Headline
Argentina’s President Suffers Crushing Defeat In Provincial Elections

Argentina’s President Javier Milei vowed Sunday to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections.
The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023.
He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the centre-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse.
A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda.
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“We will deepen and accelerate it,” he said at a muted election night event in the resort of Mar del Plata, where he took the stage in silence, in marked contrast to his usual dramatic entrance to rock music.
With 91 percent of the votes counted, the centre-left Fuerza Patria coalition had taken over 47 percent of the vote against nearly 34 percent for Milei’s ruling La Libertad Avanza (LLA), official results showed.
Buenos Aires’s votes are telling as a bellwether for Argentina. The province contributes more than 30 percent of Argentina’s GDP and accounts for 40 percent of all eligible voters.
The 13-point gap between Milei’s party and the left was far greater than opinion polls had predicted.
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Turnout in the election was high, at around 63 percent.
The result poses major concerns for Milei, coming just six weeks before the midterm elections.
Some members of his party downplayed the extent of the defeat, pointing out that the LLA had nonetheless increased its share of legislators in Buenos Aires.
The government went into the election under a cloud following a corruption scandal at the National Disability Agency involving the president’s sister and right-hand woman, Karina Milei.
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In a sign of the anger among many Argentines over the affair, Milei and his sister were pelted with stones on the campaign trail outside Buenos Aires in late August, with skirmishes breaking out among supporters and opponents.
The ruling party’s election drubbing comes three days after Milei suffered a major setback when Congress overturned his veto of a law increasing allowances for disabled people.
On the economic front, the self-described “anarcho-capitalist” is struggling also, despite success in fighting inflation and erasing a fiscal deficit.
READ ALSO:Vinicius To Miss Argentina World Cup Qualifier Due To Injury
Last week, his government began selling treasury dollars to stem the depreciation of the local currency, the peso, which had been accelerating in recent weeks despite high interest rates.
“We must learn from this (election defeat),” LLA candidate Diego Valenzuela told AFP, claiming that the result “was due to not engaging in economic populism, which is new in Argentina.”
His remarks were aimed at the Peronists, accused by Milei of leading South America’s second-biggest economy to ruin through excessive spending and protectionism.
Headline
Afghanistan’s Taliban Release US Citizen

Afghanistan’s Taliban government released an American citizen from detention on Sunday, a week after freeing an elderly British couple.
In a statement, the ministry identified the detainee as Amir Amiri and said he had been handed over to Adam Boehler, Washington’s special envoy on hostages.
Boehler made a rare visit to Kabul earlier this month to discuss the possibility of a prisoner exchange with the Taliban government.
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan released an American citizen named Amir Amiri from prison today,” the Foreign Ministry on X, using the official name for the government.
“The Afghan government does not view the issues of citizens from a political angle and makes it clear that ways can be found to resolve issues through diplomacy.”
READ ALSO:Taliban Detains 14 For Playing Music, Singing At Afghanistan Private Gathering
Little is known about Amiri’s case, as it has not been widely reported.
An official with knowledge of the release said Amiri, who is 36, “had been detained in Afghanistan since December 2024”.
The official added that Amiri would stop briefly in Doha, Qatar for medical checks before continuing back to the United States.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio welcomed the release of Amiri, said he had been “wrongfully detained” in Afghanistan, and thanked Qatar for helping to get him freed.
President Donald Trump “has made it clear we will not stop until every American unjustly detained abroad is back home,” Rubio wrote on X.
In January two Americans were freed in exchange for an Afghan fighter, Khan Mohammed, who was convicted of narco-terrorism in the United States.
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Another American, airline mechanic George Glezmann, was freed after more than two years in detention during a March visit to Kabul by Boehler.
At least one other US citizen, Mahmood Habibi, is being held in Afghanistan. The United States is offering a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture.
The Taliban authorities deny any involvement in his 2022 disappearance.
Just a week ago, Britons Peter Reynolds, 80, and his wife Barbie, 76, were released from a Kabul prison after almost eight months in detention. The Taliban authorities did not say why they were detained.
The couple was arrested in February and first held in a maximum security facility, “then in underground cells, without daylight, before being transferred” to the intelligence services in Kabul, UN experts have said.
READ ALSO:1.4 Million Girls Banned From Afghan Schools Since Taliban Return – UNESCO
The couple married in Kabul in 1970 and have spent almost two decades living in Afghanistan, running educational programmes for women and children. They also became Afghan citizens.
All the releases have been mediated by Qatar.
Both the US and the UK, like many other Western nations, warn against all travel to Afghanistan.
Russia is the only country to have officially recognised the Taliban government, which has imposed a strict version of Islamic law and been accused of sweeping human rights violations.
Dozens of foreign nationals have been arrested since the group returned to power in August 2021, when most embassies withdrew their diplomatic presence.
The Taliban government says it wants to have good relations with other countries, notably the United States, despite the 20-year war against US-led forces.
Headline
One Dead, Several Injured After US Shooting, Fire At Mormon Church

One person was killed and several others injured Sunday after a shooter targeted a Mormon church in the US state of Michigan, where the building was also set on fire, authorities said.
The suspect, a 40-year-old man from a nearby town, was shot dead by law enforcement after the attack, police said, without specifying any possible motive.
President Donald Trump called the shooting “horrendous” and said on his Truth Social platform it “appears to be yet another targeted attack on Christians in the United States of America.”
Images from the scene showed emergency services escorting people on stretchers and a large plume of dark smoke at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township.
READ ALSO:Head Of Mormon Church Is Dead
Local police chief William Renye told reporters the suspect drove his vehicle through the front doors of the church and then began firing at people inside with an assault rifle.
He said the service was active with “hundreds of people within the church.”
Authorities believe the gunman also deliberately set fire to the church before he was killed by responding police officers, Renye said.
Ten gunshot victims were transported to hospital, including one who has died, the official said.
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He added that the fire had been extinguished but that “we do believe that we will find additional victims once we have that scene secure.”
A woman who lives near the church told AFP: “My husband heard people screaming, one lady yelling for help.”
FBI agents are on the scene to assist the investigation, chief Kash Patel said on X.
“Violence in a place of worship is a cowardly and criminal act. Our prayers are with the victims and their families during this terrible tragedy,” he wrote.
Attorney General Pam Bondi also said she had been briefed on the incident.
Headline
Head Of Mormon Church Is Dead

Russell Nelson, who headed the Mormon church since 2018, died on Saturday night at age 101, the church announced.
“With sorrow we announce that Russell M. Nelson, beloved President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, passed away peacefully… at his home in Salt Lake City,” it said in a statement, using the church’s official name.
The former heart surgeon was “the oldest president in the history of the Church,” the statement added, without specifying a cause of death.
Utah Republican senator Mike Lee lauded Nelson as a “bold, visionary leader prepared by God to testify of Jesus Christ in the very times in which we now live.”
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Nelson became the 17th president of the Church in January 2018 at age 93, succeeding Thomas Monson.
Before becoming president, Nelson successfully pushed for the church to label same-sex married couples as “apostates” and bar their children under the age of 18 from religious rites, including baptisms — though that policy was scrapped after he took on the role.
He also broke with his predecessors and cautioned against using shorthands “LDS” or “Mormons” to refer to the church.
Nelson’s successor will be chosen after his funeral by the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who like the church’s president are considered prophets by believers.
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The religious leader is survived by his wife, eight of his children, 57 grandchildren and more than 167 great-grandchildren, according to the church.
Founded in 1830, the Mormon church considers itself a Christian body, but bases its doctrines on the Book of Mormon, a text purporting to contain a fuller version of the words of Jesus Christ than that recorded in the Bible.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints claims a total membership of more than 17.5 million people.
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