The 41-year-old, an American-born Kuwaiti national, was arrested on 2 March while visiting family in Kuwait.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported that his arrest came after he made a series of social media posts related to the US-Israeli war on Iran.
The posts included footage of a US fighter jet crashing into a US airbase in Kuwait. The CPJ emphasised that he had shared publicly available footage and images.
“We are relieved that, after 52 days in detention, Ahmed has been found innocent on all charges. Our focus now is upon ensuring the liberty and safety of our client,” Caoilfhionn Gallagher, international counsel to Shihab-Eldin’s sisters, said in a statement.
Kuwait releases journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin after acquittal
20,000 Teddy Bears on National Mall Highlight Ukrainian Children Taken by Russia
A display of 20,000 teddy bears appeared on the National Mall in Washington, DC, on Thursday to represent Ukrainian children that have been forcibly taken to Russia since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, AFP reported.
The demonstration, organized by Razom for Ukraine and the American Coalition for Ukraine, was held near the US Capitol under the message: “Bring Them Home.”
Melinda Haring, senior advisor for Razom for Ukraine, said the display was meant to show the scale of the abductions.
“There are 20,000 teddy bears on this fence,” Haring said. “Each of these teddy bears represents a Ukrainian child that was taken since 2022. Now, there’s officially about 20,000 Ukrainian children. The number is definitely larger than that, but we’re here to draw attention to Vladimir Putin and what he did to Ukrainian children.”
A catastrophic climate event is upon us. Here is why you’ve heard so little about it
The poor and middle pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the very rich pay lawyers – and the ultra-rich pay politicians. It’s not an original remark, but it bears repeating until everyone has heard it. The more money billionaires accumulate, the greater their control of the political system – which means they pay less tax, which means they accumulate more, which means their control intensifies.
They reshape the world to suit their demands. One of the symptoms of the pathology known as “billionaire brain” is an inability to see beyond their own short-term gain. They would sack the planet for a few more stones on the pointless mountain of wealth. And we can see it happening. Last week delivered the biggest news of the year so far, perhaps the biggest news of the century. But partly because billionaires own most of the media, most people never heard it. We might find ourselves committed to a civilisation-ending event before we even learn that such a thing is possible.
The news is that the state of a crucial oceanic circulation system has been reassessed by scientists. Some now believe that, as a result of climate breakdown changing the temperature and salinity of seawater, it is more likely than not to collapse. This system – known as the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (Amoc) – delivers heat from the tropics to the North Atlantic. Recent research suggests that if it shuts down, it could cause both a massive drop in average winter temperatures in northern Europe and drastic changes in the Amazon’s water cycles. This could help tip the rainforest into cascading collapse and trigger further disaster.
Amoc’s shutdown is likely also to cause an acceleration of sea level rise on the east coast of the US, threatening cities. It could also raise Antarctic temperatures by roughly 6C and release a vast pulse of carbon currently stored in the Southern Ocean, accelerating climate catastrophe.
India voices anger after Trump shares comments calling it a ‘hellhole’
India on Thursday criticised as inappropriate a post by Donald Trump in which he shared comments that called the South Asian country a “hellhole”.
The inflammatory post on Truth Social comes ahead of a planned visit next month to India by the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who is seeking to ease recent tensions between the normally friendly powers.
On Wednesday Trump posted a 4-page screed – apparently a transcription of remarks from conservative podcast host Michael Savage – that denounced the US constitutional right to citizenship of everyone born in the country.
Without evidence, the post accused Indian immigrants in the tech industry of not hiring white native-born Americans and inaccurately alleged that Indian immigrants lack English proficiency. Trump also posted a video of Savage delivering those comments to his podcast audience.
‘Worth a thousand words’: Trump photo obscuring women’s tennis team sparks backlash
A White House photo celebrating a champion women’s sports team has drawn backlash due to the positioning of Donald Trump and a group of men, who overshadowed the female athletes by lining up in front of them.
The University of Georgia women’s tennis team was one of several collegiate teams to visit the White House on Tuesday to mark a recent NCAA championship win. In a photo shared by press aide Margo Martin, Donald Trump and five Georgia staffers and coaches took up the front row of a stage setup, with 11 women standing in the background on a riser.
The men standing alongside Trump were, from left to right: Georgia deputy athletic director Ford Williams, athletic director Josh Brooks, head coach Drake Bernstein, associate head coach Jarryd Chaplin and assistant coach Will Reynolds.
The women standing behind him were, in the back row: Anastasiia Lopata, Mai Nirundorn, Aysegul Mert, Sarah Branicki and Alexandra Vecic; in the middle row: Tatum Buffington, Guillermina Grant, Haley Gaudette and Sofia Rojas; and in the front row: Mell Reasco and Hayden Mulberry.
Israel's US-born ambassador, who met Lebanese counterpart in Oval Office, was part of extremist Jewish Defense League
As he attempts to wind down the regional war in the Middle East he kicked off in February by joining Israel in attacking Iran, Donald Trump just hosted the ambassadors of Lebanon and Israel in the Oval Office, and invited television cameras in to capture the foreign officials praising him.
The ambassadors agreed to extend a ceasefire in Lebanon, which has been bombarded and invaded by Israel as it seeks to degrade the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, and Trump pledged to support the Lebanese government’s efforts to govern without the support of Hezbollah, which also has a political wing with significant support in the country.
As +972 magazine, an independent Israeli and Palestinian outlet, reported last year, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, was born and raised in the United States.
Leiter thanked Trump for bringing him together with the Lebanese ambassador and cast Israel’s objective as “liberating Lebanon” from what he called Hezbollah’s “occupation” of the country. Hezbollah is, however, a Lebanese movement which only came into being in 1982 in response to a previous invasion and occupation of Lebanon by Israel.
Before he emigrated to Israel at the age of 18, and joined the Israeli military, Leiter was, +972 reported, “a member of the far-right Jewish Defense League, a violent vigilante group founded by the extremist American rabbi Meir Kahane.”
US soldier involved in Maduro raid charged over alleged bets on capture
A US soldier who played a role in the January capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro is now in custody after allegedly cashing in over $400,000 on wagers about the politician’s removal from office, federal authorities announced on Thursday.
Prosecutors say beginning in early December the soldier, Gannon Ken Van Dyke, was involved in planning for the military operation to capture and depose Maduro.
Between early December and early January, Van Dyke allegedly placed 13 bets on Polymarket, a popular prediction market, related to American forces invading Venezuela and taking its head of state.
Van Dyke has been charged with commodities and wire fraud in addition to unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, according to the Department of Justice (DoJ). He is facing up to 60 years in prison.
Iran Seizes Vessel In Strait Of Hormuz, Defying U.S. Naval Superiority
U.S. President Donald Trump dismissed the threat posed by Iran’s “little wise-guy ships” and told reporters that he believed Tehran wanted to make a deal but that its leadership was in turmoil. Trump added that he was in no hurry for a deal, but if Iran did not want one, “I’ll finish it up militarily.”
Iranian state television broadcast video overnight of masked troops pulling up in a grey speedboat alongside the MSC Francesca, climbing a rope ladder to a door in the hull and jumping through, brandishing rifles.
The video, presented with an action-movie-style soundtrack and no commentary, included views of another ship, the Epaminondas. Iran said it had captured both on Wednesday, accusing them of trying to cross the strait without permits.
DOJ watchdog to review department’s compliance with Epstein files law
The Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General says it will audit the department’s compliance with a law mandating the public release of the Epstein files.
The audit, initiated by the acting official running the office, comes amid complaints on both sides of the aisle that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has failed to fully release the files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and improperly concealed the identities of some named in the files.
“The DOJ Office of the Inspector General (OIG) is initiating an audit of DOJ’s compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Our preliminary objective is to evaluate the DOJ’s processes for identifying, redacting, and releasing records in its possession as required by the Act,” it said.
The OIG will look at how the DOJ set guidelines for sifting through the 6 million files, the directives it gave staffers over what could be held back or redacted and how the DOJ addressed “post-release publication concerns,” including revealing the names of victims who were slated to be redacted under the law.
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