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DUBAI, April 21 (Reuters) – Iran executed a man on Tuesday who was accused of being a leader of a network linked to Israel’s intelligence service and of setting fire to a mosque in Tehran during January protests, the judiciary’s news outlet Mizan reported.

Mizan identified the man as Amirali Mirjafari, saying he had been convicted of carrying out arson at the Qolhak mosque in Tehran and leading anti-security activities.

His death sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court and carried out early on Tuesday, Mizan added.

Iran was rocked by nationwide anti-government protests earlier this year, which were repressed in the biggest crackdown in the Islamic Republic’s history.

(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

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LONDON (AP) — Queen Elizabeth II lives on at the Cool Britannia gift shop across the road from Buckingham Palace.

Four years after the queen’s death, the shop is doing a brisk business in mugs, tea towels and key rings bearing the likeness of Britain’s longest-reigning monarch as the nation marks the centenary of her birth on Tuesday. Items featuring her son King Charles III? Well, not so much.

“We still sell more than the king any day,’’ said Ismail Ibrahim, the store’s manager.

The late queen’s memory looms over the monarchy after a 70-year reign that saw her evolve from the glamorous young sovereign who cheered Britain during the gloomy post-war years to the beloved national grandmother who rallied the country during the COVID-19 pandemic.

When she died in September 2022, Elizabeth was the only monarch most Britons had ever known. Even now, mention of “the queen” is more likely to evoke thoughts of Elizabeth than of Queen Camilla, Charles’ wife.

But the passage of time has also tarnished the late queen’s legacy. While she is celebrated as a symbol of tradition and continuity who helped unite Britain as the end of empire, economic struggles and mass migration changed the nation’s perception of itself, revelations about the former Prince Andrew’s links to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have raised questions about why she let the problem fester for years.

“Despite her absence, Elizabeth II remains this key presence whenever we think about the monarchy,’’ Ed Owens, author of “After Elizabeth: Can the Monarchy Save Itself?’’ told The Associated Press.

“She’s certainly the most significant figure in the history of the institution in the last 100 years and, I think, therefore deserves probably the attention that’s going to be focused on her in connection with what would have been her 100th birthday.”

The festivities include a Buckingham Palace reception where Charles will congratulate centenarians who share the late monarch’s birthday, and the dedication of a memorial garden at Regent’s Park in central London. An exhibit of the queen’s fashions is already underway.

Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor wasn’t meant to wear the crown. Born on April 21, 1926, she started her long life not in a castle but at 17 Bruton St., a townhouse in London’s Mayfair district.

As the elder daughter of King George V’s second son, Elizabeth was expected to live the life of a minor royal. Dogs and horses, a country house, a suitable match — a comfortable but somewhat anonymous life — seemed her future.

But destiny intervened. A decade after Elizabeth’s birth, her uncle King Edward VIII abdicated to marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson. Elizabeth’s father became King George VI, thrusting the young princess into the spotlight as heir to throne.

Elizabeth became queen the day her father died on Feb. 6, 1952. Just 25, she heard the news in Kenya and hurried home to take up her duties.

For decades, she presided over the annual opening of Parliament in crown and ermine robe, hosted banquets for visiting leaders at Buckingham Palace and made thousands of appearances across the U.K., often wearing brightly colored suits to make sure the people could catch a glimpse of their queen.

She also became a global ambassador for brand Britain, making more than 200 overseas trips that helped bolster ties with one-time colonies from India to Tanzania, former enemies Germany and Japan and long-time friends such as the United States.

Late in life, the queen became an internet star when she and James Bond star Daniel Craig used moviemaking sleight of hand to parachute into the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics and teamed up with Paddington Bear to celebrate her 70 years on the throne.

The king recalled his mother’s impact on people around the world in a video tribute released Tuesday.

“Millions will remember her for moments of national significance; many others for a fleeting personal encounter, a smile, a kind word that lifted spirits, or for that marvelous twinkle of the eye when sharing a marmalade sandwich with Paddington Bear in the final months of her life,” he said.

In a world of relentless change, she moved with the times — applauding the nation’s successes and consoling Britons during difficult times, while remaining above the fray of politics, Robert Hardman, author of “Elizabeth II: In private. In public. The Inside Story,’’ told the AP.

But those accomplishments make her failure to end the scandal surrounding her second son even more glaring.

Despite concerns about his boorish behavior, questionable business dealings and unsavory friends, Andrew spent 10 years as Britain’s special envoy for international trade and remained a prince of the realm until the details of his relationship with Epstein were revealed last year. In an effort to shield the monarchy from the continuing fallout, Charles fi nally stripped his younger brother of his princely title. He is now known simply as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

“He was problematic and that gave her cause for worry,’’ Hardman said. “But I do think people let him have an easy ride because they thought if they came down hard on him, they might somehow upset the queen. Now that’s partly attributable to her, but partly attributable to others.”

Besides, her “great achievements’’ far outweighed any errors, Hardman said.

Elizabeth took the throne as a young woman with two small children at a time before jet travel existed and no one had even thought of going to the moon, then remained a constant presence in British public life across generations.

“She just reigned through this vast span of the ages and was as authoritative and loved and respected at the end as she was at the beginning,” Hardman said. “And she was working till the very end, ‘til her last day.”

As historians debate the queen’s legacy, members of the public are making their own judgements.

Take Sylvie Deneux, and her daughter Clara, who stopped by Cool Britannia during a visit to London from their home in Lille, France.

They praised the late monarch for her elegance and described her as an icon. But when asked about Mountbatten-Windsor, Sylvie Deneux, 49, paused and looked at her daughter. Failing to quickly quash the scandal was a mistake, she said. But Deneux could still muster sympathy for Elizabeth, because she made those decisions as a mother, not as a queen.

“Can we blame her?’’ she asked. “I’m not sure.”

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MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday she would demand explanations after four U.S. Embassy and Mexican officials died in an accident over the weekend, adding she had been unaware of collaboration between the U.S. and the local government in northern Chihuahua.

Sheinbaum said she wanted to ensure no laws were broken after Sunday’s deaths, which the state attorney general said occurred while the officials were returning from an operation to destroy clandestine laboratories in a rural area.

“It was not an operation that the security cabinet was aware of,” Sheinbaum told journalists. “We were not informed; it was a decision by the Chihuahua government.” She said they must have authorization from the federal government for such collaboration at the state level “as established by the Constitution.”

There has been escalating pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump for the Sheinbaum administration to crack down on cartels. His government has launched joint military operations in Ecuador.

Chihuahua Attorney General César Jáuregui said Sunday the officials died while returning from the operation to destroy labs of criminal groups that likely were used to produce drugs. The four who died were two investigative officials with the local government and two embassy instructors Jáuregui said were participating in a routine training.

Officials provided few details about the incident. U.S. Ambassador Ronald Johnson expressed his condolences on social media but didn’t specify his colleagues’ roles.

Sheinbaum said more information would be provided once all details are gathered, but insisted that “there are no joint operations on land or in the air,” only mutual sharing of information between her government and the U.S., carried out within a “well-established” legal framework.

Sheinbaum said she intends to facilitate a meeting between Johnson and Mexico’s foreign minister on Monday.

While U.S. training of Mexican security forces is common, their presence on Mexican territory has been the subject of ongoing debate, which has intensified after Trump’s military actions in Venezuela and Iran.

The most recent controversy surfaced in January over the detention in Mexico of former Canadian athlete Ryan Wedding, one of the United States’ most wanted fugitives. While Mexican officials claim he surrendered at the U.S. Embassy, U.S. authorities have described his capture as the result of a binational operation.

Sheinbaum’s comments came as the second round of negotiations between the United States and Mexico on the North American free trade agreement, the USMCA, begins in Mexico City. The U.S. delegation is led by Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who was scheduled to meet with the president on Monday.

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Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

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ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan moved ahead Monday with preparations for a new round of talks between the United States and Iran two days before a tenuous ceasefire is set to expire, even as renewed conflict around the Strait of Hormuz raised questions about whether the meeting would take place.

Over the weekend, the U.S. attacked and seized an Iranian-flagged cargo vessel that it said had tried to evade its blockade of Iranian ports. Iran’s joint military command vowed to respond, and its foreign minister, Abbas Aragchi, told his Pakistani counterpart that American threats to Iranian ships and ports were “clear signs” of Washington’s disingenuousness ahead of the planned talks, Iran state media reported.

With tensions flaring and the ceasefire due to expire midweek, Pakistan pushed for talks to resume Tuesday as planned. Pakistan said Monday that Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi held separate meetings in Islamabad with the Iranian ambassador and the acting U.S. ambassador to discuss arrangements.

Iran throttled traffic through the strait, which connects the Persian Gulf to the open seas, shortly after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28 to start the war. The U.S. has also instituted a blockade of Iranian ports. Roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil trade normally passes through the strait.

Meanwhile, historic diplomatic talks between Israel and Lebanon were set to resume Thursday in Washington, an Israeli official and a U.S. official said. Both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the behind-the-scenes talks.

There was no immediate confirmation from Lebanon.

The Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors met last week for the first direct diplomatic talks in decades. Israel says the talks are aimed at disarming Hezbollah and reaching a peace agreement with Lebanon.

A 10-day ceasefire began Friday in Lebanon, where fighting between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants broke out two days after the U.S. and Israel launched their war on Iran.

Mediators said fighting in Lebanon, which has killed more than 2,290 people, was undermining efforts to end the conflict between Iran and the U.S.

Hezbollah opposes the talks but has observed the ceasefire.

U.S. President Donald Trump told Bloomberg News he was “highly unlikely” to renew the two-week ceasefire with Iran.

The New York Post reported that Trump said in a phone interview that Vice President JD Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, were returning to the Pakistani capital on Monday.

“They’re heading over now,” Trump was quoted as saying.

However, Vance’s motorcade pulled up to the White House late Monday morning after Trump’s comments were published, indicating the vice president had not left Washington.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told reporters in Tehran on Monday that there were no plans yet to attend the talks with the U.S. But at the same time, he did not rule it out.

Two Pakistani officials said Monday that Iran has expressed a willingness to send a delegation to Islamabad. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

Over the weekend, Iran said it had received new proposals from the U.S. but suggested that a wide gap remained between the sides. Issues that derailed the last round of negotiations included Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, its regional proxies and the Strait of Hormuz.

Since the war started, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran, according to a new toll released Monday in official Iranian media by Abbas Masjedi, the head of Iran’s Legal Medicine Organization. He did not break down casualties among civilians and security forces, instead just saying that 2,875 were male and 496 were female. Masjedi said 383 of the dead were children 18 years old and under.

Additionally, 23 people have died in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and 13 U.S. service members throughout the region have been killed.

Iran’s grip on the strait has also sent oil prices skyrocketing and given rise to one of the worst global energy crises in decades.

Oil prices recovered slightly following Iran’s announcement that the strait was being reopened following the Lebanon ceasefire announcement.

But then Trump said the U.S. blockade “will remain in full force” until Tehran reaches a deal with Washington. The U.S. military said Monday it has directed 27 ships to return to Iranian ports since the blockade began last week. The U.S. seizure of an Iranian cargo ship Sunday was the first interception under the blockade.

Iran’s joint military command called the armed boarding an act of piracy and a ceasefire violation, the state broadcaster said, and vowed to again enforce restrictions imposed early in the war. Iran on Saturday fired at ships trying to transit.

Oil prices were up again in trading on Monday, with Brent crude, the international standard, at about $93 a barrel — up from about $70 a barrel before the war started.

Iran early Monday warned it could keep up the global economic pain as ships remained unable to transit the strait, with hundreds of vessels waiting at each end for clearance.

“The choice is clear: either a free oil market for all, or the risk of significant costs for everyone,” Mohammad Reza Aref, first vice president of Iran, said in a social media post.

In other developments, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the defacing of a statue of Jesus Christ by an Israeli soldier in Lebanon, saying he was “stunned and saddened.”

Photos surfaced over the weekend of the soldier using a sledgehammer to smash the head of a toppled Jesus statue. The Israeli military confirmed the images were genuine, setting off a wave of condemnation.

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Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Rising from Bangkok. Associated Press journalists Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel; Josef Federman in Jerusalem; Joshua Boak and Matthew Lee in Washington and Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed to this report.

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By Pesha Magid

SA-NUR, West Bank, April 20 (Reuters) – A Palestinian village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank received demolition orders for 15 shops on Monday, a day after Israeli ministers celebrated the reestablishment of a settlement on a neighbouring hill.

Israel’s ruling far-right coalition has supported a rapid expansion of settlements and Palestinians have received thousands of demolition orders since the government took power, according to U.N. data.

The release of the latest order was for Al-Fandaqumiya, according to a local official.

It comes after Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar gathered on Sunday to celebrate the reestablishment of a settlement in neighbouring Sa-Nur.

Sa-Nur settlement, in the northern West Bank, was one of 19 settlements evacuated under a 2005 disengagement plan, which also included Israel’s withdrawal of settlers from Gaza – a move that remains a source of bitterness for Israel’s right.

ACCESS TO LAND

Palestinians have long hoped that the West Bank would form the heart of a future state, but settlement expansion has fragmented the territory.

Most of the world considers Israel’s settlement activity in the West Bank illegal under international law. Israel disputes this.

Israel has approved 102 new settlements under the current government, compared with a total of 127 settlements existing before it was elected, according to Israeli rights group Peace Now.

Refaat Qaruriya, the head of the village council for the nearby Al-Fandaqumiya, said the demolition orders gave shopkeepers a month’s notice. He added Sa-Nur would make life difficult for village residents, who worried they would no longer be able to access their lands.

The Israeli military said that demolition orders were because the stores were constructed without permits, and the timing was unrelated to Sa-Nur.

Palestinians say such permits are virtually impossible for them to obtain.

“This development (in Sa-Nur) raises serious concerns regarding further escalation, restrictions on Palestinian access to land, and the deepening of a de facto annexation reality,” Amir Daoud, a Palestinian Authority official, said in a statement to Reuters.

Smotrich has called for the annexation of the West Bank, and said he wants the “maximum territory and minimum (Palestinian) population” to be brought under Israeli sovereignty.

Smotrich also called at Sunday’s ceremony for Israel to settle “all of Gaza”, as well as the areas it occupies in Lebanon and Syria.

Israel is set to hold an election by the end of October. Katz’s Likud party and Smotrich’s Religious Zionism faction have both been sliding in the polls and both draw support from settlers.

“It’s clear that the whole land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel, period. About what to do with the Arabs, I don’t have an answer to what to do with them – the land belongs to us,” said Meir Goldmintz, a settler and new resident of Sa-Nur.

Since the start of 2026, at least 580 settler attacks against Palestinians have been recorded, with at least 1,800 people displaced as a result of violence and access restrictions, according to U.N. figures.

Human Rights Watch has described the intensifying violence and displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank as ethnic cleansing enabled by the Israeli state, a charge Israel rejects.

Israeli indictments of settler violence are rare, according to Israeli rights group Yesh Din.

(Reporting by Pesha Magid, Ali Sawafta, and Omri Taasan; Editing by Alison Williams)

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BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) — Slovakia will hold a referendum this summer to decide whether to cancel lifelong payments for populist Prime Minister Robert Fico and other leaders after their terms in office expire, the country’s president said Monday.

According to President Peter Pellegrini, the vote is set for July 4. Slovaks will at the same time also vote on whether to reopen the office of the special prosecutor that used to deal with major crime and corruption.

The referendum follows a petition organized by the Democrats, a non-parliamentary pro-Western opposition party, and signed by more than 350,000 citizens, the threshold required by law.

However, Pellegrini said the referendum would not ask people whether they support an early parliamentary election. Based on a 2021 ruling by the country’s highest legal authority, the Constitutional Court, such a question is unconstitutional, he said.

Slovak prime ministers and parliament speakers who served at least two terms in office receive a lifelong payment — a monthly sum that equals the salaries of lawmakers in Parliament — as part of measures to boost security for leading politicians.

The payments were introduced following a 2024 assassination attempt on Fico, who was shot and gravely wounded at a pre-election event, shocking the small country and reverberating across Europe. Before, the benefit was provided only to former presidents.

Later in 2024, Slovak lawmakers approved a plan by Fico’s coalition government to abolish the special prosecutors’ office, which handles serious crimes such as graft, organized crime and extremism.

The legislation faced sharp criticism at home and abroad while thousands of Slovaks repeatedly took to the streets to protest the law. A number of people linked to Fico’s party faced prosecution in corruption scandals.

Only one referendum in Slovakia’s history — the 2003 vote on the country’s European Union membership — was successful. Others failed due to low turnout.

Fico has been a divisive figure since returning to power in 2023. His pro-Russian and other policies prompted numerous protests.

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BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungarian election winner Péter Magyar on Monday announced the first round of his incoming government’s Cabinet members, including nominees for ministers of foreign affairs, finance and economy, following the first meeting of his party’s parliamentary group.

Magyar and his center-right Tisza party defeated Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in a landslide election on April 12, securing a two-thirds majority in Hungary’s next parliament which will make it possible to undo many of the policies Orbán implemented during his 16 years in power.

The opposition leader has vowed to restore democratic institutions and the rule of law which eroded under Orbán’s rule, and to hold accountable those who he says were responsible for overseeing and benefiting from widespread official corruption.

Magyar’s party gained 141 seats out of 199 in parliament — the largest majority in Hungary’s post-Communist history. Orbán’s far-right, euroskeptic Fidesz party will control 52 seats, down from 135 before the election.

At a news conference in Budapest on Monday, Magyar, who is expected to take over as prime minister from Orbán, said the number of ministries will be increased to 16 from the current 12.

He revealed several of his party’s nominees including Anita Orbán, who is not related to the prime minister, for minister of foreign affairs, István Kapitány for minister of economy and energy and András Kármán for minister of finance.

His party, Magyar said, would create a government “that will be worthy of the Hungarian people’s trust.”

Magyar has vowed to conduct a major overhaul of much of Hungary’s governmental structure, and to create separate ministries for health, environmental protection and education that did not exist under Orbán.

The new parliament’s inaugural session will take place on May 9 or 10, Magyar said, after which it will immediately elect a prime minister. The confirmation of cabinet appointments will occur in the following days, he added.

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ISTANBUL (AP) — A court in southern Turkey sentenced eight people on Monday to prison terms over a 2024 cable car accident in the coastal resort of Antalya that killed one passenger and injured seven.

Four of the defendants were convicted of causing death and injury through negligence and were sentenced to 7½ years each, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported. The other four were sentenced to between three years and four months and five years for the same offense.

In the April 12, 2024 accident, one of the cable car gondolas hit a pole and burst open, sending its passengers plummeting to the rocks below. The cable car system then shut down, leaving 174 people stranded in their gondolas high above ground — some for nearly 23 hours — before they were rescued.

The cable car carries tourists from Konyaalti Beach to a restaurant and viewing platform at the summit of the 618-meter (2,010-foot) Tunektepe peak. The accident happened during the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Most of the defendants in the case were employees were employees of ANET, a subsidiary of Antalya Metropolitan Municipality that operates the cable car in the Mediterranean city.

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LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will try on Monday to get a grip on a crisis that has left power slipping from his grasp.

Starmer will face a tough barrage of questions in Parliament when he stands up to explain why Peter Mandelson, a scandal-tarnished politician and friend of Jeffrey Epstein, became Britain’s ambassador to Washington despite failing security checks — and seemingly without Starmer being told about the concerns.

The revelation has left furious opponents calling for Starmer to resign and uneasy allies wondering what else the nation’s leader didn’t know about.

Starmer repeatedly told lawmakers that “due process” was followed when Mandelson was appointed. He now says he’s “furious” that he wasn’t informed that an intensive vetting process had recommended Mandelson not be given security clearance. The Foreign Office, which oversees diplomatic appointments, cleared him anyway.

Starmer fired the department’s top civil servant, Olly Robbins, within hours of the revelation by The Guardian last week. But allies of Robbins say he would never have been able to share sensitive vetting information with the prime minister.

Robbins is expected to give his own version of events to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday.

All the main opposition parties have called on Starmer to resign. Right-of-center Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said in the Mail on Sunday that he had “misled Parliament over Mandelson, misled the country and is taking the public for fools.”

Ed Davey, leader of the opposition Liberal Democrats, said Starmer had “showed catastrophic misjudgment.”

Senior government colleagues have defended the prime minister. Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy said that if Starmer had known about the failed security vetting, “he would never, ever have appointed him ambassador.”

But lawmakers in Starmer’s center-left Labour Party, already anxious about the party’s dire poll ratings, are restive. Starmer has already defused one potential crisis in February, when some Labour lawmakers urged him to resign over the Mandelson appointment.

He could face a new challenge is, as expected, Labour takes a hammering in local and regional elections on May 7, which give voters a chance to pass a midterm verdict on the government.

Critics say the Mandelson appointment is more evidence of a failure of judgment by a prime minister who has made repeated missteps since he led Labour to a landslide election victory in July 2024. Starmer has struggled to deliver promised economic growth, repair tattered public services and ease the cost of living, and has been forced into repeated policy U-turns.

He picked Mandelson for one of Britain’s most important diplomatic jobs despite being warned by his staff that Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein, who died in prison in 2019, exposed the government to “reputational risk.”

Mandelson’s business links to Russia and China also set off alarm bells. But his expertise as a former European Union trade chief and contacts among global elites were considered assets in dealing with President Donald Trump’s administration.

He lasted less than nine months in the job. Starmer fired Mandelson in September 2025 after evidence emerged that he had lied about the extent of his links to Epstein.

A trove of Epstein-related documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice in January included emails suggesting Mandelson had passed on sensitive, and potentially market-moving, government information to Epstein in 2009 after the global financial crisis.

British police launched a criminal probe and arrested Mandelson in February on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Mandelson has previously denied wrongdoing and hasn’t been charged. He does not face allegations of sexual misconduct.

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PARIS (AP) — Elon Musk has been summoned to Paris on Monday, where investigators are looking into allegations of misconduct related to the social media platform X, including the spread of child sexual abuse material and deepfake content.

The world’s richest man and Linda Yaccarino — the former CEO of X — have been summoned for “voluntary interviews,” while other employees of the platform are scheduled to be heard as witnesses throughout this week, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.

It remains unclear whether Musk and Yaccarino will travel to Paris. A spokesperson for X did not respond to questions from The Associated Press and Yaccarino’s current company, eMed, did not answer a request sent to the press email.

Musk was summoned after a search took place in February at the French premises of X as part of an investigation opened in January 2025 by the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office. Musk and Yaccarino have been invited in their capacities as managers of X at the time of the events investigated. Yaccarino was CEO from May 2023 until July 2025.

“These voluntary interviews with the executives are intended to allow them to present their position regarding the facts and, where appropriate, the compliance measures they plan to implement,” prosecutors said. “At this stage, the conduct of this investigation is part of a constructive approach, with the ultimate objective of ensuring that platform X complies with French law, insofar as it operates within the national territory.”

Asked whether Musk would risk sanctions if he skipped the hearing, the Paris prosecutor’s office declined to comment.

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 the platform’s AI system, Grok, generated posts that allegedly denied the Holocaust, a crime in France, and spread sexually explicit deepfakes.

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.

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

Grok also 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.

In March, the Paris prosecutor’s office alerted the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) — the U.S. federal agency responsible for regulating and overseeing financial markets — suggesting “that the controversy surrounding sexually explicit deepfakes generated by Grok may have been deliberately orchestrated to artificially boost the value of the companies X and xAI — potentially constituting criminal offenses,” prosecutors said.

The Paris prosecutor’s office said this could have been done “ahead of the planned June 2026 stock market listing of the new entity formed by the merger of Space X and xAI, at a time when company X was clearly losing momentum.”

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Justice Department told French law enforcement authorities it wouldn’t facilitate their efforts to investigate Musk’s X. The newspaper reported that the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs, in a two-page letter last week, accused the French of inappropriately using its justice system to interfere with an American business.

“This investigation seeks to use the criminal legal system in France to regulate a public square for the free expression of ideas and opinions in a manner contrary to the First Amendment of the United States Constitution,” said the letter quoted by The Wall Street Journal.

The letter also said France’s requests for U.S. assistance “constitute an effort to entangle the United States in a politically charged criminal proceeding aimed at wrongfully regulating through prosecution the business activities of a social media platform.”

French judicial authorities didn’t respond to requests for comments.

Meanwhile, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said it has lodged a new complaint against X with the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office, It “targets the platform’s policies that allow disinformation to flourish,” RSF said, accusing the U.S. billionaire’s company of repeated violations of the public’s right to reliable information.

“Disinformation campaigns are flooding X, some of which have accumulated several hundred thousand views. Although the staff at Elon Musk’s platform are well aware of the situation, this has not stopped them from responding to RSF’s repeated alerts with automated refusals to remove the content in question,” RSF said. “This is a deliberate policy instated by X, and it is incompatible with the public’s right to reliable information.”

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Associated Press reporter Kelvin Chan in London contributed to this story.

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