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  • Musk asked Epstein for ‘the wildest party,’ but now he claims to stand up for victims

    Musk asked Epstein for ‘the wildest party,’ but now he claims to stand up for victims

    During an explosive feud with President Donald Trump last spring, Elon Musk reached for the nuclear button. “Time to drop the really big bomb,” he wrote on X in June, “@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein Files.”

    “The truth will come out,” the Tesla CEO added. He later deleted the posts and reconciled with Trump. In the months since, Musk has issued a steady drum beat of X posts calling for the arrest or prosecution of people linked to Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender who cultivated relationships with powerful figures in tech, finance, and politics.

    But when the Justice Department released what it said were millions of pages of documents last month from its investigation of the deceased financier, Musk featured prominently in the files.

    The entrepreneur had repeated email exchanges with Epstein, as did Kimbal Musk, his brother and fellow Tesla board member, the documents show. Elon Musk’s messages included inquiries about parties. Musk and Epstein also discussed arranging to meet on Epstein’s island and their assistants arranged a visit for the two at the entrepreneur’s rocket maker, SpaceX. On Christmas Day in 2012, Musk wrote to Epstein and asked: “Do you have any parties planned?” He added that “I’ve been working to the edge of sanity” and wanted to “let loose.”

    The revelations have thrust Musk in the awkward position of trying to cast himself as a stalwart defender of Epstein’s victims while also defending his own interactions with the convicted sex offender. Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to two charges of soliciting prostitution, including one involving a minor. He was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges in 2019 and died in federal custody later that year. Judges and lawmakers say that he abused, trafficked, and molested scores of girls over decades.

    In recent weeks, Musk has taken aim in online posts at other political and business figures over their alleged interactions with Epstein — including LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, former Trump chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, and billionaire Les Wexner.

    “The big difference between you and me, Reid, is that you went and I did not,” Musk said in a post on X directed at Hoffman in early February, referring to Epstein’s island, adding later, “UNLIKE YOU, I came to my senses and declined to go.” Hoffman has acknowledged visiting Epstein’s island, as part of work to help the Massachusetts Institute of Technology “fundraise from Epstein,” and said that he regretted ever interacting with the sex offender.

    Wexner told Congress this month that he had been “duped” by Epstein and was not aware of his crimes. Bannon did not respond to a request for comment. Musk has refrained from making further allegations against Trump and stayed silent about the Justice Department files linking administration figures to Epstein, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who told Congress this month that he once took his family to lunch on Epstein’s island but “did not have any relationship with him.”

    Musk has written on X that he “REFUSED” to visit Epstein’s island, even as the documents show him appearing to seek a visit. “When should we head to your island on the 2nd?” Musk asked Epstein on Christmas Day in 2013, in an apparent reference to a visit for the following January, the documents show.

    Musk and his brother, Kimbal Musk, did not respond to requests for comment for this story. Appearing in the documents released by the Justice Department does not indicate wrongdoing.

    At times, Musk’s attempts to focus on his preferred narrative about Epstein have backfired. Earlier this month, the billionaire reshared an X post from Mohamad Safa, executive director of the human rights group Patriotic Vision. “As someone works in human rights, I’ve never seen anything like the Epstein files in my 15-year career,” Safa wrote. “I don’t understand how we’re not having a global revolution right now.”

    After Musk distributed that message to his around 235 million followers on X, Safa responded to point out that the billionaire was overlooking something.

    “Elon, you’ve got it wrong,” Safa wrote. “It’s a revolution against every person in the Epstein files.”

    Safa told the Washington Post that the Tesla CEO was wrongly trying to lump himself in with the human rights community demanding accountability in relation to Epstein.

    “Elon bought Twitter to mislead the public on global issues, and he is now using it to mislead about his connection to Jeffrey Epstein,” Safa said.

    After the release of the latest trove of files raised new questions about the extent of Musk’s contact with Epstein over the years, Musk issued a late-night statement on X last month in a 1:50 a.m. Eastern reply to a user known as “DogeDesigner.”

    “No one pushed harder than me to have the Epstein files released and I’m glad that has finally happened,” Musk wrote. “I had very little correspondence with Epstein and declined repeated invitations to go to his island or fly on his ‘Lolita Express’,” he said, referring to Epstein’s airplane, “but was well aware that some email correspondence with him could be misinterpreted and used by detractors to smear my name.”

    Musk added, “I don’t care about that, but what I do care about is that we at least attempt to prosecute those who committed serious crimes with Epstein, especially regarding heinous exploitation of underage girls.”

    The Justice Department files reviewed by the Post, including dozens that refer to Musk or his brother Kimbal, paint a vastly different picture of Epstein’s relationship with the Tesla CEO.

    “What day/night will be the wildest party on your island?” Elon Musk asked Epstein in an email from November 2012, as he sought to plan a visit accompanied by actor Talulah Riley — Musk’s ex-wife — the files show. A month later, he wrote to Epstein again about partying.

    “Do you have any parties planned?” he asked. “I’ve been working to the edge of sanity this year and so, once my kids head home after Christmas, I really want to hit the party scene in St Barts or elsewhere and let loose.”

    Musk added, “The invitation is much appreciated, but a peaceful island experience is the opposite of what I’m looking for.”

    The newly released correspondence appears to show the entrepreneur interacting and making plans with Epstein over a period of more than a year that took place several years after Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008.

    In 2013, Musk and Epstein’s assistants planned a visit for the disgraced financier to SpaceX, Musk’s rocket building company. The visit included a scheduled lunch for Musk and Epstein. Epstein was scheduled to travel with three female assistants — one South African and two Russian — whose passports were vetted by SpaceX, a government contractor, for security clearance reasons, according to the emails. While the visit took place as planned, according to the emails, it was not immediately clear whether the two men met for lunch.

    Musk has said he blocked and ultimately “ghosted” Epstein.

    The files also show that Kimbal Musk corresponded with Epstein about an apparent romantic partner whom another person warned him not to mistreat. “Jeffrey: Message received wide and clear. ;)” Kimbal Musk replied, in a message on which he copied Epstein.

    Years later, Epstein wrote in an email: “I gave another girl to kimball and he is thrilled.”

    Kimbal Musk said in a statement that Epstein did not introduce him to his romantic partner at the time of the earlier emails, and that she was an adult.

    “In 2012 I started dating a woman who was 30 years old,” Kimbal Musk posted on X. “I met her through a friend. Epstein did not introduce us. My only meeting with that demon was in his New York office during the day. I never met with him again and I never went to his island.”

    He added that Epstein subscribed to a newsletter of his, leading his email address to appear in searches of the Epstein files numerous times.

    “My heart goes out to the many victims of Jeffrey Epstein, as it does for all who have suffered any kind of sexual abuse or harassment,” Kimbal Musk said.

    Soon after the Justice Department’s release of files last month, the nonprofit organization behind Burning Man, a massive cultural festival held annually in the Nevada desert, announced that Kimbal Musk was no longer on its board of directors. That decision was made by Kimbal Musk “based on other commitments and priorities” and came “well before” the revelations, the organization said.

    Elon Musk, meanwhile, continues to face an uphill battle to convince skeptics that his support for Epstein victims is genuine.

    Scott Berkowitz, president and founder of RAINN, a nonprofit organization aimed at ending sexual violence, said he did not know what is in Musk’s heart, but said one way the entrepreneur could effect change for victims of sexual abuse would be by reining in the Grok chatbot offered by his company xAI, which recently came under fire for allowing the creation of nonconsensual sexualized images of real people.

    “RAINN is working to make the country safer from sexual violence. If Elon Musk wants to be a part of that and to use his influence to make life safer, there’s a long list of ways that he could be part of the solution,” Berkowitz said. “Partner with us to make Grok the model for AI safety and ensure it never creates another nonconsensual image, whether child or adult.”

    On X, many have lobbed criticism at Musk over his messaging on the Epstein files, seeing it as an effort to reframe the narrative around his involvement.

    Given “Elon Musk’s involvement with Epstein and his lies about it, it feels dirty to use this platform, which increasingly feels like his own propaganda machine and PR agency” Fred Lambert, the editor in chief of Electrek, an electric vehicle-focused publication, said in an X post last week.

    Safa, of Patriotic Vision, said he is not convinced by Musk’s sudden interest in accountability. “He should be investigated like any other individual whose name has been mentioned, regardless of social, political, or financial status,” Safa said, adding, “Why did he wait until now to speak out?”

  • Vatican removes salty white film coating Michelangelo’s ‘The Last Judgment’

    Vatican removes salty white film coating Michelangelo’s ‘The Last Judgment’

    VATICAN CITY — Michelangelo’s The Last Judgement is getting a facial, with restorers removing a chalky white film of salt that has accumulated over the Renaissance masterpiece since its last major renovation three decades ago.

    The Vatican on Saturday gave the media a sneak peak to the cleaning operation, which is taking place on a floor-to-ceiling scaffolding that has obscured the imposing fresco of heaven and hell that dominates the front of the Sistine Chapel.

    The cleaning operation is expected to be completed by Easter, in the first week of April. The public can continue to visit in the meantime, but will have to settle for a reproduction of The Last Judgment superimposed on a screen that covers the scaffolding.

    Vatican Museum officials on Saturday described a simple but important cleaning operation to remove the white film of salt that has accumulated on the fresco thanks to the nearly 25,000 people who pass through the Vatican Museums each day.

    “This salt is created because, above all, when we sweat, we emit lactic acid, and unfortunately lactic acid reacts with the calcium carbonate present on the wall,” said Fabio Moresi, in charge of the scientific research team at the Vatican Museums that is overseeing the cleaning.

    Climate change also has a role to play, since the visitors who do come tend to sweat more, creating even more humidity that reacts with the fresco, he said.

    Vatican Museums chief Barbara Jatta described the film as a “cataract” that is easy enough to remove: Restorers dip sheets of Japanese rice paper into distilled water and apply them to the fresco, and carefully wipe away the salt film.

    Viewed up close on Saturday on the scaffolding, the difference between before and after is remarkable: Sections of the fresco that haven’t been cleaned look as if they are coated in a chalky dust; the cleaned sections show the vibrant colors and detail of the original. On the figure of Jesus, for example, at the center of the fresco, a privileged visitor can see how Michelangelo painted his hair and the wounds of his crucifixion.

    The Sistine Chapel is named after Pope Sixtus IV, an art patron who oversaw the construction of the main papal chapel in the 15th century.

    But it was a later pontiff, Pope Julius II, who commissioned Michelangelo to paint the famous ceiling, the Creation of Adam showing God’s outstretched hand, between 1508 and 1512. A later pontiff, Pope Clement VII, commissioned Michelangelo in 1533 to return to paint The Last Judgment.

    The other frescos of the Sistine Chapel, where Pope Leo XIV was elected in May, undergo yearly cleaning with restorers working at night on cherry-pickers that can be removed each morning before the public arrives.

    But such machines can’t access all of The Last Judgement because the fresco is located behind the altar, which is itself raised up on marble steps. That logistical impediment required the mounting of a fixed scaffolding to access the full fresco to clean it.

    The Sistine Chapel underwent a complete restoration between 1979 and 1999, when centuries of smoke, grime, and wax buildup was removed. The Vatican has left small patches of the pre-restored fresco intact to show the difference, which are now visible on the upper floors of the scaffolding and show a nearly blackened wall.

    Rather than radically reduce the number of visitors who can access the Sistine Chapel, the Vatican is studying ways to address humidity levels, through filtration systems and other technologies, so that the salty film doesn’t form again.

  • Pentagon assault on Anthropic sends shockwaves across Silicon Valley

    Pentagon assault on Anthropic sends shockwaves across Silicon Valley

    The Trump administration’s declaration that AI company Anthropic would be cut off from all government contracts shook the tech industry late Friday, hardening political and cultural battle lines across Silicon Valley over military use of artificial intelligence.

    President Donald Trump ordered government agencies to “immediately cease” using Anthropic’s technology, in a post on Truth Social on Friday, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth labeled the company a “supply chain risk to national security” in his own post on X, after the company refused to allow its technology to be used for domestic surveillance and autonomous weapons.

    The Trump administration’s assault on Anthropic appeared to put the company on course to lose billions of dollars of potential revenue, although the startup said in a blog post late Friday that it would challenge Hegseth’s designation in court.

    The firm’s conversational assistant, Claude, is being deployed or tested in at least five government agencies, including the Pentagon, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Energy, according to recent disclosures of AI use mandated by law and an executive order.

    Friday’s aggressive moves by the Trump administration put all of Silicon Valley on notice that tech companies seeking Pentagon contracts risk massive political and business fallout if they don’t back administration policies and cede control of how their technology is used. Rivals of Anthropic including Elon Musk and other tech allies of Trump seized on the conflict to pledge that their own companies would not question Pentagon policies, positioning themselves as loyal patriots.

    Conflict has bubbled between Anthropic and the Trump administration since last year. The company leveraged its relationship with investor Amazon to become the first company to be integrated into classified systems.

    But Anthropic, co-founded in 2021 by CEO Dario Amodei, his sister Daniela, and other former employees of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, also rankled tech allies of Trump by positioning itself as more safety conscious than other AI developers. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post, which has a content partnership with OpenAI.)

    In the fall, Trump’s AI and crypto czar David Sacks accused Anthropic of attempting to manipulate the government with “fearmongering” about AI technology. Around the same time, Semafor reported that Anthropic displeased the White House by raising ethical objections to how the administration wanted to use its technology, including for surveillance.

    Those tensions flared into an unprecedented public fight between the Pentagon and the tech company this week. Frantic talks between the two sides continued right up until Hegseth’s announcement late Friday that he was declaring Anthropic a risk to national security, according to an X post from Emil Michael, the Pentagon’s technology chief, and a person familiar with the talks.

    Michael was on the phone with Anthropic, suggesting that the company agree to allow analysis of some bulk data on Americans, at the same moment Hegseth said in his X post that Anthropic had been designated a supply chain risk, according to the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the talks.

    Anthropic said in a statement responding to Hegseth on Friday that it would legally challenge his declaration against the company, suggesting that the dispute is far from over. Experts said that Anthropic had strong legal grounds for a challenge.

    A company can only be designated a supply chain risk through a legal process, said Steven Feldstein, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who researches the use of AI in war. “It isn’t legally sufficient to simply proclaim or label [a supply chain risk] and have this be the final word,” he said. “It’s a major overreach.”

    Jessica Tillipman, an associate dean at George Washington University’s law school, said Anthropic could probably make a strong argument in court that it had been unfairly targeted. “This is on incredibly shaky ground,” she said of Hegseth’s declaration on Friday. “I don’t think you have seen a case for more politicized use.”

    Hegseth’s post also asserted that all companies that do business with the U.S. military are now prohibited from doing any commercial activity with Anthropic. Although the legal basis for that sweeping ban was unclear, it could have disastrous consequences for Anthropic, which has received billions of dollars in investment from partners like Amazon, Microsoft, and Nvidia that also supply the military. The companies didn’t respond to requests for comment.

    Should the Pentagon prevail, the U.S. military will need to adapt fast. Claude is deeply integrated into the Maven Smart System, an AI tool built with the technology company Palantir that runs on Amazon’s cloud. It provides troops with a unified picture of intelligence streaming in from multiple sensors, said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan, who served as the first director of the Pentagon’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center and is now an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, a think tank.

    After the U.S. seizure of Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro, an image circulated that showed Claude operating alongside Maven during the operation, Shanahan said, which prompted Anthropic officials to ask Palantir questions about its use in the operation.

    Claude is the “single most widely deployed AI system in the U.S. military,” Shanahan said. He added that it wouldn’t make sense to try to extract the AI tool from all of the Defense Department systems it helps, just as service members are getting skilled with the technology.

    In Silicon Valley, debate raged Friday over whether Anthropic should be celebrated for taking a stand, criticized as unpatriotic, or scoffed at for being strategically naive.

    Right-leaning leaders such as Palmer Luckey, founder of the defense startup Anduril, and investor Keith Rabois posted in support of the military’s decision. Anthropic employees cheered its moves in online posts, and hundreds of employees of Google and OpenAI signed a public letter backing the company’s stance.

    Anthropic’s rivals were poised and at the ready to take advantage of its blunders.

    OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman wrote in a memo to all staff late on Thursday that he had been negotiating with the Pentagon, according to a copy reviewed by the Post. The memo was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

    Altman wrote that the dispute between Anthropic and the Pentagon had become “an issue for the whole industry,” and that the spat was not about the use of AI but about “control.” The country, he said, “absolutely needs help with AI for defense if we want to continue to enjoy peace and prosperity.”

    But Altman added that he was seeking a deal with the Defense Department that would find middle ground. It would see OpenAI agree to cover any use except those that are “unlawful or unsuited to cloud deployments, such as domestic surveillance and autonomous offensive weapons,” he wrote. And he said the company could deploy technical safeguards and personnel “to partner with the government to ensure things are working correctly.”

    Late on Friday, Altman wrote in a post on X that he had reached such an agreement with the Defense Department to deploy OpenAI’s technology in classified U.S. networks.

    “Two of our most important safety principles are prohibitions on domestic mass surveillance and human responsibility for the use of force, including for autonomous weapon systems,” Altman wrote. The Pentagon “agrees with these principles, reflects them in law and policy, and we put them into our agreement.”

    Jeremy Lewin, under secretary of state for foreign assistance, humanitarian affairs, and religious freedom, wrote in a post on X that the new OpenAI deal permitted the Pentagon the freedom of “all lawful use” of AI that it had sought from Anthropic. The agreement represented “a compromise that Anthropic was offered, and rejected,” he wrote.

    Musk, whose company xAI was certified to work with classified military systems this week, also stepped into the fray. “Anthropic hates Western civilization,” he wrote in a post Friday on his social network X. Musk and xAI did not respond to requests for comment.

    Lewin held up the billionaire as showing a better way for AI firms to engage with the government.

    “Elon and xAI have already agreed to the ‘all lawful uses’ principle — meaning that he’s already agreed not to shut off U.S. systems for nonlegal prudential discretionary reasons,” Lewin, a former staffer for Musk’s government efficiency initiative, the U.S. DOGE Service, wrote on X. “So there’s your difference. Anthropic wants to add additional conditions — Elon has agreed to promise he won’t pull the plug for our systems.”

  • Israeli officials say Iran’s Supreme Leader Khameini has been killed

    Israeli officials say Iran’s Supreme Leader Khameini has been killed

    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei died following a major attack by Israel and the United States, Iranian state media confirmed early Sunday, throwing the future of the Islamic Republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability.

    President Donald Trump announced the death hours earlier, saying it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country.

    Iranian state television and the state-run IRNA news agency did not report a cause of death for the 86-year-old.

    The death occurred after a joint U.S. and Israeli aerial bombardment that targeted Iranian military and governmental sites.

    The president also said “heavy and pinpoint bombing” was to continue “uninterrupted” through the week or longer.

    Trump in his post called Khamenei “one of the most evil people in history.”

    Trump said that Khamenei “was unable to avoid our Intelligence and Highly Sophisticated Tracking Systems and, working closely with Israel, there was not a thing he, or the other leaders that have been killed along with him, could do.”

    In a nationally televised address, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there were “growing signs” that Khamenei had been killed when Israel struck his compound early Saturday.

    Shortly after the address, two Israeli officials said Israel had confirmed his death. The officials both spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity pending a formal announcement and gave no further details.

    Khamenei succeeded Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. He had the final say on all major policies, leading Iran’s clerical establishment and its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard — the two main centers of power in the country’s theocracy.

    As the attack on Iran unfolded, Trump urged the Iranian public to “seize control of your destiny” by rising up against the Islamic leadership. In a video announcing the “major combat operations,” Trump told Iranians, “When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations.”

    Iranian state media, citing the Red Crescent, on Saturday evening said at least 201 people had been killed and more than 700 injured. Iran retaliated by firing missiles and drones toward Israel and U.S. military bases in the region, and exchanges of fire continued into the night.

    Some of the first strikes on Iran appeared to hit near the offices of the 86-year-old Khamenei. Before Israeli officials confirmed the death, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told NBC News that Khamenei and President Masoud Pezeshkian were alive “as far as I know.” He called the attack “unprovoked, illegal, and absolutely illegitimate.”

    The strikes during the holy fasting month of Ramadan opened a stunning new chapter in U.S. intervention in Iran, marking the second time in eight months that the Trump administration has attacked the Islamic Republic during talks over its nuclear program.

    About 12 hours after the attacks began, the U.S. military reported no U.S. casualties and minimal damage at U.S. bases despite “hundreds of Iranian missile and drone attacks.” It said targets in Iran included Revolutionary Guard command facilities, air defense capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and military airfields.

    Various members of Iran’s leadership were targeted in the attack. Israel said it killed the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and the country’s defense minister. The Israeli military also said its strikes killed the secretary of the Iranian Security Council, a close adviser to Khamenei.

    Israel said the strikes had targeted three locations in Tehran where intelligence had indicated that top Iranian officials were gathered. Neither Iran nor the U.S. commented on or confirmed Israel’s claims about the Iranian leadership.

    Even if Iran’s top leaders have been killed, regime change is not guaranteed.

    Democrats decried that Trump had taken action without congressional authorization. White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said the administration had briefed several Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress in advance.

    The U.N.’s nuclear watchdog said on X it was closely monitoring developments and had seen “no evidence of radiological impact.”

    Iran was in a “near-total internet blackout,” advocacy group NetBlocks said.

    Months of rising tensions

    Tensions have soared in recent weeks as American warships moved into the region. Trump said he wanted a deal to constrain Iran’s nuclear program, as the country struggles with growing dissent following nationwide protests.

    The trigger for Saturday’s strikes appeared to be the unsuccessful latest round of nuclear talks on Thursday. They also reflected dramatic changes that have left Iran’s leadership in its weakest position since the Islamic Revolution nearly half a century ago.

    Israeli and American strikes last June greatly weakened Iran’s air defenses, military leadership, and nuclear program. A regionwide conflict sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel has left Iran’s network of proxies across the Middle East greatly weakened. U.S. sanctions and global isolation have decimated Iran’s economy.

    Iran responded to the latest strikes by launching missiles and drones targeting Israel and strikes targeting U.S. military installations in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar. Israel’s military said Iran fired “dozens” of missiles at Israel, with many intercepted. Emergency responder Magen David Adom noted 89 “lightly injured” people.

    At least three explosions were heard Saturday evening near the Intelligence Ministry building in northern Tehran, witnesses said, adding that air defense systems had begun operating there. Israel’s military said it had begun new strikes against missile launchers and aerial defense systems in central Iran.

    In southern Iran, at least 85 people were reported killed when a girls school was struck, and dozens more were wounded, the local governor told Iranian state TV.

    Capt. Tim Hawkins, a U.S. Central Command spokesperson, said he was “aware of reports” that a girls school was struck and they were looking into them.

    Iran’s state news agency IRNA said at least 15 people were killed in the southwest, quoting the governor of Lamerd, Ali Alizadeh, as saying a sports hall, two residential areas, and a hall near a school were hit.

    Flights across the Middle East were disrupted, and air defense fire thudded over Dubai, the United Arab Emirates’ commercial capital. Shrapnel from an Iranian missile attack on the UAE capital killed one person, state media said.

    Attack was coordinated between Israel and U.S.

    “Active and serious negotiations have yet again been undermined,” Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, a key mediator of the nuclear talks, said on X. “Neither the interests of the United States nor the cause of global peace are well served by this.”

    Israel said the operation has been planned for months with the United States. Air Force pilots were striking “hundreds of targets across Iran,” Israeli military chief of staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said in a statement.

    Targets in the Israeli campaign included Iran’s military, symbols of government, and intelligence targets, according to an official briefed on the operation, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss nonpublic information on the attack.

    Trump, in seeking to justify the military action, claimed Iran has continued to develop its nuclear program, despite his assertion last year the program had been “obliterated” by an earlier round of strikes.

    He acknowledged Saturday that there could be American casualties, saying “that often happens in war.” It was a notable statement from a U.S. leader who swept into office on an “America First” platform and vowed to keep out of “forever wars.”

    Trump also said he was aiming to “annihilate” the Iranian navy and destroy regional proxies supported by Tehran. He called on the paramilitary Iranian Revolutionary Guard to lay down arms, saying members would be given immunity or face “certain death” if they didn’t.

    Iran had said it hoped to avert a war, but maintained its right to enrich uranium. It did not want to discuss other issues such as its long-range missile program or support for armed groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.

    Iran has said it hasn’t enriched since June, but it has blocked international inspectors from visiting the sites the U.S. bombed. Satellite photos analyzed by the Associated Press have shown new activity at two of those sites, suggesting Iran is trying to assess and potentially recover material.

    Iran on Saturday requested an urgent session of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Board of Governors about “these threats to safeguarded nuclear facilities,” according to a letter posted by the semiofficial Tasnim news agency.

    Trump had threatened military action but held off following Iran’s recent crackdown on protests spurred by economic grievances that evolved into a nationwide push against the ruling clerics.

    The Human Rights Activists News Agency says it confirmed more than 7,000 deaths in the crackdown and is investigating thousands more. The government has acknowledged more than 3,000 killed.

    Now, Iranians are likely to be wary about taking to the streets again because the Revolutionary Guard has demonstrated its ruthlessness, said Kamran Matin, an expert on Iran at the University of Sussex in southern England.

    Regional effects

    The strikes could rattle global markets, particularly if Iran makes the Strait of Hormuz unsafe for commercial traffic. A third of worldwide oil exports transported by sea passed through the strait in 2025.

    Saudi Arabia said Iran had targeted its capital and eastern region in an attack that was repelled. Bahrain said a missile attack targeted the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet headquarters in the island kingdom, and three buildings were damaged in the capital, Manama, and Muharraq city by drone strikes and debris from an intercepted missile.

    Kuwait’s civil aviation authority said a drone targeted the main international airport, injuring several employees. Kuwait’s state-run news agency said three troops were injured by shrapnel from strikes that hit Ali Al-Salem air base. Explosions could also be heard in Qatar. Jordan said it “dealt with” 49 drones and ballistic missiles.

  • European leaders call for resumption of U.S.-Iran negotiations

    European leaders call for resumption of U.S.-Iran negotiations

    BRUSSELS — How long will it last? Will it grow? What will it mean to us — and to global security overall? Those questions echoed across the Middle East and the planet Saturday as world leaders reacted warily to U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran that sowed concerns of a broader conflict. The U.N. Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting.

    Perhaps cautious about upsetting already strained relations with U.S. President Donald Trump, many nations abstained from commenting directly or pointedly on the joint strikes but condemned Tehran’s retaliation. Similarly to Europeans, governments across the Middle East condemned Iran’s strikes on Arab neighbors while staying silent on the U.S. military action.

    Other countries were more explicit: Australia and Canada expressed open support for the U.S. strikes, while Russia and China responded with direct criticism.

    The U.S. and Israel launched a major attack on Iran on Saturday, and Trump called on the Iranian public to “seize control of your destiny” by rising up against the Islamic theocracy that has ruled the nation since 1979. Iran retaliated by firing missiles and drones toward Israel and U.S. military bases in the Middle East.

    Some leaders urge resumption of talks

    In a statement, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called on the U.S. and Iran to resume talks and said they favored a negotiated settlement. They said their countries didn’t take part in the strikes on Iran but are in close contact with the U.S., Israel, and partners in the region.

    The three countries have led efforts to reach a negotiated solution over Iran’s nuclear program.

    “We condemn Iranian attacks on countries in the region in the strongest terms. Iran must refrain from indiscriminate military strikes. We call for a resumption of negotiations and urge the Iranian leadership to seek a negotiated solution. Ultimately, the Iranian people must be allowed to determine their future,” they said.

    Later, at an emergency security meeting, Macron said France was “neither warned nor involved” in the strikes. He called for intensified efforts for a negotiated solution, saying “no one can think that the questions of Iran’s nuclear program, ballistic activity, regional destabilization will be settled by strikes alone.”

    The 22-nation Arab League called the Iranian attacks “a blatant violation of the sovereignty of countries that advocate for peace and strive for stability.” That coalition of nations has historically condemned both Israel and Iran for actions it says risk destabilizing the region.

    Countries that maintain diplomatic ties with Israel — including Morocco, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates — denounced Iranian strikes targeting U.S. military bases in the region including in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and the Emirates.

    Saudi Arabia said it “condemns and denounces in the strongest terms the treacherous Iranian aggression and the blatant violation of sovereignty.” Oman, which has been mediating the talks between Iran and the U.S., said in a statement that the U.S. action “constitutes a violation of the rules of international law and the principle of settling disputes through peaceful means, rather than through hostility and the shedding of blood.”

    Careful wording is (mostly) the order of the day

    Countries in Europe and the Middle East used careful wording, avoiding perceptions that they either support unilateral American action or are directly condemning the United States.

    Others were more blunt. Russia’s Foreign Ministry called the strikes “a pre-planned and unprovoked act of armed aggression against a sovereign and independent U.N. member state.” The ministry accused Washington and Tel Aviv of “hiding behind” concerns about Iran’s nuclear program while actually pursuing regime change.

    Similarly, China’s government said it was “highly concerned” about the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran and called for an immediate halt to the military action and a return to negotiations. “Iran’s sovereignty, security and territorial integrity should be respected,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement said.

    Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his country supports the United States in its effort to stop Iran from obtaining an atomic bomb. He described Iran’s current leadership as a destabilizing force and noted two attacks on Australian soil that were blamed on Tehran. Last August, Australia cut off diplomatic relations with Iran and expelled its ambassador after accusing it of orchestrating two antisemitic attacks in the country.

    Despite recent tensions with the U.S., Canada too expressed its support for the military action. “The Islamic Republic of Iran is the principal source of instability and terror throughout the Middle East,” Prime Minister Mark Carney said.

    The United Nations chief condemned the U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on Iran and called for an immediate return to negotiations “to pull the region, and our world, back from the brink.”

    Secretary-General António Guterres told an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Saturday that everything must be done to prevent further escalation. “The alternative,” he warned, “is a potential wider conflict with grave consequences for civilians and regional stability.”

    Guterres also condemned Iran’s retaliatory attacks for violating the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

    Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon, speaking to reporters before the meeting, said it was “hypocrisy” to condemn the airstrikes. He said Iran is responsible for the actions of its proxies in the Middle East and for its nuclear and missile programs, and Israel and the U.S. acted “to prevent an irreversible and immediate threat.”

    Concerns expressed for ‘new, extensive’ war

    Palestinians in the occupied West Bank said they were largely unfazed as war erupted Saturday, barely pausing as booms echoed across the sky from Israel’s Iron Dome intercepting missiles overhead.

    Unlike Israel, Palestinian cities have no warning sirens or bomb shelters, despite the risk of falling debris or errant missiles. As people sheltered less than 10 miles away in Jerusalem, streets in Ramallah swarmed with shoppers browsing meat counters, vegetable stalls, and Ramadan sweets, some stopping to record the sounds of distant sirens and missile interceptions.

    But as Israel closed checkpoints to the movement of people and goods on Saturday, gas stations saw longer-than-usual lines as residents filled spare canisters in case of supply disruptions.

    Nervousness is perceptible across multiple countries as people fear a full-scale war engulfing the region. Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide told Norwegian broadcaster NRK that he was concerned the failure of negotiations between the U.S. and Iran meant a “new, extensive war in the Middle East.”

    The Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons condemned the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran in harsher words. “These attacks are totally irresponsible and risk provoking further escalation as well as increasing the danger of nuclear proliferation and the use of nuclear weapons,” said its executive director, Melissa Parke.

    EU leaders issued a joint statement Saturday calling for restraint and engaging in regional diplomacy in hopes of “ensuring nuclear safety.”

    “We call on all parties to exercise maximum restraint, to protect civilians, and to fully respect international law,” the statement from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa said.

    The Arab League, too, appealed to all international parties “to work towards de-escalation as soon as possible, to spare the region the scourge of instability and violence, and to return to dialogue.”

  • Trump: ‘Freedom’ for Iran is goal of ‘major military operation’

    Trump: ‘Freedom’ for Iran is goal of ‘major military operation’

    President Donald Trump told The Washington Post early Saturday that his main concern is “freedom” for the Iranian people as the U.S. launched military strikes in the country.

    A U.S. official said a multiday operation against Iran began at about 1 a.m. Eastern time with a salvo of ship-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles and air-launched munitions from U.S. Air Force and Navy jets.

    Iran quickly launched counterstrikes in response to the attack, which the Trump administration has named “Operation Epic Fury.” Multiple U.S. military bases were targeted by Iran, the official said, including the support facility for its 5th Fleet ships in Bahrain, according to the country’s state-run news service.

    U.S. and Israel attack Iran as Trump urges regime change

    While the operations are ongoing, no U.S. service members have been injured, the official said, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details that had not yet been publicly announced. Israel said it also launched attacks on Iran on Saturday.

    “All I want is freedom for the people,” Trump said in a brief phone interview shortly after 4 a.m., when asked what he hopes his legacy will be as a result of the military action and a push for regime change in Iran.

    “I want a safe nation, and that’s what we’re going to have,” the president said, his first reportable remarks since announcing “major combat operations” in a video message around 2:30 a.m.

    Trump spoke from Mar-a-Lago, his home in Palm Beach, Fla., where he arrived Friday night just hours before the military strikes began. He spoke to the Post as television news played in the background.

    Despite his previous criticism of U.S. involvement in Middle Eastern wars — particularly American lives lost during efforts to topple and install new regimes — Trump on Saturday made the case for the United States helping to bring about regime change in the country. In the video address, Trump urged Iranians once the strikes cease to “take over your government,” telling them “this will be probably your only chance for generations.”

    Trump also conceded that U.S. troops were putting their lives at risk in this effort.

    “The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost and we may have casualties,” Trump said in his taped remarks. “That often happens in war. But we’re doing this, not for now. We’re doing this for the future, and it is a noble mission.”

    Less than a year ago, while visiting the Middle East, Trump decried the “so-called nation builders” who “wrecked far more nations than they built.”

    “And the interventionalists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand,” Trump said in May at an investment conference in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia.

    Now, the president is portraying himself as the one willing to assume substantial risk to save the Iranian people, urging them to “seize control” of their “destiny” with U.S. help.

    “No president was willing to do what I am willing to do tonight,” Trump declared in the eight-minute video, which he said was filmed shortly after the attacks began in the early hours Saturday. He stood behind a lectern, wearing a white “USA” ball cap.

    “Now you have a president who is giving you what you want, so let’s see how you respond,” he said, speaking to the Iranian people. “America is backing you with overwhelming strength and devastating force.”

    Trump’s case to the American people for taking the country to war with Iran has never been urgently articulated.

    While the president said the objective of the strikes is to “defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime,” in his video about the attacks, Trump accused Iran of a litany of sins: from working to build a nuclear weapon to roadside bombs to a campaign of “mass terror” he said the regime has carried out against the U.S. “for 47 years.”

    Trump invoked the 1979 hostage crisis, in which 66 Americans were taken hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, and the 1983 bombing of U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, in which 241 Americans were killed. He said Iran was “probably involved” in the al-Qaeda attack on the USS Cole in 2000 in Yemen.

    “I built and rebuilt our military in my first administration,” Trump said, “and there is no military on Earth even close to its power, strength or sophistication.”

    While speaking to the Post, the president did not take additional questions about the scope of ongoing operations or the potential for U.S. troop involvement on the ground. On Thursday, Vice President JD Vance said in an interview with the Post that any operation Trump initiates in Iran would not result in the U.S. becoming involved in a drawn-out war.

    “The idea that we’re going to be in a Middle Eastern war for years with no end in sight – there is no chance that will happen,” Vance said.

    Foreign policy experts have warned that, unlike the limited strikes the U.S. launched against Iranian nuclear sites in June, a wider conflict with Tehran could embroil Washington for years.

    Trump’s views on U.S. intervention in the Middle East have evolved over time, with the president initially expressing support for the Iraq War at its outset more than two decades ago, before months later calling it a “terrible mistake.”

    He built his political brand as an “America First” president opposed to adventures overseas, decrying the Iraq War during his 2016 campaign and in 2024 pledging a “stop to the endless wars and a return to peace in the Middle East.”

    “We defeated [Islamic State] in record time, but we had no wars,” Trump said in his November 2024 election night victory speech, referring to his first term. “They said, he will start a war. I’m not going to start a war. I’m going to stop wars.”

  • Want to lose weight? Here’s why exercise probably won’t help. | Expert Opinion

    Q: I exercise most days, but the number on the scale never moves. What’s even the point?

    A: Exercise is not very effective for weight loss, but it’s incredibly beneficial for your physical and mental health.

    As a sports medicine physician, I spend my days treating injuries, studying human performance, and helping my patients move. I prescribe exercise for health and believe deeply in its power. The evidence is overwhelming: Exercise lowers cardiovascular risk, improves blood sugar control, strengthens bones, preserves cognitive function, and reduces the risk of depression, cancer, and early death.

    But there is one area where exercise consistently falls short: weight loss.

    A patient in her 50s recently came to me frustrated. She walked most days, strength trained twice a week, and followed a careful diet. Yet her weight barely budged. She asked me a question that I often hear: “What is the point of exercise if the scale doesn’t move?”

    The irony was that almost everything important about her health was improving. The problem was that she had been conditioned to focus on the wrong number.

    Why exercise doesn’t work for weight loss

    In a culture that treats the gym as a calorie-burning machine, many people expect exercise to shrink their waistline. When it doesn’t, frustration follows. The truth is that our expectations are misguided. Large studies show that exercise alone usually produces modest weight loss, often just a few pounds over six months. That’s because your body will “correct” for the extra activity by increasing your appetite or by lowering the calories burned for other bodily functions.

    In a 2024 randomized trial involving middle-aged adults who were overweight, participants assigned to regular exercise without changing their diet improved fitness and metabolic markers but lost little weight.

    As we age, the challenge grows. Resting metabolism slows and the body becomes more efficient at conserving energy. Various factors influence this, including age-related sarcopenia, or muscle loss with aging. We have to exercise for longer or more intensely — to the point it may become unrealistic — to achieve a calorie deficit substantial enough for weight loss.

    That does not mean exercise fails. It succeeds brilliantly. We have simply been asking it to do the wrong job.

    Proven health benefits of exercise

    Exercise shines when it comes to metabolic health. It improves insulin sensitivity and reduces visceral fat, the type of body fat that lies deep in the abdomen and is linked to heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. These benefits often occur even when body weight stays the same. Recent research shows that short bursts of movement built into daily life, “exercise snacks,” lead to significant reductions in disease risk, even in small doses.

    Exercise makes people healthier even when it does not make them thinner. In fact, people who are fit tend to live longer than those who are not in shape, no matter what their body weights are.

    This distinction is important in the age of GLP-1 medications and other weight loss drugs. For many, these treatments make losing weight easier than ever. They have changed the weight-loss equation for thousands of my patients. But weight loss alone is not health.

    Rapid, medication-driven weight loss can carry hidden costs, including loss of muscle. Muscle is central to mobility, glucose control, and healthy longevity. Losing muscle while getting lighter may improve the scale but leaves people less resilient.

    That is why my advice often surprises patients. I would rather see someone mildly overweight and physically active than thin and inactive. The former usually has better fitness, stronger bones, more muscle, and greater protection against disease. The latter may look healthy but often carries hidden risks.

    If the goal is long-term health, prioritize movement and muscle, not weight alone. Walk more. Lift weights. Climb stairs. Carry groceries. Build strength into daily life. Use exercise as a tool for healthy longevity, not as a stand-alone vehicle for weight loss.

    For decades, we have equated thinness with health. It is time to change that. Consistent movement may or may not change your weight, but it always improves health. That is the outcome that truly matters.

    Jordan D. Metzl, MD, is a sports medicine physician at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York. His newest book, “PUSH: Unlock the Science of Fitness Motivation to Embrace Health and Longevity,” explores the topics of fitness motivation and muscle maintenance for healthy longevity.

  • Neil Sedaka, the singer-songwriter behind dozens of hits of the 1960s and ’70s, has died at 86

    Neil Sedaka, the singer-songwriter behind dozens of hits of the 1960s and ’70s, has died at 86

    NEW YORK — Neil Sedaka, the hitmaking singer-songwriter whose boyish soprano and bright melodies made him a top act in the early years of rock and roll and led to a second run of success in the 1970s, has died.

    Mr. Sedaka, whose hits included “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do” and “Laughter in the Rain,” died Friday at age 86.

    “Our family is devastated by the sudden passing of our beloved husband, father and grandfather, Neil Sedaka,” his family said in a statement. “A true rock and roll legend, an inspiration to millions, but most importantly, at least to those of us who were lucky enough to know him, an incredible human being who will be deeply missed.”

    No other details of his death were immediately available.

    A key member of the Brill Building songwriting factory, Mr. Sedaka teamed with lyricist and boyhood neighbor Howard Greenfield on songs that reflected the teen innocence of the post-Elvis, pre-Beatles era of the late 1950 and early 1960s, including “Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen,” “Calendar Girl,” and “Oh! Carol,” a lament for his high school sweetheart, Carole King.

    After a long dry spell, he reemerged with such smashes as “Laughter in the Rain” and “Bad Blood.” The Captain & Tennille’s cover of his “Love Will Keep Us Together” was a chart-topper in 1975.

    Short and dark-haired, with a big smile and high-pitched voice, he was a Juilliard-trained, Brooklyn-born son of a Jewish taxi driver who began performing as a teen and kept at it for decades.

    Mr. Sedaka still played dozens of concerts a year well into his 80s. He retained the enthusiasm and broad vocal range of his youth and never tired of the standards he had sung hundreds of times.

    “Past 70, Pavarotti told me the vocal cords are not what they used to be. I’m very fortunate that my voice has held,” he told the Associated Press in 2012. “It’s nice to be a legend, but it’s better to be a working legend.”

    Mr. Sedaka’s songs sold millions worldwide and have been covered by a range of performers, from Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra to The 5th Dimension and Nickelback. Mr. Sedaka helped propel the career of Connie Francis with “Stupid Cupid” and “Where the Boys Are,” the latter for the soundtrack of the movie with the same name. The Captain & Tennille received a best-album Grammy thanks largely to “Love Will Keep Us Together” and included a nod to Mr. Sedaka at the end of the song, when Toni Tennille exclaimed “Sedaka’s back!”

    Growing up in Brooklyn, loving performing

    Mr. Sedaka grew up in Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach neighborhood, pampered by his grandparents, aunts, and mother in a two-bedroom apartment he shared with 11 relatives. He has a street there named in his honor, Neil Sedaka Way.

    But his music compensated for his unpopularity as a kid, he once recalled. His talent was recognized by a second-grade teacher who urged his homemaker mother, Eleanor, to buy him a piano. She went to work in a department store to pay for a secondhand upright and managed his career for years, as did his wife, Leba.

    Mr. Sedaka loved songwriting and never quit, but he craved performing.

    “Once a performer, always a performer. It’s that adrenaline rush. It’s like a natural high when you’re in front of an audience, and if you get that standing ovation, it’s infectious,” he told the AP.

    At 16, Mr. Sedaka was chosen by Arthur Rubenstein in a contest as the city’s best high school piano student and performed on a classical radio station as a prize. It was the same year he discovered rock and roll, when he performed a song, “Mr. Moon,” he had written with Greenfield, his classmate at Abraham Lincoln High School.

    “I sang it in the auditorium for a ballyhoo show and I remember there was a bit of a riot. The kids were jumping and screaming,” Mr. Sedaka said. “After that I was able to go into the sweet shop with the tough kids with the leather jackets.”

    After high school, and then Juilliard, Mr. Sedaka and Greenfield were signed to Don Kirshner’s Aldon Music, where they scored their first hit with Francis, “Stupid Cupid.”

    Sedaka churns out hits, until the Beatles

    In 1958, at age 19, Mr. Sedaka signed with RCA Victor Records and his first single, “The Diary,” enjoyed modest success. He began touring and promoting his songs through regular TV appearances on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand and Shindig!

    At the Brill Building, Mr. Sedaka and Greenfield were joined by other up-and-coming writers and lyricists including King, Neil Diamond, and Paul Simon.

    “Neil Sedaka was so talented, and he inspired me to follow my dream of being a songwriter,” King said on her Facebook page Friday. “With love and gratitude and condolences to his family.”

    Micky Dolenz of the Monkees also paid tribute to Mr. Sedaka, saying on Instagram that he was “one of those rare songwriters who could do it all.”

    From 1959 to 1962, Mr. Sedaka had 10 records in the Top 10, including “Calendar Girl,” “Oh! Carol,” “Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen,” and “Next Door to an Angel.” But in the mid-1960s, the Brill Building sound, influenced by the doo-wop groups of the New York City streets, was pushed off the charts by the Beatles -led British Invasion and the psychedelic and protest music that followed. Mr. Sedaka would endure 13 years “in the wilderness,” as he described it to the AP.

    Sedaka’s unlikely comeback, with help from Elton John

    Mr. Sedaka was among the lucky, however, enjoying a renaissance that began in the mid-’70s thanks to the patronage of Elton John, whom he met at a party after Mr. Sedaka moved his wife and two kids to England to take advantage of his lingering popularity there. John signed him to his fledgling, U.S.-based Rocket Records label, providing him a chance at more hits with the album Sedaka’s Back.

    At Rocket, Mr. Sedaka and a new writing partner, Philip Cody, topped charts with “Bad Blood” and the joyous “Laughter in the Rain.” He also achieved a rare feat with “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do.” His original up-tempo version went No. 1 in 1962. He rerecorded it as a slow ballad in 1975 and that, too, went No. 1.

    He recorded five albums from 1972 to 1976. They included hits “Standing on the Inside,” “That’s Where the Music Takes Me,” and “Our Last Song Together,” about his breakup with Greenfield, with whom he began writing songs when Mr. Sedaka was only 13 and Greenfield 16.

    He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, but the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame eluded him despite a fan petition drive.

    Mr. Sedaka married wife Leba in 1962. They had two children. Daughter Dara recorded a duet with dad in 1980, “Should’ve Never Let You Go.” It was a hit, but she never joined him in the music business. Son Marc is a film and television writer.

  • Federal judge extends order protecting refugees in Minnesota from being arrested and deported

    Federal judge extends order protecting refugees in Minnesota from being arrested and deported

    MINNEAPOLIS — A federal judge on Friday extended an order protecting refugees in Minnesota who are lawfully in the U.S. from being arrested and deported, saying a Trump administration policy turns the “American Dream into a dystopian nightmare.”

    U.S. District Judge John Tunheim granted a motion by advocates for refugees to convert a temporary restraining order that he issued in January into a more permanent preliminary injunction while the case develops further.

    The order applies only in Minnesota. But the implications of a new national policy on refugees that the Department of Homeland Security announced Feb. 18 were a major part of the discussion at a hearing held by the judge the next day.

    “Minnesota refugees can now live their lives without fear that their own government will snatch them off the street and imprison them far from loved ones,” Kimberly Grano, an attorney with the International Refugee Assistance Project, told the Associated Press.

    The Trump administration asserts it has the right to arrest potentially tens of thousands of refugees across the U.S. who entered the country legally but don’t yet have green cards. A new Homeland Security memo interprets immigration law to say that refugees applying for green cards must return to federal custody one year after they were admitted to the U.S. so that their applications can be reviewed.

    The judge, however, expressed disbelief in a 66-page opinion.

    “This Court will not allow federal authorities to use a new and erroneous statutory interpretation to terrorize refugees who immigrated to this country under the promise that they would be welcomed and allowed to live in peace, far from the persecution they fled,” Tunheim said.

    He said the U.S. decades ago promised refugees fleeing persecution that they could build a new life after rigorous background checks.

    “We promised them the hope that one day they could achieve the American Dream,” Tunheim said. “The Government’s new policy breaks that promise — without congressional authorization — and raises serious constitutional concerns. The new policy turns the refugees’ American Dream into a dystopian nightmare.”

    Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services did not immediately return a request for comment Friday.

    Justice Department attorney Brantley Mayers said during a court hearing last week that the government should have the right to arrest refugees one year after entering the U.S., but he also indicated that would not always happen.

    The judge noted that one refugee in the case, identified as D. Doe, was arrested in January after being told that someone had struck his car.

    “He was immediately flown to Texas, where he was interrogated about his refugee status. He was kept in ‘shackles and handcuffs’ for sixteen hours. D. Doe was ultimately released on the streets of Texas, left to find his way back to Minnesota,” Tunheim said.

  • Trump orders all federal agencies to phase out use of Anthropic technology

    Trump orders all federal agencies to phase out use of Anthropic technology

    WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Friday ordered all U.S. agencies to stop using Anthropic’s artificial intelligence technology and imposed other major penalties, culminating an unusually public clash between the government and the company over AI safety.

    President Donald Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and other officials took to social media to chastise Anthropic for failing to allow the military unrestricted use of its AI technology by a Friday deadline, accusing it of endangering national security after CEO Dario Amodei refused to back down over concerns the company’s products could be used in ways that would violate its safeguards.

    “We don’t need it, we don’t want it, and will not do business with them again!” Trump said on social media.

    The hypothetical nuclear attack that escalated the Pentagon’s showdown with Anthropic

    Hegseth also deemed the company a “supply chain risk,” a designation typically stamped on foreign adversaries that could derail the company’s critical partnerships with other businesses.

    Anthropic had said it sought narrow assurances from the Pentagon that its AI chatbot Claude would not be used for mass surveillance of Americans or in fully autonomous weapons. The Pentagon said it was not interested in such uses and would only deploy the technology in legal ways, but it also insisted on access without any limitations.

    The government’s effort to assert dominance over the internal decision-making of the company comes amid a wider clash over AI’s role in national security and concerns about how increasingly capable machines could be used in high-stakes situations involving lethal force, sensitive information or government surveillance.

    Trump and others lash out at Anthropic

    Trump said Anthropic made a mistake trying to strong-arm the Pentagon. He wrote on Truth Social that most agencies must immediately stop using Anthropic’s AI but gave the Pentagon a six-month period to phase out the technology that is already embedded in military platforms.

    “The United States of America will never allow a radical left, woke company to dictate how our great military fights and wins wars!” he wrote in all caps.

    After months of private talks exploded into public debate this week, Anthropic said Thursday that the government’s new contract language would allow “safeguards to be disregarded at will.” Amodei said his company “cannot in good conscience accede” to the demands.

    Anthropic can afford to lose the contract. But the government’s actions posed broader risks at the peak of the company’s meteoric rise from a little-known computer science research lab in San Francisco to one of the world’s most valuable startups.

    The president’s decision was preceded by hours of top Trump appointees from the Pentagon and the State Department taking to social media to criticize Anthropic, but their complaints posed contradictions.

    Top Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said on social media Thursday that Anthropic’s unwillingness to go along with the military’s demands was “jeopardizing critical military operations and potentially putting our warfighters at risk.” Hegseth said Friday that the Pentagon “must have full, unrestricted access to Anthropic’s models for every LAWFUL purpose in defense of the Republic.”

    Trump’s social media post also mandated the company “better get their act together, and be helpful” during a six-month phase-out period or there would be “major civil and criminal consequences to follow.”

    However, Hegseth’s choice to designate Anthropic a supply chain risk uses an administrative tool that has been designed for companies owned by U.S. adversaries to prevent them from selling products that are harmful to American interests.

    Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, noted that this dynamic, “combined with inflammatory rhetoric attacking that company, raises serious concerns about whether national security decisions are being driven by careful analysis or political considerations.”

    Anthropic didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment on the Trump administration’s actions.

    Dispute shakes up Silicon Valley

    The dispute stunned AI developers in Silicon Valley, where venture capitalists, prominent AI scientists and a large number of workers from Anthropic’s top rivals — OpenAI and Google — voiced support for Amodei’s stand in open letters and other forums.

    The move is likely to benefit Elon Musk’s competing chatbot, Grok, which the Pentagon plans to give access to classified military networks, and could serve as a warning to two other competitors, Google and OpenAI, that have still-evolving contracts to supply their AI tools to the military.

    Musk sided with Trump’s administration, saying on his social media platform X that “Anthropic hates Western Civilization.”

    But one of Amodei’s fiercest rivals, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, sided with Anthropic and questioned the Pentagon’s “threatening” move in a CNBC interview and a letter to employees that said OpenAI shared the same red lines. Amodei once worked for OpenAI before he and other OpenAI leaders quit to form Anthropic in 2021.

    “For all the differences I have with Anthropic, I mostly trust them as a company, and I think they really do care about safety,” Altman told CNBC, hours before he gathered employees for an all-hands meeting Friday.

    Retired Air Force Gen. Jack Shanahan, a former leader of the Pentagon’s AI initiatives, wrote on social media this week that “painting a bullseye on Anthropic garners spicy headlines, but everyone loses in the end.”

    Shanahan said Claude is already being widely used across the government, including in classified settings, and Anthropic’s red lines were “reasonable.” He said the AI large language models that power chatbots like Claude, Grok, and ChatGPT are also “not ready for prime time in national security settings,” particularly not for fully autonomous weapons.

    Anthropic is “not trying to play cute here,” he wrote Thursday on LinkedIn. “You won’t find a system with wider & deeper reach across the military.”