Swiss canton votes with centuries-old show of hands

The death toll in a Colombian highway bombing blamed on cocaine-trafficking rebels has risen to 21, the government said Monday, in the country's worst attack on civilians in decades and just ahead of elections.

Saturday's bombing in the southwestern Cauca department -- which the government blamed on guerrillas opposed to a decade-old peace process -- comes one month before Colombia holds presidential elections on May 31.

At least 31 guerrilla attacks were recorded in the southwest over the weekend, a military spokesman told AFP, marking a major uptick in violence ahead of the vote.

Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez told Caracol Radio that 21 people were killed and 56 injured in Saturday's blast on a major highway.

Insecurity is a major theme in the race to pick a successor to Colombia's first left-wing president, Gustavo Petro.

Right-wing candidates are vowing to crack down hard on the drug-smuggling guerrillas with whom Petro launched failed peace talks.

Under pressure from the United States, Petro has stepped up military action against the guerrillas in recent months.

He blamed Saturday's bombing on Ivan Mordisco, the South American country's most-wanted criminal, whom the president has compared to late cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar.

Mordisco heads a breakaway faction of the the defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel army, which agreed to lay down arms in 2016.

The attack on Saturday was the deadliest against civilians since 2003, when FARC blew up a Bogota nightclub, killing nearly 40 people.

At least 15 women were among the victims of the Cauca blast, which left a massive crater on the road connecting the cities of Cali and Popayan.

- Destabilization strategy -

Military chief Hugo Lopez said the bomb exploded after assailants stopped traffic by blocking the road with a bus and another vehicle.

Several cars were flipped over by the force of the explosion.

Sanchez, the defense minister, told Blu Radio that the "terrorism wave" was a response to military operations against rebels in the area, whom he accused of "war crimes."

Laura Bonilla, deputy director of the Peace and Reconciliation Foundation, said the attacks were an attempt by Mordisco's group to gain leverage in negotiations with local communities.

Under that scenario, she said, the rebels would "reduce levels of violence in exchange for fewer police operations" and drug seizures.

Cauca is one of the main areas for the cultivation of coca, the key ingredient in cocaine, of which Colombia is the world's biggest producer.

Cocaine production and trafficking is the main income source of the country's armed groups.

Petro, who is barred by the constitution from seeking a second consecutive term, has labeled the rebels "terrorists" and ordered the security forces to intensify their offensive against them.

Right-wing candidate Paloma Valencia, a native of Cauca, accused the president of being responsible for the bloodshed.

"This government has allowed violence to grow," she accused.

Valencia and fellow right-winger Abelardo de la Espriella are trailing leftist senator Ivan Cepeda in opinion polls.

The campaign has seen a surge in political violence.

Last year, a young conservative candidate, Miguel Uribe Turbay, was shot in broad daylight while campaigning at a park in Bogota. 

He died two months later.

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The head of the UN's maritime agency said Monday there was "no legal basis" for imposing any fees for ships to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

Shipping through the narrow strait has been strangled since the US and Israel attacked Iran in late February.

Iran has sealed off the passage, sharply cutting oil and gas flows and sending prices soaring, while the US has blockaded Iranian ports. Tehran has also said it wants to impose transit fees as part of any lasting peace deal.

"There's no legal basis for the introduction of any tax, any customs, or any fees for on straits for international navigation," IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez said at a press conference. 

Iran's armed forces would have authority over the key shipping lane under the country's proposed law for managing the waterway, a top official said Monday.

Ebrahim Azizi, head of the national security commission in Iran's parliament, told state TV the armed forces were already in control of the strait and were seeking to prohibit the passage of "hostile vessels".

The bill also provides that financial gains from the strait would be paid in Iran's rial currency. 

Speaking on the sidelines of an IMO maritime protection committee meeting, Dominguez said he was in contact with "all the countries of the region", including Iran. 

He firmly rejected the idea that reopening the waterway could involve payment of any fees. 

Dominguez also said a planned evacuation operation for around 20,000 seafarers currently stranded on vessels in the Gulf could only go ahead once the strait was fully secure. 

The shipping lane remains a key sticking point in negotiations between Washington and Tehran, even as a fragile April 8 ceasefire continues to hold. 

Meanwhile, talks among IMO members this week are focused on a different issue: efforts to revive negotiations on an ambitious plan to decarbonise the global shipping industry.

That measure was due to be adopted last October, but the United States -- backed by Saudi Arabia, Russia, and other oil-producing countries -- blocked the agreement, delaying it by a year. 

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This summer's World Cup risks being defined by "exclusion and fear" due to crackdowns on immigration, demonstrations and press freedom in the United States, Human Rights Watch warned on Monday.

The tournament is in danger of becoming "a platform for abusive policies targeting immigrants and visitors, showcasing racism, exclusion, fear, and discrimination", the NGO said in a briefing document for journalists.

HRW warned against what it described as "increasing authoritarianism and backsliding on human rights in the United States".

President Donald Trump's return to power has led to "increased threats to press freedom, the rights of peaceful protesters, and community safety", the organisation said.

The World Cup will take place on June 11-July 19 across the United States, Canada and Mexico, with 78 out of 104 matches scheduled to take place in the United States.

Maja Liebing, head of the Americas desk at Amnesty International Germany, told a press briefing about the HRW document that "fans, journalists and others travelling to the United States risk encountering detention, deportation or discrimination in the rights landscape shaped by the Trump administration's policies".

The document itself accused world football organising body FIFA of a "weak response" to what it called Trump's "abusive policies".

Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, has close ties to Trump, and last year the organisation presented him with a "FIFA Peace Prize".

Concerns among supporters have intensified amid ongoing US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations targeting undocumented migrants. 

According to HRW, citing US figures, at least 167,000 people were arrested between January 2025 and March this year in and around the 11 cities where the US matches will be played.

During the Club World Cup last year, seen as a warm-up for the main event, an asylum seeker who took his children to the final in New Jersey was detained, separated from them and deported, according to the NGO.

Four countries competing in the finals -- Iran, Haiti, Senegal and Ivory Coast -- may have to play without support from their fans as their citizens are subject to US travel bans.

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US First Lady Melania Trump lashed out Monday at comedian Jimmy Kimmel over a joke likening her to an "expectant widow," a jibe with eerie resonance after a shooting at a dinner attended by Donald Trump.

Even though Kimmel made the remark in a monologue days ago, right-wing commentators who support Trump have resurrected it to call for the head of the talk show host.

Administration officials say a gunman who tried to storm a media gala dinner with a shotgun Saturday night in Washington was apparently targeting Trump and other administration officials.

Security officers subdued the man after an exchange of gunfire.

In the aftermath of the drama, right-wing critics claimed that Democrats criticizing Trump were responsible for fueling extremism -- even though the president himself has repeatedly broken precedents with violent invective against opponents, the media, the courts and immigrants.

As a prominent late-night comedy host, Kimmel has been at the heart of the debate over constitutionally protected speech.

In his monologue last Thursday, Kimmel portrayed himself as the MC of that upcoming banquet, a glitzy yearly event called the White House Correspondents' Dinner.

Kimmel's jokes included one in which he addressed the first lady in the audience and said, "Mrs Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow."

Trump turns 80 in June and is the oldest president ever to take office in the United States. His wife, a former model who was born in Slovenia, is 56.

Hitting out at Kimmel Monday on X, the first lady said Kimmel’s "monologue about my family isn’t comedy -- his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America."

Kimmel was briefly suspended from his show on the ABC network last September following government pressure after he said Trump's hard-right MAGA movement was trying to make political capital from the assassination of MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk.

"A coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him," the first lady added on Monday.

"Enough is enough. It is time for ABC to take a stand. How many times will ABC’s leadership enable Kimmel’s atrocious behavior at the expense of our community."

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Prime Minister Mark Carney on Monday announced the creation of Canada's first-ever sovereign wealth fund, beginning with a CAN$25 billion ($18.3) endowment he said will strengthen the economy amid a "crumbling" world order. 

The fund will include both public and private investment and will aim to support major projects Carney says are crucial to reducing Canada's economic reliance on the United States over the coming decades. 

"The US has changed. That's their right and we are responding. That is our imperative," the prime minister said in Ottawa. 

In launching the fund, Carney referenced Norway -- which like Canada has vast natural resources -- but has for several decades used some of its energy revenue to build long-term national wealth and insulate the country from global economic shocks. 

Carney said the Canada Strong Fund will direct capital to projects related to energy, critical minerals and infrastructure. 

The fund marks his latest effort at deepening Canada's economic sovereignty as his government heads into tense trade talks with President Donald Trump's administration. 

The existing North American free trade agreement -- which has kept more than 85 percent of US-Canada trade tariff-free since Trump's return to office -- is set to be revised this summer. 

The United States has said it wants major changes and Trump's trade team has escalated its personal insults towards Carney, who has emerged as a leading figure in criticizing Trump's global leadership. 

The deputy US Trade Representative, Rick Switzer, told the Council of Foreign Relations last week that Carney was acting "superior" and was letting his "ego" prevent him from acting in Canada's best interests.

"I would argue there's not a grown-up in Canada in charge there. You don't go out of your way to antagonize the leader of the country that you are absolutely existentially tied to. It's just political malpractice," Switzer said. 

Carney said last week that some people were overstating Canada's reliance on the United States and that Washington does not get to dictate the terms of the upcoming trade negotiations. 

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Signatories of the landmark nuclear non-proliferation treaty began a meeting at the UN on Monday as fears of a renewed arms race escalate, with atomic powers once again at loggerheads over safeguards.

In 2022, during the last review of the treaty considered the cornerstone of non-proliferation, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned humanity was "one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation."

On Monday he warned "the drivers" of nuclear weapons proliferation were accelerating.

"For too long, the Treaty has been eroding. Commitments remain unfulfilled. Trust and credibility are wearing thin. The drivers of proliferation are accelerating. We need to breathe life into the Treaty once more," Guterres said in opening remarks.

With global geopolitical friction only heightened since the last meeting, it was unclear what the two-week gathering at UN headquarters in New York could achieve.

"We should not expect this conference to resolve the underlying strategic tensions of our time... but a balanced outcome that reaffirms core commitments and set out practical steps forward would strengthen the integrity of the NPT," said Do Hung Viet, Vietnam's UN ambassador and president of the conference.

"The success or failure of this conference will have implications way beyond these halls and way beyond these next five years, the prospects of a new nuclear arms race are looming over us," he said.

The nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT), signed by almost all the countries on the planet -- with notable exceptions including Israel, India, and Pakistan -- aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, to promote complete disarmament, and to encourage cooperation on civilian nuclear projects. 

The nine nuclear-armed states -- Russia, the United States, France, the United Kingdom, China, India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea -- possessed 12,241 nuclear warheads in January 2025, according to the latest report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). 

The United States and Russia hold nearly 90 percent of nuclear weapons globally and have carried out major programs to modernize them in recent years, according to SIPRI.

China has also rapidly increased its nuclear stockpile, SIPRI said, with the G7 raising the alarm Friday over Moscow and Beijing boosting their nuclear capabilities.

US President Donald Trump has indicated his intention to conduct new nuclear tests, accusing others of doing so clandestinely.

In March, France's President Emmanuel Macron announced a dramatic shift in nuclear deterrence, notably an increase in the atomic arsenal, currently numbering 290 warheads.

- 'Affront' to NPT -

"It is obvious that trust is eroding, both inside and outside the NPT," Seth Shelden of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, told AFP.

He questioned the likely outcome of the four-week summit.

Decisions on the NPT have to be agreed by consensus, with the previous two conferences failing to adopt final political declarations.

In 2015, the deadlock was largely due to opposition by Israel's arch-ally Washington to the creation of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East.

In 2022, the impasse was due mainly to Russian opposition to references to Ukraine's nuclear power plant at Zaporizhzhia, occupied by Moscow. 

This year's summit could fall on any number of stumbling blocks.

The ongoing war in Ukraine, Iran's nuclear program and the war there, non-nuclear states' fears over proliferation and North Korea's developing arsenal could all be deal-breakers.

The United States along with its allies Britain, the UAE and Australia spoke out at Iran's appointment as a conference vice president. 

Washington's envoy to the meeting said conferring a leadership role on Tehran was an "affront" to countries that take the NPT "seriously."

Artificial intelligence could be a prominent issue as some countries call for all sides to keep human control over nuclear weapons.

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The US Supreme Court heard arguments on Monday about law enforcement's use of "geofence warrants" -- the collection of smartphone location data about everyone who was near a particular place at a specific time.

The justices are considering whether the use of such warrants constitutes an unconstitutional violation of privacy.

The case was brought by Okello Chatrie, who was identified as a suspect in a 2019 Virginia bank robbery after a search of the Google location history on his phone.

Chatrie, who was armed with a gun and holding a cellphone and made off with $195,000, was eventually convicted and is serving a 12-year prison sentence. 

Adam Unikowsky, who is representing Chatrie, told the justices that geofence warrants violate the US Constitution's Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable search and seizures.

"The warrant authorized the government to direct Google to search every single person's account to find those people who were within the geofence," Unikowsky said.

The government is defending the use of geofence warrants and arguing that a smartphone user can always choose to turn off location services.

"I take the point that you can flip it off," Unikowsky said. "I just don't agree that one should have to flip off one's location history as well as other cloud services to avoid government surveillance."

Deputy Solicitor General Eric Feigin, representing the Justice Department, told the court that banning the use of geofence warrants "would impede the investigation of kidnappings, robberies, shootings and other crimes."

"Petitioner here is asking for an unprecedented transformation of the Fourth Amendment into an impregnable fortress around records of his public movements that he affirmatively consented to allow Google to create, maintain and use," Feigin said.

Geofence warrants were notably used to identify supporters of President Donald Trump who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 in a bid to block congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden's presidential election victory.

Google no longer stores location history data on its servers and deleted all such data as of last year. Other technology companies continue to collect location data, however.

The Supreme Court is expected to rule in the case in June or early July.

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HELENA, Mont. - President Donald Trump is pushing to build a ballroom at the White House had become more urgent because of security concerns following a shooting at the the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner over the weekend. 

"We looked at...all of the conditions that took place tonight, and I will say its not....a particular secure building...and uh, I didn't want to say this but uh, this is why we have to have ball with the attributes that we were planning at the White House. It's actually a larger room, and it's much more secure it's got -- its storm proof -- its got bullet proof glass -- we need the ballroom. It's why secrete service its why the military are demanding it," Trump said.

The comments came after the Justice Department called on the National Trust for Historic Preservation [link] to drop its lawsuit blocking the construction.

Justice Department officials said the administration would move to dismiss the case if the group did not drop its lawsuit by this morning.

In Montana, Sen. Tim Sheehy announced in a press release that he would introduce legislation and seek unanimous consent to approve construction of the Presidential Ballroom. 

"It is an embarrassment to the strongest nation on earth that we cannot host gatherings in our nation's capital without the threat of violence and attempted assassinations. There is no place for political violence in America," Sheehy said.

(The Center Square) – The California man accused of charging security and shooting a Secret Service officer at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner Saturday night will appear Monday in federal court.

Among other possible charges, the 31-year-old suspect, Cole Tomas Allen, is facing two counts of using a firearm during a crime of violence and one count of assault on a federal officer using a dangerous weapon, media outlets reported.

“It is clear that this individual was intent on doing as much harm as he could,” U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro posted on social media. “Thank God for our law enforcement who acted so quickly to prevent what could have been a horrific event.”

President Donald Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, and members of Trump's cabinet were at the event and were rushed out of the banquet hall of the Washington, D.C. Hilton., less than two miles from the White House.

The Hilton was also the place where John Hinckley Jr. shot President Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981.

A long gun and shell casings were recovered at the scene, where Allen was detained. No one else but the Secret Service agent, who Trump said he spoke to and was doing OK, sustained injuries during the incident.

The Center Square's White House Bureau Chief Sarah Roderick-Fitch was in attendance at the event, and said she heard a loud noise before attendees started screaming. Secret Service agents then stormed the room and began escorting people out, Roderick-Fitch said.

Federal law enforcement officers searched the suspect's California home and interviewed members of his family.

According to reports from media outlets, Allen was an amateur video game developer and a tutor from Torrence, California. He graduated from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena in 2017 and donated $50 to the campaign of then presidential candidate Kamala Harris through ActBlue.

Allen’s “manifesto” sent to family members before the attack, which the New York Post reported Sunday, said he wanted to minimize casualties at the hotel but, "I would still go though most everyone here to get to the targets if it were absolutely necessary (on the basis that most "chose" to attend a speech by a pedophile, rapist and traitor, and are thus complicit) but I really hope it doesn't come to that."

Allen may enter a plea during his Monday arraignment.

A California man accused of storming a gala dinner attended by President Donald Trump was to appear in court Monday over a shooting that marked the latest spasm of political violence in deeply divided America.

Administration officials said the suspect in Saturday night's attack aimed to kill Trump and senior officials at the media dinner in a Washington hotel, in the third attempt on the president's life in two years.

Trump, who was rushed out of the venue by Secret Service agents, posted camera footage of the gunman sprinting past a checkpoint one floor above the ballroom where the dinner was held.

After a brief exchange of gunfire with agents, the suspect was detained at the scene. No one was killed.

In a CBS interview on Sunday evening, Trump was asked if he feared there would be casualties as Washington's government and media elite ducked for cover at the black-tie dinner.

"I wasn't worried. I understand life. We live in a crazy world," Trump said.

Cole Allen, 31, is set to make his first appearance in Washington federal court at about 1:00 pm (1700 GMT).

Proceedings will be brief, with Allen expected to be charged with assault on a federal officer and using a firearm during a crime of violence. Additional charges are likely in future. 

The suspect -- who was armed with a shotgun, handgun and knives -- was staying at the Washington Hilton hotel where the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner was held.

The New York Post said Allen had written in a message shared with his family shortly before the attack that his targets would be "prioritized from highest-ranking to lowest."

In the seconds after the shooting erupted a floor above, Secret Service agents swarmed into the ballroom, prompting chaotic scenes as attendees dove under tables.

Crowded into the venue were Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance, several cabinet members and top lawmakers, and hundreds of guests.

Trump said at a hastily arranged late-night news conference at the White House that he first thought the noise was a tray being dropped, before realizing it was gunfire.

He said he hoped the gala would be rescheduled within a month, adding that the hotel venue was "not a particularly secure" facility, as questions swirled about the president's safety protocols.

The hotel has hosted gala dinners for the White House Correspondents Association for decades without incident. The WHCA routinely invites sitting presidents to attend, but Saturday was the first time Trump had accepted.

Trump was the target of an assassination attempt during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania in 2024. A gunman fired several shots, killing an audience member and lightly wounding the president in the ear.

A few months later, another man was arrested after a Secret Service agent saw the barrel of a rifle poking from the bushes on the perimeter of the West Palm Beach golf course where Trump was playing a round.

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