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May 27 (UPI) — A court in Greece charged 17 members of the Hellenic Coast Guard and four officials in connection with a shipwreck in which as many as 650 migrants drowned in the Mediterranean Sea off the southern city of Pylos in June 2023.

Piraeus Naval Court deputy prosecutor Monday charged the captain of the coast guard vessel LS-920 with causing a shipwreck resulting in the deaths of 82 people — the number of bodies recovered — reckless interference with maritime transport and failure to provide assistance to a vessel in distress at sea.

The charges stem from an alleged bungled effort by the coastguards to tow the overloaded Adriana, which was attempting to smuggle 750 paying migrants to Italy from Libya, causing it to capsize, and then conspiring to cover it up.

Just 104 survivors were rescued. Another estimated 500 people beneath the deck of the fishing boat, including 100 women and children, remain missing, presumed drowned, according to the United Nations.

The 16 crew members were charged with being complicit in the criminal acts allegedly committed by the captain, while the then-chief of the Coast Guard and the supervisor of the National Search and Rescue Coordination Center in Piraeus were among four officials charged with “exposing others to danger.”

Under Greece’s legal system, charges do not necessarily mean a case will go to trial.

Legal counsel for the victim said the charges were “a substantial and self-evident development in the course of vindication of the victims and the delivery of justice.”

Greek authorities have consistently denied the allegations made by survivors, claiming instead that the Coast Guard had instructed nearby ships to resupply the Adriana with fuel, food and water to enable it to sail on to Italy as it was not in need of rescuing.

The Coast Guard initially declined to launch a disciplinary probe into the actions of the LS-920’s captain and crew.

However, analysis by the BBC, New York Times, The Guardian, other media outlets and human rights organizations of data and evidence from eyewitnesses found that the vessel was stationary for hours before it sank.

Critical video, call and radio traffic evidence between the Adriana and the Coast Guard, said to be unavailable due to equipment failure, which has since been leaked, appears to show the Coast Guard instructing the Adriana’s captain to tell the ships offering assistance that he wanted to continue to Italy.

In one of the tapes, a National Search and Rescue Coordination Center officer apparently coaches the captain of the Lucky Sailor, one of the vessels that resupplied the Adriana, about what he had seen and heard — “ok, ok, everybody screaming that they don’t want Greece and they want Italy? — and instructs him to make sure he records it in the ship’s log.

A trial of nine Egyptians accused of people smuggling and causing the disaster collapsed in May 2024 after a Greek court threw out the case, ruling it lacked jurisdiction because the Adriana went down 47 miles out at sea, meaning it was in international waters.

The coast guard defended its record, telling the BBC in February that it was internationally renowned for its humanitarian efforts, particularly as it had rescued more than 250,000 migrants from the seas around Greece in the past 10 years and detained at least 1,000 people smugglers.

A man has been charged with attempted murder after a police officer was critically injured after being hit by a car.

PC Christopher Miller, 38, has been in hospital with life-threatening injuries since the incident on the B416 in Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire on Thursday night.

Thames Valley Police arrested two men, aged 28 and 38, from Slough, Berkshire, on suspicion of attempted murder and causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

Simranjit Kajla, 28, has now been charged with attempted murder, the force confirmed on Tuesday.

He has also been charged with causing serious injury by dangerous driving, driving whilst disqualified and using a motor vehicle on a road without insurance.

Mr Kajla is scheduled to appear at Reading Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday.

Joseph Neumeyer, who is also a German citizen, approached the building on May 19 with Molotov cocktails, officials say.

A dual United States and German citizen has been arrested on charges that he travelled to Israel and attempted to firebomb the branch office of the US Embassy in Tel Aviv, federal prosecutors in New York have said.

Israeli officials deported Joseph Neumeyer to New York on Saturday and he had an initial court appearance before a federal judge in Brooklyn on Sunday. His criminal complaint was unsealed on Sunday.

Prosecutors say Neumeyer walked up to the embassy building on May 19 with a backpack containing Molotov cocktails, but got into a confrontation with a guard and eventually ran away, dropping his backpack as the guard tried to detain him.

Law enforcement then tracked Neumeyer down to a hotel a few blocks away from the embassy and arrested him, according to a criminal complaint filed in the Eastern District of New York.

“This defendant is charged with planning a devastating attack targeting our embassy in Israel, threatening death to Americans, and [US] President [Donald] Trump’s life,” US Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “The Department will not tolerate such violence and will prosecute this defendant to the fullest extent of the law.”

Neumeyer’s court-appointed attorney, Jeff Dahlberg, declined to comment.

The attack took place against the backdrop of Israel’s ongoing deadly war on Gaza, now in its 19th month. Nearly 54,000 Palestinians have been killed in the blockaded enclave, where a famine is now looming as Israeli forces continue to seal vital border crossings and uphold a crippling blockade on humanitarian aid including food, medicine, and fuel.

Neumeyer, 28, who is originally from Colorado and has dual US and German citizenship, had travelled from the US to Canada in early February and then arrived in Israel in late April, according to court records.

He had made a series of threatening social media posts before attempting the attack, prosecutors said.

During his first term, Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital despite Palestinian objections, in a move that has not been recognised by the international community. He also moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.

GOVERNMENT officials are investigating the possibility of Russia having links to arson attacks at properties belonging to Sir Keir Starmer, it is claimed.

Two homes and a car previously owned by the Prime Minister were torched earlier this month.

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Officials probing whether the three Ukrainian-born men charged with arson or conspiring to commit arson were recruited by the Kremlin, according to senior Whitehall figures.

This is just one of many lines of investigation being explored.

Talks are ongoing on how to respond if this proves to be the case, they told the Financial Times.

Even if there are found to be Russian links that does not mean the suspects were aware of any Kremlin involvement.

Cops have already said they suspect the trio of suspects could be part of a wider community.

However, they are keeping an open mind about motive.

The inquiry is being led by the Met’s counterterrorism command due to the connection to a high profile public figure, the force previously confirmed.

The suspects have been charged with criminal as opposed to national security offences.

Petro Pochynok, 34, is accused of conspiring to damage by fire the PM’s former Toyota Rav4, a property where he once lived and his family’s former house with intent to endanger life.

Models Roman Lavrynovych, 21, and Stanislav Carpiuc, 26, are also charged with plotting arsons between April 17 and May 13.

The charges relate to a vehicle fire in Kentish Town on May 8, a fire at the entrance of a property in Islington on May 11 and a fire at a residential address in Kentish Town in the early hours of May 12.

The three suspects deny the charges.

On Monday, police raided a two-bed North London flat said to have been previously shared by Pochynok and Carpiuc, his dad and brother until about six months ago.

Pochynok is said to have last visited the property three weeks ago.

Six officers were seen carrying evidence bags out after spending about four hours inside.

Carpiuc was arrested last Saturday at Luton Airport as he prepared to catch a Wizz Air flight to Romania.

He studied business at Canterbury Christ Church University in Kent, and is awaiting his results.

On website StarNow.com, Carpiuc said he wanted to be the “top male model in the world”.

The suspects have not displayed any links to Russia.

One has previously posted pro Ukraine messaging on social media.

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Only a few months ago, former Irvine Vice Mayor Tammy Kim had aspirations of returning to the City Council she previously served on for four years.

Now her immediate goal is to fight off charges that could put her in prison for several years.

The Orange County district attorney’s office announced Thursday afternoon that Kim was charged with 10 felonies tied to allegedly lying about her residency during her City Council tenure and while campaigning for mayor last fall.

Kim was formally charged with three felony counts of perjury by declaration, three felony counts of filing a false document, and one felony count each of a public official aiding the illegal casting of votes, of filing false nominations papers, of knowing of the registration of someone not entitled to vote and of voter registration fraud. She was also charged with a misdemeanor of making a false statement.

She could spend up to 11 years and two months in state prison and county jail if convicted on all counts.

She is scheduled to be arraigned Friday morning.

Kim briefly responded to a call from The Times, saying she was advised not to share too much per her attorney, Caroline Hahn.

“We’re entering a not guilty plea,” Kim said.

Hahn added that she and her client “planned to launch a vigorous defense” but did not answer further questions.

Kim is accused of using two fraudulent addresses while running for mayor in the November 2024 election and then in a City Council special election in early 2025, according to the criminal complaint. She owned a condo in the city’s 3rd District, where she had lived since 2015, according to a separate lawsuit filed against Kim to get her thrown off the City Council ballot.

Kim won election to the Irvine City Council in November 2020, receiving nearly 44,000 votes a 14-person, top-three-candidate race.

At that time, city elections in Irvine used an at-large voting system, meaning candidates could live anywhere in the city.

The city moved to district elections in the fall 2024, requiring council members to live in the districts they represent. Only voters from those districts could vote for those candidates.

Kim served until November 2024 when she ran for and ultimately lost a mayoral campaign to Councilmember Larry Agran by a margin of nearly 5,000 votes.

The district attorney’s office believes Kim improperly used an address to run for mayor, no longer claiming to live in the 3rd District condo she had owned for a decade.

To run for mayor, Kim changed her California driver’s license and her voter registration to a home in the 5th District, where she never lived, according to the criminal complaint.

The home belonged to a family Kim met through a Korean teaching class, the complaint alleges. Kim did not inform the family that she was using their address, according to the complaint.

She has been charged with certifying that address as her own under the penalty of perjury.

Kim eventually finished her campaign and voted in November’s mayoral race based out of the 5th Diistrict home.

Shortly after her defeat, Kim declared her candidacy in December to fill the now- vacant 5th District seat, which Agran left after winning the mayoral election.

Kim eventually found a room in another 5th District home on Jan. 10 and changed her California driver’s registration that same day, according to the complaint. She then filed new nomination paperwork with the new 5th District address, according to the complaint.

Later that month, former mayoral candidate Ron Scolesdang sued Kim, claiming that she was fraudulently using an incorrect address. Scolesdang had hired a private investigator to monitor Kim, according to that lawsuit.

Kim eventually dropped out of the race on Feb. 7, the same day a Superior Court judge removed her name from the ballot.

Betty Franco Martinez won the special election.

Federal prosecutors have filed charges against a man suspected of fatally shooting two Israeli embassy staff workers in the United States capital of Washington, DC.

In a federal court on Thursday, Elias Rodriguez was accused of two counts of first-degree murder, as well as charges of murdering foreign officials, causing death with a firearm and discharging a firearm in a crime of violence.

In a news conference afterwards, interim US Attorney Jeanine Pirro warned that those charges were only the beginning — and that her prosecutors were combing through evidence for other crimes.

“This is a horrific crime, and these crimes are not going to be tolerated by me and by this office,” Pirro said.

“We’re going to continue to investigate this as a hate crime and a crime of terrorism, and we will add additional charges as the evidence warrants.”

Rodriguez is accused of shooting Israeli citizen Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, an American, both employees of the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC.

The attack took place around 9:08pm US Eastern time on Wednesday evening (01:08 GMT Thursday), as the two employees were leaving an event hosted by the pro-Israel American Jewish Committee at the Capital Jewish Museum. Both were pronounced dead at the scene.

Israeli embassy staff have said that the young couple were set to be engaged in the coming days.

“A young couple — at the beginning of their life’s journey, about to be engaged, in another country — had their bodies removed in the cold of the night, in a foreign city, in a body bag. We are not going to tolerate that anymore,” said Pirro, appearing to allude primarily to Lischinsky’s foreign roots.

“This is the kind of case that picks at old sores and old scars, because these kinds of cases remind us of what has happened in the past that we can never and must never forget.”

She pointed out that the Wednesday night attack took place at a museum that includes one of Washington’s oldest synagogues in the centre of the city.

Washington Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said that the suspect chanted, “Free Palestine! Free Palestine!” after the shooting. Rodriguez, who hailed from Chicago, appears to have identified himself to police and was arrested shortly after the shooting.

An affidavit from the Federal Bureau of Investigation notes that Rodriguez told police, “I did it for Palestine. I did it for Gaza.”

The shooting, which has been widely condemned, comes as Israel faces growing global anger over its war on Gaza, where a blockade has left millions of Palestinians without food or basic supplies.

Experts at human rights organisations and the United Nations have compared the war, which has killed at least 53,000 people, to ethnic cleansing and genocide.

Since the war began on October 7, 2023, Jewish, Muslim and Arab communities have all reported upticks in harassment and racism.

In the aftermath of Wednesday’s shooting, officials spoke out against anti-Semitism, and the administration of President Donald Trump promised to pursue every legal avenue against the suspect.

“The Department of Justice will be prosecuting the perpetrator responsible for this to the fullest extent of the law,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday. “Hatred has no place in the United States of America under President Donald Trump.”

She went on to compare antiwar protests at US universities, which have been largely peaceful, to “ anti-Semitic illegal behaviour”. Protest leaders, however, have largely disavowed anti-Jewish hate.

In the wake of the shooting, one US Congress member told Fox News that the “Palestinian cause” was “evil”. Republican Representative Randy Fine continued by suggesting the Gaza war should end like World War II did, with the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan.

“We nuked the Japanese twice in order to get unconditional surrender,” he said. “That needs to be the same here. There is something deeply, deeply wrong with this culture, and it needs to be defeated.”

Separately, the Israeli government denounced the shooting as an attack against its state.

“We are witness to the terrible cost of the antisemitism and wild incitement against the State of Israel,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.

British police say Mo Chara displayed a flag of Lebanon’s Hezbollah at a concert.

A member of the Irish rap band Kneecap has been charged with a “terrorism” offence in the United Kingdom for waving a flag of the armed Lebanese group Hezbollah at a concert in November 2024 in London.

Liam O’Hanna, whose stage name is Mo Chara, is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London on June 18, charged under the Terrorism Act, British police said on Wednesday.

Kneecap has been vocal in its support for the Palestinian cause since the October 7, 2023-led Hamas attacks and Israel’s devastating war on Gaza, equating the struggles of the Irish under British colonial rule to that of Palestinians under that of Israel.

Pro-Palestinian chants are a regular fixture in their gigs. The band says they have been targets of a smear campaign for calling out Israel’s genocidal war.

KNEECAP STATEMENT:

Since our statements at Coachella — exposing the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people — we have faced a coordinated smear campaign.

For over a year, we have used our shows to call out the British and Irish governments’ complicity in war crimes.… pic.twitter.com/mBojb5QBOP

— KNEECAP (@KNEECAPCEOL) April 25, 2025

The Belfast trio is also well known for its political and satirical lyrics and use of symbolism associated with the Irish Republican movement, which seeks to unite Northern Ireland, currently part of the UK, with the Republic of Ireland.

More than 3,600 people were killed during three decades of violence in Northern Ireland during “The Troubles” involving the Irish Republican Army (IRA), pro-British Loyalist militias and the UK security forces.

Kneecap takes its name from a brutal punishment, which involved being shot in the kneecaps, that was meted out by paramilitary groups to informers and drug dealers.

The band has been praised for invigorating the Irish-language cultural scene in Northern Ireland, where the status of the language remains a contested political issue in a society still split between Protestant British Unionists and Catholic Irish Nationalist communities.

It has also been criticised for lyrics laden with expletives and drug references.

Kneecap came under intense scrutiny and criticism last month during their performance at the music festival Coachella in California when they projected the words “F*** Israel. Free Palestine.” on stage.

“The Irish not so long ago were persecuted by the Brits, but we were never bombed from the f****** skies with nowhere to go! The Palestinians have nowhere to go – it’s their f****** home and they’re bombing them from the sky. If you’re not calling it a genocide what the f*** are you calling it?” read the words projected by Mo Chara.

Kneecap came under renewed scrutiny at the start of this month when UK intelligence said they would investigate comments made by the rap group about UK and Middle East politics.

They were reported to police over footage from a 2024 concert in which a band member appeared to say: “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.” Footage from another concert, in 2023, appears to show a member of the trio shouting “Up Hamas, Up Hezbollah” – the UK considers both to be “terrorist” organisations.

In response, Kneecap said it had “never supported Hamas or Hezbollah,” and accused “establishment figures” of taking comments out of context to “manufacture moral hysteria” because of the band’s criticism of Israel’s attacks on Palestinians in Gaza.

Several Kneecap gigs have been cancelled as a result of the controversy, and some British lawmakers have called on organisers of June’s Glastonbury Festival to scrap a planned performance by the group.

Washington, DC – United States Congresswoman LaMonica McIver has been charged with assaulting a law enforcement officer after a standoff at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in early May.

On Tuesday, Democrats denounced the charge as an attempt by the administration of Republican President Donald Trump to silence his political rivals for speaking out against his deportation campaign.

In a post on the social media platform X, Democratic Representative Gil Cisneros blasted the administration for having “gone after judges, prosecutors, and now, Members of Congress” in its attempts to stifle dissent.

“The charges against Rep McIver are a blatant political attack and an attempt to prohibit Members of Congress from conducting oversight,” Cisneros wrote.

The charge was announced on Monday evening, with federal prosecutor Alina Habba —Trump’s former personal lawyer — accusing McIver of having “assaulted, impeded, and interfered” with law enforcement.

“The conduct cannot be overlooked,” Habba wrote in a statement. “It is my constitutional obligation to ensure that our federal law enforcement is protected when executing their duties.”

The criminal charge stemmed from an incident on May 9, when McIver joined two other members of Congress for an oversight tour of Delaney Hall, a privately run immigration detention facility in Newark, New Jersey.

The visit devolved into a fracas involving elected officials, protesters and federal law enforcement agents. The mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, was arrested at the scene for alleged trespassing.

In Monday’s statement, Habba announced the charge against Baraka has since been dropped “for the sake of moving forward”. But his arrests likewise spurred outcry over possible political motives.

‘Intimidate and interfere’

Late on Monday, McIver responded to the charges against her with a statement of her own, saying she and other members of Congress were “fulfilling our lawful oversight responsibilities” when they visited the detention centre.

McIver accused ICE agents at the scene of creating an “unnecessary and unsafe confrontation”. She added that the charges against her “mischaracterise and distort my actions”.

“The charges against me are purely political,” McIver wrote.

Top Democrats also remained defiant in the face of the Trump administration’s accusations, saying they would continue their oversight duties at immigration facilities like Delaney Hall.

“The criminal charge against Congresswoman LaMonica McIver is extreme, morally bankrupt and lacks any basis in law or fact,” Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives said in a joint statement.

They underscored that they have a right as Congress members to show up at federal facilities unannounced for inspections.

The charges against McIver, they argued, are a “blatant attempt by the Trump administration to intimidate Congress and interfere with our ability to serve as a check and balance on an out-of-control executive branch”.

In a separate statement, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee said the criminal charge was a “dangerous precedent” that “reveals the increasingly authoritarian nature of this administration”.

“Representative McIver has our full support, and we will do everything in our power to help fight this outrageous threat to our constitutional system,” they said.

Democrats have denounced the Trump administration’s push for “mass deportation” as violating constitutional and human rights. As part of that push, the Trump White House has sought to expand the use of private detention centres to house the growing number of people arrested for deportation.

Mayor Baraka, in particular, has repeatedly protested the 1,000-bed Delaney Hall for opening without the proper permits and approvals. Its operator, The GEO Group, has denied any violations.

The facility became operational in early May, under a 15-year agreement made with ICE.

Federal prosecutors alleged Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver of New Jersey pushed and grabbed officers while attempting to block the arrest of the Newark, N.J., mayor outside an immigration detention facility, according to charges in court papers unsealed on Tuesday.

In an eight-page complaint, interim U.S. Atty. Alina Habba’s office said McIver was protesting the removal of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka from a congressional tour of the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark on May 9.

The complaint says she attempted to stop the arrest of the mayor and pushed into agents for Homeland Security Investigations and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She faces two counts of assaulting, resisting and impeding an officer.

McIver has denied any wrongdoing and has accused federal agents of escalating the situation by arresting the mayor. She denounced the charge as “purely political” and said prosecutors are distorting her actions in an effort to deter legislative oversight.

Habba had charged Baraka with trespassing after his arrest but dismissed the allegation on Monday when she said in a social media post that she instead was charging the congresswoman.

Prosecuting McIver is a rare federal criminal case against a sitting member of Congress for allegations other than fraud or corruption.

The case instantly taps into a broader and more consequential struggle between a Trump administration engaged in overhauling immigration policy and a Democratic Party scrambling to respond.

Within minutes of Habba’s announcement, McIver’s Democratic colleagues cast the prosecution as an infringement on lawmakers’ official duties to serve their constituents and an effort to silence their opposition to an immigration policy that helped propel the president back into power but now has emerged as a divisive fault line in American political discourse.

Members of Congress are authorized by law to go into federal immigration facilities as part of their oversight powers, even without advance notice. Congress passed a 2019 appropriations bill that spelled out the authority.

A nearly two-minute clip released by the Homeland Security Department shows McIver on the facility side of a chain-link fence just before the arrest of the mayor on the street side of the fence. She and uniformed officials go through the gate and she joins others shouting they should circle the mayor. The video shows McIver in a tightly packed group of people and officers. At one point, her left elbow and then her right elbow push into an officer wearing a dark face covering and an olive green uniform emblazoned with the word “Police” on it.

It isn’t clear from body camera video whether that contact was intentional, incidental or a result of jostling in the chaotic scene.

The complaint says she “slammed” her forearm into an agent and then tried to restrain the agent by grabbing him.

Tom Homan, President Trump’s top border advisor, said during an interview on Fox News on Tuesday that “she broke the law and we’re going to hold her accountable.”

“You can’t put hands on an ICE employee,” he said. “We’re not going to tolerate it.”

McIver, 38, first came to Congress in September in a special election after the death of Rep. Donald Payne Jr. left a vacancy in the 10th District. She was then elected to a full term in November. A Newark native, she served as the president of the Newark City Council from 2022 to 2024 and worked in the city’s public schools before that.

House Democratic leaders decried the criminal case against their colleague in a lengthy statement in which they called the charge “extreme, morally bankrupt” and lacking “any basis in law or fact.”

Catalini, Richer and Tucker write for the Associated Press.

A MAN and his company have been charged after a 27 tonne mountain of rotting rubbish was dumped in a road.

The mound of industrial waste, which is longer than two double-decker buses combined, was dumped by fly-tippers back in January.

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Furious locals complained about being trapped inside their homes by the humongous 80ft mountain of waste.

Local businesses were also been left stranded due to the blockage on Watery Lane in Lichfield, Staffordshire.

Now, Lichfield District Council said a man from Uttoxeter now faces multiple charges.

These include depositing waste, endangering road users, dangerous driving, breaching HGV drivers’ hours regulations, and obstructing the highway.

A company, based near Stafford, has been charged with depositing the waste and obstructing the highway.

Resident Elaine Hutchings, who owns a livery yard, previously said that the festering pile could be smelled from a distance.

She explained that the rural road – which was already inaccessible on one end due to ongoing works – was now completely unusable.

She said: “It’s industrial rubbish, building waste, you can smell it.

“Watery Lane is used as a cut-through. The one end was already shut due to scheduled works and this being dumped this morning means residents and businesses will be left isolated.”

She added that nine or ten households had been cut off – with a small number, including Elaine’s, able to escape their properties via an alternative route set up by housing developer Redrow.

The local told how staff from Lichfield District Council had been on-site to move the build-up, adding: “I had a message from a farmer and they sent me a photograph.

“I drove up and called the council, councillors and the police were already there.

“They are trying to sort the logistics of trying to get it moved.”

Both the man and company who have been charged are due to appear at Cannock Magistrates’ Court on July 1.

Councillor Doug Pullen, the leader of Lichfield District Council, said: “This was an appalling act of environmental crime.

“Local people woke up to find their only route to and from their homes completely blocked, and the cost to the taxpayer of removing and disposing of the waste was nearly £10,000.

“Thanks to the swift action of our environmental health officers, suspects were quickly identified, leading to these charges.

“We take a zero-tolerance approach to fly-tipping, because that’s what our communities rightly expect.

“This case is about more than prosecution. It’s about protecting our environment, supporting law-abiding businesses, safeguarding local people—and sending a strong message that illegal dumping will not be tolerated.”

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May 17 (UPI) — Three Iranian men were charged with National Security Act violations for targeting U.K.-based journalists with “serious violence” during a Saturday court appearance.

Mostafa Sepahvand, 39, Farhad Javadi Manesh, 44, and Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, 55, of London were charged in the Westminster Magistrates Court in London, the BBC reported.

Sepahvand also is charged with “surveillance, reconnaissance and open-source research” while planning to commit “serious violence against a person in the U.K.”

The trio are London residents who have sought asylum and were arrested on May 3 for “engaging in conduct likely to assist a foreign intelligence service” from Aug. 14 to Feb. 16, CNN reported.

Iran’s foreign intelligence service is the one they are accused of assisting by allegedly surveilling and targeting journalists for Iran International, which is an independent media outlet based in London.

The three are Iranian citizens and entered the United Kingdom between 2016 and 2022.

Sepahvand hid inside a lorry when he arrived in 2016, while the other two arrived in small boats.

Each was granted temporary asylum shortly after arriving in the United Kingdom.

None of the three entered pleas during Saturday’s court hearing, and the three men have another court hearing scheduled on June 6 at the Old Bailey Central Criminal Court in London.

A second man has been charged in connection with an alleged assault at a London nightclub involving R&B star Chris Brown.

US national Omolulu Akinlolu – the artist known as HoodyBaby – will appear at Manchester Magistrates’ Court later charged with grievous bodily harm with intent, the Metropolitan Police said.

Brown, 36, appeared at the same court on the same charge on Friday and was remanded in custody.

He is accused of using a bottle to cause grievous bodily harm to music producer Abe Diaw at the Tape club in London’s Mayfair in 2023.

Brown, who was arrested at Salford’s Lowry Hotel on Thursday, will next appear at London’s Southwark Crown Court on 13 June.

The American singer was scheduled to perform in Amsterdam on 8 June, before heading to Germany then embarking on dates in the UK.

Akinlolu, a rapper and producer, and Brown are known to be friends and have collaborated on a range of musical projects.

May 14 (UPI) — A Russian Harvard University Medical School researcher held in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody since February has been arrested and charged with smuggling biological material into the United States.

The one count of smuggling goods into the United States was announced by the Justice Department on Wednesday, marking a dramatic escalation in the case that has garnered attention from academics.

According to the affidavit in support of the criminal complaint — which was dated Monday but made public Wednesday — Kseniia Petrova had frog embryos and embryonic samples in her possession when entering the country that she did not declare to immigration authorities.

The document states she arrived at Boston’s Logan International Airport from Paris on Feb. 16. A Customs and Border Protection canine alerted its handler to Petrova’s bag, which was removed and brought to an agricultural secondary inspection area for further screening where biological items were found.

When questioned about it, she allegedly denied carrying any biological material, but a search of a plastic bag she was carrying revealed additional biological material.

Under oath, she admitted that the items were biological material and said she was not sure if she was supposed to declare them on her arrival, the document states, adding that a search of her found text messages to the contrary.

“[I]f you bring samples or antibody back, make sure you get the permission,” one text message she received from an unidentified person said.

“What is your plan to pass the American … Customs with samples? This is the most delicate place of the trajectory,” another text message read.

A third message to Petrova’s phone had asked: “what is your plan for getting through customs with samples?”

“No plan yet,” Petrova allegedly replied, according to excerpts of the messages included in the court document. “I won’t be able to swallow them.”

If convicted, Petrova could face up to 20 years in prison, five years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.

“The rule of law does not have a carve out for educated individuals with pedigree,” U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said in a recorded statement.

The affidavit states her visa was canceled at the airport.

“The U.S. visa that Ms. Petrova was given — which was revoked by customs officials as a result of her conduct — is a privilege, not a right.”

Her lawyer, Gregory Romanovsky, told The New York Times that Petrova’s J-1 visa was canceled and that deportation proceedings were initiated.

He said normally, a case like this would be treated as a minor infraction, and that filing the criminal charge three months after the alleged violation, “is clearly intended to make Kseniia look like a criminal to justify their efforts to deport her.”

Romanovsky also added that a Vermont hearing held earlier Wednesday had essentially established that his client was detained unlawfully and that the complaint had “blindsided” them, and Petrova’s transfer from immigration to criminal custody was “suspect” as it occurred right after a judge set a bail hearing, signaling she could be released.

During the Vermont hearing, U.S. District Judge Christina Reiss had questioned the government over the legality of its actions.

“Where does a Customs and Border Patrol officer have the authority on his or her own to revoke a visa?” Reiss asked, NBC News reported.

“You cannot be found inadmissible because of the customs violation.”

According to the affidavit, Petrova told customs that she is fearful of going back to Russia.

“She claimed she had protested the Russian Federation,” the affidavit states. “She provided no other details.”

In an opinion piece she wrote for The New York Times — and which was published Tuesday — Petrova states she had left Russia after being arrested for protesting its war in Ukraine.

The charge was filed as the Trump administration has been conducting a crackdown on immigration, including targeting foreign-born academics, particularly over their support for Palestine amid Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.

Some of those detained students have been released by judges who have ruled against the Trump administration’s use of immigration enforcement to seek to deport them.

Last week, White House senior adviser Stephen Miller said they are “actively looking at” suspending the writ of habeas corpus, which is the right to challenge the legality of a person’s detention by the government.

PA Media

‘Evidence review’

‘Moral probity’