A flotilla carrying humanitarian aid and activists, including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, is due to leave from Barcelona on Sunday to try to “break the illegal siege of Gaza”, organisers said.

The vessels will set off from the Spanish port city to “open a humanitarian corridor and end the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people”, said the Global Sumud Flotilla.

They did not say how many ships would set sail or the exact time of departure.

The flotilla is expected to arrive at the war-ravaged coastal enclave in mid-September.

“This will be the largest solidarity mission in history, with more people and more boats than all previous attempts combined,” Brazilian activist Thiago Ávila told journalists in Barcelona last week.

Organisers say that dozens of other vessels are expected to leave Tunisian and other Mediterranean ports on 4 September.

Activists will also stage simultaneous demonstrations and other protests in 44 countries “in solidarity with the Palestinian people”, Thunberg, who is part of the flotilla’s steering committee, wrote on Instagram.

As well as Thunberg, the flotilla will include activists from several countries, European lawmakers and public figures such as former Barcelona mayor Ada Colau.

“We understand that this is a legal mission under international law,” leftwing Portuguese lawmaker Mariana Mortágua, who will join the mission, told journalists in Lisbon last week.

Israel has already blocked two attempts by activists to deliver aid by ship to Gaza, in June and July.

In June, 12 activists on board the sailboat Madleen were intercepted by Israeli forces 185km west of Gaza. Its passengers, who included Thunberg, were detained and eventually expelled.

In July, 21 activists from 10 countries were intercepted as they tried to approach Gaza in another vessel, the Handala.

The winning numbers for the $1 billion Powerball jackpot were drawn Saturday night.

The numbers are: 3, 18, 22, 27 and 33 and the red Powerball 17.

After nearly three months without a grand-prize winner, the dream of becoming America’s next billionaire sent ticket sales soaring across the nation ahead of the Labor Day weekend drawing.

Game officials increased the jackpot estimate Friday morning from $950 million after reviewing national ticket sales, Powerball said. The winner could opt for a cash payment of $453.1 million before taxes.

The game hasn’t seen a jackpot winner since May 31, when a California player claimed a $204.5 million prize. During this 39-drawing streak, the game has created 62 million-dollar winners and 608 tickets worth $50,000 or more.

The previous drawing on Wednesday saw six tickets match all five white balls — 9, 12, 22, 41 and 61 — with red Powerball 25, each winning $1 million or more.

Winners of Saturday’s jackpot can choose between annual payments or the lump sum. The annuity option provides one immediate payment followed by 29 annual payments that increase by 5% each year.

Powerball tickets cost $2 per play and are sold in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million, while the overall odds of winning any prize are 1 in 24.9.

The game has generated more than $36 billion for good causes supported by U.S. lotteries since its first drawing in 1992, Powerball noted. More than half of ticket sale proceeds remain in the jurisdiction where the ticket was sold, according to Powerball.

The current jackpot ranks sixth among Powerball’s largest prizes. The record stands at $2.04 billion, won by a California player in November 2022, followed by the $1.765 billion prize claimed in California in October 2023.

Other notable jackpots include the $1.586 billion split among winners in California, Florida and Tennessee in January 2016, the $1.326 billion won in Oregon in April 2024, and the $1.08 billion claimed in California in July 2023.

SALT LAKE CITY — That federal immigration officials are taking aim at John Shin, a violinist originally from South Korea, is a misuse of resources, Gabriel Gordon charges.

“That is just way too much for somebody who gives so much to this community and to this society. He’s a great father and a great husband and a great friend and a great musician, and this just shouldn’t be happening to him,” said Gordon, a fellow violinist.

Shin, who has a master’s degree in music performance from the University of Utah and has performed with the Utah Symphony and Ballet West, has long lived in Utah. He now finds himself in a federal immigration detention center in Aurora, Colorado.

Shin’s Salt Lake City lawyer, Adam Crayk, offered stronger words. A hearing in his client’s case is set for next Tuesday.

“Unless there is something out there, some sort of smoking gun that the government is hiding that’s going to be revealed in his first court (appearance), this is one of the most dumb, idiotic, egregious wastes of federal resources that I’ve had to deal with in a while,” Crayk said.

Shin legally entered the country, he noted, and has been married to an American woman for four years.

Shin, brought from South Korea as a child by his father, was unexpectedly detained on Aug. 18 by immigration officials, part of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration across the country. The arrest has prompted a strong public outcry from his family and supporters. Gordon and oboist Nicole Fullmer — longtime friends — have been regularly playing music in the rotunda of the Utah Capitol in Salt Lake City to call attention to what they view as a miscarriage of justice.

“He is a wonderful person. He is good for the community. He is a positive influence on everyone he touches. He absolutely does not deserve to be deported,” said Fullmer. She studied music at the U. with Shin and Shin’s American wife Danae Snow, who plays the viola.

Regardless, as immigration officials ratchet up efforts around the country to detain and deport immigrants in the country illegally, federal officials offered their own tough response.

Gordon understands Shin entered the United States on an immigrant visa and later secured status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which allows eligible immigrants brought to the country illegally by their parents to remain and work in the United States. However, a senior U.S. Department of Homeland Security official stated that Shin entered the country from South Korea in 1998 on a tourist visa. That visa, according to the official, required him to leave the following year.

“Over 25 years later, he was still illegally in the U.S.,” reads the statement to KSL.com from the official. Trump and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem “are committed to restoring integrity to the visa program and ensuring it is not abused to allow aliens a permanent one-way ticket to remain in the U.S. Our message is clear: Criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the United States.”

While the Trump administration’s approach has garnered support from many, Shin’s backers are equally resolute, and the case underscores the complex sentiments the immigration issue has stirred. Shin and his family have received nearly $70,000 in donations from supporters as part of a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds for his legal defense and his backers are planning a benefit concert on Monday, Sept. 1, for Shin.

The case also highlights the debate about the weight of prior brushes with the law, particularly if they’re relatively minor, in determining whether immigrants face the force of the immigration crackdown.

The Department of Homeland Security said Shin’s “criminal history includes a DUI conviction,” that is, a conviction for driving under the influence, presumably of alcohol. Crayk, though, said the 2019 charge, originally driving under the influence, was ultimately reduced to the less-severe driving while impaired, a class B misdemeanor.

He said the impaired driving charge “requires no sort of forgiveness, no sort of waiver” to fix Shin’s migratory status.

“We just have to prove he entered the United States lawfully and that he is legitimately married to a United States citizen,” Crayk said. He didn’t immediately respond to a query about the significance of immigration officials’ contention that Shin overstayed a tourist visa, supplied after Crayk initially spoke with KSL.com.

Crayk blasted the apparent resources that immigration officials poured into Shin’s detention. He was detained, the lawyer said, by a special Department of Homeland Security team that typically focuses on immigrant fugitives involved in drug trafficking and other serious crimes. Indeed, at next Tuesday’s hearing, Shin will seek release from detention on bond, and meeting the requirements — showing that he’s not a danger to the community or a flight risk — “should be fairly easy,” Crayk said.

Meantime, Shin now regularly speaks by phone with his wife, though she was initially unable to reach him after his arrest. “He’s maintaining a relatively positive attitude,” Crayk said.

Members of the music community, for their part, are getting word out about Shin’s case and trying to drum up support for him. They’ve launched a letter-writing campaign aimed at the immigration judge in Shin’s case to demonstrate the community’s backing for him. Next Monday’s benefit concert, featuring Shin’s musician friends and Kurt Bestor, a Grammy-nominated musician, is set for 7 p.m. and will be held at First United Methodist Church at 203 S. 200 East in Salt Lake City.

“John is probably one of the kindest people I know. He’s just always very positive and upbeat,” Fuller said. “There has been a huge outpouring of people, both who know him and/or know Danae and people who even don’t necessarily know them personally but have worked with them.”

Gordon thinks there are more problematic issues than Shin.

“There are actual problems here in this country that need to be solved. John and people like him are not one of them, that’s for sure,” he said. “They add to our country, and they add to our society and they should stay.”