EXCLUSIVE: Americans’ confidence in the U.S. presidency has hit its lowest point ever under President Joe Biden’s administration, the annual Reagan National Defense Survey has found.

According to the survey, just 36% of American adults said they had either a ‘great deal’ or ‘some’ confidence in the presidency, while 17% said they had ‘a little,’ and 47% said ‘not much at all.’

Those numbers continue a downward trend since the survey was first taken under former President Donald Trump’s administration in Nov. 2018, when 44% said they had a ‘great deal’ or ‘some’ confidence in the presidency. The number of those having not much confidence at all has held steady since then.

The survey also found that just 38% held a favorable view of Biden and 59% an unfavorable view. Trump fared significantly better with a 47% favorable rating and 50% unfavorable rating.

Biden’s favorability has fallen sharply since Feb. 2021, just after his inauguration in January that year, when it stood at 53%.

When asked about the 2024 presidential election, 63% of likely Republican voters said they wanted to see Trump as the party’s nominee, followed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at 10%, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley at 8%, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy at 4% and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at 1%. All other candidates received less than 1%.

In a hypothetical 2024 matchup, Trump bested Biden 42% to 36%, with 9% saying they would support another candidate, and 9% saying they would not vote.

The results come as part of the survey’s 6th year and 10th Reagan National Defense Forum. It included the participation of 2,506 U.S. adults surveyed from Oct. 27 to Nov. 5.

Hamas on Wednesday handed over 16 more hostages — including 12 Israelis — on the last day of an extended cease-fire with Israel.

The latest round of hostages included a group of 10 Israeli women and children, and four Thai nationals. Hamas handed over the hostages to the Israeli military late Wednesday. Their release was expected to be followed by Israel freeing 30 Palestinian prisoners.

Two Russian-Israeli women were also freed earlier Wednesday evening after being held captive by Hamas, and have arrived back in Israel.

The names of Wednesday’s hostages are as follows: Liat Beinin Atzili, 49; Raaya Rotem, 54; Raz Ben Ami, 57; Yarden Roman Gat, 36; Moran Stela Yanai, 40; Liam Or, 18; Ofir Engel, 18; Amit Shani, 16; Gali Tarshansky, 13; and Itay Regev, 18. 

The Russian-Israeli women are Irena Tatti, 73, and Elena Trufanova, 50. 

As of Wednesday, Hamas has released 60 Israeli women and children 21 people of other nationalities. There are believed to be 159 hostages still in the custody of Hamas or other terrorist groups. 

The latest released hostages were expected to undergo an initial medical assessment. IDF soldiers were to stay with them until they could be reunited with their families. 

The cease-fire, which began Friday, was expected to expire Monday, but was extended two more days. International mediators are working to extend the cease-fire again before it expires once again. 

Israel has agreed to extend the truce by one day for every 10 militant-held hostages who are freed. However, Israel has vowed to resume the war in an effort to end Hamas’ 16-year rule of Gaza, but it’s facing mounting international pressure to extend the truce and spare southern Gaza a devastating ground offensive like the one that has demolished much of the north.

Roughly 240 hostages were captured by Hamas in its Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel that ignited the war. More than 13,300 Palestinians have been killed since the war began, according to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry in Gaza. About 1,200 people have been killed in Israel, mostly during the initial incursion by Hamas.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

It’s a high-profile general election-style debate amid the presidential primary season, pitting two relatively young and very well-known governors of large states who have a knack for grabbing national attention.

Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom of California and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who have been trading fire for nearly two years, will tangle once again on Thursday. But this time, their slugfest will be face-to-face in prime time.

DeSantis, who is running for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, and Newsom — who Republican critics charge is running a shadow campaign for the White House even though he repeatedly stomps on such speculation as ‘ridiculous’ — will face off in a debate moderated by Fox News opinion host Sean Hannity.

The showdown is titled ‘DeSantis vs. Newsom: The Great Red vs. Blue State Debate.’ It takes place in northern Georgia, in the booming city of Alpharetta, which is part of metropolitan Atlanta. Georgia, once a deep-red state, has become a top general election battleground between the two major political parties.

Even before their face-to-face meeting, verbal shots were already fired by the two contenders.

‘He caters to a very far-left slice of the electorate. I think that will be on display when we have the debate,’ DeSantis said as he spoke with Fox News Digital last week on the presidential campaign trail.

Newsom, in a recent appearance on Fox News’ ‘Hannity,’ said of DeSantis: ‘I don’t like people who demonize other people or go after vulnerable communities. I also don’t like liars.’

DeSantis, once the clear alternative to former President Trump in the 2024 GOP nomination race, has seen his standing erode over the summer and autumn. He’s currently battling with former U.N. Ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley for second place in the polls, far behind Trump, who remains the commanding Republican front-runner as he makes his third straight White House run.

Pundits see the ‘Hannity’ showdown as a possible breakout opportunity for DeSantis a week ahead of the fourth GOP presidential nomination debate. And the DeSantis campaign frames it as a potential general election preview.

Newsom is one of the most high-profile surrogates for President Biden, who’s running for a second term.

The 81-year-old president, saddled for more than two years with underwater approval ratings, has increasingly in recent months faced questions about his physical and cognitive ability to serve another four years in the White House. And Biden narrowly trails Trump in many of the most recent polls that look ahead to a likely 2024 general election matchup.

While Newsom has repeatedly shot down speculation that he would run for the White House next year should something happen to Biden, a well-publicized trip by the California governor to Israel and China last month sparked further buzz about his possible 2024 ambitions.

DeSantis, speaking with Fox News Digital, said, ‘I’ve been warning Republican voters … it may not be Biden in 2024.’

‘This guy is running a shadow campaign. He denies it, but even people in his own party are saying it,’ DeSantis said of Newsom. ‘You have [Vice President] Harris, you have a lot of these other people who could end up running in 2024 if Biden’s not able to do it. I think there’s a lot of people in the Democratic Party who do not want Biden to run. Ultimately, it’s going to be his decision, but I think there’s a lot of pressure there for him to take a step back.’

On the eve of the debate, DeSantis campaign manager James Uthmeier said that ‘as Democrats ramp up their efforts to replace the historically unpopular and failed Joe Biden as their nominee, Ron DeSantis’ showdown with Gavin Newsom is even more timely. A Newsom presidency would accelerate America’s decline, and Nov. 30 will be the first chance to expose to a national audience just how dangerous his radical ideology would be for the country.’

The DeSantis campaign argues that the debate ‘will be the first chance for Republicans to contrast our vision for the future of the country with the failed agenda of someone who very well could become the Democrats’ nominee.’

Newsom spokesperson Nathan Click told Fox News to expect the California governor ‘to defend the president and use the opportunity to take on the misinformation machine at its headwaters.’

Click said Newsom is under ‘no illusions — this is a 2-on-1 match with the refs in the tank for the home team. But Gov. Newsom has long believed that Democrats have to go on offense in enemy territory, and that’s exactly what he intends to do.’

But Hannity, despite his conservative bent, has pledged fairness to both Newsom and DeSantis in the debate.

Both governors have outsized national profiles, run the nation’s first- and third-most populous states, and overwhelmingly won gubernatorial reelections last year, when their rivalry really heated up.

In 2022, Newsom went up with an ad on Florida airwaves that targeted DeSantis’ culture war approach to politics and policies: ‘Freedom, it’s under attack in your state. Republican leaders, they’re banning books, making it harder to vote, restricting speech in classrooms, even criminalizing women and doctors,’ Newsom argued in his spot.

DeSantis, who became a hero to conservatives nationwide for his pushback against coronavirus pandemic restrictions, earlier this year called San Francisco — the city where Newsom once served two terms as mayor — a ‘dumpster fire.’

The governors — who’ve long battled on social media over their very different COVID policies — this year have traded fire over the move by DeSantis to fly migrants to California. The Florida governor has made border security a top issue in recent years and has repeatedly highlighted his efforts on the 2024 Republican presidential campaign trail.

Earlier this month, a Newsom-aligned political group started running an ad on Fox News’ ‘Hannity’ that slammed DeSantis over the six-week abortion ban in Florida that he signed into law earlier this year.

Longtime Republican strategist and communicator Ryan Williams suggests the debate could be a win for both DeSantis and Newsom.

‘They’re perfect foils for one another. They both lead some of the biggest states in the country. They both have very prominent roles in their respective parties, and they both love attention,’ Williams told Fox News.

Williams, a veteran of numerous presidential and statewide campaigns, noted that ‘it’s in their best interests to attack one another. It gets both of their bases riled up. And it gives them a national platform to fight with each other.’

Fox News’ Joseph Wulfsohn contributed to this report.

A Chinese official who has praised the CCP and denied China’s persecution against the Uyghurs has appeared at another high profile event in the United States, this time meeting with leaders of one of the nation’s top universities. 

‘Paid a visit to the prestigious Princeton University and had fruitful discussions with Madame Provost Jennifer Rexford and fellow colleagues today,’ Huang Ping, consul General of the People’s Republic of China in New York, posted on X this week along with a photo of Ping with Princeton Provost Jennifer Rexford.

‘Exciting plans are underway to expand partnerships between PU and Chinese universities, fostering high-level academic exchanges and cooperation,’ his post continued.

Huang Ping, who’s been the consul general of China’s New York Consulate since 2018, previously called the CCP a ‘great party’ and has denied that China is targeting the Muslim Uyghur population in China. 

‘There are lots of lies here, fabricated by some people with their own political agenda,’ Huang said in an August 2021 interview, denying the existence of genocide and internment camps targeting Uyghurs. ‘As I said, there’s no genocide, not a single evidence to prove that there’s a genocide or something there. It’s just a slandering.’

The Princeton visit comes weeks after Ping visited one of the largest media companies in the United States.

‘Chinese Consul General Huang Ping visits Condé Nast and meets with Chief Executive Officer Roger Lynch and Global Chief Revenue Officer Pam Drucker Mann to talk about the growth of the Chinese market,’ a post on the website of Condé Nast, a U.S. mass media company that owns brands such as Vogue, The New Yorker, GQ, and Glamour, stated on Nov. 2.

Shortly before visiting Conde Naste, Ping was in Pennsylvania meeting with Democratic lawmakers, business leaders, and University of Pennsylvania scholars.

The Pennsylvania visit wasn’t the first time Ping has met with Democratic lawmakers. Fox News Digital previously reported that Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Ping met in April 2019 when she was the lieutenant governor to discuss cooperation between New York and China. The post includes a picture of them standing beside each other and smiling while holding a certificate that she presented to him for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. In early 2021, he called her an ‘old friend’ in a Facebook post, featuring a video of her, and has attended other events with her. 

He also stood onstage beside New York City’s Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, earlier this month at the China Day Celebration Parade Festival in New York, according to a press release.

Ping’s many trips and visits with prominent American figures come at a time when many are concerned about China’s increased influence in the United States which includes alleged spying at universities, buying up farmland, and encroaching on intellectual property. 

Princeton declined to comment when contacted by Fox News Digital on the nature of the meeting and whether the school was aware of Ping’s previous comments.

Fox News Digital’s Cameron Cawthorne and Jessica Chasmar contributed to this report

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who died Wednesday at age 100, exerted far-reaching influence on global affairs under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford between 1969 and 1977, earning both vilification and the Nobel Peace Prize.

Here are five things to know about his life in government and beyond:

HIS PORTFOLIO

For eight restless years — first as national security adviser, later as secretary of state, and for a time as both — Kissinger played a dominant role in foreign policy. 

He conducted the first ‘shuttle diplomacy’ in the quest for Middle East peace. He used secret negotiations to restore ties between the United States and China. He initiated the Paris talks that ultimately provided a face-saving means to get the United States out of war in Vietnam. And he pursued detente with the Soviet Union that led to arms-control agreements.

HIS BOSS

Kissinger’s power grew during the turmoil of the Watergate scandal, when the politically attuned diplomat took on a role akin to co-president to the weakened Nixon. ‘No doubt my vanity was piqued,’ Kissinger later wrote of his expanding influence during Watergate. ‘But the dominant emotion was a premonition of catastrophe.’ 

Kissinger told colleagues at the White House that he was the one person who kept Nixon, ‘that drunken lunatic,’ from doing things that would ‘blow up the world,’ according to Walter Isaacson, who wrote the 1992 biography ‘Kissinger.’

HIS CACHET

Pudgy and messy, Kissinger acquired a reputation as a ladies’ man in the staid Nixon administration. Kissinger called women ‘a diversion, a hobby.’ Isaacson wrote that Hollywood executives were eager to set him up with starlets, whom Kissinger squired to premieres and showy restaurants. His companions included Jill St. John, Shirley MacLaine, Marlo Thomas, Candice Bergen and Liv Ullmann. 

In a poll of Playboy Club Bunnies in 1972, the man dubbed ‘Super-K’ by Newsweek finished first as ‘the man I would most like to go out on a date with.’ Kissinger’s explanation: ‘Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.’

HIS CRITICS

Kissinger for decades battled the notion that he and Nixon had settled in 1972 for peace terms in Vietnam that had been available in 1969 and thus had needlessly prolonged the war at the cost of tens of thousands of American lives. 

He was castigated for authorizing telephone wiretaps of reporters and his own National Security Council staff to plug news leaks in Nixon’s White House. He was denounced on college campuses for the bombing and allied invasion of Cambodia in April 1970, intended to destroy North Vietnamese supply lines to communist forces in South Vietnam. 

That ‘incursion,’ as Nixon and Kissinger called it, was blamed by some for contributing to Cambodia’s fall into the hands of Khmer Rouge insurgents.

HIS LATER YEARS

Kissinger cultivated the reputation of respected elder statesman, giving speeches, offering advice to Republican and Democratic presidents alike and managing a lucrative global consulting business as he traveled the world. 

But records from the Nixon era, released over the years, brought with them revelations that sometimes cast him in a harsh light. Kissinger was dogged by critics at home and abroad who argued that he should be called to account for his policies on Southeast Asia and support of repressive regimes in Latin America. 

He had to think twice before traveling to certain countries to be sure that he would not be summoned by judges seeking to question him about Nixon-era actions.