News & Current Events

The Justice Department seized over $560,000 in cryptocurrency and took control of Hamas fundraising domains and servers, including alqassam.ps, in an operation announced September 1, 2026. The FBI also collected identifying information on thousands of individuals who contacted Hamas online to donate, which will be used in future counterterrorism efforts. No criminal charges have been filed in connection with this operation, and the Albuquerque FBI office describes the investigation as ongoing.

U.S. District Judge Zahid N. Quraishi vacated a temporary restraining order and denied Lana Leguía's preliminary injunction on August 31, keeping her off New Jersey's 7th Congressional District ballot for the November 3 election. The ruling turned on jurisdictional limits and Leguía's failure to exhaust state procedures, not on the constitutional validity of New Jersey's circulator residency requirement. Leguía retains the option to appeal to the Third Circuit, though no such filing had been confirmed as of September 2.

Simón Bolívar International Airport in Maiquetía resumed commercial flights on September 1, 2026, operating from a temporary 10,000-square-metre terminal built in parking areas, with passengers bused to aircraft, nearly ten weeks after magnitude-7.5 earthquakes killed more than 6,500 people. The restart covers roughly a quarter of normal air operations, with staged targets of 40% capacity within two months and 60% by year-end, though no full-restoration date has been announced. Copa Airlines and Air Europa operated the initial flights, with American Airlines, LATAM, Avianca, and others scheduled to resume services in the days following.

On September 1, 2026, Israeli authorities announced that Shin Bet special forces raided a building in western Gaza City and detained Muein al-Arabid, described as the head of Hamas's internal-security apparatus. The Hamas-run Gaza Interior Ministry confirmed a detainee matching that identity was wounded and captured, and reported his wife was killed and children injured, though Palestinian casualty figures remain unverified. Key details are still disputed, including the precise role of an Israeli-backed Palestinian militia in the operation and the exact division of responsibilities between Israeli forces and affiliated groups.