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Famous mountaineer Nirmal Purja, who was the subject of a 2021 Netflix documentary, was among 10 climbers confirmed dead on Saturday on the world’s 12th-tallest mountain in Pakistan.

The climbers were killed when they were hit by an avalanche on the 26,414-foot-tall Broad Peak Thursday in the Karakoram mountain range.

"The world has lost one of mountaineering's greatest climbers," Elite Exped, the company involved in the expedition, said in a statement, adding, "we mourn not only Nims, but every life lost in this tragedy."

AMERICAN CLIMBER'S REMAINS FOUND AFTER AVALANCHE IN PAKISTAN, OTHER MOUNTAINEERS STILL MISSING

The company added, "No words can ease the pain of this unimaginable loss."

Purja had been leading the group up Broad Peak.

A Pakistani rescue team recovered three bodies on Friday, including American Sarah Mallory Geis, but had to temporarily halt the operation in the "remote and difficult" area due to weather conditions.

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The search resumed on Saturday and rescuers are attempting to recover the remaining seven bodies.

"The loss of these courageous climbers, who came from different nations united by their passion for the mountains, is an immeasurable loss to the global mountaineering fraternity," Irfan Arshad Khan, the president of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, said.

"The mountains inspire us with their beauty, but they also remind us of the immense risks faced by those who venture into the high Himalaya and Karakoram," he added, thanking the military, Sherpas and civilians who took part in the rescue mission.

Along with Purja, who was British-Nepali, and Geis, the other climbers were from Pakistan, Nepal and China.

Purja was featured in the 2021 Netflix documentary "14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible" in which he attempted to summit the world’s 14 tallest mountains in seven months.

British Defense Minister Wes Streeting called Purja an "inspirational ​man who served in our Armed Forces for many years — and whose incredible mountaineering adventures are known the world over."

The 43-year-old had served in the British army with the Gurkhas, Nepali soldiers recruited to serve with the U.K., and he later served in the British special forces.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

The State Department on Saturday raised its Travel Advisory for Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta to Level 3: Reconsider Travel after tens of thousands of migrants surged into the Spanish territory from neighboring Morocco, prompting a major security response.

The updated advisory warns that the "massive and uncontrolled arrival of migrants from Morocco to Ceuta may lead to unpredictable and dangerous security situations."

"Spain has deployed the Spanish military, Spanish National Police, and Guardia Civil as a result of this serious situation," the advisory states. "Americans should reconsider travel to the area given the risks posed to their safety and security."

SPAIN DEPLOYS MILITARY AFTER THOUSANDS OF MIGRANTS OVERWHELM BORDER ENCLAVE, AT LEAST 18 DEAD

The advisory applies only to Ceuta, an autonomous Spanish city on the northern coast of Africa that borders Morocco. The rest of Spain remains under its existing travel advisory level.

Spanish officials have scrambled to respond after tens of thousands of migrants crossed into Ceuta this week. Ceuta President Juan Jesús Vivas said Friday that about 60,000 migrants entered the enclave over a 24-hour period, while Spain's Interior Ministry later estimated roughly 50,000 arrivals since Thursday. Authorities said thousands have since returned to Morocco.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Spain would boost the presence of security forces in Ceuta, deploy a physical sea barrier to help facilitate repatriations and continue working with Moroccan authorities to combat human trafficking networks.

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Authorities have linked the migrant surge to a recent Spanish Supreme Court ruling involving migrants arriving by sea. Sánchez said human trafficking organizations misrepresented the decision, triggering the influx.

The crisis also drew comments from President Donald Trump during a Cabinet meeting Friday at Camp David.

"You know, I saw Spain yesterday, and I watched the catastrophe that took place. It looks like an invasion of a country by hundreds of thousands of people. And that same thing is going to happen to us if the Republicans don't get elected," Trump said.

Earlier Friday, Trump also told Fox News chief White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich: "It's terrible. Remember that picture. That's going to be us in three years if the wrong side gets in."

Ceuta, along with the Spanish enclave of Melilla, has long been a flashpoint for illegal migration into Europe because both territories sit on the African mainland while remaining part of Spain and the European Union.

Three people were killed on Saturday at a restaurant in central Moscow following a massive explosion.

The explosion was caused by a homemade explosive device, Russia's National Anti-Terrorism Committee claimed.

The dead included a woman who attempted to bring the explosive device into the restaurant, a security guard and a patron, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported.

At least 21 more people were injured in the explosion, which happened around 8 p.m. on a ground floor terrace restaurant​ at Kudrinksaya Square, which includes seven skyscrapers built during the Stalin regime.

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A Russian outlet said the explosion happened at the Balzi Rossi ⁠Italian ​restaurant. Its website said it was closed Saturday for a private event.

Heavily armed law enforcement was seen at the scene.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez broadly blasted his fellow European leaders for their response to the surge of tens of thousands of migrants from Morocco to the Spanish border, seemingly criticizing Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni for deciding to resume European border controls in the wake of the incident.

Sánchez appeared to take issue with Italy's decision to temporarily suspend Schengen Area free-travel arrangements with Spain. The Schengen Area is an agreement between 29 European countries which abolishes passport controls and allows people to travel across European borders without providing documents.

"In the current international context, the European Union cannot afford this kind of selfish, polarising and unlawful reaction," Sánchez said in a letter obtained by the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news wire.

Sánchez, who leads the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, touted his country's quick turnaround in expelling nearly all of the 50,000-60,000 migrants who crossed the border back to Morocco.

"Despite these indisputable facts," Sánchez wrote, "the reaction of European governments over the past few hours has been rather asymmetric. Most have showed us their support and solidarity, and have offered their assistance. Others, however, have chosen to attack Spain and to call for its temporary exclusion from the Schengen Area."

MIGRANT CRISIS PUSHES ITALY TO RESTORE BORDER CHECKS WITH SPAIN, TESTING EUROPE'S OPEN-BORDER SYSTEM

"Such an attitude — driven by prejudice, fake news, ignorance, or political interest — is not only contrary to European law, humanitarian law, and the principles of solidarity that bind us together," he reportedly wrote. "It is also contrary to Europe’s long-term interests and to the most basic common sense, because Ceuta is not part of the Schengen Area, because there are almost no irregular migrants left unreturned, and because Spain is, according to Frontex, one of the least porous external borders of the European Union, with a number of irregular entries that is half that recorded, for example, in Italy in recent years (2021–2026)."

Sánchez additionally requested a formal meeting of the interior ministers of all 27 European Union countries in the letter, which was addressed to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President António Costa and Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin.

Ireland is currently serving its one-year term as the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Sánchez's request followed a mass stampede of migrants from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, which shares a land border with Morocco in North Africa. Approximately 50,000-60,000 people illegally rush over the border into European territory, according to Spanish local and national authorities.

The shocking footage of the flood of people prompted a worldwide response, including from President Donald Trump.

Meloni, a conservative, announced the signing of a letter by 22 EU countries calling for stronger borders.

"The images arriving from Ceuta have once again demonstrated how urgent it is for Europe to respond to illegal immigration," Meloni wrote in a Saturday post on X.

"This is why Italy has promoted, together with Denmark, a letter signed by 22 EU member states, which calls for joint action to strengthen external borders, combat irregular immigration, fight human traffickers, make returns more effective, and eliminate any factor that could incentivize new illegal entries. It is an important signal: the line that Italy has long supported is today shared by an ever-growing number of European nation. Defending the external borders of the Union is not the interest of a single Nation. It is a shared responsibility of Europe," Meloni concluded.

Irish Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan, as part of Ireland's EU presidency, will convene a meeting of the EU's Justice and Home Affairs Council to respond to the crisis, Martin announced in a Saturday post on X.

WHITE HOUSE BLASTS SPANISH GOVERNMENT AS THOUSANDS OF MIGRANTS SURGE FROM MOROCCO, EMERGENCY REQUEST DENIED

Ceuta's President Juan Jesús Vivas said at least 60,000 people — or about 70% of the territory's population — crossed over from Morocco. Spain's interior ministry released its own figures shortly after Vivas spoke Friday, estimating that some 50,000 people had crossed from Morocco since Thursday. It added that 48,300 had already returned to Morocco by Friday evening, with hundreds more going back by the hour.

Von der Leyen claimed none of the migrants who crossed into Ceuta made it to the European mainland and that virtually all of them had returned to Morocco.

"The good news is that the vast majority of those who arrived illegally have returned to Morocco, due to the effective work of Spanish and Moroccan law enforcement. Not a single person reached mainland Spain or the rest of the EU," she wrote in a Saturday morning post on X.

At least 67 people were killed in the border rush. As a result, Spain announced it was installing a 500-meter-long barrier in the sea to combat future migration pushes.

Fox News Digital contacted the offices of the Spanish, Italian and Irish prime ministers and the office of the European commissioner.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

JERUSALEM, Israel: New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is spreading hateful and antisemitic rhetoric and endangering the lives of New Yorkers, Israeli President Isaac Herzog told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview at his Jerusalem residence.

"Mamdani does not respect my nation's right for self-determination… the Jewish people's inherent right to have a nation of their own. And he's basically spreading blasphemy, hate, antisemitic rhetoric. He should understand that he's risking his own citizens, he’s risking their safety, well-being and life," Herzog said.

In an incident that drew global attention, Mamdani posted a video on social media on July 21 in which he called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "a war criminal" and "the architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people."

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"This cannot be accepted in New York, which is a city which is dear to our heart, dear to the Israelis, and dear to me personally," Herzog said.

"I think New York will continue way after Mamdani. And I hope he won't create an irreversible damage," he added.

On Iran, Herzog said the regime has for decades posed a strategic threat to global stability, and not only to Israel and the Middle East.

"They take their people's food and money and spend it on terror all over the world. It's a given fact," he said. "You ask yourself why a nation of this nature wants to have so much terror activity around the world, and that is because of ideology… The ideology does not accommodate any other religion or moderate Islam, for that matter. That is why it is so dangerous," he added.

The United States and Israel launched a joint military campaign against the Islamic Republic on Feb. 28, dubbed Operation Epic Fury by the Trump administration and codenamed Operation Roaring Lion by Israel, before Trump announced a ceasefire on April 7.

Herzog said Tehran’s missile program, activities around the Strait of Hormuz, nuclear ambitions, domestic repression and support for regional terror proxies as evidence of the regime’s major threat to U.S. national security interests. He added that many Americans had been killed by the Islamic Republic.

As some leading political voices in the U.S. have questioned the relationship with the Jewish state, the president stressed the important ties that have made the relationship so important.

"We both drink from this set of values which was commanded to all of us by these historic spiritual books given to us by the Almighty," he said.

The Israeli president highlighted what he described as Trump’s deep support for the Jewish state, demonstrated through both words and actions.

He pointed to Trump’s 2018 decision, during his first term, to relocate the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, as well as his subsequent recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

ISAAC HERZOG ELECTED ISRAEL'S PRESIDENT, FOLLOWING IN FATHER'S FOOTSTEPS

Herzog praised Trump’s "endless" backing of Israeli positions "in so many issues" and his "immense support and friendship with Israel," adding that the two countries still more often than not see "eye to eye."

Herzog credited Trump with helping secure the return of 255 hostages held by Hamas following the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre. While acknowledging the efforts of many officials involved, he said Trump "put his foot down" and "pushed and negotiated brilliantly" to bring them home, adding that he had "huge respect" for the American leader.

That admiration among Israelis has not been diminished by any perceived political disagreements, Herzog said, adding that he believes the U.S.-Israel relationship transcends shifting attitudes and growing criticism of the Jewish state.

"I believe that there is something biblical and prophetic in the way our nations work together. And I truly believe that Israel should be a bipartisan issue of friendship and support," he added.

Herzog linked the reported decline in American support for Israel, particularly among younger people, to campaigns of well-funded disinformation on social media.

"It's very easy to smear Israel on TikTok, but that doesn't say the real truth. And I invite every young American to set foot in this country," he told Fox News Digital.

Herzog described Israel as a place where innovators flourish and great ideas are shared with the world, contributing enormously across fields including health, energy, science, agriculture and food security.

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"There's a reason why Americans who visit our country, young Americans, fall in love with this country. And my aim in this interview is to … take off the terrible mask which was placed on our face by terrible forces, some of them, of course, forces which work on it all the time to tell a distorted story."

"We're a nation seeking peace, we're a nation seeking innovation, we are a nation bringing ideas which will save humanity, and we are [a] nation trying to do good," he continued. "And I hope and pray that we will have peace with our neighbors in the entire region, with our Palestinian neighbors as well. But that requires that Israel will be accepted and people will understand that we have security needs."

Herzog addressed the House's recent passage of a $1.15 trillion annual defense policy bill, which largely split along party lines, with the fiscal year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act receiving only six Democratic votes.

He described the development as a "red light," but said it does not signal the end of relations between the American and Israeli public or of bipartisan dialogue and support.

THE BEDROCK OF AMERICAN LIBERTY WAS LAID IN JERUSALEM

"Exactly three years ago, I spoke in the American Congress in front of a joint session of the House, marking 75 years of Israel's independence, and I had almost 30 standing ovations," he said.

"I'm aware … of the criticism, and aware of a huge campaign on campuses, and of huge money which was funneled to attack Israel, and also aware of our mistakes," he added.

Herzog said Israeli society is undergoing an evolution following Oct. 7, making it legitimate to ask difficult questions about the country’s future security after such a "horrendous, aggressive, cruel" attack.

At the same time, he said Americans are right to examine the bilateral relationship and Israel’s role in advancing U.S. national security interests.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Netanyahu traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with Trump and attend the memorial service for the late Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.

"Lindsey was ever active, always coming with new ideas, brilliant, understood world affairs like no one else, and understood Israel's role in protecting Western values and values of the free world," Herzog told Fox News Digital.

He said Graham also knew how to voice criticism, which is legitimate between friends, and enjoyed support across the Israeli political spectrum.

"[Graham] knew how to fight empires and nations of evil, and to stand up to them without fear. I will always remember him, Israel will always remember him. The Jewish people will always cherish his memory," Herzog added.

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Herzog also raised the importance of how Israel values Christian communities in the Holy Land and is committed to strengthening interfaith dialogue. He added that these communities are a top priority.

According to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics, as of December 2025, Israel’s Christian population stood at approximately 184,200, representing 1.9% of the country’s total population. The community grew by 0.7% over the previous year.

"I myself met the Pope and spoke to him several times and went to the Holy See. I speak to all the heads of churches. I recently had the Greek Orthodox Patriarch and this morning the Cardinal of Jerusalem," Herzog said.

He continued, "I believe in real dialogue with our brothers and sisters from the Evangelical world in the United States and elsewhere. So, the Christian communities are a top priority in Israel and we are doing our best that they will flourish and grow."

Herzog spoke of a zero tolerance of anti-Christian behavior. "I know of cases where there was tension and we're dealing with it aggressively and there's a major reduction in moments of friction. Now we have to work hard throughout the region. Christian communities will be strong and will flourish because there is a movement to shun out Christian communities, especially in some of the Muslim world, in Palestinian communities and elsewhere. And we are dealing with it as well. And I'm here for any Christian community that needs support of any kind. People know it. And I speak to their leaders all the time."

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Herzog weighed in on the controversy surrounding the dismissal of the International Criminal Court’s Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, who issued the arrest warrants against Netanyahu, after member states voted to remove him over sexual misconduct allegations.

Herzog said Khan "absolutely" pushed forward with the arrest warrants to try to distract attention from the sexual assault allegations against him. He added that Khan had wanted to come to Israel to meet with various experts and leaders, including the Israeli president himself.

"Everybody got ready to talk to him and present the real story and the real truth," Herzog told Fox News Digital. "His staff were on their way to the airport and all of a sudden he issued these orders and writs against Prime Minister Netanyahu, [then] Defense Minister [Yoav] Gallant and others. And only in hindsight now we know clearly that it was in order to divert attention from the sexual allegations.

"The case has to be dropped and the ICC should ... not fall into the trap of hate and lies that Karim Khan presented simply to cover for himself," said Herzog.

Lawyers for Karim Khan have said they "will challenge the lawfulness and fairness of the decision through all available legal mechanisms."

Just hours before President Trump’s announcement that Hamas had agreed to a roadmap that includes disarmament on Thursday, Herzog praised the "enormous efforts" by the U.S. administration to advance the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire.

"This is something that can be a major breakthrough if it happens. Let's remember, the 20-point plan of President Trump was approved by the [United Nations] Security Council, and the next phase is disarming of Hamas," Herzog told Fox News Digital.

"The people of Gaza deserve a better life. And there is a real viable plan, including budget and efforts, how to change the course of the future," he added.

But one thing has to be made clear, he concluded: "Hamas cannot control Gaza and cannot turn it into a launching pad for terror and hate anymore."

ŠKOFJA LOKA, Slovenia: The Republic of Slovenia, the central European nation known for being the birthplace of First Lady Melania Trump and LA Lakers star Luka Dončić, is undergoing a radical shift in politics as the country comes to terms with its new larger-than-life prime minister. 

Prime Minister Janez Janša recently scraped together a coalition that did away with the country’s leftist leader, Robert Golob.

In what is his fourth term, Janša has begun what many see as Trump-like policy corrections. He has reversed Golob’s anti-Israel policies by announcing his intent to move the Slovenian embassy to Jerusalem, freezing Slovenia’s recognition of a Palestinian state and revoking a 2025 ban on military trade with Israel.

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Janša also believes in strong U.S. relations. During an America 250 event hosted by the U.S. Embassy in Ljubljana, and with the First Lady's father, Viktor Knavs, in attendance, Janša described how America was the beacon for Slovenian independence. "We imagined America, the United States of America, as the ideal embodiment of that free world... That Slovenia, too, would become the home of the brave in a land of the free." 

Domestically, he says his new government will reverse what he called the Golob government’s "inefficiency" and turn Slovenia into "a country of opportunity, prosperity and justice, where each responsible citizen will feel safe and accepted."

He has announced plans to reverse many anti-business policies, cut government red tape, support private education and healthcare, reform the pension system, decrease the size of government and invest in infrastructure projects, including a plan to build a second reactor at Slovenia’s Krško nuclear power plant.

Despite some policy disagreements, Janša was a close ally of former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. He has expressed support for Ukraine, traveling to Kyiv during his last term as prime minister in March 2022 with the then-Polish and Czech Prime Ministers in an early showing of EU solidarity against the Russian invasion and he recently returned to Kyiv to mark Ukraine Statehood Day as part of the Ukraine–Southeast Europe Summit.

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He supports increased military aid to the country and increased sanctions against Russia. And like Orbán, Janša was staunchly anti-immigrant during the huge Europe migration wave in 2015, when "Balkan Route" migrants practically marched through Slovenia on their way to other parts of Europe.

Janša often praises many of President Trump’s immigration policies. Although no reforms have yet made it through the Slovenian parliament, shortly after taking office, Janša joined 18 other EU leaders in signing a letter calling for "a fundamental change in immigration policy" and practice.

They called for reducing irregular migration, combatting human smuggling more effectively, increasing deportations, and strengthening cooperation with third countries. Janša said Slovenia is "finally joining" other countries calling for these reforms, writing, "The end is approaching for social tourism, overlooked people smuggling and the importation of voters for the European left."

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And, like Trump, Janša has his critics. He has been called "the greatest threat to Slovenia's sovereignty and democracy."

An aggressive user of X, where he comments on politics and criticizes his opponents in late night posting sprees, Janša has had battles with the country’s media, with many accusing him of undermining its independence.

Janša has also served time in jail, having been convicted and imprisoned in a case he called politically motivated.

Now serving a fourth non-consecutive term as prime minister— or predsednik vlade—he strangely lost the election that eventually put him back in office in June.

On two occasions, Janša and his party lost an election, yet he still became the prime minister. Think of it as losing the popular vote yet winning the Electoral College.

Slovenes went to the polls on March 22 after a tumultuous four-year term for then-Prime Minister Robert Golob and his far-left coalition partners. Polls that had initially forecast a landslide victory for Janša tightened quickly in the run-up to election day. Golob’s Gibanje Svoboda, or Freedom Movement, party would "win" by taking 29 seats of the 90-seat legislature with 28.7% of the vote. That was a net loss of 12 seats from the 41 seats and 34.5% of the vote the party won in 2022.

Janša’s Slovenska demokratska stranka, or Slovenian Democratic Party, the party he has led since 1993, took 28 seats with 27.9% of the vote. The same 29-28 outcome as in 2008, when Janša also "lost" yet was able to form a governing coalition.

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After a month of trying, Golob was unable to form a new ruling coalition. Slovenian President Nataša Pirc Musar said she would not nominate anyone for prime minister as no one was able to get the 46 votes needed in Parliament.

Enter Janša, who many analysts call a master coalition builder. After two weeks of discussions, his future government would end up receiving 51 votes in a secret ballot of the National Assembly: 48 from his coalition and their partners, two from the representatives of the Italian and Hungarian minorities in Slovenia… and, surprisingly, one from an anonymous member of the opposition.

Janša has been involved in Slovenian politics since before there was an independent Slovenia. In 1988, he was arrested, tried "in camera" in a military court, and imprisoned by the Yugoslav People’s Army in what became known as the "JBTZ affair". He was alleged to have shared military documents with journalists. After public outcry at the time, Janša was released after serving six months of an 18-month sentence.

In 1989, Janša helped form the Slovenian Democratic Union, one of the first opposition parties in the then-Socialist Republic of Slovenia. After Slovenia’s first free elections in May 1990, Janša was named minister of defense, helping lead Slovenia’s 10-day war of independence against Yugoslavia in the summer of 1991.

In June 2013, the Ljubljana District Court ruled Janša and two others had sought about €2million (about $2.3 million) from a Finnish firm, Patria, to help it win a 2006 military supply contract. Janša was sentenced to 2 years in the same prison in which he began his 1988 imprisonment. He called the case politically motivated and, again, he was released after serving 6 months. The conviction was unanimously overturned by the Constitutional Court in April 2015.

Janša is expected to come to the U.S. to address the United Nations General Assembly in September. It is not known if he will meet with President Trump and the First Lady.

The remains of an American mountain climber who got caught in an avalanche in Pakistan were found on Friday, according to Pakistani officials.

Sarah Mallory Geis was climbing Broad Peak in Pakistan's Karakoram mountain range with an international group of at least 10 people when they went missing on Thursday.

A rescue team also found the remains of Nadhira Ahmed Abdullah Al Harthy of Oman and Pur Bahadur Gurung of Nepal on Friday.

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There were signs of several more bodies where the rescue team was searching, drone footage showed, according to local officials.

At 26,414 feet, Broad Peak is the twelfth-tallest mountain in the world.

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"We hope to continue our operations, both aerial search and the ​ ground rescue, till the time we find the survivors or the dead bodies," Irfan Arshad, president of the Alpine Club of Pakistan, said Friday.

The rescue operation was temporarily halted Friday night due to weather conditions.

Sajid Hussain, deputy director ​ of the tourism department in Gilgit-Baltistan, called the rescue area "remote and difficult."

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"High-altitude porters and rescue teams are working to retrieve the bodies and transport them to the base camp," the Gilgit-Baltistan police said in a Facebook post Friday. "Due to the extremely rugged terrain and challenging weather conditions, the rescue operation is being carried out with the utmost caution."

The other missing climbers are from Nepal, Pakistan, China and the U.K.

Renowned British mountaineer Nirmal Purja, 43, who is of Nepalese origin, and who set the record for the fastest ascent of the ​ world's 14 highest mountains, was among the missing.

Purja was featured in the Netflix documentary "14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible."

Italy temporarily restored border controls on travelers arriving from Spain Friday as the mass migrant crossing into Ceuta, Spain, escalated from a Spanish emergency into a wider test of Europe’s passport-free travel system.

The move followed the entry of approximately 60,000 migrants from Morocco into Ceuta, Spain — a Spanish autonomous city on the North African coast. Spain’s Interior Ministry said 48,300 people had since voluntarily returned to Morocco, leaving fewer than 2,000 people in the territory, while the reported death toll among migrants attempting to reach the enclave rose to 57 people.

The crisis is reverberating far beyond Spain because it challenges one of the European Union’s central promises: that member states can maintain open internal borders while jointly protecting the bloc’s external frontier.

Schengen rests on a tradeoff: participating countries remove most controls between one another while jointly securing the zone’s external borders. Italy’s decision to restore checks, alongside calls for tougher restrictions from conservative leaders across Europe, has raised questions about whether migration pressures could lead governments to retreat from free movement and reclaim more national control.

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President Donald Trump also seized on the images from Spain, warning during a Cabinet meeting at Camp David, Maryland, Friday that a similar crisis could unfold in the United States if Republicans lose power.

"I saw Spain yesterday, and I watched the catastrophe that took place," Trump said.

"That same thing is going to happen to us if the Republicans don’t get elected — except worse," he said, blaming "weak law, bad management" and liberal migration policies.

The breach also ignited a broader conservative backlash across Europe and the United States.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said in a post on X that Italy would impose targeted checks on non-European Union nationals arriving from Spain by air or sea for one month, while coordinating with France to strengthen controls along the Franco-Italian border.

"This is an extraordinary measure, adopted to safeguard national security and prevent possible repercussions for our nation," Meloni wrote.

She said the controls would remain in place only as long as necessary and would be designed to limit disruption to summer tourism.

France was increasing checks along its border with Spain, Reuters reported Friday, while right-wing parties across Europe blamed Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s migration policies for weakening Spain’s ability to secure an external European Union border.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage warned on X that the crisis would eventually affect Britain, while French politician Marine Le Pen called for tighter French border controls.

Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon criticized Spain for lecturing Israel on security while struggling to control its own border.

White House officials Steven Cheung and Anna Kelly also connected the images from Ceuta, Spain, to the Biden administration’s border policies and Trump’s longstanding warnings about mass migration.

Nile Gardiner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, told Fox News Digital that Ceuta, Spain, could become "a key turning point in the unraveling of the European Union."

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"I think we are witnessing the beginning of the end of the European Union," he said while acknowledging that his view remains outside the European mainstream. "Once you unravel Schengen — which I think is inevitable — this breaks down the entire European project."

Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank, broadened the criticism of Sánchez.

"We told you Sánchez was a disaster," Dubowitz wrote on X. "You dismissed the warnings because he vilified Israel, defended Hamas, attacked America, and cozied up to Chávez, Khamenei, and other anti-American dictators. Now that his migration policies are threatening Europe at home, you’ve suddenly woken up."

Ceuta is legally part of Spain despite being located on the North African coast, across the Strait of Gibraltar from mainland Spain. The approximately seven-square-mile territory shares a land border with Morocco and is one of two Spanish autonomous cities in Africa, along with Melilla.

Ceuta, Spain, is not a protectorate or colony. Its residents are Spanish citizens, and Madrid considers it an integral part of Spain, although Morocco disputes Spanish sovereignty over both territories.

The surge followed controversy over a Spanish Supreme Court ruling limiting authorities’ ability to summarily return migrants intercepted at sea, as well as a separate Sánchez government program granting legal status to undocumented migrants already living in Spain.

The court ruled earlier in July that migrants intercepted while swimming or traveling by sea toward Ceuta or Melilla, Spain, could not be immediately returned under a special procedure written for people attempting to cross the territories’ fortified land borders. They must instead be processed through Spain’s ordinary immigration, asylum and removal system. The ruling did not grant them an automatic right to remain.

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Sánchez blamed trafficking networks for spreading a false impression that migrants who reached Ceuta, Spain, by sea would be allowed to stay.

Critics also pointed to Spain’s mass regularization program. The government initially estimated that approximately 500,000 undocumented migrants would qualify for renewable residence and work permits if they had lived in Spain for at least five months before the end of 2025 and had no criminal record. Applications ultimately reached approximately 1 million, far exceeding the original estimate.

"When you offer amnesty to over a million illegal migrants in Spain, this acts as a huge incentive for millions more to try to enter Spain illegally," Gardiner said. "What we’ve seen in Ceuta over the last 24 hours is just the tip of the iceberg."

Gardiner said the footage appeared to show that roughly 99% of those crossing were "fighting-age males" and warned of a potentially "significant terror risk."

"This is what happens when you introduce amnesty policies," he added. "You literally open the floodgates on a biblical scale."

The Spanish government argues that the program applies only to migrants who were already in the country before the cutoff and is designed to bring workers into the formal economy rather than encourage new arrivals.

Andrew Fox, senior associate fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, told Fox News Digital the crisis may have been deliberately triggered in response to regional geopolitics.

"This is a crisis likely engineered by Morocco in response to Spain’s recent engagement with Algeria," Fox said. "On a normal day, Spanish security can man gates and crossings, but they cannot control the Algerian side of the border. The fact that these people cannot simply be returned to Morocco en masse, however, shows that the international asylum and refugee system is fundamentally broken and open to widespread abuse. Without fixing that, there can be no border security in Europe."

Gardiner warned that the political fallout could threaten Schengen and the wider European project.

Although the pressure on Ceuta, Spain, appeared to ease as thousands returned to Morocco, the breach had already spread beyond Spain — fueling a European fight over borders and entering the American political debate through Trump’s warning about a possible Democratic return to power.

Morocco denied facilitating the mass crossing. Morocco’s ambassador to Spain, Karima Benyaich, told the Associated Press that the events in Ceuta had unfolded against Rabat’s wishes.

"We have always prioritized legal, orderly and safe migration for all," Benyaich said. She did not address what triggered the sudden surge. Moroccan security forces later used water cannons and warning shots to prevent additional crossings, according to The Associated Press. 

Spain is deploying its military to the North African enclave of Ceuta after thousands of migrants overwhelmed the territory's border with Morocco, prompting a major security response as officials confirmed at least nine people died during the crossings.

The Spanish government said the Armed Forces will support the Civil Guard in restoring order after local officials warned the city could no longer handle the influx. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska are expected to visit Ceuta as Madrid scrambles to contain the crisis.

The surge marks one of the largest migrant waves to hit Ceuta since 2021, when more than 8,000 people entered the Spanish territory over two days, triggering a diplomatic dispute between Spain and Morocco.

"The situation is absolute chaos," Rachid Sbihi, who heads an association representing Spain's Civil Guard officers in Ceuta, told The Associated Press. "It's not possible to give precise numbers, but there are thousands of migrants crossing."

WHITE HOUSE BLASTS SPANISH GOVERNMENT AS THOUSANDS OF MIGRANTS SURGE FROM MOROCCO, EMERGENCY REQUEST DENIED

Spain's government delegation in Ceuta said at least nine people died Thursday, though officials did not immediately explain the circumstances. According to the AP, bodies were seen floating in the water as rescue and security operations continued.

Video from the area showed large groups of migrants entering Ceuta through the Tarajal border area, with many arriving by swimming around coastal barriers separating Morocco from Spanish territory. Most appeared to be young men, though families with women and children were also among those crossing.

OVERCROWDED MIGRANT VESSEL WITH 240 PEOPLE ON BOARD INTERCEPTED NEAR TURKS AND CAICOS

Spanish authorities said Morocco is cooperating with efforts to regain control of the border. Spain's Interior Ministry said Moroccan police have intercepted numerous migrants attempting to cross and that both governments are working to return those who entered the territory illegally as quickly as possible.

Authorities have not identified a single cause for the sudden surge, though Ceuta officials have pointed to a recent Spanish Supreme Court ruling that limits the immediate return of migrants who arrive by sea without due process. Some migration advocates, however, questioned whether the ruling alone could explain the dramatic increase, arguing many migrants would likely have been unaware of the decision.

The crisis has reverberated beyond Spain. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni threatened to suspend Italy's participation in the Schengen open-border agreement with Spain, saying the move would be necessary "to defend our borders and ensure the safety of our citizens."

EU ADMITS IT ‘DIDN’T HAVE CONTROL’ ON MIGRATION AS BLOC RUSHES CRACKDOWN AHEAD OF NEW RULES

Ceuta, a small Spanish territory on Morocco's Mediterranean coast, has long been one of Europe's most active migration flashpoints. 

Migrants from across Africa regularly attempt to reach the enclave by swimming from Morocco or scaling the heavily fortified border fence in hopes of gaining entry into the European Union.

Spain's Interior Ministry said nearly 3,000 migrants had entered Ceuta by land or sea this year through mid-July, before this week's crossings dramatically increased those figures.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Spain's Embassy in Washington, the Department of Homeland Security, the Center for Immigration Studies and the Migration Policy Institute for comment.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The White House bashed Spain's left-wing government after the border between Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta and Morocco collapsed Thursday. 

"President Trump has long warned Europe what would happen if they continue to implement far-left, globalist policies – including enabling mass migration. Spain and other countries who have adopted this destructive philosophy should immediately reverse course or risk their own demise," White House principal deputy press secretary Anna Kelly told Fox News in a statement.

Ceuta's president formally requested a national emergency declaration Thursday after more than 2,000 migrants crossed the border from Morocco in the past 10 days, as videos showed chaotic scenes of migrants pouring into the Spanish territory.

Video shows hordes of apparently military-aged men smiling and posing for cameras, some carrying swimming flippers, and sprinting through the streets as authorities struggle to corral the unruly masses.

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Other footage shows crowds of migrants emerging from the sea, climbing up onto Ceuta's rocky shores and working their way around border fences.

Ceuta President Juan Jesús Vivas formally requested that Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez declare a national emergency to help respond to the border crisis, Spanish media outlets reported. Madrid, however, denied the request.

DEM REP SETH MOULTON SAYS PARTY HAS NO IMMIGRATION PLAN, IS ONLY ‘OPPOSITION TO TRUMP’

"The declaration of a national emergency is part of the state civil protection regulations, which do not consider migratory flows as a risk to the National Civil Protection System, nor do they establish special plans, basic guidelines, or specific civil protection instruments for their management. Therefore, it is not possible to activate this mechanism, as requested by the president of the Government of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas," Spain's Ministry of the Interior said in a statement, according to Spanish outlet El Pais.

Ceuta’s government, in their request for a national emergency declaration, noted that immigration from Moroco is always a problem for the Spanish enclave, but claimed the last 10 days represented a peak "of particular intensity." That peak has seen more than 2,000 migrants cross the border in the past 10 days, Ceuta officials said, according to El Pais.

"The Government of Spain is fully committed to providing an immediate response to the situation in Ceuta. We are mobilizing all necessary resources, working with Moroccan and international authorities, and preparing the necessary measures to restore normalcy as soon as possible," Sánchez wrote in a Thursday post on X.

BIDEN ADMINISTRATION FORCED A FALSE CHOICE ON AMERICANS ABOUT IMMIGRATION

Sánchez has faced considerable backlash from his country's conservatives for his policies on immigration, with many arguing that Spain's policy of guaranteeing social services to minors who illegally enter the country incentivizes mass migration.

"When they cross the border as minors, you cannot send them back to Morocco," Javier Negre, a conservative Spanish journalist and owner of La Derecha Diario and UHN Plus, told Fox News Digital.

"The Spanish state has to take care of them and pay money to NGOs to care for these minors until they turn 18," he continued.

"It’s proof that Europe and Spain are on the verge of becoming a failed continent because of the future policies and promotion of this illegal invasion under Pedro Sánchez," Negre criticized.

Sánchez, for his part, has claimed that accepting migrants is necessary to keep Spain's economy alive, arguing the country's low birth rates necessitate accepting immigrants.

"The West needs people. Currently, few of its countries have a rising population growth rate. Unless they embrace migration, they will experience a sharp demographic decline that will prevent them from keeping their economies and public services afloat. Their gross domestic product will stagnate. Their public healthcare and pension systems will suffer. Neither AI nor robots will be able to prevent this outcome... The only option to avoid decline is to integrate migrants in the most orderly and effective way possible," Sánchez wrote in a February op-ed in The New York Times.

Fox News Digital contacted the offices of Sánchez and Vivas for further comment.

Fox News' Patrick Ward contributed to this report.

Poland, the closest NATO member to the Ukraine-Russia war, scrambled fighter jets and placed its air defenses on high alert early Thursday as Russia launched more than 70 missiles and roughly 280 drones across Ukraine, killing at least eight and wounding dozens from Kyiv to the western city of Lviv.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, just returning from this week's U.S. visit with President Donald Trump and the funeral of late Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said the barrage exposed a critical shortage of Western-supplied interceptors, particularly against ballistic missiles.

"The protection of people’s lives depends directly on their willingness" to provide Ukraine with air-defense missiles, Zelenskyy said of Kyiv’s allies.

Hours later Thursday morning, the European Union disbursed $4 billion to Ukraine to finance the procurement of more drones, missiles, air defense and fighter jets, according to the European Commission.

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The disbursement is part of a more than $100 billion loan approved by the EU earlier this year and follows the roughly $3.5 billion installment on June 25 and $4.5 billion on June 30.

Polish forces detected an unidentified object moving west through the country’s airspace shortly before 4 a.m. An F-16 was dispatched to intercept it, but the object disappeared from radar minutes later. Authorities subsequently found a crater about 33 feet wide and scattered debris in farmland near Tarnawa-Kolonia, about 1.2 miles from the closest buildings.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said initial evidence indicated the object was a Russian Kh-101 missile, although investigators were still working to confirm its type and origin.

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"All the indications are that it was a Russian Kh-101," Tusk said, adding that Polish forces were prepared to shoot it down if it had continued flying toward a populated area.

He added the U.S. is interested in joining the investigation, which has initially determined the missile was not intended for Poland territory. The fate of the Ukraine-Russian war might be decided within the next 100 days, Tusk told reporters.

The threat to a NATO ally is a new frontier in the long-running war and comes after Zelenskyy pressed senators to advance Graham's sweeping sanctions package. Also, Trump and Zelenskyy discussed U.S. licenses allowing Ukraine to produce Patriot interceptors, along with other defense cooperation and efforts to revive stalled diplomacy with Moscow.

Six people, including two girls ages 5 and 12, were killed when a Russian Iskander-M ballistic missile struck a private home housing a large family near Kryvyi Rih, according to local officials. Seven others were reported killed in Kyiv and elsewhere in the Dnipropetrovsk and Poltava regions as the casualty count rose during rescue operations.

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"A dark night," Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of Kryvyi Rih’s defense council, wrote on Telegram. Eight people were wounded in the strike on the home.

The person killed in Kyiv was a 31-year-old man, while two others were wounded, according to Ukrainian police. Russian strikes damaged residential buildings, vehicles, storage facilities, a market and a garage complex in the capital, where air raid warnings lasted more than five hours and thousands of residents sheltered in subway stations.

In Lviv, about 40 miles from the Polish border, emergency crews searched damaged apartment buildings for people trapped beneath concrete and debris. Thirty people, including children, were reported injured. More than 20 residential buildings, a school and two kindergartens were damaged, officials said.

"I was terrified watching the rescuers go beneath those concrete slabs," one Lviv resident told Reuters as crews pulled a boy from a damaged building.

Ukraine’s air force said its defenses intercepted 55 missiles and 265 drones. But only one of nine ballistic missiles was shot down, while 11 missiles and 17 drones struck targets at 20 locations.

The U.S.-made Patriot is the only system currently in Ukraine’s arsenal capable of reliably intercepting Russian ballistic missiles, which travel at several times the speed of sound. Zelenskyy has repeatedly warned that Patriot interceptors are arriving too slowly and in insufficient numbers.

During his Tuesday meeting with Trump, Zelenskyy said the leaders discussed licenses for Patriot interceptor production in Ukraine. He also met with Lockheed Martin executives and told senators that domestic production would be a long-term solution but would not address Ukraine’s immediate shortage of missiles. European countries have offered to pay for additional U.S.-made interceptors.

Zelenskyy’s Washington visit coincided with Senate consideration of the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, named for the longtime defense hawk and outspoken Ukraine supporter who died unexpectedly earlier this month.

The Senate voted 86-12 Tuesday to clear an initial procedural hurdle and voted 84-12 Wednesday to formally proceed with the legislation. Additional votes were still required before final passage.

The package would impose sanctions on Russian officials, oligarchs, financial institutions, energy projects and vessels accused of helping Moscow evade existing restrictions. It would also authorize tariffs of up to 100% on goods from the five largest purchasers of Russian oil and natural gas and the leading countries facilitating sanctions evasion.

Graham negotiated the revised package with the White House shortly before his death. The legislation also includes an extension of sanctions targeting Iran’s energy and weapons sectors, a provision sought by the Trump administration.

Zelenskyy met with a bipartisan group of senators before the procedural votes and called the legislation an important signal to Russia, Europe and the Ukrainian people. He watched the Senate vote from the chamber’s gallery after attending Graham’s funeral at Washington National Cathedral.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The United States resumed airstrikes inside Iran Wednesday night in retaliation for Tehran’s attempted surprise ballistic-missile attack on American forces, as an Iran expert warned that the regime has become increasingly willing to test Washington despite its weakened military capabilities.

"The strikes are a powerful response to yesterday’s attempted Iranian attack on U.S. forces based in the Middle East," U.S. Central Command said as the new operation began, according to The Associated Press.

The renewed strikes marked the first U.S. attacks inside Iran since President Donald Trump paused the bombing campaign Friday after 13 consecutive nights to allow diplomacy another chance. Iran’s missile launch shattered that brief pause and returned the conflict to direct exchanges between Washington and Tehran.

Trump had signaled the retaliation earlier Wednesday, saying the United States would hit Iran "very hard."

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Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior director of the Iran program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the surprise nature of Iran’s attack reflected a significant shift in Tehran’s strategy.

"What makes this attack different is that it’s basically a surprise attack," Taleblu told Fox News Digital. "This is the Islamic Republic matching its deeds with its words," he said. "That means a more risk-tolerant, more confident, perhaps less capable, but more dangerous Iran in the Middle East."

U.S. Central Command said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched multiple ballistic missiles from Iran at U.S. forces in the region at approximately 5:45 p.m. Eastern Time Tuesday. All were intercepted, and no casualties or damage were immediately reported.

Trump later vowed a forceful response, telling Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst that the United States would be "hitting them hard" and that Iran was "going to get a beating." "We're going to beat the f---ing s--- out of them," Trump said.

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But Ben Taleblu warned that successful interceptions alone may not restore deterrence. He argued that Tehran has repeatedly learned that it can fire on American forces, absorb a U.S. response and then attempt to dictate when the exchange ends.

"The dangerous lesson for America here is that you have to treat every single Iranian missile attack, whether it was successful or not, as being successful," he said. "You can’t over-rely on technology because, ultimately, this is not a technological problem. This is a political problem."

The attack came as the nearly five-month conflict threatened to widen across the region.

Iran said it also targeted commercial tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, while the United States and Saudi Arabia jointly struck Iran-backed armed groups in Iraq following drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities. The operation marked the first time Riyadh publicly acknowledged participating in strikes alongside Washington, potentially opening a new front in the confrontation, Reuters reported. 

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The renewed fighting also threatens already-fragile negotiations over the Strait of Hormuz. Iran rejected an Omani proposal for joint regional management of the waterway, insisting on broader control over shipping routes through the strait.

The attack followed a far deadlier Iranian attack on U.S. forces in Jordan earlier in July. That strike hit housing used by American troops at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, killing two U.S. service members and wounding several others.

The United States subsequently struck Iranian targets, but Ben Taleblu argued that Tehran continues to believe it can absorb retaliation, fire back and dictate when each cycle of fighting ends.

He said the United States must respond while preparing for another Iranian counterattack, warning that allowing Tehran to claim it had "closed the round" after retaliating would reinforce the regime’s belief that it can dictate the pace of the conflict.

"The U.S. certainly does need to respond, and President Trump indeed has promised to respond with some very colorful language, but it has to be prepared for the Iranian response," he said.

Russia launched a ballistic missile attack on Ukraine's capital early Thursday, with multiple explosions reported across Kyiv, according to Ukrainian officials.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko urged residents to seek shelter as blasts rocked the city. Reuters, citing a witness, reported hearing multiple explosions.

The Ukrainian Air Force also said Russia was targeting the capital with ballistic missiles.

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Klitschko later said several non-residential sites caught fire following the strikes. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The attack came just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Russia appeared to be preparing a major overnight assault.

"I received a report from Air Force Commander Anatolii Kryvonozhko," Zelenskyy wrote on X Wednesday, saying Russia had prepared a "massive attack several days ago" and that there was a "high probability" it would be carried out overnight.

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"It is important that our partners fully understand what is happening and that the protection of lives directly depends on their readiness, or lack thereof, to help us with air defense missiles," Zelenskyy said.

The Ukrainian president made the appeal after returning from the United States, where he met with President Donald Trump.

Trump recently announced at the NATO summit in Turkey that the United States would license Ukraine to manufacture Patriot air defense systems, according to The Associated Press.

"First and foremost, this concerns the United States and those partners that have Patriot missiles and can provide them to support our defense," Zelenskyy wrote.

"Every partner knows what is needed and fully understands the consequences of marking time."

Fox News Digital's Emma Bussey and Reuters contributed to this report.

As multiple international crises grip the world, from Iran to Russia’s war in Ukraine, Sudan quietly remains one of the largest humanitarian and displacement disasters in the world.

Since the outbreak of hostilities in 2023, over 14 million people have been displaced and nearly 34 million people are in desperate need of humanitarian support, accounting for 10% of global needs, according to the International Rescue Committee.

"The war in Sudan has caused the world's largest humanitarian crisis and has escalated into a regional war involving all of its neighbors as well as numerous Middle Eastern powers," Alan Boswell, Project Director for the Horn of Africa at International Crisis Group, told Fox News Digital.

"Despite this, world leaders continue to ignore the conflict, leaving it to subordinates. That approach continues to fail," Boswell added.

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The United Nations says that some 19.5 million people are experiencing acute hunger, and 4.5 million people have fled the country.

The U.S. also recently imposed an additional round of sanctions against the Sudanese Armed Forces for allegedly using chemical weapons in 2024 in violations of the Chemical Weapons Convention.

The Sudanese government denied the allegations.

The Trump administration has made significant efforts in trying to mediate between Russia and Ukraine, as well as bring Israel’s war against Gaza to an end. The administration is also trying to uphold a shaky ceasefire that was agreed with Iran to halt the war that began on February 28.

"For three years, we have warned that Sudan was on the brink of catastrophe, and those warnings have gone unanswered," said International Rescue Committee Country Director Richard Data.

Sudan’s recent outbreak of civil war, following years of coups and credible accusations of ethnic cleansing and genocide, persists under the radar.

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The civil war broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces led by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, widely known as "Hemedti," leader of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The two had been in an uneasy alliance ruling the country following the 2019 overthrow of Sudan’s longtime dictator, Omar al-Bashir, who had been in power since 1989. Together, the generals staged another coup in 2021, toppling the interim civilian government that had been in power after the fall of Bashir.

While both the Sudanese Armed Forces and RSF are accused of committing atrocities, recent reports have highlighted the brutality of the RSF.

A major focus of the deteriorating conditions has been in El-Obeid in North Kordofan state, where an escalating hunger crisis is plaguing over 100,000 displaced people in camps throughout the city.

"What we need to do is really now to plan for the scale-up beyond the 100,000 people that we have been supporting," said World Food Programme Sudan Country Director, Abdallah Alwardat.

El Fasher in the Darfur region is another major flashpoint, where the RSF took control in October 2025 and killed more than 6,000 people in the initial siege of the city.

A recent July report from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights revealed widespread acts of sexual violence against women and girls, some as young as 12, including reports of mass and gang rapes committed by the RSF.

The RSF is also accused of abduction, with survivors describing incidents of girls and women being beaten, having their hands tied behind their backs, and being driven away in a Land cruiser.

The United Nations and other human rights groups have accused the RSF of perpetrating ethnically targeted attacks and concluded that at least three components of genocide have been overwhelmingly met, including deliberately inflicting conditions of life intended to destroy a group in whole or in part.

A U.N. report from September 2025 found that the Sudanese Armed Forces have also committed war crimes and attacked civilian populations and infrastructure. Both the Sudanese Armed Forces, and the RSF, targeted civilians with perceived affiliations to the enemy, with executions, torture and rape commonplace.

A shocking new report says 2025 was the deadliest year for antisemitic attacks worldwide since 1994.

The J7 Large Communities’ Task Force Against Antisemitism released its second annual report, which tracks antisemitic hatred in the seven countries outside of Israel where over 90% of Jews live. According to the report, 20 people were killed in antisemitic attacks in 2025. All of the deadly attacks took place in J7 countries.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is one of two organizations representing the Jewish diaspora in the U.S. in the J7, which includes similar organizations from Australia, Canada, Argentina, the U.S., the U.K., Germany and France.

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The ADL’s Senior Director of Global Research and Diplomatic Affairs, Aykan Erdemir, told Fox News Digital that the report’s findings show "there’s no time to waste" in combating hate.

"This isn't a warning sign anymore, it's already happening," Erdemir said. "If governments let antisemitism take root and perpetrators walk free, the violence won't stop with Jewish communities. History shows Jews are the canary in the coal mine: when hatred against Jews rises unchecked, it's an early warning that everyone's safety and rights are at risk."

The J7 report finds that there were over 23,000 antisemitic incidents in J7 countries throughout 2025 – this represented a 97% increase in violent incidents and a 136% increase in total antisemitic incidents since 2022.

The Hamas terror attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, sent antisemitic hate skyrocketing worldwide.

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According to the report, each of the countries face an environment where antisemitism is "no longer confined to the fringes." Countries are witnessing anti-Zionism associated with the conflict in Gaza becoming "a vehicle for antisemitic expression" and educational institutions becoming an "acute flashpoint" for hatred. Combined with growing online extremism, Jewish people "across the globe report hiding their Jewish identity in public" and question "whether they have a future in their home countries."

Individually, the report shows how countries face their own unique challenges in quashing hatred.

Australia, which has seen a 270% increase in antisemitic incidents since 2021, was home to the Bondi Beach terror attack in December 2025, during which 15 people were killed. The report says that both Islamist and left-wing extremist threats in the country "need to be prioritized, and dealt with effectively."

In Germany, a 215% increase in antisemitic incidents has been coupled with the highest per capita rate of incidents, with 69.8 incidents per 1,000 Jewish residents in 2025 for a total of 8,725 incidents.

The report said that normalization of hate "remains the most pressing challenge" in Germany, with the rise in incidents attributed to the "confluence of far-right ethno-nationalism, left-wing anti-Zionism, and Islamist extremism simultaneously."

In Canada, which has experienced a 60% rise in antisemitic incidents since 2021, there is a concern that "foreign state interference" is at play, in addition to "the exploitation of domestic institutions by extremist networks."

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The U.S. has had a 131% increase in antisemitic incidents since 2021. Though antisemitic incidents declined significantly from 2024, the 6,274 antisemitic incidents tracked in 2025 included 300 reports of physical assault.

France has witnessed a rise in antisemitic incidents of 124% since 2021. The report notes that there is "a growing climate of discrimination" where Jews in France report being refused service, denied contracts and excluded from events.

In the U.K., which has experienced a 64% increase in antisemitic incidents since 2021, 48% of 3,700 antisemitic incidents were motivated by anti-Zionism, and 53% included references to the conflict involving Gaza.

Though the government in Argentina is pro-Israel, the country "has generated conspiratorial antisemitic backlash from the left and from fringe nationalist movements," the report said. Since 2021, Argentina has seen a 46% increase in antisemitic incidents.

The J7 report also added a special chapter on antisemitism in Ireland, which is not a J7 country. While Ireland has only a 2,200-person Jewish community, it has reported 143 incidents of antisemitism. Despite antisemitism in Ireland taking hold "primarily in everyday settings," unlike J7 countries, Ireland has no national plan for combating antisemitism and no security funding for the Jewish population.

Erdemir said that "the most urgent priority for every government should be protecting Jewish communities and institutions before they're attacked, not after." He called on law enforcement to "hold perpetrators fully accountable," but said that "the real goal has to be stopping attacks before they happen and preventing Jews from being driven out of public spaces, not just responding once the damage is done."

Erdemir said, "Governments can't rely on security alone. It takes a whole-of-society effort, government, business, schools, civil society and everyday citizens, to root out the hate targeting Jewish communities worldwide. And because this hate crosses borders, so must the response: governments, international bodies and NGOs around the world need to work together, not in isolation."

China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are acting as a strategically aligned bloc even without a formal mutual-defense treaty, according to a new Foundation for Defense of Democracies book warning that their cooperation could leave the United States confronting multiple crises simultaneously.

The book, "Axis of Aggressors: Countering the Cooperation of China, Russia, Iran and North Korea," examines how the four authoritarian governments support one another across military, economic, cyber and technology domains.

Its authors acknowledge that the grouping is not a NATO-style alliance. It has no unified command, comprehensive defense commitment or complete trust among its members. But they argue that its practical effects are already visible in active conflicts.

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"I just got back from a couple of weeks in Ukraine, and when I’m sitting in Ukraine, it’s really obvious to me that Ukraine is fighting Russia, North Korea, Iran and China," retired Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, one of the book’s three authors, told Fox News Digital.

Montgomery pointed to North Korean ammunition and troops, Iranian drones and production expertise, and Chinese economic and technological support for Moscow.

"China is backstopping the whole thing, providing the economic backstop to Russia’s economy so they can survive this four-year catastrophic event for Russia," Montgomery said. "They’re providing microelectronics that we see in ballistic, cruise and hypersonic missiles."

The book’s researchers documented 616 instances of security cooperation among the four governments from Jan. 1, 2019, through Dec. 31, 2025, including arms transfers, weapons development, military exercises, intelligence sharing and military exchanges.

The central danger, Montgomery said, is what the book calls the "simultaneity problem."

"We don’t get to handle these with a singularity anymore. We have to handle this with a simultaneity," he said. "And I don’t think we can handle two problems at once, much less three or four."

During a potential confrontation between China and Taiwan, Montgomery said, North Korea could threaten South Korea or conduct limited attacks intended to pin down U.S. forces. A conflict involving Russia and NATO’s Baltic members could be accompanied by Iranian terrorism or other hostile activity.

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The book identifies China-Russia military cooperation as the axis’s most consequential bilateral relationship. Chinese dual-use products have helped sustain Russia’s defense industrial base, while Moscow is transferring technology and battlefield lessons that could assist China in a Pacific conflict.

North Korea has supplied Russia with millions of artillery rounds, ballistic missiles and troops, while Moscow has assisted Pyongyang’s missile, space, drone and nuclear programs, according to the book.

Iran has provided Russia with drones and production knowledge. The book warns that Russian and Chinese assistance could also help Tehran rebuild military capabilities damaged during its conflicts with Israel and the United States.

"The longer they can entangle the United States, whether it was in Ukraine or in Iran, China and Russia are the primary beneficiaries," Montgomery said.

Economic ties underpin the military cooperation, according to co-author Elaine Dezenski, who described the four-country economy as a "fractured alignment."

"These four players are bound together more by necessity than they are by a specific trust or shared strategy among them," Dezenski told Fox News Digital. "China needs energy. Russia and Iran need buyers for their oil and gas. And North Korea needs any lifeline that it can get."

China purchases discounted Russian and Iranian energy while providing goods, technology and access to its domestic market.

The relationships remain unequal. Russia and Iran compete to sell similar products, while China can seek other suppliers. But Dezenski said those divisions should not obscure the benefits the cooperation provides.

"The economics of this very much underpin the foundations for the military engagement that we see," she said.

The book says China purchases as much as 95% of Iran’s oil exports. Some sanctioned oil is routed through third countries, relabeled or processed by independent Chinese refineries known as "teapots."

"The export juggernaut that is China today is fueled by sanctioned oil and gas," Dezenski said.

TRUMP MAY CLAIM HE WON THE FIGHT WITH IRAN, BUT THERE’S A BIGGER WAR ALREADY UNDERWAY

Dezenski also warned that China, Russia and Iran are developing payment systems outside traditional Western banking infrastructure. More trade is being settled in yuan through China’s Cross-Border Interbank Payment System, or CIPS, potentially reducing Washington’s ability to enforce sanctions through the dollar system.

"We need to really think about that sooner rather than later, before this alternative payment system becomes too big to tackle," Dezenski said.

Montgomery said the line between criminal hackers and government operatives is often deliberately blurred in all four countries.

"These regimes routinely outsource work to criminal groups to keep their own hands clean, and those groups are increasingly networking with each other," he said.

The book cites ties involving Iranian cybercriminals and Russian ransomware groups, Chinese actors on Russian dark-web forums, and Russian and North Korean state-backed hackers using shared operational infrastructure.

Carrie Filipetti, executive director of the Vandenberg Coalition and a former State Department official during the first Trump administration, said drone warfare demonstrates how assistance moves among the countries.

"Chinese components are used to create Iranian drones, which are then deployed by the Russians against Ukrainian civilians," Filipetti told Fox News Digital.

She said the relationship has also endangered American troops, pointing to the January 2024 Tower 22 attack in Jordan, which killed three U.S. Army Reserve soldiers and wounded more than 40 service members.

"The military and ideological relationship between Russia and Iran is not just a theoretical threat to the United States — American service members have been killed as a result of it," Filipetti said.

Filipetti said the attack used an Iranian drone and Russian tactics developed during the war in Ukraine. "These adversaries don’t agree on everything, but they do on one thing: to reorient the world away from America and the West," she said. "Our service members and citizens will continue to suffer until we treat the threat as the united threat it is."

Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Richard Newton said the danger stems not only from military modernization in each country, but from the degree to which the four governments are increasingly coordinating.

"I couldn’t agree more with the underlying findings the authors present regarding the rapid military modernization unfolding across multiple domains — air, sea, land, space and cyber — emanating from China, Russia, Iran and North Korea," Newton told Fox News Digital.

"These nation-states represent extraordinary adversarial challenges for the United States. That’s concerning enough," he said. "But a major challenge President Trump is facing in his second administration is the level and degree of integration, synchronization and coordination among these four adversaries, who are more unified today than ever in their collective pursuits to threaten U.S. national security interests."

Newton said the changing character of warfare, demonstrated by more than four years of fighting between Russia and Ukraine and the current U.S.-Iran conflict, has compounded the threat.

"Couple that with the changing nature of warfare we’ve been witnessing," he said, "and the task to defend our nation is now much more complex and daunting."

Retired Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, who served as NATO supreme allied commander and commander of U.S. European Command from 2013 to 2016, argued that Washington’s language understates the severity of the confrontation.

"We often say that we are in ‘strategic competition’ with China and Russia. They are at war with us," Breedlove told Fox News Digital.

Breedlove said China, Russia, Iran and North Korea "are not partners looking for cooperation with the U.S.," but governments seeking to "diminish and defeat" American power.

"The enemy gets a vote," Breedlove said. "Our enemies are voting by their support to Russia and Iran."

He added that assistance from the other countries has become increasingly important to Moscow as it struggles to sustain its war.

"Aid is critical to Russia," Breedlove said. "Russia is failing and becoming ever more dependent on its allies."

The authors recommend stronger coordination with allies, expanded defense production, greater protection of U.S. critical infrastructure and more aggressive sanctions enforcement.

Dezenski called for targeting the full network supporting sanctioned Russian and Iranian oil, including refineries, ports, insurers and financiers, rather than focusing primarily on individual vessels.

"We need to treat this axis as a threat, as a combined threat," Montgomery said, "that will confront us in every one of our crisis areas."

A man in France discovered remains believed to belong to five newborns hidden inside cardboard boxes in his home after his partner gave birth at home and was taken to a hospital, according to prosecutors.

He became distressed after he found out about her pregnancy at ⁠a very late stage, despite her repeated denials, and began searching their home, prosecutors said. The couple already had two children, ages eight and nine.

The woman, 32, who was not identified, was allegedly arguing with her husband over what was in the boxes at their home in the town of Orange on Monday after she gave birth at home to a baby boy the day before.

She started complaining about abdominal pain during the argument on Monday. She was taken to a hospital and her husband stayed behind and discovered the dead babies hidden in the boxes.

NEWBORN VANISHED AFTER SECRET BIRTH, PARENTS ALLEGEDLY CLAIMED BABY 'WAS A PRANK': COPS

The man, also 32, then notified authorities through the hospital ​where the woman was being treated for pain.

"The husband stayed behind when she was taken to the hospital, and looked inside the cardboard boxes they had been arguing over – that’s when he found the five dead babies," an investigating source said, according to the US Sun. "All the [fetuses] were decomposing, and had been around for quite a while."

Police searched the couple's home, and prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into suspected murder on Monday.

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A forensic pathologist estimated, based on initial findings, that the bones ​and decomposing remains belonged to five newborns.

Authorities said the remains included bones believed to belong to four newborns and the decomposing body of a fifth. Autopsies and further laboratory testing were ordered.

The man told ‌police ⁠he was unaware of his wife's possible pregnancies.

The public prosecutor's office urged child welfare services to assess the health of the couple's eight and nine-year old children. It ​also issued a ​provisional placement ⁠order for the newborn baby, pending referral of the case to a children's court judge.

The ​mother, who was still in the hospital on Tuesday, has not yet spoken to investigators.

A post-mortem examination has been ordered on ​the decomposing remains, and the bones will undergo anthropological analysis in a laboratory, according to prosecutors.

The couple had no history of problems and were described by a neighbor as "charming people," according to French outlet AFP.

The neighbor, Florent Jean, told the outlet that the wife was a stay-at-home mother and the husband worked. Jean said the two were "normal people, really."

Reuters contributed to this report.

More than 1,000 inmates death-row inmates held in a unit of Iran’s Ghezel Hesar Prison have entered a third week of a mass hunger strike to protest regime executions, with some prisoners sewing their lips shut in protest, according to reports.

The escalating demonstration at the U.S.-sanctioned Ghezel Hesar Prison in Karaj near Tehran, also highlights growing international concern over the Islamic Republic's reliance on capital punishment, particularly for drug-related offenses.

According to the Human Rights Activists News Agency  (HRANA), the hunger strike started on July 13, after six inmates were transferred to solitary confinement ahead of possible executions. Other Iranian human rights groups said the prisoners had been convicted of drug-related offenses.

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

Reports also indicate that the striking prisoners have been chanting "No to Execution" and taking extreme measures, including sewing their lips shut.

One media outlet cited a video that appeared to show an inmate speaking to the camera and saying he was going to sew his lips shut because, six days into the hunger strike, no prison official had responded to the protest.

The Guardian reported that the video also appears to show an unseen prisoner using a needle and thread to stitch the man's lips shut.

In a statement released on July 27, the exiled Iranian opposition group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), reported that prisoners in Unit 2 of Ghezel Hesar Prison were in "deteriorating physical condition" because of the hunger strike.

"Although 15 days have passed since the start of this hunger strike, the henchmen of the regime’s judiciary have given no response to the striking prisoners. Despite the prisoners’ deteriorating physical condition and urgent need for medical attention, prison guards have taken no measures to care for them," the organization said.

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

The NCRI also said the striking prisoners urged the public, human rights organizations and international bodies to take action to halt the executions.

This marks the second major demonstration at the facility in recent months.

A similar protest occurred at Ghezel Hesar Prison in October 2025, when more than 1,500 inmates staged a six-day hunger strike, according to reports.

That demonstration ended after senior judicial and prison officials made a visit to the facility and promised to temporarily halt executions and review cases.

However, human rights activists report those promises were never fulfilled, according to Ynet.

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The State Department had designated and sanctioned Ghezel Hesar Prison in 2024 for gross human rights violations and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of prisoners.

"These heinous acts included multiple severe beatings of political prisoners engaged in a peaceful hunger strike to protest the increased wave of executions being carried out at the facility," then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at the time.

According to Amnesty International, the Islamic Republic of Iran executed at least 2,159 people in 2025.

Iran’s total helped drive the number of executions recorded by Amnesty International to at least 2,707 across 17 countries — the highest figure the organization has recorded since 1981. The total excludes China, where execution data is classified as a state secret and Amnesty believes thousands of executions were carried out.

Iran publicly hanged two young men Tuesday over their alleged roles in January's nationwide anti-government protests, as onlookers chanted "Dishonorable, dishonorable!" before security forces fired tear gas to disperse the crowd, according to the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an exiled Iranian opposition group.

Abolfazl Sepahi Badjani and Amirhossein Safari Hosseinabadi were hanged Tuesday in Isfahan's Shahid Alikhani Square — where authorities alleged they committed offenses connected to the Jan. 8 protests, according to the NCRI and Iranian state media.

The NCRI said onlookers condemned the executions before security forces fired tear gas to disperse the crowd. The opposition group also said security personnel had been deployed on rooftops and surrounding streets.

Iranian state media also reported the public executions, Reuters said, with Iran's semi-official news agency Mehr saying they were carried out in Alikhani Square "in the presence of a group of people."

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

"Fearing public outrage over this brutal crime, the regime's suppressive forces had deployed agents in the surrounding streets and on rooftops," NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi said in a statement shared on X.

The executions mark the latest escalation in Iran's crackdown on protesters arrested during the nationwide demonstrations that began in late December and intensified in January.

Human rights groups have accused Iranian authorities of denying defendants due process, relying on coerced confessions and carrying out executions after unfair trials.

Iran's judiciary, meanwhile, accused Badjani and Hosseinabadi of participating in the Jan. 8 killing of four members of the State Security Force during demonstrations in Shahid Alikhani Square.

US-SANCTIONED MOJTABA KHAMENEI NAMED IRAN’S NEXT SUPREME LEADER AFTER FATHER’S DEATH: REPORTS

According to the judiciary's Mizan news agency, Badjani and Hosseinabadi were convicted of moharebeh, or "enmity against God," efsad-fil-arz, or "corruption on Earth," as well as destruction and arson of public property, and acts that led to the deaths of four officers. Authorities also accused them of possessing firearms and Molotov cocktails.

The NCRI claimed Tuesday that the defendants were denied the right to choose their own lawyers, and even their court-appointed attorneys were denied access to the case files.

Iran publicly hanged Abolfazl Sepahi-Badjani Tuesday over his alleged role in January's nationwide anti-government protests.

The judiciary, however, said the men had legal representation, appealed their convictions and were convicted using police reports, cellphone evidence, witness testimony, confessions and a crime scene reconstruction. 

The pair were said to be among 12 protesters sentenced to death in what has become known as the Alikhani Square case.

Two other defendants, Erfan Esfandiari and Gol Mohammad Mohammadi, were executed July 19, bringing the total number of executions in the case to four.

The U.N. experts warned this week that the remaining defendants face an imminent risk of execution.

'KILLING OFF THE COUNTRY': IRAN EXECUTES DOZENS, ARRESTS 4,000+ IN WAR CRACKDOWN

"The young men, aged between their late teens and early 20s, were reportedly arbitrarily deprived of their liberty, in some cases being subjected to enforced disappearance, ill-treated and accused of involvement in the killing of four security force members, as well as arson and vandalism during the Jan. 8, 2026, protests in Shahid Alikhani Square in Isfahan," U.N. experts said in a statement.

The statement also said all defendants were sentenced to death during a single closed-door hearing without clarity about each individual's alleged responsibility, calling the proceedings a violation of international fair trial standards.

Human Rights Watch said this week that at least 50 people have been executed over the past four months on what it described as vague national security charges.

"By resorting once again to the medieval practice of public hangings, the Islamic Republic is trying to instill fear throughout society and deter future protests," Iran Human Rights Director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said in a post shared on X.

"Public executions are a cruel form of state terror that the international community must not tolerate," he added.

The protests across Iran began in late December amid a deepening economic crisis before expanding into one of the largest anti-government movements in the Islamic Republic's history.

Massive wildfires sweeping through southwestern France are threatening key defense and nuclear sites near Bordeaux, forcing evacuations and emergency measures at missile factories, military research facilities and aerospace plants, according to reports.

The escalating blazes come as France braces for its fourth major heat wave of the year Tuesday, with soaring temperatures and arid conditions increasing pressure on crews battling massive wildfires near Bordeaux, according to Reuters.

Temperatures in the French region were forecast to reach 91 degrees Fahrenheit (33 degrees Celsius), about 13 degrees (7 degrees Celsius) above normal, according to the Reuters Climate Monitor.

EUROPE'S FIRES REVEAL DEADLY MIX OF RECORD HEAT, HUMAN ERROR, ARSON AND LAND MISMANAGEMENT

"The situation we are dealing with today is the most severe we have ever recorded, the toughest since the Second World War," President Emmanuel Macron, who flew to the area, had said Sunday.

French Economy Minister Roland Lescure said the fires have disrupted more than 13,000 businesses in the Gironde region, with many forced to close or evacuate.

According to The Telegraph, the fires are closing in on missile and rocket factories that store explosive materials.

At least seven sites holding hazardous substances are within 12 miles of the blaze.

FRANCE RECORDS MORE THAN 5,700 EXCESS DEATHS DURING HISTORIC EARLY SUMMER HEAT WAVE

Saint-Médard-en-Jalles, to the west-northwest, is one of the evacuated towns and is home to a large factory that produces propellants for Ariane space rockets and France's strategic missiles.

A nearby plant in Sainte-Hélène also produces ammonium perchlorate, a key oxidizer used in solid rocket propellants.

According to Defense News, the fires are also threatening factories that make key parts for France's nuclear missiles, Rafale fighter jets and military missiles.

ArianeGroup evacuated employees from sites in the fire zone, while France's Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) closed its military research center in Le Barp as the wildfires first advanced toward Bordeaux.

Officials said there is no risk of radioactive leakage because the facility contains no nuclear materials, the outlet reported.

EUROPE'S FIRES REVEAL DEADLY MIX OF RECORD HEAT, HUMAN ERROR, ARSON AND LAND MISMANAGEMENT

French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu said July 24 that protective measures had been deployed around the sites "given the nature of the products stored there," Le Monde said.

Meanwhile, France's Defense Ministry said 1,500 military personnel have been deployed since Friday to support firefighting operations and help secure strategic industrial sites.

So far, the fires have scorched more than 104,000 acres (42,000 hectares) in the Gironde region, making them among France's largest wildfires on record.

Authorities said about 240 homes have been destroyed, while nearly 4,000 holidaymakers have been evacuated from campsites, holiday villages and tourist resorts in Lacanau, about 35 miles west of Bordeaux.

As France and Spain battle one of Europe's worst wildfire seasons in decades, roughly 360,000 people have been forced to evacuate in recent days.