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Iran accelerates execution campaign against anti-regime activists amid internet censorship
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The Islamic Republic of Iran has accelerated its executions of dissidents and activists, with the true number of victims likely obscured by the regime’s internet censorship and blackout.
Ever since the January uprisings against the regime, Tehran has enforced a bloody clampdown against its opponents.
The Iran Human Rights Society has documented 784 executions so far in 2026. A representative from the organization told Fox News Digital that «these figures indicate a rapidly accelerating trend in executions since March,» and explained that «in particular, the execution of political prisoners has reached a level not seen in the past 37 years.»
‘KILLING OFF THE COUNTRY’: IRAN EXECUTES DOZENS, ARRESTS 4,000+ IN WAR CRACKDOWN
A woman lays down flowers for victims of executions in Iran during a rally in Paris, France, on May 13, 2025. (Siavosh Hosseini/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
A State Department official told Fox News Digital that «we are aware of disturbing reports about the recent surge in executions in Iran.» The official noted that «we strongly condemn the Iranian regime’s use of executions to punish people for exercising basic human rights, including Iranians peacefully protesting for a better life.»
The official said that «for decades, Iranians have been subjected to torture and sham trials resulting in executions and severe punishments, often with coerced confessions as the only evidence presented against them.»
According to information provided to Fox News Digital by the Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) on June 4, the Islamic Republic of Iran executed at least 18 prisoners between May 31 and June 1. These included 12 prisoners hanged on May 31, and an additional six prisoners executed on June 1, one of whom was said to be «hanged in public with utmost brutality.»
IRAN REGIME USES WAR TO MASK ‘BRUTAL’ EXECUTION SURGE AGAINST POLITICAL OPPONENTS
The NCRI has counted a total of 32 executions between March 19 and June 1. These included eight members of Iranian dissident organization People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOE/MEK) and 24 participants in Iran’s January 2026 protests.
In documents provided to Fox News Digital, the NCRI said on June 7 that there was «an imminent risk of execution» for five political prisoners in the Sheiban Prison in Ahvaz, four of whom were sentenced to death because they were charged with being members of PMOI/MEK.
Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the NCRI, posted on X a call for «urgent action» from the U.N. «to prevent the execution.»
Days earlier on June 2, following two other executions against January protesters, Rajavi said on X that the «clerical regime has committed another horrific crime in Iran.» She called on the U.N. Security Council and European Union «to decisively condemn these criminal executions and take effective action to stop the killing of political prisoners and protesters in Iran.»
The Iran Human Rights Society echoed NCRI’s account of 18 recent executions between May 31 and June 1. Their representative explained that despite the internet blackout, they receive reports from «a network of prison sources, prisoners’ families, lawyers, and local contacts» and explained that «all reports are reviewed and cross-checked through multiple independent sources before publication.» Though they say «internet restrictions make documentation more difficult,» they stated they «continue to receive, verify, and document information.»
IRAN GOES DARK AS REGIME UNLEASHES FORCE, CYBER TOOLS TO CRUSH PROTESTS
A hanging rope seen displayed during the rally in Paris, France on May 13, 2025. (Siavosh Hosseini/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Alp Toker, the director of NetBlocks, a global internet monitor, told Fox News Digital that «internet connectivity in Iran is largely restored but the service that is available remains limited compared to the state of things before the protests and the war this year. For most users, in practice, that means international access is slow with indications of throttling and there’s also increased filtering, particularly targeting messaging apps.
«It’s been in this limbo state since the restoration with no significant change for better or worse,» he said.
However, the Iran Human Rights Society representative noted that the actual number of executions is «almost certainly» higher than the figure they have captured. «The ruling authorities in Iran frequently carry out executions in secret and do not publicly announce many of them,» the representative explained. Additionally, the representative added that «a significant number of executions, particularly in remote areas or locations with limited access to information, may remain undocumented or reach us only after a considerable delay.»
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The representative also noted that the quantity of executions the Iran Human Rights Society documents «has consistently been lower than the actual number carried out.»
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Dr. Mai Sato, did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the increased executions in Iran.
On June 20th, up to 100,000 Iranian expats from both sides of the Atlantic are expected to hold a major rally in Paris to urge an end to the executions. More than 100 lawmakers, officials, former heads of state and ministers are also expected to join, according to the NCRI.
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First lady cites memoir after Supreme Court upholds state laws reserving girls’ sports for biological females
Supreme Court upholds state bans on biological boys in girls’ sports
Fox News reports on the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold Idaho and West Virginia laws, effectively banning biological males from participating in girls’ sports. Constitutional law attorney Jonathan Turley and chief legal correspondent Shannon Bream explain that the ruling aligns with the view that transgender status is not a protected class like race or religion, leaving the decision to individual states.
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First lady Melania Trump pointed to a passage from her bestselling memoir Tuesday after the Supreme Court ruled that states may limit women’s and girls’ sports teams to biological females, saying the decision aligns with a position she has long supported.
In a post on X, Trump highlighted a passage from Melania that was published months before the court’s landmark 6-3 decision, which held that states may determine eligibility for women’s and girls’ sports based on biological sex under Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause.
«As many of you may know, I fully support the LGBTQIA+ community. But we must also ensure that our female athletes are protected and respected,» the first lady wrote on X, pointing readers to page 156 of her memoir, «Melania.»
U.S. SENATE COMMITTEE MAKES NEW TRANS ATHLETE FINDINGS AGAINST USA HOCKEY
First lady Melania Trump’s comments came just hours after the Supreme Court established a new nationwide precedent. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
«The U.S. Supreme Court has now legally confirmed this opinion: ‘Under Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, may schools maintain women’s and girls’ sports for biological females? … The answer is yes,’» Trump continued, citing the court’s decision.
«America, we can support the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community and also protect opportunities for female athletes,» she added. «Respect everyone and keep girls’ sports fair. Both ideals are essential.»
The first lady’s comments came just hours after the Supreme Court established a new nationwide precedent allowing states to maintain women’s and girls’ sports teams for biological females.
U.S. SENATE COMMITTEE MAKES NEW TRANS ATHLETE FINDINGS AGAINST USA HOCKEY
In the consolidated cases West Virginia v. B.P.J. and Little v. Hecox, the justices ruled 6-3 in favor of West Virginia and Idaho, upholding state laws requiring student-athletes to compete on teams that correspond with their biological sex at birth rather than their gender identity.
Writing for the majority, the court held: «Consistent with Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause, we hold that the States may maintain women’s and girls’ sports for biological females. They may determine eligibility for women’s and girls’ sports based on biological sex.»
The decision marks a major victory for supporters of so-called «Save Women’s Sports» laws, validating similar legislation enacted in 27 states in recent years. The ruling also clears the way for those states to continue enforcing the laws without the legal uncertainty that surrounded them while the cases moved through the courts.
LAWYERS FIGHTING SJSU OVER VOLLEYBALL SCANDAL RESPOND TO FEDERAL TITLE IX PROBE FINDINGS
Protesters wave transgender pride flags outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
Justice Sonia Sotomayor filed an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
West Virginia Attorney General John McCuskey praised the ruling, calling it «a monumental victory for every female athlete who has ever competed, or dreamed of competing, on a fair and safe playing field.»
Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador likewise hailed the decision, saying it confirmed states’ authority to «preserve fair competition and protect the opportunities that generations of women fought to secure.»
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The cases centered on West Virginia’s Save Women’s Sports Act and Idaho’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, both of which had been blocked after legal challenges brought by transgender athletes.
Fox News Digital’s Jackson Thompson contributed to this report.
melania trump, supreme court, controversies education, high school, college, politics, sports
INTERNACIONAL
Una soda tras salir viva de la vivienda derrumbada: el relato de Marlene Santana y la búsqueda que no termina
Bajo los restos de una vivienda derrumbada en La Guaira, una mujer venezolana de 69 años logró sobrevivir tras quedar atrapada durante casi tres días.
Su caso- retomado por la agencia EFE- se ha convertido en uno de los relatos más impactantes tras los dos terremotos que sacudieron el país y provocaron cientos de muertes y miles de heridos.
El dramático episodio comenzó cuando Marlene Santana recibió un golpe en la cabeza durante el colapso de su casa de cuatro pisos. La vivienda, que había resistido el deslave de 1999, no soportó la fuerza de los recientes movimientos telúricos. Mientras permanecía bajo los escombros, Santana experimentó “lagunas” en su memoria y largos silencios que la hicieron temer lo peor para su comunidad.
Durante su encierro forzado, Santana escuchó a su hermana quejarse y luego, el silencio. En la misma casa estaban también su esposo y su hija, cuyos paraderos desconoce desde entonces.
En medio de la oscuridad total, intentó orientarse al tocar objetos a su alrededor, identificando una taza de café familiar, lo que la llevó a pensar que se encontraba en la cocina.
Desde su cama de hospital, Marlene Santana, sobreviviente de dos terremotos, relata con una sonrisa el momento en que los rescatistas le dieron agua a través de una manguera, y a la peculiar petición de una Coca Cola. (Infobae Centroamérica/EFE)
El rescate se produjo cuando un equipo internacional, compuesto por rescatistas de El Salvador, llegó al lugar. Santana asegura haber sentido la presencia de un perro rastreador, un indicio de la llegada del grupo salvadoreño, que formó parte de la ayuda internacional desplegada tras la catástrofe.
Los rescatistas le pidieron que se arrastrara para facilitar su extracción, pero la mujer tenía la espalda lastimada y apenas podía moverse. “Me decían: ‘Señora Marlene, haga un sacrificio más’”, relató. Tras pedir unos minutos para recobrar fuerzas, finalmente logró desplazarse hasta alcanzar al personal de rescate.
La historia de Marlene Santana como muchas otras, de la enorme fuerza de voluntad de cientos de venezolanos que han esperado por horas bajo pesados bloques de cemento, oscuros y fríos, es casi heroica.
La salvadoreña se mantuvo con fe y atenta a las indicaciones de la brigada salvadoreña y se convirtió en uno de los siete rescatados que hasta ahora ha reportado el contingente salvadoreño, historias que rayan en lo milagroso y que conmueven hasta las lágrimas.
Una vez fuera de los escombros, Santana sorprendió al equipo al solicitar una Coca-Cola, gesto que el presidente de El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, mencionó en sus redes sociales.
“Nuestros médicos le explicaron que, por el momento, lo más importante era hidratarla por vía intravenosa para estabilizarla”, detalló el mandatario sobre el procedimiento seguido tras el rescate.
Actualmente, la sobreviviente se encuentra en un hospital en el este de Caracas, donde recibe atención médica. A pesar de estar a salvo, permanece la incertidumbre sobre el destino de su hija, esposo y hermana, quienes también se encontraban en la vivienda al momento del derrumbe.
Los recientes terremotos provocaron una situación de emergencia en Venezuela, con un saldo oficial de 1,719 fallecidos y 5,034 personas heridas hasta el momento. Las operaciones de búsqueda y rescate siguen activas, superando ya las 120 horas desde el primer sismo.
La historia de Marlene Santana refleja tanto la devastación causada por el desastre como la coordinación internacional en tareas de salvamento.
El caso también destaca la fortaleza mental de la víctima, quien atribuye a las recomendaciones de su neumonólogo la capacidad para controlar la respiración y soportar la escasez de aire durante el encierro.
Mientras el país continúa con las labores de búsqueda, el testimonio de Santana se suma a las voces de quienes esperan reunir información sobre sus familiares desaparecidos, en medio de una tragedia que ha dejado una marca profunda en la región de La Guaira.
corresponsal:Desde San Salvador, El Salvador
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Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is facing a new round of violence in the country’s Kurdish-majority west, raising questions about whether a long-simmering Kurdish insurgency is entering a more active phase as fragile talks between Iran and Washington continue, experts say.
The flare-up matters beyond Iran’s borderlands because Kurdish opposition groups were recently viewed as a potential pressure point against Iran during the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran — and now some Kurdish voices fear they could be left exposed as Washington and Tehran return to fragile diplomacy.
In recent days, Iranian security forces have been killed in several reported attacks and clashes across western and northwestern Iran. Four Iranian security personnel reportedly were killed and several others injured in two separate armed attacks Tuesday, reported The Jerusalem Post, in an analysis by Seth J. Frantzman, citing Iraq’s Shafaq News.
IRANIAN REGIME CRITIC WARNS TRUMP DEAL COULD BE ‘LIFELINE’ FOR REGIME, CLAIMS PEOPLE ARE ‘NERVOUS’
Kurdish separatists attempted Iran crossing from Iraq amid protests. (Mustafa Ozer/AFP via Getty Images)
Two Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members were reportedly killed and two others wounded in what it called an «armed terrorist attack» in Paveh, Iran, a border city in Kermanshah Province, reported Tasnim News, an Iranian outlet close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
In Baneh, Iran, gunmen attacked a police checkpoint, killing two police officers and injuring three other people, including a 3-year-old girl, The Jerusalem Post reported. Clashes had spread to Iran’s Paveh, Marivan and Mahabad, the outlet reported, citing Rojhelat.Info, a Kurdish-focused media account.
The Paveh, Iran, attack was claimed by a little-known armed group called Xore Heva, or «Sun of Hope,» which said it carried out the attack in retaliation for Iran’s crackdown on protests sparked by the 2022 death of Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini. The 22-year-old died after being detained by Iran’s morality police for allegedly violating the country’s mandatory hijab rules, The National reported.
The Kurds are one of the largest stateless ethnic groups in the Middle East, with communities spread across Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey.
In Iran, many Kurds live in the country’s mountainous west and northwest, where Kurdish opposition groups have long accused Iran of political repression, executions, forced assimilation and military crackdowns.
Iranian authorities, in turn, view armed Kurdish factions as separatist or terrorist threats, especially groups such as PJAK, which has clashed for years with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps along Iran’s western border. The fight is not simply ethnic: It is also political, rooted in Kurdish demands for rights and autonomy, Iran’s fear of separatism and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s role in suppressing dissent in border regions.
Jino Victoria Doabi, head of international relation at Hiwa, a Kurdish-led human rights organization, told Fox News Digital the latest clashes could appear to mark more than isolated exchanges.
«It looks like this could be an escalation,» Doabi said, referring to the spread of reported clashes.
She said the initial attack appeared to be framed by Kurdish forces as retaliation, but argued the geographic spread suggested the confrontation may continue.
IRANIAN REGIME CRITIC WARNS TRUMP DEAL COULD BE ‘LIFELINE’ FOR REGIME, CLAIMS PEOPLE ARE ‘NERVOUS’
People hold Kurdish scarves and roses during Nowruz festivities in Saqqez, Iran, on March 15, 2024. (Barbod Khorshidi/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
Doabi said Kurdish anger is being driven not only by the latest casualties, but by a broader sense that Iran has been able to target Kurdish areas and opposition groups systemically without consequence.
«The Kurdish people in Iran are very dissatisfied that the IRGC can attack Kurdish parties and Kurdish fighters and no one reacts,» Doabi said.
The violence comes as Iran is moving forward with a memorandum of understanding with Washington that has drawn criticism from Iranian opposition circles. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei had approved the U.S.–Iran memorandum after receiving assurances that Iran’s rights would be protected, IranWire reported Tuesday.
Iranian officials have described the deal as having the support of top officials, even as critics inside Iran have attacked negotiators over the arrangement, IranWire also reported.
Doabi said Kurdish parties are deeply skeptical of any memorandum of understanding or negotiated arrangement with Iran, arguing that many Kurds believe such a deal would only strengthen the regime.
«Kurdish parties do not believe that making a deal with this regime can help the people in Iran,» Doabi said. «Their position is that a deal would only strengthen the regime.»
IRANIAN REGIME CRITIC WARNS TRUMP DEAL COULD BE ‘LIFELINE’ FOR REGIME, CLAIMS PEOPLE ARE ‘NERVOUS’
Iran-backed fighters celebrate after the IRGC attack on Israel, in Basra, Iraq, Oct. 1, 2024. (Essam Al-sudani/Reuters)
She added that many Kurds in Iran are «very angry» over the idea of any agreement with Iran, citing decades of repression, arrests and killings in Kurdish areas.
«It is going to be very dangerous for people in Iran, and especially in Kurdistan, Azerbaijan and Baluchistan,» Doabi said, «because that is where much of the resistance and activism is.»
The Kurdish groups now under scrutiny include the Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan, known as PJAK, and its armed wing, the East Kurdistan Defense Units, or YRK.
IranWire reported earlier in June that YRK accused Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of launching artillery and mortar attacks against its positions near Marivan, Iran, beginning June 8, prompting what YRK described as a defensive response. Iranian official outlets had not responded to YRK’s casualty claims at the time, according to IranWire.
That regional sensitivity was on display earlier in 2026, when reports emerged that Kurdish opposition groups could open a front against Iran during the U.S.–Israeli war with Iran.
Israel had been backing plans by Iranian Kurdish militias to seize border areas inside Iran, Reuters reported in March, though the outlet said the fighters would likely need U.S. and Israeli backing to make a significant move. Five long-standing Iranian dissident groups, including PJAK, the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Freedom Party, had formed an alliance, Reuters also reported.
During the war, Trump told Reuters that he would be «all for it» if the Kurds wanted to move against Iran and said their objective should be «to win.» But Reuters reported that Kurdish commanders were frustrated by a lack of clear U.S. or Israeli strategy and that Iran’s threats helped keep Kurdish forces from launching an incursion.
Regional reports later claimed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan persuaded Trump to abandon a plan to arm Iranian opposition groups and Iraqi Kurdish groups against Tehran. Israeli media reported June 6 that Erdogan pressed Trump to scrap the proposal after details were allegedly leaked to Turkey by White House officials.
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Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) personnel walk along Enghelab (Revolution) Avenue as an Iranian Kheibar missile is unveiled during the Ela Beit Al-Moghaddas (Al-Aqsa Mosque) military rally in Tehran, Iran, on Nov. 24, 2023. (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The latest violence does not prove that a coordinated insurgency is underway. But the reported spread of clashes across multiple Kurdish areas, the involvement claimed by Kurdish militant factions and Kurdish opposition to ongoing U.S.–Iran talks suggest that Iran’s western borderlands could become a new pressure point for Tehran at a moment when the regime is trying to preserve both internal control and fragile diplomatic momentum.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Iranian officials and Kurdish representatives for comment.
war with iran, iran, wars
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