dispute

YouTube TV customers are bracing for another frustrating weekend.

For the last week, YouTube TV’s 10 million subscribers have been denied access to ESPN, ABC and other Walt Disney Co. channels in a dispute that has swelled into one of the largest TV blackouts in a decade. Instead of turning on “College GameDay,” “Monday Night Football” or “Dancing With the Stars,” customers have been greeted with a grim message: “Disney channels are unavailable.”

The standoff began Oct. 30 when the two behemoths hit an impasse in their negotiations over a new distribution contract covering Disney’s channels and ABC stations.

Google, which owns YouTube, has rebuffed Disney’s demands for fee increases for ESPN, ABC and other channels. The Burbank entertainment giant has been seeking a revenue boost to support its content production and streaming ambitions, and help pay for ESPN’s gargantuan sports rights deals.

Talks are ongoing, but the two sides remain apart on major issues — prolonging the stalemate.

“Everyone is kind of sick of these big-time companies trying to get the best of one another,” said Nick Newton, 30, who lives near San Francisco and subscribes to YouTube TV. “The people who are suffering are the middle-class and lower-class people that just love sports … because it’s our escape from the real world.”

Both companies declined to comment for this article.

The skirmish is just the latest between YouTube and programming companies. Since August, Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corp., Comcast’s NBCUniversal and Spanish-language broadcaster TelevisaUnivision have all complained that YouTube TV was trying to use its market muscle to squeeze them for concessions.

Here’s a look at what’s driving the escalating tensions:

Google’s growing clout in television

The struggle between Disney and YouTube reflects television’s fast-shifting dynamics.

Disney has long entered carriage negotiations with tremendous leverage, in large part because it owns ESPN, which is a must-have channel for legions of sports fans.

Programmers, including Disney, structured their distribution contracts to expire near a pivotal programming event, such as a new season of NFL football. The timing motivated both sides to quickly reach a deal rather than risk alienating customers.

But for Google’s parent, Alphabet, YouTube TV is just a sliver of their business. The tech company generated $350 billion in revenue last year, the vast majority coming from Google search and advertising. That gives YouTube a longer leash to hold out for contract terms it finds acceptable.

“This dispute is not that painful for Google,” said analyst Richard Greenfield of LightShed Partners, noting that YouTube TV could probably withstand “two weekends without college football, and two weeks without ‘Monday Night Football’ — as long as their consumers stay with them.”

Disney, however, depends on TV advertising and pay-TV distribution fees. The week-long blackout has already dampened TV ratings, which means less revenue for the company.

Consumers like YouTube TV

For decades, throngs of consumers loathed their cable company — a sentiment that Disney and other programmers were able to use in their favor in past battles. Customer defections prompted several pay-TV companies to find a compromise to restore the darkened TV channels and stanch the subscriber bleeding.

But YouTube is banking on a more loyal user base, including millions of customers who switched to the service from higher-priced legacy providers.

“I’ll stick this thing out with YouTube TV,” Newton said, adding that he hoped the dispute didn’t drag on for weeks.

“This is one of the problems facing Disney,” Greenfield said. “It’s been a noticeable change in tone from past carriage fee battles. If customer losses stay at a minimum, then Disney is going to be in a tough place.”

It boils down to power and money

YouTube TV is the fastest-growing television service in the U.S. Analysts expect that, within a couple of years, YouTube TV will have more pay-TV customers than industry leaders Spectrum and Comcast.

In the current negotiations, Google has asked Disney to agree to lower its rates when YouTube TV surpasses Comcast’s and Spectrum’s subscriber counts. Disney maintains that YouTube already pays preferred rates, in recognition of its competitive standing, and that Google is trying to drive down the value of Disney’s networks.

“YouTube TV and its owner, Google … want to use their power and extraordinary resources to eliminate competition and devalue the very content that helped them build their service,” top Disney executives wrote last Friday in an email to their staff.

People close to YouTube TV reject the characterization, saying the service has been a valuable partner by providing a strong service that brings Disney billions of dollars a year in distribution revenue.

“The bottom line is that our channels are extremely valuable, and we can only continue to program them with the sports and entertainment viewers love most if we stand our ground,” the Disney executives wrote in last week’s email. “We are asking nothing more of YouTube TV than what we have gotten from every other distributor — fair rates for our channels.”

Higher sports rights fees

A major reason Disney is asking for higher fees is because it’s grappling with a huge escalation in sports costs.

Disney is on the hook to pay $2.6 billion a year to the NBA, another $2.7 billion annually to the NFL, and $325 million a year for the rights to stream World Wrestling Entertainment. Such sports rights contracts have nearly doubled in the last decade, leading to the strain on TV broadcasters.

In addition, deep-pocketed streaming services, including Amazon, Apple and Netflix, have jumped into sports broadcasting, driving up the cost for the legacy broadcasters.

The crowded field also strains the wallets of sports fans, and appears to be adding to the fatigue over the YouTube TV-Disney fight.

Newton wrote in a recent Twitter post that he was spending $400 a month for his various internet, phone and TV services, including Disney+ and NFL Sunday Ticket, which is distributed by YouTube TV.

“I’m already on all the major subscriptions to watch football these days,” Newton, a third-generation San Francisco 49ers fan, said. “You need Netflix. You need Peacock, you need Amazon Prime and the list goes on and on. I’m at the point where I’m not paying for anything else.”

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is barred from Peru after her government granted asylum to Peruvian ex-premier.

Peru has declared Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum a “persona non grata” who is unable to enter the country, days after severing ties with Mexico amid an escalating diplomatic dispute.

Peru’s Congress voted 63 to 34 on Thursday in favour of symbolically barring Sheinbaum from the country after her government granted asylum to former Peruvian Prime Minister Betssy Chavez, after she fled to the Mexican embassy in Peru’s capital Lima.

The designation of “persona non grata” is typically reserved for foreign diplomats and compels them to leave a host country, and is seen as a rebuke to their government.

President of Peru’s Congress Fernando Rospigliosi said the move was a show of support for the government and its decision to break off relations with Mexico, according to Mexico’s El Pais newspaper.

During a debate on Thursday, Ernesto Bustamante, an MP who sits on Peru’s Congressional Foreign Relations Committee, also accused Sheinbaum of having ties to drug traffickers.

“We cannot allow someone like that, who is in cahoots with drug traffickers and who distracts her people from the real problems they should be addressing, to get involved in Peruvian affairs,” Bustamante said, according to El Pais.

Chavez, who is on trial for her participation in an alleged 2022 coup attempt, earlier this week fled to the Mexican embassy in Lima, where she was granted political asylum.

Peru’s Foreign Minister Hugo de Zela called the decision by Mexico City an “unfriendly act” that “interfered in the internal affairs of Peru”.

Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has maintained that it was acting in accordance with international law, and the move in “no way constitutes an intervention in Peru’s internal affairs”.

Lima has yet to offer safe passage for Chavez to leave the embassy and travel to Mexico.

Chavez, a former culture minister, briefly served as prime minister to President Pedro Castillo from late November to December 2022.

Charges against the former minister stem from an attempt by President Castillo in December 2022 to dissolve the Peruvian Congress before he was quickly impeached and arrested.

Chavez, who faces up to 25 years in prison if found guilty, has denied involvement in the scheme. She was detained from June 2023 until September of this year, and then released on bail while facing trial.

More than 10 million YouTube TV customers lost access to ESPN, ABC and other Walt Disney Co. channels after contract talks broke down Thursday night in one of the largest television blackouts in recent years.

The Disney blackout was set to begin by 9 p.m. Thursday, interrupting “SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt” on ESPN and “9-1-1: Nashville” and “Grey’s Anatomy” on ABC.

The two TV giants have been wrangling for weeks over carriage fees for Disney’s channels, including FX, Disney Jr. and National Geographic. YouTube TV — now one of the largest pay-TV services in the U.S. — has balked at Disney’s price demands, fueling the dispute that spilled beyond Thursday’s deadline for a new deal.

Without an agreement, Google-owned YouTube TV no longer had legal rights to distribute Disney’s channels.

“We know this is a frustrating and disappointing outcome for our subscribers,” a YouTube spokesperson said in a statement. “We continue to urge Disney to work with us constructively to reach a fair agreement that restores their networks to YouTube TV.”

Should the outage stretch for “an extended period,” YouTube said it would offer subscribers a $20 credit.

The blackout highlights heightened tensions in the television industry.

Programming companies, including Disney, have sought higher fees for their channels to help offset the increased cost of sports programming, including NFL and NBA contracts.

But pay-TV providers such as YouTube have pushed back, attempting to draw a line as customers grow weary of ever-increasing monthly bills.

They don’t want to lose subscribers to a rival service or have them drop their subscriptions. More than 40 million pay-TV customer homes have cut the cord over the last decade, according to industry data.

Disney becomes the latest TV programmer to allege that Google has been throwing its weight around in contract negotiations.

People close to the Burbank entertainment giant accuse YouTube TV of refusing to pay market rates for Disney’s popular channels or accept terms accepted by other pay-TV distributors. Disney has clinched deals with six other pay-TV companies this year, including the nation’s largest channel distributors, Charter Spectrum and Comcast.

“Unfortunately, Google’s YouTube TV has chosen to deny their subscribers the content they value most by refusing to pay fair rates for our channels, including ESPN and ABC,” Disney said in a statement. “Without a new agreement in place, their subscribers will not have access to our programming, which includes the best lineup in live sports – anchored by the NFL, NBA, and college football, with 13 of the top 25 college teams playing this weekend. With a $3 trillion market cap, Google is using its market dominance to eliminate competition and undercut the industry-standard terms we’ve successfully negotiated with every other distributor.”

Since August, Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corp., Comcast’s NBCUniversal and Spanish-language broadcaster TelevisaUnivision have all complained that YouTube TV was trying to use its clout to squeeze them for concessions now that YouTube TV has become so popular with consumers.

Ultimately, Fox and NBCUniversal negotiated new distribution contracts with Google without having their channels going dark.

Univision wasn’t as fortunate; its channels have been off YouTube TV for nearly a month.

YouTube TV, for its part, has alleged that Disney was the one making unreasonable demands. The San Bruno, Calif.-based platform cited recent agreements it reached with NBCUniversal and Fox..

“Last week Disney used the threat of a blackout on YouTube TV as a negotiating tactic to force deal terms that would raise prices on our customers,” YouTube TV said in a statement. “They’re now following through on that threat. … This decision directly harms our subscribers while benefiting their own live TV products, including Hulu + Live TV and Fubo.”

Both Disney’s Hulu service and Fubo compete with YouTube TV by offering packages of many of the same traditional channels.

YouTube has alleged that Disney is using the blackout to steer disaffected YouTube TV customers to Disney-owned streaming services after the Burbank company lost subscribers who canceled following the late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s brief suspension last month.

The two companies’ fraught dealings extend beyond the negotiations.

Last spring, Disney’s former distribution chief, Justin Connolly, abruptly exited to take a similar position at YouTube TV. Connolly had spent two decades at Disney and ESPN and helped devise the company’s distribution strategy. Disney sued to block the move, but a judge allowed Connolly to take his new position — putting him on the opposite side of the negotiation table.

It’s unclear how long the impasse might last.

A separate distribution fee dispute between Disney and DirecTV last year resulted in a 13-day blackout of Disney channels for customers of the El Segundo-based television provider. In 2023, another ugly tussle led to Disney channels being dropped from Charter’s Spectrum service for 10 days.

News and sports fans might quickly notice the absence of their favorite channels.

They could miss college football on ESPN and ABC as well as a “Monday Night Football” game between the Arizona Cardinals and Dallas Cowboys.

ESPN is scheduled to televise a University of Miami-SMU football game on Saturday.

(Jason Allen / Associated Press)

Disney’s ABC stations, including KABC-TV in Los Angeles, and the network’s affiliate stations around the country also will be unavailable on YouTube TV.

That means viewers could miss local newscasts, “Jeopardy,” “Wheel of Fortune,” “Good Morning America” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”

YouTube TV launched in April 2017 for $35 a month. The package of channels now costs $82.99.

Hamas agreed to return all of the Israeli captives – both the living and the dead – within 72 hours of signing a ceasefire deal with Israel.

It has been more than a week, and 18 bodies have yet to be handed over.

The Palestinian group is calling for heavy machinery to retrieve the remains.

It accuses Israel of purposely hampering the search, while Israel insists that Hamas is dragging its feet.

All the while, the lives of Palestinians in Gaza depend on the return of Israel’s dead.

Will Israel resume the war? And is the US prepared to give it the green light?

Presenter: Tom McRae

Guests:

Ori Goldberg – Israeli political commentator

Xavier Abu Eid – political analyst

Mehmet Celik – editorial co-ordinator at the Daily Sabah

It was a sombre Thursday afternoon in Alesi, a community in Ikom Local Government Area (LGA) of Cross River State, in South South Nigeria. Inside the village head’s palace, men and women gathered in silence, their faces drawn with grief. Some stared blankly ahead; others fought back tears.

“We have lost another son. Our hearts are heavy, our eyes are bleeding. Our people are continuously being killed as a result of boundary disputes, and we are increasingly being forced to take up arms,” Nzan Osim, a community leader, addressed the mourners. 

A day earlier, Fidelis Akan, a cocoa farmer from Alesi, was beheaded on his farm, close to the boundary with Ochon, a neighbouring community in Obubra LGA. His elder brother, Lawrence Akan, said Fidelis had gone to the farm with his daughter that morning to harvest cocoa when they heard gunshots. 

“As they came out to see what was happening, a group of boys, allegedly from Ochon, caught them. When they found out that he was from Alesi, they beheaded him,” he narrated. Fidelis’ daughter escaped and raised the alarm. His body was later recovered and buried the same day, leaving behind a wife and six children. 

In the aftermath, angry residents allegedly set fire to a truck loaded with cocoa, believing it belonged to an Ochon farmer. 

A long battle over land

Since 2022, Alesi and Ochon have become flashpoints for deadly clashes, rooted in a long-running boundary dispute and the struggle for farmland to cultivate cocoa, one of Cross River’s most valuable crops. 

Yet, for decades, both communities coexisted peacefully, trading and even intermarrying across the boundary without violence. Many locals believe the recent tensions are being driven by increased competition for farmland and the growing economic value of cocoa.

The disputed land falls within the Ukpon River Forest Reserve, a protected area established by the state government in 1930 to preserve forest resources and biodiversity. Both communities continue to claim ownership of the area, with residents of Alesi accusing their Ochon counterparts of trespassing and attempting to seize land around Adibongha, the nearest clan to the boundary. 

The tension has often turned violent. In July, several houses were burnt and many families were displaced after an attack on Adibongha, according to Kelvin Eyam, a resident. 

“We have documents to prove our claim, but the Obubra people don’t want us at the boundary. They want to seize the entire land. The boundary is clearly marked at the centre of the river. There’s even a document that shows this, but attempts have been made to wipe it out,” said Nzan, a community leader from Alesi.

The traditional ruler of Obubra, Robert Mbinna, disagrees and insists it is Alesi that has been trespassing and illegally occupying their land. “There is a court order to that effect,” he said, adding that his own people have also lost lives in the crisis.

While both sides referred to documents supporting their claims, they did not present any to HumAngle for verification.

Beyond the legal arguments, residents say the human toll continues to rise. “A lot of people have been maimed, kidnapped and not seen till today. We dread to see one another and no longer enter the same vehicle with those from Obubra,” Nsan added. 

Aside from the lives lost, the protracted crisis between these communities is also impacting the livelihoods of residents. Farmers say vast farmlands have been abandoned for fear of attacks, while others have watched their cocoa trees destroyed in the clashes.

Daniel Eguma, a cocoa farmer from Ukanga in Ikom, is one of them. Just a day before Akan’s brutal murder, he escaped from Okokori, a community near the boundary where he would always pass the night after working on his farmland. 

“I slept at a primary school field and made arrangements with a driver who took me away at 3 a.m. after I heard of an impending attack. I left behind my six hectares of cocoa farmland and a motorcycle,” he told HumAngle. 

Daniel was already planning to harvest his cocoa in a week, but he cannot go back to his farm again. Usually, when criminals notice that farmers have abandoned their farms, they go in and steal. He said he could not even begin to estimate the value of what he has lost — but after years of labour and investment, it is substantial.

‘The Prevent Council’

As violence persisted despite repeated police deployments, civil society actors began searching for ways to prevent further bloodshed.

Nine months after at least eight people were killed and about 2000 displaced following a clash between the communities in March 2022,  the Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND), a non-profit organisation, launched the Prevent Council initiative. The project aimed to strengthen community peacebuilding structures by engaging traditional rulers as positive influencers and conflict mediators in Akwa Ibom, Cross River, and Delta states.

PIND says it currently has 10,113 peace actors in its network, who have intervened in over 2000 conflicts since 2013.

In Cross River, at least 25 traditional rulers and community leaders in five LGAs, including Ikom and Obubra, were trained and made peace ambassadors. PIND’s Executive Director, Tunji Idowu, said that the initiative recognised the critical role that traditional rulers play in maintaining peace and security within their communities. 

“The central goal of the Prevent Council is to promote and sustain social cohesion and peaceful coexistence in society with no one left behind. It emphasises that sustainable peace must involve multilateral engagements with traditional institutions as critical positive influencers and conflict mediators in their respective states and communities,” Tunji explained.

Participants received training on early warning and response, conflict mapping, mediation, and Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). 

Between 2023 and 2024, PIND peace ambassadors intervened when clashes erupted between Alesi and Ochon. Using their training manuals, they engaged both sides to de-escalate tensions.

“We went into the communities where we spoke with elders and youths about the need to embrace peace,” said Agbor Clement, a participant from Ikom LGA. 

However, since the return of the violence this year, both Agbor and Mbinna, a participant from Obubra LGA, admit that their effort have not tackled the root causes. Agbor noted that Ikom also shares boundaries with Boki and Etung local government areas; however, there have been no reported boundary disputes, as the borders are properly demarcated. 

Local government officials agree. According to Daniel Eyam, a Special Adviser on Political and Executive Matters to the Ikom LGA chairperson, although PIND’s activities are well-intentioned, the system itself prevents peace from taking root. 

“In communities, when there is a land dispute, you go to the elders because they are the custodians of facts that pertain to the disputed area, and when they speak the truth, matters are resolved. Sadly, many of them have refused to do that,” he said. 

Daniel stressed that beyond offering training, PIND should push relevant agencies to speak the truth and take action. 

Another challenge facing PIND’s Prevent Council is a lack of resources to enable peace ambassadors to respond immediately during conflict situations.

“We were supposed to meet with stakeholders after the latest crisis, but we are handicapped because our work usually ends after training,” said Victor Okim, a PIND ambassador in Obubra. “We cannot go into the communities to drill down on what we have learned because we don’t have the resources. There is no continuous monitoring and evaluation of Prevent Council activities.”

“If we have the support that we need, we can do more because we are part of them, and they trust us so much to listen when we speak,” he added. 

Nkongha Daniel, the PIND Coordinator for Ikom, said women are often the biggest losers in crises because they lose their husbands and children. She suggested the foundation invest more in training women on how to respond in times of crisis.

PIND did not respond to interview requests, so it remains unclear whether the organisation is aware of the renewed violence or has taken steps to address these challenges. However, in its Niger Delta Weekly Conflict Update for March 2022, it recommended stronger collaboration between stakeholders and the state government to tackle the root causes of land conflicts and redress historical grievances.

Government efforts fall short

On July 30, the Cross River State Government ordered the immediate suspension of all farming activities on the disputed land, saying it was part of its efforts to bring peace to the area until proper boundary demarcation was carried out.

Community leaders and stakeholders of the two warring communities met in Calabar, the state capital, with the Deputy Governor, Peter Odey, and other government officials, including Anthony Owan-Enoh, who is overseeing an eight-person Peace Committee that was inaugurated to identify the root causes of the conflict and recommend a sustainable resolution framework. 

During the meeting, community leaders were instructed to submit all relevant documents relating to the crisis on or before Aug. 1. HumAngle confirmed that the papers were submitted, and a follow-up review meeting was slated for Aug. 13 to assess compliance, monitor the committee’s progress, and tackle emerging issues.

However, several community leaders noted that no meaningful progress has been made. 

“They gave us two weeks to stay off our lands, saying they were coming to carry out boundary demarcation. But after the visit, nothing happened. We have not been told whether we can return to our farms,” said Kelvin Eyam, a community leader from Alesi, lamenting that the government appears indifferent as violence continues. 

Nzan claimed that on Sept. 4, the Secretary to the State Government asked both parties to provide surveyors for an urgent meeting with the state’s Surveyor General. However, when he called to find out the outcome of the meeting the next day, he was informed that it didn’t hold because the surveyor from Obubra could not come. 

“This is what has been happening, and the government continues to keep calm, give us excuses and watch lives get lost,” he lamented. 

Neji Abang, a member of the Peace Resolution Committee for the Ikom-Obubra communal conflict, said that the committee visited both communities shortly after its inauguration to conduct fact-finding. According to him, the state’s Surveyor-General was invited and subsequently deployed a technical team to the disputed boundary. 

“We had a meeting where they presented their findings, and the chairman of the committee had invited 10 representatives from each of the communities to the meeting,” he said. 

But the presentation was rejected by the Alesi delegation, who argued that the demarcation was different from the original boundary record in their possession. They claimed the survey relied on a previous court judgment that had awarded the disputed area to Ochon and therefore demanded a fresh exercise.

Neji also confirmed Nzan’s earlier account that Obubra failed to bring its own surveyor, despite a directive from the committee chairperson instructing both communities to provide independent surveyors to work alongside the state’s team at the disputed site on  Sept. 3.

When asked why the state government had not formally demarcated the boundary despite having records of all boundaries in the state, Abang said, “That is what we will eventually do if it addresses the crisis.” 

What’s the way out?

As government interventions stall, community members and peace ambassadors are proposing alternative paths toward a lasting solution.

Members of the PIND Prevent Council noted that it is also important to look into training community members on livelihoods and alternative means of survival because the conflicts are often rooted in economic struggle.

“Young people can be empowered through skills acquisition programs and grants so they can look away from cocoa, which is a major reason why there is a struggle for land,” Nkongha explained. “Many of the youth are jobless and turn to hard drugs, hence they become willing tools for conflict.”

She explained that Ikom and Obubra, for instance, are big producers of garri, plantain, palm oil, yams, and groundnuts. 

“We can establish industries that process these crops where young people can be employed to work and earn for themselves,” she noted.

For Agbor, another way out of the conflict will be for the government to take over the disputed area and set aside days when farmers on each side can go and harvest their crops, accompanied by security operatives. 

Emmanuel Ossai, a peace and conflict expert who has researched violence in the region, said that interventions, like that of PIND, need to consider widening existing partnerships by involving more strategically placed youth, traditional, religious, and women leaders across the communities in conflict management training regularly.  

“There might be several possible reasons for the violence that are not under PIND’s direct control, but expanding partnerships and training more local leaders in conflict management would be helpful,” he suggested. 

Emmanuel added that regular follow-ups are necessary after training to assess whether community leaders are applying the conflict management skills they acquired to achieve greater impact.

This story was produced under the HumAngle Foundation’s Advancing Peace and Security through Journalism project, supported by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

Trump slams Chicago mayor and Illinois governor resisting his mass deportation campaign as troops arrive in state.

United States President Donald Trump called for the jailing of Democratic officials in Illinois resisting his mass deportation campaign, a day after armed troops from Texas arrived in the state to bolster the operation.

Chicago, the largest city in Illinois and third-largest in the country, has become the latest flashpoint in the Trump administration’s drive to deport millions of immigrants, which has prompted allegations of rights abuses and myriad lawsuits.

The operation is being led by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), whose masked agents have surged into several Democratic-led cities to conduct raids, stoking outrage among many residents and protests outside federal facilities.

“Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers! Governor Pritzker also!” Trump posted Wednesday on his Truth Social platform.

Local officials argue that city and state law enforcement are sufficient to handle the protests, but Trump claims the military is needed to keep federal agents safe, heightening concerns among his critics of growing authoritarianism.

After National Guard deployments in Los Angeles and Washington, DC, 200 troops arrived in Illinois on Tuesday.

An immigration enforcement building outside Chicago has also been the site of clashes between federal agents and protesters.

“The federal government has not communicated with us in any way about their troop movements,” Pritzker told reporters in Chicago. “I can’t believe I have to say ‘troop movements’ in an American city, but that is what we’re talking about here.”

A judge will have a role in determining how many boots are on the streets: There’s a court hearing Thursday on a request by Illinois and Chicago to declare the National Guard deployment illegal.

‘Stand up and speak out’

Trump’s attacks on Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, both Democrats, follow similar extraordinary public calls by the president for his political opponents to face legal charges.

They come on the same day that former FBI director James Comey was arraigned on charges of lying to Congress – an indictment which came just days after Trump urged his attorney general to take action against him and others.

Pritzker, seen as a potential Democratic candidate in the 2028 presidential election, has become one of Trump’s most fiery critics.

He pledged Wednesday to “not back down,” listing a litany of grievances against Trump’s immigration crackdown.

“Making people feel they need to carry citizenship papers. Invading our state with military troops. Sending in war helicopters in the middle of the night,” he wrote on X.

“What else is left on the path to full-blown authoritarianism?” he asked. “We must all stand up and speak out.”

By “war helicopters”, Pritzker was referring to a major raid last week in which Black Hawk helicopters descended on a Chicago housing complex.

Dozens of people were arrested in the surprise operation, according to the Trump administration, but US media reported that American citizens were detained for hours.

Mayor Johnson has since announced “ICE-free zones” where city-owned property will be declared off-limits to federal authorities.

Johnson accused Republicans of wanting “a rematch of the Civil War”.

Trump’s immigration crackdown is aimed at fulfilling a key election pledge to rid the country of what he called waves of foreign “criminals”.

Trump has nonetheless faced some legal setbacks, including a federal judge in Oregon blocking his bid to deploy troops in Portland, saying his descriptions of an emergency there were false and that the US is a “nation of Constitutional law, not martial law”.

Trump says he could invoke the rarely used Insurrection Act to force deployments of troops around the country if courts or local officials are “holding us up”.

YouTube TV dropped Univision’s Spanish-language networks late Tuesday, a contentious turn in a simmering dispute that has already drawn scrutiny from members of Congress.

“Google’s YouTube TV has refused to ‘Do the Right Thing’ and dropped Univision from its platform — stripping millions of Hispanic viewers of the Spanish-language news, sports, and entertainment they rely on every day,” parent company TelevisaUnivision said in a statement, alluding to its campaign slogan.

The outage began about 7 p.m. PDT, shortly before the federal government shutdown — a newsworthy event that Univision journalists have been covering.

The impasse occurred as another deadline loomed in separate contract talks between YouTube TV and NBCUniversal, raising the possibility of a second blackout. Both Univision and NBCUniversal’s distribution agreements were set to expire Tuesday night. But at the deadline, NBCUniversal granted YouTube TV a short-term extension to allow the two sides to continue working on a new deal.

NBCUniversal owns Telemundo, the other major Spanish-language broadcast network.

Prominent members of Congress, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), have demanded answers from Google executives, including Chief Executive Sundar Pichai.

A major sticking point was YouTube TV’s proposal to shift the Univision network from its basic plan, which is available to all subscribers, and put the channel on a more expensive Spanish-language add-on package.

Univision cried foul, saying the switch would amount to an 18% fee increase for its Spanish-language viewers. The move would also dramatically cut the revenue that Univision receives because YouTube and other distributors pay fees based on the number of subscribers that have access to a channel.

“Google shouldn’t be abusing its monopoly power by forcing millions of Texans & Americans to pay extra for Spanish-language programming,” Cruz said in a message on X. “That’s not right & it’s not fair.”

YouTube is flexing its market muscle. The Google platforms have become the dominant video service in the U.S., according to Nielsen, with YouTube attracting more than 120 million active daily users.

The YouTube TV service has become a major draw with more than 10 million customer homes that receive its traditional TV channel packages that include NBC, ABC, Fox News and Comedy Central.

A YouTube spokesperson downplayed Univision’s departure, saying the Spanish-language company continues to have a massive following on its main YouTube site with more than “160 million subscribers and billions of views across YouTube, where they generate ad revenue from their content.”

However, on the paid service, YouTube TV, the Spanish-language programming “only represents a tiny fraction of overall consumption,” the YouTube spokesperson said.

The blackout comes a month after YouTube avoided a collision with Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corp. The two companies hammered out a new distribution deal a few days after the August deadline.

NBCUniversal’s talks with Google have also been rocky. The tech behemoth has expressed a desire to fold Peacock programming onto its YouTube TV platform rather than the current stand-alone service. But NBCUniversal has balked because it has spent billions of dollars building Peacock and it wants to remain the conduit for its customers.

YouTube TV launched in April 2017 for $35 a month. The package of channels now costs $82.99.

In a bid for more sports fans, YouTube TV took over the NFL Sunday Ticket premium sports package from DirecTV, which had been losing more than $100 million a year to maintain the NFL service. YouTube TV offers Sunday Ticket as a base plan add-on or as an individual channel on YouTube.

A PENSIONER is having to sell her home to cover a £113,000 legal bill after losing a five-year dispute over a 1ft strip of land.

Jenny Field, 76, was told to pay £14,000 after her initial court defeat to Pauline Clark, 64, but her repeated challenges saw the total rocket.

A judge has now told her she must pay the resultant £113,126 in three months or flog her £600,000 bungalow in Hamworthy, Dorset, so the cash can be recouped.

The divorcee told a court: “I am selling it because I have to and I’m fed up with living here but I will offer to pay her £1 per week.”

Their feud began in 2020 after Mrs Clark replaced a fence between the properties.

Ms Field claimed it had encroached on her garden and had it demolished, but Mrs Clark sued for damages and won the first case in 2022.

Several appeals followed and Ms Field was accused of wasting time by bombarding the court with papers.

A bid by her to sue for £500,000 in damages was also dismissed as “totally without merit”.

District Judge Ross Fentem said Mrs Clark had been kept from money owed to her for a long time and told Bournemouth county court the order for sale was “a last resort and draconian remedy”.

1

About 10 million YouTube TV subscribers could lose access to Fox News and Fox Corp. channels that broadcast sports in a fee dispute that comes just days before the start of college football.

The Google-owned television service notified customers that Fox-owned channels, including Fox Business and local stations such as KTTV Channel 11 in Los Angeles, may be dropped from their program line-ups as soon as Wednesday afternoon if the two sides fail to reach a new distribution pact.

YouTube TV viewers would be without “The Five” and other Fox News programs. Sports fans could miss out on Friday night’s Auburn-Baylor football game and Saturday’s high-profile contest between Texas and Ohio State, along with three regional Major League Baseball games.

A prolonged blackout could interrupt the start of Fox’s NFL season that begins on Sept. 7.

“Fox is asking for payments that are far higher than what partners with comparable content offerings receive,” YouTube said late Monday in a blog post. “Our priority is to reach a deal that reflects the value of their content and is fair for both sides without passing on additional costs to our subscribers.”

The dust-up comes as YouTube TV has become one of the most formidable television providers.

Earlier this year, Nielsen ranked YouTube, including its video service, as the largest television distributor in the U.S. by share of viewership. YouTube’s popular bundle — it also offers the NFL Sunday Ticket package of out-of-market games — has dramatically cut into the business of legacy pay-TV providers, including Charter Spectrum, DirecTV and Dish Networks.

“While Fox remains committed to reaching a fair agreement with Google’s YouTube TV, we are disappointed that Google continually exploits its outsized influence by proposing terms that are out of step with the marketplace,” Fox said in a statement, adding the dispute could force its channels to go dark “unless Google engages in a meaningful way soon.”

Last year, YouTube generated $54.2 billion in revenue, second only to the Walt Disney Co., according to the MoffettNathanson research firm. The analysts estimated that fast-growing YouTube TV would reach 10 million subscribers this year. That slightly trails Charter, which operates the Spectrum service, and Comcast. YouTube TV has eclipsed the once powerhouse satellite TV service providers.

Disputes between programmers and pay-TV providers have become increasingly common in recent years amid a weakening of television economics. The high cost of sports rights has become a major rub for pay-TV distributors who have been asked to pay higher fees to mitigate the loss of subscribers.

Last year, DirecTV customers lost access to Walt Disney Co. channels, including ESPN, for nearly two weeks.

The battle was costly. DirecTV acknowledged that thousands of subscribers fled — many to YouTube TV — during the blackout. Viewers who wanted to watch the U.S. Open tennis tournament, college football, “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of Fortune” were upset by the outage.

In 2023, a separate dispute led to Disney channels going dark on Spectrum.

YouTube said Monday that it was “working diligently with the team at Fox to reach an agreement.”

Should the channels go dark, the company will provide customers with a $10 credit. YouTube said customers could also sign up for Rupert Murdoch’s television company’s new streaming service, Fox One, which costs $20 a month.

Teyana Taylor was ordered to cover ex-husband Iman Shumpert’s $70,000 in attorney fees after she was found in contempt of court for violating terms of her 2024 divorce agreement.

Taylor, 34, and Shumpert, 35, both had been accusing each other of violating the agreement by leaking their settlement terms to blogs, according to court documents filed Aug. 5 in Georgia’s Fulton County Superior Court.

The court found the “Gonna Love Me” singer had violated the “prohibition against disclosure of ‘summaries, abstracts, portions and descriptions’” of the final judgment in their divorce.

Taylor confirmed her marriage to the former NBA pro during a 2016 appearance on “The Wendy Williams Show” and the couple appeared that same year in the official music video of the track “Fade” by Kanye West (now known as Ye).

The exes have two children together, Iman “Junie” Tayla and Rue Rose, now 9 and 4, respectively. Shumpert helped Taylor deliver both babies at home in the couple’s bathroom.

The couple separated in 2023 and she filed for divorce that November. The split was finalized in July 2024, then in March of this year details of the agreement suddenly appeared online, leading to the filings in civil court.

Taylor had asked the court to order Shumpert to pay her legal fees, but after she refused to show proof of income, the answer was no. The “Coming 2 America” actor did not answer questions about her assets and her income, stating the information was “completely irrelevant to any issue.”

The court ordered Taylor to pay for Shumpert’s fees, saying she had the means to pay because she has been in three movies since the divorced was finalized and has TV series booked for this fall.

During the hearing, Taylor failed to prove that Shumpert had provided details from their divorce case to entertainment blogs.

Israeli authorities froze all bank accounts of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem over a long-standing property tax dispute, escalating tensions with Christian institutions in the occupied city, local media said on Thursday, Anadolu reports.

A statement by Protecting Holy Land Christians, a group founded by Theophilos III, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, said the freeze has left the Patriarchate unable to pay salaries to clergy, teachers, and staff.

The Times of Israel news outlet said the freeze, enacted on Aug. 6, stems from the Jerusalem Municipality’s push to collect Arnona, a property tax, on church-owned properties used for non-religious purposes, such as guesthouses and coffee shops.

The municipality claimed that the measure followed “efforts at dialogue and engagement” that failed because the Patriarchate “ignored letters from the municipality demanding payment.”

“Administrative enforcement measures were taken against the Greek Patriarchate because it failed to settle its property tax debts for assets not used as houses of worship,” its spokesperson office said.

“This was done despite efforts at dialogue and engagement with them, and in light of their ignoring letters from the municipality demanding payment.”

A decades-long agreement had historically exempted churches from such taxes, but in 2018, the city narrowed the exemption to properties used solely for prayer, religious teaching, or related needs, seeking tens of millions of shekels in back taxes.

The dispute echoes a 2018 clash when then-mayor Nir Barkat froze church accounts, prompting a three-day closure of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in protest. The municipality relented after intervention by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Tensions have since flared periodically over specific properties and activities.

Shohei Ohtani’s name is in headlines again.

And, for the second time in two years, not for baseball reasons.

News emerged this week that Ohtani, the Dodgers’ two-way star and reigning National League MVP, was being sued along with his agent in Hawaii by a real estate investor and broker.

The claim: That Ohtani and his representative, Nez Balelo of Creative Artists Agency, had the plaintiffs fired from a $240 million luxury housing development that Ohtani had been contracted to help endorse.

The contours of the case are complicated; relating to contract law, tortious interference and two years of alleged disputes between Balelo and the plaintiffs, developer Kevin J. Hayes Sr. and real estate broker Tomoko Matsumoto, leading up to their termination from the project.

But as it pertains to Ohtani and this current Dodgers season, only one question really matters:

Will the situation create any distraction for him off the field?

When pressed on that Wednesday, he quickly shut the idea down.

“I’m focused on what the team is doing,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. “And doing everything in my power to make sure we bring a W on the field.”

According to the lawsuit, Hayes and Matsumoto reached an endorsement deal with Ohtani in 2023 for their luxury housing development on Hawaii’s Big Island. The Japanese star was not only to be a spokesperson for the project, but also a resident committed to purchasing one of the development’s 14 residences as an offseason home.

However, the lawsuit claimed, Balelo increasingly demanded unspecified concessions (the details of which were redacted in the filing) over the last two years from Hayes and Matsumoto — becoming what it described as a “disruptive force” who “inserted himself into every aspect of the relationship.”

Last month, the lawsuit alleged, Balelo went to Hayes’ and Matsumoto’s business partner, Kingsbarn Realty Capital, and threatened litigation if the two weren’t terminated from the project.

“Kingsbarn openly admitted … that Balelo had demanded the terminations and that they were being done solely to placate him,” the lawsuit said. “Specifically, Kingsbarn acknowledged that Balelo had threatened to drag Kingsbarn into a separate lawsuit unless it terminated Hayes and Matsumoto.”

The lawsuit also claims that Balelo’s supposed threat of litigation — which pertained to the use of Ohtani’s name, image and likeness rights being used to promote a seperate real estate project on Hawaii’s Big Island — was “baseless,” amounting to an “abuse of power” by Ohtani’s longtime agent to “force a business partner to betray its contractual obligations and strip Plaintiffs of the very project they conceived and built.”

A Kingsbarn spokesperson told The Athletic this week that the allegations “are completely frivolous and without merit,” and that “Kingsbarn takes full responsibility for its actions regarding Kevin Hayes and for removing Tomoko Matsumoto as the project’s broker.”

Ohtani’s direct involvement in the dispute appears limited.

According to a person with knowledge of the situation who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly, the plaintiffs dealt almost exclusively with Balelo, who has represented Ohtani since he came to the major leagues from Japan before the 2018 season.

Still, because Balelo was acting on behalf of Ohtani, the superstar was included as a defendant as well.

That means — just like in March 2024, when scandal swirled around Ohtani after his former interpreter was found to have stolen money from his bank accounts to pay off illegal gambling debts — Ohtani has another potential disturbance to navigate off the field.

Granted, Ohtani hardly seemed affected by last year’s controversy, helping the Dodgers win the World Series while winning the third MVP award of his career. And this current lawsuit, according to attorney and legal expert Arash Sadat of Mills Sadat Dowlat LLP, presents a much more standard type of legal dispute often seen around real estate deals.

“This kind of stuff happens all the time,” Sadat said. “They’re not rare at all.”

Sadat noted that, based on the lawsuit, it’s not clear “what Shohei knew and didn’t know” when it came to Balelo’s alleged interactions with the plaintiffs.

“All of the allegations in the complaint relate to conduct by his agent,” Sadat said. “If the plaintiffs in this case could show any direct involvement by Ohtani, you can bet that would have been included in the complaint.”

If the case were to proceed without a resolution, it is possible Ohtani could eventually be required to give a deposition detailing his knowledge of the alleged events.

That, however, is not something that would happen imminently. And even if it did, Sadat added, it’s unclear whether his testimony would even be released publicly, given that large swaths of redactions in the original lawsuit of seemingly proprietary business information.

Sadat speculated the chances of the case ever going to trial as slim. The overwhelming majority of such lawsuits are typically settled or dismissed well before then.

“Real estate tends to bring out emotions in people,” Sadat said. “You have a high-profile real estate developer. You have a high-profile real estate agent. You have a sports agent over at CAA. You’re talking about big egos here. And when that happens, and someone feels slighted, oftentimes… litigation is the result.”

Marc-Andre ter Stegen has been reinstated as Barcelona captain and disciplinary proceedings against him dropped in a dramatic 24-hour turnaround.

The German keeper had been stripped of the armband on Thursday because of a dispute centred around surgery on a back injury in July.

Barcelona would reportedly have been able to clear 80% of his wages until mid-season if the 33-year-old was classed as a long-term absentee, freeing up funds to allow them to register new players.

However, Ter Stegen recently published a post on social media saying he would be out for three months, whereas La Liga rules require a player to remain sidelined for at least four to be considered a long-term absentee.

He had also reportedly, external been unwilling to allow Barca to share his medical data with La Liga.

But Barca said Ter Stegen has now signed the relevant forms giving them authorisation to send the medical report.

In a social media post earlier on Friday, the keeper said he was “fully willing to collaborate with the club’s management to resolve this matter and to provide the requested authorisation”.

Ter Stegen added the suggestion his injury absence was being used as tool for Barcelona to register new players was “both unfair and inaccurate”.

“I would also like to clarify that all of the club’s signings and contract renewals were completed prior to my surgery,” he said.

“At no point could I consider that my unfortunate circumstances with the new surgery I had to undergo would be necessary for the registration of other colleagues whom I greatly respect and look forward to share [a] locker room with for many seasons.

“I understand that difficult moments can generate tension, but I trust that, through dialogue and responsibility, we can resolve this situation constructively.”

The La Liga champions’ summer signings have included the arrival of keeper Joan Garcia from Espanyol and England striker Marcus Rashford on loan from Manchester United.

Ter Stegen has made more than 400 appearances for Barcelona since joining from Borussia Monchengladbach in 2014, and his honours include winning the Champions League and six La Liga titles.

A confrontation between Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Armenia’s top Christian clerics seems to be deepening, polarising the deeply religious South Caucasus nation of 3 million.

St Echmiadzin, the Armenian Apostolic Church’s headquarters, has been “taken over by the anti-Christian, immoral, antinational and antistate group and has to be liberated”, Pashinyan wrote on Facebook on Tuesday, adding: “I will lead this liberation.”

The dispute escalated late last month, with bells ringing tocsin over St Echmiadzin on June 27.

Usually, the loud and alarming sound signals an event of significance, such as a foreign invasion.

But on that parching-hot June day, the noise rang out to signal the detention of a top cleric who, according to Pashinyan, was part of a “criminal-oligarchic clergy” that was involved in “terrorism” and plotted a “coup”.

He said the “coup organisers” include the Church’s head, Karekin II, who has disputed with Pashinyan in a months-long personal feud.

But the conflict should not be seen as a confrontation between secular authorities and the entire Church, observers said.

“It’s a personal clash,” Richard Giragosian of the Regional Studies Center think tank based in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, told Al Jazeera.

But some Armenians still described the furore in almost apocalyptic terms.

“We lost our statehood so many times, so being part of the Church was equal to being Armenian,” Narine Malikyan, a 37-year-old mother of two from Armenia’s second-largest city of Guymri, told Al Jazeera. “Attacking the Church is like attacking every Armenian.”

The Church, whose doctrine differs from that of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox sees, has for centuries helped maintain the identity of Armenians while their lands were ruled by Iranians, Byzantines, Arabs, Mongols, Turks and Russians.

‘The Karabakh clan’

The conflict between Pashinyan and Karekin is rooted in the 2020 war between Armenia and Azerbaijan that ended a decades-old “frozen conflict”.

In the early 1990s, Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous Azeri enclave dominated by ethnic Armenians, broke away in a bloody war that uprooted up to a million.

Moscow-backed separatist leaders from Nagorno-Karabakh became part of Armenia’s political elite and cultivated ties with the Church.

The so-called “Karabakh clan” spawned two presidents who ruled Armenia for 20 years but were accused of corruption, cronyism and pocketing donations from Armenian diasporas in France, the United States and Russia.

In 2018, Pashinyan, an ex-lawmaker and popular publicist, led huge protests that toppled the “Karabakh clan”. He became prime minister with approval ratings of more than 80 percent.

Some protesters back then flocked to St Echmiadzin to urge Karekin to step down as they lambasted his penchant for luxurious cars and lavish parties.

‘An illegitimate child’

Two years later, Armenia lost Nagorno-Karabakh in a 44-day war that proved the superiority of drone attacks and hi-tech stratagems.

By 2023, Azerbaijan regained control of the entire Dubai-sized territory, while tens of thousands of its residents flocked to Armenia.

Karekin blamed Pashinyan for the defeat, even though observers have argued that the responsibility lies with his predecessors’s miscalculations.

Pashinyan struck back.

He claimed that 73-year-old Karekin – who was ordained in 1970, studied theology in Austria, Germany and Moscow and became the Church’s head in 1999, broke his vow of celibacy to father a child – and should, therefore, vacate his seat.

“If Karekin II tries to denounce this fact, I’ll prove it in all necessary ways,” Pashinyan wrote on Facebook on June 9.

He did not specify the details, but Armenian media “discovered” that Karekin’s alleged daughter is a medical doctor in Yerevan.

Karekin did not respond to the claim but accused Pashinyan of dividing Armenians.

“The anti-clerical campaign unleashed by authorities is a serious threat to our national unity, domestic stability and is a direct blow to our statehood,” the grey-bearded clergyman, clad in a ceremonial robe adorned with crosses, said on June 22 at a ceremony at St Echmiadzin.

A day later, a priest called Pashinyan “Judas” and claimed he was circumcised.

Pashinyan retorted by offering to expose himself to the priest and Karekin.

A failed detention

On June 27, dozens of intelligence officers interrupted a conference in one of St Echmiadzin’s tawny, centuries-old buildings to forcibly deliver another Pashinyan critic, Archbishop Mikael Adjapakhyan, to an interrogation.

But priests and parishioners summoned by the tocsin fought them off – while critics compared the incident to the 1938 killing of Armenia’s top cleric in St Echmiadzin during the Soviet-era crackdown on religion.

Hours later, Archbishop Adjapakhyan volunteered for an interrogation, telling supporters that he “was being persecuted illegally”.

He was arrested for two months – along with 14 alleged “coup organisers,” including another archbishop, Bagrat Galstanyan, opposition lawmakers and “Karabakh clan” figures.

The coup was supposed to take place on September 21, on Armenia’s Independence Day, according to its plan leaked to the Civic.am daily.

Also arrested was construction tycoon Samvel Karapetyan, who made his estimated $3.6bn fortune in Russia and owns Armenia’s main power company.

Karapetyan had threatened Pashinyan, saying if the conflict with Karekin is not solved, “we will take part in it all in our own way.”

The arrests were “a move by the Armenian government to preempt any potential Russian interference in the coming [parliamentary] elections that are set for June 2026”, analyst Giragosian said.

‘Pashinyan is hard to negotiate with’

Those opposed to Pashinyan’s Civil Contract Party have accused him of siding with Azerbaijan and Turkiye.

But Baku has its qualms about Pashinyan.

“Pashinyan is by far not a peace dove,” Emil Mustafayev, chief editor of the Minval Politika magazine based in the Azeri capital, Baku, told Al Jazeera. “He is hard to negotiate with.”

However, after the loss of Nagorno-Karabakh, Pashinyan “began to take heed of Baku’s position”, Mustafayev said. “Of all possible options in Yerevan, he’s the least problematic partner one can have a dialogue with, no matter how complicated it is.”

Analyst Gigarosyan agreed.

“Pashinyan is the best interlocutor [Baku and Ankara] could hope for because of predictability and also because he’s looking to turn the page,” he said. “He’s not looking for revenge.”

And even though Pashinyan’s current approval ratings are well below 20 percent, his party may become a political phoenix and win the June 2026 vote.

Armenian opposition parties are either centred around two former presidents from the “Karabakh clan” who are deeply mistrusted, or are too small and splintered to form sizeable coalitions and influence decision-making in the unicameral, 107-seat parliament.

“They’re likely to win,” Giragosian said of Pashinyan’s party. “Not because of a strong degree of support, but because the opposition is hated and feared more.”

Washington, DC – As United States President Donald Trump lauded what he called the “spectacular military success” of the strikes he authorised against Iran, Democrats were quick to accuse him of overstepping his authority.

Numerous critics accused Trump late on Saturday of violating the US Constitution by launching military attacks against Iran’s nuclear sites without the approval of Congress.

“Trump said he would end wars; now he has dragged America into one,” Senator Christopher Van Hollen Junior said in a statement.

“His actions are a clear violation of our Constitution – ignoring the requirement that only the Congress has the authority to declare war.”

In the lead up to the US attacks, legislators from both main parties have pushed measures to compel Trump to approach Congress before launching any strikes.

The US Constitution gives Congress the authority to declare war or authorise the use of force for specific purposes.

Trump’s “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) base has also been vehement in its opposition to the US joining Israel’s war. It has pointed out that Trump won the election on the promise not to commit Washington to yet another war in the Middle East. They want Trump to focus on domestic issues, particularly the economy.

‘Grounds for impeachment’

Lawmakers’ authority over the military was further enshrined in the War Powers Resolution of 1973, which curbed the president’s war-making powers.

Progressive Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Trump violated the constitution and the War Powers Resolution.

“He has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations. It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment,” she said.

The president is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, so he can order attacks, but his decisions must be within the guidelines of what is authorised by Congress.

However, the president can order the military in the case of a “sudden attack” or to respond to emergencies.

Several Democrats were quick to note that Iran’s nuclear facilities, which have been operating for years, did not pose an imminent threat to the US.

The US intelligence community confirmed in an assessment in March that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon.

Trump has increasingly relied on executive powers in governing domestically, and now he appears to be sidelining Congress in his foreign policy.

But with Republicans in control of the Senate and the House of Representatives, lawmakers have few tools to influence his military decision. Impeachment is almost out of the question.

President Trump sending U.S. troops to bomb Iran without the consent of Congress is a blatant violation of our Constitution. pic.twitter.com/pqzAeS4K19

— Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (@RepRashida) June 22, 2025

No legal justification for strikes

Lawmakers have introduced bills under the War Powers Resolution to ban attacks on Iran without the approval of Congress, but Trump is likely to veto the proposals if they pass.

Congress could overturn the veto with two-thirds majorities in the House and the Senate, but Trump’s strikes have enough support to make that outcome unlikely.

The US president has not provided a legal justification for the strikes, but he is likely to argue that he was responding to an urgent situation or cite an existing military authorisation.

In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in 2001, Congress passed a law allowing then-President George W Bush to launch what would become the global “war on terror”.

Millions of people have been killed and societies devastated due to the US wars on Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, among others, waged as part of the so-called “war on terror”. It has also cost trillions of dollars and the lives of thousands of US soldiers.

In 2002, lawmakers approved another authorisation to allow the invasion of Iraq a year later.

These laws, known as the Authorisation for Use of Military Force (AUMF), remain in place, and previous presidents have invoked them to justify attacks that were not specifically approved by Congress.

Brian Finucane, a senior adviser with the US programme of the International Crisis Group and former State Department lawyer, said the attack on Iran is “patently illegal”.

“Even under the prevailing executive branch doctrine, this is likely to constitute ‘war’ requiring congressional authorization,” he wrote in a social media post.

Statement from Rep. Ilhan Omar on U.S. Bombing of Iran:

“The strikes on Iran, ordered by President Trump and executed without congressional authorization, mark a dangerous and reckless escalation of an already volatile conflict in the Middle East.

“Military strikes will not…

— Rep. Ilhan Omar (@Ilhan) June 22, 2025

Key progressive Senator Bernie Sanders was speaking at a rally in Oklahoma when Trump announced the attack.

As Sanders told the crowd about the US strikes, attendees started chanting: “No more war!”

“It is so grossly unconstitutional,” he said. “All of you know that the only entity that can take this country to war is the US Congress; the president does not have that right.”

Former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said lawmakers will be “demanding answers” from the administration.

“Tonight, the President ignored the Constitution by unilaterally engaging our military without Congressional authorization,” she said in a social media post.

The talks come after troops from the two countries exchanged fire last month, killing one Cambodian soldier.

Thailand says talks with neighbouring Cambodia had “made progress” in resolving a long-running border dispute that last month devolved into clashes, leading both countries to mobilise troops on the border.

A Thai delegation led by foreign ministry adviser Prasas Prasasvinitchai and a Cambodian contingent headed by Lam Chea, minister of state in charge of the Secretariat of Border Affairs, met on Saturday in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh to try to resolve the spat.

The meeting came after troops from the two countries exchanged fire last month in an area known as the Emerald Triangle, where the borders of Cambodia, Thailand and Laos meet, with one Cambodian soldier killed.

Thailand’s foreign ministry said the Joint Boundary Commission meeting had “made progress in building mutual understanding” between the two countries.

Ministry spokesman Nikorndej Balankura said in a news conference that “diplomatic dialogue remains the most effective way forward”, adding that talks would go into Sunday.

A resolution is not expected this weekend and it was unclear when the outcome would be announced.

The Thai and Cambodian armies both said they had acted in self-defence during the exchange of fire on May 28, but agreed to reposition their soldiers to avoid future confrontations.

In recent days, Thailand has tightened border controls with Cambodia, which in turn has asked its troops to stay on “full alert”.

Despite both countries pledging dialogue to handle the issue and calm nationalist fervour, Bangkok has threatened to close the border and cut off electricity supplies to its neighbour.

Phnom Penh announced it would cease buying Thai electric power, internet bandwidth and produce. It has also ordered local television stations not to screen Thai films.

Filing complaint with ICJ

The dispute between Thailand and Cambodia dates to the drawing of the 820-km (510-mile) frontier, largely done during the French occupation of Indo-China from 1887 to 1954. Parts of the land border are undemarcated and include ancient temples that both sides have contested for decades.

The region has seen sporadic violence since 2008, resulting in at least 28 deaths.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet announced earlier this month that Cambodia would file a complaint with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over four disputed border areas, including the site of the latest clash. Thailand, however, has insisted on a bilateral solution.

Hun Manet said in a Facebook post on Friday that the four areas and the border restrictions would not be discussed at Saturday’s talks, adding the government would send an official letter to the ICJ on Sunday on its plan to file the case.

“Cambodia awaits Thailand to clarify its official position at [Saturday’s] meeting on whether Thailand will join Cambodia in referring the four areas to the ICJ,” he said.

Influential former strongman premier Hun Sen, Hun Manet’s father, has criticised Thailand’s military for restricting border crossings and has accused generals and Thai nationalists of fanning the tensions.

“Only extremist groups and some military factions are behind these issues with Cambodia because, as usual, the Thai government is unable to control its military the way our country can,” he said late on Thursday.

The ICJ ruled in 2013 that a disputed area next to Preah Vihear temple belonged to Cambodia, but Thailand says it does not accept the ICJ’s jurisdiction.

The Trump administration has argued that Khalil, a Columbia University student, did not disclose past affiliations.

A United States federal judge has allowed the administration of President Donald Trump to keep student protester Mahmoud Khalil in custody based on allegations of immigration fraud.

On Friday, Judge Michael Farbiarz of Newark, New Jersey, ruled that Khalil’s legal team had not adequately shown why his detention on the charge would be unlawful.

It was a major setback for Khalil, who had been a negotiator for the student protesters at Columbia University demonstrating against Israel’s war on Gaza. He was the first high-profile protester to be arrested under Trump’s campaign to expel foreign students who participated in pro-Palestinian advocacy.

Just this week, Farbiarz appeared poised to order Khalil’s release, on the basis that his detention under the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 was unconstitutional.

That law stipulates that the secretary of state – in this case, Marco Rubio – has the power to remove foreign nationals who have “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States”. But Farbiarz ruled that Rubio’s use of the law violated Khalil’s freedom of speech.

Still, the Trump administration filed additional court papers saying it had another reason for wanting to deport Khalil.

It alleged that Khalil, a permanent US resident, had omitted information from his green-card application that would have otherwise disqualified him from gaining residency.

The Trump administration has long accused Khalil of supporting terrorism through his protest-related activities, something the former graduate student has vehemently denied.

In the case of his green-card application, it argues that Khalil failed to disclose his work with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), a humanitarian organisation. Politicians in Israel and the US have accused UNRWA of ties to the armed group Hamas, an allegation reportedly made without evidence.

Khalil, however, has denied he was ever an “officer” in UNRWA, as alleged. Instead, his legal team points out that he completed a United Nations internship through Columbia University.

The Trump administration also argues that Khalil did not accurately identify the length of his employment with the Syria Office of the British Embassy in Beirut. Khalil and his legal team, meanwhile, say he accurately identified his departure date from the job as December 2022.

Judge Farbiarz had set Friday morning as a deadline for the Trump administration to appeal Khalil’s release on bail. But that deadline was extended to give the government more time to challenge Khalil’s release.

Ultimately, Farbiarz allowed the Trump administration to continue its detention of Khalil. He advised Khalil’s lawyers to seek release on bail from the immigration court where his deportation trial is being held in Louisiana.

Farbiarz had been weighing a separate habeas corpus petition from the Khalil team that called into question the constitutionality of his continued detention.

Marc Van Der Hout, a lawyer for Khalil, told the Reuters news agency that immigration fraud charges are exceedingly rare, and the Trump administration’s use of such charges was simply a political manoeuvre to keep Khalil in lock-up.

“Detaining someone on a charge like this is highly unusual and frankly outrageous,” said Van Der Hout. “There continues to be no constitutional basis for his detention.”

Another lawyer representing Khalil, Amy Greer, described the new allegations against his green-card application as part of the government’s “cruel, transparent delay tactics”. She noted that Khalil, a new father whose child was born in April, would miss his first Father’s Day, which falls this Sunday in the US.

“Instead of celebrating together, he is languishing in ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] detention as punishment for his advocacy on behalf of his fellow Palestinians,” Greer said in a statement.

“It is unjust, it is shocking, and it is disgraceful.”

With the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 about to get under way on Saturday, the football league in the host nation United States (US) finds itself at odds with players from its three participating clubs over monetary compensation from the tournament.

Three Major League Soccer (MLS) clubs – Inter Miami, Seattle Sounders and Los Angeles FC – are among the 32 teams that have qualified for the tournament running from June 14 to July 13 across 11 venues in the US.

Players from the three clubs, represented by the MLS Players Association (MLSA), have protested over the amount of compensation they are promised from the tournament by the MLS.

Here’s a breakdown of the ongoing tussle between the MLS and its players:

What’s the Club World Cup pay dispute between the MLS and its players?

The players are demanding an increased share of the tournament prize money in addition to the participation fee they are set to receive.

The players’ association has accused the MLS of refusing to engage in a negotiation so far, while the league has said it has offered the clubs an “enhanced structure” for the players.

How have the players registered their protest?

On June 1, players of Seattle Sounders FC brought attention to the issue by wearing shirts that read “Club World Cup Ca$h Grab” during their warm-up session before their match against Minnesota United FC.

A number of players from the three clubs also posted on social media with the hashtag #FairShareNow, causing fans to take notice and engage in social media conversations.

#FairShareNow pic.twitter.com/EW7ABFbsPX

— Stefan Frei (@Stefan24Frei) June 8, 2025

How much money will MLS clubs receive at the Club World Cup?

Every MLS team will earn a participation fee of $9.55m, but can win additional prize money based on its performance.

Each win or draw during the tournament will also bring in additional prize money, which can increase further should the club advance to the next stages. Since LAFC beat Club America to qualify for the tournament in a playoff game, they won an additional $250,000 in prize money.

What part of the prize money will go to the players?

According to the existing collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the MLS and MLSPA, the players are eligible to receive 50 percent of the prize money in undefined tournaments such as the Club World Cup.

The MLS, on Sunday, said it has proposed an enhanced structure for the Club World Cup “to reward both participation and competitive achievement in the tournament.”

According to the MLS, this is what’s on offer in the revised proposal: “In addition to the guaranteed $1m per team for qualifying, 20 percent of all prize money earned from the group stage onward would be allocated to players. If an MLS club wins the Club World Cup, its players could collectively receive more than $24m in performance bonuses.”

What do the MLS players want?

They seek a better deal than the one put forward by the MLS in its latest proposal, and for the league to engage with its players in a negotiation.

The players’ association says the latest proposal offered by MLS does not include any additional participation bonuses for the players and offered “below-standard” back-end compensation.

The MLSPA has also accused the league of asking for unrelated concessions to the CBA.

As things stand, the CBA includes a provision that caps the amount of prize money that can go to players at $1m. The MLSPA believes the players are entitled to a bigger share of the funds.

“The timing, substance and retaliatory nature of the proposal sends a clear message: MLS does not respect or value players’ efforts with regard to this tournament,” the MLSPA said in a statement on Sunday.

It further added that the proposed 20 percent share of the compensation amount is “below international standard”.

“Although not surprised, the players and the MLSPA are deeply disappointed by this message,” the MLSPA said.

An update on Club World Cup Bonuses.

MLS spent most of last week making threats and promising retaliation against the MLSPA and players because Seattle players wore t-shirts that expressed frustration over the league’s refusal to engage about Club World Cup compensation.

More… pic.twitter.com/jAz06ASGYw

— MLSPA (@MLSPA) June 8, 2025

How has the MLS responded to the players’ demands?

Neither side has issued any further statements, but players have continued posting on social media with the #FairShareNow hashtag.

Reports in US media said the talks between the two sides were ongoing.

The league’s last statement said that MLS owners believe that performance-based incentives are appropriate given the expanded format and increased prize pool for the tournament.

“The League values the continued dedication and commitment of its players and looks forward to supporting them as they represent their clubs – and Major League Soccer – on the global stage this summer,” it added.

What happens if the players and MLS don’t reach an agreement?

Should both sides remain at loggerheads, it is unlikely that the players will refuse to take the field for their games in a tournament hosted in their clubs’ home country.

If they do, the players risk being fined and reprimanded by the league in accordance with its rules.

How does the MLS pay dispute impact the FIFA Club World Cup?

It is unlikely to impact the tournament directly unless the players refuse to take the field for their clubs.

However, the controversy has added what would be considered unwelcome attention to the MLS’s pay structure and the Club World Cup, a tournament that has already faced plenty of criticism from football players and officials.

Why aren’t players from other leagues protesting?

It remains unclear how other leagues and teams are compensating their players for their participation in the Club World Cup.

The breakdown and distribution of the prize money and participation fee vary across leagues.

Thailand’s military said it had gathered ‘worrisome’ indications that Cambodia has stepped up its military readiness.

Thailand’s military has said it is ready to launch a “high-level operation” to counter violations of its sovereignty, offering its strongest comments yet following the re-eruption of a long-running border dispute with Cambodia.

In a statement on Thursday night, the Thai military said its intelligence had gathered “worrisome” indications that Cambodia has stepped up its military readiness along their shared border.

“The army is now ready for a high-level military operation in case it is necessary to retaliate against the violation of sovereignty,” the statement said.

“Operations of units at the border have been conducted carefully, calmly and based on an understanding of the situation to prevent losses on all sides, but at the same time, are ready to defend the country’s sovereignty to the fullest extent if the situation is called for,” the statement added.

The top brass of Thailand’s armed forces are scheduled to hold a closed-door meeting on Friday afternoon, while the country’s army, navy and air force have also raised their combat readiness, according to the Thai Public Broadcasting Service (Thai PBS).

Colonel Chainarong Kasee, a commander of Thailand’s 12th infantry regiment of the Royal Guards, said his troops have been ordered to check that all equipment is in good working order, Thai PBS also reports.

On May 28, Cambodia’s Ministry of National Defence said Thai troops shot and killed one of its soldiers during a brief firefight in a disputed border region between Cambodia’s Preah Vihear province and Thailand’s Ubon Ratchathani province.

The ministry accused Thai soldiers of opening fire first on a Cambodian military post in the contested border zone. Thailand’s Minister of Defence Phumtham Wechayachai said Cambodian forces opened fire first.

The Southeast Asian neighbours have repeatedly clashed in Preah Vihear’s border region over the years, where a 900-year-old temple sits at the heart of a decades-long dispute that has stirred nationalist sentiment on both sides of the border.

Several deadly clashes took place in the area between 2008 – the year Cambodia registered the temple as a UNESCO World Heritage Site – and 2011, killing about 40 people, including five civilians.

A 2013 ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) upheld a 1962 judgement by the same body awarding part of the land around Preah Vihear temple to Cambodia and instructing Thailand to withdraw its personnel stationed in the area.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet, the son of long-ruling former leader Hun Sen, has said Cambodia will file disputes over four parts of the border to the ICJ for adjudication and asked for Thailand’s cooperation in the process.

Thailand, which has not recognised the ICJ’s jurisdiction since 1960, has instead called for bilateral talks.

“Thailand and Cambodia already have existing bilateral mechanisms to address these issues,” Thailand’s government said in a statement.

“Thailand reiterates its position as a neighbour committed to resolving issues peacefully and based on international law, treaties, and agreements … as well as satellite imagery and other verified evidence,” the statement added.

A meeting of the Cambodia-Thailand Joint Boundary Commission – which addresses border demarcation issues – is slated for June 14.

Growing strains in US-China relations over implementation of agreement to roll back tariffs and trade restrictions.

United States President Donald Trump has said his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, is tough and “extremely hard to make a deal with”, days after he accused China of violating an agreement to roll back tariffs and trade restrictions.

“I like President Xi of China, always have, and always will, but he is VERY TOUGH, AND EXTREMELY HARD TO MAKE A DEAL WITH,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social online platform on Wednesday, amid growing tensions between the two nations over their tariff truce.

On Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had said Trump would speak with Xi to iron out differences on last month’s tariff agreement, among larger trade issues.

In May, American and Chinese negotiators had struck a deal in Geneva that lowered US tariffs on goods from China from 145 percent to 30 percent. In exchange, China dropped its tariffs on US goods from 125 percent to 10 percent.

Analysts had described the agreement as unexpected, pointing out that the two sides had been so widely apart on their tariff dispute. Still, the deal was seen as a welcome development averting a bigger showdown that unnerved the global market.

But on Monday, China’s Ministry of Commerce said the US has “severely violated” the deal, adding that it would take steps to defend its interests.

US violations included the halting sales of computer chip design software to Chinese companies, the blocking of usage of Chinese-made chips from the tech giant Huawei, as well as the cancellation of visas for Chinese students, the Commerce Ministry said.

The ministry also said US actions severely violate an agreement reached in January during an earlier phone call between Xi and Trump.

Trump had also ranted on social media last week, accusing Beijing of “totally” violating the agreement with the US.

He did not specify which provisions in the May tariffs deal were violated. But US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer was later quoted in media reports as saying Beijing had failed to remove non-tariff barriers levied against the US, as agreed under the deal.

Last week, a US trade court ruled that Trump overstepped his authority in imposing the bulk of his tariffs on imports from China and other countries under an emergency powers act.

Less than 24 hours later, a federal appeals court reinstated it, saying it was considering the government’s appeal.