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Trump makes unfounded claims about Tylenol and repeats discredited link between vaccines and autism

President Donald Trump on Monday used the platform of the presidency to promote unproven and in some cases discredited ties between Tylenol, vaccines and autism as his administration announced a wide-ranging effort to study the causes of the complex brain disorder.

“Don’t take Tylenol,” Trump instructed pregnant women around a dozen times during the unwieldy White House news conference, also urging mothers not to give their infants the drug, known by the generic name acetaminophen. He also fueled long-debunked claims that ingredients in vaccines or timing shots close together could contribute to rising rates of autism in the U.S., without providing any medical evidence.

The rambling announcement, which appeared to rely on existing studies rather than significant new research, comes as the Make America Healthy Again movement has been pushing for answers on the causes of autism. The diverse coalition of supporters of Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. includes several anti-vaccine activists who have long spread debunked claims that immunizations are responsible.

The announcement also sheds light on Trump’s own long-held fascination with autism and his trepidation about the childhood vaccine schedule, even as the president has taken pride in his work to disseminate COVID-19 vaccines during his first term.

Medical experts said Trump’s remarks were irresponsible. New York University bioethicist Art Caplan said it was “the saddest display of a lack of evidence, rumors, recycling old myths, lousy advice, outright lies, and dangerous advice I have ever witnessed by anyone in authority.”

Trump announced during the event that the Food and Drug Administration would begin notifying doctors that the use of acetaminophen “can be associated” with an increased risk of autism, but did not immediately provide justification for the new recommendation.

Some studies have raised the possibility that taking acetaminophen during pregnancy might increase the risk of autism — but many others haven’t found that concern, said autism expert David Mandell of the University of Pennsylvania.

One challenge is that it’s hard to disentangle the effects of Tylenol use from the effects of high fevers during pregnancy. Fevers, especially in the first trimester, can increase the risk for miscarriages, preterm birth and other problems, according to the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine.

Trump also urged not giving Tylenol to young children, but scientists say that research indicates autism develops in the fetal brain.

Responding to Trump’s warnings, the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine said they still recommend Tylenol as an appropriate option to treat fever and pain during pregnancy. The president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said Monday that suggestions that Tylenol use in pregnancy causes autism are “irresponsible when considering the harmful and confusing message they send to pregnant patients.”

Trump press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement Monday evening that the administration “does not believe popping more pills is always the answer for better health” and that it “will not be deterred in these efforts as we know millions across America are grateful.”

Tylenol maker Kenvue disputed any link between the drug and autism on Monday and said in a statement that if pregnant mothers don’t use Tylenol when in need, they could face a dangerous choice between suffering fevers or using riskier painkiller alternatives. Shares of Kenvue Inc. fell 7.5% in trading Monday, reducing the company’s market value by about $2.6 billion.

Kennedy announced during the news conference that at Trump’s urging, he was launching a new all-agency effort to uncover all the factors that could be contributing to autism, even as scientists have already been researching that question for decades.

FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary also took the stage to announce it was taking the first steps to try to approve a folic acid metabolite called leucovorin as a treatment option for patients believed to have low levels of folate in the brain. That may include some people with autism.

Leucovorin is used to counteract the side effects of various prescription drugs, including chemotherapy and other high-dose medications that can negatively impact the immune system. It works by boosting folate levels, a form of vitamin B that’s critical to the body’s production of healthy red blood cells.

Women already are told to take folic acid before conception and during pregnancy because it reduces the chances of certain birth defects known as neural tube defects.

In recent years a handful of studies have suggested positive results when high-dose folic acid is used to treat children with autism, with researchers in China and other countries reporting improvements in social skills and other metrics. Those small studies have been quickly embraced by some parts of the autism community online.

The theory is that some, not all, children with autism may not properly metabolize folate, Mandell said. But the recent studies “are really tiny,” he said. To prove an effect, “we would need an independent, large, rigorously controlled randomized trial.”

During the press conference, Trump said he’s a believer in vaccines but claimed without evidence that giving vaccinations close together at the recommended ages has a link to autism. Spacing out shots as he suggests can lead to an increased risk that children become infected with a vaccine-preventable disease before returning for another visit.

Though anti-vaccine activists, including Kennedy, have long suggested a link between vaccines and autism, widespread scientific consensus and decades of studies have firmly concluded there isn’t one.

Autism is not a disease but a complex developmental condition that affects different people in different ways. It can include delays in language, learning or social and emotional skills. For some people, profound autism means being nonverbal and having intellectual disabilities, but the vast majority of people with autism experience far milder effects.

The disorder affects 1 in 31 U.S. children today, a sharp rise from just a few years ago, according to the CDC. Experts say the increase is mainly due to a new definition for the disorder that now includes mild cases on a “spectrum” and better diagnoses. They say there is no single cause to the disorder and say the rhetoric appears to ignore and undermine decades of science into the genetic and environmental factors that can play a role.

The announcement is the latest step the administration, driven by Kennedy and his supporters, has taken to reshape America’s public health landscape.

Beyond cutbacks at federal health agencies, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been roiled by disagreements over Kennedy’s vaccine policies. An influential immunization panel stocked by Kennedy with figures who have been critical of vaccines last week changed shot guidance for COVID-19 and other diseases. (JapanToday)

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Emotional Jimmy Kimmel says in late-night return he never intended to make light of Kirk’s killing


Jimmy Kimmel returned to late-night television Tuesday after a nearly weeklong suspension and nearly broke down in tears, saying he wasn’t trying to joke about the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

“I have no illusions about changing anyone’s mind, but I do want to make something clear, because it’s important to me as a human and that is, you understand that it was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man,” Kimmel said, his voice breaking. “I don’t think there’s anything funny about it.”

Kimmel added: “Nor was it my intention to blame any specific group for the actions of what … was obviously a deeply disturbed individual. That was really the opposite of the point I was trying to make.” He said he understood his remarks last week to some “felt either ill-timed or unclear or maybe both.”

Kimmel criticized the ABC affiliates who took his show off the air. “That’s not legal. That’s not American. It’s un-American.” Two stations groups that represent about a quarter of ABC affiliates, Sinclair and Nexstar, had said they would not show Kimmel’s program on Tuesday.

He thanked the people who supported him, and even people who don’t like him who stood up for his right to speak, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. “It takes courage for them to speak out against this administration,” he said. “They did and they deserve credit for it.”

Kimmel nearly broke down again in praising Kirk’s widow, who publicly forgave her husband’s killer. If nothing else comes from the past few weeks, he said “I hope it can be that.”

ABC, which suspended Kimmel’s show last Wednesday following criticism of his comments about the Kirk’s assassination, announced Monday that “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” would return after the network had “thoughtful conversations” with the host.

Kimmel admitted that he was mad when ABC suspended him, but praised his bosses for putting him back on the air. “Unjustly, this puts them at risk.”

He mocked Trump for criticizing him for bad ratings. “He tried his best to cancel me and instead he forced millions of people to watch this show,” Kimmel said.

The decisions by Sinclair and Nexstar left ABC stations in Washington, D.C.;, St. Louis;, Nashville, Tennessee; and Richmond, Virginia among the cities airing something else. WJLA-TV, the Sinclair-owned station in Washington, instead aired a newscast and an episode of the chain’s show, “The National Desk.”

Kimmel, who has been publicly silent since his suspension, posted Tuesday on his Instagram account a picture of himself with the late television producer and free speech advocate Norman Lear. “Missing this guy today,” he wrote.

ABC suspended Kimmel “indefinitely” after comments he made in a monologue last week. Kimmel, who has been a relentless Trump critic in his comedy, suggested that many Trump supporters were trying to capitalize on Kirk’s death and were “desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.”

Kimmel, who has been a relentless Trump critic in his comedy, suggested that many Trump supporters were trying to capitalize on Kirk’s death and were “desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.”

Trump-appointed Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr last week said it appeared that Kimmel was trying to “directly mislead the American public” with his remarks about Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old Utah man charged with Kirk’s killing, and his motives. Those motives remain unclear. Authorities say Robinson grew up in a conservative family, but his mother told investigators his son had turned left politically in the last year.

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Carr said before ABC announced the suspension. “These companies can find ways to change conduct, to take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”

Those remarks set a backlash in motion, with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz saying that Carr acted like “a mafioso.” Hundreds of entertainment luminaries, including Tom Hanks, Barbra Streisand and Jennifer Aniston, signed a letter circulated by the American Civil Liberties Union that called ABC’s move “a dark moment for freedom of speech in our nation.”

Podcaster Joe Rogan weighed in Tuesday on Kimmel’s side. “I definitely don’t think that the government should be involved — ever — in dictating what a comedian can or can’t say in a monologue,” Rogan said. “You are crazy for supporting this because this will be used on you.”

Some consumers punished ABC parent Disney by canceling subscriptions to its streaming services.

Trump had hailed Kimmel’s suspension and criticized his return, writing on his Truth Social platform: “I can’t believe ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back … Why would they want someone back who does so poorly, who’s not funny, and who puts the Network in jeopardy by playing 99% positive Democrat GARBAGE.”

Actor Robert De Niro appeared on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on Tuesday, impersonating Carr being interviewed by Kimmel. De Niro, as Carr, said the FCC had a new motto, “sticks and stones can break your bones.”

Isn’t there more to the saying, Kimmel asked, that words can never hurt you?

“They can hurt you now,” De Niro responded, saying you have to make sure to say the right ones.

Kimmel took the stage to a long standing ovation and chants of “Jimmy, Jimmy.” One audience member, Walter Bates, said after the taping that Kimmel’s discussion of Kirk’s wife “was a very moving moment. I got very emotional and so did my wife.”

Trump’s administration has used threats, lawsuits and federal government pressure to try to exert more control over the media industry. Trump sued ABC and CBS over news coverage, which the companies settled. Trump has also filed defamation lawsuits against The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, and successfully urged Congress to strip federal funding from NPR and PBS.

After pulling out of her planned performance at the premiere of Hulu’s Lilith Fair documentary in protest over Kimmel’s suspension, singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan appeared on Kimmel’s show as the musical guest. McLachlan had been booked on the show prior to the preemption, a representative told The Associated Press.

The other guest was actor Glen Powell.

The suspension happened at a time when the late-night landscape is shifting. Shows are losing viewers, in part because many watch highlights the next day online. CBS announced the cancellation of Colbert’s show over the summer. Kimmel’s contract with ABC reportedly lasts through May.

CBS’ “Late Show” host Stephen Colbert, in his own opening monologue Monday, grabbed his recently won Emmy Award for outstanding talk series, saying, “Once more, I am the only martyr on late night!” (JapanToday)

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Rihanna, A$AP Rocky welcome third child

Barbadian singer Robyn Fenty has welcomed her third child with American rapper, Rakim Mayers, popularly known as A$AP Rocky.

The 37-year-old singer confirmed the birth in a photo released on her Instagram page on Tuesday, revealing the baby girl’s name as Rocki Irish Mayers. The newborn is the couple’s first daughter after two sons, RZA, three, and Riot, two.

Rihanna and A$AP Rocky had been friends for more than a decade before beginning a relationship in 2020, shortly after Rihanna’s split from Saudi businessman Hasan Jameel.

The couple welcomed their first son, RZA, in May 2022. The singer announced her second pregnancy during the Super Bowl Halftime Show in February 2023 and gave birth to their second son, Riot Rose, in August of the same year.

The latest addition brings the couple’s children to three within three years. (Punch)

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Claudia Cardinale, single mother who survived rape to be screen queen, dies at 87

Sixties screen siren Claudia Cardinale, who died on Tuesday aged 87, entranced audiences across the globe with the sultry gaze that made her the muse of Luchino Visconti and Federico Fellini.

With her fierce beauty and husky voice, Cardinale not only captivated Italy’s greatest filmmakers, she played opposite most of the leading men of the time, from Burt Lancaster to Alain Delon and Henry Fonda.

She died aged 87 at Nemours near Paris, in the presence of her children, her agent told AFP.

“She leaves us the legacy of a free and inspired woman both as a woman and as an artiste,” Laurent Savry said in a message.

What would turn into a fairytale career began as a nightmare.

She was raped in her teens by a film producer and became pregnant. With few options open at the time, she made the tough decision to bring up her son Patrick and try “to earn a living and her independence” from cinema, even though she never wanted to be in films.

“I did it for him, for Patrick, the child I wanted to keep despite the circumstances and the enormous scandal,” she told French daily Le Monde in 2017. “I was very young, shy, prudish, almost wild. And without the slightest wish to expose myself on the film sets.”

Born in La Goulette, near Tunis, on 15 April 1938, to Sicilian parents, Cardinale’s life had already been turned upside down at at the age of 16 when she was picked out of a crowd to win a beauty contest.

Crowned “The most beautiful Italian woman in Tunis”, the prize was a trip to the Venice film festival where she immediately turned heads and reluctantly, turned her back on her plans to become a teacher.

“All the directors and producers wanted me to make films, and I said, ‘No, I don’t want to!’ she said.

It was her father who eventually convinced her to “give this cinema thing a go”.

As she started to land small film roles, she was raped. A mentor convinced her to secretly give birth in London and entrust the child to her family.

Patrick would officially be her younger brother until she revealed the truth seven years later.

“I was forced to accept this lie to avoid a scandal and protect my career,” she said.

From then there was no looking back, as she became swept up into the golden age of Italian cinema, even though she knew “not a word” of the language, speaking only French, Arabic and her parents’ Sicilian dialect.

At 20 “I became the heroine of a fairytale, the symbol of a country whose language I barely spoke,” she wrote in her 2005 autobiography “My Stars.”

Her voice had to be dubbed in Italian until she starred in Fellini’s Oscar-winning “8 1/2” in 1963, when the star director insisted she use her own voice.

That year, aged 25, Cardinale filmed both Visconti’s epic period drama “The Leopard” and Fellini’s surrealist hit “8 1/2” at the same time.

“Visconti wanted me brunette with long hair. Fellini wanted me blonde,” she said.

Critics called her the “embodiment of postwar European glamour”, and she was was packaged as such, both on screen and off.

“It’s almost like she had sexiness thrust upon her,” Britain’s The Guardian wrote in 2013.

Embraced by Hollywood, where she refused to settle, Cardinale had a huge hit with Blake Edwards’ “The Pink Panther” with Peter Sellers, then Henry Hathaway’s “Circus World” with Rita Hayworth and John Wayne.

“The best compliment I ever got was from actor David Niven while filming ‘The Pink Panther,'” Cardinale recalled.

He said: “Claudia, along with spaghetti, you’re Italy’s greatest invention.”

Refusing to have cosmetic surgery, she went on to perform into her 80s, including in “La Strana Coppia”, a female version of Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple” at the Teatro Augusteo in Naples.

Although desired by many, she said her “only love” was the blue-eye Neapolitan director Pasquale Squitieri, father to her daughter Claudia with whom she worked on a series of films over four decades until his death in 2017.

Her decades-long career has seen her star in 175 films and both the Venice and Berlin festivals awarded her honorary prizes.

In 2017 she featured on the official poster of the Cannes film festival amid an outcry that her thighs had been airbrushed to make the seem thinner.

A staunch defender of women’s rights, she was named UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador in 2000 in recognition of her commitment to the cause of women and girls.

“I’ve had a of luck. This job has given me a multitude of lives, and the possibility of putting my fame at the service of many causes,” she said. (JapanToday)

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Ekiti communities urge Oyebanji’s action on road, museum

Two communities in Ekiti State, Ise Ekiti in Ise/Orun Local Government Area and Ijesa Isu in Ikole Local Government Area, have called on Governor Biodun Oyebanji to fulfil promises made to them.

For Ise Ekiti, the demand centres on the construction of a world-class Olowe Museum in honour of the late master carver, Olowe of Ise.

Meanwhile, residents of Ijesa Isu are pressing for the rehabilitation of the Iluomoba–Ijesa Isu–Ikole Road.

In a letter made available to PUNCH Online on Wednesday, and signed by its National Secretary, Patrick Abayomi, the Ten O’s Club of Ise Ekiti urged the governor to implement the museum project.

According to the letter dated September 18, 2025, he said that the museum was part of the governor’s effort “to preserve the legacies of internationally renowned carver popularly called Olowe of Ise Ekiti”.

Abayomi added, “It is of our collective appeal to Your Excellency to please, fulfil the promise made to Ise people on the ultra-modern Museum which will contribute largely to the development of the town, educate the people historically and bring revenue by visitors who shall be visiting on tourism purposes.

“It is our urgent appeal that Your Excellency listen to our demand for the implementation (kick off) of the awarded contract. We strongly believe that the second tenure of the governor will make the completion of the Museum.

“Your administration has been a tremendous one ever since you assumed office as the governor of Ekiti State, and your act of governance can never be underestimated. Furthermore, we appreciate Your Excellency on the construction of the drainage channel across waterways in the town and other projects.”

Olowe, an Ise Ekiti-based sculptor, whose works litter several museums in America and Europe, died in 1934.

Recall that Oyebanji, in 2023, announced plans by his administration to build a world-class museum in Ise Ekiti to preserve the late sculptor’s legacy, saying his government would collaborate with the Ise Ekiti community and other stakeholders in turning Olowe’s residence into an internationally recognised centre of attraction.

Also speaking during a chat with journalists at Ijesa Isu on Wednesday, the Regent of the community, Princess Omobolaji Adeniyi, appealed to the governor to hasten the fulfilment of his promise to rehabilitate the road.

She said, “The state government has assured us that reconstruction work will soon commence on the road. I can assure my people that our governor is a talk-and-do governor. He has assured us that he would do something about the road, so we are really hoping that, soon, something will be done in that direction.

“This is an agrarian community, our farmers need to transport their goods from here to other neighbouring towns and transit to and from this community with ease. We are really hoping that the government will come to our aid soon. I am hoping that the road will be done very soon.”

Governor Oyebanji, who recently restated his administration’s commitment to road development, highlighted several completed projects, including the Ekiti Ring Road, Isinbode–Ara–Ikole, Itapa–Ijelu, Ikogosi–Igbara Odo, Ikere–Igbara Odo, Ikere–Ilawe, and Ikere–Ise roads.

He also disclosed that more than 132 kilometres of rural roads were being built under the Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project in partnership with the World Bank. (Punch)

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Trump tells world leaders their countries are ‘going to hell’ in combative U.N. speech

U.S. President Donald Trump argued for lower levels of global migration and urged a turn away from climate change policies on Tuesday in a combative, wide-ranging speech to the U.N. General Assembly that leveled scathing criticism of world leaders.

The 56-minute speech was a rebuke to the world body and a return to form for Trump, who routinely bashed the U.N. during his first term as president. Leaders gave him polite applause when he exited the chamber.

He rejected moves by allies to endorse a Palestinian state amid Israel’s latest Gaza offensive and urged European nations to adopt the same set of economic measures he is proposing against Russia to force an end to the war in Ukraine.

Much of his speech was dominated by two of his biggest grievances: immigration and climate change.

Trump offered his U.S. immigration crackdown as a case study for what other world leaders should do to curb mass migration that he says is altering the fabric of nations. Human rights advocates argue the migrants are seeking better lives.

“I’m really good at this stuff,” Trump said. “Your countries are going to hell.”

Trump, who met last week with Britain’s environmentally conscious King Charles at Windsor Castle, called climate change a “con job” and urged a return to a greater reliance on fossil fuels. Scientists say climate change caused by humans is real.

“Immigration and their suicidal energy ideas will be the death of Western Europe,” Trump said.

Trump’s administration plans to call for sharply narrowing the right to asylum at the United Nations later this month, Reuters reported last week, as it seeks to undo the post-World War II framework around humanitarian protection.

Trump sprinkled into his speech a litany of false and misleading statements, such as that London Mayor Sadiq Khan wants to impose “sharia law” on London and that “inflation has been defeated” in the United States six days after the Federal Reserve said inflation has gone up.

European powers have spent months trying to stabilize their relationship with the U.S. leader with a focus on winning U.S. support to end the war in Ukraine. At a NATO summit in June, Trump and European leaders lavished each other with praise.

But in Tuesday’s speech, Trump mocked NATO allies for not shutting down purchases of Russian oil and said he would impose strong economic measures against Moscow.

“They’re funding the war against themselves. Who the hell ever heard of that one? In the event that Russia is not ready to make a deal to end the war, then the United States is fully prepared to impose a very strong round of powerful tariffs,” he said.

“But for those tariffs to be effective, European nations, all of you are gathered here right now, would have to join us in adopting the exact same measures.”

He did not detail the measures, but he has been considering a package that includes sanctions against countries that do business with Russia, like India and China. The main buyers of Russian oil in Europe are Hungary, Slovakia and Turkey.

Trump later held talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who pressed for more U.S. support to resist Russian advances. Trump, asked by reporters if NATO countries should shoot down Russian aircraft if they enter their airspace, said, “Yes, I do.”

On the Israel-Palestinian conflict, Trump rejected efforts by world leaders to embrace a Palestinian state, a move that faces fierce resistance from Israel.

“The rewards would be too great for Hamas terrorists, for their atrocities,” he said, repeating his call for the return of hostages taken by the Palestinian militant group.

Trump said the United States wants a ceasefire-for-hostages deal that would see the return of all remaining hostages, alive and dead.

“We have to stop the war in Gaza immediately. We have to immediately negotiate peace,” he said.

He was to discuss the future of Gaza during afternoon talks with several Gulf leaders.

Trump, who has cast himself as a peacemaker in a bid to win the Nobel Peace Prize, complained that the United Nations did not support his efforts to end conflicts around the world.

He added to his complaints with personal grievances about the U.N. infrastructure, saying he and first lady Melania Trump were briefly marooned on a malfunctioning U.N. escalator and that his teleprompter was not initially working.

“These are the two things I got from the United Nations – a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter,” Trump said, noting that Melania Trump nearly fell when the escalator stopped abruptly. (JapanToday)

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Macron phones Trump after US president’s motorcade blocks his car

Emmanuel Macron had to walk half an hour by foot through New York after his speech to the United Nations on recognising Palestine as a state.

Video footage shows him getting out of his car to talk to police officers after they stop his vehicle to make way for the expected arrival of the motorcade of Donald Trump, the US president.

The footage, which was captured by a reporter from the social media outlet Brut, appears to show the French president saying he needs to get to his country’s consulate.

“I’m sorry, president, I’m really sorry, everything has been frozen, there’s a motorcade coming right now,” an officer tells Macron.

The president then looks out over the empty street and replies: “If you don’t see it, let me cross. I’ll negotiate with you.”

Macron, who remains stuck behind a metal barrier, takes out his phone and appears to call Trump directly. Leaning on the barrier, he says, laughingly: “How are you? Guess what? I’m waiting in the street because everything is frozen for you.”

Macron later appears to be allowed through on foot but not in his car. Still on his phone, he proceeds to stride off down the street, past shoppers and pedestrians. The reporter from Brut said Macron walked for about 30 minutes with his security detail. He stopped and posed with passersby who asked for photographs, including one encounter with a man who kissed him on the forehead.

“The time has come to end the war in Gaza, the massacres and the death,” Macron had said during his opening speech to a special summit at the UN on Monday evening. “The time has come to do justice for the Palestinian people and thus to recognise the state of Palestine in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem.”

Announcing France’s official recognition of Palestine, the president set out a plan for a UN-mandated international stabilisation force in postwar Gaza that is expected to find support in many countries but not in Israel or the US. (Guardian)

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France among six more countries to formally recognise Palestinian statehood

The leaders of six countries, including France, have moved to recognise Palestinian statehood at a high-level summit ahead of the annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) meeting in New York.

Alongside France, which co-convened the meeting with Saudi Arabia on Monday in New York, Andorra, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta and Monaco said they were recognising a Palestinian state.

Leaders from Australia, Canada, Portugal and the United Kingdom, which formally made the move to recognise Palestine a day earlier, also spoke at the meeting.

“We have gathered here because the time has come,” Emmanuel Macron said at the summit convened to revive the long-delayed two-state solution to end the Israel-Palestine conflict.

“It falls on us, this responsibility, to do everything in our power to preserve the possibility of a two-state solution,” Macron said.

“Today, I declare that France recognises the state of Palestine,” he said.

The additional countries recognising Palestine now join some 147 of the 193 UN member states that had already formally recognised Palestinian statehood as of April this year.

With more than 80 percent of the international community now recognising the state of Palestine, diplomatic pressure has ramped up on Israel as it continues its genocidal war on Gaza, where more than 65,300 Palestinians have been killed and the has been enclave turned into rubble.

Spain, Norway and Ireland recognised Palestinian statehood last year, with Madrid also imposing sanctions on Israel for its war on Gaza.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told the summit on Monday that a two-state solution was not possible “when the population of one of those two states is the victim of a genocide”.

“The Palestinian people are being annihilated, [so] in the name of reason, in the name of international law and in the name of human dignity, we have to stop this slaughter,” Sanchez said.

Macron, in his speech to the summit, also outlined a framework for the creation of a “renewed Palestinian Authority”. The post-war framework envisages an International Stabilisation Force (ISF) that would assist in preparing the Palestinian Authority (PA) to take over governance in Gaza.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas commended the countries that had recognised Palestine. He made his statement to the conference by video because he was denied a visa by the administration of US President Donald Trump to attend the UNGA this week.

“We call on those that have not yet done so to do so to follow suit”, Abbas said, adding that the PA also demanded “support for Palestine’s full membership in the United Nations”.

Israel and the US, which are becoming increasingly isolated internationally on the issue, boycotted the summit, with Israel’s UN ambassador, Danny Danon, describing the event as a “circus”.

Although the vast majority of UN member states now recognise Palestinian statehood, new UN member states must have the support of the UN Security Council, where the US has used its veto to block Palestine from becoming a full UN member state.

Speaking at the summit, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reiterated his support for the two-state solution, framing it as the only viable path towards peace after years of failed negotiations and ongoing violence.

Guterres said that statehood for Palestinians “is a right, not a reward”, rejecting US and Israeli claims that it was a reward for Hamas.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, thanked Macron and the UN chief for their efforts towards a two-state solution, which he said is “the only way to achieve just and lasting peace”.

He said the conference comes at a time when “the Israeli occupation authorities continue their aggression and their brutal crimes” against Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel also continues its “violations in the West Bank, and its repeated attacks on Arab and Muslim countries, with the most recent attack on Qatar”, he said.

“These actions underline Israel’s insistence on continuing aggressive practices that threaten regional and international peace and stability and undermine efforts of peace in the region,” he added. (AlJazeera)

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Six in police custody for abducting Lagos business partner

The Lagos State Police Command has arrested six yet-to-be-identified men for allegedly abducting their business partner in the Lekki area of the state.

PUNCH Metro learnt that the victim, identified by his nickname Senator, was kidnapped and held for three days following a business dispute.

A police source who spoke to our correspondent on Sunday said the arrest was made on Friday morning.

According to the source, a complaint was lodged by the family of the victim over his whereabouts, leading to a search by the police.

The source said, “The victim’s family reported the case of a missing person at the police station. He was said to have stepped out on Tuesday but did not return home. This made the police launch a search for his whereabouts. It was in the process that he was traced through his phone to an apartment in Lekki. A team of detectives was mobilised to the location where he victim was found.”

Another source who was aware of the development but pleaded anonymity told our correspondent on Sunday that the men subjected the victim to maltreatment during his stay in their captivity.

“His phone was seized, and money was withdrawn from his bank account. During interrogation, we discovered that they had transacted some business together, and the outcome of the business did not favour the suspects. Out of frustration, they decided to abduct him as a way of recovering their money,” the source added.

Although the nature of the business was not disclosed, the source, who is also a police officer, said the investigation was ongoing, adding that the suspects would be charged after interrogation.

In a video seen by PUNCH Metro, the suspects were seen being handcuffed after they were rounded up by the detectives.

When contacted, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Adebisi, said she was not aware of the incident.

“I will contact the police division in the area to find out and get back to you,” she added. She had yet to revert to PUNCH Metro as of the time of filing this report

Kidnap-for-ransom cases have been on the rise in the country over the years. Security experts, however, warned that some disputes among business partners now escalate into criminal abductions.

PUNCH Metro reported in August that a 32-year-old painter, Chigozie Clement, was arrested by operatives of the Lagos State Police Command for allegedly abducting his customer’s seven-year-old son in the Ketu Alapere area of the state.

The suspect allegedly lured the child away from his home and later contacted the victim’s mother to demand a ransom of N7m for the boy’s release.

Detectives later trailed the painter to the Ijegun area of the state, where he was arrested, while the boy was rescued in the process. (Punch)

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Jubilant crowd welcomes Natasha at N’Assembly as she resumes

A video circulating on social media on Tuesday captured a jubilant crowd of supporters accompanying Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan back to the National Assembly as she resumed her legislative duties following months of suspension.

In the footage, the Kogi Central lawmaker was seen walking surrounded by cheering supporters. A man was also heard offering prayers for her, to which she responded, “Amen.”

PUNCH Online reports that Akpoti-Uduaghan resumed her duties shortly after regaining access to her office in Suite 2.05 of the Senate Wing, which was unsealed by the Deputy Director of the National Assembly Sergeant-at-Arms, Alabi Adedeji.

Upon resumption, the senator, who had been suspended, remained resolute, stating she had “no apology to tender.”

She said, “In retrospect, it is actually amazing how much we have had to pay in the past six months, from the unjust suspension to the recall. But we survived the recall, blackmail, and that crazy lady on Facebook.

“It is amazing what we had to endure, and I give God Almighty the glory and my deepest appreciation to the people of Kogi Central and Nigerians at large. To my husband, I love you dearly. I pray all men support their wives in the same manner you have supported me.

“In everything, sometimes it is good to push the institution to the test. We cannot cower in the face of injustice. No one is more Nigerian than us. Senator Akpabio is not more of a senator than I am. He is not the governor of this place…

“It is so unfortunate that we will have a National Assembly run by such a dictator. It is totally unacceptable.”

The video of her return has been widely shared on social media, with commenters praising her resilience and the warm welcome from her supporters. (Punch)