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Netanyahu to meet Trump as Israeli leader looks to rekindle relationship

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Netanyahu to meet Trump as Israeli leader looks to rekindle relationship

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JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is slated to meet former President Trump on Friday at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida in an effort to repair a fractured relationship.

After President Biden defeated Trump in the 2020 presidential election, Netanyahu congratulated President-elect Biden, prompting Trump to call out the Israeli leader and was quoted as saying “I haven’t spoken to him since,” according to comments released from an interview with Israeli journalist Barak Ravid. “F–k him,” Trump added.

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In his tweet, Netanyahu said, “Congratulations Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Joe, we’ve had a long and warm personal relationship for nearly 40 years, and I know you as a great friend of Israel,” Netanyahu wrote on Twitter. “I look forward to working with both of you to further strengthen the special alliance between the US and Israel.”

NETANYAHU SEEMS TO CONTRADICT BIDEN CEASE-FIRE OFFER: ‘NONSTARTER’ IF ALL CONDITIONS NOT MET

President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attend the Abraham Accords signing ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House on Sept. 15, 2020. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon/File)

Netanyahu is now working to repair his relationship with Trump. During his Thursday speech to Congress, the prime minister paid tribute to Trump’s accomplishments in the Middle East.

“I want to thank President Trump for his leadership in brokering the historic Abraham Accords. Like Americans, Israelis were relieved that President Trump emerged safe and sound from that dastardly attack on him, dastardly attack on American democracy. There is no room for political violence in democracies,” said the Israeli leader.

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Trump and his Mideast team brokered the Abraham Accords, a series of diplomatic normalization agreements between Israel and the Sunni Arab countries of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco.

Netanyahu continued in his speech “I also want to thank President Trump for all the things he did for Israel, from recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, to confronting Iran’s aggression, to recognizing Jerusalem as our capital and moving the American Embassy there. That’s Jerusalem, our eternal capital never to be divided again.”

Michael Makovsky, president and CEO of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, told Fox News Digital, “It’s very important for both men and both the U.S. and Israel that Netanyahu and Trump have a very positive meeting tomorrow, and I’m sure that will be the case. They had a close relationship when Trump was president, but then Trump expressed dissatisfaction with Netanyahu a couple of times. Still, Trump knows the Republican base is very pro-Israel, with the latest example being all the Republican-led standing ovations yesterday during Netanyahu’s speech to Congress.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses Congress. (Getty Images)

“Trump can also pick up some independent or Democratic voters upset about Biden’s shift on Israel this year and the concern over [Vice President] Kamala Harris’ views toward Israel,” Makovsky said. “Anyway, Trump is fundamentally pro-Israel. And Netanyahu keenly understands that strong U.S. backing, both in public and private, is pivotal to Israel addressing its many post-10/7 threats in Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, Yemen, etc., and the chances of normalization with Saudi Arabia; and if Trump is re-elected, they need to have close personal ties, which is critical for Trump. In any case, it’s critical for U.S. national security interests for the U.S. to have close ties with Israel.”

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BIDEN’S $230 MILLION GAZA PIER QUIETLY SHUTS DOWN, US SENATOR LABELS PROJECT ‘NATIONAL EMBARRASSMENT’

The new chapter in Trump-Netanyahu relations looks to already be unfolding, with Trump welcoming the Israeli leader’s recognition of his Mideast diplomatic breakthroughs.

Trump told “Fox & Friends” on Thursday that Netanyahu was “very nice to me yesterday. He mentioned me in the speech very nicely, and I appreciated that he’s coming to see me.”

The former president, however, warned the Israeli leader that he needs to put the prosecution of the war against the U.S.-designated terrorist movement Hamas on the fast track: “I want him to finish up and get it done quickly. You got to get it done quickly because they are getting decimated with this publicity. And, you know, Israel is not very good at public relations.”

An explosion erupts in Gaza City during an Israeli airstrike on Oct. 9, 2023. (Sameh Rahmi/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

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Trump also said that Hamas’ mass slaughter of nearly 1,200 people, including more than 30 Americans, on Oct. 7 in southern Israel would not have happened if he had been re-elected in 2020: “Oct. 7th would have never happened if I was president. There was no chance. Iran was broke, they had no money for Hamas or Hezbollah. It just wouldn’t have happened, zero chance.”

Trump said the nine-month war in Gaza to root out Hamas terrorists has lasted too long: “I’d make sure that it gets over with fast. You have to end this fast. It can’t continue to go on like this. It’s too long, it’s too much. You got to get your hostages back.”

Hamas continues to hold more than 100 hostages in Gaza, including eight Americans.

“This is a very tricky moment for a foreign leader to come to the United States. Asking for meetings with Biden, Harris and Trump was the appropriate way to handle it,” Richard Goldberg, who served on the National Security Council during the Trump administration, told Fox News Digital.

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Goldberg, who is now a senior adviser for the Washington, D.C.-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, continued, “I think you’d probably see a return to a formula that best promotes security, stability and peace: maximum pressure on Iran and maximum support to Israel.”

Fox News’ Caitlin McFall contributed to this article.

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Video: Owner of Swiss Bar Detained in Fire Investigation

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Video: Owner of Swiss Bar Detained in Fire Investigation

new video loaded: Owner of Swiss Bar Detained in Fire Investigation

Prosecutors in Switzerland ordered Jacques Moretti to be detained after investigators questioned him and his wife, Jessica Moretti. Officials are looking into whether negligence played a role in last week’s deadly fire at their bar, Le Constellation.

By Meg Felling

January 9, 2026

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Greenland leaders push back on Trump’s calls for US control of the island: ‘We don’t want to be Americans’

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Greenland leaders push back on Trump’s calls for US control of the island: ‘We don’t want to be Americans’

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Greenland’s leadership is pushing back on President Donald Trump as he and his administration call for the U.S. to take control of the island. Several Trump administration officials have backed the president’s calls for a takeover of Greenland, with many citing national security reasons.

“We don’t want to be Americans, we don’t want to be Danes, we want to be Greenlanders,” Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and four party leaders said in a statement Friday night, according to The Associated Press. Greenland, a self-governing Danish territory and a longtime U.S. ally, has repeatedly rejected Trump’s statements about U.S. acquiring the island.

Greenland’s party leaders reiterated that the island’s “future must be decided by the Greenlandic people.”

“As Greenlandic party leaders, we would like to emphasize once again our wish that the United States’ contempt for our country ends,” the statement said.

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TRUMP SAYS US IS MAKING MOVES TO ACQUIRE GREENLAND ‘WHETHER THEY LIKE IT OR NOT’

Greenland has rejected the Trump administration’s push to take over the Danish territory. (Thomas Traasdahl/Ritzau Scanpix / AFP via Getty Images; Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Trump was asked about the push to acquire Greenland on Friday during a roundtable with oil executives. The president, who has maintained that Greenland is vital to U.S. security, said it was important for the country to make the move so it could beat its adversaries to the punch.

“We are going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not,” Trump said Friday. “Because if we don’t do it, Russia or China will take over Greenland, and we’re not going to have Russia or China as a neighbor.”

Trump hosted nearly two dozen oil executives at the White House on Friday to discuss investments in Venezuela after the historic capture of President Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3.

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“We don’t want to have Russia there,” Trump said of Venezuela on Friday when asked if the nation appears to be an ally to the U.S. “We don’t want to have China there. And, by the way, we don’t want Russia or China going to Greenland, which, if we don’t take Greenland, you can have Russia or China as your next-door neighbor. That’s not going to happen.” 

Trump said the U.S. is in control of Venezuela after the capture and extradition of Maduro. 

Nielsen has previously rejected comparisons between Greenland and Venezuela, saying that his island was looking to improve its relations with the U.S., according to Reuters.

A “Make America Go Away” baseball cap, distributed for free by Danish artist Jens Martin Skibsted, is arranged in Sisimiut, Greenland, on March 30, 2025. (Juliette Pavy/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

FROM CARACAS TO NUUK: MADURO RAID SPARKS FRESH TRUMP PUSH ON GREENLAND

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Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Monday that Trump’s threats to annex Greenland could mean the end of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

“I also want to make it clear that if the U.S. chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops. Including our NATO and thus the security that has been provided since the end of the Second World War,” Frederiksen told Danish broadcaster TV2.

That same day, Nielsen said in a statement posted on Facebook that Greenland was “not an object of superpower rhetoric.”

Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen stands next to Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen during a visit to the Danish Parliament in Copenhagen on April 28, 2025. (Liselotte Sabroe/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images)

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White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller doubled down on Trump’s remarks, telling CNN in an interview on Monday that Greenland “should be part of the United States.”

CNN anchor Jake Tapper pressed Miller about whether the Trump administration could rule out military action against the Arctic island.

“The United States is the power of NATO. For the United States to secure the Arctic region, to protect and defend NATO and NATO interests, obviously Greenland should be part of the United States,” he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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What Canada, accustomed to extreme winters, can teach Europe

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Euronews spoke to Patrick de Bellefeuille, a prominent Canadian weather presenter and climate specialist, on how Europe could benefit from Canada’s long experience with snowstorms. He has been forecasting for MétéoMédia, Canada’s top French-language weather network, since 1988.

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