World News

Georgia's parliament green-lit a final vote on a proposed law that critics see as a threat to media freedom and the country’s aspirations to join the European Union on Monday, a day after police dispersed the latest protests against it.

The bill would require media and nongovernmental organizations and other nonprofits to register as "pursuing the interests of a foreign power" if they receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad.

The opposition denounces the bill as "the Russian law," because Moscow uses similar legislation to crack down on independent news media, nonprofits and activists critical of the Kremlin.

GEORGIA POLICE ARREST DOZENS PROTESTING 'RUSSIAN LAW'

The bill is nearly identical to one that the governing Georgian Dream party was pressured to withdraw last year after street protests. Renewed demonstrations have rocked Georgia for weeks, with demonstrators scuffling with police, who used tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowds.

The government says the bill is necessary to stem what it deems as harmful foreign influence over the country’s politics and to prevent unspecified foreign actors from trying to destabilize it.

Huge crowds marched through Europe Square in the capital, Tbilisi, on Saturday, with demonstrators wrapped in Georgian and European Union flags and chanting "Georgia!" On Sunday, the protesters gathered in front of parliament for an overnight rally and tried to block entrances into the building, where a committee of lawmakers were expected to discuss the bill once again on Monday.

Police sought to disperse the demonstration, and by Monday morning, only hundreds remained near parliament. Georgia's Interior Ministry said 20 people were arrested in the morning, including three foreign citizens — two Americans and a Russian.

It took lawmakers less than a minute to give a green light to the third and final reading of the bill for Tuesday.

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, who is increasingly at odds with the governing party, has vowed to veto the law, but Georgian Dream has a majority sufficient to override a presidential veto.

The legislature approved a second reading of the bill earlier this month, after protests that drew tens of thousands of people.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has described the parliament’s move as "a very concerning development" and warned that "final adoption of this legislation would negatively impact Georgia’s progress on its EU path."

A major fire broke out Sunday morning in a vast shopping complex in the Polish capital that housed some 1,400 shops and service outlets and where many of the vendors were from Vietnam.

Huge plumes of black smoke could be seen rising over the vast area. The fire department said that more than 80% of the Marywilska 44 shopping complex burned in the Bialoleka district of Warsaw, and that the roof caved in.

Police reported no injuries, but traders were in despair at the loss of their livelihoods. The Gazeta Wyborcza daily reported that some Vietnamese vendors wanted to enter to save their goods from the complex, but were blocked by security guards.

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The Association of Vietnamese Entrepreneurs in Poland said the blaze meant "great financial losses for merchants," calling it a "terrible tragedy for thousands of merchants and their families."

Chemical and environmental rescue specialists were among the large numbers of rescue officials who took part in the operation. Authorities sent a text message warning Warsaw residents about the fire, and telling them to stay home with the windows closed.

Mirbud, an industrial construction company listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, owns the shopping center.

Warsaw police said it had begun investigating the blaze, which began at around 3:30 a.m. local time, but hadn't yet determined the cause.

The Warsaw city administration planned on Monday to discuss financial support for the small traders whose livelihoods were destroyed.

Shopping centers and large shops are usually closed on Sunday because of a ban on trade imposed by the previous government, which had close ties to the Catholic church. However, small business owners are exempt from the ban, and many of the small shops at the center worked on Sundays.

When Erdina Laca goes grocery shopping in Eichsfeld these days, she pulls out a special payment card that’s for asylum-seekers only.

She no longer pays in cash for her apples, eggs and fish — like most of the Germans standing in line with her at the register.

Laca, 45, came from Albania with her husband and three children and applied for asylum in Germany last September. The family lives in the county of Eichsfeld in the eastern state of Thuringia and has been one of the first in the country to receive half of their government benefits in the form of cashless payments on a plastic card.

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"With half the money that is on the card, I can buy groceries, and with the other half (in cash) I can buy in every shop whatever I need for me and my children," Laca said.

The new rule, which was passed by parliament last month, calls for asylum-seekers to receive their benefits on a card for use at local shops and to pay for services. They will only be able to withdraw limited amounts of cash and won't be able to transfer money outside Germany. The aim is to prevent migrants from sending money to family and friends abroad, or to smugglers.

Migrant advocates groups have criticized the new regulation as discriminatory — especially as it's being implemented in a country that's still much more cash-centric than many other European countries and where some businesses, especially restaurants, won't even accept card payments.

They say people fleeing war and persecution won't be deterred from coming to Germany just because their benefits will no longer be paid out in cash only. Instead, they claim that the payment cards will single out migrants and may possibly add to them being ostracized further.

"It has to be said quite clearly that people are coming because of civil war and persecution — they won't be deterred by a payment card," said Wiebke Judith from Pro Asyl. "The aim here is to create an instrument of discrimination and to bully refugees."

Germany has been trying to clamp down on migration for months, and this latest measure comes just weeks before the European Union election on June 9.

Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, has been successfully exploiting Germans’ hardening attitudes toward migrants. AfD, which takes an anti-migration stance, is expected to make significant gains compared to the 10.3% that the party won during the last federal election in 2021.

Attitudes toward migration have hardened in Germany as large numbers of asylum-seekers have arrived, in addition to refugees from Ukraine, and local authorities have struggled to find accommodation.

The number of people applying for asylum in Germany last year rose to more than 350,000, an increase of just over 50% compared with the year before. The largest number of asylum-seekers came from Syria, followed by Turks and Afghans.

In January, lawmakers approved legislation intended to ease deportation of unsuccessful asylum-seekers. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has repeatedly said that authorities need to speed up deportations.

Germany, like several other European countries, has also started classifying some countries, such as Moldova and Georgia, as "safe countries of origin" — meaning asylum-seekers from there can be quickly rejected and deported faster than in the past.

Eichsfeld, where Luca and her family live while their asylum plea is being processed, was one of the first counties to introduce the plastic payment cards, which look similar to ATM or credit cards. The small town started handing them out to asylum-seekers in December.

The legislation gives local authorities latitude to decide on exemptions and on how much cash asylum-seekers can withdraw. Eichsfeld decided to pay out about 50% of the monthly benefits for asylum-seekers in cash, with the other half going on the payment cards.

While Laca doesn't have any problems with the changes, county officials say that some migrants don't like the new cards.

"We have a lot of nationalities who grew up with cash — they don’t know how to pay by card," says Thomas Dreiling, who runs a local shelter for asylum-seekers. Still, he supports the new system because he thinks that having less cash available will be an incentive for migrants to look for work and thus get off government benefits.

Jihad Ammuri, a 20-year-old asylum-seeker from Damascus, Syria, said not all stores have been accepting his payment card and he’s been turned away from some places.

Dreiling said that of the about 400 asylum-seekers who were slated to get the payment cards in December, more than 50 said "no" to the card and left Germany — most of them citizens from North Macedonia and Georgia. Another 40 people have found work in the meantime and no longer receive government welfare payments.

Germany's domestic intelligence agency was justified in putting the far-right Alternative for Germany under observation for suspected extremism, a court ruled Monday, rejecting an appeal from the opposition party.

The administrative court in Muenster ruled in favor of the BfV intelligence agency, upholding a 2022 decision by a lower court in Cologne. The decision means the agency can continue to observe the party.

The court found that there was a sufficient legal basis for the designation, while stressing that the step doesn't inevitably lead to the party being designated a proven case of right-wing extremism.

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Alternative for Germany, or AfD, has strongly rejected the designation and portrayed it as a political attempt to discredit the party. Roman Reusch, a member of its national leadership, said the party will seek to appeal. Peter Boehringer, a deputy leader, complained that the court hadn't taken up "hundreds" of requests for evidence.

AfD was formed in 2013 and has moved steadily to the right over the years. Its platform initially centered on opposition to bailouts for struggling eurozone members, but its vehement opposition to then-Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to allow in large numbers of refugees and other migrants in 2015 established the party as a significant political force.

AfD has been polling strongly in Germany in recent months as discontent is high with center-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition government. It hopes to emerge as the biggest party in three state elections in the formerly communist east, where it has its strongest support, in September.

However, its national ratings declined somewhat following a media report in January that extremists met to discuss the deportation of millions of immigrants, including some with German citizenship, and that some figures from the party attended. The report triggered mass protests in the country against the rise of the far-right.

In Monday’s ruling, the court found there was a valid suspicion that "recognizing only a legally devalued status for German citizens with a migration background corresponds with the political objectives at least of a significant part of AfD." It didn’t elaborate on details but said there were indications of "discriminatory objectives."

It also pointed to widespread use in the party of derogatory terms toward refugees and Muslims and indications of anti-democratic aspirations, though it said the latter were not of the frequency and density surmised by the BfV.

The court said there were no indications that the intelligence agency acted out of improper political motives.

In an unrelated case, a verdict is expected Tuesday in the trial of one AfD's best-known figures, Björn Höcke, on charges of using a Nazi slogan. Höcke is the party's leader in the eastern region of Thuringia, where he plans to run for governor in September. Höcke says he is innocent.

Last month's arrest of an assistant to AfD's top candidate in the upcoming European Parliament elections on suspicion of spying for China also cast an unflattering light on the party, which already faced criticism for having Russia-friendly positions.

British police have charged three men with assisting the Hong Kong intelligence service amid growing concern that hostile states are trying to interfere with democracy and economic activity in the U.K.

The three men were among 11 people arrested earlier this month in Yorkshire and London by counterterrorism police using provisions of a new law that allows suspects in national security and espionage cases to be detained without warrant. The eight other suspects were released without charge.

Chi Leung (Peter) Wai, 38, Matthew Trickett, 37, and Chung Biu Yuen, 63, are also charged with foreign interference, the Metropolitan Police Service said. They will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday.

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"A number of arrests were made and searches carried out across England as part of this investigation," Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Met's counterterrorism command, said in a statement. "While led from London, the Counter Terrorism Policing network has been crucial to disrupting this activity."

The announcement comes as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak prepares to deliver a speech on Monday in which he is expected to say that Britain is facing an increasingly dangerous future due to threats from an "axis of authoritarian states," including Russia, China, Iran and North Korea. Tensions with China flared last year after a parliamentary researcher was arrested on suspicion of spying for Beijing, charges that Chinese officials called a "malicious smear."

Hong Kong’s security bureau, Hong Kong police and the office of China’s foreign ministry in Hong Kong didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

The British government last year passed a new national security act that gave police additional powers to tackle foreign espionage. The legislation was needed to combat the "ever-evolving" threat of foreign interference and in "response to the threat of hostile activity from states targeting the U.K.’s democracy, economy, and values," the government said.

The arrests in the current case were made on May 1 and 2. The investigation is continuing, police said.

A bus slammed into cars and motorbikes after its brakes apparently malfunctioned in Indonesia’s West Java province, killing at least 11 people, mostly students, and injuring dozens of others, officials said Sunday.

The bus carrying 61 students and teachers was returning to a high school in Depok outside Jakarta, the capital, late Saturday from the hilly resort area of Bandung after a graduation celebration, said West Java police spokesperson Jules Abraham Abast.

It sped out of control on a downhill road and crossed lanes, hitting several cars and motorbikes before it crashed into an electricity pole, he said.

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Nine people died at the scene and two others died later in the hospital, including a teacher and a local motorist, Abast said. Fifty-three other people were hospitalized with injuries, including some in critical condition, he said.

"We are still investigating the cause of the accident, but a preliminary investigation showed the bus's brakes malfunctioned," Abast said.

Local television footage showed the mangled bus in the darkness on its side, surrounded by rescuers, police and passersby as ambulances evacuated the injured.

Road accidents are common in Indonesia due to poor safety standards and infrastructure.

Last year, a tourist bus with an apparently drowsy driver slammed into a billboard on a highway in East Java, killing at least 14 people and injuring 19 others. In 2021, a tourist bus plunged into a ravine in the West Java hilly resort of Puncak after its brakes apparently malfunctioned, killing at least 27 people and injuring 39 others.

The far-flung coastal town of Santa Ana in the northeastern tip of the Philippine mainland has long been known by tourists mostly for its beaches, waterfalls, fireflies and a few casinos.

But that’s changing after the laid-back town of about 35,000 people, which still has no traffic light, became strategically important to America.

The United States and the Philippines, which are longtime treaty allies, have identified Santa Ana in northern Cagayan province as one of nine mostly rural areas where rotating batches of American forces could encamp indefinitely and store their weapons and equipment on local military bases under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement.

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Thousands of U.S. forces withdrew from two huge Navy and Air Force bases in the Philippines in the early 1990s at the end of the Cold War, ending nearly a century of American military presence in the country. In recent years, Washington has been reinforcing an arc of military alliances in Asia to counter an increasingly assertive China, which it now regards as its greatest security challenge.

That dovetails with Philippine efforts to bolster its external defenses after an alarming spate of territorial hostilities with Beijing in the South China Sea that started last year. The high seas confrontations have injured several Filipino navy personnel, damaged their boats and strained diplomatic ties.

The remote town of Santa Ana is caught in the geo-political rivalry between Washington and Beijing because of its strategic location. It lies across a sea border from Taiwan, the self-governing island that China regards as a renegade province to be reclaimed by force if necessary. The U.S. has vowed to defend the territory.

Some villagers in Santa Ana have expressed apprehension over the prospect of living near U.S. forces. Their governor, Manuel Mamba, has vehemently opposed the looming U.S. military presence, saying it would turn Cagayan into a military target of China.

US AND PHILIPPINE MILITARY FORCES CONDUCT COMBAT DRILLS OFF SOUTHERN TAIWAN

Other villagers say the Philippines needs the Americans as a crucial counterweight to China, which they say has been using its military might to threaten Manila’s territorial interests in the South China Sea.

"There’s no choice. If you compare the number of our forces with that of China, they have much, much more," Romeo Asuncion, a planning and economic development officer in Santa Ana, told The Associated Press. "If the Americans are here, they would protect us whatever happens."

There’s also the prospect of economic benefits and aid from the U.S. military presence.

"If they donate a school that will be good," Asuncion said.

Rowena Castillo, a consultant to the town's mayor, expressed hope the wider attention on Santa Ana would boost tourism. She recently handed out brochures promoting the town’s beach resorts, waterfalls, a historic lighthouse, a crocodile-shaped island and an area that teems with fireflies.

Some villagers acknowledged that even without the U.S. forces, the town would likely be affected in any major-power military showdown due to Santa Ana’s relative proximity to Taiwan.

Authorities and village leaders recently met at the initiative of the local military to discuss contingency plans, including the possibility of setting up emergency shelters for refugees, in case tensions between China and Taiwan flare into an armed conflict, Marion Miranda, Santa Ana’s disaster-mitigating officer, told The AP.

"One problem is where we could bring potential refugees and the budget for that," Miranda said.

In another rural Cagayan town southwest of Santa Ana called Lal-lo, part of the airport was designated as a possible encampment site for American forces.

Unlike the two massive military bases that American forces used to occupy, including a Navy base at Subic Bay that was about the size of Singapore and had a vibrant red-light district, the U.S. military is building a new presence in a much smaller area within Philippine camps.

During largescale combat drills called Balikatan — Tagalog for "shoulder-to-shoulder" — that ended Friday, Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters carrying allied forces, their weapons and other supplies landed and took off at the Lal-lo airport and the navy camp in Santa Ana. A few journalists, including from The AP, were invited to witness the combat maneuvers.

"It’s an important location. It’s critical because it is an EDCA site so it’s a very big deal to both the United States and to the Philippines," U.S. Marine Lt. Col. Matthew Schultz told journalists at Lal-lo airport.

"One of the challenges that we have in this airfield now is there is not a lot of parking space or taxiways or additional apron space in order to facilitate a lot of aircraft," Schultz said.

The EDCA accord, which was signed in 2014, had an initial term of 10 years and has been automatically extended with both sides in agreement, Ambassador to the U.S. Jose Manuel Romualdez said by telephone from Washington.

The agreement allows rotating batches of U.S. forces to stay rent-free at the military sites and store their defense equipment — except nuclear weapons — there.

The U.S. has allocated more than $82 million for the construction of ammunition and fuel storage, an urban combat training facility, aircraft parking, runway repairs and warehouses for humanitarian response items in the first five EDCA sites.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. agreed to add four more EDCA sites where U.S. forces could stay, including the Philippine navy camp in Santa Ana and the Lal-lo airport, last year.

Marcos and other Philippine officials say the renewed U.S. military presence would bolster Philippine external defense and help Filipinos respond more rapidly to natural disasters and is not directed at any country.

China, however, has expressed alarm over the increased U.S. troop deployments in the Philippines and elsewhere in Asia and said the EDCA sites in the northern Philippines could serve as surveillance outposts and staging grounds for U.S. forces to contain Beijing.

Such a display of combat readiness by the U.S. and the Philippines, according to Romualdez, aims to prevent a major conflict by making Chinese leader Xi Jinping realize the cost of a wrong move.

"We're precisely doing all of these things as a deterrence," Romualdez said. "We’re trying to tell Xi, when you wake up in the morning, you’ll tell yourself, ‘I’m not gonna do it.’ Not today, not tomorrow and hopefully never."

JERUSALEM – In a dramatic shift, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has revised its data pertaining to the number of Palestinian casualties in the seven-month-old Gaza war, reducing almost by half the number of women and children it previously said were killed in the hostilities between Israel and the Iranian-backed terror group Hamas.

According to an infographic published in OCHA’s daily report on May 6, the number of women killed in the fighting was said to be 9,500, while the organization, which admits to relying on figures from the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza, claimed that 14,500 children had been killed since the war began on Oct. 7. 

Two days later, in its May 8 report, the U.N. agency appeared to have cut the number nearly in half, showing instead that some 4,959 women and 7,797 children had been killed so far in the war, which began after thousands of Hamas-led terrorists infiltrated southern Israel from Gaza, slaughtering more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking some 240 people hostage. 

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While the numbers on both sides remain high – the overall death count in Gaza is said by the Hamas-controlled ministry of health to have almost reached 35,000, with more believed to be buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings – the sudden and unexplained change in numbers is alarming. 

Hamas’ death toll figures have been disputed by Israel, which claims more than a third of those killed are combatants, yet they have been widely and unquestioningly quoted by the international media, humanitarian organizations and world leaders, including President Biden. 

They have also been used as the basis to question whether the Israeli army may have violated international humanitarian law and to accuse the Israeli government of committing genocide, or, at the very least, of deliberately targeting civilians. The Israelis estimate that around 14,000 terrorists have been killed since the fighting in Gaza began.

President Biden, in his State of the Union address in March, quoted Hamas’s numbers, which at the time stood at 30,000. He also used the unverified data to commission a State Department inquiry into Israel’s conduct, resulting in a report that was published on Friday. 

The findings of the National Security Memorandum 20 (NSM-20), however, remained inconclusive, noting that while there were reasonable grounds to assess that Israel had "used U.S. supplied weapons in instances that were inconsistent with its international obligations," there was no outright evidence that Israel had violated the law.

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When asked to explain the sudden change in their statistics, Farhan Aziz Haq, a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, told Fox News Digital that the breakdowns were based on data from the Ministry of Health in Gaza, and that those figures "can vary based on their own verification process that they undertake."

"The United Nations teams on the ground in Gaza are unable to independently verify those figures given the prevailing situation on the ground and the sheer volume of fatalities," the spokesman said. "It is for this reason that all figures used by the U.N. clearly cite the Health Ministry in Gaza as the source."

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The spokesman said that the U.N., which also uses the unverified numbers to formulate its policies and agenda, would only be able to "verify these figures to the extent possible when conditions permit."

"Israel has repeatedly said the numbers coming out of Gaza and which are being echoed by U.N. agencies are being manipulated by Hamas, are not accurate, and do not reflect the reality on the ground," an Israeli official told Fox News Digital. 

The official said Israel was still waiting for OCHA to acknowledge that an incident at a hospital early on in the war that killed nearly 100 civilians was actually caused by an errant rocket fired by one of the Gaza terror groups and to recognize that Hamas uses U.N. infrastructure for its terror activities. 

"All of these are consistently ignored in OCHA’s reports," the official said. 

"Parroting Hamas propaganda messages without any verification process has proven time and again as methodologically flawed and unprofessional," the official added. "We urge the international community to use more than a grain of salt when evaluating OCHA reports."

David Adesnik, a senior fellow and director of research at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies who has been tracking the death toll data closely since Oct. 7, told Fox News Digital that while early on in the war the claim that Hamas’ figures could be accepted because in previous conflicts they were fairly accurate, the current chaos in the Palestinian enclave and the total collapse of the health system there has made counting the dead and verifying Hamas’ reports impossible. 

"U.N. agencies have consistently shown they prefer to trust the numbers coming out of Hamas-controlled sources rather than doing basic due diligence," he said, adding that the U.N.’s sudden revision last week of the death toll most likely indicated that "even Hamas-controlled sources have begun admitting that their numbers are based on incomplete data." 

"They [Hamas] don't even have the names of more than 10,000 of the individuals they count as dead," Adesnik said.

The change by the U.N., he said, was "a step forward for the U.N., even though it still has a long way to go, as do Western journalists, who are often the most vocal defenders of the numbers from Hamas-controlled sources."

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In a previous interview with Fox News Digital, John Spencer, chair of Urban Warfare Studies Modern War Institute at West Point and an author of multiple books on the subject of urban warfare, said that in contrast to claims from Western leaders, including Biden, the "steps that Israel has taken to prevent casualties is historic in comparison to all these other wars." 

"Despite the numbers, Israel is setting the bar very high on civilian harm mitigation steps," Spencer, who is also host of the Urban Warfare Project podcast and serves as the chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the New York-based Madison Policy Forum, told Fox News Digital in February. 

He outlined how the Israeli military took measures that no other military, including the U.S., had previously taken during war such as calling and texting individuals to warn them of a forthcoming air strike and sharing maps with plans for military maneuvers in certain areas. 

Biden, last week, threatened to halt some armaments deliveries to Israel if it decides to launch a full scale military offensive in the Strip’s southernmost city of Rafah, a maneuver Israel says is essential in order to wipe out the remaining Hamas battalions and end the war. 

Situated on the border with Egypt, Israel believes that most of Hamas’ top leadership is hiding in Rafah, shielded by more than 1.4 million civilians, many of whom fled the fighting in other parts of the Palestinian enclave. Israel also believes that many of the remaining 132 hostages are being held there. 

Over the weekend, the Israel Defense Forces said it had begun precise military operations in the area of eastern Rafah, after urging more than 300,000 Gazans to move into humanitarian safe zones away from the fighting. On Sunday, the army said in a statement that its troops operating in Rafah had located and dismantled a number of tunnel shafts and rocket launchers, which were used to fire towards Israel, including the crossing used to transport humanitarian aid into the Strip.

The world may end up breaking into tech alliances as a guiding political issue in the years to come, according to a retired American serviceman-turned-novelist as detailed in his new book. 

"I think for us, particularly with regards to the technology that we’re imagining and the incredible power it unleashes, it just becomes obvious that the real source of national power might not be military or even economic, but could quickly become technological power," Elliot Ackerman told Fox News Digital. 

"Whoever gets there first is going to so stratospherically outpace their rivals that they’ll be able to dominate as a nation," he said. 

Ackerman served in the U.S. Marine Corps for eight years, working as both an infantry and special operations officer with tours in the Middle East and Central Asia. Following the conclusion of his service, he pursued a career as a novelist, drawing on his experience to write acclaimed fiction. 

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A few years ago, Ackerman started working with retired U.S. Navy Admiral James Stavridis, who wanted to look at the future of war with their novel "2034: A Novel of the Next World War." The book examined how a naval battle between the U.S. and China could play out in (now) a decade’s time. 

Their newest collaboration, "2054," goes even further and looks at a world still recognizable but visibly and deeply transformed by technological advances, including artificial intelligence (AI) and burgeoning modern tech ideas such as gene manipulation. 

For example, the Japan of this future is one that "leveraged artificial intelligence, robotics, and quantum computing to compensate for a diminished workforce, often trading with India, which offered a vast market for its technologies" – clearly drawing on current concerns about population decline in East Asian nation. 

"AI can enhance decision-making processes, increase the speed and precision of operations, improve surveillance and reconnaissance, optimize logistics and resource management, and facilitate advanced simulations for training and strategizing," Retired U.S. Navy Admiral James Stavridis said in an interview about the book with El Blog. 

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However, he noted that "technical challenges include ensuring reliability and security from cyber threats" and that "legal and regulatory considerations regarding the use of AI in combat, and the challenge of maintaining a balance between machine autonomy and human oversight" remain key to the trajectory of the technology in human hands. 

The novel also focuses repeatedly on the quest to achieve the Singularity, defined by the novel as "an ‘intelligence explosion,’ the equivalent of thousands of years of biological evolution crammed into months or even weeks when machine and human learning integrated into a single consciousness." 

"It’s a story about great power competition, and that is the oldest story out there," Ackerman said. "Except, in our case, it’s not an arms race or even necessarily nation-versus-nation war – it’s a technological race and a nation versus nation race to get to the singularity first, so we wanted to tell a story that is both engaging with these very old themes but looking into the future." 

Ackerman explained that his time as a journalist meant that he always had "kind of one foot in the tech space" and another in the international and domestic political spaces. The novel "2054," therefore, provided a chance to fuse those interests and look at the way they would impact each other in the coming years. 

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Ackerman reiterated the general thought that the inclusion of AI will prove a "force multiplier for militaries" and will "fundamentally change the way that we fight wars, from targeting to command and control." 

However, he raised concerns about the ethical issues that will remain at the heart of AI use, especially regarding "who or what controls kinetic systems in the U.S. military." 

"Who gets to decide to pull the trigger?" Ackerman asked. "Who gets to decide who uses lethal force? Is it always going to be a human? Or, sometimes, will those authorities be delegated to algorithms and AI in order to speed up response times?"

"These are all really big questions that are being posed right now, and I think we’re living through an age of incredible change in the military as we speak," he added. "Look at what’s happening in Ukraine: There’s a very, very different war than the ones I fought in 10 years ago." 

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The novel contains a number of quality-of-life technological advances, such as the predominance of suborbital flight to speed up travel, allowing characters to traverse the world in only a few hours. The ideas may have provided plot convenience but create a strong sense of world-building and help connect the present to the future presented in the novel. 

"We spent a lot of time talking about how the book would feel: What are the nods we’re going to make towards technology that show the passage of time between now and the future, and what things are going to remain the same?" he explained. 

"It’s always this process of trying to extrapolate what the technological changes are going to be, but also doing it in a way that serves the story and doesn’t become a distraction," he added. 

Throughout the conversation, Ackerman dances along a line that betrays a central tension: The desire to find and provide answers that comes from his time as a journalist, against the novelist drive to pose questions and provoke thought. 

"I try to write the types of books that I enjoy reading, and the types of books that I enjoy reading often leave me when I shut the book asking myself questions, not being served up answers," Ackerman said. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday delivered one of the Biden administration’s strongest public rebukes of Israel, amid its war with Hamas in Gaza.

During a pair of TV interviews, Blinken said the United States wants Israeli forces to "get out of Gaza" amid what he described as "a horrible loss of life of innocent civilians." He also said Israel’s tactics in the war have failed to neutralize Hamas and could create a power "vacuum" in the Palestinian territory.

When asked about the U.S. withholding high payload bombs to Israel, America’s ally, Blinken said: "We believe two things. One, you have to have a clear, credible plan to protect civilians, which we haven't seen. Second, we also need to see a plan for what happens after this conflict in Gaza is over. And we still haven't seen that because what are we seeing right now? We're seeing parts of Gaza that Israel has cleared of Hamas, where Hamas is coming back, including in the north, including in Khan Younis."

He added: "As we look at Rafah, they may go in and have some initial success, but potentially at an incredibly high cost to civilians, but one that is not durable, one that's not sustainable. And they will be left holding the bag on an enduring insurgency because a lot of armed Hamas will be left, no matter what they do in Rafah, or if they leave and get out of Gaza, as we believe they need to do. Then you're going to have a vacuum and a vacuum that's likely to be filled by chaos, by anarchy, and ultimately by Hamas again."

US OFFERS ISRAEL INTEL ON HAMAS LEADERS FOR PLEDGE TO HOLD BACK ON RAFAH

The comments came during an appearance on CBS' "Face the Nation."

Blinken also had an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," where he echoed, for the first time publicly by a U.S. official, the findings of a new Biden administration report to Congress on Friday that said Israel’s use of U.S.-provided weapons in Gaza likely violated international humanitarian law.

"When it comes to the use of weapons, concerns about incidents where given the totality of the damage that’s been done to children, women, men, it was reasonable to assess that, in certain instances, Israel acted in ways that are not consistent with international humanitarian law," Blinken said, condemning "the horrible loss of life of innocent civilians."

BIDEN UNDER INVESTIGATION AFTER THREAT TO ISRAEL’S OFFENSIVE AID: ‘PLAYING POLITICAL GAMES’

"We treat Israel, one of our closest allies and partners, just as we would treat any other country, including in assessing something like international humanitarian law and its compliance with that," he continued.

During the same interview, Blinken praised President Biden’s support for Israel — saying "no one has done more than Biden" — despite the apparent shift in tone.

"No one has done more to defend Israel when it mattered than President Biden," the Secretary of State said. "He was there in the days after October 7th, the first president to go to Israel in the midst of a conflict when Iran mounted an unprecedented attack on Israel. Some weeks ago, 300 projectiles, including ballistic missiles, launched in Israel. The United States, for the first time ever, participated in its act of defense, and President Biden brought together a coalition of countries that helped defend Israel."

Blinken spoke to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Sunday, reiterating the U.S. opposition to the Israeli offensive in Rafah, given the toll on civilians there, according to the State Department's recounting of the call.

He said the U.S. continues to work with Arab countries and others for weeks on developing "credible plans for security, for governance, for rebuilding'' in Gaza, but "we haven’t seen that come from Israel. ... We need to see that, too."

More than a million Palestinians have been forced to live in Rafah amid Israel's offensive push across Gaza. Israel has described the city as one of the last strongholds of Hamas terrorists.

The war began on Oct. 7 after an attack against Israel by Hamas that killed 1,200 people.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Thailand authorities made a startling discovery when they busted open lifesize Transformer robot statues and retrieved over 700 pounds of ketamine. 

"Currently, we are facing a drug trafficking problem with transnational crime networks hidden in all regions, using Thailand as a base to smuggle drugs to third countries continuously through international shipments via air or sea," Police Lt. Gen. Phanurat Lhakbun told reporters of the bust, which happened on April 25. 

Australian authorities found around 220 pounds of methamphetamine that an unidentified woman tried to smuggle inside a food processing machine on March 12, and they kept an eye on her activities in the following weeks, Viral Press reported. 

She allegedly tried to smuggle an even bigger batch of drugs inside the bases of lifesize statues of the Transformers characters Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and Greenlight and others. The statues ostensibly were to go to a movie exhibition in Taiwan, Channel News Asia reported.  

THAILAND'S PRIME MINISTER MOVES TO OUTLAW MARIJUANA 2 YEARS AFTER ITS DECRIMINALIZATION

The woman allegedly paid around $4,800 to the shipping company to help her transport the statues. Authorities said she had received instructions from another unidentified woman in Laos who would receive the drugs. The narcotics board claimed that the drugs originated in Cambodia, and they have agents working to track down any accomplices in Taiwan. 

FOUR FLIGHT ATTENDANTS ACCUSED OF USING TSA CLEARANCE TO SMUGGLE DRUG MONEY

"The ONCB has cooperation projects with the Airport Interdiction Task Force to suppress and intercept drugs in airports and the Seaport Interdiction Task Force for intercepting drug imports to the inner part of the country and exports to third countries," Phanurat said. 

VIRGINIA FIRST LADY, AG TEAM WITH RECOVERING ADDICT TO LAUNCH INITIATIVES TARGETING STATE'S FENTANYL CRISIS

The Thai authorities have intercepted more than four tons of crystal meth, two tons of ketamine and over 580 pounds of heroin in busts. 

The narcotics board claimed that the drugs would otherwise end up in lucrative markets in nearby areas of Australia, Taiwan, Malaysia and Hong Kong, Newsflare reported. 

After the head of the United Nation’s atomic watchdog agency warned that Iran has enough uranium to produce "several" nuclear bombs, a firebrand Iranian lawmaker declared on Friday that the Islamic Republic of Iran possesses atomic weapons.

"In my opinion, we have achieved nuclear weapons, but we do not announce it. It means our policy is to possess nuclear bombs, but our declared policy is currently within the framework of the JCPOA," Ahmad Bakhshayesh Ardestani told the Iran-based outlet Rouydad 24 on Friday, according to an article published by the independent news organization Iran International in London.

The JCPOA is an abbreviation for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the formal name for the Iran nuclear deal. President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the JCPOA in 2018 because, his administration argued, the accord did not stop Iran’s drive to build atomic weapons.

 The JCPOA provides massive economic sanctions relief to Iran in exchange for assurances it will not, within a limited time period, build a nuclear weapon.

SEVERAL COUNTRIES COME TO ISRAEL’S AID TO STOP IRAN BARRAGE

Ardestani, who was re-elected to Iran’s quasi-parliament in March, added, "The reason is that when countries want to confront others, their capabilities must be compatible, and Iran's compatibility with America and Israel means that Iran must have nuclear weapons,"

The Iranian parliament member noted, "In a climate where Russia has attacked Ukraine and Israel has attacked Gaza, and Iran is a staunch supporter of the Resistance Front, it is natural for the containment system to require that Iran possess nuclear bombs. However, whether Iran declares it is another matter." Fox News Digital sent press queries to Iran’s Foreign Ministry in Tehran and its U.N. mission in New York.

Experts on Iran’s illegal nuclear weapons program warned about the seemingly speculative comments made by Ardestani. Jason Brodsky, the policy director of the U.S.-based United Against a Nuclear Iran, told Fox News Digital that "Ardestani is only a member of parliament, and he’s not in the inner core of the regime’s nuclear decision-making circle, so while his comments are interesting, I think they have to be weighed properly given his access and standing."

Just two days before Ardestani’s announcement, the president of the Iranian Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, Kamal Kharrazi, told Al-Jazeera Network Qatar, "I announced two years ago, in an interview with Al-Jazeera TV, that Iran had the absorptive capacity and the capability to produce a nuclear bomb. Iran still has that capability, but we have not made the decision to produce a nuclear bomb. However, if the Iranian interests are threatened in this manner, we may change this doctrine. The military officials in Iran have announced that if our nuclear facilities would be attacked, we may change our military doctrine, with regard to the nuclear facilities." The U.S.-based Middle East Media Institute (MEMRI) translated and published Kharrazi’s May 8 interview.

WORLD LEADERS COLLECTIVELY CONDEMN IRAN'S 'RECKLESS' ATTACK AGAINST ISRAEL: 'WE SUPPORT ISRAEL'

Brodsky said, "Kharrazi’s comments are part of an increasingly loud chorus of threats from Iranian officials that they will change Iran’s nuclear doctrine if Israel attacks them. The current advanced state of Iran’s nuclear program provides it with the luxury to make these threats as it hopes to deter Western policymakers from launching pressure campaigns on Tehran."

Critics of the Biden administration’s Iran policy argue the White House strategy of de-escalation and containment targeting Iran’s atomic program has backfired. Iran’s regime – the world’s worst state-sponsor of international terrorism – is moving at an astonishingly fast pace to secure an operational nuclear weapon.

Nuclear security alarm bells are ringing over Iran’s illicit atomic program in Europe. Fox News Digital obtained the April intelligence agency report for Germany’s most populous state, Nordrhein-Westfalen. 

The German intelligence report notes, "The Islamic Republic's continued intensive procurement efforts by Iran in Germany continues" for its "nuclear and missile program." The German experts added "proliferation-relevant activities by Iran to circumvent existing sanctions in favor of Iran's nuclear and missile programs can still be assumed." A State Department spokesperson previously told Fox News Digital, "As the president and the secretary have made clear, the United States will ensure one way or another that Iran will never obtain a nuclear weapon. We continue to use a variety of tools in pursuit of that goal, and all options remain on the table."

David Wurmser, a former senior adviser for nonproliferation and Middle East strategy for former Vice President Dick Cheney, told Fox News Digital, "The distance from where Iran is purported to be to an actual deliverable device is still a ways away, provided the information that we have in our operating from is correct. And that is quite a proviso. We know that North Koreans have been interacting with the Iranians, and we know relations with North Korea go back many, many years."

The communist state of North Korea previously aided Syria in building its illicit nuclear reactor. Israel’s air force knocked out the reactor in 2007.

IRAN'S 'NUCLEAR ENERGY MOUNTAIN' IS 'FULLY SAFE' AFTER ISRAELI STRIKE: STATE MEDIA

Wurmser warned, "As since intelligence is generally incomplete and is inherently seeking to discover that which is given to being opaque with much hidden, we have to assume surprises. I realize in the Iraq war we imagined there was more there than there actually was – and there was more than what is popularly understood – but Iraq is actually a very rare circumstance. The Pakistani, the Russian, the Chinese, the Indian, and even the South African programs all were ahead of what we had expected when they were exposed. For that matter, that was the case with Libya as well."

The non-proliferation expert noted, "So, on balance, I doubt Iran has a nuclear weapon yet, but I also doubt that the program is in a stable state, even a stable state regarding weaponization. I think Iran is pushing ahead and has every intention to go all the way. So time on this may still be there, but it is short and running out fast. And of course, the consequences of an Iranian bomb are catastrophic for the region, for Israel’s survival, and for the status of American power in the globe."

The recent saber-rattling over Iran’s nuclear weapons program from regime officials and lawmakers coincides with  International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi’s May 8 statement that his organization was working "very hard with [Iran] to prevent [nuclear weaponization] from happening."

The Washington D.C.-based Institute for the Study of War wrote this suggests "that Iran has already obtained or is close to obtaining the ability to procure nuclear weapons." The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital press query.

FIRST ON FOX – Albania’s former President Ilir Meta has a clear message for President Biden, "Don’t forget about Albania and the Western Balkans."

Meta, who was president of Albania from 2017 to 2022 and now leads the Party of Freedom, is worried that the United States is forgetting one of its most important European and NATO allies. 

In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, the former president said the Balkans is "suffering from the status quo" and that outside actors such as Russia have tried to hinder the region's EU integration and NATO membership."

"They look to create a vacuum to be filled for them in order to undermine European values and foundations," Meta said.

PUTIN FUELING REGIONAL TENSIONS AS BLINKEN ARRIVES IN ALBANIA: 'BLEAK PICTURE'

The small Balkan nation, one of Europe’s poorest, has made significant contributions to U.S. foreign policy goals over the years.

Albania, an authoritarian Marxist country with bitter relations with the U.S. during the Cold War, is now one of the most pro-U.S. countries in Europe and has a large diaspora community in the United States. But the amount of attention Albania receives from President Biden and Western policymakers is little for a country struggling to consolidate its democracy.

While the U.S. is prioritizing its support of Ukraine against Russia’s invasion while at the same time backing Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza, many in the Balkans worry the region isn’t receiving the attention it needs.

The former president’s fears of U.S. absence come after the news that Aleksandar Vulin, Serbia’s former head of intelligence who has close ties to Russia and is sanctioned by the U.S., will join Serbia’s new government. Vulin was accused of being involved in transnational organized crime, illegal narcotics operations, and misuse of public office.

The announcement is seen by many in the U.S. and across Europe as an indication that Serbia is not abandoning its pro-Russian sentiments even while it seeks EU membership.

"We are disappointed to see two sanctioned individuals in positions in the new government," a State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital. 

"The United States’ top priority in the Western Balkans is supporting the countries in the region to realize their full economic and democratic potential through Euro-Atlantic integration and regional cooperation. This path includes full alignment with the European Union on foreign and security policy," the spokesperson added.

ZELENSKYY WARNS RUSSIA WANTS TO CAUSE 'EXPLOSION' IN THE BALKANS

Former President Meta warned about the dangers of the "Open Balkans" initiative, a proposal that would facilitate a freer flow of people and goods across the Balkans, which on the surface seems like it would benefit the region. But Meta called the initiative an "alternative against European integration," and fears it will strengthen hybrid regimes like Serbia that will undermine free and fair elections, eliminate political pluralism, and target the media and freedom of speech.

Serbia's new minister of foreign affairs, Marko Djuric, took issue with Meta's framing of the Open Balkans Initiative.

"Serbia is proud of its democratic efforts, including the Open Balkans initiative. We encourage economic cooperation and connectivity in the region to foster stability and create prosperity for all nations involved. Serbia is proud of its democratic efforts, including the Open Balkans initiative. We regret that such efforts are misinterpreted as undermining democracy when, in fact, they do the opposite by enhancing cooperation and mutual understanding," Djuric told Fox News Digital in a statement.

Djuric said Serbia seeks to contribute to and uphold the region’s stability, security and prosperity and remains committed to the European Union integration process, a point that many in the West are skeptical about.

"Serbia's engagement in the Balkans is guided by principles of democracy, respect for sovereignty, and regional cooperation. We are committed to our EU path while also pursuing partnerships that contribute to peace and development in the region."

Agim Nesho, former Albanian ambassador to the U.S. and the United Nations, told Fox News Digital that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Albanian Prime Minister Rama "are the most undemocratic, corrupt, and destabilizing leaders the region has seen in 30 years" and are not advancing U.S. or European interests. 

Nesho and other observers of the region say the idea that placating Serbia will keep it closer to Europe than Putin's Russia is wishful thinking and has given ultranationalist Serbs and President Vucic a strong hand to play with the West. 

The Open Balkans initiative is basically a forum for coordinating their policies with Moscow to advance both Serbian and Russian interests in the Balkans, Nesho claimed. that U.S. appeasement of Serbia’s disruptive policies allows Vucic to leverage both the Serbian entity in Bosnia-Herzegovina to create instability, and to keep the northern Kosovo region as a frozen conflict, highlighting a clear lack of strategy from the U.S.

Serbia's Foreign Minister Djuric rejected such criticism and told Fox News Digital that he recently met with the U.S. ambassador to Serbia and he "emphasized that strengthening cooperation with the United States is among the top foreign policy priorities of the Serbian government. Our political, economic and cultural relations have undergone a positive and beneficial transformation in recent years, and we are committed to further enhancing this partnership for the mutual benefit of our nations."

He concluded, "Serbian President Vucic has been very public about all of this. As the president said recently: ‘We believe we belong in Europe and we will stay on the European path. That is our strategic, permanent position that we will not change.’"

Russia, through its regional allies, exerts significant cultural and political sway in the Balkans, and has been accused of inciting violence and instability. Serbia acts as the player in the Kremlin’s bid for prominence in the Balkans.

"Putin is leveraging crises in Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina to divert attention from Ukraine and to position Russia as the sole mediator of the crisis," Ivana Stradner, research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital.

"This plan aims to strengthen Moscow’s regional influence and give Putin leverage over Western powers who do not want the violence to escalate," Stradner added.

Meta concluded by saying that the people of the Balkans love the United States because they see it as a symbol of democracy and the country, in Meta’s eyes, must never forget this.

"The United States must never forget that, and how important the Balkans are for Europe and, that Albania can be a long-term partner in helping face many global challenges," Meta said.

Fox News Digital requests for comment to the spokesperson for Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama were not returned by time of publication.

The Irish government’s unwavering commitment to housing and feeding an unprecedented influx of migrants in the wake of a severe housing and cost of living crisis has brought the Irish electorate to boiling point. It has many similarities to the migrant crisis in the U.S.

Hundreds of protests in towns have sprung up around the country with people calling on the government to end what they say is an "open borders" globalist agenda that is putting the needs of migrants ahead of its citizens -- many of whom are struggling to pay for everyday items and unable to buy or rent homes as Ireland’s homeless numbers skyrockets. 

Several high-profile crimes linked to migrants have also driven fear into the native citizenry, culminating in the shocking knife attacks on young children and their teacher by an Algerian-born Irish citizen in November that triggered rioting and looting in the nation’s capital.

34 ARRESTED IN IRELAND RIOTS AFTER CHILD IS STABBED IN DUBLIN

Those who want immigration laws enforced and numbers reduced say they are being ignored by the political establishment.

"Ireland is a tinderbox at the moment," Irish journalist Fatima Gunning told Fox News Digital. "At this point, I don't think anything would surprise me."

On Monday, thousands of protesters carrying Irish flags rallied in Dublin calling for an end to mass migration and demanding that a new nationalist government take its place.

Chants of "get them out" in reference to the government, echoed throughout the nation’s capital while others carried signs reading "Irish lives matter" and "under siege, invasion." Large banners reading "mass deportations" and "end the plantation" hung from a bridge. 

The protesters say they represent the silent majority of the electorate – around 75% based on several polls – who say immigration is too high and that the country has taken in too many refugees.

Their anger is also being fueled by how they are being treated by the mainstream media, which is dominated by liberal news outlets as well as the semi-state-run broadcaster RTE, who seldom cover protests or do so with bias, they say. 

Think of an America without Fox News. 

For example, last Monday’s march was described as a "large crowd" by RTE and afforded just six lines of coverage on its website. Gript, a relative newcomer to the media scene, has been filling the void and has covered many anti-mass immigration protests.

"For the past two years, they've been calling people like that ‘racist’ or ‘far-right extremists,’" Gunning says. "Politicians and the mainstream media, official Ireland, that of strata of society say immigration is just totally positive. There's no negatives whatsoever and then anyone who even says something like, Oh, ‘I do agree with immigration but I think there should be controls on the numbers,’ is a racist, that's how it is."

Immigration into Ireland has more than doubled over the last 20 years with 22% of the population now made up of non-citizens, meaning Ireland has the fourth largest non-national population of all 27 EU member states percentage-wise, according to published EU statistics. 

The steady increase in migration first started with the free movement of people agreement under the EU’s Nice Treaty in 2003. It posed little problems as mainly eastern Europeans traveled to Ireland to work in the Celtic Tiger economic boom era.

But in recent years, droves of high numbers of asylum seekers have been arriving at Ireland’s shores and are being handed all sorts of taxpayer-funded welfare benefits and housing, while Irish citizens struggle to make ends meet with high inflation, a crippling housing crisis and an overwhelmed health system. 

For instance, Ireland has taken in more than 104,000 Ukrainian refugees since the onset of the war, the largest number per capita in Western Europe despite Ireland being the most westerly located nation in the whole of Europe. The figure equates to 2% of Ireland’s 5.12 million population and every Ukrainian refugee has been provided with free accommodation, free health care and, until recently, was being paid a weekly wage of around $235.

Another 30,000 non-Ukrainian refugees are currently being housed by the Irish government with taxpayers churning out more than €1 billion in the first nine months of 2023 accommodating migrants, according to government data. Meanwhile, the country’s debt is among the highest in the world per capita, standing at €223 billion in 2023.

Accommodations, including modular homes, have been built for migrants but very little, if anything, they say, is being done for the homeless population, which hit an all-time record last month. Planning rules to build some of these homes have been ignored in order to get the refugees housed at rapid speed. 

"There's a really palpable feeling that these non-national people are being prioritized over Irish people, which they are," Gunning says. "I mean, it's not even a matter of opinion that they are. There are Irish people who cannot get medical cards (health benefits) for whatever reason. These people are all given medical cards regardless of need and that's obviously a priority [of government]."

And it's not just the perceived unfairness that has angered Irish people. Just like in the U.S., Irish people feel that many of those seeking asylum have dubious claims and are essentially economic migrants who are draining taxpayer coffers.

DUBLIN SEES HEAVY POLICE PRESENCE, 11 ARRESTS AMID 'IRISH LIVES MATTER' MARCH AGAINST MASS MIGRATION

In terms of those making asylum seeker claims in Ireland, Georgian nationals have had the highest numbers of claims despite it being designated a "safe country of origin" by the Irish government. Asylum seekers have also been arriving from Nigeria, where 2,000 have arrived already this year, as well as Algeria, Somalia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Zimbabwe. Countries that don't share customs or traditions with Ireland.

Serious concerns have also been raised about a large percentage of those asylum seekers being single men, that background checks have not been carried out on them and that they are loitering around towns and cities with nothing to do. 

"Some people get very upset when they hear it's just men because there's leaking footage from City West [hotel] in Dublin… of them just rioting inside the place. And, you know, last year it kicked off, around Ramadan, they were just rioting and throwing chairs at each other," Gunning says.

"So people feel frightened about that because ultimately these people are unvetted. You'll hear that they are vetted, they're not. Their fingerprints are run through this thing called Eurodac, which is not a criminal vetting system, it's just to see if they have made other asylum claims elsewhere or if they have been caught doing illegal border crossings. It doesn't have any criminal data to it at all."

"So the government consistently uses that to say that they're vetted when in fact they're not."

Gunning, who reports for Gript.ie, was at the scene of an ugly encounter two weeks ago when Irish police in riot gear clashed with locals of a small town who were protesting against plans to convert a shuttered care facility into a shelter for 160 male migrants.

The town, Newtownmounkennedy, is a typical rural community with a population of about 3,000 and is starved of services. Gunning says locals told her that the government promised them that the facility would be used as a much-needed community center for the town, while they were also concerned that the men are unvetted. 

Gunning says locals were also incensed that foreign men in masks were seen working on the site, leading to comparisons to the plantations of Ireland in the 1500s and 1600s when the British confiscated Irish-owned land and gave it to settlers. Hence, the "end the plantation" banner at the protest in Dublin on Monday.

After weeks of peacefully protesting and pleading with the government to reconsider, the riot police were deployed in Newtownmounkennedy to stamp out the demonstration. But the forcefulness of the response sent shockwaves through the community, which rallied in even bigger numbers in the days that followed.

In the end, it was all in vain as the first wave of migrants began arriving at the site around the same time as a migrant "tent city" of about 200 tents in nearby Dublin was being dismantled by the government. The tents were set up outside the country’s International Protections Office, which processes claims, and for many Irish people the tents became a visual example of the government's handling of the crisis. Many of the migrants have now set up their tents along Dublin's Grand Canal.

The situation at Newtownmounkennedy has been happening throughout Ireland and the locals, despite their protests, say they have no say in the matter. In some towns, local hotels have all been converted into migrant shelters, decimating tourist industries. 

Meanwhile, and just like in the U.S., some hoteliers and construction companies are profiting as government contracts ensure full occupancy and a steady stream of building work keeps the revenue flowing. 

"It’s just emerged that there was a whole estate being built without planning permission, and now they've filled that with international protection applicants," Gunning says. "So it's really crazy. And there's a lot of money being made here, an awful lot of money."

As the cries grow louder and the government refuses to change course, anger among demonstrators has exploded.

Some have protested outside the homes of the new prime minister, Richard Harris, and integration minister Roderic O’Gorman. The latter has been accused of making Ireland a popular magnet for migrants after he posted online a notice in eight different languages detailing the attractive benefits they will get if they claim asylum in Ireland. 

Members of Irish Justice Minister Helen McEntee’s family were evacuated from their home last week following two hoax bomb threats. McEntee has faced tremendous pressure for her handling of the crisis due, in part, to the country’s low deportation numbers. 

For instance, McEntee recently revealed that of the nearly 7,300 people refused refugee status in Ireland since the beginning of 2023, less than 100 have been deported. She also said that more than 90% of people seeking asylum in the country are now crossing the land border with Northern Ireland amid the UK's clampdown on ineligible refugees via its Rwanda policy.

Who are these people flowing into the country and where are these people now, critics ask?

According to the government’s figures, 85% of people who applied for international protection at Dublin Airport in 2023 arrived without identity documents or with false identity documents, which is illegal, yet very few were even prosecuted. 

But the Irish government has long argued that it is bound by "international obligations" to accommodate those who arrive claiming asylum, while critics say the same level of urgency is not given to Irish people who are homeless. 

RIOTERS CLASH WITH POLICE, TORCH CAR AFTER KNIFE ATTACK IN DUBLIN

The European Union’s new Migration Pact is being held up as a silver bullet solution, a "game changer," according to McEntee, but some critics say it will only exacerbate the situation. The pact aims to cut the time for security and asylum procedures at external EU borders and increase the number of people being sent back to the Middle East and Africa.

"We always do the right thing [in Ireland], and for me, the right thing is providing protection for those who genuinely need it," McEntee said recently. "The world is a changing place, there’s significant increases in conflict across the globe, climate change is having a massive impact, and there are people who are genuinely fleeing starvation, persecution and war.

"I think as a country -- particularly people who have sought refuge in other countries over the years -- there is an onus on us and people want to us to provide that protection. And at the same time, those who are coming here seeking economic benefits, and we don’t blame them for that, this is not the right system to use."

Much of the despair and disillusionment of those on the right who oppose mass immigration is that they are not represented in the political process.

Fine Gael, McEntee’s party, is part of a coalition government in office since 2020 with Fianna Fáil and the Green Party. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil would once have been viewed as center-right but have shifted left and embraced progressivism and globalism.

Ireland’s main opposition party to the government, Sinn Féin, has been in lockstep with the establishment throughout the crisis, creating a void for a populist, nationalist movement. 

The result has been an explosion in novice candidates running for office in next month’s local and EU elections representing newly formed right-wing parties. 

It is, of course, unclear what kind of impact they can make. 

However, thrown into the mix is the fact that refugees and asylum seekers in Ireland are able to vote in local elections. 

An Irish migrant group bragged on X Thursday that it had just registered 1,500 asylum seekers to vote, all of whom the groups said, promised to vote for the government coalition partner the Green Party.

The elections take place June 7. 

Fox News Digital requested comment from Ireland’s prime minister, justice minister and integration minister, as well as the Irish Refugee Council, but did not receive any responses. 

JERUSALEM—After President Biden gave his ultimatum of withholding offensive weapons to the Jewish state if Israel were to launch an invasion of Rafah, rocket attacks rained down on Israel on Friday from Rafah, with more rockets fired on Saturday.

Hamas launched rockets from Rafah at the southern Israeli city of Beersheva on Friday for the first time since December, as Iranian proxy Hezbollah sent a barrage of rockets into the northern Israel city of Kiryat Shmona, causing a massive fire. Within the Gaza Strip on Friday, four Israeli soldiers were killed.

"When administration officials attacked or berated Israel publicly previously during the war, Hamas hardened its demands in return for releasing hostages, in fact delaying and minimizing the chances of success of the delicate negotiation," Jonathan Conricus told Fox News Digital. Conricus served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for 24 years as a combat commander in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

UN, HUMAN RIGHTS, MEDIA GROUPS RELY ON HAMAS DEATH TOLL IN 'SYSTEMATIC DECEPTION': EXPERT

"When Israel’s enemies detect tension between the U.S. and its most loyal and steadfast ally in the region, Israel, it emboldens them to attack Israel more and continue with their tactics of using human shields, since they understand that the U.S. will eventually punish Israel for defending itself, regardless of Hamas and Hezbollah’s actions." 

Conricus, who served as an IDF spokesman during the Gaza war, added, "In the short term, these American statements will lead to enhanced violence and fighting, since they embolden Israel’s enemies. In the long term, they may push another American Middle Eastern ally away from the U.S. sphere of influence, and reinforce concerns harbored by many U.S. partners about the quality and steadfastness of U.S. support when needed the most."

America’s former Ambassador to Israel during the Trump administration, David Friedman, posted a blunt message on X about the new Biden policy: "Hamas now firing rockets from Rafah into Beersheva — Israel’s largest southern city. Why wouldn’t they? — they have no fear of a reprisal. Biden has emboldened Hamas!"

Fox News Digital reported that many Israelis view Biden’s pause of weapons deliveries to be a betrayal of his assurance that he backs the Jewish state with an "ironclad" security promise.

Gen. Jack Keane (Ret.) told Fox & Friends on Friday that Biden is "walking away from Israel," and called Biden's decision "stunning."

The enemies of Israel and America are closely watching Biden’s decision to reportedly create daylight between the U.S. and the Mideast’s only democracy, Israel. 

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION SILENT OVER HAMAS' USE OF GAZA HOSPITAL AS TERROR HQ

On Thursday, John Kirby, the White House National Security Communications Adviser, said the U.S. was fully behind Israel. "The arguments that somehow we’re walking away from Israel fly in the face of the facts. I mean, this is a president who visited Israel within days of the October 7th attacks. This is a president who rushed additional military articles to Israel and, frankly, provided expertise from our own military to go over there to help them as they thought through their planning and their operation," he told reporters at the White House.

Kirby continued "this is a president who put American pilots — fighter pilots — in the sky to help shoot down more than 300 missiles and drones fired by Iran in . . . mid-April. So the argument that somehow we’re walking away from Israel, we’re not willing to help them defeat Hamas just doesn’t . . . comport with the facts."

Matthew Levitt, the director of the Reinhard Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence at The Washington Institute, told Fox News Digital, "By default, working arms before hostages—including U.S. hostages—are released, and after Hamas’ bad faith behavior in negotiations, could embolden both Hamas and Hezbollah."

Hamas has over 100 hostages in its captivity, including Americans. The terrorist mastermind behind Hamas' massacre of nearly 1,200 people, including over 30 Americans, Yahya Sinwar is believed to be using hostages as human shields to hold off Israeli soldiers seeking to capture him in a tunnel deep below Gaza.

The State Department did not answer questions about whether Biden’s blockage of offensive weapons to Israel emboldens Hamas and Hezbollah. 

On Thursday, spokesman Matthew Miller said, "What the President made clear is that we have concerns about a potential military operation in Rafah. I don’t think that’s any secret. We’ve been making those concerns known publicly, and we have made those concerns quite clear to the Government of Israel. And as the President noted, there are certain types of military assistance that we will not make available to Israel for use in a campaign in Rafah," said Miller.

The Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) published a letter from a who’s who of retired U.S. military leaders, criticizing Biden’s arms directive. "Amid surging antisemitism in America and the world, following the largest one-day loss of innocent Jewish life since the Holocaust, U.S. support for the only Jewish state should be clear, unwavering, and not conditioned. The benefits of this partnership for the American people and this important region are many, and too valuable to forsake."

The letter added: "America must support Israel as it restores its security, shattered on October 7, against Iran and its terrorist proxies in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen that all seek to destroy the Jewish state. These forces are also enemies of the United States and everything we stand for. 

"This Iranian-backed axis of terror, as well as other adversaries and allies around the world, are watching closely to see whether the United States will stand by one of its closest allies fighting in self-defense, even when the going gets tough."

Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and former National Security Council official, warned, "There’s zero doubt that Iran and Hezbollah are going to escalate the longer this illegitimate embargo drags on. Our shared enemies feed on the perception of space between the United States and Israel, and the projection of weakness and desperation in both capitals."

Fox News Digital press queries to the White House and Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Prime Minister’s Office were not immediately returned.

The visit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Hungarian President Viktor Orban ended with glowing praise from both parties as Xi labeled his counterpart a "model" for diplomatic relations with Europe, while Orban endorsed Beijing’s Ukraine peace plan.

"Today, Europe is on the side of war," Orbán said Thursday during a joint press conference. 

"The only exception is Hungary, which calls for an immediate ceasefire and peace negotiations and supports all international efforts that point towards peace. . . . We also support the Chinese peace initiative presented by Xi Jinping," he added.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto added that Hungary will "look at our co-operation with China as a huge chance and a huge opportunity." 

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China has sought to reset its standing with Europe as it faces greater opposition and a worsening reputation throughout the bloc. Winning a kind word from Hungary, which is not only an EU member but a NATO member as well, would seem the kind of PR boost Beijing has wanted. 

Xi’s five-day stint in Hungary — just one of three visits Xi is making in Europe — ended with a proclamation of China and Hungary’s "all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership for the new era," which officials claim will serve "more than mere semantic importance," according to the Financial Times.  

The "all-weather" designation indicates that Xi considers Budapest now a member of "those countries that do most to support China’s efforts to counter U.S. power and which are increasingly rewarded with investment, trade and diplomatic support," the FT reported.  

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The two nations agreed to 17 deals that loop Hungary into China’s ongoing Belt and Road Initiative and involve investment in nuclear energy, supply chain improvements, green development and boosts to the finance and trade of Hungary, which will in return export agricultural products, technology and media services. 

Xi also lauded the deals as helping to bring cooperation between Beijing and Central and Eastern Europe to "a wider scope, a broader field and a higher level." 

"China attaches importance to the China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership and considers Europe an important pole in the multipolar world," Xi said of the agreements. "China supports Hungary in playing a greater role in the EU and promoting the new and greater development of China-EU relations."

The South China Morning Post noted that the "all-weather" partnership places Hungary in the company of such Chinese allies as Belarus, Pakistan and Venezuela. 

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The Chinese Foreign Ministry last year posted a 12-point peace plan, which included a number of points that many agreed with, such as urging against the use of nuclear weapons, protecting civilians and POWs, facilitating grain exports and promoting reconstruction.

However, the plan also called for the end of unilateral sanctions and "maximum pressure," insisting that only sanctions authorized by the U.N. Security Council should go into effect. 

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"Relevant countries should stop abusing unilateral sanctions and ‘long-arm jurisdiction’ against other countries, so as to do their share in de-escalating the Ukraine crisis and create conditions for developing countries to grow their economies and better the lives of their people," the plan said.                

Foreign Policy last year published an op-ed by Jo Inge Bekkevold, a senior China fellow at the Norwegian Institute for Defense Studies, criticizing China’s peace plan as having "ulterior motives."

For example, China would seek to "position itself in the reconstruction of postwar Ukraine…. [it] explicitly states that it stands ready to provide assistance and play a role in post-conflict reconstruction," though Bekkevold admits that "no other country is possibly better equipped than China to assist in rebuilding Ukraine." 

"Welcoming Chinese assistance, expertise and investments must be a tempting proposition for Ukraine," Bekkevold wrote. "Seen from Beijing, contributing to the reconstruction of Ukraine would strengthen China’s overall engagement with Europe."

The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK), an exiled Iranian resistance group, provided a report to Fox News Digital presenting evidence of a top-secret unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) site in the Islamic Republic of Iran, north of Qom City in the Ganjine region. 

According to the report, members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) are trained to use "all kinds of drones" at the base, including the Mohajer series, manufactured by Qods Aviation Industry. Employees of Qods Aviation Industry also reportedly use the site to train small groups of Iranian proxy operatives of Hezbollah, as well as members of Iranian proxy groups from Syria, Yemen and Iraq, to use the Mohajer-4 drone platform. 

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), based on information from the MEK, told Fox News Digital that the site is a proving ground for Mohajer-4, Mohajer-6, and Mohajer-10 drones. 

Alireza Jafarzadeh, deputy director of NCRI's Washington, D.C., office, told Fox News Digital that "seven months into the regional conflict, it has become evident that the regime in Tehran is the proverbial ‘head of the snake’ of belligerence and terror export in the Middle East. As such, Western governments must exercise firmness instead of accommodation and engagement in dealing with Tehran and hold it to account for its malign activities." 

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Qods Aviation Industry is listed on the Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List, as is its new moniker, Light Airplanes Design and Manufacturing Industries. 

The newest drone in its arsenal, the Mohajer-10, can carry a payload of 300 kilograms for a range of 2,000 kilometers, according to Breaking Defense. Released in August 2023, the drone has a 450-liter fuel tank and can stay airborne for 24 hours. In a photo of the new drone shared on an Iranian television station, text in both Hebrew and Persian advised viewers to "prepare your shelters," Reuters reported.

Brett Velicovich, a U.S. Army veteran and author of "Drone Warrior: An Elite Soldier's Inside Account of the Hunt for America's Most Dangerous Enemies," said that the schematics for deadly Mohajer- and Shahed-series drones are being exported to Iranian proxies around the world. "One or two guys can launch one of these drones from the middle of a field…and they have the capability to conduct just as powerful a strike as major nation states could before," Velicovich said.

Velicovich added this allows Iran to "sow chaos and discord" while also "having plausible deniability." He claims the regime "want to use these long-range drone systems to show that they somehow have control over the Middle East and the region." 

Drones have played a role in the escalations taking place overseas following Oct. 7. The United States Institute of Peace notes that "U.S. forces deployed across the Middle East were attacked more than 160 times by pro-Iranian militias" between October 2023 and February 2024.

One of those strikes was deadly. On Jan. 28, an Iranian proxy used a drone to kill three U.S. service members in Jordan. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby stated that the Islamic Resistance in Iraq was behind the attack. He did not state which of the Iranian proxy groups under the resistance umbrella bore responsibility. The Pentagon stated it could not provide answers to Fox News Digital’s request for information about the group behind the attack or the type of drone that was used. United States Central Command told Fox News Digital that it does not comment on ongoing investigations.

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On Apr. 13, Iran fired dozens of drones, including the Shahed-136, and hundreds of missiles at Israel in retaliation for an Apr. 1 bombing that killed seven IRGC members at the Iranian embassy compound in Damascus, Syria. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) did not respond to a request for comment about whether the Mohajer system was used against Israel in Iran’s attack, or in any attacks since Oct. 7.

Velicovich recently traveled to Israel, where he said he witnessed "a lot of activity" at the northern border, where the IDF "are fighting with Hezbollah…in a sort of covert battle." Drones are part of that conflict, though Velicovich did not report witnessing Iranian drones at the northern border. 

"Israelis have extremely strong defenses against UAVs," Velicovich said. "But Iranian scientists are everyday trying to develop something new and testing those airwaves to figure out how to get around the Iron Dome, how to get around the Patriot missile system," he added.

There has been no indication of whether Mohajer series drones have been utilized by Iran, its proxy Hezbollah or other proxy groups attacking Israel or U.S. forces since Oct. 7. The MEK was not aware of evidence that the drone site in Qom has been used in any attacks against Israel since Oct. 7.

According to online documents from the U.S. Army’s Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), the Mohajer system has proliferated to Iran’s allies. TRADOC writes that the Mohajer-4 platform, which entered mass production in 1999, has been distributed "widely," including to non-state actors. Used for surveillance and to interdict drug smugglers, the Mohajer-4 can also be equipped with the Hydra unguided rocket. It can remain airborne for seven hours.

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The Mohajer-6 entered production in 2018. Syria, Hezbollah, Ethiopia, the Russian Federation, Iraq and Venezuela have access to the drone, according to TRADOC. Army documents state the drone, which can be airborne up to 12 hours, can be launched and recovered from a runway, and can carry "a multispectral surveillance payload, and/or up to two precision-guided munitions."

The MEK provided documents and aerial imagery to Fox News Digital showing how the Qom site has expanded in recent years. According to translated documents MEK provided from the Iranian Armed Forces’ Real Estate and Land Organization, the site was first proposed as a UAV testing ground in February 2005. In May 2006, 1,800 hectares (more than 4,400 acres) of land near Qom were handed over to the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics.

The MEK reports that just 949 hectares have been used for the site. Aerial photographs show the site’s first 500-meter runway, created in 2007. In 2014, photos demonstrated that the runway was expanded to 1400 meters. Photos show the runway was further enlarged in 2020 to 1500 meters "so larger drones could also be tested." Additional photos show that a hangar of about 30 by 40 meters was added in 2021. 

According to the MEK’s report, asymmetric warfare forms "a critical part of a deliberate strategy" that relies on "extensive use of drones and missiles, which the regime is capable of manufacturing with the support of its allies. Proxies execute these operations on behalf of the regime." The MEK also cites "intelligence sources" claiming that Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei "has personally overseen Iran’s drone project since 2004." 

The MEK urges other Western states to follow suit with the U.S.’ 2019 designation of the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization.

Velicovich noted that "Iran was the orchestrator, in my opinion, on the Oct. 7 attacks." He explained that the regime used "one of their proxy groups, to not pin the full blame on them, but it’s their money and material." He worries that the U.S. government "doesn’t have a handle right now on the true amount of drone systems that the Iranians are trying to build. And we won’t feel the effect tomorrow. It will be years from now," he warned.

The U.S. State Department on Friday criticized Israel’s use of U.S-supplied arms in a way that may be "inconsistent" in "mitigating civilian harm" in the war in Gaza. 

A report obtained by Fox News Digital, which was sent to Congress on Friday, admitted that "Israel has had to confront an extraordinary military challenge: Hamas has embedded itself deliberately within and underneath the civilian population to use civilians as human shields."

The report added that "it is often difficult to determine facts on the ground in an active war zone of this nature and the presence of legitimate military targets across Gaza."

Nearly 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict, including many women and children, according to the Palestinian government. 

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The report was commissioned by President Biden to assess if Israel and other U.S. allies are adhering to international humanitarian law. 

Israeli officials have said the country is complying with international law "and have identified a number of processes for ensuring compliance that are embedded at all levels of their military decision-making," the report said, including giving advanced warnings, using specific weapons and avoiding places like schools, hospitals and places of worship.

"Although we have gained some insight into Israel’s procedures and rules, we do not have complete information to verify whether" U.S. arms "were specifically used in actions that have been alleged as violations of [international humanitarian law] or international human rights law during the period of the report," the report continued. "The nature of the conflict in Gaza makes it difficult to assess or reach conclusive findings on individual incidents."

It said, however, that the United Nations, humanitarian organizations and international humanitarian law experts "have reported Israeli civilian harm mitigation efforts as inconsistent, ineffective, and inadequate, failing to provide protection to vulnerable civilians who cannot or chose not to relocate."

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Israel has the capability, experience and tools to mitigate civilian harm, the report said, adding, however, "the results on the ground, including high levels of civilian casualties, raise substantial questions as to whether the IDF is using them effectively in all cases." 

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Despite misgivings, the State Department said it found Israel’s assurances that it had followed international law in the use of U.S. weapons "credible and reliable" and will continue supplying arms. 

Syria’s U.S.-backed Kurdish-led force has handed over to Baghdad two Islamic State group militants suspected of involvement in mass killings of Iraqi soldiers in 2014, a war monitor said Friday.

The report by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights came a day after the Iraqi National Intelligence Service said it had brought back to the country three IS members from outside Iraq. The intelligence service did not provide more details.

The Islamic State group captured an estimated 1,700 Iraqi soldiers after seizing Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit in 2014. The soldiers were trying to flee from nearby Camp Speicher, a former U.S. base.

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Shortly after taking Tikrit, IS posted graphic images of IS militants shooting and killing the soldiers.

Farhad Shami, a spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, said the U.S.-backed force handed over two IS members to Iraq. It was not immediately clear where Iraqi authorities brought the third suspect from.

The 2014 killings, known as the Speicher massacre, sparked outrage across Iraq and partially fueled the mobilization of Shiite militias in the fight against IS, a Sunni extremist group.

Iraq has over the past several years put on trial and later executed dozens of IS members over their involvement in the Speicher massacre.

The Observatory said the two IS members were among 20 captured recently in a joint operation with the U.S.-led coalition in the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, once the capital of the Islamic State group's self-declared caliphate.

Despite their defeat in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria in March 2019, the extremists sleeper cells are still active and have been carrying out deadly attacks against SDF and Syrian government forces.

Shami said a car rigged with explosives and driven by a suicide attacker tried Friday night to storm a military checkpoint for the Deir el-Zour Military Council, an Arab majority faction that is part of the SDF, in the eastern Syrian village of Shuheil. Shami said that when the guards tried to stop the car, the attacker blew himself up killing three U.S.-backed fighters.

No one immediately claimed responsibility but the attack but it was similar to previous such explosions carried out by IS militants.

The SDF is holding over 10,000 captured IS fighters in around two dozen detention facilities, including 2,000 foreigners whose home countries have refused to repatriate them. The force says fighters of about 60 nationalities had entered Syria years ago and were captured in battle.

Kurdish authorities in northeastern Syria have said they will put on trial IS detainees, though it is not clear when such trials would begin.

A bus veered off a bridge and plunged into a river on Friday in St. Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city, killing seven people, officials said.

The Investigative Committee, Russia’s top criminal investigations body, reported the death toll. It did not state how many others were injured, but the emergencies ministry earlier said that six people removed from the bus were in critical or serious condition.

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Russian news reports said there were 15 people on the city bus when it broke through a barrier and plunged into the Moika River in central St. Petersburg. Six of those who were onboard climbed out of the water on their own.

A surveillance video released by the Russian media showed the bus driving fast, making a sharp turn onto the bridge and colliding with another vehicle before breaking through the barrier and falling into the water.

Authorities in St. Petersburg said that the owner of the bus had been fined 23 times for various violations. Private companies run most of the city's bus services.

The bus driver was detained by police. His wife was quoted by Russian media as saying that managers forced him to work a morning shift after working for 20 hours the previous day and getting virtually no rest.

Authorities opened a criminal investigation into alleged traffic violations and unsafe travel services.