NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! Voice of America’s (VOA) Persian-language service continued broadcasting inside Iran on Saturday despite sweeping communication restrictions imposed by the regime, a spokesperson confirmed to Fox News.VOA — the U.S. government-funded international broadcaster overseen by the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) — appeared to air Persian-language coverage of the U.S.-Israeli military campaign known as “Operation Epic Fury,” the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, remarks from President Donald Trump, and other major developments.In a post on X, USAGM said VOA was amplifying President Donald Trump’s message about the operation across its global platforms, sharing images of his statement translated into multiple languages, including Korean and Kurdish. “Voice of America is carrying President Trump’s message about Operation Epic Fury across all language services,” USAGM wrote. “The brave people of Iran are hearing him — and so are citizens living under oppressive regimes around the world.”Founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda, VOA now delivers news in 49 languages to a weekly global audience of more than 361 million people, according to the organization’s website.VOA launched its Persian-language programming in 1979. The service “confronts the disinformation and censorship efforts of the Iranian regime and…

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! Team USA Olympic hockey hero Jack Hughes spoke about his support for his country’s women’s hockey team after his team was the subject of backlash for laughing at a joke by President Donald Trump about the women’s team. During an interview on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show” Friday, Hughes opened up about his respect for the women’s team after McAfee appeared to reference the controversy by joking that Hughes and his teammates “hate” the women players. “We are hanging out with them so much, the women’s team. We were supporting them. Like, we were at their games, they were at our games,” Hughes said.   Hughes then appeared to address the recent criticism of his team for its response to Trump’s joke.”Like all these people talking, how many of them watched their gold medal game? Me and Quinn Hughes were at the game. We were at the game until like overtime ended on the glass, and we were jumping up and down so excited for these girls, so excited they won,” Hughes said. “And how many of these people watched the gold medal game, watched their semifinals game? Like 10 of the 10 of our players…

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! There is so much to say as an Iranian-American who has devoted my entire career to the promise of a moment like this. And now, it is finally here. Watching Iranians pour into the streets waving the lion‑and‑sun flag, singing old freedom songs and crying tears of disbelief feels surreal. These are people who have literally buried their children for a chance at freedom. Their joy is over a day they never thought they’d experience after 47 years of suffocation.It is hard to fathom a people so desperate for justice, so hungry for liberty, that they are cheering military strikes on their own soil as the price of liberation. They know the cost of freedom better than anyone. Yet while Iranians dance and pray for a nation reborn, too many voices here in the United States are dismissing this moment as “another war for oil,” a favor to Israel, or a boon for defense contractors. That type of cynicism misunderstands both the stakes and the strategy. What we’re witnessing is a deliberate, calculated intervention designed to end an almost five-decade war with the Islamic Republic. The Trump administration’s strategic imperative has never been…

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NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! Ben Rhodes, a leading figure within the Obama administration who pushed for the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, was blasted on social media Saturday after he criticized U.S. military strikes on Iran. In the immediate aftermath of the joint attack by the U.S. and Israel, Rhodes was posting criticism of the administration on social media saying that Trump and Netanyahu “seem to be totally unconcerned about the human beings – on all sides – who will suffer.””Trump’s second term has been the worst case scenario,” Rhodes said in another X post. Rhodes was quickly ridiculed by many conservatives on social media who pointed to the Obama-era Iran deal as a catalyst for allowing the situation to escalate to this point and placing blame on the Obama administration for not taking the threat from Iran seriously. “Yes we were much better off with a president who drew redlines and failed to enforce them,” American Enterprise Institute fellow and Fox News contributor Marc Thiessen posted on X. “Team Obama might want to sit this one out.””Oh look the guy who literally created this mess in the first place has chimed in,” Republican digital operative Alec Sears posted on X. “You were…

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! Stony Brook men’s basketball star Erik Pratt was suspended by the school for spitting on a fan during the team’s 82-69 loss to Monmouth Thursday.Pratt was being heckled by fans with 2:30 left in the game with Stony Brook down 79-63. Instead of ignoring the fans, Pratt turned and spit at them and walked away.”In light of his actions in last night’s game at Monmouth, I have made the decision in consultation with the CAA to suspend Erik Pratt for Saturday’s game at Hofstra,” Stony Brook Director of Athletics Shawn Helibron said in a statement. “I met with Erik earlier, and he acknowledged his mistake while accepting full responsibility for his actions. While emotions were high in the moment, he understands that his behavior was inappropriate and did not meet the standards we expect of our student-athletes, nor those set forth by our department, institution and the CAA. Erik has expressed his commitment to learning from this experience and moving forward in a positive manner.”At the time of his ejection, Pratt led the team with 14 points and had eight assists. Pratt is Stony Brook’s leading scorer, averaging 19.4 points per game, and…

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a major attack on Iran launched by Israel and the United States, President Donald Trump said Saturday on social media.Trump said his death is “the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their Country.” The death occurred after a joint U.S. and Israeli aerial bombardment that targeted Iranian military and governmental sites.The president also said “heavy and pinpoint bombing” was to continue “uninterrupted” through the week or longer.RELATEDThere was no immediate comment from Iran. The assassination of the second leader of the Islamic Republic, who had no designated successor, would throw its future into doubt and raise the prospect of a protracted conflict given Iranian threats of retaliation.Trump in his post called Khamenei “one of the most evil people in history.”Trump said that Khamenei “was unable to avoid our Intelligence and Highly Sophisticated Tracking Systems and, working closely with Israel, there was not a thing he, or the other leaders that have been killed along with him, could do.”In a nationally televised address, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there were “growing signs” that Khamenei had been killed when Israel struck his compound…

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! After Team USA’s thrilling win over Canada in the Olympic gold medal game on Sunday, all Brady Tkachuk wanted to do was celebrate. However, he had to take a drug test first.Tkachuk, 26, wrapped up his media obligations and was on his way to the locker room when he got a tap on the shoulder.”I get a tap on the shoulder, ‘Hello Brady, you’ve been selected for a drug test,’” Tkachuk said on a recent episode of his podcast “Wingmen with Matthew and Brady Tkachuk.” Matthew Tkachuk said that players are not required to take the drug test upon being notified, but you are under supervision until you do so. Brady said that two other players opted to do their tests right away but missed a couple of the songs. He did not want to miss any of the celebrations, so he opted to wait until the bus left to take his test, which wasn’t for another hour and a half to two hours.Matthew said that the man administering the test, a man he named “little Johnny,” had a front-row seat to the locker room celebrations.Brady said that, in about a 40-minute…

A barrage of Iranian retaliatory strikes on U.S. military installations across the Middle East on Saturday resulted in no casualties to American personnel, U.S. Central command officials said. With dust still settling from a U.S. and Israeli air, land and sea bombardment on targets across the Islamic Republic — part an operation dubbed Epic Fury — Iran responded by firing hundreds of missiles and drones at U.S. bases that were “successfully defended against,” a CENTCOM release stated. “There have been no reports of U.S. casualties or combat-related injuries,” the release stated. “Damage to U.S. installations was minimal and has not impacted operations.” Video circulated earlier on Saturday purportedly showed the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet headquarters in Bahrain being hit in an Iranian strike. At least 201 people have been killed and more than 700 injured across Iran, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society.The assault by U.S. and partner forces began Saturday at 1:15 a.m., CENTCOM officials stated, with the goal of knocking out “the Iranian regime’s security apparatus, prioritizing locations that posed an imminent threat.” Among the primary targets of the operation were Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps command and control facilities, Iranian air defense capabilities, missile and drone launch…

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! Iran’s militant and unyielding supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who ruled the Islamic Republic for more than three decades and oversaw an era of harsh internal repression and confrontation with the United States and Israel, has died following the Israeli strike in Tehran, as his compound was reduced to rubble, a senior Israeli official told Fox News Digital.”Khamenei was the contemporary Middle East’s longest-serving autocrat. He did not get to be that way by being a gambler. Khamenei was an ideologue, but one who ruthlessly pursued the preservation and protection of his ideology, often taking two steps forward and one step back,” Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior director of FDD’s Iran program, told Fox News Digital. “Khamenei’s worldview was shaped by his militant anti-Americanism and antisemitism, which first manifested itself in his protests against the Shah of Iran,” he added. Born April 19, 1939, in Mashhad, eastern Iran, Khamenei was among the Islamist activists who played a central role in the 1979 revolution that overthrew the U.S.-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. A close ally of Iran’s first supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Khamenei rose through the new system and served as president from 1981…