Cuba plunges into total blackout as electrical grid collapses again, US Embassy warns

Cuba experienced a total power failure on Friday, according to the U.S. Embassy in Havana.

The embassy said the failure was due to the "collapse of Cuba’s electrical grid. 

According to Cuban regime media, the reason for the collapse is under investigation and the timeline to restore power is unknown."

"All U.S. citizens in Cuba or planning to travel to Cuba should be aware and plan accordingly. There are reports of cellphone and internet outages," the embassy added, noting that Cuba’s electrical grid is "increasingly unstable," which has led to "multiple" nationwide power outages in the last few months.

CUBA’S ECONOMIC FREEFALL IS HIDING A NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT JUST MILES FROM FLORIDA: REPORT

The embassy added, "The electrical system remains vulnerable, and additional regular outages have been occurring more frequently and for longer periods. Scheduled power cuts occur daily, and unscheduled outages persist throughout Cuba."

Cuba’s energy ministry also posted about the power outage on social media.

LEFT-WING INFLUENCER DOWNPLAYS CUBA BLACKOUTS: WORSENING SHORTAGES; 'PEOPLE ARE PARTYING'

The country’s power system has been struggling because of fuel shortages, the U.S.-imposed oil blockade and crumbling infrastructure.

CUBA’S DICTATORSHIP HAS LONG BEEN A THREAT TO AMERICA. NOW, IT’S FINALLY TEETERING

Even when there isn’t a national outage, the country often suffers through rolling blackouts that leave millions without power.

The last national outage happened just last month, and Friday's marks the seventh one this year.

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China firm gave Iran lifeline to collect Hormuz tolls before pulling plug amid US warning

Iran’s sanctioned Persian Gulf Straits Authority (PGSA) regained secure online access for four days after a Shanghai-based internet security firm provided and then revoked its web credentials, enabling Tehran to vet vessels, collect Strait of Hormuz tolls and operate despite U.S. digital restrictions, global internet monitors said.

TrustAsia issued an automated domain-validated certificate, a routine process that verifies control of a website domain through server checks and typically does not involve manual vetting or background checks.

The move prompted U.S. sanctions experts, including Jeremy Paner, a partner at Hughes Hubbard & Reed, to urge TrustAsia to review its compliance program before offering further services to the IRGC-linked maritime authority — with Paner warning them to act "before it is too late."

The PGSA first said its website was disrupted Aug. 10 because of "the enemy's political influence on the internet service provision systems," according to a post on X.

IRAN REQUESTS TALKS WITH US AS WHITE HOUSE WARNS 'VIOLENCE WILL BE MET WITH VIOLENCE'

NetBlocks CEO Alp Toker told Fox News Digital that the authority had lost its web security credentials after the entity was added to the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions list on May 27.

The loss of standard SSL/TLS certificates, Toker said, made the PGSA website inaccessible using standard browsers. This forced shipping firms to use unencrypted connections that, according to Toker, could leave their data vulnerable to interception.

While no data breaches resulting from the use of these connections have been made known, and there are no known instances in which a shipping firm’s data was intercepted and used to its detriment because of the certificate expiration, Toker said the site’s inaccessibility resulted in a shift to what he described as "insecure protocols."

"The digital transparency records are authoritative on this," he said, adding that the measure forced the traffic into a format that could be readily intercepted.

"This is a class of vulnerability open to government exploitation, rather than a corporate breach or personal data leak."

Toker claimed this could make it easier for authorities to read communications sent through the platform, potentially identifying shipping firms collaborating with the PGSA.

TRUMP SAYS IRAN WILL PAY — WHAT IT TAKES TO END THE WAR REMAINS UNCLEAR

"The net result was that the website was more difficult to access, because most web browsers strongly encourage the use of secure HTTPS," Toker said, adding that any form submissions could have been easily "eavesdropped on because they're no longer encrypted in transit."

"The mentioned issue has been resolved, and the secure domain https://pgsa.ir is now once again available for submitting requests using any browser," the PGSA said six days later on Aug. 17 and in another post shared on X.

"If the issue recurs in the future, the HTTP domain will again be temporarily available using the Firefox browser."

Toker confirmed that Iran had turned to Shanghai-based certificate authority TrustAsia Technologies, which he said issued new digital security credentials to the PGSA despite the U.S. sanctions, restoring secure access to its website. 

"Iran’s IRGC extorts vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz through the so-called Persian Gulf Strait Authority," the Treasury Department said in May when designating the entity, adding that the PGSA "spearheads an Iranian-controlled scheme that flagrantly violates international law and U.S. sanctions."

"Anyone cooperating with the so-called strait authority may be providing support to and receiving services from the IRGC, which ultimately benefits from this attempted extortion, and may therefore be exposed to sanctions risk," the Treasury Department warned.

The Chinese firm bills itself as a "leading and professionally certified certification authority in China with its focus on trusted, secure and cryptographic communications in the digital world."

Its mission, it says, is to "Build trust everywhere in the digital world."

"Almost all of these root authorities do business with the U.S., so they tend to comply with U.S. sanctions," Toker said.

But TrustAsia, he noted, had "gone its own way, building a China-first certificate infrastructure that sidesteps the West."

Toker said TrustAsia had "simply gone ahead and issued Iran's PGSA with a new certificate, and Iran was once again collecting revenue from ships passing the Strait via its secure online portal."

TRUMP CALLS ON ARAB NATIONS TO SIGN ABRAHAM ACCORDS

Paner warned that U.S. authorities would have enforcement powers over such actions.

"The U.S. has incredibly broad authority to impose sanctions on non-Iranian companies that provide any sorts of services to sanctioned Iranian companies," he told Fox News Digital.

"Many times, that authority will be abbreviated or explained as being providers of material support to sanctioned Iranian companies. But in fact, any level of services whatsoever could be the basis for the United States imposing sanctions against the company for providing services to Iran."

"Restoration of the certificate is unequivocally sanctionable," Paner warned.

"Restoring the certificate is/was a service provided to the PGSA, which can be the basis for imposing sanctions pursuant to Executive Order 13224, as amended.

"That authority does not in any way require that the service be ‘knowingly’ provided to the PGSA. In other words, the automated nature of the service is irrelevant and does not make the service any less sanctionable," the lawyer added.

In a statement to Fox News Digital on Aug. 20, a spokesperson for TrustAsia confirmed that the firm issued a "Domain Validated TLS certificate for pgsa.ir."

"Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention," the firm said before clarifying that "DV certificates are issued through automated validation of control over the requested domain names."

IRAN ACCELERATES EXECUTION CAMPAIGN AGAINST ANTI-REGIME ACTIVISTS AMID INTERNET CENSORSHIP

"This process does not verify or assert the legal identity, affiliation, or sanctions status of the entity operating or benefiting from the domain.

"As a result, the relationship described in your inquiry was not identified during the automated issuance process." Following the firm's review, TrustAsia said it "added the entire pgsa.ir domain namespace to our restricted-issuance list to prevent further issuance or renewal."

"We also expect to complete revocation of the existing certificate within this week," the spokesman said on Aug. 20.

These actions are precautionary compliance and risk-control measures. They should not be interpreted as a finding that the certificate was technically misissued, TrustAsia said.

Toker confirmed the TrustAsia certificate's privilege had been withdrawn on Aug. 21 at 12:15:25 UTC. "This usually means the issuer has taken action," he said.

The internet expert clarified that the revocation will gradually be coming into effect, with the firm "signaling that the PGSA certificate should no longer be trusted, and they're distributing this notice that privilege is withdrawn, usually meaning customer misuse or breached terms of use."

"The secure website will stop working in most browsers, unless the owners can find a certificate authority that's willing to issue a new certificate," Toker said.

IRAN’S UNSEEN SUPREME LEADER BECOMES WEAPON IN ESCALATING POWER STRUGGLE, EXPERTS SAY

After reviewing TrustAsia's statement, Paner also said that OFAC would expect the company to "use the discovery as an opportunity to enhance its compliance program before it is too late."

The former OFAC official clarified that Iran's revenue collection in the waterway would likely draw high-level scrutiny in Washington.

"Iran's attempt to extort the world in the movement of oil through the Strait of Hormuz is of the utmost importance to OFAC, which is the agency that implements and enforces U.S. economic sanctions."

Because major U.S. web browsers currently recognize TrustAsia’s root certificates, American systems would have automatically trusted the sanctioned Iranian portal.

Toker claimed the Treasury Department could have found TrustAsia in violation of sanctions for providing material assistance to a blocked entity, potentially forcing tech giants such as Google and Microsoft to revoke trust in TrustAsia.

There is no evidence that this process had begun or was likely to occur.

"This could have splintered the global chain of trust and potentially render much of the Chinese web inaccessible from the West," Toker warned.

IRAN IS NOT A NORMAL NATION YOU CAN MAKE DEALS WITH; IT’S A NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT

Paner clarified that the certificates authenticate the site, boosting its credibility, and suggested TrustAsia should have weighed the risks of working with sanctioned entities.

"There's always reputational risk involved in any company that decides to do business with the IRGC."

"If I were advising TrustAsia, I would at minimum immediately identify all other IRGC companies receiving services."

Paner added that this latest situation aligned with broader warnings from administration officials.

"I think this dovetails pretty nicely with Secretary Bessent's comments about how the coming sanctions are going to be unlike any that has come prior. Sanctions require a careful balancing of the costs and the benefits.

"When it's a Chinese tech company providing necessary services to the IRGC, I'm confident that the U.S. government is going to forego any sort of balancing in that regard."

The United States on Aug. 24 had sanctioned nearly 60 Iran-linked individuals, entities and vessels and expanded the threat of secondary sanctions, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said. These did not include TrustAsia.

Bessent described the measures as part of an "economic onslaught" targeting Tehran’s global financial networks under "Operation Economic Outcast."

A Chinese Embassy spokesperson also said in a statement: "I am not aware of the specifics you mentioned. I have no information to provide."

Fox News Digital reached out to the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the White House for comment.

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‘Voters get to choose — just not the result’: Russia’s parliamentary election reaches occupied Ukraine

Russian State Duma elections began Friday — the first since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 — including in its occupied areas there, where Russia will look to reinforce the illusion of popular support for its full-scale invasion and annexation of eastern Ukraine.

OSCE election observers are not invited to monitor the outcome of the elections, a telling signal, critics say, that the Kremlin has no intentions of conducting free and fair elections.

"Russia’s refusal to invite an election observation mission seriously breaches its international commitments and shows a worrying disregard for democratic standards. Election observation is not optional — it is something that all OSCE participating States have agreed to, and it is a cornerstone of transparency and accountability," OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Pere Joan Pons told Fox News Digital.

Russia enacted strict censorship laws after the invasion, criminalizing any dissent about the operation or the armed forces and spreading misinformation about the war.

CIA DIRECTOR JOHN RATCLIFFE MET WITH RUSSIAN INTELLIGENCE OFFICIALS IN VISIT TO MOSCOW, KREMLIN SAYS

As the Kremlin has tried to keep popular support in favor of its war against Ukraine, a Russian court sentenced Lev Shlosberg, a vocal critic and leader of one of Russia’s only opposition parties to over 11 years in a penal colony for criticizing the war. Prior to Shlosberg’s sentencing, Russia's Supreme Court banned his opposition Yabloko Party from participating in September’s Duma elections.

There are nine parties on the list, all supportive of Putin, including the Kremlin's own United Party in the elections, The Associated Press reported. 

Shortly after Russia’s invasion in 2022, Moscow unilaterally annexed portions of occupied Ukrainian territory in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. In 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed legislation allowing elections to take place in the occupied territories. Ukraine and the international community do not recognize Russian sovereignty over the occupied regions.

Elections in Russia, and by extension in the occupied territory, are seen by his critics as window-dressing opportunities used by Putin to highlight his narrative that the war in Ukraine and the annexation of Ukrainian territory was a legitimate and lawful action.

Keti Korkiya from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies Russia Program told Fox News Digital that, "Russians are ready to support, symbolically, Putin, the Kremlin and the war, but if they have to pay a personal price, or even [an] economic price, they are unwilling to do that. That's why Russia has not done another wave of mobilization."

The upcoming elections, like most elections in Russia, will take place under a climate of pervasive fear and manipulation, not the freedom to exercise a democratic right, according to critics.

"It’s a total regime of terror," Jaroslava Barbieri, research fellow at the Ukraine Forum at Chatham House, told Fox News Digital.

The last time Russian elections were held in the occupied territories was in 2024, when Putin secured a fifth term in office, winning nearly 90% of the vote. Residents in occupied Ukraine were forced to acquire Russian passports, which is how authorities are able to compile lists of voters.

FORMER GEORGIAN PRIME MINISTER SAYS NATION'S ELECTION WAS 'RIGGED,' AND 'WRITTEN IN MOSCOW'

"Election officials are escorted by Russian soldiers carrying ballot boxes door-to-door. Ostensibly framed as a security measure against Ukrainian partisan strikes, this is about direct intimidation, and it is a flagrant violation of international law," Barbieri added.

President Vladimir Putin said in August that the State Duma elections will reaffirm Russia's stability on the world stage, noting the election will highlight the "maturity" of Russia’s political system and resilience in the face of foreign aggression, according to Turkey's Anadolu Agency.

Russia’s Central Election Commission (CEC) approved new electoral regulations that will be implemented in occupied Ukraine. The Commission stressed the importance of early and at-home voting to prevent large gatherings which could be exploited by Ukrainian attacks.

Russia's ministry of foreign affairs posted on X that preparations for overseas voting in Russia’s State Duma elections are nearly complete. It said there are 326 polling stations set up at Russian embassies and consulates in 152 countries.

Volodymyr Ariev, a member of the Ukrainian Parliament, said people living in temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories should boycott the staged Russian elections.

"Any sort of elections held in the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories is illegal and a breach of international law. Ukraine will never recognize any person ‘elected’ as a member of Parliament in the temporarily occupied territories," Ariev told Fox News Digital.

Ariev said people living in the occupied east should leave their homes and spend election day someplace else, to avoid being coerced into voting.

PUTIN PLANS FOR NEXT 6-YEAR TERM AS RUSSIANS VOTE IN 'NEITHER FREE NOR FAIR ELECTION'

Ivana Stradner, who focuses on Russian information security and influence operations at the FDD, says as Russia’s battlefield momentum stalls, the costs of war mount, and Ukraine brings the conflict to Russia’s doorstep, Putin is seeking political legitimacy this election.

"The State Duma elections give the Kremlin a chance to manufacture the appearance of public support… not only for United Russia, but for continuing Putin’s aggression in Ukraine. When the battlefield gets harder to sell, the ballot box becomes another way to sell the war," Stradner told Fox News Digital.

In the 2024 presidential elections, the annexed Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic delivered well above the current targeted 70% support, voting well over 90% for President Putin.

"Apparently, in Putin’s version of democracy, the voters get to choose… just not the result," Stradner added. The three days of voting ends on September 20.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Archbishop of Canterbury withdraws award from Muslim cleric after past Osama bin Laden praise surfaces

The Archbishop of Canterbury's office has withdrawn an interfaith award given to a Muslim cleric after past comments surfaced in which he praised Osama bin Laden.

Maulana Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi received the Hubert Walter Award for Reconciliation and Interfaith Cooperation at Lambeth Palace last Friday, during a ceremony that coincided with the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Lambeth Palace announced the reversal Thursday after previous comments by Ashrafi had "come to light," causing it to reconsider the award.

"It is a longstanding principle of interfaith dialogue and co-operation that we must engage with one another across deeply-held differences, and that remains the case," Lambeth Palace said in a statement.

BUSH REVIVES ‘ISLAM IS PEACE’ MESSAGE WITH FRESH FOCUS ON POST-9/11 MOSQUE VISIT

"However, previous comments made by Imam Ashrafi have come to light that have led Lambeth Palace to reconsider this award and we can now confirm today that the award has been withdrawn," the statement continued. "We have contacted Imam Ashrafi to make him aware of this decision."

Lambeth Palace added that it continues "to pray for the Christian community in Pakistan, and for all those working for interfaith dialogue and harmony in Pakistan and around the world."

According to Lambeth Palace, the award was given to Ashrafi because of his "longstanding support for religious minorities in Pakistan, particularly the Christian community."

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According to the BBC, Ashrafi said in 2007 that bin Laden — the architect of the 9/11 attacks — had "been fighting for Islam against the Russians, Americans and British."

The BBC also reported that Ashrafi said he would give bin Laden the title "Saifullah," meaning "Sword of God."

Ashrafi told the BBC that his remarks had been "totally taken out of context" and described the backlash against him as an "unfair campaign."

He said he made the remarks about bin Laden in 2007 in response to "the hurt felt by many Muslims" over the British government's decision to knight "The Satanic Verses" author Salman Rushdie.

During the award presentation last week, the Archbishop's office said Ashrafi was being honored for "his outstanding work as an ambassador of interfaith harmony in Pakistan, known for his commitment to promoting religious tolerance."

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Finnish foreign ministry official details how Russia's 'hybrid warfare' reshaped border security

Russian tactics designed to disrupt European nations forced neighboring Finland to fundamentally rethink its border security, culminating in the recent completion of a new border fence along its eastern frontier.

Finland constructed roughly 124 miles of fencing along its border with Russia — a secondary security measure intended to stem the flow of unauthorized Russian migrants, Petri Hakkarainen, political director for the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, told Fox News Digital.

"We have in the past witnessed Russia's attempts… to instrumentalize migrants at the Finnish border," Hakkarainen said. "Basically pushing migrants towards our borders, forcing us then to take them on."

A sudden influx forces the Finnish government to process large volumes of asylum claims, which could destabilize society if carried out on a massive scale, he explained. 

In response, Finland closed its entire land border with Russia in 2023. Moscow swiftly filed a formal complaint, condemning the closure as "Russophobic."

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The Kremlin expressed "deep regret" over the move, claiming it replaced decades of "pragmatic, mutually respectful relations" with an anti-Russian political stance.

Finland shares an 833-mile border with Russia — the longest of any European Union or NATO member state. The completed border fence supplements the border closures.

As Russia remains locked in a war of attrition in Ukraine, Western officials have accused Moscow of launching widespread destabilization campaigns, ranging from disinformation to state-sponsored economic coercion intended to erode public trust across Europe.

FINLAND’S FOREIGN MINISTER SAYS UKRAINE ‘IS NOW HOLDING THE CARDS’ AS RUSSIA SIGNALS TALKS

"We think it's important to listen to those of us who live next door to Russia," Hakkarainen said. "Listen to our analysis of the situation: we consider Russia to be a long-term threat to transatlantic security — not only to Ukraine, not only to Europeans, but to transatlantic security as a whole."

Finland launched the border fence initiative after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a landmark conflict that prompted the historically neutral Nordic nation to join NATO in April 2023.

Moscow has long viewed NATO’s eastward expansion as a direct security threat, using it to justify reinforcing its western defenses. 

When Finland officially joined the alliance, Helsinki saw an immediate reaction: over 1,300 migrants without visa arrived at its eastern border.

FINLAND'S PARLIAMENT VOTES TO LIFT DECADES-OLD BAN ON NUCLEAR WEAPONS IN HISTORIC NATO DEFENSE SHIFT

Finland accused Moscow of weaponizing migration as an act of "hybrid warfare," a charge the Kremlin denied.

Closing the border checkpoints has proven "very effective," Hakkarainen noted. Beyond physical barriers, Finnish lawmakers passed the Border Security Act. 

The temporary law allows border authorities to restrict asylum applications and turn back migrants if a foreign actor attempts to destabilize the country by funneling people across the border.

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While the law sparked some initial debate over potential human rights and international law violations, Hakkarainen emphasized that national defense took priority.

"We take these concerns very seriously," he said. "But national security and our own sovereignty... weighed more heavily in this conversation, though there is broad majority support for the act."

ITALY-SPAIN BORDER FEUD EXPOSES EUROPE’S DEEPENING IMMIGRATION DIVIDE

"We take our security and preparedness very seriously," Hakkarainen added. 

"I would say not despite that, but because of that, we are able to lead very normal lives here — regardless of the neighbor we have."

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Saudi Arabia facing 'biggest threat' ever to oil production as Iran-proxy Houthis launch attacks, expert says

Saudi Arabia is currently facing "the biggest threat" ever to its production of oil as the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen are launching cross-border attacks and seizing territory near the Red Sea’s Bab el-Mandeb Strait, an expert told Fox News Digital.

Hussain Abdul-Hussain, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said Thursday that the situation is escalating in the Middle East as Iran "likely instigated the Houthis to force a blockade on Saudi Arabia."

"I think this situation is really precarious for the Saudis. This is the biggest threat to their production of oil since their kingdom was founded in 1932. And this is almost existential," he said.

"We see that the Saudis are trying to shop for some force to fight their war for them. And I think along the lines, they also called President Trump. It doesn't look to me that Washington is going to get involved in this one," he added. "We'll probably offer them advice and tell support, but I don't think we, the United States, will get involved with this war over Bab el-Mandeb."

IRAN-BACKED TERROR GROUP'S LATEST TERRITORIAL GRAB THREATENS SECOND GLOBAL SHIPPING CHOKEPOINT

Saudi Arabia was forced to temporarily close its East-West oil pipeline last week following a drone attack launched from Iraq, which Trump said he believes Iran was behind. Then on Tuesday, Saudi Arabia destroyed a Houthi drone that attempted to enter the airspace near Mecca, among other recent provocations.

"We know that the United States imposes a blockade on Iran, so Iran is unable to export any of its oil, licitly or illicitly. What the Iranians are trying to do is that they're trying to telegraph to the other oil exporters in the region that either we export, all of us export oil, or none of us will export oil," Abdul-Hussain told Fox News Digital. "This is why you see Iran shutting down the Strait of Hormuz. This forced Saudi Arabia to switch its oil production from east to west, from Hormuz to the other side to the Red Sea. Tankers started picking up oil at the port of Yanbu in Saudi Arabia on the Red Sea and sailing south through the Bab al-Mandeb all the way to the Asian markets.

"Iran didn't like this because clearly all or none didn't work," he said. "So they likely instigated the Houthis to force a blockade on Saudi Arabia."

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Fox News Digital, citing a source familiar with the matter, reported on Friday that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman urged Trump to take military action against the Houthis.

Trump then said the next day during a visit to Ireland that "the Houthis called us and they don’t want to fight with us."

"They let us know, they don’t want to fight with us...they don’t want us to go after them," Trump added. "But they have called and they have talked to us, and they don’t want us to, they would much prefer not having us involved."

Abdul-Hussain told Fox News Digital that "Our expectation as Washington is that the Saudis, with all these arms that we've sold them over the past few decades, with all the military support and advice we give them, that they should be able to protect their own tankers and ships in this waterway and keep it open.

"The Houthis announced that they're only going after Saudi ships and Saudi navigation and they made it clear that they are not going after international shipping, whether [they] are U.S. ships or European ships," he continued. "So this forces a choice on us. Do we go to war with the Houthis out of nowhere, even though they're not willing to, or at least they didn't wage war on our ships and our navigations through Bab el-Mandeb?"

"Or we ask the Saudis to handle this, you know, after all the Houthis are not really a state, they're a non-state actor and Saudi Arabia should be able to deal with them," Abdul-Hussain added. "Unfortunately, the Saudis don't seem to have been able to deal with the Houthis."

A senior administration official told Fox News Digital on Thursday that the U.S. remains focused on protecting core national security interests such as the freedom of navigation in the Red Sea while simultaneously empowering allies in the region to manage and resolve security challenges.

The Trump administration also remains in continuous dialogue with Saudi Arabia and Yemen over regional stability , the official added.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Saudi Embassy in Washington, D.C., for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Efrat Lachter contributed to this report.

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Family member of lawyer who coined 'genocide' seeks to strip name from group accusing Israel of atrocity

A family member of Raphael Lemkin, a Jewish lawyer who escaped Europe during World War II and coined the term "genocide," is in a fight to have his name removed from a Pennsylvania nonprofit organization that accuses Israel of the exact term he came up with.

The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention and Human Security has "warned of genocide in Gaza since Oct. 13, 2023," less than a week after Hamas terror attacks killed about 1,200 and resulted in the capture of 251 hostages in 2023.

On Oct. 28, 2023, the institute issued a "statement of mourning for the Gazans and the world," saying that "these two major military powers [the U.S. and Israel] are committing genocide in Gaza only weeks after actively enabling genocide against another besieged people: the Armenians of Artsakh." It also warned that "if the world allows these two powers to continue to act with this level of impunity, genocide will become the normative policy of both dictatorships and the world’s so-called democracies alike."

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The man calling for the change is Joseph Lemkin — whose father was Raphael’s cousin — and the sole survivor after his family of six was killed during the Holocaust. Joseph told Fox News Digital that growing up the son of a Holocaust survivor meant being followed by "a black cloud" that colored his entire life.

In one example, he explained that when the families at his Jewish day school placed ads during an annual banquet to celebrate their successes, his father wrote a yearly commemoration of the memories of his more than 40 family members who died during the Holocaust, including his parents and brother killed at Auschwitz and two brothers who died after joining underground resistance groups.

He said his father raised funds for the impoverished Raphael’s funeral when he died in 1959, and worked until weeks before his death to fundraise for the betterment of his fellow Jewish Americans.

Joseph’s experience as the child of a Holocaust survivor came to mind again when his teenage son showed him a social media post from the Lemkin Institute using the family name to accuse Israel of genocide.

"Seeing the impact and how my son came across it made me really more concerned about it," Lemkin said.

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In an effort to keep the family name from being "turned on its head," he said he has worked with the European Jewish Association (EJA) to submit a letter of complaint to the office of Democrat Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and to Pennsylvania’s Department of State’s Bureau of Corporations and Charitable Organizations. In June, Lemkin and his team also sent out letters referencing their concerns to other leaders in Pennsylvania.

In response to a request from Shapiro’s office for additional information, Lemkin and the EJA submitted a 32-page comprehensive legal submission and statement of facts and a 58-page evidentiary appendix in April 2025. He said that he believes that an investigation has been opened into the complaint.

Pennsylvania's Department of State spokesman, Geoff Morrow, told Fox News Digital "the Department [of State] cannot confirm or deny whether any organization has had a complaint filed against it or is under investigation."

Gov. Shapiro’s office did not respond to requests for comment from Fox News Digital.

ISRAEL TURNS TABLES ON UN OFFICIAL CLAIMING 'GENOCIDE' IN GAZA WITH BASIC QUESTIONS

In an Oct. 13, 2025 press release responding to an op-ed, The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention stated that "it is very hard to imagine that Raphael Lemkin would not have seen the genocidal dynamics of the present conflict early on, given his definition of the term and his historical studies. We share Raphael Lemkin’s belief in the need for a Jewish national home, but that has not meant that we are unable to see the genocide before our eyes."

The same press release also noted that "Joseph Lemkin does not speak for the entire Lemkin family, nor does he officially represent a Lemkin estate. We have Lemkin family members on our side who reached out to us after October 7, 2023. Peter Lemkin, in whose childhood home Raphael Lemkin was a frequent visitor, has been particularly supportive, offering encouragement, sharing insights into Lemkin’s work, and informing us of his family's close collaboration in the effort to get the Genocide Convention ratified by states."

In a statement to Fox News Digital, the institute again questioned Joseph’s representation of Raphael, stating in part that "Over the years, members of the Lemkin family have reached out to express their support for our work. Joseph Lemkin has expressed his disagreement with our work. There is no legal battle between the Lemkin Institute and the Lemkin family."

Peter Lemkin did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment. Nor did another family member identified to Fox News Digital by the institute as being supportive of its work. 

The statement to Fox News Digital continued, "The Institute was founded in 2016/2017. In 2021, it was renamed to honor the life and work of Raphael Lemkin, whose research and moral commitments, reflected not only in the 1948 Genocide Convention but also in the many case studies he completed before his untimely death at age 59, have deeply influenced the work of the Institute's founders. Since Raphael Lemkin died without heirs or an estate, there was no official representative for the Lemkin family to contact for permission," it stated.

The statement also noted that "The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention is an all-volunteer organization founded to fill the gaps in genocide prevention that co-founders Dr. Elisa von Joeden-Forgey and Dr. Irene Massimino observed during several visits to Northern Iraq in 2016 and 2017, when they met with religious leaders, government officials, and survivors of ISIS genocide, including Yezidi, Christians, Shabak-Shia, Kakay and other religious, national, and ethnic minorities.

It continued, "This includes, of course, security for the Jewish people, who continue to be the targets of one of the oldest and most lethal global genocidal ideologies — antisemitism. This also includes Palestinians, Darfuris, Armenians, Artsakhsis, Rohingya, Ukrainians, Uighurs, Amhara, trans people, Yezidis, many Christian populations, many Muslim populations, Somalilanders, Kurds, the Karakalpak, many Black and Native communities in the Western Hemisphere, and far too many other groups to mention here. Our world is unfortunately awash in genocide and it benefits all humanity for all of us to be involved in preventing the crime."

UN COMMISSION ACCUSES ISRAEL OF 'EXTERMINATION' IN CONTROVERSIAL REPORT

The institute utilized the October 2025 press release to start a fundraising campaign "to cover urgent legal fees, hire a full-time administrator, and ensure the survival of the Lemkin Institute." They stated that "the attempt to discredit us or to shut down our work is part of a wider effort to silence opposition to Israel’s genocide in the USA. But we will not allow our work to be smeared, or our voices to be silenced."

Israeli civil rights attorney and president of the Shurat HaDin Law Center, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, who is not party to the dispute, told Fox News Digital that "the real question is not simply ‘standing,’ but whether the Institute has a lawful right to use Raphael Lemkin’s name in a manner that implies his endorsement, his family’s authorization, or fidelity to his beliefs. The Institute apparently never received permission from Lemkin, his estate, or an authorized representative when it appropriated the name. While using a deceased scholar’s name is not automatically unlawful, it becomes legally actionable when it misleads donors and the public, creates a false impression of endorsement, constitutes deceptive charitable solicitation, or appropriates the reputation and goodwill attached to that individual’s identity."

Commenting recently on the growing threat of antisemitism worldwide after the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, renowned historian Sir Simon Schama called accusations that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza a "blood libel" in his keynote address at the Holocaust Educational Trust on Sept. 7. Schama stated that "We, the victims of the greatest genocide the world has ever seen, are being called perpetrators of genocide."

The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention has published multiple reports on the Israel-Gaza war which allege genocide by Israel. On May 28, 2024, they wrote that "even if there were legitimate doubts about Israel’s genocide, there is no doubt that Israel is committing atrocity crimes of the most barbaric kind. Israel must be stopped." 

The Institute also said it is "disgusted by Western leaders, especially in the USA, Germany, and the U.K. They have demonstrated not only that they don’t care one bit about genocide prevention and human rights, but also that they are willing to allow an ally to commit atrocity crimes while they offer material and diplomatic support." The Lemkin Institute suggested that "they should also be put on trial."

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