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Japan's Kishida eyes deeper defense alliance with US

January 5, 2023 Published by The Hill

President Biden will host Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the White House next week as Japan boosts its defense spending amid growing security risks in East Asia regarding North Korea and China.

The president will welcome Kishida on Friday, Jan. 13, to discuss a “range of regional and global issues” and to “deepen ties” between the two nations, according to a Tuesday statement from White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

During the meeting, they will discuss North Korea’s nuclear arms buildup and frequent missile tests, Russia’s war in Ukraine and Chinese aggression over the self-governing island of Taiwan.

“The leaders will celebrate the unprecedented strength of the U.S.-Japan Alliance and will set the course for their partnership in the year ahead,” Jean-Pierre said.

Biden and Kishida last met in Bali, Indonesia, during a Group of 20 summit.

The meeting comes just weeks after Japan announced a historic change from a self-defense only military policy, adopting a national security strategy to allow for counter-attacks in a shift to more offensive footing.

Kishida’s Cabinet last month also approved a 2023 defense budget boosting security spending by 20 percent to the equivalent of $55 billion.

The new budget is part of a five-year plan that will push annual spending to $73 billion and make Japan a nation with the third-largest defense budget after the U.S. and China.

For the 2023 budget, Japan also plans to purchase from the U.S. $1.6 billion worth of Tomahawk cruise missiles, which can hit targets in China or North Korea, and is seeking to develop a wide array of new defense missiles and systems, including hypersonic weapons.

Kishida on Wednesday discussed the visit to Washington during a news conference in central Japan, promising to deepen ties with the U.S. amid security tensions in the East Asia region.

“We will show to the rest of the world an even stronger Japan-U.S. alliance, which is a lynchpin of Japanese security and diplomacy,” Kishida said, according to The Associated Press.

The upcoming meeting at the White House is part of Kishida’s visit to other Group of Seven (G-7) countries in the coming days. The Japanese leader will also meet with his counterparts in France, Italy, Britain and Canada.

Japan is hosting a G-7 summit in Hiroshima this year.

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Idaho murder victims’ roommate heard crying, saw man in mask night of killings: court docs

January 5, 2023 Published by

Latest & Breaking News on Fox News

One of the Idaho murder victims’ surviving roommates heard crying then opened her door and saw a man wearing a black mask on the night of the murders, according to newly released court documents.

The roommate, identified only as D.M., awoke at 4 a.m. Nov. 13 by what she thought was Kaylee Goncalves playing with her dog Murphy on the third floor.

A short time later, she heard what she thought was Goncalves saying “there’s someone here,” the document says.

D.M. opened her door and heard crying coming from Xana Kernodle’s room and a male voice saying “it’s ok, I’m going to help you.”

UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO MURDERS TIMELINE: WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE SLAUGHTER OF FOUR STUDENTS

That’s when she opened her door again and “saw a figure clad in black clothing and a mask that covered the person’s mouth and nose walking towards her,” Moscow police said in the affidavit. “The male walked past D.M. as she stood in a ‘frozen shock phase.’”

IDAHO MURDER SUSPECT KOHBERGER’S PENNSYLVANIA CLASSMATES SAY HE WAS ‘BRIGHT,’ AWKWARD, BULLIED IN SCHOOL

Investigators believe the man is Bryan Kohberger, who they say left behind DNA on the button of a tan leather knife sheath at the crime scene after allegedly stabbing to death Goncalves, Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Ethan Chapin, according to the document.

The bombshell revelations were revealed in a probable cause affidavit that was unsealed Thursday before Kohberger made his initial appearance in Latah County Court.

Kohberger is charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of felony burglary for fatally stabbing Goncalves, 21, Mogen, 22, Chapin, 20, and Kernodle, 20, in the early morning hours of Nov. 13 in an off campus rental home.

The gruesome murders left the small town of Moscow, Idaho, deeply shaken, as the killer remained on the loose for weeks.

As investigators feverishly processed the gruesome crime scene, Kohberger carried on with business as usual on the Pullman, Washington, campus – an eight-mile drive from the King Road home where the victims took their last breaths.

The Washington State University Ph.D. student continued teaching classes until the semester wrapped up, authorities said.

Moscow police, who worked the case in partnership with the FBI and the Idaho State Police, announced Dec. 7 that they were looking for a white 2011 to 2013 Hyundai Elantra spotted near the crime scene at the time of the murders.

It was the first major clue that tight-lipped law enforcement officials released, and the car search soon took center stage in their investigation.

Kohberger was arrested Friday at his parents’ home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania, and extradited Wednesday to Idaho.

Shawnee Tribe Asks to Take Over Former Boarding School in Kansas

January 5, 2023 Published by [email protected] (Associated Press)

USA – Voice of America

The Shawnee Tribe is asking to take over ownership of a historical site in Kansas that might contain unmarked graves of Native American students.

The tribe released an architectural survey Tuesday that found the three buildings remaining at the Shawnee Indian Mission in Fairway, Kansas, need millions of dollars in repairs, The Kansas City Star reported.

The site, formerly known as the Shawnee Indian Manual Labor School, was one of hundreds of schools run by the government and religious groups in the 1800s and 1900s that removed Indigenous children from their families to assimilate them into white society and Christianity.

It is owned by the Kansas Historical Society. The city of Fairway manages daily operations.

In October, state officials announced that they planned to conduct a ground study to search for unmarked graves on the 4.86-hectare site. That process stalled after the Shawnee Tribe said it had not been consulted enough and raised questions about the proposed study.

Tribal leaders contend that state and Fairway officials have not properly maintained the site.

The Oklahoma-based tribe commissioned the study from Architectural Resources Group last year because leaders are “concerned about the future of this historic site,” Chief Ben Barnes said in a statement Tuesday.

“Over the last year, we have had numerous conversations with the city and state about the need to save this special place,” Barnes said. “When it became clear that there was no plan in place, we began conversations about the possibility of the Shawnee Tribe assuming responsibility for restoring and repairing this site.”

Officials with the Kansas Historical Society and the city of Fairway rejected the suggestion that the site be transferred to the tribe.

Patrick Zollner, acting executive director of the Historical Society, said the organization has already made several improvements, is planning more restoration work and remains committed to telling the history of the site.

In a statement released Tuesday, Fairway officials questioned whether the tribe had the resources to pay for needed renovations and repairs. They also questioned what the tribe would do with the land, and they said the city and state may not have any authority over how the land was used.

Tribal leaders estimate the repairs would cost up to $13 million. If given ownership, the tribe said it would repair the buildings in multiple phases while meeting historical preservation requirements.

Oklahoma ‘Millstone Act’ seeks to ban gender-affirming care under age of 26

January 5, 2023 Published by Brooke Migdon

Just In | The Hill

An Oklahoma senate bill filed late Wednesday would prevent a person under the age of 26 from accessing gender-affirming health care, the latest sign that conservatives are seeking to block the procedure for not only children, but people well into adulthood.

The bill filed ahead of the legislature’s February start would bar health care providers in Oklahoma from administering or recommending gender-affirming medical care including puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries for patients younger than 26 years old, punishable by an unclassified felony conviction and the possible revocation of their medical license for “unprofessional conduct.”

The measure would also prohibit public funds from being used to either “directly or indirectly” provide gender-affirming health care to an individual younger than 26 and bar the state Medicaid program from covering procedures related to a person’s gender transition.

The legislation being introduced by Oklahoma GOP state Sen. David Bullard, who last year authored a new state law that prohibits transgender youth from using school restrooms or locker rooms consistent with their gender identity. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a lawsuit on behalf of three transgender students against that law.

The bill filed Wednesday is titled the “Millstone Act of 2023” – a reference to a Bible passage that a person would be better off tying a large boulder around their neck to “be drowned in the depths of the sea” than harm a child.

The reference was first made in April when conservative pastor Jackson Lahmeyer, who earlier this year tried unsuccessfully to unseat Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), pledged during an interview with the far-right news network Real America’s Voice to introduce his own “Millstone Act” that would cut off funding to “any school district in America that teaches critical race theory or woke sexuality.”

With Bullard’s proposal, Oklahoma joins nearly a dozen other states seeking to heavily restrict or ban access to gender-affirming health care for transgender youth and adults in 2023.

Another Oklahoma bill filed in December aims to bar physicians from providing “gender transition procedures” to patients younger than 21 years old, punishable by a $100,000 fine and up to a decade in prison.

State Watch, News, LGBTQ rights, Millstone Act, Oklahoma, Transgender care Read More

US, Turkey Target Financial Network Linked to Islamic State, US Treasury Says

January 5, 2023 Published by [email protected] (Reuters)

USA – Voice of America

The U.S. Treasury Department said Thursday it was taking joint action with Turkey against a network it said played a key role in money management, transfer and distribution for the Islamic State group operating in Iraq and Syria.

Turkey has frozen the assets of members to the network, who also were added to the U.S. sanctions list, the Treasury Department said in a statement.

Those sanctioned included an Iraqi national living illegally in Turkey, Brukan al-Khatuni, his two sons, and two businesses they used to transfer money on behalf оf the Islamic State between Turkey, Iraq and Syria, it said.

[World] Turkey freezes pro-Kurdish party funds before vote

January 5, 2023 Published by

BBC News world

Reuters

Image caption,

Supporters of pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) surrounded by riot police in Istanbul

By Anna Foster

BBC News

The third-largest party in Turkey’s parliament has had the bank accounts it uses to hold treasury funds blocked months before the general election.

The pro-Kurdish HDP is accused of ties to militant groups who’ve carried out attacks in Turkey, and of financing their activities.

The HDP, also known as the Peoples’ Democratic Party, denies the claims.

Ankara’s Constitutional Court blocked the party’s share of treasury money used to finance its electoral campaign.

This had been reported by Turkey’s state-owned Anadolu news agency.

The HDP was expected to receive 539m Turkish lira ($28.7m; £24.1m) in state grants this year, with around a quarter of that due to be paid this month.

Each of the four parties in Turkey’s parliament receives a share of the state grant.

The funding is a party’s main resource, with the cash paying for everything from staff salaries to premises.

Conducting an election campaign without it would be almost impossible.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan is fighting to keep his job as Turkey’s president, which he’s held since 2014. Before that he spent 11 years as prime minister.

A weakened Turkish economy – exacerbated by financial decisions made by President Erdogan – means he’s lost the support of many voters ahead of crucial elections, expected to be held in June.

His critics say clamping down on key opposition parties and political figures is his way of curtailing their support ahead of the presidential and parliamentary votes.

In the last election, the HDP won more than 10% of the Turkish vote.

In March 2021 it was accused of links with the Kurdistan Workers Party, and a case was filed.

Known as the PKK, the group is listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the EU and the United States. The HDP insists there are no ties between the two.

Turkey’s Kurdish fight leaves population in fear

The legal case for the full closure of the party is still ongoing.

In December, State Prosecutor Bekir Sahin asked for the party’s accounts to be frozen for its duration, claiming it would be used to aid the PKK.

This latest court decision is seen by many in Turkey as a significant marker in favour of the HDP’s activities being permanently suspended.

HDP party chair Selahattin Demirtas and co-chair Figen Yuksekdag have been in jail for more than five years, along with three other HDP MPs and several prominent founders of the party who were charged with terror-related crimes.

Speaking after the court’s decision, the party’s speaker Ebru Gunay said that efforts were being made to block their participation in the election.

“Only a few days before the distribution of the treasury’s aid the Constitutional Court has accepted this request and given such a decision,” she told journalists gathered at the party’s headquarters in Istanbul.

“This only confirms the impression that the members of the court are under clear and political pressure and the court has been facing obstacles to give fair decisions”.

HDP lawyer Ozgur Erol told the BBC that the same members of the Constitutional Court had rejected the head prosecutor’s demands to block the party’s funds 18 months ago when the closure case was first initiated.

“The only difference between then and now is that Turkey is heading towards elections,” he added.

“This is a political intervention to the judiciary, and we do not accept it.”

Biden expected to send Bradley Fighting Vehicles to Ukraine. And tanks could be next.

January 5, 2023 Published by Lara Seligman

Politics, Policy, Political News Top Stories

President Joe Biden says he is considering sending the Army’s primary infantry fighting vehicle to Ukraine. But what Kyiv really wants is Western tanks — and it may be closer than ever to getting its wish.

A decision to send the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, a tracked armored combat vehicle that carries a turret-mounted machine gun, could pave the way for the U.S. and allies to begin providing more powerful Western tanks to Ukraine, something they have so far been reluctant to do, say experts and a U.S. official.

On Wednesday, the same day Biden commented on the Bradleys, France announced that it will send its AMX-10 RC armored fighting vehicles to Kyiv. The AMX-10 is a highly mobile, wheeled system built around a powerful turret-mounted GIAT 105mm gun.

Both factors could make it easier for Western nations to send modern tanks, for instance Germany’s Leopards or even the U.S. Army’s M1 Abrams, said experts and the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to talk about ongoing discussions.

Western tanks — as opposed to less powerful wheeled vehicles with smaller main guns — would be a game-changer for Kyiv, which already operates Soviet-era tanks from its own inventories and others provided after the invasion by European nations. A Leopard or Abrams is more mobile, accurate and has longer range compared with the old Soviet tanks. They are also more effective at protecting troops than the older tanks or even the Western infantry fighting vehicles as Ukraine continues to suffer large losses on the battlefield.

Indeed, while President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday thanked France for the AMX-10, he urged other allies to provide tanks and other heavy weapons.

“There is no rational reason why Ukraine has not yet been supplied with Western tanks,” he said.

Bloomberg first reported that the administration was considering sending Bradleys. The vehicles are designed to work in tandem with the Abrams, providing a “complementary” capability, said retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, a former commander of U.S. Army Europe.

“This is the next step by the administration to provide something that they have been reluctant to do in the past, so this hopefully signals recognition by the administration that the Russians really cannot escalate each time we provide a new capability,” Hodges said.

A Defense Department spokesperson declined to comment.

The Bradley alone would be a significant capability boost for Ukraine. The U.S. has already sent more than 2,000 combat vehicles, including hundreds of mine-resistant vehicles and Humvees that Kyiv has used to push through Russia’s defenses. But the U.S. Army’s gold standard infantry fighting vehicle, the Bradley, is a faster, better-protected update to the M113 armored personnel carrier.

In addition to the 25mm Bushmaster chain gun, it is also armed with two TOW antitank missiles and a 7.62 coaxial machine gun.

“The Brad (or [Infantry Fighting Vehicle]/[Cavalry Fighting Vehicle]) is NOT a tank, but it can be a tank killer,” tweeted retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, also a former commanding general of U.S. Army Europe.

Unlike the Abrams, the Bradley is considered a defensive weapon, making it the less escalatory choice for an administration still concerned about provoking Moscow. But it will be lethal on the battlefield, particularly when paired with Kyiv’s Soviet-era tanks, Hodges said.

“A big part of combined arms warfare is that you have protected infantry that can move alongside tanks, keep up with them, and that’s part of what combined arms is all about: infantry armor artillery,” Hodges said. “By having your infantry moving along with them, that makes it that much more lethal.”

The U.S. Bradley and the French AMX-10, if deployed by the spring in time for renewed Ukrainian offensives in the east, would provide a potent new capability for Ukrainian forces. The AMX-10 has been used as a reconnaissance vehicle and tank killer by French forces in the past, and its high maneuverability and speed would allow Ukraine to hit hard and fast in small engagements. Its relatively light armor is a drawback against heavy Russian guns, however, making speed the key.

“The French vehicle has a lot of firepower, it just doesn’t have a lot of protection,” said Nick Reynolds, a research analyst at the U.K.-based Royal United Services Institute think tank. “It is ultimately a wheeled vehicle which makes it vulnerable, even if it does have fairly good off-road mobility.” The vehicle’s gun can likely take out Russian T-72 tanks and armored infantry carriers, however.

One adviser to the Ukraine government told POLITICO that Washington and Kyiv have been talking for months about sending heavier armor. One of the main sticking points has been identifying which units or storage facilities have the right vehicles available for export, along with some concerns over advanced optical and communications equipment included in newer models.

The Pentagon last month announced an expansion of its training program for Ukrainian forces at a U.S. base in Germany, both in size and scope. The new program will expand training to a battalion’s worth of roughly 500 soldiers a month, and will also include instruction on how to coordinate infantry maneuvering with artillery support, called “combined arms operations.”

If the administration approves sending the Bradleys, the trainees will likely be instructed on how to more effectively maneuver the vehicles alongside existing tanks and infantry. Lighter and more agile than a tank, the Bradley can hold up to 10 soldiers, who will be able to come off the back carrying Javelin antitank missiles, Hodges noted.

For Ukraine, Bradleys and Western tanks can’t come soon enough. Zelenskyy said Tuesday that Russia is planning a second mobilization for a major new offensive early this year. And last month, Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s top military leader, told The Economist that he believes Russia could make a push to take Kyiv as soon as January.

Ukrainian officials have been begging for hundreds more tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and howitzers to help repel Russian attacks, particularly strikes on cities and civilian infrastructure.

“We are balancing on a fine line. And if [the power grid] is destroyed … that is when soldiers’ wives and children start freezing,” Zaluzhnyi told The Economist. “What kind of mood the fighters will be in, can you imagine? Without water, light and heat, can we talk about preparing reserves to keep fighting?”

The administration may still be reluctant to send Abrams tanks, however, due to the significant training and logistics involved. Maintenance in the field will be a challenge, especially without a supply of parts. A tank division can also guzzle up to 600,000 gallons of fuel a day, potentially slowing Ukraine’s movement.

The Bradley’s logistical requirements are “terrifically less burdensome than, say, those associated with an M1,” the U.S. official said. “Our M1s would be a logistics burden that we would not want to put on [Ukraine] until they and we were confident they were ready.”

However, Hodges said the training and logistics challenge is “a solvable problem” if the U.S. begins instructing Ukrainian forces on the systems now.

“Let Ukraine pick 100 tankers that are experienced tank mechanics and send them to wherever the U.S. has Abrams tanks in Poland or send them back to Fort Benning, Ga., where the armor school is, and let them start learning now,” he said.

Paul McLeary contributed to this report.

California Governor Newsom starts second term Friday, will his next stop be the White House?

January 5, 2023 Published by

Latest & Breaking News on Fox News

Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom, 55, will be sworn into his second and last term on Friday, Jan. 6. This marks the start of Newsom’s 26th consecutive year in elected office.

Given Newsom’s ambitions and age, will he run for president in 2024?

Newsom, like Vice President Kamala Harris, got his political start when former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown appointed him to the city’s Parking and Traffic Commission. The next year, Brown appointed Newsom to fill a vacancy on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors — at age 29.

CALIFORNIA RINGS IN 2023 WITH NEW LAWS ON ABORTION, TRANSGENDER YOUTH, AND ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT POLICE

Seen from one vantage, Newsom has several strengths. He’s governor of the most-populous state. California is the vanguard of the progressive left in both politics and culture. California is the source of most of the funds Democrats raise, with $369 million raised in the 2022 midterms, 65% more than from second-place New York.

And Newsom starts 2023 with several new left-wing laws he signed: a COVID-19 gag rule law that threatens to revoke the licenses of doctors who stray from the party line on the virus; a law, SB 107, making California a “sanctuary state” for out of state minors trafficked into the state to have so-called “gender-affirming care” — in other words, sterility-causing castrations, hysterectomies, double mastectomies, and hormone treatment; another law allowing nurses to perform abortions without a supervising doctor in the first trimester; and, finally, a law creating a 10-member appointed council to set wages and working conditions for fast food restaurants with the ultimate goal being to unionize all 700,000 fast food workers — almost doubling stagnating membership of non-government union members.

But even as Newsom’s progressive successes in California multiply, will it be enough to help him earn the Democratic nomination for president or to win election in 2024?

Likely in anticipation of a 2024 challenge, President Joe Biden has pushed for a complete reordering of the Democratic primary calendar, pushing South Carolina to the front of the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, while also moving Georgia and Michigan ahead. This move is widely seen as boosting Biden — and Harris — with Black Democratic voters seen as being less receptive to Newsom’s woke cultural agenda.

Should Biden decline to run, or should Newsom successfully make the case that it’s time to move to a new generation of leadership — Newsom would be 57 at the start of new presidential term, Biden, 82 — Newsom would confront another, even bigger challenge: he’s (accurately) seen as far left.

Newsom, as California’s governor, is further to the left in both character and deed than was Biden before his election in 2020. Biden’s big advantage then was the moderate image he cultivated with the media’s ready assistance. Newsom has no such moderate mask — he’s as woke as they come, potentially setting up a titanic struggle in 2024 that would be more about philosophy than personality.

And what about that California philosophy? How might the rest of the nation view the Golden State and its governor?

CLICK HERE TO GET THE OPINION NEWSLETTER

California, for all its natural attributes and tremendous goodwill built up over generations, is living on its legacy — the water system that makes life possible for the two-thirds of residents who live in Southern California, the freeway system, the vaunted University of California — all were developed 50 to 100 years ago — with little progress since.

Meanwhile, California’s nation-leading income taxes, crushing regulatory climate, rocketing energy costs due to climate change rules, and over-the-top COVID-19 lockdowns, have accelerated the state’s population loss. And to top it off, California’s budget widely swung from a $97 billion surplus to a projected $25 billion deficit in the coming fiscal year.

It appears that some of the Golden State’s luster is becoming tarnished. California has become a nice place to visit (if you can keep your rental car from being broken into), but people just don’t want to live there anymore.

Not to worry though; should Newsom manage to get himself elected president, he’ll be able to save California. He’ll do this by applying the vast and expanding powers of the unelected administrative state to erase meaningful differences between states — essentially, bringing every state down to California’s level via a flood of executive orders.

When the nation has become San Francisco, and we’re no longer able to move to freedom, the promised workers’ utopia will be awesome.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM CHUCK DeVORE

Shania Twain reveals she was ‘petrified’ to pose nude for new music

January 5, 2023 Published by

Latest & Breaking News on Fox News

In September, Shania Twain stripped down on the cover of her latest single “Waking Up Dreaming,” the lead single off her upcoming album “Queen of Me.”

Now, Twain is discussing the meaningful reason she bared it all, despite being overcome with fear.

“I did a whole shoot as part of the album artwork where I’m completely nude. And it was very – it was really scary,” she told Hoda Kotb on “Today.”

“I don’t really love my body, I don’t love looking at myself in the mirror with the lights on or looking in the mirror at all at my body. So I said, listen, I’m going to face that fear.”

SHANIA TWAIN WOULD ‘FLATTEN HER BOOBS’ TO KEEP ABUSIVE STEPFATHER AWAY: ‘DIDN’T WANT TO BE A GIRL IN MY HOUSE’

Of the decision, the 57-year-old Twain says it was “empowering.”

“I’m so glad I did it. I was petrified, but once I flicked that switch, and dove into it, I’m like ‘I’m all in.’ I committed 100%. And I wasn’t thinking about what anybody thought. I didn’t think about who was in the room. This is about me, this is my moment to really embrace myself in a vulnerable moment. It had to be vulnerable where I felt that I was facing a fear of being judged or maybe even laughed at – being embarrassed. But it was only empowering. It was really fabulous.”

In addition to feeling empowered, Twain also saw going nude as an opportunity to stop hiding.

“I’m going to put fashion aside,” she said of choosing to be naked. “Fashion we use to flatter our shapes, to maybe hide the things we don’t like to make us look more like what we wish we really did look like without the clothes,” she explained. “Putting fashion aside, this is me.”

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER

She also opened up about the title of her new album, “Queen of Me,” explaining she made a conscious decision to empower herself.

“I’m my own royalty. I’m the boss of me.” For Twain, this album is “a statement of self-confidence” to which she has “grown into more over the last few years”

“As we age, and you know our skin starts to melt and all kinds of things happen to us…I’ve realized that wow, I was shy about wearing a bikini at the beach when I was younger, and I’m thinking – that was ridiculous! I gotta stop this nonsense, and start wearing a bikini to the beach now, even though I’m not my 20-year-old self. You know, I just got to get that stuff.”

‘Canceled’: Kate Hudson, Sally Field and more Hollywood stars reveal worst on-screen kisses

January 5, 2023 Published by

Latest & Breaking News on Fox News

Hollywood stars are sharing the good and the bad that comes with sharing a kiss with their famous co-stars on-screen.

While taking a lie detector test for Vanity Fair, Kate Hudson was recently forced to decide which one of her former co-stars was the best on-screen kiss she has had. She revealed that Dane Cook, her “My Best Friend’s Girl” co-star, should be “canceled.”

Meanwhile, Sally Field name-dropped her famous ex, claiming Burt Reynolds was her worst on-screen kiss due to “a lot of drooling.”

On a positive note, Zac Efron called his kiss with “The Greatest Showman” co-star Zendaya his “favorite kiss ever.”

Here’s a look at other A-listers who have gotten candid about their on-screen romances.

SALLY FIELD REACTS TO BURT REYNOLDS’ DEATH: ‘HE WILL BE IN MY HISTORY AND MY HEART FOR AS LONG AS I LIVE’

Sally Field revealed her least favorite on-screen kisser throughout her illustrious acting career was none other than the American sex symbol Burt Reynolds.

During an appearance on Bravo’s “Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen” in early December, Field named her worst on-screen kiss was with her longtime boyfriend, Reynolds.

“Should I really name names? This is going to be a shocker, so hold on, folks,” she said ahead of the reveal. “It’s Burt Reynolds.”

Reynolds and Field starred together in 1977’s “Smokey and the Bandit,” a road action-comedy film in which the Bandit (Reynolds) picks up hitchhiking bride-to-be Carrie (Field). In the film, the two spark a romance and share several on-screen kissing scenes.

BURT REYNOLDS, LEGENDARY ACTOR OF ‘SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT’ FAME, DEAD AT 82

“Weren’t you dating at the time?” Cohen asked, referencing their four-year relationship between 1976 and 1980.

“It was just not something he did very well,” Field said.

After a brief pause, Field said she could provide details but brushed her own suggestion off, saying, “You probably don’t want to hear it.”

“I kind of do,” the host interjected. “The tongue? The tongue?” he asked.

Field modestly summarized the problem as too much drool.

“No, we’re not totally involved [with the kiss], it was just a lot of drooling,” she said.

While Reynolds and Field dated for four years, they never married. The relationship happened between Field’s marriages to Steven Craig, 1968-73, and Alan Greisman, 1984-94.

Before Reynold’s passing in 2018 at the age of 82, he said Field was still the love of his life.

During Vanity Fair’s lie detector test segment last month, Janelle Monáe showed Kate Hudson various images of her former on-screen smooches, with one standing out to the “Glass Onion” star.

Monáe showed Hudson a picture of Dane Cook, with whom she shared a kiss in the 2008 movie “My Best Friend’s Girl,” and asked if the actor compares to her other co-stars.

KATE HUDSON, DAUGHTER OF GOLDIE HAWN AND KURT RUSSELL, ON NEPOTISM IN HOLLYWOOD: ‘IT DOESN’T MATTER’

“No. Canceled,” she replied. For his part, Cook previously called Hudson his worst on-screen kiss in 2014 but appeared to walk back his comments later that year, according to Us Weekly.

Bryce Dallas Howard detailed her on-screen kisses with both Chris Pratt and Matthew McConaughey to “People Now” host Jeremy Parsons in 2017.

“He was drinking a lot of, I think it was tea stuff, a lot of fake alcohol, so it was pretty good,” she said of McConaughey, with whom she starred alongside in “Gold” in 2016. “It was like some sort of good, healthy aesthetic substitute for alcohol.”

She deemed her kiss with McConaughey as “pretty good” before raving about her “Jurassic World” co-star, Chris Pratt.

Howard said Pratt’s breath was “like Starburst,” before adding, “He’s perfect in every way.”

Zac Efron admitted in 2017 that his favorite on-screen smooch was with his “The Greatest Showman” co-star, Zendaya.

Zendaya said the kiss with Efron was “incredibly special.”

“You’re into the moment. When you’re into a character, the whole time, they’re not allowed to as much as touch, talk, speak, have a moment between each other,” she said. “So every moment, even if they’re just touching, is really, really, incredibly special. It’s not just another kiss. It’s different. We try to take ourselves out of it and become these two characters, and that’s their moment.”

Efron added, “This might be my favorite kiss, I think ever.”

The actor continued, “Just because at this point for these characters, it’s so built up, the tension between them is so strong, and literally, just a glance between them is electric.”

“And when they finally have the courage in that moment to finally connect and get that kiss, it’s that epic musical moment,” Efron said.

In 2020, Sharon Stone revealed that her on-screen kiss with Robert De Niro was “pretty fabulous.”

On an episode of “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen,” Stone revealed that she has a massive amount of respect for her “Casino” co-star, saying she held him at an “extraordinary high regard.”

“Well, Robert De Niro was for sure the best kisser. Bob was far and away the best kisser,” she told Cohen.

The actress said that De Niro is the actor whom she “admired the most.” In the movie “Casino,” Stone said their kiss was the “pinnacle” because there was “so much attached to it.”

“I was just so madly in love with him as an actress to start with that he probably could have hit me in the head with a hammer and I would’ve been, ‘Oh yeah,’” she continued.

After Stone said the kiss was “pretty fabulous,” she said, “I don’t know if I could compare anything else to that, everything else was kind of meh.”

Stone received her only Oscar nomination for best actress in the 1995 crime drama.

George Clooney and Julia Roberts have chemistry on and off the big screen.

Clooney, 61, and Roberts, 54, opened up about filming “Ticket to Paradise” in a recent interview. “Ticket to Paradise” features Roberts and Clooney, who have been friends for more than two decades, as two long-divorced parents who come together in order to stop their daughter from impulsively marrying a man she just met.

During an October interview with “Today,” host Hoda Kotb asked Clooney and Roberts if it was awkward filming some scenes – including one where the two share a kiss.

Kotb also asked if the two shared a laugh during the kiss.

JULIA ROBERTS, GEORGE CLOONEY REUNITE IN MOVIE TRAILER FOR ‘TICKET TO PARADISE’

“It’s kind of ridiculous,” Roberts said. “It is like kissing your best friend.”

“Well, thanks for that,” Clooney responded. “You know I was a two-time ‘Sexiest Man Alive?'”

“Then you go, ‘Wait, my best friend is George Clooney,’” Roberts added.

Clooney and Roberts previously explained that it took about “six months” to film the kissing scene.

“Yeah. I told my wife, ‘It took 80 takes,'” Clooney told the New York Times of Amal Clooney. “She was like, ‘What the hell?'”

“It took 79 takes of us laughing and then the one take of us kissing,” Roberts further explained.

Jennifer Aniston had one rule for her kissing scenes in Netflix’s “Murder Mystery” with co-star Adam Sandler in 2019.

“I did have him learn to oil the beard up a little bit,” the actress said in a joint interview at the time. “Conditioned.”

Sandler said kissing his longtime friend on camera wasn’t all that awkward, except when his wife, Jackie, and children were on set and encouraging him a little too much.

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“The only awkward part is hearing my wife on the side going, ’Harder! Harder! Kiss her harder! Deeper!” he joked. “They (Jackie and the kids) watched the kissing. They love it. They love Aniston, and they want her to have good things, and they say, ‘Give her something nice.’”

“That was awkward,” Aniston agreed.

Penn Badgley revealed in 2015 on “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen,” that his best and worst on-screen kiss was none other than his “Gossip Girl” co-star and ex-girlfriend, Blake Lively.

“It’s hard to say,” Badgley replied when asked about his favorite kiss while filming. “On-screen kisses are not really that real.”

“I’d say best,” he said, “I’ll say it was Blake because we actually had a relationship at the time.”

When addressing the worst kiss, Badgley replied with a smirk, “Maybe Blake after we broke up.”

Lively and the “You” star were in a relationship from 2007 to 2010, during the time they were filming “Gossip Girl.” After their relationship ended, Lively wed Ryan Reynolds in 2012.