REDMOND, Wash. (AP) — Microsoft is investing $1.5 billion in a technology firm based in the United Arab Emirates and overseen by the country’s powerful national security adviser.

Microsoft and the technology holding company G42 announced the deal Tuesday. As part of the agreement, Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, will join G42’s board of directors.

The deal “was developed in close consultation with both the UAE and U.S. governments,” Microsoft said.

Based in Abu Dhabi, G42 runs data centers in the Middle East and elsewhere and has increasingly identified itself as an AI firm. It has built what’s considered the world’s leading Arabic-language AI model, known as Jais.

Microsoft said G42 will run its AI applications and services on the U.S. tech giant’s cloud computing platform, and the two companies will work to bring digital infrastructure to countries where G42 has established a presence in the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa.

G42 has previously said it would cut ties to Chinese hardware suppliers over American concerns it was too close to the Chinese government.

The company has faced spying allegations for its ties to a mobile phone app identified as spyware. It has also faced claims it could have gathered genetic material secretly from Americans for the Chinese government.

Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s national security adviser, is chairman of the company’s board.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defiant and determined, House Speaker Mike Johnson pushed back Tuesday against mounting Republican anger over his proposed U.S. aid package for Ukraine, Israel and other allies, and rejected a call to step aside or risk a vote to oust him from office.

“I am not resigning,” Johnson said after a testy morning meeting of fellow House Republicans at the Capitol

Johnson referred to himself as a “wartime speaker” of the House and indicated in his strongest self-defense yet he would press forward with a U.S. national security aid package, a situation that would force him to rely on Democrats to help pass it, over objections from his weakened majority.

“We are simply here trying to do our jobs,” Johnson said, calling the motion to oust him “absurd … not helpful.”

Tuesday brought a definitive shift in tone from both the House Republicans and the speaker himself at a pivotal moment as the embattled leader tries, against the wishes of his majority, to marshal the votes needed to send the stalled national security aid for Israel, Ukraine and other overseas allies to passage.

Johnson appeared emboldened by his meeting late last week with Donald Trump when the Republican former president threw him a political lifeline with a nod of support after their private talk at Trump’s Mar-A-Lago resort in Florida. At his own press conference Tuesday, Johnson spoke of the importance of ensuring Trump, who is now at his criminal trial in New York, is re-elected to the White House.

Johnson also spoke over the weekend with President Joe Biden as well as other congressional leaders about the emerging U.S. aid package, which the speaker plans to move in separate votes for each section — with bills for Ukraine, Israel, the Indo-Pacific region. He spoke about it with Biden again late Monday.

It’s a complicated approach that breaks apart the Senate’s $95 billion aid package for separate votes, and then stitches it back together for the president’s signature.

The approach will require the speaker to cobble together bipartisan majorities with different factions of House Republicans and Democrats on each measure. Additionally, Johnson is preparing a fourth measure that would include various Republican-preferred national security priorities, such as a plan to seize some Russian assets in U.S. banks to help fund Ukraine and another to turn the economic aid for Ukraine into loans.

The plan is not an automatic deal-braker for Democrats in the House and Senate, with leaders refraining from comment until they see the actual text of the measure, due out later Tuesday.

House Republicans, however, were livid that Johnson will be leaving their top priority — efforts to impose more security at the U.S.-Mexico border — on the sidelines. Some predicted Johnson will not be able to push ahead with voting on the package this week, as planned..

Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz., called the morning meeting an “argument fest.”

She said Johnson was “most definitely” losing support for the plan, but he seemed undeterred in trying to move forward despite “what the majority of the Conference” of Republicans wanted.

When the speaker said the House GOP’s priority border security bill H.R. 2 would not be considered germane to the package, Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas a chief sponsor said it’s for the House to determine which provisions and amendments are relevant.

“Things are very unresolved,” Roy said.

Roy said said Republicans want “to be united. They just have to be able to figure out how to do it.”

The speaker faces a threat of ouster from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., the top Trump ally who has filed a motion to vacate the speaker from office in a snap vote — much the way Republicans ousted their former speaker, Kevin McCarthy, last fall..

While Greene has not said if or when she will force the issue, and has not found much support for her plan after last year’s turmoil over McCarthy’s exit, she drew at least one key supporter Tuesday.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., rose in the meeting and suggested Johnson should step aside, pointing to the example of John Boehner, an even earlier House speaker who announced an early resignation in 2015 rather than risk a vote to oust him, according to Republicans in the room.

Johnson did not respond, according to Republicans in the room, but told the lawmakers they have a “binary” choice” before them.

The speaker explained they either try to pass the package as he is proposing or risk facing a discharge petition from Democrats that would force a vote on their preferred package — the Senate approved measure. But that would leave behind the extra Republican priorities.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Tuesday of potential global economic damage from rising tensions in the Middle East and pledged that the U.S. and its allies won’t hesitate to use their sanctions powers to address Iran’s “malign and destabilizing activity” in the region.

She made her remarks ahead of this week’s spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, saying Iran’s weekend missile attack on Israel “underscores the importance of Treasury’s work to use our economic tools to counter Iran’s malign activity.”

She added: “From this weekend’s attack to the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, Iran’s actions threaten the region’s stability and could cause economic spillovers.”

Iran’s missile attack on Israel early Sunday came in response to what it says was an Israeli strike on Iran’s consulate in Syria earlier this month. Israel’s military chief said Monday that his country will respond to the attack, while world leaders caution against retaliation, trying to avoid a spiral of violence.

As the IMF and its fellow lending agency, the World Bank, hold their spring meetings this week, high on the agenda are the fast-rising tensions between Iran and Israel and what escalation could spell for the global economy.

Israel and Iran have been on a collision course throughout Israel’s six-month war against Hamas militants in Gaza. The war erupted after two militant groups backed by Iran led an attack on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 250 others. An Israeli offensive in Gaza has caused widespread devastation and killed over 33,000 people, according to local health officials.

“We’ve targeted over 500 individuals and entities connected to terrorism and terrorist financing by the Iranian regime and its proxies since the start of the Administration,” Yellen said, citing sanctions against Iran’s drone and missile programs, militant groups Hamas, the Houthis, Hezbollah, and other Iraqi militia groups.

“Treasury will not hesitate to work with our allies to use our sanctions authority to continue disrupting the Iranian regime’s malign and destabilizing activity,” she said. “I fully expect we will take additional sanctions actions against Iran in the coming days.”

The annual gathering will take place as other ongoing conflicts, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, threaten global financial stability.

Yellen in February offered her strongest public support yet for the idea of liquidating roughly $300 billion in frozen Russian Central Bank assets and using them for Ukraine’s long-term reconstruction.

She said Tuesday that the U.S. is “continuing to work with our international partners to unlock the economic value of immobilized Russian sovereign assets and ensure that Russia pays for the damage it has caused.” Yellen added that she will meet with Group of Seven finance leaders Wednesday to continue discussions on the topic and will look at “a series of possibilities, ranging from actually seizing the assets to using them as collateral.”

Another major issue for this year’s meetings on the U.S. side, Yellen said, will be ongoing conversations about Chinese industrial policy that poses a threat to U.S. jobs and the global economy. She traveled to Guangzhou and Beijing earlier this month, to hold “difficult conversations” with counterparts over what she describes as China’s overcapacity in its wave of low-priced Chinese green tech exports that could overwhelm factories in the U.S. and make it impossible to compete.

Yellen said she plans to meet later this week with her Chinese counterparts for a fourth meeting of the U.S.-China Economic and Financial Working Groups, “to share information, identify potential areas of cooperation, and, when we disagree, frankly communicate concerns.”

U.S. Treasury and China’s Ministry of Finance launched the economic working groups in an effort to ease tensions and deepen ties between the nations.

A barge operator believes it has found a sunken barge in the Ohio River near Pittsburgh, one of 26 that broke loose and floated away during weekend flooding, company officials said Tuesday.

Crews used sonar to locate an object in a stretch of river north of the city, which Campbell Transportation Company Inc. said it presumes to be its missing barge.

The river remained closed to maritime traffic while the company worked to salvage the runaway barges.

Cmdr. Justin Jolley, of the U.S. Coast Guard’s marine safety unit in Pittsburgh, said Tuesday that once the object in the river is confirmed to be the missing barge, “we’re hopeful we can reduce the security zone to that area and allow traffic to resume.”

Seventeen of the barges are secure and under control, while seven remain positioned against the Emsworth Locks and Dam and one is pinned against the Dashields Locks and Dam, the company said.

“We are actively developing a recovery plan for all affected vessels, which will be implemented when safe for the recovery workers, barges and the public,” said Gary Statler, the company’s senior vice president for river operations.

Jolley said Campbell began retrieving barges pinned against the Emsworth dam on Tuesday morning.

The Coast Guard is investigating how the barges got loose from their moorings late Friday, striking a bridge and smashing a pair of marinas. All but three of the barges were loaded with coal, fertilizer and other dry cargo. Statler said the barges broke loose “under high water conditions on the rivers, resulting in strong currents due to flooding in the area.”

No injuries were reported.

An inspection of the Sewickley Bridge revealed no significant damage, and the bridge was reopened to traffic on Saturday,

The barge mishap took place more than two weeks after Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed after it was hit by a wayward cargo ship, killing six construction workers who plunged to their deaths.

Campbell, of Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, owns and manages more than 1,100 barges and moves about 60 million tons of dry and liquid cargo each year, according to its website.

Changing course, a Democratic Florida prosecutor suspended from office by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday he will seek reelection while a court battle continues over his 2022 removal from the post.

Andrew Warren had said in January he would not run this year. But that was before a federal appeals court ruled that a lower court should consider Warren’s argument that statements he made about hot-button issues such as abortion were political advocacy protected by the First Amendment. That case remains pending.

DeSantis cited those statements in suspending Warren, contending he was improperly refusing to uphold and enforce certain laws. The governor appointed Republican Suzy Lopez to replace Warren, and she is running for the position that prosecutes cases in Tampa and surrounding Hillsborough County.

In his announcement in a video posted on social media, Warren said the governor “illegally forced me from office” and that he decided to seek a third term even as a judge in Tallahassee considers whether to order his reinstatement later this year. Qualifying for the election ends next week.

“I’m running to protect our values, for a woman’s right to choose, for a fair and just system and — above all — for freedom and democracy,” Warren said in a statement. “I’m running to do what’s right.”

The governor’s office said after the 11th U.S. Circuit Court ruling in favor of Warren that it sets a “dangerous precedent” that could permit politically motivated prosecutors to ignore laws they oppose.

The appeal will eventually go before U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle, who previously ruled that Warren’s statements were protected by the First Amendment but that he lacked authority to reinstate the prosecutor. The appeals court said Hinkle does have that authority.

Warren’s suspension was the first one made by the Republican governor involving Democratic elected state attorneys. Last year, DeSantis suspended Monique Worrell, who was the state attorney for the Orlando area. Worrell is challenging the decision before the Florida Supreme Court.

By Emma Farge

GENEVA (Reuters) – The World Trade Organization’s chief said on Tuesday that U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump’s proposal to impose a 10% import tariff would prompt retaliation from partners, resulting in a “lose-lose” situation that could upend the trading system.

“If this is done, it is obviously not helpful to WTO rules. I think it will result most likely in a tit-for-tat approach. Other members will also look to levy these sorts of charges in return; that’s what I think,” said Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

Okonjo-Iweala was responding to a question about the impact of the proposal by Trump, a Republican, to slap a 10% tariff on all imports were he to defeat Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 U.S. election.

“And then I think we will have a little bit of a free-for-all which would upend the stability and predictability of trade,” she added, saying she hoped it would not happen.

Okonjo-Iweala, whose campaign to be WTO chief was opposed by the U.S. in 2020 under Trump, was speaking at an event at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington to mark the global trade watchdog’s 30th anniversary.

It was the first time she publicly commented on the impact of another Trump presidency on trade.

During his four-year term, Trump regularly criticised the organisation’s work and blocked appointments of judges to its top appeals bench which remains paralysed four years later.

(Reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Madeline Chambers and Jonathan Oatis)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is back on the bench after an unexplained one-day absence.

Thomas, 75, was in his usual seat, to the right of Chief Justice John Roberts as the court met to hear arguments in a case about the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.

Thomas has ignored calls from some progressive groups to step aside from cases involving Jan. 6 because his wife, Ginni, attended then-President Donald Trump’s rally near the White House before protesters descended on the Capitol. Ginni Thomas, a conservative activist, also texted senior Trump administration officials in the weeks after the election offering support and reiterating her belief that there was widespread fraud in the election.

On Monday, Roberts announced Thomas’ absence, without providing an explanation. Justices sometimes miss court, but participate remotely. Thomas did not take part in Monday’s arguments.

He was hospitalized two years ago with an infection, causing him to miss several court sessions. He took part in the cases then, too.

Thomas is the longest serving of the current justices, joining the Supreme Court in 1991.

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump returned Tuesday to a New York courtroom as the jury selection process in his historic hush money trial enters a second day. The former president and presumptive GOP nominee began the day by railing against the trial and complaining about a gag order that bars him from from publicly commenting on jurors, potential witness and others related to his criminal cases.

“This conflicted, Trump Hating Judge won’t let me respond to people that are on TV lying and spewing hate all day long,” he wrote on his Truth Social network. “He is running rough shod over my lawyers and legal team.”

The first day of Trump’s Manhattan trial ended on Monday with no one picked to sit on the 12-person jury or as one of six alternates. Dozens of people were dismissed after saying they didn’t believe they could be fair, but a second batch of about 100 prospective jurors have yet to be questioned.

The criminal trial is the first of any former U.S. commander-in-chief and also the first of Trump’s four indictments to go to trial.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records as part of an alleged scheme to bury stories he feared could hurt his 2016 campaign.

The allegations focus on payoffs to two women, porn actor Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal, who said they had extramarital sexual encounters with Trump years earlier, as well as to a Trump Tower doorman who claimed to have a story about a child he alleged Trump had out of wedlock. Trump says none of these supposed sexual encounters occurred.

Currently:

— Here’s what happened yesterday on the first day of Trump’s historic hush money trial

— Only 1 in 3 US adults think Trump acted illegally in New York hush money case, AP-NORC poll shows

— Trump trial: Why can’t Americans see or hear what is going on inside the courtroom?

— Donald Trump brings his campaign to the courthouse as his criminal hush money trial begins

Here’s the latest:

The first wave of jury selection in former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial entered a new phase just before noon Tuesday after the remaining people from the first pool of potential jurors finished answering the questionnaire, allowing attorneys to begin individual questioning.

“Let’s talk about the obvious: The defendant in this case is both the former president and a candidate for that office. No one is suggesting that you can’t be a fair juror because you’ve heard of Donald Trump,” Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass told the group. “We don’t expect you to have been living under a rock for the last eight years or the last 30 years.”

Steinglass spelled out the unique nature of the case, telling prospective jurors the witnesses include a former tabloid publisher, an adult film star, and Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, who went to prison for crimes including lying to Congress.

He added that some witnesses have written books and recorded podcasts about the issues involved in the case, that in the past some have denied “many of the same facts that they’ll testify about here,” and that some have received immunity to compel their cooperation.

One would-be juror in former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial shared her reaction on seeing Trump in person for the first time after being dismissed from the pool on Tuesday.

“Hilariously, my first thought was, ‘Oh, he looks exactly like he does on TV,’” Kara McGee recalled to reporters outside the Manhattan courthouse.

McGee, who works in cybersecurity, said she made eye contact with Trump after she told the judge that it would be hard for her to be a juror due to her work schedule.

McGee said that when she received her jury duty letter, her mother pointed out the date coincided with Trump’s trial, and she responded, “That sounds fascinating. I really hope I get to be on it.”

In the interest of saving time as jury selection in Donald Trump’s trial stretched into its second day Tuesday, Judge Juan M. Merchan asked prospective jurors to raise concerns about their ability to serve before completely filling out the entire questionnaire.

A number of potential jurors were dismissed before noon Tuesday, including an Upper East Sider who works at a financial services firm and worried that spending four days a week in court, for an estimated six weeks, would load him down with work at night.

But not everyone who voiced concerns is being dismissed outright. One Upper West Side resident who works for a senior living company said she has her own court date April 30.

“We can work around that,” Merchan said.

The former president jotted down notes and raised sheets of paper to his face as jurors rattle off answers to the lengthy questionnaire.

After one prospective juror said she would be unable to serve impartially, the former president twisted in his chair, looking in the direction of the box.

Following up on a request made in court Monday, prosecutors in Donald Trump’s hush money case filed court documents outlining why they believe he should be fined $3,000 for violating a gag order barring him from disparaging prosecution witnesses.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office highlighted three social media posts from Trump on Truth Social that name Michael Cohen and/or Stormy Daniels — in one case calling them “two sleaze bags who have, with their lies and misrepresentations, cost our Country dearly” — saying he should be fined a thousand dollars for each post, admonished and ordered to take the posts down.

“It is absolutely critical that defendant immediately halt any conduct that would violate the April 1 order’s narrow restrictions to protect the integrity of the ongoing trial,” the filing reads.

Judge Juan M. Merchan has set a hearing on the matter for April 23.

The initial group of 96 prospective jurors in Donald Trump’s hush money case was reduced to just 30 on Tuesday morning after Judge Juan M. Merchan announced that he had excused one potential juror who was due to answer the questionnaire had come down with flu-like symptoms.

He said she duly showed up in a mask, but said she didn’t feel well enough to go ahead with the day.

Another prospective juror — a partner in an accounting firm — was also excused after saying he feared his ability to be impartial could be compromised by “unconscious bias” from growing up in Texas and working in the finance world with people who “intellectually tend to slant Republican.”

“A bunch of family and friends are Republicans, it’s probably going to be tough to be impartial,” he said.

A second group of about 100 prospective jurors has yet to be questioned.

Former president and presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump started Tuesday complaining about his hush money trial, calling it “AN ASSAULT ON AMERICA!” and railing about a gag order that bars him from publicly commenting on the cases’ jurors, potential witness and others.

“This conflicted, Trump Hating Judge won’t let me respond to people that are on TV lying and spewing hate all day long,” he wrote on his Truth Social network. “He is running rough shod over my lawyers and legal team.“

“I want to speak, or at least be able respond,” he went on, demanding the order be lifted. “Election Interference! RIGGED, UNCONSTITUTIONAL TRIAL! Take off the Gag Order!!!”

On his way into the courtroom, Trump stopped briefly to address a TV camera stationed in a hallway and denounced the proceeding and the judge.

“This is a trial that should have never been brought,” he said. “’I was paying a lawyer and marked it down as a legal expense … and you get indicted over that?”

Judge Juan M. Merchan will hold a hearing on April 23 over the prosecution’s assertion that Trump violated the gag order when he disparaged prosecution witnesses Cohen and Daniels as “ two sleaze bags,” circulated an earlier statement from Daniels and lashed out at what he claimed was a double standard by prosecutors.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with China’s national defense minister Tuesday morning, in the latest in a series of U.S. steps to improve communications with the Chinese military and reduce unsafe and aggressive incidents in the Indo-Pacific.

It was the first time Austin has talked to Adm. Dong Jun and the first time he has spoken at length with any Chinese counterpart since November 2022. The call, which lasted a bit more than an hour, comes as Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to travel to China this month for talks.

Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, said that Austin “emphasized the importance of continuing to open lines of military-to-military communication” between the United States and the People’s Republic of China. And he underscored the importance of respect for freedom of navigation on the seas, especially in the South China Sea.

Washington and Beijing have been working to expand communications and ease escalating tensions. Military-to-military contact stalled in August 2022, when Beijing suspended all such communication after then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, which China claims as its own.

The thaw in relations between the two world powers got a kick-start last November when President Joe Biden and China’s President Xi Jinping met on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco. About a month later, Gen. CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke with his Chinese counterpart in a video call — in the first senior military-to-military contact since the Pelosi visit.

Austin’s call with Dong has been widely anticipated, but the admiral was only appointed to the defense job in December. Previous defense minister Wei Fenghe turned down a Pentagon request to speak with Austin last year after the U.S. shot down a Chinese spy balloon that had floated across the country. Austin had previously met with Wei in 2022 on the sidelines of a defense conference in Cambodia.

Defense officials are concerned about unsafe and unprofessional incidents involving the U.S. and Chinese militaries in the Pacific.

Pelosi’s visit sparked a surge in military maneuvers by China. Beijing dispatched warships and aircraft across the median line in the Taiwan Strait, claiming the de facto boundary did not exist, fired missiles over Taiwan itself, and challenged established norms by firing missiles into Japan’s exclusive economic zone.

During the following two years, U.S. military officials repeatedly objected to a range of unsafe intercepts by Chinese aircraft in the Pacific and other dangerous incidents. Some of those confrontations have ebbed a bit, but the U.S. has been concerned about aggressive behavior by Chinese vessels against Philippine ships in the South China Sea.

Ryder said that Austin in his conversation with Dong also discussed Russia’s war in Ukraine, concerns about North Korea and the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.

A senior defense official told reporters that Austin’s call on Tuesday gives the U.S. the opportunity to prevent ongoing competition with China from veering into conflict. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide a preview of the call, said the U.S. hasn’t seen any unsafe or unprofessional intercepts of American aircraft since last November, but China’s coercive behavior toward Philippines’ ships risks escalation.

U.S. and Chinese defense officials met earlier this month in Hawaii to discuss aggressive ship and aircraft incidents between the two militaries in the Pacific region. The two-day China-U.S. Military Maritime Consultative Agreement meeting included about 18 military and civilian personnel from each side and it was the first time since 2019 that it was held in person. There was a virtual meeting in 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

(Reuters) – The number of antisemitic incidents of assault, vandalism and harassment in the U.S. hit a record high in 2023 as anti-Jewish sentiment spiked after the start of the Israel-Hamas war, according to a report released Tuesday.

The Jewish advocacy group Anti-Defamation League (ADL) tallied 8,873 antisemitic incidents in 2023, a 140% increase over 2022 and a record high since the group began keeping track in 1979, the report said.

Over 5,200 incidents were reported after Oct. 7, 2023, the day the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostage. Israel responded by launching a counterattack in the Gaza Strip that has killed some 32,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, and reduced much of the Hamas-run enclave to rubble.

“Jewish Americans are being targeted for who they are at school, at work, on the street, in Jewish institutions and even at home. This crisis demands immediate action from every sector of society and every state in the union,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement.

Reported discrimination and attacks against Muslims and Palestinians also reached a record high in the U.S. in 2023, according to a Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) report released earlier this month. Complaints totaled 8,061 in 2023, a 56% rise from the year before and the highest since CAIR began tracking nearly 30 years ago. About 3,600 of those incidents occurred from October to December, CAIR said.

Tensions between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrators have reached a fever pitch in the U.S. as the war rages on, particularly on college campuses. The ADL recorded 732 campus-based incidents between Oct. 7 and the end of 2023, compared to just 63 incidents in the same period in 2022, the report said.

The ADL tallies cases reported directly to the organization and also scans media reports, law enforcement records, and cases recorded by other Jewish organizations.

The 2023 incidents included vandalism of Jewish student centers and synagogues, bomb threats, and chants at demonstrations that call for the death of Jews and the destruction of Israel, the ADL said.

(Reporting by Gabriella Borter; Editing by David Gregorio)