Two Americans have died in the Philippines during a military engagement that the government said involved communist-linked groups.

Lyle Prijoles, 40, and transgender woman Kai Dana-Rene Sorem, 26, were among the 19 people killed last month during a firefight between the Philippine Army and suspected members of a communist insurgency.

The U.S.-born Filipino Americans are now at the center of a disputed encounter, with critics alleging the two were active combatants for the New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), which has been designated a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department. Human rights groups and the NPA, however, reportedly maintain that the pair were civilian activists who posed no military threat.

According to the City Journal, the two Americans were first exposed to left-wing ideology through college-linked institutions that critics say helped pave the way to involvement with groups the Philippine government has long argued serve as fronts for the CPP.

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"This brings to two (2) the number of U.S. citizens—Lyle Prijoles and Kai Dana-Rene Sorem—who died in the same incident, a development that highlights the increasing involvement of individuals from outside the Philippines in local armed hostilities," the Philippines' National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) said.

"The presence of two American fatalities in a single encounter should prompt careful reflection on how involvement in certain activities or networks may lead to unintended exposure to dangerous environments."

On April 19, Philippine troops engaged in an armed encounter in Toboso, Negros Occidental, according to the NTF-ELCAC. The agency characterized the 19 dead as enemy combatants during an operation aimed at dismantling the decades-long communist insurgency in the Philippines.

On the other hand, family members and human rights advocates reportedly described Prijoles and Sorem as dedicated civilian community activists. The NPA acknowledged that 10 of those killed were members of its armed revolutionary force, but claimed the remaining victims — including several activists such as Prijoles and Sorem — posed no military threat, the San Francisco Standard reported.

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In 2012, Prijoles, a Filipino American born and raised in San Diego, California, was involved with Anakbayan, which translates to "Children of the Nation," a prominent left-wing youth and student organization founded in the Philippines in 1998. Anakbayan-USA operates across several major U.S. college campuses and has drawn scrutiny from critics over its opposition to U.S. involvement in the Philippines. 

His activism reportedly began after attending San Francisco State University around 2004, when he joined the League of Filipino Students (LFS), a left-wing political alliance rooted in Marxist, Leninist and Maoist ideology, the City Journal said.

After 2006, Prijoles reportedly made several trips to the Philippines organized by Bayan USA, another left-wing activist network. The Philippine government has alleged that both organizations function as fronts for the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

Prijoles also may have harbored animosity toward the Armed Forces of the Philippines after his friend — the father of his godchild and chairperson of the U.S. chapter of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines — survived a 2019 assassination attempt that left him paralyzed, according to City Journal.

Meanwhile, Kai Dana Sorem was a Filipino American from Seattle whose political development was initially shaped by a search for personal and cultural identity, according to advocacy group Malaya Movement.

Her early political involvement reportedly included serving as a legislative page for the Washington State Democratic Party. Sorem later deepened her activism within left-wing Filipino diaspora organizations while attending the Central Washington University in 2020. She later launched the South Seattle chapter of Anakbayan, Malaya Movement said.  

In 2025, Sorem reportedly traveled to the Philippines on a U.S.-based exposure trip, and by 2026, she had relocated to the country full-time to work as an organizer.

EXCLUSIVE: Wang Chunyan held a photograph toward the camera, her hands trembling slightly as she pointed to each of the 21 smiling faces: a husband and wife, a university lecturer, a young engineer, friends she met in prison.

Some died in detention, she said. Others after years of abuse. Others disappeared into China’s vast security system and never returned the same. "More than 25 of my friends have died in this persecution. I only have photos of 21 of them," Chunyan said, her voice breaking.

For more than two decades, the 70-year-old Falun Gong practitioner said, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) systematically dismantled her life, stripping away the business she had built, the home she once shared with her family and, eventually, seven years of her life in prison.

But the hardest thing for her, is that she believes it took her husband too. "My beloved husband died due to the persecution," Chunyan claimed during an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital.

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Her account comes as President Donald Trump prepares to travel to China next week for meetings with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, with trade, security and regional tensions expected to dominate the agenda. Yet behind the geopolitical rivalry lies another conflict: Beijing’s decades-long campaign against religious and spiritual groups the Communist Party views as threats to its authority.

Former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback believes Wang’s story reflects a much broader struggle unfolding inside China. "Either the world changes China or China will change the world," Brownback told Fox News Digital.

Brownback recently chronicled Chunyan’s story and the experiences of other survivors in his book China’s War on Faith, arguing that personal testimony can often reveal the reality of persecution more powerfully than statistics alone. "Stories are more powerful than data," he said.

The book examines what Brownback describes as an increasingly sophisticated system of surveillance and repression targeting Christians, Uyghur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists and Falun Gong practitioners. He argues the Chinese Communist Party views independent faith communities as a direct threat to its authority.

"They fear religious freedom more than anything else. More than our aircraft carriers, more than our nuclear weapons, more than anything else because they think it is the biggest threat to the regime."

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Chunyan story started in the late 1990s, when she suffered from severe insomnia, sometimes sleeping only two or three hours a night. Then her older sister introduced her to Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, a spiritual practice ,she says, is centered on meditation exercises and teachings rooted in "truthfulness, compassion and tolerance."

The movement spread rapidly across China during the 1990s, attracting tens of millions of followers before Beijing banned it in 1999, portraying it as a threat to Communist Party control.

Chunyan says Falun Gong helped improve her "physical condition." She said, "My business was booming. My family was happy. My life was perfect."

Chunyan became convinced the practice had saved her life. She owned a successful company selling chemical production equipment and had become wealthy by Chinese standards, but after the crackdown began she felt compelled to publicly defend Falun Gong against what she believed were government lies.

She bought a printing press and began distributing leaflets. Soon afterward, she said, surveillance followed everywhere.

"The buildings where I worked were under constant surveillance," Chunyan recalled. "I left to escape and was afraid to come home."

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For years, she lived in hiding, using prepaid calling cards and public telephones to secretly arrange meetings with her husband, Yu Yefu, in restaurants, coffee shops and hotels across the city. The two tried, briefly, to maintain some sense of normalcy.

Yu himself never practiced Falun Gong, but police repeatedly pressured him to reveal where his wife was hiding. He never did. Then, in 2002, Wang stopped hearing from him.

When she finally returned home, she found him unconscious. Doctors could not save him. "He protected me," she said in tears.

He was 49 years old when he died. Their daughter was still in college.

The devastation spread through the family afterward, Chunyan said. Her mother-in-law stopped eating and later became paralyzed. Her father-in-law died from grief. Her sisters were also imprisoned and tortured.

Then came Chunyan’s own imprisonment.

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She described years of forced labor, sleep deprivation and physical abuse. At one point, she said, the torture became so severe that she fainted three times in a single day.

One memory still haunts her most. Shortly before her release from prison, Wang said authorities conducted unexplained blood tests and medical examinations. At the time, fellow inmates told her the government was simply checking on Falun Gong prisoners before release. Only later, after learning about allegations of forced organ harvesting involving detained Falun Gong practitioners, did she begin to fear why the testing may have happened. "I was horrified," Chunyan said.

Today, Chunyan lives in the United States, having left China in 2013 and eventually making her way through Thailand before arriving in America in 2015.

Yet decades later, the losses remain immediate to her.

"There are millions of families in China like ours," Chunyan wants the world to know, "Persecuted by the CCP."

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Chinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu rejected the allegations and defended Beijing’s actions against Falun Gong. "The aforementioned remarks are nothing but malicious fabrications and sensational lies," Liu said. "Falun Gong is a cult organization that is anti-humanity, anti-science and anti-society. It is hostile toward religion, endangers the public, and serves as a malignant tumor within society." Liu argued that "the Chinese government outlawed the Falun Gong cult in accordance with the law, thereby safeguarding the fundamental human rights and freedoms of the vast majority of the Chinese people." 

EXCLUSIVE: As Iran’s opposition struggles to find a unifying figure amid war, repression and near-total internet blackouts, the husband of jailed Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi says his wife remains physically battered but politically unbroken, even as she sits in prison after what he describes as a brutal arrest and beating.

"Narges is a human rights activist and an advocate for civil society," her husband, Taghi Rahmani, told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview from Europe in exile. "In mobilizing society, and in organizing and shaping civil institutions, she is an active and courageous woman."

At a moment when Iran’s ruling establishment is reeling from the aftermath of U.S. and Israeli strikes, a fragile ceasefire, economic collapse and intensified crackdowns, Mohammadi’s name is emerging in a new light: Not only as a global symbol of resistance, but potentially as one of the few opposition figures whose legitimacy comes from suffering inside the system rather than exile, dynasty or factional politics.

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Mohammadi, awarded the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize while imprisoned, has spent decades as one of Iran’s most prominent women’s rights and human rights activists. 

Trained as an engineer and later a journalist, she served as vice president of the Defenders of Human Rights Center, founded by fellow Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi and became internationally known for campaigning against compulsory hijab laws, solitary confinement, prisoner abuse and the death penalty.

Now, according to her husband, her condition has worsened dramatically.

"Narges is currently detained in Zanjan prison," he said. "She was arrested in Mashhad during the month of Dey (around January) and was severely beaten. During her arrest, she received numerous blows, resulting in severe injuries to her chest, head, body and lungs."

Rahmani said prison medical authorities determined she should be transferred for treatment under her own physician’s supervision in Iran, but that Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence is refusing the transfer and insisting she remain in Zanjan.

"Spiritually and mentally, Narges remains steadfast," he said. "She believes the Islamic Republic is not desirable for the Iranian people, and advocates for a system based on freedom, human rights and open relations with the world. Physically, however, she has sustained severe trauma and urgently requires medical attention."

Rahmani said the last time he spoke with his wife was the night before she left for Mashhad, Iran, where she was later arrested.

His account offers a rare inside look into the life of one of Iran’s most internationally recognized dissidents at a moment when questions over who could realistically lead opposition to the regime are intensifying.

"We hear a great deal about the Iranian opposition, yet media in the free world often lack a precise definition and a full understanding of what the Iranian opposition actually is," Iranian anti-regime activist Maryam Shariatmadari told Fox News Digital.

Shariatmadari, one of the most recognizable faces of Iran’s "Girls of Revolution Street" movement, a wave of anti-regime protests that began in 2017 when Iranian women publicly removed their hijabs and stood in defiance of the country’s mandatory veiling laws, was sentenced to prison in 2018 after publicly removing her hijab in protest.

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According to Shariatmadari, one camp consists of Iranians who view the 1979 Islamic Revolution itself as the foundational national disaster, believing Iran’s trajectory was derailed when the Shah fell. The second includes former revolutionaries, reformists, communist factions and groups such as the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), many of whom emerged from or once supported the revolutionary system before later opposing it. 

"The first group considers the 1979 revolution a disaster and seeks a return to Iran’s previous path," she said, while the second includes "those who participated in the revolution but later became opposition figures after being excluded from power."

That distinction, she argues, helps explain why Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s last shah, remains uniquely recognizable among many anti-regime Iranians despite spending decades outside the country.

Lisa Daftari, foreign policy analyst and editor-in-chief of The Foreign Desk news platform, told Fox News Digital, "Inside Iran, Pahlavi remains one of the only opposition figures with broad name recognition, and his message clearly resonated during the January protests, which is why his name still carries weight for many Iranians both inside the country and in the diaspora."

Pahlavi himself sharpened that message Friday after a series of European appearances, accusing both European politicians and journalists of ignoring the scale of Iranian suffering.

"I spent the past several weeks traveling across Europe, speaking to members of parliaments, governments, and the press," Pahlavi said in a video statement on his official X account. "My visit had one objective: to give a voice to the millions of Iranians held hostage by the Islamic Republic ... But I can now say with confidence that silencing, that censorship is not just happening at the hands of the regime in Iran, but by the international and particularly the European media."

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He went on to condemn what he described as European indifference to the mass killing of protesters and political executions, saying that across two press conferences in Stockholm and Berlin attended by more than 150 journalists, "not a single one" asked about the tens of thousands he says were killed during January’s crackdown or the political prisoners facing execution.

"Whether or not Europe stands with us ... I will fight for my people and my country," Pahlavi said. "We will fight until Iran is free."

Still, even some supporters acknowledge why the administration has hesitated to openly embrace him as a transitional figure.

Daftari warned that overt Western backing could backfire by making him appear externally imposed rather than domestically legitimized.

"The Trump administration’s decision not to more openly embrace him as a transitional figure likely reflects several factors: a deep wariness of making regime change the explicit end goal or appearing to engineer it after Iraq and Afghanistan, concern that overt U.S. backing could put an even bigger target on his back and a strategy that is currently focused less on anointing a successor and more on degrading the regime’s capacity to threaten its own people, the region and the United States," she said.

If Pahlavi represents dynastic memory and explicit regime-change politics, Mohammadi represents something profoundly different.

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Mohammadi’s place within that landscape is distinct due to her unique kind of legitimacy at a time when many Iranians are searching not only for opposition to the regime, but for a figure who embodies endurance under it.

For now, however, Rahmani warns that Iran’s domestic conditions may make any mass uprising extraordinarily difficult. 

"As you know, war serves as an excuse to suppress domestic forces within a country," he said. "This war has now increased the intensity of the regime’s actions against the opposition."

He argued that despite internal divisions, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has effectively consolidated power, militarized the streets and severely weakened civil society.

"The Islamic Republic has practically taken control of the streets during wartime and has severely weakened Iran’s civil society, which is the guarantor of democracy. In our opinion, this war, under these conditions, is not to the benefit of Iran, nor to the benefit of the Iranian people."

That may be the defining challenge for Iran’s opposition today: not simply finding a leader, but surviving long enough under extraordinary repression for one to emerge.

Whether Mohammadi can become that figure remains uncertain. But from prison, her husband says, she has not stopped believing Iran’s future can be different.

The Iranian mission to the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Iran will no longer execute eight women linked to anti-regime protests after he urged their release a day earlier.

"Very good news! I have just been informed that the eight women protestors who were going to be executed tonight in Iran will no longer be killed," Trump said in a post on Truth Social. 

Four of the women will reportedly be released immediately, while the remaining four will serve one-month prison sentences. 

The president thanked Iran for halting the executions, saying, "I very much appreciate that Iran, and its leaders, respected my request."

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Trump previously said on social media Tuesday that releasing the women could work in Iran’s favor during negotiations scheduled later that day, when he ultimately announced an extension of a two-week ceasefire.

"To the Iranian leaders, who will soon be in negotiations with my representatives: I would greatly appreciate the release of these women," Trump said Tuesday, responding to an activist’s post on X that included photos of eight unidentified women.

"I am sure that they will respect the fact that you did so. Please do them no harm! Would be a great start to our negotiations!!!"

Iran’s judiciary, however, quickly responded to Trump’s claims, denying that the women ever faced execution, according to Middle East-focused media outlet New Arab. 

"Trump was misled once again by fake news," the judiciary's official Mizan Online website said. "The women who were claimed to be on the verge of execution, some of them have been released, while others face charges that, if convictions are upheld, would at most result in imprisonment."

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According to human rights groups, Iran reportedly last week scheduled the execution of a female protester linked to the January uprising, marking Tehran’s first publicly reported death penalty case involving a woman. 

She was identified as Bita Hemmati and is among the eight women Trump said will no longer face capital punishment. 

Hemmati was originally sentenced in a collective case alongside her husband and neighbors, the National Council of Resistance of Iran said. 

On Jan. 8 and Jan. 9, the group allegedly threw objects such as concrete blocks and incendiary materials from rooftops, injured security forces and engaged in anti-regime "propaganda" in an effort to undermine security, according to federal authorities. 

One Iranian journalist reported the identities of the other women in a post on X, claiming the defendants are as young as 16 years old.

One victim in particular, identified as Mahboubeh Shabani, 33, was accused of providing assistance to demonstrators injured during January’s uprising, according to the Norway-based Hengaw rights group.

The women’s rulings are among the latest in a series of punishments issued amid a broader government crackdown on dissent.

Rights groups say thousands of protesters may have been killed since demonstrations erupted earlier this year. 

The Chinese government is increasing pressure on underground Catholic communities to join the state-controlled church while tightening surveillance and restrictions on an estimated 12 million Catholics, according to a Human Rights Watch report.

The group said in its report that the increased pressure is part of a decade-old campaign to ensure religious groups align with Communist Party ideology.

The Associated Press reported that the Chinese government has rejected the claim, saying Human Rights Watch is "consistently biased against China."

China’s Catholics have long been split between a state-run church and an underground church loyal to the Vatican. In 2018, Pope Francis reached a deal allowing the Chinese government a role in appointing bishops to ease tensions.

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"A decade into Xi Jinping’s Sinicization campaign and nearly eight years since the 2018 Holy See-China agreement, Catholics in China face escalating repression that violates their religious freedoms," Human Rights Watch researcher Yalkun Uluyol said in the report. 

"Pope Leo XIV should urgently review the agreement and press Beijing to end the persecution and intimidation of underground churches, clergy, and worshipers."

The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson’s office told The Associated Press that Human Rights Watch "fabricates all manner of lies and rumors and lacks any credibility whatsoever."

The office added that the government "oversees religious affairs in accordance with the law and protects citizens’ freedom of religious belief and normal religious activities."

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Human Rights Watch said its researchers are not allowed into China and that the report is based on interviews with people outside the country who had firsthand knowledge of Catholic life in China, along with experts on Catholicism and religious freedom.

The 2018 agreement stipulates that Beijing proposes candidates for bishop, which the pope can veto, though the full text has never been made public.

In June 2025, Pope Leo XIV, who had just become the pope, appointed a Chinese bishop under the 2018 agreement and said he would continue to honor the deal "in the short term."

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"I’m also in ongoing dialogue with a number of people, Chinese, on both sides of some of the issues that are there," Leo said. "It’s a very difficult situation. In the long term, I don’t pretend to say this is what I will and will not do, but after two months, I’ve already begun having discussions at several levels on that topic."

Since 2018, Human Rights Watch says Chinese authorities have pressured underground Catholics to join the state-run church through detentions, disappearances and house arrests, citing accounts from unnamed individuals who have left China.

The report also said China has tightened ideological control, surveillance and restrictions on religious activity and foreign ties, including requiring state approval for clergy travel, while officially recognizing and closely overseeing five religions: Buddhism, Taoism, Catholicism, Protestantism and Islam.

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Xi Jinping said in 2016 he would "Sinicize" the country’s religions, a policy aimed at aligning religious practices with Communist Party ideology.

Human Rights Watch said authorities have taken sweeping steps to curb religious practice, including tearing down churches and crosses, blocking gatherings at unregistered churches and seizing religious materials not approved by the state.

The group said the broader "Sinicization" campaign has also led to intensified crackdowns on Tibetan Buddhists and Muslims.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.