The U.S. Embassy in Moscow issued a security alert Saturday warning people of a potential "mass casualty event" at the 2 Museum Reserve in Moscow.
"The U.S. Embassy in Moscow is aware of a credible threat of a mass casualty event TODAY October 31, at the Tsaritsyno Museum Reserve in Moscow at Dolskaya Ulitsa 1, Moscow, Russia 11569. The U.S. government is coordinating with appropriate Russian authorities on a response," the embassy wrote in a statement.
The alert warned people to avoid the Tsaritsyno Museum area and to "stay alert, and avoid crowds."
Founded in 1775 as a summer home for Russia's Catherine II, the Tsaritsyno Museum is now a popular tourist attraction in Russia's capital.
The museum itself attracted more than 2 million visitors in 2022, Moscow's deputy mayor, Natalya Sergunina, said in 2023. The surrounding grounds, enjoyed by Moscow's local citizens for physical activity and dog walking, get even more foot traffic, according to The Art Newspaper.
The U.S. Embassy's alert also included a warning to people in the Moscow area to keep cellphone batteries and other batteries charged, remain aware of surroundings and review a personal security plan.
The alert was issued as tensions in the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine continue to escalate.
On Friday, Ukraine struck an oil refinery in southern Russia, ending a two-week pause on energy infrastructure attacks brokered by President Donald Trump between the warring nations.
The previous day, Russian drone and missile strikes in Ukraine killed at least 27 civilians, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Fox News Digital contacted the U.S. Embassy in Moscow for further information.
FIRST ON FOX: The State Department has hit out strongly against South Africa and some of its politicians, accusing them of putting their people’s lives at risk after two attacks on White farmers believed to be Afrikaners — people of European descent — near Johannesburg.
A 50-year-old man was reportedly tortured, and a 55-year-old woman was allegedly beaten to death.
In exclusive comments to Fox News Digital, a State Department spokesperson said "the lives and property of Afrikaners have been endangered by politicians who incite race-based violence against them."
This is the latest volley from the administration in an increasingly bitter row, which first burst out of the Oval Office last year in a heated exchange between President Donald Trump and South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa on a range of the country’s policies and issues, including safety concerns for the Afrikaner community.
"This month’s attacks were appalling," said Ian Cameron, chair of South Africa’s Portfolio Committee on Police and a member of Parliament with the main opposition Democratic Alliance.
He detailed the attacks, starting with one involving Donovan Marx, a 50-year-old who was on his farm about 80 miles from Johannesburg.
Cameron told Fox News Digital there were reports Marx was shot, stabbed and had his ears cut off, describing the attack as "extraordinary cruelty."
He added that, in a separate attack in the same North West Province earlier this month, a female farmer, Hannetjie van Zyl, 55, was beaten to death while opening a gate.
Eyewitness reports claim she was approached from behind and hit repeatedly over the head with an iron bar.
In both attacks, the victims’ vehicles and belongings were reportedly stolen. But the alleged torture of Marx goes beyond straightforward crimes such as burglary, Corné Mulder, leader of the opposition party Freedom Front Plus, told Fox News Digital.
"Safety and farm attacks in South Africa remains a huge problem," Mulder said. "Donovan Marx was attacked this week. He's fighting for his life in hospital at the moment. The perpetrators not only attacked him, they tried to castrate him."
While both victims were White, there have been no accusations from public figures that the attacks were racially motivated.
Cameron claimed the attacks were not isolated, noting he had "personally attended farm attack scenes in which people were tortured with boiling water, burnt with clothing irons and subjected to other horrific abuse."
"SAPS [South African Police Service] must put experienced investigators, forensic support and crime intelligence behind these cases," Cameron said. "Nobody should have to accept this level of violence as a normal part of life."
The reported torture of farmers is "unthinkable," Mulder said, adding "not one word from the President of South Africa to sympathize, not even acknowledging that this has happened, which is absolutely unbelievable."
"We have been pleading with [the] government to prioritize rural crime and farm attacks as a priority crime, they are not prepared to do so," he continued.
Fox News Digital reached out to the South African government for comment but was referred to police, who did not immediately respond.
Mulder claims the recent farm attacks were fueled by the South African president’s refusal to heed Trump’s demand last year to stop performances of the song "Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer." The term "Boer" refers to a South African of Dutch or Huguenot descent, according to Merriam-Webster.
Ramaphosa said he could not stop the song being chanted in stadiums by crowds of up to 90,000 because the country’s highest court has said the lyrics are not hate speech.
"As long as [President Ramaphosa] does not stop the incitement to attack farmers with the singing of the song ‘Kill the Boer,’ the attacks will continue," Mulder wrote in a statement. "We see the practical reality when these things play out as happened with the last two farm attacks that we've seen."
Last month, U.S. Ambassador to South Africa Brent Bozell III told Fox News Digital Ramaphosa could ban the song despite a court ruling that it did not constitute hate speech.
"So, to say, ‘Well, you can’t do it because the court said it’s not,’ … you know, that’s poppycock," Bozell said. "If President Ramaphosa, if he wants to, he can do it. It’s just as simple as that."
The State Department doubled down on the administration’s demand that the singing of the song be banned, with a spokesperson telling Fox News Digital on Friday, "The United States asked senior government officials to condemn incitement to race-based violence, particularly the singing of "Kill the Farmer! Kill the Boer!"
The spokesperson added that Trump has demanded South Africa formally designate rural crime as a priority crime and "expand alternatives to the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment ownership requirements, such as equity equivalent investment programs."
Regarding farmers, the State Department spokesperson said South African politicians "threaten to confiscate their farms without compensation and support a corrupt, race-based scoring system that discriminates against Afrikaners and other minorities in employment."
"The lack of a meaningful response to these requests made clear that the South African government does not want a constructive relationship with the United States and is willing to continue pursuing oppressive policies that disadvantage all South Africans," the spokesperson continued.
Nearly 13,000 South African refugees, most of them Afrikaners, have been flown to the U.S. during fiscal year 2026. That number is expected to increase by another 17,500 refugees in fiscal year 2027.
"As directed by President Trump, we are prioritizing the resettlement of Afrikaners in South Africa escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination," the State Department spokesperson said.
The Trump administration warned Iran that there "will be consequences" if Tehran continues its malign activities amid growing concern over a potential new round of U.S.-Iran hostilities after the midterm elections.
With just days until the 2026 elections and with war raging on in the Middle East, foreign ministers from the world's largest economies gathered in Atlanta, Georgia ahead of the G20 leaders meeting in December.
"The Iranian regime has had a choice... to either pursue the path towards normalcy, towards prosperity for their people, the path towards diplomacy. Or they can continue their malign activities, but there will be consequences for that, and we've seen the president taking concrete action," State Department principal deputy spokesperson Tommy Pigott told Fox News Digital on Friday.
Pigott was responding to reports that U.S. officials have warned regional partners to prepare for the possibility of heightened U.S. military action against Iran after Tuesday's elections, as well as potential Iranian retaliation.
President Donald Trump has not made a final decision on renewed strikes, but U.S. diplomats and defense officials have privately urged several Middle Eastern countries and regional allies to prepare for the possibility of new military action and Iranian retaliation, according to an Associated Press report citing two diplomats briefed on the warnings.
Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton wrote in an unclassified memo to Secretary of State Marco Rubio that the U.S. had received intelligence that Iran had "substantially increased efforts to target U.S. personnel" and that lethal Iranian plots had reached "advanced stages" in the Middle East and elsewhere, according to Scripps News.
Asked whether those threats were being discussed with G20 counterparts and whether the U.S. was sharing intelligence with allies to disrupt potential plots, Pigott declined to discuss intelligence matters but said the U.S. was working with international partners against transnational threats.
"We're going to work with our partners to make sure that any transnational threat has the appropriate transnational response to protect our citizens," he insisted.
The prospect of renewed fighting with Iran loomed over the G20 foreign ministers' meeting, where Rubio has put energy security, secure supply chains and freedom of navigation among the U.S. priorities.
Rubio opened the two-day gathering Friday by warning that the world's largest economies face "interconnected economic and geopolitical crises" threatening energy and food supplies, trade, global supply chains and freedom of navigation.
Pigott said the administration's position remains that "there cannot be a situation where a country decides that they can control an international waterway and charge tolls over that waterway."
In the aftermath of the war, Iran began asserting greater authority over the Strait of Hormuz and insisting on the right to collect fees from ships for services including navigation and environmental protection.
Asked what the U.S. wants G20 countries to do to keep the strait open, Pigott pointed to a broader principle that international waterways must remain free from coercion.
"Fundamentally, the principle here is so important, making sure that we are having secure international waterways in the sense we're not having these tolls or coercion, making sure we have secure supply chains," Pigott said. "That is so important."
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