The US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, was placed on a security lockdown on Thursday while military personnel and local law enforcement investigated reports of threats to the installation, the Navy said on the academy’s Facebook page.

There was no immediate official word on the nature of the reported threat. But Fox News, citing multiple sources inside the academy, said a former midshipman who had been expelled from the school had returned to campus armed with a weapon.

According to the Fox News report, gunshots were heard inside Bancroft Hall, which houses the midshipmen.

According to the Facebook statement from Naval Support Activity Annapolis, the “base is on lockdown out of an abundance of caution.”

 It said Navy support personnel, in coordination with local law enforcement, were “responding to reports of threats made to the Naval Academy.”

• Washington calls it a “witch hunt,” Trump calls it “surprising.”
• Seven aides, including ex-ministers and generals, also convicted.
• He is also guilty of inciting 2023 riots, knowing of plot to kill leaders.

Brazil’s Supreme Court on Thursday sentenced firebrand ex-president Jair Bolsonaro to 27 years in prison for coup plotting at the end of a landmark trial that divided the nation and drew US fury.

The sentence could see the 70-year-old far-right leader spend the rest of his days in jail.

Judges voted 4-1 to convict Bolsonaro of plotting to overthrow Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva following his October 2022 election defeat by the left-winger.

He can appeal the verdict.

Washington was quick to respond to the conviction of the man dubbed “the Trump of the tropics.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States “will respond accordingly” to what he called a politically motivated “witch hunt.”

Trump, who had levied steep tariffs on Brazil as punishment over Bolsonaro’s prosecution, labelled the verdict “very surprising.”

“That’s very much like they tried to do with me, but they didn’t get away with it at all,” he told reporters, calling Bolsonaro “a good man.”

While the Supreme Court had already garnered the simple majority of three votes needed for his conviction at the fourth vote, it only became final after the last of the five judges issued his decision.

“An armed criminal organisation was formed by the defendants, who must be convicted based on the factual circumstances I consider proven,” said the fifth judge, Cristiano Zanin, Lula’s former lawyer.

Bolsonaro’s seven co-accused, including former ministers and military chiefs, were also convicted.

Bolsonaro, a former army captain, who served a single term from 2019 to 2022, claims he is the victim of political persecution.

Political

Bolsonaro’s conviction came after one of the biggest, most divisive trials in Brazil’s recent history, which ended with a nail-biting vote that stretched over four days.

Bolsonaro himself did not attend the verdict hearings in the capital, Brasilia, instead following the proceedings from his residence, where he is under house arrest.

Across the nation, Brazilians were glued to the proceedings on TV and social media.

In one Brasilia bar, patrons watching the trial on a giant screen burst into applause after he was convicted.

“After so much waiting, this despicable individual is being sent to jail,” translator Virgilio Soares, 46, said.

But Germano Cavalcante, a 60-year-old civil engineer, called the trial “unfair.”

Apart from heading a “criminal organisation,” Bolsonaro was charged with knowing of a plan to assassinate Lula, his vice president, Geraldo Alckmin and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre Moraes.

He was also convicted of inciting the violent 2023 storming of the Supreme Court, presidential palace and Congress in Brasilia by hundreds of his supporters, a week after Lula was inaugurated as his successor.

A country divided

The trial drove a deep wedge through Brazilian society, between those primarily on the left who saw it as a vital test of the country’s democracy, from those mainly on the right who viewed it as a political show trial.

Fearing his conviction, the ex-president’s allies have been pushing Congress to pass an amnesty law to save him from prison.

The case has led to an unprecedented crisis in relations between the United States and longtime ally Brazil.

Besides the tariff punishment, Washington has also sanctioned Moraes and other Supreme Court judges.

The United Nations called on Thursday for the Taliban administration in Afghanistan to lift restrictions on its local female staff coming to work, warning that aid for earthquake victims and other vulnerable Afghans is at risk.

The Taliban authorities deployed security forces at the entrances to UN compounds and field offices, preventing Afghan women staff from entering, the UN said in a statement.

Taliban’s spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Quake fallout, returning refugees, drought

Afghanistan is struggling to cope with the aftermath of an earthquake at the end of August that killed more than 2,200 people, the return of millions of Afghan refugees expelled from neighbouring Pakistan and Iran, and a drought in the north of the country.

The Taliban has imposed more and more restrictions on women’s employment since coming to power in 2021, including at non-governmental organisations, but had previously not strictly enforced those rules for women working for the UN. 

The Taliban administration has also banned girls from high school and women from university education.

The UN said that de facto arrangements in place up to now had allowed aid to be delivered.

“Such arrangements have enabled the United Nations to deliver critical assistance across the country, through a culturally sensitive and principled approach ensuring the delivery of assistance by women, for women,” the global body said.

The Taliban has said that it respects women’s rights in line with its interpretation of Shariah law and that it would ensure women could receive aid.

But in the earthquake aid effort, female humanitarian workers have come up against Taliban rules that they must travel only with a male guardian, and access to women in need has been difficult, according to the World Health Organisation.

This week, the UN made an emergency appeal to raise $140 million to help earthquake victims. 

The UN charter does not allow discrimination against women, an issue that is also a major concern for potential donor nations. Afghanistan was already facing an aid crunch as crises elsewhere in the world, such as Ukraine and Gaza, attract more attention.