UN council urged to use 'every means at its disposal' to press Hamas to disarm

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The official overseeing the U.S.-brokered ceasefire in Gaza urged the U.N. Security Council on Thursday to use “every means at its disposal” to press Hamas to disarm, warning that every act of violence in the Palestinian territory risks “unraveling” the agreement.

Nickolay Mladenov, high representative of the Board of Peace, an international body established by President Donald Trump, said Israel must also uphold its obligations under the October’s ceasefire, pointing to the killings of Palestinians and restrictions on the flow of humanitarian aid.

The choice before Hamas and Israel is either “a deteriorating status quo” or a new beginning for Palestinians now waiting “in desperate conditions,” he said. "There is no third option. There never was, and the people of Gaza should not be made to wait while some pretend that there is.”

Mladenov was expanding on the first report by the Board of Peace, which said the main obstacle to full implementation of the ceasefire remains "Hamas’ refusal to accept verified decommissioning, relinquish coercive control, and permit a genuine civilian transition in Gaza.”

Hamas in a statement criticized the new report and said it ignored Israel's failure to comply with the terms of the ceasefire.

The Palestinian militant group, which led the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel that sparked the war in Gaza, has sought to link any demilitarization to Israeli troop pullbacks. Israel’s military has expanded its control of Gaza since the truce took effect and now controls some 60% of the territory.

Mladenov, a veteran Bulgarian diplomat, said if Israel and Hamas refuse to accept the roadmap to implement Trump's peace plan, the Board of Peace will discuss ways to provide humanitarian relief and promote recovery in the territory.

If nothing is done, he said, Gaza will remain divided. with Hamas holding administrative and military control over 2 million Palestinians who can live in less than half of the Gaza Strip and are likely to remain trapped in rubble, needing aid and without hope of reconstruction or a future for their children.

“This is a version of the future that Israelis, Palestinians and the region should all fear and all mobilize to avoid,” Mladenov said.

He said the decommissioning of weapons “will be gradual, sequenced and time-bound against an agreed timetable” — and that weapons from Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups will not be transferred to Israel but to the transitional administration in Gaza.

The roadmap deserves the Security Council’s “clear, consistent and unequivocal support,” he said.

“I ask the council to use every means at its disposal to urge Hamas to accept the roadmap without further delay, and Israel to uphold its obligations under the ceasefire,” Mladenov said. “Diplomacy must continue, cannot be used as an excuse for delay while 2 million people wait in desperate conditions.”

Palestinians inspect the rubble of the Ismail family home, destroyed in Israeli airstrike at Al-Maghazi camp, in the central Gaza Strip, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

FILE - United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov, attends a press conference at the (UNSCO) offices in Gaza City, Monday, Sept. 25, 2017. (AP Photo/Adel Hana, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Federal prosecutors have charged two men with using artificial intelligence to create nude videos and photos of female celebrities under a newly enacted law meant to halt the spread of deepfake pornography.

Cornelius Shannon, 51, and Arturo Hernandez, 20, were both arrested Tuesday for generating sexually explicit AI content that drew millions of views online, according to criminal complaints.

The men — who do not appear to be connected — are among the earliest defendants to face charges under the Take It Down Act, a law signed last year by President Donald Trump that adds stricter penalties for publishing AI-created deepfakes and “revenge porn.” The bill drew bipartisan support, as well as the public backing of first lady Melania Trump.

Under the new law, the men now face up to two years in prison.

Attorneys for Shannon and Hernandez did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a statement, Joseph Nocella, the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, said the men had ”used cutting-edge digital technology to create images that degraded and violated” dozens of women. “This case makes clear that posting deepfake pornography is not a victimless crime,” he added.

Shannon, a resident of New Jersey, published at least 240 albums of AI-generated pornography featuring female politicians, musicians and singers, according to the complaint.

The deepfakes published by Hernandez, of Texas, included both celebrities as well as private women, including recent high school graduates, prosecutors said.

The arrests come as increasingly sophisticated generative AI tools have raised alarm about the online spread of sexually explicit fakes, often depicting minors.

Last month, an Ohio man became the first person convicted under the Take It Down Act after pleading guilty to using AI to generate child sexual abuse material.

In March, two teenage boys received probation for creating explicit AI images of their classmates at an exclusive private school in Pennsylvania.

And in a separate case filed earlier this year, three teenagers in Tennessee sued Elon Musk’s xAI, claiming the company’s Grok tools morphed their real photos into explicitly sexual images.

The high school students are seeking class-action status to represent what the lawsuit says are thousands of people who were similarly victimized as minors.

FILE - A poster outside a roundtable about an online safety bill, hosted by first lady Melania Trump, is displayed in the Capitol, March 3, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)