Parts of Haiti – including an area outside the U.S. embassy – have now plunged into darkness following attacks by vandals on a power plant and four power substations in Port-au-Prince, the country’s national utility says. 

Électricité D’Haïti (EDH) said in a statement on X that ‘several of the company’s premises were sabotaged,’ numerous materials were damaged and documents were destroyed ‘during the latest acts of vandalism perpetrated in recent weeks.’ 

‘Such acts of theft and sabotage only further worsen the financial and technical situation of the company,’ it added, noting that four power substations and the Varreux Power Plant in Port-au-Prince were ‘destroyed and made completely dysfunctional,’ cutting off electricity to dozens of areas including the ‘USA Embassy Entrance’ and a local hospital. 

‘Important documents, electrical installations, cables, inverters, batteries as well as computer and office equipment were taken by these thugs,’ EDH also said. Authorities are working to restore power to the affected areas. 

The development comes after the State Department revealed Monday that nearly 1,000 Americans have filled out a ‘crisis intake form’ seeking assistance in Haiti. 

‘It is not hyperbole to say that this is one of the most dire humanitarian situations in the world,’ State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said. ‘Gang violence continues to make the security situation in Haiti untenable, and it is a region that demands our attention.’  

‘This is a fluid situation and the number of individuals who have reached out to us through the crisis intake form is approaching a thousand,’ he added, referring to the form on the State Department’s website. 

‘And we’re continuing to monitor the situation closely and evaluate the demand of U.S. citizens, evaluate the overall security situation, evaluate what is feasible when it comes to commercial transportation options, what is feasible for other transportation solutions,’ Patel also said, emphasizing that ‘we have no higher priority than the safety and security of American citizens.’  

The State Department previously has said it is aware of several hundred U.S. citizens being stuck in Haiti. 

President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ re-election campaign has revealed its ongoing, ‘aggressive’ strategy to gain the advantage in critical swing states ahead of the November general election, telling Fox News Digital it will ‘take relentless effort’ to defeat former President Trump.

Speaking with Fox amid a cross-country tour that will culminate in the president visiting all six of the states in which he narrowly defeated Trump in 2020, Biden-Harris communications director Michael Tyler touted the hawkish approach being taken by the campaign following the president’s fiery State of the Union speech earlier this month.

‘We knew kicking off the year we wanted to have an aggressive posture going into 2024. That’s why the president began the year with speeches in places like Valley Forge and in Charleston, where he laid out what this election was going to be about,’ Tyler said.

‘Looking ahead to March, we knew we had tentpole moments like Super Tuesday, and State of the Union, where, in the minds of the American electorate, the general election was really going to kick off,’ he added. 

The day after his State of the Union speech — which avoided any major gaffes Republicans often point to as evidence of cognitive decline — Biden hit the campaign trail with a stop in Philadelphia, followed by another in Atlanta the next day. 

Stops in Wisconsin and Michigan followed on Thursday, with more planned in Nevada and Arizona this week, all an effort to demonstrate what Tyler described as ‘defining the choice’ voters have this November. ‘Joe Biden, who wakes up every single day fighting for the American people, bringing people together to get results, and Donald Trump, who is running a campaign of revenge and retribution, and is focused on himself.’

‘This is, of course, going to be a very, very competitive general election contest, as all presidential elections are. But we feel good about where we’re at, just given some of the key metrics. And if you look at which candidate is fully consolidating their base of support, Joe Biden is doing that throughout the primary contest, while Donald Trump continues to hit a ceiling in proving an inability to expand beyond the MAGA base,’ Tyler said.

Concern over Trump’s ability to coalesce the various factions of the Republican Party behind his candidacy has continued to grow following former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley’s departure from the race the morning after Super Tuesday. 

Despite suspending her campaign, Haley still received more than 13% of the vote in Georgia’s primary last week, although it is unclear how much of that was early or absentee votes cast before she dropped out.

Recent polls have also suggested large portions of voters who supported Haley in other states were motivated by their opposition to Trump, and that they might not shift their support to him as the Republican nominee. 

That does not mean those voters would automatically show up to support Biden, but, as Fox News contributor and Republican strategist Karl Rove said amid Super Tuesday’s results being tallied, ‘Team Trump ought to be concerned about unifying the Republican Party.’

‘I just think the ability to expand beyond the MAGA base, look at which candidate is amassing the financial resources and building the infrastructure needed to reach the voters who are going to decide this election — Joe Biden is doing that. Donald Trump is not,’ Tyler said, referencing the massive cash advantage the campaign, in conjunction with the Democratic National Committee, holds over their Republican rivals.

‘We have $130 million in the bank to wage this general election fight, while Donald Trump is … either spending money up to this stage in the race fending off Nikki Haley or spending money on legal fees. None of the money that he’s spending so far is geared towards reaching the voters that are going to, again, decide the pathway to 270 electoral votes in the general election,’ he added.

According to FEC filings, the $50 million spent by Trump’s fundraising entities on his legal defense last year goes up to north of $90 million if spending in 2022 and 2021 is included. Combining that with Trump’s fundraising costs — which reach nearly half of the $282 million he’s raised — his cash burn rate amounts to a whopping 81%, leaving him just $0.19 per dollar raised.

‘He’s spending that money screaming into an echo chamber of MAGA extremism. And I think the most important thing is which candidate is running on an agenda that’s actually popular with the American people, and with a proven track record of delivering results for the American people,’ Tyler said. 

‘Joe Biden is clearly doing that, running on a historic record of accomplishment, and running on an agenda that is very popular, versus Donald Trump, who is running on an agenda that is even more extreme than the one that he governed on when he had power, and that he campaigned on in 2020. It’s as dangerous as it is extreme this go around in 2024,’ he said.

When asked if he felt Biden — who has trailed Trump in recent swing state polls — could get a boost from the former president possibly being required to attend court rather than be on the campaign trail, Tyler did not concede that any aspect of the race would be made easier.

‘I think it’s going to take a relentless effort on behalf of this campaign to reach the voters,’ he said. ‘We are running on a popular historic record of accomplishment. It is about us doing the work to communicate with the voters who are going to decide this election everything this administration has done to make their lives better over the last four years.’ 

‘The more that the American people hear about Joe Biden’s record of accomplishment, his positive vision for the future, and the more that they hear about the danger and the extremism that is posed by Donald Trump, the more they’re going to side with Joe Biden over the course of the next eight months,’ he said. 

Tyler dismissed any notion that the campaign’s aggressive posture was part of an effort to push back on concerns about Biden’s age and cognitive ability, but rather about ‘aggressively campaigning, and aggressively contrasting what this election is actually going to be about.’

‘The president himself has said this is not going to be a contrast in age. It’s going to be a contrast in the age of the candidates’ ideas,’ he said. 

‘Donald Trump’s ideas are old as hell, and they’ve already been rejected by the American people. And so, Joe Biden is going to aggressively make sure that we reject Trump’s ideas for good, and that we continue to pursue a more positive vision for what this country can achieve if we all work together,’ he added.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.

Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.

– Republican Congressman Jim Jordan previewed an upcoming hearing on the investigation into the business dealings of Hunter Biden and railed against the ‘double standard’ he says President Biden was the benefactor of in the investigation into his handling of classified documents.

‘We’ll see,’ the Ohio Republican told Fox News Digital on Saturday when asked about Hunter Biden previously expressing willingness to testify openly before the House before his legal team recently backtracked and objected to doing so.  

‘I think Chairman Comer, we’re going to have this hearing this week, this upcoming week with three of Hunter Biden’s business partners, Mr. Galanis, Mr. Bobulinski and Mr. Archer and what’s interesting, all three of those individuals tell a different story, and their story seems to match up with the three of them versus what Hunter Biden told us when we deposed him,’ Jordan said. ‘So we’ll see if Hunter Biden comes in. But we’ll go through this here and get information out to the American people.’

It’s going to be the comparisons between what these individuals said and what Hunter Biden said and the contradictions that exist in this testimony from both sides,’ Jordan told Fox News Digital when asked for a preview of what this week’s hearing on the Hunter Biden scandal will entail. 

Jason Galanis, Tony Bobulinski and Devon Archer, all former associates of Hunter Biden, were invited to participate in a House hearing on Wednesday as part of the investigation into an alleged corruption scandal that Republicans are suggesting could eventually lead to an impeachment vote for President Biden.

Fox News Digital reached out to Hunter Biden’s legal team for comment but did not receive a response.

Jordan, who was speaking to Fox News Digital near Dayton, Ohio where former President Trump was rallying for Ohio Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno, brought up the recent testimony of Special Counsel Robert Hur while discussing Hunter Biden, which he suggested was an example of President Biden ‘knowingly’ ignoring the law. 

I thought last week with special counsel Hur where we went through that, where we know Joe Biden knowingly retained and disclosed classified information, he knew the rules, he’d been in government five decades, he was the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was vice president, so he knew the law and willfully violated that law,’ Jordan said. 

‘And I think he did it because, special counsel Hur says in his report, he said Joe Biden was motivated to ignore classified procedures because he was writing a book and he got an $8 million advance so there are 8 million reasons why Joe Biden didn’t follow the law.‘

When asked by Jordan last week during the House hearing on Hur’s conclusion regarding Biden’s handling of classified documents and his decision not to file charges whether he agrees that Biden had motivation to misuse the documents to write a book, Hur replied, ‘That language does appear in the report, and we did identify evidence supporting those assessments.’ 

The White House has pushed back on the idea that Hur’s report shows Biden’s actions possibly correlate with a potential book deal.

‘And then, of course, Mr. Hur concluded by saying even though he knowingly, willfully retained and disclosed, did it for the money, in my judgment, we’re not going to prosecute because he’s a forgetful old man and I think that came out loud and clear in the hearing we had this past week,’ Jordan added. ‘So we’ll have another hearing next week with these other individuals and we’ll go from there.’

Fox News Digital asked Jordan if he agreed with Hur’s conclusion that it would be too difficult to secure a guilty verdict from a jury with the current evidence.

If someone meets the elements of the crime, it’s the job of the prosecutor to take that to the jury and the jury decides,’ Jordan responded. ‘Mr. Hur and his evaluation, you weigh all things, so we have some respect for that of course, but what I do think comes clear is the double standard.’

‘You know, this idea that there are pressing charges and they have charged President Trump, they raided his home for goodness sake, but nothing happens here, and that’s what Americans really take away is the double standard.‘

Several legal experts, including Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley, have recently suggested that the classified documents handling case against President Biden had more significant evidence than the case involving Trump.

Jordan told Fox News Digital he agrees with that analysis.

I think so especially when you see the report and you walk through the elements, particularly when he’s talking to the ghost writer, who, by the way, the ghost writer tried to destroy the evidence once he found out Mr. Hur was named the special counsel,’ Jordan said. ‘Go figure. If that’s not obstruction. I don’t know what is. So, I do think that again underscores this double standard that we’ve seen for such a long time.’

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to touch down in the Philippines Monday as tensions between Beijing and Manila continue to escalate over territorial claims in the South China Sea.

The Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs on Sunday clapped back at ‘baseless and misleading’ statements issued by China last week that suggested it had ‘historic rights’ to the international waters after a spokesperson for its foreign ministry said China was the ‘first country to discover, name, explore and exploit’ the international waters. 

‘The Philippines maintains a firm stand against misguided claims and irresponsible actions that violate Philippine sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction in its own maritime domain,’ the department said in a statement. 

China in recent years has repeatedly looked to assert control over hundreds of miles of the South China Sea despite internationally recognized Exclusive Economic Zones maintained by nations like the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia.

Beijing’s increasingly aggressive posture is set to be a leading issue amid Blinken’s trip Monday.

‘It’s inevitable that anytime you are going to talk with partners in the region you have to talk about China,’ a senior State Department official told reporters. 

Blinken, who first stopped in South Korea over the weekend, will reiterate the Biden administration’s ‘ironclad’ commitments to regional partners as security concerns continue to mount in the Indo-Pacific. 

‘Our focus is on maintaining peace and stability and respect for international law,’ the senior official said.

‘We are concerned any time you see these tensions in the maritime domain,’ they added. ‘There is the risk of a miscalculation, there’s no doubt about it. ‘

‘We’ve called in particular for China to show restraint and most importantly for China to respect international law,’ the senior official added. 

Fox News Digital could not immediately reach the Chinese embassy in Manila for comment. 

President Biden spoke Monday morning with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as tensions between the U.S. and Israel are escalating over the direction of the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. 

The call between the two leaders, which was the first since Feb. 15, came after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer delivered a speech Thursday calling for Netanyahu’s ouster and labeling him an ‘obstacle to peace.’ The next day, Biden described Schumer’s remarks as a ‘good speech’ that ‘expressed serious concern shared not only by him, but by many Americans.’ 

‘President Biden spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to discuss the latest developments in Israel and Gaza, including the situation in Rafah and efforts to surge humanitarian assistance to Gaza,’ the White House Press Office said Monday.

Netanyahu had issued a sharp rebuttal to Schumer on Sunday, saying during an interview on ‘Fox & Friends Weekend’ that his comments on the Senate floor were ‘wholly inappropriate.’ 

‘I think we’re not a banana republic. The people of Israel will choose when they’ll have elections, who they elect, and it’s not something that will be foisted upon us,’ Netanyahu added. 

The majority leader had said he believed that ‘Prime Minister Netanyahu has lost his way by allowing his political survival to take the precedence over the best interests of Israel.’ 

‘It’s wrong to try to replace the elected leaders of a sister democracy and a staunch American ally at any time, but especially during the time of war,’ Netanyahu countered. 

White House national security communications adviser John Kirby brushed off questioning Sunday regarding whether Biden believes Netanyahu is an ‘impediment to peace,’ saying the two world leaders have ‘known each other a long time’ and have an open line of communication. 

‘Does the president think that Benjamin Netanyahu is a bigot? That he’s an impediment to peace? That he should be lumped in with Hamas?’ Fox News’ Shannon Bream asked Kirby on ‘Fox News Sunday.’ 

Kirby did not explicitly answer, instead highlighting that the two world leaders have long known each other and that the U.S. respects Israel’s sovereignty.  

‘These are two men, leaders that have known each other a long time, Shannon, and they don’t agree on everything – haven’t over 40 years. And there are certain aspects to the prosecution of operations in Gaza, where we obviously don’t agree with everything that Israel has done. But they have a relationship where they can talk to one another, and they do, and they will again. He is the prime minister of Israel. We respect the sovereignty of the Israeli people,’ he responded. 

Fox News’ Patrick Ward, Madeline Coggins and Emma Colton contributed to this report. 

Former President Trump has not been able to secure a $464 million appeal bond he needs following a New York civil fraud judgment against him, his attorneys say.

In a court filing Monday, his lawyers said obtaining one is a ‘practical impossibility under the circumstances presented.’

In late February, a New York Appeals Court judge denied Trump’s request to delay payment of the $464 million owed as a result of Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit, but said he will temporarily allow the 2024 front-runner and his sons to continue running their business during the appeals process.

Trump and his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump were barred earlier that month from operating their business in New York for a range of two to three years. Trump was also found liable for hundreds of millions of dollars in damages in the civil fraud case brought against him, his family and the Trump Organization by James.

The filing Monday says ‘ongoing diligent efforts have proven that a bond in the judgment’s full amount is ‘a practical impossibility.’’

‘These diligent efforts have included approaching about 30 surety companies through 4 separate brokers,’ the filing says. ‘A bond requirement of this enormous magnitude – effectively requiring cash reserves approaching $1 billion … is unprecedented for a private company.’

It also says that ‘waiving the bond requirement will impose no cognizable harm on the Attorney General. The case involves no actual victims and no award of restitution, and she is fully protected by Defendants’ real-estate holdings. This factor alone warrants a stay.’

‘The Court should stay the judgment pending appeal, and put the brakes on the Attorney General’s overzealous litigation crusade,’ Trump’s lawyers also argued. ‘If oral argument would assist the Court in coming to that conclusion, we respectfully request an opportunity for such a hearing.’

His attorneys also said, ‘The practical impossibility of obtaining a bond interferes with Defendants’ right to appeal and threatens this Court’s appellate jurisdiction.’

‘The amount of the judgment, with interest, exceeds $464 million, and very few bonding companies will consider a bond of anything approaching that magnitude,’ they added. ‘The remaining handful will not ‘accept hard assets such as real estate as collateral,’ but ‘will only accept cash or cash equivalents (such as marketable securities).’

Trump Campaign Spokesman Steven Cheung later said in a statement that ‘This is a motion to stay the unjust, unconstitutional, un-American judgment from New York Judge Arthur Engoron in a political Witch Hunt brought by a corrupt Attorney General. 

‘A bond of this size would be an abuse of the law, contradict bedrock principals of our Republic, and fundamentally undermine the rule of law in New York,’ he added. ‘President Trump will continue fighting and beating all of these Crooked Joe Biden-directed hoaxes and will Make America Great Again.’

A New York Appeals Court judge previously ruled that the former president must post a bond for the full amount of the judgment and that an independent director of compliance will be appointed.  

That ruling comes after Engoron handed down his decision earlier in February after a months-long trial beginning in October in which the former president was accused of inflating his assets and committing fraud in financial documents.

Engoron ruled that Trump and other defendants were liable for ‘persistent and repeated fraud,’ ‘falsifying business records,’ ‘issuing false financial statements,’ ‘conspiracy to falsify false financial statements,’ ‘insurance fraud’ and ‘conspiracy to commit insurance fraud.’

‘In a massive victory, we won our case against Donald Trump for engaging in years of incredible financial fraud to enrich himself. Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., Eric Trump, and his former executives must pay over $450 million in disgorgement and interest,’ James wrote on X, celebrating on the same day of the judgment.

On Feb. 23, James, who has denied having a ‘personal vendetta’ against Trump despite remarks suggesting otherwise, posted flatly, ‘$464,576,230.62.’ 

Fox News’ Brooke Singman and Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.

The State Department revealed Monday that nearly 1,000 Americans have filled out a ‘crisis intake form’ seeking assistance in Haiti – a country it is now calling ‘one of the most dire humanitarian situations in the world.’ 

State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel made the remark hours after dozens of Americans landed in Miami on a U.S. government-chartered evacuation flight from Haiti, where reports are emerging of gangs killing at least 12 people early this morning in a suburb of Port-au-Prince following the looting of homes in two upscale neighborhoods in the Caribbean country’s capital. 

‘It is not hyperbole to say that this is one of the most dire humanitarian situations in the world,’ Patel said. ‘Gang violence continues to make the security situation in Haiti untenable, and it is a region that demands our attention.’ 

‘This is a fluid situation and the number of individuals who have reached out to us through the crisis intake form is approaching a thousand,’ he added, referring to the form on the State Department’s website.

‘And we’re continuing to monitor the situation closely and evaluate the demand of U.S. citizens, evaluate the overall security situation, evaluate what is feasible when it comes to commercial transportation options, what is feasible for other transportation solutions,’ Patel also said, emphasizing that ‘we have no higher priority than the safety and security of American citizens.’ 

The State Department previously has said it is aware of several hundred U.S. citizens being stuck in Haiti. 

Patel said people fill out the form requesting assistance for ‘a variety of reasons.’ 

‘Many, we assume, are in a circumstance where they are ready to fully depart the country…. Others may be more interested in just getting status updates, getting information on what avenues might be available to them,’ he continued. ‘It is hard to paint this entire population with a single stroke.’ 

In Port-au-Prince this morning, gunmen looted homes in the communities of Laboule and Thomassin before sunrise, forcing residents to flee as some called radio stations pleading for police, according to the Associated Press. 

The news agency reported that one of their photographers saw the bodies of at least 12 men strewn on the streets of nearby Pétionville, which later were collected by an ambulance. 

‘Abuse! This is abuse!’ one Haitian man reportedly cried out as he raised his arms and stood near one of the victims. ‘People of Haiti! Wake up!’  

‘We woke up this morning to find bodies in the street in our community of Pétionville,’ Douce Titi, who works at the mayor’s office, also told the AP.

The most recent attacks have raised concerns that gang violence will not cease despite Prime Minister Ariel Henry announcing nearly a week ago that he would resign once a transitional presidential council is created, a move that gangs had been demanding. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.