Scientists have pieced together the long-hidden story of how life changed in one part of Europe after the Roman Empire collapsed.

An international research team sequenced the DNA of 314 people who lived on the Little Hungarian Plain between the third and sixth centuries.

The remains, dating from around 1,400 to 1,800 years ago, were excavated from seven cemeteries in present-day northwestern Hungary.

By comparing individuals buried under Roman rule with those laid to rest after the empire’s fall, the researchers tracked a dramatic shift in the region’s population.

Most Roman-period graves held people with southern European ancestry, although some individuals also had roots linked to Asia and Africa.

Later burials, however, revealed a substantial increase in northern European ancestry and genetic connections to communities farther north. The findings indicate that newcomers entered the former Roman province and intermarried with local people.

Archaeological clues suggest that many of these arrivals were Lombards, who came over a period of several years rather than as a single vast invading force, before going on to conquer much of Italy.

DNA evidence also identified clusters of close relatives within the cemeteries, pointing to the emergence of influential families that helped shape a new society in the aftermath of Roman rule.

From its founding in 625 BC until its fall in AD 476, the Roman Empire conquered and incorporated dozens of cultures.

The findings challenge the traditional image of isolated bands of barbarians seizing Europe as the Western Roman Empire disintegrated.

Historians have long struggled to understand this turbulent period because the kingdoms that replaced Roman rule left behind few written records.

Much of what is known came from Roman accounts, meaning the story was largely told from the perspective of the people who had lost control of the territory.

The new study, published in Science, allowed researchers to reconstruct what happened by combining ancient DNA with archaeological evidence recovered from graves.

Scientists examined 68 people from two Roman-era sites and 246 from five post-Roman cemeteries across the Little Hungarian Plain, an area in present-day northwestern Hungary.

Under Roman rule, communities there were connected through a dense network of roads, settlements and trade.

Most residents had ancestry associated with southern Europe, but the genetic links to Asia and Africa showed that people had traveled to the frontier region from across the vast empire.

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That picture changed significantly after Roman authority weakened.

The post-Roman graves contained a sharp increase in northern European ancestry, with genetic connections linking the dead to populations living farther north.

Researchers said this change most likely reflected the expansion of the Lombards from north of the Danube into former Roman lands.

However, the genetic evidence did not point to a single mass migration or the total replacement of the local population.

Instead, it revealed years of sustained movement in which individuals and families traveled into the region, settled there and interacted with people whose ancestors had lived under Roman rule.

The newcomers eventually emerged as the dominant political power, but local residents continued to play a role in forming the new communities.

The cemeteries also revealed that these people had not simply established scattered rural settlements in the ruins of the empire.

Although the communities shared similar ancestry, burial traditions and grave goods, they were organized in different ways.

Some graves contained clusters of close biological relatives, suggesting that influential families held power and status within particular settlements.

Those families appear to have formed wider networks connecting multiple communities and helping establish a new Lombard political system.

The result was a diverse but deeply hierarchical society shaped by migration, intermarriage, family ties and cooperation, not simply conquest.

The research was conducted through the HistoGenes project, an international collaboration between geneticists, archaeologists, historians and anthropologists.

Lead authors Yijie Tian of Stony Brook University and István Koncz of Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary combined the genetic findings with objects, burial customs and other evidence discovered at the sites.

Patrick Geary, a professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study and co-leader of the project, said its work showed that population movements after Rome were far more complicated than previously believed.

‘The project has revealed both gradual and localized forms of movement across short and long distances, as well as rapid, large-scale population shifts from Eastern Asia into the Carpathian Basin,’ Geary said.

‘It has also demonstrated that material culture and genetic ancestry do not necessarily coincide and has illuminated the diverse ways newcomers integrated into existing populations.’

Cassie Ventura made a rare public appearance in the UK alongside her husband, Alex Fine, after the pair relocated from the United States earlier this year.

The “Long Way 2 Go” singer joined Fine at the Season 2 red carpet premiere for “MobLand” at London’s Odeon Luxe Leicester Square on Thursday.

Ventura, 40, stepped out in a gray bustier dress paired with brown pointed-toe pumps.

Fine, 33, opted for a black knit sweater, coordinating pants and matching shoes.

The fitness instructor and actor plays Donnie in the crime drama, which also stars Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan, Paddy Considine and Helen Mirren.

Ventura and Fine, who share three children, had largely stayed out of the public eye since she testified last year in the racketeering and sex trafficking case involving her former partner, Sean “Diddy” Combs.

In May, Page Six confirmed that Ventura had filed paperwork indicating she left the United States.

“I reside outside of the United States. I do not intend to move back to the United States,” she wrote in court documents.

The next month, Us Weekly reported that Ventura was living a “very ‘normal’ life” and concentrating on “family, routines and being present.”

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“At the end of the day, her biggest priority is her kids,” an insider told the outlet.

The source added that the “Me & U” singer “wants to be a strong, healthy example for [her kids] and show them what it looks like to choose yourself, set boundaries and move forward even after really difficult experiences. “

During her May 2025 testimony against Combs, Ventura told the New York City jury of the alleged years of abuse she suffered during her relationship with the disgraced music mogul, which lasted from 2007 until 2018.

The mom of three claimed Combs, 56, raped and abused her and forced a male escort to urinate in her mouth during a “Freak-Off” party.

Before the trial, Ventura filed a bombshell lawsuit against Combs in 2023 that was settled 24 hours later.

Combs was ultimately found guilty of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution — and acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering charges.

The rapper is serving time at New Jersey’s Fort Dix Federal Correctional Institution. His current release date is Feb. 5, 2028.

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential support.

If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-330-0226.

At sundown Friday, Sept. 11, as the nation observes 25 years since the terrorist attacks that claimed nearly 3,000 lives, Jewish families nationwide will begin Rosh Hashanah, welcoming the year 5787.

As they head to synagogues during one of the busiest periods on the Jewish calendar, worshippers will encounter armed guards, surveillance cameras, reinforced entrances and bag inspections.

That overlap underscores the lasting effect of the Sept. 11 attacks on synagogue security in America, as well as the growth of a nationwide system dedicated to safeguarding Jewish institutions and communities.

When Rosh Hashanah arrived just six days after the 2001 attacks, seeing a guard outside a synagogue remained uncommon. A quarter-century later, heightened security is not an occasional measure but an enduring part of Jewish communal life.

“The confluence of events, the 25th anniversary of 9/11 and Rosh Hashanah, is really very meaningful to us,” Eric Fingerhut, president and CEO of Jewish Federations of North America, told News Media. “If you trace the evolution of the security situation for the Jewish community in North America, you see that 9/11 really was a major turning point.”

Before 9/11, Fingerhut said, synagogues might have asked police to manage High Holiday traffic or depended on simple alarm systems. But there was no broad expectation that Jewish institutions required protection against direct physical threats.

“That changed on 9/11,” he said. “The Jewish community understood quite clearly that the people who attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacking America that day, but they had a special animus for the Jewish community and the Jewish people.”

Fingerhut said that shift led Jewish Federations of North America to help create the Secure Community Network after 9/11, giving communities a model for protecting Jewish institutions and a unified channel to federal law enforcement.

For generations, Rosh Hashanah preparation meant apples and honey, prayer books and the shofar. Now the checklist also includes secured entrances, emergency plans and congregants standing watch while their neighbors pray.

The price of that new reality is staggering.

A national study by Jewish Federations of North America found that Jewish communal institutions spend an estimated $1 billion annually on security. Based on an examination of more than 4,500 institutions, that amounts to nearly $2.8 million every day simply to keep Jewish life open and accessible.

The organization leads the national initiative placing professional security directors across all 141 Federation communities.

Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz, senior rabbi of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, described the contrast on his own block.

“If you walk past the churches on our block, the doors are wide open, inviting people in,” Steinmetz told News Media. “But at our synagogue, there are security cameras, a double door system and a line of guards outside, at the cost of untold thousands of dollars.”

That security is no longer reserved for major institutions or large cities. From New York and Florida to Michigan and Los Angeles, ordinary worshipers are training in situational awareness, access control, surveillance detection, emergency response and coordination with law enforcement.

The Community Security Service, or CSS, said more than 20,000 people completed its training in 2025. Of those, 6,100 volunteers protected 440 synagogues and nearly 100 Jewish events, logging more than 300,000 guard hours across 24 states.

The Secure Community Network (SCN) provides national intelligence and coordination. In 2025, it recorded 4,400 incident reports, trained 40,000 people and made 851 referrals to law enforcement.

“While the threat environment accelerates, our community has never been more prepared, informed or engaged,” Michael Masters, SCN’s national director and CEO, told News Media. “This year our Duty Desk logged nearly 3,200 threat incidents, pacing ahead of last year.”

Steinmetz said threats to the Jewish community “exploded after Oct. 7th,” adding that “the hatred of Israel encourages antisemites to come out of the woodwork.”

The FBI recorded 1,528 hate crime incidents targeting Jews in 2025, representing 63% of the nation’s 2,408 religiously motivated incidents. Jews comprise roughly 2% of the U.S. population, yet incidents targeting Jews represented 14% of all hate crimes reported nationwide.

During the first eight months of 2026, major crime fell 6.2% across New York City, while confirmed hate crimes targeting Jews rose 8%, from 212 to 229, according to new NYPD figures. That averages nearly one such crime every 25 hours.

News Media contacted NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch about the department’s High Holiday preparations. The NYPD said it will hold a briefing ahead of the holidays and provide additional security details at that time.

In neighboring New Jersey, the state Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness (NJOHSP) said it is coordinating with the state Attorney General’s Office, New Jersey State Police, the FBI’s Newark field office, local law enforcement and community partners.

“Together, we are protecting houses of worship, helping ensure every New Jerseyan can practice their faith without fear, and keeping New Jersey safe and secure,” NJOHSP said.

The coordination follows recent attacks on Jewish institutions.

On Aug. 14, a man was charged with allegedly disrupting a Friday night service attended by approximately 375 people at Manhattan’s Central Synagogue, damaging ceremonial candlesticks and assaulting a congregant and security guard. The charges against include federal hate crimes and damaging religious property resulting in bodily injury.

Five months earlier, an attacker inspired by Hezbollah rammed a pickup truck carrying gasoline and fireworks through the doors of Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan, according to the FBI. Armed with a rifle and hundreds of rounds, he struck one security guard and exchanged gunfire with others.

Inside were 140 children at the synagogue’s early childhood center. Every child and staff member escaped without physical injury and the guard survived.

For Steven Ingber, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Detroit, the assault remains a powerful reminder of the need for vigilance as families prepare to gather.

“We take the security of our community with the utmost seriousness, and, of course, the assault on Temple Israel remains fresh in our minds,” Ingber said. “We will enter the High Holidays vigilant and prepared. But we will also enter them with confidence and pride.”

Rabbi Aaron Starr of Congregation Shaarey Zedek in suburban Detroit, who also serves as president of the Michigan Board of Rabbis, said Jewish Michiganders are entering the new year “with a feeling of heaviness.”

“From marking the 25th year since the terrorist attacks on 9/11 to marking six months since the terrorist attack on our community and especially our children, anxieties are heightened,” Starr told News Media exclusively. “We enter with heaviness, but we are also filled with hope for a better tomorrow.”

“No family should have to weigh their safety against their faith,” Fingerhut said.

Employing one full-time security guard costs an estimated $90,000 annually, according to Jewish Federations of North America. The organization is advocating for greater federal support through the bipartisan Jewish American Security Act, which would strengthen security assistance for at-risk nonprofit institutions.

For Jewish communities, the question is no longer whether security is necessary, but who will bear the growing cost of making worship possible.

Steinmetz called that cost “a vicious tax on the Jewish community,” one “levied by the antisemites.”

For Fingerhut, the purpose of security is not simply to prevent an attack. It is to ensure fear never determines whether a Jewish family participates in Jewish life.

“We do not want anyone to make the choice not to participate in Jewish life because they are afraid for their safety,” Fingerhut said. “What we have learned is that the visible presence of security, and the real impact of that security, is what enables and encourages people to come out and participate in Jewish life.”

Fingerhut’s message to Jewish communities in America and around the world was clear: do not retreat, but continue to “lean into Jewish life.”

He said, “We will make sure that there is safety and security in place so that we can all feel confident in our involvement in Jewish life.”

That is the purpose, according to the experts, of every guard, camera and volunteer: not to turn a synagogue into a fortress, but to ensure that Jewish life continues inside.

Krystal Davis, then a second-grade student in Sarasota, Florida, recalls the confusion that swept through her classroom on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. A suited man leaned down and whispered into the ear of the president of the United States, who was seated just feet away from the children.

President George W. Bush was visiting Emma E. Booker Elementary School, listening as students in Mrs. Sandra Daniels’ second-grade class demonstrated their reading skills. The admiration on his face abruptly shifted to concern.

His chief of staff, Andrew Card, had just informed Bush that a second plane had struck the World Trade Center in New York City. “America is under attack,” Card later recalled whispering to the president.

9/11 Tribute in Light: Live from Lower Manhattan,” a one-hour ABC News multiplatform live special, premieres Friday, Sept. 11, at 8 p.m. EDT across ABC, Disney+, Hulu, National Geographic, ABC Owned Television Stations livestreams and ABC News Live.

“You could see the shift with [the president] once he got the message, and then you could see it on his face,” Davis told ABC News in an interview marking 25 years since the 9/11 attacks. “And then the shift of him going back to his normal self and smiling like, ‘I don’t want to alarm the kids.’”

Daniels told Sarasota ABC affiliate WWSB in an interview published Tuesday that she “immediately knew something was wrong.”

“His entire demeanor changed,” she said, referring to Bush.

Davis said the students grew concerned when Bush was escorted from the classroom after the reading lesson ended.

“And we’re just like, ‘OK, in the middle of reading, what happened? What did we do? Like, did we do something wrong? Did he not like us reading or whatever?’” Davis recalled.

Davis and her classmates did not yet understand what was unfolding, but they had witnessed a defining moment in American history from the front row.

Meanwhile, 10-year-old Stevenson Tose’-Rigell, son of principal Gwendolyn Tose’-Rigell, was in the school’s library eagerly awaiting the president’s arrival, where Bush was slated to deliver a speech on his signature education policy, the No Child Left Behind Act.

“I’d probably say it was a couple of hours at least we were out there on the podium waiting around. We didn’t know what was going on at the time,” he said.

He continued, “They were trying to entertain us a little bit and, you know, keep, everybody feeling kind of excited … but we’re waiting around for hours, you know, it’s like, ‘Man, this is this a long time waiting around for someone.'”

Tose’-Rigell said Bush did eventually enter the room, but the 10-year-old quickly realized the speech Bush was delivering would not touch on education policy. Instead, Bush delivered an address to the nation, confirming reports of “an apparent terrorist attack on our country.”

“We’re pretty much [thinking], ‘Sounds like we’re under attack,'” Tose’-Rigell recalled. “So yeah, it was definitely far off from the script.”

Back in Daniels’ classroom, Davis said the children were moved into another room, where a teacher tried to explain what was going on.

Tose’-Rigell said he was not able to leave school right away, as his mother was the school’s principal. Instead, he said he watched the devastation unfold on a small TV in the school’s front office.

From Sarasota, Bush boarded Air Force One, departing Florida for military bases in Louisiana and Nebraska before arriving back in Washington, D.C., that night.

By day’s end, nearly 3,000 people had died in terror attacks at the World Trade Center in New York City; the Pentagon building in Arlington, Virginia; and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the crash site of United Airlines Flight 93.

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A quarter century later, as the country continues to grapple with the ramifications of that day, so too do the alumni of Emma E. Booker Elementary who were at the school the day of the attacks.

In May, the school commemorated the 25th anniversary of 9/11 by welcoming a steel beam from the World Trade Center, brought by the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, which allows the public to “put their hand on that steel and feel the loss and sacrifice that was made that day.”

Stephen Siller Jr., whose father Stephen Siller was one of the 343 New York City Fire Department members killed on 9/11, said bringing the steel beam to Emma E. Booker Elementary was one of the most impactful visits he’s made with the foundation’s Steel Across America campaign, out of dozens of similar trips.

“Little kids … understand that, you know, this is a sacred piece of history,” he said. “…It once held up the Twin Towers, it once held floors and walls, and now it holds the gravity of that day.”

In a statement to ABC News, Sarasota County Schools Superintendent Terry Connor reflected on the impact 9/11 had on the district.

“For Sarasota County Schools, the legacy of Sept. 11 carries a uniquely personal connection,” the statement read in part.

It added, “On this 25th anniversary, we honor those who were lost, remember those who answered the call, and express our gratitude to all who continue to serve our communities and our country.”

Speaking with ABC News, the former students of Emma E. Booker Elementary reflected on their intersection with history, recognizing the grave impact on those directly affected by the tragedy while also considering the mark it left on their own lives.

“You realize, ‘People really lost they live[s] yesterday,'” Davis said, recounting the days following 9/11. “And we were right in the midst of everything. [The president] was right here in Sarasota, Florida, [when it happened].”

Davis, who currently works in healthcare but said she aspires to be a police officer, said the events that day inspired her to pursue a career serving others.

“As a second grader, I couldn’t really explain,” Davis said, adding that she would later realize her experience left her “wanting to do more for my community, wanting to do more for myself and my kids.”

“That day is going to always be something I never forget,” she added.

Tose’-Rigell said he also carries complex feelings surrounding his memory of that day, including sadness and a sense of pride.

His mother, the school’s former principal, died in 2007 after a battle with cancer.

“I always knew my mom was a rock star, you know? In my mind, you know, she was my superhero,” Tose’-Rigell said, describing seeing his mother on the world stage on Sept. 11, 2001, and the “national recognition” she received.

He added that seeing her in archival footage from that day brought back memories of her each year on the anniversary of 9/11.

“It feels like she comes back,” he said. “You know, like, once a year, [she] reincarnates right onscreen again.”