Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gestures at a protest ahead of the Friday inauguration of President Nicolas Maduro for his third term, in Caracas, Venezuela, Jan. 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Leonardo Fernandez Viloria

Venezuelan opposition leader and newly crowned winner of the Nobel Peace Prize Maria Corina Machado voiced support for Israel in a phone call with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister’s office said on Friday.

Machado welcomed the return of Israeli hostages under a ceasefire agreement in Gaza and voiced appreciation for Israel’s efforts against Iran, which she described as a threat to both countries, the statement said.

Netanyahu congratulated Machado on her Nobel win and commended her efforts to promote democracy and peace.

Machado has previously pledged to move Venezuela’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem if her movement comes to power, aligning her with other Latin American leaders who have taken pro-Israel stances, including Argentina’s President Javier Milei and former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Most countries have their embassies in Tel Aviv, avoiding Jerusalem which Palestinians claim as the capital of a future independent state.

Machado has long sought closer ties with Israel and Netanyahu, positioning herself in contrast to Venezuela’s current government, which maintains relations with Iran and other adversaries of Israel.

A spokesperson for Machado did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

New York’s state Young Republicans organization has been disbanded in the wake of leaked group chats in which officials joked about gas chambers, praised Adolf Hitler and used racist, antisemitic and homophobic slurs. 

“The Young Republicans was already grossly mismanaged, and vile language of the sort made in the group chat has no place in our party or its subsidiary organizations,” New York GOP chair Ed Cox said in a statement, adding that he sent formal notice of the shutdown to the National Federation of Young Republicans.

Earlier this week, the Kansas Young Republicans club was also dissolved. The moves are meant to allow for a fresh start for the Republican Party’s youth wing in those states following a Politico exposé that published thousands of messages involving participants in multiple states.

Of them, several participants had ties to New York Republican politics. Since the reporting, some involved lost jobs or had political opportunities withdrawn.

The scandal has also fueled partisan squabbling. Amid the fallout, the Republican Jewish Coalition posted on X in response to Sen. Chuck Schumer’s criticism of GOP “silence,” writing: “We strongly condemn the comments and those involved should step aside. See how easy that is?” 

The post then turned into a political attack: “Your turn @SenSchumer: condemn Jay Jones, Zohran Mamdani, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and more, in your deranged, radicalized party. You won’t. Enjoy the political wilderness in the meantime!”

Republican leaders have largely denounced the messages with House Speaker Mike Johnson saying the party “roundly condemn[s]” them. Vice President J.D. Vance, however, downplayed the uproar, saying “kids do stupid things” and calling the jokes “very offensive” but not worthy of life-ruining consequences.

The people involved are largely in their 20s, and the Young Republicans aim to engage conservatives between 18 and 40.

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An aerial view shows the bodies of victims of an attack following a mass infiltration by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip lying on the ground in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, in southern Israel, Oct. 10, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ilan Rosenberg

US federal prosecutors have accused a Palestinian man from Gaza who has been residing in Louisiana of taking part in the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel.

The Justice Department announced on Friday that Mahmoud Amin Ya’qub Al-Muhtadi, 33, who had been living in Lafayette, Louisiana, after entering the US illegally, was arrested and charged with visa fraud and providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization.

According to a criminal complaint unsealed in federal court on Thursday, Al-Muhtadi was an operative for the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), a terrorist group that collaborated with Hamas during the Oct. 7 assault. Palestinian terrorists murdered 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 hostages while perpetrating widespread sexual violence during their rampage through southern Israeli communities.

US prosecutors allege that Al-Muhtadi took up arms, galvanized recruits, and invaded Israel from Gaza shortly after Hamas fighters breached the border.

Phone records cited by federal authorities place him near Kibbutz Kfar Aza, one of the Israeli communities devastated during the attacks.

After the massacre, prosecutors say, Al-Muhtadi secured a visa to enter the United States in June 2024 and allegedly misled authorities on his application by denying any connection to terrorist organizations or participation in the Oct. 7 operation. He entered the United States in September 2024 and lived in Lafayette before being apprehended.

“After hiding out in the United States, this monster has been found and charged with participating in the atrocities of Oct. 7 — the single deadliest day for Jewish people since the Holocaust,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. “While nothing can fully heal the scars left by Hamas’s brutal attack, this department’s Joint Task Force October 7 is dedicated to finding and prosecuting those responsible for that horrific day, including the murder of dozens of American citizens.”

The investigation was led by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force and a special interagency unit known as Joint Task Force 10-7, created earlier this year to investigate threats and crimes connected to the Oct. 7 attacks. American citizens were among those both killed and taken hostage.

The DFLP was previously designated by the US State Department as a foreign terrorist organization but was later removed after its activity declined. The group has recently reemerged in Gaza, fighting alongside Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad against Israeli forces.

If convicted, Al-Muhtadi faces up to 25 years in federal prison.

The Trump administration has moved to tighten the US visa system amid concerns about extremist infiltration. Officials have expanded vetting to include detailed reviews of applicants’ online activity and potential ties to antisemitic or anti-American movements.