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Radical Iranian province hit by Israel highlights regime's weaknesses

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Radical Iranian province hit by Israel highlights regime's weaknesses

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JERUSALEM – Just a week ago, some residents of Iran’s central province of Isfahan – a nuclear weapon and missile production hub of the Islamic Republic – cheered the Iranian rockets fired into Israel.

In the early-morning hours of Friday, the Isfahan authorities were jolted by Israeli strikes that triggered their air defense systems in the cities of Isfahan and Tabriz after three explosions went off near an important military airbase close to Isfahan. It is unclear how much damage Israel’s strikes inflicted. Iran’s regime reported no casualties. 

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Potkin Azarmehr, a British-Iranian expert on Iran, told Fox News Digital, “What my sources are saying is that there is no damage to the airbase, but Israel proved it can jam Iran’s air defense and bypass it to the extent that they didn’t even manage to sound the alarm despite Isfahan being in the heart of Iranian territory.” 

He continued that “Isfahan is the epicenter of Iran’s air defense. If they couldn’t detect the attack, serious questions about the reliability of Iran’s air defense must be asked.”

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Eyewitness footage shows what is said to be the moment of an explosion at a military industry factory in Isfahan, Iran, January 29, 2023, in this still image obtained from a video. Pool via WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters. (Pool via WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS)

Azarmehr noted, “When the Pakistan Air Force retaliated after Iran missile attack, there was no air defense.”

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Isfahan is a top-priority strike location for Israeli forces, because the area is one of the central features of the regime’s illicit atomic weapons program. It is where the powerful Shahab medium-range missiles are made. Isfahan was the testing ground back in late October for the country’s missile system, which proved capable of reaching Israel last week.

Israeli strikes against Iran’s regime are typically shrouded in ambiguity to avoid any fingerprints on the missions and to leave Tehran’s rulers guessing.

In January, 2023, Israeli drone strikes allegedly hit a weapons factory inside Isfahan. The drone attack last year was said to be executed by Israel’s foreign intelligence service, Mossad. 

The Jerusalem Post reported that Friday’s response was meant to be internalized as “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Israel retaliated where they were attacked.”

Iranian pro-government supporters hold a giant Palestinian flag at Palestine Square in Tehran, on April 14, 2024, in a celebration of Iran’s early-morning IRGC attack on Israel. Iran fired over 100 drones and ballistic missiles on Saturday, April 14, 2024, in retaliation for an attack on a building attached to the country’s consular annex in Damascus that killed seven members of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on April 1, 2024. Iran has blamed Israel for the attack on April 5, 2024, in Tehran.  (Photo by Hossein Beris / Middle East Images / Middle East Images via AFP)

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Isfahan is also a hotbed of antisemitism and Holocaust denial. At an April Al-Quds day demonstration, the last Friday of Ramadan, Iran promoted the destruction of Israel. The Imam of Isfahan, Ayatollah Yousef Tabatabainejad, declared, “It is our obligation to support the oppressed Muslims who have been oppressed, and we hope that, with divine providence in this path of resistance, we will be able to wipe the Zionist regime off the face of the earth.”

In 2016, the Islamic Association of the University of Isfahan announced a cartoon contest that aims to mock and deny the Holocaust.

Sheina Vojoudi, an associate fellow at the Gold Institute for International Strategy, told Fox News Digital that “Isfahan is of great strategic importance in Iran. There are military and nuclear bases in Isfahan, and it shows how the regime is concentrated in this city and the rockets that were fired at Israel were also fired from one of the bases in Isfahan.”

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This satellite image from Planet Labs PBC shows Iran’s nuclear site in Isfahan, Iran, on April 4, 2024. Iran fired air defenses at a major air base and a nuclear site early Friday morning near the central city of Isfahan after spotting drones, which were suspected to be part of an Israeli attack in retaliation for Tehran’s unprecedented drone-and-missile assault on the country.  ((Planet Labs PBC via AP))

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Vojoudi, an Iranian dissident who opposes the Islamic Republic’s government, added that the “attack on Isfahan means that this city is one of the main points where the regime can pose a threat to Israel and, of course, to the Iranian people because of the intense activities of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The regime’s nuclear activities have almost ruined the lives of the people of Isfahan and increased the rate of cancer in Isfahan.”

An Iranian long-range Ghadr missile displaying “Down with Israel” in Hebrew is pictured at a defence exhibition in the city of Isfahan, central Iran, on February 8, 2023. (Photo by MORTEZA SALEHI/TASNIM NEWS/AFP via Getty Images) (Photo by MORTEZA SALEHI/TASNIM NEWS/AFP via Getty Images)

While the U.S. and allies seem to be content with Israel’s reaction, other experts say an opportunity has been wasted. 

“This is a missed opportunity. Israel needed to impose a serious cost on Iran to restore deterrence. I worry that this pin-prick reprisal will instead teach Iran that it can get away with large-scale attacks on U.S. partners without serious consequences,” said Matthew Kroenig, vice president and senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security and the Council’s Director of Studies.

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‘Predators’: Amnesty slams Netanyahu Putin, Trump, as human rights decline

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‘Predators’: Amnesty slams Netanyahu Putin, Trump, as human rights decline

London, United Kingdom – Israel, Russia and the United States are leading the destruction of global human rights, Amnesty International has said, describing the three countries’ leaders as “voracious predators” intent upon economic and political domination.

“A global environment where primitive ferocity could flourish has been long in the making,” Agnes Callamard, the head of the global rights group, wrote in an annual report on the state of the world’s human rights that was released on Tuesday.

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In 2025, “sharp U-turns were taken away from the international order that had been imagined out of the ashes of the Holocaust and the utter destruction of world wars, and constructed slowly and painfully, albeit insufficiently, over these past 80 years,” she said.

In a news conference on Monday in London, Callamard said that most governments tend to appease the “predators” rather than confront them.

“Some even thought to imitate the bullies and the looters,” she said.

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Spain, however, which is an outlier in Europe for its criticism of Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and US-Israeli attacks on Iran, “is standing above the double standard that is destroying the international system”, Callamard said.

She argued that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, who in 2022 sent his forces into neighbouring Ukraine, have had an “absolutely dramatic” impact on the world.

Their conduct is “emboldening all of those that are tempted by similar behaviours,” said Callamard. “It is allowing for the multiplication of copycats around the world, and therefore what we are confronting now is much more aggressive and ferocious than what we had to confront three or four years ago.”

‘Authoritarian practices have intensified worldwide’

Amnesty’s review of the state of the world’s human rights makes for grim reading, documenting attacks on fundamental civil liberties in most nations.

“Authoritarian practices have intensified worldwide”, the report reads, before running through abuses alleged in countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe in 400 pages.

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Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Russia’s “crimes against humanity” in Ukraine, and the US-Israeli war on Iran were noted as examples of conflict in which international laws have been ignored.

In a section on repression, the United Kingdom is blamed for cracking down on the Palestine solidarity movement and Palestine Action, the direct-action group that targets sites associated with the Israeli military and is currently fighting a legal battle against its UK proscription as a “terrorist” organisation.

Afghanistan’s Taliban was responsible for further gender-based discrimination in 2025, the report noted, citing measures excluding women from education and work, while Nepalese authorities were said to have failed to investigate instances of gender-based violence against Dalit women.

Amnesty’s report comes as multiple conflicts rage across the world.

The US-Israeli assault on Iran has killed more than 3,000 people, while Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed nearly 2,400. In Gaza, the confirmed number of people killed in Israeli attacks since October 2023 has surpassed 72,500 as the decimated territory is continually threatened by Israeli bombardment. In Ukraine, more than 15,000 have been killed since Russia’s full-scale invasion began more than four years ago.

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Conflicts in the Middle East are a “product of the descent into lawlessness, made possible by a vision of the world in which war-making and the killings of civilians are normalised”, said Callamard.

“No effective steps have been taken against Israel for its repeated, constant violation of basic standards of humanity.”

However, there is some room for optimism, Amnesty said.

It listed moments of “resistance” such as Gen Z-led protests; the growing number of states joining South Africa’s case against Israel’s genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ); the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) crimes against humanity charges against former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte; the Council of Europe’s special tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine; and the ICC’s arrest warrant against two Taliban leaders for “gender-based persecution”.

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Patrick Muldoon, ‘Days of Our Lives’ and ‘Melrose Place’ Actor, Dies at 57

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Patrick Muldoon, ‘Days of Our Lives’ and ‘Melrose Place’ Actor, Dies at 57

Patrick Muldoon, an actor who starred in “Days of Our Lives” and “Melrose Place,” died on Sunday, his manager confirmed to Variety. He was 57.

From 1992 to 1995, Muldoon originated the role of Austin Reed on the daytime soap opera “Days of Our Lives.” He returned to the soap to reprise the role from 2011 to 2012.

He also had a recurring role as Jeffrey Hunter in the teen television series “Saved by the Bell” in 1991. Muldoon also starred on the primetime soap opera “Melrose Place” from 1995 to 1996, playing the villain Richard Hart.

In 1997, Muldoon played the role of Zander Barcalow in the film “Starship Troopers,” directed by Paul Verhoeven.

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Muldoon was also an active producer, working on a slew of movies including “The Tribes of Palos Verdes,” “Arkansas,” “Marlowe,” “The Card Counter,” “The Dreadful” and “Riff Raff” through his Storyboard Productions. He was set to produce the upcoming feature “Kockroach,” starring Chris Hemsworth. Just two days ago, Muldoon posted on Instagram: “So excited to be a part of this amazing project KOCKROACH directed by Matt Ross starring Chris Hemsworth, Taron Edgerton, Zazzie Beetz and Alec Baldwin.” The production is currently filming in Australia.

His latest acting role was in “Dirty Hands,” a new crime thriller with Denise Richards and Michael Beach. The film is slated to be released later this month.

Muldoon is survived by his partner, Miriam Rothbart; parents Deanna and Patrick Muldoon, Sr.; sister and brother-in-law Shana and Ahmet Zappa, niece Halo and nephew Arrow Zappa.

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Massive 7.5-magnitude earthquake hits off Japanese coast, tsunami alert issued

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Massive 7.5-magnitude earthquake hits off Japanese coast, tsunami alert issued

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A strong earthquake took place off the northern coast of Japan Monday afternoon, prompting the Japan Meteorological Agency to put out a tsunami alert in the area.

The quake, registering a preliminary magnitude of 7.5, occurred off the coast of Sanriku in northern Japan at around 4:53 p.m. local time, at a depth of about 6 miles below the sea surface, the agency said.

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A television screen shows a news report on Japan Meteorological Agency’s tsunami warning, saying it expected tsunami waves of up to 3 meters (9.84 feet) to reach large coastal areas in northern Japan after an earthquake struck off the northeastern coast of Japan, in Tokyo, Japan April 20, 2026 (REUTERS/Issei Kato)

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A tsunami of around 2.6 feet was identified at the Kuji port in the Iwate prefecture while a tsunami of 1.3 feet was recorded at a different port in the prefecture, the agency indicated.

The Iwate prefecture put out non-binding evacuation advisories for those living in 11 towns.

A tsunami of as high as 10 feet could strike the region, the agency indicated.

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A policeman picks his way through the debris looking for bodies in Rikuzentakata, Iwate prefecture, on March 22, 2011, after the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami.  (TORU YAMANAKA/AFP via Getty Images)

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A powerful 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami in 2011 wreaked havoc in Japan, leaving over 22,000 dead and compelling nearly 500,000 people to flee their homes, most of them because of tsunami damage.

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 In this satellite view, the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power plant after a massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami on March 14, 2011 in Futaba, Japan. (DigitalGlobe via Getty Images via Getty Images)

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Around 160,000 fled their residences due to radiation from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant — around 26,000 have not come back because they resettled somewhere else, their hometowns are still off-limits, or they harbor concerns regarding radiation.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report

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