U.S

Jan. 13 (UPI) — Actor Timothy Busfield surrendered himself to the Albuquerque Police Department on Tuesday after a warrant was issued last week accusing him of sexually abusing two children.

Busfield said he is fighting the charges that accuse him of criminal sexual conduct with a minor and child abuse.

Before turning himself in on Tuesday, Busfield told his attorneys in Albuquerque that he will “confront these lies” and that he “did not do anything to those little boys,” according to a video obtained by TMZ.

The charges arise from two boys who were cast members of The Cleaning Lady television show that aired on Fox when Busfield was its director and a cast member. Episodes were filmed in New Mexico beginning in 2022.

Attorney Larry Stein is Busfield’s non-criminal attorney and told TMZ that the accusations are false and were made by the mother of two boys who were fired ahead of the show’s final season.

Stein said the mother allegedly told another cast member that she would get revenge against Busfield for cutting her sons from the final season’s cast.

The Warner Bros. studio commissioned an independent investigation by a law firm into the matter and concluded the allegations lacked any evidence.

The law firm interviewed about a dozen people close to the matter before concluding that there was no evidence to support the claims, TMZ reported.

The children accuse Busfield of inappropriately touching them while on the film set.

Busfield surrendered himself after learning a warrant had been issued for his arrest. U.S. Marshals and local police were seeking his whereabouts to initiate an arrest.

Stein said Busfield won’t be allowed to post bail, and his wife, actress Melissa Gilbert, said she won’t comment on the matter.

“Her focus is on supporting and caring for their very large family as they navigate this moment,” Gilbert’s spokesperson Ame Van Iden told NBC News.

“Melissa stands with and supports her husband and will address the public at an appropriate time,” Van Iden said.

Jan. 13 (UPI) — The U.S. Treasury and State Departments designated branches of the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist organizations on Tuesday.

The press release by the Department of the Treasury alleges that chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Jordan support terrorism by supporting terrorist groups such as Hamas.

“The Muslim Brotherhood has a longstanding record of perpetrating acts of terror and we are working aggressively to cut them off from the financial system,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement. “This administration will deploy the full scope of its authorities to disrupt, dismantle and defeat terrorist networks wherever they operate in order to keep America safe.”

The move follows President Donald Trump‘s direction, laid out in an executive order signed in November. Trump directed the Treasury and State Department to evaluate whether any chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood should be designated as a foreign terrorist organization.

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in 1928. It renounced the use of violence in the 1970s, though the treasury said its branches promote and support terrorism.

Hamas was founded as a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1980s. It has since become an independent organization.

The Office of Foreign Asset is directed to block all property and property interests related to the sanctioned Muslim Brotherhood branches. This includes property that is at least 50% owned by a person associated with the organization.

GENEVA — President Trump will return to the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting of business, political and cultural elites in Davos, Switzerland, next week, leading a record-large U.S. delegation, organizers said Tuesday.

The Geneva-based think tank says Trump, whose assertive foreign policy on issues as diverse as Venezuela and Greenland in recent months has stirred concerns among U.S. friends and foes alike, will be accompanied by five Cabinet secretaries and other top officials for the event running from Monday through Jan. 23.

A total of 850 CEOs and chairs of the world’s top companies will be among the 3,000 participants from 130 countries expected in the Alpine resort this year, the forum says.

Forum President Borge Brende says six of the Group of Seven leaders — including Trump — will attend, as well as presidents Volodymyr Zelenskky of Ukraine, Ahmad al-Sharaa of Syria and others. A total of 64 heads of state or government are expected so far — also a record — though that number could increase before the start of the event, he said.

China’s delegation will be headed by Vice Premier He Lifeng, Beijing’s top trade official, Brende said.

Among the scores of other high-profile attendees expected are European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as well as tech industry titans Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

Brende said the U.S. delegation will include Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, along with Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff.

The forum, which held its first annual meeting in 1971, has long been a hub of dialogue, debate and deal-making. Trump has already attended twice while president, and was beamed in by video last year just days after being inaugurated for his second term.

Critics call it a venue for the world’s elites to hobnob and do business that sometimes comes at the expense of workers, the impoverished or people on the margins of society. The forum counters that its stated goal is “improving the state of the world” and insists many advocacy groups, academics and cultural leaders have an important role too.

This year’s edition will be the first annual meeting not headed by forum founder Klaus Schwab, who resigned last year. He’s been succeeded by interim co-chairs Larry Fink, chairman and CEO of New York-based investment management company BlackRock, and Andre Hoffmann, the vice chairman of Swiss pharmaceuticals company Roche Holdings.

Jan. 13 (UPI) — The consumer price index showed inflation rising less than expected in December, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday.

The bureau reports that seasonally adjusted consumer prices grew by about 0.2% for the month, and about 2.6% for the 12 months ending in December. Both figures fall about 0.1% short of what was expected.

The biggest contributor to rising prices was the index for shelter, rising about 0.4%. The food index was 0.7% and energy’s index was 0.3% in December.

Tuesday’s CPI tracked several categories that were absent in October and November reports, including food, some energy items, shelter and other items like vehicles and medical care commodities. Federal reports were impacted by the 43-day government shutdown that began on Oct. 1.

The rate for all items increased by 2.7% for the year ending in December. This figure matched the Dow Jones estimate.

In total, prices remain elevated but the latest CPI indicates inflation has cooled some. The Federal Reserve is targeting an annual 2% rate of inflation before it brings interest rates down.

Last month, the Fed cut interest rates by a quarter percentage point to a range of 3.5% to 3.75%. It is the lowest its interest rates have been since November 2022.

MINNEAPOLIS — Days of demonstrations against immigration agents left Minnesota tense on Tuesday, a day after federal authorities used tear gas to break up crowds of whistle-blowing activists and state and local leaders sued to fight the enforcement surge that led to the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman.

Confrontations between federal agents and protesters stretched throughout the day and across multiple cities on Monday. Agents fired tear gas in Minneapolis as a crowd gathered around immigration officers questioning a man, while to the northwest in St. Cloud hundreds of people protested outside a strip of Somali-run businesses after ICE officers arrived.

Later that night, confrontations erupted between protesters and officers guarding the federal building being used as a base for the Twin Cities crackdown.

With the Department of Homeland Security pledging to send more than 2,000 immigration officers into Minnesota in what Immigration and Customs Enforcement has called its largest enforcement operation ever, the state, joined by Minneapolis and St. Paul, sued the Trump administration Monday to try to halt or limit the surge.

The lawsuit says the Department of Homeland Security operation violates the First Amendment and other constitutional protections and accuses the Republican Trump administration of violating free speech rights by focusing on a progressive state that favors Democrats and welcomes immigrants.

“This is, in essence, a federal invasion of the Twin Cities in Minnesota, and it must stop,” state Attorney General Keith Ellison said at a news conference.

Homeland Security says it has made more than 2,000 arrests in the state since early December.

Dozens of protests or vigils have taken place across the U.S. to honor Renee Good since the 37-year-old mother of three was shot in the head by an ICE officer in Minneapolis.

In response to Monday’s lawsuit, Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin accused Minnesota officials of ignoring public safety.

“President Trump’s job is to protect the American people and enforce the law — no matter who your mayor, governor, or state attorney general is,” McLaughlin said.

The Trump administration has repeatedly defended the immigration agent who shot Good, saying she and her vehicle presented a threat. But that explanation has been widely panned by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and others based on videos of the confrontation.

The government also faces a new lawsuit over a similar immigration crackdown in Illinois. More than 4,300 people were arrested last year in “Operation Midway Blitz” as masked agents swept the Chicago area. The lawsuit by the city and state says the campaign had a chilling effect, making residents afraid to leave home.

The lawsuit seeks restrictions on certain tactics, among other remedies. McLaughlin called it “baseless.”

Meanwhile, in Portland, Ore., federal authorities filed charges against a Venezuelan national who was one of two people shot there by U.S. Border Patrol on Thursday. The U.S. Justice Department said the man used his pickup truck to strike a Border Patrol vehicle and escape the scene with a woman.

They were shot and eventually arrested. Their wounds were not life-threatening. The FBI said there was no video of the incident, unlike the Good shooting.

Santana, Vancleave and Karnowski write for the Associated Press. AP reporters Ed White in Detroit; Sarah Raza in Sioux Falls, S.D.; and Sophia Tareen in Chicago contributed to this report.

Jan. 13 (UPI) — Republican Rep. Randy Fine introduced legislation Monday authorizing President Donald Trump to take measures necessary to acquire Greenland, amid renewed White House rhetoric about taking the autonomous Danish island.

The Greenland Annexation and Statehood Act, which is anything but assured of passage through the House, would give Trump the power to take the island, including through annexation, and require a report to be submitted to Congress detailing necessary changes to federal law to admit Greenland as the 51st state.

“Whoever controls Greenland controls key Arctic shipping lanes and the security architecture protecting the United States,” Fine, of Florida, said in a statement.

“America cannot leave that future in the hands of regimes that despise our values and seek to undermine our security.”

President Donald Trump has talked of the importance of Greenland to U.S. national security since his first term, but he has increased rhetoric about acquiring the island since returning to the White House last year.

Following the U.S. military abduction of Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolas Maduro, earlier this month, and amid heightened geopolitical concerns, the Trump administration has increased its rhetoric about acquiring Greenland.

Trump said Sunday that the United States must control the territory, which is an autonomous island of Denmark, a NATO ally.

“One way or another, we’re going to have Greenland,” he said, adding that “if we don’t take Greenland, Russia or China will. And I’m not letting that happen.”

The threat to Greenland’s sovereignty has drawn staunch criticism from Democrats, Denmark and other European and NATO allies.

The U.S. Pituffik Space Force Base is located on Greenland, and Jesper Moller Sorensen, Denmark’s ambassador the United States, has said that since 1951, the United States has had the option to establish additional military bases and increase its military presence on the island.

Sorensen said he met with Fine on Monday and made clear that Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark.

“Together, [Greenland] & [Denmark] are ready to deepen our security cooperation w. [the United States] to strengthen our collective defense within @NATO,” Sorensen said on X.

Jan. 12 (UPI) — A Venezuelan employee of the New York City Council has been detained by federal immigration officials, Council Speaker Julie Menin said Monday night, amid growing anger over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

The unidentified data analyst was detained while attending a routine court appearance in Bethpage, Long Island, making him the first city council employee to be detained by the Trump administration, she said.

“This man chose to work for the council on behalf of the public, on behalf of New Yorkers, and despite every indication that he was doing everything the right way, he still found himself a victim of egregious government overreach,” she said during a Monday night press conference.

The employee, who is legally able to work in the United States until October, used his single phone call to contact the City Council Human Resources department seeking help, Menin said, demanding his release.

Menin added that the employee has been moved to a detention center that she cannot get in touch with.

“I’m an elected official running a body and I cannot contact a federal facility? What kind of accountability or transparency is that?” she said.

“That is not how our government works and that is not how our legal system is meant to work.”

Menin said she has spoken with the Department of Homeland Security to express her “extreme frustration” and demand information about why the employee was detained. The DHS confirmed to her that the employee was detained during the routine court appearance but provided no basis for his detention, she said.

U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., reiterated that there is no indication that there is anything about the employee that warranted his arrest other than that he is an immigrant from Venezuela.

Venezuela and migrants from the South American nation have been a focus of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Earlier this month, the United States abducted Venezuela’s authoritarian president, Nicolas Maduro, in a military operation. He has been indicted in the United States on narcoterrorism and other drug-related charges.

Goldman told reporters that following the detention of Maduro, the DHS is reconsidering whether or not they can even deport Venezuelans back to their native country.

“Instead of finding ‘the worst of the worst,’ instead of finding people who should be deported if they’ve committed felonies, ICE is going after New York City public employees,” he said.

The DHS often states that it is targeting “the worst of the worst” with its immigration law enforcement operations.

In refuting this DHS assertion, Goldman said that instead, federal agents are targeting their neighbors, community members and New York City public employees.

“They are going after the easiest prey they can find,” he said.

In a statement, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he was “outraged” by the employee’s detention.

“This is an assault on our democracy, on our city and our values,” he said.

“I am calling for his immediate release and will continue to monitor the situation.”

BEIJING — A leader of the Canadian government is visiting China this week for the first time in nearly a decade, a bid to rebuild his country’s fractured relations with the world’s second-largest economy — and reduce Canada’s dependence on the United States, its neighbor and until recently one of its most supportive and unswerving allies.

The push by Prime Minster Mark Carney, who arrives Wednesday, is part of a major rethink as ties sour with the United States — the world’s No. 1 economy and long the largest trading partner for Canada by far.

Carney aims to double Canada’s non-U.S. exports in the next decade in the face of President Trump’s tariffs and the American leader’s musing that Canada could become “the 51st state.”

“At a time of global trade disruption, Canada is focused on building a more competitive, sustainable, and independent economy,” Carney said in a news release announcing his China visit. “We’re forging new partnerships around the world to transform our economy from one that has been reliant on a single trade partner.”

He will be in China until Saturday, then visit Qatar before attending the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland next week.

Trump’s tariffs have pushed Canada and China to look for opportunities to strengthen international cooperation, said Zhu Feng, the dean of the School of International Studies at China’s Nanjing University.

“Carney’s visit does reflect the new space for further development in China-Canadian relations under the current U.S. trade protectionism,” he said. But he cautioned against overestimating the importance of the visit, noting that Canada remains a U.S. ally. The two North American nations also share a deep cultural heritage and a common geography.

New leaders have pivoted toward China

Carney has been in office less than a year, succeeding Justin Trudeau, who was prime minister for nearly a decade. He is not the first new leader of a country to try to repair relations with China.

Australian Premier Anthony Albanese has reset ties since his Labor Party came to power in 2022. Relations had deteriorated under the previous conservative government, leading to Chinese trade restrictions on wine, beef, coal and other Australian exports. Unwinding those restrictions took about 18 months, culminating with the lifting of a Chinese ban on Australian lobsters in late 2024.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has sought to repair ties with China since his Labor Party ousted the Conservatives in 2024. He is reportedly planning a visit to China, though the government has not confirmed that.

The two governments have differences, with Starmer raising the case of former Hong Kong media magnate Jimmy Lai, a British citizen, in talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in late 2024 in Brazil.

Trump, who has said he will come to China in April, has indicated he wants a smooth relationship with China, though he also launched a tit-for-tat trade war, with tariffs rising to more than 100% before he backed down.

Bumpy relations, with Washington in the middle

In Canada, Trump’s threats have raised questions about the country’s longstanding relationship with its much more powerful neighbor. Those close ties have also been the source of much of Canada’s friction with China in recent years.

It was Canada’s detention of a Chinese telecommunications executive at the request of the U.S. that started the deterioration of relations in late 2018. The U.S. wanted the Huawei Technologies Co. executive, Meng Wenzhou, to be extradited to face American charges.

China retaliated by arresting two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, on spying charges. While they were imprisoned, Meng was under house arrest in Vancouver, a Canadian city home to a sizable Chinese population. All three were released under a deal reached in 2021.

More recently, Canada followed the U.S. in imposing a 100% tariff on electric vehicles and a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum from China.

China, which is Canada’s second-largest trading partner after the U.S., has hit back with tariffs on Canadian exports including canola, seafood and pork. It has indicated it would remove some of the tariffs if Canada were to drop the 100% charge on EVs.

An editorial in China’s state-run Global Times newspaper welcomed Carney’s visit as a new starting point and called on Canada to lift “unreasonable tariff restrictions” and advance more pragmatic cooperation.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Monday that China looks forward to Carney’s visit as an opportunity to “consolidate the momentum of improvement in China-Canada relations.”

Canada is also repairing ties with India

Carney met Xi in late October in South Korea, where both were attending the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

He has also tried to mend ties with India, where relations deteriorated in 2024 after the Trudeau government accused India of being involved in the 2023 killing of a Sikh activist in Canada. The fallout led to tit-for-tat expulsions of senior diplomats, disruption of visa services, reduced consular staffing and a freeze on trade talks.

A cautious thaw began last June. Since then, both sides have restored some consular services and resumed diplomatic contacts. In November, Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand said the two countries would move quickly to advance a trade deal, noting the government’s new foreign policy in response to Trump’s trade war.

Carney is also expected to visit India later this year.

Moritsugu writes for the Associated Press. AP journalists Sheikh Saaliq in New Delhi and Jill Lawless in London, and researcher Shihuan Chen in Beijing contributed to this report.

Jan. 12 (UPI) — Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., filed a lawsuit Monday against Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and the Pentagon for trying to censure and demote him.

Kelly’s suit alleges that their efforts are “unlawful and unconstitutional.”

Last week, Hegseth announced that the Defense Department is reducing Kelly’s retirement pay over comments he made in November in a video telling service members that they have the right and duty to ignore “unlawful orders.”

Hegseth alleges that the video was “seditious.”

“Six weeks ago, Sen. Mark Kelly — and five other members of Congress — released a reckless and seditious video that was clearly intended to undermine good order and military discipline,” Hegseth said. “As a retired Navy Captain who is still receiving a military pension, Captain Kelly knows he is still accountable to military justice.”

Last week, Hegseth said the Pentagon was working to downgrade Kelly’s military retirement rank and pay for the video.

The suit says that Hegseth is violating Kelly’s First Amendment rights and the Speech and Debate clause of the Constitution, which grants immunity to lawmakers for official acts.

“It appears that never in our nation’s history has the Executive Branch imposed military sanctions on a Member of Congress for engaging in disfavored political speech,” the suit said.

“Pete Hegseth is coming after what I earned through my twenty-five years of military service, in violation of my rights as an American, as a retired veteran, and as a United States Senator whose job is to hold him — and this or any administration — accountable,” Kelly said in a statement on X. “His unconstitutional crusade against me sends a chilling message to every retired member of the military: if you speak out and say something that the President or Secretary of Defense doesn’t like, you will be censured, threatened with demotion, or even prosecuted.”

Kelly said the actions of the Pentagon could affect any retired military personnel.

“Now, Pete Hegseth wants our longest-serving military veterans to live with the constant threat that they could be deprived of their rank and pay years or even decades after they leave the military just because he or another Secretary of Defense doesn’t like what they’ve said. That’s not the way things work in the United States of America, and I won’t stand for it,” he said on X.

Five other Democratic lawmakers were in the video, but none of them retired from their service. They are: Reps. Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire, Jason Crow of Colorado and Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, along with Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan.

Also named as defendants in the suit are Secretary of the Navy John Phelan and the Department of the Navy.

Jan. 12 (UPI) — A fight that broke out at a state prison in Georgia left three prisoners dead and 13 others hospitalized, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office said.

The violence took place Sunday and also injured a guard, though the extent of their injuries was unknown, WAGA-TV in Atlanta reported.

Sheriff Joel Cochran identified the three prisoners who died as Jimmy Lee Trammell, Ahmod Hatcher and Teddy Dwayne Jackson.

Cochran told WJBF-TV in Augusta that prisoners were fighting among themselves, sparking a larger riot at Washington County State Prison. It’s unclear what sparked the initial fight.

Corrections officials put the facility on lockdown during the incident, and the prison was deemed secure by 6 p.m.

Jan. 12 (UPI) — Alphabet, Google‘s parent company, became the fourth company to reach a $4 trillion value Monday.

The company’s stock rose 2% Monday after Apple announced it chose Google’s Gemini to power its artificial intelligence features.

Nvidia and Microsoft breached the $4 trillion mark in July, and Apple crossed it in October. Alphabet passed $3 trillion in September. Since then, Apple and Microsoft have dropped below $4 trillion.

Analyst Deepak Mathivanan upgraded Alphabet’s stock on Jan. 8, CNBC reported.

“We believe the technological advantages of the Gemini assistant app — powered by Google’s ‘grounding’ assets — vs. ChatGPT (powered by Bing and partner integrations) are underappreciated,” Mathivanan wrote. Google “arguably, has the strongest footprint across several layers in the AI tech stack, and the company’s decade-long investments have enabled deep competitive moats.”

In November, Google released Ironwood, the seventh generation of its tensor processing units, a custom AI chip that rivals Nvidia. In December, Google introduced Gemini 3.

Apple and Google announced their Gemini partnership Monday in a joint statement.

“Apple and Google have entered into a multi-year collaboration under which the next generation of Apple Foundation Models will be based on Google’s Gemini models and cloud technology. These models will help power future Apple Intelligence features, including a more personalized Siri coming this year,” the companies said.

“After careful evaluation, Apple determined that Google’s Al technology provides the most capable foundation for Apple Foundation Models and is excited about the innovative new experiences it will unlock for Apple users. Apple Intelligence will continue to run on Apple devices and Private Cloud Compute, while maintaining Apple’s industry-leading privacy standards,” the statement said.

Citi analysts said 70% of Google Cloud customers use its AI products.

“Google has the chip, the infrastructure capacity, and the model amid growing demand,” CNBC reported Citi said.

Jan. 12 (UPI) — Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, on Monday called on Congress to investigate the Department of Justice’s probe of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, which she described as “an attempt at coercion” by President Donald Trump.

Powell revealed Sunday night he received a subpoena from the Justice Department threatening him with criminal charges over testimony he gave to Congress last year about the cost of renovating historic Federal Reserve buildings. He accused the Trump administration of using the testimony as a pretext to punish him and the Fed for failing to set federal interest rates based on Trump’s preferences.

In a statement Monday, Murkowski echoed Powell’s stance, saying the project cost overruns “are not unusual.”

“After speaking with Chair Powell this morning, it’s clear the administration’s investigation is nothing more than an attempt at coercion,” she said, calling for an investigation of the Justice Department.

“The stakes are too high to look the other way: If the Federal Reserve loses its independence, the stability of our markets and the broader economy will suffer.”

Murkowski said she supported Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who said Sunday that he would vote against confirming a new head of the Federal Reserve “until this legal matter is fully resolved.”

Trump has said he plans to replace Powell when his four-year term is up later this year. The president has repeatedly taken Powell to task for not cutting interest rates as frequently and by as much as he wants. Trump appointed Powell to his first four-year term in 2018, and former President Joe Biden renewed his position in 2022.

“If there were any remaining doubt whether advisers within the Trump administration are actively pushing to end the independence of the Federal Reserve, there should now be none,” Tillis said in a statement. “It is now the independence and credibility of the Department of Justice that are in question.

In an appearance on NBC News on Sunday, Trump said he has no knowledge of the Justice Department’s plans to investigate the Federal Reserve.

“I don’t know anything about it, but he’s certainly not very good at the Fed, and he’s not very good at building buildings,” Trump said of Powell.

Trump threatened to sue Powell in August over the the planned renovations, citing the “horrible and grossly incompetent job he has done in managing the construction of the Fed Buildings.” The president said the cost of the renovations exceeded $3 billion, but all the project needed was a “$50 million dollar fix up.”

During a tour of the renovations in July, Powell disputed Trump’s claims that the project exceeded $3 billion, saying the estimate was closer to $2.5 billion.

Trump told NBC News that the Justice Department’s probe isn’t related to benchmark interest rates.

“No. I wouldn’t even think of doing it that way. What should pressure him is the fact that rates are far too high. That’s the only pressure he’s got,” Trump said of Powell.

“He’s hurt a lot of people. I think the public is pressuring him.”

MEXICO CITY — Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said she had “a very good conversation” with President Trump on Monday and that their two governments will continue working together on security issues without the need for U.S. intervention against drug cartels.

The approximately 15-minute call came after Sheinbaum said Friday she had requested dialogue with the Trump administration at the end of a week in which he had said he was ready to confront drug cartels on the ground and repeated the accusation that cartels were running Mexico.

Trump has repeatedly offered to send the U.S. military after the cartels and Sheinbaum has always declined, but after the U.S. removal of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Trump’s comments about Mexico, Cuba and Greenland carried new weight.

“He (Trump) asked me my opinion about what they had done in Venezuela and I told him very clearly that our constitution is very clear, that we do not agree with interventions and that was it,” Sheinbaum said.

Trump “still insisted that if we ask for it, they could help” with military forces, which Sheinbaum said she again rejected. “We told him, so far it’s going very well, it’s not necessary, and furthermore there is Mexico’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and he understood.”

In an interview with Fox News aired last Thursday, Trump said, “We’ve knocked out 97% of the drugs coming in by water and we are going to start now hitting land, with regard to the cartels. The cartels are running Mexico. It’s very sad to watch.”

Sheinbaum said Monday the two leaders agreed to continue working together.

Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Secretary Juan Ramón de la Fuente spoke Sunday with his U.S. counterpart, Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Rubio asked for “tangible results” and more cooperation to dismantle the cartels, according to a statement from the U.S. State Department.

Sheinbaum said Mexico shared those results, including a significant drop in homicides, falling U.S. fentanyl seizures and fentanyl overdose deaths.

Experts still see U.S. intervention in Mexico as unlikely because Mexico is doing what the U.S. asks and is a critical economic partner, but expect Trump to continue using such rhetoric to maintain pressure on Mexico to do more.

Sheinbaum said the two leaders did not speak about Cuba, which Trump threatened Sunday. Mexico is an important ally of the island nation, including selling it oil that it will need even more desperately now that the Trump administration says it will not allow any more oil shipments from Venezuela to Cuba.

Jan. 11 (UPI) — A “suspicious object” was found by U.S. Secret Service agents during an inspection of Palm Beach International Airport on Sunday, the White House said, as President Donald Trump was to depart from his Florida estate for Washington.

The unidentified object was discovered by the Secret Service during an advanced sweep of the airport prior to Trump’s arrival, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters in a statement.

“A further investigation was warranted and the presidential motorcade route was adjusted accordingly,” she said.

Trump had been in Palm Beach since Friday night and departed for Washington on Sunday evening, arriving on the South Lawn of the White House at 9:12 p.m. EST via Joint Base Andrews, Md.

Asked by reporters about the object aboard Air Force One, Trump replied: “I know nothing about it.”

This is a developing story.

Jan. 11 (UPI) — Police arrested and charged a suspect in the arson fire of a synagogue in Jackson, Miss., Beth Israel Congregation, which torched the facility’s library, spread smoke damage throughout the building and destroyed two Torahs.

The fire was reported around 3:00 a.m. Saturday — overnight Shabbat, the weekly Jewish day of rest — and the temple has suspended services indefinitely due to the damage, according to Mississippi Today.

The library and administrative offices were damaged in the fire, in addition to the two destroyed Torahs and five others that were damaged when the blaze erupted. A Torah that survived the Holocaust and is stored in a glass case was undamaged, according to reports.

“Acts of antisemitism, racism and religious hatred are attacks on Jackson as a whole and will be treated as acts of terror against residents’ safety and feedom to worship,” Jackson Mayor John Horn said in a statement on Sunday, WAPT-16 reported.

The synagogue, which was founded in 1960, was the first to be founded in the state, and has been the subject of attacks several times in its history, The New York Times reported.

In 1874, the temple, then built as a wood frame building, was lit on fire.

In 1967, Beth Israel was also bombed by members of the local Ku Klux Klan after its rabbi had spoken out against racism and segregation. His support for civil rights resulted in his home being bombed by the same Klan group months later.

U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., on Sunday morning denounced the arson in a post on X, quoting the bible passage Isaiah 40:1, saying “comfort Ye my people, saith your God.”

“Our hearts are with the members of Beth Israel Congregation,” Wicker and his wife, Gayle, said in the post.

“We stand with them as we do all the caring people of Mississippi,” they said. “We denounce violence and find attacks on places of worship especially despicable.”

Jan. 11 (UPI) — Wing and Walmart on Sunday announced plans to expand the retailer’s drone delivery service to more major metropolitan areas and more than 150 additional stores this year.

The expansion plans doubles the number of cities that where drone delivery service is available from Walmart, which the top 25% of customers have used three times a week as overall deliveries tripled in a six month period last year.

The new service areas include Los Angeles, St. Louis, Cincinnati and Miami, while service is already up and running in northwest Arkansas, the Dallas-Fort Worth and Atlanta metropolitan areas, is set to start in Houston on Jan. 15 and has already been announced for Charlotte, Orlando and Tampa, according to a press release.

“Drone delivery plays an important role in our ability to deliver what customers want, exactly when they want it it,” Greg Cathey, senior vice president of digital fulfillment transformation at Walmart, said in a press release.

“The strong adoption we’ve seen confirms that this is the future of convenience,” he said.

Walmart started experimenting with Wing’s drone delivery service in Bentonville in 2021, making about 150,000 drone deliveries, before announcing in June 2025 that service would be expanded to Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, Orlando and Tampa over the course of the next 12 months.

Initially, the service was available from 100 stores in northwest Arkansas and Dallas-Fort Worth to customers within a 6-mile radius of the store. Service launched from six Walmart stores in Atlanta at the beginning of December.

The June announcement included plans to offer drone service in all five metro areas from 100 stores by some time this year, with the four-city expansion adding another 150 locations.

In 2027, Wing said in the release, drone delivery will be available from more than 270 Walmart locations in cities coast-to-coast in the United States and be available to roughly 40 million people.

Jan. 11 (UPI) — SpaceX early Sunday morning launched its first Twilight rideshare flight from California, launching satellites for NASA, an Internet-of-Things services company and an experiment to 3-D print a boom in space.

The company’s first rideshare launch of the year, which also is the start of a new series of dedicated smallsat rideshare missions, launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 5:44 a.m. PST from Space Launch Complex 4E.

SpaceX sent 40 payloads to a dusk-dawn sun-synchronous orbit atop a Falcon 9 first stage booster that previously has launched Sentinel-6B and three Starlink missions. The orbital position is the separating line of night and day on Earth.

After launch, the booster returned to land at Landing Zone 4 at Vandenberg about an hour later as satellite deployment sequences started around the same time, SpaceX said in posts on X and on its website.

The 40 payloads SpaceX carried to space were scheduled to be deployed into orbit over the course of about 90 minutes.

NASA’s Pandora small satellite is planned to study at least 20 exoplanets and the activity of their host stars as it passes over the same spot on Earth each day, where the Sun will be behind it to prevent light from affecting its image and data collection, the agency said.

Although they are not NASA projects, the agency also is involved with two cubesat small satellite missions — the Star-Planet Activity Research CubeSat, or SPARCS, for Arizona State University, and the Black Hole Coded Aperture Telescope, or BlackCat, which will be operated by researchers at Penn State University.

Dcubed, a company developing deployable space structures and in-space manufacturing systems, sent its ARAQYS-D1 mission, which will 3-D print and manufacture a 60-centimeter ISM boom in free space as a proof of concept.

The 3D-printing mission is one of more than 22 payloads on the SpaceX mission being supported by Exolaunch, which has worked with many space agencies and private companies to send missions into orbit on SpaceX rideshares.

Among the other payloads are satellites to provide Internet of Things connectivity for the Turkish company Plan-S Satellite and Space Technologies and Spire Global’s Hyperspectral Microwave Sounder 16U CubeSat, which will study the Earth’s internal atmosphere, NASA Spacelight reported.

WASHINGTON — After President Trump ordered strikes that led to the capture of Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, celebrations erupted in Venezuelan communities across the U.S.

But for many of the hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan immigrants facing possible deportation, their relief and joy were cut by the fear about what comes next from an administration that has zeroed in on Venezuelans as a target.

“Many of us asked ourselves, ‘What’s going to happen with us now?’” said A.G., a 39-year-old in Tennessee who asked to be identified by her initials because she lacks legal status. Even so, Maduro’s ouster gave her a lot of hope for her mother country.

Venezuelans began fleeing in droves in 2014 as economic collapse led to widespread food and medicine shortages, as well as political repression. Nearly 8 million Venezuelans are now living outside the country — including 1.2 million in the U.S.

Venezuelans migrants walk toward Bucaramanga, Colombia, in 2019.

(Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times)

A.G. and her now-18-year-old son arrived at the southern border in 2019. Since then, she said, they have built a good life — they own a transport company with delivery trucks, pay taxes and follow the law.

Maduro’s fall left her with mixed feelings.

“He’s obviously a dictator, many people have died because of him and he refused to give up power, but the reason that they entered Venezuela, for me what President Trump did was illegal,” she said. “Innocent people died because of the bombs. I’m asking God that it all be for good reason.”

Dozens of Venezuelans and others were killed in the U.S. invasion — more than 100, a government official said — including civilians.

The Trump administration is framing its Venezuela operation as an opportunity for Venezuelans like A.G. “Now, they can return to the country they love and rebuild its future,” said U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman Matthew Tragesser.

Katie Blankenship, a Miami-based attorney with Sanctuary of the South who has represented many Venezuelans facing deportation, sees a less promising future.

“We’re going to see increased targeting of Venezuelans to force them to leave the U.S. into a political and socioeconomic environment that’s likely only more destabilized and subject to more abuse,” she said.

The Venezuelan community in the U.S. swelled, in part, because the Biden administration expanded pathways for them to enter the country.

Volunteer help a Venezuelan immigrant at the storage units from a volunteer-run program that distributes donations to recently arrived Venezuelan immigrants in need, in Miami, Fla., in 2023.

(Eva Marie Uzcategui / Los Angeles Times)

One of those programs allowed more than 117,000 Venezuelans to purchase flights directly to the U.S. and stay for two years if they had a U.S.-based financial sponsor and passed a background check. Other Venezuelans entered legally at land ports of entry after scheduling interviews with border officers.

By the end of the Biden administration, more than 600,000 Venezuelans had protection from deportation under Temporary Protected Status, a program used by both Republican and Democratic administrations for immigrants who cannot return home because of armed conflict, natural disaster or other “extraordinary and temporary conditions.”

On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly referred to Venezuelan immigrants as criminals, singling them out more than any other nationality — in 64% of speeches, an Axios analysis showed. He has said repeatedly, without evidence that Venezuela emptied its prisons and mental institutions to flood the U.S. with immigrants.

One of Trump’s first acts as president was to designate the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization. Within two months, he invoked an 18th century wartime law, the Alien Enemies Act, to deport 252 Venezuelan men accused of being Tren de Aragua members to El Salvador, where they were imprisoned and tortured despite many having no criminal histories in the U.S. or Latin America.

Later, the Trump administration stripped away protections for Venezuelans with financial sponsors and TPS, with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem calling the latter “contrary to the national interest.”

In a September Federal Register Notice, Noem said that TPS for Venezuelans undercut the administration’s foreign policy objectives because one result of allowing Venezuelans in the U.S. was “relieving pressure on Maduro’s regime to enact domestic reforms and facilitate safe return conditions.” In other words, if Venezuelans returned home, that would pressure the government to enact reforms.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, along with U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi, left, and Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, right, participates in a news conference near Camp 57 at Angola prison, the Louisiana State Penitentiary and America’s largest maximum-security prison farm, to announce the opening of a new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility that will house immigrants convicted of crimes in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, on Sept. 3, 2025.

(Matthew Hilton / AFP via Getty Images)

The administration has offered contrasting assessments of conditions in Venezuela. Noem wrote that although certain adverse conditions continue, “there are notable improvements in several areas such as the economy, public health, and crime.”

Throughout the year, though, the State Department continued to reissue an “extreme danger” travel advisory for Venezuela, urging Americans to leave the country immediately.

Conditions for Venezuelans in the U.S. grew more complicated after a man from Afghanistan was accused of shooting two National Guard members in November; in response, the administration froze the immigration cases of people from 39 countries, including Venezuela, that the administration considers “high-risk.” That means anyone who applied for asylum, a visa, a green card or any other benefit remains in limbo indefinitely.

After a panel of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act in September, the Justice Department appealed. In a support brief filed in December, the Justice Department cited escalating tensions with Venezuela.

David Smilde, a Tulane University sociologist and expert on Venezuelan politics, said that invading Venezuela could justify renewed use of the Alien Enemies Act.

The law says the president can invoke the Alien Enemies Act not only in times of “declared war,” but also when a foreign government threatens or carries out an “invasion” or “predatory incursion” against the U.S.

“Now it will be difficult, I think, for the court to say, ‘No, you can’t use this,’” Smilde said.

With U.S. officials promising improved conditions in Venezuela and encouraging citizens to return, Smilde said, they could invoke the Alien Enemies Act to quickly deport undocumented immigrants who don’t leave willingly.

“There’s several layers to this,” he said, “and none of it looks very good for Venezuelan immigrants.”

This couple from Venezuela shared their story of why they left their three children back in their home country and spoke of the the experiences of their travel to the United States at the Parkside Community Church in Sacramento on June 16, 2023.

(Jose Luis Villegas / For The Times)

Jose, a 28-year-old Venezuelan living east of Los Angeles, fled Venezuela in 2015 after being imprisoned and beaten for criticizing the government. He lived in Colombia and Peru before illegally crossing the U.S. border in 2022, and now has a pending asylum application. Jose asked to be identified by his middle name out of fear of retaliation by the U.S. government.

The news this week that an ICE agent had shot and killed a woman in Minnesota heightened his anxiety.

“You come here because supposedly this is a country with freedom of expression, and there is more safety, but with this government, now you’re afraid you’ll get killed,” he said. “And that was a U.S. citizen. Imagine what they could do to me?”

People visit a memorial for Renee Nicole Good on Jan. 7 in Minneapolis.

(Scott Olson / Getty Images)

Jose qualifies for a work permit based on his pending asylum, but his application for one is frozen because of the executive order following the National Guard shooting.

The news of Maduro’s arrest was bittersweet, Jose said, because his mother and grandmother didn’t live to witness that day. He said his mother died last year of kidney failure due to lack of medical care, leaving him as the primary breadwinner for his two young sisters who remain in Venezuela with their father, who is disabled.

Still, he said he’s happy with what Trump has done in Venezuela.

“People are saying he’s stealing our petroleum,” he said, “but for 25 years, Cuba, China and Iran have been stealing the petroleum and it didn’t improve our lives.”

Many Venezuelans were encouraged by news that Venezuela would release a “significant number” of political prisoners as a peace gesture.

For Jose, that’s not enough. Venezuela’s government ordered police to search for anyone involved in promoting or supporting the attack by U.S. forces, leading to detentions of journalists and civilians.

“Venezuela remains the same,” he said. “The same disgrace, the same poverty and the same government repression.”

A.G. said she was heartened to hear Noem say Sunday on Fox News that every Venezeulan who had TPS “has the opportunity to apply for refugee status and that evaluation will go forward.” But the administration quickly backtracked and said that was not the case.

Instead, Noem and other administration officials have doubled down on the notion that Venezuelans without permanent lawful status should leave. Noem told Fox News that there are no plans to pause deportation flights despite the political uncertainty in Venezuela.

Tragesser, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman, said the agency’s posture hasn’t changed.

“USCIS encourages all Venezuelans unlawfully in the U.S. to use the CBP Home app for help with a safe and orderly return to their country,” he said.

Jan. 10 (UPI) — If President Donald Trump has his way, credit card companies will limit their respective interest rates to no more than 10% for a year to make them more affordable.

Trump took to social media to call on all credit card companies to voluntarily lower their interest rates for one year, starting this month, to promote affordability.

“Please be informed that we will no longer let the American public be ‘ripped off’ by credit card companies that are charging interest rates of 20 to 30%, and even more, which festered unimpeded during the Sleepy Joe Biden Administration,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Friday.

“AFFORDABILITY! Effective January 20, 2026, I, as president of the United States, am calling for a one-year cap on credit card Interest Rates of 10%,” he said, adding that Jan. 20 is the one-year anniversary of his second term in office.

The Federal Reserve reported a record-high average annual percentage rate of nearly 23% and rising in 2023, the now-defunct Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said.

That’s up from an average APR of 16.4% in 2021 and 20.4% in 2022, according to the Federal Reserve.

While the average APR rate rose significantly under the Biden administration, Trump last year eliminated the Biden administration policy that limited credit card fees to no more than $8.

The average fee previously was $32 for late credit card payments and other fee-triggering activities.

Jan. 10 (UPI) — The U.S. military and allied forces carried out “large-scale” retaliatory strikes on ISIS targets in Syria as part of the military’s ongoing Operation Hawkeye Strike campaign.

The aerial strikes were carried out against multiple targets at 12:30 p.m. EST on Saturday, U.S. Central Command said in a news release.

“The strikes today targeted ISIS throughout Syria as part of our ongoing commitment to root out Islamic terrorism against our warfighters, prevent future attacks and protect American and partner forces in the region,” CentCom officials said.

“U.S. and coalition forces remain resolute in pursuing terrorists who seek to harm the United States,” they added. “Our message remains strong: if you harm our warfighters, we will find you and kill you anywhere in the world, no matter how hard you try to evade justice.”

More than 90 precision munitions carried by more than 24 aircraft were used to strike more than 35 targets throughout Syria, CNN reported.

CentCom launched Operation Hawkeye on Dec. 19 in retaliation for the ISIS attack on U.S. and Syrian forces in Palmyra, Syria, on Dec. 13.

The attack killed two Iowa National Guard members and their U.S. civilian interpreter, and Operation Hawkeye Strike is named after the nickname of the soldiers’ home state of Iowa.

Iowa residents Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, and Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown, were part of an 1,800-member troop deployment to Syria when they were ambushed and killed.

Also killed was interpreter Ayad Mansoor Sakat, 54, of Macomb Township, Mich., and three other soldiers were wounded.

The U.S. military has hundreds of personnel deployed in Syria amid an effort to eradicate ISIS there.

MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota leaders urged protesters to remain peaceful Saturday as people gathered nationwide to decry the fatal shooting of a woman by a federal immigration officer in Minneapolis and the shooting of two protesters in Portland, Ore.

On Friday night, a protest outside a Minneapolis hotel that attracted about 1,000 people escalated as demonstrators threw ice, snow and rocks at officers, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said during a news conference Saturday. One officer suffered minor injuries after being struck with a piece of ice, O’Hara said. Twenty-nine people were cited and released, he said.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey stressed that while most protests have been peaceful, those who cause damage to property or put others in danger will be arrested. He faulted “agitators that are trying to rile up large crowds.”

“This is what Donald Trump wants,” Frey said. “He wants us to take the bait.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz echoed the call for peaceful demonstrations.

“Trump sent thousands of armed federal officers into our state, and it took just one day for them to kill someone,” Walz posted on social media. “Now he wants nothing more than to see chaos distract from that horrific action. Don’t give him what he wants.”

The demonstrations in cities and towns across the country come as the Department of Homeland Security pushes forward in the Twin Cities with what it calls its largest immigration enforcement operation yet. Trump’s administration has said both shootings were acts of self-defense against drivers who “weaponized” their vehicles to attack officers. Video of the Minneapolis shooting appeared to contradict the administration’s assertions.

Steven Eubanks, 51, said he felt compelled to get out of his comfort zone and attend a protest in Durham, N.C., on Saturday because of what he called the “horrifying” killing of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis.

“We can’t allow it,” Eubanks said. “We have to stand up.”

Indivisible, a social movement organization that formed to resist the Trump administration, said hundreds of protests were scheduled in Texas, Kansas, New Mexico, Ohio, Florida and other states. Many were dubbed “ICE Out for Good,” using the acronym for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Indivisible and its local chapters organized protests in all 50 states last year.

In Minneapolis, a coalition of migrant rights groups called for a demonstration at Powderhorn Park, a large green space about half a mile from the residential neighborhood where the 37-year-old Good was shot Wednesday. They said the rally and march would celebrate her life and call for an “end to deadly terror on our streets.”

Protests held in the neighborhood have been largely peaceful, in contrast to the violence that hit Minneapolis in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd by police in 2020. Near the airport, some confrontations erupted Thursday and Friday between smaller groups of protesters and officers guarding the federal building used as a base for the Twin Cities crackdown.

O’Hara said city police officers have responded to calls about cars abandoned because their drivers have been apprehended by immigration enforcement. In one case, a dog was left in the vehicle.

He said that immigration enforcement activities are happening “all over the city” and that 911 callers have been alerting authorities to ICE activity, arrests and abandoned vehicles.

Three congresswomen from Minnesota who attempted to tour the ICE facility in the Minneapolis federal building on Saturday morning were initially allowed to enter but then told they had to leave about 10 minutes later.

Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar, Kelly Morrison and Angie Craig accused ICE agents of obstructing members of Congress from fulfilling their duty to oversee operations there.

“They do not care that they are violating federal law,” Craig said after being turned away.

A federal judge last month temporarily blocked the Trump administration from enforcing policies that limit congressional visits to immigration facilities. The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed by 12 members of Congress who sued in Washington, D.C., to challenge ICE’s amended visitor policies after they were denied entry to detention facilities.

The Trump administration has deployed thousands of federal officers to Minnesota under a sweeping new crackdown tied in part to allegations of fraud involving Somali residents. More than 2,000 officers were taking part.

Some officers moved in after abruptly pulling out of Louisiana, where they were part of an operation in and around New Orleans that started last month and was expected to last until February.

Santana writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Allen Breed in Durham, N.C., and Scott Bauer in Madison, Wis., contributed to this report.

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Jan. 9 (UPI) — Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused the United States and Israel on Friday of “direct involvement” in his country’s ongoing anti-government street protests and of attempting to turn them violent, while dismissing their military intervention as “a weak possibility.”

Speaking during a news conference after meeting with Lebanese House Speaker Nabih Berri, Araghchi said the current wave of demonstrations in Iran was similar, “to a large extent,” to the popular protests that broke out in Lebanon in 2019, when the collapse of the national currency and rising prices of hard currencies triggered widespread unrest.

He said the government in Tehran was seeking to “avoid this problem” and resolve it through dialogue.

“What differs this time are statements by American and Israeli officials indicating their direct involvement and interference in the disturbances in Iran,” he said. “They are trying hard to turn these peaceful protests into violence.”

He cited, as an example, Mike Pompeo, the former U.S. CIA director and secretary of state, who addressed Iranian protesters in a post on X on Jan., saying: “Happy New Year to every Iranian in the streets. Also to every Mossad agent walking beside them ….”

According to the Norway-based Iran Human Rights non-governmental organization, at least 51 protesters, including nine children under 18, have been killed, hundreds injured, and more than 2,200 detained in the latest round of nationwide protests in Iran.

The unrest, which began Dec. 28 in Tehran’s bazaar over poor economic conditions, quickly spread to other parts of the country.

U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to attack Iran and “come to the rescue” of protesters if they are harmed by security forces.

Araghchi dismissed as “slim and weak” the possibility of U.S.-Israeli military intervention in his country, saying they had tried before — referring to the 12-day war in June 2025 — and that “it was a total failure.” He added that if they were to repeat it, “the results would be the same.”

The visiting foreign minister, who met with several Lebanese officials, said his two-day visit to Beirut was meant to consolidate bilateral political, economic and cultural ties and discuss how to confront mounting Israeli threats that “menace all the people of the region.”

“We are trying to open a new page in our relations … one that would serve and respect our mutual interests,” Araghchi said, expressing hope that his visit would mark the start of a new chapter and a “launching point” for Iran-Lebanon ties.

Lebanon’s new leaders, who have been in power for a year, have adopted bold decisions concerning Hezbollah, the country’s most powerful militant group, which has been financed and armed by Iran for more than four decades.

Chief among these was a decision to assert the country’s sovereignty and contain weapons –meaning disarming Hezbollah — in line with the Nov. 27, 2024, cease-fire agreement brokered by the United States and France to end 14 months of war with Israel.

Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji went a step further by asking Araghchi during their meeting early Friday whether Tehran “accepts the presence of an illegal armed organization on its territory” — similar to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Rajji said defending Lebanon is the responsibility of the Lebanese state, but this cannot happen in the presence of “an armed organization outside its authority.”

He called on Iran to discuss with Lebanon “a new approach regarding Hezbollah’s weapons,” so that they do not become “a pretext to weaken Lebanon.”

Araghchi replied that Iran supports Hezbollah “as a resistance group, but it does not interfere in its affairs, and any decision concerning Lebanon is left to the party itself.”

He added, however, that dialogue between the two countries is necessary to confront “challenges and risks” arising from differences in their approach “to certain issues.”

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam emphasized, in separate statements after talks with the visiting Iranian official, the importance of establishing sound relations with Iran, based on mutual respect and non-interference in each other’s internal affairs.

Araghchi, who also met with Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Qassem, dismissed threats to “deprive his country of its right to peaceful nuclear energy or to develop defensive capabilities” — conditions set by the United States and Israel to prevent an attack on Iran.

He confirmed that Omani Foreign Minister Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi is scheduled to visit Tehran on Saturday and, when asked by a reporter whether he would bring a new U.S. proposal for negotiations, said he was “waiting to see whether he is carrying any letter or proposal from any party.”

On Syria, Araghchi said Iran supports its sovereignty and unity and rejects any measures aimed at partitioning the country or occupying its territories.

“Syria’s stability is important for all countries in the region,” he added, noting that the Syrian authorities should understand that any rapprochement with the “Israeli Zionist” entity is not in Damascus’ interest and that normalization would lead to “Zionist conspiracies” against the Arab nation.

Over the past year, Syria and Israel have held intermittent negotiations aimed at reaching a security agreement to stabilize their shared border, prevent repeated Israeli attacks on Syrian territory and potentially pave the way for future diplomatic normalization.