Lars Findsen is seeking compensation from the state. His lawsuit focuses on a confidential 2022 meeting where the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET) briefed top politicians on intimate details of his private life.

At the time of the briefing, Findsen was detained and accused of leaking state secrets to the press regarding Denmark's complicity in American eavesdropping against communication cables. All charges against him were eventually dropped, and he was awarded compensation for unjustified detention and surveillance.

Now, he is back in court, arguing that the state crossed a new line by sharing salacious personal details with politicians.

Taking the stand as the day's key witness, Morten Messerschmidt, leader of the fascist Danish People’s Party, recounted the 2022 briefing with palpable unease. He testified that PET chief Finn Borch Andersen presented a "vulnerability report" on Findsen containing graphic and detailed depictions of the spy chief's sex life.

"What I remember very clearly was a description... that Lars Findsen had a sex life based on stealing relatively expensive bicycles," Messerschmidt told the court, describing how the alleged scheme involved stealing bikes from train stations and delivering them to a summer house where his girlfriend would reward him with BDSM sex. Messerschmidt said he left the briefing "relatively shocked" by the nature of the allegations.

Findsen categorically denied the allegations outside the courtroom. "That is a conspiracy dreamt up in the heads of PET," he told reporters, noting that the bicycle-sex narrative did not appear in the official written report.

That vulnerability report, most of which were read behind closed doors to protect Findsen's family, was ostensibly compiled to assess his blackmail risk. It contended that by keeping aspects of his sex life secret, posting pictures to dating sites, and conducting intimate conversations on his work phone, Findsen made himself a potential target for foreign intelligence agencies.

In his testimony, Findsen offered a different rationale for using his work phone for sexting with his girlfriend, stating that he also used it as his private phone and stating that he did so specifically to reduce the risk of blackmail by keeping the conversations on a secure, official device rather than other platforms.

The report also contained the claim that someone in Findsen's network sold marijuana and that Findsen had used his work phone to discuss marijuana. Findsen denies having used drugs in his adult life and denies any connections to drug trade.

The state, represented in court by its legal counsel, argues that sharing this information with political leaders was relevant and necessary to keep them informed during the ongoing criminal case against Findsen at the time.

Findsen's lawyer, Lars Kjeldsen, sharply disagreed. "The case is not about what the authorities knew and what information they had collected about Lars Findsen," Kjeldsen stated. "The case is about what information was passed on to politicians." He characterized the vulnerability report as an attempt at "character assassination."

A verdict is expected at a later date.

Source: Vilde beskyldninger: Stjal cykler for sex, Ekstrabladet (corporate media). October 21st 2025

While Washington claims the vessel was carrying fentanyl, Quito says it had no grounds to detain the Ecuadorian national. On Monday, Ecuadorian authorities announced that Andres Tufiño Chila, the Ecuadorian who survived the U.S. attack on a “submarine” allegedly carrying drugs in the Caribbean Sea, was released after returning to his country.

The Interior Ministry confirmed that Tufiño Chila arrived in Ecuador on Saturday. After undergoing a medical examination, the National Police’s Anti-Narcotics Unit took him to a flagrancy unit so that the case could be reviewed by an on-duty prosecutor.

“Since there was no report of a crime presented to this institution that would indicate an offense committed in Ecuadorian territory, he could not be detained, as he also had no pending cases against him,” authorities said.

Hours earlier, however, U.S. President Donald Trump had announced that two survivors of the attack would be repatriated to their countries of origin. “Two of the terrorists died. At least 25,000 Americans would have died if I had allowed that submarine to reach land. The two surviving terrorists will be returned to their home countries, Ecuador and Colombia, for detention and prosecution,” he said.

The Republican also mentioned that U.S. intelligence had confirmed that the vessel targeted in the attack “was loaded mainly with fentanyl and other illegal narcotics.”

These were the first two arrests made by the U.S. during its “armed conflict” against drug trafficking. So far, U.S. forces have killed nearly 30 people in at least six attacks on small boats in Caribbean waters.

The attack on the alleged “narco-submarine” took place on Thursday, Oct. 16, according to Trump, who said that having such a vessel “made it clear that this was not an innocent group.”

The U.S. deployment in the Caribbean, which began in August under the justification of fighting drug trafficking, has caused growing tension between Washington and the government of President Nicolas Maduro, who sees the military operation as the prelude to a possible attack on Venezuela.

The Human Rights Reporting Gateway (HRG) acted as a formal "tip line" to the US government.

It was the only publicly accessible channel of its kind for organisations or individuals to inform it directly of potentially serious abuses by US-armed foreign forces.

Its deletion has been condemned by human rights campaigners and by a senior congressional aide who drafted the law requiring it. The State Department insisted it was still abiding by the law.

The portal was established in 2022 following pressure on successive administrations to abide by updated provisions of the Leahy Law, named after former US Senator Patrick Leahy. These require the government to "facilitate receipt" of information on alleged gross violations of human rights by military units supplied by Washington.

Among the cases submitted via the HRG was the alleged excessive use of force by security forces during anti-government protests in Colombia, while several cases were due to be submitted relating to US-armed units of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in the occupied West Bank, according to Amnesty International.

Tim Rieser, former senior aide to Senator Leahy who wrote the 2011 amendment mandating information gathering, told the BBC the gateway's removal meant the State Department was "clearly ignoring the law".

He added it was a further sign that "the entire human rights architecture" within the department was being "rendered largely ineffective".

"The United States will find itself supporting foreign security forces that commit heinous crimes even though nothing is done about it," said Mr Rieser. "As a result there will be less incentive for foreign governments to bring people who commit such crimes to justice."

In response, the US State Department insisted it was continuing to receive reports regarding gross violations of human rights and was engaging with "credible organisations" on a full spectrum of human rights concerns. It said: "The Department abides by its legal requirements".

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has overseen a sweeping reorganisation of the State Department involving widespread layoffs and eliminating some offices focused on human rights monitoring. The department this year released a slimmed-down annual human rights report which critics said omitted alleged crimes by US allies but included those by foreign leaders the Trump administration opposes.

The department has previously said its restructure made it leaner and more efficient and followed President Trump's "America First" foreign policy which sees some human rights promotion as ideologically driven.

Charles Blaha, former Director of the Office of Security and Human Rights at the State Department, said people in the field would now have "no established channel" for reporting gross violations of human rights by foreign security forces.

The government's ability to deter abuses was "severely weakened", said Mr Blaha who is now an adviser to the Washington-based think tank Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN).

The BBC learned during the summer that the HRG site was earmarked for deletion. Its removal was highlighted by DAWN in August but has not previously been acknowledged by the State Department. The BBC confirmed this week that officials phased out the reporting channel during the department's restructure.

Screengrabs of the portal taken by the BBC before its deletion show it asked for information on US-armed foreign military units involved in alleged abuses including extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, torture and rape. It required extensive details to ensure credible reporting including unit names, identities of alleged perpetrators, specific locations and dates.

Blaha had already voiced frustration that despite the HRG passing its pilot phase, the Biden administration had not done enough to publicise it, meaning the provision to "facilitate receipt" of information was still not being fully honoured before the Trump administration deleted the channel entirely.

The US is the world's biggest contributor of military aid to foreign countries, supplying funding, equipment, training and arms to more than 150 nations. Its vetting procedures to prevent arms going to units involved in breaches of international law have evolved over the years, with the 1997 legislation named after Senator Leahy being one its major pillars.

At the heart of the law is Congress sending a message to the administration that taxpayer funding cannot support human rights abuses abroad, says Amanda Klasing, who oversees government relations at Amnesty International USA.

"If I'm a member of Congress, my perspective is: 'I want to protect my constituents and their taxpayer funding from going to torturers or people that kill their own citizens for protesting," she told the BBC.

Klasing oversaw the compilation and submission of several reports to the Human Rights Reporting Gateway.

These included allegations that American arms were used by Colombian security forces during mass anti-government protests in 2021, in which at least 47 people were killed and many wounded according to the group. Amnesty says among the arms were US-supplied high-capacity launchers for stun and smoke grenades.

Klasing says she had also gathered evidence relating to the killing of 20 Palestinians during IDF raids in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank in October and November 2023. Amnesty was preparing to submit its report on these incidents to the HRG before its deletion.

The United Nations court, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), has said Israel has an obligation to ensure the “basic needs” of the population in Gaza are met.

The panel of 11 judges said on Wednesday that Israel is forced to support the relief efforts provided by the United Nations in the bombarded Gaza Strip and its entities.

It includes UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, which Israel has banned from operating in Israel after accusing some of its staff of taking part in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack.

As part of its findings, the ICJ said Israel has failed to show evidence that UNRWA also worked for Hamas as it claimed.

“The court finds that Israel has not substantiated its allegations that a significant part of UNRWA’s employees are ‘members of Hamas … or other terrorist factions’,” said ICJ President Yuji Iwasawa.

Advisory opinions of the ICJ, also known as the world court, carry legal and political weight, but they are not binding, and the court has no enforcement power.

In April, lawyers for the United Nations and Palestinian representatives at the ICJ accused Israel of breaking international law by refusing to let aid into Gaza between March and May.

Since then, some humanitarian aid has been allowed in, but UN officials say the relief is nowhere near what is needed to ease a humanitarian disaster and an Israeli-induced famine in parts of the enclave.

The 20-point ceasefire plan mediated by the US earlier this month allows for 600 trucks of aid a day into Gaza. Israel has previously accused Hamas – without providing evidence – of stealing food delivered into the enclave, which the group strongly denies.

Israel has claimed the aid restriction, still in place despite provisions in the ceasefire stipulating that aid must enter Gaza at scale, was to put pressure on the group.

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Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, slammed the ICJ’s advisory opinion as “shameful”, claiming UN institutions are “breeding grounds for terrorists”.

Israel did not take part in the proceedings, but it did submit its legal position in writing. In April, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar dismissed the hearings as a “circus” and said the court was being politicised.

Iwasawa said the court “rejects the argument that the request abuses and weaponises the international judicial process”.

Advisory ‘very important’

On the eve of the ICJ ruling, Abeer Etefa, Middle East spokesperson for the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP), said 530 of the organisation’s trucks had crossed into Gaza since the ceasefire.

Those trucks had delivered more than 6,700 tonnes of food, which she said was “enough for close to half a million people for two weeks”.

Etefa said about 750 tonnes a day were now coming through, which, although more than before the ceasefire, remains well below WFP’s target of about 2,000 tonnes daily.

The ICJ said that Israel, as an occupying power, was under an obligation “to ensure the basic needs of the local population, including the supplies essential for their survival”.

At the same time, Israel was “also under a negative obligation not to impede the provision of these supplies”, the court said.

The court also recalled the obligation under international law not to use starvation as a method of warfare.

Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen, reporting from The Hague, said the advisory opinion is still seen as “very important” because the ICJ is the primary legal body of the UN.

“Even if Israel ignores it, as it’s done time and time again, all the UN countries are obliged to follow up on this court’s advice,” Vaessen said. “Even if Israel is ignoring it now, it will hang over the head of Israel from this moment on.”

The UN General Assembly had asked the ICJ to clarify Israel’s obligations, as an occupying power, towards the UN and other bodies, “including to ensure and facilitate the unhindered provision of urgently needed supplies essential to the survival” of Palestinians.

ICJ judges heard a week of evidence in April from dozens of nations and organisations, much of which revolved around the status of UNRWA.

The ICJ at the time noted that UNRWA “cannot be replaced on short notice without a proper transition plan”.

Palestinian official Ammar Hijazi told the ICJ judges during the April hearings that Israel was blocking aid as a “weapon of war” and triggering starvation in Gaza.

Wednesday’s case was separate from the others Israel faces under international law over its assault in Gaza.

In July 2024, the ICJ issued another advisory opinion stating that Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territory was “unlawful” and must end as soon as possible.

ICJ judges are also weighing accusations, brought by South Africa, that Israel has broken the 1948 UN Genocide Convention with its actions in Gaza.

Speaking on Monday, Maduro underscored the deep historical ties between the two nations, recalling their shared origins under independence leader Simón Bolívar. “Colombia knows we are one, like Siamese brothers, and whatever happens to Colombia happens to Venezuela, and whatever happens to Venezuela happens to Colombia, as a Colombian military officer wrote to me a few weeks ago,” he said.

Emphasis mine. We should have low expectations for Colombia's military leadership, but perhaps some segments are ready to actually defend their country instead of bend over for the US.

Invoking Bolívar’s vision of regional unity, Maduro added: “In our hearts, we are the Great Colombia founded on the Orinoco by our Liberator, Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar Palacios y Blanco.”

More Gran Colombia talk. The big question right now is if US aggression forces enough cooperation among Colombia and Venezuela that deeper political unity - maybe not true GC, but something in that direction.

“The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America expresses its strongest condemnation of the recent verbal attacks and threats made by President Donald Trump against the sovereignty of the Republic of Colombia and its president, Gustavo Petro.

ALBA expresses its unwavering solidarity with the people and government of Colombia, reaffirming its respect for their sovereignty, democracy, and right to freely decide their future. It also calls on the international community to reject all forms of interference, pressure, or threats of the use of force and to defend international law and peace in our America.

In the face of these attacks, the peoples of our America reaffirm their unity, dignity, and commitment to social justice, self-determination, and regional integration, and warn that they will not accept external impositions that seek to subjugate their countries.”

Trump’s announcement has prompted Latin American leaders to a collective defense of national sovereignty. The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-People’s Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP) released a communique on Thursday, calling the CIA operations “a direct violation of the principle of sovereignty, as well as a threat to International Law and the Charter of the United Nations.”

“There will be no room for war or interventionism in Our America,” it noted, adding that the region will always be “a land of peace, dignity, and resistance.”

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel on Friday expressed the country’s solidarity with Venezuela on X. “In moments when the empire and its misguided leader approve covert CIA operations against Venezuela, we express our solidarity with that brother people and, especially, with its President Nicolas Maduro,” he said.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Thursday that “no president from another country has the right to decide Venezuela’s fate.”

On the same day, the Workers’ Party in Brazil condemned the U.S. move as “an affront to sovereignty and a violation of international law,” noting that the CIA “has a long history of illegal and destabilizing operations in South America, marked by coups, repression and bloody dictatorships.”

Similarly, Bolivian President Luis Arce called the CIA operations “a clear act of intimidation,” warning that “a military escalation could endanger peace and stability across Latin America and the Caribbean.”

[F]ormer Bolivian President Evo Morales posted a message of solidarity with Petro on his X social media account.

“We send our full solidarity to our brother President Gustavo Petro in the face of the attacks and threats from the president of the United States, Donald Trump. Gustavo Petro is one of the dignified voices seeking peace. The threats against our sister nation Colombia are threats against the entire Patria Grande,” Morales said.

Former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa also wrote on X to express his solidarity with the Colombian leader. “The fact that the most powerful man on the planet is an irresponsible clown should concern all humanity. Strength to President Petro! Strength to Colombia! Strength to Latin America!” he emphasized.

For its part, the civil organization CELAC Social Colombia issued a statement expressing its “firm support” for the president of the Republic of Colombia and pro tempore president of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), Gustavo Petro.

The organization “categorically rejected” Trump’s recent statements, saying he “has no moral authority to question Colombia, just as his Secretary of State, Mr. Marco Rubio, does not.” The group described the remarks as “a direct offense against Colombia’s sovereignty and a grave violation of international law and the principle of peoples’ self-determination.”

“Everyone says we’re going to turn Brazil into Venezuela, but Brazil will never be Venezuela, and Venezuela will never be Brazil. Each country will be itself,” he said during the 16th Congress of the Brazilian Communist Party (PCdoB), held in Brasilia.

“What we defend is that the Venezuelan people own their destiny, and no president from another country has the right to meddle in deciding what Venezuela or Cuba should be,” he said, making an implicit reference to U.S. President Donald Trump.

– they are engaging in firefights and killing Ukrainian soldiers, particularly drone operators, at their positions. Logistics into the city are fully controlled by Russian drones, forcing Ukrainian soldiers to walk 10-15 km to reach their positions. The situation is beyond critical...

Two officers from a brigade defending the city confirmed that Russian troops have been shooting and killing Ukrainian UAV operators and engaging artillery and anti-tank units in direct combat inside the city...

Others, Ukrainska Pravda has found, exist only on maps – either occupied by wounded soldiers or abandoned entirely. Ukrainian defenders are facing a catastrophic shortage of infantry.

Quote from the first officer: 'Infantry is practically cut off from command. We can hear them on the radio and we try to deliver water to them with drones. They've been on the positions for two and a half to three months. For our brigade, that's long – we usually rotate people. In Pokrovsk itself, there are at least 250 of those bastards, probably more. There's fighting on almost every street; we have casualties every day.'"

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2025/10/24/8004333/

'If Netanyahu f***s up the agreement, Donald Trump will f*** him,' US official says - report

"If [Netanyahu] continues like this, he will eventually f*** up the agreement, and if he f***s up the agreement, Donald Trump will f*** him," the official said. 

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF

OCTOBER 23, 2025 21:40 Updated: OCTOBER 24, 2025 00:48

The White House is growing increasingly concerned with the Israeli government's conduct since the signing of the US-brokered Gaza deal, N12 reported on Thursday, citing a senior American source. 

"[Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is walking a very fine line with President Trump. If he continues like this, he will eventually f*** up the agreement, and if he f*** up the agreement, Donald Trump will f*** him," the official said. 

The growing concern in Washington comes as Vice President JD Vance ended his visit to Israel on Thursday, only to be replaced by Secretary of State Marco Rubio as the US continues to send representatives to oversee the implementation of phase one of the Gaza deal.

Trump says Gaza war could've lasted years without him

Trump stated that the Gaza deal prevented Netanyahu from continuing the war for several years in a Time Magazine interview.

Trump said he was surprised by how focused the people of Israel were on returning the hostages, and that he thought Israel would have "sacrificed more hostages in order to keep going." But when he saw that the people wanted them home more than anything else, he said to Hamas, "No more of that. You're giving us the f**king hostages, all of them."

Regarding Hamas's disarmament under the deal, the terror organization must disarm or be in "big trouble," Trump continued, otherwise the war may resume. "Right now, they're killing gangs, but you know, at what point do the gangs morph into political opponents?"

The Palestinians don't have a "visible" leader right now, because "every one of those leaders has been shot and killed," Trump explained, going on to note that while he finds Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority (PA), "reasonable," he is probably not an option to rule the Strip.