# Robbery suspect, other driver killed in wrong-way crash on Missouri interstate
January 2, 2024. 11:16 AM EST

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**KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP)** - Two people are dead after a Missouri robbery suspect's vehicle was going the wrong way on an interstate highway while being chased by officers early Tuesday and slammed into another vehicle, killing both drivers, police said.

The accident happened just after 4 a.m. on Interstate 435 in Kansas City. Names of those killed have not been released.

Armed robberies occurred between around 2:30 a.m. and 4 a.m. at three convenience stores. Soon after the third crime, police saw the suspect vehicle and initiated a pursuit, police spokeswoman Alayna Gonzalez said in a news release.

During the chase, the driver traveled south in the northbound lanes of the interstate, causing the crash, Gonzalez said.

The accident remains under investigation.


# Indiana woman is rescued after passerby directs police to car crash site along little-used road
January 2, 2024. 1:32 PM EST

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**GARY, Ind. (AP)** - A woman who was trapped in a car that crashed early on New Years Day was rescued after a passerby directed officers to the crash scene along a little-used northwest Indiana road, police said.

Police and emergency responders spent two hours searching unsuccessfully for the car after a woman called 911 about 3:40 a.m. Monday and said she and another woman were trapped in a car that had flipped over in Gary, police said.

One of the women eventually got out of the wrecked car, which was upside down, and flagged down a passerby who directed officers to the crash, the Lake County Sheriff's Department said.

Greg Zellers, who's a mechanic, said he was on his way to work about 6:30 a.m. when the woman flagged him down and walked him to where the car had crashed about 50 yards (46 meters) from the roadway.

He told WLS-TV the car's headlights and tail lights weren't visible and there is little traffic on the road in Gary's Buffington Harbor area.

"It's very difficult to see from the road," said Zellers, who directed first responders and two officers to the crashed car.

"They asked me to stay until they got here. So I did, but then I needed to get to work," he said.

The woman trapped in the car told police she could not feel her legs. She was airlifted to a hospital and a message seeking information on her condition was left Tuesday morning for a Gary police spokesperson.

Lake County Sheriff Oscar Martinez said he appreciated the efforts of the passerby, the two officers and first responders who rescued the woman.

"Their diligence helped to prevent what could have been a tragedy," he said in a statement.


# Small earthquake shakes Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C.
January 2, 2024. 9:45 AM EST

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**ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP)** - A small earthquake shook the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C., early Tuesday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The quake with a preliminary magnitude of 2.3 happened around 12:51 a.m. It was centered nearly 2 miles (about 3.2 kilometers) west of Rockville in Montgomery County, with a preliminary depth of about 9.5 miles (15.3 kilometers).

By midmorning, the agency had received more than 1,400 reports through its website from people who reported feeling the temblor across Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, the District of Columbia and Pennsylvania.

Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson Pete Piringer posted on social media that there were no reports of injury or damage.


# Rohingya refugees in Sri Lanka protest planned closure of U.N. office, fearing abandonment
By **KRISHAN FRANCIS**
January 2, 2024. 8:43 AM EST

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**COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP)** - A group of Rohingya refugees living in Sri Lanka staged a protest outside the office of the U.N. refugee agency Tuesday, saying they fear losing their living allowance once the agency's office in the island nation closes at the end of this year.

The protesters also want to be resettled in another country because Sri Lanka does not allow them to live there permanently.

About 100 Rohingya refugees live in Sri Lanka, most of them rescued at sea by the navy while they were trying to reach Indonesia after fleeing Myanmar for Bangladesh.

About 740,000 Rohingya were resettled in Bangladesh after fleeing their homes in Myanmar to escape a brutal counterinsurgency campaign by security forces. But the camps in Bangladesh are squalid, with surging gang violence and rampant hunger, leading many to flee again.

Ruki Fernando, a rights activist in Sri Lanka, said the refugees receive basic allowance from the U.N. agency and are provided with limited health care by the Sri Lankan government. However, the refugee children don't receive education and adults aren't allowed to work.

"We didn't intend to come to Sri Lanka, but were rescued off the seas in Sri Lanka and brought to Sri Lanka by the navy. We also had to endure a hard time in detention in Sri Lanka and still live a very hard life in a new country where we can't speak our language, and many don't have family members, relatives and friends," the refugees said in a petition to the U.N. agency's representative.

The petition said the refugees were upset to learn of the office's upcoming closure and pleaded for it to "help us find a permanent solution in another country that will help us overcome uncertainty and not make us and our children permanently stateless."

The U.N. refugee agency could not immediately be reached Tuesday.

The office in Sri Lanka was especially active during the country's quarter-century civil war which ended in 2009.


# Man charged with assaulting wife's co-worker, pushing cook's head toward deep fryer, police say
January 2, 2024. 12:11 PM EST

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**HIGH POINT, N.C. (AP)** - Police in North Carolina have charged a man with assaulting his wife's co-worker behind the counter of a fast food restaurant, saying he put his hands around the cook's neck and pushed his head toward a deep fryer.

High Point Police officers were called Thursday to the McDonald's on South Main Street, where a manager in training said she called her husband for help after employees were disrespecting her, police said in an incident report posted online. Witnesses told police that when the woman's husband arrived, he walked around the counter and placed his hands around the cook's neck, pushing his head toward the deep fryer and punching him several times in the face until he was pulled away, the report states.

The victim, who had a large contusion to his forehead and right eye and scratches on his neck, chose to have his family take him to the hospital, police said.

Officers watched store video of the attack, police said. They arrested the husband and charged him with assault and battery or simple assault.


# Spaniard imprisoned in Iran after visiting grave of Mahsa Amini arrives home after release
January 2, 2024. 8:11 AM EST

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**MADRID (AP)** - A Spaniard who spent 15 months in an Iranian prison after visiting the tomb of Mahsa Amini returned home to Madrid on Tuesday after being released.

"I can't believe it. This has been very hard, but I am here. We have no idea how fortunate we are to have been born in his country," Santiago Sánchez Cogedor told a group of reporters at the airport after he was embraced by family and friends upon arrival.

Sánchez Cogedor was on a solo walking trek to the men's soccer World Cup in Qatar when he was arrested in Iran in October 2022. His arrest followed his visit to the tomb of Amini, a woman whose death while being held by Iran's morality police for violating Iran's Islamic dress code sparked protests in the country.

He remained behind bars until Iran's embassy to Spain announced his release on Sunday.

The 41-year-old was walking all the way from Spain with the goal of reaching Qatar to support Spain's national team at soccer's biggest global event.

Sánchez Cogedor said that he would not comment on politics, but he read to reporters what he called a diploma given to him by his fellow prisoners in Iran that indicated he had "passed the test of life."


# Cold spell in Finland and Sweden sends temperature below minus 40
By **JARI TANNER**
January 2, 2024. 10:07 AM EST

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**HELSINKI (AP)** - Finland and Sweden recorded their coldest temperatures of the winter Tuesday when thermometers plummeted as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius (minus 40 Fahrenheit) as a cold spell grips the Nordic region.

Cold and snow disrupted transportation throughout the region, including in Norway where a major highway in the south was closed due to the weather and ferry lines suspended operations. Swedish train operators said the cold snap caused substantial problems for rail traffic in the Arctic north.

Nikkaluokta, a small village inhabited by indigenous Sami people in northern Sweden, recorded a temperature of minus 41.6 degrees C (minus 42.8 F) early Tuesday, Swedish public broadcaster SVT reported.

"It's the coldest temperature we have had so far this winter, and it will continue to be quite cold weather in the north," SVT meteorologist Nils Holmqvist said.

The Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute reported temperatures of minus 30 C (minus 22 F) in several locations in northern Sweden, and issued a warning for snow and wind for central and southern Sweden. Its second-highest warning applies from midnight into Wednesday.

In neighboring Finland, this winter's cold record was recorded in the northwestern town of Ylivieska where temperatures fell to minus 37.8 C (minus 36 F) early Tuesday, and forecasters said temperatures would be lower than minus 40 C in parts of the nation through the week.

Temperatures in the Finnish capital, Helsinki, were expected to hover between minus 15 and minus 20 C (around zero F).

In the southern Norway town of Arendal, officials said schools would be closed Wednesday because it wasn't possible to clear the sidewalks in time for children to get to school.

Several ferry companies throughout the region canceled crossings, including those from southern Norway to Denmark where a key bridge was closed to vehicles with light trailers because of strong winds, Danish officials said.


# Thai prime minister says visa-free policy for Chinese visitors to be made permanent in March
January 2, 2024. 6:19 AM EST

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**BANGKOK (AP)** - Thailand and China will soon implement visa-free entry for each other's citizens, Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said Tuesday.

Chinese nationals will be granted visa-free entry on a permanent basis beginning March 1, Srettha said after his Cabinet's weekly meeting. Chinese visitors have been allowed visa-free entry since September last year, but the privilege was due to expire on Feb. 29.

Thailand's visa-exemption policy aims to give a boost to the country's tourism industry, which was badly damaged by the coronavirus pandemic. The country received about 40 million visitors in 2019, and the government estimated they spent 1.9 trillion baht ($53.2 billion) - an amount that plummeted by more than 99% by 2021, according to data from the Ministry of Tourism and Sports.

China is a major source of tourists to Thailand, with almost 11 million visitors in 2019, accounting for 27.6% of all arrivals that year before the pandemic devastated the tourist market.

Last year, Thailand saw 28 million foreign tourist arrivals, including 3.4 million from China. Chinese visitors ranked second to Malaysia, which accounted for about 4.4 million visitors.

Tuesday's decision to grant Chinese citizens permanent visa-free privileges was made after negotiations between Bangkok and Beijing, Srettha said. He said China agreed to extend visa-free entry to Thai visitors in exchange for allowing Chinese nationals the permanent visa exemption.

In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said China welcomed the Thai move, saying it was in the fundamental interest of the two countries.

"The competent authorities of both sides are currently in close communication on the specific matter, and we look forward to the relevant arrangements coming into effect as soon as possible," he said.

According to the Bangkok Post online, Thai Foreign Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara said he will travel to China by early February to sign the agreement for mutual visa-free entry.


# Biden and Trump are poised for a potential rematch that could shake American politics
By **STEVE PEOPLES**
January 2, 2024. 6:39 AM EST

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**LACONIA, N.H. (AP)** - U.S. presidential elections have been rocked in recent years by economic disaster, stunning gaffes, secret video and a pandemic. But for all the tumult that defined those campaigns, the volatility surrounding this year's presidential contest has few modern parallels, posing profound challenges to the future of American democracy.

Not since the Supreme Court effectively decided the 2000 campaign in favor of Republican George W. Bush has the judiciary been so intertwined with presidential politics.

In the coming weeks, the high court is expected to weigh whether states can ban former President Donald Trump from the ballot for his role in leading the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Meanwhile, a federal appeals court is weighing Trump's argument that he's immune from prosecution.

The maneuvers are unfolding as prosecutors from New York to Washington and Atlanta move forward with 91 indictments across four criminal cases involving everything from Trump's part in the insurrection to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his hush money paid to a porn actress.

Depending on how Trump's appeals play out, he could be due in court as early as March 4, the day before Super Tuesday, raising the unprecedented prospect that he could close in on the GOP nomination from a courtroom.

On the Democratic side, President Joe Biden is seeking reelection as the high inflation that defined much of his first term appears to be easing. But that has done little to assuage restless voters or ease widespread concerns in both parties that, at 81, he's simply too old for the job.

And at least three serious candidates who have launched outsider presidential bids threaten to scramble the campaign and eat into the support from independent voters who were critical to Biden's success in 2020.

Facing such uncertainty, few expect the traditional rules of politics to apply in 2024. Jim Messina, who managed former President Barack Obama's reelection, said Trump could very well defeat Biden in the fall, even if the former president is in prison.

"We just don't know," Messina said. "Everyone in the world knows, especially me, that this election is going to be really, really close."

## Implications for abortion, immigration and U.S. role in the world
The results will have long-term implications on everything from the future of abortion rights and immigration policy to the role of the U.S. in the world. A Trump victory would raise the possibility of the U.S. largely abandoning Ukraine as it seeks to repel Russia's invasion. Domestic politics could also test Biden's commitment to Israel, a policy that threatens to erode his standing with young voters and people of color who are critical elements of his coalition.

One of the few certainties at this point is that Biden is a virtual lock to be the Democratic nominee again, facing only token opposition in this year's primary despite overwhelming concerns within his own party about his physical and mental fitness. And though a few rivals are fighting furiously to stop Trump, he is well positioned to win the GOP nomination for the third consecutive election.

The strength of the GOP opposition to Trump will become more clear on Jan. 15 when the Iowa caucuses launch the nomination process. Trump holds a commanding lead in most national polls, although former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are fighting to stop him.

That hasn't been easy, however, as DeSantis has struggled to connect with voters and has embraced culture war topics that often left him competing for the same base of support as Trump. And Haley's pitch as a more sensible, moderate candidate was threatened last week when she was pressed on the cause of the Civil War and didn't mention slavery.

Allies of DeSantis and Haley privately concede that their best chance to wrestle the nomination away from Trump would come in a long-shot push for a contested convention in Wisconsin in July.

Many leaders in both parties are already convinced that Trump will be the GOP nominee. More than 90 House Republicans, 18 senators and seven governors have endorsed Trump. Haley and DeSantis have secured the endorsements of just six House Republicans, no senators and two governors combined.

"This will be one of the earliest primaries wrapped up in my lifetime," Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., who endorsed Trump back in November 2022, said in an interview. "I'm already focused on the general election. ... There is going to be a political earthquake next November."

## Biden vs. Trump
Public polling strongly suggests that voters do not want a rematch between Trump and Biden.

Most U.S. adults overall (56%) would be "very" or "somewhat" dissatisfied with Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee in 2024, according to a poll conducted last month by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. A similar majority (58%) said they would be very or somewhat dissatisfied with Trump as the GOP's pick.

Perhaps because of such apathy, some voters simply don't believe Biden and Trump will end up on the general election ballot, despite strong evidence to the contrary. That's an idea that conservative strategist Sarah Longwell, who founded the Republican Accountability Project, says she hears regularly during weekly focus groups with voters across the political spectrum.

"Voters really aren't thinking about it, so they don't see the thing that's coming right at us - the most likely scenario, which is Trump vs. Biden," Longwell said. "But Trump is so dangerous. ... I wish the level of urgency from everybody matched the reality of where we are headed."

## Threats to democracy
While concerns about Biden are centered on his age, Trump has increasingly embraced authoritarian messages that serve as clear warnings of his plans to dismantle democratic norms if he returns to the White House.

Echoing strongmen leaders throughout history, Trump has framed his campaign as one of retribution and has spoken openly about using the power of government to pursue his political enemies. He has repeatedly harnessed rhetoric once used by Adolf Hitler to argue that immigrants entering the U.S. illegally are "poisoning the blood of our country." He said on Fox News last month that he would not be a dictator " except for day one. " And he shared a word cloud last week to his social media account highlighting words like, "revenge," "power" and "dictatorship."

Biden, like his party more broadly, has leaned into concerns about the future of democracy should Trump return to the White House, but that has done little to improve his standing. Early polls reveal weakness among core segments of his coalition, including voters of color and young people.

People on Biden's team do not fear that his base will defect to Trump in the general election, but they privately worry some of the Democratic president's supporters may not vote at all. They're betting that Biden's achievements, which include landmark legislation on gun control, climate change and infrastructure, will eventually help overcome pervasive concerns about his age.

Ultimately, however, Biden's campaign believes that voters will rally behind the president once they fully understand that Trump could realistically return to the White House.

## 'This election will be a choice'
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, who sits on Biden's advisory council, said the president's reelection campaign "knows it can't take any vote for granted," which is why the campaign has already invested heavily in efforts to mobilize Biden's diverse coalition.

"This election will be a choice - a choice between a president who has delivered historic results for the American people and someone who poses an existential threat to our democracy and freedoms," Dickens said. "We will win in November once we fully make the case, explain the stakes and make the choice clear."

Meanwhile, there is a sense of deep uncertainty on the ground in Iowa and New Hampshire, where Republican presidential candidates in particular have been showering primary voters with attention for much of the last year.

Rodney Martell, a 65-year-old Republican from Loudon, New Hampshire, said he's ready for the voting to begin. He's supporting Haley's primary bid, but said he'd support Trump in the general election if he had no other choice - even if Trump is a convicted felon.

Martell said he doubts the 2024 election will ultimately be a rematch of Trump and Biden, however: "Honestly, if it comes to that kind of race again, I think it could get pretty ugly."

More than 1,000 miles to the west, Susie Fortuna offered a similar assessment during a recent Haley campaign event in Coralville, Iowa. Fortuna lives in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, but she was in Iowa to visit family.

She isn't convinced that Biden and Trump will emerge as their party's nominees, either. The political year ahead, she said, feels "unsettling."

"I feel like there are things out there that we don't know yet, to be honest," Fortuna said.


# DeSantis and Haley will appear at next week's CNN debate at the same time as Trump's Fox town hall
By **DAVID BAUDER**
January 2, 2024. 3:21 PM EST

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**NEW YORK (AP)** - Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley are set to appear at next week's Republican presidential debate on CNN, while former President Donald Trump participates in a Fox News town hall at the same time.

Both events will be held at 9 p.m. ET on Jan. 10 in Des Moines, Iowa, just five days before the state's first-in-the-nation GOP voting contest.

The CNN debate, to be moderated by Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, will be the first to focus solely on the two candidates vying to become Trump's chief competition. The former president has been leading by wide margins in polls of likely Republican voters.

Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who participated in previous debates, did not qualify for the CNN event. Candidates needed to achieve 10% support in at least three specific polls of likely Republican voters or caucusgoers, at least one of them measuring voters just in Iowa.

In a post on X on Tuesday, Ramaswamy predicted that the DeSantis-Haley debate would be "the most boring in modern history" and said he would participate in a podcast hosted by Tim Pool instead.

Trump did not participate in any of the earlier debates, saying he didn't want to lend credence to his lower-polling rivals. He has instead typically held competing events, including an interview with Tucker Carlson and traveling to Michigan to criticize President Joe Biden and his push for electric cars during an autoworkers' strike.

His town hall next Wednesday will air in the time slot normally held by one of his top media supporters, Sean Hannity. But Hannity will be preempted that night, with Fox anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum instead moderating that session.

It was not immediately clear whether it was the Trump campaign or Fox News that initiated plans for the town hall. A CNN spokeswoman declined to comment on the counterprogramming.

DeSantis and Haley have both criticized Trump for not participating in the debates.

"With only three candidates qualifying, it's time for Donald Trump to show up," Haley said on Tuesday. "As the debate stage continues to shrink, it's getting harder for Donald Trump to hide."

Meanwhile, NBC News and The Des Moines Register said it would hold a series of 30-minute interviews with DeSantis, Haley and Ramaswamy that will posted digitally on Wednesday. Trump and Christie declined the interview requests, NBC said.

Haley and DeSantis will also appear in back-to-back town hall events on CNN this Thursday.


# Trump appeals Maine ruling barring him from ballot under the Constitution's insurrection clause
By **NICHOLAS RICCARDI** and **DAVID SHARP**
January 2, 2024. 8:10 PM EST

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**PORTLAND, Maine (AP)** - Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday appealed a ruling by Maine's secretary of state barring him from the state's primary ballot over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Trump, the early front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, appealed the Maine decision by Democrat Shenna Bellows, who became the first secretary of state in history to bar someone from running for the presidency under the rarely used Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. That provision prohibits those who "engaged in insurrection" from holding office.

The former president is expected to soon appeal a similar ban by the Colorado Supreme Court. That appeal would go to the U.S. Supreme Court, while Bellows' action is being appealed to a Maine Superior Court.

Trump's appeal on Tuesday asks that Bellows be required to place him on the March 5 primary ballot. The appeal argues that she abused her discretion and relied on "untrustworthy evidence."

"The secretary should have recused herself due to her bias against President Trump, as demonstrated by a documented history of prior statements prejudging the issue presented," Trump's attorneys wrote.

Bellows reiterated to The Associated Press on Tuesday that her ruling was on pause pending the outcome of the appeal, which had been expected.

"This is part of the process. I have confidence in my decision and confidence in the rule of law. This is Maine's process and it's really important that first and foremost every single one of us who serves in government uphold the Constitution and the laws of the state," she said.

Trump's critics have filed dozens of lawsuits seeking to disqualify him in multiple states.

None succeeded until a slim majority of Colorado's seven justices - all of whom were appointed by Democratic governors - ruled against Trump last month. The Colorado court's 4-3 decision was the first time in history the provision was used to bar a presidential contender from the ballot.

Trump lost Colorado in 2020, and he doesn't need to win it again to garner an Electoral College majority next year. But he earned one of Maine's four Electoral College votes in 2020 by winning the state's 2nd Congressional District, so Bellows' decision could have an impact next November.

Critics warned that it was an overreach and that the court could not simply declare that the Jan. 6 attack was an "insurrection" without a more established judicial process.

A week after Colorado's ruling, Bellows issued her own. Critics warned it was even more perilous because it could pave the way for partisan election officials to simply disqualify candidates they oppose. Bellows, a former head of Maine's branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, has previously criticized Trump and his behavior on Jan. 6.

The Constitution's Section 3 has been barely used since the years after the Civil War, when it kept defeated Confederates from returning to their former government positions. The two-sentence clause says that anyone who swore an oath to "support" the Constitution and then engaged in insurrection cannot hold office unless a two-thirds vote of Congress allows it.

Trump's lawyers argue the provision isn't intended to apply to the president, contending that the oath for the top office in the land isn't to "support" the Constitution but instead to "preserve, protect and defend" it. They also argue that the presidency isn't explicitly mentioned in the amendment, only any "officer of the United States" - a legal term they contend doesn't apply to the president.

Trump made the opposite argument defending against his prosecution for fraud by the Manhattan District Attorney's office, contending the case should move to federal court because the president is "an officer of the United States." The prosecutors argued that language only applies to presidential appointees - Trump's position here.

The contention that Section 3 doesn't apply to the president drew a scathing response from the Colorado Supreme Court last month.

"President Trump asks us to hold that Section 3 disqualifies every oathbreaking insurrectionist except the most powerful one and that it bars oathbreakers from virtually every office, both state and federal, except the highest one in the land," the court's majority opinion said. "Both results are inconsistent with the plain language and history of Section 3."

As for history, Congress granted amnesty to most former Confederates in 1872, and Section 3 fell into disuse. Legal scholars believe its only application in the 20th century was being cited by Congress in 1919 to block the seating of a socialist who opposed U.S. involvement in World War I and was elected to the House of Representatives.

But it returned to use after Jan. 6, 2021. In 2022, a judge used it to remove a rural New Mexico county commissioner from office after he was convicted of a misdemeanor for entering the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Liberal groups sued to block Republican Reps. Madison Cawthorn and Marjorie Taylor Greene from running for reelection because of their roles on that day. Cawthorn's case became moot when he lost his primary in 2022, and a judge ruled to keep Greene on the ballot.

Some conservatives warn that, if Trump is removed, political groups will routinely use Section 3 against opponents in unexpected ways. They have suggested it could be used to remove Vice President Kamala Harris, for example, because she raised bail money for people arrested after George Floyd's murder at the hands of Minneapolis police in 2020.

Trump and his allies have attacked the cases against him as "anti-democratic" and sought to tie them to President Joe Biden because the Colorado case and some others are funded by liberal groups who share prominent donors with the Democratic president. But Biden's administration has noted that the president has no role in the litigation.

Those who support using the provision against Trump counter that the Jan. 6 attack was unprecedented in American history and that there will be few cases so ripe for Section 3. If the high court lets Trump stay on the ballot, they've contended, it will be another example of the former president bending the legal system to excuse his extreme behavior.


# A Hamas official killed in a Beirut strike had been on Israel's hit list for years
By **BASSEM MROUE**, **ABBY SEWELL**, and **KAREEM CHEHAYEB**
January 2, 2024. 4:48 PM EST

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**BEIRUT (AP)** - Saleh Arouri, the deputy political head of Hamas and a founder of the group's military wing, had been in Israel's sights for years before he was killed in a drone strike in a southern suburb of Beirut on Tuesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had threatened to kill him even before Hamas carried out its deadly surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, sparking the ongoing brutal war in Gaza.

Israel had accused Arouri, 57, of masterminding attacks against it in the West Bank, where he was the group's top commander. In 2015, the U.S. Department of the Treasury designated Arouri as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist offering $5 million for information about him.

Asked about assassination threats against him in an interview with Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen in August, Arouri said, "It is not strange for us for the commanders and cadres of the movement to be martyred."

"I never expected to reach this age, so I am living on borrowed time," he said.

In the same interview, he threatened that in case of a comprehensive war, "Israel will suffer a defeat unprecedented in history."

Born in the town of Aroura in the occupied West Bank, Arouri joined Hamas and eventually went into exile, first to Damascus, where the Syrian government was a strong supporter of the group. But he left in 2011 when Hamas split with President Bashar Assad, siding with the opposition in Syria's civil war.

He went on to Turkey, but had to leave there in 2018 in an exodus of Hamas officials after Ankara improved its relations with Israel and after Qatar - a backer of the Palestinian militant group - was hit by a boycott led by its rival Saudi Arabia and other nations in the region.

Arriving in Beirut, Arouri made few public appearances but helped to pull Hamas closer to Hezbollah's orbit. Hamas was able to build up its political and military presence in Lebanon - but under careful control by Hezbollah.

Arouri also became a key figure in the group's reconciliation with Assad, and he proudly proclaimed himself part of the "Axis of Resistance," the collection of Iran's regional allies, including Hezbollah and Syria,

In early September, Arouri held a meeting with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah that was attended by Ziad Nakhaleh, the leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, during which they discussed the situation in the Palestinian territories. A similar meeting was convened after the Israel-Hamas war broke out in October.

Since Oct. 7, Arouri kept a low profile while others in the Hamas political leadership made frequent public appearances in Beirut, including in near-daily press conferences.

He seems to have been hiding in plain sight. He was killed in a strike on an apartment building in the middle of Beirut's southern suburbs, a political and security stronghold of Hezbollah but also a densely populated urban area.

Hamas officials confirmed Arouri's death, along with six other Hamas members, including two military commanders. A Lebanese security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the attack appeared to have been carried out by a drone that fired missiles into the building, targeting one specific floor.

The explosion shook the surrounding area, shattering windows in neighboring buildings and causing a fire on the street in the Musharafieh district. Residents of the area rushed to the streets around the targeted building, digging through rubble and broken glass looking for survivors or bodies.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency blamed an Israeli drone. Israeli officials declined to comment.

An Associated Press photographer at the scene described seeing at least two bodies and other body parts scattered in the street. Hezbollah security members fired in the air to disperse the crowd gathered around the building.

A witness at the scene, Abbas Ghannam, told the AP that he had heard the sound of a drone before the explosion.

"It was not a military jet, it was a drone. It has a low sound," he said.

If Israel was behind the strike, it would be its first attack on Beirut since the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in the summer of 2006.

It could mark a major escalation in the conflict in Lebanon. After Netanyahu's previous threats to Arouri, Nasrallah warned Israel not to target any Lebanese, Palestinian, Syrian or Iranian officials in Lebanon saying that would lead to "harsh retaliation" by the group.

Hezbollah said in a statement that the targeting of Arouri "in the heart of the southern suburbs of Beirut" constituted "a serious attack on Lebanon, its people, its security, sovereignty and resistance."

"We affirm that this crime will never pass without response and punishment," it said.

Nasrallah is set to speak Wednesday, on the anniversary of the killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in a U.S. airstrike. Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said Tuesday that the killing of Arouri "once again proved that straw foundation of Zionists is based on assassination and crime," Iranian media reported. He called it a sign of Israel's "heavy defeat" before Palestinian militant groups in the war in Gaza.


# Judge rules former clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses must pay $260,000 in fees, costs
January 2, 2024. 12:00 PM EST

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**LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP)** - Former county clerk Kim Davis, who refused to issue marriage licenses in Kentucky to same-sex couples, must pay a total of $260,104 in fees and expenses to attorneys who represented one couple, according to a federal judge's ruling.

That's in addition to $100,000 in damages a jury said the former Rowan County clerk should pay the couple who sued.

Attorneys for Davis had argued that the fees and costs sought by the attorneys were excessive, but U.S. District Judge David L. Bunning disagreed and said Davis must pay since the men prevailed in their lawsuit, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported.

Attorneys for Davis were expected to appeal the ruling.

Davis drew international attention when she was briefly jailed in 2015 over her refusal, which she based on her belief that marriage should only be between a man and a woman.

Davis was released only after her staff issued the licenses on her behalf but removed her name from the form. Kentucky's state legislature later enacted a law removing the names of all county clerks from state marriage licenses.


# First Pooh, now Mickey. In public domain, early Mickey Mouse version will star in horror movies
January 2, 2024. 7:41 PM EST

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**LOS ANGELES (AP)** - The earliest iteration of Mickey Mouse is on a rampage, barely two days in the public domain.

Slashed free of Disney's copyright as of Monday, the iconic character from "Steamboat Willie" is already the focus of two horror films. On Monday, just hours after the 1928 short entered the public domain, a trailer for "Mickey's Mouse Trap" dropped on YouTube. Another yet-to-be-titled film was announced Tuesday.

"Steamboat Willie" featured early versions of both Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, it was the third cartoon featuring the duo they made but the first to be released. In it, a more menacing Mickey, bearing more resemblance to rat than mouse, captains a boat and makes musical instruments out of other animals.

It's perhaps fitting, then, that the first projects announced are seemingly low-budget and campy slasher movies - and not unprecedented. Winnie the Pooh - sans red shirt - entered the public domain in 2022; scarcely a year later, he was notching up a heavy body count in the microbudget "Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey."

In the trailer for "Mickey's Mouse Trap," directed by Jamie Bailey, what appears to be a human in a comically small Mickey mask terrorizes a group of young people at an arcade.

"A place for fun. A place for friends. A place for hunting," text flashed during the trailer reads. "The mouse is out."

"We just wanted to have fun with it all. I mean it's Steamboat Willie's Mickey Mouse murdering people," director Jamie Bailey said in a statement cited by trade publications. "It's ridiculous. We ran with it and had fun doing it and I think it shows."

No release date has been set.

The second movie is from director Steven LaMorte, who previously directed a horror parody of "The Grinch," which is not in the public domain (the movie is thus called "The Mean One").

"A late-night boat ride turns into a desperate fight for survival in New York City when a mischievous mouse becomes a monstrous reality," is the logline for the untitled film, per a post on LaMorte's Instagram.

"Steamboat Willie has brought joy to generations, but beneath that cheerful exterior lies a potential for pure, unhinged terror," LaMorte said in a release cited by the trades. The movie has yet to begin production.

With the expiration of the 95-year copyright, the public is allowed to use only the initial versions of Mickey and Minnie - not the more familiar character designs.

"We will, of course, continue to protect our rights in the more modern versions of Mickey Mouse and other works that remain subject to copyright," Disney said in a statement ahead of the characters entering the public domain.

LaMorte told Variety that the producers of his film are working with a legal team so as not to run afoul of Disney, and will call their raging rodent Steamboat Willie instead of Mickey Mouse.

"We are doing our due diligence to make sure there's no question or confusion of what we're up to," he said.


# Harvard president Claudine Gay resigns amid plagiarism claims, backlash from antisemitism testimony
By **STEVE LeBLANC** and **COLLIN BINKLEY**
January 2, 2024. 8:59 PM EST

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**CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP)** - Harvard University President Claudine Gay resigned Tuesday amid plagiarism accusations and criticism over testimony at a congressional hearing where she was unable to say unequivocally that calls on campus for the genocide of Jews would violate the school's conduct policy.

Gay is the second Ivy League president to resign in the past month following the congressional testimony - Liz Magill, president of the University of Pennsylvania, resigned Dec. 9.

Gay, Harvard's first Black president, announced her departure just months into her tenure in a letter to the Harvard community.

Following the congressional hearing, Gay's academic career came under intense scrutiny by conservative activists who unearthed several instances of alleged plagiarism in her 1997 doctoral dissertation. The Harvard Corporation, Harvard's governing board, initially rallied behind Gay, saying a review of her scholarly work turned up "a few instances of inadequate citation" but no evidence of research misconduct.

Days later, the Harvard Corporation said it found two additional examples of "duplicative language without appropriate attribution." The board said Gay would update her dissertation and request corrections.

The Harvard Corporation said the resignation came "with great sadness" and thanked Gay for her "deep and unwavering commitment to Harvard and to the pursuit of academic excellence."

Alan M. Garber, provost and chief academic officer, will serve as interim president until Harvard finds a replacement, the board said in a statement. Garber, an economist and physician, has served as provost for 12 years.

Gay's resignation was celebrated by the conservatives who put her alleged plagiarism in the national spotlight - with additional plagiarism accusations surfacing as recently as Monday in The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative publication.

Christopher Rufo, an activist who has helped rally the GOP against higher education, said he's "glad she's gone."

"Rather than take responsibility for minimizing antisemitism, committing serial plagiarism, intimidating the free press, and damaging the institution, she calls her critics racist," Rufo said on X, formerly Twitter. "This is the poison" of diversity, equity and inclusion ideology, said Rufo, who has led conservative attacks on DEI both in business and in education.

Gay, in her letter, said it has been "distressing to have doubt cast on my commitments to confronting hate and to upholding scholarly rigor - two bedrock values that are fundamental to who I am - and frightening to be subjected to personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus."

But Gay, who is returning to the school's faculty, added "it has become clear that it is in the best interests of Harvard for me to resign so that our community can navigate this moment of extraordinary challenge."

Yoel Zimmermann, a visiting research undergrad from Munich, Germany, studying physics at Harvard, said that as a Jewish student he's noticed fellow members of the Jewish community have felt uncomfortable with the climate on campus.

"I think it was about time that Claudine Gay resigned," Zimmerman said. "She just did too many things wrong, especially with her testimony in Congress. I think that was just the kind of final tipping point that should have led to her removal immediately."

Supporters of Gay lamented her resignation.

"Racist mobs won't stop until they topple all Black people from positions of power and influence who are not reinforcing the structure of racism," award-winning author Ibram X. Kendi, who survived scrutiny of an antiracist research center he founded at Boston University, said in an Instagram post.

The Rev. Al Sharpton in a statement called pressure for Gay to resign "an attack on every Black woman in this country who's put a crack in the glass ceiling" and an "assault on the health, strength, and future of diversity, equity, and inclusion."

Critics welcomed her decision.

House Committee on Education and the Workforce Chairwoman Rep. Virginia Foxx called Gay's resignation welcome news but said the problems at Harvard are much larger than one leader.

"Postsecondary education is in a tailspin," the North Carolina Republican said in a statement. "There has been a hostile takeover of postsecondary education by political activists, woke faculty, and partisan administrators."

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, in a statement on X, also weighed in on Gay's resignation.

"A little context. A failure in leadership and denial of antisemitism have a price. I hope that the esteemed Harvard University will learn from this dismal conduct," he wrote.

Gay, Magill and MIT's president, Sally Kornbluth, came under fire last month for their lawyerly answers to a line of questioning from New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, who asked whether "calling for the genocide of Jews" would violate the colleges' codes of conduct.

The three presidents had been called before the Republican-led House Committee on Education and the Workforce to answer accusations that universities were failing to protect Jewish students amid rising fears of antisemitism worldwide and fallout from Israel's intensifying war in Gaza, which faces heightened criticism for the mounting Palestinian death toll.

Gay said it depended on the context, adding that when "speech crosses into conduct, that violates our policies." The answer faced swift backlash from Republican and some Democratic lawmakers as well as the White House. The hearing was parodied in the opening skit on "Saturday Night Live."

Gay later apologized, telling The Crimson student newspaper that she got caught up in a heated exchange at the House committee hearing and failed to properly denounce threats of violence against Jewish students.

"What I should have had the presence of mind to do in that moment was return to my guiding truth, which is that calls for violence against our Jewish community - threats to our Jewish students - have no place at Harvard, and will never go unchallenged," Gay said.

The episode marred Gay's tenure at Harvard - she became president in July - and sowed discord at the Ivy League campus. Rabbi David Wolpe later resigned from a new committee on antisemitism created by Gay, saying in a post on X that "events on campus and the painfully inadequate testimony reinforced the idea that I cannot make the sort of difference I had hoped."

The House committee announced days after the hearing that it would investigate the policies and disciplinary procedures at Harvard, MIT and Penn. Separate federal civil rights investigations were previously opened at Harvard, Penn and several other universities in response to complaints submitted to the U.S. Education Department.


# 'Bachelorette' Rachel Lindsay's husband, Bryan Abasolo, files for divorce after 4 years of marriage
January 2, 2024. 3:07 PM EST

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**LOS ANGELES (AP)** - The bloom is off the final rose for "Bachelorette" star Rachel Lindsay and husband Bryan Abasolo, who found love on the reality dating show. Court records show that Abasolo filed to end their marriage Tuesday.

He cited irreconcilable differences for the breakup and his filing in Los Angeles Superior Court says the pair separated on Dec. 31.

"After more than 4 years of marriage, Rachel and I have made the difficult decision to part ways and start anew," Abasolo said in a statement posted to his Instagram account. "Sometimes loving yourself and your partner means you must let go."

After competing on Season 21 of "The Bachelor," Lindsay gained fame as the first Black lead on any iteration of "The Bachelor" franchise when she was picked as "The Bachelorette" in 2017. She chose Abasolo as her winning suitor and they married in August 2019. Lindsay, an attorney and author, recently left her correspondent position at entertainment news show "Extra." Abasolo is a chiropractor who has adopted the moniker "Dr. Abs."

In his statement, he asked for respect for their family and friends as they navigate their next steps.

Lindsay has yet to comment on the matter directly on her social media, and her publicists did not immediately return a request for comment. In an Instagram post from New Year's Eve, she called 2023 "one of the hardest years of my life."

The pair have no children together. Abasolo is seeking spousal support from Lindsay and wants her to pay his attorneys' fees. The filing does not indicate the couple has a prenuptial agreement on how their assets should be divided.


# Prosecutors recommend six months in prison for a man at the center of a Jan. 6 conspiracy theory
January 2, 2024. 6:57 PM EST

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**WASHINGTON (AP)** - Federal prosecutors on Tuesday recommended a six-month term of imprisonment for a man at the center of a right-wing conspiracy theory about the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol - an attack that he has admitted to joining.

Ray Epps, who is scheduled to be sentenced next Tuesday, pleaded guilty in September to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct on restricted grounds.

Epps, a onetime Donald Trump supporter from Arizona, became the focus of a conspiracy theory that he was an undercover government agent who incited the Capitol attack. Right-wing news outlets amplified the conspiracy theory and drove him into hiding after the Jan. 6 riot.

Epps, who worked as a roofer after serving four years as infantry in the U.S. Marine Corps, has vehemently denied ever working for the FBI. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Gordon said during Epps' plea hearing in September that he was not a confidential source for the FBI "or any other law enforcement agency."

Epps, 62, filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox News Channel last year, saying the network was to blame for spreading the baseless claims that led to death threats and bullet casings in his yard.

In videos shared widely on social media and right-wing websites, Epps is seen the day before the riot saying, "Tomorrow, we need to go into the Capitol ... peacefully." On Jan. 6, video shows him saying, "As soon as the president is done speaking, we go to the Capitol."

Epps has said he left Capitol grounds when he saw people scaling walls and never actually went inside the building.

Prosecutors say Epps participated in a "a rugby scrum-like group effort" to push past a line of police officers.

"Even if Epps did not physically touch law enforcement officers or go inside of the building, he undoubtedly engaged in collective aggressive conduct," they wrote in a court filing.

But they also noted that Epps turned himself in to the FBI two days after the riot after learning that agents were trying to identify him. The false conspiracy theory about Epps not only has harmed him "but also attempts to undermine the integrity of the ongoing and overall federal prosecution," prosecutors said.

"Epps only acted in furtherance of his own misguided belief in the 'lie' that the 2020 presidential election had been 'stolen,'" they wrote. "However, due to the outrage directed at Epps as a result of that false conspiracy theory, he has been forced to sell his business, move to a different state, and live reclusively."

The charge to which Epps pleaded guilty is punishable by a maximum of one year behind bars.

Epps served as an Arizona chapter leader for the Oath Keepers before parting ways with the anti-government extremist group a few years before the Jan. 6 attack.

Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and other members were convicted of seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6 attack for what prosecutors said was a weekslong plot to stop the transfer of power from Trump to Democrat Joe Biden. Rhodes was sentenced in May to 18 years in prison.

More than 1,200 defendants have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Over 900 of them have pleaded guilty or been convicted after trials decided by a judge or jury.


# Lawsuit aims to keep Pennsylvania congressman off ballot over Constitution's insurrection clause
By **MARC LEVY**
January 2, 2024. 6:38 PM EST

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**HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP)** - A liberal activist asked a Pennsylvania court on Tuesday to bar U.S. Rep. Scott Perry from the state's primary ballot, arguing that Perry isn't eligible because of his efforts to keep President Donald Trump in office and block the transfer of power to Democrat Joe Biden.

The seven-page lawsuit asks Pennsylvania's Commonwealth Court to declare that Perry engaged in insurrectionist activity and cannot hold public office under the Constitution's insurrection clause. The lawsuit by activist Gene Stilp names Perry and Pennsylvania's secretary of state, Al Schmidt.

Perry, a Republican, is expected to run for a seventh term, although candidates cannot file paperwork yet to qualify for Pennsylvania's April 23 primary ballot.

In part, the filing cites Perry's role in trying to use the Department of Justice to help Trump stall the certification of the election by installing an acting attorney general who would be receptive to Trump's false claims of election fraud.

The challenge comes on the heels of Maine's Democratic secretary of state removing Trump from the state's presidential primary ballot under the clause and a ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court that booted Trump from the ballot there. Trump is expected to appeal both to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In a statement, Perry's lawyer, John P. Rowley, suggested that those appeals would ensure that the lawsuit against Perry is nullified.

"This lawsuit was filed by a partisan activist who clearly has no regard or understanding of how our Democratic Republic works," Rowley wrote. "It is but the latest effort by an extremist to disqualify a duly elected official with whom he disagrees. We are confident the Supreme Court will put an end to this lunacy."

Perry has not been charged with a crime, although he is the only sitting member of Congress whose cellphone was seized by the FBI in its investigation into efforts to illegally overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Perry has fought efforts by federal investigators to review texts and emails from his cell phone. A judge last month ordered Perry to turn over more than 1,600 texts and emails to FBI agents. Perry did not appeal it, his lawyer said.

Schmidt's office declined comment Tuesday. It previously opposed a similar lawsuit in federal court seeking to remove Trump from the ballot in Pennsylvania. Stilp last week withdrew that lawsuit, and plans to file a new lawsuit in state court, saying he has a better chance of success there than in federal court.

The 155-year-old Civil War-era clause - Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution - bars from office those who "engaged in insurrection." It was designed to keep representatives who had fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War from returning to Congress.

Similar challenges in 2022 failed to block several other members of Congress from ballots, including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs of Arizona.

To get on Pennsylvania's primary ballot, candidates cannot file paperwork until Jan. 23. The deadline to file is Feb. 13.


# Man found dead at Salt Lake City airport after climbing inside jet engine
January 2, 2024. 8:53 PM EST

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**SALT LAKE CITY (AP)** - A man was found dead inside an airplane engine Monday night at Salt Lake City International Airport after police say he breached an emergency exit door, walked onto the tarmac and climbed inside the jet's engine.

Officers found 30-year-old Kyler Efinger, of Park City, unconscious inside an engine mounted to the wing of a commercial aircraft loaded with passengers, the Salt Lake City Police Department announced Tuesday. The plane had been sitting on a de-icing pad, and its engines were rotating.

Efinger was a ticketed passenger with a boarding pass to Denver, police said.

The manager of a store inside the airport had reported a disturbance just before 10 p.m., telling dispatchers with the Airport Control Center that he saw a passenger pass through an emergency exit. Officers quickly found Efinger's clothing, shoes and other personal items on one of the runways.

After locating him, the officers told air traffic controllers to notify the pilot to shut down the aircraft's engines. The specific stage of engine operation remains under investigation, police said Tuesday.

First responders pulled Efinger out of the engine intake cowling, which directs air flow to the engine fan. They attempted life-saving measures, performing CPR and administering naloxone, a fast-acting medication that can reverse opioid overdose and restore normal breathing. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Salt Lake City police are working with the state medical examiner's office to determine the cause of death, which may include a toxicology report.

Passengers were removed from the plane when Efinger was found, but overall airport operations were not interrupted, police said. An initial investigation indicates the man accessed the airport's ramp area from the emergency exit and climbed inside the nearby engine.

An airport spokesperson did not immediately respond to email and phone messages seeking comment.


# Venice is limiting tourists to protect the city
December 30, 2023. 10:01 AM EST

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**MILAN (AP)** - The Italian city of Venice announced new limits Saturday on the size of tourist groups, the latest move to reduce the pressure of mass tourism on the famed canal city.

Starting in June, groups will be limited to 25 people, or roughly half the capacity of a tourist bus, and the use of loudspeakers, "which can generate confusion and disturbances," will be banned, the city said in a statement.

The city official charged with security, Elisabetta Pesce, said the policies were aimed at improving the movement of groups through Venice's historic center as well as the heavily visited islands of Murano, Burano and Torcello.

The city previously announced plans to test a new day-tripper fee this year. The 5 euros ($5.45) per person fee will be applied on 29 peak days between April and mid-July, including most weekends. It is intended to regulate crowds, encourage longer visits and improve the quality of life for Venice residents.

The U.N. cultural agency cited tourism's impact on the fragile lagoon city as a major factor in it twice considering placing Venice on UNESCO's list of heritage sites in danger.

The city escaped the first time by limiting the arrival of large cruise ships through the Giudecca Canal and again in September when it announced the roll-out of the day-tripper charge, which had been delayed when tourism declined during the COVID-19 pandemic.


# The 1972 Andes plane crash story has been told many times. 'Society of the Snow' is something new
By **LESLIE AMBRIZ**
January 2, 2024. 4:38 PM EST

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**LOS ANGELES (AP)** - When Gustavo Zerbino watched "La Sociedad de la Nieve," the 1972 plane crash survivor felt as if he was being submerged "into boiling water," reliving the roughly 70 days he and his teammates were stranded in the snow-covered Andes mountains.

Zerbino praised J.A. Bayona's raw and unfiltered film, which is being released Thursday as "Society of the Snow" on Netflix in the U.S., but said he also felt the same anxieties and emotions he felt while stranded as a young athlete more than 50 years ago.

"Fortunately, that feeling ended in 2 1/2 hours," he told The Associated Press this past October. (All interviews for this story were conducted in Spanish.)

Bayona's movie is based on Pablo Vierci's book of the same title, and follows the story of the Uruguayan Air Force plane disaster. The Old Christians rugby team was traveling with relatives and friends to Chile for a match when their plane crashed, stranding them in the mountains where they faced snow storms, avalanches and starvation, forcing them to eat the flesh of those who had died.

The tale of the tragedy has been told numerous times. It's been referenced in shows like "Seinfeld," dramatized in countless films like the 1993 narrative film "Alive" with Ethan Hawke, served as the subject of documentaries and plays and even inspired Showtime's Emmy-nominated "Yellowjackets."

"We always felt something was missing," says Zerbino, reflecting on past projects. "'Society of the Snow' is the book that filled in that missing piece."

Tackling the complex story of endurance and survival, Bayona wanted to do more than just direct a dramatic interpretation of real-life tragedy. He wanted to tell a story that honored the event's survivors and victims and their Uruguayan culture.

"It's more a reflection than an action book and ultimately helped me a lot in understanding the characters," the Spanish director said of Vierci's book. Vierci is an associate producer on the film.

Bayona, whose credits include 2018's "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom," wanted to build on the connection between the living and the dead, including a seamless on-screen homage throughout the film to those who died.

"When he showed us the drafts of what he was working on, it sent shivers down our spines; our hearts stopped. I mean, we already saw that it was very real, very powerful, and we saw that there was genius at work," Zerbino said.

The Golden Globe-nominated film is narrated by Numa Turcatti, who died shortly before the rescue and is played here by Enzo Vogrincic. That decision was made by the director and supported by Vierci.

"I was always attracted to the possibility and the need to tell it from the point of the view of the dead," Vierci said. "This is a story of 45 individuals providing a window through which we can observe how they endured major adversities and built a society where compassion and mercy prevailed."

Bayona's film seeks to honor the story and strays away from glamorizing or sensationalizing the horrors the passengers and crew members endured. Beyond speaking to the survivors, victims' loved ones and visiting the crash site, he wove in Candombe Uruguayan music at high points of tension and added Turcatti's favorite song from a popular Uruguayan band into one of the film's early blissful scenes.

"I was very interested in getting into the culture of Uruguay and the culture of the time," he said.

His approach even included crash survivors, like Carlitos Páez, who turned 19 while stranded and plays his own father in the movie.

"I wanted to get as close to reality as possible," said Bayona, who put his cast on a medically supervised weight-loss program and shot the avalanche scenes in freezing conditions.

The film is now shortlisted for best international feature film at the 2024 Academy Awards.

When Vogrincic first heard about the project, the Uruguayan actor knew he had to be part of the story.

"From a young age, you already know about it," the actor said. "It fills you with a sense of pride because they're Uruguayan ... but as you get deeper into the story, you realize that the story is much bigger. It talks about humanity as a whole."

Zerbino watched the film with other crash survivors and victims' family members. The end credits were met with a standing ovation, he said.

According to the former rugby player, this was the first time many victims' relatives had engaged with retellings of the story.

"They hadn't read or watched past books or movies around the event because they didn't want to suffer. Some did, and others didn't, and well, they reconciled with the story through this film," said Zerbino who feels he made a commitment to preserve his late team members' legacies.

Bayona's film champions Zerbino and the other survivors' mission: to tell the story of those who gave up their literal selves to keep their friends alive.

"I have a commitment, a commitment from before leaving the mountain to be a witness and transmit the legacy of my dead friends," Zerbino said.


# NFL fines Panthers owner David Tepper $300,000 for tossing drink at Jaguars fans
By **ROB MAADDI**
January 2, 2024. 6:16 PM EST

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The NFL has fined Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper $300,000 for tossing a drink at fans in Jacksonville toward the end of a game on Sunday.

The league called Tepper's conduct "unacceptable" in a statement released Tuesday.

"All NFL personnel are expected to conduct themselves at all times in ways that respect our fans and favorably reflect on their team and the NFL," the statement said.

Tepper's reaction came after rookie quarterback Bryce Young threw an interception with less than three minutes to play in a 26-0 loss to the Jaguars.

"I am deeply passionate about this team and regret my behavior on Sunday," Tepper said in a statement. "I should have let NFL stadium security handle any issues that arose. I respect the NFL's code of conduct and accept the League's discipline for my behavior."

It wasn't clear whether Tepper was reacting to something said to him or another loss for the NFL's worst team. The Panthers are 2-14 and won't even have the No. 1 overall pick in the draft because it was traded to Chicago for the top pick used to select Young.

Panthers general manager Scott Fitterer was standing near Tepper when he tossed whatever remained of his drink while watching the game from a club suite.

In 2009, the NFL fined the late Titans owner Bud Adams $250,000 for making an obscene gesture at Buffalo fans while celebrating Tennessee's victory over the Bills.

Fans have been banned from stadiums for throwing drinks at players.

It's been a rough year for Tepper, who fired first-year coach Frank Reich after just 11 games. Since Tepper bought the Panthers less than six years ago, he has gone through coaches Ron Rivera, Matt Rhule and Reich, plus interim coaches Perry Fewell, Steve Wilks and Chris Tabor.


# A missing person with no memory: How investigators solved the cold case of Seven Doe
By **SOPHIA TAREEN**
January 2, 2024. 7:17 AM EST

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**CHICAGO (AP)** - Buried at the edge of a Chicago Catholic cemetery are an elderly person's remains marked only by a cement cylinder deep in the ground labeled with the numbers 04985. The person died in 2015 at a nursing home not remembering much, including their own name.

They went by Seven.

Now police specializing in missing people and cold cases have discovered Seven's identity in one of the most unusual investigations the Cook County sheriff's office has pursued and one that could change state law. Using post-mortem fingerprints, investigators identified Seven as 75-year-old Reba C. Bailey, an Illinois veteran missing since the 1970s.

The breakthrough is bringing closure to generations of relatives and friends. But whether they knew the name or the numeral, the investigation has unearthed more mysteries about how Reba, a Women's Army Corps veteran raised in a large family, became homeless with no recollection, aside from wanting to be identified as a man called Seven.

Public records, interviews, newspapers and police work have offered some insight about the person with two lives, even with so much still unknown. Investigators say the next step is to honor them with a new gravestone and military honors.

"That's a horrible circumstance that someone could die and no one knows who they are. That's why we pursue these cases so strongly, out of dignity," said Commander Jason Moran, who oversees the sheriff's missing persons unit. "A person deserves a name."

## A CURIOUS COLD CASE
The case of Seven Doe - the name often appearing in official records - came to Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart last year.

His office has gained notoriety for work on cold cases, including identifying victims of serial killer John Wayne Gacy and leading efforts to locate missing women statewide.

Seven's case was unusual from the start.

The unidentified body belonged to an elderly woman who died of natural causes in an assisted living facility in Chicago. She was a ward of the state because she had no legal name or family she could remember.

"We never had anything like that before," Dart said of Seven being unidentified both in life and death. "This one is different and it just kept getting more different."

The cause of death was heart disease with diabetes and dementia as contributing factors, according to the Cook County medical examiner. Fingerprints taken at the time of death in November 2015 were run against police databases as is customary. There was no match for a criminal record.

She was buried at Mount Olivet Catholic Cemetery on the city's Far South Side in a section for unclaimed people. The medical examiner marked it as the 4,985th case of the year.

Dart's office usually takes up unsolved cases at least three years after they've gone cold. By then, it's unlikely they'll interfere with active investigations.

With foul play ruled out, investigators started by running Seven's fingerprints against more state and federal databases, including military records.

There was a match.

Investigators found 1961 Army records for Reba. They then tried to find relatives she was last in contact with in the 1970s, and identified five deceased siblings, most recently a sister who passed in 2007.

They also located more than half a dozen living nieces and nephews, a marriage record and evidence of traumatic events that would offer a window into her life.

"Human identification is a mix of science and circumstance," Moran, who has been with the sheriff's department for more than two decades, said of his work. "It makes it very interesting to learn about who they were. The passage of time creates these difficulties. So we do the best we can to piece together who they were in life."

## FAMILY FOLKLORE AND FACTS
Most of Reba's living relatives - nephews and nieces in Florida, Alabama and Illinois - never met her.

But they had heard of her.

Reba's disappearance is part of family lore, something discussed at gatherings and reunions. So when Rick Bailey got a call from investigators about his long-lost aunt, he was "totally in shock."

Bailey, a Florida funeral home director, is named after his father, Reba's older brother Richard who died in 2000.

"My dad had searched for years to try and find his sister," said Bailey, who's 65 and believes Reba's siblings would celebrate the news. "They would all be thrilled if they were here."

He and other relatives have helped investigators learn more about Reba's early years.

She was born in 1940 in Danville, about 140 miles (225 kilometers) south of Chicago, the daughter of a carpenter who often moved for work. Census records show multiple addresses for the family in Illinois and Alabama.

Tragedy hit Reba's life at age 10 when she lost her mother in a car wreck that also left her, her father and her brother injured.

According to an October 1950 Chicago Tribune brief, Reba's father backed up "to pick up a suitcase he saw beside the highway" when they were struck by another car. Edna Bailey, 46, died at a hospital.

Other records about Reba's youth are sparse. Most of the people who would have answers are dead.

Her photo doesn't appear in the yearbooks of public or private Catholic schools in Danville. The building in Chicago's Gold Coast where 1950 Census records show her family lived no longer exists. Her name doesn't appear in a nearby high school's yearbooks.

She worked stints as an elevator operator at a private club and as a sales clerk, according to military records which also list her hobbies as swimming, bowling, golf and photography.

About a decade after the accident, she joined the Women's Army Corps, serving in Alabama, Texas and California. Military records show she was awarded a medal for good conduct and honorably discharged in 1962 "due to marriage."

Around that time at age 21, she married John H. Bilberry, who was also in the Army, in California. No divorce records were found, but Bilberry remarried fourteen years later. His 1989 obituary said he served in Vietnam. The woman he remarried and two of his siblings have died.

After the military, few know what happened to Reba.

Different family stories have her popping up at a family visit in Arizona with her husband and often seeing an aunt in Chicago. Some relatives told police she took up alcohol and drugs and began dressing like a man.

Amanda Ingram, who would have been Reba's great-niece, took up her grandfather's search for his sister. As a family historian she keeps a meticulous family tree, with Census records and photos, on a family website.

Ingram has recently seen pictures of her late aunt and recognizes some Bailey family features, like a longer face shape. In one photo, Reba is wearing a black button down, her salt and pepper hair cropped short above her deep-set eyes. Prominent teeth peek out of a subtle smile.

Ingram hopes to find more answers.

"It is kind of like an onion," she said. "You keep peeling it back and hopefully you find the story you really wanted to know."

## THE COOK WITH NO PAST
On a snowy day in the late 1970s, a person wearing a military-style jacket and aviator cap fastened under the chin was curled up on the porch of St. Francis Catholic Worker House.

The house on Chicago's North Side was a place for homeless people and others who wanted to live in a community.

Resident Denise Plunkett was leaving for work at a hospital when she stumbled upon the person dressed in men's clothes. The encounter was so unusual that Plunkett, now 83, remembers it vividly.

The person spoke of themselves in the third person and didn't answer personal questions about where they had come from. When asked their name, they would either say "Mr. Seven" or "He's a number, not a name. His name is Seven."

Nobody knew why.

Plunkett overlapped for a few years with Seven at the house and suspected there were possible mental health problems, but Seven declined help.

Seven quickly found a prominent role at the house.

He became the cook, whipping up beans and rice dishes and pasta casseroles each day. Word spread quickly in the neighborhood - home to several homeless advocacy organizations - that the meals at St. Francis were hearty. Crowds would line up outside the door for Seven's cooking, sometimes more than 100 people for a single dinner.

For more than two decades, Seven stayed at the white house located on a leafy residential block, sleeping in the men's quarters and smoking on the porch.

Residents there didn't learn much else about his life.

"I figured Seven would tell their story when they were ready to tell it," said former house resident Sam Guardino. "I accepted him for who they were and who they presented as."

When told about the recent identification of Reba Bailey and her early years, those who lived with Seven at the house had a similar response.

"It's absolutely mind boggling," said Plunkett.

## A WARD OF THE STATE
While the time between Reba's military service and the worker house are a mystery, the end of Seven's life is well documented.

Seven left the worker house in 2003 after passing out in a hallway. Doctors later said it was diabetic shock. St. Francis was unable to provide the around-the-clock medical care that was required.

Since Seven did not have a legal name, Chicago police were called and launched an investigation. They filed a "found persons report," documenting Seven's memory loss and confusion.

They attempted to take fingerprints twice, but were unsuccessful, blaming both "disfigured" fingers and unreadable results, according to police reports. Chicago police, including the primary detective on the case, did not return messages from The Associated Press.

Police attempted to find an identity, circulating Seven's photo to other Illinois law enforcement agencies. There was a false alarm with a person named "Skeven," who had died in a car crash.

A physical description of Seven noted very few teeth with one large front tooth, short white hair, blue eyes and light complexion.

Authorities did not account for gender identity, going only by biological sex, despite what Seven said. The police report noted "'Seven' believes she is a male. A medical examination reveals that 'Seven' is female."

The investigation into Seven's identity was soon suspended.

"She has no last name or any recollection of her past prior to 27 years ago. There is no information with regard to relatives and she currently does not possess a Social Security number," the police report concluded.

With no family stepping forward and no identity, Seven became a ward of the state and was placed at a nursing home along Lake Michigan.

The unusual position, as an unidentified adult ward of the state, was chronicled in a 2012 Chicago Tribune story where Seven was referred to as a woman. In it, Seven was described as a "lifelong Cubs fan" with "fleeting childhood memories of visiting the Indiana Dunes," a national park outside Chicago.

Three years later, Seven died.

Family members who have learned more about their great aunt's life in later years have found comfort.

"We know she was cared for," Ingram said. "That is the best that my grandfather could have ever asked for."

## CHANGING STATE LAW
The cold case could prompt a change in Illinois law.

The Cook County sheriff's office wants to amend the state's Missing Persons Identification Act to require postmortem fingerprints be checked against all available state and federal databases, not just police. The idea is a fuller search at the time of death could help identify people sooner. Dart's office is drafting the legislation, which state lawmakers could take up this year.

With unidentified homicide victims, an earlier match could help with investigations that are already challenged by the passage of time.

"It's frustrating," Moran said. "As every day goes by, sometimes you lose evidence, sometimes you lose family."

Such a change could also bring families closure sooner. Moran said families of missing people live in "a cruel limbo" not knowing if their loved one is alive or dead.

In Reba's case, relatives could have held a memorial service and buried her where they wanted eight years ago.

"Her family would have known earlier," Moran said.

## MYSTERIES LINGER
Cook County investigators have updated the entry for Seven Doe in a federal database of missing people, adding Reba Bailey's name and photo.

But many other parts of the case remain mysterious.

"We don't know what she was thinking or feeling or what her wishes were," Moran said.

Relatives wonder whether Reba had children, what happened with the marriage and about their aunt's gender identity.

They don't know what prompted her to fall out of contact. Family stories suggest it was a dispute with her father, but there are different versions about whether it was over her decision to join the military, her sexual orientation or something else.

Investigators have also tried to explain Reba's memory loss. They've floated theories about brain damage from the car accident that killed her mother or her military service.

Reba served at Fort Ord in California, a polluted former Army base, and Fort McClellan in Alabama, once the home of chemical weapons training where the federal government has acknowledged potential exposure to toxins.

No one has been able to figure out the meaning behind the name Seven.

Investigators hypothesized that it was possibly related to military service or birth order.

Reba was the youngest of six, including two siblings who died as children. But her great-niece recently found matches on Ancestry.com for previously unknown relatives, including one who could be another Bailey sibling. Ingram said her grandfather sometimes mentioned another baby in the family.

Public records in Illinois couldn't verify the existence of another birth; neither could police.

But if there was another sibling, Reba would have been child number seven.

"It does bring closure to a lot of mysteries that we have had," Ingram said about knowing her aunt's identity. "It opens a lot of other doors."

## HONORING A LIFE
On a recent fall day, Moran walked to a back corner of Mount Olivet on Chicago's Far South Side to the section of the cemetery for unclaimed people. The cement cylinders sit nearly submerged in the ground, sometimes leaving them covered in dirt and debris. The medical examiner marks them with the office initials "ME", the year and the case number.

Moran reached down gently brushed leaves off 04985. By spring, he hopes it'll be replaced. The sheriff's office is pursuing a new gravestone, military marker and a memorial ceremony for Reba's life.

Family members had considered moving the remains closer to other family buried in either Florida or Alabama. One brother, Richard an Air Force veteran, is buried at the Barrancas National Cemetery in Florida. But moving the body would be expensive and complicated.

"We decided as a family not to disturb her," Rick Bailey said. "At least we know where she is now."


# US national debt hits record $34 trillion as Congress gears up for funding fight
By **FATIMA HUSSEIN** and **JOSH BOAK**
January 2, 2024. 7:12 PM EST

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**WASHINGTON (AP)** - The federal government's gross national debt has surpassed $34 trillion, a record high that foreshadows the coming political and economic challenges to improve America's balance sheet in the coming years.

The U.S. Treasury Department issued a report Tuesday logging U.S. finances, which have become a source of tension in a politically divided Washington that could possibly see parts of the government shutdown without an annual budget in place.

Republican lawmakers and the White House agreed last June to temporarily lift the nation's debt limit, staving off the risk of what would be a historic default. That agreement lasts until January 2025. Here are some answers to questions about the new record national debt.

## HOW DID THE NATIONAL DEBT HIT $34 TRILLION?
The national debt eclipsed $34 trillion several years sooner than pre-pandemic projections. The Congressional Budget Office's January 2020 projections had gross federal debt eclipsing $34 trillion in fiscal year 2029.

But the debt grew faster than expected because of a multi-year pandemic starting in 2020 that shut down much of the U.S. economy. The government borrowed heavily under then President Donald Trump and current President Joe Biden to stabilize the economy and support a recovery. But the rebound came with a surge of inflation that pushed up interest rates and made it more expensive for the government to service its debts.

"So far, Washington has been spending money as if we had unlimited resources," said Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at Loyola Marymount University. "But the bottom line is there is no free lunch," he said, "and I think the outlook is pretty grim."

The gross debt includes money that the government owes itself, so most policymakers rely on the total debt held by the public in assessing the government's finances. This lower figure - $26.9 trillion - is roughly equal in size to the U.S. gross domestic product.

Last June, the Congressional Budget Office estimated in its 30-year outlook that publicly held debt will be equal to a record 181% of American economic activity by 2053.

## WHAT IS THE IMPACT TO THE ECONOMY?
The national debt does not appear to be a weight on the U.S. economy right now, as investors are willing to lend the federal government money. This lending allows the government to keep spending on programs without having to raise taxes.

But the debt's path in the decades to come might put at risk national security and major programs, including Social Security and Medicare, which have become the most prominent drivers of forecasted government spending over the next few decades. Government dysfunction, such as another debt limit showdown, could also be a financial risk if investors worry about lawmakers' willingness to repay the U.S. debt.

Foreign buyers of U.S. debt - like China, Japan, South Korea and European nations - have already cut down on their holdings of Treasury notes.

A Peterson Foundation analysis states that foreign holdings of U.S. debt peaked at 49 percent in 2011, but dropped to 30 percent by the end of 2022.

"Looking ahead, debt will continue to skyrocket as the Treasury expects to borrow nearly $1 trillion more by the end of March," said Peterson Foundation CEO Michael Peterson. "Adding trillion after trillion in debt, year after year, should be a flashing red warning sign to any policymaker who cares about the future of our country.

## HOW COULD IT AFFECT ME?
The debt equates to about $100,000 per person in the U.S. That sounds like a lot, but the sum so far has not appeared to threaten U.S. economic growth.

Instead, the risk is long term if the debt keeps rising to uncharted levels. Sohn said a higher debt load could put upward pressure on inflation and cause interest rates to remain elevated, which could also increase the cost of repaying the national debt.

And as the debt challenge evolves over time, choices may become more severe as the costs of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid increasingly outstrip tax revenues.

When it could turn into a more dire situation, is anyone's guess, says Shai Akabas, director of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, "but if and when that happens, it could mean very significant consequences that occur very quickly."

"It could mean spikes in interest rates, it could mean a recession that leads to lots more unemployment. It could lead to another bout of inflation or weird going on with consumer prices -several of which are things that we've experienced just in the past few years," he said.

## HOW DO REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS DIFFER?
Both Democrats and Republicans have called for debt reduction, but they disagree on the appropriate means of doing so.

The Biden administration has been pushing for tax hikes on the wealthy and corporations to reduce budget deficits, in addition to funding its domestic agenda. Biden also increased the budget for the IRS, so that it can collect unpaid taxes and possibly reduce the debt by hundreds of billions of dollars over 10 years.

Republican lawmakers have called for large cuts to non-defense government programs and the repeal of clean energy tax credits and spending passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. But Republicans also want to trim Biden's IRS funding and cut taxes further, both of which could cause the debt to worsen.

Both claims are previews of cases that will likely be put to voters in this year's presidential election.

White House spokesman Michael Kikukawa put the blame on the GOP, saying in a statement that the steady accrual over years was "trickle-down debt - driven overwhelmingly by repeated Republican giveaways skewed to big corporations and the wealthy."

By contrast, Republican lawmakers have said that borrowing during the Biden administration contributed to the 2022 spike in inflation rates that dragged down the Democratic president's approval ratings.

Akabas said, "There is growing concern among investors and rating agencies that the trajectory we're on is unsustainable - when that turns into a more dire situation is anyone's guess."


# Prosecutors say Sen. Menendez cashed in by linking Qatari royal family member with NJ businessman
By **LARRY NEUMEISTER**
January 2, 2024. 8:16 PM EST

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**NEW YORK (AP)** - U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez used his international clout to help a friend get a multimillion-dollar deal with a Qatari investment fund, partly by taking actions favorable to Qatar's government, federal prosecutors said Tuesday in a revised indictment.

The new allegations deepen the legal challenges for Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, who already was charged with wielding his political influence to secretly advance Egypt's interests.

The superseding indictment in New York said the senator and his wife accepted bribes of gold bars and cash from New Jersey real estate developer Fred Daibes as a reward for several corrupt acts that included his help securing a major investment from the Qatari fund.

Prosecutors said Menendez introduced Daibes to a member of Qatar's royal family who was also a principal in the investment firm, met personally with Qatari officials and made public statements supportive of Qatar while the real estate deal was being negotiated.

The indictment said the Qatari investor eventually invested tens of millions of dollars in Daibes' development project, in a deal finalized in 2023.

Adam Fee, a lawyer for Menendez, said in a statement that prosecutors lacked proof of any wrongdoing.

"What they have instead is a string of baseless assumptions and bizarre conjectures based on routine, lawful contacts between a Senator and his constituents or foreign officials. They are turning this into a persecution, not a prosecution," he said.

"At all times, Senator Menendez acted entirely appropriately with respect to Qatar, Egypt, and the many other countries he routinely interacts with. Those interactions were always based on his professional judgment as to the best interests of the United States because he is, and always has been, a patriot."

Tim Donohue, a lawyer for Daibes, said he had no immediate comment.

The indictment did not identify the member of the Qatari royal family involved. Messages left with Qatar's consulate in New York and with its sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority, were not immediately returned.

No new charges were added to the latest version of an indictment that already charged Menendez in a bribery conspiracy that allegedly enriched the senator and his wife with a luxury car besides the cash and gold. The allegations involving Qatar occurred from 2021 through 2023.

Other parts of the indictment accuse Menendez, 70, and his wife, Nadine Menendez, of taking bribes from two other New Jersey businessmen besides Daibes. All have pleaded not guilty.

Among other things, Menendez is accused of ghostwriting a letter to fellow senators encouraging them to lift a hold on $300 million in aid to Egypt.

After his September arrest, the senator gave up his position as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He has resisted calls for him to resign from his Senate seat.

The indictment contains new details about the relationship between Menendez and Daibes, a powerful New Jersey real estate developer.

Daibes has been credited with building out a string of luxury waterfront buildings, known as the "gold coast," in the New Jersey town of Edgewater.

Along the way, he has maintained cozy relationships with local officials, which enabled him to chase off rival developers and renege on promises to build affordable housing, according to a report from the New Jersey State Commission of Investigation.

Daibes already faced federal fraud charges when he was arrested in September on charges that he paid bribes to Menendez, a longtime friend. He was also accused of attempting to convince a federal prosecutor to go easy on Daibes in his bank fraud case.

The indictment said that while the Qatari investment company was considering its investment in the Daibes real estate development, Menendez made multiple public statements supporting the government of Qatar and then provided them to Daibes so he could share them with the Qatari investor and a Qatari government official.

In one August 2021 instance, the indictment said, Menendez used an encrypted messaging application to send Daibes the text of a press release in which he praised the government of Qatar, before texting Daibes: "You might want to send to them. I am just about to release."

Two months later, Menendez and his wife returned from a trip to Qatar and Egypt and were picked up at the airport by Daibes' driver, the indictment said. The next day, it added, Menendez performed an internet search for "how much is one kilo of gold worth."

The Qatari Investment Co. signed a letter of intent to enter a joint venture with a company controlled by Daibes in May 2022, the indictment said. Thereafter, it added, Daibes gave Menendez at least one gold bar.

A search of Menendez's residence produced two 1-kilogram gold bars and nine 1-ounce gold bars with serial numbers showing they'd previously been possessed by Daibes, along with about 10 envelopes of cash with tens of thousands of dollars bearing the fingerprints or DNA of Daibes, the indictment said.

The revised indictment said a Qatari investment official also sent tickets to a Formula One auto racing event to one of Nadine Menendez's close relatives.

The indictment said Menendez did not report any of the cash or gold received by himself or his spouse as required for a U.S. senator on annual financial disclosure forms.

Judge Sidney H. Stein, who is presiding over the case, refused last week to extend a May 5 trial date after defense lawyers requested more time to prepare.

In a letter to the judge late Tuesday, prosecutors said they would not oppose a delayed arraignment of the defendants or an arraignment by video.


# Justice Dept. accuses 2 political operatives of hiding foreign lobbying during Trump administration
By **ERIC TUCKER** and **ALAN SUDERMAN**
January 2, 2024. 8:15 PM EST

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**WASHINGTON (AP)** - Two well-connected political consultants provided false information about lobbying work on behalf of a wealthy Persian Gulf country during the Trump administration, according to Justice Department court records unsealed Tuesday.

Charging documents filed in federal court in Washington allege that Barry P. Bennett, an adviser to Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, spearheaded a covert and lucrative lobbying campaign aimed at advancing the interests of a foreign country, including by denigrating a rival nation.

The country for whom the work was done is not named in the documents but it matches the description of Qatar, which in 2017 paid Bennett's company $2.1 million for lobbying work, and was identified in a 2020 Justice Department subpoena that was earlier obtained by The Associated Press and that sought records related to Bennett's foreign lobbying.

Federal prosecutors filed two criminal counts against Bennett in a charging document known as an information, which is typically filed only with a defendant's consent and generally signals that the parties have reached a resolution. Prosecutors said the case will be dismissed after he complies with the terms of a deferred prosecution agreement, including the payment of a $100,000 fine.

The Justice Department also reached a similar agreement with Douglas Watts, a New Jersey political consultant who prosecutors say worked alongside Bennett and failed to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

The law, enacted in 1938 to unmask Nazi propaganda in the United States, requires people to disclose to the Justice Department when they advocate, lobby or perform public relations work in the U.S. on behalf of a foreign government or political entity.

A lawyer for Bennett did not immediately return messages sent to his law firm. Justin Dillon, a lawyer for Watts, declined to comment Tuesday evening. An email to the Qatari embassy was not immediately returned.

According to the Justice Department, Bennett signed a contract in 2017 for his company, Avenue Strategies, to perform lobbying work on behalf of the Qatari embassy. He also registered with the Justice Department that year to lobby for the embassy.

But as part of that strategy, prosecutors said he also covertly operated another company called Yemen Crisis Watch that operated a public relations campaign to denigrate one of Qatar's unnamed rivals - both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were engaged in military operations in Yemen that critics say contributed to a humanitarian crisis - and improve Qatar's standing with the U.S. government.

That effort included lobbying Congress and Trump, as well as a social media campaign, publishing opinion articles in newspapers and producing a television documentary, according to prosecutors. Yemen Crisis Watch urged the public to contact their lawmakers and urge them to "cease supporting" the intervention in Yemen by Qatar's unnamed rival, prosecutors said.

Robert Schuller, a prominent televangelist, and former Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer both helped Yemen Crisis Watch's efforts, according to earlier reporting from the Wall Street Journal and the Topeka Capital-Journal. Neither man has been charged with any wrongdoing and messages sent to them were not immediately returned.

Prosecutors say Bennett's consulting company did not disclose in its FARA filings the creation of Yemen Crisis Watch, and that Watts made false statements during interviews with the FBI about his knowledge of the company's formation and its activities.

The case is among severalprobes by federal law enforcement officials related to Qatar's aggressive influence campaign during the Trump administration, when it was the target of a blockade by Saudi Arabia and other neighbors.


# Biden administration asks Supreme Court to allow border agents to cut razor wire installed by Texas
January 2, 2024. 5:03 PM EST

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WASHINGTON (AP) - The Biden administration is asking the Supreme Court to allow Border Patrol agents to cut razor wire that Texas installed on the U.S.-Mexico border, while a lawsuit over the wire continues.

The Justice Department filed an emergency appeal Tuesday, asking the justices to put on hold last month's appellate ruling in favor of Texas, which forced federal agents to stop cutting the concertina wire the state has installed along roughly 30 miles (48 kilometers) of the Rio Grande near the border city of Eagle Pass. Large numbers of migrants have crossed there in recent months.

The court case pitting Republican-led Texas against Democratic President Joe Biden's administration is part of a broader fight over immigration enforcement. The state also has installed razor wire around El Paso and the Rio Grande Valley, where migrants have crossed in high numbers. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott also has authorized installing floating barriers in the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass and allowed troopers to arrest and jail thousands of migrants on trespassing charges.

In court papers, the administration said the wire impedes Border Patrol agents from reaching migrants as they cross the river and that, in any case, federal immigration law trumps Texas' own efforts to stem the flow of migrants into the country.

Texas officials have argued that federal agents cut the wire to help groups crossing illegally through the river before taking them in for processing.