South Korean movie star Ahn Sung-ki, dubbed ‘The Nation’s Actor,’ dies at 74
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Ahn Sung-ki, one of South Korean cinema’s biggest stars whose prolific 60-year career and positive, gentle public image earned him the nickname “The Nation’s Actor,” died Monday. He was 74.
Ahn, who had blood cancer for years, died at Seoul’s Soonchunhyang University Hospital, his agency, the Artist Company, and hospital officials said.
“We feel deep sorrow at the sudden, sad news, pray for the eternal rest of the deceased and offer our heartfelt condolences to his bereaved family members,” the Artist Company said in a statement.
President Lee Jae Myung issued a condolence message, saying Ahn provided many people with comfort, joy and time for reflection. “I already miss his warm smile and gentle voice,” Lee wrote on Facebook.
From a child actor to a successful adult actor
Born to a filmmaker in the southeastern city of Daegu in 1952, Ahn made his debut as a child actor in the movie “The Twilight Train” in 1957. He subsequently appeared in about 70 movies as a child actor before he left the film industry to live an ordinary life.
In 1970, Ahn entered Seoul’s Hankuk University of Foreign Studies as a Vietnamese major. Ahn said he graduated with top honors but failed to land jobs at big companies, who likely saw his Vietnamese major as largely useless after a communist victory in the Vietnam War in 1975.
Ahn returned to the film industry in 1977 believing he could still excel in acting. In 1980, he rose to fame for his lead role in Lee Jang-ho’s “Good, Windy Days,” a hit coming-of-age movie about the struggle of working-class men from rural areas during the country’s rapid rise and transition. Ahn won the best new actor award in the prestigious Grand Bell Awards, the Korean version of the Academy Awards.
He later starred in a series of highly successful and critically acclaimed movies, sweeping best actor awards and becoming arguably the country’s most popular actor in much of the 1980s-90s.
Some of his memorable roles included a Buddhist monk in 1981’s “Mandara,” a beggar in 1984’s “Whale Hunting,” a Vietnam War veteran-turned-novelist in 1992’s “White Badge,” a corrupt police officer in 1993’s “Two Cops,” a murderer in 1999’s “No Where To Hide,” a special forces trainer in 2003’s “Silmido” and a devoted celebrity manager in 2006’s “Radio Star.”
Ahn had collected dozens of trophies in major movie awards in South Korea, including winning the Grand Bell Awards for best actor five times, an achievement no other South Korean actor has matched.
‘The Nation’s Actor’
Ahn built up an image as a humble, trustworthy and family-oriented celebrity who avoided major scandals and maintained a quiet, stable personal life. Past public surveys chose Ahn as South Korea’s most beloved actor and deserving of the nickname “The Nation’s Actor.”
Ahn said he earlier felt confined with his “The Nation’s Actor” labeling but eventually thought that led him down the right path. “I felt I should do something that could match that title. But I think that has eventually guided me in a good direction,” Ahn said in an interview with Yonhap news agency in 2023.
In media interviews, Ahn couldn’t choose what his favorite movie was, but said that his role in “Radio Star” as a dedicated, hardworking manger for a washed-up rock singer played by Park Jung-hoon resembled himself in real life the most.
Ahn was also known for his reluctance to do love scenes. He said said he was too shy to act romantic scenes and sometimes asked directors to skip steamy scenes if they were only meant to add spice to movies.
“I don’t do well on acting like looking at someone who I don’t love with loving eyes and kissing really romantically. I feel shy and can’t express such emotions well,” Ahn said in an interview with the Shindonga magazine in 2007. “Simply, I’m clumsy on that. So I couldn’t star in such movies a lot. But ultimately, that was a right choice for me.”
Ahn is survived by his wife and their two sons. A mourning station at a Seoul hospital was to run until Friday.
Bertha Bailey
EDINBURGH
Bertha Bailey, 74 of Edinburgh, Indiana passed away January 2, 2026 at Columbus Region Hospital. She was born March 3, 1951 in Columbia, Kentucky. She is the daughter of Finis and Louann (Cowan) Burris. Bertha married Harold D. Bailey on September 23, 1967 and he survives.
Bertha is survived by her daughter, Missy Bailey of Edinburgh, Indiana; grandchildren, Caleb Allen, Bailey (Anthony) Cannon and Courtney (Josh) Kolman; and her sister, Geneva Hadley of Shelbyville, Indiana.
She was preceded in death by her parents; sons, James M. Bailey and Harold D. Bailey; brother, Logan Burris; and sisters, Faye King, Jean Eakle and Wonda Roberts.
Bertha was a member of Who So Ever Will Community Church. She worked as a teacher’s assistant at East Side Elementary School in Edinburgh, Indiana for 39 years. Where she touched the lives of many children and cared for them all.
Bertha loved her husband and the time spent with her family.
A funeral service will be conducted at 1:00pm by Pastor Randy Denton and Reverend Ricky Burton on Wednesday, January 7, 2026 at Who So Ever Will Community Church in Edinburgh, Indiana. Visitation will be on Tuesday, January 6, 2026 from 4:00-8:00pm at the church and from 11:00am until time of service. Burial will be at Rest Haven Cemetery in Edinburgh, Indiana.
Arrangements by Eskew-Eaton Funeral Home in Edinburgh, Indiana.
The Latest: Maduro arrives at US courthouse to face drug trafficking charges
Deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is set to make his first appearance Monday in an American courtroom on the narco-terrorism charges the Trump administration used to justify capturing him and bringing him to New York.
Maduro and his wife are expected to appear at noon before a judge for a brief, but required, legal proceeding that will likely kick off a prolonged legal fight over whether he can be put on trial in the U.S.
His lawyers are expected to contest the legality of his arrest, arguing he is immune from prosecution as a sovereign head of a foreign state. But the U.S. doesn’t recognize him as Venezuela’s legitimate leader.
Maduro, along with his wife, son and three others, is accused of working with drug cartels to facilitate the shipment of thousands of tons of cocaine into the U.S. They could face life in prison if convicted.
Here’s the latest:
US envoy defends Venezuela action as UN questions legality
As U.N. officials and U.S. adversaries criticized America’s intervention in Venezuela, U.S. ambassador Mike Waltz defended the military action as a justified “surgical law enforcement operation.”
“If the United Nations in this body confers legitimacy on an illegitimate narco-terrorist with the same treatment in this charter of a democratically elected president or head of state, what kind of organization is this?” Waltz said.
Son of Nicolás Maduro reappears
The son of deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro appeared in Venezuela’s National Assembly on Monday where the country’s lawmakers elected in parliamentary elections last May are set to be sworn in.
His son and congressman Nicolás Maduro Guerra, also known as “Nicolasito”, had not been seen publicly since his father was captured Saturday in an American military operation.
Colombian ambassador also criticizes US raid at the UN Security Council meeting
At the emergency U.N. Security Council meeting, Colombian Ambassador Leonor Zalabata said the raid in Venezuela was reminiscent of “the worst interference in our area in the past.”
“Democracy cannot be defended or promoted through violence and coercion, and it cannot be superseded, either, by economic interests,” said Zalabata, whose country requested the meeting.
But her carefully calibrated remarks mentioned the U.S. only obliquely and shied from the type of fiery criticism Colombian President Gustavo Petro lobbed at the U.S. last fall during the U.N.’s biggest annual meeting.
‘A turn back to the era of lawlessness,’ Russian ambassador says
Vasily Nebenzya, the Russian ambassador to the U.N., blasted the U.S. military action in Venezuela, saying the intervention and capture of Maduro is “a turn back to the era of lawlessness” by America. During the U.N. Security Council’s emergency meeting, he called on the 15-member panel to “unite and to definitively reject the methods and tools of U.S. military foreign policy.”
“We cannot allow the United States to proclaim itself as some kind of a supreme judge, which alone bears the right to invade any country, to label culprits, to hand down and to enforce punishments irrespective of notions of international law, sovereignty and nonintervention,” Nebenzya said.
Maduro’s lawyer helped free Wikileaks founder Julian Assange
Maduro has retained Barry J. Pollack, a Washington, D.C.-based lawyer known for securing Assange’s release from prison and winning an acquittal for former Enron accountant Michael Krautz.
Pollack, a partner at the law firm Harris, St. Laurent & Wechsler, negotiated Assange’s 2024 plea agreement — allowing him to go free immediately after he pleaded guilty to an Espionage Act charge for obtaining and publishing U.S. military secrets.
Krautz, acquitted of federal fraud charges in 2006 after a hung jury the year before, was one of the only Enron executives whose case ended in a not-guilty verdict. Nearly two-dozen other executives were convicted of wrongdoing in connection with the energy trading giant’s collapse.
Pollack also helped secure the exoneration of Martin Tankleff, a Long Island man who spent 17 years in prison for the murders of his parents before his conviction was overturned.
UN Security Council held an emergency meeting Monday after the US raid in Venezuela
The top United Nations official warns America may have violated international law with its unilateral action.
In a statement, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he remains “deeply concerned that rules of international law have not been respected with regard to the 3 January military action.”
He added that that the “grave” action by the U.S. could set a precedent for how future relations between and among states are conducted.
‘Good news’ for Hungary
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Monday said he believes the U.S. military operation in Venezuela would lead to the country’s vast oil reserves becoming available on global energy markets, something he said was “good news” for Hungary.
Speaking at a news conference in Hungary’s capital Budapest, Orbán, a close Trump ally, said he sees “a serious chance that as a result of Venezuela being brought under (U.S.) control, a more favorable position for Hungary will be created on the world energy market.”
“We think the Americans will be able to bring Venezuelan oil wealth into world trade,” he continued. “That means that supply will increase, and the increase in supply will lead to cheaper prices.”
When asked about the implications of the U.S. action for international legal frameworks, Orbán spoke disparagingly about the role international law plays in regulating countries’ behavior, saying such rules “do not govern the decisions of many great powers, this is completely obvious.”
Protesters have begun gathering outside the courthouse
The small but growing group of about 50 protesters across the street from Manhattan federal court were separated by New York Police Department community service officers from about a dozen pro-intervention demonstrators.
The officers used bicycle rack-style metal barricades to separate the two groups.
“No War For Venezuelan Oil,” “No To Criminal Trump Invasion” and “No Blood For Oil” were among the signs. One man among a small group of about a dozen pro-intervention individuals pulled a Venezuelan flag away from those protesting the U.S. action.
Demonstrators were observed, recorded and interviewed by some of the more than 100 members of the media who had reserved their places outside hours earlier.
Crude prices rise and oil company shares jump after the US raid on Venezuela
U.S. stocks are rising at the open led by technology and energy stocks.
The S&P 500 rose 0.6% early Monday and the Nasdaq composite added 0.7%. The Dow gained 330 points, or 0.7%.
The price of U.S. crude oil gained 1% after U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a weekend raid. Shares of Chevron and ConocoPhillips jumped after President Trump floated a plan for U.S. oil companies to help rebuild Venezuela’s oil industry.
Gold gained 2.4% and the price of silver soared 7.6%. Nvidia, Intel and other tech shares rose as the industry kicks off its annual CES trade show in Las Vegas.
▶ Read more about the financial markets
Mexico’s president rejects US intervention and defends efforts against drug trafficking
Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum restated her opposition to the U.S. military intervention in Venezuela and defended her administration’s efforts to address drug trafficking from Mexico to the United States.
“We categorically reject the intervention in the internal affairs of other countries,” Sheinbaum said during her daily news briefing Monday. “Latin American history is clear and overwhelming. Intervention has never brought democracy, never has generated wellbeing, nor lasting stability.”
The president noted 300 tons of drugs seized by Mexican authorities and a drop in homicides during her presidency, but added that the U.S. has a responsibility to address its demand for drugs.
Sheinbaum said her administration had previously agreed with the Trump administration to collaborate and coordinate while respecting each country’s sovereignty. She said regional economic integration was the path forward.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will head to Capitol Hill to brief congressional leaders
Rubio and other top Trump administration officials will be discussing the Venezuela situation Monday evening with House and Senate leadership of the “gang of eight,” which includes top members of the Intelligence committees. The chairmen and ranking leaders of the other national security committees are also invited.
The Democratic leaders in Congress, Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, had publicly called for the briefing after leadership was largely kept in the dark about the surprise weekend operation capturing Maduro — despite Congress’s role in approving or rejecting certain military actions.
A war powers resolution that would prohibit further US military involvement in Venezuela without congressional approval is headed toward a vote this week in the Senate.
As a defendant in the US legal system, Maduro will have the same rights as anyone else
That includes the right to a trial by a jury of regular New Yorkers. But he’ll also be nearly — but not quite — unique.
Maduro’s lawyers are expected to contest the legality of his arrest, arguing that he’s immune from prosecution as a sovereign head of state.
Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriegaunsuccessfully tried the same defense after the U.S. captured him in a similar military invasion in 1990. But the U.S. doesn’t recognize Maduro as Venezuela’s legitimate head of state — particularly after a much-disputed 2024 reelection.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer calls for a peaceful transition to democracy in Venezuela
But he declined to criticize the American raid that seized President Nicolas Maduro and his wife.
Starmer, who’s worked hard to forge a strong relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump, said Monday that the U.K. supports international law. But he wouldn’t say whether he thought the U.S. strike on Caracas had breached it.
“It’s for the U.S. to set out its justifications for the actions that it’s taken,” Starmer said. “But it is a complicated situation. It remains a complicated situation. The most important thing is stability and that peaceful transition to democracy.”
Starmer did, however, join calls for Trump to cease his threats to take over Greenland.
Starmer told British broadcasters that Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was right to say Trump has no claim on the Arctic island, which is Danish territory, and “I stand with her.” Starmer added that “Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark are to decide the future of Greenland — and only Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark.”
FBI Director Kash Patel says ‘We’re not done’
Patel said in an interview on “Fox & Friends” on Monday morning that the FBI is going to continue its “law enforcement mission” to find “anyone responsible or part of” drug-related activities he said are linked to the Tren de Aragua gang, which U.S. authorities allege worked with the Venezuelan government.
A U.S. intelligence assessment last year found no coordination between the gang and the Venezuelan government.
Patel said the FBI’s hostage rescue team, a tactical unit, was embedded with the U.S. forces in the mission to capture Maduro.
Who is the judge who’ll be presiding over Maduro’s court appearance?
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein has handled numerous weighty cases in his nearly three decades on the bench, including matters involving Trump, the 9/11 attacks and Sudanese genocide.
Now, the 92-year-old Manhattan jurist is presiding over what could be his biggest case yet. Hellerstein is set to arraign Maduro and Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, at noon Monday, kickstarting a judicial assignment that was on hold for six years as Maduro eluded arrest after U.S. prosecutors first indicted him.
In the meantime, Hellerstein has been presiding over cases involving some of Maduro’s co-defendants.
In April 2024, the judge sentenced retired Venezuelan army general Cliver Alcalá to more than 21 years in prison. On Feb. 23, he’s scheduled to sentence a former Venezuelan spymaster, Retired Maj. Gen. Hugo Carvajal.
Maduro arrives at courthouse
The trip across Lower Manhattan to the courthouse was swift. The vehicle carrying Maduro backed into a garage in the courthouse complex at around 7:40 am. From there, he will be out of public view until he appears in court, which is expected at around noon.
Extra security measures are in place around the Manhattan courthouse
Bicycle-rack style barricades are lining both sides of the street for several blocks around the main entrance on Worth Street, while police officers on foot and in marked cars patrol the area.
Behind the courthouse, near where inmates are brought in, Pearl Street is closed to foot traffic.
Inside the courthouse, men in U.S. Marshals Service windbreakers and tactical gear roamed the lobby. Outside, dozens of people are lined up, including reporters and paid line-sitters, looking to get a spot inside the courtroom. Some people have tents, seats and hand warmers to deal with the long wait and bitter cold.
A stand is set up with microphones from various news outlets in anticipation that someone connected to the case will speak.
Across the street, more than a dozen TV crews are set up to broadcast live, while all around, a few citizen journalists deliver their own updates into cell phones via YouTube and TikTok.
Maduro’s arraignment is set for noon before U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein at the federal courthouse in Manhattan.
Who is Delcy Rodriguez, Venezuela’s new leader after Maduro’s capture?
As uncertainty simmers in Venezuela, interim President Delcy Rodríguez has taken the place of her ally Maduro, captured by the United States in a nighttime military operation, and offered “to collaborate” with the Trump administration in what could be a seismic shift in relations between the adversary governments.
Rodríguez served as Maduro’s vice president since 2018, overseeing much of Venezuela’s oil-dependent economy and its feared intelligence service, and was next in the presidential line of succession.
She’s part of a band of senior officials in Maduro’s administration that now appears to control Venezuela, even as U.S. President Donald Trump and other officials say they will pressure the government to fall in line with its vision for the oil-rich nation.
On Saturday, Venezuela’s high court ordered her to assume the role of interim president, and the leader was backed by Venezuela’s military.
▶ Read more about Rodríguez
US capture of Maduro divides a changed region, thrilling Trump’s allies and threatening his foes
In his celebratory news conference, Trump set out an extraordinarily forthright view of the use of U.S. power in Latin America that exposed political divisions from Mexico to Argentina as Trump-friendly leaders rise across the region.
“American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again,” Trump proclaimed just hours before Maduro was perp-walked through the offices of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in New York.
The scene marked a stunning culmination of months of escalation in Washington’s confrontation with Caracas that has reawakened memories of a past era of blatant U.S. interventionism in the region.
The new, aggressive foreign policy — which Trump now calls the “Donroe Doctrine,” in reference to 19th-century President James Monroe’s belief that the U.S. should dominate its sphere of influence — has carved the hemisphere into allies and foes.
Saturday’s dramatic events — including Trump’s vow that Washington would “run” Venezuela and seize control of its oil sector — galvanized opposite sides of the polarized continent.
▶ Read more about the division of a changed region
Man who broke windows at Vance’s Ohio home is detained, the Secret Service says
CINCINNATI (AP) — A man who broke windows at Vice President JD Vance’s Ohio home and caused other property damage was detained early Monday, the U.S. Secret Service said.
The man was detained shortly after midnight by Secret Service agents assigned to Vance’s home, east of downtown Cincinnati, agency spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement emailed to The Associated Press. He has not been named.
The Secret Service heard a loud noise at the home around midnight and found a person who had broken a window with a hammer and was trying to get into the house, according to two law enforcement officials who were not publicly authorized to discuss the investigation into what happened and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The man had also vandalized a Secret Service vehicle on his way up the home’s driveway, one of the officials said.
The home, in the Walnut Hills neighborhood, on hills overlooking the city, was unoccupied at the time, and Vance and his family were not in Ohio, Guglielmi said.
The Secret Service is coordinating with the Cincinnati Police Department and the U.S. attorney’s office as charging decisions are reviewed, he said.
Vance, a Republican, was a U.S. senator representing Ohio before becoming vice president. His office directed questions to the Secret Service and said his family was already back in Washington.
Walnut Hills is one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods and is home to historic sites, including the Harriet Beecher Stowe House.
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Associated Press writers Mike Balsamo and Sarah Brumfield contributed to this report.
This Jan. 6 plaque was made to honor law enforcement. It’s nowhere to be found at the Capitol
WASHINGTON (AP) — Approaching the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, the official plaque honoring the police who defended democracy that day is nowhere to be found.
It’s not on display at the Capitol, as is required by law. Its whereabouts aren’t publicly known, though it’s believed to be in storage.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, has yet to formally unveil the plaque. And the Trump administration’s Department of Justice is seeking to dismiss a police officers’ lawsuit asking that it be displayed as intended. The Architect of the Capitol, which was responsible for obtaining and displaying the plaque, said in light of the federal litigation, it cannot comment.
Determined to preserve the nation’s history, some 100 members of Congress, mostly Democrats, have taken it upon themselves to memorialize the moment. For months, they’ve mounted poster board-style replicas of the Jan. 6 plaque outside their office doors, resulting in a Capitol complex awash with makeshift remembrances.
“On behalf of a grateful Congress, this plaque honors the extraordinary individuals who bravely protected and defended this symbol of democracy on Jan. 6, 2021,” reads the faux bronze stand-in for the real thing. “Their heroism will never be forgotten.”
Jan. 6 void in the Capitol
In Washington, a capital city lined with monuments to the nation’s history, the plaque was intended to become a simple but permanent marker, situated near the Capitol’s west front, where some of the most violent fighting took place as rioters breached the building.
But in its absence, the missing plaque makes way for something else entirely — a culture of forgetting.
Visitors can pass through the Capitol without any formal reminder of what happened that day, when a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the building trying to overturn the Republican’s 2020 reelection defeat to Democrat Joe Biden. With memory left unchecked, it allows new narratives to swirl and revised histories to take hold.
Five years ago, the jarring scene watched the world over was declared an “insurrection” by the then-GOP leader of the Senate, while the House GOP leader at the time called it his “saddest day” in Congress. But those condemnations have faded.
Trump calls it a “day of love.” And Johnson, who was among those lawmakers challenging the 2020 election results, is now the House speaker.
“The question of January 6 remains – democracy was on the guillotine — how important is that event in the overall sweep of 21st century U.S. history,” said Douglas Brinkley, a professor of history at Rice University and noted scholar.
“Will January 6 be seen as the seminal moment when democracy was in peril?” he asked. Or will it be remembered as “kind of a weird one-off?”
“There’s not as much consensus on that as one would have thought on the fifth anniversary,” he said.
Memories shift, but violent legacy lingers
At least five people died in the riot and its aftermath, including Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt, who was fatally shot by police while trying to climb through a window toward the House chamber. More than 140 law enforcement officers were wounded, some gravely, and several died later, some by suicide.
All told, some 1,500 people were charged in the Capitol attack, among the largest federal prosecutions in the nation’s history. When Trump returned to power in January 2025, he pardoned all of them within hours of taking office.
Unlike the twin light beams that commemorated the Sept. 11, 2001, attack or the stand-alone chairs at the Oklahoma City bombing site memorial, the failure to recognize Jan. 6 has left a gap not only in memory but in helping to stitch the country back together.
“That’s why you put up a plaque,” said Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa. “You respect the memory and the service of the people involved.”
Police sue over Jan. 6 plaque, DOJ seeks to dismiss
The speaker’s office over the years has suggested it was working on installing the plaque, but it declined to respond to a request for further comment.
Lawmakers approved the plaque in March 2022 as part of a broader government funding package. The resolution said the U.S. “owes its deepest gratitude to those officers,” and it set out instructions for an honorific plaque listing the names of officers “who responded to the violence that occurred.” It gave a one-year deadline for installation at the Capitol.
This summer, two officers who fought the mob that day sued over the delay.
“By refusing to follow the law and honor officers as it is required to do, Congress encourages this rewriting of history,” said the claim by officers Harry Dunn and Daniel Hodges. “It suggests that the officers are not worthy of being recognized, because Congress refuses to recognize them.”
The Justice Department is seeking to have the case dismissed. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro and others argued Congress “already has publicly recognized the service of law enforcement personnel” by approving the plaque and displaying it wouldn’t alleviate the problems they claim to face from their work.
“It is implausible,” the Justice Department attorneys wrote, to suggest installation of the plaque “would stop the alleged death threats they claim to have been receiving.”
The department also said the plaque is required to include the names of “all law enforcement officers” involved in the response that day — some 3,600 people.
Makeshift memorials emerge
Lawmakers who’ve installed replicas of the plaque outside their offices said it’s important for the public to know what happened.
“There are new generations of people who are just growing up now who don’t understand how close we came to losing our democracy on Jan 6, 2021,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., a member of the Jan. 6 committee, which was opposed by GOP leadership but nevertheless issued a nearly 1,000-page report investigating the run-up to the attack and the attempt to overturn the 2020 election.
Raskin envisions the Capitol one day holding tours around what happened. “People need to study that as an essential part of American history,” he said.
“Think about the dates in American history that we know only by the dates: There’s the 4th of July. There’s December 7th. There’s 9/11. And there’s January 6th,” said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-calif., who also served on the committee and has a plaque outside her office.
“They really saved my life, and they saved the democracy and they deserve to be thanked for it,” she said.
But as time passes, there are no longer bipartisan memorial services for Jan. 6. On Tuesday, the Democrats will reconvene members from the Jan. 6 committee for a hearing to “examine ongoing threats to free and fair elections,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York announced. It’s unlikely Republicans will participate.
The Republicans under Johnson have tapped Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia to stand up their own special committee to uncover what the speaker calls the “full truth” of what happened. They’re planning a hearing this month.
“We should stop this silliness of trying to whitewash history — it’s not going to happen,” said Rep. Joe Morelle, D-N.Y., who helped lead the effort to display the replica plaques.
“I was here that day so I’ll never forget,” he said. “I think that Americans will not forget what happened.”
The number of makeshift plaques that fill the halls is a testimony to that remembrance, he said.
Instead of one plaque, he said, they’ve “now got 100.”
Syrian and Israeli officials set to resume US-mediated talks in Paris
BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian and Israeli officials are set to resume U.S.-mediated talks in Paris in hopes of reaching a security agreement to defuse tensions between the two countries, a Syrian official said Monday.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, told The Associated Press that the delegation on the Syrian side will be headed by Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani and the head of the General Intelligence Directorate, Hussein Salameh.
The official said Syria’s main aim in the talks is to reactivate a 1974 disengagement agreement that established a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone in southern Syria and to secure the withdrawal of Israeli forces, who seized control of that buffer zone more than a year ago.
In December 2024, insurgents led by Syria’s now-interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa ousted the country’s longtime autocratic leader, Bashar Assad, in a lightning offensive.
Al-Sharaa said he has no desire for a conflict with Israel. But Israel was suspicious of the new Islamist-led leadership and quickly moved to take control of the buffer zone. It has launched hundreds of airstrikes on Syrian military facilities and periodic incursions into villages outside the buffer zone, which have sometimes led to violent confrontations with residents.
Israel has said its presence is temporary to clear out pro-Assad remnants and militants in order to protect Israel from attacks. But it has given no indication its forces would leave anytime soon. Talks between the two countries to reach a security agreement had stalled last year.
In the new round of discussions, the Syrian official said, Damascus will seek “the withdrawal of Israeli forces to the lines prior to Dec. 8, 2024, within the framework of a reciprocal security agreement that prioritizes full Syrian sovereignty and guarantees the prevention of any form of interference in the country’s internal affairs.”
Israeli officials did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for U.S. envoy to Syria Tom Barrack declined to comment.
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Associated Press writer Natalie Melzer in Tel Aviv, Israel contributed to this report.
Cyberattack unlikely in communications failure that grounded flights in Greece
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece’s government on Monday said that a major radio communications failure that shut the country’s airspace a day earlier is unlikely to have been a cyberattack, though the cause remains under investigation.
Flights across Greece were grounded, diverted or delayed for several hours Sunday after noise was reported on multiple air traffic communication channels.
“There is not the slightest indication that we are dealing with a cyberattack,” government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said. “I need to make that clear.”
The Greek Civil Aviation Authority said that noise across all channels, including backup systems, triggered the shutdown, which lasted several hours before operations were gradually restored.
Incoming flights were diverted to several countries in the region, creating a large backlog and leaving thousands of passengers stranded.
The Brussels-based European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation, widely known as Eurocontrol, assisted in redirecting flights during and following the outage and said that about 120 flights were grounded Sunday at Greece’s two largest airports in Athens and Thessaloniki.
The impact from the disruption lasted through early Monday, the agency said.
Greece’s Air Traffic Controllers’ Association said the outage underscored its long-standing calls to modernize and replace outdated equipment.
A judicial inquiry and an internal investigation were launched Monday into the cause of the outage.
Separately, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Christos Dimas announced the formation of an investigative committee that includes representatives from civil aviation authorities, the Greek air force, Eurocontrol and a Greek state-run cyberdefence agency.
The minister described Sunday’s disruption as “a very serious incident,” but stressed that passenger safety was never at risk.
Founder of Indonesian ride-hailing app Gojek stands trial over Chromebooks procurement
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — An Indonesian court on Monday opened the trial of a co-founder of the country’s ride-hailing and payments company Gojek, who is accused of corruption in a government project to procure Google Chromebook laptops for schools.
Nadiem Anwar Makarim, 41, was a former education, culture, research and technology minister when he was arrested Sept. 7. His arrest came during an investigation by the attorney general’s office in Jakarta into an alleged $125 billion corruption scandal linked to the project.
The laptop procurement initiated under the government’s “digitalization of schools” policy aimed to equip schools in remote areas with digital devices and infrastructure.
Makarim, who was education minister between 2019 and 2024, allegedly favored Google’s Chromebook despite a ministry research team refusing to recommend the laptop model due to ineffectiveness in regions lacking internet access.
The indictment claims Makarim steered the nationwide procurement in 2020–2021 “entirely for personal business interests.” Prosecutors said he pressed Google to invest in PT Aplikasi Karya Anak Bangsa, known as PT AKAB. The company is the parent of Gojek.
Makarim received about 809 billion rupiah ($48.2 million) in connection with the program, prosecutors claimed.
He faces a possible sentence of life imprisonment for causing state losses and misusing public funds under Indonesia’s 2001 Corruption Law.
“The procurement ignored proper pricing benchmarks and technical needs, especially for remote or under-resourced regions,” lead prosecutor Muhammad Fadli Paramajeng told a panel of three judges at Jakarta’s Corruption Court on Monday.
The purchase of more than 1.2 million Chromebooks was designed to strengthen Google’s dominance in Indonesia’s education tech ecosystem and linked to subsequent Google investments of about $787 million in PT AKAB through Google Asia Pacific, he said.
Makarim, a Harvard University graduate, was a tech CEO who co-founded Gojek in 2009 and remained until 2019, when the company was valued at over $10 billion. He stepped down to join the cabinet of former Indonesia President Joko Widodo.
Prosecutors allege his resignation from PT AKAB and Gojek was a “strategic concealment” to mask conflicts of interest while Makarim appointed close associates as directors and “beneficial owners,” allowing him to maintain indirect control over company decisions.
Makarim has denied the allegations, saying he did not personally receive funds from the Chromebook procurement or related services.
Makarim’s defense attorneys argue Google’s investment largely predated his ministerial tenure and was routine corporate activity that was not tied to the laptop deal.
Makarim divested from PT AKAB upon taking office, his wealth fell by more than 50% during his term and procurement decisions were made by technical teams and officials, not the minister, they said.
“The defendant was not involved in the procurement process, as his role was limited solely to formulating policy,” defense lawyer Ari Yusuf Amir told the court. He called the indictment “unclear, inaccurate and incomplete,” saying it conflated Makarim’s ministerial authority with the work of other government officials.
Two former education ministry officials and a former tech consultant also were charged in the case, while another staff member is wanted by authorities but remains at large.
Manchester United coach Amorim out one day after provocative comments about club structure
MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Ruben Amorim is out as coach of Manchester United after just 14 months in the job.
The Premier League club announced on Monday that Amorim’s reign was over – with the decision coming a day after he made provocative comments about his position following a 1-1 draw with Leeds.
“With Manchester United sitting sixth in the Premier League, the club’s leadership has reluctantly made the decision that it is the right time to make a change,” United said in a statement. “This will give the team the best opportunity of the highest possible Premier League finish.”
United said youth coach Darren Fletcher would take charge of its match against Burnley on Wednesday.
The Portuguese oversaw a slew of unwanted records at the 20-time English champion including its lowest finish in the Premier League era last season. The United job has proved one of the most difficult in world soccer since club legend Alex Ferguson retired in 2013, with Amorim the sixth permanent manager or coach to be discarded in that time.
Amorim apologized to fans at the end of last season for what he described as a “disastrous” campaign when United finished 15th in the standings, recorded its highest number of losses in a Premier League season and lowest points total.
Last week there were reports that figures at the club had questioned his tactics.
On Sunday he sought to clarify his position.
“I came here to be the manager of Manchester United, not to be the coach of Manchester United,” he said. “And that is clear.
“I’m not going to quit. I will do my job until another guy is coming here to replace me.”
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