PARIS — French prosecutors raided the offices of social media platform X on Tuesday as part of a preliminary investigation into allegations including spreading child sexual abuse images and deepfakes. They have also summoned billionaire owner Elon Musk for questioning.

X and Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI also face intensifying scrutiny from Britain’s data privacy regulator, which opened formal investigations into how they handled personal data when they developed and deployed Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok.

Grok, which was built by xAI and is available through X, sparked global outrage last month after it pumped out a torrent of sexualized nonconsensual deepfake images in response to requests from X users.

The French investigation was opened in January last year by the prosecutors’ cybercrime unit, the Paris prosecutors’ office said in a statement. It’s looking into alleged “complicity” in possessing and spreading pornographic images of minors, sexually explicit deepfakes, denial of crimes against humanity and manipulation of an automated data processing system as part of an organized group, among other charges.

Prosecutors asked Musk and former CEO Linda Yaccarino to attend “voluntary interviews” on April 20. Employees of X have also been summoned that same week to be heard as witnesses, the statement said. Yaccarino was CEO from May 2023 until July 2025.

A spokesperson for X did not respond to multiple requests for comment. X’s lawyer in France, Kami Haeri, told The Associated Press: ″We are not making any comment at this stage.”

In a message posted on X, the Paris prosecutors’ office announced the ongoing searches at the company’s offices in France and said it was leaving the platform while calling on followers to join it on other social media.

“At this stage, the conduct of the investigation is based on a constructive approach, with the aim of ultimately ensuring that the X platform complies with French law, as it operates on the national territory,” the prosecutors’ statement said.

European Union police agency Europol “is supporting the French authorities in this,” Europol spokesperson Jan Op Gen Oorth told the AP, without elaborating.

French authorities opened their investigation after reports from a French lawmaker alleging that biased algorithms on X likely distorted the functioning of an automated data processing system.

It expanded after Grok generated posts that allegedly denied the Holocaust, a crime in France, and spread sexually explicit deepfakes, the statement said.

Grok wrote in a widely shared post in French that gas chambers at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp were designed for “disinfection with Zyklon B against typhus” rather than for mass murder — language long associated with Holocaust denial.

In later posts on X, the chatbot reversed itself and acknowledged that its earlier reply was wrong, saying it had been deleted and pointed to historical evidence that Zyklon B was used to kill more than 1 million people in Auschwitz gas chambers.

The chatbot also appeared to praise Adolf Hitler last year, in comments that X took down after complaints.

In Britain, the Information Commissioner’s Office said it’s looking into whether X and xAI followed the law when processing personal data and whether Grok had any measures in place to prevent its use to generate “harmful manipulated images.”

“The reports about Grok raise deeply troubling questions about how people’s personal data has been used to generate intimate or sexualised images without their knowledge or consent, and whether the necessary safeguards were put in place to prevent this,” said William Malcolm, an executive director at the watchdog.

He didn’t specify what the penalty would be if the probe found the companies didn’t comply with data protection laws.

A separate investigation into Grok launched last month by the U.K. media regulator, Ofcom, is ongoing.

Ofcom said Tuesday it’s still gathering evidence and warned the probe could take months.

X has also been under pressure from the EU. The 27-nation bloc’s executive arm opened an investigation last month after Grok spewed nonconsensual sexualized deepfake images on the platform.

Brussels has already hit X with a 120-million euro (then-$140 million) fine for shortcomings under the bloc’s sweeping digital regulations, including blue checkmarks that broke the rules on “deceptive design practices” that risked exposing users to scams and manipulation.

On Monday, Musk ‘s space exploration and rocket business, SpaceX, announced that it acquired xAI in a deal that will also combine Grok, X and his satellite communication company Starlink.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Loft-style apartments with floor-to-ceiling windows, an off-shore oil and gas rig, advanced industrial zones and park-lined neighborhoods. This is “New Gaza,” a vision laid out by the Trump administration for the destroyed Palestinian territory after two years of war.

“We’ve already started removing the rubble and doing some of the demolition,” Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, said while presenting the plan recently in Davos, Switzerland.

“And then ‘New Gaza.’ It could be a hope, it could be a destination, have a lot of industry and really be a place that the people there can thrive, have great employment,” he said.

The Gaza Strip is only 25 miles long and about 4 to 7 miles wide. It was home to around 2.2 million people before the war, all living in densely packed cities and refugee camps. Now, nearly everyone lives in makeshift tents or bombed-out homes that are at risk of collapse. The World Bank estimated in 2024 the cost of damage to critical infrastructure alone was more than $18 billion.

The plan laid out by Kushner rests on Trump’s ceasefire deal, which demands that Hamas decommission its weapons as Israel withdraws from Gaza in phases. Reconstruction would only commence in areas of Gaza where Hamas is fully disarmed, or already emptied of Palestinians and under Israeli military control.

This “New Gaza” plan, however, makes no reference to land deed transfers nor how new housing would be allocated to Palestinians. It also does not say how families will be uprooted from existing buildings that the plan would demolish, particularly in central Gaza and parts of western Gaza City where many buildings are still intact.

Critics, including people NPR interviewed in Gaza, say it erases Gaza entirely and turns it into an investment opportunity atop the ruins of what a U.N. commission determined was a genocide committed by Israel. Israel denies the allegation, and is fighting war crimes charges internationally.

It’s unclear if any Palestinians were consulted in the “New Gaza” vision unveiled by Kushner, but he says Israeli real estate investor, Yakir Gabay, played a key role in crafting the plan. Both men are on the White House-appointed Gaza Executive Board that will oversee the plan and report to Trump’s Board of Peace.

Here are five things to know about the “New Gaza”:

1. Less space for housing than before the war

A slide from Jared Kushner’s “New Gaza” presentation in Davos, Switzerland, includes an annotated map outlining different areas of the Gaza Strip.

Screenshot by NPR/Board of Peace slide deck

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Screenshot by NPR/Board of Peace slide deck

Kushner’s plan envisions four district-like areas for Palestinians to live in, nestled between large green areas for parks and industrial zones that appear equal in size or larger than the areas designated for housing. These industrial zones would create more than half a million jobs for Palestinians in Gaza, according to the plan.

A report published by the U.N.-Habitat agency in 2024 said 87% of Gaza was urban area and nearly all the rest was refugee camps, describing the territory as “fully urbanized.”

That means the plan leaves far less room for Palestinian housing than existed before the war, suggesting a smaller population in Gaza.

NPR asked the White House-appointed Gaza Executive Board whether the plan takes into account the full population of Gaza. A spokesperson, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the plans, said the figures presented for the first phase of reconstruction are “just the start,” without elaborating.

2. Reshaped cities with some no longer existing

The plan lays out phases for rebuilding, starting with the south. Two areas labeled as “Gaza City” to the north would be built in the last, fourth phase.

Gaza’s residential areas would be divided into quadrants, labeled as Rafah, Khan Younis, Center Camps and Gaza City. They would be disconnected from one another, and divided by large green areas designated for parks, agriculture and sports facilities. Only a few main roads connect them.

The plan would erase northern Gaza cities and refugee camps like Beit Lahia and Jabalia, replacing them with agricultural areas and zones designated for data centers and advanced manufacturing. It would raze other parts of Gaza to the ground to be rebuilt.

“You’re going to remove people’s homes and put parks instead, but did you ask a single person in Gaza to do this?” said Rami Abdel-Aal, a resident of Gaza whose home in Rafah was demolished in an area now occupied by the Israeli military that’s being razed to build the first such community.

“We only want one thing: Leave us to rebuild,” he said. “We don’t want anything from you. Just leave us to rebuild.”

3. A new airport, but no independent land crossing 

In the vision laid out by Kushner, southern Gaza would have an airport, a train and logistics hub, and a port — all nonexistent at the moment.

Gaza has been besieged by Israel since Hamas took over rule of the territory in 2007. People can only exit or enter Gaza by land with Israeli approvals through border crossings Israel controls.

But under the plan, Gaza’s single border crossing with Egypt, known as the Rafah crossing, would no longer be geographically distant from Israel. It would be moved south to the tip of Gaza and renamed a “trilateral crossing,” touching both Egypt and Israel.

Egypt has not commented on the plan, and throughout the war has rejected Israeli control of Rafah.

4. A “New Rafah” as the center of gravity 

Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah had long been a quiet border town known mostly for its smuggling tunnels with Egypt, but Kushner’s plan envisions the city as Gaza’s logistics and possibly administrative hub.

Rafah, today, is nearly void of residents and under Israeli military occupation. Palestinian militias armed by Israel and opposed to Hamas operate in the area.

Under the “New Gaza” plan, Rafah has among the most housing of all the areas in Gaza, suggesting the population, which before the war was heavily in the north near Israel, would be pushed south.

Described as “New Rafah,” there would be 100,000-plus permanent housing units, according to Kushner’s plan. Prior to the war, all of Gaza had nearly 600,000 apartments and housing units for 2.2 million people, according to the U.N.-Habitat report. It noted a critical housing shortage even before Israeli attacks destroyed or damaged more than 90% of homes.

The new plan also says there will be some 200 educational centers in “New Rafah.” Before the war, Gaza had around 700 schools, including private, public and U.N.-school buildings, according to figures obtained by NPR from the U.N. relief agency for Palestinians, known as UNRWA, and the Palestinian Education Ministry. In addition, there were 17 higher education institutions, or universities.

An Israeli official told NPR the ground in Rafah is being prepared to be cleared of unexploded ordnance and tunnels in order to set up temporary housing. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss details of the preparations. The official said that Kushner and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff have asked Israel to accelerate operations clearing rubble in Rafah, where a neighborhood funded by the United Arab Emirates would be built to house thousands of civilians from Gaza.

The UAE’s government did not respond to a request for comment.

5. A coastline for tourists and investors

The entirety of Gaza’s Mediterranean coastline is designated under the plan as an area for “coastal tourism” with 180 “mixed use” towers.

The visuals for the plan are stark, and look nothing like Gaza. Futuristic towers would form a new skyline along Gaza’s coast, resembling a billionaire’s playground much like Dubai.

Palestinian residents of Gaza would likely be priced out of this prime, new real estate. Gaza’s coastline before the war included apartment buildings, local hotels, cafes and public beaches. These beaches are people’s only escape from Gaza’s otherwise densely packed terrain.

Anas Baba in Gaza City, Ahmed Abuhamda in Cairo and Itay Stern and Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv contributed to this report.

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — Conservative populist Laura Fernández won Costa Rica’s presidency, promising to continue the aggressive reorienting of the Central American nation’s politics started by her political sponsor, outgoing President Rodrigo Chaves.

Preliminary and partial results showed the Costa Rican president’s handpicked successor captured the win with a resounding first-round victory, eliminating the need for a runoff in a crowded field after Sunday’s election.

The Supreme Electoral Tribunal reported that with votes from 96.8% of polling places tallied, Fernández of the Sovereign People’s Party had 48.3% of the vote. Her closest challenger was economist Álvaro Ramos of the National Liberation Party with 33.4%.

Ramos conceded Sunday night and pledged to lead a “constructive opposition,” but one that would not let those in power get away with anything. Fernández will not be formally declared the winner until electoral officials complete a manual count scheduled to begin Tuesday.

“In democracy dissent is allowed, criticizing is allowed,” he said.

On Monday, Fernández said that her greatest desire as the next president is to consolidate Costa Rica’s development to be able to better face global challenges and to produce solid economic growth.

“I hope that we can immediately lower the flags of whichever political party and start working only in favor of the Costa Rican flag,” Fernández said. “I believe the Costa Rican people expect nothing less of us.”

At least 40% of the total vote was required to win the presidential election in the first round.

Fernández campaigned on continuing the policies of the term-limited Chaves.

The historically peaceful Central American nation’s crime surge in recent years was a major issue in the campaign. Some voters faulted Chaves’ presidency for failing to bring those rates down, but many see a continuation of his confrontational style as the best chance for Costa Rica to tame the violence.

Fernández was previously Chaves’ minister of national planning and economic policy and, more recently, his minister of the presidency.

She was considered the frontrunner headed into Sunday’s election.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio congratulated Fernández in a statement Monday. “Under her leadership, we are confident Costa Rica will continue to advance shared priorities to include combatting narco-trafficking, ending illegal immigration to the United States, promoting cybersecurity and secure telecommunications, and strengthening economic ties,” Rubio said.

Costa Ricans also voted for the 57-seat National Assembly. Chaves’ party was expected to make gains, but perhaps not achieve the supermajority he and Fernández called for, which would allow their party to choose Supreme Court magistrates, for example.

Twenty contenders were seeking the presidency, but no candidate other than Fernández and Ramos reached 5% in the preliminary and partial results.

Some 3.7 million Costa Ricans were eligible to vote.

Four years ago, Chaves ran an outsider campaign that carried him to victory over the country’s traditional parties, despite the fact that he had briefly served as economy minister in a previous administration. His framing of traditional parties as corrupt and self-interested resonated in a country with high unemployment and a soaring budget deficit.

CAIRO — Gaza’s Rafah border crossing with Egypt was busy with activity Sunday as Israel said that limited travel to and from the territory is set to resume after years of near-complete isolation. Reopening the border crossing is a key step as the Israel-Hamas ceasefire moves ahead.

Israel announced Sunday that the crossing has opened in a test. COGAT, the Israeli military agency that controls aid to Gaza, said in a statement that the crossing was actively being prepared for fuller operation, adding that residents of Gaza would begin to pass through the crossing once preparations were complete.

Palestinian security officers passed through the crossing’s Egyptian gate and headed toward the Palestinian gate to join an EU mission that will be supervising exit and entry, said an Egyptian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk to the media. Ambulances also crossed through the Egyptian gate, the official added.

The head of the new Palestinian administrative committee governing Gaza’s daily affairs has said travel in both directions would start Monday.

Trucks carrying humanitarian aids line up to enter the Egyptian gate of the Rafah crossing, heading for inspection by Israeli authorities before entering the Gaza Strip, in Rafah, Egypt, Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026.

Mohammed Arafat/AP

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Mohammed Arafat/AP

Rafah, which Palestinians see as their gateway to the world, has been largely shut since it was seized by Israel in May 2024.

Few people will be allowed at first, and no goods allowed to cross. About 20,000 Palestinian children and adults needing medical care are hoping to leave war-devastated Gaza via the crossing, and thousands of other Palestinians outside the territory hope to return home.

Zaher al-Wahidi, head of the Health Ministry’s documentation department in Gaza, told The Associated Press that the ministry hasn’t yet been notified about the start of medical evacuations.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel will allow 50 patients a day to leave. An official involved in the discussions, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the diplomatic talks, said each patient would be allowed to travel with two relatives, while some 50 people who left Gaza during the war would be allowed to return each day.

Israel has said it and Egypt will vet people for exit and entry through the crossing, which will be supervised by European Union border patrol agents. The number of travelers is expected to increase over time if the system is successful.

Israeli troops seized and closed the Rafah crossing in May 2024, calling it part of efforts to combat Hamas arms smuggling. The crossing was briefly opened for the evacuation of medical patients during a ceasefire in early 2025. Israel had resisted reopening the Rafah crossing, but the recovery of the remains of the last hostage in Gaza last week cleared the way to move forward.

The reopening is a key step as last year’s U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement, which took effect on Oct. 10, moves into its second phase.

Before the war, Rafah was the main crossing for people moving in and out of Gaza. Although Gaza has four other border crossings, they are shared with Israel. Under the ceasefire terms, Israel’s military controls the area between the Rafah crossing and the zone where most Palestinians live.

Fearing that Israeli could use the crossing to push Palestinians out of the enclave, Egypt has repeatedly said it must be open for both entry to and exit from Gaza. Historically, Israel and Egypt have vetted Palestinians applying to cross.

The current ceasefire halted more than two years of war between Israel and Hamas that began with a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The truce’s first phase called for the exchange of all hostages held in Gaza for hundreds of Palestinians held by Israel, an increase in badly needed humanitarian aid and a partial pullback of Israeli troops.

The second phase is more complicated. It calls for installing a new Palestinian committee to govern Gaza, deploying an international security force, disarming Hamas, and taking steps to begin rebuilding.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran’s supreme leader warned Sunday that any attack by the United States would spark a “regional war” in the Mideast, further escalating tensions as President Donald Trump has threatened to militarily strike the Islamic Republic.

The comments from the 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are the most-direct threat he’s made so far as the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and associated American warships are in the Arabian Sea, sent by Trump there after Tehran’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests.

It remains unclear whether Trump will use force. He’s repeatedly said Iran wants to negotiate and has brought up Tehran’s nuclear program as another issue he wants to see resolved.

But Khamenei also referred to the nationwide protests as “a coup,” hardening the government’s position as tens of thousands of people reportedly have been detained since the start of the demonstrations. Seditious charges in Iran can carry the death penalty, which again renews concerns about Tehran carrying out mass executions for those arrested — a red line for Trump.

Iran had also planned a live-fire military drill for Sunday and Monday in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil traded passes. The U.S. military’s Central Command had warned against threatening American warships or aircraft during the drill or disrupting commercial traffic.

Khamenei warns US

Iranian state television reported Khamenei’s comments online before airing any footage of his remarks.

“The Americans should know that if they start a war, this time it will be a regional war,” Khamenei was quoted as saying.

A woman walks through the Shiite Saints Abdulazim and Taher shrine in Shahr-e-Ray, south of Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026.

Vahid Salemi/AP

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Vahid Salemi/AP

It added that Khamenei said: “We are not the instigators and we do not seek to attack any country. But the Iranian nation will deliver a firm blow to anyone who attacks or harasses it.”

Khamenei also hardened his position on the demonstrations after earlier acknowledging some people had legitimate economic grievances that sparked their protests. The demonstrations began Dec. 28, initially over the collapse of Iran’s rial currency. It soon grew into a direct challenge to Khamenei’s rule.

“The recent sedition was similar to a coup. Of course, the coup was suppressed,” he said. “Their goal was to destroy sensitive and effective centers involved in running the country, and for this reason they attacked the police, government centers, (Revolutionary Guard) facilities, banks and mosques — and burned copies of the Quran. They targeted centers that run the country.”

Parliament speaker says EU militaries considered terrorist groups.

The speaker of Iran’s parliament, meanwhile, said that the Islamic Republic now considers all European Union militaries to be terrorist groups, lashing out after the bloc declared the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard a terror group over its bloody crackdown on nationwide protests.

Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, a former Guard commander, announced the terror designation, which will likely be mostly symbolic. Iran has used a 2019 law to reciprocally declare other nations’ militaries terror groups following the United States declaration of the Guard a terror group that year.

Qalibaf made the announcement as he and others in parliament wore Guard uniforms in support of the force. The Guard, which also controls Iran’s ballistic missile arsenal and has vast economic interests in Iran, answers only to Iran’s 86-year-old Khamenei.

“By seeking to strike at the (Guard), which itself has been the greatest barrier to the spread of terrorism to Europe, Europeans have in fact shot themselves in the foot and, once again, through blind obedience to the Americans, decided against the interests of their own people,” Qalibaf said.

Lawmakers at the session later chanted: “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!” at the session.

Trump says Iran is ‘seriously talking’ to US

Trump has laid out two red lines for military action: the killing of peaceful protesters or the possible mass execution of those detained in a major crackdown over the demonstrations. He’s increasingly begun discussing Iran’s nuclear program as well, which the U.S. negotiated over with Tehran in multiple sessions before Israel launched a 12-day war with Iran back in June.

The U.S. bombed three Iranian nuclear sites during the war. Activity at two of the sites suggests Iran may be trying to obscure the view of satellites as it tries to salvage what remains there.

Trump on Saturday night declined to say whether he’d made a decision on what he wanted to do regarding Iran.

Speaking to reporters as he flew to Florida, Trump sidestepped a question about whether Tehran would be emboldened if the U.S. backed away from launching strikes on Iran, saying, “Some people think that. Some people don’t.”

Trump said Iran should negotiate a “satisfactory” deal to prevent the Middle Eastern country from getting any nuclear weapons, but said, “I don’t know that they will. But they are talking to us. Seriously talking to us.”

Ali Larijani, a top security official in Iran, wrote on X late Saturday that “structural arrangements for negotiations are progressing.” However, there is no public sign of any direct talks with the United States, something Khamenei has repeatedly ruled out.