Category: World

A woman paragliding in the Austrian Alps had a close call when a small aircraft collided with her glider. The incident, which occurred above Salzburg, was captured on video and showed the paraglider losing control after the collision.

A woman paragliding above the Austrian Alps narrowly escaped death after a small aircraft crashed through her glider midair, causing her to lose control and spin dangerously at a high altitude. A terrifying video of the incident also surfaced online.

The 44-year-old woman, Sabrina, was paragliding above Salzburg’s Piesendorf region on Saturday (May 23) when a sightseeing aircraft collided with her in midair, reported NBC News, citing Salzburg State Police. The 28-year-old pilot later told investigators he could not prevent the crash.

“The propeller of the motor plane severely damaged the paraglider, prompting the experienced paraglider to deploy her reserve parachute,” police said, as quoted by the media house.

After the incident, the flyer lost control. However, she opened her emergency parachure, showing presence of mind without losing her calm. Sabrina landed safely. She is an experienced paraglider.

The entire incident was recorded in a camera, mounted by Sabrina, The dramatic first-person video captures the moment the paraglider’s wing was torn apart by the collision. Sabrina was sent into a rapid spin and cried out in panic as she lost stability midair. After the primary canopy was destroyed, she quickly activated her emergency parachute during the descent.

Source : https://www.timesnownews.com/world/australia/midair-horror-in-austrian-alps-terrifying-video-shows-plane-crashing-through-womans-paraglider-article-154392050

The US Air Force has identified eight crew members who died in a B-52 bomber crash near Edwards Air Force Base on June 15 during a radar modernization test mission.

The US Air Force has released the identities of eight crew members who were killed when aB-52 Stratofortress bomber crashed near Edwards Air Force Base on June 15 during a test mission.

Officials described the victims as a mix of military personnel and civilians involved in a radar modernization test program. The crash occurred shortly after takeoff, and an investigation into the cause is underway.

South Korea will ease restrictions on roughly 270 square kilometers of land near the border with North Korea. Farmers in the area had long complained of rules that complicated working conditions.

The ministry said it would shrink the Civilian Control Line (CCL), a military-controlled buffer zone south of the border, from 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) to an average of 6 kilometers.

“The CCL was established to restrict civilian access and guarantee military operations, but there have been growing calls for a need to complement its actual control measures,” South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back said.

“We have come up with an adjustment plan for the CCL to adapt to future security environments amid shrinking military manpower, while ensuring operational conditions,” Ahn added.

Restrictions on life near the border

South Koreans require the military’s permission to live or farm in the area. Analysts have said locals face significant economic disadvantages.

“We will enable regional development to the extent that it does not interfere with military operations,” Ahn said.

Residents welcomed the move, saying it would allow more farming activities in the area and boost development and tourism.

Councilor Park Heung-yeol of Ganghwa County told the AFP news agency that construction even on privately owned land within the controlled area requires military approval.

What is the Civilian Control Line?

The two Koreas officially remain at war because the war ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

The CCL was established after the 1950-53 Korean War to control access and protect military installations along the border between South Korea and North Korea. It currently extends up to 7 kilometers south of the Military Demarcation Line, the border between the countries, in the west and up to 10 kilometers in the east.

While the CCL provides a security buffer zone for the South, it also complicates the daily lives of residents seeking to develop their land.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/south-korea-to-shrink-security-buffer-zone-to-north-korea/a-77586166

Jelly Roll and Bunnie Xo’s divorce had been building behind the scenes for years over their changing lifestyles.

“Some people around them felt there was growing tension as Jelly embraced a more faith-centered lifestyle while Bunnie continued building the outspoken and provocative brand that had always been authentic to her,” a source exclusively told Page Six.

“Whether that’s fair or not, it became increasingly difficult to reconcile those two worlds.”

The insider continued to claim, “A lot of people want to point to one thing, but it was really a combination of issues that had been building for years.”

“They came from similar worlds when they met and bonded over surviving difficult circumstances, but over time their lives started moving in different directions,” the source said. “Jelly has changed tremendously over the last few years. His focus shifted to his health, faith, family and the long-term legacy he wants to leave behind.”

The “Dumb Blonde” podcast host shared a racy image just hours before news broke of Jelly’s divorce filing.

Bunnie shared a steamy photo of herself wearing pink satin lingerie. In the snap, she sat up on her knees on a brown couch as she began to take off her bra strap.

“She’s getting her sparkle back,” she wrote atop the photo.

“Bunnie has always been unapologetically herself, and while that’s something [Jelly’s] admired about her, there were times when it felt like they were no longer aligned with where he saw his life heading or what he envisioned for the future,” the source said.

In January, Bunnie opened up about how she and Jelly Roll were trying to have a baby via in vitro fertilization.

The insider told Page Six, “There were also difficult conversations about expanding their family, timing and what they both wanted their future to look like. Those discussions became more complicated as his career continued to explode.”

In 2018, Bunnie and Jelly briefly separated after the “Son of a Sinner” singer had a months-long affair.

“When you add in the pressure of fame, constant public scrutiny and then the unresolved issues from the earlier years of their marriage, including trust issues they worked hard to overcome, it created a situation where they kept finding themselves having the same conversations over and over,” the source said.

“The sad part is that Bunnie stood by him through everything. She was there before the fame, before all the awards, before his sold out shows.”

“She stayed through some incredibly difficult periods, including challenges that would have ended a lot of marriages,” the insider added.

Reps for Jelly Roll and Bunnie Xo did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2026/06/17/celebrity-news/the-growing-tension-that-led-to-jelly-roll-and-bunnie-xos-difficult-divorce-exposed/

Former child actress Daveigh Chase, known for her roles in “The Ring” and “Lilo & Stitch,” has died. She was 35 years old.

Chase died on Tuesday following a case of meningitis and an infection in her blood, which caused her to suffer septic issues and led to her body shutting down, according to her boyfriend Roy Hernandez.

TMZ was the first to report this news.

According to the outlet, Chase was admitted to a Los Angeles hospital earlier this month due to malnutrition.

A rep for Chase did not respond to Page Six’s request for comment.

The actress rose to fame at a young age after landing the lead role as Lilo in Disney’s “Lilo & Stitch” film in 2002. She also reprised her role in the franchise’s TV series.

Prior to her breakout role, she voiced the character of Chihiro Ogino in the American dub of “Spirited Away.”

Also in 2002, she gave a haunting performance as Samara Morgan in the horror classic, “The Ring,” which earned her an MTV Movie Award for Best Villain.

In 2024, a clip resurfaced from that 2003 MTV Movie Awards ceremony of the actress’ awkward run-in with Diddy, who asked a then 12-year-old Chase, “You coming to the afterparty tonight?”

In 2006, she landed a recurring role in HBO’s “Big Love” as Rhonda Volmer. She made 32 appearances throughout the show’s five-season run.

Her other credits include “Donnie Darko,” “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” “Beethoven’s 5th,” “ER,” “Mercy” and more.

But her onscreen appearances ended after she starred in “American Romance” in 2016.

“I just want to make something that I love and people will respect,” Chase previously told Interview of her career in 2009.

“I want to do things that will change someone’s life, not something they’ll forget about tomorrow.”

After her final role, Chase kept a low profile away from the spotlight. Her last Instagram post, which was shared in 2017, showed the actress artfully posing with a unicorn balloon.

“Unicorns DO exist 😻,” she captioned the post.

In recent months, the actress was said to be living on skid row in Downtown Los Angeles. John Ryan, Chase’s manager of more than a decade, exclusively told The Post that he and Chase’s stepsister, Gaia Brown, had enlisted the help of a private investigator about a year ago to track her down and get her some help.

At the end of 2025, Ryan said he was made aware of a video which allegedly showed Chase shockingly skinny and struggling on Skid Row.

Shortly before her death, a GoFundMe was created by her boyfriend to help Chase “find comfort and peace” in her final days.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2026/06/17/celebrity-news/daveigh-chase-star-of-the-ring-and-lilo-stitch-dead-at-35/

The FBI thwarted a plot targeting Sunday’s UFC event at the White House and has arrested five men, the US justice department said on Tuesday.

Part of the plan involved striking nearby buildings with explosive-laden drones and firing on “high value targets”, prosecutors alleged.

One suspect was arrested in Ohio last week, where investigators reviewed encrypted messages involving other alleged conspirators. Prosecutors said in charging documents they had allegedly “expressed ultra-religious and antigovernment sentiments”.

“Allegedly planned attacks were stopped cold,” FBI Director Kash Patel posted on social media on Tuesday about the “multi-state operation”.

The suspects were identified as Tycen C Proper, 19, the suspect arrested in Ohio, along with Bryan Omar Roa, 24, and Michael Alan Thomas, 32, of California, Daniel K Eskridge, 32, of Missouri and Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez, 31, of Nebraska. They were arrested across the four US states and each have been charged with conspiracy to commit murder, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a statement.

By using the drones, the plotters aimed to spark panic and draw the fleeing crowd toward a sniper team, according to the court documents. A “second wave” of attackers was then allegedly supposed to storm the White House gate.

An estimated 4,300 people were present for the invite-only event on the South Lawn – and another 85,000 were able to watch nearby – during the back-to-back fights on Sunday.

Court filings related to Alvarez said the group allegedly eyed potential targets that included US President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Elon Musk, as well as several elected officials – though not all attended the UFC event.

The plot was discovered through Proper. His mother called local authorities late on 10 June – just days before the high-profile event – because she was concerned about his large firearms purchases and what she had seen of his online communication with a group that claimed to be made up of former military members and Christian-based.

The group allegedly wanted to “jumpstart” a revolution by shooting “high-value targets” – identified as wealthy people and politicians – attending the UFC fight. They had specifically discussed “grievances about government corruption, the handling of the Epstein files, data centers taking up all the water in communities, and other government actions,” prosecutors said.

Group members stated that they wanted “to protect the United States, which they believed was headed in the wrong direction”, an FBI document said.

“Members of the group believed that the United States needed to be torn down so that it could be rebuilt,” the document said.

During an FBI interview on 11 June, Proper admitted to being part of planning the attack and said the group began communicating with one another around March through a TikTok group called “Vanguard of the Old”, which is named in some court documents as “Vanguard of the Old Republic”.

It is unclear if the group is affiliated with any larger, established organisation. But Proper told law enforcement officials that members were primarily recruited through TikTok.

Those who were “vetted” by other members moved to discussions on Signal, the encrypted messaging app, according to prosecutors. Prosecutors said a main chat had about 19 people in it, with smaller chats of four to five based on people’s roles or locations.

Thomas allegedly envisioned a four-tiered operation, ranging from a top group that would “be sacrificing for your country, and carrying a brunt of the weight” by possibly breaking the law and going into hiding, to a fourth, less-active, tier made up of funders, influencers and others.

The documents described other chats where group members allegedly discussed assassinating several US lawmakers and prominent business executives. Some lawmakers were suggested “based on the group’s perceived belief that the legislators accepted money from pro-Israel lobbies” and Eskridge allegedly described one as “big and someone a majority of the country knows”.

The DOJ said Alvarez was responsible for planning, organising and directing the planned UFC attack, and that he worked on drones.

The suspects also distributed maps of Washington highlighting planned sniper locations and drone launch points and identifying power grids as potential targets, court documents said. Images in the filings show social media posts with tactical gear, weapons and maps.

“Proper said that although he was not going to the protest in order to shoot people, several other members of the group were intent on violence,” the complaint against him said.

The BBC has contacted Proper’s lawyer.

At an unrelated briefing on Tuesday, Secret Service Deputy Director Matt Quinn was asked about the thwarted incident and described it as a “serious threat,” but did not offer many details, saying the case was ongoing.

He also appeared frustrated by how the investigation was made public, saying: “I’ll tell you a phrase I learned early in my career in the New York field office and that’s ‘Don’t choke on your own smoke.'”

“In order to maintain the integrity of the investigation and the security plan, we chose not to leak it,” he added.

When asked about the alleged plot during the G7 summit in France on Tuesday, President Trump said: “I haven’t heard about it.”

Each suspect faces a maximum penalty of life in prison and a $250,000 (£186,122) fine if convicted of conspiracy to murder, the DOJ said. Proper faces three additional charges, according to court filings, including the charge of conspiracy to commit violence on White House grounds, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for 29 June.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqx10xlje1lo

Tom Holland has apparently confirmed that he and his longtime love Zendaya have already tied the knot.

The actor may have ended months of speculation triggered by Zendaya’s stylist Law Roach’s claim in March that the couple had already held a wedding. In a very 2026 twist, artificial intelligence played a role in the reveal.

When Holland was asked by Esquire U.K. whether he had to inform family members about AI images that appear to show him and Zendaya at their wedding, the actor replied, “No, because they were all there.”

“That’s all you’ll get on that,” he said of the matter.

Elsewhere, in the story published Tuesday, Holland gushed about how the couple supported each other behind the camera.

“Our business can present very stressful situations and it’s really nice to have a bedrock of a relationship that will stand the test of time,” he said.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/zendaya-tom-holland-married-wedding-photos-a3e1f38527d042cb888d4ac9241e23e4

Author Amy Griffin sued a former classmate for defamation on Monday, saying the woman’s statements in a New York Times story and a subsequent lawsuit alleging Griffin appropriated her stories of sexual abuse for her bestselling 2025 memoir “The Tell” are false in “every element.”

Griffin’s lawsuit, filed in federal court in Nevada, says that in 2025 her former middle school classmate “told The New York Times — and through it, the world — that Amy Griffin is a fraud and a thief.”

The lawsuit says that in the woman’s telling, “Mrs. Griffin stole the rape of another woman and built a bestseller on it.”

A Times spokesperson said the lawsuit misrepresents its story and reporting. The former classmate said her account will prove true in court.

In “The Tell,” a hit that became an Oprah’s Book Club selection, Griffin, a venture capitalist and memoirist, recounts being sexually abused as a child by a teacher at her middle school in Amarillo, Texas, and writes that years later she recovered memories of the experience by undergoing therapy using the psychedelic drug MDMA.

The Times story published six months after the book included stories from a classmate who said some of Griffin’s experiences were eerily similar to her own. Then in March the woman filed a lawsuit in California state court, which Griffin is fighting and seeking to have dismissed.

The Associated Press doesn’t typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly or otherwise consent. The woman who sued Griffin filed her lawsuit as Jane Doe, and her name did not appear in the Times story.

Griffin says documentation backs her in every aspect

Griffin’s lawsuit says the most essential fact is that she put her account of her abuse in writing in 2020, and in 2021 she provided another detailed and documented account in an interview with the Amarillo Police Department. Both accounts match up with the book, and both came before Griffin is alleged to have extracted the woman’s abuse story by having someone posing as a talent agent call her in 2022, according to the lawsuit. The statute of limitations prevented the criminal investigation from moving forward.

Griffin’s lawsuit says the woman falsely claimed to be another middle school classmate who appears in “The Tell” under the pseudonym “Claudia,” whose meeting with the author is recounted in the book. The lawsuit Griffin had not talked to the woman in more than 35 years, had never been part of the same church youth group as alleged, and was demonstrably not in the Palm Springs area in 2019 — or the years before or after — when the woman claims the two of them met for coffee.

Griffin’s lawsuit says the coffee shop conversation with “Claudia” took place thousands of miles away in the presence of a collaborator, and that the woman in the Times story had been unable to produce any evidence the meeting with her had taken place.

“Amy Griffin’s accuser has had every opportunity to set the record straight,” Griffin’s lawyer Tom Clare said in a statement to the AP on Tuesday. “This lawsuit’s purpose is to make the truth known. The New York Times knowingly promoted her false allegations and must also be held accountable.”

Accuser says this is an attempt to silence her

In an email to The Associated Press sent through her lawyers, the woman said the shame and humiliation from her sexual assault were unimaginable and she was “violated all over again after reading about my own experiences in Amy’s book.”

“Despite trying to remain anonymous, Amy has now chosen to use her immense wealth and influence to try and silence me,” the email said. “She has had her lawyers identify me publicly as well as sue me. I am shocked and disappointed that she would choose to take this route, especially since she herself knows the truth.”

Griffin’s attorneys said in filings that the woman’s attorneys gave them her name — which they have used unredacted in exhibits that they’ve shared — and have not proceeded with the case anonymously under California law.

Griffin’s lawsuit seeks a declaration that the allegations that she stole the woman’s abuse stories are false, along with financial damages to be determined at trial.

New York Times stands by its reporting and story

Griffin’s lawsuit, while not naming the Times as a defendant, is harshly critical of the paper, saying it “deemed the story too good to scrutinize” despite Griffin’s lawyers making it clear the woman’s account was “demonstrably false.”

Times spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha said in an email to the AP that the lawsuit and related filings “repeatedly misrepresent The New York Times story and its reporting,” and that the article “is markedly different in key aspects put forth” in both women’s lawsuits.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/amy-griffin-lawsuit-226979606acc35345d1c88d74dea5cc0

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told President Donald Trump last year that he was the “greatest friend Israel ever had in the White House.”

Now, as Trump tries to finalize a deal to end the war with Iran, he’s unloading on Netanyahu with rhetoric that no other American leader has dared to use publicly.

He claimed credit for Israel’s existence — “without me, there would be no Israel” — and cursed his judgment in interviews. He even described him as “crazy.”

Netanyahu’s tenure as prime minister spans four U.S. presidents, and he’s frustrated all of them at one point or another. But none has voiced that as openly as Trump, who started the conflict in tandem with Netanyahu.

The tension comes as Trump criticizes recent Israeli attacks in Lebanon, which threatened to jeopardize negotiations between Washington and Tehran. Trump has been pushing for a deal as he faces political blowback at home, where the war is unpopular and has driven up gasoline prices.

“If Netanyahu gets in between something Trump really wants, and that’s out of this war, he’s prepared to use the leverage that he has,” said Aaron David Miller, who served as an adviser on Middle East issues to Democratic and Republican administrations over two decades.

An agreement is scheduled to be signed on Friday in the Burgenstock resort near the city of Luzern. Speaking on Tuesday at the annual G7 summit in France, Trump said he told Netanyahu that he’s been unhappy with his recent moves.

“Without the U.S., there would be no Israel. Without me, there would be no Israel because no other president was willing to do what I did,” Trump said. “I have had a great relationship with Bibi. Now Bibi has to be more responsible with respect to Lebanon.”

There has long been a bipartisan consensus around supporting Israel in Washington, but that has frayed in recent years. Liberals have been increasingly outraged by Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, especially during the war in Gaza, and conservatives have questioned the importance of longstanding American support for Israel. There are concerns about antisemitism on the left and the right.

Trump’s latest comments drew swift criticism from left-leaning groups.

“He is framing Israel’s mere existence as contingent on him,” said Halie Soifer, who leads the Jewish Democratic Council of America. “It’s deeply offensive to the vast majority of Jews who care about Israel’s future.”

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris often disagreed with Netanyahu during the war in Gaza, and sometimes they criticized him publicly. But they were more circumspect to avoid facing accusations of being anti-Israel.

Conservative, pro-Israel groups were divided on the seriousness of Trump’s public condemnation of Netanyahu.

Republican Jewish Coalition President Matt Brooks described Trump’s criticism as little more than the inevitable disagreement among family members.

Brooks dismissed that any muted criticism of Trump’s comments from his party represented a political mixed message because Trump has been reliably supportive of Israel as president.

“If Biden or Harris said something critical, it came from the position of someone who was hostile toward or didn’t have the same level of support for Israel that President Trump has,” Brooks said.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/trump-israel-netanyahu-iran-deal-60f6f167077812810986cf69861c7af1

The United States military has overseen scores of secretive ship-to-ship oil transfers to keep Gulf energy exports flowing, using aerial and water drones as well as helicopters in an operation to guide convoys to awaiting tankers.
The operation on the edge of the Strait of Hormuz employs a shuttling techniquelong used by Iran to skirt sanctions.

Two specific locations where the oil transfers take place were identified by 11 people familiar with the ​operation – one off the coast of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates and the other off Oman’s port of Sohar.

It started in early May, and at least 116 ships have been involved in the transfers, according to shipping data and satellite imagery reviewed by Reuters.
As recently as Tuesday morning, 12 pairs of ships could be seen side-by-side ‌in the Gulf of Oman: eight off the coast of Sohar in Oman and four near Fujairah, according to satellite imagery reviewed by Reuters. Last week on June 11, when the activity appeared to have peaked, 17 pairs of ships could be seen carrying out simultaneous oil transfers at the two sites, according to images from that day.
An Apache helicopter downed by Iran on June 9, sparking retaliatory bombings by the U.S., was involved in the mission, according to four sources, including a former U.S. official with knowledge of the attack. Using satellite imagery, Reuters counted six pairs of tanker ships clustered together in a small area off the port of Sohar the day the Apache was shot down.

Reuters could not confirm what role the Apache played in the operation. In response to Reuters questions, a U.S. defense official said no Central Command forces are taking part in an offshore ship-to-ship oil transfer operation. Both crew members were rescued by a drone boat, U.S. officials ​said.
The extent of the ship-to-ship transfers, how they work, and the Apache’s role in the operation have not been previously reported. The White House referred questions to Centcom. The Iranian government did not respond to requests for comment about the transfer operation.
The two spots where these transfers take place, in the Gulf of Oman near the exit of the Strait of Hormuz, are ​close to the boundaries drawn by the Persian Gulf Strait Authority, a new Iranian body established to manage the Hormuz Strait. Ships that fail to comply with Iran’s orders are at risk of drone and missile attack by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The Fujairah port itself has come under repeated Iranian fire ⁠during the time this U.S.-led operation has been underway. This past weekend, according to the British maritime risk management group Vanguard, an “unknown projectile” struck a tanker off the coast of Oman. Vanguard said in a statement that the crew was safe and that the impact caused some leakage of the cargo, but no environmental damage. It did not specify whether the tanker was involved in a ship-to-ship transfer.
Iran responded ​to the U.S.-Israeli war by effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of global oil consumption normally passes. That created the biggest global energy supply disruption in history and has spurred inflation around the world.
The ship-to-ship transfers, though risky and inefficient, appear to be a part of the Trump administration’s efforts to help restore normal oil flows from the Gulf. U.S. President Donald Trump said the Strait of ​Hormuz would reopen Friday under a framework peace deal with Iran announced this week, but details remain vague. Reuters could not determine whether the announced deal had affected the oil transfers.

A Reuters investigation published May 20 found that Iran has established its own system for ushering ships through the opposite side of the Strait, involving island checkpoints, diplomatic deals and sometimes fees.

STAGGERED DEPARTURES AND WAYPOINTS

The American transfer operations are fully controlled by the U.S. military, said eight of the sources, including a private security contractor who has been involved in the transfers.
Tankers must sail to a meeting point before they reach the strait, then stagger their departures so they are around 3,000 to 4,000 meters apart, according to one of the sources as well as satellite imagery. Their transponders are off and their lights are dimmed, according to four sources.
A series of waypoints allow the U.S. military to monitor the progress of the designated tankers, but the Americans are “obviously watching you ​all the time,” one of the sources said.
When they pass through the strait, just beyond a zone that Iran has delineated as under its control, the tankers pull alongside the recipient ships, many of which are Very Large Crude Carriers, or VLCCs, to begin the oil transfers. These take between 24 and 40 hours to complete. The empty tankers then shuttle back through the strait and the newly loaded VLCCs ​sail onward.
What makes this ship-to-ship operation possible is that there are a few shippers willing to sail their vessels through the strait to deliver the oil to the waiting tankers, despite the Iranian blockade.
But the operation is risky. “You just don’t know when Iran might just decide to start using drones or even gunboats in order to prevent even those ships from transiting the strait,” said Noam Raydan, a senior fellow at Washington Institute who specializes ‌in maritime risk and who ⁠reviewed Reuters’ findings.
The ship-to-ship technique has been used by Iran for years to bypass sanctions, because it masks the source of the oil. The Iranians usually operate one pair of ships at a time, both to avoid detection and because its prewar exports were relatively small. The U.S.-led operation, which involves mass transfers, gives Gulf producers better protection from Iranian retaliatory attacks so they can move crude, condensate and petroleum products to international buyers.
Reuters reviewed more than a dozen satellite images taken between May 2 and June 11 showing ship-to-ship transfers involving state-owned Gulf tanker fleets and internationally operated vessels that receive the oil. LSEG and Kpler shipping data reviewed by Reuters showed repeated rendezvous between tankers operating in the area during the same period.
Based on the imagery through June 11, Reuters calculated that at least 90 million barrels of crude oil and petroleum products may have moved through the offshore network since early May.
The volumes, based on the tankers’ carrying capacities, are still small compared to the pre-war average of about 20 million barrels that passed through the strait daily.
“As the old rules weaken, it’s ironic that the United States is now taking a page out of the playbook of China, Russia, North Korea, and even Iran, whose so-called ‘dark fleets’ pioneered these techniques precisely ​to evade U.S. and UN sanctions,” Michael Froman, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote in ​a note Friday. He was referring to the practice of sending ships through the strait ⁠without transponders, which Trump mentioned in comments June 10 after the downing of the Apache.
Six sources with direct knowledge of the operation said the U.S. has supported participating vessels through a combination of aerial surveillance, compliance screening and monitoring rather than naval escort. Reuters found no indication that U.S. military personnel were directly involved in the transfers themselves.

THROUGH THE STRAIT

The receiving side of the operation is dominated by international tanker operators, according to a review of the shipping records. One of them, Greece-based Dynacom Tankers Management, has alluded to its efforts to find creative ways to ship oil through the strait since the war began on ​February 28.
“Freedom of navigation is essential and nobody can impose tolls or any other burden,” George Procopiou, Dynacom’s founder, told a Capital Link shipping conference in Athens on June 1. “We are here to serve, and Greece has the tradition of breaking blockades since antiquity,” he said. “I don’t want to ​go into more details, but I believe the hints are ⁠enough to understand what I mean.”
Dynacom did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the U.S. operation.
Another maritime source, however, said the new system imposes its own risks on their industry.
“There is a paucity of reliable data,” the maritime security source said. The transponders used to communicate ships locations are switched off, “and companies are not reporting through the usual reporting centres.” That risks collision between the ships, which travel at night with their lights off at speeds that don’t allow for easy maneuvering, according to multiple shipping industry officials.
Four sources familiar with the arrangements said operators seeking access to the system are required to undergo a compliance review process before being allocated transit windows. The process includes submitting information to the U.S. Navy’s Naval Cooperation and Guidance for Shipping office in Bahrain.
Two preliminary compliance documents reviewed by Reuters required operators to provide complete geospatial tracking histories, full beneficial ⁠ownership disclosure, cargo documentation and ​a willingness to permit cargo testing.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-is-using-an-iranian-smuggling-tactic-sneak-oil-out-gulf-2026-06-16/

Georgia Republicans selected ​U.S. Representative Mike Collins as their U.S. Senate nominee on Tuesday, according to U.S. media, choosing President ‌Donald Trump’s preferred candidate in a runoff over political outsider Derek Dooley.
Collins will face Jon Ossoff, a potential Democratic presidential candidate in 2028 and the only incumbent Senate Democrat up for reelection in a state that Trump won in 2024.

Trump endorsed Collins, who finished first in the May ​19 primary, over the weekend. Trump called Collins a “WARRIOR and WINNER” who supported the president “from the very beginning.” Governor ​Brian Kemp had endorsed Dooley, a former college football coach.
Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the ⁠Senate but have limited opportunities to win additional seats. Their top targets are Georgia and Michigan, two states the president ​narrowly won. But they have a tall task in unseating Ossoff.
Charles Bullock, a political science professor at the University of Georgia, ​said while Ossoff is more liberal than most Georgia voters, his office has a strong constituent services operation and he spends a lot of time in the state.

“Even Republican campaign consultants, activists like that, that I talk to are pretty much willing to concede that, yeah, Ossoff’s going ​to be able to hold this seat,” he said.

OSSOFF FUNDRAISING JUGGERNAUT

Ossoff has raised $60 million and reported entering May with nearly $33 ​million on hand. He is currently favored to win reelection, according to political prognosticators. Collins has raised $4.9 million through May 27 with $1.2 million on ‌hand.
The ⁠Democratic Senate Majority PAC has reserved $20 million in TV advertising in Georgia, and the Republican Senate Leadership Fund has pledged to invest $44 million into flipping the seat.
Democrats would need to net four seats in November’s midterm elections to win control of the Senate. Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a newsletter that makes electoral projections, shifted three states toward Democrats last week, moving North Carolina’s open ​seat to lean Democratic and Republican-leaning ​Alaska and Ohio to ⁠toss-ups.

Democrats have strong candidates in each of those states: former North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, former Representative Mary Peltola of Alaska and former Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio. Their candidacies are ​buoyed by Trump’s low approval rating and concerns over the high cost of living, heightened by ​the U.S.-Israel war ⁠with Iran.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/republicans-pick-senate-challenger-jon-ossoff-georgia-runoff-2026-06-16/

U.S. President Donald Trump said Russia should make peace with Ukraine ​after a “very good” meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Tuesday, in comments that sparked cautious optimism among G7 leaders that a peace deal could be struck.
The upbeat mood ‌over the Ukraine war, now deep into its fifth year, stands in stark contrast to Zelenskiy’s meeting with Trump in the Oval Office last year, when he was told he had no leverage in potential peace talks with Russia.

Zelenskiy and his European allies came to this week’s G7 summit in the French lakeside resort of Evian-les-Bains hoping to impress upon Trump that Ukraine’s battlefield fortunes had improved thanks to its drone incursions deep into Russia.
Trump, who arrived at the summit ​brandishing a preliminary deal to end his war with Iran, said he would do what he could do to end the conflict in Ukraine, but there were few details of any concrete steps to ​raise the pressure on Moscow.
“Look, Russia should make a deal,” Trump told reporters, adding that too many young men were dying on the battlefield on ⁠both sides. “I’m gonna do whatever I can.”

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Trump’s statement that Russia should end the war was cause for cheer.
“I found him to be very cooperative, and I also saw him ​listening very attentively,” Merz told reporters. “And in that respect, once again, it gives me a certain degree of optimism that we here, as Europeans and as Americans, are now doing everything we can, together, to ​end the war.”
After the group meeting with Trump, Zelenskiy told Reuters that G7 leaders agreed that Russia was not winning the war. He said they also discussed additional sanctions targeting Russia’s oil exports, its banking sector and its military production to bring Moscow to the negotiating table.
Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne later showed a clip of Zelenskiy saying he hoped to meet Trump again on Tuesday.

“Our teams will be meeting over the course of the next 24 hours at various levels ​and will continue to meet,” Zelenskiy said. “I think that tomorrow we will also meet separately with the president (Trump).”
Zelenskiy said on Monday that he had offered to meet Russia’s Vladimir Putin at the G7 summit, ​but a Kremlin aide said that did not come up in a call between Trump and Putin.

POSITIVE TALKS ON UKRAINE

Two European diplomats said that, during the meeting, Zelenskiy showed Trump images of the aftermath of a Russian strike ‌on Monday ⁠on Kyiv’s Pechersk Lavra monastery.

Trump expressed disapproval of the strike, one of the European diplomats said, while the other said that it had been “psychologically” a good move by Zelenskiy to show the images.
European diplomats said the tone of the meeting had been constructive.
But two of the diplomats said Trump had been noncommittal on imposing further U.S. sanctions on Moscow, as European leaders want.
Trump told reporters Washington was now in a position to let Russian oil waivers lapse after an interim accord to end the Iran war soothed markets, but he did not address the question of broader punitive measures.
European leaders have wanted to convince Trump that ​previous U.S. positions on the possible terms of ​a deal were overly favourable towards Moscow, particularly ⁠now that Ukraine’s drone incursions into Russia have improved its fortunes.
“The tide is turning for Ukraine,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen posted on X. “Russia’s fatigue is openly showing. That’s the time to double down on our support.”
A French diplomat said G7 leaders committed to providing Kyiv with more air defence ​capabilities — a key priority for Zelenskiy as he grapples with increased civilian strikes from Russia.

G7 TO EXAMINE HORMUZ SHIPPING PROBLEM

European leaders were also set ​to warn Trump that an ⁠interim deal with Iran risks entrenching Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes. President Emmanuel Macron said the aim was to guarantee a “solid, serious agreement that is finalised”.
Tuesday’s working lunch focused on the safe reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran largely closed at the end of February. Leaders also sought to identify alternative routes to bypass the waterway, which Trump said would be “completely open” on Friday.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/china/europeans-test-trump-iran-deal-risks-urge-ukraine-rethink-g7-2026-06-16/

The Department of War announced on Tuesday that the US Indo-Pacific Command will officially restore its name to the US Pacific Command.

The United States has decided to bring back the US Pacific Command (USPACOM) designation, officially replacing the US Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM), the Department of War announced on Tuesday.

The move marks a return to the command’s historic identity. Established on January 1, 1947, by former US President Harry S. Truman, the command functioned under the USPACOM name for more than seven decades and became the oldest as well as the largest of America’s unified combatant commands.

Department of War Restores U.S. Pacific Command Designation.

CAMP H.M. SMITH, Hawaii — The Department of War announced today that the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM) will officially restore its name to the U.S. Pacific Command (USPACOM).

Originally established on… pic.twitter.com/ZL0EL3q6Ph

— U.S. Pacific Command (@INDOPACOM) June 16, 2026

Announcing the decision, the department said the restoration of the earlier title is intended to recognise the command’s long-standing legacy in the region.

“Restoring the legacy USPACOM designation honors the command’s deep historical roots, fostering a sense of pride and collective spirit among all who serve in the Pacific,” the Department of War said.

Mission and area of responsibility remain unchanged

While the name is changing, the command’s operational responsibilities will remain the same.

According to the department, USPACOM’s area of responsibility continues to extend from the waters off the western coast of the United States to the western border of India. Officials stressed that the command’s core role and strategic objectives are not being altered.

“The command’s fundamental mission and its unwavering commitment to maintaining a free and open theater alongside regional allies and partners are unchanged,” the statement said.

The department also pointed to the command’s long military history, noting its role in shaping the post-World War II regional security architecture, coordinating joint forces during the Korean War and the Vietnam War, and supporting numerous humanitarian operations over the decades.

It added that the USPACOM name carries “decades of military heritage and enduring regional partnerships.”

Role within the US military structure

The Department of War, the largest government agency in the United States, said its mission is to provide the military forces needed to deter war and ensure national security. The department oversees 11 combatant commands, each assigned either a geographic or functional mission and responsible for commanding military forces during both peace and wartime.

Source : https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/deep-historical-roots-us-drops-indo-from-indo-pacific-command-restores-name-to-uspacom-101781664388713.html

Nine-year-old Australian girl Hania Ahmed was killed after Pakistani police mistakenly opened fire on her family’s rental car during an anti-robbery operation in Punjab’s Chakwal district.

A tragic police shooting in Pakistan has drawn international attention after a nine-year-old Australian girl was killed while travelling with her family during a visit to the country. The incident has prompted Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to demand a transparent investigation into the circumstances surrounding her death.

Hania Ahmed, an Australian-born child, was visiting relatives in Chakwal, located in Pakistan’s Punjab province, when the incident occurred late on Wednesday night. According to Punjab police, the family was caught up in a robbery while travelling in a rental vehicle.

In a detailed statement shared on X on Monday morning (AEST), Punjab police said officers from the Crime Control Department (CCD) responded after receiving reports that the Perth-based family had been taken hostage at gunpoint.

Police said the suspects opened fire on an officer, triggering a gun battle.

“In the ensuing chaos, the officer involved mistakenly assessed that the suspects were attempting to flee in the victims’ vehicle and discharged his weapon,” the statement said.

Three days before his killing, Semyon Skrepetsky had protested outside the Russian embassy in Berlin. He held an icon-like caricature of Russian President Vladimir Putin with Soviet leader Josef Stalin.

A Russian artist known for satirising President Vladimir Putin was shot dead in Poland, officials said on Tuesday.

Local media identified the ​victim of Monday’s attack as Robert Kuzovkov, also known under his artistic pseudonym ​as Semyon Skrepetsky.

The district ⁠prosecutor in ⁠Lublin said three gunshots were fired at the victim on Monday.

When the victim fell to the ground, he was approached by the assailant, who fired two more shots at close range.

Two Belarusian nationals have been detained, but not charged, in connection with the case, the spokesperson added.

Who was Semyon Skrepetsky?

Skrepetsky was a visual artist who made a name for himself with his provocative caricatures of Putin, as well as Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and Soviet leader Josef Stalin.

But he also directed his satire toward the Russian opposition, including with caricatures of Alexei Navalny.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/semyon-skrepetsky-russian-artist-putin-critic-killed-poland/a-77576814

Russia’s Defense Ministry fired at a boat that made a “dangerous approach.” The incident took place outside of UK territorial waters in the English Channel south of the Isle of Wight.

A Russian warship fired warning shots at a British yacht in the English Channel after it made a “dangerous approach,” the Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday.

The ministry said signal flares were shot and “audible signals” were sounded to draw the yacht’s attention.

After the yacht “continued its dangerous approach,” the Russian vessel’s commander decided to “fire warning shots” using the Russian frigate’s small arms. The Russian crew reported the shots were fired at a distance of 500 yards.

Britain’s Ministry of Defense said it was investigating the incident, which is understood to have involved the Russian frigate Admiral Grigorovich about 20 nautical miles (37 kilometers) south of the Isle of Wight, outside the UK’s territorial waters.

No injuries or damage were reported.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/russian-ship-fires-warning-shots-at-british-yacht-in-channel/a-77581943

The US Federal Reserve is expected to leave interest rates unchanged as it balances rising inflation with economic uncertainty.

US Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh kicked off his first meeting in charge of the central bank’s rate-setting committee on Tuesday (Jun 16), with policymakers largely expected to keep rates steady as the fallout of the Iran war ripples through the world’s largest economy.

Fed officials are set to keep rates at a range between 3.50 per cent and 3.75 per cent, extending their pause on cuts since the start of the year.

Their decision will be announced on Wednesday after the two-day meeting. They will also release their quarterly Summary of Economic Projections, which includes guidance on growth, inflation and interest-rate expectations.

All eyes will be on the language the Fed uses to communicate the decision, with at least four of 12 voting members now in favour of indicating a rate hike could be as likely as a cut for the central bank’s next move.

With inflation at a three-year high and a firming labour market, pressure has been increasing for the Fed to address rising prices by potentially raising interest rates.

Such a move, however, would be sure to anger US President Donald Trump, who has exerted unprecedented pressure on the Fed since taking office for his second term.

Trump’s Justice Department has pursued criminal charges against Warsh’s predecessor Jerome Powell – who he routinely insulted and criticised. That probe was later dropped.

In an unusual move, Powell chose not to resign from the board when his tenure as chairman ended, citing threats to the Fed’s independence.

He is expected to remain on as a governor until January 2028.

Separately, Trump has tried to unseat Fed Governor Lisa Cook on mortgage fraud allegations, with the Supreme Court due to rule on the legality of that move.

REFORM AGENDA

Warsh, who was picked by Trump, was sworn in last month and has an ambitious and wide-ranging reform agenda.

He has previously expressed support for lowering rates – in line with Trump’s demands – but will likely face resistance from a divided committee.

At his swearing in he promised to usher in a “reform-oriented” era, with plans to change how much the Fed communicates and to reduce the size of its balance sheet.

“First of all, investors want to hear Warsh’s tone,” said Steve Sosnick of Interactive Brokers.

In a note on Monday, UniCredit said the Fed would “probably drop its easing bias from the post-meeting statement,” while other analysts have indicated it could drop forward guidance altogether.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/us-federal-reserve-kevin-warsh-inflation-6187906

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung asked US counterpart Donald Trump to lead efforts to resolve the North Korea issue peacefully, as he had done with the war in the Middle East, according to Lee’s office.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung asked US President Donald Trump to take the lead in seeking a peaceful resolution of tensions with North Korea during a brief exchange at the Group of Seven summit on Tuesday (Jun 16), Lee’s office said.

The two leaders greeted each other during a G7 leaders’ group photo, presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said, where Trump asked Lee about the current state of relations with North Korea.

Lee asked Trump to lead efforts to resolve the North Korea issue peacefully, as he had done with the war in the Middle East, according to Lee’s office. Trump responded that he would work to address the North Korea issue, Kang said.

Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held three meetings during Trump’s first term, including a landmark summit in Singapore in 2018, a second summit in Hanoi in 2019 and a meeting later that year at the Demilitarisednt on dismantling North Korea’s nuclear programme and easing US-led sanctions.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/south-korea-lee-jae-myung-donald-trump-lead-diplomacy-north-6188401

The rise was largely fuelled by strong demand for integrated circuits, disk media products and PCs.

Singapore’s non-oil domestic exports (NODX) rose by 38.4 per cent in May from a year earlier, Enterprise Singapore (EnterpriseSG) said on Wednesday (Jun 17), extending the 24.4 per cent growth recorded in April.

Electronics exports led the expansion, with electronic NODX rising 94.8 per cent in May, following a 66.7 per cent increase in April. The surge was largely fuelled by “robust AI-related demand” and driven mainly by integrated circuits, disk media products and PCs, said EnterpriseSG.

Ms Selena Ling, chief economist and head of OCBC Group Research, said the global AI boom continued to support electronic exports, describing May’s NODX print as the strongest in two decades.

She also noted that NODX expanded 18.1 per cent in the first five months of the year, which marked “a very strong start to the year despite the heightened geopolitical tensions”.

Exports of integrated circuits rose 80.9 per cent year on year, while shipments of disk media products and PCs increased 227.8 per cent and 140.9 per cent respectively.

Non-electronic exports also grew, rising 17.7 per cent in May after a 10.9 per cent increase in April. Pharmaceuticals, specialised machinery and non-monetary gold led the increase.

Ms Ling said the rise in non-electronic exports was partly due to a low base a year ago.

Non-oil re-exports (NORX) rose 33.6 per cent in May, extending April’s 29.6 per cent increase. The growth was also driven primarily by electronics.

Total merchandise trade grew 39.7 per cent in May, extending the 33 per cent rise in April. Total exports rose 36.1 per cent, while imports grew 43.6 per cent.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/nodx-export-may-growth-oil-trade-6172811

A MOTHER’S chilling warning helped expose an alleged plot to kill thousands at Donald Trump’s White House UFC event, a stunning new court document has revealed.

Suspect Tycen Proper’s mom contacted police after becoming alarmed by her 19-year-old son’s gun purchases, online contacts, and talk of “recon” and “hit and run missions,” according to a federal affidavit released on Tuesday.

Proper had also allegedly blown $3,000 of his high school graduation money on guns, ammunition and tactical gear.

The Ohio teenager is among five men now charged over the alleged plan to unleash explosive drones and snipers on the UFC Freedom 250 crowd.

The Justice Department said the group intended to kill government officials and others attending the historic fight night.

Proper’s mother alerted the Danville Police Department and Knox County Sheriff’s Office on June 10 over his “recent conduct,” per the affidavit.

Her concerns included his weapons purchases and communications with people he had met online, according to a federal affidavit.

She said those individuals claimed to be former military members and “Christian-based.”

“PROPER’s mother detailed that talking with these individuals online has caused PROPER to lean heavily into his religion, and she believed that those individuals were using religion to manipulate and influence her son,” the affidavit said.

She had also overheard Proper discussing physical training for “recon” and “hit and run missions.”

The worried mom understood those comments to mean that her son was preparing to carry out shootings.

His father later told investigators that Proper had spent $3,000 of his graduation money on a shotgun, rifle, and “lots” of ammunition.

He had also allegedly bought extra magazines, ballistic plates, plate carriers, camping equipment, and food.

Agents searching the family home found thousands of rounds of ammunition, spent cartridge casings, and tactical clothing, prosecutors said.

Proper was interviewed at a medical facility on June 11.

He allegedly admitted planning a coordinated assault with others to “jumpstart” a revolution against the US government.

The group believed the country was heading in the wrong direction and “needed to be torn down so that it could be rebuilt,” according to an earlier affidavit.

Prosecutors said members began communicating around March before the most serious participants moved onto an encrypted messaging app.

The FBI infiltrated the private Signal group as its members allegedly prepared the mass-casualty attack.

The suspects allegedly planned to meet in Fredericksburg, Virginia, before traveling to the nation’s capital.

Small drones packed with explosives would be detonated over the north side of the UFC arena, the Justice Department said.

The blasts were allegedly intended to force officials and other “high value targets” to flee the White House grounds.

Snipers would then open fire on the escaping crowd, according to the charges.

Proper allegedly amassed firearms, thousands of rounds of ammunition, and tactical equipment for the operation.

He also identified possible targets, including several members of Congress.

The five defendants were arrested during a multi-state operation in Ohio, Missouri, Nebraska, and California.

They were named as Proper; Bryan Omar Roa, 24; Michael Alan Thomas, 32; Daniel K. Eskridge, 32; and Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez, 31.

Roa was arrested in Southern California after agents searched his home and vehicle.

Investigators allegedly seized a rifle, a handgun, a tactical belt, ammunition, a rifle magazine, a two-way radio, and an infrared laser target pointer.

His phone contained group messages with Proper, Thomas, and others discussing explosive drones and rooftop snipers, prosecutors said.

Agents also found Instagram videos that allegedly showed Roa firing guns.

Thomas allegedly discussed how the group could pay for the equipment needed for the attack.

“$1300 gets us the drones and the charges. Yes we should all pitch in and we need it asap…” he allegedly wrote on June 7.

Thomas also outlined four “tiers” of people within the anti-government network.

Tier one consisted of fighters on the ground, while tier two included drivers and drone operators, according to the complaint.

Tier three would provide supplies and tier four would work as social media influencers.

“Tier one status is not something to take lightly,” Thomas allegedly wrote.

“We will try to break them out of jail if we need to.”

He also discussed meeting Roa in Southern California for “marksmen training” and said the group needed to prepare for “gorilla style warfare.”

Agents searching Thomas’ home on June 13 allegedly recovered a rifle, 30-round extended magazines, 180 rounds of ammunition and a pistol.

Eskridge was identified after the FBI examined electronic messages on Proper’s phone.

The group allegedly discussed assassinating senators, members of Congress and prominent business executives.

Some politicians were singled out because members believed they had accepted money from pro-Israel lobbying groups.

Eskridge allegedly described one possible target as “big and someone a majority of the country knows.”

Power grids were also discussed as potential targets.

In May, Eskridge shared a photograph of tactical equipment including a rifle, helmet and ballistic vest, prosecutors said.

He later said the operation would need five teams of three people.

Each team would allegedly include a sniper, a ground operator acting as support and lookout, and a drone pilot.

A search of Eskridge’s Missouri home uncovered rifles, a shotgun, a pistol and tactical gear, officials said.

Alvarez allegedly used the name “Shepherd” in the encrypted group.

The FBI believes he was responsible for organizing and directing the White House assault.

“This is the best action I see. Position your teams in the purple dots (counter sniper and drones) Long range (circled area) (great shot) Easy out into the river,” he allegedly wrote.

Asked about building explosive drones, Alvarez reportedly replied: “As many and as deadly as we can get.”

He allegedly said he already had one drone and was working on obtaining more.

Alvarez also shared proposed launch points, sniper positions and an escape route leading to a safe zone at an old Nebraska church.

The men are accused of conspiring to stage a mass-casualty attack against officials attending Freedom 250.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/16520457/ufc-event-five-arrested-for-planning-attack-trump/

KARL-ANTHONY Towns can relate to Knicks fans after he helped New York win an NBA title for the first time in 53 YEARS.

The U.S. Sun caught up with Towns for an exclusive interview days after the Knicks’ historic victory.

It’s been a long wait for Knicks fans to see a title, as the franchise had last won it all the way back in 1973.

After many years of heartbreak and sadness, plenty of Knickerbocker fans became emotional after seeing the team finally lift the Larry O’Brien Trophy.

Just days after defeating the San Antonio Spurs in the 2026 NBA Finals, Towns stopped by Raising Cane’s in Times Square to work a celebratory shift.

The U.S. Sun asked Towns on Tuesday about the emotional journey with the fans during their playoff run – and helping them finally get over the line.

“S***, I was emotional too. I think we all are,” Towns answered.

Towns then revealed his amazement over the “healing” that the title provided for the fans in New York.

“I think that what was so special about this was – and I didn’t realize this until after the win – was how much healing that win would do for all of New York City, for the fans, to the alumni, to even for us as the players in our personal lives,” he said.

“It was a healing experience.

“To see someone like [Knicks legend Patrick Ewing] just finally exhale after all these years, and to see Larry O’Brien in his hand.

“It was emotional to see Pat taking his portraits with the trophy, because when he was here, I knew he only wished and imagined that he would be the one to do it.”

Throughout his 11 seasons in the NBA, the former No. 1 pick has carried lofty expectations and, as a result, faced criticisms.

After losing in the Eastern Conference Finals last season, Towns and the Knicks went on a historic run, winning 16 of 19 games to end up on top.

Still, to Towns, earning a championship ring wasn’t about feeling vindicated by the public.

“I never needed people’s vindication to feel good about myself,” Towns said.

“My confidence is built in the work,” he added.

“My confidence is built in the gym in the long hours that no one can see.”

Towns averaged close to 16 points and 11 rebounds during the playoffs.

But Towns’ impact on the court can be summed up in one key stat: He is the owner of the highest plus-minus in a single NBA playoff run, finishing the postseason at +258.

Towns touched on his mindset after being fouled out in Game 5, which also saw him score just two points.

He had the utmost confidence in his teammates, which included Finals MVP, Jalen Brunson, to get the win.

“I trusted them one through 15,” Towns said. “Every single person on that team, I knew they could get the job done.

“I just stay locked in. It wasn’t my moment anymore.

“It was our moment. It was always our moment.

“It was never going to be my moment.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/sport/16518660/karl-anthony-towns-knicks-fans-nba-title/

Benjamin Netanyahu bet that his joint war alongside Donald Trump would topple Iran’s clerical rulers and bolster himself ahead of elections at home, as the architect of a U.S.-Israeli alliance that would reshape the Middle East.
Instead, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister is on ​a collision course with Trump as the U.S. president seeks to extricate himself from the war, with both men’s goals unmet and Israeli military operations tied down in Lebanon.

For now, Israeli officials have been cautious in public ‌for fear of angering their most important ally, known for being prickly towards critics.
But in private conversations, the frustration is clear. The preliminary agreement is “terrible for Israel,” said one senior Israeli official, giving a frank assessment on condition of anonymity. “And there is no one in the Israeli leadership who views it otherwise, from the prime minister to the chief of staff.”
Washington says that over the next 60 days, when a ceasefire is in place, it will negotiate full terms that will address U.S. and Israeli concerns, especially over Iran’s nuclear programme.

But Israeli officials told Reuters they thought the negotiating period under the deal was ​likely to be extended, tying Israel’s hands from taking military action, while its concerns remain unresolved.
Netanyahu and Trump have repeatedly clashed over Israel’s refusal to constrain its pursuit of Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, where a cessation of hostilities is a key ​Iranian demand.
At the start of the month, Trump described Netanyahu as “fucking crazy” in an angry phone call, ordering him not to strike Beirut while the U.S. was seeking a deal with Iran.
Netanyahu ⁠called off attacks that day, but struck Beirut’s southern suburbs a week later, provoking Iranian missile strikes on Israel and a public rebuke of both sides from Trump.
Hours before the U.S. and Iran announced their interim deal, Israel hit the Lebanese capital again on ​Sunday, after rockets were launched at Israel from Lebanon, fire Trump described as “small and meaningless”.

Netanyahu said that Israel has emerged “strong and steady,” with a leadership that stands firm and wise. At a press conference in Jerusalem late on Monday, he acknowledged that he and ​Trump have sometimes had their differences.
“He is the president of the United States, I am the prime minister of Israel. We many times see eye-to-eye and there are times when we see eye-to-eye less so. I am in charge of Israel’s security interests,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu, facing autumn elections he is projected to lose, may be more willing to defy Trump as he contends with an Israeli public that opinion polls show has grown sceptical of the U.S. president’s commitment to Israel’s security.
“This is a pretty stark moment of divergence of interests,” said Dan Shapiro, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel under the ​Obama administration, now with the Atlantic Council think tank.
“He will try to not openly oppose (the deal), so as not to get into a brawl with Trump,” said Shapiro. “But he will indicate Israel is not bound by it, and Israel reserves its rights.”

ISRAEL SAYS IT’S ​NOT BOUND BY U.S.-IRAN PACT

The memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran is expected to be signed on Friday in Switzerland. While precise terms were not immediately known, mediator Pakistan said the pact called for a permanent halt to military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon.
Netanyahu ‌said that Israel ⁠would keep its forces in southern Lebanon and maintain ‘freedom of action’ against Hezbollah attacks.
“Iran wanted us to withdraw from it but I stood firm,” he told reporters. “We are keeping our freedom of action and we are keeping the security zone to protect (Israel’s) northern citizens,” he said.
The interim deal would reopen the Strait of Hormuz oil chokepoint while leaving the fate of Tehran’s nuclear programme to be resolved during a 60-day negotiation period towards a final deal.
Two other issues that Netanyahu and Trump had both declared as justifications for the war at its outset – curbing Iran’s missile programme and ending its support for regional armed groups – are not thought to be on the agenda during those talks.
Three Israeli officials said Israel sees it as very likely the 60-day pact will be extended to 90 days, with the U.S. ​maintaining its deployment of military assets in the region as it ​negotiates a broader deal.
Two other Israeli officials said that Israel ⁠was caught by surprise last week when Trump first said that a deal with Iran was close. They acknowledged that Israel has had little success in influencing the talks.
All of the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.

NETANYAHU UNABLE TO SELL THIS AGREEMENT TO ISRAELI PUBLIC’, ANALYST SAYS

Netanyahu, who often clashed with Washington under the administrations of Democrats Barack Obama ​and Joe Biden, has long portrayed himself to the Israeli public as being uniquely adept in dealing with the Republican Trump.
During Trump’s first term, Israel secured major policy changes from Washington, which ​moved its embassy to Jerusalem and ⁠backed the Abraham Accords that brought Israel formal diplomatic ties with the UAE and Bahrain. On Iran, Trump ditched a nuclear agreement negotiated under Obama that Israel had long complained was too soft.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/netanyahu-trump-collision-course-us-iran-agree-halt-war-2026-06-15/

Sweden’s parliament passed a law on Monday allowing authorities to revoke immigrants’ residency permits based on bad behaviour, ​such as having unpaid debts, doing undeclared work or ‌links to extremist organisations.
The law, which covers pending permits but also retroactively already granted permits, is part of a wider tightening of immigration ​rules by the right-wing government and its support party, ​the nationalist Sweden Democrats, ahead of a parliamentary election ⁠in September.

The law has been criticised by the opposition and ​human rights advocacy groups as arbitrary because decisions would be taken ​on behaviour that has not been deemed criminal.
“The good behaviour law leaves people in uncertainty about what actions or expressions can be used against ​them,” Stockholm-based group Civil Rights Defenders said in a statement.
“It ​undermines the rule of law and the principle of equality before the ‌law.”
The ⁠government, which won the 2022 election on a promise to reduce immigration and crack down on crime, has said that people who misbehave or commit crimes are not welcome.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/sweden-passes-good-behaviour-law-kick-out-misbehaving-immigrants-2026-06-15/

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday ‌that he had offered to meet Vladimir Putin at a G7 summit in France this week or even in the United States for talks to end a four-year war.
Zelenskiy, speaking at a historic monastery in Kyiv that was damaged in an overnight attack by Russia, ​said the United States had agreed to inviting Putin to the gathering, which starts on Monday ​in Evian-les-Bains.

“We gave message that we are ready to meet with Putin during (the) G7, ⁠because Trump is there and Macron is there, so Europeans plus America. This is a good, I ​think, very good opportunity to meet all together,” Zelenskiy told reporters in English.
“Europe and the United States were ​agreed and Russia demonstrated again that…they are not ready to speak,” he said.
Writing later on Telegram, Zelenskiy said he had suggested to Trump in a telephone conversation on Sunday that he and the Russian president meet in the United States.
“Yesterday we discussed ​with President Trump that such a meeting could be organised in the U.S. in a format that ​would make it much harder for Putin to refuse, at least to refuse President Trump,” he said.

“We will see what comes ‌of ⁠this. If Russia rejects this chance too, more pressure will be needed.”
A Ukrainian official said that Zelenskiy had told the Americans and French President Emmanuel Macron about the proposal for talks at the G7. Ukraine also delivered the invitation directly to Russian counterparts, but received no clear answer, the official said.
Macron’s office did not ​immediately respond to a request ​for comment.
In an open letter ⁠to Putin this month, Zelenskiy offered to meet for face-to-face talks and had suggested that the war was increasing the strain on Russia’s economy. In response, Putin ​said publicly that he saw no reason for a meeting, and Ukraine’s long-range drone ​attacks posed no ⁠economic threat.
At least 10 people were killed in Russia’s overnight attack on Kyiv and the northeastern city of Kharkiv on Monday.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraines-zelenskiy-says-he-offered-meet-putin-g7-2026-06-15/

Iran kicked off their World Cup in Los ​Angeles on Monday, drawing 2-2 with New Zealand in front of a crowd that consisted of both fans cheering them ‌on and Iranian Americans waving symbols of protest against the Tehran government.
The run-up to the match had been one of extraordinary drama off the pitch, with the team playing on U.S. soil barely 24 hours after a peace deal was announced to end the war that began when the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in February.

The footballers ​had flown into the U.S. on Sunday from their training base in Tijuana, Mexico.
In Los Angeles – home to the biggest Iranian ​community outside Iran, many of whom fled the country after the Islamic Revolution – Iranian American soccer fans said they had been left torn ⁠between excitement at seeing the team on the world’s biggest stage, anger at Tehran’s crackdown on protesters and concern about Washington’s bombing campaign.
Though ​most Iran fans at the stadium passionately backed their team, many signalled opposition to the government in Tehran by holding up pre-revolutionary flags – ​the lion‑and‑sun emblem used before 1979 and now a symbol of protest.

Some went further, cheering New Zealand or booing their own side, which some Iranian Americans view as a proxy for Tehran.
Outside the stadium, several hundred held a protest, waving anti-Iranian government signs and flags.
Iran had threatened to halt matches if unofficial flags were brought ​in or slogans chanted.
But numerous people carrying the lion-and-sun flag or wearing t-shirts with the symbol passed through security at the stadium without any ​issue and the game on Monday proceeded as planned.
When asked about the matter, world soccer’s governing body FIFA has previously pointed to rules that prohibit flags or apparel ‌of a ⁠political nature.

[1/7]Soccer Football – FIFA World Cup 2026 – Group G – Iran v New Zealand – Los Angeles Stadium, Inglewood, California, U.S. – June 15, 2026 Protesters with Iran flags and banners of Iranian political activist Reza Pahlavi outside the stadium REUTERS/Mike Blake Purchase Licensing Rights

‘LET GO OF POLITICS’

Three people in the stands wearing white t-shirts emblazoned with the lion-and-sun motif said they had decided to wear them despite the warnings.
“This team is not the team of the people of Iran,” said one of the three, ​Farhad Jafargad.
Other fans wrapped themselves in ​the official flag and complained ⁠that they had been heckled by the protesters. Some said they wanted to focus on their team – affectionately known as Team Melli – and forget the politics.
“We’re very proud of our country,” said 57-year-old Mehdi Jafari, ​wearing an Iran soccer shirt, going into the stadium ahead of the match.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/sports/soccer/iranian-americans-plan-protests-soccer-team-prepare-their-world-cup-opener-2026-06-15/

The U.S. Supreme Court turned away ​on Monday a gun industry challenge to a New York law that permits lawsuits against gun makers, wholesalers and dealers for ‌endangering people’s safety through sales of firearms and ammunition.
The justices declined to hear an appeal by an industry trade group, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, of a lower court ruling upholding the law, which New York calls a public nuisance statute.

Gun manufacturers including Smith & Wesson (SWBI.O), Ruger (RGR.N), Beretta, Glock, Sig Sauer and Sturm joined the appeal, which argued that New ​York’s law unconstitutionally conflicted with federal law.
The Supreme Court in 2025 spared Smith & Wesson from a lawsuit by Mexico’s government accusing the company ​of aiding illegal gun trafficking to drug cartels.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation expressed disappointment that the Supreme Court decided ⁠not to hear its appeal.
“NSSF sincerely believes that those criminals who illegally misuse lawful products should be held responsible for the harms they cause when ​they commit their crimes,” spokesperson Mark Oliva said in an email. “Holding the firearm industry responsible for the criminal misuse of a firearm is akin to holding ​Anheuser-Busch and Ford Motor Company responsible for damages from drunk-driving crimes.”

Signed by Democratic former Governor Andrew Cuomo in 2021, the New York law requires the gun industry to use reasonable safeguards to protect against gun trafficking, theft and the use of “straw purchasers” who buy firearms for someone else. It also allows civil lawsuits by New York state and ​local officials as well as members of the public.
Letitia James, New York’s attorney general, has said the law helps in fighting a “scourge” of gun ​violence.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation said the law was preempted by a 2005 federal law, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, that shields the gun industry from ‌civil liability ⁠when its products are used in crimes. Under the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, federal laws take precedence over conflicting state laws.
The Manhattan-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld New York’s law last year.

Circuit Judge Eunice Lee, an appointee of Democratic former President Joe Biden, wrote that Congress intended to preserve “at least some causes of action” when a defendant’s knowing violation of federal or state firearms sales and marketing laws was a proximate cause of harm.

‘CRUSHING LIABILITY’

The ​appeal did not hinge on the Constitution’s ​Second Amendment protections of the ⁠right to keep and bear arms. But the trade group said laws such as New York’s imperil such rights by allowing lawsuits that could saddle companies with “crushing liability” for crimes they had nothing to do with.
It also said ​a “predicate exception” in the federal law at issue subjected the industry to liability only for failures to comply ​with specific obligations or ⁠prohibitions within its control.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/us-supreme-court-rebuffs-challenge-new-york-law-allowing-suits-against-gun-2026-06-15/

Aides to Gov. Gavin Newsom of California say several people associated with the couple have been contacted by federal agents in the past week. He criticized the move as politically motivated.

Federal agents have questioned friends and associates of Gov. Gavin Newsom of California and his wife, Mr. Newsom said on Monday in a video in which he accused President Trump of using the Justice Department to punish a political enemy.

The full scope of any investigation remains unclear. But Mr. Newsom’s aides say part of the federal investigation appears to focus on his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom. Former employees of the governor and people affiliated with his wife’s nonprofit groups are among those who have been questioned by agents, according to the governor’s office.

A person familiar with the matter confirmed that multiple federal investigations were underway related to the governor, including one looking at his wife’s finances. But the person disputed Mr. Newsom’s assertion that the investigations were politically motivated, and said they had been initiated by federal law enforcement officials in California, not launched by officials in Washington. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.

Mr. Newsom, a Democrat who is widely seen as a potential Democratic presidential candidate in 2028, the last year of Mr. Trump’s term, described the investigation as a fishing expedition in which federal agents had started sifting through “years and years of random documents” and knocking on the doors of family friends and associates of the Newsoms to try to find evidence of an unspecified crime.

“Donald Trump isn’t just coming after me because of my mean tweets,” Mr. Newsom said in the video. “He’s coming after me because I am considering running for president.” He added, “To get me, he’s coming after my wife.”

Several people associated with the Newsoms have been contacted by federal agents in the past week, according to the governor’s office. Mr. Newsom’s aides believe the agents have also subpoenaed banking records, but said they had seen no written evidence of that.

An F.B.I. spokesman and a Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment. A White House official referred all questions to the Justice Department.

Ms. Siebel Newsom said Mr. Trump would stop at nothing to try to punish those who stand up to him.

“This is not presidential behavior, and the Governor and I will continue to speak truth to power because the American people deserve so much more,” she said in a statement.

Ms. Siebel Newsom, who calls herself California’s first partner, is a documentary filmmaker whose work focuses on the social impacts of sexism. She founded a nonprofit organization called the Representation Project that advocates for gender equity, in part by developing educational materials based on Ms. Siebel Newsom’s documentaries.

Ms. Siebel Newsom also owns a film production company called Girls Club Entertainment. It is listed as a contractor of the Representation Project on the nonprofit’s tax returns. Tax records show that the Representation Project makes annual payments to Girls Club Entertainment. In 2024, the nonprofit paid Girls Club Entertainment $161,250 for film production work.

Ms. Siebel Newsom is also a co-founder of the California Partners Project, a nonprofit that works to get more women onto corporate boards, address the gender pay gap and make technology safer for children. Some of the donors that support the California Partners Project are groups with business before the state government.

For years, critics have raised the possibility of self-dealing, but no public evidence of wrongdoing by any of the entities tied to Ms. Siebel Newsom has surfaced, and it remains unclear what precise issues and actions investigators have been asking questions about.

Mr. Newsom has reported soliciting $4.3 million in donations to the California Partners Project since 2020, according to disclosures filed with the state’s ethics agency. That includes $1.8 million from a Native American tribe that has an agreement with the state to operate a casino in Sonoma County. In California, public officials must disclose donations to charities that are made at the official’s request.

Another nonprofit group with ties to Mr. Newsom is called the California Protocol Foundation. Its board includes some of Mr. Newsom’s top advisers during his time as governor and previously as the mayor of San Francisco. The foundation pays for initiatives that the governor says he does not want state taxpayers to cover, including his travel overseas for conferences and other meetings.

Mr. Newsom’s office said the investigation is a fresh attempt to smear him after the federal prosecution of his former chief of staff revealed no misconduct by the governor. The former chief of staff, Dana Williamson, pleaded guilty last month to three felonies in a sprawling corruption case.

One of the crimes Ms. Williamson pleaded guilty to was lying to the F.B.I. about information she had access to while working in Mr. Newsom’s office. In her plea agreement, Ms. Williamson said she gave her former business partner confidential information about state litigation that involved one of their clients and then lied about it when questioned by the F.B.I.

The agreement does not name the client, but details in the indictment align with a sex-discrimination lawsuit that California regulators filed in 2021 against the video game maker Activision Blizzard. The company had been a client of Ms. Williamson’s consulting business before she joined Mr. Newsom’s office. In 2022, Mr. Newsom fired the state lawyer leading the suit against Activision, prompting complaints that he was interfering.

When Ms. Williamson was indicted last year, her attorney said that federal agents first approached her during the Biden administration. She was working for Mr. Newsom at the time, and the agents asked her if she would cooperate in an investigation of the governor. She replied that she had no information to give them because she had never witnessed any criminal conduct by Mr. Newsom.

Earlier this year, Mr. Newsom’s office responded to questions from Mr. Trump’s Justice Department about his 2022 termination of the lawyer involved in the Activision lawsuit, according to a spokesman for Mr. Newsom. Then the communication from federal officials ceased, the spokesman said.

The latest inquiries into associates of Mr. Newsom and Ms. Siebel Newsom began around the time Mr. Trump said that he planned to nominate Todd Blanche as attorney general, according to the governor’s office.

Mr. Blanche had previously defended Mr. Trump in three of the four criminal cases he was facing.

Nominated to be the No. 2 official at the Justice Department at the beginning of Mr. Trump’s second term, Mr. Blanche — now the acting attorney general — has pursued prosecutions of Mr. Trump’s perceived enemies. He also signed an agreement granting the president and his companies immunity from audits of past tax returns to settle a $10 billion lawsuit the president brought against his own government earlier this year.

Mr. Newsom has been highly critical of Mr. Blanche’s nomination to the top Justice Department position, recently calling Mr. Blanche “the guy covering up the Epstein Files” and saying he “gave Trump and his family a lifetime pass to commit tax crimes.”

Mr. Newsom, in his video address, mentioned that Mr. Trump had called for his arrest last year and he said he was proud to join the “hit list” of people standing up to the president. Among the wide range of Democrats who Mr. Trump has aggressively targeted is Senator Mark Kelly, Democrat from Arizona, for saying that members of the military should not follow illegal orders from the president. Mr. Kelly is also a potential 2028 presidential candidate in a Democratic primary.

Source : https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/15/us/newsom-trump-doj-investigation.html?unlocked_article_code=1.qVA.lFgS.2c3sUnEAEE17&smid=url-share

US President Donald Trump has said oil tankers are once again moving through the Strait of Hormuz, describing key shipping routes as safe and secure. His remarks come amid easing tensions between the United States and Iran, with global markets closely monitoring developments in one of the world’s most important energy corridors for signs of stability.

US President Donald Trump has said that commercial vessels carrying oil have resumed movement through the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial maritime passage that plays a major role in global energy supplies.

In a post shared on Truth Social, Trump indicated that shipping activity in the region was returning to normal, offering a positive signal for international markets that have been closely watching developments in the Middle East.

“Ships are starting to move, many loaded up with Oil, out of the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump wrote. He added that the vessels were using a southern route which he described as “totally safe, secure, and pristine”.

The President also suggested that alternative routes were available, stating that there were “other areas of travel” for maritime traffic.

The Strait of Hormuz remains one of the world’s most important shipping corridors, linking the Persian Gulf to international waters. A significant portion of the world’s oil exports passes through the narrow waterway, making any disruption a major concern for energy markets and governments worldwide.

In recent weeks, concerns over regional tensions had raised questions about the safety of commercial shipping in the area. Any interruption to traffic through the strait has the potential to affect oil prices, shipping costs and broader economic confidence.

Trump’s comments are therefore being viewed as an indication that commercial operators are regaining confidence in the route.

The remarks came as attention remained focused on diplomatic developments involving the United States and Iran. Reports of a preliminary understanding between the two countries have contributed to expectations that tensions in the region could ease.

For global investors, the resumption of shipping activity through the Strait of Hormuz is a significant development. Analysts have long regarded the waterway as a key factor influencing oil prices and market stability.

Source : https://www.freepressjournal.in/world/ships-are-starting-to-move-again-us-president-donald-trump-on-oil-traffic-through-strait-of-hormuz-amid-middle-east-tensions

CHINA secretly trained hundreds of Russian soldiers on its territory before they were sent to the front lines to fight in Ukraine, according to reports.

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) reportedly hosted several hundred Russian soldiers at six covert military bases in China.

Training took place late last year before troops were sent to Ukraine soon after.

Drone warfare was a specific focus of the camps which coached Russian forces including Russia’s elite “Rubicon” frontline drone unit.

The bombshell claim was first reported by German newspaper Die Welt last month, citing secret documents.

On Sunday, EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas said the EU had “now verified reports that the Chinese military had been training Russian military personnel to fight in Ukraine”.

Speaking after a meeting of EU foreign ministers she added: “We are carefully assessing the implications.”

China has claimed neutrality in the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.

But the report bolsters suspicions that Beijing has been dragged far more directly into the conflict than publicly disclosed, as the “axis of evil” pulls closer.

Just last month Chinese president Xi Jinping rolled out the red carpet for Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin.

During the meeting, the pair praised their countries’ close partnership as they extended their treaty of “friendly cooperation”.

And Chinese troops have also reportedly received their own training in Russia.

Around 600 of Beijing’s soldiers learnt about armoured combat, artillery deployment and air defences in Russia last year, the outlet reports.

A German foreign ministry spokesman said: “China’s crucial and growing support for Russia’s war of aggression also affects our security.

“In all our discussions with the Chinese side, we make it very clear how deeply concerned we are about China’s support for Russia.”

The two countries have increasingly shared information about European and US weapons being sent to Ukraine.

This includes equipment captured on the battlefield by Russian troops, the report said.

Particular interest has focused on US-made HIMARS rocket launchers, Patriot air-defence systems, German-made Marder armoured vehicles, and American Abrams main battle tanks.

Ties between China and Russia have strengthened in the years since Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Putin has also become more reliant on China, as Western sanctions squeeze oil revenues and made China the dominant buyer of Russian oil.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/16514311/xi-jinping-trained-putins-soldiers-ukraine-war/

A 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck southern Philippines’ Davao Oriental on Monday, with no tsunami warning, casualties, or major damage reported.

A strong earthquake of 6.2 magnitude on the Richter Scale struck Davao Oriental region in the southern Philippines on Monday (June 15). SO far no tsunami warning has been issued. The quake struck 164 km (102 miles) southeast ⁠of Governor Generoso in Davao Oriental province had a depth ‌of 86 km, said the Philippine state seismology agency Phivolcs, as reported by Reuters.

There are no reports of any injuries or collateral damage due to the quake. However, panic gripped the locals. As per the global news agency, Phivolcs director Teresito Bacolcol told DZMM radio that today’s quake originated along the Philippine Trench and is not connnected to ⁠the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that jolted Mindanao on June 8.

PAS’ president Abdul Hadi Awang announced over the weekend that Hamzah Zainudin will be reappointed as Malaysia’s opposition leader, but its coalition partner Bersatu – which sacked Hamzah in February – has questioned the move.

Two of Malaysia’s main opposition parties Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) and Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) have traded barbs over PAS’ reappointment of former federal minister Hamzah Zainudin as Leader of the Opposition.

Both parties are founding members of the Perikatan Nasional (PN) opposition coalition although PAS had announced that it had severed ties with Bersatu last week.

Bersatu information chief Faisal Ismail Aziz said that the Islamist party’s decision was a unilateral one that was made without proper consultation and against a previous decision by the PN supreme council.

“These … announcements not only disregard the principles of consensus and unity that have long underpinned PN but also run contrary to the coalition’s constitution,” Faisal said, as reported by local media platform The Star on Monday (Jun 15).

Hamzah – a former Bersatu deputy president – was sacked from the party in February. He then resigned as opposition leader in April following months of limbo.

Hamzah then launched the Reset movement, a political platform geared towards national reform, and unveiled his new party – the Parti Wawasan Negara (Wawasan) – over the weekend.

PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang then announced on Saturday that Hamzah was to be reappointed as the opposition leader. Wawasan was also allowed to use PN’s logo in the upcoming state polls.

With his reappointment as opposition leader, Hamzah takes over the role from Terengganu Chief Minister Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar, who will stay on as PN chairman.

Faisal stressed that the PN supreme council in March had decided that a PAS lawmaker be appointed opposition leader following Hamzah’s expulsion from Bersatu.

He further noted that PN secretary-general Takiyuddin Hassan had said in May that the coalition was open to electoral cooperation or pacts with other parties and individuals who share its principles and vision.

“It was stated that non-member parties may negotiate through a committee that would set the terms and conditions. However, there is still no indication that such a committee has been formed,” said Faisal.

THE PREFERRED CHOICE

PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man had on Saturday night said the party had wanted to retain Hamzah in the role from the outset because of his performance and the support he commanded among opposition lawmakers.

“Actually, from the very beginning, we wanted to retain Hamzah because of his performance and because many members of parliament were with him. It was just that Bersatu was not particularly comfortable with Hamzah’s position at the time, as he had been expelled from the party.

“So when he formed a new party (Parti Wawasan Negara) … we thought we should continue to retain him (as Leader of the Opposition),” Tuan Ibrahim was quoted as saying by Malaysian news platform Berita Harian.

Separately, Kelantan PAS Youth chief Firdaus Nawi said that Hadi’s announcement of Hamzah’s return as opposition leader was a “knockout blow” to Bersatu, sending a “clear signal” to the former ally.

“It sent a clear message that PAS remains the main force setting the direction of opposition politics, while Bersatu is losing value and influence,” he said, according to local news platform Sinar Harian.

Firdaus further accused some Bersatu leaders of being more interested in attacking PAS and Hadi than repairing ties within the opposition bloc.

“They expected PAS to become weak once ties between PAS and Bersatu started to crack. But the reality is that PAS continues to move forward with its own strength,” he said.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/malaysia-pas-bersatu-hamzah-zainudin-opposition-leader-6184021

The Germany national team’s 7-1 win over Curacao drew over 23 million viewers. Meanwhile, German President Steinmeier is kicking off his visit to Indonesia.

The United Kingdom is set to follow the example of Australia and Indonesia by banning teenagers from social networks. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said platforms like Instagram and TikTok make youngsters “unhappy.”

Children under the age of 16 will be banned from using social media in the United Kingdom from early next year, the British government announced on Monday.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that popular social media platforms such as Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) were “designed to be addictive,” making them “dangerous” and making youngsters “unhappy.”

The ban, which Starmer hopes will be passed into law by December and come into force early in 2027, follows similar initiatives launched in Australia, Canada, Brazil and Indonesia.

“Every parent can see it with their own eyes: social media is making children unhappy,” said Starmer, who himself has two teenage children. “I’ve heard first hand from families crying out for change and we will do right by them.”

The move, which won’t include messaging apps such as WhatsApp, has been welcomed by campaigners including Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle. But it could trigger a major fight with US tech giants, who argue that blanket social media bans risk forcing children into even less regulated spaces.

“Blanket bans push kids out of such curated, supervised, beneficial experiences and towards anonymous, less-safe services,” a YouTube spokesperson said, while Meta said a ban could drive teens to online alternatives without any parental controls.

Starmer: ‘I believe we can enforce it’

Starmer acknowledged the challenges and admitted that some teenagers would try to find their way around a ban, but drew a comparison with age restrictions on alcohol and tobacco.

“Some teenagers find ways to get a drink before they should, but that doesn’t mean we abandon any attempts to stop them buying alcohol,” he said. “I do believe we can enforce it.”

Starmer is currently under domestic pressure over the cost of living, perceived issues with immigration and military spending, and is likely to face a leadership challenge from within his own Labour Party in the coming weeks.

But the social media ban could prove to be a popular move and could leave him with a more positive legacy, with 90% of British parents surveyed reportedly in favor.

“The tech companies, if they wanted to make changes, they could have done that by now, but they’ve chosen not to,” said Ellen Roome, a children’s online safety campaigner whose son took his own life when he was just 14.

“We need to come down hard on them. If they’re not going to do it, we need to be very strict.”

UK social media ban: What do teenagers think?

Young people who spoke to the AFP news agency gave a mixed response.

“I think it’s a good thing, to be honest, because I don’t even remember what age I was when I got Instagram, but it was just way too early,” said 19-year-old student Connie Skitt. “You’re making friends with people you don’t know. It’s not that safe.”

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/uk-announces-social-media-ban-for-under-16s/a-77568831

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani candidly dropped a major hint about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s forthcoming wedding while discussing security measures being taken for the FIFA World Cup 2026.

“I am fully confident in the work of the NYPD, as well as our state partners, in delivering that safe experience,” the politician told reporters at a press conference Monday.

“We are the biggest city in the country,” he continued. “We are used to big events, and we are incredibly excited for this one. We know it coincides with the Knicks’ [NBA] Finals run. We know it coincides with July 4, America 250, Taylor Swift’s wedding — all happening at the same time — and we are so excited to welcome the world here.”

Mamdani, 34, emphasized the weekend’s big sporting events — the New York Knicks’ win against the San Antonio Spurs in Texas and the Brazil vs. Morocco World Cup game at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey — as showing togetherness among New Yorkers.

“One of the beautiful things about Saturday was you walked around the city, you saw people in Brazil jerseys, you saw people in Morocco jerseys, you saw people in Knicks jerseys,” he gushed.

Mamdani added: “It feels like a city that is coming to life.”

The mayor was then asked if he was invited and going to Swift and Kelce’s highly anticipated nuptials.

“No and no,” he said.

“I wish them a lovely wedding. I’ll listen to ‘Only the Young’ at home on my own,” Mamdani added, referring to the Grammy winner’s 2020 track.

Several insiders told Page Six that Kelce and Swift, both 36, were hosting their wedding at Madison Square Garden over the July 3 weekend.

Guests who received an invite were reportedly required to sign an NDA before they received details about the ceremony, TMZ reported.

Additionally, penalties will be enforced if the agreement is broken.

Source : https://pagesix.com/2026/06/15/entertainment/nyc-mayor-mamdani-drops-major-hint-about-taylor-swift-travis-kelces-wedding/

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) are investigating claims that Israeli forces raped and tortured a group of activists who were detained after trying to deliver aid to Gaza by boat.

The move was announced shortly after four female activists, who were part of the Global Sumud flotilla in May, met with Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong and senior officials including police on Monday.

An Israeli embassy spokesperson said there was “no credible evidence” to back the claims and no formal complaint had yet been made to them.

Eleven Australians were among hundreds of activists detained by Israeli forces on 18 May after their Gaza-bound humanitarian flotilla was intercepted.

After Monday’s meeting, one of the activists, Juliet Lamont, said Wong “believes” the group’s claims against Israeli forces and police had indicated they would take action.

“They have committed to an independent investigation into our allegations of kidnapping, abuse, rape, torture,” Lamont told reporters.

The AFP confirmed it had “begun inquiries into allegations made by a representative of the group” and that it “engages with a victim centric, trauma-informed approach”.

“The AFP will provide an update at an appropriate time,” the spokesperson said.

Monday’s meeting was the first time Wong had met with the activists and a spokesperson from her office said it gave her and others an opportunity to “listen to them directly about their experiences”.

The minister has raised the allegations several times with Israel and expects “an independent, transparent investigation”, the spokesperson said.

“Minister Wong has condemned the actions of Israeli authorities and the behaviour of Israeli Minister Ben-Gvir who we have already sanctioned,” Wong’s spokesperson said.

There was widespread condemnation after far-right Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir posted a video showing himself taunting activists kneeling with their hands tied behind their backs.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyx4eny41zo

Several of the skydivers killed when their plane crashed moments after taking off from a Missouri airfield were experienced jumpers, including a leader at one of the sport’s biggest organizations.

Federal investigators were at the crash site, about an hour south of Kansas City, on Monday, a day after the plane carrying a pilot and 11 skydivers slammed into a field and burst into flames, killing all on board, authorities said.

Some family members of those who died were at the airport to watch the jump and witnessed the crash, said Bates County Sheriff Chad Anderson.

Authorities have not released the victims’ names, but friends and colleagues began paying tribute.

The United States Parachute Association, skydiving’s governing body, said its technology director, Jen Sharp, was among those killed.

“Jen was a remarkable force whose passion for the skies was matched only by her dedication to the people in our sport,” said Albert Berchtold, the organization’s executive director.

Sharp taught skydiving instructors, wrote educational materials and made 6,800 jumps since her first one in 1989, according to her website.

She once jumped into Denver’s Coors Field ballpark while dressed as the queen of England and was part of the Everest Skydive in the Himalayas, her site said.

Kevin Payne, who had jumped with seven of the skydivers on the plane, said they were all different in nearly every way, except that they were all brought together as a “sky family.”

“There is a joy and peace and freedom to what we do. That’s what most people never understand,” Payne, of Parkville, Missouri, wrote in an email. “It’s not about the adrenaline. It’s about really flying together with your family in that brief, exquisite instant that people who live their lives on the ground will never understand.”

It will be about a month before the National Transportation Safety Board issues a preliminary report, but weather did not appear to be a factor.

Investigators had interviewed some witnesses by Monday afternoon but not the company’s owner, NTSB Vice Chairman Michael Graham said. The plane didn’t have a “black box” like those that record flight data on commercial planes, but investigators will examine the wreckage for other clues, he said.

Skydiving plane went down soon after taking off

Witnesses say the plane was roughly 100 feet (30 meters) from the ground when it made an abrupt left turn before crashing.

It appeared to be losing power, and the pilot may have been trying to reach a highway to land when the plane stalled and went down nose first, said Dennis Jacobs, acting airport manager of Butler Memorial Airport. On Monday, Graham said investigators are only beginning to interview all those witnesses and gather photos and videos of the crash, so it’s too early to say definitively what happened.

The plane was operated by Skydive Kansas City, he said. The crash site in the small town of Butler is roughly 65 miles (105 kilometers) south of Kansas City.

Skydive Kansas City said in a statement that its team and the skydiving community were in shock.

“This is a devastating loss for everyone connected to Skydive Kansas City and for the wider skydiving community,” the company said. “Our deepest sympathies are with the families, friends, and loved ones of all who were lost.”

Plane made multiple flights over the weekend

The Pacific Aerospace 750XL — a single-engine turboprop plane — is a popular model in skydiving because it’s designed for the sport and can quickly take parachutists to jumping altitudes while using short runways.

This particular aircraft, built in 2010, made nine successful flights in the days before the crash, including two on Sunday morning, according to FlightAware, a digital flight tracking company.

Red flags raised about skydiving oversight

The NTSB has voiced concerns in past crash investigations about whether skydiving operators get enough oversight and inspections to ensure their planes are safe and their pilots are well trained.

The Federal Aviation Administration has yet to adopt the NTSB’s recommendations, but said Monday it established a committee in April that will recommend ways to increase skydiving safety and will consider the safety board’s proposals.

“It’s always frustrating when we see things the FAA hasn’t acted on,” said Graham, of the NTSB. “And then we continue to see accidents in those arenas.”

The FAA said its inspectors are required to examine certain aspects of skydiving businesses every year, including several safety items related to the aircraft and pilots. But the NTSB said previously that those inspections failed to identify a twisted wing on a skydiving plane that later crashed in Hawaii in 2019 and killed 11 people.

Skydiving businesses can operate under the same FAA rules that apply to any small plane owner as long as their flights don’t venture more than 25 miles (40 kilometers) away. Those rules also cover tourist helicopters and other local flights because the FAA considers those operations less complicated than a charter company or airline.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/plane-crash-deaths-skydiving-butler-missouri-325dcef3a99218ea86be3fbb0dac4f0d

Six months after President Donald Trump warned states not to regulate artificial intelligence, they are increasingly doing just that.

Congress has stalled on producing federal regulation of artificial intelligence as states forge ahead and scrutinize how chatbots interact with children, how AI systems are used by employers and what developers must do to try to prevent an AI-caused catastrophe.

State lawmakers have stepped back from earlier, wider-ranging attempts to regulate AI that were vetoed or otherwise derailed by governors who viewed the measures as too onerous toward the industry’s development, including efforts to hold developers accountable for bias in AI systems.

But they are returning with legislation that is more targeted and, often, probes the corners of life where Americans interact with AI but may not know it.

Presidential power versus state power

Trump’s move to restrain states’ actions on AI drew criticism from members of both political parties and civil liberties and consumer rights groups who worried that banning state regulation would amount to a gift to AI giants, who enjoy little to no oversight.

Trump has made AI a top national and economic security priority, and he said that letting states clutter the regulatory playing field for an industry that’s spending trillions of dollars and driving the economy is too risky in the race with China for AI superiority.

Trump issued an executive order that directed the attorney general to create a task force to challenge state laws that are more than “minimally burdensome,” and directed the Commerce Department to draw up a list of problematic regulations. It also threatened to restrict funding from a broadband deployment program and other grant programs to states with AI laws.

The White House said it wouldn’t target state laws that seek to prevent fraud and protect consumers and children.

In the meantime, the Trump administration released a “national policy framework” in which it urged Congress to preempt state AI laws that are out of step with its regulatory worldview and to pass legislation to protect children, intellectual property rights and free speech. In recent days, a new bipartisan draft proposal in the House met withering criticism from key Democrats and Republicans.

The White House has given no indication that it has made good on its threat to enforce the president’s executive order by going to court against a state’s AI law or withholding money. In a statement, it said the Trump administration is “eager to work with partners” to enact its policy framework.

States seem largely unrestrained by Trump

Trump’s executive order didn’t seem to discourage states from trying to regulate how AI is used. More bills have been introduced this year than last, including by Republicans, said Justine Gluck, policy director of the Future of Privacy Forum, a nonprofit that advocates for data privacy in technology and whose members are from industry, academia and civic groups.

In Illinois, legislation on the desk of Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker piggybacked on elements of laws passed last year in California and New York that require developers of large advanced AI models to create protocols to prevent their systems from causing a catastrophe, such as a biological weapons attack, power outage or large-scale hack.

Illinois added a requirement that AI developers must get an independent auditor to review whether they are complying with their own policies. Analysts see it as a step toward requiring AI developers to take greater accountability for their products.

The bill’s sponsor, Democratic state Sen. Mary Edly-Allen, brushed aside Trump’s threat.

“I don’t know if you’ve met Illinois, but we’re pretty independent,” Edly-Allen told The Associated Press.

The bill drew nearly unanimous support, signaling a willingness by members of Trump’s party to cooperate with Democrats in filling the AI regulatory vacuum left by the federal government.

This kind of legislation is expected to expand to other states.

Regulating chatbots, especially for children

A growing number of states are imposing restrictions on how AI chatbots can interact with people, especially children. A mix of Republican- and Democratic-led states have passed such laws this year, including Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Iowa, Nebraska and Oregon.

In many cases, states want companies to tell people when they are interacting with AI instead of a human. Many want chatbots to be restricted in how they interact with minors, parents to have control over their child’s access, and data given to chatbots to be kept private.

In recent weeks, Connecticut enacted provisions for companion chatbots that sustain an ongoing relationship with a human. Under them, chatbots must not be able to interact with someone under 18, unless it is programmed against encouraging self-destructive behavior and provides parents with tools to manage the child’s use.

Transparency in AI and decision-making

Colorado in May required companies that deploy AI systems in important areas such as employment, education, housing or banking to tell people when it’s being used to influence a decision about them.

It was a stab at regulating what researchers say is the bias inherent in AI systems that sort through a consumer’s data and render consequential decisions — including who gets hired, a home loan or medical care. But it watered down a 2024 law aimed at preventing AI’s penchant to discriminate, amid pressure from Democratic Gov. Jared Polis.

In Connecticut, lawmakers required employers who are using employment-related AI systems to tell employees or job applicants that they are interacting with AI.

Meanwhile, Connecticut, Washington and Utah required AI developers to embed data into digital content that will allow users to determine whether the content — such as photos or video — has been created or altered by AI.

More laws are possible this year.

In California, lawmakers are advancing the “No Robo Bosses Act of 2026” to prohibit employers from relying solely on AI to fire or discipline workers, and an expansion of how the state regulates AI chatbots, including banning chatbot outputs to children from being used for advertising.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/trump-artificial-intelligence-chatbots-ai-23a0e44ab05402ddfe9cdfd0bffa0ade

The Palestinian death toll from the Israel-Hamas war has surpassed 73,000, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Sunday, as Israeli military operations continued despite a stalled and fragile ceasefire in place since October.

Israel says it is targeting Hamas and other militants who pose a threat, and in response to ceasefire violations, including occasional attacks.

Nearly 1,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the ceasefire, according to the health ministry. Five Israeli soldiers have been killed since the truce.

The number of deaths since the beginning of the war is now 73,001, according to the health ministry’s tally. Over 173,200 people have been wounded since the start of the war on Oct. 7, 2023, following the Hamas-led attack into Israel. That attack killed some 1,200 people and took 251 others hostage.

The health ministry, part of the Hamas-led government, is staffed by medical professionals and maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by United Nations agencies and independent experts. It does not distinguish between civilians and militants but says women and children make up around half of all fatalities.

Israel says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas because the militants operate in densely populated areas.

Stalled ceasefire

The U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal reached in October ended full-scale military operations and led to the return of all the remaining hostages. But other elements of the deal have stalled as Hamas has refused to disarm and Israeli troops have advanced in Gaza, rather than withdrawn. Both sides accuse the other of violating the agreement but say it is still in effect.

Progress on all other issues — including reconstruction, Israeli troop withdrawals and the establishment of a new Palestinian government — is being held up by the deadlock over disarming Hamas, the top diplomat overseeing the U.S.-brokered ceasefire in Gaza, Nickolay Mladenov, has said.

The war displaced most of the Palestinian population of over 2 million, left large parts of the territory in rubble and created widespread shortages of food, medicine and other basic supplies as the border crossings with Gaza — all but one controlled by Israel — slammed shut.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/mideast-wars-gaza-death-toll-b9a278a4cf523c412e54f29764ea9060?__vfz=medium%3Dstandalone_top_pages

A prominent OB-GYN group announced vaccine recommendations on Wednesday that differ from what the U.S. government advises.

The immunization schedule is specifically for pregnant, postpartum and breastfeeding women. It aligns with prior recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, before changes were made under the Trump administration and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Earlier this year, the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists withdrew from a CDC advisory committee on vaccines because of those changes, which have spawned legal challenges.

“So now for the first time, ACOG has made the decision to formally release its own immunization schedule to provide and communicate clear evidence-based guidance and to address the growing vaccine misinformation that is circulating,” said Dr. Christopher Zahn, the OB-GYN group’s chief of clinical practice.

The new schedule has been endorsed by 13 other professional and medical societies. Some other groups, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, have also put out vaccine schedules this year that differ from the CDC’s.

Here’s what you need to know about the OB-GYN group’s advice.

What does the OB-GYN group advise?

Four immunizations are routinely recommended during pregnancy:

— The flu vaccine, which can be taken any trimester, at any time of year, although it’s best to get it in early fall.

— The COVID-19 shot, which can be taken during any trimester at any time of year, although it’s best to receive it as soon as possible during pregnancy.

— A tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis (Tdap) shot, preferably as early as possible between 27 and 36 weeks.

— A respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine, between 32 and 36 weeks of pregnancy in your first pregnancy, during September through January in most parts of the U.S. If you had the RSV vaccine during a previous pregnancy, you do not need to get it again, the group says, but your baby should get an antibody shot after birth. Your baby can also get that shot instead of you receiving the maternal vaccine.

Other vaccines –- pneumococcal, meningococcal, hepatitis A and hepatitis B –- may be needed for women with certain risk factors. The group recommends talking with your doctor about them.

Three others are recommended before pregnancy or after birth, protecting against human papillomavirus; measles, mumps and rubella; and chickenpox.

How do these recommendations differ from CDC advice?

The biggest difference involves the COVID-19 vaccine.

Last May, Kennedy announced that COVID-19 vaccines are no longer recommended for healthy pregnant women and children — a move immediately questioned by several public health experts.

Spokespeople from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/vaccines-acog-obstetricians-gynecologists-obgyn-556197bbb09fc03fa8a2f67506b1fea4

As Israeli warplanes pounded Beirut’s southern suburbs last March and residents fled in panic, one man found his opportunity. Amid the chaos, he slipped out of his imprisonment in a Hezbollah cell and made his way to the green hills overlooking the Lebanese capital.

There, in the posh diplomatic quarter of Baabda, he disappeared inside the gates of the Ukrainian Embassy.

Where he is now is a mystery, tangled up in an ongoing spy game as Hezbollah attempts to root out Israeli intelligence operatives that have infiltrated the militant group.

The man identified by Lebanese officials as Khaled al-Aydi is said to be a Palestinian refugee from Syria who also holds Ukrainian citizenship. He had been detained by Hezbollah in the Beirut suburbs and accused by Lebanese officials of being part of a thwarted Israeli intelligence plot to carry out bombings and assassinations.

Details of al-Aydi’s escape and a Lebanese military court’s case against him were provided by three judicial officials and two senior security officials in Lebanon who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly. A senior political official in Hezbollah also provided details.

Al-Aydi’s disappearance could have political implications for the Lebanese government, which has largely remained silent about the case.

If evidence were to emerge that al-Aydi escaped Lebanon with help from the government, it could inflame tensions with Hezbollah’s largely Shiite Muslim base. The government already faces scrutiny for directly negotiating with Israel, which has been engaged in fierce fighting with Hezbollah since the early days of the Iran war.

The Ukrainian Embassy asked Lebanese authorities in March to facilitate al-Aydi’s departure from the country after he escaped Hezbollah detention, according to a Lebanese government document obtained by The Associated Press. But Lebanon’s General Security agency refused, saying a judicial warrant for his arrest had been issued in September 2025, according to the document.

Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency declined to comment. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry also declined to comment.

A Ukrainian official with knowledge of the case said al-Aydi is not in the Ukrainian Embassy or its compound in Lebanon. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, would not say where al-Aydi is — and out of concern for the security of the embassy and its personnel, would not say whether al-Aydi was ever in the embassy, or whether Ukraine helped him escape.

Israel’s intelligence networks

Using human and high-tech surveillance, Israel has cultivated far-reaching intelligence networks in Lebanon. That has helped it carry out dramatic operations against Hezbollah.

In the most elaborate example, Israel infiltrated Hezbollah’s supply chain and sent the Iran-backed militant group thousands of booby-trapped pagers and walkie-talkies. Israel remotely detonated the devices in September 2024, killing at least 37 people. Days later, Israeli airstrikes killed Hezbollah’s longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, while he was hiding in a heavily fortified bunker.

Even before that, Israel’s intelligence within Hezbollah allowed it to hit the group’s senior leaders and field commanders “with relative ease,” said Nicholas Blanford, an expert on the militant group at the Atlantic Council.

Since the 2024 Israel-Hezbollah war, Hezbollah and Lebanese authorities have cracked down on alleged spy networks. About 50 people have been convicted and are serving sentences, while others remain under investigation, the judicial officials said.

“We were successful in detecting many spy networks, and the state was also successful in this matter,” Hezbollah political official Wafiq Safa, said. But “the Israelis are always working to recruit young Lebanese people from all communities.”

Al-Aydi doesn’t fit the profile of other alleged spies

Many alleged spy networks have involved current or former Hezbollah members or individuals with family ties to the group.

Al-Aydi, in contrast, was an outsider. He had Ukrainian citizenship through his mother, according to the Lebanese government document AP obtained. It is not known how he was allegedly recruited by Israel.

Hundreds of thousands of Syrians came to Lebanon for refuge during Syria’s 14-year civil war. But Al-Aydi entered the country in August 2025 on a flight from Ethiopia, one of the Lebanese security officials said.

While Hezbollah began in the 1980s as a small guerrilla operation fighting Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon, it greatly expanded after its 2006 war with Israel, making it “easier for the Israelis to penetrate,” Blanford said. The group’s entry into the Syrian civil war further exposed it, as recruitment standards were lowered, he said.

Lebanon’s economic crisis also aided Israel’s recruitment efforts, Blanford said.

Cases filed in Lebanon’s military court describe operatives being paid between $2,500 and $20,000 to provide intelligence on Hezbollah weapons depots and political offices. Many of the alleged agents were recruited by Israeli handlers through social media, judicial officials said.

One high-profile case was Mohammad Hadi Saleh, a singer and prominent religious performer within circles connected to Hezbollah. He was arrested in May 2025 and charged with providing the Mossad with maps and coordinates of key Hezbollah sites later struck in Israeli operations. He is in jail awaiting trial.

“It’s ironic that they (Hezbollah) were spending a lot of time accusing their opponents of being Israeli spies, and it turns out that the spies were actually from within the organization and its support base,” said Mohanad Hage Ali, a senior fellow at the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut.

Recruitment efforts continue. During the latest war, Israel has dropped leaflets over Lebanon with QR codes that, according to the Lebanese army, direct people to an Israeli military unit tasked with recruiting agents.

Al-Aydi is thought to have fled the country

Lebanon’s General Security said in October it had broken up a network planning bombings and assassinations in Lebanon, including an operation meant to target events for the one-year commemoration of Nasrallah’s death. Authorities discovered a motorcycle rigged with explosives and a car modified to hold explosives, security and judicial officials said.

Al-Aydi and six others, all Lebanese, were charged. One of the six also escaped, and the others are in a Lebanese jail awaiting trial, the judicial officials said. Only al-Aydi was being held by Hezbollah, likely because he was seen as a high-value catch.

The military court alleges the operation was orchestrated by a Mossad handler living in Germany who communicated with others through encrypted applications. The court sent a summons to the Ukrainian Embassy that went unanswered.

Safa said there was an unsuccessful attempt to smuggle al-Aydi out of Lebanon to Syria. He did not elaborate.

The two senior Lebanese security officials said al-Aydi is believed to have left the country. It was not clear whether he crossed into Syria, where officials said they had no information about him.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/hezbollah-lebanon-israel-spying-alaydi-7e2bf9f137f994e742d49ec1621225e3

In the first of a two-part series, CNA looks at the rise of AI tokens and how China’s rapidly expanding token economy is reshaping the costs, scale and security risks of the next era of artificial intelligence.

The future of artificial intelligence may hinge on something surprisingly small.

Not huge data centres or the latest wave of AI agents, but tiny units of data called tokens, which AI models use to process information and generate responses.

Just like how electricity is measured in kilowatt-hours and mobile data in gigabytes, tokens are increasingly becoming the unit used to measure and price AI services.

And as AI adoption accelerates worldwide, governments and tech companies have been paying closer attention.

China, in particular, has been rapidly expanding its AI infrastructure to support rising token consumption, observers say – underscoring how its AI sector is evolving into a full-fledged “token economy”.

“There is a rising emphasis on the token economy in China,” said Qian Zilan, a research associate at the Oxford China Policy Lab – noting that Chinese state telecom giants have launched token services and subscriptions for both everyday users and developers.

In the first of a two-part series, CNA explores the rise of tokens and how their explosive growth is shaping China’s AI future and creating new business opportunities, as well as security risks, for the world’s second-largest economy and beyond.

THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF AI

Behind every chatbot response, AI-generated summary and image prompt are tokens.

In simple terms, a token is a small unit of data that AI models process when reading, interpreting or generating information.

A short word such as “dog” may count as a single token, while a longer one like “thunderstorm” would be broken down into multiple tokens.

Tokens are also not limited to words. Anything that can be typed on a keyboard – including numbers, spaces, punctuation marks, symbols and even emojis – can be converted into tokens for AI systems to process.

“They are the operational unit of generative AI and determine how much input a model can process, how fast it responds, how long an answer can be and how much computing power is used,” said James Pang, an analytics and operations professor at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and director of the NUS Business Analytics Centre.

“Think of them as Lego bricks or building blocks that an AI platform uses to read and write.”

And the more tokens an AI model has to process, the more resources it consumes, Pang said, which can have significant implications for computing costs and infrastructure demand.

The way tokens are counted also differs across languages and AI systems – a distinction experts said can significantly affect computing costs as businesses scale up AI usage across millions of queries and interactions.

Chinese, for instance, is often more semantically dense than English, meaning fewer characters can convey the same idea, said Pang.

A four-character Chinese idiom, for example, may require far fewer characters than an entire English sentence expressing similar meaning.

But he cautioned against oversimplifying the comparison.

“Different AI models use different tokenisation methods,” Pang said, noting that Chinese-optimised AI models may process Chinese text more efficiently, while English-centric models would split the same text into a larger number of tokens.

Wong Qi Han, an independent AI researcher and builder, told CNA that token efficiency depends heavily on how a model is trained.

“If a model is trained predominantly on English, its tokeniser compresses English text efficiently. But for other languages, the model breaks text into smaller, less efficient pieces,” Wong said.

“A model optimised for Chinese or English won’t necessarily tokenise Tamil, Bahasa Indonesia or Vietnamese efficiently,” he added.

On a larger scale, small differences in token usage would translate to significant differences in computing costs.

Overall AI costs still depend on factors such as model size, inference architecture, caching, batching, output length and task complexity, Pang said.

“So fewer tokens do not automatically mean better reasoning or better business value.”

CHINA’S BET ON THE “TOKEN ECONOMY”

China’s use of AI has rapidly surged, with more than 600 million people using generative tools as of December 2025.

Younger and more educated users accounted for the bulk, according to an October 2025 report by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) – with those under 40 comprising more than 74 per cent of users and 37.5 per cent holding higher education qualifications.

And as AI becomes increasingly embedded into daily routines, powering everything from ordering food to transport, travel and shopping, token consumption has also risen exponentially.

Daily token usage surpassed 140 trillion in March, according to China’s National Data Administration (NDA) – more than 40 percent higher than 100 trillion recorded at the end of last year.

China’s AI industry is “evolving from basic chat functions to more sophisticated systems capable of decision-making and task execution”, NDA chief Liu Liehong said during a Mar 25 press briefing, describing tokens as both a key indicator of AI growth and a potential new export frontier.

The growing importance of tokens was further underscored that month when China formally adopted the term ciyuan for AI tokens – combining the Chinese translation for “word” with the country’s currency unit, the yuan.

Observers said the naming reflects how tokens are increasingly being viewed not just as a technical measure of AI activity, but as a unit of economic value within China’s emerging AI economy.

Liu said the next step would be the creation of a “national computing network” – aimed at turning AI infrastructure into a public utility as token consumption continues to surge.

Large token consumption figures suggest that China is “moving from experimentation into mass deployment”, said Pang from NUS, who also pointed to “substantial investment in data centres, cloud platforms, AI model-serving systems, optimisation engineering and energy supply”.

The country’s massive digital ecosystem also gives it an advantage at “integrating AI into operational systems”, said Pang.

“Chinese firms have also been aggressive in lowering inference cost, releasing open-weight models, optimising for limited hardware, and embedding AI into cloud services, mobile apps and industrial workflows,” he added.

“If access to the most advanced chips is limited, software efficiency becomes a strategic necessity.”

Chinese telecom operators are already moving to monetise that shift.

Earlier this month, China Telecom, one of three major state-backed mobile operators in mainland China, unveiled nationwide token-based pricing plans aimed at a broad range of customers – from casual users to developers and businesses.

Consumer plans designed for everyday AI tasks start at 9.9 yuan (US$1.45) a month for 10 million tokens, rising to 49.9 yuan for 80 million tokens.

Depending on the task, a subscription package of say 10 million tokens could support thousands of AI-assisted searches, chatbot prompts and conversations and generating translations.

Enterprise-focused packages supporting applications such as coding assistants and AI agent deployment range from 39.9 yuan to 299.9 yuan per month and include between 15 million and 250 million tokens.

“Tokens are becoming to AI what kilowatt-hours are to electricity or gigabytes are to mobile data – the practical unit by which usage is measured and priced,” Pang said.

SECURITY RISKS OF CHINA’S TOKEN BOOM

But while token-heavy AI ecosystems create opportunities for new business models and greater efficiency, they also introduce risks.

New cyber scams are also emerging, with some “repackaging tokens as investment products”, Chinese officials said.

Authorities have begun warning about potential security threats linked to their rapid growth.

The Ministry of State Security issued a public advisory in April, highlighting risks including token theft, forgery, tampering and fraud schemes involving low-cost token packages and AI-related resale programmes.

“If token security is breached at scale, the impact may spill over from personal privacy and financial loss to broader data security and even economic security,” said Huang Daoli, a state researcher at China’s Ministry of Public Security, who added that tokens should be treated as highly sensitive credentials, no less important than payment tools.

“Token-heavy AI ecosystems bring opportunities … However, they can also create new challenges and vulnerabilities around data leakage or infrastructure attacks,” said Heng Wang, a law professor at Singapore Management University (SMU).

As AI systems process ever larger volumes of data and tokens, cybersecurity risks could also “increase substantially”, Wang said, adding that “more data protection is likely needed if more data is processed”.

The issue is not simply the volume of tokens being consumed, but also how deeply AI systems are becoming integrated into real-world workflows, said Pang from NUS.

“Token-heavy AI ecosystems expand the attack surface because they process more prompts, documents, logs, user data” – while increasingly connecting to external systems like databases, email platforms and business software to perform actions and retrieve information, he added.

Risks include cyberattacks and sensitive data leaks and malicious attempts to manipulate AI systems as well as corrupting training data and overwhelming systems.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/ai-tokens-token-economy-china-6159196

WAVING flags and banners in Whitehall, Kim Jong-un’s fans are outraged that Britain has slapped sanctions on a North Korean “summer camp”.

Despite an atrocious record of abuses, delusional loyalists from the Korean Friendship Association (KFA) claim human rights are “guaranteed” in Kim Jong-un’s hermit kingdom.

Speaking on a picket line outside the Foreign Office, KFA’s “chairman” former Brit civil servant Dermot Hudson hit out at what he called “very unfair” restrictions on Songdowon International Children’s Camp.

A human rights watchdog accused the school of “indoctrinating” Ukrainian children captured from the Donbas and sent there by the Russians.

Hudson leads Britain’s KFA, which operates in 120 countries and is made up of retirees and disillusioned hobbyists – who a former member brands “useful idiots” for the regime.

Former KFA insider Ulrich Larsen, whose infiltration of the group exposed a web of arms trafficking, told The Sun that their WhatsApp groups revolved around glorifying Kim and promoting regime propaganda.

Ulrich said members of KFA were consumed by defending the Kim dynasty and spent much of their time praising the country while attacking critics and defectors.

The group’s website is littered with bizarre homages to nepo-tyrant Kim, praising his “matchless courage, pluck and popular traits”.

It is officially recognised by North Korea and members are even invited to Pyongyang, the country’s capital, where they are honoured with medals.

None more so than KFA founder Alejandro Cao de Benos, who is wanted by the US authorities for allegedly conspiring to violate US sanctions on the regime.

Ignoring decades of UN reports detailing horrific torture, labour camps and starvation, Hudson painted a twisted picture of the dictatorship as a kind of utopia.

Speaking to The Sun, the UK’s North Korea fans attempted to defend the Songdowon camp and bizarrely claimed that lifting sanctions meant Brit parents could send their kids there.

“It’s a children’s camp where not only Korean children come, but children from other countries, such as Russia, China, African countries, even Ireland,” he said.

“It’s not making nuclear weapons. It’s not making missiles. It’s promoting understanding and friendship between different nationalities, which I think is very important these days.”

Hudson claimed the sanctions would damage relations between the UK and North Korea – and insisted the camp was no different from youth programmes that have existed in socialist countries for decades.

Holding up KFA banners and a Democratic People’s Republic of Korea flag, the pair, along with six other protesters, called for the sanctions to be lifted.

Hudson said: “I’ve been there 20 times. I’ve never seen any of these camps that are supposed to exist. In a small country like the DPRK, it would be impossible not to notice them.”

The existence of gulags in North Korea has been extensively documented by human rights groups with the use of high-resolution satellite imagery and extensive defector testimony.

But the excesive evidence is dismissed as “propaganda” by both the regime and its benevolent British arm.

“In the DPRK, human rights are guaranteed by the law,” Hudson tried to claim.

The KFA chairman bizarrely insisted allegations of abuse from inside the regime were driven by defectors seeking money in the West.

Asked about his favourite thing about the regime, Hudson said: “I think the cleanliness and order is very important. You won’t see graffiti, you won’t see vandalism. No such thing as knife crime there.”

According to Hudson, the country’s strict self-reliance ideology – and not its long-documented history of oppression and related sanctions – explains its economic isolation.

Another protester, Paul, insisted that Britain should improve relations with the dictatorship – and claimed the UK could develop trade links with North Korea.

One of Hudson’s long-time comrades, Theo Russell, claimed that North Korea is actually a thriving and modern social hub – based on YouTube videos he has seen.

He told The Sun: “I’ve watched a great number of travel videos on people visiting the DPRK, which are very interesting. In North Korea, they love to party. They love to go out and take their barbecues, have a few drinks. People seem happy in North Korea.”

Russell, who visited North Korea in 2012, claimed that a Michael Palin documentary and a motorcycle vlog give a realistic view of the country.

He said: “He goes to a holiday festival in the park. What amazed me about that party on the beach was that they’re wearing the latest fashions. The men were really fashionable.

“It’s not the image you expect. I think the image some people have is of everything being 30 years behind and bleak.”

The supporter, who has been a member of the KFA for more than 20 years and visited North Korea himself, said the country was more modern than portrayed in Western media.

Russell described arriving in Pyongyang and being struck by how “well-dressed and purposeful” people appeared, claiming there was an atmosphere of “real organisation and energy”.

Russell also dismissed satellite images of the labour camps as proof that they exist.

Organisations like Amnesty have independently verified satellite images which clearly show perimeter fences, guard towers, checkpoints and intensive industrial activity associated with mining and farming.

Former KFA insider Ulrich spent years gaining access to senior figures and visits to Pyongyang before helping expose alleged sanctions-swerving schemes linked to North Korea.

Ulrich said WhatsApp groups were filled with messages “praising our dear leader Kim Jong-un”.

He claimed that supporters treated criticism of the regime as a personal attack and became deeply suspicious of outsiders.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/16503046/north-koreas-uk-fan-club-worship-kim-jong-un/

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday he had spoken to U.S. President Donald ‌Trump and discussed efforts to achieve an end to the more than four-year war, ahead of a G7 meeting in France this week.
Zelenskiy, writing on Telegram, said he had wished Trump a happy 80th birthday and thanked him for the assistance provided by Washington throughout ​the conflict.

“I wished President Trump every success, first and foremost in his efforts to end Russia’s ​war against Ukraine,” Zelenskiy said.

Ahead of the Group of Seven meeting in Evian-les-Bains, where leaders of ⁠the U.S. and other wealthy countries are due to discuss Russia’s war in Ukraine on Tuesday, Zelenskiy said he ​had discussed with Trump the position of their international partners.
“We talked about what could help to bring peace closer right ​now, and I updated the president on the latest developments on the battlefield and how our position has strengthened,” he said. “We have some good ideas that could help bring peace closer.”
Speaking later in his nightly video address, Zelenskiy said he and Trump had ​agreed to meet during the meetings in Evian-les-Bains.

He said it was important to ensure U.S. backing for Ukraine’s ​drive to secure peace, together with Ukraine’s European allies.
“This is the most important thing we all want, and it’s important that ‌American society ⁠fully supports this Ukrainian desire of ours, the desire for a decent peace,” he said.
U.S.-brokered talks aimed at moving towards an end to the war have stalled as Washington remains focused on the conflict in Iran.
Zelenskiy, however, has said in recent weeks that a shift in momentum on the battlefield in Ukraine’s favor has opened a window of opportunity to reach ​a peace deal.

LETTER TO PUTIN

In ​an open letter to ⁠Russian leader Vladimir Putin this month, Zelenskiy also called for face-to-face talks to try to secure a ceasefire. The leaders of Britain, France and Germany said in a ​statement after talks with Zelenskiy in London last weekend that they supported his proposal, ​and Europe would ⁠play a role.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraines-zelenskiy-discussed-war-diplomacy-call-with-trump-adviser-says-2026-06-14/

Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif announced that the United States and Iran will formally sign a peace agreement in Switzerland on June 19 following intensive negotiations. Sharif said both sides had agreed to permanently halt military operations, while US President Donald Trump hailed the deal as a breakthrough and announced plans to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday announced that the official signing ceremony for the peace agreement between the United States and Iran will be held in Switzerland on June 19, following what he described as intensive diplomatic negotiations aimed at ending months of military tensions in the region.

Following intensive talks, we are pleased to announce that the Peace Deal between the United States of America and Islamic Republic of Iran has been REACHED. Both sides have declared the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in…

— Shehbaz Sharif (@CMShehbaz) June 14, 2026

In a statement posted on X, Sharif said both nations had agreed to the immediate and permanent cessation of military operations on all fronts, including Lebanon. He added that mediators would facilitate a series of meetings ahead of the signing ceremony to prepare the groundwork for technical discussions and implementation of the agreement.

Sharif thanked the governments of the United States and Iran for their commitment to diplomacy and also acknowledged the role played by Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye in facilitating the negotiations. He described the agreement as a significant step towards restoring stability in the region after months of escalating conflict.

Trump Announces US-Iran Peace Deal

British armed forces intercepted a suspected Russian shadow fleet oil tanker, SMYRTOS, in the English Channel on Sunday on the orders of Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

A Russian shadow fleet oil ‌tanker allegedly attempting to pass through the English Channel was intercepted by British armed forces on Sunday. Russia is believed to be using a fleet of hundreds of ships to evade sanctions over the Ukraine war.

The vessel SMYRTOS was boarded by Royal Marine Commandos and specially trained law enforcement officers ⁠from the National Crime Agency, Britain’s Ministry of Defence said in a statement. British Prime Minister Kier Starmer said that he ⁠had directed the interception.

Royal Marine commandos rappelled from helicopters onto the vessel, the Smyrtos, in the English Channel, in what the country’s Defense Ministry called “the first U.K.-led operation of its kind.”

The vessel will be held and monitored off the south coast as investigations continue, the statement said, adding that enforcement action in ‌Britain’s ⁠territorial waters was carried out in accordance with domestic and international law.

“This successful operation delivers yet another blow to Russia and reminds ⁠those fueling Putin’s war in Ukraine that we will not let ⁠them hide,” Starmer said in a post on X.

Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis said: “Russia relies on its shadow fleet to fund their conflict in Ukraine and our interdiction delivers a blow to Putin’s illegal war.”

The operation was supported with aircraft from the Maritime Air Group, an RAF P-8 aircraft, as well as HMS Sutherland and HMS Ledbury.

Sailing under a Cameroon flag, the Smyrtos left the Russian Baltic port of Ust-Luga on June 5 destined for Port Said, Egypt, according to the MarineTraffic website.

Source : https://www.timesnownews.com/world/uk/russian-shadow-fleet-oil-tanker-intercepted-by-uk-forces-in-english-channel-article-154610133

D.C. juries have declined to convict defendants accused of bribing a top Navy admiral and funding North Korea’s nuclear program.

Days after Jeanine Pirro took office last year as the top federal prosecutor in D.C., a jury convicted four-star Navy Admiral Robert P. Burke of awarding a contract in exchange for a bribe. He remains the highest-ranking military officer in U.S. history to be imprisoned.

But in a head-scratching twist, the executives who were accused of bribing Burke — with a postretirement job that paid $500,000 a year — walked free last month after another D.C. jury found them not guilty.

The acquittals of Charlie Kim and Meghan Messenger, co-chief executives of the New York-based company Next Jump, defied historical trends. Their attorneys said it was the only known case in which a public official was behind bars for collecting a bribe that no one was guilty of paying. An earlier trial for the same two executives ended last year with a hung jury.

Of the 51 bribery defendants nationwide who faced jury trials in the decade that ended last year, only four were acquitted, according to statistics from the federal judiciary. Veteran defense lawyers and former prosecutors said acquittals and mistrials, while still a rarity, have become more frequent in D.C. in the year since President Donald Trump recruited Pirro from Fox News to lead the U.S. attorney’s office in the nation’s capital.

Kim and Messenger are among at least six defendants whom juries have declined to convict in headline-grabbing cases in D.C. federal court since Pirro took office in May 2025.

Throughout their trials, the executives argued they were misled by Burke, whom they trusted as a respected military commander who would not stray from ethical standards.

“In less than six hours, a jury of 12 unanimously said we were innocent,” Messenger said.

“Admiral Burke was the trophy, and we were collateral damage,” Kim said, criticizing prosecutors for tarnishing “our brand and reputation.”

Pirro has embraced a tough-on-crime persona she says is needed to “clean up” D.C. and solve cases involving drug rings, financial scams and national security threats, regularly holding news conferences to talk about arrests and indictments and directing her staff to prosecute the most serious charges for each offense. She points to statistics showing that violent crime has decreased in D.C. under her watch and has been praised by city leaders including Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) for her efforts.

In a statement to The Washington Post, Pirro said that despite occasional snags in court, the criminal justice system is working “exactly as designed.”

“D.C. juries have always been discerning in evaluating cases and we respect our juries’ verdicts,” Pirro said. “While we may be disappointed with the outcomes of certain cases, we welcome the fact that our justice system requires we meet our burden before a person’s liberty may be taken.”

Jurors rarely speak publicly about verdicts, and attorneys trying federal cases in D.C. can approach them posttrial only with the court’s permission, making the precise reasons for the mistrials and acquittals difficult to pinpoint. But legal experts, defense lawyers who practice in the nation’s capital and former prosecutors who have left the U.S. attorney’s office said Trump’s fixation with using the Justice Department to punish critics and reward allies is one probable reason the D.C. jury pool now seems more inclined to side with those accused of crimes.

Since taking office, Pirro has pursued Trump’s perceived political foes with allegations of misconduct that have not led to criminal charges, including then-Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell and six Democratic lawmakers who angered the president by posting a social media video reminding U.S. service members that they could refuse illegal military commands. A grand jury refused to indict the six Democrats, and Pirro closed the investigation into Powell after a judge blocked subpoenas in the case.

Pirro also has been asking judges to throw out the most serious convictions from the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. A federal appeals court, acting on her request, has dissolved the convictions of members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers extremist groups, who had been found guilty of carrying out a seditious conspiracy against the United States.

A former Fox News personality who served for decades as a district attorney and judge in the New York City suburbs, Pirro also emerged as a key figure in Trump’s move last summer to take over D.C. police and flood the city with federal law enforcement officers — an effort the administration said made the city safer but which was seen by many residents as unnecessary overreach.

Veteran defense attorney Eugene Gorokhov said he has seen a shift in how D.C. residents disclose their biases when called for jury duty.

“I’d never had a case with so many people coming in the door saying, ‘I’m going have a hard time believing the feds,’” Gorokhov said, describing the jury-selection process at a recent trial in which jurors ultimately deadlocked on all counts.

His client, Guanghua Jin, a Chinese man living in Australia, was extradited in 2024 to face trial in D.C. federal court on charges that he and others conspired to run an international tobacco-purchasing scheme that funded North Korea’s nuclear program, in violation of U.S. sanctions.

After his first trial ended with a hung jury last fall, Jin faced another jury this spring. He was acquitted of the conspiracy charge, and jurors deadlocked on all other counts. Rather than face a third trial, Jin pleaded guilty to a lesser fraud conspiracy and successfully petitioned the court to be deported to China, Gorokhov said.

“In the first trial … there was a very strong reaction from the D.C. pool that they were mad at the executive branch in general,” he said. The jury-selection process for that trial coincided with Trump’s law enforcement surge in D.C., Gorokhov said. Prospective jurors who were being screened for bias made statements such as, “I’m going to be skeptical of anything DOJ does,” he recalled.

“That number went down in the second jury pool, although that could be random chance,” Gorokhov said, adding that Jin forcefully contested the prosecution’s evidence and the testimony of the lead agent on the case.

Federal prosecutors in D.C. and nationwide continue to win roughly 90 percent of cases they take to trial, a conviction rate that holds when measuring all cases, including plea agreements used to resolve most federal charges. The statistics do not include D.C. Superior Court, where many violent crimes are prosecuted. Pirro’s office has gotten federal juries to convict defendants of fraud, felony murder and drug-related offenses in recent months.

Still, the U.S. attorney’s office under Pirro also has run into other notable setbacks over the past year.

Jacob Winkler, who was indicted on a felony charge after allegedly shining a red laser pointer at a helicopter transporting Trump, was acquitted in January after jurors deliberated for less than a day. A Secret Service officer said in a court submission that the red light could have disoriented the pilot and caused an “airborne collision.”

Another jury deadlocked the same month when Cortney Merritts, the husband of former Rep. Cori Bush (D-Missouri), went on trial over allegations that he defrauded coronavirus pandemic relief programs by taking more than $20,000 in loans for his moving company.

In that case, U.S. District Judge Jia M. Cobb ruled that Merritts’s defense could not “make arguments that amount to veiled attempts at jury nullification, such as asking jurors to decide the case based on sentiments about politically motivated prosecutions.”

The jury could not reach a unanimous verdict. After the judge declared a mistrial, Pirro dropped the case.

A jury also acquitted a D.C. man, Sean C. Dunn, who was accused of assaulting a federal officer — by hurling a sandwich at him — during Trump’s law enforcement surge last year.

In all of those trials, as well as Kim and Messenger’s, judges did not grant requests from defense attorneys to dismiss the charges or acquit the defendants for lack of evidence. That signals that those judges thought jurors plausibly could convict the defendants based on the government’s case.

Abbe Smith, a Georgetown University law professor who has been practicing criminal defense law in D.C. for decades, said Pirro is encountering the limits of what she can do in a jurisdiction disproportionately filled with lawyers, highly educated professionals and “news and politics junkies,” as well as lifelong residents who have experienced the push and pull between home rule and the federal government’s authority over the city — and may remember those struggles as the Trump administration surges law enforcement resources and deploys National Guard troops to patrol D.C. streets.

Smith said Pirro’s policy of maximizing charges for each alleged offense, coupled with headlines about investigations that Trump has publicly demanded, may have some jurors wondering: “Might there be more pressing cases? Might there be more serious cases? Might there be cases more in the public interest?”

Valerie Hans, a Cornell University law professor who has written extensively about the American jury system, said that “the pursuit of individuals who are targets of the Trump administration … has certainly raised questions about the credibility of the prosecutors pursuing them.”

But, she added, most people called for jury duty may not be aware of “political prosecutions.”

The Navy bribery investigation into Burke’s dealings with Next Jump began under Pirro’s predecessor, then-U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves, and was conducted alongside prosecutors in the Public Integrity Section at Justice Department headquarters. That unit has since been disbanded by the Trump administration.

Federal prosecutors said Burke capped his distinguished naval career with “a stunning abuse of power,” ordering his subordinates to award Next Jump a no-bid contract worth $355,000 in the waning days of 2021 for a leadership training course.

Attorneys for Kim and Messenger said the admiral had built up a sterling reputation within the Navy, rising to become its second-in-command and chief ethics officer after numerous postings around the world and more than 17 years at sea. On the witness stand at her second trial, Messenger testified that Burke was revered “like the pope” for being a stickler for rules.

The executives’ defense attorneys said Burke deceived them into thinking they could discuss the Navy contract at the same time they were negotiating the admiral’s postretirement job at Next Jump for a $500,000 salary, along with bonuses and stock options.

Source : https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/06/14/pirros-tough-on-crime-approach-challenged-by-acquittals-mistrials/

Iran’s soccer team arrived in the United States for ​the first time at this World Cup on Sunday, landing at Los Angeles International Airport and holding a press conference on the same day that ‌a peace deal between the two nations was announced.
The Iran squad arrived after a short flight from Tijuana, Mexico, where they left their base camp earlier to a rousing sendoff ahead of their opening game against New Zealand at Los Angeles Stadium on Monday.

“I am very happy to be representing the great, proud and strong nation of Iran,” Iran coach Amir Ghalenoei said through a translator in a press conference at the stadium.
“I hope that football ​will bring about joy and enjoyment, and bring closer the cultures and countries.”
The squad’s Group G fixture against New Zealand will be played against the backdrop of ​the U.S. war with Iran and the newly-announced peace deal, adding a charged atmosphere to a contest between two nations who have never ⁠met at a World Cup.
Iran moved their World Cup base camp from a sports complex in Arizona to Mexico late last month after the U.S. and Israel conducted joint strikes on ​Iran beginning in late February.

Iran will now have to make the trip from Mexico to the U.S. for each of their three group matches and Ghalenoei said the travel and the ​denial of visas into the U.S. for some members of their soccer federation had negatively affected the squad.
The U.S.-Iran deal to end the war will be signed during an official ceremony on Friday in Switzerland, U.S. President Donald Trump and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on social media on Sunday.

‘BRING AN END TO THIS REGIME’

While the squad flew to LA, a group of protesters calling for democracy in Iran ​and denouncing its government rallied near Los Angeles Stadium.
“No Shah – No Mullah in Iran – Regime Change by Iranians,” said placards. Pictures and posters of athletes who protesters said had died ​after being arrested by the Iranian government lined a busy street corner in Inglewood.

The January crackdown on protests in Iran, which rights groups and activists say killed thousands – and possibly tens of thousands – was ‌a particular ⁠outrage to Mojgan Ramezani, 56, an Iranian American at the rally.
“They’re holding hostage their own people,” said Ramezani.

Hassan Haddadi, 70, said he was frustrated that most of the world’s governments had done little to support change in Iran.
“We’re hoping to bring awareness to the western world, to somehow do something beyond just condemning, to bring an end to this regime,” said Haddadi.
Ghalenoei said the squad’s players and coaches were “not political people.”
“We are here to play football and represent the respectful people of Iran, be it the Iranians inside Iran or the Iranian diaspora.”

‘MEXICO STANDS ​WITH YOU’

Earlier in Tijuana, supporters lining five-deep ​on a packed sidewalk outside Iran’s hotel ⁠chanted “Team Melli” — Persian for “national team” — as the Iranian players emerged from the hotel and walked towards the waiting bus.
Many of the players waved and smiled at those who had gathered while some members of the delegation took video of the scene with their phones.
One supporter held ​a yellow sign with black lettering reading: “Iran, you will never walk alone. Mexico stands with you.”
A young boy perched on someone’s shoulders ​clutched the official Panini ⁠FIFA World Cup 2026 sticker album, open to the Iran squad page.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/sports/soccer/iran-arrive-us-world-cup-opener-against-new-zealand-la-2026-06-14/

Four people were killed while the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery, a symbol of Ukrainian spiritual and cultural history, ‌caught fire, in the heaviest Russian air attack on the Ukrainian capital in two weeks, authorities said on Monday.
The fresh strikes came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday he had spoken to U.S. President Donald Trump and discussed efforts to achieve an end to the more than four-year conflict, ahead of a G7 meeting in France this week.

The central Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage site founded in 1051, was seriously damaged in a direct ​attack, Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the capital’s military administration, said in a Telegram post.
“A Russian strike on the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra set the Dormition Cathedral on fire – a church whose ​history dates back to the 11th century. And this is one of Russia’s most serious crimes against Christian culture to date,” Zelenskiy said on X.
As ⁠towering flames rose over the monastery, residents took shelter underground in the worst Russian attack on Ukraine since early June when drones and missiles killed more than 20 people and left more than ​100 wounded.

Drones and missiles struck several high-rise apartment buildings and damaged electricity lines, leaving some 140,000 residents without power, according to Kyiv authorities. Authorities later said power had been restored to most residents.
Ukraine’s military on ​Monday morning said Russia had launched 70 missiles and 611 drones on Ukraine overnight and its air defense shot down 50 missiles and 582 drones of various types.
“Ballistic missiles remain a problem for us,” Air Force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat said on national television. “Of the 34 ballistic missiles launched, only 15 were shot down, although that is a strong result.”
Four people were killed and 30 were injured, Tkachenko said.
“What more must the Kremlin Antichrist do for the ​world to realise that decisive action must be taken so that the Russian terror against Ukraine and the very principles of peace come to an end?” Metropolitan Epifaniy, head of the Orthodox Church ​of Ukraine, said on X.

Neighbouring Poland, an EU and NATO member, scrambled fighter jets on Monday against a possible airspace incursion, before recalling the alert and saying no sky violation had been recorded, its Armed Forces said ‌in a post ⁠on X.

Ukraine would be “urgently initiating” procedures within UNESCO and other international mechanisms to ensure “immediate and adequate responses to this state barbarism,” Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on X in reference to the monastery attack, with the Estonian foreign minister Margus Tsahkna also condemning the Russian strikes.

ATTACKS ON UKRAINE’S REGIONS, CENTRAL RUSSIA

Most of Ukraine’s territory was under air raid warnings in the early hours of Monday and Ukrainian drones were being repelled over Russia as both countries continued to exchange strikes.
Four emergency service rescuers and one municipal official were killed and at least another five injured after a second Russian strike hit Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest ​city, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Telegram, ​with three people, including a child, wounded in ⁠Sumy, according to social media posts by local authorities.
Russia and Ukraine both deny deliberately attacking civilians. Reuters could not independently confirm the reports.
Ukraine has recently intensified attacks on Russian industrial and energy facilities, as it tries to deprive Moscow of revenues and hasten an end to the war.
On Monday, three people ​were killed and another three, including a 1-year-old child, were injured in a drone attack on the Russian city of Tula, an industrial ​cluster south of Moscow, the ⁠regional governor said in a Telegram post.
Ukraine also moved overnight to cut off the Black Sea Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014 and already grappling with a fuel crisis, from further supplies by hitting two bridges connecting it to the Russian-controlled areas.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/one-injured-ukraine-repels-air-attacks-over-kyiv-local-authorities-say-2026-06-14/

U.S. and Iranian officials said they had agreed on a framework to end their war, halt the U.S. blockade of Iran and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a preliminary pact that sent ​oil prices falling but leaves the fate of Iran’s nuclear program to further negotiations.
“The Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete,” U.S. President Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform around ‌5:30 p.m. ET local time in Washington (2130 GMT) on Sunday. His post came shortly after Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, whose country has served as a mediator, announced a deal had been struck early on Monday local time.

The memorandum of understanding is scheduled to be officially signed on Friday in Switzerland.
The precise terms were not immediately known. Sharif said in a post on X that the pact called for “the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon.”
Lebanon has been a sticking point in negotiations, with Israel and Hezbollah ignoring calls from Trump and others to ​stop their attacks on each other in recent weeks.
In a statement, the secretariat of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said war and military operations on all fronts, including Lebanon, would end permanently starting on Monday night.

Iran’s deputy foreign ​minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, said a more expansive agreement would be negotiated during a 60-day ceasefire period, including sanctions relief for Iran.
The fate of Iran’s nuclear program, another thorny issue, will also ⁠be addressed in those later talks, sources previously told Reuters.
There was no immediate reaction to the announcement from Israel, which has said it was not party to the U.S.-Iran talks.

STRAIT TO REOPEN

Trump said the Strait of Hormuz, a major shipping route for ​global oil and gas supplies that Iran has effectively shut down for months, would open on Friday, and that he had ordered the end of the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports.
“Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!” Trump wrote.
Oil ​prices fell on the news. Brent crude futures fell 4% in early trading on Monday, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate slid more than 4.6%. Stock markets in Asia jumped.

Former Biden administration State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Trump had made important concessions to Iran to achieve the status quo that existed before he launched the war.
“We have no assurances the nuclear program will ever be addressed, but Iran has shown the world it can take the global economy hostage and get something from the U.S. in return,” said Miller.
Thousands of people have been killed, mostly in Iran and Lebanon, ​since U.S. and Israeli forces first attacked Iran on February 28. Iran has struck Israel and Gulf states hosting U.S. bases and has effectively blockaded the Strait of Hormuz, pushing up global energy prices. U.S. forces have blocked Iranian ports in response.
The ​Iran war has become a political liability at home for Trump and his fellow Republicans in Congress, with public opinion polls showing Americans deeply frustrated by rising gas prices ahead of November’s midterm elections. But Trump has also faced pressure from members of his own party ‌who insist that ⁠Iran’s nuclear program must be completely shut down.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a leading Iran hawk, praised the deal but said he would be “watching closely” the coming negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program.
“Under our law, any nuclear deal with Iran will be sent to Congress for review and a vote,” he said. “Congratulations to all in getting us to this point.”
During his first term, Trump withdrew the U.S. from a 2015 multilateral Iran deal, negotiated by Democratic President Barack Obama, that lifted sanctions on Tehran in exchange for limits on its nuclear program, including international inspections.
Iran responded by ramping up its enrichment of uranium, producing more than 400 kg (around 900 pounds) of material at close to bomb-grade purity. The eventual fate of that uranium is likely to be a key negotiating point during ​the upcoming talks.

‘A VERY DIFFICULT GUY’

The agreement was sealed despite an ​Israeli strike on Lebanon on Sunday that drew criticism ⁠from both Iran and Trump.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has differed with Trump over American demands that Israel curb its military action in Lebanon to allow the United States to reach a deal with Iran.
Israel has said it will retain freedom of operations in Lebanon, while Iran has made a full ceasefire there an important component of its demands.
Trump updated Netanyahu on the progress toward ​a peace deal during a phone call on Sunday, Israel’s N12 reported, citing a senior official.
In an interview with the New York Times, Trump called Netanyahu “a very difficult guy” and ​argued the Israeli leader should thank ⁠him for saving Israel from a nuclear-armed Iran.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/us-iran-reach-peace-deal-signing-set-friday-pakistan-says-2026-06-14/

Gold rose more than 2% on Monday after U.S. and Iran officials ‌said they had reached an initial agreement to end their war, pushing oil prices lower and easing concerns about inflation and higher interest rates.
Spot gold climbed 2.3% to $4,316.03 per ounce by 0730 GMT, hitting its highest level since ​June 9 and extending gains for a third straight session. U.S. gold futures for August ​delivery rose 2.3% to $4,337.20.

U.S. and Iranian officials said on Sunday they had agreed on ⁠a framework to end their war, halt the U.S. blockade of Iran and reopen the Strait ​of Hormuz.
The pact will be officially signed on Friday in Switzerland, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said ​in a post on X.
The U.S. dollar fell to a 10-day low, making greenback-priced bullion cheaper for other currency holders, while oil prices slipped more than 4%.
“Lower oil prices and a softer dollar, stemming from reduced geopolitical risk and ​the anticipated reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, are helping to calm inflation expectations,” said Tim ​Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade.

“This combination is providing the precious metal with its best tailwind in recent ‌weeks, though ⁠sustainability will depend on how durable the peace agreement proves to be.”

Gold prices have fallen about 20% since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran in late February. The effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz has led to a sharp increase in global oil prices, stoking inflation concerns ​and raising expectations of interest ​rates staying higher ⁠for longer.
Bullion loses appeal in a high-interest-rate environment as it is a non-yielding asset.
Markets have scaled back expectations for a U.S. rate hike in December ​to 51% after the peace deal, down from 69% last week, according to ​the CME ⁠FedWatch tool. FEDWATCH
Investors now await the Federal Reserve policy decision and remarks, the first under Chair Kevin Warsh, on Wednesday, with rates widely expected to remain unchanged.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/india/gold-gains-over-1-after-us-iran-reach-peace-deal-2026-06-15/

A plane on a skydiving excursion crashed in Missouri, leaving 11 passengers and one pilot dead. The incident occurred shortly after the plane became airborne.

A private plane carrying skydivers crashed in the US state of Missouri on Sunday, killing all 12 people on board, authorities said.

The crash occurred near the Butler Memorial Airport — which lies 60 ⁠miles (100 kilometers) south of Kansas City — shortly after the plane took off.

The plane was operated by Skydive Kansas City.

“Tragically, all 12 individuals aboard lost their lives in the accident,” the skydiving company said in a statement.

The pilot of the plane was among those killed.

What do we know?

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) identified the aircraft as a single-engine Pacific Aerospace P750.

Dennis Jacobs, the acting airport manager and Bates County emergency management director, told news agency Reuters that the plane took off around 11:20 a.m. CT (1620 UTC) .

It ​did not gain visual altitude and was seen making a sharp left turn, before it came down some 300 yards (274 meters) from the runway, near a highway, Jacobs said.

First responders swept the flight path to find anyone who might have tried to jump out of the plane as it began to nose dive but did not find any such signs, Jacobs added.

Investigation underway in Missouri crash

The cause of the crash was not immediately known.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) — which was leading a probe into the incident — said in a statement that investigators were set to reach the scene on Monday.

A final report on the cause of the crash is expected to be published ⁠in 12 to 24 months, news agencies cited the ​NTSB as saying.

“For all intents and purposes, (this) appears to be an accident,” Bates County Sheriff Chad Anderson Anderson said at a press conference.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/us-skydiving-plane-crash-leaves-12-people-dead-in-missouri/a-77551574

Series MVP Jalen Brunson has led the New York Knicks to another comeback victory over the San Antonio Spurs. The win secured the franchise’s third NBA championship, and its first since 1973.

New York Knicks captain Jalen Brunson scored 45 points on Saturday night to lead his team back from a 16-point early game deficit and defeat the San Antonio Spurs by a score of 94-90 to win the coveted National Basketball Association (NBA) championship.

The game-five victory was the fourth comeback win in the Knicks 4-1 run in the best-of-seven series.

Hoisting the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy after the game, team owner James Dolan shouted, “I want to say something to New York. Hey New York! I’m sorry it took so long! But here we are… and hopefully it won’t take that long again!”

“I don’t know what I am feeling,” a teary-eyed Brunson told reporters after the game. “I’m in awe. I don’t know… whenever someone counted us out, we found a way to come back and do something about it.”

‘Never-say-die’ attitude characterized Knicks dogged determination to take championship

Voted the championship’s most valuable player (MVP), Brunson, who averaged 32.6 points per game in the series, came up big in game 5, scoring 29 of his 45 points in the second half.

Team President Leon Rose praised the team’s character and grit, “the never-say-die attitude” and calling their playoff run “incredible.”

Saturday’s road victory in San Antonio, Texas, was set up by the most dramatic comeback in NBA history the Wednesday prior at the Knick’s home, Madison Square Garden — arguably one of the most storied venues in US professional sports — when the Knicks overcame a 29-point deficit to win 107-106 at the buzzer.

Knicks now among NBA elite with third championship

The championship is the first to be won by the Knicks (who incidentally won the first NBA game ever in 1946) since 1973 — 53 years ago — when they defeated the Los Angeles Lakers.

Saturday’s victory puts the Knicks in elite company, making them one of just nine teams to have won at least three championships.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/new-york-knicks-win-first-nba-championship-in-53-years/a-77543316

Cleveland Cavaliers player James Harden was arrested on Saturday in Houston on a misdemeanor charge of unlawful carrying of a weapon in a motor vehicle, according to the Harris County District Clerk’s Office.

Harden was arrested at 3:41 a.m. and booked just before 5 a.m., then posted $100 bond and was released from police custody, according to charging documents, which said he had a handgun in plain view that was not in a holster.

His arraignment is scheduled for June 22, according to the clerk’s office website. Harden is listed as a Houston resident in court documents.

“The Cleveland Cavaliers are aware of the arrest of James Harden this morning and are in the process of gathering additional information,” the team said in a statement. “We are in contact with James and his representation and will continue to monitor developments as they become available. At this time, we will have no further comment.”

A message sent to Harden’s representatives from The Associated Press seeking comment was not immediately returned.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/james-harden-arrested-weapon-houston-f7dd33e6fe5e1dd9cd6e16e960011dbc

Can a country put a fixed limit on its population? That is the question Switzerland will be answering on Sunday in a referendum to decide on a proposal to cap their population at 10 million, a move that has exposed divisions about immigration in the Alpine nation.

The move is backed by the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, which describes it as a “sustainability initiative” aimed at easing pressure on housing, public services and the environment. However some voters see this as the party’s latest anti-immigration move.

Dubbing it a “chaos initiative”, the government, other political parties, business leaders and trade unions argue it will deprive hospitals and hotels of much needed staff, and damage hard-won relations with the European Union, leaving non-EU member Switzerland isolated in a very risky world.

Switzerland’s population has grown rapidly since 2002, when it stood at 7.3 million. Now it is 9.1 million, 27% of whom are Swiss residents who were born abroad.

Switzerland’s system of direct democracy means all major decisions are taken via the ballot box. Campaigners simply have to gather 100,000 signatures to ensure a nationwide vote.

Many voters are concerned by overcrowded trains, expensive apartments and rising health costs.

The latest opinion polls indicate this could be a very close vote.

They suggest voters are inching towards a “No” vote by a wafer thin margin, with 52% opposed – but polls remain divided, with 45% saying they are in favour of the proposal and a significant number of voters still undecided.

Helin Genis and Nils Fiechter have a good deal in common, but their diametrically opposed views on limiting the Swiss population are indicative of the polarised nature of this referendum.

Both are young local politicians from immigrant families. Genis is 31 and Fiechter is 29. Genis’s parents are originally from Turkey, while Fiechter’s mother is from Canada and he holds dual citizenship.

“We have lost control,” complains Fiechter, who represents the Swiss People’s Party in canton Bern’s parliament. “Unchecked immigration is leading to Switzerland no longer being Switzerland.”

He believes Switzerland’s problems, which he says include a “housing shortage, gridlocked traffic, overburdened schools and strained social services”, are a direct result of immigration.

Genis, who is a Social Democrat elected to Bern city council, dismisses these arguments as scapegoating.

She tells BBC News: “It is not migrants who determine rent levels. It is not migrants who raise health insurance premiums. Nor is it migrants who make political decisions on housing, infrastructure or social investment.”

Viewing problems ‘”through the lens of migration does not lead to solutions, but to division”, she adds.

For voters who have not yet made up their minds, a key question is how exactly a population cap would work.

Putting a hard limit on the number of residents is not a measure any other country has tried, although China, through its now abandoned one-child limit, did try to slow population growth.

The Swiss proposal says the population must not exceed 10 million before 2050, and orders the government to take measures once the figure of 9.5 million is reached.

Such plans could include limiting the number of people granted asylum in Switzerland, and ending family reunification rights for foreign workers.

If the 10 million cap were to be reached, international agreements which Switzerland has signed up to, including the EU’s free movement of people, would have to be terminated.

This prospect has caused alarm at Switzerland’s business association, Economiesuisse.

Its chief economist Rudolf Minsch says that if the motion is passed, Switzerland “could face challenges in our relations with the European Union”.

That is because Brussels has long warned non-EU members that they cannot simply cherry-pick the advantages of the EU’s single market, and wriggle out of commitments like free movement of people.

“The EU is still by far the most important trading partner for Switzerland,” explains Minsch, adding that is it is “in our interest to have stable and clear relationships with our main trading partner”.

Swiss employers are also worried about labour shortages, and losing access to a Europe-wide pool of skilled workers.

Half of all those who work in Switzerland’s hotels are immigrants. Hospitals and care homes are also reliant on foreign workers.

The Swiss People’s Party argues that immigration to Switzerland is simply fuelling an ever-increasing demand for more hospital beds and more places in schools, and that limiting immigration would ease the pressure.

Opponents say this is unrealistic, pointing to 20% of the Swiss population now being over 65.

Young workers, and young taxpayers, are required to staff and fund the needs of an ageing population – and Switzerland is not creating those young workers itself, they warn.

Jon Pult, a member of parliament for the Social Democrats, says his biggest fear about a population cap is being “alone in this unstable and dangerous world”.

Switzerland, like its neighbours in Europe, is spending more on defence, and despite its neutrality, is planning closer defence ties with its neighbours.

It has been affected by rising fuel prices because of both Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the conflict in Iran. It has also seen its products hit with punitive US tariffs.

Switzerland could jeopardise its treaties with the EU, and possibly lose goodwill from Brussels along with them, Pult warns.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx23kz7e76po

Protesters condemned the scenes of anti-immigrant violence seen earlier in the week, which were in response to an alleged knife attack by a Sudanese refugee.

Thousands of people gathered in the Northern Irish capital Belfast on Saturday for an anti-racism rally.

An estimated 3,000 people demonstrated to denounce the violence seen earlier in the week in parts of the city.

The riots on Tuesday and Wednesday came after a video of a knife attack went viral. The suspect in the stabbing, a 30-year-old Sudanese national, has been charged with attempted murder.

Demonstrators condemn right-wing, racist violence

Protesters gathered outside the Belfast City Hall holding placards condemning the violence that saw groups of masked men set homes ablaze, torch vehicles and pelt police with bottles, bricks and Molotov cocktails.

Some in the crowd held placards with slogans such as “Hate is the only threat to our streets” and “Belfast stands against racism.”

“All it takes is for one person who’s not white and local to commit a crime and that fire of racism is rekindled,” Elaine Crory, a lobbyist from the Women’s Resource and Development agency, told the crowd.

The mayor of Belfast, Rois-Maire Donnelly, told protesters that a small minority could not be allowed to “spread fear… and hatred.”

Donnelly also said that she had received death threats this week.

Immigration has become a flashpoint topic in both the UK and has helped hasten the rise of the far-right Reform UK party, led by Nigel Farage.

While there may have been a peaceful atmosphere in Belfast, over in Glasgow, Scotland, an anti-racism march was met by a small contingent of men, with reports that some made Nazi-style salutes.

The anti-racism group responded by shouting, “Nazi scum off our streets.”

Glasgow police said the anti-racism protest passed “without major incident” and said that there was a “significant operation in place to ensure the safety of the public.”

What sparked the violence in Belfast and elsewhere in the UK?

A video of the knife attack, which Prime Minister Keir Starmer described as “sickening,” went viral, sparking a wave of anger across Northern Ireland and the UK.

The video showed a man repeatedly slashing at and stabbing another man lying on the ground in the neck and head.

The victim of the attack, a 44-year-old man, sustained serious injuries and remains in hospital.

The suspect, who comes from Sudan, made a court appearance on Wednesday and has been charged with attempted murder.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/belfast-thousands-denounce-violence-at-anti-racism-rally/a-77539568

The number of migrants deported is not yet clear, but it is believed to be around two dozen. The Trump administration has signed controversial deals with several African countries to deport migrants it cannot send home.

The flight that took off from Louisiana on Thursday night was carrying some two dozen migrants, including an Iranian pro-democracy activist, her lawyer has said. It landed in Bangui on Friday.

Other migrants set to be on the flight included nationals of Jordan, Armenia, Turkey, Georgia and Afghanistan, according to Ali Rahnama, interim executive director of the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund.

What else do we know about the US deportation flight to CAR?

The deportation plane landed in the capital of the Central African Republic shortly before 10 p.m. local time (2100 GMT), after making a stop in Ghana’s capital Accra, records of the ICE Flight Monitor managed by Human Rights First showed.

No details were given on where the deportees would be housed or the duration of their stay in the Central African Republic.

A source close to the US Embassy told the Associated Press that some of the migrants were temporarily staying at a firefighters’ base near the embassy compound under construction in Bangui. Others were due to be housed at other locations.

Upon their arrival, men and women were separated, the source added.

“They have absolutely no connection to this place. In all of my filings ​I submitted tons of ‌information about how this was super dangerous,” Emily Trostle, the lawyer of the Iranian deported activist, told Reuters.

“These individuals are being removed from the United States and abandoned in a country where they have no status, no connection and no support network. We fear they will ultimately be forced to return to the countries they originally fled,” she added.

Why was the Iranian pro-democracy activist deported from the US?

Trostle said three Iranian women who had fled persecution at home were at risk of deportation but only one of them actually ended up on the deportation flight.

The Iranian American Legal Defense Fund (IALDF) said they faced deportation after their asylum claims were denied for violating a rule which requires them to first apply in countries they transit through before reaching the US.

The rule was vacated by a California federal court in May.

The IALDF warned that deporting Iranians to the Central African Republic was “a potentially fatal action.” It especially pointed to the close ties between the country’s administration and Moscow, a solid intelligence ally of Iran.

What are Washington’s deportation deals with African, Latin American countries?

The Trump administration signed a number of widely criticized deals with African and Latin American nations to take third-country deportees the US could not deport back to their home countries.

The deals’ legality has largely been questioned by rights groups, but Washington has insisted they are legally sound.

The often-secret deals have been forged with countries such as the Central African Republic and Ghana, among at least seven other African nations.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/us-deports-migrants-including-iranian-activist-to-car/a-77537594

But just a short drive away, Kensington has become the grim epicenter of a drug crisis that has left users slumped in the street, covered in wounds, and trapped in brutal cycles of addiction.

The North Philadelphia neighborhood is about a 16-minute drive from Lincoln Financial Field, which has been renamed Philadelphia Stadium for the World Cup.

The venue will host five group-stage games before a Round of 16 clash on July 4.

Côte d’Ivoire and Ecuador will play there on June 14, followed by Brazil vs Haiti on June 19.

France will face Iraq on June 22, Curaçao will play Côte d’Ivoire on June 25, and Croatia will take on Ghana on June 27.

But away from the fan zones and stadium crowds, Kensington remains one of the most visible symbols of America’s fentanyl crisis.

The neighborhood has for years been battered by xylazine, an animal tranquilizer known on the street as tranq.

The drug is not approved for human use and is typically used by veterinarians to sedate animals.

It is often mixed into fentanyl to make the high last longer.

But its effects can be horrifying.

Users have been seen bent over, stumbling, or frozen in a trance-like state known as the “tranq walk.”

The drug has also been linked to severe skin wounds that can rot through tissue and become infected.

In some cases, the wounds can expose tendons and bone, and lead to amputation if left untreated.

A former tranq addict previously told The U.S. Sun that the drug left her cutting away her own dead skin in a desperate bid to save her arms.

“I was just kind of maintaining taking care of my arms but then they turned black and necrotic and because of the judgment [in the hospital], I started cutting off the black skin myself,” she said.

“I don’t recommend that obviously because I did do some damage, I cut a tendon from not knowing what I was cutting.”

Sarah Laurel, founder of the outreach group Savage Sisters, told the Daily Mail: “I’ve never seen human beings remain in these kinds of conditions.”

At the height of the crisis, addiction psychiatrist Eric D. Collins told The U.S. Sun that 90 percent of confiscated fentanyl drugs in Philadelphia contained xylazine.

Philadelphia health officials said xylazine was involved in 38 percent of all unintentional overdose deaths in the city in 2023.

Every xylazine-involved death that year also involved fentanyl or a fentanyl analogue, according to city data.

Now, health officials warn that the local drug supply has shifted again.

Medetomidine, another powerful veterinary sedative, has been detected in Philadelphia’s fentanyl supply and is now replacing xylazine in some samples.

The drug is 100 to 200 times more potent than xylazine, according to Philadelphia substance-use officials.

It can cause longer sedation, dangerously low heart rates, and severe withdrawal symptoms.

The Philadelphia Department of Public Health said medetomidine was first found in the city’s drug supply in May 2024.

Between January and June 2025, city testing found medetomidine in 80 percent of suspected dope samples.

Most of the samples were collected in the Kensington area.

Hospitals began raising alarms after patients arrived with unusually low heart rates and long periods of sedation.

“Folks were coming in with very low heart rates, long periods of sedation, and they were concerned someone changed the supply,” Dr Daniel Teixeira da Silva of the Philadelphia Department of Public Health told The New York Times.

Christopher Moraff, founder of PA Groundhogs, told local outlet 6abc that medetomidine has become widespread in the supply.

“On average, there is twice as much medetomidine as fentanyl in a bag of dope,” he said.

Moraff said some users collapse almost immediately after taking it.

“They basically face planted on the floor and basically snored for six hours the whole time,” he said.

Unlike xylazine, which is notorious for skin wounds, medetomidine has triggered a terrifying withdrawal crisis.

Patients can suffer soaring heart rates, high blood pressure, vomiting, nausea, tremors, and agitation.

Some cases have been so severe that patients have ended up in intensive care.

A CDC report found that 165 patients were hospitalized at three Philadelphia health systems for suspected medetomidine withdrawal between September 2024 and January 2025.

Of those patients, 150 required ICU care, and 39 were intubated.

“Our I.C.U.s have been overwhelmed,” Dr Daniel del Portal, an emergency room physician and Temple Health administrator, told The New York Times.

The crisis has complicated overdose responses because medetomidine is not an opioid.

Naloxone, also known as Narcan, can help reverse the fentanyl part of an overdose, but it does not reverse the sedative effects of medetomidine.

The CDC warned in April 2024 that medetomidine has been reported in drug samples, biological specimens, and wastewater as it spreads across the US.

The agency said the drug had been detected in at least 18 states and Washington, DC, by late July 2024.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/16495787/flesh-eating-zombie-drug-crisis-spreads-us/

RUSSIA is on the “brink of a social explosion” and should end its disastrous war with Ukraine immediately, an opposition MP has warned.

Lawmaker Vyacheslav Markhayev urged Vladimir Putin and his ruling caste to “come to their senses” before the country is plunged into “total chaos”.

This rare criticism comes as Ukraine gains the upper hand in the war inflicting massive human losses and fuel shortages on Russia.

In what would be a humiliating blow, Putin could soon lose access to Crimea as Ukraine batters highways with constant drone strikes.

Markhayev, 71, also blasted Kremlin bosses for sending young Russian men to die on the frontline fighting Putin’s war.

He said: “We need a clear, public plan to end the special military operation, based on Russia’s national interests.

“The time for illusions has passed.

“The country is on the brink of a social explosion, and full responsibility for this will lie with the irremovable authorities.”

In a blistering attack, Markhayev accused the Russian despot of damaging the country in the same way as a foreign invader.

“What would an external enemy do if it captured Russia? It would seize resources, loot industry, drive up tariffs and build mansions for itself,” he said.

“But no invasion took place – the authorities managed to do all this themselves, more effectively than any aggressor.”

The MP added that under Putin’s leadership there had been “no real achievements apart from the personal enrichment of the elites”.

“The number of Russian billionaires has reached a record 155, with their combined wealth amounting to almost $700 billion — one and a half times the federal budget,” he said.

“Multi-billion-rouble thefts, arrests of officials at all levels, the seizure of assets worth a trillion roubles a year – this is the real picture.”

He continued: “If this situation continues, a social explosion and total chaos will become more likely.

“The West will inevitably take advantage of this to finish off what remains of Russian statehood.”

This comes after Putin was forced to scale back Russia Day celebrations as Ukraine launched a series of powerful strikes deep inside Russian territory.

Ukrainian forces successfully targeted the Armiansk Bridge, a key route linking occupied Crimea with mainland Russia.

Ukraine’s 1st Separate Assault Regiment Da Vinci claimed the strike had “completely paralysed” the vital logistics corridor, rendering the bridge unusable.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/16499002/putin-russia-brink-social-explosion-end-war/

North Korea’s statement came after a trilateral meeting between South Korea, Japan and the United States in Tokyo, at which the allies reaffirmed their commitment to the “complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula”.

North Korea said on Sunday (Jun 14) that its status as a nuclear weapons state was “irreversible” and key to ensuring regional stability, rejecting calls by the United States and its allies for denuclearisation.

Pyongyang has repeatedly insisted it will not abandon its nuclear arsenal, portraying it as essential to deterrence, with Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong Un calling the policy a “line of no retreat” earlier this month.

The North’s statement came after a trilateral meeting between South Korea, Japan and the United States in Tokyo on Friday, at which the allies reaffirmed their commitment to the “complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula”, according to Seoul’s foreign ministry.

“The US and its vassal forces’ meaningless rhetoric against the DPRK … can never affect the irreversible position of the DPRK as a nuclear weapons state,” the unnamed spokesperson said in a statement published by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Sunday, using the acronym for the North’s official name.

“The ‘denuclearisation’ is an irreversibly finalised matter,” the official added.

The spokesperson also cited Washington’s sales of weapons systems to Seoul and Tokyo as justification for Pyongyang’s pursuit of its nuclear programme, describing it as ” a strong security guarantee for regional stability and peace”.

“No matter how hard the US, Japan and the ROK may quibble, they will never change the present position of the DPRK as a nuclear weapons state,” the official said, referring to the South by the acronym of its official name.

North Korea has accelerated its nuclear weapons programme since talks with Washington broke down in 2019, when a summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump in Hanoi ended without agreement.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/north-korea-nuclear-status-irreversible-kcna-6181871

Lebanon reported Israeli strikes on the country’s south on Saturday (Jun 13) as the Israeli army issued evacuation warnings for more than 20 locations including the city of Nabatieh ahead of raids there.

The state-run National News Agency (NNA) said Israeli airstrikes hit several areas covered by the warning, including the villages of Rihan and Sujud, located not far from Nabatieh, and other areas not mentioned in the evacuation notice.

It said an Israeli strike killed a local official in Rihan, located in the southern region of Jezzine.

An AFP correspondent in Nabatieh said the city was almost deserted, and also reported artillery shelling there and in nearby areas overnight and on Saturday.

A day earlier, the NNA reported explosions and artillery shelling near the Ali Taher hills overlooking the city.

The Israeli army warned residents in 24 locations, both in and around Nabatieh and nearer to the coast, to “evacuate your homes immediately and move to the north of the Zahrani River”, around 45km from the southern border with Israel.

Last month it declared all areas south of the river “combat zones”, and has been heavily striking the area.

Israel’s military also said its air force on Saturday “intercepted a suspicious aerial target that crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory”.

Hezbollah, which has kept up attacks on Israeli troops who have invaded south Lebanon, said its fighters launched drone attacks on Israeli military vehicles in the south.

Israel and Hezbollah have been at war since early March when the Iran-backed group drew Lebanon into the Middle East conflict with rocket fire at Israel to avenge the killing of Iran’s supreme leader in US-Israeli strikes.

Iran insists that Lebanon must be part of any agreement to end the wider Middle East war, and a senior US official said Friday that a peace deal with Iran “includes Lebanon”.

“TEST”

Neither Israel nor Hezbollah have respected a ceasefire announced in April, and a conditional truce deal announced this month after a fourth round of direct Lebanese-Israeli negotiations in Washington has also failed to halt the fighting.

Lebanon says Israel’s massive campaign of airstrikes and ground invasion have killed more than 3,700 people.

Hezbollah has rejected the direct talks and the conditional agreement, which requires it to cease attacks but makes no mention of Israel doing so or withdrawing troops from Lebanon.

Lebanon’s leaders have instead accused Tehran of treating the country as a “bargaining chip”.

Hezbollah lawmaker Ali Fayyad on Saturday urged Lebanon to take advantage of any deal to end the Iran war that includes the country.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/lebanon-reports-strikes-south-israel-issues-broad-evacuation-warnings-6181136

Prime Minister Narendra Modi left for a week-long tour of France and Slovakia. In his departure statement, the prime minister said France occupies “a special place in India’s strategic vision”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet US President Donald Trump in France where the G7 summit is scheduled next week, the White House said today. The meeting is expected on Wednesday, news agency PTI reported.

Trump is likely to discuss plans to demine the Strait of Hormuz with allies during the G7 Summit in France, news agency AP reported, quoting a senior US administration official.

Britain and France, who are both members of the G7, have expressed interest in assisting with demining the critical waterway once the conflict is paused.

Trump yesterday announced a “great settlement” had been made that could end the conflict with Iran if the Islamic nation signed it. He added the Strait of Hormuz would officially reopen once the Iran deal was signed, possibly this weekend in Europe, with Vice President JD Vance attending on his behalf.

The US president’s announcement came hours after he announced to stop planned military action against Iran, despite earlier threats to target Kharg Island and other key Iranian oil facilities. He said the decision was a result of high-level agreements with Iranian leaders and other key nations. The US naval blockade of the strait will remain in place until the deal is finalised.

The conflict has disrupted global shipping routes and tightened supplies through the strait that handles nearly one-fifth of global oil trade. The disruption has pushed crude oil prices higher in international markets.

While most economies have quickly passed on rising costs to consumers, India has kept domestic fuel prices stable for an extended period. According to government officials, India remained the only major economy to hold fuel prices steady for the first 76 days of the Hormuz disruption before initiating adjustments.

PM Modi has left for a week-long tour of France and Slovakia. In his departure statement, the prime minister said France occupies “a special place in India’s strategic vision”.

India is a major customer of the French company Dassault Aviation’s Rafale fighter jet.

“France occupies a special place in India’s strategic vision. Earlier this year, President Macron visited India, and we elevated our relationship to a Special Global Strategic Partnership,” PM Modi said.

His visit to Slovakia is also “historic and extremely important” and will boost ties, India’s Ambassador to Slovakia, Apoorva Srivastava, said. This is the first time an Indian prime minister is going to Slovakia since its independence in 1993.

“We had the visit of the Indian President to Slovakia last year, and the President of Slovakia visited India earlier this year for the AI Summit. Now, Prime Minister Modi is visiting. Prime Minister Robert Fico of Slovakia and Prime Minister Modi will meet for the first time. We hope they will share the same personal chemistry that PM Modi has with other leaders, so that our relationship can move forward,” the ambassador said.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/pm-modi-trump-will-meet-in-france-confirms-white-house-11632469?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

The funeral for Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will begin in Tehran on July 4 and ​conclude with his burial in his hometown, the northeastern holy city of Mashhad, ‌on July 9, state media reported on Saturday.
Khamenei was killed on the first day of Israeli and U.S. airstrikes against Iran on February 28. The 86-year-old cleric had been at the helm ​of the Islamic Republic for 36 years.

The funeral arrangements will include ​ceremonies on July 7 in the holy city of ⁠Qom, south of Tehran, media said.
Islamic law requires the deceased ​to be buried as soon as possible, and ideally within 24 ​hours of death, but exceptions are allowed, for example in time of war.
During his rule, Khamenei built Iran into a powerful anti-U.S. force, spreading its military ​sway across the Middle East through proxy forces such as ​Hezbollah in Lebanon, while using an iron fist to crush outbreaks of unrest ‌at ⁠home.
Khamenei remained a strong critic of the United States throughout his rule, while successive U.S. administrations tried unsuccessfully to resolve a dispute with Iran over its nuclear programme.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/iran-says-funeral-late-supreme-leader-khamenei-begin-july-4-burial-set-july-9-2026-06-13/

Residents living under militants in Mali linked to al Qaeda describe how the jihadists have become more tolerant and are trying to govern more peacefully in areas where their control is firmly established.

The meetings have become routine. Every few months, jihadists in Mali affiliated with al Qaeda summon the men of Poutchi to a mud-brick mosque to collect tax on their crops and cattle, and later distribute food, medicine and animals to the poor.
Five years ago, the same militants threatened to slit the throat of anyone in Poutchi – including the imam – who questioned their interpretation of Islam, recalls Amadou, a herder who lives in the village by the Niger River.
“Now, they don’t talk like that,” Amadou said, describing how the militants focused more on spreading their religious message without threats or violence. “The dynamic has really changed.”
The jihadists are from Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM), a group that pledged allegiance to al Qaeda when it was founded in 2017 and has spent the last decade imposing itself through fear and force across the Sahel region of West Africa, banning music, smoking and wedding celebrations as it goes.

Initially confined to desert and mountain hideouts, JNIM has gained in strength since the Malian army officers who seized power in 2020 kicked out some 15,000 French and U.N. soldiers and turned to Russian mercenaries to help keep the insurgents in check.

JNIM demonstrated its newfound power with audacious attacks across Mali in April, hitting the airport in the capital Bamako, killing the defence minister and seizing a string of army bases in the north in coordination with Tuareg-led separatists.
Mali’s government describes both groups as terrorists responsible for violence and instability in the country. Moscow has pledged to continue fighting insurgents in Mali.
Yet the jihadist group now sits at the heart of an expanding belt of militants aligned with al Qaeda and Islamic State stretching 3,000 km (1,900 miles) across West Africa. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned in November that the groups were linking up and presented a growing global threat.
Away from the high-profile military successes, however, a shift is taking place in areas where JNIM’s authority is established, residents said.
Its rhetoric has softened. Militants are assuming administrative roles, resolving festering land disputes between herders and farmers, allowing aid groups to come and go and letting some government employees return to JNIM villages to spend holidays with relatives, according to seven people living under JNIM rule in central Mali who spoke to Reuters.

“The stronger they have become, the less brutal they have to be,” said Corinne Dufka, a Sahel expert who has studied the growth of jihadists in Mali for over a decade.
Dufka said JNIM was succeeding to govern in its strongholds, but that residents’ acquiescence was also a survival strategy. “There is a combination of coercion, fear and persuasion,” she said. “For many villagers, including those who have lived, married, and grown up under the group, they have just accepted that this is the new reality.”
For fear of reprisals, the residents spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, or that only their first names be used.
Neither Mali’s government nor the military’s spokesperson responded to requests for comment for this story.

Republicans want President Donald Trump to put his money where his mouth is: behind his scandal-plagued ally, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Paxton ousted four-term Senator John Cornyn in a primary runoff last month on the heels of Trump’s 11th-hour endorsement to become the Republican U.S. Senate ​nominee in Texas. That prompted political forecasters to shift the race in a state Trump won by nearly 14 points in 2024 from likely Republican to lean Republican.

Paxton now faces a rising star in ‌the Democratic Party and a fundraising juggernaut in state Representative James Talarico, whose campaign reported raising $40 million through March with $9.9 million on hand. Paxton, who has been indicted for felony fraud and was impeached by the Texas House, raised just $7.6 million through May 6 and reported having just $2.3 million in the bank. He has denied any wrongdoing.
“It would be very helpful if the president would help the people he endorsed,” Senator Cynthia Lummis, a retiring Republican from Wyoming, said when asked if Trump should put his financial might behind Paxton.

Texas is an expensive ​state with 20 television media markets. The Republican establishment already burned through tens of millions of dollars boosting Cornyn, who was widely considered a safer bet for retaining the seat. Senate Republicans’ campaign arm warned in ​an internal memo last August that a Paxton nomination would put Texas in play for Democrats “and cause Republicans to divert hundreds of millions of dollars that would otherwise be ⁠spent winning key battlegrounds.”
“There is no doubt that Ken Paxton needs outside money to help him win this race,” said one Texas political operative.
Gregg Keller, a spokesman for the pro-Paxton Lone Star Liberty PAC, said Republicans are coalescing behind ​Paxton as he builds momentum through Election Day.
“We are thankful to the president for his endorsement and leadership and look forward to joining the Senate majority next year,” Keller said in a statement. “There is no amount of money Talarico can ​spend to erase his radical and dangerous record.”

Talarico has pulled in crowds in deeply Republican counties in Texas by openly talking about his Christian faith and policies to take on billionaires he says are bent on keeping the working class angry and divided to protect their interests. Republicans in turn have accused him of holding heretical views and attacked him on immigration and gender issues. A June 9 Texas Pulse poll, shows a tied race.
“Paxton is now forcing the GOP to develop a completely new strategy for a state they never believed ​would be in play,” said Lauren French, a spokesperson for Senate Democrats’ super PAC.

REPUBLICANS DEFEND NARROW MAJORITY

Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate. They’re targeting two Democratic-held seats in states Trump won in 2024 – Georgia and Michigan – but are ​also defending seats in several states expected to be competitive this fall: North Carolina, Ohio, Maine, Alaska and possibly Iowa and Texas.

Trump’s super PAC, MAGA Inc., is sitting on a $356 million war chest, but it has not yet committed any money to help ‌Paxton. MAGA Inc. spent ⁠nearly $377 million to elect Trump in 2024 and $1.7 million this cycle to boost Republicans Matt Van Epps and Clay Fuller in special congressional elections in Tennessee and Georgia.
Senate Republicans’ primary super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, intends to spend $342 million in battleground states this fall, but its strategy does not include Texas. Senate Leadership Fund declined to comment.
“The assumption is that he is” going to invest in Paxton, a Senate Republican, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said of Trump. “I think he should. He put his foot on the scale for his candidate that won. So we are assuming that he will.”
The final two years of Trump’s presidency are at stake. If Republicans lost control of Congress, Democratic-led congressional committees ​could investigate the Trump administration, and a Democratic Senate majority ​would have more control over the president’s nominees.
Spokespeople for ⁠Senate Majority Leader John Thune and the White House did not respond to a request for comment.
In interviews, Senate Republicans were reluctant to be seen telling the president how he should spend his war chest.
“I won’t begin to tell the president what he should do,” Senator John Curtis of Utah said.
Asked if the president’s potential investment in Texas would be ​helpful to Senate Republicans, Curtis maintained it’s up to Trump.
“That’s his funding,” Curtis said. “That’s his decision.”
Chris LaCivita, a senior adviser at MAGA Inc., told Politico, the super PAC is ​raising money to spend on ⁠campaigns but doesn’t disclose when or where it will spend. He described Texas, however, as an open Republican seat “that we’ll have to ensure that we win.”

Source : https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/will-trump-spend-his-350-million-war-chest-win-texas-republicans-are-worried-2026-06-13/

Resident doctors in England have called off strikes that were due to start next week after a last-minute government offer, their unions said on Saturday, raising the prospect of ending a long-running pay and staffing dispute.
The walkout had been scheduled to run from ​Monday to Friday. It would have been the 16th in a series of stoppages since 2023 ​over what the union called years of pay erosion and staffing pressures across the ⁠National Health Service. The dispute began under the previous Conservative government.

The British Medical Union said it would hold ​a referendum on the offer and suspend strike action while the vote takes place. It represents about 55,000 ​of England’s roughly 75,000 resident doctors, formerly known as junior doctors.
“We have always been clear that no strikes needed to go ahead if we received an offer appropriate to put to our members,” committee chair Jack Fletcher said, adding that doctors would judge the ​proposal on whether it tackles pay erosion and workforce concerns, including unemployment among trainees.
Fletcher said doctors would ​vote on the offer. If they reject it, he warned, the union would move ahead with plans for strike action ‌next month.

⁠A PATH TO SETTLEMENT

The offer includes a 3.5% pay rise this year as recommended by an independent review body, with the Department of Health saying resident doctors would see an average increase of about 4.9% under the wider package.
The pay rise would grow to an average 6.6% by April 2027, with a further ​increase to follow, the union ​said.
Health minister James ⁠Murray welcomed the decision to suspend strikes, saying the deal “represents a chance to draw a line under damaging disputes of recent years and usher in a new period ​of industrial peace.”

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/world-at-work/uk-doctors-union-calls-off-planned-strikes-set-hold-referendum-2026-06-13/

TOM Cruise and David Beckham led Hollywood’s A-list who turned out to watch the USA’s opening match against Paraguay.

Home fans were delighted as the US stormed to a dominant 4-1 victory at SoFi stadium in Los Angeles as Mauricio Pochettino’s men romped to victory in their Group D opener.

Ahead of kick off Katy Perry performed an underwhelming ballad in a bizarre silver dress to open the third and final opening ceremony of the tournament.

Fans expecting a high-energy hit from Perry,41, slammed the track choice – a little known song called “Wonder” – and its 10 minute performance time.

On X, one fan described the performance as a “train wreck” while another poked fun at Perry’s “hilarious dress”.

Hollywood stars George Lucas, Halle Berry, Rob Lowe, Owen Wilson, Sofia Vergara, Vince Vaughan, Jamie Foxx and socialite Paris Hilton also watched the game in the sunny 70,000 seat cauldron.

Ted Lasso star Jason Sudeikis, a FIFA World Cup 2026 Ambassador, welcomed fans and millions around the world before the action got underway.

Perry was joined by rapper Future to headline the star-studded ceremony, which also featured stars including Anitta, LISA, Rema and Tyla.

The latter performed alongside Future to perform their hit “Game Time” as an array of dancers strutted their stuff either side while holding golden footballs.

LISA, who hails from Thailand, got the crowd going chanting “Goals, goals, goals” and “shots, on shots, on shots” before Brazilian mega-star Anitta and Nigerian rapper Rema joined her on stage.

As the players prepared to kick-start their tournament, Dan + Shay sang the United States national anthem while Purahei Soul did the same for Paraguay.

The SoFi Stadium, a 70,000-seater arena, which is usually the home of the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers, has been transformed for the tournament.

Before kick-off, swathes of American fans descended on the ground chanting “USA! USA!” as the excitement in Los Angeles reached fever pitch.

Pochettino’s system immediately went to work at the start of the first half with multiple attacking chances thanks to smart build-up play between Weston McKennie and Balogun.

But it was an error on the part of the Paraguayans that would get the scoring going.

Just seven minutes into the game, a nifty move from Pulisic saw the ball get to the foot of McKennie, and conveniently deflect into the net for an own goal off of Damian Bobadilla.

That was just the start of a relentless day of attacking chances for the USMNT.

The Americans kept up the pressure after the first hydration break, with Balogun finding the net almost immediately — only for the goal to be called off for an offside ruling.

But instantly got a chance at redemption and didn’t waste it, knocking in a lovely assist from Pulisic into the bottom right corner in the 31st minute.

And he added to his goal total just before the whistle on a throughball from winger Malik Tillman that he fired into the top left corner past goalkeeper Orlando Gill.

Paraguay clawed back its first goal of the night thanks to a left- footed shot to the bottom right corner from Mauricio.

President Donald Trump was not on hand to watch the glorious victory live but his Secretary of State Marco Rubio was there.

Mauricio Pochettino’s side could be dark horses to go deep into the tournament but will need to also get past Turkey and Australia in the group stage.

Before the US match, Alanis Morrisette and Michael Buble kicked off the second opening ceremony – as Canada claimed their first ever point at a World Cup.

The superstar duo headlined the blockbuster celebrations at the Toronto Stadium before the co-hosts were held to a tense 1-1 draw in front of thousands of supporters on Friday night.

Fans were dazzled by a sea of crimson upon entering the arena as a giant Canadian flag stretched the length of the pitch with a giant golden football at its centre.

Buble, 50, warmed up the crowd ahead of the Group B clash, wowing supporters with a cover of ‘Bring It On Home to Me’ by Sam Cooke, surrounded by the flags of all 48 competing nations

Morissette – who became a cultural phenomenon in the 1990s – then took centre stage as she performed the Canadian national anthem.

The opening ceremony began with dancers in traditional dress and playing the drums before William Prince welcomed the world and honoured Canada’s indigenous communities.

Alessia Cara then emerged from behind the golden ball as she belted out “Wild Things” and “Fire” inside its gilded frame.

The singer was followed by high-energy performances from Nora Fatehi, Vegedream and Sanjoy before Elyanna and Jessie Reyez made their entrance.

The duo performed “Illuminate” as the golden football rose into the air surrounded by a blaze of red-and-white smoke.

Fans then counted down the seconds before Argentine referee Facundo Figueroa blew his whistle to get the co-host’s World Cup campaign underway.

Jesse Marsch will be hoping to lead his team to the knockout stages for the first time in the country’s history after winning the nation’s first ever point at a World Cup.

Cyle Larin made himself a national hero as he came off the bench to poke home the equaliser that sent the stadium – and Wrexham owner Ryan Reynolds – into absolute carnage.

Bosnia had looked set to hold onto the first half lead given to them by the injured Edin Dzeko’s understudy, Jovo Lukic before Larin, 31, was fed by fellow sub Promise David just two minutes after coming on.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/sport/16495673/alanis-morrisette-michael-buble-world-cup-canada-opening-ceremony/

Thomas Partey, who has pleaded not guilty to several rape and sexual assault charges in the United Kingdom, has been refused a Canadian visa. He will therefore miss his team’s World Cup game against Panama in Toronto.

Ghanaian international footballer Thomas Partey, who is currently facing rape and sexual assault charges in the United Kingdom, has been refused entry to Canada and will be unable to take part in his team’s World Cup opener against Panama in Toronto on Wednesday.

“FIFA ​can confirm that player Thomas Partey will be unable travel from Ghana’s ​Base Camp in Boston, USA, to Canada for their first ​match against Panama on Wednesday, 17 June, as ⁠his ​visa application ​has been refused by the ​Canadian government,” said world football’s governing body in a statement to media outlets including ​Reuters and The New York Times.

“FIFA ⁠is not involved in the immigration ⁠processes ​of host countries, including the adjudication of visas,” the statement added.

Canada is co-hosting the 2026 World Cup along with Mexico and the United States.

What is Thomas Partey accused of?

Midfielder Partey, 32, was charged in July 2025 with five counts of rape and one count of sexual assault by London’s Metropolitan Police. The charges date back to his time with current Premier League champions Arsenal.

He pleaded not guilty in September 2025 but was charged with two fresh counts of rape in February 2026, to which he also pleaded not guilty in April.

Partey, who now plays his club football for Spanish side Villarreal, appears to have had no issues entering the United States after arriving in Washington, DC, on June 4 with the rest of the Ghana squad.

But he will now be unavailable for the Black Stars’ opening fixture against Panama at Toronto’s BMO Field stadium.

“The safety and security of Canadians is our priority as we welcome FIFA World Cup participants and visitors from around the world,” read a statement from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) given to The New York Times earlier this month in anticipation of this eventuality regarding Partey.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/world-cup-ghanas-partey-denied-entry-to-canada/a-77530436

Judges in Bavaria drew a distinction between standard search engine results and AI-generated summaries. They ruled that tech giants themselves are responsible for the content of answers provided by AI.

A court in the Bavarian capital of Munich on Friday ruled that search engine operator Google can be held directly liable for incorrect answers generated by its “AI overview” feature.

The legal dispute had centered on whether the service should receive the same legal treatment as conventional search results.

What did the court say about Google and AI?

Judges at the Munich Regional Court I were asked to rule on lawsuits filed against the internet giant by two Munich-based publishing companies.

Google’s overview feature had erroneously linked the companies to dubious business practices, subscription traps and fraudulent schemes. It had ​​linked the plaintiffs with information about other, genuinely shady companies and invented connections that did not exist.

Google had argued that it was not responsible for the data processing itself and did not adopt the third-party content featured in the overview as its own.

The court firmly rejected Google’s argument. It ruled that the AI ​​summary does not merely display or link to search results but constitutes distinct content attributable to the search engine operator.

The defense had been relying on existing case law from the Federal Court of Justice, which protects search engine operators from direct liability regarding the simple listing of third-party content.

However, the court found that this did not apply to Google’s AI tool.

Why was the AI overview considered different?

Because the AI ​​summarizes results in its own words, evaluates their content, and presents them in a structured format, the judges ruled that Google creates entirely new, independent statements that go beyond mere links.

The court also rejected Google’s line of defense, namely, that users could verify the sources themselves via the links and knew anyway that “AI-generated information should not be trusted blindly.”

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/german-court-holds-google-liable-for-fake-ai-answers/a-77527661

A deal with the US to end fighting in Iran is close and includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s Foreign Minister has said.

Seyed Abbas Araghchi told state TV the deal also includes the lifting of a US blockade of Iran, but that talks on Iran’s nuclear programme would begin later.

US officials have confirmed some of the details of the agreement, saying economic benefits for Iran would depend on Tehran meeting its obligations.

The war began with US and Israeli strikes across Iran on 28 February, prompting Iran to attack Israel and US-allied states in the Gulf – as well as effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping route for the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas.

Despite having agreed a ceasefire in April, the US and Iran have exchanged intermittent fire, including two rounds of tit-for-tat strikes this week.

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he had cancelled “scheduled attacks” against Iran, because negotiators had “just made a great settlement” – a deal that was likely be to signed imminently.

On Friday, Iranian media published some details from the alleged 14-point deal which Trump said had “nothing to do with the terms that were agreed to” and “bears no relation to the truth”.

A few hours later, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, whose country helped mediate the deal, said the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the US and Iran had been agreed and awaited finalising.

Iran’s Araghchi was quoted in state media saying there are “supporters and opponents” of the latest terms of the deal among Iran’s top security body, the Supreme National Security Council.

However, he added that a collective decision had not been reached. “For now, we must wait. If approved, the agreement will be signed remotely,” he said.

Israel is not involved in the talks which are meant to lead to an extension of the ceasefire and the start of negotiations on key issues, including Iran’s nuclear programme. For decades, Iran has been accused by Western countries of trying to build a nuclear weapon. It has denied the accusations saying its programme is for peaceful purposes – to generate electricity and for research purposes.

In a detailed briefing with journalists on Friday afternoon, US officials said the deal would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, in return for the US lifting its blockade on Iranian shipping.

Those steps would come into effect more or less immediately. This would be followed by a 60-day period of negotiation – focusing on Iran’s enriched uranium – an essential ingredient to make a nuclear bomb. Officials said that this would result in all that material being destroyed on site and then removed from the country, though the precise mechanism for doing so is still to be worked out.

On the economic side, officials stressed there would be no money provided up-front – an apparent rejection of earlier Iranian news reports suggesting some Iranian assets would be unfrozen before substantial negotiations had begun.

Instead, US officials said, there would be a staged reintegration of Iran into the global economy, with measures such as the lifting of sanctions and the potential unfreezing of assets happening incrementally.

The deal calls on Iran to stop funding proxy groups in the region – a reference to Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies across the Middle East.

The US officials emphasised that the MOU was not based on trust or promises, but on “performance” – Iran would only receive economic benefits when it could be verified it had implemented measures it had committed to.

Even though there is a sense of cautious optimism from all sides – the US, Iran, Pakistan and Qatar which has also helped with mediation efforts – there is still a small distance to go. Variations of this agreement have been expected several times over the past month or two, only to fall away at later stages.

The difference now, according to the US administration, is both a greater level of optimism and a greater openness about the substance of the agreement.

For his part, the Iranian foreign minister said that “as soon as the final stages of our negotiations are completed, this agreement will be signed and announced”.

“This could happen in the coming days. I am very hopeful,” Araghchi told state TV.

He stressed that the first point mentioned in the MOU was the lifting of the US naval blockade of Iran.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c39y02x98k8o

The King has joined the art world in paying tribute to David Hockney, one of the UK’s most important and popular artists, who has died at the age of 88.

In a personal message, King Charles said he and the Queen were “greatly saddened” to learn of the death of “a giant of the world of art and painting, a Yorkshireman through and through, and a dear friend and inspiration to so many”.

Artist Dame Tracey Emin said she felt privileged to have known Hockney, adding: “A great artist and a wonderful man, who with the power of art changed the perception of Britishness. A proud chain-smoking homosexual, who flew the flag higher than any other British artist.”

Over his seven-decade career, Hockney was famous for his vibrant and innovative artworks, including landscapes of his native Yorkshire, sun-drenched paintings of Los Angeles swimming pools, and iPad portraits of friends and family.

In his statement, the King recalled encounters with Hockney, including an Order of Merit lunch to which the artist wore unconventional footwear in 2022.

“David was one of life’s true originals; one who wore his genius as lightly as those beloved yellow Crocs of his that helped brighten Palace occasions.

“I trust they will see him tread safely into the hereafter as we mourn a man whose irrepressible charm, talent and constant innovation will be most sorely missed, but whose dazzling creativity lives on in galleries and museums around the world.”

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he was “saddened” to hear of the death of “one of Britain’s most celebrated artists”.

A Downing Street spokesman added that the artist’s “vivid, instantly recognisable work influenced generations of artists, and the prime minister’s thoughts are with his friends and family”.

Alex Farquharson, director of the Tate Britain gallery, described Hockney as an “immensely important figure” and “an endlessly inventive artist, with a unique vision of the world”.

Farquharson remembered Hockney as someone who was “always completely and courageously himself, both in his work and in life”.

“He taught us about the joy of looking, seeing things the rest of us failed to notice – his witty and sharp observations a constant presence within his work and in person,” he continued.

“The loss to the art world is immense: David’s passing brings to a close an extraordinary body of work characterised by reinvention.

Farquharson also praised “his astonishing talent, his love for art and life, and his profound and unconventional insights”, adding: “His work continues to influence our culture, far beyond the art world.”

Hockney was also a major figure in global art. The Pompidou Centre in Paris, which staged two landmark exhibitions, described him as “unquestionably one of the major figures of contemporary art”.

It added that the works he leaves behind remain “dazzling, alive and eternal”.

Paying tribute, fellow British artist Grayson Perry said Hockney’s early works had “that kind of dour English palette”, but on his return from the US he transformed into a “sort of poet of the spring”.

He said Hockney was a “pioneering figure in some ways, not just for his work, but for who he was and what he stood for”.

“He was a very public figure in lots of ways, in a sense, it wasn’t just his art, but was the statement, the man himself was something of a statement,” Perry told BBC Radio 4’s The World Tonight.

Announcing his death on Friday, Hockney’s representatives said: “The celebrated British artist David Hockney, one of the most important figures in contemporary art in both the 20th and 21st centuries, passed away peacefully at home on 11 June 2026, one month short of his 89th birthday.”

The statement added that his “enduring legacy reflects his underlying enthusiasm for life, his outstanding sense of humour, his immense generosity, and his investigative curiosity encapsulated by his signature phrase: Love Life”.

The Tate said they would continue to work with Hockney’s team to stage two planned projects next year.

One is a major exhibition at Tate Britain, spanning seven decades of his work, and the other is a multimedia installation in Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall bringing his celebrated designs for opera sets to life.

The Tate said its Hockney exhibition in 2017 was the most visited in Tate Britain’s history.

He also made his mark on the digital world, with Apple’s outgoing CEO Tim Cook writing on X that Hockney “showed that creativity has no limits, turning iPad into a canvas for some of the most vibrant art of our time”.

“His legacy will inspire us all to see the world a little more beautifully,” Cook added.

‘A revolutionary of British art’

Tracy Brabin, the mayor of West Yorkshire, called Hockney “quite simply one of Yorkshire’s finest”.

“A Bradford boy who changed the art world forever. But words alone don’t do David justice. His work, those pioneering pieces that burst onto the scene with vivid colour, changed the trajectory of modern art, and will continue to inspire generations to come,” she posted on X.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan called the artist “a true icon and revolutionary of British art who never stopped reinventing his work,” saying his “vivid paintings of our changing seasons helped me see the beauty and fragility of our natural world – and why it must be protected”.

Dominic James Bilton, co-leader of the Queer British Art Network told the BBC: “We’ve lost one of those people who were making changes in society before it was socially and culturally acceptable to be gay.

“He pioneered queer British art before it was fashionable to do so, before contemporary society built upon it.”

Bilton added that Hockney was an inspirational “giant of queer British art”.

Labour peer Lord Cashman added that the artist “spoke truth to the world, whether the world was ready for it or not” adding that when gay rights group Stonewall was founded, Hockney donated an artwork worth $250,000 to pay for its early years as a charity”.

Antiques Roadshow art expert Frances Christie told BBC Radio 5 Live that Hockney’s art appealed to a wide audience.

He painted “really everyday, ordinary subjects – he painted people, he painted the landscapes around him, whether they were in Yorkshire or the Grand Canyon or in California or in Normandy or in France”, she said.

She added that he was a “master of colour”, adding: “He wasn’t scared to use bold dynamic colour combinations, and above all, I think there’s an energy in his pictures.

“They’re often just joyous, you can feel his energy and warmth in them, but equally he can also elicit lots of very different emotions as well.”

Others paying tribute included art historian Richard Morris, who posted on X: “His huge achievement was to make serious painting look effortless.

“He carried forward one of the most sustained investigations into vision, space and representation by any post-war artist. British art has lost a giant.”

Hockney learned his craft by pushing a pram containing art materials around his home city as he painted on the streets.

After training in at Bradford School of Art, he went on to study at the Royal College of Art, graduating with a gold medal distinction.

Professor Christoph Lindner, the college’s president and vice-chancellor, said: “His boundless curiosity, mastery of colour, and embrace of new technologies reshaped the course of modern art.

“His legacy will continue to inspire and challenge generations of artists to come.”

After moving to Los Angeles in 1964, Hockney’s distinctive style highlighted life in California with his swimming pool series of paintings.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgjxdr27z4o

Finland backs India on Russian oil, with Elina Valtonen saying it complies with the price cap. S Jaishankar defends Indias energy policy and criticises European double standards.

While the United States has penalised India over its purchase of Russian oil, New Delhi received unexpected support from Finland, with Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen defending India’s energy imports from Russia.

Speaking during a panel discussion at the Kultaranta Talks in Finland, where External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and UAE Assistant Foreign Minister Lana Nusseibeh were also present, Valtonen said India had acted within the framework of the oil price cap introduced by Western countries after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“In India’s defence, it has bought oil under the price cap. That was the intention,” Valtonen said. She noted that the price cap mechanism was never designed to stop countries from purchasing Russian crude altogether.

“When we introduced the oil price cap, we did not prohibit the world from buying Russian oil. The entire idea was not to disrupt the oil market but to make sure oil continued to be supplied while Russia did not make massive margins from it,” she added.

Jaishankar defends India’s decisions

Valtonen’s remarks came as Jaishankar mounted a strong defence of India’s energy policy and rejected criticism over the country’s continued imports of Russian oil. “I buy oil based on cost and availability,” Jaishankar said.

He explained that global energy markets changed significantly after sanctions were imposed on Russia in 2022. “At that point of time, much of the oil available in the market was from Russia because Europeans were buying up the Middle East oil, which was our traditional supplier. Circumstances pushed us in a certain direction,” he said.

Jaishankar also claimed that the United States had encouraged India to buy Russian oil during that period to help stabilise the global energy market.

“At that time, the US specifically asked India to buy Russian oil to stabilise the oil market,” he said. “Let’s not pretend some great principle is involved here,” he added.

India’s sharp response to Europe on foreign policy

During the discussion, Jaishankar also delivered a pointed response to criticism from European countries regarding India’s position on the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

“European countries sell weapons that have been used to attack India for many years. We Indians have never done anything to endanger Europe. So keep that in mind,” he said.

His remarks reflected India’s view that some Western countries have adopted inconsistent positions on international conflicts and security issues.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/bought-within-price-cap-finland-defends-indias-russian-oil-imports-ws-l-10146950.html

Three Indians were killed in an US strike on a vessel off the coast of Oman. It is not the first time that Indians have come under the line of fire from American miscalculations.

July 1988. The Persian Gulf is a battlefield.

A US Navy warship is exchanging fire with Iranian gunboats near the Strait of Hormuz. On the radar screen, a new contact suddenly appears.

The aircraft is approaching. The operators have minutes to decide.

Friend or foe? Passenger jet or fighter aircraft?

Warnings are transmitted. The blip keeps moving. The range closes.

Then comes the order.

Two missiles leave the deck of the USS Vincennes.

Moments later, 290 people aboard Iran Air Flight 655 are dead.

Nearly four decades later, the waters around the Gulf have once again become the scene of a deadly confrontation involving the United States military and civilians caught in the middle.

This week, India publicly accused the US Navy of carrying out strikes against three commercial vessels carrying Indian crew members off the coast of Oman. Three Indian seafarers were killed. Another tanker was disabled. New Delhi summoned the US charge d’affaires twice in two days and described as a strong protest over the use of “lethal and deadly force” against civilian shipping.

The deaths of the three Indian sailors have reignited an old question that has followed American military operations in the Gulf for decades — what happens when civilian lives become collateral damage in a region where military commanders operate under the pressure of seconds?

For many Iranians, the answer arrived on the morning of July 3, 1988, when Iran Air Flight 655, travelling from Tehran to Dubai with a stopover at Bandar Abbas, was blown out of the sky by one of the most sophisticated warships in the US Navy.

All 290 people aboard – 274 passengers and 16 crew — died.

The aircraft was a civilian Airbus A300 operating a short scheduled flight from Bandar Abbas in Iran to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

The tragedy remains one of the deadliest incidents involving the accidental destruction of a civilian airliner by a military force. It also remains one of the most controversial episodes in modern American military history.

Today, as India demands answers over the deaths of three of its citizens in US military actions near Oman, the story of Flight 655 has returned to uncomfortable relevance.

India’s Protest

The Ministry of External Affairs on Friday summoned US charge d’affaires Jason Meeks and conveyed what it called deep concern over continuing attacks by American naval forces on commercial vessels carrying Indian mariners in the Gulf of Oman.

The ministry said a strong protest had been lodged regarding attacks that had already resulted in “the tragic and avoidable loss of three Indian lives”. It further described the use of lethal force against civilian shipping as unacceptable and warned that such actions undermined the safety and stability of international maritime commerce in a sensitive region.

According to the Centre, three separate merchant vessels carrying Indian crew members came under attack from US forces this week.

The Palau-flagged oil tanker.

The first was the Palau-flagged tanker Marivex, carrying 24 Indian seafarers. It was disabled by US forces on June 8, though all crew members were rescued safely.

The second vessel, another Palau-flagged tanker named Settebello, was struck on June 10. Three of the 24 Indian sailors aboard were killed.

The third vessel, Jalveer, a Guinea-Bissau-flagged tanker carrying 20 Indian crew members, was attacked on Thursday.

MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the strikes came from the US Navy. He added that two of the vessels were under sanctions administered by the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), while another had been classified as non-compliant. OFAC oversees enforcement of sanctions related to the trade of Iranian and Russian oil.

Source : https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-killed-3-indians-in-2026-ten-indians-died-in-its-1988-error-too-11629525?pfrom=home-ndtv_topscroll

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said that while changes in the deal were still possible, the tentative agreement showed his country ‌had emerged stronger from the conflict.

“Iran is the winner of the war with the U.S.,” he said on state television.

Hours after those remarks, U.S. forces shot down multiple Iranian one-way attack drones heading toward the Strait of Hormuz, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the drones had posed a threat to commercial traffic. U.S. Central Command later confirmed the action and said the waterway was open for transit.

Iranian news agencies had reported that explosions were heard along ​the strait in Iran’s Sirik port and Qeshm island, which residents and local officials attributed to shots fired by Iranian forces to warn vessels attempting to cross the waterway without permission from the ​Revolutionary Guards’ navy.

The proposed memorandum of understanding calls for reopening the strait and lifting the U.S. naval blockade on Iranian ports, sources on all sides of the talks said. ⁠Negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program – U.S. President Donald Trump’s stated rationale for starting the war – would take place afterward.

The U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters that the deal met Trump’s core objectives and ​put negotiations “in a very, very good place.”

Accounts of the draft proposal from Western, Pakistani and Iranian sources pointed to terms that could favor Iran, drawing criticism from Trump, who dismissed the reports as inaccurate.

While there were minor differences ​in the details, the proposals broadly offered Tehran much of what it has sought, with Trump appearing to secure little beyond the reopening of the strait, which Iran closed after the U.S. and Israel strikes in February.

Araqchi said Iran would, along with Oman, retain control of traffic through the strait, which before the war handled one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas supply.

“Our sword will always hang over the Strait of Hormuz,” he said.

A Western source said the deal could be signed as soon as Sunday ​by U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, with Geneva seen as the likeliest venue.

The U.S. administration official said Europe had been discussed as a venue for signing but no decision had ​been made.
Araqchi said the deal would be signed remotely before it is announced.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/iran-peace-deal-looms-while-new-military-action-flares-near-strait-hormuz-2026-06-13

President Donald Trump on Friday said U.S. forces carried out a strike that ​killed Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, also known as Niño Guerrero, the leader ‌of Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua.

“At my direction, the United States Southern Command delivered a swift and lethal kinetic strike to successfully execute Nino Guerrero the infamous leader of Tren De Aragua, one ​of the most bloodthirsty Terrorist Organizations on Planet,” Trump said in a post on ​Truth Social on Friday evening.

“This action was coordinated closely with our friends ⁠in Venezuela, with whom we are working very well.”

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth posted on ​X that the strike was conducted earlier this week and that Guerrero “was confirmed killed during ​the strike.”

Venezuela’s information ministry said that during the operation there were clashes with members of criminal groups, in which the leader, Guerrero, was neutralized.

The operation involved specialized technological support and was carried out through cooperation ​and intelligence-sharing between authorities of both countries, the ministry said.

The Trump administration has repeatedly ​targeted Guerrero and other leaders of the Tren de Aragua organization with sanctions over alleged involvement in ‌criminal activities ⁠such as illicit drug smuggling, human trafficking and money laundering.

The State Department has designated Tren de Aragua a foreign terrorist organization.

Trump has claimed Tren de Aragua coordinated its U.S. activities with the Venezuelan government of President Nicolás Maduro. The Trump administration has cited the alleged ​connection to justify deporting ​some immigrants in ⁠the U.S. to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/trump-says-us-military-carried-out-strike-leader-tren-de-aragua-2026-06-13/

While the Justice Department has said it has abandoned plans for President Donald Trump’s proposed $1.8 billion “weaponization” fund, some of his allies are shifting focus to a different way to make payouts to his supporters, including those who took part in the January 6, 2021, riot on the U.S. Capitol.

The most viable path, according to Trump allies and legal experts, may involve ​compensating these loyalists under a 1946 law called the Federal Tort Claims Act. That measure lets people file administrative claims – and subsequent lawsuits – against the U.S. government for alleged wrongdoing, which can then be settled out of court.

“At my level, the ‌fund is dead,” Stanley Woodward, the third-ranking official at the Justice Department, said in an interview with Reuters. “If somebody wants to submit a claim against the government and sue us, they can still do that.”

The Republican president repeatedly has expressed support for federal payouts to supporters whom he has portrayed as being targeted by a “weaponized” U.S. government under his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden.

But the “anti-weaponization” fund, crafted as part of a legal settlement between Trump and the Justice Department to resolve his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over allegedly mishandling his tax records, was put on hold amid fierce opposition from Republicans in Congress. Trump critics derided it as a slush fund to reward supporters with taxpayer money.

Hundreds of people who ​were prosecuted after taking part in the Capitol attack, which was a failed bid by Trump supporters to prevent Congress from certifying his 2020 election loss to Biden, already have filed claims, and at least 10 have sued the government for damages – so far with ​little response.

The strategy has long been in the works. Conservative lawyers debated the plan during a previously unreported strategy session at the 2024 Republican National Convention, according to longtime Trump ally Michael Caputo, who attended the ⁠meeting.

Other payout options are still being explored, according to Caputo, who helped lead “anti-weaponization” efforts in Trump’s 2024 election campaign and filed the first known claim under the now-abandoned “weaponization” fund.

“I’ve heard no indication that they’ve slowed down on trying to get victims paid,” Caputo said, adding that administration officials have ​told him to “watch this space.”

Source : https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/trumps-allies-have-another-way-pay-weaponization-victims-2026-06-12/

DOZENS of people were taken into custody after thousands of fans filled the streets near Madison Square Garden following the New York Knicks’ win on Wednesday night.

Game 4 of the NBA Finals brought in thousands of excited fans and scores of celebrities, including Taylor Swift, to the must-win match-up against the San Antonio Spurs, leading to chaos in the streets after the historic 29-point comeback victory.

The NYPD took 56 people into custody after large crowds gathered around the iconic venue home to the Knicks and the surrounding streets, the department said in a statement to The U.S. Sun.

An estimated 10,000 people filled the streets around the Garden.

The arrests took place across various locations between Fifth and Eighth avenues.

Some of the charges people faced were assault on a police officer, criminal mischief, resisting arrest, reckless endangerment, trademark counterfeiting and criminal possession of a weapon, which was a knife.

Forty-one individuals were released from police custody with criminal court summonses while 15 were arrested.

There were several instances of disorderly conduct, according to the NYPD.

People were accused of jumping on top of moving taxis, trucks and other vehicles while people were inside, trying to physically flip over a taxi, igniting fireworks in the middle of crowds and throwing glass bottles.

Ten members of the NYPD sustained injuries in the chaotic scene, including one who “was struck in the head with a glass bottle,” officials said.

People were also reportedly seen climbing on top of light poles, traffic lights, buildings, scaffolding and NYPD vehicles.

Four vehicles with the police department were damaged with shattered front and back windows.

Physical fights also broke out resulting in injuries.

A tractor trailer was also broken into, allegedly stealing items inside and throwing them at police officers and the crowd.

After the game, the Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama was pelted with an egg as he and his teammates left the Garden.

The Knicks climbed back from a 29-point deficit in the game, with OG Anunoby‘s dramatic tip-in securing victory with just 1.2 seconds left on the clock.

The Spurs dominated most of the game with a 19-point lead in the first quarter and 27 by halftime.

But Knicks stars Jalen Brunson and Anunoby brought the spark back, scoring 36 and 33 points respectively.

Anunoby jumped above Spurs stars Dylan Harper and Devin Vassell just moments before the buzzer, tipping the ball over the rim to end the game with a one-point lead.

The NYPD acknowledged how the win is an “exciting time” for fans, but said the department “wants New Yorkers to be able to enjoy these celebrations, but our primary responsibility is to ensure that everyone can do so safely.”

“Once again, there were large crowds of people who engaged in incredibly reckless and dangerous behavior last night both during and after the game.

“This demonstrates exactly why the NYPD has increased our presence in and around Madison Square Garden.”

A total of 21 people were taken into custody on Monday night after the Knicks’ loss against the Spurs, the NYPD previously confirmed to The U.S. Sun.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/sport/16486712/knicks-fans-arrested-nypd-msg-nba-finals/

President Prabowo Subianto has gone on more than 50 overseas trips to over 20 countries in less than two years in office, far more than his predecessors.

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has pushed back for a second time in recent months against criticism of his frequent overseas trips, claiming they are part of efforts to maintain good relations with partner countries and reflect Indonesia’s free and active foreign policy.

Prabowo said on Wednesday (Jun 10) that both he and former Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo had faced criticism, Jokowi for “rarely” travelling abroad, and him for his many trips, reported local news agency Antara.

“There was a president like … Jokowi who rarely travelled abroad and was criticised. People said Jokowi never went overseas and did not care about foreign policy. Now I travel abroad frequently and people criticise me for that too. Actually, there is no problem,” Prabowo said.

The 74-year-old president has taken 54 overseas trips covering 29 countries since taking office less than two years ago, according to public travel records, far more than his predecessor Jokowi’s 16 state visits or former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s 10 overseas trips in their first full years in office.

Prabowo also visited several countries more than once, including Malaysia – which he visited five times – as critics questioned whether the frequency aligns with diplomatic priorities and commitment to fiscal efficiency.

On Wednesday, Prabowo reiterated Indonesia’s free and active foreign policy, and said the nation was fortunate to have inherited principles from its founders that are relevant at a time when global conflict and strained relations are affecting many countries.

He added that the policy’s principles were reflected in Indonesia’s commitment to non-alignment and maintaining friendly relations with all countries.

“A thousand friends are too few. One enemy is too many. This is the path I choose. I have good relations with President Putin, and I also have good relations with President Trump,” he said, referring to Russia’s Vladimir Putin and United States’ Donald Trump.

The free and active foreign policy, known as “bebas dan aktif”, is the nation’s longstanding non-alignment policy, coined in 1948 by then-Vice President Mohammad Hatta. The policy ensures Indonesia maintains full independence in international relations and refrains from joining military alliances or being swayed by global superpowers.

Prabowo also stressed that he would continue taking steps to ensure that he serves the interests of the people.

“To defend the interests of our people, we must maintain good relations with all governments. That is why I say Indonesia’s policy is a good-neighbour policy,” he said, adding that a “good-neighbour” meant Indonesia would maintain positive relations with neighbouring countries and those in other parts of the world.

On his latest trip to France in late May, Prabowo and his designation reportedly booked 27 rooms for three nights, including a presidential suite and a grand premier suite, at an estimated cost of EUR281,640 (US$325,382), according to local news outlet Tempo.

It was later reported that his trip had generated four commercial deals with France worth US$3.5 billion, according to a statement by the government communications agency on May 30.

Prabowo first spoke up against criticism on his overseas trips on Mar 22, dismissing claims that they were purportedly for “sightseeing” or ceremonial visits.

In a video on his official YouTube channel, he had defended his trips saying they were part of a broader economic diplomacy strategy aimed at advancing national interests.

“People think I like to travel but I travel to take care of my people as well,” he was quoted as saying by local news outlet Detik.

The president also said that his overseas engagements are aimed at opening market access and strengthening Indonesia’s bargaining position and industrial cooperation – all of which have a direct impact on employment.

Prabowo is expected to visit Russia on Jun 17 to participate in the Russia-ASEAN Summit in Kazan.

Others in Prabowo’s Cabinet have also spoken up to defend the president’s frequent overseas trip.

Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya on Jun 1 responded to criticism of Prabowo’s frequent overseas trips, including concerns raised by former deputy foreign minister Dino Patti Djalal, saying that any expenses exceeding state budget allocations were personally absorbed by the president.

Dino, who was previously deputy foreign minister and ambassador to the US, had on May 30 questioned Prabowo’s trips and suggested teleconferencing or delegating engagements to foreign minister Sugiono as alternatives.

However, Teddy rejected these suggestions, saying that high-level diplomacy often depends on personal trustbuilding with leaders and cannot always be virtually replicated.

Days earlier, foreign minister Sugiono on May 27 defended Prabowo’s latest trip to France and said his visit was due to a direct invitation from French President Emmanuel Macron.

Sugiono added that the invitation had been extended months ago but was postponed due to conflicting schedules. Macron then extended a second invitation to Prabowo.

Source : https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/indonesia-president-prabowo-hits-back-criticism-frequent-overseas-trips-6176416

Cairo faces criticism from its Gulf allies that support against Iran has been lacking. But Egypt’s priority is to shield its fragile economy from the fallout of a widening conflict.

The conflict between the US, Israel and Iran has pushed regional heavyweight Egypt into a diplomatic and strategic dilemma.

Egypt is not only a close ally of the US and Gulf states — it is a signatory to the 1979 Camp David Accords with Israel — but was also on the verge of restoring full diplomatic ties with Iran in early 2026.

Cairo’s tightrope walk has so far included publicly condemning Iranian attacks on Gulf states while offering limited military support. It has sought to position itself as a mediator between Tehran and Washington, alongside parallel efforts by Pakistan, Turkey and Qatar. President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi also visited the United Arab Emirates in May.

“Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi views the conflict primarily as a threat to domestic stability,” Michelle Pace, a Middle East analyst and academic visitor at the University of Oxford, told DW. “Egypt’s core objective is to stay out of the Iran war while containing its economic and security fallout.”

However, this approach has caused tensions with Egypt’s Gulf partners, who expect support from their allies in the face of Iranian attacks on their territories, interests and assets, Timothy E. Kaldas, deputy director of the Washington-based Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, told DW.

“There are not very subtle statements coming particularly from the United Arab Emirates that indicate frustration and anger with Egypt,” he said.

For example, Anwar Gargash, foreign policy adviser to the UAE presidency, recently wrote on X that “The Arab Gulf states have been a support and partner to all in times of prosperity … so where are you today in this time of hardship?” Regional analysts understand the statement was directed at Cairo.

Economic dependence

Egypt, the most populous Arab nation with around 120 million people, also feels the the economic ripple effects of the war with Iran. After the Iran-aligned Houthi militia in Yemen resumed attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait in support of Iran, traffic through Egypt’s Suez Canal was reduced. A recent analysis by the International Crisis Group found that Suez Canal revenues fell by 38% in the first quarter of 2026.

“The war is hurting an economy that had been showing tentative signs of recovery from the doldrums of COVID-19 and the consequences of wars in Ukraine and Gaza,” the analysis said.

Egypt’s minister of petroleum and mineral resources, Karim Badawi, said Wednesday that Egypt had managed to reduce arrears owed to oil and gas ‌partners from about $6.1 billion in ⁠June 2024 to zero in June 2026.

The economic recovery after years of protracted crisis has been largely driven by Gulf investments, the report’s authors noted. “Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have deposited $5.3 billion and $4 billion with the Egyptian central bank, respectively, while the United Arab Emirates has injected $35 billion into the country through a major real estate acquisition and Qatar has committed to investing $29.7 billion in another massive property deal,” the Crisis Group’s analysissaid. The World Bank, the EU and the International Monetary Fund have also helped to stabilize Egypt’s economic in recent years.

Now, the outlook appears to be worsening again. Not only have Suez Canal revenues fallen, but tourism has also declined, and energy and food prices have increased.

Furthermore, the Gulf states are themselves facing significant economic losses and enormous costs : damaged buildings and infrastructure must be repaired, munitions replenished, and defense capabilities expanded, Kaldas pointed out.

“The availability of financial support, even if they wanted to provide it, may be coming under pressure, especially given that Egypt will be competing with reconstruction needs in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza,” he said.

Diplomatic pressure

Meanwhile, the US is also turning the diplomatic screws on Egypt. Reuters reported on May 25 that US President Donald Trump said he had asked Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey and Jordan to join the Abraham Accords and normalize relations with Israel as part of his push to secure support for a potential agreement involving Iran.

In 2020 and 2021, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan already normalized ties with Israel, under the Abraham Accords. Saudi Arabia halted negotiations after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 and the ensuing war in Gaza, and made the establishment of a pathway for an independent Palestinian state a condition. Egypt and Jordan signed peace treaties with Israel in 1979 and 1994, respectively.

Kaldas views Trump’s latest push for normalization as more of a desperate effort to claim some sort of achievement in the Iran conflict.

“Egypt is also concerned about the hostile posture of the Israelis in the region, so giving them any sort of additional diplomatic support is almost certainly not something that the Egyptian government is going to want to do at this time,” he said.

Ties between Egypt and Israel have been deteriorating since the Gaza war. Israel has repeatedly said it would like to see millions of Palestinians in Gaza relocate to Egypt.

Moreover, Cairo is also wary of an outright collapse of Iran, Michelle Pace warned: “This would strengthen Israel’s regional dominance,” she said, adding that all of this limits Cairo’s strategic autonomy and pushes it toward pragmatic diplomacy rather than confrontation.

Crackdown on political dissent

At the same time, Cairo also needs to consider public discontent, Kaldas noted, adding that “In Egyptian public opinion, quite a large portion of the population is on Iran’s side in this war and sees it as the wronged party.”

For Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi this means “not sticking his neck out too much in defense of what most Egyptians see as US-Israeli aggression against Iran.”

However, public signs of dissent remain prohibited. Since the outbreak of the Gaza war, occasional demonstrations have been broken up by police and participants detained.

Source : https://www.dw.com/en/egypts-delicate-balancing-act-in-the-iran-war/a-77506331

India summoned a senior US diplomat after a strike on the tanker Settebello off Oman. Also in the news in India this Thursday, the ‘Cockroach’ party demonstrated in Pune demanding the education minister’s removal.

The Trump administration put up $750,000 to charter a private yacht to evacuate a single American citizen from a remote South Pacific island after she had been aboard a cruise ship at the center of a deadly hantavirus outbreak, a move that has further strained the State Department’s emergency budget.

The woman, who may have been exposed to the virus while aboard the Dutch MV Hondius cruise liner in April, had gotten off the ship and then flown to San Francisco before traveling to the isolated British territory of Pitcairn Island through Tahiti, according to two U.S. officials and an internal government document obtained by The Associated Press.

The exact amount of the total evacuation payment is still being assessed because the operation is still underway. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a medical case covered by U.S. privacy laws.

The costly effort to pick up the woman has added to the expense of rapid evacuations for diplomats and private U.S. citizens from the Middle East since the start of the Iran war as well as preparations for possible evacuations from Ebola-stricken countries. All have stressed the State Department budget for unforeseen emergencies, known as the “K Fund,” and brought its balance to the lowest level in seven years.

State Department emergency budget strained by multiple evacuations

Another internal document said the State Department is looking at transferring as much as $50 million into that emergency fund from other accounts — $35 million from the budget for embassy security, construction and maintenance and an additional $15 million from an account that pays for broader diplomatic programming. No decision on the transfers has yet been made.

One of the officials said the State Department has another option, to ask Congress to replenish the fund. However, the official said the department is expected to be able to handle payments for both ongoing and “emerging contingency needs.”

The official would not say what the potential shortfall is but insisted that the department is “well positioned” to support diplomats, other U.S. government employees and private Americans who have been forced to leave the Middle East because of the Iran confict, as well as U.S. citizens who may need assistance due to developments such as the Ebola outbreak in Africa.

How the US is evacuating an American exposed to hantavirus from a remote island

The State Department declined to comment on the specifics of the woman’s case on Pitcairn Island but said that “when an American is at risk abroad and unable to access commercial transportation, the Department of State seeks to provide appropriate assistance to get them home to the United States or to another safe location.”

After the woman departed the cruise liner where the hantavirus outbreak occurred, the ship continued to other destinations in the South Atlantic, with some passengers falling ill and at least three dying. The unidentified American woman was stuck on Pitcairn, an island with only about 50 inhabitants, no airport and infrequent maritime options to depart.

Pitcairn is well-known as the island on which Fletcher Christian and other British mutineers from the HMS Bounty took refuge after the 1789 events that toppled Capt. William Bligh, which have entered into the public lexicon with books and films about the “Mutiny on the Bounty.” Their descendants make up most of the island’s current population.

Complicating matters, British authorities had sought urgent American assistance in evacuating the woman from the island, which is their territory, according to the government document about the cost of the evacuation and the second U.S. official.

But initial attempts to send her to Tahiti, a French dependency, about 1,350 miles (2,160 kilometers) — or a 30-hour sea journey — from Pitcairn, were rejected by French Polynesian authorities. They did not want to allow her in because she had not disclosed her exposure when she transited the island on her way to Pitcairn.

The U.S. is transporting the woman, who was not symptomatic, from Pitcairn to Easter Island, another remote location in the Pacific about 1,400 miles (2,253 km) away, which is a territory of Chile and has direct flights to Santiago, so she can return to the United States for any necessary treatment.

Source : https://apnews.com/article/hantavirus-ship-evacuation-american-yacht-33ba5ddb8374d0083271669e7ba52b04

If he wanted to, he would — and in this case, he did.

Travis Kelce jetted from a Kansas City Chiefs minicamp in Kansas City, Missouri, to New York City just in time to watch his fiancée Taylor Swift’s induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

The tight end was photographed seated alongside Swift inside the Marriott Marquis Hotel in NYC Thursday night.

Making it a family affair, the couple’s mothers, Andrea Swift and Donna Kelce, were also seated at their table.

A family affair! ❤️ Taylor Swift is seated with her fiancé Travis Kelce, plus their moms Andrea Swift and Donna Kelce, ahead of Taylor’s induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in NYC pic.twitter.com/reKywJueGp

— billboard (@billboard) June 12, 2026

Swift was also seen in social media clips dancing with Travis to Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” and chatting up director Steven Spielberg, who was seated beside her, as she grooved to Rihanna’s “Umbrella.”

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce dance to “Single Ladies” at the Songwriters Hall of Fame Gala pic.twitter.com/VFGfDnqaOV

— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) June 12, 2026

#TaylorSwift jams out with Steven Spielberg and Travis Kelce at the 2026 Songwriters Hall of Fame ceremony. pic.twitter.com/PnPjTroPvF

— Variety (@Variety) June 12, 2026

A performance of “Proud Mary” even got Swift and Travis out of their seats.

While Spielberg’s newest film, “Disclosure Day,” doesn’t release until Friday, he stepped behind the camera to record the couple dancing to John Fogerty singing the Creedence Clearwater Revival hit “Fortunate Son” in one clip.

At the Songwriters Hall of Fame Gala, Taylor Swift goes Spielberg mode as she and Travis Kelce dance along to John Fogerty (and his sons) performing ‘Fortunate Son’ pic.twitter.com/hFtXH6bnSV

— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) June 12, 2026

Travis, 36, landed in the Big Apple for the special occasion after concluding a three-day mandatory team minicamp.

The athlete and his teammates participated in strength and conditioning activities, on-field drills and offensive vs. defensive exercises, per the Chiefs.

Travis will return for the NFL team’s training camp for his 14th season next month.

The three-time Super Bowl winner, meanwhile, ensured he wouldn’t miss Swift, 36, make history as the youngest woman to be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

The Grammy winner released her debut track “Tim McGraw” in 2006. The 20-year period and her notable music catalog made her eligible to qualify for induction.

The hitmaker’s key tracks recognized by the SHOF include “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version),” “Blank Space,” “Anti-Hero,” “Love Story” and “The Last Great American Dynasty.”

Source : https://pagesix.com/2026/06/11/entertainment/travis-kelce-jets-from-chiefs-minicamp-to-nyc-for-taylor-swifts-songwriters-hall-of-fame-induction/

Miten Patel remembers the day hospital staff in Ahmedabad drew two vials of his blood to help identify his parents.

He had landed in the Indian city hours earlier with his brother, carrying dental records for Ashok and Shobhana Patel.

“We had to fly Air India to get there, because there were no other flights,” he said.

Miten didn’t know anyone in India. But he was grateful that his parents had taught him Gujarati, the local language in Ahmedabad. It gave him and his brother the means to navigate the chaotic aftermath of the tragedy that changed their world.

“I didn’t even know what the word repatriation meant.”

A year ago, on 12 June, his parents were flying home to London when their Air India flight crashed just 32 seconds after take-off from Ahmedabad. They were among 260 people – 241 on the plane and 19 on the ground – who were killed in one of the worst aviation accidents in India’s history. One passenger miraculously survived the crash.

It took more than a week for the Patels’ remains to be returned to the UK.

Four days later, Miten received a call in the morning from police in London. They asked to meet him that evening, refusing to tell him the reason over the phone.

A CT scan had revealed that his mother’s casket also contained the remains of someone else. Miten was told there were additional “skeletal parts”.

Police asked Miten not to tell anyone, not even his family, for weeks.

He insisted on meeting the coroner.

“I said to them, look, I would sincerely request that you separate my mother from whoever else,” he said.

Further testing showed that his mother’s remains had been mixed with those of an unidentified man.

The Patel family waited another month before they could cremate her remains, postponing Ashok’s last rites so they could be done together.

A UK inquest has been opened into the death of the man in Shobahana Patel’s casket, who still hasn’t been identified.

In a hearing this week, UK Coroner Fiona Wilcox said that they had “sent palm prints and DNA to India in an attempt to identify this gentleman but to date we have had no confirmation as to his name”. She added that it was “obviously very unusual” to open inquests nearly a year after the death.

“The identity of the unidentified male remains outstanding. I hope that identification will be forthcoming,” Wilcox added.

The challenge for emergency workers at the crash site was immense, with hundreds of casualties, and many bodies burned and torn apart.

The wreckage was scattered across 37,000 sq m, the equivalent of five football pitches, as the plane collided with accommodation for medical students, and broke apart.

One local resident who had rushed to help described struggling to pull out bodies from the debris, with seatbelts that were too hot to touch strapping in the victims.

An independent forensic expert deployed to identify victims of the crash, Dr Deepak Venkatesh, told the BBC that the scale of the disaster made identifying the victims even harder.

The bodies of 90% of those killed were severely charred, and “extreme thermal damage destroyed fingerprints, facial features and other visual identifiers”, according to India’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

The NDMA has since drawn lessons from the Air India crash and used it as a case study in new identification guidelines issued in January.

“It’s a lesson learned,” Dr Venkatesh told the BBC.

The BBC contacted the Indian foreign ministry, the hospital responsible for the identification process in Gujarat and the UK foreign office but has not received any responses.

In July last year, about a month after the crash, the Indian foreign ministry told the BBC that it had “been working closely with the UK side from the moment these concerns and issues were brought to our attention”.

The statement continued: “In the wake of the tragic crash, the concerned authorities had carried out identification of victims as per established protocols and technical requirements.

“All mortal remains were handled with utmost professionalism and with due regard for the dignity of the deceased.”

There is at least one other case in the UK where a family received the wrong remains.

Amanda Donaghey returned to the UK believing she was carrying the remains of her son, 39-year-old Fiongal Greenlaw-Meek. She later discovered she had received the remains of 70-year-old Indian woman, Vasuben Narendrasinh Raj.

This week, Wilcox, the UK coroner, said they had “only recently been able to make contact with the son of Ms Raj”.

Donaghey is still in search of her son’s remains.

James Healey-Pratt, a lawyer representing both Donaghey and Miten Patel, told the BBC that while the scale of the disaster created identification challenges, “there still needs to be transparency and accountability, because the families deserve it”.

He added that throughout this past year, “at no stage has anybody in India in a position of authority accepted responsibility”.

“It’s highly embarrassing, and it makes them look incompetent.”

Dr Venkatesh was deployed days after the crash to help identify remains. He described scenes that still haunt him.

For months, teams searched through rubble and debris, in temperatures reaching the mid-40s Celsius, surrounded by decomposing remains.

He told us body parts were numbered and eventually sent to local laboratories for processing.

Families were asked whether they wanted the entire body of their loved one returned to them, a process that could take months longer as all remains were tested and matched.

At the time of the crash, the NDMA’s focus remained on “relief, rescue and rehabilitation”, according to Dr Venkatesh. In the immediate aftermath, emergency workers were focusing on saving lives, not identifying the bodies.

“The recovery environment presented challenges for maintaining the separation of remains, which can contribute to commingling,” Dr Venkatesh said.

Commingling is when the remains of multiple individuals are mixed together. However, he is not aware of any cases where the families have challenged the identification of their relatives.

He said a “meticulous” and “systematic” search began after the initial emergency response, with teams dividing the crash site into separate zones.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c15y9g2ndkno

The 2026 World Cup has begun in Mexico City with an opening ceremony filled with colour, dancing and a performance by global music star Shakira.

Thousands of fans arrived at the legendary Azteca stadium in Mexico City with a real sense of excitement for the first World Cup on their home turf in 40 years.

But outside the stadium, there were sporadic violent clashes as radical protesters attempted to disrupt the event and were met by a heavy security response.

For the most part, though, football took centre stage and there were wild celebrations as Mexico kicked off their campaign with a 2-0 win over South Africa.

Javier Pérez came with his family for the opener and told the BBC that the excitement now outweighs any hassles experienced up to this point.

“We were lucky to get hospitality tickets and it’s a unique experience. I have never been to a World Cup before so to bring my family is wonderful,” he said.

“I just want Mexico to get off on the right foot, win today and score a load of goals! And then we’ll see how far we can go!”

Despite a heightened security presence around the 82,000-person stadium, the clashes between police and protesters temporarily shut down nearby metro stations.

Mexican officials said that nearly 200 hooded individuals broke away from two groups of around 800 protesters and clashed with law enforcement, but the situation “was brought under control” by police.

Meanwhile, teachers and families of those who have gone missing in Mexico’s drug war marched in various protests, to highlight their causes while the country is in the global spotlight.

Mexico is co-hosting the 2026 tournament alongside the US and Canada, with those teams hosting their own opening ceremonies on Friday.

Ahead of the match, fans in the stadium were treated to performances from Shakira, Colombia’s J Balvin, Afrobeats star Burna Boy and Latin music star Danny Ocean.

Mexican singer-songwriter Fher Olvera of the pop punk band Maná took the stage to sing the classic Oye Mi Amor.

“Bienvenida a México. Welcome to Mexico,” a performer announced to start the tournament.

“We are a nation of diversity, heritage and pride. Football carries the same heartbeat, uniting generations.”

Performers wore indigenous clothing, while others were dressed in all gold and held giant golden footballs above their heads.

A packed stadium of fans dressed in their own colourful outfits, many wearing Mexico’s team colours.

Source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2ly928xz8go

US President Donald Trump, in a Truth Social post on June 11 (IST), said that the military will be hitting Iran very hard tonight and claimed its military capabilities were neutralised. He suggested future US actions could target Iran’s oil infrastructure, including Kharg Island, and asserted potential control over its energy sector amid rising tensions in the region.

US President Donald Trump, in a June 11 (IST) post on Truth Social, indicated a dramatic escalation in rhetoric and military intent toward Iran, including strikes on strategic energy infrastructure and assertions of overwhelming US military superiority.

In the post, Trump said that the United States would “be hitting Iran very hard” and described Iran’s military capabilities as having been effectively neutralised, stating that its navy, air force, radar systems, and air defence networks were “gone,” along with most of its offensive capabilities.

The United States will be hitting Iran (Whose Navy, Air Force, Radar, Anti Aircraft, and all other forms of Defense, together with most its offensive capability, are GONE!), VERY HARD TONIGHT. At some point in the not too distant future, we will be taking Kharg Island, and other… pic.twitter.com/RPeL3khVrr

— Commentary Donald J. Trump Truth Social Posts On X (@TrumpTruthOnX) June 11, 2026

He further stated that future US actions would extend beyond immediate military targets to include Iran’s critical energy assets, specifically Kharg Island, a key oil export hub in the Persian Gulf. Trump stated that the United States would be taking Kharg Island and other oil and gas infrastructure points “at some point in the not-too-distant future.”

Source : https://www.freepressjournal.in/world/will-be-hitting-iran-very-hard-tonight-president-trump-signals-escalation-against-tehran-says-us-will-take-kharg-island

Trump saw about a dozen specialists for prior checkups, per past statements. The White House has declined to identify which physicians assessed him.

For George H.W. Bush’s first medical checkup as president in 1989, he was seen by five specialists, the White House said at the time. His son George W. Bush was seen by 12 in his first presidential checkup, White House officials said a dozen years later.

President Donald Trump appears to have set a new bar: 22 medical specialists assessed him as part of his latest checkup, according to a medical report recently released by the White House.

That figure is nearly double the number of specialists who assessed Trump for his past medical checkups as president, according to a review of publicly available statements by Trump’s doctors.

The figure also represents the most medical specialists to assess a president for a single visit, based on a review of public statements and records, prompting questions from outside physicians who said they were already skeptical of the White House’s disclosures around the nearly 80-year-old Trump’s health.

“It is an extraordinary number,” said Jonathan Reiner, a longtime cardiologist for former vice president Dick Cheney. “What specialties do they represent? Why so many?”

White House officials said that the number was commensurate with the need to perform a “complete and preventive evaluation” of the president. Sean Barbabella, the president’s physician, said the assessment found that Trump was in “excellent health.”

“The involvement of multiple specialists reflects a comprehensive, multidisciplinary evaluation consistent with best practices for executive-level medical care,” the White House said in a statement.

A White House official said that physicians affiliated with Harvard University, Duke University and other prominent institutions helped perform the evaluation. The official also said that some generalist physicians were included in the administration’s count of 22 specialists.

“We have nothing to hide,” the official said.

The White House has often declined to answer specific questions about Trump’s medical assessments, such as what prompted the president to undergo a second physical exam at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center last year. Presidents usually make one annual trip unless they have an urgent condition. Nearly three months after the visit, and after initially telling reporters that he had undergone an MRI exam, Trump and the White House clarified that the president had received a CT scan as part of his assessment.

Trump’s medical reports also no longer include a common hair-loss prevention drug that his physicians said he routinely used during his first term in office. White House officials have declined to comment on Trump’s past use of the drug, finasteride, and whether he had stopped taking it.

The scrutiny of Trump’s health comes amid broader questions about the fitness of the current president and his predecessor, Joe Biden, to serve as commander in chief. Biden, who was 82 when he left office, and Trump, who turns 80 on June 14, are the two oldest men to serve as president.

Karine Jean-Pierre, who served as Biden’s press secretary, said at a February 2024 press briefing that a team of “20 doctors” participated in Biden’s medical evaluation at Walter Reed that year.

Past administrations have often elected not to disclose the specific number of specialists who consult on the president’s medical evaluations, which are traditionally performed at Walter Reed.

Presidents are not required to disclose their health records, although lawmakers in both parties have called for more checks on chief executives, such as creating an independent commission that could assess the president’s health.

But publicly available records and statements indicate that the number of specialists reviewing presidential health appears to have ballooned.

The five specialists involved in President George H.W. Bush’s checkup in May 1989 included an ophthalmologist, a urologist, a dermatologist and two allergists — White House officials said at the time. The 65-year-old Bush then saw eight specialists the following year, including a radiologist, cardiologist and rheumatologist, the White House said.

His son, President George W. Bush, saw 12 specialists for his 2001 check-up, White House officials said then.

As questions swirled about Trump’s fitness during his first year in office, Ronny Jackson, who served as Trump’s physician during his first term and is now a Republican member of Congress from Texas, arranged 13 specialists to see the president, he wrote in his memoir.

Source : https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/06/10/trump-sees-22-medical-specialists-white-house-hasnt-said-why/