Woman uses pepper spray in theft of Hermes bags from Shibuya pawnshop
At around 6:30 p.m., Yurie Sato allegedly swiped the three Hermes handbags — worth approximately 3.9 million yen — from the shop in Dogenzaka.
As she fled, she sprayed pepper spray at a female store clerk in her 20s who chased her.
During questioning, Sato admitted to the charges. 'I wanted the bags,' she said. 'So, I took a few and ran away. The store clerk chased me, so I sprayed her with pepper spray.'
According to police, a man who witnessed the crime outside the shop apprehended Sato about 50 meters away. He then handed her over to a police officer.
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Japan Today
2 hours ago
- Japan Today
Troops and federal agents briefly descend on park in LA neighborhood with large immigrant population
By TARA COPP and DAMIAN DOVARGANES Dozens of federal officers in tactical gear and about 90 members of the California National Guard were deployed for about an hour Monday to a mostly empty park in a Los Angeles neighborhood with a large immigrant population. It wasn't immediately known if any arrests were made. Defense officials had said the troops and over a dozen military vehicles would help protect immigration officers as they carried out a raid in MacArthur Park. 'What I saw in the park today looked like a city under siege, under armed occupation,' said Mayor Karen Bass, who told reporters there were children in the park attending a day camp. They were quickly ushered inside so they didn't witness the troops. Still, Bass said an 8-year-old boy told her that 'he was fearful of ICE.' The operation occurred at a park in a neighborhood with large Mexican, Central American and other immigrant populations and is lined by businesses with signs in Spanish and other languages that has been dubbed by local officials as the 'Ellis Island of the West Coast.' Messages were sent to Immigration and Customs Enforcement seeking additional details. Jeannette Zanipatin with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights saw the brief but prominent presence of troops and federal officers at the park. 'I definitely think it's a source of intimidation,' she said. 'We know that the Trump administration is trying to make an example of Los Angeles.' The operation in the large park about 2 miles west of downtown LA included 17 Humvees, four tactical vehicles, two ambulances and the armed soldiers, defense officials said. It came after President Donald Trump deployed thousands of Guard members and active duty Marines to the city last month following protests over previous immigration raids. Trump has stepped up efforts to realize his campaign pledge of deporting millions of immigrants in the United States illegally and shown a willingness to use the nation's military might in ways other U.S. presidents have typically avoided. Betsy Bolte, who lives nearby, came to the park after seeing a military-style helicopter circling. She arrived to see federal officers on horseback moving through a grassy area, with activists and passersby shouting at them. Bolte didn't see any arrests and said it was 'gut-wrenching' to witness what appeared to be a federal show of force on the streets of a U.S. city. 'It's terror and, you know, it's ripping the heart and soul out of Los Angeles,' she said. 'I am still in shock, disbelief, and so angry and terrified and heartbroken.' The defense officials told reporters that it was not a military operation but acknowledged that the size and scope of the Guard's participation could make it look like one to the public. That is why the officials spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details about the raid that were not announced publicly. 'It's just going to be more overt and larger than we usually participate in,' one of the officials said before the raid ended abruptly with no explanation. The primary role of the service members would be to protect the immigration enforcement officers in case a hostile crowd gathered, that official said. They are not participating in any law enforcement activities such as arrests, but service members can temporarily detain citizens if necessary before handing them over to law enforcement, the official said. Sprawling MacArthur Park has a murky lake ringed by palm trees, an amphitheater that hosts summer concerts and sports fields where immigrant families line up to play soccer in the evenings and on weekends. A thoroughfare on the east side is often crammed with unlicensed food stands selling tacos and other delicacies, along with vendors speaking multiple languages and hawking cheap T-shirts, toys, knickknacks and household items. Authorities routinely clear encampments and medical outreach teams tend to homeless residents. Chris Newman, legal director for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said he received a credible tip about the operation Monday. 'It was a demonstration of escalation,' Newman said. 'This was a reality TV spectacle much more so than an actual enforcement operation.' Since federal agents have been making arrests at Home Depot parking lots and elsewhere in Los Angeles, Newman said fewer people have been going to the park and immigrant neighborhoods near the city's downtown. 'The ghost town-ification of LA is haunting, to say the very least,' he said. More than 4,000 California National Guard and hundreds of U.S. Marines have been deployed in Los Angeles since June — against the wishes of California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Last week, the military announced about 200 of those troops would be returned to their units to fight wildfires. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Japan Today
2 hours ago
- Japan Today
Epstein 'client list' doesn't exist, Justice Department says, walking back theory Bondi had promoted
Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks to the media, Friday, June 27, 2025, in the briefing room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) By ERIC TUCKER and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Jeffrey Epstein did not maintain a 'client list,' the Justice Department acknowledged Monday as it said no more files related to the wealthy financier's sex trafficking investigation would be made public despite promises from Attorney General Pam Bondi that had raised the expectations of conservative influencers and conspiracy theorists. The acknowledgment that the well-connected Epstein did not have a list of clients to whom underage girls were trafficked represents a public walk-back of a theory that the Trump administration had helped promote, with Bondi suggesting in a Fox News interview earlier this year that such a document was 'sitting on my desk' in preparation for release. Even as it released video from inside a New York jail meant to definitively prove that Epstein committed suicide, the department also said in a memo that it was refusing to release other evidence investigators had collected. Bondi for weeks had suggested that more material was going to be revealed — "It's a new administration and everything is going to come out to the public,' she said at one point — after a first document dump she had hyped angered President Donald Trump's base by failing to deliver revelations. That episode, in which conservative internet personalities were invited to the White House in February and provided with binders marked 'The Epstein Files: Phase 1' and 'Declassified" that contained documents that had largely already been in the public domain, has spurred far-right influencers to lambast and deride Bondi. After the first release fell flat, Bondi said officials were pouring over a 'truckload' of previously withheld evidence she said had been handed over by the FBI. In a March TV interview, she claimed the Biden administration 'sat on these documents, no one did anything with them,' adding: 'Sadly these people don't believe in transparency, but I think more unfortunately, I think a lot of them don't believe in honesty.' But after a months-long review of evidence in the government's possession, the Justice Department determined that no 'further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted,' the memo says. The department noted that much of the material was placed under seal by a court to protect victims and 'only a fraction" of it 'would have been aired publicly had Epstein gone to trial.' The two-page memo bore the logos of the Justice Department and the FBI but was not signed by any individual official. 'One of our highest priorities is combatting child exploitation and bringing justice to victims," the memo says. Perpetuating unfounded theories about Epstein serves neither of those ends." Conservatives who have sought proof of a government coverup of Epstein's activities and death expressed outrage Monday over the department's position. Far-right influencer Jack Posobiec posted: 'We were all told more was coming. That answers were out there and would be provided. Incredible how utterly mismanaged this Epstein mess has been. And it didn't have to be.' Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones wrote that "next the DOJ will say 'Actually, Jeffrey Epstein never even existed,' calling it 'over the top sickening.' Elon Musk shared a series of photos of a clown applying makeup appearing to mock Bondi for saying the client list doesn't exist after suggesting months ago that it was on her desk. Among the evidence that the Justice Department says it has in its possession are photographs and more than 10,000 videos and images that officials said depicted child sex abuse material or 'other pornography.' Bondi had earlier suggested that part of the reason for the delay in releasing additional Epstein materials was because the FBI needed to review 'tens of thousands' of recordings that she said showed Epstein 'with children or child porn.' The Associated Press published a story last week about the unanswered questions surrounding those videos. Multiple people who participated in the criminal cases of Epstein and former British socialite girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell told AP that they had not seen and did not know of a trove of recordings along the lines of what Bondi had referenced. Indictments and detention memos also don't allege the existence of video recordings and neither Epstein nor Maxwell were charged with possession of child sex abuse material even though that would have been easier for prosecutors to prove than the sex trafficking counts they faced. The AP did find reference in a filing in a civil lawsuit to the discovery by the Epstein estate of videos and pictures that could constitute child sex abuse material, but lawyers involved in that case said a protective order prevents them from discovering the specifics of that evidence. The Justice Department did not respond to a detailed list of questions from AP about the videos Bondi was referencing. Monday's memo does not explain when or where they were located, what they depict and whether they were newly found as investigators scoured their collection of evidence or were known for some time to have been in the government's possession. Epstein was found dead in his jail cell in August 2019, weeks after his arrest on sex trafficking charges, in a suicide that foreclosed the possibility of a trial. The department's disclosure that Epstein took his own life is hardly a revelation even though conspiracy theorists have continued to challenge that conclusion. In 2019, for instance, then-Attorney General William Barr told the AP in an interview that he had personally reviewed security footage that revealed that no one entered the area where Epstein was housed on the night he died and Barr had concluded that Epstein's suicide was the result of 'a perfect storm of screw-ups.' More recently, FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino have insisted in television and podcast interviews that the evidence was clear that Epstein had killed himself. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Japan Today
2 hours ago
- Japan Today
U.S. will try to deport Abrego Garcia before his trial, Justice Department attorney says
Jennifer Vasquez Sura, center, the wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, joins supporters of Abrego Garcia as they rally outside of the U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Md., where a hearing was scheduled to be held on returning him to Maryland, Monday, July 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN and BEN FINLEY The U.S. government would initiate deportation proceedings against Kilmar Abrego Garcia if he's released from jail before he stands trial on human smuggling charges in Tennessee, a Justice Department attorney told a federal judge in Maryland on Monday. The disclosure by U.S. lawyer Jonathan Guynn contradicts statements by spokespeople for the Justice Department and the White House, who said last month that Abrego Garcia would stand trial and possibly spend time in an American prison before the government moves to deport him. Guynn made the revelation during a federal court hearing in Maryland, where Abrego Garcia's American wife is suing the Trump administration over his mistaken deportation in March and trying to prevent him from being expelled again. Guynn said U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement would detain Abrego Garcia once he's released from jail and send him to a 'third country' that isn't his native El Salvador. However, Guynn said he didn't know which country that would be. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis said trying to determine what will happen to Abrego Garcia has been 'like trying to nail Jello to a wall." She scheduled a hearing for Thursday for U.S. officials to explain possible next steps if Abrego Garcia is released. Abrego Garcia became a flashpoint over President Donald Trump's immigration policies when he was deported in March to a notorious megaprison in his native El Salvador. The Trump administration claimed he was in the MS-13 gang, although Abrego Garcia was never charged with a crime and has repeatedly denied the allegation. When the Trump administration deported Abrego Garcia, it violated a U.S. immigration judge's order in 2019 that shielded him from being sent to his native country. The judge had determined that Abrego Garcia likely faced persecution by local gangs that had terrorized him and his family and prompted him to flee to the U.S. Facing increasing pressure and a Supreme Court order, the Trump administration returned Abrego Garcia to the U.S. last month to face federal human smuggling charges. The charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop for speeding in Tennessee, during which Abrego Garcia was driving a vehicle with nine passengers without luggage. Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty. His lawyers told a judge that some government witnesses cooperated to get favors regarding their immigration status or criminal charges they were facing. They've also accused the Trump administration of bringing Abrego Garcia back 'to convict him in the court of public opinion' with the intention of deporting him before he can defend himself at trial. A federal judge in Nashville was preparing to release Abrego Garcia, determining he's not a flight risk or a danger. But she agreed to keep Abrego Garcia behind bars at the request of his own attorneys, who raised concerns the U.S. would try to immediately deport him. In court documents, Abrego Garcia's lawyers cited 'contradictory statements' by the Trump administration. For example, Guynn told Xinis on June 26 that ICE planned to deport Abrego Garcia, though he didn't say when. Later that day, DOJ spokesperson Chad Gilmartin told The Associated Press that the Justice Department intends to try Abrego Garcia on the smuggling charges before it moves to deport him. White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson posted on X that day that Abrego Garcia "will face the full force of the American justice system — including serving time in American prison for the crimes he's committed.' Abrego Garcia's attorneys asked Xinis to order the government to take him to Maryland upon his release from jail, an arrangement that would prevent his deportation before trial. Abrego Garcia lived in Maryland for more than a decade, working construction and raising a family. Xinis is still considering that request. Guynn told the judge on Monday that she doesn't have the jurisdiction to decide where Abrego Garcia would be detained. Xinis responded by asking why she couldn't order an 'interim step' to ensure that Abrego Garcia isn't 'spirited away again.' Anrew Rossman, an attorney for Abrego Garcia, said he should be given notice and an opportunity to challenge his removal in court. 'That's the baseline of what we're asking for,' he added. Meanwhile, Xinis denied the Trump administration's motion to dismiss the lawsuit over Abrego Garcia's mistaken deportation. The government had argued the litigation was moot because it returned him to the U.S. Xinis said 'the controversy' isn't over simply because he's back. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
