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Trump: Every Iranian ship is at the bottom of sea

President Donald Trump says Iran’s military capabilities have been significantly degraded following U.S. strikes, claiming the country has fewer drones and missiles and asserting that Iran’s navy and air force have been destroyed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Khamenei specifically praised Iran’s Law Enforcement Command, known as FARAJA, accusing the United States and Israel of targeting the institution responsible for maintaining domestic order. (Photo by Fars News Agency / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)

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

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

Iran’s FARAJA  is responsible for domestic law enforcement and internal security. (REUTERS/Mohammed Salem Foreign media)

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

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

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

FARAJA is commanded by Brig. Gen. Ahmadreza Radan and is Iran’s principal domestic police organization, responsible for maintaining public order, enforcing the country’s laws and responding to civil unrest. ((Photo by Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The Artesh, Iran’s regular military, is separate from the IRGC and its affiliated Basij militia. Its forces operate across four branches: the Ground Forces, Navy, Air Force and Air Defense Force. (Photo by Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

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

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

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

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

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

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Emma Bussey is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital. Before joining Fox, she worked at The Telegraph with the U.S. overnight team, across desks including foreign, politics, news, sport and culture. 

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — This weekend, millions of anti-Israel activists marched through the streets of cities in coordinated actions from America’s capital to London, Paris, Madrid and Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia, chanting the familiar refrains of «Free, free Palestine» and «From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.»

But for the first time, communicated frankly in exclusive interviews with Digital, three anti-Israel leaders acknowledged the goal: one state called «Palestine» encompassing modern-day Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, with a Palestinian «right of return» to the new country and equal political, voting and citizenship rights for Palestinians alongside Jews currently living in Israel.

Most significantly, in the political vision they described, Israel would legally cease to exist as a separate Jewish nation-state and Jews would be quickly overwhelmed demographically.

INSIDE THE PROTEST PLAYBOOK TO VILIFY ISRAEL ON ‘GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION’

The current population of Israel is about 10 million, including about 7.8 million Jews, 2 million Palestinian Arabs (including Palestinians and most of them Muslim), and 200,000 people from other communities. There are another estimated 10.2 million Jews worldwide.

There are about 5.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza and about 8 million Palestinians in the diaspora, totaling about 13.5 million.

The candor of the anti-Israel leaders lays bare the political conclusion of an argument that activists have spent years advancing on the streets, through sympathetic media outlets and in legal forums: that Israel is a «settler colonial» state practicing «apartheid» and «genocide,» and therefore should not continue to exist in its current form as a Jewish state. Israeli leaders have fiercely rejected those allegations, disputing accusations of «genocide» and «apartheid» and maintaining that Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people with equal civil and political rights for citizens that include Jews, Christians and Muslims.

Advocates for Israel note that the nation’s critics rarely apply the same historical lens of human-rights analysis to Arab and Muslim-majority states, many of which emerged from the collapse of empires, wars and population upheavals that displaced millions, including Jews expelled from their countries, today often restricting political, religious and minority rights.

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In Chicago, Hatem Abudayyeh, the Palestinian-American founder of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network and a Muslim, said the new nation would be «one democratic secular state of Palestine.» Jewish Israeli-born community leader Miko Peled, founder of the Palestine House in Washington, D.C., said «the proper name would be Palestine.» And Maryland congressional candidate Sam Husseini, a Palestinian-American Christian, floated another name for the vision of the one state: «1948,» marking the year Israel declared independence and Palestinians commemorate as the «Nakba,» or catastrophe, but he said even Israeli Jews would one day accept another name: «Palestine.»

Their answers provide a striking interpretation from inside a movement where activists have traditionally danced around their demands with euphemisms about «liberation» and media outlets have obscured their answers even when they have been transparent.

On Washington, D.C.’s First Avenue SE, Digital asked Olivia DiNucci, local coordinator for CodePink, a far-left nonprofit, what her group sees as a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In her work for CodePink, DiNucci disrupts hearings, restaurant meals and town halls to shout at lawmakers and policymakers who support the state of Israel.

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«Palestinians in Palestine will decide, DiNucci said.

Asked if «Palestine» includes modern day Israel, she spun around and walked away. Later, she posted a message on social media, saying she was asked «gotcha questions.»

This weekend, protesters signaled their position with certainty, explicitly rejecting the two-state solution that has dominated international diplomacy for decades.

In New York City, the Party for Socialism and Liberation circulated video of protesters marching through the streets chanting: «1-2-3-4. Occupation no more. 5-6-7-8. Israel is a terrorist state.»

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

Then came the point: «We don’t want no two state!»

In London, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign promoted a 15-second video of a woman with a megaphone shouting: «There is only one state!»

«Palestine, ’48!» protesters responded.

«Say it loud, say it clear!» she continued. «Palestine, you make us proud!»

Back in Washington, D.C., protesters carried signs declaring, «LAND YOU HAVE 2 KILL FOR IS NOT YOURS,» a message that challenged Israel’s claim to the land itself, while a banner proclaiming, «THE FIGHT FOR LIBERATION IS OURS,» framed the struggle as one for the territory. The demonstrators yesterday didn’t address the Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, but many have called them justified.

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

The one-state demand is being amplified within a powerful protest infrastructure. The broader «red-green» alliance brings socialist and communist groups together on the streets with Palestinian and Muslim activist organizations, while organizations including the Democratic Socialists of America and nonprofits in the network funded by Neville Roy Singham, an American-born tech tycoon living in Shanghai, help organize, promote and amplify anti-Israel demonstrations.

Singham, has poured $278 million into a pro-communist network, including CodePink, the People’s Forum, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, BreakThrough News and the ANSWER Coalition, which have become major organizing, media and logistical hubs for the protest movement. The result is a powerful infrastructure amplifying slogans such as «Free Palestine» and «from the river to the sea,» even when the organizations and activists doing the amplifying don’t themselves explicitly spell out the one-state political vision described to Digital.

From Chicago, Abudayyeh told Digital that the U.S. Palestinian Community Network advocates for one democratic state across the territory that today encompasses Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.

«Our points of unity, from the very beginning of our existence, included one democratic secular state of Palestine,» he said.

«And for decades and decades, we’ve been saying that…the only true solution that can bring peace and justice to all that live there is … one democratic state,» which includes the West Bank, Gaza and «1948 Palestinian territories,» a term used to describe the land that Israel claimed as a nation in 1948.

This can only happen, he said, if «the racist system of Zionism is dismantled.»

The ADL, a leading Jewish organization based in New York, describes Zionism as a «movement for the self-determination and statehood for the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland, the land of Israel.»

Abudayyeh said the new state would include a «right of return» for Palestinian refugees and their descendants. «Our points of unity from day one included the right of return,» he said.

Activists from a U.S.-based network of groups called «Al-Awda: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition» joined the protest in Los Angeles and posted a message online: «OUR PEOPLE WILL RETURN, PALESTINE WILL BE FREE!

«If all of our refugees, who have the internationally recognized right to return to Palestine, are able to return, and the system, the racist system is dismantled, then all the people there can live in peace and justice,» Abudayyeh told Digital. «That’s our position. It’s always been our position. We’re not going to abandon the five to seven million refugees that we have.»

«They have the right to go back to the homes and lands in which they were exiled,» he explained.

Abudayyeh said that wouldn’t mean removing the people – most of them Jewish – living in Israel.

«It doesn’t mean that we’re going to kick people out,» he said. «It just means that these folks have an internationally recognized right, and you will never get peace and justice there unless you uphold that right.»

«I believe, very clearly, USPCN believes very clearly that there can be peace and justice as long as that system, that racist system of Zionism is dismantled,» Abudayyeh said. «That’s the essence of it.»

Abudayyeh compared the Palestinian movement’s objective to the international campaign against apartheid South Africa. «And we’re getting close to having international consensus today on the question of Israel and Zionism, where Israel doesnt have the «right to exist as a racist, Zionist, apartheid, white supremacist state.»

«That’s what we say,» he continued. «We’re adamant about that. We’re clear about it. Unabashed.»

Digital asked Abudayyeh whether «Palestine» includes modern-day Israel when protest leaders and activists chant «Palestine will be free» or «Free, free Palestine.»

«The majority of the majority of the people, especially in the past period, have moved to that conclusion,» Abudayyeh said.

Husseini, a Palestinian-American journalist running for Congress in Maryland’s 4th Congressional District, offered a similar one-state vision and an unusual proposal for what the country might be called.

Standing on First Avenue SE, between the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Capitol, Husseini told Digital that his long-term vision is «one person, one vote,» coupled with a Palestinian right of return.

«Ultimately, long-term, I that it should be one person, one vote,» Husseini said.

«Why aren’t they allowed back into their homes? So I think that they should,» he said of Palestinian refugees. «I mean, that includes myself. I don’t know that I would actually move back there, but as a descendant of a Palestinian who was forcibly displaced, I should have that right or compensation.»

Husseini offered another possibility for the country’s name.

«I’ve often thought of a novel proposal because people get hung up on the names. Are they going to call it Israel or are they going call it Palestine?» Husseini said.

«I’ve toyed with the idea of calling it 1948, having a country with a number signifying the year of this cataclysm, which should be the last gasp of imperialism.»

If the new state is called Palestine, Husseini said, «I think a lot of Jews, when they think about it, will say, so long as they have equal rights and all are protected, will adopt the term Palestine.»

Standing on Pennsylvania Avenue SE, the roar of the demonstrators getting closer as they marched from the U.S. Capitol to talks at the Palestine House of Freedom, Miko Peled, an Israeli-born Jewish activist, was equally blunt about what a «Free Palestine» means to him.

«Well, our vision, our mission, and our vision is to educate people to see that a free Palestine, which means a post-Zionist, post-apartheid Palestine with equal rights and the right of the Palestinians to return, is the best vision that will benefit everybody who lives there currently, which means Israelis and Palestinians,» he said.

Asked whether that meant one state, he answered yes.

«It’s already one state, it’s just an apartheid state,» Peled said.

«So that’s our vision, to create a real democracy, free Palestine, with equal rights.»

Digital asked what that country would be called.

«Well, historically the country was called Palestine for thousands of years and so it should be called Palestine,» Peled said. «Israel is a new name. They renamed the country 78 years ago, so the proper name would be Palestine.»

For Peled, the familiar protest demand «Free Palestine» has a literal political meaning: One state with the new name «Palestine.»

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The Justice Department has charged 64 foreign nationals across 17 states with unlawful voting, fraudulent voter registration and election-related offenses in roughly the last five weeks, according to figures provided to Digital, as federal prosecutors intensify election-integrity enforcement.

Minnesota leads the nation with 11 defendants, followed by Pennsylvania with 10 and Texas with nine. Louisiana accounts for five, while New Jersey, California and Florida each have four, according to the department’s latest tally.

The nationwide crackdown comes as federal officials intensify scrutiny of voter-registration safeguards ahead of November’s midterms, with recent elections underscoring how even a few illegal ballots can exceed the margin separating candidates. Digital mapped the states with the largest concentrations of defendants as DOJ says it has charged 104 people with voting fraud-related offenses since Trump returned to office in 2025.

SKID ROW FORGERIES, ILLEGAL VOTES AND A MAYORAL CANDIDATE: ELECTION FRAUD CASES PILE UP NATIONWIDE

«Every illegal vote cancels out the vote of a lawful American citizen. In 2020, Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District race was decided by six votes,» a DOJ spokesperson told Digital, referring to Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks’ narrow victory over Democrat Rita Hart.

DOJ said federal prosecutors are bringing more than twice as many election-fraud cases each week as the six-vote margin in the Iowa race.

NIGERIAN WOMAN IN MASSACHUSETTS CHARGED AFTER ALLEGED ILLEGAL VOTING IN FEDERAL ELECTIONS

The spokesperson added: «Voting by noncitizens and other ineligible voters is a federal crime, and the department will enforce the law whether a case involves one illegal ballot or hundreds.»

The cases involve allegations ranging from fraudulent registration applications to ballots cast in multiple elections.

The department is also securing guilty pleas in some cases, including against Filipino national Evelyn Miller of Emmaus, Pennsylvania.

Miller pleaded guilty to illegally voting in the 2024 presidential election and faces up to one year in prison and a $100,000 fine.

MORE THAN A QUARTER-MILLION NONCITIZENS MAY BE REGISTERED TO VOTE IN 4 KEY STATES, DHS ALLEGES

«We intend to prosecute anyone who corrupts our democracy by illegally voting in its elections,» U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania David Metcalf said.

Also in Pennsylvania, federal prosecutors charged Haitian national Cliff Sanon with submitting a fraudulent voter registration application in Philadelphia County. Prosecutors allege he submitted eight registration applications and voted in the November 2022 election.

BLANCHE ANNOUNCES CHARGES AGAINST 10 PERMANENT RESIDENTS ACCUSED OF MINNESOTA VOTER FRAUD

In Minnesota, Ghanaian green card holder Joshua Kofi Edzie was charged with illegally voting in the state’s August 2026 primary and falsely claiming U.S. citizenship in connection with voter registration.

The prosecutions have also reached Republican-led states, including Texas, Louisiana and Florida, which account for 18 defendants combined in the DOJ figures provided to Digital.

In Louisiana, the feds indicted an ex-mayoral candidate on a charge of voting by an alien. Bridget Johnson, who ran in 2024 to lead Cotton Valley, Louisiana, allegedly submitted a registration in the name of Jamaican national Michael Wedderburn and falsely swore he was a citizen. Wedderburn then allegedly voted illegally in 2024 for president and mayor. He was also recently indicted.

In New Jersey, Republicans have pointed to several razor-thin elections amid a separate controversy involving approximately 6,600 people who indicated they were not citizens but were erroneously registered through the state’s Motor Vehicle Commission. Fewer than 400 subsequently voted, according to Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s administration.

Former Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac recently highlighted municipal elections in Caldwell, Atlantic Highlands and Bogota decided by margins of four to six votes in 2023.

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The state has not established that any of the affected voters changed an election outcome. Sherrill spokesman Sean Higgins previously said the governor «moved with transparency and accountability to remediate this error from 2023.»

The prosecutions come as federal officials continue scrutinizing voter-registration safeguards ahead of November’s midterm elections. Authorities have not established that any of the cases identified in DOJ’s nationwide tally changed the outcome of an election.

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