By IBRAHIM HAZBOUN and RENATA BRITO, Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli intervention of a Gaza-bound flotilla carrying humanitarian aid and hundreds of activists raises questions about what any nation can legally do to enforce a blockade in international waters.

As dozens of boats sailed closer to Gaza on Wednesday afternoon, the Israeli navy warned them to turn back.

“You are entering an active warzone. If you continue and attempt to break the naval blockade, we will stop your vessel,” a member of the Israeli navy told the activists via radio. Then Israeli military personnel stormed the vessels and seized activists, including Greta Thunberg, Nelson Mandela’s grandson and several European lawmakers.

The Israeli action sparked condemnation from world leaders and human rights groups who say Israel violated international maritime law.

A humanitarian mission

The activists say their non-violent, civilian mission is lawful. Though they carried only a symbolic amount of aid, including baby formula, food and medical supplies, their goal, they say, is to establish a humanitarian corridor to facilitate the flow of aid into famine-stricken Gaza.

Israeli and European government officials had offered alternatives for the flotilla to transfer its aid to the Palestinian territory, which the activists rejected citing Israel’s tight control on all that enters Gaza.

Defending their mission, flotilla activist and spokesperson Thiago Ávila cited a provisional International Court of Justice ruling that ordered Israel to “take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”

“You are not allowed by international law to stop us. Therefore we do not comply with your request,” he told the navy via radio shortly before the interceptions began some 70 nautical miles (130 kilometers) from the shores of Israel and Gaza.

Only one boat appears to have crossed the 12-nautical-mile line (22-kilometer line) marking territorial waters off Gaza.

Interception in international waters

The U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea stipulates that a nation’s territory does not extend beyond 12 nautical miles (19 kilometers) from its shores. It says authorities may exercise control up to 24 nautical miles (45 kilometers) from land to prevent violation of customs, immigration, fiscal or sanitary laws.

Robbie Sabel, an international law expert and former legal adviser to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said states generally don’t have the right to seize ships in international waters, though there are exceptions, including during armed conflict.

Even before the latest war, Israel was in an armed conflict with Hamas, Sabel said, allowing it to intercept ships it suspected violated its longstanding blockade of Gaza. Rights groups have long criticized the blockade as the unlawful punishment of Palestinians.

A contentious maritime blockade

Yuval Shany, an expert on international law at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, said as long as Israel’s blockade of Gaza is “militarily justified” to keep out weapons and the ship intended to break it, Israel can intercept the vessel after prior warning.

The debate over the legality of Israel’s blockade remains a point of contention.

Adalah, a legal rights group in Israel representing the activists, said in a statement that “the abduction of peaceful civilians in international waters, constitutes a brazen violation of international law.”

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Omer Shatz, an Israeli international law expert who teaches at Sciences Po University in Paris and co-litigated a previous flotilla case before the Supreme Court of Israel, told The Associated Press that even if the disputed siege of Gaza was considered lawful, “international law paves a humanitarian road from the high seas to Gaza,” he said.

“If the basic needs of the population are not provided by the occupying power, there is a right to provide humanitarian aid, albeit under certain conditions,” Shatz said. Israel has the right to board and search the vessels to verify the cargo, as it does with aid trucks crossing into Gaza by land.

Enforcing international maritime law

It’s not the first time Israel has halted and confiscated humanitarian ships bound for Gaza. Dozens of boats have attempted to reach the Palestinian territory in the past two decades, but none has reached it since 2008.

In 2010, an Israeli commando raid on the Mavi Marmara flotilla descended into violence. Eight Turkish activists and one Turkish-American were killed.

A subsequent U.N. report acknowledged “attempts to breach a lawfully imposed naval blockade place the vessel and those on board at risk,” while also urging member states to be cautious in using force against civilian vessels. It called on humanitarian missions to deliver aid through regular channels and said a country’s naval blockade “must abide by their obligations with respect to the provision of humanitarian assistance.”

Enforcing international maritime law is a challenge across the globe. Generally, only states can take other states to court for violations of the U.N. Convention for the Laws of the Sea. But there are other legal frameworks and mechanisms individuals can use to seek justice, including those their state flags are party to. For example, Israel forcibly removing people from foreign-flagged vessels in international waters and taking them to Israel could be considered a crime, Shatz said.

The state prosecutors’ office of Spain told The Associated Press on Thursday that it will gather information on the flotilla interception as part of its ongoing effort to collect evidence of possible human rights violations by Israel to be presented in international courts.

Activists meanwhile say they will continue to attempt to break the Israeli blockade by sea.

A second flotilla of ships formed by The Freedom Flotilla Coalition and Thousand Madleens to Gaza is already on its way after departing Italy last week.

Brito reported from Barcelona, Spain. Tia Goldenberg in Washington, D.C., and Joseph Wilson in Barcelona contributed,

The City Council held an emergency hearing on the NYPD’s use of a free internet program to gain real-time access to public housing cameras, in response to New York Focus’ reporting.

Anthony Mascia, the commanding officer of the NYPD’s Information Technology Bureau (right), and NYCHA Chief Operating Officer Eva Trimble testified at an emergency oversight hearing on police surveillance in NYCHA on Sept. 30, 2025. (Gerardo Romo / NYC Council Media Unit)

This story originally appeared in New York Focus, a nonprofit news publication investigating power in New York. Sign up for their newsletter here.

On Tuesday, the New York City Council held an emergency oversight hearing in response to New York Focus reporting that the police department had covertly used a free internet program to gain real-time access to video cameras at New York City Housing Authority developments.

Lawmakers on the technology, public safety, public housing, and oversight and investigations committees grilled officials from the Office of Technology and Innovation, the New York City Police Department, and NYCHA.

Here’s what we learned:

The NYPD plans to dramatically expand its access to NYCHA cameras

Internet connections established under Mayor Eric Adams’ flagship free internet program for public housing residents, Big Apple Connect, have so far been used to link 68 CCTV cameras at one NYCHA development to the police department’s citywide surveillance software, Anthony Mascia, the commanding officer of the NYPD’s Information Technology Bureau, testified.

By the end of this year, the NYPD plans to fold in 1,900 cameras across 19 more NYCHA properties, Mascia said —and by the end of the next phase, the department expects to have connected 17,897 CCTV cameras across 119 NYCHA developments.

Big Apple Connect allows police to bypass the time-consuming process of physically retrieving footage, Mascia testified. Real-time access is “an unbelievably valuable tool,” he said; if someone reports a robbery, for example, “we’re able to quickly log in and immediately see exactly what’s going on. Maybe we just see two people running away. Maybe we still see the robbery in progress.”

“Every second counts,” Mascia said. “The sooner we see those videos, the sooner we could bring a killer to justice, identify a key witness, or rule out a suspect.”

The city couldn’t explain why it had pursued the initiative in secrecy

Despite repeated requests, the Office of Technology and Innovation, or OTI, never gave the City Council’s technology committee its contracts for the Big Apple Connect program. The committee only received them (and New York Focus was only able to report on them) after a lawsuit compelled OTI to release them to a small telecom provider, after delaying the provider’s public records request 16 times. “There’s no reason why you shouldn’t have been provided with the contract,” Chantal Senatus, a deputy commissioner leading OTI’s legal office, told lawmakers at the hearing.

The chair of the technology committee, Jennifer Gutiérrez, asked about the contradictory statements that the three agencies provided to New York Focus in the course of its reporting. Brett Sikoff, another OTI representative, said he was “just here to set the record straight.”

“What was said, I apologize for any confusion that may have been caused,” he added.

Sikoff confirmed that OTI never told NYCHA residents it was using the free internet program to facilitate live police surveillance. NYCHA Chief Operating Officer Eva Trimble testified that the housing authority was aware that OTI was contemplating using Big Apple Connect to expand NYPD surveillance, but that the authority never notified residents.

Questions remain about how the data is used and where it goes

The NYPD may share information collected through NYCHA camera feeds with federal immigration enforcement “when required by law,” Mascia said. The city cooperates with federal immigration authorities on criminal investigations, he said, not to enforce civil infractions.

The Trump administration has eyed public housing as it seeks to carry out mass deportations. ProPublica reported this week that the administration has drafted new rules to revoke federal housing assistance from entire households if a single member lacks legal residency status. NYCHA receives billions of dollars in federal subsidies and is under federal monitorship for failure to maintain adequate living conditions. 

Lawmakers also questioned how the police department oversees officers’ use of the technology. Mascia said the department can run internal audits revealing which officers viewed footage and for how long; Gutiérrez suggested more proactive oversight is needed to prevent “suspicionless long-term monitoring of individual residents.”

Mascia committed to “a true, transparent discussion about what audits should be in place to ensure that there’s trust, that you trust that we’re using it correctly.”

Critics raised legal and privacy concerns

Councilmembers, defense attorneys, and civil liberties advocates raised a host of concerns.

Many zeroed in on the integration of the cameras with the Domain Awareness System, an NYPD tool that fuses data from across the city to build dossiers on New Yorkers and support facial recognition analysis, predictive policing algorithms, and the department’s controversial gang database.

Michal Gross, a public defender at the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, told the committee that police already use NYCHA CCTV footage for reasons other than responding to crimes. The police department, she said, has admitted in court to “surveilling youth via NYCHA video, watching who they spend time with, who their friends are, and even documenting how they spend time with their own family members.”

Gross testified that one of her clients was labeled a gang member based on interactions with friends and family members observed through live surveillance at a NYCHA development. “This is a violation of his First Amendment right of association simply based on where he lives,” Gross said.

Lawmakers and advocates also argued that the city had failed to adhere to transparency requirements outlined in the city’s Public Oversight of Surveillance Technology Act. The NYPD countered that it did not believe the POST Act applied, since the program “only changed the method by which we access the cameras,” rather than creating a new surveillance technology.

Shepherding surveillance through the backdoor of digital equity projects like Big Apple Connect heightens the public’s suspicion of government technology projects, some argued. “It actually ruins our ability to go out and advocate for the freedom to connect,” said Noel Hidalgo, executive director of BetaNYC, a technology nonprofit that has advocated for universal broadband access.

Many questions were left unanswered

The city didn’t have answers on hand to many of the councilmembers’ questions.

Among them: which NYCHA sites were set for camera integration; how they were selected; how many times the cameras have helped the NYPD respond to crimes; whether the department has statistical evidence showing integration has increased safety or quality of life; how often internal audits of the use of cameras are conducted; which other agencies have given the department real-time access to their cameras; and whether the NYPD has shared footage from the cameras with the federal government.

The post NYPD Plans Massive Expansion of Real-Time Surveillance in NYCHA Housing appeared first on City Limits.

Sweden’s Home Baking Council started celebrating “Cinnamon Bun Day” — known there as kanelbullens dag — on Oct. 4, 1999, as a way to honor household traditions.

It soon became an annual event.

Officials in Scandia, the north Washington County city founded by Swedish immigrants, began marking the special day in 2018 by passing out free cinnamon buns in downtown Scandia.

They’ll be at it again on Friday and plan to distribute 900 homemade buns, up from 600 a year ago.

“We ran out last year, and we’re determined not to run short this year,” said Patti Ray, who is helping to organize the event.

About 700 of the buns will be distributed from 6 to 9 a.m. at Olinda Trail and Oakhill Road; another 200 will be distributed at Gammelgården Museum from from 9:30 a.m. “until the buns run out,” Ray said.

A group of about 10 volunteers spent Wednesday and Thursday making buns at the Scandia Community Center and Elim Lutheran Church, Ray said.

The event is sponsored by Gammelgården Museum, the Scandia-Marine Lions Club, the city of Scandia and the Scandia Sister City Council.

Ray; Lynne Moratzka, former director of the Gammelgården Museum, and Darlene Holtgreve, president of the Scandia-Marine Lions Club, spent Thursday at the Scandia Community Center. “They’re all baked, and we’re putting frosting on them now,” Ray said. “They each go in separate boxes, and we’ve got 100 of them in boxes already.”

The bun bestowal was the brainchild of Moratzka.

“It’s such a beloved event in Sweden that we decided to borrow the holiday here,” Moratzka said. “It’s a pleasure to do it because it surprises so many people with kindness.”

Volunteers decided to hold the Scandia event on Friday rather than Saturday, the official day in Sweden, because “there are more people in town on Friday,” she said. “We wouldn’t have any commuters on a Saturday.”

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WARE, England — Those who have been clamoring for the Vikings to give veteran safety Harrison Smith more playing time aren’t alone. While chatting with reporters after another picturesque practice in the English countryside on Thursday, defensive coordinator Brian Flores joked that even his sons Miles and Maxwell have been getting on him about it.

“My boys are like, ‘Why isn’t he playing as much?’ ” Flores said with a laugh. “I’m like, ‘Look man. You can’t just throw somebody into an NFL game.’ ”

The fact that Smith has seen his playing time limited as of late is all part of the process.

After missing most of training camp with a personal health issue, Smith also missed games against the Chicago Bears and Atlanta Falcons. He has been slowly working himself back since returning to the lineup, playing 22 defensive snaps against the Cincinnati Bengals, then 17 defensive snaps against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

“We’re just building,” Smith said while noting that he hasn’t pushed his limits yet. “This was kind of the plan and we’re sticking to it.”

It’s been an adjustment for Smith considering he’s used to playing every snap.

“Normally, playing every snap, I tend to get in a flow a little bit easier,” Smith said. “I’m trying to figure that out. It’s not like rocket science or anything, just staying warm on the sideline and being alert and ready whenever I’m going in.”

It sounds as if Smith could see an uptick in his playing time when the Vikings play the Cleveland Browns on Sunday afternoon at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London.

“I think he’s gong to get pretty close to that normal workload,” head coach Kevin O’Connell said. “That will allow us to be a little bit more versatile.”

Though he credited the performance of safeties Josh Metellus and Theo Jackson for their play, Flores emphasized that Smith is the engine that makes everything go on defense, adding he’s eager to get the 14-year pro back in the mix on a more regular basis.

“He’s doing a great job,” Flores said. “He’s getting his wind and his conditioning and his strength back. He’s a guy that we need out on the field. When he’s ready, we’ll get him out there playing.”

Briefly

Much of offensive line missed practice on Thursday afternoon: left tackle Christian Darrisaw (rest), left guard Donovan Jackson (wrist), center Ryan Kelly (concussion), center Michael Jurgens (hamstring) and right tackle Brian O’Neill (knee). As for the rest of the team, quarterback J.J. McCarthy (ankle), tight end Ben Yurosek (knee), edge rusher Andrew Van Ginkel (neck) and edge rusher Dallas Turner (illness) were nonparticipants.

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