News from Multiple Perspectives

Maja T was part of a group that attacked participants at Budapest's 'Day of Honour', a major neo-Nazi event.

Artemy Ostanin sentenced to more than five years in a penal colony after joking about a 'legless' war veteran.

The two leaders discussed maintaining their growing ties amid international instability.

South Korea's Yeongseok Jeong sweeps a stone, during the mixed doubles round robin phase of the curling competition against Sweden, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair) 2026-02-04T17:37:51Z CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — The Winter Olympics got underway Wednesday with the first curling matches in Cortina, but came to a halt only moments later because of a power outage. Officials briefly paused the matches at the historic curling stadium when the lights dimmed and flickered. Curlers kept sliding on the ice to stay ready. Fans cheered when the bright lights came back shortly after and competition resumed. Venue officials said they were investigating and had no immediate word on what caused the problem. Curling in Cortina — eight teams in mixed doubles — began two full days before the opening ceremony for the 2026 Milan Cortina Games . American curler Korey Dropkin said he has been waiting a long time for this moment. “Being amongst the best, it’s a very cool atmosphere to be part of,” said Dropkin, a first-time Olympian who will begin competition Thursday. “We’re looking forward to being ready to compete and pour our hearts out on the ice.” freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); Opening night in this mountain resort was just the first of the round robin matches in mixed doubles curling, where teams with one woman and one man face off against one another. Fans have arrived in Cortina, and they are excited for the first matches. They clapped, rang bells and chanted for their countries and favorite curlers when their teams scored or there was a break in the action. Some in the crowd held large flags for the Czech Republic, whose team was competing against Canada. Canadian fans wearing red waved handheld flags. Bernard Benoit traveled from Ontario, Canada, to root for his home team before going on to meet his daughter in Milan. While he’s a longtime curling fan, it’s his first time at the Olympics. He said he came a long way to see the best in the world because he loves how curling is a “mix of athleticism and intellect” and a strategy game. Benoit is cheering for Canadian couple Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant, who are competing in mixed doubles. Three of the teams are married couples and one is a sibling team. Marie Kaldvee and Harri Lill are the first ever to compete for Estonia in curling. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); Italian duo Stefania Constantini, who is from Cortina , and Amos Mosaner are the defending world and Olympic champions in mixed doubles. Stephanie Kahn is a volunteer at the curling center, who is eager to learn what curling is all about and how hard it is. Kahn is from the United States and moved to Spain when she retired. She aspired to compete in swimming in the Olympics when she was younger. “That, for me, is what makes it so special. Being an athlete and knowing that to be at the top, top of your sport, regardless of what that sport is, it’s just such a commitment,” she said. “So I’m just excited to be in the presence of these athletes.” ___ AP Writer Julia Frankel in Jerusalem contributed to this report. ___ AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics JENNIFER McDERMOTT McDermott is a reporter on the Associated Press Climate and Environment team. She focuses on the transition to clean energy. twitter mailto 获取更多RSS： https://feedx.net https://feedx.site

U.S. Supreme Court is seen, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul) 2026-02-04T19:00:58Z WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed California to use a new voter-approved congressional map that is favorable to Democrats in this year’s elections, rejecting a last-ditch plea from state Republicans and the Trump administration. No justices dissented from the brief order. The justices had previously allowed Texas’ Republican-friendly map to be used in 2026, despite a lower court ruling that it likely discriminates on the basis of race. Conservative Justice Samuel Alito wrote in December that it appeared both states had adopted new maps for political advantage, which the high court has previously ruled cannot be a basis for a federal lawsuit. Republicans, joined by the Trump administration, claimed the California map improperly relied on race, as well. But a lower court disagreed by a 2-1 vote. The justices’ unsigned order keeps in place districts that are designed to flip up to five seats now held by Republicans, part of a tit-for-tat nationwide redistricting battle spurred by President Donald Trump, with control of Congress on the line in midterm elections. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); Last year, at Trump’s behest, Texas Republicans redid the state’s congressional districts with an eye on gaining five seats. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who is eying a 2028 presidential run , vowed to respond in kind, though he had to win over voters, not just lawmakers, to do so. Filing for congressional primaries in California begins on Monday. ___ Follow the AP’s coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court . MARK SHERMAN Sherman has covered the Supreme Court for The Associated Press since 2006. His journalism career spans five decades. He is based in Washington, D.C., and previously lived in New York, Paris and Atlanta. twitter mailto

Law enforcement officers are present outside the home of Nancy Guthrie, the mother of "Today" host Savannah Guthrie, near Tucson, Ariz., Monday, Feb. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Sejal Govindarao) 2026-02-04T16:46:05Z TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — The search for “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie’s mother still had no suspect or person of interest Wednesday, authorities said, four days after she disappeared with signs of forced entry at her home in southern Arizona. Investigators believe Nancy Guthrie was taken against her will over the weekend and Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has said they don’t have credible information indicating Guthrie’s disappearance was targeted. Guthrie has limited mobility, and officials do not believe she left on her own. Nanos said she is of sound mind. “Detectives continue to speak with anyone who may have had contact with Mrs. Guthrie,” the sheriff’s department said in a statement on social media Wednesday. “Detectives are working closely with the Guthrie family.” Multiple media organizations reported receiving purported ransom notes Tuesday that they handed over to investigators. The sheriff’s department has said it’s taking the notes and other tips seriously but declined to comment further. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); The Pima County sheriff and the Tucson FBI chief urged the public to offer tips during a news conference Tuesday . Nanos has said Guthrie needs daily medication and could die without it. Asked whether officials were looking for her alive, he said, “We hope we are.” Authorities say Nancy Guthrie was last seen around 9:30 p.m. Saturday at her home in the Tucson area, where she lived alone, and she was reported missing midday Sunday. Someone at her church called a family member to say she was not there, leading family to search her home and then call 911. DNA samples have been gathered and submitted for analysis as part of the investigation. “We’ve gotten some back, but nothing to indicate any suspects,” Nanos said. There were signs of forced entry at Guthrie’s home, evidence of a nighttime kidnapping, and several personal items were still there, including Guthrie’s cellphone, wallet and car, according to a person familiar with the investigation, who was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the case and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of an anonymity. Investigators were reviewing surveillance video from nearby homes and information from area license plate cameras and analyzing local cellphone towers data. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); For a third day Wednesday, “Today” opened with Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance, but Savannah Guthrie was not at the anchor’s desk. NBC Sports said Tuesday that Guthrie will not be covering the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics “as she focuses on being with her family during this difficult time.” The “Today” host grew up in Tucson , graduated from the University of Arizona and previously worked as a reporter and anchor at Tucson television station KVOA. Her parents settled in Tucson in the 1970s when she was a young child. The youngest of three siblings, she credits her mom with holding their family together after her father died of a heart attack at 49, when Savannah was just 16. ___ Billeaud reported from Phoenix and Balsamo from Washington. JACQUES BILLEAUD Billeaud is an Associated Press reporter who covers courts and law enforcement in Arizona. He previously covered immigration and the Arizona Legislature. SEJAL GOVINDARAO Govindarao covers Arizona government and politics for The Associated Press, with a focus on women in state government. She is based in Phoenix. twitter mailto MIKE BALSAMO Balsamo is the national law enforcement editor for The Associated Press. He oversees coverage of the Justice Department, federal courts and criminal justice. twitter mailto

The project would have built on the ruins of the defence ministry bombed by Nato back in 1999.

Supporters have questioned whether the 25-year-old, who identifies as non-binary, could receive a fair trial in Hungary.

The teenager allegedly took a knife from his kitchen with the plan to attack the 60-year-old, the prosecutor says.

The British government has committed to releasing files related to the decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the United States despite his ties to the late disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein . The decision to release the documents came after the Conservative Party said it would force a vote in Parliament compelling the government to publish documents related to Mandelson's appointment, according to The Associated Press . The outlet noted that critics said Mandelson's relationship with Epstein was known at the time of his appointment, though not to the extent that has since been revealed. On Wednesday, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer was grilled on the revelations and the decision to appoint Mandelson. "I intend to make sure that all of the material is published," Starmer told lawmakers. He said the release would not include documents that compromise Britain's national security, international relations or the police investigation into Mandelson's activities. LONDON POLICE LAUNCH CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION INTO FORMER UK AMBASSADOR TO US WITH ALLEGED EPSTEIN TIES Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch cast doubt on Starmer's promise, demanding that the government publish all relevant files and "not just the ones the prime minister wants us to see." Badenoch went on to accuse the government of "trying to sabotage that release with an amendment to let him choose what we see." "The prime minister is talking about national security. The national security issue was appointing Mandelson in the first place," Badenoch said. Starmer said he knew Mandelson had maintained contact with Epstein after his 2008 prison term but that the former ambassador had "misrepresented the extent" of the relationship and "lied throughout the process, including in response to the due diligence." "Mandelson betrayed our country, our Parliament and my party. He lied repeatedly to my team when asked about his relationship with Epstein, before and during his tenure as ambassador," Starmer said in the House of Commons on Wednesday. "I regret appointing him. If I knew then what I know now, he would never have been anywhere near government." In response to a request for comment, Starmer's office referred Fox News Digital to the prime minister's remarks in the House of Commons. The prime minister added that he had instructed his team to write legislation that would strip Mandelson of his title. DOJ PUBLISHES TROVE OF EPSTEIN FILES, SAYS MORE TO COME AFTER FRIDAY DEADLINE Last week, the Justice Department released a trove of documents related to the Epstein case. Among them were emails between the disgraced financier and Mandelson. The files appeared to show that in 2009, Mandelson passed an internal government report to Epstein and discussed lobbying for reduced taxes on bankers' bonuses, the AP reported. Additionally, the files suggest that Epstein sent payments totaling $75,000 to accounts linked to Mandelson or his partner Reinaldo Avila da Silva. Following the revelations in the newly released files, Mandelson resigned from the House of Lords on Sunday. EX-PRINCE ANDREW PHOTOGRAPHED KNEELING OVER WOMAN IN LATEST DOJ JEFFREY EPSTEIN FILE RELEASE In September, Starmer fired Mandelson from the ambassadorship after a string of emails, released by The Sun newspaper, showed he maintained a friendship with Epstein even after the late financier's 2008 conviction for sex offenses involving a minor. Following the fresh revelations about Mandelson, police in the U.K. opened an investigation into the former ambassador. Metropolitan Police Cmdr. Ella Marriot in London said following the latest DOJ documents dump, the Met received "a number of reports" into alleged misconduct in public office, including a referral from the UK government. "I can confirm that the Metropolitan Police has now launched an investigation into a 72-year-old man, a former Government Minister, for misconduct in public office offenses," Marriot wrote in a statement . The House of Lords declined to comment on the police investigation when asked by Fox News Digital on Tuesday. The Associated Press and Fox News Digital's Michael Dorgan and Alex Koch contributed to this report.

U.S. Central Command announced Wednesday that it carried out five strikes against "multiple" Islamic State targets in recent days as part of a joint military effort to "ensure the enduring defeat of the terrorist network." CENTCOM said, from Jan. 27 to Feb. 2, its forces "located and destroyed an ISIS communication site, critical logistics node, and weapons storage facilities with 50 precision munitions delivered by fixed-wing, rotary-wing, and unmanned aircraft." "Striking these targets demonstrates our continued focus and resolve for preventing an ISIS resurgence in Syria ," Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of CENTCOM, said in a statement. "Operating in coordination with coalition and partner forces to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS makes America, the region and the world safer." AFTER TRUMP DECLARED ISIS DEFEATED, US FACES NEW TEST AS DETAINEES MOVE AMID SYRIA POWER SHIFT CENTCOM said it launched the Operation Hawkeye Strike mission in response to a Dec. 13, 2025, ISIS "ambush" attack against U.S. and Syrian forces in Palmyra, Syria. The attack left two U.S. service members and an American interpreter dead. "After nearly two months of targeted operations, more than 50 ISIS terrorists have been killed or captured. CENTCOM forces killed Bilal Hasan al-Jasim during a deliberate strike in northwest Syria on Jan. 16. The terrorist leader was directly connected with the ISIS gunman responsible for the Dec. 13 attack," the military agency said. CHAOS IN SYRIA SPARKS FEARS OF ISIS PRISON BREAKS AS US RUSHES DETAINEES TO IRAQ Cooper said in December at the launch of Operation Hawkeye Strike that the effort is "critical to preventing ISIS from inspiring terrorist plots and attacks against the U.S. homeland." "We will continue to relentlessly pursue terrorists who seek to harm Americans and our partners across the region," he added. In December, before Operation Hawkeye Strike, CENTCOM said U.S. and partner forces in Syria "conducted more than 80 operations over the last six months to eliminate terrorists posing a direct threat to the United States and regional security."

Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed on Wednesday that Iran requested to change locations for talks with its U.S. counterparts, following several reports on the matter. "We thought we had an established forum that had been agreed to in Turkey. It was put together by a number of partners who wanted to attend and be a part of it," Rubio said when taking questions from reporters on Wednesday. "I saw conflicting reports yesterday from the Iranian side saying that they had not agreed to that. So, that's still being worked through. At the end of the day, the United States is prepared to engage in, has always been prepared to engage with Iran." IRAN PUSHES FOR FRIDAY NUCLEAR TALKS IN OMAN AMID RISING TENSIONS WITH US FORCES: SOURCE A source familiar with the discussions told Fox News on Tuesday that Iran had requested to hold nuclear talks with the U.S. in Oman on Friday. Additionally, Axios reported that Iranian officials were pressing to limit the talks to a bilateral U.S.-Iran format, excluding other Arab and regional countries — a move that could complicate U.S. diplomatic efforts in the region. Rubio would not say what topics had been agreed on. Rather, he laid out matters that, in his view, would need to be discussed in order for the meeting to "actually lead to something meaningful." The topics on Rubio's list include the range of Iran's ballistic missiles, its sponsorship of terror organizations, its nuclear program and the treatment of its people. IRANIAN MEDIA CLAIMS DRONE SHOT DOWN BY US WAS CONDUCTING SURVEILLANCE IN A 'ROUTINE AND LAWFUL MISSION' The secretary also spoke about the anti-regime protests that have raged in Iran since late December. When the demonstrations began, President Donald Trump said the U.S. would act if protesters were met with violence. Rubio credited Trump's tough talk with the cancellation of protesters' executions, something that the regime has denied. "The Iranian people and the Iranian regime are very unalike," Rubio said. "The leadership of Iran at the clerical level does not reflect the people of Iran. I know of no other country where there's a bigger difference between the people that lead the country and the people who live there." TRUMP SAYS IRAN 'SERIOUSLY TALKING TO US' AS MILITARY SHIPS HEAD TO MIDDLE EAST Rubio said that the Islamic regime is unable to fix the economic problems plaguing its people because Iranian leaders are using the country's money and resources to sponsor terrorism and proxy groups around the world. On Tuesday, the U.S. military shot down an Iranian drone after it "aggressively approached a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier with unclear intent," a U.S. Central Command spokesman told Fox News. Iran later claimed that the drone was conducting surveillance as part of a "routine and lawful mission over international waters." Fox News Digital's Michael Dorgan, Greg Norman-Diamond and Liz Friden, and Fox News' Aishah Hasnie contributed to this report.

The raiders stormed a rural community in central Nigeria, killing dozens and setting homes on fire in one of the country’s worst recent attacks.

Gaza officials said the Israeli airstrikes killed at least 21 Palestinians. Israel said one of its soldiers was critically wounded in the attack by Palestinian gunmen.

Chevron has signed an initial agreement to start working in Syria, weeks after the Syrian government seized control of key oil and gas fields in the north of the country.

For months, the Trump administration has justified its dramatic midnight raid on a Chicago apartment complex by saying that it had intelligence that the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua had taken over the building. But officials have provided no evidence to back up the claim. Now, new documents confirm in the government’s own words that what prompted the raid was more pedestrian: allegations that immigrants were squatting in the complex. And the landlord had given federal officials, who were already targeting immigrants in Chicago, the blessing to search the building. Arrest records for two of the 37 immigrants detained that September night, included in a motion filed Tuesday that’s tied to an ongoing federal consent decree, provide the clearest picture yet of what led to the controversial and aggressive operation, in which agents descended from a Blackhawk helicopter, broke down doors and zip-tied U.S. citizens and immigrants. The records reveal that agents entered and searched the complex with the “owner/manager’s verbal and written consent.” Agents wrote that they launched the operation “based on intelligence that there were illegal aliens unlawfully occupying apartments.” They said they focused their search on units “that were not legally rented or leased at the time.” That narrative appears word for word in both arrest reports — for a Venezuelan man and a Mexican man. “It was a brutal lie against the American public,” said Mark Fleming, an attorney with the National Immigrant Justice Center and co-counsel in a lawsuit against the government that led to the consent decree. “This was really about immigrants purportedly occupying apartments unlawfully, which is radically different than the story they told.” The U.S. Department of Homeland Security makes no mention in the records of Tren de Aragua, even though officials repeatedly cited the gang’s presence in the building as the motivation for the raid. Agents paraded immigrants in front of cameras and called their arrests a victory against terrorism. The government also claimed two of those arrested were gang members but never provided any proof. The new documents obtained by ProPublica show that the motive for the federal raid was allegations that immigrants were squatting in the complex. Obtained by ProPublica ProPublica previously reported , based on interviews and records, that there was little evidence to back up the government’s claims. Even today, four months after the raid, federal prosecutors have not filed criminal charges against anyone who was arrested.  Over the past few months, ProPublica has interviewed 15 of the immigrants detained that night; all denied gang membership. They and others who lived in the building acknowledged there was criminal activity there, including the murder of a Venezuelan man last summer, but nobody knew of gang members there. The two arrest records were filed in federal court as part of ongoing litigation over whether the government, during its monthslong deportation campaign in Chicago, violated a 2022 consent decree that limits warrantless arrests. The consent decree is still in place, and the government continues to challenge it. Government attorneys had previously acknowledged in court that hundreds of immigrants detained last year may have been improperly arrested.  Following a court order, DHS has been providing administrative arrest records to attorneys who now are demanding the release of some of those immigrants from custody or the removal of restrictions for those who are already out. That includes the Venezuelan man and Mexican man taken during the raid. In the motion filed Tuesday night, immigrant rights attorneys said that to justify warrantless arrests across Chicago, the government described immigrants as flight risks though they were not. Some of the factors that DHS used to make that determination for the South Shore men — including their “willful disregard for other’s personal property” and their “attempt to flee from law enforcement” — were baseless and contradicted by the arrest narratives, the attorneys wrote. Even more of the 37 arrests that night may have violated the consent decree, attorneys said, but the cases under review are for those who remain in the U.S. As the weeks and months passed, most of the immigrants detained in the South Shore raid were deported or gave up on their efforts to stay in the country. The property owner, Trinity Flood, a Wisconsin-based real estate investor, and the management company at the time of the raid, Strength in Management, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday morning. Flood and Corey Oliver, the management company’s owner, have repeatedly declined interview requests and have not acknowledged any involvement in the operation. A DHS spokesperson did not respond to questions Wednesday morning but repeated earlier statements that the raid was performed legally. “Given that two individuals of a Foreign Terrorist Organization were arrested, at a building they are known to frequent, we are limited on further information we can provide,” the spokesperson said. From the beginning there had been questions about whether Flood and her property manager tipped off the government to get rid of squatters in her building, which had repeatedly failed city inspections in the two years before the raid.  Last month, state officials launched a housing discrimination investigation into allegations that Flood and Strength in Management used federal agents to illegally force the Black and Hispanic tenants from the 130-unit building in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood. In their complaint, state officials wrote that “building management blamed Venezuelan tenants for their own (management’s) failure to provide needed locks and security service, as well as other needed maintenance and repairs, and perpetuated stereotypes about Venezuelan gang members to send a message that tenants born outside of the United States were considered gang associates, even if they were law abiding.” Within hours of the raid, workers from the management company were tossing tenants’ belongings in the trash and clearing out apartments, the complaint states. State officials said that they could not provide any additional information on an ongoing investigation, but that they look forward to a response from Flood and Strength in Management. Several Venezuelan immigrants detained that night said they were angry to learn that the building’s owner and property manager had facilitated federal agents’ entry. “We were paying our rent, doing things the right way,” said Jean Carlos Antonio Colmenares Pérez, 39. “Then suddenly, boom, the government comes in and takes us out. I don’t understand.” Colmenares spent more than two months in federal custody before he was deported in December. “They took us out as if we were dogs. As if we were criminals,” said his cousin, Daniel José Henríquez Rojas, 43. Henríquez was detained for about two months before he was deported. Federal agents also took his wife and then-6-year-son that night and later transported them to a facility in Texas where they were detained for about a month. The family is now back together in Venezuela. Johandry José Andrade Jiménez, 23, had moved into the South Shore complex with his wife and three young daughters just two days before the raid. Andrade was deported in December. His wife was released with an ankle monitor in Chicago, where she now struggles to support their daughters alone. “They separated me from my family,” Andrade said. “I feel awful.” Read More “I Lost Everything”: Venezuelans Were Rounded Up in a Dramatic Midnight Raid but Never Charged With a Crime The complex was home to dozens of mostly African American and Venezuelan tenants. While some said they had stopped paying rent because of the dangerous and dilapidated conditions, close to a dozen Venezuelans, including Colmenares, Henríquez and Andrade, told us they were paying rent to people they believed worked for the management company. But in some cases, that money was going to other tenants who claimed to be the managers. ProPublica interviewed a U.S. citizen who said that he and others moved Venezuelan families into empty units, charged whatever amount they believed was fair and pocketed the money. “We started making them pay rent to us,” the man said. Flood, who is facing a foreclosure lawsuit, said in court records last fall that her company had invested millions of dollars to repair and maintain the building and on legal fees for evictions. Weeks before the raid, the company obtained court orders to evict squatters. The building continued to deteriorate after the raid. Oliver testified in court that he briefly hired security people but then fired them after they didn’t do their jobs. In November, a county judge ordered that another company take over management of the building and required that the remaining residents move out. The post The Real Story Behind the Midnight Immigration Raid on a Chicago Apartment Building appeared first on ProPublica .

In July of 1968, Samuel Bowers sat down in his office with fingers poised over his typewriter keys, thoughts filled with fury. As founder and imperial wizard of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, he cut a charismatic figure, though one with a militant Christian faith and a hate-filled mind. Just a day earlier, police had killed one of his most trusted assassins and severely injured another.  Bowers had spent the past few years masterminding bombings at Mississippi’s Black churches and, more recently, synagogues as well. His two foot soldiers now riddled with bullets had bombed the Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson on a foggy night nine months earlier and were en route to bomb a Jewish leader’s home when police gunned them down. At the typewriter, Bowers pounded out a five-page missive to Thomas Tucker, a local police officer who shot one of the Klan members but had earlier faced suspicions of being a Klan sympathizer himself, journalist Jack Nelson wrote in his 1993 book “Terror in the Night: The Klan’s Campaign Against the Jews.”  “Mr. Tucker,” Bowers wrote, “the principle of law as it has been twisted and abused by the animals in the Synagogue of Satan, one of which you were guarding and protecting.” The Klanswoman killed, he insisted, was an American Patriot “doing her limited best to preserve Christian Civilization by helping to destroy the body of an animal of Satan’s Synagogue.”  Flash forward almost 60 years after Bowers wrote his letter.  On Jan. 10, a whole new generation of congregants at Beth Israel, among Mississippi’s oldest synagogues, awoke to devastating news about their house of worship. Someone had set a fire inside. The blaze had started in the library, destroying it along with sacred Torah scrolls, prayer books and myriad other materials. Smoke had filled the sanctuary. No congregants were injured, but they would not be able to worship there for some time. Later the day of the arson, a young man with scorched hands faced an FBI agent and others investigating the crime. Stephen Spencer Pittman was born in Jackson in 2006, the year Bowers died . Just 19 years old, he allegedly admitted to investigators that he set fire to the temple due to its “Jewish ties,” according to an FBI agent’s affidavit . He dubbed Beth Israel a “synagogue of Satan.” The fire that damaged Beth Israel’s synagogue last month marks the second time in nearly 60 years that the building has come under attack. Courtesy of Beth Israel Congregation The term refers to biblical passages in which Jesus described Jews in specific communities who were persecuting the early Christians. Antisemites like Bowers had co-opted the phrase to describe Jews broadly as agents of evil plotting against white Christians. He believed that Jews who hadn’t converted to Christianity were “ heretics ” and their houses of worship therefore legitimate military targets — especially those like Beth Israel, whose rabbi had been linking arms with civil rights protestors.  Why Pittman, who has pleaded not guilty, used those words remains unclear. But according to the affidavit, after the fire burned the temple, Pittman texted his father, “I did my research.”   What did that research entail? Little is known so far. It remains unclear whether the teenager knew much about the ideology of the people behind the 1967 bombing or if he followed any of today’s antisemitic influencers. Pittman, a community college baseball player from Madison, Mississippi, did engage in substantial online activity. He appears to have created profiles on multiple social media platforms where he mostly posted about his sport, nutrition and his Christian faith. Yet, shortly before the fire, an Instagram account that appears to be his posted an antisemitic meme of a cartoon character with a prominent nose, a Star of David affixed to his chest and a money bag in each hand. And across the online world that Pittman traversed, a crop of young influencers have been spreading antisemitism, often rooted in Christianity. They are attracting millions of followers,  embracing conspiracy theories of global Jewish takeovers and using terms like the “synagogue of Satan” that people like Bowers would well recognize.  Back Then … In many ways, the original sin of mass antisemitic disinformation stems from a text called “ The Protocols of the Elders of Zion .” Published in the Russian empire in 1903, it claimed to be an insider account of Jews plotting world domination. The tropes in it weren’t new, but the text provided rich fodder to those who embraced its “evidence” that Jews were orchestrating a global plan to amass wealth and eradicate non-Jews.  “Only we, the Jews, are qualified to rule the world,” the text proclaimed. “We shall surround our government with economists, bankers, industrialists, capitalists — and the main thing — millionaires — for everything will be settled by gold.” The fact that the text was proven a forgery did little to thwart those who embraced it. Adolf Hitler called the document “ immensely instructive .” Klan groups adopted it as a foundational text.  Bowers used conspiracy theories rooted in “The Protocols” to contend that Jewish puppetmasters were the real masterminds behind the NAACP, the FBI and the young civil rights volunteers pouring into places like Mississippi and Black people were merely their pawns. With that framing, his followers could demean Black protesters and vilify federal agents and Jews, notably those who linked arms with their Black neighbors to demand equal rights — as the rabbi at Beth Israel had increasingly done before Bowers’ henchmen bombed his synagogue and then his home. Samuel Bowers, founder and imperial wizard of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, masterminded multiple bombings in the 1960s, including on Beth Israel in 1967. A year later, an officer arrested him on arson charges connected to the murder of Black civil rights leader Vernon Dahmer. Bettman via Getty “It’s a way of rationalizing racism and finding a way not to acknowledge Black political agency and power,” said William Robert Billups, a University of Florida historian who hails from Mississippi and published research about Bowers and 1960s synagogue bombers in the Journal of American History. Some like Bowers, later convicted of murdering a civil rights leader, also imbued their white supremacy with a militant theology known as the Christian Identity movement: Jews weren’t only political and economic threats. They were religious enemies, too, ones seeking to usurp white Christians from their place as God’s true chosen people. “They didn’t see any daylight between Christianity and whiteness,” Billups said. “They did not believe that Jewish people were fully white and didn’t believe they were fully human.” He wrote in his research that Christian Identity followers believed that Jews’ “innate depravity” drove them to pursue world domination. Christian Identity adherents tapped biblical phrases like the “synagogue of Satan” to justify their antisemitic views. Because they were religious, references from the Bible “came very easily to their tongues,” said Mark Pitcavage, a senior research fellow at the Anti-Defamation League who has spent three decades studying extremism.  The phrase appears twice in the New Testament. Both references deal with specific local conflicts between established Jewish communities and the early Christians they persecuted. Jesus was offering support to his faithful as they faced these hostilities, not making blanket statements about Jewish people.  “Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan who say they are Jews and are not but do lie. Behold, I will make them come and worship at thy feet and to know that I have loved thee,” Jesus assured a fledgling church in one of the passages. But as Bowers continued typing his letter to the police officer that hot day in 1968, he added, “I just do not know what we Christians can do about these Synagogue of Satan Jews other than to oppose them in every possible way and pray for Divine Relief.”  … And Now In 2015, the “alt-right” white nationalist movement ascended to extremist popularity online in the corners of 4chan and 8chan and on burgeoning white supremacist websites like The Daily Stormer, named for the Nazi Party’s newspaper. Followers often posted jokey, racy and racist memes where they could hide behind the plausible deniability of humor.  That summer, Donald Trump announced his candidacy for president, a move swiftly embraced by The Daily Stormer’s founder and others. The next day, a 21-year-old white supremacist named Dylann Roof drove to Emanuel AME Church, a historic Black congregation in downtown Charleston, South Carolina.  When Roof arrived, the church’s pastor invited him to join the small group of mostly older women gathered for weekly Bible study. Roof sat with them for about an hour, until the closing prayer. Then he pulled out a pistol. As he fired more than 70 shots, killing nine people, he said, “Y’all raping all our white women and taking over the nation.”  Roof had discovered the “great replacement theory.” Adherents believe that an elite group, often Jewish and described in terms such as “globalists,” is orchestrating mass immigration of nonwhites along with social policies that reduce white birth rates and otherwise “replace” whites — and their control of the West. It’s part of a shift in white supremacist ideology since the civil rights era from preserving white dominance to preventing white extinction. More recently, these notions have also bolstered a crop of influencers circulating versions of the ideology to new audiences.  In 2017, hundreds of white supremacists and other extremists flocked to the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, brandishing torches and chanting, “Jews will not replace us!” An 18-year-old named Nick Fuentes was in attendance and posted on Facebook that “the rootless transnational elite knows that a tidal wave of white identity is coming.” A mourner leaves a message outside Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, after Dylann Roof murdered nine Black church members during a weekly Bible study in 2015. Joe Raedle/Getty Images A mob of white men and women wearing helmets and tactical gear and holding various flags, including the U.S. flag and Confederate flag. Steve Helber/AP The rally proved a launching pad for a career in commentary that now draws millions of followers for whom Fuentes has described the great replacement theory as the “ Great Replacement REALITY .” At a “Stop the Steal” rally in 2020, he applauded Trump for standing up to various groups including “the synagogue of Satan.”  But Fuentes is only one of a slew of influencers who have adopted similar anti-immigration rhetoric and frequently criticize what they perceive as Israel’s power in the United States, particularly related to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. (Supporters of the U.S.-Israel alliance contend that the relationship benefits both democracies.) Candace Owens, whose YouTube channel has 5.75 million subscribers, once worked for the late Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA and later at The Daily Wire until she was pushed out last year following conflicts with co-founder Ben Shapiro, who is Jewish. In 2024, she described an anti-Christian global conspiracy. “It does seem that they’re trying to almost now indoctrinate the entire world into their satanic faith. Like I said, it is my belief that this is a synagogue of Satan,” she told viewers.  Similarly, Andrew Torba, founder and CEO of the social media site Gab, popular with extremists, wrote last fall that the federal government is owned by Israel and “its powerful fifth column of Jewish elites in our country.” “Naming the group that is the engine of our nation’s subversion isn’t bigotry,” Torba added, “it’s a Biblical diagnosis of a spiritual cancer. It is identifying the modern-day ‘synagogue of Satan’ that Christ Himself warned us about.” There’s no indication that Pittman, the teenager charged in the Beth Israel fire, was aware of any of these comments. ProPublica reached out to Fuentes on his website and on X and to Torba through Gab’s general email. We reached out to Owens on her website’s media request portal. (Her website tells users, “We do not allow pornography, incitement to violence or gore, discussions about active drug use and other topics in that vein.”) None responded to requests for comment about the Beth Israel fire and their use of the term “synagogue of Satan.” Torba’s X account posted our emailed questions with the message, “I regret to inform you that journos are at it again.”  The Anti-Defamation League, which tracks antisemitic incidents including assaults, harassment and vandalism, found an 893% increase over the past decade with particularly large leaps in 2023 and 2024, according to its most recent audit . In 2024, it found 9,354 incidents compared to 1,267 in 2016. The audit also notes that much of the recent surge was related to protests, often on college campuses, against Israeli actions in Gaza, some of which included rhetoric such as “death to Israel.”  Beth Israel’s Tree of Life was destroyed in the fire last month. Synagogue President Zach Shemper says the congregation will make a bigger one to demonstrate “all the outreach of love, compassion and support” they have received. Courtesy of Zach Shemper “Increasingly, extreme actors in the anti-Israel space have incorporated antisemitic rhetoric into their activism, and it has become commonplace for perpetrators across the political spectrum to voice hatred of Israel or conspiracy theories about the state in a range of antisemitic attacks,” the ADL report says.  Synagogues also received hundreds of bomb threats, and fears of violence remain a persistent part of what Jewish communities face. Indeed, in the early morning hours of Jan. 10, a man in a hoodie broke a window and slipped inside Beth Israel Congregation. He poured gasoline and ignited a fire near the spot where Klan members had burned the synagogue in 1967. Once again, the people of Beth Israel were left to rebuild from the ashes of antisemitism. Their library and offices will have to be demolished, it appears, but engineers found the sanctuary walls remain structurally sound.  Since the fire, at least 15 churches have reached out to Beth Israel saying, “Our house of worship is your house of worship,” said Zach Shemper, the synagogue’s president. “There has been such a lovely, almost overwhelming outpouring of love and compassion from our local community.”  The people of Beth Israel are, for now, holding services in a Baptist church in Jackson, one they opened their doors to in the 1960s, before the bombing. The Baptists needed temporary space then because they had just broken away from a church that refused to let in Black worshippers, and few other houses of worship would open their doors. The post A Mississippi Synagogue Was Attacked in 1967 and 2026. The Antisemitic Rhetoric Looked the Same Then and Now. appeared first on ProPublica .

New York state lawmakers have introduced legislation to boost spending on the state’s troubled guardianship system by $15 million a year — an unprecedented cash infusion for a bureaucracy that has long struggled to care for the tens of thousands of disabled or elderly New Yorkers who cannot care for themselves. By law, judges appoint guardians to manage the health and financial matters of people they deem incapacitated, and these guardians are then compensated from the estates of their wards. But there are not enough guardians to serve the roughly 30,000 New Yorkers who need them, and the new bill, called the Good Guardianship Act , aims to help the most vulnerable segment of this population: those who are too poor to pay for a private guardian and who have no family or friends willing to serve. In the industry, they are known as “the unbefriended,” and the millions in new funding would flow to a statewide network of nonprofit guardians who serve them. The proposal follows a 2024 ProPublica investigation that revealed how the state’s guardianship system was failing this group in particular by conducting little to no oversight of guardians , some of whom provided substandard care and exploited those they were charged with looking after. The stories prompted the state attorney general to open an investigation into several guardianship providers and spurred the court system to appoint a special counsel to enact reforms. But advocates said the Good Guardianship Act presents the most promising step to date in improving the system — if it can get the support of Gov. Kathy Hochul. The legislation mirrors the recommendations of a task force appointed by the governor last summer , yet Hochul has not said whether she supports the plan and did not include any funding for guardianships in the $260 billion executive budget she recently unveiled . “What’s it going to take for the governor to pay attention to guardianship and realize there’s a viable solution on the table?” said Kimberly George, who runs a nonprofit that serves about 160 New York City wards and helps lead Guardianship Access New York, a coalition of groups that’s pushing the bill in Albany. A spokesperson for Hochul, a Democrat who is running for reelection, said the governor will review the legislation. In recent years, Albany has provided just $1 million to help fund a statewide guardianship hotline, which provides advice for people considering guardianship for their relatives or friends. But the Good Guardianship Act would provide considerably more guardians for those who need them, effectively ensuring that qualified nonprofit groups with a history of providing guardianship services are available to be appointed by judges in cases involving the unbefriended. To ensure that state funding only goes to what the legislation calls “reputable” nonprofits, groups must be in good standing with a state regulator and their guardianship plans and funding requests must be reviewed by a contractor picked by the director of the state’s Office for the Aging. Assembly Member Charles Lavine, a Long Island Democrat who chairs the Assembly Judiciary Committee and introduced the legislation, expressed confidence that the bill would pass this session, noting it has no opposition and fixes a readily identifiable problem. “It’s time that we did something to be able to provide those who are in actual, real need,” he said in an interview. “We believe we are working in the right direction.” Lavine hosted a roundtable last fall focused on confronting what he dubbed “the crisis” in the guardianship system, describing it as being “stretched very, very thin.” The legislation also has the support of legislative leaders in the state Senate — including its powerful majority leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins, her spokesperson said. State Sen. Cordell Cleare, a Harlem Democrat who chairs the Aging Committee, is shepherding the bill through the chamber. It’s on the panel’s agenda for Wednesday and is expected to be adopted. The post We Found New York’s Guardianship System in Shambles. Now State Lawmakers Say They Have a Plan to Help Fix It. appeared first on ProPublica .

A man convicted of trying to assassinate US President Donald Trump on a Florida golf course in 2024 was sentenced on Wednesday to life in prison. US District Judge Aileen Cannon pronounced Ryan Routh’s fate in the same Fort Pierce courtroom that erupted into chaos in September when he tried to stab himself shortly after jurors found him guilty on all counts. Prosecutors had asked for life without parole, saying Routh was unrepentant and had never apologised. A defence lawyer brought in for his...

Jupiter, without a doubt, is the biggest ‌planet in our solar system. But it turns out that it is not quite as large – by ever so small an amount – as scientists had previously thought. Using new data obtained by Nasa’s robotic Juno spacecraft, scientists have obtained the most precise measurements to date of Jupiter’s size and shape. This is important information to gain a fuller understanding of this gas giant, including studying its complex interior structure. The Juno observations showed...

Ukrainian and Russian officials wrapped up a “productive” first day of ‌new US-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi, Kyiv’s lead negotiator said on Wednesday, as fighting in Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II raged on. The ‍two-day trilateral meetings come after Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had exploited a US-backed energy truce last week to stockpile munitions, attacking Ukraine with a record number of ballistic missiles on Tuesday. “The work was substantive and...

Government faces call for transparency on former peer’s involvement amid fears he may have leaked more sensitive information Peter Mandelson’s involvement with the US tech company Palantir must be exposed to full public transparency, campaigners have said, amid fears he may have leaked more sensitive information than is alleged in his emails to Jeffrey Epstein. Palantir, an $300bn startup that provides military technology to the Israel Defense Forces and AI-powered deportation targeting for Donald Trump’s ICE units, has UK government contracts worth more than £500m. Global Counsel, a lobbying company Mandelson co-founded and part-owns, also works for Palantir. Continue reading...

No 10 is intense huge pressure to reveal exactly how the former peer was vetted for his job as US ambassador After the release of a vast tranche of documents and emails that shed further light on the close relationship between Peter Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein, the government has come under intense pressure to release details about its vetting process before Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador in December 2024. Continue reading...

Talks were scheduled in Turkey with Arab states present, but Iran requests move amid attempts to limit agenda Talks between the US and Iran scheduled for Friday appear to be collapsing after the US rejected Iran’s request to move them from Turkey to Oman without the presence of a group of Arab states. Iran has also vowed that the talks will be confined to its nuclear programme, while other issues the US would like to discuss, such as the range of Tehran’s ballistic missile programme, will be permanently excluded. Continue reading...