That ‘tourist’ in the forest might be a Russian spy, Latvia warns

That ‘tourist’ in the forest might be a Russian spy, Latvia warns
In its annual report, Latvia’s Defence Intelligence and Security Service, known by Latvian acronym MIDD, offered advice on how to identify possible reconnaissance and sabotage operatives. (AP/File)
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Updated 15 May 2025
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That ‘tourist’ in the forest might be a Russian spy, Latvia warns

That ‘tourist’ in the forest might be a Russian spy, Latvia warns
  • MIDD offered advice on how to identify possible reconnaissance and sabotage operatives
  • It also warned that Russian saboteurs might also attempt to incite unrest or assassinate “socially significant individuals”

WARSAW: They might look like lost tourists — unkempt and overloaded with gear — or hikers with military haircuts, survival gear and no clue how to behave in the woods.

But Latvia’s intelligence agency said Thursday that they might actually be Russian saboteurs and spies.

In its annual report, Latvia’s Defense Intelligence and Security Service, known by Latvian acronym MIDD, offered advice on how to identify possible reconnaissance and sabotage operatives.

It’s an increasingly relevant concern given regional tensions and a string of arson and other acts of sabotage, which Western governments blame on Russia — allegations that Moscow has repeatedly denied.

The list of telltale signs is striking: slovenly appearance, mismatched military or sportswear, and a knack for asking locals suspicious questions. According to the security service, such groups may linger near military or critical infrastructure sites, pose as humanitarian workers or stay in remote areas without showing any interest in nature.

Some may carry specialized medical kits, maps or radios — items better suited for clandestine operations than camping trips.

The Latvian guidance comes as countries across the region, including new NATO members Sweden and Finland, have been issuing booklets with advice on how to survive war or a natural disaster.

Nearby Poland is now preparing its guidelines, while Norway recently published a book with advice on how to survive for one week.

“We live in an increasingly turbulent world,” it says. “Even though in Norway most things generally function as they normally would, we must remain aware that extreme weather, pandemics, accidents, sabotage — and in the worst case acts of war — can impact us.”

MIDD, one of Latvia’s three security services, alongside the State Security Service and the Constitution Protection Bureau, warned that Russian saboteurs might also attempt to incite unrest or assassinate “socially significant individuals.”

Their activities might also be focused on “studying the position of the target country’s society and inciting unrest directed against the existing government.”

The agency cautioned that appearances can deceive.

“The Ukrainian experience shows that Russian special services are able to adapt,” the report says. Not all spies will fit the mold, and suspicions must be judged in context.

It also warns that if a sabotage group is spotted, leave the James Bond heroics to the professionals.

“If you do think you might have spotted a sabotage group on Latvian soil, MIDD does not recommend tackling them yourself,” it said. “Instead report your suspicions to the State Police, special services, or the nearest armed forces unit.”


Columbia University says it has suspended and expelled students who participated in protests

Protestors wave Palestinian flags on the West Lawn of Columbia University on April 29, 2024 in New York. (AFP)
Protestors wave Palestinian flags on the West Lawn of Columbia University on April 29, 2024 in New York. (AFP)
Updated 29 sec ago
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Columbia University says it has suspended and expelled students who participated in protests

Protestors wave Palestinian flags on the West Lawn of Columbia University on April 29, 2024 in New York. (AFP)
  • Columbia has since agreed to a series of demands laid out by the Republican administration, including overhauling the university’s student disciplinary process and adopting a new definition of antisemitism

NEW YORK: Columbia University announced disciplinary action Tuesday against students who participated in a pro-Palestinian demonstration inside the Ivy League school’s main library before final exams in May and an encampment during alumni weekend last year.

A student activist group said nearly 80 students were told they have been suspended for one to three years or expelled. The sanctions issued by a university judicial board also include probation and degree revocations, Columbia said in a statement.

The action comes as the Manhattan university is negotiating with President Donald Trump’s administration to restore $400 million in federal funding it has withheld from the Ivy League school over its handling of student protests against the war in Gaza. The administration pulled the funding, canceling grants and contracts, in March because of what it described as the university’s failure to squelch antisemitism on campus during the Israel-Hamas war that began in October 2023.

Columbia has since agreed to a series of demands laid out by the Republican administration, including overhauling the university’s student disciplinary process and adopting a new definition of antisemitism.

“Our institution must focus on delivering on its academic mission for our community,” the university said Tuesday. “And to create a thriving academic community, there must be respect for each other and the institution’s fundamental work, policies, and rules. Disruptions to academic activities are in violation of University policies and Rules, and such violations will necessarily generate consequences.”

It did not disclose the names of the students who were disciplined.

Columbia in May said it would lay off nearly 180 staffers and scale back research in response to the loss of funding. Those receiving nonrenewal or termination notices represent about 20 percent of the employees funded in some manner by the terminated federal grants, the university said.

A student activist group said the newly announced disciplinary action exceeds sentencing precedent for prior protests. Suspended students would be required to submit apologies in order to be allowed back on campus or face expulsion, the group said, something some students will refuse to do.

“We will not be deterred. We are committed to the struggle for Palestinian liberation,” Columbia University Apartheid Divest said in a statement.

Columbia was at the forefront of US campus protests over the war in spring 2024. Pro-Palestinian demonstrators set up an encampment and seized a campus building in April, leading to dozens of arrests and inspiring a wave of similar protests nationally.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has cut funding to several top US universities he viewed as too tolerant of antisemitism.

The administration has also cracked down on individual student protesters. Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, a legal US resident with no criminal record, was detained in March over his participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. He is now suing the Trump administration, alleging he was falsely imprisoned, maliciously prosecuted and smeared as an antisemite.

 


Thousands of Afghans face possible deportation after court refuses to extend their legal protection

Thousands of Afghans face possible deportation after court refuses to extend their legal protection
Updated 22 July 2025
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Thousands of Afghans face possible deportation after court refuses to extend their legal protection

Thousands of Afghans face possible deportation after court refuses to extend their legal protection
  • TPS for Afghans ended July 14, but was briefly extended by the appeals court through July 21 while it considered an emergency request for a longer postponement
  • A federal judge allowed the lawsuit to go forward but didn’t grant CASA’s request to keep the protections in place while the lawsuit plays out

VIRGINIA: Thousands of Afghans in the US are no longer protected from deportation after a federal appeals court refused to postpone the Trump administration’s decision to end their legal status.

A three-judge panel of the Fourth US Circuit Court of Appeals in Virginia said in a ruling late Monday there was “insufficient evidence to warrant the extraordinary remedy of a postponement” of the administration’s decision not to extend Temporary Protected Status for people from Afghanistan and Cameroon.

TPS for Afghans ended July 14, but was briefly extended by the appeals court through July 21 while it considered an emergency request for a longer postponement.

The Department of Homeland Security in May said it was ending Temporary Protected Status for 11,700 people from Afghanistan in 60 days. That status — in place since 2022 — had allowed them to work and meant the government couldn’t deport them.

CASA, a nonprofit immigrant advocacy group, sued the administration over the TPS revocation for Afghans as well as for people from Cameroon, which expire August 4. It said the decisions were racially motivated and failed to follow a process laid out by Congress.

A federal judge allowed the lawsuit to go forward but didn’t grant CASA’s request to keep the protections in place while the lawsuit plays out.

A phone message for CASA on Tuesday was not immediately returned.

Without an extension, TPS holders from Afghanistan and Cameroon face a “devastating choice — abandoning their homes, relinquishing their employment, and uprooting their lives to return to a country where they face the threat of severe physical harm or even death, or remaining in the United States in a state of legal uncertainty while they wait for other immigration processes to play out,” CASA warned in court documents.

In its decision on Monday, the appeals court said CASA had made a “plausible” legal claim against the administration, and urged the lower court to move the case forward expeditiously.

It also said many of the TPS holders from the two countries may be eligible for other legal protections that remain available to them.

Temporary Protected Status can be granted by the Homeland Security secretary to people who face safety concerns in their home countries because of armed conflict, environmental disaster or other conditions. They can’t be deported and can work legally in the US, but they don’t have a pathway to citizenship.

The status, however, is inherently precarious because it is up to the Homeland Security secretary to renew the protections regularly — usually every 18 months. The Trump administration has pushed to remove Temporary Protected Status from people from seven countries, with Venezuela and Haiti making up the biggest chunk of the hundreds of thousands of people affected.

Homeland Security officials said in their decision to end the Temporary Protected Status for Afghans that the situation in their home country was getting better.

Groups that help Afghan TPS holders say the country is still extremely dangerous.

“Ending TPS does not align with the reality of circumstances on the ground in Afghanistan,” Global Refuge President and CEO Krish O’Mara Vignarajah said in a statement. “Conditions remain dire, especially for allies who supported the US mission, as well as women, girls, religious minorities, and ethnic groups targeted by the Taliban.”

He called on Congress to provide Afghan TPS holders with a “permanent path to safety and stability.”


France’s culture minister to be tried on corruption charges

France’s culture minister to be tried on corruption charges
Updated 22 July 2025
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France’s culture minister to be tried on corruption charges

France’s culture minister to be tried on corruption charges
  • “We will appeal this decision today,” Dati’s lawyers, Olivier Baratelli and Olivier Pardo, said
  • Dati, a daughter of working-class North African immigrants, was defiant in comments made Monday ahead of the decision

PARIS: France’s Culture Minister Rachida Dati is to go on trial accused of corruption and abuse of power while she was a European Parliament member, a judicial source told AFP on Tuesday.

Dati, a high-profile minister who holds ambitions to become Paris mayor next year, was placed under investigation in 2019 on suspicion she lobbied for the Renault-Nissan car group while at the European Union institution.

Dati, 59, denies the allegations. She did not respond to an AFP request for comment.

“We will appeal this decision today,” Dati’s lawyers, Olivier Baratelli and Olivier Pardo, told AFP.

Dati, a daughter of working-class North African immigrants, was defiant in comments made Monday ahead of the decision.

“I will lead you to victory. Some people are trying to attack me over my private life, over many aspects that are collateral to my candidacy,” said Dati, who is mayor of the French capital’s 7th district that is home to most French ministries, the country’s parliament and many foreign embassies.

“I am not afraid of anything or anyone.”

Dati, who was justice minister under right-wing leader Nicolas Sarkozy from 2007 to 2009, will remain in the government, said an associate of President Emmanuel Macron.

“The president has taken note of the decision to refer Rachida Dati to the criminal court. As a referral is not a conviction, she will continue her work,” said the associate on condition of anonymity.

Dati is accused of accepting 900,000 euros ($1 million) in lawyer’s fees between 2010 and 2012 from a Netherlands-based subsidiary of Renault-Nissan, but not working for them, while she was an MEP from 2009 to 2019.

Investigations have sought to determine whether she carried out banned lobbying for the carmaker at the European Parliament.

In their order signed on Tuesday, a copy of which was seen by AFP, the investigating magistrates said that Dati’s activities in parliament “amounts to lobbying,” which “appears incompatible with both her mandate and the profession of lawyer.”

Initially placed under the more favorable status of assisted witness — a step before being indicted — in 2019, Dati was charged in 2021.

She has since repeatedly sought to have the charges quashed.

French investigating magistrates also ordered that Carlos Ghosn, the former Renault-Nissan chairman and chief executive, be tried, the judicial source said.

The 71-year-old, who has been living in Lebanon for years after escaping arrest in Japan, has also rejected the charges against him.

A hearing on September 29 will decide on the date of the trial, the source said.

According to another source following the case, the trial could be held after the Paris municipal elections in March next year.

“She will go until the end,” Jean-Pierre Lecoq, mayor of the French capital’s 6th district and one of Dati’s close associates, said on Tuesday.

Ghosn, who headed the Renault-Nissan alliance, was arrested in Japan in November 2018 on suspicion of financial misconduct, before being sacked by Nissan’s board.

He jumped bail the following year and made a dramatic escape from Japan hidden in an audio-equipment box, landing in Beirut, where he remains as an international fugitive.

Japan and France have sought his arrest.

Ghosn’s lawyers did not respond to a request for comment.


US envoy to discuss finalizing Gaza aid ‘corridor’: State Dept

US envoy to discuss finalizing Gaza aid ‘corridor’: State Dept
Updated 22 July 2025
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US envoy to discuss finalizing Gaza aid ‘corridor’: State Dept

US envoy to discuss finalizing Gaza aid ‘corridor’: State Dept
  • Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s globe-trotting negotiator, is traveling to the region for new talks

WASHINGTON: The United States said Tuesday that it was sending an envoy to the Middle East for talks that aim to finalize a “corridor” for aid to war-ravaged Gaza, where authorities said people are dying of starvation.

Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s globe-trotting negotiator, is traveling to the region for new talks, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters.

Witkoff comes with “a strong hope that we will come forward with another ceasefire as well as a humanitarian corridor for aid to flow, that both sides have in fact agreed to,” she said.

Bruce declined to give further details on his itinerary or the corridor, saying that he was traveling around Gaza.

She did not say how the diplomacy would relate to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a controversial initiative backed by Israel and the United States that has seen chaotic scenes of troops firing on hungry Palestinians racing for food.

The UN on Tuesday said Israeli forces had killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food aid since the GHF began its operations in late May, with most near the foundation’s sites.


Justice Department wants to interview Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell

Justice Department wants to interview Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell
Updated 22 July 2025
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Justice Department wants to interview Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell

Justice Department wants to interview Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell
  • If Ghislaine Maxwell “has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say,” Blanche said
  • A lawyer for Maxwell confirmed there were discussions with the government

WASHINGTON : The Department of Justice wants to interview Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend, who was convicted of helping the financier sexually abuse underage girls and is now serving a lengthy prison sentence, a senior official said Tuesday.

If Ghislaine Maxwell “has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a post on X, adding that President Donald Trump ”has told us to release all credible evidence.”

A lawyer for Maxwell confirmed there were discussions with the government.

The overture to attorneys for Maxwell, who in 2022 was sentenced to 20 years in prison, is part of an ongoing Justice Department effort to cast itself as transparent following fierce backlash from parts of Trump’s base over an earlier refusal to release additional records in the Epstein investigation.

As part of that effort, the Justice Department, acting at the direction of the Republican president, last week asked a judge to unseal grand jury transcripts from the case. That decision is ultimately up to the judge.

Epstein, who killed himself in his New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial, sexually abused children hundreds of times over more than a decade, exploiting vulnerable girls as young as 14, authorities say. He couldn’t have done so without the help of Maxwell, his longtime companion, prosecutors say.

The Justice Department had said in a two-page memo this month that it had not uncovered evidence to charge anyone else in connection with Epstein’s abuse. But Blanche said in his social media post that the Justice Department “does not shy away from uncomfortable truths, nor from the responsibility to pursue justice wherever the facts may lead.”

He said in his post that, at the direction of Attorney General Pam Bondi, he has “communicated with counsel for Ms. Maxwell to determine whether she would be willing to speak with prosecutors from the Department.” He said he anticipated meeting with Maxwell in the coming days.

A lawyer for Maxwell, David Oscar Markus, said Tuesday in a statement: “I can confirm that we are in discussions with the government and that Ghislaine will always testify truthfully. We are grateful to President Trump for his commitment to uncovering the truth in this case.”