The North Korean government reported votes opposed to government-selected candidates in local elections for the first time in decades. 

Supreme leader Kim Jong Un’s regime said Tuesday that just under 1% of the voting population cast a ballot against the selected candidates. 

It marks the first time the government has acknowledged votes against the Workers’ Party since 1956. 

State-operated media outlet Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported 0.09% of voters submitted ballots against the party’s selected candidates for provincial assembly seats. 

KCNA also reported that 0.13% of voters voted against the ruling party in the city and county people’s assemblies.

Voter turnout across the communist hermit nation was reported at 99.63%.

It was the first election since the nation implemented reforms in August of this year allowing multiple candidates.

‘The electoral reforms may serve dual purposes: projecting an image of a forward-looking North Korea to the outside world while concurrently consolidating internal governance structures,’ the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada said in a statement.

The organization continued, ‘The introduction of multiple candidates in North Korea’s local elections, while offering more choice on the surface, does not fundamentally alter the power dynamics within the ruling party.’

Election data reported by the ruling Workers’ Party is considered utterly unreliable as supreme leader Kim Jong Un’s government maintains total control over the population and violently suppresses opposition.

The Kim family has fostered a secular religion around their dynasty since the country’s government was formed in 1948. 

The nation operates under a uniquely manipulated form of communist political philosophy known as ‘juche’ that places all functional power in the hands of a ‘supreme leader.’

State-controlled media and government communications bolster the Kim family’s status as virtual demigods, attributing them with unparalleled intelligence and a wide variety of skills.

The terrorist group Hamas transferred custody of a 10-month-old Israeli hostage and his family to another terrorist group in southern Gaza, the Israeli Defense Forces said Tuesday.

The IDF’s Arabic spokesman Avichay Adraee announced the transfer late Monday night. The family consists of the infant, Kfir; his 4-year-old brother Ariel, and their parents, Yarden, 34, and Shiri, 32. The IDF did not specify precisely which organization they have been transferred to.

‘Children and babies under the age of one who have not seen the light of day for more than fifty days are being held captive by Hamas, [who] treats some of them like loot and in some places has transferred them to other terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip,’ Adraee wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

‘For example, the Bibas family, the two red-haired children ‘The Reds,’ who were kidnapped from their home in Nir Oz by a member of the Hamas terrorist organization (pictured) and are being held in the Khan Yunis area by one of the Palestinian factions.’

The Bibas family was kidnapped in Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, when murderous Hamas terrorists rampaged through the southern part of the country and killed at least 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in their homes and at a music festival. Some 240 Israelis and foreign nationals were captured by the terrorists and taken back to Gaza as hostages. 

Video of the incident showed a terrified Shiri clutching the children in a blanket as they were bundled into captivity. Another clip showed Yarden with a head injury from hammer blows, Ofri Bibas, Yarden’s sister, said.

She told reporters the family was not to be included in the expected release of 10 hostages on Tuesday. Relatives of repatriated hostages have been informed in advance by authorities.

Bibas said Hamas’ psychological warfare is ‘working really well because the last four days [since the start of the truce] have been a big nightmare,’ according to the Times of Israel. 

‘I hope they’re not holding them as a trophy,’ she added. 

Hamas has released 50 Israeli hostages, as well as 19 foreign nationals, since Friday as part of a cease-fire agreement reached with Israel and mediated by Egypt and Qatar. Israel has freed 150 Palestinian prisoners in exchange and has increased humanitarian aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip, which has been besieged since the war started on Oct. 7. 

An estimated 170 people remain in Hamas custody in Gaza, with their locations unknown. 

‘The understanding that we will not, for now, get the hug we had so hoped for leaves us speechless,’ the Bibas’ extended family said in a statement to the media.

Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom and Reuters contributed to this report.

Americans for Prosperity Action, the political wing of the influential and deep-pocketed fiscally conservative network founded by the billionaire Koch Brothers, is endorsing Nikki Haley for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

The group, which has pledged to spend tens of millions of dollars to help push the Republican Party past former President Trump, made its announcement Tuesday morning in a memo.

AFP Action said that ‘it is proud to be throwing the full weight and scope of its grassroots operation behind Nikki Haley to help her become the next President of the United States. That effort will begin with a multimillion dollar ad campaign launching this week in all early and several Super Tuesday states calling on Americans to unite behind Haley’s positive vision to turn the page on today’s broken politics and move our country forward.’

Haley, the former two-term South Carolina governor who later served as ambassador to the United Nations in the Trump administration, launched her 2024 GOP presidential campaign in February. She’s enjoyed momentum in the polls in recent months, thanks in part to well-received performances in the first three GOP presidential primary debates. 

Haley has leapfrogged Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for second place in New Hampshire — which holds the first primary and votes second in the Republican nominating schedule — and in her home state, which holds the first southern contest. And she’s pulled even with DeSantis in some of the latest polls in Iowa, whose caucuses kick off the GOP nominating calendar on Jan. 15.

But Haley and DeSantis remain far behind Trump, who continues to hold a commanding lead over the rest of the field as the former president makes his third straight White House run.

The AFP Action endorsement should help Haley, whose campaign lacks the grassroots outreach and organizational strength that DeSantis enjoys, due to the major assist from the DeSantis-aligned super PAC Never Back Down.

The endorsement by AFP Action will likely support Haley with the group’s powerful direct-mail and field operations, as well as a major ad blitz in the early voting states. In the 2022 midterm election cycle, the group knocked on roughly 5.5 million doors, made 2 million calls, and sent out nearly 70 million pieces of mail on behalf of candidates it was backing.

AFP Action senior adviser Emily Seidel, who called her group ‘a true grassroots organization,’ highlighted that ‘when we announced our decision to engage in our first ever Republican presidential primary, we made it clear that we’d be looking for a candidate who can turn the page on our political dysfunction — and win. It’s clear that candidate is Nikki Haley.’

Seidel pledged that ‘we will be doing everything we can to help make her the next President of the United States.’ 

Haley, reacting to the endorsement, said the group’s ‘members know that there is too much at stake in this election to sit on the sidelines. This is a choice between freedom and socialism, individual liberty and big government, fiscal responsibility and spiraling debt. We have a country to save, and I’m grateful to have AFP Action by our side.’

The DeSantis campaign, reacting to the setback argued that the AFP Action endorsement of Haley will only bolster Trump as he aims to win the GOP presidential nomination.

‘Congratulations to Donald Trump on securing the Koch endorsement. Like clockwork, the pro-open borders, pro-jail break bill establishment is lining up behind a moderate who has no mathematical pathway of defeating the former president. Every dollar spent on Nikki Haley’s candidacy should be reported as an in-kind to the Trump campaign. No one has a stronger record of beating the establishment than Ron DeSantis, and this time will be no different,’ DeSantis campaign communications director Andrew Romeo charged in a statement.

DeSantis and many in his political orbit had close ties to the Koch network, and last year AFP Action endorsed DeSantis as the governor was running for re-election in Florida.

The Trump-aligned super PAC Make America Great Again Inc. also blasted the endorsement.

‘Americans for Prosperity has already lit millions of dollars on fire this primary only to watch President Donald Trump’s lead grow. No amount of money can break the bond President Trump has with voters. He kept his promises,’ MAGA Inc. spokesperson Karoline Leavitt argued in a statement.

Separately, the Democratic National Committee took aim at Haley and AFP, which has long been a DNC target.

‘It’s no surprise the Koch network, architects of Trump’s MAGAnomics agenda, found their match in Nikki Haley, who checks all of their boxes: slashing taxes for the ultra-wealthy, gutting Social Security and Medicare, and ripping health care away from millions of Americans,’ DNC national press secretary Sarafina Chitika claimed in a statement.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., accused the Biden administration of enabling ‘gross human rights violations’ in Gaza by sending military aid to Israel as it seeks to eradicate Hamas.

The progressive lawmaker held a tele-town hall on Monday evening where she fielded multiple questions on the Middle Eastern conflict, including a constituent who said the U.S. should ‘just defund Israel and send funding and aid to Gaza.’

She also encouraged pro-Palestinian activists to keep putting pressure on Democratic lawmakers to support a cease-fire, even as heightened tensions around the issue have led to instances of vandalism and threatening behavior. 

‘Forces that are recipients of U.S. military aid cannot be engaging in gross human rights violations,’ Ocasio-Cortez said, citing a set of statutes known as the Leahy law. ‘And if they are engaged in gross human rights violations, then that aid must be either pulled, reconsidered, conditioned, etc.’

The Leahy law stops the government ‘from using funds for assistance to units of foreign security forces where there is credible information implicating that unit in the commission of gross violations of human rights,’ according to the State Department.

‘What we are witnessing is the gross violation of human rights in Gaza, and that is being done with U.S. military assistance,’ Ocasio-Cortez said. ‘I don’t think that the American people want to see our public resources going to finance gross human rights violations.’

At another point, a caller asked what Americans who support a cease-fire should do to keep pressuring lawmakers. Ocasio-Cortez replied, ‘I want to also be clear about how powerful that is, constituent engagement.’

She said the flood of calls and messages from pro-Palestinian activists to pro-Israel Democrats was increasing support for a cease-fire.

‘These are not just progressives,’ she said. ‘We have seen representatives from swing seats, that just barely won their seats, are now starting to come out in favor of a cease-fire. So all of this activism is making this a politically tenable and a politically normalized position. So I want to encourage individuals who are, you know, making that call or perhaps if you haven’t made that call yet, to please do so.’

But some of that pressure has led to heightened security concerns when the activism goes beyond phone calls. Rep. Daniel Goldman, D-N.Y., who is Jewish, saw his Brooklyn office vandalized earlier this month with pro-Palestinian messaging. 

And a demonstration outside the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters grew so heated that one Democratic lawmaker who was inside at the time compared it to the violent Jan. 6, 2021, protest at the U.S. Capitol.

One of the recently released Hamas hostages had previously escaped imprisonment and survived for days in the rubble of Gaza before locals recaptured him, according to a report. 

‘He tried getting to the border. But he didn’t have the capacity to understand where he was or where he needed to go, so he couldn’t navigate through the open field,’ Ron Krivoi’s aunt, who spoke about his struggle during an appearance on KAN’s Reshet Bet radio on Monday morning. 

Russian-Israeli Krivoi departed Gaza as part of the third group released as part of a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas brokered through Qatar. Both parties agreed Tuesday to extend the cease-fire by two days, conditional on the release of more hostages. 

The 25-year-old was working at the Supernova festival on Oct. 7 as a sound technician when Hamas terrorists attacked, according to The Times of Israel. Russian President Vladimir Putin had personally requested Hamas include Krivoi in the second wave of released hostages as part of a separate deal. 

Krivoi’s aunt claimed that he had not remained imprisoned the entire time, having briefly escaped and survived for four days in the ruins of the Gaza Strip, The Jerusalem Post reported.

She explained that Hamas had kept him in a residential building during his imprisonment, but then the Israel Defense Force’s bombing had collapsed part of the building and allowed him to escape. 

Krivoi remained on the run for four days, but locals managed to finally locate and recapture Krivoi, after which they handed him over to Hamas terrorists.

His aunt described her immense relief after his release, revealing that when she asked him if he had any nightmares, he said, ‘Yes, I have nightmares about the party and from being in captivity, but everything is alright now.’ 

‘He has some other injuries as well,’ his aunt said, describing wounds he suffered from the building’s collapse and a head wound. ‘He is under medical observation, but he is okay.’ 

Eleven Israeli women and children, freed by Hamas, entered Israel Monday night after more than seven weeks in captivity in Gaza in the fourth swap under the original four-day truce, which began Friday and was due to run out.

Israel has said it would extend the cease-fire by one day for every 10 additional hostages released. After the announcement by Qatar, Hamas confirmed it had agreed to a two-day extension ‘under the same terms.’

Monday’s releases brings the number to 51 Israelis freed under the truce, along with 19 hostages of other nationalities. So far, 150 Palestinians have been released from Israeli prisons.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Presidential candidate and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy clapped back at Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, a longtime vocal critic of former President Trump, after he said he would rather support ‘a number of Democrats’ over Trump and Ramaswamy in the 2024 election.

‘Turns out he’s opposed to America-First itself, not just one man. Newsflash, Mitt: I didn’t vote for you either, and I still call on your niece Ronna to resign,’ Ramaswamy told Fox News Digital in a statement Monday. Ronna McDaniel is chair of the Republican National Committee.

Ramaswamy’s response comes after Romney said to CBS’ Norah O’Donnell that he’d ‘be happy to support virtually any one of the Republicans’ except Ramaswamy, and that a ‘number of the Democrats’ would be an upgrade from Trump. 

‘Maybe not Vivek, but the others that are running would be acceptable to me, and I’d be happy to vote for them,’ Romney stated. 

‘I’d be happy to vote for a number of the Democrats, too. I mean, it would be an upgrade, in my opinion, from Donald Trump – and perhaps also from Joe Biden,’ he continued. 

Romney’s comments, which aired on CBS last month, went widely unnoticed until this week.

In an emailed statement Tuesday to Fox News Digital, a Trump spokesperson said, ‘Voters aren’t going to take advice from a loser and quitter like Mittens.’

Romney, a former presidential candidate, will not be running for re-election in 2024 and announced in September his retirement from the Senate.

‘I have spent my last 25 years in public service of one kind or another. At the end of another term, I’d be in my mid-eighties. Frankly, it’s time for a new generation of leaders. They’re the ones that need to make the decisions that will shape the world they will be living in,’ Romney said in a statement obtained by Fox News Digital in September.

‘We face critical challenges – mounting national debt, climate change, and the ambitious authoritarians of Russia and China. Neither President Biden nor former President Trump are leading their party to confront them,’ Romney said.

Trump called Romney’s retirement ‘fantastic news’ for America, Utah and the Republican Party on TruthSocial shortly after his announcement, NBC News reported at the time. Romney was one of the Republicans who voted to impeach the former president twice. 

Romney’s term ends in January 2025.

He was first elected to the Senate from Utah in 2018, winning the GOP primary in a landslide.

But his willingness to reach across the aisle and criticize other national Republicans has caused friction with the Utah GOP. Last month, more than 60 GOP Utah state lawmakers endorsed Utah state House Speaker Brad Wilson to mount a primary challenge against Romney. 

Fox News Digital has reached out to Romney’s office and the RNC for comment.