US Marine arrested in Japan over suspected killing of woman as Tokyo lodges 'strong protest'

A U.S. Marine stationed in Japan has been arrested on suspicion of robbing and killing a 39-year-old woman at a hotel in Okinawa, prompting Japanese officials to lodge a formal protest with the United States.

Lance Cpl. Devin Jacob Ballard, 20, is suspected of killing Anna Yagi at a hotel in Naha, the capital of Okinawa Prefecture, early Saturday and taking her wallet and backpack, according to Japanese police.

Ballard has denied the allegations, police said.

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Ballard is assigned to the III Marine Expeditionary Force and based at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa, according to the Marine Corps.

Surveillance footage showed Yagi entering the hotel with Ballard before he later left alone, Stars and Stripes reported, citing Okinawa police. A hotel employee later found Yagi unresponsive after she failed to check out.

Police subsequently located Ballard in Okinawa City and arrested him, according to the outlet.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Okinawa Prefectural Police for additional information.

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The Marine Corps said it was cooperating with Japanese authorities and that Ballard remained in Japanese custody.

"The Marine Corps takes these allegations very seriously and expects every Marine to adhere to the highest standards of behavior," the service said in a statement obtained by Reuters.

The arrest prompted swift condemnation from senior Japanese officials. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi offered condolences to Yagi's family and said her government had lodged a "strong protest" with the United States.

"The occurrence of such an extremely brutal and heinous incident is a matter of profound regret," Takaichi said in an English translation of her Japanese-language statement.

Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi also summoned U.S. Ambassador George Glass and called for full U.S. cooperation with the investigation, stricter discipline among American military personnel and measures to prevent similar incidents.

Glass expressed regret over the loss of life and pledged U.S. cooperation with Japanese authorities.

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The case comes against a decades-long backdrop of tensions surrounding the large U.S. military presence in Okinawa.

Most of the roughly 18,000 Marines stationed in Japan are based on Okinawa, where crimes involving U.S. personnel, aircraft accidents and noise have periodically fueled local opposition to the American military presence.

Okinawa remains strategically important to the U.S.-Japan alliance because of its location in the western Pacific near Taiwan amid increased concern over China's military activity in the region.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Exclusive: Trump envoy blasts South Africa over hateful ‘kill' chant, says country is drifting toward US foes

JOHANNESBURG: The U.S. ambassador to South Africa has hit out at the country’s President, Cyril Ramaphosa, telling Fox News Digital, "You've got a president of South Africa who refuses to condemn an incitement to kill." 

Ambassador L. Brent Bozell III was responding strongly, in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, to being summoned this past week to South Africa’s foreign ministry and criticized for ‘undiplomatic conduct." 

This is the third time the ambassador has received a démarche — a diplomatic rebuke — from Pretoria in the nine months since he arrived here. The ambassador has been slammed by South Africa for relaying President Trump’s condemnation of South African policies and statements. Bozell is a former Fox News contributor and founder of the largest conservative media watchdog, the Media Research Center.

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He has repeatedly pushed for issues brought up by President Trump in a testy confrontation in the Oval Office with South Africa’s President Ramaphosa 16 months ago to be addressed. Among other points, these include alleged race-based discrimination, allegations of murder and torture of farmers, plans for uncompensated land seizures and the incitement of violence against minority groups.

The ambassador said three of the five specific ‘asks’ the Trump administration wants have been ignored by South Africa.

High up the list of ‘asks’ is President Trump’s demand that President Ramaphosa stops people in South Africa from shouting "Kill the Boer! Kill the farmer!" A Boer is a white man, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary. It defines it as "a South African of Dutch or Huguenot descent". Ramaphosa has claimed he can’t stop people chanting this slogan because it’s been cleared for use by the country’s supreme court.

Bozell told Fox News Digital, "You've got a president of South Africa who refuses to condemn an incitement to kill."

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He added, "You've got a government that has said it's not going to do any more for the Afrikaner rural community, and it's got a government that's saying no, your mining has to go through race-based programs. We're not going to allow your investments to go the way everyone else has been allowed to go".

"Those were three strikes and you're out as far as we were concerned," Bozell said.

"Ask 100% of the world if "kill the farmer!, kill the Boer" isn’t hate speech," he continued. "If that isn't hate speech, I don't know what hate speech is: inciting people to commit murder. So the answer we've gotten is, well, the court said it isn't. To which our response is look, in the United States, the president can disagree with the court and does about every five minutes because that's what you do in a democracy when you disagree with something."

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Bozell added, "So, to say, well, you can't do it because the court said it's not, you know, that's poppycock. If President Ramaphosa, if he wants to, he can do it. It's just as simple as that."

The ambassador pushed hard on the point, saying "How hard is it to say this chant, where some, where people do it, 50,000 people in the stadium jump up and down, pantomiming guns, shooting people, how hard is it to say, stop it? This is awful that anybody would be inciting people to kill."

South Africa, analysts say, is drawing ever closer to Iran, Russia, China even Cuba. The African National Congress, the ANC, the party which rules the country in the so-called ‘government of national unity’, has hosted the terror group Hamas.

This is very much on the administration’s radar. President Trump met with Bozell in Washington again recently, with the ambassador telling Fox News Digital the president’s thinking "perhaps most of all, he's concerned about how South Africa has been systematically leaving the non-alignment space and moving closer and closer to our adversaries."

Referring to South Africa, the ambassador added, "There are people who are living in the glory days of the Soviet Union, and they want to go back to the good old days of communism. Why are they still working with Cuba?"

Digging deeper, Bozell asked, "Why are they working with Iran and Hamas terror organizations? What's Russia doing for them? What's China doing for them? This is bad news when they're going in that direction. What we're saying is simply do what you've always done. Have a non-aligned with both sides. We'll live with that."

US COUNTERS CHINA AS BEIJING’S ‘SHOCK WAVE’ HITS AFRICAN ECONOMIES

The ambassador stressed that the U.S. wants to make dynamic business with South Africa on mining, particularly on critical or rare earth minerals. He stated, "We're not going to do what the Chinese do. They come in, they take the ore, they take it to China, they benefit [from] it and they make a pile of money. We're saying to South Africa, we'll come in, we'll do the mining, we'll do it right there in South Africa."

He continued,"South Africa gets the money, not the Chinese. We bring in the technology that they could never have. We've created hundreds of thousands of jobs. We're saying we could create more and more and more at a time when they desperately need it, but it will be good for us as well. This is the partnership we want."

Elon Musk and his Starlink satellite internet company are one of many U.S. companies which want to enter South Africa. But in the telecommunications and mining fields, the government insists that 30% of foreign company ownership must be given to black local entrepreneurs.

Bozell says this is problematical for the U.S. "There are literally billions of dollars from American firms and American government investments ready to go into mining, but it's not going to go there so long as you have these race-based avenues they must go through. In telecom, Elon Musk has said he will put Starlink in 500 schools and pay for it in perpetuity if he's allowed to go this way. And they said, "No, we want 30% of your company. So yeah, of course it's hurting."

On Friday, a senior official at South Africa’s Department of International Relations – the country’s foreign ministry – confirmed to Fox News Digital that they demarched Ambassador Bozell for a third time, adding, "This is a record. He was called in to explain his undiplomatic conduct. The issues related to the bilateral relations between the two countries are a subject of ongoing discussions. There is commitment from both sides to resolve the outstanding matters. South Africa values the relationship with the USA. It is a mutually beneficial partnership".

Also, Friday, a State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital, "We are not interested in diplomatic maneuvering, procedural delays, or dialogue for dialogue’s sake. The ball is now squarely in the Government of South Africa’s court to outline the relationship it wants with the United States and respond accordingly to President Trump’s executive order."

Still, Bozell looks to the future of the U.S. - South Africa relationship with guarded optimism. "Look, temperatures can go up, but I want their temperature to go down too. You know, we want this partnership. We want to figure this out. It's good for South Africa. It's good for the United States of America. Temperatures need to go down, and we got to figure it out."

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Latin America’s conservative shift faces its biggest test yet in Brazil election

SÃO PAULO: As Brazil goes to the polls Sunday, analysts are watching closely to see whether the continent’s most populous nation will be the latest domino to fall into the conservative column, following Colombia, Peru, Chile, and others in voting out the left-wing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Known by his nickname Lula, the 80-year-old, who served time in jail for corruption in a massive payback bribery scandal, barely leads Brazilian senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of former president Jair.

Going into Sunday’s first round, neither candidate is expected to win outright. The latest Datafolha poll puts Lula at 42% and Bolsonaro at 38%, with a two-point margin of error. If the election goes to a runoff, it has Lula up by 3%. But the polls have been wrong before.

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"The problem with Datafolha, which is the largest polling institute in the country, is that it tends to underestimate the force and voting intention in candidates running against Lula or the Workers Party (PT). This has been consistent for at least over a decade, and it underestimated Jair Bolsonaro’s number on the runoff of 2018 by 7%," Roberto Reis, an electoral strategist working with several candidates across multiple electoral tiers and analyzing aggregator data, told Fox News Digital. "According to the latest aggregator data such as MRT News or Polling Data, we currently have Lula leading Bolsonaro 42% to 39% on the first runoff of the elections with Bolsonaro leading Lula 45% to 44% on the runoff," he added.

One Brazil analyst said that the election is about more than just another ideological contest between left and right in Latin America — It is the single major remaining stumbling block in the Western Hemisphere that still hasn’t shifted to conservativism and while there are other left-wing governments in the hemisphere, including Cuba, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua and Uruguay, Brazil is by far the largest and most important economy in this group with its status as the 11th largest world economy according to the IMF and the 10th largest world economy according to the World Bank.

‘WAVE OF FREEDOM’ SWEEPS LATIN AMERICA AS TRUMP ALLY TAKES FIGHT TO MARXIST TERROR GROUP

Bolsonaro has spent much of the campaign cultivating a relationship with President Donald Trump and presenting himself as a potential U.S. partner in the Western Hemisphere. He met Trump at the White House in May, where the two discussed organized crime, tariffs and Brazil's rare earth and critical mineral reserves — both critical prime-source materials Brazil has plenty of and which could significantly lower U.S. and European dependency on Russia and China.

Bolsonaro also said he had asked Washington to designate Brazil's two largest criminal organizations, the First Capital Command (PCC, in its Portuguese acronym) and Red Command (Comando Vermelho, in Portuguese), as terrorist groups. Both designations were accepted by the Department of State on May 28 and became effective in June under section 219 of the Immigration and Naturalization Code.

TRUMP ADMIN'S LIST OF US-DESIGNATED 'FOREIGN TERRORIST' GROUPS IN LATIN AMERICA EXPANDS TO 21

The designation by the U.S. government incensed Lula and his allies and was viewed as direct meddling in domestic affairs and a rubber stamp from the Trump administration that the left-wing, populist president has not been doing enough to combat organized crime in his country, directly favoring Bolsonaro’s contest in the elections.

Flávio Bolsonaro has also proposed a free-trade agreement between Brazil and the United States, potentially expanding it into a broader free-trade arrangement among countries in the Americas. And his campaign has emphasized cooperation with Washington on critical minerals, an increasingly strategic issue as the Trump administration tries to reduce U.S. dependence on China, as per a current report by Brazil’s leading newspaper, Folha de S. Paulo.

That would represent a significant change in emphasis from Lula's foreign policy.

China is Brazil's largest trading partner, and Brazilian agricultural exports to China totaled more than $55 billion in 2025, according to Reuters. Lula has defended maintaining strong relations with Beijing while pursuing what he describes as an independent foreign policy that oftentimes borders on aggressiveness towards both the United States and its closest allies, such as Israel.

Lula's relationship with Trump has been considerably more complicated. Washington imposed new 25% tariffs on a wide range of Brazilian goods in July, affecting about $7 billion of Brazilian exports, while Lula's government has challenged the measures and sought negotiations with Washington with very limited success so far. Washington has also imposed a ban on most new permanent visa requests coming from Brazil, and that could lead to green cards.

TANVI RATNA: LATIN AMERICA'S RIGHT TURN IS REDRAWING THE UNITED STATES' BACKYARD

A Bolsonaro presidency would come with stated plans for closer U.S. economic and security cooperation, greater alignment with Israel, a more confrontational posture toward China's influence in Brazil and reduced friction both within the hemisphere and in global affairs. Whether those policies can all be implemented depends on negotiations with Congress, Brazil's powerful bureaucracy, and the country's economic interests — especially the agribusiness and mining powerhouses in the country.

A Lula victory would mean continuity in a foreign policy trajectory that seeks strong commercial ties with China while maintaining strategic autonomy from Washington, alongside his government's current position on Israel and Gaza. Both attitudes are in direct defiance of Trump’s policies and could end up damaging U.S.-Brazilian relations even further.

With the presidential race effectively heading toward a second round, the stakes for a new version of the Americas for U.S. interests could very much hinge on its outcome.

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France’s violent student protests raise warning for America: ‘A cautionary tale’

France’s violent student protests are fueling fresh warnings about the consequences of open-border immigration policies, with the unrest being held up as a "cautionary tale" for the U.S.

"I would also say as we’re sitting here in beautiful New York City, this is a cautionary tale," "The Big Weekend Show" co-host Tomi Lahren said Saturday.

She continued: "This is something we’re learning from Europe, and we would be wise to learn from Europe. They decided they wanted to have open borders. They decided they wanted diversity as their strength, and of course, Joe Biden tried that for four years. We’re undoing that currently."

FRANCE'S TEEN RIOTS TAKE EXPLOSIVE NEW TURN AS GOVERNMENT POINTS FINGER AT HARD LEFT

Lahren posited that "when you let so many people come into your country, leech off of your system, then the people who are from there are going to at some point get upset."

She said that anger often becomes misplaced and, "they end up lighting things on fire, which I think is stupid no matter what you’re angry with, but it’s no doubt these countries that say we’re going to be a global home for everybody, they end up paying the price, and it’s usually the native Frenchmen, or whenever they are that end up paying the highest price."

Students in Paris began to protest late last month against what they deemed as overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortages, long school days and deteriorating conditions, blaming the government for not investing enough in education.

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The demonstrations started peacefully in Paris’ poorer suburbs but quickly spread to Paris itself, then went nationwide in cities like Marseille, Strasbourg, Tours, Nantes, Toulouse ​and Lille, becoming increasingly violent as they expanded.

The protests were also fueled by the government’s 2027 budget unveiling on Thursday, which showed education spending would rise by only 1.7%, excluding teacher pensions, an increase which is below the rate of inflation, Reuters reported.

Rioters have committed arson, vandalism, thrown objects at police and even assaulted people in some cases, prompting authorities to respond with tear gas and rubber bullets.

TENS OF THOUSANDS FLOOD STREETS TO PROTEST SPAIN BORDER CRISIS

More than 5,000 protesters were arrested this week across the country, according to Reuters, and more than 400 schools remained closed as of Friday.

Euronews reported Friday that at least 65 school staff members, including 40 principals, have been injured since the unrest began, along with roughly 170 students. 

More than 100 high schools have suffered what Education Minister Édouard Geffray described as "severe damage."

French intelligence agencies told a government crisis meeting Thursday that the protest movement had been initiated by politicians from the hard-left France Unbowed Party, known as LFI, Reuters reported Friday.

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LFI has denied the allegations and accused President Emmanuel Macron's government of politicizing the protests ahead of France's 2027 presidential election.

Simone Rodan-Benzaquen, senior envoy to Europe at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital on Thursday that the unrest began with legitimate concerns but has since evolved into something far more serious.

"The students’ grievances about missing teachers and deteriorating schools were real at first," Rodan-Benzaquen said. "But dousing a principal in gasoline and attacking firefighters are acts of extreme violence. What makes this politically significant is the effort to turn frustration over schools into a much broader confrontation with the government."

Fox News' Efrat Lachter contributed to this report.

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'Crazy' FlyDubai landing explained by Israeli pilot, who offers steps to prevent future crises

Eliran Almog, a former Israeli helicopter pilot turned aviation cybersecurity firm CEO, explained just how "crazy" it was that the near-hijacked FlyDubai flight 1073 managed to land safely after a violent midair attack.

"You can't imagine being in that position. You see the videos, you hear the kids screaming, and people don't necessarily understand what is happening," the former Israeli Air Force pilot told Fox News Digital.

After an Omani national copilot — who has since been identified as 29-year-old Hamam al-Hammami — allegedly stabbed FlyDubai flight 1073’s pilot Capt. Smit Machchhar mid-flight, the aircraft plummeted more than 14,000 feet in 30 seconds.

"The g-force on the plane was enormous, and you basically think you are going to die," Almog said, adding "it's crazy that the aircraft did not break up in the air, and landing it with the tail damage it sustained was remarkable."

FLYDUBAI PASSENGER SAYS CO-PILOT STABBED CAPTAIN BEFORE TERRIFYING PLUNGE, EMERGENCY LANDING

Despite sustaining serious injuries, Machchhar was able to hit a button to open the cockpit door, allowing Israeli passengers to rush into the cockpit and subdue al-Hammami, officials said. A second FlyDubai crew that happened to be aboard the craft then stabilized the plane and successfully completed an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.

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"As a pilot, if I were in this situation, I'm not sure I could have landed the aircraft. Every commercial aircraft is different, requiring different setup, landing procedures and limitations," Almog explained.

Almog, who now advises airliners and adjacent businesses on how to shore up their cybersecurity, explained how crucial it was for carriers to ensure their pilots undergo thorough screening processes for both psychological and potential political risks.

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"We give a lot of weight in the process to the characteristics of the pilot. The technical and cognitive skills are important, but we make sure that the pilot is balanced and resilient in extreme cases," he said.

"Because aviation is critical infrastructure, we must rethink how we screen pilots — not just initially, but continuously. Even for experienced pilots, we need the right tools in place to identify when someone is facing family issues, psychological distress, or developing extreme views that could impose risk. These are practices the industry needs to adopt, and I call on governments and regulators to step in," he continued.

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While numerous countries, including Israel and Saudi Arabia, are conducting their own investigations into al-Hammami and the FlyDubai incident, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox & Friends in a Thursday interview that the copilot had been exposed to "Islamist radical indoctrination."

President Donald Trump, meanwhile, suggested the pilot could have been trained or motivated by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

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Almog told Fox News Digital that geopolitical concerns, such as the ones imposed by the ongoing wars in the Middle East, are increasingly becoming airlines' top risk factor for a number of reasons.

"If you ask the airlines today what are the main risks that they are looking forward on, it is geopolitical risk," he said. "... We are tracking GNSS and GPS jamming and spoofing activities, and I can show you the map and you can understand exactly where the conflicts are."

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Almog also explained how pilots are not the only people airlines need to screen or keep an eye on.

"Pilots aren't the only ones who can crash a plane. Over 80% of cybersecurity threats come from insiders — many of whom may not even realize they are posing a risk," he said. "It isn't just pilots; it's cabin crew and maintenance personnel. A plane can crash without the right fuel balance or proper maintenance parameters. Aviation relies on a complex supply chain. It would be a mistake to limit psychological screening and background monitoring to pilots alone — it needs to expand to every person who impacts flight operations."

Almog also praised both the resiliency of the flight's passengers and the heroism of Capt. Machchhar.

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"Ultimately, this was a chain of circumstances that prevented a total disaster," he said. "Beyond personal resilience, it took the courage of the off-duty Indian pilot who opened the door, and the fact that FlyDubai had two other pilots on board who landed the aircraft safely."

"As a pilot, I can tell you that isn't easy. Landing an unfamiliar commercial aircraft type under extreme stress requires specialized training, which is why rigorous screening and continuous support for flight crews are so vital," he added.

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FlyDubai co-pilot accused of stabbing captain identified as 29-year-old Omani national

The FlyDubai co-pilot accused of attacking a captain on a Tel Aviv-bound flight earlier this week allegedly used the cockpit's "crash axe" in the attack and has been identified as a 29-year-old Omani national.

The co-pilot has been identified as Hamam al-Hammami, a Middle Eastern source told Fox News, adding that he was barred from flying with Oman Air — his country's airline — in 2024 due to concerns about extremist views.

The source also said authorities believe the co-pilot moved to Dubai later that year.

The United Arab Emirates, which is leading the investigation into the attack on FlyDubai Flight 1073, said the co-pilot attacked Capt. Smit Machchhar with the cockpit's crash axe, incapacitating him and causing the aircraft to plummet before passengers on board seized control of the plane.

FLYDUBAI PASSENGER SAYS CO-PILOT STABBED CAPTAIN BEFORE TERRIFYING PLUNGE, EMERGENCY LANDING

The source said al-Hammami spent a significant part of his life outside Oman, including time living with his mother, who is from Syria.

According to the source, FlyDubai did not check with Oman Air about al-Hammami before hiring him.

A Gulf diplomat told The Associated Press that investigators are working to determine whether al-Hammami acted as a "lone wolf or has any connection with any extremist groups."

The AP separately reported that Oman had barred al-Hammami from flying over concerns that he had adopted extremist views.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday described the incident as an act of terrorism, saying the attacker had undergone "Islamic radicalization."

"He came to crash the passengers on board," Netanyahu said, according to The Wall Street Journal.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Fox News Digital's Brittany Miller contributed to this report.

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UK man accused of planning terrorism acts against Nigel Farage also charged in murder of another politician

British prosecutors announced terrorism charges Friday against a 28-year-old man already in custody for the alleged murder of a conservative politician.

The Crown Prosecution Service charged Joshua Kerry of South Yorkshire with one count of preparation of terrorist acts, accusing him of "engaging in conduct in preparation of acts of terrorism, including against [Reform UK leader] Nigel Farage MP." 

Kerry has been in the custody of His Majesty's government since late July, after he was arrested and accused of murdering former Reform UK and Conservative politician Ann Widdecombe.

Prosecutors say Widdecombe was eating lunch in her Devon home July 8, when Kerry allegedly walked through the front door, beat her 21 times in the head with a hammer, took her wallet and was gone in an attack that lasted only two minutes.

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Authorities say the latest charges against Kerry are related to events between May 31 and July 8. 

In a statement, Senior National Coordinator for Counterterrorism Policing, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Vicki Evans, said, "The charge announced today is a result of the tireless work of investigators across the Counterterrorism Policing network. This investigation has been led by a dedicated team of detectives, analysts and forensic experts, working on multiple lines of inquiry, which has resulted in this very serious charge."

U.K. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, posting on X, called the new charges against Kerry "extremely concerning" and sent her "profound sympathies" to the Farage family. She added that "an attack on anyone in politics is an attack on us all. This case raises serious questions about the security of those in public life." 

The Jo Cox Foundation, set up in honor of the Labour MP who was murdered in 2016, said in a statement, "No one in public life should have to fear for their safety. Violence, abuse and intimidation not only endangered individuals and their families, but threaten our democracy and have no place in public life. We must do more to prevent the rising levels of abuse and intimidation in politics."

Kerry is due back at Westminster Magistrates’ Court Wednesday.

Separately on Friday, Counterterrorism Policing announced charges against two Iranian men accused of plotting "to target the Jewish community in the Manchester area." 

The Crown Prosecution Service charged 36-year-old Salam Ahmadyan and 34-year-old Rahman Salehi with "engaging in conduct in preparation for terrorist acts, contrary to Section 5 of the Terrorism Act 2006," alleging that two men were "in contact with an overseas third-party who may be in Iran in relation to the plot."  

SUSPECT CHARGED IN MURDER OF UK POLITICIAN ANNE WIDDECOMBE

Evans called the charges "extremely serious" while reiterating that "we do not believe there to be any ongoing threat to the public in relation to this matter." 

Evans noted the alleged plot comes during the High Holy Day period and "coincides with the anniversary of the devastating terrorist attack last year at Heaton Park synagogue and comes in a wider context of increasing antisemitic incidents across the U.K."

Ahmadyan and Salehi have been remanded and are scheduled to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court Saturday.

Fox News’ Thomas Ferraro and Stephanie Bennett and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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