IndustryStandard

WASHINGTON, Sept 27 (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Donald Trump, who is the Republican presidential candidate, said on Friday he will seek the prosecution of Google if he wins the Nov. 5 election, claiming that the company only displays "bad stories" about him.

Trump, in his post on Truth Social, gave no evidence for his assertion about Google.

"It has been determined that Google has illegally used a system of only revealing and displaying bad stories about Donald J. Trump, some made up for this purpose while, at the same time, only revealing good stories about" Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, Trump said.

According to The Atlantic, Blinken enquired whether the Saudis could tolerate Israel periodically re-entering the territory to strike the besieged Gaza Strip.

“They can come back in six months, a year, but not on the back end of my signing something like this,” Mohammed bin Salman responded.

“Seventy percent of my population is younger than me,” the crown prince explained to Blinken.

“For most of them, they never really knew much about the Palestinian issue. And so they’re being introduced to it for the first time through this conflict. It’s a huge problem. Do I care personally about the Palestinian issue? I don’t, but my people do, so I need to make sure this is meaningful.”

Lebanon’s health minister has said what is happening in his country is “carnage”, as hospitals struggle to cope with the number of casualties from two days of widespread Israeli air strikes targeting the armed group Hezbollah.

Dr Firass Abiad told the BBC it was “clear” that many of the 550 people killed in Monday’s attacks were civilians, including children and women.

Governor Gavin Newsom has signed California's "click to cancel" Assembly Bill 286 into law to make it easier for consumers to opt out of subscriptions. The bill, introduced in April 2024, forces companies that permit online or in-app sign-ups to allow for online or in-app unsubscribing as well.

"AB 2863 is the most comprehensive ‘Click to Cancel’ legislation in the nation, ensuring Californians can cancel unwanted automatic subscription renewals just as easily as they signed up — with just a click or two,” said California Assemblymember Pilar Schiavo.

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Lebanon's Hezbollah said its fighters had fired a rocket targeting the Mossad spy agency headquarters near Tel Aviv on Wednesday, an escalation in the conflict with Israel that moved the arch-foes closer to full-fledged war.

The Israeli military said a single surface-to-surface missile was intercepted by air defence systems after it was detected crossing from Lebanon. Warning sirens sounded in Tel Aviv, Israel's economic capital.

There were no reports of damage or casualties and the military said there was no change to civil defence instructions for central Israel. Israeli military spokesman Nadav Shoshani said he could not confirm what Hezbollah's target was when it fired the missile from a village in Lebanon.

Since the start of the war, Israel's Channel 14 has given a platform to more than 50 statements calling for genocide or supporting genocide against the Palestinians, and to more than 150 statements calling for the commission of war crimes and of crimes against humanity (or supporting the commission of such crimes).

Dozens more statements included calls for max expulsion of the population in Gaza and the use of starvation as a method of combat. In addition, dozens of statements of racist incitement against Gazans and Palestinians have also been documented. These figures were compiled by three organizations – Zulat for Equality and Human Rights, Hatzlacha: Movement for the Promotion of a Fair Society, and the Democratic Bloc.

Caroline Ellison, the former crypto executive and romantic partner of the disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, was sentenced to 24 months in prison in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday. Ellison was a central figure in the FTX bankruptcy saga and key witness for the prosecution in the $8bn fraud trial that ended with Bankman-Fried’s conviction.

Ellison served as the CEO of Alameda Research, which was the trading arm of the now defunct FTX crypto exchange. The collapse of FTX, once valued at $32bn, was directly linked to revelations that it was attempting to financially prop up Alameda with fraudulent accounting. Subsequent investigations and criminal charges found that both FTX and the hedge fund had used billions in customer funds for risky trades and lavish personal spending.

More than 50 rights organisations from across Europe have expressed their “shock and dismay” at Ursula von der Leyen’s decision to do away with the standalone EU position of equality commissioner, describing it as a “downgrading” of the fight against discrimination.

Von der Leyen presented her lineup for the new commission in Brussels earlier this month. Her 27 commissioner designates – senior EU officials who hold positions akin to government ministers – included Hadja Lahbib, currently Belgium’s foreign minister, who was tasked with a portfolio that spans preparedness and crisis management as well as equality.

The announcement, which marked a stark change in tone from 2019 when von der Leyen announced the EU’s first ever commissioner for equality, was swiftly criticised. “This is unacceptable,” the European Women’s Lobby said on social media. “Equality deserves its own commissioner, not just a footnote in an overloaded portfolio.”

In the last three days, CNN hosts Jake Tapper and Dana Bash have performed a masterclass in journalistic malpractice — better described in this case as “lying.”

Both anchors devoted concerted airtime to accusing Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., of antisemitism based on a comment they attributed to the Palestinian American member of Congress — a comment she never came close to making.

Anyone watching CNN’s “State of the Union” with Tapper on Sunday, or “Inside Politics” with Dana Bash on Monday, would have heard that Tlaib questioned Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s ability to fairly do her job because Nessel is Jewish. Little matter to the primetime journalists that Tlaib’s recent criticism of Nessel did not in any way mention or refer to the attorney general’s Jewish faith or identity.

Moussa could almost taste freedom. Ahead, searchlights shimmering in the water: the Italian coastguard which would ferry him to Europe. But behind, closing in quickly, Tunisia’s national maritime guard. Moussa’s dream was soon shattered.

The 28-year-old from Conakry, Guinea, was on board one of four boats intercepted off Sfax during the night of 6 February 2024. The occupants – about 150 men, women and children – were brought ashore to Sfax, handcuffed and herded on to buses.

At about 2am they arrived at a national guard base near the Algerian border. Shortly after, says Moussa, Tunisia’s security forces began methodically raping the women.

“There was a small house outside and every hour or so they’d take two or three women from the base and rape them there. They took a lot of women.

“We could hear them screaming, crying for help. They didn’t care there were 100 witnesses.”

During a meeting in Rome with his rightwing counterpart, Giorgia Meloni, Starmer admired how the pact had prompted a “dramatic” reduction in numbers reaching Italy.

By contrast, the number of refugees and migrants near El Amra continues to grow. One migration observer in Sfax estimates there may be at least 100,000, a number that some feel Tunisia’s increasingly autocratic president, Kais Saied, is deliberately cultivating as a threat to Europe: keep the money coming, or else.

“If Europe stops sending money, he’ll send Europe the migrants. Simple,” says the expert, requesting anonymity.

It is a predicament that provokes questions around Europe’s willingness to ditch commitments to human rights to stymie migration from the global south. And how much abuse of migrants such as Marie is Brussels prepared to overlook before re-examining payments to Saied?

Five contestants competing on a MrBeast-hosted reality competition show have filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against the YouTube star’s production company and Amazon, claiming they were denied pay, forced to participate in unsafe conditions and subjected to a “culture of misogyny and sexism.”

The lawsuit was filed Monday in a Los Angeles court by participants on the Amazon Prime Video show called “Beast Games,” which was announced in March. It features “over 1,000 contestants, $5,000,000 prize, and many other world records,” the creator MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, said at the time.

The 54-page document describes allegations of players being subjected to “unreasonable, unsafe, and unlawful employment conditions” that led to “several” contestants being hospitalized. Plaintiffs said they were fed “sporadically and sparsely” and not given “adequate access to hygienic products or medical care.”

Pezeshkian replaced the ultraconservative Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash in May.

During election campaigning, he had vowed to "fully" oppose police patrols enforcing the mandatory hijab headscarf, as well as easing long-standing internet restrictions.

Relations with the West

At his news conference, Pezeshkian briefly touched on other topics including Iran's fraught relations with the United States and the 2015 nuclear deal.

"We do not want to fight with America if it respects our rights," he said. "It is not us who are hostile (to the Americans). We have not built military bases around their country," Pezeshkian added, referring to U.S. bases in the Gulf and in Iraq.

Iran and the United States have had no diplomatic relations since 1980, the year after the Islamic Revolution that toppled its Western-backed Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.

'Disarm Israel'

He also insisted on Iran's right to maintain its missile program, which has drawn Western criticism, as a deterrent against its arch-foe Israel.

"They (the West) want us not to have missiles, that is fine, but you need to disarm Israel first," he said, adding that otherwise "they can drop bombs on us whenever they want, like in Gaza."