White House special envoy Steve Witkoff said he is pushing for all hostages held in the Gaza Strip to be returned this week, though negotiations with Hamas still appear to be at an impasse. 

‘We adamantly want, and I’m following the president’s direction here when I say this, all of those hostages home this week,’ Witkoff told Fox News’ Bret Baier on ‘Special Report’ Tuesday night. 

‘There’s been a deal on the table for the last six or seven weeks that would have released 10 of the hostages out of the 20 who we think are alive,’ he said, noting that he believes Hamas is ‘100%’ to blame for the hold-up.

‘It was Hamas who slow played that process, and it is Hamas now who is saying we accept that deal,’ Witkoff added.

Witkoff did not go into detail on what specifically is holding up the return of the hostages who have been held captive in the Gaza Strip for nearly two years following the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. 

But reports on Tuesday suggested the Israeli security cabinet refused to review a deal that would see the partial release of hostages and Witkoff confirmed the ‘official position’ of Jerusalem is a full return of hostages or no ceasefire deal as it pushes forward with its plans to take Gaza City. 

In a statement to Fox News Digital on Wednesday, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a group that represents the families of the hostages, said it is ‘hopeful that with this deal on the table, we will finally see our loved ones return.’ 

‘Time is running out, and we know that only by finalizing this deal can we bring all 50 hostages home – those who are alive to begin their healing journey, and those who were tragically lost to receive a dignified burial,’ it added.  ‘We have no time left – let’s make this deal happen now.’

But the forum also issued a public statement on Tuesday after reports said Israel refused to review a partial return deal, and said, ‘It is deeply disappointing that on the very day when masses of Israelis take to the streets demanding the return of all hostages and an end to the war, the government continues to delay progress on the agreement, contrary to the people’s will.’ 

A demonstration of some 350,000 people took place in Israel’s Hostage Square in Tel Aviv on Tuesday night, according to the Forum, just days after another massive protest took to the streets of Tel Aviv, in which the families of the hostages and supporters again called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a deal with Hamas. 

Witkoff argued that there can be negotiations after the hostages are returned for ‘what next day… looks like in Gaza after this is all done and what the definition of Hamas is’ – suggesting these issues remain major hurdles as Israel has repeatedly vowed the complete destruction of Hamas.

The special envoy said it wasn’t his ‘call’ to say whether the terrorist network should be completely destroyed, but noted there was room for negotiations in returning the hostages as Palestinian prisoners would also be swapped in exchange. 

Fifty hostages continue to be held by Hamas, only 20 of whom are assessed to still be alive. 

President Donald Trump on Monday predicted there would be a ‘conclusive’ end to the war in Gaza within the next ‘two to three weeks,’ though he did not say how this would be accomplished. 

The Forum responded to the pronouncement and said, ‘We pray this is true and that you gave a deadline to end our suffering. You have committed directly to released hostages that you will bring all of the hostages home – now is the time to make that happen.’ 

Witkoff also said Trump would be hosting a meeting at the White House on Wednesday to discuss a ‘day after’ plan for Gaza, though it is unclear who will take part in this meeting. 

When pressed for details on the meeting, a White House official told Fox News Digital, ‘President Trump has been clear that he wants the war to end, and he wants peace and prosperity for everyone in the region. The White House has nothing additional to share on the meeting at this time.’

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates went to the White House on Tuesday for a meeting with the president, according to a Gates spokesperson.

In a statement obtained by Fox News Digital, the spokesperson noted, ‘Bill met with the president to discuss the importance of U.S. global health programs and health research that is necessary to save lives, protect Americans’ health, and preserve U.S. leadership in the world.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment on Wednesday.

Prior to the president’s inauguration for his second term, Wall Street Journal Editor-in-Chief Emma Tucker asked the mega-wealthy figure whether he had met with Trump since Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential contest. 

Gates said that they had a ‘quite intriguing dinner,’ noting that it lasted more than three hours. 

An individual who Gates explained ‘helps manage things for me’ was also present, as well as Susie Wiles, Gates added.

Lawyers for the Trump administration filed an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court on Tuesday night asking the justices to halt a lower court injunction and allow it to freeze billions in foreign aid spending previously allocated by Congress — kicking the issue of USAID funding back to the high court for the second time in roughly six months.

At issue is nearly $12 billion in funding allocated to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and owed by the end of the fiscal year in September. The majority of those funds were axed by President Donald Trump almost immediately after taking office, under the broader mantle of slashing foreign aid and eliminating so-called ‘waste, fraud, and abuse.’  

U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the Supreme Court in an emergency filing Tuesday that, absent intervention from the high court, the Trump administration would be forced to ‘rapidly obligate some $12 billion in foreign-aid funds’ owed by September 30, or the end of the fiscal year.

Those payments have been held up in court for months, after President Donald Trump signed an executive order on his first day back in office in January seeking to block nearly all foreign aid spending, as part of his administration’s broader crackdown on waste, fraud, and abuse.

That order was blocked by a federal judge in D.C. earlier this year. That judge, U.S. District Judge Amir Ali, ordered the Trump administration to resume payments on billions of dollars in funding for USAID projects that were previously approved by Congress. 

That order was overturned this month by the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which ruled 2-1 to vacate the lower court injunction.

The appeals court partly vacated Judge Ali’s injunction, rejecting a request from foreign aid groups that had sought to restore the grant payments. The 2-1 majority also ruled that the plaintiffs failed to show Trump had acted ‘plainly’ in excess of his executive branch authorities.

Writing for the majority, Judge Karen L. Henderson, a President George H.W. Bush appointee, said that the plaintiffs lacked the proper cause of action to sue the Trump administration over its decision to withhold the funds, or what is known as impoundment.

But the appeals court has not yet issued a mandate to enforce that ruling — meaning that, for now, the judge’s order, and the payment schedule he previously laid out — remains in place.

Sauer argued in the emergency Supreme Court appeal that the foreign aid groups, which sued the Trump administration this year in order to claw back some of the grant money, have no legal authority to challenge the executive branch on the matter, which is technically under the legal jurisdiction of the Impoundment Control Act.

‘Congress did not upset the delicate interbranch balance by allowing for unlimited, unconstrained private suits,’ Sauer wrote. ‘Any lingering dispute about the proper disposition of funds that the President seeks to rescind shortly before they expire should be left to the political branches, not effectively prejudged by the district court.’

Plaintiffs, for their part, have argued that the executive branch lacks the authority to unilaterally withhold already-appropriated funds, under the Impoundment Control Act (ICA), as well as the Administrative Procedure Act.

The Supreme Court previously ruled 5-4. 

Longtime government scientist Susan Monarez is refusing to leave her position as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) after the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced she had been removed from the role less than a month after she was sworn in.

Attorneys Mark Zaid and Abbe Lowell said they are representing Monarez and claimed she ‘has neither resigned nor yet been fired.’

The attorneys released a statement on social media, claiming HHS and Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are weaponizing public health for political gain and putting millions of American lives at risk. 

‘When CDC Director Susan Monarez refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts, she chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda,’ the statement said. ‘For that, she has been targeted. Dr. Monarez has neither resigned nor received notification from the White House that she has been fired, and as a person of integrity and devoted to science, she will not resign.’

The Washington Post reported that sources within the CDC, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said HHS leaders, including Kennedy, sought to get Monarez to commit to rescinding approvals for certain COVID-19 vaccines. When Monarez did not immediately commit, she was told by administration officials that she must resign or she would be fired. 

Sources also claimed she then attempted to involve the chairman of the Senate’s top health committee, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La. The move reportedly further angered Kennedy. 

When reached for comment, a spokesperson for the HHS directed Fox News Digital to the agency’s response shared on its official X account.

‘Susan Monarez is no longer director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,’ HHS said. ‘We thank her for her dedicated service to the American people. Secretary Kennedy has full confidence in his team at the CDC who will continue to be vigilant in protecting Americans against infectious diseases at home and abroad.’

The White House confirmed to Fox News Digital that Monarez was being removed.

‘As her attorney’s statement makes abundantly clear, Susan Monarez is not aligned with the President’s agenda of Making America Healthy Again,’ White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement. ‘Since Susan Monarez refused to resign despite informing HHS leadership of her intent to do so, the White House has terminated Monarez from her position with the CDC.’

Monarez was tapped by the Trump administration to lead the CDC after its initial nominee, Dave Weldon, withdrew from contention in March amid fears he might not garner enough support in the Senate to be confirmed. Shortly after Weldon stepped down, Monarez was formally nominated to be the CDC’s permanent director and was eventually confirmed in the final week of July.

During Monarez’s confirmation hearing, she expressed support for vaccines and told lawmakers she has ‘not seen a causal link between vaccines and autism.’

Prior to Monarez’s Senate confirmation, CDC directors did not typically require Senate approval, but that changed in 2022 when Congress passed a law making it necessary. Monarez was the first-ever Senate-confirmed CDC director in the agency’s history.

Monarez was also the first CDC director without a medical degree in more than seven decades. However, she does hold a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology.

After getting her doctorate, Monarez entered the federal government, where she found herself in roles at the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, the National Security Council, the Department of Homeland Security and the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). Her biography on the CDC’s website says she worked on ‘leading efforts to enhance the nation’s biomedical innovation capabilities, including combating antimicrobial resistance, expanding the use of wearables to promote patient health, ensuring personal health data privacy, and improving pandemic preparedness.’

Hours after the news that Monarez would no longer head the CDC, sources confirmed to Fox News Digital that at least three other top CDC officials tendered their resignations, including the CDC’s director of its National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Demetre Daskalakis; the director of the National Centers for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Disease, Dr. Daniel Jernigan; and the CDC’s chief medical officer, Debra Houry.

Daskalakis posted his lengthy resignation letter on X, citing various reasons for his departure, including ‘the views’ of Secretary Kennedy and his staff. 

Daskalakis said he could not continue to work in an administration that treats the CDC ‘as a tool’ to establish policies that ‘do not reflect scientific reality.’ He specifically cited recent changes Kennedy’s HHS has brought to vaccine scheduling for children and adults, arguing it ‘threaten[s] the lives of the youngest Americans and pregnant people.’ 

The former CDC director also cited the administration’s efforts to ‘erase transgender populations, cease critical domestic and international HIV programming, and terminate key research.’   

Fox News’ David Lewkowict contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump is reportedly working on a move that would give the U.S. a new military and economic foothold in Africa, counter China and Russia and strike a blow against Islamist terrorists in the region. And now a leading senator has told Fox News Digital this goal can be realized by recognizing the breakaway Somaliland as an independent state.

Somaliland, on the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden, broke away from Somalia in 1991. Its government is said to be offering the U.S. a new air and sea base close to the entrance of the Red Sea, and directly across from Yemen and the Houthis, if the U.S. formally recognizes it, 30% of the world’s container ship traffic is reported to pass through its waters en route to or from the Suez Canal.

In the Oval Office on Aug. 8, Trump told reporters, ‘We’re looking into that right now,’ when asked about the recognition of Somaliland and the possible resettlement of Gazans there, adding, ‘We’re working on that right now, Somaliland’. 

The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Africa, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas., told Fox News Digital, ‘There is a very real opportunity that President Trump will recognize Somaliland during this administration.’

Cruz added, ‘President Trump is bringing a new era of clarity in American national security, after four years of the Biden administration rewarding our enemies and punishing our allies, and recognizing Somaliland should be part of this new era.

‘Somaliland has been a reliable ally to the United States, is integrating itself with us and our allies globally, and is committed to helping us counter efforts by China to undermine the safety and prosperity of Americans,’ he said.

The White House did not respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.

Neighboring Somalia has been battling Islamist fundamentalist fighters for decades. U.S. Africa Command has increased the number of airstrikes against both ISIS and al-Shabab terrorists under the current administration.

But Somaliland, 99% Muslim, has allegedly eliminated radicalism and has aligned itself with the U.S. and Israel, leading Cruz to tell Fox News Digital, ‘They’re a Muslim country, in a very dangerous part of Africa, showing real courage. I will continue to push for deepening the U.S.-Somaliland partnership, including through the Africa Subcommittee in the Senate, and I expect that my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will be receptive to doing so.’

Earlier this month, Cruz wrote to President Trump about Somaliland, stating, ‘it requires the status of a state. I urge you to grant it that recognition.’

Somaliland’s president, Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi , is optimistic, telling the British Guardian newspaper on May 30, ‘Recognition is on the horizon.’ He added, ‘It’s a matter of time. Not if, but when’.

Somaliland’s port at Berbera is the jewel in any Washington deal. Analysts say it is in such a strategic position that both Russia and China have tried to acquire it. Right next door to it is one of Africa’s five longest runways, offering the U.S. the possibility of both a sea and air base that can strike Houthi rebels to the north and Al Shabaab terrorists to the east. 

In his letter to the White House, Cruz wrote, ‘Somaliland has emerged as a critical security and diplomatic partner for the United States, helping America advance our national security interests in the Horn of Africa and beyond. It is strategically located along the

Gulf of Aden, putting it near one of the world’s busiest maritime corridors. It possesses capable armed forces and contributes to regional counterterrorism and piracy operations. It has proposed hosting a U.S. military presence near the Red Sea along the Gulf of Aden.’

The U.S.’s largest military base in Africa is just up the coast in Djibouti. But there are security and surveillance issues at the Camp Lemonnier U.S. base where the Chinese and other nations have opened their own bases and monitoring stations nearby.

Somaliland is also offering the White House access to rare earth minerals essential for high-tech industries, such as lithium and silicon quartz.

The U.S. has described Somalia, with large numbers of both ISIS and al-Qaida-linked operatives, as a terrorist safe haven. Now the increasing presence of China and military forces from countries such as Turkey is reportedly leading some in Washington to be increasingly unhappy with its ‘one Somalia’ policy, where Somaliland continues to be recognized only as a part of Somalia. 

For now, a State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital the official position: ‘The United States recognizes the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Somalia, which includes the territory of Somaliland. The State Department is not in active discussions with Somaliland’s representatives about a deal to recognize Somaliland as a state.’

But, Somaliland’s foreign minister worked Washington’s corridors and politicians in April, and several African sources, including the influential Horn Observer news outlet, have reported that President Abdullahi is expected to come to D.C. ‘soon’. U.S. officials, including the U.S. ambassador to Somalia, Richard Riley, are said to have been to Somaliland to meet with the president at least three times this year.