# New state laws for 2024 impact guns, pornography, taxes and even fuzzy dice
By **DAVID A. LIEB** and **GEOFF MULVIHILL**
December 30, 2023. 2:24 PM EST

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Fuzzy dice finally will be free to dangle in Illinois.

Starting Monday, police there no longer will be allowed to pull over motorists solely because they have something hanging from the rearview mirror of the windshield. That means air fresheners, parking placards and, yes, even those dice are fair game to hang.

The revised Illinois windshield rule is one of hundreds of new laws taking effect with the new year in states across the U.S. While some may seem a bit pedestrian, others have real practical effects or touch on controversial issues such as restrictions on weapons and medical treatments for transgender people.

Though the original Illinois windshield law was meant to improve roadway safety, it came to be seen by some as an excuse for pulling over drivers. The new law still prohibits objects that obstruct a driver's view but forbids law enforcement officers from conducting stops or searches solely because of suspected violations.

"With this new law, we are sending a powerful message that the state does not tolerate racial profiling or other forms of discrimination," said Democratic state Sen. Christopher Belt, one of the bill's sponsors.

Another new Illinois law seeks to stifle a more modern form of distracted driving by prohibiting people from participating in video conferences or scanning social media while behind the wheel.

## GUNS AND PORNOGRAPHY
Several states have new laws regulating guns and online activity.

A Minnesota law will allow authorities to ask courts for " extreme risk protection orders " to temporarily take guns from people deemed to be an imminent threat to others or themselves. Minnesota will be at least the 20th state with such a red-flag law.

Colorado will become one of a dozen states banning so-called ghost guns. The new law prohibits firearms that are assembled at home or 3D-printed without serial numbers, practices that have allowed owners to evade background checks.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to block an Illinois law from taking effect Monday that bans high-powered semiautomatic rifles and high-capacity magazines. But a federal judge recently blocked a California law that would have banned carrying concealed guns in many public places.

Several state laws delve into acceptable online activities. A new Connecticut law requires online dating operators to adopt policies for handling harassment reports by or between users.

A North Carolina law will require pornographic website operators to confirm viewers are at least 18 years old by using a commercially available database. The law lets parents sue companies if their children were allowed to access the pornography. Another new Illinois law will allow lawsuits from victims of deepfake pornography, in which videos or images are manipulated without their consent.

## LGBTQ+ ISSUES
Over the past few years, there has been a major push by conservatives to restrict access to gender-affirming treatments for transgender minors. Bans are on the books in 22 states, including some where judges have paused enforcement as they consider challenges to the policies.

New bans on access for minors to puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery, which is rare, are scheduled to take effect Jan. 1 in Idaho, Louisiana and West Virginia. The West Virginia law contains an exception: Teens could still access treatment with parental consent and a diagnosis of severe gender dysphoria from two doctors.

While many Republican-led legislatures have imposed restrictions, many Democrat-dominated states have responded with transgender protections. A law taking effect Monday in Hawaii requires new marriage certificates to be issued to people who request to change how their sex is listed. The state also is replacing gender-specific terms in state law; "mother" is being replaced with "birthing parent" and "father" with "non-birthing parent."

In Colorado, new buildings wholly or partly owned by government entities will be required to have on every floor where there are public restrooms at least one that does not specify the gender of the users.

The conservative push on LGBTQ+ policies also has come with efforts to keep certain books out of school or public libraries. An Indiana law taking effect makes it easier for parents and others to challenge books in school libraries. By contrast, a new Illinois law would block state funding for public libraries that ban or restrict books.

## TAXES AND WAGES
The new year brings a variety of new laws on taxes and wages - perennial issues for state governments.

More than 20 states will raise minimum wages for workers, further widening the gap between state requirements and the federal minimum, which has been static at $7.25 an hour since July 2009. In several states, the new minimum wage will more than double that rate.

Maryland's minimum wage will be set at $15 an hour. In New Jersey, it will be $15.13 an hour for most employees. In Connecticut, $15.69 per hour. In New York City, $16 an hour, though it will be $15 in most of the rest of the state. California's statewide minimum wage also will rise to $16 per hour. And in Washington, the minimum rate will be $16.28.

Residents in some states will gain money by paying less in taxes, continuing a three-year trend in which nearly every state has reduced, rebated or suspended some type of broad-based tax.

In Kansas, the sales tax on groceries will drop from 4% to 2% in its next step toward eventual elimination, producing a savings of $208 annually for a family spending an average of $200 weekly on groceries.

About 1 million tax filers are expected to benefit from Connecticut's first income tax rate reduction since the mid-1990s. Lower-income workers and retirees also stand to benefit from expanded tax breaks.

Missouri also will reduce its income tax rate while expanding tax exemptions for Social Security benefits and military training pay. Businesses will be able to claim tax credits for hiring interns or apprentices.

Alabama will exempt overtime pay from the state's income tax, though that lasts only until June 2025 unless renewed by lawmakers.


# Consulting firm McKinsey agrees to $78 million settlement with insurers over opioids
By **DEE-ANN DURBIN**
December 30, 2023. 12:26 PM EST

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Consulting firm McKinsey and Co. has agreed to pay $78 million to settle claims from insurers and health care funds that its work with drug companies helped fuel an opioid addiction crisis.

The agreement was revealed late Friday in documents filed in federal court in San Francisco. The settlement must still be approved by a judge.

Under the agreement, McKinsey would establish a fund to reimburse insurers, private benefit plans and others for some or all of their prescription opioid costs.

The insurers argued that McKinsey worked with Purdue Pharma - the maker of OxyContin - to create and employ aggressive marketing and sales tactics to overcome doctors' reservations about the highly addictive drugs. Insurers said that forced them to pay for prescription opioids rather than safer, non-addictive and lower-cost drugs, including over-the-counter pain medication. They also had to pay for the opioid addiction treatment that followed.

From 1999 to 2021, nearly 280,000 people in the U.S. died from overdoses of prescription opioids, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Insurers argued that McKinsey worked with Purdue Pharma even after the extent of the opioid crisis was apparent.

The settlement is the latest in a years-long effort to hold McKinsey accountable for its role in the opioid epidemic. In February 2021, the company agreed to pay nearly $600 million to U.S. states, the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories. In September, the company announced a separate, $230 million settlement agreement with school districts and local governments.

Asked for comment Saturday, McKinsey referred to a statement it released in September.

"As we have stated previously, we continue to believe that our past work was lawful and deny allegations to the contrary," the company said, adding that it reached a settlement to avoid protracted litigation.

McKinsey said it stopped advising clients on any opioid-related business in 2019.


# Cargo ship carrying burning lithium-ion batteries reaches Alaska, but kept offshore for safety
By **MARK THIESSEN**
December 30, 2023. 3:28 PM EST

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**ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP)** - A large cargo ship with a fire in its hold is being kept 2 miles (3.22 kilometers) offshore of an Alaska port as a precaution while efforts are undertaken to extinguish the flames, the U.S. Coast Guard said Saturday.

There were no injuries to the 19 crew members aboard the Genius Star XI, which was carrying a load of lithium-ion batteries across the Pacific Ocean, from Vietnam to San Diego, the guard's Alaska district said in a release.

The fire started on Christmas Day in cargo hold No. 1, a spokesperson for ship owner Wisdom Marine Group said in a statement. The crew released carbon dioxide into the hold and sealed it over concerns of an explosion.

Ship's personnel alerted the Coast Guard early Thursday morning about the fire. The Coast Guard said it diverted the 410-foot (125-meter) cargo ship to Dutch Harbor, one of the nation's busiest fishing ports located in Unalaska, an Aleutian Islands community about 800 miles (1,287 kilometers) southwest of Anchorage.

The ship arrived Friday, but an order preventing the Genius Star XI from going close to shore was issued to "mitigate risks associated with burning lithium-ion batteries or toxic gasses produced by the fire," Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Mike Salerno said in an email to The Associated Press.

"The city's primary concern is protecting the health and safety of our community members, the environment, fisheries and commerce," Unalaska acting city manager Marjie Veeder said in a statement.

Veeder said the city's emergency operations center "is acting on behalf of the community and advocating our position to protect our community. We are actively monitoring the situation."

There is danger associated with any vessel fire, prompting the Coast Guard to issue another safety measure besides preventing the ship from getting closer than 2 miles (3.22 kilometers) to shore.

"The safety of Unalaska residents and the surrounding communities is a top priority for us, so as a precaution we are keeping a one-mile (1.61-kilometer) safety zone around the vessel," Salerno said.

The owners said there has been no oil leaks associated with the incident.

A team of marine firefighting experts late Friday conducted an assessment of the ship and found no signs of structural deformation or blistering outside of the cargo hold, the Coast Guard said.

That team remains on board the ship to evaluate the situation, Salerno said.

An expert hired by the Taipei, Taiwan-based Wisdom Marine Group "is working diligently to create contingency plans, arrange for a firefighting team, and ensure the necessary equipment is in place,' the group said in a statement.

The Coast Guard will investigate the cause of the fire.

The Genius Star XI left Vietnam on Dec. 10 en route to Dutch Harbor, according to the Marine Traffic website. The ship with a carrying capacity of more than 13,000 tons (11,793 metric tonnes) sails under the flag of Panama.


# Retirements could tip control of the House majority. It's Republicans who have the early edge
By **KEVIN FREKING**
December 30, 2023. 1:38 PM EST

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**WASHINGTON (AP)** - A chaotic year for the House is coming to a close with more Democrats than Republicans deciding to leave the chamber, a disparity that could have major ramifications in next year's elections.

About two dozen Democrats have indicated they won't seek reelection, with half running for another elected office. Meanwhile, only 14 Republicans have said they are not seeking another term, with three seeking elected office elsewhere.

More retirements can be expected after the holidays, when lawmakers have had a chance to spend time with families and make decisions ahead of reelection deadlines. But so far, the numbers don't indicate the dysfunction in the House is causing a mass exodus for either party.

"Members sort of knew that this is what the institution is currently like when they chose to run for office," said Molly Reynolds, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a think tank that maintains a database of vital statistics on Congress, including retirements. "Some of them may well be feeling frustrated at this point in time, but anybody who has been elected to Congress in recent years, they're not surprised at what they're finding when they are getting to Washington."

Republicans certainly had the most high-profile exits. Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., became only the third lawmaker to be expelled by colleagues since the Civil War. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was the first-ever speaker removed from that office by his colleagues. He opted to leave effective Dec. 31 rather than serve among the rank-and-file.

But it's the departure of a handful of Democrats in competitive districts that has Republicans thinking the overall retirement picture gives them an advantage in determining who will control the House after the 2024 elections.

Reps. Katie Porter of California, Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Abigail Spanberger of Virginia proved they could win toss-up congressional districts in good election cycles for Democrats and not-so-good cycles. They are all seeking higher office within their home states. Porter and Slotkin are running for the U.S. Senate. Spanberger is running for governor in 2025.

Democrats are also losing six-term Rep. Dan Kildee of Michigan to retirement, leaving them with another competitive open seat to defend in a state that will be crucial in the presidential election. Rep. Jennifer Wexton, D-Va., is not seeking reelection due to health challenges in a district that leans Democratic but is more competitive than most.

On the other side of the aisle, the Republicans leaving office generally represent districts that Democrats have little chance of flipping. They'll be replaced by Republicans, predicted Rep. Richard Hudson, the chairman of the House Republican campaign arm.

"Retirements are a huge problem for the Democrats. They're not a problem for us," Hudson said.

The exception is Santos, who represented a competitive New York district. Democrats hope former Rep. Tom Suozzi can win back the seat, which he gave up when he ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2022.

Republican Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma said he found it "a bit of a surprise" that the number of Democrats leaving office exceeded the Republican exits given all that has transpired this year.

"Politically, I think we're very well positioned for 2024," Cole said. "I just think the margins are going to remain narrow no matter who wins. The number of competitive seats is so much lower than it was even a decade ago, the polarization is so much greater, that it's hard to move big numbers. Whoever wins the presidency probably wins the House."

Sometimes, legislators in the states tip the scales in determining the makeup of Congress. It's one reason there are so few competitive races.

Three incumbent House Democrats from North Carolina have essentially been left with little opportunity to return after GOP lawmakers in the state drew new boundaries for their congressional districts. What were once competitive seats became near locks for whichever Republican emerges from the state's primary elections.

Democratic Rep. Jeff Jackson decided to run for attorney general rather than attempt to run again for a Charlotte-area seat that he had just won in the 2022 midterms. Rep. Wiley Nickel, a fellow freshman who flipped a toss-up district in the last election, also announced he would not be running, and would focus instead on a potential U.S. Senate bid in 2026. And Rep. Kathy Manning said she won't file for reelection under the current maps but would run if a federal lawsuit seeking to overturn the new districts is successful.

Manning said the city of Greensboro in her district was split into three pieces and combined with rural counties. She won in 2022 by a margin of 9 percentage points, but she said the new district gives a 16-point advantage to a Republican candidate.

Democrats are hoping court-ordered redistricting in Alabama and Louisiana will favor their side and effectively make the redistricting battles a wash.

Ambition is also playing a role in the retirement trends. About half of the Democrats not seeking reelection to the House are seeking office elsewhere. That includes three members running for the seat once held by California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who entered the Senate in 1992 and served more than three decades before her death in September. Slotkin is running for the seat Sen. Debbie Stabenow has held for more than two decades. Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota is running for president against fellow Democrat Joe Biden.

"If you are interested in a higher office, you're going to be sensitive to when those things come up. They don't always come up," Reynolds said.

Still, a few lawmakers do attribute their leaving, at least in part, to the dysfunction they've witnessed in Congress.

Democratic Rep. Brian Higgins of New York doesn't plan to wait for the election to get out. He's retiring sometime in February.

"We're spending more time doing less. And the American people aren't served," he said when announcing his retirement last month.

Republican Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., described a similar sense of frustration in his retirement announcement. He's been critical of Republican leaders for "lying to America" that the 2020 election was stolen and downplaying the Jan. 6 insurrection.

"Our nation is on a collision course with reality and a steadfast commitment to the truth," Buck said.


# What does Watch Night mean for Black Americans today? It dates back to the Emancipation Proclamation
By **Associated Press**
December 30, 2023. 8:49 AM EST

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The tradition of Watch Night services in the United States dates back to Dec. 31, 1862, when many Black Americans gathered in churches and other venues, waiting for President Abraham Lincoln to sign the Emancipation Proclamation into law, and thus free those still enslaved in the Confederacy.

It's still being observed each New Year's Eve, at many multiracial and predominantly Black churches across the country.

# What is the historical background of Watch Night services?
As the Civil War raged on, Lincoln issued an executive order on Sept. 22, 1862, declaring that enslaved people in the rebellious Confederate states were legally free. However, this decree - the Emancipation Proclamation - would not take effect until the stroke of midnight heralding the new year.

Those gathering on the first Watch Night included many African Americans who were still legally enslaved as they assembled, sometimes in secrecy.

"At the time, enslaved Black people could find little respite from ever-present surveillance, even in practicing their faith," explains the National Museum of African American History and Culture. "White enslavers feared that religion, which was often used to quell slave resistance, could incite the exact opposite if practiced without observance."

## How have Watch Night traditions evolved?
Over its 160-year history, Watch Night has evolved into an annual New Year's Eve tradition - it not only commemorates freedom from slavery, but also celebrates the importance of faith, community and perseverance.

This description from the African American museum offers some details:

"Many congregants across the nation bow in prayer minutes before the midnight hour as they sing out "Watchman, watchman, please tell me the hour of the night.' In return the minister replies "It is three minutes to midnight'; 'it is one minute before the new year'; and 'it is now midnight, freedom has come.'"

The museum notes that the Watch Night worship services were traditionally followed by a "fortuitous meal" on New Year's Day, often featuring a dish called Hoppin' John.

"Traditionally, Hoppin' John consists of black-eyed peas, rice, red peppers, and salt pork, and it is believed to bring good fortune to those who eat it," the museum says. "Some other common dishes include: candied yams, cornbread, potato salad, and macaroni and cheese."

## How are congregations observing Watch Night this year?
Some of this year's services will be conducted virtually, without in-person attendance. Beulah Baptist Church in Philadelphia and First Congregational Church in Atlanta are among those choosing this option.

Among the many churches offering in-person services are Abyssinian Baptist Church in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, Reid Temple AME Church in Glenn Dale, Maryland; and Shiloh Baptist Church in Trenton, New Jersey.

In Salem, North Carolina, the Rev. William Barber II, a prominent anti-poverty and social-justice activist, will be leading an interfaith Watch Night service at Union Baptist Church along with its senior pastor, Sir Walter Mack. The event is billed as a "service of lament, hope and call to action."


# For transgender youth in crisis, hospitals sometimes compound the trauma
By **HANNAH SCHOENBAUM**
December 29, 2023. 12:24 AM EST

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**CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP)** - Four days of waiting under the flickering fluorescent lights of UNC Hospitals' emergency room left Callum Bradford desperate for an answer to one key question.

The transgender teen from Chapel Hill needed mental health care after overdosing on prescription drugs. He was about to be transferred to another hospital because the UNC system was short on beds.

With knots in his stomach, he asked, "Will I be placed in a girls' unit?"

Yes, he would.

The answer provoked one of the worst anxiety attacks he had ever experienced. Sobbing into the hospital phone, he informed his parents, who fought for days to reverse the decision they warned would cause their already vulnerable son greater harm.

Although they initially succeeded in blocking the transfer, the family had few remaining options when a second overdose landed Callum back in UNC's emergency room a few months later. When the 17-year-old learned he was again scheduled to be sent to an inpatient ward inconsistent with his gender identity, he told doctors his urge to hurt himself was becoming uncontrollable, according to hospital records given by the family to The Associated Press.

"I had an immense amount of regret that I had even come to that hospital, because I knew that I wasn't going to get the treatment that I needed," Callum said. "That moment of crisis and shock and fear, I would wish anything that that hadn't happened, because I truly think that I took a step backwards from where I was before in terms of my mental health."

As the political debate over health care for transgender youth has intensified across the U.S., elected officials and advocates who favor withholding gender-affirming medical procedures for minors have often said parents are not acting in their children's best interest when they seek such treatment.

Major medical associations say the treatments are safe and warn of grave mental health consequences for children forced to wait until adulthood to access puberty-blocking drugs, hormones and, in rare cases, surgeries.

Youth and young adults ages 10-24 account for about 15% of all suicides, and research shows LGBTQ+ high school students have higher rates of attempted suicide than their peers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Some transgender teens say the negative rhetoric popularized by many Republican politicians in recent years has become too much to bear. In North Carolina, legislators enacted new limits to gender-affirming care for trans youth this year while barely discussing flaws in the psychiatric care system. It's one of at least 22 states that have passed laws restricting or banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors. Most face legal challenges.

North Carolina lacks uniform treatment standards across hospitals and runs low on money and staff with proper training to treat transgender kids in crisis. That means the last-resort measures to support patients like Callum often fail to help them, and sometimes make things worse.

Sending a transgender child to a unit that does not align with their gender identity should be out of the question, no matter a hospital's constraints, said Dr. Jack Turban, director of the gender psychiatry program at the University of California, San Francisco, and a researcher of quality care barriers for trans youth in inpatient facilities.

"If you don't validate the trans identity from day one, their mental health's going to get worse," Turban said. "Potentially, you're sending them out at a higher suicide risk than they came in."

When North Carolina lawmakers allocated $835 million to shore up mental health infrastructure earlier this year, none of the money was specifically allocated to the treatment needs of trans patients. Though the funding may benefit everyone, a lack of direct action has left trans youth at the mercy of a system ill-equipped to help them when they need it most.

A nationwide dearth of pediatric psychiatric beds was compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw an unprecedented number of people seeking emergency mental health services, according to a report by the American Psychiatric Association. Demand has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels.

A "dire shortage" of at least 400 inpatient psychiatric beds for North Carolina youth has left UNC with no choice but to send patients to other facilities, even those that cannot accommodate specific needs, said Dr. Samantha Meltzer-Brody, chair of the UNC Department of Psychiatry.

Emergency rooms are not designed for boarding, nor can they provide comprehensive mental health treatment. That creates an immediate need to place patients left waiting in the ER for days or even weeks before a bed opens up, Meltzer-Brody said.

While UNC's own inpatient program assigns all children to individual rooms on co-ed floors, it sends overflow patients to some hospitals that don't make such accommodations.

"We have no choice but to refer people to the next available bed," Meltzer-Brody said of the University of North Carolina-affiliated hospital. "If you're talking about the LGBTQ+ community and seeking trans care, you may be sent to a place that is not providing care in a way that is going to be most optimal."

Callum exploded when he was told about plans to place him in a unit for girls, his records note. He shouted and cried hysterically until he ended up in an isolation room. Doctors later found him banging his head against the wall in a trance-like state.

"It was almost as if sort of my brain had turned off because of such a shock," he recalled. "I had never acted on such severe self-harm without even realizing that I was doing it."

UNC declined to comment on Callum's case, despite the family's willingness to waive its privacy rights. But Meltzer-Brody did broadly address barriers to gender-affirming treatment for all psychiatric patients.

The public hospital system's policy on gender-designated facilities recommends inpatient assignments based on a patient's "self-identified gender when feasible." But with the ER overrun in recent years, Meltzer-Brody said meeting that goal is a challenge.

The issue extends beyond transgender youth, affecting patients with autism, addiction and acute psychiatric disorders who are sometimes sent to facilities unfit to provide specialized care.

It doesn't help, she said, that there is no national standard for how psychiatric hospitals must cater to transgender patients.

The LGBTQ+ civil rights organization Lambda Legal has outlined best practices for hospitals treating transgender patients under the Affordable Care Act. The organization says denying someone access to a gender-affirming room assignment is identity-based discrimination, based on its interpretation of the law.

But such cases rarely end up in court, because the burden falls on families to advocate for their rights while supporting a child in crisis, said Casey Pick, law and policy director at The Trevor Project, a nonprofit focused on LGBTQ+ suicide prevention.

"These are circumstances that are themselves often inherently traumatic, and adding a layer of trauma on top of that in the form of discrimination based on an individual's gender identity just compounds the issue," Pick said. "The last thing we should have to do is then add the additional trauma of going to court."

Parents including Callum's father, Dan Bradford, describe feeling helpless while their children are receiving psychiatric care involuntarily, which isn't uncommon after attempted suicide. Callum's involuntary commitment designation also temporarily stripped his mother and father of many parental rights to make medical decisions for their son.

A psychiatrist himself, Dan Bradford always has supported his son's medical transition, which began with puberty-blocking drugs, followed by a low dose of testosterone that he still takes. Eventually, Callum underwent top surgery to remove his breasts. Irreversible procedures like surgery are rarely performed on minors, and only when doctors determine it's necessary.

"In Callum's case, the gender dysphoria was so strong that not pursuing gender-affirming medical treatments, like pretty quickly, was going to be life-threatening," his father said, wiping tears from his eyes. "Any risk that might be associated with the treatments seemed trivial, quite frankly, because we were afraid we're going to lose our kid if we didn't."

North Carolina law bars medical professionals from providing hormones, puberty blockers and gender-transition surgeries to anyone under 18. But some kids like Callum, who began treatment before an August cut-off date, can continue if their doctors deem it medically necessary.

Although he retained access to hormones, Callum said it has been brutal seeing the General Assembly block his transgender friends from receiving the treatments he credits as life-saving.

"When these public policies are discussed or passed, that sends a really strong message to these kids that their government, their society and their community either accepts them and validates them or doesn't," said Turban, the researcher at UC San Francisco.

His research has found that many medical providers still lack training about LGBTQ+ identities and make common mistakes, such as printing the wrong gender designation on a hospital wristband or placing a transgender patient in a single-occupancy room when everyone else has a roommate.

Fearing the plan to place his son in a girls' ward would be deeply traumatizing, Dan Bradford secured a spot at a residential treatment center in Georgia. He pleaded with UNC to release Callum early and convinced the North Carolina hospital that was supposed to take him to reject the transfer.

The teen then spent 17 weeks in an individualized treatment program in Atlanta, recovering from the circumstances that landed him in the ER and the added trauma he endured there. He has since returned home and is taking care of his mental health by playing keyboard and rowing with his co-ed team on the calm waters of Jordan Lake. For the first time in years, Callum said he's thinking about his future.

There are some positive developments on the horizon for North Carolina youth facing mental health crises.

The new state funding for mental health services approved in October has enabled UNC Hospitals to open a 54-bed youth behavioral health facility in Butner, 28 miles (45 kilometers) north of Raleigh. State Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kody Kinsley said the facility should alleviate some barriers to individualized care, including for transgender patients. And UNC has announced plans to open a freestanding children's hospital within the next decade.

Leaders of the Butner facility, which began its phased opening this month, have promised to take a whole-family approach so parents are not shut out of their child's treatment plan. Nearly every patient will be placed in an individual room on a co-ed floor.

The new facility and funding will allow more patients to stay in single-occupancy rooms at UNC, but overflow patients may still be sent elsewhere, Meltzer-Brody said. The hospital system has not changed its policies on transgender patient referrals, and other facilities across the state that receive those patients still lack uniform standards for treating them.

Although Callum said his experiences eroded his trust in the state's inpatient care network, he is optimistic that the new resources could give others a more gender-affirming treatment experience, if they are paired with policy changes.

"I'm still here, and I'm happy to be here," he said. "That's all I want for all my trans friends."


# In Romania, hundreds dance in bear skins for festive 'dancing bear festival'
By **ANDREEA ALEXANDRU** and **VADIM GHIRDA**
December 30, 2023. 12:10 AM EST

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**COMANESTI, Romania (AP)** - Centuries ago, people in what is now northeastern Romania donned bear skins and danced to fend off evil spirits. That custom is today known as the Dancing Bears Festival, drawing crowds of tourists every December.

Hundreds of people of all ages, clad in bear costumes, dance every year around Christmas to the deafening beat of drums and roam villages and towns. The highlight of this year's festival falls on Dec. 30, with bear-clad dancers descending on the town of Comanesti, in eastern Romania, for the finale.

Visitors come from as far as Japan to see the spectacle, featuring lines of people in costumes with gaping bear jaws and claws marching and dancing. Giant red pompom decorations are usually added to the furs. Some of the "bears" jokingly growl or pretend to attack the spectators.

Locals say the custom dates back to the pre-Christianity era when people believed that wild animals staved off misfortune or danger. Dancing "bears" visited people's homes and knocked on their doors to wish them good luck and a Happy New Year.

"The bear runs through our veins, it is the spirit animal for those in our area," said Costel Dascalu, who started taking part in the festival when he was 8. At the time, Romania was still under communist rule and the festival was relatively low-key.

"I want to keep the tradition alive," the 46-year-old added. When the holiday season approaches, he joked, "our breath smells like bears, and we get goose bumps when we hear the sound of drums."

Residents are happy that the tradition has lived on after many Romanians left the region in the 1990s to look for better jobs in Western Europe.

Brown bears are widely present in Romania's traditions and culture, and the animals can often be seen by mountain roads and in forests. Excessive bear hunting prompted the authorities to issue a ban in 2016.

Participants in the festival say most of the bear skins they use as costumes have been preserved for generations and treated with great care.

Wearing a full-sized bear fur isn't easy: Including the head and claws, the costume could weigh up to 50 kilograms (110 pounds). The most expensive bear skins can cost some 2,000 euros ($2,200), according to local media.


# Google settles $5 billion privacy lawsuit over tracking people using 'incognito mode'
By **The Associated Press**
December 29, 2023. 8:11 PM EST

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**SAN FRANCISCO (AP)** - Google has agreed to settle a $5 billion privacy lawsuit alleging that it spied on people who used the "incognito" mode in its Chrome browser - along with similar "private" modes in other browsers - to track their internet use.

The class-action lawsuit filed in 2020 said Google misled users into believing that it wouldn't track their internet activities while using incognito mode. It argued that Google's advertising technologies and other techniques continued to catalog details of users' site visits and activities despite their use of supposedly "private" browsing.

Plaintiffs also charged that Google's activities yielded an "unaccountable trove of information" about users who thought they'd taken steps to protect their privacy.

The settlement, reached Thursday, must still be approved by a federal judge. Terms weren't disclosed, but the suit originally sought $5 billion on behalf of users; lawyers for the plaintiffs said they expect to present the court with a final settlement agreement by Feb. 24.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the settlement.


# Social media companies made $11 billion in US ad revenue from minors, Harvard study finds
By **BARBARA ORTUTAY** and **HALELUYA HADERO**
December 27, 2023. 3:12 PM EST

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Social media companies collectively made over $11 billion in U.S. advertising revenue from minors last year, according to a study from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health published on Wednesday.

The researchers say the findings show a need for government regulation of social media since the companies that stand to make money from children who use their platforms have failed to meaningfully self-regulate. They note such regulations, as well as greater transparency from tech companies, could help alleviate harms to youth mental health and curtail potentially harmful advertising practices that target children and adolescents.

To come up with the revenue figure, the researchers estimated the number of users under 18 on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube in 2022 based on population data from the U.S. Census and survey data from Common Sense Media and Pew Research. They then used data from research firm eMarketer, now called Insider Intelligence, and Qustodio, a parental control app, to estimate each platform's U.S. ad revenue in 2022 and the time children spent per day on each platform. After that, the researchers said they built a simulation model using the data to estimate how much ad revenue the platforms earned from minors in the U.S.

Researchers and lawmakers have long focused on the negative effects stemming from social media platforms, whose personally-tailored algorithms can drive children towards excessive use. This year, lawmakers in states like New York and Utah introduced or passed legislation that would curb social media use among kids, citing harms to youth mental health and other concerns.

Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, is also being sued by dozens of states for allegedly contributing to the mental health crisis.

"Although social media platforms may claim that they can self-regulate their practices to reduce the harms to young people, they have yet to do so, and our study suggests they have overwhelming financial incentives to continue to delay taking meaningful steps to protect children," said Bryn Austin, a professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Harvard and a senior author on the study.

The platforms themselves don't make public how much money they earn from minors.

Social media platforms are not the first to advertise to children, and parents and experts have long expressed concerns about marketing to kids online, on television and even in schools. But online ads can be especially insidious because they can be targeted to children and because the line between ads and the content kids seek out is often blurry.

In a 2020 policy paper, the American Academy of Pediatrics said children are "uniquely vulnerable to the persuasive effects of advertising because of immature critical thinking skills and impulse inhibition."

"School-aged children and teenagers may be able to recognize advertising but often are not able to resist it when it is embedded within trusted social networks, encouraged by celebrity influencers, or delivered next to personalized content," the paper noted.

As concerns about social media and children's mental health grow, the Federal Trade Commission earlier this month proposed sweeping changes to a decades-old law that regulates how online companies can track and advertise to children. The proposed changes include turning off targeted ads to kids under 13 by default and limiting push notifications.

According to the Harvard study, YouTube derived the greatest ad revenue from users 12 and under ($959.1 million), followed by Instagram ($801.1 million) and Facebook ($137.2 million).

Instagram, meanwhile, derived the greatest ad revenue from users aged 13-17 ($4 billion), followed by TikTok ($2 billion) and YouTube ($1.2 billion).

The researchers also estimate that Snapchat derived the greatest share of its overall 2022 ad revenue from users under 18 (41%), followed by TikTok (35%), YouTube (27%), and Instagram (16%).


# A British warship arrives in Guyana as tensions heat up in border dispute with Venezuela
By **MANUEL RUEDA**
December 30, 2023. 10:52 AM EST

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BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - A British warship arrived in Guyana on Friday afternoon amid rising tensions from a border dispute between the former British colony and Venezuela.

The HMS Trent's visit led Venezuela to begin military exercises a day earlier in the eastern Caribbean near its border with Guyana as the Venezuelan government presses its claim to a huge swath of its smaller neighbor.

Brazil's Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed concern Friday about the situation and urged the two South American countries to return to dialogue. It said other nations should avoid "military activities" that support either side.

Brazil's statement called on Guyana and Venezuela to stay true to the Argyle Declaration, an agreement signed earlier this month in which their leaders said they would solve the border dispute through nonviolent means.

The dispute is over Essequibo, a sparsely populated region that is the size of Florida and rich in oil and minerals. Venezuela has long claimed it was cheated out of the territory when Europeans and the U.S. set the border.

The U.K. Defense Ministry has said that the ship is visiting Guyana as part of a series of engagements in the region and that the vessel will conduct training exercises with Guyana's military.

On its account on X, formerly Twitter, the ship posted photos of sailors welcoming Britain's ambassador to Guyana and the chief of staff of Guyana's Defense Force, Brig. Gen. Omar Khan. They were hosted at a formal lunch and provided with a tour of the ship's capabilities.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Khan said such operations "remain an important part of the regional security spectrum of activities. It has been so in the past and will continue in the future."

Officials have been tight-lipped on the nature of the exercises.

The warship is generally used to intercept pirates and drug smugglers, and it recently conducted joint exercises with the navies of several West African nations. It is equipped with cannons and a landing pad for helicopters and drones and can carry around 50 marines.

In a statement late Thursday, Guyanese President Irfaan Ali said Venezuela "had nothing to fear" from the ship's activities in Guyanese waters.

"Guyana has long been engaged in partnerships with regional and international states aimed at enhancing internal security," Ali said. "These partnerships pose a threat to no one and are in no way intended to be aggressive."

But Venezuela on Thursday began military exercises involving 5,000 troops in the eastern Caribbean, citing the visit by the British patrol ship.

In a nationally televised speech, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro accused Guyana of betraying the spirit of the Argyle Declaration.

"We will not let anyone push us around," Maduro said, surrounded by military commanders. He described Britain's decision to send a warship as a threat from a "decaying former empire."

Guyana has controlled Essequibo for decades, but Venezuela revived its historical claim to the region earlier this month through a referendum in which voters were asked whether the territory should be turned into a Venezuelan state.

Critics of Maduro say the socialist leader has reignited the border dispute to draw attention from the nation's internal problems as Venezuela prepares for a presidential election next year. Maduro intends to run for a third term.

Venezuela says it was the victim of a land theft conspiracy in 1899, when Guyana was a British colony and arbitrators from Britain, Russia and the United States decided the boundary.

Venezuelan officials also argue that an agreement among Venezuela, Britain and the then colony of British Guiana signed in 1966 to resolve the dispute effectively nullified the original arbitration.

Guyana maintains the initial accord is legal and binding and asked the United Nations' top court in 2018 to rule it as such, but a decision is years away.


# Hit-Boy enters Grammys with producer nod while helping father navigate music industry after prison
By **JONATHAN LANDRUM Jr.**
December 28, 2023. 8:38 PM EST

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**LOS ANGELES (AP)** - When Hit-Boy walks the Grammy red carpet, he expects to proudly strut into the Feb. 4 awards ceremony with his father beside him for the first time.

For three decades, Hit-Boy's dad was in-and-out of prison, with his recent stint lasting nine years until his release several months ago. With his father's newfound freedom, the super producer - who has worked with music heavyweights from Jay-Z, Nas and Kanye West - is focused on strengthening their father-son bond while navigating the music industry together.

Hit-Boy has the Grammys and a producer of the year, non-classical nomination in his sights. He's had three songs involving Brent Faiyaz, Blxst and The Alchemist. He also produced three Nas albums, including "King's Disease III," which is up for best rap album; one with Musiq Soulchild; and his two "Surf or Down" albums, which featured the producer as a rapper and his father on several tracks under the stage name Big Hit.

When Hit-Boy first heard about being a nominee again, he felt an instant "wave of emotions." He was one of the most productive producers this past year compared to others in his category - which includes Jack Antonoff, Metro Boomin, Dernst "D'Mile" Emile II and Daniel Nigro.

"I literally broke down in tears," said Hit-Boy, a three-time Grammy winner through Jay-Z and Kanye West's "... In Paris," Nipsey Hussle's "Racks in the Middle" and Nas' album "King Disease." He's worked with top performers including Beyoncé, Mary J. Blige, Drake, Mariah Carey, Ariana Grande and Jennifer Lopez.

But for Hit-Boy, this past year was different.

"When I really look back and had that moment to reflect, I was like 'Wow, I didn't have the biggest artists in the world that's going to stream," he said. "They are going to make it work. I was working with artists that don't have million-dollar budgets behind them."

Throughout the year, Hit-Boy said he worked mostly with Nas and his father, Big Hit, who recorded his lyrics for the intro on "Surf or Down Vol. 1" while incarcerated. After his father's release, Hit-Boy took him directly to the studio - where they both laid down tracks.

This month, Big Hit, 52, released his debut album "The Truth is in My Eyes," which features Snoop Dogg, Benny The Butcher, Musiq Soulchild, Dom Kennedy, The Alchemist and Mozzy. He said it was tough being away from his son and watching his success from afar.

"It was torture just knowing the kind of impact I could've had and what I missed in his life," said the rapper, who was arrested during a traffic stop in Illinois in 2014. Turns out, he had an outstanding warrant, which stemmed from a hit-and-run accident in Los Angeles that left several people injured.

At the time, Hit-Boy said his father was gaining positive momentum and made good impressions with the likes of Jay-Z and 50 Cent before his arrest, which the producer called devastating.

"I thought about how I could have shaped and molded him," Big Hit said. "Being a wonderful addition. Instead of bringing him down, I could have tightened him up. But I still did my best in the situation where I was at. But we're pushing full speed ahead. We're bridging that gap."

Since Big Hit's release, Hit-Boy has been laser-focused on keeping his father busy and spending time with him almost daily while creating an independent lane for their careers. The producer said he's funded "every single thing since he touched down."

"It's bigger than just doing the music," Hit-Boy said. "I'm creating that network, helping them to have a workflow. I'm spending money on these marketing plans. I'm coming with all the best ideas I can. Every day is an adventure. My whole life, he's got out and went back in. Stressed out that he might do something to jeopardize it again. It's part of that brainwork where you just got to hold it down and financially. I wanted to build, put together pieces that would bring people completely into his world."

Hit-Boy said several labels have offered Big Hit deals, but they turned them down. The producer said they'll be better off on their own for now.

"They wanted to put some cool money in his pocket," Hit-Boy said. "But I've been in the game since I was 19. He got locked up at 19 until he was in his 30s. Now, I'm in my 30s and I'm locked up in the industry, because I'm still to this day in a bad publishing deal with Universal Music Publishing Group. I would feel so crazy to let my dad get caught up with these same systems, the same ways and ideologies that I've been fed since I was a kid. I just can't go for it."

Hit-Boy, 36, and his team decided against releasing Big Hit's new album on digital stream platforms. He wants people to buy directly from them, which according to his team has so far worked out.

"We got physical CDs. We're not going to do any DSPs, no streaming," the producer said. "I've been seeing a lot of people complain about that. Snoop just went on a platform and talked about how he got a billion streams, but only earned about $40,000 or $45,000. I feel like if we sell 10,000 CDs, we're going to blow that out the water. We're going to start small. We don't need to have a billion streams, because that might only equate to 10,000. We're going to let people buy the music directly from us."

Hit-Boy said he and his father are making music, doing business together like he always wanted. If he could win a Grammy with his dad, mother and young son in attendance, it would mean the world to him.

"Every time I won a Grammy, he was locked up," he said. "That would be dope to win. I'm going to speak it into existence."


# Was 2023 a tipping point for movies? 'Barbie' success and Marvel struggles may signal a shift
By **JAKE COYLE**
December 27, 2023. 10:00 AM EST

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**NEW YORK (AP)** - Eight years ago, Steven Spielberg predicted that the superhero movie would one day go "the way of the Western."

Spielberg's comments caused a widespread stir at the time. "Avengers: The Age of Ultron" was then one of the year's biggest movies. The following year would bring "Captain America: Civil War," "Deadpool" and "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice." The superhero movie was in high gear, and showing no signs of slowing down.

But Spielberg's point was that nothing is forever in the movie business. These cycles, Spielberg said, "have a finite time in popular culture." And the maker of "E.T.," "Jurassic Park" and "Jaws" might know a thing or two about the ebbs and flows of pop-culture taste.

As 2023 draws to a close, no one is sounding the death knell of the superhero movie. The Walt Disney Co.'s "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" made $845.6 million worldwide and Sony's "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" ($691 million) was one of the most acclaimed films of the year. Marvel is still mightier than any other brand in the business.

But more than ever before, there are chinks in the armor of the superhero movie. Its dominance in popular culture is no longer quite so assured. A cycle may be turning, and a new one dawning.

For the first time in more than two decades, the top three movies at the box office didn't include one sequel or remake: "Barbie," "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" and "Oppenheimer." The last time that happened was 2001, when "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," "Shrek" and "Monsters, Inc." topped the box office.

No, it's not exactly a lineup of originality like, say, 1973, when "The Exorcist, "The Sting" and "American Graffiti" led all movies in ticket sales. "Barbie" and "The Super Mario Bros.," based on some of the most familiar brands in the world, will generate spinoffs and sequels of their own.

But it's hard not to sense a shift in moviegoing, one that might have reverberations for years to come for Hollywood.

"There's an inflection point in 2023," says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for data firm Comscore. " Barbenheimer is just one part of that story. Audiences, they want to be challenged. I think the tried and true is not necessarily working."

Greta Gerwig's "Barbie," from Warner Bros., was the year's runaway hit, with more than $1.4 billion in ticket sales worldwide. It was a blockbuster like none seen before: an anarchic comedy that set a string of records for a movie directed by a woman.

Nearly as unprecedented was the success of Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer," a three-hour drama that nearly grossed $1 billion. As different as it and "Barbie" were, they were each original feats of cinema and personal statements by its directors.

At the same time, the Walt Disney Co.'s Marvel, a hit-making machine like none other in movie history, faltered like never before. "The Marvels" marked a new low for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, collecting $200 million globally. DC Studios, in the midst of a revamp, saw disappointing results for "The Flash" and "Blue Beetle" before watching "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom" sink to a $28.1 million debut.

Both Marvel and DC have already made moves to right their ships. Bob Iger, Disney's chief executive, has called turning around Marvel his top priority. He said the superhero studio has suffered greatly from too many films and series leading to "diluted quality." The James Gunn, Peter Safran-led DC, meanwhile, won't officially launch until 2025 with "Superman Legacy."

In the meantime, something else will have to fill the void. That was a theme in 2023, too, when the writers and actors strikes marred release plans and forced the delay of several films including Warner's "Dune: Part Two," Sony's next "Ghostbusters" movie and MGM's "Challengers."

Those disruptions will continue in 2024. Analysts aren't expecting a banner year for Hollywood in part because films like the next "Mission: Impossible" film and the "Spider-Verse" sequel, both delayed by the strikes, won't make their original dates.

Overall ticket sales in U.S. and Canadian theaters for 2023 are expected to reach about $9 billion, according to Comscore, an improvement of about 20% from 2022. The industry is still trying to regain its pre-pandemic footing, when ticket sales regularly surpassed $11 billion. Output of wide-releases in 2023 (88) still trailed those in 2019 (108) by 18.5%.

Hollywood is still coaxing moviegoers back to theaters - something "Barbie," "Oppenheimer" and "Mario" went a long way to helping.

"It reinforced something that we've known for 100 years in the business: People like going to the shared experience out of the home," says Jeffrey Goldstein, distribution chief for Warner Bros. "They love being entertained. Movies are a good financial proposition and can bring in a mass audience."

"It probably started with 'Mario' last April," adds Goldstein. "I think that showed audiences again that theaters are a fun place to be to. And it showed studios and content creators: Up your game."

If 2023 is any guide, hits will come from increasingly unpredictable places.

That was the case with "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour," a film released just two months after Swift's recorded concerts in a first-of-its-kind distribution deal with AMC Theatres. It grossed $250 million worldwide, and was followed by the similarly released "Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé," another No. 1 debut.

More surprising was "Sound of Freedom," a $15 million film from the independent Angel Studios, which matched Swift with $250 million worldwide. It was released with a unique "pay it forward" program that allowed people to donate tickets.

Going into 2023, no one was betting "Sound of Freedom" would outgross "The Marvels" or that "Five Nights at Freddy's" would have a bigger opening weekend than "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny."

"There are going to be examples of big-budget, traditional blockbusters that do well," says Dergarabedian. "But for every one of those, there have been two that failed. An audience that's finding a lot of interesting material on streaming is becoming more open to films like 'Godzilla Minus One,' Indian cinema, Japanese anime. There's a shift in audience taste and studios need to get a handle on this."

That poses as much of a challenge as an opportunity to studios. If more-of-the-same no longer has quite the same appeal for moviegoers, an industry that for years has depended on sequels, prequels, reboots and remakes to make up the bulk of its profits may require new creativity.

The Western didn't vanish all at once. After two decades of ubiquity, it began going out of style in the 1960s. And the Western, of course, continues to be rich territory for filmmakers. This year, 81-year-old Martin Scorsese made his first Western in "Killers of the Flower Moon," the three-hour-plus $200 million epic from Apple Studios.

The superhero movie, likewise, won't ever die. But its heyday might have reached its endgame.


# US military space plane blasts off on another secretive mission expected to last years
By **MARCIA DUNN**
December 28, 2023. 10:49 PM EST

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The U.S. military's X-37B space plane blasted off Thursday on another secretive mission that's expected to last at least a couple of years.

Like previous missions, the reusable plane resembling a mini space shuttle carried classified experiments. There's no one on board.

The space plane took off aboard SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center at night, more than two weeks late because of technical issues.

It marked the seventh flight of an X-37B, which has logged more than 10 years in orbit since its debut in 2010.

The last flight, the longest one yet, lasted 2 1/2 years before ending on a runway at Kennedy a year ago.

Space Force officials would not say how long this orbital test vehicle would remain aloft or what's on board other than a NASA experiment to gauge the effects of radiation on materials.

Built by Boeing, the X-37B resembles NASA's retired space shuttles. But they're just one-fourth the size at 29 feet (9 meters) long. No astronauts are needed; the X-37B has an autonomous landing system.

They take off vertically like rockets but land horizontally like planes, and are designed to orbit between 150 miles and 500 miles (240 kilometers and 800 kilometers) high. There are two X-37Bs based in a former shuttle hangar at Kennedy.


# South Africa launches case at top UN court accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza
By **MIKE CORDER**
December 29, 2023. 5:07 PM EST

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**THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP)** - South Africa launched a case Friday at the United Nations' top court accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and asking the court to order Israel to halt its attacks - the first such challenge made at the court over the current war. Israel swiftly rejected the filing "with disgust."

South Africa's submission to the International Court of Justice alleges that "acts and omissions by Israel ... are genocidal in character" as they are committed with the intent "to destroy Palestinians in Gaza" as a part of the broader Palestinian national, racial and ethnic group.

South Africa has been a fierce critic of Israel's military campaign in Gaza. Many there, including President Cyril Ramaphosa, have compared Israel's policies regarding Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank with South Africa's past apartheid regime of racial segregation. Israel rejects such allegations.

South Africa asked The Hague-based court to issue an interim order for Israel to immediately suspend its military operations in Gaza. A hearing into that request is likely in the coming days or weeks. The case, if it goes ahead, will take years, but an interim order could be issued within weeks.

The Israeli government rejected "with disgust" the genocide accusations, calling it a "blood libel." A Foreign Ministry statement said South Africa's case lacks a legal foundation and constitutes a "despicable and contemptuous exploitation" of the court.

Israel also accused South Africa of cooperating with Hamas, the Palestinian militant group behind the deadly Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel that triggered the ongoing war.

The statement also said Israel operates according to international law and focuses its military actions solely against Hamas, adding that the residents of Gaza are not an enemy. It asserted that it takes steps to minimize harm to civilians and to allow humanitarian aid to enter the territory.

South Africa can bring the case under the Genocide Convention because both it and Israel are signatories to it.

Whether the case will succeed in halting the war remains to be seen. While the court's orders are legally binding, they are not always followed. In March 2022, the court ordered Russia to halt hostilities in Ukraine, a binding legal ruling that Moscow flouted as it pressed ahead with its attacks.

South Africa's foreign ministry said in a statement that the country is "gravely concerned with the plight of civilians caught in the present Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip due to the indiscriminate use of force and forcible removal of inhabitants."

The ministry added that there are "ongoing reports of international crimes, such as crimes against humanity and war crimes, being committed as well as reports that acts meeting the threshold of genocide or related crimes as defined in the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, have been and may still be committed in the context of the ongoing massacres in Gaza."

South Africa's president earlier accused Israel of war crimes and acts "tantamount to genocide." And South Africa last month pushed for the International Criminal Court, which also is based in The Hague, to investigate Israel's actions in Gaza.

The ICC prosecutes individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, while the International Court of Justice settles disputes between nations.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry welcomed South Africa's accusations against Israel. In a statement on social media, it urged the court to "immediately take action to protect Palestinian people and call on Israel, the occupying power, to halt its onslaught against the Palestinian people."

Balkees Jarrah, associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch, said South Africa's case "provides an important opportunity for the International Court of Justice to scrutinize Israel's actions in Gaza using the Genocide Convention of 1948." She said South Africa is looking to the United Nations' highest judicial body "to provide clear, definitive answers on the question of whether Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people."

Jarrah stressed that the ICJ case "is not a criminal case against individual alleged perpetrators, and it does not involve the International Criminal Court (ICC), a separate body. But the ICJ case should also propel greater international support for impartial justice at the ICC and other credible venues."


# An American-Canadian-Israeli woman previously believed to be held hostage in Gaza is declared dead
By **MELANIE LIDMAN**
December 29, 2023. 3:24 AM EST

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**TEL AVIV, Israel (AP)** - An Israeli kibbutz hard-hit by Hamas' assault on southern Israel announced on Thursday the death of Judih Weinstein - an American-Canadian-Israeli woman who had previously been thought to be held hostage in Gaza.

The news came six days after Weinstein's husband, Gad Haggai, was also declared dead.

Weinstein, 70, and Haggai, 73, were taking an early morning walk near their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on the morning of Oct. 7 when Hamas militants burst across the border into Israel, killing about 1,200 people and kidnapping 240 others.

In the early hours of the morning, Weinstein was able to call emergency services and let them know that both she and her husband had been shot and send a message to her family.

Weinstein and her husband had been thought to be among the hostages still held in captivity in Gaza. But six days ago, the kibbutz announced that Haggai was killed Oct. 7 and his body was taken to Gaza.

On Thursday, the kibbutz said it had learned that Weinstein was also killed on Oct. 7 and her body is also in Gaza.

It was not immediately clear how Israeli authorities determined their deaths.

The couple are survived by two sons and two daughters and seven grandchildren, the kibbutz said.

U.S. President Joe Biden said he was "devastated" to learn of Weinstein's death, especially after hearing about the couple during a meeting with their daughter.

The families "have been living through hell for weeks. No family should have to endure such an ordeal," he said in a statement.

Weinstein was born in New York and was an active member of Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small community near the Gaza border where she taught English to children with special needs. The kibbutz said she also taught meditation techniques to children and teenagers who suffered from anxiety as a result of rocket fire from Gaza. Haggai was a retired chef and jazz musician.

"Judy dedicated her life to serving others, spending years teaching English and using her passions for poetry, puppeteering, and mindfulness to empower children of all backgrounds," her family said in a statement.

In a YouTube video made during a brief round of fighting between Israel and the Islamic Jihad militant group last May, Weinstein read a series of poems and expressed hope for better days ahead.

"I truly hope that the next time I'm recording some Haiku it won't be under duress, under rocket fire, under conditions where people are at war," she said. "May we all be granted the right to our basic rights of home, food, shelter and peaceful days. Here's hoping."

Al Haggai, one of the couple's sons, told Israel's Channel 13 that the family had originally hoped their mother's multiple citizenships would allow her to be released during the week-long cease-fire in late November, when 105 hostages were let go. Almost all were women and children.

He said that when his mother's name was not on any of the daily lists, he started to suspect that something happened to her.

According to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, at least 23 of the approximately 129 hostages believed to be held in Gaza have either died or been killed in captivity.

Nir Oz was one of the hardest-hit Israeli communities on Oct. 7, with roughly one quarter of its residents killed or kidnapped.

The families of missing hostages have drawn widespread support and sympathy in Israel as they press the government to reach a new cease-fire deal to bring home their loved ones.

Netanyahu met Thursday in Tel Aviv with some of the families, where he told them there were behind-the-scenes efforts to bring the hostages home, according to a statement from his office.

"I can't elaborate on the details, we are working to return everyone," he said.

Weinstein's friend Adele Raemer, a fellow English teacher from nearby Kibbutz Nirim, remembered her friend as an empathetic and funny person, who found creative ways of connecting with children with special needs, including through puppetry.

Weinstein had just finished an intensive year-long course with Tel Aviv University's Educational Technology Center, to develop an app called ClassRelax to help teachers bring aspects of meditation and mindfulness into the classroom, Raemer said.

She added that Weinstein and Haggai regularly walked together in the fields around the kibbutz.

"They walked every morning, that was what was going to keep them healthy. Unfortunately that was what got them killed in the end," she said.


# As Gaza war grinds on, tensions soar along Israel's volatile northern border with Lebanon
By **TIA GOLDENBERG** and **ABBY SEWELL**
December 28, 2023. 2:00 PM EST

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TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) - Israeli officials are stepping up threats against the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, warning that Israel is running out of patience as the two sides continue to trade fire along Israel's volatile northern border.

Benny Gantz, a member of Israel's War Cabinet, said Wednesday that if the international community and the Lebanese government don't restrain Hezbollah, Israel will. Israel's army chief, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said the military is in a state of high readiness and has approved plans in case it decides to open a second front in the north.

The fighting along Israel's northern border broke out when Hezbollah began firing rockets shortly after the Oct. 7 cross-border attack by Hamas triggered the war in Gaza.

While at a lower intensity than the battle in Gaza, the simultaneous fighting has caused destruction, displacement and death on both sides and raised fears of a wider regional war.

Here is a look at the battle between Israel and Hezbollah:

## WHAT DOES THE FIGHTING INVOLVE?
Hezbollah fighters have been attacking Israeli posts and villages along the border, and the group has launched rockets and drones toward Israeli targets. Israeli tanks, artillery and aircraft have been striking areas on the Lebanese side of the border. The fighting has been mostly brief, but almost daily.

The Israeli military says more than 1,700 rockets have been fired from Lebanon toward Israel, killing 15 Israelis, including nine soldiers, and injuring more than 150 people.

Israel has evacuated about 60,000 people from more than 40 northern communities, including the main city of Kiryat Shemona, which has 22,000 residents. Israeli media outlets have aired footage of battered homes and barren communities, with Israeli soldiers guarding empty streets.

On the Lebanese side, around 74,500 people have been displaced by the fighting, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Nearly 160 people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes and shelling in Lebanon, according to an Associated Press tally. Most of those were fighters with Hezbollah and allied groups, but at least 19 civilians have also been killed, including journalists and children.

Human rights groups and local officials have also accused Israel of hitting Lebanese border areas with shells containing white phosphorus, a controversial incendiary munition. The strikes have burned hundreds of hectares (acres) of farm and woodland and injured civilians. Israel says all its actions conform with international law.

## WHY ARE THEY FIGHTING?
Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah are longtime bitter enemies, dating back to Israel's occupation of parts of south Lebanon from 1982 to 2000.

After Hezbollah fighters ambushed an Israeli patrol in 2006 and took two Israeli soldiers hostage, the sides fought a vicious monthlong war that ended in a draw - but not before Israeli bombardment wreaked widespread destruction in southern Lebanon and parts of Beirut.

The border area had largely been quiet since that war, aside from sparse skirmishes and sporadic tensions. Israel estimates that Hezbollah has some 150,000 rockets and missiles in its arsenal, many of which can strike virtually anywhere in Israel, including the economic capital, Tel Aviv.

Hezbollah says its attacks aim to ease pressure on the Gaza Strip, where Israel is fighting an unprecedented ground, air and sea offensive meant to topple Hamas and return some 129 people held captive in the territory.

## THE IRAN CONNECTION
Although there has been no proof that Iran, Israel's archenemy, ordered the Oct. 7 attack, its fingerprints have been visible throughout the ensuing conflict.

In addition to Iran's support for Hamas and Hezbollah, Iran-backed groups in Yemen, Syria and Iraq have launched attacks on Israel and its allies in support of Hamas.

In the Red Sea, attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen against ships they believe to be connected to Israel have disrupted trade and prompted the launch of a U.S.-led multinational naval operation to protect shipping routes.

Iran-backed militias in Iraq have also launched dozens of attacks on bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria, which they have said are in retaliation for Washington's support of Israel.

And on Monday, Iranian state media blamed Israel for a strike on a Damascus neighborhood that killed a high-ranking Iranian general.

Amos Harel, a military commentator for the daily Haaretz newspaper, wrote Wednesday that the general's killing was a message to Iran that it can no longer enjoy immunity while its proxies attack Israel.

"It also brings us closer to the possibility of a growing escalation against Hezbollah, and even against the Iranians, on the northern front," he wrote.

## WHAT IS HEZBOLLAH'S ROLE?
Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, faces a risky balancing act.

Joining Hamas would risk dragging Lebanon - beset by economic calamity and internal political tensions - into a conflict it can ill afford, fueling domestic opposition to the group. The World Bank has already said the clashes are likely to harm Lebanon's economy.

Lebanon is in the fourth year of a crippling economic crisis and is bitterly divided between Hezbollah and its allies and opponents, paralyzing the political system.

But staying entirely on the sidelines as Israeli troops battle in the Gaza Strip could compromise Hezbollah's credibility, and a Hamas defeat would be a blow to Iran.

Hezbollah has been careful to limit its attacks on Israel, while keeping open the threat of a broader escalation.

"If Israel goes too far, we will retaliate twice as much," Hezbollah's deputy leader, Sheikh Naim Kassem, said Thursday. "We will not fear either Israeli or American threats or intimidation."

## A NEW FRONT FOR ISRAEL?
With its soldiers bogged down in Gaza, Israel has mostly sought to limit the fighting in its north. Hezbollah's military capabilities are far superior to those of Hamas.

Still, Israeli officials are increasingly warning that the country is prepared to expand the fighting and that Hezbollah should be prepared to pay a price for the damage it has wrought over the past three months.

Israel already has bolstered forces in the north and could well turn its sights on Hezbollah once it scales down or wraps up the war in Gaza.

Israel's top ally, the U.S, which has sent military reinforcements to the region, says it prefers to see a negotiated solution to the mounting tensions rather than a second war front.

Israel also wants Hezbollah to abide by a 2006 U.N. cease-fire agreement that states the border area in southern Lebanon must be "free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons" other than Lebanese government forces and U.N. peacekeepers. Under the resolution, Hezbollah should not have military presence in the border region.

Lebanon, meanwhile, argues that Israel violates the resolution with its air force's frequent entry into Lebanese airspace and by its presence in Chebaa Farms, a disputed area along the country's border with the Golan Heights, an area seized by Israel from Syria in 1967.

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said Wednesday that Hezbollah must respect the 2006 cease-fire. Otherwise, he warned, Nasrallah "must understand that he's next."


# In a crisis-ridden world, Germany's chancellor uses his New Year's speech to convey confidence
By **KIRSTEN GRIESHABER**
December 30, 2023. 6:00 PM EST

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**BERLIN (AP)** - Germany's chancellor used his New Year's speech to call on his country's citizens not to lose confidence in the future as they adapt to a world experiencing multiple crises and changing at an ever-faster pace.

"So much suffering; so much bloodshed. Our world has become a more unsettled and harsher place. It's changing at an almost breathtaking speed," Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in the prerecorded speech to be broadcast Sunday.

Scholz was referring to Russia's war on Ukraine, a resulting rise in energy prices, the suffering during the coronavirus pandemic, and the attack by Hamas that triggered Israel's military offensive in Gaza.

"The result is that we, too, are having to change," he said. "This is a worrying thing for many of us. In some, it is also causing discontent. I do take that to heart. But I also know this: We in Germany will get through it."

The chancellor pointed out how despite widespread worry a year ago, Germans did not end up without heat last winter after Russia cut off most of its natural gas supplies to Europe.

"Things have turned out differently. Inflation has gone down. Wages and pensions are going up. Our gas storage facilities are filled to the brim for the winter," he said, expressing confidence in the policies of his multi-party coalition government.

The German government led by Scholz has become known for infighting during two years in power and has seen its poll ratings slump. Germany's economy also is underperforming, but the chancellor nonetheless tried to paint a positive picture of the year ahead.

Many families will have to pay less in taxes, and the government plans to put oney into the country's ailing transportation infrastructure and clean energy, he said.

"'Who will manage, if not you in Germany?' - that's something I hear from many people around us in Europe and the rest of the world," Scholz said. "And there's something in that. More women and men have jobs in Germany today than at any time in the past."

Scholz also stressed the importance of the European Union, especially in times of crisis.

"Our strength resides in the European Union. When the EU presents a united front, it speaks for more than 400 million people. In a world of 8 billion, soon to be 10 billion people, that's a real asset," he said.

However, the chancellor made clear that Germany needs the work of all its people to take the country forward.

"My fellow citizens, our strength also resides in the realization that each and every one of us is needed in our country - the top researcher just like the carer, the police officer just like the delivery driver, the pensioner just like the young trainee," he said.

"If we get that into our heads, if we deal with one another in that spirit of respect, then we need have no fear about the future," Scholz said. "Then the year 2024 will be a good year for our country, even if some things do turn out differently from the way we imagine them today, on the eve of that new year."


# Israeli-French hostage recounts harrowing experience in captivity
December 30, 2023. 1:46 PM EST

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**JERUSALEM (AP)** - An Israeli woman who recently returned from captivity in the Gaza Strip says she was groped by her Palestinian kidnapper and lived in constant fear throughout the weeks she was held hostage.

Mia Schem, a 21-year-old dual citizen of Israel and France, was attending a music festival in southern Israel when Hamas militants burst across the border and raided the event site on Oct. 7. More than 300 people were killed and dozens taken hostage.

She was released on Nov. 30 during a weeklong cease-fire.

In an interview broadcast Friday on Israel's Channel 13 TV, Schem said she was captured after she got out her friend's burning car. She said her captor began touching her upper body inappropriately and only stopped after she screamed and he noticed that she had been shot in the arm and badly wounded.

"I started screaming, going crazy," she said. "There were burnt vehicles, bodies."

While in captivity, she was held in a house with a family and watched around the clock by the father, Schem said. She said his constant staring made her uncomfortable and fearful that he might try to harm her. The man's wife did not like her and sometimes denied her food for days at a time, she said.

Israeli authorities have said that sexual violence was part of the Hamas rampage into southern Israel, and they accused the international community of playing down or ignoring the pain of the victims.

The Associated Press generally does not identify victims of sexual violence, but Schem spoke out publicly about her experience.

Schem made international headlines when Hamas released a video of her in captivity days after she was taken hostage. In the video, she lay in bed as someone bandaged her right arm, and she says she wants to go home. At the time, it was the first sign of life from the hostages.

Schem said she barely slept during her time as a hostage because she was so terrified, and that she also did not shower or receive any medications. She said her captor's children occasionally came in to look at her "like I'm some animal in a petting zoo."

Schem said she was taken from the home into a tunnel and held with other hostages during her final days in captivity.

During this time, she said she knew she would soon be released. Schem said she was kept with six or seven people in a small room and received just one piece of pita bread a day. She said she feels guilty because of the other hostages she left behind.

Schem broke down during the interview, saying she still has not come to terms with her return as she processes the ordeal. "I can't get it out of my head," she said.


# Houthis show no sign of ending 'reckless' Red Sea attacks as trade traffic picks up, commander says
By **REBECCA SANTANA**
December 30, 2023. 7:10 PM EST

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**CHRISTIANSTED, U.S. Virgin Islands (AP)** - Yemen's Houthi rebels show no signs of ending their "reckless" attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea, the top commander of U.S. naval forces in the Middle East said Saturday, even as more nations join the international maritime mission to protect vessels in the vital waterway and trade traffic begins to pick up.

Since Operation Prosperity Guardian was announced just over 10 days ago, 1,200 merchant ships have traveled through the Red Sea region, and none has been hit by drone or missile strikes, Vice Adm. Brad Cooper said in an Associated Press interview. He said additional countries are expected to sign on. Denmark was the latest, announcing Friday it plans to send a frigate to the mission that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced during a visit to Bahrain, where the Navy's 5th Fleet is based, saying that "this is an international challenge that demands collective action."

The Iran-backed Houthis say their attacks are aimed at Israel-linked ships in an effort to stop the Israeli offensive in Gaza.

The narrow Bab el-Mandeb Strait connects the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea and then the Suez Canal. The crucial trade route links markets in Asia and Europe. The seriousness of the attacks, several of which have damaged vessels, led multiple shipping companies to order their vessels to hold in place and not enter the strait until the security situation improved. Some major shippers were sending their ships around Africa and the Cape of Good Hope, adding time and costs to the journeys.

Currently there are five warships from the United States, France, and the United Kingdom patrolling the waters of the southern Red Sea and the western Gulf of Aden, said Cooper, who heads the 5th Fleet. Since the operation started, the ships have shot down a total of 17 drones and four anti-ship ballistic missiles, he said.

ust two days ago, the USS Mason, a Navy destroyer, downed a drone and anti-ship ballistic missile that were fired by the Houthis, according to U.S. Central Command. The U.S. said the 22nd attack on international shipping by the Houthis since Oct. 19 caused no damage to any of the 18 ships in the area or any reported injuries.

"I expect in the coming weeks we're going to get additional countries," Cooper said, noting Denmark's recent announcement.

The U.S. has said that more than 20 nations are participating, but a number of those nations have not acknowledged it publicly.

On Saturday, Austin discussed the ongoing illegal Houthi attacks in a call with Netherlands' defense minister, Kajsa Ollongren, according to the Pentagon. Both condemned the attacks as unacceptable and "profoundly destabilizing" to international order and global commerce, with Austin stressing that they constitute "a significant international problem that demands collective action."

Cooper said the coalition is in direct communication with commercial ships to provide guidance on "maneuvering and the best practices to avoid being attacked," and working closely with the shipping industry to coordinate security.

An international task force had been set up in April 2022 to improve maritime security in the region. But Cooper said Operation Prosperity Guardian has more ships and a persistent presence to assist vessels.

Since the operation started, the Houthis have stepped up their use of anti-ship ballistic missiles, Cooper said. "We are cleareyed that the Houthi reckless attacks will likely continue," he said.

The Houthis seized Yemen's capital, Sanaa, in 2014, launching a grinding war against a Saudi-led coalition that sought to restore the government. The militants have sporadically targeted ships in the region, but the attacks increased since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

The Houthi threatened to attack any vessel they believe is either going to or coming from Israel. That has escalated to apparently any vessel, with container ships and oil tankers flagged to countries such as Norway and Liberia being attacked or drawing missile fire.

The shipping company Maersk had announced earlier that it had decided to re-route its ships that have been paused for days outside the strait and Red Sea, and send them around Africa instead. Maersk announced Dec. 25 that it was going to resume sending ships through the strait, citing the operation. Cooper said another shipping company had also resumed using the route.

"Commerce is definitely flowing," Cooper said.


# Revelers prepare to pack into Times Square for annual New Year's Eve ball drop
December 30, 2023. 4:52 PM EST

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**NEW YORK (AP)** - The confetti has been tested for airiness. The giant numerals - 2 0 2 4 - are in place. And the luminous ball, bedazzled with 2,688 crystal triangles, is fixed to the pole from which it makes its 60-second descent at 11:59 p.m.

With throngs of revelers set to usher in the new year under the bright lights of Times Square, officials and organizers say they are prepared to welcome the crowds and ensure their safety.

At a security briefing Friday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said there were "no specific threats" to the annual New Year's Eve bash, which is expected to draw tens of thousands of people to the heart of midtown Manhattan on Sunday.

The celebrity-filled event will include live performances from Flo Rida, Megan Thee Stallion and LL Cool J, as well as televised appearances from Cardi B and others. Organizers said in-person attendance is expected to return to pre-COVID levels, even as foot traffic around Times Square remains down slightly since the pandemic.

Amid near-daily protests in New York sparked by fighting between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza, police said they would expand the security perimeter around the party, creating a "buffer zone" that will allow them to head off potential demonstrations.

Pro-Palestinian marches have disrupted recent events in New York, including the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and the ceremonial lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree.

"We will be out here with our canines, on horseback, our helicopters, our boats," Adams said. Officials will also monitor protests with drones, he said. "But as we saw last year, after having no specific threats, we get a threat."

During last year's New Year's Eve party, a machete-wielding man attacked three police officers a few blocks from Times Square.

On Saturday, as organizers practiced raising and lowering the iconic ball, Times Square Alliance President Tom Harris said he was confident the painstaking preparations would contribute to a seamless night.

"The star of the show just had a dress rehearsal and performed marvelously," he said. "I'm confident that everything is going to go fantastic in Times Square tomorrow night."

His advice for those planning to attend the countdown: "Come early."


# Air raids over eastern Syria near Iraqi border kill 6 Iran-backed militants
By **QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA** and **KAREEM CHEHAYEB**
December 30, 2023. 11:40 AM EST

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**BAGHDAD (AP)** - Three overnight airstrikes on eastern Syria near a strategic border crossing with Iraq killed six Iran-backed militants Saturday, two members of Iraqi militia groups told The Associated Press.

The strikes on the border region of Boukamal came hours after an umbrella group of Iran-backed Iraqi militants known as the Islamic Resistance claimed an attack on a U.S. military base in northern Iraq's city of Irbil.

The group has conducted over a hundred attacks on U.S. positions in Iraq and eastern Syria since the onset of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7.

Four of the militants killed were from Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah group, while the other two were Syrian, the militia group members said. Another two were injured, they added. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not cleared to speak with journalists.

Meanwhile, an activist collective that covers news in the area, Deir Ezzor 24, said the airstrikes hit two militant posts and a weapons warehouse that it says was recently stocked with rocket launchers and munitions.

Britain-backed opposition war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that in addition to the weapons warehouse, the strikes targeted a militants' convoy that had arrived in Syria from Iraq and a location where a militia affiliated with Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard was training.

The monitoring group reported that the strikes killed nine people - three Syrians and six people from other nationalities.

A U.S. official said the United States did not carry out the strikes. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations.

Washington has confirmed previous strikes on Iran-backed militia positions following the surge of attacks over the past two months.

President Joe Biden last week ordered the U.S. military to carry out strikes on Iranian-backed Iraqi groups following a rocket attack that wounded three U.S. troops.

The spike in tension has put Baghdad in a delicate situation. Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani has tried to ease the strain between the militant groups that helped him reach power and the U.S. where Iraq's foreign reserves are housed.

The Boukamal region in Deir el-Zour, Syria, located along the Iraqi border, has been a strategic area for Iran-backed militants since it was taken back from the extremist Islamic State group in 2019. U.S. coalition forces conducted strikes targeting convoys there before the recent spike in tensions.

Later, Syrian state media reported that Israeli airstrikes over areas south of the city of Aleppo caused damage, but no casualties were reported. Pro-government radio station Sham FM said the strikes were near Aleppo's airport but did not damage it.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said just one of six Israeli missiles landed near the airport and that the rest landed in areas where Iran-backed militants and weapons warehouses were present. It said the strikes killed or wounded seven people, without giving further details.

Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of war-torn Syria in recent years.

It does not usually acknowledge such airstrikes. When it has, however, it said it was targeting Iran-backed groups there that supported Syrian President Bashar Assad's government.


# US citizen inspired by Hamas sought to wage jihad against 'No. 1 enemy' America, prosecutors say
December 29, 2023. 4:30 PM EST

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**NEW YORK (AP)** - A U.S. citizen living in Egypt sought to join the al Shabaab terrorist organization and wage violent jihad against America and its allies in the wake of Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel, federal prosecutors said Friday.

Karrem Nasr, 23, of Lawrenceville, New Jersey, was arrested Dec. 14 after flying from Egypt to Nairobi, Kenya, where prosecutors say he was planning to meet with al Shabaab members before traveling to train in Somalia, where the terror group is based.

Nasr was returned to the U.S. on Thursday and was scheduled to appear Friday before a federal magistrate in Manhattan. He is charged with attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Court records did not list a lawyer who could speak on Nasr's behalf.

Nasr, also known as Ghareeb Al-Muhajir, expressed his desire to join al Shabaab in online postings and communications with a paid FBI informant who was posing as a facilitator for terrorist organizations, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Friday.

Nasr told the informant "the No. 1 enemy is America," which he described as the "head of the snake," the complaint said. He posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that jihad was "coming soon to a US location near you," the complaint said. The post, under the name "Egyptian Muslim," included airplane, bomb, and fire emojis.

Nasr, who moved to Egypt in July, started communicating with the FBI informant in November via an encrypted messaging app, according to the criminal complaint. He told the informant that he had been thinking of waging jihad "for a long time" but that he was "not capable of doing it" before Hamas attacked Israel, the complaint said.

"After the October 7th events, I felt that something has changed," Nasr told the informant, according to the complaint. "To the better, I mean. I felt that pride and dignity came back to the Muslims."

The U.S. designated al Shabaab a foreign terrorist organization in 2008.

The group evolved from a coalition of Islamic insurgents that fought Somalia's fledgling central government and seized control of large swaths of territory in the early 2000s. It has been blamed for myriad violence, including suicide bombings, a beheading and the targeted assassinations of civilians and journalists.

Somalia's President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has pledged to wipe out al Shabaab within a year. The group has been losing territory since the government, backed by local militias, African Union troops and Western powers, launched an extensive offensive against it in May.


# France heightens security for New Year's Eve, with 90,000 police officers to be mobilized
December 29, 2023. 9:37 AM EST

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**PARIS (AP)** - Security will be tight across France on New Year's Eve, with 90,000 law enforcement officers set to be deployed, domestic intelligence chief Céline Berthon said Friday.

Of those, 6,000 will be in Paris, where French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said over 1.5 million people are expected to attend celebrations on the Champs-Elysees.

Speaking at a press conference, Darmanin cited a "very high terrorist threat" because, in part, of "what is happening in Israel and Palestine," referring to the Israel-Hamas war.

Darmanin said that police for the first time will be able to use drones as part of security work, and that tens of thousands of firefighters and 5,000 soldiers would also be deployed.

New Year's Eve celebrations in Paris will center on the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, including DJ sets, fireworks and video projections on the Arc de Triomphe.

The security challenge ahead of the Olympics was highlighted when a tourist was killed in a knife attack near the Eiffel Tower on Dec. 2. Large-scale attacks - such as that at the Bataclan in 2015, when Islamic extremists invaded the music hall and shot up cafe terraces, killing 130 people - also loom in memory.

The knife attack raised concern in France and abroad about security for the Games that begin July 26, in just under seven months. But law enforcement officials appear eager to show off a security-ready Paris.


# US sanctions money network tied to the Yemen Houthi rebels blamed for shipping vessel attacks
By **FATIMA HUSSEIN**
December 28, 2023. 9:40 PM EST

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**WASHINGTON (AP)** - The U.S. on Thursday imposed sanctions on a group of money exchange services from Yemen and Turkey alleged to help provide funding to Iranian-backed Houthi rebels who have been launching attacks on commercial shipping vessels in the southern Red Sea - including a drone and a missile that were shot down Thursday by the U.S. military.

Included in the sanctions are the head of a financial intermediary in Sana'a, Yemen, along with three exchange houses in Yemen and Turkey. U.S. Treasury alleges that the people and firms helped transfer millions of dollars to the Houthis at the direction of sanctioned Iranian financial facilitator Sa'id al-Jamal.

The sanctions block access to U.S. property and bank accounts and prevent the targeted people and companies from doing business with Americans.

Thursday's action is the latest round of financial penalties meant to punish the Houthis.

Earlier this month, the U.S. announced sanctions against 13 people and firms alleged to be providing tens of millions of dollars from the sale and shipment of Iranian commodities to the Houthis in Yemen.

Brian E. Nelson, Treasury's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said Thursday's action "underscores our resolve to restrict the illicit flow of funds to the Houthis, who continue to conduct dangerous attacks on international shipping and risk further destabilizing the region."

Nelsons said the U.S. and its allies "will continue to target the key facilitation networks that enable the destabilizing activities of the Houthis and their backers in Iran."

The Houthis have sporadically targeted ships in the region in the past, but the attacks have increased since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, spiking after an Oct. 17 explosion at a hospital in Gaza killed and injured many. Houthi leaders have insisted Israel is their target.

The U.S. military's Central Command reported another attempt to attack commercial vessels Thursday. It said the USS Mason, a Navy destroyer, shot down one drone and one ballistic missile that were fired by the Houthis around 6 p.m. local time.

"There was no damage to any of the 18 ships in the area or reported injuries," CentCom said, adding that it was the 22nd attempted attack by Houthis on international shipping since Oct. 19.

In December, the White House also announced that it was encouraging its allies to join the Combined Maritime Forces, a 39-member partnership that exists to counter malign action by non-state actors in international waters, as it looks to push back against the Houthis.

The attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea by Yemen's Houthi rebels have scared off some of the world's top shipping companies and oil giants, effectively rerouting global trade away from a crucial artery for consumer goods and energy supplies that is expected to trigger delays and rising prices.