Dozens detained by Greek police in soccer violence crackdown

Police in Greece have raided multiple homes in Athens and detained dozens of suspects in a crackdown on soccer violence that led to the death of a police officer in December.

Police officer Giorgos Lyggeridis, 31, died on Dec. 27 after being hit by a flare during violence between rival fans at a volleyball game in Athens.

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Greek police chief Dimitris Mallios said 60 people were arrested by Monday afternoon, in an operation that started late Sunday.

Mallios said the arrests followed an investigation carried out under "high secrecy" over the past four months that confirmed links between sports violence and organized crime.

"Evidence emerged about a criminal organization, consisting of 158 people, that since 2019 at least carried out criminal acts" in the greater Athens region and the cities of Volos and Ioannina to the north, Mallios said.

He added 58 homes and 15 vehicles were searched in the crackdown, and seized items included handguns, knives, drugs and wooden clubs.

"We have an absolute commitment to fight sports violence," the police chief said.

Violent soccer fans in Greece often choose lightly policed events in other sports to confront rivals.

After the police officer's death, fans were banned from attending all top-flight soccer games for two months while security measures were overhauled.

Match attendees must now carry a government-issued QR code on their mobile phone to gain stadium access.

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Hezbollah claims to shoot down Israeli drone over Lebanon

The Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah is claiming to have shot down an Israeli drone that was on a combat mission, a report says. 

Hezbollah said in a statement that the drone, which was "waging its attacks on our steadfast people," was brought down in the Al Aishiyeh area of southern Lebanon near the country’s border with Israel, according to Reuters. 

It reportedly described the drone as a Hermes 450 made by Israel-based weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems. 

"A surface-to-air missile was launched at a remote manned aircraft of the air force that was operating in the skies of Lebanon, as a result the vehicle was hit and fell in Lebanese territory," the Israeli Defense Forces later said in a statement. "The incident is being investigated." 

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More than 240 Hezbollah fighters have been killed in cross-border skirmishes with Israel since the Oct. 7 surprise attack by Hamas that launched the ongoing war in Gaza, Reuters reports. 

On the Israeli side, 18 people, including soldiers and civilians, have died, it added. 

The reported downing of the drone comes as the head of Israel’s military intelligence directorate has resigned for failing to prevent the Oct. 7 massacre. 

ISRAELI MILITARY INTELLIGENCE CHIEF RESIGNS OVER FAILURE TO PREVENT DEADLIEST ATTACK IN ISRAEL’S HISTORY 

"In coordination with the Chief of the General Staff, the Head of the Intelligence Directorate, MG Aharon Haliva, has requested to end his position, following his leadership responsibility as the Head of the Intelligence Directorate for the events of October 7," the IDF wrote on X. 

"The Chief of the General Staff thanked Major General Aharon Haliva for his 38 years of service in the IDF, during which he made significant contributions to the security of the State of Israel as both a combat soldier and commander," it added. 

In a resignation letter quoted by The Associated Press, Haliva wrote, "The intelligence directorate under my command did not live up to the task we were entrusted with. I carry that black day with me ever since, day after day, night after night. I will carry the horrible pain of the war with me forever." 

Fox News’ Lawrence Richard contributed to this report. 

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Israeli military intelligence chief resigns over failure to prevent deadliest attack in Israel's history

The head of Israel's military intelligence directorate has resigned, the Israel Defense Forces said on Monday.

Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva announced his resignation after he failed to prevent Hamas' unprecedented Oct. 7 attack, the deadliest terror attack in Israel's history, the military said.

"The intelligence directorate under my command did not live up to the task we were entrusted with. I carry that black day with me ever since, day after day, night after night. I will carry the horrible pain of the war with me forever," Haliva wrote in his resignation letter, according to a translation by the Associated Press.

Haliva is the first senior figure to step down after Hamas terrorists invaded Israel nearly six and a half months ago and rampaged through Israeli communities, killing 1,200 people – mostly civilians – and taking roughly 250 hostages back into Gaza.

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The decision to resign was made with the approval of Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant. The military chief of staff accepted Haliva’s request to resign and thanked him for his 38 years of service, the IDF said.

Haliva’s resignation could set the stage for additional fallout from Israel's top security brass over Hamas' attack, which triggered a war in Gaza between the Jewish state and Hamas. The war will cross its 200th day this week.

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Shortly after the war was initiated, Haliva said publicly that he shouldered blame as the head of the military department for not preventing the assault.

Other military and security leaders are also reportedly expected to resign in response to intelligence failures that did not catch the impending Oct. 7 attack.

The timing of these resignations, however, has been unclear as Israel remains in a war with Hamas, while battling the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria.

Tensions in the region remain high after Israel traded direct attacks with Iran last week, leading some military experts to say Israeli resignations are irresponsible while the military is fighting on multiple fronts, according to the Associated Press.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not among those expected to resign and has indicated that he will not step down, despite growing protests.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Conservative Brazilians laud Elon Musk at rally in support of Bolsonaro

Conservative Brazilians heaped praise Sunday on Elon Musk at a rally in support of former President Jair Bolsonaro, whose legal troubles are mounting in tandem with the billionaire entrepreneur’s feud with the South American nation’s Supreme Court.

"Brazil Thanks Elon Musk," read one giant sign in English at the rally alongside Copacabana beach in the seaside city of Rio de Janeiro. Thousands of die-hard supporters of Bolsonaro attended.

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Musk, a self-declared free speech absolutist, is a target in an ongoing investigation over the dissemination of fake news by supporters of Bolsonaro. Musk said the social platform X wouldn’t comply with a high court justice’s order to remove certain accounts accused of spreading disinformation.

Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX who took over Twitter — now X — in late 2022, accused Justice Alexandre de Moraes of suppressing free speech and violating Brazil’s constitution. He noted on X that users could seek to bypass any shutdown of the social media platform by using VPNs, or virtual private networks.

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That prompted de Moraes to include Musk in an ongoing investigation into so-called digital militias and open a new investigation into obstruction, incitement and criminal conspiracy.

Several speakers lauded Musk at Sunday’s rally.

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"What you see here are people who love liberty, who will not give up and will not kneel down to dictators, people who are willing to give their lives for freedom," said Gustavo Gayer, a pro-Bolsonaro congressman.

For his part, the former president lauded Musk for demonstrating "courage" in the face of what he called censorship by de Moraes.

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"He is the man who really preserves true freedom for all of us," said Bolsonaro, who is himself under investigation for a plethora of crimes ranging from aiding an effort to overturn the 2022 election results and plotting a coup against his leftist successor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Brazil is an important market for social media companies. About 40 million Brazilians, or about 18% of the population, access X at least once per month, according to the market research group Emarketer.

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Israeli leaders condemn expected US sanctions, Netanyahu vows to fight it with all his might

Leaders in Israel criticized potential sanctions that are expected to be imposed by the U.S. as early as this week against an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) military battalion accused of violating human rights back in 2022.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken could announce sanctions against IDF battalion "Netzah Yehuda" within days, marking the first time the U.S. will have placed sanctions on military units operated by Israel. If Blinken follows through with the sanctions, it could further strain relationships between the allies, which have already become tense as Israel continues its war in Gaza.

U.S. officials have not identified the sanctioned unit, though Israeli leaders and local media identified it as Netzah Yehuda, a battalion established nearly 25 years ago.

Israeli officials have condemned the expected sanctions, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said he would oppose them.

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"If anyone thinks they can impose sanctions on a unit in the IDF, I will fight it with all my might," Netanyahu said.

Some of the battalion’s members have been linked to abuse of Palestinians. The group faced harsh criticism from the U.S. in 2022 after a 78-year-old Palestinian-American man, Omar Assad, was found dead after being detained at a West Bank checkpoint.

An autopsy conducted by Palestinian officials found Assad suffered a heart attack caused by "external violence," adding he had underlying health conditions.

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The autopsy also noted that Assad had bruises on his head, redness on his wrists caused by being bound, and bleeding in his eyelids after being tightly blindfolded.

The country’s military also investigated and found Israeli soldiers assumed Assad was sleeping when they cut off the cables binding his hands. When the soldiers saw Assad was unresponsive, they failed to offer medical help and left the scene.

The Israeli military said at the time that one officer was reprimanded, and two others were reassigned to non-commanding roles because of the incident.

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The uproar from the U.S. resulted in Israel relocating Netzah Yehuda to northern Israel in 2022, after it had been stationed in the West Bank. After the attack on Israel on Oct. 7 by Hamas-led terrorists, the battalion was relocated again to the southern border near Gaza. The battalion is now reportedly helping with the war effort in the Gaza Strip, according to the Israeli military.

"The battalion is professionally and bravely conducting operations in accordance to the IDF Code of Ethics and with full commitment to international law," it said. It said that if the unit is sanctioned, "its consequences will be reviewed."

Axios reported that if sanctions were imposed, the battalion and its members would no longer receive any type of training or assistance from the U.S. military, according to sources.

The U.S. is prohibited under the Leahy Law, from providing any sort of foreign aid or defense department training to countries responsible for alleged human rights violations based on credible information.

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While speaking to reporters on Friday, Blinken was asked about Israel’s violations of human rights in the West Bank and recommendations made by his department to cut military aid to certain Israeli units.

Blinken started by saying the Leahy Law was important and applied across the board.

"When we’re doing these investigations, these inquiries, it’s something that takes time, that has to be done very carefully both in collecting the facts and analyzing them – and that’s exactly what we’ve done," he said. "And I think it’s fair to say that you’ll see results very soon. I’ve made determinations; you can expect to see them in the days ahead."

Fox News Digital reached out to the State Department for comment.

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The Associated Press reported that Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s War Cabinet, issued a statement saying he spoke with Blinken on Sunday and told him the decision is a "mistake." Gantz added that sanctions would hurt the country’s legitimacy during a time of war.

The wire service also learned from two U.S. officials familiar with the sanctions that the announcement could come as early as Monday.

The officials reportedly said five units were investigated, and of the five, four acted to remedy violations they were accused of committing.

On Friday, the U.S. imposed sanctions on an ally of Israel’s national security minister and two entities that raised money for Israeli men who allegedly committed settler violence. The new sanctions came in addition to others placed on five settlers and two unauthorized outposts earlier this year. 

Friday’s sanctions will reportedly freeze U.S. assets held by those targeted, while also barring American forces from dealing with them.

Fox News Digital's Andrea Vacchiano and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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America First foreign policy ‘profoundly dangerous,' invites multi-front war, eminent historian warns

FIRST ON FOX – The United States needs to maintain its global focus and efforts to stymie the growing cooperation and ambition of "axis of evil states," according to historian and journalist Andrew Roberts, Baron Roberts of Belgravia. Roberts sits in the British House of Lords.

"When it comes to the axis of evil states, frankly, it’s not the worst thing in the world to have a forever war, especially if you will not actually fight," Roberts, a biographer of several British leaders, including Winston Churchill, told Fox News Digital. "It can be done for an amount which is a really very impressive return on investment." 

Roberts, along with retired Gen. David Petraeus, wrote "Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine," an assessment of U.S. foreign conflict involvement examined through the lens of successful strategic leadership. Roberts is currently working on new chapters for the paperback release, which will focus on the war in Gaza and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ambitions for Taiwan. 

He argued that the United States, as a global superpower, can and should "walk and chew gum" – so to speak – and that American isolationism would prove "a profoundly dangerous force… not just for the rest of the world but for America as well, ultimately." 

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"If the United States decides to essentially shrug off the responsibility of a great global superpower that you’ve been really since the Great White Fleet circumnavigated the world in 1909, a long time ago now… one can understand that any titan gets weary," Roberts said. "However, if you were to embrace isolationism, the ultimate response would be from the alliance of anti-democratic nations that we are seeing is working closer and closer… ultimately it will rebound terribly on you."

The desire for an "America First" policy has grown stronger as the U.S. faces down two significant conflicts – first from Russia, now in its third year of invading Ukraine, and from the bubbling tension between Iran and Israel.

Some Republicans particularly have opposed the continued funding of Ukraine without a clear plan as to how the conflict could end, raising fears of another "forever war" like those the U.S. maintained in the Middle East over the past two decades. 

House Republicans have worked to condition aid for Ukraine, which has surpassed $113 billion as of March 2024. Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good, R-Va., called for any funding to Ukraine to be balanced out by spending cuts elsewhere and for it to be paired with U.S. border policy changes. The House finally passed the $60 billion funding bill for Ukraine on Saturday.

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"We cannot continue to borrow and spend money we don’t have for wars overseas while failing to protect Americans from the Biden border invasion here at home," Good told Fox News Digital earlier this month. "At a bare minimum, any package for military aid to Ukraine should be fully offset and must include H.R. 2 with performance metrics to secure our own border."

Roberts argued that the U.S., as a "great superpower… some might argue the only superpower" can protect both itself and support allies in a conflict that has proven an "extremely impressive" return on investment. 

"The Ukrainians have taken out well over half of the Russian tank fleet," Roberts noted. "Now, at any stage in American post-war history, if you offer the president that deal, he'd have snapped it up."

"You've got a $825 billion per annum defense budget to spend, [and] less than a 10th of that, take out your opponent's tank fleet, essentially – at least, over half of it – is an amazing return on investment," he added. 

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"After 20 years of the forever war in Afghanistan before Biden's, in my view, outrageous scuttle from that country, you'd got it down to the situation where no Americans had died for 18 months, and the whole American cost of this conflict was down to about 20 to $25 billion a year," he said. "That's an amazing thing, to be able to keep the Taliban out of power."

However, Roberts stressed that there should remain limits to the U.S. ambitions overseas, dismissing the idea that Washington should seek Russian regime change as "not our duty, not our job, not our responsibility, and certainly not a very sensible thing." 

"The obvious reason is that it would just stoke anti-Western nationalism in Russia," he explained. "No, they can do those things themselves, and I think the point at which they might do that is, as has happened so often in history, when Russian aggression has been shown not to succeed."

Roberts lamented, though, that Russia has made strides in Ukraine’s easternmost territories, with a breakthrough on the front and potentially bigger gains to come "if the West doesn’t help Ukraine more."

Indeed, more and more analysts and commentators have grown increasingly dismal about Ukraine’s potential successes: The BBC, Politico EU and other outlets in the last week have run articles discussing why and how Ukraine could face defeat this year. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says any victory hinges on continued funding from allies to keep pace with Russia.

Roberts suggested that such doomsday prophecies may prove premature, stressing that "there’s no such thing as inevitability in history."

"So many times in history, you've seen one thing about to happen and then the opposite happens," Roberts mused. "These breakthroughs the Russians are having in certain theaters… not major ones so far, but they are fighting with a shell advantage, and that's because the United States and Europe are not providing the shells."

"It's certainly not inevitable that either the Ukrainians win or lose that war unless, of course, we stopped providing them with the wherewithal to continue to fight," he warned. "It's them that are putting up in the blood, huge amounts of it, but simply because Russia is a bigger country does not mean that it's automatically going to win: If that was the case, you'd have won in Vietnam."

Fox News Digital's Brooke Singman contributed to this report. 

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UN newsletter exposed for sharing ways to protest in US against Israel on Tax Day

FIRST ON FOX — An April 11 edition of the United Nations Division for Palestinian Rights’ NGO Action News, which provides updates about civil society organizations worldwide "relevant to the Palestine issue," linked readers to the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) list of "5 Ways to Take Action for Tax Day."

Included within the list were instructions about how protesters who did not "want [their] tax dollars to fund genocide" could "disrupt for a free Palestine." 

The second item on USCPR’s list was a hyperlink for protesters seeking to engage in a "coordinated multi-city economic blockade to free Palestine," an effort organizers noted was "not affiliated with USCPR." 

In the destination page, blockade organizers A15 describe efforts to "identify and blockade major choke points in the economy, focusing on points of production and circulation with the aim of causing the most economic impact," effectively "blocking the arteries of capitalism and jamming the wheels of production." 

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Anne Bayefsky, president of Human Rights Voices and director of the Touro University Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, told Fox News Digital "the U.N. has been caught red-handed aiding and abetting pro-Hamas anarchists in American cities and streets" by "distributing a newsletter, in multiple languages and to a worldwide network, that contains links to radical anti-American and anti-Israel agitators, their agendas and plans."

Fox News Digital reported on the April 15 blockades when anti-Israel protesters stopped traffic outside Washington’s Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, California’s Golden Gate Bridge and on the I-5 in Eugene, Ore. Gatherings also took place outside the New York Stock Exchange and Philadelphia’s City Hall, at San Antonio’s Valero headquarters and in Los Angeles, Oakland, Tampa and Miami. 

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At an attempted traffic disruption in Detroit, police told Fox 2 Detroit protesting vehicles "ignored multiple traffic control signals," which led to "traffic obstructions" and "nearly caus[ed] accidents."

During the day’s events, dozens around the country were arrested. 

The UN’s NGO Action News site contains a disclaimer warning that third-party links "are not under the control of the United Nations and the United Nations is not responsible for the content of any linked site or any link contained in a linked site." 

Bayefsky says the U.N. disclaimer "is totally bogus." She claims "it is U.N. staff who produce summaries of activist plans," and that "the inclusion of any announcement or link to a third party must receive prior approval from the U.N."

Fox News Digital reached out to the chair of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, Ambassador Cheikh Niang of Senegal, for comment about whether U.N. staff approve items within and author summaries for NGO Action News. He did not immediately respond.

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The USCPR’s protest guide contains other inflammatory remarks, including referencing President Biden as "Genocide Joe," and alleging that "Israel is mass murdering Palestinian families with [U.S.] tax dollars." To summarize USCPR’s messaging, NGO Action News pulls from the more measured tones within its guide for action, explaining USCPR "urged the public to pressure for the end of U.S. military funding to Israel’s massive violence."

Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, told Fox News Digital "the secretary-general does not have the legal authority to label an event as ‘genocide.’ For the United Nations, that determination needs to be made by a competent court."

In its Jan. 26 preliminary ruling, the International Court of Justice did not rule that Israel had committed genocide but urged Israel to allow Gazans access to humanitarian aid and attempt to assist Palestinian civilians.

When asked whether the secretary-general supports NGO Action News’ instructions in an official U.N. publication that protesters engage in civil disobedience, Dujarric stated that NGO Action News "is compiled in accordance with a mandate conferred by the member states of the U.N. General Assembly" and "does not fall under the authority or direction of the Secretary-General." 

"You have all this anarchy on the streets of the U.S.," Bayefsky said, which "ought to be a major wake-up call for American lawmakers and the criminal justice system since we are talking about an operation based in New York City itself. It is also a stunning reminder of the U.N.'s history of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish bias and its vicious post-Oct. 7 campaign to deny Israel its lawful right of self-defense."

On April 16, the Anti-Defamation League released its annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents, which found that antisemitic incidents rose 140% between 2022 and 2023. This included a 45% increase in assaults, a 69% increase in vandalism and a 184% increase in harassment. The ADL noted it "observed explicitly antisemitic and anti-Zionist rhetoric at 1,352 anti-Israel rallies across the United States" after Oct. 7.

When asked if he recognized that anti-Israel protests are among the reasons for the rise in antisemitic incidents in the U.S. following Oct. 7, Dujarric said "the Secretary-General has publicly, and repeatedly, raised his voice against what he believes is the rise of antisemitism in many of our societies, whether that be in Europe, North America and other parts of the world.  

"In addition, the secretary-general has also stated publicly that those that call for the destruction of the state of Israel is a form of modern antisemitism."  

Both Israel's foreign minister and the United Nations ambassador have called for Guterres to resign over his treatment of Israel.

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