Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh announced Monday that he submitted his government’s resignation to President Mahmoud Abbas.

‘I submitted the government’s resignation to President Mahmoud Abbas on February 20, 2024, and today I submit it in writing,’ Shtayyeh said at a news conference via the Palestinian News & Info Agency.

Abbas must still decide whether to accept Shtayyeh and his government’s resignation, but the move signals a willingness by the Western-backed Palestinian leadership to accept a shake-up that could lead to reforms viewed as necessary to revitalize the Palestinian Authority.

The U.S. seeks a reformed Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza once the war between Israeli forces and Hamas terrorists is over.

The prime minister said this decision ‘comes in light of the political, security, and economic developments related to the aggression against Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, and the unprecedented escalation in the West Bank, including the city of Jerusalem.’

‘It comes in light of what Palestinian people, our Palestinian cause, and our political system are facing from a ferocious and unprecedented attack, genocide, attempts at forced displacement, starvation in Gaza, intensification of colonialism, colonizers’ terrorism, and repeated invasions of camps, villages, and cities in Jerusalem and the West Bank. Its re-occupation, unprecedented financial strangulation, attempts to liquidate the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Refugees, repudiation of all signed agreements, gradual annexation of Palestinian lands, and striving to make the Palestinian National Authority a security administrative authority with no political content,’ Shtayyeh said.

‘We will remain in confrontation with the occupation, and the Palestinian Authority will continue to struggle to establish the state on the lands of Palestine,’ he added.

Shtayyeh said his government has worked in complicated circumstances, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war and its economic repercussions on Palestinian people, and the conflict with Israel, which he describes as a genocide against Palestinian people in Gaza.

‘In the midst of all this, the government was able to achieve a balance between meeting the needs of our people, and the requirements of providing services worthy of them, such as infrastructure, legislation, reform programs, civil peace, municipal elections, chambers of commerce, and so on – and preserving our political and national rights, and protecting them, confronting settlement, supporting the confrontation areas and Area C, and internationalizing the conflict with the occupation,’ he said.

The prime minister added that five years have passed since the formation of his government and that it is a ‘political and professional government that includes a number of political partners and independents, including five ministers from Gaza.’

Shtayyeh concluded by explaining his reasoning for offering his resignation.

‘Accordingly, I see that the next stage and its challenges require new governmental and political arrangements that take into account the emerging reality in the Gaza Strip, the national unity talks, and the urgent need for an inter-Palestinian consensus based on a national basis, broad participation, unity of ranks, and the extension of the Palestinian Authority’s sovereignty over the entire land of Palestine,’ he said.

AFP Action, the conservative wing of the powerful and influential conservative Americans for Prosperity, funded by the billionaire Koch Brothers, has pulled funding for the presidential campaign of Nikki Haley. 

In an email to staffers obtained by Fox News, AFP Action senior adviser Emily Seidel said the group did not believe that ‘any outside group can make a material difference to widen [Haley’s] path to victory.’ 

‘And so while we will continue to endorse her, we will focus our resources where we can make the difference. And that’s the U.S. Senate and House,’ Seidel wrote. 

The news was first reported by Politico earlier Sunday. 

AFP Action endorsed Haley in November, giving her a major grassroots and organizational boost.

The deep-pocketed fiscally conservative network launched an ad blitz on behalf of Haley in January, including mailers, digital ads, and connected TV spots. 

AFP Action, which pledged to spend tens of millions of dollars to help push the Republican Party past former President Trump as it endorsed Haley in late November, said last month it was putting an initial $27 million behind this new wave in their ongoing campaign.

The news came after Haley’s GOP rival, former President Trump, won the GOP primary in Haley’s home state of South Carolina on Saturday.

Despite the loss, and defying calls to exit the race, Haley has said it’s not the ‘end of our story’ as she traveled Sunday to Michigan ahead of the state’s primary on Tuesday. 

In the less than 24 hours following her Saturday night loss, Haley’s campaign said that she had raised $1 million ‘from grassroots supporters alone,’ Fox News previously reported. 

Haley’s campaign argued that the money raised ‘demonstrates Haley’s staying power and her appeal to broad swaths of the American public.’

Asked Sunday about losing funding from AFP Action, Haley said she was ‘not worried.’ 

‘Americans for Prosperity was an amazing partner. They strongly believe in freedom. They believe in limited government. They believe in all the things that I, as a conservative, believe. And they’ve been fantastic through these states,’ Haley said, vowing to continue fighting ‘for the 70% of Americans that don’t want to see a Trump-Biden rematch.’ 

With his win Saturday in the first-in-the South contest, Trump has now swept every primary or caucus on the GOP early-season calendar that awards delegates. His performances have left little maneuvering room for Haley, his former U.N. ambassador.

Still, Haley insists she is sticking around even with the growing pressure to abandon her candidacy and let Trump focus entirely on Democratic President Joe Biden, in a 2020 rematch.

Hunter Biden reportedly said in a new interview published Monday that he views his sobriety battle as key to ensuring former President Trump does not win a second term in November. 

‘Most importantly, you have to believe that you’re worth the work, or you’ll never be able to get sober. But I often do think of the profound consequences of failure here,’ Hunter Biden told Axios about his struggle with addiction. 

‘Maybe it’s the ultimate test for a recovering addict – I don’t know,’ the president’s son said. ‘I have always been in awe of people who have stayed clean and sober through tragedies and obstacles few people ever face. They are my heroes, my inspiration.’

‘I have something much bigger than even myself at stake. We are in the middle of a fight for the future of democracy,’ he added.

Hunter Biden said he feels obligated to ‘make it through that fight clean and sober, and I feel a responsibility to everyone struggling through their own recovery to succeed.’

‘I don’t care whether you’re 10 years sober, two years sober, two months sober or 200 years sober — your brain at some level is always telling you there’s still one answer,’ he said.

The president’s son also gave advice to others struggling to stay sober. 

‘Embrace the state in which you came into recovery — which is that feeling of hopelessness which forces you into a choice,’ he said. ‘And then understand that what is required is that you basically have to change everything.’

Hunter Biden is expected to testify before closed doors on Wednesday before the Republican-led House Oversight and Judiciary committees, where lawmakers are expected to focus on President Biden’s son’s business dealings, as well as his addiction to alcohol and crack cocaine. 

In a filing last week, the Justice Department alleged that Hunter Biden’s iPhone had pictures and videos of ‘apparent’ cocaine, crack cocaine and drug paraphernalia documenting his drug use in November and December 2018. Hunter Biden is charged with lying about his drug use on a federal form to purchase a firearm.

The filing also revealed that Hunter talked about his drug use with his then-girlfriend, Hallie Biden.

Hunter’s lawyers disputed one of the photos, saying it depicted sawdust, not drug residue. 

Hunter Biden’s notorious laptop’s content provided a window into his overseas business dealings, as well as more sordid material like homemade sex tapes and videos that appeared to show him using illegal drugs. The New York Post’s reporting about the laptop was censored on social media before the 2020 election amid pressure from the FBI. 

Last July, Hunter Biden swore in a federal court hearing that he had been sober since June 1, 2019. 

At a hearing in September, U.S. Magistrate Judge Christopher Burke said Hunter Biden had tested negative for drugs and alcohol since August, and the president’s son’s legal team told Axios he has continued to test negative since then.

A baggie of cocaine was found at the White House in a storage locker last July, but the Secret Service closed their investigation without identifying a suspect. 

In his memoir, Hunter Biden wrote about how he was still in the throes of his addiction weeks after a family intervention at their home in Delaware when his father, Joe Biden, announced his presidential candidacy in April 2019. Hunter fled to California, where he met and soon married Melissa Cohen, a documentary filmmaker.

He considered their wedding his initial sobriety date – May 17, 2019, the day before Joe Biden officially launched his campaign in Philadelphia, according to Axios. 

First lady Jill Biden felt she became a ‘full-fledged’ member of the family after Joe Biden had two brain aneurysms in 1988, and she took a more elevated role in family decisions, a new book details. 

‘She was exhausted. In the hospital, as she watched Joe’s mother, sister, and brothers debate the best path forward for Joe’s treatment, something in her broke,’ an upcoming book titled ‘American Woman’ says describing Jill Biden as the future president underwent medical treatments at Walter Reed in 1988 for brain aneurysms.

‘‘Wait a minute!’ she yelled at the group. ‘He’s my husband. I should be making the decision here.’’

The moment, underscored by Joe’s mom urging the family to listen to Jill, marked when Jill Biden says she felt she had ‘become a full- fledged Biden,’ the book details. 

‘The Bidens were stunned, until Joe’s mother eventually agreed: ‘She’s right,’ Jean Biden told the group, settling the matter. That was the moment, as Jill has recounted, that she felt she had become a full-fledged Biden.’

‘American Woman,’ authored by New York Times White House correspondent Katie Rogers, will be released Tuesday and documents how the role of first lady has evolved in the 21st century, focusing on Jill Biden’s tenure in the White House. 

Joe and Jill Biden married in 1977, following the death of the future president’s first wife and their young daughter in a car accident in 1972. Biden had two other children with his first wife, Beau and Hunter, who were later raised by Jill Biden alongside their younger half-sister Ashley Biden. 

As a Delaware senator, Biden had two life-threatening brain aneurysms and doctors said he had a 50-50 shot of surviving.

‘If he did survive, there was a chance that the part of his brain that governed his speech would be damaged,’ the book continued. 

‘For Jill, the diagnosis was the latest setback after a stressful year. She had spent months campaigning on his behalf, despite her discomfort with public speaking. She was raising their three children, Beau, Hunter, and Ashley, who were all in different stages of adjusting to school and life in Delaware.’

Biden’s surgeries were successful, with no reports of an aneurysm since. 

After Jill Biden experienced the turning point of becoming a ‘full-fledged’ member of the family, she went on to become the ‘powerful guardian of the Biden inner circle,’ the book describes. 

‘As the president and his last surviving son, Hunter, have become targets for conservatives in a rapidly toxifying political landscape, Jill has emerged as the powerful guardian of the Biden inner circle, defining herself as a ‘Philly girl’ who is not to be crossed,’ the book states. 

The book goes on to note that Jill Biden has been a leading force behind Joe Biden’s re-election campaign, which is partially motivated by a ‘dislike for Trump.’ 

‘She is powerful within the Biden White House and was an enthusiastic supporter of her husband’s decision to announce a run for reelection at age eighty,’ ‘American Woman’ claims. 

‘Her dislike for Trump was a driving reason behind her support for Joe’s campaign for the presidency, and it remains so for his reelection effort, even if that means he will not leave office until age eighty-six at the end of a second term,’ the book later claims.

Senate Minority Whip John Thune, the No. 2 Senate Republican leader, is endorsing former President Trump for reelection.

It’s a key win for Trump from the establishment wing of the Republican Party. The South Dakota Republican is Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s top deputy in the Senate GOP.

‘The primary results in South Carolina make clear that Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee for president in this year’s pivotal presidential election. The choice before the American people is crystal clear: It’s Donald Trump or Joe Biden,’ Thune told Fox News Digital.

‘I support former President Trump’s campaign to win the presidency, and I intend to do everything I can to see that he has a Republican majority in the Senate working with him to restore American strength at home and abroad,’ he continued.

‘Together we must put an end to the disastrous Biden-Schumer agenda. Our country cannot endure another four years of Bidenomics, continued lawlessness at our southern border, and American weakness on the global stage.’

Thune and Trump spoke by phone on Saturday night after Trump’s commanding victory in the South Carolina Republican primary, a source familiar with the call told Fox News Digital.

It wasn’t clear before now whether Thune, who’s seen as one of McConnell’s potential successors to lead the Senate Republican Conference, would endorse either of the two major candidates for the 2024 GOP nomination. 

Like McConnell, he suggested he would support whoever Republican voters chose as their presidential nominee, but Thune has for the most part avoided mentioning the former president.

He previously endorsed South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott’s presidential campaign and was present at Scott’s launch event. Scott dropped out in November and endorsed Trump last month.

The Sunday announcement puts added pressure on McConnell, who has brushed off scrutiny on whether his frosty relationship with Trump would stop him from endorsing the ex-president in the Republican primary.

McConnell said at a press conference this month when asked about the race, ‘I’ve stayed essentially out of it, and when I change my mind about that, I’ll let you know.’

Both Thune and McConnell were targeted by Trump for criticizing his handling of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and the 2020 election.

Thune won a landslide reelection victory for a fourth Senate term in 2022 despite Trump calling for a primary challenger against him.

His endorsement of the former president comes after Trump beat former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley in her home state primary on Saturday night. The ex-president won roughly 60% of the vote compared to 40% for Haley.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan on Sunday said the Ukraine aid package that hangs in the balance after clearing the Senate with bipartisan support is critical for U.S. munitions production amid concern of a shortage. 

Fox News host Shannon Bream asked Sullivan to respond to concerns voiced by Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, at the Munich Security Conference last week. Vance, who reportedly skipped out on a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the conference, advocated for a ‘negotiated peace’ with Russia, raising concern that the United States does not make enough munitions to support a war in Eastern Europe, a war in the Middle East amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, ‘and potentially a contingency in East Asia’ if China were to invade Taiwan. 

‘What is the president’s plan for rebuilding this gap now in weaponry – so we can help our allies, so we can protect ourselves?’ Bream asked, citing a recent report published by Defense News claiming the U.S. will run out of critical munitions only eight days into a high intensity conflict with China over Taiwan. 

‘We have discovered over the past two years, since the start of the war in Ukraine, since Biden came into office, that the cupboards were not as full as they should have been based on underinvestment over the course of the past 20 years, and we have been working since day one of this administration to build up the defense industrial base, to increase the production of critical munition systems,’ Sullivan said. ‘And three years into the Biden administration, we are producing significantly more than the day we walked into office.’ 

‘Second, this bill, this bipartisan bill that the Senate just passed, is the best answer to your question. It contains substantial resources to enhance the production capacity of our defense industrial base so that we can build munitions not just for Ukraine, but also to make sure that the United States military has the tools it needs to deter any adversary anywhere in the world, any time,’ Sullivan continued. ‘If we don’t pass this bill, it is going to mean less money going to 40 of the 50 states of the United States that are currently in the process of producing critical munitions. We have got to get that money out the door.’ 

The U.S. is considering ramping up production of 150mm munitions to 100,000 a month by the end of 2025, Vance noted in his speech, while the Russians ‘make close to 500,000 a month right now at this very minute.’ 

‘So the problem here vis-à-vis Ukraine is America doesn’t make enough weapons, Europe doesn’t make enough weapons, and that reality is far more important than American political will or how much money we print and then send to Europe,’ Vance said. 

Sullivan, who appeared on several other network news programs Sunday morning, is calling on House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to bring a package for billions more in U.S. aid for Ukraine to a vote. 

‘There is not a shortage of bravery or courage on the part of the Ukrainians. Right now, there is a shortage of bullets,’ Sullivan admitted earlier in the program. ‘The way to fill that shortage is for Congress on a bipartisan basis to pass funding that will give Ukraine the tools it needs to succeed and to ensure that Russia fails in this conquest. We believe that they are capable of doing that. And in fact, the bipartisan Senate vote could be replicated in the House if the speaker would put the bill on the floor.’ 

On Friday, the United States and European Union heaped hundreds of new sanctions on Russia in connection with the second anniversary of its invasion of Ukraine and in retaliation for the death of noted Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny last week in an Arctic penal colony. The U.S. government imposed roughly 600 new sanctions on Russia and its war machine in the largest single round of penalties since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

President Biden on Friday called on Congress to pass Ukraine aid, condemning Johnson for giving the House a two-week vacation while Russia is taking Ukrainian territory for the first time in months. ‘They have to come back and get this done, because failure to support Ukraine in this critical moment will never be forgotten in history,’ he said. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

A new book detailing the evolving role of the first lady in the 21st century argues that former first lady Melania Trump engaged in a ‘power struggle’ with her stepdaughter Ivanka Trump when Donald Trump was president. 

‘For her four years in the White House, Melania would wage an internal power struggle with her stepdaughter. Melania called her ‘the princess’ so frequently that a coterie of East Wing aides had adopted the nickname,’ the book ‘American Woman’ writes. 

‘American Woman,’ authored by New York Times White House correspondent Katie Rogers, will officially hit store shelves Tuesday and examines how the role of first lady has evolved this century, focusing much of the book on first lady Jill Biden.  

Fox News Digital reviewed the book before its release, and found it details an alleged struggle for power between former President Trump’s wife and daughter. The book argues that Melania Trump was ‘going to do her own thing’ upon Trump being sworn in as president, including staying in New York City so their son Barron Trump could finish the school year. Trump lauded the first lady shortly after becoming president, while noting she would be bolstered by his daughter, Ivanka Trump. 

‘I think she’s going to be a fantastic first lady. She’s going to be a tremendous representative of women and of the people,’ the new president said. ‘And helping her and working with her will be Ivanka, who is a fabulous person and a fabulous, fabulous woman,’ he said in 2017. 

At the start of the Trump administration, ‘American Woman’ argues, Melania Trump monitored social media and news outlets for personal mentions, while allegedly souring at the plan to elevate Ivanka Trump’s role in the White House. 

‘She was aware that her husband had suggested that his eldest daughter would be helping to share the responsibilities of being First Lady, and this was not a development that pleased her. At the time, Ivanka was staking out office space in the West Wing but was eyeing the potential of a revamped East Wing that could be geared to serving the entire First Family, not just the First Lady, according to people familiar with her plans,’ the text of the book reads. 

Ivanka Trump was hired as an unpaid adviser to her father in March 2017, joining her husband Jared Kushner as official government employees. 

‘The suggestion irritated Melania, who put a stop to the talk of a family-led wing. A month later, Ivanka announced that she would become an official government employee, working as an unpaid adviser for her father,’ according to the book. 

As Melania navigated her new role, she allegedly also renegotiated a prenuptial agreement, including stipulations that her son Barron Trump was guaranteed ‘equal footing with Donald’s other children,’ according to the book, citing Washington Post journalist Mary Jordan. Jordan’s book on Melania Trump was previously panned by the first lady’s office as belonging in ‘the fiction genre.’

In June 2018, Melania Trump came under fire in the media after wearing a jacket with the words ‘I really don’t care, do U?’ ahead of visiting a youth migrant detention center with her husband. The jacket’s message reportedly had no underlying message, the White House said when photos first circulated of the first lady. 

The book, however, claims the jacket wasn’t a message directed at the media, but instead to Ivanka Trump. 

‘The two were locked in a quiet competition for press coverage and, to that end, Melania did not think that it was appropriate for Trump’s children to be enmeshed in White House operations,’ an excerpt reads. 

Overall, the book argues, Melania Trump was ‘frustrated and angry’ with how she was portrayed by the media, and that nothing she did ‘would be enough to escape scrutiny,’ including decorating the White House for Christmas. 

‘By 2020, when the pandemic was setting in, Melania had taken to wearing elegant robes at all hours. In the evenings, she would occasionally visit her husband in his bedroom, perching on his bed and listening as he placed calls to and received calls from advisers. She busied herself with assembling photo albums of her aesthetic contributions to the White House,’ the book states. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the Office of Donald J. Trump regarding the book and its claims, but did not immediately receive a reply.

Trump, who notched another primary win this weekend when he swept the South Carolina GOP primary, recently said the former first lady would ramp up her campaign trail appearances ahead of the 2024 presidential election. 

‘It’s funny, she was a very successful model, very, very successful, and yet she was a private person. She’s going to be out a lot. Not because she likes doing it, but she likes the results,’ he said last Tuesday to Fox News’ Laura Ingraham. ‘She wants to see this country really succeed. She loves the country.’

Israel will carry out an invasion of the Gaza Strip city of Rafah, regardless of whether or not it reaches a hostage exchange agreement with Hamas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday.

Netanyahu made the statement during a Sunday morning appearance on CBS’s ‘Face the Nation’ with host Margaret Brennan. He stated that Israel was still engaged in hostage negotiations, but added that the Jewish state was committed to rooting out Hamas with as little harm to civilians as possible.

‘If we have a deal, it will be delayed somewhat, but it will happen. If we don’t have a deal, we’ll do it anyway,’ Netanyahu said of the Rafah operation.

He went on to say that any Israeli operation in Rafah would signal that Israel is just ‘weeks away’ from total victory in the war against Hamas.

The new timing is a far cry from statements Netanyahu and other Israeli officials have made in recent weeks. Netanyahu had previously predicted that the war would last ‘many more months.’

The U.S. has insisted that Israel implement a plan to protect civilians in the event of a Rafah invasion. Brennan said Netanyahu told her that he was meeting ‘with the General Staff to discuss the ‘dual plan’ of how to evacuate Palestinian civilians from Rafah & how to lay siege to Hamas battalions there,’ she said.

The Israeli government also released its post-war plan for Gaza on Friday, a deal that was immediately rejected by Palestinian officials.

Under the plan, Israel would seek open-ended control over security and civilian affairs in the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu’s government has flatly rejected calls for a two-state solution, which President Biden’s administration continues to push for.

The Israeli Parliament backed Netanyahu’s rejection of any ‘unilateral’ recognition of a Palestinian state last week.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

President Biden’s key to a lasting and happy marriage is ‘good sex,’ according to a new book detailing Jill Biden’s role as first lady. 

‘Joe may have tamped down on his public bedroom declarations winning the presidency, but he has joked to aides that ‘good sex’ is the key to a lasting and happy marriage, much to his wife’s chagrin,’ Katie Rogers writes in an upcoming book obtained by Fox News Digital.

The book describes that ahead of the 2008 presidential election, in 2006, ‘Joe still seemed more interested in staying home with Jill than in running for the presidency.’

‘I’d rather be at home making love to my wife while my children are asleep,’ Biden said in public remarks that year when asked about a potential 2008 presidential run. 

‘The remark might’ve surprised some in the audience, but it drew little more than a shrug from a spokesman, who explained that the senator was ‘frankly totally in love with his wife,’’ the book continued. 

‘American Woman,’ authored by New York Times White House correspondent Katie Rogers, will be released Tuesday and documents how the role of first lady has evolved in the 21st century, focusing on Jill Biden’s tenure in the White House. 

Excerpts of the book, including the president’s comments regarding ‘good sex’ as the key to a happy marriage, have since been mocked and panned by critics on social media.

‘Joe Biden, a man who can barely walk up a set of stairs, says the key to his marriage is ‘’good sex,’’ X account Not The Bee tweeted. 

‘Joe Biden who can’t climb the stairs without falling, says the secret to his marriage is ‘good sex.’ Really,’ Outkick founder Clay Travis tweeted. 

 ‘I don’t even know what to say about this post. Why?’ Bo Snerdley, of ‘The Rush Limbaugh Show’ fame, tweeted. 

The president and first lady met in 1975 after Joe Biden’s first wife Neilia Hunter Biden died in a car accident in 1972, alongside the couple’s 1-year-old daughter, Naomi. The couple’s other two children, Beau and Hunter, survived the car crash. Joe Biden was sworn in as a Delaware senator just two weeks after the tragedy.  

‘According to both Bidens, Jill first met the boys in early 1975, months after she began dating Joe. He had lost his first wife, Neilia, and his infant daughter, Naomi, in a car crash in December 1972, just weeks after winning his first Senate race,’ the book details. 

Jill Biden, however, was hesitant about the relationship, the book argues, as she was freshly divorced at 23 after a ‘counterfeit love’ with her first husband. 

‘The idea of marrying Joe, a thirty-two-year-old widower still knitting his family back together, was daunting. Which is why it took Joe five marriage proposals before she finally said yes,’ the book continues. 

Beau Biden also reportedly encouraged the relationship, saying, ‘Dad, we think we should marry Jill,’ when he was 7 years old. 

Joe and Jill Biden married in 1977, and Beau and Hunter began calling the future first lady ‘Mom,’ while referring to their deceased mother as ‘Mommy.’

‘When Jill married Joe in June 1977, the boys came with them on a mini honeymoon, taking their own room in a hotel suite,’ the book continues. 

Joe and Jill Biden will mark their 47th wedding anniversary in June.