An Indian police officer has been suspended after firing an AK-47 rifle at students protesting over leaked exam papers. The protests, which led to the education minister’s resignation, have sparked accusations of excessive police force.
Published On 27 Jul 202627 Jul 2026
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The NFL has suspended Arizona Cardinals personnel executive Ryan Gold indefinitely for violating the league’s gambling policy.
The league said Friday that its investigation determined that Gold provided confidential, non-public inside information regarding 2026 draft selections by the Cardinals before the picks were announced, and Gold also participated in parlay bets on NFL and college games. The league didn’t say who Gold had provided with the information.
“The Gambling Policy, which is annually reviewed with all NFL personnel, strictly prohibits anyone in the NFL from participating in or facilitating any form of sports gambling, and from providing third parties non-public information,” the NFL said in a statement. “Although there is no reason to believe the integrity of any NFL game was affected, the League takes any violation of the Gambling Policy with the utmost seriousness.”
The Cardinals also issued a statement, saying: “The NFL’s policies and expectations for all employees are clear, comprehensive, and consistently communicated. We fully support the league’s decision in this matter, which involves a single employee. Our focus remains on preparing for the start of training camp next week and the 2026 season.”
Gold, who is in his 13th season with the Cardinals, was promoted to director of college scouting in June 2025. He spent the previous three years (2022-24) as the assistant director of college scouting after working for four seasons (2018-21) as a college scouting coordinator.
Gold has the right to appeal the suspension. He couldn’t immediately be reached for comment Friday.
The NFL has strict gambling policies for players and club and league personnel. The league has also dedicated significant resources to its gambling education program, reaching more than 20,000 people associated with the league.
The policy says players must not:
NFL players — but not league or club staff — are allowed to legally place bets on other sports as long as they are off club property or not traveling with the team. They also are allowed to take part in traditional fantasy football leagues (prize money cannot exceed $250) and legally gamble at casinos on personal time.
The NFL said the Cardinals fully cooperated with the investigation and the league has seen no indication that any other member of the organization, coach or player was aware of or involved in this activity. The league also said there was no indication that any play or game was affected by this activity.
The NFL’s review included interviews with relevant people and an examination of electronic records.
At least 15 players have been suspended by the league for gambling violations since 1963, including several in recent years, but none since Isaiah Rodgers (then with the Indianapolis Colts) was suspended indefinitely in June 2023.
Maaddi writes for the Associated Press.
AN airline has temporarily axed one of its routes until the end of August.
Skybus has announced there will be no services between Newquay and St Mary’s Airport on the Scilly Isles with existing customers being rerouted.
Passengers received the news yesterday of the cancellations with Skybus.
The airline explained the route has been suspended due to “a combination of a shortage of both aircraft and qualified pilots”.
Skybus continued to say: “We have explored every available option to maintain the Newquay service, but with a limited fleet and crew availability, we would be unable to operate the route reliably throughout the remainder of the summer.
“Our priority is to provide certainty for our passengers.
“We want to assure passengers booked to travel between Newquay and St Mary’s, you will be transferred onto a Skybus flight departing from Land’s End Airport on the same date.”
They said that by “concentrating” available aircraft and crews on services from Land’s End they can “provide greater reliability and reduce the risk of further disruption during the peak travel period.”
Customers will be contacted soon with dates for alternative flights.
They will also be offered free parking at Land’s End Airport, a refund of any fare difference between their original and revised flights, and a voucher to spend at the airport café.
Skybus operates year-round to the Isles of Scilly, but only from Land’s End Airport – and flights take about 20 minutes.
Flights from Newquay and Exeter usually operate seasonally between late March to October.
The Exeter route will continue as normal.
A FAMOUS UK pier that is loved by families has had to close one of its popular attractions.
Southend Pier in Southend-on-Sea is known for being the world’s longest pier, stretching over 1.3 miles long.
And on the pier is a unique railway attraction that runs up and down the pier.
However, over the weekend the train had to be suspended due to technical difficulties.
Everything else on the pier, including the museum and gift shop, is still open, but to get to them tourists will have to walk along the pier.
The pier’s website states: “The Pier train is currently out of service and is expected to remain unavailable until at least later this week.
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”The pier remains open as normal, and visitors are still very welcome to enjoy a walk along the world’s longest pleasure pier and visit the Pier Head.
“We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”
The railway is less than a metre wide, and runs for 1.25miles of the pier.
Services take place every half hour, from 10:30am each day.
The first transport on the pier was a horse tramway, which opened in 1872.
The horse tramway was then replaced by a single electric railway in 1890, marking the first pier railway in the country.
The following year, the pier railway was running the full length of the pier.
Later in the 1930s, the railway was expanded with four trains, each made up of seven carriages.
Today, the current carriages have been running since 2021.
July 5 (UPI) — The U.S. military suspended its search Sunday for a missing Naval aircrewman who went missing Wednesday following an emergency landing in the Arabian Sea.
U.S. Naval Forces Central Command announced the suspension of the search in a statement on social media after more than 102 hours.
“The efforts concluded following an extensive search by the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility,” U.S. Naval Forces Central Command said in a statement. “The Sailor’s name is benign withheld until at least 24 hours after next-of-kin notification is complete in accordance with Navy policy.”
The search spanned more than 14,000 square miles. The military utilized multiple helicopters and other U.S. Air Force aircraft, aircraft carriers and guided-missile to canvas the region.
The missing crewman was aboard a MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter when it crash landed at about 3:30 a.m. EDT on Wednesday. There were four people in the helicopter. The other three crewmembers were recovered and listed in stable condition.
The helicopter was on a routine patrol when it went down.
U.S. officials said the helicopter’s crash landing was not the result of hostile fire.
NEW YORK — The Trump administration on Tuesday said it would freeze federal funding for New York’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, a state agency responsible for investigating and prosecuting fraud in the safety-net government healthcare program.
In a letter sent to New York officials, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General Thomas March Bell accused the state of not securing enough criminal indictments and said millions of dollars in funding would be suspended through at least Sept. 30.
The move is the second suspension of a state Medicaid fraud unit this year by the Republican Trump administration, and part of a barrage of anti-fraud actions it has aggressively promoted in the healthcare sector. They have included the creation of a new task force, targeted investigations, funding deferrals and demands for revalidation of healthcare providers that have touched all states but are focused largely on Democratic ones.
The pulled funding also comes after the administration admitted a glaring error in figures meant to help justify a fraud inquiry into New York’s Medicaid program this year, a mistake critics said revealed a Trumpian tendency to attack first and verify the facts later.
New York Atty. Gen. Letitia James, a Democrat, immediately vowed to fight Tuesday’s funding freeze.
“During my time as Attorney General, my office has recovered over $627 million for Medicaid and was recognized by this very administration for leading the nation in anti-fraud efforts,” she wrote. “We are considering all legal options to stop this outrageous action.”
Bell’s letter to James and New York Medicare Fraud Control Unit Director Amy Held argues that the unit is moving too slowly on cases and amassing too few indictments and convictions for wrongdoing in the Medicaid system. It notes that compared with four similarly sized units in other states, it secured the lowest number of criminal fraud convictions between 2023 and 2025.
The letter acknowledges that one reason the state has fewer criminal convictions than others is that it made a deliberate choice to focus on “high impact, complex fraud cases” rather than smaller-scale individual cases, but says that trade-off didn’t produce sufficient results.
“Enough is enough,” Bell wrote. “The New York MFCU has failed to comply with the terms and conditions of its MFCU grant award.”
Bell said in the letter that the funding suspension could be lifted before Sept. 30 if New York takes corrective action, “showing it has remediated concerns that formed the basis for this suspension.” He said if the state doesn’t fix the problems, the freeze will continue.
New York’s attorney general’s office said in a statement that it has “long been recognized as a national leader in effectively investigating and prosecuting Medicaid fraud schemes,” including by the Health and Human Services inspector general’s office. A 2025 report from the office notes that New York is one of four states that made up half the total civil recoveries in that year.
A spokesperson for the attorney general’s office said most of the unit’s criminal convictions focus on company owners, executives and corporations that would return large amounts to Medicaid.
“This administration’s unprecedented attack on New York is another political distraction,” James said in a statement.
The funding cutoff follows a similar move in Hawaii. In early June, Bell told Hawaii officials that Medicaid fraud funding would be cut off there, saying that it had a three-year stretch without a Medicaid fraud indictment or conviction.
Joan Alker, executive director and co-founder of Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families, said there’s an irony in the federal government cutting off money intended for prosecuting fraud when its stated goal is to do just that.
“If you want to fight fraud, don’t take away money from states’ fraud control units,” she said. “I chalk this up to more political theater to distract voters from historic Medicaid cuts before the midterms.”
For months, the Trump administration has contended that states — especially some Democratic-led ones — have been lax about fraud in social safety-net programs, including Medicaid.
It has demanded that at least five states, four of them governed by Democrats, share information about how they identify, prevent and address Medicaid fraud.
The federal government has also withheld some Medicaid funding from Minnesota and California over fraud concerns. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat who was Kamala Harris’ 2024 running mate, accused President Trump of making cuts because of retribution.
The fraud-busting efforts have also targeted Medicare programs. Dr. Mehmet Oz, who leads the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, announced a six-month moratorium on new enrollments for providers of hospice and home care nationally.
Swenson and Mulvihill write for the Associated Press. Mulvihill reported from Haddonfield, N.J. AP writer Anthony Izaguirre contributed to this report.
The Trump administration has frequently accused US allies of failing to live up to mutual defence obligations.
Published On 18 May 202618 May 2026
The United States has said it will not take part in a joint board for continental defence with Canada, depicting the country as failing to live up to its defence obligations.
On Monday, US Undersecretary of Defense Elbridge Colby wrote on social media that his department would halt its involvement in the Permanent Joint Board on Defense to “reassess” the forum’s benefits.
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The board dates back to World War II and has served as a forum for regional security. But relations with Canada have grown strained since US President Donald Trump returned to office for a second term in 2025.
“A strong Canada that prioritizes hard power over rhetoric benefits us all. Unfortunately, Canada has failed to make credible progress on its defense commitments,” Colby wrote on X.
“We can no longer avoid the gaps between rhetoric and reality. Real powers must sustain our rhetoric with shared defense and security responsibilities.”
The announcement is the latest instance of the Trump administration chiding Western allies for what the president believes is an overreliance on US military power.
Allied countries have largely refuted his claims, arguing that they are ramping up military spending and taking steps to take greater control over regional security.
Just last year, at a NATO summit in The Hague, nearly every member state agreed to increase defence spending to 5 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP). Spain petitioned to be excluded from the agreement, though.
Canada, under Prime Minister Mark Carney, was among the countries committing to the increased spending.
Of the 5 percent earmarked for defence, 3.5 percent would go to bolstering Canada’s “core military capabilities”, Carney’s government said. The rest would go to security-related expenses, including port improvements, emergency preparedness and other resources.
Since taking office as prime minister in March 2025, Carney has been an outspoken supporter of lessening Canada’s dependence on the US’s military and economy.
In a speech this year, he outlined a vision in which “middle powers” like Canada banded together to sidestep the current “era of great power rivalry”, a veiled reference to countries like the US, Russia and China.
While the US and Canada are neighbours, Trump’s second presidency has resulted in fraying bonds between the two countries, even beyond matters of security.
Trump has accused Canada of pursuing unfair trade policies and failing to crack down on the illicit traffic of people and drugs across the border, though critics have questioned the legitimacy of these claims.
To force Canada to comply with his policies, the US president has pursued an aggressive tariff regimen to tax cross-border imports.
Trump has suggested in the past that Canada could avoid such penalties by ceding its sovereignty and becoming the US’s 51st state.
“Cooler and wiser brains are needed to preserve a close alliance w/ our neighbor,” US Republican Representative Don Bacon said in a social media post on Monday, criticising the decision to pull out of the defence forum with Canada.
“This all started w/ taunts of ‘Canada will be the 51st state’ and ‘their Prime Minister will be the 51st governor’. The insults gained us nothing but animosity that cost us economically and now militarily.”
The US, Canada and Mexico are set to negotiate an updated version of a regional free trade agreement, known as the USMCA, later this year.
Eddie Jones suspended for four games over ‘verbal abuse’ of match officials during an Australian tour, Japan Rugby Football Union says.
Published On 13 May 202613 May 2026
Japan has suspended rugby coach Eddie Jones for four games and cut his salary for “verbal abuse directed at local officials” during an Australian tour.
The Japan Rugby Football Union (JRFU) said on Wednesday that the 66-year-old Australian violated their ethics and disciplinary regulations during a Japan Under-23 team tour of Australia from April 1 to 15.
“These measures relate to incidences of verbal abuse directed at local match officials,” the JRFU said in a statement.
They said Jones had “accepted this decision”.
“I accept the disciplinary action of the JRFU relating to the U23 Japan national team tour of Australia,” Jones said in a statement.
“Some inappropriate remarks that I made caused discomfort to local match officials and other related parties.
“I would like to offer my sincere apologies to everyone involved. I deeply regret my behaviour and words and will make every effort to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.”
Jones will miss Japan’s Nations Championship opener against Italy in Tokyo on July 4 and not be allowed to take any part in two games pitting a Japan select team against Hong Kong on May 22 and 29.
He is also banned from the Japan XV game against the Maori All Blacks on June 27 in Nagoya and the full Japan side’s Nations Championship opener against Italy.
He is suspended from duty for six weeks between April 24 and June 5.
Imprisoned Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi, shown here speaking during a conference in 2005, saw her long prison sentence suspended on Sunday and has been transferred to a Tehran hospital, her foundation announced. File Photo by Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA-EFE
May 10 (UPI) — Imprisoned Iranian Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and human rights activist Narges Mohammadi has had her long prison sentence suspended and is now in a Tehran hospital, her foundation announced Sunday.
Narges, who accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023 while in prison on charges of spreading “propaganda” against Iran’s Islamic regime, was granted a suspension of her 18-year sentence and transferred by ambulance from a hospital in Zanjan to Tehran Pars Hospital where she will be treated by her own medical team, the foundation said.
“On behalf of the Narges Foundation and her family, we thank the international community for their unwavering solidarity,” the group wrote in a social media post.
“However, a suspension is not enough; Narges Mohammadi requires permanent, specialized care,” they added. “We must ensure she never returns to prison to face the 18 years remaining on her sentence.
“Now is the time to demand her unconditional freedom and the dismissal of all charges. No human and women’s rights activists should ever be imprisoned for their peaceful work.”
Mohammadi’s attorney Mostafa Nili said the order suspending her sentence was issued after a determination by Iran’s Legal Medicine Organization that she requires “specialized care outside of prison under the supervision of her own medical team due to multiple illnesses.”
The renowned activist has a history of heart attacks, chest pain, high blood pressure, as well as spinal disc issues, and her detention has been denounced by supporters as a human rights violation.
in a career of human rights advocacy beginning in the 1990s, Mohammadi has been arrested by the Islamic regime 13 times, convicted her five times and sentenced to a total of 31 years in prison and 154 lashes, her backers say.
The National Science Foundation suspended at least 18 research grants to UC Berkeley last month despite a court injunction restricting such suspensions, according to an attorney representing university scientists in a class-action lawsuit.
The NSF declined to comment on the suspensions.
The grants include at least one that the NSF had previously canceled and was compelled by a federal court order to restore, for a series of mixed-reality exhibits at the Lawrence Hall of Science showcasing Indigenous Ohlone knowledge about the natural world, said one of the project’s leaders, Jedda Foreman.
Foreman, an associate director at the Lawrence Hall of Science, said another researcher on her team received an email from UC Berkeley’s vice chancellor of research, Katherine Yelick, notifying them that the National Science Foundation had suspended the $1.4-million grant. Foreman said she viewed the email, which said the university had received a letter from the NSF raising concerns about “foreign funding.” The email did not provide a copy of the letter or explain further, she said.
Foreman said the Lawrence Hall of Science had not received any foreign funding for the project.
“The grantees were given near-zero information about what was problematic in the execution of their grant,” said Claudia Polsky, a professor at UC Berkeley School of Law who is representing Foreman and other researchers in a suit they filed last year contesting a previous round of grant cancellations by the Trump administration.
Polsky said her legal team was seeking more information about the 18 suspensions, but was concerned that the freezing of Foreman’s grant may violate a court order a federal judge issued in that case restoring the defunded projects.
UC Berkeley spokesperson Dan Mogulof said in a statement that the university “is engaged with the government on matters pertaining to research grants, and remains committed to compliance with all federal laws, rules and regulations.”
He declined to comment on the types of grants affected, the amount of funds at stake, or the potential effect on the campus.
One of the Lawrence Hall of Science exhibits, which were co-designed with Ohlone youth, is scheduled to open Sunday, with another set for the fall of 2028. Researchers also are studying whether participating in creating exhibits sparks more interest in science among Indigenous young people and makes them more likely to pursue STEM careers.
“We’re doing a lot of hoping and finger-crossing that something works out,” Foreman said. “It was such a powerful project and we really want to be able to share what we’ve learned.”
The University of California received $525 million in National Science Foundation grants in the 2024-25 budget year. But that funding source has become increasingly volatile under the Trump administration as the federal agency has terminated nearly 2,000 grants nationwide that it said did not align with its priorities — including those focusing on diversity, equity and inclusion — and has been slower to approve and disburse new awards.
In late April, President Trump fired all 22 members of the independent board of scientists that oversaw the NSF. He is also proposing to cut the agency’s budget by more than half in 2027, though Congress rejected a similar plan last year.
Other federal agencies also terminated research grants en masse last year. Some of the cancellations have been reversed by the courts.
UC researchers are contesting grant reversals by the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, National Institutes of Health, Department of Transportation, Department of Defense, Environmental Protection Agency and National Endowment for the Humanities in the class-action lawsuit, filed last year. The University of California is not a party to the suit.
Last June, the researchers won a key legal victory when U.S. District Judge Rita Lin issued a preliminary injunction restoring grants canceled by the NSF, EPA and NEH — including for the Ohlone-focused exhibits co-led by Foreman, one of six named plaintiffs in the case. The judge barred the agencies from revoking funds using form letters that didn’t include an explanation specific to the grant at stake, or because of Trump’s anti-DEI executive orders.
Judge Lin stepped in again after the NSF froze hundreds of grants to UCLA in August, amid attempts by the Trump administration to secure a $1-billion settlement from the university over allegations of campus antisemitism. Indefinitely suspending a grant was the same as terminating it, Lin said in a ruling requiring the agency to reinstate the funds.
Polsky said last month’s suspension of Foreman’s grant raised concerns that the Trump administration was seeking a way around those orders. “It seems to us like something that should not have been canceled on the merits and raises suspicion that this was just a different way to cancel the grant,” she said.
The University of California is ramping up efforts to find alternative funding for its multibillion-dollar research enterprise as federal support becomes less reliable. On Monday, UC President James Milliken spoke alongside state Sen. Scott Wiener and United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain at a Sacramento rally in support of state legislation to create a $23-billion fund for scientific research.
If successful, the bill will place a bond measure on the November ballot. Money from the bond would go toward research in wildfire and pandemic preparedness, new medical treatments and other areas, with revenue from inventions shared with the state. The state Assembly’s appropriations committee is set to consider the bill Thursday.
“If the federal government is going to continue to attempt to reduce funding for the research that has been so important to UC — that saves lives, that drives the economy — then the state of California, I hope, will be able to step up,” Milliken said at a meeting of the university’s Board of Regents on Wednesday.
UC Provost Katherine Newman told the regents she has been meeting with leaders of the Russell Group, a consortium of the United Kingdom’s top universities, to discuss collaborating on research in climate change, clean energy and public health — all areas that have seen federal funding threatened under the current administration.
Mello writes for Berkeleyside, which originally published this story. It was distributed through a partnership with the Associated Press.
Niger’s military government has banned many local and foreign reporters since seizing power in 2023.
Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has condemned Niger’s suspension of nine French media publications as the military government continues to crack down on journalists.
Niger announced the suspension on Friday, citing “repeated dissemination of content likely to seriously jeopardise public order, national unity, social cohesion, and the stability of the institutions of the Republic”.
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The suspended organisations are France 24, RFI (Radio France Internationale), France Afrique Media, LSI Africa, AFP (Agence France-Presse), TV5 Monde, TF1 Info, Jeune Afrique and Mediapart, according to a TV statement from the National Communication Observatory (ONC).
It added that the decision was “immediate” and it included “satellite packages, cable networks, digital platforms, websites and mobile applications”.
RSF described the decision as “abusive”.
“RSF condemns a coordinated strategy to repress press freedom within the AES [Alliance of Sahel States] and calls for the immediate reversal of this abusive decision,” said a statement posted on X, referring to Niger and allies Mali and Burkina Faso, all ruled by military governments.
Niger’s military seized power in July 2023, toppling the democratically elected government of President Mohamed Bazoum and detaining him.
The government has since targeted local and foreign media outlets, particularly those critical of its policies, by issuing bans or suspensions.
RFI and France 24 were suspended a few days after the coup, and the BBC from Britain was suspended in December 2024.
The targeting of French and other foreign media comes as Niger’s military government has largely severed ties with its former colonial power, France, and turned away from Western allies.
In late 2023, Niger asked leaders in Paris to withdraw thousands of troops involved in missions against armed groups operating in Niger, neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso.
The three AES states have since secured defence partnerships with other countries, notably Russia.
All three have regularly denounced France’s “imperialism”, saying they want to assert their “sovereignty”. French media and other foreign outlets have similarly been suspended or banned by the governments in Bamako and Ouagadougou.
Local journalists have also been affected. Two Nigerien journalists, Gazali Abdou, a correspondent for German broadcaster Deutsche Welle, and Hassane Zada, a regional newspaper editor, were released this week after being detained for months.
In 2024, leaders in the capital Niamey strengthened a law that criminalises the digital dissemination of “data likely to disturb public order”.
The United Nations said in November that 13 journalists were arrested in Niger and urged the government to release them. Local media organisations say six journalists are detained for allegedly “undermining national defence” and for “conspiracy against the authority of the state”.
According to AFP, Niger suspended nearly 3,000 local and foreign NGOs in 2025, accusing them of lacking transparency and supporting “terrorists” and armed groups.
Niger dropped 37 places in this year’s RSF World Press Freedom Index and now ranks 120th out of 180 countries. RSF and Amnesty International have repeatedly voiced concerns about the “decline” in press freedom in Niger.
