By MELANIE LIDMAN and RENATA BRITO, Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli authorities said Monday they deported to Greece and Slovakia another 171 people detained for taking part in a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, including prominent Swedish activist Greta Thunberg.

Israel’s foreign ministry posted on X that “the deportees were citizens of Greece, Italy, France, Ireland, Sweden, Poland, Germany, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Austria, Luxembourg, Finland, Denmark, Slovakia, Switzerland, Norway, the UK, Serbia, and the United States.” The post included photos of Thunberg and other activists wearing white T-shirts and gray sweatpants.

Thunberg was among dozens of deportees to land in Athens, Greece, on Monday afternoon. Crowds of supporters gathered at the Eleftherios Venizelos international airport and chanted “Free free Palestine!” as activists disembarked.

“That this mission has to exist, it’s a shame! It is a shame!” Thunberg told journalists and protesters shortly after arriving. “I could talk for a very, very long time about our mistreatment and abuses in our imprisonment, trust me, but that is not the story,” she added.

Former Barcelona mayor Ada Colau is embraced by a friend as she arrives at the airport in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025, after being arrested on the Global Sumud Flotilla and subsequently released by the Israeli authorities. (AP Photo/Joan Mateu Parra)

Instead, Thunberg urged world leaders and ordinary citizens to end their “complicity” with the “genocide” being carried out against Palestinians in Gaza, on the eve of the second anniversary of the war there between Israel and Hamas.

“We cannot take our eyes away from Gaza,” Thunberg said.

The interception of the flotilla led to large-scale demonstrations in cities across the world.

Israeli authorities again rejected mistreatment accusations that have emerged in interviews with activists who were deported to Turkey, Spain and Italy over the weekend. Israel’s government has also vehemently denied claims that its offensive in Gaza amounts to genocide, despite a growing number of experts denouncing it as such.

Activists arrive at the Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport in Athens, Monday, Oct. 6, 2025 after being deported from Israel for taking part in a Gaza-bound aid flottila. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Lubna Tuma, a lawyer with the Adalah association representing more than 470 Global Sumud Flotilla participants who were detained last week as they attempted to break the Israeli siege of Gaza, said 150 people were still held in Israel’s Ktziot prison, including Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Mandla Mandela. Forty of them were on hunger strike, including many Tunisians.

“Some stated that they prefer that their food go to the people in Gaza,” Tuma said during a briefing on Monday that was broadcast on Adalah’s and the flotilla’s Instagram accounts. Others were also refusing to drink water “until medical treatment is given to all detainees,” she said.

The association’s legal team said the remainder of the activists — including those from countries that don’t maintain diplomatic relations with Israel — were expected to be deported on Tuesday.

Activists arrive at the Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport in Athens, Monday, Oct. 6, 2025 after being deported from Israel for taking part in a Gaza-bound aid flottila. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Adalah lawyers have seen most, but not all, of the activists. Tuma said Israeli authorities have repeatedly violated activists’ rights. Tuma said it started with their interception in international waters and continued with their transfer to Israel and detention in a maximum security prison, where Tuma said activists were subject to physical violence and humiliation.

Israeli authorities have strongly rejected the claims, reiterating that the detainees’ rights had been respected throughout their detention. Israel’s foreign ministry accused one activist of biting a female medical staff member.

Several activists have given testimonies alleging mistreatment by Israeli authorities.

“There was some dehumanizing and violence and shouting,” Roos Ykema, a Dutch member of the flotilla who was deported to Madrid on Sunday, told The Associated Press. “But we got the European treatment,” she added.

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North African nationals who were detained told the AP they faced harsher treatment than their European counterparts.

“When I showed my Belgian passport their behavior towards me changed completely,” said Houssem Eddine Rmedi, a dual Tunisian-Belgian citizen.

Others said they weren’t so lucky.

“The moment you show your Tunisian, Algerian or Moroccan passport, they start beating you,” said Moroccan activist Ayoub Habraoui, who added that he and others were kept kneeling under the sun for nearly six hours.

South Africa’s government said Monday that its citizens would be released and repatriated on Tuesday via Jordan. Several other governments that had citizens taking part in the flotilla have said their embassies in Israel were working closely with Israeli authorities to make sure activists were released and sent home as swiftly as possible.

Brito reported from Barcelona, Spain. Ghaya Ben Mbarek contributed reporting from Tunis, Tunisia.

MIAMI (AP) — Western Mexico was being lashed Monday by a hurricane bringing heavy rain, strong winds and rough surf to coastal areas and the Baja California peninsula.

A tropical storm watch was issued for Baja California Sur from Cabo San Lucas to Santa Fe, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said in an advisory. A watch was also in effect for Punta San Telmo to Punta Mita, Mexico.

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Hurricane Priscilla was spinning just off the coast of Mexico, about 205 miles southwest of Cabo Corrientes with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph.

Parts of southwestern Mexico could get up to 6 inches of rain from Priscilla’s outer bands through Wednesday, bringing a flash flooding risk to Michoacán and Colima states, forecasters said.

Swells from Priscilla were reaching the coast of Mexico. Life threatening surf and rip currents were likely, the weather service said.

The hurricane was expected to intensify to a Category 2 and approach major hurricane status over the next several days.

Nearby, Tropical Storm Octave was weakening about 885 miles west-southwest of the southern tip of Baja California. Its maximum sustained winds Monday morning were 65 mph.

There were no watches or warnings in effect with Octave, and no hazards affecting land. Forecasters expect the storm will continuing weakening and dissipate in a few days.

By MIKE STOBBE, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention adopted recommendations by a new group of vaccine advisers, and stopped recommending COVID-19 shots for anyone — leaving the choice up to patients.

The government health agency on Monday announced it had adopted recommendations made last month by advisers picked by U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Before this year, U.S. health officials — following recommendations by infectious disease experts — recommended annual COVID-19 boosters for all Americans ages 6 months and older. The idea was to update protection against the coronavirus as it continues to evolve.

As the COVID-19 pandemic waned, experts increasingly discussed the possibility of focusing vaccination efforts on people 65 and older — who are among those most at risk for death and hospitalization.

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But Kennedy, who has questioned the safety of COVID-19 vaccines, abruptly announced in May that COVID-19 vaccines were no longer recommended for healthy children and pregnant women. He also dismissed the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and replaced them with a handpicked group.

The new group voted last month to say all Americans should make their own decisions. But the CDC also says vaccine decisions, especially for seniors, should involve checking with a doctor, nurse or pharmacist.

The recommendation was endorsed by Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill, who is serving as the CDC’s acting director. O’Neill signed off on it last week, but HHS officials announced it Monday.

The panel also urged the CDC to adopt stronger language around claims of vaccine risks, despite pushback from outside medical groups who said the shots had a proven safety record from the billions of doses administered worldwide.

In a statement Monday, O’Neill celebrated the change, saying past guidance “deterred health care providers from talking about the risks and benefits of vaccination.”

Major medical societies continue to recommend shots for younger children, pregnant women and others at higher risk of severe illness. They say the Trump administration’s discussion of risk overemphasizes rare side effects and doesn’t account for the dangers of coronavirus infection itself.

O’Neill also signed off on a panel recommendation that children under 4 get their first vaccine dose for varicella — also known as chickenpox — as a standalone shot rather than in combination shot with measles, mumps and rubella.

There is a single shot that contains all four, but it carries a higher risk of fevers and fever-related seizures. Since 2009, the CDC had said it prefers separate shots for initial doses of those vaccines and 85% of toddlers already get the chickenpox vaccine separately.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

St. Paul police responded to reports of flyers with racist messaging and language in the Union Park area late last week and are encouraging residents to report if they see any more.

Officers met with a resident on the morning of Oct. 2 who found flyers with “racially motivated biases” in the street of the 1600 block of Sherburne Ave, according to Nikki Muehlhausen, a St. Paul Police Department public information officer. Officers also recovered laminated flyers with hate speech from the 400 block of Fry Street the same afternoon, Muehlhausen said in an email to the Pioneer Press.

Police also responded to other areas to collect flyers including Cleveland Avenue between Roblyn Avenue and Carroll Avenue, Feronia Avenue between Prior Avenue and Lynhurst Avenue and the 2000 block of St. Anthony Avenue/St. Anthony Avenue between Dewey Street and Prior Avenue.

Residents who see additional flyers are encouraged to report them to St. Paul police. The more reports the department receives, the more it is able to take action, such as additional patrols in the area, said Sgt. Toy Vixayvong, a St. Paul Police Department public information officer on Monday.

Investigators are working to see who is responsible for the flyers, Vixayvong said.

St. Paul Ward 4 City Council Member Molly Coleman said Friday that her office received reports of the flyers around the Merriam Park area. The flyers are “horrific” and “shockingly racist,” Coleman said.

Vixayvong said residents should follow the motto of “see something, say something.”

Residents who find additional flyers are encouraged to file an online police report at stpaul.gov/departments/police/file-police-report.

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