Israel’s military strikes in Syria this week — launched in response to atrocities against the Druze minority — represent a strategic turning point in a deeper power struggle that now entangles Iran, Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the U.S., according to regional analysts.

Just days ago, speculation swirled about a potential normalization agreement between Israel and Syria — a breakthrough quietly brokered by U.S. officials, but that fragile prospect has been swiftly overtaken by violence, as Israeli airstrikes this week struck near Damascus.

A ceasefire agreement between Druze factions and the Syrian government, announced July 16, was meant to calm days of deadly clashes, but it remains tenuous and largely unenforced, with sporadic fighting continuing and tensions running high.

‘For the Druze in Israel, what’s happening in southern Syria feels like October 7 all over again,’ said Avner Golov, vice president of the Israeli think tank Mind Israel. ‘Israel can no longer treat Syria as just a neighboring crisis. It’s now a domestic one.’

In a rare scene, Israeli Druze citizens crossed the border into Syria to support their embattled relatives — prompting a stern warning from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

‘My Druze brothers, citizens of Israel… Do not cross the border,’ Netanyahu said. ‘You are putting your lives at risk — you could be killed, you could be kidnapped — and you are harming the IDF’s efforts. Let the IDF do its job.’

In his first televised address since the Israeli strikes, Syrian transitional President Ahmed al-Sharaa framed the Israeli intervention as a destabilizing act.

‘Government forces deployed to Suweida succeeded in restoring stability and expelling outlawed factions despite the Israeli interventions,’ he said, warning that the strikes led to ‘a significant complication of the situation’ and ‘a large-scale escalation.’ He insisted that protecting the country’s Druze minority was a top priority and declared that Syrians ‘are not afraid of war.’

Within Israel, the collapse of order in Syria has triggered sharp debate. Some policymakers argue for supporting Sharaa as an anti-Iranian strongman, while others advocate broader military action to create a buffer zone in southern Syria. Golov supports a middle course: conditional strikes paired with demands for Druze autonomy and accountability for war crimes.

‘If Sharaa shows he’s willing to punish those responsible for the massacre and agree to Druze autonomy, then Israel can gradually work with him,’ Golov told Fox News Digital.

He also called for a regional diplomatic effort to stabilize Syria. ‘We need a regional summit — the U.S., Saudi Arabia, even Turkey, and Israel’ he said. ‘Bring positive forces into Syria and use Israeli military power not just tactically, but to gain diplomatic leverage.’

‘There’s a temptation to miss the victory lap,’ said Behnam Taleblu, senior director of the Iran Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). ‘Rather than see Syria through the prism of competition with Turkey, Israel should first see it through the prism of diminished competition with Iran. That in itself is a huge achievement.’

Turkey: Alarmed, but invested

While Iran’s position has weakened, Turkey has quietly expanded its footprint in Syria by backing the al-Sharaa government. 

Turkey’s strategic interest in Syria, Sinan Ciddi, a senior fellow at FDD and director of the Turkey program, explained, is to fill the vacuum left by Iran with its own political and economic influence — using al-Sharaa regime as a conduit. ‘Turkey has a lot riding on al-Sharaa success,’ he said. ‘They’d like to see increased trade, the reconstruction of Syria through al-Sharaa. They want to use him as a means to influence the region politically.’

However, Israel’s military response has triggered alarm in Ankara.

‘Turkey is not in a position to militarily challenge Israel — it would be a disaster,’ said Ciddi. ‘They’re talking tough, but they’re deeply concerned.’

Ciddi emphasized that Turkey’s aging military hardware and lack of air defense leave it highly exposed. Yet, Turkey is deeply invested in al-Sharaa political survival, hoping to leverage him for influence and economic ties in post-war Syria.

A direct clash between Turkey and Israel, Ciddi warned, would ‘result in a diplomatic fiasco… and require the United States and European countries to step in as mediator.’

Iran: Watching, waiting, and ready to return

Even as Israel dismantled key parts of Iran’s military infrastructure in Syria, Tehran remains a long-term threat. Taleblu said Iran is now lying in wait — ready to exploit missteps by others.

‘This is a regime that capitalizes on the mistakes of others,’ he said. ‘They don’t need to win outright — they just need everyone else to lose.’

Tehran is betting that the region’s rival powers — Turkey, Israel, the U.S. and the Gulf — will overplay their hands, allowing Iran to reenter through proxies, sectarian militias, or diplomatic manipulation.

The United States: Pulled back in

Though President Trump recently said Syria’s internal affairs are ‘not our war,’ his administration’s tone has shifted. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called for de-escalation, and regional partners are urging a clearer U.S. role.

‘Real success will come from creating contingencies,’ Taleblu said. ‘What are the costs if Syria collapses? What if Turkey overreaches, or Israel overextends? What if Iran comes back? The states that prepare for these questions.’

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Republicans fixated on Jeffrey Epstein are getting ‘duped’ by Democrats, further defending Attorney General Pam Bondi’s handling of the case. 

During an Oval Office meeting with the crown prince and prime minister of Bahrain, Trump said his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, reversed his first-term energy policies, leading to higher inflation. 

‘What Biden did is he ended our policies,’ Trump told reporters. ‘He doesn’t have a policy. Some lunatic around the desk had a policy. Whoever operated the autopen had a policy which is, by the way, I think the biggest scandals – that’s the scandal they should be talking about, not Jeffrey Epstein, the scandal you should be talking about is the autopen because I think it’s the biggest scandal, one of them, in American history.’ 

In early June, Trump directed Bondi and the White House counsel to investigate whether Biden’s aides used an autopen to sign official documents – such as pardons, executive orders, and judicial appointments – without his personal awareness. Biden has denied the claim. The House Oversight Committee is also investigating the conspiracy and has issued letters and subpoenas for testimony from several former White House aides, as well as Biden’s former White House physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor. 

Trump said Wednesday that Bondi could release ‘whatever’s credible’ related to the Epstein case before addressing Republican infighting about what some categorize as an about-face on transparency by the administration. 

‘He’s dead. He’s gone,’ Trump said of Epstein. ‘And, all it is, is the Republicans, certain Republicans got duped by the Democrats, and they’re following a Democrat playbook and no different than Russia, Russia, Russia and all the other hoaxes.’

Trump said he couldn’t speak to FBI Director Kash Patel’s comments on the case but further defended Bondi.

‘I really think that she’s done very good. She says, ‘I gave you all the credible information,’ and if she finds any more credible information, she’ll give that too. What more can she do than that?’ Trump said. ‘I mean, honestly, what more can she do?’

His comments come after FBI deputy director Dan Bongino reportedly had a heated argument with Bondi over the Epstein case last week and took a day off from the job to cool down, sources previously told Fox News. 

A growing list of Republicans have demanded greater transparency from the Justice Department on the case. Trump earlier Wednesday said on social media that Democrats had come up with another ‘hoax,’ this time on Epstein, after previously being responsible for the widely discredited ‘Steele dossier’ during the Trump-Russia probe, as well as the cover-up of Hunter Biden’s laptop story ahead of the 2020 presidential election. 

‘Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bull—-’ hook, line, and sinker,’ Trump wrote on TRUTH Social. ‘They haven’t learned their lesson, and probably never will, even after being conned by the Lunatic Left for 8 long years.’ 

In the Oval Office, Trump said the Justice Department, and administration more broadly, are dealing with ‘bigger problems.’ 

‘We have problems with millions of illegal people that came in here, and they’re killers and murderers. We have 11,888 murderers that were allowed into our country by Biden. Sleepy Joe Biden, stupid Joe Biden, he allowed them into our country. And you know what we got to do something about? She’s got a lot of things she’s working on,’ Trump said. ‘It’s very sad that somebody can be waylaid, just get waylaid… I think she’s doing a great job.’ 

Trump said he has ‘lost faith’ in certain people in his own party regarding the Epstein case. 

‘I lost that because they got duped by the Democrats. The Democrats are good for nothing. They’ve done a terrible job. They almost destroyed our country,’ Trump said, championing how the passage of his ‘big, beautiful bill’ ensures ‘the biggest tax cut in history’ and the ‘biggest regulation cuts in history.’ 

‘These are the things that they should be talking about,’ Trump said. ‘The ‘big beautiful bill’ is one of the greatest pieces of legislation ever in this country, and the Democrats have nothing to combat it.’ 

Iran has until the end of August to agree to a nuclear deal with the United States and its allies, Fox News has learned. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the foreign ministers of France, Germany and the United Kingdom set the de facto deadline, according to three sources with knowledge of a call Wednesday among the officials. 

If Tehran fails to agree to a deal, it would trigger the ‘snapback’ mechanism that automatically reimposes all sanctions previously imposed by the United Nations Security Council. 

The sanctions were lifted under the 2015 Iran deal. 

The Trump administration has tried pressuring Iran to accept a deal to walk back its nuclear program after U.S. and Israeli strikes targeting nuclear sites. 

United Against Nuclear Iran, a nonprofit that opposes Tehran’s effort to develop a nuclear weapon, applauded Wednesday’s news. 

‘Tehran has learned that, for the Trump administration, a deadline means a deadline,’ UANI Chairman and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and CEO Ambassador Mark D. Wallace said in a joint statement. 

‘After failing to agree to a deal within 60 days of diplomacy, the United States and Israel undertook targeted military action against the regime in June. Consequently, Tehran should take this new deadline seriously.’

On Monday, Iran warned it would retaliate if the U.N. Security Council imposes the snapback sanctions. 

‘The threat to use the snapback mechanism lacks legal and political basis and will be met with an appropriate and proportionate response from the Islamic Republic of Iran,’ Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei claimed during a press conference, according to a Reuters report.

Baghaei didn’t specify how Tehran would retaliate. 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, has made several comments in recent days pointing out President Donald Trump’s ties to deceased sex predator Jeffrey Epstein, as the president seeks to shut down questions about his administration’s refusal to release documents surrounding Epstein’s case and its claims that there is no ‘client list.’

Earlier this week, Newsom made an appearance on the Shawn Ryan Show, in which he was asked about Trump’s administration not releasing Epstein files after vowing during his campaign to release such documents.

‘The whole thing has, to me, always been a side show,’ Newsom said. ‘But I thought it got real interesting when Elon [Musk] put out that tweet and then all of a sudden a few weeks later, ‘what file?”

Newsom was referring to a since-deleted post on X in which Musk said last month that Trump ‘is in the Epstein files’ and that ‘is the real reason they have not been made public.’ Musk, a former close ally of Trump before their recent spat, has since made several more posts criticizing the administration for not releasing any Epstein ‘client list’ or making any arrests in connection to the Epstein case.

‘When Elon put that out, I thought it was a big tell,’ Newsom said.

The California governor added that Trump and Epstein knew each other, citing the images and videos of the two men together.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said earlier this year that an Epstein ‘client list’ was on her desk before the Justice Department and FBI recently claimed that Epstein killed himself and that there is no evidence he kept such a list. Bondi also walked back her earlier comments, saying she was referring to the Epstein case file, not a ‘client list.’

Trump has sought to avoid the Epstein topic as of late, repeatedly arguing the issue does not matter anymore. He also said he no longer wants the support of ‘weaklings’ who continue to press the Epstein case.

‘Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bulls—,’ hook, line, and sinker,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday.

‘I have had more success in 6 months than perhaps any President in our Country’s history, and all these people want to talk about, with strong prodding by the Fake News and the success starved Dems, is the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax,’ he added. ‘Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support anymore!’

Trump said at the White House on Wednesday that Bondi could release ‘whatever’s credible’ related to the Epstein case as he defended her work on the matter and criticized Republicans who are still pushing for Epstein material to be released.

‘He’s dead. He’s gone,’ Trump said of Epstein. ‘And, all it is, is the Republicans, certain Republicans got duped by the Democrats, and they’re following a Democrat playbook and no different than Russia, Russia, Russia and all the other hoaxes.’

Newsom made a series of social media posts in recent days about Trump and Republicans declining to make information on the Epstein case public.

‘Why try so hard to block a list that ‘doesn’t exist’…?’ Newsom said on Tuesday, responding to news that House Republicans blocked an effort by Democrats to force the release of Epstein files.

The Golden State Democrat also wrote ‘Retweet’ in reply to a 2019 post from conservative commentator Charlie Kirk calling on Trump in his first term to order an investigation into Epstein for sex trafficking.

In another post, the governor wrote that Trump ‘calls his base ‘bad people” in response to a recent clip of the president saying he does not understand why the Epstein case would be of interest to anybody.

‘It’s pretty boring stuff,’ Trump told reporters in the clip. ‘I think only bad people want to keep something like that going.’

Newsom jokingly said he forgot about the Epstein files in response to a post Trump made announcing that Coca-Cola agreed to use real cane sugar.

‘Oh thank god! I’ve totally forgotten about the Epstein files now!’ Newsom said on Wednesday.

The governor posted a clip later on Wednesday with a picture of Trump and Epstein together, along with lyrics from the Nickelback song ‘Photograph’ that says ‘Look at this photograph.’

‘Nickelback said it best,’ Newsom wrote.

The global race to harness the power of artificial intelligence (AI) has begun. President Donald Trump got it right from the start when he issued an executive order in January to strengthen America’s AI – the next great technological forefront. 

From Day One as Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator, it was clear that EPA would have a major hand in permitting reform to cut down barriers that have acted as a roadblock so we can bolster the growth of AI and make America the AI capital of the world. 

In fact, it’s an endeavor so important, it is a core pillar of my Powering the Great American Comeback initiative. 

Those looking to invest in and develop AI should be able to do so in the U.S., while we work to ensure data centers and related facilities can be powered and operated in a clean manner with American-made energy.

Let’s put this into perspective. The global AI manufacturing market is valued at about $7 billion, but it’s expected to explode to $48 billion by 2030. Already industries across every sector are integrating AI into their operations, and in order for this growth to continue, AI needs massive data centers, and data centers need electricity that is always on. Lots of it.

Power demand for data centers that support AI, which only use 3% to 4% of U.S. electricity, will eat up nearly 10% of U.S. electricity supply in 10 years according to the Energy Information Administration. To support this rapid growth, states need to be able to build more baseload power generation, and that’s where EPA comes in. 

EPA wants to increase certainty for owner-operators in the permitting process, making it clear what kind of permits are needed for new and modified projects.

Policies inherited from the Biden administration have been criticized by many as making EPA a brick wall that impedes the growth of the AI industry. 

In addition, much of current Clean Air Act (CAA) requirements for building data centers dates back to the 1990s, when technology was practically prehistoric compared to modern advancements. These rules require companies to install pollution control equipment when they build new facilities or make a change that increases emissions significantly.

The digital revolution has ushered in new needs and new industries which demand new permitting rules that help, not hamper development.

Under President Trump’s leadership, the permitting reform we are looking to undertake, if finalized, will help clear the way for data center and AI development across the U.S., while ensuring that human health and the environment are protected. 

If a power company wanted to restart a plant that had been out of service to meet increased grid demand, under the Biden EPA they had to go through the entire permitting process all over again. 

Under our upcoming proposed rules, if finalized, utilities would be allowed to restart plants much faster, especially in times of emergencies like storm recovery. Anyone who has lost power during or after a weather event knows how critical it is to get back on the grid. 

Through the CAA permitting process, EPA will seek to address the minimum requirements for public participation when it comes to minor emitters so the protest of a few does not unnecessarily thwart progress for all Americans. 

Our permitting reforms will also help expedite construction of essential power generation and industrial facilities. EPA will be a partner to state, local and Tribal air agencies instead of a hindrance.

At EPA, we are also working on redefining preconstruction, which would, if finalized, only require a company to obtain an air permit when the company actually breaks ground.

A company looking to build an industrial facility or a power plant, should be able to build what it can before obtaining an emissions permit. For example, companies could install cement pads or conduct other construction activities that aren’t related to regulated air emissions.

Other countries are racing to be number one. America’s AI leadership depends on our ability to build the infrastructure that powers innovation.

Senate Republicans blasted through Democratic and internal opposition to pass President Donald Trump’s multibillion-dollar clawback package early Thursday morning.

The final vote tally was 51-48, with Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joining every Democrat in voting against it. The package will now be sent to the House, which has until Friday to pass it. 

The $9 billion rescissions bill tees up cuts to ‘woke’ spending on foreign aid programs and NPR and PBS that Congress previously approved. Republicans have pitched the bill as building on their quest to root out waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said that it was a mission shared by the GOP and Trump, whose Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) identified many of the cuts included in the package.  

‘I appreciate all the work the administration has done in identifying wasteful spending,’ Thune said. ‘And now it’s time for the Senate to do its part to cut some of that waste out of the budget. It’s a small but important step toward fiscal sanity that we all should be able to agree is long overdue.’

The president’s rescissions package proposed cutting just shy of $8 billion from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and over $1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the government-backed funding arm for NPR and PBS.

It’s likely the first of many to come from the White House.

Unlike the previous procedural votes, Vice President JD Vance was not needed to break a tie. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., voted against the preceding procedural votes to advance the package on Tuesday night, but ultimately backed the bill. 

It now heads to the House, where Republicans have warned the Senate to not make changes to the package. But just like during the budget reconciliation process earlier this month, the warnings from House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and fiscal hawks fell on deaf ears in the upper chamber.

The Senate GOP’s version of the bill is indeed smaller, by about $400 million, after Senate leaders agreed to make a carveout that spared international Bush-era HIV and AIDS prevention funding.

Other attempts were made during a marathon vote-a-rama process to make changes to the bill, but none were able to surmount the 60-vote threshold in the upper chamber.

Senate Democrats tried to kneecap the bill with amendments that targeted what they argued were cuts that would diminish emergency alerts for extreme weather and disasters, erode America’s and isolate rural Americans by creating news deserts with cuts to public broadcasting, among others.

‘Why are we talking about cutting off emergency alerts,’ Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash, said. ‘That’s 1,000 times these stations were warned to tell people that their lives were in danger.’

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, contended that much more was at stake than the spending cuts.

The Washington Democrat charged that lawmakers were also ‘voting on how the Senate is going to spend the rest of this year, are we just going to do rescission after rescission, because we know Russ Vought is just itching to send us more.’

Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., rebuked Democrats’ assertions against the bill, and pitched the legislation as a way for lawmakers to ‘course-correct’ wasteful spending that shouldn’t have ever been green-lit.

He told Fox News Digital that what Democrats want to do is ‘keep as much of this money for their woke pet projects as they can.’ 

‘They were able to do that for four years,’ he said. ‘That’s how you got to, you know, DEIs in Burma and Guatemalan sex changes and voter ID in Haiti, which is ironic, because Democrats don’t support voter ID here, but they’re willing to pay it for it in another country.’

Fox News Digital’s Bradford Betz contributed to this report. 

A new think tank analysis finds that public corruption is a significant problem in the U.S., and is most prevalent in state and local governments that have larger bureaucracies and higher regulations.

The libertarian Cato Institute said it analyzed Department of Justice data on public corruption convictions in the nation’s 94 federal judicial districts and measured the annual average number of convictions per 100,000 population over the 2004–2023 period.

‘The data show that some of the most corrupt places by this measure match their reputations,’ the authors of the Cato analysis wrote.

Washington, D.C., topped the rankings with 469 total convictions during the nearly 20-year period and an annual conviction rate of 3.49, according to Cato’s report.

‘It has a huge number of legislative and executive branch federal employees, and there are many opportunities for graft,’ the report says.

Louisiana’s eastern district, which includes New Orleans, ranks at number four on Cato’s list with 430 total convictions during this period and an annual conviction rate of 1.29.

‘New Orleans has long been infamous for state and local corruption,’ the report says.

The Cato analysis found that New Hampshire had the lowest public corruption by this metric, with 13 convictions over the period and an annual conviction rate of .05. Cato called it ‘the freest state in the nation with one of the smallest governments.’

Cato said it appeared that ‘larger governments with more spending and regulations create more opportunities for bribery and embezzlement.’ 

The think tank, however, noted that some academic studies have suggested other reasons for corruption differences between states and cities, including varying cultures, education levels, and poverty rates.