denies

Sri Lanka and New Zealand were forced to settle for a point each after their Women’s World Cup match in Colombo was abandoned because of rain.

Co-hosts Sri Lanka had racked up 258-6 after opting to bat first, thanks to the fastest fifty of the tournament so far, coming up off 26 balls, from Nilakshi de Silva.

The 36-year-old finished unbeaten on 55 from 28 balls after captain Chamari Athapaththu had hit a classy 53 from 72 balls in an opening stand of 101 with Vishmi Gurunaratne, who made 42 from 83 balls.

That left New Zealand needing their highest second-innings total at a World Cup for victory, only for the rain to arrive before the chase could begin.

The umpires officially abandoned the match at 16:45 BST.

While Sri Lanka will be frustrated to be denied a chance to claim a first victory of the tournament, the result leaves New Zealand facing a real battle to reach the semi-finals.

Sophie Devine’s side are a point off the top four and take on Pakistan on Saturday before tough matches against India and England to finish the group stage.

Musk, considered the world’s richest man, had argued his ‘incredibly busy’ schedule made attending the Washington, DC, case a burden.

Billionaire Elon Musk has failed to persuade a federal judge in Washington, DC, to move a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit over the late disclosure of his growing Twitter stake to Texas after saying he was too busy to defend himself in the nation’s capital.

US District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan said on Thursday she “takes Mr. Musk’s convenience seriously” but that the world’s richest person has “considerable means” and spends at least 40 percent of his time outside Texas.

“Indeed,” she wrote, “Mr. Musk’s brief itself indicates that he has spent substantial time here this year,” referencing when he ran the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under President Donald Trump.

Sooknanan also said Texas judges have bigger caseloads than in her court and she could proceed with “reasonable alacrity”.

In seeking to move the case, Musk said he was an “incredibly busy individual” who works 80-plus-hour weeks and often sleeps in his office or factory. He argued that litigating in Washington, DC, would impose “substantial burdens”.

Lawyers for Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Reuters news agency. A spokesperson for the SEC had no comment, citing the government shutdown that began on Wednesday.

Musk’s fortune surpassed $500 billion for the first time that day, according to the publication Forbes.

The SEC sued Musk in January, saying his 11-day delay in revealing his initial 5-percent Twitter stake in early 2022 let him buy more than $500m of shares at artificially low prices.

It wants Musk to pay a civil fine and give up $150m he allegedly saved at the expense of unsuspecting investors. Musk is seeking to dismiss the case. He bought all of Twitter for $44bn in October 2022 and renamed it X.

Musk lives in Austin, Texas, and his companies Tesla, SpaceX and the Boring tunnel business are based in the state.

Sooknanan rejected Musk’s alternative proposal to move the SEC case to Manhattan, where former Twitter shareholders are suing him.

BALTIMORE — A U.S. immigration judge on Wednesday denied a bid for asylum from Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose case has become a proxy for the partisan power struggle over immigration policy.

The judge in the Baltimore immigration court denied an application to reopen Abrego Garcia’s 2019 asylum case, but that is not the final word. Abrego Garcia has 30 days to appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals.

The Salvadoran national has an American wife and children and has lived in Maryland for years, but he originally immigrated to the U.S. illegally as a teenager. In 2019, he was arrested by immigration agents. He requested asylum but was not eligible because he had been in the country for more than a year. However, the judge ruled that he could not be deported to El Salvador, where he faced danger from a gang that targeted his family.

When he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March and kept in a notorious prison, his case became a rallying point for those who opposed President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. Facing a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court, Trump’s Republican administration returned Abrego Garcia to the U.S. in June, only to immediately charge him with human smuggling.

While he faces those criminal charges in Tennessee, based on a 2022 traffic stop, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is also seeking to deport him to a third country, proposing Uganda first and then Eswatini.

Loller writes for the Associated Press. Loller reported from Nashville, Tenn.

HONOLULU — Lawyers for a Hawaii real estate investor and broker who sued Shohei Ohtani and his agent denied any improper use of the Dodgers star’s likeness for a development project and alleged the agent was trying to deflect blame for cost overruns at the player’s home.

Ohtani and Nez Balelo of CAA Baseball were sued Aug. 8 in Hawaii Circuit Court for the First Circuit by developer Kevin J. Hayes Sr., real estate broker Tomoko Matsumoto, West Point Investment Corp. and Hapuna Estates Property Owners. They accused Ohtani and Balelo of “abuse of power” that allegedly resulted in tortious interference and unjust enrichment impacting a $240 million luxury housing development on the Big Island’s coveted Hapuna Coast.

Hayes and Matsumoto had been dropped from the development deal by Kingsbarn Realty Capital, the joint venture’s majority owner.

The amended complaint filed Tuesday added Creative Artists Agency and CAA Sports as defendants.

“Balelo and CAA sought to deflect blame by scapegoating Hayes for the cost overruns on Otani’s home — overruns caused entirely by defendants’ own decisions,” the complaint said.

“The allegations as we clarified them make very clear that there was never a breach of the endorsement agreement, the video that was posted on the website promoting specifically this project was sent to Balelo and CAA and another adviser to Ohtani, Mark Daulton, and they were aware of it and never objected to it,” said Josh Schiller, a lawyer for Hayes and the suing entities.

In a motion to dismiss filed Sept. 14, attorneys for Ohtani and Balelo said “plaintiffs exploited Ohtani’s name and photograph to drum up traffic to a website that marketed plaintiffs’ own side project development.”

“This is a desperate attempt to avoid dismissal of a frivolous complaint and, as we previously said, to distract from plaintiffs’ myriad of failures and their blatant misappropriation of Shohei Ohtani’s rights,” Laura Smolowe, a lawyer for Ohtani and Balelo, said in a statement. “Nez Balelo has always prioritized Mr. Ohtani’s best interests, including protecting his name, image, and likeness from unauthorized use.”

Lawyers for Hayes and the plaintiffs claimed they kept Balelo and CAA informed.

“Before the website went live, Hayes submitted a link to the entire site — including its promotional aspects — by email to Balelo and Terry Prince, the director of legal and business Affairs at CAA Sports LLC,” the amended complaint said. “It remained online with no material changes for 14 months before Balelo suddenly objected and threatened litigation — weaponizing the issue in order to create pretext for yet another set of demands and concessions.”

“The sudden demand that Kingsbarn terminate plaintiffs was instead a retaliatory measure against Hayes for resisting the constant and improper demands of Balelo and (Ohtani),” the complaint added. “Defendants further calculated that, with plaintiffs removed, they could more easily extract financial concessions from the project and enrich themselves at plaintiffs’ expense.”

Kawhi Leonard mumbled his way through a few answers to questions Monday about his endorsement deal with Aspiration Partners that has triggered an NBA investigation into whether the Clippers circumvented the league salary cap.

The Clippers allowed only two reporters to ask about the deal during media day at Intuit Dome, refusing to give the microphone to additional reporters — including one from The Times — who raised their hands to ask questions. Leonard was ushered off the dais and out of sight.

“The NBA is going to do their job,” Leonard said. “None of us did no wrongdoing and, yeah, that’s it. We invite the investigation.”

Asked about his understanding of the endorsement deal and whether he performed any services, Leonard replied, “I understand the full contract and services that I had to do. Like I said, I don’t deal with conspiracies or the click-bait analysts or journalism that’s going on.

“I don’t think it’s accurate” that he provided no endorsement services to Aspiration, he said. “It’s old. This is all new to you guys. But the company went bankrupt a while ago, so we already knew this was going to happen.”

He added that he wasn’t paid all the money due to him, saying “I’m not sure [how much I’m owed]. I’ve got to go back and look at the books. … The company went belly up and it was fine.”

Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard speaks during media day at the Intuit Dome on Monday.

(Eric Thayer / Associated Press)

Lawrence Frank, Clippers president of basketball operations, was insistent that the investigation will exonerate owner Steve Ballmer and the franchise.

“We appreciate that there will be a clear-eyed look at these allegations,” Frank said. “And we are eager for the truth to come out.

“The assumptions and conclusions that have been made are disappointing and upsetting. And we expect the investigation will show that these allegations are wrong.”

The salary cap limits what teams can spend on player payroll to ensure parity and prevent the wealthiest teams from outspending smaller-market teams to acquire the best player. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has called attempts to circumvent it a “cardinal sin.”

In this case, Leonard agreed to a $28-million contract for endorsement and marketing work for Aspiration, which went out of business in March. Players are allowed to have separate endorsement and other business deals. At issue in this case is whether the Clippers participated in arranging the side deal beyond simply introducing Aspiration executives to Leonard.

The most painful penalties the NBA could impose would be suspending Ballmer for a maximum of one year and docking the Clippers their first-round draft picks for up to five years. The team already is without a first-round pick in 2026 and 2028, having traded them away. Forfeiting the remaining picks through 2032 would make it harder for the Clippers to compete for their first-ever NBA championship.

“I hurt for Steve,” Frank said. “He’s one of the best people, most honorable people I’ve met. He does things the right way for the right reasons. And he constantly reminds us to stay on the right side of the rules.

“I also hurt for our players, our staff and fans. And, on a larger level, as I’ve learned about this over the past month, I feel bad for all the people defrauded by [Aspiration].”

Frank said a partition exists between team executives and companies that signed players for endorsements.

“Endorsement contracts are completely separate from player contracts,” he said. “So what a player makes, Kawhi, or any of our other players, in endorsement contracts, I have no idea.”

Ballmer, however, had a 2-3% ownership share in Aspiration and made separate investments of $50 million and $10 million in the company. Whether that same partition applied to him is something NBA investigators will examine, according to Michael McCann, a visiting professor of law at Harvard who has followed the situation closely.

Frank emphasized that the Clippers front office takes the salary cap rules seriously.

“The salary cap governs everything we do,” he said. “Our mission every day is to build the best team we can under the constraints of the cap. There is no gray area. There are no secret shortcuts. It’s clear what we are and are not allowed to do.”

Whether Leonard was as clear about the rules remains unknown. The forward who is under contract for two more seasons and $100 million said the upcoming season is all he’s thinking about.

“I’m not getting into any conspiracy theories or anything like that,” he said. “It’s about the season and what we’ve got ahead of us right now.”

Greta Thunberg has pushed back on criticism that a Gaza-bound flotilla she is a part of is a publicity stunt, saying no one would imperil themselves purely for attention.

The Swedish activist is aboard one of 52 boats that form the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF), which is travelling toward Gaza with the aim of delivering humanitarian aid to Palestinians there.

Israeli authorities have ridiculed the GSF flotilla and similar seaborne attempts to reach the territory, calling the boat Thunberg travelled on in June a “selfie yacht”.

Asked about these criticisms of the flotilla by the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, the activist said: “I don’t think anyone would risk their life for a publicity stunt.”

Speaking while sailing off the Greek coast, she said the flotilla was not just a humanitarian mission but was also sending a message to people in Gaza that “when our governments fail to step up, the people will step up”.

International aid agencies have been attempting to get food and medicine into the Palestinian territory – but note Israel is restricting the flow of supplies. Israel claims it is attempting to stop those supplies falling into the hands of Hamas, and has approved a US-backed aid agency.

Last month, a UN-backed body confirmed that there was famine in Gaza and the UN’s humanitarian chief said it was the direct result of Israel’s “systematic obstruction” of aid entering the territory. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called this an “outright lie”.

Thunberg said the purpose of the flotilla was to “break Israel’s illegal and inhumane siege on Gaza by sea”. The Israeli military has long controlled the waters that border Gaza.

Earlier this month, the flotilla came under attack by drones which dropped unidentified objects onto boats outside the Tunisian port of Sidi Bou Said.

Another suspected drone attack on Wednesday, off the coast of Crete, led Spain and Italy to deploy naval ships to assist the flotilla.

Addressing the incidents, Thunberg accused Israeli officials of making “baseless threats” that violate international law, and asked: “Why would they attack a peaceful humanitarian mission aiming to bring humanitarian aid to a starving population?”

Israel has not commented on the drone attack, but has previously said it would not let the flotilla reach its destination.

Thunberg and 11 other activists were detained by Israeli authorities in June after they intercepted another boat heading for Gaza with a token amount of aid in the Mediterranean.

She was held in Tel Aviv for a day before being deported to France.

Thunberg accused Israel of illegally kidnapping her and the other activists while they were in international waters. Israel said it had prevented a breach of the maritime blockade around Gaza.

PARK RIDGE, Ill. — It was 3:30 a.m. when 10 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers gathered in a parking lot in the Chicago suburbs for a briefing about a suspect they were hoping to arrest. They went over a description of the person, made sure their radios were on the same channel and discussed where the closest hospital was in case something went wrong.

“Let’s plan on not being there,” said one of the officers, before they climbed into their vehicles and headed out.

Across the city and surrounding suburbs, other teams were fanning out in support of “Operation Midway Blitz.” It has unleashed President Trump’s mass deportations agenda on a city and state that has had some of the strongest laws preventing local officials from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement.

ICE launched the operation Sept. 8, drawing concern from activists and immigrant communities fearful of the large-scale arrests or aggressive tactics used in other cities targeted by the Republican president. They say there has been a noticeable increase in immigration enforcement agents, although a military deployment to Chicago has yet to materialize.

The Associated Press went on a ride-along with ICE in a Chicago suburb — much of the recent focus — to see how that operation is unfolding.

A predawn wait, then two arrests

A voice came over the radio: “He got into the car. I’m not sure if that’s the target.”

Someone matching the description of the man whom ICE was searching for walked out of the house, got into a car and drove away from the tree-lined street. Unsure whether this was their target, the officers followed. A few minutes later, with the car approaching the freeway, the voice over the radio said: “He’s got the physical description. We just can’t see the face good.”

“Do it,” said Marcos Charles, the acting head of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations.

Agents in multiple vehicles soon overtook the car and boxed it in. After talking to the man, they realized he was not the person being sought but concluded that he was in the United States illegally, so they took him into custody.

Eventually, a little after dawn broke on the one- and two-story brick houses, the man they were looking for came out of the house and got into a car. ICE officers closed in. The man got out of the vehicle and was arrested. ICE said both men were in the country illegally and had criminal records.

Charles called it a “successful operation.”

“There was no safety issues on the part of our officers, nor the individuals that we arrested. And it went smoothly,” he said.

‘ICE does not belong here’

Activists and critics of ICE say that’s increasingly not the norm in immigration operations.

They point to videos showing ICE agents smashing windows to apprehend suspects, a chaotic showdown outside a popular Italian restaurant in San Diego, and arrests like that of a Tufts University student in March by masked agents outside her apartment in Somerville, Mass., as neighbors watched.

Charles said that ICE is using an “appropriate” amount of force and that agents are responding to suspects who increasingly are not following commands.

There has been “an uptick in people that are not compliant,” he said, blaming what he characterized as inflammatory rhetoric from activists encouraging people to resist.

Alderman Andre Vasquez, who chairs the Chicago City Council’s committee on immigrant and refugee rights, strenuously objected to that description, faulting ICE for any escalation.

“We’re not here to cause chaos. The president is,” Vasquez said. He accused immigration enforcement agents of trying to provoke activists into overreacting to justify calling in a greater use of force such as National Guard troops.

“ICE does not belong here,” he said.

Shooting by ICE agent raises tensions

Chicago was already on edge when a shooting Sept. 12 heightened tensions even more.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said an ICE officer fatally shot Silverio Villegas González, whom it described as a Mexican immigrant who tried to evade arrest in a Chicago suburb by driving his car at officers and dragging one of them. The department said the officer believed his life was threatened and therefore opened fire, killing the man.

Charles said he could not comment because there is an open investigation. But he said he met with the officer in the hospital, saw his injuries and thought that the force used was appropriate.

The officer was not wearing a body camera, Charles said.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, has demanded “a full, factual accounting” of the shooting. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum condemned the death and said Mexico is demanding a thorough investigation.

“These tactics have led to the loss of life of one of our community members,” said Democratic Illinois state Rep. Norma Hernandez.

In another use-of-force incident under Midway Blitz that has drawn criticism, a U.S. citizen was detained by immigration agents alongside his father and hit by a stun gun three times Tuesday in suburban Des Plaines, the man’s lawyer said.

Local advocates have also condemned ICE agents for wearing masks, failing to identify themselves, and not using body cameras — actions that contrast with Chicago Police Department policy.

‘It was time to hit Chicago’

Charles said there is no timeline for the ICE-led operation in the Chicago area to end. As of Thursday, immigration enforcement officials had arrested nearly 550 people. Charles said 50% to 60% of those are targeted arrests, meaning they are people whom immigration enforcers are specifically trying to find.

He rejected criticism that ICE randomly targets people, saying agents weren’t “going out to Home Depot parking lots” to make indiscriminate arrests. Such arrests have been widely seen in recent months at Home Depots and other places of business in the Los Angeles area.

Charles said ICE has brought in more than 200 officers from around the country for the operation.

He said that for too long, cities such as Chicago that limited cooperation with ICE had allowed immigrants, especially those with criminal records, to remain in the country illegally. It was time to act, he said.

“It was time to hit Chicago.”

Santana writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Christine Fernando in Chicago contributed to this report.

The alleged offences took place when the Ghanaian defender played for London club Arsenal in the Premier League.

Villarreal midfielder Thomas Partey, appearing in a London court, has pleaded not guilty to charges of rape and sexual assault involving three women.

The 32-year-old Ghana international appeared in the dock at Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday and spoke only to confirm his name and date of birth and enter his not guilty pleas.

Partey is accused of five counts of rape relating to two women, as well as a charge of sexual assault against a third woman, between April 2021 and June 2022. The alleged offences took place when he played for Premier League football club Arsenal. He left the club this summer and signed for Spain’s Villarreal.

The footballer was released on bail in advance of his trial, which was listed for November 2, 2026, and is due to take between six and eight weeks.

He was signed by Arsenal from Atletico Madrid for 50 million euros ($59m) in 2020 and became a key member of the English side’s first team, before his contract expired at the end of June.

Partey played for Villarreal in their Champions League game against Arsenal’s bitter rivals, Tottenham Hotspur, on Tuesday night. He came on as a second-half substitute and was booed loudly by the Spurs fans every time he touched the ball.

Actor Raymond Cruz was held in custody for five hours on Monday after a sudsy spat with three women in his Los Angeles neighborhood.

Cruz — who portrayed the drug lord Tuco Salamanca on “Breaking Bad” — was washing his car on the street in front of his Silver Lake-area home when another car with three female occupants parked inches away from him, said Raphael Berko, his agent with Media Artists Group.

Cruz asked the women, who appeared to be in their 30s, to move their car at least a foot away so it wouldn’t get wet, according to Berko.

“The women were very rude to him and said no,” Berko said, adding that ample parking was available elsewhere on the street.

Instead, the women took out their phones and started to record Cruz, Berko said.

The actor, who also played detective Julio Sanchez in “The Closer” and its spin-off series “Major Crimes,” became uncomfortable and turned around, hose in hand, to tell them to “stop recording,” Berko said.

In doing so, Berko says some water may have inadvertently splashed on the women. But the women — one of whom was the daughter of a housekeeper on the block — said Cruz intentionally sprayed them, and they called the police to report an alleged assault.

Cruz was handcuffed by the Los Angeles Police Department and taken into custody for five hours, but Berko said he and his client expect the case will be dropped.

Berko characterized the incident as a misunderstanding, and said Cruz doesn’t have a criminal record.

The actor has a court hearing scheduled for Oct. 1, but online records do not show any charges as of Tuesday afternoon.

Washington, DC – The administration of US President Donald Trump has said it notified Qatari officials before Israel’s attack on Hamas negotiators in Doha, a claim refuted by the Gulf country.

The statement from the White House on Tuesday came hours after the strike on a residential area in the Gulf country’s capital, Doha. Qatar has been a lead mediator in US-backed ceasefire talks aimed at ending the war in Gaza.

“The Trump administration was notified by the United States military that Israel was attacking Hamas, which very unfortunately, was located in a section of Doha, the capital of Qatar,” White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told reporters.

“Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a sovereign nation and close ally of the United States that is working very hard and bravely taking risks with us to broker peace does not advance Israel or America’s goals,” she said. “However, eliminating Hamas, who have profited off the misery of those living in Gaza, is a worthy goal.”

Leavitt added that Trump directed his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, to “inform the Qataris of the impending attack”.

However, Qatar refuted the characterisation, with a spokesperson for the foreign ministry saying claims that the government had been “pre-informed of the attack are completely false”.

“The call that was received from an American official came during the sound of the explosions that resulted from the Israeli attack in Doha,” Majed Al-Ansari wrote in a statement on X.

Hamas said the attack killed five of its members, but its main negotiating team survived. Among the dead was a Qatari security officer, the country’s interior ministry said. Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has decried the Israeli attack as “cowardly”, while condemning “any action targeting its security and sovereignty”.

The Gulf country had previously helped to broker a pause in fighting in Gaza in November 2023 and a six-week ceasefire in January 2025. Its role had been regularly praised by both the administration of former President Joe Biden and President Trump.

Israel struck central Doha just days after Trump issued a warning to Hamas’s negotiating team as he pushed for a new ceasefire. The US has repeatedly accused Hamas of stalling negotiations. Israel has been accused of repeatedly scuttling the talks.

“The Israelis have accepted my Terms. It is time for Hamas to accept as well,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Sunday.

“I have warned Hamas about the consequences of not accepting. This is my last warning, there will not be another one!”

Following the attack, Hamas said those targeted had been discussing Trump’s latest proposal.

The group added the strike “confirms beyond doubt that Netanyahu and his government do not want to reach any agreement and are deliberately seeking to thwart all opportunities and thwart international efforts”.

“We hold the US administration jointly responsible with the occupation for this crime, due to its ongoing support for the aggression and crimes of the occupation against our people,” the group said.

Leavitt, meanwhile, told reporters that Trump “believes this unfortunate incident could serve as an opportunity for peace”.

She said Trump also spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the strike, but did not say if he threatened any actions against the close US ally, as well as Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

‘Reduced to nothing’

Despite the White House statement, Khalil Jahshan, the executive director of the Arab Center Washington DC, many countries and residents in the region will still view the Trump administration as complicit.

“When Israel is given a green light to basically wreak havoc over the region and violate international law, violate sovereignty of nations that are not even enemies, but actually very close allies of the United States, one has to wonder: Where does Israel stand, and why would Israel be allowed to do that?” he said.

Qatar, which has remained a staunch supporter of Palestinian rights, was designated a “major non-NATO ally” in 2022, a status the US Department of State describes as being a “powerful symbol” of close strategic ties and a demonstration of “deep respect for the friendship for the countries to which it is extended”.

Jahshan said the honorific, in the wake of Israel’s strike, has been “reduced to nothing”.

“If that status allows you to be exposed to attacks from a US ally with a US green light. Then, to me, I would rather not have friends like this,” he said.

Qatar also houses Al Udeid Air Base, the largest US military installation in the Middle East. Along with the US Air Force, the base houses the Qatar Emiri Air Force, the United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force, and a total of about 10,000 personnel.

The country has also positioned itself as a diplomatic asset to the US and other Western powers, for years hosting political offices of groups significant to their foreign policy, including Hamas and the Taliban. Qatari officials have said they agreed to host the Hamas office more than a decade ago at the behest of Washington.

Nabeel Khoury, who formerly served as the deputy chief of mission at the US embassy in Yemen, said the location of Tuesday’s strike, in the heart of Doha and just kilometres from Al Udeid left him stunned.

“As cynical as I am and as used as I am to Israeli excesses, I have to say I was shocked,” he said. “I think everybody should be shocked and should be woken up from whatever dream they’re in to the reality that Israel has now obviously become a totally rogue state.”

Khoury said the strike would likely chill diplomacy, further undermining US credibility in the region and giving pause to any groups or allies considering participating in US-backed negotiations.

“Honestly, I don’t see how anybody, especially in the Arab world, can continue to deal with the US,” Khoury said.

Jahshan added that Qatar’s neighbours, including the UAE, which normalised relations with Israel in 2020, in Saudi Arabia, which has long been eyed as a crown jewel in Israeli-Arab normalisation, will feel pressure to take a strong stance.

“If they allow one of them to be the target of such an attack, then they’re all targets for such attacks in the future,” he said. “How do they proceed?”

WASHINGTON — Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released on Monday a sexually suggestive letter to Jeffrey Epstein purportedly signed by President Trump, which he has denied.

Trump has said he did not write the letter or create the drawing of a curvaceous woman that surrounds the letter. He filed a $10-billion lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal for a report on the alleged letter.

The letter was included as part of a 2003 album compiled for alleged sex trafficker Epstein’s birthday. The president has denied having anything to do with it. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee received a copy of the birthday album on Monday as part of a batch of documents from Epstein’s estate.

The White House did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

Trump has denied writing the letter and creating the drawing, calling a report on it “false, malicious, and defamatory.”

“These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don’t draw pictures,” Trump said.

The letter released by the committee looks exactly as described by the the Wall Street Journal in its report.

The letter bearing Trump’s name and signature includes text framed by a hand-drawn outline of what appears to be a curvaceous woman.

“A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret,” the letter says.

Price writes for the Associated Press.

Brett Steigh, a Narbonne High graduate, booster, local businessman and gambler, claims he violated City and Southern Section rules by paying parents of high school football players to help level the playing field.

Steigh said during a Monday night appearance on the “Fattal Factor” podcast that he paid parents to secure transfers for Narbonne and St. Bernard before currently “helping” Bishop Montgomery. Narbonne in Harbor City is part of the Los Angeles Unified School District, while the Archdiocese of Los Angeles operates St. Bernard in Playa del Rey and Bishop Montgomery in Torrance.

While name, image and likeness policies allow for payment of players, recruiting transfer athletes and paying their parents as much as $50,000 remains a violation of the California Interscholastic Federation’s undue influence rules.

“I ain’t doing nothing that others aren’t doing,” Steigh said, alleging Orange County private schools, including national powerhouse Mater Dei, paid to secure transfer players.

A Mater Dei spokesperson has not yet responded to a request for comment in response to the allegation.

Steigh said he recruited players in 2018 and 2024 to Narbonne without the knowledge of the head coaches while paying parents to move. Both times, Narbonne was sanctioned by the City Section for rule violations.

He said he met with St. Bernard President Carter Paysinger in 2020 and agreed to support that school after former Narbonne coach Manuel Douglas took over the program. Douglas told The Times on Tuesday the payments reached close to $1 million between funding tuition for incoming freshman football players and improvements at the school. Douglas said school administrators were aware of the contributions.

Douglas and Steigh became the subject of FBI and IRS investigations after Douglas failed to report donations from Steigh and didn’t pay taxes on them. Steigh said they didn’t face any charges. Douglas resigned in 2020 and St. Bernard shut down its football program in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

Steigh said he has now been “supporting” Bishop Montgomery with the knowledge of the school’s president, Patrick Lee.

Bishop Montgomery had five transfers declared ineligible by the Southern Section and has received more than 20 transfers in its football program entering this school year. The school fired its head coach, Ed Hodgkiss, on Saturday.

In a text message to The Times, Lee denied any connection to Steigh.

“What he said was an outright lie,” Lee said. “Neither the principal nor I ever met this man, spoke to him, emailed him, texted him — nothing.”

The City and Southern Section commissioners are aware of the statements Steigh made during the podcast, with one telling The Times they are reviewing them.

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles is investigating why five Bishop Montgomery transfer students were declared ineligible for two years by the Southern Section for violating CIF bylaw 202, which involves submitting false information. The archdiocese declined to address questions about Steigh’s allegations.

“The Archdiocese of Los Angeles does not discuss details of an ongoing investigation,” a spokesperson told The Times. “Once we have more information, we’ll share that with you.”

Bishop Montgomery canceled the game it was scheduled to play Friday against Leuzinger High, the second consecutive week the team forfeited a game after calling off a contest against Mater Dei last week. If Bishop Montgomery cancels the remainder of its football season, the players on the roster might be free to immediately transfer to other programs if they get a hardship waiver.

Steigh said he agreed to appear on reporter Tarek Fattal’s podcast because he felt it was wrong that Hodgkiss — the Bishop Montgomery football coach — was fired.

“Pat knew what the deal was and now he’s backing away. Not fair,” Steigh said, referring to the Bishop Montgomery president.

Hodgkiss told The Times he has been advised by legal counsel not to answer any questions.

A Bishop Montgomery parent wrote in a letter to The Times that an influx of football transfers joining the program was given preferential treatment.

“Returning players were demoted, excluded from trips or quit,” the parent wrote. “Archdiocesan Catholic values appear secondary to short-term athletic exposure. Despite my June outreach to the school, no reply ever came.”

In the spring, The Times asked new Bishop Montgomery Principal Michele Starkey if she was aware of any involvement by Steigh in Bishop Montgomery’s program. She said no.

When Steigh was asked during the podcast why he would risk players’ eligibility by getting involved at Bishop Montgomery, Steigh said he felt previous administrations he worked with didn’t have the backbone to succeed at recruiting players.

“They told us it wouldn’t be … sorry I shouldn’t say that,” Steigh said of Bishop Montgomery’s leadership. “They’re basically supporting to win right now.”

When pressed for more details, Steigh said, “I can’t comment on any players at Bishop Montgomery.”

He said he has now decided to retire from supporting high school football programs.

Steigh said he previously was a traditional booster at Narbonne, making donations to help pay for helmets, uniforms and a washing machine.

“In 2018, I decided to play the game that everyone else was playing,” Steigh said. “The head coach at the time did not want to do this. It was all on me. I lied to him. These players just showed up. Why? I wanted to compete with the private schools. I felt it was unfair public schools being left behind.”

Four coaches of Marine League schools forfeited games against Narbonne last season while demanding a City Section investigation into whether transfers were paid to play for the school.

“All these rumors through all these years, it’s all true,” Steigh said. “It was all me.”

SEOUL, Sept. 2 (UPI) — Hak Ja Han, leader of the Unification Church, publicly denied she had ever directed aides to undertake illicit influence peddling.

“False claims are being spread that, under my direction, our church provided illegal political funds,” she said Sunday. “I have never instructed any unlawful political solicitation or financial transaction.”

Her remarks came as a special prosecutor deepened investigations into the religious movement’s political ties, bringing renewed attention to allegations involving conservative legislator Kweon Seong-dong.

Han issued her statement as prosecutors examined claims that the church, formally known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, provided illicit financial support to sitting lawmakers. Kweon, a longtime ally of former President Yoon Suk-yeol, has admitted to meeting Han but denied receiving any funds.

According to indictment documents cited in South Korean media, prosecutors allege that, in October 2022, Kweon warned Yoon Young-ho, then director of the church’s global headquarters, that authorities were preparing to investigate possible illegal overseas gambling linked to the church.

He allegedly told Yoon to prepare for a search, after which church officials reportedly ordered staff members to alter financial records from 2010 to 2013.

Separately, Yonhap News reported that the Unification Church has filed an embezzlement complaint against its former finance chief, who also is the wife of Yoon Young-ho. The complaint accuses her of misappropriating about 2 billion won (approximately $1.4 million) in church funds, part of which allegedly was used to purchase a luxury Graff necklace.

Han’s categorical denial has drawn further attention from prosecutors, who now must determine whether her statement conflicts with testimony or documentary evidence.

Israel made the claim after Australia’s PM said Iran directed two attacks on a Jewish community, which Tehran denies.

Australia has dismissed a claim that Israeli interventions prompted the government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to expel Iran’s ambassador to Canberra, after the premier blamed Tehran for directing anti-Semitic attacks in Sydney and Melbourne.

“Complete nonsense,” Australian Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke told ABC Radio on Wednesday, when asked about Israel claiming credit for Australia’s decision to order Tehran’s ambassador, Ahmad Sadeghi, to leave the country.

Albanese said on Tuesday that Australia had reached “the deeply disturbing conclusion” through “credible intelligence” that found Iran’s government had “directed” at least two attacks against Australia’s Jewish community.

Responding to a question from the ABC about Australia’s allegations against Iran, Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer had commended Australia for taking “threats seriously” against the Jewish community, which he said had come after a “forthright intervention” from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Mencer said Netanyahu had “made very forthright comments about the [Australian] prime minister himself”, which spurred Albanese to action.

“He made those comments because he did not believe that the actions of the Australian government had gone anywhere near far enough to address the issues of anti-Semitism,” Mencer added.

The ABC included Mencer’s comments in an article titled: “Israeli government claims credit for pushing Albanese to expel Iranian diplomats.”

Netanyahu last week accused Albanese of being “a weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia’s Jews”, days after Albanese announced Australia would move to formally recognise a Palestinian state in September.

Iran said it “absolutely rejected” Australia’s accusations regarding the attacks and noted that the claims had come after Australia had directed “limited criticism” at Israel.

“It seems that this action is taken in order to compensate for the limited criticism the Australian side has directed at the Zionist regime [Israel],” Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said.

“Any inappropriate and unjustified action on a diplomatic level will have a reciprocal reaction,” Baghaei said.

Ilana Lenk, the spokesperson and head of public diplomacy at Israel’s embassy in Canberra, shared Australian newspaper front pages with headlines including, ‘Iran attacks us’ and ‘Iran targets Bondi deli’, in a post on social media.

“We warned Iran wouldn’t stop with Israel or the Jewish people. The West is next isn’t just a slogan, and today Australia sees it,” she wrote.

In a statement, the Jewish Council of Australia said it was “shocked to learn of the Iranian government involvement in coordinating antisemitic attacks”.

“The fact that a foreign government appears to be responsible shows how irresponsible it was for the attacks to be used to demonise the Palestine solidarity protest movement ,” the council said in a statement.

“We call on politicians and the media to exercise caution and to avoid politicisation of these attacks in a way that could further harm the Jewish community,” the statement added.

NEW YORK — A federal judge who presided over the sex trafficking case against financier Jeffrey Epstein has rejected the government’s request to unseal grand jury transcripts.

The ruling Wednesday by Judge Richard Berman in Manhattan came after the judge presiding over the case against British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend, also turned down the government’s request.

Barring reversal on appeal, Berman’s decision forecloses the possibility of grand jury testimony being released now that three judges have reached the same conclusion. A federal judge in Florida declined to release grand jury documents from an investigation there in 2005 and 2007.

The rulings are a collective repudiation of the Justice Department’s effort to divert attention away from its stated refusal to release a massive trove of records in its possession and make clear that the still-sealed court documents contain none of the answers likely to satisfy the immense public interest in the case.

President Trump had called for the release of transcripts amid rumors and criticism about his long-ago involvement with Epstein. During last year’s presidential campaign, Trump promised to release files related to Epstein, but he was met with criticism — including from many of his own supporters — when the small number of records released by his Justice Department lacked new revelations.

A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment on Wednesday.

Berman said the information contained in the Epstein grand jury transcripts “pales in comparison to the Epstein investigative information and materials in the hands of the Department of Justice.”

The Justice Department had informed Berman that the only witness to testify before the Epstein grand jury was an FBI agent who, the judge noted, “had no direct knowledge of the facts of the case and whose testimony was mostly hearsay.”

The agent testified over two days, on June 18, 2019, and July 2, 2019. The entire transcript was 70 pages. The rest of the grand jury presentation consisted of a PowerPoint slideshow shown during the June 18 session and a call log shown during the July 2 session, which ended with grand jurors voting to indict Epstein. Both of those will also remain sealed, Berman ruled.

Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence after her conviction on sex trafficking charges for helping Epstein sexually abuse girls and young women. She was recently transferred from a prison in Florida to a prison camp in Texas. Epstein died in jail awaiting trial.

Maxwell’s case has been the subject of heightened public focus since an outcry over the Justice Department’s statement last month saying that it would not be releasing any additional documents from the Epstein sex trafficking investigation. The decision infuriated online sleuths, conspiracy theorists and elements of Trump’s base who had hoped to see proof of a government cover-up.

Since then, officials in Trump’s Republican administration have tried to cast themselves as promoting transparency in the case, including by requesting from courts the unsealing of grand jury transcripts.

“The government is the logical party to make comprehensive disclosure to the public of the Epstein file,” Berman wrote in an apparent reference to the Justice Department’s refusal to release additional records on its own while simultaneously moving to unseal grand jury transcripts.

“By comparison,” Berman added, “the instant grand jury motion appears to be a ‘diversion’ from the breadth and scope of the Epstein files in the Government’s possession. The grand jury testimony is merely a hearsay snippet of Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged conduct.”

Meanwhile, Maxwell was interviewed at a Florida courthouse weeks ago by Deputy Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche, and the House Oversight Committee had also said that it wanted to speak with Maxwell. Her lawyers said they would be open to an interview but only if the panel were to ensure immunity from prosecution.

In a letter to Maxwell’s lawyers, Rep. James Comer, the committee chair, wrote that the committee was willing to delay the deposition until after the resolution of Maxwell’s appeal to the Supreme Court. That appeal is expected to be resolved in late September.

Comer wrote that although Maxwell’s testimony was “vital” to the Republican-led investigation into Epstein, the committee would not provide immunity or any questions in advance of her testimony, as was requested by her team.

Neumeister and Sisak write for the Associated Press. AP writer Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has denied reports that her government is teaming up with the United States for a “major new initiative” to combat drug-trafficking cartels.

In her Tuesday morning news conference, Sheinbaum addressed the initiative, dubbed “Project Portero”, which was touted in the US as an effort to “strengthen collaboration between the United States and Mexico”.

The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) had unveiled the initiative only one day prior.

“I want to clarify something. The DEA put out a statement yesterday saying that there is an agreement with the Mexican government for an operation called Portero,” Sheinbaum said.

“There is no agreement with the DEA. The DEA puts out this statement, based on what we don’t know. We have not reached any agreement; none of the security institutions [have] with the DEA.”

Sheinbaum emphasised that only her administration, not individual government agencies, would be announcing such an agreement on behalf of Mexico.

She also emphasised that the DEA needed to follow established protocols for making joint announcements.

Project Portero is part of an ongoing push under US President Donald Trump to stamp out cross-border drug trafficking and aggressively pursue the cartels and criminal networks that profit from such trade.

In its statement on Monday, the DEA called Project Portero its “flagship operation” aimed at shutting down drug-smuggling corridors along the border.

It described its partnership with Mexico as “a multi-week training and collaboration program” that would bring Mexican investigators together with US enforcement officials at an intelligence site on the southwest border.

Part of their task, the statement said, was to “identify joint targets” for the two countries to pursue.

“Project Portero and this new training program show how we will fight — by planning and operating side by side with our Mexican partners,” DEA administrator Terrance Cole said in the statement

“This is a bold first step in a new era of cross-border enforcement.”

But Sheinbaum said no such bilateral action was planned, though she speculated that the DEA might be referring to a small training exercise involving four Mexican police officers.

“The only thing we have is a group of police officers from the Secretariat of Citizen Security who were conducting a workshop in Texas,” she explained.

She did, however, point out that her government was actively working with the Trump administration to cement a border security agreement, based on mutual acknowledgements of sovereignty and respectful coordination.

Since taking office for a second term in January, Trump has repeatedly pressured the Sheinbaum government to stem the flow of immigrants and drugs across their countries’ shared border.

That includes through the threat of tariffs, a kind of tax imposed on imports. In late July, Trump announced he would keep tariffs on Mexican products at their current rate for 90 days.

Previously, he had threatened to hike the tariff rate to 30 percent on the basis that fentanyl was still reaching US soil.

“Mexico still has not stopped the Cartels who are trying to turn all of North America into a Narco-Trafficking Playground,” Trump wrote in a letter to Sheinbaum earlier that month.

Even with the 90-day pause, Mexico still faces a 25-percent tax — which Trump calls a “fentanyl tariff” — on all products that do not fall under the US-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement (USMCA).

Still, Trump has expressed warmth towards Sheinbaum, and the Mexican leader has largely avoided public confrontations with the US since taking office in October 2024.

Recently, Sheinbaum’s government coordinated with Trump’s to transfer 26 high-profile drug-trafficking suspects to the US for prosecution.

In February, she made a similar deal, sending 29 alleged cartel leaders from Mexican prisons to the US shortly before Trump threatened to impose tariffs on her country’s imports. It was Mexico’s largest prisoner transfer to the US in years.

But Sheinbaum has also faced scrutiny over her handling of Trump’s aggressive foreign policy platform.

Earlier this month, for instance, Trump’s State Department issued travel warnings for 30 of Mexico’s 32 states, warning Americans of “terrorist” activities in those areas.

Trump has also designated multiple Latin American criminal groups as “foreign terrorist organisations”, and he reportedly signed an order authorising military action to combat them.

Critics fear that order could translate into a military incursion on Mexican soil. But Sheinbaum has repeatedly downplayed those concerns, saying, “There will be no invasion of Mexico.”

Still, she has nevertheless asserted that any unauthorised US action on Mexican land would be considered a violation of her country’s sovereignty.

When they chose to continue their college careers, both USC offensive lineman DJ Wingfield and UCLA wide receiver Kaedin Robinson thought the courts and NCAA had cleared the way for them to play a fifth season of football.

USC had told Wingfield as much, offering him $210,000 in NIL to join the Trojans’ offensive line. UCLA, meanwhile, offered Robinson $450,000 to be one of the Bruins’ top wideouts.

But after first seeing their waivers rejected in the spring, then suing the NCAA this summer, a U.S. District Court judge has now shut the door on either Wingfield or Robinson suiting up this fall.

Both players had hoped to prove this week in court that they were deserving of a preliminary injunction that would allow them to play out the season at USC and UCLA. Their attorneys argued that the NCAA’s Five-Year Rule, which limits athletes to four seasons in five years, violated antitrust laws by limiting athletes’ eligibility — and thus, their NIL earning potential. To block Wingfield and Robinson from playing this season, their attorneys argued, would mean causing “irreparable harm.”

But after a hearing was held for both Monday, a judge in California’s Central District court quickly rejected those claims, denying the request for injunctive relief from both players, as well as San Diego linebacker Jagger Giles.

Either could appeal the decision, but it’s unlikely that either player’s case would be heard soon enough to play the 2025 season.

Others who have challenged the NCAA’s eligibility rules in court have had inconsistent results. But in the case of Wingfield and Robinson, Judge James Selna held that the NCAA’s Five-Year Rule was not “commercial in nature” but rather a “true eligibility rule,” and therefore was not beholden to antitrust scrutiny.

Not every judge has come to the same conclusion, as a cascade of similar eligibility cases have been filed in the months since Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia won a preliminary injunction in his case against the NCAA. Pavia was granted a fifth season after challenging that the NCAA’s rule counting his junior college tenure toward his overall NCAA eligibility would unfairly limit his ability to earn NIL compensation.

The judge in Wingfield and Robinson’s case was less swayed by that argument.

“There is a subtle difference between a rule that retrains NIL compensation and a rule that limits one’s potential to negotiate a NIL agreement,” the judge wrote. “Putting aside the NIL agreements, the question of whether a player’s time has run remains in full force. The eligibility question is not tethered to the question of compensation or commercial transaction.”

In Wingfield’s case, the judge also found that the five-month delay in Wingfield requesting a temporary restraining order after being ruled ineligible in March weakened the urgency of his claims of “irreparable harm.”

Losing Wingfield will undoubtedly deal a significant blow to USC, which had been counting on Wingfield to step into a starting role along the offensive line. Without him, the Trojans will enter the season perilously thin on the interior.

Wingfield’s collegiate career began in 2019 at El Camino College, a junior college in Torrance. He left El Camino during the 2020 season because of the COVID-19 pandemic, then returned in 2021 before transferring to New Mexico in the spring of 2022.

An injury ended his first season with the Lobos before he finished a single game, but he returned to play in nine games in 2023 before transferring to Purdue, where he started along the Boilermakers’ line as a fifth-year senior in 2024.

Robinson took a similar path as Wingfield through junior college, spending one season at ASA College in Brooklyn before the pandemic, then redshirting for a season at Central Florida in 2021 before spending the next three years at Appalachian State.

Robinson was an All-Sun Belt selection at receiver last season with 53 catches for 840 yards and two touchdowns. He was expected to be one of the Bruins’ top receivers this season.

McALLEN, Texas — A federal judge ruled Friday to deny the Trump administration’s request to end a policy in place for nearly three decades that is meant to protect immigrant children in federal custody.

U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles issued her ruling a week after holding a hearing with the federal government and legal advocates representing immigrant children in custody.

Gee called last week’s hearing “deja vu” after reminding the court of the federal government’s attempt to terminate the Flores settlement agreement in 2019 under the first Trump administration. She repeated the sentiment in Friday’s order.

“There is nothing new under the sun regarding the facts or the law. The Court therefore could deny Defendants’ motion on that basis alone,” Gee wrote, referring to the government’s appeal to a law it argued kept the court from enforcing the agreement.

In the most recent attempt, the government argued it had made substantial changes since the agreement was formalized in 1997, creating standards and policies governing the custody of immigrant children that conform to legislation and the agreement.

Gee acknowledged that the government made some improved conditions of confinement, but wrote, “These improvements are direct evidence that the FSA is serving its intended purpose, but to suggest that the agreement should be abandoned because some progress has been made is nonsensical.”

Attorneys representing the federal government told the court the agreement gets in the way of their efforts to expand detention space for families, even though President Trump’s tax and spending bill provided billions to build new immigration facilities.

Tiberius Davis, one of the government attorneys, said the bill gives the government authority to hold families in detention indefinitely. “But currently under the Flores settlement agreement, that’s essentially void,” he said last week.

The Flores agreement, named for a teenage plaintiff, was the result of more than a decade of litigation between attorneys representing the rights of migrant children and the U.S. government over widespread allegations of mistreatment in the 1980s.

The agreement set standards for how licensed shelters must provide food, water, adult supervision, emergency medical services, toilets, sinks, temperature control and ventilation. It also limited how long U.S. Customs and Border Protection could detain child immigrants to 72 hours. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services then takes custody of the children.

The Biden administration successfully pushed to partially end the agreement last year. Gee ruled that special court supervision may end when Health and Human Services takes custody, but she carved out exceptions for certain types of facilities for children with more acute needs.

In arguing against the Trump administration’s effort to completely end the agreement, advocates said the government was holding children beyond the time limits. In May, CBP held 46 children for more than a week, including six children held for over two weeks and four children held for 19 days, according to data revealed in a court filing. In March and April, CPB reported that it had 213 children in custody for more than 72 hours. That included 14 children, including toddlers, who were held for over 20 days in April.

The federal government is looking to expand its immigration detention space, including by building more centers like one in Florida dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” where a lawsuit alleges detainees’ constitutional rights are being violated.

Gee still has not ruled on the request by legal advocates for the immigrant children to expand independent monitoring of the treatment of children held in U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities. Currently, the agreement allows for third-party inspections at facilities in the El Paso and Rio Grande Valley regions, but plaintiffs submitted evidence showing long detention times at border facilities that violate the agreement’s terms.

Gonzalez writes for the Associated Press.

SEOUL, Aug. 14 (UPI) — The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Thursday denied Seoul’s claim that the North had begun removing propaganda speakers inside the DMZ and dismissed South Korean outreach efforts as a “pipedream,” state-run media reported.

South Korea is “misleading the public opinion by saying that we have removed the loudspeakers installed on the southern border area,” Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

“It is unfounded unilateral supposition and a red herring,” she said. “We have never removed loudspeakers installed on the border area and are not willing to remove them.”

The South’s military removed its anti-Pyongyang propaganda loudspeakers from border areas inside the DMZ last week. The Joint Chiefs of Staff reported over the weekend that North Korea began dismantling its own speakers in some forward areas,

On Tuesday, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung commented on the North’s “reciprocal measures” during a cabinet meeting, saying he hoped it would lead to renewed inter-Korean dialogue and communication.

Lee’s administration has made efforts to improve relations between the two Koreas since he took office in June. In addition to the loudspeaker removal, Seoul has cracked down on activists floating balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets over the border and recently repatriated six North Koreans who drifted into southern waters on wooden boats.

Kim’s statement comes days before Seoul and Washington are scheduled to commence their summertime Ulchi Freedom Shield joint military exercise, set for Aug. 18-28. North Korea regularly denounces the allies’ joint drills as rehearsals for an invasion.

Half of Ulchi Freedom Shield’s 44 planned field training exercises have been rescheduled to next month, with local media reports claiming the move was made to avoid provoking Pyongyang.

Kim, however, rejected Seoul’s gestures as “nothing but a pipedream.”

“Whether the ROK withdraws its loudspeakers or not, stops broadcasting or not, postpones its military exercises or not and downscales them or not, we do not care about them and are not interested in them,” she said, using the official acronym for South Korea.

In response to Kim’s statement, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff maintained the military’s account that the North had removed some of its loudspeakers.

“The military has explained the facts regarding what it observed, and I believe we need to be careful not to be misled by the other side’s stated intentions,” JCS spokesman Col. Lee Sung-jun said at a briefing Thursday. “North Korea has always made claims that are untrue.”