The US is deploying the world’s largest aircraft carrier to Latin America as part of the Trump administration’s stated goal of combating drug trafficking. But as regional tensions soar, Venezuela is accusing Washington of trying to overthrow its government.
Published On 25 Oct 202525 Oct 2025
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JENNIFER Lopez’s first husband has accused her of cheating on him after she claimed she had never been loved by any of her exes.
Personal trainer Ojani Noa, 51, hit out after US broadcaster Howard Stern asked four-times wed J-Lo if she had ever “truly been loved” and she said “no”.
She added: “What I learned, it’s not that I’m not lovable. It’s that they’re not capable. They don’t have it in them.”
But Ojani, who was married to J-Lo from 1997 to 1998, hit back on social media, saying: “Stop putting us down.
“Stop putting me down with your victim card. The problem is not us. Not me.
“The problem is you. You’re the one who couldn’t keep it in your pants.
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“You have been ‘loved’ a few times. You have been married four times. And have had countless relationships in between.
“You’ve had good relationships. Me for example. I was in love with you. I moved out of state to support, protect and care for you.
“I’m an amazing, loving person, great human being.
“Honest, faithful to you, never lied, never misbehaved, never cheated on you. I was too good for you. I’m too good of a man for you.
“You decided to lie, to cheat on me. Tell the truth for once. Let people know that you are the problem.”
J-Lo marked the release of her new film Kiss of the Spider Woman by posting pics on Instagram of herself on set in costume.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni says she has been accused of “complicity in genocide” in a complaint lodged with the International Criminal Court (ICC) over Rome’s support for Israel as it bombards Gaza.
Meloni made the statement during an interview with state television company RAI, in the first public comment on the situation, which has not been confirmed by the international court.
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Meloni said Defence Minister Guido Crosetto and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani have also been “denounced”, referring to when the court is officially alerted to a possible crime. She said that she believes that Roberto Cingolani, head of Italian weapons and aerospace company Leonardo, might also have been named.
The complaint, dated October 1, was signed by some 50 people, including law professors, lawyers, and several public figures who accused Meloni and others of complicity by supplying arms to Israel, according to the AFP news agency.
“By supporting the Israeli government, particularly through the supply of lethal weapons, the Italian government has become complicit in the ongoing genocide and the extremely serious war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against the Palestinian people,” the authors of the court filing against the Italian leaders wrote.
The Palestinian advocacy group behind the complaint naming Meloni is calling for the court to assess the possibility of opening a formal investigation into the charge of genocide against the Italian prime minister, AFP also reported.
Last month, a UN Independent Inquiry found that Israel’s war on Gaza is a genocide, adding to similar assessments from a broad range of experts in human rights, genocide and international law.
The ICC has outstanding arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant over charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, including starvation, murder and persecution.
However, neither Netanyahu nor Gallant has been charged with genocide specifically.
The ICC also issued arrest warrants for Hamas officials; however, those named have all since been killed in Israeli attacks.
“I don’t think there is another case in the world or in history of a complaint of this kind,” Meloni said of the complaint against her in the televised comments.
According to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Italy was one of only three countries to export “major conventional arms” to Israel from 2020 to 2024, although the United States and Germany were responsible for 99 percent of the exports of the larger weapons category, which include aircraft, missiles, tanks and air defence systems.
The major arms that Italy provided to Israel in this period included light helicopters and naval guns, SIPRI said. It is also one of several countries involved in making parts for F-35 fighter jets, under a US-led programme, SIPRI added.
“Concerns about the potential use of the F-35 by Israel to carry out violations of international humanitarian law have led to much criticism of transfers of the aircraft or its parts to Israel,” SIPRI said in a recent report.
Italy’s Defence Minister Guido Crosetto has said that Italy is only sending deliveries of arms to Israel under contracts signed before October 7, 2023 and that Italy has sought assurances from Israel that the weapons would not be used against civilians in Gaza, after Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani had earlier claimed Italy had stopped sending the weapons altogether.
Meloni’s acknowledgement of the complaint against her comes as hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets in mass protests against Israel’s war on Gaza in recent weeks.
Italy’s major labour unions have actively supported the protests. The country’s dockworkers have threatened strike action over Israeli forces preventing the Sumud Global Flotilla from delivering aid to Gaza.
Following earlier protests, Meloni’s government sent naval ships to accompany the fleet of international vessels, but the Italian navy pulled back before Israeli forces intercepted the boats in international waters and detained close to 500 international activists.
Six crew members remained in Israeli detention as of Tuesday, according to the flotilla’s organisers.
The latest complaints against Italian leaders join a growing number of legal challenges to Israel’s actions in Gaza, alongside the ICC case against Netanyahu and Gallant.
At the International Court of Justice (ICJ), South Africa has submitted a case against Israel, accusing it of breaching the 1948 UN Genocide Convention.
In April this year, the ICJ ruled against pursuing a case brought by Nicaragua that accused Germany of aiding genocide in Gaza for its role in selling arms to Israel.
The US, which is the largest exporter of weapons to Israel, is not a member of the ICC.
It has also actively pushed back against the ICC pursuing charges against Israel.
Last month, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the US was imposing sanctions on three Palestinian human rights organisations, Al-Haq, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) and Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, for engaging in efforts to “investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute Israeli nationals” at the ICC.
MAX VERSTAPPEN blasted Formula One title rival Lando Norris for getting in his way after failing to land a maiden pole position at the Singapore Grand Prix.
George Russell denied old rival Verstappen the front row seat with a lightning-quick lap of 1:29.158 – a new record at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.
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Verstappen, 28, is eyeing a first-ever win in Sunday’s race to complete the career set of winning at every F1 track on the 2025 calendar.
However, the flying Dutchman aimed a stinging shot at McLaren’s Norris – who had claimed Verstappen was “almost impossible” to beat because he had been “born into F1″ – by accusing him of forcing him into a mistake in the final sector of his lap.
Speaking in a unique three-driver post-qualifying press conference because of the sweltering temperatures, which triggered a first-ever heat hazard warning issued by the FIA on Thursday, Verstappen was asked about a mistake during the final few corners.
The raging Red Bull driver replied: “Yeah, that’s what happens when there’s a car two seconds in front of you cruising in front.
“So that’s noted, will be remembered as well.”
When pressed on the identity of the culprit, Verstappen replied: “Not Oscar [Piastri]. So yeah, that was a bit of a shame. Otherwise, I think it could have been close for a pole.
“It’s very exciting here in qualifying. A little bit disappointed not to be first but for us this weekend the car has been really good.
Briton Russell was delighted with his top spot, a first-ever pole for him in Singapore after a “challenging day” on Friday following a crash in FP2.
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He said: “It’s good to come back and get a good result today.
“There’s a long sweaty race tomorrow but I knew there was potential in the car because Kimi [Antonelli] was doing an amazing job all weekend and I gained quite a lot from seeing what he was capable of doing.”
On the prospect of keeping four-time world champion Verstappen behind him going into Turn 1, Russell added: “Yeah, I mean Singapore’s not always been the kindest to me in the past.
“That’s been through my own doing the majority of the time. I’m not going to get carried away with this pole position. But it’s the best place to start.
“There’s a good pole side advantage here so I like to think I can hold the lead into Turn 1, but obviously this guy on my left is pretty good at race starts and sending it down the inside.”
Such a claim seemed off-beat considering Verstappen is 69 points behind McLaren championship leader Oscar Piastri, who scored third in Saturday’s qualifying.
Yet wins in Italy and Azerbaijan and a strong result in qualifying is threatening to split the drivers’ title race wide open despite the comparative dominance of McLaren for most of the season.
Piastri said: “I obviously would have wanted more but I don’t think we had four-tenths in it to go and get pole.”
Team-mate Norris, who will start P5 in the race, addressed Verstappen’s claim after the session.
He said: “Red Bull always complains. There was no problem with Max driving behind me. Yes, he was riding behind me. But there was such a huge distance, so no problem.”
There was early hope for Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari in qualifying as he topped the first session, but he ultimately ended up in P6 with team-mate Charles Leclerc in P7.
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George Retes Jr. grew up in Southern California, and when he turned 18, he decided to serve in the U.S. Army, he said, because he wanted to be part of something bigger than himself.
After a tour of duty in Iraq, Retes moved back to Ventura County this year to find a job and spend more time with his wife and two young children. In February, he began working as a contracted security guard for Glass House Farms at its cannabis greenhouses in Camarillo. Then, on July 10, everything changed as ICE raided Glass House — one of its largest immigration raids ever — while he was trying to get to work.
Federal officers surrounded Retes and pushed him to the ground. He could hardly breathe, he said, as officers knelt on his back and neck. He was arrested, jailed for three days and was not allowed to make a phone call or see an attorney, according to the Institute for Justice, a public-interest law firm that is representing him.
President Trump’s Department of Homeland Security never charged Retes with a crime. But after he wrote an op-ed about his experience this month, DHS started issuing new accusations against him — saying he was arrested for assault during the raid, which the 25-year-old veteran has denied. Retes said he never resisted, and now is being targeted for retaliation because he spoke out about an arrest he sees as unlawful.
“My whole point in sharing my story, I’m trying to warn as many people as possible,” he said in an interview this week. “It doesn’t matter if you’re [politically] left, right, if you voted for Trump, hate him, love him, it doesn’t matter. This affects all of us.”
On July 10, Retes was headed to work around 2 p.m., and the narrow road leading to the farm was logjammed, he said. He weaved his compact white Hyundai forward, past parked cars and protesters, determined to make it to his shift.
He stopped short when he came upon a line of federal officers who blocked his path to the farm. Retes, 25, wearing shorts and a hoodie, got out of his car and tried to tell the federal agents that he worked at the farm.
Agents ignored him, he said, and instead told him to get out of the way. So he got back in his car, and as he tried to back up, agents began lobbing tear gas canisters toward the crowd to disperse them. Retes began hacking and coughing as the gas seeped into his car and federal officers began pounding on his car door. He said they gave him instructions to move that were contradictory.
The agents smashed his car window, pepper sprayed him, pulled him out of the car and arrested him, he said. He was handcuffed, and after his three days in jail, he was released without any explanation.
In his Sept. 16 opinion piece for the San Francisco Chronicle — entitled “I’m a U.S. citizen who was wrongly arrested and held by ICE. Here’s why you could be next” — Retes detailed his ordeal. He has begun to take legal action to sue the U.S. government under the Federal Tort Claims Act. More than 360 people were arrested in the raid, including numerous undocumented immigrants, and one person died.
“I served my country. I wore the uniform, I stood watch, and I believe in the values we say make us different. And yet here, on our own soil, I was wrongfully detained,” he wrote. “Stripped of my rights, treated like I didn’t belong and locked away — all as an American citizen and a veteran … if it can happen to me, it can happen to any one of us.”
Homeland Security officials did not respond to a request for comment or answer questions about their claim of assault.
Previously, an unnamed spokesperson for Homeland Security said he was released without a charge, and his case was being reviewed, along with others, “for potential federal charges related to the execution of the federal search warrant in Camarillo.”
A day after Retes’ opinion piece was published, the agency said Retes “became violent and refused to comply with law enforcement. He challenged agents and blocked their route by refusing to move his vehicle out of the road. CBP arrested Retes for assault.”
The agency denied that U.S. citizens were being wrongfully arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The post stated that operations were “highly targeted.”
“This kind of garbage has led to a more than 1000% increase in the assaults on enforcement officers,” the agency said.
Retes said he was astounded to learn the agency’s latest claims about July 10 — moments that were captured on video. He says DHS officials are lying.
“I was in shock,” he said. The agency had “an opportunity to say ‘OK, what we did was wrong, we’ll take responsibility.’ … It’s crazy that they’re willing to stand 10 toes down and die on a hill of lying and say I assaulted officers.”
Anya Bidwell, his attorney and senior attorney at the Institute for Justice, said it is significant that the government chose to respond only after his piece was published.
“When people in this country stand up to this government, this government responds with fury,” Bidwell said. “They’re trying to impose their own version of reality. It’s so important for people like George to say, ‘I know who I am and I know what happened to me, you can’t just frame it as something that it’s not.’”
In an aerial video that captured the initial confrontation, Retes is seen driving up to the line of agents. He steps outside of his car and remains by the driver side as he tries to reason with the agents. About 20 seconds later, he gets back in his car as the agents press forward. Within seconds they surround his car, at the same time pressing protesters back as they begin to lob tear gas canisters.
Inside his car, Retes starts to record on his phone. He’s backing up slowly, at an angle, until tear gas makes difficult to see where he’s going, he said.
“I’m trying to leave!” he says as agents bang on his car. There’s a loud crack as they break his car glass window. “OK I’m sorry!”
The agents pepper-spray him and detain him. One video posted online shows a group of agents surrounding Retes, who is face down on the road. Another agent hops in his car and drives it forward and off to the side of the road.
Retes said one agent knelt on his neck and another on his back. He was taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles, and he was kept in a cell with a protester who was also arrested. While in jail, he said, he missed his daughter’s third birthday.
After he was released, Retes said he was suspended from his job without pay for two weeks because of the arrest, and when he came back, his regular shifts were no longer available. Staying on would make it difficult to see his family, so he had to leave, he said.
He also had to spend about $1,200 getting his car window fixed and detailed from the tear gas, he said.
Despite the Trump administration’s actions, Retes said his faith in the government and accountability for justice remains steady. Just like when he joined the Army, he said, he still hangs on to a sense of unity to stand up for the country’s values.
“I still believe justice can be restored — that’s why I’m standing up and speaking out,” he said. “I think it’s important now more than ever for us to be unified and standing up for our rights together. Especially when they have the audacity to try to lie, especially to the public.”
SHAUN MURPHY has accused Ronnie O’Sullivan of verbally abusing him when he was just 12.
The pair have shared centre stage in the sport for years and forged one of snooker’s greatest rivalries of all time.
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It has led to plenty of competition and verbal back and forths away from the table too – despite mutual respect between them.
But Murphy has claimed the feud began when they were just young lads.
He told David Hendon for the book Pots of Gold: A History of Snooker: “We fell out when I was young.
“Ronnie verbally abused me when I was 12 and I never forgave him. I vividly remember it.
“I still have immense respect for his levels of play as a snooker player. I watch in awe at the things he’s able to do, because I know how hard it is.
“His ability as a player is completely unmatched.”
O’Sullivan is yet to respond to the accusation.
Murphy, who at 43 is six years younger than the Rocket, has only gone head-to-head with his great rival once in the last five years.
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They played each other in the semi-finals of the 2024 Masters – with O’Sullivan winning 6-2.
Murphy says O’Sullivan could have done more to be an ambassador for snooker – like Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic are for tennis.
He said: “One of the reasons I idolised Steve Davis so much was I was brought up in a world where being the greatest meant a lot more than how good you were at playing snooker, and unfortunately, for all of the good things Ronnie has done in terms of his snooker ability, I think he’s done an equal amount of, if not more, damage to the sport from an ambassadorial point of view.
“I think it’s such a shame that he hasn’t done for snooker in his ambassadorial position the things that people he says he looks up to – like Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic – have done, that he hasn’t taken a leaf out of their book and treated the sport that’s given him so much the same level of respect.
“If he had used his platform for good, he could have single-handedly dragged snooker into a different stratosphere in terms of popularity. He could have made us much more mainstream.”
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Ex-Labour MP Zarah Sultana has accused Jeremy Corbyn and other members of a new left-wing party of “baseless attacks” on her character and said she is consulting lawyers.
It follows an email sent to supporters inviting them to sign up for membership of the new party at the cost of £5 a month or £55 a year.
Sultana had posted on social media encouraging people to join and claiming more than 20,000 people had done so.
But ex-Labour leader Corbyn posted a statement signed by four other independent MPs involved in the party in which he claimed the emails were “unauthorised” and said any direct debits set up should be “immediately cancelled”. Corbyn declined to comment on Sultana’s latest claims.
The row over the membership portal has revealed deep splits in the fledgling party, which was launched in July and is due to hold its founding conference in November.
Members will vote on its official name but it is currently using “Your Party” in campaign material.
On Thursday, Sultana described Corbyn and others as running a “sexist boys’ club” and claimed she had been sidelined by other members of the party’s working group.
She said the membership portal was “in line with the road map set out to members”.
The party said it had referred the matter to the UK’s data protection watchdog.
In a statement posted on X on Friday night, Sultana said that “a number of false and defamatory statements have been published about me concerning the launch of Your Party’s membership portal”.
The Coventry South MP said that they were “baseless attacks on my character are politically-motivated and I intend to hold to account those responsible for making them”.
“To that end, I have this evening instructed specialist defamation lawyers,” she added.
Sultana said that at “no point was members’ data misused or put at risk” and that “all funds received from members were ringfenced and protected in the appropriate manner”.
A spokesperson for Hamas says Israel is trying to derail ceasefire talks by targeting its leaders in Qatar on Tuesday.
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Israeli forces killed more than 70 people in Gaza on Wednesday and launched deadly attacks on Yemen after earlier strikes on Hamas delegation in Doha, Qatar.
Published On 11 Sep 202511 Sep 2025
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SACRAMENTO — A Riverside County lawmaker accused of driving drunk after a car crash, but cleared by a blood test, took the first step Monday toward suing the Sacramento Police Department, saying officers had tarnished her reputation.
After Sen. Sabrina Cervantes (D-Riverside) was broadsided by an SUV near the Capitol in May, Sacramento police interviewed the 37-year-old lawmaker for hours at a Kaiser Permanente hospital before citing her on suspicion of driving under the influence. Prosecutors declined to file charges after the toxicology results of a blood test revealed no “measurable amount of alcohol or drugs.”
In an 11-page filing Monday, Cervantes alleged that officers had retaliated against her over a bill that would sharply curtail how police can store data gathered by automated license plate readers, a proposal opposed by more than a dozen law enforcement agencies.
The filing also alleges that the police treated Cervantes, who is gay and Latina, differently than the white woman driver who ran a stop sign and broadsided her car.
“This is not only about what happened to me — it’s about accountability,” Cervantes said in a prepared statement. “No Californian should be falsely arrested, defamed, or retaliated against because of who they are or what they stand for.”
Cervantes, a first-year state senator, has said since the crash that she did nothing wrong. She represents the 31st Senate District, which covers portions of Riverside and San Bernardino counties, and chairs the Senate elections committee.
Cervantes’ lawyer, James Quadra, said the Sacramento police had tried to “destroy the reputation of an exemplary member of the state Senate,” and that the department’s “egregious misconduct” includes false arrest, intentional infliction of emotional distress and defamation.
A representative for the Sacramento Police Department declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
After news broke of the crash, the Sacramento Police Department told reporters that they had “observed objective signs of intoxication” after speaking to Cervantes at the hospital. She said in her filing that the police had asked her to conduct a test gauging her eyes’ reaction to stimulus, a “less accurate and subjective test” than the blood test she requested.
The toxicology screen had “completely exonerated” Cervantes, the filing said, but the police department had already “released false information to the press claiming that Senator Cervantes had driven while under the influence of drugs.”
The filing alleges that one police officer turned off his body camera for about five minutes while answering a call on his cell phone. The filing also said that the department failed to produce body camera footage from a sergeant who also came to the hospital.
An unofficial tribunal led by former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn accused the UK of aiding Israel’s war crimes and being complicit in genocide. Its findings carry no legal weight, but the testimonies of those who witnessed the suffering in Gaza have been stark.
Published On 5 Sep 20255 Sep 2025
Sept. 3 (UPI) — Florida-based Newsmax Broadcasting accuses Fox News and its owner of anti-competitive behavior to monopolize “right-leaning” news in a federal lawsuit filed on Wednesday.
The lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for Southern Florida names Fox Corp. and New News Network as defendants and accuses them of violating the Sherman Act, the Florida Antitrust Act and the Florida Deceptive & Unfair Trade Practices Act.
The “Fox Corporation has long engaged in an exclusionary scheme to increase and maintain its dominance in the market for U.S. right-leaning pay TV news, resulting in suppression of competition in that market that harms consumers, competition and Newsmax Broadcasting,” Newsmax says.
Fox News Network “operates the Fox News Channel — the cable news network with the highest viewership in the United States,” Newsmax officials argue.
“Fox’s control over this must-have news channel gives it significant market power and leverage to impose onerous demands on distributors of its content,” the federal lawsuit says.
Newsmax claims Fox News uses at least three anti-competitive tactics to thwart competition within its market niche.
The network allegedly requires cable and streaming providers to not carry other right-leaning news channels, such as Newsmax.
Newsmax also says the Fox Corp. “imposes financial penalties on distributors” if they carry Newsmax of others by requiring them to carry and pay “high fees” for “little-watched channels like Fox Business.”
The Fox Corp. also allegedly “inserts a suite of other contractual barriers” that prevent Newsmax and others from competing with Fox News, Newsmax says.
Newsmax seeks a court ruling that affirms Fox News engages in illegal anti-competitive behavior and a financial penalty that is equal to three times the amount of damages sustained by Newsmax, plus interest and legal costs.
Newsmax also seeks a permanent injunction “prohibiting Fox’s exclusionary agreements” and any future exclusionary acts.
Fox News Media officials denied engaging in any illegal and anti-competitive acts in a statement shared with UPI.
“Newsmax cannot sue their way out of their own competitive failures in the marketplace to chase headlines simply because they can’t attract viewers,” Fox News Media said.
Nielsen Media Research data shows Newsmax was carried by 84% of television news distribution services in August, while Fox News was carried by about 94%.
Newsmax’s distribution ranked ahead of CNBC, 75%, and slightly behind MSNBC, 86%, according to Nielsen.
CNN and NewsNation each were carried by 92% of cable and streaming television service providers.
Sept. 1 (UPI) — The International Association of Genocide Scholars on Sunday passed a resolution accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, which Israeli officials deny.
The IAGS resolution cites U.N. statistics that claim more than 59,000 adults and children have died in Gaza without citing how many are Hamas casualties and not civilian casualties.
“The government of Israel has engaged in systemic and widespread crimes against humanity, including indiscriminate and deliberate attacks against the civilians and civilian infrastructure of Gaza,” the IAGS resolution says.
“These crimes are estimated to have left many thousands of people buried under the rubble or otherwise inaccessible and most probably dead.”
Alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity
The IAGS accuses the Israeli government of torture, arbitrary detention and sexual and reproductive violence, including “deliberate attacks on medical professionals, humanitarian aid workers and journalists.
It also says Israel deliberately has deprived Gazans of food, water, medicine and electrical services that are necessary for survival.
The IAGS resolution says Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza “constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in Gaza.”
It calls on the Israeli government to immediately end all acts that “constitute genocide and war crimes.”
The IAGS also wants the International Criminal Court to surrender any individuals who are subject to arrest warrants, which would include Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The IAGS describes itself as a “global, interdisciplinary, non-partisan organization that seeks to further research and teaching about the nature, causes and consequences of genocide and advance policy studies on genocide prevention.”
Israeli government denies genocide accusation
“The statement of the International Association of Genocide Scholars is an embarrassment to the legal profession and to any academic standard,” officials for Israel’s Foreign Ministry said in a post on X on Saturday night.
“It is entirely based on Hamas’s campaign of lies and the laundering of those lies by others,” the Israeli officials continued.
“Above all, the IAGS has set a historic precedent — for the first time, ‘Genocide Scholars’ accuse the very victim of genocide.”
Netanyahu denied allegations of genocide during a 2024 address to Congress and said Hamas uses civilians as human shields in violation of international law.
Israel drops leaflets and sends texts in locations targeted for military action to warn civilians to leave, but Hamas won’t let them leave or seek shelter in its extensive tunnel system beneath Gaza, he said.
“They even shoot their own people when they try to get out of the way,” Netanyahu told the joint session of Congress. “They want Palestinian civilians to die.”
He also accused Hamas of stealing humanitarian aid intended for civilians.
The prime minister said the Israeli military has the lowest combatant-to-non-combatant casualty ratio in military history.
Hamas accused of falsifying casualty data
Tablet Magazine in March 2024 reported that the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry distributes false casualty figures.
A statistical analysis of casualty reports showed relatively little change in the numbers of women and children reported dead, instead of wide variations.
Soon after Tablet published its report, the United Nations revised down its estimates of women and children killed from 69% to 52%.
The Gaza Health Ministry does not distinguish between Hamas casualties and those of Gazan civilians.
The United Nations also acknowledged it had incomplete information and adjusted down its reports of deaths among women and children in Gaza, the BBC reported.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says Australia will also designate the IRGC as a ‘terrorist entity’.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has accused Iran of directing at least two anti-Jewish attacks in his country and announced plans to expel Iran’s ambassador to Canberra.
Speaking to reporters in the Australian capital on Tuesday, Albanese described the attacks as attempts to undermine social cohesion and sow discord in Australia.
“It is totally unacceptable, and the Australian government is taking strong and decisive action,” he said. “A short time ago, we informed the Iranian ambassador to Australia that he will be expelled.”
The prime minister said Australia has also suspended operations at its embassy in the Iranian capital, Tehran, and moved all of its diplomats to a third country.
“I can also announce the government will legislate to list Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, as a terrorist organisation,” he added.
The attacks took place last year, at the Lewis Continental Kitchen in Sydney on October 10 and the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne on December 6, according to Australian officials.
Penny Wong, the Australian foreign minister, said the Iranian ambassador, Ahmad Sadeghi, and three of his colleagues have been declared persona non grata and given seven days to leave the country. She said the move marked the first time that Australia has expelled an ambassador since World War II and that the country has also withdrawn its envoy to Tehran.
Still, the Albanese government will maintain some diplomatic lines with Iran to advance Canberra’s interests, Wong said, advising Australians in the Middle Eastern country to return home. She also warned Australians considering travelling to Iran to refrain from doing so.
More soon.
Costa Rica’s President Rodrigo Chaves appears in a Legislative Assembly committee Friday in San Jose to present his arguments regarding criminal charges of alleged irregular handling of funds. Photo by Alexander Otarola/EPA
Aug. 25 (UPI) — A special congressional committee in Costa Rica is reviewing a request to lift President Rodrigo Chaves’ immunity, putting the executive branch and judiciary at odds.
Tensions between the two institutions escalated Friday after Chaves appeared before the committee, where he denied corruption charges and denounced the investigation by the National Prosecutor’s Office as a “setup” and a “judicial coup attempt.”
The more than four-hour session — broadcast live — marked an unprecedented moment: it was the first time a sitting president testified before lawmakers in a process to lift immunity.
Criticizing the judiciary’s role in the case brought by Attorney General Carlo Díaz, President Chaves told the committee the accusation had roots in the early days of his administration, when “I showed the people the responsibility of the judiciary and of legislative policy in the deep deterioration of our society.”
The case against President Chaves began after the Supreme Court asked Congress on July 1 to remove his immunity over an investigation tied to funds from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration. Prosecutors say Chaves intervened so that part of those funds — $32,000 — went to one of his advisers through a communications services contract.
The other side of the institutional clash came before and after the hearing. On Aug. 8, Attorney General Carlo Díaz told the same committee the case is backed by witness testimony and documents, evidence he said was sufficient to bring an indictment and request a trial.
Díaz said the case had gone through several internal reviews within the judiciary to ensure the accusation “is not seen as one branch attacking another.”
In a press release, Supreme Court President Orlando Aguirre Gómez rejected claims that the proceedings against the president amounted to a so-called “judicial coup.”
Aguirre defended the independence of the judiciary and the transparency with which the case has been handled. He stressed that every step in the process has followed the law and been carried out independently, without political pressure or private interests.
He also urged the public to be critical of rhetoric intended to mislead and reiterated that Costa Rica’s institutional strength rests on respect among branches of government and confidence in the justice system.
The special congressional committee also made its role clear: not to judge the merits of the case, but to decide whether there is sufficient basis to lift a sitting president’s immunity and bring him to trial.
Russia has accused Ukraine of carrying out a drone attack on a nuclear plant that has caused a fire and damage to an auxiliary transformer as Ukraine celebrates its Independence Day for the 34th time.
Sunday’s attack forced a 50 percent reduction in the operating capacity at reactor number three at the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), close to the border with Ukraine, according to Russian officials, who added that several power and energy facilities were targeted in the overnight strikes.
The fire at the nuclear facility was quickly extinguished with no injuries reported, the plant’s news service said on Telegram. Two other reactors are operating without power generation, and one is undergoing scheduled repairs, it said, adding that radiation levels were normal.
Alexander Khinshtein, the Kursk region’s acting governor, said Ukrainian attacks on the plant, 60km (38 miles) from the Russia-Ukraine border, “are a threat to nuclear safety and a violation of all international conventions”.
The United Nations nuclear watchdog on Sunday confirmed normal radiation levels near the nuclear plant.
“Monitoring confirms normal radiation levels near Kursk NPP,” the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a post on X.
Russia and Ukraine have also accused each other of attacks on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in southeastern Ukraine and warned they could trigger a nuclear accident. The nuclear plant – Europe’s biggest – is under Russian control.
In western Russia’s Leningrad region, firefighters responded to a blaze at the port of Ust-Luga, home to a major fuel export terminal. The regional governor said about 10 Ukrainian drones were shot down and the debris ignited the fire.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its air defences intercepted a total of 95 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory overnight into Sunday.
Russia fired 72 drones and decoys along with a cruise missile into Ukraine in the same time period, Ukraine’s air force said. Of these, 48 drones were shot down or jammed, it said.
The incidents occurred as Ukraine marked its Independence
Day, commemorating its 1991 declaration of independence from the Soviet Union. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered remarks in a video address from Kyiv’s Independence Square, emphasising the nation’s resolve.
“We are building a Ukraine that will have enough strength and power to live in security and peace,” Zelenskyy said while calling for a “just peace”.
“What our future will be is up to us alone,” he said in a nod to the United States-Russia summit in Alaska this month, which many feared would leave Ukrainian and European interests sidelined.
“The world knows this. And the world respects this. It respects Ukraine. It perceives Ukraine as an equal,” he said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov slammed Zelenskyy for “obstinately insisting, setting conditions, demanding an immediate meeting at all costs” with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Lavrov also accused Ukrainian authorities of “attempts to disrupt the process that was laid down by Presidents Putin and [Donald] Trump [of the US], which has yielded very good results”.
“We hope that these attempts will be thwarted,” he said, accusing Western countries of trying to “block” peace negotiations to end the Ukraine conflict after a flurry of diplomatic activity appeared to stall.
On Friday, Lavrov said “no meeting” between Zelenskyy and Putin was planned. The Trump administration has been making efforts to organise a meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin to find a solution to the war.
Amid the diplomatic efforts, fighting continued on the front lines in eastern Ukraine, where Russia claimed on Saturday that its forces had seized two villages in the Donetsk region.
Meanwhile, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney arrived in Kyiv on Sunday morning for meetings with Zelenskyy.
“On this special day – Ukraine’s Independence Day – it is especially important for us to feel the support of our friends, and Canada has always stood by our side,” Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, said.
Norway announced significant new military aid on Sunday, pledging about 7 billion kroner ($695m) for air defence systems.
Pyongyang claims South Korea’s army fired more than 10 warning shots from a machinegun towards North Korean troops.
North Korea has accused South Korean forces of firing warning shots earlier this week at its soldiers who were part of a border reinforcement project, warning Seoul that its actions risked raising tensions to “uncontrollable” levels.
In a report published on Saturday, Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted the North ‘s Korean People’s Army Vice Chief of the General Staff Ko Jong Chol as saying that the South should stop its “premeditated and deliberate” provocation, which he described as “inciting military conflict”.
Calling the incident a “serious provocation”, Ko said the South Korean military fired more than 10 warning shots towards North Korean troops.
“This is a very serious prelude that would inevitably drive the situation in the southern border area, where a huge number of forces are stationing, in confrontation with each other, to the uncontrollable phase,” Ko said.
The incident took place on Tuesday as North Korean soldiers were working to permanently seal the heavily fortified border that divides the peninsula, state media outlet KCNA said, citing a statement from Ko.
South Korea did not immediately comment on the reported encounter, and the country’s official news agency, Yonhap, reported that it had no immediate confirmation from officials in Seoul on Pyongyang’s claim.
The reported firing of warning shots is only the latest confrontation between North and South Korean forces, which have been at odds for decades over the heavily guarded border that divides both nations.
The last border clash between the archrivals was in early April when South Korea’s military fired warning shots after a group of 10 North Korean soldiers briefly crossed the border.
Those troops were spotted in the Demilitarized Zone between the two countries, parts of which are heavily mined and overgrown.
In more recent months, South Korea has been taking steps to ease border tensions following the election of President Lee Jae-myung in June.
North Korea’s army announced last October that it was moving to totally shut off the southern border, saying it had sent a telephone message to United States forces based in South Korea to “prevent any misjudgement and accidental conflict”.
Shortly after its announcement, it blew up sections of the unused but deeply symbolic cross-border roads and railway tracks that had once connected the North and South.
Ko, in the statement published by state media, warned that North Korea’s army would retaliate to any interference with its efforts to permanently seal the border.
“If the act of restraining or obstructing the project unrelated to the military character persists, our army will regard it as deliberate military provocation and take corresponding countermeasure,” he said.
Last year, North Korea sent thousands of rubbish-carrying balloons southwards, saying they were retaliation for anti-North Korean propaganda balloons sent by South Korean activists.
Later, Seoul turned on border loudspeaker broadcasts for the first time in six years, which included K-pop tunes and international news. Pyongyang responded by blaring strange sounds along the frontier, unsettling South Korean residents.
Seoul has since turned off the loudspeaker broadcasts following orders from newly elected President Lee.
The former Los Angeles fire chief filed a legal claim against the city Wednesday, alleging that Mayor Karen Bass “orchestrated a campaign of misinformation, defamation, and retaliation” to protect her political image after the most destructive wildfire in city history.
Kristin Crowley and her lawyers accuse Bass of ousting her, and repeatedly defaming Crowley as Bass sought to shift blame for the way the city handled the catastrophic Palisades Fire “while concealing the extent to which she undermined public safety” with cuts to the fire department’s budget.
The legal claim alleges that Bass scapegoated Crowley amid mounting criticism of the mayor’s decision to attend a ceremony in Ghana on Jan. 7, when the fire erupted. Bass left Los Angeles despite her knowing of the potential severe winds and deadly fire danger, the claim alleges.
“As the Fire Chief, for nearly three years, I advocated for the proper funding, staffing and infrastructure upgrades to better support and protect our Firefighters, and by extension, our communities,” Crowley said in a statement to The Times. “The lies, deceit, exaggerations and misrepresentations need to be addressed with the only thing that can refute them — the true facts.”
Bass and the city had yet to respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Crowley’s lawyers say Bass “initially praised the department’s preparedness” and even portrayed the response positively. “But as criticism mounted over her absence, Bass reversed course,” the legal claim said. “She sought to shift blame to Crowley, falsely stating that Bass was not aware of the nationally anticipated weather event, that Crowley sent 1,000 firefighters home who could have fought the blaze, and misrepresenting the department’s budget…”
Bass removed Crowley on Feb. 21, six weeks after the firestorm that consumed Pacific Palisades, killing 12 people and destroying nearly 7,000 homes.
The mayor said she was demoting Crowley for failing to inform her about the dangerous conditions or to activate hundreds of firefighters ahead of the blaze. She also said Crowley rebuffed a request to prepare a report on the fires — a critical part of ongoing investigations into the cause of the fire and the city’s response.
According to her lawyers, Crowley had “repeatedly warned of the LAFD’s worsening resource and staffing crisis,” prior to the fire, and warned that “aging infrastructure, surging emergency calls, and shrinking staff left the city at risk.”
In the 23-page claim, Crowley said Bass cut the department’s operating budget by nearly $18 million that year and “eliminated positions critical to maintaining fire engines, trucks, and ambulances.”
After Crowley complained publicly that the budget cuts had “weakened the department’s readiness, Bass retaliated,” the lawyers allege. On Jan 10, after Crowley told FOX LA, “we are screaming to be properly funded,” Bass called her to the mayor’s office.
“I don’t know why you had to do that; normally we are on the same page, and I don’t know why you had to say stuff to the media,” the lawyers say Bass told the chief, but said she wasn’t fired.
The next day, retired Chief Deputy Ronnie Villanueva began working at the Emergency Operations Center, donning a Mayor’s office badge. Then Feb. 3, 2025, two weeks before Chief Crowley was removed from her position, Villanueva wrote a Report to the Board of Fire Commissioners identifying himself as Interim Fire Chief” — a position he now holds.
Crowley was eventually ousted and put on leave. Her lawyers allege Bass’s public accusation at the time that Crowley refused to participate in an after action report of the Palisades fire after being asked to by the Fire Commission President Genethia Hayes, a Bass appointee — was blatantly false and she was never asked.
A legal claim is a precursor to a civil lawsuit, and is required by California law when suing a government entity. In her claim, Crowley alleges Bass and her subordinates have conducted a “public smear campaign aimed at discrediting Crowley’s character and decades of service,” following her dismissal.
Crowley’s attorneys, Genie Harrison and Mia Munro, allege that Bass and others in her administration defamed Crowley, retaliated against her in violation of California’s labor code and violated Crowley’s First Amendment rights. Crowley is seeking unspecified damages above $25,000.
Harrison, who has represented numerous victims of Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, said Crowley’s claim “presents her extensive advocacy efforts to obtain the funding and resources the LAFD needed to fulfill its public safety mission. It also shows Mayor Bass’ repeated refusals to provide those resources.”
Bass made the assertion about the failed deployment after an investigation by The Times found that Fire Department officials could have ordered about 1,000 firefighters to remain on duty as winds were building but opted against it. The move would have doubled the firefighting force on hand when fire broke out.
But Crowley and her lawyers say in the legal claim the “LAFD did not have sufficient operating emergency vehicles to safely and effectively pre-deploy 1,000 (or anywhere near 1,000) additional firefighters on January 7.” In simple terms, the department did not have the money or personnel “to repair and maintain emergency fire engines, fire trucks, and ambulances,” the claim alleges.
The Times investigation found the department had more than 40 engines available to battle wildfires, but fire officials staffed only five of them.
Crowley’s lawyers dispute that in the claim. They say “the LAFD staffed all its front-line fire engines (including all the 40 engines that Bass later falsely stated sat “idle.”
Aug. 20 (UPI) — Defense attorneys for Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who the Trump administration wrongly deported to El Salvador this spring and then brought human trafficking charges against him once he returned to the United States, are accusing the Justice Department of vindictively prosecuting their client.
In a motion filed Tuesday, Abrego Garcia’s defense is asking the court to dismiss the charges brought against the 30-year-old Salvadoran national is punishment for him standing up to the Trump administration.
“Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been singled out by the United States government. It is obvious why. And it is not because of the seriousness of his alleged conduct. Nor is it because he poses some unique threat to this country. Instead, Mr. Abrego was charged because he refused to acquiesce in the government’s violation of his due process rights,” Abrego Garcia’s lawyers said in the motion.
Abrego Garcia, a resident of Maryland who is married to a U.S. citizen, was arrested amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration as part of its mass deportation plans. Despite a court order prohibiting his removal, he was deported to El Salvador in March and incarcerated in the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center, where he said he was subjected to torture.
Abrego Garcia then challenged his removal in court, prompting the Trump administration to try and label him a gang member in public, while admitting in court it wrongly deported the immigrant.
He was returned to the United States in June, but only after he was charged with human smuggling by the Justice Department.
In the filing, his lawyers accused the Trump administration of conducting “a public campaign to punish Mr. Abrego for daring to fight back, culminating in the criminal investigation that led to the charges in this case.”
His lawyers point to comments from senior Trump administration officials, as well as President Donald Trump, calling him a criminal following his win in court that secured his return to the United States but before he was charged as proof of the White House’s vindictiveness.
“The government’s motive has been to paint Mr. Abrego as a criminal in order to punish him for challenging his removal, to avoid the embarrassment of accepting responsibility for its unlawful conduct and to shift public opinion around Mr. Abrego’s removal, including ‘mounting concerns’ with the government’s compliance with court orders,” they said in the filing.
The Justice Department’s case against Abrego Garcia stems from a November 2022 traffic stop in Putnam County, Tenn. Nine passengers were in the vehicle with him when stopped, but he was allowed to continue on his way, not even receiving a traffic ticket.
The government alleges he was the driver in a human smuggling conspiracy, and his defense argues that the Trump administration “has gone to extreme lengths” to make its criminal case.
His lawyers in the filing state that they have tried to secure the cooperation of multiple alleged conspirators who have already been sentenced to testify against Abrego Garcia, with its so-called star witness being a convicted leader of a human smuggling business with three felony convictions and who has been deported from the United States five times.
According to the filing, the Justice Department arranged for this alleged co-conspirator to be released early from a 30-month sentence to a halfway house to cooperate against Abrego Garcia, while relatives or those in relationship with this person also appear to be provided with “similar benefits” for providing corroborating testimony.
In the filing Tuesday, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers argue that nothing had changed in the three years since the traffic stop, except for the government wrongly deporting him to El Salvador and that he challenged his deportation.
“As a matter of timing, it is clear that it was that lawsuit — and its effects on the government — that prompted the government to re-evaluate the 2022 traffic stop and bring this case,” the filing states.
“[N]o similarly situated defendant — an alleged driver in an alien smuggling conspiracy — has ever had to wait two and a half years to be charged with a crime where the facts had not changed since the stop itself.”
His defense alleges that the only explanation for the timing of the charges is that the government has chosen to punish him for fighting his deportation.
Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty.
Israel’s prime minister accused his Australian counterpart of having “betrayed Israel” and “abandoned” Australia’s Jewish community, after days of growing strain between the two countries.
Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that history would remember Anthony Albanese “for what he is: a weak politician”.
Australia barred a far-right member of Netanyahu’s ruling coalition from entering the country on Monday, and Israel in turn revoked the visas of Australian representatives to the Palestinian Authority.
Australian Immigration Minister Tony Burke said Netanyahu was “lashing out” in response to Canberra recently announcing it would join the UK, France and Canada in recognising a Palestinian state.
“Strength is not measured by how many people you can blow up or how many people you can leave hungry,” Burke told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Wednesday.
Israel’s opposition leader criticised Netanyahu’s remarks, branding them a “gift” to the Australian leader.
Yair Lapid wrote on X: “The thing that most strengthens a leader in the democratic world today is a confrontation with Netanyahu, the most politically toxic leader in the Western world.
“It is unclear why Bibi is rushing to give the Prime Minister of Australia this gift.”
Diplomatic tensions flared on Monday after far-right Israeli politician Simcha Rothman’s Australian visa was cancelled ahead of a visit to the country, where he had been due to speak at events organised by the Australian Jewish Association (AJA).
Burke told local media at the time the government took “a hard line” on people seeking to “spread division”.
“If you are coming to Australia to spread a message of hate and division, we don’t want you here,” he said.
Last year, Burke also denied a visa to Israel’s former justice minister Ayelet Shaked, a right-wing politician who left parliament in 2022.
A few hours after the revocation of Rothman’s visa was announced, Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Gideon Sa’ar said he had instructed the Israeli Embassy in Canberra to “carefully examine any official Australian visa application for entry to Israel”.
He added in a post on X: “While antisemitism is raging in Australia, including manifestations of violence against Jews and Jewish institutions, the Australian government is choosing to fuel it”.
In recent months, there have been a string of antisemitic attacks in Australia – which is home to one of the world’s largest populations of Holocaust survivors per capita.
On Tuesday, the AJA said Rothman would still appear at their speaking event virtually.
“The Jewish community won’t bow down to Tony Burke or [Foreign Minister] Penny Wong,” it said in a social media post.
Australia announced in early August that it would recognise a Palestinian state, with Prime Minister Albanese saying at the time that Netanyahu was “in denial” about the consequences of the war on innocent people.
“The stopping of aid that we’ve seen and then the loss of life that we’re seeing around those aid distribution points, where people queuing for food and water are losing their lives, is just completely unacceptable,” he said.
The state of Palestine is currently recognised by 147 of the UN’s 193 member states, and Australia’s announcement came about two weeks after similar moves by the UK, France and Canada.
In response, Netanyahu launched a scathing attack on the leaders of the three countries, accusing Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Mark Carney of siding with “mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers”.
More than 62,004 people have been killed as a result of Israel’s military campaign since 7 October, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Israel launched the offensive in response to the Hamas-led attack on 7 October, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
