Article
stringlengths 535
17.6k
| Category
stringclasses 2
values |
|---|---|
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 |
The Washington Examiner went to Minnesota following news that the state's Democrats, known formally as the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, had fast-tracked one of the most progressive agendas in the country. What we found was a struggling Republican Party, angry small business owners, and a complete stonewall from Democrats. In this series, the Washington Examiner takes a look at broken promises lawmakers made, how Republicans are trying to control the carnage, and the unintended consequences of some of the bills passed, including one that could wipe out small business owners.
MINNEAPOLIS — Every Wednesday for the past eight years, Jerrilynn Sweeney has either made or bought lunch for her employees at Innovated Building Concepts, a commercial siding business in Burnsville, Minnesota. She did it to build camaraderie between the office workers and those in the shop or working in the field.
"We all sit in one room and eat," Sweeney told the Washington Examiner. "Everybody knows everybody's kids. We can laugh, we can joke, but when it comes down to 'We're in a load of [trouble], we've got to get this done,' they all stand up and help one another."
But these days, there's not much laughing going on.
Like thousands of other small business owners in the state, Sweeney is bracing for new laws passed this year by the Democratic-controlled legislature that has targeted companies like hers and saddled them with huge expenses and a maze of regulations, forcing some to consider closing up shop for good.
Minnesota was part of a midterm wave where voters rejected Republican candidates. The state's Democrats, known as the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, control four of the state's eight U.S. House seats, both of its U.S. Senate seats, both chambers of the state legislature, and all other statewide offices, including the governor's mansion. They have pushed through one of the most progressive agendas in the country this year at a breakneck pace, often shutting out the concerns of the people their regulations will affect.
Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) signed off on the creation of a state-run program that will allow full-time, part-time, temporary, and seasonal workers to take months off work with partial pay after having a child or when the worker or family member has a serious medical issue. Time off will also be allowed for adoptions, the military deployment of a family member, or in some cases, domestic abuse or stalking. Lawmakers capped the time off at 20 weeks with a 12-week limit on the type of leave. Earlier versions of the bill had allowed for workers to take up to 12 weeks for their own health issues and 12 weeks for a family member in the same calendar year.
"The vast majority of nations have this because they know it's the right thing to do," Walz said. "They also know it's the right thing to do to build your economy, to make it resilient and strong and healthy."
The new law doesn't go into effect until 2026, but any tweaks are likely to be minimal. Even if Republicans win a majority in next year's House elections, there is little chance any meaningful change will take place.
"You start thinking about this stuff, and you think, 'Holy s***, they're going to put us all out of business," Sweeney said. "I've worked my ass off for this company."
Innovated Building Concepts, which has less than 20 employees, opened its doors in 1987. Sweeney and her husband Pat bought the place in 2011, and the company's portfolio includes a Crayola installation, the US Bank Stadium parking ramp, LL Bean at the Mall of America, Dave & Buster's, and the Killebrew pedestrian bridge.
"When we first started, we didn't take paychecks. It was 2016 before we actually took a full salary," she said, adding that she once worked 50 days in a row. Despite the blood, sweat, and tears the couple has poured into the business, their future remains uncertain.
The same can be said for Mike Flynn, a small business owner in southeastern Minnesota, who owns a small ranch, has an interest in the Whitewater Travel Plaza and Restaurant off Highway 190, and is a dentist.
The day the Washington Examiner caught up with him, he was wearing his dentist hat.
"They don't know the storm that they created," he said. "To be a legislator, you don't have to be a business person, and you don't have to major in mathematics or balance a checkbook. You have advisers who tell you how sweet and perfect this is going to be, but the devil is in the detail. What is the unintended consequence of this passage?"
Flynn said a comparison between Minnesota's law and those in other states points to some troubling signs.
"The Minnesota one is the most aggressive, loose one in the country, second to nobody as far as how extensive they want this to be," he said, adding that the state is already facing a labor shortage and small businesses are struggling to hire everyone from "dental hygienists to clerks, cooks, and servers" that are not only "hard to find but hard to replace on a temporary basis."
Flynn said there are too many questions that still need answering, such as who pays for medical insurance if an employee works two jobs and whether employers will be required to match 401(k) contributions when employees are on leave.
John Reynolds, state director for the National Federation of Independent Businesses, which represents more than 10,000 small business owners in the state, told the Washington Examiner that they feel "betrayed" by their elected officials.
"The idea that they turned their backs on us really captures how most small business owners feel here," he said, adding that they had to navigate the pandemic and well as inflation and supply chain shortage headwinds. "We had the biggest surplus by far the state has ever had, and [small business owners] feel like that's the product of their hard work. Being the economic backbone of a lot of parts of the state, I think they thought, 'Hey, this is going to be a time when we get some relief.'"
For their part, Democratic lawmakers have touted their accomplishments this session and have rebranded themselves as friends of small business.
"It's a really puzzling conclusion from the session," Reynolds said. "The taxes are just part of the story. Minnesota is a really expensive place to live and an expensive place to do business... You name it, we tax it."
Minnesota was ranked the most expensive state for new entrepreneurs, according to a July state-by-state comparison from online small business adviser SimplifyLLC. The state also has the country's highest corporate income tax rate at 9.8% and has high labor costs.
“I am not surprised,” state GOP Rep. Natalie Zeleznikar told the Duluth News Tribune about the No. 1 ranking, adding that the legislation passed in this year's session was akin to a "war on small business."
For Sweeney, it's heartbreaking to imagine what the next few years could hold for her company.
"We're small. We can't absorb that kind of money," she said. "Almost everything they passed is going to hurt small businesses. You shouldn't be allowed to run for legislator unless you've run a small business yourself so you know what a real budget is and what it takes. What you take away from us, you take away from the next person and the next."
The Washington Examiner reached out to Democratic leadership in the state and Walz's office multiple times for comment but did not receive a response.
Catch Part Two of the Washington Examiner's Minnesota series tomorrow where we take a look at the state of the Republican Party as it tries to claw back power. | Explicit |
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 gunman killed two people at a downtown 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 tournament.
Authorities said the attacker was also dead and that six other people, including at least one police officer, were injured during the shooting. The violence took place near hotels where Team Norway and other football teams have been staying.
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 organisers 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.”
Hipkins said the attacker was armed with a pump-action shotgun. Police arrived one minute after the first emergency call and had run into harm’s way to save lives, he said.
“These kinds of situations move fast and the actions of those who risk their lives to save others are nothing short of heroic,” Hipkins said.
Acting Police Superintendent Sunny Patel said the man began shooting at the site on Lower Queen Street at about 7:20am local time (19:20 GMT).
He moved through the building, firing at people there, Patel explained. Police swarmed the area.
“Upon reaching the upper levels of the building, the male has contained himself within the [lift] 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 the police shot the gunman or if he killed himself.
Outside, armed police officers had the commercial business district on heavy lockdown with streets cordoned off surrounding the tourist harbour ferry terminal area. Police demanded bystanders disperse and ordered people inside their office buildings to shelter in place.
The incident comes as football teams and fans gathered in New Zealand for the FIFA Women’s World Cup. The opening match is scheduled for Thursday between New Zealand and Norway.
Team Norway captain Maren Mjelde said team players 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 United States team also said all its players and staff were accounted for and safe. It said the team was in communication with local authorities and proceeding with its daily schedule.
A subsequent buyback scheme saw gun owners hand over more than 50,000 AR-15-style rifles and other assault weapons to police.
The ban does not include all semi-automatic weapons. Hipkins said it wasn’t immediately clear if the weapon the gunman used would have been covered by the ban.
Officials at Eden Park, where the opening match is taking place, said they were encouraging ticket holders to arrive early and there would be an increased security presence at the venue.
Tourism New Zealand cancelled a media welcome party, which was scheduled to be held Thursday afternoon at a location within the cordoned-off area. | Explicit |
Man jailed in Turkey for 20 days just because he ‘looked gay’
A gay Portuguese man claims he was arrested in Istanbul, Turkey and jailed for 20 days, just because he “looked gay”.
On 25 June, Miguel Alvaro’s holiday took an unexpected turn when he was arrested by police in Istanbul after asking for directions.
The arrest coincided with a nearby LGBTQ+ parade which was unsanctioned by authorities, and Alvaro believes that the officers had orders to arrest a certain number of people in connection with the event.
Alvaro told PinkNews he was “shocked, appalled and very angry” about the arrest.
“They grabbed my arms and I tried to free myself. One of them hit me in the ribs, they pushed me against a van, they hit me on the shoulder, which started to bleed,” he told LBC.
Following the arrest, Alvaro claims he spent five hours in the police van, where he alleges he was told he was detained “because of my appearance”.
“They thought I would participate in an unauthorised LGBTI+ march that was going to take place nearby because I looked gay,” he said. “I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
In total Alvaro said he spent 13 hours in the police van before being taken to the police station to be processed.
He was then moved to an immigration centre, which he said had maggots crawling on the sheets, while he claims inmates threatened him because of his sexuality.
During his time at the immigration centre he said “they [inmates] were barely given any water” and he “hardly slept for fear of being attacked” during his stay in prison.
Finally, in early July, Alvaro was allowed to make his first phone call. He chose to ring his dad, who asked the Portuguese embassy to help get him freed.
‘Disappointed, shattered and mentally drained’
It was 20 days later, on 12 July, that he was finally freed. Alvaro told PinkNews he felt “disappointed, shattered and mentally drained, but relieved to be going somewhere safe”.
Following the ordeal, he said he has been left “in a horrible psychological state”, adding: “I’m very afraid of the consequences in the future.
“I can’t believe this happened to me. I pray for justice to be done.”
The experience has left him warning others, especially the LGBTQ+ community, not to visit Turkey.
It isn’t illegal to be gay in Turkey, but the country has become an increasingly hostile place for queer people with senior politicians, religious leaders and retailers launching attacks on the LGBTQ+ community. Pride events have been systematically banned in Turkey since 2015.
Despite the ban, the LGBTQ+ community and allies came together to celebrate in Istanbul and Izmir, but their courageous move saw more than 200 people detained by police.
MyPinkNews members are invited to comment on articles to discuss the content we publish, or debate issues more generally. Please familiarise yourself with our community guidelines to ensure that our community remains a safe and inclusive space for all. | Explicit |
AUSTIN, Texas — Former El Paso Rep. Beto O'Rourke is calling on President Joe Biden to take aggressive action against Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) following a trooper’s alarming report that state-driven border security efforts have harmed immigrants.
O'Rourke, who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 and governor in 2022, urged the White House to unleash the full power of the federal government against Abbott. Abbott has sent more than 10,000 soldiers and police to the border since 2021 to respond to a record-high number of illegal crossings from Mexico, which he said Biden has not done enough to stop.
"If @potus does not stop Abbott now, he will find new ways to hurt and kill people at the border," O'Rourke tweeted.
Earlier this week, the Washington Examiner obtained a July 3 email that a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper-medic deployed to Eagle Pass, Texas, had sent to his superior. The DPS employee raised human rights concerns about how the state's Operation Lone Star.
The complaint alleged that immigrants had been hurt and even killed as a direct result of the state's barbed wire and water buoy barriers at the border. The trooper's name is being withheld for privacy reasons.
“I truly believe in the mission of Operation Lone Star; I believe we ... have stepped over a line into the in humane [sic]. We need to operate it correctly in the eyes of God,” the trooper wrote. “We need to recognize that these are people who are made in the image of God and need to be treated as such.”
O'Rourke's plea Wednesday was a follow-up to his initial call on Monday for Washington to take action.
"There is one person who has the power to stop Abbott. Stop him from deploying razor wire & medieval drowning devices designed to ensnare & mutilate," O'Rourke wrote in a tweet Monday. "Stop every illegal thing he’s doing on the border that ends up killing human beings. Mr. President, we need you to act."
Internal communications from DPS showed that the trooper's email was forwarded throughout the department for two weeks as officials debated how to handle the concerns.
DPS spokesman Travis Considine on Tuesday defended the state's actions.
“There is not a directive or policy that instructs Troopers to withhold water from migrants or push them back into the river," Considine wrote in an email.
DPS Director Steve McCraw responded multiple times, including calling for an audit of the department's policies. The DPS inspector general has formally launched an investigation into a trooper’s claims.
The trooper's email stated that he had been working on June 25 when he encountered “120 people camped out along the fence line,” including small children and nursing babies. The trooper said he was twice given orders to "push people back into the water to go to Mexico."
On June 30, a 4-year-old girl who tried to cross the wire was “pressed back” by Texas National Guard soldiers “due to the orders given to them.” The girl fainted shortly after and was then extricated and transferred to the trooper for emergency care, according to the account.
That same day, the trooper treated an adult man who had a large laceration on his leg from trying to free a child on top of a “trap” in the river and, in doing so, cut his leg open. DHS provided various pictures of the wounded immigrants.
The trooper's email listed a boy who broke his leg and a 19-year-old pregnant woman "doubled over" in the wire and in “obvious pain” as she had a miscarriage.
The following day, Border Patrol informed the trooper of a separate incident in which a mother and two children drowned trying to cross the river, which the trooper stated was because the casualty wire “forces people to cross in other areas that are deeper.”
The injuries have not stopped since then. In the first two weeks of July, Border Patrol’s Del Rio, Texas, regional office listed six incidents in which immigrants who crossed the border illegally were injured and received elevated medical care as a result of trying to pass through circular concertina wire along the U.S. shoreline.
House Democrats have also called this week on the Department of Homeland Security and State Department to intervene and stop Abbott's border security operation.
Abbott issued a statement Tuesday afternoon, doubling down on the mission.
"Operation Lone Star agency partners use verbal warnings and signage to direct migrants attempting to illegally cross from Mexico into Texas to use ports of entry to protect the lives of migrants, DPS troopers, and Texas National Guard soldiers," Abbott said in a statement. "Until President Biden reverses his open border policies and does his job to secure the border, Texas will continue protecting Texans and Americans from the chaos along the border."
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. | Explicit |
An author was murdered in a Buckinghamshire village in 2015 by a churchwarden who went on to defraud the victim's elderly neighbour. The shocking case is now being re-told in the BBC TV drama The Sixth Commandment. How was the killer caught?
Ben Field appeared to be a charming and religious young man who gave sermons in his father's Baptist church.
But under the surface lurked a sinister plot to dupe the vulnerable by manipulating them into fake relationships and then getting them to change their wills.
Field is currently serving a life sentence for the murder of Peter Farquhar in Maids Moreton. He was found not guilty of plotting to kill Mr Farquhar's neighbour Ann Moore-Martin but admitted defrauding her.
Who were the victims?
Both Peter Farquar and Ann Moore-Martin were religious, single and without children.
Peter Farquar retired as Stowe School's head of English in 2004 and was invited to be a guest lecturer at the University of Buckingham, where he met student Field.
During the court case, the jury heard how Mr Farquar had a wide circle of friends but he was lonely and, as a gay man, he struggled with his sexuality, regarding it as incompatible with his Anglican faith.
In Field, he thought he had found someone to love and grow old with and the pair had undergone a "betrothal" ceremony in 2014.
Retired head teacher, Ann Moore-Martin, lived a few doors away from him.
A regular churchgoer, she was Catholic and also had friends aplenty but was very private. She was close to her niece, so much so, they regarded each other as mother and daughter.
Miss Moore-Martin's sister-in-law said she seemed hypnotised by Field, like "a love-struck teenager".
What happened to them?
Field seduced both Mr Farquar and Miss Moore-Martin.
They were besotted with him and he used their devotion to get them to change their wills.
At Field's trial in 2019, it was revealed that he had carried out a sustained "gaslighting" plot aimed at making Mr Farquhar question his sanity.
He moved things around the house making his victim irritated and confused and also drugged his drinks and food.
Mr Farquhar was tormented by this "mystery illness" and saw a number of doctors, but Field told health workers the retired lecturer was "a frequent faller" who probably had dementia.
Mr Farquhar changed his will, naming Field as the main beneficiary and giving him a life interest in his house.
Mr Farquhar died in 2015. He was discovered in his living room by his cleaner, a half empty bottle of whisky beside him.
His friends thought he had drunk himself to death - as did the coroner, who certified the cause of death as acute alcohol intoxication.
Field, who had been introduced to Miss Moore-Martin by Mr Farquhar, then took advantage of her loneliness and they developed a sexual relationship.
He gave her a number of items so she would feel closer to him, including a framed picture of him with the words "I am always with you" written in capitals beneath his image.
She gave him £4,400 when he lied to her about needing a new car and handed over £27,000 for a dialysis machine when he told her his younger brother was seriously ill with a kidney condition.
Field also wrote messages on her mirror, some of which told her to leave her house to him, in the hope she would believe they were messages from God.
It worked.
In February 2017, Miss Moore-Martin became ill and suffered a seizure. She died in May 2017 of natural causes.
When did police get involved?
In February 2017, Miss Moore-Martin became ill and suffered a seizure.
It was during her hospital stay she confided in her niece about her relationship with Field and the writing on the mirrors. The police became involved and an investigation started.
She reversed her will and changed it back to benefit her family before she died in a care home.
The police established the link between Field, Miss Moore-Martin and Mr Farquhar and 19 months after the latter's death a decision was taken to exhume his body.
A second post-mortem examination established he had consumed less alcohol than had been thought and there were sedatives in his system.
Field was arrested and admitted duping both Mr Farquhar and Miss Moore-Martin into fake relationships as part of a plot to get them to change their wills. But Field denied any involvement in their deaths.
It has been reported that as Field sat in the back of a police van after his arrest, he said: "I think I will get away with most of it."
What came out in court?
Oxford Crown Court jurors heard how Mr Farquhar's drinks were spiked with bioethanol and poteen, a high strength Irish alcohol, while his food was laced with drugs.
He recorded in his journal how he was suffering night terrors and hallucinations.
Field admitted drugging Mr Farquhar for no other reason than to "torment" him.
Prosecutors said that after Mr Farquhar changed his will three times in two years to benefit Field, he "had to die".
The court heard Field "suffocated him" when he was too weak to resist and left the half-empty bottle of whisky in Mr Farquhar's room to make it seem he had drunk himself to death.
Jurors also heard that during Miss Moore-Martin's stay in hospital, Field tried to visit her but he was denied access and complained to the police. He admitted he had made the calls to see how much the police knew about him and whether he was in trouble.
What happened to Ben Field?
Field was convicted of Mr Farguhar's murder on August 2019 after a 10-week trial.
He had previously pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud relating to the fake relationships and defrauding Miss Moore-Martin. He also admitted two counts of burglary.
Field was given a life sentence with a minimum term of 36 years.
Sentencing him, Mr Justice Sweeney said Field was a "well-practiced and able liar" and a "dangerous offender".
Mark Glover, who led the Thames Valley Police investigation into his crimes, summed him up: "Ben Field is all about Ben Field and nobody else."
He said Field was "unlike any other criminal" he had encountered.
"The extent of his planning, deception and cruelty towards his victims is frankly staggering, and I do not believe he has ever shown an ounce of remorse or contrition," he said.
"If he is sorry for anything it is that he got caught."
Failed appeals
In June 2020, a proceeds of crime hearing ordered Field to pay more than £146,000 to his victims' families - £123,111.26 to Mr Farquhar's family and £23,449.76 to the family of Miss Moore-Martin.
He then attempted to have his murder conviction overturned in January 2021.
His barrister, David Jeremy QC, told the Court of Appeal the conviction was "unsafe" as the trial judge misdirected the jury.
The appeal was dismissed with a written ruling saying that "the approach of the judge was correct".
"The judge's directions captured the essence of the issue in a clear and admirably succinct manner," the ruling said.
In January 2022, Field began a second bid to have his conviction overturned. He challenged the appeal court's earlier decision, with his lawyers arguing that the judgment was flawed.
And now a BBC TV drama...
The four-part drama written by Sarah Phelps features Timothy Spall as Peter Farquhar and Anne Reid as Ann Moore-Martin.
Ms Phelps told the BBC she had to leave out some of the most "distressing details" for the sake of the victims' relatives.
She added that she "didn't want Ben Field to be the main character" and instead focussed on telling "Peter and Ann's story".
"I wanted to make it clear that their lives really mattered before Ben Field came along," she said, and that it was "important that we understand how these really intelligent people were deceived".
The four-part drama started on BBC One at 21:00 BST on 17 July and is available to watch on BBC iPlayer. | Explicit |
Most popular
watch us on facebook
Warsaw has summoned the Russian Ambassador to Poland after President Vladimir Putin threatened Poland and claimed it was eyeing territory in Ukraine and Belarus.
After the arrival of 5,000 Wagner fighters into Belarus following their short-lived mutiny, Poland said it would move troops to the border.
Putin reacted aggressively, saying Poland was about to occupy western parts of Ukraine and was "dreaming of Belarusian lands," threatening to respond with force.
“The western territories of present-day Poland are a gift from (Soviet tyrant Joseph) Stalin to the Poles, have our friends in Warsaw forgotten about this?” he added. “We will remind you.”
"Stalin was a war criminal responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Poles," Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on July 21.
"The historical truth is not subject to discussion," he added.
Russia has regularly threatened Poland and the Baltic states with military force. Putin has also been sabre-rattling using nuclear weapons on multiple occasions.
Poland has been one of the key backers of Ukraine in its defensive war agaisnt Russia.
Morawiecki said in an interview published by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on June 4 that Ukraine deserves a quick path to NATO membership given that it "fights in the interests of NATO."
According to Morawiecki, Ukraine fights on behalf of the military alliance "in the sense that they are defending against this brutal Russian force which would jeopardize many other NATO countries," even though it is not yet a NATO member.
For this reason "they deserve to be presented with a very quick path to NATO," the Polish Prime Minister said. | Explicit |
Police investigators in Hoover, Alabama, have put together a timeline of the roughly 50 hours during which Carlethia "Carlee" Nichole Russell, a 25-year-old nursing student, wasafter she called 911 last week from the side of a highway.
"We pretty much know exactly what took place from the time she left work until the 911 call," Hoover Police Chief Nick Derzis said at a news conference Wednesday.
Russell briefly recounted her ordeal to investigatorson the night of Saturday, July 15, two days after being reported missing.
Here's what we know so far.
The days before Russell disappeared
Police on Wednesday listed some "very strange" online searches that Russell made in the days leading up to her disappearance. The search queries included:
July 11, 7:30 a.m. — "Do you have to pay for an Amber alert"
July 13, 1:03 a.m. — "How to take money from a register without being caught"
July 13, 2:13 a.m. — "Birmingham bus station"
July 13, 2:35 a.m. — "One way bus ticket from Birmingham to Nashville" with a departure date of July 13
July 13, 12:10 p.m. — "The movie 'Taken'"
Before her 911 call
Thursday, July 13, 8:20 p.m. — Russell left her workplace in Birmingham, about 10 miles from Hoover, at around 8:20 p.m. local time, Hoover police said.
Russell then ordered food from a nearby business at The Colonnade shopping mall and picked it up, police said. She stopped at a Target on Highway 280 to buy some granola bars and Cheez-Its. She stayed in the parking lot until 9:21 p.m., according to police.
Russell calls 911
Thursday, July 13, 9:34 p.m. — Just after 9:30 p.m., Russell called 911 to report a toddler on the highway, saying she had stopped to check on the boy, police said. While she was on the phone with a dispatcher about the toddler, Russell traveled in her car about 600 yards, the distance of about six football fields, Derzis said.
Russell disappears and is reported missing
Thursday, July 13, 9:36 p.m. — After her 911 call, which lasted less than two minutes, Russell called a family member, police said.
"She went missing during that conversation sometime after 9:36 PM," police wrote on Facebook.
The family member on the phone with Russell "lost contact with" her during the call, "but the line remained open," Hoover police Lt. Daniel Lowe said. Talitha Russell, Carlee's mother, told reporters that her daughter was on the phone with her sister-in-law at the time that her voice dropped out.
Russell's mother then called the police and said Russell had been on the phone with a relative, and that relative had heard Russell scream.
Hoover officers arrived on scene within five minutes of being dispatched, police said. Russell was gone, but officers found her car, cellphone, wig and purse. Her Apple Watch was in the bag. The snacks she had purchased at Target were not in the car or at the scene, police disclosed.
The 49 hours during which Russell was missing
After returning home, Russell gave investigators her account of what happened on the night of July 13. She said a man came out of the woods and mumbled that he was checking on the child, she said, according to police. Russell told officers the man then forced her over a fence and into a car.
Russell said the next thing she remembers is being in the trailer of a truck with the man, who Russell said had orange hair, and was accompanied by a woman. She also said she could hear a baby crying.
Russell told police she escaped, but was recaptured and put into a car and blindfolded. Russell said she was then taken to a house, where she was undressed.
The next day, she said, the woman fed her cheese crackers and played with her hair.
Russell said at some point she was put back into a vehicle. She claims she was able to escape while it was in the West Hoover area, and ran through the woods to get home.
A massive search was launched after Russell was reported missing. The search involved local, state and federal agencies, police said. A large group of volunteers organized by Russell's parents also assisted in the search effort.
On Saturday, Hoover police released a new photo of Russell in an effort drum up more leads, and a reward totaling at least $50,000 was offered for her safe return, which included $20,000 from an anonymous source, $5,000 raised by CrimeStoppers of Metro Alabama, and $25,000 from real estate company Keller Williams, according to CBS Birmingham affiliate WIAT.
Russell is found alive
Saturday, July 15, 10:45 p.m. — Russell returned home on foot, about 49 hours after she went missing. Police received a call at around 10:45 p.m. notifying them of her return. Officers and medics responded and Russell was taken to a hospital for evaluation, Hoover police Capt. Keith Czeskleba said.
"This investigation is not over," Derzis said. "We're still working this case and we're working this case until we uncover every piece of evidence that helps us account for the 49 hours that Carlee Russell was missing."
— Aliza Chasan, Camille C. Knox and Faris Tanyos contributed to reporting.
for more features. | Explicit |
WASHINGTON (AP) — An Arkansas truck driver who beat a police officer with a flagpole attached to an American flag during the U.S. Capitol riot was sentenced Monday to more than 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.
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.”
U.S. 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.
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.
Stager's 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 took him to Washington, D.C., on the day before 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.
Stager's attorneys say he 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. | Explicit |
A 23-year-old Black man who was mauled by a police dog in Ohio after surrendering with his hands up appeared to tell 911 dispatchers in at least two calls that he didn't know why he was being pulled over or why troopers had their guns drawn.
“Right now I’m being chased by like 20 police officers and they all got their guns pointed directly to my truck,” a man police believed to be Jadarrius Rose told a Pickaway County dispatcher during a 2-minute call released Monday. “So now I’m trying to figure out why they got their guns all pointed to me and they’re all white people.”
Rose was pulled over July 4 in Circleville, Ohio, because the semi-truck he was driving “was missing a left rear mud flap,” according to an incident report from the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
Following a pursuit, Rose stood outside his vehicle with his hands raised when a Circleville police officer instructed his dog to attack. A trooper with the Ohio State Highway Patrol could be heard in a body camera video advising against releasing the dog because Rose had surrendered.
The 911 caller, who didn't identify himself but is believed to be Rose, also says that the troopers "exploded" the tires on his truck, which he was driving to a delivery point. (He was referring to tire-deflating devices called "stop sticks" that troopers deployed in an attempt to stop Rose's truck.)
"And it's not even my truck, I'm just driving to my delivery point," he said. "All of them got their guns pointed directly to me."
When asked for a second 911 call Rose made to Ross County, a spokesperson provided audio in which the caller says: "I don’t know why they’re trying to kill me."
"I do not feel safe with stopping, I don’t know why they’re throwing stuff on the ground trying to get me in an accident," the caller said.
On the 911 call with Pickaway County, the dispatcher advised: "Listen to what the officers are telling you."
"They ain't told me nothing, they ain't told me nothing," the caller said. "I don't know why they're pulling me over."
The dispatcher tells the caller to roll down his window.
"I did that the last time and all of them had their guns pointed at me. You think I feel safe?" the caller said.
The caller is then instructed to put both hands out the window, then open his door with his left hand showing. The call ends shortly after.
A 'lengthy pursuit' ends in a mauling
Rose was traveling westbound on U.S. Route 35 when a Motor Carrier Enforcement inspector and troopers with the Ohio State Highway Patrol tried to pull him over. When Rose failed to stop, troopers deployed the stop sticks on his vehicle twice before it came to a stop on U.S. Route 23.
After he was ordered several times to get out of the vehicle, Rose can be seen on the body camera video standing in front of troopers with his hands in the air.
That's when a Circleville police officer, identified as “R. Speakman,” deploys his K9 and instructs the dog to attack Rose.
“Do not release the dog with his hands up!” a trooper can be heard yelling multiple times before Speakman releases the dog.
The bodycam video then appears to show the dog biting and pulling Rose by his arm as he screams loudly.
Although Circleville police vehicles have dashboard cameras and officers are meant to wear body cameras, Circleville Mayor McIlroy said he does not know if Speakman had one on during the incident.
Speakman was placed on paid administrative leave around five days ago, McIlroy told NBC News.
When asked why Speakman wasn’t immediately placed on leave following the incident, McIlroy said, “I cannot answer that question.”
“Nothing like this should ever happen to anybody. ... It’s just a very unfortunate situation,” he said.
This isn't the first time Speakman's conduct has been under review, according to McIlroy. The officer was investigated in connection with another incident approximately within the past two years.
A use of force review board is reviewing the incident, according to the Circleville Police Department. The board’s findings will be released next week.
McIlroy said he understood how people could be concerned about race factoring into the officer’s actions but adds “… we do not have any racial problems here in the city of Circleville.”
He called the community “all inclusive" and "a great place to live, a great place to raise your family, a great place to send your kids to school.” | 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 |
Ernie Els did not hold back on Thursday afternoon at Royal Liverpool.
Els, after his opening-round 75 at the British Open on Thursday, ripped PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan for striking a deal with LIV Golf and Saudi Arabia.
“Talk to us, tell us what you’re going to do, plan on negotiating. Don’t just go rogue as a member of the board and come back with a deal and think we’re all going to say yes. You’re affecting people’s lives. You’re affecting the professional game. It’s just so bad.”
regarding their “framework agreement” with the Tour, the DP World Tour and LIV Golf. Since then, into the proposed partnership — which still has a long way to go before anything is finalized. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which invested more than $2 billion trying to get LIV Golf running, reportedly plans to invest more than $1 billion into the new entity.
Monahan received plenty of criticism for striking a deal with LIV Golf and Saudi Arabia, who have been . Monahan even once invoked the 9/11 terrorist attacks when advocating for the Tour over LIV Golf.
The announcement caught just about everyone in the golf world by surprise, too. PGA Tour board members Ed Herlihy and Jimmy Dunne helped Monahan negotiate the deal in near-total secrecy.
Plenty of details still need to be figured out before the new entity can launch. Under the current framework agreement, Monahan would become CEO of the new entity and PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan would be chairman of the board.
Els said he knows Al-Rumayyan and other top Saudi Arabian officials from his time playing in the country and throughout the Middle East in his career. While he’s not doubting their sincerity when it comes to golf, but Els isn’t here for LIV Golf and its team system — which he described as “circus golf.”
“That’s not where I stand,” Els said. "Team golf doesn’t work. It works maybe in a two-month, three-month happy season. Get these guys together, get teams together and play around the world. But [then] play real golf.
"That’s what this thing is all about. That’s what I prided myself on. Like Tiger [Woods] and some of these guys. Playing that type of golf. Getting yourself into majors. And grinding.
"And for [the PGA Tour leadership] to go out there and do what they did, just off the cuff, as a board member, do a deal, nobody knows. The commissioner is supposed to be the guy running our Tour. These board members make a deal or a so-called deal and with no input from the players. It's absolute shambles. I’m worried."
Els won 19 times on Tour in his career, including twice at the British Open. The 53-year-old has 42 international wins to his name, too, and he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2011. He's 4-over after Thursday at Royal Liverpool, nine shots back from the leaders.
“I spent almost 30 years on Tour, playing against Tiger … People don’t mention me, but I was there,” Els said. “He needed somebody to beat. There’s a lot of guys who did a lot for the Tour. They helped the Tour and helped build the game. Are you kidding me? And then this bulls**t.”
Els isn’t opposed to Saudi Arabia being involved in golf. He’s seen what the country has done elsewhere in the sports world, and he knows there’s not much to be done to stop it. The to work with, if not more.
But in his eyes, Al-Rumayyan is coming for full control golf. Monahan and the board are “going to be answering to him” no matter how the new venture is structured, and that’s a problem.
"Do we play ball with him? Does he come in at a different rate, maybe a smaller investment, see if they are the right partner? Not just come in and take over world golf. That's just ridiculous,” Els said.
“[We] need to slow things down … I think they need to cut a deal. And Saudi comes in and invests in the Tour. They can bring a lot of money to the Tour. Hopefully all of that money flows down to people who got burned by this." | Explicit |
Subscribe to Here’s the Deal, our politics
newsletter for analysis you won’t find anywhere else.
Thank you. Please check your inbox to confirm.
Hanna Arhirova, Associated Press
Hanna Arhirova, Associated Press
Elise Morton, Associated Press
Elise Morton, Associated Press
Leave your feedback
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.
Support Provided By:
Learn more | Explicit |
A sexual assault support charity says it is "deeply disappointed" over a football club's decision to field rapist David Goodwillie.
Goodwillie was included in the Glasgow United FC team to play in a match against West of Scotland Premier Division side Pollok last week.
Rape Crisis Scotland criticised Glasgow United FC and branded the move a "bad decision that sends entirely the wrong message".
A spokesperson from the charity told Sky News: "We are deeply disappointed that Glasgow United FC appear to be happy to send such a clear message of disregard to survivors of rape and sexual violence.
"Fundamentally - women's lives are more important than men's talent or careers.
"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."
Goodwillie 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 30-year-old woman at a property in West Lothian following a night out in January 2011.
Goodwillie, 34, has seen several football club contracts collapse due to public outrage over the case, but was spotted playing for ninth-tier side Glasgow United FC in a friendly match last Wednesday.
A club spokesperson told BBC Scotland that Goodwillie "deserves a chance" and that he wants to be "left in peace and be allowed to play the game he loves".
The Rape Crisis Scotland spokesperson added: "We wonder whether those who took this decision to select David Goodwillie for play last week considered how it may look or feel to survivors of sexual violence to have to watch somebody judged to have committed rape be celebrated and applauded.
"This was a bad decision that sends entirely the wrong message."
Read more:
Raith Rovers apologise for signing striker
Sex offender given life sentence for attacking women and children
Goodwillie is due to appear on James English's Anything Goes podcast later on Wednesday.
It will be the first time he has spoken out since the 2017 ruling.
In a clip released online, Goodwillie said he has always been advised not to talk about the case and continued to claim it was consensual sex.
Highlighting there have been no criminal proceedings, he said: "I'm the same as her. Like, you know, I don't feel like I've had justice."
He added that due to the controversy, he has not been allowed to "take care" of his family.
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 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 moved to sign him in February last year.
Following widespread opposition to the move, Goodwillie was released from his contract without playing a match.
Click to subscribe to the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts
A year later 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 just last month, Australian second-tier side FC Sorrento was forced to rescind a contract.
The club apologised to anyone "that may have been caused offence by his signing".
Goodwillie subsequently opened a Twitter account after the FC Sorrento move was scrapped, vowing to "finally speak my truth". | Explicit |
Wheat prices have risen sharply on global markets after Russia said it would treat ships heading for Ukrainian ports as potential military targets.
Moscow pulled out of a deal this week that had guaranteed safe passage for grain shipments through the Black Sea.
A White House spokesperson accused Russia of planning to blame Ukraine for attacks on civilian ships.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin said he would return to the grain agreement immediately if his demands were met.
They include reconnecting Russia's agricultural bank to a global payment system.
A Russian air strike on the Ukrainian port city of Mykolaiv killed an unknown number of people on Wednesday night, according to a local official. Other air strikes were reported on the port of Odesa.
Following previous air strikes around Odesa this week, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of deliberately targeting grain export infrastructure and putting vulnerable countries at risk.
Kyiv urged other countries in the Black Sea region to intervene to assure the safe passage of cargo ships.
"From 00:00 Moscow time on 20 July 2023 [21:00 GMT Wednesday], all vessels sailing on the Black Sea to Ukrainian ports will be regarded as potential carriers of military cargo," the Russian defence ministry said.
"Flag states of such vessels will be considered to be involved in the Ukrainian conflict on the side of the Kyiv regime," it added.
Wheat prices on the European stock exchange soared by 8.2% on Wednesday from the previous day, to â¬253.75 (£219.78) per tonne, while corn prices were up 5.4%.
US wheat futures jumped 8.5% on Wednesday, their highest daily rise since just after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi said strikes had destroyed 60,000 tonnes of grain and damaged considerable parts of grain export infrastructure.
Russia began targeting Ukraine's ports in the early hours of Tuesday within hours of its withdrawal from the grain deal.
Marex Capital analyst Charlie Sernatinger said the threat of this kind of escalation could "cut all of the waterborne grain shipments off from the Black Sea, both Russian, and Ukrainian" which would cause a similar situation to that at the start of the war.
Jim Gerlach, president of A/C Trading, said: "Things got heated back up over in Ukraine. There is some real shooting going on over there and nobody is going to get in the middle of that.
"That is the bread basket of Europe and shippers are pulling out."
On Wednesday Mr Putin accused the West of using the grain deal as "political blackmail".
Moscow also accused Ukraine of using the Black Sea grain corridor for "combat purposes". It struck at Ukraine's Black Sea ports after a suspected seaborne drone attack damaged its sea bridge to Crimea on Monday. | Explicit |
Article content
BRUSSELS (AP) — A jury on Tuesday found six people guilty of terrorist murder for extremist attacks in Brussels in 2016 that killed 32 people and were claimed by the Islamic State group, in Belgium’s deadliest peacetime violence, according to Belgian media.
Article content
tap here to see other videos from our team.
Among those convicted for their role in the suicide bombings at Brussels’ airport and a subway station was Salah Abdeslam, who already is serving a life sentence without parole in France over his role in attacks that hit Paris cafes, the Bataclan theatre and France’s national stadium in 2015.
Article content
The verdict was reported by public broadcaster RTBF, newspaper Le Soir and news websites HLN and Nieuwsblad.
The chief judge read out the verdict and explanations by the 12-person jury, who made a clear connection to IS and its extremist ideology. The reading of the verdict was expected to take a few hours. Sentencing will be decided in a separate process, not before September.
In addition to the six people convicted of terrorist murder, four others on trial were acquitted or facing other charges.
Article content
The biggest trial in Belgium’s judicial history unfolded over seven months in a special court to address the exceptional case. Survivors and families of victims hoped the trial and verdict would help them work through what happened and find closure.
Recommended from Editorial
-
Edmonton man charged under U.K. Terrorism Act appears in court
-
Canadian suspected of membership in terrorism group arrested in England
The morning rush hour attacks on March 22, 2016, at Zavantem Airport and on the Brussels subway’s central commuter line deeply shook the city, which is home to the headquarters of the European Union and NATO, and put the country on edge. In addition to the 32 people killed, nearly 900 others were wounded or suffered serious mental trauma.
Article content
Jamila Adda, president of the Life4Bruxelles victims’ association, gathered a group of survivors at the special courthouse to hear Tuesday’s verdict. Among them was a man named Frederic, who said the ”atrocious crimes” of March 22 still haunt him.
“We have been waiting for this for seven years, seven years that weighed heavily on the victims. … We are waiting with impatience, and with some anguish” for the verdict, he told The Associated Press. Frederic, among the commuters who survived the attack at the Maelbeek metro station, spoke on condition that his last name not be published to protect his identity as a victim of trauma.
Survivors have supported each other through the proceedings, some coming every day. “It is important to be together, to hear the decision of justice,” Frederic said. And then, they hope “to be able to turn the page.”
Article content
The 12 jurors had been deliberating since early July over some 300 questions the court asked them to consider before reaching a verdict. Tuesday’s expected decision will address whether or not each of the suspects is guilty of various charges. and may take several hours to be read out.
Eventual sentencing will be decided in a separate process. If convicted, some could face up to 30 years in prison.
Abdeslam was the only survivor among the Islamic State extremists who struck Paris in November 2015 and were part of a Franco-Belgian network that went on to target Brussels four months later. After months on the run following the Paris attacks, Abdeslam was captured in Brussels on March 18, 2016, and his arrest may have prompted other members of the IS cell to rush ahead with attack plans on the Belgian capital.
Also convicted of terrorist murder at the trial in Brussels was Mohamed Abrini, childhood friend of Abdeslam and a Brussels native who walked away from Zaventem airport after his explosives failed to detonate.
Oussama Atar, who has been identified as a possible organizer of the deadly attacks on both Paris and Brussels, was convicted of terrorist murder in absentia. He is believed to have died in the Islamic State group’s final months of fighting in Iraq and Syria. | Explicit |
With a multi-million-pound property empire, a BMW with personalised number plates and a son who attended Eton, VP Lingajothy enjoys the trappings of a successful lawyer.
In a career spanning two decades, he has presented his lucrative work as a humanitarian mission and boasts how far he goes to help the desperate refugees he represents.
Just last year he addressed the UN Human Rights Council in Switzerland and he has previously described how the stories he has heard from clients left him with 'tears in my eyes'.
Mr Lingajothy, who came to the UK from Sri Lanka in 1983, lamented: 'Sometimes victims who have been through so much unfortunately get lumped together with those who give fake stories to immigration authorities.'
He said he 'couldn't live with himself' if he didn't try his best for clients he knew were telling the truth and once put his 'career on the line' by trying to get a judge impeached after he rejected an asylum application.
But – as undercover reporters discovered when they visited him at the offices of Duncan Ellis Solicitors in Colliers Wood, south London – Mr Lingajothy has a strange version of truth.
When asked what he could do to help an economic migrant to stay in the UK, he immediately outlined the extraordinary and entirely fictional story involving torture, beatings, slave labour, false imprisonment and death threats that he would use for an asylum and human rights claim – in return for a fee of £10,000.
He told the journalists, who were posing as a farmer from the Punjab newly arrived on a small boat and his UK-based uncle helping him, it would involve pretending to be a supporter of a Sikh separatist group in India.
'You can say that the Indian government accused you of being pro Khalistani, you were taken into custody, arrested and you were ill treated, tortured, sexually tortured,' he said. 'That's why you couldn't marry and you were frustrated, you wanted to commit suicide.'
After his parents bribed guards to spring him from jail, the migrant was forced to pay a people smuggler to help him escape persecution in his homeland and flee to France, the story went on.
But this turned out to be going from the 'frying pan to the fire' because the trafficker held him as a captive until the full fee was paid, according to the tale conjured up. It then gets more dramatic: 'They put him in modern slavery conditions. He can't go out.
'He has to work in hard labour [on a] building site. He can't escape. His passport and everything is taken away.'
Making a throat slashing gesture with his finger, he explained how the non-existent people smugglers had threatened to kill the reporter's family in the Punjab if they weren't paid.
He added: 'Also they kept him in a brothel. He was cleaning the toilets and looking after the prostitutes and all that kind of thing.
'The girls are from Eastern Europe. This guy is working more or less as a nanny for those women.'
Finally our reporter was to claim he met someone who managed to help him on to a small boat and cross the Channel, he continued. 'The story must go like that.'
And Mr Lingajothy stressed the reporter must claim to be pro-Khalistani for the asylum claim, as 'that way I will win your case' – it did not matter if he actually supported a different party.
Drawing a diagram of a target with asylum at the centre and human rights on a larger outer ring, the lawyer explained how he would expand the claim to have a greater chance of success.
'I need to use another law called trafficking law,' the legal adviser said. 'If you are going to simply claim asylum only it's very difficult. The second thing is called HR, human rights. That is relatively easy, right.' Clutching his head for emphasis, he added: 'And you've got some psychological problems.'
From the drawer of his desk covered in files from other cases, he produced a packet of anti-depressant pills for the reporter to hand to the Home Office as supposed evidence of his mental trauma.
'In your story I will also include this medication and when you were released [from jail in India] you went to see a doctor and the doctor prescribed all the medicines I have here,' he said.
'But I won't say I am giving it to you, say your doctor in India gave it.' Mr Lingajothy also promised he could obtain a psychiatric report to back up the claim that our journalist was suicidal, saying: 'I will prepare you what to tell the doctor.'
The outline he was giving at the first meeting was just the 'skeleton' of the story, he said, saying that he would flesh it out with more details to make it realistic: 'I have to give him the time, the month, the year... the story will be very carefully handled.'
He told our team they could take notes of the concocted story to help learn it, but nothing else or it risked compromising him.
'We don't allow to record because lawyers are not allowed to give stories. So we don't allow recording,' he stressed. Later, on learning the UK authorities had no record of the migrant's arrival, Mr Lingajothy advised him to change his story about how he came from France and say he came on a lorry not a boat, as it would help his claim.
'Say that in the lorry there were metals and building material, wires they were transporting. You were inside a box behind them,' he said as he went on to expand the story. Published court judgments show that Mr Lingajothy has been representing asylum seekers at immigration tribunals since at least 2004.
In January he successfully appealed and won a new hearing for an Indian woman's asylum claim, despite a judge in the lower tribunal ruling that her credibility was 'completely undermined' after she made false claims of being detained, tortured and sexual assaulted.
In July 2021, My Lingajothy successfully appealed over a rejected asylum claim for a Sri Lankan woman after her version of events was described by a judge as 'bizarre and extraordinary'.
In February 2019, a judge threw out an appeal he lodged on behalf of a client who claimed to have been 'held in captivity and tortured in Sri Lanka' after another judge described the story as 'entirely devoid of any truth'.
Mr Lingajothy told the Mail these cases had initially been handled by different caseworkers and solicitors and his firm took them on only at the appeal stage after the initial application had failed.
He said in all cases he was acting in the best interests of his clients.
Mr Lingathjothy and his wife share an eight-bedroom, £1.7million family home and have a property and business empire that includes a successful care home in Somerset and a building company, according to public records.
His children have attended top public schools, including Eton. Mr Lingajothy said his wife funded this part of their education.
Approached by the Mail, he denied making any false stories, and appeared to claim his actions were due to confusing our undercover reporter with another client. He was representing Duncan Ellis Solicitors, which is registered with the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
He is not a solicitor, but said he was previously a government-registered immigration case worker and now an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives – allowing him to work under the supervision of a solicitor.
He said his position with Duncan Ellis was notified to the SRA and means he can give consultations and represent the firm at tribunals as long as the firm's principal solicitor checks his files randomly to ensure good practice and correct standards.
But Anbananden Sooben, from Duncan Ellis, said Mr Lingajothy was unsupervised when he met our reporters because a solicitor was not 'present nor informed about the consultation'. He added: 'The behaviours exhibited by Mr Lingajothy, as recorded in your investigation, are completely contrary to the principles and values of our firm and contrary to the law of the country and SRA rules.'
Mr Sooben said his firm upheld the 'highest ethical and professional standards', took the allegations 'extremely seriously', had sacked Mr Lingajothy and reported the matter to the SRA as well as 'conducting a thorough internal investigation'.
'We are actively cooperating with the relevant authorities and will support any investigation into this matter,' he said.
'Don't admit you came here to work – they will send you back'
On a quiet high street in Merton, south-west London, tucked in between corner shops, cafes and dry cleaners, scores of young men wait outside Rashid and Rashid Solicitors.
Some queue for as long as five hours for an appointment with Rashid Ahmad Khan, who operates on a strict first come first served basis, and one thing is clear: business is booming.
Inside his office, where a large bust of the black Albanian eagle sits proudly alongside stacks of legal files, Mr Khan asks detailed questions about why our covert reporter, posing as an illegal immigrant from India, came to Britain.
‘What was the problem you were facing back home? Political?’ probed the solicitor, who has been practising since 2009 and now has two branches for his firm.
‘No, not political. Just work. I needed a job,’ our reporter replied.
Mr Khan whispered his response. ‘You say that and they’re going to send you back.’
Over the following half hour, Mr Khan agreed to help file an asylum claim to the Home Office for a cost of £4,000.
He asked our reporters – one posing as the illegal migrant, the other as his UK-based uncle – to write down the reasons why he was no longer safe in India, only minutes after he was informed that there were none.
‘You write one page and bring it to me. I’ll turn it into four pages,’ Mr Khan said. At one point, he tells our reporter to ‘make up something’ for the immigration authorities. While Mr Khan appears to be cautious at times, on one occasion telling our covert reporter he can’t help him apply for asylum if he doesn’t say ‘his life is in danger back home’, the solicitor still tells him to lie to the Home Office.
Speaking discreetly in Punjabi, Mr Khan says: ‘Just write why he’s come here illegally. Like, he’s taken a loan from someone, who that party is. See, everyone who enters illegally has a reason. Some political reason. Some fight with someone. He’ll have to write these things to make up some story. If he doesn’t say anything, he will get nothing.’
Our reporter later tried to clarify what he should write down, asking: ‘A political problem?’ Mr Khan responded: ‘Political, yes. Anything, just take name of a party.’
The solicitor said he would appeal if the case was rejected and take the fight to court, adding: ‘I’ve dealt with many people like him.’
Approached by the Mail, Mr Khan denied that he or his firm offered to help an illegal immigrant submit fabricated asylum claim to the Home Office. He said: ‘We are always advising people according to their circumstances, under immigration rules and outside immigration rules (human rights). I always act with integrity, honesty – according to my code of conduct.’
He said the £4,000 cost he quoted the undercover reporters included extensive fees to the Home Office and other authorities, and his charge was only £1,000 of this amount.
£5,500 in cash for a pack of lies
Malik Nazar Hayat boasts his Lincoln Lawrence solicitors’ firm is ‘among the leading immigration lawyers in London.’
On his Linked In page, he says: ‘We are experts in UK immigration law and advise on all UK immigration-related matters.’
When the Mail visited his offices in Hounslow, west London, asking for his expertise, Mr Hayat quickly got down to business.
Decked out in a sharp suit and chunky silver watch, he relaxed into his chair as he fired a series of questions at our reporter posing as an economic migrant. Where is he from in India? Does he have any debts or enemies? Any political affiliations? Has he ever been arrested? ‘No, no, he’s a man of good character. Not political,’ our second reporter, posing as his uncle, responded.
‘But we don’t need a good character. For asylum, if he’s a good character, they’ll ask him to go back. They will not accept his claim,’ Mr Hayat said.
Later, he added: ‘Obviously, he’s a good person. If he wants to stay here, he must have fear of prosecution back home, fear of assassination, anything like that, and the Punjab. India is not a safe country for him. So I’m going on that way.’
The solicitor suggests telling Home Office officials he’s a sympathiser with a separatist movement in India and ‘the police are after him, the security agencies are after him’.
Unprompted, Mr Hayat added: ‘On top of that, he is a victim of human trafficking because he contacted some agent, gave him some money, the agent promised him a job and visa, and now the agent has disappeared. He is a victim of human trafficking, and secondly, he fears persecution and assassination.’
The whole process will cost £5,500 in cash, the lawyer says, a price he insists is a steal from his usual fees of £12,000 to £15,000 for similar cases. As the reporters prepared to leave, Mr Hayat told them Home Secretary Suella Braverman was ‘dumb’ and ‘doesn’t know anything’. Lincoln Lawrence said that it took the allegations very seriously and was investigating.
Mr Hayat was happy to falsely submit a photo of another man who looked like the undercover reporter at anti-government protests to support the asylum claim. | 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."
Read more UK news:
Men in balaclavas drive hearse onto football pitch
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 |
A federal judge denied former President Donald Trump's attempt to get a new trial after a federal jury found him liable for sexual abuse of the writer E. Jean Carroll and defamation.
Trump asked in June for a new trial in the civilor to reduce the $5 million in damages awarded to her by a jury — a verdict Trump's lawyers called "grossly excessive."
Judge Lewis Kaplan wrote that Trump's arguments in asking for a new trial were "unpersuasive" and that he did not prove that the jury's May 9 decision was a miscarriage of justice.
"The jury's unanimous verdict in [the case] was almost entirely in favor of Ms. Carroll," Kaplan wrote.
Carroll accused Trump of forcing himself on her in a department store changing room during a chance encounter in the mid-1990s, and then of defaming her after she went public with the story in 2019.
Trump's attorneys argued in the new filing that a $2 million portion of the damages award was excessive because the jury did not find him liable for rape.
But the judge disagreed, noting in his ruling that "the definition of rape in the New York Penal Law is far narrower than the meaning of 'rape' in common modern parlance."
Trump has denied assaulting Carroll and claimed her story was fabricated. She testified that they had been amiably walking through the store, joking during a light conversation, before Trump pushed her against a wall, her head slamming against it, and forcefully penetrated her with his hand and penis. The jury found him liable for sexual abuse, the allegation that he forcefully penetrated her with his hand, but did not conclude she proved liability for rape, having been penetrated by his penis.
"The finding that Ms. Carroll failed to prove that she was 'raped' within the meaning of the New York Penal Law does not mean that she failed to prove that Mr. Trump 'raped' her as many people commonly understand the word "rape," Kaplan wrote.
Trump's attorneys claimed $2.7 million the jury awarded in compensatory damages for defamation were based on "speculation" about how many people viewed a defamatory social media post by Trump in which he disparaged Carroll and denied the allegations. Trump's filing also claimed the remaining punitive damages related to the defamation were awarded "without due process."
Roberta Kaplan, an attorney for Carroll who is not related to the judge, said in a statement to CBS News that Carroll "looks forward to receiving the $5 million in damages that the jury awarded her."
An attorney for Trump did not reply to a request for comment.
Trump has also appealed the verdict and continues to vehemently deny the allegations. Carroll amended a separate, previously filed defamation lawsuit, seeking at least. She claimed comments Trump made at a — the day after the jury found him liable — were also disparaging.
for more features. | Explicit |
SEOUL - A debate over teachers’ rights in South Korea was raised on Thursday, after an elementary school teacher was found to have taken her own life in her classroom amid rumours of bullying by a student’s parents.
The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education on Wednesday confirmed that an early career teacher at an elementary school in Seocho-gu, southern Seoul, was found dead in her classroom on Tuesday morning before school started. According to reports, the teacher was a 23-year-old woman who passed the teacher certification exam in 2022 and joined the school in March that year.
Local media reported that the teacher suffered from months of bullying and pressure at the hands of a parent, whose first-grade daughter is also allegedly a perpetrator of bullying at the school.
The school, however, denied that any bullying of the teacher had occurred via a statement on Thursday, adding that it would cooperate with the police investigation.
The case was reported a day after another female elementary school teacher in Seoul was allegedly assaulted by a sixth-grade male student in front of other students, resulting in her admission to hospital. The teacher was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder because she claimed to have been held responsible for the matter by the student’s parents.
Both cases enraged teachers nationwide, who said they laid bare the dark reality of public schools where the authority of teachers is no longer respected in classrooms.
The country has seen a stark increase in the number of teachers being physically assaulted or attacked by students and parents, with a total of 1,133 teachers having been subject to such harassment between 2018 and 2022, according to data released by the Ministry of Education. Also, the annual number of reported cases of students breaching the rights of teachers in classrooms surpassed 2,000 last year.
While the weakening of teachers’ authority may be attributed to different factors, critics say banning corporal punishment is the root cause of teachers’ rights being trampled.
In the past, teachers could physically punish students for their misbehavior, but such punishment has been outlawed since 2010 over concerns that it violates students’ rights to physical integrity and human dignity.
As teachers were encouraged to adopt a gentler approach towards students, students and parents were given more of a say in school affairs, leading to a rise in cases of violence against teachers, according to teachers’ associations and observers.
Apart from dealing with problematic students, abusive behavior from parents has also contributed to a decline in teachers’ autonomy and decision-making power, as a growing number of parents are becoming more protective of their children, they added.
Parents sometimes file complaints or even sue teachers for scolding their children, claiming that they have inflicted “emotional abuse” by making “abusive” or “humiliating” comments. In most cases, teachers end up apologizing to parents and students and try to minimize their contact with the students as much as possible.
The occupation that has long been envied as a “respected job for life” has now become a nightmare for many.
According to data released by Representative Kwon Eun-hee of the ruling People Power Party and a member of the National Assembly’s Education Committee, 589 teachers with an experience of less than five years left the workforce from March 2022 to April 2023, a nearly two-fold increase from 303 in 2021, with false reports of child abuse claims and complaints made by parents being the top reasons.
Local education experts called for implementing an in-house school system to shield teachers from parents and students in and out of classrooms.
Dr Park Nam-gi, a professor at Gwangju National University of Education, advises that South Korea should take a cue from the US’ teacher support system, where teachers can reach out to principals and higher ups in school when they need help dealing with students and parents.
“‘Monster’ parents with a high drive and enthusiasm for education, especially those in Gangnam, sue teachers when they are unhappy with them. But if we implement (a US-style) system, schools, the ministry and the education office will be able to respond to parental complaints adequately,” he told The Korea Herald.
Dr Park also pointed out that at-risk students, including those with anger issues or perpetrators of bullying, should be required to take alternative approaches to education.
“It’s unfair for teachers to care for problematic students, who can (sometimes) cause severe mental distress (for teachers). The government should come up with measures to separate teachers from students with such issues,” he noted. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK | 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 |
Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey was "tried by social media" after he was accused of sexual assaults, a court has heard.
He is charged with nine sexual offences relating to four men allegedly committed between 2001 and 2013.
The 63-year-old American sat in the dock on Thursday at Southwark Crown Court in London as defence barrister Patrick Gibbs KC gave a closing speech.
Mr Spacey, a two-time Oscar winner, denies all of the charges against him.
"What the defence suggests is that three people have lied and they have lied in ways and for reasons which, ultimately, will only ever be known to themselves," said Mr Gibbs, who suggested the fourth complainant was intoxicated.
He told jurors: "It's not a crime to like sex, even if you're famous and it's not a crime to have sex, even if you're famous, and it's not a crime to have casual sex.
"And it's not a crime to have sex with someone of the same sex because it's 2023 not 1823."
He challenged the Crown's claim that there was a "pattern of similarity" between the accusers because three claim Mr Spacey "grabbed" them by the crotch, a term Mr Spacey previously told the court he "objected" to.
He told the jury it was "easy" to lie convincingly, especially when it is about someone such as Kevin Spacey who he described as a man "who is promiscuous, not publicly out, although everyone in the businesses knows he's gay who wants to be just a normal guy to drink beer and laugh and smoke weed and sit in the front and spend time with younger people who he's attracted to".
He said perhaps Mr Spacey had led "a bit of an odd life", but that it was "a life that makes you an easy target when the internet turns against you and you're tried by social media".
"That's when these claims were taken to the police, when it was, I suggest, only too easy to do and the prospects of a pay-off from the bandwagon were at their most irresistible."
Mr Gibbs praised Sir Elton John and his husband David Furnish for risking the "wrath of the internet" to be called as defence witnesses after they gave evidence via video link from Monaco on Monday.
Mr Spacey pleaded not guilty in January to three counts of indecent assault, three counts of sexual assault and one count of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent.
He also previously denied four further charges of sexual assault and one count of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.
A further charge of indecent assault, an alternative count, was added mid-trial - taking the total number of alleged offences listed on the indictment to 13.
On Wednesday, the four indecent assault charges, which were all alternative counts, were struck off by the judge, due to a "legal technicality" and not as a result of the prosecution abandoning any allegation.
The trial continues. | Explicit |
A convicted rapist created a secret online dating username while on licence from prison.
Jay Humphries, 36, was jailed in 2018 under his previous name Jonathan Drakeford. He is the son of First Minister Mark Drakeford.
Caernarfon Magistrates' Court heard he used an unapproved profile name on the Fab Guys website and deleted internet browsing history from his phone.
Humphries admitted both offences and will be sentenced on 11 August.
Humphries was arrested in Bangor, Gwynedd in March after being released from prison on licence.
The hearing on Friday was told use of the Fab Guys account had been approved by police, but the name he used - naughty 5007387 - was not.
An agreed name was required to allow police to monitor his online activity.
The court was told he claimed deleting the internet history from his phone was an accident, but prosecutor Catherine Elvin said his guilty plea indicated it was a deliberate measure "to conceal" his actions.
While no individuals had been harmed by the breaches, Ms Elvin added: "Sexual harm prevention orders are put in place for a reason."
Defending Humphries, Gemma Morgan said he had been struggling to come to terms with his personal situation after being released from prison, and being forced to live in approved accommodation in north Wales away from his family.
The court was also told he was also dealing with the death of his mother Clare Drakeford in January.
"He was suffering emotionally," said Ms Morgan.
"He was speaking to other men on Fab Guys expressing his feelings."
The court was told those feelings and his actions were compounded by learning difficulties and being autistic.
Magistrates were told Humphries had since been recalled to prison in May after other breaches of his release licence, including leaving an abusive phone message for a probation officer.
In 2018, Humphries was handed an eight year and eight month sentence at Cardiff Crown Court after being found guilty of rape and inflicting actual bodily harm. He also admitted to a child sexual offence after messaging a girl on Facebook who he thought was 15 years old. | Explicit |
VERDEGRIS, Okla. -- A woman and her three children were found dead in an Oklahoma home on Thursday evening in what may be a murder-suicide following an hours-long standoff, authorities said.
The names of the victims weren't immediately released.
The standoff began in the small town of Verdigris, a suburb east of Tulsa, after a woman told a patrolling police officer at around 4 p.m. that another woman with a gun held her hostage in a garage, Police Chief Jack Shackleford said, KOKI-TV reported.
The woman also said there were children in the home and the officer called for reinforcements, Shackleford said.
Several agencies surrounded the house, including a SWAT team from the Cherokee Nation.
Authorities entered the home around 7:30 p.m. and found the bodies of the woman and three children, believed to range in age from several months to around 11 years old.
A handgun was found at the scene and the killings are being investigated as a murder-suicide, authorities said.
Shackleford said officers went to the home several times in the past on domestic and mental health calls, KOKI-TV reported. | Explicit |
At least one person has been killed and 19 more injured in fresh Russian missile strikes on the port city of Odesa, officials have said.
Regional Governor Oleh Kiper said 14 people were hospitalised in the blasts, including four children.
The historical Transfiguration Cathedral was also damaged by the strikes, the city council said.
Moscow has been launching near constant attacks on Odesa since it withdrew from a landmark grain deal on Monday.
"Odesa: another night attack of the monsters," Mr Kiper wrote on Telegram. He added that six residential buildings - including several apartment buildings - were destroyed by the strikes.
Odesa's military administration said that the Transfiguration Cathedral of the Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) was also severely damaged.
The building is Odesa's largest Orthodox church and was consecrated in 1809. It was demolished by the Soviet Union in 1939, before being re-built in 2003.
In a video posted to social media by the city council, Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov could be seen walking through rubble inside the church.
Other clips uploaded to social media showed a distressed man walking inside the cathedral repeating: "The church is no longer .... Lord, have mercy."
The BBC was unable to immediately independently verify reports of damage or the video.
The UN's cultural agency, Unesco, has repeatedly urged Russia to cease attacks on Odesa. The city's historic centre was designated an endangered World Heritage by the organisation earlier this year, despite Russian opposition.
But in an update posted to Facebook, Ukraine's southern command said Russia had targeted the Odesa region with at least five different types of missiles.
The head of Ukraine's presidential office, Andriy Yermak, repeated calls for more missiles and defence systems after the latest attack on Odesa.
"This is the undisguised terror of a peaceful city," Mr Yermak wrote on Telegram. "The enemy must be deprived of the opportunity to attack civilians and infrastructure."
Moscow has notably stepped up attacks on the port city since it withdrew from the UN backed grain deal on Monday and Ukraine has accused it of targeting grain supplies and infrastructure vital to the deal.
A strike earlier this week destroyed some 60,000 tonnes of grain, officials said.
Odesa is Ukraine's biggest port, and millions of tonnes of grain have been shipped from its docks under the terms of the deal.
The deal - brokered by Turkey and the UN - between Russia and Ukraine was struck in July 2022, allowing cargo ships to sail along a corridor in the Black Sea. | Explicit |
Facebook, YouTube and Twitter Remove Violent Video After India Order
The video, from an incident that took place on May 4, went viral on social media overnight in India.
(Bloomberg) -- US internet companies Meta Platforms Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Twitter Inc. are complying with Indian federal orders to take down a video of two women being paraded naked by a group of men in a northeastern state, people familiar with the matter said.
The video, from an incident that took place on May 4, went viral on social media overnight in India, triggering the first public comments from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the violence in Manipur state, where ethic groups have clashed for nearly two months.
Some social media companies began removing photos and videos of the incident as it violated their rules even before New Delhi issued emergency blocking orders, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the details are private.
India’s technology ministry, Google, Meta and Twitter didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Supreme Court of India has called the video “deeply disturbing” and asked the federal and state governments — both led by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party — to report steps taken against the perpetrators at a hearing scheduled for July 28.
Journalist Barkha Dutt said the implementation of the blocking orders have been overly aggressive and that they’re obstructing news publishers’ ability to report on the event.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P. | Explicit |
The White House will establish a national monument, CBS News has learned, honoring, the 14-year-old Chicago boy whose abduction, torture and lynching in 1955 while visiting family in Mississippi played a role in sparking the civil rights movement.
President Biden will sign a proclamation on Tuesday, the 82nd anniversary of Till's birth, establishing the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument.
The monument will be located across three sites in Mississippi and Illinois, CBS News learned. One will be located in the Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in the Chicago South Side neighborhood of Bronzeville, where Till's killing was mourned in September 1955.
The second site will be at Graball Landing, Mississippi, where Till's body was discovered in the Tallahatchie River.
The third will be at Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi, where Till's suspected killers were acquitted by an all-White jury less than a month after his brutal murder.
In August of 1955,, a White woman working as a grocery clerk, accused Till of making improper advances towards her while she was working alone in a store in Money, Mississippi.
Three days later, Till was abducted from his relatives home. On Aug. 31, 1955, three days after his abduction, his mutilated body was recovered from the Tallahatchie River.
The following month, Donham's husband, Roy Bryant, along with Roy's half-brother J.W. Milam, were both acquitted of murder charges in Till's death.
In 2022, a grand jury in Mississippi announced that it was ending its investigation into the case.Carolyn Donham for her role in the events that led to Till's lynching. Prior to that, in 2021, the U.S. Justice Department
Carolyn Donhamin April at the age of 88.
At the time of her death, Till's cousin, the Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr., told CBS News in a statement that even though no one would be held to account for his cousin's death "it is up to all of us to be accountable to the challenges we still face in overcoming racial injustice."
— Cara Tabachnick contributed to this report.
for more features. | Explicit |
Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP via Getty Images
toggle caption
Country music singer Jason Aldean, pictured here performing at the Academy of Country Music Awards in Frisco, Texas in May, is facing a mixed bag of backlash and praise for a new music video that openly alludes to vigilante justice.
Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP via Getty Images
Country music singer Jason Aldean, pictured here performing at the Academy of Country Music Awards in Frisco, Texas in May, is facing a mixed bag of backlash and praise for a new music video that openly alludes to vigilante justice.
Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP via Getty Images
Country Music Television (CMT) says it will no longer air the music video "Try That In a Small Town" by Jason Aldean after critics of the video said it contained lyrics that glorified gun violence and conveyed traditionally racist ideas.
A CMT spokesperson confirmed the move to NPR on Thursday, but offered no comment on the reasoning.
Since the video's release on Friday, it's emerged as a familiar kind of political litmus test, with interpretations of its message often falling along voting divides.
Here's an overview of the situation:
What is "Try That in a Small Town" about?
Aldean, a 46-year-old country singer from Macon, Ga., first released the song in May, but it wasn't until the release of the video on July 14 — as promotion for his 11th upcoming album — that the discourse ratcheted up.
In a statement released alongside the video, Aldean said the song represents an "unspoken rule" for those raised in small towns: "We all have each other's backs and we look out for each other." The singer is not credited as a writer for the song, as has been the case for most of his 27 hit singles.
Threats to outsiders (and the implication those outsiders are from cities) are present throughout the song's lyrics, which begin with a list of crimes that might happen in urban settings ("Sucker punch somebody on a sidewalk / carjack an old lady at a red light") then crescendo into the titular chorus:
"Well, try that in a small town / See how far you make it down the road / Around here we take care of our own / You cross that line, it won't take long / For you to find out, I recommend you don't."
Aldean ups the vigilante ante by bridging the second chorus with a reference to gun rights, singing:
"I've got a gun that my granddad gave me / they say one day they're gonna round up. / Well that shit might fly in the city / good luck / Try that in a small town".
Why is the video so divisive?
Interspersed between shots of Aldean singing are clips of vandalizing, riots and police encounters, much of which is evocative of racial injustice protests.
Some of the scenes bear a Fox News chyron, but others, as some TikTok sleuths have pointed out, appear to be stock footage, in some cases of gatherings from other countries.
But much of the criticism around the video has less to do with these clips then its setting: The Maury County Courthouse building in Columbia, Tenn., which serves as an American-flag-draped backdrop for Aldean and his band.
The landmark was the site of race riots in 1946 as well as a 1927 lynching in which a white mob pulled an 18-year-old black man, Henry Choate, from jail and drug him through the city by car, according to several media reports, including one detailed account from The Washington Post.
Choate had confessed to attacking a 16-year-old white girl "to protect his life," even though the girl "could not positively identify him as the assailant," the Post reported.
What is Aldean saying?
On Tuesday, Aldean pushed back hard against accusations he was "pro-lynching," saying such an interpretation "goes too far" and is "dangerous."
"There is not a single lyric in the song that references race or points to it," he wrote on Twitter. "Try That In A Small Town, for me, 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."
"NO ONE, including me, wants to continue to see senseless headlines or families ripped apart," he wrote.
The production company behind the videos, TackleBox, also defended the video's location as a popular filming spot, telling Entertainment Tonight that any "alternative narrative" about the reasons it was chosen were false.
Aldean has received five Grammy Award nominations (including two for Best Country Album) for his two decades of music depicting rural, blue-collar life. And throughout that success, he's rarely shied away from sharing his right-leaning political views.
His wife, Brittany Aldean, and his sister, Kasi Rosa Wicks, launched a conservative clothing line dedicated to trolling liberals. Aldean defended dressing his children in anti-Joe-Biden attire and himself for wearing blackface as part of a 2015 Halloween costume. He was spotted golfing alongside Donald Trump and delivered an impromptu performance at the former president's Mar-a-Lago resort.
But, at other times, the singer has tried to walk a more nuanced line toward politics, perhaps most memorably after surviving the 2017 mass shooting at a Las Vegas music festival.
Aldean was performing on stage as the night's closing act when the shooting began. Six months later, he tiptoed through the refreshed gun control debate, saying in an interview that tragedies shouldn't be used as fodder for political arguments, but ultimately agreed that it was "too easy to get guns" in the U.S..
How are other people reacting?
Gun control advocates are among the song's loudest critics, saying "Try That in a Small Town" glorifies a dangerous eye-for-an eye ethos.
Shannon Watts, founder of the group Moms Demand Action, called it an "ode to a sundown town" that suggested "people be beaten or shot for expressing free speech."
Others said the song's hints at violence were clearly racial dog whistles, zeroing in on the song's portrayal of protests like flag-burning. Tennessee state Rep. Justin Jones, a Democrat, summed it as a "heinous song calling for racist violence."
Sheryl Crow and Margo Price are among the musicians who've spoke out against the song. But others, like Travis Tritt and Blanco Brown described the reaction as unfair social commentary.
Political commentators on the right have have held up the country music cannon, and Aldean in particular, as a loudspeaker for under-appreciated conservative values.
2024 GOP primary contenders like Trump, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis all defended the artist, with DeSantis saying: "When the media attacks you, you're doing something right."
If attention was his goal, then Aldean might agree: As of midday Thursday, "Try That in a Small Town" was ranked No. 1 in the U.S. on iTunes and was holding the No. 2 spot on YouTube's trending music videos. | Explicit |
On Thursday morning, Politico reported that Kevin McCarthy had promised Donald Trump that he’d hold a House vote to “expunge the two impeachments against the former president” before the August recess, in an attempt to get back on Trump’s good side after suggesting the ex-president might not be the best candidate for the 2024 GOP nomination. Hours later, McCarthy denied this.
At this time you might be wondering, as part of that denial, did McCarthy forcefully insist that expunging Trump’s pair of impeachments—the first for trying to extort Ukraine into digging up dirt on his political rival, the second for inciting an insurrection—would be some thoroughly repugnant Orwellian shit? Did he point out that it would be an insult to the brave law enforcement officers who protected his congressional colleagues on that dark day in January? Did he unequivocally deny he would ever be part of a movement to do the very thing Politico reported he’d promised to do? Uh, not exactly!
Instead, he merely denied that an official deal to expunge Trump’s impeachments had been struck while nevertheless noting that he would absolutely love to see it happen.
“There’s no deal, but I’ve been very clear from long before—when I voted against impeachments—that they put them in for purely political purposes,” McCarthy told reporters. “I support expungement, but there’s no deal out there.”
Of course, McCarthy’s claiming that there isn’t an actual deal does not mean that’s true. The reason we know that is because he’s been caught lying in the past, like when he forcefully denied a New York Times report saying he had told colleagues that Trump was at fault for “inciting people” to attack the Capitol building and that he was going to advise Trump to resign…only to be caught on tape saying the things the Times had reported.
Furthermore, there’s obviously no reason whatsoever to give McCarthy—who, again, publicly stated that he does, in fact, want Trump’s impeachments expunged!—the benefit of the doubt here, given that he voted to overturn the 2020 election in January 2021; refused to meaningfully hold Trump accountable for the insurrection during the impeachment proceedings; lied about the riot to get on Trump’s good side; and claimed this week that Trump is only facing an indictment for his attempt to overturn the election because he’s so very popular.
If you would like to receive the Levin Report in your inbox daily, click here to subscribe.
Surprise: A criminal Trump pardoned has been charged with committing fraud again
Weinstein has been accused of “falsely claiming” he and the individuals with whom he formed Optimus Investments had “lucrative deals” on N95 masks, “scarce baby formula,” and “first-aid kits bound for Ukraine.” According to the FBI, the group also schemed to hide Weinstein’s assets that were supposed to go toward restitution he owed the victims of his previous Ponzi scheme.
Weinstein was one more than six dozen criminals Trump pardoned on the way out the door in 2021. Others included Jared Kushner’s father, Steve Bannon, and Medicare fraudsters who collectively stole more than $1 billion.
Ron DeSantis’s Florida will teach kids that there were upsides to being a slave, and no, that’s not a joke
When the Florida State Board of Education announced earlier this year that it would ban the College Board’s AP American Studies course from its public schools, claiming it lacked “educational value,” the collective response from non-bigots was basically, “Wow, you can’t get much more f--ked up and racist than that.” To which Florida decided to respond, “Oh no, we can!”
Per The Washington Post:
If you can’t quite believe what you’re reading, we’ll repeat it again for emphasis: Florida schools are now required to teach students that there was a bright side to being forced into slavery. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the new rules also dictate that, per when teaching about mob violence against Black people—like, y’know, lynchings—teachers should also note “acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans.”
Last year, The New York Times reported that as a teacher at a private school in Georgia, DeSantis stuck out to students thanks to his views on the Civil War and slavery:
Meanwhile, DeSantis’s point of view on slavery was apparently so well known that ”students made a satirical video about him” in which a student meant to be DeSantis is heard saying, according to the Times, “The Civil War was not about slavery! It was about two competing economic systems. One was in the North….”
On Wednesday, Florida Education commissioner Manny Diaz insisted that the new rules make the state’s Black history curriculum more “robust,” saying, “I think this is something that is going to set the norm for standards in other states.” State representative Anna Eskamani, stating what should be but apparently is not obvious, told the Times the notion of teaching students that enslaved people learned important life skills “is inaccurate and a scary standard for us to establish.”
US congressman suggests there are downsides to the polio vaccine
Marjorie Taylor Greene’s explicit visuals at Hunter Biden hearing draw rebuke
The Washington Post • Read More
Trump bets, again, on legal troubles yielding big donations
CNN • Read More
Senate Judiciary panel advances Supreme Court ethics reform bill
The Hill • Read More
Florida family found guilty of selling bleach as fake COVID-19 cure through online church
NBC News • Read More
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Insisting He Is Not a Bigot, Says Opponents Seek to Silence Him
NYT • Read More
Influential activist Leonard Leo helped fund media campaign lionizing Clarence Thomas
The Washington Post • Read More
Injunction blocking Florida’s anti-drag law applies to all venues, judge says
NBC News • Read More
Judge Skewers “QAnon Shaman” While Refusing to Vacate His Conviction
Daily Beast • Read More
Why Chrissy Teigen loved her first colonoscopy: “I wish it took longer”
NYP • Read More | Explicit |
A sex scene in box office smash hit Oppenheimer has sparked outrage in India with social media users threatening to boycott the nuclear arms biopic.
The scene, featuring US physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (portrayed by Irish actor Cillian Murphy) reciting a verse from the Bhagavad Gita - a sacred Hindu scripture - before having sex has been branded a "scathing attack on Hinduism".
Nationalist group Save Culture Save India (SCSI) Foundation said the scene should be "investigated... on an urgent basis" and called for those involved to be "severely punished".
Fury on social media erupted after SCSI founder, Uday Mahurkar, wrote an open letter complaining to the film's director, Christopher Nolan.
The letter, entitled "Oppenheimer's disturbing attack on Hinduism", said: "We do not know the motivation and logic behind this unnecessary scene on [the] life of a scientist.
"But this is a direct assault on the religious beliefs of a billion tolerant Hindus, rather it amounts to waging a war on the Hindu community and almost appears to be part of a larger conspiracy by anti-Hindu forces."
Mr Mahurkar described the Bhagavad Gita as "one of the most revered scriptures of Hinduism" which has inspired thousands of people to "live a life of self control and perform selfless noble deeds".
He called on Nolan to axe the controversial scene, telling him: "We urge, on behalf of billions of Hindus and timeless tradition of lives being transformed by revered Gita, to do all that is necessary to uphold dignity of their revered book and remove this scene from your film across [the] world."
And he warned: "Should you choose to ignore this appeal it would be deemed as a deliberate assault on Indian civilisation."
However, some people responded to the letter by suggesting the film was "just art", with one person branding Mr Mahurkar's claims "ridiculous".
"These sorts of impotent accusations take away from the real issues happening to and within our community," one said.
Another responded: "There is nothing morally wrong with the scene. Stop overreacting and treating sex as a taboo."
Read more:
Christopher Nolan hits out at Warner Bros over shock streaming plans
How Oppenheimer's legacy still impacts us today
The film stars Murphy as Oppenheimer, who oversaw the creation of the atomic bomb during the Second World War, and English actress Florence Pugh, who plays his mistress Jean Tatlock, a psychiatrist, in the movie.
It has grossed around 600m rupees (almost £5.71m) since opening in India on Friday, according to Warner Bros Discovery.
In the UK, Vue said it had the biggest weekend for cinema ticket sales in four years following the release of Oppenheimer and the Barbie film.
The cinema chain said on Sunday that a fifth of its customers purchased tickets to see both films in a social media inspired double-bill dubbed "Barbenheimer".
Ahead of Oppenheimer's release, Nolan told Sky News the film was "just a very, very dramatic story about how our world changed forever" and warned - "the danger never goes away". | Explicit |
Last week, Donald Trump let loose with one of his tantrums disguised as a fundraising appeal on Truth Social, this time claiming that special prosecutor Jack Smith had sent him a letter indicating he's the target of a Justice Department investigation, this time related to Trump's attempted coup that resulted in the insurrection on January 6, 2021. Such letters are often preliminary to indictments. Most legal experts say it's a near-certainty in this case. Recent reporting suggests that Trump will likely face indictments for conspiracy to defraud the government and obstruction of an official proceeding. He may also be charged with conspiracy to deny people their civil rights, utilizing a law first passed to empower federal authorities to deal with the Klu Klux Klan.
Considering that his last round of indictments involved the Espionage Act, it's wild that these potential indictments are even more serious. Most experts believe Smith wouldn't do this if he didn't have the evidence for a conviction, and the possible charges are serious enough to put Trump away for the rest of his life. As the hearings of the House Select Committee on the January 6 attack showed, there's substantial evidence Trump knowingly led a conspiracy, and no doubt the grand jury investigation Smith is leading uncovered more. All of which suggests Trump's regular meltdowns on social media aren't just fundraising gambits, but sincere displays of panic from a man who has no doubt been long worried if all his criming would eventually catch up to him.
We need your help to stay independent
Trump isn't just whining in his usual all-caps style, however. He's also escalating his violent threats, in an impotent bid to scare federal prosecutors into backing down. On Tuesday, Trump gave an interview on an Iowa-based talk show where, mob-style, he issued a "warning" that was actually a threat. When asked about the possibility of going to jail, the former president said, "I think it's a very dangerous thing to even talk about, because we do have a tremendously passionate group of voters, much more passion than they had in 2020 and much more passion than they had in 2016."
Then on Thursday, Trump posted a video on his Truth Social account that was even less subtle. In it, ominous music plays over a shot of Trump's eyes glaring, as his voiceover says, "If you f**k around with us, if you do something bad to us, we are going to do things to you that have never been done before."
On Sunday, he went hard on Truth Social, winding up his supporters with unsubtly violent language. "IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE. WE MUST STOP THESE "MONSTERS" FROM FURTHER DESTROYING OUR COUNTRY!" he raved in one post. He also repeatedly reposted threatening memes sent by his often QAnon-drunk followers.
This is part of a larger pattern of Trump trying, with intermittent success, to replicate the events of January 6 by inciting his followers to violence. He posted photos suggesting he'd like to beat District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is prosecuting him for fraud in New York, with a baseball bat. He implicitly celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Branch Davidians' self-immolation in Waco, TX, with a rally that also valorized the January 6 riot. He posted former president Barack Obama's address, which led to a follower allegedly trying to assassinate Obama. He shared information about prosecutors' families, another obvious threat. He posted threatening rhetoric after the feds searched Mar-a-Lago for missing classified documents, which led to one follower dying in an attack on an FBI office.
Being bad at terrorism is no defense, especially for someone who keeps trying to instigate political violence.
Trump loves hiding behind his security guards while telling his idiot followers to commit acts of violence for him. He does it more often than most people eat breakfast. This is why legal experts so often pity Trump's defense lawyers, even though they are making a fortune off his campaign donors. This stuff isn't just dangerous and a bad look. It also nukes what was Trump's strongest defense in any January 6 case. No longer can he argue that he wasn't trying to kick off a riot when he told his followers to "march" on the Capitol, and they just did that on their own. Instead, Trump is handing prosecutors a pattern of behavior they can point to.
Want more Amanda Marcotte on politics? Subscribe to her newsletter Standing Room Only.
Trump's repeated efforts to make another January 6 happen don't just make it harder to argue his innocence in a court of law. It also makes a lot harder for Republicans who, foolishly, are still trying to defend Trump in the court of public opinion. Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., squealed that this is only happening because "Trump went up in the polls." This is the same McCarthy who, in the immediate aftermath of the insurrection, correctly stated that Trump "bears responsibility for Wednesday's attack on Congress by mob rioters." Other Republicans followed suit in pretending this is all ridiculous. House Minority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., for instance, complained about a "double standard."
These kinds of B.S. defenses depend on pretending that Trump didn't attempt a coup or incite an insurrection as if it was all just some weird coincidence. Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., offered a good example of how silly this gets, lamely saying on CNN that Trump "should have come out more forcefully" in telling rioters to go home on January 6. The clear implication is that the rioters were just acting on their own accord and Trump's only sin was in moving too slowly in response. In reality, Trump sent those rioters to the Capitol as part of a larger plot to block President Joe Biden's election certification so that a group of fake electors — some of whom are facing charges of their own — could come in and steal the election for him. The "Trump didn't want that riot" play is stupid on its face but becomes even more so every time Trump makes another threat.
Unsubtly begging his followers to use violence to block a legal proceeding is the standard operating procedure for Trump. Sure, it doesn't work most of the time. Mostly, his followers ignore his repeated entreaties that they go to prison in an ineffective bid to keep him out of it. Even when he can get his followers to act out violently, they've so far not achieved their goals, thankfully. Trump keeps returning to the well of violent threats because he's mean and not very bright, so can't accept that his favorite move just isn't working for him. But being bad at terrorism is no defense, especially for someone who keeps trying to instigate political violence.
"Stop saying I'm violent or I'll send people to murder your family" is an unpersuasive argument, of course. That Trump keeps going there, however, is a sign he is as desperate as he is stupid. He knows that he can't win the case on the merits, so his efforts are focused on trying to stop any case from going forward. The good news is that Smith is not going to be intimidated. The man has prosecuted violent gang members and war criminals. A coward like Trump is not going to rattle the nerves of the special prosecutor who has taken him on so forcefully.
Read more
about Trump's reliance on violent rhetoric | Explicit |
New Delhi: A Dalit man in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhatarpur district has alleged that another man from a different caste smeared human faeces on his face and head on Friday, July 21.
News agency PTI reported that the accused is named Ramkripal Patel and belongs to an Other Backward Class community.
The Dalit man, named Dashrath Ahirwar, filed a police complaint on Saturday, July 22 alleging that Patel smeared human faeces on his face and head after he accidentally touched Patel with grease.
Ahirwar told reporters that his local panchayat fined him Rs 600 when he tried to report the incident to its members at a meeting.
His police complaint says that the incident took place when he was doing construction work and Patel was bathing at a hand pump nearby.
“I had some grease on my hand and by mistake that grease got smeared on Patel. After that, Patel brought human faeces lying nearby in a mug he was using for bathing and smeared it on my body including head and face. I filed the FIR the next day since I was busy with work,” Ahirwar told local media according to the Indian Express.
He also alleges that Patel abused him on casteist lines, PTI reported. Patel was detained on Saturday following Ahirwar’s complaint.
This incident comes less than a month after a video was widely circulated showing a man allegedly urinating on someone from a Scheduled Tribe community in the same state’s Sidhi district.
The offending man has since been identified as Pravesh Shukla. Police arrested him on July 4 and registered a case against him under the National Security Act and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
A similar case was reported from Andhra Pradesh’s Prakasam district earlier this month, where a group of nine young men allegedly assaulted and then urinated on the face of a tribal man following a disagreement, The Hindu reported.
Three men and three minors have been arrested in that case as of Friday, July 20 and local police invoked the Prevention of Atrocities Act against the accused.
Police in Chhatarpur have also invoked the Prevention of Atrocities Act against Patel. The Act is meant to protect members of the Scheduled Castes (also known as Dalits) and Scheduled Tribes, which are historically marginalised communities, from discrimination.
“A case is being registered against Ramkripal Patel under sections 294 (punishment for obscene acts or words in public) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Scheduled Castes and Schedule Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act,” sub-divisional officer of police Manmohan Singh Baghel told PTI.
Baghel added that Ahirwar and others working to construct a drain in Bikaura village were “joking with Patel” and “hurling things at each other playfully” following which Patel threw faeces at Ahirwar. | Explicit |
TOKYO -- Renowned Japanese mystery writer Seiichi Morimura, whose nonfiction trilogy “The Devil’s Gluttony” exposed human medical experiments conducted by a secret Japanese army unit during World War II, died Monday. He was 90.
His official website and publisher, Kadokawa, said Morimura died of pneumonia at a Tokyo hospital.
“Akuma no Hoshoku,” or “The Devil’s Gluttony,” which began as a newspaper series in 1981, became a bestseller and created a sensation across the country over atrocities committed by Japanese Imperial Army Unit 731 in China.
From its base in Japanese-controlled Harbin in China, Unit 731 and related units injected war prisoners with typhus, cholera and other diseases as research into germ warfare, according to historians and former unit members. Unit 731 is also believed to have performed vivisections and frozen prisoners to death in tests of endurance.
Morimura began contributing articles to magazines while working in hotels. He won the prestigious Edogawa Rampo Prize for his mystery fiction in 1969 and the Mystery Writers of Japan Award in 1973.
Born in 1933 in Saitama, just north of Tokyo, Morimura survived harsh U.S. bombings of the Tokyo region toward the end of World War II and developed pacifist principles. He wrote a book about his commitment to defending Japan's postwar pacifist Constitution and opposing nuclear weapons. He joined protests against a 2015 reinterpretation of the constitution by then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe allowing greater military activity.
His 1976 novel “Ningen no Shomei” ("Proof of the Man"), a mystery about a young Black man who is murdered, revealed the dark side of postwar Japan and was made into a movie.
Another popular novel, “Yasei no Shomei” ("Proof of the Wild"), published a year later depicts a conspiracy over genocide in a remote village. | 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 |
“What was your craziest first date?” a Twitter user asked her sizable following late last year.
Among the hundreds of romantic responses was a tweet from 35-year-old US citizen John Poulos, who often shared misogynistic content on social media.
“Invited a Colombian woman on vacation without meeting her first - now we’re getting married,” Mr Poulos wrote on 17 December along with a photo with Valentina Trespalacios posing in front of ancient ruins.
Just over a month later on 22 January, Mr Poulos allegedly strangled and beat Trespalacios to death in an apartment he had rented in the Colombian capital Bogota.
Prosecutors from the Office of the Attorney General of Colombia allege Mr Poulos stuffed the 21-year-old DJ’s body into a suitcase and left it in a dumpster before fleeing on a flight to Panama.
Mr Poulos was arrested on 24 January at Panama City’s Tocumen International Airport while trying to board a flight to Turkey.
He was extradited to Colombia where he has been charged with aggravated femicide and concealment of evidence.
This week, Colombian prosecutors announced they would seek a prison term of more than 35 years in jail for the divorced father of three from Wisconsin.
Underneath Mr Poulos’s tweet announcing his engagement, a grim update has been added via the crowd-sourced Community Notes.
“The user who posted this tweet is now charged with murdering the woman in question,” the update reads.
A whirlwind romance
Valentina Trespalacios’ music career was about to take off.
The DJ, who specialised in the dance genre guaracha, had been recognised at the Colombia Dance Awards was working on her first album at the time of her death, music producer David Sarria told Billboard magazine.
She had performed with international stars such as Steve Aoki and Erik Morillo, and was one of the highest rated young DJs in Colombia, Mr Sarria said.
She was a fixture at clubs around the country, and was making enough money to support her family, brother Daniel Trespalacios told the Daily Beast.
Trespalacios met John Poulos on the dating app Tinder some time in April 2022, which is when he invited her to go on vacation before they had met.
He then made several trips to Colombia over the next ten months.
The couple were planning to buy a house and get married.
According to prosecutors, Mr Poulos, a financial adviser, showed signs of jealousy and controlling behaviour in the weeks leading up to his fiancée’s murder.
At a court hearing in February, it was alleged that Mr Poulos hired a private investigator to trail Trespalacios to Aruba.
Mr Poulos saw his fiancé as “his personal object” and controlled her actions and friendships, and monitored her social media use, Daniel Gómez Acuña told the court, according to Colombia.com.
Days before she was killed, Mr Poulos returned to Colombia allegedly infuriated by a report from the private investigator that Trespalacios had been seen with another man in Aruba.
The couple moved into a short-term Airbnb rental, and Trespalacios performed a DJ set at a Bogota nightclub on Friday 20 January, family said.
She spoke to her brother by video call on Saturday night, the last time she was seen alive.
“Poulos had sexual relations with Valentina Trespalacios and proceeded to violently beat (her) body with his own fists, after which he put pressure with his hands around her neck until she died,” Mr Gómez Acuña told the court hearing in February.
Surveillance footage obtained by prosecutors showed Mr Poulos leave the apartment the next with a large blue suitcase and lift it into the boot of his rented vehicle.
Trespalacios’ remains were found in a dumpster in the south of the city the next afternoon. Her killing has sparked widespread fury in Colombia.
An attempted escape
Mr Poulos flew from Bogota’s El Dorado International Airport to Panama the same day.
He was arrested by Panamanian immigration officials moments before he was about to board a Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul. He was due to catch a connecting flight to Montenegro, which has no extradition arrangement with Colombia.
Mr Poulos also purchased a ticket from Panama City to São Paulo, Brazil, in an attempt to throw off Colombian authorities.
He initially told Panamanian authorities that the Medellin Cartel had been responsible for Trespalacios’ murder.
He was charged with femicide — which is defined as the killing of a woman or girl due to her gender.
Mr Poulos initially denied he was responsible for the horrific murder, according to RCN Noticias.
This week, as prosecutors sought a 35-year sentence, his team of lawyers were trying to seek a more lenient sentence in exchange for a guilty plea.
A trial had been due to begin in April, but was delayed after Mr Poulos claimed he had received inadequate access to translation services while in custody and during his first court appearances.
According to RCN Noticias, Mr Poulos was assaulted in his cell earlier this week.
Images showing cuts and bruises to his face were obtained by the news outlet, who described his injuries as not serious. He has claimed he is fearful for his life.
Mr Poulos’ ex-wife was granted a divorce by a judge in Wisconsin in 2021 after determining their marriage was irretrievably broken.
On social media, Mr Poulos often shared mysognistic “jokes” and regularly retweeted Andrew Tate, the social media influencer who has been charged with with rape, human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women in Romania. | 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 |
A shooting that erupted in a Houston park over the weekend that left a pregnant woman dead and four other people injured marked the 400th mass shooting in the United States in 2023, according to a national website that tracks firearm deaths and injuries.
The Houston incident was among six mass shootings that occurred on Saturday and early Sunday in cities across the nation, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as a single event with four or more victims either injured or killed.
With a little over six months still to go in the year, the number of mass shootings is up 9% from 365 mass shootings that occurred as of this time in 2022 -- a year in which a total of 647 mass shootings unfolded, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
The Houston shooting happened just after 1 a.m. on Saturday at Margaret Jenkins Park in the southern part of the city as a birthday party was ending, police and witnesses said. Killed in the shooting was a 21-year-old woman, identified by her family as Autumn Vallian.
Vallian's mother, Ebony Vallian, told ABC station KTRK in Houston, the shooting occurred as she and her daughter were attempting to leave the party when at least two people engaged in an argument, pulled guns and started shooting.
"I looked back and my baby was down on the ground. Gone," Ebony Vallian said. "I lost my baby. She was in school, trying to get a job, trying to become something, and she's gone now."
ShotSpotter gunfire detection technology in the area recorded 36 gunshots fired in the incident, which left four other people wounded, according to the Houston Police Department.
Two suspects in the shooting were among those hospitalized with gunshot wounds, police said.
The Houston incident was among six shootings across the nation over the weekend in which four or more people were wounded or killed.
Early Sunday, four people were shot in Seattle at an illegal street racing event, according to police. The shooting, which according to the Gun Violence Archive is the 401st mass shooting this year, occurred in the city's Capitol Hill neighborhood around 4 a.m., and left two women and two men hospitalized, including one with critical injuries, police said. No arrests were immediately announced.
At least five people were shot, one fatally, in the Parkway Village Section of southeast Memphis around 4 p.m. on Saturday, according to the Memphis Police Department. One of the victims critically injured in the shooting was a child, police said.
No arrests were announced in the Memphis shooting.
In Wade, North Carolina, about 12 miles northeast of Fayetteville, one person was killed and three others were shot around 1 p.m. on Saturday during what police described as a "physical disturbance" at a gas station. No arrests were announced.
Four people were shot and wounded outside a hotel in Glendale, Arizona, Saturday morning, according to police. The shooting erupted about 2:15 a.m. as officers responded to an unrelated call and heard gunshots coming from the parking lot of a Renaissance Hotel, authorities said. No arrests were announced.
In Chicago, a 40-year-old man was killed and three other men were wounded during a shooting that occurred at 12:13 a.m. on Saturday in the city's North Lawndale neighborhood, according to the Chicago Police Department. The victims were standing on a sidewalk when two men walked up and opened fire, police said. No arrests were announced.
Saturday's shooting was the third mass shooting in Chicago this month, according to the Gun Violence Archive. On July 5, a man was killed and five other people were wounded when gunfire broke out at a Fourth of July gathering outside a residence in the city's Englewood neighborhood, police said. On July 16, one person was killed and four others were wounded in a drive-by shooting in Chicago's Garfield Park neighborhood, according to police.
Eleven other cities have had two mass shootings in July, including Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cleveland, Houston, Dallas, New York, Memphis, El Paso, Texas; Fort Worth, Texas; Lansing, Michigan and Shreveport, Louisiana, according to the Gun Violence Archive data.
July has been a particularly violent month in the United States with 65 mass shootings claiming the lives of 81 people and leaving 300 wounded, according to the website's data.
Twenty-two of the mass shootings in July occurred over the extended Independence Day weekend, leaving 22 people dead and 126 injured, according to the website.
One of the deadliest Fourth of July weekend shootings unfolded in the Kingsessing neighborhood of Philadelphia, where a man armed with an AR-15-style rifle, a pistol, extra magazines and wearing a bulletproof vest and a ski mask, allegedly went on a rampage, firing at least 50 shots randomly at victims, killing five, including a 15-year-old boy, and wounding two other children, according to police.
Kimbrady Carriker, 40, the suspect in the Philadelphia shooting, was arrested and charged with murder and attempted murder. He has yet to enter a plea to the charges.
On July 2, a Fourth of July weekend block party ended in a mass shooting that left 2 people dead and 28 injured in the Brooklyn Homes neighborhood in the southern district of Baltimore, according to police. A 17-year-old boy suspected of being one of multiple shooters in the incident was arrested on July 7 and charged with possession of a firearm by a minor, possession of an assault weapon, reckless endangerment and possession of a handgun in a vehicle.
The Baltimore mass shooting remains under investigation and more arrests are expected, police said. | Explicit |
A man and a woman have been found guilty of causing the death of a five-month-old girl who suffered fractures on her body and a severe head trauma.
The trial of Joshua Collard and Rebecca Grocott was told the baby died on 1 March 2020, three days after paramedics were called.
The paramedics, who reported to police that the child was in cardiac arrest, treated the child in an ambulance but she later died in hospital.
Staffordshire Police said the infant was found to have multiple rib, collarbone and femur fractures as well as severe trauma to the side of her head.
Collard, 30, and Grocott, 27, said they did not know how the injuries were sustained and later denied hurting her.
But the pair were convicted on Tuesday of causing the girl's death and several other offences, including causing or allowing serious physical harm to a child, and two counts of assaulting, ill-treating, neglecting or abandoning a child or young person to cause unnecessary suffering or injury.
After an investigation into her death and a post-mortem examination, the pair were arrested on 25 March 2020.
Detective Constable Emily Hanlon, of Staffordshire Police, said: "This was a truly tragic case in which [a] five-month-old [girl] died as a result of the actions of two people.
"I would like to thank all of those involved in securing justice for [the girl]."
Collard, from Stafford, and Grocott, from Stone, were convicted following a five-week trial at Stafford Crown Court.
They will be sentenced at the same court on 27 July. | Explicit |
One woman was killed and four other people were injured in an early Saturday morning shooting in Houston, police said.
Officers with the Houston Police Department responded to Margaret Jenkins Park around 1:18 a.m. after receiving multiple reports of shots fired in the location from shot spotter technology, Assistant Chief Ernest Garcia said in a news briefing.
According to a preliminary report, there were multiple groups at the park when an altercation broke out and "people started firing their firearms," Garcia said. The shot spotter technology recorded 36 shots had been fired.
A total of five people were injured in the shooting. A 21-year-old woman was pronounced dead on the scene, according to police.
Of the four remaining victims, three were taken to a local hospital and one "had a graze wound to the body," Garcia said. All four victims are in stable condition.
Police have not identified any of the victims.
Officers detained two possible suspects in connection with the shooting and are investigating if there may be more.
The investigation remains ongoing. | 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 |
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 distressing video of two Manipur women being paraded naked has gone viral, drawing condemnation from the Indigenous Tribal Leaders' Forum as evidence of heinous atrocities. The incident occurred in Kangpokpi district amidst mob violence following the burning of a village. A relative filed a zero FIR, leading to the case being registered at Nongpok Sekmai police station. The mob killed two men, forcibly stripped and gang-raped three women, with the victim's brother also losing his life while trying to protect her. Fortunately, the three women managed to escape with the help of locals. Authorities are currently investigating to bring the perpetrators to justice. | Explicit |
Italy and PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma and his partner have been robbed and attacked at their home in Paris.
The couple were targeted by "several people" and tied up at their flat in the eighth district in the centre of of the capital, police sources have told French media.
They are then said to have to escaped to a nearby hotel.
The alarm was raised by hotel staff and the couple were taken to hospital.
"An investigation has been opened on charges of armed robbery in an organised gang and aggravated violence following the events that took place overnight at Mr Donnarumma's place," a spokesperson for Paris prosecutor's office told the BBC.
Unconfirmed reports on the news site Actu17 say the attackers made off with jewellery and other luxury goods worth as much as â¬500,000 (£430,000).
The footballer was lightly injured while his partner, model Alessia Elefante, was unharmed, sources told Agence France Presse.
The prosecutor's office said France's special BRB police unit targeting armed robbery and burglaries had begun an investigation.
Gianluigi Donnarumma, 24, moved to Paris two years ago and was due to join the Paris Saint-Germain squad later on Friday ahead of the club's first pre-season friendly match and a tour of Japan.
He is not the the first PSG footballer to have been targeted by gangs, but most previous attacks have taken place while the victim is not at home.
Last January, two men were given jail terms for a robbery in March 2021 at the home of Brazil footballer Marquinhos in Yvelines to the west of Paris.
Marquinhos was playing at the time of the incident but his father and two daughters were in the house.
The home of his team-mate Angel Di Maria was burgled on the same day. | Explicit |
24.07.2023
THEME: WORLD
The New Frontlines: Grain Deals, Drone Strikes, and Global Consequences
The ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia has recently escalated, with Ukraine's retaliation to Russia's missile attack on the Black Sea port of Odesa. Early on Monday, Ukrainian drones targeted Moscow and annexed Crimea, hitting two buildings in Moscow and an ammunition depot in Crimea. Although Moscow's electronic warfare systems reportedly intercepted the drones, causing no serious damage or casualties, the strikes marked a significant escalation in the conflict. Russia’s Foreign Ministry denounced the drone strikes as an act of international terrorism, while Crimea saw the evacuation of residents and the suspension of transport services for safety reasons.
Simultaneously, the US imposed new sanctions on Russia, targeting the nation's access to crucial front-line electronics and logistics. Announced on Thursday, these sanctions aim to restrict Kremlin's war funding by limiting its income from the metals and mining sector. The sanctions extend to members of the Russian security service, a regional governor, six deputy ministers, and private military companies, including Gazprom-owned Okhrana. The Russian embassy in Washington has criticized these sanctions as destructive actions aimed at the Kremlin.
The conflict has also had severe implications for global food security, with Russia initially blockading supplies of Ukrainian wheat and cereals, causing a surge in food prices. Although a UN-Turkey brokered deal lifted the blockade last summer, Russia withdrew from the agreement this week. The situation has been further complicated by Ukraine's decision to declare ships traveling to Russia and occupied territories as military targets, in response to Moscow's similar warning.
Recent Russian attacks have damaged the Chinese consulate in Odesa and export facilities in Odesa and nearby Chornomorsk, resulting in the loss of 60,000 tons of grain. This happened following Ukraine's counteroffensive to recapture territory occupied by Russia, which has led to escalated fighting in the region.
In an unexpected development, the Kremlin seized the Russian assets of foreign firms Carlsberg and Danone, handing control of these subsidiaries to regime loyalists. This move has reignited debates about the future of Russia’s Central Bank assets, worth $300 billion, frozen by the G7 at the start of the conflict.
As the conflict intensifies, the world watches with apprehension. The implications of this war extend beyond Ukraine and Russia, impacting global food security, international relations, and the world economy's stability. The decisions made in the coming weeks will undoubtedly have lasting effects, shaping the course of history for years to come.
LINKS TO THE JOURNALS
WORLD PIONEER | Explicit |
Police have completed their search ofLong Island home, said Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney in a news conference Tuesday afternoon.
Tierney said police found "approximately 279 weapons" in the "cluttered" residence, including "quite a few long guns" and 92 handgun permits. In addition to the weapons, a "massive amount of material" was removed from the home, but Tierney declined to offer more details.
Many of the guns were found inside a walk-in vault in Heuermann's basement, police said Tuesday. Suffolk Police Commissioner Rodney Harrisonthat the vault had a large iron door, but said it was "not a soundproof room."
Heuermann, an architect who worked in New York City,the murders of three women and is the prime suspect in a fourth case. The bodies were found on Gilgo Beach within a quarter mile of each other in 2010, each wrapped in burlap. Heuermann has pled not guilty and will appear in court again on Aug. 1, 2023. He is being held without bail.
Investigators have also searched the Massapequa Park home's backyard, as well as a storage unit nearby. An excavator, sonar devices and cadaver dogs have been used in, and investigators searched around the home's foundation with shovels. Police have been investigating if any murders were committed at the home, which Heuermann , Asa Ellerup, and their two daughters. Ellerup has .
There were seven other sets of remains found on the same beach between 2010 and 2011, and CBS New York reported that Heuermann has not been ruled out as a suspect in those cases.
for more features. | Explicit |
Italy and PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma and his partner have been robbed and attacked at their home in Paris.
The couple were targeted by "several people" and tied up at their flat in the eighth district in the centre of of the capital, police sources have told French media.
They are then said to have to escaped to a nearby hotel.
The alarm was raised by hotel staff and the couple were taken to hospital.
"An investigation has been opened on charges of armed robbery in an organised gang and aggravated violence following the events that took place overnight at Mr Donnarumma's place," a spokesperson for Paris prosecutor's office told the BBC.
Unconfirmed reports on the news site Actu17 say the attackers made off with jewellery and other luxury goods worth as much as â¬500,000 (£430,000).
The footballer was lightly injured while his partner, model Alessia Elefante, was unharmed, sources told Agence France Presse.
The prosecutor's office said France's special BRB police unit targeting armed robbery and burglaries had begun an investigation.
Gianluigi Donnarumma, 24, moved to Paris two years ago and was due to join the Paris Saint-Germain squad later on Friday ahead of the club's first pre-season friendly match and a tour of Japan.
He is not the the first PSG footballer to have been targeted by gangs, but most previous attacks have taken place while the victim is not at home.
Last January, two men were given jail terms for a robbery in March 2021 at the home of Brazil footballer Marquinhos in Yvelines to the west of Paris.
Marquinhos was playing at the time of the incident but his father and two daughters were in the house.
The home of his team-mate Angel Di Maria was burgled on the same day. | Explicit |
- Summary
- Companies
- Russian air strikes hit southern Ukrainian port cities
- President Volodymyr Zelenskiy condemns the attacks
- Russia says it carried out retaliatory strikes
MYKOLAIV, Ukraine, July 20 (Reuters) - At least three people were killed and a Chinese consular building was damaged on Thursday in a third successive night of air strikes on southern Ukrainian port cities, Ukrainian officials said.
Regional governor Oleh Kiper posted a photograph showing at least one broken window at the Chinese consulate in the Black Sea city of Odesa, but there was no sign of any other damage.
Beijing, a Russian ally, did not immediately comment on the incident, one day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said 60,000 tons of agricultural products destined for China had been destroyed in an attack on another Ukrainian port city.
Moscow said it had carried out "retaliatory strikes", days after it quit a deal allowing Ukrainian Black Sea grain shipments and accused Ukraine of being behind blasts on a bridge used to transport Russian military supplies.
Ukraine's military said Russian forces launched 19 missiles and 19 drones overnight, and that five of the missiles and 13 of the drones were shot down.
"Russian terrorists continue their attempts to destroy the life of our country," Zelenskiy said on the Telegram messaging app. "Together we will make it through this terrible time. And we will withstand the attacks of Russian evil."
In Odesa, a security guard was killed and at least eight other people were hurt, including a child, Kiper said.
A married couple was killed in the city of Mykolaiv, mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said.
Regional governor Vitaliy Kim had said earlier on Thursday that 19 people were hurt in the city, and several residential buildings were damaged.
Fire fighters in Mykolaiv tackled a huge blaze that left a three-storey residential building without its top floor, and adjacent buildings were gutted by the fire.
A Russian attack on the port of Chornomorsk on Wednesday damaged grain export infrastructure as well as the agricultural products Zelenskiy said were meant for China.
Ukrainian officials see the air strikes as an attack on global food security because Kyiv is a major grain exporter. Mykhailo Podolayk, a senior adviser to Zelenskiy, urged the international community to do more in response.
"Will we see an emergency convocation of the UN Security Council to discuss global food security? The international community chooses... to stand aside," he wrote on Twitter.
Authorities in the northeastern region of Kharkiv said separately a 61-year-old man had been killed there by Russian shelling on Thursday.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. | Explicit |
Police have completed their search ofLong Island home, said Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney in a news conference Tuesday afternoon.
Tierney said police found "approximately 279 weapons" in the "cluttered" residence, including "quite a few long guns" and 92 handgun permits. In addition to the weapons, a "massive amount of material" was removed from the home, but Tierney declined to offer more details.
Many of the guns were found inside a walk-in vault in Heuermann's basement, police said Tuesday. Suffolk Police Commissioner Rodney Harrisonthat the vault had a large iron door, but said it was "not a soundproof room."
Heuermann, an architect who worked in New York City,the murders of three women and is the prime suspect in a fourth case. The bodies were found on Gilgo Beach within a quarter mile of each other in 2010, each wrapped in burlap. Heuermann has pled not guilty and will appear in court again on Aug. 1, 2023. He is being held without bail.
Investigators have also searched the Massapequa Park home's backyard, as well as a storage unit nearby. An excavator, sonar devices and cadaver dogs have been used in, and investigators searched around the home's foundation with shovels. Police have been investigating if any murders were committed at the home, which Heuermann , Asa Ellerup, and their two daughters. Ellerup has .
There were seven other sets of remains found on the same beach between 2010 and 2011, and CBS New York reported that Heuermann has not been ruled out as a suspect in those cases.
for more features. | Explicit |
Two people have died and multiple people are injured after a shooting in Auckland city centre on the day that the Women’s World Cup is kicking off in the city.
Police confirmed the deaths and said a gunman was also dead.
A statement from police said the incident took place in a building site on Thursday morning.
“The offender has moved through the building site and continued to discharge his firearm. 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,” it said.
“Further shots were fired from the male and he was located deceased a short time later.”
The statement said it was not a national security incident and had been contained.
Newshub reported that a police officer was among the hurt.
A heavy police presence, including armed officers and helicopters, had responded to what police called a “significant incident with multiple emergency services responding.”
“The serious incident in Auckland CBD this morning is currently contained to a building in lower Queen Street, which is under construction,” a statement read.
“Police ask all members of the public to avoid the lower Queen Street area and for those in downtown inner-city buildings to remain inside their buildings at this time.”
Auckland mayor Wayne Brown said a police officer and members of the public were injured.
Locals reported hearing gunshots about 8am, with media broadcasting workers at the building site hiding behind packs of pre-mix cement under police supervision.
Ferry services, which use a nearby terminal to operate, have been cancelled.
The incident has taken place as Auckland prepares to host the opening game of the Women’s World Cup later on Thursday.
The Fifa Fan Festival is nearby, with former NZ international Maia Jackson telling the NZ Herald she was nearby.
“It’s pretty scary actually. So they pushed us to the back of the cloud where we are and we’re just trying to keep sane,” she said.
“There’s lots of security and lots of uncertainty.”
The New Zealand Herald quoted the US Women’s Football team spokesperson, who are staying at the SO near Britomart, as saying: “All of our players and staff are accounted for and safe. Our security team is in communication with local authorities and we are proceeding with our daily schedule.” | Explicit |
As the threat of a third indictment looms, Donald Trump reposted a threatening video message on Truth Social from a verified MAGA account on Thursday—the same day a federal grand jury convened to determine whether to charge the ex-president over Jan. 6. “If you fuck around with us, if you do something bad to us, we are going to do things to you that have never been done before,” Trump is heard saying in the 9-second-long clip. Dramatic music plays in the background as a black-and-white photo of Trump zooms out and his 2024 campaign logo appears. While the audio itself is from a 2020 conversation about Iran, the message seems to target special counsel Jack Smith, one of Trump’s current biggest foes. Earlier this week, Trump lost his mind after prosecutors warned him that he is the target of another criminal investigation. On Truth Social, Trump declared it was “HORRIFYING NEWS for our Country” and labeled Smith as “deranged.
CHEAT SHEET
TOP 10 RIGHT NOW
- 1
- 2
- 4
- 5
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10 | Explicit |
Addis Abeba – An armed militia attack on Nuer village in the city of Gambella, the capital of Gambella regional state has resulted in at least 31 fatalities and 20 injuries, according to a source who spoke with Addis Standard. The informant, wishing to remain unidentified for their safety, indicated that the attack began on 18 July around 4:50 pm.
The source, who is close to the matter, said 19 people from the village and 12 from the attackers, who are alleged to be ethnic Angwa militias from Abol district, were killed during the attack, adding that among the dead is Kwang Nial Poh, a respected member of the psychology department at Gambella University.
Another anonymous source provided further details about the assailants, stating that they donned the city’s police uniforms to carry out their assault surreptitiously, thereby evading identification. This informant went on to suggest that these attackers were also responsible for a previous assault on a bus traveling from Wentawo to Gambella city.
On 13 July, Addis Standard reported that three people were killed, and 23 others were injured during a violent assault on two public buses on the outskirts of Gambella city, at a location known as Ochom.
According to the sources, following the latest attack, the city is currently under the control of the national defense forces, with public services and offices remain closed for the time being.
In response to this escalating crisis, the Gambella regional cabinet, in an emergency meeting on 19 July, has enacted an indefinite curfew, prohibiting all movement between 1:00AM and 12:00PM, except for designated security personnel. Furthermore, it has been mandated that carrying weapons, with the exception of the aforementioned security forces, is strictly forbidden, according to the regional government’s communication bureau.
In an attempt to restore some normalcy, the cabinet has decreed that all government employees and service providers will recommence regular work schedules from the following day.
Ugato Ading, head of the regional communication bureau, said in a presser, human lives were lost and properties have been damaged in the wake of recent violence in the region. He added, the efforts are underway to ensure security in the region with the help of federal government forces. He said “ethno-nationalism and tribalism are threatening the region”, admitting that the violence is ethnic based. He vowed any individuals or parties including government officials contributing to the disruption of peace in the region will be held accountable.
In May, the Gambella region president, Umod Ujulu, dismissed the violence which killed nine people and injured 23 in Itang special woreda and the capital Gambella city as a dispute between individuals which later escalated into communal violence.
He also said back then that the violence has been brought under control by the coordinated efforts of the regional and federal security forces, and that the plot by what he called “elements” existing in the public who try to separate the people who have lived in solidarity and brotherhood for centuries was foiled. AS | Explicit |
NEW YORK, July 19 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Wednesday rejected Donald Trump's request for a new trial in a civil case brought by E. Jean Carroll, where a jury found the former U.S. president liable for sexually abusing and defaming the writer and awarded her $5 million in damages.
In a 59-page decision, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan said the jury did not reach a "seriously erroneous result," and the May 9 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 $2 million 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.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. | Explicit |
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said it's investigating a transgender man's violent arrest after he and his lawyer released surveillance footage of the February encounter.
Emmett Brock, 23, told ABC News that he was beaten by a Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy after he gave the middle finger to the officer who Brock alleges was behaving harshly toward a woman on the side of the road. Surveillance footage of the arrest was obtained by Brock's attorney from a nearby store and released to ABC News.
"The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department takes all use of force incidents seriously," the department said in a statement Tuesday.
The statement added, "The Department is investigating the information and allegations brought forward by Mr. Brock and his attorney. Unfortunately, we cannot comment any further at this time due to the pending litigation in this matter."
Brock said the incident began when he was driving and observed the deputy "just acting in a very domineering, abusive way towards this woman on the street."
After making the gesture to the deputy, Brock said the same deputy hopped in his car and began following him. Brock said he proceeded to deviate from his route to see if the deputy would keep following him.
Brock said he called 911 and claims he was told "If he doesn't have lights or sirens on, he's not pulling you over. If he hasn't pulled you over, he hasn't pulled you over. Continue to your destination."
Brock pulled into a 7-Eleven parking lot when the deputy's car pulled in behind him and turned his lights on before Brock got out of the car, which can also be seen in the surveillance footage.
As Brock got out of his car, the deputy can be seen in the footage approaching Brock, grabbing him and throwing him to the ground.
"He's on top of me very quickly," Brock told ABC News. "I took a step and then immediately was just grabbed, thrown on my head. He punched me, I think, about 10 times with a closed fist on both sides of my head -- just beating me and I was bleeding from my ears, and my face was hugely swollen."
The deputy can be seen in the video hitting Brock while the two were on the ground.
He alleges that officers told him he was arrested for resisting but would not tell him why exactly he was approached by police in the first place.
The deputy has been identified in local news reports as Joseph Benza. Benza's attorney Tom Yu told ABC-owned station KABC that his client was trying to take control of the situation when Brock apparently tried to walk away from the traffic stop.
"A traffic stop is inherently dangerous," Yu told KABC. "It evolves very fast, very rapidly. You don't know if a person is armed. So my client immediately took control of that situation in an attempt to stop Mr. Brock from walking away from that traffic stop."
Brock says when he revealed in a local jail he is transgender deputies began asking "invasive" questions about his gender identity and genitalia and allegedly made him expose himself to a female officer inside a restroom, after which he says he was placed in a women's holding cell.
Brock has been charged with two misdemeanor charges, including battery against a police officer and resisting arrest. Brock has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
He said he is pursuing legal action against the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
The sheriff's department did not release the arresting officer's name to ABC News. | 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 |
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 |
KYIV, July 20 (Reuters) - A building at the Chinese consulate in Odesa was damaged in a Russian missile and drone attack on the southern Ukrainian port city, regional governor Oleh Kiper said on Thursday.
The damage appeared to be minor. Kiper posted a photograph online showing the building with broken windows.
Russia, which is an ally of China, attacked the port cities of Odesa and Mykolaiv overnight for the third successive night.
"The aggressor is deliberately hitting the port infrastructure - administrative and residential buildings nearby were damaged, also the consulate of the People's Republic of China. It shows the enemy does not pay attention to anything," Kiper said on the Telegram messaging app.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his daily late-night video address on Wednesday that 60,000 tons of agricultural products destroyed in a Russian air strike on Odesa port had been intended for shipment to China.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. | Explicit |
There’s a lot to digest in the three-hour runtime of Oppenheimer, which blew up the weekend box office alongside Barbie, grossing about $80.5 million domestic and $93.7 million internationally. The film includes a poison apple, the recurring presence of Albert Einstein, and the first sex scene ever lensed by filmmaker Christopher Nolan.
While the intimate encounter between Cillian Murphy’s J. Robert Oppenheimer and his real life love Jean Tatlock, played by Florence Pugh ,has generated plenty of buzz, it’s causing outrage among some in India—not so much for the sex scene itself, but due to the memorable quote uttered during the act: “Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.”
During Oppenheimer and Tatlock’s tryst in the film, Jean stops their romp to pick up a copy of the Bhagavad Gita, which she makes Oppenheimer read aloud during sex. While there’s no evidence to support that this actually happened, the physicist did have an affinity for Sanskrit. Murphy even read the sacred text to prepare for his role.
But despite its rooting in (semi) reality, a character reading a sacred text during sexual activity has sparked controversy among India’s Hindu nationalists and politicians within its right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Over the weekend, India’s Information Commissioner, Uday Mahurkar, shared a statement on Twitter that called the sex scene “a scathing attack on Hinduism.” Mahurkar took offense that Pugh’s character “is holding Bhagwad Geeta in one hand, and the other hand seems to be adjusting the position of their reproductive organs” in the scene, which he also labeled “ a direct assault on religious beliefs” and a way of “waging a war on the Hindu community.”
As noted by CNN, Oppenheimer currently holds a U/A rating in India, which deems it appropriate to be watched by children under 12 with parental guidance. Not only has the film not been banned, but it grossed more than $3 million in its opening weekend in the country—beating out Barbie, which has also sparked controversy overseas.
Mahurkar concluded his message with a call for the filmmakers to erase the sex scene from Oppenheimer. “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,” he wrote, adding, “Should you choose to ignore this appeal it would be deemed as a deliberate assault on Indian civilisation.” (Vanity Fair has reached out to Universal for comment.) | Explicit |
Former pastor arrested in 1975 murder case investigating death of young girl
A former pastor was arrested after he confessed to the kidnapping and murdering of an 8-year-old girl who attended a Bible camp hosted by the man’s church in Pennsylvania nearly 50 years ago, officials said Monday.
David Zandstra, 83, of Marietta, Georgia has been charged with criminal homicide, murder of the first, second and third degree, kidnapping of a minor and the possession of an instrument of crime.
The Delaware County District Attorney’s Office said the man admitted to his crimes after presented with allegations made in a January interview that the man groped a different young girl and may have attempted to kidnap another.
Gretchen Harrington, 8, disappeared the morning of August 15, 1975, in Marple, Pennsylvania, after she left for Bible camp, according to the statement.
The Trinity Church Chapel Christian Reform Church, where Zandstra was a pastor, was one of the host churches of the camp where the children began the day with opening exercises.
Zandstra was among the individuals responsible for transporting the children from Trinity to The Reformed Presbyterian Church, another host church of the camp where Harrington’s father was a pastor.
After Harrington did not appear at The Reformed Presbyterian Church that day, her father became concerned, and Zandstra reported the victim’s disappearance to the Marple Police Department.
Skeletal remains that were later identified as Harrington’s were found located within Ridley Creek State Park on October 14, 1975.
“The murder of Gretchen Harrington has haunted members of law enforcement since that terrible day in August 1975. The families of victims often say that their lives are forever altered into the ‘before’ time and the ‘after’ time. Gretchen’s murder created a ‘before’ time and an ‘after’ time for an entire community – and for an entire county,” District Attorney Stollsteimer said in the announcement.
An arrest warrant and criminal complaint were filed against Zandstra on July 17 following the emergence of the new evidence, and Zandstra is now in jail in Cobb County, Georgia, according to the District Attorney’s Office statement.
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. | Explicit |
CHICAGO -- The federal trial of a 50-year-old truck driver convicted of killing 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue in the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history is in its third and final phase, in which jurors must decide whether to sentence him to death.
The jury convicted Robert Bowers in June after three weeks of testimony about how he stormed the Tree of Life synagogue in October 2018 and shot anyone he saw. He killed members of three congregations that were sharing the building, and wounded two worshippers and five police officers.
During the second phase of the trial, it took jurors only two hours to decide that Bowers was legally eligible for the death penalty. That led to the final phase, which is more emotionally taxing for jurors as they weigh whether sentence the man across the courtroom to die.
Here is a look at the final phase:
IS THERE ANY WAY TO PREDICT THE OUTCOME?
Given the overwhelming evidence, everyone including Bowers' lawyers knew a conviction was all but certain.
The outcome of sentencing phases are notoriously unpredictable, though, because it only takes one holdout juror to prevent the unanimity required for a death sentence. Without it, a defendant automatically gets life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Jury selection is designed, among other things, to weed out those who say they could never sentence someone to die. But it's not uncommon in such cases for juries to deadlock.
It happened at a federal capital trial this year for Sayfullo Saipov, who was convicted of killing eight people in 2017 by running them down with truck along a New York City bike path. A split among jurors meant Saipov got a life term.
If Bowers gets a death sentence, it would be a first at a federal trial during the presidency of Joe Biden, the first U.S. president to have opposed capital punishment prior to taking office. It would also be years before he would be executed, given appeals and a current moratorium on federal executions.
The most recent federal executions — there were 13 in the final months of Donald Trump’s presidency — were carried out by lethal injections of pentobarbital at an Indiana prison where federal death row is located.
WHY THIS FINAL STAGE?
This stage is meant to let jurors closely scrutinize Bowers to determine if he is truly the worst of the worst and therefore deserving of the death penalty.
During the sentencing stage, prosecutors and the defense are given more leeway to discuss Bowers’ wider life, much of which would have been ruled inadmissible earlier.
Most federal capital trials combine the eligibility and sentencing decisions in a second, final stage. But courts have discretion over whether to divide up the process.
WHICH SIDE FACES THE HEAVIER BURDEN?
Higher courts have said the presumption is that defendants should get life in prison, according to guides for death penalty lawyers on the Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel website.
That puts the burden on the prosecution to prove Bowers' actions were so depraved and his character so irredeemable that a death sentence is warranted.
Prosecutors must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that aggravating factors counting in favor of Bowers’ execution outweigh any mitigating factors that might call for a life sentence.
WHAT ARE SOME AGGRAVATING FACTORS IN THE SYNAGOGUE SHOOTING?
The prosecution told jurors at the outset of the sentencing phase that Bowers killed people who were uniquely vulnerable, including a woman in her 90s and three people in their 80s.
“These were not victims who could run away or fight back. They were easy prey,” prosecutor Nicole Vasquez Schmitt said Monday.
Prosecutors have also emphasized that Bowers carefully planned the massacre. And they have been highlighting his antisemitism throughout the trial.
“He hated Jews and wanted to kill as many as he could,” Vasquez Schmitt told jurors this week.
WHAT ABOUT MITIGATING FACTORS?
Bowers' lawyers have repeatedly argued that serious mental disorders and profound childhood traumas make him less culpable for the synagogue attack.
His attorney Elisa Long told jurors Monday that Bowers' father took his own life after being charged with rape and that when Bowers was a child, his mother told him she wished he'd never been born.
Proving a defendant showed remorse is usually a critical mitigating factor. But that will be difficult in this case, given statements prosecutors say Bowers made to mental health analysts while in jail, including that he repeated antisemitic stereotypes and said he regretted not killing more Jews.
WHAT ABOUT THE VERDICT FORMS?
Verdict forms usually list all of the potential aggravating and mitigating factors. They can be lengthy. The one in Saipov's case was 18 pages long.
The mitigating factors Saipov’s jurors accepted included that he wasn't a leader of the terrorist group he expressed allegiance to and that he had family who condemned his actions but still loved him.
Among the aggravating factors they accepted was that he sought to terrorize the community.
HOW DOES THE JURY BALANCE THE FACTORS?
Jurors must be unanimous in accepting any aggravating factor using the high reasonable-doubt standard. A mitigating factor can be considered even if only one juror accepts it.
The U.S. Supreme Court has said jurors must unanimously find at least one aggravating factor before they can impose the death penalty. But they can find no mitigating factors and still opt for a life sentence.
In weighing all factors in deliberations, courts have instructed jurors not to decide the sentence simply based on whether there are more aggravating or mitigating factors. Ultimately, the weight jurors give to different factors is subjective.
WHAT ABOUT SURVIVORS AND VICTIMS’ RELATIVES?
Jurors have been hearing from them about the trauma Bowers inflicted.
On Monday, survivor Carol Black testified about her brother, 65-year-old Richard Gottfried, a dentist Bowers killed.
“It’s just such a huge void in our family, for him not to be here,” she said.
There are restrictions on what victims and relatives can say. Judges usually bar them from telling jurors they want defendants to die for their crimes.
Defense lawyers often have their client's family members testify to try and persuade jurors that a defendant isn’t all bad, including by singling out some past act of kindness.
WHAT ARE SOME OTHER CONSIDERATIONS?
One could be the danger Bowers might pose if he goes to prison for life. Prosecutors often argue that even behind bars, a defendant could kill again, be it a fellow inmate or guard.
Defense attorneys sometimes seek to enter statistics that show those imprisoned for violent crimes aren’t necessarily prone to violence behind bars. Research on that point is inconclusive.
___ Follow Michael Tarm on Twitter at @mtarm. Find more AP coverage of the synagogue attack at https://apnews.com/hub/pittsburgh-synagogue-massacre. | 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 |
Two people are dead and numerous wounded after a gunman opened fire at a New Zealand construction site Thursday, on the eve of the Women’s World Cup.
The shooter was also killed, New Zealand authorities said.
“Police have contained a serious incident that unfolded at a construction site in Auckland’s CBD this morning,” police said on Twitter. “Multiple injuries have been reported and at this stage we can confirm two peope have died. The male offender is also deceased.”
Reports came in at 7:22 a.m. local time of someone “discharging a firearm” inside a construction site, police said after cordoning off the building and surrounding streets. The man continued through the site, shooting as he went, before walling himself inside the elevator staff.
“Further shots were fired from the male and he was located deceased a short time later,” police said. “What has unfolded is understandably alarming and we are reassuring the public that this incident has been contained and is an isolated incident. We can also advise that this is not a national security risk.”
An investigation is ongoing, authorities said.
The shooting happened just as the Women’s World Cup soccer tournament is set to get under way, not far from Team Norway’s hotel.
New Zealand Prime Minster Chris Hipkins said the tournament would go ahead.
“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.”
With News Wire Services | Explicit |
Two people were killed after a gunman opened fire at a construction site in Auckland, New Zealand, police said.
The suspected shooter was also found dead, New Zealand Police said.
Shots were initially reported inside the building around 7:22 a.m. local time Thursday, and the male suspect continued to shoot as he moved throughout the site, police 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," New Zealand Police said in a statement. "Further shots were fired from the male and he was located deceased a short time later."
Police added that details on what happened "are still emerging."
Multiple injuries were reported in the shooting, police said. No details were immediately provided on the victims killed in the incident.
There is no national security risk, police said.
"This is a scary situation for Aucklanders on their Thursday morning commute to work," Mayor Wayne Brown tweeted. "Please stay at home, avoid travel into the city centre."
The incident occurred as the FIFA Women's World Cup is set to kick off in New Zealand and Australia.
Following the shooting, the United States Soccer Federation said that all U.S. women's national soccer team players and staff "are accounted for and safe."
ABC News' Will Gretsky contributed to this report. | Explicit |
Content warning: This story discusses suicide.
CoCo Lee will soon be laid to rest.
"For those who wish to plan ahead, pls note CoCo's funeral services shall take place on 31st July & 1st August 2023 at the Hong Kong Funeral Home in North Point," she wrote alongside photos of CoCo's fans. "Public vigil will be held on 31st July btw 6-10pm only. Thank you for your kind attention."
The update comes weeks after Nancy and sister Carol shared that CoCo, who voiced Fa Mulan in the Mandarin dubbed version of the 1998 Disney classic Mulan, had been hospitalized and in a coma following a suicide attempt. They also gave insight into CoCo's years-long battle with depression.
"Although, CoCo sought professional help and did her best to fight depression," Carol and Nancy said in a statement shared to Facebook, per NBC News, "sadly that demon inside of her took the better of her."
Prior to voicing Mulan, CoCo rose to fame during the 1990s and 2000s for her powerhouse vocals and live performances. She made a name for herself in Asia as a mandopop singer and released albums in Mandarin, Cantonese and English.
"Not only did she bring us joy with her songs and dances in the past 29 years," her sister's wrote on Facebook, "she also worked hard to break new ground for Chinese singers in the international music scene and has been doing her utmost to shine for the Chinese."
In a newly published obituary, CoCo's family said her spirit will continue to live on through her music.
"CoCo's passing has left a hole in the hearts of her fans and loved ones, but her legacy will live on through her music and the countless lives she touched during her time on this earth," the family said, per the South China Morning Post. "She will be remembered as a true icon of the music industry, a shining star whose light will never fade." | Explicit |
SHREVEPORT, La. -- State prosecutors have added a second felony charge against a former Louisiana police officer accused of fatally shooting an unarmed Black man earlier this year.
The second criminal charge of felony malfeasance was added Monday as former Shreveport officer Alexander Tyler, who is white, was arraigned on charges of shooting Alonzo Bagley at an apartment complex in February. Tyler and another officer were responding to a report by Bagley's wife of a domestic disturbance.
Tyler pleaded not guilty to first-degree negligent homicide and felony malfeasance.
Body camera footage shows officers knocking on Bagley’s door, Bagley retreating into his apartment, and then jumping off a second-floor balcony. The video shows Tyler catching Bagley and shooting him once in the chest, and then officers begging him to stay alive while trying to administer first aid.
Tyler was charged with negligent homicide on Feb. 16 by the Louisiana State Police, about two weeks after the shooting. State police typically investigate shootings involving police officers in Louisiana.
“These charges are extremely disappointing," Dhu Thompson, Tyler's defense lawyer, said Monday. "However, we have been prepared since day one to bring the case and facts therein to an impartial jury. We look forward to our day in court.”
Both negligent homicide and malfeasance in office carry sentences of up to 5 years in prison.
Relatives of Bagley have filed a $10 million lawsuit against Tyler, who had been an officer for about two years before he resigned in March.
Family members hired Louisiana attorney Ronald Haley, who has represented other high-profile clients, including the family of Ronald Greene, a Black motorist whose 2019 death in state police custody in north Louisiana prompted lawsuits and criminal charges against law enforcement officers. | Explicit |
A video of two Kuki women being paraded naked by a mob has emerged from Manipur. Scores of young men can be seen walking alongside as other men drag the distressed-looking women into the fields.
Scroll has spoken to one of the survivors who said the assault took place near her village, B Phainom, in Kangpokpi district on May 4, a day after clashes erupted between the Meitei and Kuki communities.
After they heard Meitei mobs were “burning homes” in a nearby village, her family and others escaped through a dirt lane, but a mob found them, she said. Her neighbour and his son were taken a short distance away and killed, she alleged. The mob then began to assault the women, she said, asking them “to strip off our clothes”.
“When we resisted, they told me: ‘if you don’t take off your clothes, we will kill you,” said the woman, who is her forties. She said she took off “every item of clothing” only in order to “protect herself”. All the while, the men allegedly slapped and punched her. She said she was not aware of what was happening to her 21-year-old neighbour, because she was some distance away.
The woman alleged that she was then dragged to a paddy field near the road, and asked by the men to “lie down” there. “I did as they told me, and three men surrounded me… One of them told the other, ‘let’s rape her’, but ultimately they did not,” she said.
She added that she was “lucky” they did not go to that extent [of raping her]. “But they grabbed my breasts,” she said.
The police case
A police complaint filed by the relatives of the women states that one of the women was subsequently gangraped. Based on the complaint, the police said a zero FIR has been registered in the Saikul police station of Kangpokpi district on May 18.
While first information reports are usually lodged in the police station under whose jurisdiction the alleged crime has taken place, a zero FIR lets any police station accept and register a complaint and then forward it to the pertinent station.
An official at the Saikul police station said charges of rape and murder, among others, have been pressed against “unknown miscreants” numbering “800-1,000”.
The complaint states that the incident took place on the afternoon of May 4, a day after that violence broke out in the state.
“Some unknown miscreants…carrying sophisticated weapons like AK Rifles, SLR. INSAS and .303 Rifles, forcefully entered our village, Island Sub-Division Kangpokpi District, Manipur,” the complaint states.
The mob then went on to burn and vandalise the houses in the village, said the complaint.
The particular incident, according to the complaint, involves five residents of the village who were fleeing “towards the forest” to save themselves.
The group comprised two men and three women. Three of them belonged to the same family: a 56-year-old man, his 19-year-old son and 21-year-old daughter. Two other women, one 42 years old and the other aged 52, were also part of the group.
On the way to the forest, they were “rescued” by a team from the Nongpok Sekmai police station, the complaint adds. However, they were “blocked on the way by a mob and snatched from the custody of the police team by the violent mob near Toubu”, two km from Nongpok Sekmai police station, the complaint alleges.
The mob immediately killed the 56-year-old, the complaint states, following which “all the three women were physically forced to remove their clothes and were stripped naked in front of the mob”.
The 21-year-old woman was “brutally gang raped in broad daylight”, the complaint alleges even as the other two women “managed to escape from the spot with the help of some people of the area who were known to them”.
The 21-year-old’s “younger brother tried to defend his sister’s modesty and life but he was murdered by members of the mob on the spot,” it adds.
The complaint has been transferred to the Nongpok Sekmai police station, the site of the purported incident. Manoj Prabhakar M, the police superintendent of Kangpokpi, confirmed this: “We have registered zero FIR in Saikul [police station] and forwarded to Nongpok Sekmai [police station].”
The officer in charge of the Nongpok Sekmai station did not respond to calls and texts seeking comment on whether investigation into the complaint had commenced.
With inputs from Rokibuz Zaman and Tora Agarwala. | 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 |
Singapore is due to execute a woman for the first time in almost 20 years on Friday, one of two killings planned for this week.
Singaporean national Saridewi Djamani was sentenced to the mandatory death penalty in 2018, after she was found guilty of possession of about 30g of heroin for the purposes of trafficking, according to the Transformative Justice Collective (TJC), which tracks death row cases.
If it goes ahead, activists believe she would be the first woman to be executed in Singapore since 2004 when Yen May Woen, a 36-year-old hairdresser, was hanged for drug trafficking.
Mohd Aziz bin Hussain, a 56-year-old Singaporean Malay man, has been told he will be executed on Wednesday, according to the TJC. He was sentenced to death in 2018 after being found guilty of trafficking approximately 50g of heroin, the group said.
Singapore has some of the world’s harshest drug laws and has drawn international criticism in recent years for its executions of prisoners convicted of drug offences.
Saridewi is one of two women on death row in Singapore, according to Kirsten Han, a journalist and activist who has spent a decade campaigning against the death penalty. “Once she exhausted her appeal options it was a matter of time that she would be given an execution notice,” said Han.
“The authorities are not moved by the fact that most of the people on death row come from marginalised and vulnerable groups. The people who are on death row are those deemed dispensable by both the drug kingpins and the Singapore state. This is not something Singaporeans should be proud of.”
The government maintains the death penalty is an effective deterrent against drug-related crime, that it keeps the city state safe and is widely supported by the public. It also says its judicial processes are fair.
Research by Amnesty International found Singapore was one of a handful of countries that executed people for drug-related crimes last year, along with China, Saudi Arabia and Iran. Vietnam is also likely to have done so, it said, though the numbers of killings are not known.
“There is no evidence that the death penalty has a unique deterrent effect or that it has any impact on the use and availability of drugs,” said Chiara Sangiorgio a death penalty expert at Amnesty. “As countries around the world do away with the death penalty and embrace drug policy reform, Singapore’s authorities are doing neither.”
Activists in Singapore say it is the most vulnerable who end up on death row, and prisoners are increasingly representing themselves after their appeals because they cannot access lawyers.
According to TJC, Hussain had argued that most of his statements given to an investigating officer were not admissible because the officer had coerced him, promising him a reduced, non-capital punishment charge. The investigating officer disputed these claims, and the judge concluded that all the statements were given voluntarily.
TJC said Saridewi had argued that she had not been able to give accurate statements to the police because she had been suffering from drug withdrawal. The high court judge found Saridewi had “at most been suffering from mild to moderate methamphetamine withdrawal during the statement-taking period”, and that this had not impaired her ability to give statements, according to TJC.
At least 13 people have been hanged so far in Singapore since the government resumed executions after a two-year hiatus during the Covid-19 pandemic. | Explicit |
British indie band The 1975 have cut short a gig in Malaysia, claiming officials ordered them off stage for breaching the country's anti-LGBT laws.
The band were headlining the Good Vibes Festival in the capital Kuala Lumpur on Friday.
During the set, singer Matty Healy attacked the country's anti-LGBT laws before kissing bass player Ross MacDonald.
Homosexuality is illegal in Malaysia and punishable by 20 years in prison.
In footage shared online, Healy could be seen telling the crowd, in a profanity laden speech, that the band's decision to appear in Malaysia had been a "mistake".
"When we were booking shows, I wasn't looking into it," Healy said. "I don't see the [expletive] 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.
"Unfortunately you don't get a set of loads of uplifting songs because I'm [expletive] furious," the frontman continued. "And that's not fair on you, because you're not representative of your government. Because you're young people, and I'm sure a lot of you are gay and progressive and cool."
Healy and MacDonald then kissed as the band played the song I Like America & America Likes Me.
Soon after - just 30 minutes into the set - Healy and the band walked off stage, with the singer telling the audience: "Alright, we just got banned from Kuala Lumpur, see you later."
A source close to the 1975 confirmed the incident to the BBC.
"Matty has a long-time record of advocating for the LGBTQ+ community and the band wanted to stand up for their LGBTQ+ fans and community," the source said on Friday night.
In a short statement to local media, festival organisers said the band's set was stopped due to "non-compliance with local performance guidelines".
"Good Vibes Festival has always been dedicated to providing enjoyable music experiences, and we sincerely appreciate your continued support," the statement added. "Good Vibes Festival 2023 will proceed as scheduled, and we eagerly anticipate your presence on Saturday and Sunday."
Malaysia's Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil hit out at the band's performance on Twitter, calling it "very disrespectful". He added that he had contacted festival organisers and asked them to provide a full report.
Healy has previously used appearances on stage to highlight anti-LGBT laws.
In 2019 he invited a male fan on stage during a gig in Dubai to hug him, before sharing a quick kiss. The incident attracted criticism in the country, where homosexuality is punishable by 10 years imprisonment.
Posting on Twitter after the show, Healy said: "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."
Other performers at the Good Vibes Festival include the Strokes, Dermot Kennedy and Ty Dollar $ign. | Explicit |
Kevin Spacey's four-week sex offences trial at Southwark Crown Court continues.
Four charges of indecent assault have been dropped due to a “legal technicality”
Sir Elton John and his husband David Furnish were giving evidence for the defence.
Spacey previously told Southwark Crown Court that incidents were consensual.
Read latest updates below:
Four charges against Kevin Spacey dropped
On Wednesday, the four indecent assault charges on the indictment, which were alternative counts, were struck off by the judge, due to a “legal technicality” and not as a result of the prosecution abandoning any allegation.
The jury was directed to concentrate on what happened and whether it was a crime, and not be concerned with precise dates when things happened.
- H
Furnish asked whether celebrities could ask not to be pictured at balls
Giving evidence via videolink, David furnish was asked if it was possible that a celebrity attending one of the couple's balls could not be pictured.
Furnish told the court: “It never happened. It was understood we were promoting a charity involving the eradication of stigma surrounding disease. For celebrities wanting to come to our event, it was always understood they needed to be photographed.”
He added: “To have a star of the magnitude of Kevin Spacey and to go to OK! and say he didn’t want to be photographed, that would be an impossible situation for the foundation to be in.”
- H
Spacey pictured arriving at court on Monday. (PA)
- H
Elton John says he doesn't remember Mini being stored at his home
Sir Elton John has told Kevin Spacey’s trial that the star went straight to a ball at his house after flying in on a private jet, then bought a Mini Cooper at the event and stayed the night, Lucas Cumiskey and Ken Brown reported for PA.
The singer, who gave evidence via video link from Monaco, was called as a defence witness in the Oscar-winning actor’s trial at Southwark Crown Court in London on Monday.
He denies 12 charges concerning four men, including sexual assault and indecent assault, which are alleged to have been committed between 2001 and 2013.
Prosecutor Christine Agnew KC asked Sir Elton and his husband David Furnish, who gave evidence just before him, about when the actor had attended a fundraising event at their home in Windsor.
Spacey is alleged to have made a man “almost come off the road” after an alleged “painful” crotch grab as he drove the actor to the lavish showbiz party.
Spacey previously told jurors how he stored “the most expensive” Mini Cooper “ever” in Sir Elton’s garage.
Sir Elton said the actor attended the event in the early 2000s and stayed the night but said he could not remember him visiting the property after that.
Ms Agnew asked Sir Elton if he had a recollection of Spacey at the event.
Sir Elton said: “Yes, because he arrived in white tie. He was on a flight, he came on a private jet and he came straight to the ball.”
On whether he came straight from the private jet, he added: “I assume so, yes.”
Ms Agnew added: “Do you remember that at that ball he bought a Mini?”
After Sir Elton confirmed his recollection, she added: “And do you remember that that Mini was kept at your home for quite some time?”
The Rocket Man star added: “That I don’t remember but it’s possible because it was his car and he was going somewhere else.
“I have no recollection of it.”
Asked if Spacey visited their home again after the ball, Sir Elton said: “At the night that he attended the ball, he stayed over night at our house.”
Pressed again on whether he had returned after the event, he added: “I can’t remember him coming after that, no.”
Sir Elton said he did not remember the arrangements for the Mini being moved from his house.
The trial continues.
- H
Singer Sir Elton John appeared by videolink in a London court on Monday to give evidence at Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey's sexual assault trial.
Spacey, 63, has pleaded not guilty at London's Southwark Crown Court to 12 charges of sexual offences allegedly committed against four men between 2001 and 2013.
The offences allegedly took place at a time when he was mainly living and working in Britain, including from 2003 as artistic director of the Old Vic theatre in London.
- H
Music superstar Sir Elton John has appeared as a witness for the defence at Kevin Spacey's sex assault trial.
- H
Elton John and David Furnish have taken the stand as part of Kevin Spacey’s defence in the actor’s trial for sexual assault at Southwark Crown Court. Both men are giving evidence via videolink from Monaco.
- H
One witness described a culture that saw young men warned about Kevin Spacey's alleged behaviour.
- H
Sir Elton John is giving evidence for the defence in Kevin Spacey’s sexual assault trial on Monday. John appeared remotely from Monaco to testify after his husband, David Furnish, said Spacey only once attended the annual gala the singer held at his Windsor home. One of the alleged victims accused Spacey of aggressively grabbing his crotch while he was driving with him to the ball in 2004 or 2005.
- H
Elton John gives evidence
Sir Elton John has been called on as a defence witness, giving evidence via video link from Monaco, in the trial of Kevin Spacey at Southwark Crown Court.
Sir Elton John and his husband David Furnish have given evidence as defence witnesses in the sex assault trial of Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey.
Spacey, 63, standing trial under his full name Kevin Spacey Fowler, denies sex offences concerning four men, including sexual assault and indecent assault, which are alleged to have been committed between 2001 and 2013.
On Monday, Sir Elton told the trial that Spacey went straight to a ball at his house after flying in on a private jet, then bought a Mini Cooper at the event and stayed the night.
Spacey, who was labelled a “sexual bully” when proceedings began last month, broke down in court as he listened to 10 character references from family and friends from inside the theatre and film industry, including words from the son of late actor Jack Lemmon and House star Robert Sean Leonard.
Prosecutor Christine Agnew KC asked Sir Elton and his husband, David Furnish, who gave evidence just before him, about when the actor had attended a fundraising event at their home in Windsor.
Spacey is alleged to have made a man “almost come off the road” after an alleged “painful” crotch grab as he drove the actor to the lavish showbiz party.
The defendant previously told jurors how he stored “the most expensive” Mini Cooper “ever” in Sir Elton’s garage.
Sir Elton said the actor attended the event in the early 2000s and stayed the night but said he could not remember him visiting the property after that.
Ms Agnew asked Sir Elton if he had a recollection of Spacey at the event to which Sir Elton said: “Yes, because he arrived in white tie.
“He was on a flight, he came on a private jet and he came straight to the ball.”
On whether he came straight from the private jet, he added: “I assume so, yes.”
Ms Agnew added: “Do you remember that at that ball he bought a Mini?”
After Sir Elton confirmed his recollection, she added: “And do you remember that that Mini was kept at your home for quite some time?”
He added: “That I don’t remember but it’s possible because it was his car and he was going somewhere else. I have no recollection of it.”
Mr Furnish also told the court he remembered Spacey attending the event in question, adding: “He was an Oscar-winning actor, there was a lot of excitement he was at the ball.”
Questioning Mr Furnish, the prosecutor said: “We’ve heard that on the occasion when Mr Spacey Fowler attended the ball he bought a Mini?”
Mr Furnish said the car was sold at the ball and “Kevin was the highest bidder”.
On them subsequently storing the car for him, he added: “Yes because Kevin didn’t have a place of residence in the UK at that time and needed somewhere to store his car.”
Also on Monday, Lemmon’s son, Chris Lemmon, said in his character reference that Spacey was “like another son” to his father, adding: “So became like a brother to me.”
House and Dead Poet’s Society star Robert Sean Leonard’s words prompted an emotional response from the defendant.
Leonard said Spacey is “positive, supportive and respectful” and said he has never seen anyone lead a company better than the American Beauty actor.
Giving evidence last week, Spacey denied he is a sexual bully and labelled the prosecution’s case against him as “weak” – accusing one alleged victim of being after “money, money and then money”.
He told Southwark Crown Court he could have had sex “all the time” but found it hard to trust people because of his fame.
Over the course of the trial, each of Spacey’s accusers have given evidence – variously describing him as a “vile sexual predator”, “slippery” and “atrocious, despicable, disgusting”.
The trial continues. | 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 |
The Tomohon Extreme Market has become the first such market in Indonesia to go dog and cat meat-free.
The market's six remaining dog and cat meat traders signed an agreement to stop their sales on Friday, and the mayor of Tomohon issued a statute to ban the trade.
"We believe the way to reduce people's interest in consuming dog and cat meat in Tomohon is to stop selling it in markets." the regional secretary of the city of Tomohon, Edwin Roring, said.
He urged people to opt for clean, rabies-free animal-based foods such as pork, beef, and chicken.
'Brutally cruel' animal trade
The move followed months of campaigning and lobbying by Humane Society International (HSI) and the local Animal Friends Manado Indonesia (AFMI) groups.
The animal welfare groups called the treatment of the animals at the markets "brutally cruel" and like "walking through hell."
They hope to see the ban extended to the rest of Indonesia where an estimated one million dogs and cats are killed for human consumption every year.
Campaigners said the trade causes immense animal suffering and poses serious threats to human health by spreading diseases such as rabies, anthrax, and leptospirosis.
The footage captured by the activists at two markets in North Sulawesi province shows workers pulling howling animals out and bludgeoning their heads with wooden batons.
The animals were hanged, and their fur was blowtorched off while they were still alive.
Traditional attitudes slowly changing
Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim country, and Islam considers and views dog products as haram, or forbidden, in the same way as pork.
Still, as much as 7% of Indonesians eat dog and cat meat, according to Dog Meat Free Indonesia. This is practiced mainly in North Sulawesi, North Sumatra, and East Nusa Tenggara provinces, where most of the population identify as Christian.
The decisson by dog and cat meat traders in Tomohon to stop selling means the supply would now be cut off at the source.
Elvianus Pongoh, one of the sellers at Tomohon for 25 years, said the time was right to end the trade.
"I have probably slaughtered thousands of dogs. Every now and then I would see the fear in their eyes... as I came for them, and it made me feel bad," he said. "I know this ban is best for the animals and also best to protect the public."
lo/dj (AFP, AP, dpa) | 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 have arrested a man, adding that others will be held soon.
This is also likely to dominate discussions in the parliament's monsoon session, which begins on Thursday.
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.
The Supreme Court also expressed its concern over the assault. Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said the court was "really disturbed over the video" and asked the government to take action.
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 tens of thousands have been displaced since ethnic clashes started in May in Manipur.
Clashes broke out between the Meitei and Kuki communities after the Meiteis - the state's main ethnic group - demanded tribal status which gives access to benefits such as forest land and government job and education quotas.
Some 60,000 have become refugees in their own land. Opposition politicians have criticised PM Modi for not visiting the state or speaking about the violence in Manipur so far.
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 against "unknown armed miscreants" at Thoubal district.
The police added that they were making an "all out effort to arrest the culprits at the earliest".
The incident has sparked strong reactions from politicians across the spectrum.
Federal minister Smriti Irani, called the incident "condemnable and downright inhuman". She also said that she had spoken to Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh, who informed her that investigations were underway and that "no effort will be spared to bring perpetrators to justice".
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", adding that women and children face the maximum brunt of violence in society.
She asked why the federal government and the prime minister "were sitting blindly on the violent actions in Manipur".
"Do such images and violent incidents not disturb them?" she tweeted.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also condemned the incident. "This kind of heinous act cannot be tolerated in the Indian society," he said.
"The situation in Manipur is becoming very worrying. I appeal to the prime minister to pay attention to the situation in Manipur. Please take strict action against the culprits seen in the video of this incident. There should be no place for people of such criminal nature in India," he tweeted.
BBC News India is now on YouTube. Click here to subscribe and watch our documentaries, explainers and features. | Explicit |
Unilever has said it will let Russian employees be conscripted to be sent to Ukraine if they are called up.
The consumer goods giant, which has about 3,000 employees in Russia, has policies that cover the well-being and safety of its workers.
However, in a letter to campaign group B4Ukraine, it said it would comply with Russian conscription law.
Unilever has been under pressure to pull out of Russia, but says the situation is "not straightforward".
In a letter to B4Ukraine, which campaigns for companies to cease operating in Russia to hurt its economy, Unilever said it "absolutely condemns the war in Ukraine as a brutal, senseless act by the Russian state".
It also said it had responsibility for its 3,000 workers, adding that it had "global principles including the safety and well-being of our employees".
Nevertheless, the British firm, which makes products including Marmite and Cornetto ice creams, said it was "aware of the law requiring any company operating in Russia to permit the conscription of employees should they be called".
"We always comply with all the laws of the countries we operate in," wrote Reginaldo Ecclissato, Unilever's chief business operations and supply chain officer.
A spokesperson for the firm declined to say whether any Russian employees had been called up.
Any who are will not continue to be paid by the firm, the spokesperson added.
In its letter, it said it had paid 3.8bn roubles (£33m; $36m) in tax to the Russian state in 2022, which was a similar amount to the previous year.
The majority of its business in Russia is personal care and hygiene products, but it continues to supply ice cream.
At least 25,000 Russians have been killed in the war, according to research by the BBC's Russian service and Russian website Mediazona, but other sources put the figure much higher.
In February, UK intelligence services estimated that between 40,000 and 60,000 Russian troops had died.
Russian soldiers have also been accused by the UN of war crimes, including rapes, "widespread" torture and killings.
Unilever and other Western firms have been under pressure to pull out of Russia since its invasion of Ukraine.
However, Unilever has said this is "not straightforward". If it abandoned operations, they would be "appropriated and then operated" by the Russian state.
It has not managed to find a way to sell the business that "avoids the Russian state potentially gaining further benefit, and which safeguards our people".
It said there were no "desirable" ways forward, but continuing to run the business with "strict constraints" was the best option at present.
However, the Ukraine Solidarity Project, which is part of B4Ukraine, said Unilever's response was "jaw-dropping".
"One day you're manufacturing ice cream, the next you're gearing up for the front line. You can't say Unilever isn't offering its employees varied work experience," said campaigner Valeriia Voshchevska.
"If this is protecting your workers, I'd hate to see what putting them in harm's way looks like." | Explicit |
27 injured in latest Russian attack on southern Ukraine
At least 27 people were injured and two killed in Russian strikes on Ukraine’s southern cities, including the port city of Odesa.
The attacks mark the third straight day of strikes on the south, coming after Russia announced it would suspend the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a diplomatic deal allowing Ukrainian grain exports from Odesa.
“Russian terrorists continue their efforts to destroy the life of our country,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Telegram. “Unfortunately, there are wounded, there are dead. My condolences to my family and friends!”
“But there is no evil state of missiles that would be stronger than our will to save lives, support each other and win,” he added.
Odesa Gov. Oleg Kiper said that Russian strikes damaged both port and civilian infrastructure, including damaging the Chinese consulate in the city. At least two people were killed and eight others injured during the attack and rescue efforts, he noted.
“The aggressor deliberately beats port infrastructure — administrative and residential buildings around, as well as the consulate of the People’s Republic of China,” Kiper argued. “This suggests that the enemy does not pay attention to anything.”
The attack comes as Russia said it seeks “retribution” for a strike on the Kerch Bridge, connecting Crimea to Russia, on Monday. Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for that attack, which shares similarities with a 2022 attack on the bridge that the Ukrainian government also did not claim responsibility for.
Russian missiles also destroyed an apartment building in Mykolaiv, another Black Sea city, injuring at least 19, according to officials.
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. | Explicit |
Florida cops on Sunday were working to identify a woman whose remains were found in three suitcases along the intracoastal waterway in Delray Beach.
The first gruesome discovery came at about 4 p.m. Friday, when someone phoned 911 to tell the Delray Beach police there was a “suspicious item” in the water.
“When officers arrived, they found a suitcase with human remains inside,” police said in a statement. “A short time later, two other suitcases were found also containing human remains at nearby locations along the intracoastal.”
The remains are with the medical examiner for autopsy and identification, police said, noting that they appeared to be of an adult female.
On Saturday, police said the person was a 5-foot-4, middle-aged white or Hispanic woman with brown hair and possibly tattooed eyebrows, the Palm Beach Post reported. She was clad in a floral tank top, black undershirt and mid-thigh-length black shorts.
Cops continued to search on Saturday, with a diver, two assistants and two Delray Beach Police boats near the George Bush Boulevard Bridge, the Palm Beach Post reported. They closed the bridge temporarily to conduct a search among the rocks and mangroves lining the waterway and appealed to the public for help and information. | Explicit |
WASHINGTON – An Arkansas truck driver who beat a police officer with a flagpole attached to an American flag during the U.S. Capitol riot was sentenced Monday to more than 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.
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.”
U.S. 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.
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.
Stager's 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 took him to Washington, D.C., on the day before 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.
Stager's attorneys say he 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. | Explicit |
Palestinian gunmen attacked Jewish worshippers at Joseph's Tomb in Nablus late Wednesday night, according to a Thursday morning IDF statement.
The IDF acted to protect the worshippers, and several Palestinian gunmen were wounded in the exchange of fire.
The IDF reported that, in addition to shooting, Palestinians threw explosives, burned tires, and threw stones at Israeli security forces at Joseph's Tomb.
The expedition to pray at the tomb was organized by the family of teenager Moishe Kleinerman, who has been missing since early 2022.
Casualties and other IDF overnight activity
One Palestinian was killed in the clashes, according to Reuters citing the Palestinian Health Ministry.
The Nablus battalion of the Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad group, said its members were "fighting the occupation forces and groups of settlers who had stormed the area of Joseph's Tomb," according to Reuters.
Also on Wednesday night, the IDF arrested a total of five wanted persons throughout the West Bank and confiscated a variety of weapons, weapon components, and ammunition. | Explicit |
A 26-year-old man accused of enrolling in two different Nebraska high schools and posing as a student has been arrested for sex crimes.
Zachary Scheich was taken into custody Thursday at Lincoln’s Walt Library, KOLN reported. He faces two counts of sexual assault with use of an electronic communication device, which includes any attempt to “knowingly solicit, coax, entice or lure” a child 16 years or younger to engage in sexual activity, according to the Lincoln Police Department.
Police said Scheich pretended to be a 17-year-old named Zak Hess when he went to classes at Northwest and Southeast high schools in Lincoln. He graduated from the same school district in 2015 — but at just 5′4″ and 120 pounds, he was able to easily blend in with his “classmates.” He also used a phony birth certificate, an out-of-district high school transcript and immunization records when he enrolled.
”He attended school as a student, he attended classes. That was the initial investigation,” Lincoln Assistant Police Chief Brian Jackson told reporters. “And as the investigation progressed, we learned of additional contacts he had with juvenile students.”
Scheich managed to keep up the ruse for 57 days. Authorities initially started investigating on June 1 “after being alerted to an individual impersonating a student,” Jackson added.
According to court documents obtained by KLKN, Scheich traded text messages with minors. In some exchanges, he would “discuss things like classwork and high school sports,” according to the affidavit. In others, Scheich allegedly asked for “pornographic material” from a classmate whom he had previously paid.
During an interview with authorities, Scheich allegedly admitted to pretending to be a student at the school and sending explicit messages to children but said he did not sexually assault any of them.
Jackson noted officers are still working to “identify the scope of his actions.” He did not specify how many alleged victims there are, citing the active investigation.
Scheich was being held Saturday at the Lancaster County jail. | Explicit |
More than 100 people who died in Nigeria's anti-police protests in 2020 will soon be buried, a state Health Ministry official said on Sunday.
The ministry said that the fatalities were from violence in several parts of the state, but not from the notorious protest site at the Lekki toll gate, where soldiers allegedly shot protesters.
At least 103 bodies were gathered from across the state after clashes during the protests, said Olusegun Ogboye, the permenant secretary of Lagos state's Health Ministry.
His statement came after the local media reported a leaked memo about the mass burial.
"The 103 casualties mentioned in the document were from these incidents and not from Lekki Toll-gate as being alleged," said Ogboye.
What happened in the 2020 protests
In October 2020, thousands of Nigerians marched across the country to protest the activities of the now-disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). The special unit was accused of police brutality.
The protests of the EndSARS movement were concentrated in Lagos, where security forces allegedly opened fire at the Lekki Toll Gate venue, killing dozens. The government has denied the incident.
Many activists on Monday questioned the Lagos government's decision not to announce the planned burial until after the media leak. But authorities denied any cover-up.
"Decongestion of our public morgues is a periodic and regular exercise approved by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to free up space in mortuaries that have a large number of unclaimed bodies," Ogboye said.
Amnesty demands new probes
Following the new information about the deaths, Amnesty International's Nigeria office accused the authorities of covering up the true death toll from the protests.
"Men associated with the government directly or indirectly and sponsored thugs attacked and injured, and in some cases killed protesters. You can see the government shifting the goal post every now and then, which shows a lack of honesty," the group's Nigeria director, Isa Sanusi, told the Associated Press (AP) news agency.
The number of victims of the 2020 protests is still disputed.
ara/fb (Reuters, AP) | Explicit |
A Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian port city of Odesa has killed at least one person, wounded 19 and badly damaged an Orthodox cathedral, according to officials.
Oleg Kiper, the governor of Odesa, said on the Telegram messaging app that those wounded in Sunday’s air attack included several children.
“Odesa, another night attack of the monsters,” he said.
“Fourteen people were hospitalised in the city’s hospitals, three of them were children,” he said.
The assault also destroyed six houses and apartment buildings, he added.
Russia has been pounding Odesa and other Ukrainian food export facilities nearly daily over the past week after it withdrew from a United Nations-brokered sea corridor agreement that allowed for the safe shipment of Ukrainian grain.
Ukraine’s air force said on Telegram on Sunday that Russia launched high-precision Onyx missiles and sea-to-shore Kalibr cruise missiles on Odesa.
The city’s military administration said air defence systems destroyed a “significant part” of the missiles, which they said included Iskander ballistic missiles.
It added that the Spaso-Preobrazhenskyi Cathedral of the Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) was severely damaged.
“The Kasperovska icon of the Mother of God, who is the patroness of Odesa, was retrieved from under the rubble,” the administration said on its Telegram channel.
The Spaso-Preobrazhenskyi Cathedral, or the Transfiguration Cathedral, is Odesa’s largest Orthodox church building. It was consecrated in 1809.
Photos and videos published by Odesa officials and the police showed parts of the building destroyed and rubble inside, with several icons lined up on the ground.
In one video, a distressed man is seen walking inside the dark cathedral, repeating, “The church is no longer … Lord, have mercy.”
Al Jazeera could not immediately verify the videos or reports of the damage.
The UOC is Ukraine’s second-largest church, though most Ukrainian Orthodox believers belong to a separate branch of the faith formed four years ago by uniting branches independent of Russian authority.
Ukraine has accused the UOC of maintaining links to the pro-invasion Russian Orthodox Church, which used to be its parent church but with which the UOC says it broke ties in May last year.
There was no immediate comment from Russia.
Russia had described its recent attacks as revenge for a Ukrainian strike on a Russian-built bridge to Crimea – the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula that Russia seized in 2014.
It has accused Ukraine of using the sea corridor to launch “terrorist attacks”. | Explicit |
With a durable double-digit lead in the polls, Donald Trump continues to float the idea that he might boycott the first Republican presidential debate, scheduled to air next month on Fox News. “I haven’t really made up my mind,” Trump told Fox on July 16. “When you have a big lead, you don’t do it.”
The question, of course, is how a ratings-obsessed Trump would counterprogram a prime-time Fox debate that is sure to draw a significant cable news audience and feature such 2024 challengers as Ron DeSantis. One idea Trump is mulling is to sit for an interview with Tucker Carlson on his Twitter show at the same time as the debate, two sources briefed on the discussions said. According to one source, Trump recently reached out to Carlson and asked if Carlson would do the interview, but no decisions have been made.
The Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comment. Carlson declined to comment.
A Trump-Tucker Twitter show—say that three times fast!—could benefit both Trump and Carlson. For Trump, who is staring down a probable second federal indictment—courtesy of special counsel Jack Smith’s January 6 probe—Carlson would likely be a much friendlier interviewer than Fox’s chosen debate moderators, Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum. Last month Trump and Baier tangled over the host’s tough questions about Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents. Afterward, Trump fumed to Newsmax about Baier’s confrontational tone: “I thought it was okay, but there was nothing friendly about it. You know, it was nasty.”
For Carlson, landing a Trump interview on the night of a Fox debate would demonstrate his growing conservative media power as he reportedly plans to launch his own streaming-based company. According to the source, investors have already told the ex-Fox anchor that they would contribute $100 million to his venture. Carlson and his business partner, Daily Caller cofounder Neil Patel, are currently reviewing trademarks to find an available name for the company, the source said. Carlson has joked to friends that he should name the company “Go Fuck Yourself Media.”
A potential Trump-Carlson show would also be a test for Fox News. Last month the network sent Carlson a cease and desist letter warning that his Twitter show was a violation of his Fox contract. But according to the source close to Carlson, Fox’s lawyers have had no further communication with Carlson. “Fox is still paying him! They thought they could control him by keeping him under contract,” a Carlson ally said.
Fox News did not respond to a request for comment.
By effectively ignoring Fox’s demand to sit on the sidelines until his contract expires at the end of 2024, Carlson is once again flexing the independence that rankled the Murdochs. According to a source, Rupert Murdoch recently told a friend that he fired Carlson because “Tucker got too big for his boots!”
A Murdoch spokesperson declined to comment. | Explicit |
Stanford Law School DEI administrator Tirien Steinbach resigned from her post on Thursday, months after a viral altercation when she accosted a conservative judge.
Dean Jenny Martinez announced Steinbach's departure in a Thursday message to the campus, saying Steinbach had found another opportunity to pursue. The letter went on to say that Steinbach had taken responsibility for her role in the March 9 dust-up.
"I write to share that Tirien Steinbach has decided that she will be leaving her role as Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Stanford Law School to pursue another opportunity," he wrote. "Associate Dean Steinbach and I both hope that SLS can move forward as a community from the divisions caused by the March 9 event. The event presented significant challenges for the administration, the students, and the entire law school community."
"As I have previously noted, tempers flared along multiple dimensions. Although Associate Dean Steinbach intended to de-escalate the tense situation when she spoke at the March 9 event, she recognizes that the impact of her statements was not as she hoped or intended," he continued.
"Both Dean Steinbach and Stanford recognize ways they could have done better in addressing the very challenging situation, including preparing for protests, ensuring university protocols are understood, and helping administrators navigate tensions when they arise. There are opportunities for growth and learning all around," the letter concluded.
The incident occurred when U.S. Circuit Court Judge Kyle Duncan delivered an address to students as an invited guest.
Duncan immediately met with angry protesters who held explicit posters that read "FED SUCK" and "Trans Lives Matter" and yelled insults like, "We hope your daughters get raped."
Steinbach wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on March 23, when she explained she planned to use deescalation techniques.
"I stepped up to the podium to deploy the de-escalation techniques in which I have been trained, which include getting the parties to look past conflict and see each other as people," she wrote. "My intention wasn’t to confront Judge Duncan or the protesters but to give voice to the students so that they could stop shouting and engage in respectful dialogue."
Posters also accused Duncan of crimes against trans people for denying a pedophile prisoner's request to change pronouns in 2020. He called the left-wing campus protesters "juvenile idiots" and said that "prisoners are now running the asylum."
Stanford ultimately apologized for the incident in a letter to Duncan.
Fox News' Kendall Tietz contributed to this report. | Explicit |
The man accused of attacking former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband last year will stand trial in San Francisco, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
David DePape’s federal public defenders, Jodi Linker and Angela Chuang, had requested that the federal trial be moved to the city of Eureka in neighboring Oregon. They argued that their client wouldn’t get a fair trial because the media attention has tainted the pool of jurors and because Pelosi, who has represented the City since 1987, remains a popular figure in the Bay Area.
DePape’s lawyers said a survey they commissioned shows many potential jurors already believe he is guilty of the crimes and would be unable to change their minds.
Per the San Francisco Standard, Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley said DePape’s lawyers had failed to show evidence that media coverage in the Bay Area was more negative than anywhere else.
Prosecutors say DePape broke into the Pelosis' San Francisco home on Oct. 28 seeking to kidnap the former speaker — who was out of town — and instead beat her 83-year-old husband with a hammer. Footage of the attack was released to the public in January after a California judge denied prosecutors' request to keep it secret.
DePape, 43, pleaded not guilty to federal charges of attempting to kidnap a federal official and assaulting a federal official's family member. He also pleaded not guilty to state charges, including attempted murder, burglary and elder abuse. He remains jailed without bail.
DePape’s federal trial is set to start November 13. His state trial hasn't been scheduled.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. | Explicit |
Abbie Parr/AP
toggle caption
An armed New Zealand police officer stands at a road block in the central business district following a shooting in Auckland, New Zealand, Thursday, July 20, 2023. New Zealand police are responding to reports that a gunman has fired shots in a building in downtown Auckland.
Abbie Parr/AP
An armed New Zealand police officer stands at a road block in the central business district following a shooting in Auckland, New Zealand, Thursday, July 20, 2023. New Zealand police are responding to reports that a gunman has fired shots in a building in downtown Auckland.
Abbie Parr/AP
WELLINGTON, 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.
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.
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." | Explicit |
A gunman in New Zealand has killed 2 people on eve of Women’s World Cup soccer tournament
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — 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.
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.
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.”
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. | Explicit |
During a stop on The 1975’s recent tour, the pop band brought one of their sets to an abrupt end after going against practices in Malaysia.
While performing at the Good Vibes Festival, frontman Matt Healy and Ross McDonald kissed midway through a rendition of ‘I Like America and America Likes Me’, after which their set was cut short by half an hour. The kiss opposed the Malaysian government, which is not accepting of LGBT rights.
Before the kiss, Healy made a speech about the country’s ordinances, telling the crowd: “I’m fucking furious. That’s not fair on you because you aren’t representative of your government. It’s fucking ridiculous to tell people what they can do”.
Healy explained how the band contemplated pulling out of the show altogether before changing their mind at the last minute: “I pulled the show yesterday, and we had a conversation, and we said, ‘We can’t let the kids down because they’re not the government”.
Further on in his speech, Healy addressed that he would gladly take the blame if the group were banned, explaining: “If you wanna bring me here, then fuck off. I’ll take your money, you can ban me, but I’ve done this before, and it doesn’t feel good”.
Following the kiss, the band went through the next song, ‘I Couldn’t Be More In Love’, before leaving the stage, as Healy said: “We just got banned from Kuala Lumpur, goodbye”. Other songs on the setlist not performed that night included ‘Robbers’, ‘Somebody Else’ and ‘I’m In Love With You’.
Healy had done the same thing when the band previously played in Dubai, where he kissed a male fan against the country’s anti-gay laws. As of yet, there is no word on how long the band will be banned from the country. | Explicit |
Subscribe to Here’s the Deal, our politics
newsletter for analysis you won’t find anywhere else.
Thank you. Please check your inbox to confirm.
Felipe Dana, Associated Press
Felipe Dana, Associated Press
Leave your feedback
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The U.N. atomic watchdog says its monitors at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant reported seeing anti-personnel mines around the site as Ukraine’s military pursues a counteroffensive against the Kremlin’s entrenched forces after 17 months of war.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said its team observed the mines Sunday in a restricted area that is off-limits to the plant’s Ukrainian staff. The agency did not directly attribute the placement of the mines to the Russians but said its experts were told “it is a military decision, and in an area controlled by military.”
READ MORE: Plan to discharge water into Hudson River from closed Indian Point nuclear plant sparks uproar
“Having such explosives on the site is inconsistent with the IAEA safety standards and nuclear security guidance and creates additional psychological pressure on plant staff,” Rafael Mariano Grossi, the agency’s director general, said in a statement late Monday.
However, any detonation of the mines, which were facing away from the plant and located between its internal and external perimeter barriers, “should not affect the site’s nuclear safety and security systems,” the statement said.
The IAEA has repeatedly expressed concern that the war could cause a potential radiation leak from the facility, which is one of world’s 10 biggest nuclear power stations. The plant’s six reactors have been shut down for months, but it still needs power and qualified staff to operate crucial cooling systems and other safety features.
Ukraine’s military intelligence said last month without providing evidence that Russia is planning a “large-scale provocation” at the nuclear power plant in the southeast of the country and had placed suspected explosives on the roof. Russia, in turn, has alleged without offering evidence that Ukraine was planning a false flag attack involving radioactive materials.
The IAEA statement said that the Russian occupiers still haven’t granted it access to the roofs of the reactors and their turbine halls.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities said Tuesday that air defenses intercepted Iranian-made Shahed drones that Russia fired at Kyiv overnight, in what was the sixth drone attack on the capital this month. No casualties or damage were reported, according to Serhii Popko, head of the Kyiv regional military administration head.
READ MORE: Deal for protection zone around Ukrainian nuclear plant is ‘close,’ IAEA leader says
The Russian Defense Ministry said a Russian patrol ship destroyed two Ukrainian sea drones that attacked it in the Black Sea early Tuesday. It said the crew of the Sergey Kotov patrol ship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet wasn’t hurt in the attack 370 kilometers (200 nautical miles) southwest of the Crimean port of Sevastopol.
Ukrainian officials, in turn, said that Russians used cluster munitions in an attack on Kostiantynivka, in the eastern Donetsk region, late Monday.
Rockets hit a recreational pond, killing a 10-year-old boy and wounding four other children ranging in age from 5 to 12, according to Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk regional military administration.
Russia and Ukraine have both used cluster munitions throughout the war, and the U.S. has recently provided them to Ukraine.
Western analysts said Tuesday that Russia’s recent attacks on Odesa and other parts of southern Ukraine have employed missiles that were originally developed to destroy aircraft carriers.
Each missile weighs 5.5 metric tons, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said in an assessment.
READ MORE: Ukraine strikes ammunition depot in Crimea as Russian attacks kill more civilians
In only a week, Russia has fired dozens of missiles and drones at the Odesa region, on Monday hitting a cathedral. The strikes have come since Moscow broke off from a landmark grain deal a week ago. Odesa is a key Ukrainian hub for exporting grain.
The attacks have damaged several grain silos at Chornomorsk Port, south of Odesa, and Russian drones have hit docks on the Danube River, approximately 200 meters (650 feet) from the Romanian border, according to the assessment.
Support Provided By:
Learn more | Explicit |
AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- Security will be heightened ahead of Thursday night's opening Women's World Cup game after a gunman killed two people at a downtown construction site in Auckland, roughly 12 hours ahead of co-host New Zealand's match against Norway.
Norway's team hotel was located within a short distance of the shooting, which occurred in the tourist area of the city near the harbor ferry terminal. Norway captain Maren Mjelde said teammates were awakened by a helicopter hovering outside the hotel.
“We felt safe the whole time,” Mjelde 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.”
Officials from Eden Park, where the game was scheduled to be played following an opening ceremony for the tournament, encouraged ticket holders to arrive to the stadium early.
“There will be an increased security presence within the precinct and across the venue. Additional traffic management measures are in place,” Eden Park said.
The shooting happened early Thursday morning at the start of rush hour in New Zealand's largest city. The gunman was armed with a pump-action shotgun, said New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins. He added police arrived 1 minute after the first emergency call and had run straight into harm’s way to save the lives of others.
The gunman was found dead in an elevator, said Acting Police Superintendent Sunny Patel.
In addition to the three dead, at least six others were injured, officials said.
“New Zealand Football are shocked by the incident in Auckland CBD this morning,” the team said in a statement. “We can confirm that all of the Football Ferns team and staff are safe.”
Although Hipkins said his attendance of the opening match was now “under review” he said the tournament would go on 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.”
Tourism New Zealand canceled a welcome party, which was scheduled to be held Thursday afternoon at a location within the cordoned off area that included many hotels in which participating teams are being housed.
The United States women's team hotel is also located in the vicinity of the shooting and the team said in a statement it was "saddened by the inexcusable loss of life to gun violence, and our thoughts are with the people of Auckland/Tamaki Makaurau and Aotearoa New Zealand.”
The month-long, 32-team tournament is being co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia, where the final will be staged on Aug. 20. There are strict gun laws in both countries, and fatal shootings are rare.
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families in these difficult times. As a peace-loving nation, we stand with New Zealand in solidarity," Football Australia's head of marketing and communications Peter Filopoulos said. "The situation seems to be contained now, thanks to NZ authorities. This incident is unrelated to the Women’s World Cup. Stay safe everyone.”
__
AP Sports Writer Steve McMorran contributed from Wellington, New Zealand.
___
AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/world-cup and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | Explicit |
Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of killing four University of Idaho students last fall, was not at the off-campus home when the quadruple murder took place, his legal team said Tuesday.
Kohberger is facing four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of 21-year-olds Kaylee Goncalves and Madison Mogen, 20-year-old Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, also 20. All four students were found fatally stabbed inside a residence in Moscow, not far from the University of Idaho campus, on Nov. 14.
“Evidence corroborating Mr. Kohberger being at a location other than the King Road address will be disclosed pursuant to discovery and evidentiary rules as well as statutory requirements,” his attorney Anne Taylor wrote in a court filing obtained by CNN. “It is anticipated this evidence may be offered by way of cross-examination of witnesses produced by the State as well as calling expert witnesses.”
Taylor did not provide additional details, including where exactly Kohberger allegedly was at the time of the killings.
Prior to the gruesome murders, Kohberger was a graduate student in the criminal justice and criminology department at Washington State University in Pullman, roughly 9 miles from the border of Idaho. He was arrested at his parents’ Pennsylvania home in December, shortly after making the cross-country drive to celebrate the holidays with his family.
Authorities have previously said they recovered Kohberger’s DNA from the crime scene, which his attorney argued could have been planted.
Kohberger has pleaded not guilty to the murder charges and his trial is slated to begin in October.
With News Wire Services | Explicit |
- Marjorie Taylor Greene held up large nude photos of Hunter Biden during a House Committee meeting.
- Democrats questioned the move and said they were "completely irrelevant" to the hearing.
- But Greene said they related to her claims about Biden and that "the American people deserve to see" them.
Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said she was "uncomfortable" showing nude photos of President Joe Biden's son Hunter in Congress but that "the American people deserve to see" them.
Greene used a House Oversight Committee hearing on Wednesday to hold up photos that purportedly showed Hunter Biden having sex with prostitutes.
The images clearly depict Biden nude and engaging in sex, but use black boxes to obscure his genitals and the faces of the people who aren't Biden.
The committee was hearing from two IRS staffers, Joseph Ziegler and Gary Shapley Jr., who have criticized the Department of Justice's investigation into Hunter Biden not paying his taxes.
Democrats questioned Greene showing the images, and some rebuked Greene's decision.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in her closing remarks that the images were "pornographic" and showed Republicans reaching a "new low."
Rep. Jamie Raskin told The Washington Post that showing the photos was "completely irrelevant" to the hearing and "did not advance in any way the putative objective of the hearing." He described it as "an assault to the dignity of the committee."
But Greene, a fervent Biden critic, spoke on Newsmax later on Wednesday, alleging that the DOJ was "politically motivated" and was "protecting Joe Biden" by not properly investigating his son.
She said the pictures would help Americans hold the government accountable, telling the show "Rob Schmitt Tonight": "This is actually the evidence that I believe the American people deserve to see. Because when the American people can see this evidence, as uncomfortable as it was for me to show it on the Oversight Committee today, I believe that's how they can hold this government accountable."
Hunter Biden reached an agreement to plead guilty in June to two criminal counts for failing to pay income tax, in a deal with the DOJ.
Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, and the Department of Justice all deny that the investigation has been too lenient.
Hunter Biden has become a magnet for conspiracy theories, and Republicans, including Greene, have made unsubstantiated claims about Hunter Biden beyond what the DOJ has investigated.
Greene, in the committee hearing, alleged that Hunter Biden used his company to pay prostitutes and then wrote it off as a business expense. Ziegler, the IRS witness, did not confirm that, though he did say that there were deductions for what he believed to be escorts, according to The Hill. | Explicit |
PHILADELPHIA -- A retired minister in Georgia has been charged with murder in the slaying of an 8-year-old girl whose remains were found in southeastern Pennsylvania almost a half-century ago.
David Zandstra, 83, of the Atlanta suburb of Marietta is charged with criminal homicide, first--, second- and third-degree murder, kidnapping of a minor and a related count in the 1975 death of Gretchen Harrington in Delaware County.
District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer told reporters Monday in the Delaware County seat of Media that the defendant was “a monster" and "every parent's worst nightmare."
“This is a man who is a remorseless child predator who acted as if he was a friend, a neighbor and a man of God, and he killed this poor little girl,” Stollsteimer said.
Having killed a child who knew and trusted him, he then “acted as if he was their family friend, not only during her burial and the period after that but for years,” the district attorney said.
Harrington, the daughter of a Presbyterian minister and his wife, disappeared in mid-August 1975 while walking from her Marple Township home to Bible camp at Trinity Church Chapel, where Zandstra was pastor. Her body was found two months later by a jogger in Ridley Creek State Park in Media.
Harrington, usually accompanied by her sisters but alone this day because of a recent birth in her family, was offered a ride by Zandstra, who was also the father of one of her best friends, Stollsteimer alleged.
“So when he offered her a ride in his car, of course she got in the car,” he said.
Zandstra took her to a wooded location and eventually struck her in the head, and believing her to be dead tried to cover her body, authorities said. Returning to his church, he “tried to act like nothing had happened,” and when her father, pastor of the nearby Reformed Presbyterian Church, called seeking to find her, Zandstra was the one to call police, Stollsteimer alleged.
Over ensuing days, hundreds of people searched nearby wooded areas, and authorities distributed more than 2,000 leaflets and set up a 24-hour hotline that took hundreds of calls, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. When the girl’s body was found in mid-October 1975, her clothing was “folded and in a neat pile” near her body with her underwear hanging from a tree branch “like a flag ... as if to call attention to the place,” the Inquirer reported at the time.
Stollsteimer said new information from an unnamed friend of the victim led state police to travel to Georgia and interview Zandstra, who authorities allege then confessed to the crime.
Trooper Eugene Tray said the defendant's demeanor was “relieved" as if it was “a weight off his shoulders.” Stollsteimer said Zandstra, however, was fighting extradition from Georgia though the prosecutor vowed that he would be returned to face justice in Pennsylvania.
DNA from the defendant will be compared to material from open cases in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, authorities said. Zandstra lived in Texas and Georgia after leaving the commonwealth, they said. The Christian Reformed Church lists him as having ministered in New Jersey, California and Texas before retiring in 2005. Authorities said they were concerned that there may have been more victims and urged anyone with information to contact investigators.
Zandstra remained in custody in Georgia; a message was left Monday for a Pennsylvania attorney listed as representing him.
Gretchen Harrington's family asked for privacy but said in a statement that they were “extremely hopeful” that the person responsible would be held accountable for taking her away from them, which they said “forever altered our family and we miss her every single day.”
“If you met Gretchen, you were instantly her friend. She exuded kindness to all and was sweet and gentle,” the family said. “Even now, when people share their memories of her, the first thing they talk about is how amazing she was and still is ... at just 8 years old, she had a lifelong impact on those around her.” | Explicit |
An elementary school teacher in Seocho-gu, southern Seoul, took her own life in a classroom Tuesday morning, the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education said late Wednesday.
The teacher, whose identity has been withheld, reportedly killed themselves before school started in the morning, according to reports. Local media has reported that the teacher was a 23-year-old woman who passed the teacher certification test earlier this year.
It added that students had not yet been informed of the teacher’s death, citing the potential of emotional damage. No students witnessed the scene, the education office added.
The office added that police are currently investigating the case to determine the time of death, and they had yet to determine the exact cause.
The office further added that no suicide note had been found at the scene, declining to comment more on the issue. The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education also said it would offer support for students and teaching staff experiencing trauma. | Explicit |
MOGADISHU, Somalia -- A suicide bomber on Monday targeted a military training academy in Somalia, killing 25 soldiers in the capital of Mogadishu, a senior army officer said.
Al-Qaida’s affiliate in East Africa, the Somalia-based al-Shabab, claimed responsibility for the attack.
The officer said more than 40 others were wounded in the bombing at the Jalle Siyad military academy, said the officer. He only his first name, Abdullahi, because he was not authorized to speak publicly. There was no immediate statement from Somali authorities.
Al-Shabab controls parts of rural Somalia and often targets high-profile areas of the capital.
Somali authorities launched a new offensive against al-Shabab last year to try to recapture extremist-held territory and dismantle the taxation and broader financial network that funds the fighters.
Somalia’s military is under growing pressure to assume responsibility for the Horn of Africa country’s security as a multinational African Union force slowly draws down. Partners including the United States, the European Union and Turkey help to train Somali forces. | Explicit |
ISLAMABAD – An extremely distressing incident surfaced in Islamabad as the wife of a civil judge allegedly tortured a minor maid.
It has been learnt that a poverty-stricken family takes the help of a man named Mukhtar to get a domestic help job for her 14-year-old identified as Rizwana.
The parents of the victim alleged that wife of civil judge Asim Hafeez assaulted her badly, leaving the minor girl in a miserable condition.
Rizwana’s mother decried torture marks all over on her body including her head, and she was filmed in a really bad state, prompting action from the police and local authorities.
The parent of the girl alleged that the family of a civil judge lashed the girl by falsely accusing her of theft. The victim was first shifted to DHQ Teaching Hospital Sargodha but was later shifted to Lahore.
Amid the outrage, the civil judge, who is currently appointed in Judicial Academy, denied all accusations of violence, saying his wife’s gold was missing but ruled out any physical violence on the child.
He maintained that the child was not tortured, but was handed over to her mother, who herself beat her. | Explicit |
At least one person has been killed and 19 more injured in fresh Russian missile strikes on the Ukrainian port city of Odesa, officials have said.
Regional Governor Oleh Kiper said 14 people were hospitalised in the blasts, including four children.
The historical Transfiguration Cathedral was badly damaged by the strikes, the city council said.
Moscow has been launching near constant attacks on Odesa since it withdrew from a landmark grain deal on Monday.
"Odesa: another night attack of the monsters," Mr Kiper wrote on Telegram. He added that six residential buildings - including several apartment buildings - were destroyed by the strikes.
Odesa's military administration said that the Transfiguration Cathedral of the Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) was severely damaged.
The building is Odesa's largest Orthodox church and was consecrated in 1809. It was demolished by the Soviet Union in 1939, before being re-built in 2003.
In a video posted to social media by the city council, Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov could be seen walking through rubble inside the church.
Andriy Palchuk, the archdeacon of the Cathedral, said he was the first person to arrive at the scene.
"The destruction is enormous; half of the cathedral was left without a roof, and the central piles and foundation were destroyed," he said.
"All the windows and stucco moulding were blown out. There was a fragmentary fire, the part where icons and candles are sold in the church caught fire. It was all on fire, burning."
The UN's cultural agency, Unesco, has repeatedly urged Russia to cease attacks on Odesa. The city's historic centre was designated an endangered World Heritage by the organisation earlier this year, despite Russian opposition.
But in an update posted to Facebook, Ukraine's southern command said Russia had targeted the Odesa region with at least five different types of missiles.
The head of Ukraine's presidential office, Andriy Yermak, repeated calls for more missiles and defence systems after the latest attack on Odesa.
"This is the undisguised terror of a peaceful city," Mr Yermak wrote on Telegram. "The enemy must be deprived of the opportunity to attack civilians and infrastructure."
Moscow has notably stepped up attacks on the port city since it withdrew from the UN backed grain deal on Monday and Ukraine has accused it of targeting grain supplies and infrastructure vital to the deal.
A strike earlier this week destroyed some 60,000 tonnes of grain, officials said.
Odesa is Ukraine's biggest port, and millions of tonnes of grain have been shipped from its docks under the terms of the deal.
The deal - brokered by Turkey and the UN - between Russia and Ukraine was struck in July 2022, allowing cargo ships to sail along a corridor in the Black Sea. | Explicit |
Atmore, Alabama — Alabama executed a man on Friday for the 2001 beating death of a woman as the state resumed lethal injections following a pause to review procedures., 64, was pronounced dead at 1:56 a.m. after receiving a lethal injection at a south Alabama prison.
Barber was convicted and sentenced to death for the 2001 beating death of 75-year-old Dorothy Epps. Prosecutors said Barber, a handyman, confessed to killing Epps with a claw hammer and fleeing with her purse. Jurors voted 11-1 to recommend a death sentence, which a judge imposed.
It was the first execution carried out in Alabama this year after the state halted executions last fall. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey announced a pause on executions in November to conduct an internal review of procedures.
The move came after the state halted two lethal injections because of difficulties inserting IVs into the condemned men's veins. Advocacy groups claimed a third execution, carried out after a delay because of IV problems, was botched, a claim the state has disputed.
Barber's attorneys unsuccessfully asked the courts to block the execution, saying the state has a pattern of failing "to carry out a lethal injection execution in a constitutional manner."
The state asked the courts to let the execution proceed.
"Mrs. Epps and her family have waited for justice for twenty-two years," the Alabama attorney general's office wrote in a court filing.
Attorneys for inmate Alan Miller said prison staff poked him with needles for over an hour as they unsuccessfully tried to connect an IV line to him and at one point left him hanging vertically on a gurney during his. State officials called off the November after they were unsuccessful in connecting the second of two required lines.
Ivey announced in February that the state was resuming executions. Alabama Corrections Commissioner John Hamm said prison system had added to its pool of medical professionals, ordered new equipment and conducted additional rehearsals.
Attorneys for Barber had argued that his execution "will likely be botched in the same manner as the prior three."
The Supreme Court denied Barber's request for a stay without comment. Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented from the decision in a writing joined by Justice Elena Kagan and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
"The Eighth Amendment demands more than the State's word that this time will be different. The Court should not allow Alabama to test the efficacy of its internal review by using Barber as its 'guinea pig,'" Sotomayor wrote.
State officials wrote that the previous executions were called off because of a "confluence of events-including health issues specific to the individual inmates and last-minute litigation brought by the inmates that dramatically shortened the window for ADOC officials to conduct the executions."
In the hours leading up to the scheduled execution, Barber had 22 visitors and two phone calls, a prison spokesperson said. Barber ate a final meal of loaded hashbrowns, western omelet, spicy sausage and toast.
One of the changes Alabama made following the internal review was to give the state more time to carry out executions. The Alabama Supreme Court did away with its customary midnight deadline to get an execution underway in order to give the state more time to establish an IV line and battle last-minute legal appeals.
for more features. | Explicit |
Alabama on Friday executed James Barber for the beating death of a woman in 2001, resuming executions in the state less than a year after a series of botched procedures led to outrage and an internal review of the procedures.
Barber was convicted and sentenced to death after confessing to killing 75-year-old Dorothy Epps in 2001. Jurors voted 11-1 to recommend the death penalty.
The 64-year-old was pronounced dead at 1:56 a.m. after receiving a lethal injection at a south Alabama prison.
Barber was the first execution carried out by the state since Republican Gov. Kay Ivey announced in November she was pausing the procedures and ordering an internal “top-to-bottom review” of the state’s execution process following reports of problematic execution attempts.
Before he was put to death, Barber — who confessed to murdering Epps with a claw hammer before fleeing with her purse — told his family he loved them and apologized to the victim’s family.
“I want to tell the Epps’ family I love them. I’m sorry for what happened,” Barber said. “No words would fit how I feel.”
He also took the opportunity to tell Ivey “and the people in this room that I forgive you for what you are about to do.”
After the execution, Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement that “justice has been served.”
“This morning, James Barber was put to death for the terrible crime he committed over two decades ago: the especially heinous, atrocious, and cruel murder of Dorothy Epps,” he said.
Breaking News
Last year, Alabama was one of several states “with failed or bungled executions,” according to a report by Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington-based nonprofit focusing on capital punishment issues.
Seven of the 20 execution attempts in 2022 were “visibly problematic” as a result of “executioner incompetence, failures to follow protocols, or defects in the protocols themselves,” according to the report.
One such case was the execution of Joe James in Alabama, which took approximately three hours to get underway, sparking national outrage.
“After 40 years, the states have proven themselves unable to carry out lethal injections without the risk that it will be botched,” Robert Dunham, the organization’s executive director, said in a statement shared with the Daily News in December.
In February, Ivey announced the state was resuming executions.
Early on Friday, Alabama Corrections Commissioner John Hamm said the two intravenous lines were connected to Barber with “three sticks in six minutes.”
With News Wire Services | Explicit |
Ecuador’s president, Guillermo Lasso, has declared a 60-day state of emergency throughout the country’s prisons and authorized the armed forces to retake control of jails, following violence in the country’s most notorious prison that left 18 dead and a string of protests in which inmates took nearly 100 guards hostage.
The measure – the second state of emergency that Lasso has ordered in less than 24 hours – will be in effect for 60 days and orders the immediate mobilization of the military and police in an effort to regain control of the prisons.
Clashes – including gunfire and explosions – between organized criminal gangs have raged since Saturday at the Penitenciaría del Litoral prison in the city of Guayaquil.
“So far the death of 18 prisoners has been confirmed after the clashes registered since Saturday,” the prosecutor’s office tweeted on Tuesday, adding that more than 10 people, including one police officer, were injured during the incidents.
The Penitenciaría del Litoral has a capacity for about 9,500 inmates, but in the first quarter of this year exceeded that number by almost 3,000.
It is considered one of the most dangerous prisons in Ecuador. A gang battle in 2021 killed 119 inmates. In April, 12 inmates were killed and three injured during a riot.
Meanwhile, prisoners in 13 other prisons declared a hunger strike on Monday and are holding 96 prison guards hostage to demand better sanitary conditions and food, among other issues.
Ecuador has long been plagued by prison violence, with this latest surge taking place amid campaigning for elections scheduled for 20 August, pushing some presidential candidates to pledge prison reforms, including electronic surveillance systems and more prison officers.
The SNAI prison authority has worked to regain control of the prison since early Tuesday, it said in a posting on the social media platform X, previously known as Twitter, which was accompanied by images of heavily equipped police and military entering the Penitenciaría del Litoral.
Military intervention in Ecuador’s prisons will continue until control has been retaken and there is no threat to prisoners or officials, the government said on Tuesday.
Lasso also declared a state of emergency in the provinces of Manabí and Los Ríos, as well as in the city of Durán on Monday, after the mayor of the city of Manta, Agustín Intriago, was shot dead on Sunday.
Lasso has regularly declared states of emergency in the country’s prisons as he tries to tackle violence which has surged since 2021, claiming the lives of hundreds of prisoners.
The prison system has faced structural problems for decades, prompting concern from the United Nations and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. | Explicit |
More than two months after three women were stripped and paraded by a mob in violence-hit Manipur, police said they have registered a case of gang-rape and abduction, and would soon make arrests. It is among the first cases of sexual violence to be reported and which is being followed up with police action after the clashes in the State started on May 3.
A video clip of the incident surfaced on social media on Wednesday. The Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF) said in a statement that the ordeal suffered by the women is amplified by the perpetrators’ decision to share the video on social media revealing the identity of the victims. Two of the women are seen in the clip.
The incident is alleged to have taken place on May 4 at Nongpok Sekmai in Thoubal district when the three women were trying to escape a violent mob that had attacked their village in Kangpokpi district. A police source said that on May 18, a zero First Information Report (FIR) was registered at Kangpokpi police station, which has now been transferred to Thoubal, the place of incident. A zero FIR is registered irrespective of the jurisdiction or area power of the police.
One of the women was raped, the FIR said. The father and brother of the rape survivor were killed by the mob, according to a complaint filed by the village head. The complaint said the brother, aged 19, was killed while trying to protect his sister from the mob. Charges of murder have also been added.
The FIR stated that five villagers, including the three women, fearing for their lives had fled towards a forest and had been rescued by the police. However, the mob of around 900-1,000 men, some of them carrying sophisticated weapons, blocked the police team and snatched the five from the custody of the police, the FIR said.
The zero FIR was transferred to Thoubal police on June 21. It has been more than a month that a regular FIR was registered, but no arrests have been made.
A statement by the Manipur police said, “In regard to the viral videos of two women paraded naked by unknown armed miscreants on May 4, a case of abduction, gang-rape and murder etc. was registered against unknown armed miscreants and the investigation has been started. The State Police is making all-out effort to arrest the culprits at the earliest.”
The State government imposed an indefinite curfew in the five valley districts of Imphal East, Imphal West, Bishnupur, Kakching, and Thoubal districts on Wednesday after a protest march was planned by women’s group.
Hoihnu Hauzel, a Manipuri journalist, said on Twitter, “The women were paraded naked, fondled and beaten in full public glare. A disturbing video taken by a perpetrator leaked and got viral today. This breaks all level of humanity.”
Two more tactical headquarters
Meanwhile the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has deployed two senior officers from Nagaland and Assam to oversee the existing and additional companies deployed in Manipur in “view of present security situation.” It created two tactical headquarters in Kangpokpi and Jiribam districts, other than the one in Imphal.
The order said, “In view of the present security scenario in the State of Manipur and increased level of CRPF deployment, supervision of senior officers of the level of Deputy Inspector General across strategic places of the State has been felt essential and crucial. Accordingly, to have effective control and supervision over the existing and additional companies deployed in Manipur, DIG Ops (Operations) Kohima and DIG Silchar are temporarily placed in Manipur with immediate effect.”
Other than the State police, 124 companies of Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) and 184 columns of the Army has been deployed in the State.
Internet has been suspended in Manipur since May 3, when ethnic violence between the Kuki and Meitei communities erupted in the State. More than 140 people have been killed and over 54,000 people displaced in the ongoing violence. | Explicit |