Olympic committee reveals decision on whether to ban US over Venezuela strike
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has responded to calls to exclude the U.S. and its athletes from the upcoming Winter Olympics over the country’s recent military intervention in Venezuela.
The committee ruled out any penalty on the U.S. in the aftermath of the intervention.
“As a global organization, the IOC has to manage a complex reality. The IOC has to deal with the current political context and the latest developments in the world,” the IOC said in a statement to the BBC.
“The ability to bring athletes together, no matter where they come from, is fundamental to the future of values-based, truly global sport, which can give hope to the world.
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“For this reason, the IOC cannot involve itself directly in political matters or conflicts between countries, as these fall outside our remit. This is the realm of politics.”
Russian athletes are banned from competing in the Olympics since the country invaded Ukraine in 2022. Russian invaded Ukraine just four days after the closing ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics in February of that year, which is a violation of the Olympic Truce clause in the IOC charter. Russia also put Ukrainian athletes there under the control of the Russian Olympic Committee.
The U.S.’s strike on Venezuela violated no such charter and has been praised by many in the international community due to the capture of dictator Nicolás Maduro and the toppling of his regime.
The effort came after months of pressure on Venezuela as the Trump administration conducted more than 20 strikes in Latin American waters targeting alleged drug traffickers as part of Trump’s broader initiative to curb the influx of drugs into the U.S.
UN URGES COUNTRIES TO HONOR TRUCE DURING WINTER OLYMPICS, NOT DENY VISAS TO ANY NATION’S ATHLETES
The IOC faced similar calls to exclude Israel from the Olympics over the Gaza war, but those requests were also declined as the committee stated that the country’s national Olympic committee had complied with the Olympic Charter.
However, Indonesia may face a penalty for violating the Olympic Charter, even if it doesn’t result in the exclusion of the country’s athletes from competition.
The IOC previously condemned the country for its denial of visas to Israeli athletes and declared it a breach of the international charter. All conversation about Indonesia hosting a future Olympics was terminated, and the IOC advised global organizers not to schedule any major events in the country.
The Indonesian government cited safety concerns for its decision to deny the Israel team visas, warning of potential threats within its country to the safety of the Israeli athletes and risk the safety of others.
However, Team Israel claimed its own country’s security detail determined the country was safe to enter and cleared its athletes to travel there.
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“We received authorization from the Israeli Security Authorities to participate in the World Championship subject to the necessary security protocols in place. From our side, all preparations were complete — registration process, entry visas to Indonesia and Israeli Security Authorities confirmation,” the Israel Gymnastics Federation previously told Fox News Digital.
Indonesia was previously stripped of its right to host the under-20 World Cup when the governor of Bali refused to host Team Israel in a game.
Sports billionaire quietly pulls off the biggest US land grab in years
A billionaire sports and real estate magnate has quietly completed the largest private land purchase in the United States in more than a decade — propelling him past other moguls to the top of the nation’s private landownership rankings.
Stan Kroenke — who owns the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams and England’s Premier League club Arsenal — purchased more than 937,000 acres of ranchland in New Mexico in a major off-market deal for property once owned by the heirs of Teledyne founder Dr. Henry Singleton, The Land Report first reported.
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The acquisition catapulted Kroenke from No. 4 to No. 1 on the 2025 Land Report 100, surpassing other billionaire landowners such as Ted Turner and John Malone. It also marked the largest single land transaction in the United States in more than a decade. Financial terms were not disclosed by either party.
With this deal, Kroenke now owns more land than any other private individual in the United States, surpassing the Emmerson family’s 2.44 million acres, Malone’s 2.2 million acres, and Turner’s 2 million acres.
A spokesperson for The Kroenke Group declined to comment to Fox News Digital.
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Kroenke’s portfolio now spans much of the American West and Canada, including 560,000 acres in Wyoming, 124,000 in Montana, the historic W.T. Waggoner Ranch in Texas, 800,000 acres in Nevada, and British Columbia’s Douglas Lake Ranch.
Born in Columbia, Missouri, Kroenke built his fortune through real estate development and professional sports, owning the Los Angeles Rams, the NBA’s Denver Nuggets, the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche, and the Premier League’s Arsenal FC. He is married to Ann Walton Kroenke, an heiress to the Walmart fortune, and has expanded his land and ranching empire across the American West for decades.
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Michael Cohen claims NY prosecutors ‘pressured and coerced’ him to testify against Trump
President Donald Trump‘s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, said Friday that prosecutors in both the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and the New York Attorney General’s Office “pressured and coerced” him into delivering testimony tailored to securing convictions against Trump.
Cohen, who was a key prosecution witness in two New York cases against Trump, accused New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg of pursuing evidence aimed at Trump, saying prosecutors were uninterested in testimony that didn’t fit their narrative.
“I felt pressured and coerced to only provide information and testimony that would satisfy the government’s desire to build the cases against and secure a judgment and convictions against President Trump,” Cohen wrote in a post on Substack.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Office of the New York State Attorney General and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office for comment.
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Cohen, who was Trump’s personal lawyer for many years, said he was writing as a federal appeals court considers the president’s request to move his hush money case to federal court for further review.
The former Trump fixer testified in a civil case brought by James’ office in 2023, where Trump was found liable for fraudulently inflating his assets to obtain favorable loan terms. He also took the stand in Bragg’s case in 2024, where Trump was ultimately found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records.
Cohen accused both James and Bragg of using their high-profile cases to elevate their careers, claiming they sought credit as officials who “took down Trump.”
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“They blurred the line between justice and politics; and in that blur, the credibility of both suffered,” he wrote.
Cohen said that both before and during the trials, prosecutors made it clear they were only interested in testimony from him that would convict Trump.
“When my testimony was insufficient for a point the prosecution sought to make, prosecutors frequently asked inappropriate leading questions to elicit answers that supported their narrative,” he said.
Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to several crimes, including tax evasion, campaign finance violations and lying to Congress. He described cooperating with authorities while incarcerated, saying he sought sentence relief and felt compelled to provide testimony fitting prosecutors’ narratives with the hope that his sentence would be reduced.
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“You may reasonably ask why I am speaking out now. The answer is simple. I have witnessed firsthand the damage done when prosecutors pick their target first and then seek evidence to fit a predetermined narrative,” Cohen said, while noting that he was not writing in defense of Trump.
College football star quarterback sues NCAA in shocking twist for his career
Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss has sued the NCAA after being denied a sixth year of eligibility.
Chambliss’ lawyers are asking a Mississippi judge for a preliminary injunction that would allow him to play one more collegiate season, according to multiple reports.
The NCAA formally rejected his request for a sixth year of eligibility Jan. 9 due to him and his team not being able to provide evidence he was suffering from an “incapacitating injury or illness” when he did not play for Division II Ferris State in 2022 due to apparent respiratory issues.
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“In November, Ole Miss filed a waiver request for football student-athlete Trinidad Chambliss, seeking to extend his five-year Division I eligibility clock, citing an incapacitating illness or injury. Approval requires schools to submit medical documentation provided by a treating physician at the time of a student’s incapacitating injury or illness, which was not provided,” the statement says.
“The documents provided by Ole Miss and the student’s prior school include a physician’s note from a December 2022 visit, which stated the student-athlete was ‘doing very well’ since he was seen in August 2022.
“Additionally, the student-athlete’s prior school indicated it had no documentation on medical treatment, injury reports or medical conditions involving the student-athlete during that time frame and cited “developmental needs and our team’s competitive circumstances” as its reason the student-athlete did not play in the 2022-23 season. The waiver request was denied.”
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Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter said the school would appeal the ruling.
“We are disappointed with today’s announcement by the NCAA and plan to appeal the decision to the Committee level,” Carter said in a social media post, in which he included the flag of Trinidad and Tobago. “Additionally, we will continue to work in conjunction with Trinidad’s representatives in other avenues of support.”
Chambliss’ attorney also released a statement that day suggesting litigation could be coming.
“I understand that Ole Miss will file an appeal with the NCAA. However, there’s now an opportunity to move this case to a level playing field where Trinidad’s rights will be determined by the Mississippi judiciary instead of some bureaucrats in Indianapolis who couldn’t care less about the law or doing the right thing,” Tom Mars said.
“Whether to pursue that course of action is a decision only Trinidad and his parents can make.”
Chambliss and his legal team will go to court in an effort to keep him on the field for the 2026 season.
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The NCAA referred to its Jan. 9 statement when contacted for a response to the lawsuit by Fox News Digital.
Ole Miss came within a quarter of advancing to the NCAA semifinal, losing a 31-27 thriller to Miami in the Fiesta Bowl Jan. 8.
Landlord forced to shell out $2.1M after NYC mayor vows ‘no one is above the law’
New York City reached a $2.1 million settlement with A&E Real Estate covering 14 buildings in three boroughs, with Mayor Zohran Mamdani saying the agreement will force repairs and stop what he described as tenant harassment.
“Today, I am proud to stand here … to announce that New York City has come to a settlement with A&E Realty regarding 14 buildings across three boroughs,” Mamdani said Friday at a news conference in Jackson Heights, Queens.
Asked during the news conference how aggressive the new administration plans to be with landlords, Mamdani said, “We want to make it clear to everyone in this city that no one is above the law and that if you are a landlord violating the law, then this administration will hold you to account.”
Mamdani said the settlement requires A&E to pay “$2.1 million in restitution” and includes “injunctions preventing them from harassing their tenants” while compelling the company “to correct more than 4,000 building code violations across these 14 buildings.”
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“For years, A&E has operated with callous disregard for those residing in its properties, racking up over 140,000 total violations, including 35,000 in the last year alone,” Mamdani said. “City Hall will not sit idly by and accept this illegality, nor will we allow bad actors to continue to harass tenants with impunity.”
A tenant, Diana De La Paz, described conditions she said residents have dealt with at her building, including prolonged elevator outages, heat issues and infestations. De La Paz said the elevator in her building has been out of service for long stretches, which she said “effectively imprison[ed] elderly and disabled tenants in their own homes.”
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Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) Commissioner Dina Levy said the agreement will affect “750 tenants across 14 buildings” and said the city’s litigation “has produced a settlement that will lead to the correction of more than 4,000 Housing Code violations.”
“It will enforce long overdue court-ordered repairs and impose $2.1 million in civil penalties and will include binding injunctions that will prohibit further tenant harassment and require sustained compliance moving forward from this landlord,” Levy said.
Levy said the deal represents the agency’s biggest settlement to date.
“Actually, the settlement announced today … represents HPD’s largest settlement in the history of the unit,” Levy said, adding that the city has additional tools it can use, including intervention in distressed buildings and, in extreme situations, removing buildings from owners’ control and installing “responsive management.”
Levy added that the city’s immediate focus is getting violations fixed through the settlement but warned additional action is possible if landlords do not comply.
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“The intended outcome is safety and well-being for tenants,” Mamdani said. “We today are announcing a multimillion-dollar settlement with this landlord to actually rectify these violations. That is what we want to see. If a landlord cannot get to that settlement, continues to operate outside of the law, then we will hold them to account in additional ways.”
City Council member Shekar Krishnan, who represents Jackson Heights, called A&E a “reprehensible landlord” and said enforcement is what tenants need.
“As a former tenant lawyer myself … I’ve always said that tenants’ rights are not worth more than the paper they’re written on if they’re not enforced in reality,” Krishnan said. “Here we are today … showing what enforcement looks like.”
Mamdani also announced what he called “rental ripoff” hearings across the city.
“We will be holding a rental ripoff hearing in each of the five boroughs within the first 100 days of our administration,” he said, describing them as hearings where multiple agencies will “listen to New Yorkers’ needs” and use that feedback to shape enforcement and policy.
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“We’ve made it our mission to collaborate with the city to improve this building and others that were in deep disrepair when we took ownership,” a spokesperson for A&E Real Estate told Fox News Digital. “In every building we’ve purchased, we’ve invested in replacing boilers, rehabbing elevators and fixing tens of thousands of longstanding violations.
“We are pleased to have settled all legal issues with the City and have agreed upon a repair plan with the housing department that we are already delivering on. We look forward to partnering with the city to improve the lives of our residents and find collaborative ways to protect and to continue to invest in New York City’s housing stock.”
Man arrested after allegedly threatening Vance during vice president’s Disney visit
A California man was arrested on a federal criminal complaint alleging he made online death threats against Vice President JD Vance during his visit to Disneyland Resort in Anaheim in July.
Marco Antonio Aguayo, 22, of Anaheim, was taken into custody Friday after he allegedly made multiple threatening comments on Disney’s official Instagram account referencing pipe bombs, imminent bloodshed and violent action against “corrupt politicians” July 12, the same day Vance and his family were visiting and staying at the resort.
Aguayo was charged with threatening the president and successors to the presidency, according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
He is expected to make his initial appearance Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana.
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“This case is a horrific reminder of the dangers public officials face from deranged criminals who would do them harm,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a Department of Justice news release announcing Aguayo’s arrest. “I am grateful that my friend Vice President Vance and his family are safe, applaud the police work that led to the arrest and will ensure my prosecutors deliver swift justice.”
Just before 6:15 p.m. July 12, an Instagram account posted a public comment on the Disney page saying, “Pipe bombs have been placed in preparation for J.D. Vance’s arrival,” according to an affidavit by a U.S. Secret Service Special Agent.
A subsequent comment said, “It’s time for us to rise up and you will be a witness to it,” and a third comment added, “Good luck finding all of them on time there will be bloodshed tonight and we will bathe in the blood of corrupt politicians,” according to the affidavit.
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Investigators traced the Instagram account allegedly used to post the threats to Aguayo’s email address, phone numbers, IP addresses and home in Anaheim, using records from Meta, Google and other sources.
While questioning Aguayo at his home, investigators said he initially claimed his account had been hacked, but he later admitted to making the posts as a “joke,” with the intention of deleting them, officials say.
Aguayo consented to searches of his phone, bedroom and laptop, where investigators confirmed he was logged into the account that made the posts, according to the affidavit.
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“We will not tolerate criminal threats against public officials,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in the release. “We are grateful the vice president and his family remained safe during their visit. Let this case be a warning to anyone who thinks they can make anonymous online threats. We will find you and bring you to justice.”
Trump ambassador warns Europe on ‘overreacting’ as Greenland tensions grow
In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, U.S. ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker pushed back against growing European backlash over Washington’s focus on Greenland after France announced new military exercises with Denmark, saying Arctic security is a core American defense interest and that Europe “has a tendency to overreact.”
Asked whether the dispute reflects American pressure or European inaction, Whitaker said, “This is ultimately an issue between the United States, Denmark and Greenland.”
Whitaker said Greenland’s importance has been clear for years as the ice melts, it reshapes the Arctic and opens new routes. “The security of the high north, which I’ve talked about a lot before this ever happened, is the most important issue,” he said. “As the ice thaws and as routes open up in the Arctic, Arctic security, and therefore the security of Greenland, which is the northern flank of the continental United States, is crucial.”
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He stressed that Greenland’s location makes it central to U.S. defense planning. “If you think about Greenland as part of the access to the naval assets, that monitoring and awareness and fortification of that part of the Western Hemisphere is crucial for the long-term security of the United States,” Whitaker said.
Whitaker said recent diplomacy shows the issue can be addressed without escalation. “I know that a very successful meeting happened between the Danes and Greenland and Vice President Vance and Secretary of State Rubio, so I think it’s going to be constructive,” he said.
Still, he cautioned European allies against inflaming tensions. “Europe sometimes has a tendency to overreact anytime that an issue is put out on the table,” Whitaker said. “This is one of those things where cooler heads need to prevail.”
US COMMANDER SAYS RUSSIA AND CHINA’S ARCTIC PATROLS ARE ‘NOT FOR PEACEFUL PURPOSES’
NATO, deterrence and the “Reagan spirit”
Speaking from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Whitaker used Reagan’s “peace through strength” doctrine as justification for pushing NATO allies to spend more and move faster.
“The most important thing that we’re doing at NATO is, one, the United States is strong. Nobody denies that. We have demonstrated through Midnight Hammer, through what we did in Venezuela and elsewhere, that the United States is capable and can project power. We want all of our allies inside of NATO to be equally as strong, and they’re not at this point in time,” he said.
He added, “Some of them have certainly become more capable, and that’s why you can’t just paint with a broad brush when it comes to all of our NATO allies. But there are some that are not.”
TRUMP GREENLAND TAKEOVER WOULD END NATO, DENMARK ASSERTS
“Europe and the EU are going to have to untie their hands from behind their back,” he continued. “They’re going to have to deregulate, they are going to have to find more capital and economic growth, because at the end of the day, that’s what’s going to allow them to live up to the promises they’ve made to increase their defense spending and therefore their defense capabilities.”
He said, “One of the things that I’m talking about constantly with our friends downtown in the EU,” Whitaker added, “is that they have to get their economy going, and there are proven, tried-and-true ways to do it.”
Whitaker said his top priority is ensuring NATO allies follow through on the major defense commitments agreed to last year in The Hague.
“This is number one on my list right now,” he said, “making sure that the political commitments we made in The Hague turn into real military capabilities at NATO.”
He said proximity to Russia has shaped how seriously countries take the threat.
“You look at the Baltic countries like Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, and you look at the Nordic countries… they’re very aware of the threats that Russia [poses],” Whitaker said, citing Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
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Poland, he added, stands out. “Poland is clear-eyed,” Whitaker said. “They’re gonna spend over 5% on core defense in the coming year or two.”
Others, he said, are still lagging. “I keep a dashboard, a one-page dashboard on my desk that is updated regularly,” Whitaker said. “It’s too soon to tell.” “It has to be on capabilities,” he said. “It has to make them stronger, ready to fight tonight.”
“President Trump announced a $1.5 trillion defense budget,” Whitaker said. “We’ve demonstrated our capabilities that nobody else can match right now.”
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“I’m here at the Reagan Library, and it reminds me, Ronald Reagan really was able to put those policies in place to spur growth,” Whitaker said. “President Trump certainly has followed that same tradition, to unleash the American entrepreneur, unleash American innovation, and get out of the way, get the regulations out of the way so that American companies can grow and prosper.”
As NATO moves forward, Whitaker said pressure on allies will remain. “We’re asking our European and Canadian allies to do more,” he said. “So far, so good.”
Democrats seek ’emergency’ power to redraw Virginia’s congressional districts
The Virginia state Senate on Friday greenlit a constitutional amendment that would clear the way for the Democrat-controlled legislature to redraw the state’s U.S. House maps ahead of this year’s midterm elections.
The move by state senators, following a similar vote on Wednesday in the state House, was the final step needed to send the amendment to Virginia voters. If the ballot measure is approved this spring, the legislature, rather than the current non-partisan commission, would redraw the state’s congressional maps through 2030.
Virginia is the latest battleground in the ongoing high-stakes battle between President Donald Trump and Republicans versus Democrats to alter congressional maps ahead of November’s elections. And Virginia Democrats, who currently control six of the state’s 11 U.S. House districts, are aiming to draw up to four additional left-leaning seats.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) called Friday’s development “a critical step in giving Virginia voters the opportunity to ensure they have fair and equal representation in Congress.”
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And charging that “Donald Trump and Republicans are doing everything they can to rig the midterms in their favor through unprecedented mid-decade gerrymandering,” DCCC Chair Rep. Suzan DelBene argued that “Virginians — not politicians — will now have the chance to vote for a temporary, emergency exception that will restore fairness, level the playing field, and stand up to extremists seeking to silence their voices.”
But the Virginia Senate Republican Caucus accused the state Senate Democrats of passing “a partisan gerrymandering amendment to entrench their party in power.”
And the Republican National Committee (RNC) called it a “power grab.”
“This is just the most recent example of Democrats’ multi-decade campaign to gerrymander in every state where they gain power,” RNC national press secretary Kiersten Pels argued in a statement to Fox News Digital. “This is exactly why red states are fighting back to level the playing field after years of states like Illinois, New York, and California drawing their districts to disenfranchise Republicans.”
STUNNING SETBACK FOR TRUMP IN REDISTRICTING WARS
Virginia Democratic lawmakers have indicated they will release a proposed map later this month.
And on Thursday, a Democratic-aligned nonprofit titled “Virginians for Fair Elections” launched, to urge voters to vote in favor of the redistricting ballot measure.
Aiming to prevent what happened during his first term in the White House when Democrats reclaimed the House majority in the 2018 midterms, Trump last spring first floated the idea of rare but not unheard of mid-decade congressional redistricting.
The mission was simple: redraw congressional district maps in red states to pad the GOP’s razor-thin House majority to keep control of the chamber in the midterms, when the party in power traditionally faces political headwinds and loses seats.
Trump’s first target was Texas.
BIG WIN FOR TRUMP AS SUPREME COURT GREENLIGHTS TEXAS’ NEW CONGRESSIONAL MAP
When asked by reporters last summer about his plan to add Republican-leaning House seats across the country, the president said, “Texas will be the biggest one. And that’ll be five.”
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas called a special session of the GOP-dominated state legislature to pass the new map.
But Democratic state lawmakers, who broke quorum for two weeks as they fled Texas in a bid to delay the passage of the redistricting bill, energized Democrats across the country.
Among those leading the fight against Trump’s redistricting was Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California.
California voters in November overwhelmingly passed Proposition 50, a ballot initiative that temporarily sidetracked the left-leaning state’s nonpartisan redistricting commission and returned the power to draw the congressional maps to the Democratic-dominated legislature.
That is expected to result in five more Democratic-leaning congressional districts in California, which aimed to counter the move by Texas to redraw their maps.
The fight quickly spread beyond Texas and California.
Republican-controlled Missouri and Ohio, and swing state North Carolina, where the GOP dominates the legislature, have drawn new maps as part of the president’s push.
And Florida Republicans, in a move pushed by GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis and state lawmakers are also hoping to pick up an additional three to five seats through a redistricting push during a special legislative session in April.
In blows to Republicans, a Utah district judge late last year rejected a congressional district map drawn up by the state’s GOP-dominated legislature and instead approved an alternate that will create a Democratic-leaning district ahead of the midterms.
And Republicans in Indiana’s Senate in December defied Trump, shooting down a redistricting bill that had passed the state House.
But Trump scored a big victory when the conservative majority on the Supreme Court greenlit Texas’ new map.
Other states that might step into the redistricting war are Democratic-dominated Illinois and Maryland and two red states with Democratic governors, Kentucky and Kansas.
Hovering over the redistricting wars is the Supreme Court, which is expected to rule in Louisiana v. Callais, a crucial case which may lead to the overturning of a key provision in the Voting Rights Act.
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If the ruling goes the way of the conservatives on the high court, it could lead to the redrawing of a slew of majority-minority districts across the county, which would greatly favor Republicans.
But it is very much up in the air — when the court will rule, and what it will actually do.
Iranian state TV invokes Butler shooting in threat promising Trump assassination
Iranian state television aired a vile threat against President Donald Trump earlier this week, referencing the 47th president’s near assassination while on the campaign trail in Butler, Pennsylvania, in 2024.
The clip showed a sign held by a demonstrator at a pro-Iranian regime gathering. The sign featured a now-iconic photo of Trump, standing on stage with a bloodied ear after being grazed by a bullet at the Butler campaign stop, while Secret Service agents rushed to his aid.
The caption below the photo, written in Farsi, said, “This time, it (the bullet) won’t miss,” according to i24 news correspondent Amachia Stein, who posted a screenshot of the television clip on his X account.
The Secret Service confirmed that it is aware of the photo.
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At the Pennsylvania rally, Trump turned his head a split-second before the bullet struck him, avoiding what could have been a deadly shot. In defiance of his protective detail, he stood up and raised his fist, yelling, “Fight, fight, fight,” before being scuttled off the stage.
The threat comes amid rising tensions between the United States and Iran, and as the Iranian people rise up against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei‘s brutal regime.
The protests stemmed from the cloistered Middle Eastern country’s economic crisis, which has become increasingly dire as the value of the Rial, Iran’s currency, has plummeted.
The regime has cracked down hard on the protesters, with state-sanctioned killings estimated to be in the thousands.
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The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency announced that 1,847 of the dead were protesters and 135 were members of Iran’s security forces. Other reports say the death toll is more than 3,000 people, Fox News Digital previously reported.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has been weighing military action to stop the slaughter of civilians.
“I have canceled all meetings with Iranian Officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS. HELP IS ON ITS WAY,” Trump posted to Truth Social Tuesday.
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At least one U.S. aircraft carrier has been moved to the region, military sources told Fox News Digital. Those same sources said missile defense systems are expected to be deployed in the region to protect U.S. and allied military bases.
On Thursday afternoon, Trump told the media that “very important sources on the other side” informed him that Iran has halted the execution of protesters, but said he is keeping an eye on the situation.
On Friday, the president announced on TRUTH Social that hundreds of scheduled executions had been halted.
“I greatly respect the fact that all scheduled hangings, which were to take place yesterday (Over 800 of them), have been cancelled by the leadership of Iran. Thank you!” he said in a midday post.
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As for whether military action is imminent, Trump remained noncommittal, reiterating that he is monitoring the situation.