#Iran holds World Cup send-off for national #football team

President Ruto: Why we have not re-opened Kenya-Somalia border

#US relaxes #visa bonds for World Cup fans

Six #hantavirus cruise passengers head to #Australia

Sheinbaum rejects allegations of #CIA assassination outside Mexico City, CNN reported Tuesday that the CIA facilitated a targeted assassination of a member of the Sinaloa cartel on a highway outside Mexico City, fueling a firestorm in Mexico. The New York Times later reported that Mexican forces carried out the attack and the CIA provided planning and support.

Sheinbaum called the CNN report a “lie.” Asked about the New York Times report during her morning press briefing, she called it “a fiction the size of the universe.”

Liz Lyons, a spokesperson for the CIA, also lambasted the CNN report, posting on X that “this is false and salacious reporting that serves as nothing more than a PR campaign for the cartels and puts American lives at risk.”

A CNN spokesperson said the CIA had been presented with details of the report prior to publication and had declined to comment. While the network did not directly address Sheinbaum’s statements, it said it stands by its reporting.

“After publication, CIA spokesperson Liz Lyons released a statement to CNN saying, `This is false and salacious reporting that serves as nothing more than a PR campaign for the cartels and puts American lives at risk,’ without specifying what aspect of the reporting is false,” the CNN spokesperson said.

The New York Times also stood by its reporting, with Charlie Stadtlander, executive director of media relations and communications, saying in an emailed statement that the publication “remains confident in the accuracy of what we reported.”

While Sheinbaum’s mentor and predecessor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, regularly attacked journalists in his morning news briefings, going as far as to dox critical reporters, Sheinbaum has taken a more measured tone in the face of criticism.

But the president has been plagued by scandals involving the United States in recent weeks as she comes under pressure to maintain a strong relationship with Washington in the face of renegotiating a free-trade agreement and threats by U.S. President Donald Trump to take action on cartels.

Sheinbaum has underscored Mexico’s sovereignty, a narrative that increasingly has been questioned.

Last month, two CIA agents were killed in a car crash along with local Mexican investigators on their return from an anti-narcotics operation in the northern state of Chihuahua. Sheinbaum said she had no knowledge of the operation, and Mexican and U.S. authorities contradicted themselves for days.

A week later, a New York court charged Sinaloa’s governor -- a high-ranking member of Sheinbaum’s party and ally of Lopez Obrador -- with drug trafficking and weapons offenses, accused of aiding in the massive importation of illicit narcotics into the U.S.

Megan Janetsky, The Associated Press

#Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva scrapped a tax on imports valued at $50 or less, a measure likely to boost his popularity less than five months before the election

#FBI Director Kash Patel denies drinking allegations in heated U.S. Senate exchange

North Korea’s #UN representative declared that the country is not bound by the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and insisted that outside pressure will not alter its status as a nuclear-armed nation.

#Nigerian military airstrike kills 100 civilians at a market, rights group claims. ABUJA, #Nigeria — Nigeria ‘s military Tuesday denied a rights group’s claim that an airstrike killed 100 civilians in a market over the weekend, as attention turned again to a long-running fight against armed groups in the country’s volatile north.

Amnesty International in a statement Monday said a military airstrike on Sunday hit a market in Tumfa in Zamfara state. A Red Cross official in the state, Ibrahim Bello Garba, confirmed the strike to The Associated Press and said “multiple civilians” were killed.

“In one village alone, 80 people were buried and there is no evidence that any of those people killed is a bandit. They are all civilians. The majority of them are young girls and small boys,” Amnesty International Nigeria director Isa Sanusi told the AP.

Nigeria’s military confirmed an airstrike to the AP but said “no verifiable evidence of civilian casualties as being suggested in the media has been established.”

“Civilians are not the target, and everything is being done to avoid civilian casualties,” said a spokesperson, Maj. Gen. Michael Onoja, who said military operations continued in the area.

The Amnesty allegation is the latest related to an accidental military airstrike hitting civilians in the West African nation that faces threats from militant groups including Boko Haram.

Last month, an accidental strike by Nigeria’s air force killed 100 people.

Analysts blame a lack of coordination between the air force and personnel on the ground for such strikes, which have killed hundreds of civilians. Nigerian officials have maintained that targets are members of armed groups.

Armed groups often mix with locals in areas where they operate, complicating efforts to target them.

Dyepkazah Shibayan and Tunde Omolehin, The Associated Press

Ursula von der Leyen hasn’t revived the EU in the way she hoped. People around her say its her own fault