Panicking Iranian officials seeking British passports to usher families of country amid protests: Report

Iranian officials are reportedly attempting to secure British passports for their families to exit the country as many violent protests over the death of an Iranian woman in police custody for not wearing a head covering surpassed 40 days.

Top government officials in Iran have been chartering up to "five flights a day" for their families as they seek "British passports" to get them out of the country, Express.co.uk reported on Thursday. 

Additionally, the outlet says that sections of Tehran’s main airport have been commandeered by government forces to fast track their families escape from the protest-ridden country.

"It started around two weeks ago," an Iranian source told the outlet. "The regime changed all security detail at the airport. They were moving civilians (friends and family) from the back entrance of the airport directly to the airplanes for international flights, at least five flights a day."

KIM KARDASHIAN, JUSTIN BIEBER AND MORE STARS SPEAK OUT ON THE HORRIFIC DEATH OF MAHSA AMINI IN IRAN

The Iranian officials have also been trying to acquire Swiss and Canadian passports, according to the report.

Conservative MP Bob Stewart said that he has heard that Iranian officials are fleeing to the United Kingdom and asked Foreign Office Minister Gillian Keegan if those reports would be investigated.

"Obviously, we have our own rule of law here in the U.K., but in relation to the rumors he has heard about passports, I haven’t heard those, but I will certainly look into that and write to him," Keegan said.

The reported exodus of Iranian politicians comes after protesters in Iran, and around the world, have taken to the streets to protest the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini who died in custody in September after being arrested by the "morality police" for not wearing the country’s mandatory headscarf required of females.

IRAN PROTESTS: DEATH TOLL CONTINUES TO CLIMB, AS REPORTER WHO FIRST HIGHLIGHTED AMINI'S DEATH IS ARRESTED

Emboldened female protesters chanted "Raisi get lost" and "Mullahs get lost" at Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi as he gave a speech at a university earlier this month. The Iranian government has claimed that Amini died of a heart attack, and Raisi has warned protesters that his regime will act "decisively" to end the violence.

The Norway-based Iran Human Rights organization Hengaw said earlier this month that the government’s strict crackdown on the protests has resulted in a civilian death toll of over 200 people as the country endures what is believed to be the boldest challenge to the clerical leadership in Iran since the 1979 revolution.

The White House announced earlier this month it was sanctioning several top Iranian officials in response to the violent crackdowns against protesters.

IRAN PROTESTS TRIGGER SOLIDARITY RALLIES IN US, EUROPE

The sanctions targeted seven Iranian leaders, including the country's Minister of the Interior, Ahmad Vahidi, as well as Iran’s Minister of Communications, Eisa Zarepour, according to the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

"These individuals have been all involved in the suppression and killing of nonviolent protesters," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

"The Iranian government needs to end its systemic persecution of women and allow peaceful protest. The United States will continue to voice our support for human rights in Iran and hold those who violate them to account."

Reuters contributed to this report

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Putin ally says Taiwan will be 'returned' to China

A close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and CEO of state-owned oil company Rosneft, Igor Sechin, claimed on Thursday during an international convention that Taiwan was "on schedule" to be returned to China. 

Speaking at an international economic forum in Azerbaijan, Sechin said Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ability to secure a historic third term would enable Beijing to accomplish top priority issues.

"The position of [China's] leadership is highly respected, which calmly and openly, without false premises, sets out its positions, even on the most difficult issues, such as the problem of Taiwan, which in this regard can be assessed as somewhat exaggerated," Sechin said according to a Reuters report.

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Xi has long said he will seek "peaceful reunification" with the island and mainland China, despite warnings from Western and regional officials to leave Taiwan alone and maintain the regional status quo.

Taiwan identifies as a sovereign nation with democratic values, but it is officially recognized by China, the United Nations and the U.S. as part of the one-China policy. 

China has increased its aggressive posture against the island, and many fear the world could see another deadly conflict following Russia’s eight-month-long war in Ukraine. 

PUTIN SAYS THE US AND WEST ARE FAILING, CLAIMS FUTURE LIES IN ASIA

Sechin argued that Western interference in the Taiwan-China relationship and investment from Washington in Taiwanese semiconductors has all but solidified that Taipei will "return to its native harbour…on schedule."

Putin and Xi have deepened ties with one another since Russia invaded Ukraine and geopolitically blackballed itself from the West. 

Putin has backed Xi’s stance on reunifying the island with China and warned the West against interfering in Beijing’s agenda.

President Biden prompted an international stir last month when he said U.S. forces would defend Taiwan if China invaded. 

When he was asked to clarify in a "60 Minutes" interview if he meant he would deploy U.S. men and women to the island to defend Taipei, Biden responded with: "Yes."

Biden later attempted to set the record straight on U.S.-China relations and told the U.N. General Assembly, "We seek to pull peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits and remain committed to our ‘One China’ policy, which has helped prevent conflict for four decades."

He added, "We continue to oppose unilateral changes in the status quo by either side."

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Russia threatens to target Western commercial satellites like Elon Musk's Starlink

Russian foreign ministry spokesman Konstantin Vorontsov this week threatened to target Western commercial satellites, like Telsa CEO Elon Musk’s Starlink, during a U.N. General Assembly meeting.

Musk’s space exploration program, SpaceX, has donated roughly 20,000 Starlink satellites, for Kyiv’s use since Russia invaded Ukraine, at a cost that is expected to exceed $100 million by the end of the year. 

The satellites have proven vital for Ukraine’s troop communication on the ground and along the front lines, but their assistance to Kyiv in its battlefield successes have become a sore point in Russia.

ELON MUSK'S COMPANY SHOULD BE 'NATIONALIZED' FOR UKRAINE, ATLANTIC WRITER ARGUES

Vorontsov did not directly mention Starlink but in a Wednesday statement said, "We would like to specifically stress an extremely dangerous trend that goes beyond the harmless use of outer space technologies and has become apparent during the latest developments in Ukraine." 

"Namely, the use by the United States and its allies of civilian, including commercial, infrastructure elements in outer space for military purposes," he added, noting that satellite use "constitute[s] indirect participation" in the war. "Quasi-civilian infrastructure may become a legitimate target for retaliation." 

Frustration has reportedly mounted in Moscow and within Russia’s own ranks over its inability to maintain command and control as Ukrainian forces continue to make battlefield advances.

RUSSIA CHAMPIONS ELON MUSK'S 'PEACE' PROPOSAL, UKRAINE REJECTS MUSK AS TWO-FACED

Vorontsov argued that commercial satellites used to benefit Ukraine in the war violates The Outer Space Treaty and warned it could start a"full-fledged arms race in outer space."

The spokesman’s comments come as speculation surfaced last week that SpaceX might cut off funding for Ukraine’s satellites if the Department of Defense did not agree to foot the bill.

However, on Monday, Musk cleared the air and said in a tweet that he had already assured Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov that SpaceX "would not off Starlink even if [the Department of Defense] refused to provide funding" – a scenario which appears likely as Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said last week that commercial decisions were up to individual companies.

"What an individual company may or may not do in any particular corner of the world of course is incumbent on that company to decide and do," he told reporters.

Fox News Digital could not immediately reach SpaceX for comment on Russia's threats.

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Iran protests against regime reach day 40 as protesters fired upon by security forces

Protests against the Iranian regime continue to punctuate forty days after the theocratic state’s notorious morality police allegedly murdered 22-year-old Mahsa Amini for failing to properly cover her hair with a hijab.

The end of the forty-day Iranian mourning period for the Iranian Kurd Amini on Wednesday coincided with massive protests in Amini’s hometown of Saqqez and at her grave at the Aichi cemetery.

Hengaw, a Norway-based human rights group that monitors the situation of Iranian Kurds, tweeted, "Security forces have shot tear gas and opened fire on people in Zindan Square, Saqqez city."

The Iranian-American human rights activist and former head coach of Iran’s national Greco-Roman wrestling team, Sardar Pashaei, told Fox News Digital that he has received reports from his hometown Saqqez that Iranian regime security forces used live ammunition against protestors.

IRANIAN TEENAGER DIES AFTER SECURITY FORCES BEAT HER FOR NOT SINGING PRO-REGIME SONG: 'HORRIFIC'

The Islamic Republic-controlled news organization Iranian Students News Agency claimed that a "limited number of those present at Mahsa Amini’s memorial clashed with police forces on the outskirts of Saqqez and were dispersed."

Ahead of the forty-day remembrance of Amini, the U.S. Special Envoy for Iran, Robert Malley, came under fire from Iranian activists for tweeting in favor of mainstreaming Iran’s "government" rather than pursuing democracy promotion in Iran. Since criticism of his tweet Malley told Iran International that it was "poorly worded," saying, "It's important to own up to one's mistakes."

The editor-in-chief of The Foreign Desk, Lisa Daftari, told Fox News Digital "The Iranian people are also sending a strong message to Washington to remove Iran envoy Robert Malley. The Iranian people are calling out the hypocrisy of the White House for condemning the crackdowns and offering support to the protestors on the one hand but pursuing a policy of normalizing relations with the regime on the other." 

She added, "While the Biden administration has taken a break from the nuclear negotiations, Robert Malley came out early on in the protests to say the U.S. will not being supporting a policy of regime change."

The Biden administration is working to secure a controversial atomic accord with the Islamic Republic of Iran. The formal name for the Iran nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, has outraged some Iranian-Americans and politicians on Capitol Hill because it will, they argue, boost the finances of the regime.

IRAN USING CHILD SOLDIERS IN ATTEMPT TO STOP PROTESTS AS BIDEN ADMINISTRATION URGED TO SANCTION REGIME: REPORT

Daftari said, "Despite the horrific crackdowns that have resulted in hundreds of violent and senseless deaths of mostly young Iranian students, the Iranian people are more fueled than ever before to make this movement the one that is successful in toppling the regime."

The slogan, "women, life freedom," which has emerged as the battle cry against the Islamic Republic of Iran since Amini’s death, was shouted by dozens of men and women at Aichi cemetery. The protestors also yelled "Death to the dictator," a reference to Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, the totalitarian ruler of the clerical regime in Iran. 

Pashaei, who is Iranian-Kurdish, told Fox News Digital, "Since this morning, when I talk to the people from my city [Saqqez], they send me videos of tens of thousands of people on the streets to honor Zhina [Masha Amini]. It is unbelievable after 40 days of tear gas, batons and bullets, these brave people are still standing against the clerical government."

Video footage online showed the demonstrators at Aichi cemetery in the Western province of Kurdistan. Some reports claimed there were up to 50,000 people in attendance. 

Amini was Iranian-Kurdish and Pashaei noted, "Kurds have a long history of fighting dictatorial oppressive regimes. When the Islamic Republic killed Zhina, the Kurds stood behind their daughter. They did not mourn and were not depressed, but they came to the streets in anger and turned her death into a rally cry for change. It was there that they sang for the first time the rally cry of ‘Woman, life, freedom."’

He added, "For Kurds, this not just a slogan, but a philosophy of life. Kurdish women are the ones who understand the importance of democracy. It is women and young people who are on the front lines of fighting against the culture of misogyny and standing against totalitarian governments."

Marjan Keypour Greenblatt, an Iranian-American who is the director of the Alliance for Rights of All Minorities, told Fox News Digital the "Iranian regime has put itself in a cycle of illegitimacy and incompetence. The government’s escalation of violence against the protestors hasn’t deterred the movement, it has enhanced it."

She added, "People are continuing to participate in the various forms of demonstrations and they’re fighting for their lives. With each act of suppression, the Iranian regime is proving its illegitimacy and impotence."

Comments from Iranian-Americans to Fox News Digital infuse the Persian saying, "Blood that is spilled unfairly will boil until the end of time" with contemporary meaning in view of the protests that have rocked the Islamic Republic since 2019.

The ongoing unrest is the first significant threat to the existence of the Islamic Republic since nation-wide protests in 2019 when Iranians filled the streets to protest against the economic and political corruption of regime.

According to a Reuters news agency investigation, the regime killed roughly 1,500 Iranians during the 2019 demonstrations.

The current protestors continue to defy the regime’s lethal violence, which has resulted in the deaths of 141 people as of Tuesday, according to the Norway-based Iran Human Rights organization. IHR said 29 children have been killed during the waves of unrest. 

Iran’s regime claims that Amini died in police custody due to a heart attack. Amini’s family and protestors say the clerical regime covered up the torture and murder of Amini.

The deputy commander of the U.S.-sanctioned terrorist entity Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Ali Fadavi, said in early October that the average age of those arrested is 15.

HACKERS BREACH IRAN’S ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY, PROTESTS PERSIST

Fadavi lashed out at the adolescents in the pro-Iran regime news outlet Barkhat News, declaring, "Neglecting the areas of education, knowledge, explanation, and propaganda caused these people to become fat morsels for the enemy on the altar of virtual and media space."

Fadavi added, "In their confessions, some of these arrested teenagers and young people talk about common keywords, such as stimulating street riots with computer games, as well as addiction and strong dependence on virtual space."

Saeed Ghasseminejad, an Iran expert for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital, "Washington's response to the Iran Revolution has been a mixture of annoyance, confusion, and word salads of support and solidarity not backed by any meaningful action. The Biden administration is waiting for the protests to fade to go back to its policy of begging Khamenei to accept a one trillion dollars package in exchange for limited, temporary, and reversible nuclear concessions. It is a national security malpractice which throws away the opportunity to help Iranians to reclaim their country from an oppressive regime that has turned Iran into the headquarters of Islamist terrorism and a close ally of China and Russia."

Pashaei urged the U.S. government to "strengthen their dialogue with the Iranian opposition, including in the U.S. and Western Europe and be vocally supportive."

The Iranian-American Mariam Memarsadeghi, a fellow for the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, told Fox News Digital, "The wall of fear has fallen already and what we are able to now see is that Iranians from every walk of life--including the most devout and traditional — despise this regime and will not stop until it is removed from power. In Mahsa Amini Iranians see themselves: innocent and deserving of life and liberty."

When asked about the protests in Iran today, a U.S. State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital: "We are aware of reports of authorities firing on students in Tehran and elsewhere in the country as they protest peacefully. We condemn this ongoing violence by Iranian authorities. This cruel, violent suppression of peaceful protest shows that the Iranian government clearly fears its own people. Unfortunately, Iran has a long history of perpetrating violence against its own people to silence dissent. We continue to coordinate with a wide range of international partners to respond to Iranian authorities’ treatment of women and their ongoing, violent crackdown on peaceful protestors."

Asked about Malley's Tweet and calls for his resignation, the spokesperson referred Fox News Digital to a statement from Ned Price, the spokesman for the U.S. State Department, who said Malley "would never intend to speak for or on behalf of the people of Iran. It is up to the Iranian people to be clear about their aspirations, and we are hearing those aspirations every day. We want to continue, we will continue to do everything we can to see to it that their voices are heard both inside Iran and well beyond as well. After all, they are expressing and exercising rights that are as universal to them as they are to anyone else."

Price said, "Malley is a tremendous public servant. He is someone who has led our approach to this set of challenges."

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British radio host dies on air mid-show after coming out of retirement to broadcast

A British radio host died while on live air during a breakfast show on Monday. 

Tim Gough, who hosted the morning show on Radio GenX, is suspected to have had a heart attack at 7:50 a.m. while presenting the show from his home in Lackford, Suffolk, GenX Radio Suffolk said in a news release. Gough was 55 years old.

Music playing on the station stopped for several minutes at the time of Gough’s death before starting again, the BBC reported.

The station said it was "shocked and devastated beyond words" at Gough’s passing.

CMA AWARDS TO OPEN WITH A TRIBUTE TO COUNTRY MUSIC LEGEND LORETTA LYNN

The radio station’s managing director James Hazell said that Gough had been on the radio since the 1980s and had come out of retirement to host the show.

"To know Tim personally, as I did very closely for over 30 years, was to know a warm, caring, fun guy who myself and my family loved dearly," Hazell said in a statement. "We are heartbroken by the news."

"I know his family are enormously comforted by the hundreds of loving messages that have been received and have asked for privacy at this devastating time," Hazell said.

Gough is survived by his mother, brother, sister and son, the station said.

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Russia launches nuclear-capable missiles, sails nuclear ballistic submarine in 'thunder' exercises

Russia completed several intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests on Wednesday capable of carrying nuclear warheads in a previously scheduled "Grom" exercises. 

Russian state-owned news outlet RIA confirmed that Russian forces fired nuclear-capable ICBM missiles from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, roughly 600 miles north of Moscow, along with a submarine-launched ballistic missile from the Barents Sea. 

Long-range air-launched cruise missiles were also reportedly fired Wednesday. 

RUSSIA DOUBLES DOWN ON 'FALSE' DIRTY BOMB CLAIM WITH UN, WEST DECRIES IT AS PRETEXT TO WAR ESCALATION

"The tasks envisaged during the training of the strategic deterrence forces have been completed in full, all missiles have reached their targets, confirming the specified characteristics," the Kremlin reportedly said in a statement.

Russian President Vladimir Putin observed the "Grom" – meaning thunder – exercises from the Kremlin in Moscow.

Despite Western concerns over Putin’s increasingly threatening rhetoric on deploying nuclear weapons amid the war in Ukraine, defense officials said they were aware of the previously planned exercises.

The Department of Defense on Tuesday confirmed that Moscow had alerted it to regularly scheduled missile tests per U.N. charter, and therefore, did not violate any international treaties. 

"As we've highlighted before, this is a routine annual exercise by Russia," Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters. "In this regard, Russia is complying with its arms control obligations, its transparency, commitments to notifications."

EXPLAINER: DIRTY BOMBS ARE DEVICES USED TO CREATE FEAR AND PANIC, ACTUALLY CAUSE FEW DEATHS

The brigadier general said the U.S. will continue "to keep an eye on" Russia’s nuclear testing exercises.

"But beyond that, I'm not going to have any further information at this time," he added.

Russia escalated concerns surrounding the threat of nuclear use in Ukraine this week, when it claimed that Kyiv was preparing to use a "dirty bomb" – a crude devise that relies on conventional explosives like dynamite but is also paired with nuclear materials. 

Ukrainian and Westerns officials have rejected these claims as false and have warned Moscow could be using these allegations as a pretext to justify its own nuclear use in the war torn nation.

Ryder told reporters the U.S. has not "had any indication that Russia's made a decision to employ those types of capabilities," but said the rhetoric was "reckless."

"We've seen Russian leaders use nuclear rhetoric, certainly that is concerning. It's reckless, but it's something we'll continue to take seriously," the brigadier general added. 

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Radical climate activists target priceless art but experts warn vandals only hurting their cause

Radical climate change protesters worldwide are increasingly using priceless works of art and art galleries as political fodder in their activism. 

On Sunday, two activists from the group Letzte Generation (Last Generation) threw mashed potatoes at a $110 million Monet painting in a Potsdam museum. 

That came just nine days after cans of tomato soup were emptied over a van Gogh painting by members of "Just Stop Oil," the same group whose members glued themselves to the frame of da Vinci’s "The Last Supper" at London’s Royal Academy of Arts and John Constable’s "The Hay Wain" in the National Gallery in July. 

That same month, members of the Italian group, Ultima Generazione (also Last Generation), glued themselves to Sandro Botticelli’s Primavera in Florence’s Uffizi gallery. 

And earlier this year, a man threw cake at a painting at the Louvre Museum. 

And on Monday, Just Stop Oil activists smashed cake into the face of a King Charles III waxwork at the Madam Tassauds museum in London. 

In each of these instances, the works themselves were not destroyed, having been encased in protective glass. But the demonstrations call attention to an alarming new trend. And it raises concerns that priceless works of art could actually be destroyed as more radical protesters try to up the ante in their activism. 

STOLEN ‘WOMAN-OCHRE’ PAINTING, WORTH $100 MILLION, RETURNED TO ARIZONA MUSEUM

Sally Hickson, an art historian at the University of Guelph in Canada, told Fox News Digital that each act must be contextualized, but worries that the next stage of this trend could be something "irreparable."

"[T]here are so many copycats. We see so much and a lot of things that people are doing are totally about imitation. If you look at your average TikTok videos, people are responding to particular things," Hickson said. "We live in that kind of culture now where everything is just really fast in terms of reproducing itself."

While sympathizing with the activists' concerns about climate change, she questioned whether their actions would necessarily convince more people.

"Does it convince people? It's very hard to convince people when people are blind to what is happening around the planet. I don't know that it would convince any of those people," she said. "I mean, I just think we live right now in a period of time when people have very entrenched ideas about things. 

Matthew Jesse Jackson, an art history professor at the University of Chicago, said art does not occupy as prominent a space in people’s lives as does movies, TV or TikTok but doubted whether the protesters’ actions would make more people concerned with climate change – as was their goal. 

"If it’s a painting in a museum … most people would say, that’s a work of art that should not be vandalized," Jackson said. "I think engaging with artworks (in a non-standard) way is highly unlikely to bring a great deal of attention to a problem." 

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Fidia Falaschetti, an Italian-born artist and sculptor based out of Los Angeles, said he sympathized with political activism generally, but felt "a little bit lost" with these attention-seeking tactics.

Such tactics – like throwing tomato soup on Van Gogh’s "Sunflowers" – "just make divisions," Falaschetti said. "Which is pretty much what society is made of right now." 

"It’s going to divide people more than unite people," Falaschetti said. "How much of the shock and ‘wow’ effect do you want? Because nowadays, society is very much into social media and doing the craziest thing that gets attention." 

While being careful not to judge the young activists personally, Falaschetti questioned their choice of targeting a van Gogh, noting that the Dutch painter struggled all of his life with poverty. 

"I do believe this was a little bit disrespectful because despite the fact that the painting had a glass [cover], I do believe that doing something like that towards a guy who felt a lot of pressure from his society," Falaschetti said. "I do believe there are so many other ways to just talk about whatever is not going good in society." 

JUST STOP OIL ACTIVISTS SMASH CAKE ON KING CHARLES III WAXWORK AT MADAM TUSSAUDS

Falaschetti also doubted whether these protesters are necessarily endearing themselves to anyone, arguing that their actions may ultimately make people more hostile to climate change activists. 

"I think that the majority of people will say, ‘look at those (protesters). What are they doing?’ They don't even think about the matter," he said. 

"You can find the right way to get to the heart of people and make them think and take action in their day-to-day life," Falaschetti said. "But why do this violent nonsense … and risk being labeled as young and stupid? That's not the right way." 

Falaschetti said art is something that reflects society, something that "leaves a trace of us," something that has given a voice to the people. 

"Art has to be protected," Falaschetti said, otherwise "we wouldn’t be leaving any traces for the future."

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