Elon Musk’s personal foreign policy of promoting far-right parties is sparking outrage among leaders in Europe and handing them a dilemma: How do they rebuke the tech titan without angering his new patron — Donald Trump?

Musk could easily be dismissed as a mischievous antagonist who simply loves to shock and is pursuing his own obsessions one X post at a time.

But he’s not just some troll. He’s the world’s richest man, owns some of the globe’s most strategic and influential businesses, and is wielding a mighty social media network. Musk is highlighting his enormous influence as a populist force galvanizing political provocateurs as a kind of one-man supranational non-state power.

He’s also previewing the international disruption that likely lies in store when the president-elect returns to the White House in two weeks and the potential conflicts of interest ahead. That’s because the Tesla and SpaceX pioneer will not simply be a powerful free agent — but an inner circle adviser to the new US government at the head of the Department of Government Efficiency. It’s therefore going to be hard to know where Musk’s policy ends and official US foreign policy starts.

To foreigners, his attacks on elected officials with whom he disagrees risk coming across as an attempt by a future US government to interfere in the politics of fellow democracies and sovereign nations to destabilize their governments.

And his moves beg the question of whether he’s working at Trump’s direction, is seen by the president-elect as a useful vanguard of disruption or could soon end up irking the 47th president as he tries to put his stamp on the world.

“Will Musk be carrying out Trump’s foreign policy agenda, acting as a personal ambassador of Trump to everywhere?” said Lindsay Gorman, managing director and senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund. “Or will Musk be advancing his own vision for global affairs, which may align with Trump in some ways, but not in others. And then what will be the power dynamics between those two?”

Trump’s willingness to tolerate Musk’s fierce attacks on allied leaders is also a sign that the coming months could be even more rocky for America’s friends than his first term. That reality played out Monday when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation. Trudeau had long since squandered the trust of Canadians and his own Liberal Party. But Trump’s threats of imposing a 25% tariff exacerbated the political crisis in Ottawa and may have hastened the departure of an antagonist Trump branded the “governor” of America’s 51st state.

The apparent sense of freedom that Trump and Musk feel in playing politics abroad is also a marker of the self-confidence in MAGA world ahead of Trump’s inauguration. They’re demonstrating a belief that their strength allows them to bully smaller countries and may augur a new and brasher incarnation of “America First.”

European leaders line up to condemn Musk

Musk’s attacks — conveyed to his 211 million followers on X — have snapped the patience of the leaders of some of America’s closest traditional allies and stoked already elevated transatlantic tensions ahead of Trump’s second term.

— British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has been targeted by Musk for weeks, warned the SpaceX owner had crossed “a line” after he said the British minister responsible for safeguarding children should be jailed and was an apologist for rape.

— French President Emmanuel Macron accused Musk of fueling a new “international reactionary movement” and intervening in elections.

— Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said it was “worrying” that a man with such power was so directly involved in the affairs of other countries.

— The German government has already criticized the multi-billionaire for backing a far-right pro-Russia party, the Alternative for Germany (AfD), in upcoming elections. Musk will host the party’s leader in an interview on X this week.

The resentment provoked by Musk reflects the core ideology of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement. He is going after establishment politicians and seeking to promote far-right, outsider populists whose views and temperaments mirror those of the president-elect. In Europe, as in the United States, many voters have become resentful of governments they believe have failed to improve their economic situations and to stem immigration.

To many Americans, Musk is simply exercising his First Amendment rights. But in Europe, a continent haunted by the horror of far-right extremism, his support for radical populism is seen by many leaders as offensive and less an example of free speech than an attempt to stifle freedoms and democracy.

If there’s a strategy in Musk’s rabble rousing, it’s that opposition forces in these countries are far more in line with Trump’s anti-immigration and anti-free trade instincts than the leaders who are currently in place. And Trump may be hoping to promote political interlocutors who would be more sympathetic to him.

In France, for instance, the far-right National Rally party (formerly known as the National Front) of Marine Le Pen has its best chance yet in 2027 to win in the two-round presidential election system that has always blocked it from power. While the AfD is unlikely to form a government in the German system that promotes coalitions, its influence may grow after federal elections in February.

And Trump has already rolled out the red carpet at Mar-a-Lago to far-right European leaders including Hungary’s strongman Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Italy’s right-wing populist Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who may be the strongest national leader in the European Union right now.

Trumpism is incompatible with some of America’s allies

The nationalist DNA of Trump’s foreign policy is often a reaction to policies and demeanor of center-left leaders in the West.

This may help explain the president-elect’s tormenting of Trudeau — who, as a self-professed feminist who offered a warm welcome to immigrants, is the antithesis of MAGA. Trudeau is likely to be succeeded in the short-term by a Liberal Party prime minister, but the most likely outcome of a general election that must take place this year is a new government under Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre. The Albertan shares some of Trump’s populist tendencies, including on immigration, and his penchant for awarding his opponents mocking nicknames. But he has also condemned Trump’s branding of Canada as the 51st state, and at the helm of a majority government, he might turn out to be a more formidable negotiator on trade issues than a severely weakened Trudeau.

Similarly, if Musk is trying to destabilize Starmer, his actions spring from a misunderstanding of Britain’s political dynamics. The Labour Party leader has just won a huge landslide and won’t have to face the electorate for again for nearly five years. And Musk even the far-right Reform Party leader Nigel Farage, the father of Brexit and a friend of Trump, is now deemed by Musk as insufficiently radical after he said he didn’t agree with the X owner’s support for jailed anti-Muslim far-right campaigner Tommy Robinson.

Starmer felt compelled to speak out after Musk used X to accuse him of being complicit in the actions of grooming gangs in a historic child abuse scandal that he handled while director of public prosecutions. In other distortions of the truth, Musk also claimed Jess Phillips, the government safeguarding minister, was “pure evil” and a “wicked creature.”

Starmer warned that “those that are spreading lies and misinformation, as far and as wide as possible – they’re not interested in victims, they’re interested in themselves.” He added: “When the poison of the far right leads to serious threats to Jess Phillips and others, then in my book, a line has been crossed.”

Despite Starmer’s tough tone, the showdown with Musk is unwelcome turbulence for a prime minister, who, like all other world leaders, has been trying to build a relationship with Trump to spare his nation from the worst consequences of a new US foreign policy built on forcing American might on friends and foes alike.

But the transatlantic fury might soon become a problem for Trump as well.

Despite his transactional instincts and desire to intimidate other leaders, Trump may need the help of American allies one day, and Musk’s antics are making it far harder for them to accommodate an incoming American president who is already deeply unpopular in many of their nations.

Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, the party with the third most members in Britain’s House of Commons, reflected that antipathy toward Trump on Monday. “People have had enough of Elon Musk interfering with our country’s democracy when he clearly knows nothing about Britain,” Davey said, ironically, on X. “It’s time to summon the US ambassador to ask why an incoming US official is suggesting the UK government should be overthrown.”

Musk’s jabs might also cause problems stateside. They already look like a headache for more conventional US foreign policy officials, including Marco Rubio, the Florida senator Trump has picked to serve as secretary of state, and Florida Rep. Michael Waltz, his pick for national security adviser.

“I think it’s going to get very confusing very quickly. I don’t envy the career diplomats at the State Department, who are certainly going to have their hands full trying to figure out whose agenda they’re carrying out,” said Gorman.

Apparent conflicts between US policy and Musk’s business interests pose another complication. He has already sat in on calls between Trump and world leaders like Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose forces use Musk’s Starlink internet system to support their war against Russia.

Musk’s massive commercial exposure in China might also weigh heavily on Trump’s approach and may clash with the hawkish instincts of Waltz and Rubio, who are set to be part of the most anti-Beijing Cabinet in modern American history.

In Trump’s first term, when he made foreign policy by tweet, America became a force for global disruption. Musk’s prominent role in his second administration may make those four years seem stable by comparison.

Potential home shoppers in the Northeast and Midwest may be in for disappointment: Despite signs of cooling in the last year’s intensively competitive housing market, a new report from Zillow says some areas will stay especially competitive this year.

The Zillow report predicts the hottest housing markets for 2025; Buffalo, a city that sits on New York’s western border with Canada, tops the list.

Buffalo has two new jobs per home permitted, according to the report. That means Buffalo could see an influx of new workers moving to the city – pushing homebuilding to fall further behind housing demand, said Skylar Olsen, Zillow’s chief economist. As a result, Buffalo’s home prices are forecast to grow an additional 3% in 2025 after jumping nearly 6% last year, according to the report.

Buying a home has grown more difficult for many Americans amid elevated mortgage rates and a lack of affordable options, fostering frustrations so deep they even helped shape anger at incumbents in last year’s US elections. Now, Zillow’s report shows that the deck could still be stacked against home shoppers in many major American cities this year.

Indianapolis; Providence, Rhode Island; Hartford, Connecticut; and Philadelphia are also expected to remain hot markets this year, according to Zillow. Home prices in those cities are expected to grow between 3% and 4% on average.

Zillow, an online real estate marketplace, ranked the nation’s 50 most populous metros by “hotness” by combining its internal home value growth projections with how quickly homes are selling and publicly available job growth and home permitting data.

Many economists expected mortgage rates to fall by the end of last year, especially after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates three times in 2024. But mortgage rates, which determine the interest paid on home loans, have stayed higher than expected. The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was 6.91% last week, according to Freddie Mac.

Elevated mortgage rates have kept existing homeowners with lower mortgage rates reluctant to sell, effectively “locking” them into their current homes.

“Areas like Buffalo and a lot of the Northeast are so locked in, and existing owners are just holding on,” Olsen said.

But buyers who are open-minded might find more favorable conditions elsewhere.

Zillow predicts home prices to fall in several cities in 2025, including New Orleans, San Francisco, San Jose and Austin.

“In less competitive markets, you have much longer to make your decision, homes spend longer on the market and there are more available,” Olsen said.

However, homeownership in a city like New Orleans or Austin may be a double-edged sword. Falling home prices may mask other costs.

Louisiana, Texas and California have seen homeowners’ insurance costs skyrocket in the past few years, as insurance companies seek to recuperate losses from natural disasters like hurricanes and wildfires, according to a report last year from online insurance marketplace Insurify.

A Spanish woman was gored to death by an elephant while bathing the animal at a sanctuary in southern Thailand on Friday, according to local police.

Bathing elephants at animal sanctuaries is a popular activity for tourists in Thailand, which is home to both wild and domesticated populations.

Elephants, Thailand’s national animal, have seen their wild population decline in recent decades due to threats from tourism, logging, poaching and human encroachment on elephant habitats.

Experts estimate the wild elephant population in Thailand has dwindled to 3,000-4,000, a decline from more than 100,000 at the beginning of the 20th century.

Meanwhile, the number of captive elephants has increased 134% between 2010 and 2020, with estimates that around 2,800 elephants are being held across Thailand in tourism venues, according to the international non-profit World Animal Protection.

The charity has urged against the exploitation of elephants by the tourism industry and called for an end to captive breeding, voicing alarm for the conditions that many are kept in, including in isolation.

“Elephants are highly intelligent animals with the capacity for complex thoughts and emotions,” the charity said in a 2020 report. “Managing elephants is extremely high risk and highlights their unsuitability for captive environments, especially when in direct contact with people.”

Azerbaijan’s leader has accused Moscow of carrying out a “cover up” over a passenger jet crash last month that claimed 38 lives, as relations sour between the two neighbors.

While meeting on Monday with the two surviving flight attendants and families of other crew members that died, President Ilham Aliyev said the preliminary investigation into the crash had confirmed that the plane was hit by Russian air defenses, according to Azerbaijan’s state news agency (AZERTAC).

The airspace above Grozny, the capital city of the southern Russian republic of Chechnya, was only closed after the plane was hit, Aliyev alleged.

Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 was traveling from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to Grozny, but was forced to make an emergency landing in Kazakhstan on Christmas Day. Thirty-eight of the 67 people on board died in the crash.

“I can confidently say that the guilt for the deaths of Azerbaijani citizens in this accident lies with the representatives of the Russian Federation,” Aliyev said. “We demand justice, we demand punishment of the guilty, we demand complete transparency and humane treatment.”

Days after the crash, Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized that the “tragic incident occurred in Russian airspace,” but did not accept responsibility.

Putin said Russia’s air defense systems were active when the plane attempted to land in Grozny, according to the Kremlin, and that the area was being attacked by Ukrainian combat drones.

Aliyev on Monday again accused Russia of a “cover up,” saying the “focus on absurd versions” of the crash has ignited “surprise, regret and rightly indignation” in Azerbaijan.

“If the city of Grozny had taken timely measures to close Russian airspace over its territory, if all the rules of ground services had been observed, and if there had been coordination between the armed forces and civil services of the Russian Federation, then this tragedy would not have happened,” he said.

In a break from protocol, his televised comments were made in Russian rather than Azerbaijani.

Aliyev also praised the flight’s crew for their heroism and bravery, hailing the pilots’ “professionalism” and ability to make an emergency landing to save some of those onboard.

People from Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan were on board the plane, which was a Brazilian-made Embraer 190.

Brazil’s air force said Monday its investigators had completed the extraction of data from two black box recorders that were recovered from the crash, Reuters reported. The flight recorders had been sent to Brazil, where international experts were joined by their Azerbaijani counterparts to analyze the devices in a move to ensure transparency and credibility, according to Kazakhstan state news agency.

The data has been sent to the Kazakh authorities investigating the crash, according to Reuters. Kazakhstan’s government is cooperating with Azerbaijan on the investigation.

Separately, Russia’s investigative committee has opened a criminal case in relation to the disaster, the Kremlin said.

Video and images after the plane crashed showed perforations in the plane’s body that look like damage from shrapnel or debris. The cause of the holes has not been confirmed.

“I am sure that in the near future we will learn the initial results, and everything will fall into place. The whole picture of the tragedy that occurred will also become known,” Aliyev said. “Of course, this will be an important moment in the full investigation of the tragedy and the punishment of its perpetrators.”

Multiple Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians have been reported in parts of the occupied West Bank after gunmen killed three settlers and injured eight others earlier on Monday in the latest explosion of violence there.

While tensions have been rising in the West Bank for years, the October 7 attacks by Hamas and the subsequent Israeli assault on Gaza has ushered in a volatile new chapter in the occupied territory.

Attacks on Palestinian communities by Israeli settlers, emboldened by their country’s offensive in Gaza and support from Israel’s right-wing government, have increased – while there have also been attacks against the settlers.

Earlier on Monday, Israeli vehicles were targeted on Route 55 in Al-Funduq, a Palestinian village in the West Bank, according to Israeli authorities. The road, which snakes through the northern West Bank, passes through the Jewish settlement of Kedumim.

Two women in one car were shot dead and a man in a second car 160 yards away died of gunshot wounds, Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency service said.

A further eight people were injured in the attack, including the bus driver, who was shot in his limbs and abdomen, according to the MDA.

The deadly shooting sent tensions soaring and within hours the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported multiple attacks on Palestinians.

On the incident in Hajja, the Israeli military said they received several reports on Monday evening of “Israeli civilians who entered the village” and had “caused damage to property” and Israeli came to the scene.

Two more incidents were reported southeast of Ramallah where Israeli settlers set fire to an agricultural room in the town of Turmus Ayya on Monday evening, according to security sources who told WAFA. Meanwhile Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian vehicles with stones near Bethlehem, according to WAFA.

‘Settle accounts’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed retaliation following the attack by gunmen earlier in the day. In a statement on X, he pledged to “find the abhorrent murderers and settle accounts with them and with all those who aided them. No one will get away.”

Netanyahu is expected to hold a cabinet meeting on Tuesday and discuss the West Bank.

While there has been no claim of responsibility yet for the shooting, it has been praised by the Palestinian militant group Hamas and been labelled a “terrorist attack” by Israel.

Speaking at the scene, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief Herzi Halevi said the “clock is ticking” for the attackers, and vowed to track down those responsible, make the route safer, and intensify Israel’s “intense and wide-ranging” operations “against terrorism” in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli authorities later identified the two women as Aliza Reiss and Rachel Cohen – two civilian residents of Kedumim, both in their 70s – and the man as Yaakov Winkelstein, a police investigator from Ariel, a settlement south of the site of the attack.

Rephaela Segal, assistant mayor of Kedumim, described the women as “young in nature” and said Cohen had been volunteering as a special education teacher in her retirement. Reiss was a counselor at a high school in a nearby settlement, Karnei Shomron, and both were traveling to Karnei Shomron at the time of the attack, Segal said.

This isn’t the first time in recent months that violence has broken out in this part of the West Bank. In August 2024, a group of 30 armed Israeli settlers attacked Jit, a Palestinian town just 10 minutes from Kedumim. They fired bullets, tear gas and set homes and cars on fire, according to residents who witnessed the attack.

Volatile new chapter

Recent international focus on the region has been largely on Israel’s military operations in Gaza. But another major escalation of violence has been playing out around 60 miles away in the Israeli-occupied West Bank where 3.3 million Palestinians are living under Israeli military occupation surrounded by hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers. Such Israeli settlements are considered illegal under international law and by much of the international community.

According to the UN, more than 500 Palestinian civilians were killed in the West Bank during 2024, with children bearing much of the violence. The UN said in December that 2024 had been a deadlier year for Palestinian children in the West Bank than the prior seven years combined. Since the October 7 attacks in 2023, at least 169 children have been killed by Israeli forces and Jewish settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to the UN.

Meanwhile, 2024 was the third-deadliest year for Israelis in the West Bank since data collection began in 2008, according to the UN, which recorded the deaths of 34 Israelis – 15 soldiers and 19 civilians. Of those civilians, seven were settlers.

In August, the US announced sanctions against an Israeli organization, Hashomer Yosh, allegedly responsible for supporting settler violence in the West Bank against Palestinians, according to a State Department spokesperson.

Attacks have also come as the Israeli government ramped up approvals of Israeli settler housing. In July, Israel’s government approved a large land seizure in the occupied West Bank – the biggest since the 1993 Oslo Accords set out a path for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, according to the Israeli rights group Peace Now. The area was converted to state land, according to a document from the body, but the official notice wasn’t posted until days after, Peace Now said.

On Wednesday, the Israeli government is due to hold a construction planning meeting to discuss Israeli settlements housing approvals, the sixth consecutive week of Settlement Contruction Planning Meetings, according to Peace Now.

“The shift to weekly planning meetings represents both a normalization and intensification of settlement construction,” Peace Now said, adding that if the coming plans are approved, “the six-week total will reach 2,377 housing units. At this rate, 2025 could set new records, with projections exceeding 1,500 units per month,” Peace Now said, adding that it’s as a result of “policy changes” that have been introduced by Netanyahu and the current government.

Tuesday marks 100 days since 68-year-old Laila Soueif started a hunger strike in a plea to the UK government to free her son from imprisonment in Egypt, according to her family.

Alaa Abd El-Fattah was a leading activist in the country’s 2011 uprising. He has been imprisoned for much of the past decade, and in 2019 was sentenced to a further five years in prison for allegedly spreading false news after sharing a Facebook post highlighting human rights abuses in Egyptian jails.

Both Soueif and Abd El-Fattah hold dual Egyptian and British citizenship.

Soueif began her hunger strike in September, standing in front of the British Foreign Affairs office in protest at the lack of progress in freeing her son. She has been surviving on black coffee, herbal tea and three packets of rehydration salts a day, according to a statement from her family.

She is currently in Cairo, in hopes of meeting her son for a 20-minute visit on January 8. The visit is expected to take place through a glass barrier at a prison located an hour outside the Egyptian capital, the statement said.

“Unfortunately, the government seems to be waiting for me to be hospitalized before they act decisively to secure my son’s freedom. We have been lucky that my body has been resilient, but we will soon run out of time,” Soueif said in the statement.

The British government has previously said it is working to secure Abd El Fattah’s release. In 2022, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak raised the imprisoned activist’s case during a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on the sidelines of the COP27, a Downing Street spokesperson said at the time.

Nearly a week after Shamsud-din Jabbar rammed a pickup truck into a busy crowd celebrating New Year’s in New Orleans, killing 14, details of how he planned the attack are becoming clearer.

As investigators piece together his movements and motivations, it appears Jabbar – whom officials have said acted alone and was radicalized – was preparing the Bourbon Street attack for months. He visited the city multiple times in the months prior. He brought firearms and homemade explosive devices with him. He rented a home on Airbnb and attempted to burn it down in what officials believe was an attempt to hide criminal evidence.

Here’s what we know about how Jabbar planned his attack.

He scouted the city months before the attack

Jabbar visited New Orleans at least twice in the months prior to his attack, in October and November, FBI New Orleans Special Agent in Charge Lyonel Myrthil said at a Sunday news conference.

The attacker stayed at an Airbnb in New Orleans beginning October 30 for at least two days, Myrthil said.

During that trip, to scout the scene, Jabbar used Meta smart glasses, according to the FBI. The smart glasses can take photos and video, and they use artificial intelligence to answer user questions about their surroundings.

Jabbar wore the glasses to record video while bicycling through the French Quarter, Myrthil said, adding he wore them again during the New Year’s attack but didn’t activate them.

Jabbar also visited New Orleans on November 10, Myrthil said, “but we are still piecing together the details of that trip.”

He rented an Airbnb, and set fire to it

Jabbar rented an Airbnb in New Orleans’ St. Roch neighborhood about 1.5 miles away from the scene of the Bourbon Street attack, officials have said.

He set fire to the rental about 15 minutes after midnight on New Year’s Day, just before leaving to carry out the attack, officials said.

Officials were able to pinpoint the moment Jabbar set the house fire by using the home’s thermostat, said Joshua Jackson, the special agent in charge of the New Orleans field division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Throughout Jabbar’s stay at the Airbnb, New Orleans had been experiencing cold winter temperatures, and heat was running in the home. But at 12:17 a.m. on New Year’s Day, Jackson said, the “thermostat converted over from heat to cool.”

“It changed roughly two minutes after he left, because the thermostat indicated that the temperature was rising inside the residence and it tried to keep up with the fire that was growing inside,” Jackson said.

Officials believe Jabbar was hoping to burn the entire house down, hiding the evidence of his crimes.

He used an open flame in the home’s linen closet area next to the washer and dryer, setting half gallons of gasoline in the hallway and pouring accelerant in different rooms throughout the house, according to Jackson.

But the fire ran out of oxygen and fuel, smothering itself before it was able to reach the accelerant in the other rooms.

Neighbors smelled smoke at 5:18 a.m., Jackson said, and contacted 911. The fire department responded to put out the “smoldering fire,” he said.

In the house, they found a type of silencer for a firearm, along with explosive material, Jackson said.

He constructed IEDs

After Jabbar departed the Airbnb shortly after midnight, he placed two improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, in coolers on Bourbon Street. He placed one in a rolling cooler and the other in a bucket cooler and left them in the street.

Ultimately, neither of them detonated.

Officials believe Jabbar constructed the IEDs using commonly found explosives in the United States, Jackson said. But there was something somewhat “unique” about the IEDs Jabbar constructed – and it speaks to his inexperience, Jackson said.

The materials need a detonator to be set off, but because Jabbar didn’t have access to one, “he used an electric match in its place to try to set off the explosive material,” Jackson said. It didn’t work, and the devices never exploded.

“That is just indicative of his inexperience and lack of understanding how that material might be set off,” Jackson said.

He brought supplies, including coolers and firearms, with him

On December 31, before entering Louisiana, Jabbar visited a gun store in Texas, then another business where he bought one of the ice chests he would use later to hide the IEDs he constructed, the FBI’s Myrthil said.

A neighbor of Jabbar in Texas said he saw the man load a white truck in front of his home with “light stuff” on New Year’s Eve morning and that Jabbar said he was moving to Louisiana to start a new job.

Mumtaz Bashir, who lives with his wife and five children next door to Jabbar’s residence in North Houston, told reporters he believes the truck had been there for one night.

“I asked him if he needs hands for moving, help him out, as a neighbor, do you need any help for moving things around? He said, ‘I’m OK,’” Bashir said, describing the items he was loading as light and “hand-held.”

Bashir said Jabbar told him he had gotten an IT-related job in Louisiana.

Among the items recovered in the investigation is a .308 caliber semi-automatic rifle that Jabbar bought through a private, legal sale November 19 in Texas, Jackson said Sunday. The person who sold the rifle didn’t know Jabbar or that he was planning the attack, Jackson added.

Officials have also recovered a 9mm semi-automatic pistol, he said.

Investigators also located “privately-made silencers,” Jackson said, but he explained technicians are still trying to determine whether they can reduce sound enough to be officially classified as silencers.

One of these devices was on the rifle Jabbar used “in an attempt to muffle the sound of that rifle as he fired it,” Jackson said. The other was found inside the Airbnb along with the explosive material, he said.

He rented a 6,000-pound truck

The attacker rented an electric Ford F-150 pickup truck in Houston using the private vehicle rental website Turo and picked it up December 30.

FBI officials estimated he entered Louisiana on New Year’s Eve around 2:30 p.m.

The rented vehicle was seen in Gonzalez, Louisiana – about 55 miles northwest of New Orleans – around 9 p.m., Myrthil said.

Within an hour, home camera footage showed him unloading the white truck outside the Airbnb in New Orleans. He had driven from Houston to New Orleans by himself, and was the only person seen entering and leaving the Airbnb, officials said.

Shortly after the clock struck midnight, marking the first hours of 2025, Jabbar set fire to the house, drove to the French Quarter, and placed the coolers containing his homemade IEDs on the street.

Around 3:15 a.m., he drove up Canal Street, took a sharp right onto Bourbon Street, and rammed the 6,000-pound truck into a crowd celebrating the new year. Fourteen people were killed and dozens were injured.

Lake Naivasha, northwest of Nairobi, Kenya is becoming increasingly unnavigable. Water hyacinth, the world’s most widespread invasive species, is blanketing the lake, choking its fish and leaving people stranded.

“Sometimes it becomes very serious,” says Simon Macharia, a local fisherman, about the weed problem. “There was this incident where fishermen were trapped by hyacinth inside the lake for three days. We had to seek help from the government (who) used a helicopter to rescue them.”

Macharia says that some days he’s simply unable to fish on the lake because of the plant. When he does, he can lose his nets underneath the floating weed, incurring costs while preventing him from earning that day. Water hyacinths also cover the surface, cutting off sunlight, outcompeting other plant species and starving water of oxygen. That means there are fewer fish for Macharia to catch in the first place.

The problem is so vast it can be seen from space. It also threatens the cut off the flower industry in the wetlands surrounding the 150 square kilometer (58 square mile) lake.

What’s happening in Lake Naivasha is a story repeated all over the world. Water hyacinths are native to South America, but were introduced as an exotic ornamental to many other countries. They’ve since taken over freshwater environments and are labeled an alien invasive species on every other continent aside from Antarctica.

As well as their impact on biodiversity and livelihoods, the floating plant can clog hydroelectric and irrigation systems, meaning that one does not need to live in their proximity to be affected. It’s the highest-profile example of an invasive aquatic plant crisis that has cost the global economy tens of billions of dollars historically, and now more than $700 million annually.

The problem with water hyacinths is particularly acute in Africa. A 2024 report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), a body founded by the UN Environment Programme, described the plant’s “exponential expansion,” with land use changes and climate change adding potential fuel to the fire.

Taskforces from multiple organizations have attempted to find solutions. Introducing weevils that attack the plant can restrict its spread and even cause it to lose buoyancy. There are also proposals to harvest the water hyacinth and combine it with municipal waste and cow dung to produce biofuel. Now a Kenyan company is addressing the problem as well as the country’s plastic pollution issue by turning the invasive plant into a bioplastic.

HyaPak Ecotech Limited, founded by Joseph Nguthiru, began life as a final year project by the former Egerton University civil and environmental engineering student. Nguthiru and his classmates experienced the problem of water hyacinths firsthand on a field trip to Lake Naivasha in 2021, when their boat became trapped for five hours. They returned determined to do something about it.

Nguthiru’s bioplastic is made from dried water hyacinth combined with binders and additives, which is then mixed and shaped.

The product, which biodegrades over a few months, was first used as an alternative for plastic packaging. In 2017, Kenya introduced a law banning single-use plastic bags, and in 2020 all single-use plastics were banned from protected areas. The results have been mixed; with homegrown manufacturing banned, there have been reports that single-use plastic bags have been smuggled into Kenya from neighboring countries. “The problem behind (the ban) is that there were no proper alternatives that were produced,” argued Nguthiru.

His product is “killing two birds with one stone,” he believes. “Most single-use plastic products tend to have a lifespan of about 10 minutes after they come out of supermarket shelves. So why not make them biodegradable?”

HyaPak has gained widespread attention, winning the Youth category at the East Africa Climate Action Awards, a prize at UNESCO’s World Engineering Day Hackathon, and a Prototype for Humanity Award 2023 announced at the COP28 climate conference. Nguthiru was also named a 2023 Obama Foundation Africa Leader.

Fishermen including Macharia are now harvesting the invasive plant on Lake Naivasha, then drying and selling it to HyaPak. It’s a useful alternative income, he said, especially on days when the plant has covered his net, preventing it from catching fish.

Macharia said he hopes HyaPak will soon be able to scale up its activities, allowing the lake’s surrounding community to harvest greater quantities of water hyacinth. “If Joseph could get funding, I think he can buy larger quantities and at least many people will get work,” he said.

One project that could help HyaPak grow is its partnership with the Kenyan government to use its products as part of a flagship reforestation scheme.

According to Global Forest Watch, Kenya lost 14% of its tree cover between 2001 and 2023. In late 2022, Kenya’s Forestry and Land Restoration Acceleration program committed to planting 15 billion seedlings by 2032 on degraded forest and rangeland. Doing so would bring the nation’s tree coverage to over 30 percent, said the government.

All those seedlings need bags in which to grow and be transported, and HyaPak’s seedling bags are part of the plan, said Nguthiru.

A plastic-based seedling bag has a carbon footprint of 1.6-1.7 kilograms, according to Nguthiru, and it is disposed of when the seedling is planted. HyaPak’s alternative is planted with the seedling and biodegrades, releasing nutrients including nitrogen. What’s more, during the seedling’s first months, the bioplastic slows water seeping into the surrounding soil, reducing the amount of watering required.

“You offset the carbon emissions that are going to be produced, you’ve used less water, you’ve added more nutrients … it’s a win-win situation for communities, for the planet and for yourself as a farmer,” Nguthiru argued.

HyaPak is already exporting to the US and Germany and plans to establish franchises in India and El Salvador – two countries with freshwater blighted by water hyacinth.

Nguthiru wants to create the quickest route for the world to benefit from his innovation, “Even if that means open-sourcing some of this, so that the product and development and advancement of biodegradable plastic can go really fast, so be it.”

Beyond water hyacinth, he thinks urgent action is needed to tackle the climate crisis: “Previous generations have failed us, and the ones that are coming afterwards are looking up to us. We are the ones who are going to live with a planet that’s beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius (global temperature rise),” he said.

“It’s up to my generation to come up with solutions for the climate crisis, because if we don’t do it, we are not going to do it at all.”

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has criticized those “spreading lies and misinformation” about child sex grooming gangs in the United Kingdom, responding to an online storm whipped up by Elon Musk.

“Those that are spreading lies and misinformation, as far and as wide as possible – they’re not interested in victims, they’re interested in themselves,” Starmer told reporters Monday.

For days, Musk – the world’s richest man and the owner of X – has used his social media platform to dredge up a years-long scandal over historic child sex abuse in parts of England.

In one post, Musk called on King Charles III to dissolve parliament and order new elections in Britain. In another, he called for Starmer’s safeguarding minister, Jess Philips, to be imprisoned, calling her “pure evil” and “a wicked creature.” On Monday, he also said Starmer should be in prison.

“We’ve seen this playbook many times, whipping up of intimidation and threats of violence, hoping that the media will amplify it,” Starmer said.

“When the poison of the far right leads to serious threats to Jess Phillips and others, then in my book, a line has been crossed,” he added.

Starmer said he enjoys “the cut-and-thrust of politics,” but said these debates must “be based on facts and truth, not on lies.”

He also criticized Conservative politicians – some of whom were in government during the grooming scandal – for “jumping on the bandwagon” and being “so desperate for attention that they’re prepared to debase themselves and their country.”

British lawmaker Ed Davey urged the UK government on Monday to summon the US ambassador over Musk’s comments.

“People have had enough of Elon Musk interfering with our country’s democracy when he clearly knows nothing about Britain. It’s time to summon the US ambassador to ask why an incoming US official is suggesting the UK government should be overthrown,” Davey, who serves as the leader of the Liberal Democrats, the third largest party in the UK, said in a post on X.

Davey stated that the American ambassador should convey to the US government that those at a senior level need to be “very careful about how they comment on UK affairs, whether they’re the richest man in the world or anyone else.”

Musk has accused Starmer of being “complicit in the rape of Britain” for failing to thwart grooming gangs while he was director of public prosecutions (DPP). Starmer staunchly defended his record as head of the DPP on Monday, saying he changed “the entire approach” that had stopped victims from being heard, and had “the highest number of child sexual abuse cases being prosecuted on record.”

In a 2014 report, it was revealed that about 1,400 children had been abused by gangs of men in the northern English town of Rotherham between 1997 and 2013. The far-right has long capitalized on the scandal, pointing to the South Asian ethnicities of the majority of the gangs’ perpetrators.

Starmer’s government recently rejected a national inquiry into the gangs, citing a string of existing inquiries into the issue and a 2022 report, the findings of which are still being implemented.

Following his success in helping to re-elect Donald Trump in the United States, Musk has increasingly inserted himself into the political discourse of other countries.

Last month, Musk endorsed the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, ahead of federal elections to be held in February. As well as a string of posts on social media, Musk penned a weekend op-ed for a major German newspaper, explaining his support for the party, which has been accused of resurrecting Nazi-era ideology and slogans.

In response, the German government accused Musk of “trying to influence” the election. Asked how to respond to Musk’s posts, Olaf Scholz, the embattled German chancellor, told German media: “Don’t feed the troll.”

Musk has also called insistently for new elections in the UK, despite the fact the last election was held just six months ago. He has backed the populist party Reform UK and on Sunday called for its leader Nigel Farage to step down, saying he “does not have what it takes” to lead.

Although Musk did not immediately endorse another candidate, he has previously pushed for the release of Tommy Robinson, an imprisoned far-right agitator. Robinson has previously led far-right parties in the UK and has a swelling social media following.

Speaking Monday, Starmer slammed those “cheerleading” Robinson, who was jailed for 18 months in October after he admitted to being in contempt of court by repeating false accusations about a Syrian refugee.

“They’re supporting a man who went to prison for nearly collapsing a grooming case,” Starmer said of Robinson’s supporters. He said this showed that “they’re not interested in victims, they’re interested in themselves.”

Other European leaders have become increasingly troubled by Musk’s meddling in the politics of other countries. Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store on Monday called this a “worrying” development.

French President Emmanuel Macron also expressed disbelief at Musk’s conduct.

“If we had been told the owner of the largest social media network would support an international reactionary movement and directly intervene in elections, including Germany, who would have believed it? This is the world we live in and in which we have to conduct diplomacy,” Macron told French ambassadors in Paris on Monday.

Venezuela’s exiled opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia has urged the Venezuelan military to recognize him as their commander-in-chief and “put an end to the leadership” of President Nicolás Maduro, whose government is resisting calls to give up power.

González’s message, relayed in a video posted on social media Sunday, was his clearest appeal yet for the military to support his intention to take the presidency, which he insists he won in the disputed July election against incumbent Maduro.

Maduro is due to be sworn in for his third term in power on January 10, but various countries including the United States have questioned the validity of the official election result and the US has said it recognizes González as the rightful president-elect.

With that date looming ever nearer, and the Venezuelan opposition calling for street protests, tensions appear to be coming to a head. On Monday, Maduro’s minister of internal affairs claimed Venezuela had arrested over 100 people from several countries including the US who he alleged were linked to “acts of destabilization.” Without detailing or offering evidence for his claims, Cabello suggested some of those in custody were linked to the Venezuelan opposition. In a separate move, Venezuela announced it would cut diplomatic ties with Paraguay, after its President Santiago Peña reiterated his recognition of González.

The Venezuelan opposition leader fled to Spain in September to seek asylum after Maduro’s government issued a warrant for his arrest. He is currently visiting the US and on Monday visited the White House.

In his video message Sunday, González said Maduro had “distorted the principles” of the military and called for the armed forces to recognize his authority from January 10.

“Our National Armed Forces is called to be a guarantor of sovereignty and respect for the popular will. It is our duty to act with honor, merit and conscience,” González said.

Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López rejected the call and said Monday that the Bolivarian National Armed Forces of Venezuela (FANB) would recognize Maduro as president.

“Mr. González Urrutia does not understand that the FANB is a pristine institution, which owes itself to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and does not obey the designs or mandates of other imperial powers,” Padrino said in a message on national television surrounded by the high military command.

On Sunday, the president of the National Assembly of Venezuela Jorge Rodríguez reiterated the Venezuelan government’s position that González would face arrest if he returns to the country.

The arrest warrant issued against the opposition leader in September accuses him of terrorism, conspiracy and other crimes related to the election – charges González denies.

On January 2, the Scientific, Penal and Criminal Investigations Corps of Venezuela offered a reward of $100,000 for information leading to his arrest.

Support for González, protests against Maduro

González is currently embarked on an international tour across the Americas, where he has been gathering support from allies in a show of defiance against Maduro.

At the weekend, González met with the presidents of Argentina and Uruguay in South America.

On Monday, he met with US President Joe Biden in Washington, telling reporters he had a fruitful and long conversation with him at the White House.

“Both leaders agreed there is nothing more essential to the success of democracy than respecting the will of the people, as expressed through a transparent and accountable electoral process, and that Gonzalez Urrutia’s campaign victory should be honored through a peaceful transfer back to democratic rule,” the White House said.

González said he has also been in contact with the team of President-elect Donald Trump but did not expand on their conversations. He declined to comment on remarks from Sen. Bernie Moreno suggesting that Trump planned to negotiate with Maduro.

González said on X he had met in Washington with Trump’s pick for US National Security adviser, Mike Waltz, saying he “assured us that the United States, and the world, will be alert about what happens in our country.”

González’s fellow opposition leader María Corina Machado – who is also in hiding – has called for supporters to demonstrate in the streets of Venezuela and other parts of the world on January 9, one day before Maduro is set to be sworn in to install a new government.

Both Maduro and González have previously pledged to inaugurate their own governments on January 10.

In calling for the January 9 protests, Corina Machado said Maduro would not give up power on his own and that Venezuelans “must make him leave.”

She asked those attending the demonstrations to wear clothing with the three colors of the Venezuelan flag: yellow, blue and red.

“This January 9th, EVERYONE in the streets, in Venezuela and around the world,” she tweeted. González echoed the call, writing on X: “Everyone in the streets of our beloved country!”

Minister claims ‘mercenaries’ arrested

González’s appeal to the military came as Venezuelan authorities announced they had arrested at least 125 people – among them foreigners from several countries including the United States – who were accused of being “mercenaries” involved in “destabilization actions.”

The Minister of Internal Affairs, Justice and Peace Diosdado Cabello made the claim at a press conference on Monday, during which he alleged some of those in custody had ties to opposition leaders. He also said weapons had been seized during the arrests.

However, he did not present evidence for either of those claims and did not offer further detail on what those arrested are accused of.

It is not clear when the arrests were made.

Cabello said that in addition to Venezuelan citizens the 125 included people from Colombia, the US, Peru, Spain, Italy, Uruguay, Ukraine, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Lebanon, Albania, the Netherlands, Israel, Germany, Argentina, Guyana and Yemen.

Last year, Venezuela claimed it had arrested six foreigners, including a US Navy SEAL, who it alleged were involved in a plot to kill the country’s President Nicolas Maduro. It is not clear whether these arrests are included in the 125 figure. In his briefing Monday, Cabello warned the Venezuelan government would have a “forceful” response against anyone involved in “destabilizing actions” against it.