By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON, June 29 (Reuters) – A Maryland man was sentenced by a judge on Monday to 15 months in federal prison for making online threats, particularly toward Black and Muslim communities, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

Here are some details:

• U.S. District Judge Adam Abelson sentenced Raymond Pumphrey, 47, to 15 months, followed by three years of supervised release, the DOJ said in a statement.

• According to his guilty plea, Pumphrey made a series of threatening posts on YouTube and other social media sites to spread hateful rhetoric, especially against Black and Muslim communities, the DOJ said.

• He advocated for and threatened to participate in the killing of Black people in many large U.S. cities, according to the DOJ.

• He further threatened to kill multiple politicians and members of their families, it added.

• Rights advocates have over the years warned about online racism against Black Americans due to factors like white supremacy and gaps in online content moderation.

• They have also noted rising Islamophobia over the years, attributing it to the September 11, 2001 attacks; and more recently to anti-immigration policies, white supremacy and the fallout of Israel’s war ​in Gaza.

• U.S. political experts have separately warned about political violence amid rising polarization in the country.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

PARIS, June 29 (Reuters) – Police in Monaco were hunting for a man suspected of detonating a makeshift bomb that wounded three people on Monday, French media reported.

The blast occurred shortly before 9 p.m. (1900 GMT). French newspaper Le Figaro said video surveillance images showed a man dropping a backpack at the entrance of a residential building shortly before the explosion. 

BFM TV described the explosive device as a “parcel bomb”, citing the principality’s prosecutor general.

Eric Ciotti, the right-wing mayor of nearby Nice, across the border in France, said on X: “The attack committed this evening is a tragedy for Monaco.”

A spokesperson for the Monaco police declined to comment. 

Monaco is a tax-free microstate on the French Riviera known as a haven for billionaires and their luxury yachts.

(Reporting by Layli Foroudi; Editing by Richard Lough and Sanjeev Miglani)

LONDON, June 29 (Reuters) – Asylum seekers in Britain could have to repay the state around £10,000 ($13,222) for accommodation and basic living support before becoming eligible to apply for settlement, the government said on Monday in its latest effort to deter illegal migration.

Immigration is one of the most contested issues in British politics, consistently ranking among voters’ top concerns in opinion polls and at times fuelling protests and community tension.

The centre-left Labour Party has ratcheted up efforts to stop migrants arriving both legally and illegally, seeking to counter the rise of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, which has promised to deport up to 600,000 asylum seekers.

Interior minister Shabana Mahmood said her latest reforms were designed to reduce the burden on taxpayers.

“Receiving asylum support is a right, but it is also a responsibility,” she said. “Once people can contribute and repay the generosity of the British people, we expect them to do so.”

Under the proposed rules, only adults who can afford to pay would be charged, with safeguards to prevent them being pushed into destitution, the government said. The rules would not be applied retrospectively and children would be exempt.

The latest measures come at a politically sensitive moment for the Labour Party, which has faced internal divisions over how far to tighten immigration policy, as well as broader uncertainty following Keir Starmer’s announcement that he will step down as prime minister.

The interior ministry estimates that accommodating asylum seekers costs an average of £23.25 per person per night in temporary housing and £144 in hotels, plus a weekly subsistence payment. In total the annual cost of asylum accommodation and support was estimated at about £4 billion last year.

($1 = 0.7563 pounds)

(Reporting by Sam Tabahriti; editing by William James)

(Corrects death toll in first two paragraphs)

June 29 (Reuters) – Russian attacks across Ukraine killed 10 people and wounded dozens on Monday, authorities said, with strikes continuing into the afternoon as the death toll climbed.

A missile attack in the southeastern city of Dnipro killed six people and wounded 29, regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha said on Telegram. He said a business, a school, private homes and cars had come under attack,

“Russia launched a missile strike on Dnipro, targeting infrastructure,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on X, adding that rescue operations were underway at the site.

“It is essential that Europe is as active as possible in developing its own anti-ballistic defence – its own systems and missiles,” he said.

A Russian drone attack on a passenger minibus in Zaporizhzhia killed two men and a woman, and injured eight others, including a 7-year-old boy, regional officials said.

The regional governor, Ivan Fedorov, posted footage on Telegram of a white minibus, its floor bloodied and back doors damaged, with a body of a man inside.

Another attack on the city in the afternoon hit a civilian van, Fedorov said, setting it on fire but causing no casualties.

A glide bomb also hit the northeastern city of Kharkiv, killing a 23-year-old woman and wounding 10 others, according to officials there.

That strike damaged a tram and more than 15 cars, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said. Another glide bomb flew in less than an hour later but failed to detonate.

Kharkiv, Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia, three large industrial cities, have come under repeated Russian attacks during the war, now in its fifth year.

There was no comment from Russia on the attacks. Its war in Ukraine has killed thousands of Ukrainian civilians. Moscow has also accused Ukraine of hitting civilian targets during attacks on Russia or Russian-occupied areas, though on a much smaller scale. Both sides deny targeting civilians.

(Reporting by Anna Pruchnicka and Max HunderEditing by Gareth Jones, Peter Graff and Ron Popeski)

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia’s populist President Aleksandar Vucic on Monday said that early general elections in the Balkan country will be held in the next three to four months, and reiterated he will resign the presidential post ahead of the vote.

Vucic offered no exact dates. At a rally Saturday, he told supporters that it was likely the last time he would address them as president and said he will step down within weeks.

The move is widely seen as a political maneuver that would allow Vucic to become prime minister, formally the most powerful office in the country. Vucic is serving his second presidential term and is barred from running again.

“Yes, it is logical that we will have elections soon, and when I say soon I mean the next three-four months,” Vucic said. He added he is yet to decide whether to seek the prime minister’s post if his Serbian Progressive Party, SNS, wins the future parliamentary vote.

“Whatever I decide and whatever decision I make, it will be transparent, just like I have done by announcing my resignation,” he said, adding he could step down any time in July, August or September. “It will be no surprise.”

Once Vucic formally resigns, the presidential ballot must be held within the next 90 days. Regular presidential and parliamentary elections in Serbia are due next year.

Vucic has faced more than a year of mass street protests that first started in response to a train station tragedy in Serbia’s north which killed 16 people. A youth-led movement demanding accountability for the station canopy collapse has shaken Vucic’s firm grip on power more than ever in the past.

Before he became president in 2017, Vucic had previously already served as prime minister.

The populist leader has gradually tightened his rule since his right-wing SNS party came to power in 2012. He has pushed back aggressively against the protesters, and has faced European Union criticism over Serbia’s democratic backsliding, including a media clampdown.

Hundreds of people have been detained while protesters and international human rights groups have accused Serbian police of using excessive force and carrying out arbitrary arrests.

Anti-government protesters have blamed the fall of a concrete canopy at the Novi Sad railway station on alleged corruption-fueled negligence in big state infrastructure projects.

The United States and Iran have less than 60 days to negotiate a permanent end to the war, but they still seem to be at odds over the interim deal they reached this month.

It’s not even clear when the two sides will meet again. “The situation is sensitive and complex,” a senior Iranian negotiator, Kazem Gharibabadi, posted Monday on X.

Talks are just one of the pressing questions. Others include the Strait of Hormuz, which the U.S. says is open while Iran insists on a measure of control. The issue led both sides to carry out days of military strikes that appeared on Monday to have ended.

Here’s a look at what both sides have said about key sticking points, including the ongoing fighting in Lebanon, and why the conflict is still far from resolved.

WHAT THE U.S. SAYS:

“IRAN HAS REQUESTED A MEETING. IT WILL TAKE PLACE TOMORROW IN DOHA!” U.S. President Donald Trump posted on social media Monday.

WHAT IRAN SAYS:

“There are no negotiation meetings with the U.S. side at any level scheduled in the coming days,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said Monday.

WHAT’S GOING ON:

The U.S. and Iran have a roughly mid-August deadline to reach a permanent peace deal including an agreement on Iran’s disputed nuclear program.

What’s ahead are technical talks involving lower-level diplomats before any return to the table by top negotiators. Mediators are eager to get going. Pakistan, a key mediator along with Qatar, has said talks would resume Tuesday.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News on Monday that envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, were flying to Qatar to meet with the Iranians and that technical negotiations would occur on the sidelines.

Later, Iranian state media cited Baghaei as saying an expert delegation will travel to Qatar this week but with no planned U.S. meetings.

There’s plenty to discuss, including arrangements around the Strait of Hormuz, sanctions waivers on Iran and the future of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

But the deal says fighting must stop before further negotiations. After the exchange of fire over the weekend, Iran on Sunday threatened a “complete halt” in talks. On Monday, both sides appeared to pause their attacks. Tehran may be waiting to see if that holds.

WHAT THE U.S. SAYS:

The Strait of Hormuz is open, according to the interim deal.

WHAT IRAN SAYS:

Iran insists it must govern the strait. “Any attempt to establish new or separate arrangements from those currently being carried out by the Islamic Republic of Iran will only lead to further complications, delay the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and increase the level of tension,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday.

WHAT’S GOING ON:

This AP explainer is a good start. But in short, Iran during the war discovered a powerful new source of leverage in the waterway that carried a fifth of the world’s oil and gas before the conflict.

The interim deal says Iran should immediately facilitate commercial shipping through the strait that lies between it and Oman. It says Iran can work with Oman and other Persian Gulf countries to administer the waterway in line with international laws ensuring freedom of navigation.

Iran says shippers must use its designated routes and coordinate with its authorities. It has objected to a new route overseen by the U.S. that runs along Oman. That sparked the fighting over the weekend.

The Trump administration is operating on the understanding that the U.S. and Iran are standing down and vessels can move freely through the strait, a U.S. official said Monday on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations.

Ships have begun transiting again, but traffic is still below prewar levels.

WHAT IRAN SAYS:

Fighting must stop everywhere and Israel must withdraw from Lebanon before moving ahead on other issues.

WHAT HEZBOLLAH SAYS:

The Iranian-backed militant group will resist Israel’s occupation of large parts of southern Lebanon, and linking Israel’s withdrawal to Hezbollah’s disarmament is a “very dangerous suggestion,” Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem said Saturday.

WHAT ISRAEL SAYS:

Israeli forces will remain in southern Lebanon “until Hezbollah and the rest of the terrorist organizations are disarmed, and until no further threat to Israel is posed from Lebanon,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

WHAT’S GOING ON:

A separate set of U.S.-brokered talks have been held between Israel and Lebanon’s government.

Iran says its interim deal with the U.S., which calls for a complete ceasefire in Lebanon, requires Israel to withdraw. But a separate U.S.-brokered agreement between Lebanon and Israel allows Israeli forces to stay in southern Lebanon until Hezbollah has been disarmed. Hezbollah was not part of those talks and has rejected that deal.

Hezbollah attacked Israel two days after it and the United States attacked Iran on Feb. 28. Israel responded with aerial bombardment and a ground invasion.

Israel has vowed to keep forces in southern Lebanon until Hezbollah’s threat is eliminated. Lebanon’s government does not have the capacity to disarm Hezbollah by force.

Sporadic clashes continued in Lebanon over the weekend. That could delay Iran’s return to the negotiating table.

___

Associated Press writer Josh Boak in Washington contributed.

By Stefanie Eschenbacher

MEXICO CITY, June 29 (Reuters) – Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum vowed on Monday that she would not protect anyone after a video appeared to show the former head of state energy company Pemex, Victor Rodriguez, violently abusing his wife.

Posted to YouTube on Friday by a woman identifying herself as Maria Felicia Jimenez, Rodriguez’s wife, the video appears to have been recorded by a home surveillance system in a living room and has a time-stamp of March 15, 2026.

Rodriguez still held the top job at Pemex at the time. He announced his departure on May 14 in a joint video recorded with Sheinbaum, in which she thanked him for his service and said his resignation was in accordance with a timeline that he had set as a condition for taking the job.

Rodriguez could not be reached for comment. A statement posted on Friday on an X account that appeared to belong to Rodriguez said that he had stepped back from any public role while an investigation into the incident proceeds and that he was open to cooperating with all relevant authorities.  

“Let the law be applied, we will not protect anyone,” Sheinbaum said during her regular morning press conference.

“There can be no violence against women,” Sheinbaum said, adding that Rodriguez would not take another role in her government.

In the five-minute video, viewed by Reuters, Rodriguez is seen grabbing a woman by the neck, pulling her by the hair, shoving her, and holding her down on a couch. 

Rodriguez is topless for part of the footage. A young boy is also seen at the start before running out of the shot. 

Reuters was not able to verify where or when the video was filmed. Reuters was able to confirm that the video shows Rodríguez and Jimenez.

“Breaking my silence meant losing my job, my money, having nowhere to live, and having my children taken from me, simply because of his closeness to the highest spheres of power — the presidency, governors, members of congress, secretaries of state,” reads a statement accompanying the video on YouTube. 

“This is a government led by women, so I am asking for help and for the necessary measures to be taken to protect me and my children who are minors,” it said.

The Attorney General’s office for the state of Morelos said on X on Friday that it had opened an investigation into suspected criminal acts stemming from a video “in which a violent act against a woman is observed.”

Sheinbaum has repeatedly emphasized the need for substantive equality, a gender perspective, and the right to a life free from violence, declaring an “era of women” when she took office. 

Rodriguez has been a close ally of Sheinbaum, with the two sharing both a personal and professional relationship dating back to their student days. 

After leaving Pemex in May, Rodriguez was appointed to lead the energy transition institute INEEL. However, the energy ministry said in a statement that his appointment was never formalized. 

(Reporting by Stefanie Eschenbacher; Additional reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez, Raul Cortes and Aida Palaez-Fernandez and Pola Grzanka; Editing by Stephen Eisenhammer and Bill Berkrot)

MARSEILLE, France June 29 (Reuters) – A French prosecutor ordered on Monday the immobilisation of an oil tanker suspected of being part of the “shadow fleet” Russia uses to ship oil and gas and to skirt Western sanctions.

• The Marseille prosecutor ordered on Sunday the release of the ship’s captain who was held in police custody for two days.

• French authorities suspected the ship was sailing under a false flag. It was intercepted off Sicily on June 23, the prosecutor’s office said.

• “This new action against the shadow fleet, conducted days after a similar operation by Britain, shows Europeans’ determination,” Macron said in a post on Instagram last week.

• The oil tanker was sailing from Primorsk in Russia and sailed under a Cameroonian flag.

• The ship is anchored in the Guld of Fos-sur-Mer, off Marseille. A total of 25 crew, including the captain, were on board.

• France has intercepted at least five tankers it says are part of Russia’s shadow fleet, old vessels that Russia has relied on to ship oil and gas and to skirt Western sanctions.

• Moscow has called such actions illegal.

(Reporting by Marc Leras and Inti Landauro; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

June 29 (Reuters) – Keiko Fujimori leads the final count in Peru’s presidential runoff after the country’s ONPE electoral authority finished tallying 100% of the vote on Monday after weeks of reviewing contested ballots.

The final tally shows the conservative Fujimori with a lead of 50.135%, or 9,223,396 votes, to leftist Roberto Sanchez’s 49.865%, or 9,173,755 votes.

(Reporting by Alexander Villegas; Editing by Kylie Madry)

ABDIN, Syria (AP) — As Israeli troops and vehicles entered the town of Abdin in southern Syria, residents blocked the roads with rocks, and some young men and boys threw stones to push back the military patrol.

Tensions in this part of the country created by a buffer zone occupied by Israeli forces have flared into violence in recent days, leaving residents anxious that more escalation is coming. Residents of Abdin, located near a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone now controlled by Israeli troops, tried to resist against a military incursion Sunday.

Residents said Israeli troops fired warnings shots at walls and between the angry protesters, before firing artillery rounds at the village. No one was harmed in the exchange, but most residents fled, and most were still too afraid to return on Monday. Many fear that there will now be more intense incursions and raids following the skirmish.

“They come into the village regularly, every few days,” said resident Mohammad al-Hassan, standing not far from a group of children looking at an exploded shell. “They come in armored 4×4 vehicles, they roam around the village and search some houses, they knock on doors and if people don’t answer the door they break it down and enter the houses. Women and children start screaming, it’s a terrifying thing, them coming here.”

Israel seized control of a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone in southern Syria in December 2024, following the ouster of former Syrian President Bashar Assad in an insurgent offensive. Israeli officials initially described the move as temporary to protect their borders from militant groups, but more recently top Israeli officials have said they plan to occupy the buffer zone in Syria indefinitely.

The Israeli military presence in southern Syria is part of a shift to a more aggressive strategy by Israel after the deadly October 2023 Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel. The Israeli military took over large portions of Gaza as part of a broad invasion, and later seized control of chunks of Lebanon — where the Hezbollah militant group has fired missiles and drones across the border — and Syria. Israel calls these areas “buffer zones” and says they are needed to prevent future attacks by militant groups.

There have been no cross-border attacks from Syria into Israel since Assad’s ouster, except for two rockets from a little-known militant group. But Israel’s military incursions into southwestern Syrian towns have sometimes sparked resistance by residents that has spiraled into deadly clashes.

Syria’s interim president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, has called on Israel to withdraw from the area that the U.N. says is 235 square kilometers (91 square miles). The Syrian government also condemned the Israeli incursion and shelling in Abdin.

The clashes in Abdin were the second outbreak of violence in less than 24 hours. Earlier on Sunday, the Israeli military announced that it had killed armed men in southern Syria without giving details.

An Israeli military official said Monday that Israeli soldiers had killed two militants who were planning on attacking Israeli troops. The official who spoke on condition of anonymity under military briefing rules did not specify where in Syria the incident took place.

The mayor of the Syrian village of Hadar said two unknown people driving a pickup truck just south of the village were killed in an attack, and that their bodies were taken by the Israeli military.

“There was the sound of an explosion when it happened,” Imad Hassoun told The Associated Press. “They weren’t from Hadar. If they were, we would immediately know.”

Regarding the incident in Abdin, the Israeli official said armed militants opened fired against one of the Israeli military’s strongholds but nobody was harmed in the attack, without giving further details.

People in Abdin were initially hopeful that US-mediated talks between Israel and Syria in France aimed at reaching a security agreement would diffuse tensions, but the talks appear to have stalled.

Fearing the unstable security situation and struggling to cope with a lack of jobs and services, many residents who have lived in these towns are leaving elsewhere. The closest government security checkpoint to Abdin is some 10 kilometers (6 miles) away, and those who choose to stay are struggling with water and electricity shortages.

Sobhi al-Tawlbi, 66, says farmers have struggled to access their yield and sources of water.

“We need the government to support us a little so we can remain steadfast in our villages,” he said, asking for the international community to put pressure on Israel to stop its military incursions.

Syrians living in that broader border area have maintained that they are not a threat to anyone and want a stable life, following over 13 years of civil war that decimated Syria.

“Why are they bothering us? We are living here peacefully in this border area,” said al-Hassan.

___

Associated Press writers Joe Federman in Jerusalem, Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut, and Omar Albam in Damascus, Syria, contributed to this report.