Iran claims its navy forced a US warship to turn back from the Strait of Hormuz as Washington denies any clash, amid rising tensions in the key waterway. The rival narratives come after US President Donald Trump announced Project Freedom, a mission he framed as a humanitarian effort to “free” stranded ships.
Published On 4 May 20264 May 2026
Share
The African island nation also expels French embassy personnel over acts linked to the destabilisation investigation.
Published On 29 Apr 202629 Apr 2026
Madagascar has detained a French serviceman over an alleged plot to destabilise the island and also declared an agent at the French embassy persona non grata over acts linked to the destabilisation investigation.
Deputy Prosecutor Nomenarinera Mihamintsoa Ramanantsoa said in a video statement released late on Tuesday that the former French national serviceman, Guy Baret, had been placed in pretrial detention at Tsiafahy maximum-security prison.
list of 3 itemsend of list
A Malagasy army officer, Colonel Patrick Rakotomamonjy, and other alleged accomplices were also implicated, he said.
According to Ramanantsoa, prosecutors have charged the suspects with spreading false information to disturb public order, plotting to sabotage infrastructure including power lines and thermal plants operated by state utility Jirama, harbouring wanted individuals, and criminal conspiracy. Authorities said the group had planned actions initially set for April 18.
Rakotomamonjy is awaiting presentation before an investigating judge. Two other suspects were placed under judicial supervision, with prosecutors saying they did not appear to be the masterminds of the conspiracy
Madagascar is a former French colony that retains close political links to France and has had a history of instability in recent decades.
The country’s military ruler, President Michael Randrianirina, seized power in October last year, after a wave of youth-led protests against his predecessor, Andry Rajoelina.
France helped Rajoelina flee in October as protests over lack of water and energy escalated and ultimately forced him from power.
France said Wednesday that it had summoned the charge d’affaires of the Madagascan embassy in Paris “to vigorously protest” the expulsion of the diplomatic official.
“He was informed that France categorically rejected any accusation of destabilising the Refoundation regime of the Republic of Madagascar,” French Foreign Ministry spokesman Pascal Confavreux said, adding that the official had been summoned on Tuesday.
“Such accusations are not only unfounded, but also incomprehensible.”
The Madagascar Foreign Ministry said French Ambassador Arnaud Guillois had been summoned and informed of the decision over the embassy agent. It did not identify the agent or specify the acts in question.
WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors on Monday charged 31-year-old Torrance resident Cole Tomas Allen with attempting to assassinate President Trump after rushing past security at the White House Correspondents’ Assn. dinner in Washington on Saturday.
The domestic terrorism charge, announced during a brief arraignment hearing in federal court in Washington and detailed in a subsequent charging document, carries a potential sentence of life in prison for the Caltech graduate and high school tutor.
Prosecutors also charged Allen with transporting firearms across state lines while traveling by train from California to Washington and with discharging a firearm during the incident at the Washington Hilton, where officials said a federal agent was shot in his ballistic vest.
In the charging document, prosecutors also detailed an email Allen allegedly sent to family members just as he was preparing to breach the event perimeter, in which he allegedly wrote that top Trump administration officials were his target but that he was willing to “go through” others at the event to reach them.
Allen was instead taken down by agents shortly after rushing past them and before descending stairs and entering a ballroom where Trump and other top administration officials were seated. No officials were injured during the incident, which the White House described as the latest in a string of attempts on Trump’s life.
Federal public defenders assigned to represent Allen did not respond to a request for comment Monday. Allen could not be reached for comment. A person previously reached at the Allen family home in Torrance — which was searched by the FBI over the weekend — declined to comment.
At the morning hearing, Asst. U.S. Atty. Jocelyn Ballantine said Allen “traveled across multiple state lines with a firearm” and “attempted to assassinate the president with a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun.”
Top administration officials — including acting Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel — echoed those claims at a subsequent news briefing. Blanche described Allen as a serious threat, while also downplaying his proximity to the president and the likelihood that he ever could have caused harm to administration officials.
“Law enforcement did not fail. They did exactly what they are trained to do,” Blanche said. He said Allen had either fallen or was tackled to the ground while under fire from law enforcement.
Blanche and Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said Allen was charged with attempting to assassinate the president because of his writings — which Trump and others in the administration have referred to as a “manifesto.”
Blanche said officials have seized devices from Allen’s hotel room and his home in Torrance, which could add additional context to his motivations, but officials were not prepared to discuss what may have been found on those devices. Pirro said additional charges were pending.
Blanche emphasized that the investigation into the incident is in its early stages. It still isn’t clear, for example, who fired the shot that struck the Secret Service agent.
“We’re still looking at that,” Blanche said.
In the charging document, prosecutors included the text of the manifesto — an emailed document they allege Allen had scheduled to automatically send to family members around the time he entered the secured area at the hotel, in which he declared that Trump administration officials were his targets.
In the emailed document, titled by the writer as an “Apology and Explanation,” Allen allegedly wrote that Trump administration officials would be “prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest” in terms of how he targeted them.
“I would still go through most everyone here to get to the targets if it were absolutely necessary (on the basis that most people *chose* to attend a speech by a pedophile, rapist, and traitor, and are thus complicit) but I really hope it doesn’t come to that,” he wrote, according to the charging document.
Allen allegedly wrote that Secret Service agents were “targets only if necessary, and to be incapacitated non-lethally if possible”; that police, hotel employees and hotel guests were not his targets; and that he would be using buckshot to “minimize casualties,” according to the document.
“I don’t expect forgiveness, but if I could have seen any other way to get this close, I would have taken it,” he wrote, according to the documents. Allen, a tutor in Torrance, also apologized to his family, colleagues and students, but said he felt he had to act as a U.S. citizen represented by the Trump administration.
“What my representatives do reflects on me. And I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes,” he allegedly wrote.
The charging document also described the initial moments when Allen entered the secured area and a Secret Service agent was allegedly shot in his ballistic vest.
Prosecutors wrote that federal agents “heard a loud gunshot” as Allen rushed through a metal detector holding a long gun, that a Secret Service officer identified only by the initials “V.G.” was “shot once in the chest” in a ballistic vest, and that he “drew his service weapon and fired multiple times at ALLEN, who fell to the ground and suffered minor injuries but was not shot.”
Allen was found in possession of a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun and a Rock Island Armory 1911 .38-caliber pistol, the document alleged.
Prosecutors requested Allen be held in detention. U.S. Magistrate Judge Matthew J. Sharbaugh, who presided over the hearing, set a second hearing for Thursday morning to determine whether Allen will be held in custody.
Federal public defenders assigned to Allen after he submitted a financial affidavit to the court requesting representation noted that Allen has no prior criminal record, a factor in determining a criminal suspect’s handling before trial.
Those attorneys — Tezira Abe and Eugene Ohm — did not respond to a request for comment after the hearing.
Allen, clad in a royal blue jumpsuit, showed no visible injuries and said little at the hearing, aside from identifying himself and acknowledging that he understood the legal proceedings.
Allen had allegedly outlined his disdain for and intent to kill Trump administration officials in the manifesto written before the correspondents’ dinner. According to the New York Post, Allen in that document described himself as a “Friendly Federal Assassin” who wouldn’t hesitate to shoot any of the more than 2,600 people in attendance to reach officials.
Those at the event included hundreds of journalists and many Trump administration officials — including Vice President JD Vance and First Lady Melania Trump.
Allen had booked a room at the Washington Hilton, where the dinner took place.
Trump in a “60 Minutes” interview Sunday said he “wasn’t worried” at the sound of gunshots. “We live in a crazy world,” he said.
Trump, who has been dogged by questions about his relationship with the deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein throughout his second term, bristled at the shooter’s reference to a “pedophile” and “rapist” in the manifesto.
“I’m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody,” Trump said in the interview with CBS reporter Norah O’Donnell. “I’m not a pedophile.”
He also railed against O’Donnell for quoting that portion of the manifesto, saying it was inappropriate to do so.
During an earlier news conference Monday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the White House was considering whether to revise Secret Service protocols for large events attended by the president, despite his satisfaction with the agency’s performance at Saturday’s event.
Leavitt said the Secret Service successfully neutralized the suspect and cleared the president, first lady and vice president from the room within minutes.
Still, with major celebrations planned around the nation’s 250th anniversary, the World Cup and the Olympics, discussions on potential updates to Secret Service plans will begin this week, led by Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Leavitt said. For security reasons, the results of those discussions will likely be kept a secret, she added.
“If adjustments need to be made to protect the president, they will be made,” she said.
Leavitt also called on Congress to pass funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which houses the Secret Service, after a political impasse has led to an historic 73-day lapse in such funding.
Leavitt also suggested anti-Trump rhetoric from the president’s detractors played a role in him being targeted and needed to be toned down.
“It is inspiring these crazy people across the country to target not just the president, but those who work for him and those who support him,” Leavitt said.
“Nobody is recent years has faced more bullets and violence than President Trump,” she added. “This political violence stems from a systemic demonization of him and his supporters by commentators — yes, by elected members of the Democrat Party, and even some in the media.”
Blanche echoed that argument — pointing blame at the media, many of whom had been in the ballroom with Trump.
“When you have reporters, when you have media just being overly critical and calling the president horrible names for no reason and without evidence, without proof, it shouldn’t surprise us that this type of rhetoric takes place,” he said.
April 17 (UPI) — An Irish man who allegedly laundered money and trafficked drugs and firearms throughout Europe was arrested in Dubai after officials in Ireland tracked him around the world.
Law enforcement officials in the United Arab Emirates said in a statement that Daniel Joseph Kinahan was arrested on Wednesday after a joint international criminal investigation, The Guardian and The Washington Post reported.
Officials from both Ireland and the UAE noted that the arrest comes after work in recent years to rein in “serious and organized crime.”
“The arrest comes as part of efforts to combat cross-border crime,” Dubai police said in a statement.
“The arrest followed the receipt of a judicial file from Irish authorities detailing the suspect’s alleged crimes and his involvement in an international criminal organization,” they said.
Kinehan is one of the leaders of the Kinahan Organized Crime Group and the founder of the MTK Global boxing management company.
In addition to Irish authorities, he was also being pursued by U.S. law enforcement because he was “believed to run the day-to-day operations” of the cartel, the Biden administration said when it announced sanctions against the group in 2022.
Officials in Dubai issued an arrest warrant after getting word from Irish authorities as part of a larger operation between Ireland and the UAE to stem criminal enterprises that operated in or through the two nations.
The report from Irish law enforcement had traced in him around the globe, including the use of fake names and other methods of avoiding arrest, and Kinehan was arrested within 48 hours of the the UAE warrant being issued.
“The Real Housewives of Miami” star Lisa Hochstein has been charged with a felony for allegedly spying on her ex-husband.
Hochstein, 43, and her former partner Jody Glidden, 52, were booked on felony charges of unlawfully intercepting oral statements from the Miami housewife’s ex-husband Leonard “Lenny” Hochstein.
Hochstein turned herself in at Miami-Dade’s Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on Wednesday morning, according to NBC Miami. The embattled star’s bond was initially set for $5,000, but she was released on her own recognizance later the same day. NBC spoke with Hochstein as she left the Miami-Dade jail and asked, “How was it in there?”
Hochstein’s attorney, Jayne Weintraub, walked alongside the reality star and intercepted questions, answering, “Five stars!”
Hochstein repeated, “Yes, five stars.”
Glidden, who also appeared on “Real Housewives,” was arrested April 12. He has since been released. Hochstein and Glidden have pleaded not guilty. Her arraignment is scheduled for April 20.
According to a March 17 arrest warrant obtained by People, Hochstein and Glidden allegedly placed a recording device in Leonard Hochstein’s Mercedes-Benz following an acrimonious split back in March 2023.
The outlet reported that Leonard Hochstein loaned his car to the “Real Housewives” star after she said she wanted to take it for a test drive because she was thinking of getting one for herself. When the car was returned, Leonard Hochstein allegedly found a suspicious device in the driver‘s side floorboard, covered with tape and hidden from view. The South Florida plastic surgeon contacted his lawyer, who then brought in experts who were able to pull recordings from the device.
A total of 98 recordings were recovered, according to the affidavit, and “one of the last recordings from before the vehicle was returned to the victim depicts Lisa Hochstein and Glidden holding a discussion and the distinct sound of a device such as the hidden recorder being wrestled into place.”
Hochstein can allegedly be heard saying “done.” The warrant also states that Glidden ordered two recording devices of the exact same make and model on Amazon three months prior.
The Hochsteins’ divorce played out on Season 5 of the Bravo reality series after Leonard Hochstein admitted he was in a relationship with another woman and planned to divorce Hochstein during a hot-mic moment that shocked audiences and Hochstein alike.
After the divorce was finalized last year, Hochstein told Entertainment Tonight, “I am very happy right now. It took a long time to get here, a lot of ups and downs, highs and lows, but I’m finally on the other side, and it feels so good.”
Arrest comes after Roberts-Smith lost case against journalists who said he was involved in murders of unarmed Afghan men.
Published On 7 Apr 20267 Apr 2026
Former Australian special forces soldier Ben Roberts-Smith has been arrested at Sydney airport and is expected to face charges for alleged war crimes committed in Afghanistan, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
The 47-year-old was expected to appear in a court in New South Wales later on Tuesday over five counts of the war crime of murder, related to unarmed Afghan nationals who “were not taking part in hostilities at the time of their alleged murder”, Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett told reporters in Sydney on Tuesday, according to the ABC.
list of 4 itemsend of list
Barrett said the charges followed a “complex” investigation by the AFP news agency and the Office of the Special Investigator (OSI) dating back to 2021.
The arrest comes after Roberts-Smith lost defamation proceedings he brought against journalists who had reported he was “complicit in and responsible for the murder” of three Afghan men.
An Australian judge found in 2023 that those journalists had not defamed Roberts-Smith, a ruling that was upheld by the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia in May last year.
Rawan Arraf, the executive director of the Australian Centre for International Justice, said the arrest was a “significant and long-awaited step for victims and affected communities” in Afghanistan, where Roberts-Smith was deployed multiple times.
“The proper investigation and prosecution of alleged war crimes by members of the Australian special forces in Afghanistan are essential to ensuring justice for Afghan victims and to Australia meeting its obligations under international law,” Arraf said in a statement.
About 39,000 Australian soldiers were deployed to Afghanistan as part of the United States and NATO-led operations against the Taliban and other armed groups over two decades.
Roberts-Smith’s case has drawn considerable scrutiny in Australia, including because prior to the charges, he had received the Victoria Cross medal for his fifth tour of Afghanistan, and was reportedly the most-decorated living Australian war veteran.
Meanwhile, former Australian army lawyer David McBride remains imprisoned in Australia over his role in revealing information about alleged Australian war crimes in Afghanistan.
Australian Senator David Shoebridge responded to the news of Roberts-Smith’s arrest by saying “Release David McBride” in a short post on X.
Lawyers for Naveed Akram had argued his mother, brother and sister live in ‘constant fear’.
Source link
It comes as Mills released a statement saying he had “fully cooperated and responded” with the police investigation in 2018.
Source link
March 31 (UPI) — Three former FBI agents filed a lawsuit against FBI Director Kash Patel, Attorney General Pam Bondi and their departments Tuesday for firing them, claiming it was for political retribution.
The suit includes a proposed class-action of all FBI employees already fired or potentially fired in the future for political reasons. It was filed in the Federal District Court in Washington, D.C.
Former FBI agents Jamie Garman, Blaire Toleman and Michelle Ball served on a public corruption squad at the FBI that investigated President Donald Trump‘s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Special counsel Jack Smith eventually took over the investigation code named Arctic Frost. He dropped the charges against Trump after he was elected in 2024.
The three agents were fired last fall.
“Our removal from federal service — without due process and based on a false perception of political bias — is a profound injustice that raises serious concerns about political interference in federal law enforcement,” they said in a statement released by their lawyer, Daniel M. Eisenberg. “We bring this lawsuit to protect the rule of law and to allow our former colleagues to do their jobs without fear of retaliation.”
A federal judge will have to decide if the case can be a class-action suit. The three agents are seeking to include more than 50 FBI employees who have been fired since Trump took office.
Since taking control of the FBI in February 2025, Patel and the other defendants “have summarily terminated members of the proposed class because of their perceived political affiliation, without legitimate investigation, finding of misconduct, pre-termination notice of charges to the employees, an opportunity for the employees to present a defense, and/or any compelling or exigent circumstances,” the suit said.
At the Conservative Political Action Conference in Texas Thursday, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a speech that Patel had “cleaned house” at the FBI.
“There isn’t a single man or woman with a gun, federal agent, still in that organization that had anything to do with the prosecution of President Trump,” the lawsuit alleges Blanche said.
March 19 (UPI) — Actor Kevin Spacey settled out of court in England with three men who sued him, accusing him of sexual assault.
The cases were set for trial in the High Court this year.
The men alleged that between 2000 and 2013 Spacey, 66, assaulted them, but Spacey denies any wrongdoing.
In 2023, he was found not guilty of nine criminal sexual assault charges. Two of the accusers in the criminal trial filed the civil cases.
One accuser, known as LNP, alleged that Spacey “deliberately assaulted” him 12 times between 2000 and 2005. Another, known as GHI, said he “suffered psychiatric damage and financial loss” from an assault in 2008.
Actor Ruari Cannon, who has waived his right to anonymity, said that when he was in the Tennessee Williams play Sweet Bird of Youth at the Old Vic Theater in 2013, Spacey groped him at a party. Spacey was the artistic director at the theater at the time.
Cannon also settled with the Old Vic in a civil suit two weeks ago.
Cannon was on a BBC Channel 4 documentary, Spacey Unmasked, in 2024. Spacey called the allegation “ridiculous and it never happened.”
Spacey has been trying to win back his career, Deadline reported. Last year he said he has no home and was living out of hotels and Airbnbs and working as a lounge singer in Cyprus. He claims his struggles are like the actors who were blacklisted during McCarthyism, Deadline said.
Spacey also won a civil case in the United States in which actor Anthony Rapp said Spacey sexually assaulted him when he was 14.
Song Eon-seok, floor leader of South Korea’s People Power Party, speaks during a party strategy meeting at the National Assembly in Seoul on Friday. Photo by Asia Today
March 13 (Asia Today) — A senior opposition leader said Friday that allegations of pressure to drop criminal charges linked to aides of President Lee Jae-myung could amount to grounds for impeachment if proven true.
Song Eon-seok, floor leader of the conservative People Power Party, made the remarks during a party strategy meeting at the National Assembly.
Song cited claims made by journalist Jang In-soo during a YouTube broadcast hosted by political commentator Kim Eo-jun.
According to Song, the journalist alleged that a senior government official close to the president conveyed messages to several prosecutors asking them to drop charges in a case related to Lee.
“If such allegations are true, it would constitute grounds for impeachment of the president,” Song said.
Song also accused Justice Minister Jeong Seong-ho of acknowledging remarks that could be interpreted as pressure on prosecutors.
He argued that any attempt by a sitting minister to influence decisions about dropping charges would represent an abuse of authority and could justify impeachment proceedings against the minister.
The People Power Party is considering introducing an impeachment motion against Jeong as early as next week, according to party officials.
Opposition lawmakers also criticized recent judicial reform legislation passed by the National Assembly under the ruling party’s leadership.
Kim Eun-hye, a senior policy deputy floor leader of the People Power Party, said the justice minister should serve as a guardian of the rule of law rather than “a shield for a single individual.”
She argued that the allegations involving pressure on prosecutors and the judicial reform bills could undermine the independence of the judiciary.
Meanwhile, the ruling Democratic Party filed a defamation complaint Thursday against journalist Jang In-soo over the allegations raised during the YouTube broadcast.
— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI
© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.
Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260313010004004