France requests UN Security Council meeting over Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, as Iran says talks with US continue.
Published On 1 Jun 20261 Jun 2026
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Both the US and Iran have recently signaled progress on efforts to reach a deal to end their conflict, though their accounts of its terms differ on some issues across respective media narratives, Anadolu reports.
US President Donald Trump on Saturday said an agreement with Iran to end the war was “largely negotiated” and awaited finalization.
On Sunday morning, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency also published a report on the details of a potential agreement. However, certain aspects of what has been agreed seem to diverge.
Here is a comparison of the US and Iranian versions of the deal by key issues.
Strait of Hormuz
Citing a US official, Axios said the deal that Washington and Tehran are close to signing would extend a ceasefire by 60 days, during which the Strait of Hormuz would be reopened.
During the 60-day period, the Strait of Hormuz would be opened without any tolls, and Iran would remove the mines it has placed there to ensure unrestricted maritime passage.
In return, Washington would lift its blockade on Iranian ports, added the report.
The New York Times also said it was informed by three senior Iranian officials that Tehran had agreed to a memorandum of understanding to halt fighting and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also said on Sunday that the agreement could, if successful, result in a “completely open” Strait of Hormuz, with no tolls or restrictions on passage.
“They don’t own it. It’s an international waterway,” Rubio told reporters of the strait, in remarks that came during his visit to India.
A report by Iran’s semi-official news agency Tasnim, however, said that the Strait of Hormuz will not fully return to its pre-war status if the agreement is reached.
Instead, the number of ships allowed to pass would be restored to pre-war levels within 30 days, the outlet added.
Tehran also demands an end to the US blockade on its ports, arguing that no changes will be made in the strait if the blockade remains in place.
For its part, the US argues that the quicker Iran removes the mines and allows shipping to resume, the sooner the blockade will be lifted.
READ: Iran ready to reassure world it is not pursuing nuclear weapons, president says
Sanctions relief and release of frozen Iranian assets
Iran was seeking the immediate unfreezing of funds and a permanent lifting of sanctions, but the US position indicates these measures would only be granted after Iran made concrete concessions, according to the Axios report.
As part of the proposed 60-day agreement, the US is offering temporary sanctions waivers that would allow Iran to sell its oil freely. These waivers are explicitly linked to Iran reopening the Strait of Hormuz, removing mines, and ending restrictions on maritime traffic. Once these steps are taken, Washington would also lift its naval blockade on Iranian ports.
Tehran, however, says no agreement will be reached unless at least a portion of the frozen Iranian assets is released immediately. Iranian media confirmed the discussion of temporary oil sanctions waivers in the latest US proposal but insisted on broader and more permanent sanctions relief.
Nuclear file
The Axios report said the draft deal includes commitments from Iran not to pursue nuclear weapons, along with provisions to negotiate a suspension of uranium enrichment and the removal of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.
The Iranian media reports, however, indicate that Tehran has not yet accepted anything on its nuclear program.
A potential deal would involve a 60-day negotiation window on Iran’s nuclear program, according to Tasnim.
Extent of ceasefire
Both US and Iranian media reports suggest that the cessation of hostilities would mean a halt to fighting on all fronts, including Lebanon.
This was also highlighted by Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei on Saturday, when he said Tehran was prioritizing an end to hostilities across all fronts, including Lebanon.
Context
Regional tensions have escalated since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran in February. Tehran retaliated with strikes targeting Israel, as well as US allies in the Gulf, along with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
A ceasefire took effect on April 8 through Pakistani mediation and was later extended by Trump indefinitely. Washington and Tehran also held rare direct talks in the Pakistani capital Islamabad on April 11-12, but have failed to reach an agreement.
Trump’s Saturday remarks came after Pakistani army chief Asim Munir’s visit to Tehran. The visit was the second of its kind in recent weeks, as Munir is directly involved in Islamabad’s mediation efforts.
READ: Trump says Iran talks ‘constructive’ but blockade will remain until final deal is reached
Netflix’s latest worldwide wager is a menu of programming designed to feed the building fútbol frenzy that will explode in mid-June, when the FIFA World Cup begins. They might even win some Stateside converts ahead of the platform’s presentation of the CONCACAF Gold Cup and Nations League finals in 2027 and 2029.
“We say our goal is to entertain the world; in order to [do that], we need to entertain every single country” where Netflix has a presence, says Francisco Ramos, the streamer’s vice president of original content, Latin America. “Our superpower is that we’re so deeply rooted into local storytelling, then that becomes global.
“Netflix is uniquely qualified at building global audiences” for international sports content, he says. “We are very conscious and deliberate about it.”
Not that original sports content is anything new for the streamer; its first-ever original international series, “Club de Cuervos,” was a Mexican dramedy about a soccer club. But this salvo is precision-guided to hit as about 5 billion viewers get hyped for the global tournament.
“Four years ago, during the World Cup, we launched [an Argentine] documentary called ‘Sean eternos: Campeones de América’ [‘Captains of the World’], and it was massive, and then Argentina ended up winning a few months later,” says Ramos. “Right now, as the World Cup arrives, it’s very passionate.”
It’s not just Latin America that’s being targeted with new programming: There’s a trio of documentaries about Jamie Vardy, Liverpool’s 2005 Champions League-winning team and footballer-turned-actor Vinnie Jones under the “Untold UK” banner; “Poldi,” on German superstar Lukas Podolski; and “The Bus: A French Football Mutiny,” about the national team’s rocky 2010 World Cup journey.
A scene from “USA ’94: Brazil’s Return to Glory.”
(Netflix)
For fans, the slate offers documentaries on landmark moments in Cup history (“USA ’94: Brazil’s Return to Glory”), superstar players (“Emi Martínez: The Kid Who Stops Time” and “James”) and even up-and-comers in a prestigious amateur tournament in Brazil (“The Root of the Game”).
But for the uninitiated, apart from the streamer’s FIFA soccer simulation game coming this summer, the gateway drug may be “Ronaldinho: The One and Only.” The doc spotlights one of the most improvisational and dynamic players ever, soccer’s Magic Johnson. The legendary attacking midfielder was a wizard on the pitch and a charisma machine off it.
“Ronaldinho retired from soccer [in 2018], and he’s still in the mainstream. He has 80 million followers on Instagram,” says Luis Ara, director of “Ronaldinho” and “USA ‘94.” “You have [superstars Lionel] Messi and Neymar [da Silva Santos Júnior] talking about him like he’s God.
“He was always so cool … for him, it was not only about winning a game; it was also about entertaining the people.”
Scripted offerings include the feature “Mexico ’86,” starring a wildly hustling Diego Luna. It’s a nasty comedy about the wheeling and dealing (and outright bribery) that landed Mexico the right to host its second World Cup. Non-soccer fans might enjoy the snarky dialogue and bare-knuckled machinations — it plays like a Spanish-language, soccer-themed “Succession” or “Marty Supreme.”
“Brazil ’70: The Third Star” is a miniseries about that country’s campaign to win a third World Cup, led by a name even non-fans know: Pelé. Rodrigo Santoro stars as Coach João Saldanha.
“Brazil was in the midst of the dictatorship; they had to somehow generate some sort of national pride,” says Ramos. “The only thing that unites Brazilians 100% is their team. It becomes this compelling thing about how society is so intertwined with sports, and how sports are so intertwined with politics in Latin America.”
Soccer superstar Ronaldinho Gaúcho is interviewed in the new Netflix documentary “Ronaldinho.”
(Netflix)
When soccer is the No. 1 sport in so many nations, why isn’t it bigger here?
It might have to do with the U.S. not having been a major player on the world stage, at least on the men’s side. The men’s team’s highest World Cup finish in the modern era is the quarterfinals in 2002, while U.S. women’s teams have won a record four World Cups. But the men have qualified for the tournament this year — which will be played partially in the States — and analysts say the team has improved, though they’re no one’s favorites to win it all.
Ramos says if American audiences stop seeing it as a competition between football and fútbol, they might come to appreciate soccer’s nuances.
“Take a look at the last 20 minutes of the World Cup four years ago, between France and Argentina. It’s the most extraordinary, beautiful art of people moving, and moving in extraordinary coordination. It’s like, the most-watched online thing ever.”
Beyond Netflix’s big bet on the World Cup slate, it’s not hard to get Ramos and Ara to make further wagers on this year’s tournament.
“Four teams have huge chances to win: Spain, France, Argentina and Brazil,” says Ara. “My heart is with Uruguay, but I don’t know if we’re gonna have a chance. Because of my bond with Brazil nowadays, I wish they could win again. A player once said to me, ‘Brazil is the second national team for any fútbol supporter.’ ”
“Oh my God, I will get in trouble,” says Ramos. “I’m Mexican, and it takes place in Mexico [and the U.S. and Canada], but … I’m gonna go with Argentina. My No. 2 would be Brazil.”
Aston Villa winger Morgan Rogers is a target for Arsenal and PSG, Real Madrid’s interest in Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice increases, Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson wants Juventus move.
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has set his sights on Aston Villa‘s England winger Morgan Rogers, 23, as he bids to build on their Premier League title success although Champions League winners Paris St-Germain are also interested. (Mirror), external
Key figures at Real Madrid’s recruitment team are urging the club to pursue a move for Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice having been impressed by the 27-year-old England international’s leadership, physicality and technical qualities. (Teamtalk), external
Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson, 33, plans to tell the club’s new manager that he wants to end his time at Anfield and join Juventus. (Gazzetta dello Sport – in Italian), external
Manchester United are closing in on an agreement to sign Brazilian midfielder Ederson, 26, from Atalanta for a fee of around £35m. (Talksport), external
Portugal midfielder Joao Palhinha, 30, does not want to make his loan from Bayern Munich to Tottenham a permanent one and will try to engineer a move to Sporting instead. (A Bola – in Portuguese), external
Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham, Liverpool and Newcastle are all interested in AC Milan’s Portuguese winger Rafael Leao with the 26-year-old keen to leave San Siro this summer. (Calciomercato – in Italian), external
Paris St-Germain have cooled their interest in Atletico Madrid forward Julian Alvarez but the 26-year-old Argentina international is still on the radar of Arsenal and Barcelona. (Mundo Deportivo – in Spanish), external
Manchester United defender Harry Maguire has been offered to Inter Milan but the Italian club do not see signing the 33-year-old Englishman as a priority. (Gazzetta dello Sport via Football Italia), external
Portugal midfielder Bernardo Silva, 31, is keen to join Barcelona with his contract at Manchester City set to expire imminently. (Mundo Deportivo – in Spanish), external
Brighton will face competition from Hoffenheim and Eintracht Frankfurt for the signature of Wolfsburg’s 25-year-old Austrian winger Patrick Wimmer. (Florian Plettenberg), external
Crystal Palace have held another round of talks with highly-rated Lens manager Pierre Sage. (Mail), external
Como boss Cesc Fabregas is happy with the Italian club despite links with coaching jobs elsewhere, including Real Madrid. (Sport – in Spanish), external
Department of Commerce issues guidance on chip restrictions amid concerns about loopholes in export control regime.
Published On 1 Jun 20261 Jun 2026
The United States has issued a notice affirming its restrictions on shipments of semiconductors to subsidiaries of Chinese companies located outside China amid concerns about loopholes in Washington’s export control regime.
The Department of Commerce said in the guidance issued on Sunday that its licensing requirements for the export of advanced AI chips applied to all businesses with headquarters or a parent company in China.
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The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), which falls under the Commerce Department, said it issued the clarification in response to questions about whether it was enforcing preexisting licence requirements after it had overturned former President Joe Biden’s AI Diffusion Framework.
“The answer is yes,” the BIS said in the notice.
Unveiled in the final days of the Biden administration, the AI Diffusion proposed the implementation of a globe-spanning framework to control access to AI chips, including export caps for all but the closest US allies.
The framework drew backlash from tech firms, including Nvidia, the world’s most valuable chip company, which cast the proposal as a threat to innovation and cross-border collaboration.
President Donald Trump’s administration scrapped the framework last May, ahead of its implementation, citing the “burdensome new regulatory requirements” and the harm it would do to Washington’s diplomatic relations with other countries.
Chip giant Nvidia, whose top-of-the-line Blackwell GPUs are banned for export to China, said it had already been operating in keeping with the clarified rules.
“The guidance reaffirms that NVIDIA’s sales and vetting process is correct – consistent with our existing approach, licences are required to ship controlled products to PRC headquartered companies,” a Nvidia spokesperson told Al Jazeera, using the acronym for the People’s Republic of China.
AMD and Intel, Nvidia’s main competitors in the GPU space, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
TSMC, which manufactures the most advanced chips on behalf of clients such as Nvidia, did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
The BIS also did not respond to inquiries.
Chris McGuire, a former State Department official who worked on technology policy in the Biden administration, accused the Trump administration of providing Chinese companies a loophole to buy export-controlled chips.
“Chinese companies have been buying these chips, very likely at scale. And because BIS has not updated export control regulations to clearly state what it IS enforcing, all of this was legal,” McGuire said in a post on X.
“This clarification does make clear that Blackwell shipments to China-headquartered companies outside of China are now illegal again – which is good, although obviously we have to see how many shipments have already gone to assess how much damage was done,” McGuire said.
“BIS’ statement acknowledges these shipments have been happening when it says companies who bought chips under this loophole don’t have to stop using them.”
The US has rolled out numerous restrictions on the supply of high-end technology to China, as Washington and Beijing battle for dominance in AI.
In December, Trump announced that he would allow Nvidia to sell its H200 chip to China, in a major loosening of Washington’s export controls.
While not Nvidia’s most advanced chip, the H200 is about six times as powerful as the H20, the most advanced chip previously allowed for export to China.
The death of Abakar Minuki, one of the most influential leaders of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), in a joint United States and Nigerian military operation, marks one of the most consequential blows to the insurgent group in recent years. Yet, analysts and insiders familiar with the terror group warn that history offers little reason to assume the killing will significantly diminish the long-term threat posed by the group.
Multiple sources familiar with ISWAP’s internal structure told HumAngle that Minuki’s most likely successor was Baba Shuwa, commonly known as Ba Shuwa. However, indications emerging from the aftermath of the operation suggest he may also have been killed. If confirmed, the simultaneous removal of both men would trigger the most significant leadership transition in the organisation since its emergence from Boko Haram’s internal schism nearly a decade ago.
For the first time, leadership could pass not to the insurgency’s founding generation, but to a second generation of fighters raised entirely within the movement’s war ecosystem. Two names have emerged as the strongest contenders: Abu Salem and Bana Chingori.
“This would represent a generational shift unlike anything the movement has experienced before,” a source familiar with ISWAP’s internal dynamics told HumAngle.
Known variously as Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn Ali al Mainoki, Abor Mainoki, Abubakar Mainoki, and Abakar Minuki, the slain commander was himself a product of the insurgency’s evolution.
Born in 1982 in the village of Mainok, a settlement along the Maiduguri-Benisheikh corridor in Borno State, he adopted his nom de guerre from his hometown. Long before becoming one of the most feared figures in the Lake Chad Basin insurgency, Minuki was known as a young barber operating a modest salon in the village.
Those who encountered him during the rise of Mohammed Yusuf’s movement recall a quiet young man who blended into daily life. That anonymity would eventually disappear. By the time Boko Haram transformed from a fringe religious movement into a powerful insurgent force, Minuki had become part of its military structure.
Abu Mus’ab, Abu Fatima, and other Boko Haram leaders had to secure Minuki’s approval before finalising their escape from Abubakar Shekau in the Sambisa forest to the islands of the Lake Chad Basin, shortly before ISWAP split from Boko Haram. Minuki not only provided refuge for members of the newly formed ISWAP fleeing Shekau’s crackdown, but also protected them and facilitated their settlement in his territory, where he ruled as one of Shekau’s most formidable Amirul Fiya.
He belonged to the first generation of fighters who entered the organisation before the 2009 uprising that transformed the movement forever.
To understand what Minuki represented, one must return to Boko Haram’s earliest years. According to sources familiar with the group’s formative history, Mohammed Yusuf’s original armed contingent consisted of fewer than 100 members. These men were responsible not only for security but also for recruitment.
As the organisation expanded, Yusuf reorganised fighters into military formations named after prominent figures from Islamic history. Among them were the Zubair Ibn Awwam Battalion, Umar Farouk Battalion, Salmanu Farisu Battalion, Khalid Ibn Walid Battalion, and Salaudeen Ayubi Battalion.
Several battalions survived years of expansion, state crackdowns, factional disputes, and battlefield losses. Over time, however, only two retained their original lineage and remain operational: the Timbuktu formation, associated with Faruk, and the Buhairiya structure, which absorbed the remnants of several earlier battalions.
Minuki was already a Naqeeb, a junior commander, during the pre-2009 period. Ba Shuwa, by contrast, was merely a foot soldier. While Abu Salem, who is now touted as the likely successor of ISWAP, was still a child. That generational distinction highlights that few survivors remain from the movement’s founding era.
If Minuki and Ba Shuwa are both dead, the succession process could elevate men who never knew the insurgency before it became a regional war. Among them, Abu Salem stands out. Sources describe him as both a military commander and a religious authority within the insurgency. He currently serves as Amirul Fiya, based in Krinua, a battlefield commander with influence extending beyond purely military affairs.
His biography mirrors the insurgency’s own evolution. The son of a respected first-generation Boko Haram member, Abu Salem benefited from mentorship by senior leaders from an early age. His pedigree gave him access to influential networks that many younger fighters lacked.
He also carries the scars of combat. During one battle with members of Nigeria’s armed forces, he sustained serious gunshot wounds to the lower abdomen. The injuries required long-term medical management involving a Foley catheter. According to sources familiar with his condition, he continued participating in military operations despite the injury for years.
Within ISWAP, Abu Salem has cultivated a reputation for bravery, clerical authority, and charisma. Several sources compared his influence to that once exercised by Abu Musab al-Barnawi and Minuki himself.
Another contender is Bana Chingori, regarded as Ba Shuwa’s closest deputy. Unlike Abu Salem, however, Bana faces a structural challenge: He does not originate from the Faruk battalion network, which sources estimate supplies approximately 70 per cent of ISWAP’s current fighters and leadership, including Minuki.
In an organisation where battlefield alliances and battalion loyalties remain deeply influential, that may prove decisive.
Leadership succession inside ISWAP is not determined solely by military competence. HumAngle understands that ethnicity, lineage, dialect, and social hierarchy continue to shape power within the organisation.
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Public portrayals often reduce Boko Haram and ISWAP to ideological movements driven exclusively by extremist interpretations of Islam. The reality is considerably more complex. The overwhelming majority of ISWAP’s estimated fighting force originates from the Kanuri ethnic nationality, which has historically been dominant across the Lake Chad Basin. Yet, the Kanuris are far from homogeneous.
They are divided into numerous dialect communities, clan networks, and social categories that carry significant political weight, all of which the insurgents take very seriously. These divisions influence recruitment, promotions, alliances, and leadership legitimacy.
Mohammed Yusuf, for example, belonged to the Manga dialect group, one of the most prestigious Kanuri communities. His lineage strengthened his standing within the movement’s formative years. Abubakar Shekau came from the Kaama-speaking Ngala’a community, often viewed as socially marginal within traditional Kanuri hierarchies.
Several researchers and former members argue that Shekau’s relationship with the broader movement was shaped partly by this outsider status. Minuki himself emerged from Borno Central, where multiple Kanuri dialect groups intersect. Ba Shuwa’s ancestry has also been the subject of internal scrutiny.
Sources say rivals occasionally questioned the purity of his Kanuri lineage, reflecting how deeply social stratification continues to influence perceptions of authority within insurgency networks in the Lake Chad basin.
For this reason, sources told HumAngle, the emergence of a non-Kanuri leader remains highly unlikely. Even if such a figure were elevated, sustaining authority would be extraordinarily difficult. “The movement talks about Islam and the caliphate,” one source familiar with internal deliberations said, “But when leadership questions arise, ethnicity still matters.”
The leadership transition unfolding inside ISWAP is taking place within an organisation that has undergone profound internal transformation in recent years. Sources familiar with the group’s operations told HumAngle that the growing presence of foreign fighters from across the Sahel and beyond has reshaped not only the movement’s military tactics but also its internal security culture.
As foreign fighters increasingly settled in the Lake Chad region, ISWAP imposed some of its strictest operational security measures to date. Members were ordered to delete existing photographs and cease documenting activities through images. The use of smartphones was largely prohibited, reflecting mounting concerns about surveillance, geolocation tracking, and intelligence penetration.
The restrictions marked a sharp departure from earlier years when both Boko Haram and ISWAP routinely photographed preaching sessions, training exercises, weapon displays, and daily life in territories under their control. Such imagery formed a central component of the group’s propaganda and recruitment machinery.
According to sources, the new rules were enforced ruthlessly. Several fighters accused of taking photographs or retaining images on their devices were reportedly executed. The killings served as both punishment and deterrence, reinforcing a culture of secrecy that now permeates much of the organisation.
“The message was simple,” one source familiar with the group’s internal directives said. “Any digital trace that could expose fighters, commanders, or locations became a security threat.” The arrival of experienced foreign fighters appears to have accelerated this shift. Many brought with them lessons learned from conflicts across the Sahel, where drone surveillance, signals intelligence, and electronic tracking have increasingly shaped the battlefield.
The influence of foreign fighters introduced a greater emphasis on counter-intelligence, operational discipline, compartmentalisation, and the elimination of digital footprints that could expose personnel, camps, supply routes, or command structures. The result is an insurgent organisation that has become considerably more cautious than its predecessors. While leadership losses continue to disrupt, ISWAP’s evolving security architecture suggests a movement increasingly focused on institutional survival rather than on dependence on individual commanders.
The killing of Minuki undoubtedly represents a serious disruption, and the elimination of Ba Shuwa, if confirmed, would considerably deepen that disruption. Yet, military and intelligence officials caution against interpreting the development as a strategic defeat for ISWAP.
“The organisation has experienced similar moments before with the deaths of Mohammed Yusuf, Mamman Nur, Abu Musab al Barnawi, Ba Idrissa, and several other senior commanders, each of which generated predictions of organisational collapse,” said Kyari Mustafa, a conflict researcher in Maiduguri.
Those predictions never materialised. Instead, the group adapted. The pattern has become familiar across the Lake Chad Basin.
HumAngle has documented a pattern where successful military campaigns weaken the insurgency. Communities experience a period of relative calm. The group regroups, reassesses, and eventually resumes attacks. This cycle has repeated itself for more than 15 years. What makes the current moment significant is the possibility that an entire generation of commanders may be disappearing simultaneously. If Minuki and Ba Shuwa are indeed gone, the future of ISWAP may soon be shaped by men who were toddlers when Mohammed Yusuf built the movement.
Whether that transition produces fragmentation, renewal, or further violence remains uncertain. What is clear is that the Lake Chad Basin has witnessed enough leadership decapitations to know that the death of a commander, however important, does not automatically mean the end of the war.
I come from a family of priests and devoted Catholics. Catholicism is the blood in my veins. My father was not a disciplinarian, but if you lived under his roof you went to church. Saturday evening or Sunday morning, didn’t matter, you went. My four siblings and I were not miscreants, but we drank beer and sneaked out, and I was once cited for stealing liquor. I can’t recall my father ever yelling at me for anything other than missing Mass.
My great-uncle Dan was a diocesan priest at St. Charles Borromeo in Drexel Hill, Pa. Dan was a fire-and-brimstone hard-liner. Every Thursday we’d gather as a family for a roast beef dinner at my grandmother’s house. Dan would drink Manhattans — plenty — and if someone expressed a view of God contrary to his own, he’d say, “It’s awfully hot down there.” “There” meant hell. My uncle Ed, my mother’s eldest brother, was an Augustinian. Patient, compassionate, inclusive, Ed’s God was very different from Dan’s. While discussing God, Ed would quote Michael Himes, “There is nothing we can do to make God not love us,” and the Trappist monk Thomas Merton, “Mercy, within Mercy, within Mercy.”
Sports was in my family too — basketball, specifically — and I came to view Dan and Ed as head and assistant coach, respectively. The head coach shouting harsh critiques from the sideline, the assistant coach there to put his arm around you when you made it, crestfallen and ashamed, back to the bench. I loved them both, but I aligned with Ed’s view of God. Dan passed away a decade ago. Ed has since left the priesthood and married a kind and patient woman named Kathy. Over the years, Ed’s views on God have changed drastically. We meet for dinner once a month to talk about life and faith, and it was during one of our conversations that “Task” was born.
Mark Ruffalo in “Task.”
(Peter Kramer / HBO)
Tom Brandis, played by the singular Mark Ruffalo, is a former priest-turned-FBI agent who has lost his faith. Everything he held as truth in his life has come crashing down in the wake of a family tragedy. Tom believes he was called by God to adopt two children, Emily and Ethan. Adopting these children has resulted in the death of his wife, Susan. Matricide. What kind of God allows that? I have struggled with my Catholic faith over the years, but nothing has perplexed me more than the idea of suffering. The poet Archibald MacLeish wrote, “If God is God, He is not good / If God is good, He is not God.” The message is clear: If God is God, the author of everything, then He created evil and suffering and therefore cannot be good.
In “Task,” I wanted to explore a crisis of faith with honesty and without easy answers, because that is exactly how I have found my own faith journey — arduous and circuitous. I believe in God, but I find that belief tested daily. Faith and religion are separable. Tom’s journey in “Task” is a journey of faith. In the fifth episode, Tom is kidnapped by the criminal Robbie Prendergast, played by the brilliant Tom Pelphrey. During a long and tense car ride to the Poconos, Robbie tells Tom that he doesn’t believe in God. Never has. God is an idea conjured to make life bearable. “There’s nothing after this life,” Robbie says. Tom doesn’t argue. His own beliefs have veered in that direction. The car pulls into a secluded, wooded area. Facing death, Tom suddenly wants to call his son, Ethan, and forgive him. Robbie doesn’t allow it. Instead, he walks Tom to the edge of the woods, tells him he’s a decent man, and sets him free. Because Robbie has his own plan: to sacrifice his life in the hopes of providing a better one for his family. It’s through Robbie’s act of mercy that Tom regains faith. He believes in goodness again.
Brad Ingelsby.
(Ian Spanier / For The Times)
In the final episode, Tom finds himself taking care of a young and suddenly parentless boy, Sam. Sam reminds him of his own son, Ethan. Sam wants to live with Tom. And Tom desperately wants Sam to stay with him. But Tom also recognizes that Sam would be better served in the care of a young family capable of meeting his needs. Sam shouldn’t be stuck with an old man like him. Tom lets Sam go; he believes the boy will be taken care of. That is Tom’s act of faith.
When Ed and I met for dinner last month, we talked about how his idea of God has changed over the years. He no longer sees God as a bearded white man tallying our sins and waiting to judge us in heaven. He thought God was everywhere, all the time. The love that exists between people. He thought he could feel God right then, among us at the table as we laughed. We talked about Camp Mystic. The young girls swept away. Why, God? They were there to serve You. We didn’t have any answers. We never do. But the food and wine were good, and we talked about great-uncle Dan, about how he was so different from us but how much we loved him anyway, and how, when he drank Manhattans — plenty — he could turn harsh and opinionated, but it didn’t matter because he loved God. He loved Him with his whole heart, and we thought about the unimpeachable dignity of that and what an amazing gift it would be — to believe and never doubt.
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Livingston striker Tete Yengi and former Italy Under-21 winger Cristian Volpato have been named in Australia’s 26-man squad for the World Cup despite the uncapped duo being late additions to Tony Popovic’s pre-tournament training squad.
But 41-times capped Hibernian forward Martin Boyle is one of those who misses out.
Yengi had been loaned out by Livingston to Japanese club Machida Zelvia in January despite his parent club struggling to avoid relegation from the Scottish Premiership.
But the 25-year-old caught Popovic’s eye after scoring six goals in 22 appearances as his new side finished third in Japan’s East Region – and reached the final of the Asian Champions League.
Meanwhile, world governing body Fifa ratified Sassuolo 22-year-old Volpato’s decision to switch on Friday.
Former Brighton & Hove Albion goalkeeper Mat Ryan, now of Levante, and Melbourne City striker Mathew Leckie are poised to equal the national record by being selected for a fourth World Cup.
Former Dundee United left-back Aziz Behich, now of Melbourne, and former Hull City midfielder Jackson Irvine, now at St Pauli are on track to feature at their third.
Meanwhile, Heart of Midlothian midfielder Cammy Devlin and Aberdeen-born Leicester City centre-half Harry Souttar, whose brother John is in the Scotland squad, are among those chosen for their second.
Also included are Swansea City centre-half Cameron Burgess, Watford winger Nestory Irankunda, Norwich City striker Mohamed Toure
Popovic said: “Some difficult decisions had to be made – that’s the nature of major tournaments.
“But it’s also a credit to all the players involved over the past few weeks who worked extremely hard during an extended and challenging pre-camp.”
Former Hearts defender Kye Rowles, now with DC United, had also been added late to the training squad but did not make the final selection.
Australia face Switzerland in their final pre-tournament friendly on Saturday before opening their finals campaign against Turkey on 14 June.
Colombia’s presidential election is headed to a runoff on June 21. Far-right outsider, Abelardo de la Espriella, will face leftist senator, Ivan Cepeda. Professor Jorge Restrepo describes de la Espriella’s rise in the polls as a punishment vote against Colombia’s long-established political class.
Published On 1 Jun 20261 Jun 2026
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Bembou Silaty, Guinea – Mamadou Aliou walks through the small village of Bembou Silaty in northwestern Guinea carrying an irresolvable contradiction.
The 38-year-old works in the environmental health and safety department for a bauxite mining company, yet he is also an activist striving to improve life in his community, which often means criticising the actions of another mining company in the area.
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“Before these companies arrived, we cultivated our land, and it sustained us,” Aliou told Al Jazeera.
“We could cover our daily needs, especially food. But now, when a piece of land is registered and belongs to a mining company, you have nothing there any more.”
The foreign-linked mining companies are part of the global scramble for Guinea’s bauxite. The West African nation holds the world’s biggest reserves of the ore, which is the source material for alumina and ultimately aluminium, a metal essential for car and aircraft frames, windows, wind turbines, and solar panels.
Over the past three decades, Guinea has multiplied its bauxite production tenfold. More than a dozen projects of bauxite production are currently ongoing in the country, according to the online cadastre.
As the global energy transition demands ever more aluminium, it has placed Guinea in a strategically crucial position. Approximately 75 percent of the bauxite exported by the country over the past decade has ended up in China, which produces 60 percent of the world’s aluminium.
Companies from Russia, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates have also established themselves in the country to secure the ore. In Bembou Silaty, an Indian company that began operations in 2019 now holds an exploitation concession until 2034.
Located in the prefecture of Telimele (Kindia region), Bembou Silaty has undergone a transformation since bauxite was discovered on its land about five years ago.
Yet, on the ground, many lament the cost: Contaminated water, loss of farmland, and a steep decline in agricultural productivity.
In the traditional bauxite heartlands of Kindia and Boke, the main roads are in notably good condition, a cut above the rest of the country. Steady jobs in technical roles or transport logistics have created economic opportunities for some Guineans.
Yet Bembou Silaty remains a quiet, peaceful village without electricity, and farming methods that are untouched by mechanisation.
Less than 2km (1.2 miles) away, however, the lush green landscape and mild climate of the rainy season give way to the electric-powered site of the Indian mining company.
There, excavators and trucks laden with bauxite constantly traverse the wide, unpaved roads, built to accommodate the heavy traffic, in a noisy, busy zone where the mining economy bulldozes its way forward.
People working in technical roles at the mine can earn up to about $300 a month.
For other locals who make a living from farming, most don’t have a regular wage and rely on the yield from their crops.
Across Guinea, an estimated half of the population depends on agriculture for their livelihood.
Locals in Bembou Silaty say every hectare claimed by mining is a hectare lost to farming, in a country that spent more than $500m importing rice in 2024.
“They give you compensation for your land, but it’s not enough, and in the end, it’s mismanaged,” Aliou said.
“Within a month or two, someone who received 50 or 100 million Guinean francs ($5,700-11,400) has nothing left. No land, no money. They have to start over, from below zero.”
Locals who still own land continue to grow rice, cassava, peanuts and cashews in the village, but they have ever less space and agricultural productivity is falling.
The village women have set up an association, “Allawalli” (which means “God help us” in Fula), to work cooperatively.
Walking through the alleys of Bembou Silaty, a few houses stand out.
They are made of cement, which withstands the rains better than the more common mud-brick homes, though many remain unfinished.
Locals say they were built with compensation money.
Fatoumata Binta Bah, a neighbour of Aliou’s, comes from a family of farmers. They once cultivated cashews, their livelihood.
Then the Indian mining company started up operations and offered them less than 50 million Guinean francs (about $5,700) for their land. That compensation, paid as a lump sum, seemed like a decent amount of money, she says.
But now, the money is gone, and their new house is still incomplete.
“The land they took from us was productive. That’s what we lived on,” said Bah, 20, as she prepared tea over a fire in the family courtyard.
“In the end, it wasn’t enough,” she lamented.
The Indian company did not respond to Al Jazeera’s questions on the purchase of land.
Meanwhile, on the outskirts of the village, surgical holes drilled into the ground mark where mining companies have tested for bauxite – a reminder to the farmers that the impact on the land is felt even before extraction begins.
In a recent report, Djami Diallo, the Guinean minister of the environment and sustainable development, stated that each year, certain companies had their impact studies and evaluation reports rejected for failing to comply with environmental standards.
Three or four companies in Boke, Kindia’s neighbouring region that is considered the bauxite capital in the country, were said to be affected. But the minister acknowledged that “just because companies do not meet the conditions to obtain the compliance certificate does not mean that everything stops.”
Not all homes in Bembou Silaty, a community of about 5,000, have indoor toilets and plumbing. In the centre of the village, there are communal latrines for those who do not have facilities available in their homes. Showers can be taken in the same place, using a bucket and water collected from the spring.
One small gain for the community since the mining company’s arrival is a new water point in the village. The tap serves nearly all the residents. Even Aliou uses it to fill buckets for his household – for cooking and drinking – though he says he knows the water contains iron, as contamination occurs.
Still, he considers himself luckier than his friends in the neighbouring village of Koussadji Dow, who rely on now-brown, contaminated river water.
Tala Oury Sow, a trader and farmer, washes her cooking utensils in the murky river water – a daily struggle.
She starts speaking softly, surrounded by neighbours, but her voice rises to a shout.
“Do you think we can live like this?
“We had hoped the mining company’s arrival would improve things, but it has gotten worse,” she protested.
“Since the mining companies came, we’ve had this problem with the water. The children get sick, and the parents too,” added Mariama Kindi Diallo, a farmer, in her courtyard.
“The doctors tell us not to drink the rain or river water. There are no roads, no school, no phone signal. What are we supposed to do? We are asking for help to have a dignified life,” she pleaded, as her family and neighbours nodded in agreement.
The Indian company did not respond to requests for comment on these issues.
To escape the increasingly difficult conditions in villages like Bembou Silaty, some people leave the rural areas and head to the capital, Conakry.
Bauxite mining so dominates Guinea that one can chance upon a driver of one of the trains hauling ore from the mines to the port of Kamsar.
Alpha, who did not want his real name published, works for a United States-backed company and provides a window into the immense volume of resources being exported.
“We operate six trains of 150 wagons each day,” he said, explaining that the annual target for 2025 was to export 17.5 million tonnes of bauxite.
“The government wants to change things, because the profits we make in Guinea right now are small. We need refineries here to increase the state’s revenue,” he added.
Alpha lives near the coast, where his job has allowed him to build a house for his family and achieve a standard of living unattainable for most of his compatriots.
The government of Mamady Doumbouya, which came to power in a 2021 coup, is attempting to reorganise the mining sector. It is pressing investors to process bauxite within Guinea, ensuring a portion of the value stays in the country.
Processing bauxite into aluminium can multiply its price by 37 times.
Instability in Iran amid the US and Israel’s war has contributed to rising aluminium prices, which surpassed $3,600 per tonne in April.
Doumbouya is set to lead the country for the next seven years, after winning the December 2025 elections with nearly 87 percent of the vote. While opponents view him as illegitimate, many Guineans agree on the need to reform the mining sector.
Achieving this, however, requires a huge increase in electricity generation – power that is non-existent in villages like Bembou Silaty and unreliable even in Conakry, where blackouts are frequent when fans and TVs are switched on at night.
Guinea is working with neighbouring Senegal on a solution: Using Senegalese gas to generate enough electricity to process its bauxite on African soil. Currently, both countries export raw materials, while jobs and wealth are created elsewhere.
More than 3,000km (1,900 miles) away, across the ocean, Spain is also a part of the Guinean bauxite story.
Parets del Valles, a municipality of 18,000 people less than 30km (19 miles) from Barcelona, represents the journey’s end.
From the town centre to its industrial outskirts, businesses specialising in aluminium are plentiful: Aluminium distribution, carpentry, and window fitting, much of them serving household needs.
For Spain, Europe’s largest consumer of Guinean bauxite, more than 90 percent of its imports come from Guinea-Conakry.
The aluminium produced there, mainly in the country’s north, feeds the automotive industry and serves both industrial and domestic purposes.
Parets is another world compared with the bauxite’s point of origin in Guinea.
In Spain, there is light, hot water, paved roads – all the base elements of a decent life. It’s why many say growing numbers of West Africans are arriving in Parets and across the Valles Oriental region. This is part of a broader trend in Catalonia and Spain, according to the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE): The Guinean population has quadrupled in Spain since 2000 – from 2,700 to 11,000 people – and in Catalonia from 1,000 to 4,000.
These figures don’t include those who go unregistered.
Increasingly, more boats are leaving directly from Guinea, towards the Canary Islands and on to mainland Europe. According to Frontex, the European Union border security agency, more Guineans arrived in the Canary Islands, Spain, in 2023 (2,324) than in the previous 13 years combined. In 2024 and 2025 combined, another 6,000 Guineans arrived.
Migrants, predominantly men from Senegal and increasingly from Guinea, come alone, settling where they have contacts and job prospects. The newest arrivals, often very young, spend long hours with their mobile phones as their sole companion – the only tether to the country they left behind.
Many left, following the bauxite trail, hoping to find something more in the places where their resources are both enjoyed and exploited.
As Aliou, back in Bembou Silaty, says: “If you compare the bauxite we export with what we get in return, the difference is enormous. We gain almost nothing. Just enough to survive.”
This article was produced in collaboration with the Catalan association SETEM Catalunya, promoted by the Connect for Global Change consortium and Lafede.cat, and with financial support from the European Union and the Government of Catalonia (Generalitat de Catalunya)
Matt Brown, who starred with his family in the Discovery reality television show “Alaskan Bush People,” was found dead in the Okanogan River in Washington state, law enforcement officials said Sunday.
Brown’s body was discovered Saturday by a group of private citizens who were conducting a search, the Okanogan County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
Brown’s brother, Bear Brown, said in a video posted Saturday on social media that fellow brother Noah had been with the search team, helped pull the body out of the river and identified him.
The official cause and manner of death is still to be determined by the coroner, the sheriff’s office said. But the Brown family believes Matt Brown died by suicide, Bear Brown said in the video.
Witnesses said they saw Matt Brown in or near the river and that he “took his own life,” Bear Brown said on social media.
“I would have never suspected he would hurt himself, honestly,” Bear Brown said in the emotional video. “He struggled for a long time.”
Bear Brown said his brother had battled with alcohol and drugs and that Matt Brown told him in their last conversation that he had “fallen off the wagon.”
The Brown family and their life in the Alaskan wilderness were the subject of the reality TV show “Alaskan Bush People,” which ran on the Discovery Channel from 2014 to 2022.
Suicide prevention and crisis counseling resources
If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, seek help from a professional or call 988. The nationwide three-digit mental health crisis hotline will connect callers with trained mental health counselors. Or text “HOME” to 741741 in the U.S. and Canada to reach the Crisis Text Line.
NEWARK, N.J. — The mayor of Newark imposed a curfew early Sunday around an immigration detention center in New Jersey after a series of intense clashes between protesters and police.
The curfew around Delaney Hall will be in place between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. until further notice, Mayor Ras Baraka said in a statement.
The move came after another night of standoffs between law enforcement and demonstrators at the facility, as protesters could be seen in photographs and videos fighting over barricades as police used riot shields to push them back. A video posted on social media showed police on horseback marching into crowds, attempting to break up groups of demonstrators.
The high-profile demonstrations at Delaney Hall began this month after advocates said detainees launched a hunger strike over poor living conditions at the 1,000-bed facility, the latest focus of opposition over the federal government’s immigration crackdown.
The private company GEO Group operates the lockup under the supervision of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The shuttered facility reopened for immigration detainees in February 2025.
New Jersey state police on Friday replaced federal immigration enforcement agents who had been facing off against protesters at the facility for days.
In a statement Sunday morning, New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill said masked people attacked a barrier in a designated protest area set up by state police and were “throwing projectiles, utilizing the barriers as weapons, and lighting tires on fire in the street.”
“These actions put both peaceful protesters and law enforcement in danger,” Sherrill said, urging calm to focus on advocating for “better conditions for the detainees, for their families, and ultimately, for the closure of Delaney Hall.”
Sherrill also said that the federal government has reopened family visits at Delaney Hall starting Sunday.
Asked about visitations resuming, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in a statement, “To be clear: Visitation was only suspended because of violent riots. Now that we have a secure perimeter, visitation can resume.”
With Iga Swiatek’s early French Open exit meaning new men’s and women’s champions will be crowned, BBC Sport analyses how the draws have been blown open.
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Cuba has begun distributing donated powdered milk from Mexico and Uruguay as the island faces severe shortages and a deepening economic crisis. Officials say young children, pregnant women and paediatric facilities will be prioritised.
Published On 1 Jun 20261 Jun 2026
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Brunei had been a British protectorate since 1888, and as such, was reliant on the British armed forces for protection and defense.
On 31 May 1961, to prepare for future independence, recruits from Brunei began military training, creating the first Brunei military force named the Brunei Malay Regiment. On 31 May 1965, the regiment was honoured with the royal title.
When Brunei gained independence from Britain on 1 January 1984, the Royal Brunei Malay Regiment was renamed as the Royal Brunei Armed Forces.
There is no compulsory military service and only Brunei citizens with Malay ethnicity are allowed to enlist in the Royal Brunei Armed Forces.
This is a day to recognise and pay tribute to the services of the land, air and navy forces. Around the country, the festival is celebrated with military parades, artillery shows, parachuting displays and exhibitions by various units of the armed forces.
Far-right outsider Abelardo de la Espriella will face left-wing Senator Ivan Cepeda in the run-off for Colombia’s presidential election next month.
After polls closed on Sunday, the two candidates quickly surged ahead in the vote tally, extinguishing the hopes of right-wing Senator Paloma Valencia, a former frontrunner.
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As of Sunday afternoon, with 99 percent of the votes tallied, de la Espriella took the lead, with 43 percent of the ballots cast in his favour.
Cepeda trailed him by more than 600,000 votes, earning 40 percent support.
Neither candidate breached the 50-percent threshold needed to avoid a head-to-head match-up on June 21. But the results are likely to buoy de la Espriella’s campaign going into the final round.
Cepeda had consistently topped public opinion polls in the final weeks before the vote. A May 24 poll from the National Consulting Centre (CNC) showed him with more than 33 percent support, ahead of de la Espriella’s 30.9 percent.
Questions about security were at the forefront of voters’ concerns going into Sunday’s election.
De la Espriella, a businessman and lawyer who has never held elected office, leaned heavily into fears of crime as he launched an outsider campaign, similar to the dark-horse bid of Argentinian President Javier Milei.
By contrast, Cepeda is a well-known quantity in Colombian politics. His father was a senator, too, before he was assassinated in 1994, in what was widely considered to be an act of political violence.
Cepeda himself has served as a senator since 2014. Before that, he served in the Chamber of Deputies, representing the capital, Bogota.
During his political career, he became embroiled in a long-running legal dispute with former right-wing President Alvaro Uribe, whom he accused of complicity with right-wing paramilitaries.
Uribe initially sued Cepeda for defamation, but in a dramatic twist, Colombia’s Supreme Court dismissed the charge and instead investigated Uribe for witness tampering.
While Uribe was initially found guilty and sentenced to 12 years of house arrest, an appeals court ultimately struck down the verdict, citing procedural errors, including insufficient evidence.
Central to the rift in Colombia’s politics is the country’s six-decade-long internal conflict.
Since 1964, criminal networks, government forces, left-wing rebels and right-wing paramilitaries have all jockeyed against one another for power and territory.
Cepeda has been critical of right-wing efforts to solve the conflict through military might alone.
Instead, he has allied himself with Colombia’s outgoing president, Gustavo Petro, the first left-wing figure ever elected to the country’s highest office.
A former rebel fighter, Petro has championed a policy he calls “Total Peace”, which actively seeks negotiated solutions to the fighting.
While critics have questioned the efficacy of “Total Peace”, pointing to a recent uptick in violence, Cepeda has nevertheless pledged to carry it forward. He represents Petro’s left-wing Historic Pact party in this year’s election.
In an interview this month with CNN, Cepeda acknowledged the policy’s “immense challenges”, saying: “We cannot continue to develop conversations that do not yield clear results.”
But he rejected overly militaristic solutions, as well as the prospect of intervention by the United States. The US-led “war on drugs”, Cepeda said, has “failed spectacularly”.
De la Espriella, meanwhile, has embraced the kind of hardline security platform commonly associated with El Salvador’s leader, Nayib Bukele.
His platform includes a pledge to crack down on crime and build 10 megaprisons in Colombia.
Nicknamed “The Tiger”, he founded the Defenders of the Homeland political party and is known to rally with the slogan, “Stand firm for the nation”.
“The only peace process I believe in is one imposed by the force of arms and the laws of the republic,” de la Espriella told The Associated Press news agency this month.
Like US President Donald Trump, de la Espriella has also threatened to launch a bombing campaign to disrupt drug-trafficking, killing suspects by downing planes and shooting boats.
But such campaigns have been widely denounced as a form of extrajudicial killing, effectively denying suspects the chance of defending themselves in a court of law.
More than 23.6 million Colombians voted in Sunday’s election, though there was a high number of blank or nullified ballots.
Early estimates, with 99 percent of ballots tallied, indicate that 245,342 voting sheets were null, and another 406,830 were left blank.
The second round is likely to be an uphill battle for Cepeda. Colombia’s right-wing is expected to consolidate behind de la Espriella in the second round.
In Sunday’s vote count, more than 10.3 million ballots were cast for de la Espriella, compared with roughly 9.7 million for Cepeda.
A victory for the right would continue a regional trend in Latin America. Last year alone, left-wing governments in Chile, Honduras and Bolivia were all replaced by right-wing presidential contenders.
De la Espriella signalled his optimism about the second round in a social media post as the results rolled in.
“We are going to defeat tyranny and absolutism,” de la Espriella wrote. “We have advanced to the run-off thanks to the more than 10 million Colombians who answered the roar. In 21 days, we will make history!”
ROCKER Ronnie Wood has got satisfaction on his birthday today – after being surprised with a classic red phone box from his wife.
The Rolling Stones legend was gifted the timeless telephone booth by his honky tonk woman Sally Humphreys to mark his 79th birthday.
The original British Telecom K6 phone box, costing some £5,000, did the moonlight mile as it was delivered to his country estate in Little Gaddesden, Herts.
The fixture means the former hard-partying icon won’t be going off the hook anymore.
Wood married his current wife, theatre producer Sally, 48, in 2012 and welcomed their twin daughters just four years later.
Speaking to Hello! Magazine he said: “Any time I’m with her and the girls, that’s the best for me, nothing tops it.
“When the twins come into our bed and we’re all snuggled up together, that, for me, is wonderful. My idea of heaven.
“It’s special. The girls are so cuddly and gorgeous. I’m a lucky man.”
A source said Ronnie is celebrating his birthday at his holiday home in Barcelona.
WASHINGTON — The congressman returned home last Fourth of July to startling stories in Southern California as immigration patrols swept through communities, and one constituent told him about starting to carry a passport as proof of the right to be in the country.
Rep. Mark Takano, whose American-born parents were both incarcerated as young children with their families during the forced relocation of Japanese Americans during World War II, could not help but see the parallels between that chapter of American history and this one.
“I do feel like there’s a similarity of circumstance of my own 2-year-old father and my 1-year-old mother being labeled as enemy aliens and they’re considered a danger to national security,” the Riverside Democrat told the Associated Press in a recent interview.
“They’re put into these incarceration camps,” he said. “Similar arguments have been made by this administration — that immigrants pose a grave danger to our country and it’s for the security of our country that we’re doing this.”
President Trump’s campaign to achieve the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history is at an inflection point. Americans are seeing what it looks like to round up, detain and deport thousands of people, particularly in the aftermath of the deaths this year of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, U.S. citizens protesting the federal crackdown in Minneapolis.
The White House changed the leadership at the Department of Homeland Security as it reframes its approach. New Secretary Markwayne Mullin promised to keep the department off the front pages.
But Trump is also under mounting pressure from conservative groups not to let up on the goal of deporting 1 million people a year. The president’s Republican allies in Congress are fueling the immigration and deportation actions with billions of dollars in special funds.
Takano, the ranking Democrat on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, has drawn from his own family history — and the country’s eventual redress to Japanese Americans who were detained — to challenge Trump’s approach.
“We look back on that era of history as a shameful one, as a time when our political leaders failed the Constitution, failed the American people,” he said.
A high school history teacher before being elected to Congress in 2012, Takano grew up in Southern California and came to understand the family stories.
His grandfather Isao Takano arrived in the U.S. from Hiroshima and married Kazue Takahashi, a U.S.-born citizen. Together they settled in Bellevue, Wash., and started a business growing tomatoes, strawberries and chrysanthemums for the marketplace in Seattle.
When the U.S. entered the war after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, they were among some 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, immigrants and those born in the U.S., forcibly relocated.
His father, William, was 2 years old when his family was sent in 1942 to the incarceration camp at Tule Lake in Central California. His mother, Nancy Tsugiye Sakamoto, born in California to American-born parents, was a year old when she was relocated to the detention facility in Heart Mountain, Wyo.
Then, as now, he said, people are being swept up in the anti-immigrant detentions.
“Will Americans generations from now visit ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ and think to themselves, how could our government do this?” Takano said during a House floor speech, referring to the Trump administration’s immigration detention facility in Florida.
“These future generations of Americans will look to us, the Congress, to see what we did to try to stop it.”
Takano remembers his father taking him to see the land the family once owned. He learned about his great-uncles who served in the Army’s 442nd Regimental Combat Team of Japanese American soldiers; one was killed in action in Italy. He recalls his own father later collected donations for the national redress campaign.
In 1988 Congress passed the Civil Liberties Act, which sought to apologize for the “grave injustice” that had been done and provide $20,000 to each person detained. President Reagan signed it into law.
Takano’s parents were among those who received a letter of apology from the federal government, he said, and a payment.
Talks are underway among some in Congress, he said, for a similar redress to the people who have had their car windows smashed in, their homes raided and livelihoods upended as part of Trump’s immigration enforcement operations.
“Remarkably the country did come to realize the mistake,” he said. “I believe we’re living through one of those eras of mistakes, and I believe we can come out of this moment stronger.”
Mascaro writes for the Associated Press.
Amid the excitement of youth, world number three Zverev underlined his status as favourite for the men’s singles title with a clinical straight-set win over Jesper de Jong, which sent him through to the quarter-finals at Roland Garros for the sixth consecutive year.
The second seed, 29, has long been earmarked as a future Grand Slam champion but despite reaching finals at three of the four majors – and leading Carlos Alcaraz by two sets to one at the French Open in 2024 – he is still searching for his maiden title.
However, with world number one Jannik Sinner and Djokovic both eliminated in the first week, plus defending champion Alcaraz absent because of injury, the German’s route to the title has opened up.
De Jong, ranked more than 100 places below Zverev, went toe-to-toe with the heavy-hitting German in the opener, racing into a 3-0 lead and later leading 3-0 in the tie-break before Zverev reeled off seven consecutive points to take the set.
Zverev had to be patient in the second, waiting until the 10th game to convert one of only two break-point opportunities offered to him, but was too strong for his opponent in a 24-minute third set, completing a 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 6-1 win.
Relentless on serve in the final two sets, he conceded just six points across nine service games while also showing his formidable touch at the net, winning 29 of 38 points.
“It was a bit difficult in the beginning,” Zverev said on court. “I didn’t start strong and he started really fast. But once I found my rhythm, I was comfortable.
“My game is there. It’s about showing it on the match courts.”
Zverev is one of only three top-10 seeds left in the draw, one of just two players with experience of playing in a major final and is competing on a surface on which he has won nine of his 24 ATP titles.
Perhaps most crucially, while many of his rivals have battled through multiple five-set matches, he has won three of his four matches in straight sets.
A military vehicle patrols on the road in Yangon, Myanmar, in February 2022. An accidental explosion in a rebel-held part of the country on Sunday killed 55 people and injured many more, rebel leaders said. File photo by Stringer/EPA-EFE
May 31 (UPI) — Fifty-five people were killed, including six children, in an accidental detonation of mining explosives in a rebel-held area of Myanmar, the armed group said Sunday.
The Palaung Self Liberation Front/Ta’ang National Liberation Army, also known as the PSLF/TNLA, said in a statement that many others were also hurt in the blast, which happened Sunday afternoon local time in northern Shan State.
Rescuers told the Shwe Phee Myay News Agency the entire village of Kaung Tat in Namkham Township had been virtually destroyed and that “dozens” had been injured in the disaster.
Local officials have sent out an urgent call for blood donations as emergency workers tried to free victims trapped in rubble.
The PSLF/TNLA confirmed that many homes in the village were damaged when soft gunpowder stored for mining operations accidentally exploded at around 12:30 p.m.
The fatalities included 25 females and 30 males, they said, adding that the cause of the explosion will be investigated in detail.
Authorities, they said, “will take action in accordance with the law.”
The Ta’ang National Liberation Army is one of the main ethnic rebel groups in Myanmar fighting for independence from the central government, which along with its ally the Palaung Self Liberation Front comprise a front of resistance to the country’s military government.
