World
Biden admin sanctions Israel national security minister ally, reportedly weighs expanding to IDF unit
The Biden administration could announce sanctions against an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) battalion for alleged human rights violations in the West Bank before the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas-led terrorists, according to reports.
Axios reported that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken could announce the sanctions against IDF battalion “Netzah Yehuda” within days, marking the first time the U.S. will have placed sanctions on military units operated by Israel.
If sanctions are imposed, the battalion and its members would no longer receive any type of training or assistance from the U.S. military, sources reportedly told the publication.
The U.S. is prohibited under the Leahy Law, from providing any sort of foreign aid or defense department training to countries responsible for alleged human rights violations based on credible information.
WHITE HOUSE ANNOUNCES NEW SANCTIONS ON IRAN FOLLOWING ATTACK AGAINST ISRAEL: ‘THE PRESSURE WILL CONTINUE’
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivers remarks at the 67th Session of the U.N. Commission on Narcotic Drugs at Vienna International Center, in Vienna, Austria, on March 15, 2024. (Reuters/Evelyn Hockstein/Pool)
Fox News Digital reached out to the U.S. State Department and White House but did not immediately hear back.
While speaking to reporters on Friday, Blinken was asked about Israel’s violations of human rights in the West Bank and recommendations made by his department to cut military aid to certain Israeli units.
Blinken started by saying the Leahy Law was important and applied across the board.
BIDEN SILENT AFTER BEING PRESSED ABOUT IRANIAN STRIKE AGAINST ISRAEL: ‘WHAT NOW?’
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) in Tel Aviv, Israel on Nov. 3, 2023. (Amos Ben-Gershom (GPO)/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“When we’re doing these investigations, these inquiries, it’s something that takes time, that has to be done very carefully both in collecting the facts and analyzing them – and that’s exactly what we’ve done,” he said. “And I think it’s fair to say that you’ll see results very soon. I’ve made determinations; you can expect to see them in the days ahead.”
On Friday, the U.S. imposed sanctions on an ally of Israel’s national security minister and two entities that raised money for Israeli men who allegedly committed settler violence. The new sanctions came in addition to others placed on five settlers and two unauthorized outposts earlier this year. The increased sanctions also show growing frustration of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by the U.S.
Friday’s sanctions will reportedly freeze U.S. assets held by those targeted while also barring Americans from dealing with them.
HOUSE TEES UP 17 BILLS RELATED TO IRAN/ISRAEL FOR THIS WEEK
FILE PHOTO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convenes the weekly cabinet meeting at the Defence Ministry in Tel Aviv, Israel, January 7, 2024. (REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/Pool/File Photo)
Right-wing members of Netanyahu’s governing coalition that is pushing to expand Jewish settlements along with the annexation of the West Bank are reportedly upset with the Biden administration for making moves against the Israeli settlers.
Also adding fuel to the fire is the tension between Israel and Washington caused by the latter urging Israel to restrain themselves from attacking Iran.
One of the individuals sanctioned by the U.S. was Ben-Zion Gopstein, the founder and leader of the right-wing group Lehava. The group does not support Jewish assimilation with non-Jews and has about 5,000 members.
RADICAL IRANIAN PROVINCE HIT BY ISRAEL HIGHLIGHTS REGIME’S WEAKNESS
Israel launched limited strikes against Iran on Friday, April 19. (IRGC)
“Under Gopstein’s leadership, Lehava and its members have been involved in acts or threats of violence against Palestinians, often targeting sensitive or volatile areas,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement obtained by Reuters.
Miller warned that additional steps would be taken if Israel does not act to prevent extremist attacks as violence continues to escalate in the West Bank.
The European Union also agreed to impose sanctions against Lehava and other groups.
HOUSE OVERWHELMINGLY PASSES $26 BILLION AID TO ISRAEL, GAZA AS TENSIONS WITH IRAN ESCALATE
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan speaks during a press briefing at the White House in Washington, Monday, March 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
But the U.S. is not just targeting Israel. In fact, last week, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan announced sanctions would be placed against Iran after its regime attacked Israel last Saturday.
The sanctions were announced as Republicans criticized the Biden administration for not being tough enough on Iran, pointing to a waiver extended by the White House in November 2023 that released $10 billion of previously escrowed funds to Iran.
Sullivan said that the actions the U.S. is taking will “continue a steady drumbeat of pressure to contain and degrade Iran’s military capacity and effectiveness and confront the full range of its problematic behaviors.”
“Over the last three years, in addition to missile and drone-related sanctions, the United States has sanctioned over 600 individuals and entities connected to terrorism, terrorist financing and other forms of illicit trade, horrific human rights abuses, and support for proxy terrorist groups, including Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Kataib Hezbollah,” the statement added.
“The pressure will continue. We will not hesitate to continue to take action, in coordination with allies and partners around the world, and with Congress, to hold the Iranian government accountable for its malicious and destabilizing actions.”
Fox News Digital’s Andrea Vacchiano and Reuters contributed to this report.
World
UAE cuts funding for citizens studying at UK universities over campus radicalization fears: report
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The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is removing funding for its citizens to study in the United Kingdom, citing concerns they could be radicalized abroad.
The move means the UAE has removed British universities from a list of higher education institutions eligible for state scholarships amid growing tensions over London’s decision not to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, The Financial Times reported.
“[The UAE] don’t want their kids to be radicalized on campus,” a person directly involved with the decision told the outlet.
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA ORDERED TO REINSTATE LAW STUDENT WHO WAS EXPELLED AFTER ANTI-JEWISH COMMENTS
A “Welcome to the People’s University for Palestine” banner at King’s College at the University of Cambridge May 11, 2024, in Cambridge, U.K. (Mark Kerrison/In Pictures via Getty Images)
Since then, Emirati students who have applied to their government for scholarships to study in the U.K. have been denied.
The move also means that the UAE will not recognize qualifications from academic institutions that are not on its accredited list, rendering degrees from U.K. universities less valuable than others, according to the report.
NYC STUDENTS EXPOSE ‘EXTREMIST’ PROFESSORS FOSTERING CAMPUS ANTISEMITISM AT MAJOR UNIVERSITIES
The skyline in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, where funding for its citizens to study in the United Kingdom has been halted. (Vidhyaa Chandramohan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“All forms of extremism have absolutely no place in our society, and we will stamp them out wherever they are found,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office said in a statement. “We offer one of the best education systems in the world and maintain stringent measures on student welfare and on-campus safety.”
The UAE has taken a hardline approach to Islamist movements abroad and at home.
During the 2023-24 school year, 70 students at U.K. universities were reported for possible referral to the government’s deradicalization program, the report states.
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UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan has repeatedly questioned the U.K.’s decision to declare the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization.
Starmer’s administration last year said the matter was under “close review.”
World
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,416
These are the key developments from day 1,416 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Published On 10 Jan 2026
Here is where things stand on Saturday, January 10:
Fighting:
- The death toll from a massive Russian attack on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv that began on Thursday night has risen to four, the Ukrainian State Emergency Service wrote in an update shared on Facebook on Friday. At least 25 people were also injured, including five rescuers, the service added.
- The attack left thousands of Kyiv apartments without heat, electricity and water as temperatures fell to minus 10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit) on Friday, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko and other local officials said.
- Klitschko called on people to temporarily leave the city, saying on Telegram that “half of apartment buildings in Kyiv – nearly 6,000 – are currently without heating because the capital’s critical infrastructure was damaged by the enemy’s massive attack”.
- Russian forces shelled a hospital in the Ukrainian city of Kherson just after midday on Friday, damaging the intensive care unit and injuring three nurses, the regional prosecutor’s office wrote on Telegram.
- “As a result of the attack, three nurses aged 21, 49, and 52 were wounded. At the time of the shelling, the women were inside the medical facility,” the office said in a statement.
- The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, condemned attacks on healthcare in Ukraine in a statement shared on X, saying that there had been nine attacks since the beginning of 2026, killing one patient, one medic and injuring 11 others, including healthcare workers and patients.
- Tedros said that the attacks further “complicated the delivery of health care during the winter period” and called for “the protection of health care facilities, patients and health workers”.
- Russian forces attacked two foreign-flagged civilian vessels with drones in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, killing a Syrian national and injuring another, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba and other officials said on Friday.
- A Ukrainian drone attack on a bus in Russia’s Belgorod region injured four people, the regional task force reported, according to Russia’s TASS state news agency.
- Russian forces seized five settlements in Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region, including Zelenoye, the Russian Ministry of Defence said, according to TASS.
- Ukrainian battlefield monitoring site DeepState said on Friday that Russian forces advanced in Huliaipole and Prymorske in the Zaporizhia region, but did not report any further changes.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday that Russia’s Oreshnik missile strike late on Thursday was “demonstratively” close to Ukraine’s border with the European Union.
- The International Atomic Energy Agency has begun consultations to establish a temporary ceasefire zone near Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant after military activity damaged one of two high-voltage power lines, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a statement on Friday.
Sanctions
- US forces seized the Olina oil tanker and forced it to return to Venezuela so its oil could be sold “through the GREAT Energy Deal”, United States President Donald Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Friday. According to The Associated Press news agency, US government records showed that the Olina had been sanctioned for moving Russian oil under its prior name, Minerva M.
- Ukraine’s ambassador to the US, Olha Stefanishyna, said that Ukrainian nationals were among members of the crew of the Russian-flagged tanker Marinera seized earlier this week by US forces over its links to Venezuela, according to Interfax Ukraine news agency.
- The Russian Foreign Ministry separately said on Friday that the US had released two Russian crewmembers from the Marinera, expressing gratitude to Washington for the decision and pledging to ensure the return home of crewmembers.
Politics and diplomacy
- Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed “deep regret” over damage to its embassy in Kyiv, confirming that no diplomats or staff were hurt, in a statement on Friday. The ministry underscored the importance of protecting diplomatic buildings and reiterated its call for a “resolution to the Russian-Ukrainian crisis through dialogue and peaceful means”.
- British Defence Secretary John Healey said that the United Kingdom was allocating 200 million pounds ($270m) to fund preparations for the possible deployment of troops to Ukraine, during a visit to Kyiv on Friday.
- The leaders of Britain, France and Germany described Russia’s use of an Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile in western Ukraine as “escalatory and unacceptable”, according to a readout of their call released by Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office on Friday.
World
Some flu measures decline, but it’s not clear this severe season has peaked
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. flu infections showed signs of a slight decline last week, but health officials say it is not clear that this severe flu season has peaked.
New government data posted Friday — for flu activity through last week — showed declines in medical office visits due to flu-like illness and in the number of states reporting high flu activity.
However, some measures show this season is already surpassing the flu epidemic of last winter, one of the harshest in recent history. And experts believe there is more suffering ahead.
“This is going to be a long, hard flu season,” New York State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said, in a statement Friday.
One type of flu virus, called A H3N2, historically has caused the most hospitalizations and deaths in older people. So far this season, that is the type most frequently reported. Even more concerning, more than 91% of the H3N2 infections analyzed were a new version — known as the subclade K variant — that differs from the strain in this year’s flu shots.
The last flu season saw the highest overall flu hospitalization rate since the H1N1 flu pandemic 15 years ago. And child flu deaths reached 289, the worst recorded for any U.S. flu season this century — including that H1N1 “swine flu” pandemic of 2009-2010.
So far this season, there have been at least 15 million flu illnesses and 180,000 hospitalizations, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates. It also estimates there have been 7,400 deaths, including the deaths of at least 17 children.
Last week, 44 states reported high flu activity, down slightly from the week before. However, flu deaths and hospitalizations rose.
Determining exactly how flu season is going can be particularly tricky around the holidays. Schools are closed, and many people are traveling. Some people may be less likely to see a doctor, deciding to just suffer at home. Others may be more likely to go.
Also, some seasons see a surge in cases, then a decline, and then a second surge.
For years, federal health officials joined doctors’ groups in recommending that everyone 6 months and older get an annual influenza vaccine. The shots may not prevent all symptoms but can prevent many infections from becoming severe, experts say.
But federal health officials on Monday announced they will no longer recommend flu vaccinations for U.S. children, saying it is a decision parents and patients should make in consultation with their doctors.
“I can’t begin to express how concerned we are about the future health of the children in this country, who already have been unnecessarily dying from the flu — a vaccine preventable disease,” said Michele Slafkosky, executive director of an advocacy organization called Families Fighting Flu.
“Now, with added confusion for parents and health care providers about childhood vaccines, I fear that flu seasons to come could be even more deadly for our youngest and most vulnerable,” she said in a statement.
Flu is just one of a group of viruses that tend to strike more often in the winter. Hospitalizations from COVID-19 and RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, also have been rising in recent weeks — though were not diagnosed nearly as often as flu infections, according to other federal data.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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