Suicide bomber kills at least 22 in Greek Orthodox church in Syria during Divine Liturgy
A suicide bomber in Syria opened fire then detonated an explosive vest inside a Greek Orthodox church filled with people praying on Sunday, killing at least 22 and wounding 63 others, state media reported. (AP Video: Ghaith Alsayed/Abdel Rahman Shaheen)
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San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Key moments from the closing arguments at Sean 'Diddy' Combs' sex trafficking trial
NEW YORK (AP) — A jury will begin deliberations on Monday over the fate of Sean 'Diddy' Combs after hearing wildly differing views from prosecutors and a defense lawyer over whether he engaged in sex trafficking for two decades. Two prosecutors insisted that he had coerced, threatened and sometimes viciously forced two ex-girlfriends to have sex with male sex workers to satisfy his sexual pleasure. They cited multiple acts of violence he carried out against them as proof that they had no say. A defense lawyer then mocked the government's closing argument and warned that prosecutors were employing a novel approach to sex crimes that risked turning the swinger lifestyle that Combs and his girlfriends enjoyed into potential crimes for all Americans. Combs, 55, the founder of Bad Boy Entertainment, has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges in the trial, which continues Monday when the judge will read instructions on the law to jurors before they begin deliberations. Here are key moments from closing argument on Thursday and Friday: Prosecutors showed they weren't withdrawing claims against Combs Prosecutors triggered headlines last week that they had backed off or eliminated claims of arson and kidnapping against Combs when they said they were removing instructions on the law regarding them to be given jurors on Monday in response to the judge's request to streamline the case for the jury. 'The Government is no longer planning to proceed on these theories of liability so instructions are no longer necessary,' prosecutors wrote in a letter to the judge. But when Assistant U.S. Attorney Christy Slavik launched closings on Thursday, she gave the allegations of arson and kidnapping a starring role in her first sentences, naming them before any others. 'Over the last several weeks, you've learned a lot about Sean Combs. He's the leader of a criminal enterprise. He doesn't take no for an answer. And now you know about many crimes the defendant committed with members of his enterprise: Kidnapping of one of the defendant's employees; arson by trying to blow up a car; forced labor, including of an employee the defendant repeatedly sexually assaulted; bribery of a security officer to keep damning evidence against the defendant buried; and of course, the brutal crimes at the heart of this case — sex trafficking,' she said. The arson claim stemmed from evidence that Slavik said showed Combs was behind the firebombing of rapper Kid Cudi's Porsche in 2012. The kidnapping allegation also related to Cudi. Slavik said Combs kidnapped an employee to join him when he broke into Cudi's home after learning the rapper was dating his girlfriend. A defense lawyer strikes back, belittling government's case Attorney Marc Agnifilo in an at-times folksy presentation spared few theatrics in mocking the government's case against Combs as overreach, saying hundreds of agents poured into Combs' residences in Miami and Los Angeles to seize hundreds of bottles of baby oil and Astroglide lubricant. 'I guess it's all worth it because they found the Astroglide. They found it in boxes, boxes of Astroglide taken off the streets. Whew, I feel better already,' he said, before adding: 'The streets of America are safe from the Astroglide!' From the start, Agnifilo tried to portray prosecutors as unjustly targeting Combs after a former girlfriend of nearly 11 years — Casandra 'Cassie' Ventura — sued him in November 2023. She testified for four days in the trial's first week. The lawsuit was settled for $20 million the next day but she touched off a criminal probe with her allegations of being subjected to hundreds of drug-fueled 'freak-offs' in which she alleged she was forced to perform sexually for days with male sex workers while Combs watched, filmed and directed the action. A woman who testified under the pseudonym 'Jane' also testified during the trial that she experienced 'hotel nights' similar to 'freak-off' in a relationship with Combs from 2021 until his arrest. Agnifilo maintained the prosecution was an unjust attack on a prominent and wildly successful Black entrepreneur. 'They took Astroglide and they took baby oil, and that ends up being the evidence in this case, because his businesses are outstanding. There's nothing about the businesses to find. There's nothing about the businesses to make into a criminal case,' he said. Defense personalizes the case for jurors, calling it attack on 'your bedroom' Agnifilo tried to cast the case for the jury as an attack on everyone's bedroom and the secrets of one's sex life. 'They go into the man's bedroom. They go into the man's most private life. Where is the crime scene? The crime scene is your private sex life. That's the crime scene,' he said as he stood before jurors, who were largely expressionless as they took occasional notes and watched the closings. The lawyer said it was not uncommon that Combs liked to film sexual events with his girlfriends, calling it 'sort of typical, you know, homemade porn' and adding that 'I don't think by any stretch of the imagination this is the only man in America making homemade porn.' Still, he said, investigators "take yellow crime scene tape, figuratively, and they wrap it around his bedroom. Crime scene — your bedroom, your hotel rooms, where you go with your girlfriends. Crime scenes. A lot of yellow tape.' Then, he gave a nod to the 50th anniversary of the movie 'Jaws,' resurrecting a classic line from Hollywood history when he said: 'We need a bigger roll of crime scene tape, because that's just not going to be enough.' Judge agrees defense went too far saying prosecutors targeted Combs Just after Agnifilo told jurors that it 'takes a lot of courage to acquit,' he ripped the government's case a final time in stark terms, saying the trial was 'very different" from any other trial. 'I think that the evidence shows, and you can conclude, that the government targeted Sean Combs,' he said, noting that nobody complained to the government to instigate a probe, but investigators instead began their work a day after Cassie filed her lawsuit. After the jury left the room at the conclusion of Agnifilo's four-hour summation, his statement about targeting drew an outcry from the prosecutor, Slavik. When the jury returned, Judge Judge Arun Subramanian noted the remark Agnifilo had made about targeting Combs and told jurors that 'the decision of the government to investigate an individual or the decision of a grand jury to indict an individual is none of your concern.' In rebuttal, a prosecutor tells jurors that Combs is 'not a god' Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey got the final word with a rebuttal presentation to jurors, telling them: 'The defendant is not a god.' She said that Combs in his mind 'was untouchable." She noted that one former personal assistant even described him as a 'god among men.' 'For 20 years, the defendant got away with his crimes. That ends in this courtroom,' she said. 'He is a person. And in this courtroom, he stands equal before the law. Overwhelming evidence proves his guilt. It is time to hold him accountable. Find him guilty.'
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Israeli court postpones Netanyahu appearance in graft trial
An Israeli court on Sunday postponed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's testimony in his corruption trial after he requested a delay, as US President Donald Trump called for the case to be thrown out. "Following the explanations given... we partially accept the request and cancel at this stage Mr Netanyahu's hearings scheduled" for this week, the Jerusalem district court said in its ruling, published online by Netanyahu's Likud party. Netanyahu's lawyers had asked the court to excuse him from testifying over the next two weeks so he could focus on security issues following a ceasefire with Iran and amid ongoing fighting in Gaza where Israeli hostages are held. They had submitted Netanyahu's schedule to the court to demonstrate "the national need for the prime minister to devote all his time and energy to the political, national and security issues at hand". The court initially rejected the lawyers' request but said in its ruling on Sunday that it had changed its judgement after hearing arguments from the prime minister, the head of military intelligence and the chief of the Mossad spy agency. - Trump backing - Trump on Saturday said in a post on his Truth Social platform that the United States was "not going to stand" for the continued prosecution, prompting Netanyahu to thank him in a message on X. Earlier in the week, the US president had described the case against the Israeli premier as a "witch hunt", saying the trial "should be CANCELLED, IMMEDIATELY, or a Pardon given to a Great Hero". Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid reacted by saying that Trump "should not interfere in a judicial trial in an independent country". Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing in the corruption affair and his supporters have described the long-running trial as politically motivated. In one of the cases, he and his wife, Sara, are accused of accepting more than $260,000 worth of luxury goods such as cigars, jewellery and champagne from billionaires in exchange for political favours. In two others, Netanyahu is accused of attempting to negotiate more favourable coverage from two Israeli media outlets. The prime minister has requested multiple postponements to the trial since it began in May 2020. - Rival urges Netanyahu to quit - During his current term, which started in late 2022, Netanyahu's government has proposed far-reaching judicial reforms that critics say were designed to weaken the courts and prompted massive protests that were only curtailed by the onset of the Gaza war. In an interview with Israel's Channel 12 that aired on Saturday, former prime minister Naftali Bennett accused Netanyahu of deepening divisions in Israeli society, and said that he "must go". Netanyahu "has been in power for 20 years... that's too much, it's not healthy," Bennett said. The former right-wing premier managed to form a coalition in 2021 that ousted Netanyahu from the premiership after 12 consecutive years, but it collapsed before the end of the following year. Bennett is rumoured to be planning a comeback, with public opinion polls suggesting he may have enough support to oust Netanyahu again. He declined to comment on that prospect in Saturday's interview. mib/glp/rlp/dcp
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
'Let Bibi go': Trump says US is 'not going to stand' for Netanyahu's prosecution
President Donald Trump lashed out at Israeli prosecutors over the corruption trial facing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying the United States having given billions in aid to Israel is "not going to stand for this." Netanyahu was indicted in 2019 in Israel on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust – all of which he denies. The trial, which began in 2020, involves three criminal cases. He is scheduled to return for cross examination Monday after several delays over the COVID-19 pandemic, Israel's war with Hamas and other conflicts in the region. "How is it possible that the Prime Minister of Israel can be forced to sit in a Courtroom all day long, over NOTHING (Cigars, Bugs Bunny Doll, etc.). It is a POLITICAL WITCH HUNT, very similar to the Witch Hunt that I was forced to endure," Trump said on June 28 in a post on Truth Social. Netanyahu thanked Trump in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. "Together, we will make the Middle East Great Again!" he said. Israel's main opposition leader Yair Lapid criticised Trump's statement, saying he should not "intervene in a legal process of an independent state," the BBC reported. Trump said the trial complicates negotiations with both Iran and Hamas. The United States targeted several nuclear sites in Iran after Israel launched an air war on June 13 and tensions erupted between the Middle Eastern nations. Hamas attacked Israel out of Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023 and is still holding hostages, while Israel has unleashed strikes on the strip for nearly two years. "It was the United States of America that saved Israel, and now it is going to be the United States of America that saves Bibi Netanyahu,' Trump said in a separate post earlier in the week. "THIS TRAVESTY OF 'JUSTICE' CAN NOT BE ALLOWED!" This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump says US is 'not going to stand' for Netanyahu's corruption trial
