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WASHINGTON -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won applause, whoops and standing ovations on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, but conversations with lawmakers immediately after Netanyahu's long-awaited address suggest that he didn't win the prize he was really looking for: a decisive shift in the conversation about nuclear diplomacy with Iran.

Instead, legislators reiterated old talking points about the nuclear negotiations backed by the Obama administration, and expressed their respect for the Israeli leader and the position he sees himself in as his country's last hope against a potential Iranian nuclear attack. Of course, those who attended the controversial speech were already making a silent statement in support of Netanyahu, given the administration's strident criticism of his address and the choice by many Democrats to give it a miss.

"It was very powerful," Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said of the speech. "But I hope it doesn't explode the possibilities of an agreement."

The comment from Feinstein, one of a number of Democrats who have not openly challenged the administration on the negotiations but have indicated receptiveness to Netanyahu's concerns, captured the overall congressional response to Bibi's appearance on the Hill: It was salient, but it didn't change our minds.

"The [Prime Minister] has doubts about Iran, and I have doubts about Iran. I did going in, I still do. That is a valid starting point. We don't want Iran to have a nuclear weapon, we want the United States to be a strong ally of Israel," said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who has also supported negotiations. "But reaching the goal of stopping nuclear weapons is clearly what's at issue here. The [Prime Minister] is dismissive of the president's efforts. I think at some parts of his speech, he may have mischaracterized some of things that are being said."

Lawmakers on the other side seemed equally unaffected on Tuesday, just hours before Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced that Republicans will next week bring to a vote a recently proposed bill that would require congressional approval for any potential deal between Tehran and the six countries -- the U.S., the U.K., France, Germany, Russia and China -- that are working to limit the Iranian nuclear program. The bill would not introduce additional sanctions on Iran, the action Netanyahu called for this morning. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), one of the Senate's chief proponents of additional sanctions, reaffirmed to The Huffington Post today that he and other legislators would stand by their promise to the administration not to vote on new sanctions until at least March 24.

"I don't think so," said Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), when asked if he thought Netanyahu's speech would derail the ongoing talks, which resumed on Monday. "I've been supportive of negotiations, supportive of a good deal... If there's a good deal to be made, it should be made. It was a great speech and it was information people need to know if they haven't heard it. So I'm glad he gave it."

But Netanyahu's gloomy speech did prompt new expressions of paranoia about Iran from several of Flake's fellow Republicans, who have long criticized the Obama administration for attempting to engage with Iran to peacefully resolve concerns about its nuclear activity.

"There is one threat and one threat only with the potential to once again annihilate 6 million Jews," said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). "A nuclear Iran poses an existential threat to the nation of Israel, that's what Prime Minister Netanyahu tell us. And it is worth underscoring that the word 'existential' does not mean a Frenchman in a black beret chain-smoking. It means going to the very existence of the nation of Israel."

And while Bibi may not have changed lawmakers' minds about negotiations, he did manage to unite both supporters and skeptics of diplomacy around his larger assertion that a deal would not simply be about a nuclear weapon. Rather, he suggested, a deal could enable an even more worrying development by bolstering Tehran's growing regional power.

"Iran's goons in Gaza, its lackeys in Lebanon, its Revolutionary Guards on the Golan Heights are clutching Israel with three tentacles of terror," Netanyahu told Congress. "Backed by Iran, [Syrian President Bashar] Assad is slaughtering Syrians. Backed by Iran, Shiite militias are rampaging through Iraq. Backed by Iran, Houthis are seizing control of Yemen, threatening the strategic straits at the mouth of the Red Sea. Along with the Straits of Hormuz, that would give Iran a second chokepoint on the world's oil supply... We must all stand together to stop Iran's march of conquest, subjugation and terror."

This argument -- that Iran is a bad actor in the region and cannot be embraced -- seemed to make a bigger impact on lawmakers Tuesday than Netanyahu's warnings against diplomacy. The administration has indicated that regional politics are not on the table in the negotiations, though skeptics point out that Iran is a de facto partner for the U.S. against the Islamic State in Iraq and has not been directly confronted by Washington in Syria or Yemen.

"I think the world would be a lot better place if Iran would give up terror, give up its support of Hezbollah, Hamas," Feinstein said, referring to Iranian proxies in Lebanon and Palestine.

Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) went as far as to compare Netanyahu to another politician who once stood in the face of an expanding regional power.

Netanyahu, Kirk told The Huffington Post, is "the Winston Churchill of our time."

Jennifer Bendery contributed reporting.

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly listed Sen. Robert Menendez's party. He is a Democrat.

SAO PAULO (AP) — Under a scorching sun, dozens of Haitians shuffled impatiently about the brick-walled courtyard of Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church. The sight of an approaching employer sparked a skirmish, with the men pushing against each other, jostling for attention.

"How many people you need?," several men shouted. "I need a job, what do you want me to do?" No matter what the job was, someone in the crowd yelled out, "I can do that!" There are fewer jobs in Brazil than there are Haitians looking for work. An open-door policy intended to help migrants from the impoverished island is fueling Brazil's largest immigration wave since World War II and prompting calls for lawmakers to do more to help the new arrivals.

"Seeing so many seeking jobs and so much hunger for work, it creates tension," said the Rev. Paolo Parise, a priest who directs the parish's efforts to help Haitian migrants and other impoverished newcomers.

While Haiti is picking itself up from the 7.0 earthquake that devastated its capital in 2010, progress has not been enough to keep tens of thousands of Haitians from chasing opportunities abroad, mainly in the United States and the Dominican Republic. But Brazil also has become an attractive landing spot for migrants eager to find a toehold in Latin America's biggest economy.

Brazil has no limit on the number of humanitarian visas it issues to Haitians. National Migration Council figures suggest more than 52,000 Haitians have migrated since 2012 and have become the country's largest group of foreign laborers, outpacing Portuguese who long held the top spot.

"No other country opened the doors for them like Brazil," said Duval Magalhaes, a demographer at the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais state who has researched the Haitian migration in Brazil.

Wooldeens Turenne, 23, once earned a reliable income guiding missionary workers helping quake victims in Haiti. But such work gradually dried up and, last year, Turenne saw it was time to leave. Despite being fluent in English, going to the United States wasn't an option due to its restrictive immigration laws. Instead, he flew to Panama, then Ecuador, where he received his visa to enter Brazil. He then flew to Sao Paulo.

Jobs can be found in construction, agriculture and factories, but the salaries barely cover Brazil's high cost of living, let alone leave Haitians enough money to support family back home. Employers know Haitians are desperate, and commonly pay them $300 to $400 a month, barely above the legal minimum.

"If they know you are an immigrant, they don't pay you the salary they are supposed to, and they will give you a lot of work to do," Turenne said. "It's better than Haiti, yes, but it's not possible to make a good living."

Two out of three companies interested in hiring migrants through Parise's church are turned away because they don't want to comply with labor laws, or their work sites don't meet safety standards.

Migrant advocates say the Haitians also face racial discrimination, and many struggle to understand Portuguese. Trying to survive on sporadic and meager incomes, most crowd into shared rooms amid the poorest slums ringing cities such as Sao Paulo.

Brazil has gone through a construction boom, both due to an economic expansion that lifted tens of millions out of poverty and because of public works projects tied to last year's World Cup and next year's Olympics. But the economy is now sluggish, contracting the first half of 2014 and barely moving as the year closed.

That hasn't stemmed the flow of Haitians. Migrant advocates are urging the government to do more, such as allowing those who arrive without visas to apply for them in Brazil, a step that would circumvent a cumbersome process in which they first must seek refugee status. They also complain Brazil needs to provide more shelters for new arrivals and do more to integrate them into society.

"Brazil is giving them a piece of paper (a visa), but there is no public policy of integration," Parise said.

Bernado Franck has spent the past year trying to establish himself in Brazil. While he practiced law in his hometown of Saint-Marc, he's found that landing any job in Brazil is hard, let alone one with salary he can live on. He's been out of work for the last four months.

"We heard so many good things about Brazil, but I am not finding anything," the 28-year-old Franck said at the church yard. "I want to help my mom and family back home; I have to eat and pay rent. How do they expect me to improve my life?"

The trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving suspect in the April 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, is scheduled to begin Wednesday. Nearly two years after the attack, The Huffington Post checked in on a survivor who lost part of her leg, a popular restaurant wrecked by the second bomb, a professor vilified for talking to Tsarnaev about Chechen history and the Watertown, Massachusetts, homeowner who found Tsarnaev in his dry-docked boat.

SURVIVOR HEATHER ABBOTT

Heather Abbott was waiting to get into Forum, a bar near the marathon's finish line, when flying shrapnel hit her right foot.

Doctors advised Abbott, then 38 years old, that her leg would never be fully functional again. They amputated her foot and part of her leg.

Nerve pain still bothers the human resources manager from Newport, Rhode Island, but she's trying to cope without undergoing another operation.



"Everything in life is different," Abbott told The Huffington Post. "Every place I go, I have to consider how much walking I'll have to do. The clothes I wear are different. Everything takes longer. I can't feel the snow and ice under my foot."

Donations helped defray most of her staggering medical expenses, which included one customized prosthetic that lets her wear high heels and another she wears when she goes stand-up paddle-boarding. Her insurance didn't cover either.

She said she doesn't know the sum of her medical bills, but the prosthetic that allows her to wear heels cost more than $70,000 and is supposed to last only a few years.

Abbott has made some media appearances since the bombing, including in segments for NPR and "Good Morning America." Because of these interviews, she heard from a 17-year-old girl who also had to have a leg removed. The teen said she wanted to wear high heels to her high school prom, but realized that her parents wouldn't be able to also afford college tuition if she got a prosthetic like Abbott's. This story pushed Abbott to help other amputees.

"I thought a lot about this fast lesson in the cost of prosthetic devices," Abbott said. "The Boston Marathon bombing was worldwide news. What if I had just gotten into a car accident and nobody knew about me?"

She recently started The Heather Abbott Foundation to raise money to buy prosthetics for people who can't afford them.

Abbott planned to host a launch event for her foundation next month at Forum, but the bar's closing last weekend has forced her to look for another venue.

LAST CALL AT FORUM

When the bombs detonated on April 15, 2013, employees at the restaurant Forum helped keep customers calm and evacuate marathon spectators from the bomb site.

The bombing caused significant damage to the restaurant, which underwent four months of reconstruction and was the last business on Boylston Street to reopen after the attack. Its reopening was seen as a milestone in the city's recovery process.



Investigators in haz-mat suits on April 16, 2013, examine Forum, the scene of the second bombing on Boylston Street in Boston. Some patrons of a Boylston Street restaurant praised the business' employees for their quick action. They say staffers at Forum kept calm and helped some customers evacuate using a back stairway after the explosions. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)

Many people in Boston were disappointed when Forum's owners announced on Feb. 24 that the fatal blow to the business would be skyrocketing rent.

"After the tragic events of the 2013 Boston Marathon forced Forum to close for four long months of reconstruction, and with insurance claims still backed up by bureaucracy, our road to financial recovery was knowingly long," said Euz Azevedo, president of Boston Nightlife Ventures, which owned Forum, in a statement.

"Unfortunately, the current real estate climate on Boylston Street has motivated Forum's landlord to raise rent this year by nearly three times our current rate," Azevedo said. "This rent increase makes it financially impossible for Boston Nightlife Ventures to operate and sustain a business at a location that means so much to us and to our city."

Hundreds of customers packed Forum on Saturday night for a farewell party.

so sad to hear the Forum on Boylston Street is closing down. spent the worst day and the best day of my life there. #BostonStrong
— Emma Roche (@erroche4) February 25, 2015

THE PROFESSOR

Once Tsarnaev was identified as the bombing suspect and captured, the question shifted from who would do something like this to why.

One path in the search for a possible motivation led to University of Massachusetts Dartmouth professor Brian Glyn Williams. Tsarnaev was a UMass Dartmouth sophomore when he was arrested. The two had been in touch when Tsarnaev was a high school student researching Chechnya, the Muslim region of Russia that is Tsarnaev's ancestral homeland and one of Williams' areas of expertise.

Williams became the subject of unwanted attention as criticism welled up online. Some called the professor Tsarnaev's mentor and speculated that he had contributed to Tsarnaev's radicalization.

Williams told HuffPost that he exchanged a few emails with Tsarnaev at least two years before the bombing, but that he never spoke with him.

"The word mentor was too strong," Williams said, adding that he was unimpressed by Tsarnaev. "He was not a standout student on any level. He was just halfway there, mentally."

He restrained himself from engaging with those that he said assumed the worst about his work.

"In some ways it was hilarious, and it was sad too," Williams said. "I just let it play out. No decent media ever said anything."

After the bombing suspects were identified as ethnic Chechens, the mainstream media pointed to Williams as the only professor in the U.S. teaching a course on Chechnya's wars with Russia. Williams has argued, in blog posts for HuffPost and elsewhere, that Chechens don't see the United States as an enemy and that they haven't filled the ranks of al Qaeda or the Taliban.

His next book, Inferno in Chechnya: The Russian-Chechen Wars, the Al Qaeda Myth and the Boston Marathon Bombing, is due out this summer.

TSARNAEV'S HIDEOUT

The tense manhunt that confined Watertown residents to their homes while police searched for Tsarnaev came to an end because of Dave Henneberry.

The retired technician found Tsarnaev sprawled inside his 24-foot boat, which he kept outside his home. Henneberry called 911, which brought a rush of law enforcement personnel, who shot up the recreational vessel before capturing Tsarnaev.

The FBI seized the boat as evidence, as Tsarnaev allegedly scrawled a note into its panels confessing that the attacks were retribution for the United States government's mistreatment of Muslims around the world. Henneberry may get his boat back -- bullet holes and all -- after the trial and any potential appeals.


An aerial view of investigators searching the boat in Dave Henneberry's Watertown yard. Photo by Darren McCollester/Getty Images

A stranger from Texas, however, helped get Henneberry back on the water by spearheading a crowd-funding campaign that raised $50,000. Henneberry bought a replacement boat in October 2013.

"It's a fixer-upper," Henneberry said. He uses it "mostly just cruising around for recreation. It's a lovely boat and we're making it better."

It wasn't uncommon in the months after the attack for Henneberry to see curious people taking pictures outside his home, but he told HuffPost that his notoriety has died down.

"Every once in a while," he'll spot a visitor, he said, but "not so much anymore. I'm not trying to draw attention to myself."