The Taliban’s supreme leader said Sunday there is ‘no need’ for Western laws in Afghanistan, noting that democracy is dead as long as sharia laws are in place.

Hibatullah Akhundzada was speaking during a sermon marking Eid al-Fitr, an Islamic holiday, at the Eidgah Mosque in the southern city of Kandahar.

‘There is no need for laws that originate from the West. We will create our own laws,’ Akhundzada said as he emphasized the importance for Islamic laws, according to audio of his message that was published on X by the Taliban government’s chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.

The Taliban’s interpretation of sharia has resulted in restrictions for Afghan women and girls, who have been denied an education, working roles in many job fields and from appearing in most public spaces.

These laws have isolated the Taliban in the international community, but they have still been able to establish diplomatic ties with some countries, including China and the United Arab Emirates.

Akhundzada has taken a stronger approach on policy since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in 2021 during the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops from the region, despite some officials initially promising a more moderate government.

The terror group’s supreme leader criticized the West in his remarks on Sunday by saying non-believers were unified against Muslims and that the U.S. and other countries were united in their hostility toward Islam, pointing to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Akhundzada said democracy had come to an end in Afghanistan and sharia was in effect. He also argued that supporters of democracy were attempting to separate the people from the Taliban government.

The Taliban have no credible opposition inside or outside the country, although some senior figures within the government have criticized the leadership’s decision-making process and concentration of power in Akhundzada’s circle.

Some Taliban members want greater engagement on the world stage and to eliminate harsher policies to attract more support from outsiders.

In recent months, there has been increased engagement between the Taliban and the U.S. under President Donald Trump, mostly due to prisoner exchanges and releases.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan reportedly called for the destruction of Israel during Eid al-Fitr prayers at the Çamlıca Mosque in Istanbul on Sunday.

The Jerusalem Post reported that Erdoğan said ‘May Allah, for the sake of his name ‘Al-Qahhar,’ destroy and devastate Zionist Israel.’ His call for the annihilation of the Jewish state has drawn fierce condemnation, particularly from Israeli officials.

In response to his remarks, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar stated on X, ‘The dictator Erdogan revealed his antisemitic face,’ adding that ‘Erdogan is dangerous to the region, as well as to his own people, as has been proven in recent days,’ Sa’ar referred to the widespread protests in Turkey and added, ‘Let’s hope NATO members understand how dangerous he is, and not before it’s too late.’ 

Following his comments, Turkey’s foreign ministry issued a statement that read, in part, ‘We categorically reject the outrageous statement made by the Foreign Minister of the Netanyahu government.

‘These disrespectful and baseless allegations are part of an effort to cover up the crimes committed by Netanyahu and his associates,’ adding, ‘We will continue to stand by the innocent civilians targeted by Israel and to defend their rights.’

In a social media post, Israel’s foreign ministry demanded clarity on whether Erdoğan denies his antisemitic views, emphasizing the president’s problematic actions both domestically and internationally. 

‘What bothered the Turkish Foreign Ministry? Here’s a way to clarify the dictator’s words: Clearly state that Erdogan is not an antisemite, that he is not an obsessive hater of the Jewish state.’ 

The post underscores the growing concern over Erdoğan’s intentions toward Israel.

The tensions between Turkey and Israel go beyond Erdoğan’s support for Hamas, although that remains a central issue. Hamas, which carried out the brutal massacre of more than 1,200 Israelis on October 7, 2023, has long had Turkish backing. Erdoğan’s refusal to denounce Hamas, describing them as a legitimate political party, has angered Israel and much of the international community.

The diplomatic relationship between Turkey and the U.S. has also been under scrutiny. While Turkey’s domestic actions, like cracking down on political opponents, including the arrest of Istanbul’s mayor Ekrem İmamoglu, have sparked unprecedented protests, U.S. officials are attempting to stabilize relations. On March 26, Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, discussing Turkey’s potential support for a Russia-Ukraine ceasefire and other geopolitical issues, despite recent internal turmoil.

‘Turkey’s strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan is facing the worst domestic political crisis of his career. The streets are flooded now with protesters who are outraged over the arrest of opposition leader Ekrem Imamoglu, restrictions on the internet, and other authoritarian maneuvers,’ Jonathan Schanzer, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital.

‘To deflect, Erdogan has engaged in blistering rhetoric against Israel. This comes amidst Erdoğan’s unflinching financial and political support for Hamas since the October 7 war erupted, not to mention Erdoğan’s support for the al-Qaeda government in Syria, which also poses a threat to Israel,’ Schanzer said.

The tensions between Turkey and Israel are not limited to Hamas support. Erdoğan’s actions in Syria, where Turkey has backed Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, who overthrew the Assad regime and gained control over parts of the country, have further strained relations with Israel, leading to growing concerns over Ankara’s role in fostering instability on Israel’s borders.

Before Erdoğan’s most recent threats against Israel, Trump administration officials had indicated that they may lift restrictions on defense contracts with Turkey, including the potential reinstatement of Turkey’s F-35 program participation. This comes after a phone call between Presidents Trump and Erdoğan on March 21, which may pave the way for a change in policy that could potentially allow the sale of the F-35s to Ankara.

As a NATO member, Turkey plays a pivotal role in the alliance’s security framework. 

Even a casual reader of history will have noticed over the past many years that the antiseptic term Common Era (CE) has slowly but surely replaced the elegant Anno Domini (AD) as the marker of the time period that began 2,025 years ago in most historical works.

Though at first glance this may appear to be a minor change, it most definitely is not, and given the Trump administration’s brave and much-needed work to repair the damage done by wokeness, it’s possible that the damage here could be reversed.

Before getting to how an executive order bringing back AD would work, let’s first take a look at why it is so necessary to restore it to our written works of history.

Anno Domini is not only a description, it is an explanation. It is directly telling us that the reason we call this year 2025 is that Christ lived 2,025 years ago. It’s not just some happy accident that Jesus lived at this time. His life is the entire basis of the chronological system.

This keeps us in communion with over 1,000 years of our own history, from old books that used, ‘In the year of our Lord, ….’ to 20th Century classics of history that used the classic and traditional AD.

Now, progressive historians, which accounts for all but about six of them, insist that all they are doing by using Common Era instead is separating religion from the ‘scientific’ or at least empirical, study of history. But this is an easily disproven lie.

The names of our months, for example, are taken from Roman gods, and yet nobody thinks we should change the name of March so it isn’t derived from a Pagan god of war. The difference is that, like all things leftist, this is really about power.

Months named after Roman gods do not bother progressives because they do not view ancient Roman Paganism as part of a dominant culture that has to have its power over society weakened by the enlightened. But this is exactly how they view Christianity.

Put another way, Leftist historians are convinced that using AD imposes Christianity on non-Christians, and therefore a more neutral, or dare I say, common term should be used instead.

This is nonsense. There was never any significant group of people living outside of ivy-covered walls and ivory towers who were even remotely bothered by the term AD before the historians started in with this silliness.

You’d sooner find a bodega owner in the Bronx who wants to be called ‘Latinx.’

Moreover, this change from AD to CE is part of a much broader attempt to erase Christianity not just from public life, but from the history of the West as a whole, of which it is unquestionably the most important force.

Christianity didn’t grow up alongside Western civilization, it IS Western civilization, or at least was until about 10 minutes ago. Not only do progressives want Christian heritage and tradition removed from our society’s present and future, they want to erase it from our past.

As to the restoration of AD in our history books, there is a huge step that President Trump could take by executive order. With the swipe of a Sharpie, he could require that all books documents produced by the federal government or with federal funding use the more accurate and descriptive term Anno Domini.

It really is not too late to make CE a quirky footnote, used during a brief tenure of academic madness in the early 21st Century. Given how much federal funding university book publishers receive, the change could come very quickly.

Of course, such a move by Trump would occasion bloody howls of censorship and accusations of stomping out academic freedom. But American taxpayers, Christian or otherwise, should not be paying for the Left’s mission to tear Christianity from the heart of our civilization.

Sometimes it’s the little things, the ones which don’t seem to matter, that wind up mattering the most, because it starts with who cares if a man wants to wear a dress, and then its surgery on kids. It starts with leveling the playing field and winds up at ‘no white males need apply.’

The erasure of Anno Domini is one of these times, one of these canaries in a coalmine for our society, and the time is now to restore it to its rightful place.

President Donald Trump said Sunday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is trying to back out of a rare earth deal with the U.S., adding if he does that he is going to have ‘some problems.’

‘I think Zelenskyy, by the way, he’s trying to back out of the rare earth deal, and if he does that, he’s got some problems – big, big problems,’ Trump said while speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Sunday. ‘We made a deal on rare earths, and now he’s saying, ‘well, you know, I want to renegotiate the deal.’ He wants to be a member of NATO. Well, he was never going to be a member of NATO. He understands that, so, if he’s looking to renegotiate the deal, he’s got big problems.’

Zelenskyy said last month that Ukraine is ready to sign an agreement on minerals and security with the U.S. at any time, noting that the agreement is seen as a step toward greater security and solid security guarantees.

Zelenskyy’s statement came after a visit to the White House where the two leaders were expected to sign an agreement on rare Earth minerals. But the visit turned sour, and Zelenskyy was kicked out of the president’s home with no deal in hand.

While speaking to reporters on Sunday, Trump said he and his team were making progress on a ceasefire deal between Ukraine and Russia.

One reporter asked if Trump would say his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin was at its lowest point.

The president said no, adding he did not think Putin was going to go back on his word for a partial ceasefire. He also said deals are made with people whether you like them or not.

Trump explained that Putin had said some things over the last few days about Zelenskyy not being credible, adding he was not happy about that. But, Trump added, he thinks Putin is going to be good. He also said he would not want to put secondary tariffs on Russia.

The U.S. put secondary tariffs on Venezuela, which Trump said has had a ‘very strong impact.’

‘You know that every ship just got out and left. A lot of them left. They dropped the hoses right into the ocean, and they left. They didn’t want to be there for a minute because they didn’t want those tariffs to catch on,’ Trump said. ‘But they didn’t want me to see them there. So, Venezuela and secondary tariffs, all secondary tariffs, are very strong, because essentially it says if you disobey our orders, you cannot do business in the United States of America, and that’s the catch.’

Trump said he plans to hit all the countries across the board with tariffs.

‘If you look at the history, and you look at what’s happened to us…take a look at trade with Asia, and I wouldn’t say anybody is doing it as fairly or nicely,’ Trump said. ‘We’re…going to be much more generous than they were to us.’

Trump also addressed questions about possibly running for a third term, which earlier in the day he said he was ‘not joking’ about.

Initially, Trump told reporters he was not looking at a third term, noting that people have spoken with him about a possible third term.

He said the 2020 election, in which he lost to now former President Joe Biden, was ‘totally rigged,’ but he would not take credit for a third try.

Trump also said his administration has had the best 100 days than any other president.

‘I was with some very important people today, and they said they’ve never seen turnaround as fast as this,’ he said.

As reporters continued to press him about a third term, though, Trump quickly shot them down.

‘I don’t want to talk about it,’ he told one reporter. ‘I don’t want to talk about a third term now. We have a long time. We have almost four years to go.’

WASHINGTON – In a wide-ranging interview last week, Energy Secretary Chris Wright discussed how the U.S. can bring nuclear power to the fore for both energy and defense purposes, starting with rebooting otherwise dormant ‘pit’ production.

Under the first Trump administration, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) sought to meet the Pentagon’s goal of manufacturing 80 such pits – spherical hulls of plutonium sized from a grapefruit to a bowling ball – according to the UK Guardian.

Wright suggested he wants to see the plan realized, as the same Energy Department laboratory in New Mexico where J. Robert Oppenheimer helped develop the atom bomb is reportedly working to return to earnest pit production.

The U.S. has never imported plutonium pits but also hasn’t done any such major manufacturing since the end of the Cold War.

‘But those existing weapons stockpiles, like anything else, they age with time. And so, we’ve realized we’ve got to restore the production of plutonium pits in our complex,’ Wright said.

‘We’ve built one in the last 25 years, and we’ll build more than 100 during the Trump administration,’ he pledged.

Bolstering pit production along with a less military-minded nuclear technology are a priority of Wright’s tenure, he said.

Wright said he is working to reopen the shuttered Palisades nuclear power plant in southwestern Michigan, which closed a few years ago.

Another major plant, Indian Point on the Hudson River opposite Haverstraw, N.Y., that had helped power New York City was notably closed under then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo. There has been little effort there, however, to see a reopening.

In addition to the large-scale plants, Wright said the Energy Department seeks to forward SMR or Small Modular Reactor technology, which he said could be groundbreaking in terms of powering underserved communities and important or sensitive sites that may be far from established large-scale plants.

‘Nuclear weapons and nuclear power started in the United States. We built a whole bunch of power plants. And by the mid-80s, we essentially stopped building them,’ he said.

‘Part of our goal is to bring this to make it more efficient to build things in America again. But one thing with nuclear technology is things that you have to build on-location have become slower to build, and therefore way more expensive to build.’

SMRs alleviate that pressure, as materials needed to build the plants can be shipped and assembled on-site on a much smaller scale, but with a potential for per-capita greater power output.

Unlike ‘stick-building a house’ in terms of a large-scale plant, implements for an SMR can be made in a factory and are more mobile.

A data center, military base or state concern could essentially file to have an SMR installed on-site, giving a greater domestic power source and a better overall grid.

‘There’s great private capital, capital that’s been around the innovations to design these plants. But again, you got this slow-moving, bureaucratic central government that’s still got to permit them and allow them to approve. So the nuclear renaissance has been talked about for years. And the Trump administration were actually going to start it,’ Wright said.

‘That is, simplifying the regulatory regime. We just sent out a request for a proposal to fund efforts to speed these along. And actually there was a similar one sent out a while ago for the Biden administration. They hadn’t gotten responses back.’

States that seek to benefit from SMRs have been vocal in support of that technology.

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy signed a bill in 2022 seeking to promote the construction of SMRs, saying that ‘micronuclear technology has a potential role to play in providing low-cost, reliable power for communities, remote villages and resource development projects.’

‘This bill will update state law to allow us to pursue the possibilities.’

Asked about opposition to nuclear energy, including the closure of Indian Point, Wright said that like almost any other topic, it is vulnerable to politicization.

‘It just makes no sense at all,’ he said. ‘It has by far been the safest way to produce energy in the entire history of the American nuclear industry.’

‘I know exactly how many people have died from nuclear energy: Zero.’

Wright said nuclear power has an ‘incredibly small footprint,’ and echoed President Donald Trump’s criticisms of relying too heavily on wind and solar.

‘You get the energy whether the sun is shining or the wind is blowing. But like any industry, it needs to be alive and vigorous so that supply chain is going; and not building nuclear plants in our country for decades means we’ve lost that industrial capacity. So, we’ve got to stand it back up again.’

President Donald Trump teased he might run for a third term, explaining to NBC News that he enjoys working and is ‘not joking’ about making another run for the Oval Office. 

‘A lot of people want me to do it,’ Trump told NBC News in a phone interview on Sunday. ‘But, I mean, I basically tell them we have a long way to go, you know, it’s very early in the administration.’

For now, he’s ‘focused on the current’ term, but told the outlet he was ‘not joking’ about making a run for a third term. 

‘It is far too early to think about it,’ he added. 

The 22nd Amendment of the Constitution, which was ratified in 1951, prevents individuals from serving more than two terms as president. The amendment was ratified after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected as president for four terms. 

Roosevelt died during his fourth term and Vice President Harry Truman assumed the presidency. FDR is the only president in the nation’s history who has been elected and served more than two terms, which was largely due to the political and economic climate at home and abroad, with his presidency unfolding amid the Great Depression and the beginning of World War II. 

‘There are methods which you could do it,’ Trump said when asked about how he could go about running for a third term. The outlet floated a possible method where Vice President JD Vance could run for the presidency, win and pass the torch to Trump. The president said such a scenario is one of the methods he could use to serve a third term. 

‘But there are others too,’ Trump added, without elaborating. 

‘I like working,’ he told the outlet when asked if he wants to serve another term. 

Trump has previously teased running for a third term, asking Republican lawmakers in January during a retreat, ‘Am I allowed to run again?’

While Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., a top Trump congressional ally, introduced a resolution just days after Trump’s inauguration in January to allow a president three terms in office, but no more than two consecutive four-year stints.

The amendment would read, ‘No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than three times, nor be elected to any additional term after being elected to two consecutive terms, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.’

Ogles told Fox Digital in January that Trump ‘has proven himself to be the only figure in modern history capable of reversing our nation’s decay and restoring America to greatness, and he must be given the time necessary to accomplish that goal.’

‘To that end, I am proposing an amendment to the Constitution to revise the limitations imposed by the 22nd Amendment on presidential terms,’ Ogles said. ‘This amendment would allow President Trump to serve three terms, ensuring that we can sustain the bold leadership our nation so desperately needs.’

Fox Digital reached out to the White House for additional comment on Sunday afternoon, but did not immediately receive a reply. 

Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report. 

The Trump administration’s Signal chat leak represents the ‘profound’ risk of ‘uncontrolled communication,’ which could have implications on future operations, a former national intelligence official said Sunday.

Sue Gordon, the former principal deputy national intelligence director during President Donald Trump’s first term, reacted to the leak during an appearance on CBS’ ‘Face the Nation.’

‘I’m glad the operation was successful,’ Gordon said, referring to the U.S. military strikes on Houthi terrorist targets. ‘Now we need to deal with the fact that this should not have happened, there is consequence when it does and you can’t be sure that there’s no persistent risk that follows it.’

Gordon said that while there have been errors in the past concerning the protection of a partner’s information, this leak is different due to the Trump administration’s reaction of ‘there was nothing to see here.’

‘I don’t think we should rest on the fact that nothing bad happened this time,’ Gordon said. ‘We don’t know whether that communications path has been penetrated, so we don’t know whether state actors that have lots of resources are just sitting and lurking now knowing we do important things on [Signal].’

Signal, an encrypted messaging app, is now under the spotlight after it was revealed that top national security leaders had been in a group chat discussing plans to strike terrorists in Yemen, which also included The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg. The chat was made public by a first-hand account of the group chat published by Goldberg in an article Monday. 

The Trump administration has maintained that no classified information was shared in the chat, doubling down on Wednesday that The Atlantic’s story was a ‘hoax’ after Goldberg published specific texts from the chat. 

The messages included Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth outlining that combat aircraft were set to take off and strike drones were ready for the operation, which were accompanied by timestamps. 

Ret. Gen. Frank McKenzie, former CENTCOM commander, also appeared on the program Sunday, saying that while he was ‘surprised’ at the communications leak, he believed the ‘larger story’ was how the U.S. had ‘finally begun to strike the Houthis hard,’ at a speed ‘that, frankly, eluded the previous administration.’

McKenzie said he ‘wouldn’t take anything off the table’ about how the U.S. would confront the Iranian-backed terror group.

‘I think we have the capability — actually, right now, in Iran’s weakened state — to threaten them very strongly,’ the retired general said.

Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report.

The Australian government has been taken to court by an internet personality known as ‘Billboard Chris,’ who challenged the nation’s ‘eSafety’ commission’s authority to geo-block a tweet criticizing the appointment of an Australian transgender activist to a World Health Organization board. 

Chris Elston, a Canadian national who often expresses his free speech through slogans and tweets on sandwich boards in public places, had a tweet of his geo-blocked by the Aussies – which was a ‘share’ of a U.K. Daily Mail article about the transgender activist headlined ‘Kinky secrets of UN trans expert revealed.’

The activist, Teddy Cook, filed a complaint with Australia’s eSafety commissioner, which led to a request for X to censor it.

X initially refused, but assented after the government issued a formal order to do so, according to Alliance Defending Freedom International, which is backing Elston. Elston is challenging the move before the Administrative Review Tribunal on Monday.

‘I’m in Australia because their government think their people don’t deserve to know and to make their own mind up about toxic gender ideology,’ the London-based ADFI’s Lois McLatchie Miller said on X ahead of the case.

‘This post from @BillboardChris has been withheld in Australia in response to a legal demand; learn more,’ a message on the tweet’s URL posted by McLatchie Miller from the Land Down Under read.

‘Is that image offensive? Absolutely. It’s offensive to my eyes, because someone appointed as a WHO expert should not be posting those perverted photos, and promoting drugs and bestiality,’ she added, citing content from the Daily Mail piece.

Speaking with Fox News Digital, McLatchie Miller said the situation is a ‘monumental’ case for global free speech, and ‘the ultimate ‘What is a Woman’ suit.’

‘It’s an Australian authority bucking the speech of a Canadian man on an American platform,’ she said.

‘So the Australian authorities have found that because they don’t want Australians to be able to hear a message and discuss a certain topic, they have now reached over to other countries to block that free speech, which is in and of itself fascinating.’

‘Over the last few weeks, when it comes to foreign governments having very surreal policies which are thought to only impact their citizens and their citizens’ human rights, but also the rights for Americans, rights for Canadians, others around the world,’ McLatchie Miller said.

Elston had also recently been fined AU$806 ($508) for ‘obstructing people’ and removed from a public sidewalk by law enforcement after he engaged with passersby about another message on his sandwich board: ‘Children cannot consent to puberty blockers.’

McLatchie Miller’s group noted the case echoed recent stated concerns about global censorship from Vice President JD Vance at the Munich Security Conference earlier this year. Vance also brought up his concerns in a joint presser with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

‘We also know that there have been infringements on free speech that actually affect not just the British – of course, what the British do in their own country is up to them – but also affect American technology companies and, by extension, American citizens,’ Vance said at the time.

Fox News Digital reached out to Vance’s office for comment on being invoked in the case.

ADFI advocacy director Robert Clarke said in a statement on Elston’s case: 

‘The decision of Australian authorities to prevent Australian citizens from hearing and evaluating information about gender ideology is a patronizing affront to the principles of democracy.’

X is also challenging a six-figure penalty imposed by Australia in 2023 after failing to provide information on how it was addressing exploitation and abuse on its platform, according to News.com.au.

Fox News Digital reached out to Australian eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant’s office for comment.