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LVIV, Ukraine: Exclusive — The same Iranian-designed Shahed drones that rain down Lviv in Ukraine nearly every night are now being hunted by weapons built just miles away — inside hidden factories where former students and office workers assemble kamikaze drones and interceptor systems around the clock.

What began as an improvised wartime effort has evolved into one of the world's fastest-growing military drone industries — one Ukrainian official says Kyiv now leads NATO in battlefield innovation and can offer hard-won lessons for the U.S. and Israel as they confront the same Iranian drone technology across the Gulf.

"Drone technology completely changed the situation in the frontline," Lviv Mayor, Andriy Sadovyi, told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview, "Maybe in six months, maybe in one year, we will have technology to land 1,000 drones in one moment.

POLAND SEEKS ANSWERS AFTER PENTAGON SCRAPS PLANNED US ARMORED BRIGADE ROTATION

"If we will have more deep collaboration between Ukraine, the United States, Israel and Europe, we will prepare special equipment for our victory," he said.

Dmytro, CEO of a Ukrainian drone manufacturer producing roughly 1,000 drones a week, told Fox News Digital, "We are three or four steps ahead of other countries…this is a new kind of war," he said. "It is a war of IT technology."

Cheap drones now allow small battlefield units to identify and destroy tanks, armored vehicles and even sophisticated air defense systems that once required expensive missiles or fighter aircraft.

That transformation is visible throughout western Ukraine, where defense technology hubs, secret workshops and testing facilities now operate, while in the cities air raid sirens regularly interrupt daily life.

Inside the workshop Fox News Digital visited, workers moved rapidly between tables stacked with propellers, fiber-optic cable and other classified drone components. The workers say they no longer see themselves as civilians temporarily helping the war effort. Many now view drone production as essential to Ukraine’s survival.

Vitaliy, one of the technicians assembling kamikaze drones destined for the front line, said he now builds hundreds of drone components a day. "Targets will be vehicles, tanks, troopers, positions," he told Fox News Digital.

NATO ALLY POLAND WARNS RUSSIA, BELARUS PUSHING ILLEGAL MIGRANTS TOWARD ALLIANCE — AND THE US

Referring to President Donald Trump's statement that he will end the war, Vitaliy said, "I feel honored because I’m helping my country to get peace much faster," Vitaliy added. "Peace through strength — this is our motivation. But it is mostly on us, for sure," he said.

Ukraine’s domestic drone production has expanded at a staggering pace. Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Serhiy Boev said earlier this year the country aims to produce more than seven million drones in 2026, up from roughly four million in 2025.

From AI-assisted battlefield systems to drones resistant to Russian electronic warfare, Ukraine’s wartime innovations are exposing vulnerabilities in traditional Western military doctrine.

At another defense technology hub in Lviv, rows of interceptor drones, unmanned ground vehicles and remotely operated weapons systems fill a showroom demonstrating Ukraine’s rapidly evolving battlefield ecosystem.

"We have around 250 tech companies in the system," said Volodymyr Cherniuk, co-founder of Iron, a Ukrainian defense technology cluster.

Some drones are designed for reconnaissance. Others for evacuation, logistics or direct strike missions. One heavy-lift drone used for nighttime attacks has earned the nickname "Baba Yaga" from Russian troops, which Cherniuk translated as "boogeyman."

Another interceptor drone is designed specifically to hunt Iranian-made Shahed drones that Russia uses in nightly attacks on Ukrainian cities.

UKRAINE’S 'SPIDER’S WEB' DRONE STRIKE BURNS OVER 40 RUSSIAN WARPLANES, MOSCOW CALLS IT 'TERRORIST ATTACK'

"They can go 300 kilometers per hour," Cherniuk said. "One hundred grams is enough to shut down a Shahed."

"We have a lot of Americans, Canadians, Europeans who come here and want our data, feedback from the front line," Dmytro said. 

As Fox News Digital reported from Lviv, air raid sirens repeatedly echoed across the city, a reminder that western Ukraine remains within reach of Russia’s expanding drone campaign.

Russia has dramatically escalated its aerial assaults in the recent week after the end of the short ceasefire, launching massive drone barrages targeting cities and logistical hubs across Ukraine, including areas near NATO territory close to the Polish border.

Ukraine has also increasingly demonstrated its ability to strike deep inside Russian territory with long-range drone attacks targeting areas around Moscow and Russian energy infrastructure.

But the evolving drone war has also increasingly spilled beyond Ukraine and Russia’s borders into NATO territory.

In recent weeks, drones linked to Ukrainian long-range strike operations entered the airspace of Baltic alliance members including Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, triggering political fallout and renewed concerns about regional air defenses. Latvian Defense Minister Andris Sprūds resigned after drones crashed near fuel storage facilities close to the Russian border.

Ukrainian and Baltic officials blamed Russian electronic warfare and GPS spoofing for redirecting the drones off course, arguing Moscow is increasingly using electronic warfare not only defensively, but also to create instability and political pressure inside NATO countries.

The incidents underscore how the same Iranian-designed Shahed drones Russia uses nightly against Ukrainian cities — and similar long-range drone technologies increasingly used by both sides — are reshaping modern warfare far beyond the battlefield itself.

An Ebola treatment center in the epicenter of the deadly outbreak in eastern Congo was set on fire Thursday after angry residents clashed with authorities over the body of a suspected victim.

Rwampara Hospital was attacked by local youths attempting to retrieve the body of a friend who had reportedly died of Ebola, a witness told The Associated Press.

"The police intervened to try to calm the situation, but unfortunately they were unsuccessful," Alexis Burata, a local student who said he was in the area, told the outlet. "The young people ended up setting fire to the center. That’s the situation."

The AP reported that people broke into the center and set fire to objects inside. A reporter also witnessed what appeared to be the body of at least one suspected Ebola victim being burned inside the facility.

EBOLA OUTBREAK REPORTED IN AFRICAN COUNTRY — HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

The Alliance for International Medical Action (ALIMA) said two tents used to treat Ebola patients were set on fire at the hospital. The organization said six people were receiving treatment for Ebola at the center.

Patrick Muyaya, a government spokesperson for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, said medical care was continuing normally and all six patients were accounted for.

He called for calm while condemning violence against health facilities and medical staff.

WHO DECLARES EBOLA OUTBREAK IN CENTRAL AFRICA A PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY AFTER 80 SUSPECTED DEATHS

Deputy Senior Commissioner Jean Claude Mukendi, head of the public security department in Ituri Province, said the individuals who burned the tents did not understand the protocols surrounding Ebola burials.

The incident underscored growing tensions between health officials enforcing strict Ebola containment measures and local customs surrounding funerals and burial rites.

"His family, friends, and other young people wanted to take his body home for a funeral even though the instructions from the authorities during this Ebola virus outbreak are clear," Mukendi said. "All bodies must be buried according to the regulations."

‘DISEASE X’ HAS KILLED DOZENS IN THE CONGO — HERE’S WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE MYSTERY ILLNESS

In its statement, ALIMA condemned the spread of "incorrect or unconfirmed information on social media and the internet," warning that misinformation could fuel fear and mistrust toward health facilities.

The violent clash comes as Congolese health officials reported 160 suspected deaths and 671 suspected Ebola cases across two provinces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The United Nations said earlier this week that neighboring Uganda had reported two cases, including one death.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a public health emergency Sunday, and the U.S. issued an urgent travel warning for the DRC shortly afterward.

US ISSUES URGENT TRAVEL WARNING AS DEADLY EBOLA OUTBREAK SPREADS OVERSEAS

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said earlier this week he was "deeply concerned about the scale and speed of the epidemic."

Officials said the outbreak was caused by the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus, a rarer variant for which existing vaccines may be less effective.

Nearly $4 million in emergency funding has been approved by the WHO to support national authorities responding to the outbreak.

Fox News Digital's Anders Hagstrom and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The United States has arrested the sister of the executive president of GAESA, a sprawling conglomerate of military-run businesses in Cuba, due to her alleged ties to the communist regime.

GAESA has been cited for reportedly diverting millions in aid meant for the Cuban people "at the behest of the regime," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a post on X Thursday.

Adys Lastres Morera was taken into ICE custody after the State Department revoked her lawful permanent resident (LPR) status, according to Rubio.

Morera, who was managing real estate assets while living in Florida, reportedly aided Havana’s communist government, officials said.

ALLEGED MEMBER OF CUBA'S MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR ARRESTED BY ICE AGENTS IN MIAMI

Her status termination was carried out at Rubio’s discretion. Morera entered the United States as a lawful permanent resident in 2023, Reuters reported. 

"Today, Adys Lastres Morera, a Cuban national with ties to the communist regime in Havana, was arrested following the Department of State’s termination of her lawful permanent resident (LPR) status, at my direction," Rubio said.

RUBIO SAYS CUBA NEEDS ‘NEW PEOPLE IN CHARGE’ AS BLACKOUTS, UNREST GRIP ISLAND

Morera is the older sister of Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera, who was sanctioned earlier this month for her role as executive president of GAESA.  

GAESA has been described by officials as an exploitative communist entity that siphons resources from the Cuban population.

"While the Cuban people suffer from the collapse of Cuba’s non-functioning communist economy, GAESA functions to allow a small circle of regime elites to plunder all the remaining resources of the island, squirreling away as much as $20 billion in illicit funds away in hidden overseas bank accounts," Rubio said. 

He added that Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera, as a senior executive, is responsible for managing international assets allegedly used to fund the "lavish lifestyles" of the Castro-era elite, as well as supporting efforts tied to broader ideological influence abroad.

Rubio also pointed to worsening conditions inside Cuba, including widespread blackouts and severe shortages of food, fuel, and medicine, arguing that GAESA is diverting resources away from basic needs under the communist system.

"GAESA’s ill-gotten riches are not spent on repairing the collapsing power grid, stocking empty pharmacies, feeding hungry families, or providing for the most basic and essential needs of the Cuban people. Instead, they are used to enrich Havana’s elites and underwrite their ongoing campaign of espionage, subversion, and revolutionary militancy against the free peoples of this hemisphere," he said. 

A record 274 climbers reached the summit of Mount Everest in a single day this week, as critics warn the world’s tallest peak is becoming dangerously overcrowded with thrill-seekers willing to pay $15,000 for a shot at the top.

The surge shattered the previous Nepali record of 223 climbers set in 2019, Rishi Bhandari, secretary general of the Expedition Operators Association of Nepal, told Reuters on Thursday.

"This is the highest number of climbers in a single day so far," Bhandari said, adding that the final summit total could rise even further as some climbers had not yet officially reported their successful ascents.

Nepal has already issued 494 Everest climbing permits this season, each costing climbers $15,000.

EXTREME TRAVEL DESTINATION TO RESTRICT POPULAR MOUNTAIN ACCESS

Climbers this year are ascending only from the Nepal side of Everest because China reportedly did not issue permits for expeditions from the Tibetan side.

Mountaineering experts have long criticized Nepal for allowing large numbers of climbers on Everest, warning that overcrowding can create life-threatening bottlenecks high on the mountain in Everest’s deadly "death zone," where oxygen levels plunge to dangerously low levels.

LEGENDARY MOUNTAINEER JIM WHITTAKER, FIRST AMERICAN TO SUMMIT EVEREST, DEAD AT 97

Nepal has attempted to respond to safety concerns in recent years by tightening rules and increasing fees for climbers, though some expedition leaders have defended the high number of climbers.

"If teams carry enough oxygen it is not a big problem," expedition organizer Lukas Furtenbach of the Austria-based Furtenbach Adventures told the outlet. "We have mountains in the Alps like the Zugspitze where we have 4,000 persons on top per day. So 274 is actually not a big number, considering this mountain is 10 times bigger."

Two Americans have died in the Philippines during a military engagement that the government said involved communist-linked groups.

Lyle Prijoles, 40, and transgender woman Kai Dana-Rene Sorem, 26, were among the 19 people killed last month during a firefight between the Philippine Army and suspected members of a communist insurgency.

The U.S.-born Filipino Americans are now at the center of a disputed encounter, with critics alleging the two were active combatants for the New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), which has been designated a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department. Human rights groups and the NPA, however, reportedly maintain that the pair were civilian activists who posed no military threat.

According to the City Journal, the two Americans were first exposed to left-wing ideology through college-linked institutions that critics say helped pave the way to involvement with groups the Philippine government has long argued serve as fronts for the CPP.

FAMILIAR PROTEST GROUPS MOBILIZE IMMEDIATELY AFTER ICE SHOOTING OF MINNESOTA PROTESTER

"This brings to two (2) the number of U.S. citizens—Lyle Prijoles and Kai Dana-Rene Sorem—who died in the same incident, a development that highlights the increasing involvement of individuals from outside the Philippines in local armed hostilities," the Philippines' National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) said.

"The presence of two American fatalities in a single encounter should prompt careful reflection on how involvement in certain activities or networks may lead to unintended exposure to dangerous environments."

On April 19, Philippine troops engaged in an armed encounter in Toboso, Negros Occidental, according to the NTF-ELCAC. The agency characterized the 19 dead as enemy combatants during an operation aimed at dismantling the decades-long communist insurgency in the Philippines.

On the other hand, family members and human rights advocates reportedly described Prijoles and Sorem as dedicated civilian community activists. The NPA acknowledged that 10 of those killed were members of its armed revolutionary force, but claimed the remaining victims — including several activists such as Prijoles and Sorem — posed no military threat, the San Francisco Standard reported.

INSIDE THE FAR LEFT 'BREEDING GROUND' UNIVERSITIES ALLEGED WHCD CALLED HOME FOR YEARS

In 2012, Prijoles, a Filipino American born and raised in San Diego, California, was involved with Anakbayan, which translates to "Children of the Nation," a prominent left-wing youth and student organization founded in the Philippines in 1998. Anakbayan-USA operates across several major U.S. college campuses and has drawn scrutiny from critics over its opposition to U.S. involvement in the Philippines. 

His activism reportedly began after attending San Francisco State University around 2004, when he joined the League of Filipino Students (LFS), a left-wing political alliance rooted in Marxist, Leninist and Maoist ideology, the City Journal said.

After 2006, Prijoles reportedly made several trips to the Philippines organized by Bayan USA, another left-wing activist network. The Philippine government has alleged that both organizations function as fronts for the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

Prijoles also may have harbored animosity toward the Armed Forces of the Philippines after his friend — the father of his godchild and chairperson of the U.S. chapter of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines — survived a 2019 assassination attempt that left him paralyzed, according to City Journal.

Meanwhile, Kai Dana Sorem was a Filipino American from Seattle whose political development was initially shaped by a search for personal and cultural identity, according to advocacy group Malaya Movement.

Her early political involvement reportedly included serving as a legislative page for the Washington State Democratic Party. Sorem later deepened her activism within left-wing Filipino diaspora organizations while attending the Central Washington University in 2020. She later launched the South Seattle chapter of Anakbayan, Malaya Movement said.  

In 2025, Sorem reportedly traveled to the Philippines on a U.S.-based exposure trip, and by 2026, she had relocated to the country full-time to work as an organizer.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has spent nearly three months in hiding as tensions with the U.S. escalate — a disappearance that counterterrorism analysts say mirrors the final years of al Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden.

The comparison comes amid a critical standoff between Washington and Tehran that prompted President Donald Trump to pause a planned strike on May 19. On Wednesday, Trump told reporters he was in "no hurry."

Khamenei, meanwhile, appeared to share three posts on his official X account on May 18 but remains out of public view.

"For the first time in the history of the Islamic Republic, the United States has done to Tehran what it spent two decades doing to al-Qaeda and ISIS," counterterrorism expert Dr. Omar Mohammed told Fox News Digital.

THE MISSING MULLAH: IRAN'S 'SUPREME LEADER' A NO-SHOW FOR NEGOTIATIONS, THEN HID AS US POUNDED NUKE SITES

"The U.S. has driven its leader into the same kind of operational invisibility that bin Laden lived in for 10 years in Abbottabad," he added.

"Both Mojtaba Khamenei and bin Laden inherited their status on the back of an American operation, and both responded the same way: by ceasing to exist publicly," Mohammed said before adding that bin Laden "stopped releasing dated videos around 2007 and confined himself to audio messages carried by hand."

Bin Laden founded al-Qaeda in the late 1980s and masterminded the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States.

After the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, bin Laden evaded capture for a decade by hiding inside a fortified compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

To avoid Western electronic surveillance, he severed his digital footprint and relied exclusively on a network of physical couriers, said Mohammed, an expert with the Antisemitism Research Initiative at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism.

U.S. intelligence eventually tracked one of those couriers to the compound, culminating in the 2011 Navy SEAL raid that killed the al Qaeda leader.

OPERATION EPIC FURY: HOW AMERICA'S AIR POWER IS CRUSHING IRAN’S TERROR REGIME

"Bin Laden survived with no cables out of the Abbottabad compound. Communications were carried by hand by two trusted couriers, the Kuwaiti brothers," Mohammed said.

"Bin Laden stayed hidden for the rest of his life because the moment he surfaced was the moment he died. Mojtaba’s incentives point the same way. Mojtaba Khamenei won’t emerge," he said.

"The Abbottabad lesson, which Tehran will have studied closely, is that the safest hiding place is not a cave in Tora Bora but a walled compound in a garrison town," Mohammed added, recalling how U.S. forces targeted bin Laden in the cave complex before he escaped.

Bin Laden also lived roughly a mile from Pakistan’s top military academy, hiding in plain sight behind high concrete walls and barbed wire, Mohammed noted.

"The logical Iranian equivalents are hardened sites under or alongside IRGC facilities," Mohammed added, referring to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and possible locations where Khamenei could be.

As previously reported by Fox News Digital, one of Khamenei’s few recent communications was an X post declaring a "holy war," framing the geopolitical clash as a mandatory religious obligation.

INSIDE IRAN’S RULING IDEOLOGY: HOW A ‘HOLY MISSION’ AND MESSIANIC DOCTRINE FUEL REGIME EXTREMISM

"This is a religious leader calling for sacred war against America and the Jews from an undisclosed location because his enemies have publicly vowed to kill him on sight," Mohammed said, describing the narrative as "the bin Laden template, almost line for line."

Mohammed also suggested Khamenei’s retreat into the shadows marks a watershed moment for Washington and the future of the Iranian regime.

His predecessor and father, Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed Feb. 28 in a targeted U.S.-Israeli airstrike in Tehran during Operation Epic Fury.

"This regime that for 47 years projected its power through a single visible Supreme Leader at the Friday prayer pulpit can no longer produce that figure on demand," he said, calling it a "strategic milestone."

"Predecessors killed by U.S. strikes and successors who cannot show their faces. Real power exercised by a security apparatus rather than by the nominal figurehead."

"Now one side is announcing operations on three continents through its president; the other is governed on paper by a man whose own population is uncertain where he is or what state he is in," Mohammed said.

"The contrast is also about the optics of leadership during this war," he added.

Three sisters whose bodies were recovered from the sea near Brighton beach last week have been formally identified as police continue investigating the circumstances surrounding their deaths and their grieving father shares an emotional tribute to his daughters.

Jane Adetoro, 36, Christina Walters, 32, and Rebecca Walters, 31, all from the Uxbridge area of London, were found in the water near Black Rock car park early Wednesday morning, Sussex Police said.

The tragedy has shocked communities in Brighton and London, with the sisters’ grieving father releasing an emotional tribute describing his daughters as "unique and precious."

"Today, with a heart full of sorrow and love, I pay tribute to my beloved daughters — Jane, Christina, and Becky — whose lives ended so tragically far too soon," their father Joseph said in a statement.

YOUNG AMERICAN TOURISTS' CAUSE OF DEATH REVEALED AFTER THEY WERE FOUND 'MOTIONLESS' AT BEACH RESORT

"No words can truly describe the pain of losing three daughters in the prime of their lives. Jane, Christina, and Becky were more than daughters to me; they were my joy, my strength, and the beautiful light that filled our family with happiness and love," he added.

Authorities say there is currently no evidence of criminality or third-party involvement, but detectives are continuing extensive inquiries to understand how the women came to be in the water.

Specialist detectives are reviewing hundreds of hours of CCTV footage and tracing the women’s final movements between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

YOUNG AMERICAN TOURISTS FOUND DEAD AT CARIBBEAN BEACH RESORT; AUTHORITIES INVESTIGATING

Police urged anyone who saw the sisters near Madeira Drive between 10 p.m. Tuesday and 5:30 a.m. Wednesday to come forward.

Chief Superintendent Adam Hays said investigators would "leave no stone unturned" as authorities work to determine what led to the deaths of the three sisters.

"I know this incident has had a profound impact on the local community in Brighton, and across the country, and I’d like to reassure the public we will leave no stone unturned in our investigation to understand exactly what led to the tragic events of that Wednesday morning," Hays said in a statement.

FAMILIES OF 3 MASSACHUSETTS WOMEN WHO DIED AT BELIZE RESORT FILE $100M LAWSUIT AGAINST HOTEL, EXPEDIA: REPORT

The Superintendent urged privacy for the Walters family in this "terrible tragedy" as the investigation unfolds.

"This investigation will continue in earnest, with Jane, Christina and Rebecca’s family at its center. I would ask that they are given the privacy to come to terms with this terrible tragedy," Hays added.

The sisters' father, Joseph, closed his message in dedication to the spirits of his three daughters:

"Though you are no longer here beside us, your spirits live on in our hearts every day. Love like yours never dies. You will forever remain a part of our lives, our prayers, and our memories," Joseph said.

Democratic-Socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York City is being slammed by Jewish groups for his decision to miss the city’s historic Israel Day Parade. His decision comes as the Big Apple wrestles with record levels of antisemitism.

Home to the largest Jewish population outside of Israel, Jewish New Yorkers have long viewed the annual parade as one of the city’s clearest public displays of solidarity with both the Jewish state and the community. On Tuesday, two of the city’s most prominent Jewish organizations declined an invitation to a Jewish heritage event held at Gracie Mansion in response to Mamdani’s latest snub.

"Since the very first Israel Parade in 1964, every single sitting Mayor of New York City has joined in the festive celebrations. New York has historically been proud of its deep relationship with Israel. Not joining the parade is an affront to the history of New York City," Moshe Davis, former Executive Director of the Mayor’s Office to Combat Antisemitism under Mayor Adams, told Fox News Digital.

NYC ANTISEMITIC INCIDENTS NEARLY TRIPLE DESPITE OTHER CRIMES REACHING RECORD LOWS

Earlier this month Mamdani officially confirmed that he would not attend the event, despite soaring antisemitism in New York City and weeks of anti-Israel demonstrations outside synagogues and Jewish communal institutions across the city. Parade, organizers say the event on May 31st is expected to draw record turnout in response to Mamdani’s snub.

While the mayor had previously indicated during an Oct. 2025 interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that he would likely not attend as a matter of political principle, his renewed public confirmation has led to growing criticism.

Fox News Digital reached out to Mayor Mamdani’s office regarding the criticism from Jewish leaders over not attending the parade and were referred by his spokesman to a statement he had given to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

ERIC ADAMS WARNS NYC 'NOT FINE' AFTER MAMDANI'S WIN, SAYS IF HE WAS JEWISH HE'D BE WORRIED FOR HIS CHILDREN

"I look forward to joining and hosting many community events celebrating Jewish life in New York and the rich Jewish history and culture of our city. While I will not be attending the Israel Day Parade, my lack of attendance should not be mistaken for a refusal to provide security or the necessary permits for its safety. I’ve been very clear: I believe in equal rights for all people everywhere. That principle guides me consistently."

Community leaders say the decision breaks with decades of bipartisan tradition in a city where participation in the parade has long been viewed as both symbolic and expected.

Despite the mayor declining the invitation, New York Governor Kathy Hochul spokesperson confirmed to Fox News Digital that she will participate in the parade.

Organizers say this year’s event is expected to feature more marching groups than ever before, driven not only by support for Israel but also by concern over rising antisemitism.

One person associated with the parade told Fox News Digital the event is expected to be "safer at the parade than in your own home," citing extensive security coordination surrounding this year’s march.

Still, much of the conversation surrounding the parade has centered on Mamdani’s absence.

SIGN UP FOR ANTISEMITISM EXPOSED NEWSLETTER

During his mayoral campaign, Mamdani suggested he would likely "miss a lot" of New York City’s traditional parades due to his political views, while evaluating appearances "case-by-case."

Critics argue the Israel Day Parade is not simply another political event, but a longstanding civic tradition closely tied to New York City’s Jewish identity and history.

"The Israel Day Parade is a testament to one of New York City's most important relationships. From healthcare to technology to innovation, Israel and New York City are partners in building a better future. I want every New Yorker to join the Parade on Fifth Avenue because celebrating this bond isn't just for the Jewish community, it's for our entire city," former Mayor of New York City Eric Adams told Fox News Digital.

The controversy surrounding Mamdani has also widened beyond the parade itself, with the UJA Federation of New York and the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York declining to attend his first Jewish Heritage event for the upcoming Jewish holiday of Shavuot at Gracie Mansion, stating they would not participate in an event hosted by a mayor who "denies the core pillar of our heritage, the State of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people."

At the event, Mamdani acknowledged the scale of antisemitism facing the city’s Jewish population, stating, "Jewish New Yorkers, accounting for just nearly 12% of our city’s population, are also the targets of more than 50% of all hate crimes."

He also announced a proposed $26 million annual investment toward expanding hate crime prevention efforts under the city’s Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes. Details of the proposal were not clear at how he would tackle antisemitism at time of publication.

Ambassador Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, Trump's special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, told Fox News Digital when asked about Mamdani's position that, "It is important we recognize the need for leaders to uphold their responsibility to protect religious freedom and refrain from making incendiary comments that contribute to the rise of antisemitism. Leaders who fail to do so bear responsibility for the increase in antisemitic activity."

This year’s parade is also expected to feature expanded interfaith participation. In a first for the event’s 61-year history, some Muslim groups are slated to march alongside Jewish organizations, in addition to expanded participation from Asian American groups and others.

LASK, Poland — Poland is expected to receive its first F-35 fighter jets "very, very soon", Polish Deputy Defense Minister Paweł Zalewski told Fox News Digital, as American and Polish forces prepare together at a key NATO air base near the alliance’s eastern flank.

Fox News Digital received exclusive access to Poland's 32nd Tactical Air Base in Lask, where commanders pointed to the hangars being prepared for the arrival of the U.S.- made fifth-generation aircraft, part of Poland's $4.6 billion purchase of 32 F-35 from Lockheed Martin.

The jets have not arrived yet, but the partnership behind them already has.

POLAND SEEKS ANSWERS AFTER PENTAGON SCRAPS PLANNED US ARMORED BRIGADE ROTATION

Polish and American personnel train, operate and in some cases are stationed together on the base, reflecting the unusually close military relationship between Warsaw and Washington at a time when NATO burden-sharing remains under political scrutiny.

Lt. Col. Pete Nanoslawski, commander of the 52nd Operations Group Detachment 1 of the U.S. Air Force, originally from New York and stationed in Poland for the past five years, told Fox News Digital that Poland’s military modernization has significantly deepened cooperation between the two militaries.

"We are experiencing incredible support from Polish-provided logistics support and Polish-provided infrastructure," Nanoslawski said while standing alongside Polish commanders on the base.

He said Poland’s investment in American military systems and joint operations reflects how seriously Warsaw views threats from Russia. "Their foreign military sales portfolio is an appetite that’s insatiable, and rightfully so."

The close relationship between the two militaries was visible throughout the visit. As Polish commanders spoke about cooperation with the United States, they frequently turned toward their American counterparts with familiarity that went beyond formal alliance language.

NATO ALLY POLAND WARNS RUSSIA, BELARUS PUSHING ILLEGAL MIGRANTS TOWARD ALLIANCE — AND THE US

"We speak the same language, only with different accents," Col. pilot Krzysztof Duda, commander of the 32nd Tactical Air Base in Lask, told Fox News Digital.

Duda, who studied in the United States and attended the U.S. Air War College, described himself as "a child of the American education system."

"The marriage we have with the U.S. on the military level, even if you want to divorce, we would not," Duda said with a smile,"But we don’t want the divorce."

Nanoslawski added that the American presence in Poland provides "enhanced forward presence and the ability to maneuver and adjust rapidly."

The partnership is now entering a new phase with the integration of the U.S.-made F-35 into Poland’s air force fleet.

Poland signed a $4.6 billion agreement in 2020 to purchase 32 F-35A fighter jets manufactured by Lockheed Martin.

Duda, who is overseeing the implementation process at Lask, said the transition involves years of training, infrastructure upgrades and coordination with the United States.

Training to become an F35 pilot is not just a long process, it's an expensive one too — Duda estimates that it costs around $55 million per pilot.

The base itself has undergone extensive modernization to prepare for the aircraft, including new operational infrastructure, maintenance systems and classified facilities required under American certification standards.

In an interview with Fox News Digital in Warsaw, Polish Deputy Defense Minister Paweł Zalewski confirmed the first F-35 arrival is expected soon. "I can confirm that it will be very, very soon," Zalewski said.

POLAND SHOOTS DOWN DRONES IN ITS AIRSPACE DURING RUSSIAN ATTACK ON NEIGHBORING UKRAINE

"F-35s provides very, very important capabilities, so it offers domination in the air. That is crucial in the battlefield nowadays," he added. "It will be a capability developed together with Americans."

At a time when NATO burden-sharing remains a recurring debate in Washington, Poland has emerged as one of the alliance’s strongest military partners, dramatically increasing defense spending, purchasing American weapons systems and hosting U.S. forces.

For many Polish officers, the threat from Moscow is deeply personal.

Lt. Col. "Shooter," a Polish F-16 pilot at the base, told Fox News Digital that countries on NATO’s eastern flank still carry memories of Soviet domination.

POLISH GOVERNMENT PLANS MANDATORY MILITARY TRAINING FOR ADULT MEN

"There are still people that lived in communism," he said. "We remember, and we don’t want anything like that to happen again."

Looking at Russia’s actions in Chechnya, Georgia, Crimea and Ukraine, he said Poland believes deterrence is essential.

"We have this intuition probably written in our DNA," Shooter said. "When they are doing something, they’re not going to stop unless the cost of the further operation is going to be more than what they’re going to gain."

According to the U.S. Air Force, Polish pilots began F-35 training in the United States in 2024, including at Ebbing Air National Guard Base in Arkansas. The 33rd Fighter Wing announced in February that a Polish pilot had completed the first flight on Poland’s new F-35A aircraft as part of the training program.

Lockheed Martin told Fox News Digital that "integration of the F-35 into the Polish Air Force fleet advances regional deterrence, enhances interoperability and strengthens European security."

"As seen in recent combat and air policing operations, the F-35 is actively helping defend NATO and allied airspace by deterring and defeating threats, and it will protect Poland’s national security for decades to come," a company spokesperson said.

The company added that preparations are continuing for Poland’s first in-country F-35 arrival celebration at Lask in June.

The U.S.-designated Lebanon-based terrorist movement Hezbollah exploits children from its version of the scout movement to carry out jihadi missions that result in their deaths, according to a recent report on Lebanon’s MTV television network.

The Lebanese network’s report — translated by the Washington, D.C.-based Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) — comes amid U.S.-brokered peace talks between Israel and Beirut.

The report claims that Hezbollah gives child fighters heroes’ funerals and publicly glorifies them before their peers in order to encourage other children to follow in their footsteps. The MTV report said Hezbollah believes that every drop of bloodshed by child soldiers brings victory closer.

ISRAEL POUNDS HEZBOLLAH TARGETS, DARING LEBANON TO RECLAIM SOVEREIGNTY FROM IRAN-BACKED TERROR PROXY

It also claimed that Hezbollah uses its scout movements to cultivate an entire generation of obedient children prepared to die, through rhetoric that glorifies death and martyrdom. The MTV report, according to the MEMRI translation, said that "Hezbollah child soldiers have been used since the 1980s by this outlaw armed group. Not just as armed fighters but as Khomeini-loyal scouts."

The late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, reportedly exploited the use of Iranian children during the country’s 1980-1988 war against Iraq.

Matthew Levitt, a leading scholar on Hezbollah from the Washington Institute, said that "Hezbollah's recruitment and radicalization of youth through its Mahdi Scouts is long documented," other experts talking to Fox News Digital concurred.

"Hezbollah has boy scouts, and they have been taught jihad, and it is a well-known thing in Lebanon," Mideast expert Walid Phares told Fox News Digital.

UNRWA SCHOOLS ‘HIJACKED BY HAMAS,’ WATCHDOG REPORT WARNS

The Lebanon expert said they could be termed "children jihadists" who are preparing to become full Hezbollah fighters. Phares said they mostly assign them [the children of Hezbollah fighters] to spying and transporting ammunition. He argued if the scouts are getting funding from a ministry or national boy scouts association in Lebanon, they should be sanctioned if they have the evidence.

Multiple Fox News Digital Emails and phone calls to the World Organization of the Scouting Movement (WOSM) were not immediately returned. The U.S. branch of WOSM referred Fox News Digital to WOSM, which is in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

A Hezbollah expert from the Israel Alma Research and Education Center, Sarit Zehavi, called for action against the exploitation of children by the terror group.

"The only way to bring a change is to designate all of these allegedly civilian activities of Hezbollah and close the movement of its scouts, and enable the Shiites of Lebanon to have a different source of services, whether it is educational, formal or informal, which will be part of the Lebanese state, and not part of Hezbollah. The loyalty will be to the Lebanese state and not to Khomeini and the Islamic Republic."

She added, "This is only something Lebanon can do with a lot of international pressure, of course, led by the United States."

An Israeli diplomat, Tammy Rahamimoff-Honig, posted on X: "Hezbollah sacrifices Lebanese children to further the ambitions of the Iranian regime. This isn’t ‘resistance’. It’s child abuse."

Lebanon’s Ambassador to the U.S. declined to provide comment for this article.

The head of the World Health Organization announced a meeting of his emergency committee regarding the "scale and speed" of the Ebola outbreak in the Congo and Uganda on Tuesday.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus cited data saying there have been over 500 suspected cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in recent weeks, and 33 confirmed cases. There have been two confirmed cases in Uganda. The outbreak has seen a total of 131 fatalities.

"I'm deeply concerned about the scale ‌and ⁠speed of the epidemic," Tedros said in a Tuesday statement.

Tedros is meeting with the WHO's Emergency Committee later Tuesday.

US ISSUES URGENT TRAVEL WARNING AS DEADLY EBOLA OUTBREAK SPREADS OVERSEAS

There are several factors that have made the WHO concerned about the potential ​for further spread, such as cases in urban ​areas, including ⁠Kampala, Uganda, and Goma in the DRC, as well as the conflict-affected province of Ituri.

The WHO has approved $3.9 million in ​emergency funding to support national authorities as they respond to the outbreak.

The WHO declared the outbreak a public health emergency on Sunday, and the U.S. issued an urgent travel warning for the DRC shortly after on Monday.

UGANDA STARTS CLINICAL TRIAL OF VACCINE FOR SUDAN STRAIN OF EBOLA AMID NEW OUTBREAK

Officials said the outbreak was caused by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola virus, a rarer variant for which existing vaccines may be less effective.

The State Department warns that Ebola is a "rare, severe and often fatal hemorrhagic fever illness."

The virus can spread through direct contact with infected individuals, bodily fluids, infected corpses and objects contaminated with the virus.

CRUISE SHIP PASSENGER DESCRIBES UNCERTAINTY AFTER 3 DEATHS AMID HANTAVIRUS PROBE

"The U.S. government is unable to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens in Ituri province," the advisory noted. "Do not travel to this area for any reason."

The development comes as global health officials continue monitoring a rare hantavirus outbreak tied to the MV Hondius cruise ship, which left multiple passengers and crew members sick, and caused three deaths.

As of May 13, the WHO said 11 hantavirus cases had been identified in connection with the cruise outbreak, including eight confirmed cases, two probable cases and one inconclusive case.

Fox News' Andrea Margolis and Michael Sinkewicz and Reuters contributed to this report.

Two American nationals were reportedly arrested in Japan on Sunday after one allegedly entered the enclosure of Punch, the young macaque at Ichikawa City Zoo who became famous online for his inseparable bond with a stuffed orangutan toy.

Videos circulating online appear to show a person dressed in an emoji costume climbing over a barrier into the Japanese macaque enclosure before dropping a small stuffed toy near the animals, startling them and causing them to retreat, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The suspects were identified as a 24-year-old college student and a 27-year-old self-described singer, AFP reported.

PUNCH THE MONKEY, VIRAL STAR, EXPERIENCES DRAMATIC BREAKTHROUGH AMONG ZOO MATES

Zoo staff quickly intervened, and authorities said neither suspect made physical contact with the monkeys, according to AFP.

Ichikawa Police told AFP the two men were arrested on suspicion of forcible obstruction of business.

One suspect was not cooperating with police, while the other denied the allegations, according to reports citing NHK.

In a statement posted to X on May 17, Ichikawa City Zoo confirmed the pair had been turned over to police and said safety inspections were conducted afterward. 

ORPHANED BABY MONKEY FINDS COMFORT IN STUFFED ANIMAL AFTER BEING ABANDONED BY MOTHER AT BIRTH

Officials added that no animals were injured during the incident.

"Around 10:50 today, there was an intruder in Saruyama," the zoo wrote. "We are informing you that the two individuals, including the intruder in question, have been handed over to the police."

The zoo also announced temporary viewing-area closures and enhanced security measures while operations continued as scheduled.

SEVERAL MONKEYS STILL ON THE LOOSE IN ST LOUIS AS OFFICIALS CALL OFF SEARCH FOR ROAMING ANIMALS

The monkey had been abandoned by his mother shortly after birth in July 2025, prompting zookeepers to hand-raise him.

Fox News Digital's Khloe Quill contributed to this report.

A close ally of ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has been deported by Venezuela to the United States, according to Venezuelan officials, to face federal charges accusing him of orchestrating a sweeping money laundering and bribery scheme tied to Venezuela’s state-run food program and oil industry.

Alex Nain Saab Moran, 55, of Colombia, a former minister of industry and national production under the Maduro regime, appeared in federal court in Miami Monday, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida. The Justice Department said Saab is presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Prosecutors allege Saab led a yearslong scheme beginning around 2015 to defraud a humanitarian program intended to provide food to impoverished Venezuelans.

He and his co-conspirators later allegedly sold billions of dollars’ worth of Venezuelan state-owned oil while circumventing U.S. sanctions, according to the Justice Department. Authorities say the proceeds were routed through U.S. bank accounts in an effort to conceal the transactions and further advance the scheme.

MADURO ALLY ALEX SAAB ARRESTED IN JOINT US-VENEZUELAN OPERATION, OFFICIAL SAYS

"Alex Saab allegedly used American banks to launder hundreds of millions of dollars stolen from a Venezuelan food program meant for the poor and proceeds from the illegal sale of Venezuelan oil," Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva said in a statement. "This is unacceptable. The Criminal Division will not allow foreign actors to exploit the American financial system and use it as a safe haven for the proceeds of their corruption." 

Beginning around 2015, Saab and his associates allegedly paid bribes to Venezuelan government officials to secure contracts tied to the country’s CLAP welfare program, which was intended to purchase and distribute food to vulnerable and impoverished Venezuelans. 

Instead of delivering the promised food supplies, prosecutors allege the group used shell companies, fraudulent invoices and falsified shipping records to embezzle hundreds of millions of dollars from the program for their own personal gain.

TREASURY TARGETS OIL TRADERS, TANKERS ACCUSED OF HELPING MADURO EVADE U.S. SANCTIONS

Around 2019, as sweeping U.S. sanctions crippled Venezuela’s oil exports and placed severe strain on the country’s finances, including its ability to pay Saab and his associates under the CLAP program, Saab and his partners allegedly exploited their corrupt ties to government officials to gain access to billions of dollars’ worth of oil owned by Venezuela’s state-run oil company. 

Officials allege the group sold the oil under false pretenses and used the profits to sustain and expand the original food fraud scheme.

Saab and his associates reportedly laundered the allegedly stolen funds through U.S. bank accounts in an effort to conceal the money trail, giving American authorities jurisdiction to prosecute the case.

"When illicit proceeds are moved through the United States financial system, our courts have jurisdiction and our prosecutors will act," U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones said in a statement.

Saab was previously indicted in the U.S. in 2019 and extradited from Cabo Verde in 2021. He was pardoned by President Biden in 2023 as part of a prisoner swap, though prosecutors say the new case involves alleged conduct not covered by that pardon.

A Miami-based attorney for Saab declined to comment to The Associated Press.

If convicted, Saab faces up to 20 years in federal prison. The government is also seeking forfeiture of any property or proceeds allegedly obtained through the alleged criminal activity.

The case was investigated by a U.S. Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF), which includes the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Rescuers located the bodies of four Italian divers deep inside an underwater cave in the Maldives, days after the group vanished during a dangerous dive far beyond recreational limits, Italy’s Foreign Ministry said Monday.

Officials said Finnish cave-diving specialists found the bodies in the innermost section of the cave system in Vaavu Atoll, where the divers disappeared Thursday while exploring at a depth of about 160 feet. The recreational diving limit in the Maldives is 98 feet.

"As was previously thought, the four bodies were found inside the cave, not only inside the cave but well inside the cave into the third segment of the cave, which is the largest part," Maldives government spokesman Ahmed Shaam said, adding the victims were found "pretty much together."

The Thinwana Kandu cave system where the bodies were found is known locally as "shark cave."

RESCUE OPERATION FREES INJURED MAN TRAPPED 130 FEET UNDERGROUND IN ITALIAN CAVE

Recovery crews plan to retrieve two bodies Tuesday and the remaining two the following day, officials said.

The discovery came after authorities resumed the search following the death of a Maldivian military diver involved in the rescue mission. Mohamed Mahdi died Saturday from decompression sickness after attempting to reach the trapped divers.

A fifth Italian diver, identified earlier as a diving instructor, was previously found dead outside the cave.

BAGPIPER DIES DOING POPULAR VACATION ATTRACTION DAYS BEFORE MISSING SON’S REMAINS FOUND IN BACKYARD TREEHOUSE

The specialized Finnish team used advanced closed-circuit rebreather systems, allowing for longer and deeper dives in the cave’s confined environment.

Rough seas and hazardous underwater conditions repeatedly delayed search efforts as crews mapped and marked the cave entrance before pushing deeper inside.

Authorities continue to investigate the situation and what led to the divers' deaths.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

U.S. and Nigerian forces launched another strike against ISIS fighters in Nigeria, according to U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), just days after they carried out an operation that killed a global ISIS leader.

AFRICOM said it conducted the additional kinetic strikes against ISIS militants on Monday in coordination with Nigeria’s government. It said complete assessments are ongoing, though noted that no U.S. or Nigerian forces were harmed during the operation.

"The removal of these terrorists diminishes the group’s capacity to plan attacks that threaten the safety and security of the U.S. and our partners," AFRICOM said.

The strikes come after President Donald Trump announced late Friday that U.S. and Nigerian forces killed Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, whom he described as ISIS’s second-in-command globally.

ISIS TERROR LEADER AT LARGE AFTER US STRIKE KILLS TOP COMMANDER AMID RISING AFRICA THREAT: ANALYST

"Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, second in command of ISIS globally, thought he could hide in Africa, but little did he know we had sources who kept us informed on what he was doing," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social at the time. "He will no longer terrorize the people of Africa, or help plan operations to target Americans."

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth confirmed Saturday that U.S. forces, in coordination with the Armed Forces of Nigeria, killed al-Minuki and other ISIS leaders.

"So, for months, we hunted this top ISIS leader in Nigeria who was killing Christians, and we killed him — and his entire posse," Hegseth wrote.

The announcement also comes after U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said it carried out multiple strikes against more than 30 ISIS targets in Syria in February as part of a joint military effort to "sustain relentless military pressure on remnants from the terrorist network."

Fox News Digital’s Michael Sinkewicz and Robert McGreevey contributed to this report.

Canadian health officials on Sunday confirmed that one of four Canadians who returned from the MV Hondius cruise ship, the subject of an international Andes hantavirus outbreak, tested positive for hantavirus. Three people connected to the outbreak have died.

The Public Health Agency of Canada confirmed the positive test after British Columbia’s top public health officer previously described the case as a "presumptive positive."

"One individual’s sample was confirmed positive for hantavirus," the agency said in a statement.

Officials said additional testing will be conducted at a national laboratory. It was not immediately clear whether that testing was for confirmation, strain characterization or another purpose.

CRUISE SHIP PASSENGER DESCRIBES UNCERTAINTY AFTER 3 DEATHS AMID HANTAVIRUS PROBE

The development comes as global health officials continue monitoring the rare hantavirus outbreak tied to the MV Hondius, which has sickened multiple passengers.

As of May 13, the World Health Organization said 11 cases had been identified in connection with the cruise outbreak, including eight confirmed cases, two probable cases and one inconclusive case. Those figures included three deaths. The Associated Press later reported that the Canadian confirmation brought the number of people from the ship who had tested positive to 10.

Canadian health officials said four Canadians returned home from the MV Hondius, though only one has tested positive for the virus.

RARE HANTAVIRUS HUMAN-TO-HUMAN TRANSMISSION SUSPECTED ON LUXURY CRUISE SHIP WHERE 3 HAVE DIED

The confirmed patient and a traveling companion — identified as a Yukon couple in their 70s — returned from the cruise together. The companion later tested negative, officials said.

A third person in their 70s from Vancouver Island remains in isolation, along with a British Columbia resident in their 50s.

So far, no confirmed U.S. cases tied to the cruise ship have been reported, though WHO said as of May 13 that one U.S.-repatriated passenger had inconclusive laboratory results and was undergoing retesting.

HANTAVIRUS DEATHS ON CRUISE SHIP HIGHLIGHT DANGERS OF RODENT-BORNE DISEASE

Last week, however, health officials in Ontario County, New York, announced they were investigating a suspected locally acquired hantavirus case unrelated to the cruise ship.

The Ontario County Public Health Department said there was no risk to the general public. Officials also said the strain typically seen in the United States is not known to spread from person to person.

The outbreak linked to the MV Hondius began after the Dutch cruise ship, carrying 147 passengers and crew members, departed Argentina on April 1 for a South Atlantic voyage.

TRAPPED CRUISE SHIP PASSENGER SHARES UPDATE ON CLEANLINESS OF SHIP AMID DEADLY HANTAVIRUS OUTBREAK

The outbreak has prompted heightened precautions internationally, including in the Netherlands, where Radboud University Medical Center quarantined 12 staff members after officials said a hantavirus patient’s blood and urine were not handled under the strictest protocols recommended for the virus strain.

The outbreak has also sparked comparisons to the coronavirus pandemic. However, Fox News senior medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel previously told Fox News Digital there is "no comparison."

He noted hantavirus is difficult to spread.

"It's not airborne ... in terms of respiratory droplets hanging in the air," he said. "It's very difficult to transmit."

While coronavirus "moved in the direction of humans in a significant way," hantavirus has not, except for "very rare" cases of human-to-human transmission, he added.

The World Health Organization has assessed the risk to the global population as low, while noting that current evidence suggests subsequent human-to-human transmission may have occurred on board. Andes virus is the only hantavirus known to have documented person-to-person transmission, though such spread is considered rare.

Siegel also noted hantavirus cases have been reported in the United States for decades, though they remain "very rare."

Fox News Digital’s Brittany Miller and Angelica Stabile, along with The Associated Press, contributed to this report.

The U.S.-brokered alliance designed to counter Iran in the Middle East is showing signs of strain amid tensions between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, an analyst says, as the possibility of a broader conflict with Tehran intensified Sunday.

The friction first surfaced May 13 after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he held a "historic breakthrough" meeting with UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan during a "secret visit" to Al Ain near the Oman border.

The UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a swift denial following the announcement.

The ministry said, "Its relations with Israel are public and were established within the framework of the well-known and publicly declared Abraham Accords. These relations are not based on secrecy or clandestine arrangements."

IRAN IS 'TRYING TO GIVE THE GLOBAL ECONOMY A HEART ATTACK' BY CLOSING STRAIT OF HORMUZ, UAE MINISTER SAYS

It added, "Therefore, any claims regarding undisclosed visits or arrangements are baseless unless issued by the relevant official authorities in the UAE."

"The stakes are high," Middle East Institute analyst Natan Sachs told Fox News Digital.

"I imagine the Israelis are working overtime to mend relations with the UAE, but it is too early to tell," he said.

President Donald Trump spoke with Netanyahu on Sunday as tensions over Iran escalated and with the Israeli leader saying he was "prepared for every scenario."

The leaders discussed the possibility of renewing the war with Iran as well as Trump’s recent trip to China, according to the Times of Israel.

Sachs, a senior fellow at the institute, said Netanyahu’s UAE meeting claim "seems like a diplomatic blunder because it embarrasses the UAE."

OFFICIALS IN BIDEN ADMIN WORKED TO UNDERMINE NETANYAHU AFTER CEASEFIRE TALKS COLLAPSED, FORMER AIDE SAYS

"This was an odd move to make since the UAE has been a close partner of Israel, even during this war," Sachs said.

"Either Netanyahu didn't think, or he was thinking about something else — domestic politics. It would not be the first time he did that."

"To the degree that the Emirati anger is genuine, it would have meant working to preserve trust with their Gulf Arab ally," Sachs added.

"I would also not rule out Emirati anger at the leak itself, which could be seen as a break of trust — something very important to the Emirati leadership."

The Abraham Accords, brokered by the United States in 2020, fundamentally altered the regional balance by normalizing relations between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.

Security cooperation has since expanded significantly due to shared concerns over Iran’s military ambitions.

THE FUTURE OF WAR? US-ISRAEL BLITZ ON IRAN UNVEILS NEXT-GEN ALLIED COMBAT

That alliance was tested when Iran launched strikes against UAE military and energy infrastructure during Operation Epic Fury.

Israel is said to have deployed Iron Dome air-defense systems and personnel to the UAE, according to U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. The UAE confirmed Sunday that it had intercepted three drones coming from the west.

"The UAE received much of the fire from Iran. It is the most vulnerable to Iranian short-range missiles, which are more plentiful and cheaper than the medium-range missiles fired at Israel," Sachs said.

"While short-range missiles can be intercepted, Iran has many more of them. The UAE took the most hits, yet it stood out by sticking most clearly to its strategy of open partnership with Israel."

"But the public disclosure that Netanyahu himself visited may have just been seen as a step too far," Sachs added.

Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, ISIS’s shadow commander in West Africa, was killed May 16 using what an extremism analyst describes as one of the hardest forms of intelligence to detect, after decades being shielded by "deep local networks" across the region.

While the killing dealt one of the biggest blows to ISIS’s global network in years, disrupting operations in northeastern Nigeria, the terror group's top leader, Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, remains at large as Africa becomes the movement's global epicenter.

"There is no single ISIS ‘headquarters’ in Nigeria; ISWAP (Islamic State West Africa Province) operates dozens of small, shifting camps scattered across the Lake Chad islands and the Borno bush," Dr. Omar Mohammed, Senior Research Fellow at the GW Program on Extremism, told Fox News Digital.

"Al-Minuki would have had no smartphones, relying instead on courier-based communications and constant movement between these small camps," he said.

TRUMP TARGETS ISIS IN NIGERIA AMID WARNINGS SAHEL REGION IS BECOMING ‘EPICENTER OF TERRORISM’

President Donald Trump’s explicit reference to "sources who kept us informed" points directly to human intelligence, or HUMINT — the hardest form of intelligence for a target to detect or counter, Mohammed explained.

The precision strike successfully penetrated defenses that had been held for years.

"He would have utilized deep local networks the Nigerian military has struggled to penetrate for over a decade," Mohammed added.

MS NOW GUEST SUGGESTS TRUMP STRIKE IN NIGERIA WAS RACIALLY MOTIVATED VIOLENCE

"His operational security would have been severe," Mohammed said. "But two things eventually undo even careful targets: time generates patterns, and human sources are extremely difficult to defeat."

"Despite severe operational security, al-Minuki was ultimately compromised through persistent human intelligence," he noted. "Al-Minuki knew he was marked."

ISIS FIGHTERS STILL AT LARGE AFTER SYRIAN PRISON BREAK, CONTRIBUTING TO VOLATILE SECURITY SITUATION

The Nigerian army described the strike as "a meticulously planned and highly complex precision air-land operation" carried out Saturday between midnight and 4 a.m. in Metele, located in Borno State in northeast Nigeria.

U.S. Africa Command, or AFRICOM, placed the strike in northeastern Nigeria, with Nigerian army communications pointing specifically to the Metele region.

Despite the tactical success, the current ISIS "caliph," or overall leader, remains on the run, according to reports.

Al-Qurashi was "named following his predecessor’s death in Syria," Mohammed claimed.

"He is deliberately faceless, with analysts describing this line of leaders as the ‘caliphs of the shadows,’" Mohammed said, noting al-Qurashi assumed leadership after Turkish authorities killed his predecessor in 2023.

While al-Qurashi’s exact location is unknown, reports indicate he traveled from Syria or Iraq through Yemen to Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region.

"This is where the financial hub also sits, meaning the entire center of gravity of the organization — leadership, finance, operational direction — has been quietly relocating to Africa for years," Mohammed said.

RUSSIAN MERCENARIES REPLACE WESTERN FORCES AS ISIS SURGES ACROSS AFRICA'S SAHEL REGION

Data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project confirms this regional shift, showing more than two-thirds of all Islamic State global activity now takes place in Africa.

"Africa has transitioned from a peripheral theater to the operational and financial center of global ISIS activity," Mohammed explained. "Africa is no longer a peripheral theater. It is the main one. Funding is overwhelmingly local and extractive — taxation, ransom, smuggling — which is precisely why these networks are so resilient."

"Al-Minuki, for example, rose through ISWAP and operated across the Lake Chad Basin and into the wider Sahel," he noted.

"Still, staking out al-Minuki is the most significant blow to ISIS’ global leadership architecture since the al-Baghdadi raid in 2019, executed in the theater that has quietly become the group’s beating heart," Mohammed said before adding the strike was "not a one-off kinetic moment."

This is part two of a series examining the challenges confronting the NATO alliance.

POLAND-BELARUS BORDER — Riding in a military convoy escorted by armored vehicles from Poland’s 18th "Iron Division" along the country’s 521-kilometer border with Belarus, soldiers pointed toward dense forests where they say Europe’s newest form of warfare is unfolding.

Polish officials warn illegal migrants weaponized by Russia and Belarus to destabilize NATO's eastern flank are also making their way to the United States — part of what Warsaw calls an ongoing war against the Western alliance that has direct implications for American security.

The border was once guarded mainly by Poland’s Border Guard and police. But after years of mounting pressure from illegal crossings, Polish officials say the army was deployed because the situation became too large and too dangerous to handle as a conventional immigration challenge.

TROOPS AT THE BORDER: HOW THE MILITARY’S ROLE IN IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT HAS EXPLODED UNDER TRUMP

Now, the frontier is guarded in layers: soldiers, border guards and rapid-response forces. A temporary barrier built in 2021 has become an electronic fence backed by surveillance systems and military patrols. Polish officials say migrants trying to cross have come from countries including Syria, Somalia, Afghanistan and India.

They describe the crisis as "artificial migration," saying the illegals are flown into Belarus from the Middle East, Africa and Asia and then transported toward the Polish border by Belarusian authorities in an effort to pressure and destabilize NATO countries.

Military officials at the border said the peak was in 2021, when there were 39,697 illegal crossing attempts. By 2025, it was 29,869, slightly fewer than in 2024. So far in 2026, they have seen a major drop, they say.

For Warsaw, the numbers tell only part of the story.

Polish officials say the border pressure is not spontaneous illegal migration, but a Russian-backed Belarusian operation designed to destabilize NATO from within.

"We are at war," Ambassador Krzysztof Olendzki of Poland’s Foreign Ministry told Fox News Digital after the border visit.

"Not only Poland, but also all the countries of the eastern flank of NATO, we are in war," Olendzki said. "We cannot see it as a classical war with soldiers, with tanks and so on, but the war is exercised by our adversaries, by Belarus and Russia, who are using practically migrants as an asymmetric weapon against NATO countries."

WHITE HOUSE ROADMAP SAYS EUROPE MAY BE 'UNRECOGNIZABLE' IN 20 YEARS AS MIGRATION RAISES DOUBTS ABOUT US ALLIES

The crisis dates back to 2021, when Poland, Lithuania and Latvia accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s regime of encouraging migrants from the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere to travel to Belarus and cross illegally into the European Union. Belarus has denied orchestrating the flows, but Poland and the EU have described the campaign as hybrid warfare.

Olendzki said the goal is not only to push people across the border, but to create chaos inside Western societies.

The border visit underscored how far Poland has gone to harden what it views as one of NATO’s most vulnerable frontiers.

Capt. Angelika Korkosz of Poland’s 18th Division described the day-to-day strain on soldiers stationed there.

"Many times soldiers were faced with aggression from illegal groups of immigrants, and they have to act appropriately and calmly in accordance with the law and procedures while protecting themselves," Korkosz told Fox News Digital.

POLISH GOVERNMENT PLANS MANDATORY MILITARY TRAINING FOR ADULT MEN

Polish officials said migrants have used Molotov cocktails in at least two incidents, sparking fires near the border. Soldiers also spoke of a Polish serviceman who died after being stabbed by an illegal migrant at the frontier.

Korkosz said the challenge is not only violence, but exhaustion.

"A few months ago, we had minus-20-degree winters, so 12-hour duty during these conditions is really demanding," she said. "Many soldiers are here for a long time, and it is getting more and more difficult, this long separation from their relatives."

Still, she said the troops are prepared.

"The training includes decision-making under pressure in an ambiguous operational environment," Korkosz said. "That’s why when we are here at the border, we are really well-prepared for performing our duties."

Poland says the border defenses are working. Amb. Olendzki said the lower number of crossings this year reflects the physical barrier, the increased effectiveness of the Border Guard and the military presence. But he warned the threat has not disappeared, only shifted.

NATO WARNS RUSSIA AFTER POLAND SHOOTS DOWN 'HUGE NUMBER' OF DRONES THAT VIOLATED ITS AIRSPACE

"Seeing the fact that the Polish-Belarusian border is quite well guarded, our adversaries are just pushing migrants through the borders of our neighboring countries," he said. "So it hasn’t ended, but it’s changed the direction. The threat still exists, and we must be vigilant."

That matters to NATO because Poland’s border with Belarus is not only Warsaw's border. It is also the eastern edge of the European Union and NATO territory.

Belarus is Russia’s closest ally and allowed its territory to be used for Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Russia may be trying to pull Belarus deeper into the war and could use Belarusian territory to threaten Ukraine or even a NATO country.

That fear is central to Poland’s security posture.

During a meeting with reporters in Warsaw, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski told Fox News Digital Russia’s war against Ukraine is, for Poland, "a matter of national safety and existence."

But Sikorski said the threat to NATO countries is already wider than the battlefield in Ukraine.

"We had on NATO countries’ territories assassinations, numerous drone attacks on airports, on critical infrastructure," Sikorski said. "We had very serious cyberattacks."

Sikorski said Poland faced a Russian-instigated cyberattack last December on critical energy infrastructure that Warsaw believes was intended "to black out part of Poland."

The warning fits a broader pattern of concerns across NATO’s eastern flank. The Associated Press reported earlier this year that balloons from Belarus had crossed into Polish airspace for a third consecutive night, with Polish forces describing the incidents as attempts to test air defense responses.

For Poland, illegal migration, cyberattacks, drones, sabotage and disinformation are not separate problems. They are different pieces of one Russian and Belarusian pressure campaign against NATO.

Olendzki said Poland’s role is to stop the pressure before it moves deeper into Europe or beyond.

"Standing on guard on the eastern flank of NATO, we are providing security not only to Poland, to Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, but to entire NATO, also to the United States," he said.

That U.S. connection is a central part of Poland’s message to Washington: The eastern flank is not a distant European problem, but a front line in a broader confrontation with Russia and its allies.

Poland now spends nearly 5% of its GDP on defense, the highest rate in NATO, if based on GPD. Sikorski said Warsaw has long taken defense spending seriously.

"We never went below 2% defense spending," Sikorski said. "Now we are spending almost 5%. This is real military spending."

He said the eastern flank has become more influential inside NATO because countries closest to Russia were proven right.

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"The eastern flank is much more powerful than even five years ago," Sikorski said. "We were right about the nature of Putin’s regime and Russia’s aggressive strategy."

That view has shaped Poland’s approach to the United States. Warsaw wants American troops to remain in Europe, but Polish officials also acknowledge that Europe must assume more of the defense burden as U.S. attention increasingly shifts toward China and the Indo-Pacific.

Sikorski said Poland understands that "Europe ceased to be angle number one for U.S. foreign policy," but wants any change in America’s role to be "gradual and well-designed."

He added that Poland wants the shift in trans-Atlantic security to be "not a divorce, but a new kind of relationship."

For now, that relationship is being tested along a cold, wooded border where Poland says NATO’s future wars may already be taking shape.

The Polish soldiers patrolling the frontier do not describe their mission in grand geopolitical terms. Korkosz said she joined the military because she wanted to do "something which matters."

But to Polish officials, the mission at the Belarus border is much bigger than immigration enforcement.

It is a warning to the rest of NATO that the alliance’s next war may not begin with tanks crossing a border, but with migrants pushed through forests, cyberattacks on power grids, drones near airports and disinformation campaigns designed to fracture societies from within.

A perilous search for the bodies of four Italian divers missing deep inside a Maldivian cave was halted Saturday after a military diver died during the mission.

Mohamed Mahdi, a member of the Maldivian National Defense Force, died from decompression sickness during the dangerous mission, Maldives presidential spokesman Mohamed Hussain Shareef said.

A group of five Italian divers vanished Thursday during what investigators say was an unauthorized deep dive that far exceeded the Maldives’ recreational diving limit.

The victims included marine researchers and experienced divers, among them Monica Montefalcone, an ecology professor at the University of Genoa; her daughter, Giorgia Sommacal; marine biologist Federico Gualtieri; researcher Muriel Oddenino; and diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti, according to the Maldivian government.

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Gianluca Benedetti was found dead near the cave entrance shortly after the group disappeared. Authorities believe the bodies of the four remaining divers are trapped deep inside a cave system about 160 feet underwater near Vaavu Atoll.

The cause of the deaths remains under investigation.

Carlo Sommacal, Montefalcone’s husband and Giorgia’s father, expressed doubts over the accident, saying that "something must have happened down there" given his wife and daughter's extensive experience.

Speaking to Italian TV, he described Montefalcone as a careful and highly disciplined diver who would never put her daughter or other colleagues at risk.

Search crews say brutal underwater conditions, limited oxygen and the complexity of the cave system have made recovery efforts extremely dangerous.

"The death goes to show the difficulty of the mission," a government spokesman said after Mahdi’s death.

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The Italian Foreign Ministry said the cave system consists of three large chambers connected by narrow passages. Rescue teams explored two chambers Friday but were forced to stop because of decompression risks.

Officials are now awaiting the arrival of three Finnish cave-diving specialists to reassess the operation.

Albatros Top Boat, an Italian tour operator that managed the diving trip, denied authorizing the descent and said the divers appeared to be using standard recreational equipment instead of specialized gear required for technical cave diving, its lawyer told Italian daily Corriere della Sera on Saturday.

The Maldives Tourism Ministry has suspended the operating license of the expedition vessel involved in the trip as the investigation continues.

Experts warn cave diving is among the world’s most dangerous underwater activities, especially at extreme depths where visibility can disappear instantly and escape routes become limited.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.