, vomiting and “neurological symptoms,” according to a statement from Fiji’s Health Ministry, and as of Monday were in a stable condition.

The case comes just weeks after six tourists died from methanol poisoning after drinking at a bar in Laos, in a case that prompted safety warnings about consuming alcohol abroad.

Asked whether methanol was to blame, Dr Jemesa Tudravu, permanent secretary for Fiji’s Ministry of Health & Medical Services, said it was too soon to tell.

“We don’t have the results of the investigation yet and we don’t know if it was spiking or any other cause until we complete our investigations,” he said in a briefing Monday.

Sydney resident David Sandoe told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation he’d received a call saying his daughter and granddaughter were among those hospitalized. He said they were among a group of people who drank a piña colada cocktail before falling ill.

“There was a group of them in the lounge of this resort and they had a similar cocktail and unfortunately, seven people came down with the symptoms that have been talked about,” Sandoe said.

He said his relatives were scheduled to fly home late Monday.

‘Isolated’ occurrence

Fiji’s Deputy Prime Minister Viliame R. Gavoka assured travelers to the Pacific nation that the incident was “extremely isolated.”

“No other incidents have been reported either at the resort, or across Fiji. The resort has been operating in Fiji successfully for many years and holds a strong reputation, particularly among our Australian visitors,” he said in a statement Monday.

“The resort management has assured us that they have not engaged in practices such as substituting ingredients or altering the quality of drinks served to guests,” he added.

The Warwick Hotels and Resorts operates luxury accommodation worldwide, including in the US, Europe and the Middle East.

In Fiji, king suites offering views of palm trees and the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean cost roughly $500 a night.

In a statement, Warwick Fiji said it was taking the matter “very seriously.”

“At this moment, we do not have conclusive details, but we are committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of our guests,” the hotel said.

Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers confirmed that four Australians were receiving support from department officials.

He said the situation was “very concerning” and pointed to updated travel advice from the Department of Foreign Affairs to be wary of drink spiking and alcohol poisoning in Fiji.

“Don’t leave your drinks unattended. Pay attention when your drinks are being mixed and get urgent medical help if you suspect that something is wrong,” he said.

Gavoka, who is also Fiji’s tourism minister, said close to a million tourists visit the island every year and thousands of tourists were currently holidaying on the Pacific Island.

“This is the only reported case of its kind that we’ve experienced in recent memory, and certainly nothing like this has been experienced this year,” he said.

“While we understand the concern, we want to emphasize that the tourism experience in Fiji is typically very safe, and we have acted immediately to try and discover the cause of what made these guests, at this resort, fall ill.”

In November, the deaths of two Australian teenagers, a British woman, an American man and two Danish women after drinking shots in Laos prompted warnings from several Western nations about the potentially fatal consequences of drinking tainted alcohol.

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Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., had two thoughts about President Biden pardoning his son Hunter Biden after previously saying he would not, while talking to NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ host Kristen Welker on Sunday.

‘When you have his opponents going after his family as a father, as a parent, I think we can all understand Biden trying to protect his, his son and his family,’ Sanders said. ‘On the other hand, I think the precedent being set is kind of a dangerous one. It was a very wide open pardon, which could, under different circumstances, lead to problems in terms of future presidents.’

Despite that, Sanders believes that Biden leaves a ‘strong legacy’ due to being progressive on domestic policies. He also said that ‘the economy today in many ways is in very strong shape.’

Sanders even went as far as to say Biden was the most progressive president since Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Discussing the minimum wage, Sanders told Welker he would work with President-elect Trump to raise it, as it has stood at $7.25 an hour since 2009.

Welker said Trump acknowledged it was too low, but Sanders said the last time he tried to get it raised to $15 an hour was two years ago and no Republicans voted for it. 

‘Look, a $7.25 per hour minimum wage is an absolute disgrace,’ Sanders said. ‘We have millions of people in this country who are working for starvation wages. They cannot afford housing, that cannot afford to adequately feed their kids.’

Sanders now believes the minimum wage should be $17 an hour, and hopes lawmakers ‘can work in a bipartisan way to finally accomplish that goal.’  

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Up in the air. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s the Biden administration’s final bit of credibility on fire in the form of giant mysterious drones over New Jersey.

As President Joe Biden limps away from one of the worst presidencies in American history, these unidentified flying objects, whatever they are, serve as a reminder that the general attitude of this White House towards the American people has been, ‘you don’t need to know that.’

We didn’t need to know that the president of the United States was suffering severe mental decline, we didn’t need to know that he was actually open to pardoning his son Hunter while swearing he never would. 

Even back in 2021, when breakthrough COVID cases among the vaccinated that weren’t supposed to exist were popping up all over Washington DC, Fox News’ Peter Doocy asked then Press Secretary Jen Psaki how many had been detected at the White House.

‘Why do you need that information?’ was her incredible reply.

In other words, you don’t need to know.

For four years now, it has been the Biden administration and the Biden administration alone that has deigned to decide what Americans do and do not need to know, and even in the case of the former, half the time these people just seem to be lying.

Let’s consider, just for a moment, how absurdly ludicrous it is that aerial objects the size of a minivan are hovering over the Garden State and the White House claims it has no idea what these things are, nor do they seem particularly curious about it.

Knowing the identity of giant stuff up in the sky seems like a low bar for a president, but this Joe Biden we are talking about.

So, White House Spokesman Admiral John Kirby is sent out to face the cameras and basically say, we don’t have the slightest idea what the hell these things are, but we’re pretty sure there is no danger associated with them.

That doesn’t even make sense, if you don’t know what they are, how can you possibly know if they pose any threat?

And note that it is Kirby telling us this, not Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre. And yes, Kirby is a defense expert, but can you imagine KJP, after being caught telling a Pinocchio trilogy’s worth of lies to the American people, addressing this issue?

What could she possibly say? ‘I know I lied about the Hunter pardon and Biden’s mental capacity and whether he would drop out of the election, but this time you should totally trust me, everything is fine, I triple pinky swear?’

The Biden administration loves calling itself the most transparent in history, but I don’t think they actually know what that word means, although I guess, in fairness, it has become rather easy to see through their lies.

At this point, we have no idea what these drones are. They could be a teenage prank, or they could be a sophisticated Iranian operation involving a ship parked off the east coast. It would be nice to know which.

But honestly, even if the White House did come out with an explanation, why would anyone believe it? Why would we assume it was anything but a lie meant to keep information from us that we do not need to know?

In just over a month, Trump will take over the White House, and he has already said, if this mystery isn’t solved by then, that he’s open to shooting one of these drones down to see what it is.

Any human being whose brains have not been scrambled by Washington DC interagency regulations knows we should have brought one of these things down days ago. It is just, as Trump would put it, common sense.

But almost more importantly, if and when such an event occurs, incoming White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has the chance to address it with a clean slate, and so long as she never abuses it, that trust between White House and the citizenry can be restored.

The question is not, what the American people need to know, the question is what we deserve to know, and with very few exceptions, the answer to that question should always be, ‘any damn thing we want to.’

Joe Biden couldn’t meet that commitment, and it is a big part of the reason that voters politely showed him the door.

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Republican Brad Knott, who flipped North Carolina’s 13th District red in November, explained to Fox News Digital why he resigned as a federal prosecutor to run for Congress – and what his priorities will be once he’s sworn into the House next month. 

A lifelong North Carolinian and former longtime Assistant U.S. Attorney, Knott said that he considered it a ‘high honor’ to spend most of his career working alongside law enforcement, including through organized crime investigations spanning across the country. It was the effects of President Biden and Vice President Harris taking office on local law enforcement in particular that drove Knott to run for Congress. 

Observing the impact of the border crisis on communities, Knott said that he couldn’t sit by and watch the sheer ‘availability of drugs, the presence of violence, the inability to combat it effectively because of just the deluge of people and contraband and criminality that was coming across the border and really the refusal of Washington to do what it could do.’

‘I had a very, very extensive career in law enforcement, saw a lot in that role and was very much troubled by what I saw on a policy level once Joe Biden and Kamala Harris took the reins in January of 2021,’ Knott said. ‘And the deliberate policies and the actions that they took upon taking the oath had a trickle-down effect that was just undeniable. And it was undeniably harmful not only for us as prosecutors, but federal law enforcement, local law enforcement, and then obviously the communities that we are all tasked to protect.’ 

Noting executive policies alone, Knott said ‘there was an absolute refusal to tackle this problem,’ which he found ‘baffling’ given the numbers of drug overdoses, attrition rates of law enforcement agencies and crime. 

‘There was just not an appetite at all to tackle this issue. And after a number of years of that, I ultimately followed my heart. We had prayed about this and given the unique posture I had before I decided to run,’ Knott said. ‘Seeing crimes all over the country and the effects of it, I thought that it’d be worth trying to run for office in an effort ultimately to fix those issues that I had a firsthand account of seeing and seeing how to combat it effectively.’ 

Knott’s endorsement by President-elect Trump in April resulted in his overwhelming May run-off primary win, staving off the prior GOP front-runner Kelly Daughtry. He went on to defeat Democrat Frank Pierce on Election Day last month, winning the redrawn district now covering all or parts of the eight counties in or near the state capital of Raleigh. 

THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

The highlight of campaigning for office, Knott said, was door knocking and hosting town halls for the opportunities to speak and interact with voters firsthand. 

‘It’s essential to do that because it gives you a window, a front row seat and to what people are actually focused on,’ Knott said. ‘It cuts through the noise. It cuts through the media. And in my old job, it’s like getting to talk to the jury. It just goes right to the relevant party.’ 

Through those conversations, Knott said the people of the 13th district expressed ‘a fairly consistent basket of issues’ involving the border crisis’ strain of resources on local police and first responders, and in schools and hospitals. 

‘But beyond that, there was an overwhelming sense that the country was just headed in the wrong direction,’ Knott told Fox News Digital. ‘And from a priority standpoint, I think many people realize that the last administration, the current administration, but soon to be the last administration, were prioritizing things that most Americans just did not agree with. There’s real suffering in the United States right now, and there’s a very real misconception that the economy is doing well, that the economy is robust. It is not robust. And most people in the 13th District had a real understanding of just how limited the economy is.’ 

Knott stressed that the United States is $36 trillion in debt – and regardless of their background, he said voters overwhelmingly felt their taxpayer dollars were funneled to illegal immigrants and conflicts abroad, rather than Americans at home. 

‘Most people are struggling and struggling mightily. And whether it’s sending tens, if not hundreds of billions of dollars abroad, tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars to illegal immigrants, the promulgation of thousands of regulations that strangle small businesses, essentially enabling only the connected and the big businesses to thrive,’ Knott said. ‘And again, the overall sentiment was the country is just headed in the wrong direction. And the path we’re on, it needs to change. And so getting out into the community, our belief about getting into the race was certainly affirmed that the people, regardless of race, regardless of class, regardless of of politics, really, they wanted they wanted meaningful changes to obvious problems.’ 

‘We are $36 trillion in debt. What have you received for all of that spending?’ Knott asked, stating that ‘we are going to have to pay that back for no services rendered.’

As for the border crisis, Knott condemned how the U.S. government ‘literally borrowed money from other countries, from the taxpayers, their future earnings to subsidize the illegal immigration invasion,’ as ‘we were spending tens, if not hundreds of billions of dollars a year over the last couple of years paying for illegal immigrants to be here, to be educated here, to eat here, to sleep here. And incentivizing more of it.’ 

‘That’s just one example of the gross incompetence, but the unbelievable power of Washington,’ Knott said.

UKRAINE AID 

The Biden administration is rushing to dispense billions more in U.S. aid to Ukraine before Trump takes office. Additional assistance amid what is nearly a three-year-long conflict will be deliberated by the new Congress, controlled by the GOP in both chambers, as Trump is expected to pressure Ukraine and Russia to come to a cease-fire agreement. 

Knott decried how those in the political class and media simplify the Ukraine debate, arguing that objectives can be ‘more complicated than just one line.’ Yet, he says, his focus remains on the American people. 

‘Obviously, I think what Vladimir Putin is doing in Ukraine is, it’s horrible. It should not be happening. I believe that Ukraine is certainly entitled to its border, to its sovereignty,’ Knott said. ‘And as I agree with President Trump, it needs to stop before tens of thousands of more people are killed. And, at the same time, recklessly dispensing of American dollars to a foreign country with what seems to be very little oversight when we have tremendous problems at home to deal with, that’s a very legitimate concern. And there comes a point where we have to question whether or not our involvement is worth it to the American people.’ 

‘And we have suffering at home to the degree that we are currently seeing. I prefer to send those dollars and to keep those dollars here. And flatly speaking, we have a $36 trillion debt,’ Knott added. ‘And the idea that the United States can just dump tens, if not hundreds of billions of dollars into what seem to be very righteous endeavors around the world, we simply can’t do that with no end in sight. And so my main focus is guarding the dollar, guarding the hard earnings of Americans, and really focusing as a government on the American citizenry that seems to be so downtrodden and taken advantage of and rebuilding that first.’ 

Knott said that Trump has ‘made it very clear to the Republican Congress that he expects us to deliver solutions, and he also expects us to work with the other side,’ recognizing the GOP holds control by just a slim margin in the House. 

‘I mean, the open border, overregulation, overtaxation, overspending, inflation, the debt, these are not Republican problems to tackle. These are American problems that we must all tackle,’ Knott said. ‘And if we don’t fix these things quickly, whether it is, you know, tens of millions of people coming across our border and requiring an increased percentage of support from the American taxpayers, whether it’s the $36 trillion debt, these issues will ultimately gravely weaken the country. And so without saying my expectations, my hope is that the 119th Congress will find a way to meaningfully address these very serious problems, not for Republican benefit, but for the country’s benefit.’ 

NORTH CAROLINA’S 13TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

Knott will replace Democrat Rep. Wiley Nickel, who did not seek re-election after citing the congressional remapping by Republican state legislators that reconfigured the district to strongly lean red. Nickel, who has signaled interest in running for Senate in 2026, will serve just one term in the House after flipping the seat blue by a razor-thin margin in 2022. Republican Ted Budd, another Trump-backed candidate, represented the district for three terms and that year successfully ran for the U.S. Senate.

Across his district’s ‘robust and diverse’ set of industries, ranging from agriculture, heavy equipment and infrastructure projects, Knott said he observed a ‘common thread’ of business owners expressing frustration with D.C. bureaucracy. 

From a conversation with a large scale sweet potato farmer in the district, as North Carolina is one of the largest producers of the crop in the country, Knott said he was told, ‘I can deal with the weather, I can deal with storms, I can deal with droughts, but I cannot deal with the regulations that are coming out of Washington, D.C.’ And the incoming congressman heard a similar story from infrastructure companies, which he says relayed how ‘the cost of regulatory overreach is becoming so great that they’re having to just reallocate resources from building bridges to hiring basically paperwork pushers to deal with the regulations and the bureaucracy maze that is levied upon them.’ 

‘In terms of taking that power back, Washington has no business in telling our farmers how to farm, our builders how to build, our teachers how to teach,’ Knott said. ‘Kind of reestablishing the priorities in Washington and cutting the reach, sort of removing the tentacles as it is, I think will enable a much greater degree of flourishing for big businesses, small businesses, and really everyone in the 13th District.’ 

Trump’s TRUTH Social post endorsing Knott called him a ‘Strong Patriot’ who would support law enforcement and the military, secure the border and protect the Second Amendment. As for Daughtry, the daughter of a former longtime Republican legislative leader, Trump described her as a ‘RINO’ – Republican in Name Only – ‘who has given money to Far Left Democrats, pledged to vote for Obama, and is no friend to MAGA.’ 

‘President Trump was undeniably effective as he weathered perhaps more resistance that was thrown at him than any candidate, certainly in my lifetime, and maybe the history of the country,’ Knott said. ‘And all of that resistance was designed and promulgated from Washington, D.C. And it’s a very interesting metaphor that Washington, D.C. was fighting so hard against President Trump, both in his first term as president and when he was running again in the last couple of years. And my entire hope as a soon-to-be congressman is to equal out the balance of power again, to really leverage whatever ability we have as the 119th Congress, to dispense resources and power back to the people of this great country.’ 

TRUMP’S FBI AND DOJ PICKS

Trump is expected to bring a major shake-up to federal law enforcement, and while Knott said he does not know Trump’s pick for FBI director, Kash Patel, or Attorney General pick Pam Bondi personally, he appreciates how Patel has supported ‘this decentralizing thrust of putting officers back into communities for safer collaboration, more in-depth collaboration with local law enforcement, and hopefully communities will be made safer.’ 

‘There does need to be a rigorous review of how the FBI is being managed and how it’s being used and what percentage of the tax dollars that we allocate for the FBI are being used for Washington, D.C., bureaucracy versus putting police on the streets to make American communities safer,’ Knott said, adding that he’s confident Patel and Bondi will face ‘rigorous review,’ will stand for questioning in the Senate and ‘then the right decision will hopefully be made following that review.’ 

Recognizing that most first-term members do not get their first committee assignment picks, Knott said his background would make him a good candidate for the Judiciary. 

‘That’s one of my passions, is to retool the criminal code in such a way that when President Trump leaves office, law enforcement still has the tools to protect the American people rather than relying solely on executive policy and executive power which can be undone with the stroke of a pen like we saw with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris,’ he said. ‘I think we need to rebuild the criminal code in some respects to be a more durable solution for the American people.’ 

TRANSGENDER BATHROOM CONTROVERSY 

The incoming House class already has seen controversy with the election of transgender Rep.-elect Sarah McBride, D-Del. In response, Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., pushed for a resolution banning members and House staffers from using ‘single-sex facilities other than those corresponding to their biological sex.’ Mace, a rape survivor, said she’s received death threats for publicly calling to preserve private spaces for women and girls, and she said she was ‘physically accosted’ on the Capitol grounds on Tuesday. 

Knott, who was on the Hill for orientation while the controversy unfolded, praised the response of House Speaker Mike Johnson, who enacted a policy preserving single-sex facilities on Capitol grounds. While Johnson said everyone should be treated with dignity and respect, the speaker stressed, ‘A man cannot become a woman.’ 

‘It was one of the unfortunate instances of our orientation insofar as we talked about very serious issues that affect all Americans, not just a very small percentage of society. And I think the speaker hit the nail on the head,’ Knott said. ‘He said all people are worthy of respect and dignity and being treated with respect and dignity and kindness. But that does not mean that anybody who claims to be a woman should be able to go into a bathroom where women are, where little girls are.’ 

‘As the father of two little girls, I stand behind the speaker’s sentiment that men should stay in men’s locker rooms, women should be and women’s locker rooms. And you’re born a man. You’re born a woman. And we should adhere to that,’ Knott added. ‘It’s not uniform across the board. There are some people who would abuse that liberty to satisfy their own perversions. And of course, there are some who would not. And the speaker’s policy, I think, is the one that’s most respectful, it’s most clear, and it’s the easiest for us to follow.’ 

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JERUSALEM – President-elect Trump could be the key factor in stopping the reported Turkish destruction of the pro-U.S. Syrian Kurdish community, Fox News senior strategic analyst and retired four-star Gen. Jack Keane told Fox News’ Mark Levin on ‘Life, Liberty & Levin’ on Saturday.

‘Erdoğan is a real problem here. He has a corridor in northern Syria. He backed the radical leader who took over, al-Golani, in deposing Assad because he’s been wanting Assad to go like we all did for years, but now what is he doing? Now he’s attacking the Syrian Kurds, who we support, in eastern Syria.’

Keane said, ‘Biden is not going to do anything about it, but President Trump has a huge opportunity, and I know for a fact that President Trump dealt with Erdoğan once before over the same issue. And it stopped as a result of a phone conversation that he had with President Erdoğan.’

Keane said one of Trump’s first telephone conversations once in office will probably be with Erdoğan, ‘if he hasn’t started talking to him already.’ 

He said the motivation of the Syrian Kurds in eastern Syria is not to seize Turkish territory but to ensure ISIS remains defeated and make sure ‘they do not rise again,’ adding that the U.S. ‘doesn’t need to get involved in any consequential way in Syria other than to protect our own interests and make certain that ISIS doesn’t rise again in eastern Syria which they have the potential to do.’

While world leaders are largely focused on the collapse of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad’s regime, Turkey’s strongman ruler Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has mobilized forces loyal to his government to eradicate Kurdish combatants on his southern border to Syria that helped the U.S. defeat the terrorist movement ISIS. 

Alarm bells are ringing about the dire plight of the Syrian Kurds.

‘Turkey has become too aggressive. If they get a free rein in Syria, they may covertly commit an ethnic cleansing,’ warned Efrat Aviv, a professor in the Department of General History at Bar-Ilan University in Israel and a leading expert on Turkey, in a statement to Fox News Digital.

In an apparent effort to modify his jihadi movement, Ahmad al-Sharaa, the leader of the U.S.-designated terrorist movement, Hayʼat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which played a decisive role in toppling Assad’s regime, said, ‘The Kurds are part of the nation and have suffered great injustices, just as we have. With the regime’s fall, the injustice they faced may also be lifted.’

Ahmad al-Sharaa, who was until recently known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammad-Golani, is allied with Turkey. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the U.S. had made ‘direct contact’ with HTS despite it being an outlawed terrorist entity.

Mazloum Abdi, the head of the U.S.-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), on Saturday urged Kurdish parties in northeast Syria (Rojava) to generate a unified front.

‘Today, Kurdish national unity in Syria has become a historic necessity in response to the challenges of this critical phase. We call on all Kurdish parties to set aside partisan interests and genuinely engage with public calls for dialogue and unity,’ Abdi wrote on X.

Last week, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., posted on X, ‘In the past I have drafted sanctions targeting Turkey if they engage in military operations against the Kurdish forces who helped President Trump destroy ISIS. I stand ready to do this again in a bipartisan way.

‘We should not allow the Kurdish forces – who helped us destroy ISIS on President Trump’s watch – to be threatened by Turkey or the radical Islamists who have taken over Syria.’

The Dutch Parliament also intervened last week to protect the Syrian Kurds, urging its government to advocate for a cessation of Turkish attacks on Kurds. 

The Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) announced on Sunday in response to the ongoing attacks by pro-Turkey forces, ‘We are facing significant threats and dangers, and we call on the Global Coalition and the entire world to unite with us to protect Kobani.’

‘The world now owes Kobani and its fighters, and it is time to stand with Kobani,’ the statement continued, ‘calling on the Global Coalition and freedom-loving individuals to unite and safeguard the region’s dignity and humanity.’

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who was the former head of the country’s formidable intelligence service, MIT, said on Sunday in Jordan about his country’s view of the Kurdish political and military organizations, Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and The People’s Defense Units (YPG):’We are under threat from Iraq and Syria. Over the past decade, the PKK has sought to exploit the chaos in Syria, attempting to restructure itself within the SDF organization. We continue to combat PKK/YPG terrorism, targeting them wherever they are.’

He added, ‘Our aim is to distinguish the Syrian Kurds from the terrorist organization PKK/YPG. We support the legitimate representatives of Syrian Kurds in their efforts to advocate for their rights in Damascus.’

The YPG is the main U.S.-allied force that contributed to the defeat of ISIS. The U.S. classified the PKK as a foreign terrorist organization. The YPG falls under the rubric of the Syrian Kurdish organization, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF.)

Turkey’s government has intensified its rhetoric against the Kurds. Turkish Defense Minister Yaşar Güler said on Sunday  ‘Our primary agenda is the dissolution of the PKK/YPG.’

Incoming freshman Rep. Abraham Hamadeh, R-Ariz., whose parents are Syrian immigrants, told Fox News Digital, ‘As we evaluate Turkey’s recent airstrikes on Syrian Kurds and reports of Hamas operatives in Turkey, it’s clear that our alliances must be anchored in mutual respect and shared goals. For decades, Turkey has been a strategic partner, but hosting groups like Hamas without clear steps toward dismantling their operations undermines that relationship. Turkey must seize this opportunity to demonstrate it is committed to fighting terror, not enabling it.’

When asked by Fox News Digital if the U.S. was contemplating sanctioning Turkey, a State Department spokesperson said, ‘As a general matter, we do not preview sanctions.’

The State Department referred Fox News Digital on Friday to comments made earlier on Friday after Blinken’s meeting with Fidan in Turkey. 

The statement said, in part, ‘Secretary Blinken emphasized the importance of U.S.-Turkish cooperation in the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS mission in Syria.’

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Within a day of their $25 billion merger’s falling apart in court, Kroger and Albertsons were each planning to move forward with share repurchases to boost their stock prices and reward investors.

America’s two largest grocery store operators had argued that they’d be better able to lower prices for shoppers by joining forces. Doing so, they said, would boost their negotiating power with suppliers and make it easier to take on much bigger retailers that compete with them in grocery sales, such as Walmart, Costco and Amazon.

The Biden administration disagreed, with the Federal Trade Commission saying in a lawsuit countering the merger that the deal threatened to drive down workers’ wages and bargaining power and reduce industry competition, potentially pushing food prices higher.

With the deal now dead, it’s impossible to know whether any of that would have happened. But U.S. District Judge Adrienne Nelson of Oregon sounded a note of skepticism, writing in her decision Tuesday that the chains’ promises to invest in lower prices were “neither merger-specific nor verifiable, so there is no guarantee” that shoppers would benefit.

“The promise to make a price investment is not legally binding, and the Court must give limited weight to a non-binding promise made during these proceedings,” she said. A Superior Court judge in Seattle agreed with Nelson’s ruling and issued an injunction against the merger Tuesday. On Wednesday, Albertsons terminated the deal and sued Kroger, alleging its erstwhile partner didn’t do enough to secure regulators’ blessing.

The drama unfolded just as the federal government released new inflation data for November showing grocery prices continue to inch higher.

The costs of food eaten at home were 1.6% higher last month than they were the same time last year — a smaller uptick than the 2.7% annual inflation rate overall but accelerating 0.5% from the previous month after a 0.1% rise from September to October. Food prices tend to be volatile, but a broad range of items from produce to poultry notched increases in a wholesale inflation report that came in hotter than expected Thursday.

Kroger on Wednesday reiterated its “commitment to lower prices,” saying it has invested billions in cost reductions over the past two decades. The chain also said it has spent $2.4 billion on pay hikes since 2018 and up to $3.8 billion in annual store improvements. Albertsons similarly promised to stay focused on “improving our value proposition with customers.”

Neither company offered more details about their price-cutting plans, and Albertsons declined to comment further. Kroger said only that it provides value to customers “through competitive pricing, loyalty discounts, personalized offers, fuel rewards and a unique private label portfolio.”

At the same time, both grocery chains said this week that they’d be pouring billions of dollars into moves that will benefit their shareholders.

Kroger said it would repurchase $7.5 billion of its shares after a more than two-year pause, with $5 billion of that to be repurchased in an accelerated fashion — the same sum that Kroger estimated Wednesday it has spent to lowering prices over the past 21 years. Albertsons said it would repurchase $2 billion of its shares and increase the dividend it pays to owners of its stock by 25%.

Stock repurchases — which reduce the number of shares available, driving up the value of those that remain — and dividend payments benefit all investors but especially those with the biggest stakes. Top shareholders typically include large Wall Street firms with the financial firepower to buy and hold millions of shares of publicly traded companies.

Wall Street investment firm Cerberus Capital Management is by far the largest shareholder in Albertsons, followed by the Vanguard Group, which is the country’s largest mutual fund provider, and BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, with over $11.5 trillion under its supervision. Vanguard, BlackRock and billionaire investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate are the top owners of Kroger shares.

“With both of these companies, there was a lot of hope [put] into the merger — that it was a way of generating growth. Those things aren’t happening now,” said Neil Saunders, managing director of the retail consultancy GlobalData. Repurchasing shares could help inject more “optimistic sentiment” among investors, effectively reassuring them “‘we’ll generate good returns for you,’” he said.

Kroger’s stock has been trading roughly 3% higher since Wednesday, while Albertsons’ had clawed back roughly all its losses following the ruling by late Thursday.

In the meantime, consumer groups and labor advocates are hailing the blocked merger as a victory for shoppers and workers and as a vindication of the Biden administration’s antitrust efforts during its final weeks in office.

The judges in the case “correctly saw the merger as a huge threat to the jobs and benefits of thousands of their members working for those chains and the communities in which they live,” said Seth Harris, a law and policy professor at Northeastern University and a former top labor adviser in the Biden White House.

Thomas Gremillion, director of food policy at the Consumer Federation of America, said, “Combining two of the four largest food retailers would have also reduced consumer choice, leading to fewer alternatives to low-quality, ultra-processed foods.”

“Unfortunately, the Trump administration seems unlikely to build on this important step towards restoring competition in food retail,” Gremillion said, citing President-elect Donald Trump’s selection of Andrew Ferguson to replace Lina Khan atop the FTC. That’s a sign that “Big Food will only be getting bigger over the next four years,” he predicted.

In a September campaign stop at a grocery store in Kittanning, Pennsylvania, Trump slammed the Biden-Harris administration over the costs of everything from eggs and cereal to ground beef. “Bacon is through the roof,” he said.

Trump said Thursday at the New York Stock Exchange that increasing oil and natural gas drilling would help lower inflation, including for food prices, a promise energy analysts have viewed skeptically. But in a Time magazine profile published Thursday, he said of groceries: “It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up. You know, it’s very hard.”

CORRECTION (Dec. 13, 8:40 a.m. ET): A previous version of this article misidentified Kroger’s and Albertsons’ largest shareholders. Cerberus Capital Management, not the Vanguard Group, has the biggest stake in Albertsons; Vanguard, not Cerberus, owns the most shares in Kroger.

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