A judge has stepped down from the criminal proceedings regarding the death of Argentine football legend Diego Armando Maradona.

An Argentine court had removed the judge, Julieta Makintach, after one of the defendants in the Maradona trial requested her disqualification due to a possible lack of impartiality and for allegedly authorizing the filming of a documentary during court hearings.

Makintach accepted the court’s disqualification.

In a previous hearing, she had stated that her brother is a partner at the production company mentioned in the case, but it had nothing to do with a potential documentary about Maradona.

Maradona, world-famous for scoring the goal that won Argentina the 1986 World Cup, died of heart failure in November 2020. Argentine prosecutors have accused eight medical staff of “simple homicide” in the footballer’s death.

The trial for seven of the eight defendants began in March, with the eighth due to be tried by jury after the initial proceedings finish. The charges carry a possible sentence of eight to 25 years in prison.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Keith Siegel has been free for nearly four months, but he is still pained by vivid images of his 484 days as a Hamas hostage and of those still held in Gaza’s tunnels.

Siegel isn’t just talking about the physical and psychological abuse he was subjected to by his captors or the suffocating conditions and malnutrition he faced in tunnels deep underground. He’s also terrified that Israel’s intensifying bombardment and ground offensive will kill the remaining living hostages – or drive Hamas to execute them.

Hamas and other militant groups kidnapped 251 people from Israel during the October 7, 2023 terror attacks.

As Israel marks 600 days since the war began, Siegel and dozens of former hostages and relatives are renewing their call for a deal that will end the conflict and secure the release of all 58 still held captive, living and dead. Protesters blocked roads in Tel Aviv on Wednesday and gathered in Hostage Square and in front of the US embassy to put pressure on the Israeli government to make a deal with Hamas and return the remaining hostages.

For Omer Shem Tov, among the last of the hostages to be released before the ceasefire collapsed in March, there is an ever-present feeling of guilt. Every time he eats, he thinks about the hostages not eating. Every time he showers, he knows those still captive in Gaza cannot.

“I can feel it here,” he says, pointing at his throat. “I feel like I’m being choked.”

Like many other released hostages, Siegel and Shem Tov have dedicated much of their newfound freedom to advocating for the release of those left behind.

Most of the Israeli public wants to see a ceasefire deal to bring the remaining hostages home, according to numerous polls, but as those who survived captivity, the freed hostages are the movement’s most powerful voices. They see their advocacy as a near-sacred obligation to those still in Gaza.

“The hostages’ lives are now more critical than eliminating Hamas,” said Shem Tov.

Meanwhile, Siegel has raised awareness about the horrific conditions of captivity he endured and the dangers the remaining hostages face.

Speaking from his daughter’s home in northern Israel, Siegel looked healthier than when he was released in February. He has regained some of the weight he lost in captivity, color has returned to his face and he has been spending time with his family and out in nature. But his mind is never far from the tunnels of Gaza and thoughts of Matan Angrest, a 22-year-old Israeli soldier, and Omri Miran, a 48-year-old father-of-two, with whom he was held.

“I think about them every day. Many times a day. And I worry about them – and I miss them,” Siegel said.

Siegel and Miran were held together for nearly five months, until July 2024, passing the time by talking about their shared taste in music and their love for their families. Miran has two daughters – Alma and Ronni, now aged 2 and 4 –  whose names easily rolled off Siegel’s tongue.

“It was very difficult for Omri to think about his daughters growing up without their dad and how hard it was for him to think about him missing their growing-up, their development milestones,” Siegel said.

Miran called out directly to Siegel in a hostage video released by Hamas last month. Siegel said his fellow former captive looked like “a different person… in a negative way.”

Siegel hesitates to describe his relationship with Angrest as one of a father and his son, but it’s clear they built a special bond during the 67 days they were locked in a very small room, sharing a single bed. Angrest helped Siegel improve his Arabic, talked about his love of the Maccabi Haifa soccer team and day-dreamt about sharing a meal together at his parents’ home and seeing a match once they’re free.

Siegel said he, Angrest and Miran used to pray that the Israeli military would rescue them in a daring operation. But that all changed in August when Hamas executed six hostages as Israeli troops closed in on their location. Siegel learned about it in captivity and his dreams quickly turned into nightmares.

“I was afraid that the IDF might try to rescue me and that I might be killed by the captors,” Siegel recalled. “It’s something that worries me in regards to the hostages that are still there.”

He added that he believes Israel’s expanding military operations now increase the threats to the hostages’ lives, even as the Israeli military has pledged to take precautions to avoid harming the remaining captives.

“Hostages were killed from the war,” Siegel said. “I think this can be avoided by getting all of the hostages back. That’s the solution, to get them back – to reach an agreement that will bring them back.”

Shem Tov echoed his fears. The scariest moments in captivity, he said, were when Israeli bombs fell around him, weapons he knew were powerful enough where “your life can be taken in every moment.”

“I was scared of dying from my own people, from my own brothers,” said Shem Tov.

Siegel and Shem Tov have met with US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and called on both to prioritize reaching a deal to free the hostages. While the Israeli prime minister has made clear he believes defeating Hamas is more important than freeing the hostages, many hostage advocates are placing their hopes in Trump’s hands.

“I am home because of his efforts,” Siegel said. “I believe that he wants to do this and it’s important to him. He has told us that. I ask him to do whatever he can and to do it as soon as possible to get an agreement secured and to get them all back.”

Shem Tov also believed he was freed because of Trump’s efforts. During their meeting in the Oval Office at the White House in March, Shem Tov said Trump told him “that I have a good future ahead of me.”

Shem Tov lost most than 50 pounds in captivity, he said. His food dwindled from just two pitas and some cheese daily at the beginning to a single biscuit.

However, he said his treatment at the hands of Hamas improved after Trump’s election, including receiving more food.

Hamas also “stopped cursing me, stopped spitting on me,” he said.

He frequently talked politics with his captors and said they wanted Kamala Harris to win the US election.

“As soon as Donald Trump was elected, they understood that he wants to bring the hostages back home,” Shem Tov said.

India’s defense minister has approved a framework for building the country’s most advanced stealth fighter jet, the defense ministry said on Tuesday, amid a new arms race with Pakistan weeks after a military conflict between the neighbors.

Indian state-run Aeronautical Development Agency, which is executing the program, will shortly invite initial interest from defense firms for developing a prototype of the warplane, envisaged as a twin-engine 5th generation fighter, the ministry said.

The project is crucial for the Indian Air Force, whose squadrons of mainly Russian and ex-Soviet aircraft have fallen to 31 from an approved strength of 42 at a time when rival China is expanding its air force rapidly. Pakistan has one of China’s most advanced warplanes, the J-10, in its arsenal.

Militaries of nuclear-armed neighbors India and Pakistan faced-off in four days of fighting this month, which saw use of fighter jets, missiles, drones and artillery by both sides before a ceasefire was announced by US President Donald Trump.

It was the first time both sides utilized drones at scale and the South Asian powers are now locked in a drones arms race, according to Reuters’ interviews with 15 people, including security officials, industry executives and analysts in the two countries.

India will partner with a domestic firm for the stealth fighter program, and companies can bid independently or as a joint venture, the defense ministry said in a statement, adding that the bids would be open for both private and state-owned firms.

In March, an Indian defense committee had recommended including the private sector in military aircraft manufacturing to shore up the capabilities of the Indian Air Force and reduce the burden on state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, which makes most of India’s military aircraft.

Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh has previously criticized Hindustan Aeronautics for slow delivery of light combat Tejas aircraft, a 4.5 generation fighter, which the firm blamed on slow delivery of engines from General Electric GE.N due to supply chain issues faced by the US firm.

India’s financial capital and one of its largest cities has experienced its wettest May in more than a century, with the unusually early arrival of the monsoon season causing a ferocious weekend downpour that turned roads into rivers and flooded a newly inaugurated underground train station.

Mumbai, a city of more than 12 million, has recorded more than 400 millimeters of rainfall this month so far, according to data from the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), with much of the downpour arriving late last weekend.

The deluge caused chaos and delays across transport networks, including at the newly inaugurated Worli Metro Station.

Video published by local media outlets showed travelers wading knee-deep in flood water, water gushing down a station staircase, and water leaking heavily from the ceiling onto a train platform.

India’s $4 trillion economy is heavily dependent on the monsoon, which brings rains that farmers depend on to support the country’s agricultural sector, which employs nearly half of the country’s 1.4 billion people.

The rains, which usually arrive in June and last through September, are needed to grow crops, irrigate farmland and replenish India’s reservoirs. But this year’s early arrival has caused havoc across Mumbai, India’s finance capital and home to its vaunted Bollywood film industry, flooding roads and submerging cars.

Some experts say that global warming is increasing the variability of India’s monsoon rains faster than previously projected.

The onset of the southwest monsoon in Mumbai on May 26 is the earliest advancement over the city since 1950, Nair said.

Each year the monsoon causes chaos across Mumbai, particularly for commuters travelling on its hectic, overcrowded public transport system.

Last year in May, heavy rains caused a huge billboard to collapse, killing at least 14 people and injuring dozens more.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Worli Metro station just earlier this month, part of his ambitious plan to modernize India’s aging transport network and transform the country’s infrastructure to achieve his goal of turning it into a developed nation by 2047.

Further rains are forecast for the region this week, the IMD said, potentially causing further flooding.

The southern state of Kerala over the weekend also saw an unusually early arrival of the monsoon, bringing some respite after experiencing days of an unrelenting heatwave.

Indian capital New Delhi last week also experienced widespread rain, lightning, and thunderstorms, causing a canopy at the city’s airport to collapse from waterlogging.

French President Emmanuel Macron’s office moved swiftly on Monday to defuse attention around a viral video showing his wife Brigitte pushing his face away as they deplaned in Vietnam for the first leg of a Southeast Asia tour.

The short clip shows the aircraft door opening with Macron appearing in the doorway. Seconds later, both of Brigitte Macron’s hands reach from the side and presses against the president’s face in what looks like a sudden shove.

Macron appears momentarily surprised but quickly regains his composure and waves to the press outside.

As the couple descend the steps, Macron offers Brigitte his arm, which she does not take, opting instead to hold the railing.

The Élysée initially denied the incident on the plane, before later moving to downplay its significance.

It was a “moment of togetherness,” according to an Élysée source.

“No more was needed to feed the mills of the conspiracy theorists,” the source added, saying pro-Russian trolls were quick to spin the moment into controversy.

Macron has been at the forefront of efforts to agree a coordinated European response to defending Ukraine following Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.

The incident in Hanoi comes as Macron faces another swirl of online disinformation. Earlier this month the Élysée dismissed as “fake news” a viral claim – amplified by Kremlin officials – that the French president was using cocaine aboard a train to Kyiv alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

The rumor, traced back to pro-Russian accounts, falsely claimed a crumpled tissue Macron picked up was a cocaine bag. The Élysée posted a rebuttal online with the caption: “This is a tissue. For blowing your nose… When European unity becomes inconvenient, disinformation makes a simple tissue look like drugs.”

The Kremlin’s foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova fueled the claim, suggesting the scene was part of a wider European dysfunction. French officials condemned the campaign as part of ongoing efforts by Moscow to weaken Western unity on Ukraine and manipulate peace discussions through false narratives and social media manipulation.