— Ukraine’s existential war for its sovereignty from Russia is giving inspiration to Taiwan, an island thousands of miles away, as it hopes to deter its own authoritarian invasion by China.

While their cultures and geography are vastly different, nowhere does Ukraine’s struggle resonate more deeply than on Taiwan’s shores. The Taiwanese people see themselves in the Eastern European nation’s struggle — a comparison made even more stark by the growing alliance between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

‘The situation in Ukraine has been a wake-up call for a lot of people, the Taiwanese included,’ Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., told Fox News Digital in Taipei. ‘I think that we live in this sort of post-World War II, post-Cold War mindset, that somehow that was in the past… There’s sort of this axis of Iran and China and… Russia that is reminiscent of history that we’ve seen before… what I’ve been hearing more from the Taiwanese people who we’ve met with, is a realization or recognition that there’s definitely been a bit of a pivot, and they also have to pivot.’

It has inspired a shift in both military and social policies in Taiwan, which is faced with an increasingly aggressive China, and even a road map on how to navigate U.S. support. In particular, American political infighting on Ukraine aid has raised existential questions in Taiwan about the durability of U.S. support in a time of long-term conflict.

‘The lesson for Taiwan is that we do know that [an] asymmetric defense, that works well for the defense of Taiwan…as well as the the importance of building up a resilience among society to increase the stamina for the war,’ said Dr. I-Chung Lai, president of the Taiwanese think tank The Prospect Foundation. ‘The war could be long term rather than just in a short period of time, so the whole society needs to come out to anticipate that’

‘Another thing about it is that the international support. We need to gear up right now rather than sometime later, because first of all, we find that Western support and coherence — it’s very easy for the authoritarian state to really try to divide and conquer, so it is important to build up the support early on.’

Lai added that there needs to be an emphasis not just on defending Taiwan, but bringing ‘the cost of war’ to China by developing an offensive strategy as well.

Until recently, Taiwan’s military has largely focused on training for an amphibious Chinese invasion, but factors, including the Ukraine war, have prompted talk about shifting to preparations for multiple military situations, known as an asymmetric response.

The importance of preparing their society for war is also a key lesson for Taiwan, not just for their internal unity, but also to prove to allies abroad that their support is meaningful.

Ukraine’s troops took the world by surprise in February 2022 when they defied the odds to hold off Russia’s invasion despite projections that Kyiv could fall within a matter of days.

U.S. lawmakers, who were in Taipei last week to meet with the newly inaugurated government, stressed that the societal component was critical to giving Taiwan a fighting chance in the event of an attack.

Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-Calif., noted that Taiwan’s government has taken steps to show its allies and its people that it is taking matters of defense seriously, including increasing mandatory military service time by more than double.

‘There’s a lot more work to do, and I think people here will tell you that, and I think people in America will tell you that. But the fact is, basically seeing the steps that the Taiwanese have taken from…increasing their defense budget, making it over 2%, and then… changing their conscription time from four months to a year… They understand that, basically, looking at Ukraine, that it takes more than just armaments. It takes the will to use those armaments,’ he said.

House Taiwan Caucus Co-Chair Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., said when asked if Taiwan’s residents were ready to defend their island, ‘They’re getting there.’

‘I think what’s helped strengthen the will of the people of Taiwan is that they’ve seen what Beijing has done in Hong Kong. They’re seeing what they’re doing in the [Taiwan Strait] with these military exercises,’ Barr said. 

The English-language outlet Taiwan News reported in April that 77% of young Taiwanese people were willing to fight for their country.

‘Our goal is not to think about the invasion or potential conflict, our goal is to ensure there is that deterrence by providing Taiwan what they need to protect themselves and defend themselves should there be a conflict,’ said Rep. Young Kim, R-Calif., who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Indo-Pacific subcommittee.

What has inspired some anxiety in Taiwan, however, is political infighting in the U.S. Congress that did see Ukraine get $61 billion in aid, though Kyiv’s supporters said it came six months too late and at a great cost to its forces.

Both Republicans and Democrats on the trip who spoke with Fox News Digital would not directly admit it was an issue, but Taiwanese policy experts thought differently.

‘There are latent concerns about that,’ Lai said. 

He explained that while the U.S. views Taiwan in a ‘different’ way than Ukraine – citing a ‘standing critical interest’ in Taiwan’s semiconductor industry – the island was watching the effects such delays had on Ukrainian weapons stocks closely.

‘Whether it’s a good thing or bad thing for Ukraine, is that Ukraine can have multiple sources of weapons and deliveries – not just the United States, but also from the European countries. But we can only have one from the U.S.,’ Lai said.

Dr. Ming-Shih Shen of the Institute for National Security and Defense Research, another Taiwanese think tank, said, ‘We can imagine a scenario like Ukraine’ but added that it would depend on how long Taiwan could defend itself on its own.

Embattled Sen. Bob Menendez’s son, Rep. Rob Menendez, D-N.J., has survived a primary challenge despite the criminal indictments putting his father’s political future in peril.

Menendez’s opponent was Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla, who sought to tie the first-term Democrat to his father and denounced the pair as a ‘political machine’ running Garden State politics.

‘It’s time to move on from the party bosses and Menendez machine that have dominated NJ politics. In Congress, I won’t be beholden to anyone except for the voters,’ Bhalla wrote on X Monday.

Menendez’s victory over Bhalla all but ensures his re-election in November in the safe blue district, which includes parts of Newark and Jersey City. 

The elder Menendez and his wife were hit with more than a dozen criminal charges related to accusations he used his position in the Senate to benefit Egypt’s government and interfere in cases against three New Jersey businessmen, who were also charged. 

The criminal indictments say Sen. Bob Menendez accepted bribes of cash and gold bars in exchange for aiding Cairo, a particularly damning accusation that forced him to temporarily step back from his role as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

There’s no evidence that the younger Menendez is tied to his father’s alleged crimes – however, the indictments reignited frustration among New Jersey progressives about the political dominance the Menendez family has exerted over the state for decades.

Before joining Congress in January 2023, Rob Menendez was a commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, a position he was appointed to by New Jersey’s progressive Gov. Phil Murphy.

He ran to represent New Jersey’s 8th Congressional District in 2022 after five-term former Rep. Albio Sires, D-N.J., retired, having cruised to victory with 83% of the vote.

Sires represented the 8th District after congressional maps were redrawn; he previously held the 13th District, which was also represented by Sen. Bob Menendez from 1993 until 2006, when he was elected to the Senate.

Despite his father’s political baggage, Rob Menendez clinched the support of the top three House Democrats – Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.; Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass.; and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, D-Calif.

President Biden has shown signs of poor cognitive performance in private meetings with congressional lawmakers, as his age and mental acuity continue to come into question ahead of November’s presidential election.

Biden, 81, is the oldest person to hold the presidency and has faced skepticism from voters and Republican lawmakers about his ability to do his job. Many Republicans and even some Democrats said the president showed his age in private meetings, according to The Wall Street Journal, which spoke with 45 lawmakers and administration officials about the president’s mental performance.

Most of the people interviewed by the outlet who were critical of Biden’s performance were Republicans, although some Democrats said the president showed his age in several exchanges. These interviewees participated in meetings with Biden or were briefed on them contemporaneously, including administration officials and other Democrats who did not express concerns about how the president handled the meetings.

When meeting with congressional leaders in January to negotiate a deal to send additional funding to Ukraine, Biden spoke so softly at times that some people struggled to hear him, five people familiar with the meeting told The Wall Street Journal. The president read from notes to make obvious points, paused for extended periods of time and even closed his eyes for so long that some people in the meeting wondered if he had tuned out.

In February, when Biden met one-on-one with House Speaker Mike Johnson, the president said a recent policy change by his administration that jeopardizes some big energy projects was just a study, according to six people who were told at the time about what Johnson recalled from the meeting. Johnson was concerned the president had forgotten about the details of his own policy.

Last year, when Biden was negotiating with House Republicans to lift the debt ceiling, his demeanor and command of the details appeared to change from one day to the next, then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and two others familiar with the talks said. He appeared sharp with loose and spontaneous exchanges with Republicans on one day, and mumbled and seemed to rely on notes on other days.

‘I used to meet with him when he was vice president. I’d go to his house. He’s not the same person,’ McCarthy said.

Previously having a reputation in Washington for being a master negotiator of legislative deals, possessing detailed knowledge of issues and insights into the other side’s motivations and needs and for excelling under pressure, Biden is now perceived, particularly in the last year after Republicans took control of the House, as an aging president with poor cognitive ability at times.

White House officials, however, dismissed many of the accounts from people who have met with the president or been briefed on those meetings, saying such criticisms were motivated by partisan politics.

‘Congressional Republicans, foreign leaders and nonpartisan national-security experts have made clear in their own words that President Biden is a savvy and effective leader who has a deep record of legislative accomplishment,’ White House spokesman Andrew Bates said. ‘Now, in 2024, House Republicans are making false claims as a political tactic that flatly contradict previous statements made by themselves and their colleagues.’

In Biden’s meeting on Ukraine in January, the president laid out a compelling case for providing aid, according to administration officials and some participants, who said it is common practice to use notes in these meetings. Bates also denied claims that Biden had misspoken during his meeting with Johnson in February about energy policy.

Administration aides familiar with last year’s debt-ceiling negotiations recalled that Biden was effective, that he was not directly involved and had provided detailed instructions behind the scenes. The aides said McCarthy privately told administration officials at the time that he was impressed with Biden’s performance, and that the former Speaker suggested in public remarks that the president appeared sharp.

The aides said the passage of both Ukraine funding and a debt-ceiling increase without major concessions to Republicans shows he succeeded. 

Former President Trump, Biden’s biggest threat in the presidential election, at 77-years-old, has also faced criticism over his mental acuity as he has shown signs of poor memory, giving inaccurate facts and slipping up in public remarks, allowing both Democrats and Republicans to attack their political foe over mental sharpness.

Some who attended the meetings with Biden blamed his slip-ups on his speech impediment and tendency to be long-winded. People who expressed concern about the president said the behavior they observed suggested unevenness, rather than a confused leader that some of his political opponents have described. The White House said the president’s doctors have found him fit to serve, and that his recent annual physical showed no need for a cognitive test.

Members of the administration provided several examples of other instances they say showed the president was sharp and engaged, including long hours in the Situation Room in April during and after Iran’s missile attack on Israel, and late nights on the phone with lawmakers from the White House.

Voters’ concerns about the mental acuity of Biden and Trump are shaped largely by their speeches and other public appearances.

During a campaign event in Detroit last month, Biden suggested he was vice president during the COVID-19 pandemic, which started during the Trump administration. The following day, during a Rose Garden event celebrating Jewish American Heritage month, Biden initially said one of the U.S. hostages held in Gaza was a guest at the White House event before correcting himself.

In January, Biden mixed up two of his Hispanic cabinet secretaries, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.

At a February fundraiser in New York, he recalled speaking to German Chancellor Helmut Kohl at the 2021 Group of Seven meeting, despite the fact that Kohl died in 2017. During a different fundraiser that month, he said that during the 2021 G-7 summit he had spoken to former French President François Mitterrand, who died in 1996.

Trump, meanwhile, mixed up then-Republican presidential opponent Nikki Haley with former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat congresswoman from California, during a speech in January. During a rally in Virginia in March, Trump mixed up Biden with former President Obama when commenting on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s opinion of U.S. leadership. At his criminal hush money trial in New York last month, he closed his eyes for extended periods of time.

Following the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, concerns about Trump’s mental state led some of his cabinet officials to discuss whether there should be a greater check on his power and at least one considered invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him from office.

A spokeswoman for Trump told The Wall Street Journal he is ‘sharp as a tack.’

Concerns about the president’s mental state were amplified earlier this year when Special Counsel Robert K. Hur, who interviewed him for about five hours over two days last October during an investigation into his handling of classified documents, wrote that Biden’s memory had been ‘significantly limited.’ Biden addressed Hur’s report, saying ‘I know what the hell I’m doing.’

Americans have had limited opportunities to observe Biden in unscripted moments, as he has shown a reluctance to give media interviews. By the end of April, he had given fewer interviews and press conferences than any of his recent predecessors, according to data collected by Martha Joynt Kumar, an emeritus professor at Towson University. His last town-hall-style meeting with an independent news outlet was in October 2021.

Biden has had fewer small meetings with lawmakers as his term has continued, according to visitor logs. During his first year in office, he held more than three dozen meetings of fewer than 20 lawmakers in the West Wing, even with pandemic restrictions. The number dipped to roughly two dozen in his second year, and about a dozen in his third year.

The Wall Street Journal contributed to this report.

FBI Director Christopher Wray told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Tuesday that there is an increasing concern of a potential coordinated attack in the U.S., similar to the Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) attack in March at a concert hall in Russia.

Wray met with the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies to make his case on the department’s request of $11.3 billion for FY25, or $661 million more than last year.

He told members of the subcommittee that when he met with them last year, he walked them through how the U.S. was already in a heightened threat environment, and since then, threats from foreign terrorists have risen to another level.

‘Just in the time that I’ve been FBI director, we’ve disrupted multiple terrorist attacks and cities and communities around the country. We need funding to continue protecting America from terrorism,’ he said.

Wray continued, saying since Oct. 7, the FBI has seen a ‘rogues’ gallery’ of foreign terrorist organizations call for attacks on the U.S. and its allies.

‘Given those calls for action, our most immediate concern has been that individuals or small groups will draw a twisted inspiration from the events in the Middle East to carry out attacks here at home,’ he said. ‘But now, on top of that, increasingly concerning is the potential for a coordinated attack here in the homeland, not unlike the ISIS-K attack we saw at the Russian concert hall back in March.’

On March 22, Moscow’s Crocus City concert hall was attacked by terrorists, leaving 137 people dead and over 180 wounded. The gunmen who conducted the attack were identified by Russian media as Tajik nationals. After walking in with automatic weapons, the terrorists indiscriminately opened fire on the 6,200-seat venue.

Wray also spoke about an elevated threat to the Jewish community in the U.S., which was already in place before Oct. 7, but has increased since.

He said the increase in hate crimes significantly increased by 60% in the first four months after Oct. 7.

Though not all the hate crimes targeted the Jewish community — some targeted Muslim-Americans, Arab-Americans and others — the vast majority did target Jews, Wray explained.

‘They are targeted by foreign jihadist inspired terrorists, whether it’s ISIS, al Qaeda or others,’ the FBI director said. ‘They’re targeted by Shia terrorists, Iran and its proxies. They’re targeted by domestic violent extremists, you know, white supremacists and others, as well as anarchists and some of the folks who are, you know, pro-Palestinian and so forth.

‘So, they have the tragic distinction of really being targeted by almost every type of terrorist organization there is out there, foreign and domestic, across the spectrum,’ Wray continued. ‘And so, they desperately need our help, and we’re going to give it to them.’

But in terms of the budget, Wray told the subcommittee if Congress cuts the budget, it will have ‘very significant’ consequences.

He told the lawmakers the FBI would not be able to fill about 1,000 positions, which means the work the agency is doing to protect people from terrorism would fall short.

‘That’s fewer tips and leads followed; fewer terrorist attacks detected. That’s a significant concern in a heightened terrorist threat environment,’ Wray said. ‘It helps out the terrorists, the cartels, the violent gangs, the Chinese government, the hackers, the child predators. I can go on and on.’

Wray was asked how the FBI prioritizes its resources to be able to protect communities from the various threats, and he pinpointed one major concern that drives all prioritization.

‘Terrorism, which includes both foreign terrorism and domestic terrorism, remains our number one priority,’ Wray said.

Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, R-Ky., pressed Attorney General Merrick on the constitutionality of appointing Jack Smith as special counsel in a hearing Tuesday. 

Garland testified before the House Judiciary Committee and was questioned by Massie on Smith’s appointment to oversee the classified documents and January 6 probe into former President Donald Trump. 

‘What gives you the authority to appoint a special counsel to create…you’ve created an office in the U.S. government that does not exist without authorization from Congress,’ Massie posed to Garland. 

Massie referenced amicus briefs in the cases brought by the DOJ against Trump filed by former Attorney General Ed Meese under Ronald Reagan – in which he argues that the case that Garland’s appointment of Smith — a private citizen — is in violation of the Appointments Clause of the Constitution. 

‘Not clothed in the authority of the federal government, Smith is a modern example of the naked emperor,’ the brief states. 

‘Improperly appointed, he has no more authority to represent the United States in this Court than Bryce Harper, Taylor Swift, or Jeff Bezos,’ they argued. 

Meese argues that the ‘illegality’ of Smith’s appointment is ‘sufficient to sink Smith’s petition, and the Court should deny review.’ 

Meese and company noted in the brief that Smith was appointed ‘to conduct the ongoing investigation into whether any person or entity [including former President Donald Trump] violated the law in connection with efforts to interfere with the lawful transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election or the certification of the Electoral College vote held on or about January 6, 2021.’

Garland responded to Massie that, ‘there are regulations under which the Attorney General appoint Special Counsel, they have been in effect for 30 years, maybe longer, under both parties. The matter that you’re talking about, about whether somebody can have an employee of the Justice Department serve as special counsel has been adjudicated,’ he said. 

Garland argued that special counsel appointments that he and other AGs, including Attorney General William Barr, have made cite a regulation that points to a statute. 

Meese, however, in his briefs filed in several points in the Trump cases, argued that ‘none of those statutes, nor any other statutory or constitutional provisions, remotely authorized the appointment by the Attorney General of a private citizen to receive extraordinary criminal law enforcement power under the title of Special Counsel.’

‘Second, even if one overlooks the absence of statutory authority for the position, there is no statute specifically authorizing the Attorney General, rather than the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint such a Special Counsel,’ the former AG wrote. 

Meese’s brief was even mentioned in a question by Justice Clarence Thomas in the Supreme Court oral arguments over Trump’s presidential immunity – which the high court is expected to decide this month.

‘It seems like you’ve created an office that would require an act of Congress, yet there’s not an act of Congress that authorizes that. And even if it didn’t require an act of Congress, and you’ve already admitted that there was no act of Congress that established this office, it would still require, according to the Constitution, a nomination by the President and confirmation by the Senate,’ Massie said to Garland. 

Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have launched two anti-ship ballistic missiles into the Red Sea in the past 24 hours, U.S. Central Command confirmed Tuesday, hours after Greece said attacks declined over the past week.

Central Command said ASBM’s were launched from Houthi-controlled Yemen, though there were no injuries or damage reported by U.S., coalition or commercial ships. 

‘This continued malign and reckless behavior by the Iranian-backed Houthis threatens regional stability and endangers the lives of mariners across the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden,’ Central Command said in a statement.  

Earlier Tuesday, Greek Shipping Minister Christos Stylianides credited closer international cooperation between naval missions in the Red Sea with having reduced the number of attacks by the Houthis. 

‘For us, it is a satisfaction that during the past week we see a notable reduction in the number and intensity of attacks,’ Stylianides told Reuters. ‘It is another proof that the international community with decisiveness can stop this.’ 

Houthis have been attacking shipping vessels in the Red Sea since late October. The militant group has said the attacks are in retaliation for Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza strip. 

Since November, the Houthis have launched more than 50 attacks on ships, killed three sailors, seized one vessel, and sunk another, per the U.S. Maritime Administration. 

The attacks prompted the Pentagon to launch an international mission dubbed Operation Prosperity Guardian in late December to counter the Houthi attacks. 

Over the weekend, joint British-U.S. airstrikes targeting Houthi’s in Yemen killed at least 16 people and wounded dozens more.  

Fox News’ Liz Friden and The Associated Press contributed to this report.