{"id":233321,"date":"2026-05-15T23:50:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T23:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/233321\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T23:50:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T23:50:10","slug":"iran-backed-commander-accused-of-plotting-u-s-attacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/233321\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran-Backed Commander Accused of Plotting U.S. Attacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

A commander of an Iranian-backed militia was arrested and charged with plotting to attack Jewish sites in the U.S., including a synagogue in New York<\/a>. Federal prosecutors also accused the man of planning at least 20 attacks in Europe and Canada as part of a broader campaign of retaliation by Iran since the war began less than three months ago.<\/p>\n

The commander, Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, was recently detained in Turkey and handed over to American authorities, according to his lawyer. U.S. officials said he is a leader of Kataib Hezbollah<\/a>, a powerful Iranian proxy militia. Read the criminal complaint here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kataib Hezbollah was formed after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, and has helped Tehran project power across the region, including through attacks on American forces and diplomatic targets. But its reach beyond the Middle East is less clear, and it does not have a well-documented record of global operations.<\/p>\n

Louisiana\u2019s senior senator is fighting for his political future<\/p>\n

As Trump flew back from Beijing this morning, he posted a social-media message about tomorrow\u2019s Senate primary in Louisiana: \u201cVote for Julia Letlow.\u201d His intervention could unseat Bill Cassidy<\/a>, a Republican who has represented the state in Washington since 2009. Polls suggest that Cassidy might not even qualify for the runoff.<\/p>\n

The election will serve as a high-profile test of Trump\u2019s grip on his party. He has demanded that his followers vote out Cassidy, who voted to convict the president in his 2021 impeachment trial and who drew the ire of the \u201cMake America Healthy Again\u201d movement over his strong advocacy for vaccines.<\/p>\n

In other politics news:<\/p>\n

The White House increases the pressure on Cuba<\/p>\n

The U.S. has cut off Cuba\u2019s fuel supply<\/a>, ramped up surveillance flights and demanded that the country stop allowing Russia and China to operate intelligence posts there. Now, my colleagues reported, American prosecutors are working on an indictment of Ra\u00fal Castro, the 94-year old former president.<\/p>\n

The warning could not be clearer<\/a>. The Trump administration used a federal indictment as the pretext for arresting the leader of Venezuela. And people briefed on the administration\u2019s thinking say senior officials at least want the option of employing the Venezuela playbook again. <\/p>\n

In other Trump administration news:<\/p>\n

Archaeologists find a mummy buried with the \u2018Iliad\u2019<\/p>\n

A passage from Book 2 of Homer\u2019s \u201cIliad\u201d was discovered on a papyrus fragment inside an Egyptian tomb with a 2,000-year-old mummy<\/a>. The finding suggested that Roman-era Egyptians viewed the Greek literary text as a potential guide to a more comfortable afterlife.<\/p>\n

One historian suggested that carrying the \u201cIliad\u201d was a deliberate strategy to secure entry into the Greek underworld, effectively sidestepping the torturous trials of Egyptian mythology.<\/p>\n

More top news<\/p>\n

China Summit<\/p>\n

Other Big Stories<\/p>\n

TIME TO UNWINDA Eurovision winner will be crowned tomorrow<\/p>\n

Every year, tens of millions of people tune in for the finale of the Eurovision Song Contest, making it the world\u2019s most watched singing competition.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s contest, which has been overshadowed a bit by politics<\/a>, will announce a winner tomorrow. (Here\u2019s how to watch<\/a>.) My colleague Alex Marshall said that Finland is the favorite, but that Italy\u2019s throwback entry and Greece\u2019s performance, which involves a man dressed as a cat, are also worth watching<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Microdramas are growing fast in Hollywood<\/p>\n

They are inexpensive to film and easy to watch, with each vertically-shot episode lasting just a minute or so. Now, people on their phones are spending more time watching microdramas than they are streaming Netflix or Disney+.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s never been a better time to smell like milk<\/p>\n

The fragrance aisle of cosmetics shops is starting to look a bit like the refrigerated section of a grocery store. There are perfumes advertised to smell like cold milk, fig milk, coconut milk, milk orchid and just plain milk. The dairy product, my colleague Gina Cherelus writes, has become the scent of the moment<\/a>. <\/p>\n

As you\u2019re probably aware, milk doesn\u2019t smell like much, unless it\u2019s spoiled. But that hasn\u2019t stopped perfume makers from using aroma compounds known as lactones to conjure the feeling of drinking the creamy beverage, with a little bit of sweetness and a whole lot of branding. \u201cWhen I smell a milk fragrance,” one perfume maker said, \u201cI get the satisfaction of a good meal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Have a fresh weekend.<\/p>\n

Thanks for reading. I\u2019ll be back on Monday \u2014 Matthew<\/p>\n

Keith Bedford was our photo editor.<\/p>\n

We welcome your feedback. Reach us at evening@nytimes.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A commander of an Iranian-backed militia was arrested and charged with plotting to attack Jewish sites in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233322,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-233321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}