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Russia pounded Ukrainian food export facilities for a fourth day in a row on Friday and practiced seizing ships in the Black Sea in an escalation of what Western leaders say is an attempt to wriggle out of sanctions by threatening a global food crisis.
The direct attacks on Ukraine’s grain, a key part of the global food chain, followed a vow by Kyiv to defy Russia’s naval blockade on its grain export ports following Moscow’s withdrawal this week from a UN-brokered safe sea corridor agreement.
“Unfortunately, the grain terminals of an agricultural enterprise in Odesa region were hit. The enemy destroyed 100 tons of peas and 20 tons of barley,” regional governor Oleh Kiper said on the Telegram messaging app.
Two people had been injured, he said. Photographs released by the emergencies ministry showed a fire burning among crumpled metal buildings that appeared to be storehouses, and a badly damaged fire-fighting vehicle.
Moscow has described the attacks as revenge for a Ukrainian strike on a Russian-built bridge to Crimea – the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014.
Russia said on it would deem all ships heading for Ukrainian waters to be potentially carrying weapons from Thursday, in what Washington called a signal it might attack civilian shipping. Kyiv later responded by issuing a similar warning about ships headed to Russia.
Russia’s defense ministry on Friday said its Black Sea fleet had practiced firing rockets at “floating targets” and apprehending ships. Moscow’s ambassador to Washington denied any plan to attack ships.
The attacks on grain export infrastructure and perceived threat to shipping drove up prices of benchmark Chicago wheat futures on Friday towards their biggest weekly gain since the February 2022 invasion, as traders worried about supply.
The UN Security Council was due to meet later over the “humanitarian consequences” of Russia’s withdrawal from the safe corridor deal, which aid groups say is vital to stem growing hunger in a string of poorer countries.
Moscow says it will not participate in the year-old grain deal without better terms for its own food and fertilizer sales.
Western leaders have accused Russia of seeking to loosen sanctions imposed over its invasion of Ukraine, which already exempt exports of Russian food. Russian grain has moved freely through the Black Sea to market throughout the conflict and traders say Russia is pouring wheat onto the market.
WAGNER NEAR POLAND BORDER
A Polish broadcaster reported on Friday that a military reconnaissance drone of unspecified origins had crashed near a base in southwestern Poland earlier this week.
NATO-member Poland has been reinforcing its border with Belarus, where Russia’s Wagner mercenary force has taken up residency after a failed mutiny last month.
The mercenary chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was shown on video Wednesday welcoming his fighters to Belarus, and Belarus has said Wagner fighters are now training its troops near the Polish border. People in Poland near the border said on Thursday they could hear shooting and helicopters.
Inside Ukraine, Yuriy Malashko, the governor of the southern region of Zaporizhzhia, reported 80 Russian attacks on settlements in the region in the previous 24 hours, and said that four people had been killed.
A married couple in their fifties had also been killed early on Friday in Russian shelling of the city of Kostiantynivka in the eastern region of Donetsk, the general prosecutor’s office said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy summarized the earlier attacks in his nightly video address, saying he was working to secure better air defenses.
“Since Monday, Russian terrorists have already used almost 70 missiles of various types, almost 90 Shaheds (Iranian-made loitering munition), against our state,” he said, adding that most were focused on Odesa and other southern regions.
MORE SANCTIONS
The United States on Thursday imposed Russia-related sanctions against nearly 120 people and entities aimed at blocking Moscow’s access to electronics and other goods that aid its war against Ukraine.
“Today’s actions represent another step in our efforts to constrain Russia’s military capabilities, its access to battlefield supplies, and its economic bottom line,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in a statement.
Russia’s embassy in Washington called the latest sanctions part of the “endless attacks” by U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration “in the context of the hybrid war unleashed by the West against our country.”
Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine last year and claims to have annexed nearly a fifth of its territory. Moscow says it is responding to threats posed by its neighbor; Kyiv and the West call it an unprovoked war of conquest.
Zelenskyy urged his government on Thursday to keep a tight rein on spending in wartime, prompting his culture minister, a proponent of several high-profile and costly projects, to offer his resignation.
“Cobblestones, city decorations, fountains will have to wait. Victory first,” Zelenskyy said.
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Joe Biden will establish a national monument honoring Emmett Till, the Black teenager from Chicago who was abducted, tortured and killed in 1955 after he was accused of whistling at a white woman in Mississippi, and his mother, a White House official said Saturday.
The president will sign a proclamation on Tuesday to create the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley national monument across three sites in Illinois and Mississippi, according to the official. The individual spoke on condition of anonymity because the White House had not formally announced the president’s plans.
Tuesday is the anniversary of Emmett Till’s birth in 1941.
The monument will protect places that are central to the story of Till’s life and death at age 14, the acquittal of his white killers and his mother’s activism. Till’s mother’s insistence on an open casket to show the world how her son had been brutalized and Jet’s magazine’s decision to publish photos of his mutilated body helped galvanize the civil rights movement.
Biden’s decision also comes at a fraught time in the United States over matters concerning race. Conservative leaders are pushing back against the teaching of slavery and Black history in public schools, as well as the incorporation of diversity, equity and inclusion programs from college classrooms to corporate boardrooms.
On Friday, Vice-President Kamala Harris criticized a revised Black history curriculum in Florida that includes teaching that enslaved people benefited from the skills they learned at the hands of the people who denied them freedom.
The Florida board of education approved the curriculum to satisfy legislation signed by Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican presidential candidate who has accused public schools of liberal indoctrination.
The monument to Till and his mother will include three sites in the two states.
The Illinois site is Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in Bronzeville, a historically Black neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. Thousands of people gathered at the church to mourn Emmett Till in September 1955.
The Mississippi locations are Graball Landing, believed to be where Till’s mutilated body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River, and the Tallahatchie county second district courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi, where Till’s killers were tried and acquitted by an all-white jury.
Till was visiting relatives in Mississippi when Carolyn Bryant Donham said the 14-year-old Till whistled and made sexual advances at her while she worked in a store in the small community of Money.
Till was later abducted and his body eventually pulled from the Tallahatchie River, where he had been tossed after he was shot and weighted down with a cotton gin fan.
Two white men, Roy Bryant and his half-brother JW Milam, were tried on murder charges about a month after Till was killed, but an all-white Mississippi jury acquitted them. Months later, they confessed to killing Till in a paid interview with Look magazine. Bryant was married to Donham in 1955. She died earlier this year.
The monument will be the fourth Biden has created since taking office in 2021, and just his latest tribute to the younger Till.
For Black History Month this year, Biden hosted a screening of the movie Till, a drama about his lynching.
In March 2022, Biden signed the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act into law. Congress had first considered such legislation more than 120 years ago.
The justice department announced in December 2021 that it was closing its investigation into Till’s killing. | Explicit |
An adolescent mental health unit where the treatment of vulnerable young people was described as "worse than animals" has shut down after a Sky News investigation.
Former patients at Taplow Manor in Maidenhead, Berkshire, claimed there was overuse of restraint, and former workers said inadequate staffing and training put people at risk.
Police are also investigating the death of a patient at the unit and an allegation of child rape involving staff.
Active Care Group, which ran the unit until its closure, said on Thursday it had taken "the difficult decision" to close the facility "due to a change in strategic direction".
The group said in a statement: "We wish to thank our dedicated staff for the care and support they have provided to patients at Taplow Manor over the years.
"Active Care Group has now entered a period of consultation with staff and will take every step to ensure that those impacted are retained within the business where possible.
The group's statement added it is working with "patients' families and their relevant multidisciplinary teams to assist in the safe transfer or discharge of all Taplow Manor patients".
The Huntercombe Group, which previously ran the unit and is now part of Active Care Group, received £190m since 2015 from NHS England to operate Taplow Manor and other hospitals.
In a joint investigation with The Independent, more than 50 former patients told Sky News they were failed by the care they received at units run by the Huntercombe Group, one of several independent providers the NHS uses to provide specialist in-patient care for children and teenagers.
Read more:
Decade of mistreatment revealed in care of more than 20 teenagers
30 new patients of Huntercombe Group tell their stories of mental health units
Taplow Manor had been threatened with closure by the health watchdog, the Care Quality Commission, in March if it failed to make improvements.
The Department of Health and Social Care also launched a national investigation into the safety of all mental health inpatient services in England after the investigation was released. | Explicit |
Hunter Biden has hit back at Marjorie Taylor Greene for showing everyone his nude photos, as his lawyer filed an ethics complaint against the Georgia Republican on Friday.
The House Oversight Committee heard testimony on Wednesday from two IRS agents who say the Department of Justice dragged its feet on investigating the younger Biden for tax fraud. The hearing produced zero actual evidence, so instead, Greene tried to claim that Biden engaged in sex trafficking and listed payments to sex workers as a tax write-off. To support her argument, she held up poster-size prints of Biden’s nude photos, which she later also shared on her email newsletter.
Biden’s lawyer Abbe Lowell sent a letter to the nonpartisan Office of Congressional Ethics asking that Greene be investigated and penalized for her “outrageous, undignified conduct.”
“None of her actions or statements could possibly be deemed to be part of any legitimate legislative activity, as is clear from both the content of her statements and her conduct and the forums she uses to spew her unhinged rhetoric,” Lowell wrote.
“Rather than evaluate the credibility of the IRS agents’ testimony or review our tax laws, Ms. Greene sought to use the power of her office to generate some clicks online, fundraise, and provide sensationalist clips for Fox News at the expense of harassing and embarrassing Mr. Biden.”
Lowell previously urged the OCE to take action on Greene in April, accusing her of defaming Biden, spreading false allegations and conspiracy theories about him, and publishing his private photos and data. “If the OCE takes its responsibilities seriously, it will promptly and decisively condemn and discipline Ms. Greene for her latest actions,” he said in Friday’s letter.
The OCE is an independent agency that reviews allegations of misconduct against lawmakers and their staff. If necessary, the OCE will refer matters to the Ethics Committee—which is where Greene’s case could end up (and where investigations into George Santos still continue, nearly two months after he was federally indicted).
This isn’t the first time Republicans have shared Hunter’s nudes, but blowing them up on a poster for a congressional hearing is a new low. Not only was Greene’s decision to wave Biden’s nudes around wildly inappropriate—Oversight Chair James Comer did not reprimand her, though—but she may also have violated D.C. revenge porn law. City law prohibits knowingly disclosing one or more sexual images of an identified or identifiable person when the person in the photo did not consent to the image being shared.
What’s more, Greene may have sent the nudes to minors when she included them in her email newsletter. There is no screening for age when signing up for her newsletter, so any minors who subscribe have now received nudes from their congresswoman. If that is the case, then Greene could have broken federal laws banning the distribution of obscene material to minors. | Explicit |
A driver who filmed himself speeding at 123mph before hitting and killing a pregnant mother-of-two has been jailed for 12 years.
Adil Iqbal admitted causing the death of Frankie Jules-Hough, 38, by dangerous driving on the M66 in Bury, Greater Manchester, on 13 May.
The 22-year-old also admitted causing serious injury to her son, aged nine, and nephew, aged four.
The family's solicitor described the sentence as "insulting".
Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court heard how Iqbal, from Accrington, Lancashire, was driving his father's BMW with one hand and holding his phone with the other to film himself, possibly to upload to Facebook, as he tailgated and undertook other vehicles and swerved across lanes.
Ms Jules-Hough had pulled over on the hard shoulder with a tyre puncture, with her two sons and nephew in the car.
She was making a call to say she would be late when she let out a "blood-curdling scream", the court heard.
The BMW 140i undertook a motorbike then swerved, over-compensated and hit a crash barrier before spinning around and ploughing into Ms Jules-Hough's Skoda Fabia at an estimated 92mph.
She was 17 weeks pregnant with her first daughter, Neeve, and suffered unsurvivable brain injuries.
They both died two days later in hospital surrounded by family, with Ms Jules-Hough having never regained consciousness.
Her son and nephew were left in a coma suffering serious brain injuries with their long-term outcomes remaining uncertain, the court heard.
Both spent weeks in intensive care in hospital. Her youngest son, who was also in the car, was relatively unscathed.
Dashcam footage and film from Iqbal's phone was shown to the court, watched by relatives of Ms Jules-Hough, some of whom gave emotional victim impact statements before the defendant was jailed.
The court heard from drivers who had seen Iqbal on the motorway, including Johnathan Hoyle who saw him six minutes before the crash and thought he was "an accident waiting to happen".
Another driver, Sophie Dodswell, was said to "scream out" as he came within inches of her car at about 120mph.
Frank Hough, Ms Jules-Hough's father, said his family had been devastated "all because a young man wanted to show off, wanted to show his friends on social media how daring and cool he thought he was".
He added: "Our worlds have been torn apart and for what? So this boy could try to make himself feel like a big man."
Calvin Buckley, Ms Jules-Hough's partner, said in a victim impact statement: "What I witnessed that day, that weekend, those hours of desperation, those minutes praying for a miracle or those seconds watching my partner take her last breaths, will stay with me for a lifetime."
Tom Spencer, her nine-year-old son's father, described arriving at the scene. "Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw," he said.
The court was told Iqbal had been convicted of driving without insurance in 2019 and in December 2021 posted a video to Facebook after filming himself speeding in a Lamborghini Huracan in Dubai.
Two months before the M66 crash, he was given a warning by police after being stopped while racing an Audi on public roads.
Passing sentence, Judge Maurice Greene told him: "She was killed as a result of the most indescribable reckless driving by you Adil Iqbal, leading to the devastation of a family."
He was also banned from driving for 14 years.
Solicitor Rose Gibson-Harper, who represents the victim's family, said the sentence was "insulting and an injustice" due to "an act of sheer stupidity".
"Last year, judges were given the power to hand down greater sentences to those convicted of death by dangerous driving," she said.
"Previously, the maximum tariff was 14 years but it was increased to life imprisonment.
"This case stands as one of the worst examples of dangerous driving I have witnessed in my 27-year career as a catastrophic injury lawyer, and we expected the justice system to fulfil its duty and utilise its new-found powers."
Following Ms Jules-Hough's death, a GoFundMe appeal was set up by a friend and has raised more than £50,000 for her family. | Explicit |
John Minchillo/AP
toggle caption
E. Jean Carroll walks out of federal court in Manhattan, May 9, 2023, in New York. A federal judge has denied former President Donald Trump's request for a new trial in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case.
John Minchillo/AP
E. Jean Carroll walks out of federal court in Manhattan, May 9, 2023, in New York. A federal judge has denied former President Donald Trump's request for a new trial in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case.
John Minchillo/AP
A federal judge has rejected former President Donald Trump's motion for a new trial in the civil case brought by the writer E. Jean Carroll.
A jury had previously found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll and defaming her, and awarded her $5 million in damages.
Senior district Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York wrote in an order issued Wednesday that the jury in the case did not reach "a seriously erroneous result" and its verdict is not "a miscarriage of justice," as Trump had alleged.
The ruling came a week after the U.S. Justice Department declined to shield Trump from the defamation claim, reversing course on one of its most controversial decisions during the early stretch of the Biden administration.
Carroll filed the defamation lawsuit three years ago. At that time, then-Attorney General Bill Barr sided with Trump and said the former president had been acting within the bounds of his office as president. But Judge Kaplan had rejected that position — only to watch as the new Biden attorney general, Merrick Garland, also extended a legal shield to Trump.
The change in course added yet another legal burden for Trump, who is fighting criminal charges over accounting for alleged hush money payments in Manhattan, separate federal charges for alleged obstruction and willful retention of highly classified documents at his Florida resort, and a grand jury investigation in Georgia over his attempts to overturn the results of that 2020 presidential election in that state.
Separately, on Tuesday, Trump said that he had received word from the Justice Department that he's a target of the grand jury probe into efforts to overturn the 2020 election. An indictment could be imminent.
Rewind to the start of the Carroll legal case
In 2019, Carroll first publicly came forward saying Trump had raped her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s when the future president was just a businessman. Trump responded, denying the accusation and saying that the writer had ulterior motives.
Carroll sued Trump — twice (in 2019 and later in 2022) — for his public rebuke of her accusation.
In May, jurors sided with her, though didn't find Trump raped Carroll. The jury awarded her $5 million in total damages agreeing that he "sexually abused" her and that he defamed her when he denied her story.
But this civil case, much like Trump's criminal cases, is far from over.
Following her victory in May, Carroll and her lawyers have since asked a court to expand the scope of a separate lawsuit against Trump, seeking at least an additional $10 million in damages. | Explicit |
The wife of alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann has filed for divorce nearly a week after the Manhattan architect was arrested in the case, according to a new court filing.
The filing in Suffolk County Supreme Court is dated Wednesday and indicates the divorce will be "uncontested." The case caption is Asa Ellerup v. Rex Heuermann.
The development comes in the wake of Heuermann's arrest on July 13 in connection with three of the 10 victims linked to the Gilgo Beach, New York, murders.
In a statement shortly after the arrest, defense attorney Michael Brown referred to Heuermann as a "loving husband" and said he and Ellerup had been married more than 25 years.
Ellerup has no comment at this time, her attorney told ABC News on Wednesday.
Heuermann, 59, a father of two, was charged with the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello, whose bodies were found covered in burlap along Ocean Parkway on Long Island's South Shore in December 2010, according to court records unsealed last week in Suffolk County Criminal Court.
Barthelemy disappeared in July 2009, Waterman disappeared in June 2010 and Costello was last seen in September 2010. The three women were between 22 and 27 years old and all worked as sex workers, court records said.
A fourth victim, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who vanished in July 2007, was also tied to the three women. While Heuermann is not charged in the death of Brainard-Barnes, the court documents said he is the "prime suspect in her death." The investigation into Brainard-Barnes' death is ongoing, officials said last week.
"Each of the four victims were found similarly positioned, bound in a similar fashion by either belts or tape," court documents stated.
A female hair was discovered on a belt used to tie Brainard-Barnes' legs together, while two female hairs were discovered on Waterman -- one on the tape used to bind her body -- and one female hair was found on a piece of tape used to bind Costello's body, according to court documents.
By using mitochondrial DNA testing not available in 2010, all of the hairs were determined to be from the same woman -- with more than a 99% match for Heuermann's wife, according to court documents. Police don't believe she was involved, as she was out of the country when the killings occurred, according to cellphone records noted in the court records, but that Heuermann had the hairs on his body.
Mitochondrial DNA testing was also done on a single male hair found on the burlap used to wrap Waterman's body, which was found to be a match to leftover pizza crust Heuermann threw into a Manhattan garbage can in January, according to court documents.
Heuermann is charged with three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of second-degree murder.
Defense attorney Michael Brown entered a not guilty plea on Heuermann's behalf at his arraignment on Friday.
The investigation into the suspect includes interviews with incarcerated sex workers, according to the Suffolk County Sheriff's Department. Investigators have been talking to the sex workers about possible interactions with Heuermann, as authorities work to develop a more complete picture of his movements and methods, officials said. For the moment, these interviews are limited to sex workers jailed in Suffolk County but could expand to neighboring counties and beyond.
Investigations into Heuermann have also expanded beyond New York state since his arrest.
Authorities in Nevada said Tuesday they are investigating a connection between the accused serial killer and Las Vegas, where Heuermann had a timeshare.
"We are currently reviewing our unsolved cases to see if he has any involvement," the Las Vegas Metro Police Department said in a statement Tuesday.
Authorities also said they are looking at possible ties to Atlantic City, New Jersey, where past investigations involving sex workers have led.
A first-generation green Chevrolet Avalanche linked to the suspect was seized this week in Chester, South Carolina, where Heuermann owns four vacant lots, police said. The vehicle arrived Wednesday at the Suffolk County crime lab for processing.
A second, black Avalanche was previously seized at Heuermann's home in Massapequa Park, police said.
Suffolk County police said Heuermann is believed to have had the green Avalanche at the time of the Gilgo Beach murders before giving it to a family member in 2014 or 2015.
The vehicle became a key piece of evidence after a person who knew Costello told police he had seen a Chevrolet Avalanche at her home prior to her disappearance, according to court records.
ABC News' Victor Ordonez and Mark Osborne contributed to this report. | Explicit |
A man has been found guilty of sexually assaulting and murdering his 16-year-old sister in a park in Hamilton.
Amber Gibson's body was found in Cadzow Glen on 28 November 2021, two days after she was last seen.
Connor Gibson, 20, strangled Amber then got rid of clothes he had been wearing and called the children's home Amber was staying at to pretend she was still alive.
Another man has been found guilty of interfering with Amber's body.
Stephen Corrigan - who was unknown to both Amber and Connor Gibson - found her body, but rather than alert police, he inappropriately touched her and then concealed her remains.
Amber's body was found in Cadzow Glen on Sunday 28 November, hidden in bushes and branches. Her body was covered in mud, and her clothes were found nearby.
During the trial at the High Court in Glasgow, the jury heard that Gibson had removed Amber's clothes and assaulted her, repeatedly inflicting blunt force trauma to her head and body as well as compressing her neck with his hands.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version. | Explicit |
NEW DELHI (AP) - Thousands of people, mostly women, held a massive sit-in in India's violence-wracked northeastern state of Manipur on Saturday to demand the immediate arrest of anyone who took part in the harrowing May assault of two women who were paraded around naked and molested by a mob in an attack that was caught on video.
The leaders of religious and women's groups addressed the nearly 15,000 protesters, who also called for the firing of Biren Singh, the top elected official in the state where more than 130 people have been killed since violence between two dominant ethnic groups erupted in early May. The protest was held in Churachandpur, a town 65 kilometers (40 miles) south of Imphal, the state capital.
Manipur has been the scene of a near-civil war that was sparked by Christian Kukis protesting against a demand by the mostly Hindu Meiteis for a special status that would let them buy land in the hills populated by Kukis and other tribal groups, as well as a guaranteed share of government jobs.
A video showing the women being assaulted triggered widespread outrage and was widely shared on social media late Wednesday despite the government largely blocking the internet and keeping journalists out of the remote state. The footage shows the two naked women surrounded by scores of young men who grope their genitals and drag them to a field.
The women are from the Kuki-Zo community, according to the Indigenous Tribal Leaders' Forum, a tribal organization in Manipur. One of them told The Associated Press that the men who assaulted them were part of a Meitei mob that had earlier torched their village.
“They forced us to remove our clothes and said we will be killed if we don't do as told. Then they made us walk naked. They abused us. They touched us everywhere … on our breasts, our genitals,” she said by phone from Manipur.
The woman said the duo was then led into a field where they were both sexually assaulted. The two women are now safe in a refugee camp.
Police said the assault occurred May 4, a day after the violence between the Kukis and Meiteis started. According to a police complaint filed on May 18, the mob attacked the family of the two women and killed its two male members. The complaint alleges rape and murder by “unknown miscreants.”
The emergence and widespread sharing of the video led India's prime minister, Narendra Modi, to break his more than two months of public silence over the ethnic clashes in Manipur, saying Thursday that the attack on the women was unforgivable.
The Manipur state government on Saturday announced a fifth arrest in the attack. Rajiv Singh, the state's director-general of police, said officers were carrying out raids to arrest other suspects.
The deadly clashes have persisted despite the army's presence in Manipur, a state of 3.2 million people tucked in the mountains on India's border with Myanmar that is now divided into two ethnic zones. More than 60,000 people have fled to packed relief camps.
Nearly 400 men and women also held a protest in the Indian capital with similar demands. They carried placards reading “We demand action against the perpetrators” and ”Resign, Biren Singh.”
In Manipur state, the protesters assembled at a “Wall of Remembrance” site in an open ground in Churachandpur, a stronghold of the Kuki tribe, where they kept dummy coffins of people from their minority community who have been killed in the violence.
Ngaineikim, the chairperson of the Kuki Women's Organization for Human Rights, accused Singh, who belongs to the majority Meiti community, of orchestrating atrocities and then expressing sympathy for the victims.
Singh did not immediately comment on the calls to resign, but on Thursday, he said an investigation was underway to ensure “strict action is taken against all the perpetrators, including considering the possibility of capital punishment. Let it be known, there is absolutely no place for such heinous acts in our society.” | Explicit |
An Arkansas truck driver who beat a police officer with a flagpole holding an American flag during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot was sentenced Monday to over four years in prison.
Peter Francis Stager struck the Metropolitan Police Department officer with his flagpole at least three times as other rioters pulled the officer, head first, into the crowd outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The bruised officer was among more than 100 police officers injured during the riot.
Judge Rudolph Contreras sentenced Stager to four years and four months in prison, according to a spokesperson for the prosecutors' office.
Stager, 44, of Conway, Arkansas, pleaded guilty in February to a felony charge of assaulting police with a dangerous weapon.
Prosecutors had recommended a prison sentence of six years and six months.
The Justice Department's statement of facts says that the uniformed officer, who was trying to prevent the mob from breaching the Capitol, was dragged by a group of individuals, including Stager, and "dragged him down the stairs of the Capitol building." The statement also said they "forced [the officer] into a prone position on the stairs and proceeded to forcibly and repeatedly strike [him] in the head and body with various objects."
Stager also stood over and screamed profanities at another officer, who was seriously injured when several other rioters dragged him into the mob and beat him, according to federal prosecutors.
After the beatings, Stager was captured on video saying, "Every single one of those Capitol law enforcement officers, death is the remedy. That is the only remedy they get."
A confidential source quoted by prosecutors in the statement of facts said that Stager told him that he didn't know the man he was hitting with the flagpole was a cop, and he thought the man was ANTIFA. But the source showed investigators a Twitter thread with a photo of the officer lying on the steps of the Capitol, surrounded by the individuals. "Clearly present on B.M.'s uniform, across his back, are the words 'METROPOLITAN POLICE,' the statement noted.
Stager assaulted the officer during one of the most violent episodes of Jan. 6 — a battle between rioters and police guarding an entrance to the Capitol building in a tunnel on the Lower West Terrace. His actions at the Capitol "were the epitome of disrespect for the law," prosecutors said in a court filing.
"Stager joined a prolonged, multi-assailant attack on police officers, which resulted in injuries to the officers," they wrote. "Stager himself wielded a flagpole and used it to strike at a vulnerable officer, who, lying face down in a mob of rioters had no means of defending himself."
Stager's truck driving job had taken him to Washington, D.C., on the eve of then-President Donald Trump's "Stop the Steal" rally on Jan. 6. Stager stayed overnight to attend Trump's rally after delivering a load of produce, a decision that he will regret for the rest of his life, his lawyers said in a court filing.
His attorneys argued that Stager tried to help others in the crowd who were injured after the riot erupted. Shocked by what he saw, Stager had "reached his breaking point" and was "seeing red" when he picked up a flag on the ground, they said.
"Once the adrenaline wore off, Mr. Stager immediately called his wife to tell her he was horrified by his actions and that he was going to turn himself in upon returning to Arkansas," his lawyers wrote.
More than 1,000 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riot. Over 620 of them have pleaded guilty. Approximately 100 others have been convicted by juries or judges after trials. Nearly 600 have been sentenced, with over half receiving terms of imprisonment ranging from three days to 18 years.
Stager was indicted with eight other defendants on charges related to the tunnel battle. Four of his co-defendants also have pleaded guilty to assault charges.
Florida resident Mason Courson was sentenced in June to four years and nine months in prison. Michigan resident Justin Jersey was sentenced in February to four years and three months in prison. Michigan construction worker Logan Barnhart was sentenced in April to three years in prison. Georgia business owner Jack Wade Whitton is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 16.
for more features. | Explicit |
DENVER -- A Colorado deputy who deployed a Taser on a man who was then hit and killed by an SUV on Interstate 25 won’t face criminal charges, prosecutors said Friday.
While Larimer County Deputy Lorenzo Lujan's decision to use the Taser on Brent Thompson after he ran away as the deputy tried to arrest him showed “poor judgment” and possibly the need for more training, 8th District Attorney Gordon McLaughlin said it was not likely a jury would find Lujan criminally negligent and convict him.
According to McLaughlin's letter summarizing the investigation into Thompson's death, Thompson pulled off at an I-25 exit after Lujan turned on his patrol car's lights at night on Feb. 18. But as Lujan tried to arrest Thompson, who allegedly gave a false name and did not have a driver's license, he ran down an embankment toward the highway.
Body camera footage showed Thompson was getting onto the interstate from the shoulder when Lujan deployed the Taser, and another officer said he saw Thompson fall in the northbound side of the roadway, the summarizing letter said. The second officer then saw approaching headlights and waved his flashlight to warn that vehicle to stop.
The man driving the Ford Explorer, with his wife and three children inside, said he saw something in the road and two people standing along the highway. He said he tried to steer away from the people and hit something in the road.
Lujan, who was working overtime, told investigators he wanted to detain Thompson so he did not pose a threat to himself or drivers on the interstate.
However, the letter noted that he looked for approaching vehicles about 20 seconds before deploying the Taser, but not right before using it about 15 seconds later, calling that “a clear lapse in judgement.”
A law firm representing Thompson's family, Rathod Mohamedbhai LLC, called the decision not to pursue charges a “travesty of justice" and called for Lujan to be fired.
Lujan has been working in a non-enforcement capacity since early July and will remain in that role until the conclusion of the department's own investigation into what happened, sheriff's office spokesperson Kate Kimble said. It is expected to wrap up in the next few days, she said.
Such internal investigations typically look at whether department policies were followed.
The statement from the law firm referenced another case where officers in another Colorado county were prosecuted after a woman under arrest was put in a patrol car parked on railroad tracks. A train then hit the car, injuring the woman.
“As unconscionable as it is locking a person in a police car on railroad tracks, it is even more unconscionable to tase someone on the interstate at night. Tasing a person on the interstate is a death sentence,” it said.
One of the lawyers representing Thompson’s family, Siddhartha Rathod, who has seen the body camera footage, said Thompson was in the middle of the northbound lanes when he was hit with the Taser. Lujan was a few feet away and had to get back to avoid being hit himself, he said. | Explicit |
Christopher Nolan’s latest blockbuster movie “Oppenheimer” has sparked controversy among the Hindu-right in India, with some calling for a boycott and demanding the removal of a sex scene in which the titular character utters a famous line from the religion’s holy scripture.
The film tells the story of the atomic bomb through the lens of its creator, Robert Oppenheimer, and the scene in question depicts actor Cillian Murphy, who plays the lead role, having sex with Florence Pugh, who plays his lover Jean Tatlock.
Pugh stops during intercourse and picks up a copy of the Bhagavad Gita, one of Hinduism’s holiest scriptures, and asks Murphy to read from it.
“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds,” Oppenheimer’s character says, as they resume intercourse.
The scene has caused outrage among some right-wing groups, with a politician from India’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) calling the film a “disturbing attack on Hinduism” and accusing it of being “part of a larger conspiracy by anti-Hindu forces.”
In a statement Saturday, India’s Information Commissioner, Uday Mahurkar, said the scene was “a direct assault on religious beliefs of a billion tolerant Hindus,” likening it to “waging a war on the Hindu community.”
He added: “We believe that if you remove this scene and do the needful to win hearts of Hindus, it will go a long way to establish your credentials as a sensitized human being and gift you friendship of billions of nice people.”
The film has been received well in most quarters in India, which conducted its first nuclear test in 1974, with critics giving it rave reviews and people flocking to cinemas to watch it.
“Oppenheimer” grossed more than $3 million in its opening weekend in the country, according to local reports, higher than filmmaker Greta Gerwig’s highly anticipated “Barbie,” which released on the same day and grossed just over $1 million.
India’s film board gave “Oppenheimer” a U/A rating, which is reserved for movies that contain moderate adult themes and can be watched by children under 12 with parental guidance. There are so far no bans on the film in any of the country’s states and union territories.
‘A shift in tone’
This isn’t the first time that the Hindu-right has taken offense to films, television shows or commercials for its portrayal of Hinduism. Some have been boycotted or even forced off air following outcry from conservative and radical groups.
In 2020, Netflix (NFLX) received significant backlash in India for a scene in the series “A Suitable Boy” that depicted a Hindu woman and Muslim man kissing at a Hindu temple. That same year, Indian jewelry brand Tanishq withdrew an advert featuring an interfaith couple following online criticism.
Meanwhile, analysts and film critics say there has been a shift in the tone of some Indian films, with nationalist and Islamophobic narratives gaining support from many within India, as well as the BJP.
Last year, filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri’s box office smash “The Kashmir Files,” based on the mass exodus of Kashmiri Hindus as they fled violent Islamic militants in the 1990s, polarized India, with some hailing the film as “gut-wrenching” and “truthful,” while others criticized it for being Islamophobic and inaccurate.
Similarly, the release this year of “The Kerala Story,” about a Hindu girl who is lured into joining ISIS, angered critics who called it a propaganda film that demonized Muslims.
Ahead of the release of “Oppenheimer,” Murphy said he read the Bhagvad Gita in preparation.
“I thought it was an absolutely beautiful text, very inspiring,” he told Indian film critic Sucharita Tyagi in an interview. “I think it was a consolation to him [Oppenheimer], he kind of needed it and it provided him a lot of consolation, all his life.”
Oppenheimer, who is known as the “father” of the atomic bomb, was drawn to Hinduism and its teachings. A polyglot and polymath, he taught himself multiple languages, including Sanskrit.
Speaking to interviewers two decades after the Trinity test bomb, the world’s first nuclear explosion, took place on July 16, 1945, Oppenheimer said: “We know the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent.”
He said he remembered a line from the Bhagavad Gita: “Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
That line is used in the film multiple times, including during the sex scene. | Explicit |
Death row inmate Jemaine Cannon was executed in Oklahoma on Thursday for fatally stabbing a woman with a butcher knife after his escape from a prison work center in 1995.
Cannon received the lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester just after 10 a.m. He was pronounced dead 12 minutes later, marking the state’s second execution this year and the ninth since it resumed lethal injections in 2021.
In his final moments, Cannon expressed his belief in God and the power of his forgiveness: “Yes, I confess with my mouth and believe in my heart that God raised Jesus from the dead. Therefore I am saved. Thank you.”
A Tulsa grand jury previously convicted Cannon and sentenced him to death for the brutal slaying of 20-year-old mother, Sharonda Clark, with whom he’d been sharing an apartment in Tulsa.
Her body was discovered Feb. 5, 1995. She was reported missing after she failed to pick her children up from a daycare center.
Just weeks before Clark’s death, Cannon escaped from a prison work center in southwest Oklahoma. He’d been serving a 15-year sentence for the violent assault of another woman. The victim was left with permanent injuries after Clark raped and then brutally beat her with items including a claw hammer, iron and kitchen toaster.
Cannon’s execution came after a federal appeals court late Wednesday denied a last-minute appeal seeking a stay of execution. It contended Cannon, as a Native American, in not subject to Oklahoma jurisdiction. In June, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted 3-2 against recommending clemency for Cannon.
There, he argued that he killed Clark in self-defense after they got into a disagreement.
“Justice was finally served this morning for Sharonda Clark with the execution of her murderer,” Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said in a statement. “My hope is that today’s action can bring some measure of peace for Sharonda’s two daughters, as well as her other family members and friends who loved her.”
With News Wire Services | Explicit |
AP
toggle caption
In this aerial image made from video, a dingo walks on beach on K'gari, formerly known as Fraser Island, Australia, on Monday, July 17, 2023.
AP
In this aerial image made from video, a dingo walks on beach on K'gari, formerly known as Fraser Island, Australia, on Monday, July 17, 2023.
AP
CANBERRA, Australia — Wildlife authorities have killed the leader of a pack of dingoes that mauled a jogger on a popular Australian tourist island in a ferocious attack that a rescuer said could have been fatal.
Sarah Peet, 23, was attacked by three or four Australian native dogs on Monday as she jogged along a beach at Queensland state's K'gari, the world's largest sand island formerly known as Fraser Island.
The Brisbane resident was flown by helicopter to a mainland hospital in a stable condition. The health department refused to provide an update on her condition Thursday, citing patient confidentiality.
Wildlife rangers captured and humanely euthanized the leader of the pack on Wednesday, the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service said.
"Euthanizing a high-risk dingo is always a last resort and the tough decision by the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service was supported by the island's traditional owners, the Butchulla people," a service statement said.
The dingo was the second on the island in recent weeks to be killed for biting and threatening behavior. Authorities blame dingoes' increasing fearlessness on tourists who ignore rules by feeding them or encouraging them to approach in order to post social media images.
Wary young dingoes avoided humans when pandemic travel restrictions were first eased in late 2021. But their dangerous human interactions are increasing with tourists' encouragement as visitor numbers rise.
Peet did not deliberately encourage dingoes to approach her. But visitors to the World Heritage-listed Great Sandy National Park are warned against running or jogging outside fenced areas because of the risk that dingoes will chase them.
The dingoes forced Peet into the surf, deploying the same hunting strategy that rangers say they use against large prey such as kangaroos and wallabies.
Tourists Shane and Sarah Moffat were driving along the beach in their SUV when they saw Peet being attacked.
"We've seen two dingoes hanging off the side of her," Shane Moffat told Nine News television.
"She was walking towards me with a hand up yelling out, 'Help, help,'" Moffat said. "I could see fear in her face, that she wasn't in a good way."
Moffat said he ran to Peet, forcing himself between her and the pack leader. Moffat bloodied his fingers on the dingo's fangs as he punched it.
Moffat said Peet's injuries included a chunk of flesh missing from her right upper-arm and bite marks to her legs.
He doubted she would have survived if he had arrived at the scene any later.
The pack leader was one of three dingoes on the island fitted with tracking collars because of their high-risk behavior.
When he was collared in April, he was around 2-year-old and weighed 17 kilograms (37 pounds) which was heavy for a dingo and indicated he had been fed by humans, authorities said.
The dingo killed by authorities in June after separate attacks on a 7-year-old boy a 42-year-old French woman was the first to be destroyed on the island since 2019.
Rangers said that dingo was the offspring of a collared mother that had taught her pups their dangerous ways.
K'gari is home to some of Australia's purest dingoes because domestic dogs have long been banned. Dingoes are a protected species and authorities are considering how they can more safely coexist with humans on the island. | Explicit |
A former Democrat New Hampshire state representative who identifies as transgender was charged by a federal Massachusetts court Tuesday with child exploitation.
According to a press release from the office of the U.S. District Attorney for Massachusetts, Stacie-Marie Laughton, 39, a biological male who identifies as female, was charged with one count of sexual exploitation of children, as well as aiding and abetting.
The release stated Laughton has been charged alongside former "intimate partner" Lindsay Groves, a daycare worker in Tyngsborough, Massachusetts, who a preliminary forensic review showed had more than 10,000 text messages between the two "that included discussion about, and transfer of, explicit photographs that Groves had taken of children while employed at Creative Minds daycare."
Those messages included sexually explicit images of children who appeared to be approximately three to five years old, and "explicit descriptions" of sexual contact with each other, as well as children, the release said.
The investigation is ongoing.
Laughton was initially arrested in June for allegedly distributing "sexually explicit images of children," the latest in a string of run-ins with the law that includes making bomb threats and stalking.
After being elected to the New Hampshire legislature in 2012, Laughton was unable to serve due to still being on probation for a 2008 felony conviction of credit card fraud.
Laughton was also arrested for making a bomb threat against the Southern New Hampshire Medical Center in 2015 and was arrested again in 2021 on charges related to the misuse of the state’s 911 texting system.
Despite Laughton's criminal past, the candidate was elected for a second term to represent Nashua, New Hampshire, in the 2022 elections, but was never seated after being jailed again for multiple stalking-related charges.
According to the press release, Laughton will appear in federal court in Boston at a later date.
Fox News' Aubrie Spady contributed to this report. | Explicit |
WASHINGTON -- Days after Russia suspended participation in a wartime deal that allowed grain to flow from Ukraine to countries around the world, the White House on Wednesday warned that the Russian military is preparing for possible attacks on civilian shipping vessels in the Black Sea.
Since leaving the Black Sea Grain Deal this week, Russia has already struck Ukraine’s grain export ports in Odesa with missile and drone attacks. Some 60,000 tons of grain were destroyed in the attacks.
“Our information indicates that Russia laid additional sea mines in the approaches to Ukrainian ports,” White House National Security Council spokesman Adam Hodge said in a statement. “We believe that this is a coordinated effort to justify any attacks against civilian ships in the Black Sea and lay blame on Ukraine for these attacks.”
The Russian Defense Ministry has declared international waters in northwestern and southeastern parts of the Black Sea “temporarily dangerous” for shipping. That followed Ukraine’s pledge to continue grain shipments despite the Russian pullout from the deal.
The ministry warned it will see any incoming vessel as laden with military cargo. | Explicit |
A music festival in Malaysia has been canceled after the lead singer of British band The 1975 Matty Healy slammed the country’s anti-LGBTQ laws and kissed a bandmate on stage.
The on-stage incident at the Good Vibes Festival in Kuala Lumpur on Friday night prompted the country’s Ministry of Communications to cancel the rest of the three-day event.
Homosexual acts are illegal in Malaysia and punishable by fines and up to 20 years in prison.
In an expletive-laden speech during the band’s headline performance on Friday, captured in a video shared widely on social media, Healy said, “I do not see the point of inviting The 1975 to a country and then telling us who we can have sex with.”
“Unfortunately, you don’t get a set of loads of uplifting songs because I’m f***ing furious. And that’s not fair on you, because you’re not representative of your government. You are young people, and I’m sure a lot of you are gay and progressive,” he said addressing the audience. Healy added that the band considered canceling the show but decided against it to not disappoint the fans.
“If you want to invite me here to do a show, you can f*** off. I’ll take your money, you can ban me, but I’ve done this before and it doesn’t feel good,” Healy says in the video before bassist Ross MacDonald walks up to him and kisses him on stage.
‘Performative’
The Good Vibes Festival said in a statement following the incident, “We deeply regret to announce that the remaining schedule of the Good Vibes Festival 2023, planned for today and tomorrow has been canceled following the controversial conduct and remarks made by UK artist Matty Healy from the band The 1975.”
“This decision adheres to the immediate cancellation directive issued at 1:20 pm [local time], 22 July 2023, by the Ministry of Communications and Digital. The Ministry has underlined its unwavering stance against any parties that challenge, ridicule, or contravene Malaysian laws,” the festival’s statement added. “We sincerely apologize to all of our ticket holders, vendors, sponsors, and partners.”
Communications Minister Fahmi said Malaysia was committed to supporting the development of creative industries and freedom of expression, Reuters reported.
“However, never touch on the sensitivities of the community, especially those that are against the traditions and values of the local culture,” he said, according to the agency.
CNN has reached out to the Malaysian Home Affairs Ministry and the Prime Minister’s Office for comment.
Healy’s actions sparked controversy online, with some fans complaining that the band’s actions will result in a further crackdown on artistic expression and make it more difficult for music artists to perform in Malaysia in the future.
Members of Malaysa’s LGBTQ community have also criticized Healy’s actions, with some calling it “performative” and warning that it could lead to further discrimination.
It’s not the first time The 1975 frontman has sparked controversy – Healy drew criticism earlier this year for appearing to do a Nazi salute on stage during a song called “Love it If We Made It”, as he sang lyrics that are critical of Kanye West.
In 2019, Healy kissed a male fan during a concert in Dubai, in defiance of the region’s anti-LGBT laws.
Healy later posted on Twitter: “Thank you Dubai you were so amazing. I don’t think we’ll be allowed back due to my ‘behaviour’ but know that I love you and I wouldn’t have done anything differently given the chance again.” | Explicit |
First son Hunter Biden was put on full (frontal) display during Wednesday’s House Oversight Committee hearing.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) caused a stir when she pulled out photos of the now-53-year-old in compromising positions with a series of women while she peppered newly unmasked IRS whistleblower Joseph Ziegler with questions.
To kick off her questioning session, Greene warned viewers that “parental discretion is advised” and cautioned that “the following images are disturbing.”
Greene then asked Ziegler whether Hunter Biden had violated the federal Mann Act of 1910, which prohibits the transportation of women across state lines “for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose.”
The lawmaker then showed an image of a receipt for a United Airlines plane ticket, booking a woman on a flight from Los Angeles to Dulles Airport in northern Virginia in June 2018.
The receipt for the ticket was found on Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop.
At that point, proceedings got X-rated, as Greene whipped out images including a (mercifully) censored picture of a woman caressing the first son’s, well, first son.
“So when Hunter Biden paid for this woman to do this with him to travel across state lines from California to Washington, DC, on June 15 — this is a violation of the Mann Act. This was prostitution,” she said.
Then she homed in on allegations that Hunter Biden took money from his law firm Owasco PC to pay prostitutes.
“Most people write off … things for their taxes through their businesses, like a meal or some office supplies,” she said. “Can you confirm for me that Hunter Biden had written off payments to prostitutes through his law firm?”
Ziegler noted that he was limited in what he could say in response.
Greene raised the explicit image again when discussing a bank-created suspicious activity report claiming that a “victim” was paid through Hunter Biden’s law firm for prostitution.
Ziegler again declined to confirm whether the first son wrote off payments to prostitutes from Owasco’s accounts, again citing the parameters of his testimony.
“I can tell you that there were deductions for what we believe to be escorts and then that $10,000 golf club membership, yes,” he finally said. “That was not a golf club membership. That was for a sex club payment.”
Finally, Greene turned to the other IRS whistleblower, Gary Shapley, with a new collage of lewd Hunter Biden images indicating the first son cut multiple sex tapes with prostitutes he paid.
“Should we be displaying this, Mr. Chairman?” ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) was overheard grumbling as Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) struggled to keep a straight face.
Greene’s time ran out before she could get a response.
Wednesday’s hearing featured testimony from Shapley and Ziegler about their allegations that the federal probe of Hunter Biden was rife with favoritism.
In earlier testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee, they had alleged that Delaware US Attorney David Weiss, who helmed the probe, was stymied from pursuing additional charges against Hunter Biden in both Southern California and Washington, DC.
Weiss has since come forward and publicly maintained that he had “ultimate authority” in his inquiry, though he did caution in a letter to the House Judiciary Committee that “my charging authority is geographically limited to my home district.”
Weiss ultimately struck a deal in which Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to misdemeanor counts of willful failure to pay his federal income taxes in 2017 and 2018, per court documents.
Hunter Biden will also enter a pretrial diversion agreement for a felony charge of possession of a firearm while addicted to illicit drugs.
The 53-year-old is slated to attend a federal court hearing in Wilmington, Del., on July 26 to enter his plea. | Explicit |
Editor’s note: If you or anyone you know is struggling with mental health there are a number of ways to get help, including by calling Talk Suicide Canada at 1-833-456-4566. A list of local crisis centres is also available here. The arrest of a Mississauga man has sent shockwaves through some of the darkest corners of the internet.
Kenneth Law, 57, is accused of selling over 1,200 kits to vulnerable people contemplating suicide around the world. Law’s alleged offerings, displayed on now-defunct websites with names like “Imtime Cuisine” and “Escape Mode,” ranged from sodium nitrite, a lethal substance which can kill humans in small doses, to flow regulators and gas masks.
An April investigation by the Times of London shoved Law into the international spotlight, leading to his eventual arrest by Peel police. The Times investigation caught Law on tape advising how to use his products, as well as assuring the reporter that “many, many people” had died taking sodium nitrite. Law later confirmed those details in-person when the Times spoke with him outside a post office in Mississauga.
Law was arrested by Peel police on May 2 and charged with two counts of counselling or aiding suicide. It’s possible more charges could follow from additional police jurisdictions – a Dutch man by the name of “Alex S.” was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison last week for similar charges in the Netherlands.
Over 40 countries and 11 Ontario police forces are now involved in the investigation against Law, who briefly appeared in court on Friday.
The prosecution of Kenneth Law is proving to be a flashpoint in two major online movements: the “pro-choice” suicide advocates, who run forums with detailed guides on how to take one’s own life, and the parents of children who lost their lives in part due to information gleaned from those sites, often with the help of people selling suicide devices online. CP24.com has studied these sites extensively, and Law’s alleged businesses were frequently recommended to at-risk users before his arrest in May.
It is still not clear when Law’s trial will begin, though whenever it does the proceedings are sure to garner interest well outside of the GTA’s borders. Here is why the world will be watching:
‘ONE OF THE WORST THINGS YOU COULD POSSIBLY DO’: ADVOCATES IN U.S., U.K.
Kelli Wilson and Catherine Adenekan, located in the U.S. and U.K. respectively, are both mothers of children who lost their lives after accessing pro-suicide forums.
They will be watching Law’s trial with a hope for justice – for their own sons and for the other children who have died due in no small part to businesses like the one Law is alleged to have operated.
“This trial is monumental in so many ways,” said Wilson. “These sites sell to vulnerable people. It’s aiding and abetting suicide, which is akin to murder.Law weaponized mentally ill people against themselves, and that can’t be allowed to continue. It’s a no-brainer. He needs to be held accountable for what he’s (allegedly) done. And the lawmakers, as well – they’ve facilitated these havens for crime.”
“What he’s (allegedly) done is one of the worst things you could possibly do,” added Adenekan. “The root cause of the problem, though, is [pro-suicide forums], which is how sellers like Law get their customers.
“We’re hoping that each and every person he has (allegedly) assisted will get justice for what he’s done,” she continued.
The charges against Law have not yet been tested in court. His lawyer did not return calls for comment about the case.
‘WE ARE TRYING EVERY DAY’: SODIUM NITRITE VICTIMS IN ITALY, NETHERLANDS, U.S.
Families of sodium nitrite victims around the world are looking to Law’s trial in the hopes it will mean justice for their own children. While others are believed to be selling the substance, the scope of Law’s alleged operation has poised the verdict in his trial to be significant for similar cases internationally.
“We are trying every day,” said a father in Italy. “The pain is so strong. It’s hard to forget about your son or daughter.”
The man, who asked not to be named, lost his son to sodium nitrite, and says an acquaintance lost their child to the same substance, allegedly purchased from Law, in May.
“Law’s case could be a legal precedent in the United States, and Europe,” he said. “That could help us continue to battle against the pro-suicide sites, and the free sale of poison.”
A bereaved mother in the Netherlands shared similar hopes for Law’s trial, saying “there are very bad things on the internet,” and that the verdict in the legal proceedings against Law could lead to the erasure of pro-suicide forums and chat rooms.
A mother in Illinois also lost her daughter to sodium nitrite late last year, and says she will be watching the trial with interest.
“This is a serious battle,” she said. “(Selling sodium nitrite to at-risk individuals) is one of the worst things you could do. This is disgusting, these sites where they tell people to take their own lives.”
‘THE ELON MUSK OF ASSISTED SUICIDE’
Philip Nitschke is an Australian advocate for assisted suicide, as well as a former physician. Dubbed by Newsweek “the Elon Musk of assisted suicide,” he is also the founder of a pro-euthanasia group for seniors, as well as the author of a lengthy guide on how to take one’s own life.
“It’s a fundamental human right,” he told CP24.
Nitschke says he first published details about sodium nitrite as a means of suicide in 2018, when the substance was freely available on sites like Amazon. American lawsuits against the retail giant briefly resulted in the substance being taken off the site, but a U.S. judge dismissed those suits late last month, rejecting the claim that Amazon had acted negligently in offering sodium nitrite on their site.
“In that context, [members of Nitschke’s pro-euthanasia group] became aware of this new source, Kenneth Law,” he alleged. “And many, many of our members bought from him.”
Nitschke added that many of his group’s members do not necessarily intend to take their own lives immediately, but instead prefer to keep substances like sodium nitrite on hand “just in case.”
“Our members are watching with great apprehension,” he said. “And our members are finding themselves the hapless subjects of wellness checks in the middle of the night by local police…which is very intimidating.”
While Nitschke advocates for seniors hoping to end their own lives, he says Law acted short-sightedly by allegedly selling sodium nitrite to younger individuals.
“Kenneth was being a little unrestrictive,” he said. “Elderly people have this idea that they should have a right to access the substances, but they’re not terribly sympathetic to the idea of teenagers going out there and buying a substance.”
Several of Law’s alleged customers were teenagers, and died after taking the sodium nitrite sent to them.
Despite that misgiving, Nitschke concedes the “real help” Law has done for members of his group.
“He’s helped them achieve their goals. We’re watching this trial with great interest.”
Law will next appear in court on Aug. 25. | Explicit |
DC man charged in attack on Rand Paul staffer unable to understand proceedings, judge announces
The man accused of stabbing a senate staffer at random in the H Street Corridor in Washington in March has been deemed incompetent to stand trial, a D.C. judge determined Tuesday.
Glynn Neal allegedly stabbed one of Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) staffers as they and a friend were leaving a restaurant.
The staffer was stabbed multiple times in the head and chest, suffering life-threatening injuries, but survived. Neal was charged with assault with intent to kill.
Last week, Judge Anthony Epstein ordered a psychological evaluation. According to police reports, Neal said he “heard voices” encouraging him to commit the attack.
He was released from prison the day before the attack after serving about 12 years for threats to kidnap a person and forcing a person into prostitution.
In last week’s hearing, Neal’s sister told detectives that he “acted different” since being released from prison, including talking to himself.
Neal will undergo further psychological testing and will be evaluated again before his next court appearance on Sept. 8. He will remain in jail in D.C.
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. | Explicit |
Policing minister Chris Philp is to contact the police watchdog following a Sky News investigating in which a woman claims she was sexually assaulted in police custody.
Mr Philp congratulated home editor Jason Farell for his reporting of Zayna Iman's experience with Greater Manchester Police (GMP).
After being arrested and held in custody for 40 hours, Zayna believes she was assaulted by officers - and when she asked for CCTV footage of her detention, several hours of tape were missing.
Politics latest: Farage says 10 banks have rejected him
A former GMP superintendent, Martin Harding, examined the evidence from GMP and told Sky he believes the 38-year old was "was raped by an officer and I believe the organisation is covering it up".
Mr Philp told Sky he was going to speak to the Independent Office of Police Conduct and make them sure they are aware of the case.
"I can't direct them to do a particular thing, but I'm going to draw this case to their attention today," he said.
"If they're not investigating it already - which they might be - I want to put it on their radar screens."
The minister said he would also be speaking to GMP about the matter.
Nick Thomas-Symonds, who is shadow trade secretary, called for all the footage to be handed over.
The Labour frontbencher added that an "appropriate criminal investigation" should take place into the force if it is necessary.
A spokesperson for GMP said: "Greater Manchester Police is committed to delivering outstanding service to all those the force comes in to contact with. If service is proven to have fallen below an acceptable level, the force apologises and takes the necessary action.
"GMP is aware that these three individuals are unhappy with the service they received when they were arrested and detained - their complaints have or are being investigated by the force. Though one investigation is ongoing, there is currently no evidence to suggest any GMP employees have misconducted themselves or committed a criminal offence.
"Under the definition within the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, two of these individuals were not strip searched. Due to concerns for their welfare, their clothing was removed and replaced with anti-rip garments - this process is subject to different legislation and guidance." | Explicit |
In separate incidents in Florida and Texas, officials in those locations discovered suitcases containing human remains over the last week.
Officers from Florida's Delray Beach Police Department said they got a 911 call on Friday afternoon for a suspicious item in the water along the intracoastal waterway. Responding officers said found a suitcase with human remains inside. Two other suitcases containing human remains were found at nearby locations along the intracoastal.
The remains appear to belong to one, unidentified woman. Her remains were taken to the medical examiner's office.
Police from the city on Florida's southeast coast have not yet released additional information.
A day earlier, deputies from the Bexar County Sheriff's Office in Texas also got a 911 call for a suspicious package. People were outside feeding animals on Thursday morning when they saw a duffel bag of some sort with what appeared to be human remains inside, Sheriff Javier Salazar said during a press conference.
"The first inclination, of course, is to assume that it's a homicide scene," Salazar said. "At this point, all we really know is that we've got partial human remains out here."
There was no discernible effort made to hide the body outside of putting it into a suitcase, Salazar said. There were some signs around the property that someone had been trying to burn something, but it's common in the area for people to burn trash.
The property owners, who were out of town at the time of the discovery, are cooperating with the investigation, Salazar said.
Deputies do not yet know the gender or identify of the victim, officials said. It's not clear how long the body was there
"We're getting a search warrant to finish processing the scene and at that point we may know a little bit more," Salazar said. "But at this point, it's just too early to tell if the person was killed here, or if they were brought here in that piece of luggage and then dumped here."
for more features. | Explicit |
Former Scotland striker David Goodwillie has said "I am an innocent man" in his first interview since a civil court ruled he had raped a woman in 2011.
The footballer has never faced any criminal charges and said he wanted to "finally speak my truth" after the court decision in 2017.
At a civil case at the Court of Session in Edinburgh that year, Goodwillie and his former Dundee United teammate, David Robertson, were judged to have raped a woman.
The two men were ordered to pay £100,000 damages to her, but no criminal charges were brought against either of them.
Goodwillie has been hit by repeated backlashes when trying to return to football, with Australian second-tier side FC Sorrento the latest to cancel his contract.
Speaking on the podcast Anything Goes with James English, Goodwillie said he wants to move on with his life.
He said: "I'm an innocent man. I still say to this day, I'm walking about free, I'm not on the sex offenders' register, I've not got any charges for this, I don't even have a criminal record any more."
The former Dundee United, Blackburn, Aberdeen and Plymouth player added: "I've cleaned up my act and I've tried to be a better person."
Goodwillie said that he could not fully remember the night of the incident as he was drunk, but said: "This case wasn't violent, this was three people drunk, having consensual sex, what was happening in front of me was normal, she was talking, laughing, joking, joining in.
"So for her to say she can't remember that, it's hard for me to live with because I'm thinking if I could only show you the way you were acting, we had no idea that you were going to wake up in the morning and not remember this."
Read more:
Raith Rovers apologise for signing striker
Rape Crisis Scotland 'disappointed' as Glasgow United FC says rapist footballer 'deserves a chance'
Goodwillie was playing for English club Plymouth at the time of the civil court judgment and left "by mutual consent" just days after the ruling.
Two months later, in March 2017, he signed for Clyde despite fierce criticism of the club's decision to give him a deal.
He played for the Cumbernauld-based club for almost five years, becoming club captain, before Raith Rovers moved to sign him in February last year.
Following widespread opposition to the move, including from crime writer Val McDermid, a fan of the club, Goodwillie was released from his contract without playing a match.
A year later, there was a similar situation when Northern Premier League side Radcliffe responded to criticism by cancelling Goodwillie's contract a day after he scored a hat-trick on his debut against Belper Town.
And Australian second-tier side FC Sorrento also followed suit, announcing last month they had cancelled his contract after the news of Goodwillie's impending arrival was met with a social media backlash.
In the podcast, Goodwillie, who is married with two children, said he has suicidal thoughts quite regularly and is speaking to a counsellor.
Asked how he is feeling now, he said: "Positive, I'm thinking this is the chance for me to say what I want to say."
The footballer reportedly played for Glasgow United FC last Wednesday in a friendly match.
The club told BBC Scotland that he "deserves a chance", adding: "All he wants is to be left in peace and be allowed to play the game he loves."
In response, Rape Crisis Scotland told Sky News it was "deeply disappointed" that the club decided to field Goodwillie, adding: "This was a bad decision that sends entirely the wrong message."
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email [email protected] in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK | Explicit |
A video showing two women being paraded naked by a mob in the violence-hit northeastern state of Manipur has sparked outrage in India.
The police say they have opened a case of gang rape and arrested a man, adding that others will be held soon.
On Thursday, the monsoon session of parliament was disrupted as lawmakers demanded a discussion on the issue.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also said the incident had "shamed India" and that "no guilty will be spared".
"I assure the nation, the law will take its course with all its might. What happened with the daughters of Manipur can never be forgiven," he said, finally breaking his silence on Manipur more than two months after violence began.
Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud also expressed concern over the assault, saying it was "unacceptable" and the court was "deeply disturbed over the video". Telling the government to inform the court about the steps being taken against the accused, the chief justice said "we will take action if you don't".
Warning: This article contains details some readers may find distressing.
Police say the assault on the women took place on 4 May but it made national headlines on Thursday after the video started going viral on social media. The federal government has asked all social media companies to delete the video from their platforms.
At least 130 have died and 60,000 have been displaced since ethnic clashes started between the Meitei and Kuki communities in May in Manipur.
The horrific video of the two women was widely shared on social media on Wednesday. It shows them being dragged and groped by a mob of men who then push them into a field.
The Indigenous Tribal Leaders' Forum (ITLF) said in a statement that the atrocities had been committed in a village in Kangpokpi district against women from the Kuki-Zo tribal community. It also alleged that the women had been gang raped.
'This shouldn't be happening in modern India': By Geeta Pandey, BBC News, Delhi
It's well known that women's bodies often become a battleground during riots and conflicts, and rape and sexual assault are used as instruments of violence to punish them.
The sexual assault of a Kuki mother and daughter duo, who were stripped naked and paraded while being groped and molested by a mob of men in Manipur, is the latest example of that.
The video footage showing the women weeping, wincing in pain and begging their attackers to show some mercy is disturbing to watch.
The fact that the first arrest has been made only after the outrage in the case that happened 78 days ago and was reported to the police more than two months back doesn't inspire much confidence in the administration - more so since many of the men are clearly identifiable in the footage.
But the massive outrage that has followed the video's emergence in India has put the spotlight on the horrific crime. It has also raised questions about the failure of the state in comforting the survivors - and finally forced Mr Modi to make a statement on the ethnic violence.
To restore some sort of confidence in the people of violence-torn Manipur, especially the minority Kuki community, the authorities must now act swiftly against the perpetrators of the horrific assault and bring justice to the women. This should not be happening in modern India.
"The gang rape of the women happened after the village was burnt down and two men - one middle-aged and another a teenager - were beaten to death by the mob," the ITLF said.
Police said that the incident took place on 4 May and that a case of abduction and gang rape and murder had been registered in Thoubal district.
The incident has sparked strong reactions from politicians across the spectrum.
Federal minister Smriti Irani, called the incident "condemnable and downright inhuman".
Several opposition leaders also criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party government for not doing enough to quell the violence in the state.
Congress party leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadhra said that the "images of sexual violence against women from Manipur are heart wrenching".
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also condemned the incident. "This kind of heinous act cannot be tolerated in the Indian society," he said.
BBC News India is now on YouTube. Click here to subscribe and watch our documentaries, explainers and features. | Explicit |
July 18 (Reuters) - The movement of cargo vessels through the Kerch Strait has been suspended by Russian authorities since July 16 following drone attacks on the Crimean port of Sevastopol, two industry sources told Reuters.
Russia's defence ministry said its forces had prevented Ukraine from attacking Sevastopol on Sunday, destroying seven aerial and two maritime drones.
"Navigation is already idle for the third day. They stopped it on July 16, around 5 p.m. local time, when there was a (drone) attack on Sevastopol," said one source, who declined to be named.
Security in the area also worsened on Monday following an overnight attack on the Crimean Bridge spanning the Kerch Strait, which connects the Sea of Azov to the Black Sea.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. | Explicit |
A music festival in Malaysia has been canceled after the lead singer of British band The 1975 Matty Healy slammed the country’s anti-LGBTQ laws and kissed a bandmate on stage.
The on-stage incident at the Good Vibes Festival in Kuala Lumpur on Friday night prompted the country’s Ministry of Communications to cancel the rest of the three-day event.
Homosexual acts are illegal in Malaysia and punishable by fines and up to 20 years in prison.
In an expletive-laden speech during the band’s headline performance on Friday, captured in a video shared widely on social media, Healy said, “I do not see the point of inviting The 1975 to a country and then telling us who we can have sex with.”
“Unfortunately, you don’t get a set of loads of uplifting songs because I’m f***ing furious. And that’s not fair on you, because you’re not representative of your government. You are young people, and I’m sure a lot of you are gay and progressive,” he said addressing the audience. Healy added that the band considered canceling the show but decided against it to not disappoint the fans.
“If you want to invite me here to do a show, you can f*** off. I’ll take your money, you can ban me, but I’ve done this before and it doesn’t feel good,” Healy says in the video before bassist Ross MacDonald walks up to him and kisses him on stage.
‘Performative’
The Good Vibes Festival said in a statement following the incident, “We deeply regret to announce that the remaining schedule of the Good Vibes Festival 2023, planned for today and tomorrow has been canceled following the controversial conduct and remarks made by UK artist Matty Healy from the band The 1975.”
“This decision adheres to the immediate cancellation directive issued at 1:20 pm [local time], 22 July 2023, by the Ministry of Communications and Digital. The Ministry has underlined its unwavering stance against any parties that challenge, ridicule, or contravene Malaysian laws,” the festival’s statement added. “We sincerely apologize to all of our ticket holders, vendors, sponsors, and partners.”
Communications Minister Fahmi said Malaysia was committed to supporting the development of creative industries and freedom of expression, Reuters reported.
“However, never touch on the sensitivities of the community, especially those that are against the traditions and values of the local culture,” he said, according to the agency.
CNN has reached out to the Malaysian Home Affairs Ministry and the Prime Minister’s Office for comment.
Healy’s actions sparked controversy online, with some fans complaining that the band’s actions will result in a further crackdown on artistic expression and make it more difficult for music artists to perform in Malaysia in the future.
Members of Malaysa’s LGBTQ community have also criticized Healy’s actions, with some calling it “performative” and warning that it could lead to further discrimination.
It’s not the first time The 1975 frontman has sparked controversy – Healy drew criticism earlier this year for appearing to do a Nazi salute on stage during a song called “Love it If We Made It”, as he sang lyrics that are critical of Kanye West.
In 2019, Healy kissed a male fan during a concert in Dubai, in defiance of the region’s anti-LGBT laws.
Healy later posted on Twitter: “Thank you Dubai you were so amazing. I don’t think we’ll be allowed back due to my ‘behaviour’ but know that I love you and I wouldn’t have done anything differently given the chance again.” | Explicit |
Every week we wrap up the must-reads from our coverage of the war in Ukraine, from news and features to analysis, visual guides and opinion.
Russia and Ukraine warn conflict could spill over into the Black Sea
Russia and Ukraine issued tit-for-tat warnings that they could target all vessels sailing to and from each other’s Black Sea ports, Julian Borger reported, after a week in which Russia pulled out of a UN-backed deal that had allowed Ukrainian grain to be exported via that route.
“The fate of the cruiser Moskva proves that the defence forces of Ukraine have the necessary means to repel Russian aggression at sea,” the defence ministry in Kyiv said on Thursday, in a reference to the sinking of a flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet last year.
A day earlier, Russia had said it would consider all ships sailing to Ukrainian ports as potential military targets, a move which prompted the US to warn that Russia may attack civilian ships on the Black Sea and then put the blame on Ukrainian forces.
On Monday Russia pulled out of the year-old deal brokered by the UN and Turkey which had allowed Ukrainian grain to be shipped out of Black Sea ports, much of it to developing countries, as reported by Shaun Walker and Patrick Wintour. The withdrawal caused a spike in grain prices, Joanna Partridge wrote, reigniting fears of the impact on poorer, grain-importing countries.
Moscow’s pullout was internationally condemned. The head of USAid, Samantha Powell, said Russian president Vladimir Putin’s justification for the withdrawal was full of “falsehood and lies”, as Shaun, Patrick, Nick Hopkins and Jamie Wilson reported separately.
Moscow also launched a wave of deadly strikes on the port cities of Odesa and Mykolaiv, which Ukraine said targeted grain facilities and port infrastructure, Shaun reported. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, described the attacks on Odesa, which bore the burnt of the strikes, as part of a concerted Russian effort to prevent Ukrainian grain reaching world markets.
Wagner chief appears in video in first footage to emerge since mutiny
A video purporting to show the Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin appeared this week, in which he addressed his fighters in Belarus and called the Russian war effort in Ukraine a “disgrace”, Andrew Roth reported.
The video, the first footage of the Russian warlord to emerge since his mutiny last month, was published by two Telegram channels affiliated with Wagner and showed a man who resembled and sounded like Prigozhin.
Wagner troops would not fight in Ukraine for now, Prigozhin said. “What is happening at the front now is a disgrace in which we do not need to participate,” he said. “[We will] wait for the moment when we can prove ourselves in full.” Instead they would be “going on a new path to Africa”.
The Wagner Orchestra Telegram channel said Prigozhin addressed several thousand fighters, although that was unclear from the video. Earlier this week, a Ukrainian official said only a “few hundred” Wagner fighters had so far relocated to Belarus, as reported by Shaun Walker.
However the opposition Belarusian Hajun project, which monitors troop movements in Belarus, says an estimated 2,000-2,500 Wagner fighters are now in the country.
Militia units involved in human rights abuses in Izium identified
An investigation has identified the military units under Russia’s command that carried out human rights abuses – including the torture and killing of civilians – during the occupation of the Ukrainian city of Izium last year, Nick Hopkins, Jamie Wilson and Luke Harding reported exclusively.
Russian forces seized Izium in April 2022, after a month-long battle. Six months later Ukrainian troops liberated the city in the north-east of the country, during a counteroffensive. They discovered a mass grave, containing 447 bodies including the remains of 22 Ukrainian soldiers, as well as several torture chambers.
The report by the Centre for Information Resilience named four militia units that allegedly abused civilians and prisoners of war. All were from the so-called Luhansk and Donetsk people’s republics, pro-Moscow puppet administrations established in 2014 after Russia’s covert military takeover of some of the eastern Donbas region.
The soldiers were poorly trained, badly equipped and stole “everything” local people said, forcing homeowners to kneel at gunpoint, and even removing double glazing from windows. “They drank a lot and swapped humanitarian aid for homemade vodka,” one survivor recounted. Drunken LPR fighters shot dead two children – aged 12 and 13 – as they ran to a basement, just before a 6pm curfew.
Two dead after explosions on Kerch Bridge linking Crimea and Russia
Twin explosions rocked the Kerch Bridge connecting Crimea to mainland Russia, killing two people and temporarily closing the main conduit for Russian road traffic to the annexed peninsula, Emma Graham-Harrison, Shaun Walker and Andrew Roth reported.
The apparent attack was the second time that the bridge, a much-hated symbol of Russia’s occupation of Crimea and a high-prestige infrastructure project for the Kremlin, has been targeted since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.
Reports suggested the attack was carried out using several unmanned, explosive-carrying amphibious vehicles, or sea drones, that were directed to the bridge and then detonated from beneath the roadway, Andrew reported in an explainer on the importance of the bridge.
Ukraine has a policy of disavowing attacks in Crimea and raids into mainland Russia and did not claim responsibility for this attack.
Russia called it an act of Ukrainian “terrorism”, a charge that was dismissed by Ukrainian officials including the mayor of Kharkiv. In an interview with Luke Harding, Nick Hopkins and Jamie Wilson, Ihor Terekhov said: “How can they speak about terrorism after unleashing war on Ukraine? They are shooting and killing our people.”
The underground Tatars sabotaging Russia in Crimea
A Crimean Tatar-led underground movement is already active behind Russian lines and hundreds of young Tatar men are ready to take up arms to liberate the occupied peninsula, a veteran community leader told Julian Borger.
Mustafa Dzemilev, widely seen as the godfather of the Crimean Tatar rights movement, pointed to operations by the Atesh guerrilla group, comprising Crimean Tatars, Ukrainians and Russians, in Crimea and other occupied Ukrainian regions.
Atesh, which means “fire” in Crimean Tatar, was created in September last year, primarily to carry out acts of sabotage from within the ranks of the Russian army. It claims more than 4,000 Russian soldiers have already enrolled in an online course on how to “survive the war” by wrecking their own equipment.
There is no evidence linking the group to the latest attack on the Kerch Bridge but the group has claimed a string of smaller-scale attacks, blowing up Russian checkpoints, assassinating Russian officers, setting fire to barracks and feeding sensitive information to Ukrainian intelligence.
‘Every single morning I curse him’
Every morning, when Vira Chernukha wakes up amid the rubble of the Ukrainian village of Dementiivka, the first thing she does is curse Vladimir Putin.
Once a peaceful settlement of dozens of small houses, after seven months of Russian occupation the village now has only one remaining resident, Chernukha, 76, along with two stray puppies and a cat. The others either died in the shelling or moved to Russia, about 5 miles away.
“We had such a beautiful village you can’t even imagine,” she told Lorenzo Tondo in tears. “You could hear children’s voices everywhere. Beautiful! And now it’s a dead zone. No one’s here.”
Chernukha says she was taken to a hospital in Russia after being hit by Russian shrapnel. But determined to return home to the house she built with her husband, she embarked on a journey that took her across Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, arriving back in May, exactly a year after she was forced to leave.
Ukraine’s National Opera celebrates year of live shows
Much of the troupe is still abroad, performances are interrupted by air raid sirens and the number of tickets sold for each performance is limited to the number of people who can fit in the theatre’s basement shelter.
But as the curtain comes down on Sunday afternoon at the National Opera of Ukraine in Kyiv – the end of the storied theatre’s 155th season – the artists can reflect on a remarkably full year of performances for a theatre operating in the heart of a country at war, Shaun Walker reported.
The atmosphere in Ukraine’s capital city these days can feel jarring, with busy parks and packed restaurant terraces bringing back something of the pleasant summer vibe of prewar Kyiv, despite the frequent night-time drone attacks.
Inside the grand opera house, too, on the surface much has returned to normal. Last week, many of the audience were dressed in their finest outfits to watch a ballet double bill, waiters filled flutes with local sparkling wine at the interval and audience members posed for photographs in front of gilded mirrors and ornate chandeliers.
Go a bit deeper, though, and the majority of both the audience and artists are harbouring painful memories from the past 18 months. | Explicit |
LONG BEACH, Calif. -- A 13-year-old girl kidnapped in Texas was rescued in Southern California when passersby saw her hold up a “help me” sign in a parked car, police said.
The rescue occurred July 9 in Long Beach, south of Los Angeles, when officers responded to a trouble call and found the “visibly emotional and distressed girl,” police said in a press release Thursday.
“Through their investigation, officers learned the Good Samaritans were in a parking lot when they saw the victim in a parked vehicle holding up a piece of paper with “help me” written on it. They acknowledged the note and immediately called 9-1-1,” police said.
Steven Robert Sabalan, 61, of Cleburne, Texas, was located and detained.
Police said the victim had been near a bus stop in San Antonio, Texas, on July 6 when the suspect approached in a vehicle, pointed a gun at her and demanded that she get in.
Detectives determined that the girl was sexually assaulted while being brought to California, and they found a replica firearm in the vehicle, the press release said.
The girl was placed in the custody of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services.
Sabalan was booked into jail on suspicion of kidnapping, lewd and lascivious acts with a child, and being a fugitive from justice. It was not immediately known if he had an attorney.
Police said the FBI will lead the continuing investigation. | Explicit |
NEW YORK -- An intense police search of the Long Island home of Rex Heuermann is now complete, authorities said Tuesday as they ended a 12-day hunt for evidence that involved ripping up the yard and the discovery of a basement vault containing hundreds of weapons kept by the man accused of killing at least three women more than a decade ago.
At a press conference outside the Massapequa Park home where Heuermann lived with his wife and two kids, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said police had found a “tremendous amount of information” during their search.
He declined to describe the bulk of the material, but said there was not a “singular piece of evidence” that jumped out to him.
The search turned up at least 279 weapons kept inside a thick basement vault large enough for a person to walk into, Tierney said. Police took boxes of additional evidence from the house, which he described as a “very cluttered environment.”
An effort in recent days to dig up the backyard in search of possible clues about where the murders were committed did not yield any “large items of evidence,” he added.
A coalition of law enforcement agencies have been pouring over the property since July 14th, when Heuermann was arrested and charged with killing three women – Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Costello, and Megan Waterman – and dumping their bodies along a remote stretch of coastal highway near Long Island's Gilgo Beach more than a decade ago. Prosecutors identified him as the prime suspect in the death of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes.
Heuermann, who worked as an architect in Manhattan, has denied the charges through his lawyer.
The killings, all of which involved women engaged in sex work, happened while Heuermann’s family members were out of town, according to court papers. There is no indication his wife or children had knowledge of the crimes, Tierney said.
During the search, police used a scanning technology to identify “disturbances” in the ground outside Heuermann’s property, Tierney said. An excavator dug up the yard, and investigators with shovels could be seen scraping through freshly upturned earth.
“There was nothing of note taken from the back yard,” he said. “As far as remains, there is a whole entire trace analysis we have to go through with the house with regard to hair fibers, DNA, blood, which we’ll have to await the results of.”
Police were also seen pulling a large doll encased in glass and a portrait of a woman with a bruise on her face from the house. Tierney said it would be “quite some time” before all of the evidence could be tested for forensics.
The end of the search comes as police in Las Vegas and South Carolina are beginning their own investigations into whether the suspect may have been connected to any unresolved cases. Heuermann owns a timeshare in Las Vegas and planned to retire in a remote area of South Carolina, where his brother currently lives.
Tierney declined to discuss specifics in the other cases on Tuesday, but noted the investigation “is not limited to New York state.”
Heuermann is due back in court on August 1st. | Explicit |
But an Instagram influencer from Houston, Texas, who moved to Ukraine as the war raged, is the only one describing herself as an “emotional support stripper.”
Volunteering alongside Ukraine’s heroes has led to a bout of intimate relationships—mostly with Ukrainian soldiers—and Fan-Pei Koung, 33, now refers to herself as a “sex tourist.”
Koung has used her social media presence to create an OnlyFans account that is free for Ukrainian soldiers, volunteers, and the occasional local civilian who she thinks could use some cheering up.
On the site, she refers to herself as a “globe-trotting girlfriend, now volunteering in Kharkiv.” She added that she makes content about “everything from free emotional breastfeeding to soldiers and volunteers,” to collecting donations to distribute to volunteers.
The OnlyFans model had her hair pulled back in a messy bun and glasses when she met with The Daily Beast in late July at her apartment in Kharkhiv. “I’m the sexy girl in Ukraine who wants to volunteer, and will probably put out,” she said.
When Koung visited Ukraine for the first time in November 2022, romantic relationships were not at the center of her mind. She had decided to volunteer in women’s shelters and orphanages in Lviv, the western city in Ukraine that has been deemed a “haven” throughout the war.
Far away from the eastern front, the city has been spared some of the most brutal attacks of the war. Koung had recently moved to Europe, where she believed she could make a new start in her life, far away from all her problems in America. She met a family of Ukrainians in Croatia, who spoke with her about Russia’s invasion and encouraged her to volunteer inside the country.
“Everyone was telling me, ‘Don’t go, don’t go.’ When you’re a foreigner here, everyone who cares about you at all will say anything to change your mind,” she said.
Back in America, Koung said she had lived “multiple lives,” which include winning the first prize at a NASA Space Health Challenge in 2014, being deferred from an Ivy League school, and competing in the Miss Taiwanese American pageant in 2015. For the last five years in Oakland, CA, Koung worked in children’s events.
When she began volunteering with children in Ukraine, the work seemed like a natural progression. “The orphans flooded me. They were running, screaming, and hugging me, and I rehearsed some Ukrainian to tell them. We were dancing together,” she told The Daily Beast.
But the child care role was not enough for Koung. “It didn’t feel like anything unique to what I had back in the States. I wanted more. I wanted to be with the military,” she said.
One month after arriving in Ukraine, Koung left, but outside of the country, she still thought of Ukraine non-stop.
“I had flights to Tulum [Mexico] because I was going to live with this other fabulous, sexy, Asian influencer, and we were going to do a sexy, fabulous, Asian influencer dream team,” she burst into a series of laughs before she carried on, “But as soon as I left, I desperately wanted to come back to Ukraine. I was losing my mind trying to get back.”
Koung has an Instagram following of more than 50,000 people and has built a platform as an influencer, posting anything from lingerie modeling photos to video memes of her day-to-day life.
Since visiting Ukraine for the first time in November 2022, Koung has also begun to post content related to the war. “I’ve lost about 5,000 followers since this whole Ukraine thing. Because I went from being a sexy influencer to a sexy influencer who won’t stop talking about Ukraine.”
‘Non-Stop Shitshow’
In February 2023, one year into the war, Koung moved to Ukraine full-time, where she volunteered and lived among Ukrainians in Kyiv, the capital city. The longer Koung spent in Ukraine, the more she began to enjoy the company of Ukrainians.
On a romantic level, Koung said in America, “My standards are too high because I only want men who can care for themselves and think about people other than themselves. None of them [Americans] met my standards. And then I came to Ukraine, and everybody here thinks about people other than themselves”
“Ukrainian men, they treat me like an infant. They need to know what I want even before I know what I want. I’ve never been treated like that in my life,” Koung said.
In Kyiv, Koung met her then-personal trainer, the first man in Ukraine with whom she had an intimate relationship. “He carried my 50-pound luggage up 13 stories during a blackout,” Koung said.
Since then, Koung’s volunteering has taken her to the eastern Donbas region, where she has delivered water to people who remained in the destroyed towns and worked as what she describes as “an emotional support person for English-speaking soldiers.”
And—where there is a mutual attraction—Koung might begin a romantic relationship with some of the men she meets. Currently, the OnlyFans model is dating a Ukrainian drone operator, a power plant worker, and two information technology workers.
Koung has been learning Ukrainian and said she could speak at the level of a 2-year-old. Still, artificial intelligence comes in handy when she cannot communicate efficiently with Ukrainians.
One man, for example, named Sasha, “Just speaks Ukrainian and Russian, so we just keep our phones next to each other, and we just translate into it, and anything he doesn’t get, I’ll explain it to him. Ideal communication with him is two phones and one laptop. We can get anything we need that way,” she said.
At times, Koung has also dated international soldiers who have come to Ukraine from other countries to fight. After a group of soldiers suffered casualties in Donbas, Koung went to their unit to comfort them. There she met a soldier from the United Kingdom who had previously fought in Syria before moving to Ukraine.
“I’m there talking with him for six hours about how he’s coping, his relationship issues. I feel so safe with this guy. At some point, I was holding him and stroking his hair, and he said, ‘I feel precious like a kitten. I haven’t been touched in two years,’” said Koung.
But despite the sometimes light-heartedness of Koung’s time in Ukraine, she told The Daily Beast she had experienced judgment from other Western volunteers about her activities.
After being added to a volunteer group chat with fellow Westerners, Koung claimed to have written a message reading, “Hi, I’m Fan-Pei thanks for having me on this humanitarian group chat. If any of you want to go east, please take me with you, I’m very good company,” before adding a quick joke that she wanted to have intimate relationships with some notable Ukrainians.
“These guys just tore me for three days straight! I think there’s a couple hundred people in this group, and they said, ‘You want to make porn off of mass graves? People were writing reports about how they were ready to discipline me. I just wanted to prove myself, but this has been haunting me. I feel like every volunteer in the humanitarian group has an opinion of me,” said Koung.
“If I were a man going to Ukraine to volunteer, no one would question me about anything. But since I’m a girl, it’s been a non-stop shit show. It’s a trip. It really does make a difference if you’re a man or a woman,” she added. | Explicit |
The 1978 animated film Watership Down has been re-classified to a PG due to its "mild violence, threat, brief bloody images and bad language".
The movie is among the classic titles to have had their age ratings raised, along with the original Star Trek, according to the British Board of Film Classification's (BBFC) annual report.
After being resubmitted, the ratings were raised by the organisation, it said, in order to ensure they "remain in step with societal standards".
Watership Down, which is based on the novel by Richard Adams, tells the tale of a group of rabbits who leave their burrow in search of a new home.
Their quest brings them into contact with a battle-scarred rabbit called "General" Woundwort, as well as a gull called Kehaar who tells another character to go away using an expletive.
The film - which features the voices of Sir John Hurt and the late Richard Briers - received a U [Universal] rating on its initial release for its "very mild language, mild violence and threat".
Star Trek: The Motion Picture - the sci-fi hit first released in 1979, starring William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy - was also originally deemed "suitable for all".
But it too now requires a PG [parental guidance] sticker for containing "brief mild horror and sex references".
'Expectations evolving'
The BBFC report noted: "Whenever a distributor resubmits a film with an existing BBFC rating to us, we review it under our current guidelines.
"This sometimes means we may reclassify the film at either a higher rating or a lower rating than it was under previous guidelines."
It referenced a "distressing sequence" in Watership Down, explaining: "In their exile, the rabbits meet various challenges, some of which result in bloody bite and claw injuries caused by animals fighting.
"In one scene, a bird tells one of the rabbits to '[pee] off'".
"When we viewed the film under the current guidelines we reclassified it PG in line with our current policies for violence, threat, injury detail and language," it added.
BBFC director David Austin told BBC Radio 5 live in 2016 the film's violence and language was "arguably too strong" for it to be rated U today.
His comments followed complaints over the film's content after it was aired on Channel 5 on Easter Sunday earlier that year.
The movie returned to the small screen with a BBC adaption in 2018, featuring a voice cast including James McAvoy, John Boyega and, Olivia Colman.
The BBFC updates guidelines every four to five years in order to "continue to meet the expectations and values of people across the UK".
The next consultation is scheduled for this year, with any required changes coming into effect by 2024.
Natasha Kaplinksy, president of the board, said it was currently consulting with over 10,000 people across the UK "to explore how audience expectations are evolving".
"We will then reflect these changes in our classification guidelines, which set the foundation for all of our age rating decisions, including when older films are resubmitted and receive a new classification." | Explicit |
CLAYTON, Mo. -- A second police officer from a suburban St. Louis department is now facing charges after a man was allegedly driven to a secluded spot and beaten until his jaw broke.
St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell on Wednesday announced that his office charged Northwoods, Missouri, Police Officer Michael Hill, 51, with second-degree kidnapping. Hill is jailed on $100,000 cash-only bond and doesn't yet have a listed attorney.
On Monday, Northwoods Officer Samuel Davis, 26, was charged with assault and kidnapping, stemming from an arrest on July 4. St. Louis County police said Davis handcuffed a man, then turned off his own body camera before driving him to a secluded spot, where the man was allegedly pepper-sprayed, beaten with a baton and told not to return to Northwoods.
A witness called 911 after finding the bloodied man. Police said the victim’s jaw was broken, among other serious injuries.
The probable cause statement in Hill's arrest said he was Davis' supervising officer and was with Davis when the man was taken into custody at a Walgreens store. The statement said Hill told a store employee “what would happen to the victim.”
Like Davis, Hill never activated his body camera, never informed the dispatcher that a suspect was in custody, and didn't write a report, the probable cause statement said.
“There is no excuse for this criminal conduct, and my office will prosecute these officers to the fullest extent of the law," Bell said in a statement.
Northwoods police Chief Dennis Shireff told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Davis has been suspended as the investigation plays out. | Explicit |
Glasgow United FC has vowed to stand by rapist footballer David Goodwillie and has said "this witch hunt has gone on for far too long".
It comes after Glasgow City Council leader Susan Aitken threatened to bar the club from its training facility after the ex-Scotland international was spotted playing for the Shettleston-based team during a friendly match earlier this month.
Glasgow United FC, which is yet to confirm the signing of Goodwillie, said: "David Goodwillie has never been charged for this offence.
"He has no criminal record and has never appeared on any offenders' register.
"How can he show contrite or remorse for something he staunchly claims he did not do."
Goodwillie, 34, and fellow footballer David Robertson were ruled to be rapists in a 2017 civil case.
The pair, who have never faced a criminal trial over the allegations, were ordered to pay £100,000 in damages after a judge ruled they raped a woman at a property in West Lothian following a night out in January 2011.
Goodwillie has seen several football club contracts collapse due to public outrage over the case.
In light of his recent performance for Glasgow United FC, the city council released a statement from leader Ms Aitken on Sunday which said: "David Goodwillie has been found, in court, to be a rapist. However, in more than 12 years, he has never once shown any kind of contrition or remorse.
"Any club that signs him is making a very clear statement about its attitude to the safety of women and girls - both in sport and in its community.
"It would be an outrageous decision, wholly at odds with how community facilities like Greenfield should be run.
"I've asked officers to look at the council's agreement with Glasgow United and made it clear that I'm ready for the city to walk away."
Glasgow United FC, which plays in the West of Scotland Third Division, does not run or manage Greenfield Football Centre and instead pays to use the council facilities for training purposes only.
'This witch hunt has gone on for far too long'
The club spokesperson added: "We play home matches at our own ground nearby like we have for the last 120 years.
"We do a lot of work in our community helping those in need and this is only an extension of that work.
"We could easily walk away from this like every other club before us but we won't.
"We are supporting David with his mental health and will continue to do so.
"This witch hunt has gone on for far too long and the use of any person's life as a political football is unacceptable."
Read more:
Raith Rovers apologise for signing striker
Rape Crisis Scotland 'disappointed' as club says rapist footballer 'deserves a chance'
Goodwillie, who has played for Dundee United, Aberdeen and Blackburn Rovers, was playing for English club Plymouth at the time of the civil court judgement and left "by mutual consent" just days after the ruling.
Two months later, in March 2017, he signed for Clyde and played for the club for five years, even becoming team captain, before Raith moved to sign him in February last year.
Following widespread opposition to the move, Goodwillie was released from his contract without playing a match.
He subsequently has seen deals with Northern Premier League side Radcliffe and Australian second-tier side FC Sorrento collapse following public outcry.
Speaking on James English's Anything Goes podcast last week, Goodwillie said he was "an innocent man" and continued to claim it was consensual sex.
He said: "This case wasn't violent, this was three people drunk, having consensual sex, what was happening in front of me was normal, she was talking, laughing, joking, joining in.
"So, for her to say she can't remember that, it's hard for me to live with because I'm thinking if I could only show you the way you were acting we had no idea that you were going to wake up in the morning and not remember this."
Rape Crisis Scotland previously said it was "deeply disappointed" Glasgow United FC fielded Goodwillie in the friendly match.
A spokesperson from the charity branded it a "bad decision that sends entirely the wrong message".
They added: "Footballers are role models - particularly for young people - and it's not okay to have someone in this position who has been found by a senior judge to be a rapist." | Explicit |
Among the first rules of PR is learning from your mistakes. If, for instance, you are a member of Congress caught on camera actively and coldly ignoring mass shooting survivors who are visiting the Capitol—you might not want a repeat incident.
But Lauren Boebert doesn’t care what you think about her, okay? She’s gonna stick to her guns.
On Tuesday, organizers with Moms Demand Action and Lives Robbed—a group speaking out about the impacts of gun violence after the Robb Elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas—were handing out pamphlets dedicated to one victim, Maite Rodriguez. Along with the pamphlet, which included a letter from her mother, the organizers attached a pin of Rodriguez’s green Converse shoes. The pin even had the heart over her right toes that she drew on with a marker.
After an organizer explained the pamphlet to Boebert, thanking her and wishing her a nice day, the Colorado Republican visibly walked faster to the trash can so she could throw it away.
“We hope you take action on gun violence prevention,” an organizer is heard saying as Boebert dashed to the trash.
Last month, organizers simply invited Boebert to say hello to gun violence survivors visiting the Capitol.
“Hey, there’s a lot of survivors over there if you want to …,” one young visitor started to Boebert.
“Survivors of gun violence if you want to talk to them,” another finished. “Survivors from Uvalde, Parkland.… You don’t really care?”
Indeed, she didn’t seem to care. “It’s alright. My son died for you to just go do that,” said Brett Cross, whose son was shot and killed at the Uvalde shooting, as Boebert walked by without even looking at him.
That day, while Boebert and other Republicans gave survivors of gun violence nothing, others, like Representatives Summer Lee, Rashida Tlaib, and Ilhan Omar, and Senators Bernie Sanders and Jon Ossoff, made sure to share their time with Washington’s guests.
“She does not give a damn,” Cross said in a video Tuesday, with a poster of his son in the background. “And what she seems to forget is that her son is 17, still in school. That could’ve been his pin. She about to have a grandbaby, and in a few years, that could be their pin, and she don’t give a rat’s ass,” he continued.
“All she had to do was just take it, and then say look: we might not agree with one another on Second Amendment or assault weapons … but to do that is just so cold and callous. And she is supposed to be a representative of the people.”
“If y’all voted her in—if you actually went to the ballot, and voted for Lauren Boebert—then that just goes to show where your morals are at, too. Fuck her.” | Explicit |
LSU grad student will no longer teach at university after alleged profanity-laced voicemail to state lawmaker
BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - An LSU graduate student will no longer be allowed to teach at the university, after allegedly leaving a profanity laced voicemail to a Louisiana State Senator for his vote to override the governor’s veto on House Bill 648.
The university has identified the graduate student to WAFB as Marcus Venable.
The voicemail was left on Republican State Senator Mike Fesi’s voicemail, after he voted yes on a bill Tuesday, July 18, which prohibits certain procedures to alter the sex of a minor child.
“You know who the real experts are, it’s the ones that had this procedure done and are now in their mid-twenties, and late twenties, and trying to say that they hate their parents for letting this happen to them,” said Senator Fesi (R), District 20, on Tuesday at the Capitol.
The voicemail said:
“I just wanted to say ‘Congratulations, to our State Senator, Big Mike Fesi. And that f***ing moron voted to make things worse for people who are already suffering. You fat f***ing piece of sh**. You did not produce any g**d*** evidence to support the claims you made about people being harmed by transgender care, yet we’ve had tons of empirical evidence telling us there’s an increased suicide risk for people who don’t get this care. So you, you big fat headed mother f***er, I can’t wait to read your name in the f***ing obituary. I will make a goddamn martini made from the tears of your butthurt conservatives when we put your f***ing a** in the ground, you fat f***ing useless piece of sh*t. F*** you. I hope you have a terrible day. Go f*** yourself.”
“You know, it goes too far. We just got to understand that everybody’s got their opinion, we still live in a great country for freedom of speech. But we just got to hold it to a condition that everybody understands each other, and we don’t always have to agree,” said Sen. Fesi.
Senator Fesi first contacted the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office, which then sent the case over to Louisiana State Police.
“LSP is aware of the voicemail and we are currently investigating the complaint. It is active and ongoing,” said a spokesperson with State Police to WAFB.
“I just want them to do their investigation, and them do what they think’s right. I don’t want to see no harm come to anybody,” said Senator Fesi.
In a statement to WAFB, LSU officials said, “As a university, we foster open and respectful dialogue. Like everyone, graduate students with teaching assignments have the right to express their opinions, but this profanity-filled, threatening call crossed the line. This does not exhibit the character we expect of someone given the privilege of teaching as part of their graduate assistantship. The student will be allowed to continue their studies but will not be extended the opportunity to teach in the future.”
Legal analyst Franz Borghardt weighed in on whether or not LSU violated the First Amendment rights of the grad student, by not allowing him to teach for them in the future.
“First and foremost, your constitutional rights to free speech are not absolute, if your words or your expression are threatening, if they are harmful, they are not necessarily absolutely protected. So, can LSU respond to a faculty member, albeit an LSU grad student making a profane, potentially threatening voicemail to a member of the legislature, yes I think they can. Because candidly at the end of the day, the call borderlines on a criminal act, whether it be assault, whether it be terrorizing. So, I think LSU can act, but furthermore, LSU didn’t expel the grad student who is also a teacher. It simply said, we can’t have you teaching especially while the case is under investigation,” said Borghardt.
“This particular piece of legislation has probably gained more intensity of emotion, than any other bill in a generation,” said political analyst Jim Engster.
Engster believes calls like this towards lawmakers go too far. And as for the future of this controversial bill, a lawsuit could be next.
“But, it looks like this is going all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States, and it will be up to those 9 justices to determine whether this becomes the law of the land,” said Engster.
WAFB did reach out to the grad student for a comment, and he finally gave us one on Sunday, July 23.
“The duty of the strong is to protect the weak.” - Joseph Venable (1918-1980). More later,” Venable wrote to WAFB.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression sent a letter to Louisiana State University urging LSU not to pursue further investigation and asking them to reinstate any future opportunities for Venable to act in his assistant teaching duties.
The organization is asking LSU for a response by July 28.
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Copyright 2023 WAFB. All rights reserved. | Explicit |
CAIRO, July 24 (Reuters) - A top Sudanese general violently rejected a Kenyan-led proposal that East African peacekeepers help end a more than 100-day civil war in Sudan, suggesting in a video released on Monday that any such troops would not make it home alive.
The Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces it is fighting have received multiple international mediation offers, but none have succeeded in ending or even significantly pausing the fighting that broke out on April 15.
Earlier this month, IGAD, an East African regional bloc of which Kenya is a member, proposed an initiative that would include the deployment of peacekeepers in the capital Khartoum.
The Sudanese army has repeatedly rejected the Kenyan-led initiative, accusing the regional power of supporting the RSF.
It has said it would consider any foreign peacekeepers as enemy forces.
"Leave the East African forces where they are. Bring the Kenyan army ... I swear to god, not one of them would make it back," said Sudanese General Yassir al-Atta in comments to troops.
He also accused Kenya of being bought off by an unnamed third country.
"This statement is unworthy of our comment," Kenya's foreign affairs principal secretary Korir Sing’Oei told Reuters, adding that the accusations were unfounded and that his country was neutral.
"By insisting that durable peace will only be realised through the inclusion of civilian actors in any mediation process and calling on accountability for atrocities, some in Sudan may find these principles difficult to accept," he added.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. | Explicit |
TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Ron DeSantis has spent millions of dollars this year to support Texas in deterring migrants from entering the country through its border security initiative. Now, some of Texas’ efforts are coming under scrutiny amid reports that officers were ordered to push small children and nursing babies back into the Rio Grande.
On July 3, a state trooper with the Texas Department of Public Safety reported actions taken as part of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star had veered into the “in humane (sic),” according to emails reviewed by the Times/Herald and first reported by the Houston Chronicle.
The state trooper, identified as Nicholas Wingate, a medic for the Texas Department of Public Safety, reported seeing a 19-year-old pregnant woman having a miscarriage after being caught in razor wire in Eagle Pass; a 4-year-old girl trying to cross the razor wire being pressed back by Texas National Guard soldiers “due to the orders given to them”; and a 15-year-old boy who broke his right leg after the wire forced him into a part of the river that was unsafe to travel.
The wire was installed along the Rio Grande by the Texas National Guard and the Texas Department of Public Safety to “deter smuggling between the ports of entry and not to injure migrants,” Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw said in an email. In a separate email, McCraw acknowledged the wire has resulted in migrants needing “elevated medical attention.”
Travis Considine, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety, said the agency is investigating the allegations made by the state trooper and that Texas does not have “a directive or policy that instructs Troopers to withhold water for migrants or push them back into the river.”
The incidents outlined by the state trooper occurred while he was stationed in Eagle Pass from June 24 to July 1 as part of Operation Lone Star.
Florida’s role in Texas
DeSantis supported Abbott’s Operation Lone Star by sending hundreds of state personnel and state resources to the southern border in Texas in June — and his office has noted that state law enforcement officers have continued to aid Texas officers at the border as recently as this week.
However, it remains unclear whether Florida personnel engaged in any of the Texas directives that are under investigation.
DeSantis administration officials did not respond when asked to comment on the concerns raised by the Texas state trooper, and did not say whether Florida officers had followed such directives when they were in Texas.
Instead, Jeremy Redfern, DeSantis’ press secretary, responded by issuing a statement criticizing President Joe Biden’s border policies.
“President Biden’s abdication continues to undercut the rule of law, leading to dangerous actions by human smugglers and cartels. This week, FHP [Florida Highway Patrol] assisted in arresting a criminal alien that threw a 1-year-old baby into the Rio Grande River,” Redfern said. “Governor DeSantis will continue to do everything within his authority to fight against Biden’s Border Crisis.”
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As a presidential candidate, DeSantis has centered his political messaging on the idea that states should take action in whatever ways they can in response to “failed” federal immigration policies.
In late June, he held a campaign event in Eagle Pass to unveil a sweeping plan to overhaul the nation’s immigration system.
At that event, DeSantis vowed to use deadly force against suspected drug traffickers at the border.
“We’re going to create adequate rules of engagement, if somebody were breaking into your house to do something bad you would respond with force,” DeSantis said. “Yet why don’t we do that at the southern border?”
He said suspected drug traffickers would end up “stone-cold dead” and that if he were elected president, his administration would “fully deputize” state and local law enforcement offices in states like Texas to arrest and deport migrants back to Mexico.
A day before the campaign trip, in Eagle Pass, the Texas state trooper reported that officers “were given orders to push” migrants, including several small children and babies who were nursing, back into the water to go back to Mexico.
“With the very real potential of exhausted people drowning. We made contact with command again and expressed our concern and we were given the order to tell them to go to Mexico and get in our vehicle and leave,” the Texas trooper wrote in the email, which added that state troopers then coordinated with Border Patrol agents and “got the people processed and taken care of.”
Florida spends millions in Texas
In May, Florida was asked to help Texas officers “deter, detect and interdict criminal activity” along its 1,250-mile southern border, under the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, a mutual-aid partnership among all states.
During the effort, Texas gave Florida state law enforcement officers and guardsmen “the same arrest and law enforcement powers, rights, and privileges while operating within the state limits of Texas as are ordinarily afforded law enforcement forces of the State of Texas,” records show. And they were to operate in locations that included the Rio Grande Valley sector, records show.
In June, the governor spent $3.3 million to send up to 650 state personnel to support those efforts through June 10, records show.
Under the direction of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, which is part of the DeSantis administration, the Florida National Guard began to support Texas’ Operation Lone Star in May, Amelia Johnson, a spokesperson for the state agency, said last week.
The $3.3 million is associated with operational costs of Florida National Guard support to Texas, Johnson said.
Generally, the state that sends help is reimbursed by the state that is asking for help. At least that is the case outlined in the Emergency Management Assistance Compact’s website. But Abbott made clear in his request that Texas was requesting assisting states to “absorb associated costs with this mission in support of the entire country,” records show.
Overall this year, DeSantis has spent at least $15.2 million in the first half of the year to address “illegal migration” at the Texas border and in South Florida. Records show the money spent was part of a $500 million Emergency Preparedness and Response Fund that the Florida Legislature approved last year to give the governor direct access to cash when he declares emergencies. | Explicit |
The jury in the trial of a man accused of sexually assaulting and murdering his 16-year-old sister has been sent out to begin its deliberations.
Connor Gibson, 20, is accused of attacking Amber Gibson in woodland in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, on 26 November 2021.
He is charged with removing her clothing, sexually assaulting her with the intention of raping her, inflicting blunt-force trauma to her head and body, and strangling her.
Gibson denies the charges against him and is on the 13th day of trial at the High Court in Glasgow.
Amber was reported missing on the evening of Friday 26 November and her body was discovered in Cadzow Glen at about 10.10am on 28 November.
The forensic pathologist who carried out the post-mortem examination on Amber's body told the court she was found covered in mud and the cause of death was "compression of the neck".
Jurors also heard other forensic evidence that "widespread blood staining" on Gibson's jacket was compatible with Amber and his DNA was also found on her shorts, worn as underwear, which had been "forcibly torn" off.
Giving evidence, Gibson's former foster father Craig Niven had said he would not leave the siblings in each other's company because they were "not a good mix".
Mr Niven and his wife had fostered the siblings since Amber was three and her brother was five. The couple were granted permanent care of the siblings a few years later.
Mr Niven told the court he had not heard from his former foster son during Amber's disappearance but, in a call on the day her body was discovered, Gibson told him the pair had "fallen out" when they saw each other two days previously.
Read more:
Connor Gibson on trial accused of sexually assaulting and murdering sister
Amber Gibson 'had injuries consistent with being strangled'
Blood on brother Connor Gibson's clothes 'could indicate assault'
Also on trial is Stephen Corrigan, 45, who is accused of attempting to defeat the ends of justice by inappropriately touching and concealing Amber's body instead of contacting the emergency services.
Corrigan, said in court not to be known to Gibson, also denies the charge and has lodged a special defence of alibi.
His father, William Corrigan, 79, told the court his son was at his home in Blantyre, South Lanarkshire, that weekend after a fall on ice left his arm in a sling, and denied lying to protect him.
The court heard Corrigan told police he was at a "complete loss" to explain why his DNA was found on 39 areas of Amber's body, including her breasts, buttocks and thighs.
Giving evidence, forensic biologist Alana Gunn said she believed this was from direct contact but could not rule out secondary transfer, and could not say whether or not it was present before or after Amber's death.
Judge Lord Mulholland sent jurors out to consider their verdicts on Tuesday morning. | Explicit |
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ODESA, Ukraine (AP) — Russia struck the Ukrainian Black Sea city of Odesa on Sunday, keeping up a barrage of attacks that has damaged critical port infrastructure in southern Ukraine in the past week. At least one person was killed and 22 others wounded in the early morning attack, officials said.
Four children were among those wounded in the blasts, which severely damaged 25 landmarks across the city, including the historic Transfiguration Cathedral.
Russia has been launching repeated attacks on Odesa, a key hub for exporting grain, since Moscow canceled a landmark grain deal on Monday amid Kyiv’s grinding efforts to retake its occupied territories.
After the fires were put out at the Orthodox cathedral, volunteers donned hard hats, shovels and brooms to begin removing rubble and try to salvage any artifacts — under the watchful gaze of the saints whose paintings remained intact. Local officials said the icon of the patroness of the city was retrieved from under the rubble.
“The destruction is enormous, half of the cathedral is now roofless,” said Archdeacon Andrii Palchuk, as workers brought documents and valuables out of the building, its floor inundated with water used by firefighters to extinguish the blaze.
Palchuk said the damage was caused by a direct hit from a Russian missile that penetrated the building down to the basement. Two people inside were wounded.
“But with God’s help, we will restore it,” he said, bursting into tears.
A woman who came to help with the cleanup said she loved the cathedral “for its tranquility and grace.”
“When you enter this church, you feel like you’re beyond the world,” said Liudmyla, who gave only her first name. “I have a feeling that God, to protect apartments, took this pain, this explosion upon himself.”
Anna Fetchenko, who came to Odesa for a volunteer meeting, also pitched in to clear the debris. “I wanted to go to the seaside, but last night was so frightening that I cried for the first time in 2023,” she said.
“This is our Ukrainian heritage, and now it’s taken away from us.”
Later Sunday, Palchuk urged people to gather in front of the destroyed part of the cathedral for an outdoor service and to pray in front of a sacred icon that “miraculously survived.”
“We will pray that it protects us from the Russians,” he said.
The cathedral belongs to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which has been accused of links to Russia. The church has insisted that it is loyal to Ukraine, has denounced the Russian invasion from the start and even declared its independence from Moscow.
WATCH: Russia’s war in Ukraine leads to historic split in the Orthodox Church
But Ukrainian security agencies have claimed that some in the Ukrainian church maintain close ties with Moscow. They’ve raided numerous church holy sites and posted photos of rubles, Russian passports and leaflets with messages from the Moscow patriarch as proof some church officials are loyal to Russia.
UNESCO strongly condemned the attack on the cathedral and other heritage sites and said it will send a mission in coming days to assess damage. Odesa’s historic center was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site earlier this year, and the agency said the Russian attacks contradict Moscow’s pledge to take precautious to spare World Heritage sites in Ukraine.
“This outrageous destruction marks an escalation of violence against the cultural heritage of Ukraine. I strongly condemn this attack against culture, and I urge the Russian Federation to take meaningful action to comply with its obligations under international law,” UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said in a statement.
Regional Gov. Oleh Kiper said that six residential buildings were destroyed by the strikes.
Some people were trapped in their apartments following the attack, which left rubble strewn in the street and partly blocking the road.
Svitlana Molcharova, 85, was rescued by emergency workers. But after she received first aid, she refused to leave her destroyed apartment. “I will stay here,” she said.
“I woke up when the ceiling started to fall on me. I rushed into the corridor,” said Ivan Kovalenko, a 19-year-old resident of the building. “That’s how I lost my home in Mykolaiv, and here, I lost my rented apartment.”
His unit revealed a partially collapsed ceiling and a balcony that came off the side of the building. All the windows were blown out.
Ukraine’s air force reported on the Telegram messaging app that Russia had launched 19 missiles in the Odesa region, including five high-precision winged Onyx missiles and four sea-to-shore Kalibr cruise missiles. It said that Ukrainian air defenses shot down nine.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Sunday its forces attacked sites in Odesa “where terrorist acts against the Russian Federation were being prepared.”
In a later statement, the ministry denied that its attacks struck the Transfiguration Cathedral, claiming the destruction of the cathedral was likely due to “the fall of a Ukrainian anti-aircraft guided missile.”
The attacks come days after President Vladimir Putin pulled Russia out of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a wartime deal that enabled Ukraine’s exports to reach many countries facing the threat of hunger.
WATCH: Russia ends grain export deal with Ukraine, raising fears about global food security
Earlier Russian attacks have crippled significant parts of export facilities in Odesa and nearby Chornomorsk, and destroyed 60,000 tons of grain, according to Ukraine’s Agriculture Ministry.
Putin vowed to retaliate against Kyiv for an attack Monday on the crucial Kerch Bridge linking Russia with the Crimean Peninsula, which the Kremlin illegally annexed in 2014.
— Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko were meeting Sunday in St. Petersburg, two days after Moscow warned Poland that any aggression against its neighbor and ally would be considered an attack on Russia. Putin said talks would also take place Monday, and declared that Kyiv’s counteroffensive had failed.
Lukashenko said Wagner troops, who launched joint drills with the Belarusian military on Thursday, almost a month after their short-lived rebellion against Moscow, wanted to go west “on an excursion to Warsaw, to Rzeszow” in Poland, but that Belarus would not allow the mercenary force to relocate.
“I am keeping them in central Belarus, like we agreed. … We are controlling what is happening” with Wagner, he said.
— Kharkiv regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov reported Sunday that two people were killed in Russian strikes on the northeastern province Saturday, when Russia attacked populated areas of the Kharkiv, Chuhuiv, Kupiansk and Izium districts.
Donetsk regional Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said four residents were also killed and 11 wounded in attacks Saturday.
Morton reported from London.
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Robert Kennedy Jr, a long-shot Democratic candidate for US president, has a long history of racism, antisemitism and xenophobia, and should be denied a national platform, according to a damning report seen by the Guardian.
Kennedy, who provoked anger last week when he was filmed falsely suggesting that the coronavirus could have been “ethnically targeted” to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people, is due to testify at the US Capitol in Washington on Thursday.
The Congressional Integrity Project, a political watchdog, called for Republicans to disinvite Kennedy after releasing a report that details his meetings with and promotion of racists, antisemites and extremist conspiracy theorists.
“Kennedy embraces virtually every conspiracy theory in existence,” the report states. “His horrific antisemitic and xenophobic views are simply beyond the pale, and he has frequently met with and promoted antisemitic conspiracy theorists. Kennedy’s anti-vaccine conspiracies go back decades and have had deadly real world consequences.”
Kennedy, an environmental lawyer, is running against Joe Biden in the Democratic presidential primary and has drawn big and enthusiastic crowds and polled as high as 20%. But the Project’s document argues that Kennedy’s recent comments about Jewish and Chinese people, which were quickly hailed by neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers as “100% correct”, were not an aberration but fitted a long pattern.
Earlier this summer Kennedy touted a meeting with Ice Cube, a rapper who issued bizarre antisemitic tweets, and publicly defended musician Roger Waters, who was embroiled in controversy after donning a costume intended to evoke Nazi attire at a concert in Germany.
The report says Kennedy has also repeatedly promoted and praised fringe online broadcaster James Corbett, a Sandy Hook and 9/11 conspiracy theorist who has claimed that “Hitler and the Nazis were 100% completely and utterly set up”.
Kennedy has often allied himself with the National of Islam leader, Louis Farrakhan, who regularly unleashed tirades about alleged Jewish control of media and government. Kennedy met Farrakhan at his Chicago home in 2015, with Farrakhan later tweeting that they discussed “a vaccine that is designed to affect Black males”.
The Project details how Kennedy himself has frequently invoked Nazi Germany when pushing debunked theories about vaccines. He put out a video that showed the infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci with a moustache reminiscent of Adolf Hitler and used the word “holocaust” to describe children he believes were hurt by vaccines in 2015.
Last year, at a Washington rally organized by his group Children’s Health Defense, Kennedy complained that people’s rights were being violated by public health measures that had been taken to reduce the number of people sickened and killed by Covid-19. He said: “Even in Hitler’s Germany, you could cross the Alps to Switzerland. You could hide in an attic like Anne Frank did.” He later apologised.
For years, the document says, Kennedy has targeted a particularly dangerous form of vaccine denial at Black people. In 2021 at the height of the Covid-19 vaccination campaign, he released Medical Racism, a film that promoted disproven claims about the dangers of vaccines and explicitly warned communities of color to be suspicious of “sinister” vaccination campaigns.
Several doctors and experts who participated in the film later denounced it and said they felt used and misled about the message of the documentary. Richard Allen Williams, founder of the Association of Black Cardiologists, called Children’s Health Defense “absolutely a racist operation” particularly dangerous to the Black community.
In 2017, as a measles outbreak devastated Minnesota’s Somali-American community due to low vaccination rates, Kennedy continued to push his false claims that “science and anecdotal evidence suggest that Africans and African Americans may be particularly vulnerable to vaccine injuries including autism”.
In a 2020 interview, Kennedy asserted without evidence that “People with African blood react differently to vaccines than people with Caucasian blood. They’re much more sensitive.”
The following year, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Kennedy recorded a webinar encouraging Black people to be skeptical of vaccines, claiming: “There has been abundant evidence … beyond any dispute that Blacks are disproportionately harmed by vaccine injury,” adding: “Blacks react completely differently to vaccines … we now know it’s just one huge experiment on Black Americans, and they know what is happening and they are doing nothing.”
The report also argues that, from the earliest days of Operation Warp Speed, Kennedy has built “an anti-vaccine juggernaut” around opposition to Covid-19 vaccinations, which he has called “the deadliest vaccine ever made”.
He has sought to frame Covid vaccines as an elaborate conspiracy to enrich the medical establishment and big pharmaceutical companies. In a YouTube video, Kennedy accused Bill Gates of developing an “injectable chip” to enable the tracking of human movements and attempting to “genetically modify” humanity to “the flow of global information”.
Kennedy has even accused his former anti-vaccine ally, Donald Trump, of selling out to Pfizer by developing vaccines.
Such anti-scientific views go way back. Kennedy has claimed that fluoridated water is “drugging” children, HIV does not cause Aids and chemicals in the water are making people gay or transgender as well as pushing nonsensical conspiracy theories about wifi and 5G cellular networks.
As the son of former attorney general Robert Kennedy, and nephew of former president John F Kennedy, Kennedy has caused anguish to one of America’s most storied political dynasties with his toxic views.
In 2019 three relatives wrote an opinion column for the Politico website condemning his anti-vaccine advocacy, which they held partially responsible for a measles outbreak.
The Congressional Integrity Project contends that Kennedy is a “Republican stooge” who is being embraced by the far right in an attempt to damage Biden. He has become a regular guest on Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News and other rightwing outlets. Far-right provocateurs Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, Alex Jones and Michael Flynn have praised him.
Now Republicans have invited Kennedy to Congress. On Thursday he is due to address the House of Representatives’ select subcommittee on the weaponization of the federal government during a hearing to examine “the federal government’s role in censoring Americans”. The panel is chaired by the Trump loyalist Jim Jordan, who has been criticised for launching bogus investigations into Biden.
Kyle Herrig, executive director of Congressional Integrity Project, said: “Giving RFK Jr a platform to spread dangerous conspiracy theories and xenophobic and antisemitic rhetoric is a new low for Jim Jordan – and that says something.
“Jim Jordan should stop the charade and disinvite RFK Jr immediately. Allowing this hearing to go forward is shameless and beyond the pale. Maga Republicans’ desperation is on full display this week, proving once again that they have no credibility to conduct legitimate investigations.” | Explicit |
PORTLAND, Ore. -- A man being investigated in the deaths of four women in Oregon had previously attacked and choked one of them, her father said. But the man was not arrested until months later — only after the women's bodies were discovered scattered across northwest Oregon.
The bodies had raised fears a serial killer was targeting young women in the area. The Multnomah County District Attorney's Office announced Monday that investigators and prosecutors from nine law enforcement agencies have found links between the four deaths, with at least one person of interest identified.
The statement did not name the person, but a law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation said Tuesday it is Jesse Lee Calhoun. The official requested anonymity because they are not authorized to comment publicly on the case. Calhoun was arrested on June 6 by members of two sheriff's departments with U.S. Marshals Service assisting, the official said.
The bodies of Kristin Smith, 22; Charity Perry, 24; Bridget Webster, 31; and Ashley Real, 22, were found over a three-month period in wooded areas, under a bridge and in a culvert in a roughly 100-mile (160-kilometer) radius, spanning from rural Polk County southwest of Portland to the Columbia River Gorge, east of the city.
Real’s body was the latest one found, on May 7. Her father, Jose Real, told the Oregonian/OregonLive that he called police on Nov. 11 after she showed up, crying, at his Portland home, saying she had been attacked and choked by Calhoun.
A Portland police officer took an initial report from him and his daughter, Real said, and she gave the officer Calhoun’s name. Police wanted her to help find him but she was scared, Real told the newspaper.
“They took a report,” he said, “but after that, they did nothing.”
Because the location of the alleged assault was outside Portland police jurisdiction, the department referred the case to the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office, the Oregonian/OregonLive reported.
Jose Real said he and his daughter never heard back from police.
“The police didn’t do their work,” he said. “And now my daughter is dead.”
Portland Police Sgt. Kevin Allen said in an email Friday that the department cannot comment on any reports or information related to Calhoun because of “an active ongoing criminal investigation.” Sheriff's Deputy John Plock also said he could not comment because of an active investigation.
Calhoun was one of 41 prison inmates whose prison sentence was lowered by one year in 2021 by then-Gov. Kate Brown after they helped battle devastating 2020 wildfires in Oregon.
Calhoun was released from the Columbia River Correctional Institution on July 22, 2021, almost one year before his projected release date, the Oregon Department of Corrections said Friday. He had been serving a 50-month sentence for assaulting a police officer, trying to strangle a police dog, burglary and felony unauthorized use of a vehicle.
Sen. Tim Knopp, leader of the minority Oregon Senate Republicans, on Tuesday blamed Brown for letting “violent offenders” out early. But even if Brown hadn't commuted Calhoun's sentence, he would have been released months before the deaths occurred.
Still, a relative of another woman who died blamed police for being slow to react. Melissa Smith, Kristin Smith's mother, said in a video on Facebook that she reported her daughter missing in December to police in a Portland suburb, but, she said, “I was not given the help that I needed.”
Family members posted flyers about the missing woman and searched parts of Portland. Kristin Smith's body was the first of the four to be discovered, in a wooded area of a Portland neighborhood, on Feb. 19. Melissa Smith praised a detective with the Portland Police Bureau for more aggressively pursuing the case.
The district attorney's announcement Monday said no charges have been filed in connection with any of the deaths. But Calhoun is back behind bars. Gov. Tina Kotek revoked his commutation on July 3.
Calhoun is now back in prison to serve the remainder of his sentence, with his new projected release date June 9, 2024, Oregon Department of Corrections spokesperson Amber Campbell said Friday.
___
Selsky reported from Salem, Oregon. Rhonda Shafner in New York and Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho, contributed to this story. | Explicit |
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Country music star Jason Aldean’s latest music video for “Try That In A Small Town,” lasted just one weekend on Country Music Television before the network pulled it in response to an outcry over its setting and lyrics.
In the video, Aldean — who has been awarded country music artist of the decade by the Academy of Country Music — performs in front of the Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tennessee. This is the site of the 1946 Columbia race riot and the 1927 mob lynching of an 18-year-old Black teenager named Henry Choate.
Aldean’s video, which was released last Friday, has received fervent criticism online, with some claiming the visual is a “dog whistle” and others labeling it “pro-lynching.”
Interspersed between performance footage of Aldean are news clips of violent riots and flag burning. A Fox News chyron reads: “State of emergency declared in Georgia.”
“Cuss out a cop, spit in his face / Stomp on the flag and light it up / Yeah, ya think you’re tough,” Aldean, who is from Macon, Georgia, sings. “Got a gun that my granddad gave me / They say one day they’re gonna round up / Well, that s*** might fly in the city, good luck / Try that in a small town.”
“There is not a single lyric in the song that references race or points to it – and there isn’t a single video clip that isn’t real news footage – and while I can try and respect others to have their own interpretation of a song with music — this one goes too far,” Aldean wrote in a tweet posted Tuesday.
The production company behind the video, Tacklebox, said in a statement Wednesday that it picked a “popular filming location outside of Nashville” that had been used on numerous productions, including holiday films starring Tanya Tucker and one starring Mario Lopez and Jana Kramer.
“Any alternative narrative suggesting the music video’s location decision is false,” the company said, adding that Aldean did not choose the location.
Aldean has long identified as conservative, and has been a vocal supporter of former President Donald Trump. “My political views have never been something I’ve hidden from,” he tweeted Tuesday.
The video and its subsequent removal from CMT quickly blew up into one of the periodic culture war clashes, with several conservative figures speaking out in favor of Aldean — including Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert.
This isn’t the first time Aldean has been at the center of controversy. In 2015, he made headlines for dressing as rapper Lil Wayne as a Halloween costume, wearing blackface makeup and a wig with dreadlocks.
In 2017, the country singer was on stage at the Route 91 Festival in Las Vegas during the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Over the years, Aldean has given conflicting statements about his stance on U.S. gun laws, though his music celebrates gun ownership.
WATCH: Biden signs law making lynching a federal hate crime
“It’s too easy to get guns, first and foremost,” he told The Associated Press after the Las Vegas shooting. “When you can walk in somewhere and you can get one in 5 minutes, do a background check that takes 5 minutes, like how in-depth is that background check? Those are the issues I have. It’s not necessarily the guns themselves or that I don’t think people should have guns. I have a lot of them.”
“In the past 24 hours I have been accused of releasing a pro-lynching song (a song that has been out since May) and was subject to the comparison that I (direct quote) was not too pleased with the nationwide BLM protests,” Aldean said on Twitter Tuesday. “These references are not only meritless, but dangerous.”
A CMT spokesperson did not immediately respond to AP’s request for comment.
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CIRCLEVILLE, Ohio — A video shows a police officer allow his K9 to attack a Black suspect who was surrendering with his hands in the air following a traffic pursuit, despite repeated orders from State Highway Patrol troopers to hold the dog back, reports say.
The incident on the Fourth of July in Circleville has led to an investigation as to why the officer allowed the K9 to attack Jadarrius Rose, 23, following a “lengthy” pursuit involving a tractor-trailer, Reuters reports.
According to NBC News, the chase started Ohio 35 when Rose refused to stop his tractor-trailer for a Motor Carrier Enforcement inspector. The tractor-trailer rose was driving was missing a mudflap, reports say.
State Highway Patrol troopers were called in to help and stop-sticks were used twice on Ohio 23 to end the chase, NBC News reports. Authorities say Rose initially refused to get out of the truck. He eventually got out of the driver’s side door, but then ignore orders to get on the ground, reports say.
Video from a body camera shows an officer with the Circleville Police Department holding back the K9 as troopers yell for Rose to get on the ground with his hands up. Rose eventually does get on his knees with his hands in the air.
A trooper then can be heard repeatedly yelling at the Circleville officer “Do not release the dog with his hands up!” However, the officer lets the dog go and it can be seen in the video attacking Rose. The trooper can be heard yelling repeatedly, “Get the dog off of him!” Rose also can be heard screaming in pain and yelling “Get it off of me!”
ABC News reports Rose was taken to a hospital for dog bites before being charged with failure to comply. Authorities say it remains unclear why he refused to stop for the inspector and troopers.
Meanwhile, NBC News reports that it’s unknown why the Circleville officer let the dog attack Rose and whether the officer has been disciplined by the department. A representative with the police union tells WSYX Channel 6 that “everyone reserve judgement until that time” during the investigation into the incident.
But Nana Watson, president of the NAACP Columbus chapter, says the video was disturbing.
“I was traumatized because it brought back memories from the 1960s,” Watson tells WSYX. “I was afraid for him. I was fearful for him. I was taken aback when he had his hands up and they unleashed the dog on him.” | Explicit |
Armed police have swarmed on Auckland’s CBD after reports of a gunman at a building under construction near Britomart and fears there are multiple people injured.
There are unconfirmed reports of a person with a gun at a building site. Gun shots were heard at the scene at 8.08am.
A distressed construction worker told the Herald he encountered the gunman on the stairs of a property under development.
Multiple officers are currently in Quay St near Britomart. The public is being told to stay indoors and avoid lower Queen St.
Several workers at a building site can be seen crouching behind piles of building materials near where police are gathering.
At least one construction worker has been injured and was escorted from the scene by police. This person is receiving first aid from several officers.
A man with blood on his face could be seen being rushed into an ambulance.
St John ambulance says so far two people are confirmed hurt - one person has serious injuries and one has moderate injuries.
It is understood the drama is centred at 1 Queen St, a Precinct Properties building which L.T. McGuinness is working on. Matt McGuinness confirmed to the Herald it was his site the suspected gunman was on.
“I’m from South Africa … we left there not to have this,” one construction worker said.
Several roads are closed in the CBD including sections of Lower Hobson St, Quay St, Queen St, and Lower Albert St.
Members of the public are being told to seek shelter at the HSBC Tower.
Fullers says all ferry services suspended until further notice.
Police are asking the public to “move on” and stop crowding around the scene.
A woman watching the scene said she was evacuated from Commercial Bay.
Police are telling people to go home, “you won’t be going back in there.”
Train services are still running and customers can still exit Britomart via the Takutai exit located towards the tunnel end of each platform.
Commuters are told to expect major delays to all public transport. | Explicit |
A Texas man has been arrested and charged with kidnapping a San Antonio girl at gunpoint and repeatedly assaulting her on a trip to California, according to a U.S. Attorney's Office, Central District of California news release. Federal authorities said the girl escaped by writing "help me" on a piece of paper to alert someone she was unsafe.
Steven Robert Sablan, 61, of Celburne in North Texas, allegedly drove the girl to Long Beach, California and sexually assaulted her multiple times before his arrest. The release stated Sablan is being charged with one count of kidnapping and one count of transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.
Authorities said the 13-year-old girl was walking down the street in San Antonio on July 6 when Sablan approached her in a gray Nissan Sentra. The 61-year-old man allegedly raised a black handgun to his side and said to the girl, "if you don't get in the car with me, I am going to hurt you." The released stated the girl got in the car and Sablan began driving her to California.
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On July 9, Sablan stopped at a laundromat, where he left the girl in the car, according to the release. She proceeded to write "Help me!" on a piece of paper to try and alert someone she was in danger. Authorities said a witness then called the police, who arrived and found the girl mouthing "help" as Sablan stood outside the vehicle.
Sablan is scheduled to be arraigned on July 31 in a U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles, according to the release. If Seblan is convicted of both charges, he could face up to life in prison. | Explicit |
Rudy Giuliani admits he spewed lies about two Georgia election workers he infamously accused of trying to rig the 2020 election for President Biden.
The ex-New York City mayor and current lawyer for former President Donald Trump conceded in a late night court filing that he does not contest the allegations against him made in a defamation lawsuit filed by Ruby Freeman and Shay Moss.
“(Giuliani) does not contest that … such actionable factual statements are false,” his lawyers wrote in the signed filing.
Despite the admission, Giuliani, 79, insisted that he should not be found liable because the statements “did not carry meaning that is defamatory, per se” and that they are “constitutionally protected statements or opinions.”
Giuliani is facing possible sanctions from Federal District Court Judge Beryl Howell for repeatedly failing to hand over information demanded by the election workers.
It remains to be seen if his latest legal strategy will satisfy the judge.
Giuliani was one of Trump’s primary mouthpieces in the weeks after the 2020 election and repeatedly spread lies about supposed fraud that could have helped Biden win.
He claimed without evidence that Freeman and Moss were caught on video surveillance passing USB drives to help Biden cheat. The pair testified under oath that it was actually a ginger mint. Last month, Freeman and Moss were cleared of any wrongdoing by Georgia investigators.
Giuliani faces a slew of legal worries related to his efforts to help Trump overturn the election.
He has been questioned by the Atlanta grand jury that might indict Trump and others next month for election interference in the Peach State.
The former mayor has also cooperated with special counsel Jack Smith in the Jan. 6 probe of Trump.
He was also hit with an unrelated lurid sexual harassment lawsuit in which a business consultant claims he forced her to have sex with him and regularly performed oral sex on him while he spoke to Trump, which “made him feel like Bill Clinton.”
Giuliani says the woman wasn’t an employee and they were dating. | Explicit |
Kenya police are told not to report deaths during protests. A watchdog says they killed 6 this week
Police in Kenya say they have been ordered not to report deaths amid demonstrations against the rising cost of living, but an independent watchdog says at least six people were shot dead by police on Wednesday and 27 were shot dead in such protests earlier this year.
A police official told The Associated Press they were told this week not to report any deaths in the demonstrations that the political opposition has called through Friday. It wasn't immediately clear who issued the order. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly. Police in the previous demonstration last week confirmed officers killed at least six.
While police in Kenya have long been accused by rights groups of using excessive force, there is growing concern about tactics used under the government of President William Ruto, elected last year. One police officer also was seen posing as a journalist in Wednesday's protest, which the Media Council of Kenya called dangerous.
"One thing we're very concerned with, there's increasing interference with police, where police are receiving orders outside the police command and beginning to act in the interests of the executive and not the public interest," the executive director of the Independent Medico-Legal Unit watchdog, Peter Kiama, told the AP on Thursday.
The failure to report deaths or injuries from police action within 24 hours to the government-created Independent Policing Oversight Authority is illegal, Kiama said. A commissioner with the IPOA, John Waiganjo, confirmed to local broadcaster NTV on Thursday that the organization had "not received notifications as we should, and I think it's important to point that out."
Data from Kiama's organization, shared with the AP, shows 27 people confirmed shot dead by police in three previous opposition-called demonstrations this year. In addition, the watchdog has confirmed six shot dead by police on Wednesday, four of them in the capital, Nairobi, Kiama said. They were trying to confirm four more in various parts of the country. The AP on Wednesday confirmed two deaths in the western city of Kisumu and witnessed at least three people shot and wounded in Nairobi.
"It seems the police are out to completely disregard the public interest, and that's dangerous for us," Kiama said. "We've been there in the '90s and saw what happened, the issue of plainclothes officers abducting people without identifying themselves. That's what we're seeing unfolding." That has intensified in recent weeks, he said.
The Kenya Medical Association in a statement before Wednesday's protests said that its members had attended to "hundreds of injured Kenyans and witnessed tens of fatalities" as a result of the demonstrations in recent months. The statement didn't say who caused the deaths and injuries.
A spokesman for the interior ministry, Francis Gachuri, on Thursday referred questions to the police, asserting that they have operational independence. A police spokeswoman didn't pick up calls.
The interior ministry has said more than 300 people were arrested during Wednesday's protests and will be charged with crimes that include looting, destroying property and assaulting police.
Authorities didn't comment on the dead and wounded or respond to witness allegations that police officers at times fired into homes and posed as journalists.
An AP journalist on Wednesday watched as a man who had been filming video among journalists broke away and tackled a man who stood in a Nairobi neighbourhood and shouted that tear gas had been thrown into his house and his child had fainted. Images of the arrest show the tackling man being joined by uniformed officers and putting the civilian into a waiting truck.
Police have accused him of abusing officers and throwing stones, his wife, Wilmer Atieno, told the AP after visiting him in custody.
"But as you can see in the video, he was just shouting," she said.
He hadn't been taking part in the protests, she added. Their 2-year-old daughter was recovering from the tear gas and asking about her father.
"I don't know how to tell her," Atieno said.
Amnesty International Kenya said in a statement on Thursday said that "we are concerned about the increasing use of nonuniformed officers to effect arbitrary arrests of peaceful protesters contrary to criminal procedure code."
In comments to diplomats on Thursday, the Cabinet secretary for foreign affairs, Alfred Mutua, largely blamed the opposition protesters.
"These violent demonstrators have seen innocent members of the public attacked, private property looted and destroyed, police officers on duty to ensure law and order injured," he said. "Most regrettably a number of Kenyans have lost their lives."
Reporting on killings and torture by police can be sensitive in Kenya, where watchdogs have long warned about a culture of impunity. In the 1990s, police were accused of suppressing critics of repressive President Daniel arap Moi.
The current president, Ruto, faces rising frustration from even some of the Kenyans who voted him into office after he vowed to reduce the cost of living. The demonstrations were sparked by the recent passage of a finance bill imposing new taxes. Kenya's religious leaders have urged the president to repeal it, warning that Kenyans face a level of hopelessness that "can easily inspire insurrection."
The International Monetary Fund this week called the law's approval a "crucial" step toward reducing Kenya's debt vulnerabilities.
As part of efforts to reassure partners about Kenya's economic opportunities, Ruto on Wednesday met with visiting U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai even as the latest wave of protests emptied Nairobi's streets.
------
Evelyne Musambi and Brian Inganga contributed to this report.
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One frustrated parent got out of her car on Westway in Acton, west London, claiming her baby needed to go to hospital.
She shouted to one of the eco-activists: ‘I’ve got a baby in my car and we have to get to hospital.’
Despite her pleas, the protestors refused to let her through.
A second mum helped join the criticism, saying: ‘Who are you to decide who gets to go? You’re not f***ing God.
‘People pay to be on these roads. Don’t tell me you’ve never got in a f***ing car.’
Just Stop Oil claims they have 160 protestors out on roads today.
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A group of counter-protestors tried to stop rush hour traffic from being halted yesterday.
Social media stars Josh Pieters and Archie Manners joined in a group surrounding the eco-protestors.
They were seen holding hands around the protestors, forcing them to stay sitting on the road in Elephant and Castle, south London.
The counter-protest group’s shirts read: ‘Just Sop P***ing Everyone Off.’
Witnesses said the eco-protestors were driven off the road after the group circled them and linked arms around their slow march, which aims to bring traffic to a halt.
Around a dozen people helped to stop the protest, before police had even arrived on the scene.
Some members of Just Stop Oil tried to start a debate, but Archie, 30, replied: ‘There’s an election this time next year. If you don’t like this government why don’t you stand for election.
‘You are very welcome to leave at any point.
‘We just want to stop you p*ssing people off.’
It comes as public frustration with the group, which has vowed to ‘paralyse London’ with slow-marching columns in a bid to force the government to scrap new domestic oil and gas licences, has started to boil over into violence.
Climate campaigner Daniel Knorr, 21, was punched to the ground by one furious motorist who blamed one of the slow protests for crashing his car with his pregnant partner inside.
And earlier this week another car user got out to remonstrate with JSO activists holding up traffic in Westminster.
He was filmed pushing them off the street and dragging one away by his high-vis jacket.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].
For more stories like this, check our news page. | Explicit |
At a glance
The chief executive of McDonald's UK and Ireland has commended a former employee for speaking out about her "horrific experience"
Ciara Mangan waived her right to anonymity and told the public how her McDonald's colleague, who has been sentenced to seven years in prison, raped her at a party
She said she was then subjected to workplace taunts including "rape songs"
It comes as the fast-food chain launched a new investigation-handling unit after the BBC reported on dozens of abuse allegations
- Published
McDonald's will investigate allegations that a former employee in Ireland faced taunts at work after she was raped by a colleague at a house party 10 years ago.
Ciara Mangan, 28, from County Mayo, waived her right to anonymity this week and spoke publicly for the first time.
Shane Noonan, 28, of Castlehill Park, Turlough Road in Castlebar pleaded guilty to the attack and was sentenced on Monday.
Ms Mangan said her colleagues subjected her to "rape songs" and "rape comments" in the aftermath.
It comes as more than 100 claims of sexual assault, harassment, racism and bullying at McDonald's emerged in a BBC investigation earlier this week.
In a statement, the fast-food company's UK and Ireland chief executive Alistair Macrow said: "I commend Ciara's bravery in speaking about her horrific experience.
"I am deeply appalled by these new allegations and commit to investigating them to our fullest extent through our investigation-handling unit."
'Source of entertainment'
Noonan was jailed for seven years for what the judge described as a "cold, predatory and premeditated" rape of Ms Mangan.
Irish broadcaster RTÃ reported, external that she told the court the attack happened in May 2013 when she went to a party with work colleagues and became unwell after being handed an open can of cider.
She said Noonan guided her upstairs and then raped her in the bathroom as she drifted in an out of consciousness.
Following the attack, Ms Mangan told the court she was taunted by work colleagues who "found it funny and a source of entertainment".
This, she said, was "absolute hell on earth" and made her doubt herself.
"I felt confused, embarrassed, disregarded, bullied, stressed, overwhelmed and that I wouldn't be believed," she said.
In an interview with The Irish Times on Friday, Ms Mangan spoke of some of the alleged workplace harassment., external
"Everybody in work knew I was raped and it was the joke of the day. Then the tormenting started, and for the next 10 months," she said.
It was not until her younger sister was about to start work at the same restaurant with Noonan that Ms Mangan told her parents what had happened.
'Fallen short'
On Friday, Alistair Macrow issued an "unreserved apology", external to those affected by allegations made public through a BBC investigation this week.
Announcing the establishment of an investigations unit, Mr Macrow admitted the business has "fallen short in some critical areas".
"It is crucial that people feel safe and able to speak up," he said. "Clearly this has not been the case in some parts of our business."
He said the chain is also appointing external experts to independently examine how workers' claims are "escalated".
"I am determined to root out any behaviour or conduct that falls below the high standards of respect, safety and inclusion we demand of everyone at McDonald's," Mr Macrow added.
What to do if you have been harassed at work
Report it: Charity Victim Support, external says you can report it to your manager, HR representative or trade union who will take action.
Keep a record: Including dates, times and details of what happened, as well as any relevant emails. These could be helpful if you decide to report it.
Get help: Victim Support operates a free and confidential 24/7 helpline and live chat service. Call 0808 16 89 111 or use the live chat at: victimsupport.org.uk/live-chat., external
Call the police: If harassment escalates into violence, threats or sexual assault, you should report this to the police by calling 101. If you are in danger, call 999.
If you have been affected by the issues raised in this article, information and support is available via the BBC Action Line. | Explicit |
BOSTON — A former New Hampshire state lawmaker and the one-time partner of a woman charged with taking sexually explicit photos of children at the Massachusetts day care center where she worked has also been charged in the case, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
No defense attorney was listed for Laughton in court records. She will appear in court at a later date.
Lindsay Groves, 38, of Hudson, New Hampshire, was charged last month with sexual exploitation of children and distribution of child pornography for allegedly taking nude photos of children at Creative Minds Early Learning Center in Tyngsborough, Massachusetts, and texting them to another person.
Prosecutors said Tuesday that a preliminary forensic review of Groves’ cellphone allegedly revealed more than 10,000 text messages between Laughton and Groves. The texts allegedly included discussion about, and transfer of, explicit photographs that Groves had taken of children who appear to be about 3 to 5 years old.
Groves remains in state custody in New Hampshire. An email seeking comment was left with her federal public defender.
Laughton, a Democrat, resigned from the New Hampshire House in December after being charged with stalking Groves.
Laughton in 2012 was believed to be the first transgender person elected to a state legislature. But she resigned before taking her seat after reports surfaced about her 2008 convictions for identity fraud and falsifying evidence. She successfully ran again in 2020 and was re-elected in 2022. She resigned in December after being jailed on the charges related to Groves.
The charge of sexual exploitation of children can lead to a sentence of up to 30 years in prison.
A voicemail seeking comment was left with the day care center.
Copyright © 2023 The Washington Times, LLC.
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Hunter Biden’s attorney files ethics complaint against Marjorie Taylor Greene for showing sexual images
Hunter Biden’s lawyer filed an ethics complaint against Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) Friday, requesting that an ethics watchdog “immediately” initiate a review of Greene’s conduct after she showed sexually explicit photos of Biden at a congressional hearing this week.
In a letter to the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), Biden attorney Abbe David Lowell slammed Greene’s actions as “abhorrent behavior that blatantly violates House Ethics rules and standards of official conduct.”
“Now more than ever, the House has a duty to make loud and clear that it does not endorse, condone, or agree with her outrageous, undignified conduct and brazen violations of the standards of official conduct that do not reflect creditably on the House of Representatives,” Lowell wrote.
The OCE is a non-partisan, independent entity previously established by the House that reviews allegations of misconduct involving lawmakers, officers and House staffers and, if warranted, refers matters to the Ethics Committee.
Greene and the OCE did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The episode in question took place Wednesday during a House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing that featured testimony from two IRS whistleblowers who allege that prosecutors slow-walked the investigation into Hunter Biden.
During her time to question the witnesses, Greene held up posters that showed graphic sexual photos from the laptop hard drive that allegedly belonged to Hunter Biden. The faces of other individuals involved in the sex acts were censored with black boxes, but Biden’s face was visible in the photos.
Emily Brooks contributed.
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. | Explicit |
NAIROBI, Kenya — The number of people who died in connection with Kenya’s doomsday cult has crossed the 400 mark as detectives exhumed 12 more bodies on Monday believed to be followers of a pastor who ordered them to fast to death in order to meet Jesus.
Pastor Paul Mackenzie, who is linked to the cult based in a forested area in Malindi, coastal Kenya, is in police custody, along with 36 other suspects. All have yet to be charged.
Coast Regional Commissioner Rhoda Onyancha on Monday said the number of those who died has risen to 403, with 95 people rescued.
Last month, some suspects and people rescued started a hunger strike in prison and at the rescue center, prompting the prosecutor to take them to court for attempting to kill themselves. Most of them agreed to resume eating, but one suspect died in custody.
Some 613 people have so far been reported missing to Kenya Red Cross officers stationed in Malindi town. Detectives are still finding mass graves.
Onyancha said 253 of the 403 bodies had undergone DNA matching. Pathologists had earlier said most of the bodies were decomposed.
Mackenzie moved to the forested area in 2019 after his church was closed over his preaching, which included asking children not to go to school.
He was previously arrested and released on bond over the disappearance of children.
A judicial commission of inquiry formed by President William Ruto to establish what happened and who was liable was quashed by a court order after opposition leader Raila Odinga filed a petition against it.
The president had said what transpired in Malindi was “akin to terrorism” and vowed to crack down on “those using religion to advance their heinous acts.” | Explicit |
Women’s World Cup opener to proceed as scheduled after shooting in New Zealand
A gunman killed two people at a construction site in New Zealand’s largest city of Auckland on Thursday, as the nation prepared to host games in the FIFA Women’s World Cup soccer tournament, authorities said.
Police said there were also multiple injuries during the incident, which took place near the hotel where Team Norway has been staying.
All World Cup teams are confirmed to be safe, and New Zealand Prime Minster Chris Hipkins said the tournament would go ahead as planned.
"Clearly with the FIFA World Cup kicking off this evening, there are a lot of eyes on Auckland," Hipkins said. "The government has spoken to FIFA organizers this morning and the tournament will proceed as planned. I want to reiterate that there is no wider national security threat. This appears to be the action of one individual."
Acting Police Superintendent Sunny Patel said the man began shooting at the site on lower Queen Street at about 7:20 a.m. Police swarmed the area and closed off streets.
The man moved through the building, firing at people there, Patel said.
"Upon reaching the upper levels of the building, the male has contained himself within the elevator shaft and our staff have attempted to engage with him," Patel said in a statement. "Further shots were fired from the male and he was located deceased a short time later."
It wasn’t immediately clear if police had shot the gunman or he had killed himself.
Patel said that while alarming, the incident was isolated and didn’t pose a national security risk.
The incident comes as soccer teams gathered in New Zealand for the FIFA Women’s World Cup. The opening match is scheduled for Thursday between New Zealand and Norway. Matches will continue as planned in the wake of the tragedy.
Team Norway captain Maren Mjelde said people woke up quickly when a helicopter began hovering outside the hotel window.
"We felt safe the whole time," she said in a statement. "FIFA has a good security system at the hotel, and we have our own security officer in the squad. Everyone seems calm and we are preparing as normal for the game tonight."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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2023 Golden Boot odds: Women's World Cup top scorers favorites
2023 Women's World Cup odds: Four ways to bet on the USWNT Down Under
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Japan beats USA in thrilling final: Women's World Cup Moment No. 3
Women's World Cup roundtable: Which team poses biggest threat to USWNT?
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Lionel Messi takes field with Inter Miami teammates for first time since signing
Sophia Smith pays tribute to her late friend ahead of World Cup opener
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2023 Women's World Cup schedule: How to watch, TV channel, dates, results
2023 Golden Boot odds: Women's World Cup top scorers favorites
2023 Women's World Cup odds: Four ways to bet on the USWNT Down Under
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USWNT deserves more respect as an all-time dynasty
Japan beats USA in thrilling final: Women's World Cup Moment No. 3
Women's World Cup roundtable: Which team poses biggest threat to USWNT?
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Women's World Cup 2023 odds: USA favored to win it all Down Under
Lionel Messi takes field with Inter Miami teammates for first time since signing
Sophia Smith pays tribute to her late friend ahead of World Cup opener | Explicit |
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is set to face a no-confidence vote in parliament amid a deadlock with the opposition over violence in the state of Manipur.
A lawmaker from the opposition Congress party moved a no-confidence motion on Wednesday.
Opposition leaders have said this is to force Mr Modi to speak on Manipur.
They have been demanding that he address parliament on the ethnic clashes in the state.
Federal home minister Amit Shah told the Lok Sabha – the lower house of parliament – earlier this week that the government was ready to discuss the violence in Manipur and accused the opposition of preventing this.
At least 130 people have been killed and tens of thousands displaced in Manipur since May after violence broke out between the majority Meitei group and the tribal Kuki minority.
On Wednesday, two motions were moved by MPs from the Congress party and the Bharat Rashtra Samithi – the first was accepted. | Explicit |
A Tory rising star who has rubbed shoulders with Rishi Sunak has been filmed offering “fun flour” to a guest on a signed framed photograph of a grinning David Cameron.
Philip Stephenson-Oliver – chair of the powerful Westminster North Conservative Association – then watches as a pal appears to use a banknote to snort what is claimed to be cocaine in his bedroom at a house party on July 14.
Moments later he was seen doing the same thing himself.
Now Stephenson-Oliver, 29 has been suspended by furious Conservative Party bosses, leaving his dream of becoming an MP in tatters.
Only hours before the video was shot he had been with London Mayor candidate Susan Hall at an event organised by his Tory Association.
He proudly posed for a picture with her to add to his album of snaps with the likes of Mr Sunak, Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden and former Health Secretary Matt Hancock.
Stephenson-Oliver’s hopes of moving up the Party ladder were boosted last year when was selected as a Conservative candidate for Westminster Council, only narrowly missing out on a seat.
But now those hopes have been dashed by the impromptu party with pals at his home in one of most upmarket areas of West London.
A witness claims he produced “cocaine” from a bedside drawer and asked pub quiz questions to decide whose turn it was to snort.
One question is said to have referred to a scandalous claim in a biography of his PM hero, supposedly asking: “What animal did David Cameron f***?” A friend is said to have shouted in reply: “A f****** pig, come on Phil I thought you’d make it difficult this time.”
Footage shows Stephenson-Oliver hunched over, gripping the Cameron picture. Then he lowers it before getting to his feet having apparently laid a line of the substance.
A photograph of the framed Cameron picture also shows remnants of white powder, a rolled up note and a bank card clearly displaying Stephenson-Oliver’s full name. The witness said: “Philip was sitting on the bed with his signed picture of David Cameron, a 10 dollar bill, and his card. He pulled out a small black zip lock bag from his nightstand and emptied out powder onto it. He began cutting it with his card when someone else came in and said, ‘God is that David Cameron?’”
Our witness said that shortly afterwards they declined a line, prompting Stephenson-Oliver to quip: “God, alright then, more fun flour for me’, before snorting again.
Stephenson-Oliver is now not only in hot water with his party, but also with military chiefs. His post as a reservist in the Army’s Honourable Artillery Company seems certain to be axed. In September, he proudly posted a Facebook snap of himself in uniform at his passing out parade.
On October 24, the day before Mr Sunak became PM, Stephenson-Oliver uploaded a picture to Facebook of him posing with the politician, adding: “This photo has aged well.” Two months earlier, Stephenson-Oliver was pictured close to Mr Sunak at a Westminster North Association event. Away from politics, he runs a wine company.
Last year the Government released a drugs policy paper in which the then prime minister Boris Johnson wrote: “We cannot allow the impression to be given that occasional drug use is acceptable. It isn’t.
“So there will be new penalties for drug users. Because drugs cause crime and crime ruins innocent lives.” The maximum penalty for cocaine possession is seven years. Supplying the drug – even with no money changing hands – risks an even heftier sentence.
The British Army’s website says “substance misuse is incompatible with Army life, and it will never be tolerated”. The Ministry of Defence declined to comment.
A Conservative Party spokesperson confirmed: “Mr Stephenson-Oliver has been suspended pending investigation.” Stephenson-Oliver said: “This was a private gathering in my home. A few seconds of video footage filmed illicitly by someone I thought was a friend is both disappointing and potentially an invasion of my privacy and the privacy of others. I certainly challenge the very questionable testimony and actions that night from the person that the newspaper relies on for this story.
“However, I do apologise for any embarrassment that these covert and out of context images might bring to others.” | Explicit |
The director overseeing Miami-Dade Police Department, the largest police department in the Southeast, was involved in a domestic dispute Sunday night after which he shot himself on the side of the highway near Tampa, according to a Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office spokesperson.
MDPD Director Alfredo “Freddy” Ramirez III is undergoing a second surgery to treat injuries, according to a MDPD spokesperson.
Tampa Police said they responded to a report of a male with a gun outside the Marriott Waterside hotel shortly after 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Initial interviews indicated that the man had been pointing the gun at himself, but police could not find witnesses or security footage to corroborate the story.
Police found the man reported, later confirmed as Ramirez, inside the hotel with an unidentified woman, according to the police statement. Ramirez admitted to having an argument with the woman but denied showing a firearm or having any intention to harm himself or others.
The woman said she did not fear for her safety, according to police, at which point Ramirez was released.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Florida Highway Patrol are investigating the incident that led to Ramirez's injuries, which occurred South of Tampa on I-75, said the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. No one else was injured, officials said.
As reported by the Miami Herald, Ramirez was in Tampa to attend the Florida Sheriff’s Association summer conference with his wife.
MDPD released a brief statement Tuesday afternoon stating that Ramirez is in his second surgery for his injuries. "The entire Miami-Dade Police Department stands together behind Freddy and asks that our community continue to keep him in their prayers."
If you or someone you know may be struggling with suicidal thoughts, you can call or text the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 any time day or night, or chat online at 988lifeline.org.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Miami-Dade Police Director 'Freddy' Ramirez shot himself, in surgery | Explicit |
A video showing two women being paraded naked by a mob in the north-eastern state of Manipur, hit by violent ethnic clashes, has sparked outrage in India.
The police say they have opened a case of gang rape and arrested a man, adding that others will be held soon.
On Thursday, parliament's session in Delhi was disrupted as lawmakers demanded a debate on the issue.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also said the incident had "shamed India" and that "no guilty will be spared".
"I assure the nation, the law will take its course with all its might. What happened with the daughters of Manipur can never be forgiven," he said, finally breaking his silence on Manipur more than two months after violence erupted.
Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud also expressed concern over the assault, saying the Supreme Court was "deeply disturbed over the video". Telling the government to inform the court about the steps being taken against the accused, the chief justice said "we will take action if you don't".
Deadly violence has plunged Manipur, a scenic Indian state bordering Myanmar, into turmoil for more than two months.
Clashes between members of the majority Meitei and the Kuki tribal communities have resulted in their complete segregation. At least 130 people have died and 60,000 have been displaced.
The two women, who are Kukis, were assaulted by men of the Meitei group.
Warning: This article contains details some readers may find distressing.
Police say the assault on the women took place on 4 May but it made national headlines on Thursday after the video started going viral on social media. The federal government has asked all social media companies to delete the video from their platforms.
The horrific video of the two women was widely shared on social media on Wednesday. It shows them being dragged and groped by a mob of men who then push them into a field.
The Indigenous Tribal Leaders' Forum (ITLF) said in a statement that the atrocities had been committed in a village in Kangpokpi district against women from the Kuki-Zo tribal community. It also alleged that the women had been gang raped.
Women's bodies have become a battleground
By Geeta Pandey, BBC News, Delhi
It's well known that women's bodies often become a battleground during riots and conflicts, and rape and sexual assault are used as instruments of violence to punish them.
The sexual assault of the Kuki women in Manipur is the latest example. The footage showing the women weeping, wincing in pain and begging their attackers to show some mercy is disturbing to watch.
The fact that the first arrest has been made only now, more than two months after the attack was reported to police, does not inspire confidence in the authorities - all the more so since many of the men are clearly identifiable in the footage.
But the outrage that followed the video's emergence in India has put the spotlight on the horrific crime. It has also raised questions about the failure of the state in comforting the survivors - and finally forced Mr Modi to make a statement on the ethnic violence that is tearing Manipur apart.
To restore some sort of confidence in Manipur, especially among the minority Kuki community, the authorities are now under pressure to act swiftly against the perpetrators and bring justice to the women. People across the country feel this should not be happening in modern India.
"The gang rape of the women happened after the village was burnt down and two men - one middle-aged and another a teenager - were beaten to death by the mob," the ITLF said.
But the police complaint filed by a relative of one of the women said only one of them was gang raped. It added that a third woman had been forced to strip but she is not seen in the video.
Police said that the incident took place on 4 May and that a case of abduction and gang rape and murder had been registered in Thoubal district.
The assault has been condemned by politicians across the spectrum.
Federal minister Smriti Irani, called it "downright inhuman".
Several opposition leaders also criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party government for not doing enough to quell the violence in the state.
Congress party leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadhra said that the "images of sexual violence against women from Manipur are heart wrenching".
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal weighed in too. "This kind of heinous act cannot be tolerated in the Indian society," he said.
BBC News India is now on YouTube. Click here to subscribe and watch our documentaries, explainers and features. | Explicit |
Some of the corpses were buried so recently that bits of skin with tattoos remained, and that has allowed relatives to identify four of the bodies, searchers said. But many were hacked into a half-dozen pieces.
Edith González, leader of the search group “For the Love of the Disappeared,” said clandestine burial site was located relatively close to the center of Reynosa. The spot is only about 4 miles (7 kms) from the border.
González said some of the 16 burial pits contained two or three bodies, and that the clandestine burial site may have been used by gangs as recently as a month or two ago. Some were covered by only 1 1/2 feet of earth.
The prosecutor’s office in the border state of Tamaulipas confirmed the find.
Drug and kidnapping gangs use such sites to dispose of the bodies of their victims.
The search group said an anonymous tip led searchers to the burials at a lot near an irrigation canal late last week.
“People are starting to shake off their fear and have begun reporting” the body dumping grounds, González said. She acknowledged that some tips may come from “people who worked there (for the gangs) and are no longer in that line of work.”
Such tips have proved a double-edged sword for search groups, which are usually made up of mothers or relatives of Mexico’s over 110,000 missing people.
Earlier this month, authorities said a drug cartel bomb attack used a fake report of a mass grave to lure police into a trap that killed four police officers and two civilians in Jalisco state, to the south. Authorities there temporarily suspended police involvement in searches based on anonymous tips as a safety measure.
The anonymous caller had given a volunteer searcher a tip about a supposed clandestine burial site near a roadway in Tlajomulco, Jalisco. The cartel buried improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, on the road and then detonated them as a police convoy passed. The IEDS were so powerful they destroyed four vehicles, injured 14 people and lefts craters in the road. | Explicit |
Ron DeSantis shocked everyone earlier this month when his campaign shared a deeply bigoted ad attacking LGBTQ people.
The video appeared to come from a conservative group made in support of the Florida governor. But it turns out that the video was actually made in-house and planted in the fan account.
The video (since taken down due to copyright issues) was originally posted on a pro-DeSantis Twitter account, which was then shared by DeSantis’s campaign. But in reality, a campaign aide made the video, The New York Times reported Sunday, and then sent it to an outside supporter to post first in order to make it look like the ad was made independently.
The ad features DeSantis shooting lasers out of his eyes, as well as clips from films and television shows such as American Psycho, Troy, and Peaky Blinders—all of which one would think are more of a lesson against the oppressive, militaristic approach to governance that DeSantis has been touting.
The poorly thought-out ad was part of a larger attempt to reinvigorate DeSantis’s struggling campaign. His bid for president has yet to take off, concerning both his team and his donors. In most polls, he is second to Trump, but the gap between them is large. DeSantis’s campaign has also been bleeding cash, to the tune of more than $212,000 per day on average, according to the Times.
Analysts say that there is still time for DeSantis to turn things around, but if the disastrous ad has shown anything, it’s that the Florida governor is struggling to find a message. DeSantis has focused on promising to fight “wokeness” but has failed to produce any actual policy ideas or a clear reason why people should vote for him over Trump. Attempts to portray himself as tougher or more ideologically right of Trump have backfired spectacularly. | Explicit |
Despite ongoing strikes in Hollywood that led to the exodus of Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers from its opening slot last week, the Venice Film Festival will proceed—but not without a wave of early backlash.
When the prestigious festival unveiled its lineup on Tuesday, alongside films from Sofia Coppola, David Fincher, Ava DuVernay, and Bradley Cooper were works from a trio of men accused of sexual misconduct. Woody Allen’s Coup de Chance and Roman Polanski’s The Palace each scored out-of-competition slots, while Luc Besson will debut his new feature, DogMan, in competition at the fest.
“Luc Besson has been recently fully cleared of any accusations. Woody Allen went under legal scrutiny twice at the end of the ’90s and was absolved. With them, I don’t see where the issue is,” Venice Film Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera told Variety in defense of their inclusion in the lineup.
Allen, whose next film is his first entirely in French, has been accused of sexual abuse against his adopted daughter in 1992, allegations for which he was never charged and which he has denied. Since 2018, multiple women have alleged sexual misconduct against Besson, who denies any wrongdoing and was cleared of rape accusations by a French court last month.
Polanski is the lone filmmaker in this group to be criminally charged for a sex crime. In 1977, he pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. He’s been living mostly in France since 1978, when he fled the United States on the eve of receiving his sentence because he believed the judge was going to send him to prison. He has since been accused of sexual abuse in 2010, 2017, and 2019, totaling six allegations altogether. Polanski denies all the claims and even reportedly threatened to sue his most recent accuser.
“In Polanski’s case, it’s paradoxical,” Barbera argued. “It’s been 60 years. Polanski has admitted his responsibility. He’s asked to be forgiven. He’s been forgiven by the victim. The victim has asked for the issue to be put to rest. I think that to keep beating on Polanski means seeking a scapegoat for other situations that would deserve more attention,” he continued, adding, “I am on the side of those who say you have to distinguish between the responsibilities of the individual and that of the artist.”
Polanski will not be attending the festival, which runs from August 30 to September 9. Barbera is “not sure” that Allen “will be doing press,” but “he is coming to the film’s premiere for sure.” | Explicit |
- President Joe Biden will create a national monument in honor of Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley.
- Till's murder in Mississippi helped spark the civil-rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
- The monument locations will consist of a site in Chicago and two sites in rural Mississippi.
President Joe Biden on Tuesday will create a national monument in honor of Emmett Till, the Black teenager from Chicago whose 1955 kidnapping and murder in Mississippi was a defining spark in the emerging civil-rights movement, a White House official said on Saturday.
Biden is set to make the announcement on July 25, which would have been Till's 82nd birthday.
The president will sign a proclamation forming the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument, which is also reflective of the decadeslong civil rights work of Till's mother, who fought valiantly for equality for Black Americans after her son's murder. The monument will consist of a site in Chicago, the city where Emmett Till was born, and two sites in Mississippi, where he traveled during that fateful 1955 summer to spend time with his cousins.
"The new monument will protect places that tell the story of Emmett Till's too-short life and racially-motivated murder, the unjust acquittal of his murderers, and the activism of his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, who courageously brought the world's attention to the brutal injustices and racism of the time, catalyzing the civil-rights movement," a White House official said in a statement.
In August 1955, Emmett Till was accused by Carolyn Bryant Donham of making improper advances toward her while he was inside the Bryant's Grocery and Meat Market in Money, Miss., which at the time was run by Donham and her then-husband, Roy Bryant.
The accusation prompted Bryant and his half-brother, J. W. Milam, to abduct Till at gunpoint from the home of his great-uncle, Moses Wright. Bryant and Milam then tortured and lynched the teenager before throwing his body into the Tallahatchie River.
Till's battered body was weighed down by a cotton-gin fan and was found several days later.
His face was left unrecognizable. But, at his funeral service in Chicago, Mamie Till-Mobley insisted that her son would have an open casket funeral so the world could see the brutality and horror of what her son endured in the segregated South.
The Illinois monument site will be the Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, on the city's South Side, where Emmett Till's funeral was held in 1955. The Mississippi sites include Graball Landing, where it is believed that Till's body was recovered from the Tallahatchie River, and the Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse in Sumner, where Bryant and Milam were tried and acquitted by an all-white jury.
In a 1956 article in Look magazine, Bryant and Milam confessed to the murder. Both men have since died.
Donham died in April. She was 88 years old.
Last December, Congress voted to award the Congressional Gold Medal posthumously to Till and his mother.
In March 2022, Biden signed into law the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act, which made lynching a federal hate crime for the first time in US history.
The president's push to elevate civil rights leaders and acknowledge the full scope of Black history comes as Republicans in recent years have sought to limit how race can be taught in classrooms, with conservatives also targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and hailing the Supreme Court's recent decision to end affirmative action in college admissions.
Biden's original student debt relief plan, which was invalidated by the Supreme Court, was also intended to be one that had a significant racial equity element, as the administration sought to narrow the racial wealth gap by forgiving $10,000 in loans for individuals and $20,000 in loans for individuals who were Pell Grant recipients. | Explicit |
FORT WORTH, Texas -- A jury on Monday began deliberating the sentence for a 19-year-old who was found guilty of attempted capital murder in a 2021 shooting at a Dallas-area high school that wounded two other students and a teacher.
Timothy Simpkins faces up to life in prison following his conviction last week by the Tarrant County jury. Simpson was 18 when he opened fire on Oct. 6, 2021, inside Timberview High School in Arlington during a fight with Zaccheaus Selby, who was 15 at the time and was among those wounded.
Taking the witness stand during the trial's punishment phase, he said that he understood what he did was wrong. Simpkins repeatedly told jurors that he carried the gun to defend himself.
"I’m truly sorry. I’m just asking for another chance,” Simpkins said. “I wish every day I could take it back. But I can’t.”
According to testimony, Selby went straight to Simpkins when he entered the classroom late that morning and began beating Simpkins. After the two were separated, Simpkins fired at Selby, striking him three times.
Another student was grazed by a bullet while running to safety, and a teacher was shot in the shoulder. | Explicit |
Biden plans to sign a proclamation Tuesday, on the anniversary of Till's birthday, according to a White House official who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity as the president has not formally indicated his plans. Till was a 14-year-old black boy who was shot and killed by a group of white men in Mississippi for allegedly flirting with a white woman, Carol Bryant, in 1955. His killers would tie his body to a cotton gin wheel with barbed wire to weigh his body down in the Tallahatchie River.
There are three proposed sites for the monuments, the first of which is Graball Landing, Mississippi, where Till's body was discovered. Another site will include the Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi, where Bryant's husband, Roy Bryant, and his half-brother J.W. Milam were acquitted of Till's murder. The third site will be Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in Bronzeville, Illinois, Till's home state, where his funeral was held. At the time, his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, opted to hold an open-casket funeral to bring attention to her son's death.
During Black History Month this year, Biden hosted a showing of Till, a film based on his mother. The showing was held in the White House East Room and preceded by remarks from the president on the importance of teaching civil rights history. This came a year after the Emmett Till Antilynching Act was unanimously passed by the Senate and also passed by the House in a 422-3 vote, suggesting a monument would be accepted well in Congress.
The legislation was the culmination of Biden's campaign speaking out against racially-motivated crimes. Ahead of the 2020 election, the then-presidential candidate spoke out against the shooting murder of Ahmaud Arbery of Georgia, who, in Biden's words, was "shot down in cold blood, essentially lynched before our very eyes, 2020 style."
In 2019, Biden would have to apologize for a comment he made during then-President Clinton's impeachment hearings, claiming they could be viewed as a “partisan lynching.” Biden admitted the word lynching "wasn't the right word to use." | Explicit |
A photographer who raped a woman at his central London studio may have attacked others, police have said.
Sritharan Sayanthan, 42, was sentenced to 11 years in prison on Friday after being found guilty of two counts of rape and one of attempted rape at Hendon Crown Court.
The victim, a woman in her 30s, went to Sayanthan's studio on Brompton Road in May 2022 and paid for pictures to be taken.
She met him again on 8 July 2022 for a drink, believing it to be part of a networking process after he contacted her online, Scotland Yard said.
They met at a pub in Warren Street where Sayanthan "encouraged her to drink alcohol which made her intoxicated very quickly", police said.
The Met added: "He then led the victim to his studio. Here she blacked out on the studio floor. When partially awake she was aware of Sayanthan sexually assaulting her. She was unable to respond verbally or physically."
The victim, a Chinese national, went to police on 31 July 2022.
She did not go earlier because she was unfamiliar with how rape is investigated in the UK, officers said.
CCTV was discovered showing her "noticeably unsteady on her feet".
Scotland Yard said: "Statements were gathered from studio staff and further research uncovered several other photography businesses owned by the suspect."
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Detective Constable Sophie Baker said officers "believe there could be other victims of Sayanthan" and are encouraging "anyone who wants to speak to us to come forward".
She added: "No piece of information is too small and you will be listened to and supported."
DC Baker praised the victim, too, describing her as "fantastic from start to finish".
She sent on: "She was extremely nervous at the prospect of giving evidence but, with the support of an interpreter, she told the court in fine detail what happened.
"For victims, describing the incident in court can be daunting but she did amazingly and I am personally very proud of her bravery and thankful to her for coming forward." | Explicit |
'Guilty Won't Be Spared': PM Modi Says On Manipur Incident
"My heart is full of pain and anger," Modi told reporters in his remarks ahead of Parliament's Monsoon Session.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said the alleged incident of women being paraded naked in Manipur has shamed 140 crore Indians, asserting that law will act with its full might and no guilty will be spared.
"My heart is full of pain and anger," he told reporters in his remarks ahead of Parliament's Monsoon Session, amid his criticism by opposition parties for not speaking on the ethnic violence in the north east state.
The prime minister requested all chief ministers to further strengthen law and order mechanism in their respective states, especially to protect women and to take most stringent action.
He also mentioned states like Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh while calling for boosting law and order, and protecting women.
"I want to assure the countrymen that no guilty will be spared. What has happened to these daughters of Manipur can never be forgiven," he said.
Tension mounted in the hills of Manipur after a May 4 video surfaced on Wednesday showing two women from one of the warring communities being paraded naked by a few men from the other side.
Modi also asked parliamentarians to make full use of the session for extensive discussion on a host of bills which, he added, are in people's interest. | Explicit |
The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, has broken his months-long silence on the deadly ethnic conflict raging in the state of Manipur after a video emerged of women being stripped naked, paraded and assaulted before it is alleged they were gang raped.
Outrage erupted across India after footage was circulated from Manipur of two women from the minority Kuki tribe being forcibly stripped naked by a mob of the majority Meitei tribal group who can be heard shouting: “If you don’t take off your clothes, we’ll kill you.” The women are then publicly groped and dragged to a field, where it is alleged they were gang raped.
The incident took place in early May and although it was registered with the police soon afterwards, it was not until Thursday that an arrest was made, a day after the video went viral. One of the victims has alleged the police left the women in the hands of the mob.
Speaking at the opening session of parliament on Thursday morning, Modi made his first comments about the conflict being fought between the Meitei and the Kuki tribes, and stated that “the entire country has been shamed” by the attack on the women.
“I want to assure the nation, no guilty [people] will be spared,” he said. “Action will be taken according to the law. What happened to the daughters of Manipur can never be forgiven. As I stand next to this temple of democracy, my heart is filled with pain and anger.”
Modi has been criticised for remaining publicly silent on the conflict, which broke out between the tribal communities in early May and has since killed more than 140 people, mostly those from the minority Kuki community.
The state of Manipur is now essentially partitioned down ethnic lines, with the Meitei community in the valley and the Kuki community controlling the hills. Both sides have assembled civilian forces that continue to clash violently with thousands of stolen weapons, while villages have been burned to the ground and more than 60,000 people displaced. Thousands of Indian armed forces have been deployed to the state to maintain calm but the Kuki minority now say they are fighting for an independent state.
One of the victims in the video said she had been traumatised by the events that took place. She described how she and four others had been running away from their village, which had been looted and set alight by a Meitei mob, when they were set upon by another Meitei gang, who then murdered two members of their group.
“Me and another girl were taken away,” she said. “They encircled us and told us to remove all our clothes. I tried to plead with them to leave us alone but they warned us that we would get killed like our neighbours if we don’t obey them. I did what they told me to do, they were ready to kill us otherwise. They then paraded us. Men were touching my breasts and all over my body.”
She added: “We were taken to a nearby field. I do not want to get into the details but after that I was let go.”
The video also attracted fierce criticism from the supreme court, which called it “deeply disturbing” and a “gross constitutional failure”.
The chief justice of India, Dhananjaya Chandrachud, appeared to criticise the government for failing to bring the situation in Manipur under control. “I think it’s time that the government really steps in and takes action because this is simply unacceptable,” he said, adding that if the government did not act, the supreme court would step in.
Other ministers from Modi’s government also condemned the incident. Smriti Irani, the minister for women, called it “downright inhuman” and said the perpetrators would be brought to justice.
But activists from Manipur were critical of the fact that it had taken such an extreme video to be released to get the government and the public to pay attention to what had been happening in the state for months.
“It is shameful that it takes a searing video of two Kuki women being paraded naked and raped to shake the conscience of the world and make people believe what we have been saying for the past 70 days,” said Golan Nulak, a Kuki activist. | Explicit |
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LONDON (AP) — U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak apologized Wednesday for the treatment of gay veterans, saying that a previous ban on LGBTQ+ people serving in the U.K. military was “an appalling failure of the British state.”
The apology came after an independent review published Wednesday estimated that hundreds, if not thousands, of veterans were dismissed or suffered under an official ban on homosexuality in the U.K. armed forces that was enforced until 2000.
“As today’s report makes clear, in that period many endured the most horrific sexual abuse and violence, homophobic bullying and harassment, all while bravely serving this country,” Sunak told Parliament. “Today, on behalf of the British state, I apologize.”
READ MORE: Couple weds in Northern Ireland’s first same-sex marriage
The report, which was carried out by retired senior judge Terence Etherton, compiled evidence from more than 1,100 veterans. It documented the effects of what it called “an incomprehensible policy of homophobic bigotry in our armed forces.” Some of the victims have taken their own lives, while others have attempted suicide, the report said.
Veterans’ testimonies “give shocking evidence of a culture of homophobia, and of bullying, blackmail and sexual assaults, abusive investigations into sexual orientation and sexual preference, disgraceful medical examinations, including conversion therapy,” the report said.
READ MORE: London marks 50 years of Pride
Some victims said they were stripped of or denied medals they were entitled to, or that they lost their pension rights following their dismissal or discharge.
“The survivors have waited for at least 23 years for acknowledgment of what they have suffered, and for justice and restitution,” it added.
The report also recommended that financial compensation should be made to victims, even if litigation time limits have expired.
READ MORE: United Methodists lose one-fifth of U.S. churches in schism over LGBTQ rights
Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said that the government agreed that there should be a financial award for those affected. But he added that authorities needed time to work through the recommendation, and didn’t provide details.
Olympic gold medallist Kelly Holmes, who had served in the British army and who came out as gay last year, said it meant “a huge amount” to hear the government apology.
“From a personal point of view, the ban affected me in terms of who I was and what I couldn’t be for 34 years,” Holmes said.
The ban on homosexuality was abandoned in 2000, when the European Court of Human Rights ruled in favor of four service personnel who were investigated and then discharged because of their sexuality.
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A Lake Forest city councilman charged with domestic violence said Friday he was innocent of the allegations.
Benjamin Yu, 40, was charged July 7 with corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant and false imprisonment, both misdemeanors, according to court records. He is scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 23 in the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach.
The criminal complaint alleges he committed corporal injury on June 27 and false imprisonment on July 1.
Yu told City News Service the accuser was not his wife and was someone he knows through mutual friends. He said he is unable to offer further details.
"Let the legal system run its course," Yu said. "I strongly believe I am innocent in this case."
Irvine police arrested Yu for driving under the influence of alcohol on Oct. 11, 2021, and he was charged with two DUI misdemeanor counts in that case.
Yu was granted diversion for military veterans on May 23 and has a court date Aug. 3 to show proof of enrollment in the military diversion program, according to court records.
Yu said he was working on Wall Street when the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks occurred which inspired him to enlist in the Army, where he suffered a disability. He said that the DUI stemmed from his mixing of his medication with alcohol and that he is now sober.
Yu said it is "polite" to accept toasts in his culture, so he would go along with drinking occasionally at public events, but for the past few months he said he declines any alcohol because it conflicts with his medication and instead drinks cranberry juice.
"I'm a good person," Yu said. "I've never ran into legal trouble in my life before."
for more features. | Explicit |
A Sunday newsletter from the office of Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Az.) featured a link to an antisemitic website known for promoting conspiracies ranging from QAnon to Holocaust denial, according to a report from the progressive nonprofit Media Matters For America.
The newsletter included a link to USSA News, which boasts the tagline “do not let this happen to our country ☭.” Despite Gosar condemning antisemitism in the bulletin, USSA is rampant with antisemitic language, conspiracy theories about Jewish people, and reposted or re-promoted content from Neo-Nazi blogs.
Rep. Gosar’s office did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone’s request for comment.
According to MMFA’s review of USSA’s recent articles, posts include the promotion of a “documentary” claiming that the Nazi death camp Auschwitz was not actually an extermination camp. “This Documentary exposes lies. I am up for that. Any Lie must be exposed,” the author (writing under the pseudonym “Constitutional Nobody”) wrote. Another article, published Friday by Constitutional Nobody, advised the reader to “watch out for so-called ‘pro-White’ online activists who are trashing [Adolf] Hitler’s legacy, or just giving Hitler lip service.”
“Stand up for Hitler,” the writer added.
Earlier this month, USSA published a piece lauding the Nazi dictator for doing “everything in his power” to prevent the destruction of the white race.
Several pieces published on USSA feature links to known white supremacist and Neo-Nazi websites, including the Renegade Tribune. One article was little more than a reposted article from the antisemitic blog Unz Review.
Throughout his career in Congress, Gosar has repeatedly found himself in hot water over associations with extremist movements, antisemites, and conspiracy theorists.
In November 2021, Gosar was censured by the House after posting a doctored anime video depicting himself killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Coretz (D-N.Y.) on social media.
Earlier this year, Gosar promoted a link to an article from Veterans Today, another website that promotes antisemitic viewpoints. The article, which discusses statements made by Gosar regarding the war in Ukraine, is titled “Congressman: Jewish warmongers Nuland & Blinken ‘Are Dangers Fools Who Can Get Us All Killed.’”
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Last year, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell stated that there was “no place in the Republican Party for white supremacists or anti-Semitism,” after Gosar and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene participated in the America First Political Actions Conference. The event is organized and hosted by white supremacist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes.
But Gosar’s repeated engagement with extremist ideology has not motivated Republicans to take any sort of punitive action against him. In fact, when the GOP took control of the House in 2022, they rewarded Gosar by restoring the committee assignments he’d been stripped of following his censure. | Explicit |
The heavily armed man wholast week likely had a bigger and bloodier attack in mind, with at least two fairs taking place at the time in and around North Dakota's largest city, authorities said Friday.
Mohamad Barakat killed one officer and wounded two others and a bystander before a fourth officer shot and killed him, ending the July 14 attack.
Over the past five years, Barakat, 37, searched the internet for terms including "kill fast," "explosive ammo," "incendiary rounds," and "mass shooting events," state Attorney General Drew Wrigley said Friday during a news conference in Fargo, a city of about 125,000 people. But perhaps the most chilling search was for "area events where there are crowds," which on July 13 brought up a news article with the headline, "Thousands enjoy first day of Downtown Fargo Street Fair."
Had Officer Zach Robinson not killed Barakat, authorities said they shudder to think how much worse the attack might have been. All evidence suggests that Barakat came upon the traffic crash by "happenstance" and that his ensuing ambush was a diversion from his much bigger intended target, Wrigley said.
"The horrible winds of fate sometimes," he said. "Those events fell into place and fell into his path."
On the day of the attack, the downtown fair was in its second day and was less than 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the crash scene. It's unclear if it was the intended target, though, as Barakat also searched for information on the Red River Valley Fair, which was just a 6-mile (10-kilometer) drive from the scene, the attorney general said.
After driving by the fender bender, Barakat pulled into an adjacent parking lot to watch from his parked car, Wrigley said. He said Barakat's car was loaded with guns, a homemade grenade,, three "largish" containers full of gasoline, plus two propane tanks, one completely filled and the other half-filled not with propane, but with "explosive materials concocted at home, purchased lawfully."
With police and firefighters busy helping, Barakat watched for several minutes until the officers walked by him, when he lifted a .223-caliber rifle out of his car window and began firing, Wrigley said.
The riflethat allowed it to fire so rapidly that it sounded like an automatic weapon, he said. A binary trigger is a modification that allows a weapon to fire one round when the trigger is pulled and another when it is released — in essence doubling a gun's firing capacity. The three officers who were shot had no time to react and fell in rapid succession. He also shot and wounded a fleeing woman, Karlee Koswick, who had been involved in the fender bender, he said.
Robinson, who was badly outgunned but was the only officer at the scene who hadn't been shot, engaged Barakat in a two-minute shootout. It ended with Robinson shooting and killing Barakat as bystanders crouched nearby.
Wrigley described Robinson as "the last man standing in that blue line at that moment."
"What he was standing between was not just the horrible events that were unfolding there, but between the horrible events that Mohamad Barakat had envisioned, planned and intended and armed himself for — beyond fully — that day," he said.
Barakat killed, 23, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan with the Minnesota Army National Guard, and wounded Officers Andrew Dotas and Tyler Hawes. Wallin and Hawes were so new that they were still undergoing field training.
Barakat was a Syrian national who came to the U.S. on an asylum request in 2012 and became a U.S. citizen in 2019, Wrigley said, adding that he didn't appear to have any ties to the Muslim community in Fargo. He said Barakat had some family in the U.S., but not in the Fargo area, and that investigators are still looking into his history before he arrived in the country.
In recent years, Barakat amassed his arsenal. And his internet searches about causing mayhem date back to 2018, with periods in which they abated before picking back up, the attorney general said. Nothing from online, Barakat's phones, the community or his family suggested he had a hatred of the police, he said.
At this stage in the investigation, it seems all of his weapons were purchased legally, and he had many of them in his car on the day of the shooting, Wrigley said. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is looking into whether he got any of the gun components illegally.
Wrigley said Barakat was wearing a vest that was "absolutely stuffed" with magazines and that he "was putting the finishing touches on his shooting skills in the last hours before this assault."
As for the propane tanks, Wrigley said it was "quite dramatic" when the bomb squad detonated them. He suggested the tanks contained something similar to Tannerite, a commercial explosive that can be easily detonated with a shot from a high-powered rifle.
"Obvious motive to kill," Wrigley said. "I mean, driven by hate. Driven by wanting to kill. Not particularized to some group that we can discern at this moment, not particularized to one individual that we can see."
Barakat had worked odd jobs, and briefly trained as an emergency responder at a nearby community college. He had no criminal record or social media presence and had so little contact with other people that the only photo law enforcement could provide was a blurry image of him lifted from a video.
He had, however, been reported to something called the Guardian Threat Tracking System. The FBI routinely opens what it refers to internally as assessments -- the lowest level, least intrusive and most elementary stage of a terrorism-related inquiry -- when it receives unconfirmed information about potentially suspicious behavior.
That information is catalogued in the Guardian system. During the assessment stage of an investigation, FBI agents are permitted to take certain basic investigative steps such as conducting online research or visual surveillance, but more sophisticated tools such as wiretaps cannot be undertaken without additional evidence of wrongdoing.
Mac Schneider, the U.S. attorney for North Dakota, said the Guardian system is a way for members of the public to engage with local law enforcement about "things of concern." But he provided no additional details.
Whether Barakat had intended to survive the attack was unclear. He wore no body armor but did have a way to monitor what was happening at his apartment from afar, perhaps suggesting he had a plan, Wrigley said.
He added that there was no immediate indication that anyone had helped Barakat.
"There are lone wolves," Wrigley said. "That's a real concept."
Wrigley said Koswick was badly injured and will have a difficult recovery. Zibolski said the wounded officers were briefly able to stand up out of their hospital beds on Thursday.
Meanwhile, a funeral service is planned for Saturday for Wallin, whose body was cremated in his police uniform.
for more features. | Explicit |
The National Commission for Women had been informed over a month ago about the sexual assault of three Kuki women in Manipur that took place on May 4, Newslaundry reported on Thursday.
The complaint was sent on June 12 by two Manipuri women and an association of Manipuri tribal communities based abroad. However, the complainants did not receive a response or acknowledgement, according to the report.
Rekha Sharma, the chairperson of the commission, said that she wrote to authorities in Manipur thrice about violence against women in the state, but received no response, according to PTI. She said that she wrote to the Manipur government on May 23, May 29 and on June 19.
Sharma, however, denied having received any report of the sexual assault of the women on May 4.
“There were many complaints, not one specific complaint – that too, from people outside India and outside Manipur” she said, according to ANI. “They [Manipur government] had to clarify whether whatever was written was true or not.”
On Thursday, the National Commission for Women claimed that it had taken “suo motu” cognisance of the crime and directed the Manipur director general of police to promptly take appropriate action.
The three women were forced to strip naked and paraded in B Phainom village of Kangpokpi district on May 4, a day after ethnic clashes broke out between Kukis and Meitis. One of the women was gangraped, according to a police complaint.
A first information report was registered in the case on May 18, but the first arrest was made on Thursday after the video of the incident was shared widely on social media, sparking nationwide outrage. Three more men have been arrested since then.
In their email on June 12, the complainants said that they had spoken to the three women before writing to National Commission for Women chairperson Rekha Sharma, according to Newslaundry.
The complainants had also informed the women’s body of other instances of rape, sexual harassment and abuse of women from tribal communities.
“Witness accounts reveal the most harrowing and distressing details, including the incrimination of Meitei women vigilantes as enablers and perpetrators of gender-based violence,” the complainants alleged. “Victims and survivors allege that Meitei women vigilantes have actively participated in the attacks and assaults on Kuki-Zomi women and children.” | Explicit |
The remainder of Kuala Lumpur’s Good Vibes music festival was canceled Saturday by the Malaysian government following comments made onstage by the 1975’s Matty Healy slamming the country’s anti-LGBTQ+ laws.
Organizers said in a statement Saturday that following Healy’s “controversial conduct and remarks,” Malaysia’s Ministry of Communications and Digital issued an “immediate cancellation directive” that forced the three-day festival to shut down.
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“The Ministry has underlined its unwavering stance against any parties that challenge, ridicule or contravene Malaysian laws,” organizers added.
— Good Vibes Festival (@GoodVibesFest) July 22, 2023
“Prior to the festival, the 1975 management team reassured us that Healy and the band would adhere to local performance guidelines. Regrettably, Healy did not honor these assurances, despite our trust in their commitment. Healy’s actions took us by complete surprise, and we halted the show as promptly as feasible following the incident,” organizers added in a separate statement.
“Healy’s unprofessional behavior and overt defiance of Malaysian laws and regulations are disturbing. Healy chose to utilize his performance as a platform to express his personal views, rather than delivering the quality show that his Malaysian fans were eagerly anticipating. This act is deeply unfair to his fans who were looking forward to enjoying a memorable music experience.”
On Friday, Healy apologized to fans for accepting Good Vibes’ invitation to play, saying he was unaware of Malaysia’s hardline stance toward the LGBTQ community; same-sex relationships are outlawed in the country and punishable by prison time and caning.
“I made a mistake. When we were booking shows, I wasn’t looking into it,” Healy said. “I don’t see the fucking point, right, I do not see the point of inviting the 1975 to a country and then telling us who we can have sex with.”
Healy continued, “I am sorry if that offends you and you’re religious and it’s part of your fucking government, but your government are a bunch of fucking retards and I don’t care anymore. If you push, I am going to push back. I am not in the fucking mood.”
Healy then told the crowd that the band had previously played a gig in an LGBTQ-unfriendly country — “I don’t know what the fuck it is,” Healy said; it was Dubai in 2019, where Healy kissed a male fan onstage to protest the laws — and, upon concluding his speech, kissed the 1975 bassist Ross McDonald.
Following the show’s seventh song, “I Couldn’t Be More in Love,” the gig was abruptly cut short, with Healy telling the crowd they “just got banned from Kuala Lumpur.”
Good Vibes had headlining sets by the Kid Laroi and the Strokes scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, with Ty Dolla $ign, Elderbrook, Porter Robinson and more also on the lineup.
“Touched down & found out the festival is canceled,” the Kid Laroi wrote in an Instagram story from the airport. “I love you Malaysia, I’m sorry.”
Good Vibes organizers added, “We sincerely apologize to all of our ticket holders, vendors, sponsors and partners. We are aware of the time, energy and efforts you have put into making this festival a success, and we value your steadfast support. We will update you on the refund mechanics as soon as possible. We appreciate your understanding and continued support during this challenging time.”
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McALESTER, Okla. -- Oklahoma is preparing to execute a man Thursday for stabbing a Tulsa woman to death with a butcher knife in 1995 after his escape from a prison work center.
Jemaine Cannon, 51, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at 10 a.m. at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. It will be the second execution in Oklahoma this year and the ninth since the state resumed lethal injections in 2021.
Cannon was convicted of killing 20-year-old Sharonda Clark, a mother of two with whom Cannon had been living at an apartment in Tulsa after his escape weeks earlier from a prison work center in southwest Oklahoma. At the time, Cannon was serving a 15-year sentence for the violent assault of another woman who suffered permanent injuries after prosecutors say Cannon raped her and beat her viciously with a claw hammer, iron and kitchen toaster.
A last-minute appeal seeking a stay of execution in which Cannon claims, among other things, that he is Native American and not subject to Oklahoma jurisdiction was pending late Wednesday in a federal appeals court, records show.
Cannon claimed at a clemency hearing before the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board last month that he killed Clark in self-defense.
“I am deeply disheartened that the act of defending my life and the acts that she initiated against me ever happened,” Cannon told the board via a video feed from the state penitentiary. “The ending of human life was never desired, planned or premeditated.”
Cannon's attorney, Mark Henricksen, also told the panel that Cannon's trial and appellate attorneys were ineffective for not presenting evidence that supported his self-defense claim. His trial attorneys presented no witnesses or exhibits and rested after prosecutors presented their case, Henricksen said.
In a statement sent to The Associated Press this week, Henricksen said the state's decision to proceed with Cannon's execution amounts to “historic barbarism.”
“Mr. Cannon has endured abuse and neglect for fifty years by those charged with his care,” Henricksen said. “He sits in his cell a model prisoner. He is nearly deaf, blind, and nearing death by natural causes. The decision to proceed with this particular execution is obscene.”
But prosecutors from the attorney general's office and Clark's adult daughters have urged the state to execute Cannon.
Clark's eldest daughter, Yeh-Sehn White, told the Pardon and Parole Board last month that Cannon had never in 28 years expressed any remorse for his actions and urged the board to reject clemency, which it did on a 3-2 vote.
“Mercy was never given my mother,” she said. “Even still today he points the blame at my mother for his actions.”
Oklahoma currently uses a three-drug lethal injection protocol beginning with the sedative midazolam, followed by the paralytic vecuronium bromide and finally potassium chloride, which stops the heart. The state had one of the nation’s busiest death chambers until problems in 2014 and 2015 led to a de facto moratorium.
Richard Glossip was just hours from being executed in September 2015 when prison officials realized they received the wrong lethal drug. It was later learned that the same wrong drug had been used to execute an inmate in January 2015.
The drug mix-ups followed a botched execution in April 2014 in which inmate Clayton Lockett struggled on a gurney before dying 43 minutes into his lethal injection — and after the state’s prisons chief ordered executioners to stop. | Explicit |
A federal judge on Wednesday rejected Donald Trump’s request for a new trial in a civil case brought by E Jean Carroll, in which a jury found the former US president liable for sexually abusing and defaming the writer and awarded her $5m in damages.
In a 59-page decision, US district judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan said the jury did not reach a “seriously erroneous result,” and the 9 May verdict was not a “miscarriage of justice”.
Carroll had accused Trump of raping her in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the mid-1990s, and then branding the incident a hoax in an October 2022 post on his Truth Social platform.
Trump had argued that awarding Carroll $2m in compensatory damages for sexual assault was “excessive” because the jury found he had not raped her, while the award for defamation was based on “pure speculation”.
Lawyers for Trump and Carroll did not immediately respond to requests for comment. | Explicit |
A man has been found guilty of sexually assaulting and murdering his 16-year-old sister in a park in Hamilton.
Amber Gibson's body was found in Cadzow Glen on 28 November 2021, two days after she was last seen.
Connor Gibson, 20, strangled Amber then got rid of clothes he had been wearing and called the children's home Amber was staying at to pretend she was still alive.
Another man has been found guilty of interfering with Amber's body.
Stephen Corrigan - who was unknown to both Amber and Connor Gibson - found her body, but rather than alert police, he inappropriately touched her and then concealed her remains.
Amber's body was discovered in Cadzow Glen on Sunday 28 November, hidden in bushes and branches. Her body was covered in mud, and her clothes were found nearby.
Gibson was arrested three days later on 1 December. The day before his arrest, he posted a tribute on Facebook to the sister he murdered.
During the trial at the High Court in Glasgow, the jury heard that Gibson had removed Amber's clothes and assaulted her, repeatedly inflicting blunt force trauma to her head and body as well as compressing her neck with his hands.
In his closing statement, prosecutor Richard Goddard KC told the jury Amber Gibson was "appallingly" murdered by the brother she must have trusted. He named 21 different circumstances which linked Gibson to the murder and sexual assault.
Connor Gibson had denied all the charges against him.
The 13-day trial heard that the siblings were fostered from the age of three and five by Craig Niven and his wife Carol. The couple were granted permanent care of the siblings a few years later.
Amber left their care in 2019. Mr Gibson left after he turned 18 in 2020.
Mr Niven had told the court the siblings could not be left in each others' company as they were "not a good mix".
He said that he spoke to Connor Gibson on the phone in the days after Amber's body was found.
According to Mr Niven, Gibson said he argued with his sister before seeing her later that Friday night.
At the time of Amber's murder, she was living at the town's Hillhouse children's home.
Connor was living at the Blue Triangle homeless hostel in Hamilton. A police officer told the court that items of stained clothing had been found in a bin there.
Jurors also heard other forensic evidence that "widespread blood staining" on Gibson's jacket was compatible with Amber and his DNA was also found on her shorts, worn as underwear, which had been "forcibly" torn off.
It emerged during Amber's murder trial that she had suffered another assault earlier in 2021.
In an entirely separate case it was revealed that in the June before her murder, Amber was raped by a man called Jamie Starrs.
Court documents also show that Amber and Connor Gibson's biological father, Peter Gibson, sexually assaulted two young boys and assaulted and raped a woman.
These crimes were committed between 2001 and 2008. He was convicted in January this year.
Police Scotland called the inquiry "traumatic and harrowing" for the officers involved, as well as for Amber's friends and family.
Det Ch Supt Paul Livingstone said: "It is hard to imagine how difficult this has been for Amber's family and friends and our thoughts very much remain with them.
"I hope this conviction brings them some degree of comfort. The actions of both Gibson and Corrigan leaves them beneath contempt."
He said the investigation was "complex and challenging" and had relied heavily on the expertise of forensic officers.
The siblings' foster parents issued a statement following the verdict.
It said: "When they arrived at our home, Amber was three and Connor aged five. Connor stated: 'We are safe' - they were until he took the safety away."
They described Amber as the "most giving, caring, loving, supportive and admirable person" who had a love of art and singing and an "amazing outlook on life" despite the suffering she had experienced.
The couple commented on "how much Amber and Connor have been let down throughout their lives by the system".
"We now have one daughter buried in Larkhall Cemetery and another child in prison," they said. "Life will never be the same."
Judge Lord Mulholland sent jurors out to consider their verdicts on Tuesday morning. They returned just before 15:00.
Lord Mulholland told Connor Gibson he would receive a life sentence.
He said that the last thing Amber would have seen was her brother strangling her, and told him: "You will pay a heavy price for that."
He told Stephen Corrigan he had committed "horrific crimes" and that his DNA "told the story".
The two men will be sentenced on 4 September at the High Court in Livingston. | Explicit |
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Warning: This story contains descriptions of sexual violence.
NEW DELHI (AP) — Prime Minister Narendra Modi broke more than two months of public silence over deadly ethnic clashes in India’s northeast, saying Thursday that the assaults of two women as they were being paraded naked by a mob in Manipur state were unforgivable.
A video showing the assaults triggered massive outrage and was widely shared on social media late Wednesday despite the internet being largely blocked and journalists being locked out in the remote state. It shows two naked women surrounded by scores of young men who grope their genitals and drag them to a field.
WATCH: Biden welcomes Modi for state visit amid concerns over India’s human rights record
“The guilty will not be spared. What has happened to the daughters of Manipur can never be forgiven,” Modi told reporters ahead of a parliamentary session in his first public comments related to the Manipur conflict.
Without making any direct references to the violence in Manipur, Modi urged heads of state governments to ensure the safety of women and said the incident is “shameful for any civilized nation.”
“My heart is filled with pain and anger,” he said.
The violence depicted in the video was emblematic of the near-civil war in Manipur that has left more than 130 people dead since May, as mobs rampage through villages killing people and torching houses. The ethnic violence was sparked by an affirmative action controversy in which Christian Kukis protested a demand from the mostly Hindu Meiteis for a special status that would let them buy land in the hills populated by Kukis and other tribal groups and get a share of government jobs.
The clashes have persisted despite the army’s presence in Manipur, a state of 3.7 million people tucked in the mountains on India’s border with Myanmar that is now divided in two ethnic zones. The two warring factions have also formed armed militias, and isolated villages are still raked with gunfire. More than 60,000 people have fled to packed relief camps.
Police said the assault on the two women happened May 4, a day after the violence started in the state. According to a police complaint filed May 18, the two women were part of a family attacked by a mob that killed its two male members. The complaint alleges rape and murder by “unknown miscreants.”
READ MORE: Deaths climb to around 100 as heat wave scorches India’s northeastern states
The state police have made the first arrest in the case, Manipur’s Chief Minister Biren Singh said on Twitter, without specifying the number of people who were apprehended.
“A thorough investigation is currently underway and we will ensure strict action is taken against all the perpetrators, including considering the possibility of capital punishment. Let it be known, there is absolutely no place for such heinous acts in our society,” Singh said.
India’s Supreme Court, meanwhile, expressed its concern over the assault and asked the government to inform the court about the steps it has taken to apprehend the accused.
“In a constitutional democracy it is unacceptable. If the government does not act, we will,” Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud said.
The two women are now safe in a refugee camp.
They are from the Kuki-Zo community, according to the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum, a tribal organization in Manipur.
India’s Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani called the incident “condemnable and downright inhuman.” She said Thursday that investigations were underway and that “no effort will be spared to bring perpetrators to justice.”
India’s main opposition Congress party president Mallikarjun Kharge, however, accused the ruling Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party of “turning democracy and the rule of law into mobocracy.”
Kharge said Modi should speak about Manipur in Parliament, a demand that has been made by other opposition parties and rights activists.
“India will never forgive your silence,” he wrote on Twitter.
Last week the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling on Indian authorities to take action to stop the violence in Manipur and protect religious minorities, especially Christians. India’s foreign ministry condemned the resolution, describing it as “interference” in its internal affairs.
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Prominent gun-control activist Shannon Watts is trying to get country music star Jason Aldean canceled over a song she claims is "racist and violent."
Aldean denies that his song, "Try That In A Small Town," has racial undertones following its music video release last week, in which he touts how small towns wouldn't put up with the kind of lawlessness found in big cities.
Country Music Television (CMT) yanked the video without comment on Monday, prompting Aldean to lash out on Twitter, writing, "There is not a single lyric in the song that references race or points to it – and there isn’t a single video clip that isn’t real news footage – and while I can try and respect others to have their own interpretation of a song with music – this one goes too far."
Watts first called attention to the song’s lyrics in a late-night tweet Sunday, saying it’s about "how he and his friends will shoot you if you try to take their guns."
Watts later took credit for CMT’s decision in scrubbing the video.
"Proud to have had a hand in getting CMT to reject this racist and violent song," she tweeted Tuesday evening.
Watts then set her sights on trying to get Aldean canceled from the Grand Ole Opry.
"The @opry is hosting Jason Aldean at a fundraiser for the Covenant School in Nashville," she wrote. "One would think there are many other country music artists they could invite instead?"
Aldean, who was onstage during the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas, is joining a star-studded lineup at the Opry on Aug. 7 to benefit the Covenant School Community Fund after the Nashville private school was targeted by a mass shooter earlier this year.
Aldean defended his song in a lengthy Twitter post Tuesday afternoon, saying it "refers to the feeling of a community that I had growing up, where we took care of our neighbors, regardless of differences of background or belief."
"My political views have never been something I’ve hidden from, and I know that a lot of us in this Country don’t agree on how we get back to a sense of normalcy where we go at least a day without a headline that keeps us up at night. But the desire for it to – that’s what this song is about," he added.
The lyrics of the song juxtapose big-city crime with small-town values: "Cuss out a cop, spit in his face / Stomp on the flag and light it up / Yeah, ya think you're tough," Aldean sings in the song. "Well, try that in a small town / See how far ya make it down the road / Around here, we take care of our own / You cross that line, it won't take long." | Explicit |
GOP senators hold back on defending Trump as he faces new indictment
The revelation that former President Trump faces a possible grand jury indictment connected to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack and his efforts to hold on to power has landed like a bombshell on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers saw firsthand the violence unleashed that day.
Some GOP lawmakers rushed to Trump’s defense, but many Republicans in the Senate held back from defending the former president, who has been accused of stoking the Jan. 6 mob and who waited before calling on protesters to disperse.
The expected indictment separately poses a tough political problem for many Republicans critical of Trump, who remains wildly popular with the party’s base.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), who hasn’t spoken to Trump since December 2020, stayed quiet about the news of yet another indictment against his onetime ally, who is now leading the Republican presidential primary field by 30 points in national polls.
His top deputies, Senate Republican Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), reacted with caution.
Asked whether it would be “legitimate” for special counsel Jack Smith to charge Trump for trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election, Thune said it would depend on the facts and evidence presented.
“That’s going to depend on whether or not laws were broken,” he said. “So clearly, I don’t know what they’re looking at. But I’m sure we’ll know in due time.”
Cornyn dodged the politically charged topic altogether, arguing the Justice Department has the authority to investigate whether Trump broke the laws in trying to stop the certification of the 2020 election.
“I think that’s entirely within the purview of the Department of Justice and has nothing to do with the United States Senate,” he said.
Asked if Smith is a “credible prosecutor,” he said, “I have no knowledge of anything approaching that.”
Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), who called the indictment of Trump last month for violating the Espionage Act “political” and “rotten,” was the only senior member of the Republican leadership to accuse the Justice Department of acting on political motives.
“It looks like the president is targeting his most popular opponent. Isn’t that interesting? Sounds political to me,” he said.
Asked if he saw any qualitative difference between the 37 felony counts federal prosecutors brought against Trump last month for refusing to turn over classified documents he kept improperly at Mar-a-Lago and new charges related to Jan. 6, Barrasso saw both indictments as political attacks.
“The administration is siccing its dogs on the former president of the United States and their most formidable opponent,” he said.
Senate Republican Conference Vice Chairwoman Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) only said, “It’s a never-ending story, that’s my comment.”
The generally muted response from Senate Republican leaders posed a stark contrast with House Republican leaders, who rushed to Trump’s defense.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) suggested the Justice Department is bringing new charges against Trump because he is leading the Republican presidential field by double digits and pulled ahead of President Biden in a recent poll.
“Recently, President Trump went up in the polls and was actually surpassing President Biden for reelection. So what do they do now? Weaponize government to go after their No. 1 opponent,” McCarthy said Tuesday.
“This is not equal justice. They treat people differently and they go after their adversaries,” he said.
McCarthy’s comments reveal how his views of Trump’s culpability for the attack on the Capitol have evolved since January 2021, when he told GOP colleagues that Trump “bears responsibility for his words and actions — no if, ands or buts.”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) accused the Justice Department of waging a politically motivated prosecution to distract from a whistleblower’s claims that senior administration officials interfered with an Internal Revenue Service investigation of Hunter Biden.
“Now you see the Biden administration going after President Trump once again, and it begs that question, ‘Is there a double standard? Is justice being administered equally?’” Scalise asked at a press conference.
Other Trump allies in the House joined the attack against the administration.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) claimed Biden’s Justice Department did little to prosecute Black Lives Matter protesters who breached a federal courthouse in 2020 or to prosecute threats against conservative Supreme Court justices.
“But if you’re President Trump and do nothing wrong? PROSECUTE. Americans are tired of the double standard!” he tweeted.
Another Trump ally, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), attacked Smith on Twitter as a “lousy attorney” and pointed to the Supreme Court overturning his conviction of former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R).
“He only targets Republicans because he’s a weak little bitch for the Democrats,” she tweeted.
Senate Republicans, many of whom have made clear they don’t want to see Trump as the party’s nominee for president in 2024, however, broke with their House GOP colleagues over the claim that the Justice Department is operating a “two-tier” system and holding Trump to a special standard.
“I think you’ve got to go where the facts lead you and determine whether or not laws are broken. But there shouldn’t be two systems of justice; everybody should be held accountable and there ought to be equal justice under the law,” Thune told reporters.
“Clearly in these circumstances, it’s a politically charged environment. I think it puts an even higher burden of proof on the Justice Department given the perceptions that people have about that but this has got to be driven by the law and the facts,” he said.
McConnell excoriated Trump on the Senate floor at the end of his 2021 impeachment trial for inciting the mob that stormed the Capitol hallways and ransacked the Senate parliamentarian’s office.
“There is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day,” he declared, referring to the violence and chaos that resulted in injuries to more than 100 Capitol police officers.
One officer, Brian Sicknick, died of natural causes while defending the Capitol.
Thune said just because the Senate Republicans’ top leader called Trump “practically and morally” responsible, that did not necessarily warrant criminal charges.
“Practically and morally is something very different than legally, and I think that’s what the Justice Department has to look at. They’ve got to look at the law, the facts as they’ve interviewed people, and then make a determination about whether laws were broken,” he said.
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who voted twice to convict Trump on impeachment charges — including on the charge of inciting the Jan. 6 riot — warned his House GOP colleagues about relentlessly attacking the Justice Department.
He voiced concern about “the diminution of institutions in which we rely as a society.”
“A democracy works when we have confidence in the justice system, in the legal system, in our prosecutors and so forth. If we constantly attack and diminish them, that weakens the democracy,” he said.
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. | Explicit |
LONDON -- Kenya was bracing for days of anti-government protests led by the government's political opposition over a contentious new finance bill and the rising cost of living
At least six people were shot and killed and at least a dozen others were injured on Wednesday, the first day of a planned three-day protest against higher taxes, Mathias Kinyoda, of Amnesty International Kenya, told ABC News. At least 87 demonstrators were arrested nationwide, he said.
The protests were called by opposition leader Raila Odinga. The unrest was set to take place despite Kenya's President William Ruto vowing no protests would take place in the East African Nation.
"We are here, first and foremost, to confirm that the peaceful protests planned for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week are on as earlier declared by our leadership," read a statement by Odinga's party, Azimio La Umoja, sent to ABC News.
At least five protesters were injured on Wednesday as demonstrators clashed with police. Amnesty International Kenya said, said that "para-military police officers and armored water cannon trucks [are] already patrolling and engaging protestors across several towns and neighborhoods."
In Kibera -- a stronghold of the opposition -- protests turned violent, with demonstrators setting fire to tires and furniture, stones being pelted, and tear gas being deployed by police. In the most recent round of anti-government protests at least 23 people are reported to have been killed according to the U.N., with over 300 arrested.
Protests have also been reported in Kenya's Kisumu, Kisii and Migori counties.
Kenya's Ministry of Education also announced that all primary and secondary schools in Nairobi and the coastal city Mombasa are to close on Wednesday as a "precautionary measure" following "credible security intelligence." Several businesses also remain closed.
The protests come after Ruto last month signed into law a contentious finance bill at Nairobi's State House that proposed doubling the tax levied on fuel from 8% to 16%.
The bill aimed to aid in offsetting Kenya's external debt, officials said. However, the bill will have a ripple effect on the price of basic commodities, compounding on the economic strain of Kenyans already struggling with the rising cost of living.
Implementation of the Bill -- which was due to come into effect on July 1 -- was halted by Kenya's High Court following a case brought by opposition Sen. Okiya Omatah, who argued it was unconstitutional.
In a joint statement with Heads of Missions from 13 countries in Kenya, the U.S. Embassy Nairobi said it was "saddened" by the loss of life from anti-government protests and "concerned by the levels of violence" exhibited during recent demonstrations.
"We recognise the daily hardship faced by many Kenyans and urge all parties to table their concerns through a meaningful dialogue and resolve their differences peacefully," the statement said.
Speaking at a Geneva press briefing, U.N. Human Rights Office Spokesperson Jeremy Laurence appealed for calm, saying, "We call on the authorities to ensure the right to peaceful assembly as guaranteed by the Kenyan Constitution and international human rights law." | Explicit |
BISMARCK, N.D. -- It was a routine collision on a busy Fargo street. But after Mohamad Barakat drove past, armed with 1,800 rounds of ammunition, numerous firearms and a grenade, tragedy ensued.
After the shooting ended on July 14, one police officer was dead, and two other officers as well as a woman in the crash were wounded, leaving authorities wondering what further carnage Barakat might have been planning.
Officer Zach Robinson, the only officer in the melee who was not wounded, fatally shot Barakat with bystanders crouched nearby. More details are expected at a briefing Friday.
Barakat, a 37-year-old who briefly trained as an emergency responder at a nearby community college, had no criminal record. No social media presence.
But then he saw the collision. With police and firefighters tied up helping, Barakat began “stalking his way in and sizing up his opportunity," North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley told reporters Wednesday in the most detailed update yet.
Barakat parked, watching for minutes until the officers walked away, about 15 to 20 feet (5 to 6 meters) from him. Then he lifted a .223-caliber rifle out of his car window and began firing in what Wrigley called “an absolute ambush" and “a murderous barrage of fire.”
The officers “had no time” to reach for their holstered guns with Barakat's fusillade “so rapid,” Wrigley said.
Barakat, who lived in an apartment 2 miles (3 kilometers) away, was using a double-stacked magazine. He killed Officer Jake Wallin, 23, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan with the Minnesota Army National Guard. The barrage also left Officers Andrew Dotas and Tyler Hawes critically wounded.
Wallin and Hawes were so new that they were still undergoing field training.
Barakat also hit Karlee Koswick, who was involved in the traffic collision, with two rounds as she ran away.
Robinson, who was in the street about 75 feet (23 meters) away from Barakat, “was the last man standing between what was coming next and what you can see this assailant was armed for,” Wrigley said.
Robinson moved from behind a vehicle involved in the crash and fired at Barakat. One of his shots disabled Barakat's rifle, leaving 20 rounds unused after the killer fired 40.
“We have three officers down; send everybody," Robinson said over the radio, after moving closer and noticing the fallen officers.
A wounded Barakat lay on the ground protected by his car, waving a 9 mm handgun. Robinson moved closer, calling out 16 times for Barakat to surrender.
Robinson came around the vehicle and gave one last command to Barakat to put down the gun before shooting him, said Wrigley, who called Robinson’s use of deadly force “justified."
Lasting about two minutes, the gunfight was still longer than most, Fargo Police Chief David Zibolski said. Wrigley noted Robinson fired approximately 30 rounds and had to stop to reload.
Zibolski said it might have been worse had there not been emergency crews already there, including an ambulance. As soon as the firing stopped, “firefighters bounced out and they were applying first aid immediately to our officers,” Zibolski said.
Before taking the drive, Barakat had rolled a weapons-filled suitcase from his apartment, Wrigley said. Inside his vehicle, investigators found the homemade hand grenade, as well as a vest with loaded magazines, more firearms and canisters of gasoline. There were more weapons back at his apartment.
“When you look at the amount of ammunition this shooter had in his car, he was planning on more mayhem in our community,” Fargo Mayor Tim Mahoney said.
The attorney general said he believes the violence could have been the beginning of a mass shooting as the Downtown Fargo Street Fair and the Red River Valley Fair were underway.
The police chief said Barakat “was obviously dead-set on some pretty horrific acts, targets unknown at this time.” Authorities have said a motive is unknown.
As the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the FBI work on the case, the wounded are recovering, their conditions good or stable. Meanwhile, a funeral service is planned for Saturday for Wallin, whose body was cremated in his police uniform. | Explicit |
QUITO, July 24 (Reuters) - Ecuador's President Guillermo Lasso on Monday declared a state of emergency and night curfews in three coastal provinces, amid a wave of violence over the weekend in the Andean country that left at least eight people dead.
Lasso declared the state of emergency in the provinces of Manabi and Los Rios and in the city of Duran, near Guayaquil, after Agustin Intriago, the mayor of coastal city Manta, was shot dead on Sunday.
It also comes on the back of riots over the weekend in the prison Penitenciaria del Litoral, in Guayaquil, involving clashes between gangs inside the prison.
Lasso has frequently resorted to declaring states of emergency as Ecuador struggles with prison riots and waves of violence throughout the country.
"We cannot deny that organized crime has permeated the state, political organizations and society itself, it is a problem that has been brewing for more than a decade," Lasso said after a security cabinet meeting.
The state of emergency will last for 60 days in the provinces, while the curfew will vary during that period, the government said.
The murder of Manta's mayor is under investigation, Lasso said.
Sunday's riots left at least six inmates dead and 11 injured, according to the SNAI prison authority.
Prisoners also took 96 guards as hostages in jails in Cotopaxi, Azuay, Cañar, El Oro and Napo, and are continuing a hunger strike that began on Sunday in 13 Ecuadorean prisons, without disclosing reasons for the strikes.
The prison system in the South American country has faced structural problems for decades, but jail violence has soared since 2021, killing at least 400 people in frequent confrontations, which have drawn the concern of the United Nations and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. | Explicit |
A mother and her boyfriend were arrested for allegedly imprisoning their children inside their Wisconsin home after neighbors spotted both boys wandering the streets completely naked, covered in blood, bruises, and feces.
Katie Koch is facing a slew of felony charges, including chronic neglect of a child, false imprisonment and neglecting a child. Her boyfriend, Joel Manke, 38, was meanwhile hit with felony charges of chronic neglect of a child and false imprisonment in connection with the case.
According to a criminal complaint filed in Milwaukee County Circuit Court, Koch kept her children, ages 7 and 9, locked for years in a dingy bedroom with boarded-up windows. Neither of the boys has been toilet trained or enrolled in school, and neither is able to read or write. Police say one of the boys was unable to form complete sentences.
On Thursday, one of their neighbors spotted the children peering through a shattered window and then climbing onto the air conditioning unit. From there, they jumped into the yard and started “running from home to home,” according to the criminal complaint. Another witness said the older boy was “walking on the sidewalk like a ‘caveman.’”
When authorities responded to the residence, they discovered the boys’ living space was covered in excrement and urine, which Koch initially tried to pass off as “clay, paint, and chocolate.” The rest of the house was also cluttered with trash and covered in filth, according to authorities.
Milwaukee County assistant district attorney Mallory Davis during an intake hearing Monday said she reviewed photos and videos of the inside of the house, and called it a hoarding situation, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“It was something out of a horror movie,” Davis said. “These children were essentially confined to their room for much of their lives.”
Both children are currently in protective custody. | Explicit |
An Alabama Department of Education employee who once headed up an anti-abortion committee in the state was arrested Wednesday on charges of sexual abuse of a child under age 12.
Marty Decole “Cole” Wagner, who was employed by ALSDE in government relations until his arrest on Wednesday, was indicted by a Montgomery grand jury on June 30, according to court records, for subjecting a child under 12 to “sexual contact.” A source familiar with the specifics of Wagner’s arrest told APR that the alleged victim in the case is under 10.
“The allegations against Mr. Wagner are serious, tragic and shocking,” a statement from ALSDE said Thursday. “While he was employed by our department for only a few months, Mr. Wagner has been terminated effective immediately. No further information is available at this time as the investigation is ongoing.”
APR reported in 2018 that Wagner had been tapped to head up the anti-abortion committee Alliance for a Pro-Life Alabama, which was formed primarily to push a constitutional amendment saying there was no right to an abortion in Alabama. The amendment, which ultimately passed, had no effect on actual abortion laws.
As chair of the committee, Wagner worked with a variety of Republican lawmakers and rightwing organizations to raise money and garner sponsorship.
“The Alliance for a Pro-Life Alabama is tasked with educating voters about the constitutional amendment and providing them with accurate and truthful information while, at the same time, refuting falsehoods and misinformation that may be disseminated by pro-abortion forces within the state,” Wagner said at the time.
Wagner was released on $60,000 bond. Sexual abuse of a child under 12 is a Class B felony in Alabama, and carries a potential prison sentence of 2 to 20 years. | Explicit |
Azerbaijan Detains Well-Known Opposition Leader
Azerbaijani authorities placed an opposition leader into pre-trial detention on Monday for counterfeiting and for being allied with the exiled Turkish cleric Fetullah Gullen, whom Ankara has blamed for plotting the 2016 coup.
Economist and politician Gubad Ibadoghlu, however, believes that the regime in Baku is trying to remove him from the local political scene.
“I have been detained on the orders of [Azerbaijani president] Ilham Aliyev,” Ibadoghlu told a crowd of reporters as he was placed in the back of a police car.
He will spend four months in detention after he, his wife, and several other people were detained during raids on Sunday.
Ibadoghlu and his wife were subjected to physical violence, according to their daughter, Jala Bayramova. She said her father has not been allowed to receive medications vital for his health. The wife has been released.
Ibadoghlu lives in the U.K., where he is a Senior Visiting Fellow in the Department of International Relations at the London School of Economics. He returned to Azerbaijan in early July because of his mother’s health issues.
Azerbaijani and Turkish pro-government media reported that at least five people had been arrested in an operation carried out by Azerbaijani authorities against the alleged terror organization FETÖ.
Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs later confirmed that Ibadoghlu was indeed arrested for his alleged involvement with FETÖ, adding that the ministry was acting on information supplied by its Turkish counterpart.
FETÖ is the name given by Turkish officials to the supporters of Fethullah Gülen, a religious leader based in the U.S., whom the Turkish government accuses of masterminding the attempted coup in July 2016. Turkish authorities have carried out numerous operations against FETÖ in the last seven years, resulting in the arrest and imprisonment of thousands of people.
Azerbaijan and Turkey are close allies, especially when it comes to security issues.
Ibadoghlu’s office was searched by police who, according to his lawyer, Zibeyda Sadigova, seized dozens of documents and US$40,000.
“The money will be investigated to determine whether it is fake or not,” Sadigova said.
Initially, Ibadoghlu was slapped with counterfeiting charges carrying a sentence of five to seven years in prison. Sadigova confirmed to local media, however, that the day following his detention, authorities brought other more serious counterfeiting charges carrying an increased sentence of eight to 12 years.
Officially, the charges against Ibadoghlu are based on the testimony of another man also detained as an alleged FETÖ supporter. According to Sadigova, the detainee, Anar Aliyev, claimed that Ibadoghlu had given him a certain amount of counterfeit American dollars. Ibadoghlu’s lawyer stated that her client does not even know Aliyev.
Apart from his academic career, Ibadoghlu is the chairman of the Azerbaijan Democracy and Prosperity Party, which authorities have refused to register. A new law that came into effect in January 2023 has raised new barriers to establishing political parties, receiving criticism from rights defenders both at home and abroad.
In June, Ibadoghlu established a foundation in the U.K. called the Azerbaijani Youth Education Foundation with fellow Azerbaijani opposition politicians Jamil Hasanli and Arif Mammadov. The professor announced on Facebook that the foundation will be funded by donations and also by money confiscated from corrupt Azerbaijani elites.
“One of the goals is to use the foundation to create a cadre of specialists for Azerbaijan’s future,” wrote Ibadoghlu. “The foundation’s source of funding will be donations. In addition, there are plans to fund it through the confiscation of money stolen from the people and economy of Azerbaijan and looted from the state.”
Ibadoghlu posted on Facebook that the foundation would appeal to the relevant authorities to request the confiscated funds. In recent years, the U.K. has seized from politically well-connected Azerbaijanis millions of dollars believed to have been obtained through money laundering.
In a subsequent post, Ibadoghlu wrote that a smear campaign had been launched against him because of the foundation.
In early July, another Azerbaijani public figure, former lawmaker Nazim Baydamirli, was arrested and sent to pre-trial detention for four months.
Baydemirli had criticized the government for failing to address the public health and environmental concerns of villagers in Gadabay in the western region of Azerbaijan. The villagers held protests against the construction undertaken by a British company of an artificial lake to collect waste from the company’s nearby mining operation.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs announced that the allegations against the former legislator were based on an anonymous complaint. "A citizen appealed to the police and claimed that N. Baydamirli threatened them and demanded 50,000 manats (nearly $30,000) from them," the Ministry’s official statement said. | Explicit |
Just Stop Oil (JSO) activists trying to block roads in London were surrounded by a group of what appeared to be counter-protesters wearing T-shirts with the slogan “Just Stop P---ing Everyone off”.
Footage shows the environmental protesters sitting on the floor, encircled by a group of 15 to 20 people standing around them while they try to explain why they are slow marching in the capital.
The video was shot in Elephant and Castle, south London, by JSO. The organisation later said the counter-protesters dispersed at 9.40am, after a debate of about 30 minutes.
A JSO spokesman said the encounter ended cordially, and that while the counter-protesters “didn’t understand the necessity in the mechanics of society for social disruption’, the two sides “were broadly in agreement”.
The footage shows a woman in the middle of the eco-activists saying through a megaphone: “We do agree about the same things but we have that sense of urgency. We do this out of love and out of desperation because this government does not have our best interest at heart – quite the opposite.”
One of the JSO protesters then attempts to get past the counter-demonstrators encircling the group, prompting one person to say: “Let them through, we’re not keeping them hostage. You are very welcome to leave at any point.”
The JSO protesters then ask the group how long they are going to keep them there for, adding: “What’s your plan, because when you leave we’re going to go on the road again.”
“Yeah but rush hour will be over”, a counter-protester replies. Another says: “There’s an election this time next year. If you don’t like this government, why don’t you stand for election?”
A JSO protester then asks the counter-demonstrator if they think standing for election is the best way to get their views across. “Democracy? It’s served Western civilisation pretty well.”, the anti-JSO protester says.
The JSO protesters said they were happy the group had come to disrupt their demonstration because it gave them a chance to debate.
There was speculation that the counter-protest may have been a stunt carried out by JSO to allow it to explain to the public why it is carrying out the slow marches, but the organisation insisted they were “nothing to do with us”.
The counter-protest group has no online presence but amassed considerable support on social media from those critical of JSO. Many users shared a link to purchase the “Just Stop P---ing Everyone Off” T-shirt online. It imitates the style and orange colour of JSO T-shirts.
A separate group of protesters were filmed being “pushed” on Cromwell Road by a bus that sounded its horn continuously while driving slowly into the activists despite the march blocking the road.
It comes a day after a JSO protester was assaulted by a motorist who was involved in a car crash with a pregnant woman next to a slow march on the same stretch of road.
Daniel Knorr, 21, was punched and kicked by a man who claimed he was being recorded at the scene of the protest. Speaking after the assault, Mr Knorr said: “I haven’t said anything to the police and I don’t plan to, but I’m afraid that the police might go after this man.”
Last month, Mr Knorr was carried off the pitch at Lord’s by the England cricketer Jonny Bairstow after activists momentarily disrupted play in a Test match against Australia.
Mr Knorr was charged with trespass along with Judith Murray, 69, and Jacob Bourne, 26. They are due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on July 31. | Explicit |
Donald Trump continues to wallow in antisemitism and other white supremacist filth. In the most recent example, Trump's 2024 campaign recently sent out a fundraising email that featured an image of President Joe Biden being controlled like a puppet by billionaire Democratic Party booster George Soros, a Holocaust survivor. The Chinese flag is in the background of the graphic.
Trump's fundraising email reads:
The worst-kept secret in Washington is that Crooked Joe Biden is not truly in charge.
Even Joe himself keeps letting that slip…
"Biden says he's 'not the essential man' during 2024 campaign fundraiser with Wall Street execs"
[SOURCE: Fox Business]
Did you ever think you'd hear the President of the United States – the COMMANDER in Chief – supposedly, the most powerful man in the world – say that he's not essential?
Biden has also said that he thought that by becoming president, he'd have the power to give orders. But instead, he said he's taking more orders than ever before.
Our Republic cannot and will not survive with a secret shadow president behind the curtain pulling the strings…
…Whether that's China, George Soros, unelected bureaucrats within the Deep State, or God only knows who else.
The 2024 election will decide whether America still is a country of, by, and for the PEOPLE – or whether our once Free Republic has been permanently hijacked by a cabal of nameless, faceless puppet masters secretly controlling our country in the shadows.
It is important to note that Trump's fundraising email is part of a much larger pattern of antisemitism by the global right-wing that has accelerated during the Age of Trump. On the right, there exists an obsessive focus on George Soros and the lie that he is the leader of a powerful cabal that secretly controls the world. The image used in the Trump campaign email is a near copy of the types of images used by the Nazis to dehumanize the Jewish people.
The inclusion of the Chinese flag is also part of the white supremacist antisemitic trope that Jewish people are somehow doing the work of anti-American foreign elements such as communists and socialists to infiltrate and undermine American society through their influence over Hollywood, the media, and banking.
"There is no fascism without racism."
Trump's most recent antisemitic filth also channels much older lies and conspiracy theories such as the Protocols of the Elders of Zio and the idea of "blood libel".
I asked John Roth who, along with Leonard Grob, co-authored the book, "Warnings: The Holocaust, Ukraine, and Endangered American Democracy," for his insights about the larger historical context for Trump's most recent antisemitic attacks:
Antisemitism has been called "the longest hatred". These images are part of that dismal history. Rooted in lies, their antisemitic tropes and canards are scarcely original. Antisemites recycle them because they successfully incite hostility toward Jews and animosity toward Jewish communities.
One of the most persistent and insidious falsehoods is that Jewish wealth controls politicians—of the "wrong" kind—and aims to dominate the world. Nazi antisemitism tarred Churchill and Stalin with a brush repurposed today by Trumpist antisemitism to smear Joe Biden as a puppet of corrupt Jewish power.
I also asked Federico Finchelstein, the author of "A Brief History of Fascist Lies," for his thoughts about Trump's most recent antisemitic attacks against Biden and Soros.
This ad shows how racism & antisemitic conspiracy theories remain at the center of the current right-wing extremisms. There is no fascism without racism. Racism was at the center of the fascist worldview. It was central to fascists like Hitler and Mussolini because racism allowed them to lie about enemies of the nation. Racism and propaganda relied on each other. Sadly, we see the same pattern in Trumpism.
This ad is one more symptom of their fascist way of propagandizing.
In terms of speech, there is not much difference between Hitler's paranoia and propaganda about Jewish financiers and the current attempts to turn one Jewish investor (G. Soros) into the source of all evils. The goal is to confuse people. These lies have the aim of shattering reality and replacing it with myth. If we are to learn from the history of fascism we should be worried about those like Trump, Bolsonaro, Modi, etc that want to manipulate these racist lies and beliefs into political weapons. In the past, the results of this propaganda were horrible, especially for the victims.
It is sad that after Holocaust and all the destruction and misery that fascism created, we still see these fascist lies and propaganda at the center of politics.
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Donald Trump's continued antisemitic escalations should not be "surprising" or "shocking". In many ways, this is all utterly predictable, transparent, and the function of a type of path dependency.
In an essay here at Salon last week I explained how, "As detailed in historian George Fredrickson's landmark book "Racism: A Short History," there is a complex and overlapping relationship between the "religious" antisemitism of the European Middle Ages, the racist and white supremacist project of white-on-black chattel slavery, colonialism, imperialism, and then the Nazism and racial antisemitism of the 20th century. This translates into a type of path dependency, if not inevitable outcome: As the "conservative" movement becomes increasingly racist and white supremacist, it then becomes increasingly antisemitic. …
As Donald Trump finally faces serious consequences for his decades-long crime spree, he has become more antisemitic. This is true more generally for the MAGA movement, the Republican Party, and the larger right wing during the Trumpocene – but especially since the coup attempt on Jan. 6, and now the indictments of Donald Trump and his cabal for his and their crimes against democracy and society. Trump will only become more bold and gross as the 2024 presidential election approaches and the walls of justice close in."
Donald Trump's, the Republican fascists and larger white right's antisemitic attacks over the last seven or so years (and examples of white supremacy and racism more generally) are almost too numerous to comprehensively list.
During the 2016 campaign Trump sent out or otherwise recirculated antisemitic images as part of their attacks Hillary Clinton; the Trump campaign has previously suggested that Bernie Sanders, who is Jewish, secretly controls Joe Biden; Trump infamously said in 2017 that the neo-Nazis and other white supremacists who participated in a lethal rampage in Charlottesville are "very fine people"; Trump's senior adviser Stephen Miller has many documented connections with white supremacists and other hatemongers — and shaped the Trump regime's policies to that end.
The Trump administration refused to properly honor International Holocaust Remembrance Day by deciding to omit the specific crimes against humanity suffered by the Jewish People.
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A majority of Republicans and Trump voters and followers believe in the white supremacist "great replacement" conspiracy theory lie which claims that there is a secret plot being orchestrated by "the deep state" and "globalists" (code for "the Jews") to replace "white people" in America and Europe with non-whites and Muslims. Public opinion polls also show that, contrary to the abundant evidence, Republican and right-wing voters do not believe that antisemitism is a serious problem in the United States.
The QAnon conspiracy-lie, which is believed in by a majority of Republicans and Trump voters, is a 21st-century version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, blood libel and the lie that Jewish people kidnap children and drink their blood as a way of obtaining superpowers.
Contrary to how too many in the mainstream news media, the political class, and general public would like to believe, one cannot "flirt with" or "play footsy" with antisemitism and other forms of white supremacy and racism. Such language and beliefs do the work of minimizing and distorting – and therefore empowering and enabling — such beliefs and behavior in their various forms.
As seen with the Tree of Life massacre, the Buffalo massacre, and the El Paso massacre (and a large increase in hate crimes and other such violence during the Age of Trump and beyond) where white supremacists targeted Jewish people, black Americans, and Hispanics and Latinos for mass murder, antisemitism, racism(s), and white supremacy are lethal.
Ultimately, such values are an existential threat to America's multiracial pluralistic democracy and the overall safety and security of the country. On this, Lenny Grob, who is co-author of "Warnings: The Holocaust, Ukraine, and Endangered American Democracy", offered the following warning and call to action via email:
In the United States today much political grievance is inseparable from White nationalism, racism, and sexism. They breed and feed each other. As those divisive "isms" infect American life, another—antisemitism, hatred toward Jews and their communities—resurges in the United States. MAGA Republicanism harbors it.
The health of American democracy depends on rejecting antisemitism and embracing inclusive pluralism instead. Commitment to freedom of speech means that antisemitism cannot be silenced in the United States, but wise Americans will neither trust nor vote for any political party that harbors it.
John K. Roth agrees:
Democracy's existence invites its demise. That's partly because democracy encourages freedom of speech. Without that freedom, democracy would scarcely exist. But the quality of words matters. When they spew antisemitism and condone anti-Jewish attitudes and actions—sometimes by saying nothing—threats against democracy multiply. Democracy is vulnerable to antidemocratic power. To the extent that antisemitism exists, democracy does not. Whenever antisemitism is curbed and thwarted, democracy's chances get better.
Donald Trump and the other Republican fascists are continuing to wallow in antisemitism because they have made a calculation that there is a large and receptive audience for such appeals among their voters and the "conservative" public at large. In short, Trump and the other neofascists would not be trafficking in antisemitism and other forms of racism and white supremacy if they did not have good reason to believe it works. Based on Trump's fundraising numbers, his enduring popularity among MAGA and other Republican voters, and how he is tied with (or in many polls defeating) President Biden in a hypothetical 2024 rematch, there is a larger and hungry audience for such hateful and evil appeals to the worst and not the best of the American people and their collective character. | Explicit |
Salvatore Mancuso is one of the most notorious figures in Colombia’s six decades of conflict, responsible for some of the most heinous of crimes during the darkest chapters in the country’s history.
As a senior commander of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) – the country’s largest rightwing death squad – he ordered forced disappearances, sexual violence and massacres of civilians.
“There was not a single campesino who did not live in fear of that man,” said Angelica Salsero, representative of the Association of Victims in Cordoba, the northern Colombian region where the AUC sprang up. Like many others there, Salsero lost a family member to the paramilitaries.
So when president Gustavo Petro recently appointed Mancuso as a “peace manager” for negotiations with armed groups, Salsero – like many others – reacted with outrage, saying the decision makes a mockery of all those who lost loved ones or were forced from their homes.
“How can someone be named a Peace Manager when they committed so much war and death? It’s an insult to all of his victims,” she said.
Mancuso demobilised during a much-criticized peace process in 2003 and was extradited to the USA in 2008 for drug trafficking. He finished his sentence in prison in 2020 but remains in detention in Atlanta, Georgia, as he is yet to pay for his war crimes in Colombia.
Mancuso has accepted responsibility for more than 300 killings and is accused of committing about 75,000 crimes.
In the hopes of receiving lenient punishment the former paramilitary leader has testified virtually to Colombia’s special peace tribunal (JEP), giving details of how the country’s military, as well as its business and political elites, worked hand-in-glove with the paramilitaries to stamp out leftwing guerrillas.
Mancuso’s testimony is helping the JEP to untangle the truth of Colombia’s conflict and that knowledge could eventually help the government negotiate with other rightwing groups who remain active today, experts say.
His appointment as a peace envoy by Colombia’s first ever leftwing president, came as a shock to many.
But his inclusion in negotiations is part of Petro’s bold strategy to include figures across the political spectrum – even where their ideological ties or criminal past would usually exclude them from any official role.
In November Petro appointed José Félix Lafaurie, head of Fedegan – a traditionally conservative association of cattle ranchers – to lead talks with leftist ELN rebels.
Mancuso could be a useful bridge between the government and the Gulf Clan (ACG) – an armed drug faction which has become the largest criminal organisation in Colombia, say analysts. Negotiations with the ACG stalled and Petro broke off a ceasefire in March.
“Appointing Mancuso can only be positive in attempts to establish a channel with the ACG. He has managed to create some confidence with that group and his appointment has the potential to reinvigorate the channel between the government and the organisation,” said Elizabth Dickinson, senior analyst for Colombia at Crisis Group.
Mancuso’s testimonies helped authorities discover mass graves near the Venezuelan border in June, and the former AUC commander is encouraging other paramilitary leaders to join him in the peace process.
But victims argue that Mancuso’s dire human rights record means he should have no role in the country’s future.
Eliécer Arias, who belongs to the Indigenous Kankuamo people, lost his elder brother to Mancuso’s death squads who tortured their victims before burning them or throwing them into rivers.
“For 22 years as victims, we have waited for an act of reparation and to be recognised by the Colombian state. Then on Sunday I heard this news. It’s a huge blow to us families who have lost people to the paramilitaries. It’s not just sad and enraging. It’s humiliating.
“We’re always told that the victims are at the centre of these peace processes but in reality nobody is listening to us. This guy walks free and we, the victims, are left adrift once again,” Arias said.
It remains unclear when and if Mancuso will return to Colombia. He remains subject to an arrest warrant, and the country’s courts have confirmed that his appointment as peace manager would not exempt him from trial.
“The question is how this decision can be anything more than symbolic. What kind of peace processes can Mancuso promote from a detention site in the US? With whom?,” said Juan Pappier, deputy director for the Americas at Human Rights Watch.
Mancuso’s victims argue that wherever he ends up he should be given no honours.
“The appointment of Mancuso is an affront to all of us,” says Luz Marina Hache Contreras who was displaced by the Colombian military and paramilitary forces. “Recognition must be given to those who have suffered Mancuso’s crimes, not to the criminal himself. It is his responsibility to contribute to the truth without anything in return.” | Explicit |
A Sunday newsletter from the office of Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Az.) featured a link to an antisemitic website known for promoting conspiracies ranging from QAnon to Holocaust denial, according to a report from the progressive nonprofit Media Matters For America.
The newsletter included a link to USSA News, which boasts the tagline “do not let this happen to our country ☭.” Despite Gosar condemning antisemitism in the bulletin, USSA is rampant with antisemitic language, conspiracy theories about Jewish people, and reposted or re-promoted content from Neo-Nazi blogs.
Rep. Gosar’s office did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone’s request for comment.
According to MMFA’s review of USSA’s recent articles, posts include the promotion of a “documentary” claiming that the Nazi death camp Auschwitz was not actually an extermination camp. “This Documentary exposes lies. I am up for that. Any Lie must be exposed,” the author (writing under the pseudonym “Constitutional Nobody”) wrote. Another article, published Friday by Constitutional Nobody, advised the reader to “watch out for so-called ‘pro-White’ online activists who are trashing [Adolf] Hitler’s legacy, or just giving Hitler lip service.”
“Stand up for Hitler,” the writer added.
Earlier this month, USSA published a piece lauding the Nazi dictator for doing “everything in his power” to prevent the destruction of the white race.
Several pieces published on USSA feature links to known white supremacist and Neo-Nazi websites, including the Renegade Tribune. One article was little more than a reposted article from the antisemitic blog Unz Review.
Throughout his career in Congress, Gosar has repeatedly found himself in hot water over associations with extremist movements, antisemites, and conspiracy theorists.
In November 2021, Gosar was censured by the House after posting a doctored anime video depicting himself killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Coretz (D-N.Y.) on social media.
Earlier this year, Gosar promoted a link to an article from Veterans Today, another website that promotes antisemitic viewpoints. The article, which discusses statements made by Gosar regarding the war in Ukraine, is titled “Congressman: Jewish warmongers Nuland & Blinken ‘Are Dangers Fools Who Can Get Us All Killed.’”
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Last year, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell stated that there was “no place in the Republican Party for white supremacists or anti-Semitism,” after Gosar and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene participated in the America First Political Actions Conference. The event is organized and hosted by white supremacist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes.
But Gosar’s repeated engagement with extremist ideology has not motivated Republicans to take any sort of punitive action against him. In fact, when the GOP took control of the House in 2022, they rewarded Gosar by restoring the committee assignments he’d been stripped of following his censure. | Explicit |
A shooting has left two people dead in the centre of Auckland, New Zealand, hours before the city is due to open the Fifa Women's World Cup.
Six other people, including police officers, were injured and the gunman is also dead after the incident at 07:22 (19:22 GMT) on a construction site in the central business district.
PM Chris Hipkins said the attack was not being seen as an act of terrorism.
The tournament would go ahead as planned, he said.
The public, he added, could be assured police had neutralised the threat and there was no ongoing risk after the incident on Queen Street.
No political or ideological motive for the attack had been identified, the prime minister said.
The gunman, he said, had been armed with a pump-action shotgun.
Mr Hipkins thanked "the brave men and women of the New Zealand police who ran into the gunfire, straight into harm's way, in order to save the lives of others".
"These kinds of situations move fast and the actions of those who risk their lives to save others are nothing short of heroic," he added.
According to Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown, all Fifa personnel and football teams are safe and have been accounted for.
"I can't remember anything like this ever happening in our beautiful city. This morning's events have been tragic and distressing for all Aucklanders, as this is not something that we are used to," Mr Brown said on Twitter.
Fifa expressed its "deepest condolences" to the victims' families and said it was in communication with New Zealand authorities.
"The participating teams in close proximity to this incident are being supported in relation to any impact that may have taken place," it said.
The opening match is to be held between New Zealand and Norway in the city's Eden Park.
Sport Minister Grant Robertson said there would be extra police in the area to provide reassurance.
The ninth Women's World Cup is being co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia.
Earlier, the mayor warned people should stay home and avoid travelling into the city. Mr Brown said it was a "dreadful thing to happen" in his city.
Police say they heard reports of a person discharging a firearm inside the construction site, and the gunman moved through the building and continued to fire.
The man then went into a lift shaft and police attempted to engage with him.
Further shots were fired by the man and he was found dead a short time later, police say.
Following the shooting there was a large armed police presence in the central business district not far from the waterfront and the fan park.
Tatjana Haenni, chief sporting director for National Women's Soccer league USA, is staying close to where the shooting happened.
She told BBC News she had woken up to sounds of police cars arriving and was told to stay inside. "So far we feel safe," she said. | Explicit |
ROME -- Prosecutors in Turin have reportedly opened an investigation after the lead singer of British band Placebo insulted Premier Giorgia Meloni during a July 11 concert, calling her a fascist and racist.
The LaPresse and ANSA news agencies said the investigation into alleged “vilification” stemmed from a report by carabinieri police about the comments by Brian Molko during a performance at the Sonic Park Festival in Stupinigi, near Turin. LaPresse reported that as of Monday, Molko hadn’t been placed under investigation.
According to a cellphone video circulating on social media, Moko said in Italian: “Giorgia Meloni: piece of (expletive); fascist, racist (expletive).”
Emails and calls to Turin prosecutors seeking confirmation weren’t immediately returned. Facebook and Instagram messages left on Placebo’s official accounts went unanswered Wednesday.
Members of Meloni's far-right Brothers of Italy party, which has its roots in Italy's neo-fascist movement, denounced the insults and demanded an apology.
“We cannot let an international event that attracts so many people (to Italy) be ruined by filthy words which, amidst a general silence, aim to attack the institutions of the republic,” LaPresse quoted Brothers of Italy lawmaker Augusta Montaruli as saying. | Explicit |
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) briefly sent Wednesday’s House Oversight hearing into chaos when she displayed nude photos of President Joe Biden’s son Hunter engaging in sexual activities, prompting committee Democrats to deem her latest attention-grabbing stunt inappropriate.
Wednesday’s hearing was centered on the testimony of two IRS whistleblowers who allege that the criminal probe into Hunter Biden, which resulted in a plea deal on tax charges, was mishandled by the Justice Department, who they claim gave preferential treatment to the younger Biden.
For the first few hours, the hearing largely went as expected. Republicans touted the whistleblowers’ testimony as extremely credible while using it as a launching point for further speculation about the “Biden crime family” and allegations of foreign bribery schemes. Democrats, meanwhile, labeled the entire investigation into the Bidens as an “exercise in futility and embarrassment,” noting that House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) has yet to provide any evidence of the president’s wrongdoing.
It wasn’t until Greene got her chance to ask questions, however, that the hearing really turned into a circus of the absurd.
Armed with a series of posterboards emblazoned with X-rated images from the younger Biden’s infamous laptop, the MAGA congresswoman asked the two witnesses if they believed the president’s son’s involvement with prostitutes violated any federal laws.
“So when Hunter Biden paid for this woman to do this with him, to travel across state lines from California to Washington, D.C., on June 15, this is a violation of the Mann Act. This was prostitution,” she said, holding up censored photos of a nude Hunter Biden.
Joseph Ziegler, an IRS Special Agent with the Criminal Investigation Division, eventually told the Georgia lawmaker that he would need to refer her questions about Hunter Biden allegedly writing off payments to prostitutes to the House Ways and Means Committee. However, she persisted.
Even after Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) pointed out that Greene was nearly two minutes over her time, the congresswoman kept asking Ziegler about a potential IRS investigation into “Hunter Biden making sex tapes” and “online pornography.” She then waved around yet another large nude photo of the presidential scion, prompting gasps from the crowd and an objection from Raskin.
“Should we be displaying this, Mr. Chairman?!” Raskin exclaimed while another Democrat said this was “unbecoming” of the chamber.
Asking for a point of order, Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) complained about Greene publicizing images that “are not actually even allegations much less evidence of anything.” Conceding that it was a “good point,” Comer went on to say that the material had been “on the internet long before I became chairman of this committee” and therefore was already publicized.
Following Greene’s antics, some Democrats took her to task.
“Today’s hearing is like most of the majority’s investigations and hearings: A lot of allegations, zero proof, no receipts—but apparently, some dick pics,” Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) said later in the hearing.
Lacking a certain amount of decorum in his response, however, Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) tweeted that the photos revealed that “perhaps we should call Hunter Biden the ‘Big Guy,’” referencing an alleged nickname for the president in Hunter’s emails.
Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about whether Greene’s behavior was appropriate and if he planned any disciplinary action against her.
In a Newsmax interview later Wednesday, Greene admitted the sexually explicit images made her “uncomfortable,” but maintained that they amounted to evidence that “the American people deserve to see.”
“This is a weaponized Department of Justice. They are protecting Hunter Biden,” she argued on Rob Schmitt Tonight. | Explicit |
Abbe Lowell, Hunter Biden's attorney, filed an ethics complaint Friday against Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green after she displayed censured nude photos of the president's son at a committee hearing Wednesday.
Lowell demanded the Office of Congressional Ethics "immediately" examine Greene's actions, which he called "abhorrent behavior that blatantly violates House Ethics rules and standards of official conduct" in his message to the watchdog.
"Now more than ever, the House has a duty to make loud and clear that it does not endorse, condone, or agree with her outrageous, undignified conduct and brazen violations of the standards of official conduct that do not reflect creditably on the House of Representatives," Lowell wrote in a letter, which The Hill first reported.
Lowell's request stems from Greene holding up several graphic photos from Hunter Biden's laptop during a committee hearing Wednesday where IRS whistleblowers alleged misconduct in investigations into the Biden family.
The House Oversight Committee interviewed two IRS whistleblowers — Special Agent Joseph Ziegler, whose identity was revealed during the hearing, and his IRS supervisor Gary Shapley — who alleged political misconduct throughout the Hunter Biden investigation
Shapley previously blew the whistle on alleged political influence surrounding prosecutorial decisions throughout the years-long federal probe into President Biden's son.
Ziegler testified Wednesday that Hunter Biden itemized a $10,000 deduction on his 2018 tax return for a supposed golf club membership that was actually a sex club membership and that Hunter Biden wrote off payments to prostitutes as business expenses.
Greene held up censored nude photos from Hunter Biden's abandoned laptop and addressed Ziegler.
"So, when Hunter Biden paid for this woman to do this with him, to travel across state lines from California to Washington, D.C., on June 15, this is a violation of the Mann Act. This was prostitution," Greene said.
"This is evidence of Hunter Biden making sex — excuse me, this is my time – making pornography," she said, holding up another photo as Democrats objected.
One member interjected that showing the pictures was "unbecoming of this hearing," and another asked, "Should we be displaying this … in the committee?"
Ziegler, who identified himself as a gay Democrat with more than a dozen years serving within the IRS' criminal investigative division, appeared for the first time publicly Wednesday, and Shapley testified to the House Ways and Means Committee last month.
The whistleblowers allege that officials at the Justice Department, FBI and IRS interfered in the investigation into Hunter Biden and that politics influenced decisions in the case.
Greene's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ethics complaint. | Explicit |
MOUNT VERNON, N.Y. -- A police sergeant in a New York City suburb has been indicted on federal civil rights charges, accused of using his stun gun multiple times on a handcuffed man in mental crisis who was being involuntarily taken for medical treatment, prosecutors announced Thursday.
Sgt. Mario Stewart, a commander on the force in Mount Vernon, fired his Taser at the man seven times in two minutes, according to the indictment. He is charged with violating the person’s constitutional rights by using excessive force.
“Stewart’s alleged conduct not only betrayed his duty as an officer to protect those under his charge but also violated the law,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said.
Kevin Conway, Stewart’s attorney, said his client was doing his duty and did not violate anyone's rights or commit a crime.
“He merely was discharging his duty in responding to a mental health call for an individual who was in an agitated mental and physical state,” Conway said.
The sergeant and other officers were dispatched to a parking lot in March of 2019 to assist a man who was partially naked and appeared to be in distress.
Stewart, who was the supervisor at the scene, gave an order for the man to be handcuffed and taken down to the ground. Officers then tried to put him in a “restraint bag” for transportation. But they were only able to get it partially in place, according to the indictment, because the man was clinging to a strap on the side of the sack.
Stewart told the man to let go, and when he didn't, fired his stun gun repeatedly, prosecutors said.
At the time, the man was on the ground with his hands cuffed behind his back and his legs secured in the bag.
Conway said emergency medical personnel had unsuccessfully tried to get the man to agree to be transported for care, and Stewart had no choice but to use nonlethal means.
Stewart, of Brooklyn, pleaded not guilty at an appearance before a federal judge in White Plains on Thursday and was released on a personal bond, the lawyer said.
In a statement, the administration of Mount Vernon Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard, who took office several months after the incident, said “the alleged conduct predicating the Department of Justice’s charges is abhorrent and erodes the public’s trust in the hard-working men and women of the Mount Vernon Police Department.”
Mount Vernon is about 15 miles (20 kilometers) north of midtown Manhattan.
Emails seeking comment were sent to the police department and the police union. | Explicit |
A music festival in Malaysia has been canceled after the lead singer of British band The 1975 Matty Healy slammed the country’s anti-LGBTQ laws and kissed a bandmate on stage.
The on-stage incident at the Good Vibes Festival in Kuala Lumpur on Friday night prompted the country’s Ministry of Communications to cancel the rest of the three-day event.
Homosexual acts are illegal in Malaysia and punishable by fines and up to 20 years in prison.
In an expletive-laden speech during the band’s headline performance on Friday, captured in a video shared widely on social media, Healy said, “I do not see the point of inviting The 1975 to a country and then telling us who we can have sex with.”
“Unfortunately, you don’t get a set of loads of uplifting songs because I’m f***ing furious. And that’s not fair on you, because you’re not representative of your government. You are young people, and I’m sure a lot of you are gay and progressive,” he said addressing the audience. Healy added that the band considered canceling the show but decided against it to not disappoint the fans.
“If you want to invite me here to do a show, you can f*** off. I’ll take your money, you can ban me, but I’ve done this before and it doesn’t feel good,” Healy says in the video before bassist Ross MacDonald walks up to him and kisses him on stage.
‘Performative’
The Good Vibes Festival said in a statement following the incident, “We deeply regret to announce that the remaining schedule of the Good Vibes Festival 2023, planned for today and tomorrow has been canceled following the controversial conduct and remarks made by UK artist Matty Healy from the band The 1975.”
“This decision adheres to the immediate cancellation directive issued at 1:20 pm [local time], 22 July 2023, by the Ministry of Communications and Digital. The Ministry has underlined its unwavering stance against any parties that challenge, ridicule, or contravene Malaysian laws,” the festival’s statement added. “We sincerely apologize to all of our ticket holders, vendors, sponsors, and partners.”
Communications Minister Fahmi said Malaysia was committed to supporting the development of creative industries and freedom of expression, Reuters reported.
“However, never touch on the sensitivities of the community, especially those that are against the traditions and values of the local culture,” he said, according to the agency.
CNN has reached out to the Malaysian Home Affairs Ministry and the Prime Minister’s Office for comment.
Healy’s actions sparked controversy online, with some fans complaining that the band’s actions will result in a further crackdown on artistic expression and make it more difficult for music artists to perform in Malaysia in the future.
Members of Malaysa’s LGBTQ community have also criticized Healy’s actions, with some calling it “performative” and warning that it could lead to further discrimination.
It’s not the first time The 1975 frontman has sparked controversy – Healy drew criticism earlier this year for appearing to do a Nazi salute on stage during a song called “Love it If We Made It”, as he sang lyrics that are critical of Kanye West.
In 2019, Healy kissed a male fan during a concert in Dubai, in defiance of the region’s anti-LGBT laws.
Healy later posted on Twitter: “Thank you Dubai you were so amazing. I don’t think we’ll be allowed back due to my ‘behaviour’ but know that I love you and I wouldn’t have done anything differently given the chance again.” | Explicit |
In her desperation to prove wrongdoing by Hunter Biden, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene may have sent his nude photos to minors.
The House Oversight Committee heard testimony on Wednesday from two IRS agents who say the Department of Justice dragged its feet on investigating the younger Biden for tax fraud. The hearing produced zero actual evidence, so instead, Greene tried to claim that Biden engaged in sex trafficking and listed payments to sex workers as a tax write-off.
And now, Greene may have emailed the nudes to minors. The Georgia representative emailed her constituents Wednesday evening claiming she had confirmed Biden was guilty of sex trafficking and tax fraud (she had not). The email included a video that showed his nudes.
There is no screening for age when signing up for Greene’s email newsletter, so any minors who subscribe—such as for a social studies project or simply to stay up to date—have now received nudes from their congresswoman. If that is the case, then Greene would not only have violated her state’s revenge porn law, but she could also have broken federal laws banning the distribution of obscene material to minors.
House Republicans, led by Comer, have for months accused the Bidens of corruption and other forms of wrongdoing, although they have yet to produce any actual evidence. The hearing on Wednesday was meant to focus on Hunter Biden’s plea deal over his taxes, which will allow him to avoid jail time.
IRS agents Gary Shapley and Joe Ziegler testified before the Oversight Committee about Hunter Biden’s alleged wrongdoing. Jamie Raskin, the Oversight ranking member, had warned earlier Wednesday, however, that Shapley and Ziegler have already “undermined this Republican narrative” in their previous depositions. | Explicit |
A court in Brussels has found six men guilty of terrorist murder, more than seven years after suicide bomb attacks killed 32 people at the city's airport and a metro station in March 2016.
After a long trial and 19 days of jury deliberations, the court in Brussels returned their verdicts.
Several of those on trial had already been convicted of taking part in the Paris terror attacks months earlier.
Salah Abdeslam was arrested days before the Brussels bombings.
He was found guilty in France last year of the 2015 Paris bomb and gun attacks in which 130 died. The Belgian trial, which began last December, has now convicted him of murder and attempted murder in Brussels too.
Another of those now found guilty of both bombings, Mohamed Abrini, was identified on CCTV fleeing Zaventem airport when his explosives did not go off.
He became known as the "man in the hat" and was among a number of suspects arrested in Brussels a few weeks later.
The attacks in Brussels took place within an hour of each other on 22 March 2016.
Two bombs went off shortly before 08:00 at opposite ends of the departures hall at Zaventem airport, leaving 16 people dead.
Then, little more than an hour later, a further blast happened on a train at Maelbeek metro station in Brussels' European quarter, close to EU institutions. Another 16 people died in that bombing.
Hundreds more were wounded. | Explicit |
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ODESA, Ukraine (AP) — Russia struck the Ukrainian Black Sea city of Odesa on Sunday, keeping up a barrage of attacks that has damaged critical port infrastructure in southern Ukraine in the past week. At least one person was killed and 22 others wounded in the early morning attack, officials said.
Four children were among those wounded in the blasts, which severely damaged 25 landmarks across the city, including the historic Transfiguration Cathedral.
Russia has been launching repeated attacks on Odesa, a key hub for exporting grain, since Moscow canceled a landmark grain deal on Monday amid Kyiv’s grinding efforts to retake its occupied territories.
After the fires were put out at the Orthodox cathedral, volunteers donned hard hats, shovels and brooms to begin removing rubble and try to salvage any artifacts — under the watchful gaze of the saints whose paintings remained intact. Local officials said the icon of the patroness of the city was retrieved from under the rubble.
“The destruction is enormous, half of the cathedral is now roofless,” said Archdeacon Andrii Palchuk, as workers brought documents and valuables out of the building, its floor inundated with water used by firefighters to extinguish the blaze.
Palchuk said the damage was caused by a direct hit from a Russian missile that penetrated the building down to the basement. Two people inside were wounded.
“But with God’s help, we will restore it,” he said, bursting into tears.
A woman who came to help with the cleanup said she loved the cathedral “for its tranquility and grace.”
“When you enter this church, you feel like you’re beyond the world,” said Liudmyla, who gave only her first name. “I have a feeling that God, to protect apartments, took this pain, this explosion upon himself.”
Anna Fetchenko, who came to Odesa for a volunteer meeting, also pitched in to clear the debris. “I wanted to go to the seaside, but last night was so frightening that I cried for the first time in 2023,” she said.
“This is our Ukrainian heritage, and now it’s taken away from us.”
Later Sunday, Palchuk urged people to gather in front of the destroyed part of the cathedral for an outdoor service and to pray in front of a sacred icon that “miraculously survived.”
“We will pray that it protects us from the Russians,” he said.
The cathedral belongs to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which has been accused of links to Russia. The church has insisted that it is loyal to Ukraine, has denounced the Russian invasion from the start and even declared its independence from Moscow.
WATCH: Russia’s war in Ukraine leads to historic split in the Orthodox Church
But Ukrainian security agencies have claimed that some in the Ukrainian church maintain close ties with Moscow. They’ve raided numerous church holy sites and posted photos of rubles, Russian passports and leaflets with messages from the Moscow patriarch as proof some church officials are loyal to Russia.
UNESCO strongly condemned the attack on the cathedral and other heritage sites and said it will send a mission in coming days to assess damage. Odesa’s historic center was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site earlier this year, and the agency said the Russian attacks contradict Moscow’s pledge to take precautious to spare World Heritage sites in Ukraine.
“This outrageous destruction marks an escalation of violence against the cultural heritage of Ukraine. I strongly condemn this attack against culture, and I urge the Russian Federation to take meaningful action to comply with its obligations under international law,” UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said in a statement.
Regional Gov. Oleh Kiper said that six residential buildings were destroyed by the strikes.
Some people were trapped in their apartments following the attack, which left rubble strewn in the street and partly blocking the road.
Svitlana Molcharova, 85, was rescued by emergency workers. But after she received first aid, she refused to leave her destroyed apartment. “I will stay here,” she said.
“I woke up when the ceiling started to fall on me. I rushed into the corridor,” said Ivan Kovalenko, a 19-year-old resident of the building. “That’s how I lost my home in Mykolaiv, and here, I lost my rented apartment.”
His unit revealed a partially collapsed ceiling and a balcony that came off the side of the building. All the windows were blown out.
Ukraine’s air force reported on the Telegram messaging app that Russia had launched 19 missiles in the Odesa region, including five high-precision winged Onyx missiles and four sea-to-shore Kalibr cruise missiles. It said that Ukrainian air defenses shot down nine.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Sunday its forces attacked sites in Odesa “where terrorist acts against the Russian Federation were being prepared.”
In a later statement, the ministry denied that its attacks struck the Transfiguration Cathedral, claiming the destruction of the cathedral was likely due to “the fall of a Ukrainian anti-aircraft guided missile.”
The attacks come days after President Vladimir Putin pulled Russia out of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a wartime deal that enabled Ukraine’s exports to reach many countries facing the threat of hunger.
WATCH: Russia ends grain export deal with Ukraine, raising fears about global food security
Earlier Russian attacks have crippled significant parts of export facilities in Odesa and nearby Chornomorsk, and destroyed 60,000 tons of grain, according to Ukraine’s Agriculture Ministry.
Putin vowed to retaliate against Kyiv for an attack Monday on the crucial Kerch Bridge linking Russia with the Crimean Peninsula, which the Kremlin illegally annexed in 2014.
— Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko were meeting Sunday in St. Petersburg, two days after Moscow warned Poland that any aggression against its neighbor and ally would be considered an attack on Russia. Putin said talks would also take place Monday, and declared that Kyiv’s counteroffensive had failed.
Lukashenko said Wagner troops, who launched joint drills with the Belarusian military on Thursday, almost a month after their short-lived rebellion against Moscow, wanted to go west “on an excursion to Warsaw, to Rzeszow” in Poland, but that Belarus would not allow the mercenary force to relocate.
“I am keeping them in central Belarus, like we agreed. … We are controlling what is happening” with Wagner, he said.
— Kharkiv regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov reported Sunday that two people were killed in Russian strikes on the northeastern province Saturday, when Russia attacked populated areas of the Kharkiv, Chuhuiv, Kupiansk and Izium districts.
Donetsk regional Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said four residents were also killed and 11 wounded in attacks Saturday.
Morton reported from London.
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An 8-year-old girl was found dead after vanishing from a Pennsylvania church camp nearly 50 years ago, and now a former pastor faces charges in Georgia, officials said.
The case dates to August 1975, when Gretchen Harrington was attending a summer bible camp. The girl didn’t show up to one of the churches that was hosting the camp, causing her father to grow worried and report her missing, according to the Delaware County District Attorney’s Office in Pennsylvania.
Gretchen’s remains were found about two months later in Ridley Creek State Park, officials said.
Now, almost 48 years later, a man who served as pastor of one of the churches that hosted the camp is charged in the girl’s death. Prosecutors didn’t list attorney information for the man, identified in a July 24 news release as 83-year-old David Zandstra of Marietta, Georgia.
This is a developing story and will be updated. | Explicit |
QUEEN CREEK, Ariz. - Assaults on students at a private residential school in the East Valley are of course raising concerns.
Specifically, cases of staff members accused of getting physical with juveniles – which is against protocol.
"They’re supposed to use de-escalation techniques, they’re supposed to talk to the kids, try and calm them down, but every time we’ve come out here, we come for the same thing," Sarah Shanno, an agent with the Department of Child Safety (DCS), was overheard on body camera footage saying to police.
It's where challenges of protocol, discipline and restraint collide.
"He grabbed me by my legs, threw me on my back. My head hit the floor," a victim was heard saying on body camera footage.
What's the Arizona Department of Child Safety really up against?
"We’ve been having a lot of issues with Canyon State, so they don’t really give us videos without you guys here," a DCS agent said to police.
They call on law enforcement to step in and advocate for delinquent youth and at-risk children.
Case by case
On April 8 of last year, a Queen Creek Police officer responds to Desert Lily Academy, the all-girls school located at Canyon State Academy (CSA).
Body camera footage is blurred due to the fact this is private property and minors are involved.
The campus is state-certified, licensed with the DCS and is owned by Rite of Passage.
Shanno is the DCS agent who called Queen Creek Police.
"One of the staff was trying to restrain one of the kiddos and in the process of taking her down, she has bruising and I’m gonna be frank, a big a--, like it looks like road rash down the side of her face," Shanno said to Queen Creek Police.
Security footage shows the student walking up a ramp to a building that is password restricted.
Robert Stapleton is the CSA staff member who follows her and forces her away from the door before grabbing her from behind. A struggle ensues and he takes her to the ground.
"A little context. She’s been all over the place all day. They’ve tried to keep their hands off of her, she’s been in this building before. My understanding is she’s gotten razor blades from the shavers and other kind of contraband things," Brian Heath, executive director of Rite of Passage said to police.
According to DCS, staff members are not supposed to put their hands on students and it took two days to notify the police about this incident.
"They are what we call a QRTP. So technically they’re not supposed to be putting their hands on these kids, but they do, and the kids have injuries 90% of the time," Shanno said to police. QRTP stands for Qualified Residential Treatment Program.
Police did submit charges of assault for Stapleton as well as the girl who allegedly tried hitting him. The county attorney’s office declined to prosecute Stapleton due to no reasonable likelihood of conviction.
‘He hit me so hard’
On April 28, 2022, Queen Creek Police Officer Christian Williams arrives at Canyon State because a student has been punched in the chest by an employee.
The alleged reason?
"'Excuse me, Mr. Clark, may I please pass gas?' And he hits me in my chest. Like, I was literally asking to pass gas. He hit me so hard. Have you seen the video?" the victim was heard saying in blurred body cam footage.
"I haven’t yet," Officer Williams said.
"I literally had to go sit down for a second to catch my breath so that I could walk up here and report it," the student said.
Surveillance video shows the student walk to the front of the classroom, approaching staff member Anton Clark.
"My perspective, being 30, you’re a little less than half my age right? I couldn’t even fathom closed fist striking you with any real intent," Officer Williams said to the student.
CSA suspended Clark immediately. He later told police that the victim would not sit down and was disrupting the class.
Clark was charged with aggravated assault but completed the felony diversion program to have his case dismissed.
‘Now he has four burn marks on his face’
On May 19, 2022, officer Williams is back at CSA for another assault call.
"My kid tripped on the floor, got a bloody nose, and while he was on the floor, Peña knelt down in a kneeling position and put his elbow on the left side of my kid’s cheekbone, rubbing his face into the ground, so now he has four burn marks on his face," a DCS agent told Officer Williams.
The DCS agent is talking about Edwin Peña Lopez, a CSA staff member.
Classroom surveillance video shows Lopez tackling a student to the ground. He gets on top of the boy, holding him down.
"And then he came and put his elbow on me on this side of my face. That’s why this all got scraped up," the victim was heard explaining on body camera footage.
According to police, Lopez says the student was told to leave the class due to bad behavior. He explains the technique he used called a "two-shoulder assist."
"The hold that you were doing. Is that a hold that is taught here?" Officer Williams asked Lopez.
He answers, "Yes, I believe it’s called a shoulder assist. Kind of escort the student physically."
Officer Williams asks another staff member about the type of restraint used.
"Is any of that trained?"
The answer: "No," the staff member said.
Lopez is charged with aggravated assault and enrolled in the felony diversion program.
Student tackled to the concrete
On July 18, 2022, Queen Creek Police return to campus.
"He kept grabbing me, telling me to go inside, he shoved me so I shoved him back and then he tried to restrain me and then he grabbed me by my legs and my head hit the floor," a student said to police.
The 16-year-old student says staff member Phillip Miller tackled him onto concrete.
He tells the officer he was upset about something and needed a minute to calm down before being taken to the ground and placed in a "seated restraint."
"They stretch your legs out and someone sits on your leg and someone pulls your arms back," the victim said.
This happened nearly a month prior to the report.
CSA's program director Timothy Gloston tells police the force was unnecessary.
"He should have definitely gave him some space – the kid is not listening to him. He should allow another staff to take over," Gloston said to police.
Miller was fired. Prosecutors declined the aggravated assault charge due to the "victim being reluctant."
More reports of assault at Canyon State
In four of the six assault cases we reviewed, DCS contacted the police first, not CSA.
FOX 10 spoke to the chief of Queen Creek PD, Randy Brice.
"What we’re seeing the majority of is sometime during their review or report or internal workflow process, DCS is determining ‘Hey, we need to call the police on this because we think this meets a certain level of a criminal act,’" Chief Brice said.
Police reports reveal on July 20, 2022, a DCS caseworker told officers that a CSA staff member assaulted a kid two days prior, allegedly throwing the boy into a wall and causing him to black out.
On August 6 of last year, the same DCS agent notifies police about a CSA staff member, Larry Dailey, allegedly squeezing an eight-year-old boy’s shoulder so hard, it left bruising.
There’s no video of these two incidents and the county attorney's office declined to prosecute both cases, citing no reasonable likelihood of conviction.
Chief Brice says GCPD has offered CSA training on de-escalation and restraint tactics.
"But DCS really is the governing agency when it comes to what they do in those situations, but any time juveniles involved, we’re very careful. We look at this stuff very seriously and we’re committed to making sure we follow through on those," Chief Brice said.
Police reports show commonalities brought up by the staff members investigated.
Some say Canyon State is understaffed, leaving employees outnumbered by students, the restraints performed are not effective, and techniques taught by CSA do not work for "real situations."
CSA & DCS statements
CSA officials did not want to speak on camera, but a statement reads:
"The safety of our youth is paramount. Canyon State Academy has a zero tolerance for abuse, properly reports any allegations of misconduct, and terminates or retrains staff based on investigation findings.
The isolated incidents occurred a year ago, and since that time, we have worked in partnership with the Department of Child Safety and Queen Creek Police Department and have substantially reduced the number of incidents and calls to law enforcement. The actions of a few terminated staff should not define the hard work of the hundreds of dedicated employees working every day to deliver quality services to Arizona youth."
The Department of Child Safety says CSA has been transparent in reporting to DCS through a hotline.
The agency's statement reads:
"The safety and well-being of children in our care is our first priority. The Department has been working with Canyon State Academy to address both contractual and licensing matters as it relates to this issue and how to better manage youth who have experienced trauma. In all cases, Canyon State was transparent in reporting what they knew at the time to DCS. In cases where CSA was aware of an allegation, it was reported to the Hotline per mandated reporter law. The Department has partnered with Canyon State leadership and their risk management team to provide better training and resources for staff. There has been a reduction of events and improved outcomes for youth as a result."
By the numbers
Below are the statuses of each case.
- Robert Stapleton: MCAO declined prosecution. No reasonable likelihood of conviction.
- Anton Clark: MCAO did prosecute for aggravated assault on a minor. He completed the felony diversion program for the charge to be dismissed.
- Edwin Peña Lopez: MCAO did prosecute for aggravated assault on a minor and is enrolled in the felony diversion program.
- Phillip Miller: MCAO declined prosecution due to the victim being "reluctant."
- James Parks: MCAO declined prosecution citing no reasonable likelihood of conviction.
- Larry Dailey: MCAO declined prosecution citing no reasonable likelihood of conviction.
Since the inception of the Queen Creek Police Department in January 2022, there have been 19 cases stemming from CSA as of June 26 of this year.
Four of them led to the suspects being charged, five of them were declined to be prosecuted by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, six were found not to have probable cause and four remain either under investigation or are still being reviewed by the county attorney's office.
UPDATE: Since the inception of the Queen Creek Police Department in January 2022, there have been 19 cases stemming from CSA as of July 19 of this year. Four of them led to five suspects being charged with assault or some sort of assault type charge, five of them were declined to be prosecuted by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, eight were found not to have probable cause and two remain either under investigation or are still being reviewed by the county attorney's office. | Explicit |
A bloody machete fight in a Boston suburb led to the arrest of three illegal immigrants, who are now in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody, the agency said this week.
Officers from the Waltham Police Dept. responded on July 14 to a report of a fight involving a machete. The Department said officers discovered a victim with a deep head laceration from the weapon, who was transported to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
It said one person was hit with the weapon and two others were assaulted trying to stop the attack. Two men were arrested that evening and another was arrested two days later.
Police said the assault was a result of a neighbor dispute over a "motor vehicle incident." The incident was first reported by the Boston Herald.
Police arrested Osman Aguilar-Borrayo for armed assault with intent to murder, assault and battery on a pregnant woman, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and mayhem.
ICE told Fox News Digital that he had initially entered the U.S. in 2014, but was removed under expedited removal that year. He re-entered illegally in July 2021 and was released into the U.S. under prosecutorial discretion by Border Patrol.
Police also arrested Bryan Aguilar-Borrayo for mayhem. He entered illegally in Texas in 2019, was arrested by Border Patrol, and was released into the U.S. with a Notice to Appear in court.
Kevin Aguilar-Borrayo was also arrested for Mayhem on July 16. He also entered the U.S. in July 2019, and was processed with a Notice to Appear and released on an order of recognizance, ICE said.
The agency said that all three men, from Guatemala, are now in ICE custody awaiting immigration hearings.
"U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers make enforcement decisions on a case-by-case basis in a professional and responsible manner, informed by their experience as law enforcement officials and in a way that best protects against the greatest threats to the homeland," a spokesperson said.
The arrests come as the U.S. remains in a border crisis now in its third year. Republicans have criticized the administration for reducing ICE enforcement priorities while expanding "catch-and-release." The administration won a major case challenging the ICE priorities before the Supreme Court last month.
The administration has pointed to recent border numbers, which showed a sharp drop in June in numbers to a level not seen since February 2021. However, those numbers, 144,000 migrant encounters, remain high compared to pre-2021 numbers. | Explicit |