Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran's deputy foreign minister, has accused Israel of attempting to evade accountability after the United Nations included it on a list of parties cited over conflict-related sexual violence allegations.
Writing on X, Gharibabadi said, “Instead of responding to the inclusion of its affiliated entities on the UN list of sexual violence in conflict, the Israeli regime has targeted the UN Secretary-General for punishment, a sign of the same dangerous pattern: evading accountability by attacking international institutions.”
The Iranian official also referred to alleged abuses committed by Israeli security forces against Palestinian detainees and criticised Israel’s military operations in Gaza and Lebanon, arguing that ceasefire commitments had not been upheld.
Iran says Israel attacking UN to evade accountability over sexual violence findings
Putin Leaves Kazakhstan With Empty Rhetoric and Panic Over Armenia, Goble Says
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent diplomatic push into Central Asia yielded high-minded rhetoric but few substantive gains, as Kazakhstan resisted Kremlin pressure on trade and labor, foreign policy expert Paul Goble told Kyiv Post.
Faced with limited returns in Astana, Putin dedicated a significant portion of his post-visit press conference to lecturing Armenia – a move Goble described as a sign of Moscow’s anxiety over its fading influence in the former Soviet space.
The remarks came as Moscow has intensified pressure on Yerevan over its pro-European course. Russia has warned Armenia that it could lose preferential fuel and energy arrangements if it continues its EU path, while the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union has raised the possibility of suspending Armenia over its European ambitions.
While Moscow hoped to secure critical concessions during the high-level talks, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev used his diplomatic experience to protect Astana’s strategic autonomy, Goble said.
US military strikes another boat in Pacific, bringing death toll above 200
The US military said it had carried out another strike Friday on a boat accused of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing three men in the third attack this week and pushing the overall death toll above 200 people.
US Southern Command announced the latest strike in the months-long campaign against alleged drug boats traversing the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific with its usual language that the vessel was “engaged in narco-trafficking operations” and operated by a designated terrorist organization. It provided no evidence.
Southern Command said in its post on X that the strike came at the direction of Gen Francis L Donovan, the top US commander in Latin America, who on Friday also met with Cuban military leaders near the US Navy base in Guantánamo Bay.
While the military’s social media announcements always include video of the attacks, this appears to be the first with the footage in color instead of black and white. The video shows a small vessel floating in the ocean before it’s hit and engulfed in a fireball. It cuts to what could be the boat in flames, surrounded by a large plume of parcels or some other objects spread around it in the water.
Louisiana lawmakers pass a congressional map to dismantle a majority-Black district
Republicans in the Louisiana legislature have approved a new congressional map ahead of the midterms that will likely net their party one seat in the race to control the House.
Louisiana lawmakers raced to eliminate one of two majority-Black congressional seats in the state after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the current map unconstitutional in a sweeping decision last month that severely weakened Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Following that ruling, and just days before early voting was set to begin — and with tens of thousands of voters having already returned mail ballots — Republican Gov. Jeff Landry pushed to delay the House primary elections scheduled for May 16, allowing the legislature to redraw the map.
The rescheduled primaries are now set for Nov. 3.
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The sneaky way companies get new chemicals into our food
99% of chemicals in our food right now were added without FDA approval. Many were added in secret, through a sneaky loophole built into the 1958 Food Additives Amendment.
It was supposed to require FDA approval for new additives. But food companies and chemical makers found a workaround. And the FDA formally okayed the loophole in the 90s — in the process bringing attention to a loophole to the loophole.
The FDA has essentially admitted it doesn't have the capacity to verify the safety of new food chemicals. So they leave it up to food companies and chemical makers to declare their brand new chemicals are safe. These chemicals are used in everything from chocolate and smoked fish, to tea bags, protein drinks, popcorn, and seeds.
Putin adviser warns EU after drone hits Romania: ‘The peaceful sleep is over’
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chair of the Security Council of Russia and the country’s former president, cautioned the European Union on Friday to be “vigilant” amid the “war with Russia” that Europe has entered, after an errant Russian drone crashed in Romania.
“Citizens of EU countries, You should realize your authorities have unilaterally ehttps://thehill.com/policy/international/5901241-dmitry-medvedev-eu-russia-drone-attack/ntered into a war with Russia,” the senior Russian official wrote in a post on social platform X. “So be vigilant and don’t be surprised by anything. The peaceful sleep is over. But you know who to ask why.”
The warning from Medvedev, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, came after Romanian authorities said a Russian drone that was part of an overnight attack on Ukraine crashed into an apartment building in eastern Romania, injuring two people.
NATO condemned the incident in its member country as reckless and reaffirmed its commitment to defend its alliance territory.
Is a 'vomiting virus' going around? Data shows spikes across US
Hikers along Southern California's Pacific Crest Trail have been smacked with fast-spreading cases of a "winter vomiting disease" – and they aren't the only ones.
east two dozen hikers have fallen ill along the trail near Wrightwood in the San Gabriel Mountains of San Bernardino County over the last two weeks, according to the Victorville Daily Press, part of the USA TODAY Network, resulting in at least one air rescue. All are believed to have norovirus, a gastrointestinal illness that causes unpleasant symptoms.
While the hikers may be in one of the less ideal situations to contend with an illness known for causing vomiting and diarrhea, California is not the only home to a current outbreak.
Data from WastewaterSCAN, a Stanford University-led tool that tracks disease presence by testing wastewater samples nationwide, categorized norovirus activity as "high" and on an upward trend nationwide in late May. Norovirus was in 100% of samples taken in May, and concentrations were especially high in the Northeast and Midwest.
The latest CDC data from the National Respiratory and Enteric Virus Surveillance System also showed a recent, multi-week increase in cases after a sharp seasonal decline beginning in March. About 11.2% of administered norovirus tests came back positive the week ending April 28, while 12% did so the week ending May 2.
Trump's name must be removed from Kennedy Center, judge rules
A federal judge ordered the removal of President Donald Trump's name from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, ruling the White House's rebranding of the iconic institution is illegal.
U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper, in a opinion issued May 29, ordered the Kennedy Center remove Trump's name from the institution's title, including taking down the recently installed signage on the center's facade and stripping it from other materials.
The judge said the Kennedy Center's board of trustees, made up of primarily Trump loyalists, violated the federal law that created the center, arguing it makes clear "the Kennedy Center must be named for, and is meant to honor, President Kennedy alone."
The judge's ruling ‒ a major blow to Trump's efforts to rebrand the building for himself ‒ decided a case brought by U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, an ex-officio member of the Kennedy's Center board of trustees who opposed the name change.
US judge temporarily blocks Trump’s $1.8 billion ‘weaponization’ fund
A US judge on Friday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from setting up a nearly $1.8 billion fund to compensate victims of what Trump has called government “weaponization.”
The order by US District Judge Leonie Brinkema of the Eastern District of Virginia blocks the Trump administration from “taking any further action” to set up or operate the fund while the judge hears additional legal arguments.
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The Justice Department announced the creation of an “Anti-Weaponization Fund” last week as part of an agreement to settle Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax records.
It set up a $1.776 billion fund overseen by a five-member commission to dole out payments to those who they show they were victims of “lawfare” and “weaponization,” terms Trump and his allies have used to describe investigations and criminal cases against them.
Friday’s ruling came in a lawsuit filed by a group who claimed to be targeted “by the Trump-Vance administration as ideological or political opponents” and alleged they would be ineligible for payouts from the fund.
The fund spurred a backlash, even from some lawmakers in Trump’s Republican Party, who expressed anger that some people who attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, would receive taxpayer-funded payouts.
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