News from Multiple Perspectives

A suspected Iranian attack on a high-rise residential building in Bahrain's capital of Manama has killed a woman.

The US president repeats claims that Cuba is ready to negotiate as it faces a spiralling energy and economic crisis.

Strikes continue as Trump says US attacks on Iran will dramatically increase if it tries to close Strait of Hormuz.

Police detain Emir Balat after he attempted to detonate an improvised explosive device during a counterprotest against far right influencer Jake Lang staging an anti-Islam protest outside Gracie Mansion, Saturday, March 7, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Julius Constantine Motal) 2026-03-10T04:06:27Z NEW YORK (AP) — Investigators are trying to learn more about two Pennsylvania men accused of bringing homemade bombs to a protest outside the home of New York City’s mayor. Emir Balat, 18, and Ibrahim Kayumi, 19, told authorities after their arrests that they were inspired by the Islamic State group, law enforcement officials said, but much remains undisclosed about their motives and how much they planned. The FBI said Monday that it had conducted multiple searches in connection with the investigation, including an examination of a Pennsylvania storage unit . Tests were being performed on some of the devices recovered at the scene. Balat’s lawyer, meanwhile, portrayed him as a confused teenager who didn’t know what he was doing. Prosecutors, police and FBI officials say Balat and Kayumi, who lived in Philadelphia’s suburbs, drove to New York City on Saturday and joined a throng of counter protesters at a small, anti-Muslim rally organized by the far-right Christian nationalist Jake Lang. 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); }); Journalists photographed Balat hurling a device, smoking with a lit fuse, that was later found to contain the explosive TATP. The object, which also contained nuts and bolts, extinguished itself without harming anyone. Balat then dropped a second object near some police officers and tried to run, but was tackled and arrested, according to a court complaint. Balat and Kayumi were being held without bail after a court appearance Monday on charges that include attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and using a weapon of mass destruction. Balat’s lawyer, Mehdi Essmidi, said outside court that his client, a high school senior, had “complicated stuff going on” in his personal life. “I believe he’s 18 and he doesn’t have any idea what he’s doing,” Essmidi said. He added that he didn’t believe Balat and Kayumi had known each other long. 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); }); New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said there were no indications Monday that the attack was connected to the ongoing war in Iran . After Balat was arrested, police officers asked him whether he was aiming to accomplish something akin to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing that killed three people. “No, even bigger,” Balat replied, according to a criminal complaint.

Tomoko Kobayashi looks at a color-coded map of radiation levels created by local residents during an interview near a radiation monitoring lab in Odaka, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte) 2026-03-10T04:09:59Z ODAKA, Japan (AP) — Fifteen years after the 2011 nuclear disaster , color-coded radiation maps hang on the wall of Futabaya Ryokan, the family-run inn Tomoko Kobayashi operates in her near-deserted hometown in northeastern Fukushima. Kobayashi conducted her own radiation surveys before reopening the inn in 2016. Now, she and other monitors share radiation data as part of efforts to rebuild this once-bustling textile town. “These empty lots used to be filled with shops,” Kobayashi says of the pre-disaster town as she heads to a radiation monitoring lab, walking past a kindergarten she attended as a child. It’s now used as a museum because there are too few children since the nuclear crisis. “There used to be businesses, community activity and children playing,” she says. “We used to live our ordinary daily lives here, and I hope to see that again.” 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); }); Only about one-third of Odaka’s pre-disaster population of 13,000 have returned over the past decade. “The town was destroyed, and we need to rebuild it. It’s a time-consuming process that cannot be accomplished in just a couple of decades,” she said. “But I hope to see the progress, with new people and new development added to what this town used to be.” Facing an invisible danger When a magnitude 9.0 quake struck off Japan’s northeastern coast at 2:46 p.m. on March 11, 2011, Kobayashi was at the Futabaya inn. Despite the long, violent shaking, the inn’s walls didn’t fall. But about an hour later, a tsunami poured into the kitchen “like a river,” she said. A much higher wave hit the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. It destroyed key cooling systems and caused meltdowns at three reactors. The No. 1 reactor building was damaged by a hydrogen explosion on March 12. Two days later the Unit 3 reactor building exploded, followed by the No. 4 reactor building, spewing radioactive particles that contaminated the surroundings and caused hundreds of thousands of residents to flee. Some areas remain unlivable today. Kobayashi’s family first headed to a gymnasium in nearby Haramachi town, but it was full. Eventually they made it to Nagoya, where she and her husband stayed for a year. 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); }); In 2012, the couple returned to Fukushima to start measuring radiation while living in temporary housing near Odaka, which was still off-limits. The town has recovered some since then. Her guests include students and others who want to learn about Fukushima, as well as people interested in opening new businesses. “I had to understand what the nuclear accident was about. I thought someone had to go back and keep an eye out,” she said. As she kept measuring, she started seeing what used to be invisible to her and understanding radiation. “Now it has become my lifetime mission.” Citizens document radiation from the disaster Kobayashi and her comrades gather twice a year, spending two weeks each time measuring the air at hundreds of locations so they can produce the color-coded maps. They have also set up a lab to test local produce to determine what they can safely eat and serve. “We are not professional scientists, but we can measure and show the data. What’s important is to keep measuring, because the government maintains that it’s safe, as if radiation no longer exists,” she says. “But we know for a fact that it’s still there.” Their lab now sits next to a free folklore museum with paintings, sculptures, photographs and other artwork inspired by the Fukushima disaster. 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); }); Fukushima Daiichi gets a facelift, but a mess remains Fifteen years ago, the plant looked like a bombed factory because of the hydrogen explosions at the reactor buildings where workers risked their lives to keep the crisis under control. Radiation levels have since come down significantly, and the plant has built enhanced seawalls designed to withstand another big tsunami. Now, for the first time since the disaster, all of the plant’s reactor buildings have their rooftops enclosed. “Our decommissioning work at the plant is about how to reduce risks of radiation,” says Akira Ono, head of decommissioning at the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Holdings Company. Remote-controlled robotics, careful planning, and practice are key to keeping workers safe, he said. At Unit 1, under its brand-new roof, top floor decontamination will begin ahead of the planned removal of spent fuel from the cooling pool. 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 three reactors contain at least 880 tons of melted fuel debris with radiation levels still dangerously high and their details little known. TEPCO successfully took tiny melted fuel samples last year from the Unit 2 reactor. To examine melted fuel inside the Unit 3 reactor, workers last week deployed micro-drones, a technology not quite realistic 15 years ago, Ono said. TEPCO plans remote-controlled internal probes to analyze melted fuel and to develop robots for more fuel debris removal that experts say could take decades more. 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); }); ‘Pressure to be silent’ Fukushima prefecture tests thousands of pre-distribution samples every year and says all farm, fisheries and dairy products in stores are safe. Sale of some fruits, mushrooms, river fish and a number of other harvests in former no-go zones is still restricted. “Radiation levels have come down significantly over the past 15 years, but I wouldn’t use the word ‘safe,’ just yet,” says Yukio Shirahige, a former decontamination and radiation survey worker at Fukushima Daiichi who now helps Kobayashi’s monitoring project. When he tested wild boar meat recently, he found it was more than 100 times over the safety limit and could not be consumed. In a major reversal after a decade of working to phase out nuclear technology, Japan in 2022 announced plans to accelerate reactor restarts and bolster nuclear power as a stable energy source. Shirahige was at Fukushima Daiichi when the quake and tsunami struck in 2011. After evacuating his family, he returned in late March to help the emergency cleanup at the plant for six months. Shirahige has received support and equipment from university researchers and is in charge of testing locally produced food and other samples. Shirahige, now 76, says measuring radioactive material and sharing that data is his life’s work. As the government pushes Fukushima’s safety and recovery, Shirahige says, “we are under growing pressure to be silent.” MARI YAMAGUCHI Yamaguchi is based in Tokyo and covers Japanese politics, security, nuclear energy and social issues for The Associated Press. twitter mailto

The entrance of the San Rafael Ranch, which was previously owned by Jeffrey Epstein and called the Zorro Ranch, is seen, Jan. 31, 2026, near Stanley, N.M. (AP Photo/Savannah Peters) 2026-03-10T00:52:09Z SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — State investigators began searching a secluded ranch in New Mexico on Monday where financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein once entertained guests amid allegations that the property may have been used for sexual abuse and sex trafficking of young women. The office of state Attorney General Raúl Torrez announced that the search was being done with the cooperation of the current ranch owners. Torrez last month reopened an investigation of the ranch . New Mexico’s initial case was closed in 2019 at the request of federal prosecutors in New York, and state prosecutors say now that “revelations outlined in the previously sealed FBI files warrant further examination.” Epstein purchased the sprawling Zorro Ranch in Stanley, New Mexico, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Santa Fe, in 1993 from former Democratic Gov. Bruce King and built a hilltop mansion with a private runway. 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 property was sold by Epstein’s estate in 2023 — with proceeds going toward creditors — to the family of Don Huffines, a candidate in Texas for state comptroller who won the Republican primary last week. “The New Mexico Department of Justice appreciates the cooperation of the current property owners,” the agency said in a statement. Prosecutors “will continue to keep the public appropriately informed, support the survivors, and follow the facts wherever they lead.” Additionally, New Mexico state legislators have established a new commission to look into past activities at the ranch . Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial in 2019 on charges that he sexually abused and trafficked dozens of underage girls. Epstein never faced charges in New Mexico, but the state attorney general’s office in 2019 confirmed that it had interviewed possible victims who visited Epstein’s ranch.

The jump in shipments puts the world's second largest economy on track to top the record-breaking annual trade surplus it saw in 2025.

The city's police commissioner said one of the suspects said he wanted the attack to be "even larger" than the Boston Marathon bombing.

The war's price, measured in damage to the economy and in political costs to Trump, is still coming into view.

President Donald Trump said he wants to keep the Strait of Hormuz open, saying it would be an "honor" to do so in an effort to help other nations that rely on the vital Middle East waterway. Trump was speaking with reporters in Florida on Monday, when he was asked about the global energy choke point, which has been disrupted amid back-and-forth attacks between Iran and Israel and the United States. IRAN SEIZES OIL TANKERS, THREATENS 'MASSACRE' IN STRAIT OF HORMUZ HOURS BEFORE US TALKS At about 21 miles wide at its narrowest point, the Strait of Hormuz is between Iran and Oman and carries roughly 20 million barrels a day and about one-fifth of global liquefied natural gas, making it a top-value target when conflict in the region erupts. "We're really helping China here and other countries because they get a lot of their energy from the Straits," Trump said. "We have a good relationship with China. It's my honor to do it." US POSITIONS AIRCRAFT CARRIERS, STRIKE PLATFORMS ACROSS MIDDLE EAST AS IRAN TALKS SHIFT TO OMAN Trump is slated to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping later this month. While touting the United States' new energy partnership with Venezuela, Trump noted that China gets its oil through the strait. "I mean, we're doing this for the other parts of the world, including countries like China," he said. "They get a lot of their oil through the straits." "We have a very good relationship with President XI (Jinping) and China," he added. "I'm going there in a short period of time, and we're protecting the world from what these lunatics are trying to do, and very successfully I might add." The U.S. will also waive all oil-related sanctions on some countries in an effort to reduce energy prices amid the conflict in the Middle East, Trump said. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps took to Iranian State TV vowing it would "not allow [the] export of a single liter of oil." Later, Trump reaffirmed his position on the strait in a fiery Truth Social post. "If Iran does anything that stops the flow of Oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far. Additionally, we will take out easily destroyable targets that will make it virtually impossible for Iran to ever be built back, as a Nation, again — Death, Fire, and Fury will reign upon them — But I hope, and pray, that it does not happen!," he wrote . "This is a gift from the United States of America to China, and all of those Nations that heavily use the Hormuz Strait. Hopefully, it is a gesture that will be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"

EXCLUSIVE: Iranian Kurdish opposition groups say they are prepared to challenge Tehran but are holding back for now as the war between the United States, Israel and the Islamic Republic continues to unfold. Khalid Azizi, spokesperson for the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDPI), told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview that Kurdish forces are closely watching developments but have no plans to launch a ground offensive at this stage. Reports in recent days have suggested that President Donald Trump spoke with Mustafa Hijri, the leader of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan, as Washington explores possible Kurdish involvement in pressure on Iran. Azizi declined to confirm or deny whether such a conversation took place. 74 RETIRED US GENERALS, ADMIRALS BACK IRAN STRIKES, WARN TEHRAN SEEKS TO ‘SPILL AMERICAN BLOOD’ Azizi himself has firsthand experience with Iran’s military retaliation. In 2018, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps launched ballistic missiles at the KDPI headquarters in Koy Sanjaq in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region during a leadership meeting, killing at least 18 people and injuring dozens. "We have been targeted by the Islamic Republic," Azizi said. "The first Iranian missile was sent to my headquarters and I was personally injured in that attack," Azizi said. Despite the risks, Azizi said Kurdish resistance remains strong after decades of confrontation with Iran. "The Iranian Kurdish resistance movement is actually very strong because we have been on the ground since the Iranian revolution," he said. Azizi spoke from Washington, D.C., where he said Kurdish representatives were meeting with policymakers and institutions to discuss the situation in Iran and the role Kurdish groups could play if the conflict evolves. But for now, Kurdish groups say they are waiting to see how the broader war develops . "We are ready and our party is well organized," Azizi said. "But right now we do not have any intention to enter Iranian Kurdistan because the ground forces in this war have not been a topic." "It’s very easy to start a war ," he added. "But it will be more complicated how to end this war." KEANE WARNS IRAN STRIKE BECOMING ‘REGIONAL WAR,' SAYS THREE GULF STATES PREPARING FOR COMBAT The KDPI is one of the oldest Kurdish opposition movements fighting Iran’s Islamic Republic. The group is a member of the Socialist International and operates primarily from bases in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and has been in armed and political opposition to Tehran since the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Azizi said Kurdish political movements have recently taken a significant step by forming a joint alliance aimed at coordinating their political strategy. "We have managed to create a unity among the Kurdish political parties," he said. "This has been welcomed by the Iranian Kurdish people and by different Iranian political parties." The alliance, known as the Coalition of Political Forces of Iranian Kurdistan, brings together several historically divided Kurdish factions that oppose the Islamic Republic. Azizi said the future of Iran will ultimately depend on whether Iranians themselves rise up against the regime. US SURGES FORCES TO MIDDLE EAST AS PENTAGON WARNS IRAN FIGHT ‘WILL TAKE SOME TIME' "If you look at the goal of the United States and Israel in this war, they have been targeting the Iranian military, security and political institutions. In this aspect Iran has been weakened," he said. "But the regime still remains in power because people are not on the streets and there is no alternative right now to replace this regime." Azizi urged Western governments to focus not only on the military campaign but also on helping Iranian opposition movements coordinate politically. Iran, he said, is a multi-ethnic country whose future stability will depend on building a democratic system that includes all of its communities. "The path and the roadmap for rebuilding Iran must be based on the participation of all ethnic groups," Azizi said. "Iran is a multi-ethnic society." For now, he said, Kurdish fighters remain in a holding pattern. "We have the ability and we have the capacity," Azizi said. "But it is not easy right now for us to make any decision regarding entering Iranian Kurdistan."

"Think of Mojtaba Khamenei as his father on steroids." That is how Kasra Aarabi, director of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps research at the advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran, described Iran’s new supreme leader in comments to Fox News Digital following reports that the son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been selected to lead the Islamic Republic. "Mojtaba was already operating as a ‘mini supreme leader’ in the Bayt-e Rahbari — his father’s office and the core nucleus of power in the regime," Aarabi said. IF KHAMENEI FALLS, WHO TAKES IRAN? STRIKES WILL EXPOSE POWER VACUUM — AND THE IRGC’S GRIP "His father had created the Bayt’s extensive apparatus as a hidden power structure to ensure continuity should he be eliminated — and through Mojtaba’s appointment, this is exactly what we will get," Aarabi said. President Donald Trump also reacted to Mojtaba Khamenei’s rise. In an interview with the New York Post , Trump said he was "not happy with" the younger Khamenei replacing his father as leader of Iran’s theocratic system but declined to elaborate on how the United States might respond. "Not going to tell you," Trump said when asked about his plans regarding the new supreme leader. "Not going to tell you. I’m not happy with him." An Iranian source with knowledge of the leadership transition told Fox News Digital that earlier speculation Mojtaba might pursue reforms now appears unlikely given the circumstances surrounding his appointment. "Previously there were whispers suggesting that if Mojtaba were to become the leader, he might introduce reforms that would both open up the domestic political space and bring a more interactive approach to foreign policy," the source said. "However, now this possibility seems very weak." Mojtaba was chosen "amid disputes, controversies, and pressure from the IRGC," according to the source, meaning he "owes his appointment to their support and therefore cannot act against their wishes." TRUMP SAYS IRAN’S SUCCESSION BENCH WIPED OUT AS ISRAELI STRIKE HITS LEADERSHIP DELIBERATIONS Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, has spent decades building influence inside the power structures surrounding Iran’s supreme leader. Born in 1969 in Mashhad, he pursued clerical studies in Tehran, Iran, after the 1979 Islamic Revolution that brought his father to prominence. Over time, however, analysts say his influence developed less through traditional clerical authority and more through Iran’s security institutions . In 2019, the United States sanctioned Mojtaba under Executive Order 13867. The U.S. Treasury Department said he had been "representing the supreme leader in an official capacity despite never being elected or appointed to a government position aside from work in the office of his father." Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies' Iran Program, said Mojtaba’s background reflects a broader shift inside the Islamic Republic. "Despite donning a turban, Mojtaba is the product of the regime’s national security deep state ," Ben Taleblu told Fox News Digital. "Expect him to work with and through the IRGC to keep his hold on power." Aarabi said Mojtaba has spent years consolidating influence behind the scenes. "His past tells us he enjoys micromanaging every aspect of authority to satisfy his thirst for power," Aarabi said, describing how Mojtaba allegedly relocated IRGC command centers to his office during protests, engineered election outcomes and installed loyalists across state institutions. Since 2019, Aarabi added, Mojtaba has also been implementing what he described as his father’s effort to "purify" the regime by promoting ideological loyalists across the political system. "Mojtaba is a deeply antisemitic, anti-American, and anti-Western ideologue," Aarabi said. "He has personally been involved in repression in Iran and terror plots abroad." IRAN'S SENIOR CLERICS ‘EXPOSED’ AFTER BUILDING STRIKE IN QOM, SUCCESSION CHOICE LOOMS Analysts say Mojtaba’s rise may further strengthen the role of Iran’s security institutions. "The rise of the younger Khamenei expedites trendlines seen in Iranian politics and national security for years," Ben Taleblu said. "From one Khamenei to another, things in Iran can be expected to go from bad to worse if this regime survives." "And like the elder Khamenei, corruption runs in the family ," he added. Ben Taleblu warned that the regime may also escalate tensions externally as a survival strategy. "The regime knows it is weak, but believes it can extract a price and widen a crisis in order to survive," he said. For opposition groups inside Iran, the leadership transition signals continuity rather than reform. "He's the son of Khamenei and they have same ideology and they same strategy and they try to continue the same policy ," said Khalid Azizi, spokesperson for the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran. "So far it's very difficult to say what he will be done and is he going to have a different policy? I don't expect this." The Iranian source who spoke with Fox News Digital said that while engagement with the United States and the West is theoretically possible in the future, the chances remain slim. "As I mentioned," the source said, "this possibility is very weak." "In short," Aarabi said, "Mojtaba is his father on steroids. He’s certainly no MBS ."

Though high rates of the disease persist among the nearby Indigenous communities, the Canadian government is weighing rules that may allow energy giants to release treated mining waste into the river system.

Since the American-Israeli attack on Iran began, at least 11 civilians have been killed in oil-rich Gulf countries. All but one of them were foreign nationals.

More solar energy was added to U.S. grids than any other technology, but the amount installed fell by 14 percent, according to a new report.

One of the largest school districts in New Mexico subjects Navajo students to pervasive discrimination and a climate of fear, according to a report released last week by the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission.  The 25-page report draws on testimony from parents and community members at four public hearings in Navajo Nation communities within the school district. It urges the New Mexico attorney general’s office to release findings from a two-and-a-half-year investigation into the district’s discipline of Indigenous students. The Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission’s report cited an investigation published in December 2022 by New Mexico In Depth and ProPublica that found Indigenous students were punished more harshly than other students in New Mexico during the four years ending in 2020. The Gallup-McKinley district, which has the largest Indigenous student body of any local school district in the country, was largely responsible for that disparity, an analysis of student discipline records from across the state showed. Attorney General Raúl Torrez opened an investigation into the district’s disciplinary practices in 2023.  On Wednesday, Torrez’s chief of staff, Lauren Rodriguez, said the office’s long-running investigation is complete and has found “troubling disciplinary practices.” She added that the agency’s “exhaustive” investigation calls for the state Public Education Department to enforce student discipline data reporting requirements and better track that information. Previously, the district’s former longtime Superintendent Mike Hyatt, had downplayed the amount of discipline Native students receive and pointed to poor data collection as an issue. “It’s our kids, our students, who are suffering the consequences of entrenched racism,” Wendy Greyeyes, the chair of the commission that released the new report and an associate professor of Native American studies at the University of New Mexico, said in an interview.  The Public Education Department should have caught the discipline disparities in the data it collects from districts, Greyeyes said. “There’s obviously not a clear auditing of data that’s being collected,” she said. The attorney general’s office told New Mexico In Depth that, despite its findings, it’s not clear under state law that the office can “pursue formal legal action against the district for this particular conduct.”  That lack of legal clarity, the spokesperson said, is why Torrez has pushed for comprehensive state civil rights legislation since 2023.  Under the New Mexico Civil Rights Act, private individuals can sue public bodies for violations of the state constitution, but law does not explicitly authorize the attorney general to investigate and prosecute public bodies for systemic inequities, the way the federal Department of Justice can. In 2023, New Mexico lawmakers passed a bill that would have given the attorney general broad authority to investigate state or local agencies for civil rights violations. The bill had bipartisan support, but Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham killed it with a pocket veto. (Lujan Grisham did not issue a formal statement about the veto but said at the time that the bill was well-intentioned but would “create confusion” and that “much of the work outlined in the legislation can be undertaken by the AG regardless of whether or not the bill is signed.”) At the time, Torrez told New Mexico In Depth that his office has an implied authority to pursue such cases , but that having it enshrined in law would have made it “crystal clear.” Torrez’s spokesperson said he remains committed to seeing such legislation pass.  At the four meetings held by the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission in September and October, parents, students and community members described harsh discipline, language barriers, discriminatory hiring practices, problems with special education plans and inadequate classroom heating systems.  Greyeyes described a pervasive fear of retaliation. Some witnesses cried at hearings, she said — afraid their words would get back to the district — and parents spoke on behalf of children too afraid to testify themselves. Transcripts of their testimony were not publicly released. The commission’s report recommends a formal agreement between the Navajo Nation and Gallup-McKinley for the district to adopt a discipline policy based on restorative justice , a strategy that seeks to rebuild relationships, not simply punish the student who caused the harm. Such a policy could be modeled on existing talking-circles programs at New Mexico’s Cuba Independent School District and the STAR School east of Flagstaff, Arizona, on the Navajo Nation, Greyeyes said. The report also recommends a comprehensive state financial audit of the district’s spending on Native education compared to that of other students, and it calls for the state education department to better manage and track districts’ student discipline data.  The school district did not respond to voice messages and emails seeking comment about the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission report.  The problems identified in the commission’s report are “rooted in colonization,” Greyeyes said. “It’s rooted in institutional racism. A lot of these things are accepted sometimes even by our own Navajo people, and we need to bring this information out and figure out a way to address these issues.” The report’s recommendations “begin that conversation,” she said.  The post ​​Native Students Receive Excessive Discipline in This New Mexico School District, Report Finds appeared first on ProPublica .

Clifford Thomas and his family lost four relatives during the COVID-19 pandemic, including his beloved mother, Beverly. A middle school teacher, Beverly had struggled with chronic health problems all her life, and when they forced her to leave her job due to disability, she was unable to afford regular medical care. Her final request to her son was that he keep the family healthy. But in Albany, Georgia, achieving that promise is a battle. The city is served by a single, dominant hospital system, Phoebe Putney Memorial. Its control of the market and Georgia’s strict limits on Medicaid have left nearly one-third of people in Albany, one of the poorest cities in the state, uninsured. Poor access to quality, affordable care has contributed to deep distrust of the system. Residents like Thomas see Phoebe as more of a barrier to good health than a safety net. He gave up on trying to find medical insurance or a doctor who would care for him without it. Then, he began to get sick. There are millions like Thomas across the United States and dozens of places like Albany — places with populations suffering high rates of chronic but treatable conditions, where the dominant institution is a hospital. ProPublica examines the country’s health care crisis in a five-part series called “Sick in a Hospital Town.” Read or listen to the full series here . Watch this short documentary for a close-up of one man’s effort to overcome the obstacles to care. Read More Sick in a Hospital Town The post He Promised His Dying Mother He’d Protect the Family’s Health. In This Georgia Town, It Isn’t Easy. appeared first on ProPublica .

The New York State attorney general’s office has begun investigating how Columbia University let a predatory doctor continue to see patients despite decades of warnings. “The Office of the Attorney General is conducting a thorough investigation into the institutional response to Robert Hadden’s misconduct,” a spokesperson said in a statement to ProPublica. The agency did not give further details. A ProPublica investigation from the fall of 2023 revealed how Columbia ignored women and ultimately protected Robert Hadden , a longtime OB-GYN at the university. In 2012, Columbia allowed Hadden to continue seeing patients just days after one of them called 911 to report Hadden had sexually assaulted her. In early 2023, Hadden was convicted in federal court of sexually abusing patients. He is currently serving a 20-year sentence. Columbia has paid out more than $1 billion for over 1,000 claims of sexual abuse. After our investigation, Columbia committed to a variety of reforms, including improved patient safety , a $100 million fund for victims and an independent investigation. But advocates, students and survivors say Columbia needs to do far more to grapple with its role in Hadden’s conduct. Four hundred Columbia medical students recently wrote to university officials demanding disciplinary reviews for administrators who failed to heed warnings about Hadden.  Unlike at other universities that have dealt with serially abusive doctors, no higher-ups at Columbia appear to have lost their jobs or been disciplined. Dr. Mary D’Alton, who was cc’d on a letter that authorized Hadden’s return to work , remains the chair of the obstetrics and gynecology department. D’Alton did not respond to a request for comment. Columbia declined to comment for this story. The attorney general’s office has significant powers over New York’s nonprofits, including Columbia. A few years ago, it forced the Trump Foundation to shut down . More recently it sued the National Rife Association, which then had to enact a series of reforms .  Survivors told ProPublica they were heartened that New York is looking into Columbia.  “Accountability is overdue, particularly in light of the Epstein files,” said Evelyn Yang, pointing to recent revelations that several Columbia affiliates had ties to the financier. Read more How Columbia Ignored Women, Undermined Prosecutors and Protected a Predator for More Than 20 Years Yang was among at least 8 patients who were assaulted by Hadden after he returned to work. She was seven months pregnant at the time. Shortly after our story was published more than two years ago, Columbia promised to “thoroughly examine the circumstances that allowed Hadden’s abuse to continue.”  No report detailing those findings has yet been published.  Last week, Columbia acknowledged in an announcement that there “are many questions” about the timing of the investigation it commissioned. It said that the report is expected to be released “soon.” New York State Assemblymember Grace Lee blasted the university’s failure to issue the report, telling ProPublica the university has not taken responsibility for what happened. “To me, it’s just outrageous that we are here now in 2026 and we still have no report and no one has been held accountable,” she said. By comparison, the external investigation into the University of Michigan’s response to the crimes committed by its former physician Robert Anderson took about 15 months.  Another Hadden survivor, Marissa Hoechstetter, said the attorney general’s decision to examine Columbia provides some relief because the institution has repeatedly failed to do so itself. “I do believe institutional accountability is a missing part of making a bigger change in the fight of gender-based violence,” Hoechstetter said. “I don’t know what will come of this investigation” — referring to New York’s probe — “but it shows that institutions that protect and cover up abusers in order to protect their own people and reputation will be held accountable.” Hoechstetter and Yang both advocated for the passage of the Adult Survivors Act, a New York State law that in 2022 opened a one-year window in which survivors of sexual assault could file civil suits against their abusers or the institutions that protected them, even after the statute of limitations had passed. For years, the university had failed to notify Hadden’s former patients of his misconduct. Finally, in November 2023, just 10 days before the law’s extended window closed, Columbia announced it would send letters to almost 6,500 patients. A closed town hall meeting at the medical school this January gave a window into who was behind that lack of notification. “It actually is a Board of Trustee decision” because of the potential cost of litigation, Monica Lypson, the vice dean for medical education, told students in a recording that ProPublica obtained. Lypson did not respond to a request for comment. Separately, the deadline to submit a claim to Columbia’s survivors’ settlement fund, which was established for survivors who do not want to file lawsuits, has been extended to April 15 . The post New York Attorney General is Investigating Columbia for Allowing Predatory Doctor to See Patients Despite Warnings appeared first on ProPublica .

A Hong Kong police officer has been jailed for 16 months for extorting HK$60,000 (US$7,675) from a rape suspect he believed had been wrongly released by prosecutors. The District Court on Tuesday condemned constable Ng Wai-fung for taking the law into his own hands while investigating a rape complaint lodged by a 16-year-old girl between January and April 2024. Defence lawyers said Ng, who pleaded guilty to misconduct in public office last month, was frustrated by the Department of Justice’s...

HSBC Holdings is phasing out its remote-work flexibility as it tightens its post-pandemic policy in Hong Kong, requiring frontline employees to be in the office or meet clients five days a week. In an internal memo seen by the South China Morning Post, the city’s largest bank asked client-facing staff, including traders and salespeople, to follow the new rules from April 1. Managing directors and senior managers with direct reports must attend the office at least four days a week, while all...

Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific Airways has further suspended all flights to and from Dubai until the end of March amid the war in the Middle East. The airline announced on Tuesday that all services between Hong Kong and the commercial hub in the United Arab Emirates would be cancelled up to March 31. Flights travelling between the city and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia will also be suspended until the end of the month. The move extends an earlier suspension that had been set to run until March 14,...

In today’s newsletter: In the wake of this year’s Commonwealth Day, a look at the complex framework of voting rules in different parts of the UK Good morning. In the wake of the Green party’s victory in the Gorton and Denton byelection, Nigel Farage claimed his party would have won if the vote had been restricted to “British-born voters”. The Greens dismissed the suggestion as “dangerous, racist nonsense”. But the argument has thrown fresh attention on a little-understood feature of the UK’s electoral system: who is actually allowed to vote. As it stands, some non-UK citizens – including certain Commonwealth nationals – can cast ballots in general elections, while millions of long-term residents cannot. Middle East crisis | Donald Trump has said the war in Iran is “very complete, pretty much” , as the conflict disrupts global oil trade and threatens to engulf the Middle East in a regional war. AI | A multibillion-pound drive to “mainline AI into the veins” of the British economy is riddled with “phantom investments” and shaky accounting, a Guardian investigation has found . UK politics | Ministers need to act more quickly to combat fast-changing threats from technology such as deepfakes, the technology secretary has said, as she warned about the risks women and girls face online. UK news | A woman who alleged she was raped by Andrew Malkinson admitted to police 22 years ago that she “wasn’t too sure it was the right man”, a court has heard . Malkinson spent 17 years in prison for an attack he did not commit in what jurors heard was a “most terrible” miscarriage of justice. Technology | Liverpool and Manchester United have complained to Elon Musk’s X after the Grok AI feature made offensive posts about Diogo Jota and the Hillsborough and Munich disasters. The posts were generated when users asked the AI tool to make hateful posts about the two football teams. Continue reading...

US president says war is ‘very complete’ and threatens worse strikes if passage of oil via strait of Hormuz is blocked; IRGC says it will not let out ‘one litre of oil’ Oil prices drop sharply after Trump moves to reassure markets Trump says Iran war is ‘very complete, pretty much’ as economic toll rises Investor hopes for a swift resolution to the Middle East conflict propelled Australian shares higher today , with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 finishing the day up 1.1% and recovering about $35bn in value after yesterday’s $90bn plunge . Oil prices surged to a four-year high early in the week before coming back down below $US90 a barrel after Donald Trump suggested the Iran conflict would end soon, sending global stock markets higher. Continue reading...

Both campaigns have been framed differently at different times, with dubious claims of defensive action and a curious reluctance to label it war Shifting goals , unclear timelines and a flimsy pretext: at times, the US-Israel campaign against Iran carries curious parallels of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The comparison is far from exact. In 2022, Putin sent a massive army across Ukraine’s borders in an unprovoked invasion of a democratic state, a campaign that quickly resulted in heavy losses. The United States has so far largely limited its involvement to airstrikes against Iran’s authoritarian regime. Continue reading...