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At the start of “American Doctor,” a new documentary about US medics working in hospitals in the Gaza Strip during the Israel-Hamas war, director Poh Si Teng initially declines to film pictures of dead Palestinian children that one of the doctors is trying to show her.Teng worries that she will have to pixelate the gruesome scene to protect the dignity of the children.”You’re not dignifying them unless you let their memory, their bodies, tell the story of this trauma, of this genocide. You’re not doing them a service by not showing them,” Jewish-American doctor Mark Perlmutter tells her.”This is what my tax dollars did. That’s what your tax dollars did. That’s what my neighbor’s tax dollars did. They have the right to know the truth.”You have the responsibility, as I do, to tell the truth. You pixelate this, that’s journalistic malpractice.”- Smuggling antibiotics -Teng’s unflinching film follows Perlmutter and two other American doctors — one Palestinian-American and the other a non-practicing Zoroastrian — as they try to treat the results of the unspeakable brutality visited on a largely civilian population in Gaza since Israel launched its retaliation for Hamas’s October 2023 attack.Alongside the severed limbs and the open wounds the doctors labor on with their Palestinian colleagues, we also see the trio’s attempts at advocacy — in Washington’s corridors of power and in Israeli and American media.The documentary also depicts the practical difficulties they face — the surgical scrubs and antibiotics they have to smuggle across the border to get around the Israeli blockade, and the last-minute refusals of Israeli authorities to let them in.And we see the bravery of men voluntarily going to work in hospitals that are repeatedly hit by the Israeli army.Israel rejects accusations its numerous strikes against Gaza hospitals amount to war crimes, saying it is targeting “terrorists” in these facilities and claims Hamas operatives are holed up in tunnels underneath the hospitals.The attacks include the so-called “double tap” strike on the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, South of the Strip, in August 2025 where the three men have worked.Emergency responders and journalists who had rushed to the scene after a first projectile hit were killed when a second was fired at the same spot.- ‘Accessory to child murder’ -Feroze Sidwha, perhaps the most eloquent of the three doctors, repeatedly makes the case throughout the film that he has never seen any tunnels and that in any case, even the presence of wounded fighters in a hospital does not make it a legitimate target.”Americans deserve the opportunity to know what’s going on, what their money is being used for, and you know, just to decide. ‘Do you really want this being done?’,” he told AFP at the Sundance Film Festival, where the film got its premiere on Friday.”I’m pretty sure the answer is ‘no’. I just want to keep speaking out and letting people know they don’t have to be an accessory to child murder. But we all are, right now.”The film is dedicated to the around 1,700 healthcare workers who have been killed since Israel launched its invasion in October 2023.UN investigators have accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, a charge that Israel has denied as “distorted and false”, while accusing the authors of antisemitism.Despite a fragile ceasefire in place since October last year, there has been continued violence between Israeli forces and Hamas, which has seen Palestinian non-combatants killed, including dozens of children according to UNICEF.Reporters Without Borders says nearly 220 journalists have died since the start of the war, making Israel the biggest killer of journalists worldwide for three years running.The Sundance Film Festival runs until February 1.

South Korea’s government on Tuesday held emergency talks after US President Donald Trump said he will raise tariffs on South Korean goods, including autos, lumber and pharmaceuticals.Trump said Monday that he would raise tariffs on the goods, accusing South Korea of not living up to an earlier trade pact struck with Washington.South Korea’s presidential office said it had not been officially informed about the tariff hike plans in advance.The increase would bring tariff levels from 15 percent to 25 percent.”South Korea’s Legislature is not living up to its Deal with the United States,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.He added that he was increasing tariff rates “because the Korean Legislature hasn’t enacted our Historic Trade Agreement, which is their prerogative.”On Tuesday, Seoul convened an emergency meeting to hash out a response, with Trade and Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan, currently in Canada, joining remotely.”Our government intends to convey its commitment to implementing the tariff agreement to the US side, while responding in a calm and measured manner,” Seoul said in a statement.The country added it believed Washington’s “tariff hikes only take effect after administrative steps such as publication in the Federal Register”.South Korea has said Trade Minister Kim will travel to Washington for talks on the issue with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.Trump’s apparent about-face comes months after Washington and Seoul struck a trade and security deal, capping a period of tense negotiations.The agreement was finalized after Trump met his South Korean counterpart Lee Jae Myung in October, and included investment promises by South Korea alongside tariff cuts by the United States.Since then, it has remained in something of a legal limbo in South Korea.Seoul’s presidential office insisted in November that the deal does not require parliamentary approval, arguing it represents a memorandum of understanding rather than a binding legal document.Asked whether the tariff deal had been submitted to parliament for approval, a senior official told AFP on Tuesday they were looking into it but did not elaborate.Under the pact, Washington would maintain levies of up to 15 percent on South Korean goods including vehicles, car parts and pharmaceuticals.Crucially, the deal’s terms brought US tariffs on South Korean cars down from a 25 percent level.Trump’s latest threat, if enacted, would reverse that.- Export pain -The auto industry accounts for 27 percent of South Korea’s exports to the United States, which takes in nearly half of the country’s car exports.A reversal to a higher tariff level could also put South Korean exports in a less advantageous position compared with economies like Japan and the European Union, which have both struck deals for a 15 percent US tariff.The Trump administration has yet to issue formal notices to enact the changes.The US president’s threat targeting South Korea is his latest against key trading partners in recent days.Over the weekend, Trump warned Canada that if it concludes a trade deal with China, he would impose a 100 percent tariff on all goods coming across the border.Earlier in January, Trump also threatened to slap tariffs on multiple European nations until his purchase of Greenland is achieved. He has since backed off the threat.

Perilously cold temperatures threatened millions of Americans Monday in the wake of a sprawling winter storm that left at least 23 people dead as it knocked out power and paralyzed transportation.A frigid, life-threatening Arctic air mass could delay recovery as municipalities from New Mexico to Maine tried to dig out following the storm, which dropped a vicious cocktail of heavy snow and wind, along with freezing rain and sleet.Forecasters warned that much of the northern half of the country will see temperatures that are “continuously below freezing through February 1,” and “record low temperatures tonight across the South are particularly dangerous in the wake of the weekend winter storm with many still without power,” the National Weather Service said in an X post.While skies began clearing in parts the country, relentless snowfall in the northeast meant parts of Connecticut saw over 22 inches (56 cm) of snow, with more than 16 inches (40.6 cm) recorded in Boston, Massachusetts.The storm was linked to at least 23 deaths, according to a compilation of state government and local media reports, with causes including hypothermia as well as accidents related to traffic, sledding, ATVs and snowplows.One man was found in the snow unresponsive with a shovel in his hand.In New York City, eight more people were found dead amid plummeting temperatures, and an investigation to determine the causes was underway. It was not known if all of these fatalities were storm-related.Electricity began blinking back on across the south but as of Monday evening well over 550,000 customers remained without it, according to the tracking site Poweroutage.com.Tennessee, Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana — southern states unaccustomed to intense winter weather — were especially impacted.Approximately 190 million people in the United States were under some form of extreme cold alert, the National Weather Service (NWS) told AFP.The Great Lakes region’s residents woke up to extreme temperatures that could cause frostbite on exposed skin within minutes. In parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin, the NWS reported early Monday morning temperatures as low as -23F (-30.6C), with windchills exacerbating the bite.Over the weekend nearly half of the states in the contiguous US received at least a foot of snow (30.5 cm), and in many cases far more. The NWS said New Mexico’s Bonito Lake accumulated the highest US total over the weekend with 31 inches (78.7 cm).Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell told journalists that trees were continuing to fall under the weight of encrusted ice across the Tennessee capital city — sometimes knocking out power that had already been restored.Nashville and other municipalities across the country were establishing emergency warming shelters.NWS meteorologist Allison Santorelli told AFP this storm recovery was particularly arduous because so many states were impacted — meaning northern states with more winter supplies were unable to share their resources with less-prepared southern regions.”A lot of those locations don’t have the means or the resources to clean up after these events,” she said. “We’re particularly concerned about the folks in those areas that are without power right now.”- Polar vortex -At least 20 states and the capital Washington were under states of emergency in order to deploy emergency personnel and resources.The snowfall and biting icy pellets that pummeled cities left impassable roads along with canceled buses, trains and flights — thousands of departures and arrivals were scrapped over the weekend.The storm system was the result of a stretched polar vortex, an Arctic region of cold, low-pressure air that normally forms a relatively compact, circular system but sometimes morphs into a more oval shape, sending cold air pouring across North America.Scientists say the increasing frequency of such disruptions may be linked to climate change, though the debate is not settled and natural variability plays a role.Dave Radell, a NWS meteorologist based in New York, told AFP that the character of this storm’s snow was “very dry” and “fluffy,” meaning the wind could lash it around with ease, impeding roadway-clearing efforts and visibility.”That makes it even more challenging,” he said.

President Donald Trump sent his top border enforcer to Minneapolis on Monday and struck a conciliatory note in a bid to tamp down nationwide outrage over the second killing of a US citizen protesting militarized immigration raids this month.The White House was scrambling as video of the latest shooting went viral, prompting street protests, criticism from former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and, increasingly, from within Trump’s Republican Party.Trump said Tom Homan, his point man for border security, “will report directly to me.”Homan’s new role appears to acknowledge the administration has run into political damage, with polls showing a majority of Americans disapprove of the often brutal crackdown by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.In a marked change of tone, Trump said he held a “very good” talk with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat whom he has repeatedly accused of corruption. Trump also said he had called Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, another Democrat, with the latter saying “the president agreed the present situation can’t continue.”Frey also said “some federal agents” will begin leaving Minneapolis on Tuesday, without providing specifics.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that “nobody in the White House, including President Trump, wants to see people getting hurt or killed.”She also expressed sorrow for the death of Alex Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse who was gunned down Saturday at point blank range by immigration officers while protesting in Minneapolis. Earlier, top Trump officials had branded Pretti, 37, a “domestic terrorist.”Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on Sunday accused the Trump administration of pushing a “flat-out insane” narrative.- DHS denies Bovino ouster -In yet another indication of a pivot, US media reported that controversial Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino was leaving Minneapolis — though the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has vehemently denied he is being let go.”Chief Gregory Bovino has NOT been relieved of his duties,” DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin posted on X, reiterating the White House messaging that Bovino “is a key part of the President’s team and a great American.”Despite his recent moves, there was no sign Trump was retreating from the broader, hardline policy of sending heavily armed, masked and unidentified ICE agents into Democratic-run cities to track down people breaking immigration laws — actions that Bovino has relished leading.There remain “hundreds of thousands” of “the worst illegal aliens” left to deport, Leavitt said.Campaigning against illegal immigration helped Trump get elected in 2024, but daily videos of violent masked agents, and multiple reports of people being targeted on flimsy evidence, have helped send Trump’s approval ratings plummeting.Minneapolis has become ground zero in the turmoil. Huge rallies took place despite bitter cold on Friday to protest an ICE agent’s killing of protester Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three on January 7.Like Pretti, she had been shot at close range and was a US citizen.- Race against shutdown -Opening a new front in the crisis, a federal judge in Minneapolis heard arguments Monday on whether the deployment of federal officers violates the state of Minnesota’s sovereignty.In a separate hearing, a judge was considering a request to force federal officials to preserve evidence in the killing of Pretti, saying she would rule quickly.Pressure is also mounting in Congress, where Democrats are threatening to hold up funding for the US government unless immigration enforcement agencies are reformed.Monday’s shift in White House messaging came as Republicans — who rarely criticize their 79-year-old party leader in public — began to express alarm, including House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer and Texas Governor Greg Abbott.Republican Chris Madel sent shockwaves when he dropped out of the running for Minnesota’s upcoming governor race to replace Walz, saying he could not remain a member of a party inflicting “retribution on the citizens of our state.”

Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown across the United States is the signature issue of his second term — but deadly violence in Minneapolis risks making it a liability for a president who already looks vulnerable in the polls.Outrage over the death of nurse Alex Pretti — the second US citizen killed by federal agents this month while protesting militarized immigration raids in the city — has forced Trump on the defensive.The raids were a cornerstone of Trump’s election pledges, but they are making even some of the Republican’s core voters uncomfortable one year after his return to power.Combined with multiple polls showing declining approval for the 79-year-old overall, alarm bells now appear to be ringing ahead of crucial US midterm elections in November.”There is support for the idea of tougher immigration, but there is real pushback on the means and the methods being used, the heavy-handedness, the violence,” Garret Martin, professor of international relations at American University, told AFP.Recent polls show that even when voters approve of Trump’s deportations and hard line on immigration, they oppose the often brutal methods of his Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.A Siena/New York Times poll last week found the number of those who think ICE tactics have “gone too far” has ticked up over the past year to 61 percent.The poll was carried out before Pretti’s killing — but after mother of three Renee Good, also 37, was shot dead by an ICE agent in Minnesota on January 7.A YouGov poll carried out hours after Pretti’s shooting, a majority of 46 percent — 34 percent strongly and 12 percent somewhat — support “abolishing ICE.””It’s a problem for the president because it means that the focus of the conversation is much more now on ICE and the scrutiny on how ICE is acting, as opposed to the issue of immigration, which Trump would like to put forward,” said Martin.- ‘Rock and a hard place’ -Worse for Trump is that allies have soured on the crackdown. Influential podcaster Joe Rogan earlier this month compared ICE raids to the Gestapo in Nazi Germany, while the normally loyal Texas Governor Greg Abbott urged Trump on Monday to “re-calibrate” his approach in Minnesota.Trump scrambled to pivot on Monday, taking a more conciliatory tone with local Democrat leaders and dispatching his border chief to the state.But it it has further pierced the aura of invincibility that Trump has sought to project since returning to power a year ago.Polls show that Trump is on the back foot on a series of issues, most notably the economy that he boasted he would return to a new “golden age.”A series of polls also show that Trump is losing support among the groups that helped him get reelected in 2024, including Hispanic, Black and and young voters.A Pew Research Center survey showed that 61 percent of Hispanic voters are dissatisfied with the US president’s economic policies and that 65 percent reject his anti-immigration policies.Trump has responded in typical fashion to such polls — saying last week that he would sue the New York Times over the Siena survey and suggesting that what he called “fake” surveys should criminalized.But that’s unlikely to ease concerns among Republicans about the midterm elections on November 3.Minnesota Republican Chris Madel, a defense attorney for Renee Good’s shooter,  dropped out of the race for governor Monday, saying “national Republicans have made it nearly impossible for a Republican to win a statewide election in Minnesota.” Traditionally a chance for voters to give incumbent presidents a hammering, Trump’s party is at risk of losing control of one or both chambers of Congress — although the leaderless Democrats also have dismal ratings.But despite Trump’s poll numbers, Republican lawmakers still have to contend with a deeply loyal “Make America Great Again” base in an election that Trump wants to make about himself.”They’re caught between a rock and a hard place,” said Martin.

The fatal shooting of two civilians in Minneapolis has reignited accusations that federal agents enforcing US President Donald Trump’s militarized immigration crackdown are inexperienced, under-trained and operating outside law enforcement norms.The deaths of US citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both 37, on the streets of Minneapolis in broad daylight “should raise serious questions within the administration about the adequacy of immigration enforcement training and the instructions officers are given on carrying out their mission,” said Lisa Murkowski, a Republican senator from Alaska.Minnesota’s Democratic Governor Tim Walz said Sunday the Trump administration needs to “pull these 3,000 untrained agents out of Minnesota before they kill another person.”Minneapolis has become the latest epicenter of Trump’s immigration crackdown — a top domestic priority this term — with the Department of Homeland Security’s federal agents carrying out patrols and raids.Thousands of masked agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) have been roving Minneapolis streets, despite protest of local leaders and residents in the wake of the killings and conflicts that occur in the course of their enforcement activities.”These untrained, masked agents aren’t making communities safer — they’re occupying cities, inciting violence, and violating the Constitution,” wrote New Jersey governor Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat, in a post on X.- ‘Streamlined training’ -A national recruitment campaign for ICE — promising $50,000 bonuses for new signups amid a flood of increased Congressional funding — has seen the controversial force more than double in size, rising to 22,000 from 10,000, according to DHS figures.The glut of new recruits has caused the standard training course to be shortened from five months to 42 days, causing backlash and accusations of under-training agents before giving them firearms.DHS in a statement released Thursday defended the changes, saying it “has streamlined training to cut redundancy and incorporate technology advancements without sacrificing basic subject matter content.”The six-week training program focuses on “arrest techniques, defensive tactics, conflict management and de-escalation techniques, extensive firearms and marksmanship training, use of force policy and the proper use of force,” DHS said, denouncing the criticism as “smears and lies.”However, a report in US magazine The Atlantic said one ICE official found many candidates who became agents under the expansion “would have been weeded out during a normal hiring process,” with some appearing physically unfit for the demands of the job.- Unprepared -Even with the critiques of poor training, federal authorities have said the agents who shot and killed Good and Pretti were veterans of the force, with multiple years under the belt.John Sandweg, who served as acting ICE director under former president Barack Obama, said the lack of preparedness for ICE and CBP agents, especially when faced with protesters, “created a very high-risk situation.”He added that dispatching Border Patrol agents to control crowds in Minneapolis “is just so far outside of their normal experiences. They work at dawn in the middle of the Arizona desert, in the middle of the night.””There’s a thin line between what constitutes impeding a federal officer doing his job and what is protected First Amendment activity. But we’re using Border Patrol agents who just never have to encounter that,” he continued.”You put those agents en masse in a city like Minneapolis, you encourage them, you talk about ‘absolute immunity,'” Sandweg said, referencing Vice President JD Vance’s characterization of the agent who shot and killed Renee Good, “you talk about how these are domestic terrorists they are confronting, how everything that impedes them is a crime, and — I hate to say it — this is what you need to expect to happen.”

Canada’s federal government on Monday gave Marineland conditional approval to sell its 30 imperilled beluga whales to parks in the United States, after rejecting an export request to China.Marineland, a once lucrative tourist attraction near Niagara Falls, has said it is in deep financial trouble, cannot afford to care for the whales, and will be forced to euthanize them if it can’t find them a new home.The park has been mired in controversy for years. Twenty animals, including 19 belugas, have died there since 2019, according to a tally by The Canadian Press.Marineland, which is closed to visitors, thought it had a solution last year when it forged a plan to sell the whales to the Chimelong Ocean Kingdom, a lavish theme park in China.Fisheries Minister Joanne Thompson rejected that plan, saying it would perpetuate the whales’ exploitation.Marineland presented Ottawa with a new plan last week to sell the 30 whales to a series of parks in the United States.”Today, I met with Marineland regarding their proposal to export the remaining whales to US facilities,” Thompson said in a statement.”I provided conditional approval,” Thompson said, adding that final permits would be granted once Marineland provides additional information.Marineland has said all the beluga deaths at the park resulted from natural causes, but animal welfare officials from the province of Ontario have been investigating the park for several years.

“This is slaughter in the streets,” Stephen McLaughlin says softly, his words hanging in the bitter Minnesota air as he pays his respects to Alex Pretti, the intensive care nurse shot dead by federal border agents on Saturday. Around him, candles burn in the frigid breeze and flowers glaciate at their stems. Pretti, mourners and US media said, died as he had lived — caring for others. Now he is being remembered by strangers who came to honor a life cut violently short.Anger has been simmering in Minneapolis for weeks, sparked after federal agents shot and killed Renee Good on January 7, and deepened when Pretti became the second US citizen killed during President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.What had already seemed intolerable now feels, to many in Minnesota’s largest city, unrecognizable.A couple of miles south of downtown Minneapolis, the place where Pretti was killed has been transformed into a makeshift memorial — just a few blocks from a similar shrine marking the spot where Good was shot. Sidewalk snow has been ground hard by mourners’ boots and the street corner has become a space for community: a place to grieve, to gather and to fret about a head-on collision with the Trump administration that has left residents feeling scared and unsafe.Police officers stood nearby Monday as a steady stream of well-wishers — a few dozen at a time — stopped to leave flowers, photographs, candles and handwritten notes. Some paused only briefly, heads bowed in silent reflection or prayer. Others lingered, fighting back tears in the brutal cold for a man they had never met.With the wind chill, it felt like minus eight degrees Fahrenheit — about minus 22 Celsius — but people kept coming. Hands gloved and faces wrapped in scarves, they braved the cold to stand before messages praising the bravery shown by Pretti, who was trying to help a woman who had been shoved to the ground when federal agents dragged him to his knees and shot him dead.”Thank you for your compassion and love towards everyone you cared for,” read one placard, balanced among bouquets, wreaths and other tributes.- ‘This is not America’ -McLaughlin, 68, a retired Minnesotan, said the killing — and the government’s baseless statements smearing Pretti as a terrorist out for blood — had left him shaken.”Corruption is now the rule — you cannot trust the government. It’s frighteningly despicable when you can execute someone in cold blood in the street and then defame them and lie about what happened,” he told AFP.”The world needs to know that. This needs to stop and we need to stop it now. This is slaughter in the streets. This is not America.”The memorial has become more than a marker of grief — it provides a gathering point for a community struggling to reckon with fear, loss and a deepening sense that something fundamental is slipping away.People embraced before moving on, leaving behind flowers, notes and quiet anger. Taylor Stoddart, a 25-year-old business owner, shook her head as she spoke, her voice breaking with emotion.”It’s a lie. I mean it’s terrifying, because we all have eyes, we all saw what happened. We all saw what happened on Saturday and we saw what happened with Renee Good,” she said.”They are trying to tell us not to believe our own eyes. Are you kidding me? It’s really sad and it’s really, really scary.”For Tricia Dolley, a nurse like Pretti, the killing struck especially close to home.”This is not an America that we can live in. That is not what any of us wants, it can’t be,” she said.Others spoke more quietly, struggling to articulate what the moment meant. A Minneapolis resident who asked to be identified only by her first name, Jessica, held back tears as she described why she felt compelled to be there.”What’s happening is an assault on the constitution and the rights of American citizens,” she told AFP. “The freedoms that are being abridged currently are the freedoms that we fought for and are the reason for the American Revolution in the first place.”

A Republican candidate for governor of Minnesota withdrew from the race Monday in protest at the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis that has resulted in two civilian deaths at the hands of federal agents.The rare move highlighted deep political and legal tensions over immigration enforcement that have thrust the Midwestern state and its largest city into the international spotlight.Chris Madel, a Minneapolis attorney known for defending law-enforcement officers, had been seeking the Republican nomination in a crowded field, but criticized his party’s response in the resignation video posted to social media.”I cannot support the national Republicans’ stated retribution on the citizens of our state,” he said, signaling a profound break with the party establishment.”Nor can I count myself a member of a party that would do so.”Madel drew widespread attention recently for providing legal counsel to Jonathan Ross, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fatally shot Renee Good, a 37-year-old Minneapolis woman, on January 7.Madel ended his campaign after the killing of nurse Alex Pretti, also 37, who was documenting federal activity in Minneapolis when he was set upon by Border Patrol agents, wrestled to the ground and shot dead.- ‘Nearly impossible’ -Like Good, Pretti was a US citizen and his death intensified criticism of the deployment of thousands of federal immigration agents under “Operation Metro Surge,” prompting legal challenges and political backlash.Madel had presented himself as a defender of public safety and the rule of law, often emphasizing his work representing officers in high-profile cases. Yet he argued that the federal immigration operation ordered by President Donald Trump had broadened far beyond its original focus on serious criminal threats, creating fear among US citizens, especially people of color, and eroding civil liberties.”National Republicans have made it nearly impossible for a Republican to win a statewide election in Minnesota,” Madel said.Following Good’s death, Vice President JD Vance asserted that the ICE officer had “absolute immunity.”Madel’s withdrawal underscores rising internal divisions within the party over immigration policy and federal intervention. Some Republican lawmakers have begun calling for investigations or for a pause in the surge of agents into Minnesota, reflecting discomfort even among the party’s ranks over recent tactics.Democratic Minnesota Governor Tim Walz announced he would not seek reelection earlier in January, leaving the field open. 

Rapper Kanye West on Monday denied being a Nazi and expressed regret over his antisemitic rants, blaming such behavior — which included recording a song that celebrates Hitler — on his bipolar disorder.The disgraced 48-year-old music star, who has lost fans and business deals in recent years because of his racist or antisemitic outbursts, released his song “Heil Hitler” last May to mark the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.The song has been banned on major music streaming platforms but is easy to find on the internet. Among other punishment it cost West his visa to travel to Australia.West, who changed his name to Ye and struggled with bipolar disorder for years, said in an open letter published Monday in The Wall Street Journal that when bipolar people are in a manic phase they do not feel sick.”You think everyone else is overreacting. You feel like you’re seeing the world more clearly than ever, when in reality you’re losing your grip entirely,” said West, whose achievements include winning 24 Grammy awards.In his letter entitled “To Those I’ve Hurt,” he said he sometimes has “disconnected moments” that lead to poor judgment and reckless behavior, describing such instances as feeling like an out-of-body experience.”I regret and am deeply mortified by my actions in that state, and am committed to accountability, treatment, and meaningful change,” West said.”It does not excuse what I did, though. I am not a Nazi or an antisemite. I love Jewish people.”In late 2023 West apologized to Jews for having said “I love Nazis.”In 2022 he caused outrage by wearing a T-shirt with the slogan “White Lives Matter,” seen as a racist insult to the Black Lives Matter movement, and by attending a dinner with Donald Trump that included the white supremacist and antisemite Nick Fuentes.