Politics

CIA Director John Ratcliffe was in Venezuela’s capital of Caracas Thursday to meet with acting President Delcy Rodríguez and other top officials, a U.S. official told Fox News Friday.  The meeting unfolded about two weeks after the Trump administration carried out a military operation capturing Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.  A U.S. official told Reuters Ratcliffe met with Rodriguez under the direction of President Donald Trump ‘to deliver the message that the United States looks...

Exiled Iranian crown prince Reza Pahlavi unveiled Friday a 6-step plan to exert pressure on the regime, which he declared ‘will fall, not if, but when.’  ‘My brave compatriots still holding the line with their broken bodies but unbreakable will, need your urgent help right now. Make no mistake, however, the Islamic Republic is close to collapse,’ Pahlavi declared.   ‘Ali Khamenei and his thugs know this. That’s why they are lashing out like a wounded animal, desperate to cling to power,’ he continued. ‘The...

Vice President JD Vance will not attend the Munich Security Conference in 2026, Fox News Digital has learned.  The move comes after Vance attended the conference in 2025 and issued some harsh words for European leaders — prompting some backlash from allies on the other side of the pond.  A source familiar with Vance’s plans confirmed to Fox News Digital that Vance would not participate in the conference in 2026, but no reason was provided...

UNRWA officials urged congressional staffers to oppose a potential Trump administration move to designate the U.N. agency as a foreign terrorist organization, and discussed UNRWA’s ongoing operations in Gaza and the West Bank, including cash-based assistance, during a Dec. 17 briefing, Fox News Digital has learned. The video conference was organized by UNRWA USA, the American nonprofit that supports the agency through advocacy and fundraising. UNRWA USA Executive Director Mara Kronenfeld opened the briefing by...

President Donald Trump’s administration formally launched the second phase of its plan to end the war between Israel and Hamas this week, shifting from a ceasefire framework toward a post-ceasefire political and security phase for Gaza. The announcement immediately raised a central question that now dominates expert analysis: who will actually disarm Hamas. U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff announced Wednesday that phase two is underway, describing it as a transition ‘from...

An Iranian cleric has called for the death penalty for protesters detained during a nationwide crackdown amid ongoing unrest against the Islamic regime.  The cleric’s calls follow President Donald Trump’s threats of U.S. intervention if protesters were met with violence. Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami’s sermon, which was broadcast by Iranian state radio, reportedly sparked chants from those gathered for prayers. The Associated Press reported that the chants included, ‘Armed hypocrites should be put to death!’ During...

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz warned Iran during an emergency meeting of the Security Council that President Donald Trump ‘is a man of action’ who has ‘made it clear all options are on the table to stop the slaughter.’  Waltz said Thursday that, ‘We all have a responsibility to support the Iranian people and to put an end to the regime’s neglect and oppression of the Iranian nation.’  Iran has been plunged into turmoil amid...

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who visited with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem less than a month ago, said in a Thursday post on X he was going to Israel to meet with the foreign leader and his team. ‘I am traveling to Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his team at this crucial time in the history of the Middle East. The goal is to build on...

Former Rep. Billy Long, who was nominated by President Donald Trump to be ambassador to Iceland, has apologized after privately joking to House lawmakers that the Arctic island would become the ’52nd state’ with him as its governor. Long, a Republican who represented Missouri from 2011 to 2023 and served a brief stint as IRS commissioner last year, said he was just joking with his former congressional colleagues. ‘There was nothing serious about that, I...

The Supreme Court is poised to rule soon on President Donald Trump’s use of an emergency wartime law to unilaterally impose sweeping tariffs on most U.S. countries — and which brought to the fore key questions over the ‘major questions doctrine,’ or the limiting principle by which courts can, in certain circumstances, move to curb the power of executive agencies. During oral arguments over Trump’s tariffs in November, justices honed in on the so-called major...