Recently released video shows the butler of Jeffrey Epstein trying to sell a supposed list of victims and clients during an FBI sting in 2009, revealing details of the billionaire’s operations well before the public became aware over a decade later.
Palestinian homes have been bulldozed by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim explains why the latest demolitions, which are usually carried out by the Israeli military, mark a new phase in the forced displacement of Palestinians.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has condemned the decision by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to ban skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych from the Milan Cortina Games over his helmet design.
In a post on X on Thursday, the Ukrainian leader thanked Heraskevych for his “clear stance”, describing the helmet depicting Ukrainian athletes killed in the war with Russia as being “about honour and remembrance”.
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“It is a reminder to the whole world of what Russian aggression is and the cost of fighting for independence. And in this, no rule has been broken,” he said, adding that “660 Ukrainian athletes and coaches have been killed by Russia since the full-scale invasion began”.
Heraskevych was prevented from starting his race on Thursday as his helmet didn’t comply with the rules, the IOC said. He was given the option to wear a black armband instead, and display the helmet straight after the competition.
IOC President Kirsty Coventry said that while no one was disagreeing with the helmet’s “powerful message” of remembrance and memory, “the challenge that we are facing is that we wanted to ask or come up with a solution for just the field of play”.
Heraskevych, who was awarded the Order of Freedom by presidential decree in the wake of the ban, wrote on X: “This is price of our dignity.”
Ukrainian Sports Minister Matvii Bidnyi told the news agency Reuters that “it was an unjust decision”, but said there was no question of his team pulling out of the Olympics. “We prepared a big team, 46 athletes here, in conditions where we can’t even provide electricity to sports arenas,” he said. “And there is big value for us to be here, of course, but it’s a really upsetting decision.”
“The IOC has banned not the Ukrainian athlete, but its own reputation. Future generations will recall this as a moment of shame,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said.
Two Mexican ships bearing humanitarian aid have docked in the harbour of Cuba’s capital Havana, as the United States continues its efforts to cut the island off from outside fuel supplies.
On Thursday, pedestrians on Havana’s seawall watched as the ships, one of which was the Papaloapan, unloaded white pallets on shore.
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Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum addressed the delivery in her morning news conference, promising that more help was on the way.
“We are sending different forms of help, different forms of support,” Sheinbaum said. “Today, the ships arrive. When they return, we are going to send more support of a different type.”
She also described her country’s role as “opening the doors for dialogue to develop” between Cuba and the US, but she insisted that maintaining Cuba’s sovereignty would be paramount among her priorities.
Since January, the administration of US President Donald Trump has sought to cut off the oil supplies that power Cuba’s energy grid and other critical infrastructure.
The campaign is part of a long-running series of sanctions imposed by the US on the Caribbean island nation, stretching back to the Cold War.
But the latest effort, under Trump, has experts at the United Nations warning of an imminent humanitarian “collapse” in Cuba, as oil supplies dwindle.
The oil embargo began on January 3, when Trump authorised a US military operation to attack Venezuela and abduct its then-leader, President Nicolas Maduro, and his wife Cilia Flores.
Venezuela has long been a close ally of Cuba, not to mention a major oil supplier. But in the aftermath of Maduro’s abduction, Trump announced that much of the economic exchange between the two countries would cease.
“Cuba lived, for many years, on large amounts of OIL and MONEY from Venezuela. In return, Cuba provided ‘Security Services’ for the last two Venezuelan dictators, BUT NOT ANYMORE,” Trump wrote on January 11 on his Truth Social account.
“THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA – ZERO!”
He also indicated that he expected Cuba’s communist government to crumble in the wake of Maduro’s removal.
“Cuba is ready to fall,” he told reporters on board Air Force One on January 4. “Cuba now has no income. They got all of their income from Venezuela, from the Venezuelan oil. They’re not getting any of it.”
Trump has repeatedly pushed Cuba to “make a deal” to resolve the impasse, though it is unclear what such an agreement would include.
But when weeks passed without a negotiated solution, the Trump administration upped the ante. On January 29, it declared the situation in Cuba a “national emergency” for the US.
It accused the government in Havana of being an “extraordinary threat” and supporting “hostile actors, terrorism, and regional instability that endanger American security and foreign policy”.
Paired with this emergency declaration was the announcement that the US would impose tariffs on countries that supply oil to Cuba, whether directly or indirectly.
That put Mexico on the defensive. Mexico, like Venezuela, was among the regional trading partners that supplied Cuba with oil.
But it is also one of the top trading partners for the US. As many as 80 percent of Mexico’s exports go to its northern neighbour, and the two countries are currently part of a regional free-trade agreement.
Sheinbaum has nevertheless criticised Trump’s oil blockade against Cuba, calling the situation “unfair”.
Cuba has long suffered from economic instability, which its government blames on the US sanctions regime. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the island saw shortages of basic supplies, including fuel, sparking one of the island’s largest exoduses in recent history.
Still, the new Trump-era restrictions on fuel exports to Cuba have brought the island to the brink of a new humanitarian crisis.
In early February, Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said the situation on the island had grown dire. Already, blackouts are a chronic problem.
“I can tell you that the secretary-general is extremely concerned about the humanitarian situation in Cuba, which will worsen, and if not collapse, if its oil needs go unmet,” Dujarric said.
The US has also announced this month it will supply $6m in humanitarian aid to Cuba, though it said it would avoid disbursing the funds through the Cuban government by going through the Catholic Church instead.
As the two Mexican ships unloaded their humanitarian cargo on Thursday, locals told international news agencies they were grateful for the show of support.
Ediberto Rodriguez, a 65-year-old Havana resident, told the news outlet Reuters that the delivery was an “unforgettable gesture” from an ally.
Defending champions India continued their march towards the Super Eight stage of the Twenty20 World Cup with a 93-run plastering of Namibia in a group A contest at Arun Jaitley Stadium.
Put into bat on Thursday, India racked up 209-9 after opener Ishan Kishan (61) and middle-order batter Hardik Pandya (52) struck rapid half-centuries.
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They returned to bundle out Namibia for 116 in 18.2 overs to register their second successive victory and top the group because of their net run-rate, which is superior to Pakistan, who also have four points from two games.
The Asian archrivals will clash in a blockbuster in Colombo on Sunday.
“I think it was a pretty good game for everyone,” India captain Suryakumar Yadav said.
“It was not an easy wicket to bat on. The way Ishan and Sanju [Samson] started, it didn’t really look like it, but it was a difficult wicket.”
With Abhishek Sharma, currently the top-ranked T20 batsman, still recovering from a stomach infection, an out-of-form Samson had another opportunity to impress after India were put into bat.
Samson (22) looked eager to make it count, too. The right-hander smacked three sixes, but frittered away the start and fell in the second over.
Kishan was given LBW on 11, but the opener immediately reviewed the decision and replays confirmed he had edged it before the ball hit his pad.
Namibia wished it was not the case because Kishan went on to smash JJ Smit for four sixes in a row to race to a 20-ball fifty.
To make matters worse for Namibia, Louren Steenkamp dropped Tilak Varma (25) when the batter was on 19.
India needed 4.3 overs to reach 50, and their next 50 came off just 14 balls.
Namibia captain Gerhard Erasmus (4-20) ended Kishan’s 24-ball blitz, and they managed to apply the brake after the departures of Varma and Suryakumar (12).
Pandya, who hit four sixes, and Shivam Dube (23) provided the late flourish to take India past the 200-mark.
Steenkamp (29) and Jan Frylinck (22) began positively, but Namibia kept losing wickets to drift out of contention.
For India, a fit-again Jasprit Bumrah bowled four tidy overs, claiming the wicket of Ruben Trumpelmann with a trademark yorker.
Varun Chakravarthy (3-7) was the pick of the Indian bowlers, while fellow spinner Axar Patel and player-of-the-match Pandya claimed two wickets apiece.
Two Israelis have been charged with allegedly using classified military information to place bets on Polymarket, authorities said.
The Defence Ministry, Shin Bet security service and the police issued a joint statement on Thursday, saying a civilian and a military reservist were suspected of placing bets on the US-based prediction market on future military operations based on information that the reservist had access to.
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The statement said that the State Prosecutor’s Office decided to indict them for serious security offences, as well as on charges of bribery and obstruction of justice.
The military said an investigation found that “no operational damage was caused in the current incident”.
But it said the incident was a “severe ethical failure and a clear crossing of a red line.”
Polymarket is a US-based website where users place bets predicting the outcomes of a range of events including elections, sports or news events.
Israeli authorities offered no details on the identity of the two individuals or the reservist’s rank or position in the military but warned that such actions posed a “real security risk” for the military and the Israeli state.
Israel’s public broadcaster Kan had reported earlier that the bets were placed in June in advance of Israel’s war with Iran and that the winnings were roughly $150,000.
Israel’s military and security services “view the acts attributed to the defendants very seriously and will act resolutely to thwart and bring to justice any person involved in the activity of using classified information illegally,” the statement said.