Iran’s foreign minister warned Israel that attacks by Iran and its allies against Israeli and American targets will continue so long as Israeli forces are waging war in Gaza on Wednesday.

Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said the attacks would halt if Israel withdraws its forces. Iran and its proxy terrorist groups have attacked Israeli and U.S. targets more than 100 times since mid-October, threatening to widen Israel’s war against Hamas into a regional conflict.

‘An end to the genocide in Gaza will lead to an end of military actions and crises in the region,’ Amirabdollahian said at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

‘The security of the Red Sea is tied to the developments in Gaza, and everyone will suffer if Israel’s crimes in Gaza do not stop… All the (resistance) fronts will remain active,’ he added.

Iran deployed one of its navy vessels to the Red Sea earlier this month. Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have also launched dozens of missile and drone attacks against international trade vessels in the Red Sea.

The U.S. and other Western allies have thwarted many of the Houthi attacks, but several shipping companies have diverted travel elsewhere. Such diversions cost weeks of shipping time as vessels must travel around Africa.

Israel has given no indication that it plans to halt its war against Hamas in the near future. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who launched the war after Hamas carried out a massacre on Oct. 7 that included the killing of at least 1,200 Israelis, has said the war will last ‘many more months.’

Netanyahu has also threatened war with Hezbollah, another Iran-backed terrorist organization that operates in Lebanon to Israel’s north.

President Biden’s administration has remained largely supportive of Israel throughout the conflict, but has urged Netanyahu’s government to scale back its offensive in Gaza.

Reuters contributed to this report.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon praised former President Donald Trump’s handling of the economy, immigration, China and other issues in an interview this week.

Dimon made the comments defending ‘MAGA’ voters during an interview with CNBC’s ‘Squawk Box’ on Wednesday.

‘When people say ‘MAGA,’ they’re actually looking at people voting for Trump, and they think they’re voting — they’re basically scapegoating them, that you are like him. But I don’t think they’re voting for Trump because of his family values,’ Dimon said of the former president.

Dimon hesitated from fully endorsing Trump’s rhetoric on sensitive topics, but said it was clear many voters found value in his first term as president.

‘I don’t like how he said things about Mexico […] but he wasn’t wrong about some of these critical issues, and that’s why they’re voting for him,’ Dimon told CNBC. ‘I think people should be a little more respectful of our fellow citizens.’

‘I mean, really, can we just stop that stuff and actually grow up and treat other people with respect and listen to them a little bit?’ he continued. ‘I think this negative talk about MAGA is going to hurt Biden’s election campaign.’

It is only the latest commentary Dimon has offered on economic issues facing citizens across the country.

Dimon said earlier this month that he is not convinced the Federal Reserve can achieve a soft landing as a result of their most aggressive rate hike campaign since the 1980s. 

During an exclusive interview on ‘Mornings with Maria’ on Tuesday, Dimon warned about the possibility of a looming recession, while comparing the financial state to the turbulent period of 50 years ago when the nation endured a decade of high inflation. 

‘I look at a lot of things, and forget just economic models for a second, $2 trillion of fiscal deficit, the infrastructure and IRA act, the green economy, the re-militarization of the world, the restructuring of trade are all inflationary,’ he told host Maria Bartiromo. ‘And that looks a little more like the 1970s to me.’

Fox News Digital’s Kristen Altus contributed to this report.

FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., will introduce a bill Wednesday that aims to protect the independence of tax-exempt organizations from being subject to erroneous federal regulations.

The bill, called the Safeguarding Charity Act, comes after two recent court decisions ruled private organizations are subject to federal restrictions simply due to their tax-exempt status.

‘Civic organizations like churches, schools, and charities are crucial to our communities,’ Rubio said in a statement to Fox News Digital. ‘I remain concerned by recent court decisions that could subject these organizations to burdensome federal regulations simply because they are tax-exempt.’

The bill ‘would protect these organizations from the government’s politicized battles,’ Rubio said.

Rubio’s bill comes as recent federal court decisions assert that private institutions, based on their tax-exempt status, could face federal restrictions. This poses a risk of penalties for private schools, churches and nonprofit charities that fail to comply with onerous and politically charged regulations.

The courts deemed tax-exempt status as a form of ‘federal financial assistance,’ as seen in the cases of Buettner-Hartsoe v. Baltimore Lutheran High School in 2021 and E.H. v. Valley Christian Academy in 2022. 

These court decisions have the potential to affect a range of tax-exempt organizations that are not currently receiving federal financial assistance, according to Rubio’s office.

This includes private K-12 schools, certain higher education institutions, houses of worship, charitable organizations, private foundations, labor unions, social welfare organizations, homeowners associations, volunteer fire companies, credit unions, chambers of commerce, boards of trade and veterans organizations.

The recent rulings could threaten single-sex private schools, churches and charities. For example, a private Catholic all-girls school would not be able to deny a biological male who identifies as a transgender female from attending.

‘If the reasoning of these decisions is more widely embraced, hundreds of thousands of tax-exempt organizations will be unexpectedly subject to burdensome federal statutes and regulations for the first time,’ the bill text analysis reads. ‘They will incur substantial compliance costs and could potentially lose their tax-exempt status if they are found to have violated any of the relevant statutes.’

Sens. Mike Braun, R-Ind., JD Vance, R-Ohio, and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., are co-sponsoring the legislation, and House Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., introduced companion legislation in the House.

‘Due to multiple, radical judicial decisions targeting religious schools, Congress must now codify that an organization holding tax-exempt status is not to be considered as a recipient of federal financial assistance,’ Steube said in a statement.

House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., is hitting back at a House Democratic bid to have her censured. 

Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., introduced a resolution to censure Stefanik on Wednesday, accusing her of ‘providing aid, comfort and support’ to people who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Stefanik responded by releasing a statement from top aide Alex DeGrasse blasting Goldman as a ‘corrupt radical,’ pointing out that he’s been scrutinized for possible ethics violations in the past.

‘Failed Far Left House Democrats are in absolute desperate free fall that Elise Stefanik continues to be one of the most effective Members of Congress going on offense every single day exposing Democrats and Joe Biden’s corruption and lies,’ DeGrasse said.

He continued, ‘Dan Goldman is a corrupt radical New York Democrat who unethically traded tens of millions of dollars in stocks while failing to pay rent, took money from a Jeff Epstein associate, funds terrorist groups like Hamas through his family foundation, launders millions through his family foundation to attack Republican Members of Congress, and supports radicals like Tish James who are engaging in witchhunts against President Trump while releasing violent criminals on our streets.’

Past reports from the New York Post and Washington Free Beacon, as well as other outlets, have accused Goldman of raising questions with his stock trade activity. Last March, Fox News Digital found Goldman was tied to a left-wing dark money group funneling money into trying to impede the House GOP’s investigations into President Biden.

DeGrasse also pointed to Goldman’s past comments calling for Trump to be ‘eliminated.’

‘Dan Goldman and Democrats are desperate because they know Joe Biden is going to lose this November,’ the Stefanik aide said.

Fox News Digital reached out to Goldman’s office for comment.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., threw his support behind Stefanik as well, telling reporters that the censure resolution is ‘patently absurd.’

‘She’s one of the best leaders and communicators in Congress. She’s doing an exceptional job. The idea that he would use a censure to attack a political opponent is just absurd,’ Johnson said.

Addressing reporters outside the Capitol on Wednesday, Goldman referenced Stefanik calling those jailed in connection to Jan. 6 ‘hostages’ and claimed it downplayed the situation faced by Israelis being held captive by Hamas in Gaza.

However, he decided against introducing the resolution as privileged for now, a move that would have forced House leaders to take it up within two legislative days.

‘We plan today to file it without raising the privileges. Our hope is that there are other Republicans, especially those in New York, where both Ms. Stefanik and I come from, who recognize that this kind of rhetoric is unacceptable, and that the Republicans will bring it up on their own,’ Goldman said.

‘But if they don’t, we are prepared to consider moving forward with a privileged resolution.’

Top legal and ethical experts weighed in on art gallerist Georges Bergès’ revelation of Hunter Biden’s knowledge of his art buyers, saying the American people were ‘misled.’

Fox News Digital reached out to several legal and ethical experts on Bergès’ revelation during his closed-door, transcribed interview with the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees earlier this month.

Bergès told the committees that an agreement to shield the knowledge of Hunter Biden’s buyers from him was not put in place for months after the White House’s statement that a ‘system’ had been ‘established’ to do so.

Hunter Biden’s gallerist said that the first son knew the identities of approximately 70% of those buyers.

‘The White House effort was the ultimate example of closing the barn door after the horse has bolted,’ George Washington University law professor and Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley told Fox News Digital.

‘The clear message given repeatedly to Congress and the public was that an ethical plan was in place to prevent such knowledge,’ he continued.

‘The ethical claims of the White House proved as abstract as Hunter’s art pieces,’ Turley said. ‘In reality, the breach had occurred long before the ethical plan was implemented.’

‘The testimony that Bergès did not have interactions with the White House on the plan further undermines these claims. Indeed, Bergès admitted that he was reading these statements from the White House with no knowledge of what they were referencing. Yet, Bergès and the Bidens proceeded knowing that the public was being misled.’

Former Bush administration ethics chief Richard Painter told Fox News Digital that the White House’s ‘whole arrangement of keeping the buyers secret was completely the wrong way to go.’

Painter said the White House ‘should have had nothing to do’ with Bergès, and that the ‘best approach’ for Hunter Biden would have been to ‘not sell the art at all during his father’s presidency and certainly not sell it at those prices.’

‘The worst option is what they chose, which is to keep it all, to say it’s all going to be confidential, and Hunter Biden won’t know and nobody will know,’ Painter said. ‘And this is exactly what I said happens, is that the word gets around.’

‘Of course you find out who bought the art,’ Painter continued. ‘People hang the art on the wall.’

‘They don’t stick it in closet,’ he added.

Attorney Sol Weisenberg said that we ‘don’t know right now the full ethical implications, if any, of this latest White House falsehood regarding Hunter Biden’s special privileges and ethical/legal lapses.’

‘It is simply another example of the Biden family’s leisurely approach to influence peddling,’ Weisenberg said. ‘As a citizen, I would rather know who is buying the paintings and how much they are paying than operating under the false illusion that Hunter and the family are being kept in the dark about the source of this latest largesse.’

Fox News Digital reached out to Bergès and the White House for comment.

Bergès’ interview with the committees came as part of the House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into President Biden.

House investigators, during his interview, showed Bergès a statement made by then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki on July 9, 2021.

‘After careful consideration, a system has been established that allows for Hunter Biden to work in his profession within reasonable safeguards,’ she said. ‘All interactions regarding the selling of art and the setting of prices will be handled by professional galleries, adhering to the highest industry standards. Any offer out of the normal court would be rejected out of hand.’

Psaki added, ‘The galleries will not share information about buyers or prospective buyers, including their identities, with Hunter Biden or the administration, which provides quite a level of protection.’

When pressed further, Psaki stressed that ‘it would be challenging for an anonymous person who we don’t know and Hunter Biden doesn’t know to have influence — so that’s a protection.’ 

However, Bergès testified that at the time of the White House’s July 2021 statement, he had an agreement with Hunter Biden which called for him, instead, ‘to disclose to Hunter Biden who the purchasers of his art were.’ Bergès said that contract was agreed to in December 2020. 

Bergès said that it was not until September 2021 that a new agreement with Hunter Biden was created. That agreement stated that ‘the gallery will not disclose the name of any buyers of artist’s artwork to artist or any agent of artist.’

Bergès stressed, though, that there was not a ‘White House-involved agreement,’ and that Hunter Biden did know the identities of approximately 70% of the buyers of his art. Meanwhile, Bergès testified that he had spoken to President Biden both on the phone and in person.

The art gallerist previously told Fox News Digital he ‘never violated the agreement we had with Hunter Biden.’

‘If he knew the identities of some of the buyers — it’s because they were his friends or by happenstance,’ Bergès said. ‘My obligation to Hunter is to not disclose the buyers — which I haven’t.’ 

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed reporting.

It’s been more than 100 days since Hamas attacked Southern Israel and took nearly 200 hostages captive. Now, the families of those victims are urging the U.S. and Israeli government to ramp up its efforts to bring them home. 

A group of bipartisan senators led by Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Foreign Relations Chair Ben Cardin, D-Md., held an emotional press conference Wednesday with five families whose loved ones are still being held hostage by Hamas.

‘I discussed with a few of the families some new strategy that we can implement. And I promise to try and do that,’ Schumer said Wednesday. ‘There are always new initiatives as there are right now. And we are making slow, slow, slow, but important progress. Not that that progress can’t come fast enough. And let me be clear, if Hamas had any basic shred of humanity, they would have released the hostages already.’

Schumer and other senators did not immediately expand on what those new strategies or initiatives would entail. 

Hamas is still holding 130 of the 240 hostages captive, including six Americans, whose conditions are unknown. Families lamented that Wednesday marked 103 days since the attack.

One of the victims’ family members, Jon Polin, said during the press conference that his son, Hersh, was celebrating his 23rd birthday at the music festival when Hamas terrorists massacred over a thousand people. Hersh is one of the current victims held hostage.

‘From eyewitness accounts and subsequent video footage, we know that he was loaded onto a Hamas pickup truck after having his left arm, his dominant arm, blown off,’ Polin told reporters. ‘And as Americans, we expect the United States, the greatest superpower in the history of the world, to use its full power to secure the hostages release. This includes making sure that all partners in the region make this a top priority.’

Adi Marciano’s daughter was killed in captivity while being held by Hamas terrorists. As she urged for more action to release the remaining victims, she said a ‘black cloud’ hangs over her.

‘Let’s ensure that we do everything in our power to bring our loved ones home,’ she said. 

Yarden Gonen’s 23-year-old sister, Romi, was also kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7. 

‘You are all lawmakers of the most powerful country in the world, a beacon of democracy, a defender of civil and human rights,’ Gonen said. ‘Please, with this great power comes great responsibility. I ask you, please do everything you can to get our hostages home where they deserve to be. This is a violation of international law, of basic human rights.’

Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-NE., said ‘Hamas must surrender’ and that he and his colleagues will continue to ‘push for the release of hostages.’ Sens. Susan Collins, R-Me., Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., were also in attendance. 

Ernst urged the Biden administration to do more to help the release of hostages. Some Israeli family members blamed Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for not striking a deal to get their loved ones home. 

Cardin emphasized throughout the press conference that lawmakers will exhaust every possible avenue to progress toward bringing the victims home safely. 

He also criticized the Qatar government for not doing more to advance the effort. 

‘They do have opportunities that we don’t have,’ Cardin said. ‘They have not been as effective as I would like to see them.’

Israeli President Kibbutz Be’eri confirmed on Tuesday that two residents, Yossi Sharabi, 53, and Itai Svirsky, 38, held captive by Hamas, were killed. The announcement followed the release of a new Hamas video on the 100-day anniversary of the October 7 massacre, which also features a third hostage, Noa Argamani, 26.

Family members at Wednesday’s press conference lamented that if action isn’t taken swiftly to release the captives, their loved ones will inevitably be killed. 

‘Every day that Prime Minister Netanyahu and the war cabinet do not negotiate a deal to release all the people who are hostages in Gaza is a failure,’ said Liz Natfali, a relative of 4-year-old Abigal Edan, who was the first American hostage freed by Hamas. 

An agreement to temporarily halt the war between Israel and Hamas was carried out in November, which resulted in the release of about 100 hostages and 180 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. But the deal was short-lived after Hamas violated the pause and continued to hold more than 100 victims still captive.  

Federal prosecutors say a brown leather pouch used by Hunter Biden to store a gun had cocaine on it.

On Tuesday, prosecutors asked a judge to reject President Biden’s son Hunter’s efforts to dismiss gun charges because investigators found cocaine residue on the pouch used to hold his gun.

Prosecutors told the judge that ‘the strength of the evidence against him is overwhelming,’ rejecting Hunter Biden’s claims that he was being singled out for political reasons.

Hunter Biden previously made incriminating statements about his drug use in a 2021 memoir, but now investigators are saying the cocaine was found on the gun pouch after it was pulled from a state police vault last year.

A chemist with the FBI determined the residue was cocaine, prosecutors said.

‘To be clear, investigators literally found drugs on the pouch where the defendant had kept his gun,’ prosecutors said.

The president’s son pleaded not guilty to federal gun charges in U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware in October, which accused him of lying about using drugs in October 2018 on a gun purchase form.

He has acknowledged struggling with a crack cocaine addiction during that period in 2018, but his attorneys say he did not break the law. Hunter Biden has since said he has stopped using drugs and is working to turn his life around.

Hunter Biden was charged with making a false statement in the purchase of a firearm; making a false statement related to information required to be kept by a federal firearms licensed dealer; and one count of possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance. 

According to the indictment, ‘on or about October 12, 2018, in the District of Delaware, the defendant, Robert Hunter Biden, in connection with the acquisition of a firearm, that is, a Colt Cobra 38SPL Revolver with serial number RA 551363…knowingly made a false and fictitious written statement, intended and likely to deceive that dealer with respect to a fact material to the lawfulness of the sale of the firearm…in that the defendant, Robert Hunter Biden, provided a written statement on Form 4473 certifying he was not an unlawful user of, and addicted to, any stimulant, narcotic drug, and any other controlled substance, when in fact, as he knew, that statement was false and fictitious.’ 

The indictment also states that ‘on or about October 12, 2018, through on or about October 23, 2018, in the District of Delaware, the defendant Robert Hunter Biden, knowing that he was an unlawful user of and addicted to any stimulant, narcotic drug, and any other controlled substance…did knowingly possess a firearm, that is, a Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver with serial number RA 551363, said firearm having been shipped and transported in interstate commerce.’ 

Fox News first reported in 2021 that police had responded to an incident in 2018 when a gun owned by Hunter Biden was thrown into a trash can outside a market in Delaware.

A source with knowledge of the Oct. 23, 2018, police report told Fox News that it indicated that Hallie Biden, who is the widow of President Biden’s late son, Beau, and who was in a relationship with Hunter at the time, threw a gun owned by Hunter in a dumpster behind a market near a school.

A firearm transaction report reviewed by Fox News indicated that Hunter Biden purchased a gun earlier that month.

On the firearm transaction report, Hunter Biden answered in the negative when asked if he was ‘an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance.’

Hunter Biden was discharged from the Navy in 2014 after testing positive for cocaine.

Fox News’ Brooke Singman and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz endorsed Donald Trump for president Tuesday night and called for the country to unify behind the Republican frontrunner.

‘I am proud to endorse Donald Trump for President of the United States,’ Cruz said on ‘Hannity.’ ‘I look forward to supporting him enthusiastically.’

Cruz, who fiercely battled Trump in the 2016 election primaries, argued that the results of the Iowa caucuses showed there is only one viable Republican nominee.

‘[Iowa] was a dominating victory for Donald Trump: I’ve got to say, there’s no place like the Iowa caucuses. I know it intimately. The men and women of Iowa, they take their responsibility incredibly seriously. They scrutinize the candidates,’ Cruz said.

‘It’s an amazing process, and I’m a big believer in letting democracy play out. Well, last night it played out, and I got to say Trump’s victory was across the board… Congratulations to President Trump on that dominating victory,’ Cruz said. ‘And at this point, I believe this race is over.’

Trump earned 51% of the votes in the Iowa caucuses on Monday, claiming a 30-point victory over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who slightly secured second place over Nikki Haley, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

The Texas senator said that Trump’s landslide victory in the Iowa caucuses showed that the former president’s candidacy is ‘compelling.’

‘I’m a big believer we need to let the process play out: It did. And the results last night: 51% [of the vote, which included] 98 counties – that’s compelling. And at this point, I think the contrast needs to be on substance and policy and records [versus Biden],’ Cruz said.

Cruz noted he is also a top senatorial election target for Democrats as he seeks a third term in the November election.

‘I wear that as a badge of honor,’ he said of continuing to receive the ire and attention of Democrats as his re-election approaches.

‘If you are a left-wing Democrat, after Donald Trump, there’s nobody in the country you want to beat more than me. And Chuck Schumer has made clear I am his number one target in the country,’ Cruz continued. ‘The Democrats are going to spend $100 million this year trying to beat me and trying to flip Texas blue. Now, that ain’t going to happen.’

Trump also picked up an endorsement from Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., another former 2016 primary competitor, on Sunday.

Fox News’ Charles Creitz contributed to this report.