#Russian superyacht crosses blockaded Strait of #Hormuz, Nord - a 142-meter (465-foot) yacht worth over US$500 million - left a #Dubai marina at around 1400 GMT on Friday, crossed the strait on Saturday morning, and arrived in Muscat early on Sunday, according to data on the MarineTraffic platform.

It is not clear how the multi-deck pleasure vessel gained permission to use the route. Since February, Iran has severely restricted traffic through the strait, which typically handles around one-fifth of the world’s oil supply.

A representative of steel magnate Mordashov declined to comment on Monday.

Just a few, mainly merchant vessels, have been passing daily through the crucial ‌waterway at the entrance to the Gulf as Washington and Tehran maintain an uneasy ceasefire. This represents a fraction of the average 125 to 140 daily passages before the Iran war began on February 28.

In a countermeasure, the U.S. has imposed a blockade of Iranian ports.

Russia and Iran are longstanding allies and have become closer in recent years, including via a 2025 treaty that strengthened intelligence and security cooperation.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi arrived in Russia to meet President Vladimir Putin on Monday after discussions with mediators in Pakistan and Oman over the weekend.

Mordashov, known to be close to Putin, is not officially listed as the owner of Nord. But shipping data and Russian corporate records from 2025 show the vessel was registered to a Russian firm owned by his wife in 2022. This firm is registered in the Russian town of Cherepovets, where Mordashov’s steelmaker Severstal is also registered.

Mordashov was among a number of Russians sanctioned by the United States and European Union after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for their links to Putin.

One of the largest yachts in the world, Nord has 20 staterooms, a swimming pool, a helipad and a submarine, according to industry publisher Superyacht Times.

(Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis and Gleb Stolyarov; Additional reporting by Anastasia Lyrchikova and Jonathan Saul; Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Ros Russell)

Man pleads guilty to plotting attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna, Austrian media report

South #Korean court convicts wife of ousted President Yoon on further corruption charges. In January, ex-first lady Kim Keon Hee was sentenced to 20 months in prison in a district court for receiving gifts including a Graff #diamond necklace and a Chanel bag from the Unification #Church in return for promises of political favours. However, she was acquitted of involvement in a stock price manipulation scheme before she became first lady.

Both parties appealed, and on Tuesday, the Seoul High Court raised her jail term to four years by convicting her of receiving another Chanel bag from the church and the price rigging charge.

The presidential couple suffered a dramatic fall from grace after Yoon’s martial law imposition in December 2024 led to his impeachment and eventual removal from office. Yoon faces a slew of criminal trials related to his martial law debacle and other scandals. Investigators say Kim was not involved in Yoon’s martial law enforcement.

The Seoul High Court said that a first lady, being closest to a president, represents the country together with her husband and has a big influence on him. It said Kim failed to meet public expectations for her integrity and rather exploited her high-profile status to get the gifts from the Unification Church.

Both Kim and an independent counsel have one week to appeal to the Supreme Court, the country’s top court. Independent counsel Min Joong-ki’s team earlier requested a 15-year term; Kim’s defence team has argued Min’s investigation was politically driven.

Kim has been in jail since last August when the Seoul district court approved a warrant to arrest her, citing the chance she might destroy evidence. When Yoon was in office, Kim was embroiled in a series of scandals that hurt her husband’s approval rating and provided relentless political ammunition to his rivals.

On Dec. 3, 2024, Yoon, a conservative, abruptly declared martial law and sent troops and police officers to the National Assembly, saying he aimed to eliminate “anti-state forces” and “shameless North Korea sympathizers.” He has defended his action, calling it a desperate attempt to draw public support for his fight against the liberal opposition Democratic Party which obstructed his agenda.

In February, the Seoul Central District Court found Yoon guilty of rebellion for mobilizing military and police forces in an illegal attempt to seize the Assembly, arrest political opponents and establish unchecked power for an indefinite period.

#Robot dogs with #Musk and #Zuckerberg heads roam around Berlin #museum in Beeple's new exhibit

Taylor Swift files to #trademark her voice, likeness to ward off AI #deepfakes.

Pop superstar Taylor Swift filed trademark applications for two audio clips and one image of herself in what a trademark attorney said is an attempt to protect her voice and likeness from deepfake videos and audio created by artificial intelligence.

The applications were filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Friday and list Swift’s TAS Rights Management as being the owner of the audio clips and image.

A spokesperson for Swift did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday, nor did lawyers who were listed on the filings.

In one of the audio clips, Swift is heard saying: “Hey, it’s Taylor Swift, and you can listen to my new album, ‘The Life of a Showgirl,’ on demand on Amazon Music Unlimited.”

The second clip says: “Hey, it’s Taylor. My brand new album ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ is out on October 3 and you can click to presave it so you can listen to it on Spotify.” SPOT.N

The image Swift is seeking to trademark is of her onstage in a sequined outfit, pink guitar in hand.

Swift’s image and voice have been used in countless AI-generated deepfakes - from false advertising to fake political endorsements to explicit images.

Actor Matthew McConaughey has had similar filings approved. He told the Wall Street Journal in January that “we want to create a clear perimeter around ownership with consent and attribution the norm in an AI world.”

Trademark attorney Josh Gerben, who first publicized that Swift made the applications on his blog on Monday, wrote that they “are specifically designed to protect Taylor from threats posed by artificial intelligence.”

“While existing ‘Right of Publicity’ laws offer some protection against unauthorized use of a famous individual’s likeness, trademark filings can provide an additional layer of protection,” Gerben wrote.

Gerben added that registering a celebrity’s spoken voice is a new use of trademark registration that has not been tested in courts.

“Historically, singers relied on copyright law to protect their recorded music,” Gerben wrote. “But AI technologies now allow users to generate entirely new content that mimics an artist’s voice without copying an existing recording, creating a gap that trademarks may help fill.”

Gerben said the photo Swift is seeking to trademark serves a similar purpose.

“By protecting a distinctive visual, down to Swift’s commonly worn jumpsuit and pose, Swift’s team may gain additional grounds to pursue claims against manipulated or AI-generated images that evoke her likeness,” he wrote.

(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Colorado; Editing by Donna Bryson and Bill Berkrot)

DR #Congo to set up paramilitary unit to secure mines. The Democratic Republic of Congo announced Monday it was setting up a paramilitary unit to secure mining sites in the country, which has abundant deposits of sought-after minerals.

The central African nation produces around 70 per cent of global cobalt output -- key for making electric batteries and in defence technology -- and holds some of the world’s richest deposits of copper, coltan and lithium.

Chinese mining firms have a dominant position in the country, though there are companies from the United States and elsewhere.

The General Inspectorate of Mines (#IGM), a government body that oversees and fights fraud in the mining sector, announced the creation of “the mining guard”.

It said in a statement it was a “paramilitary special unit intended to secure the entire mineral exploitation chain” in the DRC.

With funding of US$100 million, it said the plan was part of “strategic partnerships” with the United States and United Arab Emirates but gave no details on its sources of financing.

The DRC and Rwanda signed an agreement in December aimed at ending conflict in the eastern DRC, a region long mired in violence which has intensified with the emergence of the Rwanda-backed M23 armed group.

The accord includes an economic component aimed at ensuring that American high-tech companies have a supply of strategic minerals.

The IGM said the mining guard would be responsible for securing mining sites and mineral transport.

“By the end of 2028, a gradual deployment is planned of a workforce of more than 20,000 guards covering the 22 mining provinces under IGM supervision,” the body said.

Recruits will undergo a six-month training program, with a first contingent deployed in December this year, it said.

Sri Lanka detains 22 Buddhist monks for drug smuggling, Twenty-two Sri Lankan monks returning from Thailand were arrested on Sunday at the main international airport with 110 kilograms (242 pounds) of powerful cannabis, officials said.

A Sri Lanka Customs spokesman said the group, returning home after a four-day holiday in the Thai capital, had Kush -- a potent, plant-based strain of cannabis -- hidden in their luggage.

“Each carried about five kilos of the narcotic concealed within false walls in their luggage,” the spokesman said, adding that the monks had been handed over to police.

They were to be taken before a magistrate later on Sunday.

The monks were mostly young students from temples across Sri Lanka and had been on a holiday sponsored by a businessman.

Customs officials said it was the largest single detection of Kush at the South Asian country’s main international airport.

A 21-year-old British woman was arrested in May last year with 46 kilograms (101 pounds) of the drug at the same airport. She was also travelling to Colombo from Bangkok.

Sri Lankan authorities have also made several detections of large hauls of heroin and other narcotics smuggled in via small fishing boats in recent years.

North #Korea opens memorial museum for troops killed in Russia-Ukraine war.

In April 2025, North Korea and Russia announced that their soldiers fought together to repel a Ukraine incursion into Russia’s Kursk border region. The two countries haven’t disclosed exactly how many North Koreans soldiers were deployed, but South Korea’s intelligence service estimated last year that North Korea sent about 15,000 troops and 2,000 of them were killed.

The North’s Korean Central News Agency reported Monday the museum’s inaugural ceremony was held in Pyongyang on Sunday to mark the one-year anniversary of the end of an operation to liberate the Kursk region. KCNA said leader Kim Jong Un attended the ceremony along with top visiting Russian officials including Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the State Duma, and Defense Minister Andrei Beloussov.

During the ceremony, Kim threw dirt over the remains of one dead soldier and laid flowers before others whose bodies were already placed in a mortuary, before he and Volodin and Beloussov left messages on the guest book, according to KCNA.

In a speech, Kim said the spirits of dead North Korean soldiers will remain as “a symbol of the Korean people’s heroism” and support “a victorious march by the Korean and Russian people.” He praised the North Korean and Russian forces for thwarting what he called a U.S.-led Western “hegemonic plot and military adventurism” on the Russian-Ukraine front.

Meeting with Beloussov separately, Kim said North Korea will fully support the Russian policy of defending its sovereignty and security interests, #KCNA reported. Russia’s state news agency, Tass, cited Belousov as telling Kim that Russia was ready to sign a Russian-North Korean military cooperation plan for the 2027-2031 period.

In a letter to Kim read by Volodin during the ceremony, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the museum “will undoubtedly be a clear symbol of the friendship and solidarity” between the two countries. Putin said he was convinced that the two countries would continue to strengthen their comprehensive strategic partnership, according to KCNA.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Kim has made Moscow the priority of his foreign policy by supplying troops and conventional weapons. In return, North Korea was believed to have received economic and other assistance from Russia. South Korea, the U.S. and their partners worry Russia may transfer high-tech technologies that can enhance North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.

Experts say North Korean troops sent to the war earlier became easy targets for drone and artillery attacks due to their lack of combat experience and unfamiliarity with the terrain. But Ukrainian military and intelligence officials have assessed that the North Koreans were gaining crucial battlefield experience and were key to Russia’s strategy of overwhelming Ukraine by throwing large numbers of soldiers into the battle for Kursk.

___

Associated Press writer Kim Tong-hyung contributed to this report.

Hyung-jin Kim, The Associated Press

#Argentina's leader bars #journalists from government #HQ, raising concerns about press #freedom

#Bahrain revokes #citizenship of 69 people for ‘glorifying or sympathizing with’ Iranian attacks.

Bahrain has revoked the citizenship of 69 people over what it described as sympathy with Iran’s hostile acts and collaboration with foreign entities, the kingdom’s interior ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said that the 69 people included accused individuals and their family members, and that they were all of non-Bahraini origin.

“The Bahraini nationality has been revoked from those individuals for glorifying or sympathizing with the hostile Iranian acts, or engaging in contacts with external parties,” the ministry said.

It said the revocations had been carried out in accordance with royal directives from King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and were based on Article 10/3 of the Bahraini Nationality Law. The article provides for the revocation of citizenship in cases of “causing harm to the interests of the Kingdom or acting in a manner that contradicts the duty of loyalty to it.”

The interior ministry said the competent authorities were “continuing to study and review” who deserves Bahraini citizenship.

Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, Advocacy Director at the Britain-based Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD), condemned the move, calling it “the beginning of a dangerous era of repression” and saying the decisions were “imposed without legal safeguards or any right of appeal.”

BIRD said it was the first such revocation of citizenship in Bahrain since 2019. Between 2012 and 2019, Bahrain revoked the citizenship of at least 990 nationals, the group said.

Iran fired at targets ​in Bahrain and other Gulf Arab states where the U.S. has military bases after the U.S. and Israel launched a war against Iran on Feb. 28.

Bahrain’s National Communication Centre did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the case and on the Institute’s statement.

Reporting by Andrew Mills, Menna Alaa El-Din and Tala Ramadan; Editing by Alex Richardson and Aidan Lewis