Feed aggregator

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage gambled his seat on the voters of Clacton siding with him over Britain's political establishment — and won.

Farage regained his seat in Parliament Friday after triggering a highly unusual by-election that he said would allow voters to judge him amid allegations surrounding his finances. His closest challenger was not Labour or the Conservatives, but Count Binface, a satirical candidate played by comedian Jon Harvey who campaigns dressed as a trash can.

Farage captured 22,239 votes, while Count Binface won 9,455, according to the official result published by Tendring District Council. Turnout was 44.37%. Britain's major political parties declined to field candidates in the contest, which they dismissed as a self-serving stunt.

MEET 'COUNT BINFACE,' THE TRASH CAN-CLAD COMEDIAN CHALLENGING NIGEL FARAGE

"I called this by-election because I wanted the people of Clacton and the voters of this constituency to be my judge. Not the mainstream media in Britain…and the political establishment who paint us out to be criminals and bad people every day," Farage told supporters before the final result was announced. "So I asked the voters of Clacton to be my jury."

Farage resigned from Parliament last month, forcing the vote as he sought a renewed mandate amid a parliamentary investigation into whether he should have declared a £5 million, or roughly $6.75 million, gift from a billionaire cryptocurrency investor. Farage has acknowledged receiving the money and not declaring it, but maintains he did nothing wrong. The gamble succeeded in returning Farage to Westminster — but it did not make the investigation disappear.

He had previously called the reporting around his finances an "establishment hit job" and said he had followed the rules.

Shortly after the election result was declared, the parliamentary standards investigation, which had been suspended when Farage resigned his seat, was once again listed as active, Reuters reported. Parliament's current investigations page lists the Farage case as having opened May 13 under Rule 5, "Failure to register an interest." Parliament notes that the opening of an investigation does not itself mean the rules have been breached.

FARAGE SAYS MASS MIGRATION HAS CHANGED THE UK ‘LITERALLY BEYOND RECOGNITION,’ BELIEVES PARTY CAN WIN ELECTION

If the investigation ultimately leads to a qualifying suspension from Parliament, it could trigger a recall petition. Under British parliamentary rules, a suspension of at least 10 sitting days, or 14 calendar days, can trigger that process. A by-election would follow only if the recall petition reached the required threshold of support from eligible voters in the constituency.

Reuters reported that Farage had cast the election as a battle between ordinary voters and an establishment determined to discredit him. But with Labour, the Conservatives and other major parties refusing to participate, his principal opponent became Count Binface — whose policies included capping the price of ice cream cones and conscripting anyone using a speakerphone on public transportation.

Farage nevertheless framed the result as a sweeping rejection of his political opponents.

"Today, the voters in Clacton have stuck two fingers up to the entire political establishment," he told supporters.

Alan Mendoza, founder and executive director of the London-based Henry Jackson Society, and an advisor to Farage, offered a similar interpretation of the result.

"A tremendous result for Nigel Farage in Clacton," Mendoza wrote on X Friday. He argued that Farage's increased raw vote total despite the boycott by major parties showed voters had resisted efforts to turn them against the Reform leader, calling the result a "spectacular two fingered salute" to his critics.

Farage did not appear at the official vote declaration, saying police had advised him there was a campaign to disrupt the result. GB News later reported that Essex Police said it had not told any candidate not to attend the declaration.

"I'm damned if I'm going to stand on the stage having won a resounding victory ... and be demeaned and humiliated by nobodies," Farage said before the count was completed.

The election comes at a more complicated moment nationally for Reform UK.

BRITISH PRIME MINISTER KEIR STARMER FACES POTENTIAL LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE FROM NEWLY-ELECTED ANDY BURNHAM

After holding a lengthy lead in national opinion polling, Reform has seen its support decline, Reuters reported, citing both the controversy surrounding Farage's finances and a rise in support for Labour since Andy Burnham became prime minister last month. Reuters said Labour was leading Reform 28% to 25%, while Reform also faces competition on the right from the Conservative Party and Restore Britain.

Still, Farage increased his raw vote total from the 2024 general election. He received 22,239 votes Friday, compared with 21,225 in 2024, an increase of 1,014 votes despite lower turnout, according to GB News.

For now, Farage has the seat back and the renewed mandate from Clacton voters that he sought.But the parliamentary investigation he was fighting is back as well.

JERUSALEM: In a rare statement of anger and criticism directed at a small group of extremist Jewish settlers in the West Bank, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee condemned their attacks against a home being built by a Palestinian American from Ohio.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) managed to evict the lawbreakers who seized the house and arrested one person. But the group, mostly young, disaffected youths, who have set up unauthorized outposts and engaged in violence targeting Palestinians and their homes in the West Bank are becoming a growing problem for Israeli authorities who are being criticized for not doing enough to stop their violent actions.

Ambassador Huckabee posted on X in response to criticism that his team had not done enough, "The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem has been VERY involved & the IDF & Israel Police have gone at our request to remove the Israeli terrorists doing this. The actions of those doing this to this family’s home is criminal. The WH hasn’t "intervened" because we have kept DC apprised of the situation already. Actions by those who carried out this horrific act of terror meant to intimidate and harass this family are disgusting. No excuse for such thuggish behavior."

HOUSE DEMOCRAT RO KHANNA SAYS HE WAS DETAINED BY ARMED ISRAELI SETTLERS IN WEST BANK

According to The Associated Press, Israeli settlers have besieged three homes in the occupied West Bank for several days, including one owned by Palestinian American Loui Ridi. The seizure of Ridi’s home took place in Qusra, in the northern West Bank.

A senior Israeli official from the prime minister's office said, "Israel doesn’t accept vigilantes or any form of violence by juvenile delinquents. We are investing a lot of efforts to curb such sporadic violence. The IDF sent an additional battalion to Judea and Samaria to address the issue. We don’t take violence lightly. In the first quarter of 2026 alone, there were over 350 investigations opened, leading to 35 arrests. Putting things in perspective, Jews are attacked almost daily by Palestinian terrorists. There were over 300 Palestinian terrorist attacks against Jews in May of 2026 alone. The attempt to draw a false symmetry between sporadic violence and Palestinian terror is hypocritical."

The official added, "We do not accept vigilantes. Judea and Samaria is our ancestral homeland. It's where Jews came from and have a right to live. The Jewish community in Judea & Samaria is a law-abiding community. We are addressing the juvenile delinquents."

HOLY LAND BATTLE: SOLOMON'S POOLS BECOME FLASHPOINT IN FIGHT OVER ISRAEL'S BIBLICAL HERITAGE

Nadav Eyal, a prominent Israeli columnist for the large Hebrew daily Yedioth Ahronoth, told Fox News Digital, "There is an extending consensus in the Israeli political sphere, stretching from the left to the right, that some of the actions we are seeing in the West Bank, in Judea and Samaria, are, in actuality, Jewish terrorism. It is more widespread than it was ever before. It is considered by Israeli defense apparatus to be a serious problem."

In another post on X, Huckabee stated, "Settlers" are not the problem in Judea/Samaria. "Unsettlers" are. Very small minority who do great damage to Palestinian families & to Israel."

With over 500,000 Israelis living in Judea and Samaria, more commonly known as the West Bank, leaders of the settlement movements slammed the violence. The Jerusalem Post reported that the head of the Yesha Council, Yisrael Ganz, said, "There is no place for privately deciding to establish a hilltop outpost in the yard of a house, even when it is an illegal house or there is an attempt to take control of the area," he said. "There is absolutely no justification for violence against uninvolved people or against the security forces."

The newspaper also quoted Beit El Council head Shai Alon, who said they were causing "irreversible damage" to Israel and to the settlement movement, and described those responsible for attacks on innocent Palestinians as criminals.

Wafa, the Palestinian News & Info Agency, reported on Thursday that the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates "condemned the escalation of Israeli colonist terrorism and attacks against the town of Qusra." According to the Ministry’s statement, the "crimes were part of systematic policies aimed at displacing Palestinians and uprooting them from their land while imposing a reality that serves plans to annex the West Bank."

Israel's Channel 12 News analyst, Amit Segal wrote on X that "Settler violence is a sensitive issue in Israel. Only a vanishingly small share of the settler population supports or takes part in such acts, but because the problem is exaggerated and used to obscure Palestinian violence against them, they bristle at hearing about it — even from Israel’s greatest friends."

Segal said that "The most damning verdict of the event comes from Israel’s most faithful friend, Mike Huckabee. The most pro-settlement ambassador in the history of the post, a man who will not so much as use the word 'settler'— called the men at Qusra ‘Israeli terrorists.’"

He added that "For four days, the most capable military in the Middle East could not clear a path for a family to reach its own front door. The family lives on the outskirts of Qusra, south of Nablus. On Sunday, settlers from the encampments seeded by the Tel Talpiot outpost sealed the entrance to their home and would not let them in or out."

Fox News Digital sent a press query to the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

Iran's possible election to a major United Nations (U.N.) committee with influence on the shaping of policy concerning human rights, women's rights, and counterterrorism is "Orwellian," the head of a U.N. watchdog group says.

In November, the U.N. General Assembly is slated to vote on whether to admit Iran to the Committee for Programme and Coordination, a 34-member body whose member states serve three-year terms. The upcoming vote is widely expected to pass as a formality.

The committee doesn't draft human rights treaties or issue condemnations of human rights abuses, but plays an influential administrative role in how human rights initiatives are executed across the U.N. system.

The U.N. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) nominated Iran in April despite Tehran’s documented history of systematic human rights abuses, strict crackdowns on women’s rights, mass surveillance and lethal force against political dissenters.

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

Global bodies also consider Tehran a leading state sponsor of terrorism that funds proxy militant groups, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. In addition, Tehran has attacked neighboring Gulf states in recent months amid a war with the United States.

"It's the last government in the world that should have any influence," Hillel Neuer, executive director of Geneva-based UN Watch, told Fox News Digital.

"Sadly, at the United Nations today — an organization founded after World War II out of great idealism to bring international peace — it is a case of the lunatics running the asylum," Neuer added. "You have the Islamic Republic of Iran, a regime that beats, blinds, tortures, rapes, and imprisons women for standing up for their rights or showing a few strands of hair."

ISRAEL ACCUSES UN OF PLACING IT ON SAME SEXUAL VIOLENCE BLACKLIST AS HAMAS TERRORISTS, SEVERS TIES

Fox News Digital reached out to the Iranian Permanent Mission to the U.N. for comment.

Iran’s appointment would not be unprecedented. The U.N. Human Rights Council's 47 member states currently include nations with severely criticized human rights records, including China, Cuba, Pakistan and Eritrea.

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

"The United Nations speaks out in the name of values and principles such as human rights, democracy, freedom, equality and women's rights," Neuer said. "The reality is that, sadly, at least half the U.N. is made up of dictatorships."

Tehran continues to brutally suppress basic freedoms. In July, two men were publicly hanged for participating in nationwide anti-government demonstrations, while hundreds more remain jailed or killed for demanding regime change.

In addition, the U.N. has been accused of bias for heavily criticizing Israel's military actions in Gaza, while often failing to pass formal resolutions or issue direct condemnations against Hamas.

According to Neuer, the most disappointing aspect of Iran’s potential committee appointment is the willingness of Western democracies to acquiesce.

"The short answer is interests, cynicism, politics, dealmaking, and a culture of 'go along to get along,'" Neuer said. "If you are the French, Canadian, or German ambassador, you don't want to pick a fight with dozens of countries or trigger friction with Iran. They would rather simply avoid it."

Iran could launch military strikes as early as this fall, targeting a list of high-value assets to shatter increasing U.S. economic sanctions, national security analysts warned Thursday.

The warning came as the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, or ADNOC, reported that two vessels were struck transiting the Strait of Hormuz, according to the United Arab Emirates' state-run WAM news agency.

ADNOC said there were no injuries, and the situation was under control, according to Reuters, as the UAE foreign ministry condemned the Iranian attacks.

IRAN-BACKED HOUTHI THREAT IN RED SEA COULD LEAD TO MAJOR US POLICY SHIFT, ANALYSTS SAY

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday that Washington was preparing to take unprecedented economic action against Iran.

"Watch this ⁠space for more announcements ​coming next week because we ​are going to apply measures like we have never been seen in ​the history of economic ​isolation on a country," Bessent said in ‌an ⁠interview on Newsmax.

Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital Tehran is likely to step up military pressure as Washington intensifies sanctions.

"Come early fall, what we can expect is for them to kinetically push back against Trump's economic policy," Taleblu said. "If the president is re-embracing economic pressure as a management approach, just like we saw in 2019, then the regime will use kinetic pressure to try to find a way to break out of that economic containment."

TRUMP BETS ECONOMIC PRESSURE CAN SQUEEZE IRAN AS REGIME’S OWN FAILURES DEEPEN THE PAIN

Ben Taleblu said shrinking oil revenues and the U.S. naval blockade could also drive Tehran to expand its target list across the region.

"This means they would embrace the kinetic tool, and that's how they would get out of the economic containment regime that the U.S. seems to be defaulting to want to put on them," Taleblu added. 

"I would say more attacks on ships, potentially more attacks on U.S. bases, potentially more attacks on Arab infrastructure in the Persian Gulf. And certainly the regime would create a tiered list of targets of what is of immediate value versus what has greater economic value versus what might lead to the U.S. directly or indirectly responding."

The warnings come amid a deadlock in talks between Washington and Tehran.

So far, there have been no discussions about extending the U.S.-Iran ceasefire agreement, a senior Iranian source told Reuters Aug. 12.

Tehran has insisted Washington return to the pact and set a definitive timeline to meet its obligations.

The interim memorandum of understanding, signed in June, called for the "immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts."

The agreement later unraveled, with Trump declaring July 7 the pact was "over."

Under the framework, both sides had an extendable 60-day window to negotiate a final agreement addressing key security concerns, including Iran’s nuclear program.

That deadline is Aug. 17, with control of the Strait of Hormuz remaining a major sticking point.

Hossein Taeb, the newly appointed head of Iran's Basij paramilitary force, said Thursday the Strait of Hormuz remains "under Iran's control and management."

His comments conflicted with Trump's assertion a day earlier that the U.S. held "total control" over the vital waterway.

"The regime is relying on tried and true tactics here, which is, you know, a knife in the back and a handshake in the front to many of America's traditional Gulf partners," Taleblu said. 

"It looks like Iranian escalation, Iranian diplomatic pressure, Iranian diplomatic finesse is trying to back the Trump administration into the MOU again.

"The regime definitely does not want to grant the Trump administration the optics of victory, and to that end, they're quite keen to hold on to the Strait of Hormuz."

Taleblu said Trump has described the sanctions-driven strategy as a "low-key" approach.

"These are high-impact tools," he concluded. "I think part of the escalation that we saw in the summer of 2019 — part of that past could be a prologue."

Ukraine’s expanding deep-strike campaign impacted Russia’s largest online retailer again Thursday, when a drone struck an oil and petrochemical complex in Bashkortostan, sparking a fire at a Wildberries facility, according to reports.

Wildberries, often described as "Russia’s Amazon," said the facility was evacuated and that no goods were being stored there at the time, Reuters reported.

The strike marked the latest in a series of Ukrainian attacks affecting the e-commerce firm's sites across Russia that began July 18, when drones hit centers in Kotovsk and Elektrostal, killing seven and wounding more than 60, according to reports.

BRINGING THE WAR TO PUTIN’S FRONT DOOR: IS UKRAINE’S ENERGY STRIKE STRATEGY WORKING?

Four days later, drones struck facilities in Krasnodar and Nevinnomyssk, sparking fires and injuring 15 people.

"We can call it ‘kinetic sanctions enforcement,’ or Ukraine’s adaptation of economic coercion into physical strikes," Kateryna Bondar, senior fellow at the Wadhwani AI Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Fox News Digital.

"Kyiv’s goal is to steadily raise the cost and risk of sustaining Russia’s war economy," the former Ukrainian government advisor said, adding that the economic impact could be significant.

The total losses incurred by Wildberries and its sellers as a result of the attacks have been estimated at 600 billion to 800 billion rubles ($6 billion to $8.5 billion), Ukrainian media outlet Pravda reported.

"With only 5% to 7% of sellers insured, the damage is cascading onto tens of thousands of small businesses and forcing Russia’s logistics sector to reprice wartime risk," Bondar said.

"Roughly 27% of Wildberries warehouse capacity is reportedly out of operation," she added.

'PURE HELL' IN MOSCOW AS UKRAINIAN DRONES STRIKE MAJOR REFINERY SUPPLYING CAPITAL'S FUEL MARKET

Beyond the financial toll, Bondar said the strikes carry a significant psychological impact.

"I’ve listened to videos recorded by witnesses, and reactions range from fear, shock and anger to disappointment in the capabilities of Russian air defenses," she said. "So, that effect is clearly being achieved."

Wildberries founder and CEO Tatyana Kim has since accused Ukraine of deliberately targeting a civilian company. In a July 31 video address, she described the strikes as a "terrorist attack."

"For nearly two weeks now, our company's warehouses have been under terrorist attack. Why our warehouses, of all places? Attacks against us are attacks against hundreds of millions of people in 10 countries at once," Kim said.

Kim claimed Wildberries entrepreneurs in Russia and partner countries, including China and Kazakhstan, had "suffered losses amounting to billions," arguing that the company itself not be held responsible for covering all the losses.

MOSCOW, KYIV ASSASSINS HUNT WEAPONS BOSSES AS UKRAINE WAR SPILLS BEYOND THE BATTLEFIELD

"Merchants will start pricing Russian logistics risk into their business decisions," Bondar warned.

Kim said sellers from ten countries, including China, have suffered billions in losses, while Wildberries maintains it is not liable, which creates incentives to diversify away from the platform, shorten inventory cycles, demand prepayment and increase insurance costs.

Bondar said Kyiv views the retail giant’s sprawling supply chain through a military and economic lens.

"Kyiv assesses Wildberries warehouses as distribution nodes for dual-use goods, including body armor, helmets, fiber optic cable for FPV drones, and navigation components, as well as channels for sanctions circumvention," Bondar said.

"The strikes also retaliate for Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s civilian logistics infrastructure, including the Nova Poshta and Ukrposhta networks."

RUSSIA UNLEASHES NEARLY 600 MISSILES AND DRONES ON KYIV IN DEADLIEST STRIKE SINCE MAY

Kim is Russia’s richest woman, with Forbes estimating her fortune at roughly $7 billion in July.

"Kim matters to the Kremlin less as an individual than as an asset already absorbed into its clan system," Bondar said. "The current strikes expose the limits of her political protection. The Kremlin has remained largely silent, while Kim is negotiating tax deferrals rather than receiving compensation or air-defense protection from them.

"It sends the message to Russia’s business elite that proximity to power does not guarantee protection, and private businesses are expected to absorb the costs of war."

The attacks have also drawn scrutiny regarding Wildberries’ warehouse security procedures and a controversial new policy restricting workers’ cellphone use.

REPORT WARNS RUSSIA USING SHADOW FLEET TO PROBE NATO DRONE DEFENSES

"The smartphone ban is officially justified as an air-defense security measure, but the real concern appears to be information control," Bondar said.

"Employees were filming strikes and sharing footage in real time, making the damage and the war’s impact on ordinary Russians impossible to hide," she added. "The policy also exposes a serious vulnerability. Workers reportedly had their phones locked away during attacks, limiting their ability to call for help.

"Wildberries cannot harden its sprawling warehouses or provide air defense, so it is controlling the one thing it can — what gets recorded and seen."

A luxury $9.1 million yacht sank into the waters of the Mediterranean Sea Tuesday, just days after it had been delivered to its new owner.

The Angiola II was off the coast of Porto Cervo on the popular Italian island of Sardinia with 14 guests on board when it experienced engine failure that sparked a fire, the New York Post reported.

The blaze damaged seals on the vessel, which began to take on water, causing it to tip onto its side.

DRUNK REPEAT OFFENDER CALLED A 'TICKING TIME BOMB' BEFORE 80-MPH BOATING COLLISION KILLED WOMAN: PROSECUTORS

The guests managed to escape to safety and were rescued by nearby vessels, The Telegraph reported.

Video footage showed the boat on its side.

COAST GUARD OPENS FIRE ON BOAT SMUGGLING 25 CHINESE NATIONALS NEAR FLORIDA AFTER IT REFUSED TO STOP

The unidentified owner — an Italian businessman — was the last one off the ship, the newspaper reported.

The yacht reportedly sank at a depth of around 23 feet between an island called L’Isola dei Cappuccini and Capo Ferro on Sardinia’s exclusive Costa Smeralda, or Emerald Coast, the news report states.

The boat will be kept under surveillance until a recovery company recovers it from the sea floor.

The yacht can reportedly accommodate 10 guests and is fitted with five cabins and five crew members. 

It has four engines and can reach speeds of 28 knots.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk revealed Thursday that his country arrested a Russian man hired by Moscow to kill a Ukrainian-American citizen who was "inconvenient to the Putin regime."

Tusk said the suspect was taken into custody Friday, with the alleged target being a man in Poland’s capital of Warsaw, according to a report from Reuters.

"Thanks to the truly brilliant action of our services ... we detained a Russian citizen recruited by Russian intelligence services," Tusk was quoted saying, adding that the target held both Ukrainian ‌and ⁠U.S. passports. "At the last minute, thanks to the action of the Internal Security Agency and the police, we managed to ⁠prevent this execution, this attack."

Fox News Digital has reached out to the State Department for comment.

MOSCOW, KYIV ASSASSINS HUNT WEAPONS BOSSES AS UKRAINE WAR SPILLS BEYOND THE BATTLEFIELD

Tusk also said Thursday that it was the first time that "someone on the order of Russia" sought to attack an American citizen on the territory of another NATO country, The Associated Press reported.

The operation was carried out in cooperation with U.S. services, Tomasz Siemoniak, Poland’s minister overseeing intelligence services, told the AP.

The news agency reported that it has mapped about 200 acts of sabotage, arson and other disruption across Europe since the start of the Ukraine war that officials have linked to Russia. President Vladimir Putin claimed to the AP in May that Russia is not waging a sabotage campaign against Europe.

RUSSIA LINKED TO ARSON ATTACKS ON PROPERTIES CONNECTED TO UK PM KEIR STARMER, POLICE SAY

In June, a Russian artist who was critical of Putin was shot and killed at close range near his home in eastern Poland. Tusk said at the time that the killing had the hallmarks of a political assassination. He suggested it was possible Russia was behind it, but Polish officials have not yet attributed it to Moscow.

Last year, French officials disrupted a plot which they believe was aimed at killing Vladimir Osechkin, a Russian exile who lives under police protection and works to help military defectors flee Putin’s war.

Lithuanian officials also disrupted a plot last year to kill a Lithuanian supporter of Ukraine and another against a Russian activist.

Officials in Germany have similarly broken up two plots: one to target the head of a German weapons company supplying Ukraine, the other against a Ukrainian military official.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

U.S. officials have for years warned that Hamas has exploited ostensibly civilian and humanitarian funding streams to support its terrorist infrastructure, fueling concerns over whether money entering Gaza can be kept out of the terror group's hands as a new U.S.-backed governing structure prepares to take control.

The Treasury Department has repeatedly targeted what it describes as Hamas financing networks, including a secret investment portfolio, sham charities and organizations that raised money under the guise of humanitarian work while supporting Hamas' military wing.

Those concerns resurfaced this week after Israel's Kan News reported that a provision in the Board of Peace's Gaza roadmap could allow up to $400 million to address unpaid obligations accumulated during Hamas' rule, including money owed to public-sector workers, suppliers and contractors.

The dispute is over whether a successor government can settle legitimate obligations inherited from nearly two decades of Hamas rule without indirectly benefiting the terrorist group. Critics warn that doing so could relieve financial burdens associated with Hamas' rule or create opportunities for the group to siphon off resources while it retains influence on the ground. Board officials argue the mechanism is instead designed to allow a successor government to preserve essential services and relationships with legitimate workers and suppliers — with each claim individually vetted and any payment that could benefit Hamas rejected.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION PROBES UNRWA OVER ALLEGED EMPLOYMENT OF 1,500 TERRORISTS

Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace's high representative for Gaza, sharply rejected the characterization that the provision amounted to a financial agreement with Hamas.

"The claims that there is a financial agreement between the Board of Peace and Hamas are false," Mladenov wrote in Hebrew on X Wednesday, adding that no such proposal had been "discussed, negotiated, or considered." He said the Board's objective remained the complete disarmament of Hamas and the establishment of civilian governance backed by an international security presence.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital that he remained alarmed by the provision.

"I'm deeply concerned about these reports. Terrorists use money as fungible and they build credibility by having international donors finance their debts, which is why Congress long ago banned money from going to Palestinian governments in the West Bank," Cruz said.

"We also know that international donors paid for Hamas to build terrorist infrastructure across the Gaza Strip in the first place, and shouldn't be trusted to direct reimbursement money," Cruz continued. "Hamas should be utterly eradicated before new resources flow into Gaza."

HAMAS AGREES TO COMPLETE DISARMAMENT UNDER 'HISTORIC' GAZA AGREEMENT: TRUMP

A senior Board of Peace official, speaking to Fox News Digital on background Thursday, pushed back on the premise that the roadmap commits $400 million to paying Hamas' debts.

"There's really just a commitment to analyze when we get the data. There's no commitment to fund anything. We don't have an obligation to even do $400 million," the official said.

The official described the provision as a three-year review process, capped at $400 million, under which the successor Gaza administration could determine whether particular unpaid obligations need to be resolved in order to maintain essential services and relationships with legitimate suppliers.

HILLARY CLINTON BREAKS WITH DEMOCRATIC CRITICS BY BACKING TRUMP’S GAZA PLAN AS THE 'ONLY GAME IN TOWN'

"This notion that there's, like, a $400 million payoff vehicle, Hamas kind of has a commitment for it — none of that is true," the official said. "If anybody's gonna start running with a narrative that a $400 million committed tab is beginning now ... that would just be incorrect reporting. That's not the deal."

"No one's picking up a tab right now," the official added, saying any review would take place only after the new Gaza administration gains access to financial records allowing it to determine who the creditors are, what services they provided and whether those relationships are needed going forward.

"Even the first dollar of the $400 million, we're going to evaluate that first dollar," the official said. "It's not going to be a blank check handed to Hamas. It's going to be evaluated, rigorously analyzed."

The official compared the process to a corporate restructuring, arguing that while Hamas is being permanently removed from government, the successor administration cannot necessarily walk away from every legitimate obligation accumulated during the previous government's rule.

HAMAS SAYS IT WILL DISSOLVE GAZA GOVERNMENT, BUT ISRAEL WARNS GROUP STILL SEEKS HEZBOLLAH-STYLE CONTROL

He offered the example of a European pharmaceutical company that supplied medicine to Gaza hospitals but was never paid. If the new administration needs that company to continue supplying medicine, he said, resolving some of its unpaid invoices could be necessary to maintain the relationship.

"The theme here, really, is continuity of services," the official said.

The official did not say that Hamas would have to be fully disarmed across the entire Gaza Strip before the first claim could potentially be paid.

"The reality is that this is going to be community by community," the official said, explaining that the successor administration is expected to move into individual areas as Hamas disarms there.

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

Asked whether Hamas would have to be completely removed from Gaza before the new administration could resolve an outstanding liability — for example, involving a hospital in Rafah — the official said a payment could occur even if Hamas had not yet been fully removed elsewhere in the Strip.

"The idea is that where those decisions are made, Hamas is not gonna be there," he said.

When Fox News Digital asked specifically whether it was accurate to say money would not be transferred into areas where Hamas remained in control, the official said: "It's accurate to say."

The official acknowledged that more complicated cases could arise if the same supplier operates in both Hamas-free and Hamas-controlled portions of Gaza. Officials might then have to determine whether to reimburse only the portion associated with the area controlled by the successor government or negotiate some other arrangement necessary to maintain the service.

US URGES DONORS TO ABANDON UNRWA FUNDING AS UN DEFENDS AGENCY'S MISSION

Cruz's central criticism is that money is fungible: if international donors satisfy obligations accumulated under Hamas rule, resources that might otherwise have been needed to cover those liabilities could theoretically be used elsewhere.

The Board official rejected that argument, saying Hamas is insolvent and was never going to pay many of the outstanding creditors in the first place.

"It's not as though we're alleviating them from, like, their budget that they actually were gonna actually go pay that $100 and now they get to save it," the official said.

"They were never paying it in the first place," he continued. "We're making a decision separate and apart from Hamas, whether this fits into our budget and our relationships."

HAMAS TAPS 'ULTIMATE INSTITUTIONAL SURVIVOR' AS TERROR CHIEF, SENDING MESSAGE TO ISRAEL: EXPERT

The official described Hamas as "dead insolvent right now" and "financially, completely, completely in shambles."

Fox News Digital also pressed the official on a separate concern: even if money is never transferred directly to Hamas, could the group extract taxes, payments or other benefits from suppliers or employees receiving funds while it remains armed elsewhere?

"If there's a risk that some of the money is going to still end up in the hands of Hamas, then we're gonna shut it down," the official said.

He said officials would examine each recipient, the services provided and where the money ultimately would go.

"If Hamas is not fully disarmed ... can it end up in their hands? If the answer to that question is yes, then they're not gonna get money," he said. "Like, that is crystal clear."

The official also disclosed that the Board intends to try to recover assets it believes Hamas stole and use those assets, where possible, to satisfy legitimate obligations.

"We are going to make a real effort to go and try to recover those assets and use some of those assets, where we have found theft ... to satisfy some of these obligations," he said.

If recovered assets are insufficient, the official said outside funding would come from countries in the region rather than Washington.

"This is coming from regional partners. This is not coming from the United States," he said.

The Trump State Department has reacted to a new report by UNICEF on malnutrition in Gaza by saying it "completely shatters" the allegations that Israel deliberately starved civilians in the Hamas-run enclave.

The outcry of criticism comes as a report used by the United Nations and quoted by much of the world's media projected starvation in Gaza well into June.

Following Hamas’ invasion of southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that led to the deaths of some 1,200 people and the kidnapping of 251 Israeli and foreign nationals, the Jewish state invaded Gaza, which led to accusations of genocide and deliberate starvation tactics used against Gazans.

The UNICEF-led National Nutrition Cluster report from last month was able to reach 1,335 children under age 5 throughout 83% of the Gaza Strip to assess its risk of malnutrition. Malnutrition rates were determined by weight-for-height Z-score (WHZ) and mid-upper-arm circumference (MUAC). Using WHZ figures, rates ranged from 0.2% in Khan Younis and Rafah to 0.8% in Gaza City. MUAC measurements found malnutrition rates ranging from 1.5% in Gaza City to 1.9% in Deir Al-Balah.

About 17% of the population could not be surveyed due to security and operational constraints.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION PROBES UNRWA OVER ALLEGED EMPLOYMENT OF 1,500 TERRORISTS

A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital that "UNICEF’s latest findings demonstrate another example that completely shatters the countless false allegations against Israel of deliberate starvation of civilians in Gaza. There are U.N. entities, media outlets and NGOs that should retract and correct their politicized and baseless attacks on Israel – which has provided an unprecedented over 2 million tons of food into Gaza since the ceasefire."

The rates of malnutrition UNICEF documented are on par with, or substantially lower than, those in some neighboring countries. According to a post on X from the Israeli Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), acute malnutrition figures in the region range from 1.3% in Gaza, Lebanon, and Turkey to 2.3% in Jordan, 3.3% in Egypt, 12.2% in Syria and 17.7% in Sudan.

UNICEF’s report has raised ire from onlookers who took issue with the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) statement that famine was "confirmed" in Gaza in August 2025.

The catalyst for the uproar was the IPC's warning from August 2025 that famine had reached Gaza Governorate. At that time, the IPC estimated that "through June 2026, at least 132,000 children under 5 are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition," including 41,000 severe cases where children would be "at heightened risk of death."

The IPC is expected to release a full report on conditions in Gaza "in the coming days." Prior to releasing the report, they have assessed that the Gaza Strip would be in Phase 2, the "alert" phase for malnutrition, between July and December 2026. They state that "74,200 children aged 6–59 months will likely require treatment for acute malnutrition through April 2027, with more than 11,400 severe cases expected." 

UNICEF’s July report found that "very few confirmed nutrition-related deaths have been reported during treatment" in Gaza. The IPC did not respond to questions about UNICEF’s findings or whether they stood by their prior claims that famine had been reached in Gaza.

HAMAS AGREES TO COMPLETE DISARMAMENT UNDER 'HISTORIC' GAZA AGREEMENT: TRUMP

The State Department spokesperson added that "the United States, in coordination with Israel, have facilitated humanitarian assistance while taking important steps to prevent Hamas from diverting or looting the aid, providing more support to Gazans. The president has a bold and ambitious plan to rebuild Gaza, which is well underway through the efforts of the Board of Peace to facilitate disarming Hamas and ensure it is no longer a threat to Israel."

Andrew Fox, a senior fellow at the Henry Jackson Society who has closely studied the Gaza conflict, told Fox News Digital that "the new data shows that the allegations of famine in Gaza were pure hysteria." He said that while "certain small pockets of hunger occurred in Gaza, we now know this can only have been an issue of distribution. Once again, international organizations removed Hamas and their share of the blame for Gaza’s suffering from the conversation, stoking the anti-Israel narrative."

Prof. Aron Troen, director of the Nutrition and Brain Health Laboratory who teaches in the School of Nutrition Science and the School of Public Health at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem, told Fox News Digital that the UNICEF findings are "very, very good news." He said it was "remarkable that in an area which was very recently claimed to be experiencing not only famine, but a deliberate and imposed political famine, that the situation has gone to the point that the current measures, and at least some of them, right now are better than…other places in the Arab world."

CHRISTIAN LEADERS HOLD EMERGENCY SUMMIT IN JERUSALEM TO CONFRONT GLOBAL RISE IN ANTISEMITISM

"It’s important to state that if one wishes to take seriously the efforts to identify humanitarian need and provide an adequate response, then you have to be just as open to the good news as to the bad news," Troen said. He further decried "narratives" surrounding the report "that serve political agendas." He said that if there were the possibility of "a gradual transfer of pragmatic agency to a Palestinian governance in the interests of two states, respect for borders, coexistence," that it "requires people to stop throwing around genocide, famine, and impugning one side or the other in order to gain political leverage."

Kurtis Cooper, Chief of Global Media at UNICEF, told Fox News Digital that "the recent nutrition survey measures conditions in mid-2026, more than nine months after the IPC confirmed famine in August 2025 and after a ceasefire and substantial scale-up in humanitarian assistance. It does not tell us what conditions were in August 2025, and it was never designed to."

Cooper said that "in terms of why the situation has improved, during the period covered by the August 2025 IPC analysis, programmes to detect and treat malnutrition were largely operating, but blanket supplementary feeding had largely ceased across Gaza because of severe access constraints and supply disruptions. Programme data show a similar trend: admissions for treatment of acute malnutrition peaked at nearly 17,000 children in August 2025 before falling to around 3,100 by May 2026."

Cooper did not answer questions about how WHZ rates measured in Gaza compare to those in other countries experiencing widespread human suffering.

In May, UNICEF reported that in Sudan, "almost 100,000 children were admitted for treatment for severe acute malnutrition" between January and March. UNICEF estimated that 825,000 children under 5 would experience severe acute malnutrition in Sudan in 2026.

Andrew Fox called on "leading organizations" to "offer a public and full retraction of their error-strewn papers." He explained that "their mistakes have paved the way for an explosion in global antisemitism, and these organizations must own their roles in that and make amends as loudly as possible."

According to the J7 Large Communities’ Task Force Against Antisemitism, 2025 was the deadliest year for antisemitic attacks around the world since 1994.

The U.S. Embassy in London is offering up to $500,000 in grants to bolster shared values between the United States and the United Kingdom, including freedom of speech, due process and limited government, but at least one British critic is rejecting the offered funding as "MAGA money meddling."

Liberal Democrat MP Lisa Smart framed the grant as "Trump’s MAGA money meddling in democracy," in a quote to The Guardian.

"We have a proud tradition of liberty and freedom of speech in this country," Smart added.

That tradition, according to free speech defenders, is under threat across the pond.

BIBLE VERSE LEADS TO TRIAL IN EUROPE. GROWING CRACKDOWN THREATENS OUR US-UK VALUES

"It is a true free speech disaster in the U.K., and they don't even seem to know what's happening," Greg Lukianoff, president of the nonpartisan Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), told Fox News Digital.

Lukianoff posited that the U.K.'s current attitude to free speech means it needs all the help that it can get.

"Whether the help is coming from JD Vance or Trump or maybe some future Democrat who sees the light on this stuff, the U.K. should be accepting help on freedom of speech because they are in crisis, and it's unsustainable," Lukianoff told Fox News Digital.

WAR OF WORDS IGNITES OVER TRUMP ADMIN REBUKE OF BRITISH POLICE AFTER TEEN BLED TO DEATH IN HANDCUFFS

The U.S. Embassy in London, in response to Smart's criticisms, noted that Liberal Democrats did not push back on Biden-era grants that could be viewed as political.

In response to the accusation that the U.S. is "meddling in British democracy," the U.S. embassy said in a statement to Fox News Digital, it "is mindful of such concerns, and has discontinued Biden-era public diplomacy spending on divisive ideological projects such as 'climate justice,' LGBTQ activism, and race-based hiring initiatives — none of which, to our recollection, raised such complaints from officials."

President Donald Trump's State Department as a whole is axing Biden-era guidelines that directed personnel to push a woke diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) agenda on foreign officials and governments, Fox News Digital has learned.

Meanwhile, the FIRE boss rejected the notion that foundational values like free speech are MAGA constructions.

"When it comes to the idea of these being fundamentally tainted ideas, that is very much a higher education, elite-educated concept," he told Fox News Digital.

HASAN PIKER SAYS UK HAS BARRED HIM, TRASHES 'UNBELIEVABLE...POWER' OF PRO-ISRAEL GROUPS

The U.K. has imposed a number of new laws restricting speech in the country in recent years, perhaps most notably the 2023 Online Safety Act, which gives the country's regulators the power to slap hefty fines on digital platforms if they don't enforce the U.K.'s increasingly stricter speech codes.

Lukianoff compared the U.K.'s new direction to the first Red Scare, the period in U.S. history in the early 1920s that saw thousands arrested on charges related to suspected communist ties.

"I always have to put this in context. In the first Red Scare in the United States — 1919 and 1920 — we arrested about 2,000 people per year, and that's bad. They're arresting around 12,000 a year in a country that's about 50% smaller than the U.S. was at the time. They are in free fall and also in complete denial of it," Lukianoff said.

Ahead of a House of Lords debate last year on arrests for online communications and free speech, the House of Lords Library cited a Times of London analysis that found more than 12,000 arrests in 2023 under two communications laws.

GOP LAWMAKERS URGE SUPREME COURT TO STRENGTHEN FIRST AMENDMENT PROTECTIONS FOR STREET PREACHERS

Both the U.S. and U.K. allow authorities to prosecute threats of violence, but the U.K. has no direct equivalent to the First Amendment and also criminalizes certain communications deemed "grossly offensive."

The outsized number of arrests in the U.K., Lukianoff argued, don't "even include the large number of non-crime hate incidents or the stuff that they're currently trying to suppress, also in the United States, by the way, through their online laws."

"So it is a true free speech disaster in the U.K., and they don't even seem to know what's happening," he added.

BIDEN ADMIN USED ABORTION GROUP DOSSIERS, INCLUDING PHOTOS OF MINORS, TO TARGET CHRISTIANS, DOJ REPORT REVEALS

A non-crime hate incident, according to the U.K. government, is defined as "an incident or alleged incident which involves or is alleged to involve an act by a person ('the subject') which is perceived by a person other than the subject to be motivated — wholly or partly — by hostility or prejudice towards persons with a particular characteristic."

The government, according to FIRE, creates a registry of people who participate in these NCHIs, which the organization calls "censorship with extra steps."

"Non-criminal hate speech incidents can be anything from just someone saying something like, we want to reduce immigration because it raises crime rates. That's an empirical question. If you're a free person or free society, you should be able to actually have that debate. You should be able to show numbers. You better persuade, et cetera. You can't just deem it illegal to have that argument," Lukianoff told Fox News Digital.

"I think that there's so much the U.K. could have to offer if it would get off its own feet. Essentially, I think that it's in a process of kind of rejecting everything that made it great at one point. And if we can help out a friend — even when they don't know they're in need — when they're in need, I think we absolutely should. But I really don't know how Britain can get a better view of itself at the moment, because currently the message isn't getting through that what's going on there right now isn't sustainable," Lukianoff said.

Fox News Digital contacted Smart for further comment.

Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened Wednesday to seize European vessels in retaliation if European countries begin seizing Russian merchant ships after Ukraine launched a major overnight attack on a key Russian Black Sea naval and commercial hub and Moscow staged large-scale war games in the Pacific.

The developments underscore a growing battle at sea: Ukraine is hitting one of Russia’s most important Black Sea naval and export hubs, while Moscow is warning it could seize European vessels and flexing its naval power in the Pacific. Though the events are not directly linked, they show how the war is increasingly extending beyond the front lines into strategic ports and international shipping routes.

Ukraine hammered the port city of Novorossiysk in a massive overnight drone attack that put two major grain terminals out of operation, according to Russian industry sources cited by Reuters Aug. 12. Novorossiysk is a major Black Sea export hub and also serves as a base for Russian warships that Moscow relocated there after repeated Ukrainian attacks on its Black Sea Fleet in Crimea.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed responsibility Wednesday morning for an operation targeting the Novorossiysk naval base, calling it "the last major stronghold of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea." In a post on X, Zelenskyy said Ukraine used Palianytsia jet-powered drones, Neptune missiles and unmanned naval systems and claimed hits on air-defense positions, piers and port infrastructure.

UKRAINE LAUNCHES WHAT APPEARS TO BE ONE OF ITS LARGEST DRONE ATTACKS AGAINST RUSSIA: REPORT

"The occupation fleet and all the infrastructure supporting it will not be safe as long as Russian aggression continues," Zelenskyy wrote.

The governor of Russia’s Krasnodar region said at least two people, including an 8-year-old child, were killed in the wider wave of attacks. Novorossiysk Mayor Andrei Kravchenko said more than two dozen residential buildings, four businesses and educational facilities were damaged, and the city’s water supply was suspended. Reuters reported that Chicago wheat futures rose roughly 3% amid concerns over potential disruptions to Russian grain exports.

Separately Wednesday, thousands of miles to the east, Putin appeared aboard the Russian missile cruiser Varyag near Sakhalin while observing Pacific Fleet exercises and issued a warning to European governments increasingly targeting Russia’s so-called shadow fleet.

The European Union has expanded sanctions against hundreds of vessels and detained some ships and their crews for checks, while some European governments are considering tougher maritime enforcement against vessels suspected of sanctions evasion, Reuters reported Wednesday.

REPORT WARNS RUSSIA USING SHADOW FLEET TO PROBE NATO DRONE DEFENSES

Quoting Putin, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote on X, "Attempts to seize Russian vessels & sell off our property are outright piracy. If such plans are implemented, Russia will respond in kind – wherever we deem necessary, including within the Pacific Fleet’s area of responsibility."

The warning came against the backdrop of sweeping Russian naval exercises. The drills stretched across the Sea of Japan, Sea of Okhotsk and Northwest Pacific and involved more than 13,000 personnel and around 60 ships, submarines and support vessels. Russian Defense Ministry figures reported separately put the number of participating aircraft, helicopters and unmanned systems at around 30.

Video supplied by East2West showed Russian forces firing anti-ship missiles during the drills. Bastion coastal missile systems launched Oniks cruise missiles at simulated enemy ships from Kamchatka and the Kuril Islands, while the corvette Smerch fired a Uran anti-ship cruise missile, according to East2West.

Putin also used his Pacific appearance to accuse NATO of expanding its presence in the Asia-Pacific and Arctic regions, pointing to new military alliances and planned weapons deployments that he said were increasing the potential for conflict.

RUSSIA PREPARING HYBRID ATTACKS ON NATO'S EASTERN FLANK, INTELLIGENCE WARNS

The developments unfolded as attacks continued on both sides. Reuters reported that Russia struck the Ukrainian port of Odesa and that a separate Russian attack set fire to a shopping mall in Zaporizhzhia, underscoring the continuing pressure on ports and logistics infrastructure as the war approaches four and a half years.

Separately, Romania said its naval forces destroyed two suspected Russian Gerbera drones over the Black Sea, roughly 90 nautical miles from Constanta, according to East2West.

NATO said its North Atlantic Council met Wednesday to discuss Russian airspace violations in Poland and Romania and recent drone incidents. A NATO spokesperson said allies "condemned Russia for actions, expressed solidarity with allies affected [and] reaffirmed support to Ukraine."

Reuters contributed to this report.

A new defense pact linking Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan is fueling debate over whether the three countries are laying the groundwork for a competing regional bloc — potentially challenging the U.S.-backed architecture built around Israel and the Abraham Accords — or simply creating a new model of burden-sharing among American partners.

The three countries, all with longstanding security ties to the United States, enter the pact with different interests — but together they could begin shifting the region’s balance of power.

Saudi Arabia signed a Strategic Defense Agreement with the United States in November 2025 and was designated a major non-NATO ally, but Riyadh did not secure the treaty-level, Article 5-style U.S. defense guarantee it had long sought, making the new pact a potential hedge against uncertainty over Washington’s future security commitments.

 Pakistan, a nuclear-armed state, gains greater energy security, Saudi investment and regional influence, while offering significant military capabilities — although whether its nuclear deterrent extends to its partners remains unconfirmed. Turkey, already a NATO member, gains a larger market for its growing defense industry and additional strategic weight as tensions with Israel rise.

WHO IS TURKEY'S RECEP TAYYIP ERDOĞAN? HOW NATO'S MOST UNPREDICTABLE LEADER KEEPS REINVENTING HIMSELF

Taken together, the arrangement gives three U.S. partners greater ability to build deterrence on their own — potentially easing Washington’s security burden while also giving them more independence from it.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif signed the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement on Aug. 7. A joint statement said the pact was intended to "strengthen collective deterrence against any act of aggression" and stipulated that an armed attack against one country would be regarded as an attack against all three.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan went further the following day, telling Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency that the agreement was "technically the same" as NATO’s Article 5 mutual-defense provision, which treats an attack on one member as an attack on all. Fidan said, however, that the countries would consult on the degree and form of assistance provided following an attack, with operational details still to be determined by a new ministerial committee. The alliance will also establish a general secretariat based in Saudi Arabia, Reuters reported Aug. 8.

Fidan said President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wants the alliance to eventually expand beyond its three founding members and identified Egypt as a potential participant. He said negotiations over the pact had been underway for two years and eight months.

Saudi Deputy Minister for Public Diplomacy Rayed Krimly has pushed back on suggestions that the agreement represents the creation of a new sectarian or military bloc, saying it is not connected to nuclear ambitions or an arms race. Turkish officials have similarly said the pact is defensive and not directed against Iran or any other country.

Iran, meanwhile, played down the pact as a threat to Tehran. Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Aug. 10 that Iran saw no reason to be concerned that the agreement was directed against it, telling Reuters that the pact reflected a regional shift toward countries relying more heavily on their own security capabilities rather than outside powers.

"Any plan that is based on the geopolitical and historical realities of the region, is comprehensive and inclusive, and correctly identifies the enemy and the threat, has a chance of helping to strengthen security and prevent instability and abuses by the Zionist enemy and its allies," Baghaei said, referring to Israel.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Turkish Embassy in Washington, D.C., and the Pakistani government for comment but did not receive responses in time for publication.

Sinan Ciddi, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and director of its Turkey program, told Fox News Digital that he remains skeptical that the pact currently amounts to a NATO-style alliance.

AMERICANS ARE NOT GIVING UP ON NATO, BUT THEY EXPECT EUROPE TO DO ITS SHARE

"Does it have teeth? Is it a serious deterrent? Is that a serious collective defense pact? Is it a Muslim NATO? We're not actually sure yet," Ciddi said.

Ciddi said each of the three countries enters the pact with different incentives. For Saudi Arabia, he sees it as a hedge against doubts over the reliability of U.S. security guarantees; for Pakistan, it offers greater energy security, Saudi investment and added regional prestige; and for Turkey, it creates new opportunities for defense cooperation and a larger market for its arms industry. Ankara also gains additional deterrent weight as its tensions with Israel grow, he argued.

"I would say that this pact is much more targeted towards closer economic and commercial ties rather than substantive NATO-like security ties," Ciddi added.

Saudi Arabia rejects the suggestion that the agreement represents a turn away from Washington.

WATCH: DEMOCRATS BLAST TRUMP SAUDI NUCLEAR DEAL AS GOP TOUTS REGIONAL ALLIANCE

"The United States remains to be our primary strategic partner," a Saudi source told Fox News Digital on background, saying the kingdom’s expanding ties with Pakistan and Turkey should not be viewed as coming at the expense of its relationship with Washington.

The Saudi source also rejected descriptions of the agreement as a "Muslim NATO" or Sunni alliance and said it was not directed against Israel, Iran or any other particular country. Asked whether the pact represented a Saudi move away from normalization with Israel, the source said, "It's not related in any way."

Aziz Alghashian, a senior non-resident fellow at the Gulf International Forum, offered a similar interpretation.

"I don't think it's a counterweight to the Abraham Accords," Alghashian told Fox News Digital.

WHY NATO’S DEFENSE SPENDING IMBALANCE LASTED FOR DECADES

Instead, Alghashian described the agreement as part of Saudi Arabia’s longer-term diversification of strategic relationships.

"I think it's actually a supplementation. It's complementary to the United States," he said, arguing that greater cooperation among regional partners could provide increased burden-sharing for Washington.

From Pakistan’s perspective, the agreement offers both military and political advantages, Raza Rumi, distinguished lecturer at the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at CUNY, told Fox News Digital.

"Pakistan gains strategic depth, greater leverage in the Gulf and a more formal place in an emerging regional security architecture," Rumi said, pointing to potential cooperation on defense production, technology transfers, intelligence, training and air and missile defense.

But he cautioned against interpreting the pact’s mutual-defense language too literally.

"Seriously, but not literally as an Article 5-style guarantee, at least not yet," Rumi said. Its credibility, he added, will depend on whether the countries develop joint planning, command structures and procedures for responding to crises.

Rumi also warned against assuming the Middle East is already dividing into two fixed camps. India, however, is watching the new alignment closely. India’s Ministry of External Affairs said Aug. 11 that it was examining the pact’s implications for national security and regional peace and stability, adding that New Delhi would take "whatever necessary steps are required" to safeguard its interests.

"These states are hedging, not choosing permanent blocs," he said.

TRUMP SQUEEZED BETWEEN ISRAEL AND TURKEY AS NETANYAHU, ERDOGAN ESCALATE FEUD

Ciddi, on the other hand, argued that the agreement reflects "serious reservations" among regional countries about U.S. security guarantees. His greater concern is that even a militarily weak pact could encourage opposing alignments to harden.

"Security pacts beget more security pacts," Ciddi said, arguing that Israel, Greece, Cyprus and potentially India could deepen their own cooperation in response.

"You're buying security, but you're also creating tension," he said. "That's where I think the harm comes in."

Calling the pact a direct counterweight to the Abraham Accords or the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor would therefore be "premature," Rumi argued. But he said a broader competition is emerging over the region’s future — between U.S.-backed economic integration involving India, Israel and the Gulf and efforts by Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan to develop greater strategic autonomy.

JOHANNESBURG: As the Iran-backed Houthis step up their threat to Red Sea shipping, analysts say the U.S. could consider a major change in strategy.

Houthi attacks on ships passing through a vital chokepoint may lead Washington to cement relations with more reliable partners along Africa’s coastline.

Somaliland is a pro-U.S. outpost, having broken away from war-torn Somalia in 1991, and is offering the U.S. the use of one of the longest runways in Africa, an air base and a deep sea port on the Red Sea.

IRAN AND HOUTHI TERROR PROXY FACING RED SEA THREAT FROM PRO-US AFRICAN NATION

The Houthis have vowed to close the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, a narrow waterway through which Saudi Arabia exports up to 7 million barrels of oil a day, now that access to the Strait of Hormuz is severely restricted. In the past month in the Red Sea, the Houthis have reportedly attacked Saudi-flagged ships, are said to have sunk an Indian commercial cargo vessel and, on Aug. 13, an Egyptian cargo ship was hit, with at least four of its crew killed.

The U.S. already has a large military base on the Red Sea in Djibouti, but this is claimed to be increasingly problematic. "China is significantly expanding its military and commercial presence in Djibouti," Edmund Fitton-Brown previously told Fox News Digital.

Fitton-Brown, the former British ambassador to the Houthis’ home country, Yemen, and a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, (FDD), added, "There is a sense that Djibouti is not a reliable ally for the U.S. So Somaliland’s time has probably come."

Major General Ken Ekman, who retired last year from being the Department of War’s West Africa Coordination Element Lead, said, in essence, the Houthis could force the U.S. into recognizing Somaliland as an independent state. "The Houthis could compel a different U.S. strategy in Africa."

TRUMP THREATENS 'MAJOR MILITARY PUNISHMENT' FOR IRAN OVER FUTURE HOUTHI ATTACKS

Ekman said the Houthis are building up a second front in this Middle East conflict. "It distracts the U.S. and stretches our assets," he added.

"The Houthis have a strategy of their own. They are testing U.S. military ability, and are likely to pull the trigger in a major way when Iranian influence in the Strait of Hormuz wanes in leverage."

He said that recently the U.S. Africa Command, AFRICOM, has concentrated on looking at land-based threats. "To date, our Africa strategy is driven by counterterrorism missions against Islamist al Qaeda and ISIS-linked groups based in Africa."

He continued, "These groups pose a limited and not immediate threat to the U.S. homeland. Overall, Red Sea basing to date has focused more on crisis response in East Africa, countering and competing against Russia and China."

COULD THIS AFRICAN NATION BECOME TRUMP'S NEXT TERROR TARGET AS JIHADISTS CLOSE IN ON POWER?

Ekman added, "orienting a Horn of Africa strategy against the Houthis would place a premium on freedom of navigation. Somaliland is proximate and overcomes some of the limitations imposed by other regional hosts like Djibouti and Middle East partners."

Limitations and an apparent sense of frustration with Somalia, Somaliland’s neighbor and rival, have been expressed in a warning from U.S. Air Force Gen. Dagvin Anderson, commander of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM).

In a recent interview with a Somali journalist, he was asked whether the U.S. was pulling out of the nation and turning its back on it.

Anderson said the U.S. has not turned its back on Somalia, having been committed to the country for several years, he noted the success of its counterterrorism group known as DANAB, which he said is "one of the most capable forces on the continent." He noted that "it was up to Somalia to sustain that force… to build it and continue to make it effective going into the future and use it as it was designed to counterterrorism."

Referring to the Somali government’s apparent lack of ability to deal decisively with Islamist al-Shabab terrorists, Anderson seemingly hinted at pulling some or even all military support. "If Somalia steps up and the government steps up and takes the lead on this, we will continue to be there because there is mutual interest."

He continued, "But if we can’t see that in, the political instability and political infighting continues, then it’s going to be very hard for us to continue to stay engaged."

Bill Roggio, editor of the Long War Journal, said Washington is fed up with Mogadishu, but currently not enough for the U.S. to change allegiance to Somaliland.

He told Fox News Digital, "The U.S. has expressed displeasure with the Somali government's rampant corruption and internal infighting with local and regional governments, and with various clans. However, full recognition of Somaliland independence would create a major rift between the U.S. and Somalia."

Roggio didn’t rule out the U.S. operating a second Red Sea base in Somaliland, saying "U.S. forces situated at Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti are far better situated geographically to deter the Houthis from shutting down the Bab el Mandeb Strait than a potential base in Somaliland. That being said, redundancy (back up plan) is a good thing in military operations."

"The United States needs reliable partners on Africa's coastline," Bashir Goth, Somaliland Representative to the United States, told Fox News Digital.

Goth said, "Somaliland is that partner and our defense officials have been in active dialogue with AFRICOM on Red Sea security. Somaliland has the geography, the stability and the will to work closely with Washington — and will continue to do so."

TRUMP SAYS IRAN WILL PAY — WHAT IT TAKES TO END THE WAR REMAINS UNCLEAR

Officially, the U.S. still stands with Somalia, in preference to Somaliland.

A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital, "The United States works with Somali and international partners to address terrorist threats in Somalia when necessary and appropriate to protect U.S. national security interests."

In the Red Sea, Saudi Arabia and 13 other nations established a new maritime defense coalition to combat the Houthi threat. Publicly, at least, the U.S. is not part of this coalition.

Responding to questioning on this issue, a State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital, "The United States stands firmly with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia against Houthi terrorism. We are in close consultation with our Saudi allies and remain committed to their security."

The U.S. does appear though to be stepping up interaction with Somaliland. AFRICOM Commander Anderson again visited Somaliland this past week, with an official statement saying he "traveled to the port city of Berbera to assess the security environment and review the port’s operational capacity."

In the same week, the U.S. reportedly hosted a delegation of Somalilanders led by the state’s defense minister at AFRICOM HQ in Stuttgart, Germany, where Red Sea security was reportedly again discussed.

AFRICOM and the Department of War did not respond to Fox News Digital requests for information about the visits.

North Korea launched another ballistic missile Tuesday, marking its second reported ballistic missile launch in less than a week.

Japan’s prime minister’s office announced the latest launch Tuesday. Details about the missile’s trajectory, range and where it landed were not immediately available.

The U.S. military said it was monitoring the launch and consulting with allies and partners in the region.

NORTH KOREA EXPERT WARNS US CAN 'NEVER TAKE THEIR EYE OFF' KIM JONG UN FOLLOWING MISSILE TEST DURING IRAN WAR

"We are aware of the recent missile launch and are consulting closely with our allies and partners. Based on current assessments, these events do not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel or territory, or to our allies," U.S. Pacific Command said in a statement. "The United States remains committed to the defense of the U.S. homeland and our allies in the region."

The latest launch comes less than a week after North Korea test-fired a short-range ballistic missile from its eastern Wonsan area on Aug. 5.

That missile landed in waters off North Korea’s east coast and did not reach Japanese territory, Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said following the launch.

Koizumi said North Korea’s repeated missile launches pose a threat to Japan and the region, and Tokyo lodged a protest with Pyongyang through their embassies in Beijing.

MICHIGAN MILITARY EXERCISE PREPARING THOUSANDS OF TROOPS FOR CHANGING BATTLEFIELD

South Korea’s military bolstered its surveillance posture and coordinated with the U.S. and Japan following the Aug. 5 launch, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.

South Korea’s presidential national security council called that launch "a provocation" that violated U.N. Security Council resolutions and urged North Korea to stop its missile activity.

The launches come ahead of annual joint military exercises between the U.S. and South Korea, which are typically held during the second half of August.

"This annual exercise aims to build understanding between Combined Forces Command, United States Forces Korea, the United Nations Command, and ROK Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), ROK government agency, ensuring their ability to fortify the combined defense posture and enhance Alliance response capabilities against a spectrum of security threats," United States Forces Korea has said of the Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises.

WHY TRUMP IS DOWNPLAYING REPORTS RUSSIA AND CHINA ARE HELPING IRAN

"It will feature live, virtual, constructive and field-based training, engaging personnel from the various military services," it added.

U.S. and South Korean officials have said the training is defensive in nature, while North Korea has characterized the exercises as preparation for an invasion and has often responded to military drills with missile tests.

The Aug. 5 test was North Korea’s first ballistic missile launch since late June, when it tested a tactical ballistic missile carrying what state media described as a "special mission" warhead along with other weapons.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said following those tests that his military needed to bolster its "deadly and destructive offensive posture."

Fox News Digital's Greg Norman-Diamond contributed to this report.

Five years after the Taliban reclaimed reclaimed Afghanistan, 2.4 million girls remain locked out of secondary school, wiping away decades of progress and leaving a generation of young women without access to the classroom.

Afghanistan is now the only country in the world that formally prohibits girls and women from receiving an education beyond the primary level, according to UNESCO, which issued a new call Tuesday for the "immediate and unconditional" restoration of their right to education.

The United Nations agency warned that the consequences of the Taliban's policies now reach far beyond the classroom, with women barred from most paid jobs and public-facing professions and facing restrictions on their ability to travel without a male guardian.

MOSCOW, TALIBAN FORGE MILITARY ALLIANCE IN POWER GRAB AFTER US AFGHANISTAN EXIT: REPORTS

"Women have been erased from public life, and as a new generation of girls grows without an education, their future becomes increasingly dark," UNESCO said in a statement.

The Taliban swept back into power on Aug. 15, 2021, as U.S. and NATO forces withdrew from Afghanistan after two decades of war.

The Taliban soon barred girls from secondary schools and later expanded the restrictions to universities, employment and other areas of public life.

Despite years of pressure from the United Nations, humanitarian groups, human rights advocates and several Islamic countries, the Taliban has refused to lift the education restrictions and has maintained that the issue is a domestic matter, according to The Associated Press.

IRAN AGREES NOT TO EXECUTE EIGHT WOMEN TIED TO ANTI-REGIME PROTESTS AFTER TRUMP'S PUBLIC APPEAL

The impact has been a dramatic reversal of the educational gains made by Afghan girls during the previous two decades.

While girls had severely limited access to schooling in 2001, nearly 1 million were enrolled in secondary education by 2021, according to UNESCO.

Five years later, an estimated 2.4 million girls are excluded from secondary education.

"Five years is not a temporary interruption in a child's education," Hoda Jaberian, UNESCO's program coordinator for education in emergencies, said during a video news conference Tuesday, according to The AP. "It is clearly almost an entire secondary school cycle."

UNESCO warned that denying education to girls while restricting women's ability to work could deepen Afghanistan's already severe economic problems.

Nearly half of Afghanistan's population lives below the poverty line, according to UNESCO, which said preventing women from studying and working further limits their ability to support their families and contribute to the country's economy.

The agency also warned that excluding girls from school can damage their mental and physical well-being and increase the risk of early marriage.

The effects could also reach Afghan boys.

UNESCO said the Taliban's ban on female teachers teaching boys is worsening teacher shortages and undermining the quality of education across Afghanistan.

TRUMP BETS ECONOMIC PRESSURE CAN SQUEEZE IRAN AS REGIME’S OWN FAILURES DEEPEN THE PAIN

With formal secondary and higher education closed to women and girls, UNESCO says it has turned to community-based education, literacy and skills development programs and psychosocial support to keep them learning.

Nearly 70,000 people have participated in UNESCO's programs, with women accounting for 73% of the learners, according to the agency.

Some literacy and skills classes take place in community spaces and in the homes of facilitators with the knowledge of authorities, according to The AP. More than 1,000 literacy facilitators are involved, most of whom have been trained by UNESCO and its partners.

UNESCO said a recent study found evidence that its literacy and skills programs have helped increase household incomes and improve livelihoods.

The agency acknowledged, however, that such efforts cannot replace formal schooling.

"Afghanistan's girls and women have the right to learn, to work, to move freely, and to shape their own futures," UNESCO said, adding that "the world must not look away until their human rights are restored."

UNESCO said it would continue working with local communities and partners to maintain alternative opportunities for Afghan women and girls while pressing for the education ban to be lifted.

"UNESCO continues to call for the immediate and unconditional restoration of girls and women's right to secondary and higher education," Jaberian said Tuesday. "It is not negotiable. It's a basic human right and we reiterate that there is no substitute for this."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

More than 3,000 are reported missing in Colombia on Tuesday following a massive 7.4-magnitude earthquake, prompting a desperate search for survivors and a pledge from the Trump administration of $15.5 million in relief.

Videos and photos emerged from Colombia showing first responders combing through rubble and debris, looking for any signs of life. Mayors and governors from Cali, Pereira, Chocó and Manizalez said Tuesday at least 179 people had died in those four areas, while the federal government, which last updated its estimates in the hours after earthquake hit Monday, has said at least 111 died, according to The Associated Press.

"We are united in prayer with the Colombian people and stand ready to support President Abelardo De la Espriella and his government as they assess the needs on the ground," the State Department said on X.

It added that "the Trump Administration is committing $15.5 million in funding for emergency shelter, food, protection, and earthquake assessments."

COLOMBIA BUILDING COLLAPSES ON CAMERA AS EARTHQUAKE BRINGS DEATH, DESTRUCTION

Around 1,600 buildings across Colombia have been reported damaged or collapsed, and more than 3,000 people are missing, the AP reported.

President Abelardo De la Espriella, who was inaugurated just days earlier, traveled to Chocó’s capital, Quibdó, on Monday night and announced he was mobilizing "the entire military and police apparatus" to respond, deploying engineers, rescue workers and search dogs.

"Chocó will never again be the ‘land of the forgotten,’" he said.

JAPAN MALL REBUILT AFTER DEADLY 2016 EARTHQUAKE DESTROYED IN MAJOR TEMBLOR WEEKS AFTER 'FRESH START' REOPENING

The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake was centered in San José del Palmar, a town located within the western Chocó region, which borders the Pacific Ocean.

In a post on X, De la Espriella, added that, "The National Government stands with the people of Chocó."

"Immediate economic resources and humanitarian aid have already been allocated to support the more than 1,400 affected families and individuals," he added. "The injured and those requiring priority medical attention are being transferred to Medellín with all available hospital capacity."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

A Syrian court sentenced ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad along with his younger brother to death in absentia on Tuesday for crimes against humanity and war crimes during Syria’s 14-year conflict that left about half a million people dead.

The sentences at the Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus are the first against Assad or members of his inner circle since the Assad family's five decades in power came to an end 20 months ago.

"Bashar Assad used state agencies to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity," said Judge Fakhareddine al-Aryan during a court session that was aired live on state TV.

FORMER ASSAD-ERA PRISON CHIEF CONVICTED OF TORTURE IN US FEDERAL COURT, MARKING A HISTORIC FIRST

Also sentenced to death in the same case was Assad’s maternal cousin Atef Najib, who was convicted of overseeing a crackdown in the southern province of Daraa that led to the uprising and later the civil war.

Amid tight security, Najib stood inside a cage wearing a prisoner’s uniform as the judge read the sentence. A crowd of people gathered outside the courthouse in central Damascus to hear the verdict.

Assad and his brother Maher fled to Russia after the government's fall in December 2024 and received political asylum. Syria's new rulers have asked Russia to hand the Assads over.

BRIEF ALCOHOL BAN IN DAMASCUS SPARKS CONCERNS ABOUT PRESIDENT AL-SHARAA'S VISION FOR SYRIA

Najib, who was sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury in April 2011, was later detained and is one of the highest-ranking officials to be put on trial.

Najib is a former Syrian army brigadier general who was head of the Political Security Branch in southern Syria’s Daraa province under Assad in 2011.

During his tenure, more than a dozen teenagers who scrawled anti-government graffiti on a school wall in Daraa were arrested and tortured. The case became a catalyst for mass protests against the repressive policies of Assad’s security forces.

The protests were met by a brutal government crackdown and spiraled into a 14-year civil war that ended with Assad’s ouster in a lightning rebel offensive.

Maher Assad was a former commander of the Syrian military’s 4th Armored Division — which Syrian opposition activists have accused of killings, torture, extortion and drug trafficking, in addition to running its own detention centers.

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations said new data showing sharply lower child malnutrition in Gaza undermines wartime accusations that Israel deliberately starved Gazans, calling those claims a "blood libel" fueled by Hamas figures.

The remarks by Ambassador Danny Danon follow a newly published U.N.-backed survey showing acute malnutrition among young children in the Gaza Strip has dropped to levels comparable to or below those recorded prior to the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war.

"During the war in Gaza, Israel was accused by many countries and by many U.N. officials that we deliberately starved the population in Gaza. That was a blood libel," Danon told Fox News Digital. "When we actually answered those claims and asked our colleagues where they got the data, the answer was that they relied on Hamas reports."

Danon argued that the latest U.N.-backed figures undermine previous starvation claims and said earlier numbers attributed to Hamas were fabricated.

SURVIVOR OF HAMAS TERROR ATTACK IN ISRAEL SLAMS MAMDANI OVER 'DANGEROUS' VIDEO ABOUT NETANYAHU

"For the future, we shouldn't count on a terrorist organization. We are a reliable country, we share data, we share concerns regarding humanitarian issues, and we should not collaborate with terrorists," he said.

The Gaza SMART nutrition survey — coordinated by the UNICEF-led Nutrition Cluster and presented by the State of Palestine Nutrition Cluster on July 22, 2026 — evaluated 1,335 children under age 5, covering regions home to approximately 83% of Gaza's population.

About 17% of the population could not be surveyed due to security and operational constraints.

The survey found acute malnutrition rates between 0.2% and 0.8% using weight-for-height (WHZ) measurements (estimated globally at 0.5%) and 1.3% using mid-upper-arm circumference (MUAC).

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION PROBES UNRWA OVER ALLEGED EMPLOYMENT OF 1,500 TERRORISTS

Evaluators concluded there was "no widespread acute malnutrition at population level," noting that rates are significantly lower than those in neighboring countries, though lingering challenges like stunting, poor diet diversity and illness remain.

Danon pointed directly to past statements made by senior international officials, including U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher.

During a 2025 BBC interview about border access, Fletcher said 14,000 babies were at risk of dying within 48 hours without immediate nutritional aid. The figure was later clarified as referring to an 11-month projection involving children at risk of severe malnutrition.

"That was false and did not happen. Using starvation and babies to spread blood libels against Israel is outrageous," Danon said of Fletcher's comments.

"We care about babies in Gaza more than those making these allegations against us."

The ambassador emphasized that Israel kept records of food supplies moving into the enclave throughout the conflict.

"In terms of the food coming into Gaza, that was very easy for us to prove because we control the checkpoints and count the number of trucks coming in," Danon explained.

ISRAEL ACCUSES UN OF PLACING IT ON SAME SEXUAL VIOLENCE BLACKLIST AS HAMAS TERRORISTS, SEVERS TIES

"We know what they carry. Thus, we know there is no lack of food entering Gaza, and we always ensure sufficient supplies are brought in. Looking at recent reports, the situation is much better than expected, and we are glad for that. We do not want to see famine anywhere in the world, and certainly not in our backyard."

Danon also accused Hamas of hijacking aid distribution networks for financial gain.

"We know for a fact that Hamas took the aid and sold it in the market, taking advantage of the situation with inflated prices," he said. "That is why we are trying to work with NGOs that are not infiltrated by Hamas. We want NGOs to be able to deliver aid and food without Hamas gaining control over it."

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

Israel withdrew its military and civilian presence from the Gaza Strip in 2005.

The war broke out following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on southern Israel and continued for two years until a ceasefire agreement took effect on Oct. 10, 2025.

Now, the region continues to face military strikes as talks over a proposed 15-point U.S. peace and disarmament plan appear stalled.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the proposal, saying Israeli forces will not withdraw until Hamas is fully disarmed.

"Unfortunately, Hamas took over and turned it into a terror state," Danon said.

"Our vision remains unchanged: we have no desire to control Gaza. However, for progress to occur, Hamas must disarm and not move weapons from one warehouse to another."

"Regarding the food situation, we see improvement on the ground," Danon concluded. "The prices in the markets in Gaza have gone down dramatically, which serves as the clearest indicator that there is no food shortage."

Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei formally appointed six senior military commanders Monday, cementing a wartime reshuffle as Tehran rebuilds a command structure impacted by months of U.S. and Israeli strikes.

The appointments, announced by Khamenei’s office and promoted on social media, fill posts across Iran’s armed forces, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Basij paramilitary force, with a counterterrorism expert warning the timing and language of the decrees signal Tehran is preparing for "prolonged confrontation" and not a settlement with Washington.

"Strategically, the announcements made were issued in English, on X, while Iranian and Omani negotiators finalize the coordinates of a proposed shipping route through Hormuz, which is deliberate sequencing," Dr. Omar Mohammed, director of the Antisemitism Research Initiative at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, told Fox News Digital.

"Tehran is establishing its command structure as a fact on the ground before it signs anything."

TRUMP SAYS IRAN WILL PAY — WHAT IT TAKES TO END THE WAR REMAINS UNCLEAR

Mohammed also pointed to language in the appointment announcements blaming the deaths of predecessors on what Iran called the "Zionist-American enemy."

"That phrase, in formal state documents, codifies the United States as a co-belligerent," Mohammed said.

Khamenei appointed Ali Abdollahi as chief of staff of the armed forces and Kioumars Heydari as his deputy. He also formally named Ahmad Vahidi commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, promoting him to the rank of major general.

Mostafa Izadi was named deputy IRGC commander, Ali Azmaei as commander of the IRGC Navy and Hossein Taeb as commander of the Basij. 

Mohammed said Vahidi was also instructed to maintain readiness for "powerful offensive operations against the enemy," by the Supreme Leader, while Abdollahi was tasked with completing the integration of the General Staff into the Khatam al-Anbiya wartime joint command.

"States exiting a conflict dismantle their wartime command arrangements, but Iran is now institutionalizing its own," Mohammed said. "The decrees here describe a leadership planning for a prolonged confrontation, not a settlement."

Several of the newly appointed commanders have previously faced U.S. or European sanctions or allegations tied to terrorism and violent crackdowns.

Vahidi is the subject of an Interpol Red Notice requested by Argentina over his alleged involvement in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, which killed 85 people.

Taeb, a former chief of the IRGC Intelligence Organization and former Basij commander, is on the U.S. Treasury Department’s sanctions list.

The United States first designated him in 2010 over serious human rights abuses following Iran’s disputed 2009 presidential election.

Heydari was also sanctioned by the United States in 2022 after the Treasury Department said he had publicly acknowledged his forces’ involvement in the violent response to Iran’s November 2019 protests, in which hundreds of protesters were killed. 

The European Union has also sanctioned him.

IRAN’S UNSEEN SUPREME LEADER BECOMES WEAPON IN ESCALATING POWER STRUGGLE, EXPERTS SAY

The reshuffle comes as Iran continues rebuilding its political and military leadership after a series of U.S. and Israeli strikes killed senior figures across the regime.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had served as supreme leader since 1989, was killed in a Feb. 28 strike at the start of the war. Mojtaba Khamenei, was selected as Iran’s new supreme leader in March.

Ali Larijani, then secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and a major figure in the country’s security and foreign policy establishment, and Gholamreza Soleimani, commander of the Basij, were killed in strikes on March 17.

The latest appointments come amid continuing questions about Mojtaba Khamenei’s health and public absence.

President Masoud Pezeshkian claimed Monday that he had held a nearly seven-hour meeting with Khamenei, only the second meeting the president has publicly disclosed since the new supreme leader took office, Iran International reported.

Khamenei has not appeared publicly since being selected in March and is believed to have been wounded in the Feb. 28 strike that killed his father.

Pezeshkian said the two discussed economic conditions, sanctions and other domestic challenges and that Khamenei emphasized the need for "unity and cohesion."

The military rebuild, however, has not extended fully into Iran’s sensitive intelligence apparatus, according to Mohammed.

"The IRGC Intelligence Organization and its counterintelligence arm have no announced chiefs, and Iran has no permanent defense or intelligence ministers," the expert said.

"The appointments require assigning responsibility for the counterintelligence failures that enabled the February decapitation.

"Whoever wins that argument — the supreme leader’s circle or the Guard’s institutional leadership — is the actor actually in control."

President Donald Trump is signaling, at least for now, he is prepared to let mounting economic pressure on Iran do more of the work rather than immediately expand military action against Tehran.

"We are only semi-negotiating with them. We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money," Trump told Axios’ Barak Ravid in a phone interview Sunday. Axios reported Aug. 9 that Trump described the U.S. approach as "low-keying it" and said Iran was in severe economic distress and struggling to pay its troops.

Trump has argued that the U.S. naval blockade on the Strait of Hormuz has compounded Iran’s financial crisis. His comments come after weeks in which the administration repeatedly raised the possibility of renewed large-scale military action. 

But as the administration increasingly points to Iran’s financial distress as leverage, a more complicated question is emerging: How much of Iran’s economic crisis is the result of U.S. sanctions, the war and blockade — and how much stems from decades of corruption, economic mismanagement and spending decisions by the Islamic Republic itself?

IRAN’S DEEPEST WEAKNESS IS GETTING EXPOSED THROUGH AMERICA’S MAXIMUM PRESSURE CAMPAIGN

Trump reinforced the message on Truth Social Sunday, writing that Iran had shown "51 years of bad behaviour" while sharing a graphic depicting the Iranian rial’s steep decline. The graphic was titled "Iran has NO MONEY" and described the currency as "trash."

The economic pressure is increasingly visible in the daily lives of ordinary Iranians. An investigation published by the Iranian newspaper Jahan-e Sanat last week described supermarket workers encountering customers who allegedly shoplifted basic groceries including bread, cheese and meat, or ate packaged food inside stores because they could no longer afford it. The accounts offered a stark glimpse of the strain on Iranian households as prices rise and purchasing power erodes.

Washington, meanwhile, has intensified its campaign against Tehran’s revenue streams. Under what the Treasury Department calls Economic Fury, the administration has targeted Iran’s oil trade, shadow banking networks, weapons procurement operations, cryptocurrency holdings and sanctions-evasion infrastructure. Treasury said June 10 that the campaign had prevented "tens of billions of dollars" in revenue from being accessible to the Iranian regime and its proxies. On July 29, Treasury said OFAC had sanctioned more than 100 vessels linked to Iran’s shadow fleet since the beginning of 2026.

A Treasury spokesperson told Fox News Digital on background that "Economic Fury has left the regime desperate for cash."

"Iran’s economy is in freefall, inflation has skyrocketed, and as President Trump said on Sunday, the regime’s ability to pay its troops has been decimated," the spokesperson said.

WHO IS AHMAD VAHIDI? IRAN’S NEW IRGC CHIEF TIED TO GLOBAL ATTACKS AND ‘DEATH TO AMERICA’ IDEOLOGY

A U.S. official told Fox News Digital on background that the administration still views economic pressure as one part of a broader strategy.

"President Trump has always been clear that he will never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. While he has been consistent in saying he prefers a diplomatic solution, he continues to retain all options if Iran continues to engage in terrorism and refuses to make a deal," the official said.

"The United States is strangling what’s left of Iran’s economy with one of the most successful naval blockades in history – and Iran would be wise to make a deal. Otherwise, they know what will happen."

Miad Maleki, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and former Treasury Department sanctions official, said the pressure has accelerated Iran’s economic decline, but argued that Tehran’s own policies created many of the underlying vulnerabilities.

"Sanctions and the war have accelerated Iran's economic decline, but both are consequences of the regime's own troublemaking; its nuclear brinkmanship, missile and drone attacks on tankers, and support for terror proxies, not causes imposed on an innocent bystander," Maleki told Fox News Digital.

"It's a government's basic responsibility to provide for and serve its nation — this regime has instead served a failed revolutionary ideology that has produced nothing but suffering for ordinary Iranians," he added.

Maleki said the deeper story can be seen over decades, arguing that even when sanctions eased and oil revenues increased, Iran continued directing significant resources toward its security establishment and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

IRAN’S REVOLUTIONARY GUARD SIDELINES PRESIDENT AS MILITARY GRIP EXPANDS

According to Central Bank of Iran national accounts data provided by Maleki to Fox News Digital, Iran’s military share of total government spending rose from 16% in 1993 to 52% by 2006, while education spending fell from 27% to 15%. Spending on health and social affairs also declined as a share of government expenditures, he said.

Maleki pointed to the 2020 budget as another example of the disparity. The IRGC received approximately $6.96 billion, compared with $2.73 billion for Iran’s larger conventional military, known as the Artesh — roughly 2.5 times as much, according to an analysis published by the United States Institute of Peace’s Iran Primer based on figures from Iran’s parliamentary research center.

"The issue is not simply that Iran spends heavily on defense," Maleki said. "It is that an oil-dependent economy repeatedly directed enormous resources toward the military and the IRGC while basic public services and ordinary households were under increasing pressure."

And the official budget captures only part of that spending. Maleki, citing both his experience at the Treasury Department and outside research, said the IRGC benefits from significant commercial and off-budget resources. A 2017 American Enterprise Institute study estimated that the IRGC’s so-called "gray budget" could add another 50% to 100% to its military outlays.

"Ultimately, the responsibility lies not with external pressure but with structural corruption, chronic economic mismanagement, and spending priorities fundamentally detached from ordinary Iranians' needs and the country's genuine economic potential," Maleki said.

That influence extends far beyond military spending. The IRGC has also built a sprawling economic apparatus that gives it control over major sources of revenue and, critics argue, leaves it particularly well positioned to profit from the opaque channels sanctions create.

Its economic arm, Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters, became a major force in the Iranian economy after the Iran-Iraq War and expanded across construction, energy and infrastructure. The Treasury Department designated Khatam al-Anbiya in October 2007, describing it as an IRGC engineering arm used to generate income and fund the organization’s operations.

Treasury acknowledged that Iran is increasingly turning to opaque financial channels to circumvent U.S. pressure, but argued that those networks are themselves becoming targets of the campaign.

"The regime is increasingly having to invent new ways to try to evade U.S. sanctions through shadow banking networks, including through exploiting crypto," the Treasury spokesperson said. "Treasury continues to monitor and aggressively dismantle these networks to ensure Iran cannot sustain its campaign of terror and regional destabilization."

On Aug. 7, Treasury announced separate actions against cryptocurrency exchanges it said were being used to finance the IRGC and against international currency networks that it said were moving hundreds of millions of dollars for Iran.

FREED AMERICAN REVEALS BRUTAL IRAN PRISON ORDEAL, WARNS HOSTAGES FACE GREATER DANGER

Morad Tahbaz, an Iranian-American conservationist who spent nearly six years imprisoned in Iran’s Evin Prison before being released with four other Americans in September 2023, said sanctions have effectively created what he described as a lucrative "franchise" for those controlling the channels through which money and goods move.

"They have created a huge franchise for themselves because of these sanctions," Tahbaz told Fox News Digital. "Money can't flow freely to the Iranian government's treasury because of the sanctions. So what happens, everything is like a black market, gray market, illegal smuggling from the oil to everything else coming in and out."

"And of course, the people who are hurt most by all of this are the people of Iran," he added. "They're unfortunately, very unfortunately, taking the brunt of all of these in their daily lives."

Tahbaz said the entrenchment of the IRGC-linked economy may itself complicate efforts to end the confrontation because those profiting from restricted financial channels have an incentive to preserve them.

"They don't want to see the sanctions go away, because they will lose their franchise, if you will," he said. "They will lose their power, their control over the money and everything that goes along with it."

Tahbaz said the economic interests created by the sanctions also help explain some of the internal tensions within Iran. 

"This is the battle going on inside Iran when you hear there is tension within factions," he said. "And I think to see a solution to this war, if you will, we have to look to what's happening in Iran," he said. 

Treasury said it maintains standing authorizations intended to limit sanctions’ effects on ordinary Iranians, including certain humanitarian trade involving agricultural products, medicine and medical devices; noncommercial personal remittances; and communications-related software, hardware and services. OFAC also considers additional requests on a case-by-case basis, the spokesperson said. The authorizations are contained in OFAC regulations and General License 8A.