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Latest Donald Trump News | Top Headlines on Donald Trump
Donald Trump is the undisputed frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination in the 2024 election. He is also the defendant in four criminal cases. Bookmark this page to get the latest news on one of the most divisive figures in American history.
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Hamas releases three Israeli captives in Gaza’s Khan Younis and Gaza City

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Hamas releases three Israeli captives in Gaza’s Khan Younis and Gaza City

BREAKING,

Hamas hands over Ofer Kalderon and Yarden Bibas to the Red Cross in Gaza’s Khan Younis, while Keith Siegel is to be freed in Gaza City.

The Palestinian group Hamas has released three Israeli captives in two separate handover rites, in the latest stage of a gradual exchange under a ceasefire deal that ended the 15-month Israeli genocide in Gaza.

French-Israeli national Ofer Kalderon and Israeli citizen Yarden Bibas were handed over to the Red Cross in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, Al Jazeera TV showed on Saturday.

American-Israeli national Keith Siegel was handed over about an hour later to the same Red Cross officials in Gaza City in the northern part of the enclave.

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Hundreds of Hamas fighters were seen lining up and managing the crowd in both Khan Younis and Gaza, where Kalderon, Bibas and Siegel were separately handed to representatives of the International Red Cross.

Kalderon and Bibas were seen waving and greeting the crowd of Palestinians who watched the handover.

Siegel was later seen presented by Hamas on stage in Gaza City before he was handed over to the Red Cross.

So far, Kalderon and Bigas have arrived back in Israel, where they will undergo initial medical check-up before meeting their families.

Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, who is reporting from the site of the release in Khan Younis, described the handover as “well-organised” compared to the previous releases.

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“The scene is quite incredible, without stampeding observed before. Usually, such handover are made under very tense circumstances,” he said.

Luciano Zaccara, a professor at Qatar University and an expert on Middle East politics, said the latest release of captives proved that Hamas is still “able to organise and manage the situation in Gaza” despite the months-long Israeli bombardment.

“Even though Israel claimed that Hamas has been destroyed, the scenes we have witnessed give you an idea that Hamas is still there,” he told Al Jazeera.

“The exchange is moving without delay and we hope that the second phase of the ceasefire will start as planned.”

As part of the ceasefire deal entered on January 19, Israel is also expected to free 183 Palestinian prisoners in the fourth such exchange.

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Also on Saturday, the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt is likely to be reopened to allow sick and seriously-injured Palestinians to finally get treatment.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, who is reporting from Gaza City, said the opening is expected to happen later on Saturday, allowing an initial 50 sick Palestinians to be evacuated to Gaza. Each Palestinian will also be allowed to be accompanied by three family members.

“It is very significant” as it will also allow the delivery of humanitarian good to Palestinians in Gaza, Mahmoud said.

Gershon Baskin, an Israeli columnist living in West Jerusalem, noted in an interview wiht Al Jazeera that there is “very little talk about the opening” of the Rafah crossing within Israel.

Negotiations are due to start by Tuesday on agreements for the release of more than 60 remaining captives, the release of more Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza in a second phase of the deal.

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The initial six-week ceasefire, agreed with Egyptian and Qatari mediators and backed by the United States, has so far stayed on track despite a number of incidents that have led both sides to accuse the other of violating the deal.

The Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 killed some 1,200 people and took more than 250 captives, according to Israeli figures.

Israel’s campaign in response has destroyed much of the densely populated Gaza Strip and killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health authorities.

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A fashion designer, Italian singer and Icelandic illustrator team up on Vatican exhibition

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A fashion designer, Italian singer and Icelandic illustrator team up on Vatican exhibition

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican’s Apostolic Library tapped Dior’s creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri, Italian singer Jovanotti and Icelandic illustrator Kristjana S Williams for an exhibition exploring world tours of the late 19th Century.

The exhibition, titled “En Route,” is the sixth in a series of events intended as a dialogue between the Vatican library’s heritage, dating to the 4th century, and contemporary art.

The library enlisted Chiuri, Jovanotti and Williams to explore the stories of selected travelers, and the contemporary meaning of a recently discovered collection of 1,200 newspapers gathered from remote corners of the world by the diplomat and scholar Cesare Poma during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Chiuri focused on six Victorian-era women who defied conventions by traveling the world on their own. She worked with the Chanakya School of Craft in India to create tapestries depicting the routes they traveled.

“It was interesting to see that they immediately felt the need to change their clothes, because otherwise it was not comfortable to travel, especially by bicycle,” Chiuri told a press preview on Friday. “The first item they took off was the corset.”

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A model wears a creation as part of the Christian Dior Haute Couture Spring Summer 2025 collection, that was presented in Paris, Monday, Jan. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly).

Jovanotti, a singer-songwriter and globetrotter, exhibits a bicycle that he has ridden around the world, including on trips through China, Iran, Pakistan, New Zealand and most of Latin America. He also displays a disco ball that is made into a globe with silver mirrored panels representing the ocean, and gold ones for land.

“I liked the idea of bringing a disco ball to the Vatican,’’ he quipped.

The exhibition takes its name from a periodical by two French journalists, Lucien Leroy and Henri Papillaud, who published their global travels from 1895-97, in part to finance the journey. It runs from Feb. 15-Dec. 20.

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Iran's covert nuclear agency found operating out of top space program launch sites

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Iran's covert nuclear agency found operating out of top space program launch sites

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FIRST ON FOX: A covert agency within Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics, tasked with the development of Iran’s nuclear program, has been found to be operating out of top sites used by Iran’s space program.

Iran has hidden elements of its nuclear development program under the guise of commercial enterprises, and it has been suspected of using its space program to develop technologies that could be applied to its nuclear weapons program. 

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Fox News Digital has learned that according to information obtained by sources embedded in the Iranian regime, evidence collected over several months shows that Iran’s chief nuclear development agency, the Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research, has been operating out two locations previously recognized as space development and launch sites.

A big banner depicting Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is placed next to a ballistic missile in Baharestan Square in Tehran, Iran, on September 26, 2024 on the sideline of an exhibition which marks the 44th anniversary of the start of the Iran-Iraq War.  (Photo by Hossein Beris / Middle East Images / Middle East Images via AFP)

IRAN HIDING MISSILE, DRONE PROGRAMS UNDER GUISE OF COMMERCIAL FRONT TO EVADE SANCTIONS

“These reports, compiled from dozens of sources and thoroughly validated, indicate that in recent months, SPND has intensified its efforts to construct nuclear warheads at both the Shahrud and Semnan sites,” the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said in a report exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital.

The information was obtained by individuals affiliated with the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran and given to the NCRI, an Iranian opposition organization based out of Washington, D.C., and Paris. The NCRI’s deputy director of its Washington, D.C., office, Alireza Jafarzadeh, was the first to disclose to the world information about Iran’s covert nuclear program in 2002.

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One of the sites, the Shahroud Space Center, which has been suspected of being used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to develop intermediate-range ballistic missiles, is also now reported to have “large-scale” SPND personnel operating out of it – a move Jafarzadeh described as a “significant red flag.”

The Shahroud Space Center caught global attention in 2022 when Iran announced it had developed the Ghaem-100 rocket, which could be used to send low-orbit satellites into space, but also as a ballistic missile with a range of nearly 1,400 miles, greater than what was previously achieved with the Qased rocket.

However, according to sources familiar with activity at the Shahroud Space Center “SPND’s experts are working on a nuclear warhead for the Ghaem100 solid-fuel missile with a range of more than 3,000 kilometers [more than 1,800 miles] and a mobile launch pad.”

Iran missile launch

Iran’s medium-range ballistic missile called Hayber (Hurremshahr-4) is seen after the launch during the promotional program organized with the participation of high-ranking military officials in Tehran, Iran, on May 7, 2023. (Iranian Defense Ministry / Hanodut/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

IRAN EXPANDS WEAPONIZATION CAPABILITIES CRITICAL FOR EMPLOYING NUCLEAR BOMB

The site is under high security and personnel are apparently prohibited from driving on to the complex. Instead, they are required to park at a checkpoint at the entrance to the site, before being transported inside the complex by the IRGC. 

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“The Ghaem-100 missile, with a mobile launchpad that enhances its military capability, was produced by the IRGC Aerospace Force and copied from North Korean missiles,” the NCRI report said. “The production of the Ghaem missile was designed from the very beginning to carry a nuclear warhead. The IRGC Brigadier General Hassan Tehrani Moghaddam, the father of the IRGC’s missile program, personally pursued the project.”

It is unclear what level of nuclear payload the Ghaem-100 missile would be capable of carrying at the range of 1,800 miles, though this is still shy of the roughly 3,400 miles needed to be classified as an intercontinental missile. 

The second site, located in the northern city of Semnan, the Imam Khomeini Spaceport – Iran’s first spaceport – made international headlines just last month when Tehran launched its heaviest-ever rocket into space carrying a payload of roughly 660 pounds, relying on a liquid propellant.

According to the NCRI report, Iran is using this technology to develop liquid-fuel propellants, like the Simorgh rocket with a range of more than 1,800 miles, used for launching heavier satellites into space – but with the capability of carrying nuclear warheads.

Iran rocket space

This photo released by the official website of the Iranian Defense Ministry on Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, shows the launching of Simorgh, or “Phoenix,” rocket at Iran’s Imam Khomeini Spaceport in rural Semnan province, Iran. (Iranian Defense Ministry via AP)

IRAN LAUNCHES ROCKET WITH HEAVIEST-EVER PAYLOAD INTO SPACE AMID HEIGHTENED CONCERN OVER NUCLEAR PROGRAM

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Liquid fuel enables a missile to have greater propulsive thrust, power and control. Though it is heavier than solid fuel and requires more complex technologies. 

“Creating a Space Command of the IRGC’s Aerospace Force has served to camouflage the development of nuclear warheads under the guise of launching satellites while additionally giving the regime independent communications necessary for guiding the nuclear warheads,” Jafarzadeh told Fox News Digital. 

The International Atomic Energy Agency earlier this month warned that Iran has developed some 440 pounds of near-weapons grade uranium that has been enriched to the 60% purity threshold – shy of the 90% purity levels needed to develop a nuclear bomb. 

Though only some 92 pounds of weapons-grade uranium is reportedly required to create one nuclear bomb, meaning Iran, if it further enriched its uranium, could possess enough material to develop five nuclear bombs.

Iran nuclear

The Foundation for Defense of Democracies has analyzed where Iran’s nuclear infrastructure is located as Israel mulls retaliatory attack. (Image provided by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies)

 

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However, Jafarzadeh warned that the international community needs to be paying attention to Iran’s activities beyond enriching uranium. 

“It is naïve to only focus on calculating the amount or purity of enriched uranium without concentrating on the construction of the nuclear bomb or its delivery system,” he said. “All are integral components of giving Iran’s mullahs an atomic bomb.”

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