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A federal judge in Washington has been asked to block President Donald Trump’s plan to host an Ultimate Fighting Championship mixed martial arts bout at the White House next week and to halt construction of the metal arena structure called ‘the Claw’ on the South Lawn of the iconic executive residence.Two Washington-area residents in a court filing on Sunday asked US District Judge Amit Mehta to issue a temporary restraining order halting the event, scheduled to coincide with Trump’s 80th birthday on June 14.Mehta Monday asked the lawyers in the case to propose a schedule to hear the emergency request.Dubbed ‘UFC Freedom 250’, the event is set to feature fighting inside the 92-foot-tall (28 meters), octagon-shaped cage with weigh-ins at the nearby Lincoln Memorial.The lawsuit, filed on Saturday, alleges that authorization of the program by the National Park Service and Interior Department was unlawful and should be set aside.’This nation’s public monuments should not be loaned out for private exploitation,” the plaintiffs said.In a statement, the White House called the case an ‘obstructionist, baseless, and dilatory lawsuit” and said the event ‘is no different than the various other White House-hosted events on the South Lawn and properly permitted events on the Ellipse and National Mall throughout the year.”The lawsuit contends the event violates rules barring sporting events on the South Lawn and at the Lincoln Memorial, and that construction of the large arena structure requires congressional authorization.Trump is facing other lawsuits over construction projects on the White House and elsewhere in the capital, including his plan to build a 90,000-square-foot ballroom on the site of the demolished East Wing, and his proposal to renovate and close The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Source link
The US is demanding Iran provide ‘precise’ information on its enriched uranium stockpile and give the UN nuclear agency access ‘without delay’, according to a draft resolution seen by AFP Monday.The draft resolution is expected to be submitted for a vote this week to the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that started meeting Monday.Last week, the IAEA in a confidential report reiterated that the lack of access to nuclear sites in Iran constituted a ‘proliferation concern’.The draft resolution affirms that it is ‘essential and urgent’ that Iran ‘without delay’ provides the agency with ‘precise information on nuclear material accountancy and safeguarded nuclear facilities in Iran’.Tehran must also ‘grant the agency all access it requires to verify this information’, it adds.To be passed, the draft resolution needs to be submitted and approved by the 35-member IAEA board of governors.In a press conference after opening the board of governors' meeting, IAEA head Rafael Grossi said he had ‘sporadic contacts with the foreign minister (of Iran) and others, but basically the channel of communication is broken’.’Of course, when you have active shelling or bombing, inspections are not possible, but there are many things that can be done. And the important thing is this dialogue,’ he said.The IAEA has not had access to some key nuclear facilities in Iran since Israel, joined by the US, launched a 12-day conflict in June 2025 that included strikes on nuclear sites.Nuclear facilities have also been hit in the latest war, which erupted on February 28. The IAEA has repeatedly urged access.Prior to US strikes in June 2025, the IAEA calculated that Iran possessed approximately 440 kilogrammes (970 pounds) of uranium enriched to 60 %.This is close to the 90 % needed to make a bomb and well above the 3.67-percent limit set by a now-defunct 2015 agreement with Iran.The fate of this stockpile is uncertain.Israel and the US have long accused Iran of wanting to build a nuclear weapon.Tehran has repeatedly denied having any military ambitions, insisting on its right to the technology for civilian purposes.On Saturday, Iran denounced as a ‘tool of political pressure’ the report by the IAEA expressing concern over its lack of access to Iranian nuclear sites. Source link
Newly appointed head of the National Nutrition Agency Nanik Deyang attends her inauguration ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta Monday. (AFP) Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto Monday appointed a new head of the agency responsible for implementing his flagship free meals programme, replacing the previous office holder who was dismissed and arrested on graft charges last week. Here are some key details about the inauguration:At the presidential palace, Prabowo appointed Nanik Sudaryati Deyang as the new head of the National Nutrition Agency, replacing her predecessor Dadan Hindayana, who was arrested last week on allegations of corruption linked to the free meals programme.Indonesia’s Attorney General’s Office (AGO) also arrested two of the agency’s deputy heads on charges of corruption leading to state losses.The three were accused of manipulating the selection of the foundations managing the programme’s kitchens, and also artificially marking up the prices of electric motorbikes, shoes, and televisions procured as part of the programme.”Our concern is regarding budget efficiency so we will not burden the state budget, while at the same time maintaining the targets we have set,” Nanik said after her inauguration.The efficiency measures include a moratorium on the establishment of new kitchens, “refocusing” the programme on new recipients and developing kitchens in remote areas through grants or CSR programmes from state firm or private companies, rather than the state budget, Nanik said.Prabowo also appointed two new deputy heads of the free meals agency: Agustina Arumsari, former deputy head of Financial and Development Supervisory Agency, and Major General Trenggono who has resigned from the Military.Prabowo also appointed the head of the Labour Party, Said Iqbal, as his new special adviser for manpower and labour welfare affairs.Prabowo’s free meals programme, a key part of his election campaign launched in January 2025, has raised investor concerns about overspending and fiscal deficit risks.The programme has also sparked a public outcry about health and safety, with cases of food poisoning affecting at least 33,000 children as of April, according to the Network for Education Watch, a non-government organisation. Related Story Source…
The US CDC urged strong public health interventions against the current Ebola outbreak, citing their models that show it could otherwise rival the scale of the 2014 West Africa outbreak. That eruption of the virus resulted in more than 28,000 cases and more than 11,000 deaths. “That scale is possible,” said Jason Asher, director of CDC’s Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics, during a press briefing.The US projections from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were part of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report documents published Friday. The worst outcomes could be avoided if “a larger proportion of patients were identified, isolated, and treated,” the agency said in its reports. But “the public health response to control this outbreak will likely need to be of similar magnitude to the response for the 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola outbreak.” Asher emphasised the models were “not a forecast” but “a planning tool.” “They’re designed to support action, not to generate alarm.” They are based on four possible intervention scenarios ranging from poor (20%) to extremely high (95%) levels of isolation and treatment. If isolation levels are what the CDC would consider poor, with no other interventions there is a 65 percent chance cases will top 20,000 within three months, according to the agency.Satish Pillai, the CDC manager for the Ebola response, said “the total individuals that are infected and requiring isolation remains unclear.” But he said the situation on the ground would indicate levels of isolation are currently on the lower end. Also last week the World Health Organisation and the African Union’s public health agency said $518 million was needed across the next six months to combat the deadly Ebola outbreak in the DR Congo and its neighbors. The outbreak was declared on May 15 in northeastern DR Congo, but the rare Bundibugyo species of the Ebola virus is believed to have spread for some time beforehand. According to the WHO’s latest figures, there are 381 confirmed cases in the DRC, including 64 deaths. The outbreak has hit three provinces, with the epicenter in Ituri, which the Africa CDC says accounts for 90% of confirmed cases and 76% of confirmed deaths. Across the northeastern border in Uganda, there have been 16 confirmed cases, including one death. Seven Ebola patients in the DRC and two in Uganda have recovered. Source link
FILE PHOTO: Aerial view of the United States military headquarters, the Pentagon, September 28, 2008. REUTERS/Jason Reed/File Photo The Pentagon has raised its counterintelligence threat level for Israel to its highest level, US media reported.The Pentagon’s Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) said Israel’s “ability to conduct human espionage and technical collection is at a ‘critical level’,” NBC News said, citing US officials. The move came after concerns that Israel had been attempting to spy on top US officials to get information on “the Trump administration’s internal deliberations and decision-making on the conflicts in the Middle East,” the American network said. The New York Times cited reports of Israeli efforts to eavesdrop on senior officials, including President Donald Trump’s top negotiator, Steve Witkoff, and the Pentagon’s top policy official, Elbridge Colby.The United States and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran on February 28, triggering the war. Since then, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s relationship appears to be under strain. Trump unleashed a profanity-laced tirade over the phone at Netanyahu over Israel’s threats to bomb the Lebanese capital Beirut, fearing it would undermine talks with Tehran, the Axios news outlet and ABC News reported last week. Source link
People walk past a collapsed building following the magnitude 7.8 quake in General Santos, southern Philippines, June 8, 2026. REUTERS A 7.8-magnitude earthquake in the southern Philippines Monday killed at least 35 people, according to provincial authorities, after toppling buildings and sparking tsunami warnings across the region. National disaster authorities said at least a dozen people were still missing, while 134 had sustained injuries. Philippine authorities urged people in affected coastal regions to move to higher ground after the offshore quake hit south of General Santos, a city of about 720,000, where the death toll was now 12, according to the tally at a local command centre. A series of powerful aftershocks rocked the area from about two hours after the first quake, according to the US Geological Survey, with the largest measuring magnitude 6.5. As night descended, AFP journalists watched as rescue workers in General Santos used their hands to dig through the rubble of a popular grocery store chain in a desperate bid to reach two employees buried beneath. Responders assess a collapsed building…
FILE PHOTO: The IAEA logo is displayed in front of the agency’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria, June 5, 2026. REUTERS/Elisabeth Mandl/File Photo The US is lobbying other countries on the UN nuclear watchdog’s Board of Governors to back a draft resolution demanding that Iran tell the agency what happened to its bombed nuclear sites and the enriched uranium stored there. The US-drafted text, seen by Reuters yesterday and circulated ahead of this week’s quarterly meeting of the 35-nation board, risks complicating talks between Washington and Tehran. Iran has typically retaliated against resolutions against it at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), escalating its nuclear activities or scaling back co-operation. Previous IAEA board resolutions on Iran, submitted by the US, Britain, France and Germany, have passed by wide margins. One adopted in November demanded that Iran inform the agency “without delay” about the status of its enriched uranium stock and damaged sites — something that has yet to happen. The US draft says Iran must “provide the Agency with precise information on nuclear material accountancy and safeguarded nuclear facilities in Iran” and grant “all access it requires to verify this information.” Both steps are described as “essential and urgent” and must be taken “without delay”. The text stops short of referring Iran to the UN Security Council, a move some diplomats had said was under consideration.That would have followed up on a June 12, 2025 resolutiondeclaring Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations. Israel began bombing Iran’s nuclear sites a day later. While circulating a draft does not guarantee it will be formally submitted to the board, which would then vote on it, it signals an intention to do so. Current US-Iran talks aim to extend their ceasefire and pave the way for broader negotiations, including on Iran’s nuclear programme. US President Donald Trump has said his goal is to ensure Iran cannot develop nuclear weapons, something Iran denies seeking. While June’s strikes destroyed or badly damaged uranium-enrichment facilities, much of Iran’s enriched uranium is believed to have survived. Trump has said he wants Iran’s highly enriched uranium removed, particularly what remains of the 440.9 kg (972 lbs) enriched to up to 60% purity — a short step from roughly 90% weapons grade — that the IAEA estimates Iran had when Israel first attacked. That amount would be enough, if further enriched, for 10 nuclear weapons, according to an IAEA yardstick. Russia’s ambassador to the IAEA told reporters on Friday a resolution would only antagonise Iran.“It was exactly the US who undermined this co-operation,” he said, referring to the fact the IAEA had access to Iran’s sites until the bombing started.Russia and China have opposed all recent resolutions against Iran. Source link
Iran’s World Cup squad landed in Mexico yesterday under the shadow of a bitter diplomatic row, after the US — in open military conflict with Tehran — refused to issue visas for some team support staff.Iran coach Amir Ghalenoei complained on arrival at Tijuana airport that “we should have been here last week because a 12-hour time difference needs two weeks of adjusting.” He added: “Usually in these tournaments, before technical matters, ethical and human considerations must be respected — which I think for us it was not the case.” The dispute erupted just days before Thursday’s kickoff of the 2026 World Cup, which is being jointly hosted by the US, Mexico and Canada.After departing from their training camp in Turkey a day earlier, the Iran team landed yesterday in the Mexican border city of Tijuana. The squad and their coaching staff left their plane amid tight security which included a contingent of Mexican national guard troops. Just a handful of fans waving Iranian flags were present at the airport to welcome them from a distance. The Iranian team will be based in Tijuana throughout the tournament, despite playing their entire group stage in the US — two games in Los Angeles and another in Seattle as they tackle New Zealand, Belgium and Egypt in Group G on June 15, 21 and 26.When they do play in the US, it will be the first World Cup to see a host nation receive the team of a country it is at war with. Ghalenoei thanked FIFA for its efforts to help secure entry, but said “we are upset about this behaviour. It has certainly never happened before.” Team captain Ehsan Hajsafi said he wanted to convey his grievance to FIFA about the delay in getting US visas. “Why so late?” he demanded. Hajsafi stressed the difficult backdrop for the team’s participation, as “in the last year, we experienced two imposed wars in our country.” Iran’s team spent nearly three weeks at the training camp in Turkey, using their time there to apply for visas to travel to Mexico, Canada and the US. On the eve of their departure for Mexico, the players finally received their US visas, Washington’s envoy to Turkey Tom Barrack said on X late Friday. But Iran’s embassy to Turkey said support staff had been denied visas — 15 administrative and management staff are concerned, an Iranian diplomat and state TV said. The embassy slammed what it called “deliberate and discriminatory treatment against Iran’s national football team” and called for FIFA “to hold the US accountable for violations of its rules.” Adding to the tensions, Iran’s ambassador to Mexico said Saturday the squad had been notified that, under their visa conditions, the team must enter and leave US soil on the same day as their matches. “We can enter in the morning and we must leave the same day,” Iran’s envoy Abolfazl Pasandideh told reporters. That appeared to contradict what the team’s spokesman Amir Mahdi Alavi told state TV earlier. Source link
US President Donald Trump said in an interview broadcast yesterday that he will not unfreeze Iranian assets before reaching an agreement with Tehran.Asked whether he would be willing, as part of a potential agreement, to unfreeze Iranian assets or lift certain sanctions against Iran, Trump replied: “No.” “(That) comes after. If they behave, if they do a good job, we start talking,” he said in the interview with NBC.Iran has demanded that billions in frozen assets be unblocked. According to a source close to the matter, the US Treasury is considering the possibility that Iran’s assets could be tapped to compensate Gulf states for damages caused by Iranian strikes. Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said yesterday that regional governments were “not in a position to demand reparations”, responding to reports the US could use Iranian assets to compensate regional allies for war-related damages. Gharibabadi added in a post on X that Iran’s assets were “neither war spoils for Washington nor a payment fund for its allies”. Source link
US President Donald Trump on Monday told Iran and Israel to stop fighting after the two foes attacked each other’s territory for the first time since a shaky ceasefire put five weeks of war on hold.Iran fired dozens of missiles at Israel overnight and Israel responded by targeting military sites in the Islamic republic, sparking fears the escalation could usher in a new full-scale conflict after the April 8 truce. With Israel’s response, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apparently defied calls by his ally Trump for restraint, against the background of reports of an increasingly testy relationship between the two men.”Israel and Iran must immediately stop ‘shooting.’ President DONALD J. TRUMP,” the US leader wrote on his Truth Social network.Minutes later, he added in a new post that “final negotiations” towards peace were proceeding “subject to ignorance or stupidity getting in its way.” Tehran’s strikes followed attacks by Israel against targets of the Iran-backed Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah in the southern suburbs of Beirut. Iran had repeatedly warned it would strike Israel if the Lebanese capital was targeted.Oil prices surged more than five percent on worries that war could break out again, with hopes now punctured of a rapid end to the standoff that has seen shipping limited through the key Strait of Hormuz trade bottleneck amid fears of global energy and goods shortages.- Diplomacy to be ‘affected’ -The strikes also came at a critical moment with diplomatic efforts to end the conflict involving mediator Pakistan on a knife-edge. Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei warned at a press conference in Tehran attended by AFP that is was “perfectly natural that the diplomatic process initiated to put an end to this imposed war would be affected.” But he added: “Diplomatic consultations are naturally continuing in all circumstances.” Related Story Source link