threatening

WASHINGTON — A man whose convictions for storming the U.S. Capitol were erased by President Trump’s mass pardons has been arrested on a charge that he threatened to kill House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

Christopher P. Moynihan is accused of sending a text message on Friday noting that Jeffries, a New York Democrat, would be making a speech in New York City this week.

“I cannot allow this terrorist to live,” Moynihan wrote, according to a report by a state police investigator. Moynihan also wrote that Jeffries “must be eliminated” and texted, “I will kill him for the future,” the police report says.

Moynihan, of Clinton, N.Y., is charged with a felony count of making a terroristic threat. It was unclear if he had an attorney representing him in the case, and efforts to contact him and his parents by email and phone were unsuccessful.

Moynihan, 34, was sentenced to 21 months in prison for joining a mob’s Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. In January, he was among hundreds of convicted Capitol rioters who received a pardon from Trump on the Republican president’s first day back in the White House.

Jeffries thanked investigators “for their swift and decisive action to apprehend a dangerous individual who made a credible death threat against me with every intention to carry it out.”

“Unfortunately, our brave men and women in law enforcement are being forced to spend their time keeping our communities safe from these violent individuals who should never have been pardoned,” Jeffries said in a statement.

House Speaker Mike Johnson was asked about the case during a news conference on Tuesday and said he did not know any details of the threat against Jeffries.

“We denounce violence from anybody, anytime. Those people should be arrested and tried,” said Johnson, a Louisiana Republican.

The New York State Police said they were notified of the threat by an FBI task force on Saturday. Moynihan was arraigned on Sunday in a local court in New York’s Dutchess County. He is due back in the Town of Clinton Court on Thursday.

Dutchess County Dist. Atty. Anthony Parisi said his office is reviewing the case “for legal and factual sufficiency.”

“Threats made against elected officials and members of the public will not be tolerated,” Parisi said in a statement on Tuesday.

On Jan. 6, Moynihan breached police barricades before entering the Capitol through the Rotunda door. He entered the Senate chamber, rifled through a notebook on a senator’s desk and joined other rioters in shouting and chanting at the Senate dais, prosecutors said.

“Moynihan did not leave the Senate Chamber until he was forced out by police,” they wrote.

In 2022, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper convicted Moynihan of a felony for obstructing the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress for certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in the 2020 presidential election. Moynihan also pleaded guilty to five other riot-related counts.

Kunzelman writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Stephen Groves contributed to this report.

Oct. 20 (UPI) — A Georgia man was arrested Monday inside a terminal at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport after allegedly threatening on social media to “shoot it up.”

Atlanta Police arrested Billy Cagle, 49, at the airport and found an AR-15 assault rifle with 27 rounds of ammunition inside his pickup truck, which was parked at the airport, according to police chief Darin Schierbaum. Schierbaum said it was Cagle’s family who alerted officers that he had been making threats on social media and had a gun.

Cartersville Police Capt. Greg Sparacio told reporters the family alerted them Monday morning that the suspect was “en route to somewhere in the Atlanta area,” likely the airport, and he “had the intention to do harm to as many people as he could.”

The family provided information about the vehicle Cagle was traveling in, as well as a photo. Cagle was taken into custody after entering the airport terminal at 9:31 a.m. EDT. He did not have any weapons on him, but police found the rifle in his truck.

“I do believe he was likely to use that weapon inside the crowded terminal,” Schierbaum told reporters. “Because of the community — in this case, the family — as well as the joint collaboration of law enforcement, a tragedy was indeed averted.”

Cagle is facing multiple charges, including terroristic threats, criminal attempt to commit aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and possession of a firearm by a felon. He was convicted of possession of marijuana 20 years ago, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections.

Jose Raul Mulino says the visa-removal policy is ‘not coherent’ with the ‘good relationship’ he hopes to have with the US.

Panama President Jose Raul Mulino said that someone at the United States Embassy has been threatening to cancel the visas of Panamanian officials.

His statements come as the administration of US President Donald Trump pressures Panama to limit its ties to China.

Responding to a reporter’s question at his weekly news conference, Mulino said — without offering evidence — that an official at the US Embassy is “threatening to take visas”, adding that such actions are “not coherent with the good relationship I aspire to maintain with the United States”. He did not name the official.

The US Embassy in Panama did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Trump administration has previously declined to comment on individual visa decisions.

But in September, the US Department of State said in a statement that the country was committed to countering China’s influence in Central America. It added that it would restrict visas for people who maintained relationships with China’s Communist Party or undermined democracy in the region on behalf of China.

Earlier this week, the Trump administration revoked the visas of six foreigners deemed by US officials to have made derisive comments or made light of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk last month.

Similar cases have surfaced recently in the region. In April, former Costa Rica President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Oscar Arias said the US had cancelled his visa. In July, Vanessa Castro, vice president of Costa Rica’s Congress, said that the US Embassy told her her visa had been revoked, citing alleged contacts with the Chinese Communist Party.

Panama has become especially sensitive to the US-China tensions because of the strategically important Panama Canal.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Panama in February on his first foreign trip as the top US diplomat and called for Panama to immediately reduce China’s influence over the canal.

Panama has strongly denied Chinese influence over canal operations but has gone along with US pressure to push the Hong Kong-based company that operated ports on both ends of the canal to sell its concession to a consortium.

Mulino has said that Panama will maintain the canal’s neutrality.

“They’re free to give and take a visa to anyone they want, but not threatening that, ‘If you don’t do something, I’ll take the visa,’” Mulino said Thursday.

He noted that the underlying issue — the conflict between the US and China — “doesn’t involve Panama”.

The United States and China have started charging additional port fees on ocean shipping firms that move everything from holiday toys to crude oil, making the high seas a key front in the trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

A return to an all-out trade war appeared imminent last week, after China announced a major expansion of its rare earths export controls, and US President Donald Trump threatened to raise tariffs on Chinese goods to triple digits.

But after the weekend, both sides sought to reassure traders and investors, highlighting cooperation between their negotiating teams and the possibility they could find a way forward.

China said it had started to collect the special charges on US-owned, operated, built or flagged vessels, but it clarified that Chinese-built ships would be exempted from the levies.

In details published by state broadcaster CCTV, China spelled out specific provisions on exemptions, which also include empty ships entering Chinese shipyards for repair.

Similar to the US plan, the new China-imposed fees would be collected at the first port of entry on a single voyage or for the first five voyages within a year.

“This tit-for-tat symmetry locks both economies into a spiral of maritime taxation that risks distorting global freight flows,” Athens-based Xclusiv Shipbrokers said in a research note.

Early this year, the Trump administration announced plans to levy the fees on China-linked ships to loosen the country’s grip on the global maritime industry and bolster US shipbuilding.

An investigation during the administration of former US President Joe Biden concluded that China uses unfair policies and practices to dominate the global maritime, logistics and shipbuilding sectors, clearing the way for those penalties.

China hit back last week, saying it would impose its own port fees on US-linked vessels from the same day the US fees took effect.

“We are in the hectic stage of the disruption, where everyone is quietly trying to improvise workarounds, with varying degrees of success,” said independent dry bulk shipping analyst Ed Finley-Richardson. He said he has heard reports of US shipowners with non-Chinese vessels trying to sell their cargoes to other countries while en route, so the vessels can divert.

The Reuters news agency was not immediately able to confirm this.

Tit-for-tat moves

Analysts expect China-owned container carrier COSCO to be the most affected by the US fees, shouldering nearly half of that segment’s expected $3.2bn cost from the fees in 2026.

Major container lines, including Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd and CMA CGM, slashed their exposure by switching China-linked ships out of their US shipping lanes. Trade officials there reduced fees from initially proposed levels, and exempted a broad swath of vessels after heavy pushback from the agriculture, energy and US shipping industries.

The Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.

China’s Ministry of Commerce on Tuesday said, “If the US chooses confrontation, China will see it through to the end; if it chooses dialogue, China’s door remains open.”

In a related move, Beijing also imposed sanctions on Tuesday against five US-linked subsidiaries of South Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean, which it said had “assisted and supported” a US probe into Chinese trade practices.

Hanwha, one of the world’s largest shipbuilders, owns Philly Shipyard in the US and has won contracts to repair and overhaul US Navy ships. Its entities will also build a US-flagged LNG carrier.

Hanwha said it is aware of the announcement and is closely monitoring the potential business impact. Hanwha Ocean’s shares sank by nearly 6 percent.

China also launched an investigation into how the US probe affected its shipping and shipbuilding industries.

A Shanghai-based trade consultant said the new fees may not cause significant upheaval.

“What are we going to do? Stop shipping? Trade is already pretty disrupted with the US, but companies are finding a way,” the consultant told Reuters, requesting anonymity because he was not authorised to speak with the media.

The US announced last Friday a carve-out for long-term charterers of China-operated vessels carrying US ethane and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), deferring the port fees for them through December 10.

Meanwhile, ship-tracking company Vortexa identified 45 LPG-carrying VLGCs — an acronym for very large gas carriers, a type of vessel — that would be subject to China’s port fee. That amounts to 11 percent of the total fleet.

Clarksons Research said in a report that China’s new port fees could affect oil tankers accounting for 15 percent of global capacity.

Meanwhile, Omar Nokta, an analyst at the financial firm Jefferies, estimated that 13 percent of crude tankers and 11 percent of container ships in the global fleet would be affected.

Trade war embroils environmental policy

In a reprisal against China curbing exports of critical minerals, Trump on Friday threatened to slap additional 100 percent tariffs on goods from China and put new export controls on “any and all critical software” by November 1.

Administration officials, hours later, warned that countries voting this week in favour of a plan by the United Nations International Maritime Organization (IMO) to reduce planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from ocean shipping could face sanctions, port bans, or punitive vessel charges.

China has publicly supported the IMO plan.

“The weaponisation of both trade and environmental policy signals that shipping has moved from being a neutral conduit of global commerce to a direct instrument of statecraft,” Athens-based Xclusiv said.

In the wake of mysterious drone incursions that forced the recent shutdowns of the Munich Airport, the German cabinet approved a measure to give police the authority to shoot down uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) posing a danger. The moves mark a big difference in how German authorities approach counter-drone defense, which has previously been limited to detection, not taking them down. The changes come as several European nations have been experiencing a rash of drone incursions, which Germany’s chancellor says are part of Russia’s ramped-up hybrid war efforts, a claim Moscow denies.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz took to social media on Wednesday to explain the need to update German law to meet the new drone threats.

“Drone incidents threaten our safety,” said Merz. “We will not allow that. We are strengthening the powers of the federal police so that drones can be detected and intercepted more quickly in the future.”

The new law would give police permission to take down drones that “violated Germany’s airspace, including shooting them down in cases of acute threat or serious harm,” Reuters reported. The measure awaits parliamentary approval.

In addition to kinetic counter-drone measures, the new law gives German authorities permission to use “lasers or jamming signals to sever control and navigation links,” the news outlet noted. The measure extends to all domains.

“In order to combat a threat posed by unmanned aerial systems on land, in the air or on water, the federal police may deploy appropriate technical means against the system, its control unit or its control connection if other means of combating the threat would be futile or otherwise significantly more difficult,” the new law states.

All this comes as Germany has seen a 33% percent increase in the number of drone-related air traffic disruptions this year. There were 172 such events between January and the end of September 2025, up from 129 in the same period last year and 121 in 2023, according to data from Deutsche Flugsicherung (DFS).

The new authority to take out drones is one of several measures Germany is taking in the wake of the incursions. 

German police are creating a new counter-drone unit to deal with the problem. To build up the expertise of this unit, German officials will talk to countries like Israel and Ukraine that have significant experience creating and fighting off drones.

Germany is also working out a system where the police and military would divide up counter-drone efforts, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt explained.

“Police would deal with drones flying at around tree-level, whereas more powerful drones should be tackled by the military,” Dobrindt said.

Germany has debated changing its Federal Police laws for years. They were last updated in 1994.

Discussion about how to defend against drones in many ways mirrors concerns expressed in the U.S., where current federal law restricts actions and collateral damage concerns limit how the military can respond. As a result, the U.S. military is not currently pursuing the use of lasers, microwaves, missiles or guns. The recent expiration of drone interception authorities provided to the departments of Homeland Security and Justice adds further restrictions to the ability of U.S. agencies to mitigate incursions.

For Germany, the issue is even more challenging, because by law, its military is a defensive force “whose role is explicitly limited to protecting the state from external military threats in war-like scenarios,” the German DW news outlet noted. Even in the case of the current drone problems, it is unclear if any pose a military threat or create a situation akin to war. Given concerns that a wider war could erupt, German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall is awaiting a multi-billion-dollar order from the German Armed Forces for its Skyranger anti-aircraft gun system, which has major counter-drone capabilities. These systems could also be used to actively defend sites from drone incursions during peacetimes under the new law, although their use would have to be tightly controlled and it would be only be applicable at all in certain situations. Regardless, the Skyranger deal is indicative of how serious Germany is beginning to take the drone problem.

As with the U.S., there are huge concerns in Germany about civilian harm from counter-drone systems, especially in heavily populated areas. Following reports of drone incursions over several European nations, Germany dispatched the German frigate FGS Hamburg to Copenhagen to help protect European Union meetings. It was one of several deployments of European counter-drone measures to the Danish capital.

Though the Hamburg is armed with missiles and guns, a spokesperson of the Bundeswehr joint force command told us prior to the EU meetings that the ship’s responses to any drone incursions would be limited to detection efforts by its sensors.

“The principle of proportionality and to minimize collateral damage are two important aspects we always keep in mind,” the spokesperson said in response to our questions about the Hamburg’s rules of engagement for its weapons systems, should a drone or drones be detected.

The increasing concern about protecting NATO’s skies began after more than a dozen Russian drones entered Polish airspace last month, with some being shot down. A flight into Estonian airspace by three Russian MiG-31 Foxhound interceptors further increased tensions, which have already been high with a brutal war raging in Ukraine and concerns that it could spill over its borders. The drone incursions over a number of European countries ramped up considerably around this time.

The latest wave of drone incursions began late last month when two Nordic airports were temporarily closed. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said the airspace violation over the Copenhagen Airport was “the most serious attack on Danish critical infrastructure to date.”

As we have explained in the past, it is quite possible that many, if not most of these sightings are mistaken identity. It is a pattern that emerged last year when thousands of people claimed to see drones in the New Jersey region of the U.S. The overwhelming majority of those sightings were airplanes, planets and other benign objects in the sky.

Still, just like in the New Jersey case, we do know that a significant number of the sightings over military bases were confirmed by the government. The reality is that these drone incursions over critical facilities in Europe have been happening for years, but just how much it has exploded in recent weeks is blurred by media reports and sightings not supported by independent analysis or corroborated by sensor data.

Regardless, German leaders say they are working to bring the nation’s law in line with other European countries, “such as France, Britain, Romania and Lithuania, which have extended the powers of their security forces to take out drones that are unlawfully in their airspace,” the Guardian pointed out.

“Today we are creating a strong law for the federal police,” proclaimed Dobrindt, introducing the new counter-drone measures. “We are reacting decisively, effectively and technically at the cutting edge.”

Contact the author: [email protected]

Palestinian officials have condemned Israeli threats against imprisoned leader Marwan Barghouti, as an ”unprecedented provocation.” National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir was filmed making the comments after what was described as “a raid” on Barghouti’s prison cell.

California and a coalition of other liberal-led states sued the Trump administration Friday over efforts to end gender-affirming care for transgender, intersex and nonbinary children and young adults nationwide — calling them an unconstitutional attack on LGBTQ+ patients, healthcare providers and states’ rights.

The lawsuit was brought by California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta and officials from 15 other states and the District of Columbia. It challenges a Jan. 28 executive order by President Trump that denounced gender-affirming care as “mutilation” and called on U.S. Justice Department officials to effectively enforce a ban, including by launching investigations into healthcare providers.

The lawsuit notes the Justice Department last month sent more than 20 subpoenas to doctors and clinics that have provided such care nationwide, with justice officials suggesting they may face criminal prosecution.

Bonta’s office, in a statement, said such efforts “have no legal basis and are intended to discourage providers from offering lifesaving healthcare that is lawful under state law.” The lawsuit asks a federal court in Massachusetts to vacate Trump’s order in its entirety for exceeding federal authority and undermining state laws that guarantee equal access to healthcare.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

Trump made reining in transgender rights a key promise of his presidential campaign. Upon taking office, he moved swiftly to do so through executive orders, funding cuts and litigation. And in many ways, it has worked — particularly when it comes gender-affirming care for minors.

Clinics across the country that had provided such care have closed their doors in response to the threats and funding cuts. That includes the renowned Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, one of the largest and oldest pediatric gender clinics in the U.S.

The clinic told thousands of its patients and their families that it was shuttering last month. Other clinics have similarly closed nationwide, radically reducing the availability of such care in the U.S.

Republicans and other Trump supporters have cheered the closures as a major win, and they praised the president for protecting impressionable and confused children from so-called woke medical professionals pushing what they allege to be dangerous and irreversible treatments.

Bonta said in the Friday statement that Trump and his administration’s “relentless attacks” on such care were “cruel and irresponsible” and endangered “already vulnerable adolescents whose health and well-being are at risk.”

“These actions have created a chilling effect in which providers are pressured to scale back on their care for fear of prosecution, leaving countless individuals without the critical care they need and are entitled to under law,” Bonta said.

Mainstream U.S. medical associations have supported gender-affirming care for minors experiencing gender dysphoria for years. They and LGBTQ+ rights organizations have accused Trump and his supporters of mischaracterizing that care, which includes therapy, counseling and support for social transitioning, and can include puberty blockers, hormone treatment and, in rarer circumstances, mastectomies.

Queer advocates, many patients and their families say such care is life-saving, alleviating intense distress — and suicidal thoughts — in transgender and other gender-nonconforming youth. They and many mainstream medical experts acknowledge that gender-affirming care for young people is still a developing field, but say it is also based on decades of solid research by medical professionals who are far better equipped than politicians to help families make difficult medical decisions.

However, as the number of children who identify as transgender or nonbinary has rapidly increased in recent years, that argument has failed to take hold in many parts of the country. Conservatives and Republican leaders have grown increasingly alarmed by such care, pointing to young people who changed their minds about transitioning and now regret the care they received.

“Countless children soon regret that they have been mutilated and begin to grasp the horrifying tragedy that they will never be able to conceive children of their own or nurture their children through breastfeeding,” Trump’s executive order stated.

Trump and others have escalated tensions further by spreading misinformation about kids being whisked away from school to have their gentials mutilated without their parents’ knowledge — which is not happening.

The battle has played out in the courts, in part as a state’s rights issue. In June, the Supreme Court ruled that conservative states may ban puberty blockers and hormone treatments for transgender teens, with the court’s conservative majority finding that states are generally free to set their own standards of medical care.

The Trump administration, however, has not taken the same view. Instead, it has aggressively tried to eradicate gender-affirming care nationwide, regardless of state laws — like those in California — that protect it.

Trump’s Jan. 28 executive order, titled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” claimed that “medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions.”

It defined children as anyone under the age of 19, and said that moving forward, the U.S. wouldn’t “fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another,” but would “rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures.”

The states’ lawsuit focuses on one particular section of that order, which directed Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi to convene state attorneys general and other law enforcement officials nationwide to begin investigating gender-affirming care providers and other groups that “may be misleading the public about long-term side effects of chemical and surgical mutilation.”

The section suggested those investigations could be based on laws against “female genital mutilation,” or even around a 1938 law known as the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which authorizes the Food and Drug Administration to regulate food, drugs, medical devices and cosmetics.

On July 9, Bondi announced the Justice Department’s subpoenas to healthcare providers, saying doctors and hospitals “that mutilated children in the service of a warped ideology will be held accountable.”

On July 25, The Times reported that Bill Essayli, the Trump administration’s controversial pick for U.S. attorney in L.A., had floated the idea of criminally charging doctors and hospitals for providing gender-affirming care, according to two federal law enforcement sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

The targeting of gender-affirming care is part of a wider effort by the administration to eliminate transgender rights more broadly, in part on the premise that transgender people do not exist. On his first day in office, Trump issued another executive order declaring there are only two sexes and denouncing what he called the “gender ideology” of the left.

His administration has sought to limit the options transgender people have to get passports that reflect their identities, and the Justice Department has sued California over its policies allowing transgender girls to compete against other girls in youth sports. Many transgender Americans are looking for ways to flee the country.

Still, many in the LGBTQ+ community fear the attacks are only going to get worse. Among those who are most scared are the parents and families of transgender kids — including those who believe their health records may have been collected under the Justice Department’s subpoenas.

One mother of a Children’s Hospital patient told The Times last month that she is terrified the Justice Department is “going to come after parents and use the female genital mutilation law … to prosecute parents and separate me from my child.”

Bonta is leading the lawsuit along with the attorneys general of Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts and New York. Joining them are Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and the attorneys general of Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Rhode Island and Wisconsin.

Influencer Liver King says he still has his sights on Joe Rogan, even after he was arrested in Texas earlier this week for making online threats toward the popular podcaster.

The 47-year-old social media personality known for his carnivorous and “primitive” lifestyle was released from Travis County Jail Wednesday afternoon on $20,000 bail, officials confirmed to The Times. He was arrested Tuesday in Austin on suspicion of one count of misdemeanor terroristic threat. Court records show that the influencer — born Brian Johnson — must stay at least 200 yards away from and must not contact Rogan and his family. Johnson is also prohibited from possessing firearms and must undergo a mental health evaluation within a week of his release.

Johnson addressed his release and its terms in a video posted Thursday to his Instagram and Facebook pages. Standing on a vibrating exercise plate, Johnson seemingly hints at plans to confront Rogan — namedropping a Hollywood star to sidestep mentioning the podcaster’s name — while respecting the terms of his restraining order.

“If anybody knows where Seth Rogen is — the other version of him that rhymes with ‘blow’… where his family’s gonna be today, if you can let my team know so that we can stay away from them,” he said, before immediately walking back his request.

“Don’t do anything to their family,” Johnson continues, before contradicting himself and asking fans again to alert him and his team if they are near anyone with “the last name Rogan.” He pans the camera down to display his ankle monitor and rambles about his plans to appear at the state capitol building.

He adds, naming the wrong celebrity: “I’m picking a fight. Who’s it with? Seth Rogen. It’s with Seth Rogen. What’s it for? Family.”

Neither representatives for Johnson nor Rogan immediately responded to The Times’ request for comment on Friday.

Liver King booking image.

(Austin Police Department)

A spokesperson for the Austin Police Department told The Times on Wednesday that detectives learned Tuesday morning that Johnson, 47, had “made threats against the “Joe Rogan Experience” host on his Instagram profile.” Detectives reviewed the posts and saw that Johnson was en route to Austin, where Rogan lives, “while continuing to make threatening statements,” the spokesperson said.

Detectives contacted the podcaster who claimed he never interacted with Johnson and felt threatened by Liver King’s online posts. The spokesperson said officials obtained an arrest warrant for Johnson and detained the social media star at an Austin hotel.

Johnson on Monday posted an Instagram video of himself bear-crawling as he calls out Rogan: “I challenge you man-to-man to a fight.” Johnson rambled in his video about his weight, the stakes of this would-be battle and the “real tension” he has with Rogan. Johnson continued to post Instagram videos — some still name-dropping Rogan and some filmed while he’s in a shower — throughout the day, even after he arrived at the hotel in Austin.

Johnson’s Instagram account also posted several lengthy videos documenting the moments prior to his arrest Tuesday. In one clip, Johnson can be seen getting dressed in a burgundy sweatsuit, including a hoodie featuring a design that essentially pits his brand logo against that of the “Joe Rogan Experience.” Videos also see Johnson haphazardly picking up dishes and various items — including a screwdriver and a multi-tool — as he instructs someone off-camera to keep recording.

A second video shows Johnson huddling and praying with his family in the hotel room before officers escort him down a hallway and into an elevator. In another video posted to Johnson’s account, the person off-screen explains to the influencer’s wife that her husband will be “in and out” and will “need to see a judge before he is dismissed.” They exit the hotel and approach the law enforcement vehicle, where officers are seen securing Johnson into the back seat.

In court documents reviewed by The Times on Friday, a detective noted that Johnson’s social media posts featured “long rants that didn’t appear to make much sense.”

“Affiant knows that behavior such as that can indicate some sort of mental health episode, indicating that Brian Johnson could be a danger to himself and others,” the detective wrote before detailing other videos from Johnson that raised concern.

The detective also wrote of their correspondences with Rogan, who spoke of Johnson’s alleged “significant drug issue” and said he feels “Johnson appears to be significantly unstable and seems like he needs help,” according to the court filing.

Israel has attacked the Iranian state broadcaster IRIB and interrupted a live broadcast with an explosion, marking another escalation in the conflict with Tehran and replicating its previous attacks on news media targets in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Lebanon.

TV anchor Sahar Emami denounced Monday’s “aggression against the homeland” and the “truth” as a blast went off and smoke and debris filled the screen. The footage then showed her fleeing the studio as a voice is heard calling, “God is greatest.”

The attack came shortly after the Israeli military issued a threat for Tehran’s District Three, where IRIB’s headquarters is located, and Defence Minister Israel Katz said: “The Iranian propaganda and incitement mouthpiece is on its way to disappear.”

Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei accused Israel of committing a “wicked act” that constitutes a war crime and of being the number one “killer of journalists and media people”.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has counted 178 journalists killed in Gaza by Israel since October 2023, making it the deadliest conflict for media workers ever recorded.

“The UNSC [United Nations Security Council] must act now to stop the genocidal aggressor from committing further atrocities against our people,” Baghaei wrote on X.

The CPJ said it was “appalled” by Israel’s attack on Iranian state TV and argued impunity for the killings of Palestinian journalists had “emboldened” the country to target media elsewhere. “This bloodshed must end now,” the organisation said on X.

Peyman Jebelli, the head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), said the organisation’s headquarters was attacked because the Iranian media are “precisely targeting the depth of the enemy’s media strategy”.

In a statement quoted by the semiofficial Mehr News Agency, he said employees at the national media outlet “loudly declare” their determination to play their roles in the “hybrid war” initiated by Israel.

Iranian journalist Younes Shadlou said many of his colleagues were inside the building when the Israeli attack happened. “I don’t know how many of my colleagues are still inside right now,” he reported from outside the burning building in Tehran

“We had been given evacuation warnings, but everyone stayed until the very last moment to show the true face of the Zionist regime to the world.”

Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari said the strike was highly symbolic because it targeted an entity with close links to the Iranian government. “The head of the network is appointed by the supreme leader directly, so it is a significant part of the establishment,” Jabbari said.

“This is going to be a great shock for the Iranian people,” she continued. The station is located in a large, fortified complex that has a long history dating back to the 1940s. The channel is the most watched inside Iran, and Emami is a renowned anchor.

The attack should, therefore, be seen as “a huge message for Iran and the general public and [it] is going to create all kinds of fears”, Jabbari said.

Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi, reporting from Tehran, said Israel targeted a glass building known as the IRIB’s central building. The live broadcast was briefly disrupted, but Emami went back on TV shortly after the blast, which would likely increase her popularity, the journalist said.

The number of victims remains unclear.

Foad Izadi, professor of international relations at the University of Tehran, said he feared there would be “a lot of casualties” from the attack. “It’s a huge building,” he told Al Jazeera. “Iran’s news channel is located on the first floor. It has four floors, and on every floor, you have at least 200 to 300 people working.”

Izadi said he expected the attack to spark international outrage and be condemned by international media outlets.

The Israeli military confirmed in a statement that it has bombed the building of Iran’s state broadcaster in Tehran. “This centre was used by the armed forces to promote military operations under civilian cover, while using its own means and assets,” it said, without giving any evidence for its accusations.

Late on Monday, Iran issued evacuation warnings for Israeli news channels. “Iran has issued an evacuation warning for the N12 and N14 channels of Israel. This order comes in response to the hostile attack of Zionist enemy against the Islamic republic of Iran’s broadcasting service,” Iranian state TV said.

Israel has a dark history of attacking media organisations and journalists, most recently in Gaza.

In October, it targeted Hezbollah-affiliated al-Manar TV studios in southern Beirut during a wave of strikes on Lebanon.

In May 2021, it targeted and destroyed the 11-storey al-Jalaa building in Gaza City, housing Al Jazeera and The Associated Press.

Shireen Abu Akleh, the Palestinian American Al Jazeera journalist, was killed by Israeli forces in May 2022 in Jenin in the occupied West Bank. She was a veteran television correspondent who became a household name across the Arab world for her bold coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

May 26 (UPI) — A Liberian-flagged container ship that capsized off India’s southwestern coast is at risk of causing an oil spill, officials said, as they rush to prevent an environmental catastrophe.

The vessel, MSC ELSA 3, began to list to one side about 38 nautical miles southwest of Kochi on Saturday and sank Sunday, with 643 containers onboard, the Indian Coast Guard said in a statement.

Of the 73 containers missing, 13 contained hazardous material, including calcium carbide, which releases a gas that is highly flammable when it comes into contact with water.

It also had 84.44 metric tonnes of diesel fuel and 367.1 metric tonnes of furnace oil.

The chief minister’s office said in a statement that an alert had been issued to the state of Kerala’s coastal regions, warning that an oil slick could impact the entire coastline.

“As the oil slick can reach anywhere along the Kerala coast, an alert has been sounded across the coastal belt,” the statement said, Indian Express reported. “The containers are drifting in the sea at a speed of 3 kph. Besides the oil in the fallen containers, marine fuel used in the ship has also leaked.”

The Kerala State Disaster Management Authority is warning the public to not touch any materials that have washed ashore and could be from the ship.

“Make sure to stay at least 200 meters away,” it said in a Facebook post on Monday. “Do not gather in groups near the area. Do not obstruct authorities while they are removing materials. Stay at a safe distance.”

The ship capsized rapidly Sunday morning due to flooding in one of the holds, the Indian Coast Guard said. Twenty-one crew members were rescued by the Coast Guard and three by the Navy.

The Indian Coast Guard said it has activated a pollution response preparedness protocol and is working with state authorities to address potential spills.

May 22 (UPI) — A former Republican House candidate from Florida has been sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for threatening to kill his political opponent.

William Robert Braddock, 41, of St. Petersburg, Fla., was sentenced Wednesday by U.S. District Judge William Jung, the Justice Department said in a statement.

The former Republican candidate for Florida’s 13th Congressional District pleaded guilty in February. He was charged with interstate transmission of a threat to injure.

Braddock was running for the Republican nomination for the 13th Congressional District in 2021. Though court documents do not name the target of his threats, information in the filings and media indicate it was Anna Paulina Luna, the frontrunner in that 2022 election.

According to federal prosecutions, Braddock viewed Luna — referred to in court documents as Victim-1, the Republican Party frontrunner — as his only obstacle to winning the primary.

He disparaged Luna for months to her peers and tried to involve himself in her life, court documents show. Then, in June 2021, during a phone call with one of Luna’s acquaintances, he threatened to have her murdered.

The court documents state he threatened to “call up my Russian-Ukrainian hit squad” who could make Luna “disappear.”

“I will be the next congressman for this district. Period. End of discussion,” he said, according to federal prosecutors. “And anybody going up against me is [expletive] ignorant for doing so.”

He continued by calling Luna “ignorant” and because of that, “I don’t have a problem taking her out, but I’m not going to do that dirty work myself, obviously.”

Then in November 2021, Braddock flew to Thailand and then settled in the Philippines where he remained until surrendering to Manila authorities in June 2023.

In September 2024, he was indicted and deported to the United States to stand trial.

Luna is currently serving her second term as the U.S. House Representative for Florida’s 13 Congressional District.