By BINAJ GURUBACHARYA

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — A Nepali political party led by an ex-rapper is set for a landslide victory in the country’s first parliamentary election since Gen Z protests ousted the old leadership that has ruled the Himalayan nation for decades.

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The Rastriya Swatantra, or National Independent Party, formed only four years ago, had already won 117 of 165 directly elected seats and led in eight other constituencies in the results published Sunday morning by Nepal’s Election Commission.

Other political parties and independent candidates had won 36 seats in total so far. Officials were still counting the votes Sunday and final results were expected later in the week.

The party’s prime ministerial candidate is rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah, who won the 2022 Kathmandu mayoral race. He emerged as a leading figure in the 2025 uprising that ousted former Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli.

In Nepal, voters directly elect 165 members to the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of Parliament. The remaining 110 seats in the 275-member body are allocated through a proportional representation system, under which political parties are assigned seats based on their share of the vote. On Sunday, RSP also led that, with about 51% of the 110 seats.

The relatively new RSP has unseated the two long-dominant parties: the Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist), who have taken turns ruling the country.

Local papers called the sweeping win a historic moment. “RSP set for a landslide victory,” said the popular Himalayan Times. “People’s ballot revolt; shift in political paradigm,” said Annapurna Post.

RSP supporters have been celebrating the win in several constituencies, offering the winners flower garlands, bouquets, scarves and smearing them with red vermilion powder.

“The future prime minister (Shah) has clearly spoken that there will be no compromise when it comes to developing the country,” said RSP party member and volunteer Khagendra Chapagain, who was at the party headquarters in Kathmandu. “Our first agenda is to develop nation, and focus will be to work for health, education and the fight against corruption.”

The party officials, however, have asked their candidates and supporters to refrain from victory rallies or any other public celebrations out of respect for the dozens of lives lost during last year’s youth-led protests.

In Nepal, voters get two ballot papers, one to choose a candidate of their choice who is usually a political party nominee and the other to choose a party they prefer.

RSP clearly has more than half the directly elected seats and the results of the second ballot also show the party has more than 50% of the votes in its favor. They require the support of half the total number of members in the lower chamber of Parliament to form a government.

Analysts say the party would have comfortable numbers in the parliament to form a single-party government but faces challenges running the government.

“The problem or challenge with this new party would be to deliver things, given the limited resources and the limited institutional support. Because people have high expectations, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the new party can fulfill it,” said Keshab Prasad Poudel, an independent analyst.

Last year’s protests against corruption and poor governance were triggered by a social media ban before snowballing into a popular revolt against the government. Dozens were killed and hundreds wounded when protesters attacked government buildings and police opened fire on them.

By BECKY BOHRER

Travelers complained of long waits Sunday — lasting hours in some cases — at security checkpoints at airports in Houston and New Orleans, which officials blamed on a government shutdown of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

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The estimated wait time at the standard security checkpoint at the William P. Hobby Airport in Houston early Sunday evening was at one point three hours, according to the Houston Airports website. The Hobby airport on social media Friday said it expected more travelers than normal due to spring break.

In a series of posts Sunday, the airport on X went from urging travelers to arrive early to asking them to arrive 3 to 4 hours before their flights to eventually asking them to arrive 4 to 5 hours early to allow extra time for screening, citing the partial government shutdown.

A statement from Houston Airports, which counts Hobby and George Bush Intercontinental Airport as part of its system, said the shutdown “can impact security operations day-to-day and shift-to-shift.” Wait times at checkpoints at George Bush Intercontinental Airport early Sunday evening were as brief as a few minutes.

Posts on X from Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport on Sunday said a shortage of TSA agents at the security checkpoint was leading to “longer-than-average” lines. The airport urged travelers to arrive at least three hours before their flights and said wait times could last up to two hours. It warned similar delays could continue through the coming week.

It’s not immediately clear if the delays in Houston and New Orleans were happening at other airports around the country. Sunday’s longer-than-usual wait times came on top of flight delays in recent days in places like Atlanta due to weather.

Agents with the U.S. Transportation Security Administration are expected to work without pay during the ongoing shutdown of the department, which began Feb. 14. Democratic lawmakers have said DHS won’t get funded until new restrictions are placed on federal immigration operations following the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis earlier this year.

Chris Sununu, president and CEO of Airlines for America, a trade group for U.S. airlines, in a statement urged Congress and the Trump administration to act.

“We are in spring break travel season and expecting record numbers of people to take to the skies. Airlines have done their part to prepare; now Congress and the administration must act with urgency to reach a deal that reopens DHS and ends this shutdown,” he said. “America’s transportation security workforce is too important to be used as political leverage.”

Jessica Andersen Alexie and her two children, 10 and 13, were among the travelers caught in the long lines at Hobby in Houston as they tried to return home to New Orleans. They had been in Houston for the World Baseball Classic.

Alexie said they arrived 3 hours early to find a long line and realized they would not make their flight. While in line, she checked rental cars to see if driving home might be an option but couldn’t find any available. She was able to rebook for a late-night flight and felt relieved to get through the CLEAR security line after about 3 1/2 hours.

When they finally sat down to eat, she decided to take another look at available flights, on the chance that others in line had to cancel and rearrange their plans, and found three seats on a flight that got her family home Sunday afternoon. When they landed at the New Orleans airport, the line extended out to the parking garage, she said.

“It was nuts,” she said. “It was crazy.”

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ 

NEW YORK — New York City’s police commissioner said Monday that authorities are investigating whether men who brought improvised explosive devices to a protest outside New York City’s mayoral residence were inspired by ISIS.

The devices, which did not explode, were hurled during raucous counterprotests Saturday near Gracie Mansion during a “Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City” event led by the far right activist Jake Lang. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the explosives could have caused serious injury or death.

Two people are in custody for their alleged roles in the confrontation but they have not been charged, Tisch said during a news conference. Police are working with federal prosecutors and the FBI, which has assigned agents with the bureau’s Joint Terrorism Task Force to the investigation.

“I can confirm this morning that this is being investigated as an act of ISIS-inspired terrorism,” Tisch said.

The two have not been charged. Tisch said police were working with federal prosecutors and the FBI on the case. The FBI said agents with the bureau’s Joint Terrorism Task Force were participating in the investigation. She said investigators have found no apparent link to Iran or the war.

“At this time, we do not have any information that connects this investigation to what’s going on overseas in Iran,” Tisch said.

The sparsely attended protest Saturday drew a far larger group of counterdemonstrators, including one person who police say tossed a smoking object containing nuts, bolts, screws and a “hobby fuse” into the crowd.

The device extinguished itself steps from police officers, Tisch noted. The same person who threw it then dropped a second device that did not appear to ignite, the commissioner said.

On Saturday, authorities said they “identified a suspicious device in a vehicle on East End Avenue between 81st Street and 82nd Street.” Several streets were closed and nearby buildings were evacuated. Around 7 p.m., police used a flatbed truck to remove a Honda Civic and the streets were reopened.

Lang was charged with assaulting an officer with a baseball bat, civil disorder and other crimes for his part in the Jan. 6 insurrection but was freed from prison as part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping act of clemency. Lang recently announced that he is running for U.S. Senate in Florida.

Earlier this year, he organized a rally in Minneapolis in support of Trump’s immigration crackdown, drawing an angry crowd of counterprotesters that quickly chased him away.

Associated Press reporters Jennifer Peltz and David Collins in New York contributed.

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By KAREEM CHEHAYEB NATALIE MELZER and BASSEM MROUE

BEIRUT (AP) — The Lebanese parliament extended its term by two years on Monday due to the U.S.-Israel war with Iran, which has pushed the region into an escalating conflict, and Israel stepping up its attacks on Lebanon following renewed strikes with the militant group Hezbollah.

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The Israeli military said Monday it was targeting Hezbollah’s financial arm, al-Qard Al-Hasan, as its ground forces in Lebanon’s south launched “focused raids” against what it called the group’s infrastructure.

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch has accused Israeli forces of using white phosphorus incendiary shells in strikes on residential areas in a Lebanese village in violation of international law.

Two more years for the current Lebanese parliament

Lebanon’s state news agency said 76 legislators voted in favor of the decision, 41 were against, and four abstained. Hezbollah’s 13-member bloc in parliament voted in favor of the extension.

The ongoing war with Israel that began last week has displaced over half a million people in Lebanon and made it difficult to hold a vote in large parts of the country.

The parliamentary elections were scheduled for May.

Israel attacks Hezbollah’s financial arm in Beirut, forcing people to flee

Residents of Beirut’s southern suburb, widely known as Dahiyeh, were ordered to evacuate before Israel launched strikes.

Smoke billowed over Beirut after the attacks. The first strike destroyed a building housing an office of al-Qard al-Hasan in the southern suburb of Chiyah. A Lebanese journalist on site told The Associated Press he was wounded in the leg and taken to a nearby hospital. Video footage showed what appeared to be two strikes on the building that were minutes apart.

The strikes on Chiyah were followed by more airstrikes on nearby areas, forcing Lebanese troops to close roads where al-Qard al-Hasan branches are located to ensure people’s safety.

Israel says Hezbollah uses al-Qard al-Hasan to finance its military activities and has targeted several of the group’s branches in southern and eastern Lebanon last week.

Israeli ground forces start ‘focused raid’ in southern Lebanon

In southern Lebanon, the Israeli military said it launched a “focused raid” to eliminate Hezbollah operatives and infrastructure using a brigade combat team under the command of the 36th Division.

The military said before they initiated the operation, its forces launched a combined air and ground attack in the area.

Hezbollah, meanwhile, said it struck Israeli troops inside Lebanon with anti-tank missiles and that it fired a volley of rockets on the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona in retaliation for Israeli strikes on cities, towns and villages in Lebanon.

The group also said it had repelled an attempted Israeli helicopter landing in the eastern town of Nabi Chit, in the same area where a commando force landed two days earlier to search for the remains of Ron Arad, an Israeli navigator who has been missing for nearly 40 years after crashing in Lebanon.

The Israeli army said it was “not aware” of another attempted landing.

Tensions between Hezbollah and Lebanese government flare up

The latest round of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah beganon Feb. 2 when the group fired rockets and drones on northern Israel following the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei two days earlier in a joint U.S.-Israeli strike. Israel retaliated with large waves of airstrikes and Israeli troops captured several new posts in southern Lebanon.

The Lebanese government last week declared Hezbollah’s military activities illegal and ordered the country’s security forces to detain those who were behind the strikes on Israel.

Three Hezbollah members were also detained last week while carrying weapons on their way to southern Lebanon and were questioned by judicial authorities. On Monday, the military court in Beirut ordered them released on a $20 bail each, judicial officials said.

The officials said the judge asked the three men what they were doing and they responded that they were heading to southern Lebanon to fight against Israeli forces. They spoke in condition of anonymity as they are not allowed to speak to the media.

Human Rights Watch says Israel used white phosphorus shells in strikes on Lebanon

The human rights group said in a report Monday the Israeli military “unlawfully” hit a village in southern Lebanon with shells containing white phosphorus, a controversial incendiary munition.

Through geolocating and verifying seven images, Human Rights Watch said Israel fired white phosphorus using artillery at residential areas in the southern Lebanese village of Yohmor. It happened hours after the Israeli military warned the residents of the village and dozens of others in southern Lebanon to evacuate.

Human Rights Watch said it couldn’t independently identify if any residents were still in the area or if anyone was harmed.

The Israeli military said in a statement that it is “currently unaware and cannot confirm use of shells that contain white phosphorous in Lebanon as claimed.” It added that any weapons that contain white phosphorus are used in line with international law.

Human rights advocates say the use of white phosphorus is illegal under international law when the white-hot chemical substance is fired into populated areas. It can set buildings on fire and burn human flesh down to the bone. Survivors are at risk of infections and organ or respiratory failure, even if their burns are small.

“The Israeli military’s unlawful use of white phosphorus over residential areas is extremely alarming and will have dire consequences for civilians,” said Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch.

Organizations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said the munition was used in Israel’s last war with Hezbollah, over a year ago, on numerous occasions in southern Lebanon, while civilians were still present.

Melzer reported from Nahariya, Israel.