Sri Lanka detains 22 Buddhist monks for drug smuggling, Twenty-two Sri Lankan monks returning from Thailand were arrested on Sunday at the main international airport with 110 kilograms (242 pounds) of powerful cannabis, officials said.

A Sri Lanka Customs spokesman said the group, returning home after a four-day holiday in the Thai capital, had Kush -- a potent, plant-based strain of cannabis -- hidden in their luggage.

“Each carried about five kilos of the narcotic concealed within false walls in their luggage,” the spokesman said, adding that the monks had been handed over to police.

They were to be taken before a magistrate later on Sunday.

The monks were mostly young students from temples across Sri Lanka and had been on a holiday sponsored by a businessman.

Customs officials said it was the largest single detection of Kush at the South Asian country’s main international airport.

A 21-year-old British woman was arrested in May last year with 46 kilograms (101 pounds) of the drug at the same airport. She was also travelling to Colombo from Bangkok.

Sri Lankan authorities have also made several detections of large hauls of heroin and other narcotics smuggled in via small fishing boats in recent years.

North #Korea opens memorial museum for troops killed in Russia-Ukraine war.

In April 2025, North Korea and Russia announced that their soldiers fought together to repel a Ukraine incursion into Russia’s Kursk border region. The two countries haven’t disclosed exactly how many North Koreans soldiers were deployed, but South Korea’s intelligence service estimated last year that North Korea sent about 15,000 troops and 2,000 of them were killed.

The North’s Korean Central News Agency reported Monday the museum’s inaugural ceremony was held in Pyongyang on Sunday to mark the one-year anniversary of the end of an operation to liberate the Kursk region. KCNA said leader Kim Jong Un attended the ceremony along with top visiting Russian officials including Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the State Duma, and Defense Minister Andrei Beloussov.

During the ceremony, Kim threw dirt over the remains of one dead soldier and laid flowers before others whose bodies were already placed in a mortuary, before he and Volodin and Beloussov left messages on the guest book, according to KCNA.

In a speech, Kim said the spirits of dead North Korean soldiers will remain as “a symbol of the Korean people’s heroism” and support “a victorious march by the Korean and Russian people.” He praised the North Korean and Russian forces for thwarting what he called a U.S.-led Western “hegemonic plot and military adventurism” on the Russian-Ukraine front.

Meeting with Beloussov separately, Kim said North Korea will fully support the Russian policy of defending its sovereignty and security interests, #KCNA reported. Russia’s state news agency, Tass, cited Belousov as telling Kim that Russia was ready to sign a Russian-North Korean military cooperation plan for the 2027-2031 period.

In a letter to Kim read by Volodin during the ceremony, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the museum “will undoubtedly be a clear symbol of the friendship and solidarity” between the two countries. Putin said he was convinced that the two countries would continue to strengthen their comprehensive strategic partnership, according to KCNA.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Kim has made Moscow the priority of his foreign policy by supplying troops and conventional weapons. In return, North Korea was believed to have received economic and other assistance from Russia. South Korea, the U.S. and their partners worry Russia may transfer high-tech technologies that can enhance North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.

Experts say North Korean troops sent to the war earlier became easy targets for drone and artillery attacks due to their lack of combat experience and unfamiliarity with the terrain. But Ukrainian military and intelligence officials have assessed that the North Koreans were gaining crucial battlefield experience and were key to Russia’s strategy of overwhelming Ukraine by throwing large numbers of soldiers into the battle for Kursk.

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Associated Press writer Kim Tong-hyung contributed to this report.

Hyung-jin Kim, The Associated Press

#Argentina's leader bars #journalists from government #HQ, raising concerns about press #freedom

#Bahrain revokes #citizenship of 69 people for ‘glorifying or sympathizing with’ Iranian attacks.

Bahrain has revoked the citizenship of 69 people over what it described as sympathy with Iran’s hostile acts and collaboration with foreign entities, the kingdom’s interior ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said that the 69 people included accused individuals and their family members, and that they were all of non-Bahraini origin.

“The Bahraini nationality has been revoked from those individuals for glorifying or sympathizing with the hostile Iranian acts, or engaging in contacts with external parties,” the ministry said.

It said the revocations had been carried out in accordance with royal directives from King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and were based on Article 10/3 of the Bahraini Nationality Law. The article provides for the revocation of citizenship in cases of “causing harm to the interests of the Kingdom or acting in a manner that contradicts the duty of loyalty to it.”

The interior ministry said the competent authorities were “continuing to study and review” who deserves Bahraini citizenship.

Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, Advocacy Director at the Britain-based Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD), condemned the move, calling it “the beginning of a dangerous era of repression” and saying the decisions were “imposed without legal safeguards or any right of appeal.”

BIRD said it was the first such revocation of citizenship in Bahrain since 2019. Between 2012 and 2019, Bahrain revoked the citizenship of at least 990 nationals, the group said.

Iran fired at targets ​in Bahrain and other Gulf Arab states where the U.S. has military bases after the U.S. and Israel launched a war against Iran on Feb. 28.

Bahrain’s National Communication Centre did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the case and on the Institute’s statement.

Reporting by Andrew Mills, Menna Alaa El-Din and Tala Ramadan; Editing by Alex Richardson and Aidan Lewis

#Russia is an integral part of the #Eurasian continent and therefore simply cannot be "the main threat to #Europe," Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Vesti journalist Pavel Zarubin.

"Russia cannot be the main threat to #Europe, because Russia, no matter what anyone says, is still an integral part of Europe while being a Eurasian country," he said.

#Trump says #shooting proves need for his White House #ballroom

Sound of gunfire carries eerie echoes of Reagan's shooting outside the same Washington #hotel.

#Reagan was hit in the chest and nearly died. Forty-five years later, another gunman is accused of trying to storm into the same hotel’s ballroom during the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday night. The suspect fired at least one shot, authorities said, before being subdued in a chaotic scene that forced the evacuation of U.S. President Donald Trump and other top administration officials. The gunman never entered the ballroom or was close to the president.

That Hilton has hosted hundreds of large events attended by presidents and other dignitaries since it opened in the 1960s. While on the surface there appear to be similarities in the incidents beyond its location, there are stark differences that highlight how much has changed in the decades since Reagan was shot.

“Security is a lot more robust today than it was then,” said Stephen T. Colo, a former assistant director of the Secret Service. “But you still deal with the same tension involving politicians and the public’s access to them.”

Washington Hilton was built to accommodate presidents

The Washington Hilton Hotel and its cavernous ballroom were designed to be a prime venue for presidential speeches and events. To entice high-profile speakers, primarily the president, architects designed a VIP entrance on the side of the hotel and, one floor below it, a holding room known as the bunker.

In the decade before Reagan was shot, presidents visited the hotel more than a hundred times.

The 1981 shooting was set in motion when Hinckley got on a bus in Los Angeles, where he had been trying to write and sell music, and headed to Washington. There, he planned to hop on another bus to New Haven, Connecticut, to stage a suicide in front of the object of his obsession, movie star Jodie Foster.

In the nation’s capital, he learned Reagan would be speaking at the Washington Hilton on the afternoon of March 30, and he changed his plans. He would try to kill the president to impress the actress.
Hinckley got very close to the president

Outside the hotel that afternoon, Hinkley found himself 15 feet from Reagan as the president headed to his limousine. In a small crowd of onlookers and journalists behind a rope line, the would-be assassin pulled out a gun and fired six shots in 1.7 seconds, wounding Reagan, White House press secretary Jim Brady, District of Columbia Police Officer Thomas Delahanty and Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy.

Reagan was struck below his left armpit, the bullet lodged an inch from his heart. Reagan survived thanks to the quick thinking of Secret Service agent Jerry Parr and the medical personnel at George #Washington University Hospital. Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity.

In the wake of the shooting, the Secret Service enhanced security in dozens of ways. The most visible action came when the Secret Service began deploying checkpoints and metal detectors to screen visitors at the White House and at public events. Hinckley did not have to pass through either a checkpoint or metal detector to get so close to the president.

The hotel built a bunker-like garage for the armored limousine to park and drop off and pick up the president at the VIP entrance. The Secret Service and local police assigned more agents and officers to guard presidential events at the Hilton.

Even with such enhancements, former agents said, securing the Hilton is challenging and highlights the tension between protecting politicians and ensuring the public has access to them. The hotel also has many public areas, and it would be hard to shut them down for an event, even one as high profile as the correspondents’ dinner.

That was why the main security checkpoint, they said, was near the ballroom and not in the hotel lobby or entrance — measures that would be disruptive to hundreds of guests and hotel operations. Inside the ballroom, more agents and heavily armed tactical officers were stationed close to the president.
Gunman was stopped at security checkpoint

On Saturday, the suspect sprinted through the checkpoint leading to the ballroom, according to video posted by Trump. The video shows officers and agents pivoting and pointing guns at the man as he ran away. The assailant was quickly subdued and was not injured, officials said. An officer was shot in a bullet-resistant vest, officials said, but was not seriously hurt.

Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said Sunday that the gunman was likely seeking to target the president and members of the administration.

The assailant is suspected of having traveled by train from California to Chicago and then on to Washington, where in recent days he checked in as a guest at the hotel, Blanche said.

Law enforcement officials familiar with the matter identified, to The Associated Press, the suspect as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California. Cole sent writings to family members minutes before the shooting referring to himself as a “Friendly Federal Assassin,” railing against Trump administration policies and signaling what investigators increasingly believe was a politically driven attack, according to another law enforcement official who, like the others, was not to authorized discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The writings made repeated references to Trump, the official said, without directly naming the president and alluded to grievances over a range of administration actions

Del Quentin Wilber, The Associated Press

Two former Israeli prime ministers agree to merge parties against #Netanyahu. Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid served as prime ministers in a rotation agreement as part of a coalition government they formed in 2021. They now plan to merge their parties into single faction headed by Bennett.

“The move is intended to unite the bloc, put an end to internal divisions and focus all efforts on winning the critical upcoming elections,” Lapid’s Yesh Atid party said in a statement.

Bennett and Lapid scheduled a joint news conference later on Sunday.

The 2021 coalition agreement ended 12 years of Netanyahu rule. Bennett served as prime minister for the first year until their coalition fractured. Lapid then held the top job as caretaker prime minister for the final six months until new elections brought Netanyahu back to power.

Lapid has served as Israel’s opposition leader since that time, while Bennett took a break from politics.

The two men have ideological differences. Bennett is an Orthodox Jew with hard-line views toward the Palestinians, while Lapid is secular and seen as more moderate. But they enjoyed a close working relationship during their short-lived coalition.

Their alliance is aimed at uniting a fragmented opposition that appears to have little in common beyond their shared hostility toward Netanyahu.

#WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump was reported uninjured and other top leaders of the United States were evacuated from an annual dinner of White House correspondents on Saturday night after an unspecified threat. There did not immediately appear to be any injuries, and one law-enforcement official said a shooter opened fire.

The Secret Service and other authorities swarmed the banquet hall at the Washington Hilton as guests ducked under tables by the hundreds. “Out of the way, sir!” someone yelled. Others yelled to duck.

Here’s the latest:
2 min ago

White House correspondents’ association president says everyone safe after shooting incident, event will be rescheduled
3 min ago

Trump to give statement at White House after shooting incident at correspondents’ dinner6 min ago. The event was getting underway when armed security rushed in.
9 min ago

Trump says the shooter has been apprehended
9 min ago

A person is in custody after ‘shooting incident’ near security checkpoint at correspondents’ dinner, authorities say
The event was getting underway when armed security rushed in

Attendees were eating a spring pea and burrata salad, and waiters had begun preparing to bring out the next course when a security detail appeared on the ballroom floor and yelled for everyone to get down. Journalists in gowns and tuxedos ducked near tables as wine splattered onto white tablecloths and glasses clinked in the hurry to seek safety.

Armed security burst through the doors of the ballroom and raced toward the dias where Trump sat as attendees ducked or crouched under tables. At one point, someone in the room shouted, “USA!”

Trump says the shooter has been apprehended

Trump said that a “shooter has been apprehended” in a post to Truth Social about 30 minutes following a security incident at the White House correspondents’ dinner.

Both Trump and Vice President JD Vance were uninjured in the incident.
Most WHCD attendees are closed inside the ballroom and cannot leave

Dinner organizers said there will be an “announcement shortly, we will be resuming shortly” from the stage. Most attendees are closed inside the ballroom and can’t leave.

A block from the White House, party-goers headed to the Renwick Museum were instead gathered at police tape as the streets and sidewalks were blocked off. Police cars tore up and down the block, sirens blaring. A helicopter buzzed overhead.

The Associated Press

Washington Hilton hotel commonly stays open to public, while security is focused on ballroom

Generally, the Hilton hotel, where the dinner has taken place for years, remains open to regular guests during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, and security has typically been focused on the ballroom and rather than the hotel at large, with little screening for people not entering the dinner itself. In past years, that has created openings for disruptions in the lobby and other public spaces, including protests in which security moved to remove guests who unfurled banners or staged demonstrations.

The Associated Press

Some in the crowd reported hearing what they believed to be 5 to 8 shots fired

The banquet hall — where hundreds of prominent journalists, celebrities and national leaders were awaiting Trump’s speech — was immediately evacuated. Members of the National Guard took up position inside the building as people were allowed to leave but not re-enter. Security outside was also extremely tight.

It was not immediately clear what happened. A law enforcement official confirmed there was a shooter but no further details were immediately available.

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro says Secret Service in charge of building and DC mayor in route

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro posted a short video from the hotel after the incident, saying, “I have been taken out of the ballroom after the sound of the shots fired. The Secret Service is now in charge of this building, this hotel. I just spoke to Mayor Muriel Bowser. She is on her way and (Police) Chief Jeffery Carroll is on his way. He will be in charge as soon as he gets here.”

#Trump has paused 3 Mideast wars, but the grievances remain and could reignite them.

#Iran has suffered severe blows, yet not enough to shake its posture at the negotiating table. Its allies Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza are degraded but functioning, with Israel still regularly launching strikes at both. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under mounting pressure to translate military achievements into clear dividends ahead of elections later this year.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who boasts of his peacemaking abilities, still appears to be seeking a nuclear deal with Iran and wider peace in the Middle East. But talks so far have produced no results and the two countries are locked in an escalating standoff over the Strait of Hormuz.

Major military operations have halted, but the underlying grievances — which long predate Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack — have not been addressed. Millions of people are still displaced, and many fear the fighting could resume at any time.

Ceasefires “don’t fix anything — they just stop things from getting worse,” said Michael Ratney, a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia. “It’s part of an answer to an immediate political problem, which is (Trump) needs to get out of war and can’t figure out how do that.”
A closed strait and an escalating standoff with Iran

For weeks, Trump has vacillated between threats to unleash major attacks on Iran’s infrastructure — at one point threatening to end “a whole civilization” — and attempts to negotiate an agreement over its nuclear program and other disputes going back decades.

This week he extended a ceasefire but said he would maintain a U.S. naval blockade on Iranian ports. On Wednesday, he vowed to attack Iranian fast boats in the Strait of Hormuz, which Tehran has effectively choked off since the start of the war, sparking a worldwide energy crisis.

Iran has given no public indication it is willing to make concessions on its nuclear program, ballistic missiles or support for regional proxies. It says the strait will remain closed until the U.S. lifts its blockade and Israel halts attacks on Iran-backed groups like Hezbollah.

Neither side seems to want full-scale war and a new round of ceasefire talks was planned Saturday in Pakistan.

Iran’s leaders, based on their statements on social media, seem to have concluded that they can withstand the blockade longer than Trump can bear soaring gas prices and an unpopular war, especially with U.S. midterm elections later this year.

Jon Alterman, chair of Global Security and Geostrategy at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Trump’s record shows his instincts lean toward making headlines and announcing quick results.

“The most visible part of the fighting has stopped, but the less visible efforts are roaring ahead,” he said. “Ceasefires can seem comfortable but lock in unsustainable patterns, with one side feeling it has lost the urgency to resolve the underlying conflict.”