World
Iran reportedly executes California man amid ongoing execution spree: 'Murdered by the regime'
The Islamic Republic of Iran on Monday reportedly executed the journalist Jamshid Sharmahd, who was a resident of California and a sharp critic of the regime in Tehran, according to The Associated Press.
The Iranian regime’s judiciary Mizan website announced that the 69-year-old Sharmahd was killed on Monday morning.
Sharmahd’s daughter, Gazelle, who lives in California, previously told Fox News Digital the Iranian regime is “scapegoating an innocent man” over bombing allegations, and spoke of his affinity for the United States.
She told Fox News Digital in August, 2023, “My dad chose the United States as his home, worked hard, followed all the rules, belongs to a family of four generations around him of U.S. citizenship, lived here for 20 years as a tax-paying, law-abiding resident and would already have his citizenship if it wasn’t for the terrorists and qualifies as a U.S. national under the Levinson law.”
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Iran reportedly executed California resident journalist Jamshid Sharmahd, a sharp critic of the regime in Tehran. (Gazelle Sharmahd)
The Levinson Act defines a “United States national” as a “lawful permanent resident with significant ties to the United States.” According to the State Department, the definition applies to non-U.S. citizens.
The act was named after Robert Levinson, a retired FBI agent and private investigator who disappeared from an Iranian island in 2007. Levinson was held hostage and was declared dead in 2020 when he was said to have died in Iranian custody. His family blamed the Iranian regime for his capture and imprisonment.
Fox News Digital reported that the Biden administration faced intense criticism for reportedly abandoning Sharmahd and punting his case over to Germany. Sharmahd is a German citizen. According to critics of Germany’s Iran policy, the German Green party foreign minister Annalena Baerbock failed to use her country’s economic and political leverage to secure Sharmahd’s release.
Fox News Digital sent press queries to the German foreign ministry.
Sharmahd survived an assassination attempt in California in which an Iranian agent was convicted of the planned murder. He was then kidnapped by the Iranian regime in Dubai in 2020 as part of a business trip.
The Iranian regime-controlled website Mizan claimed, without evidence, that Sharmahd committed “multiple terrorist acts at the direction of his masters in the intelligence services of U.S. and Israel.”
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Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in split with anti-execution protest. (Getty Images)
Lawdan Bazargan, an Iranian-American human rights activist and expert on the clerical regime, told Fox News Digital, “In 1988, after the Islamic Republic of Iran was forced to accept a cease-fire with Iraq, it exacted brutal revenge by executing over 5,000 political prisoners, including my brother, Bijan, who had already served years behind bars. The world stood by in silence, failing to hold the regime accountable. Jamshid Sharmahd’s execution is now another diversion, covering the regime’s failures against Israel and the losses suffered by Hezbollah and Hamas.”
She added, “If the world remains silent again, more innocent Iranian prisoners will be killed. The global community must unite against this terrorist regime – Germany and other European nations should expel Iranian diplomats, close the Islamic Republic of Iran’s embassies that act as terror safe houses, and declare the IRGC a terrorist organization. The U.S. must also use every tool at its disposal to pressure Iran into halting these executions.”
Amnesty International noted that Sharmahd “was convicted of the charge of ‘corruption on earth’ which is not clearly defined in law, and as such contravenes the principle of legality” and termed his trial “grossly unfair.”
Jamshid Sharmahd attends his trial at the Revolutionary Court, in Tehran, Iran, Feb. 6, 2022. (Koosha Mahshid Falahi/Mizan News Agency via AP)
The British human rights group added, “Since July 2020, the Iranian authorities have been subjecting him to enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment, including through prolonged solitary confinement and denial of adequate health care.”
Tehran’s opaque justice system claims Sharmahd played a role in a 2008 terrorist attack at a mosque in Shiraz, Iran, that left 14 dead and more than 200 injured.
However, the regime-controlled media outlet Fars News quoted the Iranian National Security Council in 2008 as saying, “The explosion of a bomb or any explosion carried out by opposition elements, be they internal or foreign, is ruled out. The blast was caused by some munitions used in an exhibition for the [Iran-Iraq War] martyrs in the mosque.”
Jason Poblete, the attorney for Jamshid Sharmahd, wrote on X, “We are receiving reports that the Islamic Republic of Iran has carried out the death sentence against U.S. Legal Permanent Resident and Californian Jamshid Sharmahd.” He added that the family requests privacy until the facts are confirmed.
Iranian journalist and human rights activist Vahid Beheshti blasted the Iranian regime on X, stating in part that Jamshid Sharmahd “was murdered today by the regime of the Islamic Republic.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the U.S. State Department for a comment.
Investigators have ruled out that terrorism was at play after a man drove a car into crowd in the Italian city of Modena on Saturday, injuring eight people.
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The driver, a 31-year-old Italian man of Moroccan heritage, hit several people before crashing into a shop window, colliding head-on with a woman. Four people were in critical condition following the incident, authorities said.
The driver, an economics graduate born in 1995 who was not known to the police, went through a spell of “psychological disturbance” in 2022, city prefect Fabrizia Triolo said at a news conference on Saturday.
“He was under treatment in our mental health centres in 2022 because he had problems with schizoid illness, after which he disappeared from the radar and unfortunately reappeared in this form today in a dramatic and unfortunate way,” said the mayor of Modena, Massimo Mezzetti.
His home near Modena has been searched but sources quoted in Italian media said the investigation so far has shown no sign of the man’s radicalisation.
Several injured in critical condition
Among those injured were two foreign citizens: a German tourist on holiday in Italy and a Polish woman. The patients were transported to various hospitals in Emilia Romagna.
A 55-year-old woman, who was crushed against a shop window, is hospitalised at the Ospedale Maggiore in Bologna. The patient’s life is in danger and her legs were amputated.
In the same hospital, a 52-year-old man is in intensive care. A second injured man who was run over by the car also had his lower limbs amputated.
A 53-year-old woman and a 69-year-old woman were instead admitted to Baggiovara Hospital in Modena. In the same facility is a 69-year-old man, whose condition is judged to be less serious.
A 27-year-old girl, a 71-year-old woman and a 47-year-old man were hospitalised at the Policlinico di Modena: they suffered minor injuries and are not in a serious condition.
Pedestrians helped with arrest
Immediately after crashing into the shop window, the driver, identified as Salim El Koudri, abandoned the car and attempted to escape on foot.
The suspect tried to flee the scene but was chased and cornered by four passers-by, then pulled a knife and injured one of them.
Although the 31-year-old was armed with a knife with a 20-centimetre blade, the group managed to immobilise and contain him until the police arrived, to whom he was then handed over.
The Modena Public Prosecutor’s Office formalised the arrest of the attacker on heavy charges of massacre and injuries aggravated by the use of a weapon.
Prime Minister and President visit Modena
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and President Sergio Mattarella visited Modena on Sunday.
Meloni had quickly condemned the attack on social media and contacted the victims. She wrote on X that the incident was “extremely serious”.
“I would also like to express my thanks to the citizens who courageously intervened to detain the perpetrator, as well as to the law enforcement officers for their response,” she added.
“I trust that the person responsible will answer to the full for his actions,” Meloni added.
Some far-right politicians quickly seized on the incident as a justification for further tightening controls on immigration, even though the alleged perpetrator is an Italian citizen.
The League party, a member of Meloni’s governing coalition, said the incident showed the need for legislation to revoke residency permits for immigrants when they commit crimes.
League leader Matteo Salvini attempted to emphasise the nationality of origin of the attacker, calling the 31-year-old ‘a second-generation criminal’.
But the city’s mayor Mezzetti pointed out that two Egyptian nationals had helped stop the knife-wielding driver when he tried to run.
The city’s mayor said Modena should “unite against those who want to divide and sow hatred” and called for a gathering in the city centre later on Sunday for a “collective embrace”.
“At the moment I see so much looting on social media and elsewhere, and I want to invite you once again to reflect on the fact that foreigners are not all similar to those who committed this act, there are many honest ones who serve our community,” he added.
The imam of Ravarino, Abdelmajid Abouelala, speaking to the Gazzetta di Modena, said he had never met El Koudri.
“I do, however, know his father well. All I can say about him is that he is a good person, as is the rest of the family. A hard worker, the kind who makes home, work, home. An educated person who I have never heard bad things about”.
“We are really upset by what happened, ours is a small community, we all know each other. I have also asked friends and volunteers: no one knows Salim,” the local Islamic community contact person later said.
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By Jorge Mitssunaga
May 16, 2026
World
WHO declares Ebola outbreak in Central Africa a public health emergency after 80 suspected deaths
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The World Health Organization declared an Ebola outbreak in Central Africa an international public health emergency on Sunday after dozens of suspected deaths were reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighboring Uganda.
The outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo virus, does not meet the criteria for a pandemic emergency, the WHO said.
The declaration follows reports of 80 suspected deaths, eight laboratory-confirmed cases and 246 suspected cases as of Saturday across at least three health zones in the Democratic Republic of Congo, including Bunia, Rwampara and Mongbwalu.
The development comes as global health officials continue monitoring a rare hantavirus outbreak tied to the MV Hondius cruise ship, which left multiple passengers and crew members sick, and caused three deaths.
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A health worker sprays disinfectant on a colleague after working at an Ebola treatment center in Beni, eastern Congo, on Sept. 9, 2018. (Al-hadji Kudra Maliro/AP)
As of May 13, the WHO said 11 hantavirus cases had been identified in connection with the cruise outbreak, including eight confirmed cases, two probable cases and one inconclusive case.
In neighboring Uganda’s capital, Kampala, the WHO said two apparently unrelated laboratory-confirmed Ebola cases — including one death — were reported Friday and Saturday involving people who had traveled from the DRC.
Another laboratory-confirmed case was reported in the DRC capital of Kinshasa involving a person returning from Ituri province.
Initial tests suggested the outbreak does not involve the Ebola Zaire strain, which caused Congo’s devastating 2018–2020 epidemic that killed more than 1,000 people.
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Health workers wearing protective suits tend to an Ebola victim in an isolation tent in Beni, Congo, on July 13, 2019. (Jerome Delay/AP)
However, unlike Ebola-Zaire strains, there are currently no approved vaccines or therapeutics for the Bundibugyo strain, which the WHO described as making the outbreak “extraordinary.”
The WHO warned the outbreak could be larger than currently reported due to the high positivity rate among initial samples and the growing number of suspected cases.
The outbreak also poses a public health risk to other countries, the WHO said, urging nations to activate emergency-management systems and implement cross-border screening measures.
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Ambulances parked at Bunia General Referral Hospital following confirmation of an Ebola outbreak involving the Bundibugyo strain in Bunia, Ituri province, Democratic Republic of Congo, May 16, 2026. (REUTERS/Victoire Mukenge)
Ebola is a highly contagious and often fatal disease spread through bodily fluids, including blood, vomit and semen. Symptoms can include fever, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle pain and internal bleeding.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus recently said Congo has a “strong track record” responding to Ebola outbreaks while announcing the release of $500,000 in emergency funding to support containment efforts.
The WHO said it will convene an emergency committee to review recommendations for how affected countries should respond.
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Health workers dressed in protective gear begin their shift at an Ebola treatment center in Beni, Congo, on July 16, 2019. (Jerome Delay/AP)
The organization did not recommend border closures or travel restrictions.
Congo has now recorded 17 Ebola outbreaks since the virus was first identified in the country in 1976.
Fox News Digital’s Jasmine Baehr and Brittany Miller, along with Reuters, contributed to this report.
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