Hillary and Bill Clinton are both now risking possible criminal charges after defying subpoenas to appear before the House Oversight Committee.

Hillary Clinton was compelled to sit for a sworn deposition behind closed doors on Wednesday morning as part of the House’s bipartisan probe into Jeffrey Epstein.

However, the former secretary of state refused to appear, and the House Oversight Committee will begin contempt of Congress proceedings, a source familiar told Fox News Digital.

She was expected to skip the meeting after her and former President Bill Clinton’s attorneys wrote to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., arguing the subpoenas were not legally enforceable.

A committee aide said earlier that the committee would initiate contempt of Congress proceedings ‘in the coming days’ if she did not appear. Comer is already moving forward with contempt proceedings against Bill Clinton.

The lawyers’ letter argued Comer’s subpoenas were ‘invalid and legally unenforceable, untethered to a valid legislative purpose, unwarranted because they do not seek pertinent information, and an unprecedented infringement on the separation of powers.’

It also compared Comer’s leadership of the probe to Joseph McCarthy’s 1950s-era abuse of congressional power, while pointing out that President Donald Trump has publicly called for the federal government to look into Bill Clinton’s Epstein ties.

‘Mindful of these defects, we trust you will engage in good faith to de-escalate this dispute,’ the letter said.

Comer told reporters Tuesday that he read the letter but suggested his probe would be undeterred.

The former president similarly skipped his own scheduled deposition on Tuesday, prompting Comer to say his panel would move ahead with advancing a contempt of Congress resolution against him next week.

Such resolutions need to advance through the relevant committees before being considered in a House-wide vote.

It’s then up to the Department of Justice (DOJ) on whether to pursue the resulting criminal referral if a majority of House lawmakers vote to make it.

Contempt of Congress charges are a misdemeanor that carry up to a year in jail and a maximum fine of $100,000.

Former Trump advisors Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro were notably charged and convicted of contempt of Congress for defying subpoenas by the now-defunct select committee on the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.

The former first couple were two of 10 people subpoenaed by Comer as part of the panel’s investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. The subpoenas were issued following a bipartisan vote by an Oversight subcommittee panel during an unrelated hearing on illegal immigration.

The House Judiciary Committee has opened an investigation into whether a climate law group is improperly influencing federal judges on environment-related cases.

Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the panel’s subcommittee on Courts, sent four letters to varying judicial groups and lawyers asking for more information on communications with the Environmental Law Institute.

‘The Committee on the Judiciary is investigating allegations of improper attempts by the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) and its Climate Judiciary Project (CJP) to influence federal judges. Public reports have documented concerns around apparent efforts by ELI and CJP to influence judges who potentially may be presiding over lawsuits related to alleged climate change claims,’ the letter to the Judicial Conference of the United States (JCUS) read.

‘These efforts appear to have the underlying goal of predisposing federal judges in favor of plaintiffs alleging injuries from the manufacturing, marketing, use, or sale of fossil-fuel products.’

Jordan and Issa argued that existing JCUS policy acknowledged risks of allowing privately funded education programs to distribute material to courts, but that its policy was also ‘leaving the door open for groups like ELI and CJP to exert influence through program content and contact between judges and those who litigate before them.’

A separate letter to David Bookbinder, director of law and policy at the Environmental Integrity Project, alleged that ‘evidence has emerged that raises questions about whether ELI, CJP, or one or more of its ‘experts’ coordinated with you on judicial training materials while you simultaneously litigated climate-related cases pending before federal courts.’

Jordan and Issa charged that Bookbinder had ‘pre-publication access and provided peer review’ for documents prepared for ELI while he was representing the Boulder County, Colo., Board of County Commissioners in a climate change-related lawsuit. They noted that he’s no longer the board’s lawyer, however.

‘In other words, this document seems to suggest that at the same time you were representing a private party in climate-related litigation, you were also helping to develop climate-related training materials for federal (and state) judges,’ the letter said.

A third letter to the Federal Judicial Center noted that while both climate groups say they provide impartial information for judges, Republicans believe those materials ‘appear to be designed to bias judges in climate-related cases.’

‘The materials that ELI and CJP used at judicial seminars are generally not made public, which itself is a cause for concern,’ the third letter said. ‘The limited portions of CJP’s ‘Climate Science and Law for Judges Curriculum’ that are publicly available seem designed to improperly influence judges in favor of plaintiffs.’

ELI is a nonprofit promoting climate science-based policy across academic, public, and legal spheres.

CJP is a project within ELI specifically aimed at creating curricula for ‘judicial education,’ according to its website.

Fox News Digital reached out to ELI and the four letter recipients for comment.

Claims that a mysterious ‘sonic weapon’ was used in Venezuela have fueled speculation about exotic U.S. military technology and its potential effects on the human body.

One eyewitness account from a Venezuelan guard, shared on social media by White Hosue press secretary Karoline Leavitt, claimed the weapon brought Venezuelan and Cuban security forces to their knees, ‘bleeding through their nose’ and vomiting blood. 

While the Trump administration has not confirmed what weapon, if any, may have been used, defense experts point to a well-known acoustic device that has been in use for years. 

Known as a long-range acoustic device, it’s been described as the ‘voice of God,’ according to Mark Cancian, a retired Marine lieutenant colonel and senior adviser for the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The device deploys a directed, short-range ‘cone of sound.’ 

‘It’s not like a microphone, you know, where everybody’s neighborhood, it’s only within this cone,’ said Cancian. 

U.S. operators may have deployed it as they were landing on the ground in Caracas, Venezuela, as a way to disorient security forces and warn them to drop their weapons.  

LRADs can project spoken commands at intense volumes or emit a loud, piercing tone designed to get attention and deter movement. At close range, the sound can be painful and disorienting, and in extreme cases can damage hearing or rupture eardrums, but the devices are not designed to cause lasting physical harm.

It can cause pain and temporary disorientation, and can cause ruptured eardrums, but is not designed to inflict long-term damage. 

U.S. forces used them for crowd control in Iraq when Iraqis got too close to U.S. military installments, according to Cancian. 

The devices can reach up to 140 decibels of sound. The intensity drops quickly with distance and angle. This is why operators can stand nearby but outside the beam.

Other defense analysts say the account raises questions that go beyond conventional acoustic devices.

For decades, the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, has studied nonlethal technologies intended to temporarily incapacitate adversaries without causing permanent injury. Publicly available research has explored acoustic and electromagnetic effects designed to overwhelm the senses, disrupt balance or motor control, and render targets briefly unable to fight or maneuver.

Can Kasapoglu, a defense analyst at the Hudson Institute, said such research has fueled speculation about more advanced incapacitation systems, but stressed there is no public evidence any experimental DARPA technology was used in Venezuela. 

‘There are some non-lethal technologies that DARPA has been working on, including acoustic weapon systems, sound waves, and also some neurological weapon systems that do not kill, but cause an unbearable sensation that you feel that you simply become inoperable in the battlefield,’ he said. 

While the symptoms described in the post shared by Leavitt are unverified, ‘they align closely with examples of DARPA research.’

The White House and Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment.

In addition to the reported sound offense, the U.S. launched a cyberattack that knocked out communications systems as operators were landing in Caracas, Venezuela. 

‘It was dark, the lights of Caracas were largely turned off due to a certain expertise that we have, it was dark, and it was deadly,’ Trump previously said. 

‘We were on guard, but suddenly all our radar systems shut down without any explanation,’ the local guard said in the account shared by Leavitt. ‘The next thing we saw were drones, a lot of drones, flying over our positions. We didn’t know how to react.’

Once operators were on the ground, ‘At one point, they launched something; I don’t know how to describe it,’ he said. ‘It was like a very intense sound wave. Suddenly I felt like my head was exploding from the inside.’

The effects were extreme, according to the guard. 

‘We all started bleeding from the nose,’ he said. ‘Some were vomiting blood. We fell to the ground, unable to move. We couldn’t even stand up after that sonic weapon — or whatever it was.’

The physical effects described by the guard go well beyond what experts say LRADs are known to cause. 

Vomiting blood, in particular, is not a typical reaction to acoustic exposure, raising questions about whether the account exaggerates the effects, misattributes their cause, or reflects a different factor entirely.

Experts caution that while directional acoustic devices are real and widely used, there is no publicly known ‘sonic weapon’ capable of producing the extreme injuries described — and no official confirmation that any such system was used in Venezuela.

Venezuela’s interior minister Diosdado Cabello said 100 people were killed in the Maduro operation. Cuba has said 32 members of its security forces, which were guarding Maduro, were killed in the operation. 

Seven U.S. service members were injured in the operation but none were killed.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., has been criticized over her shifting stance on Venezuela and its fallen president Nicolás Maduro after she supported military action to take out Maduro and ‘delegitimizing’ the Venezuelan government in 2019, but condemned the Trump administration for trying ‘to ‘run’ another country.’

In 2019, when running for president, Klobuchar advocated for using the military to remove Maduro and help establish a democracy in Venezuela, saying, ‘I’m also glad that we’re trying to push Maduro out. But the answer here is to make sure that we are working with our allies, pushing for democracy and some kind of a negotiated agreement. Military should always be on the table.’

Meanwhile, on another occasion in 2019, Klobuchar again endorsed American involvement in bringing democracy to Venezuela, saying she, ‘of course supported bringing in the new president and delegitimizing the Maduro government,’ and ‘You always leave things on the table,’ when asked about U.S. intervention.

‘Democrats like Klobuchar and Schumer spent years demanding the removal of dictator Nicolás Maduro. Now that President Trump has actually done it, they suddenly oppose the outcome. The Democratic Party has entered the terminal phase of Trump Derangement Syndrome,’ said Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn. 

‘Washington politics at its worst, says one thing to her pals in the media but turns her back on our brave military after they put their lives on the line,’ added ‘Ruthless’ podcast host John Ashbrook. 

‘It’s sad but not surprising that a committed ideologue like Amy Klobuchar is unable to give credit where credit is due for President Trump’s removal of Nicolás Maduro. The socialist regime of Venezuela drove one of the most energy-rich countries in the world into ruin, his citizens into poverty and served as a Western Hemisphere stalking horse for China, Iran, Russia and others who wish us harm,’ said longtime Republican strategist Colin Reed. ‘Not only do Venezuelans have a renewed sense of hope, but America is stronger on the world stage. Global politics used to stop at the water’s edge, but for Amy Klobuchar, partisan politics is priority one.’

The White House has called out a lengthy list of other high-profile Senate Democrats besides Klobuchar for allegedly once demanding Maduro’s capture but now ‘mourn[ing] his capture.’

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was among those slammed by the White House for going from blasting Trump for failing to dislodge a ‘more powerful’ and ‘more entrenched’ Maduro to calling Trump’s Maduro arrest ‘reckless’ and stoking fear about consequences. 

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., according to Trump, went from pledging sustained support to help Venezuelans rebuild what has been lost under Maduro, to criticizing Trump’s unilateral use of military force and warning about intervention. 

Chris Van Hollen is described by the White House as moving from urging the U.S. to ‘ratchet up the pressure’ for a negotiated transition to labeling any move to replace Maduro an ‘illegal act of war.’

Fox News Digital reached out to Klobuchar for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication. 

The Senate is rumbling toward a likely successful vote on a package of three funding bills, but it’s what comes next that some lawmakers are worried about.

The upper chamber is expected to pass a three-bill funding package, known as a minibus, later this week. That would bring the total number of funding bills passed by Congress to six.

But it’s halfway to the magic dozen that are needed to fund the government, and one bill in particular is giving lawmakers heartburn on their quest to avoid another government shutdown.

Among the annual spending bills is the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) appropriations bill, which has become a political lightning rod in the wake of Renee Nicole Good’s death in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)-related shooting.

Some Senate Democrats want to use it to leverage more oversight at DHS, specifically for ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

That sticky wicket could cause the bill to never actually come to the floor — it was nixed from a recently released spending package from the House earlier this week. That means it could land in a short-term funding extension, known as a continuing resolution (CR).

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., acknowledged just how difficult that bill was to advance, even under more typical circumstances, and predicted that it could lead to a CR to keep the government open.

‘Homeland is obviously the hardest one, and it’s possible that, if we can’t get agreement, that there could be some sort of a CR that funds some of these bills into next year,’ Thune said.

While Thune remained hopeful that, over the next three weeks, Congress could pass the remaining spending bills, the reality of the discourse regarding the DHS bill is now front and center in the simmering spending fight.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has made clear that neither he nor Senate Democrats want to usher in another government shutdown. But when asked if there would be restrictions to DHS and ICE agents baked into the DHS funding bill, Schumer said, ‘The appropriators are working on that right now. The four corners are trying to come up with an agreement.’

‘As I said, that’s one of the major issues that the appropriators are confronting right now before the bill comes up,’ Schumer said.

There is also resistance to a CR among some Democrats, who argue that an extension would only benefit President Donald Trump, given that it would keep funding levels and priorities the same from the previous fiscal year without their thumbprints on updated appropriations.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said on the Senate floor that a short-term funding extension was effectively a ‘slush fund’ for Trump and Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought to use and abuse, but lauded the efforts from both sides of the aisle to push forward with funding bills.

That’s because the bipartisan legislation in the upper chamber includes Democratic funding priorities, a key negotiating point after the administration slashed congressionally approved funding last year.

‘That is why, right now, it is so important that we end that slush fund authority and reassert our power as lawmakers by passing these full-year spending bills that specify exactly how funds are to be spent just as we had always done until last year,’ Murray said.

But, unlike in September, it appears that neither side is ready to careen the government into a shutdown once more.

Still, time is running out, and the Senate is set to leave Washington, D.C., for a weeklong recess by the end of this week while the House processes another smaller funding package. That two-bill effort still won’t be enough to keep the lights on, however.

‘I don’t think there’s going to be [a shutdown],’ Thune said, ‘And I say this because I think on both sides, I’ve said this before, not new information. I think government shutdowns are stupid. I don’t think anybody wins. And, I hope the Democrats share that view. And if they do, right now, at least the appropriations process is moving forward.’

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., accused his ‘pro-life’ Republican colleagues of not caring about the people killed in boat strikes near Venezuela who the Trump administration, without providing evidence, claims were trafficking fentanyl.

During an appearance on ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ released on Tuesday. Paul said GOP lawmakers ‘don’t give a s‑‑-‘ about the people who died on the vessels, blasting his colleagues for not granting the presumption of innocence.

‘I look at my colleagues who say they’re pro-life, and they value God’s inspiration in life, but they don’t give a s‑‑- about these people in the boats,’ Paul said. ‘Are they terrible people in the boats? I don’t know. They’re probably poor people in Venezuela and Colombia.’

‘I guess what I don’t feel connected to my Republican colleagues is that those lives don’t matter at all, and we just blow them up. And against all justice, and against all laws of war, all laws of just war, we have never blown up people who were shipwrecked,’ he added, referring to the administration’s reported targeting and killing of survivors of initial strikes who were clinging to wreckage.

The liberty-minded Republican said it is ‘against the military code of justice to do that.’

‘We’re doing it and everybody just says, ‘Oh, well, they’re drug dealers,” he said.

Paul criticized his fellow GOP lawmakers who have repeated the administration’s claims about the boats carrying fentanyl. He also took issue with colleagues who hold the position of, ‘Well, we’re at war with them. They’re committing war by bringing drugs into America.’

‘They’re not even coming here,’ Paul explained. ‘They’re going to these islands in the south part of the Caribbean. The cocaine — and it’s not fentanyl at all — the cocaine’s going to Europe.’

He emphasized that ‘those little boats can’t get here.’

‘No one’s even asked this common question: Those boats have these four engines on them. They’re outboard boats. You can probably go about 100 miles before you have to refuel. Two thousand miles from us, they’d have to refuel 20 times to get here,’ Paul said.

The senator accused the administration of conducting the boat strikes to create ‘a pretense and a false argument’ ahead of the operation to attack Venezuela and arrest its president, Nicolás Maduro.

‘It’s all been a pretense for arresting Maduro,’ he said. ‘So, we have to set up the predicate. We got to show you we care about drugs.’

Paul helped the Senate advance a resolution last week that would limit Trump’s ability to conduct further attacks against Venezuela after the U.S. military’s recent move to strike the country and capture Maduro, which the Kentucky Republican said amounts to war. The Upper Chamber could pass the measure later this week, although it faces an uphill battle in the House despite some support from Republicans.

‘I think bombing a capital and removing the head of state is, by all definitions, war,’ Paul told reporters before the procedural vote last week. ‘Does this mean we have carte blanche that the president can make the decision any time, anywhere, to invade a foreign country and remove people that we’ve accused of a crime?’

The lawmaker has repeatedly criticized the administration’s boat strikes on alleged narco-terrorists in recent months, often raising concerns about killing people without due process and the possibility of killing innocent people. The senator previously cited Coast Guard statistics that show a significant percentage of boats boarded on suspicion of drug trafficking are innocent.

Paul said on ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ that he believes the administration might attack Mexico next, which Trump has signaled could be a future target.

‘They want to do that next. They want to bomb Mexico,’ Paul said.

Trump has said cartels are ‘running Mexico’ and that ‘something’s going to have to be done’ because Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is ‘very frightened’ of the cartels.

Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., suggested Tuesday that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell should resign to avoid a potential indictment, arguing the move could prompt the Department of Justice (DOJ) to drop its investigation.

The suggestion comes after the DOJ announced Sunday it has opened a criminal probe into Powell focused on the renovation of the central bank’s Washington headquarters and whether he was truthful in his congressional testimony regarding the project.

‘If you’re the attorney for Jay Powell and you want to avoid an indictment, how about you go to Jeanine Pirro and say, ‘I’ll make a deal. I’ll step down today if you’ll drop the investigation today,” Cramer said on FOX Business’ ‘Kudlow.’

Cramer added that his proposed legal strategy would be ‘a win-win for everybody.’

U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said on X Monday that her office had contacted the Fed ‘on multiple occasions to discuss cost overruns and the chairman’s congressional testimony, but were ignored, necessitating the use of legal process — which is not a threat.’

‘The word ‘indictment’ has come out of Mr. Powell’s mouth, no one else’s,’ Pirro continued. ‘None of this would have happened if they had just responded to our outreach. This office makes decisions based on the merits, nothing more and nothing less. We agree with the chairman of the Federal Reserve that no one is above the law, and that is why we expect his full cooperation.’

Powell provided testimony before the Senate Banking Committee last year regarding a significant renovation to two main office buildings in the Fed’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. The project is expected to cost $2.5 billion and is being paid for by the central bank, not taxpayers.

Powell confirmed in a video statement Sunday that the Federal Reserve had been served ‘with grand jury subpoenas’ that threatened ‘a criminal indictment.’

While Powell said he respected the rule of law and congressional oversight, he asserted that the Justice Department’s move was ‘unprecedented’ and politically motivated.

‘This new threat is not about my testimony last June or about the renovation of the Federal Reserve buildings,’ he said. He added that the threat of criminal charges is a ‘consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the president.’

A spokesperson for the Fed told Fox News Digital the Fed would not have any comment beyond Powell’s video message from Sunday.

Cramer cautioned on ‘Kudlow’ that an indictment could negatively impact the economy.

‘I don’t want to do anything to disrupt this incredible rocket ship economy we’re enjoying right now,’ he said. ‘We’ve got other big things to do that I’d rather focus on than an indictment.’

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Amanda Macias contributed to this report.

A 23-year-old student was shot in the head at close range during protests in Iran, according to Iran Human Rights, a Norway-based group, as the regime continues its violent crackdown on nationwide demonstrations.

Rubina Aminian, a student of textile and fashion design at Shariati Technical and Vocational College for Girls in Tehran, was killed Jan. 8 after leaving college and joining the protests in the capital, according to Iran Human Rights.

She is among the few victims of the recent unrest whose identity has been publicly confirmed.

‘Sources close to Rubina’s family, citing eyewitnesses, told Iran Human Rights that the young Kurdish woman from Marivan was shot from close range from behind, with the bullet striking her head,’ the group said in a statement.

Following her death, Aminian’s family traveled from their home in Kermanshah, western Iran, to Tehran to identify her body.

According to sources cited by Iran Human Rights, the family was taken to a location near the college where they saw the bodies of hundreds of young people allegedly killed during the protests.

‘Most of the victims were young people between 18 and 22 years old, who had been shot at close range in the head and neck by government forces,’ a source close to the family said.

The family was reportedly initially barred from identifying Aminian’s body and later prevented from taking her remains, the group said.

After extensive efforts, relatives were eventually allowed to retrieve her body and return to Kermanshah.

When they got there, intelligence forces reportedly surrounded the family home and would not allow a burial to take place.

According to Iran Human Rights, the family was forced to bury Aminian’s body along the roadside between Kermanshah and the nearby city of Kamyaran.

The family has also not been permitted to hold mourning ceremonies, and several mosques in Marivan were reportedly disallowed from hosting memorial services.

Iran’s spiraling anti-government protests have been driven by widespread anger over political repression and economic hardship, including rising inflation.

The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency estimated Tuesday that over 16,700 people have been detained.

Other rights groups have reported extremely high death tolls, with some estimates exceeding 3,000, according to Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst.

Iran Human Rights described Aminian in a statement as ‘a young woman full of joy for life and passionate about fashion and clothing design, whose dreams were buried by the violent repression of the Islamic Republic.’

Recently unredacted construction plans for China’s new super embassy in London have ignited a storm of national security concerns across the United Kingdom, as blueprints reveal a hidden underground room positioned alarmingly close to some of Britain’s most sensitive communication cables.

Major critics of the proposed site, which will run as close as three feet to the internet infrastructure, warned that the secret room could serve as a hub for Chinese espionage. While the British government reportedly assured its allies that the lines do not carry sensitive government data, the cables transmit financial transactions as well as communication traffic for millions of internet users.  

The blueprints were publicly unredacted Monday by The Telegraph, just one week before Prime Minister Keir Starmer is widely expected to approve the plans before his visit to see President Xi Jinping in China.  

A government spokesman told the outlet that despite the security concerns, ‘national security is our first duty and government security experts have been involved throughout the process so far.’

According to the blueprint, the facility will be located at the former Royal Mint and will become Europe’s largest Chinese embassy. 

Construction plans indicate that China intends to demolish and rebuild a basement wall, placing officials and equipment just over three feet from critical fiber-optic cables. Security experts have warned that such proximity could create opportunities for ‘cable-tapping,’ which involves inserting wiretaps or reading light signals leaking from the lines.

Professor Alan Woodward, a security expert at the University of Surrey, highlighted the technical feasibility of espionage given the physical layout, The Telegraph reported. He described the demolition as a ‘red flag’ and noted, ‘If I were in their shoes, having those cables on my doorstep would be an enormous temptation.’

Additionally, the concealed chamber appears to be equipped with at least two hot-air extraction systems designed to ventilate heat-generating equipment. Experts reportedly inferred that this infrastructure suggests that the room is designed to accommodate high-powered technology such as advanced computers typically used for espionage and data processing. 

Beyond the single chamber near the cables, the unredacted plans also revealed a network of 208 secret rooms beneath the diplomatic site. The basement appears to allow for emergency backup generators, sprinkler systems, communications cabling and showers, suggesting that officials could remain underground for extended periods, potentially to operate or monitor equipment.

The construction plans have generally raised fears that the London complex could serve as a Beijing intelligence hub. According to U.K. outlet The Times, Britain has been pressured to reassure the United States and other intelligence partners that the cables do not transmit any sensitive government data.

Alicia Kearns, the shadow national security minister and prominent critic of the project, described the approval of the embassy as handing Beijing a strategic advantage against British interests.  

‘Giving China the go-ahead for its embassy site would be to gift them a launchpad for economic warfare at the very heart of the central nervous system of our critical financial national infrastructure,’ she said in a post on X.  

Iranian security forces escalated from pellet guns to live ammunition during protests, sharply increasing casualties, a doctor who treated wounded demonstrators told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).

Speaking after fleeing the country, the doctor told CHRI the use of live fire increased the death toll days after protests erupted Dec. 28.

‘Law enforcement forces were firing pellet shotguns that scatter pellets. During those days, I received five or six calls per day about people who had been hit by two pellets in the back or pellets to the head or scalp,’ the doctor claimed.

The doctor said he noticed the situation shifted on Jan. 8, when authorities imposed internet blackouts and cut off communication nationwide.

‘From about 8:10 to 8:20 pm, the sound of bullets, gunfire, screams, and sporadic explosions could be heard. I was called to the hospital. When I arrived, I saw that the nature of the injuries and the number of gunshot wounds had changed completely,’ the doctor said of the days around the blackout.

‘The situation was totally different. Shots from close range, injuries leading to death.’

Human rights groups say thousands have been killed as security forces moved to suppress the demonstrations, with some estimates placing the death toll above 3,000, Fox News’ chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst reported Tuesday.

The protests were fueled by anger over economic hardship, rising prices and inflation before expanding into broader anti-government demonstrations.

‘The calls I received on my home phone for medical advice were no longer about pellet wounds,’ the doctor said. ‘People were saying they had been shot, with bullets entering one side of the body and exiting the other. Live ammunition.’

Describing scenes in Isfahan, which is a major protest hub, the doctor said streets were stained with blood as security forces deployed heavier weapons.

‘A large amount of blood, about a liter, had pooled in the gutter and blood trails extended for several meters,’ the doctor claimed.

‘The level and intensity of violence increased step by step,’ he said before describing a change in aggression on Jan. 9.

‘On Friday night, I heard automatic gunfire. I am familiar with weapons and can distinguish their sounds. I heard DShK heavy machine guns. I heard PK machine guns.

‘These weapons are in the possession of IRGC units — DShKs, PK machine guns, and Kalashnikovs,’ the doctor said. ‘The trauma cases I saw were brutal, shoot-to-kill.’

Victims ranged from teenagers to elderly men, the doctor said. Some injuries were so severe that bodies were unrecognizable.

‘One colleague said that during a night shift, eight bodies were brought in with gunshot wounds to the face; their faces were unrecognizable. Many bodies are not identifiable at all,’ he added.

The account comes as President Donald Trump publicly voiced support for Iranian protesters. 

On Tuesday, Trump urged Iranians to ‘take over’ their institutions, saying he had canceled all meetings with Iranian officials until the crackdown ends.