World
Man charged over attempted murder of Salman Rushdie accused of ties to Hezbollah
A court filing made last week in New York alleged that the man charged with trying to murder Salman Rushdie may have had ties to Hezbollah and provided them with “material support.”
“Between in and about September 2020… the defendant, HADI MATAR, a citizen of the United States, knowingly did attempt to provide material support and resources … to a designated foreign terrorist organization, namely, Hizballah,” the indictment, filed on July 17, claimed.
Matar, 26, was charged with repeatedly stabbing Rushdie on Aug. 12, 2022 on stage at the Chautauqua Institution just as the award-winning author was about to give a lecture. Emergency responders airlifted him to a hospital in northwestern Pennsylvania, where he underwent life-saving surgery.
Matar will finally stand trial for the attack, having refused a plea deal, and following a minor delay after the publication of Rushdie’s memoir, “Knife,” that detailed his experience of the attack. He already faced charges of attempted murder and assault, and the plea deal required him to plead guilty to a federal terrorism-related charge, which had yet to be filed at the time.
TOP DEM WHO VISITED BUTLER SAYS LOCAL OFFICIALS TOLD HIM ‘WE NEED TO TALK’ MORE ABOUT SECRET SERVICE FAILURES
Defense attorney Nathaniel Barone, left, and Hadi Matar, 24, right, listen during an arraignment in the Chautauqua County Courthouse in Mayville, New York. (Joshua Bessex/AP Images)
Now, unsealed in U.S. District Court in Buffalo on Wednesday, Matar faces charges of attempting to support Hezbollah, the terrorist group based in Lebanon and backed by Iran. The charge includes a requirement to turn over all electronic devices should he be convicted on any of the charges alleged in the indictment.
Authorities would have to confiscate several hard drives, a PlayStation 4, two cellphones and a laptop in addition to several knives.
BRYAN KOHBERGER SEEKS TO MOVE MURDER TRIAL OUT OF SMALL COMMUNITY LEANING TOWARD CONVICTION
(L-R) Kiran Desai and Salman Rushdie speak onstage at The Center for Fiction 2023 Annual Awards Benefit at Cipriani 25 Broadway on December 05, 2023 in New York City. (Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images for The Center for Fiction)
Both cases will now proceed to trial separately, with jury selection for the state charges set for Oct. 15. Matar has remained in custody without bail since the attack occurred.
The attack on Rushdie left him blind in one eye, and he suffered damage to his liver and the nerves in one of his arms. Matar claimed he had attacked Rushdie due to the fatwa put out against the author in 1989 by Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini calling for Rushdie’s death due to the publication of the novel “The Satanic Verses.”
MISSOURI WOMAN SANDRA HEMME WHO SPENT 43 YEARS IN PRISON FREED AFTER MURDER CONVICTION OVERTURNED
Hezbollah militants gather to pay their respects for one of the militant group’s commanders. Ali al-Debs was killed by an Israeli air raid in Lebanon’s southern city of Nabatieyh on February 16, 2024. (MAHMOUD ZAYYAT/AFP via Getty Images)
The novel prompted worldwide protests following its publication in 1988. The book’s publication led to the murder of its Japanese translator, and “others associated with it were attacked,” according to “60 Minutes.”
The fatwa drove Rushdie to flee to the United Kingdom, where he lived for years before diplomatic negotiations led the Iranian state to declare the affair “completely finished” and insist that the country would not encourage anyone else to threaten Rushdie’s life.
However, Iranian clerics and religious groups continued to urge followers to kill Rushdie, periodically raising the bounty on his head, which amounts to just shy of $4 million, according to Reuters.
Despite admitting that he had read little of “The Satanic Verses,” Matar stabbed Rushdie because the author had “attacked Islam” and, on top of that, he did not like Rushdie very much.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Friday rejected Virginia’s bid to restore a congressional map that would have given Democrats a chance to pick up four seats in the closely divided House of Representatives.
The court’s order, issued without any noted dissent, is the latest twist in the nation’s mid-decade redistricting competition. It was kicked off last year by President Donald Trump urging Republican-controlled states to redraw their lines and was supercharged by a recent Supreme Court ruling severely weakening the Voting Rights Act that opened up even more winnable seats for the GOP.
In recent days, the justices have sided with Republicans in Alabama and Louisiana who hope to redo their congressional maps to produce more GOP-leaning seats following the court’s voting rights decision.
But the Virginia situation was different, stemming from a 4-3 ruling by the Virginia Supreme Court that struck down a constitutional amendment that voters narrowly passed just last month.
The state court found that the Democratic-controlled legislature improperly began the process of placing the amendment on the ballot after early voting had begun in Virginia’s general election last fall.
The Supreme Court typically doesn’t intervene in state court proceedings unless they present an issue of federal law. Virginia Democrats had hoped to persuade the justices that the Virginia court misread federal law and Supreme Court precedent that hold that, even if early voting is underway, an election does not happen until Election Day itself.
Virginia’s amendment had been intended as a response to Republican gains in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio, and to blunt a new map in Florida that just became law. Once the Virginia amendment passed, it briefly turned the nationwide redistricting scramble into a draw between the two parties.
That was unraveled by the Virginia Supreme Court’s decision.
The state’s attorney general, Democrat Jay Jones, slammed the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision, saying it was another example of what he described as a national attack on voting rights and the rule of law.
“Let’s be clear about what is happening. Donald Trump, Republican state legislatures, and conservative courts are systematically and unabashedly tilting power away from the people for Trump’s political gain,” Jones said in a statement issued late Friday night.
The state’s top Democrats had disagreed about whether it was even too late for help from the Supreme Court. “Time grows short, but it is not yet too late,” lawyers for the Democratic leaders of the legislature as well as the state told the justices in a brief filed Friday.
A day earlier, the office of Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger already had confirmed that the state will hold this year’s elections under the current districts established in 2021. Last month, Virginia Commissioner of Elections Steve Koski said a court order was needed by this past Tuesday to set the district lines for primary elections on Aug. 4.
Spanberger reacted to Friday’s decision by saying both courts had nullified the votes of the more than 3 million Virginians who cast ballots in the April 21 special election.
“These Virginians made their voices heard — casting their ballots in good faith to push back against a President who said he’s ‘entitled’ to more seats in Congress before voters go to the polls,” she posted on her X account.
The leader of the state Republican Party said the justices made the right call.
“Wisely, the Supreme Court of the United States has confirmed the judgment of the Supreme Court of Virginia,” state party chairman Jeff Ryer said. “This should once and for all put to rest the Democrats’ effort to disenfranchise half of Virginia.
___
Associated Press writer Safiyah Riddle in Montgomery, Alabama, contributed to this report.
World
Trump says Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, second in command of ISIS globally, killed in US-Nigerian operation
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President Donald Trump announced late Friday that U.S. and Nigerian forces carried out an operation that killed a global ISIS leader.
Trump identified the terrorist as Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, whom he described as ISIS’s second-in-command globally.
“Tonight, at my direction, brave American forces and the Armed Forces of Nigeria flawlessly executed a meticulously planned and very complex mission to eliminate the most active terrorist in the world from the battlefield,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
“Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, second in command of ISIS globally, thought he could hide in Africa, but little did he know we had sources who kept us informed on what he was doing,” Trump continued. “He will no longer terrorize the people of Africa, or help plan operations to target Americans.”
100 US TROOPS LAND IN NIGERIA AS ISLAMIC MILITANTS THREATEN WEST AFRICA REGIONAL SECURITY
President Donald Trump sits at a table monitoring military operations during Operation Epic Fury against Iran at the White House in Washington, D.C., on March 2. (The White House via X Account/Anadolu/Getty Images)
Trump also thanked the Nigerian government for its cooperation in the mission.
“With his removal, ISIS’s global operation is greatly diminished,” he added.
Additional details surrounding the mission were not immediately available.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.
US MILITARY IN SYRIA CARRIES OUT 10 STRIKES ON MORE THAN 30 ISIS TARGETS: PHOTOS
The announcement comes after U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said it carried out multiple strikes against more than 30 ISIS targets in Syria in February as part of a joint military effort to “sustain relentless military pressure on remnants from the terrorist network.”
CENTCOM said U.S. forces struck ISIS infrastructure and weapons-storage targets using fixed-wing, rotary-wing and unmanned aircraft.
DEADLY STRIKE ON US TROOPS TESTS TRUMP’S COUNTER-ISIS PLAN — AND HIS TRUST IN SYRIA’S NEW LEADER
The U.S. military carried out ten strikes against more than 30 ISIS targets in Syria following a December ambush that killed U.S. troops. (CENTCOM)
Trump told reporters on Jan. 27 that he had a “great conversation” with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
“All of the things having to do with Syria in that area are working out very, very well,” he said at the time. “So, we are very happy about it.”
CENTCOM announced in February that more than 50 ISIS terrorists had been killed or captured and more than 100 ISIS infrastructure targets struck during two months of targeted operations in Syria.
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The U.S. launched Operation Hawkeye Strike in response to an ISIS ambush that killed two U.S. service members and an American interpreter Dec. 13, 2025, in Palmyra, Syria.
Fox News Digital’s Ashley J. DiMella contributed to this report.
Lebanon’s Ministry of Health said Israeli attacks have killed 2,951 people since March 2 with at least 8,988 wounded.
Published On 16 May 2026
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