Hong Kong's Bun festival and Seoul martial arts: photos of the day
People clad in traditional military attire take part in a Joseon-era martial arts performance Photograph: Yonhap/EPA
A man fires a rifle loaded with blanks during a parade honouring the battle of Puebla, which commemorates the clash between Mexican and French troops in 1862 Photograph: Carl de Souza/AFP/Getty Images
Police officers take part in Cops Combat, a nationwide martial arts competition to help improve self-defence skills Photograph: Chalinee Thirasupa/Reuters
A boy performs a lion dance at the Piu Sik parade during celebrations of the Bun festival at Cheung Chau Island Photograph: Bertha Wang/EPA
King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden stops to pick up an Icelandic flag to hand it to Iceland's president, Halla Tómasdóttir, at the inner courtyard of the royal palace Photograph: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images
Demi Moore arrives on the red carpet at the 2025 Met Gala celebrating the opening of Superfine: Tailoring Black Style at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Photograph: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
Flamingos walk through Lake Mogan as they stop at the wetlands during their migration Photograph: Hamit Yalcin/Anadolu/Getty Images
East Timorese cardinal Virgílio do Carmo da Silva gestures to members of the press as he arrives for a congregation meeting Photograph: Stefano Rellandini/AFP/Getty Images
A large plume of smoke rises after explosions at a fuel depot Photograph: Khalid Abdelaziz/Reuters
A person takes a picture of a projection of names of victims of the bombing of Rotterdam. The installation runs until 14 May, the date that marks 85 years since the Germans bombed the city Photograph: Robin van Lonkhuijsen/EPA
Workers carry official sealed ballots for storage at city hall in Quezon City, as about 68 million Filipinos are expected to cast their votes for upcoming elections with 18,000 government positions to fill Photograph: Rolex dela Peña/EPA
Voting cards for the election of German chancellor at the Bundestag Photograph: Hannibal Hanschke/EPA
Palestinian baby Yusuf al-Najjar receives treatment for severe malnutrition at al-Nasser hospital Photograph: Doaa Albaz/Anadolu/Getty Images
Emergency services tackle a blaze at the site of a Russian drone strike on the Barabashovo market
Photograph: Sergey Kozlov/EPA
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
5 hours ago
- The Guardian
‘Wolves in sheep's clothing': how a neo-Nazi cell infiltrated a martial arts school in Tennessee
A neo-Nazi fight club that secretly infiltrated a Tennessee martial arts school where young children train has been banned from the facility, after an inquiry by the Guardian. Last month, the South Central Tennessee Active Club published video footage on the messaging app Telegram showing its members participating in combat training at Shelbyville BJJ Academy, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu school in Shelbyville, Tennessee, that offers classes to students as young as three years old. The group is part of the wider Active Club network, which consists of dozens of decentralized cells across the US and abroad that use combat sports to lure people into white nationalist and neo-Nazi causes. While lesser known than other far-right groups like the Proud Boys, experts warn Active Clubs are acutely dangerous because they recruit boys and young men into violent white nationalist circles by using notions of fraternity as a gateway to extremism. 'What makes them unique is the 'wolves in sheep's clothing' approach, which aims at fooling law enforcement into believing Active Clubs are just about sports,' Alexander Ritzmann, a political scientist and senior advisor at the Counter Extremism Project who studies the movement, told the Guardian. In a 2023 report, Ritzmann warned that the ultimate goal of Active Clubs 'is the creation of a stand-by militia of trained and capable [right wing extremists] who can be activated when the need for coordinated violent action on a larger scale arises'. At one point in the video posted by the Tennessee cell, an Active Club flag featuring a sonnenrad, a symbol of Nazi Germany that has been adopted by neo-Nazis and other far-right extremists, can be seen hanging on the wall where young children would normally gather. After it was presented with the video of the Active Club training at its facilities, Shelbyville BJJ Academy told the Guardian 'that type of behavior at our gym is a direct violation of our code of ethics and goes against our community offering as a safe place for children and adults. 'The situation has been remedied promptly and we appreciate you bringing this to our attention,' the school continued, in a statement. 'We can assure you, this will not be happening again. Ever.' The academy also rejected the Active Club's extremist ideology, emphasizing: 'We accept and welcome all people. We all belong. No matter background, skin color, creed, nationality, or status.' As for how the group gained entry, the school said it provides keypad access to members so they can train outside regular class hours. It believes the Active Club entered using this method and said the access code has been changed. While the South Central Tennessee Active Club blurred the faces of most of its members shown in the video taken at Shelbyville BJJ Academy, the face of one man was left uncensored. His name: William Chase May. Records on Smoothcomp, a software used to organize and record combat sports events, show he was awarded his blue belt by Shelbyville BJJ Academy in 2023. The school confirmed that May was a member, though said his attendance was infrequent and that he only showed up from 'time to time'. He was banned after the Guardian brought his identity to its attention and, the academy said, an internal investigation into whether any other members made unauthorized use of the facility is ongoing. Riztmann told the Guardian that the Active Club's presence at the Tennessee academy is especially concerning because the movement's architect, the white supremacist Robert Rundo 'laid out the principle recruiting strategy, which includes reaching out to minors at schools'. In April, the Guardian reported on Telegram accounts which showed many Active Clubs in the US had participants between the ages of 16 and 18. Multiple images posted to the Google reviews page of Shelbyville BJJ by May, under the alias 'Chase Odinson' show he had trained and interacted with young children at the school as far back as 2023. May viewed a request for comment sent to him on Telegram by the Guardian, but did not reply. Images of the Active Club chapter training at the Shelbyville school were first discovered in September by a pseudonymous independent researcher who tracks Tennessee Active Clubs, according to chat logs they shared with the Guardian. In December, they began posting some of their findings on the social media network Bluesky, where they use the alias Inteltwink. 'It was through Chase May that I identified Shelbyville BJJ,' they told the Guardian, adding that they identified him after they 'infiltrated TAC's private telegram chat'. While it is unclear how frequently or for how long the Active Club used the school's facilities, the latest video confirms the group was sharing documentation of its activities there for months. The seat of Bedford County, Shelbyville is a city of 23,000 located 50 miles southeast of Nashville, the state capital. Tennessee has been identified in recent years by researchers and journalists as a hotbed for violent white nationalist activity. In 2023, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) revealed a statewide Tennessee Active Club was holding networking events and fight clubs at a Nashville area general store owned by a self-declared 'actual literal Nazi'. Last month, the SPLC reported that the statewide Active Club was being secretly controlled by the Patriot Front, a racist and neo-fascist hate group. In March, News Channel 5 reported Patriot Front had established a 122-acre compound in Tellico Plains. And, last fall, the Daily Beast reported that one of the men Channel 5 identified as a leader of that compound, Ian Elliott, had infiltrated another child-friendly Tennessee grappling school in Athens (the school kicked him out). Meanwhile May, who was part of the Active Club that infiltrated Shelbyville school, appears to be acquaintances with Elliott. An image he posted to his personal Telegram account on 26 October 2024 shows him and the Patriot Front leader posing alongside a third man whose face is obscured with a sonnenrad.
Reuters
18 hours ago
- Reuters
South Korea's chief trade envoy plans US visit June 22-27
SEOUL, June 21 (Reuters) - South Korea's trade minister Yeo Han-koo will visit the United States from June 22 to 27, the trade ministry said on Saturday. The visit will include discussions with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and the third round of bilateral technical discussions, a ministry official told Reuters. Further details about the meetings were not disclosed. South Korea, which is currently facing a 10% blanket tariff and a 25% country-specific duty temporarily paused for 90 days, agreed with the U.S. during initial trade negotiations in late April to craft a trade deal reducing tariffs by July 8. Asia's fourth-largest economy unexpectedly contracted in the first quarter amid U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs and domestic political unrest following former President Yoon Suk Yeol's martial law decree in December.
The Independent
a day ago
- The Independent
Close ally of drug kingpin 'El Mencho' gets 30 years in prison as US ramps up pressure on cartels
A close ally of fugitive Jalisco New Generation boss known as 'El Mencho' for years orchestrated a prolific drug trafficking operation, using a semi-submersible and other methods to avoid detection, and provided weapons to one of Mexico's most powerful cartels, prosecutors say. On Friday, José González Valencia, was sentenced in Washington's federal court to 30 years in a U.S. prison following his 2017 arrest at a beach resort in Brazil while vacationing with his family under a fake name. González Valencia, 49, known as 'Chepa,' along with his two brothers, led a group called 'Los Cuinis' that financed the drug trafficking operations of Jalisco New Generation, or CJNG — the violent cartel recently designated a foreign terrorist organization by the Trump administration. His brother-in-law is CJNG leader Nemesio Rubén 'El Mencho' Oseguera Cervantes, whom for years has been sought by the U.S. government. Meanwhile, El Mencho's son-in-law, Cristian Fernando Gutiérrez Ochoa, appeared in the same courtroom earlier Friday to plead guilty in a separate case to a money laundering conspiracy charge. Gutierrez Ochoa was arrested toward the end of the Biden administration last year in California, where authorities have said he was living under a bogus name after faking his own death and fleeing Mexico. Together, the prosecutions reflect the U.S. government's efforts to weaken the brutal Jalisco New Generation cartel that's responsible for importing staggering amounts of cocaine, methamphetamine and fentanyl into the U.S. — and track down its elusive leader. The Trump administration has sought to turn up the pressure on CJNG and other cartels with the foreign terrorist organization designation, which gives authorities new tools to prosecute those associated with cartels. 'You can't totally prosecute your way out of the cartel problem, but you can make an actual impact by letting people know that we're going to be enforcing this and showing that Mexico is being cooperative with us and then ultimately trying to get high level targets to sort of set the organization back,' Matthew Galeotti, who lead the Justice Department's criminal division, said in an interview with The Associated Press. Trump's Justice Department has declared dismantling CJNG and other cartels a top priority, and Galetotti said the U.S. in recent months has seen increased cooperation from Mexican officials. In February, Mexico sent 29 cartel figures — including drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero, who was behind the killing of a U.S. DEA agent in 1985 — to the U.S. for prosecution. The Trump administration has already charged a handful of defendants with terrorism offenses since designating CJNG and seven other Latin American crime organizations as foreign terrorist organizations in February. Galeotti said several additional indictments related to CJNG and other cartels remain under seal. 'We are taking a division-wide approach to this,' Galeotti said. 'We've got money laundering prosecutors who are not just focused on the cartels themselves ... but also on financial facilitators. So when we're taking this broad approach … that's why I think we've had some of the really significant cases that we've had, and we've seen a very significant pipeline.' González Valencia pleaded guilty to international cocaine trafficking in 2022. Authorities say he went into hiding in Bolivia in 2015 after leading 'Los Cuinis' alongside his brothers for more than a decade. He was arrested in 2017 under the first Trump administration after traveling to Brazil, and was later extradited to the U.S. 'Los Cuinis' used 'air, land, sea, and under-the-sea methods' to smuggle drugs bound for the U.S., prosecutors say. In one instance, authorities say González Valencia invested in a shipment of 4,000 kilograms of cocaine that was packed in a semi-submersible vessel to travel from Colombia to Guatemala. Other methods employed by 'Los Cuinis' include hiding drugs in frozen shark carcasses, prosecutors say. He's also accused of directing the killing of a rival. He appeared in court wearing an orange jumpsuit and listened to the hearing through an interpreter over headphones. U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell sealed part of the hearing, keeping the press and public out of the courtroom while lawyers argued over the sentence. It was not clear why the judge determined it had to be sealed. González Valencia's lawyer declined to comment after the hearing. In the other case, Gutiérrez Ochoa was wanted in Mexico on allegations that he kidnapped two Mexican Navy members in 2021 in the hopes of securing the release of 'El Mencho's' wife after she had been arrested by Mexican authorities, prosecutors have said. Authorities have said he faked his own death and fled to the U.S. to avoid Mexican authorities, and 'El Mencho' told associates that he killed Gutiérrez Ochoa for lying. 'El Mencho's' son, Rubén Oseguera — known as 'El Menchito' — was sentenced to March to life in prison after his conviction in Washington's federal court of conspiring to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine for U.S. importation and using a firearm in a drug conspiracy. ___
