Two members of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s political party in Sinaloa state have announced they will temporarily leave their positions. This decision comes in response to a significant indictment by the United States, which accuses them, along with eight other politicians and security officials, of drug trafficking—sending shockwaves through Mexico’s political scene.

In a brief video statement released at midnight on Friday, Governor Rubén Rocha Moya, the most senior figure implicated in the indictment, rejected allegations that he shielded the Sinaloa cartel and facilitated its drug smuggling operations into the United States in return for millions in bribes.

“My conscience is clear,” declared the 76-year-old Rocha, who has been a staunch supporter of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. “I can face my people and my family with confidence, knowing I have never betrayed them and never will.”

Despite his firm denial, Rocha announced he would step aside temporarily from his gubernatorial duties, a role he has held for six years, to focus on countering what he describes as “false and malicious” accusations and to assist with the Mexican government’s investigation.

Similarly, Juan de Dios Gámez Mendívil, the mayor of Culiacán, who is also named in the indictment, has decided to take a leave of absence while contesting the charges. Following a special vote on Saturday, the state’s local congress appointed Yeraldine Bonilla Valverde, an ally of Rocha and former state secretary of government, as the interim governor.

As governor and mayor, Rocha and Gámez Mendívil enjoy immunity from criminal prosecution, requiring Mexico’s Congress to first impeach them if they are to face charges. Their decision to take temporary leave rather than resign allows them to retain that immunity.

Sheinbaum has struggled to strike a balance between the interests of her progressive Morena party and pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to step up the fight against cartels.

In a nod to her party’s anti-corruption platform, Sheinbaum said she wouldn’t defend anyone found to have committed a crime.

But she vigorously defended Mexico’s sovereignty, vowing that if federal authorities uncovered “irrefutable” evidence linking the 10 indicted officials to cartel crime, the accused would be tried in Mexico, not the U.S. – a move that risks backlash from an American administration that has threatened military action against cartels on Mexican soil.

“We will never subordinate ourselves because this is a matter of the dignity of the Mexican people,” she said Friday.

Pending investigation, the Mexican attorney general’s office said it would not arrest Rocha or the other accused officials, as requested by the U.S.

Rocha, a point person for the hands-off “hugs not bullets approach to dealing with organized crime that López Obrador pioneered and Sheinbaum has since ditched, insisted in the video that the indictment represents a political attack on Morena.

“I will not allow myself to be used to harm the movement to which I belong – one that has improved the lives of millions of Mexican men and women,” he said.

Born in the same town as the notorious Mexican drug kingpin “El Chapo,” Rocha has found himself embroiled in similar scandals before. In 2024, he was named in a published letter written by a then-Sinaloa cartel capo who was kidnapped by leaders of a rival faction and handed off to U.S. law enforcement. In the letter, the capo said that he was on his way to meet Rocha when he was abducted.

Officials from the U.S. State Department have issued a warning about increased security risks in Azerbaijan, advising travelers to carefully reconsider their plans to visit the country.

The State Department released an updated travel advisory on April 28, urging Americans to weigh the potential safety risks before traveling. Although Azerbaijan’s advisory status remains at Level 3, the update highlights specific concerns, particularly advising against travel to the southern border due to escalating tensions in Iran.

Situated between Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Iran, Azerbaijan is experiencing heightened threats from potential Iranian drone and missile attacks as hostilities between Iran and the United States continue to escalate.

The advisory explicitly cautions, “Avoid traveling to the southern border region due to the risk of armed conflict, unless it is your most viable overland exit from Iran.”

‘Do not travel to the southern border region due to risk of armed conflict, unless this is your best overland exit from Iran,’ the updated advisory said. 

A travel advisory for the country added that threats of terrorism, including sporadic attacks ‘with little or no warning,’ is also a continued concern. 

‘They are using simpler methods of attack like knives, guns and vehicles to target crowds. They often go after unprotected or vulnerable targets,’ the advisory stated.  

Threats of landmines were also noted at the Armenian-Azeri border. 

An updated travel advisory was issued on April 28 for Americans looking to visit Azerbaijan

The country’s level 3 status urges Americans to reconsider their travel plans due to safety risks 

A travel advisory for the country added that threats of terrorism, including sporadic attacks ‘with little or no warning,’ is a continued concern

‘Landmines and unexploded ordnance exist throughout this region,’ the advisory added. 

‘Many of them are not marked, so it can be hard to know where they are.’

Areas of Azerbaijan that may contain landmines included Aghdam, Aghdara, Fuzuli, Gubadli, Jabrayil, Kalbajar, Khankendi, Khojali, Khojavend, Lachın, Shusha and Zangilan. 

Officials also noted ongoing human rights concerns, including reports of arbitrary arrests, restrictions on freedom of expression and mistreatment of detainees. 

‘Journalists and activists may face harassment and imprisonment,’ the advisory said. 

The advisory further said that the government would not be able to provide emergency services to travelers in the region due to permissions needed to travel there. 

Earlier in March, drones from Iran were seen exploding across Azerbaijan, with one lighting a fire near an airport in Nakhchivan and another that came down beside a school. 

The airport lies around six miles from the Iranian border. Four people were injured in the strikes. 

Drones from Iran crashed and exploded in oil-rich ex-Soviet state Azerbaijan in early March

The strikes showed the conflict widening with hits in Nakhchivan, one close to the airport, igniting a fire, and another beside a school

Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev accused Iran of ‘terrorism’ and threatened retaliation.

Tehran denied the allegation and blamed Israel, Azerbaijan’s ally, of trying to stage a provocation.

Nakhchivan is the capital of a strategically sensitive Azerbaijani exclave, which is detached from the rest of the country and wedged between Iran, Armenia and Turkey.

Azerbaijan has deep security ties with Israel, including big arms purchases and intelligence cooperation, which Tehran sees as an Israeli ‘listening post’ on Iran’s northern border.

‘Today a terrorist act was carried out from the Iranian side against the territory of Azerbaijan,’ Aliyev told a hastily convened security council meeting.

Azerbaijan’s military ‘have been instructed to prepare and carry out retaliatory measures … placed on mobilization level number one, and must be ready to conduct any operation,’ he said.

‘Those dishonorable people who committed this terrorist act against us will regret it. Let them not test our strength… This stain will never be erased from their dirty and ugly face,’ he added.

The Azerbaijani defense ministry said it had detected four drones launched by Iran’s army.

Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev accused Iran of ‘terrorism’ and threatened retaliation

An explosion in Sanandaj, Kurdistan province, Iran, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran

‘One of them was disabled by the Azerbaijani army, while the others were directed at civilian infrastructure, including a secondary school building during class hours.

‘Fortunately, the drone targeting the school did not reach its objective and instead fell and exploded near the school,’ it said.

The Nakhichevan Airport terminal was damaged, the foreign ministry said, with video showing grey smoke rising above the building after the strike.

Four people were hospitalized with ‘traumatic brain injuries,’ Sahib Abuzarov, head of emergency services at a hospital in Nakhichevan said later.

Ironically, a day earlier, the Azerbaijan’s strongman president Ilham Aliyev had attended the Iranian embassy in the capital of Baku to pay tribute to slain supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

The general staff of Iran’s armed forces said it did not carry out the attack and pointed the finger at Israel.

‘Such actions by the Zionist regime, aimed at disrupting relations between Muslim countries in various ways, are not unprecedented,’ it said in a statement.

May Day events across Europe and Asia on Friday showcased a shift in the traditional focus of International Workers’ Day. What was once primarily a platform for labor rights is increasingly becoming a stage for broader political debates. Current protests are merging concerns about wages, inflation, and worker protections with anti-war sentiments, criticisms of Israel, and larger ideological conflicts over global power dynamics.

In cities like Paris, Istanbul, Madrid, Manila, and Seoul, protests often extended beyond workplace issues. Demonstrators connected the dots between rising living expenses, social inequality, the turmoil in the Middle East, U.S. foreign policy, and a broader anti-capitalist sentiment.

Nile Gardiner, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, commented to Fox News Digital, describing these demonstrations as indicative of a ‘troubling moral inversion.’

Supporters of the Iraqi Communist Party, wielding a symbolic hammer and sickle, participated in May Day celebrations in Baghdad, Iraq, on Friday, May 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

“Rather than protesting U.S. military actions, these May Day demonstrators should be opposing the oppressive regime in Tehran,” Gardiner remarked. “This highlights the moral void present in Europe today.”

In Paris, May Day protests reportedly escalated into clashes as police used tear gas grenades and forceful arrests after projectiles were thrown during demonstrations, according to publicly circulated social media footage.

Earlier, French labor leaders had focused on inflation, wages and social protections, but parts of the protests also featured anti-war slogans, Palestinian symbolism and criticism of military spending.

Protesters march during the May Day demonstration in Rennes, western France, Friday, May 1, 2026.  (AP)

In Madrid, thousands marched under banners reading “Capitalism should pay the cost of their war,” while demonstrators protested stagnant wages, housing shortages and militarism. Placards targeting President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu highlighted how international conflict featured prominently alongside domestic labor concerns.

Germany also saw unrest in Munich, where publicly circulated reporter footage showed riot police using batons to disperse radical leftist protesters after pyrotechnics were repeatedly ignited during a revolutionary May Day demonstration. 

Emma Schubart, Research Fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, a London-based think tank, warned that May Day demonstrations increasingly serve as platforms for ideological movements extending beyond labor activism.

“The May Day demonstrations across Europe increasingly feature Islamist elements. Militant anti-war, anti-capitalist rhetoric is now routinely accompanied by Palestinian flags and explicit anti-Israel slogans,” Schubart said, adding that far-left activism and Islamist-linked networks are increasingly converging under broader anti-Western narratives.

In Istanbul, police blocked leftist groups from marching to the banned Taksim Square, the historic center of Turkey’s labor movement, where demonstrations have long carried symbolic political weight. Protesters attempted to break through barricades and clashed with police as authorities detained some of the protesters.

Protester take part in a rally to mark May Day in Athens, on Friday, May 1, 2026  (Petros Giannakouris/AP Photo)

Outside Europe, similar themes emerged across Asia.

In Manila, workers clashed with police near the U.S. Embassy while protesting higher fuel and commodity prices, demanding wage increases and calling for an end to war in the Middle East.

A left-wing labor group paraded a giant effigy depicting Trump, Netanyahu and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as a three-headed monster, symbolically tying domestic hardship to both local and international political leadership.

In South Korea, thousands gathered near Seoul’s Gwanghwamun Square for major labor rallies centered on collective bargaining and worker rights, but speeches also incorporated broader geopolitical messaging. 

Korea Confederation of Trade Unions Chairman Yang Kyung-soo called on demonstrators to “unite with the Iranian and Palestinian workers and people suffering from American imperialist aggression,” explicitly connecting labor solidarity to anti-American and Middle East political narratives.

People march with Chilean flags during a May Day event in Chile in 2026. (Juan Gonzalez/Reuters)

While local priorities varied, from wages in France to labor rights in Seoul, May Day 2026 demonstrated a growing global pattern: labor demonstrations are increasingly becoming arenas for broader ideological and geopolitical confrontation.

“The United States is fighting to defend the free world against tyranny, and yet across Europe and beyond we are seeing protesters direct their outrage at America and its allies instead of the brutal regimes driving so much of this global instability,” Gardiner said. “That should deeply concern anyone who cares about the future of Western civilization.”

British Jews are currently confronting an unprecedented threat, as authorities investigate the involvement of an Iran-affiliated group in a series of antisemitic incidents, according to London’s leading police officer.

Sir Mark Rowley, the chief of London’s Metropolitan Police, expressed grave concerns in an interview with The Times of London. “When you consider the convergence of hate crime, terrorism, and hostile state actions, coupled with the spread of ideology online, the situation becomes extremely alarming and worrisome,” Rowley explained.

He elaborated on the complex web of threats, stating, “Whether it’s extreme left, Islamist terrorism, or right-wing terrorism, and even certain hostile states, particularly those linked to Iran, they form a troubling nexus at the heart of this issue.”

These remarks follow a shocking antisemitic knife attack that occurred on Wednesday, where two Jewish men were brutally stabbed in north London. The suspect, identified as 45-year-old Essa Suleiman, originally from Somalia, has been charged with two counts of attempted murder and one count of carrying a bladed weapon in public, as reported by The Times of Israel.

Suleiman was charged with two counts of attempted murder and one count of possession of a bladed article in a public place, according to authorities.

Shadowy Islamic group Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia (HAYI) claimed responsibility for the knife attack, The Times of Israel reported.

That group has also taken credit for at least eight arson attacks on Jewish locations in London in recent weeks, NBC News reported.

HAYI has direct links to the regime in Tehran, with British authorities investigating whether the group is linked specifically to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps or another arm of Tehran’s crumbling government, The Times of London said.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer promised the government was taking immediate action and suggested the attack could have backing from a foreign state.

“We’ve increased enhanced funding for police patrols and protective security and we’re fast-tracking legislation to deal with malign state actors,” Starmer wrote on X, adding, “My message to Jewish people is this: you belong here, and we will do everything we can to keep you safe.”

Starmer also suggested that people using the leftist rallying-cry “globalize the intifada,” widely seen as an antisemitic call for violence against Jew, at anti-Israel marches should be prosecuted.

“[I]f you are marching with people wearing pictures of paragliders without calling it out, you are venerating the murder of Jews. If you stand alongside people who say globalize the Intifada, you are calling for terrorism against Jews and people who use that phrase should be prosecuted,” Starmer said in an address Saturday.

Starmer added he would consider banning some of the pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel marches if they used the occasion to spread calls for intifada.

Jamie-Lynn Sigler, renowned for her role in The Sopranos, kept her battle with Multiple Sclerosis under wraps for 15 long years, confiding only in those closest to her. This decision was driven by a fear of jeopardizing her career and disappointing colleagues, as she grappled with symptoms ranging from involuntary spasms and a noticeable limp to the more challenging issues of impaired mobility and incontinence.

Today, at 44, Sigler openly credits fellow actress Christina Applegate for inspiring her to embrace transparency about her condition. Applegate, who also contends with MS and recently faced hospitalization due to the illness, provided Sigler with the encouragement she needed to discard any pretense.

In her newly released memoir, And So It Is…, Sigler shares, “Christina helped me see the impact I could have by sharing deeply and being vulnerable.” She acknowledges that Applegate’s willingness to express herself honestly and openly prompted her to do the same.

By aligning with Applegate’s “radical candor,” Sigler hopes to make a difference and shed light on the realities of living with MS, a condition that affects many yet is often shrouded in silence. Her journey from secrecy to openness marks a significant step in both personal healing and public awareness.

‘Because she was ready to share in such a raw way, I had to match the radical candor she was bringing to the table.’

That includes speaking publicly for the first time about the incontinence that is common among women with MS – losing control of her bowels or bladder when she would least expect it, including one time when she was about to go on live TV.

‘I literally lost my bowels before appearing on the Today show,’ she wrote, ‘and just cleaned myself up and walked out on set as if nothing traumatic had just occurred minutes earlier.’

Sigler first developed symptoms of the condition age 20, a few weeks before filming the third season of The Sopranos, in which she played Meadow, the spoiled, rebellious daughter of mob boss Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini).

‘Christina [Applegate] helped me see the impact I could have by sharing deeply and being vulnerable,’ Sigler wrote in her new memoir

Sigler found fame on The Sopranos, playing Meadow, the spoiled, rebellious daughter of mob boss Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) and his wife Carmela (Edie Falco)

Her symptoms include anything from numbness to difficulty walking (Sigler pictured in a wheelchair at LAX airport)

The numbness in her legs, leading to paralysis from the waist down, was initially misdiagnosed as Lyme disease. At one point she even feared she might never walk again.

And managing the symptoms while performing a very public job became a constant battle, she said, writing that she ‘buried the diagnosis under layers of denial, pretending it didn’t exist.’ 

It was only in 2016, with the birth of her son Beau, that she decided to go public.

Five years later, she and Applegate connected when the Dead to Me actress found that she, too, had the life-threatening condition.

The pair even collaborated on a podcast to shed light on MS, called MeSsy. 

It was Applegate, said Sigler, who helped her open up about the sometimes deeply shameful reality of MS – including wearing adult diapers, ‘which used to be something I would have rather died than admit.’

In the book, she described the first time she lost control of her bladder – wetting herself while walking the streets of New York.

‘I didn’t understand what was happening to me,’ she wrote, ‘only that one minute I felt like I had to pee and the next second, pee was running down my leg.

‘I felt disgusted with myself. Embarrassed.’

Frantically trying to think about what to do, she sat on a bench and crossed her legs tight to hide the dark stain forming on her blue sweatpants. Then she called her boyfriend at the time.

Sigler and Christina Applegate connected when the Dead to Me actress found that she, too, had the life-threatening condition

The pair even collaborated on a podcast to shed light on MS, called MeSsy

He arrived on the scene with a shirt to wrap around her waist, so she could ‘humbly’ walk back to her apartment building, ‘avoiding eye contact with anyone and going straight up to my bathroom to wash away the awful moment.’

Later, when she was performing as Belle in Beauty and the Beast on Broadway in 2002, she described being terrified she might humiliate herself on stage.

‘About halfway through our run, during one performance, I had the feeling that I might have lost control of my bowels,’ she wrote.

‘Can you imagine? As Belle you don’t ever get a moment to leave the stage, so I was prancing around for almost the entirety of the first act not knowing if I was in the clear or not.

‘Doing those high kicks during Be Our Guest, normally a proud moment, I was consumed with the worry that I was sending noxious fumes into the front row.’

Fortunately, when she went back to her dressing room at intermission, she discovered she had just been paranoid. ‘But it had me reeling,’ she said.

On another occasion, she was at a Yankees game when she suddenly lost control of her bladder.

‘Completely mortified, I didn’t know what to do. I was sitting in the front row of the box, talking to some people I had just met, and had no possible way out.’

Her quick-thinking answer was to text a friend to come over and spill a drink on her – covering the wet stain on her pants.

‘The whole of my twenties was shadowed by this invisible enemy living inside me,’ she wrote, ‘and yet most of my coworkers, directors, friends, agents, and managers, even some family, didn’t suspect a thing, even after I began to limp and my back ached and I found it hard to stand on my own without support.

‘I was an island unto myself. And I had believed that was the way it had to be. I routinely stuffed down the bad stuff. My motto: Move on.’

When she eventually plucked up the courage to tell her Sopranos castmates what was really going on in her life, her on-screen father Gandolfini was among the first to know.

‘I want to tell you something that I’m really afraid to say,’ she told him.

‘Say it,’ he answered.

‘I have MS.’ 

Her words hung in the air for a moment before she added: ‘I found out a few years ago and I’m so scared and I don’t know what this means. And I’m doing a s***ty job here and I don’t know how to act anymore.’

She wrote: ‘He hugged me and said all he could: “I’m so sorry.”‘

They hugged it out – nothing more needed to be said. 

‘This was enough for me. This felt like enough.’

She was able to finish the final Sopranos season on a high, celebrating a special tribute at the 2007 Emmy awards

‘The whole of my twenties was shadowed by this invisible enemy living inside me,’ wrote Sigler

Sigler with her husband, former baseball player Cutter Dykstra

Buoyed by her work family’s support, she was able to finish the final Sopranos season on a high, celebrating a special tribute at the 2007 Emmy awards, during which the cast received a standing ovation.

Sigler recalled that she was wearing high heels that night – something that had become increasingly difficult because of her condition – and that her co-star Robert Iler, who played her on-screen little brother AJ, held her up as they took to the stage in that emotional moment.

‘I’d told Rob about my MS only a few hours earlier that day,’ she wrote. ‘I wanted him to understand why I was the way I was and felt that with the finality of this experience being wrapped in a bow it would be wrong if I didn’t tell him. 

‘He was still so young and didn’t know how to receive it, but he did request that I ask him for help whenever I needed it. I promised I would, and standing up there on that stage was his first assignment.’

She now says that, while this is not the life she would ever have chosen for herself, she now wouldn’t change a thing. 

‘I was ashamed for so long,’ she wrote. ‘I assumed so much about other people. And in my assumptions, I contorted myself to do what I thought would please others and to escape my own negative thoughts. 

‘I’II fantasize sometimes about the what-ifs: Would I have gone on to have a bigger career after The Sopranos? Would I be a better mother?’

But she added: ‘Without these experiences, I would not be me. I wouldn’t have this strength or this clarity or this knowledge or this beautiful messy life.’

And So It Is…: A Memoir of Acceptance and Hope by Jamie-Lynn Sigler is published by Harper