News from Multiple Perspectives

Emergency teams intentionally triggered an avalanche near a Chamonix ski resort as a safety precaution.

Palestinian Columbia protester Leqaa Kordia says she was chained to a hospital bed after a seizure in ICE custody.

As the match approaches, Pakistani fans hope and pray for their team's unlikely win.

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny speaks to the media in front of security officers standing guard at the Foundation for Fighting Corruption office in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2019. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File) 2026-02-14T13:00:28Z LONDON (AP) — Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned by the Kremlin with a rare and lethal toxin found in the skin of poison dart frogs, five European countries said Saturday. The foreign ministries of the U.K., France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands said analysis of samples taken from Navalny’s body “conclusively confirmed the presence of epibatidine.” It is a neurotoxin found in the skin of dart frogs in South America that is not found naturally in Russia, they said. The countries said in a joint statement that “Russia had the means, motive and opportunity to administer this poison.” They said they were reporting Russia to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for a breach of the Chemical Weapons Convention. They made the announcement as Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya attended the Munich Security Conference in Germany as the second anniversary of Navalny’s death approaches. 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); }); Navalny , who crusaded against official corruption and staged massive anti-Kremlin protests as President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe, died in an Arctic penal colony on Feb. 16, 2024. He was serving a 19-year sentence that he believed to be politically motivated. “Russia saw Navalny as a threat,” British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said. “By using this form of poison the Russian state demonstrated the despicable tools it has at its disposal and the overwhelming fear it has of political opposition.” Navalny’s widow, said last year that two independent labs had found that her husband was poisoned shortly before he died. Navalnaya has repeatedly blamed Putin for Navalny’s death, something Russian officials have vehemently denied. Navalnaya said Saturday that she had been “certain from the first day” that her husband had been poisoned, “but now there is proof.” “Putin killed Alexei with chemical weapon,” she wrote on social network X, calling Putin “a murderer” who “must be held accountable.” 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); }); Russian authorities said that the politician became ill after a walk and died from natural causes. Epibatidine is found naturally in dart frogs in the wild, and can also be manufactured in a lab, which European scientists suspect was the case with the substance used on Navalny. It works on the body in a similar way to nerve agents, causing shortness of breath, convulsions, seizures, a slowed heart rate and ultimately death. Navalny was the target of an earlier poisoning in 2020, with a nerve agent in an attack he blamed on the Kremlin, which always denied involvement. His family and allies fought to have him flown to Germany for treatment and recovery. Five months later, he returned to Russia, where he was immediately arrested and imprisoned for the last three years of his life. The U.K. has accused Russia of repeatedly flouting international bans on chemical and biological weapons. It has accused the Kremlin of carrying out a 2018 attack in the English city of Salisbury that targeted a former Russian intelligence officer, Sergei Skripal, with the nerve agent Novichok . A British inquiry concluded that the attack “must have been authorized at the highest level, by President Putin.” The Kremlin has denied involvement. JILL LAWLESS Lawless is based in London, covering British politics, diplomacy and culture and top stories from the UK and beyond. She has reported for the AP from two dozen countries on four continents. twitter mailto

Bodies of unidentified Palestinians returned from Israel as part of the ceasefire deal are buried in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana) 2026-02-14T13:28:36Z TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Doctors Without Borders has announced the suspension of some operations at one of Gaza ‘s largest functioning hospitals after patients and staff reported seeing armed, masked men roaming parts of the building. Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis is one of the territory’s few functioning hospitals. Hundreds of patients and war-wounded have been treated there daily, and it was a hub for Palestinian prisoners released by Israel in exchange for Israeli hostages as part of the current ceasefire deal . The comments by the aid group, which is also known by its acronym MSF, are a rare announcement by an international organization about the presence of armed men in or near medical facilities in Gaza since the war began over two years ago. MSF said in a statement all its noncritical medical operations at Nasser Hospital were suspended due to security breaches that posed “serious security threats to our teams and patients.” 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); }); “MSF teams have reported a pattern of unacceptable acts including the presence of armed men, intimidation, arbitrary arrests of patients and a recent situation of suspicion of movement of weapons,” it said. While the suspension occurred in January, it was first disclosed in MSF’s “frequently asked questions” section on its website. It’s unclear when the post was made, but the site said it was updated Feb. 11. MSF said it made the difficult decision after an increase of patients and staff seeing armed men in parts of the hospital compound since the U.S.-brokered October ceasefire was reached. The gunmen were seen in areas where the group didn’t operate. Attacks on health facilities MSF said it wasn’t able to indicate the armed men’s affiliation. It said it had expressed concern to the “relevant” authorities, without elaborating, stressing that hospitals must remain neutral, civilian spaces. It said its concerns were heightened by previous, deliberate Israeli attacks on health facilities. Throughout the war, which began with the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has repeatedly struck hospitals, including Nasser, accusing the militant group of operating in or around them. Hamas security men often have been seen inside hospitals, blocking access to some areas. Some hostages released from Gaza have said they spent time during captivity in a hospital. 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); }); While Hamas remains the dominant force in areas not under Israeli control, including Nasser Hospital, other armed groups have mushroomed across Gaza as a result of the war, including groups backed by Israel’s army in the Israeli-controlled part of the strip. Nasser Hospital staff say that in recent months it has been repeatedly attacked by masked, armed men and militias, despite police presence there. Police to be deployed The Hamas-run interior ministry, which oversees police in Gaza, said officers would be deployed to secure hospitals and rid them of armed presence. It said it would take legal action against violators and was implementing stricter measures to ensure patients’ safety. While international law gives hospitals special protections during war, they can lose this immunity if combatants use them to hide fighters or store weapons, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. Still, there must be plenty of warning to allow the evacuation of staff and patients before any operations take place. If harm to civilians from an attack is disproportionate to the military objective, it is illegal under international law. 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); }); Aid groups and rights organizations say Israel has decimated Gaza’s health system, forcing most of its hospitals to shut down while heavily damaging others. During the war, Israeli forces raided a number of hospitals , detaining hundreds of staff. Israel also has targeted the police in Gaza. 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); }); A weakened medical system MSF said it will continue supporting critical services at Nasser Hospital, including inpatient and surgical departments for patients with traumatic or burn injuries. However, it is ending support to the pediatrics and maternity wards, including the neonatal intensive care unit. It has also indefinitely suspended its outpatient consultations for 3D burn screening and mental health, as well as other services. Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the records department at Gaza’s health ministry, said MSF’s suspension would have a significant impact as hundreds of patients are admitted to the maternity and burn wards daily. He said the ministry would take over maternity patient care, but said burn victims won’t have many options. Israel has been cracking down on aid groups operating in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, including MSF. The group is one of more than three dozen that Israel has banned from operating in the strip for failing to comply with new registration rules. MSF says Israel’s decision will have a catastrophic impact on its work in Gaza, where it provides funding and international staff for six hospitals and operates two field hospitals and eight primary health centers, clinics and medical points. It also runs two of Gaza’s five stabilization centers, helping children with severe malnutrition. 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 toll of war While the heaviest fighting has subsided, the fragile ceasefire has been seen almost daily Israeli fire. Israeli forces have carried out repeated airstrikes and frequently fire on Palestinians near military-held zones, killing 591 Palestinians since the ceasefire took effect, according to Gaza health officials. The ministry said the overall Palestinian death toll from the war is at least 72,051. The ministry, part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. It does not give a breakdown of civilians and militants. Militants have carried out shooting attacks on troops, and Israel says its strikes are in response to that and other violations. Four Israeli soldiers have been killed. ___ Magdy reported from Cairo. SAM MEDNICK Mednick is an AP correspondent for Israel and the Palestinian Territories. She focuses on conflict, humanitarian crises and human rights abuses. Mednick formerly covered West & Central Africa and South Sudan. twitter SAMY MAGDY Magdy is a Middle East reporter for The Associated Press, based in Cairo. He focuses on conflict, migration and human rights abuses. twitter facebook mailto

Travelers wait at a TSA security checkpoint at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, Nov. 30, 2025, in Romulus, Mich. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun, File) 2026-02-14T05:05:37Z A shutdown of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that took effect early Saturday impacts the agency responsible for screening passengers and bags at airports across the country. Travelers with airline reservations may be nervously recalling a 43-day government shutdown that led to historic flight cancellations and long delays last year. Transportation Security Administration officers are expected to work without pay while lawmakers remain without an agreement on Homeland Security’s annual funding. TSA officers also worked through the record shutdown that ended Nov. 12, but aviation experts say this one may play out differently. Trade groups for the U.S. travel industry and major airlines nonetheless warned that the longer DHS appropriations are lapsed, the longer security lines at the nation’s commercial airports could get. Here’s what to know about the latest shutdown and how to plan ahead. 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); }); What’s different about this shutdown? Funding for Homeland Security expired at midnight . But the rest of the federal government is funded through Sept. 30. That means air traffic controllers employed by the Federal Aviation Administration will receive paychecks as usual, reducing the risk of widespread flight cancellations. According to the department’s contingency plan, about 95% of TSA workers are deemed essential personnel and required to keep working. Democrats in the House and Senate say Homeland Security won’t get funded until new restrictions are placed on federal immigration operations. During past shutdowns, disruptions to air travel tended to build over time , not overnight. About a month into last year’s shutdown, for example, TSA temporarily closed two checkpoints at Philadelphia International Airport. That same day, the government took the extraordinary step of ordering all commercial airlines to reduce their domestic flight schedules. John Rose, chief risk officer for global travel management company Altour, said strains could surface at airports more quickly this time because the TSA workforce also will be remembering the last shutdown. “It’s still fresh in their minds and potentially their pocketbooks,” Rose said. What is the impact on travelers? It’s hard to predict whether, when or where security screening snags might pop up. Even a handful of unscheduled TSA absences could quickly lead to longer wait times at smaller airports, for example, if there’s just a single security checkpoint. That’s why travelers should plan to arrive early and allow extra time to get through security. “I tell people to do this even in good times,” Rose said. Experts say flight delays also are a possibility even though air traffic controllers are not affected by the DHS shutdown. Airlines might decide to delay departures in some cases to wait for passengers to clear screening, said Rich Davis, senior security advisor at risk mitigation company International SOS. Shortages of TSA officers also could slow the screening of checked luggage behind the scenes. 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); }); What travelers can do to prepare Most airports display security line wait times on their websites, but don’t wait until the day of a flight to check them, Rose advised. “You may look online and it says two-and-a-half hours,” he said. “Now it’s two-and-a-half hours before your flight and you haven’t left for the airport yet.” Passengers should also pay close attention while packing since prohibited items are likely to prolong the screening process. For carry-on bags, avoid bringing full-size shampoo or other liquids, large gels or aerosols and items like pocketknives in carry-on bags. 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); }); TSA has a full list on its website of what is and isn’t allowed in carry-on and checked luggage. At the airport, Rose said, remember to “practice patience and empathy.” “Not only are they not getting paid,” he said of TSA agents, “they’re probably working with reduced staff and dealing with angry travelers.” 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); }); Will the shutdown drag on? The White House has been negotiating with Democratic lawmakers, but the two sides failed to reach a deal by the end of the week before senators and members of Congress were set to leave Washington for a 10-day break. Lawmakers in both chambers were on notice, however, to return if a deal to end the shutdown is struck. Democrats have said they won’t help approve more funding for Homeland Security until new restrictions are placed on federal immigration operations after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis last month. In a joint statement, U.S. Travel, Airlines for America and the American Hotel & Lodging Association warned that the shutdown threatens to disrupt air travel as the busy spring break travel season approaches. “Travelers and the U.S. economy cannot afford to have essential TSA personnel working without pay, which increases the risk of unscheduled absences and call outs, and ultimately can lead to higher wait times and missed or delayed flights,” the statement said. RIO YAMAT Yamat is a national business reporter for The Associated Press. Based in Las Vegas, she covers airlines, travel and tourism. twitter mailto

The annual aficionados' bonanza has been postponed until further notice as shortages affect international travel.

There is no innocent explanation for the toxin being found in samples taken from Navalny's body, Foreign Office says.

Giving some newborns in Guinea-Bissau an established hepatitis B treatment but not others is "unethical", it says.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Saturday blasted the idea of a "world without borders," warning European leaders that unchecked mass migration is destabilizing Western civilization and eroding national sovereignty. Speaking at the annual Munich Security Conference , Rubio criticized the post-Cold War belief that the world had reached the "end of history" — an era in which liberal democracy would spread, and national borders would fade — calling it a "dangerous delusion." "This was a foolish idea that ignored both human nature, and it ignored the lessons of over 5000 years of recorded human history, and it has cost us dearly," Rubio said. Rubio stressed that border security is not rooted in exclusion, but in responsibility. TRUMP PLEDGES TO REASSERT MONROE DOCTRINE TO RESTORE AMERICAN POWER "We must also gain control of our national borders, controlling who and how many people enter our countries," he said. "This is not an expression of xenophobia. It is not hate. It is a fundamental act of national sovereignty." Failing to do so, Rubio warned, is "not just an abdication of one of our most basic duties owed to our people — it is an urgent threat to the fabric of our societies and the survival of our civilization itself." The U.S. top diplomat added that lax enforcement threatens "the cohesion of our societies, the continuity of our culture , and the future of our people." Rubio’s remarks come amid mounting political tensions in both Europe and the U.S. over migration, asylum policy and border security. RUBIO STEPS INTO MUNICH SPOTLIGHT AS TRUMP LEANS ON HIM TO CARRY VANCE’S POPULIST MESSAGE ABROAD Outlining America’s direction under President Donald Trump , Rubio said the U.S. seeks to rebuild its alliance with Europe on stronger footing. "We want allies who can defend themselves so that no adversary will ever be tempted to test our collective strength," he said. "This is why we do not want our allies to be shackled by guilt and shame. We want allies who are proud of their culture and of their heritage, who understand that we are heirs to the same great and noble civilization, and who, together with us, are willing and able to defend it." "We in America have no interest in being polite and orderly caretakers of the West's managed decline," Rubio said. "We do not seek to separate, but to revitalize an old friendship and renew the greatest civilization in human history." RUBIO WARNS NATO ALLIES US IS 'NOT SIMPLY FOCUSED ON EUROPE,' DOESN'T HAVE UNLIMITED RESOURCES The secretary said the U.S. seeks an alliance "ready to defend our people, to safeguard our interests, and to preserve the freedom of action that allows us to shape our own destiny, not one that exists to operate a global welfare state and atone for the purported sins of past generations." Rubio reminded attendees that America’s ties to Europe stretch back centuries, saying the U.S. will remain permanently linked to the continent. "What we have inherited together is something that is unique and distinctive and irreplaceable," Rubio said. "Acting together in this way, we will not just help recover a sane foreign policy, it will restore to us a clear sense of ourselves. It will restore a place in the world, and in so doing, it will rebuke and deter the forces of civilizational erasure that today menace both America and Europe alike." Marco Rubio could not be immediately reached by Fox News Digital for comment.

FIRST ON FOX: Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of the currently incarcerated former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro , is a man on an unofficial diplomatic mission in the United States. His objective is to free his father, who is currently serving a 27-year sentence at the Federal Police headquarters in the nation's capital. Convicted on charges of plotting a coup d'état, leading an armed criminal organization and attempting to violently abolish the democratic rule of law, Jair Bolsonaro remains a popular yet controversial figure in Brazil, and who still commands a devoted following nationwide, especially in the southern strongholds of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Eduardo Bolsonaro has pursued a "maximum pressure campaign" against the current Brazilian regime on behalf of his father, lobbying the Trump administration for sanctions against the country, and for Magnitsky sanctions against the head of the Brazilian Supreme Court Alexandre de Moraes . RUBIO WARNS BRAZIL OF US RESPONSE AFTER BOLSONARO'S CONVICTION FOR PLOTTING A COUP In 2022, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva narrowly defeated incumbent Bolsonaro in the closest election since Brazil's 1985 return to democracy. This followed Lula's dramatic release from prison by the Brazilian Supreme Court in 2019, where he was serving a sentence for corruption. While many expected São Paulo Governor Tarcisio de Freitas to run in 2026, he declined, clearing the way for the former president's other son, Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro, who declared his candidacy last December. Speaking to Fox News Digital at the Hispanic Prosperity Gala at Mar-a-Lago Eduardo Bolsonaro discussed the present situation. "A lot of polls are showing that my brother, Senator Flavio (Bolsonaro), is tied and some of them he's a little bit ahead… Flavio just launched, just announced that he is going to run. It was a big decision that Jair Bolsonaro took, recognizing that it would be impossible for him to run in the October election, for sure, because he's in jail now. Unfairly, but he is. This is a fact." Eduardo Bolsonaro believes the nation's economic and security issues will propel his brother to victory. "The strategy of Flavio is to show how bad the Lula administration is, mainly in economy and also in security. These are areas where Flavio is doing very well… everybody's fed up with Lula supporting Hamas, increasing criminality, and not doing a great job in the economic area. So, Flavio, for sure his focus is going to be on the economy and security to defeat Lula." While Flavio Bolsonaro and Lula are clearly the top two contenders, several other right-wing and center-right candidates have entered the race, including Minas Gerais Governor Romeu Zema, Parana Governor Ratinho Junior and Goias Governor Ronaldo Caiado. Eduardo Bolsonaro dismisses concerns that the current electoral scenario could split the vote and lead to a first-round electoral victory for Lula. "It doesn't matter who is going to the second round; against Lula, everybody will be together. Because we all know that the worst that can happen to the country is the re-election of Lula da Silva. So these polls that are trying to say that Lula… can win in the first round, if the right-wing movement splits the votes between these candidates, this is a lie. For sure, this is not going to happen." "And for sure, it's very good that we have more candidates on the right-wing… Why? Because they will all criticize Lula da Silva. So, even Flavio is publicly saying that it would be a good thing to do to support more and more candidates for the right… against Lula." JIM CAVIEZEL STARRING IN BOLSONARO BIOPIC AS SON OF JAILED FORMER PRESIDENT LAUNCHES 2026 CAMPAIGN While former president Bolsonaro is incarcerated, his movement enjoys strong support in the Brazilian Congress , which recently passed legislation that would dramatically cut his prison sentence. However, Lula vetoed the legislation in January, which means that Congress may now seek to override that veto. Additionally, the Supreme Court, which is unfavorably disposed to Bolsonaro, may also review the legislation on grounds of constitutionality. "Everything that the Supreme Court does not like, they say that this is against our constitution. It's the way that they try to get all of the power over the legislative [branch], and even sometimes the executive power. So, this is one more chapter of this long invasion by the judiciary… Lula da Silva doing the veto against this bill that was approved by the Congress only shows that he is always speaking with the left-wing bubble, he's talking to the radical left people." Eduardo Bolsonaro believes the Brazilian people support his father over the Supreme Court, and points out that his father was not even present in Brazil for the Jan. 8 riots. "In Brazil they do not approve [of the veto], they are fed up with all of this… On the very same day [Jan. 8, 2023]… the ‘protest dictator’, Jair Bolsonaro, was in Orlando, in Disney World. So everybody knows this is a fake thing and no one can support any more debates around this." "That's why Jair Bolsonaro is in jail because if he wasn't convicted to 27 years in jail, he would be free to run, and for sure he would be the next president of Brazil. That's the only reason that he is in jail: because of political reasons. That is why when Flavio Bolsonaro gets elected in October and changes the political scenario, this will also change the scenario inside the judiciary of Brazil." Eduardo Bolsonaro is entirely focused on his brother Flavio's 2026 presidential campaign as the means to freeing his father from prison. "Now, I only have one role… electing Flávio Bolsonaro, and he will give the pardon to Jair. Not only to Jair, but also to me. I am accused of committing crimes in the United States because I was talking with authorities, American authorities, and they consider this an attack against the sovereignty of Brazil." "The judge of the Supreme Court, Alexandre de Moraes, who got sanctioned by the Trump administration with the support of Scott Bessent and Marco Rubio, he blames me for that. But as he does not have the courage to sue Trump, Bessent and Rubio, he's suing me for that. So we hope that Flavio is going to get elected and then as president he has the power to pardon me, my father and more than 400 conservative people that are in jail." While the Bolsonaros have historically performed very well in the vote-rich and wealthy southern states of Rio de Janeiro , São Paulo and Minas Gerais, they have underperformed in Brazil's poorer Northeast region, which is where Lula is originally from. Yet, Bolsonaro promises a strong showing nationwide, and says that voters in the Northeast are ready for a change: "It's bringing the truth. People nowadays know that the ‘assistencialismo’ (populist social assistance for purposes of vote-buying), that is the way that Lula gets this high amount of votes in the Northeast of Brazil." "We are also going strong in the Northeast. The Northeast, you're going to see, it's not anymore a region of Brazil that is under the [control of] Lula." Eduardo Bolsonaro weighed in on recent U.S. military action in Venezuela, and pledged a renewed U.S.-Brazilian geopolitical relationship, and full support for American action against Communist regimes: "Maduro is not the president anymore and in Nicaragua Daniel Ortega arrested seven opponents… that were running for president. How can you consider this a democracy? So, for sure, it's not a democracy. There is no difference between these guys and Chapo or Pablo Escobar. The difference is only that Nicolás Maduro and Daniel Ortega took over the country, they took over the institutions." "So everybody, not only Venezuela, but also Brazil, is really happy that the great military of the United States arrested Maduro… It's bringing hope to the people. And for sure, we do support them, not only in public… but also in international forums." This interview was lightly edited for style and clarity.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced the United Kingdom will deploy its aircraft carrier strike group to the North Atlantic and the High North later this year, marking a show of force as security tensions escalate across Europe . Speaking on Saturday at the annual Munich Security Conference in Germany, Starmer said the mission would be led by HMS Prince of Wales and carried out alongside the U.S., Canada and other NATO allies . "I can announce today that the U.K. will deploy our carrier strike group to the North Atlantic and the High North this year, led by HMS Prince of Wales, operating alongside the U.S., Canada and other NATO allies, in a powerful show of our commitment to Euro-atlantic security," Starmer told the high-profile forum aimed at strengthening European defense and diplomatic ties. NATO LAUNCHES ARCTIC SECURITY PUSH AS TRUMP EYES GREENLAND TAKEOVER The High North — a term referring to the Arctic and surrounding regions — has become increasingly strategic amid growing Russian military activity . The deployment is intended to bolster security against potential Russian threats, according to BBC News . The announcement comes as President Donald Trump has repeatedly reiterated interest in the U.S. acquiring Greenland, citing national security concerns in the Arctic regarding Russia and China. Starmer warned that Moscow’s military buildup could intensify even if a peace agreement is reached in Ukraine , arguing that Russian rearmament would "only accelerate." UK PRIME MINISTER OUTRAGED AFTER MANCHESTER UNITED CO-OWNER WARNS COUNTRY IS BEING 'COLONIZED' BY MIGRANTS Europe, he said, must be prepared to "deter aggression" and, if necessary, be ready to fight. "We must build our hard power, because that is the currency of the age," he said. The carrier strike group is an international naval task force led by the Royal Navy. It consists of one aircraft carrier, about 40 aircraft, a frigate, a destroyer, a submarine and a supply ship, according to BBC News. HMS Prince of Wales, a roughly $3.5 billion aircraft carrier, serves as the Royal Navy’s flagship, BBC News reported. TROOPS FROM EUROPE DEPLOY TO GREENLAND IN RAPID 2-DAY MISSION AS TRUMP EYES US TAKEOVER Trump has previously threatened tariffs on Britain and other European countries unless an agreement is reached allowing the U.S. to take control of the Danish territory. After meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in late January, Trump announced that he would not impose tariffs that were set to take effect Feb. 1 given they formed the "framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region." Trump told reporters outside the White House on Friday that the administration is "negotiating right now for Greenland," adding that, "We get along very well with Europe." The president was also asked about the Munich Security Conference. "If it wasn't for me, they'd be paying 2% and not paying," Trump said of NATO allies. "They're paying 5% and they're paying. We have a very good relationship with NATO." The three-day Munich conference brings together world leaders, defense chiefs and security officials. Starmer did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.

In Munich, European leaders were also talking about “de-risking” from the United States, citing President Trump’s unpredictability.

A Brazilian skier secured South America’s maiden medal at a Winter Games the day after a Kazakh figure skater won his nation’s first gold in 32 years.

Demonstrators opposed to the Iranian government gathered near the Munich Security Conference and in other cities. Another round of U.S.-Iran talks is expected on Tuesday.

This week, ProPublica published a story I wrote based in part on interviews with parents and children being held at the nation’s only operating detention center for immigrant families in Dilley, Texas. I had asked some of the parents to see if their children would be willing to write to me about their experiences inside. More than three dozen did. One of those letters came from 9-year-old Maria Antonia Guerra Montoya from Colombia. Her letter was written on a piece of notebook paper. She decorated it with rainbows and hearts. And she drew a portrait of herself and her mom wearing their detention uniforms and government-issued ID badges. I had initially met Maria a few weeks earlier, when I managed to get inside the Dilley Immigration Processing Center. It’s just south of San Antonio. Maria Antonia, her mother and more than 3,500 people, half of them minors, had cycled through there since the Trump administration reopened it early last year. I went in mid-January, before the facility burst into public view when Liam Conejo Ramos — the 5-year-old in a blue bunny hat detained with his father in Minneapolis — was sent there, with the aim of hearing about the conditions in which children were being held, from the children themselves. After signing in, I passed through a metal detector and a series of locked doors to get to the visitation room. Maria Antonia and another girl her age were quietly playing fast-moving hand games, when her mother, Maria Alejandra Montoya, called her over to introduce me.   Maria Antonia, wearing her long brown hair in a ponytail, didn’t hesitate. She scooted forward to the front edge of her chair, pushed her thick white-framed glasses up on her nose and dove right in.  I asked her how she and her mom had ended up there. Well, she said, we had a plan to go to “Disneylandia” but instead ended up in “Dilleylandia.” Then she told me the story. She lived in Colombia with her grandmother and regularly traveled back and forth to the United States to visit her mother, who had been in the U.S. since 2018. (Maria Alejandra had overstayed a visa but since married a U.S. citizen and was applying for a green card.) In August, the whole family had vacationed together in Disney World. It was so fun, Maria Antonia said, that she begged her mom to go back for the park’s annual Halloween celebration. They booked tickets for a 10-day vacation during her school holidays. She lit up telling me about how she had planned out a “101 Dalmatians” costume — she would be Cruella de Vil and her mom and stepdad the spotted dogs. The whole getup was so bulky it basically filled her entire suitcase.  But everything started going wrong as soon as she arrived at the Miami International Airport on Oct. 2. She was supposed to be dropped off with her mom by the flight attendant accompanying her. But she said was intercepted by immigration officers who took her into a room to be interrogated while her mother was taken to be questioned in a separate room. They were asking me all kinds of questions I had absolutely no idea how to answer , I recall her telling me (I was not allowed any notebooks or voice recorders inside the detention facility). I kept just saying over and over again: “I can tell you my name and my birthday and my mom’s name and her birthday and that I am from Colombia. That’s about it.” I didn’t know what else to tell them . After what they both said were hours of questioning, they were put in a cold room together. Maria Alejandra’s phone was confiscated. They had no way to contact her stepdad, who was waiting for them in the airport. Maria Antonia said they had no idea why they were being detained if her mother was applying for a green card and she had a valid tourist visa.  Maria Antonia had learned English at her private school in Medellin. She overheard one immigration officer tell another that if she had been 10 years old, they would have been able to keep her separated from her mom. That, she said, is when the real fear set in. Then it was 42 hours of waiting in the airport holding rooms. Eventually they were put on a plane — then a minivan — to the facility in Texas. Maria Antonia said she didn’t really understand where they were going until they saw the center out the window. A page from Maria Antonia’s letter to reporter Mica Rosenberg: “They don’t give me my diet I am vegetarian, I don’t eat well, there is no good education and I miss my best friend julieta and my grandmother and my school I already want to get to my house. Me in dilei [Dilley] am not happy please get me out of here to colombia.” Obtained by ProPublica By the time I met them, they had been detained for nearly four months. I asked Maria Antonia what being stuck in Dilley was like. She told me she had fainted two times since she got there; she is vegetarian and said she ate mostly beans. She felt like she had nothing to do all day and she missed her school, echoing concerns of many of the other kids I spoke with over the course of my reporting. She said she had made some new friends inside Dilley, but it was hard. She and her mom had been detained for so long that new people she met would often leave when they were released or deported. Her mother, Maria Alejandra, had told me in long, vivid emails about some of more serious concerns about her and her daughter’s deteriorating mental and physical health during their prolonged detention. She said Maria Antonia would wake up in the middle of the night crying, fearful she would never leave detention or alternatively that she would be separated from her mom. Read More The Children of Dilley I asked the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which DHS oversees, about what Maria Alejandra and Maria Antonia told me. In an email, they said Maria Alejandra overstayed her tourist visa and had been previously arrested for theft, a charge that according to court documents was dismissed. DHS said that during her time in detention, Maria Antonia was seen by medical professionals twice and also had weekly check-ins with mental health professionals, “where she stated she was calm and well-nourished.” DHS said everyone held at the facility is “provided with 3 meals a day, clean water, clothing, bedding, showers, soap, and toiletries” and “certified dieticians evaluate meals.” DHS also said “children have access to teachers, classrooms, and curriculum booklets for math, reading, and spelling” and no one is denied medical care. CoreCivic, which operates the facility, said it is subject to multiple layers of oversight and that health and safety are top priorities. Soon we all said goodbye. But I remained in touch with her mother and stepdad and attorneys following the case. They shared documentation about what happened to them and their legal pleas to be released.  I learned an immigration judge had granted them “voluntary departure” on Jan. 6, allowing Maria Alejandra to pay their own way back to Colombia, avoid having a formal deportation order on her record and continue her green card application from abroad. But it wasn’t until Feb. 6 that they were finally sent back to Colombia. A few days after they returned, her mother told me the first thing Maria Antonia wanted to do was throw out the government-issued sweatsuit she had been wearing for months. Then I received a video. It showed Maria Antonia, wearing pink leggings and a T-shirt with a teddy bear on it, running to embrace her teachers one by one outside her school. One of the teachers leads her by the hand into her classroom: “Look who I brought you!” the teacher says. Another young girl, Maria Antonia’s best friend, leaps out of her desk to wrap her arms around her. Another friend rushes to join the hug. She was finally home. The post How a Planned Disney World Vacation Turned Into Four Months in Immigration Detention appeared first on ProPublica .

The Missouri prosecutor overseeing an investigation into the 2020 vote in Fulton County, Georgia, has taken part in meetings since last fall with lawyers tasked by President Donald Trump to reinvestigate his loss to Joe Biden.  Thomas Albus, whom Trump appointed last year as U.S. attorney for Missouri’s Eastern District, has had multiple meetings set up with top administration lawyers to discuss election integrity.  At those meetings was Ed Martin, a Justice Department lawyer who until recently led a group investigating what the president has described as the department’s “weaponization” against him and his allies, according to a source familiar with the meetings who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.  White House lawyer Kurt Olsen, who has been tasked with reinvestigating the 2020 election, also was directed to join at least one of the meetings, according to the source. Both Martin and Olsen worked on behalf of Trump to try to overturn the 2020 election results, and a federal court sanctioned Olsen for making false claims about the reliability of voting machines in Arizona. The meetings reveal new details about the length of the preparations for, and people involved in, the January FBI raid on Fulton County, which election and legal experts told ProPublica was a significant escalation in Trump’s breaking of democratic norms. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi picked Albus and has granted him special authority to handle election-related cases nationwide, even though his earlier work as a federal prosecutor didn’t involve election law or election-related cases. The meetings with Martin, Olsen and other lawyers for the Justice Department were described by the source as being about “election integrity,” a term the Trump administration has used to describe investigations into its false claims that elections are rigged.  Martin, Olsen, Albus and others declined to answer questions about the meetings and other detailed questions from ProPublica. The White House and the Justice Department also did not respond to questions. The meetings came at a particularly crucial time. Martin’s efforts to obtain election materials from Fulton County, a Democratic stronghold, had hit a wall. In August, he sent a letter demanding that a Fulton County judge allow him to access tens of thousands of absentee ballots for “an investigation into election integrity here at the Department of Justice,” but he had reportedly received no reply . Martin explained to Steve Bannon on a podcast that aired around the time of the meetings that although the White House had given Olsen the official mandate to reinvestigate the 2020 election, “inside DOJ, myself and a couple of others have been working also on the same topic” — including getting the Fulton County ballots. But Martin described progress as a “challenge.” Bannon, who served as Trump’s chief strategist in his first term, asked why Martin didn’t just “get some U.S. marshals to go down and seize” the ballots. Martin suggested it was easier said than done, but agreed: “Look, we’ve got to get” the ballots.    Ed Martin posted a photo from his meeting with Thomas Albus in Washington, D.C., on social media. Via X Before long, Albus and Olsen were interviewing witnesses for their case. Kevin Moncla, a conservative researcher, told ProPublica that he spoke to Albus and Olsen a couple of times, both together and separately, around the turn of the year. He identified himself as Witness 7 in the affidavit that persuaded a judge to sign off on the raid, and the affidavit mentions a 263-page report he authored that activists believe may have justified the raid, ProPublica has reported . Moncla has a long history of working with Olsen, dating back to an attempt by Kari Lake , a Republican candidate for governor in Arizona, to overturn her 2022 loss.  Just a few weeks after those interviews, in late January, Albus was listed as the government attorney on the search warrant that authorized the seizure of roughly 700 boxes of election material in Georgia, far outside of Albus’ usual jurisdiction.   Former U.S. attorneys from both parties said it was rare for a federal prosecutor from one region to take on cases in other states or be granted the nationwide authority Albus has been given.  Under Trump, senior roles across the White House, DOJ and FBI have increasingly been filled by a small, interconnected group of Missouri lawyers with longstanding ties to one another. Another top federal official in the meetings was Jesus Osete, the principal deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights . Before joining the Justice Department, Osete worked in the Missouri attorney general’s office, where he represented the state in at least five lawsuits against the Biden administration regarding vaccine mandates, immigration and other policies. Osete did not respond to requests for comment or to a detailed list of questions. When the FBI raided Fulton County’s election center, Andrew Bailey, another lawyer from the same political circles, was in charge . Before joining the FBI as deputy director, he had used his position as Missouri’s attorney general to pursue high-profile cases against prominent Democrats and said he supported all efforts to investigate Biden , his family and his administration. A spokesperson for the FBI declined to answer detailed questions about Bailey. Last year, Roger Keller, a veteran federal prosecutor from Albus’ office, was brought in to help prosecute New York Attorney General Letitia James for alleged mortgage fraud in Virginia after the original career prosecutors on the case were replaced by political appointees. After a judge dismissed the case, two federal grand juries declined to indict James again, and Keller returned to Missouri. Trump’s solicitor general, D. John Sauer, previously served as Missouri’s solicitor general under state attorneys general Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt. He and Schmitt signed Missouri’s amicus brief supporting efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. Sauer later represented Trump in his presidential-immunity case, successfully arguing before the Supreme Court that Trump was entitled to broad immunity from prosecution. Albus’ connection to the other Missouri lawyers goes back decades. Unlike some of the others, though, he has never held elected office or had a high public profile, nor has he waged culture-war campaigns like Bailey or Martin. Instead, he spent most of his career as a federal prosecutor and as a judge in a Missouri state circuit court. Emails show Albus exchanging brief messages with Martin in 2007, when Albus was an assistant U.S. attorney in St. Louis and Martin was chief of staff to then-Gov. Matt Blunt. The emails were part of records from the Blunt administration that became public after being released under Missouri’s Sunshine Law.  In the email exchange, Albus put in a good word for a St. Louis lawyer who was a finalist for an appellate court judgeship, and Blunt ultimately selected that candidate.  Albus served as first assistant to Schmitt from early 2019 until Albus was appointed by Gov. Mike Parson to fill a circuit court judge vacancy in early 2020. Schmitt, now a U.S. senator, praised Albus as “one of the finest prosecutors I have ever met” when endorsing his nomination for U.S. attorney in December. Lawyers who appeared in Albus’ court rated him as well prepared, professional and attentive, according to Missouri judicial performance reviews. They said he followed the evidence, applied the law correctly and gave clear reasons for his rulings.  Albus came under more critical scrutiny after Trump named him interim U.S. attorney last summer. Much of that attention centered on a fraud case he inherited when he took office. Prosecutors alleged that developers in St. Louis falsely claimed to be using minority- and women-owned subcontractors to qualify for city tax breaks, conduct the Justice Department has historically treated as wire fraud.  One of the defendants was represented by lawyer Brad Bondi, the brother of Pam Bondi. The developers’ lawyers argued that even if the government’s claims were true, they were legally irrelevant because the Trump administration had taken the position that tax breaks based on race or gender were unlawful. Albus accepted those arguments and dropped the case . As part of the resolution, Albus personally hand-delivered to City Hall a check of about $1 million from one of the developers’ companies as restitution. He told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he intervened “to make it clear” his office wanted to drop charges and hand-delivered the check “to make sure they got it.”  In a letter to Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Congressional Democrats said the dismissal of the St. Louis case and other cases in which the Justice Department intervened on behalf of Brad Bondi’s clients raised “ significant broader ethical concerns .” In the St. Louis case, and in a separate matter involving another Brad Bondi client whose charges were dropped, a Justice Department spokesperson said Pam Bondi’s relationship with her brother had “ no bearing on the outcome .” A spokesperson for the developers said their lawyers communicated only with the U.S. attorney’s office in St. Louis about the case and had no direct contact with Pam Bondi. He said the dismissal reflected “a recognition that this case should never have been brought in the first place.” Brad Bondi did not respond to a request for comment. Weeks later, around the time of Albus’ meetings about election integrity, he posed with Martin in Martin’s office, flanked by a framed photo of Trump and a copy of “A Choice, Not an Echo,” the influential conservative manifesto by Phyllis Schlafly arguing that Republican voters were being manipulated by party elites and the media.  Martin posted the photo on X with the caption, “Good morning, America. How are ya’?” The post What Meetings Among Trump Lawyers Reveal About the FBI’s Seizure of Election Records in Georgia appeared first on ProPublica .

When county clerk Brianna Lennon got an email in November saying a newly expanded federal system had flagged 74 people on the county’s voter roll as potential noncitizens, she was taken aback. Lennon, who’d run elections in Boone County, Missouri, for seven years, had heard the tool might not be accurate. The flagged voters’ registration paperwork confirmed Lennon’s suspicions. The form for the second person on the list bore the initials of a member of her staff, who’d helped the man register — at his naturalization ceremony. It later turned out more than half the Boone County voters identified as noncitizens were actually citizens. The source of the bad data was a Department of Homeland Security tool called the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE. Once used mostly to check immigrants’ eligibility for public benefits, SAVE has undergone a dramatic expansion over the last year at the behest of President Donald Trump, who has long falsely claimed that millions of noncitizens lurk on state voter rolls, tainting American elections. At Trump’s direction, DHS has pooled confidential data from across the federal government to enable states to mass-verify voters’ citizenship status using SAVE. Many of the nation’s Republican secretaries of state have eagerly embraced the experiment, agreeing to upload all or part of their rolls. But an examination of SAVE’s rollout by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune reveals that DHS rushed the revamped tool into use while it was still adding data and before it could discern voters’ most up-to-date citizenship information. As a result, SAVE has made persistent mistakes, particularly in assessing the status of people born outside the U.S., data gathered from local election administrators, interviews and emails obtained via public records requests show. Some of those people subsequently become U.S. citizens, a step that the system doesn’t always pick up. According to correspondence between state and federal officials , DHS has had to correct information provided to at least five states after SAVE misidentified some voters as noncitizens. Texas and Missouri were among the first states to try the augmented tool. In Missouri, state officials acted on SAVE’s findings before attempting to confirm them, directing county election administrators to make voters flagged as potential noncitizens temporarily unable to vote. But in hundreds of cases, the tool’s determinations were wrong, our review found. Lennon was among dozens of clerks statewide who raised alarms about the system’s errors. “It really does not help my confidence,” she said, “that the information we are trying to use to make really important decisions, like the determination of voter eligibility, is so inaccurate.” In Texas, news reports began emerging about voters being mistakenly flagged as noncitizens soon after state officials announced the results of running the state’s voter roll through SAVE in October. Our reporting showed these errors were more widespread than previously known, involving at least 87 voters across 29 counties. County election administrators suspect there may be more. Confusion took hold when the Texas secretary of state’s office sent counties lists of flagged voters and directed clerks to start demanding proof of citizenship and to remove people from the rolls if they didn’t respond. “I really find no merit in any of this,” said Bobby Gonzalez, the elections administrator in Duval County in South Texas, where SAVE flagged three voters, all of whom turned out to be citizens. Even counting people flagged in error, the first bulk searches using SAVE haven’t validated the president’s claims that voting by noncitizens is widespread. At least seven states with a total of about 35 million registered voters have publicly reported the results of running their voter rolls through the system. Those searches have identified roughly 4,200 people — about 0.01% of registered voters — as noncitizens. This aligns with previous findings that noncitizens rarely register to vote . Brian Broderick leads the verification division of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the DHS branch that oversees SAVE. In an interview this month, he acknowledged the system can’t always find the most current citizenship information for people not born in the U.S. But he defended the tool, saying it was ultimately up to states to decide how to use SAVE data. “So we’re giving a tool to these folks to say, ‘Hey, if we can verify citizenship, great, you’re good. If we can’t, now it’s up to you to determine whether to let this person on your voter rolls,’” Broderick said. In Texas, Secretary of State Jane Nelson declined an interview request. Her spokesperson, Alicia Pierce, said the office hadn’t reviewed SAVE’s citizenship determination before sending lists to counties because it isn’t an investigative agency. In a statement, Pierce added that the use of SAVE was part of the office’s “constitutional and statutory duty to ensure that only eligible citizens participate in Texas elections.” A spokesperson for Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins called SAVE a valuable resource even though some people it flagged might later be confirmed as citizens. “No system is 100% accurate,” Hoskins said in an interview, “but we’re working to get it right.” Asked whether it was problematic that his office directed clerks to temporarily bar voters from casting ballots before verifying SAVE’s findings, Hoskins said that was a “good point.” While 27 states have agreed to use SAVE, others have hesitated, concerned not only about inaccuracies, but also about privacy and the data’s potential to be used in immigration enforcement. Indeed, speaking at a recent conference, Broderick said that when SAVE flags voters as noncitizens, they are also referred to DHS for possible criminal investigation. (It is a crime to falsely claim citizenship when registering to vote.) People who’ve been flagged by SAVE in error say it’s jarring to have to provide naturalization records to stay eligible to vote when they know they’ve done nothing wrong. Sofia Minotti was erroneously flagged as a potential noncitizen voter by a Department of Homeland Security tool. Shelby Tauber for ProPublica and The Texas Tribune Sofia Minotti, who lives north of Dallas in Denton County, was born in Argentina but became a U.S. citizen years ago. Nonetheless, she was one of 84 Denton County voters identified by SAVE as a potential noncitizen. She and 11 others have since provided proof of citizenship, giving the system an error rate in the county of at least 14%. The real rate is probably higher, a county official acknowledged, since some of those sent notices to prove their citizenship might not respond in time to meet the deadline. They’ll have to be reinstated to vote in the midterms later this year. Minotti, though still on the rolls, felt singled out unfairly. “I’m here legally, and everything I’ve done has been per the law,” she said. “I really have no idea why I had to prove it.” Election administrators in many states have long hungered for better access to federal information on citizenship status. States don’t typically require people to provide proof of citizenship when they sign up to vote, only to attest to it under penalty of perjury. Previous efforts to use state data to catch noncitizens on voter rolls have gone poorly. Texas officials had to abandon a 2019 push after it became clear their methodology misidentified thousands of citizens, many of them naturalized, as ineligible voters. Until recently, SAVE hadn’t been much of a resource. State and local election officials needed to have voters’ DHS-assigned immigration ID numbers — information not collected in the registration process — to verify their citizenship status. Plus, officials had to pay to conduct searches one by one, not in bulk. In March, Trump issued an executive order that required DHS to give states free access to federal citizenship data and partner with the Department of Government Efficiency to comb voter rolls. The order triggered a series of meetings at USCIS designed to comply with a 30-day deadline to remake SAVE, a document obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union and reviewed by ProPublica shows. The system’s main addition was confidential Social Security Administration data, which allowed states to search using full or partial Social Security numbers and incorporated information on millions of Americans who were not previously in Homeland Security databases. David Jennings, Broderick’s deputy at USCIS, had pressed his team to move quickly, he said on a June video call with members of former Trump lawyer Cleta Mitchell’s Election Integrity Network, which has spread false claims about noncitizen voting. “We tested it and deployed it to our users in two weeks,” Jennings said on the call, which ProPublica obtained a recording of. “I think that’s remarkable. Kind of proud of it.” Jennings added that to get quick access to the Social Security data, which has been tightly guarded, USCIS partnered with DOGE. (In an unrelated matter, DOGE has since been accused of misusing Social Security data.) Jennings did not respond to questions from ProPublica and the Tribune. Perhaps because of its accelerated timetable, USCIS expanded the system before meeting legal requirements to inform the public about how the data would be collected, stored and used, according to voting rights organizations that sued . (UCSIS did not respond to a request for comment about this.) It also blew past concerns from voter advocacy groups about the accuracy of SSA’s citizenship data, which multiple audits and analyses have shown is often outdated or incomplete. This is particularly true for people not born in the U.S., who often get Social Security numbers well before they become citizens. According to emails obtained by ProPublica and the Tribune, SAVE first checks SSA’s citizenship information. If that shows a voter isn’t a citizen, DHS searches other databases, but it can be difficult to locate and match all the data the systems have on a person. This can lead to errors. Broderick said in the interview that Trump’s executive order dramatically accelerated the timetable for launching SAVE, getting agencies to cooperate and move quickly. But he insisted the work was done responsibly. “Do I think it was reckless? Do I think it wasn’t planned? Do I think it wasn’t tested? Absolutely not,” he said. By September, Texas had uploaded its entire list of more than 18 million registered voters into SAVE. Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Tennessee, Utah and Wyoming put voter data into the system, too. They would soon start to unveil what SAVE had found. One of the first out of the gate was Texas. In late October, with early voting underway in state and local elections, Nelson, the secretary of state, announced SAVE had identified 2,724 potential noncitizens on the rolls. But as Nelson delegated the task of investigating those voters’ statuses to local election officials, confusion took hold. At a meeting, Nelson’s staff told county clerks’ offices to investigate flagged voters and then send notices to those for whom they were unable to confirm citizenship. In a follow-up email, Nelson’s staff told the clerks they should already have heard from someone in the office with more details. That set off a chain of messages on the local officials’ email group Travis County voter registration director Christopher Davis said he hadn’t been contacted and had just learned the county had 97 flagged voters. Marsha Barbee, in Wharton County near Houston, shared that she talked to a Nelson staffer who said she’d been directed not to tell local officials about their lists because they were in the middle of early voting. “They said we have enough on our plates and didn’t want us to worry right now,” Barbee wrote. In the absence of clear state guidance, clerks proceeded inconsistently. Some said they didn’t act on their lists, waiting for more direction. Others, unsure how to investigate flagged voters’ status, said they simply sent notices asking for proof of citizenship, though some opted not to remove nonresponsive voters from the rolls. “I give them many chances; I don’t just expire them right away,” Dee Wilcher, a clerk in East Texas’ Anderson County, said about flagged voters, adding that she wanted to avoid removing citizens from the rolls and looking “stupid.” Chris McGinn, executive director of the Texas Association of County Election Officials, said many clerks expressed frustration with the secretary of state’s lack of guidance and failure to help with investigations. When he shared clerks’ concerns, McGinn said Nelson’s staff didn’t respond, leading him to conclude that checking SAVE’s findings wasn’t an agency priority. He called the state’s use of SAVE “more political and appearance-based” than a practical way to ensure election integrity. One way to check SAVE’s findings would have been to get information from the Texas Department of Public Safety, which requires proof of citizenship if residents register to vote when obtaining a driver’s license. The secretary of state’s office didn’t do this and didn’t direct counties to either. Several county officials said they hadn’t thought to ask DPS for information; those who did often found the agency had documentation showing some of the voters who SAVE identified as noncitizens were in fact citizens. In the Texas Panhandle, Potter County elections officials quickly confirmed through DPS that three of nine voters on their list had proof of citizenship on file. In neighboring Randall County, DPS helped officials verify that one in five had a U.S. passport, according to interviews with the local officials. In December, Travis County learned that 11 of the 97 voters flagged by SAVE had proven their citizenship to DPS. After getting the data, the county’s voter registrar, Celia Israel, said in an interview that she felt even more uncomfortable about moving forward with sending notices to voters, given SAVE’s errors. “It has proven to be inaccurate,” she said. “Why would I rely on it?” To be sure, SAVE also identified some people who weren’t eligible to vote, clerks said. Several came across instances in which voters marked on registration forms that they weren’t citizens, but were registered by election office staffers in error. Clerks also said voters have told them they’d misunderstood questions about eligibility when getting drivers’ licenses. (It’s not clear if any of those registered in error voted; overall, noncitizens rarely vote .)  ProPublica and the Tribune surveyed the 177 Texas counties that had voters flagged by SAVE, receiving data from 97 that had either checked DPS records or sent notices to voters to try to verify SAVE’s citizenship information. Overall, more than 5% of the voters SAVE identified as noncitizens proved to be citizens. In some smaller counties, most of those flagged were eligible to vote. That includes six of 11 in the Panhandle’s Moore County, and two of three in Erath County, near Dallas. But some of those who didn’t respond to notices also might be citizens. In Denton County, where Sofia Minotti lives, checks by elections administrator Frank Phillips’ staff delivered clear answers on the citizenship status of 26 of the 84 voters flagged by SAVE. Twelve, including Minotti, proved they were citizens. Fourteen more had marked on their registration forms that they weren’t and the blame rested with workers for registering them nonetheless. Phillips said he removed anyone who didn’t provide proof by the deadline from the rolls to comply with the secretary of state’s instructions, but he fears some were eligible voters. “What is bugging me is I think our voter rolls may be more accurate than this database,” Phillips said. “My gut feeling is more of these are citizens than not.” At least initially, Missouri took a more targeted approach to SAVE than Texas did. State officials used the system to search for information on a subset of about 6,000 voters they had reason to think might not be citizens, according to emails between federal and state officials . The state had results by October, but in early November, a USCIS official wrote to Missouri and four other states to say some people flagged by SAVE as noncitizens were actually citizens, emails obtained through public records requests show. “We have continued to refine our processes used to obtain and review the citizenship data available to us,” the official wrote, adding that one such improvement revealed the errors. The staffer attached amended search results, but Missouri officials withheld the attachment from its response to a public records request and did not respond to a question about how many corrections were made. Based on the updated data from USCIS, Missouri sent lists of flagged voters to county election administrators in November. ProPublica and the Tribune obtained these lists for seven of 10 most populous counties in the state, which show SAVE initially identified more than 1,200 people as noncitizens just in these areas. The Missouri secretary of state’s office told election administrators it would work to verify SAVE’s citizenship determinations. In the meantime, local officials were instructed to change the status of flagged voters, making them temporarily unable to vote. The lists were met with swift pushback from county election officials, who, like Lennon, soon spotted people they knew to be citizens and questioned the directive’s legality. On a group call in November, they traded examples, saying they recognized neighbors, colleagues and people they’d helped to register at naturalization ceremonies. In St. Louis, the Board of Election Commissioners didn’t alter the eligibility of anyone on its flagged voter list after being advised not to by its attorney. Rachael Dunn, a spokesperson for Hoskins, the Missouri secretary of state, said state law allows officials to change voters’ status during investigations into their eligibility — for example, if there are signs they’ve moved. The laws she cited don’t directly address investigations into citizenship status, however. In early December, some 70 clerks, Republicans and Democrats, wrote a letter to Missouri House Speaker Jonathan Patterson saying there were better ways than SAVE to keep noncitizens off voter rolls. Weeks later, the state’s election integrity director, Nick La Strada, wrote USCIS to ask why a voter that SAVE had identified as a noncitizen in October had showed up in a more recent search as a citizen. A USCIS official replied that between the initial search and the follow-up, DHS had gotten access to passport data, which contains more up-to-date citizenship information on some people not born in the U.S. The USCIS staffer explained that some of the most accurate citizenship information — which is within DHS’ own records — still wasn’t searchable in SAVE because running that kind of search would require the voter’s DHS identifier, which can’t always be located. The staffer said they were working on improvements but those could take until March. “You don’t start with something at that scale until you work the bugs out, and that is not the case here,” Clinton Jenkins, president of the Missouri Association of County Clerks and Election Authorities, said in an interview. Jenkins is also the clerk for Miller County in the Ozarks. In early January, in what was framed as a “SAVE review update,” the secretary of state’s office sent counties across Missouri revised lists with reduced numbers of voters identified as potential noncitizens. It instructed election administrators to move voters who’d been initially flagged in error by SAVE back to active status, restoring their eligibility to vote. Dunn, Hoskins’ spokesperson, didn’t specify what prompted these adjustments. Even the new lists may not be final, she acknowledged. Once the review is complete, the state has said it plans to send letters to those still on the lists, demanding proof of citizenship and giving recipients 90 days to respond. The addition of new data to SAVE makes it a more valuable resource, she maintained, “while also reinforcing the need for careful, layered review before any action is taken.” After the January revision, St. Louis County’s initial list of 691 potential noncitizens dropped to 133. Zuzana Kocsisova, who lives in St. Louis, was among those incorrectly flagged by SAVE on its first pass. Originally from Slovakia, she became a U.S. citizen in 2019. She showed ProPublica and the Tribune a copy of her naturalization certificate, which she keeps with a letter from Trump congratulating her for “becoming a citizen of this magnificent land.” When a reporter told her that SAVE had initially identified her as a potential noncitizen, she said she wasn’t surprised. She saw it as part of the Trump administration’s targeting of immigrants. She was more frustrated than relieved to learn that she wasn’t on the smaller list of flagged voters sent in January. “Overall, it seems like this process has done more to worry people who can vote than to identify actual registered voters who don’t qualify,” she said. “It’s just a waste of resources. I don’t think it makes the elections any more safe.” In Boone County, where Lennon is the clerk, the count of flagged voters fell from 74 to 33 and the naturalized citizen who Lennon’s staff helped register was no longer on the list. Lennon said she and other county clerks would happily accept data that helps them correctly identify noncitizens on their voter rolls. But so far, SAVE hasn’t done that. And until it does, she said, she won’t purge voters purely because SAVE has flagged them. “This is not ready for prime time,” Lennon said. “And I’m not going to risk the security and the constitutional rights of my voters for bad data.” The post “Not Ready for Prime Time.” A Federal Tool to Check Voter Citizenship Keeps Making Mistakes. appeared first on ProPublica .

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