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President Biden’s re-election campaign is pulling no punches in trolling former President Donald Trump following its ‘historic’ cash-on-hand announcement and massive fundraising haul for the month of January.

The Biden campaign said Monday it raised more than $42 million last month and has $130 million in cash-on-hand across all of its joint-fundraising committees — a figure the president’s re-election team is touting as ‘the highest total amassed by any Democratic candidate in history’ at this point in the election cycle.

Those numbers compare to just $30 million cash-on-hand reported by the Trump campaign at the end of January, although his campaign has not yet released its fundraising numbers for the month.

‘It’s been a tough couple of weeks if you are Donald Trump and also like money,’ Biden campaign official Ammar Moussa told Fox News Digital. ‘The RNC had its worst fundraising year in decades, is hemorrhaging cash, and now Trump enters the general election with the weakest operation in recent history.’ 

‘While Trump and the RNC burn cash paying for Trump’s… challenges, our campaign is proud of its historic war chest whose funds are going to reach the voters who will decide this election this November,’ he added, referencing Trump’s numerous legal defenses being waged in Washington, D.C., Miami and Atlanta courtrooms.

Last year, Trump’s campaign fundraising apparatus shelled out $50 million to cover the cost of those legal bills, contributing to Biden’s financial upper-hand. 

However, Trump’s campaign is pointing to his edge in early general election polls that show him leading or statistically tied with Biden, as well as what they say is the inflow of money from everyday Americans ready for a change.

‘President Trump’s campaign is fueled by small dollar donors across the country from every background who are sick and tired of Crooked Joe Biden’s record-high inflation, wide open border invasion, crime and chaos,’ Trump campaign national press secretary Karolina Leavitt told Fox News Digital.

‘Voters don’t want four more years of misery and destruction, and that’s why President Trump is dominating Biden in every single battleground poll,’ she added.

Biden’s cash advantage also comes just weeks after Fox News Digital reported on the cash problems and swing-state disarray being faced by the Republican National Committee as its rival, the Democratic National Committee, held nearly three times the cash-on-hand to start the election year.

Fox News’ Brooke Singman and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.

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A Ukrainian OnlyFans model who posted a photo of herself topless in front of a major Russian church is being hunted by officials.

Lolita Bogdanova, 24, posted a photo of her exposed breasts in front of St. Basil’s Cathedral in Red Square in 2021. 

The photos have recently resurfaced on the internet, creating a controversy in Russia as public decency laws have been tightened over the last two years.

Bogdanova reportedly agreed to stay inside Russia’s borders throughout the investigation, but recent images posted to her Instagram account appear to show she is in the United States.

Following the initial release of the photos, Bogdanova apologized publicly for offending religious believers and claimed she had not uploaded the pictures herself.

Bogdanova is originally from Makiivka in eastern Ukraine.

The Russian Interior Ministry has stated that Bogdanova is wanted by law enforcement ‘under a criminal article’ but specific charges have not yet been disclosed.

OnlyFans has resumed service to models in Russia after briefly cutting off its payment system in 2022 amid the Russian military’s invasion of Ukraine.

A slew of recent arrests and punishments have been enforced on political dissidents and perceived threats to Russian society.

A 33-year-old amateur ballerina with dual U.S.-Russian citizenship has been detained in Russia and is facing life in prison for allegedly donating $51 to Ukraine’s war effort. 

Russia’s main domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Security Service, reported the woman’s arrest on charges of treason. The FSB said the woman is a resident of Los Angeles, California, and accused her of collecting money for the Ukrainian military. 

Fox News Digital’s Bradford Betz contributed to this report.

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Former President Trump indicated that at least a half a dozen contenders — including three former rivals for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination — are on his shortlist for running mate.

The commanding frontrunner for the GOP nomination had plenty of praise for one of those potential candidates who joined Trump at Fox News town hall on Tuesday in this upstate South Carolina city.

During the program, which ran on Fox News’ ‘The Ingraham Angle,’ Trump was asked about half a dozen potential running mate choices: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, multimillionaire biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, a Democrat turned independent.

‘Are they all on your shortlist?’ host Laura Ingraham asked the former president.

‘They are,’ Trump answered. ‘Honestly, all of those people are good. They’re all good, they’re all solid.’

Trump has a history of making comments off the cuff, and many in the political world see DeSantis as Trump’s running mate as a stretch, since the two and their camps blasted each other for over a year before the Florida governor suspended his 2024 campaign last month just ahead of the New Hampshire primary.

DeSantis endorsed Trump at the time but has not joined him on the campaign trail in the ensuing weeks. In fact, DeSantis was also in South Carolina on Tuesday for an official event and did not team up with Trump.

Ramaswamy, who has long been a strong supporter of Trump’s America First agenda, dropped his White House bid last month after the Iowa caucuses and endorsed the former president. He has teamed up with Trump multiple times since then and campaigned on behalf of Trump in South Carolina on Tuesday.

Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, suspended his presidential bid in November and enthusiastically endorsed Trump in New Hampshire last month. He has also joined the former president on the campaign trail in South Carolina the past two weeks.

Scott — as he arrived at the Greenville Convention Center — received a warm welcome from the large crowd of mostly Trump supporters in the audience.

‘A lot of people are talking about that gentleman right over there,’ Trump said, as he pointed to Scott, who was sitting in the front row of the audience. 

‘He’s been such a great advocate. I have to say this in a very positive way, Tim Scott, he has been much better for me than he was for himself. I watched his campaign, and he doesn’t like talking about himself. But, boy, does he talk about Trump,’ the former president said of Scott. ‘I called him and I said, ‘Tim, you’re better for me than you were for yourself.’’

Of the other three on the list that Trump acknowledged, the conservative Noem is a longtime strong Trump supporter and surrogate, as is Donalds, a Black congressman on the right who is a top Trump ally in the House.

Gabbard, who served in the Iraq War and ran unsuccessfully for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, became increasingly critical of her party after she left Congress. Two years ago, Gabbard became an independent and has become a favorite among conservatives.

The Trump town hall was held four days before Saturday’s Republican presidential primary in South Carolina, where polls indicate Trump maintains a very large double-digit lead over his last remaining major rival — former U.N. ambassador and former Palmetto State Gov. Nikki Haley.

Haley, in a speech in Greenville a couple of hours before Trump landed in the city, said that ‘some of you — perhaps a few of you in the media — came here today to see if I’m dropping out of the race. Well, I’m not. Far from it.’

‘I refuse to quit. South Carolina will vote on Saturday. But on Sunday, I’ll still be running for president. I’m not going anywhere,’ Haley emphasized.

She added that ‘I have no fear of Trump’s retribution.’

When asked about Haley’s comments, Trump said during the Fox News town hall that ‘you’re not supposed to lose your home state. It shouldn’t happen anyway, and she’s losing it bigly.’

‘I don’t think she knows how to get out,’ Trump surmised. ‘She just can’t get herself to get out.’

Trump reiterated that he has ruled out Haley as his running mate.

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Former President Trump’s leadership PAC spent another $2.9 million on legal bills last month, according to a campaign finance filing Tuesday. 

The leadership PAC, Save America, spent about $50 on Trump’s legal expenses last year, Politico reported. Save America received another $5 million from the pro-Trump super PAC MAGA Inc., according to Tuesday’s filing with the Federal Elections Committee (FEC). 

The money went to covering Save America’s $2.9 million in legal spending in January – less than the leadership PAC has spent on legal bills in recent months, though the amount still accounted for most of Save America’s spending. At the end of January, Save America said it had $6.3 million left in the bank. 

MAGA Inc. sent $42 million to Save America last year to help cover legal expenses. 

Trump’s web of political committees spent more than they raised collectively last year, according to Politico. 

Over the last two years, Trump’s Save America political action committee, his presidential campaign and his other fundraising organizations have devoted $76.7 million to legal fees, according to the Associated Press, and campaign finance experts expect the current GOP front-runner to spend PAC money to defray the cost of his judgments in some way. 

After spending more money on ads and legal expenses than it received from donors, Trump’s campaign cash holdings dropped to just over $30 million at the end of January – down from about $33 million in December, the campaign’s FEC filing shows, according to Reuters. But last month, he did successfully sweep GOP primary contests in Iowa and New Hampshire. 

The Trump campaign said it spent more than $11 million and raised more than $8 million in January. As the Democratic incumbent faces a less competitive primary contest, the Biden campaign reported in its FEC disclosure that it ended January with about $56 million in cash – an increase from the $46 million in December. 

Trump’s legal expenses might now exceed half a billion dollars, according to the AP. 

New York Judge Arthur Engoron ordered Trump and his companies Friday to pay $355 million in fines, plus interest, after ruling that he had manipulated his net worth in financial statements in a case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James. 

The stiff penalty comes just weeks after Trump was ordered to pay $83.3 million to the columnist E. Jean Carroll for damaging her reputation after she accused him of sexual assault and defamation. A separate jury last year awarded Carroll $5 million from Trump for sexual abuse and defamation.

Trump has adamantly denied wrongdoing and pledged to appeal, a process that could take months or even years.

Between Friday’s ruling and the two judgments in Carroll’s case, Trump would be on the hook for about $542 million in legal judgments.

Trump owes another $110,000 for refusing to comply with a subpoena in the civil fraud case and $15,000 for repeatedly disparaging the judge’s law clerk in violation of a gag order. As part of Friday’s ruling, the judge also ordered both of Trump’s adult sons to pay $4 million apiece.

Trump’s court-ordered debts don’t end there. Last month, he was ordered to pay nearly $400,000 in legal fees to The New York Times after suing the newspaper unsuccessfully. He is currently appealing a judgment of $938,000 against him and his attorney for filing what a judge described as a ‘frivolous’ lawsuit against Hillary Clinton.

Though it is not uncommon for the size of judgments, particularly high-dollar amounts, to be reduced on appeal, Trump has already deposited $5 million owed to Carroll for the first defamation case into a court-controlled account, along with an additional $500,000 in interest required by New York law. Carroll will not have access to the funds until the appeals process plays out.

Trump may soon be forced to do the same for the $83.3 million judgment in the second Carroll case. Alternatively, he could secure a bond and pay only a portion up front — though that option would come with interest and fees and likely require some form of collateral. Trump would have to find a financial institution willing to front him the money.

In the civil fraud case, it will be up to the courts to decide how much Trump must put up as he mounts his appeal. He may be required to pay the full sum immediately after the appellate court rules, which could come as soon as this summer, University of Michigan law professor Will Thomas told the AP. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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As the cost of living continues to be a crucial concern for voters, there’s an urgent need for candidates to present viable solutions for making health care both affordable and accessible. Here are five fresh principles for health care reform that can resonate across party lines. 

One of the biggest reasons major Washington-led health care reforms have failed to lower health care costs is because they focus on health insurance instead of health care, and very little on health itself. 

ObamaCare and the Inflation Reduction Act are perfect examples. Every year, these programs give more money to health insurance companies to offset the costs of higher premiums for people with larger incomes. A better approach is to fund American patients, not health insurance companies, by giving them direct control over the subsidy they qualify for and let them use it to buy the care and coverage that works best for them.

To further stop this doom loop, lawmakers must shift their focus from merely subsidizing insurance premiums to addressing the underlying issues of high health care prices and excessive demand. Lower prices and lower demand will lead to lower premiums.

.The challenge for Washington in focusing on health and health care is that they are both local issues, not national. Health care is delivered in a local setting, and the quality of care you receive is largely linked to what is available locally. Meanwhile, population health is much more influenced by local conditions than national ones. 

This means a command-and-control approach from Washington to improve the health of our people and the quality of care they receive is doomed to fail. Instead, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services should leverage its position to be a facilitator of change at the local level rather than an imposer of change. 

One example of how this could be done is block grants and waivers in Medicaid, which would empower states and local communities to best cover and improve the health of vulnerable populations. 

The current health insurance, big government-dominated system is your old cable bundle. The health care system of the future is streaming on demand. We need reforms to move us toward on demand, and that means enabling patients to cut out the middleman. 

Direct care clinics allow patients to cut out the insurance middleman and pay doctors a monthly fee that gives them on demand access to their services. This arrangement is better for patients and doctors. By eliminating insurance company paperwork and getting doctors off the revenue cycle roller coaster, doctors can have smaller patient panels and spend more time with patients. 

Washington can support the growth of direct care by allowing Direct Primary Care memberships to be paid for with Health Savings Accounts funds. We should also make them available to Medicaid, Medicare and ObamaCare patients using their benefit dollars. 

We are conservatives committed to free market principles, but we also recognize that a successful market for health care needs very strong rules in place to protect patients. 

This is because health care is not your prototypical, Adam Smith-style marketplace. The asymmetry of information between patients and doctors is enormous, and the presence of the third-party payer means patients have no concept of the value of the care they receive.

Transparency can help even the playing field, bringing much needed accountability to the health care system. This means strengthening price and quality transparency for providers, so patients and self-insuring companies can find the best value for their health care dollars. 

It also means transparency into the business practices of the health care middlemen like managed care companies, wholesalers and pharmacy benefit managers. For instance, self-insured companies must have the right to see their claims data so they can audit their expenses. Drug manufacturer rebates to pharmacy benefit managers must be exposed and the savings should be passed on to patients at the pharmacy counter. 

We also need visibility into provider network contracts to see if hospitals are leveraging their size or position to force coverage of low value procedures (such as in-hospital imaging) and shut out competition. 

. Finally, candidates must remember that as much as voters are demanding solutions to make health care more affordable, these solutions cannot come at the expense of patients getting the care they need. Americans view health care primarily as a moral issue, and an economic one second. Rationing from the government or private sector is not an acceptable solution. 

By treating the underlying issues of high costs and inefficiencies, localizing health care solutions, eliminating the middleman when possible, demanding transparency, and recognizing health care as a moral imperative, we can create a system that truly serves the needs of all Americans. 

This is an approach to health care reform that could transcend party lines and genuinely serve the American people. 

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Iranian officials accused Israel on Wednesday of carrying out a sabotage operation that blew up a natural gas pipeline last week.

Iranian Oil Minister Javad Owji provided no evidence for his claim, but told Iranian state news that the attack was the latest in a series of Israeli efforts to destabilize Iranian infrastructure.

‘The explosion of the gas pipeline was an Israeli plot,’ Owji said. ‘The enemy intended to disturb gas service in the provinces and put people’s gas distribution at risk.’

‘The evil action and plot by the enemy was properly managed,’ he added.

Israel has not commented on the Iranian gas pipeline explosions.

The blasts on Feb. 14 hit a natural gas pipeline running from Iran’s western Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province up north to cities on the Caspian Sea. The roughly 1,270-kilometer (790-mile) pipeline begins in Asaluyeh, a hub for Iran’s offshore South Pars gas field.

Owji has also compared the attack to a series of mysterious and unclaimed assaults on gas pipelines in 2011 — including around the anniversary of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

‘The goal that the enemies were pursuing were to cut the gas in the major provinces of the country and it did not happen,’ Owji said last week. ‘Except for the number of villages that were near the gas transmission lines, no province suffered a cut.’

Meanwhile, Israel has carried out attacks in Iran that have predominantly targeted its nuclear program. The head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog warned earlier this month that Iran is ‘not entirely transparent’ regarding its atomic program, particularly after an official who once led Tehran’s program announced the Islamic Republic has all the pieces for a weapon ‘in our hands.’

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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House Speaker Mike Johnson is facing growing pressure from both sides of the aisle to deliver some kind of plan for Ukraine as the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion approaches on Feb. 24.

The topic has become a lightning rod within the GOP, with a growing contingent of populist Republican lawmakers voicing skepticism about the U.S.’s involvement in the conflict. Some have gone as far as threatening Johnson’s leadership role if he held a vote on Ukraine aid.

But mainstream Republicans and Democrats still argue that it’s in the country’s best interest to help Kyiv remain independent of Russian President Vladimir Putin and that helping defeat the authoritarian leader is critical to avoiding a wider, more intense conflict.

That pressure took on a new significance over the weekend when Russia announced it had captured the Ukrainian city of Avdiivka after Ukrainian forces, low on ammo and personnel, retreated. It was the first significant gain by Russia in months.

And on Friday, the Russian government announced the death of top Putin critic Alexey Navalny in a penal colony in the Arctic Circle.

‘Ukrainians are literally running out of ammo and fleeing cities while Putin kills off his main rival in the gulag. Now is not a good time to give the Russians a hand,’ a Senate GOP aide told Fox News Digital.

On the Democrat side, White House communications director Ben LaBolt criticized the House GOP for being in recess during the situation, declaring in a statement on Tuesday, ‘House Republicans are on Day 5 of an early, undeserved vacation while their inaction does escalating damage to our national security.’

On Friday, a small group of bipartisan House members introduced a supplemental security package giving roughly $66 billion in military-only aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, while also taking steps to mitigate the U.S. border crisis, like reinstating the Trump administration’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy for a year.

House Foreign Affairs Chair Michael McCaul, R-Texas, warned the same day that Johnson likely will have little choice on whether to hold a vote on some kind of foreign aid.

‘He’s either going to have to do it — put it on the floor himself — or it’s going to be by virtue of a discharge petition, which is a complete evisceration of his power because it basically says we’re going to do this without the speaker being in charge,’ McCaul said at a Christian Science Monitor panel event.

Meanwhile, Johnson has rejected two efforts by the Senate to pass its own supplemental security proposals, which both included about $60 billion for Ukraine. He said this month that passing Ukraine aid remains a focus of his, but he has not shared public plans to do so.

‘There is significant pressure on Johnson to act. That is part of the reason why Republicans that oppose Ukraine aid were so keen to see the Senate fail to pass [their plans],’ Doug Klain, policy analyst at Razom for Ukraine, told Fox News Digital on Tuesday. ‘They know the urgency, and members of Congress, including Johnson, they’ve been getting classified briefings telling them just how critical U.S. aid is to the war effort and what the stakes are for Ukraine.’

Fox News Digital reached out to a Johnson spokesperson to ask if the speaker would put the House bill up for a vote but did not hear back.

Meanwhile, a senior House GOP aide warned Fox News Digital that plan may already be ‘dead in the water.’ That aide noted that Republican hard-liners are pushing for nothing less than H.R.2, the House GOP border bill that Democrats panned as a ‘nonstarter.’

‘They really want this to be a Republican bill, and getting a … really stripped-down version of H.R.2 for Ukraine funding is not necessarily what they want,’ the House aide said.

GOP lawmakers opposed to Ukraine aid have raised questions about corruption within Kyiv’s government and have argued that the U.S. has too many issues of its own to be involved in a conflict with Russia.

Indeed, moving a Ukraine aid bill would come at a personal risk to Johnson. Conservatives in his conference, like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, have publicly floated threats to boot him from the speakership if it came to the floor. 

But at least one GOP lawmaker suggested to Fox News Digital that those threats could hold less weight than they appear.

‘Some conservatives caught hell back home for not [voting to vacate ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy], so now they are trying to curb all that heat by getting tough on [Johnson] before their primary,’ that lawmaker said.

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An Israeli AI cybersecurity start-up, Clarity, has developed software to detect and protect against deepfakes and recently raised its first $16 million in seed money.

Co-founder Michael Matias, who was an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officer and leader in the 8200 Intelligence Unit, told Fox News Digital he was focused on democracy and how AI and cybersecurity will reshape the way we treat our democratic institutions, but he couldn’t find any solutions that are adaptive to this new world cybersecurity virus.

He says Clarity’s technology is a new defense mechanism of warfare.

Matias said he thinks of Clarity’s technology as a water filter mechanism, adding, ‘There is a bunch of water, but a lot of it has bacteria, so we developed these filter mechanisms so that when it gets to the consumers, it is filtered out. If it’s not fully filtered out, at least the consumer knows that there is some anomaly or some dirt in there.’

Sensity AI, a company that monitors deepfakes, reported that there were 49,081 deepfake videos posted online in June 2020 and videos rose to 85,047 by December that same year.

Matias says Clarity’s early vision was centered around their assumption that deepfakes will emerge substantially in the 2024 elections, but in October things took a turn. A big catalyzing moment for Clarity was the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, when anything that wasn’t ready at the time needed to be ready in a matter of days and not months while working with the Israeli government and media outlets.

Matias says his team is predominantly Israeli, coming out of the IDF, so the war was a subject that hit very close to home.

‘The [Israel-Hamas] war showed us that the public perception is a big, big piece of everything that’s going on … especially when it comes to situations of hostages [with] many unknowns … what’s happening in digital media where every person is a journalist with their own phone and every person has their own news channel on their items on Telegram or Twitter or TikTok.’

He added that many ‘understand that we’re not just fighting a war on the physical [front] … [it’s a] digital fight as well.’

The Anti-Defamation league found that deepfake videos gained a lot of traction during the Israel-Hamas war with examples of videos presenting fictionalized ‘commentary’ on the war from public figures. 

Bloomberg also reviewed dozens of deepfake videos of Israel-Hamas war victims, which appear designed to generate both sympathy and virality, though their creators are often anonymous. A tragic death is covered by the news, and within days or even hours, users post videos of that person’s likeness talking about how they died. The format for the trend usually includes an introduction from the perspective of that person and a deepfaked image of them on the screen telling the story of how they died.

Matias says the funding will support Clarity in doubling staff and expanding its research and development operations.

‘Deepfakes [are] almost like a virus pathogen. It’s very similar to how COVID-19 acts; it replicates quickly, it is exposed quickly. Just like a virus, you need to develop the antivirus for it. And it’s not one vaccine, it’s not a one AI model that just implements. You actually have to develop multiple different models where they also continuously update and continuously transform and are able to adapt to different forms of the virus.’

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Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists fired two anti-ship ballistic missiles at a Greek-flagged ship headed to Yemen to deliver grain on Monday, causing minor damage, according to U.S. Central Command.

Despite the minor damage on the U.S.-owned M/V Sea Champion, the ship continued on course to Aden in Yemen, where it ultimately delivered the grain for the benefit of the Yemeni people.

Central Command said the M/V Sea Champion has delivered humanitarian aid to the country 11 times over the past five years.

‘Houthi aggression in the region has exacerbated already high levels of need in conflict-impacted Yemen, which remains one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world, with nearly 80 percent of the entire population needing humanitarian assistance,’ Central Command said. ‘We are committed to countering the Houthis’ malign activities, which directly endanger the imports of foodstuff and humanitarian aid to Yemen.’

Another ship in the Gulf of Aden, the British-registered, Lebanese-operated Rubymar, sustained damage on Sunday after ‘an explosion in close proximity to the vessel.’

The explosion was reportedly caused by two missiles fired at the ship by Houthi rebels and resulted in the ship taking on water.

The crew was able to evacuate the vessel safely.

Houthi Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree later issued a statement claiming the rebel group’s responsibility for the attack, saying the vessel was ‘now at risk of potentially sinking.’ 

‘The ship suffered catastrophic damages and came to a complete halt,’ Saree said. 

The Houthis also claimed to have downed an American drone Monday in the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah, according to Reuters. U.S. Central Command, which operates in the region, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

The Houthis last November took out a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone near the Yemeni coast. 

The reported attacks come after the U.S. launched five ‘self-defense’ airstrikes against a series of Houthi rebel positions in Yemen on Saturday. 

The strikes targeted three anti-ship missile batteries, one unmanned underwater vessel (UUV) and another unmanned surface vessel (USV), U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced Sunday. 

‘This is the first observed Houthi employment of a UUV since attacks began on Oct. 23,’ CENTCOM said in a statement. 

Fox News Digital’s Greg Norman contributed to this report.

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GREENVILLE, S.C. – Former President Donald Trump says he’s ready to face off with President Biden on the debate stage.

Trump, the commanding frontrunner for the 2024 Republican race, on Tuesday reiterated his call for Biden to debate him this year as the two move closer to a rematch of their 2020 presidential election face-off.

Asked by host Laura Ingraham during a Fox News town hall held in Greenville, South Carolina if he’ll challenge the president to a debate, Trump quickly answered ‘I’ll do it right now on your show. I’ll challenge him right now.’

And Trump, in his ‘Ingraham Angle’ appearance in front of a live audience of several hundred people, added ‘I’ll take anybody,’ as he referred to a debate moderator.

‘I think you have an obligation in this case, you really have an obligation to debate, Trump emphasized. ‘As many as necessary. I could do it starting now.’

And Trump, pointing to Biden, argued ‘I don’t think he’s going to debate. I really don’t think so.’

After Trump, who is moving closer to locking up the GOP presidential nomination as he runs a third straight time for the White House, earlier this month challenged Biden to debate, the president said ‘well, if I were him, I’d want to debate me, too.’

Speaking with reporters during a campaign stop in Las Vegas, Biden argued that Trump has ‘got nothing else to do.’

But the president, who tangled with Trump at two general election debates in the autumn of 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic, has yet to say if he’ll take part in debates as he runs for re-election.

The former president, who skipped the five GOP primary debates, reiterated that ‘when you debate, you want to be smart. You don’t have to waste your time.’ 

Trump’s Fox News town hall comes four days before South Carolina’s Republican presidential primary, where the latest public opinion polls indicate he maintains a very large double-digit lead over former U.N. ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, his last major rival for the GOP nomination.

And Trump sat down for his town hall hours after his campaign, in a memo, argued that Haley’s White House bid would end ‘fittingly, in her home state’ and that the former president would clinch the nomination by the middle of next month. 

But Haley, in a speech in Greenville, South Carolina a couple of hours before Trump landed in the city, said that ‘some of you – perhaps a few of you in the media – came here today to see if I’m dropping out of the race. Well, I’m not. Far from it.’

‘I refuse to quit. South Carolina will vote on Saturday. But on Sunday, I’ll still be running for president. I’m not going anywhere,’ Haley emphasized.

And she added that ‘I have no fear of Trump’s retribution.’

Asked about Haley’s comments, Trump said during the Fox News town hall that ‘you’re not supposed to lose your home state. It shouldn’t happen anyway and she’s losing it bigly.’

‘I don’t think she knows how to get out,’ Trump surmised. ‘She just can’t get herself to get out.’

And Trump reiterated that he’s ruled out Haley as his running mate.

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