CR MAG

U.S. Vice President JD Vance's teamposted and then deleted a message on social media about the Republican's visit to a memorial paying tribute to early 20th century Armenians killed by the Ottoman Empire.

Armenia Vance

The issue was the post using the term"Armenian genocide,"a designation the U.S. government historically has not used for what happened, with anotable exceptionby the Biden administration. The White House blamed a staff mistake.

Here are some questions and answers about what that means, what Vance himself did and didn't say, and why it matters.

What did Vance go see in Armenia?

Vance visited a site called the Armenian Genocide Memorial, Armenia's official national monument, remembering its citizens who died under the Ottoman Empire's brutal control during World War I.

The initial post on Vance's official X account stated that he was visiting the memorial "to honor the victims of the Armenian genocide." It was replaced with a second post that showed what he wrote in the guest book as well as a clip of the vice president and Usha Vance laying flowers at the memorial.

Vance, thefirst U.S. vice president to visit Armenia, was in the country as part of the Trump administration's follow-up to aU.S.-brokered dealaimed at ending a decades-long conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, where Vance traveled later Tuesday.

Why does the word choice matter?

"Genocide" is a fraught and legally distinct term that national governments, international bodies and media organizations use carefully.

The United Nations in 1948 defined genocide "to mean certain acts, enumerated in Article II, committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such," according to the U.S. State Department'slong-held understanding.

It is not questioned that many thousands of Armenian citizens, most of them Christians, died at the direction of the Committee of Union and Progress that led the Muslim government in Constantinople, now the Turkish capital of Istanbul.

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum estimates that "at least 664,000 and possibly as many as 1.2 million" died.

But the U.S. government has historically not recognized what happened as a "genocide" out of fear ofalienating Turkey, a key U.S. ally in the region. In 2021, then-President Joe Bidenformally recognized that the systematic killings and deportationsof hundreds of thousands of Armenians by Ottoman Empire forces were a part of a "genocide."

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Turkey reacted with fury at the time. The foreign minister said his country "will not be given lessons on our history from anyone."

People of Armenian descent recall the victims with memorials and an annual day of remembrance observed around the world, including in the U.S.

What did Vance himself say?

Vance was asked specifically on Tuesday about his visit to the memorial and whether he was "recognizing" genocide.

He avoided using the word and said he went to "pay my respects" at the invitation of his host, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, and his government.

"They said this is a very important site for us, and obviously I'm the first (U.S.) vice president to ever visit Armenia," Vance said. "They asked us to visit the site. Obviously, it's a very terrible thing that happened a little over a hundred years ago and something that's very, very important to them culturally."

Vance added that it was "a sign of respect, both for the victims but also for the Armenian government that's been a very important partner for us in the region."

What did the White House say?

The White House blamed the original post on a staff member. It's thesecond time in less than a weekthat the West Wing has blamed an unnamed aide for a controversy over a social media post. Last Friday, it wasa racist videothat Trump had shared on his Truth Social account that depicted former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama as jungle primates.

The White House defended that post initially before deleting it after a cascade of criticism.

What happens next?

It's not yet clear whether there will be any diplomatic consequences. Vance, for his part, seemed determined to keep the focus on the original mission of his trip.

"I think the president struck a great peace deal. I think the administration is really making it stick," Vance said.

Still, there is the political question of whether Armenian Americans react, with the rhetorical boomerang offering one more reminder of how reluctant the U.S. has been to use the word "genocide" to describe what Armenians remember that way. ___ White House reporter Michelle Price contributed reporting from Baku, Azerbaijan.

LONDON and TEL AVIV -- The Israeli government adopted a series of significant, bureaucratically complex measures that would allow Israelis and Jews abroad to more easily purchase and build on land in the West Bank, consolidating Israeli control in the area that would potentially serve as the heartland for a future Palestinian state.

The measures, which were approved over the weekend, are likely to be challenged in the Israeli Supreme Court. But they represent the most far-reaching attempts by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government to advance a de-facto annexation of the West Bank.

The Palestinian Authority, the governing body for Palestinians that already has only limited powers in the West Bank, described the moves as an "unprecedented escalation" and "illegal," views echoed by regional Arab states.

U.S. President Donald Trump has previously said the U.S. opposes attempts by Israel to annex the West Bank, a long-held dream of some settler groups and far-right ministers who now hold powerful positions in Netanyahu's government.

The newly adopted measures are expected to deepen Israeli civil -- as opposed to military -- control of new areas within the West Bank, including key religious sites in Hebron, and are designed to make it easier for Israelis to buy land in the territory.

Israel's Security Cabinet, headed by Netanyahu, approved on Sunday a series of new measures that would lift a ban on the sale of land to private Israeli Jews, transfer construction authority at religious and sensitive sites in the city of Hebron to the Israeli government, and declassify land registry records.

The United Nations condemned the measures, with a spokesperson for the secretary-general saying ina statementthat "all Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and their associated regime and infrastructure, have no legal validity and are in flagrant violation of international law, including relevant United Nations resolutions."

The measures would allow the Israeli government to operate under the guise of civilian issues in Palestinian areas A and B for the first time, which contravenes the Oslo Accords. Under the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Authority is the sole authority responsible for civilian matters in Area A and B. Israel, in contrast, has full Israeli civil and security control over Area C, which represents about 60% of the West Bank.

Bezalel Smotrich, Israel's far-right, pro-settlement finance minister, hailed the move as an "historic day for settlement for Judea and Samaria," as parts of the West Bank are known in Hebrew.

He said the changes would "fundamentally change the legal and civil reality." He boasted that it would end the prospects for a potential Palestinian State.

Netanyahu has vowed that a Palestinian state "will not be established," even as Western countries, including France, Canada and the United Kingdom, have moved to recognize a Palestinian state.

The office of the Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, issued a statement condemning the measures as "dangerous decisions" designed to "deepen attempts to annex the occupied West Bank."

The president's office said the move was a "blatant violation" of the Oslo Accords, which divided the West Bank into Areas A, B and C, adding that the move represents an "unprecedented escalation targeting the Palestinian presence and its national and historical rights throughout the Palestinian territory."

Abbas' office described the move as illegal and called for the U.S. and the European Union to intervene.

​A joint statement by the foreign ministers of eight Muslim countries condemned the new measures.

The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, Indonesia, Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates said ina statementposted on social media that they collectively "condemned in the strongest terms the illegal Israeli decisions and measures aimed at imposing unlawful Israeli sovereignty, entrenching settlement activity, and enforcing a new legal and administrative reality in the occupied West Bank, thereby accelerating attempts at its illegal annexation and the displacement of the Palestinian people."

"They reaffirmed that Israel has no sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian territories," the statement added.

According to Peace Now, an Israeli settlement watchdog and activist nongovernmental organization, the measures adopted over the weekend would effectively mean that Israeli authorities can now carry out legal demolitions of Palestinian property in Areas A and B, which comprise around 40% of the West Bank and which under the Oslo accords have been governed by the Palestinian Authority.

While the Israeli military could operate in those areas as the occupying power, the "government is now seeking to ignore its international commitments and begin administrative operations inside areas of the Palestinian Authority. Under the Oslo Accords, Israel has operated militarily in PA areas since the early 2000s," the watchdog said.

Governors of two Russian regions bordering Ukraine said Tuesday that residents are facing sustained power outages as a result of Ukrainian attacks on energy infrastructure, as both sides continue long-range strikes in the run-up to the fourth anniversary of Moscow's full-scale invasion of its neighbor.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Russia's western Belgorod region said in posts to Telegram that power and heating outages had forced hundreds of people to rely on "heating points."

"Unfortunately, rolling blackouts are inevitable," Gladkov said, noting that Belgorod city will be among the areas subject to unpredictable outages.

Gov. Alexander Khinshtein of the neighboring Kursk region said that 28,000 customers were without power as a result of "another series of cowardly attacks on our territory."

Both regions have been subject to regular Ukrainian drone, missile and artillery attacks. Both have also seen Ukrainian ground incursions during the nearly 4-year-old war.

'Normal life has disappeared': Russia's energy offensive plunges Ukraine into dark and bitter cold

Recent months have seen both Russia and Ukraine focus attacks on energy infrastructure targets. In Ukraine, millions have facedrolling outagesas a result of months of Russian missile and drone strikes on energy targets all across the country. Moscow, Kyiv has said, is trying to freeze Ukrainians into submission.

The Kremlin, meanwhile, has framed long-range Ukrainian strikes as "terrorist attacks."

Zelenskyy on Sunday defended Ukraine's retaliatory attacks inside Russia, describing the Russian energy sector as "a legitimate target."

"We do not have to choose whether we strike a military target or energy," Zelenskyy said while addressing students at the National Aviation University in Kyiv. "He sells this energy. He sells oil. So is it energy, or is it a military target? Honestly, it's the same thing. He sells oil, takes the money, invests it in weapons. And with those weapons, he kills Ukrainians."

Zelenskyy said that left Ukraine with two options: "We either build weapons and strike their weapons. Or we strike the source where their money is generated and multiplied. And that source is their energy sector. That is what is happening. All of this is a legitimate target for us."

Russian strikes kill 3 in Ukraine as Zelenskyy calls for Western air defense aid

The nightly exchange of drones continued on Monday night.

Ukraine's air force said Russia launched 125 drones into the country overnight, of which 110 were shot down or suppressed. Thirteen drones impacted across six locations, the air force said in a post to Telegram.

Vadym Filashkin, the governor of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, said in a post to social media that two people were killed and seven people injured by a Russian strike in the city of Slovyansk, close to the front line.

At least four people were injured by a drone strike on a house in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine's Interior Ministry said. Among the injured was a 1-year-old child, the ministry said.

Oleh Kiper, the governor of the southern Odesa region, said in a post to Telegram that Russian drones attacked energy infrastructure overnight, leaving at least three communities partially without power.

The Russian Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its forces shot down at least six Ukrainian drones overnight into Tuesday morning.

Ukraine war must become 'untenable' for Russia, Zelenskyy says after latest strikes

Russia's federal air transport agency, Rosaviatsiya, said that temporary flight restrictions were introduced at airports in the Black Sea city of Gelendzhik and in the western city of Kaluga.

Peace maneuvers are ongoing against the backdrop of long-range strikes and Russia's attritional offensive operations in eastern Ukraine.

Zelenskyy said in a post to social media on Monday night that proposed post-war Western security guarantees intended to protect Ukraine from repeated Russian aggression are "ready."

"There is no alternative to security. There is no alternative to peace. There is no alternative to rebuilding our country," Zelenskyy said.

The Ukrainian president also said there will be "significant international events this week -- on defense and security."

Russia launches more than 440 drones, missiles at Ukraine overnight, Zelenskyy says

"Our negotiating team is working every single day on the documents and proposals that could deliver results at the upcoming meetings," Zelenskyy said.

"Most importantly, our partners must be aligned the same way we are in Ukraine: peace is needed, and reliable security guarantees are the only real foundation for peace and for preventing the Russians from breaking agreements through strikes or hybrid operation of some kind," he added.

LONDON and TEL AVIV -- The Israeli government adopted a series of significant, bureaucratically complex measures that would allow Israelis and Jews abroad to more easily purchase and build on land in the West Bank, consolidating Israeli control in the area that would potentially serve as the heartland for a future Palestinian state.

The measures, which were approved over the weekend, are likely to be challenged in the Israeli Supreme Court. But they represent the most far-reaching attempts by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government to advance a de-facto annexation of the West Bank.

The Palestinian Authority, the governing body for Palestinians that already has only limited powers in the West Bank, described the moves as an "unprecedented escalation" and "illegal," views echoed by regional Arab states.

U.S. President Donald Trump has previously said the U.S. opposes attempts by Israel to annex the West Bank, a long-held dream of some settler groups and far-right ministers who now hold powerful positions in Netanyahu's government.

The newly adopted measures are expected to deepen Israeli civil -- as opposed to military -- control of new areas within the West Bank, including key religious sites in Hebron, and are designed to make it easier for Israelis to buy land in the territory.

Israel's Security Cabinet, headed by Netanyahu, approved on Sunday a series of new measures that would lift a ban on the sale of land to private Israeli Jews, transfer construction authority at religious and sensitive sites in the city of Hebron to the Israeli government, and declassify land registry records.

The United Nations condemned the measures, with a spokesperson for the secretary-general saying ina statementthat "all Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and their associated regime and infrastructure, have no legal validity and are in flagrant violation of international law, including relevant United Nations resolutions."

The measures would allow the Israeli government to operate under the guise of civilian issues in Palestinian areas A and B for the first time, which contravenes the Oslo Accords. Under the Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Authority is the sole authority responsible for civilian matters in Area A and B. Israel, in contrast, has full Israeli civil and security control over Area C, which represents about 60% of the West Bank.

Bezalel Smotrich, Israel's far-right, pro-settlement finance minister, hailed the move as an "historic day for settlement for Judea and Samaria," as parts of the West Bank are known in Hebrew.

He said the changes would "fundamentally change the legal and civil reality." He boasted that it would end the prospects for a potential Palestinian State.

Netanyahu has vowed that a Palestinian state "will not be established," even as Western countries, including France, Canada and the United Kingdom, have moved to recognize a Palestinian state.

The office of the Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, issued a statement condemning the measures as "dangerous decisions" designed to "deepen attempts to annex the occupied West Bank."

The president's office said the move was a "blatant violation" of the Oslo Accords, which divided the West Bank into Areas A, B and C, adding that the move represents an "unprecedented escalation targeting the Palestinian presence and its national and historical rights throughout the Palestinian territory."

Abbas' office described the move as illegal and called for the U.S. and the European Union to intervene.

​A joint statement by the foreign ministers of eight Muslim countries condemned the new measures.

The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, Indonesia, Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates said ina statementposted on social media that they collectively "condemned in the strongest terms the illegal Israeli decisions and measures aimed at imposing unlawful Israeli sovereignty, entrenching settlement activity, and enforcing a new legal and administrative reality in the occupied West Bank, thereby accelerating attempts at its illegal annexation and the displacement of the Palestinian people."

"They reaffirmed that Israel has no sovereignty over the occupied Palestinian territories," the statement added.

According to Peace Now, an Israeli settlement watchdog and activist nongovernmental organization, the measures adopted over the weekend would effectively mean that Israeli authorities can now carry out legal demolitions of Palestinian property in Areas A and B, which comprise around 40% of the West Bank and which under the Oslo accords have been governed by the Palestinian Authority.

While the Israeli military could operate in those areas as the occupying power, the "government is now seeking to ignore its international commitments and begin administrative operations inside areas of the Palestinian Authority. Under the Oslo Accords, Israel has operated militarily in PA areas since the early 2000s," the watchdog said.

(Removes 'downtown' from paragraph 2)

By Ted Hesson, Kristina Cooke and Brad Heath

WASHINGTON, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Becky Ringstrom was heading home after following federal immigration officers in her gray Kia SUV in suburban Minneapolis when she was suddenly boxed in by unmarked vehicles. At least a half-dozen masked agents jumped out to arrest her, one knocking on her windshield with a metal object as if threatening to use it to break her window.

After the arrest, captured on bystander video verified by Reuters, the 42-year-old mother of seven later said she was transported to Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis where an officer gave her a citation charging her under a ​federal law that criminalizes impeding law enforcement. The official said her name and photo would be added to a government database.

The arrest of Ringstrom became the latest detention of one of thousands of local activists for violating Title 18, Section 111 of the U.S. Code, a catch-all charge for anyone who "forcibly assaults, resists, opposes, impedes, intimidates, or interferes" ‌with a federal officer conducting official duties. The statute can be charged as a felony or misdemeanor. As a felony, it carries up to 20 years in prison, but penalties beyond eight years are reserved for people who use "a deadly or dangerous weapon" or cause an injury.

A Reuters review of federal court records found that the Trump administration has prosecuted at least 655 people under that charge across the U.S. since a series of city-focused immigration crackdowns began last summer. ‌That's more than double the prosecutions during the same period in 2024-2025, according to a review of publicly available criminal filings in Westlaw, a legal research database owned by Thomson Reuters.

Reuters usedartificial intelligencein some instances to classify the charges, with a spot-check showing 98% accuracy. The numbers are nationwide and Reuters was not able to determine how many were connected to immigration enforcement, how many were charged as felonies, or resulted in convictions.

The charges are part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to clamp down on ICE opponents, who they portray as rioters who pose threats to officers and undermine their efforts to arrest immigrants with criminal records.

"Assaulting and obstructing law enforcement is a felony," said U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin. She said federal immigration officers "used the minimum amount of force necessary to protect themselves, the public, and federal property."

ICE has been tracking the names of protesters in an internal database for several months, according to two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operations.

The government database contains names, photos, actions that provoked suspicion, locations and license plates, the officials said, adding that the effort was intended to spot patterns that could lead to charges.

DHS said ⁠it does not maintain a database of U.S. "domestic terrorists," but does track threats. "We do of course monitor and investigate and refer all ‌threats, assaults and obstruction of our officers to the appropriate law enforcement," McLaughlin said.

One of the officials said ICE was referring several people per day in Minnesota alone to federal prosecutors for potential charges under the same law for interfering with police operations.

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said the Trump administration was committed to protecting First Amendment freedoms, but that people impeding law enforcement "will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law."

OBSERVING ICE

Ringstrom had watched federal immigration officers for about 45 minutes as they sat in a parked car in her neighborhood on Thursday, January 29. When they started to ‍move, she decided to follow along in her SUV, keeping a distance of multiple car lengths behind, she said.

At a roundabout, a Border Patrol agent approached her car and said, "Last time I'm going to warn you," according to video Ringstrom recorded on her phone.

The officers went right at a stop sign and she went left, she said. Several minutes later as she started to head back toward her house, multiple vehicles with federal officers stopped and arrested her, she said.

"I know what I'm doing is not wrong," Ringstrom said later in an interview with Reuters.

Still, she said she was terrified when federal officers approached her car. "There was a moment where I thought I could be Renee Good," she said, referring to one of the two U.S. citizen protesters fatally shot by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis in January.

After her arrest, she was issued a citation, reviewed by Reuters, ​which said the court date was "TBD" - to be determined.

McLaughlin said Ringstrom "stalked law enforcement and attempted to obstruct law enforcement from performing their sworn duties."

Seth Stoughton, a professor focused on policing at University of South Carolina School of Law, said the law in the past mostly has been used to charge assaults on officers and specifically states that the alleged crime must be committed "forcibly."

"Without ‌any physical contact, just following an agent in a car, it's not clear to me that that's resistance or impeding in the first place, and it certainly seems like a stretch to establish that as forcible," Stoughton said.

A federal judge in Minneapolis said in a mid-January order that a vehicle following ICE at "an appropriate distance" did not justify a traffic stop or arrest, but that order was paused by an appeals court 10 days later.

The judge's now-paused order did not say what exact distance would be deemed safe.

Deborah Fleischaker, a top ICE official under former President Joe Biden, said it was "inappropriate and unconstitutional" to intimidate and arrest people peacefully following immigration officers in their cars.

"Observing ICE activities is not a crime and should not be treated as such," she said.

McLaughlin said U.S. Border Patrol agents at the scene gave Ringstrom "lawful commands and warnings" but that she continued to obstruct operations, leading to her arrest.

"When agitators willingly involve themselves and inject themselves in law enforcement operations, they are risking arrest as well as jeopardizing the safety of themselves and those around them," McLaughlin said.

VIDEOS SHOW ICE OFFICERS DRAWING WEAPONS

While new internal ICE guidance, reported by Reuters in late January, instructed officers not to engage with protesters, the encounters have not stopped.

Two videos in recent weeks verified by Reuters showed ICE officers drawing their weapons as they approached vehicles that allegedly had been following them.

South of Minneapolis on January 29, the same day Ringstrom was arrested, federal immigration officers abruptly swerved, stopped their vehicle and approached a woman driving behind them with guns drawn, according to dashcam footage ⁠from her vehicle first reported by Minnesota Public Radio and verified by Reuters.

McLaughlin said ICE officers were attempting to arrest a criminal offender when the woman began "stalking and obstructing" them, leading the officers to try to arrest ​her.

"Law enforcement officers attempted to pull her over using their emergency lights to issue her a warning," McLaughlin said. "Ignoring law enforcement commands, the agitator refused to pull over and began driving recklessly including running stop signs, nearly colliding with ​multiple vehicles, and driving directly at law enforcement in an attempt to ram their vehicle."

Reuters was not able to independently verify whether the woman ignored commands or drove recklessly.

In a separate incident on February 3, two ICE officers approached a car that had been following them, again, with guns drawn, according to video verified by Reuters and a DHS statement.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said the vehicle had been "stalking" and "obstructing" ICE officers.

"The agitators then followed the officers as they departed and made hand motions suggestive of possessing a firearm," DHS said.

Reuters could not independently verify the agency's account. The video reviewed by Reuters showed the ‍vehicles once they had stopped.

Under Trump, numerous DHS statements after violent encounters with immigration agents have been inaccurate ⁠or incomplete.

ICE AT YOUR FRONT DOOR

Some Minnesota residents say they believe they are becoming the subject of an intimidation campaign.

In a suburb north of St. Paul on January 22, an ICE officer led a woman who was following his vehicle back to her house, making it clear that he knew her identity and address, Reuters-verified video filmed by the husband showed.

The woman's husband spoke to the ICE officer outside of the couple's house. When the husband questioned the tactic, the officer said, "You raise your voice, I erase your voice," the video showed.

One ICE officer told Reuters they have led people following them back to their houses after running their license plates "to freak them out."

McLaughlin said ICE would review body camera ⁠footage and investigate the incident in St. Paul, but did not comment on ICE using the tactic to frighten opponents.

Earlier in January, two friends - Brandon Siguenza and Patty O'Keefe - who were following an ICE vehicle in Minneapolis said officers fired pepper spray into their car, smashed their car window and detained them for eight hours.

McLaughlin said officers gave them multiple warnings "to stop impeding" operations, but that they "chose to continue to stalk law enforcement and were arrested."

"The passenger refused to roll ‌down the window and exit the vehicle," McLaughlin said. "ICE law enforcement followed their training and used the minimum amount of force necessary to make the arrest."

McLaughlin did not explicitly confirm that officers broke the car window or deployed pepper spray.

Siguenza and O'Keefe have not been charged.

(Reporting by Ted Hesson and Brad Heath in Washington, ‌and Kristina Cooke in San Francisco. Additional reporting by Maria Tsvetkova, Monica Naime, Vinaya K, Marine Delrue, Tiffany Le, Fernando Robles and Gerardo Gomez. Editing by Craig Timberg, Diane Craft and Michael Learmonth)