By Brian Stelter, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump says ABC had “better” fire Jimmy Kimmel soon, in his latest broadside against the network and its popular late-night comedian.

Trump posted to Truth Social on Thursday morning, “When is ABC Fake News Network firing seriously unfunny Jimmy Kimmel, who incompetently presides over one of the Lowest Rated shows on Television? People are angry. It better be soon!!!”

Trump is wrong about Kimmel’s ratings, but he is right that MAGA media influencers remain angry about the comedian and ABC’s support for him.

ABC’s parent company Disney has shown no sign of wavering despite Trump’s pressure and the FCC’s almost unprecedented challenge to ABC’s station licenses.

Disney has declined to comment on the calls to fire Kimmel, who is under contract through next year. But the company has kept his late-night show on the air and has not done anything to distance itself from him.

Trump has railed against Kimmel for years, but this latest controversy began last week when Kimmel made a joke about First Lady Melania Trump looking like an “expectant widow.”

Pro-Trump media outlets condemned the comment, especially in the wake of Saturday night’s shooting outside the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

On Monday morning, the first lady called on ABC to “take a stand,” and the president followed up that afternoon by saying ABC “should” fire Kimmel immediately.

Then, on Tuesday, the Trump-aligned FCC ordered Disney into an early renewal process for its eight ABC station licenses — a move widely seen as a form of government punishment.

While the regulatory agency asserted that the license challenge was related to an ongoing probe of Disney’s DEI initiatives, most outside observers have viewed it as retaliation for ABC’s refusal to fire Kimmel.

Disney said on Tuesday that its ABC stations are in compliance with FCC rules and that it will defend the stations through the “appropriate legal channels.”

Thursday’s follow-up post from Trump suggests he wants to keep up the pressure against Kimmel and ABC.

Legal experts say Disney will almost certainly prevail in any legal battle over its station licenses.

Kimmel has not referenced the FCC battle in his monologues this week, but he has continued the anti-Trump commentary that his audience expects.

On Wednesday night’s episode, he quipped that “Donald and Melania lately have seemed closer than ever, and I like to think I played a part in that.”

The Trump administration’s rhetoric and the FCC action against ABC have been widely condemned by free expression groups and First Amendment advocates.

“Melania Trump has every right to say Jimmy Kimmel’s joke was vile,” Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said Thursday. “The First Amendment problem starts when the White House pressures ABC to punish a comedian for protected speech. That’s jawboning. And we’ve unfortunately seen this many times before.”

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By Jack Guy, CNN

(CNN) — Archaeologists working at the ancient city of Oxyrhynchus in Egypt have unearthed a mummy with a passage from Homer’s “Iliad” stuck to its abdomen, in a first-of-its-kind discovery.

While other mummies in the area have been found with sealed packages containing papyri with what appear to be ritualistic formulas placed on them as part of the embalming process, this is the first time that a literary text has been found, Ignasi-Xavier Adiego, a classical philologist at the University of Barcelona, Spain, told CNN on Thursday.

“This is the big development for us,” said Adiego, who’s part of a team that’s been working at the site for years.

“Until now, we didn’t know that they would have used literary texts as part of this funerary ritual,” he added.

The mummy was found in the modern-day Egyptian town of Al Bahnasa, about 200 kilometers (124 miles) south of the capital Cairo, and is roughly 1,600 years old, from the Roman era, according to a statement from the University of Barcelona.

Although the papyrus has fragmented and is in poor condition, the team has been able to ascertain that the text is from the catalogue of ships in Book II of the Greek epic poem, said Adiego.

“We haven’t had the opportunity to study it using high-tech methods such as X-rays, which might allow us to read it better,” he said. “We’ve done all we can without destroying the papyrus.”

As a result, research into the papyrus is at a preliminary stage, explained Adiego, with important questions still to be answered.

At this point, little is known about the role of the papyrus in the embalming process, he added, although one possible explanation is that they acted as a kind of signature of the embalmer who had mummified the body.

The discovery of what look to be ritual instuctions written on other papyri had led some to theorize that they had some sort of protective function, said Adiego.

“The idea that a papyrus containing a literary text would have fulfiled this same function is much stranger,” he added.

“So to this point we aren’t able to interpret the reason why there is this literary papyrus,” said Adiego.

In addition, little is known about the lives of those whose mummies have been found at the site, aside from the fact that their families must have had a certain level of wealth in order to be able to pay for the embalming process, he added.

Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said that the excavation had uncovered three limestone tombs containing several mummies, three of which had gold foil on their tongues and another that had copper on its tongue.

In a statement published on Facebook earlier this month, the ministry said that one room had a large jar containing the burned remains of an adult human, as well as the bones of an infant and the head of a feline animal. The remains were wrapped in pieces of fabric.

There was a similar jar containing the burned remains of two people and the bones of an animal of the same species in the second room, it added.

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CNN’s Sarah Tamimi contributed to this report.

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By Max Feliu, CNN

(CNN) — For nearly five years, dozens of Afghanistan’s women soccer players have lived in exile — scattered across Australia, the United States and Europe — unable to officially represent their country’s national team. A landmark amendment to the regulations of soccer’s worldwide governing body is set to change that.

The ruling Tuesday by the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) allows Afghan female players to compete as the Afghanistan women’s national team in official international matches for the first time with full sporting recognition.

The decision, issued at a FIFA Council meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, rewrites a long-standing rule that required FIFA to recognize a national team through the country’s own soccer federation. Afghanistan’s federation, operating under Taliban influence since the radical Islamist group returned to power in 2021, has refused to acknowledge the women’s program, effectively keeping its female players off the international pitch.

The amendment gives FIFA’s council the power to establish or approve a national team registration under exceptional circumstances, specifically to protect players from being excluded from international soccer due to situations beyond their control.

“This is a powerful and unprecedented step in world sport,” FIFA President Gianni Infantino said in a statement. “By enabling Afghan women to compete for their country in official matches, we are turning principles into action.”

CNN has reached out to the Taliban-led Afghan government for comment.

A women’s team in exile

The team, which has played under the name Afghan Women United as a FIFA-supported refugee squad, has been pushing for this decision since the Taliban swept back into power and immediately suspended organized women’s sports across the country. Players were forced into hiding, their equipment and medals buried or abandoned, before a coordinated evacuation — led in part by former team captain and activist Khalida Popal — brought dozens of players out of the country.

What followed was years of fighting not just for the right to play but for FIFA to designate the group as Afghanistan’s official women’s national team. CNN reported in October that players had grown frustrated with the “refugee” label that defined their squad.

“We are tired of getting called refugee,” player Zainab Mozaffari told CNN Sports. Tuesday’s ruling directly addresses that grievance.

The team took its first tentative steps back onto the international stage in October, competing in an unofficial FIFA-organized tournament in Morocco.

“For these players, representing Afghanistan is about identity, dignity and hope,” Popal said in a statement Tuesday. “This moment also shows that when we stand united, we can achieve more.”

With women’s soccer effectively shut down inside Afghanistan si

Por Lilit Marcus, CNN

La isla es exuberante, con una miríada de tonalidades de verde intensificadas por la lluvia de la mañana. Cerca de la costa, los buceadores flotan sobre lechos de corales vírgenes. Al bajar del pequeño muelle de madera, los visitantes pasan junto a grupos de ficus y helechos que les llegan hasta los tobillos, mientras que montículos de piedras grises marcan los senderos.

Y entonces, en medio de un campo vacío, se alza un tanque militar anfibio japonés con guirnaldas de plantas verdes que brotan entre sus ruedas oxidadas.

El contraste resulta chocante. Pero es precisamente por eso que hoy en día llegan turistas de lugares tan lejanos como Estados Unidos, Canadá, Taiwán, Corea del Sur y Japón: para ver de cerca la isla tropical donde tuvo lugar una de las batallas más sangrientas y menos recordadas del teatro de operaciones del Pacífico de la Segunda Guerra Mundial.

Cuando las tropas estadounidenses llegaron a la remota isla de Peleliu, en el Pacífico, en septiembre de 1944, su misión era sencilla: atacar la isla y destruir la base aérea japonesa allí instalada. Tras varios días de bombardeo, los soldados desembarcaron y encontraron la isla desierta, con todos los enemigos aparentemente derrotados.

Sin que los estadounidenses lo supieran, y sin que su reconocimiento aéreo lo detectara, Peleliu está repleto de profundas redes de cuevas subterráneas. Los japoneses habían fortificado muchas de estas cuevas y las habían abastecido de alimentos, agua y municiones, por lo que cuando comenzaron los bombardeos, se refugiaron bajo tierra.

La batalla de Peleliu, que se suponía que duraría solo unos días, se prolongó durante meses. Se convirtió en una de las batallas más cruentas de todo el teatro de operaciones del Pacífico, y ahora la mayoría de los historiadores coinciden en que nada de ello era necesario. Sin embargo, su historia sigue siendo en gran parte desconocida para los estadounidenses, quienes probablemente hayan aprendido sobre Iwo Jima y Guadalcanal en la escuela.

“Fue un auténtico espectáculo de terror”, afirma Joe Whelan, autor del libro “Bitter Peleliu”.

“En realidad, fue una batalla que no se necesitaba librar, y probablemente no debería haberse librado. De hecho, el almirante Halsey recomendó que simplemente la omitieran. Pero la flota de invasión ya estaba en camino, y el almirante Nimitz, al mando de todo el Pacífico, desautorizó su recomendación”. William Halsey Jr. era el almirante de cinco estrellas que comandaba las tropas navales en la región.

En total, unos 14.000 japoneses y 10.000 estadounidenses perdieron la vida durante el asedio de Peleliu. No todos murieron por bombas y disparos. Las temperaturas podían superar con frecuencia los 38 ºC (100 ºF), por lo que muchos fallecieron por insolación y deshidratación. Otros enfermaron por beber agua contaminada. Finalmente, los altos mandos japoneses se suicidaron mediante seppuku, un ritual de suicidio. Para entonces, según Whelan, la guerra prácticamente había terminado y los japoneses, conscientes de la derrota, habían optado por una estrategia de desgaste.

“Querían que los estadounidenses los atacaran, y así podrían matar a más estadounidenses. Y pensaban que si lo hacían, podrían persuadir a Estados Unidos para que negociara.”

La mayoría de los historiadores sitúan el final de la Batalla de Peleliu el 24 de noviembre de 1944, día en que falleció el comandante japonés, el coronel Kunio Nakagawa. Actualmente, los guías turísticos acompañan a los visitantes a través de algunas de estas cuevas, donde piedras sintoístas grabadas con inscripciones japonesas conmemoran los lugares donde murieron los soldados. Algunos visitantes dejan banderas japonesas o flores de cerezo prensadas en estas tumbas, cuyas piedras se cubren rápidamente de musgo debido al clima húmedo de

Por Sol Amaya y Verónica Calderón, CNN en Español

La presidenta de México, Claudia Sheinbaum, aseguró este jueves que no van a “proteger a nadie” pero que “tiene que haber pruebas”, al referirse a la acusación de Estados Unidos contra el gobernador de Sinaloa y otros funcionarios mexicanos por presuntos vínculos con el narcotráfico.

“Solo si existen pruebas contundentes se va a proceder contra” Rubén Rocha Moya, dijo la mandataria. El gobernador de Sinaloa fue acusado este miércoles de cargos de narcotráfico, posesión ilegal de armas y conspiración para poseer armas, según informó el Departamento de Justicia (DOJ) de EE.UU. en un comunicado. Tanto Rocha como los otros mencionados en el documento negaron las acusaciones.

“Si no existen pruebas contundentes, es evidente que el objetivo es político”, aseguró Sheinbaum en su conferencia de prensa matutina, en la que resaltó reiteradamente el lema “Verdad, justicia y defensa de la soberanía”. “Debe quedar sumamente claro: bajo ningún motivo vamos a permitir la intromisión o injerencia de un gobierno extranjero en las decisiones que le competen exclusivamente al pueblo de México”.

Según el DOJ, el gobernador y los otros mencionados en la acusación presuntamente conspiraron con líderes del Cartel de Sinaloa para importar grandes cantidades de drogas a Estados Unidos, a cambio de apoyo político y sobornos.

Rocha Moya rechazó “categórica y absolutamente” los señalamientos, a los que calificó como un ataque contra su persona y contra la “cuarta transformación”, el movimiento que abandera el partido oficialista Morena.

La presidenta de México explicó que la Fiscalía General de la República procederá a analizar la documentación recibida desde EE.UU. Para “establecer con toda exactitud si existen los elementos probatorios necesarios para tal fin y en su caso, sobre la viabilidad de la solicitud” de extradición de Rocha y otros funcionarios señalados en la acusación.

“Desde que asumí la presidencia de México, juré hacer respetar la Constitución y las leyes. Asimismo, asumí el firme compromiso de velar por el bienestar del pueblo y la defensa de la soberanía nacional”, dijo Sheinbaum. “México es un país grandioso, con un pueblo generoso y trabajador. México establece una relación de iguales con todas las naciones, nunca de subordinación y menos de entreguismo”, insistió.

“Si la Fiscalía General de la República, que es la autoridad competente, recibe pruebas contundentes e irrefutables conforme a la legislación mexicana, o en su propia investigación encuentre elementos constitutivos de un delito, deberá proceder conforme a derecho bajo nuestra jurisdicción”.

Consultada por la publicación en X del embajador de EE.UU. en México, Ronald Johnson, Sheinbaum dijo que no ha tenido comunicación con él y consideró que sus declaraciones son desafortunadas. “Un embajador no puede tener una actitud injerencista”, dijo la mandataria

Johnson señaló en un comunicado difundido en redes sociales que la corrupción facilita las actividades criminales y debe ser combatida. “Si bien no podemos comentar sobre los hechos específicos de estas imputaciones y el proceso legal deberá seguir su curso, hay algo claro: la corrupción que facilita el crimen organizado y perjudica a ambos países será investigada y procesada en todos los casos en que aplique la jurisdicción de los Estados Unidos”, dijo el diplomático.

Las acusaciones llegan en un momento de tensión entre México y EE.UU., acrecentada tras la muerte de dos agentes de la CIA en un operativo en Chihuahua. Sobre este punto, Sheinbaum destacó que ese caso “todavía no se aclaró”.

La acusación de EE.UU. dice que Los Chapitos, una fracción del Cartel de Sinaloa liderada por los hijos del narcotrafican