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Herbert Rubinstein was 5 years old when he and his mother were taken from the Jewish ghetto of Chernivtsi and put on a cramped cattle wagon waiting to take them to their deaths. It was 1941, and Romanians collaborating with Germany's Nazis were rounding up tens of thousands of Jews from his hometown in what is now southwestern Ukraine.

"It was nothing but a miracle that we survived," Rubinstein told The Associated Press during a recent interview at his apartment in the western German city of Duesseldorf.

The 88-year-old Holocaust survivor is participating in a new digital campaign called #CancelHate. It was launched Thursday by the New York-based Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, also referred to as the Claims Conference.

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It features videos of survivors from around the globe reading Holocaust denial posts from different social media platforms. Each post illustrates how denial and distortion can not only rewrite history but perpetuate antisemitic tropes and spread hate.

"I could never have imagined a day when Holocaust survivors would be confronting such a tremendous wave of Holocaust denial and distortion, but sadly, that day is here," said Greg Schneider, executive vice president of the Claims Conference.

"We all saw what unchecked hatred led to — words of hate and antisemitism led to deportations, gas chambers and crematoria," Schneider added. "Those who read these depraved posts are putting aside their own discomfort and trauma to ensure that current and future generations understand that unchecked hatred has no place in society."

The Claims Conference’s new digital campaign comes at a time when antisemitic incidents, triggered by Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel’s ensuing military campaign in Gaza, have increased from Europe to the U.S. and beyond, to levels not seen in decades, according to major Jewish organizations.

Hamas and other militants abducted around 250 people in the attack and killed around 1,200, mostly civilians. They are still believed to be holding around 100 hostages and the remains of some 30 others. The war has ground on with little end in sight: Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed over 34,000 Palestinians, displaced around 80% of the population and pushed hundreds of thousands of people to the brink of famine.

The war has inflamed tensions around the world and triggered pro-Palestinian protests, including at college campuses in the U.S. and elsewhere. Israel and its supporters have branded the protests as antisemitic, while critics of Israel say it uses such allegations to silence opponents.

The launch of the Claims Conference campaign also comes days before Yom HaShoah — Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day — next Monday.

In one of the videos, Rubinstein reads out a hate post — only to juxtapose it with his personal testimony about his family’s suffering during the Holocaust.

"'We have all been cheated, lied to, and exploited. The Holocaust did not happen the way it is written in our history books,'" he reads and then says: "That is a lie. The Holocaust happened. Unfortunately, way too many members of my family died in the Holocaust."

Rubinstein then continues to talk about his own persecution as a Jewish child during the Holocaust.

While forced into the ghetto of Cernisvtsi, his family managed to obtain forged Polish identity documents, which were the only reason he and his mother were taken off the cattle train in 1941.

They fled and hid in several eastern European countries until the war ended in 1945. After that, they briefly went back to his hometown, only to find out that his father, who had been forced into the Soviet Red Army during the war, had been killed. They moved on to Amsterdam, where his mother married again, and eventually settled in Duesseldorf.

"I lived through the Holocaust. Six million were murdered. Hate and Holocaust denial have returned to our society today. I am very, very sad about this and I am fighting it with all my might," Rubinstein says at the end of the video. "Words matter. Our words are our power. Cancel hate. Stop the hate."

Even at his old age, Rubinstein, who calls himself an optimist, says he will continue fighting antisemitism every single day. And he has a message, especially for the young generation of Jews.

"Don’t panic," Rubinstein says. "The good will win. You just have to do something about it."

Israel’s president weighed in on the massive antisemitic encampments that have sprouted up at elite colleges and universities across the United States, condemning the "masked cowards" who "smash windows and barricade doors."

Israeli President Isaac Herzog addressed those in the Jewish community on these campuses and around the world that feel victimized by the demonstrations.

"In the face of violence, harassment, and intimidation, as masked cowards smash windows and barricade doors, assault the truth and manipulate history, together, we stand strong," President Herzog said in a video address.

"As they chant for infitada and genocide, we will work together to free our hostages held by Hamas and fight for civil liberties of the entire free world and our right to believe and belong and the right to live proudly, peacefully and securely as Jews and as Israelis anywhere," he added.

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Herzog’s address comes as a multi-agency group of law enforcement officers on Thursday moved onto the University of California, Los Angeles campus to remove an anti-Israel encampment that was declared unlawful.

"We see prominent academic institutions, halls of history, culture and education, contaminated by hatred and antisemitism fueled by arrogance and ignorance, driven by moral failings and disinformation," Herzog said. "We watch in horror as the atrocities of Oct. 7 against Israel are celebrated and justified. We hear you. We recognize your heroic effort. We are with you. We are here for you."

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"Dear sisters and brothers, to our friends on campuses and in Jewish communities across the United States and all over the world, to those who stand by and defend the Jewish people and the state of Israel, to all people of good will, the people of Israel are with you," he continued. "We hear you."

Herzog added: "We see the shameless hostility and threats. We feel the insults, the breach of faith and breach of friendship. We share the apprehension and concern.

His comments come just days before Holocaust Remembrance Day, which will be recognized on Monday, May 6.

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"Together we will overcome this resurgence of antisemitism. Do not fear. Stand proud. Stand strong for your freedom. Israel stands with you. Israel cares for you," Herzog concluded.

In contrast, Iran has expressed support for anti-Israeli demonstrations that have erupted across elite U.S. colleges and universities.

Last month, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian defended the hundreds of students who have been arrested at UCLA, Columbia University, the University of Southern California, UT-Austin and others for disrupting campus facilities and trespassing.

"The suppression and harsh treatment of the American police and security forces against professors and students protesting the genocide and war crimes of the Israeli regime in various universities of this country is deeply worried and disgusted by the public opinion of the world," the foreign minister said on X, according to a translation.

He added: "This repression is in line with the continuation of Washington's full-fledged support for the Israeli regime and clearly shows the dual policy and contradictory behavior of the American government towards freedom of expression."

Police at UCLA faced off against a left-wing mob on Thursday morning, when officers dismantled an anti-Israel encampment and took agitators into custody.

Officers wearing riot gear knocked down a plywood barrier surrounding UCLA’s Dickson Plaza, where the anti-Israel encampment was being held, entered the area and began conducting arrests throughout the morning.

Russia has circulated a U.N. resolution calling on all countries to take urgent action to prevent putting weapons in outer space "for all time" a week after it vetoed a U.S.-Japan resolution to stop an arms race in space.

The Russian draft resolution, obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press, goes further than the U.S.-Japan proposal, not only calling for efforts to stop weapons from being deployed in outer space but for preventing "the threat or use of force in outer space," also "for all time."

It says this should include deploying weapons "from space against Earth, and from Earth against objects in outer space."

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Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the Security Council when he vetoed the U.S.-Japan draft that it didn’t go far enough in banning all types of weapons in space.

The vetoed resolution focused solely on weapons of mass destruction including nuclear arms, and made no mention of other weapons in space.

It would have called on all countries not to develop or deploy nuclear arms or other weapons of mass destruction in space, as banned under a 1967 international treaty that the U.S. and Russia ratified, and to agree to the need to verify compliance.

Before the U.S.-Japan resolution was put to a vote on April 24, Russia and China proposed an amendment that would call on all countries, especially those with space capabilities, "to prevent for all time the placement of weapons in outer space, and the threat of use of force in outer spaces."

The vote was 7 countries in favor, 7 against, and one abstention and the amendment was defeated because it failed to get the minimum 9 "yes" votes in the 15-member Security Council required for adoption.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the council after the vote that Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Moscow has no intention of deploying nuclear weapons in space.

"Today’s veto begs the question: Why? Why, if you are following the rules, would you not support a resolution that reaffirms them? What could you possibly be hiding?" she asked. "It’s baffling. And it’s a shame."

Putin was responding to White House confirmation in February that Russia has obtained a "troubling" anti-satellite weapon capability, although such a weapon is not operational yet.

Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said after casting the veto that the U.S.-Japan resolution cherry picked weapons of mass destruction.

He said much of the U.S. and Japan’s actions become clear "if we recall that the U.S. and their allies announced some time ago plans to place weapons … in outer space."

Nebenzia also accused the U.S. of blocking a Russian-Chinese proposal since 2008 for a treaty against putting weapons in outer space.

Thomas-Greenfield accused Russia of undermining global treaties to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, irresponsibly invoking "dangerous nuclear rhetoric," walking away from several of its arms control obligations, and refusing to engage "in substantive discussions around arms control or risk reduction."

Much of the Russian draft resolution is exactly the same as the U.S.-Japan draft, including the language on preventing an arms race in space.

It calls on all countries, especially those with major space capabilities, "to contribute actively to the objective of the peaceful use of outer space and of the prevention of an arms race in outer space."

Thomas-Greenfield said the world is just beginning to understand "the catastrophic ramifications of a nuclear explosion in space."

A European court on Thursday upheld Italy’s right to seize a prized Greek statue from the J. Paul Getty Museum in California, ruling that Italy was right to try to reclaim an important part of its cultural heritage and rejecting the museum's appeal.

The European Court of Human Rights, or ECHR, determined that Italy’s years-long efforts to recover the "Victorious Youth" statue from the Getty were not disproportionate.

The Getty had appealed a 2018 Italian high court ruling that had confirmed a confiscation order, claiming that its rights to the statue had been violated by Italy's campaign to get it back.

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"Victorious Youth," a life-sized bronze dating from 300 B.C. to 100 B.C., is one of the highlights of the Getty collection.

An Italian court in Pesaro had ordered it seized and returned in 2010, at the height of Italy’s campaign to recover antiquities looted from its territory and sold to museums and private collectors around the globe.

The Getty has long defended its right to the statue, saying Italy had no claim to it.

Among other things, the Getty had argued that the statue is of Greek origin, was found in international waters and has never been part of Italy’s cultural heritage. It has cited a 1968 Court of Cassation ruling that found no evidence that the statue belonged to Italy.

The bronze, which was pulled from the sea in 1964 by Italian fishermen, was purchased by the Getty in 1977 for $4 million and has since been on display at the Getty.

Thursday's ruling by the Strasbourg, France-based ECHR was a chamber judgment. Both sides now have three months to ask that the case be heard by the court's Grand Chamber for a final ruling.

There was no immediate comment from the Getty, and its lawyers referred comment to the museum.

The Getty had appealed to the ECHR by arguing, among other things, that Italy's 2010 confiscation order constituted a violation of its right to enjoy its possessions and that it would be deprived of that right if U.S. authorities carried out the seizure.

The ECHR however, ruled in favor of Italy and strongly reaffirmed Italy's right to pursue the protection of its cultural heritage, especially from unlawful exportation.

"The court further held that owing, in particular, to the Getty Trust’s negligence or bad faith in purchasing the statue despite being aware of the claims of the Italian state and their efforts to recover it, the confiscation order had been proportionate to the aim of ensuring the return of an object that was part of Italy’s cultural heritage," said the summary of the ruling.

The statue, nicknamed the "Getty Bronze," is a signature piece for the museum. Standing about 5 feet (1.52 meters) tall, the statue of the young athlete raising his right hand to an olive wreath crown around his head is one of the few life-sized Greek bronzes to have survived.

Though the artist is unknown, some scholars believe it was made by Lysippos, Alexander the Great’s personal sculptor.

The bronze is believed to have sunk with the ship that was carrying it to Italy after the Romans conquered Greece. After being found in the nets of Italian fishermen trawling in international waters in 1964, it allegedly was buried in an Italian cabbage patch and hidden in a priest’s bathtub before it was taken out of Italy.

The Italian government says it was brought into Italy and then exported illegally, with the illegal exportation the basis of its confiscation order.

Italy has successfully won back thousands of artifacts from museums, collections and private owners around the world that it says were looted or stolen from the country illegally, and recently opened a museum to house them until they can be returned to the regions from where they were looted.

The most important work to date that Italy has successfully brought back is the Euphronios Krater, one of the finest ancient Greek vases in existence. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which purchased it for $1 million in 1972 from an art dealer later accused of acquiring looted artifacts, returned it to Italy in 2008.

In 2007, the Getty, without admitting any wrongdoing, agreed to return 40 ancient treasures in exchange for the long-term loans of other artifacts. Similar deals have been reached with other museums.

Under the 2007 deal, the two sides agreed to postpone further discussion of "Victorious Youth" until the court case was decided.

Organizers of the Eurovision Song Contest said Thursday they reserve the right to remove any Palestinian flags and pro-Palestinian symbols at the show next week in Sweden.

The announcement came amid heightened tensions surrounding Israel’s participation in the annual music competition over its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza, now in its seventh month. Pro-Palestinian groups are expected to stage large protests in Malmo to raise awareness of their cause.

Michelle Roverelli, the head of communications for the European Broadcasting Union that runs the show each year, said ticket buyers are only allowed to bring and display flags that represent countries that take part in the event, as well as the rainbow-colored flag.

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The Geneva-based EBU reserves the right "to remove any other flags or symbols, clothing, items and banners being used for the likely purpose of instrumentalizing the TV shows," she told The Associated Press in a text message.

She was responding after Swedish newspaper Goteborgs-Posten reported Thursday that contest organizers had banned Palestinian flags and political banners at the event.

National flags are a common sight during the contest as fans cheer on their country’s acts and those they support.

The glitzy gala, which draws hundreds of millions of viewers each year, is hosting the event from May 7-11 in Malmo in southern Sweden, following last year's victory by Loreen for its performance of "Tattoo" last year.

Winners earn the right for their country to host the following year's event: Sweden is set to host for a record-equalling 7th time.

Swedish police have warned that security will be tight, citing a threat of terrorism in the wealthy Nordic country.

Pro-Palestinian activists who want Israel — a former winner — out of the Eurovision Song Contest have announced large rallies in downtown Malmo, several miles from the Malmo Arena contest venue.

Last month Swedish police said they had received an application for a demonstration in Malmo to burn a copy of the Quran before the contest. Sweden raised its terror threat level last year following a series of burnings of the Quran that triggered protests in the Muslim world.

In recent weeks, spillover reaction around the world to the nearly 7-month war between Israel and Hamas has fanned large protests on U.S. university campuses and beyond.

A State Department official is pushing Thursday for China and Russia to declare that only humans – and not artificial intelligence – will make decisions on deploying nuclear weapons. 

Paul Dean, an official in the State Department’s Bureau of Arms Control, Deterrence, and Stability, said during a press briefing that the U.S. has already made "a very clear and strong commitment that in cases of nuclear employment, that decision would only be made by a human being. 

"We would never defer a decision on nuclear employment to AI. We strongly stand by that statement and we’ve made it publicly with our colleagues in the UK and France," he continued. 

"We would welcome a similar statement by China and the Russian Federation," Dean added, noting that "we think it’s an extremely important norm of responsible behavior." 

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The State Department has said that Secretary of State Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke about "artificial intelligence risks and safety" during a meeting last Friday in Beijing. 

"I do think that there is a real opportunity right now as countries increasingly turn to artificial intelligence to establish what the rules of responsible and stabilizing behavior will look like.  And I think it’s – this is a conversation... that I think all major militaries and major economies – like the United States and China – have to deal with," Dean said Thursday. 

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He mentioned that the U.S. and 54 partners – not including China and Russia -- have endorsed a political declaration on responsible uses of military AI, which will "ensure there is no accountability gap in the use of artificial intelligence in the military, and ensure that the applications are designed and used according to rigorous technical specifications, with some designs built in to ensure that there can be safeguards and that the technology can be used in a responsible way." 

"This technology will really revolutionize militaries across a range of applications," Dean also said. "And I would emphasize here that the issue is not limited to battlefield use but these technologies will be used by militaries across the entire range of their operations on efficiencies and logistics, decision making. And I think this presents great promise and I think there’s significant upside in this, but of course, as with all new technologies, there are risks if the technology is not used in a responsible way." 

A section of a highway collapsed after heavy rains in a mountainous area in southern China, sending cars tumbling down a slope and leaving at least 36 people dead, authorities said Thursday.

The Meizhou city government said that 23 vehicles have been found after a 58.7-foot long section of the highway gave way about 2 a.m. on Wednesday. Thirty other people had injuries, none of them life-threatening, a government statement said.

The search effort was complicated by steady rain, gravel and soil coming down at the site, posing some risk to the workers, a fire department official told Chinese media.

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Rescue teams divided the area into 10 grids and searched with dogs and life-detecting devices, the report said. Excavators and cranes were also brought in to help.

The collapse left a barren scar down a steep slope in an otherwise verdant green forested area. Witnesses told local media they heard a loud noise and saw a wide hole open up behind them after driving past the section just before it collapsed.

Video and photos in local media showed smoke and fire at the scene, with a highway guardrail leaning down into the flames. A pile of blackened cars could be seen on the slope leading down from the highway.

A photo later showed a construction crane lowering a mangled car to the road surface, near three other similarly wrecked vehicles. All appeared to have been burned out.

Over 22 inches of rain has fallen in the past four weeks in the county where the roadway collapsed, more than four times as much as last year. Some villages in Meizhou flooded in early April, and the city has seen heavy rain in recent days.

Parts of Guangdong province have seen record rains and flooding in the past two weeks, as well as hail. A tornado killed five people in Guangzhou, the provincial capital, last weekend.

Heavy rain and flooding pose a special risk to mountain roadways and highway bridges because of erosion, debris flows and landslides. China has massively expanded its infrastructure in recent years, adding more than 1 million highway bridges, the world's largest network of high speed trains and scores of new airports.

In the rush to build, flaws in design and construction methods have frequently come to light, while regular inspections and maintenance are sometimes given short shrift. Dozens have died in recent years in tunnel collapses and floods, including 14 who drowned in subway trains in the central city of Zhenzhou during massive flooding that killed around 300 people.

Subsequent reports said that officials failed to suspend service as they should have under government directives.

China's overseas projects such as roads and dams under the Belt and Road Initiative have also been criticized for design problems and poor quality, potentially posing a challenge to its efforts to build its influence in the developing world.

A surprise announcement that revealed Haiti’s new prime minister is threatening to fracture a recently installed transitional council tasked with choosing new leaders for the gang-riddled Caribbean country.

Four of seven council members with voting powers said Tuesday that they had chosen Fritz Bélizaire as prime minister, taking many Haitians aback with their declaration and unexpected political alliance.

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The council members who oppose Bélizaire, who served as Haiti’s sports minister during the second presidency of René Préval from 2006 to 2011, are now weighing options including fighting the decision or resigning from the council.

A person with direct knowledge of the situation who did not want to be identified because negotiations are ongoing said the council’s political accord had been violated by the unexpected move and that some council members are considering other choices as potential prime minister.

The council on Tuesday was scheduled to hold an election and choose its president. But two hours and a profuse apology later, one council member said that not only a council president had been chosen, but a prime minister as well. Murmurs rippled through the room.

The Montana Accord, a civil society group represented by a council member with voting powers, denounced in a statement late Tuesday what it called a "complot" hatched by four council members against the Haitian people "in the middle of the night."

"The political and economic mafia forces have decided to take control of the presidential council and the government so that they can continue to control the state," the Montana Accord said.

Haitian politics have long been characterized by secretive dealings, but many worry the country cannot afford further political instability as gangs lay siege to the capital of Port-au-Prince and beyond.

"People change parties (like) they’re changing their shirts," said François Pierre-Louis, a professor of political science at Queens College in New York and former Haitian politician.

He spoke during an online webinar on Tuesday evening.

Like others, he said he believed that Jean-Charles Moïse, a powerful politician who was a former senator and presidential candidate, was behind Bélizaire’s nomination.

"Interestingly, Moïse, of all the politicians there, is the one calling the shots," Pierre-Louis said.

Moïse, however, does not sit on the council. His party, Pitit Desalin, is represented by Emmanuel Vertilaire, who is among the four council members who support Bélizaire.

The others are Louis Gérald Gilles, Smith Augustin and Edgard Leblanc Fils, the council’s new president.

They could not be immediately reached for comment.

A document shared with The Associated Press and signed by the four council members who chose the new prime minister state they have agreed to make decisions by consensus. The document is titled, "Constitution of an Indissoluble Majority Bloc within the Presidential Council."

The move prompted the Fanmi Lavalas party to issue a statement Wednesday calling it a "masquerade" and "conspiracy" to guarantee that PHTK "thugs and their allies retain power…and continue the tradition of corruption."

"The Lavalas Family strongly rejects the betrayal scandal that occurred on April 30," the party said.

Fils represents the January 30 political group, which is made up of parties including PHTK, whose members include former President Michel Martelly and slain President Jovenel Moïse. Meanwhile, Augustin represents the EDE/RED political party, founded by former Prime Minister Claude Joseph, and Gilles represents the Dec. 21 agreement, which is associated with former Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who recently resigned.

Henry was on an official visit to Kenya to push for the U.N.-backed deployment of a police force from the East African country when gangs in Haiti launched coordinated attacks starting Feb. 29.

They have burned police stations, opened fire on the main international airport that remains closed since early March and stormed Haiti’s two biggest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates. The violence continues unabated in certain part of Port-au-Prince, including the area around the National Palace.

Haitians are demanding that security be a top priority for the council, which is tasked with selecting a new prime minister and Cabinet, as well as prepare for eventual general elections.

But some Haitians are wary of the council and the decisions it’s taking.

Jean Selcé, a 57-year-old electrician, noted that most of the council members are longtime politicians: "Their past is not really positive."

"I hope their mentality can change, but I don’t believe it will," he said. "They don’t really love the country. Who’s dying right now? It’s Haitians like me."

Robert Fatton, a Haitian politics expert at the University of Virginia, noted that some of the parties represented on the council are responsible for the current chaos in Haiti.

"It’s a contradiction," he said. "Every time we seem to be in a crisis, we reappoint the same people and hope that they change their ways, but they do not."

Raising the same criticism is Michael Deibert, author of "Notes From the Last Testament: The Struggle for Haiti," and "Haiti Will Not Perish: A Recent History."

He noted in a recent essay that the council is "dominated by the same political currents who have spent the last 25 years driving Haiti over a cliff, taking advantage of impoverished young men in the slums to be used as political bludgeons before - bloated on the proceeds from kidnapping, extortion, drug trafficking and other criminal enterprises - these groups outgrew the necessity of their patrons."

More than 2,500 people have been killed or injured across Haiti from January to March, according to the U.N.

In addition, more than 90,000 people have fled Port-au-Prince in just one month given the relentless gang violence.

A University of Tehran professor said in an interview that Iran likes seeing protests on U.S. college campuses, adding those are their supporters if there is ever a conflict between the two countries.

Professor Foad Izadi, who, according to the University of Southern California Center on Public Diplomacy, earned his master’s degree from the University of Houston, was seen in a video being interviewed about the protests in the U.S.

"Sooner or later, this kind of support for the Zionist regime by the American regime will diminish. It might not stop completely, but its diminishing is important," he said. "This is why the demonstrations [on U.S. campuses] are important."

Izadi spoke as a member of the Islamic Republic, and oftentimes said, "we," referring to him and the republic.

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"We are watching the demonstrations and like what we see, but it should not end with this," Izadi said. "If not for the Islamic Republic, the case of the Palestinian idea would have been closed years ago. The idea of resistance belongs to Iran, but on the operational level, when it comes to recruiting connections and building networks, the [Iranian] state has not been involved in a sufficient level.

"These (American students) are our people," he continued. "If tensions between America and Iran rise tomorrow or the day after, these are the people who will have to take to the streets to support Iran."

Izadi said there are Hezbollah-style groups in the U.S. that are much larger than those in Lebanon.

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"America is the Great Satan and our main enemy, but we have hope in these areas," he said.

Iran expert and Foreign Desk Editor-in-Chief Lisa Daftari provided insight on Izadi’s comments.

"Quite rich to see the same regime that is fixated on torturing, raping, blinding, executing its own college students, is applauding the ignorant college students on American campuses," she said. "It speaks to their focus on growing their influence outside of Iran."

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Daftari explained that Iran has been beefing up terror proxies in the region and paying their way into American universities.

But at the same time, she said, the Iranian people have suffered under the rule of their "barbaric" leaders.

After watching the comments, Daftari also said it was interesting to hear Izadi say they have more Hezbollah followers in the U.S. than in Lebanon.

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"Regardless of when these pro-Hamas protests quiet down here in the U.S., it’s apparent the regime has its sights set on manipulating this momentum to launch more attacks here in the West," she said. "The question then remains will they focus on a physical attack or just the information war, or both?"

Five people have died after drinking a poison potion in a Santeria ‘power’ ritual, police in the southern Mexico state of Oaxaca said Wednesday.

Iván García Alvarez, the Oaxaca state police chief, said four men and one woman died after drinking a mix of substances he did not specify.

He said they were involved in Santeria, a faith that began in Cuba when African slaves blended Yoruba spiritual beliefs with Roman Catholic traditions.

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García Alvarez said the victims mixed the potion themselves and drank it "to acquire some certain kind of powers." He said the deaths at a home in Oaxaca city are being investigated as a group suicide.

García Alvarez said the people were involved in Santeria and when they drank the potions, "the only thing that happened was they died of poisoning."

Their bodies were found Saturday at a house on the outskirts of Oaxaca city with no outward signs of injuries. The victims were apparently related, and ranged in age from 18 to 55.

Prosecutors said at the time that tests were being performed to identify the substances found in the house.

In the past, shamanic and other rituals in Mexico have involved toxic or hallucinogenic substances like Devil's Trumpet, or jimson weed, and venom from the Colorado River toad, but it was not known what substances were involved in the most recent deaths in Oaxaca.

However, Santeria has been implicated in other cases of skullduggery in Mexico.

In 2018, a man from a suburb of Mexico City confessed to killing at least 10 women, and claimed to have sold the bones of some of his victims to practitioners of Santeria. The suspect said he sold the bones to a man he met at a bus stop.

Parts of the man’s confession may have to be taken with a grain of salt; he initially confessed to killing 20 women, but was able to provide details — names and description of the victims — in only 10 cases.

Months of relentless Russian artillery pounding have devastated a strategic city in eastern Ukraine, new drone footage obtained by The Associated Press shows, with barely a building left intact, homes and municipal offices charred and a town that once had a population of 12,000 now all but deserted.

The footage shows Chasiv Yar — set amid green fields and woodland — pounded into an apocalyptic vista. The destruction is reminiscent of the cities of Bakhmut and Avdiivka, which Ukraine yielded after months of bombardment and huge losses for both sides.

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The strategically important city has been under attack by Russian forces for months. Capturing it would give Russia control of a hilltop from which it can attack other cities that form the backbone of Ukraine’s eastern defenses.

That would set the stage for a potentially broader Russian offensive that Ukrainian officials say could come as early as this month.

Russia launched waves of assaults on foot and in armored vehicles at Chasiv Yar's outnumbered Ukrainian troops, who have run desperately short of ammunition while waiting for the U.S. and other allies to send fresh supplies.

Rows of mid-rise apartment blocks in Chasiv Yar have been blackened by blasts, punched through with holes or reduced to piles of timber and masonry. Houses and civic buildings are heavily damaged. The golden dome of a church remains intact but the building appears badly damaged.

No soldiers or civilians were seen in the footage shot Monday and exclusively obtained by the AP, apart from a lone man walking down the middle of a road between wrecked structures.

Regional Gov. Vadym Filashkin said Wednesday on Ukrainian TV that 682 residents have held on in Chasiv Yar, living in "very difficult conditions." The city had a pre-war population of over 12,500. Filashkin said that those remaining have lacked running water and power for over a year, and that it is "ever more difficult" for humanitarian aid to reach them.

The destruction underscores Russia’s scorched-earth tactics throughout more than two years of war, as its troops have killed and displaced thousands of civilians.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg acknowledged Monday that the delayed delivery of allies' military aid to Ukraine had left the country at the mercy of the Kremlin's bigger and better-equipped forces.

Ukraine and its Western partners are racing to deploy critical new military aid that can help check the slow but steady Russian advance as well as thwart drone and missile attacks.

Elsewhere, Ukrainian authorities reported that two civilians died and at least nine others, included an 11-year-old boy, were wounded Wednesday after Russian aerial guided bombs pummeled a village in the northeastern Kharkiv region.

According to Gov. Oleh Syniehubov, a 64-year-old man and 38-year-old woman - both locals - were killed after one of the bombs detonated near their car in Zolochiv, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the border with Russia.

In the southern Black Sea port of Odesa, at least 13 people were injured after a Russian ballistic missile slammed into the city late Wednesday, regional Gov. Oleh Kiper said in a Telegram update. He did not say what had been hit, but reported the blast had sparked a major fire.

Videos circulating on social media showed huge plumes of smoke rising skywards at the site. Nova Poshta, a large Ukrainian postal and courier company, said in a Facebook post Wednesday that one of its sorting depots had been struck, but claimed no employees were among those hurt.

Odesa has been a frequent target for Russian firepower, with eight civilians killed by Russian missiles in the city over the past two days.

Heavy rains in Brazil’s southern Rio Grande do Sul state have killed at least 10 people and left 21 missing since Monday, the country's civil defense said Wednesday.

An additional 11 people were injured and more than 3,300 were forced to leave their homes due to damage caused by the storms, the civil defense added.

Operators reported electricity and water cuts across the state, and officials detailed numerous incidents of flooded roads, landslides and collapsed bridges as water levels of rivers and streams rose sharply.

10 CONFIRMED DEAD AFTER FIRE AT BRAZILIAN HOTEL, AUTHORITIES SAY

Authorities activated the Brazilian Air Force to assist stranded people. It deployed two helicopters for the rescue mission.

The southern state's crisis Cabinet met on Wednesday. Rescuing people in isolated and island areas is the priority, vice-governor Gabriel Souza said, according to a statement. Authorities had registered more than 130 rescue requests by Wednesday morning.

"There is a special concern with dams in an alert situation, with risk of failure and flooding due to very high levels," Souza added. Residents in nearby areas are being relocated, he said.

The downpour started Monday and was expected to last through Friday, civil defense authorities said.

In some areas, such as valleys, mountain slopes and cities, more than 6 inches of rain fell in 24 hours, said Brazil’s National Institute of Meteorology, known by the Portuguese acronym INMET, on Tuesday.

Weather across South America is affected by the climate phenomenon El Niño, a periodic naturally occurring event that warms surface waters in the Equatorial Pacific region. In Brazil, El Niño has historically caused droughts in the north and intense rainfall in the south.

This year, the impacts of El Niño have been particularly dramatic, with a historic drought in the Amazon. Scientists say extreme weather is happening more frequently due to human-caused climate change.

Police in Norway say a man carrying two knives stabbed one person and threatened several others in the center of Oslo on Wednesday.

WARSAW SYNAGOGUE ATTACKED AT NIGHT WITH 3 FIREBOMBS, NO INJURIES REPORTED

The incident occurred outside one of the city’s biggest subway stations when an argument got out of control, police said.

The unnamed man in his 30s stabbed one man in the arm and charged at several others.

A policeman drew his gun and told the man to drop the knives, a witness told Norway’s national broadcaster NRK.

The incident is not believed to be terror-related.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Wednesday announced his government will break diplomatic relations with Israel effective Thursday in the latest escalation of tensions between the countries over the Israel-Hamas war.

Petro again described Israel’s siege of Gaza as "genocide." He previously suspended purchases of weapons from Israel and compared that country’s actions in Gaza to those of Nazi Germany.

COLOMBIA'S PRESIDENT SAYS HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PIECES OF AMMUNITION HAVE GONE MISSING FROM MILITARY BASES

"Tomorrow, diplomatic relations with the State of Israel will be broken … for having a genocidal president," Petro said during an International Workers’ Day march in Colombia’s capital. "If Palestine dies, humanity dies, and we are not going to let it die."

Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz quickly rebuked Petro’s comments on the platform X.

"History will remember that Gustavo Petro decided to side with the most despicable monsters known to mankind who burned babies, murdered children, raped women and kidnapped innocent civilians," he said.

Weeks after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel that sparked the current war in Gaza and killed some 1,200 people, Petro recalled Colombia’s ambassador to Israel as he criticized the country’s military offensive.

Historically, Colombia had been one of Israel’s closest partners in Latin America. But relations between the two nations have cooled since Petro was elected as Colombia’s first leftist president in 2022.

Colombia uses Israeli-built warplanes and machine guns to fight drug cartels and rebel groups, and both countries signed a free trade agreement in 2020.

"Relations between Israel and Colombia always were warm and no antisemitic and hate-filled president will succeed in changing that," Katz wrote Tuesday. "The state of Israel will continue to defend its citizens without worry and without fear."

The South American country deepened its military ties with Israel in the late 1980s by purchasing Kfir fighter jets that were used by Colombia’s air force in numerous attacks on remote guerrilla camps that debilitated the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. The attacks helped push the group into peace talks that resulted in its disarmament in 2016.

Petro participated in Wednesday’s march in Bogota to promote his proposed health care, pension and labor reforms.

Warsaw's main synagogue was attacked with firebombs by an unknown perpetrator, but sustained minimal damage and nobody was hurt, Poland's chief rabbi said Wednesday. The incident was strongly condemned by political leaders.

The attack on the Nożyk Synagogue happened around 1 a.m., the country's American-born chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, said. The synagogue was hit with three firebombs, or Molotov cocktails, and only sustained minimal damage "by tremendous luck or miracle," he said.

PERPETRATOR OF FAILED GERMAN SYNAGOGUE ATTACK CONVICTED IN JAILBREAK ATTEMPT

Hours later, the ambassadors of the U.S. and Israel gathered at the spot with Jewish community leaders and Polish officials representing the president, the national parliament and the city government to condemn the attack and express solidarity with Poland’s Jewish community.

A black area that was the result of where the firebombs hit was visible near a ground floor window of the synagogue, the only surviving prewar Jewish house of prayer in the Polish capital.

"The Nożyk synagogue is a symbol of survival, and we stand in solidarity with Nożyk today and tomorrow," U.S. Ambassador Mark Brzezinski told reporters at a briefing held near the damaged facade.

It was unclear who carried out the attack but police have opened an investigation, Schudrich said.

Poland's President Andrzej Duda wrote on X that he condemned "the shameful attack," saying, "There is no place for antisemitism in Poland! There is no place for hatred in Poland!"

Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski noted that the incident fell on the 20th anniversary of Poland joining the European Union along with nine other countries, most of them Central European nations that had been under the Soviet sphere of influence for decades.

"Thank God no one was hurt. I wonder who is trying to disrupt the anniversary of our accession to the EU," Sikorski wrote on X. "Maybe the same ones who scribbled Stars of David in Paris?"

France said last year that it had been the target of a Russian online destabilization campaign that used automated social-media accounts to whip up controversy and confusion about spray-painted Stars of David that appeared on Paris streets and fed alarm about surging antisemitism in France during the Israel-Hamas war.

Poland, which until the Holocaust was the home of Europe’s largest Jewish community, numbering some 3.3 million, now counts a few thousand Jewish inhabitants in its population.

Volunteer searchers said they have found a clandestine crematorium on the edge of Mexico City.

It's the first time in recent memory that anyone claimed to have found such a body disposal site in the capital. In northern Mexico, drug cartels often use drums filled with diesel or caustic substances to burn or dissolve bodies, but up to now there has been little evidence of that in Mexico City.

Ceci Flores, a leader of one of the groups of so-called "searching mothers" from northern Mexico, announced on social media late Tuesday her team had found bones around a charred pit on the outskirts of the city.

ARCHAEOLOGISTS UNCOVER 850-YEAR-OLD TREASURE IN ANCIENT GRAVE: 'SENSATIONAL FIND'

Flores said the team had found bones, clandestine burial pits and ID cards at the site in a rural area of the city’s south side.

Mexico City prosecutors issued a statement saying they were investigating the find to determine the nature of the remains found, and whether they were human. The prosecutors office said it was also reviewing security camera footage and looking for possible witnesses.

The discovery, if confirmed, would be a political embarrassment for the ruling party, which has long governed Mexico City and claims the capital has been spared much of the drug cartel violence that afflicts other parts of the country.

That is largely due to the city's dense population, notoriously snarled traffic, extensive security camera network and large police force, which presumably make it hard for criminals to act in the same way they do in provincial areas.

SOUTH CAROLINA WOMAN RUNNING LATE DRIVES THROUGH CEMETERY FOR A SHORTCUT, DAMAGES GRAVES

But while the city is home to 9 million residents and the greater metropolitan area holds around 20 million, large parts of the south side are still a mix of farms, woods and mountains. In those areas, it is not unheard of for criminals to dump the bodies of kidnapping victim, but they seldom burn or bury them.

Volunteer searchers like Flores often conduct their own investigations, sometimes relying on tips from former criminals, because the government has been unable to help. The searchers have been angered by a government campaign to "find" missing people by checking their last known address, to see if they have returned home without advising authorities.

Activists claim that is just an attempt to reduce the politically embarrassing figures on the missing.

The searchers, mostly the mothers of the disappeared, usually aren’t trying to convict anyone for their relatives’ abductions. They say they just want to find their remains.

The Mexican government has spent little on looking for the missing. Volunteers must stand in for nonexistent official search teams in the hunt for clandestine graves where cartels hide their victims. The government hasn’t adequately funded or implemented a genetic database to help identify the remains found.

Victims’ relatives rely on anonymous tips, sometimes from former cartel gunmen, to find suspected body-dumping sites. They plunge long steel rods into the earth to detect the scent of death.

If they find something, the most authorities will do is send a police and forensics team to retrieve the remains, which in most cases are never identified. But such systematic searches have been rare in Mexico City.

At least seven of the activists searching for some of Mexico’s more than 100,000 missing people have been killed since 2021.

Indonesia's Mount Ruang volcano spewed more hot clouds on Wednesday after an eruption the previous day forced the closure of schools and airports, pelted villages with volcanic debris and prompted hundreds of people to flee.

Seven airports, including Sam Ratulangi international airport in Manado, the capital of North Sulawesi province, remained closed after Tuesday's eruption, the second in two weeks. Schools were shut to protect children from volcanic ash.

The volcano is on tiny Ruang Island, part of the Sitaro islands chain.

VIDEO SHOWS LIGHTNING SHOOTING FROM TOXIC ASH CLOUD DURING POWERFUL VOLCANIC ERUPTION IN INDONESIA

The Indonesian geological agency urged people to stay at least 4 miles from the volcano’s crater. It warned people on nearby Tagulandang Island, the closest to the volcano, of possible super-heated volcanic clouds from a further eruption and a tsunami if the mountain's volcanic dome collapses into the sea.

Video released by the National Search and Rescue Agency showed about a hundred villagers from Tagulandang Island being evacuated on a navy ship. Hundreds of others were waiting at a local port to be evacuated.

Agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari said 11,000 to 12,000 people living within a 4-mile danger zone would be taken to government shelters.

Tuesday’s eruption darkened the sky and peppered several villages with ash, grit and rocks. No casualties were reported.

After Mount Ruang's April 17 eruption, authorities warned that a subsequent eruption might collapse part of the volcano into the sea.

Ruang is among about 130 active volcanoes in Indonesia. The archipelagic nation is prone to volcanic eruptions and earthquakes because of its location on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," a series of fault lines stretching from the western coast of the Americas through Japan and Southeast Asia.

The first scientist to publish a sequence of the COVID-19 virus in China said he was allowed back into his lab after he spent days locked outside, sitting in protest.

Zhang Yongzhen wrote in an online post on Wednesday, just past midnight, that the medical center that hosts his lab had "tentatively agreed" to allow him and his team to return and continue their research for the time being.

"Now, team members can enter and leave the laboratory freely," Zhang wrote in a post on Weibo, a Chinese social media platform. He added that he is negotiating a plan to relocate the lab in a way that doesn’t disrupt his team’s work with the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, which hosts Zhang’s lab.

ECOHEALTH ALLIANCE PRESIDENT TO TESTIFY ON COVID ORIGINS, WUHAN LAB TAXPAYER-FUNDED RESEARCH

Zhang and his team were suddenly told they had to leave their lab for renovations on Thursday, setting off the dispute, he said in an earlier post that was later deleted. On Sunday, Zhang began a sit-in protest outside his lab after he found he was locked out, a sign of continuing pressure on Chinese scientists conducting research on the coronavirus.

Zhang sat outside on flattened cardboard in drizzling rain, and members of his team unfurled a banner that read "Resume normal scientific research work," pictures posted online show. News of the protest spread widely on Chinese social media, putting pressure on local authorities.

In an online statement Monday, the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center said that Zhang’s lab was closed for "safety reasons" while being renovated. It added that it had provided Zhang’s team an alternative laboratory space.

But Zhang responded the same day his team wasn’t offered an alternative until after they were notified of their eviction, and the lab offered didn’t meet safety standards for conducting their research, leaving his team in limbo.

Zhang’s dispute with his host institution was the latest in a series of setbacks, demotions and ousters since the virologist published the sequence in January 2020 without state approval.

Beijing has sought to control information related to the virus since it first emerged. An Associated Press investigation found that the government froze domestic and international efforts to trace it from the first weeks of the outbreak. These days, labs are closed, collaborations shattered, foreign scientists forced out and some Chinese researchers barred from leaving the country.

Zhang’s ordeal started when he and his team decoded the virus on Jan. 5, 2020, and wrote an internal notice warning Chinese authorities of its potential to spread — but did not make the sequence public. The next day, Zhang’s lab was ordered to close temporarily by China’s top health official, and Zhang came under pressure from the authorities.

Foreign scientists soon learned that Zhang and other Chinese scientists had deciphered the virus and called on China to release the sequence. Zhang published it on Jan. 11, 2020, despite a lack of permission from Chinese health officials.

Sequencing a virus is key to the development of test kits, disease control measures and vaccinations. The virus eventually spread to every corner of the world, triggering a pandemic that disrupted lives and commerce, prompted widespread lockdowns and killed millions of people.

Zhang was awarded prizes overseas in recognition for his work. But health officials removed him from a post at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and barred him from collaborating with some of his former partners, hindering his research.

Still, Zhang retains support from some in the government. Though some of Zhang’s online posts were deleted, his sit-in protest was reported widely in China’s state-controlled media, indicating divisions within the Chinese government on how to deal with Zhang and his team.

"Thank you to my online followers and people from all walks of life for your concern and strong support over the past few days!" Zhang wrote in his post Wednesday.

A 98-year-old woman in Ukraine who escaped Russian-occupied territory by walking almost 6 miles alone, wearing a pair of slippers and supported by a cane has been reunited with her family days after they were separated while fleeing to safety.

Lidia Stepanivna Lomikovska and her family decided to leave the front-line town of Ocheretyne, in the eastern Donetsk region, last week after Russian troops entered it and fighting intensified.

Russians have been advancing in the area, pounding Kyiv's depleted, ammunition-deprived forces with artillery, drones and bombs.

UKRAINE'S ZELENSKYY URGES FASTER US WEAPON DELIVERIES

"I woke up surrounded by shooting all around — so scary," Lomikovska said in a video interview posted by the National Police of Donetsk region.

In the chaos of the departure, Lomikovska became separated from her son and two daughters-in-law, including one, Olha Lomikovska, injured by shrapnel days earlier. The younger family members took to back routes, but Lydia wanted to stay on the main road.

With a cane in one hand and steadying herself using a splintered piece of wood in the other, she walked all day without food and water to reach Ukrainian lines.

Describing her journey, the nonagenarian said she had fallen twice and was forced to stop to rest at some points, even sleeping along the way before waking up and continuing her journey.

"Once I lost balance and fell into weeds. I fell asleep … a little, and continued walking. And then, for the second time, again, I fell. But then I got up and thought to myself: "I need to keep walking, bit by bit,’" Lomikovska said.

Pavlo Diachenko, acting spokesman for the National Police of Ukraine in the Donetsk region, said Lomikovska was saved when Ukrainian soldiers spotted her walking along the road in the evening. They handed her over to the "White Angels," a police group that evacuates citizens living on the front line, who then took her to a shelter for evacuees and contacted her relatives.

"I survived that war,’ she said referring to World War II. "I had to go through this war too, and in the end, I am left with nothing.

"That war wasn’t like this one. I saw that war. Not a single house burned down. But now – everything is on fire," she said to her rescuer.

In the latest twist to the story, the chief executive of one of Ukraine’s largest banks announced on his Telegram channel Tuesday that the bank would purchase a house for the pensioner.

"Monobank will buy Lydia Stepanivna a house and she will surely live in it until the moment when this abomination disappears from our land," Oleh Horokhovskyi said.

A 15-year-old boy who claimed to be a friend of a teen accused of stabbing a Sydney bishop applied Wednesday to be released from custody on bail on a charge of planning a terrorist attack.

The 15-year-old is one of six teens, ages 14 to 17, who were charged in a Sydney court last week with a range of offenses including conspiring to engage in or planning a terrorist act. All remain in custody.

Police alleged they all "adhered to a religiously motivated, violent extremist ideology" and were part of a network that included a 16-year-old boy charged with stabbing an Assyrian Orthodox bishop and priest on April 15 as a church service was being streamed online.

AUSTRALIA COUNTERTERRORISM FORCE ARRESTS 7 TEENAGERS FOLLOWING SYDNEY BISHOP STABBING

The 15-year-old’s lawyer, Ahmed Dib, argued in the Parramatta Children’s Court that Magistrate James Viney should allow his client to be released on bail due to exceptional circumstances.

Prosecutor Rebekah Rodger opposed the bail application, arguing the boy’s circumstances were unexceptional.

Viney will make his decision as early as Thursday.

Dib tendered a bundle of documents including an affidavit from the boy’s mother, school report cards and a psychological report. The documents showed the boy had a history of behavioral issues, lacked confidence and had low self-esteem.

The prosecutor argued such factors were to be expected.

"A young person with behavioral issues facing a terrorism accusation is not exceptional, it is rather the norm," Rodger said.

The boy had been part of an encrypted chat group titled "Plans" where he talked about targeting Jewish people, Rodger said.

Rodger said he had also described the teen charged with the stabbings at Christ the Good Shepherd Church as "my mate."

The bishop's attacker was charged with committing a terrorist act four days after stabbing that triggered a riot outside the church. Neither the bishop nor priest suffered life-threatening injuries.

The attack also triggered a major multi-agency counterterrorism response that led to the arrest of another six teens the next week.

Dib told the court the boy put on a macho performance on social media messages about planning an attack and was not the "monster" prosecutors sought to paint him as.

Dib's client was charged Friday, a day after his five alleged associates were charged.

Two hand-drawn Islamic State group flags were found in the client's bedroom when police raided it last week.

He watched proceedings by video link from a detention center while his parents attended court.