Category World News

The Court of Arbitration for Sport has rejected appeals by the Israel Gymnastics Federation to be allowed to compete at a world championships in Indonesia this weekend.

The CAS also turned down Israel’s request to force the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) to guarantee Israel’s participation, or alternatively cancel or move the artistic worlds, set to start on Sunday in Jakarta.

The Indonesian government last week said it will not grant visas to Israeli gymnasts, and the Swiss-based CAS said on Tuesday that FIG stated it has no control over Indonesia’s visa policies.

In its reaction to Indonesia’s move, the FIG did not threaten to take the event away from Indonesia as stipulated in its statutes for cases where the host refuses to issue visas. Israel wanted the FIG “taking note” of the government statement to be annulled, but CAS also rejected that on Tuesday.

Indonesia’s decision to deny visas came after Israel’s planned participation sparked intense opposition in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, which has long been a staunch supporter of Palestinians.

Israel is among 86 countries registered to compete at the worlds, with a team featuring 2021 Olympic gold medallist and defending world champion Artem Dolgopyat in the men’s floor exercise.

Now its participation is in doubt, even though the Israeli federation said in July that it had been assured by Indonesian officials that it would be welcome at the worlds. That would have gone against Indonesia’s longstanding policy of refusing to host Israeli sport delegations for major events.

A United States man who scaled an iron security fence in the middle of the night, eluded police and used beer bottles filled with petrol to ignite the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion has pleaded guilty to attempted murder and other charges.

On Tuesday, Cody Balmer, 38, also entered pleas for “terrorism”, 22 counts of arson, aggravated arson, burglary, aggravated assault of Governor Josh Shapiro, 21 counts of reckless endangerment, and loitering.

He is accused of the April 13 arson attack that did millions of dollars in damage to the state-owned brick building. Under a plea deal, Balmer was sentenced to 25 to 50 years in prison.

Shapiro and members of his family had to be awakened and evacuated, but no one was injured. The multiple arson and endangerment charges reflected the number of people in the residence at the time, including the governor’s family, guests and state troopers.

The fire was set hours after they celebrated the Jewish holiday of Passover with a Seder meal in the governor’s residence. Prosecutors played video clips that showed Molotov cocktails going off and a figure inside and outside the residence around the time of the attack.

Judge Deborah Curcillo called the video “horrific” and “very frightening”.

Balmer told police he planned to beat Shapiro with a small sledgehammer if he had encountered him after breaking into the building, according to court documents. Balmer turned himself in the next afternoon to face charges of attempted homicide, “terrorism”, aggravated arson and aggravated assault.

Police say Balmer broke in through the southern wing of the residence, into a room often used to entertain crowds and display art. Investigators recovered two broken glass beer bottles containing petrol. The fire charred walls, tables, buffet serving dishes, plates and a piano. Window panes and brick around doors and windows were also damaged.

Shapiro’s Jewish faith and the attack during the Passover weekend raised questions about Balmer’s motivation, but Balmer told The Associated Press in a May letter from jail that religion had not been a factor in his decision.

“He can be Jewish, Muslim, or a purple people eater for all I care and as long as he leaves me and mine alone,” Balmer wrote.

He said in a brief June 9 video interview from Camp Hill State Prison that he did think beforehand about whether children might be injured.

“Does anyone ever consider children?” Balmer said in June. “It doesn’t seem that way. I sure as hell did. I’m glad no one got hurt.”

Asked why he felt Shapiro had somehow done him wrong, Balmer replied: “I’m not going to answer that.”

Balmer’s mother said days after his arrest that she had tried to get him assistance for mental health issues, but “nobody would help”. Court proceedings had been delayed while he received mental health treatment, his lawyer has said.

At a court hearing a few days after the fire, Balmer told a judge he was an unemployed welder with no income or savings and “a lot of children”.

From remote polar regions to the depths of the Amazon, one group of chemicals can be found almost everywhere. PFAS – per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – have caused one of the most widespread contamination crises in history. They’re known as Forever Chemicals because they don’t biodegrade, staying and accumulating in our bodies and in the environment. And they’re toxic, with exposure linked to a list of health problems, including cancer. For decades, PFAS have been used in countless products, lauded for their heatproof, waterproof and greaseproof qualities. They’re in cooking utensils, cosmetics, raincoats, firefighting foam, motor oil and thousands more. But now they’re in our bodies, too.

The United States Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to a $1.4bn judgement awarded to families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting in Connecticut over the Infowars website founder’s false statements that the 2012 incident was a hoax.

The high court made the decision on Tuesday.

The justices turned away his appeal of the Connecticut Appellate Court’s decision in a defamation lawsuit against him to uphold most of the judgement issued by a judge and jury in 2022 to 14 family members of children and school employees who were killed, and an FBI agent who responded to the shooting. In doing so, the top US judicial body left the judgement in place.

Twenty-six people – 20 students and six staff members at the school in Newtown, Connecticut – were killed in the incident by a 20-year-old former student who then fatally shot himself.

Jones has argued that the judgement in the lawsuit brought against him in Connecticut violated his rights under the US Constitution to due process and free speech. It is believed to be the largest judgement in US libel case history, according to his filing to the Supreme Court.

He also lost a similar lawsuit in Texas, though the roughly $50m judgement in that case was far lower. Jones is separately appealing that judgement. He declared bankruptcy after losing the lawsuits.

Jones was sued for defamation after calling the shooting a “false flag” operation meant to stir up anti-gun-rights sentiment among Americans, and he has said that the parents of slain children were “crisis actors” who were faking their grief in television interviews.

Jones refused to cooperate in the legal proceedings. He has objected to the fact that Connecticut Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis determined he was liable for defaming the parents, and that a six-member jury was asked only to consider how much he should pay. Jurors awarded compensatory damages of $965m in the trial held in the city of Waterbury.

The judge then added $473m in punitive damages, and an appeals court later reduced that amount to $323m after Jones appealed. In his appeal to the Supreme Court, Jones challenged the original $1.4bn sum.

Multiple cases

The verdict is so large that it “can never be paid”, according to the filing, and a bankruptcy court has ruled that Jones cannot use his personal bankruptcy to avoid paying the debt.

In his filing to the Supreme Court, Jones said that the judge’s default judgement was based on “small discovery errors” and “trivial” missteps by his lawyers, and led to an unfair trial.

Jones previously asked the US Supreme Court to intervene in the Connecticut case in 2021, after Bellis imposed sanctions on Jones for public statements he made during the litigation but before he was found liable for defamation. The Supreme Court declined to take the case at that time.

Russian forces have struck a hospital and a United Nations convoy in Ukraine, officials say, in attacks likely to bolster President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s pitch for long-range Tomahawk missiles when he meets his United States counterpart later this week.

Officials said on Tuesday that overnight attacks involving drones and glide bombs struck a hospital in Kharkiv, injuring 57 people and forcing the evacuation of 50 patients.

Meanwhile, Russian forces attacked a UN convoy that was delivering aid to the front-line town of Bilozerka in the partially occupied southern region of Kherson, UN and Ukrainian officials said. No casualties were reported.

The attacks in Kharkiv and Kherson – condemned, respectively, by Zelenskyy as a “terrorist” attack and by the UN as a violation of international law – come days before a scheduled meeting between Zelenskyy and US President Donald Trump in Washington, DC, on Friday when the pair is expected to discuss the potential supply of long-range, precision-strike Tomahawk missiles to Kyiv to allow it to hit back at Moscow.

Trump has suggested in recent days that he was considering providing Kyiv with Tomahawks, which would be the longest-range missiles in Ukraine’s arsenal and could allow it to accurately strike targets deep inside Russia, including Moscow.

Washington had previously ruled out supplying Ukraine with the cruise missiles, which the Kremlin has warned could have serious consequences and would entail direct US involvement in the conflict.

Hospital attacked

The overnight attacks on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, hit the city’s main hospital, Zelenskyy said in a post on X.

He described the strikes as an “utterly terrorist, cynical attack on a place where lives are saved”.

He said the main targets of the overnight raids across the country had once again been energy facilities and power facilities in the Kherson and Sumy regions were hit.

“Every day, every night, Russia strikes power plants, power lines, and our [natural] gas facilities,” Zelenskyy said on Telegram.

For the past three years, Russia has started to target Ukraine’s power grid before each winter in a campaign to demoralise the population by leaving millions without power in freezing conditions.

In response to the escalating attacks on Ukraine’s energy facilities, which forced outages across the country on Monday in a bid to reduce pressure on the grid, Zelenskyy has called on Ukraine’s allies to help blunt Russia’s long-range attacks by providing more air defence systems.

Ukraine has dispatched a senior delegation to Washington to discuss boosting its defence and energy resilience, officials said on Monday.

Attack on aid convoy

Meanwhile, in Kherson, the UN said its convoy of four vehicles, clearly marked with World Food Programme branding, came under attack from Russian drones and artillery while delivering aid.

Two trucks were damaged in the strike although no one was injured, said the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, Matthias Schmale.

“Such attacks are utterly unacceptable. Aid workers are protected by international humanitarian law and should never be attacked,” he said.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called the strike “another brutal violation of international law, proving Russia’s utter disregard for civilian lives and its international obligations”.

The UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency, UNFPA, told the AFP news agency that the convoy was carrying 800 individual packages “containing essential items for older persons, women and girls”.