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BERLIN Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called on Monday for the extension of a

Ahead of the Fourth of July holiday, public health officials in Los Angeles are advising beachgoers to avoid sea lions that have been sickened by toxins from large algae blooms coating California beaches.

Thousands of Iranian dissidents crowded the streets of a Paris neighbourhood on Saturday while western opponents of the government in Tehran gathered for a politically star-studded event aimed at poking a finger in the eye of the Ayatollah’s supporters. Despite warnings from French authorities and the US Embassy in Paris that alleged threats of a terror attack made a large outdoor event unwise, there were no incidents over the weekend as Iranian dissident activists mingled with prominent current and former officials from the US, UK and other European nations. If that threat of a terror attack was real, it was hard to spot the concern of French authorities on Saturday, given that police did not provide more than a handful of officers to patrol the area, those on the scene told The Independent. Dissidents with the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK) have long held a chequered relationship with the west, in addition to their long campaign against the Iranian government. This year is no exception to that dynamic. Formerly classified as a terrorist group by the US, the MEK now resides in Albania, where just weeks ago a massive police raid was blamed for the death of a senior MEK member while others sustained serious injuries — all, the MEK alleged, at the behest of Iran’s government. The same day, French authorities moved to cancel Saturday’s rally. Varying explanations for the raid were presented in the hours following, but over the weekend a top Iranian official tweeted that computers seized from the MEK by Albanian police had been transferred to Iranian custody, a development first reported on Monday in Iranian state media. A senior NCRI official fumed about the news in a statement to The Independent, demanding that the US State Department take a position on Albania’s collaboration with Iran’s intelligence agencies; the Biden administration had previously reacted to the raid by calling it a police action while carefully avoiding any suggestion of Iranian involvement. The Independent has reached out to the State Department for comment on the news of the computers being transferred to Iranian custody. The agency had previously issued a brief statement in the wake of the raid depicting it as a typical law enforcement action and noting that the Biden administration doesn’t view the MEK as a viable political alternative to the regime in Tehran. NCRI president-elect Maryam Rajavi also had sharp words for the State Department specifically in her address on Sunday. “As for the advocates of appeasement within the US State Department, who concurrently backed the tragedy in [Albania], it is enough to note that the mullahs waved their turbans and lavished them with commendations,” she insisted. Ms Rajavi also questioned: “Why do [Ayatollah Ali] Khameni and [Iranian President Ebrahim] Raisi demonstrate such fear over a gathering taking place 5,000 kilometres away from Tehran?” Seemingly growing efforts by Tehran to punish the MEK and the Biden State Department’s rejection of the group as a viable alternative-in-waiting to the Iranian regime made Saturday and Sunday’s events all the more of a coup for the NCRI and MEK; with increasing support from prominent members of the DC and London foreign policy establishments, the position of the current administration is looking all the more tenuous. That fact was hammered home by the virtual address of Sunday’s convention by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, characterised by The Independent’s sources as maintaining one of, if not the, friendliest relationship between the State Department and MEK during his tenure. Other VIPs at Sunday’s event were equally impressive gets for the dissident group, especially given the State Department’s coldness: former UK Prime Minister Liz Truss, who appeared remotely, 2024 presidential candidate Mike Pence, former Sen Joseph Lieberman, ex-House of Commons speaker John Bercow, Trump national security adviser John Bolton and a dozen sitting members of the US Congress from both parties. Members who have attended the NCRI’s events in Washington typically skew conservative or towards the hawkish wing of foreign policy thought in the US government. Mr Pence used his remarks to lash out at Joe Biden’s White House for supposedly “working overtime” to restore the Iran nuclear deal signed in 2015 under the Obama administration (and later abandoned by Donald Trump). “Now, a new administration is threatening to unravel all of the progress we made in marginalising the tyrannical regime in Tehran,” Mr Pence claimed. “They are working overtime to restore the Iran Nuclear Deal, putting Tehran back on the fast track to obtaining nuclear weapons.” He also claimed that Iran could develop a nuclear weapon in a year if sanctions were rolled back and the 2015 deal snapped back into place. Ms Truss, meanwhile, appeared to take aim at the west for “appeasement” of the Iranian regime — remarks that were timely in the wake of the Albanian police action and accusations of similar betrayals by the French. “There’s been too much appeasement. There’s been too much wishful thinking, there’s been too much hope that things would change when it was evident that things were not going to change and have not changed,” she said. Then speaking of Iran along with Russia and other authoritarian governments, she argued: “We need to be clear…we won’t treat these countries as part of the normal international system.” While Saturday’s rally went off without incident, the NCRI is no stranger to facing the threat of more serious revenge plots carried out by agents of Iran’s government. The rally and convention attended by Mr Pence and others was targeted in 2018 in a terror plot that was uncovered and halted by authorities, who arrested an Iranian diplomat and five others accused of planning a bombing. The diplomat, Assadolah Assadi, was sentenced in Belgium to 20 years in prison and the French government blamed Iran’s intelligence ministries for being behind the plans. The Iranian foreign ministry publicly condemned France over the weekend for allowing the rally to go forward, after a court battle resulted in a victory for the dissidents over authorities who had hoped to call it off. Read More A year of fighting between Israel and the Palestinians just escalated. Is this an uprising? Putin to meet Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi in first virtual summit since Wagner mutiny Sir Salman Rushdie and Prima Facie among winners of South Bank Sky Arts Awards From Starbucks to Walmart: What stores are open on July 4? Record number of 40-year-olds in the US have never been married, study reveals Canadian wildfire smoke smothers Detroit as air quality alerts issued

Sofia Kenin has surprised Coco Gauff by beating her 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 in the first round of Wimbledon in a back-and-forth matchup between two American women who both have reached No. 4 in the rankings and been to a Grand Slam final

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden has nominated Virginia Solicitor General Andrew Ferguson and Utah Solicitor General Melissa Holyoak to

For singer Norah Jones, the “Little Broken Hearts” album is a lesson in making the most of a bad experience

Workers are picketing major Southern California hotels after walking off the job during the holiday weekend to demand better pay and benefits

A South Carolina man has been arrested for allegedly attempting to murder the sole survivor of a house fire that killed six members of a family. Ryan Lenard Manigo, 33, was taken into custody following the fire on Sunday, the Colleton County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. First responders arrived at the home in the unincorporated community of Green Pond around 11am after they were alerted to a blaze. Six people were found dead inside the burning residence, and a surviving individual was airlifted to an area hospital in critical condition. Law enforcement said that an interview with the survivor led to the arrest of Mr Manigo on one count of attempted murder. More charges are expected once autopsies are completed on the six fatal victims, according to the Colleton-County Sheriffs-Office. “Today’s events which occurred in this quiet, nestled community of Green Pond are tragic,” Hiram Davis, a close friend of the victims, told local news station, WCBD. “We ask everyone to please give law enforcement time to do their jobs.” Mr Davis added: “We should always be vigilant. We should always have an eye on our surroundings.” Authorities have not released the name of the victims or a motive for the crimes. It is unclear whether they are related to Mr Manigo, or whether he was the one to start the fire. A neighbour also told WCBD that he was on his way home when he saw emergency vehicles rushing to the victims’ home. “We don’t have that in this community. No violence to that degree,” the man, who wished not to share his name, said. “God help their souls. This community is better than that.” Mr Manigo remains in custody at the Colleton County Detention Center ahead of his bond hearing at 2.30pm EST local on Monday. The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division’s Arson Team is working along with the Colleton County Sheriffs-Office in the investigation. Anyone with information is asked to contact investigators at 843-549-2211. Read More Chilling moment man arrested after killing wife and children in drunken rage France riots – live: ‘Insulting’ fundraiser for officer who shot teen hits €1m as fraction raised for victim Man accused of killing and dismembering girlfriend is tied to disappearance of second woman

More than half of Americans believe US Supreme Court justices decide cases largely on the basis of their partisan political views, a figure that has shot up 10 percentage points from January 2022. That figure – 53 per cent – appears to be driven by the gulf between perceptions of the conservative supermajority court among Republican and Democratic voters following several controversial rulings at the end of its latest term, according to new polling from ABC News/Ipsos. Roughly three-quarters of Republican voters and 26 per cent of Democratic voters support the court’s decision to reject affirmative action in university admissions. Sixty-eight per cent of Republicans approve of the decision to allow businesses to deny services to same-sex couples. And 71 per cent of Republicans support the court’s ruling against President Joe Biden’s plan to cancel student loan debts, compared to just 17 per cent of Democrats. Overall, a bare majority of Americans (52 per cent) support the court’s decision against race-conscious admissions in higher education. That majority includes majorities among white (60 per cent) and Asian (58 per cent) Americans, while 52 per cent of Black Americans disapprove of the ruling. Despite their views on affirmative action, most Americans still do not believe that Black and Hispanic students have a fair chance of getting into the college of their choice compared to their white and Asian student counterparts. Roughly two-thirds of Americans believe that white and Asian students have a fair chance for admission to the college of their choice, compared to only 47 per cent and 50 per cent of respondents who would say the same for Black and Hispanic students, respectively. Americans’ views on the court’s actions against student debt cancellation also track closely with their age, polling finds. Older Americans are more likely to support the court’s actions – 61 per cent of people age 65 and older endorsed the ruling that struck down the president’s plan, while only 40 per cent of people aged 30 to 49 and 31 per cent of those under 30 years old support the ruling. “I know there are millions of Americans … in this country who feel disappointed and discouraged, or even a little bit angry, about the court’s decision today on student debt. And I must admit, I do, too,” Mr Biden said in remarks from the White House on 30 June following the court’s decision. Public support for the decision making at the nation’s highest court – with three justices appointed by Donald Trump during his one-term presidency – sank precipitously in the wake of the decision to overturn Roe v Wade and revoke a constitutional right to abortion care last summer. Following that ruling, among other actions under the court’s new conservative majority, the court has come under greater public scrutiny, alongside the decades of maneuvers among Republican officials to seat similarly ideologically minded judges across the federal judiciary, the actions of Justice Clarence Thomas’s wife Ginni Thomas surrounding attempts to reject 2020 election results, and a series of investigative reports that revealed apparent ethics lapses among conservative justices. Such scrutiny has called the court’s legitimacy into question, with Democratic lawmakers and critics of the court pressing for ethics investigations, impeachment proceedings and the resignation of justices. Read More Harvard sued over ‘legacy admissions’ after Supreme Court targets affirmative action Biden reveals ‘new path’ to student debt relief after Supreme Court strikes down president’s plan The ‘fake’ gay marriage case in the middle of the Supreme Court’s latest threat to LGBT+ rights The Supreme Court risks inflaming the prejudices that America sought to banish

Civil rights lawyers argue that legacy admissions benefit the wealthy at the expense of minority students.

Hong Kong police are offering HK$1,000,000 ($127,650) rewards for information leading to the arrest of eight pro-democracy activists

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signaled Monday that his country is not ready to ratify Sweden's membership in NATO, saying Stockholm had to work harder on the “homework” it needs to complete. Speaking after a Cabinet meeting, Erdogan also renewed his condemnation of a Quran-burning protest that took place in Sweden last week, describing the action as a hate crime against Muslims. “We have made it clear that the determined fight against terrorist organizations and Islamophobia are our red line," Erdogan said. “Everyone must accept that Turkey’s friendship cannot be won by supporting terrorism or by making space for terrorists.” Turkey has delayed giving its final approval to Sweden’s membership in the military alliance, accusing the country of being too lenient toward anti-Islamic demonstrations and groups that Ankara regards as security threats. These include militant Kurdish groups that have waged a deadly, decades-long insurgency in Turkey. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, has waged a 38-year insurgency against Turkey that has left tens of thousands dead. It is designated a terrorist organization by the U.S and the European Union. NATO wants to bring Sweden into the fold by the time NATO leaders meet in Lithuania on July 11-12 but Erdogan said Stockholm still had obligations to fulfill. NATO requires the unanimous approval of all existing members to expand, and Turkey and Hungary are the only countries that have not yet ratified Sweden’s bid. “Instead of wasting time with distraction tactics, we believe that keeping to the promises will be a more rational, more beneficial method,” Erdogan said. “We advise them to scrutinize themselves and do their homework better." He was referring to a memorandum that Sweden and Finland signed with Turkey last year under which they agreed to address Ankara's concerns. Fighting Islamophobia was not included in the memorandum. Last week, Swedish police allowed a protest outside a mosque in central Stockholm citing freedom of speech after a court overturned a ban on a similar Quran-burning. “The vile attack on our holy book, the Holy Quran, in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, enraged us all,” Erdogan said. “This perverted disregard for the feelings of 2 billion Muslims cannot be compatible with the most basic human values, let alone freedom of thought.” Sweden and Finland abandoned their traditional positions of military nonalignment to seek protection under NATO’s security umbrella, fearing they might be targeted by Moscow after Russia invaded Ukraine last year. Finland joined the alliance earlier this year after Turkey’s parliament ratified the Nordic country’s bid. Sweden changed its anti-terror legislation since applying for NATO membership, but Turkey argues supporters of militant groups can freely organize demonstrations, recruit and procure financial resources in the country. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg last week called a meeting of senior officials from Turkey, Sweden and Finland for July 6 to try to overcome Turkish objections to Sweden joining the military alliance. Read More Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Jordan's foreign minister calls for investment into war-torn Syria to speed up refugee returns Q&A: Violinist and singer Sudan Archives brings 'fiddle soft punk' to Glastonbury debut Biden will host Sweden's prime minister at the White House as the Nordic nation seeks to join NATO