Police said they had responded to an “alleged security incident”, without giving more details on the nature of the incident

International News via Reuters:

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was evacuated from his residence in Canberra late on Tuesday following a security threat, and returned a few hours later after nothing suspicious was found, ABC News reported.

Police said they had responded to an “alleged security incident”, without giving more details on the nature of the incident.

“A thorough search of a protection establishment was undertaken and nothing suspicious was located. There is no current threat to the community or public safety,” an Australian Federal Police spokesperson said in a statement.

Reporting by Praveen Menon; Editing by Andrew Heavens

Unrest did indeed break out in many parts of Mexico as loyalists to El Mencho, the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, set up roadblocks, torched buses and stores, and attacked gas stations in retaliation for his slaying

International News via Reuters:

After Mexican forces killed the country’s most wanted cartel leader on Sunday, false accounts of spectacular violence swept across social media, fueled by what researchers say was a coordinated propaganda campaign by organized crime.

Unrest did indeed break out in many parts of Mexico as loyalists to El Mencho, the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, set up roadblocks, torched buses and stores, and attacked gas stations in retaliation for his slaying.

But online, things looked even worse. Among the false reports: The Guadalajara airport taken over by assassins. A plane on the runway was on fire. Smoke was billowing from a church and multiple buildings in the city of Puerto Vallarta, popular with tourists.

These images, which were reviewed by Reuters, were false but shared tens of thousands of times.

Misinformation routinely proliferates after major news events, particularly since the advent of artificial intelligence.

Experts said that, in the case of El Mencho’s killing, the fake news was being spread at surprising speed not only by unsuspecting users but also in some cases by the cartel itself, in efforts to make its retaliatory wave of violence appear greater and more terrifying than it really was.

“They are trying to show that the Mexican government doesn’t have control over the country,” said Jane Esberg, assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania, who has studied how Mexican criminal groups use social media.

She added that this strategy helped to create a narrative that the cartel had a presence all over the country, but made it hard to establish the scale of the violence and what security forces were facing.

When asked by a reporter about cartel-linked social media accounts pushing fake news, Mexican Security Secretary Omar Garcia Harfuch said on Monday that authorities had already identified “various accounts” and that they would do a deeper investigation to determine which have “direct relationships with an organized crime group.”

He added there were other accounts “dedicated to spreading lies” but don’t have any established criminal links.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said authorities were working quickly to refute misinformation and that there were “many, many fake news stories” circulating in the wake of the El Mencho killing.

NARCO INFLUENCERS AND SHAPING PUBLIC OPINION

Mexican cartels have long used social media for propaganda efforts, from slandering rivals to publicizing crime groups’ community efforts, such as distributing aid during the coronavirus pandemic.

The false material traditionally used by Mexico’s criminal groups has been lower-tech: recycled cartel videos from previous years, for example, or violent images from far-flung conflicts on other continents, researchers said.

But the emergence of AI-generated content has now enabled cartels to produce more creative fake news propaganda.

Meanwhile, the rise of narco influencers – social media personalities who built large followings and leverage their platforms to glorify and even promote organized crime – has opened up another avenue for propaganda in recent years.

Such misinformation campaigns can be particularly damaging in Mexico, where violence makes it difficult for journalists to access parts of the country to report on the ground and sort out fact from fiction, Esberg said.

But she and other experts also cautioned that it’s often difficult to determine with certainty which accounts or blogs are tied to the cartels and spreading fake news.

Pablo Calderon, an associate professor in politics and international relations at Northeastern University London, said cartels use social media to amplify their image and power and to shape public opinion, including through misinformation.

“Sunday was a good day for Mexican security forces,” he said. “But organized crime has been successful in shifting the narrative, away from the (military raid) to chaos.”

Reporting by Laura Gottesdiener in Monterrey and Stefanie Eschenbacher in Mexico City; Editing by Michael Perry

The 32-year-old was arraigned during a brief proceeding that had been twice rescheduled, most recently last month, when his original attorney abruptly quit without explanation and was replaced by a public defender

International News via Reuters:

Nick Reiner, the troubled son of slain Hollywood filmmaker Rob Reiner, pleaded not guilty on Monday to murder charges stemming from the fatal stabbing of his parents in their home, one of the most shocking celebrity homicide cases in Los Angeles history.

The 32-year-old was arraigned during a brief proceeding that had been twice rescheduled, most recently last month, when his original attorney abruptly quit without explanation and was replaced by a public defender.

Nick Reiner pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder in the deadly knife attack on actor-director Rob Reiner, 78, and photographer-producer Michele Reiner, 70. Their bodies were found on December 14 inside their West Los Angeles mansion.

Seated behind a glass partition dressed in brown jail garb, his head shaved and beard closely cropped, Reiner appeared alert but spoke little during the proceeding except to answer “yes” when asked if he agreed to waive his right to a speedy preliminary hearing.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Theresa McGonigle also set the preliminary hearing, where prosecutors present evidence intended to show probable cause for proceeding to trial. It was set to take place within 30 days of April 29.

Nick Reiner, who has acknowledged a years-long struggle with substance abuse, was also ordered to remain jailed without bond, as he has been since his arrest in the hours after his parents were slain.

The killings stirred an outpouring of grief among Hollywood luminaries for Rob Reiner, who first gained fame by co-starring in the 1970s hit television comedy “All in the Family” and later directed such beloved films as “When Harry Met Sally,” “This is Spinal Tap” and “The Princess Bride.”

VICTIMS MINGLED CELEBRITY WITH POLITICS

Reiner went on to become a prominent Democratic Party activist and donor. He and his wife, married for nearly 37 years, had planned to attend an evening gathering with former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama on the day of the murders.

Nick Reiner was widely reported to have quarreled with his parents while the three were attending a holiday party hosted by comedian Conan O’Brien the night before the couple were slain.

The circumstances and celebrity surrounding the Reiner case stirred memories of the 1994 stabbing deaths of former football star O.J. Simpson’s ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman.

O.J. Simpson was acquitted of murder charges in a sensational case hyped in the media as the “trial of the century,” but a civil court jury later found him responsible in a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the victims’ families.

If Nick Reiner is convicted as charged, he would face life in prison without the possibility of parole, or prosecutors could decide to seek the death penalty. Such a determination has yet to be made, District Attorney Nathan Hochman told reporters after Monday’s hearing.

Authorities have disclosed few details about the crime and offered no explanation for what may have precipitated the killings. Autopsies found both victims died of “multiple sharp force injuries.”

High-profile defense lawyer Alan Jackson, initially retained to represent Nick Reiner, suddenly withdrew from the case on January 7, forcing the second of two arraignment postponements in three weeks. A lawyer from the public defender’s office, Kimberly Greene, was assigned to take over for Jackson on short notice. She was in court with Reiner on Monday.

Neither of Nick Reiner’s siblings – older brother Jake Reiner, 34, or younger sister Romy, 28, who reportedly was the first to find her father’s body – has been present in court for their brother’s hearings.

Following his initial court appearance in December, the siblings issued a joint statement expressing the “unimaginable pain” they were experiencing following the “horrific and devastating loss of our parents.”

It remained to be seen how Nick Reiner’s history of drug addiction, rehab and periodic homelessness might factor into the murder case. Those struggles inspired the movie “Being Charlie,” which he co-wrote with his father. 

The New York Times reported last week that in 2020, Nick Reiner was placed under a court-approved mental health conservatorship that had allowed for involuntary psychiatric treatment, a legal arrangement that ended in 2021.

The Times said both the public defender’s office and the district attorney’s office declined to comment on the matter.

Reporting and writing by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Jane Ross in Los Angeles; Editing by David Gregorio

Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, is facing allegations from global leaders that the company’s products harm young users

International News via Reuters:

Nearly 1 in 5 users aged 13 to 15 told Meta that they saw “nudity or sexual images on Instagram” that they didn’t want to view, according to a court filing. 

The document, made public on Friday as part of a federal lawsuit in California and reviewed by Reuters, includes portions of a March 2025 deposition of Instagram head Adam Mosseri.

Mosseri said the company does not share survey results “in general,” adding that self-reported surveys are “notoriously problematic,” according to the deposition. The survey was taken in 2021, said Andy Stone, a spokesperson for Meta. 

Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, is facing allegations from global leaders that the company’s products harm young users. In the U.S., thousands of lawsuits in federal and state court accuse the company of designing addictive products and fueling a mental-health crisis for minors.

The statistic on explicit images came from a survey of Instagram users about their experiences on the platform, Stone said, and not a review of posts themselves. 

The company in late 2025 said for teen users, it would remove images and videos “containing nudity or explicit sexual activity, including when generated by AI,” with exceptions considered for medical and educational content.

“We’re proud of the progress we’ve made, and we’re always working to do better,” Stone said. 

About 8% of users in the 13 to 15 age group also said they had “seen someone harm themselves or threaten to do so on Instagram,” according to the deposition.

Most sexually explicit images were sent via private messages between users, Mosseri said in his deposition, and Meta must consider users’ privacy when reviewing them.

“A lot of people don’t want us reading their messages,” he said.

Reporting by Courtney Rozen; Additional reporting by Jody Godoy in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot