Beijing escalated its war of words with Tokyo after Japan said Chinese fighter jets aimed a fire-control radar at Japanese F-15s flying near Okinawa, an action Tokyo called ‘dangerous’ and ‘extremely regrettable.’

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his German counterpart Johann Wadephul in Beijing that ‘Japan is threatening China militarily,’ a stance he called ‘completely unacceptable,’ after the radar incident, Reuters reported.

Wang accused Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi of ‘trying to exploit the Taiwan question — the very territory Japan colonized for half a century, committing countless crimes against the Chinese people — to provoke trouble and threaten China militarily. This is completely unacceptable,’ Wang said, according to China’s official Xinhua News Agency. He added that Japan, as a World War II ‘defeated nation,’ should act with greater caution.

China expert Gordon Chang told Fox News Digital, ‘China, with Saturday’s radar-lock incidents against Japan and other belligerent acts recently, looks like it wants to start a war. In any event, these incidents could easily spiral into war, especially because China cannot act constructively or deescalate.’

Japanese officials say the confrontation unfolded Dec. 6, when Chinese J-15 fighter jets operating from the aircraft carrier Liaoning twice aimed radar at Japanese F-15s over international waters near Japan’s Okinawa islands.

‘These radar illuminations are a dangerous act that goes beyond what is necessary for the safe flight of aircraft,’ Takaichi told reporters, adding that Japan had lodged a protest with China and calling the incident ‘extremely regrettable,’ Reuters reported.

Japan’s government later said the Self-Defense Force fighters ‘were maintaining a safe distance during their mission’ and denied China’s accusation that its jets obstructed Chinese operations, according to comments by Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara, according to The Associated Press.

The radar clash came on the heels of remarks by Takaichi that have already put relations on edge. In early November, she told parliament that a Chinese attack on Taiwan could amount to a ‘survival-threatening situation’ for Japan and potentially trigger a military response under Japan’s 2015 security laws, Reuters reported. Beijing condemned those comments as ‘egregious,’ accused Tokyo of severe interference in its internal affairs and warned of ‘serious consequences’ if they were not retracted.

Chinese officials and state media have since portrayed Takaichi as hyping up an external threat to justify Japan’s military buildup and closer alignment with Taiwan. In parallel, Chinese spokespeople have accused Japan of ‘hyping up’ the radar incident itself and ‘deliberately making a false accusation’ to build tension, according to official statements carried by People’s Daily and other Chinese outlets.

Chang said, ‘China has not been able to get Prime Minister Takaichi to back down, so its choices are to accept its humiliation or ramp up the crisis. It will ramp up. China is now proving Takaichi right: Beijing is creating a ‘survival-threatening situation’ for Japan.’

Liz Truss, the former British prime minister who staked her brief tenure on tax cuts and deregulation, is warning Americans about New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s socialist agenda will mirror the high-tax, high-regulation model she fought in the U.K.

‘I’ve seen what’s happened with Mamdani being elected,’ former U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview. ‘We have characters like that in Britain. They are never satisfied. They keep putting up taxes. They keep putting up more regulations. We have seen in Britain appalling development of antisemitism. That’s what I fear for New York.’

Mamdani plans to pay for his ambitious campaign promises, including fast and free buses, universal childcare and city-run grocery stores, by raising taxes on corporations and the top 1% of New Yorkers. As the 34-year-old mayor-elect prepares to move into Gracie Mansion, critics have compared his agenda to European-style social welfare programs.

The British conservative served just 49 days as prime minister of the U.K. in 2022 before resigning amid market turmoil over her administration’s dramatic attempt to implement a pro-growth economic agenda. Now that the dust has settled, Truss has launched a private club for ‘pro-growth leaders,’ the Leconfield, and a YouTube show, ‘The Liz Truss Show.’

‘The Leconfield is about economic growth,’ Truss said. ‘It’s about prosperity. It’s about building that network of senior business executives, entrepreneurs, political leaders to create new opportunities in Britain and around the world. We need to see economic growth. That is the most important thing.’

Truss said her new members-only club will unite business leaders in Mayfair in co-working spaces and executive suites. The Times reported that Truss has requested £500,000 from each of the 700 Leconfield founding members for the lifetime membership.

‘This will bring together people in real-life to exchange those ideas, but it will also provide a space in London where people can do business. Currently, people end up in hotel lobbies. They are trying to work in clubs that maybe ban laptops or mobile phones. This will have boardrooms, executive space where people can get business done,’ Truss said.

According to a 2025 analysis by Henley & Partners, a global investment-migration consultancy, the United Kingdom is losing millionaires and billionaires faster than any country in the world.

‘Our taxes are too high,’ Truss explained. ‘Our regulation is too high, and our energy prices are also sky-high. This has meant people leaving, businesses leaving. It’s difficult to build new buildings because of all the regulations, and even though we’re sitting on masses of oil and gas, fracking is banned, so our energy prices are high, and it’s not surprising that that makes us uncompetitive.’

While Truss briefly lifted a ban on fracking in the U.K. in 2022 in an attempt to unleash energy production, her successor, Rishi Sunak, reinstated the moratorium that ended support for new fracking projects.

Like Truss, President Donald Trump has moved to reverse key Biden-era climate regulations as part of his key campaign promise to ‘unleash American energy,’ signing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in July, which includes rollbacks on clean-energy incentives and repeals green energy mandates.

As Trump’s sweeping second-term agenda reshapes U.S. and global markets, his reciprocal and retaliatory tariffs have pushed some countries to reopen trade talks amid heightened market tensions.

Asked about Trump using tariffs to pressure the U.K. and the rest of Europe to pay more for certain goods, including U.S. medicine, Truss offered a surprisingly complimentary view of his strategy.

‘I was trade secretary in Britain, and I signed 60 trade deals as trade secretary, and I know that in order to get deals done you have to negotiate and you have to use leverage, and it’s exactly what I did as trade secretary, so I know that is how you get the deals done,’ Truss told Fox News Digital.

Her stance is a sharp departure from Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has urged Trump to scale back tariff measures that could hurt the British economy.

Truss told Fox News Digital that her new YouTube channel, ‘The Liz Truss Show,’ will be a ‘free speech’ platform for exploring British and Western politics outside the mainstream media bubble.

Mamdani’s transition team did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

President Donald Trump will be deployed on the campaign trail next year ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles indicated during an appearance on ‘The Mom VIEW.’

Wiles said that ‘so many of those low-propensity voters are Trump voters,’ and that she had not ‘quite broken it to him yet, but he’s going to campaign like it’s 2024 again,’ for the individuals he assists.

While Trump does not help everyone, ‘for those he does, he’s a difference maker,’ she said, adding that the president is ‘a turnout machine.’

‘The president started raising money for the midterms the day after the election. And he’s sitting on a huge war chest to help these people,’ she said, noting that ‘he’ll use it.’

Trump took office earlier this year after Republicans in 2024 clinched a trifecta, winning the White House back, maintaining their House majority and taking back control of the Senate.

But the GOP’s political power will be on the line in 2026 since Republicans could potentially lose their majority in one or both chambers.

In the 2018 midterm elections during Trump’s first term, Republicans expanded their majority in the Senate but lost their House majority.

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers has introduced legislation aimed at keeping COVID-19 pandemic-era Obamacare subsidies alive for another two years.

Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., and Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., co-chairs of the Problem Solvers Caucus, have told reporters for weeks that they are working on such a measure as Capitol Hill scrambles to avert skyrocketing health insurance costs for millions of Americans beginning next year.

Democrats in Congress voted twice during the pandemic to expand the availability of premium tax credits for Obamacare, also called the Affordable Care Act (ACA), to make sure more Americans had access to healthcare coverage.

Those enhanced subsidies are set to expire at the end of this year.

A majority of House Republicans have signaled they are not open to extending them, at least not without significant reforms. Conservatives in particular have panned the enhanced subsidies as a COVID-era relic that benefited insurance companies rather than Americans themselves.

But some GOP lawmakers have joined Democrats in warning that failing to extend them at least temporarily at this point will result in millions of Americans seeing their healthcare premiums skyrocket while Congress does nothing to help.

House Republicans are now largely looking to Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and their leaders for the next move.

Johnson has said he intends to hold a vote on some kind of healthcare package before the end of this year, while panning Obamacare as a long-broken system badly in need of reforms.

One House GOP source told Fox News Digital that they expect Johnson to lay out a roadmap on healthcare at Republican lawmakers’ weekly conference meeting on Wednesday morning.

The bipartisan bill released Tuesday is being pushed by a group of four Democrats and four Republicans — Fitzpatrick, Suozzi, along with Reps. Don Bacon, R-Neb., Rob Bresnahan, R-Pa., Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., Jared Golden, D-Maine, Don Davis, D-N.C., and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash.

Fitzpatrick called the legislation ‘a practical, people-first fix that protects families now, while preserving the space to keep working toward a stronger, smarter, more affordable healthcare system.’

‘When the stakes are this high, responsible governance means securing 80% of what families need today rather than risking 100% of nothing tomorrow,’ he said in a statement.

In addition to extending the enhanced Obamacare subsidies for two years, the bill also ‘stops unauthorized plan and subsidy changes by requiring consent and prompt notification before any modifications take effect,’ according to a press release.

It would also rein in pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) profits and expand access to health savings accounts (HSAs) — two reforms that other rank-and-file House Republicans have been advocating for.

But it’s not clear yet if House GOP leaders would put the bill on the floor for a chamber-wide vote, nor if it has the backing of their Democratic counterparts.

Still, there are ways to force a vote on legislation without leadership’s approval. One of those methods is called a discharge petition, which requires signatures from a majority of House lawmakers to override leaders’ wishes to vote on a given bill.

Fox News Digital asked Fitzpatrick last week if a discharge petition could be filed, but he did not give a direct answer, instead saying that the bill would be released imminently.

Bacon told Fox News Digital on Tuesday that a discharge petition is a realistic possibility but cautioned, ‘It would be wiser to see if we have 60 votes in the Senate first.’

The plan is one of several put forward by House Republicans to deal with the looming healthcare cliff.

Republican Study Committee Chairman August Pfluger, R-Texas, introduced legislation last week to allow states to opt out of Obamacare altogether while radically expanding the availability of HSAs.

And late last week, a bipartisan group of House lawmakers introduced a plan to extend the enhanced Obamacare subsidies — with income caps and extra guardrails against fraud — for a year.

The Senate, meanwhile, is expected to vote this week on Democrat-led legislation to extend the enhanced subsidies, though it’s likely to fail. It’s not yet clear if Senate Republicans will put up their own counter-proposal.

While Senate Republicans work to coalesce behind a fix to expiring Obamacare subsidies, one Republican has a plan that he says bridges Democrats’ desires and GOP demands.

Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., detailed his plan, dubbed the Marshall Plan, in an interview with Fox News Digital that he pitched as a starting point that could bring both Republicans and Democrats to the table to hash out a bipartisan solution to the subsidies, and further, Obamacare as a whole.

Boiled down, Marshall’s legislative package would do two things: extend the enhanced subsidies as they are for one year, and then convert those subsidies into health savings accounts (HSAs).

That approach, in broad terms, bridges the gap between Senate Democrats’ desire to extend the subsidies and the GOP’s wishes to pivot the subsidy money into HSAs, which has the backing of President Donald Trump.

‘We want to turn patients into consumers again. That’s the whole key here: My plan doesn’t impact just the 24 million people on Obamacare. It’s going to impact everybody’s cost of health care,’ Marshall said. ‘So if we pair bumping up savings accounts with price tags, we’re going to turn patients into consumers again, and they’ll do magic things out there. I think of this being like the magic shopping weeks, Black Friday and Cyber Monday.’

Along with extending the enhanced subsidies and transitioning them to HSAs, Marshall’s plan would also eliminate zero-cost premiums by requiring a minimum payment of $5 per month, require people to provide a government-issued ID in a bid to eliminate fraud, and include stricter enforcement of Hyde Amendment requirements that taxpayer dollars don’t fund abortions by denying the premium credits from being used on abortion procedures.

Abortion funding has proven a tricky situation in ongoing bipartisan talks, a point Marshall acknowledged but countered that he couldn’t understand ‘why by just stating what the law is and making it even clearer,’ Democrats object to it.

The plan would also bar gender transition procedures from being covered by plans on the Obamacare exchange and permanently fund cost-sharing reduction payments, which Marshall and several economists who reviewed his plan estimated would save $30 billion on healthcare and lower premiums by roughly 11%.

The end of the one-year extension of the subsidies would also include a wind-down transition period until 2032, reducing the enhanced premium tax credits each year by 20%.

The Obamacare issue is one that Marshall has thought about for over a decade and tried to tackle legislatively when he was a member of the House.

‘Forever, it feels like it’s been forever,’ Marshall said. ‘Here we are, 15 years later, premiums have doubled. Out-of-pocket costs — it went from $1,000 a year to $15,000 a year.’

While he hopes for a bipartisan product at the end of the road, Marshall’s main objective is to present a package that can get strong support among his Republican colleagues. Senate Republicans are expected to discuss which option they want to run with during a closed-door meeting on Tuesday.

He noted that bipartisan talks had picked up recently, but that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was proving to be a major roadblock.

‘I think the talks are increasing, and they’re getting better, but there’s a political reality to this as well,’ Marshall said. ‘I don’t think Chuck Schumer wants us to be successful. He doesn’t want us to fix Obamacare. He wants this country to be in chaos come November of next year.’

It’s also one of several Republican plans in the mix, with others either focusing only on abandoning the enhanced subsidies for HSAs or extending the subsidies for two years.

And time is running out for Republicans to present their plan to counter Senate Democrats’ proposal, with a vote on the subsidies set for Thursday. That could be a tall task for Republicans, Marshall said.

‘I think it’ll be really hard to have enough momentum to get something that’s going to allow the enhanced premiums to continue,’ he said. ‘I want to emphasize, though the original Obamacare is still in place, and it’s going to cover over 80% of people’s premiums as is. I think we need to do more than just stop the hemorrhaging. Our bill stops the hemorrhaging.’

Former Vice President Kamala Harris declared herself to be a ‘historic figure’ on Tuesday and touted that there will be a marble bust of her constructed in Congress.

Harris made the statement during an interview with The New York Times regarding her upcoming book, ‘107 Days,’ telling the newspaper that she no longer feels ‘burdened’ by the need to achieve a place in history.

‘I understand the focus on ’28 and all that,’ she told the Times. ‘But there will be a marble bust of me in Congress. I am a historic figure like any Vice President of the United States ever was.’

‘Thousands of people are coming to hear my voice. Thousands and thousands,’ she added about her book tour. ‘Every place we’ve gone has been sold out.’

Harris’ comments reference a tradition in the Senate of commissioning a bust of vice presidents after they leave office. The tradition has held strong since the late 1800s.

The former vice president has used the release of her upcoming book as a chance to settle scores with figures throughout the Democratic Party, from Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro to former President Joe Biden himself.

Harris writes in her book that Shapiro had asked her staff lots of questions, including ‘how he might arrange to get Pennsylvania artists’ work on loan from the Smithsonian.’ She also accused him of wanting to be involved in every decision and said she reminded him, ‘a vice president is not a co-president.’

Many political observers had scratched their heads when Harris selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz over Shapiro to be her running mate.

‘She wrote that in her book? That’s complete and utter bull—-,’ Shapiro said in an interview with the Atlantic. ‘I can tell you that her accounts are just blatant lies.’

‘I did ask a bunch of questions,’ he continued. ‘Wouldn’t you ask questions if someone was talking to you about forming a partnership and working together?’

‘I mean, she’s trying to sell books and cover her a–,’ he said, before backtracking. ‘I shouldn’t say ‘cover her a–.’ I think that’s not appropriate.’

‘She’s trying to sell books. Period,’ he concluded.

The book also blames Biden’s White House for sidelining her and failing to support her throughout their term in office and during her contest against Trump.

‘Getting anything positive said about my work or any defense against untrue attacks was almost impossible,’ her book reads.

She also argued the White House was happy to let her ‘shoulder the blame’ for the border crisis.

Fox News’ Hannah Panreck contributed to this report.

White House science and technology advisor Michael Kratsios opened a meeting of G7 tech ministers by urging governments to clear regulatory obstacles to artificial intelligence adoption, warning that sweeping new rule books or outdated oversight frameworks risk slowing the innovation needed to unlock AI-driven productivity.

Kratsios, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy director, spoke Tuesday at the G7 Industry, Digital and Technology Ministers’ Meeting in Montréal, Quebec.

‘The United States is committed to promoting private-sector-led development of AI systems, applications, and infrastructure, to protect and foster innovation. This primarily requires us to throw off regulatory burdens that weigh down innovators, especially in the construction of the infrastructure that undergirds the AI revolution,’ said Kratsios in a draft of his remarks obtained by Fox News Digital.

‘However, we also recognize the benefits of AI will not be fully realized by complete de-regulation. Regulatory and non-regulatory policy frameworks that safeguard the public interest while enabling innovation are necessary to earn the public trust in AI technologies that will allow broad deployment and fast adoption.’

The U.S. official told Fox News Digital that the White House wants its allies to build a ‘trusted AI ecosystem defined by smart, sector-specific regulations tailored to each nation’s priorities and designed to accelerate innovation.’ 

‘Together, we can deliver transformative growth, keep critical data secure, and ensure the future of AI is built on freedom and human ingenuity,’ Kratsios added.

President Donald Trump has put artificial intelligence at the forefront of his administration, appointing David Sacks as his ‘AI czar’ and issuing an executive order in January that rolled back many of the federal government’s previous AI safety and oversight policies in an effort to speed deployment — a move critics say could weaken safeguards and increase risks as the technology spreads.

Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform Monday that he will issue a ‘One Rule’ executive order later this week to establish a single national framework for artificial intelligence regulation, arguing that U.S. dominance in the technology will be ‘destroyed in its infancy’ if he doesn’t.

‘We are beating ALL COUNTRIES at this point in the race, but that won’t last long if we are going to have 50 States, many of them bad actors, involved in RULES and the APPROVAL PROCESS. THERE CAN BE NO DOUBT ABOUT THIS!’ he said in part. ‘You can’t expect a company to get 50 Approvals every time they want to do something. THAT WILL NEVER WORK!’

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis criticized the notion of stripping states of jurisdiction to regulate AI, arguing on X in November that it amounts to a ‘subsidy’ to Big Tech and would prevent states from ‘protecting against online censorship of political speech, predatory applications that target children, violations of intellectual property rights and data center intrusions on power/water resources.’

‘The rise of AI is the most significant economic and cultural shift occurring at the moment; denying the people the ability to channel these technologies in a productive way via self-government constitutes federal government overreach and lets technology companies run wild,’ DeSantis added. ‘Not acceptable.’