Turkey detains 9 over attack outside the Israeli Consulate in Istanbul

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish authorities have detained nine people as part of an investigation intoan attack on policeoutside a building housing the Israeli Consulate in Istanbul that left one assailant dead, Turkey’s state-run news agency reported Wednesday.

Two other assailants were wounded and captured during Tuesday’s shootout in the city's financial and business district, while two police officers sustained slight injuries, officials said.

Israel had withdrawn its diplomats from Turkey over security concerns and deteriorating relations with Ankara shortly after the start of the war in Gaza, and officials said the consulate was closed at the time of the attack.

Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci said one of the assailants had links to a group that he said “exploits religion,” without naming the organization.

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The Islamic State group has carried out deadly attacks in Turkey in the past.

Anadolu Agency reported that security forces detained nine suspects in operations conducted in Istanbul as well as in the provinces of Konya and Kocaeli. They were being questioned along with the two injured assailants, the agency reported, without providing further details.

Cifti said the attackers had traveled from the city of Izmit, in Kocaeli province, in a rented car. The two wounded assailants are brothers, identified as Onur C. and Enes C. The first has a criminal record related to drugs.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday condemned the attack and praised the Turkish authorities for preventing further violence.

byNeo

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April 08, 2026

Turkey detains 9 over attack outside the Israeli Consulate in Istanbul

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish authorities have detained nine people as part of an investigation intoan attack on policeoutside a building hou...

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Harvard scientist's visa was unlawfully canceled, judge finds

A federal judge in Vermont ruled that Harvard scientist Kseniia Petrova’s visa was unlawfully canceledafter she was detained at an airport over biological samplesshe was carrying, handing her a key legal victory in a case that has raised questions about the limits of government power at the border.

In a decision issued Tuesday, the court said “the undisputed facts reveal that Ms. Petrova’s visa was impermissibly canceled.”

Petrova, a Russian-born researcher at Harvard University’s Kirschner Lab, has argued for more than a year that the cancellation was unlawful. She was stopped at Boston Logan International Airport last February after returning from Paris. Her visa was canceled; she was later placed into immigration proceedings and detention. This disrupted hergroundbreaking work on advanced imaging technologythat has the potential to transform cancer diagnostics, according to fellow researchers.

The Department of Homeland Security said ina statementthat Petrova was “lawfully detained after lying to federal officers about carrying substances into the country.”

Petrova described the incident differently.

“They asked if I have any biological samples in my luggage. I said yes,” she previouslytold NBC News. She described confusion over the customs procedures and a lengthy interrogation by CBP officers.

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“Nobody knew what was happening to me. I didn’t have any contact, not to my lawyer, not to Leon, not to anybody,” she said, referring to Dr. Leon Peshkin, a principal research scientist at Harvard’s Department of Systems Biology and her manager and mentor. “And the next day, they didn’t say what would happen. I was waiting in a cell.”

The ruling, her attorney said, helps address those circumstances.

“Today’s decision marks an important step toward correcting what should never have happened in the first place,” Gregory Romanovsky said in a statement Tuesday. “For over a year, Kseniia Petrova has maintained that CBP had no legal authority to cancel her visa on February 16, 2025. Today, the U.S. District Court in Vermont agreed.”

The statement also noted that Petrova won a separate legal challenge in Massachusetts in December that allowed her to return to work. She has been back in her lab since January after a year navigating legal proceedings, including time in immigration detention in Louisiana, away from her research, friends and the home she built in Boston.

“Today’s ruling makes clear that, as broad as CBP’s authority is at the border, its actions cannot be arbitrary or capricious,” Romanovsky said.

While this ruling allows Petrova to remain in the U.S. for now, her legal battles are not over. She isstill facing a separate criminal casestemming from the airport incident, with a trial scheduled for later this year.

byNeo

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April 08, 2026

Harvard scientist's visa was unlawfully canceled, judge finds

A federal judge in Vermont ruled that Harvard scientist Kseniia Petrova’s visa was unlawfully canceledafter she was detained at an airp...

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It feels more like winter than spring in these states amid hard freeze

Tens of millions of Americans awoke to temperatures that feltmore like winter than springon April 7, and forecasters warned of another overnight freeze to come.

Freeze warnings extended across states from the Midwest to the East Coast, including Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey. Several areas will also be under a freeze watch or warning the night of April 7 into the early morning of April 8, the National Weather Service warned.

Temperatures were expected to drop as low as the 20s, the weather service said.

Cold conditions should last through about midweek, with daytime highs in major Northeast cities, including Boston and New York City, remaining in the 40s through April 8 before "rapid warming" begins later in the week, AccuWeather reported. In the Midwest, daytime highs could struggle to get above the 30s, according to the outlet.

Snow showers and flurries are also expected in parts of Pennsylvania, northern New Jersey, New York and into New England on April 7.

Meanwhile,unsettled weatherwas threatening slow-moving rain and storms in Florida and another kona storm in Hawaii.

Lightning, tornadoes and wild storms: See these incredible weather photos

Florida drenched with rain, elevating flood risk

A slow-moving storm system was drivinglingering showers and thunderstorms over parts of Florida, helping ease an ongoing drought but also bringing a risk of flash flooding and hazardous coastal conditions along the eastern part of the state through at least the middle of the week, forecasters said.

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The Atlantic coastline will be most at risk for heavy rain, with cities including Miami, Daytona Beach, Orlando and Jacksonville in the targeted region, AccuWeather reported.

Rainfall could total between 1 and 3 inches along the Atlantic coast and much of South Florida, with some localized areas receiving 4 to 6 inches, AccuWeather reported. In some extreme cases where repeated storms move and linger over the same areas, up to 12 inches could fall, the outlet said.

Another kona storm to hit Hawaii after flooding destruction

Another "kona storm" is threatening already-battered Hawaii with more heavy rain and flood risks starting later on April 7 and through the end of the week.

Akona storm, or a kona low, is a "major weather producer," according to the weather service. The word "kona" refers to the side of the Hawaiian Islands that is usually sheltered from trade winds and rainfall. But a kona storm, a type of seasonal subtropical cyclone, can bring torrential rainfall.

This week's kona storm is expected to bring strong winds, widespread heavy rainfall and flooding risks to the state, the weather service said. The risk for mudslides is also elevated in areas already saturated byMarch's two destructive kona storms.

"Showers and thunderstorms will increase from Tuesday night through Thursday, with the most significant impacts expected beginning Thursday night as deeper tropical moisture spreads across the islands," AccuWeather reported.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:It feels more like winter than spring in these states amid hard freeze

byNeo

in

April 07, 2026

It feels more like winter than spring in these states amid hard freeze

Tens of millions of Americans awoke to temperatures that feltmore like winter than springon April 7, and forecasters warned of another ...

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UN to vote on watered-down resolution to open the Strait of Hormuz. Russia and China are key

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council is scheduled to vote Tuesday on a resolution aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz that has been repeatedlywatered downbecause of opposition from Russia and China. But it remains unclear whether they will still veto the Bahrain-sponsored measure.

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The vote is scheduled just hours beforean 8 p.m. Eastern deadlineset by U.S. President Donald Trump for Iran to open the strategic waterway or face attacks on its power plants and bridges. One-fifth of the world’s oil typically passes through the strait, andIran’s stranglehold during the warhas sent energy prices soaring.

It’s doubtful the resolution, even if adopted, would impact the war, now in its fifth week, because it has been significantly weakened to try to get Russia and China to abstain rather than veto it.

The initial Bahrain proposal would have authorized countries to use “all necessary means” — U.N. wording that would include military action — to ensure transit through the Strait of Hormuz and deter attempts to close it.

After Russia, China and France, all veto-wielding countries on the 15-member Security Council, expressed opposition to approving the use of force, the resolution was revised to eliminate all references to offensive action. It would have authorized only “all defensive means necessary.” A vote had been expected on Saturday.

But instead the resolution was further weakened to eliminate any reference to Security Council authorization — which is an order for action — and limit its provisions to the Strait of Hormuz. Previous drafts had included adjacent waters.

The resolution to be voted on Tuesday "strongly encourages states interested in the use of commercial maritime routes in the Strait of Hormuz to coordinate efforts, defensive in nature, commensurate with the circumstances, to contribute to ensuring the safety and security of navigation across the Strait of Hormuz.”

This should include escorting merchant and commercial vessels, and deterring attempts to close, obstruct or interfere with international navigation through the strait, it says.

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The resolution also demands that Iran immediately halt attacks on merchant and commercial vessels and stop impeding their freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz and attacking civilian infrastructure.

In response to the U.S. and Israeli attacks beginning on Feb. 28, Iran has targeted hotels, airports, residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure in more than 10 countries, including the Islamic Republic's Gulf neighbors, some of the world’s major exporters of oil and natural gas.

Iran's blockade in the strait is seen by Gulf nations as an existential threat. Bahrain, a Gulf nation that hosts the U.S. Fifth Fleet and is the Security Council’s Arab representative and its president this month, has been pressing for U.N. action.

At the same time, Trump on Monday demanded again that Iran reopen the Strait of Hormuz after heaping praise on the U.S. military for thedaring rescueof two crewmen of a fighter jet shot down in Iran. The Republican president warned Iran that the "entire country can be taken out in one night, and that might be tomorrow night.”

He repeated the warning on Tuesday, saying a “whole civilization will die tonight” if Tehran does not meet his deadline to agree to a deal that includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia and China’s U.N. Ambassador Fu Cong have blamed the U.S. and Israel for starting the war and sparking an expanding global crisis. They told the Security Council last week that the most urgent priority now is to end military operations immediately.

In response to Iran’s strikes against its Gulf neighbors, the Security Counciladopted a Bahrain-sponsored resolutionon March 11 condemning the “egregious attacks” and calling for Tehran to immediately halt its strikes.

That resolution, adopted by a vote of 13-0 with Russia and China abstaining, also condemned Iran’s actions in the Strait of Hormuz as a threat to international peace and security and called for an immediate end to all actions blocking shipping.

byNeo

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April 07, 2026

UN to vote on watered-down resolution to open the Strait of Hormuz. Russia and China are key

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council is scheduled to vote Tuesday on a resolution aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz th...

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Indianapolis councilman says shots fired at his house and a 'no data centers' note left on his doorstep

An Indianapolis council member said more than a dozenbullets were firedat his house Monday morning and a handwritten note reading "No Data Centers" was left on his doorstep.

In a statement, Indianapolis City-County Council member Ron Gibson said he and his 8-year-old son were not physically harmed but that they were awakened by the sound of gunfire.

“Just steps from where those bullets struck is our dining room table, where my son had been playing with his Legos the day before. That reality is deeply unsettling. This was not just an attack on my home, but endangered my child and disrupted the safety of our entire neighborhood,” Gibson said.

The FBI and the Indiana Department of Homeland Security, whom Gibson thanked in his statement for investigating the incident, referred NBC News to Indianapolis police, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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“I understand that public service can bring strong opinions and disagreement, but violence is never the answer, especially when it puts families at risk,” Gibson said in his statement.

Gibson, a Democrat who has served in his position since 2023, represents a district where rezoning for a data center built by developer Metrobloks is set to take place. City leaders last weekapproved rezoningfor the project, a project that Gibson publicly backed.

NBC affiliate WTHR reportedthat residents filled the hearing room for the vote with posters in opposition, following months of protests and rallies opposing the construction of the center.

The rezoning was approved amid rising nationwide opposition to data centers.Legislators from both partiesin state capitols across the country have introduced bills toaddress resource consumption by data centersand the increased utility costs that tend to hit residents.

Gibson added that the incident will not “deter” him and said he prays “that justice is served and those responsible are held accountable.”

byNeo

in

April 06, 2026

Indianapolis councilman says shots fired at his house and a 'no data centers' note left on his doorstep

An Indianapolis council member said more than a dozenbullets were firedat his house Monday morning and a handwritten note reading ...

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