One of the U.S.’s closest Mideast allies, Jordan, has been hit by demonstrations that, according to some analysts, have spilled over into a serious threat to the Hashemite Kingdom with open declarations of support for the Hamas terrorist organization.

Jordan’s government has been one of the most vocal opponents of Israel’s war to root out Hamas terrorists from Gaza after the jihadi movement slaughtered 1,200 people on Oct. 7, including many Americans.

Jordan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi declared in November that ‘Hamas is an idea and ideas do not die.’ Jordan’s Queen Rania cast doubt in a CNN interview on whether Hamas really committed atrocities on Oct. 7.

Veteran experts on Jordan view King Abdullah II and his inner circle as contributing, directly and indirectly, to the unrest that could potentially dislodge his regime.

The former Israeli ambassador to Jordan, Jacob Rosen, told Fox News Digital that ‘Jordan is walking on a very tight rope. The authorities let the Muslim Brotherhood under whatever cover they operate to voice out their message, but they disperse any demonstrations [that]] may go ‘wrong’ or to turn against the government itself.’

Rosen, who speaks fluent Arabic and is a leading expert on the Hashemite Kingdom, added that Jordan ‘operates for some years a military hospital in Gaza, which has no choice but to be in contact with whoever is in control there. There is also a sizable contingent of Gazans in Jordan (at least 300,000), which has to be considered.’

‘Parallel to that, the minister of foreign affairs, Ayman Safadi, has a free hand with anti-Israeli rhetoric accusing Israel of genocide and warning against ethnic cleansing. But in any case, Jordan cannot condemn Hamas directly but let some publicists or ex-ministers to do that.’

Last week, protesters chanted, ‘We are your men, Sinwar.’ Yehya Sinwar is the Hamas mastermind behind the Oct. 7 attack and is believed to be hiding in Gaza’s vast underground tunnel system.

Walid Phares, an expert in foreign policy, told Fox News Digital, ‘What is happening in Jordan now, while it appears as chaotic, is in fact tightly organized by Hamas, the larger Muslim Brotherhood network and the Iran regime. The protests against the Israeli Embassy and spillover in Amman’s streets are the result of tightly coordinated moves by the Iran and Ikhwan networks, with the real target being the Hashemite Kingdom itself.’

The term ‘Ikhwan’ is an Arabic word that refers to the Muslim Brotherhood. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt have classified the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization.

Indeed, just this week, the former Jordanian minister of information, Samih Al-Maaytah, said on the Saudi Arabian TV network Al Arabiya, ‘The Hamas leaders in Qatar have incited the Jordanian public, and they are inciting the tribes, inciting people to take to the streets and to chant new [anti-Jordanian] slogans. They are trying to say to Jordan, ‘We own the Jordanian public.” The U.S.-based Middle East Media Research Institute first located and translated Al-Maaytah’s comments.

It was also reported in Israeli media that Al-Maaytah told another Saudi channel, AlHadath, that Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal was sowing discord among Palestinian clans in the kingdom. Al-Maaytah suggested that Meshaal be stripped of his Jordanian citizenship as well as those stoking conflict.

Phares, the author of ‘Iran: An Imperialist Republic and U.S. Policy,’ said, ‘Some in Israel and the U.S. assert that the queen and foreign minister ‘contributed’ in encouraging demonstrations against Israel. But an examination of the domestic situation in Jordan shows that the royal government had to show that they are in solidarity with the Palestinian people as a way to avert an intifada waged by Hamas, precisely. Jordanians argue that had the U.S. administration not been so attached to the Iran deal, Hamas wouldn’t have been encouraged to attack Israel, and Arab allies would have acted differently and earlier.’

He continued, ‘Hence, we know that Tehran and Damascus have been targeting the Hashemite Kingdom for years, and now it looks like they’ve unleashed their supporters against the regime.’

The fragility of Jordan’s kingdom has made it a target for past efforts to oust the king. The nation does not have an oil and gas industry. The unemployment rate is more than 20% and the kingdom has made no real effort to heighten awareness about the need for peace with Israel’s population following the 1994 peace accord between the Jewish state and Amman.

Phares said that ‘Almost half of the Jordanian population is of Palestinian descent, and an attempt by Yasser Arafat and the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization), backed by the Assad regime [in Syria], to take over the country was averted by the loyal Jordanian armed forces.’

‘The more Israel closed in on Hamas the more the Islamists of Jordan closed in on the Jordanian government,’ he continued. ‘Obviously, the best gate for Iran and the Brotherhood – read, Hamas – to ignite an intifada in the kingdom is a series of violent protests against the Israeli Embassy to appear in sync with the protests everywhere else. But the second stage is in the form of clashes with Jordanian security forces. This old Bolshevik and later jihadi tactic aims at putting large segments of society against their own armed forces, which I believe is the ultimate goal of the Iran axis. It is about taking out Jordan as a Western ally and spread chaos, leading to sending militias across the borders.’

President Biden met with Abdullah in February at the White House, where the leaders discussed the war in Gaza. King Abdullah said, ‘We cannot afford an Israeli attack on Rafah,’ adding that ‘It is certain to produce another humanitarian catastrophe.’ The last vestiges of Hamas’ battalions are in the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip. Hamas is also holding more than 100 hostages who are believed to be in Rafah.

Biden thanked Jordan at the meeting for its humanitarian aid to Gaza, stating, ‘We’re grateful to our partners and allies like the king who work with us every single day to advance security and stability across the region and beyond. It’s difficult times like these when the bonds between nations are more important than ever.’

Biden said at the meeting with the king that a Palestinian state could lead to stability and peace with Israel’s Arab neighbors.

‘That effort was underway before the Oct. 7 attacks,’ Biden said, adding, ‘It’s even more urgent today.’

The mood in Israel, however, largely contradicts Biden’s optimism, as most Israelis see the two-state solution as a kind of dead-man-walking idea after more than 70 years of failed attempts.

An unnamed Jordanian official condemned the protests by saying, ‘Hamas is inciting and trying to ignite unrest inside the kingdom. We will not allow it to achieve its goal.’

The growing Iranian threat to Jordan’s government further surfaced when a security official from the pro-Iran regime militia said about intervention in the Hashemite Kingdom: ‘The ‘Islamic Resistance in Iraq’ is ready to meet the needs of 12,000 fighters … so that we can stand united in defending our brothers in Palestine.’ 

The security situation for Jordan appears to be raising alarm bells within the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank (known as Judea and Samaria in Israel).

‘The President of the PA, Mahmoud Abbas, spoke with King Abdullah II on Tuesday and reiterated during the call Palestine’s stand in solidarity with the Kingdom of Jordan, headed by King Abdullah II,’ according to the Palestinian WAFA news agency. WAFA also wrote, ‘President Abbas stressed the complete rejection of all attempts to tamper with Jordan’s security and stability or attempts to exploit the suffering of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip to tamper with the Jordanian arena, affirming the rejection of any external interference in the internal Jordanian affairs.’

The external interference is an apparent reference to the pro-Iranian regime proxies in Iraq.

A Jordanian government spokesperson had ‘No comment’ when asked by Fox News Digital about the recent unrest in Amman, anti-Israel rhetoric from the government, and whether Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood should be designated as terrorist organizations.

The Biden administration is preparing to soon finalize highly anticipated standards targeting menthol cigarettes despite heavy opposition from small business, civil rights, law enforcement and free market consumer groups.

The regulations, which would broadly ban the product, were first proposed by the Food and Drug Administration two years ago and have sparked a contentious debate between health advocates and civil liberties and business groups. The FDA has repeatedly missed target dates for finalizing the proposed ban, the latest of which was earlier this week.

‘The FDA remains committed to issuing the tobacco product standards for menthol in cigarettes and characterizing flavors in cigars as expeditiously as possible; these rules have been submitted to the [Office of Management and Budget] for review, which is the final step in the rulemaking process,’ an FDA spokesperson told Fox News Digital. ‘As we’ve made clear, these product standards remain at the top of our priorities.’

The spokesperson said the agency, which handed the regulations off to the White House Office of Management and Budget for final approval months ago, is limited from discussing the process further since the proposal remains pending. White House spokesperson Kelly Scully declined to comment, also noting the rulemaking process is ongoing.

But the Biden administration’s continued delays in finalizing the regulations has caused angst among proponents of banning menthol cigarettes, many of whom have argued such an action is vital for achieving goals laid out in President Biden’s ‘Cancer Moonshot’ initiative. The administration was first expected to finalize the ban in August 2023, meaning its delays have stretched more than seven months.

‘This continued inaction is a shocking deference to the tobacco industry, which has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness to profit from products that result in death,’ said Karen Knudsen, the CEO of the American Cancer Society and its affiliate Cancer Action Network.

Opponents of the ban expressed optimism that their advocacy has resonated with White House officials, potentially prompting them to reconsider the ban. Associations representing convenience stores, police, consumers and minority groups have warned a ban on menthol cigarettes could foster a black market while punishing small business owners and minorities who are the largest consumers of the product.

According to OMB filings, the White House and FDA have convened a flurry of meetings on the proposal with a wide range of stakeholders, including proponents, such as the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network and American Lung Association, and opponents, such as the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS), National Organization of Black Law Enforcement and National Action Network.

‘The proposed ban would have the exact opposite results that proponents have championed,’ NACS said in a statement to Fox News Digital. ‘We hope that FDA is reconsidering its policy in light of the evidence that these types of bans simply don’t work.’

‘The proposed ban, while well-intentioned, could have had far-reaching economic consequences for convenience stores by cutting 30% of sales and the livelihoods of over 600,000 workers,’ said Javier Palomarez, the president and CEO of the U.S. Hispanic Business Council (USHBC).

NACS, USHBC and other opponents of the regulations have pointed to data from states that have banned menthol cigarettes, arguing such policies don’t work.

According to NACS, the rule would lead to a reduction of $72,285 a year in non-tobacco sundry sales and $160,107 a year in tobacco product sales for the typical convenience store nationwide. The organization claims the convenience store industry could collectively lose $2.16 billion in sales because of the new regulations. 

Groups representing minorities, like the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement and the nonprofit National Action Network, the latter which was founded by civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton, argue that banning menthol cigarettes while not restricting non-menthol cigarettes ‘puts a microscope on minority communities.’ They say it could increase the probability of negative interactions between police and minorities.

The National Organization of Black Law Enforcement, National Action Network, National Newspaper Publishers Association and civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump met with Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, FDA Commissioner Robert Califf and Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden to discuss the proposal in November.

The FDA first issued the product standards to prohibit menthol as a characterizing flavor in cigarettes and prohibit all characterizing flavors other than tobacco in cigars in April 2022. The agency said the move would reduce disease and death from tobacco product use by reducing youth experimentation and addiction, while increasing the number of smokers that might quit.

Tobacco smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death nationwide, according to the FDA. In proposing the rules, the FDA cited its congressional authority to adopt tobacco product standards.

‘US election: Donald Trump 7/4 favourite for White House return.’

That was the headline at the United Kingdom’s Ladbrokes’ betting emporium —in July of last year! I have to think the line there is moving in Donald Trump’s favor every week. President Joe Biden isn’t exactly a ‘dead candidate walking’—he was a 2:1 bet in the same bookie forum at the same time—but between the Wall Street Journal and Fox News polls this week, you have to love 45’s odds over 46.

I think Trump enters ‘mortal lock’ territory if he picks a ‘normie Republican’ as his running mate. People simply don’t vote for the second name on the ticket, but they do factor it in, especially when the contrast will be with Vice President Harris. If Trump picks Senator Tom Cotton, Senator Joni Ernst or former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo—all veterans, all disciplined campaigners and serious voices on national security—I think Trump can order the drapes for the Oval the second time. Give the establishment GOP, the RINOs, the independents and even the old school Democrats who believed in national defense something to cling to and Trump wins most of them. These three are all conservative but they are conservatives with whom most ‘normies’ are very comfortable.

The issues are set and they favor Trump. An easy way to remember them is with the mnemonic AABCDEII: Afghanistan and appeasement, border, crime, ‘DEI’ and inflation. You could add another ‘E’ for ‘education’ and make it AABCDEEII, but some folks remain queasy over ‘school choice.’

I don’t. ‘Choice’ is established and working in Arizona, Iowa, Ohio, Florida and elsewhere, but is still blocked in Texas. I think ‘school choice’ is a winner with parents, but haven’t heard much yet from the former president on saving kids from broken public schools where the expansion of administrators at the expense of classroom teachers is mind-boggling.

There is also the endless ‘lawfare’ being waged against Trump, and any fair-minded American is repulsed by it. The absurd circus in the New York civil ‘fraud’ case alerted the center-right and center-left voters that the Empire State is no place for Republicans or even moderate Democrats to do business if they fall afoul of the political interest of that state’s Attorney General Leticia James and end up in the courtroom of a judge from the left. That charade was bad for every business in New York.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is about to increase Trump’s lead with Bragg’s joke of a criminal prosecution. Listen to former Southern District of New York Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew McCarthy’s podcast, ‘The McCarthy Report,’ to get the honest-to-goodness assessment of this ridiculous prosecution. Now, I don’t think Trump can get a fair trial from the presiding judge there either or from the Manhattan jury pool, so I expect a conviction unless one courageous juror with a brain gets on the jury and simply refuses to be part of this Big Apple witch-hunt.

But I also don’t think a conviction in Manhattan will in any way hurt Trump. Legacy media is betting everything on a conviction arriving on the bizarre theory Bragg cooked up actually hurting Trump, but they don’t get out much from their Blue Bubbles. ‘Normies’ know what’s going on here. And they don’t like it, no matter how often NBC and MSNBC hosts and ‘analysts’ scream at them that they must DQ the former president if he’s convicted, even if it is a show trial in a kangaroo court. They are all lefties—all of them—and they don’t understand that the public generally understands—and loathes—’lawfare.’

7-4 is a good line for Trump right now. I suspect it will even be better in May and then pop more with his VP choice. Which leads to the key question.

When do Democrats panic (if they haven’t already?) The obviously infirm president who can’t even do an interview with Stephen Colbert without former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton flanking him and propping him up, is fading in real time. But no one has stepped out yet asking for an ‘open convention’ which will be the ‘Go!’ signal to California Governor Gavin Newsom and many others in the wings. (The GOP’s nightmare is Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro as the Democratic nominee, with VP Harris sticking in the #2 position.)

The polls are great for Trump and awful for Biden. The cake seems baked absent some extraordinary event and a Manhattan show trial isn’t going to be such an event no matter the result.

Democrats gavel in their Chicago convention on August 19. I don’t know if Ladbrokes has opened a line yet on whether somebody other than Biden is the actual Democrat nominee come, but if I was in England, I’d be stopping by to place some quid on ‘somebody else’ right now. 

Hugh Hewitt is one of the country’s leading journalists of the center-right. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996, where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990, and it is today syndicated to hundreds of stations and outlets across the country every Monday through Friday morning. Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and this column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcast, and this column previews the lead story that will drive his radio show today.

Former President Trump and the Republican National Committee raked in a substantial amount of cash in March, possibly assuaging concerns among some in the GOP over the campaign fundraising deficit they face against President Biden and the Democratic National Committee.

Fox News Digital confirmed Trump and the RNC brought in $65.6 million in March and ended the month with $93.1 million in cash on hand. The figures include money raised by a number of fundraising committees.

‘President Donald J. Trump has again created a fundraising juggernaut among Republicans. While he has been the presumptive nominee for the Republican Party for less than a month, the RNC and Trump campaign are one unified operation and focused on victory,’ RNC Chairman Michael Whatley said in a statement. 

We’re raising funds and making strategic investments to get out the vote and protect the ballot. We are going to win BIG in just 31 weeks,’ Whatley predicted.

Last month, as Trump clinched the 2024 GOP presidential nomination and became his party’s presumptive nominee, the former president installed new leadership at the RNC, including Whatley and his daughter-in-law Lara Trump as a co-chair. Trump campaign senior adviser Chris LaCivita is simultaneously serving as the RNC chief of staff.

The new team quickly merged many operations with the Trump campaign, and launched a joint fundraising account titled the Trump 47 Committee which can draw checks up to $814,600.

‘Our campaign, working together with the RNC, has been steadily ramping up our fundraising efforts,’ senior Trump campaign adviser Susie Wiles emphasized in a statement.

And she argued that ‘our March numbers are a testament to the overwhelming support for President Trump by voters all across the spectrum.’

The March fundraising figure, which was first reported by Politico, is significantly more than the $62 million that Trump raised in March 2020 when he was running for re-election.

February FEC filings showed Biden’s re-election campaign outraised the Trump campaign by a two-to-one margin and enjoyed a formidable cash-on-hand advantage at the end of that month.

The Biden campaign reported raising $53 million in February, ending the month with $155 million on hand. 

The president’s re-election campaign has not yet announced its March fundraising haul, but its expected to be significant, after the campaign said it hauled in over $26 million last month at a fundraising gala with Biden and former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton at New York City’s famed Radio City Music Hall, which was a new single event fundraising record.

Trump has been working to close the fundraising gap with Biden as the former president also struggles to pay his mounting legal bills, with just seven months to go until the November election.

Trump is set to hold a major fundraiser in Palm Beach, Florida on Saturday in a push to both close the fundraising gap and top the fundraising record set last week by Biden. 

Whatley, in a Fox Business interview on Wednesday, predicted that the fundraiser would bring in over $40 million. Many of the top donors in the GOP – including some who sat on the sidelines during the Republican presidential primaries or backed rivals to Trump, are scheduled to attend.

Biden Campaign Rapid Response Director Ammar Moussa, in a statement to Fox News Digital, charged that ‘Donald Trump spent his first month as the presumptive Republican nominee holed up in a back room at Mar-a-Lago with billionaire special interests while he continues to struggle with the kind of grassroots donors who are powering our campaign.’

‘Trump is spending what money he does have on everything but reaching out to the voters – and it’s obvious he doesn’t have the infrastructure, the donor base, or the broad appeal to win this election.’

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and an American delegation were forced to drive from Paris to Brussels to attend a NATO meeting Wednesday after his plane was again grounded due to a ‘mechanical issue,’ the State Department said.

The incident involving the aircraft, identified by Bloomberg as a modified Boeing 737, happened after Blinken’s travel plans were upended in January when the plane he was using to visit Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting encountered what the State Department described as a ‘mechanical issue’ as well.

‘Due to a mechanical issue with the aircraft, Secretary Blinken and the American delegation drove from Paris to Brussels to attend the NATO Foreign Minister’s meeting,’ a State Department spokesperson said Wednesday following the latest incident. 

The trip between the French and Belgian capitals is about a 4-hour, 200-mile journey. Blinken had met with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Tuesday.

‘Secretary Blinken and President Macron reaffirmed strong support for Ukraine’s fight for freedom against Russia’s aggression,’ State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement. ‘They also agreed on the importance of preventing the conflict in Gaza from expanding, including avoiding escalation in Lebanon; discussed challenges posed by the People’s Republic of China; and discussed efforts to bolster global food security through coordination on the Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils (VACS).’

In January, the State Department said the U.S. Air Force sent a replacement plane to Switzerland to bring Blinken home from the meetings in Davos. After that event, the aircraft he was traveling in was unable to take off due to a ‘mechanical issue,’ Miller said at the time.

‘There’s a mechanical issue. I don’t know the nature of the mechanical issue, but he is in Zurich. He was scheduled to fly back from Zurich,’ Miller had said.

‘The Air Force has a replacement plane inbound. We expect him to be back… But several hours later than originally planned,’ Miller added.

According to Bloomberg, the Boeing 737 in that incident suffered a critical error after an oxygen leak was detected and it was not immediately fixable. The aircraft was subsequently deemed unsafe to fly.

Fox News’ Ashley Cozzolino contributed to this report.

Democrats are reacting furiously to a new GOP proposal to rename Washington, D.C.’s main international airport after former President Donald Trump.

Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, R-Pa., unveiled a bill backed by six of his fellow House Republicans to change the name of Washington Dulles International Airport to Donald J. Trump International Airport.

While the bill likely has little chance of being passed in the current Congress, it did succeed in triggering the ex-president’s critics when the legislative text was unveiled on Tuesday.

‘Donald Trump is facing 91 felony charges. If Republicans want to name something after him, I’d suggest they find a federal prison,’ said Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., whose district partially covers Dulles.

The rest is in the district represented by Rep. Jennifer Wexton, D-Va., who sounded off, ‘This is just another in a long list of instances where extreme House Republicans have shown how unserious & delusional they are.’

‘Let’s get to work on the real issues the American people sent us here for — not renaming an airport after someone who sought to undermine our democracy,’ Wexton said.

Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., said he was at the transit hub with worried families when Trump’s travel ban on terror-prone countries, most of them predominantly Muslim, was fueling ‘chaos’ at major airports.

‘One of Trump’s first acts as president was a racist Muslim ban that blocked permanent American residents from their own country,’ Beyer said. ‘I went to Dulles to try to help innocent people caught up in the chaos. I remember grandparents detained for hours as their terrified families waited.’

Reschenthaler’s fellow Pennsylvanian, Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., said, ‘Dulles is an old, ugly airport that no one wants to see. So I think this is a fitting tribute to [the 45th president].’

Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., called the bill’s supporters ‘children, competing for the attention of an abusive parent.’

Reschenthaler responded to Democrats’ anger, saying, ‘If Democrats spent as much time working for the American people as they spend attacking President Trump, our nation would not be in a state of chaos and weakness. Thankfully, the end to this nightmarish chapter of our nation’s history ends in November.’

He told Fox News Digital of his bill on Tuesday, ‘As millions of domestic and international travelers fly through the airport, there is no better symbol of freedom, prosperity and strength than hearing ‘Welcome to Trump International Airport’ as they land on American soil.’

Dulles is a busy international hub that’s critical for lawmakers and other Washington officials’ travel, particularly for airlines and routes that do not operate out of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, its smaller domestic counterpart also located in Virginia.

Dulles was ranked 33rd out of 764 U.S. airports in terms of passenger traffic in 2023, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. With domestic and international travel combined, roughly 25 million passengers went through Dulles last year.

Michelle Obama is praising Beyoncé’s new album in an Instagram post urging voters to ‘stand up for what we believe in’ at the ballot box in this year’s elections. 

Beyoncé, who has supported former President Obama and current President Biden, released her new country-themed ‘Cowboy Carter’ album Friday. 

‘With Cowboy Carter, you have changed the game once again by helping redefine a music genre and transform our culture. I am so proud of you!’ the former first lady wrote on Instagram. 

‘Cowboy Carter is a reminder that despite everything we’ve been through to be heard, seen, and recognized, we can still dance, sing, and be who we are unapologetically. This album reminds us that we ALL have power. There’s power in our history, in our joy, and in our votes — and we can each use our own gifts and talents to make our voices heard on the issues that matter most to us.

‘Together, we can stand up for what we believe in, and we must do that at the ballot box this year,’ Obama added. ‘The issues that impact us most are on the ballot across the country — from equal pay and racial justice to reproductive healthcare and climate change. And as Queen Bey says at the end of Ya Ya, we need to ‘keep the faith’ and ‘VOTE!’ 

Ahead of the album’s release, Beyoncé said on Instagram, ‘This album has been over five years in the making’ and ‘was born out of an experience that I had years ago where I did not feel welcomed … and it was very clear that I wasn’t.  

‘But, because of that experience, I did a deeper dive into the history of country music and studied our rich musical archive. It feels good to see how music can unite so many people around the world, while also amplifying the voices of some of the people who have dedicated so much of their lives educating on our musical history.’ 

Fox News’ Lindsay Kornick contributed to this report.