Woman arrested at LAX, accused of brokering weapons deals for Iran

An Iranian woman who resides in Southern California was arrested on suspicion of “trafficking arms on behalf” of the Iranian government, an official said on Sunday, April 19.

Shamim Mafi, 44, was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport on April 18, said Bill Essayli, first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California.

According to a criminal complaint, Mafi is accused of having “conspired with others to perpetrate an unlawful scheme to broker the sale of weapons, weapons components, and ammunition on behalf of the Government of Iran,” violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

The International Emergency Economic Powers Act gives the president “broad authority to regulate a variety of economic transactions following a declaration of national emergency,” according to theCongressional Research Service. PresidentDonald Trumphas used thislaw to impose sweeping tariffs.

See how Middle Eastern countries are caught in the crossfire of the war launched by the United States and Israel against Iran.
Bahrain
Smoke rises in the sky after blasts were heard in Manama, Bahrain, Feb. 28, 2026.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Syria
Syrian children stand on the wreckage of an Iranian rocket that was reportedly intercepted by Israeli forces in the southern countryside of Quneitra, near the Golan Heights, close to the town of Ghadir al-Bustan.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Iraq
A plume of smoke rises near Erbil International Airport in Erbil on March 1, 2026. Loud explosions were heard early on March 1 near Erbil airport, which hosts US-led coalition troops in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, an AFP journalist said.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Iraq
Members and officers from the Iraqi Interior Ministry's Explosives Directorate inspect the fuel tank of a rocket that landed in a rural village in the Siyahi area near the city of Hilla in the central Babil province on March 1, 2026. Iraq, which has recently regained a sense of stability but has long been a proxy battleground between the U.S. and Iran, warned that it did not want to be dragged into the war that started on Feb. 28 with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Qatar
A prayer appealing to God for protection is projected on the dome of al-Hazm shopping mall in Doha on March 1, 2026.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Qatar
Motorists drive past a plume of smoke rising from a reported Iranian strike in the industrial district of Doha on March 1, 2026.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Bahrain
A building that was damaged by an Iranian drone attack, after Israel and the U.S. launched strikes on Iran, in Manama, Bahrain, March 1, 2026.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Saudi Arabia
The empty terminal at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh is pictured on March 1, 2026. Global airlines cancelled flights across the Middle East after the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran on Saturday, plunging the region into a new conflict. In Saudi Arabia, Iranian missiles targeting Riyadh's international airport and the Prince Sultan Airbase, which houses U.S. military personnel, were intercepted, a Gulf source briefed on the matter told AFP.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> United Arab Emirates
A food delivery bike drive close to a plume of smoke rising from the Zayed Port following a reported Iranian strike in Abu Dhabi on March 1, 2026.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> United Arab Emirates
An oil tanker is pictured offshore in Dubai on March 1, 2026. Attacks have damaged tankers, and many ship owners, oil majors and trading houses suspended crude oil, fuel and liquefied natural gas shipments via the Strait of Hormuz.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Oman
Smoke billows from an oil tanker under U.S. sanctions, that was hit off Oman's Musandam peninsula, in this screen grab from a video obtained by Reuters on March 1, 2026.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Kuwait
Smoke rises from a reported Iranian strike in the area where the U.S. Embassy is located in Kuwait City on March 2, 2026. Black smoke was seen rising from the U.S. embassy in Kuwait City on March 2 after the latest volley of Iranian strikes, an AFP correspondent saw,

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Saudi Arabia
A satellite image shows efforts to control a fire as smoke rises in the Ras Tanura oil refinery in Saudi Arabia after a drone attack, amid the U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran, in Ras Tanura, Saudi Arabia March 2, 2026.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Turkey
People make their way after crossing from Iran into Turkey at the Kapikoy Border Gate in eastern Van province,Turkey, March 2, 2026.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> United Arab Emirates
Delivery persons ride motorcycles along a road as a tall smoke plume billows following an explosion in the Fujairah industrial zone on March 3, 2026.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> United Arab Emirates
Pieces of missiles and drones recovered after Iran's strikes are displayed during a press briefing by the UAE government held in Abu Dhabi on March 3, 2026. Iran stepped up its attacks on economic targets and US missions across the Middle East on March 3, as the US president warned it was "too late" for the Islamic republic to seek talks to escape the war. As drones and missiles crashed into oil facilities and U.S. embassies in the Gulf, Washington's ally Israel bombarded targets in Iran and pushed troops deeper into Lebanon to battle the Tehran-backed militia Hezbollah.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Lebanon
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike on the southern suburbs of Beirut on March 3, 2026. The Israeli military issued new evacuation orders for dozens of locations in Lebanon on March 3, including warning residents in two southern Beirut neighbourhoods to stay away from several buildings ahead of an imminent operation.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Lebanon
Emergency personnel work at the site of an Israeli strike on Beirut's southern suburbs, following an escalation between Hezbollah and Israel amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, Lebanon, March 3, 2026.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Lebanon
Rescuers gather at the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the Jamaa Islamiya offices in the southern Lebanese coastal city of Sidon on March 3, 2026.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> United Arab Emirates
Tankers are seen off the coast of the Fujairah, as Iran vows to close the Strait of Hormuz, amid the U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran, in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, March 3, 2026.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" />

See how the Iran war’s fallout is hitting the Middle East

See how Middle Eastern countries are caught in the crossfire of thewar launched by the United States and Israel against Iran.BahrainSmoke rises in the sky after blasts were heard in Manama, Bahrain, Feb. 28, 2026.

According to the complaint, Mafi, with the assistance of an unnamed co-conspirator, “brokered the sale of 55,000 bomb fuses to the Sudanese Ministry of Defense.” In addition, they “brokered the sale of millions of rounds of ammunition from Iran to Sudan.”

Mafi is accused of brokering weapons deals on behalf of Iran through a company she owns with a co-conspirator as recent as early 2025, according to the complaint. That includes one contract valued at over 60 million euros for a sale of Iranian-made drones to Sudan’s ministry of defense, according to the complaint. Other items that Mafi brokered, or attempted to broker, included “bombs” and “assault weapons,” according to the complaint.

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Essayli said that Mafi is expected to make her first court appearance on April 20. It’s not immediately clear who represents Mafi.

According to the complaint, Mafi was born in Iran but is a lawful permanent resident of the United States and maintains a residence in Woodland Hills of Los Angeles.

She frequently traveled to and from Los Angeles, and Mafi “only spends part of her time” in the U.S., according to the complaint.

Mafi faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison if convicted, according to Essayli.

Paris Barraza is a reporter covering Los Angeles and Southern California for the USA TODAY Network. Reach her atpbarraza@usatodayco.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Los Angeles woman arrested, accused of 'trafficking arms' for Iran

byVaclavien Pynzarien

in

April 23, 2026

Woman arrested at LAX, accused of brokering weapons deals for Iran

An Iranian woman who resides in Southern California was arrested on suspicion of “trafficking arms on behalf” of the Iranian government...

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Turkey sentences 8 people to prison terms in deadly 2024 cable car accident

ISTANBUL (AP) — A court in southern Turkey sentenced eight people on Monday to prison terms over a 2024cable car accidentin the coastal resort of Antalya that killed one passenger and injured seven.

Four of the defendants were convicted of causing death and injury through negligence and were sentenced to 7½ years each, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported. The other four were sentenced to between three years and four months and five years for the same offense.

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In the April 12, 2024 accident, one of the cable car gondolas hit a pole and burst open, sending its passengers plummeting to the rocks below. The cable car system then shut down, leaving 174 people stranded in their gondolas high above ground — some for nearly 23 hours — before they were rescued.

The cable car carries tourists from Konyaalti Beach to a restaurant and viewing platform at the summit of the 618-meter (2,010-foot) Tunektepe peak. The accident happened during the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Most of the defendants in the case were employees were employees of ANET, a subsidiary of Antalya Metropolitan Municipality that operates the cable car in the Mediterranean city.

byVaclavien Pynzarien

in

April 22, 2026

Turkey sentences 8 people to prison terms in deadly 2024 cable car accident

ISTANBUL (AP) — A court in southern Turkey sentenced eight people on Monday to prison terms over a 2024cable car accidentin the coastal...

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Woman’s body found in northeastern Japan after bear attacks police officer

A woman’s body was found by authorities in northeasternJapan’s Iwate prefecture, shortly after a police officer was injured in abearencounter while searching for a missing person in the area.

The 56-year-old officer suffered wounds to his arm and face after coming across the animal near a stream on Tuesday.

He remained conscious while being taken to the hospital, local authorities said on Tuesday. Authorities believe thebearwas an adult. A short distance away, the search team later found the woman’s body.

A hunter accompanying the team shot and killed the bear, an adult measuring about 1.3m.

Mainichi Shimbunreported that the police officers were searching for the driver of a vehicle found on a road with its engine running late Monday afternoon when the bear attacked the officer.

If the death is officially confirmed as abear attack, it would markJapan’s first such fatality of 2026, following a series of incidents in recent years. The details of whether the injuries on the woman’s body were in line with bear attack could not be ascertained.

The last bear attack occurred on 3 November last year in Yuzawa, in neighbouring Akita prefecture, according to the environment ministry.

Bear encounters inJapanhave become increasingly dangerous, with 13 deaths recorded nationwide since April last year, including several in Iwate alone. Hundreds were injured. Five people were killed in bear attacks between July and October last year in the prefecture – four of them in October alone, the government data shows.

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The attacks had left the residents in the area scared, especially in Iwate and Akita prefectures and in fact it was reported at the time that they were carrying bags with bells to scare off the animals.

Japan had deployed its Self-Defence Forces (SDF) to the Akita prefecture to help contain an increase in the deadly attacks, as bear sightings in the region jumped sixfold to over 8,000 last year till November.

The Japan Tourism Agency was planning to subsidise up to half the cost of installing protective fences around its open-air baths at traditional inns and hotels following the rise in bear sightings near popular tourist areas.

In Akita, residents said at the time that bears were increasingly straying into villages and near shops in sparsely populated rural areas. Experts noted that this is likely driven by dwindling natural food supplies.

They say bear attacks usually rise in autumn before hibernation, but climate change and a shortage of their usual beech nut food may be pushing them into towns.

Experts also warn that Japan’s bear population – now more than 50,000 across brown and black species – has outgrown the country’s mountainous habitats, with climate change, rural depopulation, and declining hunter numbers worsening the crisis.

Japanese black bears, found across much of the country, can grow to around 130kg, while the larger brown bears that inhabit the northern island of Hokkaido can reach weights of up to 400kg.

Japan reinstated bear population control measures in 2024 after years of protection, but efforts are hampered by a shortage of hunters, now fewer than half the number in 1980 and mostly elderly.

Despite limited resources, authorities culled over 9,000 bears in 2023-24 and more than 4,200 between April and September last year, including over 1,000 in Akita prefecture alone.

byVaclavien Pynzarien

in

April 22, 2026

Woman’s body found in northeastern Japan after bear attacks police officer

A woman’s body was found by authorities in northeasternJapan’s Iwate prefecture, shortly after a police officer was injured in abearenc...

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FBI investigating deaths, disappearances of staff at government labs

The FBI is leading the effort to look for possible connections into the cases of 10 missing or deceased scientists and staff who worked at sensitive nuclear or space technology laboratories, according to senior law enforcement officials.

In a statement Tuesday, the FBI confirmed it is "spearheading the effort to look for connections into the missing and deceased scientists. We are working with the Department of Energy, Department of War, and with our state and state and local law enforcement partners to find answers."

But those close to the various investigations into the disparate cases have said they see no links between them.

President Trump mentioned concerns about it last week.

"I just left a meeting on that subject, so pretty serious stuff," Mr. Trump told reporters Thursday. "Hopefully, coincidence... but some of them were very important people, and we are going to look at it."

Social media has recently lit up with theories about the disappearances and deaths, which occurred over three years and involved several researchers and other staff with ties to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Speculation has swirled about whether there's some kind of plot to harm U.S. nuclear or space programs.

Those involved in the various cases, however, have said that what underlies these deaths and disappearances is not a spy-thriller plot, but something more personal and tragic.

Retired Major General William Neil McCasland, 68, waslast seen at his homein Albuquerque, New Mexico, in late February. His wife, Susan McCasland Wilkerson, said in a Facebook post that it "seems quite unlikely that he was taken to extract very dated secrets from him." Her husband retired from the Air Force more than 12 years ago.

McCasland's disappearance has sparked significant online speculation about potential connections to classified military programs and UFOs because of his past role as the commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory on the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. He's one of four current or former employees at sensitive sites who've gone missing in New Mexico over roughly the last year.

The FBI's role has evolved since last week, when a well-placed government source told CBS News on April 16 that the FBI was not investigating the disappearances and deaths as part of a suspicious pattern. Rather, the Department of Energy, which oversees NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory, was looking into it.

FBI spokesman Ben Williamson described the issue last week as a "developing situation."

"The FBI is aware and providing all assistance requested," he said. "Usually what happens is we are not the lead in cases like this unless local authorities request."

FBI Director Kash Patel signaled the stepped-up involvement on Sunday, telling Fox News, "The FBI is going to be spearheading the effort, collectively with our partners at the Department of Energy and the Department of War."

In a statement to CBS News, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said the agency is paying attention to fears the cases may be linked.

"NNSA is aware of reports related to employees of our labs, plants, and sites and is looking into the matter," a spokesperson for NNSA told CBS News.

Current and former Energy Department officials acknowledged the pattern is "eyebrow raising" and that department staff and its contractors at the National Laboratories do indeed risk becoming the targets of foreign espionage. But one former staffer said they have seen no evidence of any link in these cases.

"People do just die. Strokes, heard disease, suicide, mugging, it happens," the former DOE official said.

The facilities in question combined employ more than 20,000 people, many of whom work in administrative and support roles and do not have access to secret information.

"If you attach 'nuclear weapons facility' and some sketchy sounding job title, it could conceal how mundane someone's job may be," the former DOE official said.

CBS News interviewed several energy security and law enforcement experts. None saw an obvious link between the cases.

"The deaths and missing persons cases are scattered across several years at different and only loosely affiliated organizations," said Joseph Rodgers, the deputy director of the Project on Nuclear Issues at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "If all of the scientists were working on one project or weapons system, then I'd be more suspicious."

Scott Roecker, vice president for nuclear materials security at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, who worked on nuclear security issues for the U.S. government for more than 15 years, said the current war in Iran may factor into people's thinking.

"If you were looking at a foreign adversary, Iran might come to mind because of the Iranian nuclear scientists who have been assassinated," Roecker said.

"But we're not like Iran. We have thousands of scientists. We have a robust infrastructure. So there would be nothing strategic Iran could achieve by taking out 10 or 20 of our nuclear scientists, as tragic as the individual deaths might be," Roecker said.

Of the 10 that have garnered speculation online, one scientist disappeared while hiking in California, five died, and four people ranging from a general to an administrative staffer went missing in New Mexico over the past year. One of the five was anMIT professor killed at his doorstepby a former Portuguese classmate who was later determined to be the Brown Universitymass shooter.

New Mexico disappearances

McCasland, the retired general, left home in February without his phone, any wearable devices or his prescription glasses. All he had with him were a pair of hiking boots, his wallet, and a 38-caliber revolver.

Search and rescue teams led by the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office and aided by state and federal agencies deployed drones and K9s in their efforts to find him. A gray U.S. Air Force sweatshirt found a mile and a quarter east of his home was picked up by investigators on March 7, but otherwise there's apparently been no trace of him.

His disappearance sparked swirling speculation online that McCasland was taken against his will in part because of his work consulting for a non-government group that was probing the government's UFO files.  His wife acknowledged in the Facebook post that he had a brief association with a community of people pushing for the government to release files about UFOs, but she dismissed any notion that his disappearance was connected to that.

"Neil does not have any special knowledge about the ET bodies and debris from the Roswell crash stored at Wright-Patt," she wrote in jest in the Facebook post, referring to conspiracy theories about aliens being found in the desert.

"Though at this point with absolutely no sign of him, maybe the best hypothesis is that aliens beamed him up to the mothership. However, no sightings of a mothership hovering above the Sandia Mountains have been reported," she wrote.

The FBI has been assisting local law enforcement in the search for McCasland, according to the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office.

"Investigators have so far uncovered no evidence of foul play," according to an official in Bernalillo County, which includes the Albuquerque metro area. The official added that the investigation is ongoing.

Albuquerque area officials are also searching for 48-year-old Steven Garcia, who disappeared last August. Garcia reportedly worked as a property custodian for the National Nuclear Security Administration's Kansas City National Security Campus in Albuquerque.

A couple of hours' drive north of Albuquerque, local police have been investigating the disappearances of two employees at Los Alamos.

Melissa Casias, 53, worked at Los Alamos for years and was last seen walking alone on a highway wearing a backpack, according to a family member who has reviewed the surveillance footage.

"Melissa was an administrative assistant and did not have high-level clearance," said her niece, Jazmin McMillen.

"I'm happy to see Melissa's case getting attention but I haven't seen any evidence linking her to any of the other cases," said McMillen, who organized family search parties and has reviewed multiple pages of police documents related to the case.

In May of last year, Anthony Chavez, 78, who had also held a job at Los Alamos, went missing. Los Alamos police are asking for the public's assistance in finding him.

A California hiker

The disappearance of an accomplished scientist in California has garnered almost as much speculation in media reports as McCasland's in New Mexico.

Monica Jacinton Reza, a 60-year-old aerospace engineer who worked on rocket engines, disappeared on June 22, 2025, while hiking in Los Angeles County.

AFacebook pagedevoted to the search for her includes pictures of her and asks for experienced hikers to help scour the rough terrain.

Murders and other deaths

Investigators say MIT ProfessorNuno Lureiro, an expert in fusion and plasma physics, was shot and killed at his home in the Boston area last December by Claudio Neves Valente, a jealous former engineering classmate who had studied in the same program with Lureiro two decades ago. Valente, who had spent time at Brown University's engineering program also carried out a mass shooting on campus thatkilled two studentsand wounded nine others just one day before he shot and killed Lureiro.

Carl Grillmair, a Caltech astrophysicist, wasshot to deathon his front porch in Los Angeles County in February. An obituary for Grillmair said he was the recipient of the 2011 NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal and numerous NASA Group Achievement Awards. A 29 year old man charged with his murder was released from prison last December by a judge using an "unnecessary prosecutions" law.

The body of Novartis researcher Jason Thomas was recovered from a Massachusetts lake last month, three months after Thomas was reported missing. His wife told NBC News he was distraught following the death of both of his parents last year.

NASA's Frank Maiwald died July 4, 2024, at 61 in Los Angeles.

Michael David Hicks, a physicist with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, died in July 2023 at the age of 59.

CBS News reviewed obituaries, statements from family members and law enforcement findings and found no links between any of the deaths.

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byVaclavien Pynzarien

in

April 21, 2026

FBI investigating deaths, disappearances of staff at government labs

The FBI is leading the effort to look for possible connections into the cases of 10 missing or deceased scientists and staff who worked...

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NBA playoffs 2026: Raptors' Immanuel Quickley out for Game 1 vs. Cavaliers with strained hamstring

The Toronto Raptors will be without starting point guard Immanuel Quickley as they begin their first-round NBA playoff series versus the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Quickley is out for Saturday’sGame 1with a strained right hamstring he suffered in Toronto’s final regular-season game last Sunday against the Brooklyn Nets. He did not play the second half of that matchup after playing 17 minutes in the first half.

The six-year veteran missed eight games from late March to early April due to plantar fasciitis in his right foot. There’s no indication the foot condition led to his hamstring injury, though it’s a possibility.

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Quickley, 26, was the Raptors’ leading 3-point shooter this season with 476 attempts. His 37% rate was second among Toronto scorers to Brandon Ingram’s 38% (on 353 attempts). He was the team’s fourth-leading scorer, averaging 16.4 points per game with 5.9 assists, 4 rebounds and 1.4 steals.

As it applies to the matchup with the Cavaliers, Quickley would have been the primary defender on Donovan Mitchell. Jamal Shead will replace Quickley in the Toronto starting lineup and thus draw the defensive assignment on Mitchell, who led Cleveland in scoring with 27.9 points per game.

Scottie Barnes is regarded as the Raptors’ best defensive player, but will likely be occupied with checking James Harden (20.5 points per game) throughout the series.

byVaclavien Pynzarien

in

April 21, 2026

NBA playoffs 2026: Raptors' Immanuel Quickley out for Game 1 vs. Cavaliers with strained hamstring

The Toronto Raptors will be without starting point guard Immanuel Quickley as they begin their first-round NBA playoff series versus th...

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No cuddles, but lots of care: How a Paris-area wildlife hospital keeps rescued animals wild

MAISONS-ALFORT, France (AP) — Awildlifehospital in a southeasternParissuburb is a place of no cuddles but lots of care. It helps injured, sick and orphaned animals — often victims of human activity and increasing urbanization — heal so they can return to their natural habitat.

France Wildlife Hospital

Last week, a female fox cub was found alone in a garden on the city's outskirts, with no sign of her mother nearby. Now a team of volunteers takes care of her around the clock.

“We’ll make sure she’s eating well,” animal caretaker Valentin Delon said. “If that’s not the case, we might provide supplemental bottles to ensure she gains enough weight.”

Over the past year, the Wildlife Veterinary Hospital in Maisons-Alfort has taken in more than 10,400 wild animals, including a wide variety of birds and European mammals such as foxes, deer andhedgehogs.

Like the little brown-furred cub, the animals can easily capture a caretaker's heart — but bonding with humans is not an option when the goal is to eventually return them to the wild.

Caring for a fragile fox cub

The baby fox was found by residents who own hunting dogs. Estimated to be about 2 weeks old, she was far too young to survive on her own.

At the Maisons-Alfort hospital, veterinarian Julie Piazza carefully examined her and aside from a minor injury, possibly caused by a wild animal or a dog’s bite, she was found to be in good health.

The cub was fed artificial milk — a product matching the composition of animal-produced milk — and because of that, her abdomen was swollen, Piazza said.

"That’s common in a young one that has had a disruption in its diet,” she added.

Once healed, the animals are transferred to outdoor enclosures and aviaries to prepare for a reintroduction into their natural environment.

Delon, the caretaker, says that “any kind of imprinting” — measures that attach the animals to their caregiver long-term — must be avoided.

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“So we don’t cuddle them, we don’t talk to them,” she said. "There’s really a distance to maintain for their own good in the end, so they can be released later.”

Because she is just a cub, once she grows sufficiently, the baby fox will first be transferred to a rehabilitation center and placed with other foxes in an enclosure.

“We can’t just release her into the wild like that,” Delon said. “She really needs to go into an enclosure first, and then gradually we’ll open the door so she can come and go while still being fed. Then we’ll gradually reduce the food, and that’s how we achieve a truly gradual release.”

Juveniles are especially vulnerable

The hospital ran by the Faune Alfort group is the only facility in the greater Paris area that treats a wide range of wild species. Some 86% of its patients are birds.

Last week, there was a swan with a broken wing, injured hedgehogs, dozens of ducklings often found on balconies and elsewhere without parents, and lots of pigeons that are treated just as carefully as rarer birds.

Elisa Mora, head of communications for Faune Alfort, a nonprofit group running the Maisons-Alfort hospital, said a record 200 admissions were reported in a single day last summer. The hospital is mostly financed by donations from individuals and charities, and relies on volunteers to help feed and care for the animals.

April to September is the "juvenile period when wild animals reproduce” and the admissions peak, Mora said.

“Wild animals are already vulnerable, but juveniles even more so,” she said. Those too badly injured or unable to return to the wild have to be euthanized.

Bringing a response to human impact

Veterinarian Jean-François Courreau launched Faune Alfort in 1987, inspired by students willing to better treat wild animals. Six years later, the idea turned into a proper hospital, hosted by the National Veterinary School of Alfort, established in the 18th century.

“It’s hard to stand by helplessly in front of an animal in distress without being able to do anything," Courreau said, adding that it's his duty to help as a vet.

When people find a wild animal in distress, they think “I can’t do anything, and the animal is going to die," he said. "So when they know a care center exists and that they can bring the animal there, it’s a huge relief.”

The vast majority of animals brought to the hospital — as many as 60% to 80% of admissions — are victims of road collisions, animals caught in barbed wire or injured by people using gardening tools or agricultural machinery, among other causes.

byVaclavien Pynzarien

in

April 21, 2026

No cuddles, but lots of care: How a Paris-area wildlife hospital keeps rescued animals wild

MAISONS-ALFORT, France (AP) — Awildlifehospital in a southeasternParissuburb is a place of no cuddles but lots of care. It helps injure...

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Why The Independent’s evidence from last September is a problem for Starmer

As he set out his defence to the House of Commons,Sir Keir Starmerwas asked multiple times by MPs, including the Conservative leaderKemi Badenoch, aboutThe Independent’sfront page story on 12 September last yearthatPeter Mandelsonhad failed security vetting.

More damaging still are the WhatsApp messagessent by this publicationto the then director of communications in Downing Street, Tim Allan, raising the issue on 11 September.

This has been described by a number of civil servants and senior politicians as the “smoking gun” in the entire scandal, because it is at odds withthe prime minister’s own assessment.

Sir Keir claimed that he, his ministers and Downing Street only found out about the security vetting failure last week. But doubt has been cast on this claim becauseThe Independentinformed Downing Street’s most senior communications official months before.

Added to that, it raises serious questions about what the prime minister was told in September by his then director of communications.

In normal circumstances, these issues are raised through the system and lead to investigations into the truth. Most crucially, they should have raised a red flag with the prime minister.

But it seems that nothing happened and the warnings were ignored.

This is no small thing. Lord Mandelson spent months as the UK’s ambassador to Washington.

He was the most important UK diplomat in the United States at a time when Britain was grappling with a difficult president in the White House.

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As ambassador, he would have been party to a huge amount of information, some of it designed to be seen only by those who have passed the highest level of security vetting.

When the prime minister sacked him last September, he accused Lord Mandelson of lying to his officials during that process and said he had fired him when the full extent of his relationship emerged with the paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Then, crucially, in February, Sir Keir told journalists: “Security vetting, carried out independently by the security services, which is an intensive exercise that gave him clearance for the role. You have to go through that before you take up the post. Clearly, both the due diligence and the security vetting need to be looked at again.”

But this took place months afterThe Independentinformed No 10 of the failure.

On Monday, the PM insisted that he should have been told last year that his former man in Washington had failed security clearance. But, of course, Downing Street was told this byThe Independent.

Last week, Sir Keir said he was “furious” when he found out and that it was unacceptable he was not told.

Within hours, he had fired the most senior civil servant in the Foreign Office, Sir Olly Robbins. That, Sir Keir has been very clear about, was because he was aware of the recommendation not to give Lord Mandelson security clearance and did not inform the prime minister.

But Sir Keir still faces a key question, one which was summed up by the mother of the House, the long-time Labour MP Diane Abbott, who is currently suspended from the party and sits as an independent.

She cornered him in the Commons to ask: “It’s one thing to say, as [Starmer] insists on saying, ‘Nobody told me, nobody told me anything, nobody told me’. The question is, why didn’t the prime minister ask?”

byVaclavien Pynzarien

in

April 21, 2026

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