Iran could unleash ‘kinetic’ response as US tightens economic containment, analyst warns

Iran could launch military strikes as early as this fall, targeting a list of high-value assets to shatter increasing U.S. economic sanctions, national security analysts warned Thursday.

The warning came as the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, or ADNOC, reported that two vessels were struck transiting the Strait of Hormuz, according to the United Arab Emirates' state-run WAM news agency.

ADNOC said there were no injuries, and the situation was under control, according to Reuters, as the UAE foreign ministry condemned the Iranian attacks.

IRAN-BACKED HOUTHI THREAT IN RED SEA COULD LEAD TO MAJOR US POLICY SHIFT, ANALYSTS SAY

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday that Washington was preparing to take unprecedented economic action against Iran.

"Watch this ⁠space for more announcements ​coming next week because we ​are going to apply measures like we have never been seen in ​the history of economic ​isolation on a country," Bessent said in ‌an ⁠interview on Newsmax.

Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital Tehran is likely to step up military pressure as Washington intensifies sanctions.

"Come early fall, what we can expect is for them to kinetically push back against Trump's economic policy," Taleblu said. "If the president is re-embracing economic pressure as a management approach, just like we saw in 2019, then the regime will use kinetic pressure to try to find a way to break out of that economic containment."

TRUMP BETS ECONOMIC PRESSURE CAN SQUEEZE IRAN AS REGIME’S OWN FAILURES DEEPEN THE PAIN

Ben Taleblu said shrinking oil revenues and the U.S. naval blockade could also drive Tehran to expand its target list across the region.

"This means they would embrace the kinetic tool, and that's how they would get out of the economic containment regime that the U.S. seems to be defaulting to want to put on them," Taleblu added. 

"I would say more attacks on ships, potentially more attacks on U.S. bases, potentially more attacks on Arab infrastructure in the Persian Gulf. And certainly the regime would create a tiered list of targets of what is of immediate value versus what has greater economic value versus what might lead to the U.S. directly or indirectly responding."

The warnings come amid a deadlock in talks between Washington and Tehran.

So far, there have been no discussions about extending the U.S.-Iran ceasefire agreement, a senior Iranian source told Reuters Aug. 12.

Tehran has insisted Washington return to the pact and set a definitive timeline to meet its obligations.

The interim memorandum of understanding, signed in June, called for the "immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts."

The agreement later unraveled, with Trump declaring July 7 the pact was "over."

Under the framework, both sides had an extendable 60-day window to negotiate a final agreement addressing key security concerns, including Iran’s nuclear program.

That deadline is Aug. 17, with control of the Strait of Hormuz remaining a major sticking point.

Hossein Taeb, the newly appointed head of Iran's Basij paramilitary force, said Thursday the Strait of Hormuz remains "under Iran's control and management."

His comments conflicted with Trump's assertion a day earlier that the U.S. held "total control" over the vital waterway.

"The regime is relying on tried and true tactics here, which is, you know, a knife in the back and a handshake in the front to many of America's traditional Gulf partners," Taleblu said. 

"It looks like Iranian escalation, Iranian diplomatic pressure, Iranian diplomatic finesse is trying to back the Trump administration into the MOU again.

"The regime definitely does not want to grant the Trump administration the optics of victory, and to that end, they're quite keen to hold on to the Strait of Hormuz."

Taleblu said Trump has described the sanctions-driven strategy as a "low-key" approach.

"These are high-impact tools," he concluded. "I think part of the escalation that we saw in the summer of 2019 — part of that past could be a prologue."

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Russia’s ‘Amazon’ in deep-strike Ukraine blitz, wiping billions from Putin-linked CEO

Ukraine’s expanding deep-strike campaign impacted Russia’s largest online retailer again Thursday, when a drone struck an oil and petrochemical complex in Bashkortostan, sparking a fire at a Wildberries facility, according to reports.

Wildberries, often described as "Russia’s Amazon," said the facility was evacuated and that no goods were being stored there at the time, Reuters reported.

The strike marked the latest in a series of Ukrainian attacks affecting the e-commerce firm's sites across Russia that began July 18, when drones hit centers in Kotovsk and Elektrostal, killing seven and wounding more than 60, according to reports.

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Four days later, drones struck facilities in Krasnodar and Nevinnomyssk, sparking fires and injuring 15 people.

"We can call it ‘kinetic sanctions enforcement,’ or Ukraine’s adaptation of economic coercion into physical strikes," Kateryna Bondar, senior fellow at the Wadhwani AI Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Fox News Digital.

"Kyiv’s goal is to steadily raise the cost and risk of sustaining Russia’s war economy," the former Ukrainian government advisor said, adding that the economic impact could be significant.

The total losses incurred by Wildberries and its sellers as a result of the attacks have been estimated at 600 billion to 800 billion rubles ($6 billion to $8.5 billion), Ukrainian media outlet Pravda reported.

"With only 5% to 7% of sellers insured, the damage is cascading onto tens of thousands of small businesses and forcing Russia’s logistics sector to reprice wartime risk," Bondar said.

"Roughly 27% of Wildberries warehouse capacity is reportedly out of operation," she added.

'PURE HELL' IN MOSCOW AS UKRAINIAN DRONES STRIKE MAJOR REFINERY SUPPLYING CAPITAL'S FUEL MARKET

Beyond the financial toll, Bondar said the strikes carry a significant psychological impact.

"I’ve listened to videos recorded by witnesses, and reactions range from fear, shock and anger to disappointment in the capabilities of Russian air defenses," she said. "So, that effect is clearly being achieved."

Wildberries founder and CEO Tatyana Kim has since accused Ukraine of deliberately targeting a civilian company. In a July 31 video address, she described the strikes as a "terrorist attack."

"For nearly two weeks now, our company's warehouses have been under terrorist attack. Why our warehouses, of all places? Attacks against us are attacks against hundreds of millions of people in 10 countries at once," Kim said.

Kim claimed Wildberries entrepreneurs in Russia and partner countries, including China and Kazakhstan, had "suffered losses amounting to billions," arguing that the company itself not be held responsible for covering all the losses.

MOSCOW, KYIV ASSASSINS HUNT WEAPONS BOSSES AS UKRAINE WAR SPILLS BEYOND THE BATTLEFIELD

"Merchants will start pricing Russian logistics risk into their business decisions," Bondar warned.

Kim said sellers from ten countries, including China, have suffered billions in losses, while Wildberries maintains it is not liable, which creates incentives to diversify away from the platform, shorten inventory cycles, demand prepayment and increase insurance costs.

Bondar said Kyiv views the retail giant’s sprawling supply chain through a military and economic lens.

"Kyiv assesses Wildberries warehouses as distribution nodes for dual-use goods, including body armor, helmets, fiber optic cable for FPV drones, and navigation components, as well as channels for sanctions circumvention," Bondar said.

"The strikes also retaliate for Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s civilian logistics infrastructure, including the Nova Poshta and Ukrposhta networks."

RUSSIA UNLEASHES NEARLY 600 MISSILES AND DRONES ON KYIV IN DEADLIEST STRIKE SINCE MAY

Kim is Russia’s richest woman, with Forbes estimating her fortune at roughly $7 billion in July.

"Kim matters to the Kremlin less as an individual than as an asset already absorbed into its clan system," Bondar said. "The current strikes expose the limits of her political protection. The Kremlin has remained largely silent, while Kim is negotiating tax deferrals rather than receiving compensation or air-defense protection from them.

"It sends the message to Russia’s business elite that proximity to power does not guarantee protection, and private businesses are expected to absorb the costs of war."

The attacks have also drawn scrutiny regarding Wildberries’ warehouse security procedures and a controversial new policy restricting workers’ cellphone use.

REPORT WARNS RUSSIA USING SHADOW FLEET TO PROBE NATO DRONE DEFENSES

"The smartphone ban is officially justified as an air-defense security measure, but the real concern appears to be information control," Bondar said.

"Employees were filming strikes and sharing footage in real time, making the damage and the war’s impact on ordinary Russians impossible to hide," she added. "The policy also exposes a serious vulnerability. Workers reportedly had their phones locked away during attacks, limiting their ability to call for help.

"Wildberries cannot harden its sprawling warehouses or provide air defense, so it is controlling the one thing it can — what gets recorded and seen."

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Poland arrests Russian allegedly hired to kill Ukrainian-American who was 'inconvenient to the Putin regime'

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk revealed Thursday that his country arrested a Russian man hired by Moscow to kill a Ukrainian-American citizen who was "inconvenient to the Putin regime."

Tusk said the suspect was taken into custody Friday, with the alleged target being a man in Poland’s capital of Warsaw, according to a report from Reuters.

"Thanks to the truly brilliant action of our services ... we detained a Russian citizen recruited by Russian intelligence services," Tusk was quoted saying, adding that the target held both Ukrainian ‌and ⁠U.S. passports. "At the last minute, thanks to the action of the Internal Security Agency and the police, we managed to ⁠prevent this execution, this attack."

Fox News Digital has reached out to the State Department for comment.

MOSCOW, KYIV ASSASSINS HUNT WEAPONS BOSSES AS UKRAINE WAR SPILLS BEYOND THE BATTLEFIELD

Tusk also said Thursday that it was the first time that "someone on the order of Russia" sought to attack an American citizen on the territory of another NATO country, The Associated Press reported.

The operation was carried out in cooperation with U.S. services, Tomasz Siemoniak, Poland’s minister overseeing intelligence services, told the AP.

The news agency reported that it has mapped about 200 acts of sabotage, arson and other disruption across Europe since the start of the Ukraine war that officials have linked to Russia. President Vladimir Putin claimed to the AP in May that Russia is not waging a sabotage campaign against Europe.

RUSSIA LINKED TO ARSON ATTACKS ON PROPERTIES CONNECTED TO UK PM KEIR STARMER, POLICE SAY

In June, a Russian artist who was critical of Putin was shot and killed at close range near his home in eastern Poland. Tusk said at the time that the killing had the hallmarks of a political assassination. He suggested it was possible Russia was behind it, but Polish officials have not yet attributed it to Moscow.

Last year, French officials disrupted a plot which they believe was aimed at killing Vladimir Osechkin, a Russian exile who lives under police protection and works to help military defectors flee Putin’s war.

Lithuanian officials also disrupted a plot last year to kill a Lithuanian supporter of Ukraine and another against a Russian activist.

Officials in Germany have similarly broken up two plots: one to target the head of a German weapons company supplying Ukraine, the other against a Ukrainian military official.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Cruz sounds alarm over $400M Hamas-era provision in Board of Peace plan — issues blunt warning

U.S. officials have for years warned that Hamas has exploited ostensibly civilian and humanitarian funding streams to support its terrorist infrastructure, fueling concerns over whether money entering Gaza can be kept out of the terror group's hands as a new U.S.-backed governing structure prepares to take control.

The Treasury Department has repeatedly targeted what it describes as Hamas financing networks, including a secret investment portfolio, sham charities and organizations that raised money under the guise of humanitarian work while supporting Hamas' military wing.

Those concerns resurfaced this week after Israel's Kan News reported that a provision in the Board of Peace's Gaza roadmap could allow up to $400 million to address unpaid obligations accumulated during Hamas' rule, including money owed to public-sector workers, suppliers and contractors.

The dispute is over whether a successor government can settle legitimate obligations inherited from nearly two decades of Hamas rule without indirectly benefiting the terrorist group. Critics warn that doing so could relieve financial burdens associated with Hamas' rule or create opportunities for the group to siphon off resources while it retains influence on the ground. Board officials argue the mechanism is instead designed to allow a successor government to preserve essential services and relationships with legitimate workers and suppliers — with each claim individually vetted and any payment that could benefit Hamas rejected.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION PROBES UNRWA OVER ALLEGED EMPLOYMENT OF 1,500 TERRORISTS

Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace's high representative for Gaza, sharply rejected the characterization that the provision amounted to a financial agreement with Hamas.

"The claims that there is a financial agreement between the Board of Peace and Hamas are false," Mladenov wrote in Hebrew on X Wednesday, adding that no such proposal had been "discussed, negotiated, or considered." He said the Board's objective remained the complete disarmament of Hamas and the establishment of civilian governance backed by an international security presence.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital that he remained alarmed by the provision.

"I'm deeply concerned about these reports. Terrorists use money as fungible and they build credibility by having international donors finance their debts, which is why Congress long ago banned money from going to Palestinian governments in the West Bank," Cruz said.

"We also know that international donors paid for Hamas to build terrorist infrastructure across the Gaza Strip in the first place, and shouldn't be trusted to direct reimbursement money," Cruz continued. "Hamas should be utterly eradicated before new resources flow into Gaza."

HAMAS AGREES TO COMPLETE DISARMAMENT UNDER 'HISTORIC' GAZA AGREEMENT: TRUMP

A senior Board of Peace official, speaking to Fox News Digital on background Thursday, pushed back on the premise that the roadmap commits $400 million to paying Hamas' debts.

"There's really just a commitment to analyze when we get the data. There's no commitment to fund anything. We don't have an obligation to even do $400 million," the official said.

The official described the provision as a three-year review process, capped at $400 million, under which the successor Gaza administration could determine whether particular unpaid obligations need to be resolved in order to maintain essential services and relationships with legitimate suppliers.

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"This notion that there's, like, a $400 million payoff vehicle, Hamas kind of has a commitment for it — none of that is true," the official said. "If anybody's gonna start running with a narrative that a $400 million committed tab is beginning now ... that would just be incorrect reporting. That's not the deal."

"No one's picking up a tab right now," the official added, saying any review would take place only after the new Gaza administration gains access to financial records allowing it to determine who the creditors are, what services they provided and whether those relationships are needed going forward.

"Even the first dollar of the $400 million, we're going to evaluate that first dollar," the official said. "It's not going to be a blank check handed to Hamas. It's going to be evaluated, rigorously analyzed."

The official compared the process to a corporate restructuring, arguing that while Hamas is being permanently removed from government, the successor administration cannot necessarily walk away from every legitimate obligation accumulated during the previous government's rule.

HAMAS SAYS IT WILL DISSOLVE GAZA GOVERNMENT, BUT ISRAEL WARNS GROUP STILL SEEKS HEZBOLLAH-STYLE CONTROL

He offered the example of a European pharmaceutical company that supplied medicine to Gaza hospitals but was never paid. If the new administration needs that company to continue supplying medicine, he said, resolving some of its unpaid invoices could be necessary to maintain the relationship.

"The theme here, really, is continuity of services," the official said.

The official did not say that Hamas would have to be fully disarmed across the entire Gaza Strip before the first claim could potentially be paid.

"The reality is that this is going to be community by community," the official said, explaining that the successor administration is expected to move into individual areas as Hamas disarms there.

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Asked whether Hamas would have to be completely removed from Gaza before the new administration could resolve an outstanding liability — for example, involving a hospital in Rafah — the official said a payment could occur even if Hamas had not yet been fully removed elsewhere in the Strip.

"The idea is that where those decisions are made, Hamas is not gonna be there," he said.

When Fox News Digital asked specifically whether it was accurate to say money would not be transferred into areas where Hamas remained in control, the official said: "It's accurate to say."

The official acknowledged that more complicated cases could arise if the same supplier operates in both Hamas-free and Hamas-controlled portions of Gaza. Officials might then have to determine whether to reimburse only the portion associated with the area controlled by the successor government or negotiate some other arrangement necessary to maintain the service.

US URGES DONORS TO ABANDON UNRWA FUNDING AS UN DEFENDS AGENCY'S MISSION

Cruz's central criticism is that money is fungible: if international donors satisfy obligations accumulated under Hamas rule, resources that might otherwise have been needed to cover those liabilities could theoretically be used elsewhere.

The Board official rejected that argument, saying Hamas is insolvent and was never going to pay many of the outstanding creditors in the first place.

"It's not as though we're alleviating them from, like, their budget that they actually were gonna actually go pay that $100 and now they get to save it," the official said.

"They were never paying it in the first place," he continued. "We're making a decision separate and apart from Hamas, whether this fits into our budget and our relationships."

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The official described Hamas as "dead insolvent right now" and "financially, completely, completely in shambles."

Fox News Digital also pressed the official on a separate concern: even if money is never transferred directly to Hamas, could the group extract taxes, payments or other benefits from suppliers or employees receiving funds while it remains armed elsewhere?

"If there's a risk that some of the money is going to still end up in the hands of Hamas, then we're gonna shut it down," the official said.

He said officials would examine each recipient, the services provided and where the money ultimately would go.

"If Hamas is not fully disarmed ... can it end up in their hands? If the answer to that question is yes, then they're not gonna get money," he said. "Like, that is crystal clear."

The official also disclosed that the Board intends to try to recover assets it believes Hamas stole and use those assets, where possible, to satisfy legitimate obligations.

"We are going to make a real effort to go and try to recover those assets and use some of those assets, where we have found theft ... to satisfy some of these obligations," he said.

If recovered assets are insufficient, the official said outside funding would come from countries in the region rather than Washington.

"This is coming from regional partners. This is not coming from the United States," he said.

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UNICEF Gaza findings ‘completely shatters’ starvation claims against Israel, State Dept says

The Trump State Department has reacted to a new report by UNICEF on malnutrition in Gaza by saying it "completely shatters" the allegations that Israel deliberately starved civilians in the Hamas-run enclave.

The outcry of criticism comes as a report used by the United Nations and quoted by much of the world's media projected starvation in Gaza well into June.

Following Hamas’ invasion of southern Israel on Oct 7, 2023, that led to the deaths of some 1,200 people and the kidnapping of 251 Israeli and foreign nationals, the Jewish state invaded Gaza, which led to accusations of genocide and deliberate starvation tactics used against Gazans.

The UNICEF-led National Nutrition Cluster report from last month was able to reach 1,335 children under age 5 throughout 83% of the Gaza Strip to assess its risk of malnutrition. Malnutrition rates were determined by weight-for-height Z-score (WHZ) and mid-upper-arm circumference (MUAC). Using WHZ figures, rates ranged from 0.2% in Khan Younis and Rafah to 0.8% in Gaza City. MUAC measurements found malnutrition rates ranging from 1.5% in Gaza City to 1.9% in Deir Al-Balah.

About 17% of the population could not be surveyed due to security and operational constraints.

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A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital that "UNICEF’s latest findings demonstrate another example that completely shatters the countless false allegations against Israel of deliberate starvation of civilians in Gaza. There are U.N. entities, media outlets and NGOs that should retract and correct their politicized and baseless attacks on Israel – which has provided an unprecedented over 2 million tons of food into Gaza since the ceasefire."

The rates of malnutrition UNICEF documented are on par with, or substantially lower than, those in some neighboring countries. According to a post on X from the Israeli Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), acute malnutrition figures in the region range from 1.3% in Gaza, Lebanon, and Turkey to 2.3% in Jordan, 3.3% in Egypt, 12.2% in Syria, and 17.7% in Sudan.

UNICEF’s report has raised ire from onlookers who took issue with the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) statement that famine was "confirmed" in Gaza in August 2025.

The catalyst for the uproar was the IPC's warning from August 2025 that famine had reached Gaza Governorate. At that time, the IPC estimated that 'through June 2026, at least 132,000 children under 5 are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition,' including 41,000 severe cases where children would be 'at heightened risk of death.'"

The IPC is expected to release a full report on conditions in Gaza "in the coming days." Prior to releasing the report, they have assessed that the Gaza Strip would be in Phase 2, the "alert" phase for malnutrition, between July and December 2026. They state that "74,200 children aged 6–59 months will likely require treatment for acute malnutrition through April 2027, with more than 11,400 severe cases expected." 

UNICEF’s July report found that "very few confirmed nutrition-related deaths have been reported during treatment" in Gaza. The IPC did not respond to questions about UNICEF’s findings, or whether they stood by their prior claims that famine had been reached in Gaza.

HAMAS AGREES TO COMPLETE DISARMAMENT UNDER 'HISTORIC' GAZA AGREEMENT: TRUMP

The State Department spokesperson added that "the United States, in coordination with Israel, have facilitated humanitarian assistance while taking important steps to prevent Hamas from diverting or looting the aid, providing more support to Gazans. The President has a bold and ambitious plan to rebuild Gaza, which is well underway through the efforts of the Board of Peace to facilitate disarming Hamas and ensure it is no longer a threat to Israel."

Andrew Fox, a senior fellow at the Henry Jackson Society who has closely studied the Gaza conflict, told Fox News Digital that "the new data shows that the allegations of famine in Gaza were pure hysteria." He said that while "certain small pockets of hunger occurred in Gaza, we now know this can only have been an issue of distribution. Once again, international organizations removed Hamas and their share of the blame for Gaza’s suffering from the conversation, stoking the anti-Israel narrative."

Prof. Aron Troen, director of the Nutrition and Brain Health Laboratory and teaches in the School of Nutrition Science and the School of Public Health at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, told Fox News Digital that the UNICEF findings are "very, very good news." He said it was "remarkable that in an area which was very recently claimed to be experiencing not only famine, but a deliberate and imposed political famine, that the situation has gone to the point that the current measures, and at least some of them, right now are better than…other places in the Arab world."

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"It’s important to state that if one wishes to take seriously the efforts to identify humanitarian need and provide an adequate response, then you have to be just as open to the good news as to the bad news," Troen said. He further decried "narratives" surrounding the report "that serve political agendas." He said that if there were the possibility of "a gradual transfer of pragmatic agency to a Palestinian governance in the interests of two states, respect for borders, coexistence," that it "requires people to stop throwing around genocide, famine, and impugning one side or the other in order to gain political leverage."

Kurtis Cooper, Chief of Global Media at UNICEF, told Fox News Digital that "the recent nutrition survey measures conditions in mid-2026, more than nine months after the IPC confirmed famine in August 2025 and after a ceasefire and substantial scale-up in humanitarian assistance. It does not tell us what conditions were in August 2025, and it was never designed to."

Cooper said that "in terms of why the situation has improved, during the period covered by the August 2025 IPC analysis, programmes to detect and treat malnutrition were largely operating, but blanket supplementary feeding had largely ceased across Gaza because of severe access constraints and supply disruptions. Programme data show a similar trend: admissions for treatment of acute malnutrition peaked at nearly 17,000 children in August 2025 before falling to around 3,100 by May 2026."

Cooper did not answer questions about how WHZ rates measured in Gaza compare to those in other countries experiencing widespread human suffering.

In May, UNICEF reported that in Sudan, "almost 100,000 children were admitted for treatment for severe acute malnutrition" between January and March. UNICEF estimated that 825,000 children under five would experience severe acute malnutrition in Sudan in 2026.

Andrew Fox called on "leading organizations" to "offer a public and full retraction of their error-strewn papers." He explained that "their mistakes have paved the way for an explosion in global antisemitism, and these organizations must own their roles in that and make amends as loudly as possible."

According to the J7 Large Communities’ Task Force Against Antisemitism, 2025 was the deadliest year for antisemitic attacks around the world since 1994.

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UK ‘in free fall’ on free speech, expert warns as British MP brands Trump admin grant 'MAGA money meddling'

The U.S. Embassy in London is offering up to $500,000 in grants to bolster shared values between the United States and the United Kingdom, including freedom of speech, due process and limited government, but at least one British critic is rejecting the offered funding as "MAGA money meddling."

Liberal Democrat MP Lisa Smart framed the grant as "Trump’s MAGA money meddling in democracy," in a quote to The Guardian.

"We have a proud tradition of liberty and freedom of speech in this country," Smart added.

That tradition, according to free speech defenders, is under threat across the pond.

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"It is a true free speech disaster in the U.K., and they don't even seem to know what's happening," Greg Lukianoff, president of the nonpartisan Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), told Fox News Digital.

Lukianoff posited that the U.K.'s current attitude to free speech means it needs all the help that it can get.

"Whether the help is coming from JD Vance or Trump or maybe some future Democrat who sees the light on this stuff, the U.K. should be accepting help on freedom of speech because they are in crisis, and it's unsustainable," Lukianoff told Fox News Digital.

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The U.S. Embassy in London, in response to Smart's criticisms, noted that Liberal Democrats did not push back on Biden-era grants that could be viewed as political.

In response to the accusation that the U.S. is "meddling in British democracy," the U.S. embassy said in a statement to Fox News Digital, it "is mindful of such concerns, and has discontinued Biden-era public diplomacy spending on divisive ideological projects such as 'climate justice,' LGBTQ activism, and race-based hiring initiatives — none of which, to our recollection, raised such complaints from officials."

President Donald Trump's State Department as a whole is axing Biden-era guidelines that directed personnel to push a woke diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) agenda on foreign officials and governments, Fox News Digital has learned.

Meanwhile, the FIRE boss rejected the notion that foundational values like free speech are MAGA constructions.

"When it comes to the idea of these being fundamentally tainted ideas, that is very much a higher education, elite-educated concept," he told Fox News Digital.

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The U.K. has imposed a number of new laws restricting speech in the country in recent years, perhaps most notably the 2023 Online Safety Act, which gives the country's regulators the power to slap hefty fines on digital platforms if they don't enforce the U.K.'s increasingly stricter speech codes.

Lukianoff compared the U.K.'s new direction to the first Red Scare, the period in U.S. history in the early 1920s that saw thousands arrested on charges related to suspected communist ties.

"I always have to put this in context. In the first Red Scare in the United States — 1919 and 1920 — we arrested about 2,000 people per year, and that's bad. They're arresting around 12,000 a year in a country that's about 50% smaller than the U.S. was at the time. They are in free fall and also in complete denial of it," Lukianoff said.

Ahead of a House of Lords debate last year on arrests for online communications and free speech, the House of Lords Library cited a Times of London analysis that found more than 12,000 arrests in 2023 under two communications laws.

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Both the U.S. and U.K. allow authorities to prosecute threats of violence, but the U.K. has no direct equivalent to the First Amendment and also criminalizes certain communications deemed "grossly offensive."

The outsized number of arrests in the U.K., Lukianoff argued, don't "even include the large number of non-crime hate incidents or the stuff that they're currently trying to suppress, also in the United States, by the way, through their online laws."

"So it is a true free speech disaster in the U.K., and they don't even seem to know what's happening," he added.

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A non-crime hate incident, according to the U.K. government, is defined as "an incident or alleged incident which involves or is alleged to involve an act by a person ('the subject') which is perceived by a person other than the subject to be motivated — wholly or partly — by hostility or prejudice towards persons with a particular characteristic."

The government, according to FIRE, creates a registry of people who participate in these NCHIs, which the organization calls "censorship with extra steps."

"Non-criminal hate speech incidents can be anything from just someone saying something like, we want to reduce immigration because it raises crime rates. That's an empirical question. If you're a free person or free society, you should be able to actually have that debate. You should be able to show numbers. You better persuade, et cetera. You can't just deem it illegal to have that argument," Lukianoff told Fox News Digital.

"I think that there's so much the U.K. could have to offer if it would get off its own feet. Essentially, I think that it's in a process of kind of rejecting everything that made it great at one point. And if we can help out a friend — even when they don't know they're in need — when they're in need, I think we absolutely should. But I really don't know how Britain can get a better view of itself at the moment, because currently the message isn't getting through that what's going on there right now isn't sustainable," Lukianoff said.

Fox News Digital contacted Smart for further comment.

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Iran-backed Houthi threat in Red Sea could lead to major US policy shift, analysts say

JOHANNESBURG: As the Iran-backed Houthis step up their threat to Red Sea shipping, analysts say the U.S. could consider a major change in strategy.

Houthi attacks on ships passing through a vital chokepoint may lead Washington to cement relations with more reliable partners along Africa’s coastline.

Somaliland is a pro-U.S. outpost, having broken away from war-torn Somalia in 1991, and is offering the U.S. the use of one of the longest runways in Africa, an air base and a deep sea port on the Red Sea.

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The Houthis have vowed to close the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, a narrow waterway through which Saudi Arabia exports up to 7 million barrels of oil a day, now that access to the Strait of Hormuz is severely restricted. In the past month in the Red Sea, the Houthis have reportedly attacked Saudi-flagged ships, are said to have sunk an Indian commercial cargo vessel and, on Aug. 13, an Egyptian cargo ship was hit, with at least four of its crew killed.

The U.S. already has a large military base on the Red Sea in Djibouti, but this is claimed to be increasingly problematic. "China is significantly expanding its military and commercial presence in Djibouti," Edmund Fitton-Brown previously told Fox News Digital.

Fitton-Brown, the former British ambassador to the Houthis’ home country, Yemen, and a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, (FDD), added, "There is a sense that Djibouti is not a reliable ally for the U.S. So Somaliland’s time has probably come."

Major General Ken Ekman, who retired last year from being the Department of War’s West Africa Coordination Element Lead, said, in essence, the Houthis could force the U.S. into recognizing Somaliland as an independent state. "The Houthis could compel a different U.S. strategy in Africa."

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Ekman said the Houthis are building up a second front in this Middle East conflict. "It distracts the U.S. and stretches our assets," he added.

"The Houthis have a strategy of their own. They are testing U.S. military ability, and are likely to pull the trigger in a major way when Iranian influence in the Strait of Hormuz wanes in leverage."

He said that recently the U.S. Africa Command, AFRICOM, has concentrated on looking at land-based threats. "To date, our Africa strategy is driven by counterterrorism missions against Islamist al Qaeda and ISIS-linked groups based in Africa."

He continued, "These groups pose a limited and not immediate threat to the U.S. homeland. Overall, Red Sea basing to date has focused more on crisis response in East Africa, countering and competing against Russia and China."

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Ekman added, "orienting a Horn of Africa strategy against the Houthis would place a premium on freedom of navigation. Somaliland is proximate and overcomes some of the limitations imposed by other regional hosts like Djibouti and Middle East partners."

Limitations and an apparent sense of frustration with Somalia, Somaliland’s neighbor and rival, have been expressed in a warning from U.S. Air Force Gen. Dagvin Anderson, commander of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM).

In a recent interview with a Somali journalist, he was asked whether the U.S. was pulling out of the nation and turning its back on it.

Anderson said the U.S. has not turned its back on Somalia, having been committed to the country for several years, he noted the success of its counterterrorism group known as DANAB, which he said is "one of the most capable forces on the continent." He noted that "it was up to Somalia to sustain that force… to build it and continue to make it effective going into the future and use it as it was designed to counterterrorism."

Referring to the Somali government’s apparent lack of ability to deal decisively with Islamist al-Shabab terrorists, Anderson seemingly hinted at pulling some or even all military support. "If Somalia steps up and the government steps up and takes the lead on this, we will continue to be there because there is mutual interest."

He continued, "But if we can’t see that in, the political instability and political infighting continues, then it’s going to be very hard for us to continue to stay engaged."

Bill Roggio, editor of the Long War Journal, said Washington is fed up with Mogadishu, but currently not enough for the U.S. to change allegiance to Somaliland.

He told Fox News Digital, "The U.S. has expressed displeasure with the Somali government's rampant corruption and internal infighting with local and regional governments, and with various clans. However, full recognition of Somaliland independence would create a major rift between the U.S. and Somalia."

Roggio didn’t rule out the U.S. operating a second Red Sea base in Somaliland, saying "U.S. forces situated at Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti are far better situated geographically to deter the Houthis from shutting down the Bab el Mandeb Strait than a potential base in Somaliland. That being said, redundancy (back up plan) is a good thing in military operations."

"The United States needs reliable partners on Africa's coastline," Bashir Goth, Somaliland Representative to the United States, told Fox News Digital.

Goth said, "Somaliland is that partner and our defense officials have been in active dialogue with AFRICOM on Red Sea security. Somaliland has the geography, the stability and the will to work closely with Washington — and will continue to do so."

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Officially, the U.S. still stands with Somalia, in preference to Somaliland.

A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital, "The United States works with Somali and international partners to address terrorist threats in Somalia when necessary and appropriate to protect U.S. national security interests."

In the Red Sea, Saudi Arabia and 13 other nations established a new maritime defense coalition to combat the Houthi threat. Publicly, at least, the U.S. is not part of this coalition.

Responding to questioning on this issue, a State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital, "The United States stands firmly with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia against Houthi terrorism. We are in close consultation with our Saudi allies and remain committed to their security."

The U.S. does appear though to be stepping up interaction with Somaliland. AFRICOM Commander Anderson again visited Somaliland this past week, with an official statement saying he "traveled to the port city of Berbera to assess the security environment and review the port’s operational capacity."

In the same week, the U.S. reportedly hosted a delegation of Somalilanders led by the state’s defense minister at AFRICOM HQ in Stuttgart, Germany, where Red Sea security was reportedly again discussed.

AFRICOM and the Department of War did not respond to Fox News Digital requests for information about the visits.

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