Nikki Haley, presidential candidate and former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., weighs in after President Biden authorized an air strike in response to an Iranian drone that killed an American. The U.S. can no longer take a reactive stance toward Iran after a new Pentagon report revised the total number of troops killed by Iran-backed groups continues to rise, experts told Fox News Digital. "Iran's regional strategy of working through proxies and carve outs is continuing unabated," Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow and Iran expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said. "The open question is, when will the Biden administration ditch tit-for-tat strikes and work to rollback Iran's Shiite militia network in the heartland of the Middle East?" President Biden ordered a series of retaliatory precision airstrikes in Syria on Thursday, reportedly killing eight Iranians, after Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps crashed a UAV into a building, killing a U.S. contractor and wounding six other Americans. U.S. intelligence assessed the UAV that crashed into a coalition base, which killed the contractor, was of Iranian origin -- so President Biden authorized the military to retaliate, the Pentagon said.

U.S. CENTCOM Commander General Michael Kurilla told senators Thursday that the Pentagon has seen an "increase recently in the unprofessional and unsafe behavior of the Russian air force." The U.S. military carried out several airstrikes in Syria on Thursday in response to a drone strike Iranian forces conducted earlier in the day on a coalition base that killed one American. The Defense Department said Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps crashed a UAV into a building near Hasakah in northeast Syria at approximately 1:38 p.m. local time, leaving one U.S. contractor dead. The attack also wounded five U.S. service members and another U.S. contractor. U.S. intelligence assessed the UAV and determined it to be of Iranian origin -- so President Biden authorized the military to retaliate, the Pentagon said.

"Artificial intelligence is the future, not only for Russia, but for all humankind. It comes with colossal opportunities, but also threats that are difficult to predict. Whoever becomes the leader in this sphere will become the ruler of the world."1 "A people that no longer can believe anything cannot make up its mind. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act but also of its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people you can then do what you please."2

Fox News contributor Gen. Keith Kellogg on Iran's president claiming former President Trump must be prosecuted for his involvement in the killing of Iranian Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani. A woman accused of luring a man to a Las Vegas area hotel and stabbing him in a revenge plot over the U.S. takedown of an Iranian general has been kicked off of a Texas campus where she had enrolled under the radar despite a Nevada judge ordering her house arrest. Officials at the University of Texas at Dallas told Fox News Digital Thursday that Nika Nikoubin was admitted to the school for the spring 2023 semester. "University officials recently became aware that she was charged with a crime and is under the jurisdiction of a Nevada court," the school said. "Because the safety of our campus and our community is of utmost importance, we have removed her from campus. The UT Dallas Police will monitor the student's compliance with the removal order."

Three members of an Eastern European criminal organization with ties to Iran were involved in a murder-for-hire plot against a New York-based journalist, a U.S. citizen, the Department of Justice alleged Friday. A loud blast has been reported at an Iranian military facility and officials in the country say it was the result of an "unsuccessful" drone attack. "One of (the drones) was hit by the ... air defense and the other two were caught in defense traps and blew up. Fortunately, this unsuccessful attack did not cause any loss of life and caused minor damage to the workshop's roof," the ministry said in a statement carried by the state news agency IRNA. Iranian news agencies earlier reported the loud blast and carried a video showing a flash of light at the plant, said to be an ammunitions factory, and footage of emergency vehicles and fire trucks outside the plant.

A drone attack hit a US-led coalition base in southern Syria, the US military's Central Command has said. "Three one-way attack drones attacked the al-Tanf Garrison in Syria," a CENTCOM statement said on Friday. Two of the drones were shot down by the coalition, but the third hit the compound, wounding two allied Syrian opposition fighters who received treatment, the statement added. "Attacks of this kind are unacceptable," CENTCOM spokesperson Joe Buccino said, without specifying who carried it out. "They place our troops and our partners at risk and jeopardise the fight against ISIL." There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

Former Defense Intelligence Agency Officer Rebekah Koffler discusses why peace talks are unlikely between Russia, Ukraine, and the U.S., on'Varney & Co.' As we have welcome the New Year, many on both sides of the Atlantic are wondering whether the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the biggest war in Europe since World War II, will come to an end this year. The largest country on the continent, Ukraine, is being depopulated, having lost more than 100,000 of its citizens to death or injury. Europe itself is being destabilized by financial woes and influx of refugees from war-torn areas. Contrary to the hopes of many, not only will 2023 not bring peace, it will likely see the most bloodshed yet, as the key warring parties – Moscow, Kyiv, and Washington, D.C. – are all postured for decisive escalation. Here's why we are probably entering the "hottest" phase of this war.

The U.S. is solidifying a defense package to Ukraine, which would help assist Ukraine with shooting down Russian drone strikes on civilian targets. North Korea is supplying arms to a Russian mercenary group and could continue to deliver military equipment to support the Kremlin's war against Ukraine, the Biden administration said Thursday. The White House said the weapons "will not change battlefield dynamics," however, the private entity receiving the equipment, Wagner Group, is committing atrocities and human rights abuses across Ukraine. "Because the Russian military is struggling in Ukraine, President [Vladimir] Putin has increasingly been turning to Wagner, which is owned by Yevgeny Prigozhin, for military support," White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Thursday. Kirby said Prigozhin has been spending more than $100 million per month to fund Wagner's efforts inside Ukraine.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters during an audio-only gaggle Friday that the U.S. has no indication that Russia plans to use nuclear weapons, after President Biden warned of "Armageddon." The war in Ukraine has revealed how the digital age is leveling the playing field between great powers and smaller countries. Ukraine has skillfully deployed precision munitions, drone technology and sophisticated encrypted software to gain the upper hand against Russia's invading conventional military, but Russian President Vladimir Putin's most recent remarks, and his move to illegally annex portions of Ukraine, make it clear that digital warfare will also unleash a second nuclear age. Western technology, including encrypted command and control, the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), drone and counter-drone systems, combined with Ukrainian savvy and resolve have arrested Russian advances and recently rolled back Russian gains. Chips and software have proven more potent than tanks and soldiers.

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. The U.S. Navy stopped an Iranian ship from taking an American sea drone in the Arabian Gulf Monday night. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy was in the process of towing the drone, which belongs to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet at 11 p.m. local time when the American Navy immediately sent out the nearby Navy coastal ship USS Thunderbolt. The 5th Fleet also repeatedly called Iranian officials, who then let the drone go.