博客

Blue state in hot seat for taking more than 2 years to remove criminal illegal alien from voter roll

2026-06-22 14:11:05 EDT / Fox News

Republican Delegate Matt Morgan says the case proves why ‘Marylanders have lost faith in our elections’

By Peter Pinedo Fox News

Published June 22, 2026 2:11pm EDT | Updated June 22, 2026 2:12pm EDT

Illegal registered to vote just ‘tip of the iceberg,’ says GOP delegate

Maryland state Delegate Lauren Arikan blasted Democratic leaders in her state after an illegal alien was found registered to vote, saying this is

NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

blob:https://www.foxnews.com/aed6febc-fb52-45f9-b45d-61eca58c9cb9

Listen to this article

3 min

Maryland’s Democratic leadership is facing criticism after it took state officials more than two years to remove a prominent illegal immigrant from its voter rolls. Amidst the drama, one GOP lawmaker remarked, “This is exactly why Marylanders have lost faith in our elections.”

According to the Maryland Freedom Caucus, which consists of conservative lawmakers in the state General Assembly, Ian Andre Roberts, a Guyanese national illegally present in the U.S., was “quietly” removed from Maryland’s voter rolls. This comes after Roberts was sentenced on May 29 to two years in federal prison and three years of supervised release for possession of a gun as an illegal immigrant and for falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen on employment paperwork.

Fox News Digital reported last September that, despite illegally residing in the U.S., Roberts was working as the superintendent of the Des Moines Public Schools in Iowa. Maryland Republicans blew the whistle on the fact that he was also registered as an active Democratic voter in Maryland.

The Maryland Freedom Caucus posted on X that “9 months after it was discovered that a superintendent of a large school district was not only a noncitizen with a final deportation order, but also had been illicitly registered to vote in Maryland, Ian Roberts has finally – and quietly – been removed from the active voter registration list in our state.”

ILLEGAL ALIEN ARRESTED BY ICE FOUND REGISTERED AS ACTIVE DEMOCRAT VOTER IN BLUE STATE

Ian Roberts, former superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools, speaks to students at Theodore Roosevelt High School in Des Moines on Oct. 21, 2024.(Jon Lemons/Des Moines Public Schools via AP)

The caucus wrote that “Ian Roberts is the perfect symbol of everything wrong with the Maryland State Board of Elections,” adding that “it practically took an act of God to get him removed from the rolls.”

In addition to the 2024 final order of removal against him, Roberts also faced charges in 2020 for second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and other weapons charges, as well as a 2022 conviction for unlawful possession of a loaded gun in Pennsylvania. He was arrested by ICE last September. Agents arrested Roberts after he attempted to run and was found hiding in the brush. The vehicle Roberts was driving contained $3,000 in cash, a fixed-blade hunting knife and a loaded Glock 19 handgun, ICE said.

Republican state Delegate Matt Morgan, who is chair of the Maryland House Freedom Caucus, told Fox News Digital that Roberts’ case “is exactly why Marylanders have lost faith in our elections.”

MARYLAND DODGES SPECIFICS IN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT VOTER-ROLL CASE AS CONGRESS VOWS TO KEEP DIGGING

Ian Andre Roberts was arrested by federal authorities in 2025 while serving as superintendent of an Iowa school district.(Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

“The fact that it took this long for the state to remove him proves what we’ve been saying: the system is broken, and one-party Democrat control in Annapolis [the Maryland state capital] has zero interest in basic safeguards,” he said.

The Maryland State Board of Elections previously said Roberts did not vote in elections. However, when Roberts’ case first surfaced last year, Morgan said that the illegal immigrant’s registration meant that he was eligible to vote in all federal, state and local elections despite not being a U.S. citizen, and also despite likely not having lived in Maryland for the past decade.

Morgan asserted that “this isn’t incompetence” but instead “the predictable result of sanctuary policies and willful neglect of election integrity.”

LOS ANGELES PROPOSAL TO ALLOW NONCITIZENS TO VOTE IN LOCAL ELECTIONS SPARKS ONLINE BACKLASH

The Maryland State Capitol building in Annapolis, Md.(Getty Images)

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

“I demand full audits, real cooperation with federal authorities, and immediate reforms so citizens can once again trust our elections,” said Morgan, adding, “Anything less is unacceptable.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the Maryland State Board of Elections for comment, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

Peter Pinedo is a politics writer for Fox News Digital.

An explosive appeal from Trump over E. Jean Carroll sexual abuse verdict stalls at the Supreme Court

2026-06-22T16:33:28.543Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/22/politics/supreme-court-e-jean-carroll-donald-trump-appeal

• The Supreme Court has rescheduled consideration of President Trump’s appeal of a $5 million E. Jean Carroll verdict 15 times since February.
• The delay has deferred the jury award for more than three years, while the Justice Department launched a criminal investigation into Carroll.
• Trump’s attorneys have signaled a second appeal is coming soon, which could push any decision from the court into the fall.

AI-generated summary was reviewed by a CNN editor.

As the justices of the Supreme Court prepared to meet behind closed doors on February 27, they had before them an explosive case involving President Donald Trump, who is seeking to overturn a federal jury’s finding that he sexually abused and defamed magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll.

But a day before the justices held that private meeting, the Trump case was yanked without explanation.

Since then, the politically sensitive appeal, which Trump initially filed in November, has been set on the court’s agenda and rescheduled 15 times. Only one other has been rescheduled as often in the current term, according to a CNN analysis.

Since Trump filed his appeal seven months ago, the president lost a separate $83 million case involving Carroll, and the Justice Department launched a criminal investigation into the magazine columnist.

The nation’s highest court almost never explains its handling of pending appeals and has not done so in the Carroll case. The delay could be because one or more justices is writing an opinion about the case. Or the court could be waiting for other appeals involving the Trump and Carroll dispute that are expected soon.

Whatever the reason, the delay has benefited Trump — in part because it has deferred a $5 million verdict a jury in New York awarded to Carroll more than three years ago.

“The oddity here isn’t just that the court has rescheduled one of the Carroll cases 15 times, it’s the absence of a persuasive justification for it having done so,” said Steve Vladeck of the Georgetown School of Law and a CNN Supreme Court analyst.

The most logical explanation, Vladeck said, is that the court is waiting for the other expected appeals, even though the cases deal with different legal issues.

“The only other explanation is some kind of special solicitude for President Trump — which runs into the problem that this case, at least, is about conduct he engaged in when he was not in office,” Vladeck said.

Carroll sued Trump in 2019 for defamation and then she sued him again in 2022 for defamation and battery after the state enacted a law allowing the victims of sexual abuse to file civil claims for past incidents. In an unusual quirk, the second case — the one filed in 2022 — went to trial first and the jury awarded Carroll $5 million. That is the case that is already pending at the Supreme Court.

The 2019 case went to trial second and resulted in an $83 million judgment against Trump. The first case — filed in 2019 — is expected to land at the Supreme Court in the coming days.

Including interest, Trump owes Carroll over $100 million.

Carroll’s 2022 suit alleged that he sexually assaulted her in a New York department store in the mid-1990s and defamed her by claiming she made up the story to boost sales of a book. Trump, who has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, has claimed US District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who oversaw the civil trial, made numerous errors by allowing the jury to hear testimony from two women who alleged Trump sexually assaulted them years ago.

Trump also argued that the judge should not have let the jurors see the “Access Hollywood tape,” which captured Trump in 2005 on a hot mic saying he gropes and kisses women.

“You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything, … Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything,” Trump was heard saying on the recording.

Kaplan concluded the recording was relevant for the jury to hear because it added to the probability that Trump “in fact has had contact with women’s genitalia in the past without their consent, or that he has attempted to do so.”

Last year, the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the jury’s $5 million verdict against Trump, ruling the trial judge did not make errors that would warrant a new trial. In June 2025, Trump lost an effort to have the appeal reviewed by the full bench of judges and, months later, he appealed to the Supreme Court.

“It is deeply damaging to the fabric of our republic for President Trump, in the midst of a historic presidency, to have to take his focus away from his singular and unique duties as chief executive to continue fighting against decades-old, false allegations and the myriad wrongs throughout this baseless case,” the president’s attorneys told the Supreme Court in a January filing. “This mistreatment of a President cannot be allowed to stand.”

In urging the high court to deny the case, Carroll’s attorneys argued that the district court acted within its jurisdiction in how it handled the evidence.

In a highly technical brief at the Supreme Court dealing with rules of evidence, Carroll’s attorneys focused largely on the 2nd Circuit decision upholding the verdict.

“The court’s duty was simply to decide whether a jury could reasonably find by a preponderance of the evidence that Mr. Trump committed an act of sexual assault,” a three-judge panel of the 2nd Circuit, all three of whom were appointed by Democratic presidents, ruled unanimously. “If it could so find, the court had the discretion to admit the evidence.”

Those written arguments were all submitted to the Supreme Court by the end of January.

And that’s when the delays began.

During its October-to-June term, the Supreme Court justices meet privately in conferences once a week to discuss whether to grant or deny pending appeals. It takes four justices to grant a case.

But appeals are often held for multiple conferences for many different reasons. Under Chief Justice John Roberts, the court almost always holds an appeal for at least a second meeting before granting the appeal and scheduling oral arguments, for instance. And sometimes, cases are repeatedly relisted and denied without explanation.

Sometimes cases are held to give a justice an opportunity to dissent from a decision to deny it. Sometimes, the justices seem likely to be waiting for a similar case to make its way up through the lower courts. Often, the reason is opaque.

Usually, when a case is held, it is “relisted” for future conferences. The Supreme Court has been relisting multiple appeals involving local bans on assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines since December, for instance.

But what’s different about the case involving Carroll is that the president’s appeal is being “rescheduled.” That suggests it’s not being discussed at all — at least not formally.

Last year, the court rescheduled a case dealing with the federal government’s sweeping power to prosecute crimes on Native American lands 17 times — holding it over its summer recess. In the end, the petition was denied.

Only one other case has been rescheduled as many times as the Carroll appeal. That case, which involves a housing police officer in Ohio who shot and killed a suspect who was fleeing with a gun in his hand, has also rescheduled 15 times.

Breaking down the major decisions looming before the Supreme Court
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2016/10/07/donald-trump-women-lewd-comments-origwx-cs.cnn

Breaking down the major decisions looming before the Supreme Court
4:00

A spokesperson for the Supreme Court did not respond to a request for comment.

Carroll’s attorneys declined to comment. Trump’s legal team referred to a prior comment on the case in which he described Carroll’s claims as “false” and “Liberal Lawfare.”

Much has changed in the legal brawl between Trump and Carroll since the case made its way to the Supreme Court’s docket. The Justice Department launched a criminal investigation into Carroll last month that is focused on whether she committed perjury in testimony tied to the pending appeal.

Meanwhile, a second case involving Trump and Carroll appears to be on the way.

Carroll sued Trump again over statements he made about her in 2019. A jury in New York found those statements were defamatory and ordered Trump to pay $83 million in damages. A federal appeals court panel affirmed the damages award finding it “reasonable in light of the extraordinary and egregious facts” and rejected several of Trump’s legal challenges. Among them, the appeals court found that Trump had previously waived any claim of presidential immunity and said the Supreme Court’s decision in 2024 involving presidential immunity did not alter their view.

The full 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals declined to revisit that decision in late April.

In an unusual letter in the Carroll case already pending at the Supreme Court, Trump’s attorneys wrote on June 2 that they intend to appeal the second case to the Supreme Court “within the next month.”

“The court,” Trump’s attorneys added, “may wish to consider the petitions together.”

Given the way scheduling works at the Supreme Court, that round would almost certainly push a decision on whether to hear or deny the Carroll matter into the fall.

On Monday, the court once against added the case to its agenda for Thursday.

Judge blocks Trump administration’s overhauled database of Americans’ personal information

June 22, 2026 / 3:08 PM EDT / CBS News

Washington — A federal judge on Monday ruled the Trump administration acted unlawfully when it created a centralized database that contains Americans’ private information, which she said has since been used by some states to incorrectly remove U.S. citizens from their voter rolls.

U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan in Washington, D.C., sided with a voting rights group and nonprofit that works to protect privacy in finding that the administration violated three different laws with its new system that includes Americans’ citizenship data.

“All in all, the federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote,” she wrote. “This Court cannot stand idly by while that happens.”

The judge set aside the administration’s overhaul of a database maintained by the Department of Homeland Security to verify citizenship and immigration status, called the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, system.

The plaintiffs in the case had argued that the Trump administration turned that tool into a “searchable national citizenship data system” that draws from records held by the Social Security Administration and Department of Homeland Security.

Sooknanan said that the court fight raises two fundamental rights that aim to protect Americans from government overreach: the right to privacy and the right to vote. And she said the record in the case demonstrated that the federal agencies that created the clearinghouse knew it violated privacy protections put in place by Congress decades ago.

The judge wrote that the Trump administration “flunked compliance” with the Social Security Act, the Privacy Act and the Administrative Procedure Act by “haphazardly” combining and repurposing “the private information of millions of Americans, including citizenship data that they knew to be unreliable.”

The data bank was created by several federal agencies in response to an executive order signed by President Trump last year that sought to impose a new proof-of-citizenship requirement for those registering to vote. The order directed DHS and the SSA to create a database that would effectively allow state and local officials to verify citizenship or immigration status of individuals trying to register to vote.

The executive order drew several legal challenges, and key provisions have been blocked.

Still, the directive triggered the overhaul of the SAVE system, which was modified to include the records of natural-born citizens, to access records from the SSA, including Social Security numbers, and to permit bulk searches of records by entities that use the database.

In response to the administration’s efforts to pool Americans’ data, the League of Women Voters, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and five individuals sued DHS, the SSA and the Department of Justice, arguing that the consolidation of Americans’ sensitive records from multiple agencies was unlawful.

The plaintiffs said that since the SAVE system was modified, states had partnered with the federal government to run their voter registration lists through the database and purged people who were incorrectly identified as noncitizens from their voter rolls.

The Trump administration had defended its use of the SAVE system, which has been used since 1986, as a “clear congressional directive to break down information silos between government agencies.” The administration argued that the suit should be dismissed because DHS had the authority to modernize the database.

Justice Department lawyers told the court that only a small number of naturalized voters may have inaccurate citizenship data in SSA records. But Sooknanan called the argument a “red herring” and said the dissemination of inaccurate information about citizenship status is defamatory, in part because it implies that those who were improperly removed from voter rolls violated a federal prohibition against noncitizen voting.

She said the Trump administration’s “arguments to the contrary border on the absurd.”

The judge said the overhauled system and related notices from DHS and the SSA were “contrary to law, arbitrary and capricious, in excess of statutory authority, and without observance of procedure required by law.”

The decision can be appealed to the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. It was cheered by one of the organizations representing the plaintiffs in the case as an “important victory for the American people and our democracy.”

“The data at the heart of this lawsuit was unlawfully consolidated in violation of privacy laws intended to protect sensitive personal information,” Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, said in a statement. “We are honored to work alongside the plaintiffs and co-counsel in this case, and are grateful that the court has acted to protect people and our elections every day and especially during our nation’s 250th anniversary year.”

英首相斯塔默宣布辞职 伯纳姆要竞选党魁争首相大位

2026年6月22日 23:30 / 联合早报

英国首相斯塔默（左）6月22日在唐宁街10号，宣布将辞去首相和工党党魁的职务，他的妻子维多利亚陪伴在旁。斯塔默致辞时感谢同僚支持，也向妻子致谢，其间一度激动哽咽。 （彭博社）

（伦敦综合电）面对工党内部逼宫，英国首相斯塔默终于黯然宣布辞职。他将担任首相直到9月党内选出继任者。工党新党魁的最大热门人选、前大曼彻斯特市长伯纳姆随即表态将竞选党魁，出任首相。

斯塔默在2024年7月4日领导英国工党在议会大选中取得压倒性胜利，不料担任首相不到两年就被迫离任。这也意味着英国将迎来10年里的第七位首相。

63岁的斯塔默星期一（6月22日）在伦敦唐宁街10号首相府外，宣布辞职时说：“我所做的每一个决定，都是为了我深爱的国家。正因如此，我将辞去工党党魁的职务。”

他说，新党魁的遴选程序将在7月9日启动，并在议会进入夏季休会期前完成。他会继续担任首相，直到继任者选定并在9月正式上任。

他也承诺，无论是谁当选，他都会竭尽所能确保权力顺利交接。他将指示工党的全国执行委员会制定遴选党魁的时间表。

谁会接棒斯塔默顿时成了关注焦点。最大热门人选伯纳姆（Andy Burnham）随即表态，他将竞争党政大位。

伯纳姆在社交媒体平台X上发文，呼吁党内进行有序且负责任的权力交接。他写道：“我将参与这一进程。”

56岁的伯纳姆刚在本月19日的补选中夺下英格兰的马克菲尔德（Makerfield）选区，重返国会，声望如日中天。

斯塔默带领工党在2024年大选中大胜上位，可是在执政期间，被指政策反复、移民与能源政策尤其备受抨击，加上未能兑现改善民生的承诺等，致使支持率迅速下跌。此前已有100多名工党议员公开要求斯塔默辞职或制定离任时间表，国防部长和卫生部长等内阁成员也因不满他的领导而纷纷辞职。

斯塔默曾承诺结束英国政坛的混乱局面，但他终究抵不住四面楚歌的压力。他星期一宣布辞职时坦承，如今党内人人都希望他下台。

“我的党现在提出的问题是，我是不是带领全党参加下届大选的最佳人选。针对这个问题，我已经听到了我的议会党团的答案，我欣然接受。”

斯塔默发言时明显激动，一度哽咽。他宣布下台后，英镑和政府债券价值保持稳定，反映市场对此早有预期。其实就在前一天，美国总统特朗普已在社媒发文预告斯塔默即将辞职。

上周赢得马克菲尔德（Makerfield）国会议席补选的伯纳姆星期一（6月22日）在国会下议院宣誓就职。（视频截图）

伯纳姆上星期五在选区补选胜出后也告诉工党党员，这个补选结果可能是英国政治的转折点，是改变方向的最后机会。

伯纳姆表态要争取出任首相后，日前辞职的英国卫生部长斯特里廷在社媒证实，他不会竞争工党党魁之位。

斯特里廷上月曾说，如果工党重新选党魁，他将参选。不过，他现在说，如果候选人之间的政见差异不大，就没有必要在整个夏天“夸大彼此细微的分歧”，这对工党和国家都不利。

他透露，他与伯纳姆交谈后，相信自己一直以来倡导的政策在伯纳姆的领导下一样会实行。

除了斯特里廷之外，暂时还没有其他人公开表示有意竞争。

AI推动IP开发提速 创作者吁守住本土故事与创作本质

2026年6月22日 23:24 / 联合早报

《联合早报》与阅文集团联办的对谈会内容围绕创作、IP产业化与全球传播展开分享，共同探讨全球化与AI时代下，故事如何突破边界。对谈会嘉宾包括阅文集团新加坡品牌传播负责人黄晴徽（左起）、阅文签约作者不知春将老、阅文签约作家九连真人、以及本地漫画《怕输先生》创作者刘夏宗，主持人为《联合早报》影音群视频编导兼创意组长刘永健。 （白艳琳摄）

从《怕输先生》的纯手绘年代，到人工智能（AI）协助网络小说改编短剧的今天，内容产业正迎来新一轮变革。不过，创作者认为，真正打动读者和观众的，始终是源于真实生活、承载本土文化特色的好故事。

在《联合早报》与阅文集团联合呈献的首届“以文为帆，创意起航”全球华文小说创作大赛颁奖典礼，创作者和平台方展开了以“从好内容到好IP：故事如何进入产业时代”为题的对谈会。

阅文集团新加坡品牌传播负责人黄晴徽说，新加坡在发展内容产业和孵化全球IP方面具有得天独厚的条件：新加坡既了解亚洲文化，又拥有国际化视野和双语环境，这种多元创新的土壤，使得新加坡非常适合将含有亚洲元素的IP推向世界。

去年，阅文集团在万圣节期间把中国网络小说IP《道诡异仙》改编成在新加坡环球影城的线下鬼屋，通过沉浸式设计让游客进入故事世界。这让原本不了解这个IP的外国游客在体验后产生了兴趣追看。

本地人熟悉的漫画作品《怕输先生》也曾出海，让“怕输先生”这个角色在中国做成了手游。作者刘夏宗坦言：“行业内现在有一种IP的概念被滥用的风气，很多人仅仅是刚有了一个构想，就宣称自己拥有了一个‘IP’。”

以往一个纯文本IP想要孵化成影视或短视频，需要漫长的周期，而现在人工智能正在推进IP快速开发。黄晴徽分享说，阅文已推出AI助手，可以极快地将小说改编成短剧，加速IP的媒介转换。

AI助力IP产业化发展

阅文签约作者“不知春将晚”则以移居新加坡的日常生活为题材创作小说，她希望AI能帮助华人文学以及带有新加坡本土独特精神内核的作品跨越语言和地域障碍，以更低的成本和更高的效率走向世界。

不过，创作者们也认为应避免过度依赖AI，避免AI扼杀创作者的思路与创造力，并认为能打动人的IP始终立足于人类的生命体验和本土特色。

刘夏宗提到，他曾让团队用自己过去的画稿来训练AI，直到AI生成了一张近乎完美的画作。但他也指出，由于目前法律发展还赶不上AI的速度，用户输入AI内容版权怎么算，仍然没有定案。

数码发展及新闻部兼保健卫生部高级政务部长陈杰豪担任活动主宾，他致辞时说：“虽然AI非常强大，而且越来越聪明，越来越能干，但它不应该取代你的声音。因为一旦故事失去了塑造它的那双手，它就难以打动读者，产生共鸣。”

国盟开会讨论土团党地位 慕尤丁：若被驱逐或另组政党联盟

2026年6月22日 23:40 / 联合早报

国盟成员土团党主席慕尤丁（左）星期一（6月22日）晚抵达伊斯兰党吉隆坡总部，参加国盟最高理事会会议。 （星洲日报）

（吉隆坡综合讯）马来西亚在野阵营国民联盟的内耗风暴正走向彻底摊牌。国盟最高理事会星期一（6月22日）晚开会，核心议题围绕是否将诞生过两位首相的土著团结党赶出联盟。

面对伊斯兰党的强势逼宫，土团党主席慕尤丁已放话，若国盟驱逐土团党，他不排除另组新的政党联盟。

这是国盟成员伊斯兰党宣布与土团党断绝政治合作后，国盟最高理事会首次召开会议。会议将讨论柔佛州选议席的分配、国盟标志在州选的使用，以及成员党内部问题，可能包括被逐出土团党的韩沙再努丁创立的国家宏愿党是否加入国盟。

据《星洲日报》和《当今大马》报道，这次会议在伊斯兰党吉隆坡总部举行。慕尤丁星期一晚8时30分左右，与土团党副主席阿末法依沙等人一同抵达会议地点。现场聚集了土团党和伊党的支持者，双方并未出现叫嚣和对峙的情况。

针对会议可能议决撤销土团党的国盟成员资格，慕尤丁星期天（21日）晚在麻坡出席土团党柔佛州竞选机制启动仪式时说，如果国盟未来不需要土团党，土团党不排除另组新的政党联盟。

耐人寻味的是，这场活动虽以土团党名义举办，但所有出席的土团党领导人都穿国盟制服，显示土团党坚持以国盟名义参加接下来的柔佛州选举。

慕尤丁表明，国盟之前已在最高理事会会议决定，所有成员党候选人在来临柔佛及森美兰州选举，都将使用国盟旗帜参选。他说，土团党仍是国盟成员，因此也将依照这项决定行事。

慕尤丁说，如果来自伊党的国盟主席阿末山苏里到时不肯为土团党候选人签署候选人委任状，土团党候选人将改以土团党旗帜参选到底。

他强调，尽管面对内部问题，国盟仍应以统一标志上阵，并重申土团党仍是国盟成员。“土团党不会消失，我们也是建造这所房子的人。如今却有人想把我们赶出去，这并不合理。”

土团党主席慕尤丁（中）星期天（6月21日）在柔佛麻坡举行的土团党柔佛州竞选机制启动仪式上说，如果国盟的未来不需要土团党，他不排除土团党将另组新的政党联盟。（星洲日报）

国盟：土团党可自行决定是留是走

国盟主席兼伊党副主席阿末山苏里星期天在彭亨州淡马鲁出席活动时告诉记者，土团党可自行决定要退出还是留在国盟。

他指出，关于国盟成员党地位的最终决定，预料要等星期一晚的国盟最高理事会会议后才能明朗。

他说：“其中一项重要议程是讨论国盟成员党事务。目前，国盟成员党维持不变，包括土团党、伊党、人民印度党及民政党。”

伊党主席哈迪阿旺6月13日宣布，伊党与土团党的政治合作关系已经结束。至于土团党是否继续留在国盟，将由土团党自行决定。

慕尤丁上星期二（16日）说，土团党坚持留在国盟，并将在柔佛及森美兰州选举使用国盟标志上阵。

鲁比奥星期二访波斯湾三国

2026年6月22日 23:34 / 联合早报

美国国务卿鲁比奥即将在美伊外交接触期间访问三个波斯湾国家，讨论美伊停战谅解备忘录等问题。

法新社报道，美国国务院发言人皮戈特星期一（6月22日）在一份声明中宣布，鲁比奥将于星期二（23日）开启对阿拉伯联合酋长国、科威特和巴林的访问。

声明说，鲁比奥此访会讨论的问题包括美伊谅解备忘录，确保霍尔木兹海峡全面、自由且安全通航，以及波斯湾地区和平与稳定的重要性。

首届全球华文小说创作大赛得奖作家：时代变迁 撼动不了文学的地位

2026年6月22日 23:51 / 联合早报

首届“以文为帆，创意起航”全球华文小说创作大赛的长篇小说一等奖得主“沙拉古斯”（右）、短篇小说一等奖得主“婉束”（中），以及“东南亚小说奖”得主“不知春将老 ”（左）对获奖感到兴奋和荣幸。他们都坚信，在短视频当道的时代，文字依然能打动读者。 （白艳琳摄）

在首届“以文为帆，创意起航”全球华文小说创作大赛获奖的网络小说作家中，有的已投身全职创作，有的则坚持在工作之余积极写作。虽然大家都是创作比赛的常客，但这次获得全球大赛的肯定，受访作家都说是创作生涯中的高光时刻。

获得长篇小说一等奖的“沙拉古斯”（本名李白，41岁）擅长玄幻题材，自30多岁开始创作至今，已累计了1500万字。他在两年前决定辞职，全身投入创作，打造出他专属的玄幻世界。

“沙拉古斯”在得奖作品《万生痴魔》中将民间手艺奇幻化，充满新鲜感。

他接受《联合早报》访问时说，这份荣耀是值得骄傲一辈子的事情。

“我把自己定位为靠本事吃饭的‘说书人’。无论是街边还是登堂入室，能把看客留下就是真本事。有人觉得网络文学难登大雅之堂，但只要经得起时间的锤炼就能成为名著。无论时代如何变迁，永远也撼动不了文学的根本地位。”

短篇小说一等奖得主“婉束”（本名束倩梅，30岁）则是一名政府机构职员，她的作品以现实题材为主。

束倩梅认为，现实题材或许不那么“吃香”，但读者的阅读口味是多元的。

“那些让人直呼过瘾的爽文或短剧，能给人带来短暂的舒畅感；但人终究生活在现实世界里，沉淀下来后，依然会渴望现实题材的滋养。只要作品写得好、写出了真情实感，就一定能打动读者。”

“东南亚小说奖”作品《人在他乡》的作者“不知春将老”目前也是全职作家。她本名郑洁婧（38岁），是新加坡永久居民，已在本地生活了12年。

她希望以自己的得奖经历，鼓励就读小学五年级的女儿继续学习高级华文。

“女儿和我打赌，如果这次能得奖，她就愿意继续上高华班。现在真的获奖了，我非常兴奋，因为高华教育很重要，我希望借这个机会让女儿继续学习。”

在本届比赛中，长篇小说一等奖奖金为6万元（人民币，下同，约1万1200新元），短篇小说一等奖奖金5万元（约9300新元），作者可同时获得阅文集团品牌作家合约一份。东南亚小说奖奖金为6万元。

万斯：伊朗同意邀请IAEA核查人员

2026年6月22日 20:05 / 联合早报

万斯星期一（6月22日）在美伊瑞士会谈场地告诉记者，国际原子能机构核查人员访问伊朗“可能会在本周内成行”，伊朗与核查人员的对话甚至“可能今天就能进行”。 （路透社）

美国副总统万斯说，伊朗已同意邀请国际原子能机构（IAEA）核查人员返回伊朗，这对美方来说是个重大里程碑。

综合新华社和路透社报道，万斯星期一（6月22日）公布上述进展。他说，伊朗同意邀请国际原子能机构核查人员，是德黑兰“永久去核化或永久终止核武器计划的第一步”。

他还说，国际原子能机构核查人员访问伊朗“可能会在本周内成行”，伊朗与核查人员的对话甚至“可能今天就能进行”。

美伊官员周末刚刚在瑞士举行签署停战谅解备忘录后的首轮会谈。万斯也提到保持霍尔木兹海峡畅通的机制，并称技术会谈将在未来几天和几周内继续进行。

他还说，一旦美国同意解冻伊朗资产，这笔资产可能用于购买美国的大豆、玉米和小麦。

万斯：伊朗同意邀请IAEA核查人员

2026年6月22日 20:05 / 联合早报

万斯星期一（6月22日）在美伊瑞士会谈场地告诉记者，国际原子能机构核查人员访问伊朗“可能会在本周内成行”，伊朗与核查人员的对话甚至“可能今天就能进行”。 （路透社）

美国副总统万斯说，伊朗已同意邀请国际原子能机构（IAEA）核查人员返回伊朗，这对美方来说是个重大里程碑。

综合新华社和路透社报道，万斯星期一（6月22日）公布上述进展。他说，伊朗同意邀请国际原子能机构核查人员，是德黑兰“永久去核化或永久终止核武器计划的第一步”。

他还说，国际原子能机构核查人员访问伊朗“可能会在本周内成行”，伊朗与核查人员的对话甚至“可能今天就能进行”。

美伊官员周末刚刚在瑞士举行签署停战谅解备忘录后的首轮会谈。万斯也提到保持霍尔木兹海峡畅通的机制，并称技术会谈将在未来几天和几周内继续进行。

他还说，一旦美国同意解冻伊朗资产，这笔资产可能用于购买美国的大豆、玉米和小麦。