Inquirer.com – Zurich DR

Category: Nation & World

  • Trump blasts ‘sanctuary’ states, but many still aid deportations

    Trump blasts ‘sanctuary’ states, but many still aid deportations

    As part of its full-court press on immigration, the Trump administration has increasingly sought to punish Democratic-led states that have tried to curtail their cooperation with federal immigration agencies.

    Trump officials argue that the policies of “sanctuary jurisdictions” have enabled the release of sex offenders, killers, and other criminals — the “worst of the worst” — and President Donald Trump has gone so far as to call the actions of blue-state leaders a “lawless insurrection.” The administration has threatened federal funding cuts, lawsuits, and travel restrictions if state and local authorities don’t fall in line.

    But the very states the Trump administration is pillorying — from California and Minnesota to New York and Massachusetts — already cooperate closely with Immigration and Customs Enforcement on tens of thousands of criminal cases a year, regularly turning over people charged with or convicted of serious and violent offenses for detention and deportation.

    A New York Times review of policies, statutes, and practices in the 18 states targeted by Trump shows extensive cooperation and coordination with federal immigration agencies when it comes to people convicted of serious crimes. Data shows all but one of these states have sharply increased the number of people they have moved each month from local and state authorities’ custody into federal immigration custody during Trump’s second term, as compared with the last year of former President Joe Biden’s term.

    In 12 of them, the number of custodial arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement more than doubled, according to a Times analysis of ICE data obtained by the Deportation Data Project.

    The Trump administration has suggested that “sanctuary” states refuse to cooperate with ICE agents and deny them entry into jails. But by and large, these blue states have been assisting in federal efforts targeting violent offenders, while pushing back on the federal dragnets across the country that have ensnared immigrants without criminal records.

    At the height of a federal crackdown in Minneapolis earlier this year, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz accused ICE of targeting people of color with no criminal background while failing to pick up hardened criminals in state custody ready to be transferred to the agency.

    The tensions have only been rising as federal immigration officials have received an infusion of dollars to carry out more operations and, in recent weeks, more than doubled their daily arrests, often with the help of local authorities in red states.

    State officials from blue and red states agree that cooperation with federal authorities is critical to criminal investigations, and none would dispute that the release of dangerous people into communities is bad for public safety or politically unpalatable.

    But governors and top law enforcement officials in Democratic-led states say they are trying to disentangle their role in criminal investigations from federal immigration enforcement. That delicate balance, they say, preserves their time and resources and engenders trust from immigrant communities.

    So-called sanctuary laws enacted in Democratic-led states do limit cooperation with immigration authorities in many ways. Most largely bar state and local officers from assisting federal agents on civil immigration violations and put parameters around ICE’s access to jails and prisons as well as designated protected zones, such as schools, churches, and courthouses. A slate of state court rulings and policies have also prohibited local and state agencies from holding people for immigration officers beyond their release dates. And many prohibit authorities in most cases from alerting ICE that an inmate is about to be released, though release dates for all offenders are publicly available online.

    Of all the states targeted, California, perhaps, has become the administration’s most prominent adversary. The state, which emerged as a battleground over “sanctuary” policies well before Trump first took office in 2017, barred state and local law enforcement agencies — including school police and security departments — from using public funds or personnel for civil immigration enforcement during his first term.

    But the Trump administration’s criticism has focused heavily on the idea that serious criminals are being allowed to walk free — something California has specifically sought to avoid.

    State lawmakers and law enforcement officials negotiated a list of exceptions to allow greater coordination when those wanted by ICE have criminal records or face serious criminal charges. Since 2019, the state’s corrections department has coordinated with the agency to transfer nearly 13,000 people convicted of murder, sexual assault, child molestation, or other grave felonies into federal custody.

    “Not all sanctuary policies are created equal,” said John Sandweg, a senior Department of Homeland Security official under the Obama administration.

    Many states or local jurisdictions with progressive politics “may not hand over someone convicted of driving without a license or some petty misdemeanor,” he added, “but would work collaboratively with ICE to ensure that individuals with violent criminal histories were not released in the streets.”

    Democratic officials have argued that local limitations on ICE cooperation ensure that victims of crimes can approach police without worrying about being swept up in unrelated immigration actions.

    “People need to feel comfortable talking to police,” said Ronnell Higgins, commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, the state’s top law enforcement agency. “Wherever you go, the police need the public’s help in preventing crimes and in solving crimes as well.”

    At the crux of this sanctuary debate has been a push for partnerships with ICE under a program known as 287(g). The initiative, a central pillar of the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda, trains sheriff’s deputies, police, and highway patrol officers to act as immigration agents in the course of their daily duties, and the program has become a force multiplier for enforcement.

    Fifteen of the 18 states reviewed by the Times have passed laws that restrict their local and state law enforcement agencies from entering into contracts to help enforce civil immigration laws. The other three limit participation in the program under governor’s executive orders and state court rulings. But no states prohibit their officers from assisting federal agencies on criminal violations.

    All allow the transfer of inmates into federal custody if authorities present a criminal warrant signed by a judge.

    Trump’s fight with Democratic leaders over “sanctuary” policies dates to his first term. Since his return to the White House, his administration has only ramped up the stakes further. Last month, Republicans passed a sweeping immigration package signed by Trump. It includes $31 billion for ICE activities, such as supporting local and state authorities that have signed 287(g) partnerships with the agency, and earmarks another $350 million to expand enforcement operations in jurisdictions that refuse such partnerships.

    During budget negotiations in late May, Markwayne Mullin, Trump’s new Homeland Security secretary, floated the idea of pulling customs officers from airports in major liberal hubs, which business groups warned would lead to chaos for travelers and harm the economy. In recent weeks, Tom Homan, his border czar, has repeatedly vowed to flood New York with agents.

    Although neither of the plans has transpired, the administration’s strikes have turned Democratic-led cities and states into political foils in the rhetorical fight over immigration policy. That fight has played out in the public sphere and in the courts, where the Trump administration has had less success. Last month, federal judges dismissed, for now, federal government lawsuits challenging a Los Angeles ordinance and executive orders in several New Jersey cities that prohibit the use of city resources for federal immigration enforcement. (The decisions followed similar rulings last year in favor of Rochester, New York, and the state of Illinois.)

    In June, the Department of Justice and New York State sued and countersued each other over expansive immigrant protections the state passed a month earlier. The new rules, among other provisions, banned partnership agreements with ICE, barred all local, state, and federal officers from wearing masks and ended ICE contracts to house inmates with federal civil immigration violations.

    Testifying before the House Appropriations Committee days later, Mullin said “sanctuary governors and sanctuary mayors” were advising their local and state authorities to not cooperate with ICE. He argued that this hampered federal authorities’ immigration efforts, as well as investigations into human trafficking and retail theft.

    “And so it really handcuffs us,” he said.

    Asked whether exceptions or carve-outs for violent and serious offenders in state laws helped offset their restrictions on civil immigration enforcement, officials at DHS, the parent agency of ICE, suggested they had broader latitude under federal law to carry out immigration arrests than state statutes allow.

    In a statement, Lauren Bis, a Homeland Security spokesperson, suggested that the agency’s partnerships with law enforcement justified the surges in arrests.

    “When politicians bar local law enforcement from working with DHS, our law enforcement officers have to have a more visible presence so that we can find and apprehend the criminals let out of jails and back into communities,” she said.

    This article originally appeared in the New York Times.

  • DOGE was supposed to be dead. Its remnants are everywhere.

    DOGE was supposed to be dead. Its remnants are everywhere.

    When Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy were initially tapped to co-lead the Department of Government Efficiency at the end of 2024, the billionaire duo promised DOGE’s last act would be to delete itself by a mandated end date: July 4, 2026.

    Numerous lawsuits filed by federal workers, states, and activists attempted to halt DOGE’s radical cost cutting effort, arguing Musk’s allies operated with little transparency and targeted agencies, grants, and programs enshrined by law.

    Now, DOGE’s website, built to house “receipts” documenting its attempt to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget, lies dormant, while posts from the DOGE X account have slowed to a trickle.

    But weeks after its 18-month end date has elapsed, DOGE has proved remarkably hard to kill.

    Instead, DOGE has evolved from its radical cost-cutting mission, with some of its members and agenda embedded across the government, continuing to reshape the federal bureaucracy behind the scenes.

    “DOGE is a way of life. … It never terminates,” former DOGE staffer Katie Miller said on X on July 4, the day of its supposed expiration.

    Nearly two dozen people hired or vetted through DOGE remain in government, including an influential diaspora filtered throughout the executive branch, according to a Washington Post analysis of court records and government documents.

    This includes Gavin Kliger, chief data officer at the Pentagon, and Jeremy Lewin, a senior adviser to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Lewin, who oversaw much of the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, now directs the State Department’s foreign assistance programs.

    Meanwhile, the National Design Studio, which is run by former DOGE lieutenant Joe Gebbia, is seen by many of its members as the spiritual successor to DOGE, according to two people familiar with the organization, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. Its chief engineer is Edward Coristine, the staffer known as “Big Balls,” who as a 19-year-old DOGE employee gained access to agencies including the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security.

    DOGE’s membership rolls were never made public, so it’s impossible to tally the total number of alumni sprinkled throughout the government. The Trump administration fought lawsuits to make DOGE staffers’ identities public, and some information has only come out recently through public records requests and legal challenges.

    Administration officials have retreated from DOGE’s plans, reversing cuts and bringing back workers.

    But the upheaval unleashed by the U.S. DOGE Service has left an imprint on the federal government, with consequences still rippling through Washington. DOGE forcibly reworked the operations at agencies such as the Social Security Administration, where staff members were reorganized to make up for losses on the front lines. Unemployment is up in the D.C. metro area since Donald Trump returned to the White House. Federal workers remain fearful of retaliation.

    Musk hinted that he hoped DOGE would outlive its initial wave of cuts. “Is Buddha needed for Buddhism?” Musk said as his time in government wound down last year. “Was it not stronger after he passed away?”

    Among a Republican caucus typically in lockstep, there is internal stratification over DOGE, even as several Trump administration officials have started DOGE-like initiatives. Late last year, the Office of Personnel Management launched a Tech Force to recruit young Silicon Valley types to government.

    When Vice President JD Vance introduced an anti-fraud task force, he did not associate it with Musk’s work.

    “I think that’s unfortunate that nobody has ever tried to take a systematic look at how much fraud there is in the federal government,” Vance said in a Fox News interview in February.

    The White House and Musk did not return requests for comment for this story.

    Democrats have continued to capitalize on anger over DOGE, demanding investigations into its staffers’ access to sensitive data and the fallout from cuts. Meanwhile, the debate remains — even among some Republicans — whether the effort was worth its dramatic fallout.

    “There were a lot of claims of billions and billions of dollars in savings,” Republican Sen. Thom Tillis (N.C.) said in a hearing this month with Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget. “I simply want to know where you booked them and where I can see it.”

    Max Stier, CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, said the government is continuing to bear the costs of DOGE’s work, such as the rehiring of federal workers, legal expenses from actions such as the sudden closure of the USAID and paying severance, and diminishing employee morale, resulting in productivity losses.

    DOGE and other Trump administration-led cuts have resulted in an economic cost of more than $165 billion, or more than $1,028 per taxpayer, according to Stier’s organization’s estimates. The costs include the loss of estimated economic benefits from terminated grants, the effect of severance payments, estimated legal expenses, and money spent on rehiring workers, for example.

    Contrary to the promises Musk offered during the early days, federal spending as a whole actually increased over the past year. Agencies are ramping up hiring plans after hundreds of thousands of federal workers left last year.

    For the first six months of Trump’s second term, DOGE was central to the administration. Musk frequently appeared in the Oval Office beside Trump, while his closest associates showed up at federal agencies with little to no warning and made consequential decisions, overruling career staff and even Trump officials. Musk touted cuts that he said would amount to a $2 trillion reduction in federal spending.

    Several of DOGE’s more limited priorities remain, including an ongoing effort to digitize federal retirement records that are housed in a Pennsylvania mine. At the end of June, the Office of Personnel Management announced it will no longer send anymore paper to the mine after DOGE engineers built a website to replace the paper forms.

    Inside some agencies, meanwhile, DOGE maintains a presence. There “are still an exceptional number that remain today and are more quietly operating behind the scenes,” said one staffer at the Transportation Department, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

    At the General Services Administration, Thomas Shedd, a former Tesla engineer who at one point led Technology Transformation Services, has not left, even though he no longer appears to have any official job at the agency and is listed as a special government employee, according to a GSA employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the matter.

    Many of those aligned with DOGE who remain in government are working at the National Design Studio, which the White House created to modernize government websites and take on other brand initiatives. The National Design Studio says its mission entails “making the services Americans rely on easier to understand, access, and use,” a focus that echoes DOGE’s aim to upgrade outdated tech and the mandate of DOGE’s predecessor, the U.S. Digital Service. Its work, however, is more narrowly focused than either of those bodies.

    Two people close to DOGE, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations, said the design outfit, led by Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia, serves as the spiritual successor to its work. With about 100 people and weekly meetings focused on efforts such as TrumpRx and the design of the new food pyramid, they represent an evolution of the DOGE mission, but a significant culling of its mandate.

    Before the National Design Studio, Gebbia initially focused on redesigning the federal retirement online portal after previous administrations had not been able to fully digitize the process of leaving government. Although the young technologists had hoped to be done with the project in a few months, it took them longer than expected.

    At the tech- and politics-focused Hill and Valley Forum earlier this year, Gebbia and Coristine described work that was a far cry from Musk’s chainsaw-wielding approach to government transformation. Gebbia, for example, described pitching Trump and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles on the idea for the National Design Studio, saying there might not be another president who cares as deeply “about design, about aesthetics, about architecture,” as Trump.

    Not a single reference to the DOGE controversies was uttered during their 20-minute talk, and the friendly moderator, the CEO of the cloud-based design platform Figma, did not ask about it.

    While DOGE did not complete its far-fetched goal to cut $2 trillion, the slashing of foreign aid, research, and humanities grants has continued to have lasting effects. Health organizations in Africa said aid cuts hampered the global response to a deadly Ebola outbreak. And the administration had to ramp up a response to a screwworm reemergence after cuts at the Agriculture Department.

    The Post previously found that children in Congo had died awaiting lifesaving drugs after U.S. aid cuts under Trump. An Oxfam analysis found that the cuts to aid from the United States would lead “to the first rise in under-five child mortality this century.”

    Musk has denied such catastrophic impacts, even amid evidence of their occurrence. “There is not even a single dead child!” he said on X in June. “If there were, it would be worldwide headline news!”

    In some parts of the government, there is a dispute over whether DOGE is still there or not.

    At the Social Security Administration, as DOGE team members sought to find savings in the massive mandatory spending program, they were given access to the government’s most sensitive databases, which include the personal information of all Americans living and dead. They ultimately did not find the fraud Musk claimed was there.

    In an ongoing court case about DOGE’s access to agency data, the administration has reported that all DOGE members have left the agency and that it has no plans to bring the organization back to Social Security.

    Democracy Forward, a legal group challenging DOGE’s access to data, rebutted that and pointed to testimony that Social Security Administration chief information officer Michael Russo had previously identified himself as DOGE, and SSA general counsel Mark Steffensen fought to get DOGE members into sensitive databases. The two are still at the Social Security Administration.

    “Rumors of DOGE’s demise have been greatly exaggerated, and DOGE personnel remain at SSA,” plaintiffs told the court.

    The Trump administration also sought to get the case dismissed, citing that DOGE wouldn’t exist after July 4. But U.S. District Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander didn’t buy it.

    “Akin to a company that goes out of business,” Hollander wrote in a June 26 opinion, “the DOGE Temporary Organization cannot escape responsibility for the conduct it undertook while it existed simply by reaching its expiration date.”

  • Trump immigration officials seek to mend frayed ties with business as arrests spike

    Trump immigration officials seek to mend frayed ties with business as arrests spike

    The Department of Homeland Security under Secretary Markwayne Mullin is cultivating a relationship with business groups whose concerns about losing workers to aggressive immigration enforcement had been rebuffed by former secretary Kristi L. Noem.

    Earlier this month, DHS officials met at the agency’s Washington headquarters with the Essential Worker Immigration Coalition, which represents the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and major trade associations that depend on immigrant labor, according to several people with knowledge of the meeting, which has not been previously reported.

    It was the first such meeting to be reported since President Donald Trump reentered the White House. Business groups say they have been trying to gain a foothold at the agency since Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests began to spike last year.

    Mullin did not attend the early July meeting — which included officials from ICE and Customs and Border Protection, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly — and the gathering did not produce an immediate change in policies. But two of the people said DHS officials said they want to meet regularly with the group to assess the impact of Trump’s mass deportation campaign and business needs.

    “It was cordial, it was constructive,” one of the people said. “It’s actually very welcome because the last secretary was absent, and her proxies were not very responsive.”

    A DHS spokesperson declined to comment on the meeting; coalition members declined to comment publicly.

    Immigration arrests have more than quadrupled since Trump took office, driven by a dramatic increase in traffic and neighborhood stops, workplace sweeps, and other public arrests, according to the Deportation Data Project. As a result, industries including agriculture, manufacturing, construction, healthcare, and elder care say they are reeling from shortages in jobs critical to the economy.

    Noem was dismissive of those concerns while overseeing chaotic enforcement operations that drew bipartisan outrage, especially after agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minnesota in January. Trump fired her in March and turned to Mullin, a U.S. senator from Oklahoma and former plumbing company owner.

    Mullin brought Senate staffers with ties to the business community to DHS, business lobbyists said, and his staff quickly set about trying to mend relations.

    “It’s important to note that Mullin comes from the business community,” said Jennie Murray, president and CEO of National Immigration Forum, which represents Fortune 500 companies on Capitol Hill and was not part of the July meeting. “Under his leadership the agency does seem much more open to working with businesses and industry to focus on how their enforcement priorities and worksite compliance efforts can be better aligned [and] not negatively impact American businesses and the economy.”

    DHS officials declined to acknowledge a shift in approach but said they are trying to keep an open line to business and other moderate wings of the GOP.

    “Under Secretary Mullin, DHS is ensuring it remains a strong partner to American communities across the country by engaging stakeholders and industry partners that advance our mission to protect the homeland,” an agency spokesperson said.

    However, the spokesperson said, “Worksite enforcement remains a cornerstone of our efforts to protect public safety, national security, and economic stability while rescuing individuals who may be victims of labor trafficking or exploitation.”

    The outreach to business comes as Mullin faces the first crisis of his brief tenure at DHS: ICE agents shot and killed two people in less than a week — a 52-year-old Mexican man in Houston and a young Colombian man in Maine. Outrage over the shootings, including from Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine), led Mullin to pause traffic-stop arrests last week, a decision Trump swiftly overrode the following day.

    Mullin now faces the challenge of proving that he can deliver on Trump’s core campaign pledge to deport a million people a year while avoiding the widespread backlash that helped sink Noem’s tumultuous reign.

    In recent weeks, DHS has sought to appease business groups even as it has dramatically ramped up arrests. Through the first 12 days of July, ICE is on pace to arrest the most people in a single month since Trump reentered the White House, with an average of more than 1,400 people a day. Meanwhile, the agency has agreed to partially walk back a plan to force green-card applicants to return to their countries of origin, which tech leaders said would severely impact their workforce. And it has agreed to open a guest-worker visa program to the dairy industry. Both actions followed intense lobbying by industry groups.

    This month, the Trump administration also extended the timeline for canceling work permits for hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Haiti and six other countries who are losing long-standing humanitarian protections after a Supreme Court ruling. Business groups — which had swamped the Trump administration with calls, letters, and other outreach warning of the potential fallout of the ruling on nursing homes and hospitals — rushed to take credit for that decision as well.

    “They listened to business and GOP lawmakers on the extension of work permits instead of terminating them immediately,” said Rebecca Shi, head of the American Business Immigration Coalition, a bipartisan group that represents 1,700 employers.

    While Noem’s advisers spoke occasionally with business leaders, they often dismissed requests, emphasizing that they were laser focused on removing undocumented workers, several business lobbyists said.

    “They were unapologetic about [their agenda],” said a lobbyist who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

    Trump, who is known to take phone calls with and host dinners for business executives, hasn’t been immune to business backlash since immigration arrests exploded in 2025.

    Last June, during high-profile operations targeting worksites, the administration announced that farms, restaurants, and hotels would be spared further raids. The policy change — aimed at blunting potentially severe economic and political fallout — appears to remain largely intact a year later, pushing ICE agents toward neighborhood arrests and traffic stops to meet their deportation goals.

    But while certain industries have been shielded from workplace raids, other are being pummeled. In South Texas, raids on construction sites have mushroomed since Mullin replaced Noem, builders say.

    “It’s the highest it’s ever been,” said Mario M. Guerrero, a homebuilder and executive director of the South Texas Builders Association. “We got builders saying like, ‘Look, I’m done.’ These agents are showing up to jobsites, following work trucks, and going to Home Depots and picking up everyone.”

    It remains to be seen whether the budding relationship between DHS and business leaders will produce more far-reaching policy changes. Goals of the business community include expanding guest-worker visas and restoring protections for Haitians — demands that are staunchly opposed by much of Trump’s political base.

    Business leaders also ardently desire a path to legal status for the nation’s estimated 8 million undocumented workers (though they stress their support for removing those with criminal records). That politically fraught target has eluded policymakers in Washington for decades.

    On Friday, as he met with reporters about Trump’s campaign to force states to purge alleged noncitizens from their voting rolls before this fall’s midterm elections, Mullin continued to walk a fine line between reassuring a skeptical public and satisfying the president’s desire for maximum impact.

    While “I turn down the temperature with you guys,” Mullin told reporters, “we’re turning up the heat on the streets.”

  • JD Vance is moving to a wealthy enclave outside D.C. Cue the gossip (and complaints).

    JD Vance is moving to a wealthy enclave outside D.C. Cue the gossip (and complaints).

    MIDDLEBURG, Va. — No one in town has seen the new neighbors perusing the cucumbers at the Safeway, or dining on $98-an-ounce caviar at the restaurant down the street, or browsing the main drag’s array of well-appointed antique stores, one of them displaying a $4,600 gold-laden mirror fit for a palace.

    For now, Vice President JD Vance is visible in the usual places, on television and social media, where powerful newsmakers are typically found.

    But word that Vance and his wife, Usha, are making a second home in Middleburg is dominating local chatter, the focus of which is less about MAGA and more about him bringing too much Washington — motorcades, helicopters, Secret Service — to an old-money enclave that views itself as an escape from Washington.

    “I can’t even paint my building without a permit — you’d think they would’ve had a town meeting to discuss it, but it just got dumped on us,” said Kenna Day, 35, a gift shop manager whose shoulder tattoo is the scripted French version of “Hell Is Other People.”

    “I worry it will be disruptive to the calm we have here,” Day said. “It’s why people come. It’s like walking into a Hallmark card. We all get along so well.”

    A couple of blocks away, Vladimir Maldonado, 24, a server at a Mexican restaurant owned by his family, said a patron had told him she had seen a caravan of 50 black SUVs in the area that she assumed was transporting the Vances to Middleburg.

    “She said, ‘Did you hear about the vice president moving down the street?’” Maldonado said. “I was like, ‘That’s crazy!’” Serving chips and salsa to the country’s second-in-command, he said, would be a thrill even though he doesn’t agree with Vance or President Donald Trump on most issues.

    “If he walks in here, I’d ask him so many questions, like tell me everything,” he said. “His picture would definitely go on the wall.”

    The White House did not respond to emails seeking confirmation of published reports that the Vances, who are expecting their fourth child later this month, are moving into a second residence at Wolver Hill Farm, a nearly 500-acre estate a mile from the Safeway on Middleburg’s main thoroughfare.

    Chuck Kuhn, whose JK Moving Services has relocated presidents and vice presidents, including Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Trump, purchased the property six years ago for $8.5 million. Kuhn, reached on his cell phone, declined to answer whether the Vances are living at Wolver Hill, saying, “My formal comment is no comment.”

    A person familiar with the arrangement, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they’re not authorized to talk about the matter, confirmed the vice president is leasing two of the farm’s four homes and said the Secret Service is expected to be a visible presence on the road leading to the property.

    The Vances also reside at the vice president’s official residence, the U.S. Naval Observatory, in Northwest Washington. The mansion, on 12 acres that are part of the observatory compound, includes 33 rooms, a pool, and hot tub.

    A town with one traffic light and a history of attracting dignitaries

    Set in Virginia’s rolling countryside an hour west of Washington, Middleburg has one traffic light and roughly 750 residents, a majority of whom voted for Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. The town is known for horseback riding and hunting, fences made of stacked stone and long winding driveways leading to multimillion-dollar homes.

    It is a world away from the hardscrabble Appalachian life Vance chronicled in his best-selling Hillbilly Elegy memoir.

    At any given time, an array of dignitaries — senators, congressional leaders, diplomats — can be spotted window shopping on Washington Street, Middleburg’s main commercial corridor, where decorative lawn jockeys stand sentry outside a few businesses. The well-heeled can also be found at the Salamander Resort, next door to Wolver Hill, where suites go for as much as $1,100 a night.

    Over the years, at least four presidents have owned homes or visited the town, including Lyndon B. Johnson, Ronald Reagan, and Obama. The Kennedys built a home in Middleburg in the early 1960s, a 167-acre estate they called Wexford that Jackie Kennedy sold after the president’s death, though she still visited after leaving the White House to ride horses with her children. Elizabeth Taylor and her husband Sen. John Warner lived in Middleburg until their divorce. Robert Duvall resided on a 360-acre farm in the area for several decades until his death earlier this year. In April, Queen Camilla visited a horse farm in town during King Charles III’s trip to the United States.

    Trowbridge Littleton, the town’s $400-a-month part-time mayor whose family’s local roots stretch back eight generations, said he had no firsthand knowledge of the Vances’ move to Middleburg, though he did see a cluster of black SUVs on the road leading to Wolver Hill the other day.

    Middleburg’s residents and seven-member police force, the mayor said, are accustomed to famous names coming and going, and predicted that the Vances would not disrupt life. “Everyone is welcome. We’re an open and friendly community, and we’ll manage it,” he said.

    Vances become a lively topic at cocktail hour

    Punkin Lee, 80, the owner of Journeymen Saddlers, a leather repair shop, has lived in Middleburg her entire life and can recall when Jackie Kennedy came into her place “and waited her turn, no different than anyone else.”

    “A lot of celebrities who have friends here come and visit, then you hear about it when you run into someone at the post office a couple of weeks later and they’ll say, ‘Did you see so and so?’” Lee said. “They came and went, and it was all quiet and nice.”

    The vice president and his family may be another matter, though, given his security detail and entourage, she said. “I don’t see how it can’t be different,” she said. “I haven’t seen them, and I don’t need to see them.”

    A place where residents have vented about the potential disruption is a private Facebook page known as “Middleburg Uncensored,” which became fodder for a recent Daily Beast article headlined, “Vance’s New Neighbors Rage as VP Brings Chaos to Horse Country.”

    Carol Henson, 81, a bookkeeper who has lived on the edge of town for more than three decades, was among those who complained about what she characterized as the “vile daily upset” the vice president would cause “our lovely little burg.”

    Henson, in a phone interview, said the “inconvenience is not what this is really about.” Referring to Trump’s policies, she said, “It’s just awful what they have been doing.” She described the vice president as “abhorrent.”

    “People don’t want to be mean,” she said of town residents. “They don’t want to be mean to outsiders. But there’s a big difference between JD Vance and Robert Duvall.”

    Where some in town see the Vances as a reason to rage, Christian Puccio, owner of an Italian restaurant, envisions opportunity.

    “For them to be out here is pretty cool,” said Puccio, who opened the Oak and Ember Tasting Room and Market six months ago just outside town. “If they’re around, I’d say come over. It would be cool to have anyone from public office in here. There’s no such thing as bad publicity. The guy is helping to run the country.”

    A computer repairperson, a guy everyone knows as Gomer Pyles (his birth name is Dennis), said he sees Vance’s presence as possibly catalyzing a different sort of opportunity.

    “If he comes into a restaurant, and we can talk to him, maybe he will change his ways,” said Pyles, 74, who moved to the area from California in 1981. “You can attack it, but you can also say, ‘What can I do to make this a benefit?’ I see it as an opportunity for change.”

    The change that Chris Gore, a retired CIA analyst, has observed in recent days is that his social circle has a fresh subject to enliven their cocktail hour.

    An 18-year resident who has voted for Republicans and Democrats, Gore said he listens “more than I talk” as his friends fret that Vance’s arrival will link Middleburg to Trump.

    The one consolation in Vance’s choice of real estate, Gore said, is that he’s renting. “That’s a relief,” he said. “If he bought, then we’d have to deal with him indefinitely.”

  • Mamdani says he is looking into whether he can order Netanyahu’s arrest

    New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani says his administration is still weighing whether to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he arrives in the city in September for the U.N. General Assembly.

    But the mayor told the New York Times podcast The Interview that he was still working with his staff to determine if ordering the New York Police Department to detain Netanyahu would be legal. He emphasized that he would follow the law.

    “That’s an active conversation with our legal department. … What we’ve seen at the national level is a desire sometimes to write your own laws, to go outside of the bounds of legality. That’s not something we have an interest in,” Mamdani said.

    “I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in the Hague,” the mayor said, referring to the home of the International Criminal Court.

    The ICC, a tribunal that investigates genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu in 2024 for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

    President Donald Trump and his predecessor, Joe Biden, have blasted the ICC for the warrant. The positions of both administrations has been to support Netanyahu during the war in Gaza, which Israel launched after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel by Hamas militants who killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostage.

    Before a ceasefire last year, Israel’s retaliatory offensive killed 73,250 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants but says the majority of casualties are women and children.

    Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, wrote on X on Saturday that Mamdani’s comments “will not change a thing.”

    Netanyahu, Danon said, “will come to New York, address the United Nations General Assembly with pride, and stand before the world to state Israel’s truth and its unwavering right to defend its citizens.

    Mamdani, who became mayor in January, said during his campaign that he intended to arrest Netanyahu if elected.

    When the ICC issued arrest warrants targeting Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, in 2024, the prime minister called the decision an “antisemitic move with one goal: to deter me, to deter us, from exercising our natural right to defend ourselves against our enemies who seek to destroy us.”

    And since Trump returned to office for a second term, he has targeted the ICC for its actions against Israel over the country’s war on Gaza. His administration has levied sanctions against the ICC, including sanctions targeting ICC officials for their role in the Israeli probe. He also issued an executive order last year accusing the ICC of engaging in “illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel.”

    America’s support for Israel has been a divisive issue for Democrats.

    Earlier this week, 103 House Democrats voted to cut off military aid to Israel for the next fiscal year. Though the vote signaled a growing disconnect between the Democratic leadership’s long-standing support for Israel, the amendment failed.

  • Justice Department activates untested court for ‘alien terrorist’ deportations

    Justice Department activates untested court for ‘alien terrorist’ deportations

    WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has filed a first-ever petition to a secretive and dormant court created 30 years ago to consider government requests to deport so-called “alien terrorists” from the United States.

    The Alien Terrorist Removal Court was established in 1996 but had never received a petition until this past Wednesday, when the Justice Department filed an application seeking the removal of an individual whose name is withheld from the single-page document posted on the court’s website.

    The chief judge of the five-member court, Joan Ericksen, said in a written response to the petition that a hearing was held on Thursday during which the court had “questions about the nexus that the government alleges between the actions of the respondent and the specific sections and subsections it invokes with respect to those actions.

    “The answers persuaded the Court that the Government could benefit from the opportunity for more thoughtful consideration,” wrote Ericksen, a federal judge in Minnesota.

    She directed the Justice Department to provide more information by Wednesday.

    The court’s authorities emerged from the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, which permits the attorney general to file under seal applications for the deportation of a suspected “alien terrorist.” If an application is granted, the court must hold a public hearing at which the government has the burden to prove that the individual satisfies that definition. Applications must be approved by the attorney general or deputy attorney general.

    Federal law says that an individual could qualify as an “alien terrorist” by, among other factors, having “engaged in a terrorist activity,” endorsing or espousing terrorist activities, and by belonging to a political or social group that encourages terrorist activity.

    The court has been dormant since its creation, having received — until last week — no applications and conducting no hearings, according to a summary posted on the Federal Judicial Center website. It is comprised of five judges selected by Chief Justice John Roberts.

    The Trump administration has moved aggressively over the last year to carry out deportations, including invoking a 1798 wartime law, the Alien Enemies Act, to remove Venezuelan migrants who officials accuse of being part of a terrorist gang. During a hearing in that case last year, the Washington judge presiding over it, James Boasberg, indicated that the Alien Terrorist Removal Court would be the natural forum to consider a request for deportation on national security grounds.

    “In fact, Congress has an answer for us, doesn’t it? Because they created the Alien Terrorist Removal Court,” he said. “So if there’s a national security concern with having these hearings…you can always go to the ATRC, which would be a first, but that’s what it’s there for, right?”

    The petition was first reported by Court Watch, an independent news site.

  • Poll of Jewish-Americans reveals complex attitudes toward Israel, antisemitism

    Poll of Jewish-Americans reveals complex attitudes toward Israel, antisemitism

    WASHINGTON — The Associated Press surveyed more than 1,000 Jewish adults in the U.S. to better understand their views on Israel’s military actions in Gaza, their opinions of the political parties, and their experiences with prejudice in the United States.

    The survey of 1,022 Jewish adults — including people who identify as Jewish by religion and religiously unaffiliated people who identify as Jewish through culture, ethnicity, or family background — offers a rare detailed accounting of a key demographic that sits at the very center of some of the nation’s most divisive political debates.

    Here are five takeaways from the AP-NORC survey:

    Jewish adults have complicated views about Israel, war in Gaza

    Among Jews with a religious affiliation, views on Israel’s recent military actions are far from uniform or uncritical.

    About 7 in 10 Jewish adults overall identify as Jewish when asked about their religious affiliation. The rest, about 3 in 10 Jewish adults, say they are atheists, agnostics, or have no particular religious affiliation, but still identify as Jewish in other ways.

    While about 8 in 10 of those with a religious affiliation say Israel’s immediate military response to Hamas’ attack on October 7 was “justified,” only about half say Israel’s ongoing military operations in Gaza are justified. Among Jewish adults without a religious affiliation, only about half saw Israel’s immediate response as justifiable. Now, only about 2 in 10 say the ongoing military operations are acceptable.

    About one-quarter of Jewish adults with a religious association believe Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, an accusation that’s been leveled by some major human rights organizations and a team of independent experts commissioned by the United Nations. That accusation has been vehemently denied by Israel and the U.S. government. Roughly 4 in 10 Jewish adults without a religious affiliation say Israel has committed genocide.

    Many Jewish adults feel unsafe in the U.S.

    About 6 in 10 Jewish adults say prejudice against Jewish people is an “extremely” or “very” serious problem in the United States today.

    About one-third of Jewish adults in the survey say they feel “very” or “somewhat” safe as a Jewish person in the U.S. today, while about one-third feel “very” or “somewhat” unsafe. The remaining roughly 3 in 10 say they feel neither safe nor unsafe.

    A significant share of Jewish adults, about 3 in 10, say they or someone in their household has experienced physical assault, verbal abuse, online harassment, or damaged property because of their Jewish background over the last year, according to the survey.

    The survey points to how Jewish adults’ attitudes toward their own personal safety have changed over a relatively short period as more Americans became critical of the United States’ close alliance with Israel and the war in Gaza. The poll found that Jewish adults who feel a close emotional tie to Israel are particularly likely to feel unsafe in the country today.

    Most American Jews don’t feel politicians support Jewish people

    Few Jewish adults believe that President Donald Trump — or the Democratic or Republican parties — are doing a good job supporting Jewish people in the U.S.

    Only about 2 in 10 Jewish adults say Trump supports Jewish people in this country “extremely” or “very” well. That’s similar to the slight share who find the Republican Party and the Democratic Party highly supportive, but Jewish adults are more likely to say the Democratic Party is at least “somewhat” supportive.

    Americans overall are more likely than Jewish adults to see Trump as “extremely” or “very” supportive of Jewish people in the United States. About 3 in 10 U.S. adults say Trump is highly supportive of Jewish people, compared to about 2 in 10 Jewish adults.

    The poll also found most Jewish adults have negative views of Trump. About 7 in 10 Jewish adults have a “very” or “somewhat” unfavorable opinion of Trump, compared to about 3 in 10 who have a favorable view.

    Division over whether protesting Israel is a form of antisemitism

    Protests around events conducted in support of Israel became more common following the backlash over Israel’s military action in Gaza.

    The war in Gaza began with Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that killed roughly 1,200 people, most of them civilians. Israel responded with a yearslong counterattack that has killed more than 73,000 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which is part of the territory’s Hamas-run government. Its casualty figures are viewed as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and international organizations but don’t distinguish between civilians and militants.

    The poll found that about half of Jewish adults say protesting an event that is supportive of Israel is not a form of antisemitism, but roughly 4 in 10 say it is. About 1 in 10 are uncertain.

    Jewish adults are more unified in deeming some actions as definitively antisemitic. The overwhelming majority say vandalizing synagogues or Jewish-owned businesses because of Israel’s actions is antisemitism. The same goes for denying the reality or scope of the Holocaust, putting responsibility for Israel’s actions on Jewish people in the United States, or saying Israel shouldn’t exist as a Jewish state.

    Support for Israel less of a priority for younger Jewish adults

    Support for Israel is a key component of the religious identity of many older Jewish adults in the United States, but younger Jewish adults appear less likely to prioritize it.

    About half of older religious Jewish adults — those 45 and older — say that supporting Israel is “extremely” or “very” important for their Jewish identity. By contrast, only about 4 in 10 younger religious Jewish adults emphasize support for Israel.

    Younger Jewish adults are more likely to prioritize other forms of connection, like celebrating Jewish holidays. About 7 in 10 Jewish adults under 45 say celebrating Jewish holidays is at least “very” important to their Jewish identity, compared to about half of older Jewish adults.

  • Federal agents were told FBI will no longer investigate ICE confrontations

    Federal agents were told FBI will no longer investigate ICE confrontations

    WASHINGTON — Federal agents around the country were told in recent days that the FBI would no longer investigate confrontations with immigration agents — cases that sometimes yield evidence that could be used to prosecute Department of Homeland Security agents implicated in violent encounters, according to people briefed on the decision.

    If enacted, such a change would sharply limit law enforcement scrutiny of immigration agents, as the Trump administration draws mounting criticism over killings at the hands of federal officers. In the past two weeks, two fatal shootings by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Texas and Maine have thrust the government’s tactics back into the spotlight.

    FBI managers around the country received a written notice informing them of the change Thursday, according to the people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal communications. The same day, some ICE agents around the country were notified by their FBI counterparts.

    The guidance shared with them said that the bureau would stop investigating claims of assaults against Department of Homeland Security agents, the people said. Even though such investigations are intended to determine whether the officers were in fact attacked, they can provide a crucial means of gathering evidence implicating the agents themselves.

    A joint statement by the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security, however, denied that any such change was underway.

    “The relationship between DHS and DOJ in investigating assault on federal officer cases has not changed, and FBI will continue to investigate in accordance with agency policy,” the statement said. “This administration has been clear, anyone who assaults law enforcement will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

    Under the change, responsibility for investigating cases involving federal immigration officers would likely fall to Homeland Security Investigations, an arm of ICE, effectively leaving the agency to investigate itself, according to guidance circulated among FBI and ICE agents.

    Cases involving an assault on a federal officer have been a source of tension inside federal law enforcement agencies for more than a year. White House and Justice Department officials have pushed prosecutors to bring charges in as many of them as possible, particularly as Americans protest the administration’s immigration crackdown.

    Under the federal statute, felony charges can be brought against anyone who “forcibly assaults, resists, opposes, impedes, intimidates, or interferes” with a federal law enforcement officer.

    Trump administration officials have claimed that language means anyone who makes physical contact with an agent should be charged with felony assault, which is punishable by up to eight years in prison.

    “It’s abhorrent to ever, ever touch a law enforcement officer, which is why anytime anybody does that and it’s a federal officer, we’ll prosecute them,” the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, said in an interview in May on CNN.

    An investigation by the New York Times found that the Trump administration had filed charges against more than 550 people for assaulting federal officers. Of the more than 400 cases that had been resolved, nearly half had unraveled, with charges being thrown out or withdrawn, or the defendants being acquitted.

    Under the Trump administration, when ICE agents have shot and killed people, the FBI has been assigned to scrutinize a narrow question: whether the agents were assaulted before the gunfire.

    While the bureau in past administrations has investigated potential civil rights abuses and law enforcement misconduct, it has been limited from doing so in high-profile ICE shootings over the past year, according to law enforcement officials.

    However, FBI investigations involving an assault on a federal officer could yield evidence that is valuable to other cases, including future civil rights investigations or prosecutions of an ICE agent. If that responsibility shifts to Homeland Security Investigations, it would leave a gap in holding immigration agents to account, according to the people familiar with the matter.

    Homeland Security Investigations does not have jurisdiction to investigate civil rights violations, so putting the change into practice would make it far less likely that shootings of unarmed people by ICE agents would be investigated to determine if the agents broke federal law.

    The enforcement crackdown in President Donald Trump’s second term has resulted in nearly two dozen people being fired on by federal immigration agents since January 2025. Six people, including three U.S. citizens, have been killed as a result of those shootings, nearly all of which involved officers firing into vehicles.

    On July 7 in Houston, an ICE agent killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican immigrant who had lived in the country for more than three decades, during a traffic stop while he was driving to work with three passengers. He was not the target of the ICE operation, federal officials later acknowledged.

    In Maine on July 13, an ICE agent shot and killed a Colombian man, who was also in his vehicle. He was identified as Joan Sebastian Guerrero, according to a spokesperson for Sen. Angus King, a Maine independent.

    This article originally appeared in the New York Times.

  • What to know about the Tate brothers, social media influencers facing rape and trafficking charges

    What to know about the Tate brothers, social media influencers facing rape and trafficking charges

    LONDON — Influencer brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate were arrested Saturday in Miami after U.K. prosecutors said they brought further rape and sex trafficking charges against them.

    Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service said the new charges relate to four further victims and were brought after authorities received evidence from Bedfordshire Police in southeastern England. The charges include rape, assault, trafficking, and offenses relating to “indecent images of a child and extreme pornography.”

    The charges announced Saturday, which bring the total number of alleged victims in the U.K. to seven, are the latest in a long-running international legal saga involving the brothers that has spanned the U.S., Britain, and Romania. The brothers have denied wrongdoing.

    Here are some things to know about the Tate brothers:

    Who the Tate brothers are

    Andrew Tate, 39, and Tristan Tate, 38, are dual U.S.-British citizens known for their social media empire promoting wealth, male dominance, and misogyny.

    Andrew Tate is a former professional kickboxer and self-described misogynist who has amassed more than 10 million followers, most of them boys and young men, on X. He has been banned from platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram for violating hate speech guidelines.

    He also runs an online academy where he says he teaches young men how to get rich and attract women. Tristan Tate is also a former kickboxer.

    The brothers are avid supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump.

    What the Tates are charged with

    Andrew Tate and his brother have faced multiple charges in the U.K. and Romania, where they moved in 2016.

    British prosecutors said the new charges relate to alleged offenses that took place between 2010 and 2017. They said Andrew Tate was charged with seven further counts of rape, three counts of arranging or facilitating trafficking for sexual exploitation, three counts of assault, and 19 charges for offenses relating to indecent images of a child and extreme pornography.

    Tristan Tate was charged with one count of sexual assault, two counts of rape, and three counts of arranging or facilitating sex trafficking.

    The Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement it “has requested the extradition of the Tates from the U.S. They have been arrested and await extradition proceedings to the U.K.”

    The Tates already face previous charges of rape, bodily harm, human trafficking, and controlling prostitution for gain relating to three other alleged victims in the U.K. between 2012 and 2015.

    In June, a U.K. High Court judge threw out a legal bid by the Tates to be told the names of their accusers.

    In Romania, the siblings were arrested in late 2022 along with two Romanian women. The four were accused of participating in criminal schemes to lure women for sexual exploitation. They denied those allegations and the Romanian case hasn’t gone forward because of legal and procedural problems.

    The case hasn’t been closed, and there is also a separate legal case against the brothers in Romania.

    Andrew Tate has repeatedly claimed that prosecutors in Romania have no evidence against him and that there is a political conspiracy to silence him.

    How the extradition process could work

    The brothers are expected to appear this week in a U.S. federal court, where a judge will make an initial determination about whether they meet the conditions for extradition. If they do, they are unlikely to get bail, which is rarely granted to those held for international extradition.

    The decision about whether to order the extradition will then fall to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. While the State Department has some discretion to deny extradition requests from the U.K., it has granted nearly every British request since ratifying a strengthened extradition treaty in 2007.

    One exception came during Trump’s first term, when the U.S. declined an extradition request for the wife of a former American diplomat involved in a fatal crash in England, citing diplomatic immunity. The rejection prompted an international outcry.

    Why the Tates were in the U.S.

    British police previously sought the Tates’ extradition to the U.K. once their legal proceedings in Romania concluded.

    But in February 2025 they were allowed to leave Romania after authorities lifted travel restrictions, and they flew to Florida on a private jet.

    Romania’s foreign minister said at the time that a U.S. official in the Trump administration had expressed interest in the brothers’ legal case in Romania.

    Trump said he knew “nothing about” the case when asked if his administration pressured the Romania government to release the Tates.

  • Mount Olympus, home of the ancient Greek gods, vies for World Heritage status

    Mount Olympus, home of the ancient Greek gods, vies for World Heritage status

    LITOCHORO, Greece — Snow-capped for much of the year, Mount Olympus, mythological home of ancient Greece’s Olympian gods, has captured the imagination through the millennia. The mountain rises to 9,573 feet from a base practically at sea level, and the ancient Greeks believed the throne of Zeus, king of the gods, stood on the highest of its craggy, often mist-shrouded peaks.

    Now, modern Greeks hope their tallest mountain will be inducted into UNESCO’s World Heritage List as a mixed cultural and natural site. The nomination was set to be discussed as the World Heritage Committee meets in Busan, South Korea, from July 19 through July 29.

    “Olympus is our life. It is the place we grew up in,” said Evagelos Geroliolios, mayor of Dion-Olympus, based in Litochoro, the mountain’s main town. “It is the place we see every day, but at the same time, it is also a place which carries with it myth, history, biodiversity, extraordinary beauty, and a very great cultural weight.”

    Seat of the gods

    Few locations are as central to ancient Greek mythology as Mount Olympus. It was here that Zeus was said to have established his court after overthrowing his father, Cronus, in a 10-year war that ended the reign of the Titans.

    Interest in Olympus may receive another boost with the theatrical release of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, a new adaptation of Homer’s epic, in which the mountain serves as the home of Zeus and the Olympian gods who influence Odysseus’ journey.

    On one of Olympus’ lower peaks, excavations have uncovered an open-air sanctuary, with the oldest finds dating to the Hellenistic period, which ran from 323 B.C. to 30 B.C. According to Greece’s original UNESCO nomination, the sanctuary is believed to have been one mentioned by the ancient philosopher and historian Plutarch, who in the 2nd century wrote of processions to one of Olympus’ peaks for animal sacrifices to Zeus.

    The mountain retained religious significance into the Christian era. A chapel on the peak of Prophet Elias, at 9,196 feet, is believed to be the highest altitude chapel in the Christian Orthodox world. The mountain’s Enipeas Gorge holds the remains of a monastery founded in 1542, while a roughly 20-minute walk from there leads to the Holy Cave of St. Dionysios, a chapel built into a cave from where a small spring flows, believed to carry holy water.

    The mountain’s slopes, which reach practically to the sea, also host a wealth of flora and fauna, including endemic species. It is this blending of culture, myth, natural beauty, and biodiversity that locals hope will see their mountain declared a World Heritage site.

    “It is a place we love. It is a place that many people from all over the world visit to see, to live, to experience. We want to protect it,” Geroliolios said. Its inclusion on UNESCO’s list would be “something very big that goes beyond not just local boundaries, but national boundaries. It is something that concerns the entire world. It is very important.”

    Inclusion in World Heritage List far from certain

    Greece began the process to have Mount Olympus recognized as a World Heritage site in 2014, inscribing it on its Tentative List — the mandatory first step in any nomination. The Tentative List is where countries include sites they can then formally nominate over the next five to 10 years.

    The nomination process includes a preliminary assessment followed by submission of a full nomination file, which is then evaluated over 14 months by advisory bodies, including the International Council on Monuments and Sites and the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

    Recommendations by the advisory bodies are then discussed during the World Heritage Committee’s annual meeting, where representatives of 21 countries vote on nominated sites.

    Greece’s Mount Olympus nomination is far from certain. A draft of the Busan meeting’s agenda indicates the committee will refer the nomination back to Greece and request further details.

    Still, locals hope the mountain’s cultural and natural wonders will secure it a place and will play a role in gaining more protection for the mountain.

    The need for protection

    The mayor, Geroliolios, said inclusion on the World Heritage list “places some greater obligations on our part to protect this environment.”

    Environmental protection is also foremost in the mind of mountain guide Babis Marinidis, president of the Alpine Club of Litochoro.

    Including Olympus on UNESCO’s World Heritage list would likely attract more people to the mountain and the surrounding area, Marinidis said. “How many people can this mountain, this ecosystem, bear?” he asked. Although much of Olympus was designated a national park decades ago and there are regulations in place, many are openly flouted, with Marinidis saying visitors regularly ignore “no swimming” or “no camping” signs.

    The ever-growing number of visitors had led local authorities to consider imposing entrance fees and registering visitor numbers. “I used to be against that,” Marinidis said. “But now with so many people, I believe some limit must be imposed.”

    Mount Olympus has claimed many lives

    The mythological home of the gods attracts hikers and mountaineers from across the world. While technical climbing experience isn’t mandatory to reach the summit, the mountain is also not to be trifled with.

    With its combination of changeable weather and treacherous terrain, it has claimed many lives. The most recent fatality was on July 11, when a 64-year-old Greek hiker died after collapsing on a trail. In May, rescue crews found the body of a 25-year-old Spanish man days after he went missing while attempting to reach the summit in the snow.

    “You need to be careful,” and safety measures must always be kept in mind, said 32-year-old hiker Triantafyllos Giannospyros, who was visiting the mountain for the first time. “But with care and with good organization, it isn’t something you should be afraid of.”

    Stavroula Vourou, who runs a hotel in Litochoro, the town from where many hikers set off, echoed his sentiment.

    “Everyone sets off to go up and conquer a mountain that needs respect,” she said. “You respect this mountain, it respects you too.”