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House Republicans are unveiling a new bill to clear a path for President Donald Trump to enact his sweeping tariff plans.

First-term Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.Va., is reintroducing the U.S. Reciprocal Trade Act on Friday, which, if passed, would allow Trump to unilaterally make moves on import taxes from both adversaries and allies.

He would be required to notify Congress, however, which could file a joint resolution of disapproval against the moves.

‘American manufacturing has endured decades of decline under the globalist system that has hollowed out our industrial base and shipped countless jobs overseas. Leaders in both political parties deserve blame. But those days are over,’ Moore said in a statement.

Moore said Trump was ‘the first national politician in my lifetime to recognize this problem, campaign on it, and work to reverse that trend.’

‘With the U.S. Reciprocal Trade Act, we’ll give the executive the leverage necessary to go to bat for the American people and achieve tariff reductions on U.S. goods,’ he said.

Trump released a campaign video in 2023 pledging to work with Congress to pass the Reciprocal Trade Act, declaring, ‘Under the Trump Reciprocal Trade Act, other countries will have two choices—they’ll get rid of their tariffs on us, or they will pay us hundreds of billions of dollars, and the United States will make an absolute FORTUNE.’

This week, the president announced that he wanted to impose a 10% tariff on Chinese imports, making good on a campaign promise to use such taxes to lower the U.S. national debt, which is currently over $36 trillion.

‘We’re talking about a tariff of 10% on China, based on the fact that they’re sending fentanyl to Mexico and Canada,’ Trump said Tuesday. ‘Probably February 1st is the date we’re looking at.’ 

During his campaign, Trump promised to levy a 60% tariff on goods from China and as much as 20% on other countries the U.S. trades with.

He also recently pledged on Truth Social to create an ‘External Revenue Service‘ to ‘collect our Tariffs, Duties, and all Revenue that come from Foreign sources.’

Trump has praised the U.S. Reciprocal Trade Act by name multiple times, including during a January 2019 meeting with House Republicans, including the bill’s former lead, ex-Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis. Trump recently nominated Duffy to be secretary of Transportation.

‘The United States Reciprocal Trade Act — this legislation will help, finally, to give our workers a fair and level playing field against other countries. Countries are taking advantage of us, whether they think we’re very nice or not so smart.  They’ve been doing it for many, many years, and we want to end it,’ Trump said at the time.

However, not everyone is in agreement that tariffs are an effective way to bolster the U.S. economy, with some economists warning it would only raise costs for consumers.

‘Not only would widespread tariffs drive up costs at home and likely send our economy into recession, but they would likely lead to significant retaliation, hurting American workers, farmers, and businesses,’ Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., said while unveiling a measure to block Trump from using unilateral tariff powers by declaring a trade emergency.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

Thirteen-year-old Zakariya Barbakh had spent most of his life shuffling between hospitals across Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Israel.

Born without a lung, he had struggled to breathe. Doctors had predicted he would need a transplant if he were to reach adulthood. But the last 15 months of war in Gaza had made that impossible.

When the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect on Sunday, Zakariya was ecstatic.

“Mom, now we can go look for my lungs!” his mother recalled him saying.

Less than 24 hours later, Zakariya was shot dead.

“He didn’t die from his disease; he ended up dying at the hands of the occupation. All he wanted was to have lungs to breathe, what did he do to deserve this? What did this child do?” his mother said, unable to hold back tears.

Zakariya is one of at least four Palestinians shot by the Israeli military since the ceasefire went into effect.

The Israeli military has withdrawn to buffer zones along Gaza’s border, but has warned Palestinians against approaching areas where its troops are still stationed. It has published a map of zones that are “very dangerous” to approach.

But where those zones begin and end is not always as clear on the ground.

“How would he know he would face occupation forces? How would he know he was in the wrong area? All he did was try to find something to eat. He got lost along the way. Can you not see the way this child looks? He looks sick and despairing,” his mother said.

The video shows a man trying to drag Zakariya’s lifeless body before he too is shot. The man survived

News that Israel and Hamas had reached a ceasefire deal triggered celebrations across the Strip last Wednesday. But in several areas those celebrations were soon drowned out by the sound of Israeli airstrikes.

In the four days between when the deal was announced and when it went into effect on Sunday morning, Israeli attacks killed at least 142 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Civil Defense, including dozens of women and children.

Among them were members of 3-year-old As’ad Khalifa’s family.

Less than 24 hours after the ceasefire deal was announced, an Israeli airstrike targeted his home.

As’ad survived, but in an instant, he became an orphan. His parents and sister were killed in the strike.

Dallou knew the family as they had been displaced by the war at the same time. He went searching for them under the rubble with other neighbors. Using basic equipment and their bare hands, they were able to uncover and retrieve the dead bodies of the mother and father but the children remained missing.

Before they gave up, they heard the cries of a child and began frantically throwing aside blocks of cement until they reached the source.

After a grueling 30 minutes, they found a small hand reaching out amid the rubble and gripping the air. They were able to pull the child – As’ad – out, roughed up and covered in dust – but alive. His little sister was found dead next to him.

Dallou and his sister Mawada have since taken him in.

“The IDF took intelligence measures to mitigate harm to uninvolved individuals,” the statement added.

Dallou has children of similar age to As’ad, which has helped to integrate him into their family. But he is concerned about how As’ad will grow up.

“I know from my experience with my little daughter that this child is going through a difficult psychological state. They are petrified from any sound now …They start crying for their mother,” he said.

Mawada said that because she knew As’ad’s mother, she would do everything she can to embrace him.

“We will try, but we will not be able to replace his mother or bring her back.”

This post appeared first on cnn.com

US President Donald Trump’s policy on Ukraine is a little scattered and meandering, and at times misinformed. But be in no doubt that it exists and seems an unanticipated priority.

Trump’s policy on Ukraine distinguishes itself in two ways in the first week of his administration.

The first is his persistent criticism of the economic damage the Kremlin head is doing to Russia. Trump is making a business case for a peace deal, telling Russian President Vladimir Putin he needs to make a pact for financial reasons.

This may misread Putin’s apparent pathological commitment to victory, and the broad existential nature of the conflict for Moscow in the eyes of its propagandists. They see this as a war against the entirety of NATO that they must win. The propaganda taps of Russian state media can be turned off as well as on. But Russia’s mindset is radicalized where the West’s is not. It’s not a business case of quarterly profit and loss for the Kremlin, but one of survival.

The second is how regularly Trump talks of the war after excluding it — and any mention of Ukraine and Russia — from his inauguration speech on Monday. He correctly suggested Thursday a lower oil price could impede Russia’s ability to wage war. Russia sells oil to China and India to keep its war machine going, despite sanctions aimed at reducing its revenue.

Trump said he would talk to North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, whose troops are fighting for Moscow now in Kursk. He also correctly suggested Beijing has great influence over Moscow and could force a peace deal upon them.

Again, Trump is approaching the conflict from his comfort zone: one where everyone is seeking a smooth deal that makes them richer. China may seek calm, and perhaps ultimately wish the Ukraine conflict had never begun. But that is not the reality of now, and instead Xi Jinping is treading a delicate path: watching his ally Moscow degrade their military and economy to the extent they become Beijing’s junior partner, while also realising Russia cannot lose the fight without a knock-on impact to China’s global ambitions.

The calculations made now by America’s adversaries concern the world order over the coming decade, not the immediate telephone call sheet of the White House, or how fast slick interpersonal dealings might wrap up the biggest land conflict in Europe since the 1940s.

Trump’s repeated call for NATO’s European members to pay more for defense – an unlikely demand of 2% of GDP rising to 5% – has even been echoed by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.

It is correct to state this is Europe’s war. If Kyiv loses, Poland, the Baltics, Romania and Moldova will feel the heat, not Florida or California. Even NATO’s head, Mark Rutte, has suggested Europe might buy arms for Ukraine from the United States. Trump was always going to challenge the cost of the war to Washington, and speedily Europe is being backed into a corner to step up.

It is also intriguing to see Trump talk of the damage the war has done. He said incorrectly Thursday millions had died on both sides. Kyiv has said 43,000 Ukrainian troops have died. The UN says about 12,000 Ukrainian civilians have died.

Western officials say regularly Russia’s losses amount to 700,000 dead and injured, and independent media have tracked nearly 100,000 public records that suggest Russian military deaths on the battlefield.

Yet Trump’s incorrect, emotional reference to millions may be aimed at evoking the urgency and horror of the war in the minds of an American audience for whom it is a side issue rarely discussed.

Trump said he could bring peace to Ukraine in 24 hours, which was always a wild rhetorical exaggeration. Even the six months now evoked is optimistic. But he has taken office seized with a wobbly yet vivid grasp of the war’s issues. That may falter, as he slowly realizes a deal is not low hanging fruit and his adversaries – because that is what Putin is, however “great” Trump says they get along – are more patient, enduring and conniving than he is.

But his opening week has done much to dispel the greater fear from Ukraine and its allies that Trump preferred coziness with Putin to NATO’s unity. Or that his wild and unrealistic promises of diplomacy from the campaign trail would evaporate – along with funding for the war – the moment he came to office. This may all still happen, and the road ahead for Trump is deeply complex and fraught with rivals who have years more experience in the job, and much more to lose or gain.

But Trump is seized of the issue, has an emotional albeit shaky grasp of the war’s horrors, and is critical of, not fawning towards, Putin. It’s yet another unforeseen turn in a conflict ruled by the unexpected.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

Stardust Power Inc. (NASDAQ: SDST) (‘Stardust Power’ or the ‘Company’), an American developer of battery-grade lithium products, today announced the pricing of its ‘reasonable best efforts’ public offering for the purchase and sale of up to 4,792,000 shares of common stock (or common stock equivalents in lieu thereof) and warrants to purchase up to 4,792,000 shares of common stock at a combined offering price of $1.20 per share and accompanying warrant (the ‘Offering’). The Company expects to receive aggregate gross proceeds of approximately $5.75 million, before deducting placement agent fees and other offering expenses, and assuming no exercise of the warrants. The warrants will have an exercise price of $1.30 per share, will be exercisable immediately and will expire five years from the issuance date.

‘We are proud that we have priced this round of financing with investment from a large institutional investor, representing their support for the Stardust Power story. This financing continues building on our progress towards the FID stage for our large central lithium refinery. The capital provides stability for the company to continue to execute against our business plan,’ noted Stardust Power Founder and CEO, Roshan Pujari.

The closing of the Offering is expected to occur on or about January 27, 2025, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions. The Company intends to use the net proceeds from this Offering for working capital and general corporate purposes, as well as to satisfy amounts due under certain existing promissory notes of the Company.

A.G.P./Alliance Global Partners is acting as the sole placement agent for the Offering.

The securities described above are being offered pursuant to a registration statement on Form S-1 (File No. 333-284298) previously filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (‘SEC’) on January 15, 2025, which was declared effective on January 23, 2025. This Offering is being made only by means of a prospectus forming part of the effective registration statement. A preliminary prospectus relating to the Offering has been filed with the SEC. An electronic copy of the final prospectus relating to the Offering may be obtained, when available, on the SEC’s website located at http://www.sec.gov and may also be obtained from A.G.P./Alliance Global Partners, 590 Madison Avenue, 28th Floor, New York, NY 10022, or by telephone at (212) 624-2060, or by email at prospectus@allianceg.com .

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

About Stardust Power Inc.

Stardust Power is a developer of battery-grade lithium products designed to bolster America’s energy leadership by building resilient supply chains. Stardust Power is developing a strategically central lithium refinery in Muskogee, Oklahoma with the anticipated capacity of producing up to 50,000 metric tons per annum of battery-grade lithium. The Company is committed to sustainability at each point in the process. Stardust Power trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol ‘SDST.’

For more information, visit www.stardust-power.com

Stardust Power Contacts

For Investors:
Johanna Gonzalez
investor.relations@stardust-power.com

For Media:
Michael Thompson
media@stardust-power.com

Forward Looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release constitute ‘forward-looking statements.’ Such forward-looking statements are often identified by words such as ‘believe,’ ‘may,’ ‘will,’ ‘estimate,’ ‘continue,’ ‘anticipate,’ ‘intend,’ ‘expect,’ ‘should,’ ‘would,’ ‘plan,’ ‘predict,’ ‘forecasted,’ ‘projected,’ ‘potential,’ ‘seem,’ ‘future,’ ‘outlook,’ and similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or otherwise indicate statements that are not of historical matters, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements relating to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions related to the Offering, the timing of the anticipated closing of the Offering and the intended use of proceeds from the Offering. These forward-looking statements and factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations include, but are not limited to: the ability of Stardust Power to grow and manage growth profitably, maintain key relationships and retain its management and key employees; risks related to the uncertainty of the projected financial information with respect to Stardust Power; risks related to the price of Stardust Power’s securities, including volatility resulting from changes in the competitive and highly regulated industries in which Stardust Power plans to operate, variations in performance across competitors, changes in laws and regulations affecting Stardust Power’s business and changes in the combined capital structure; and risks related to the ability to implement business plans, forecasts, and other expectations and identify and realize additional opportunities. The foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive.

Stockholders and prospective investors should carefully consider the foregoing factors and the other risks and uncertainties described in documents filed by Stardust Power from time to time with the SEC.

Stockholders and prospective investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which only speak as of the date made, are not a guarantee of future performance and are subject to a number of uncertainties, risks, assumptions and other factors, many of which are outside the control of Stardust Power. Stardust Power expressly disclaims any obligations or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in the expectations of Stardust Power with respect thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any statement is based.

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After consultation with ASX, European Lithium Ltd (ASX: EUR, FRA:PF8, OTC: EULIF) (European Lithium or the Company) is now releasing the 1st drill results from the Tanbreez Project (7.5% owned by EUR), that was previously announced by Critical Metals Corp on the NASDAQ on the 26th of November 2024 and the 9th of December 2024.

European Lithium Limited is pleased to announce that it has received the results for the first out of sixteen diamond drill holes from its confirmation drilling program at the Tanbreez Project in Greenland containing high-grade rare-earth and rare metal elements.

The drill program executed in September-October 2024 comprised sixteen holes with samples from the first hole having now been received back from the laboratory.

The Tanbreez mineralization is contained within a highly fractionated Zr-Nb-Ta- REE, including HREE, in the southern part of the Ilimaussaq intrusive complex in South Greenland. The Ilimaussaq intrusion is possibly the most differentiated deposit known globally to date, covering a potential area of approximately18 km long and 8 km wide, and of significant depth, that covers a portion of the Tanbreez tenement.

The commodities are hosted in the mineral eudialyte being concentrated in the kakortokite rock layer at the floor of the exposed intrusion. The kakortokite sequence is outcropping over an area of approximately 5.0 km by 2.5 km and has a total thickness of 270 m.

The assays from the first drill hole confirm a significant 40 m wide intersection from surface of high- grade rare-earth oxide averaging 4,722.51 ppm TREO (including 26.96% averaged heavy rare earth” HREO”), 1.82% ZrO2 “zircon oxide”, 130.92 ppm Ta2O “tantalum pentoxide”, 1852.22 ppm Nb2O5 “niobium pentoxide”, 393.68 ppm HfO2 “hafnium oxide” and 101.67 ppm Ga2O3 “gallium oxide” (See Appendix 1 Sample and assay sheet and Appendix 2 Drill hole collars)

Commenting on the assay results, Tony Sage, Executive Chairman of the Company, said:

”I am pleased to report the outstanding assay results from the first hole confirming the high-grade, high-tonnage and high-quality potential that Tanbreez brings to EUR and Critical Metals Corp. The company is pleased to announce that its first confirmation drill hole has yielded the high-grade percentage of light earth and heavy rare earth ratios with strong tantalum, niobium, and gallium results. We are excited by the scale of the thick source rock only 40 meters from the surface containing the mineralized high-grade intersection within the first drill hole”.

About European Lithium

European Lithium Limited is an exploration and development stage mining company focused mainly on lithium in Austria, Ireland, Ukraine, and Australia.

European Lithium currently holds 66,416,641 (74.34%) ordinary shares in Critical Metals. Based on the closing share price of Critical Metals being US$8.50 per share as of 17 January 2025, the Company’s current investment in Critical Metals is valued at US$564,541,448 (A$908,911,732) noting that this valuation is subject to fluctuation in the share price of Critical Metals.

For more information, please visit https://europeanlithium.com.

This announcement has been approved for release on ASX by the Board of Directors.

About CRML

Critical Metals Corp. is a leading mining development company focused on critical metals and minerals, and producing strategic products essential to electrification and next generation technologies for Europe and its western world partners. Its initial flagship asset is the Wolfsberg Lithium Project located in Carinthia, 270 km south of Vienna, Austria. The Wolfsberg Lithium Project is the first fully permitted mine in Europe and is strategically located with access to established road and rail infrastructure and is expected to be the next major producer of key lithium products to support the European market. Wolfsberg is well positioned with offtake and downstream partners to become a unique and valuable building block in an expanding geostrategic critical metals portfolio. In addition, Critical Metals owns a 20% interest in prospective Austrian mineral projects previously held by European Lithium and recently entered into an agreement to acquire a 92.5% controlling interest in the Tanbreez Greenland Rare Earth Mine (refer ASX announcement 11 June 2024 and 19 June 2024).

Click here for the full ASX Release

This post appeared first on investingnews.com

President Donald Trump’s executive order to declassify the JFK files left one of the 35th president’s descendants unimpressed. Jack Schlossberg, former President John F. Kennedy’s grandson, made his stance on the order clear in a post on X, saying that there was ‘nothing heroic’ about Trump’s latest move.

‘Declassification is using JFK as a political prop, when he’s not here to punch back,’ Schlossberg wrote. ‘There’s nothing heroic about it.’

After signing the order, which included the declassification of files on the assassinations of JFK, his brother Robert F. Kennedy and civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., Trump told reporters that ‘everything will be revealed.’

RFK Jr., son of the late senator and Trump’s HHS nominee, told press that the order was a ‘great move’ on the president’s part. He believes that the move will bring ‘more transparency’ and it shows that Trump is ‘keeping his promise to have the government tell the truth to the American people about everything.’ Kennedy has called for answers on his father and uncle’s assassinations.

‘I have now determined that the continued redaction and withholding of information from records pertaining to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy is not consistent with the public interest and the release of these records is long overdue,’ Trump’s order reads.

The order gives officials just over two weeks (15 days) to give Trump a plan for ‘the full and complete release of records’ on the JFK assassination. Additionally, officials have 45 days to present a plan on files relating to RFK and MLK Jr.’s assassinations.

King’s family reacted to the order in a statement, saying that they ‘hope to be provided the opportunity to review the files as a family prior to its public release.’

While Trump promised to release the JFK files during his first administration, there is still an undisclosed amount of material that remains under wraps more than 60 years later.

Trump ultimately agreed to block the release of the files after pleas from the CIA and FBI. At the time, he said that the threat of making the documents public were of ‘significant gravity’ that they outweighed ‘public interest.’ In a recent appearance on ‘Hannity,’ Trump said that then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo asked him not to release the documents, though he did not say if Pompeo explained why the files should remain classified.

Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano contributed to this report.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS

A rare “stay at home” warning has been issued for parts of the United Kingdom and Ireland as a severe storm lashes the region, bringing dangerous 100mph (160 kmh) winds and unleashing travel chaos.

Storm Éowyn, an extratropical “bomb” cyclone that has formed in the North Atlantic and intensified rapidly, has hit rail services, delayed flights and forced road closures.

The strongest winds and most significant impacts are expected in Northern Ireland and central and southwestern parts of Scotland, according to the UK’s Met Office. A red weather warning was established Friday morning local time in Northern Ireland and parts of Scotland.

A yellow warning for snow is also in force through Friday for northern and central areas of Scotland. While accumulations are possible over high ground, it’s likely to shift to sleet and rain at lower levels through the day, the Met Office said.

Currently more than 93,000 homes and businesses in Northern Ireland are without power, according to the Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) Networks. “Restoration efforts will take significant time as crews cannot begin to work until it is safe to do so,” the supplier said.

Northern Ireland’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill has given a “stay at home” warning to residents, telling BBC Radio Ulster that they are now “in the eye of the storm.”

According to Met Éireann, Ireland’s Meteorological Service, a gust of 113 mph was recorded at Mace Head Co. Galway at 5 a.m. local time — provisionally the strongest gust speed ever recorded in the country.

All schools in Ireland and Northern Ireland were closed on Friday, while hundreds were also shuttered across Scotland, with Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney also warning against travel.

Public transport has been severely disrupted by the storm. Train operator ScotRail has suspended all services across Scotland on Friday, saying it “would not be safe to operate passenger services.”

Other rail services affected by the storm include Avanti West Coast, LNER, West Midlands Railway, Lumo, Transport for Wales and South Western Railway.

Many flights have been canceled in the region. More than 1,070 flights scheduled to operate from the UK and Ireland were called off on Friday, the UK’s PA Media reported.

Dublin Airport announced later Friday that flights had recommenced from its runways after winds had “eased somewhat,” however it could not rule out further cancellations throughout the day.

Meanwhile motorists in areas where red and amber weather warnings are in place have been advised against non-essential travel.

Social media platforms were awash with images of the damage caused by Storm Éowyn. Dublin Fire Brigade posted a photo of collapsed scaffolding in an inner city Dublin suburb, saying that the road is “completely blocked.”

Another image shared by the fire brigade showed supermarket shelves almost completely emptied of bread.

A photo taken in Durham county, in England’s north east, shows an overturned lorry after it ran into trouble in high winds on a major road.

In Ireland’s Galway harbour city, trees that had stood for over 60 years were uprooted by the storm, locals said.

“(I) got woken up before the red alert even started, the winds were crazy,” sports scientist Cathriona Heffernan, 25, from Galway, said.

“Those trees have been there 60 years and outdate the houses even. It’s sad seeing them down all the same but just glad no damage was caused by them.”

Éowyn is expected to move away from the UK on Saturday, although yellow wind warnings are in place in Scotland and Northern Ireland for Saturday morning and early afternoon.

Ambrogio Volonté, a senior research fellow at the University of Reading’s Department of Meteorology, warned Storm Éowyn could “rival the ferocity” of Storm Eunice in 2022 and Storm Ciarán in 2023, “both of which sadly claimed lives and left behind severe damage.”

Leach said Éowyn is an extratropical bomb cyclone that has formed in the North Atlantic and “intensified extremely rapidly.”

He said bomb cyclones are typically the most impactful winter storms in Northern Europe.

While Leach said the impacts of the climate crisis on extratropical cyclones remain uncertain, some studies suggest the most severe storms may be getting stronger with climate change.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

Armed personnel from an American security contractor will man the checkpoint and will be responsible for inspecting vehicles entering northern Gaza. Palestinians returning to northern Gaza on foot will not be inspected, according to the terms of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.

Israeli forces are set to complete their withdrawal from the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza on Saturday, which will allow displaced residents of northern Gaza to return to their homes – or what remains of them.

Named after the former Israeli settlement of Netzarim in Gaza, the corridor was constructed by Israeli forces to create a strategic, central road intersecting the strip.

Israeli media have reported that a security contractor named UG Solutions will deploy personnel to the checkpoint. Another American firm, Safe Reach Solutions, is reportedly involved in the planning and logistics for the checkpoint.

Neither firm has an extensive online footprint. On its website, Safe Reach Solutions says it provides “planning, logistics, and strategic expertise to organizations operating in the world’s most complex environments.”

Israel has long mulled various plans to deploy private American contractors to safeguard aid shipments in Gaza or to establish humanitarian zones that have been fully cleared of Hamas militants.

None of those plans has ever come to fruition, but the contractor-manned checkpoint could be a key test of the viability of deploying private contractors in Gaza.

This post appeared first on cnn.com

TEL AVIV – The Trump administration will do more than its predecessor to combat the tidal wave of Jew-hatred unleashed by Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, Israeli Minister for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Amichai Chikli told Fox News Digital. 

Chikli noted that, when confirmed, the new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, former Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., will enter into one of the epicenters of the global assault on the Jewish people and their state.

‘We saw Stefanik at the hearing on campus antisemitism in Congress,’ he said, noting that once confirmed as a senior member of the Trump administration she will be ‘stationed in one of the most hostile arenas: the U.N.’ Chikli added that she’s ‘A warrior against antisemitism, we are very happy with her appointment.’

In December 2023, Stefanik was widely praised during a congressional hearing on the explosion of antisemitism at American universities. She asked the presidents of Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts Institute of Technology if calling for genocide against Jews violated their codes of conduct.

A year later, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson unveiled the U.S. House of Representatives Staff Report on Antisemitism, compiled by six congressional committees.

Chikli told Fox News Digital four actionable measures to curb the phenomenon: ‘Enforcing strict compliance with Title VI to prohibit discrimination and address antisemitism on campus; withholding federal funding to institutions that boycott Israel or tolerate antisemitic behavior; requiring universities to disclose foreign contributions and tightening government oversight; and revoking funding and tax exemptions for groups and universities that propagate antisemitism or support terror-related activities.’

‘This report from the speaker of the House shows that this [Trump] administration is highly committed to countering antisemitism,’ Chikli said.

In her new role, Stefanik has also promised to fight Jew-hatred at Turtle Bay, which she described as a ‘den of antisemitism.’

‘Even before the barbaric terrorist attacks by Hamas on Oct. 7, the U.N. has continuously betrayed Israel and betrayed America, acting as an apologist for Iran and their terrorist proxies,’ Stefanik said in November after her nomination.

During her Senate confirmation on Tuesday, she said the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), a conduit for international aid to the Palestinians, should be ‘at the bottom of the list’ of organizations to receive American funding.

In January 2024, then-President Joe Biden halted funding to UNRWA after Israel released evidence that the agency’s staff participated in the Oct. 7 massacre. 

According to Chikli, UNRWA effectively serves as Hamas’s educational system, which in turn makes it the engine fueling antisemitism throughout Gaza and Palestinian-administered territories in the West Bank, known by Israelis as Judea and Samaria.

‘It takes a village to raise a child, and it takes a village to raise a terrorist. And if you put a child in UNRWA schools, you can be sure that he will graduate with the mindset of a terrorist,’ Chikli told Fox News Digital.

‘[Palestinian children] will learn to admire suicide bombers, Hamas Nukhba terrorists who butchered innocent people. They go to schools named after terrorists, with textbooks that include math problems about how many Israeli soldiers were attacked or how many stones were thrown at them,’ he continued.

‘That is why it is critical to make sure UNRWA is shut down,’ he added. 

In October, the Israeli parliament banned UNRWA from operating in the Jewish state. The law takes effect on Jan. 30.

A spokesperson for Israeli Opposition Leader Yair Lapid told Fox News Digital that ‘the government and the international community has had 90 days to find alternatives to UNRWA.’

He declined to say whether Lapid was in contact with the Trump administration to discuss ‘day after’ plans once UNRWA ceases operations. 

In August, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini confirmed the probable involvement of at least 19 UNRWA employees in the Oct.7 massacre, saying that ‘the evidence – if authenticated and corroborated – could indicate that the UNRWA staff members may have been involved in the attacks.’

He later confirmed that at least nine UNRWA staffers were fired after an internal probe.

UNRWA Director of Communications Juliette Touma told Fox News Digital that ‘we are committed to staying and delivering [aid] in the occupied Palestinian territories, including the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, until we cannot.’

‘UNRWA has the most robust systems in place in comparison to other United Nations agencies when it comes to the adherence to the principle of neutrality with regards to our programs that we do and our staff,’ she said. 

Asked whether the organization has put together a plan for ongoing operations once the Israeli ban kicks in, she said, ‘We have not.’

Ayelet Samerano’s son, Yonatan, was kidnapped by a terrorist who also reportedly worked for UNRWA on Oct. 7, 2023. A video of the terrorist dragging Yonatan’s lifeless body into a car went viral. 

‘I will not let it go. I am pressuring the government very hard for the law, which passed in the Knesset, to be implemented,’ Samerano told Fox News Digital. ‘I didn’t know UNRWA before, but then I investigated and found many documents that prove it’s involved in terror. That they were involved in taking hostages on Oct. 7 and holding kidnapped Israelis in their homes and buildings means there is no reason for this organization to continue to exist.’

‘We must ensure that UNRWA will be replaced by another organization that will help the Gazans and make sure terror does not infiltrate them,’ she continued. ‘People outside of Gaza and interested in real peace must teach a new curriculum that will create opportunities for Gazans, not terror.’

Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon told Fox News Digital that Stefanik is ‘a staunch ally of Israel and of the Jewish people.’

‘She leads with moral clarity and a strong commitment to justice and truth,’ he said. ‘I am looking forward to working with her at the U.N., where the demonization and distortions about Israel are out of control.’

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