Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Wednesday announced $2.9 million in federal funding to help those affected by large-scale traumatic events such as natural disasters or mass shootings. 

The funding comes from the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and in the wake of the Feb. 3 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, which forced the evacuation of roughly half of the town’s residents. 

Though no one was injured, many residents have complained of headaches, rashes, and other health problems. Government officials have insisted that air and water testing hasn’t found dangerous pollution. 

In announcing the funding, DeWine said it was essential that the state’s behavioral health system ‘is able to quickly respond to the immediate and long-term behavioral health care needs of those adversely affected by trauma.’ 

The Republican governor said Ohio MHAS would use the funding to help local and state agencies coordinate the deployment of resources to communities. 

This includes the development and enhancement of multidisciplinary mobile crisis teams that can be deployed rapidly 24/7 for swift crisis support and response after a traumatic event. 

‘Preparing for, responding to, and recovering from disasters and traumatic events is essential to the behavioral health of individuals and communities alike,’ OhioMHAS Director Lori Criss said in a press release. 

‘Although everyone reacts differently to disasters and most will return to normal, some of those affected may suffer from serious and prolonged mental or emotional distress. Finding support in a timely fashion will help people minimize negative outcomes.’

The White House has quietly corrected a claim made Tuesday by press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre that President Biden has taken more questions from the press than former Presidents Donald Trump, Barack Obama and George W. Bush combined.

Without alerting the public to the changes, the White House corrected the official transcript of Jean-Pierre’s gaggle with reporters aboard Air Force One to read ‘question-and-answer sessions’ rather than ‘questions,’ despite her making the claim four times.

The topic was brought up during the gaggle when a reporter asked Jean-Pierre whether the administration had decided Biden would hold a press conference during his trip to Ireland this week, prompting her to share data she promised a day earlier she would share when questioned on the president’s lack of availability to the press. 

‘The President regularly — and takes questions from the press informally — informally as well at different locations and different formats. Right before he got on Air Force One, he took about five very newsy questions for all of you, which I think was very important for all of you,’ Jean-Pierre said, according to the transcript of the gaggle shared by the White House.

‘The informal and informative Q&A that the President Biden engages in the — in with the press corps is more than — more than the last three Presidents… If you think about the informal questions and the formal questions. And I told — I mentioned to all of you yesterday that we actually had some — some data to share. It’s more than Presidents Trump; it’s more than Obama — Obama — combined —,’ she added.

A reporter then questioned Jean-Pierre on the measurement used to determine that Biden had taken more questions than Trump and Obama, who had a combined 12 years in office prior to his presidency.

‘We’re happy to share that. I’m just letting you know,’ she responded, before the reporter then asked if it was based on the ‘minutes spoken’ by Biden.

‘It’s questions. I just said questions,’ Jean-Pierre said.

The reporter clarified that she meant the ‘number of questions’ Biden has answered, to which Jean-Pierre repeated two more times that it was.

Jean-Pierre stated a fourth time that Biden had taken more questions than Trump and Obama combined, but this time added former President Bush as well, who served for eight years prior to Obama’s presidency.

‘And here you go. To your question, he has answered over 320 questions, and that’s not even including more — more formal press conference and interviews. So look, we’re going to try and — we’re going to keep — be consistent in his engagement with reporters,’ she said.

In addition to replacing each instance Jean-Pierre said ‘questions’ with ‘question-and-answer sessions’ when the White House published the transcript on its website, it also added ‘in the first 20 months of their presidencies’ where she claimed Biden had taken more questions than Trump, Obama and Bush. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the Biden administration for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Prosecutors rested their side of the trial Wednesday against four people accused of seeking favors for Illinois’ largest electric utility by arranging $1.3 million in contracts and payments for associates of a powerful state politician.

Michael Madigan, the former House speaker, is not in court and faces his own separate trial. But he’s been a key part of the evidence presented over 17 days.

Longtime Madigan ally Ed Moody got more than $300,000 between 2012 and 2018 through ComEd’s contracts with various firms. He testified Tuesday that he believed the money was a reward for him to keep doing political work for the Chicago Democrat.

Moody denied doing much work for ComEd, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Defense attorneys tried to diminish Moody’s testimony by suggesting he was trying to please prosecutors and avoid being charged.

The four people on trial are former Madigan confidant Michael McClain, former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore, former ComEd lobbyist John Hooker and former ComEd consultant Jay Doherty. All have pleaded not guilty to multiple charges, including bribery conspiracy.

Jurors heard a 2019 recorded phone call in which Pramaggiore suggested she wanted to end payments to Madigan’s allies but not until the end of the Legislature’s session.

‘We do not want to get caught up in a, you know, disruptive battle where, you know, somebody gets their nose out of joint,’ she said.

Pramaggiore said she plans to testify in her own defense.

Madigan was charged in 2022 with racketeering, bribery and other crimes. He’s denied wrongdoing. A year earlier, he resigned from the Legislature as the longest-serving House speaker in modern U.S. history amid speculation that he was a federal target.

The indictment accused Madigan, among other things, of reaping the benefits of private legal work illegally steered to his law firm.

Democratic Gov. Janet Mills’ bill to expand abortion access in Maine will generate emotional debate in coming weeks, but its eventual passage is virtually assured.

There were enough co-sponsors on her bill, formally introduced this week, to ensure passage with a majority. All told, there were 76 sponsors and co-sponsors in the House and 20 in the Senate, all Democrats or independents.

The governor’s bill would change the standard for women to get abortions later in pregnancy in Maine. It also would change reporting requirements and strengthen legal protections for medical providers.

‘This bill will help make sure every person who needs abortion care in Maine can get the care they need, when they need it,’ said Nicole Clegg, acting CEO of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England.

Maine’s current state law allows abortions until a fetus becomes viable outside the womb, at roughly 24 weeks, but there’s an exception allowing late abortions to preserve the life or health of the mother. The governor’s bill would change the exception to allow abortions after viability if it’s necessary in the professional judgment of a physician.

Republicans lashed out on Wednesday in a press conference, arguing that current law is sufficient and attacking the governor for reneging on a campaign vow to leave the state’s abortion law alone.

Republican Rep. Reagan Paul, of Winterport, called the bill ‘depraved.’

‘This gives the word ‘extreme’ new meaning. It would allow the abortion of a baby up to full term, one that could survive outside the womb. That is extreme,’ state Sen. Lisa Keim, R-Oxford, told reporters.

The bill’s printing came days after a federal judge in Texas issued a ruling that could make the nation’s most common drug for medication abortions unlawful. The Food and Drug Administration approved mifepristone 23 years ago.

In pressing for the bill, the governor cited the example of a Maine woman who had to travel out of state to end her pregnancy after an ultrasound showed her son had a deadly condition. In this case, the mother’s life was not in peril so she couldn’t get an abortion in Maine, even though her doctor recommended an abortion because her son would’ve been unable to breathe.

‘All medical care, including the very personal and private decision of abortion, is best determined in an office by patients and trusted health care providers focused on consensus, evidence-based medical decision-making,’ said Dr. Erik Steele, president of the Maine Medical Association, which supports the governor’s bill.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ board approved a resolution Wednesday asking legislators for more money to manage wildlife habitat and maintain amenities on public lands.

Board member Greg Kazmierski introduced the resolution after complaining in February that funding to manage wildlife and maintain amenities on public lands such as boat landings, parking lots and signs isn’t keeping pace with land purchases.

The Department of Natural Resources manages more than 1.6 million acres of property. Republican lawmakers have been trying for years to slow or stop land purchases, arguing they drive up state debt.

State funding for one of the department’s responsibilities — wildlife management — has grown from around $7.2 million in fiscal year 2011-12 to around $11.2 million in fiscal year 2022-23, a department budget analyst noted in February.

The total state budget for public lands this year is $107 million. There’s also some federal funding.

Kazmierski told the board that’s not enough, although his resolution doesn’t specify how much funding there should be. It calls on the Legislature’s finance committee to provide ‘adequate funding’ for habitat management programs and public lands maintenance. The board approved it unanimously.

Kazmierski, who was appointed to the board by former GOP Gov. Scott Walker, said the point is to raise awareness about management needs on public land.

Republican state Sen. Howard Marklein, one of the finance committee’s co-chairs, was noncommittal about the funding request in a email statement. He did no say whether the committee might increase or decrease funding for managing public lands, saying only that ‘we are looking at all our options.’

The committee’s other co-chair, Republican state Rep. Mark Born, didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

A threatening letter containing white powder was sent to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office Wednesday, Fox News has learned. 

The New York Police Department and the city’s Department of Environmental Protection responded to the scene. 

‘NYPD testing determined the powder found in the mailroom to be non-hazardous,’ Bragg’s office said in a statement. ‘We thank our partners at the NYPD Emergency Service Unit and the NYC Department of Environmental Protection for their quick response.’

The malicious mailing comes a week after Bragg indicted former President Donald Trump on multiple charges allegedly involving falsifying business records. 

Trump, the leading Republican in the 2024 race for the White House, pleaded not guilty to the charges and shortly after departed from New York City for his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

The incident marks the second time the DA’s office has been targeted in recent weeks. A package with white powder was delivered to the mail room in the building housing the DA’s office last month.

A note stating, ‘Alvin – I’ll kill you’ was also found in an envelope. That package arrived amid Bragg weighing whether to proceed with an indictment against Trump for alleged hush money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016.

Bragg is alleging that Trump falsified New York business records in order to ‘conceal damaging information and unlawful activity from American voters before and after the 2016 election.’ 

On Tuesday, Bragg filed a federal lawsuit against U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, alleging that the Republican lawmaker from Ohio is trying to wage a campaign of intimidation over his prosecution of Trump. 

Bragg is asking a judge to invalidate subpoenas that Jordan, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, has or plans to issue as part of an investigation of Bragg’s handling of the Trump case.

Fox News’ Bradford Betz and Kyle Morris contributed to this report. 

Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Wednesday named Kathleen Corradi, a former elementary school teacher and lifelong anti-rat activist, as the city’s first director of rodent mitigation.Several former mayors, including Republican Rudy Giuliani and Democrat Bill de Blasio, have tried and failed to conquer the city’s notorious rat problem.’You’ll be seeing a lot of me and a lot less rats,’ Corradi said as Adams introduced her.

Every New York City mayor has waged war — and mostly lost — against one of humanity’s most cunning and enduring foes: rattus norvegicus. But has the city’s vilest enemy, better known as the common brown rat, finally met its match?

Mayor Eric Adams introduced a former elementary school teacher and anti-rat activist as his new ‘rat czar’ on Wednesday. Officially, Kathleen Corradi, the mayor’s new hire, will be known as the director of rodent mitigation.

Corradi is tasked with battling the potentially millions of rats lurking in myriad urban nooks and crannies, subway tunnels and empty lots.

Hers is a new job, which the city advertised with a help-wanted ad seeking applicants who are ‘bloodthirsty,’ possess ‘killer instincts’ and could commit to the ‘wholesale slaughter’ of rats.

‘When I first saw this job posting, I wasn’t sure if it was real. ‘Blood thirsty’ is not a word you usually see in a job description and it’s certainly not a word I usually (use to) describe myself,’ Corradi said in a news conference at a Harlem park.

‘You’ll be seeing a lot of me and a lot less rats,’ she vowed.

Rats have long bedeviled the city, a top public concern along with crime, homelessness and exorbitant rents. No traps nor poisonous bait have fully succeeded in reducing their numbers. Rats have thrived in subway tunnels and burrows within empty lots and city parks.

‘Rats are smart, they are resilient,’ said Adams, a Democrat. ‘Many of us live in communities where rats think they run the city.’

Over the past year, residents have called in almost 3.2 million rat sightings to the city’s 311 service request line, just shy of the record number of complaints in 2021.

‘Rats have proven to be one of the most formidable opponents that humans have faced. Here in New York City, we’re locked in a constant battle,’ said Councilmember Erik Bottcher, whose district includes Times Square.

New York City’s approach is in contrast to some efforts by animal-rights advocates in Paris, where there could be more rats than its 2.2 million people, perhaps twice as many, according to some estimates. A strike by garbage workers left some streets teeming with rats.

The animal rights group Paris Animaux Zoopolis has been trying to convince Parisians that ‘rats are not our enemies!’

Adams thinks otherwise.

As Brooklyn borough president, he once showed reporters a bucket filled with a toxic soup meant to drown rats.

‘There were people that were yelling, you know, ’Oh you murderer. You murderer!” the mayor said. ‘You know, we can’t be philosophical about things that impact the quality of life of New Yorkers.’

And he’s had trouble controlling them even outside the Brooklyn townhouse he owns — something he mentioned in jest Wednesday.

In February, the mayor challenged a pair of citations issued to him by his own health department for not doing enough to control rodents outside the townhouse. The administrative judge sided with the mayor on one citation but ordered him to pay $300 for the other.

In November, the mayor signed legislation intended to reduce the city’s rat problems, including new rules limiting how long garbage can sit out on curbs.

‘The fewer rats the better,’ said Nina Daugherty, a Harlem resident who came upon the news conference while jogging through a local park.

Corradi’s first task will be to launch a ‘rat mitigation zone’ in Harlem, where the city will invest $3.5 million to roll out ‘an accelerated rat reduction plan’ deploying 19 full-time and 14 seasonal employees to combat rats. Strategies that work in Harlem will be extended elsewhere.

Besides the ‘ick,’ factor, rats can spread disease like leptospirosis. On rare occasions, the ailment can lead to meningitis and cause the kidneys and liver to fail.

Corradi said her job will be to combat rats by taking away their food sources — often garbage and food scraps.

‘I have a long history with rats,’ she said. As a 10-year-old, she gathered signatures for an anti-rat petition in her neighborhood. She also led efforts by New York City schools to control the vermin in school buildings.

It’s not the first time a New York mayor has appointed a rat czar. Rudy Giuliani anointed one of his deputy mayors to handle the job — although Corradi will be the city’s first director of rodent mitigation.

During his time in office, Giuliani established a task force, which spawned a boot camp called the ‘rodent academy’ that still produces cadres of foot soldiers hoping to vanquish the city’s army of rats.

Former Mayor Bill de Blasio budgeted more than $30 million in his own failed bid to conquer rats. One plan relied on dry ice to suffocate rats in their burrows. It proved comedic at one demonstration for journalists when workers chased — but never caught — one of the fleeing vermin.

‘Everyone tried,’ Adams said, acknowledging the city’s noble efforts — and ultimate failures.

”We needed someone that was going to put all the pieces together and all the players together to coordinate this entire symphony of fighters. We needed a maestro.’

A Trump-backed Republican in Ohio whose military record was called into question during his unsuccessful 2022 congressional campaign announced Wednesday that he plans to run again next year.

J.R. Majewski launched his latest effort to win the GOP nomination and take on Democratic U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur in a video posted on Twitter.

‘This campaign is about the working-class citizens of Ohio,’ he said. ‘This campaign is about putting America first. This campaign is about fighting for you. Last cycle, we started a movement. This cycle, we win.’

Majewski, of Port Clinton, previously worked in the nuclear power industry. He drew attention for drawing a sprawling banner supporting former President Donald Trump across his lawn, and also had been a pro-Trump hip-hop performer and promoter of the baseless right-wing QAnon conspiracy theory. He was also at the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, though he was not accused of any wrongdoing there.

Majewski was the surprise winner of last year’s Republican primary for the Toledo-area 9th Congressional District. He bested two sitting Republican state lawmakers to secure the nomination, but ultimately lost to Kaptur, the longest serving woman in Congress, by more than 13 percentage points.

The Associated Press reported in September that Majewski had misrepresented his military record to voters. He claimed that he served in the Air Force in Afghanistan, but public records indicated that he had never deployed there and instead spent six months on a base in Qatar. Majewski denied the report and defiantly remained in the race, saying his deployment was classified and so not present in public records.

The AP later reported that Majewski was demoted in the military for driving drunk on an air base, another contradiction to his previous statements.

Majewski was among Ohio Republicans that Trump promoted at a November rally in Vandalia, Ohio.

The war in Ukraine is the war you’ve heard about the most over the past year.

A war over Taiwan is the war you may hear about next.

The conflict in Ukraine certainly carries geopolitical implications. There are issues of grain for Western Europe. Oil from Russia. And, there’s speculation over possible Russian designs on locales besides Ukraine.

But a battle over Taiwan could make Ukraine appear like a neighborhood skirmish.

It would all start with a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

‘Everybody thinks it’s going to happen,’ said Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., on Fox. ‘The only difference of opinion is when it’s going to happen.’

Gimenez notes that many Chinese and intelligence analysts believe war comes by w.

But Gimenez is skeptical of that hypothesis.

‘I think it’s going to be earlier than that,’ said Gimenez.

What does this mean for the United States?

‘In all likelihood, the U.S. would be involved in a shooting war,’ said longtime China observer Gordon Chang. ‘If China were to invade Taiwan or invade some other country in the region, I think that you would see the United States coalesce very quickly to defend those countries.’

Where does that leave the U.S.?

‘We should be making it very clear that we will defend Taiwan,’ said Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, R-Penn.

Would that mean sending troops? Or would the U.S. engage in a form of proxy warfare like what it’s done for the past 14 months with Ukraine?

‘I would be willing to fight for Taiwan,’ said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on Fox. ‘I’d be very much open to using U.S. forces to defend Taiwan because it’s in our national security interest to do so.’

‘My stomach’s been upside down since we started to hear of potential blockades of the Straits of Taiwan because of our dependency on Taiwan for so many things,’ said Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., a former General Motors Executive. ‘When I started in the auto industry, 40 percent of the chips in the world were made in this country. Now we’re down to less than 12 percent.’

A Chinese blockade of Taiwan could reverberate globally, sparking market shocks. It could even cripple trade with Japan, South Korea and Australia. That’s to say nothing of what a war could mean should North Korea – a Chinese ally – move provocatively against its neighbors.

‘We could see the North invade South Korea or it could cause provocations that would create a diversion that would require us to divert our assets to the Korean Peninsula,’ warned Chang. ‘What we’re talking about is global war. War can spread from Ukraine, both east and west, across the Eurasian landmass and in North Africa, because we can see the proxies of China and Russia.’

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., just met with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen at the Reagan Library in California. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Tex., recently led a bipartisan Congressional delegation on a visit to Taipei.

In retaliation, China launched a series of dramatic military exercises.

‘They’re coming very close to Taiwan,’ said Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu. ‘And any accident might spark an uncontrollable war in between Taiwan and China. And if other countries are trying to intervene, it might be the start of a war of great scale.’

Beijing may be physically aiming its exercises at Taiwan.

But in reality, the target is Washington.

‘It’s one of the larger provocations they’ve done,’ said McCaul to colleague Bret Baier. ‘Taiwan is very nervous and they should be.’

But lawmakers are urging calm.

‘We’ve got to be very careful to not make inflammatory statements that in any way put kerosene on fires,’ said Dingell.

Rep. Ami Bera, D-Calif., accompanied McCaul on the bipartisan trip to Taipei.

‘The goal here is not to go to war,’ said Bera. ‘The goal here right now is really economic deterrence. It’s not always just military deterrence and making sure China understands that were they to go that route, it would be incredibly disruptive. Not just to Asia. But the entire world.’

Bipartisan lawmakers want Congress to make sure Taiwan receives $19 billion in weapons it bought from the U.S. as soon as possible. But the U.S. hasn’t filled the order yet.

‘What we need to do is be able to speed that up in the process to make sure Taiwan has the weapons they have to defend themselves,’ said McCarthy to colleague Ashley Soriano.

‘U.S. support is very critical for Taiwan to deter the war from happening,’ said Wu, specifically calling for American weapons and training.

McCarthy previously declared that Ukraine does not have a ‘blank check’ from the U.S. treasury. But how about Taiwan?

‘Noting in American government has a blank check,’ said McCarthy.

There’s no talk of sending U.S. troops to the region to assist Taiwan. But that scenario remains a possibility.

‘It’ll be highly welcomed,’ said Wu.

The U.S. hasn’t formally ‘declared war’ since 1942. And that was against Romania. However, the Constitution requires Congress approve an authorization to dispatch U.S. troops into hostilities abroad. Lawmakers greenlighted such approvals in 1991 for the Gulf War, in 2001 after 9/11 and again in the fall of 2002 for the Iraq war in 2003. All three of those wars were generally popular with the public – although support for the Iraq campaign diminished significantly by 2006.

However, there’s now a coalition of bipartisan, anti-interventionist lawmakers in Congress. The number is growing on the Republican side of the aisle. Plus, the public is suffering from ‘war fatigue.’ It’s unclear where public sentiment lies on sending troops abroad for a showdown over Taiwan.

That said, the president could use his own, Constitutionally-afforded ‘war powers.’ But Congress has ceded war powers to the executive since the Truman Administration.

‘There are some Members of Congress who are concerned about this, but they don’t seem to have the full support of a committee to challenge the President,’ said Constitutional scholar and war powers expert Louis Fisher. ‘We have some ambiguity and it’s all in favor of independent, exclusive, presidential power over external affairs. And that’s not what the framers wanted. That’s not what the text of the Constitution says.’

Still, it’s possible China could force America’s hand when it comes to troops.

‘You have a Chinese military that is just emotionally wanting to fight. They know that they shouldn’t. But there is a bloodlust and we have to take that into account,’ said Chang. 

That’s what concerns policymakers about China. The U.S. has prepared for decades to wage a ‘two theatre’ war. In other words, wage simultaneous conflicts in Europe and Asia. Congressional Republicans are now in a budget cutting mode. But what would the cost of war over Taiwan mean to the Pentagon budget? That’s to say nothing of lawmakers fretting about the debt ceiling this summer.

Chang notes that few Americans tuned in to a specific episode three decades ago which led to another global conflict.

‘Islamic terrorists detonated a bomb under the North Tower of the World Trade Center in 1993 and killed six Americans. And we couldn’t have cared less,’ said Chang. ‘Until of course, on one day when Osama bin Laden killed 2,977 Americans. Then we understood the significance of what happened in 1993.’

Chang believes there is a similar lesson for Americans to learn from the Chinese spy balloon which floated across the U.S. this past winter.

Americans were angry that it happened. But Chang says most didn’t understand the implications of it.

That could be the case. Unless there’s a war over Taiwan which draws in the U.S.

President Biden called the arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in Russia ‘totally illegal’ Tuesday, one day after the State Department designated him as ‘wrongly detained.’

Biden also spoke with Gershkovich’s family while on Air Force One en route to Northern Ireland for a state trip Tuesday, White House officials said. 

‘We’re making it real clear that it’s totally illegal what’s happening, and we declared it so – it changes the dynamic,’ Biden told reporters before departing for the trip. 

The ‘wrongly detained’ designation frees up different federal agencies to work collaboratively across the government toward Gershkovich’s release. 

He was detained March 29 in Yekaterinburg, the fourth-largest city in Russia. Russian authorities formally charged him last week with collecting ‘information constituting a state secret about the activities of an enterprise within Russia’s military-industrial complex,’ according to Russian state media outlet Tass. 

Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal, and U.S. officials categorically deny the spying charges. 

Attorneys hired by Dow Jones visited Gershkovich, whose parents left the Soviet Union for the U.S. in the 1970s, last week at the infamous Lefortovo prison in Moscow. 

‘Psychologically it’s very difficult,’ Andrei Soldatov, a Russian journalist who was repeatedly interrogated at the prison for his coverage of the country’s secret services, told Fox News Digital. 

‘The history of this particular prison, many, many people were killed in the 1930s and 1940s during Stalin’s purges, so this kind of thing creates a huge psychological pressure on you, and it doesn’t help that Evan was so into Russian culture and Russian history, so maybe it would be better for someone who isn’t familiar with it.’

Wall Street Journal Editor-in-Chief Emma Tucker said last week that Gershkovich is in good health despite the conditions. 

‘Evan’s health is good, and he is grateful for the outpouring of support from around the world. We continue to call for his immediate release,’ she wrote in a message to the newsroom. 

Fox News Digital’s Joseph Wulfsohn and David Rutz contributed to this report.