Iran has finished its largest-ever barrage of missiles fired at Israel, but warns that a retaliatory strike could warrant further ballistic response.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said during the Asia Cooperation Dialogue summit this week that Israel must not believe it can act with ‘impunity,’ according to Reuters.

‘Any type of military attack, terrorist act or crossing our red lines will be met with a decisive response by our armed forces,’ said Pezeshkian.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with the heads of the country’s security establishment on Wednesday following Iran’s firing of 181 missiles into Israel amid fears that a lethal regional war is around the corner.

Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani of Qatar was also in attendance at the summit in Doha, where he called the ongoing violence in the Middle East a ‘collective genocide’ perpetuated by Israel, according to Reuters.

‘It has become crystal clear that what is happening is genocide, in addition to turning the Gaza Strip into an area unfit for human habitation, in preparation for displacement,’ the Qatari monarch said.

Iran’s strikes on Israel forced nearly 10 million people to find safety in bomb shelters on Tuesday. 

The barrage of aerial warfare was the first time in Israeli history that the country’s densely populated cities – Tel Aviv and Jerusalem – in the center of the biblical nation, faced such devastating attacks.

The only fatality from the Iranian barrage was the murder of a Palestinian man in the West Bank (known in Israel by its biblical regional name of Judea and Samaria).

President Biden said Wednesday that he would not support an attack by Israel on Iranian nuclear sites in retaliation for Iran’s firing of 181 missiles at Israel amid fears that a lethal regional war is around the corner.

‘We’ll be discussing with the Israelis what they’re going to do, but all seven of us [G7 nations] agree that they have a right to respond, but they should respond proportionally,’ he said.

But when asked whether he would back Israel striking Iranian nuclear sites as it has long threatened, Biden told reporters, ‘The answer is no.’

Fox News Digital’s Sarah Rumpf-Whitten and Benjamin Weinthal contributed to this report.

A federal judge on Wednesday unsealed a key filing from special counsel Jack Smith’s updated election interference case against former President Donald Trump.

U.S. District Judge for the District of Columbia Tanya Chutkan unsealed Smith’s 165-page filing, in which Smith argues that Trump is not immune from prosecution for his alleged criminal scheme to overturn the 2020 election results. Smith submitted the document after the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year ruled that a president is immune from prosecution for official acts. 

‘Although the defendant was the incumbent President during the charged conspiracies, his scheme was fundamentally a private one,’ Smith wrote. ‘Working with a team of private co-conspirators, the defendant acted as a candidate when he pursued multiple criminal means to disrupt, through fraud and deceit, the government function by which votes are collected and counted — a function in which the defendant, as President, had no official role.’ 

The Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. United States held that Smith could not prosecute Trump for the president’s alleged use of the Justice Department to look into unproven claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. In response, Smith filed an updated indictment that revised the allegations against Trump to fit within the scope of the Supreme Court’s decision. 

In the unsealed filing, Smith told the court that Trump is not immune from the remaining allegations against him and laid out his case for why Trump ‘must stand trial for his private crimes.’ 

Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges brought against him by Smith.

Here are five key details from the special counsel’s new filing, which is partially redacted: 

1. Smith’s ‘factual proffer’ 

In the filing unsealed Wednesday, Smith outlined a ‘factual proffer,’ alleging Trump ‘resorted to crimes to try to stay in office’ after losing the 2020 presidential election.

‘With private co-conspirators, the defendant launched a series of increasingly desperate plans to overturn the legitimate election results in seven states that he had lost—Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin,’ Smith wrote. 

‘His efforts included lying to state officials in order to induce them to ignore true vote counts; manufacturing fraudulent electoral votes in the targeted states; attempting to enlist Vice President Michael R. Pence, in his role as President of the Senate, to obstruct Congress’s certification of the election by using the defendant’s fraudulent electoral votes; and when all else had failed, on January 6, 2021, directing an angry crowd of supporters to the United States Capitol to obstruct the congressional certification.’ 

Smith claims that the ‘throughline of these efforts was deceit,’ alleging Trump and co-conspirators engaged in a conspiracy to interfere with the federal government function by which the nation collects and counts election results, which is set forth in the Constitution and the Electoral Count Act (ECA); a conspiracy to obstruct the official proceeding in which Congress certifies the legitimate results of the presidential election; and a conspiracy against the rights of millions of Americans to vote and have their votes counted.’ 

2. Smith claims Trump’s personal attorney told POTUS election fraud claims were ‘bulls—’ 

Smith claims that several people close to Trump had told the former president his claims of election fraud were ‘bulls—.’ 

According to Smith, in one conversation, an unnamed Trump attorney had told Trump that the campaign was ‘looking into his fraud claims and had even hired external experts to do so, but could find no support for them.’ 

‘He told the defendant that if the Campaign took these claims to court, they would get slaughtered because the claims are all ‘bulls—,’’ the filing states, with Smith claiming that a lawyer discussed with Trump the investigations and ‘debunkings on all major claims.’ 

For example, the attorney allegedly told Trump that Georgia’s audit disproved claims that votes had been altered. 

Smith also claims a senior campaign adviser who spoke with Trump on a ‘daily basis’ and had ‘informed him on multiple occasions that various fraud claims were false’ had complained that Trump was losing his election lawsuits because his lawyers could not back up false claims about the election.

‘When our research and campaign legal team can’t back up any of the claims made by our Elite Strike Force Legal Team, you can see why we’re 0-32 on our cases,’ the campaign adviser allegedly wrote.

‘I’ll obviously hustle to help on all fronts, but it’s tough to own any of this when it’s all just conspiracy s— beamed down from the mothership.’  

3. New details on Trump’s interactions with Vice President Mike Pence

The filing details several alleged interactions between Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence in the days following the election.

Smith details a Nov. 7, 2020, call between Pence and Trump in which Pence allegedly ‘tried to encourage’ Trump ‘as a friend’ by reminding him that he ‘took a dying political party and gave it a new lease on life.’ 

Smith also details a private lunch between Trump and Pence on Nov. 12, 2020, when Pence allegedly gave Trump a ‘face-saving option.’ That option, according to the filing, was ‘don’t concede but recognize the process is over.’ 

In another private lunch between Trump and Pence on Nov. 16, 2020, Pence allegedly tried to encourage Trump to accept the results of the election and run again in 2024. Trump is alleged to have responded, ‘I don’t know, 2024 is so far off.’ 

In yet another private lunch on Dec. 21, Pence allegedly ‘encouraged’ Trump ‘not to look at the election ‘as a loss – just an intermission.” Later that day in the Oval Office, Trump allegedly asked Pence for advice on what he should do. According to Smith, Pence said, ‘after we have exhausted every legal process in the courts and Congress, if we still came up short, Trump should ‘take a bow.’’ 

Additionally, Smith reveals that Trump allegedly showed little regard for Pence’s safety during the Jan. 6, 2023 riot at the U.S. Capitol after it became clear that Pence would not support his attempt to stop the certification of the election. 

Smith alleges that an unnamed Trump aide, ‘upon receiving a phone call alerting him that Pence had been taken to a secure location… rushed to the dining room to inform the defendant [Trump] in hopes that the defendant would take action to ensure Pence’s safety.’ 

Smith writes that instead, after the aide delivered the news, Trump ‘looked at him and said only, ‘So what?” 

4. White House staffer allegedly overhears Trump say, ‘It doesn’t matter if you won or lost’ 

Smith alleges that Trump at multiple times showed complete disregard for those who informed him his claims of voter fraud were false, including Republican elections officials in states where Trump had claimed the election was stolen. 

‘Election officials, for instance, issued press releases and other public statements to combat the disinformation that the defendant and his allies were spreading,’ Smith wrote. ‘At one point long after the defendant had begun spreading false fraud claims, [REDACTED], a White House staffer traveling with the defendant, overheard him tell family members that ‘it doesn’t matter if you won or lost the election. You still have to fight like hell.’ 

Smith goes on to assert that Trump and his legal team ‘repeatedly changed the numbers in their baseless fraud allegations from day to day,’ and even ‘made up figures from whole cloth.’ 

The special counsel claimed Trump ‘was on notice that there was no evidence of widespread election fraud in Arizona within a week of the election’ and claimed Trump also ‘had early notice that his claims of election fraud in Georgia were false.’ 

By the time Trump spoke at his rally on Jan. 6, after Pence had refused to stop the certification of the election, Smith said the former president knew his ‘last hope’ to overturn the results was ‘the large and angry crowd standing in front of him.’ 

‘So for more than an hour, the defendant delivered a speech designed to inflame his supports and motivate them to march to the Capitol. The defendant told the crowd many of the same lies he had been telling for months—privately and publicly, including to the officials in the targeted states—and that he knew were not true.’

5. Smith presents case against presidential immunity

Smith argues that based on a ‘factbound analysis’ of Trump’s conduct, the court should determine that the former president was not acting in his official capacity when he challenged the election results and is therefore not immune from prosecution. 

‘None of the allegations or evidence is protected by presidential immunity,’ Smith wrote, asserting Trump’s ‘scheme was a private one.’ 

‘He extensively used private actors and his campaign infrastructure to attempt to overturn the election results and operated in a private capacity as a candidate for office,’ Smith claimed. ‘To the limited extent that the superseding indictment and proffered evidence reflect official conduct, however, the Government can rebut the presumption of immunity because relying on that conduct in this prosecution will not pose a danger of intrusion on the authority or functions of the Executive Branch.’ 

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman and Fox News’ Jake Gibson contributed to this report.

Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff issued a letter to major social media executives this week demanding they reveal how they will combat ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation’ in the 2024 election. 

The letter, co-signed by seven other members of Congress, accuses social media platforms such as X, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok of failing to properly prepare for malicious info-hazards in November. 

‘We write to your platforms as concerned Members of Congress, seeking further information about your preparation for and response to the spread of misinformation and disinformation, or the potential incitement of violence on your platforms leading up to the 2024 elections,’ the California congressman wrote. ‘We have already seen how posts with disinformation have spread on the major social media platforms both in the United States and across the globe during election cycles.’

The letter continued, ‘We continue to be concerned with each of your companies’ ability to react efficiently and effectively to misinformation and disinformation, or to any potential incitement of violence occurring on your platforms.’

In the letter, the signers accused social platforms Meta, Discord, and Snap specifically of ‘[reducing] their elections team dramatically’ following the 2022 elections.

X, Meta, and TikTok were singled out and scolded for having ‘not increased their transparency for external groups who can aid in monitoring election information.’

READ THE FULL LETTER — APP USERS CLICK HERE

‘While the impetus of this letter is the 2024 election, political and election-related mis- and disinformation persists even between elections, so we are also urging your companies to commit to taking action on election and political misinformation year-round, not just in the leadup to elections.’

A series of specific questions are offered at the end of the letter, including ‘Will your company be changing your election integrity policies between now and the 2024 U.S. general election?’ and ‘How will your company be more transparent in enforcement of its community guidelines regarding election integrity and transparent with the public about actions it has taken?’

‘Will your company commit to sharing data and metrics on the effectiveness of your enforcement systems in relation to US elections and political speech?’ the Democratic congress members asked. ‘How will your company address mis- and disinformation made by political actors or verified accounts, and how will they be treated differently, if at all, compared to ordinary users?’

The letter was co-signed by Democratic Representatives Julia Brownley of California, Andre Carson of Indiana, Dan Goldman of New York, Robert Garcia of California, Raúl M. Grijalva of Arizona, Hank Johnson of Georgia and Doris Matsui of California.

It was addressed to the following executives: Mark Zuckerberg, Meta; Linda Yaccarino, X; Shou Zi Chew, TikTok; Sundar Pichai, Google; Adam Mosseri, Instagram; Evan Spiegel, Snap; Neal Mohan, YouTube; Satya Nadella, Microsoft.

Former first lady Melania Trump is drawing heat from pro-life advocates over an excerpt in her memoir where she suggests a woman’s right to choose an abortion is a ‘fundamental right of individual liberty,’ according to a report Wednesday.

Melania Trump wife of Republican presidential candidate and former President Trump, wrote the memoir entitled ‘Melania’ that is scheduled to come out on Oct. 8, per the Amazon release date. In the book, according to a preview by The Guardian, Melania expresses a viewpoint that has historically been at odds with the Republican Party’s platform. 

‘It is imperative to guarantee that women have autonomy in deciding their preference of having children, based on their own convictions, free from any intervention or pressure from the government,’ Melania reportedly wrote.

‘Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to determine what she does with her own body? A woman’s fundamental right of individual liberty, to her own life, grants her the authority to terminate her pregnancy if she wishes.

‘Restricting a woman’s right to choose whether to terminate an unwanted pregnancy is the same as denying her control over her own body. I have carried this belief with me throughout my entire adult life.’

The excerpts quickly drew the ire of pro-life advocates who have already been disgruntled by some of Trump’s seemingly ambiguous comments regarding abortion. 

‘Melania Trump’s support of abortion is anti-feminist and clearly outside the teaching of our Catholic faith. She is wrong,’ wrote Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America advocacy group. 

Lila Rose, founder of leading pro-life advocacy group Live Action, also responded to a promotional video Melania posted for her memoir in which she states, ‘Individual freedom is a fundamental principle that I safeguard… what does my body my choice really mean?’

‘Who is this Melania Trump, or Kamala Harris? Functionally the same exact position on abortion,’ Rose wrote on X. 

President of pro-life advocacy group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, Marjorie Dannenfelser, wrote on X: ‘The women of America are capable of great strength and creativity. They are naturally inclined to speak for those who are powerless. Abortion is not the source of their freedom and liberation.’

In August, Trump sparked confusion among pro-life supporters about where he stood on an amendment that would upend Florida’s ban on abortions after six weeks’ gestation. Trump, after saying ‘I think the six-week is too short, there has to be more time,’ to an NBC reporter when asked how he would vote, later walked it back and said he would vote against the amendment.

Other spouses of Republican presidents, such as Pat Nixon, Betty Ford, Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush and Laura Bush, have been recorded either during or after their husbands’ tenure in office expressing pro-choice views.

Trump has also said he opposes a nationwide abortion ban and the GOP’s official platform softened its language about its abortion stances this year.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Melania Trump’s office for comment but did not hear back by publication deadline.

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff denied the veracity of a Daily Mail report in which three unnamed sources accused him of having slapped a former girlfriend during a 2012 trip to the Cannes Film Festival.

Fox News Digital has not been able to independently confirm the allegations.

‘This report is untrue,’ an unnamed representative for Vice President Kamala Harris’ husband told news outlet Semafor. ‘Any suggestion that he would or has ever hit a woman is false.’

The Daily Mail’s exclusive story on Tuesday quoted a trio of unidentified sources who claim Emhoff slapped his then-girlfriend while the couple waited in a valet line following an event in Nice, France, in 2012. The alleged altercation was purportedly sparked when the woman — identified only by the pseudonym ‘Jane’ and described as a successful New York attorney — flirted with a valet, according to the article.

The Harris campaign, the Office of the Vice President and a representative for Emhoff’s ex-wife, Kerstin Emhoff, did not comment despite repeated requests from Fox News. 

Several media outlets, including Semafor, noted they had been unable to match the Daily Mail’s reporting, and legacy media companies such as The New York Times have yet to report on the claims. 

The Daily Mail’s article hinged on the recollections of three people described as being Jane’s friends. The outlet said its sources requested anonymity due to fear of retaliation from Emhoff. The three friends reportedly provided the outlet with a photo of the pair when they were still a couple, as well as itineraries and correspondence between Emhoff and Jane to substantiate that they made the trip to France in May 2012.

One of the sources is described by the Daily Mail as a female New York attorney who learned about the alleged incident from Jane.

‘He hauled up and slapped her so hard she spun around,’ the source is quoted as saying. ‘She said she was in utter shock. She was so furious, she slapped him on one side, and then on the other cheek with the other hand.’

Another friend, described by the Daily Mail as a New York businessman, told the outlet Jane called him sobbing following the alleged incident. 

‘It was very clear what she was telling me,’ that source said, according to the Daily Mail. ‘She said she was with a guy, her date, she was at the Cannes Film Festival, and he hit her. She was in the car with the guy at the time.’

The male friend said he learned more details about the alleged episode after the initial phone call. 

‘It was something like 3 a.m. They were trying to get out of there and they both had been drinking. There was a gigantic line for taxis,’ he told the outlet. ‘She went up to one of the valet guys, offered him 100 euros or whatever, to get to the head of the line. She told me she put her hand on his shoulder. Doug apparently thought that she was flirting, and came over and slapped her in the face.’

A third friend, described as a female executive, told the Daily Mail that she learned of the alleged incident in 2014, and purportedly found out new details from Jane in 2018, when Harris, then a senator from California, made headlines with her questioning of a Supreme Court nominee who had been accused of sexual assault.

‘[She] is a gorgeous, strong woman and you would never expect somebody to hit her,’ the third friend told the Daily Mail. ‘When he hit her she hit him back, like, ‘Don’t you ever do that again.”

The third Daily Mail source added: ‘I asked her if he ever apologized. She said ‘no,’ but he commented about the hit she gave him. It was a tennis metaphor. But no apology at all.’

All three friends told the outlet that Jane hit Emhoff back after the alleged initial slap. They also claimed that Jane tried to leave the valet area after the alleged slap, but that Emhoff got into a cab with Jane.

Jane and Emhoff had been dating for about three months before the reported trip to France, according to the friends. Emhoff allegedly cut the trip short and returned to the U.S. for his daughter’s birthday at the end of May, and never saw Jane again, the friends told the outlet. 

Emhoff’s alleged relationship with Jane unfolded after his 2008 divorce from his first wife and before his 2014 marriage to Harris. 

The New York Post on Wednesday slammed Emhoff as ‘Worst Gentleman’ in its cover story detailing the Daily Mail’s article.

Emhoff is fresh off of a Sunday sit-down interview on MSNBC during which host Jen Psaki celebrated him as having reshaped ‘the perception of masculinity.’

‘There is also an important, interesting part about how people have talked about your role is how your role has reshaped the perception of masculinity,’ Psaki said. ‘I’m not sure you planned on that, but you are an incredibly supportive spouse. Has that been an evolution for you? Do you think that’s part of the role you might play as first gentleman?’

Emhoff responded: ‘It’s funny. I’ve started to think a lot about this. I’ve always been like this. My dad’s always been like this. To me, it’s the right thing to do, support women. It is mutual with Kamala and I. We support each other, we have each other’s back.’

He added: ‘I’ve said many times when we lift up women, we support women, whether it’s pay equity, child care, family leave, and all of these issues in this post-Dobbs hellscape. Women should not be less than. Women should not have less rights and be treated differently. That’s not the American way.’

Clips of the exchange spread like wildfire on social media as critics noted that, in August, Emhoff admitted to having an affair with his family’s nanny during his first marriage years ago.

Emhoff’s admission came shortly after the Daily Mail published a separate report in August claiming that he got his daughter’s nanny pregnant.

The affair occurred before Emhoff’s relationship with and eventual marriage to Harris. 

‘During my first marriage, Kerstin and I went through some tough times on account of my actions. I took responsibility, and in the years since, we worked through things as a family and have come out stronger on the other side,’ Emhoff said over the summer, acknowledging the affair, but not naming the nanny. 

Emhoff and his first wife were married from 1992 to 2008 and share two adult children. Harris married Emhoff in 2014, and helped co-parent his children, who call their stepmom ‘mommala.’ 

Emhoff reportedly told Jane in 2012 about his divorce, according to her female friend who works as an executive. 

The Daily Mail’s report was published just five weeks before the election, when Harris will square off against former President Trump at the ballot box. 

More than 400 national security and foreign policy officials, ex-Cabinet members, retired military officers and Gold Star families endorsed former President Trump on Thursday.

In an open letter organized by former National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien and former NSC Chief of Staff Alex Gray, the signatories condemn the ‘repeated failures’ of the Biden-Harris administration’s foreign policy and urged Americans to re-elect Trump.

‘From a world at peace under President Trump, we are closer to a third world war than ever before under the Biden-Harris Administration,’ the letter states. ‘With multiple escalating wars around the world, an open border that allows terrorists to flood into the American homeland, and malign actors like China operating unabated, U.S. national security has been profoundly damaged by the failed policies of Kamala Harris and Joe Biden.’

The endorsement was signed by several prominent officials from the Trump administration, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former Attorney General Bill Barr, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and former 2024 Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, and many more.

Eleven family members of the 13 American troops killed at Abbey Gate at Kabul’s airport during the 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan also signed the letter, which praised Trump’s foreign policy record in contrast to Biden’s controversial actions. 

‘When President Trump took office, the war in Afghanistan had dragged on for almost 16 years. By February 2020, a peace agreement was reached, ensuring no American soldier was killed in combat until the end of the Trump Administration. This agreement held strong because the Taliban understood President Trump’s resolve and U.S. forces were prepared to ensure their compliance,’ the letter reads.

‘The botched withdrawal from Afghanistan under the Biden-Harris Administration in 2021, led to the unnecessary deaths of thirteen brave American troops at Abbey Gate and left untold billions of dollars of high grade military equipment to the Taliban, making it the most well-armed terror organization in the world.’

Additionally, 40 retired U.S. ambassadors, 75 retired senior military officers and several hundred officials from previous Republican administrations signed the letter, praising Trump’s diplomatic efforts on cease-fire agreements between Turkey and Kurdish fighters in Syria and the Abraham Accords. The letter refers to Trump as a ‘peacemaker.’ 

‘Securing peace is in the greatest tradition of American foreign policy and the Judeo-Christian principles upon which our nation was founded,’ the letter continues before quoting from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew. ‘Jesus said, ‘blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be sons of God.’ (Matthew 5:9) Such is the legacy of the Trump Administration.’

Writing on X, O’Brien said he was ‘honored’ to join his colleagues from the Trump administration in ‘supporting a return to a ‘peace through strength’ foreign policy under President Trump.’

Another signatory, Dr. Jerry Hendrix, former director of the Secretary of the Navy’s Advisory Panel, said it ‘wasn’t a hard decision’ to attach his name to the letter.

‘Trump had 1 of the more successful foreign policy presidencies since the Cold War,’ Hendrix wrote on X. ‘He ended sequestration. He invested in the Navy. The Biden-Harris admin has been one foreign policy debacle after another.’ 

The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.