A North Korean unit was likely behind the hack that impacted more than $6 billion on Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, according to a U.S.-based blockchain intelligence firm.

Binance said it worked with blockchain partners to freeze roughly $3 billion in affected assets. It said Friday that it was beginning to recover assets for users.

The cryptocurrency exchange said deposits were unaffected, while withdrawals have been suspended and are expected to resume in the next day or two. It said it will cover all losses.

The company said on X that an initial investigation suggested the incident may have involved a compromised laptop, but that a subsequent investigation uncovered additional “points of breach.”

Blockchain intelligence firm TRM, in a post on its website Thursday, attributed the attack to TraderTraitor, which it described as North Korea’s elite hacking unit. “We make this judgment with high confidence,” the firm said.

“An attacker moved approximately USD 6.36 billion out of Binance wallets on ten blockchains, most of it in about 20 minutes,” TRM said. That would make the hack the largest cryptocurrency theft on record, it said.

In February last year, another cryptocurrency exchange, Bybit, suffered a $1.5 billion hit when it was hacked. The FBI said North Korea and TraderTraitor were responsible for the hack.

“Several features of this attack match earlier North Korea-linked heists, including the Bybit hack,” TRM said.

Blockchain analysis company Chainalysis also believed the Binance hack was “likely done by DPRK group TraderTraitor,” its co-founder and CEO Jonathan Levin wrote on X. DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name.

Asked about the potential ties to North Korea, a Binance spokesperson said only that the company is “working closely with our law enforcement partners to confirm the identity of the criminals and bring them to justice.”

Experts say North Korea has turned to crypto hacking and other illicit cyber activities as a source of badly needed foreign currency to support its troubled economy and fund its nuclear program in the wake of tough U.N. sanctions and other difficulties.

In December 2022, South Korea’s spy agency said North Korean hackers had stolen an estimated $1.1 billion in cryptocurrency and other virtual assets in the past five years, more than half of it in 2022 alone. It said North Korea’s capacity to steal digital assets was considered among the best in the world.

Changpeng Zhao founded Binance in 2017. In 2023, he pleaded guilty to a felony linked to failing to prevent money laundering on the platform, and stepped down as the company’s CEO. President Donald Trump pardoned Zhao last year.

Zhao posted Thursday on X that “User funds are safe!” but added that the theft “does look like a hack on Binance.” He added that while he doesn’t manage Binance anymore, “as a shareholder, I expect all user funds will be fully covered.”

The hack, meanwhile, also raises questions about why stronger approval controls were not in place, said Kok Tin Gan, co-founder and CEO of cybersecurity firm NyxLab.

“This looks like one signature that gave the attacker a never-expiring, full-access token to a Binance hot wallet,” he said, referring to cryptocurrency wallets that hold users’ “private keys,” or unique authorizations, digitally and which are connected to the internet.

Binance said on X it had “found no evidence of any wallet private key leak” and that the company would release more technical details when its probe is complete.

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Death row inmate Christa Pike said she is in constant pain since surviving a lethal injection in Tennessee last month but thankful for the love and support she has received.

Pike issued her first public statement through her attorneys on Friday. She said she went into the execution chamber prepared to die in peace and woke up alone and confused in a hospital bed.

“There hasn’t been a moment since that night when I haven’t been in pain. My body hurts. My arms hurt. My hands hurt. My throat hurts. I still struggle to speak. And the pain isn’t just physical. There is pain in my mind and in my soul,” Pike said.

Pike, 50, said she had not contemplated a life beyond her execution date.

“I’m deeply hurt by the incompetence that has put so many people in this terrible position. I continue to think about my victim’s family and the terrible pain and loss they have endured,” Pike said.

Pike survived two doses of pentobarbital as the state tried to execute her on Sept. 30 for the 1995 stabbing death of classmate Colleen Slemmer. She was 18 when she tortured and killed Slemmer with her boyfriend, becoming one of the youngest women to be sentenced to death.

She said she is thankful for the medical workers who saved her life and the people who showed her kindness.

“I don’t know why I survived that night. I don’t know what comes next. Some days, finding hope is harder than others,” she said. “For now, I am trying to heal, one day at a time. And I am holding on to the love and kindness of so many people who have reminded me that I am not alone.”

Pike’s attorneys have urged Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, R, to reduce Pike’s sentence to life imprisonment. Lee told reporters this week that “I suspect her sentence will be the same as before unless determined otherwise by the courts.”

Lee called for an investigation into what happened during the failed execution and postponed the state’s other lethal injection scheduled this year.

Friday’s statement was dictated to Pike’s legal team from the infirmary at the prison where she is housed.

Pike was hospitalized in the immediate aftermath of the failed execution and then moved back to prison at the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center.

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DETROIT (AP) — Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed will campaign Sunday in Detroit alongside former primary rival Rep. Haley Stevens, marking their first public appearance together in months after a week in which lingering divisions spilled into public view.

The two will be joined by South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, one of the country’s most prominent Black politicians, at a get-out-the-vote event at a Detroit church, according to two people familiar with the plans who were not authorized to discuss them publicly. The event was first reported by The Associated Press.

The joint appearance — their first since a Democratic unity breakfast days after the Aug. 4 primary — follows weeks of Democrats struggling to unite behind El-Sayed following his razor-thin victory over Stevens. She received significant support from the Jewish and Black communities, leading to concerns about turnout in the general election.

Tensions again spilled into public view Wednesday when Stevens’ fiancé, Jason Turkish, told The Detroit News that he would vote for Republican Mike Rogers.

Hours later, Stevens appeared on CNN to reaffirm that she would be voting for El-Sayed, but urged his campaign to “shut out the hate and call it out.” She said El-Sayed needs to reach out to people who were part of her coalition and “make them feel comfortable about coming to the polls.”

Asked Thursday evening about the upcoming event with Stevens, El-Sayed said “we’re always trying to unify the party” and it hadn’t happened sooner because of their busy schedules. El-Sayed then criticized the reporter for the question, saying “nobody cares” about internal party dynamics when the cost of living is so high.

While significant, the joint appearance comes just days before the election

El-Sayed and Stevens last appeared together on Aug. 6, two days after the primary. Stevens pledged to support El-Sayed, telling CBS News she would do “whatever he wants me to do” on the campaign trail.

But divisions from the contentious primary have persisted. Nearly $60 million was spent on advertising attacking El-Sayed, including $30 million from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC. Stevens is a staunch supporter of Israel who represents a district with a large Jewish community in Detroit’s suburbs.

The church visit on Sunday is intended to further that elusive unity, although its impact is uncertain, given that it comes just two days before the election. Michigan early voting started Oct. 24.

“We’ve got a Black and Jewish coalition that came out and voted for me in droves. And I want them to come out and vote for Democrats,” Stevens said to CNN on Wednesday.

El-Sayed’s criticism of Israel, past remarks and his association with controversial streamer Hasan Piker have long drawn concern from some in Michigan’s large Jewish community. Turkish and others have said El-Sayed hasn’t done enough to address concerns ahead of the general election.

The latest controversy centered on an ad by Rebellion PAC, an independent left-wing group, that linked U.S. support for Israel to high grocery prices.

“That has nothing to do with our campaign,” El-Sayed said of the ad. “It’s certainly not what I want to be talking about right now.”

Stevens and other Democrats urged him to go further to denounce the content of the advertisement rather than merely distancing himself from it.

Trump’s rhetoric and actions create challenges for Republicans.

Republicans face political challenges of their own, particularly voter dissatisfaction with Trump, the Iran war and high costs. Rogers has remained closely aligned with the president on most issues, appearing alongside him at a Michigan rally Sunday where he credited Trump with bringing manufacturing jobs back to the state.

The rally took place in Port Huron, just across the river from Canada, a country with deep economic ties to Michigan that Trump has targeted with tariffs.

El-Sayed has held campaign events in heavily Republican areas, including Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. His team also released an ad featuring clips of prominent conservative figures praising him, including former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who has faced accusations of antisemitism that he denies.

But the ad created another source of friction with some Jewish voters.

Rabbi Aaron Starr of Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield criticized both the Rebellion PAC ad and El-Sayed’s campaign ad during a call with reporters.

“We are one week away from the election, and it feels like the temperature has turned way up,” Starr said. “Instead of things getting better over the last seven weeks, they’ve actually gotten worse.”

Rogers, meanwhile, appeared Wednesday with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas at an event hosted by the Republican Jewish Coalition in Birmingham, Michigan. Cruz called antisemitism “a poison that is ripping the country apart” and accused Democrats of being taken over by “self-proclaimed communists and Islamists.”

Trump has repeatedly attacked El-Sayed’s Muslim faith, calling him a “jihadist” and saying Sunday that he was “on the side of terrorists.”

Both campaigns make a final push for Black voters

Both candidates are trying to win over Black voters, particularly in Detroit’s Wayne County, where Stevens defeated El-Sayed in the Democratic primary.

El-Sayed’s event with Stevens and Clyburn is part of an effort to shore up support among Black voters. Much of El-Sayed’s final campaign stretch has included appearances in Detroit.

Rogers has also sought to make inroads with Black voters. He visited a reading remediation program at a Detroit high school and discussed housing costs with residents in Pontiac, north of the city. Earlier this month, his wife handed out $10 gift cards at a gas station.

The gesture drew criticism from Ruby Farmer, a 68-year-old Detroit retiree.

“You’re giving out gas cards in the inner city; you never would come for any other reason,” Farmer said.

While Farmer has a bit of difficulty pronouncing El-Sayed’s name, she cast her ballot for him three weeks ago anyways. El-Sayed has come out in opposition to policies by Trump — policies Farmer says directly impact her family.

“I have a special-needs son,” said Farmer. “He depends on Medicaid. Medicaid has been cut, and for home care workers in Michigan, all the benefits are on hold.”

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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea launched a barrage of ballistic missiles toward its eastern waters Thursday, South Korea’s military said, days after the North threatened to resume front-line propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts and deploy new weapons along the rivals’ tense border.

The launches also followed leader Kim Jong Un’s surprise weekend visit to China, the North’s main ally and economic pipeline, to push for greater cooperation.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it detected about 10 short-range ballistic missiles fired from the North’s eastern costal town of Wonsan and that they each flew about 250 kilometers (155 miles). It said South Korea’s military maintained its readiness to repel any provocations by North Korea under a solid alliance with the United States.

Japan’s Defense Ministry said it detected a suspected ballistic missile launch by North Korea.

Animosity between the Koreas have deepened since last month’s land mine blasts at the border that injured three South Korean soldiers. Seoul accused North Korea of planting mines south of the military demarcation line and demanded it apologize. But Pyongyang has denied responsibility for the explosions and warned of retaliation if provoked.

Last week, North Korea said it would restart propaganda broadcasts and place new weapons systems on alert along the border in protest of what it called repeated warning shots by South Korean troops at border areas. South Korea later proposed talks on clarifying the border to prevent accidental clashes, but North Korea hasn’t responded.

During a visit to a South Korean border town earlier this week, Associated Press journalists saw North Korean artillery guns located on the other side of the border, which weren’t previously visible.

In recent years, North Korea has been placing more mines, barbed-wire fences and other defense structures along the border in line with Kim’s policy of severing ties with South Korea. Seoul has said North Korean troops have repeatedly violated the border during the work and that South Korea’s military has responded with firing warning shots. North Korea has denied the alleged border breaches.

Thursday’s launches were the latest in a series of weapons tests by North Korea in recent weeks, which included submarine-launched cruise missiles and hypersonic missiles. Experts say North Korea likely aimed to pressure the U.S. into making bigger concessions as President Donald Trump expressed his desire to restore diplomacy with Kim.

On Saturday, Kim visited the Chinese border city of Dandong via a newly inaugurated bridge to pay respect at a memorial marking China’s support of North Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War. It was his sixth visit to China since succeeding his father as North Korean leader in late 2011.

At the memorial, Kim said North Korea will firmly carry forward “the invincible” friendship with China. Later he met top Chinese Communist Party official Wang Huning and reaffirmed his resolve to develop bilateral cooperation.

Kim has recently taken steps to bolster ties with China after years of prioritizing ties with Russia by sending troops and ammunitions to support its war against Ukraine.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve kept its key rate unchanged Wednesday at about 3.9% despite stubbornly high inflation, as Chairman Kevin Warsh suggested its policies are already showing signs of having an impact.

“Inflation remains elevated,” the Fed said in a statement released after its two-day policy meeting. Holding off on an increase will allow “the accumulation of more information” that will help determine what policy the Fed should pursue “to ensure a timely return of inflation” to the central bank’s 2% inflation target, the statement said.

The Fed raised its benchmark rate last month for the first time in three years, defying President Donald Trump’s demands for rate cuts, in an effort to get inflation back to its 2% target in a “timelier” manner. The Fed is tasked by Congress to combat inflation, and it does so by lifting rates to slow borrowing and spending and cool price increases.

Wall Street investors and many economists continue to expect a quarter-point rate hike at the central bank’s next meeting Dec. 8-9.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, Standard & Poor’s 500 index and Nasdaq index all dropped after the Fed announcement but regained much of their losses by closing bell.

The Fed’s decision comes just six days before a midterm election that has focused heavily on concerns around the cost of living and affordability. Consumers have generally soured on an economy weighed down by more expensive gas, groceries, and clothing, among other items. Warsh denied the election played a part in the Fed’s staying pat.

“Politics played no role in the decision,” he said at a news conference after the announcement. “I just spent two days with my colleagues upstairs. I didn’t hear an utterance about politics.”

Warsh faces plenty of challenges in getting inflation back to target. Some of the forces pushing up prices — specifically the rapid buildout of artificial intelligence infrastructure and higher energy prices — may not be easily tamed by higher interest rates.

Still, Warsh said the “overwhelming consensus” among Fed officials is that what they’ve done “is starting to work some,” noting that credit conditions “tightened for some businesses and households.”

He said specifically that as large tech firms ramp up their borrowing to build data centers, higher rates will have a greater ability to cool that investment.

“Do interest rates matter?” Warsh asked. “I believe they do, and I don’t think they’re divorced from the rest of the economy.”

Two Fed officials dissented from Wednesday’s decision, with Fed governor Lisa Cook and Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Beth Hammack voting in favor of hiking rates by a quarter point. This is Cook’s first dissent since she was appointed to the board by President Joe Biden in 2022.

Cook has been targeted by the Trump administration, which tried to fire her last year, though the Supreme Court in June ruled she could keep her job while litigation played out. No president has fired a Fed governor before, a sign of the Fed’s longstanding independence from day-to-day politics. Trump renewed his attempt to remove Cook last month by setting up a committee to look into allegations Cook committed mortgage fraud, which she has denied.

Trump has also slammed the Fed for raising its key rate last month, though he largely blamed the central bank’s rate-setting committee, rather than Warsh, whom he appointed.

Parts of the economy are already being hit by higher rates, which were lifted by market forces, even before the Fed hiked last month. The average 30-year mortgage rate reached a three-year high of 7.4% earlier this month, though it has since slipped a bit. Higher mortgage rates have made buying a home unaffordable for 5 million more Americans since the beginning of the year, according to Oxford Economics, a consulting firm. Over time, Fed rate hikes can make mortgages, auto loans and credit card borrowing more expensive, adding to Americans’ sense that things like homes and cars are getting pricier.

Inflation picked up in September, when consumer prices rose 3.7% compared with a year earlier. The increase was much bigger than the 2.4% rate in February, just before the Iran war.

And on a monthly basis, the consumer price index — the most widely followed inflation gauge — rose 0.3% in both August and September. At that pace over a full year, inflation would rise much more quickly than the Fed’s 2% target.

A separate inflation measure more closely followed by the Fed, the personal consumption expenditures price index, comes out Thursday and is forecast to have jumped 3.6% in September from a year earlier, up from 3.4% in August. Core prices, which exclude the food and energy categories, are forecast to have risen 3.1%, up from 3% the previous month.

The Fed’s policy meeting is part of a busy week for central banks around the world. The Bank of Canada will also meet Wednesday and is forecast to lift its key rate a quarter point, to 2.5%. Policymakers at the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan are both scheduled to meet Thursday and are expected to keep their key rates unchanged.

For Warsh and the Fed, another key consideration is that the U.S. economy is growing at a healthy pace and unemployment remains low, at 4.2%, even if hiring is also sluggish. The government will report Thursday on growth for the July-September quarter, which is expected to reach 3%, according to a forecast by data provider FactSet. That would be up from 2.2% in the April-June quarter.

Many economists argue that solid growth is evidence that interest rates aren’t particularly high and the economy could withstand higher rates to combat inflation.

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LONDON (AP) — Russell Brand acknowledged in a London court on Wednesday that he had been obsessed with sex as a younger man, but denied multiple charges of rape and sexual assault, saying the claims have had a “devastating” impact on his life.

The British actor-comedian entered Southwark Crown Court alongside his wife, Laura Gallacher, to testify in his own defense, telling reporters that “today is the day for truth and justice.”

Brand, 51, stood in the witness box and took the oath, then gave his full name: Russell Edward Brand. He answered “no” to each charge as his lawyer, Ian Winter, asked whether he was guilty of three counts of rape, three counts of sexual assault and one count of attempted indecent assault.

Brand denied forcing any of the six alleged victims to do anything against their will.

“Consent is fundamental, essential, necessary, and indeed in many ways more important than sex itself,” Brand said.

Brand said the allegations had had a “devastating” impact, with friends and colleagues abandoning him. He said no one with relevant evidence had been willing to testify in court on his behalf.

“My entire life has been consumed by these events, these allegations, these accusations,” he said, adding later that dealing with the “traumatic” allegations had come “at the expense of my marriage, my children and health.”

Brand said he was even barred from staying with his baby son in hospital after anonymous allegations of sexual misconduct were made against him in a newspaper and a TV documentary in 2023.

“The reason given by Great Ormond Street Hospital when my son was receiving open-heart surgery and subsequent treatment was due to the material published,” he said.

Six women accuse Brand of misconduct

Over the past two weeks of the trial, prosecutors set out their case, and the jury heard from six women who accuse Brand of sexual misconduct between 1999 and 2009.

Prosecutor Riel Karmy-Jones told jurors that Brand was “ruthless, he was calculating, he was manipulative. And, the prosecution say, he was a sexual predator.”

Known for risqué stand-up routines and battles with drugs and alcohol, Brand rose to prominence in the early 2000s, hosting television programs and his own BBC radio show. He appeared in Hollywood films including “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “Get Him to the Greek” and was briefly married to pop star Katy Perry.

In recent years, he has moved away from mainstream media, relocated to Florida, and built a large online following with videos mixing wellness, conspiracy theories, and discussions of his religious devotion.

The allegations cover a decade when Brand went from rising stand-up comedian to major celebrity in the U.K.

The first victim alleges that Brand raped her in a hotel room during the Labour Party’s annual conference in the seaside town of Bournemouth in 1999. Another woman alleges that in 2001 Brand tried to drag her into the men’s bathroom at the London office of music channel MTV, where she worked.

A third woman alleges that Brand orally raped her in 2004 in the toilet of a London bar, and a fourth says Brand kissed and groped her at a London radio station in 2004 or 2005.

Another complainant says Brand anally raped her at his home after she met him at one of his shows in 2009, while the sixth says the comedian demanded a massage and pressed his face into her groin during the recording of an advertisement in 2009.

Prosecutors say the women don’t know one another and separately went to police after the TV documentary was broadcast in 2023. The Associated Press doesn’t name victims of alleged sexual violence, and British law protects their identities from the media for life.

Brand says all encounters were consensual

Under cross-examination by Karmy-Jones, Brand acknowledged he had dedicated a lot of his earlier life to “beyond reckless philandering.”

“As I became more successful and famous I was very comfortable allowing that to facilitate sexual access, which I agree with you was wrong,” he said.

He said “yes” when asked if he had been obsessed with sex when he was younger, but “no” when the prosecutor asked: “Do you accept that you were desperate for it and sometimes couldn’t function without it?”

As he completed a day on the stand, Brand was asked again whether he had committed the crimes he is accused of.

“Not guilty is my plea in every single case,” he said.

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URDA, Spain (AP) — One high-speed Spanish train slammed into another that had stopped on the tracks Wednesday, killing at least 68 people and shredding carriages in the country’s second deadly rail collision this year.

The regional government for Castilla La Mancha confirmed the death toll and said another 58 people needed medical treatment in hospital. It said 397 passengers were in the moving train and 147 passengers in the stopped train.

Rescue workers continued to search for survivors and bodies.

Spanish Transport Minister Óscar Puente said that the crash was caused by what he called the “inexplicable” order from a central command center for Spain’s trains after a security system had failed. He said the train engineers were not to blame.

The accident comes with memories still fresh of another crash between high-speed trains in southern Spain in January involving trains from the same two companies.

Spain’s rail system operator ADIF said the crash occurred in the province of Toledo, involving two high-speed trains heading in the same direction from the capital Madrid to Seville in southwestern Spain.

One train, run by the state-owned RENFE company, ran into the tail of the other train owned by private company IRYO that had stopped, knocking two of its cars off the track in a rural area between two villages.

Rail service was suspended between Madrid, Ciudad Real and Andalusia.

Until this year, there had been no fatal crash on Spain’s dedicated high-speed lines since the network opened in 1992.

Puente said that at 8:30 a.m. local time the security system on a stretch of 39 miles stopped working due to a computer malfunction, causing all trains on that stretch to stop. But the central command told the RENFE train to start running again without any speed restrictions, and it collided with the stopped IRYO train at 8:53 a.m.

Puente said that the train should never have been told to start moving again since there was still a “stop signal” active that line. And if it had, it should have been told to go at reduced speed.

Puente said they were working to determine how fast the train was going, but it could have been 124 mph for that stretch of the track.

“I am not attributing responsibility to anyone, I am just stating the facts,” Puente said.

The crash, which occurred in a flat stretch surrounded by olive fields in between the towns of Urda and Los Yébenes, left one car torn into bits of metal and other material, scattering debris down a gravel slope.

Spanish Health Minister Mónica García said that emergency workers were focusing on rescuing survivors and bodies from the two most damaged train cars. She said that the injured are being sent to hospitals in the area.

“It was a high-speed impact, so we are expecting this to be a tragedy,” García said.

Passenger Ignacio Relaño was traveling on the RENFE train. He told state broadcaster TVE that the train had stopped momentarily on the line before it started again and then crashed into the IRYO.

“We all felt the train abruptly slowing down and then the impact,” he said. “The car leaned to one side like it was about to tip over. I hit my nose, everything went flying, luggage, cellphones. Everything shook.”

Another passenger recounted to Cadena Ser radio how she felt the train slam on the brakes and was thrown forward in her seat, breaking the small table in front of her. She said she saw body parts and trapped people covered in blood.

IRYO, an Italian-owned company, said in a statement that it has “activated its security protocols and is closely working with authorities.”

The mayor of the nearby town of Urda, Manuel Galán, said civil protection authorities had asked his officials to prepare a sports pavilion to receive injured passengers.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez canceled his agenda to focus on the crash. He wrote on X that he was “dismayed by the serious train accident in Toledo.”

“Emergency services are working on site to attend to the affected passengers,” wrote Sánchez, who faces a national election next month. “All my thoughts are with the victims and their families.”

Spain’s King Felipe VI visited the crash site. He and Queen Letizia said in a short statement on X that they were following news of the accident.

“We are deeply saddened and concerned by the train accident in Urda (Toledo),” the royal couple said. “We share in the grief of the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives, and we send our heartfelt support to the injured and all those affected.”

Spain’s soccer federation postponed all 24 Copa del Rey games scheduled on Wednesday.

The wreckage of Wednesday’s crash reminded many of the aftermath of another train collision in January, when 46 people died in southern Spain when a IRYO train jumped the track and hit an oncoming RENFE train. That sent the first two cars of the impacted train plummeting down a 13-foot slope.

That crash was the deadliest in Spain since a 2013 crash that killed 80 people.

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MIAMI (AP) — Defeated Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro and his family landed in Miami on Wednesday after fleeing Brazil.

The stunning move came after 48 hours in which Bolsonaro refused to concede to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and then threatened to attempt to annul the election result.

Bolsonaro’s father, Jair Bolsonaro, also fled to Florida after losing the 2022 presidential election to Lula before returning to Brazil three months later. On Monday, the U.S. said that it would grant visas to Flávio Bolsonaro and his family. Bolsonaro, a Trump ally, visited the White House in May.

Bolsonaro first fled from Brazil to Argentina and then Ecuador alongside his wife and two daughters, Argentina’s migration authority said Wednesday — a day after the 45-year-old senator and his family were granted United States visas by the Trump administration.

Bolsonaro is under investigation by Brazil’s Supreme Court for alleged corruption, money laundering and tax evasion in two cases. The court had ordered Bolsonaro to hand over his regular and diplomatic passports by noon Tuesday — two days after he lost the vote to Lula. It remained unclear whether he had complied, but allies said late Tuesday he also has an Italian passport.

Argentina’s migration authority said Bolsonaro, his wife Fernanda Antunes Figueira Bolsonaro, and his daughters Carolina Figueira Bolsonaro and Luiza Figueira Bolsonaro crossed into the country at 10:50 p.m. Tuesday. They entered via the Tancredo Neves International Bridge, a primary border checkpoint linking Brazil to Argentina’s northeastern province of Misiones.

“Those who did so possessed valid travel documentation and faced no legal impediments to entering the country,” the Argentine migration authority said on X.

The authority said that at 11:30 p.m. local time, shortly after clearing immigration control, the four boarded a private charter flight operated by aviation company Baires Fly S.A. According to the filed flight plan, the aircraft departed for Guayaquil, Ecuador.

The move is almost certain to cause a big diplomatic rift between Lula and Argentine President Javier Milei, a Trump ally who traveled to Brazil to take part in Bolsonaro’s campaign.

Bolsonaro lands in Miami

Flight tracking website FlightRadar24 showed that a plane fitting the description of Bolsonaro’s landed in Guayaquil at about 4 a.m. local time, before taking off minutes later for Miami-Opa locka Executive Airport. The plane carrying Bolsonaro and his family landed in Miami at around 9:30 a.m. ET.

Lula, who turned 81 on Tuesday, told several dozen supporters outside the presidential residence in Brasilia before the plane landed that he didn’t have precise information about Bolsonaro’s whereabouts, but said he had left Brazil.

“I regret that he left Brazil, because he could have stayed here and proven that the accusations are not true,” Lula said. “This act of leaving Brazil is shameful.”

Paulo Figueiredo, a close Bolsonaro ally who lives in the U.S., said in a short statement that he can’t confirm information from foreign authorities, but added “Flávio Bolsonaro is well, in security and resting with his family.” Figueiredo also said there would be a press conference Thursday in Miami to discuss the case.

Representatives of Brazil’s government didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press.

U.S. President Donald Trump said early Wednesday that he would approve of Bolsonaro coming to the U.S., calling him and his family “fine people.”

“The election was really strange, and I thought it was terrible,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, after returning from campaigning in Texas on Tuesday. He did not elaborate, but stressed that he didn’t endorse the election results.

Leaders all over the world and the Organization of American States, or OAS, endorsed the result and congratulated Lula, who was reelected by a margin of about 4.4 million votes in the second and final round.

On Tuesday, Milei’s administration spokesman Adrián Ravier said “there is no asylum request (from Bolsonaro) and there is nothing more to add.”

Bolsonaro visited his father, who is under house arrest, before leaving Brazil

The defeated candidate was served with a Supreme Court order to surrender his Brazilian passports Monday. In a video, he said he received it outside the home where his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, is serving a 27-year sentence under house arrest for attempting a coup following his 2022 election loss to Lula.

After that defeat, Jair Bolsonaro fled Brazil for Florida. He returned three months later.

Flávio Bolsonaro said on Monday in a video that he was attempting to organize opposition among his congressional colleagues to the election results. His eight-year term as a senator expires Jan. 31, 2027, which will also cause him to lose special jurisdiction at the country’s Supreme Court.

Brazil’s Supreme Court is investigating Bolsonaro for allegedly using a sports betting company to launder fraudulent deductions from government pensions paid to senior citizens. In a separate case, he is accused of accepting millions of dollars from a disgraced banker.

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Cornell University faculty will meet Wednesday to conclude debate and begin voting on a proposed no-confidence resolution in the university’s administration following widespread frustration over its response to a woman who reported she was gang raped at a campus fraternity house in 2024.

The meeting comes after an Oct. 14 Faculty Senate meeting at which angry faculty members confronted Cornell University President Michael Kotlikoff about the university’s handling of the allegations.

The meeting was closed to the media, but in an audio recording obtained by The Associated Press, Kotlikoff acknowledged some missteps, defended his leadership and asked for more time to implement reforms and push for cultural changes in student social life. He urged faculty to have confidence in his leadership, pointing to an independent investigation into the university’s handling of the case that he said could lead to meaningful reforms.

A woman identified in court documents by the pseudonym Jane Doe filed a lawsuit last month alleging that seven Chi Phi fraternity members sexually assaulted or exploited her in October 2024 and that Cornell mishandled her complaints. All seven men have denied her allegations.

The criminal investigation by Cornell’s police department stalled after the local district attorney declined to pursue charges. But in an interview with The New York Times, Kotlikoff said he never followed up to learn what had happened to the woman or the criminal investigation.

Asked by a faculty member whether he read the Cornell Police Department’s report on the rape allegations, Kotlikoff acknowledged that he had not, but said that was because the police investigation was confidential and university policy is that top administrators shouldn’t have a role in criminal investigations.

“I really reject the idea that I had no interest in it or was not concerned about it,” Kotlikoff said.

He insisted experienced leadership was necessary to confront problems. Replacing a president would harm Cornell’s reputation, Kotlikoff said.

Faculty also questioned Cornell’s handling of a disciplined student’s return to campus, including his assignment to a shared dorm room with a roommate unaware of his disciplinary history.

After Kotlikoff departed, a string of faculty speakers said they had lost confidence in the administration’s ability to combat sexual assault on campus. Some Faculty Senate members warned that a hasty no-confidence vote would do little to address the underlying problems.

Wednesday’s meeting is scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m. and will be closed to the public and media. Electronic voting will open afterward and remain open through Nov. 6. Individual votes will be anonymous.

A no-confidence vote by the faculty would be largely symbolic, but could send a message to the university’s trustees, who ultimately decide who leads it.

Kotlikoff became the university’s interim president in July 2024 and took the job permanently last year.

He’s faced challenges including a dining and custodial workers strike, ire over his decision last year to pay $60 million to settle Trump administration civil rights investigations, and accusations from activists that his administration stifled campus protests.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — A senior State Department official said Tuesday that Flávio Bolsonaro and his family will be granted U.S. visas after his weekend loss to incumbent Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in a hotly contested race that bucked a trend of conservative electoral results in Latin America.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to visa privacy laws, said “the State Department will issue visas to Flávio Bolsonaro and his family and allow them entry into the United States.”

Bolsonaro, who had President Donald Trump’s tacit support, had been under investigation for corruption, money laundering and tax evasion in Brazil and had been ordered to surrender his passport.

The State Department official did not say if Bolsonaro had already left Brazil or if he and his family were en route to the U.S.

Bolsonaro’s campaign manager, Rogério Marinho, said he hadn’t spoken to the defeated candidate since early Tuesday morning.

“We had no news from Flávio or his lawyers about what happened,” Marinho said. “I received a text message from him, he said he wanted to take a break and then he would talk to us. That’s the only message I had from him.”

Bolsonaro’s brother, Eduardo Bolsonaro, who lives in Texas, had publicly encouraged him to leave Brazil if he lost the election.

Bolsonaro has touted his relationship with Trump and visited the White House in May. The family connections go deeper: Brother Eduardo Bolsonaro was convicted in absentia in June of illegally lobbying the Trump administration and sentenced to four years in prison. A warrant was recently issued for his arrest.

Trump did not offer a full-throated endorsement of Bolsonaro in the runoff against Lula, as he has with some other right-of-center candidates in Latin America. But he suggested on Monday, without providing evidence, that Brazil’s election was “rigged.”

Bolsonaro’s decision to leave Brazil came as a deadline for him to surrender his regular and diplomatic passports expired at noon Tuesday. It remained unclear whether he had complied.

Bolsonaro was served with the order to surrender his passports Monday, a day after his stunning loss. Bolsonaro said he received it outside the home where his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, is serving a 27-year sentence under house arrest for attempting a coup following his 2022 election loss to Lula. After that defeat, Jair Bolsonaro fled Brazil for Florida. He returned three months later.

The sealed Supreme Court order, viewed by The Associated Press, was issued Sunday. Bolsonaro has refused to concede defeat and has made unsubstantiated allegations of election fraud.

Bolsonaro raises questions about election he lost

Bolsonaro initially asked for the election results to be annulled after an evening of chaos at some polling places that prompted authorities to extend voting by two hours.

On Monday, he urged the electoral court to investigate alleged election fraud and nullify Lula’s and Vice President Geraldo Alckmin’s candidacies, which the electoral court has never done before.

“I never thought about leaving the country,” Bolsonaro said in a video published on his social media channels. “I will hand over my passports and I will defend myself from this aberration. It is a clear attempt to intimidate me. But I will not be silenced.”

To overturn the result, Bolsonaro would have to present evidence of fraud affecting Lula’s 4.4 million-vote margin and convince the eight-member electoral court before the results are certified on Dec. 18.

Lula, who turned 81 on Tuesday, received more than 64 million votes, compared with fewer than 60 million for Bolsonaro, a margin of nearly 4%.

A Brazilian diplomat who was not authorized to speak on the matter said his country’s government was aware that Bolsonaro had left the country.

Outside the presidential residence in Brasilia, Lula told a few dozen supporters he did not have precise information of Bolsonaro’s whereabouts, but said he had left Brazil.

Brazil is “the second country” of the Bolsonaro family, Lula added.

“The first is licking American boots,” the reelected president said. “Those who are not liable do not fear. A fellow that secretly leaves his country, that’s because he is liable for something.”

Bolsonaro said in a video posted Monday on his social media channels that he was attempting to organize opposition among his congressional colleagues to the election results. His eight-year term as a senator expires Jan. 31, 2027, which will also cause him to lose special jurisdiction at the country’s Supreme Court.

Bolsonaro is under investigation by Brazil’s Supreme Court for alleged corruption, money laundering and tax evasion in two cases. In one, he’s accused of using a sports betting company to launder fraudulent deductions from government pensions paid to senior citizens. In the other, he is accused of accepting millions of dollars from a disgraced banker.

He has denied any wrongdoing in both cases, and has claimed Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is heading one of the investigations, is a Lula ally. Prosecutors suspect the funds from the banker were used to pay his brother, Eduardo Bolsonaro’s, expenses and to promote Flávio Bolsonaro’s political agenda with the Trump administration, documents show.

Mauricio Marcon, a lawmaker of Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party, also questioned de Moraes’ objectivity on Tuesday. “Seven minutes after the election, Alexandre de Moraes ordered his passports to be seized,” Marcon said. Bolsonaro “will represent us in a free country. He will continue to be our leader.”

Brazilians had earlier taken to social media to ask where Bolsonaro was. Reporters gathered outside his home in the capital, Brasilia, but he did not appear.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Security of Argentina denied reports the Brazilian senator had entered the country. Brazilian media outlets reported that many Bolsonaro allies had been unable to reach him.

Paulo Figueiredo, a close ally of Bolsonaro’s who lives in the United States, was asked about the senator’s whereabouts and did not answer directly.

“At this moment — following months of intense work that were unfairly thwarted — I have no desire to speak with the press. I kindly ask that you do not persist. Should I have a statement to make on any matter, I will reach out,” Figueiredo said.

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LONDON (AP) — Two men were charged Tuesday with national security offenses over a suspected plot against RAF Fairford, a U.S.-run military air base in England, U.K. police and prosecutors said.

British nationals Mohmed Ahmad Abdulkarim and Nouman Essghir, both aged 24 and from London, were charged under the National Security Act, the Crown Prosecution Service said. They were due to appear in a London court on Tuesday.

Abdulkarim is charged with assisting Iran’s intelligence service, and Essghir is charged with entering a prohibited place for a purpose prejudicial to the U.K.

RAF Fairford, in western England, has been used by American bombers to strike Iran during the U.S. war with the country.

Essghir was arrested outside the base on Sept. 27, when police officers and army bomb-disposal experts swarmed the rural area and searched for explosives. Scores of residents were evacuated from their homes.

Police later said they had found an accelerant — gasoline — in vans at the scene but no explosives.

Essghir was initially released on bail before being re-arrested last week. Abdulkarim was arrested in the past week. Six other men have been arrested and released on bail as investigations continue.

British authorities have linked Tehran to the incident, which led the U.S. to pull its bombers from RAF Fairford. British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said that the suspected plot was “almost certainly” directed by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.

Iran has denied involvement, although it has said that it considers any base used to attack its territory a legitimate target.

Earlier this month, the head of Britain’s MI5 spy agency warned that both Iran and Russia were expanding their attacks against the U.K., and that the RAF Fairford incident was not unique.

Ken McCallum, who leads the U.K.’s domestic security service, said Tehran is seeking to intensify its attacks in Britain beyond the traditional targets of Iranians opposed to the country’s Islamic authorities. He said more than 50 people have been arrested over Iran-linked plots in the past year.

Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor, the head of National Counter Terrorism Policing in the U.K., said, “We have seen a range of incidents in recent months that we believe have been directed by the Iranian state … [and] we are working together to intervene, identify and respond to that threat”.

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JERUSALEM (AP) — Israelis are voting in a pivotal election Tuesday as their country is embroiled in unresolved wars, still reeling from Hamas’ 2023 attack and deeply divided over the character of the state and the right person to lead it.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces off against a coalition of parties seeking to oust the longtime leader from power. Opinion polls have suggested a tight race with his main rival, former military chief Gadi Eisenkot.

In Israel’s fragmented parliamentary politics, no single party has ever won an outright parliamentary majority, so political leaders must forge coalitions.

But in a tight race in which nonaligned Arab parties are pushing for heavy turnout, there is a chance that neither Netanyahu’s religious and ultranationalist coalition nor the group of parties looking to remove him has enough support to win a parliamentary majority. That could set off weeks of negotiations before a leader is declared.

Israel’s Arab-led parties could emerge as kingmakers if they agree to support one candidate over the other.

Hanging over the election are lingering tensions with Iran, and Netanyahu has ramped up threats against the country ahead of the vote. He appeared in a video this week standing beside a missile-defense battery and warned Tehran it would face “a devastating blow” if it attacked Israel.

The election is Israel’s first national vote since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the war in Gaza and related conflicts across the region. The vote serves not only as a referendum on Netanyahu’s lengthy leadership but also on what kind of country Israel should be — heavily influenced by religious and nationalist forces, or more firmly anchored in liberal and secular values.

At stake is the fate of a country whose policies and leadership are being scorned by traditional allies. Since Hamas’ 2023 attack, Israel has found itself increasingly isolated over its conduct in Gaza and in the West Bank, where violence by Jewish settlers has intensified. Public support among Americans has plummeted and stalwart partners in Europe and elsewhere have slapped sanctions on Israel in recent months.

For Israelis, the election presents a chance at charting the country’s course after Netanyahu’s turbulent four-year term.

Netanyahu’s supporters see him as a steady hand and a consummate statesman who they believe has triumphantly guided Israel through multiple wars. They think he is protecting Israel’s Jewish identity while keeping in check what they see as an interventionist judiciary.

His Israeli detractors see him as a polarizing leader who, beset by an ongoing corruption trial, dragged on the war in Gaza and the Oct. 7 hostage crisis for political reasons. They say he is undermining the country’s independent judiciary and weakening its democratic underpinnings. And they accuse him of abetting a system that has allowed ultra-Orthodox religious Jews to avoid enlistment in Israel’s compulsory military.

Eisenkot is viewed by supporters as a capable leader with sterling security credentials who, along with his likely governing partners, could act as a bulwark against creeping illiberalism. As someone personally touched by the conflict — his son and two nephews were killed in Gaza — his backers believe that he feels deeply the pain that still courses through Israel three years after the attacks.

Parties that would likely throw their support behind Eisenkot have vowed to improve Israel’s international standing and work to conscript ultra-Orthodox men while bolstering the independence of the judiciary.

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Los Angeles (AP) — Federal prosecutors sent letters to county registrars across California on Friday demanding that local officials set aside and verify ballots that the Department of Justice said may belong to noncitizens, according to the Los Angeles County registrar and a letter obtained by The Associated Press.

The letters are the latest escalation in a legal battle between California and President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice, which has recently focused on the state in its efforts to root out noncitizen voting ahead of the midterm elections. Data shows illegal voting by people who aren’t U.S. citizens is incredibly rare, difficult to prove and has not been shown to change the outcome of races.

Earlier this month, the federal government targeted Los Angeles County and the California Secretary of State’s office in a lawsuit that aimed to block them from counting the votes of roughly 20,000 people who are “likely” noncitizen voters. A hearing on the case is scheduled for Tuesday.

The Trump administration asked the 9th Circuit court of appeals to rule on the lawsuit barring a decision from the district judge assigned to the case. They set a deadline for Saturday.

Now, according to the LA County registrar’s office, at least 18 counties across the state have received similar letters. They have been given a 48 hour deadline to provide identifying information corresponding with ballots that the federal government believes were sent to noncitizens illegally registered to vote. The letter requests that county officials also sequester any ballots where citizenship cannot be verified.

“Any election official who knowingly processes the ballot of a noncitizen is opening themselves to legal jeopardy,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli.

The Justice Department is asking counties to send information about the voters it suspects are noncitizens including social security numbers, ID information, a copy of their registration and more.

That information can help the government and state quickly assess each person suspected of illegally registering to vote, said the letter sent to San Bernardino County voting officials. The letter says the government’s list of suspected noncitizen voters includes 1,133 people from the inland Southern California county.

California’s secretary of state and the Los Angeles County registrar have opposed the federal government’s demands. In legal filings, lawyers for California say the request threatens to delay the certification of the vote and undermine the legitimacy of the November midterms. They have also argued that the federal government’s data is unreliable and that their demands risk disenfranchisement of citizens.

Voting is underway in California, with the state’s more than 23 million registered voters receiving ballots in the mail earlier this month. The state said in legal filings that over 330,000 mail-in ballots have already been counted.

The letters on Friday came on the heels of statewide sweep by federal authorities earlier in the week, where 28 people from the list of 20,000 were charged with illegally registering to vote. Some were also charged with illegally voting and lying on naturalization paperwork. Those charges could lead to years in prison.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — First lady Melania Trump has brokered a ceasefire deal between Russia and Ukraine in the war-ravaged city of Oleshky to allow for humanitarian aid and the evacuation of civilians, the White House announced on Friday.

The localized ceasefire is set to begin Oct. 29.

The White House said that the first lady had initiated the discussions and that she and a representative worked directly with Russian and Ukrainian leadership to define the terms of the ceasefire. There has been no immediate comment from the Ukrainian or Russian governments.

Trump has made children in conflict one of her signature issues as first lady, hosting a U.N. Security Council meeting on the issue earlier this year. She also has personally written to Russian President Vladimir Putin to work to reunite children displaced by the war with their families.

Food and medical supplies have been scarce for months in Oleshky, which sits on the Dnipro River, separating Ukrainian forces from the city’s Russian occupiers. There’s no electricity, heat or running water. Roads leading from town are mined and dotted with burned-out cars. Menacing drones buzz overhead.

Once a city of about 24,000, Oleshky was captured by Moscow’s forces on the first day of their full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Its buildings were shelled and burned, and its infrastructure damaged. Further calamity struck in June 2023 when floodwaters inundated the city after the Kakhovka Dam collapsed from an explosion that an Associated Press investigation found was likely caused by the Russian military, killing hundreds of residents.

Those left in the battered city along Ukraine’s southeastern front face death from hunger or disease as another harsh winter looms. Ukraine has appealed repeatedly for a local ceasefire to organize evacuations. Russia, which as the occupying power is obligated by international law to ensure civilians under its control have what they need to survive, had made no commitment.

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HEBRON, West Bank (AP) — Israeli soldiers shot and killed two men who the military said had launched an attack near the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank on Friday morning. At least five people were injured, including some critically.

A few hours later, Israel ordered the army to prepare for a full closure of the West Bank. The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it instructed security forces to immediately cordon off the city of Hebron and prepare to fully close all of the West Bank, starting Friday.

Earlier, the army said it prevented a “terror attack against Israeli civilians” and that the gunmen carried an M16 rifle and a handgun. It did not elaborate on the target of the alleged attack. There was also no word on the identities of the two dead and those injured.

The military subsequently set up roadblocks and closures in Palestinian towns in the area.

Emergency responders said five people were injured, some critically, and were being evacuated to hospitals in Israel. A statement from the responders said gunfire was still ongoing as they arrived at the scene of the attack near the Yehuda Junction in the morning.

Two men in their 20s had gunshot wounds to their lower limbs, one was unconscious and seriously injured, the responders said.

“We arrived at a difficult scene while shooting was still taking place in the area,” said Tzuriel Edri with the response team.

An investigation was underway, authorities said.

The deadly shooting comes as Israeli voters will decide next Tuesday whether to grant Netanyahu yet another term as prime minister — or usher in a new era of Israeli politics. The election comes three years after the Hamas-led attacks on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.

Israel’s government has warned of potential attacks by the country’s “enemies” in the lead-up to the election.

Israel’s far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, known for extremist views, said that the Hebron attack shows that Israel needs to restrict the Palestinians’ freedom of movement in the West Bank.

“The lives of the residents of Judea and Samaria, of the settlers, the lives of the soldiers, the lives of the police officers, the lives of our fighters are a million times more important than freedom of movement,” he said, using an Israeli reference to the West Bank.

Ahead of the anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack that triggered the war, Netanyahu said the Palestinian militant group could attack Israel in a bid to influence the outcome of the elections. He did not provide evidence to back up the claim.

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