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Javier Bardem says condemning the Gaza genocide has led to more work | Gaza
Spanish actor Javier Bardem says speaking out against Israel’s genocide on Gaza has actually landed him more offers for work. Speaking at the Cannes Film Festival, he said he believes the global narrative about Gaza has changed.
Published On 17 May 2026
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Workers racing to turn reflecting pool blue for Trump may be at risk, union warns | Washington DC
Workers renovating one of Washington DC’s most historically symbolic sites in a project ordered by Donald Trump may be risking their safety as they race to finish on time for the US’s 250th anniversary celebrations, a union monitoring the site has warned.
Trade union scrutiny has focused on the reflecting pool on the US capital’s National Mall – scene of Martin Luther King’s 1963 “I have a dream speech” – after it was drained of water and fenced off from the public to allow contractors the chance to upgrade it by 4 July.
The pool, a Washington landmark since it was dug in 1922, is currently the site of frenetic repair activity, its usual watery surface occupied instead by vehicle and work equipment. Tourists visiting the area have found their view obscured by black tarpaulin.
Leaks and algae blooms have for decades dogged the 2,000ft pool, which sits between the Lincoln and George Washington memorial monuments, turning its water green and confounding previous expensive government-commissioned repair schemes, including one commissioned by Barack Obama’s administration.
Last month, the Trump administration – vowing to solve the problem once and for all – awarded a no-bid contract to waterproof and repaint the pool to a Virginia-based company, Atlantic Industrial Coatings.
The president told journalists the company had successfully carried out work on a swimming pool at his golf club in Sterling, Virginia. In a patriotic flourish, he ordered the firm to repaint the pool’s floor “American flag blue”.
Other companies that do similar work have expressed indignation over being denied the chance to compete for the contract, according to Herbert Zaldivar, the business development director of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, who has visited the site as an observer.
Now the award is threatening to boomerang amid disclosures that Trump drastically understated the contract’s cost, and reports that officials at the Department of the Interior – which has responsibility for the site – are dissatisfied with the company’s work.
The New York Times reported that interior department staff members had complained of bubbles and small holes appearing in one of the layers meant to waterproof the pool. Documents also revealed concerns over varying shades of blue mottling the pool’s flooring, resulting from an uneven application of tinted waterproofing and fears that a 22 May deadline for completion of the work may be missed.
Meanwhile, the contract’s true cost – which Trump initially told journalists would be $1.8m – has been revealed to be $13.1m. Amid the controversy, Trump has distanced himself from the company, contradicting previous statements by denying that he had ever used it, and insisting he was not involved in awarding the contract.
Visiting the site on a blustery day last week, Zaldivar said he had been contacted by union-affiliated companies anxious to know why the usual bidding process had been circumvented.
“I’m here to verify if the company is in compliance and following the right guidelines,” the union representative said. “It’s very rare that a job like this, which is a publicly funded contract, doesn’t go to a competitive bid.
“This didn’t go through the right processes, so we lost the chance for a union-affiliated contractor to be part of the competition.”
The federal government has powers to award contracts on a non-competitive basis, but only when there is a risk of competition causing “serious injury” to the government.
Atlantic Industrial Coatings, which is described on its website as a “woman-owned advanced coatings application company”, has never previously been awarded a federal government contract, according to official databases.
Zaldivar said he was concerned for the safety of the workers on the project, none of whom had been willing to talk to him. “They are afraid to touch the subject, although I will continue to come and try to have conversations with workers,” he said. “With this project, they are trying to rush on a timescale that is most likely to leave some liability with the contractor.
“The chemicals are hazardous. My concern is usually the level of risk when it’s rushed. Are workers taking the rightful steps to protect themselves?”
Richard Jones, a company supervisor working on the site, answered “no comment” to a series of questions posed by the Guardian and referred all inquires to the National Park Service. “That’s who we have a contract with,” he said.
A spokesperson for the Department of the Interior – the park service’s parent agency – said: “There is no merit to these accusations. Like every federal agency, we follow all laws and regulations designed to ensure fair treatment and safety in the workplace.
“Unlike Barack Obama’s over $35m, 18-month long failed effort to fix the reflecting pool – which failed immediately, President Trump is an expert builder and will get this job done for many generations to come.”
Surveying the cordoned-off scene from near the Lincoln Memorial, Al Havinga, a retired civil servant with the US Environmental Protection Agency on a cycle ride with two friends, voiced fears about air pollution arising from the coating materials being used.
“All this stuff is volatile,” he said. “People are breathing in poisonous chemicals. There’s no consideration to the risk to the public in applying this stuff. I would guess they are using volatile organic chemicals. There’s no information on that. It’s opaque.”
Tourists visiting from afar voiced a mixture of disappointment and bewilderment at the sight. “It’s hugely disappointing and ruining the historical integrity,” said Michelle Criswell, a federal government worker from Oklahoma City touring the site with her husband, Michael, referring to the site’s importance in the campaign for Black civil rights.
Criswell, who is African American, added: “I came here for the history and had been looking forward to seeing this site for a while and that’s what I see – a row of black tarp. I feel that everything that’s being done is being done intentionally.”
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Egyptian teen Amina Orfi beats El-Sherbini to win PSA world squash title | Sport News
Orfi, 18, beats compatriot Nour El-Sherbini in a five-set thriller to win the PSA World Championship title in Giza.
Egypt’s Amina Orfi has rewritten squash history in her sensational title-winning run at the Professional Squash Association (PSA) World Championships 2026, beating world number two Nour El-Sherbini in a thrilling five-game final to become the youngest women’s world champion.
Eighteen-year-old Orfi defeated compatriot El-Sherbini 6-11, 11-6, 11-9, 7-11, 14-12 in Saturday’s final in Giza, Egypt.
At 18 years and 10 months, Orfi is not only the youngest women’s champion but also the first player to hold both world junior and senior PSA championship titles at the same time. The PSA is the global governing body for men’s and women’s professional squash circuits.
“I’m speechless,” Orfi said after bagging her 12th PSA title. “I worked so hard to get here and had so many tough losses this season.”
Orfi denied the 31-year-old El-Sherbini her ninth world title, the first of which she won at the age of 20.
The final produced the eighth-longest women’s match of all time and the second-longest women’s PSA World Championships final, behind only Rhonda Thorne and Vicki Hoffman’s 118-minute marathon in 1981.
El-Sherbini took the first game with ease as Orfi struggled to gather her rhythm on court. However, the opening loss didn’t seem to affect the teenager, who took control of the next two games to inch closer to her debut world championship title.
The eight-time champion found a second win in the fourth game after dominating Orfi to set up a historic fifth game.
Repeated tie-breaks signalled that the match could go either way, but a powerful backhand from Orfi that El-Sherbini failed to pick up saw the teenager claim victory.
Orfi, number three in the PSA’s world rankings, overcame another tough challenge in the semifinals when she defeated top-ranked Hania El-Hammamy in a four-game match.
The teenage squash sensation lost the opening game 10-12 but went on to win the next three games (11-7, 11-8, 11-9) against the 26-year-old El-Hammamy.
“I knew there was going to be pressure on both of them – Hania being world number one and Nour being a title away from breaking the record [for most world titles],” Orfi said.
“I knew I had the least pressure, and I went for it. I’m just so happy.”
Mostafa Asal retains men’s title
Meanwhile, reigning champion Mostafa Asal lifted the men’s trophy and claimed the second world championship title of his career after thrashing seventh-seeded Youssef Ibrahim 11-4, 11-1, 12-10.
Ibrahim made his maiden world championship final after defeating second-seeded Paul Coll and fourth-seeded former world champion Karim Abdel Gawad in the quarterfinals and semifinals. However, Asal remained in control of the 57-minute final.
“It feels amazing to win the world championships in front of your family and friends,” the 25-year-old Egyptian said.
“Credit to Youssef Ibrahim. To even be playing here with his shoulder injury, he’s superhuman. He’s a good friend of mine, and we grew up together.
“It’s so hard. I got edgy in the third game. The pressure was on for sure. It’s never easy playing in Egypt to defend a world title. There’s so much pressure playing in front of everyone here.”
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Two Nepali Sherpa climbers break own records on Mount Everest | Mount Everest News
Kami Rita Sherpa breaks his own record with a 32nd climb while Lhakpa Sherpa breaks her own women’s record with an 11th summit of Mount Everest.
Published On 17 May 2026
Two renowned Nepali guides have scaled Mount Everest with one called the “Everest Man” breaking his own record set last year with a 32nd climb and the other, known as the “Mountain Queen”, breaking her own women’s record with an 11th summit.
“This is another milestone in Nepal’s mountaineering history,” Himal Gautam, spokesperson for Nepal’s Tourism Department, told the AFP news agency on Sunday.
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list of 3 itemsend of listKami Rita Sherpa, 56, first stood on top of the world’s highest mountain in 1994 while working for a commercial expedition. Since then, he has continued to guide clients climbing Mount Everest almost every year, reaching the summit twice in some years.
Lhakpa Sherpa, 52, first stood on top of Everest in 2000, becoming the first Nepali woman to successfully summit and descend the Himalayan peak.
“Their record gives greater excitement to other climbers,” Gautam said. “By breaking records through healthy competition on Everest will help make climbing safer, more dignified and better managed.”
In 2024, after another ascent of the 8,849-metre (29,032ft) peak, Kami Rita said he was “just working” and did not plan on setting records.
Kami Rita was born in the same Thame village in Solukhumbu district as Tenzing Norgay, who with Edmund Hillary was the first to climb Everest in 1953.
Since then, a climbing boom has made mountaineering a lucrative business.
Nepal has issued a record 492 Everest permits this year for the March-May climbing season. More than 8,000 people have climbed the mountain since Hillary and Norgay’s expedition, many of them several times.
Among non-Sherpa climbers, the record is held by British guide Kenton Cool, who has accomplished the feat 19 times, followed by American climbers Dave Hahn and Garrett Madison with 15 climbs each. Cool and Madison are currently on Everest to improve their records.
The high numbers of climbers along with their Sherpa guides who are expected to head for the summit in the next few days have rekindled concerns about overcrowding on the mountain, especially if poor weather shortens the climbing window.
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FBI offers $200,000 for ex-Air Force agent who allegedly defected to Iran
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The FBI announced on Thursday that it is offering $200,000 for information that leads to the arrest and prosecution of a former active-duty U.S. Air Force intelligence specialist and special agent for the Air Force Office of Special Investigations who is accused of espionage.
Monica Witt, 47, also known to use the aliases Fatemah Zarah and Narges Witt, was federally indicted in Washington, D.C. in 2018 and charged with espionage. She is accused of defecting to Iran and turning over classified information to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Here’s what we know about Witt’s alleged descent from American warfighter to suspected Iranian asset.
FBI OFFERS $200K REWARD FOR FORMER AIR FORCE INTELLIGENCE AGENT ACCUSED OF SPYING FOR IRAN
Split of Monica Witt, who is wanted by the FBI for sharing sensitive information with Iran. (FBI)
U.S. military service
Witt was born in El Paso, Texas, and enlisted in the Air Force in 1997, shortly after her 18th birthday. According to the New York Times, she was assigned to an RC-135 reconnaissance airplane crew.
Her 2018 indictment says she was assigned to the U.S. Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, between 1998 and 1999, where she learned Persian Farsi.
From May 1999 to November 2003, Witt was deployed to “several overseas locations in order to conduct classified missions collecting signals intelligence.”
In 2002, she reportedly deployed to Saudi Arabia.
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The indictment says Witt was assigned as an Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) special agent criminal investigator and counterintelligence officer, where she deployed elsewhere in the Middle East, including Iraq in 2005 and Qatar in 2006.
Monica Witt is believed to be living in Iran, according to FBI officials. (FBI)
She was part of a “Special Access Program” (SAP) that gave her access to classified information, including “details of ongoing counterintelligence operations, true names of sources, and the identities of U.S. agents involved in the recruitment of those sources.”
“This SAP was known within the USIC by a code name,” the indictment says. “The code name allowed agents to communicate in the open without disclosing the true nature of their operations.”
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Witt’s time as a member of the Air Force came to an end in 2008.
Government contracting and education
From 2008 until 2010, Witt was employed as a government contractor but worked with AFOSI.
The New York Times reported that Witt received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland in 2008, just about the same time she left the Air Force. Thereafter, she enrolled in a graduate program at George Washington University in Middle East studies.
Witt was described as “withdrawn” and “alienated” by classmates, who also mentioned “drone strikes, extrajudicial killings and atrocities against children.”
It was in February 2012, just before she graduated from George Washington University, that the government says Witt set her plans to betray the United States and defect to Iran in motion.
A bridge damaged by U.S. airstrikes is seen in Karaj, west of Tehran, Iran, on April 3, 2026. (Vahid Salemi/AP Photo)
She traveled to Iran that month to attend the International Conference on Hollywoodism in Tehran, an anti-western event held during the Fajr International Film Festival each year “aimed at condemning American moral standards and promoting anti-U.S. propaganda,” according to the indictment.
FORMER FBI AGENT ROBERT LEVINSON’S DISAPPEARANCE STILL UNSOLVED AS BUREAU PRESSES FOR NEW TIPS
During that trip, she is accused of providing her “bona fides” to the IRGC in order to establish that she was a credible source of American national defense intelligence and that she disclosed government secrets to them.
She was not invited to the Hollywoodism, but was allowed to speak anyway, according to The New York Times. The indictment says she “was identified as a U.S. veteran and made statements that were critical of the U.S. government, knowing these videos would be broadcast by Iranian media outlets.”
At the same time, her public conversion to Islam was filmed and broadcast on Iranian state television.
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In May, at about the same time she received her graduate degree, the FBI reached out to Witt, telling her she was a prime target for recruitment by Iranian intelligence officials.
An Iranian flag is planted in the rubble of a police station, damaged in airstrikes on March 3, 2026 in Tehran, Iran. (Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)
Defection
By then, it was too late.
Witt had become ensnared by a “spotter” — someone who recruits on behalf of a foreign intelligence service — in this case, Iran.
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The indictment refers to the “spotter” as “Individual A,” named by The New York Times as Louisiana-born journalist turned naturalized Iranian citizen and state television broadcaster Marzieh Hashemi.
Hashemi allegedly traveled to the U.S., and along with Witt, filmed an anti-Western propaganda film that was later distributed in Iran.
Over the course of the next year, according to the indictment, Witt bounced around from country to country while she worked with Hashemi to gain permanent residence in Iran. Some of that time was spent in Dubai and Afghanistan.
Around that time, the FBI put out a missing persons declaration for Witt, saying that as of July 2013, she was believed to be in either Afghanistan or Tajikistan teaching English.
Iranians set fire to United States and Israel flags during a gathering at Enghelab Square in Tehran on March 17, 2026, to commemorate those killed from the Dena naval vessel sinking. (Getty Images)
Text messages between the pair chronicled their efforts, including Iranian suspicion of Witt and alleged plans to “slip into Russia quietly” and expose U.S. secrets via WikiLeaks if she couldn’t gain access to Iran. Witt explicitly said in one message that she would not go to Turkey for fear of the country’s extradition agreement with the United States.
But on Aug. 25, 2013, according to the indictment, Witt sent an email titled “My Bio and Job History” to Hashemi, which contained more “bona fides,” her Certificate of Release or Discharge From Active Duty DD-214 form, and her Islamic “conversion narrative.” The indictment alleges that around the same time, she searched on Facebook for the names of U.S. intelligence services assets.
IRAN HACKERS TAUNTED ‘MR. MUSTACHE’ JOHN BOLTON ABOUT STOLEN FILES THAT WERE ALLEGEDLY CLASSIFIED
The same day, that email was forwarded to an email address associated with the Iranian government.
On Aug. 28, 2013, she boarded a flight to Iran.
“I’m signing off and heading out! Coming home,” she texted Hashemi.
Motorists ride past the Imam Sadiq (AS) mosque with a giant Iranian flag installed on its front at the Palestine Square in Tehran on April 19, 2026. (ATTA KENARE / AFP via Getty Images)
Life in Iran
Immediately after defecting, Witt was accused of providing Iranian government officials with the code name for a Department of Defense SAP.
Throughout 2014 and 2015, she is accused of helping create “target packages,” defined as, “a document, or set of documents, assembled to enable an intelligence or military unit to find, fix, track, and neutralize a threat,” for the Iranian government.
Those “target patches” have allegedly included the names of U.S. counterintelligence agents.
FEDERAL JUDGE GIVES MAN 15 YEARS FOR IRAN-BACKED ASSASSINATION PLOT ON US SOIL
Later, she is accused of linking up with Iranian hackers and producing malware “designed to capture a target’s keystrokes, access a computer’s web camera, and monitor other computer activity.”
This technology was turned against U.S. intelligence assets whom Witt identified, according to the indictment. Witt and her co-defendants concocted schemes to implant malware on the computers of U.S. military intelligence workers known to Witt, mostly by reaching out to them through Facebook.
Mourners wave Iranian flags and hold a poster of Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei during a funeral procession in Tehran, Iran, on March 11, 2026. (Vahid Salemi/AP)
She was indicted alongside four other co-conspirators accused in the hacking operation.
Witt is officially charged with conspiracy to deliver and delivering national defense information to representatives of the Iranian government, delivering national defense information to representatives of the Iranian government, conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, computer intrusion, aggravated identity theft and aiding and abetting.
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“Monica Witt allegedly betrayed her oath to the Constitution more than a decade ago by defecting to Iran and providing the Iranian regime National Defense Information and likely continues to support their nefarious activities,” Daniel Wierzbicki, special agent in charge of the FBI Washington Field Office’s Counterintelligence and Cyber Division, said in Thursday’s announcement about the $200,000 reward.
“The FBI has not forgotten and believes that during this critical moment in Iran’s history, there is someone who knows something about her whereabouts. The FBI wants to hear from you so you can help us apprehend Witt and bring her to justice.”
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American Culture Quiz: Test yourself on Knicks knowledge and sitcom similarities
The American Culture Quiz is a weekly test of our unique national traits, trends, history and people — including current events and the sights and sounds of the United States.
This week’s quiz highlights Knicks knowledge, sitcom similarities — and a whole lot more.
Can you get all 8 questions right?
Give it a try and see how you do!
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American Culture Quiz! How well do you know this week’s topics? (Getty Images; iStock)
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