JERUSALEMAmid allegations leveled against the Biden administration that it is placating the Islamic Republic of Iran’s drive to build a nuclear weapon, former Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Tehran seeks a nuclear Holocaust targeting the Jewish state.

Lieberman, a member of Israel’s parliament (Knesset), told Israel’s Army Radio Tuesday Iran is ‘planning a Holocaust for us in the next two years.’

‘We are in the midst of an Iranian extermination program,’ Lieberman said. ‘Israel will be attacked with the aim of destroying it from several fronts with tens of thousands of missiles at the same time.’

A day after Lieberman’s comments, Israeli Brig. Gen (Res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, the former head of the research division in the Israel Defense Force’s Military Intelligence, told the Israeli TPS news agency, ‘The Biden administration wants to avoid any confrontation with Iran. They are afraid that if they move into confrontation, confrontational Iran may actually move towards having a bomb. But maybe [Iran’s leaders] believe that Trump is going to become the next president. They might actually try to break out a bomb now.’

Kuperwasser continued, ‘They have enough material to produce the fissile material that is necessary for three bombs within a month.’

This week saw a flurry of regulatory, diplomatic and congressional activity directed at Iran for its continued work on its illicit atomic weapons program. 

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) censured Iran Wednesday for its lack of cooperation with agency inspectors. Britain, France and Germany initiated the resolution. The Wall Street Journal reported the Biden administration sought to dissuade the Europeans from rebuking Iran at the IAEA. 

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller denied the Wall Street Journal report, noting the ‘report is not true. We have not lobbied any country to vote against or abstain from any resolution in that regard. We are actively increasing pressure on Iran through a combination of sanctions, deterrence and international isolation to counter their destabilizing behavior and prevent them from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

‘But I think you should not expect us to be acting in any sort of disharmony with our E3 partners. We’ve prized our unity with them, and I expect that to continue.’ 

After mounting pressure on the U.S. to join the Europeans in a reprimand of Iran, the U.S. agreed at the 11th hour Wednesday.

Fox News Digital had asked the U.S. State Department for its response to Lieberman’s prediction about Iran’s use of nuclear weapons, the numerous diplomatic sources who said the EU did not want to rebuke Iran at the IAEA and whether the Biden administration plans to impose new sanctions on Tehran.

The British, French and German governments on Friday sent a letter to the United Nations Security Council outlining Iran’s alleged violations of the 2015 nuclear deal. However, the European countries did not announce a ‘snap back’ of U.N. sanctions on Iran for its alleged violations of the accord. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the formal name for the Iran nuclear deal, expires Oct. 18, 2025. 

The Trump administration withdrew from the deal in 2018 because, the former president argued, it was a ‘horrible’ deal that only placed temporary restrictions on Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapons arsenal.

According to Iran International, Ali Shamkhani, a senior aide to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, is now overseeing the nuclear talks for the Islamic Republic. Shamkhani issued a defiant post Thursday, stating, ‘From the JCPOA until the recent IAEA BoGs meeting, in compliance with their roles as good & bad police, the #US & the #EuropeanTroika have been trying to manage Iran’s reactions to their misbehavior by creating false hope in Iran. They have never been successful & never will be.’ 

Fox News Digital reported this week that Republican Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., submitted a resolution that would ‘refer the issue to the U.N. Security Council and reaffirm that all measures will be taken to prevent the regime in Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.’

In late May, Fox News Digital reported that an IAEA document obtained by The Associated Press said that as of May 11, Iran had 313.2 pounds of uranium enriched up to 60%, an increase of 45.4 pounds since the last report by the U.N. watchdog in February. Uranium enriched at 60% purity is just a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.

Fox News’ Jamie Joseph and Pilar Arias contributed to this report.

A clip of liberal comedian Chelsea Handler saying that 50 Cent ‘cannot vote’ for former President Donald Trump during 2020 because he is Black sparked a snarky response from Sen. Tim Scott this week.

Sen. Scott, R-S.C, hit back at Handler in a social media post on Friday, saying, ‘tell another Black man how to think.’

‘Yes, by all means, please tell another Black man how to think, White lady,’ Scott wrote.

The comedian made the comments about the rapper, 50 Cent, who she briefly dated in 2011, during a remote interview with Jimmy Fallon on the Tonight Show in 2020.

‘And I had to remind him that he was a Black person, so he can’t vote for Donald Trump,’ she told Fallon. 

The comedian argued that the rapper had a responsibility to not influence people to vote for Trump in 2020.

‘He shouldn’t be influencing an entire swathe of people who may listen to him, because he’s worried about his own personal pocketbook,’ she said. 

Scott previously pushed against the narrative that Black people should vote for Democrats, recently calling out ‘The View’ after they mocked him for his leadership in bringing Black voters over to the Republican Party.

‘Women of ‘The View’: My goodness gracious. Let me just be plain and simple. Without the Black vote, there is no Democratic Party,’ Scott told ‘Hannity.’ ‘And since I was elected in 2010 to Congress, before that, no Black Republicans [in Congress]. But since then, there’s been seven.’ 

Scott said, ‘President Trump’s policies have led to a surge’ of Black Republican political candidates taking office at the ‘city level, to the county level, to the state level, and in Congress.’ 

‘We’re seeing Black city council members, we’re seeing Black assembly members all across this nation,’ he said. ‘There is a wave of Black elected officials who happen to be Republicans. But the Black vote is following.’ 

‘The View’ co-host Sunny Hostin had said Friday that Scott was not making a strong case for Black conservatives. Scott got under Hostin’s skin last year when he rejected her beliefs on the show about systemic racism.

‘Just to speak for African-American voters,’ Hostin said. ‘If anyone thinks that Tim Scott is going to bring over a bunch of Black men, they need to just get with it, because Tim Scott is the only African-American senator in the Republican Party for a reason.’ 

Scott is one of several candidates that former President Trump is reportedly considering as his running mate in the 2024 election. 

Scott ran for the Republican nomination but dropped out before the Iowa caucuses and went on to endorse Trump.

Fox News’ Jeffrey Clark contributed to this report.

The Islamic Republic of Iran’s use of artificial intelligence (AI) to crack down on its populace is having a particular impact on the freedoms of Iranian women. 

Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital the Iranian regime ‘is moving into the AI realm to benefit even more from technology that links together the disparate elements of facial recognition, CCTV, cell phone analysis, traffic geolocation and internet monitoring,’ which ‘bolster its cyber crackdown on street protesters or women who don’t wear their hijab correctly.’

Enhanced AI tools will be a key facet of the forthcoming Hijab and Chastity Bill, approved by the Iranian Parliament in September 2023 and awaiting ratification from the regime’s Guardian Council. 

Taleblu said AI has become ‘the cherry on the sundae of Iran’s digital repression, whether that starts with very crude tools like CCTV in a shop or whatever repository of purportedly criminal behavior that the regime puts at the feet of these AI sorting tools. Because humans don’t have to make the linkages, it frees up more manpower for mischief from the Iranian repressive apparatus.’

Article 30 of the Hijab and Chastity Bill states police will ‘create and strengthen intelligent systems for identifying perpetrators of illegal behavior using tools such as fixed and mobile cameras,’ Iran International reported. Article 60 forces private businesses to turn in video footage to enforcement personnel to check for compliance. 

Businesses that fail to comply could lose ‘two to six months worth of profits.’ Women who fail to cover their hair properly face consequences ranging from fines to ‘social exclusion, exile, closure of social media pages, passport confiscation for up to two years’ and possibly imprisonment for up to 10 years. 

Taleblu explained the Hijab and Chastity Bill allows authorities to use AI to leverage ‘lawfare and economic warfare against women’ by going after non-compliant women’s homes, cars, bank accounts and livelihoods. 

U.N. experts say the bill allows Iran to govern ‘through systemic discrimination with the intention of suppressing women and girls into total submission,’ which amounts to gender persecution, or gender apartheid. 

Long before the bill’s passage, the regime began preparing for increased AI use, installing new cameras throughout Iran as early as April 2023. A report from Amnesty International detailed increasing pressures on Iranian women between April 15, 2023, and June 14, 2023. During this period, an Iranian police spokesperson claimed police had sent ‘almost 1 million SMS warning messages to women captured unveiled in their cars’ and 133,174 messages about vehicle immobilizations. About 2,000 cars had been confiscated, and more than 4,000 ‘repeat offenders’ had been referred to Iran’s judiciary.

Between April 2023 and March 2024, Amnesty International found the morality police had ‘ordered the arbitrary confiscation of hundreds of thousands of vehicles’ because those inside were improperly covered. Testimony indicates confiscation orders were ‘based on pictures captured by surveillance cameras or reports from plainclothes agents patrolling the streets and using a police app … to report license plates.’ Amnesty also reported that some women were sentenced to prison or flogging, faced fines or were sent to ‘morality’ classes.

The regime likely used AI during 2022 protests after the death of Mahsa Amini, who was beaten after being arrested by morality police for wearing her hijab too loosely.

As head of the United Nations’ fact-finding mission into Iran’s 2022 protests, Sara Hossain determined the Iranian regime did use AI to monitor social media platforms during protests, Iran Wire reported. 

In October 2023, the U.S. sped up its timeline for blocking exports of AI chips to China, Iran and Russia to curtail their access to advanced AI capabilities.

Taleblu suggested additional methods for controlling access to tech that could ‘bolster Iran’s digital or cyber repressive apparatus.’ He recommends the U.S. work with European firms to increase export controls and keep close track of new Chinese tech subsidiaries operating in Iran. By consistently exposing and sanctioning new firms, the U.S. ‘increases their transaction costs.’

‘There is talk of tech and cyberspace and AI freeing people and building bridges,’ Taleblu said, ‘but the Islamic Republic is really intending to use them to build boundaries and then continue to wall off Iran and impose their will on the population.’ 

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has acknowledged previously unreported trips overseas that were paid for by his friend, conservative businessman Harlan Crow. 

One of the 2019 trips was to Bali, where the justice was accompanied by his wife, Virginia. Another trip paid for by the Crows was to Sonoma County, California.

Thomas on Friday released his amended 2023 financial disclosure forms — required of all federal judges — to include those earlier trips. The travel was not disclosed in the 2019 report.

‘During the preparation and filing of this report, filer sought and received guidance from his accountant and ethics counsel,’ the filing states.

‘Consistent with the review of prior filings that the filer began last year, report for calendar year 2019 is hereby amended to include the following entries under the reimbursement section, which was inadvertently omitted at the time of filing:

Source: Harlan & Kathy Crow Dates: July 12, 2019: Location: Bali, Indonesia Purpose: Guests of Source Items Paid or Provided: Food and Lodging at HotelSource: Harlan Crow Dates: July 18-21, 2019: Location: Monte Rio, CA Purpose: Guest of Source Items Paid or Provided: Food and Lodging at Private Club.’

Thomas’ vacations were first documented in April 2023. Thomas issued a rare statement at the time defending the trips and explaining that he had always followed Supreme Court guidance.

‘Harlan and Kathy Crow are among our dearest friends, and we have been friends for over twenty-five years,’ the justice, who has served on the bench for 32 years, said in a statement at the time.

‘As friends do, we have joined them on a number of family trips during the more than quarter century we have known them. Early in my tenure at the Court, I sought guidance from my colleagues and others in the judiciary, and was advised that this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the Court, was not reportable,’ Thomas said.

‘I have endeavored to follow that counsel throughout my tenure, and have always sought to comply with the disclosure guidelines,’ he said. ‘These guidelines are now being changed, as the committee of the Judicial Conference responsible for financial disclosure for the entire federal judiciary just this past month announced new guidance. And, it is, of course, my intent to follow this guidance in the future.’

Financial reports for seven other justices were released Friday. Only Samuel Alito did not release one but was given a 90-day extension.

In November, the Supreme Court issued a new ‘Code of Conduct’ following months of heightened scrutiny from Senate Judiciary Democrats pushing for new ethics laws for the high court. 

The Code is a set of five ‘canons,’ including two new canons that appear to be in response to reports over travel arrangements for private trips taken by Justices Thomas and Samuel Alito paid by others, and use of court staff for book promotion — referring to a recent report that staff of Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s staff urged colleges and libraries to buy her latest book. 

‘A Justice should not to any substantial degree use judicial chambers, resources, or staff to engage in activities that do not materially support official functions or other activities permitted under these Canons,’ the code states. 

‘A Justice may accept reasonable compensation and reimbursement of expenses for permitted activities if the source of the payments does not give the appearance of influencing the Justice’s official duties or otherwise appear improper,’ the rules say.

‘Expense reimbursement should be limited to the actual or reasonably estimated costs of travel, food, and lodging reasonably incurred by the Justice and, where appropriate to the occasion, by the Justice’s spouse or relative,’ the new code says.

The Code also states, ‘For some time, all Justices have agreed to comply with the statute governing financial disclosure, and the undersigned Members of the Court each individually reaffirm that commitment.’