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Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei claimed Oct. 8 that U.S. and Israeli strikes had failed to undermine Iran's domestic security forces, praising police personnel for resisting attacks launched in February under Operations Epic Fury and Roaring Lion.

Khamenei's remarks on X also came as the U.S. Army released a new battlefield identification guide to help American troops recognize members of Iran's conventional military, known as the Artesh, whose ground forces were estimated by the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security in June at 350,000 personnel.

"The criminal US-Zionist enemy's desperate efforts and malicious attacks on the pillars of social order and security, which are unparalleled throughout history, have not caused the courageous personnel of the Police Force to waver even a fraction in their mission," Khamenei wrote in a statement.

Khamenei specifically praised Iran's Law Enforcement Command, known as FARAJA, accusing the United States and Israel of targeting the institution responsible for maintaining domestic order.

"The focus and persistence of the criminal US-Zionist enemy in striking at the Police Force at its various levels, from its highest command levels down to those who are on the frontline, has only served to underscore the paramount importance of this institution more than ever," he wrote.

IRAN PROVES THAT IT MIGHT CHANGE ITS MILITARY LEADERS, BUT IT’S NOT CHANGING STRATEGY

Iran's security apparatus comprises three principal branches: the Artesh, responsible primarily for conventional territorial defense; the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), tasked with protecting the Islamic Republic and projecting military power; and FARAJA, responsible for domestic law enforcement and internal security.

IRAN’S GUTTED RANKS LEAVE LOYALISTS FILLING CRITICAL POSTS — WITH ONE GLARING PROBLEM

FARAJA, commanded by Brig. Gen. Ahmadreza Radan, is responsible for maintaining public order, enforcing the country's laws and responding to civil unrest.

According to Iran Human Rights Monitor, the force has evolved into a powerful internal security institution involved in suppressing anti-government demonstrations, monitoring political activity and enforcing the regime's ideological restrictions.

IRAN INSTALLS NEW WAR CHIEFS AS TEHRAN SIGNALS ‘PROLONGED CONFRONTATION,’ EXPERT WARNS

Radan has also been sanctioned by the United States for his role in human rights abuses.

The Treasury Department designated him in September 2010, citing his responsibility for beatings, killings and arbitrary arrests of protesters following Iran's disputed 2009 presidential election.

Khamenei also called for strengthening FARAJA on Oct. 8 through additional personnel, equipment and technology, including the use of artificial intelligence for data analysis.

AFTER 47 YEARS OF CONFRONTING IRAN, DOES AMERICA HAVE A STRATEGY FOR ENDING THIS WAR?

His remarks come as the U.S. Army's Training and Transformation Command published a "Know the Threat" recognition guide Sept. 24, highlighted by Defense News on Oct. 9.

The guide shows an Iranian special forces soldier and identifies weapons American troops could encounter, including AKM rifles, Iranian-made Masaf-2 rifles, German-designed G3 rifles, MG3 machine guns and RPG-7 rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

The Artesh, Iran's regular military, is separate from the IRGC and its affiliated Basij militia. Its forces operate across four branches: the Ground Forces, Navy, Air Force and Air Defense Force.

A June assessment by the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security estimated the Artesh's Ground Forces at approximately 350,000 personnel, including 220,000 conscripts.

The report found that the Artesh had suffered severe losses across its air, naval and air defense components during the opening phase of the U.S.-Israeli military campaign, while its ground forces remained structurally intact because there had been no ground invasion.

TRUMP OPENS HORMUZ UNDER FIRE WITH ‘PROJECT FREEDOM’ AS IRAN WARNS OF ATTACKS

The Artesh is commanded by Maj. Gen. Amir Hatami, a former Iranian defense minister who assumed command in June 2025.

Aside from Khamenei, Hatami issued his own warning Oct. 6, claiming Iran's adversaries faced "historic confusion" after failing to halt military production during the conflict.

Hatami also claimed that Iranian defense production continued despite American and Israeli attacks, saying the country's military production lines had continued operating during the conflict.

The extent of Iran's military recovery remains unclear. The Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security assessed in June that the country's conventional air, naval and air defense forces had suffered severe damage during the conflict.

President Donald Trump, meanwhile, said Oct. 8 that Washington would not resume military strikes against Iran before the Nov. 3 midterm elections, citing "productive discussions" between the two countries.

More than two decades after being elected to what was supposed to be a four-year term, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has once again postponed elections, extending a nearly 20-year wait for voters to choose a new legislature.

Abbas issued a decree Friday pushing Palestinian Legislative Council elections from next month to Sept. 11, 2027, according to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA. Presidential elections, which have not been held since Abbas' 2005 victory, are also scheduled for that date.

The delay allows Palestinian leaders to remain in power without facing voters and could further damage the credibility of the Palestinian Authority, which has faced criticism over corruption and its security cooperation with Israel.

NICARAGUA'S ORTEGA SAYS COUNTRY WILL 'NEVER AGAIN' HOLD ELECTIONS, SHUTTING OUT OPPOSITION

The Palestinian Authority, dominated by Abbas' Fatah party, governs parts of the West Bank under agreements reached in the 1990s.

Palestinian officials cited conditions in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem as reasons for postponing the vote. The Palestine Liberation Organization's Executive Committee, which Abbas heads, claimed Israel had blocked election materials and international observers from entering Gaza, according to The Associated Press.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar rejected the claim, accusing Abbas of trying to shift blame for the delay.

Abbas' "attempt to drag Israel into this, falsely claiming that Israel imposed obstacles to holding elections, is yet another ridiculous lie designed to evade responsibility and accountability," Saar wrote on X.

Hamas, meanwhile, welcomed the postponement, calling it "a step in the right direction" and urging further talks on rebuilding Palestinian institutions before holding elections.

Palestinians last held legislative elections in 2006, when Hamas won a majority of seats. Israel and Western countries subsequently boycotted the Hamas-led government, fueling unrest that ended with Hamas taking control of Gaza in 2007.

IRAN REAFFIRMS SUPPORT FOR HAMAS AS TRUMP PUSHES TO DISARM TERROR GROUP

Since then, Hamas has controlled Gaza while Abbas' Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority has governed parts of the West Bank.

The postponed election also threatened to bring new challenges to Abbas' leadership. Before the delay, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and a faction led by Mohammed Dahlan, a former Fatah security chief who fell out with Abbas, had been discussing an unlikely political alliance.

"Abbas is terrified by the electoral alliance bringing our faction together with opposition factions and forces within Fatah that reject his leadership," Dimitri Dilliani, a spokesperson for Dahlan's faction, said in a statement.

The decision comes as the Palestinian Authority's future role in Gaza remains uncertain under a U.S.-brokered ceasefire plan reached last year.

The plan calls for the authority to eventually play a role in Gaza, but its immediate responsibilities remain unclear. Hamas continues to govern the territory, while a committee of Palestinian technocrats remains in Cairo awaiting permission to enter Gaza and oversee a transition of power.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Pope Leo XIV announced Sunday that he will undergo surgery to remove a small nodule from his lung, revealing the unexpected health concern to thousands of faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square following his traditional Angelus prayer.

The 71-year-old pontiff said doctors discovered the nodule at a "very early stage" and recommended its removal. The surgery is scheduled for the coming days, with the pope expected to remain hospitalized for approximately one week, according to Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni.

"Doctors found a small lump in the lung," Leo said after the Angelus address. "It was identified at a very early stage and well situated."

POPE LEO VISITS SITE OF MIRACLE CURES, MEETS PEOPLE WHOSE UNEXPLAINED HEALINGS STUNNED DOCTORS

"The doctors consider it appropriate to intervene and so, following their advice, I decided to have surgery to remove it," he continued. "The surgery is already scheduled for the next few days. I thank you for your spiritual closeness and I rely on your prayer."

The surgery is likely to take place within a few days at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome, which is known as the "Pope's" hospital, Vatican sources told Fox News.

The Vatican has not disclosed whether the nodule is cancerous, and no further details about the pope's diagnosis or the planned procedure were immediately available.

The announcement comes as a surprise for the American-born pontiff, who has no previously known health problems and is known for maintaining an active lifestyle.

Leo regularly plays tennis and swims at the papal summer retreat in Castel Gandolfo, according to The Associated Press.

POPE LEO CALLS OUT ‘FALSE COMPASSION’ OF MEDICALLY ASSISTED SUICIDE DURING FRENCH HOSPITAL VISIT

The pope is also scheduled to embark on a major international trip from Nov. 6–17, with planned stops in Uruguay, Argentina and Peru. It remains unclear whether his surgery and recovery will affect those travel plans.

In addition to addressing his health, Leo used his Sunday remarks to renew his appeal for peace in war-torn Ukraine, warning that the conflict continues to inflict suffering far beyond the country's borders.

"The war in the martyred Ukraine continues to create suffering, even beyond its borders, especially in the poorest countries, where many people depend on the exports of cereals and grains," the pope said.

Leo called on those involved in the conflict to ensure the safe passage of Ukrainian grain shipments through the Black Sea, emphasizing the consequences for vulnerable populations around the world.

"I send a strong appeal for all those involved that they can guarantee the safe transport of grains in the Black Sea," he said. "The daily life of many people cannot be hostage to war."

Fox News’ Courtney Walsh contributed to this report.

In what it called a "Schools Decree," the Italian government announced last month that no student may cover their face in class, no classroom may exceed 30% foreign-born pupils and parents who skip mandatory Italian lessons could face fines of up to $1,120.

The decree, which takes effect next summer, is framed as a push for "integration," but it raises the question of whether a Western democracy can force assimilation, or is it already too late?

Nile Gardiner, director of The Heritage Foundation's Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom said that it is "The single biggest issue of our time in Europe: Mass migration and Islamification." And had an ominous warning, "What you’re seeing in London and other European cities can easily happen in the U.S… These cultural shifts will all come to America, unless American leaders are willing to fight back."

Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni defended the decree on X, calling the new rules "Tools of common sense that do not divide, but truly help to integrate, avoiding ghetto classes and giving all students the same opportunities. This is the direction we want to continue to follow: a school that integrates without giving up on rules, that supports those who have more difficulties and that puts everyone in a position to start from the same point."

PORTUGAL ENACTS 'BURQA LAW' LARGELY PROHIBITING FACE COVERINGS IN PUBLIC

Experts say the decree’s principles are not extreme. "Learning the national language and participating in your child’s education are reasonable expectations," said Simone Rodan‑Benzaquen, Senior Envoy to Europe at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

"Requiring students to keep their faces visible in an environment built around communication and interpersonal contact is also entirely reasonable." The question, she told Fox News Digital, is whether such measures actually improve integration or simply target the most visible symptoms while ignoring the deeper forces that discourage participation in wider society.

Italy is not alone. Governments across Europe of every political stripe are tightening integration rules. They range from the "ghetto laws" of Denmark’s center-left government, to France restricting religious symbols in schools, to Germany requiring language and civic courses, to the Netherlands testing newcomers before they even arrive.

Swedish Political scientist Daniel Schatz says, "The real divide is increasingly not between left and right, but between those who believe a state may set firm conditions for membership in a national community, and those who fear those conditions can become discriminatory or exclusionary. It is about whether integration is a voluntary offer or a civic obligation. That question cuts across traditional party lines."

MASS MIGRATION ERODING WESTERN SOVEREIGNTY, IMMIGRATION EXPERT WARNS

University of California Irvine political science professor Sara Wallace Goodman calls Denmark "an interesting case where you've seen broad consensus on the immigration issue." She says that due to Denmark’s "very generous welfare state" that "applies to their citizens," the government has been forced to make it "very difficult for outsiders to establish themselves and really to gain access to those similar entitlements."

Goodman, who also works with the European University Institute’s Global Citizenship Observatory, says Denmark’s center-left government "can get traction by looking tough on immigration," which can "really defang the competitors that will come at you from the right."

Underneath these policies lies a shared fear: the emergence of "parallel societies" - neighborhoods, schools and social environments where newcomers live largely separate lives. Governments worry that linguistic isolation, concentrated poverty and strong communal pressures can create self‑contained worlds that operate alongside, rather than within, the national civic space.

Goodman points to a U.K. report in the mid-2000s from Trevor Phillips, then the head of the Commission for Racial Equality under Prime Minister Tony Blair, in which he wrote about "parallel societies" that "were living separate lives." Phillips said the "avowedly multicultural" Britain was "sleepwalking into segregation." Goodman says integration policies try to "break up these non-integrated communities by fiat, but the flip side is that such a blunt instrument… can be restrictive and oppressive and destabilizing."

FRENCH SCHOOL RIOTS DEEPEN AS EXPERTS POINT TO FAR-LEFT ALLIANCE FUELING ‘BROADER CONFRONTATION’

The parallel society Phillips warned about may already be taking hold. A video distributed on TikTok shows shoppers at an Asian market in London waiting in a line mostly separated by gender. Nile Gardiner called the video disturbing. "I think it’s an illustration of the advancing Islamification of the United Kingdom, which has been accelerated in the last decade, and I think it poses a threat to the future of the U.K.

"What we’re seeing is the imposition of the Islamic culture in Britain, which is the heart of Western civilization," Gardiner told Fox News Digital. He points directly at the "red-green alliance," noting that "France is in a state of anarchy and a lot of the violence is driven by Islamists in conjunction with the far-left. We are seeing a growing alignment between the greens, the socialists and the Islamists. They’re increasingly working together. This is the case in multiple European cities, from Berlin to London to Vienna to The Hague."

Schatz said that the politics of migration are driven less by numbers than by visibility. "A country can have falling asylum numbers and still experience an intensifying migration debate if voters believe integration has failed," he said. "Essentially, the issue is not whether Europe should have immigration. It is whether Europe still has the confidence to expect newcomers to join the society they entered."

EUROPE’S LEFT COURTS MUSLIM VOTERS AS ANTI-ISRAEL POLITICS RESHAPE CONTINENT

But Rodan‑Benzaquen warned that coercive measures only reach the surface of the problem. She said governments "cannot demand attachment to common institutions while those institutions fail children or block advancement, or Islamist propaganda that encourages people to reject those institutions. Nor can public authorities negotiate away basic principles whenever an organized group challenges them."

She added, "Governments often concentrate on the most visible manifestations of a problem while paying insufficient attention to what produces it... Where there are organized efforts to discourage participation in wider society, we need to examine the people, institutions and financing behind those efforts. Regulating clothing will not, by itself, address them."

Since 2004, France has restricted conspicuous religious symbols in public schools, including Muslim headscarves, Jewish skullcaps and conspicuous Christian crosses. Rodan-Benzaquen says "the principle is that children should be able to develop their own judgment and freedom of conscience in a shared educational space," and it is part of France’s assimilation model.

SPAIN'S MIGRANT SURGE REIGNITES DEBATE OVER EUROPE’S ISLAMIST TERROR THREAT

She said the "central promise" of the French model "remains worth defending… you can become fully French whatever your origins. Although," she adds, "sustaining it is becoming more difficult."

Rodan-Benzaquen continued, "There has to be something clearly understood to integrate into," adding, "a language, a political community, a history and freedoms and responsibilities that people are expected to share. A society embarrassed to transmit these will struggle to ask newcomers to embrace them."

Goodman said, "Europe is in a really unique situation where it has accepted immigration, but it hasn't accepted the long-term consequences of immigration. Societies over time adapt and start to see themselves as immigrant receiving countries and as multicultural, and a lot of societies in Europe have resisted this transformation." She said that the "society that birthed the Enlightenment and the ideas of liberalism and pluralism" must evaluate itself "and say there's a boundary on this."

Schatz said that any successful integration model in Europe "will not be one that is simply ‘tough’ or simply ‘welcoming.'… A state that cannot enforce its borders or its basic civic rules eventually loses the public confidence needed for a generous and sustainable integration policy."

As Israel prepared to assassinate Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in September 2024, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his senior defense officials disagreed over whether to notify the Biden administration ahead of the operation, fearing Washington could try to stop the mission, according to Wall Street Journal editorial writer Elliot Kaufman and a second source familiar with the deliberations.

"140%, they won't approve of the mission," Netanyahu told senior Israeli defense officials, according to Kaufman, co-author of "In the War Room: The Inside Story of Israel's Fight Against Hamas and the Iranian Axis," who recounted the exchange in an interview with Fox News Digital.

Then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi favored informing Washington, believing the Americans might support a strike against a Hezbollah leader linked to the deaths of U.S. service members, according to Kaufman. Netanyahu, however, warned that then-U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan would "jump out of his skin" if he learned of the plans.

The disagreement reflected a widening divide between Jerusalem and Washington over Israel's military campaign against Iran's regional proxies, as the Biden administration sought to prevent the fighting from escalating into a broader regional war.

'BIBI'S HAIR ON FIRE': TRUMP-NETANYAHU PUBLIC 'RIFT' MASKED UNIFIED FRONT AGAINST IRAN, ANALYST SAYS

When Israeli jets struck Hezbollah's headquarters in Beirut on September 27, 2024, the Pentagon said it had received no advance warning. Gallant spoke with then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin while the operation was already underway.

The strike killed Nasrallah, who had led the Iranian-backed terrorist organization for more than three decades, marking a major turning point in Israel's campaign against Hezbollah, which opened a second front against Israel on October 8, 2023, a day after Hamas' deadly attack in southern Israel, and had since launched repeated rocket and missile attacks on northern Israeli communities.

Kaufman argued that Israel had spent nearly a year waiting for American diplomacy to end Hezbollah's attacks on its northern communities, without success.

"From Israel's point of view, it had been sitting and waiting for 10, 11 months while Hezbollah had been pounding the north of Israel with rockets and with anti-tank missiles, waiting for American diplomacy to succeed," he said. "It didn't work. Something had to change on the northern front."

Kaufman said the confrontation exposed a fundamental difference in how the two governments approached the war.

"The United States may not have been in Israel's war room, but it could never be denied a seat at the table when it asked," he said.

"What I was told from the Israeli prime minister's office is ‘America's goal is to de-escalate the war. Our goal is to win the war,' and we saw that clash at every point, especially during the Biden administration."

VP JD VANCE ADDRESSES US-ISRAEL RELATIONSHIP, WHETHER IRAN IS TRYING TO 'PLAY' THE UNITED STATES

The book, written by Kaufman and Jerusalem Post senior military analyst Yonah Jeremy Bob, also describes how Netanyahu initially resisted launching a full-scale ground invasion of Gaza following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre, only to emerge later as one of the strongest advocates for continuing the war.

"Prime Minister Netanyahu had just seen the IDF, Israel's military, fail miserably on Oct. 7, and Israel's intelligence services fail miserably on October 7," Kaufman told Fox News Digital.

Senior American generals dispatched by President Biden also warned Israeli leaders that a ground invasion could end in military defeat, even in Gaza City, according to Kaufman.

Netanyahu eventually approved the ground operation on Oct. 27, 2023, after weeks of internal debate.

"Over time, he would gain confidence in the IDF, regain confidence in the military, in Israel's intelligence services, and end up outlasting, exhausting, or simply firing all of his war room rivals," Kaufman said.

Kaufman was more critical when asked about Netanyahu's accountability for Oct. 7.

"I have spoken to Prime Minister Netanyahu several times in person, even more on the phone. I had a three hour conversation with him extending well past midnight in Israel," Kaufman said. "I have not heard him take responsibility for what happened on October 7th."

Instead, Kaufman said, Netanyahu consistently points to the failure of senior military officials to alert him before the Hamas assault began. "What he says is, 6:29. They didn't wake me up until 6:29 in the morning on the day of October 7th," Kaufman recounted.

Those remarks came as a new controversy erupted in Israel over the official record of Netanyahu's actions on the morning of the attack.

In a lengthy interview broadcast Thursday by Israel's Channel 12, retired Maj. Gen. Avi Gil, who served as Netanyahu's military secretary at the time, said that the prime minister's chief of staff, Tzachi Braverman, attempted to alter the official record of a telephone call between Gil and Netanyahu.

EXPERTS URGE EXTREME CAUTION ON IRAN'S 'CROWN JEWEL' HEZBOLLAH — TERROR GROUP WITH US BLOOD ON ITS HANDS

Gil said a stenographer told him she had been instructed to change the recorded time of their first secure telephone conversation from 6:40 a.m. to 6:29 a.m. Gil said he had raised concerns about irregular recordkeeping with the attorney general's office in real time. Braverman has acknowledged seeking to change the recorded time but denied wrongdoing.

Gil also challenged the completeness of Netanyahu's public account of the events preceding the massacre, saying there were significant gaps between what occurred and what had been presented to the Israeli public and in his written statements.

The Likud party dismissed the alleged attempt to falsify the record, saying "the matter had been investigated by police two years earlier and that police had recommended closing the case because it lacked substance." However, prosecutors have not announced a decision to close the case.

Gil also said that opportunities to secure hostage agreements earlier in the war had been lost because of political considerations.

Asked by Channel 12 whether some hostages who died in captivity could have been brought home alive, Gil replied, "We could have."

He indicated that opposition to ceasefires and hostage deals from far-right ministers in Netanyahu's coalition influenced the prime minister's decisions.

While acknowledging that senior Israeli military officials believed Netanyahu was prolonging the war for political reasons, Kaufman challenged the argument that political survival was his sole motivation, pointing to Israel's subsequent campaigns against Hezbollah and Iran. "There were real strategic interests to be pursued," he said.

"Almost all of the real achievements of this war came later in the war," he said, arguing that the subsequent weakening of Hezbollah, the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria and the attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities complicated claims that continued fighting served only Netanyahu's political interests.

IDF ANNOUNCES ELIMINATION OF HEZBOLLAH COMMANDER BEHIND MURDER OF 5 AMERICAN SOLDIERS

The book also examines how Israel's early military successes against Iran helped persuade President Donald Trump to authorize U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities during the 12-day war in June 2025.

Kaufman described how a Trump administration official showed him a map of Israeli airstrikes that had opened a route toward Fordow, Iran's heavily fortified underground nuclear facility.

According to Kaufman, Israeli military chief Eyal Zamir subsequently made the case directly to Vice President JD Vance that American forces had an extraordinary opportunity to strike.

"You have a straight shot to Iran's nuclear sites. You will never have a better opportunity than this," Kaufman said, recounting Zamir's message to Vance.

Kaufman said the Israeli military chief told Vance that Israeli aircraft were already operating over the area, but that the U.S. possessed the heavy bunker-busting bombs necessary for the Fordow mission.

He credited the vice president with helping secure Trump's final authorization for Operation Midnight Hammer.

"Vice President Vance played a critical role in ultimately securing American participation in the highly successful 12-day war," Kaufman said.

The account challenges the notion that Trump was reluctantly drawn into the conflict by Netanyahu, Kaufman argued, portraying the president instead as responding to an opportunity created by Israel's demonstrated military capabilities.

Jake Sullivan's response was not received by the deadline.

JERUSALEM — The growing number of Israeli army battlefield life-saving measures have emerged during the Iranian regime-backed multi-front war against the Jewish state that those new technologies are helping the U.S. too.

Fox News Digital was briefed on the most current insights and data on Israel’s success rate in saving soldiers’ lives from a senior Israel Defense Forces (IDF) medical specialist in battlefield medicine.

The grueling Israeli ground offensive against the U.S.-designated terrorist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which started in Oct. 2023, following the Jihadi organization’s invasion of Israel on Oct. 7, introduced cutting-edge medical tactics to the battlefield.

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Hamas brutally murdered over 1,200 people in southern Israel, including more than forty Americans, and kidnapped 251 people.

An IDF spokesman laid out the new advances: "The IDF Medical Corps adapted its operational capabilities during the war, including casualty evacuation, innovative medical technologies and providing treatment under fire in a challenging terrain. "

The IDF medical specialist told Fox News Digital that during "the Second War in Lebanon [in 2006 against the Lebanese-based terrorist group Hezbollah] it took 15 to 20 minutes for advanced life support to reach a casualty. Now advanced life support can reach a casualty immediately or within 4 minutes."

The placement of "medical personnel on the battlefield, including a doctor in every company, allows the IDF to make critical decisions early on during the care process," said the IDF medical specialist. The use of helicopters to deliver seriously wounded soldiers to medical facilities, as seen in video footage provided to Fox News Digital, plays a critical role in preventing death.

The second advance is, according to the IDF medical specialist, "rapid evacuation," which means "We can evacuate casualties to Israeli hospitals rapidly."

5 OF AMERICA'S GREATEST MEDICAL BREAKTHROUGHS REVEALED AS THE NATION MARKS 250 YEARS

There has been "an emphasis on the use of blood products since 2013 on stopping bleeding," said the IDF medical specialist. He added that the IDF is the first medical organization that "used plasma on the point of injury instead of salt and water."

He noted the IDF implemented a sophisticated rapid-fire system for providing blood to injured soldiers. A telling example: Blood was placed on the back of first responders in coolers to stop bleeding and control the hemorrhaging. The method "saved significant numbers" of injured soldiers.

An additional improvement in lifesaving first response medicine in the war zone involves an "advanced system of learning and the collection of data that transmits the data over technical networks so that every provider can see patient data."

The IDF specialist said that "Every relevant medical officer on the chain can see the patient data. This system had very good results."

The case mortality rate is the best index for quantifying care, said the IDF medical specialist. The results have been dramatic. According to IDF data, the mortality rate during the 2006 war against Hezbollah was 15% in contrast to 7.1% during 2023. 

The IDF medical specialist said Israel’s military medicine apparatus has relied on the bedrock 2012 U.S. study "Death on the battlefield (2001–2011): Implications for the future of combat casualty care," which covered American medical aid during the war in Iraq.

Dr. Marc Siegel, senior medical analyst for Fox News, is also a clinical professor of medicine and a practicing internist at NYU Langone Medical Center, told Fox News Digital, "Battle field advances based on the latest technologies that have been developed in Israel, including surgical techniques as well as the latest burn treatment Nexobrid help not just today’s wounded but fuel medical and surgical advances around the world."  

Siegel's latest book "The Angels Among Us: How God's Messengers Play a Role in Healing," features a chapter involving a medical rescue during the Gaza war.

The U.S. Army and the IDF have been cooperating in how to advance battlefield medicine for years.

MICHIGAN MILITARY EXERCISE PREPARING THOUSANDS OF TROOPS FOR CHANGING BATTLEFIELD

According to an April 2026 U.S. military report titled "Israeli Defense Force Medical Lessons Learned," the American military authors explained in the 78-page study the pressing need to absorb Israel’s advances from the start of the Swords of Iron War campaign in 2023.

The U.S. Army wrote, "In the fields of operational health and force readiness, the IDF executed proactive public health measures – including robust bio-surveillance, forward-positioned preventive medicine teams and stringent food safety protocols – to mitigate health threats and maintain operational readiness."

The American army warned that "Despite Israel’s preparations, it had to undergo a painful process of transformation in contact that the U.S. now has the opportunity to avoid. The time for preparation is now. Simply possessing clinical and tactical skills is insufficient."

An IDF spokesman told Fox News Digital that the U.S. Army study of Israel's emergency health care providers during the wars" was a joint collaboration, and American officers came to learn from the IDF."

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As demonstrators, including the headline-grabbing CodePink agitators, descend on the nation's capital late Saturday afternoon for a "coordinated global day of action" against Israel, they will join a worldwide wave of marches and planned disruptions that may appear to be unfolding independently.

In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Friday, anti-Israel demonstrators carried signs deploying emotionally charged language against Israel, including one featuring a Palestinian flag and a bloodied hand with the message, "STOP GENOCIDE." Nearby, two women carrying mock machine guns flanked a cardboard image of a handcuffed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a noose around his neck.

But a Fox News Digital investigation has found that, long before the first demonstrators gathered, the messages for the protest's "communications framing" and transnational action plan had already been written, the banners designed, the tactics circulated and the media strategy laid out to "turn public outrage into collective leverage."

The campaign documents reveal that coalition organizers instructed participating groups to direct protesters to "shut down city squares," "encircle government buildings" and "blockade complicit corporate hubs."

The document declares, "This is not a symbolic march and not a routine protest."

Fox News Digital identified 179 organizations in the coalition, while an interactive Google Map published by the network lists 322 events scheduled across three days through Sunday. They include a rally on an "Intifada Trail" in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, a protest in Bangladesh by the "Bangladesh Intifada Youth Collection" and actions in South Africa by "Social Intifada." All three use "intifada," a term associated with Palestinian uprisings against Israel, including periods marked by deadly terrorist attacks. Activists describe the term as a call for resistance.

The global coordination illustrates how contemporary protest movements combine international leadership, local activist networks, standardized visual branding, emotionally charged messaging and traditional news outreach into a single mobilization infrastructure in which professional political organizing amplifies the sincerely held convictions of individual demonstrators.

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Among the participating organizations is CodePink, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that has received $1.33 million from Neville Roy Singham, a Shanghai-based tech tycoon who has funneled $278 million into a network of nonprofits under scrutiny by the House Ways and Means Committee and its chairman, Rep. Jason Smith, over allegations that some operate as "Trojan horses" and proxies for the Chinese Communist Party and other malign foreign interests. CodePink and other organizations under scrutiny have denied wrongdoing.

Two days ago, CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin and D.C. coordinator Olivia DiNucci dispatched a letter to members, directing them to join the "Feminist Contingent" at the Library of Congress for the "global day of action."

"And don't forget to WEAR PINK!" they noted.

The network's connections were also visible last week, when CodePink co-founder Jodie Evans, who married Singham in 2017, joined an anti-Israel protest in New York City, marching behind a band of activists from Revolutionary Communists of America as they chanted, "Long live the intifada."

Evans told Fox News Digital Singham supports CodePink's efforts and the "amazing work" nonprofits are doing to "stand up when violent things are happening."

Taken together, the documents reveal a coordinated protest and influence campaign spanning continents, combining accusations of Israeli "genocide," attacks on the news media, workplace and university walkouts, blockades, political lobbying and carefully orchestrated publicity.

A review of the planning documents for the global protests reveals the machinery behind the wave of anti-Israel demonstrations across continents as not only a protest campaign but a psychological operation: a common playbook combining strategic accusations of Israeli "genocide," attacks on the news media, workplace and university walkouts, blockades, political lobbying and coordinated publicity.

At the center of the international mobilization are three organizations identified in the campaign documents: the "Global Alliance for the Palestinian territories," launched in July 2025 in London as a "truly international popular front for Palestinian liberation"; the "Anti-Apartheid Movement for Palestine"; and the "Global Coalition to End the Occupation of Palestine."

An online directory displays 179 organizational logos from participating groups worldwide. Fox News Digital extracted the names from the logos and built a database of the coalition.

The same pattern of coordinated organizing has emerged in another international protest movement: the so-called "student protests" rolling through France.

A separate Fox News Digital investigation identified a network of 50 organizations coordinating and amplifying those demonstrations. Only 15 were classified as youth- or student-led groups, while the remaining 35 included communist organizations, labor groups, political organizations and professional protest coordinators.

Organizers supplied participating groups with campaign materials, coordination and strategic support to "turn public outrage into collective leverage."

In an August "Launch Statement," the alliance laid out a strategy to synchronize student demonstrations, workplace actions, rallies and civil disobedience across Asia, the Americas, Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

The stated objective wasn't simply to organize demonstrations, but to add Israel's war in Gaza to the international media agenda, turning separate protests into a coordinated communications effort intended to shape what audiences around the world see, hear and think about the conflict.

But the most revealing aspect of the operation may be its stated objective: shaping what the world sees, hears and thinks about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In a "Launch Statement" in August, the alliance declared that the demonstrations are intended to return Israel's military campaign against Palestinians to the international media agenda.

The campaign materials describe a strategy of synchronizing protests across continents, connecting student demonstrations, workplace actions, rallies and civil disobedience from Asia to the Americas, Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

The result is a coordinated communications campaign designed to transform demonstrations organized by separate groups into the political impact of a single international mobilization.

ISRAEL, JEWS TARGETED WORLDWIDE AS WELL-FUNDED LEFTIST, ISLAMIST GROUPS JOIN FOR ‘NAKBA 78’ PROTESTS

Weeks before the demonstrations, the alliance had already prepared a collection of campaign posters in seven languages – English, Arabic, Turkish, Finnish, French, Portuguese and Spanish. They supplied graphics for a large street banner carrying carefully selected slogans, along with protest-sign designs from folders marked "HANDHELD PLACARDS" and "STREET DEMANDS."

One of the downloadable images is a poster with the message "GAZA GENOCIDE" next to graphics of barbed wire and watermelon, both symbols of Palestinian "resistance" against Israel.

In Malaysia, a woman wearing a black-and-white Palestinian keffiyeh raised her fist while holding a printed version of the watermelon-and-barbed-wire placard], with the organizers' branding in smaller letters on her sign: "GLOBAL ALLIANCE FOR PALESTINE."

Behind her, other women carried the same sign and other signs featuring additional graphics from the same campaign materials.

Other placards held by protesters in Malaysia yesterday, read, "HUMANITY IS NOT A CRIME" and "STOP THE GENOCIDE WAR!"

Another downloadable sign, carried in Malaysia, reads: "LET GAZA LIVE!"

The campaign's "Communications Framing" employs familiar techniques of political persuasion: repetition, emotional imagery, collective identity, moral urgency and the portrayal of inaction as complicity.

The materials offer a window into the battle for public attention that increasingly accompanies international conflicts.

One poster declares, "You cannot erase a homeland."

Another commands, "End the genocide. Defend the land."

A third combines an image of a child with the message, "Defend the land. Protect its children."

Another repeats the words "Silence normalises" across the background before presenting the word "genocide" in oversized red lettering.

But the campaign's internal messaging guidance goes further, prescribing accusations against Israel and the news media in a section called "Slogans & Hashtags," with "Call to Action & Core Street Demands."

Among its recommended slogans is the blunt declaration: "Israel Kills. The Media Justifies."

Another declares, "1,100 Days of Israeli Genocide — The Killing Continues."

Yet another calls for action under the message, "1,100 Days — From Every Street, One Demand: End Genocide, End Occupation."

Together, the slogans strategically combine accusations of "genocide" with demands for political action, while claiming the media "justifies" Israel's conduct.

In its "Concept Paper," the alliance describes Israel's actions as a "war of extermination" and calls for countries to stop providing weapons to the Israeli state.

The same document instructs participating organizations in its "Communications Framing" to use language that is "disciplined, credible, urgent and impossible to ignore."

It also directs organizers to portray "institutional silence" as part of the problem and public mobilization as necessary to confront what the alliance calls continuing complicity.

The objective isn't simply to communicate a political position, but to encourage audiences to emotionally identify with a movement and participate in its activities.

The campaign presents its allegations of "genocide" and other violations of international law as established claims.

On Friday, South African human rights lawyer Navi Pillay received the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize for her work, which included arguing that Israel has committed a "genocide" against Palestinians. Israel disputes the "genocide" accusation.

ANTI-ISRAEL GROUPS RALLY ACROSS US ON OCTOBER 7 ANNIVERSARY, CHANTING 'LONG LIVE THE INTIFADA'

The organizing documents go beyond encouraging supporters to attend demonstrations.

Instead, organizers describe a campaign intended to "interrupt business-as-usual" and organize "high-visibility rallies, marches, picket lines, sit-ins and peaceful blockades" at "civic sites, government offices, financial hubs and corporate locations" that its organizers have "identified as complicit in sustaining or normalising Israeli violence."

They also recommend synchronized "workplace, campus and creative interruptions," including "silent walkouts," banner drops, nighttime projections, street theater, "die-ins" and "other highly visible public actions that interrupt normal routines and make the political demand impossible to ignore."

A detailed logistical plan urges organizations to "allocate funds," arrange transportation and establish "legal, stewarding, and participant support."

ISRAELI PM NETANYAHU ARGUES PUBLIC OPINION SHIFT ON ISRAEL 'CORRELATES ALMOST 100%' TO SOCIAL MEDIA

The organizing documents go beyond encouraging supporters to attend demonstrations.

The campaign's organizational structure brings together prominent political figures with longstanding backgrounds in international politics and anti-Israel activism in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

A press release for the protests identifies seven members of the international steering committee, including: former British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who joined a coalition supporting the Communist Party of Cuba; pro-communist former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis; former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams; Palestinian political leader Mustafa Barghouti; former South African government minister Ronnie Kasrils; Indian activist Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla; and Italian politician Angelo Bonelli.

Anas Altikriti serves as secretary-general.

Jessica Breakey, the campaign's public relations officer, didn't respond to a request for comment.

Beyond the streets, the alliance's strategy documents lay out a plan to convert the demonstrations' visibility into "sustained political pressure" on lawmakers and government institutions.

In a separate advocacy document, organizers urge participating groups to mobilize protesters to write lawmakers, submit coordinated institutional letters and arrange meetings with elected representatives.

The campaign calls for "immediate, total arms embargoes" and "comprehensive state sanctions" against Israel for alleged violations of international law.

It also urges governments to suspend preferential trade agreements and institutional partnerships associated with Israeli policies.

The alliance demands an end to what it calls Israel's "genocide and occupation," without specifying whether its reference to occupation encompasses Gaza, the West Bank or the entire State of Israel. The distinction takes on particular significance amid chants of "from the river to the sea" at anti-Israel demonstrations.

Organizers encourage participating groups to use "targeted, template-driven letters" and "digital briefing toolkits" to support "localised political campaigning," adapting them to their national political systems.

The documents provide direct instructions that participating organizations issue local press releases, distribute "ready-made social-media toolkits," share "graphics across digital channels" and hold briefing sessions to "ensure clear, aligned messaging ahead of the weekend."

Student protests over crumbling schools despite billions in public spending are fueling a broader crisis in France, as experts warn that the country's mounting financial troubles, President Emmanuel Macron's weakened political center and radical movements are pushing the unrest far beyond its original educational grievances.

Simone Rodan-Benzaquen, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies' senior envoy for Europe, told Fox News Digital in an interview from Paris that what began in September with legitimate complaints about school conditions has increasingly been exploited by political forces seeking confrontation with the state.

"Overall I'd say the anger is real but the violence I would say is organized," she said, adding that destroying schools would do nothing to improve the education system.

FRANCE EXPLODES AGAIN AS STUDENTS RIOT OVER EDUCATION

Seventy-two percent of education expenditure went toward salaries, social contributions and pensions for teaching and non-teaching personnel, while just 8.5% went toward investment, including infrastructure and equipment. The figures cover the entire education system, not just high schools, according to France's Education Ministry's 2026 statistical overview.

Harvey Feigenbaum, a professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University and an expert on French politics, told Fox News Digital that France's underlying problem is a government caught between expensive social commitments, sluggish economic growth and mounting pressure to cut spending.

"France is in deep debt. It wants to cut its expenses," Feigenbaum said, explaining that years of financial pressure and neglected school facilities have fueled frustration among students.

The scale of the financial predicament is striking. According to Eurostat, French public debt stood at 117.6% of GDP in the first quarter of 2026, the third-highest ratio in the European Union, behind Greece and Italy.

Reuters reported October 8 that rising borrowing costs and investor concerns have severely limited the government's ability to resolve unrest through additional spending, a strategy employed during previous waves of French protests.

The financial squeeze has collided with an increasingly fragmented political system, creating opportunities for parties at both ends of the political spectrum to capitalize on public dissatisfaction.

FRENCH SCHOOL RIOTS DEEPEN AS EXPERTS POINT TO FAR-LEFT ALLIANCE FUELING ‘BROADER CONFRONTATION’

For Feigenbaum, the long-term roots of the crisis lie in Macron's political legacy.

When Macron won the presidency in 2017, he promised to move beyond France's traditional left-right divide, combining policies from both sides into a new centrist political movement.

But Feigenbaum argues that the strategy produced an unintended consequence: weakening France's established moderate parties without creating a durable governing coalition to replace them.

"What he ended up doing was attracting the moderate voters from the parties of the moderate left and the parties from the moderate right, and essentially destroyed those parties," Feigenbaum said.

He argued that the collapse of the traditional political center helped create space for more ideologically polarized movements. "Macron is a smart man, but he's a terrible politician," the professor added.

Macron's controversial pension reforms illustrate the difficulty of persuading French voters to accept reductions in longstanding public benefits, Feigenbaum argued. Those efforts triggered widespread protests, while implementation of the 2023 retirement changes has since been suspended until 2028.

The situation became especially difficult after Macron called snap parliamentary elections in 2024, producing a deeply divided National Assembly without a governing majority.

"Even if the government wanted to do something coherent, they simply don't have the votes to do it," Feigenbaum said.

That paralysis has left Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu handling the immediate unrest while Macron faces questions about the stability of the political system he helped reshape.

FRENCH PM REJECTS POLICE BRUTALITY CLAIMS AFTER TEENS SEVERELY INJURED IN PROTESTS: 'ACCIDENTS HAPPEN'

The protests began in the Paris suburbs in September amid complaints about overcrowded classrooms, inadequate heating and cooling, aging buildings and teachers who were not replaced when absent.

Rodan-Benzaquen said the anger reflected years of educational instability, frequent ministerial changes and reforms that have failed to resolve persistent school problems.

She also pointed to a broader sense of anxiety among young people about their economic future, artificial intelligence, climate change and international conflicts.

According to the OECD's September 2026 Education at a Glance report, France spent $16,674 in funding per student in general upper-secondary education in 2023, compared with an OECD average of $12,421, adjusted for purchasing power.

Yet teachers and students continue to complain about basic shortages.

Responsibility for public high school buildings and equipment falls to regional authorities, while the national government oversees much of the education system, including teacher staffing.

Feigenbaum said France's centralized education structure makes national leaders the focus of public anger when schools fail to deliver.

The pressure has already forced a concession.

Reuters reported Friday that Education Minister Édouard Geffray announced an emergency plan to deploy 3,000 qualified educators to particularly affected schools, costing several dozen million euros.

Student unions welcomed the measure as an initial victory but pledged to continue demonstrating.

The spending figures raise broader questions about whether France's financial and political priorities have left sufficient resources for maintaining school infrastructure and meeting students' needs. They do not, however, establish that teachers' unions or other organized constituencies have improperly diverted funding.

TEEN'S HAND BLOWN OFF BY POLICE GRENADE DURING FRENCH STUDENT PROTESTS: REPORT

As the demonstrations expanded, the involvement of France's hard-left La France Insoumise party, known as LFI, led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, became an increasingly contentious issue.

Reuters reported October 1 that French intelligence agencies had told a government crisis meeting that LFI and affiliated activists played a role in fomenting the unrest. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez also cited agitators moving between schools to encourage violence.

LFI has denied responsibility and accused authorities of aggravating tensions through their response.

Rodan-Benzaquen said far-left movements were capitalizing on students' frustration.

"There is an obvious instrumentalization, obvious manipulation," she said, arguing that activists were seeking to push some protesters toward violence.

She linked the unrest to what she described as Mélenchon's broader political strategy ahead of France's 2027 presidential election.

"His idea is that on the one hand he will scare voters on the right and on the far right, who will then go to vote for the far-right, and on the other hand he would mobilize his own camp," she said.

Rodan-Benzaquen argued that intensifying political confrontation could help Mélenchon consolidate his support among younger voters and immigrant communities, while portraying the far right as an increasingly serious threat.

She described it as a calculated political strategy rather than a spontaneous response to students' concerns.

The involvement of LFI politicians has been documented by French media, although there is disagreement over whether the party helped initiate the demonstrations or became involved after the protests began.

An October 2 investigation by Le Monde examined a police intelligence assessment describing radical-left activity around schools in Seine-Saint-Denis but questioned whether the evidence established that the movement itself was politically orchestrated.

Feigenbaum offered a more cautious interpretation, describing some of the violent perpetrators as fringe provocateurs who exploit broader demonstrations without necessarily directing them.

"They're not being organized by some, you know, some mastermind at the national level, at least as far as anyone knows," he said.

FRANCE ROCKED BY STUDENT RIOTS AS HUNDREDS ARRESTED, VIOLENCE SPREADS NATIONWIDE

The demonstrations have also raised questions about whether Islamist groups and pro-Palestinian activists are seeking to use the unrest to advance broader ideological causes.

Rodan-Benzaquen argued that Mélenchon's emphasis on Gaza and the Palestinian cause has helped bring together political constituencies that might otherwise have little in common.

"It's sort of the idea of sort of an intersection of different movements where they manage to bring together the different groups, the far left, Islamist movements, pro-Palestinian activists," she said.

She pointed to Palestinian flags appearing during the demonstrations as an indication of how the movement has expanded beyond its original educational demands.

The FDD expert argued that Islamist elements were attempting to capitalize on the turmoil, although she cautioned against reducing the entire crisis to immigration or religion.

"But this goes far beyond the issue of immigration, it goes far beyond the issue of Islamism, it goes far beyond the issue of Islam," she said.

EUROPE’S LEFT COURTS MUSLIM VOTERS AS ANTI-ISRAEL POLITICS RESHAPE CONTINENT

The government's latest concessions have not ended the protests.

According to Reuters on Friday, 141 schools remained closed while students continued demanding broader reforms. Nearly 10% of teaching hours in French public high schools remained unstaffed.

For Rodan-Benzaquen, one of the greatest dangers is that the demonstrations reflect a society increasingly divided into competing political realities.

She described how her 17-year-old son created separate left-wing and right-wing Instagram accounts and encountered radically different portrayals of the same unrest: one emphasizing police violence and the other violence by protesters.

"Now, if you live in two drastically different realities, it is very complicated to come to any form of dialog and end agreement," she said.

Her warning extends beyond France's current protests.

"We are in an extremely polarized environment," Rodan-Benzaquen said, noting that social media can deepen divisions and allow confrontations to escalate rapidly.

Feigenbaum sees an additional structural danger: a government burdened by accumulated financial obligations and deprived of the political consensus needed to reform them.

The result is a country spending heavily to sustain its public institutions while struggling to deliver the services citizens expect — and a political system increasingly consumed by conflict over how to fix them.

What began as a rebellion against broken classrooms has become a test of whether France can reconcile its costly promises with its financial reality before the divisions consuming its schools deepen further.

A powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck off Panama's southern coast Friday, shaking the country's capital as officials investigated a potential tsunami threat. 

The U.S. Geological Survey initially measured the earthquake at magnitude 8.0 before lowering its estimate to 7.7. The quake struck at 1:56 p.m. ET, approximately 6 miles beneath the surface, near Pitaloza Arriba, Panama.

A 5.5 magnitude aftershock followed, with its epicenter approximately 50 miles east of the initial earthquake.

MORE THAN 3,000 MISSING AFTER COLOMBIA EARTHQUAKE AS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION PROVIDES $15.5 MILLION IN RELIEF

The earthquake was felt in Panama City and in San José, the capital of neighboring Costa Rica, according to Reuters.

Tsunami officials warned that waves reaching 3 to 10 feet above tide levels were possible along some coastal areas of Panama, while parts of Ecuador could experience waves of approximately 1 to 3 feet.

Smaller tsunami waves of less than 1 foot above tide levels were forecast for coastal areas of Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru.

COLOMBIA BUILDING COLLAPSES ON CAMERA AS EARTHQUAKE BRINGS DEATH, DESTRUCTION

Despite the potential danger to coastal communities near the earthquake, officials said a Pacific-wide tsunami was not expected.

Earthquakes measuring between 7.0 and 7.9 can cause serious damage, according to Michigan Technological University.

Information about possible damage or casualties from Friday's earthquake was not immediately available.

This is a developing story; check back later for updates.

A powerful 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck off Panama's southern coast Friday, shaking the country's capital as officials investigated a potential tsunami threat. 

The U.S. Geological Survey initially measured the earthquake at magnitude 8.0 before lowering its estimate to 7.6. The quake struck at 1:56 p.m. ET, approximately 6 miles beneath the surface, near Pitaloza Arriba, Panama.

This is a developing story; check back later for updates.

The decision to award the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize to former U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay sparked fierce backlash Friday from Jewish advocacy groups and U.N. watchdogs accusing the South African jurist of longstanding anti-Israel bias and defending antisemitic rhetoric.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee honored Pillay, 85, for her contributions to international law and efforts to hold perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide accountable.

But her selection immediately reignited controversies surrounding her leadership of U.N. investigations into Israel, her defense of a fellow commissioner accused of antisemitism and positions she expressed before being appointed to investigate the Jewish state.

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"Navi Pillay is indeed a world leader, an individual at the forefront of the international spread of the poisonous forms of antisemitism that beset the 21st century," Anne Bayefsky, president of Human Rights Voices and director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights, told Fox News Digital.

Bayefsky accused Pillay of having "perfected the art of perverting legal and universal standards of human rights to demonize and delegitimize Jewish self-determination. This award stands as a testament to human wrongs."

The Nobel Committee offered a sharply different assessment of Pillay's legacy, praising her lifelong commitment to international justice and describing her career as an example of courage and integrity in defending the rule of law.

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Born in Durban, South Africa, in 1941, Pillay built her career challenging apartheid-era discrimination, becoming the first non-White woman appointed to South Africa's high court. She later served as a judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Court.

From 2008 to 2014, she served as U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. In 2021, she was appointed to chair the U.N. Human Rights Council's open-ended Commission of Inquiry investigating alleged violations in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

In September 2025, the commission concluded that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza, a finding Israel rejected as politically motivated and biased. The commission's conclusion was not a ruling by an international court.

Geneva-based UN Watch condemned Friday's Nobel announcement, accusing Pillay of breaching the impartiality expected of international investigators.

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"We are shocked that the Nobel Committee honored Navi Pillay," Executive Director Hillel Neuer said. "Her troubling record on antisemitism and gross breach of ethics in presiding over a notorious U.N. commission utterly disqualifies her from such an award."

Neuer pointed to a June 2020 manifesto that Pillay signed calling on governments to "Sanction Apartheid Israel," along with a June 2021 letter urging President Joe Biden to punish Israel after its conflict with Hamas.

UN Watch argued that the positions raised questions about her impartiality before she accepted the commission's chairmanship in July 2021.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres offered a sharply different assessment Friday, congratulating Pillay on the Nobel Peace Prize and praising her decades-long career in international justice, including her leadership of the U.N. investigation into Israel.

"For decades, she has been a champion of international law and human rights and a steadfast, independent voice of justice amidst some of the most historic international legal cases of our time," Guterres said in a statement.

Guterres highlighted her different roles, including chairing the commission investigating Israel and the Palestinian territories, declaring that Pillay had demonstrated "that the force of law must prevail over the law of force and that defending human rights is the surest safeguard against injustice."

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Another controversy erupted in 2022 when fellow commissioner Miloon Kothari suggested that social media criticism of the investigation was controlled by the "Jewish lobby" and questioned Israel's U.N. membership.

The remarks were condemned by U.S. officials, including then-State Department antisemitism envoy Deborah Lipstadt. Pillay defended Kothari, arguing his comments had been taken out of context. Kothari subsequently apologized, calling his language inappropriate and insensitive.

The controversy also reached Germany, where Berlin's mayor withdrew support for a planned event honoring Pillay in 2022, and the event was canceled, according to The Times of Israel.

Bayefsky also recalled the 2009 U.N. anti-racism conference in Geneva, when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivered an inflammatory speech attacking Israel. While Western diplomats walked out, Pillay remained seated.

However, Pillay subsequently condemned his address, saying she joined the secretary-general in "utterly deploring the speech," according to the U.N.'s official transcript.

The Nobel Committee, meanwhile, defended Pillay's legacy, crediting her with strengthening international law at a time when the institutions responsible for enforcing it face increasing political pressure.

Pillay's selection highlights the divide between supporters who celebrate her contributions to international justice and critics who contend that her record on Israel undermines the universal human rights principles she championed.

Fox News Digital reached out to Pillay for comment but didn’t receive one in time for publication.

Thousands of demonstrators poured into the streets of Brussels on Friday, at times clashing with police officers, to protest the Belgian government's budget-tightening measures and the overall rise in the cost of living.

Dozens of protesters, most of them young and dressed in black with masks over their faces, were seen throwing rocks and firecrackers at police at the central Brussels railway station, The Associated Press reported.

They also set several fires, with photos showing a man lighting an electric scooter ablaze.

MAY DAY PROTESTS ACROSS EUROPE AND ASIA TURN INTO ANTI-AMERICAN, ANTI-ISRAEL POLITICAL BATTLEGROUNDS

Riot police responded by deploying tear gas canisters and shooting water cannons, tactics that dispersed the crowds. The chaos in the streets contributed to increased traffic across the Belgian capital.

Police said the unrest was caused by people unaffiliated with the anti-austerity demonstration, which drew an estimated 30,000 participants, the AP reported.

Two of Belgium’s largest labor unions organized Friday’s daylong national strike, with a separate public-sector walkout planned for Monday. Union leaders also distanced themselves from the unrest, saying those responsible were not affiliated with their movement.

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Union members and their supporters were dressed in red or green as they marched peacefully throughout the city.

Marie Gobert, a single mother and social worker, came to Brussels from Namur for the march, telling the AP she "cannot make ends meet."

The rising cost of schools, public transport and train tickets is what preoccupies her the most.

FRANCE ROCKED BY STUDENT RIOTS AS HUNDREDS ARRESTED, VIOLENCE SPREADS NATIONWIDE

"You can feel the social tension, you can feel anger starting to simmer everywhere," Gobert said. "The education system is being dismantled, and when young people want to speak out, no one listens to them."

This summer, Belgium’s French Community government raised standard university tuition by roughly 43% this academic year, from €835 to €1,194, as part of a broader austerity program.

In June, there were clashes between protesters and police in Brussels over dissatisfaction with the tuition hike and other issues with the French-language education system, including overcrowded classrooms and difficulty accessing study materials.

This week, hundreds of students took to the streets of the eastern Belgian city of Liège. Local media reported that 107 students were arrested.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Navanethem "Navi" Pillay, an experienced jurist who chaired a United Nations commission that concluded Israel committed genocide in Gaza, won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for "her efforts to promote peace and international law."

In awarding this year's Peace Prize, the Nobel Committee argued strong international judicial institutions must be able to enforce the rule of law to have any hope of mediating the growing number of wars and conflicts worldwide.

The committee also noted that political attacks against judges and international law itself are becoming more commonplace.

Pillay has had a long, storied career — both as a lawyer and as a judge — and more recently, she has definitively weighed in on the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

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She chaired the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which was created in 2021 after a flare-up in tensions between Israelis and Palestinians.

In September 2025, nearly two years after the Oct. 7 attacks, the commission concluded that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, while also specifically accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant of inciting genocide.

"It is clear that there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention," Pillay said after the commission's report was released.

At the time, Israel dismissed the findings as "distorted and false."

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Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, president of the Israel-based Shurat HaDin Law Center, cast doubt on the Nobel Committee's decision to award Pillay the peace prize.

"A peace prize should honor those who build peace, not those accused of turning Israel into a defendant in a campaign of political delegitimization," said Darshan-Leitner, whose organization has led protest campaigns in Geneva against Pillay. "What peace, exactly, has she brought? The Middle East remains engulfed in conflict, and the region is nowhere near the peace this prize supposedly celebrates."

Pillay, 85, was born in South Africa's Natal province to a Tamil Indian family. Her first foray into the legal profession began in 1967, when she founded her own law firm, becoming the first non-white person to do so in her province.

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During her 28 years as a defense attorney in South Africa, she represented anti-apartheid activists. In 1973, she won a case securing political prisoners on Robben Island, including Nelson Mandela, the right to consult with lawyers.

Two decades later, Mandela became president and in 1995, he nominated her to the High Court of South Africa, becoming the first non-white woman to serve there.

Her tenure was short-lived because that same year, the United Nations elected her to serve on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, a body established to adjudicate those responsible for the Rwandan genocide.

She was integral in the case against Jean-Paul Akayesu, the mayor of the Rwandan town of Taba, who was found guilty of inciting fellow Hutus to murder, rape and torture thousands of Tutsis.

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That ruling set a precedent that rape constituted a crime against humanity and could amount to genocide when committed with the intent to destroy a targeted group.

"Rape had always been regarded as one of the spoils of war," Pillay said after the verdict. "Now it is a war crime, no longer a trophy."

In 2003, she was chosen to be a judge on the International Criminal Court (ICC), an institution frequently attacked by President Donald Trump as illegitimate.

After five years on the ICC, Pillay became the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights in 2008. While in that position, she condemned both Israel and Hamas for their conduct in the 2014 Gaza War, saying both sides likely violated international law.

She also condemned the United States for providing funding to Israel's Iron Dome program when "no such protection has been provided to Gazans against the shelling."

Pillay currently serves as an ad hoc judge on the International Court of Justice, where she is hearing a case accusing Burma of committing genocide against the Rohingya, a predominantly Muslim minority in the Southeast Asian country.

When young adults stormed France's Bastille on Thursday, a little-known media outlet called BreakThrough News sent followers a "BREAKING" alert: "French students flood Bastille Square in Paris."

But that isn't the full story.

A Fox News Digital investigation has found that a transnational network of far-left communist and socialist organizations is seizing on France’s fiery student protests to advance a wider political and ideological agenda, using tactics deployed in the United States over the past decade to amplify unrest, deepen divisions and project an image of chaos.

Earlier in the week, BreakThrough News splashed another headline across the front of its website: "French students shut down schools in historic strike against austerity," mobilizing "with support from unions and progressive forces."

But those "progressive forces" aren't limited to students demanding education reform as part of their "Lycéenne Mobilisation," or high school student mobilization.

From France to the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Greece and India, adults with deep pockets are tapping France's school protests and turning a domestic education dispute into a platform for broader political and ideological confrontation. BreakThrough News is a pro-communist propaganda outlet based in New York City, funded by an American-born, Shanghai-based communist tech tycoon, Neville Roy Singham, who has financed a network of communist and far-left groups in the U.S. that have capitalized on grievances to stoke similar street unrest for almost a decade.

A Fox News Digital investigation traces how a movement that the media is mostly framing as students protesting deteriorating school conditions is actually part of an extensive infrastructure of unions, communist activists, far-left political parties and international media organizations that are organizing demonstrations, calling strikes, mobilizing supporters and broadcasting the unrest around the world with "BREAKING" alerts.

In a digital analysis of scores of news articles, social media posts and public statements, Fox News Digital has identified 50 organizations in the French student protest movement and its wider network of supporters and international amplifiers, revealing an activist ecosystem extending far beyond the students who launched the demonstrations.

Of the network of 50 groups, 15 are student or youth groups, including several communist youth movements and a Muslim student association.

The remaining 35 adult groups include a dozen labor unions; eight communist or socialist organizations; five groups spanning other issues from taxes to parental advocacy, environmental activism, economic justice, international media and diaspora organizing; five civil-rights or human-rights groups; four political parties, including La France Insoumise, or France Unbowed, and the French Communist Party; one Palestinian advocacy group that complete the "red-green" alliance of leftists with Muslims.

FRANCE’S TEEN RIOTS TAKE EXPLOSIVE NEW TURN AS GOVERNMENT POINTS FINGER AT HARD LEFT

The network stretches from French classrooms and labor federations to communist organizations in Greece and Britain and international socialist media outlets, such as BreakThrough News, demonstrating how a domestic education dispute has attracted organizations advancing broader political agendas involving capitalism, "austerity," policing, military spending and Israel.

"What we're seeing here is the same Red-Green ecosystem that disrupts infrastructure choke holds in our country such as the Brooklyn Bridge, college campuses and congressional hearings," Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told Fox News Digital. "And in the case of BreakThrough News, the same sugar daddy — Neville Roy Singham."

The case offers a revealing look at the ambitions of France's revolutionary left. Even in a country with powerful labor unions, an established Communist Party, a substantial parliamentary left and a long tradition of street protest, these organizations are demanding political and economic changes that go well beyond the existing left-wing establishment.

As one far-left environmental group, Les Soulèvements de la Terre, or "Earth Uprisings," declared in the midst of the riots, "Glory to the rebellious high school students."

The statement invoked a call for broader political subversion: "Pour un soulèvement antifasciste" – "For an antifascist uprising."

The network's amplification of France's protests illustrates how a local confrontation can be presented to international audiences as part of a broader struggle against Western governments and institutions.

"The communist Red and the Islamist Greens have nothing in common but a common enemy, the Judeo-Christian, capitalist, free West, led by the U.S.," Gonzalez said. "Their goal is to dismantle us."

The situation in France is potentially even more dangerous, according to Gonzalez, who cited the European nation's well-established and active communist parties and a history of government changing by street violence. He noted the fall of the Fourth Republic in 1958 after large protests over Algeria, and that the government nearly fell in 1968 over student protests.

"And of course, there was the blood-drenched violence of the 1789 French Revolution," Gonzalez added.

FRANCE ROCKED BY STUDENT RIOTS AS HUNDREDS ARRESTED, VIOLENCE SPREADS NATIONWIDE

Since late September, politicians from the far-left political party, La France insoumise, were seen working with students organizing blockades in Seine-Saint-Denis, a low-income suburb northeast of Paris. French-Moroccan journalist Nora Bussigny wrote that "many elected officials" from La France Insoumise "have indeed worked to co-opt the student protests, at the risk of seeing them spiral out of control: by fanning the flames, discrediting institutions like the police, and legitimizing the principle of political violence."

Soon after, a wide network of far-left groups put out the call for tens of thousands of secondary school students and supporters to march through Paris on Oct. 6, while demonstrations spread across France.

Student organizations in the network of 50 include the Union Syndicale Lycéenne, or High School Students' Union; Union Étudiante, or Student Union; Fédération des Associations Générales Étudiantes, or Federation of General Student Associations; and Union Nationale des Étudiants de France, or National Union of Students of France, helped mobilize students for the Oct. 6 demonstrations.

Other student organizations, including Solidaires Étudiantes, or Solidaires Students, have joined the broader campaign.

The organizational machinery supporting the mobilization extends beyond the teenagers who first took to the streets. National labor federations and professional education unions have called on adult workers to join the mobilization, bringing the institutional reach of organized labor into the student movement.

The Confédération nationale du travail, or National Confederation of Labour, declared: "The demands of high school students are also ours. They are right to revolt."

The adult-led labor organizations in the network of 50 include: the Confédération générale du travail, or General Confederation of Labour; Force Ouvrière, or Workers' Force; and Union nationale des syndicats autonomes, or National Union of Autonomous Trade Unions.

Several education-sector unions called for a strike and demonstration in support of the high school movement.

The organizations include the CFDT Public Education, Training and Research; CGT Éduc'action; the National Federation of Education, Culture and Vocational Training–Workers' Force; SUD Éducation; and Syndicat National des Enseignements de Second Degré, the National Union of Secondary Education, affiliated with the Unitary Trade Union Federation.

The support extends beyond teachers and students into a wider collection of organizations, including parents' associations, civil-rights groups, antiracist organizations and political movements.

Among them are the Fédération des Conseils de Parents d’Élèves, or Federation of Parents' Councils; Ligue des Droits de l’Homme, or Human Rights League; Mouvement Contre le Racisme et Pour L'amitié entre Les Peuples, or Movement Against Racism and for Friendship Between Peoples; and SOS Racisme, or SOS Racism.

TRUMP, WALTZ LINK FRANCE RIOTS TO MASS IMMIGRATION AS THOUSANDS ARE ARRESTED

In Paris on Tuesday, the big day of the protests, the ideological character of the mobilization was visible on the streets.

In Paris, activists waved red flags of the far-left Fédération Syndicale Étudiante, or Student Trade Union Federation. Some demonstrators wore Palestinian keffiyeh scarves covering parts of their faces as they marched behind a bright red banner bearing the words "Contre Les Guerres Impérialistes," French for "Against Imperialist Wars."

The slogan is a recurring political message among anti-war, feminist and revolutionary-left organizations.

The message on the red banner continued, "Guerre De Clasee !" or "Class War!" over a bright yellow image of the hammer and sickle.

The banner identified the Young Communists, associated with the Mouvement Jeunes Communistes de France, or Young Communists Movement of France, which works closely with the French Communist Party.

Activists carried flags bearing the communist hammer and sickle.

On Instagram, the organization announced the launch of "Democratic and Antifascist Vigilance Committees."

"High school students neglected, pro-Palestinian activists persecuted, unionists fired. State repression against our democratic rights has intensified in recent years," the group declared.

FRENCH SCHOOL RIOTS DEEPEN AS EXPERTS POINT TO FAR-LEFT ALLIANCE FUELING ‘BROADER CONFRONTATION’

At the protest, Fabien Roussel, national secretary of the French Communist Party, took photos with protesters and later posted a message on X: "Standing alongside high school students in Paris, together with Communist elected officials and activists."

Red flags with white stars and the message "Parti Communiste Français" flapped around him.

Online the French Communist Party has continued advancing other political campaigns, including a demand to stop supplying arms to Israel, under the slogan "Stop arming the Palestinian genocide!"

On Wednesday, after the peak protests, the Nouveau Parti anticapitaliste – L’Anticapitaliste, "The New Anticapitalist Party," rallied supporters, declaring there are "always more reasons to mobilize."

Other revolutionary-left groups, including Le Poing Levé, or The Raised Fist, and Révolution Permanente, or Permanent Revolution, have promoted solidarity between high school students and university activists.

FRANCE EXPLODES AGAIN AS STUDENTS RIOT OVER EDUCATION

In Saint-Denis, where the protests began, the Parti des Indigènes de la République, or Party of the Indigenous of the Republic, shared a photograph of young men standing outside Lycée Paul Éluard, a high school that has become a symbol of the unrest.

As red smoke billowed above them, the students stood in front of large gray letters spelling out the school's name, holding a Palestinian flag. The school was later featured in the New York Times under the headline, "The School Near Paris That Shows Why French Students Are Protesting."

In the network of 50 groups, Étudiants Musulmans de France, or Muslim Students of France, rallied followers to protest for the right of youth to "study with dignity." And members of Urgence Palestine, or "Palestine Emergency," marched proudly in the student protests with the Palestinian flag.

Elsewhere, French lawmaker Louis Boyard of the far-left party, La France Insoumise waved a Palestinian flag while standing at Paris-Est-Créteil University with students as they blocked their campus. In marches, their activists wave trademark purple flags that flutter with the group's acronym "FI" and a white φ symbol for the Greek word "phi."

POWER COUPLE OF CHAOS: HOW A TYCOON AND ACTIVIST BUILT A 'REVOLUTIONARY BASE' AT THE HOUSE OF SINGHAM

On Wednesday, BreakThrough News published an article portraying the demonstrations as a "historic strike against austerity."

It also published a dramatic Instagram video of Bally Bagayoko, the far-left mayor of Saint-Denis and a politician with La France insoumise, sliding in front of students during a confrontation with police.

BreakThrough News described the scene as Bagayoko protecting "a line of French students from police as they attack the protesters."

The anti-policing video received about 346,000 likes in one day.

Among the accounts that liked the video were Twitch influencer Hasan Piker, a self-described Marxist; BreakThrough News editor Zoe Alexandra; the Houston chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the Pittsburgh chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace and other groups in the Singham network.

Earlier this year, Piker traveled to Cuba as part of a far-left "caravan" supporting the island nation's communist government. There, he took a photo with Jodie Evans, Singham's wife and co-founder of CodePink, which has received $1.33 million from Singham.

From Latin America, teleSUR, an international television network in the Singham network, frequently circulates material from left-wing media outlets, including BreakThrough News, and it shared footage of French students clashing with police.

The video featured a dramatic soundtrack and the headline: "TENSIONS ESCALATE...."

FRANCE’S VIOLENT STUDENT PROTESTS RAISE WARNING FOR AMERICA: ‘A CAUTIONARY TALE’

As French students stormed the streets, the Communist Youth of Greece publicly expressed solidarity with their movement. "Victory for the struggle of the school students in France!" the group said in a statement.

BreakThrough News quoted the Greek communist organization in its France coverage, describing the developments as "foreshadowing more student struggles to follow."

Another international connection runs through Indian Alliance Paris, a small France-based organization of students, researchers and professionals who describe themselves as committed to a "democratic and egalitarian" India.

In mid-January 2023, Indian Alliance Paris co-sponsored a teach-in in Manhattan, opposing the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The venue: the People's Forum Inc., a midtown Manhattan hub for communist organizing that Singham launched in 2017 with $22.44 million in funding. Over the past near decade, leaders of the People's Forum have coordinated hundreds of protests across America's streets.

The People's Forum co-sponsored the event with Democratic Socialists of America and other organizations in the Singham-funded activist ecosystem, including CodePink and the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

In mid-May 2024, the People's Forum hosted a screening of a 1967 French film "La Chinoise," and described the film as a story about a small group of French students studying Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong, "trying to find out their position in the world and how to change the world to a Maoistic community using terrorism."

Mao unleashed mass political persecution, violence, imprisonment and social upheaval in China.

Attendees were invited to purchase an $8 "solidarity ticket."

On Tuesday, Indian Alliance Paris promoted the French student agitation while drawing parallels with student demonstrations in India. It posted a message on X, sending a heart emoji "to Gen Z: In France. In India. Bravo for today."

The result is a self-reinforcing cycle: far-left activist networks amplify protests around the world, then package the unrest as evidence of a growing global uprising.

On Thursday, after the French students had headed home after their siege on Bastille, BreakThrough News posted a collage on Instagram of short video clips from the U.S., Spain, India, France, Brazil, Belgium, Chile and Germany with youth waving communist flags, clashing with police and flooding the streets.

It posted a headline in bold capital letters over the videos: "YOUTH RISE UP AROUND THE WORLD."

Two Latvian nationals legally living in the United Kingdom were arrested under Section 4 of Britain's National Security Act of 2023 Thursday after allegedly breaching a perimeter fence at RAF Molesworth, a sensitive British military base housing critical U.S. and NATO intelligence operations, Reuters reported.

The arrests triggered a major counterterrorism investigation into the security breach at the strategic installation, which serves as a central intelligence hub supporting American military commanders across Europe and Africa.

The base is also undergoing a $556.5 million expansion centered on the Joint Intelligence Analysis Complex (JIAC), a location designed to consolidate 20 intelligence facilities and accommodate more than 1,000 personnel, according to reports.

IRAN UNDER SCRUTINY AFTER PLOT FOILED NEAR UK BASE USED BY US MILITARY

The suspects, ages 32 and 36, were discovered inside the base around 2 a.m. Thursday after an extensive security sweep.

Ministry of Defense Police officers conducting routine patrols first raised the alarm around 10 p.m. Wednesday after finding an abandoned vehicle near the perimeter.

Bomb disposal specialists cleared the vehicle before armed officers discovered a fence breach and located the men inside.

Initially detained on suspicion of trespass and criminal damage, both men were arrested again under the National Security Act for allegedly entering a prohibited place for a purpose prejudicial to the United Kingdom. They remain in custody as counterterrorism detectives execute search warrants at two residential properties in nearby Peterborough.

Managed by the U.S. Air Force's 423rd Air Base Group, RAF Molesworth is a nonflying installation dedicated to joint intelligence and command operations.

It houses intelligence elements for U.S. European Command, U.S. Africa Command and the NATO Intelligence Fusion Centre.

During World War II, the airfield was used by the U.S. 15th Bombardment Squadron. In 1973, the airfield was officially deactivated before transitioning into its current role as an intelligence center.

Construction on the JIAC broke ground April 12, 2024, with onsite work beginning that spring. The facility is scheduled for completion in summer 2028.

FOILED TERROR PLOT AT BOMBER BASE SIGNALS WIDER THREAT TO US MILITARY INSTALLATIONS: EXPERT

A 2024 Defense Department release described the base development as part of the department's overall European Infrastructure Consolidation efforts.

"It will combine 20 facilities and over 1,000 DIA personnel into one location. Among others, it will host members of the NATO Intelligence Fusion Centre, Battlefield Information Collection and Exploitation System, U.S. Africa Command, U.S. European Command and U.S. Air Force elements in a cross-agency, multi-mission collaboration."

At the time, Defense Intelligence Agency Deputy Director Suzanne White said the facility would enable "the U.S. and allies’ shared mission of ‘outpacing our strategic competitors and addressing threats together wherever they may arise.’"

The Defense Department designed the project with a two-stage procurement strategy, allowing stakeholder agencies to provide feedback and streamline scheduling requirements.

Following the intrusion, U.S. European Command praised the swift British response.

US PULLS ALL BOMBERS FROM KEY UK BASE AFTER SUSPECTED IRAN-LINKED TERROR PLOT

"While we assess the global security posture, U.S. forces remain at the highest state of readiness," the command said in a statement.

"We would also express our gratitude to the UK for the close partnership with U.S. forces on matters of security."

British counterterrorism officials cautioned against drawing premature conclusions about possible espionage or terrorist motives.

"We're very aware of the recent heightened interest and concern around military sites," Counterterrorism Policing London commander Helen Flanagan said.

Flanagan added that investigators have not established a connection between the Molesworth breach and recent security concerns at RAF Fairford, another British base used by U.S. strategic bombers.

"We are keeping an open mind at this stage and inquiries are very much ongoing," she said.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Pentagon and the CIA for comment.

The death of an 87-year-old woman who was evicted from her longtime home has intensified a political crisis in Spain, where nationwide protests over soaring housing costs have helped force an early election.

María del Carmen Abascal, known as "Maricarmen," died Wednesday after being hospitalized following her eviction from a Madrid apartment where she had lived for seven decades, according to The Associated Press.

Her death came just days after Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called a snap election for Nov. 29 following his government's failure to pass emergency housing measures through Parliament.

The controversy has put renewed pressure on Sánchez's Socialist Party as Spain grapples with widespread frustration over rising rents and housing affordability.

SPANISH OPPOSITION LEADER CALLS PRIME MINISTER A ‘TRAITOR’ OVER CEUTA MIGRANT CRISIS

At the center of the uproar was Abascal's Sept. 23 eviction, which drew national attention after images showed the elderly woman, who used a wheelchair, being carried from her apartment on a stretcher.

Police had cordoned off the street and removed demonstrators who attempted to stop the eviction.

The images sparked demonstrations in Madrid and other Spanish cities, turning Abascal into a symbol of the country's housing crisis.

The real estate company responsible for her eviction had sought to rent the apartment at a substantially higher price, according to the AP.

ANGRY LOCALS BLOCK FAMOUS BEACH AS MASS TOURISM PROTESTS ESCALATE AT VACATION HOT SPOT

Facing mounting public pressure, the company eventually agreed to allow Abascal to return to her home. She died before she could move back.

Her cause of death has not been disclosed.

Following news of her death, demonstrators gathered outside Spain's Parliament and in Madrid's Puerta del Sol square, where some observed a minute of silence.

Protesters also chanted, "Maricarmen lives, the fight goes on!"

TENS OF THOUSANDS FLOOD STREETS TO PROTEST SPAIN BORDER CRISIS

Sánchez offered condolences in a statement on X.

"All my love to Maricarmen's family and loved ones," he wrote. "A hug as well to all of us who feel this loss as our own today. Rest in peace."

Conservative opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo also expressed condolences and urged political leaders not to use the woman's death for political gain.

"No campaign, no party, no use for political advantage," he wrote. "When faced with the death of a person, we must only show respect."

Abascal's eviction and death have become a rallying point for housing activists demanding changes to Spain's rental policies as the country prepares for its November election.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

An Iranian anti-regime protester was hanged at dawn Oct. 5 inside Isfahan Central Prison, just hours after marrying his imprisoned fiancée over a jail phone line, The Times reported Thursday.

Alireza Sepahi, 25, was executed alongside co-defendant Alireza Raisi after being sentenced to death in the anti-government demonstrations at Isfahan’s Alikhani Square Jan. 8., according to Human Rights Iran.

Sepahi and his bride, student activist Mahshad Keshani, 22, knew and loved each other before being arrested during anti-regime demonstrations, the report said.

IRAN HANGS 2 PROTESTERS IN PUBLIC, CROWD CRIES 'DISHONORABLE' AS SECURITY FIRES TEAR GAS

Keshani, who is serving a five-year sentence, pushed for an informal wedding Sunday as fears mounted that Sepahi’s execution was imminent after a final family summons.

The couple exchanged vows over the phone from inside Isfahan prison, joined by their fathers.

Human rights lawyer Amirsalar Davoudi facilitated the ceremony by reading the vows for the fathers to bless.

Keshani’s family gave a copy of the Quran, a saffron rock candy and a single red rose as a traditional dowry.

"It was Mahshad’s idea," Davoudi told The Times. "Even now, I wonder how one young woman can possess such courage."

IRAN TO EXECUTE FIRST FEMALE PROTESTER TIED TO ANTI-REGIME UNREST

Davoudi recalled warning Keshani about the permanent nature of the decision. 

"I told her, ‘My dear, you understand that this cannot simply be undone?’" Davoudi said. 

"She said, ‘Mr Davoudi, I love Alireza.’"

When Davoudi presented the proposal to Sepahi, the young man broke down in tears. 

"Alireza was crying, and something deeply painful and beautiful happened. Even the prison officers began to cry," Davoudi said.

The ceremony held no formal authority to halt the execution. Sepahi had previously survived a scheduled hanging in July after suffering a heart attack on his way to the gallows. Authorities then rescheduled the execution after he regained consciousness.

On Monday morning, hours after the vows were spoken, Sepahi was hanged.

IRAN'S REGIME CAME FOR TEENAGE TWINS. THEIR FATE OFFERS A GLIMPSE OF TEHRAN'S WIDENING DEATH CAMPAIGN

He is among seven defendants executed in the Alikhani Square case, in which 12 men were accused in the deaths of four security personnel.

After the hanging, Sepahi’s family was reportedly prevented by authorities from burying their son in his hometown.

Davoudi condemned the Iranian regime's actions. 

"I do not know how to come to terms with this," Davoudi said.

"The regime is taking revenge on innocent young people for the humiliation it has suffered internationally."

Human rights groups report Keshani remains in custody, facing additional security charges.

This came as Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), urged U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres to take immediate international action to halt executions and the killing of protesters in Iran, citing thousands of executions and decades of impunity for human rights abuses. 

In a letter ahead of World Day Against the Death Penalty on Oct. 10, Rajavi called for international accountability, independent investigations and diplomatic and economic pressure on Tehran to end the executions.

The mother of Darya Shipilova, the 28-year-old Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and Far East worker whose death has sparked global public health concerns, pushed back against reports her daughter was infected after she broke a test tube.

Svetlana Shipilova, who is a medical professional, told the Russian outlet Glubina she does not believe the account circulating regarding her daughter's demise, according to The Telegraph.

"I know the truth," she reportedly said. "I’m having to fend off stupid acquaintances who believed all this. The clever ones didn’t believe it, of course.

RUSSIAN BIO-LEAK SECRECY FOLLOWS CHERNOBYL PLAYBOOK, EX-CIA OFFICER WARNS

"Not even all medical professionals understand it’s impossible to break a test tube like that," she added. "Even if you fling it at the wall. Only an amateur could say something like that.

"Even hypothetically, you simply can’t spill what’s inside or break the tube. They’re that well protected." 

She also asserted to reporters, "They simply let my daughter die."

TRUMP RESPONDS TO CONCERNS OVER SUSPECTED PLAGUE CASE IN RUSSIA, SAYING US 'WILLING TO HELP'

Russian public health agency Rospotrebnadzor has said the woman died of "pneumonia of unknown origin" and that "extensive" testing uncovered no evidence the individual's illness was caused by any of the pathogens she worked with.

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted during remarks Wednesday that "we don’t yet have the full picture of this event, and we are not able to conduct a full risk assessment."

RUSSIAN RESEARCHER'S MYSTERY DEATH COULD BE 'FAR WORSE' THAN THE PLAGUE, FORMER SENIOR TRUMP OFFICIAL WARNS

"CDC is aware of and closely monitoring reports of a suspected case of pneumonic plague in the Irkutsk region of Russia that resulted in a death," the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in part of a post Tuesday on X.

"We are working across the U.S. government to assess developments as additional information becomes available."

The Associated Press contributed to this report

A 15-year-old boy wielding a knife and wearing a helmet-mounted camera attacked a Polish primary school he used to attend, allegedly killing one employee and wounding two others in the country's second school stabbing in two days.

Authorities are investigating whether the attacks are connected to an online challenge encouraging teenagers to kill as many people as possible.

Police said a 37-year-old woman who worked as a caretaker died in the Thursday morning attack at the school in Leszczydol-Nowiny, northeast of Warsaw.

The school's head teacher, Krzysztof Ochmanski, was injured while subduing the teenager, officials said. Ochmanski told a radio station he heard a scream and ran into a hallway.

MOTHER ACCUSED OF TRYING TO KILL DAUGHTERS IN FREEWAY CRASH AND KNIFE ATTACK AS SOLDIERS STEP IN

"He wounded me with the blade of a rather long knife — he had three knives on him — and hit me with the handle," Ochmanski told the public broadcaster Polskie Radio RDC. "By then, I had managed to restrain him."

The day before the latest attack, a 19-year-old allegedly wounded 10 people, including himself, at a school in Ostroleka, which is in northeastern Poland.

Also this week, police arrested a 17-year-old in Sierpc in north-central Poland after authorities suspected he was planning a similar attack, Reuters reported.

AMERICAN YOUTH RADICALIZED ONLINE, BUSTED IN SUSPECTED TERROR PLOTS AFTER HATING COUNTRY ON SOCIAL MEDIA

"We fear a grim copycat phenomenon," Prime Minister Donald Tusk told an emergency meeting, according to Reuters. "We are facing an extraordinary situation. ... For the first time, we are dealing with a killer who wore a helmet-mounted camera, intending to film the knife attack."

Tusk ordered police to visit schools every day to discourage further violence.

Nikola, the 18-year-old sister of a boy at the school that was attacked Thursday, told Reuters there were rumors about the social media challenge that the police are now investigating.

"I mean, I didn't know if it was even real — I still don't know if it's true, actually — because it sounds so unreal, so terrifying, just like something out of a movie: some kind of challenge to kill as many people as possible," she said.

Christian community leaders and influencers from around the world gathered in Jerusalem Wednesday for an international memorial marking Oct. 7 as part of the Friends of Zion Ambassador Summit.

The event also included Jewish leaders, released hostages, bereaved families, wounded Israelis, ambassadors and diplomatic representatives to commemorate the anniversary of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.

"Oct. 7 is the worst day in Israel’s history, a day of hopelessness," Dr. Mike Evans, founder of the Friends of Zion Heritage Center in Jerusalem, told Fox News Digital.

ON OCT 7, CHRISTIANS MUST REMEMBER AND STAND WITH ISRAEL

"People talk a lot about the more than 1,200 people killed that day, but not enough about the more than 70,000 who lost their homes and loved ones. You have a nation going through unspeakable pain, not only because of Oct. 7, but also because of the feeling that they are alone and that the world has turned against them," Evans added.

"What I’m sharing on Oct. 7 is this: ‘You’re wrong. The world is standing with you,’" he continued. "You see the faces, languages and songs of people from around the world united to comfort you and stand with you. It’s not political. It’s for the Jewish people: You are not alone. We’re with you. We love you."

CHRISTIAN ZIONISTS TAKE ON ANTI-ISRAEL ‘PROPAGANDA’ FROM BIBLICAL HEARTLAND

Hosted by actor and influencer Nathaniel Buzolic and reporter Erin Molan, Wednesday’s event in the Israeli capital was broadcast live on dozens of television networks around the world.

"When other minority or groups suffer, there tends to be some sort of acknowledgment of that suffering, but when it comes to Jewish suffering, particularly at the hands of radical Islamists, there is not only silence but also denial and an attempt to downgrade the atrocities we witnessed, and we really have witnessed atrocities not just on Oct. 7 but in the continuation of that," Buzolic told Fox News Digital.

Buzolic said supporting Israel is a moral imperative given what he described as efforts to destroy the country. He argued that the hostility toward Israel is rooted in a radical Islamist ideology that rejects peace and coexistence not only with the Jewish state, but also with Western societies more broadly.

Released hostages Agam Berger, Sagui Dekel-Chen, Bar Kupershtein and Evyatar David attended the event, along with Bar’s grandfather, Holocaust survivor Michael Kupershtein. Sylvan Adams, president of the World Jewish Congress Israel and a full partner in the event, also participated.

ANTISEMITIC VIOLENCE REACHES DEADLIEST LEVEL SINCE 1994, NEW GLOBAL REPORT FINDS

Earlier in the day, participants visited Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust remembrance center.

The Friends of Zion Ambassador Summit is being held for the second consecutive year and brings together over 1,000 participants from 122 countries.

"The alliance is very strong. The vast majority of Zionists in the world are not Jewish; they are Bible-believing Christians," Evans told Fox News Digital. "The Christian Zionists worldwide don’t necessarily agree on the politics, but they agree on the people. They are uniting with the people of Israel."

The delegation includes many young people as part of an effort to reach a generation that Evans said had been "poisoned" by countries such as Qatar at universities, as well as by artificial intelligence.

The summit, held in cooperation with Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, opened Tuesday with an event on Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives. Evans said the site, which is associated with Jesus and his ascension, holds particular significance for participants and serves as a symbol of their faith.

Israel’s Special Envoy to the Christian World George Deek said he was proud of the sustained support Israel has received from Jewish and Christian communities abroad since Oct. 7, 2023.

LOST CITY WHERE JESUS PERFORMED MIRACLES HAS FINALLY BEEN IDENTIFIED, EXPERT SAYS

"The arrival of Christian leaders carries a powerful message that Israel does not stand alone. They have come to bear witness, meet people whose lives were shattered on Oct. 7 and carry their stories back to communities around the world," Deek told Fox News Digital.

Deek said the bond between Israel and the Christian world has been built on "truth, courage and sheer determination" to confront antisemitism and other forms of hatred wherever they arise.

"This visit is a testament to the strength of the bond between Israel and Christian communities despite attempts by various groups, including paid actors and anti-Israel organizations, to drive a wedge between them," he added.

Deek said the special relationship between Christians and Jews rests on three foundations: a shared biblical heritage; a commitment to ensuring Jews can live free from antisemitism and fear and the right of Christians in the Middle East and elsewhere to live without intimidation.

"The future of the Jews in Israel and the future of Christians are connected because we have a shared history. We share the same historical land, the same values, kings and prophets, and we have to stand together, especially when it comes to this warfare against the soul of Christians, trying to drive them away from Israel," Deek told Fox News Digital.

Influencer Oli London first visited Israel six weeks after the Oct. 7 attack, traveling to Kibbutz Kfar Aza, where residents were killed and kidnapped and homes were burned during the massacre.

"I felt it was so important to come back to honor the memory of the victims, advocate for those still suffering from trauma, raise awareness of their suffering and take part in mass prayers," London told Fox News Digital.

SIGN UP FOR ANTISEMITISM EXPOSED NEWSLETTER

"I think it’s also important to show Christians the holy sites in Israel. I’m visiting the Sea of Galilee, the Mount of Olives, the Garden Tomb and other biblical sites to encourage Christians to return because Israel has had a difficult time over the past few years," he continued.

London also praised the resilience of the Jewish people and addressed rising antisemitism around the world since Oct. 7.

"Sadly, many people are either staying silent or jumping on the bandwagon of the anti-Israel trend, fueling hatred and bringing out antisemitic views in many people. Jewish people need support and need to know they are loved and supported by so many Christians," he said.

On Thursday, members of the delegation will visit the Nova music festival site, where one of the central massacres of Oct. 7 took place, and meet with released hostages Romi Gonen, Elkana Bohbot and Noa Argamani, who were abducted from the festival. On Friday, the delegation will visit the ancient site of Shiloh in Samaria for a special tour and prayer event.

Hooman Khalili, who is participating in the summit, was born in Iran and has been an outspoken supporter of Israel. He said he has visited the country 17 times over 21 months to create "Woman, Life, Freedom" murals.

"I was invited and saw it as an opportunity to share with American pastors the work I have been doing to show the world how Israel and the Jewish people support women and the people of Iran," he told Fox News Digital.

"This is one of those opportunities to come and pray for the land and the State of Israel, connect with other Christians and people who share my beliefs and values."