Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) paid thousands of dollars from his campaign to place ads in a Chinese-owned newspaper registered as a foreign agent. However, the House Democrat now claims this was done “unknowingly” and says he is reviewing the cash transfers.

About 50,000 opponents of a “foreign agents” bill marched peacefully in heavy rain through the Georgian capital on Saturday, after the United States said the country had to choose between the “Kremlin-style” law and the people’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations.

“We are deeply alarmed about democratic backsliding in Georgia,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan wrote on X.

Paul Manafort, the longtime Republican strategist and chairman of Donald J. Trump’s 2016 campaign, who had assumed an unpaid role advising party officials on the nominating convention, stepped aside on Saturday after questions arose about his involvement in the convention’s planning process.

Mr. Manafort’s move came after The New York Times reported that he had been on the ground in Milwaukee last week for planning meetings for the convention, as well as a Washington Post story that said he was involved in work connected to foreign officials and businesses.

Last week, my husband and I awoke to messages from my stepson about how he was tear-gassed by riot police during protests in Tbilisi, Georgia.

He, and many others, have been in the streets every night for two weeks, peacefully expressing their opposition to a new foreign agents law being crammed through parliament by the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party, as opposition MPs have been forced out of the committee considering the draft.

After spending his days making wine in the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains, Tsotne Jafaridze returns home to Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital, and begins his new routine. He packs goggles, a gas mask and enough water and snacks to last several hours. He has another long night ahead.

Bidzina Ivanishvili, the influential billionaire founder of Georgia's ruling party, accused a Western "global party of war" of meddling in Georgia in a rare speech at a rally backing a bill on foreign agents that has sparked a political crisis in the South Caucasus country.

Ivanishvili, who served as Georgia's prime minister from 2012-2013 and remains influential within the ruling Georgian Dream party, said that Georgia and Ukraine had been treated as "cannon fodder" by Western countries, whose intelligence agencies he accused of political interference in the country.

Lawmakers in Georgia’s legislature scuffled on Monday as the parliament debated a divisive new law dubbed the foreign agent bill. Hours later, hundreds of people protested against the legislation outside the parliament in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi.

The draft — proposed by the ruling Georgian Dream party — calls for media and non-commercial organizations to register as being under foreign influence if they receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad.

Thousands of people demonstrated in the Georgian capital Tbilisi on Monday demanding the withdrawal of a controversial "foreign influence" bill they say is inspired by authoritarian laws neighbouring Russia uses to crush dissent.

"No to the Russian law," chanted thousands of protesters outside parliament, many waving EU and Georgian flags.

A previous attempt by the government to introduce a "foreign agents" bill was abandoned in the face of mass street protests last year.

Georgia’s parliament descended into chaos Monday after the leader of the ruling Georgian Dream party’s parliamentary faction was punched in the face while discussing a controversial law on "foreign agents." 

Video obtained by Fox News Digital shows Mamuka Mdinaradze, 45, punched in the face by opposition MP Aleko Elisashvili, 46, while addressing the chamber.