With its announcement that militants guarding Israeli hostages in the buildings and tunnels of Gaza had “new instructions” to kill them If Israeli troops closed in, Hamas signalled the opening of a chilling new chapter in an already brutal war.

Seizing on a spasm of public outrage in Israel at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s inability to bring home the remaining hostages, Hamas released a comic-book style image of a kneeling figure threatened with a gun, followed by a video of Eden Yerushalmi, 24, a bartender at the Nova music festival and one of six hostages who Israel says were shot at close range in Hamas captivity last week before Israeli forces could reach them.

In cruel twist of timing – the funerals of the slain hostages had taken place on Sunday and Monday –  Hamas said it would drip-feed footage of what it described as the “final messages” of the remaining five. It released a second video on Tuesday, featuring Ori Danino, a 25-year-old who was abducted from the Nova music festival on October 7. Danino had helped other festival-goers escape the horror. It was not clear when any of the footage was filmed – not whether it was intended that the videos would be used in the way that Hamas is now doing.

Hamas’ new tactics – which Yerushalmi’s family say amount to “psychological terror” – will further fan the fury in Israeli society. For the past three days, crowds have swelled in multiple Israeli cities, with protesters blaming Netanyahu for, in their view, sacrificing Israeli citizens to stay in power, as rightwing members of his coalition have threatened to bring down the government should he end the war.

But it is not yet clear whether they will compel Netanyahu to change Israel’s approach to the war in Gaza.

Some analysts say that unlike earlier in the war, Hamas may no longer believe that keeping hostages gives it leverage over Israel.

In a statement Monday evening, Hamas spokesperson Abu Obaida said the new instructions had come into place after an “incident” in Nuseirat, seeming to refer to an IDF operation in June that rescued four Israeli hostages from a refugee camp in central Gaza.

The raid, which killed 274 Palestinians, occurred mid-morning when the streets were teeming with people shopping at a nearby market. Some of the captors were killed, and the IDF successfully retrieved the hostages unharmed, further weakening Hamas’ leverage in negotiations with Israel.

Since then, the IDF has rescued one more hostage – Farhan Al-Qadi, 52, a Bedouin Israeli citizen who was retrieved from a tunnel in Gaza last week.

When Hamas took some 250 people hostage from southern Israel on October 7, “they thought they could try to leverage them for a prisoner exchange deal,” Mustafa said. Although an exchange deal was struck as early as November, no further agreement has been reached 10 months later.

A ‘watershed’ moment

The successful rescues may have helped Netanyahu to argue that Israel’s twin war-aims of destroying Hamas and returning the hostages can be pursued simultaneously, making the cries for a ceasefire-for-hostages deal less urgent.

But, after the murder of the six hostages under Hamas’ new directive, hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets on Monday to demand Netanyahu’s government strike a deal to free the hostages, in one of the largest demonstrations since the war began. Many wondered if the nationwide outrage might be enough to force his hand.

Instead, a defiant and bellicose Netanyahu used his first public comments since the discovery of the bodies to double down on his strategy in the Strip. He said Israel will retaliate strongly against Hamas for the killing of the six hostages, hinting that the response would be akin to the strike against Hezbollah in July that killed the Iran-backed group’s top commander Fu’ad Shukr.

He stressed again his commitment to fighting until Hamas is defeated and repeated his refusal to withdraw soldiers from the border between Gaza and Egypt – a new sticking point threatening once again to derail talks to reach a deal.

Although Netanyahu has refused to cede ground under growing pressure, analysts say the killing of the six hostages by Hamas has been a turning point, leading many in the country to ask whether Israel is reaching the limits of what its military power can achieve, and whether its offensive may be endangering the more than 100 hostages from the country still being held in Gaza.

“It became very clear that the presence of the IDF played a direct part in the decision of their Hamas keepers to kill them,” he said. “The sense that the Netanyahu government is incompetent, that Netanyahu is doing all of this for his own reasons, is now much more powerful for a lot of people. So I think it is a watershed moment.”

Nimrod Novik, a fellow at the Israel Policy Forum and former senior adviser to the late Prime Minister Shimon Peres, said many Israelis have felt two waves of grief over the past three days: First, for the death of the six hostages, and then, following Netanyahu’s speech, “the realization that Netanyahu is determined to pursue an open-ended occupation of Gaza.”

New red line

The death of the six hostages also caused the latest spat between Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. According to reports in Israeli media, the two men argued furiously over whether, as part of any ceasefire deal, the Israeli military should leave the Philadelphi Corridor – a 14-kilometer (8.7-mile) stretch of land running along the border between Gaza and Egypt.

Although Netanyahu has recently begun to strongly insist that Israel maintain a military presence in the corridor for security reasons, Hamas has long been clear that the proposal is a non-starter. Gallant reportedly told Netanyahu that insisting on this condition means “there won’t be an agreement and there won’t be any hostages released.”

Regardless, the cabinet proceeded to vote on the plans Netanyahu presented, approving them by eight to one, with Gallant the only dissenter.

Novik, the former adviser to Peres, said the newfound focus on the Philadelphi Corridor is merely symbolic.

His “discovery” of the corridor and the effective elevation of its status to a holy site “has no security merit,” Novik said.

If anything, an occupation of the corridor – which runs alongside densely populated towns and cities – risks endangering Israeli troops, as Israel’s previous occupation of the territory that ended in 2005 showed, Novik warned.

“They’re sitting ducks,” he said. “And if Hamas managed to kill our troops in 2004 before it had the kind of munitions and equipment that they have today, the results are going to be even more devastating.”

Since the issue of the corridor was raised last month, Hamas has said it will not agree to Netanyahu’s red line.

“At this point, they cannot accept anything short of the demands they are now calling for: A complete cessation of hostilities and the full withdrawal of Israeli troops,” Mustafa said. “If they were to accept anything short of what they’re demanding, that would be political suicide for the movement.”

Netanyahu’s defiant speech on Monday may have extinguished hopes that the killing of the six hostages could lead to a change in course. Former IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, who has become more critical of the government since leaving his post earlier this year, said about the remaining hostages after Netanyahu’s speech: “He sealed their fate.”

The insistence on maintaining troops along the corridor may also spell further tension between Israel and the United States, which has throughout the months-long negotiations insisted that Israel must fully withdraw from Gaza after the war.

When asked Monday whether Netanyahu was doing enough to reach an agreement, President Joe Biden said simply: “No.”

A man is on trial accused of repeatedly drugging and raping his wife, as well as encouraging dozens of other men to rape her in their home while she was unconscious, court documents show.

72-year-old Gisèle appeared in a courtroom in Avignon, France, on Monday for the opening of the trial, sunglasses on, her daughter and two sons by her side.

For the next four months, she will come face to face with her accused abusers, most of whom are complete strangers to her.

Prosecutors say the defendant, 71-year-old Dominique would recruit men online to rape his wife, after drugging her with sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medication.

He faces nine charges including several counts of rape with aggravating circumstances, the drugging of a victim to commit rape, and the sharing of images related to those assaults.

Prosecutors were able to put together a case because Dominique documented a number of the alleged assaults on camera.

Held in pre-trial detention since 2020, courtroom sketches show the defendant entered the courtroom in a black t-shirt and sat facing his wife.

“He recognizes that he’s done what he has done,” his lawyer, Béatrice Zavarro told journalists in court on Monday. “There was not an ounce of contestation during the whole investigation.”

In the dock, the men accused of taking part in these rapes sat with their heads down.

Police have identified at least 92 sexual assaults committed by 72 men, with ages ranging from 26 to 74, court documents show.

Fifty were identified, and most have been charged with either aggravated or attempted rape and are standing trial alongside Gisèle’s husband.

The ordeal lasted almost ten years, the first alleged assaults dating back to 2011.

The crimes came to light in 2020 when Dominique was caught filming under women’s skirts in a shopping center.

After police seized his phone and computer, they say they found evidence of the rapes. An investigation was opened and the wife was made aware of the abuse she had endured for almost ten years.

Court documents show that Dominique has told investigators that the other men were all aware his wife had been drugged without her knowledge, something a number of the other defendants deny.

Throughout the trial, Gisèle will see and hear what was done to her.

On Tuesday, she sat through a reading of the horrific acts she was subjected to, as well as the arguments from each of the defendants’ lawyers.

Last Friday ahead of the trial, another one of her lawyers, Antoine Arebalo-Camus told reporters “she had no idea what had been inflicted on her, so she has no memory of the rapes she suffered for 10 years.”

Gisèle’s daughter says her mother sought medical advice for the memory loss and extreme fatigue she was experiencing as a side effect of the drugs.

Speaking to French media in several interviews, she said that her mother “saw doctors, she saw neurologists,” and that the medical profession failed to detect the problem.

The daughter has now started an awareness campaign called “M’endors Pas,” meaning “Don’t put me to sleep” on drug-facilitated sexual assault.

The trial began on September 2 in the southern French town of Avignon, and a verdict is due on December 20 this year.

A Russian strike against a military educational facility in central Ukraine killed 47 people and injured at least 206 others, according to Ukrainian officials, in one of the deadliest single attacks since the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said preliminary information indicated two ballistic missiles hit the facility in the city of Poltava and a nearby hospital on Tuesday morning.

“We say again and again to everyone in the world who has the power to stop this terror: air defense systems and missiles are needed in Ukraine, not somewhere in a warehouse,” Zelensky said in a statement.

Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska announced the latest death toll in an update on Tuesday afternoon, adding: “This is a terrible tragedy for the whole of Ukraine. Russia is taking away our most valuable asset – our lives. We will never forget this.”

Speaking about the attack, President Zelensky repeated his call on Ukraine’s Western allies to supply Kyiv with more air defenses and lift restrictions on his country’s military using their weapons to strike inside Russia.

“Long-range strikes that can protect against Russian terror are needed now, not later. Every day of delay is, unfortunately, the death of people,” he added.

“The only way to intercept them was to have the Patriot system or a SAMP/T air defense system because they are the only one capable of intercepting ballistic missiles,” said Kuleba, who added that he originally came from the Poltava region.

Ukraine has received a handful of Patriot air defense systems from the United States and Germany, although Kyiv has consistently said the number was insufficient to allow it to effectively defend itself.

The Biden administration said in June it was prioritizing critical air defense capabilities for Ukraine over other countries to “ensure Ukraine’s survival.” But Kuleba made it clear on Tuesday that new weapons cannot come soon enough.

“I don’t know how many more tragedies like this have to occur for all promises to be fulfilled and for all new commitments to be made,” Kuleba added, reiterating Zelensky’s calls for more defense systems to be sent to Ukraine.

Three days of mourning

Local authorities said Tuesday was a “terrible day for Poltava” and declared three days of mourning. No more details would be released about the strike due to “security issues,” they said.

Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said in a statement that emergency services have already contained a fire on the scene and pulled more than 10 people out of the rubble. They are now clearing the debris, he added.

Klymenko said the strike damaged a number of buildings in the area. Windows were smashed and the facades of high-rise residential blocks were impacted by shock waves from the attack, he said.

Moscow has not commented on the attack, but a well-known Russian military blogger Vladimir Rogov reported earlier on Tuesday that Russia struck a military school in Poltava.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.

At least 12 people died when a migrant boat capsized off the coast of Cap Gris-Nez, in northern France, on Tuesday, according to French authorities.

Nearly 70 people were on board the vessel, according to Boulogne-sur-Mer mayor, Frédéric Cuvillier. The exact number is unclear.

Emergency crews rescued 65 people, the maritime prefecture said. Several of those were in critical condition and required urgent medical care.

Three helicopters, two fishing vessels and two boats have been deployed in the search and rescue operation.

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin is scheduled to visit the scene on Tuesday afternoon.

Dangerous small boat crossings of the English Channel have soared in recent years, with dinghies and other small vessels frequently being used to take large groups of people on the dangerous journey in the hope of seeking asylum in the United Kingdom.

The issue became a major political obstacle for the previous Conservative government, which was criticized by migrant rights groups for its hardline rhetoric against asylum seekers, and for the new Labour administration.

Tuesday’s incident is the latest in a string of tragedies to occur in the Channel. Last August, six people died when a boat carrying dozens of migrants capsized.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

More than 120 people have been killed in an attempted mass breakout from the largest prison in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the latest in a series of violent attacks on jails in the central African nation.

Prisoners tried to break out en masse from the Makala Central Prison in the capital, Kinshasa, at around 2 a.m. local time (9 p.m. ET) on Monday, Interior Minister Jacquemain Shabani Lukoo Bihango told reporters.

“The provisional human toll stands at 129 dead including 24 by gunshot after warning. The others died by jostling, suffocation and some women were raped,” Bihango said. He added that 59 people were receiving medical care.

One Kinshasa resident, Daddi Soso, told Agence France-Presse that gunfire rang out for several hours during the incident and that he later saw security vehicles removing bodies from the scene.

Extensive damage to several prison buildings was also seen in interior ministry video. A large hole is shown in one exterior wall, where bricks appear to have been removed, while the walls of other buildings are black and burnt out.

Video filmed inside the prison showed several ransacked rooms with debris, burnt office furniture and papers strewn across the floor.

Several prison buildings including offices, the registry, the infirmary and food depots were destroyed by fires during the attempted prison break, the minister told the press conference.

Interior minister Bihango convened a crisis meeting of the country’s defense and security services on Tuesday after receiving instructions from the country’s “senior hierarchy.”

The government is relieved “by the restored calm,” he said, adding that investigations into the incident are ongoing.

More than 12,000 inmates were held in the Makala prison before the attempted jailbreak even though the facility could only contain 1,500 people, according to a recent report by Amnesty International.

Prison breaks are common in the DRC, with several attacks being launched on correctional facilities in recent years.

More than 50 inmates, including the leader of a religious sect, broke free from the Makala prison in 2017 following an invasion by the group.

And in 2020, a rebel group linked to ISIS claimed responsibility for a jailbreak that freed nearly 1,000 inmates from a prison in Beni, in northeastern DRC. At least 11 people, including security personnel, were killed in that attack.

Another prison break was recorded the following year at Matadi, one of the country’s oldest prisons, which saw the escape of 189 prisoners. More than 200 other detainees escaped from the same prison in 2022 after seizing weapons from the facility’s armory.

He is 87 years old and in recent years has battled health difficulties and begun using a wheelchair. But Pope Francis is currently on the longest trip of his pontificate.

On Tuesday, he landed in Indonesia kicking off a marathon 12-day visit of four countries in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific which also includes Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore.

It is one of the longest foreign trips any pope has embarked on and marks the furthest geographical distance (32,814 kilometers or about 20,000 miles ) that Francis has traveled since his 2013 election. And on arrival in Jakarta, Pope Francis commented that the more than 13 hour flight over was the longest he has yet done.

The landmark visit will allow this pope to highlight key themes of his pontificate, including inter-religious dialogue and protection of the environment.

The trip also underscores a significant shift taking place inside the Catholic Church: its tilt to Asia.

During his pontificate, Francis’ 44 previous foreign visits have included South Korea, Japan, Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar and Bangladesh. He has also appointed cardinals from the Philippines (Luis Antonio Tagle) and South Korea (Lazarus You Heung-sik) to senior positions in the church’s central administration.

The Catholic Church is no longer a Eurocentric or western institution but one where churches in Asia, Africa and Latin America have a growing voice. Francis, who as a young man wanted to be a missionary in Japan, has spoken favorably about male and female church leaders coming from countries outside of Europe.

Catholics in Asia are often in the minority, although they frequently punch above their weight when it comes to running schools and charitable works.

“The pope is interested not so much in the number of Catholics as the vibrancy,”said Spadaro, who will be travelling with Francis. In many Asian countries, the Jesuit priest explained, the church seeks to act as a “leaven”in trying to serve the “common good,” while Asia “represents the future at this time in the world”.

Interfaith declaration

Often a minority, the churches in Asia are focused on dialogue with other religions, something that will be a central theme of the trip.

While in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim majority country, the pope will take part in a meeting with religious leaders at the Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta, the largest in Southeast Asia. Afterwards, Francis will sign an interfaith declaration with the grand imam of Indonesia and is also expected to visit an underpass linking the mosque and the Catholic cathedral next door known as the “tunnel of friendship.”

“The pulse of the churches here is quite different from say, those in Europe or US where issues like polarization, secularization and abuse have dominated the headlines,” she added.

Spadaro said the “pope wants to give a signal about dialogue with Islam,” and points out that in East Timor, the government has adopted a landmark human fraternity document — signed by Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb – as a national text.

East Timor is unusual for Asia as 97% the population identifies as Catholic, the highest proportion outside of the Vatican City State.

Michel Chambon, who works at the National University of Singapore and is an expert on Asian Catholicism, said the pope’s visit will help build relations and mutual understanding with these countries.

“The key thing is that the Vatican is not a European state, it is much more than that,” he said.

A giant in the background

Meanwhile, the Vatican’s relationship with China, an officially atheist state where religious practice is heavily curtailed by the government, will be in the background to this visit with Francis pushing ahead with trying to rebuild diplomatic relations with Beijing.

Catholicism is one of five state-recognized faiths in China. But, state-sanctioned Catholic churches were, for decades, run by bishops appointed by Beijing, not the Holy See, until the two sides reached an agreement in 2018. Details of the accord have never been made public and many within China’s underground congregations who have remained loyal to Rome and long faced persecution fear being abandoned.

Although the Holy See-China agreement has faced criticism, the Vatican says the deal is already paying off and hopes to open a permanent office in China. The pope has repeatedly said he would like to visit the country.

Supporters of the patient diplomacy strategy point to the Holy See’s improved relationship with another Communist-governed country: Vietnam. After years of talks, the pope was able to appoint the first resident ambassador in Hanoi at the end of last year.

Francis’ trip will also see him in a part of the world at risk of rising sea levels and natural disasters, with Papua New Guinea a country on the front line of the climate crisis. During his pontificate, the pope has insisted that the protection of the planet is a pressing moral issue, and his trip to the pacific is a chance once again to urge world leaders to take stronger action.

Making this lengthy trip now, after more than 11 years as pope, sends a message to those, including at senior levels in the church, hoping that this pontificate is running out of steam. Spadaro says it underlines the “liveliness of the pontificate at this moment.”

Francis will travel, as normal, with a doctor and two nurses. There are risks with making such a long and gruelling visit at his age. But this is a pope willing to take risks and pull off surprises. And he is determined to make one of the most ambitious trips of his pontificate.

Two people have been rescued after a terrifying night at sea as six-meter (20-foot) waves tossed their stricken yacht nearly 200 miles (322 kilometers) off Australia’s eastern coast as they drifted at speed towards New Zealand.

Authorities were first alerted to the crew’s crisis around 1pm on Monday, when they deployed a distress beacon, but it was hours before the first rescue helicopters located the vessel.

The 20-meter yacht, the Spirit of Mateship, had lost power and communications and was being hit by winds of up to 90 kilometers an hour (56 mph) as well as waves up to six meters high.

“(The helicopter’s crew) were able to fly above the yacht, and they could communicate via radio to the yacht, but they were unable to pick them up,” said Ben Flight, duty manager at the Australian Maritime Safety Authority Response Center.

Another rescue attempt was later abandoned due to rough seas, forcing the two people – a man, 60, and woman, 48 – to spend what Flight described as a “horrible” night at sea.

“They weren’t injured, but the vessel had suffered a mechanical issue of some kind, and they couldn’t steer, and they couldn’t make their own way through the water, so they were drifting, and they were taking on water as well. So, they were in quite a serious situation,” said Flight.

“They were sort of just at the mercy of the elements. They would have been moving around quite uncomfortably. It would have been particularly windy, noisy, probably quite wet as well.”

Two Australian Navy ships – HMAS Arunta and HMAS Canberra – answered calls for help, as well as Royal Australian Air Force C-130J Hercules aircraft, according to the Australian Defence Force (ADF).

The ships, along with a nearby merchant vessel, monitored the yacht’s location overnight, and the rescue resumed in the early hours of the morning, when conditions had eased.

NSW Police vessel Nemesis arrived at the yacht about 3 a.m. Tuesday and deployed a smaller boat to rescue the sailors around 7:30 a.m. in choppy seas with swells of four meters to five meters.

“I don’t imagine they would have got any rest overnight, so I imagine they’d be quite tired and very relieved to be rescued,” Flight said.

Flight said the outcome would have been much worse if the crew hadn’t deployed the distress beacon, which issues a satellite alert to advise the rescue coordination center of their location.

The Spirit of Mateship has competed in the prestigious Sydney to Hobart yacht race several times, crewed by wounded veterans and army personnel.

Together they raised money to support army veterans. However, the yacht has changed hands since then, according to Flight.

The rescued sailors are expected to arrive back in Sydney Tuesday night after a 12-hour voyage.

Venezuelan authorities have issued an arrest warrant for the former presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez, amid a crackdown on the country’s opposition movement following July’s disputed election.

The Venezuela Prosecutor’s Office requested the warrant Monday, accusing Gonzalez of “crimes associated with terrorism.” Gonzalez has failed to respond to three summons regarding its investigation into an opposition website that posted results from the contested vote, it said.

Maduro claims to have won the July 28 vote, but the official results have attracted widespread skepticism from abroad and the opposition has insisted that it won. Shortly after the vote, the opposition published tally sheets on a website indicating their candidate – Gonzalez – had won by a landslide.

In a letter posted on X on Monday, the Prosecutor’s Office said Gonzalez is suspected of “crimes associated with terrorism” including “usurpation of functions, forging a public document, instigation to disobedience of the laws (and) association to commit a crime and conspiracy.”

Gonzalez has denied the accusations against him. The Prosecutor’s Office has previously said it is also investigating opposition leader Maria Corina Machado for the same alleged crimes.

Machado said Monday that the threat of arrest would only help to unite the opposition.

“(The government) have lost all notion of reality. By threatening the president-elect they only manage to unite us more and increase the support of Venezuelans and the world for Edmundo González.”

“Serenity, courage and firmness. We move forward,” she added.

Venezuela’s electoral body, long stacked with regime allies, declared the strongman leader Maduro the winner of the election, but has yet to provide tallies proving his win.

Venezuela’s opposition and several other nations have refused to recognize Maduro’s victory until the release of the full vote tally.

A man accused of killing his girlfriend in Boston and fleeing to Kenya has been extradited back to the United States — the latest twist in an international case that saw his arrest at a Nairobi nightclub and his escape from jail.

Kevin Kangethe, 42, is accused of killing nurse Margaret “Maggie” Mbitu, whose body was found in a parked car last November at Boston’s Logan International Airport, two days after she was reported missing. Authorities say he then immediately boarded a flight and fled the country.

For months, the suspect eluded authorities after he arrived in Kenya. In January, investigators spotted Kangethe at a nightclub in Nairobi and arrested him. He escaped from jail days later and was on the run for a week before he was rearrested in Nairobi in early February.

Kenya has an extradition treaty with the United States.

Kangethe’s extradition Sunday returns him to the jurisdiction of his alleged crime, some 7,000 miles away. He is expected to face a murder charge at Suffolk Superior Court on Tuesday, said Renson Ingonga, Kenya’s director of public prosecutions.

“I wish to reiterate my commitment and support, whenever needed, to the United States of America, and in particular the prosecution team as they proceed with the next phase of the case,” Ingonga said in a statement Monday.

He boarded a flight the day before her body was found

Mbitu, 31, lived in Whitman, a Boston suburb, and was the youngest in a family of health care workers. Her two older sisters and her mother are all nurses.

She was reported missing in late October after she didn’t show up for work, which was uncommon for her.

Her family notified the police and called nearby hospitals to check if she was a patient. Investigators believed her boyfriend was a suspect, according to a criminal complaint from the state police.

With the help of surveillance cameras, police tracked his Toyota SUV to the airport and found it in a parking garage. Inside they found Mbitu’s bloodied body with slash wounds on her face and neck, Massachusetts State Police said in an affidavit.

The day before her body was found, Kangethe boarded flights from Boston to Kenya. Surveillance footage showed him leaving the parking garage and entering an airport terminal, police said.

Investigators learned he had bought a plane ticket the previous morning, state police said.

The fugitive was arrested in a Nairobi nightclub but escaped from jail a week later

Kangethe has been arrested twice with the help of tipsters.

After he arrived in Kenya, he eluded authorities for three months. Then in late January, someone alerted police that a man at a nightclub in Nairobi resembled images of the suspect they’d seen on social media, Kenyan authorities said.

A week later, a man claiming to be his lawyer appeared at the police station where he was being held and asked to speak with him. Officers released the suspect from his cell and left them alone in an office. The suspected escaped on foot and evaded authorities for days, police said.

He was re-arrested a week later at a relative’s house in a suburb of Nairobi after another tip-off, Kenyan police said.

Kevin Hayden, District Attorney of Suffolk County in suburban Boston, thanked the US State Department, the FBI, the state police, the Kenyan government and Kenyan law enforcement agencies for facilitating the arrest.

“Their tremendous and untiring efforts will provide Margaret’s family and friends the opportunity to see Kevin Kangethe face justice for this terrible crime,” Hayden said in a statement in February.

Investigators have not revealed a motive in the killing.

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) has become the first far-right party to win a state election in Germany since the Nazi era, dealing a crushing blow to Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government with only a year to go before the next federal election.

After voting closed on Sunday, the AfD was projected to become the strongest party in the eastern state of Thuringia, with 32.8% of the vote, and to come a close second in Saxony, with 30.6% of the vote.

In another worrying development for Germany’s mainstream, the fledgling Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) – a far-left party that has questioned the country’s support for Ukraine and shares some of the AfD’s anti-immigration streak – came third in both states, despite only being founded earlier this year.

Although extremism has long been concentrated in Germany’s east, the results will be a concern for Scholz’s center-left SPD coalition, which slumped to a dismal fifth in both states. If federal elections were held now, recent polls show the AfD could become the second-largest group in the Bundestag, with the SDP trailing in third.

Scholz described the results as “bitter” and, calling on the European principle of the “cordon sanitaire,” urged mainstream parties in Thuringia and Saxony to exclude the AfD from any state governing coalitions.

“All democratic parties are now called upon to form stable governments without right-wing extremists,” Scholz said in a statement. “Our country cannot and must not get used to this. The AfD is damaging Germany. It is weakening the economy, dividing society and ruining our country’s reputation.”

Alice Weidel, co-leader of the AfD, told German public broadcaster ARD that the results were a “requiem” for Scholz’s coalition and questioned “whether it can continue to govern at all.”

The AfD’s solution? “The immediate expulsion of all illegal immigrants from our country. All criminals, all extremists must leave,” she said.

If other parties heed Scholz’s call to shun the AfD, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) – the mainstream center-right party projected to come first in Saxony and second in Thuringia – would be well-placed to benefit. However, in a sign of the rightward shift of Germany’s politics, the CDU has recently taken a far harsher line on immigration than under its former leader Angela Merkel.

Fertile ground in the east

Founded in 2013, initially in opposition to the euro and the German-backed bailout of southern European countries during the eurozone crisis, the AfD has since coupled its rhetoric of economic grievance with a staunch opposition to immigration.

The issue of immigration became more salient – and the AfD more popular – after then-Chancellor Merkel allowed into the country more than 1 million refugees in 2015, mostly those fleeing civil war in Syria.

While the decision won her praise from Europe’s more liberal mainstream, it has provided a rallying cry for extremist parties in Germany’s formerly communist east, where economic growth is more anemic and opportunities more scarce than in the richer west.

Just days before the state elections, a Syrian man stabbed three people to death and wounded several others at a festival in the western Germany city of Solingen. Weidel pinned the blame solely on Germany’s migration policy: “Instead of racking our brains over the various models of knife bans, we must finally tackle the problem at its roots. Migration change immediately.”

The message is also winning the support of some young Germans. The movement has even acquired its own anthem, after a video filmed on the German vacation island of Sylt showed well-dressed youths chanting “Ausländer Raus” (“foreigners out”) and “Deutschland den Deutschen” (“Germany for Germans”) over a 1999 Eurodance beat. The chant swirled across the country as it hosted the European soccer championships earlier this summer.

Both Lichtenfeld and Flurschutz have joined the Young Alternative (JA), the youth wing of the AfD which has been designated by German authorities as a “confirmed extremist” organization. The main AfD has been designated as “suspected extremist.”

The party’s lead candidate in Thuringia, Björn Höcke, was convicted earlier this year after breaking German laws against uttering Nazi slogans in public.

While the AfD’s growing popularity is for many reminiscent of the country’s darkest political era, Höcke has campaigned on a platform of national pride untainted by historical guilt, under the banner of “Heimat” (“homeland”).

“Yes to freedom, yes to the community, yes to the youth, yes to the future, yes to our Heimat, Thuringia and Germany,” he said at the campaign in Erfurt.