Leaked Iran report finds record public anger as regime focuses on holding power

A confidential report prepared for Iran’s presidency is raising a consequential question for Washington and its allies: Do extraordinary levels of public anger and support for systemic change justify reassessing whether the Islamic Republic may be more vulnerable to regime change than previously believed?

The classified document, titled "What Iran Wants," reportedly found that only 9% of respondents supported maintaining the status quo, with 53% calling for fundamental or structural reforms and more than 19% favoring changing the political system outright.

Taken together, nearly three-quarters of those surveyed reportedly supported either deep structural reform or replacement of the existing system — findings that could strengthen arguments that Iran’s political crisis has moved beyond dissatisfaction with individual leaders or policies.

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IranWire reported on July 13 that it had obtained the document, which was compiled by Ali Rabiei, President Masoud Pezeshkian’s social adviser and a former government spokesman. It was based on polling conducted by the Ara Opinion Research Center in May 2026 and circulated among institutions within Iran’s governing structure in June, according to the outlet.

Miad Maleki, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital that the report should prompt a fresh assessment of the potential for political upheaval inside Iran.

"If anything, this research understates the depth of Iranians’ rage," Maleki said. "And that is what makes it remarkable: even a survey prepared for the regime’s own president, by its own pollsters, records anger levels above 63%, well beyond the highest rate Gallup has ever recorded anywhere in the world, alongside 81% struggling to put food on the table and a majority expressing hopelessness."

Maleki cautioned that polling conducted under an authoritarian government cannot be treated as precise because respondents may fear the consequences of expressing opposition.

"In a police state where expressing the wrong opinion can cost you your job, your freedom, or your life, respondents self-censor, which means these findings are best read as a floor, not a ceiling," he said.

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The complete survey methodology was not included in the material obtained by IranWire. The report reportedly did not disclose how respondents were selected, who was questioned or whether the sample reflected Iran’s geographic and demographic makeup.

Its findings therefore cannot be independently verified or treated as definitive measurements of Iranian opinion. The report also cannot establish that dissatisfaction will translate into an organized movement capable of removing the government.

Still, its findings portray multiple pressures converging at once.

Approximately 64% of respondents reported persistent anger, up roughly 12% points from a previous government survey conducted in December 2025. Half reported hopelessness, approximately 48% reported sadness or depression and about 45% reported persistent fear or anxiety, according to IranWire.

Economic distress also appears central to the public anger.

More than 81% experienced severe or partial difficulty obtaining enough food, while 75% struggled to cover medical costs, IranWire reported. Fifty-four percent said their income did not cover current household expenses, and only 8% reported earning enough to save.

Respondents blamed domestic governance more frequently than international pressure. 46.9% cited government inefficiency as the cause of Iran’s economic problems, 26.3% blamed corruption and 20.7% cited foreign sanctions.

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That finding could be especially significant to the regime-change debate because it suggests many Iranians do not primarily blame outside powers for their deteriorating living conditions.

The document also points to a crisis of institutional confidence. Roughly 60% reportedly distrusted major government institutions, while 61.2% negatively assessed officials’ ability to solve Iran’s problems. Distrust of the government, parliament, judiciary and state television remained above 50%, IranWire reported.

The report’s recommendations, however, reportedly centered on managing dissatisfaction rather than addressing demands for systemic change.

Rabiei urged state institutions to better explain the impact of sanctions, moderate the rhetoric used by officials and religious platforms, present a more inclusive image through state television and avoid policies that place the government in direct confrontation with society.

IranWire’s follow-up analysis argued that the recommendations treated Iran’s crisis primarily as a communications and public-perception problem. The report offered few concrete proposals involving institutional accountability, political liberalization or fundamental economic reform, according to the outlet.

Maleki said the findings were consistent with the expanding scale of unrest, citing demonstrations that spread from more than 80 cities in 2017 to more than 200 cities across all 31 provinces this year, alongside what he described as a quadrupling of strikes.

"Iranians have moved from being skeptical of what another revolution might bring to concluding there is no alternative to one, because reform has proven impossible," Maleki said.

Yet the report does not resolve one of the largest obstacles to regime change: The Islamic Republic has spent decades building institutions designed to monitor, deter and violently suppress organized opposition.

"This regime was born of revolution, by revolutionaries," Maleki said. "Preventing and crushing the next one is the one thing they genuinely know how to do."

He nevertheless argued that further unrest was inevitable.

"So the discontent will translate into renewed protest," Maleki said. "The question is not if, but when, and whether anyone is prepared to stand with the Iranian people when it does."

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Asian nation with 1,500-year-old imperial line insists only men can become emperor in policy revision

Japan’s Parliament voted Friday to enshrine male-only succession for the imperial throne, part of a monarchy that traces its origins back roughly 1,500 years.

Lawmakers did so by revising an Imperial House Law dating back to the 1800s, despite warnings from experts that limiting succession to men in the paternal line will hasten the decline of Japan’s shrinking and aging imperial family, according to the Associated Press.

To address the dwindling number of eligible heirs, the revisions allow distant male relatives to be adopted into the imperial family to father future successors. However, strict rules remain in place limiting the throne to men with royal blood. The changes also allow princesses to retain their royal status after marrying commoners.

The new rules passed by Parliament come as many Japanese had been calling for Princess Aiko, Emperor Naruhito’s 24-year-old daughter, to be allowed to succeed him — now an impossibility.

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"The emperor is a symbolic figure, and I don’t see why women cannot serve in the role," Junichiro Tsujimaru, a 78-year-old sushi chain founder, told the AP.

Under current law, the 66-year-old emperor's younger brother is next in line. After that, his 19-year-old nephew, Prince Hisahito, will inherit the throne, and then the emperor's 90-year-old uncle.

Hisahito is the only boy to be born in four decades, and only five of the 16 adults in the imperial family are men.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and other conservatives say the male bloodline is the source of the emperor's authority and legitimacy.

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"It’s a declaration to prevent female monarchs … and to defend the male-lineage at all costs," Hideya Kawanishi, a Nagoya University expert on monarchy, told the AP. "They cannot say it’s male chauvinism, so they call it tradition."

Chizuko Ueno, a prominent feminist and sociologist, recently suggested it was ironic that Japan's first female prime minister was the one to ensure male-only succession.

Ueno said the new rules "treat male royals as stallions and put female royals under pressure as ‘childbearing machines’ to produce male offspring."

Japan has had eight empresses descended from the male line in its centuries-long history as a hereditary monarchy. The last woman to reign was Empress Go-Sakuramachi, who sat on the throne from 1762 until 1771, when she abdicated in favor of her nephew.

Female eligibility for the throne was first eliminated in 1890 under the original Imperial House Law.

That change was carried over into the modern Imperial House Law, enacted in 1947, the same year Japan’s new constitution stripped the emperor of governing authority after the country’s defeat in World War II.

Like Britain’s royal family, Japan’s imperial family remains an important national symbol.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Resource-rich nation praises US ties amid Washington-Beijing critical minerals race

UNITED NATIONS — The Democratic Republic of Congo does not view growing American involvement in its critical minerals industry as a contest with China, the country’s foreign minister told Fox News Digital, arguing that Kinshasa needs multiple partners to transform its vast natural wealth into prosperity for its people.

"I don’t like talking about competition. I like talking about complementarity," Foreign Minister Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner said in an exclusive interview at the United Nations.

"A country as big as the USA, but also a country as big as the DRC and as big as China, they do not develop just with one single partner," she added. "They develop with different partnerships that respond to different needs and that bring different expertise to the table."

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The comments come as the Trump administration seeks to increase American access to Congo’s copper, cobalt, lithium, gold and other strategic resources, while reducing U.S. reliance on mineral supply chains dominated by China.

A strategic partnership signed by Washington and Kinshasa Dec. 4, 2025, calls for increased economic cooperation, investment and the development of secure and transparent critical-mineral supply chains. The agreement accompanied a broader regional framework linking economic integration to efforts to end decades of conflict between Congo and Rwanda.

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A separate arrangement involving DR Congo’s state mining company Gécamines and commodities trader Mercuria could give U.S. buyers priority access to some copper and cobalt supplies, Reuters reported Dec. 5, 2025. The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation also expressed interest in taking a strategic stake in the partnership.

Kayikwamba Wagner said relations between the U.S. and DR Congo were taking "a more concrete shape" based on mutual economic interests.

She said Kinshasa welcomed "more U.S. interests in the DRC" that could help the country turn its mineral wealth into "tangible transformations for the lives of Congolese," while also delivering benefits to American partners.

Speaking separately at a high-level U.N. meeting on critical minerals Tuesday, Kayikwamba Wagner warned that the global shift toward clean energy must not reproduce an economic model in which raw materials leave Africa while processing, technology and most of the profits remain elsewhere.

"The global energy transition must not become another extractive transition," she said. "If it merely replaces one form of dependency with another, it will have fallen short of its promise."

She called for foreign partnerships to support local processing, infrastructure, technology transfers, research, industrialization and access to financing — not simply secure supplies of raw materials.

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The minerals push is closely connected to the U.S.-mediated peace process between the DRC and Rwanda. The countries initially signed a peace agreement in Washington June 27, 2025, before presidents Félix Tshisekedi and Paul Kagame reaffirmed the deal and signed related economic agreements on Dec. 4. The framework was intended both to reduce fighting and attract Western investment to a region rich in cobalt, copper, tantalum and other minerals.

Kayikwamba Wagner acknowledged that the agreement had not ended the violence but said Washington’s willingness to impose consequences for violations showed that the process remained meaningful.

"This is a 30-year conflict we’re dealing with," she said. "It’s not going to happen overnight."

She praised the administration for sanctioning the Rwanda Defense Force and senior Rwandan officials over what the Treasury Department described as their support for the M23 rebel group. Treasury said in March that the RDF had supported, trained and fought alongside M23 as it seized territory and strategic mining locations in eastern Congo. Rwanda has repeatedly denied supporting M23.

"I find it encouraging to see that we have with us a partner that is not willing to give up at the first obstacle," Kayikwamba Wagner said.

She was in New York as the DRC, which holds the Security Council presidency for July, elevated the connection between natural resources, armed conflict and sexual violence.

Kayikwamba Wagner said rape and other forms of conflict-related sexual violence had risen sharply in areas held by M23 and Rwandan forces, affecting women and girls as well as men and boys.

Victims in occupied areas, she said, often lack access to courts, healthcare or other avenues for redress.

"This is also one of the reasons why we continue to be mobilized against this illegal occupation of eastern DRC," she said, arguing that restoring state authority was essential to providing survivors with justice and medical care.

In her U.N. remarks, she cited the Rubaya mining area, which is under M23 control and supplies a significant share of global tantalum demand. She said U.N. experts estimated that at least 1,400 tons of coltan were smuggled into Rwanda during the first year after the mines were seized, generating approximately $800,000 per month for the armed group.

The Treasury Department imposed additional sanctions on June 25 against a network it accused of working with M23 to smuggle minerals from eastern Congo into Rwanda, saying the action was intended to support the Washington peace framework and improve transparency in regional mineral supply chains.

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Iran calls on Houthis to prepare to cut off Red Sea gateway — can the terror group do it?

Iran has reportedly instructed Yemen’s Houthi terrorists to prepare to close a critical Red Sea gateway if the United States attacks Iranian power infrastructure Reuters reported, a threat experts warn could sharply disrupt global shipping even if the group cannot completely seal the waterway.

"This threat should be taken seriously," Nadwa Al-Dawsari of the Middle East Institute told Fox News Digital. "With recent escalation and U.S. strikes on Iran, Tehran has already signaled that the Bab al-Mandab could become part of its response."

Three sources told Reuters on Thursday that Iran’s leadership had discussed using the Houthis to shut the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and recently conveyed the request to the group. A source close to the Houthis said missiles and drones had been deployed near the waterway and that the group was awaiting an order to begin attacking shipping.

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Edmund Fitton-Brown, a former British ambassador to Yemen and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, warned in a recent Fox News Digital report that a full resumption of the Houthi maritime campaign could trigger wider fighting.

"It will be interesting if the Houthis do go all in, and resume their campaign against Red Sea shipping with full intensity," Fitton-Brown said. "This will draw international anger and likely result in Israeli and U.S. strikes on Sana’a and Hodeida."

"There is potential for a general escalation if this happens, albeit one in which the allies have a clear military advantage," he added. 

Al-Dawsari said the Houthis have continued developing the weapons needed to threaten the narrow shipping corridor despite largely refraining from maritime attacks over the past year.

"While the Houthis have largely refrained from attacking shipping for about a year, they have continued to advance their maritime capabilities, including missiles, drones and sea mines," she said. "They may not be able to fully close the strait, but they could significantly disrupt shipping and raise costs and risks for commercial traffic," she said.

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But the group would not necessarily need to physically control the waterway. Its previous missile and drone campaign demonstrated that repeated attacks — or even a credible threat of them — can push major shipping companies to reroute vessels around Africa, driving up insurance, fuel and freight costs.

The Bab el-Mandeb connects the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea and Suez Canal, making it one of the world’s most important maritime chokepoints. The consequences of renewed attacks would be especially severe because Iran has already disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, historically the principal route for roughly one-fifth of global energy supplies.

A substantial volume of Gulf oil has consequently been redirected through Saudi Arabia to the Red Sea port of Yanbu. Reuters reported that the Bab el-Mandeb route now carries approximately 7% of global energy supplies and that Saudi Arabia has shifted about 70% of its energy exports through Yanbu.

The reported instructions also raise new questions about how much control Tehran exercises over major Houthi military decisions. 

"Any decision to escalate in the Bab al-Mandab would be strategic and tied more to the interests of Iran and the Axis of Resistance than to Houthi interests alone," Al-Dawsari said. "Decisions of this magnitude are likely coordinated through the Axis’s joint operations room under IRGC oversight."

A source close to the Houthis claimed representatives of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Yemen would control the timing of any move against the strait, Reuters reported.

The latest warning follows earlier Houthi threats against maritime traffic. In the June 12 report, Fox News Digital reported that the group had announced a complete ban on Israeli-owned ships in the Red Sea and declared them "legitimate targets."

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A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital at the time that the actions of Iran and the Houthis were "unacceptable" and "dangerous," warning that they could inflame regional tensions and further disrupt global supply chains.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has "repeatedly condemned" Houthis attacks against ships in the Red Sea and called on all parties Thursday to avoid further escalation, his spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, told Fox News Digital.

"Any disruptions or attacks would endanger the safety and security of seafarers, freedom of navigation and the stability of global supply chains and have a negative impact on the economic and humanitarian situation in Yemen and beyond," Dujarric said. "The Secretary-General underscores that U.N. Security Council Resolution 2722 (2024) must be fully respected in its entirety," he said on the resolution condemning at least two dozen Houthis attacks on commercial vessels since November 2023 and demanding an immediate end to the attacks. 

The emerging threat has also renewed scrutiny of the Iranian weapons networks that helped build the Houthis’ missile and drone arsenal.

Amr Al-Bidh, foreign affairs chief of the Southern Arabian Transitional Council, said that the reported threat also exposed broader failures in the handling of Yemen’s security crisis. "The fact that individuals convicted of trafficking Iranian weapons to the Houthis and leading terrorist operations are now being released under a U.N.-brokered deal only underscores how poorly the Yemen crisis is being managed," he said, "the main beneficiary of this vacuum is Iran, as seen in its credible threat to close the Bab al-Mandab Strait."

In a July 15 letter obtained by Fox News Digital, the Southern Arabian Transitional Council formerly known as the Southern Transitional Council, a southern Yemeni separatist movement that seeks greater autonomy or independence for the territory of the former South Yemen, warned U.N. Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg that a U.N.-facilitated detainee agreement may include people the council says were convicted of assisting Iranian weapons transfers to the Houthis.

An annex identifies individuals the council alleges were members of a cell that smuggled drones, aviation fuel and heavy and medium weapons from Iran to Sanaa.

The Office of the U.N. Special Envoy for Yemen said it received the letter only after the agreement had already been signed and stressed that it does not determine which detainees are released.
"We have received the letter after the agreement was signed," spokesperson Ismini Palla told Fox News Digital. "The United Nations – as well as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) – do not decide who is released and who remains in detention. Our role is limited to mediating the negotiations and ICRC leads on the implementation of the release operation."
Palla added that "the names of those released are proposed and agreed between the parties under the framework of the Stockholm Agreement on prisoners’ exchange of 2018."

Fox News Digital reached out to the State Department and the Iranian Mission to the United Nations on the latest developments.

Fox News' Paul Tilsley and Reuters contributed to this report.

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African growth boom follows Trump push to replace aid with trade

FIRST ON FOX: Many African economies are accelerating – booming – since the Trump Administration shifted policy focus from aid to trade, a senior State Department official told Fox News Digital.

In some African countries, doom was forecast when the Trump administration severely cut back USAID funding, but instead there’s been unprecedented economic growth, credited to the Commercial Diplomacy Strategy, introduced at the beginning of President Trump’s second term.

Now, "nine of the 20 fastest-growing economies (in the world) are in Africa," Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of African Affairs Frank Garcia told Fox News Digital.

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Garcia added, "African economies are responding positively to the shift from aid to trade. In 2025, U.S. exports to sub-Saharan Africa increased by 23% to $22.6 billion. And continue to grow this year."

When the Administration cut USAID by 83% early last year, "The predictions were catastrophic: economies heavily dependent on foreign donors—from Ethiopia to South Sudan and Malawi — were expected to collapse. Instead, something quite different happened," Anna Mahjar-Barducci, Project Director at the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), told Fox News Digital.

"The African continent proved far more resilient than expected, citing Ethiopia, which revised its 2026 growth forecasts upward despite the funding cuts," Mahjar-Barducci continued. "According to projections by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to grow between 4.3% and 4.6% in 2026, outpacing Asia as a whole, whose growth is forecast at around 4.1%. Growth is propelled by massive hydroelectric investments, construction, mining and expanding coffee exports."

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"This is no minor detail," she continued. "For decades, we were told that without international aid Africa would collapse. Now that aid is genuinely drying up, much of the continent is not only avoiding collapse —i t is accelerating. This is precisely the argument that a long-standing school of African economic thought, now more relevant than ever, has advanced for years: aid is not the solution. In many cases, it is part of the problem."

Assistant Secretary Garcia explained how the strategy works:" We see this economic acceleration in Africa. In order to best capitalize on it, the United States is focused on driving private investment, sustainable growth in terms of partnership and treating African nations not as aid recipients, but as capable commercial partners."

He added "Our embassies (in Africa) work directly with the private sector to identify the policies, laws, and regulations constraining U.S. trade and investment. We then work with partner governments to develop practical reforms, identify the officials responsible for implementing them and determine where technical assistance may support implementation."

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It's a strategy that appears to be working, with Garcia adding, "The Bureau of African Affairs has worked on 37 commercial transactions that have closed since the beginning of the (current) Trump Administration, representing $25.67 billion in total value, with more still being reported. Embassies across the continent are actively working to close hundreds more. Top sectors include Energy 24%, ICT 19%, Critical Minerals and Mining 11%, Aerospace 8%, Agriculture 8%, Infrastructure 8%."

Mahjar-Barducci criticized the way USAID worked, telling Fox News Digital," When aid flows to governments rather than markets, it tends to finance projects designed in Brussels, Rome, or Washington which are not responding to the actual needs of local economies. Poverty cannot be overcome by treating people as permanent recipients of charity. Poverty can be reduced by recognizing people as entrepreneurs, workers and economic partners capable of building their own prosperity."

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Trade, rather than aid works, Mahjar-Barducci claimed. "The Trump administration's more transactional approach to aid — access to critical minerals, or to citizens' health data, in exchange for funding — should not be dismissed as merely cynical. Unconditional transfers have long been the deeper flaw in the traditional aid model: money with no strings attached removes any incentive for a recipient government to reform and often entrenches the same officials responsible for the underlying poverty."

Enter the America First Global Health Strategy. A senior State Department official told Fox News Digital this week that the administration "has signed 34 bilateral global health Memoranda of Understanding(MOU) representing more than $24 billion in new health funding, including more than $14.3 billion in U.S. assistance, alongside more than $9.6 billion in co-investment from recipient countries."

"24 of these MOUs were signed with sub-Saharan African countries," the official continued. "These new bilateral MOUs are designed to continue life-saving care, build resilient healthcare systems, reduce dependency on American taxpayers and strengthen country ownership."

The administration has also decided to cut funding for a U.S. anti-AIDS program known as PEPFAR. Africa has been hit hard by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. UNAIDS, the United Nations program that deals with the virus, reports that South Africa has the highest infection rate in the world. 

But the State Department official Fox News Digital spoke with says South Africa must take some of the blame for cutting help to its own people. "The United States has decided to initiate a phased drawdown of PEPFAR programming in South Africa, following South Africa’s failure to make demonstrable progress on policy requests by the administration. The United States communicated to [the] South African government multiple times at many levels that PEPFAR funding would be terminated if they failed to address President Trump’s concerns."

"PEPFAR was never intended to be permanent," the official added. "Its success is measured by countries' ability to sustain and build upon these gains. South Africa is a middle-income country and is more than capable of supporting its own health programs."

Fox News Digital reached out to the South African government, but received no response.

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A new chapter for America’s 250th: 'J250' initiative puts Jewish contributions in the spotlight

Ambassador Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, the U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, recently introduced "pro-Semitism," an educational vision centered on celebrating Jewish contributions to America alongside the continued fight against antisemitism.

Kaploun underlined his new push by saying, "the Jewish people are more than the hatred that defines us." His remarks came during America's 250th Birthday Shabbat Dinner, where government officials, Jewish leaders, educators and community members gathered to commemorate the nation's 250th anniversary.

The evening also served as the launch of the J250 Initiative, a landmark educational project dedicated to advancing public understanding of the profound, foundational role Jewish Americans have played in the American story.

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The launch comes as the FBI's most recent annual hate crime data shows anti-Jewish incidents reached their highest level since the bureau began tracking the statistics in 1991.

According to the FBI's 2024 Hate Crime Statistics, law enforcement agencies reported 1,938 anti-Jewish hate crime incidents. Although Jews comprise roughly 2% of the U.S. population, they were the targets of nearly 69% of all religion-based hate crimes reported nationwide. Organizers say that while antisemitism must continue to be confronted, educating Americans about Jewish contributions offers another powerful way to combat prejudice.

The J250 Initiative reflects what organizers describe as a shift away from a defensive, reactive approach to combating antisemitism and toward an inspiring, proactive celebration of Jewish contributions throughout American history. They say rather than allowing Jewish identity to be viewed primarily through the lens of persecution, the project highlights what organizers call the nation's "Jewish American Golden Age" by celebrating generations of Jewish patriots, entrepreneurs, scientists, physicians, public servants, soldiers, philanthropists and civic leaders whose contributions have helped shape and strengthen the fabric of the republic since its founding.

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The core mission of J250 is to uncover overlooked stories from the American Revolution through modern American history.

Among the first individuals to be featured are Haym Salomon, the Revolutionary War financier whose support helped sustain Gen. George Washington's army; Francis Salvador, widely recognized as the first Jewish American to die fighting for American independence; and Continental Army officer Solomon Bush. Organizers say these are only a few of the 250 stories that demonstrate the enduring impact Jewish Americans have had on the nation's history and development.

The initiative also highlights more recent Jewish Americans whose contributions helped shape the nation's culture, science, medicine and public life.

As a Jewish immigrant, Irving Berlin arrived in the United States as a child after fleeing persecution and went on to become one of America's most celebrated composers and songwriters. His classics, including "God Bless America," "White Christmas" and "There's No Business Like Show Business,: helped shape the soundtrack of the nation and remain woven into America's cultural identity.

The project also recognizes American Jewish physician Dr. Jonas Salk, whose development of the first successful polio vaccine stands among the greatest medical breakthroughs in history. His discovery saved millions of lives and transformed public health. By choosing not to patent the vaccine, he ensured it could be widely distributed, protecting generations of children from polio worldwide.

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Another featured Jewish American is baseball legend Sandy Koufax, who rose to become one of the greatest pitchers in history, leading the Los Angeles Dodgers to multiple World Series championships and earning three Cy Young Awards. At the height of his career in 1965, Koufax chose to sit out Game 1 of the World Series because it fell on Yom Kippur, a decision that became one of the defining moments in American sports. His decision inspired generations of athletes and became a lasting symbol of integrity, conviction and the freedom to live one's values.

"As I said in my Senate confirmation hearing, education is the best way to combat antisemitism," Kaploun told Fox News Digital, "Teaching the world about the greatest Jewish contributors to American history gives people the knowledge to counter those who spread hate and lies about the American Jewish community."

The initiative also includes a Jewish American Heritage curriculum, a national social media campaign and a student scholarship competition encouraging young Americans to explore Jewish history through the broader American story.

"Jewish Americans have helped build the America we love today, from the battlefields of the Revolution to the frontiers of modern science," said Arie Lipnick, co-founder of The J250 Foundation. "It is only by renewing these foundational lessons that we can ensure the promise of America burns brightly for the next 250 years."

Kaploun also reflected on his family's immigration to the United States. "My great-great-grandfather immigrated from Galicia in the 1880s. My great-grandfather immigrated to the United States in 1913," he said. "They could have never dreamed that their great or great-great grandson would one day be hosting America's Birthday Shabbat Dinner. But that is exactly the American dream."

He said America's founding ideals of religious liberty, freedom of speech and equal opportunity created an environment in which generations of immigrants, including Jewish Americans, could contribute to the nation's success while remaining faithful to their heritage.

Physician and philanthropist Dr. Miriam Adelson echoed the evening's themes of unity, gratitude and hope.

"I love America as I love Israel," Adelson told attendees. "We need to hope, we need to love each other. Maybe the next generation will be better and better."

Her remarks reinforced the initiative's message of fostering greater understanding, mutual respect and optimism for the future.

For organizers, J250 represents more than a historical project. It is an effort to ensure that Jewish history in America is not defined solely through the lens of antisemitism, but through the lens of patriotism, service, sacrifice, innovation, civic leadership and nation-building. The organizers say they hope to reclaim stories that have too often been overlooked and inspire a deeper appreciation for the role Jewish Americans have played in shaping the country over the past 250 years.

"If these last 250 years demanded we create the word 'antisemitism,'" Kaploun said, "let these next 250 years lead us to create a new word in its stead: ‘pro-semitism.’ Being proud to be Jewish, educating the world and respecting one another. That is what it means to be pro-semitic."

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Trump officials unveil private sector blueprint for life after USAID

EXCLUSIVE: The Trump administration is laying out its clearest blueprint yet for what comes after decades of traditional U.S. foreign aid, arguing that private investment, trade and American business — not taxpayer-funded assistance — should become America's primary engine for development abroad.

At a U.S. Mission to the United Nations "Trade Over Aid" forum in New York Monday, Ambassador Mike Waltz, the U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations, told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview that the administration is "completely reforming how we do aid" by moving away from taxpayer-funded programs and toward private-sector-led development.

"For too many years, the United States and other countries have poured billions and billions of dollars into these aid programs and got very little in return," Waltz said. "You go to these forums at the United Nations and at development agencies around the world, and you never find the private sector. You find NGOs and academics and governments, but you don’t find the creators of growth and the creators of jobs."

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Waltz said the new model is designed to "create jobs, to create business for American companies in line with America First," while also raising living standards abroad and reducing instability that can fuel terrorism and poverty.

The administration moved to dismantle USAID in 2025, arguing the agency was inefficient and too often disconnected from U.S. foreign policy. Asked directly whether "Trade Over Aid" is replacing USAID, Waltz said USAID’s functions had been folded into the State Department as part of a broader efficiency effort, but insisted the initiative is about something larger than one agency.

"What we’re doing, this isn’t about USAID or what replaces it," Waltz said. "That was an efficient effort to get our aid to serve our foreign policy, not the other way around. But what I think is more important is how do we help American businesses and how do (we) help create jobs around the world and reduce dependency."

The stakes are immediate: with USAID reorganized under the State Department and aid budgets under pressure, the Trump administration is trying to show that it has a replacement model for how the U.S. helps poorer and fragile countries. The answer it is pitching is not more traditional aid, but more private capital, more trade, more deals for American companies and fewer open-ended taxpayer commitments.

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The forum brought together representatives from dozens of countries, U.N. agencies, international financial institutions and major private-sector players, including Microsoft, Google, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Boeing, Walmart, Mastercard, Meta and others.

Czech Environment Minister Igor Cerveny, who attended the forum, said the idea resonated with his country’s own post-communist experience. 

After communism, he said, the Czech Republic had to rebuild through work, business, industry and innovation rather than dependency.

"If you work on your economy, on your industry, on your society, on nature as well, probably two, three, five years later, (you will) be in a better position," Cerveny told Fox News Digital. "You have your own money. You are not now the slave of (asking). You are now the master of your destiny."

Cerveny said trade gives countries an "opportunity to cooperate" rather than forcing them to return again and again with the same request: "Please give me some money."

Ambassador Dan Negrea, who is spearheading the initiative in the U.S. Mission, told Fox News Digital that shrinking aid budgets around the world make a new model necessary.

"We need to think differently about how we help developing countries in an environment in which, in the United States, we are indebted and we cannot continue to spend money on helping other countries the way we used to," Negrea said. "Development aid is going down not only in the U.S., but in countries around the world."

Negrea said the initiative has received less resistance from developing countries than from traditional donor nations. 

"Interestingly, there is less pushback from countries receiving aid than from some donor countries that like to continue in this attitude of charity, being magnanimous to other countries," he told Fox News Digital. "For years and years and for decades, many developing countries are saying that they want to end this status of recipient of charity and move to a much more dignified relationship of partners and development."

But some leaders from developing countries also warn that trade cannot replace aid overnight, especially in emergency settings. The Democratic Republic of Congo’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation, and Francophonie, Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner, told Fox News Digital that aid remains critical in crises such as the Ebola outbreak in eastern DRC.

"Aid sometimes can transform dramatically a situation," she said. "This is not something you can change overnight with trade. But yes, over a long term, trade is the pathway to create greater growth, greater economic prosperity, and therefore also more equal relationships between countries."

Kayikwamba Wagner added that the shift must be "adapted to circumstances" and not be "too abrupt."

The initiative already has drawn 46 countries, and launched a digital library with 63 capacity-building offers from private companies, governments, NGOs, philanthropies, academic institutions and international organizations.

But when pressed on what those offers have produced so far, Negrea acknowledged the initiative is still in its early stages. The library was inaugurated last week, he said, and the goal now is to turn offers into concrete outcomes.

"We want to see more deliverables," Negrea said. "We want to see actual transactions that were done. We want to see countries using the digital library to see usable capacity building offers coming from around the world. So we want to help without the cost to the U.S. taxpayers, but at the same time creating opportunities for American companies."

The central challenge facing the effort is whether private capital will go where aid has traditionally been most needed: fragile countries with weak institutions, unreliable infrastructure, corruption, conflict or markets too risky for major investors.

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Waltz argued that is exactly where institutions such as the U.N. Development Program, the World Bank and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation can play a role.

"When we talk to organizations like J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs and others, they’re saying, we want to invest hundreds of millions into these industries abroad, but they need better laws, they need better arbitration," Waltz said. "We need to know that we can get our money out for our investors here in the United States."

He said the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and U.S. contributions to the World Bank can provide "risk insurance and guarantees" for investments in riskier markets, including critical minerals projects needed by the U.S. technology sector.

"It is incredibly risky," Waltz said. "Sometimes these capital providers like on Wall Street and in New York are only going to go to the safest place. Sometimes it makes sense, for example, as we’re looking for critical minerals for our tech industry, to go into risky places, but they need a little help."

The strongest note of caution came not from critics outside the room, but from inside the forum itself.

Alexander De Croo, the former Belgian prime minister who now leads United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), said trade and aid should not be treated as enemies. 

"Trade is a destination, but development is how we get to that destination," De Croo said. "Markets do not build themselves. They have to be built."

De Croo said investment flows when rules are predictable, institutions are trusted and workers have the skills to seize opportunity. He described UNDP’s role as helping countries build those foundations. "There is no country over the past decades that has successfully developed without a strong private sector and without trade being a big part of that," he said.

Christopher Sharrock, Microsoft’s vice president for United Nations and international organizations, also warned that aid still has a role that markets cannot fully replace.

"Aid does do an essential job and it does a job that possibly nothing else can do," Sharrock said, pointing to vaccination campaigns, famine response and natural disasters as areas where assistance remains critical.

For the Trump administration, "Trade Over Aid" is being pitched as a more disciplined, America First answer to development: fewer handouts, more deals, less dependency, more jobs for American companies and foreign partners alike.

But the test will be whether it can deliver not only in countries already ready for investment, but in the hardest places — the places where aid has long filled the gap because markets would not.

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