ReportWire

Tag: General news

  • Kremlin will annex 4 regions of Ukraine on Friday

    Kremlin will annex 4 regions of Ukraine on Friday

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    KYIV, Ukraine — Russia confirmed on Thursday it will formally annex parts of Ukraine where occupied areas held Kremlin-orchestrated “referendums” on living under Moscow’s rule that the Ukrainian government and the West denounced as illegal and rigged.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend a ceremony on Friday in the Kremlin when four regions of Ukraine will be officially folded into Russia, spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

    Peskov said the pro-Moscow administrators of the regions will sign treaties to join Russia during the ceremony at the Kremlin’s St. George’s Hall.

    The official annexation was widely expected following the votes that wrapped up on Tuesday in the areas under Russian occupation in Ukraine and after Moscow claimed residents overwhelmingly supported for their areas to formally become part of Russia.

    The United States and its Western allies have sharply condemned the votes as “sham” and vowed never to recognize their results. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Thursday joined other Western officials in denouncing the referendums.

    “Under threats and sometimes even (at) gunpoint people are being taken out of their homes or workplaces to vote in glass ballot boxes,” she said at a conference in Berlin.

    “This is the opposite of free and fair elections,” Baerbock said. “And this is the opposite of peace. It’s dictated peace. As long as this Russian diktat prevails in the occupied territories of Ukraine, no citizen is safe. No citizen is free.”

    Armed troops had gone door-to-door with election officials to collect ballots in five days of voting. The suspiciously high margins in favor were characterized as a land grab by an increasingly cornered Russian leadership after embarrassing military losses in Ukraine.

    Moscow-installed administrations in the four regions of southern and eastern Ukraine claimed Tuesday night that 93% of the ballots cast in the Zaporizhzhia region supported annexation, as did 87% in the Kherson region, 98% in the Luhansk region and 99% in Donetsk.

    Ukraine too has dismissed the referendums as illegitimate, saying it has every right to retake the territories, a position that has won support from Washington.

    The Kremlin has been unmoved by the criticism. After a counteroffensive by Ukraine this month dealt Moscow’s forces heavy battlefield setbacks, Russia said it would call up 300,000 reservists to join the fight. It also warned it could resort to nuclear weapons.

    Also on Thursday, Ukrainian authorities said Russian shelling has killed at least eight civilians, including a child, and wounded scores of others. A 12-year-old girl has been pulled out of rubble after an attack on Dnipro, officials said.

    “The rescuers have taken her from under the rubble, she was asleep when the Russian missile hit,” said local administrator Valentyn Reznichenko.

    Reports of new shelling came as Russia appeared to continue to lose ground around a key northeastern city of Lyman while it struggles to press on with chaotic mobilization of troops and prevent the fighting-age men from leaving the country, according to a Washington-based think-tank and the British intelligence reports.

    The Institute for the Study of War, citing Russian reports, said Ukrainian forces have taken more villages around Lyman, a city some 160 kilometers (100 miles) southeast of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. The report said Ukrainian forces may soon encircle Lyman entirely, in what would be a major blow to Moscow’s war effort.

    “The collapse of the Lyman pocket will likely be highly consequential to the Russian grouping in northern Donetsk and western Luhansk oblasts and may allow Ukrainian troops to threaten Russian positions along the western Luhansk” region, the institute said.

    The British military intelligence report claimed the number of Russian military-age men fleeing the country likely exceeds the number of forces Moscow used to initially invade Ukraine in February.

    “The better off and well educated are over-represented amongst those attempting to leave Russia,” the British said. “When combined with those reservists who are being mobilized, the domestic economic impact of reduced availability of labor and the acceleration of ‘brain drain’ is likely to become increasingly significant.”

    That partial mobilization is deeply unpopular in some areas, however, triggering protests, scattered violence, and Russians fleeing the country by the tens of thousands. Miles-long lines formed at some borders and Moscow also reportedly set up draft offices at borders to intercept some of those trying to leave.

    ———

    Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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  • Hundreds line up to pay respects to late queen in Windsor

    Hundreds line up to pay respects to late queen in Windsor

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    LONDON — Hundreds of royal fans lined up outside Windsor Castle on Thursday for the chance to pay their final respects to Queen Elizabeth II as the chapel where the late monarch is buried opened to the public for the first time since her death.

    Many want to visit the queen’s tomb, which is marked by a slab of hand-carved Belgian black marble inside the King George VI Memorial Chapel, part of St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. The queen’s name is inscribed on the ledger stone in brass letter inlays, alongside the names of her husband, mother and father.

    Among the early arrivals was Anne Daley, 65, from Cardiff, who got to the castle at 7:30 a.m., well ahead of the 10 a.m. opening time. She was also one of the first in line as tens of thousands of people shuffled through Westminster Hall over four days to see the queen’s lying in state before her funeral.

    Daley said she felt emotional thinking about the monarch’s death on Sept. 8, as well as that of her husband, Prince Philip, who died last year.

    “The castle feels like empty, gloomy. Nobody’s living in it. You know, you’ve lost the queen, you’ve lost the duke, you lost the corgis,” Daly said, referring to Elizabeth’s beloved dogs. “It’s like when you’ve sold your house and all the history is gone.”

    To visit the chapel, royal fans have to buy a ticket to Windsor Castle. The price for adults is 26.50 pounds ($28.75) Sunday through Friday, and 28.50 on Saturdays.

    The memorial chapel sits within the walls of St. George’s Chapel, where many members of the royal family are buried. It has also been the venue for several royal weddings, including the marriage of Prince Harry to the former Meghan Markle in 2018.

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  • Bulgaria to hold election overshadowed by war in Ukraine

    Bulgaria to hold election overshadowed by war in Ukraine

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    SOFIA, Bulgaria — Bulgarians will go to the polls for the fourth time in less than two years in a general election overshadowed this time by the war in Ukraine, rising energy costs and galloping inflation.

    Pollsters expect that voters’ fatigue and disillusionment with the political system will result in low turnout and a fragmented parliament where populist and pro-Russia groups could increase their representation.

    The early election comes after a coalition led by pro-Western Prime Minister Kiril Petkov lost a no-confidence vote in June. He claimed that Moscow used “hybrid war” tactics to bring down his government after it refused to pay gas bills in rubles and ordered the expulsion of 70 Russian diplomatic staff from Bulgaria.

    The latest opinion polls suggest that up to seven parties could pass the 4% threshold to enter parliament in a contested vote on Sunday.

    Despite a decrease in support for the GERB party of ex-Prime Minister Boyko Borissov in previous elections, it is tipped now to finish first. Analysts explain that the shift is likely because of voters’ reluctance to accept change in times of crises and a preference to chose a party they are familiar with.

    Parvan Simeonov, a Sofia-based political analyst for Gallup International, said that the war in Ukraine has a strong influence on this election.

    “While at previous polls the division was for and against the model of governance of the last 10 years personified by GERB and Boyko Borissov, the main issues now are stabilization, keeping prices low and dealing with the consequences of the war,” Simeonov told The Associated Press.

    “The main division in the country now is between East and West on the political map, rather than between status quo and change,” he added.

    Still, the predicted percentage won’t be enough for Borissov’s party to form a one-party government, and the chances for a GERB-led coalition are slim as it is blamed for corruption by almost all other opponents.

    A recent Gallup International survey ranked GERB first with 25.9%, followed by its main rival — Petkov’s We Continue the Change party with 19.2%.

    Borissov, addressing party activists at the last campaign event in Sofia, was positive that GERB would score a convincing victory.

    “That’s the only solution for Bulgaria. We have the rare chance to have a stable government,” said the 63-year-old ex-premier, who is vying for a fourth term in office.

    His main rival, Kiril Petkov, is also confident that Sunday’s vote will yield positive results for his party.

    “I certainly expect us to be the first political power. The goal is to have a majority in the next parliament together with the other two parties — Democratic Bulgaria and the Socialist Party,” he told the AP.

    The war in Ukraine was among the main topics in the campaign and calls by the leader of the pro-Russia party Vazrazhdane, Kostadin Kostadinov, for “full neutrality” of Bulgaria in this war are attracting many voters as latest opinion polls predict that the group would gain 11.3% of the votes, up from 4.9% at the previous election.

    Deep conflicts between the main parties make it almost impossible to form a viable coalition government, which would prolong the political impasse and add more economic woes in the poorest European Union member country.

    Simeonov sees a possible solution in forming a Cabinet of experts with a limited term.

    “The other possible option would be no government and go to new elections,” he said.

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  • 3 Russian cosmonauts return safely from Intl Space Station

    3 Russian cosmonauts return safely from Intl Space Station

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    MOSCOW — Three Russian cosmonauts returned safely on Thursday from a mission to the International Space Station.

    The Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft carrying Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveyev and Sergey Korsakov touched down softly at 4:57 p.m. (1057 GMT) at a designated site in the steppes of Kazakhstan about 150 kilometers (about 90 miles) southeast of the city of Zhezkazgan.

    The trio arrived at the station in March. For Artemyev, the mission marked a third space flight that has brought his total time spent in orbit to 561 days. Matveyev and Korsakov each logged 195 days on their first missions.

    As the Soyuz capsule was descending on a big striped red-and-white parachute under clear skies, Artemyev reported to the Mission Control that all members of the crew were feeling fine.

    Helicopters support teams landed minutes after to recover the crew. After a quick post-flight medical exam, the cosmonauts will be flown to the Star City cosmonaut training center outside Moscow later in the day.

    The station is currently operated by Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency, NASA astronauts Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren, Frank Rubio, and Jessica Watkins, and the Russian space agency Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin.

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  • 4th leak reported on Nord Stream pipelines in Baltic Sea

    4th leak reported on Nord Stream pipelines in Baltic Sea

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    This satellite photo from Planet Labs PBC shows a large disturbance in the sea can be observed off the coast of the Danish island of Bornholm, Monday Sept. 26, 2022 following a series of unusual leaks on two natural gas pipelines running from Russia under the Baltic Sea to Germany have triggered concerns about possible sabotage. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen says she “cannot rule out” sabotage after three leaks were detected on Nord Stream 1 and 2. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)

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  • Live Updates: Russia-Ukraine War

    Live Updates: Russia-Ukraine War

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    KYIV, Ukraine — STOCKHOLM — A fourth leak to the Nord Stream pipelines conveying natural gas from Russia to Germany has been reported off southern Sweden.

    Earlier, three leaks had been reported on the two underwater pipelines. Seismologists detected two explosions were detected before reports of the leaks which officials believe were “deliberate actions.”

    Some experts have said Russia is likely to blame for any sabotage — it directly benefits from higher energy prices and economic anxiety across Europe.

    Sweden’s coast guards told Swedish news agency TT on Thursday that the fourth leak was off Sweden. All the leaks are in international waters.

    ———

    KEY DEVELOPMENTS:

    — Russia poised to annex occupied Ukrain e after sham vote

    — US: Focus new Russia sanctions on oil revenue, arms supplies

    — Europe ramps up energy security after suspected sabotage

    — Moscow tries to draft fleeing Russian men at the borders

    ———

    OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:

    KYIV — Authorities say Russian missile fire targeted the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro overnight, killing at least three people and wounded five others.

    Valentyn Reznichenko, the governor of the wider Dnipropetrovsk region, said fire damaged homes, a market, cars, buses and electrical lines.

    ——

    KYIV — Authorities say the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has again been targeted by Russian missile fire.

    Ukrainian military officials said Thursday a Russian Kh-59 missile struck Kryvyi Rih on Wednesday night. The Russian fire struck a grain depot while others were shot down.

    Kryvyi Rih is some 350 kilometers (215 miles) southeast of Kyiv.

    ——

    KYIV — The Ukrainian military says it is sending undertrained fighters to the battle front as it tries to reinforce its positions in the eastern Ukrainian city of Lyman.

    The Ukrainian military’s general staff said Thursday that of seven Russian tanks sent to Lyman recently, Russian troops crashed two of them on the way there.

    It also said troops manning the tanks did not undergo training on how to use the vehicle’s weapons.

    The Ukrainian military did not elaborate on how it knew about the tank unit’s condition. But Ukraine’s intelligence services have played purportedly intercepted phone calls of Russian troops complaining about their conditions on the front line.

    ——

    KYIV — Britain’s military says the number of Russian military-age men fleeing the country likely exceeds the number of forces Moscow used to initially invade Ukraine in February.

    The British Defense Ministry made the estimate in its daily intelligence briefing Thursday amid a Russian push to mobilize more troops to replenish losses its forces have suffered in Ukraine.

    The ministry said those who are financially better off and better educated are over-represented amongst those attempting to leave Russia.

    It added that the economic impact from the call-up as a result of a loss of labor in combination with a ‘brain drain’ “is likely to become increasingly difficult.”

    ——

    KYIV — A Washington-based think tank says Ukrainian soldiers continue to advance around a key northeastern city occupied by Russian forces and may soon encircle it entirely.

    The Institute for the Study of War, citing Russian reports, said Thursday that Ukrainian forces have taken more villages around Lyman, a city some 160 kilometers (100 miles) southeast of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.

    Lyman had been a key node in Russia’s front-line operations in the region before Ukrainian forces retook vast swathes of territory in the northeast earlier this month.

    The institute said a possible collapse of the Lyman pocket would allow Ukrainian troops to “threaten Russian positions along the western Luhansk” region.

    The institute suggested additional Russian losses would further erode morale amid a call-up of hundreds of thousands of men — the country’s first since World War II.

    — Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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  • Chinese tycoon Richard Liu faces civil trial in alleged rape

    Chinese tycoon Richard Liu faces civil trial in alleged rape

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    MINNEAPOLIS — A Chinese billionaire, one of the richest people in the world, is heading to trial in Minneapolis to defend himself against allegations that he raped a former University of Minnesota student after a night of dinner and drinks in 2018.

    Richard Liu, the founder and former CEO of e-commerce giant JD.com, has denied raping the woman, and prosecutors did not file criminal charges. The woman, Jingyao Liu, sued in civil court, alleging she was coerced to drink before Richard Liu groped her in a limousine and raped her in her apartment.

    Both are expected to testify, and it will be up to a jury to decide who is telling the truth. Jury selection starts Thursday, with opening statements Monday.

    “I think our client’s credibility is one of the strongest parts of what the jury is going to hear,” said Wil Florin, an attorney for Jingyao Liu. “The incredible courage and fortitude that this young lady has shown is truly admirable.”

    Diane Doolittle, an attorney for Richard Liu, said that the woman has changed her story and that the evidence will clear her client’s name.

    “We are looking forward to presenting the evidence, presenting the truth, so that the world will know that Mr. Liu is fully and completely innocent of these allegations against him,” she said.

    The woman alleges the attack happened in 2018 while Richard Liu was in Minneapolis for a weeklong residency in the University of Minnesota’s doctor of business administration China program, geared toward high-level executives in China.

    Jingyao Liu, a Chinese citizen, was at the university on a student visa and was a volunteer in the program at the time. The Associated Press does not generally name people alleging sexual assault, but Jingyao Liu has agreed to be identified publicly.

    Richard Liu and Jingyao Liu are not related. Jingyao Liu was 21 at the time; Richard Liu was 46.

    Richard Liu is a celebrity in China, part of a generation of entrepreneurs who created the country’s internet, e-commerce, mobile phone and other technology industries since the late 1990s. Forbes estimated his wealth at $11.5 billion.

    Richard Liu, who stepped down as CEO of JD.com this year amid increased government scrutiny of China’s technology industry, was arrested on suspicion of felony rape, but prosecutors never filed criminal charges, saying the case had “profound evidentiary problems.”

    Jingyao Liu sued Richard Liu and JD.com in 2019, alleging sexual assault and battery, along with false imprisonment.

    The case drew widespread attention at a time when the #MeToo movement was gaining traction in China. Richard Liu’s supporters and opponents waged aggressive public relations campaigns on Chinese social media; censors shut down some accounts that supported Jingyao Liu for “violating regulations.”

    Jingyao Liu says in her lawsuit that she had to withdraw from classes in fall 2018 and seek counseling and treatment. Her attorney says she has since graduated but has post-traumatic stress disorder. She seeks compensatory damages to cover medical bills, emotional distress and pain and suffering, and Judge Edward Wahl ruled she could also seek punitive damages from Richard Liu.

    She is seeking more than $50,000, a standard figure that must be listed in Minnesota if a plaintiff intends to seek anything above that amount. She is expected to ask a jury to award much more.

    According to the lawsuit, on the night of the alleged attack, Richard Liu and other executives went to a Japanese restaurant in Minneapolis, and one of the men invited Jingyao Liu at Richard Liu’s request. Jingyao Liu felt coerced to drink as the powerful men toasted her, and Richard Liu said she would dishonor him if she did not join in, she said in her lawsuit.

    According to text messages reviewed by The Associated Press and Jingyao Liu’s interviews with police, she said that after the dinner, Richard Liu pulled her into a limousine and groped her despite her protests. She said he raped her at her apartment. She texted a friend: “I begged him don’t. But he didn’t listen.”

    After police went to her apartment, Jingyao Liu told one officer, “I was raped but not that kind of rape,” according to police. When asked to explain, she changed the subject and said Richard Liu was famous and she was afraid. She told the officer that the sex was “spontaneous” and that she did not want police to get involved.

    Officers released Richard Liu because “it was unclear if a crime had actually taken place,” according to police. In an interview later with an investigator, Richard Liu said that the sex was consensual and that the woman “enjoyed the whole process very much.”

    According to police, Jingyao Liu told a sergeant she wanted to talk with Richard Liu’s attorney and threatened to go to the media if she did not. Richard Liu’s former attorney recorded the phone call, in which Jingyao Liu said that she didn’t want the case to be in the newspaper and that “I just need payment money and apologize and that’s all.”

    That phone call will be allowed as evidence in the trial. The jurors will also be told that they may presume any electronic messages deleted by Jingyao Liu contained information unfavorable to her. Both pretrial rulings were considered wins for the defense.

    Surveillance videos from the restaurant, its exterior and the halls of the woman’s apartment complex will be shown at trial. Richard Liu’s attorneys have said the video shows that Jingyao Liu does not appear to be intoxicated or in distress, as she initially claimed, and that she changed her story after the video surfaced.

    She says in her lawsuit that she went to her apartment building with Richard Liu to be polite, and that she believed he was simply walking her to the door. Florin, Jingyao Liu’s attorney, intends to play body camera video from police that he says shows his client feared Richard Liu because he is powerful.

    “Insanely wealthy men, they always have the card that they play: ‘Well, I’m being accused of this because I’m wealthy,’” Florin said.

    “What happened that night was an evening of consensual sex,” Doolittle, one of Richard Liu’s attorneys, said. “Mr. Liu regrets that, and he regrets being unfaithful to his wife.”

    The burden of proof is lower than in a criminal trial, and jurors need only find a preponderance of evidence in either side’s favor, said Chris Madel, a Minneapolis attorney who isn’t involved in the case.

    If jurors proceed to considering punitive damages, that portion of the case requires a different standard of proof. To award punitive damages, jurors must find “clear and convincing evidence” that Richard Liu “deliberately disregarded the rights or safety of others,” Madel said.

    After cases like this, Madel said, no matter how much evidence is presented, jurors will typically say: “We just listened to him, we listened to her, and we made our minds up.”

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  • Police: 2 killed, 10 injured in three-car crash in Texas

    Police: 2 killed, 10 injured in three-car crash in Texas

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    UVALDE, TEXAS — A road accident in Texas Wednesday evening killed two people and left 10 injured, police said.

    Authorities in Uvalde said the accident occurred around 6:30 p.m. on Highway 90 near the downtown area of Uvalde, KSAT-TV reported.

    Border Patrol agents reportedly saw a black truck speeding on the highway before crashing into an 18-wheeler and another vehicle.

    The dead and injured were in the passenger truck, said police, who closed the intersection while the Department of Public Safety began an investigation.

    Uvalde was the site of a school shooting on May 24 at Robb Elementary School where a gunman killed two teachers and 19 students with an AR-15-style rifle inside a fourth grade classroom.

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  • Today in History: September 29, Pope John Paul I found dead

    Today in History: September 29, Pope John Paul I found dead

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    Today in History

    Today is Thursday, Sept. 29, the 272nd day of 2022. There are 93 days left in the year.

    Today’s Highlight in History:

    On Sept. 29, 1938, British, French, German and Italian leaders concluded the Munich Agreement, which was aimed at appeasing Adolf Hitler by allowing Nazi annexation of Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland.

    On this date:

    In 1789, the U.S. War Department established a regular army with a strength of several hundred men.

    In 1829, London’s reorganized police force, which became known as Scotland Yard, went on duty.

    In 1943, General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Italian Marshal Pietro Badoglio signed an armistice aboard the British ship HMS Nelson off Malta.

    In 1962, Canada joined the space age as it launched the Alouette 1 satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The musical “My Fair Lady” closed on Broadway after 2,717 performances.

    In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965, creating the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts.

    In 1978, Pope John Paul I was found dead in his Vatican apartment just over a month after becoming head of the Roman Catholic Church.

    In 1982, Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules laced with deadly cyanide claimed the first of seven victims in the Chicago area. (To date, the case remains unsolved.)

    In 1986, the Soviet Union released Nicholas Daniloff, an American journalist confined on spying charges.

    In 1989, actor Zsa Zsa Gabor was convicted of battery for slapping Beverly Hills police officer Paul Kramer after he’d pulled over her Rolls-Royce for expired license plates. (As part of her sentence, Gabor ended up serving three days in jail.)

    In 2000, Israeli riot police stormed a major Jerusalem shrine and opened fire on stone-throwing Muslim worshippers, killing four Palestinians and wounding 175.

    In 2005, John G. Roberts Jr. was sworn in as the nation’s 17th chief justice after winning Senate confirmation.

    In 2020, the first debate between President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden deteriorated into bitter taunts and near chaos, as Trump repeatedly interrupted his opponent with angry and personal jabs and the two men talked over each other. Trump refused to condemn white supremacists who had supported him, telling one such group known as Proud Boys to “stand back, stand by.”

    Ten years ago: Omar Khadr, the last Western detainee held at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, returned to Canada after a decade in custody. Former New York Times publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger died at the age of 86.

    Five years ago: Tom Price resigned as President Donald Trump’s secretary of Health and Human Services amid investigations into his use of costly charter flights for official travel at taxpayer expense. The United States warned Americans to stay away from Cuba, and ordered home more than half of the American diplomatic corps there; the administration began referring to the mysterious health ailments affecting Americans there as “attacks” rather than “incidents” but acknowledged that neither Cuban nor US investigators could figure out who or what was responsible. San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz accused the Trump administration of “killing us with the inefficiency” after Hurricane Maria.

    One year ago: In a major victory for pop star Britney Spears, a judge in Los Angeles suspended the singer’s father from the conservatorship that had controlled her life and money for 13 years, saying the arrangement reflected a “toxic environment.” (The judge would end the conservatorship weeks later.) Five-time Olympic swimming medalist Klete Keller pleaded guilty to a felony charge for storming the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot. Former Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida won Japan’s governing party’s leadership election, putting him in line to become the country’s next prime minister.

    Today’s Birthdays: Conductor Richard Bonynge is 92. Writer-director Robert Benton is 90. Singer Jerry Lee Lewis is 87. Soul-blues-gospel singer Sherman Holmes is 83. NASA administrator and former Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., is 80. Actor Ian McShane is 80. Jazz musician Jean-Luc Ponty is 80. Nobel Peace laureate Lech Walesa (lehk vah-WEN’-sah) is 79. Television-film composer Mike Post is 78. Actor Patricia Hodge is 76. TV personality Bryant Gumbel is 74. Rock singer-musician Mark Farner is 74. Rock singer-musician Mike Pinera is 74. Country singer Alvin Crow is 72. Actor Drake Hogestyn is 69. Olympic gold medal runner Sebastian Coe is 66. Singer Suzzy Roche (The Roches) is 66. Comedian-actor Andrew “Dice” Clay is 65. Rock singer John Payne (Asia) is 64. Actor Roger Bart is 60. Singer-musician Les Claypool is 59. Actor Jill Whelan is 56. Actor Ben Miles is 56. Actor Luke Goss is 54. Actor Erika Eleniak is 53. R&B singer Devante Swing (Jodeci) is 53. Country singer Brad Cotter (TV: “Nashville Star”) is 52. Actor Emily Lloyd is 52. Actor Natasha Gregson Wagner is 52. Actor Rachel Cronin is 51. Country musician Danick Dupelle (Emerson Drive) is 49. Actor Alexis Cruz is 48. Actor Zachary Levi is 42. Actor Chrissy Metz (TV: “This Is Us”) is 42. Actor Kelly McCreary (TV: “Grey’s Anatomy”) is 41. Rock musician Josh Farro is 35. NBA All-Star Kevin Durant is 34. Actor Doug Brochu is 32. Singer Phillip Phillips is 32. Pop singer Halsey is 28. Actor Clara Mamet is 28.

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  • Chinese tycoon Richard Liu faces civil trial in alleged rape

    Chinese tycoon Richard Liu faces civil trial in alleged rape

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    MINNEAPOLIS — A Chinese billionaire, one of the richest people in the world, is heading to trial in Minneapolis to defend himself against allegations that he raped a former University of Minnesota student after a night of dinner and drinks in 2018.

    Richard Liu, the founder and former CEO of e-commerce giant JD.com, has denied raping the woman, and prosecutors did not file criminal charges. The woman, Jingyao Liu, sued in civil court, alleging she was coerced to drink before Richard Liu groped her in a limousine and raped her in her apartment.

    Both are expected to testify, and it will be up to a jury to decide who is telling the truth. Jury selection starts Thursday, with opening statements Monday.

    “I think our client’s credibility is one of the strongest parts of what the jury is going to hear,” said Wil Florin, an attorney for Jingyao Liu. “The incredible courage and fortitude that this young lady has shown is truly admirable.”

    Diane Doolittle, an attorney for Richard Liu, said that the woman has changed her story and that the evidence will clear her client’s name.

    “We are looking forward to presenting the evidence, presenting the truth, so that the world will know that Mr. Liu is fully and completely innocent of these allegations against him,” she said.

    The woman alleges the attack happened in 2018 while Richard Liu was in Minneapolis for a weeklong residency in the University of Minnesota’s doctor of business administration China program, geared toward high-level executives in China.

    Jingyao Liu, a Chinese citizen, was at the university on a student visa and was a volunteer in the program at the time. The Associated Press does not generally name people alleging sexual assault, but Jingyao Liu has agreed to be identified publicly.

    Richard Liu and Jingyao Liu are not related. Jingyao Liu was 21 at the time; Richard Liu was 46.

    Richard Liu is a celebrity in China, part of a generation of entrepreneurs who created the country’s internet, e-commerce, mobile phone and other technology industries since the late 1990s. Forbes estimated his wealth at $11.5 billion.

    Richard Liu, who stepped down as CEO of JD.com this year amid increased government scrutiny of China’s technology industry, was arrested on suspicion of felony rape, but prosecutors never filed criminal charges, saying the case had “profound evidentiary problems.”

    Jingyao Liu sued Richard Liu and JD.com in 2019, alleging sexual assault and battery, along with false imprisonment.

    The case drew widespread attention at a time when the #MeToo movement was gaining traction in China. Richard Liu’s supporters and opponents waged aggressive public relations campaigns on Chinese social media; censors shut down some accounts that supported Jingyao Liu for “violating regulations.”

    Jingyao Liu says in her lawsuit that she had to withdraw from classes in fall 2018 and seek counseling and treatment. Her attorney says she has since graduated but has post-traumatic stress disorder. She seeks compensatory damages to cover medical bills, emotional distress and pain and suffering, and Judge Edward Wahl ruled she could also seek punitive damages from Richard Liu.

    She is seeking more than $50,000, a standard figure that must be listed in Minnesota if a plaintiff intends to seek anything above that amount. She is expected to ask a jury to award much more.

    According to the lawsuit, on the night of the alleged attack, Richard Liu and other executives went to a Japanese restaurant in Minneapolis, and one of the men invited Jingyao Liu at Richard Liu’s request. Jingyao Liu felt coerced to drink as the powerful men toasted her, and Richard Liu said she would dishonor him if she did not join in, she said in her lawsuit.

    According to text messages reviewed by The Associated Press and Jingyao Liu’s interviews with police, she said that after the dinner, Richard Liu pulled her into a limousine and groped her despite her protests. She said he raped her at her apartment. She texted a friend: “I begged him don’t. But he didn’t listen.”

    After police went to her apartment, Jingyao Liu told one officer, “I was raped but not that kind of rape,” according to police. When asked to explain, she changed the subject and said Richard Liu was famous and she was afraid. She told the officer that the sex was “spontaneous” and that she did not want police to get involved.

    Officers released Richard Liu because “it was unclear if a crime had actually taken place,” according to police. In an interview later with an investigator, Richard Liu said that the sex was consensual and that the woman “enjoyed the whole process very much.”

    According to police, Jingyao Liu told a sergeant she wanted to talk with Richard Liu’s attorney and threatened to go to the media if she did not. Richard Liu’s former attorney recorded the phone call, in which Jingyao Liu said that she didn’t want the case to be in the newspaper and that “I just need payment money and apologize and that’s all.”

    That phone call will be allowed as evidence in the trial. The jurors will also be told that they may presume any electronic messages deleted by Jingyao Liu contained information unfavorable to her. Both pretrial rulings were considered wins for the defense.

    Surveillance videos from the restaurant, its exterior and the halls of the woman’s apartment complex will be shown at trial. Richard Liu’s attorneys have said the video shows that Jingyao Liu does not appear to be intoxicated or in distress, as she initially claimed, and that she changed her story after the video surfaced.

    She says in her lawsuit that she went to her apartment building with Richard Liu to be polite, and that she believed he was simply walking her to the door. Florin, Jingyao Liu’s attorney, intends to play body camera video from police that he says shows his client feared Richard Liu because he is powerful.

    “Insanely wealthy men, they always have the card that they play: ‘Well, I’m being accused of this because I’m wealthy,’” Florin said.

    “What happened that night was an evening of consensual sex,” Doolittle, one of Richard Liu’s attorneys, said. “Mr. Liu regrets that, and he regrets being unfaithful to his wife.”

    The burden of proof is lower than in a criminal trial, and jurors need only find a preponderance of evidence in either side’s favor, said Chris Madel, a Minneapolis attorney who isn’t involved in the case.

    If jurors proceed to considering punitive damages, that portion of the case requires a different standard of proof. To award punitive damages, jurors must find “clear and convincing evidence” that Richard Liu “deliberately disregarded the rights or safety of others,” Madel said.

    After cases like this, Madel said, no matter how much evidence is presented, jurors will typically say: “We just listened to him, we listened to her, and we made our minds up.”

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  • VP Harris to visit DMZ after North Korean missile tests

    VP Harris to visit DMZ after North Korean missile tests

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    SEOUL, South Korea — U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is capping her four-day trip to Asia with a stop at the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone dividing the Korean Peninsula as she tries to demonstrate the U.S. commitment to the security of its Asian allies.

    The visit on Thursday comes on the heels of North Korea’s latest missile launches and amid fears that it may conduct a nuclear test. Visiting the DMZ has become something of a ritual for American leaders hoping to show their resolve to stand firm against aggression.

    North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles on Wednesday, while Harris was in Japan, and had fired one before she left Washington on Sunday. The launches contribute to a record level of missile testing this year.

    Before going to the DMZ, Harris met with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol at his office in Seoul and praised the alliance between the countries as a “linchpin of security and prosperity.” Yoon, a conservative who took office in May, called her visit “another turning point” in strengthening ties.

    Harris and Yoon were expected to discuss the growing North Korean nuclear threats and the U.S. commitments to defend the South. They were also expected to discuss expanding economic and technology partnerships and repairing recently strained ties between Seoul and Tokyo to strengthen their trilateral cooperation with Washington in the region.

    Harris earlier spent three days in Tokyo, where she denounced North Korea’s “illicit weapons program” during a speech on an American destroyer at a naval base and attended the state funeral of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

    In Washington, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the latest missile tests would not deter Harris from the DMZ and that she wanted to demonstrate America’s “rock-solid commitment” to regional security.

    “As you know, North Korea has a history of doing these types of tests,” Jean-Pierre said, calling it “not unusual.”

    Yoon had anchored his campaign with vows to deepen Seoul’s economic and security partnership with Washington to navigate challenges posed by the North Korean threat and address potential supply chain risks caused by the pandemic, the U.S.-China rivalry and Russia’s war on Ukraine. But the alliance has been marked by tension recently.

    A new law signed by President Joe Biden prevents electric cars built outside of North America from being eligible for U.S. government subsidies, undermining the competitiveness of automakers like Seoul-based Hyundai.

    South Koreans have reacted with a sense of betrayal, and Harris acknowledged the dispute in a conversation with the country’s prime minister, Han Duck-soo, on Tuesday in Tokyo.

    “They pledged to continue to consult as the law is implemented,” the White House said of the meeting.

    Scott Snyder, a senior fellow for Korea studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the dispute over electric vehicles has swiftly become a firestorm that U.S. officials cannot ignore, although there may not be a simple solution.

    “It’s taking on a level of urgency that’s making it into a political problem that requires management,” Snyder said. “I don’t know that it’s going to be easy for the Biden administration to do that.”

    Ilaria Mazzocco, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said it’s a question of whether the Inflation Reduction Act was intended to create American jobs or move supply chains out of China — “onshoring” versus “friendshoring.”

    “It’s very tricky for U.S. policymakers. It’s tough to sell to voters that the U.S. is stronger when partner countries are stronger. But that’s the truth,” she said.

    There could be more tension over gender issues during Harris’ visit to South Korea. Harris, the first woman to serve as U.S. vice president, planned to hold a roundtable with female leaders on gender equity issues. Yoon has faced criticism for the lack of female representation in his government.

    As they did in Japan, however, regional security issues were likely to dominate the final day of Harris’ trip.

    There are indications that North Korea may up the ante in its weapons demonstrations soon as it attempts to pressure Washington to accept the idea of the North as a nuclear power. South Korean officials said last week that they detected signs North Korea was preparing to test a ballistic missile system designed to be fired from submarines.

    The U.S. aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan was to train with South Korean and Japanese warships in waters near the Korean Peninsula on Friday in the countries’ first trilateral anti-submarine exercises since 2017 to counter North Korean submarine threats, South Korea’s navy said Thursday.

    U.S. and South Korean officials also say North Korea is possibly gearing up for its first nuclear test since 2017. That test could come after China holds its Communist Party convention on Oct. 16 but before the United States holds its midterm elections on Nov. 8, according to South Korean lawmakers who attended a closed-door briefing from the National Intelligence Service.

    The spy agency repeated its earlier assessment, shared by U.S. intelligence, that North Korea had restored an underground tunnel at its nuclear testing facility as part of its preparations.

    North Korea has used Russia’s war on Ukraine to accelerate its arms development. It has tested dozens of weapons, including its first long-range missiles since 2017, exploiting a divide in the U.N. Security Council, where Moscow and Beijing have blocked Washington’s attempts to tighten sanctions on Pyongyang.

    Missiles tests have been punctuated by repeated threats of nuclear conflict. Pyongyang’s rubber-stamp parliament also authorized the preemptive use of nuclear weapons in a broad range of scenarios where its leadership comes under threat.

    South Korea and the United States this year resumed large-scale combined military exercises that had been downsized or suspended under President Donald Trump to support his ultimately fruitless nuclear diplomacy with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

    Senior U.S. and South Korean officials met in Washington this month for discussions on improving the allies’ deterrence strategies, but some experts said the meeting failed to produce anything new and exposed a lack of ideas on how to deal with the North’s evolving threat.

    Some South Koreans have expressed interest in the redeployment of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons after their removal from South Korea in the 1990s and even for the country to pursue its own nuclear weapons program.

    Yoon, during a news conference in August, said his government had no plans to pursues its own deterrent and called for North Korea to return to nuclear diplomacy, which imploded in 2019 over disagreements on exchanging the release of crippling U.S.-led sanctions against the North and the North’s disarmament steps.

    ———

    Associated Press writers Tong-hyung Kim and Hyung-jin Kim contributed to this report.

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  • ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’ rapper Coolio dies at age 59

    ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’ rapper Coolio dies at age 59

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    LOS ANGELES — Coolio, the rapper who was among hip-hop’s biggest names of the 1990s with hits including “Gangsta’s Paradise” and “Fantastic Voyage,” died Wednesday at age 59, his manager said.

    Coolio died at the Los Angeles home of a friend, longtime manager Jarez Posey told The Associated Press. The cause was not immediately clear.

    Coolio won a Grammy for best solo rap performance for “Gangsta’s Paradise,” the 1995 hit from the soundtrack of the Michelle Pfeiffer film “Dangerous Minds” that sampled Stevie Wonder’s 1976 song “Pastime Paradise” and was played constantly on MTV.

    The Grammy, and the height of his popularity, came in 1996, amid a fierce feud between the hip-hop communities of the two coasts, which would take the lives of Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. soon after.

    Coolio managed to stay mostly above the conflict.

    “I’d like to claim this Grammy on behalf of the whole hip-hop nation, West Coast, East Coast, and worldwide, united we stand, divided we fall,” he said from the stage as he accepted the award.

    Born Artis Leon Ivey Jr., in Monessen, Pennsylvania south of Pittsburgh, Coolio moved to Compton, California. He spent some time as a teen in Northern California, where his mother sent him because she felt the city was too dangerous.

    He said in interviews that he started rapping at 15 and knew by 18 it was what he wanted to do with his life, but would go to community college and work as a volunteer firefighter and in airport security before devoting himself full-time to the hip-hop scene.

    His career took off with the 1994 release of his debut album on Tommy Boy Records, “It Takes a Thief.” It’s opening track, “Fantastic Voyage,” would reach No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.

    A year later, “Gangsta’s Paradise” would become a No. 1 single, with its dark opening lyrics:

    “As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I take a look at my life and realize there’s not much left, ‘cause I’ve been blastin’ and laughin’ so long, that even my mama thinks that my mind is gone.”

    Social media lit up with reactions to the unexpected death.

    “This is sad news,” Ice Cube said on Twitter. “I witness first hand this man’s grind to the top of the industry. Rest In Peace, @Coolio.”

    “Weird Al” Yankovic tweeted “RIP Coolio” along with a picture of the two men hugging.

    Coolio had said in an interview at the time it was released that he wasn’t cool with Yankovic’s 1996 “Gangsta’s Paradise” parody, “Amish Paradise.” But the two later made peace.

    The rapper would never again have a song nearly as big as “Gangsta’s Paradise,” but had subsequent hits with 1996’s “1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin’ New)” (1996), and 1997’s “C U When U Get There.”

    His career album sales totaled 4.8 million, with 978 million on-demand streams of his songs, according to Luminate. He would be nominated for six Grammys overall.

    And with his distinctive persona he would become a cultural staple, acting occasionally, starring in a reality show about parenting called “Coolio’s Rules,” providing a voice for an episode of the animated show “Gravity Falls” and providing the theme music for the Nickelodeon sitcom “Kenan & Kel.”

    He had occasional legal troubles, including a 1998 conviction in Stuttgart, Germany, where an boutique shop owner said he punched her when she tried to stop him from taking merchandise without paying. He was sentenced to six months probation and fined $30,000.

    He was married to Josefa Salinas from 1996 to 2000. They had four children together.

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  • Police: Oakland high school shooting wounds 6 adults

    Police: Oakland high school shooting wounds 6 adults

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    OAKLAND, Calif. — At least six adults were wounded in a shooting at a school campus in Oakland on Wednesday, with at least some of the victims found inside the school, authorities said.

    The shooting took place around 12:45 p.m. at Rudsdale Newcomer High School, authorities said. The school serves recent immigrants ages 16-21 who have fled violence and instability in their home countries, according to the school’s website. It is one of four adjacent schools located on a block in east Oakland.

    Officials have not said whether any of the victims might be students age 18 or older.

    “The victims were affiliated with the school, and we are determining the affiliation at this time,” Oakland Assistant Police Chief Darren Allison said, although he declined to say whether any students or teachers were involved.

    Allison said police were seeking at least one suspect but did not have anyone in custody.

    Three of the wounded were taken to Highland Hospital in Oakland, while the other three were taken to Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley. Allison said three people remained hospitalized Wednesday evening, two of them with life-threatening injuries, while one person had been released and two others were expected to be released soon.

    John Sasaki, a spokesperson for Oakland Unified School District, said in a statement that district officials “do not have any information beyond what Oakland Police are reporting.” He said counselors were being made available for students and he could not say whether the schools at the site would be open Thursday.

    Television footage showed dozens of police cars and yellow tape on the street outside the school and students leaving nearby campuses.

    City Council Member Treva Reid said investigators told her the shooting may be tied to rising “group and gang violence.”

    James Jackson, chief executive of Alameda Health System, also noted an increase in violence.

    “We’ve seen almost a doubling of the violent crimes victims that we’re seeing here at our facility (Highland Hospital). So something has changed,” Jackson said.

    City Council Member Loren Taylor, who was outside the school, declined to confirm any details about the incident, telling KTVU-TV, “Guns were on our school campuses where our babies were supposed to be protected.”

    ———

    This story has been corrected to show that The Associated Press, quoting Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, erroneously identified the location of the shooting. It was at Rudsdale Newcomer High School, not Sojourner Truth Independent Study school.

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  • Former Chicago cop indicted on federal civil rights charge

    Former Chicago cop indicted on federal civil rights charge

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    CHICAGO — A former Chicago police officer has been indicted on a federal civil rights charge for allegedly kidnapping and sexually abusing someone while on duty, prosecutors said Wednesday.

    James Sajdak, 64, of Chicago, is charged with one count of deprivation of rights under color of law, according to an indictment unsealed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Chicago. The charge is punishable by up to life in federal prison.

    He allegedly attacked the victim on March 5, 2019.

    Sajdak pleaded not guilty during his arraignment.

    “Sgt. Sajdak served the city of Chicago for over 30 years, and we look forward to confronting the evidence,” Timothy Grace, Sajdak’s defense attorney, told the Chicago Sun-Times.

    The 29-year veteran resigned from the Chicago Police Department the following month, the department said.

    Sajdak and the city of Chicago also face a federal lawsuit from the incident, WBBM-TV reported.

    Tyshee Featherstone, a transgender woman, sued Sajdak and the city in 2019, accusing Sajdak of sexually assaulting her. The lawsuit accuses Sajdak of approaching her and demanding a sex act.

    The lawsuit also claims the city “knew or was recklessly blind to” a pattern of misconduct by Sadjak. It says Sadjak had faced at least 44 misconduct complaints by 2019.

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  • Mexico is world’s deadliest spot for environmental activists

    Mexico is world’s deadliest spot for environmental activists

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    VICAM, Mexico — Mexico has become the deadliest place in the world for environmental and land defense activists, according to a global survey released Wednesday, and the Yaqui Indigenous people of northern Mexico are still mourning the killing of water-defense leader Tomás Rojo found dead in June 2021.

    The murder of Indigenous land defenders often conjures up images of Amazon activists killed deep in the jungle — and Colombia and Brazil still account for many of the deaths. But according to a report by the nongovernmental group Global Witness, Mexico saw 54 activists killed in 2021, compared to 33 in Colombia and 26 in Brazil. The group recorded the deaths of 200 activists worldwide in 2021.

    Latin America accounted for over two-thirds of those slayings — often of the bravest and most well-respected people in their communities.

    That was the case with Tómas Rojo, who authorities claim was killed by a local drug gang that wanted the money the Yaquis sometimes earn by collecting tolls at informal highway checkpoints.

    Between 2010, when state authorities built a pipeline to siphon off the Yaquis’ water for use in the state capital, Hermosillo, to 2020, Rojo led a series of demonstrations and acts of civil disobedience, including a months-long intermittent blockade of the state’s main highway, which caused millions in losses for businesses and industry.

    People who knew Rojo don’t believe the toll money theory: They say he was killed by the powerful interests that stand to profit from the Yaquis’ land and water rights in the northern border state of Sonora, across the border from Arizona.

    “Tomás demonstrated his capacity as a natural leader. He was a descendent of warriors,” said Fernando Jiménez, who fought alongside Rojo in a movement to defend the tribe’s water after the government built a dam to divert Yaqui water to rapidly growing Hermosillo in 2010.

    Rojo’s body was found half-buried near Vicam, nearly three weeks after he disappeared. He was initially identified by a red neckerchief he had been wearing when he left home.

    Rojo was a descendent of Tetabiate, a Yaqui leader killed in a 1901 battle with the government, which deported the surviving Yaquis to work in slave-like conditions on henequen plantations in far-away Yucatan. The last battle against the Yaquis was fought in 1927, and included the government using airplanes against warriors still armed mostly with bows and arrows.

    In 2014, Sonora state authorities tried to arrest Rojo and Jiménez on what Yaqui leaders consider trumped-up charges of kidnapping — that were later dismissed; Rojo avoided capture and fled to Mexico City, but Jiménez was jailed in the state capital in Hermosillo. The two kept the movement alive by speaking in Yaqui language in prison telephone calls.

    “In prison, they made you speak Spanish,” recalls Jiménez. “They didn’t want me to speak my native language because they wanted to know what I was saying.”

    The Yaquis are the legal owners of at least half the water in the river basin that bears their name and which they have defended through nearly five centuries of massacres and extermination. But they have seen much of their water redirected to feed burgeoning industries and projects to plant vineyards and avocados in the desert.

    President Andrés Manuel López Obrador last month apologized to the Yaquis for past abuses and promised a series of infrastructure programs to improve their lives. But López Obrador has refused to stop the siphoning off of their water, though the director of the local water district, Humberto Borbón, says it is “100% illegal” and court rulings have backed the Yaquis’ position.

    The Yaquis find themselves at the center of a perfect storm: Everybody from Mexican drug cartels to water-hungry lithium mines covet their land. But they themselves live in poverty and often don’t even have running water in their homes.

    César Cota, a bricklayer and farmer who worked alongside Tomás Rojo, sat beside the Yaqui River — now just a dry gully — and recounted 500 years of Yaqui struggle.

    Near his home, in the village of Cocorit, Yaqui warriors confronted Spanish conquistador Diego de Guzman in 1533.

    “Our ancestors drew a line in the dirt and said, ‘If you cross this, you’ll be at war with us,’” Cota said. “Since then, we haven’t stopped fighting. By now, in 2022, we shouldn’t have to still be fighting.”

    Cota said the river was crucial to the Yaquis. When it flowed regularly, sturdy reeds grew on its banks which the Yaqui used to build everything from houses to funeral biers.

    “It’s an injustice, it’s a great sadness to see our river without water,” said Cota. “That river bears our name. That is where animals live, our medical plants, our reeds live. We don’t have reeds anymore,.” When someone dies, relatives have to buy reeds to make their funeral bier.

    “If this river were to flow again to the sea (the Gulf of California), that would be the greatest victory we could ever have,” Cota said.

    Rojo’s father, Guillermo Rojo, 84, lives in the traditional Yaqui village of Potam. In the family’s humble home, almost everything — the fences, the walls, roofs, the sleeping mats and even the hearths — are made of woven reeds. Because of the semidesert landscape, the trees that grow here are small and twisted, so reed mats packed with mud serve as walls and cooking surfaces.

    The elder Rojo recalled Tomás, his son, as “iron-willed ever since he was a young boy.”

    “He didn’t forget where he was from, who his ancestors were, and that may be what led him to become a social activist.”

    The family’s tradition is impressive: After Tetabiate — the elder Rojo’s grandfather — was killed in battle in 1901, the Mexican government sold the surviving members of his family off as slaves.

    “When people ask me who my ancestors were, I tell them I am the descendant of slaves,” he said.

    Even today, most Yaquis in Potam live in reed houses; only those wealthy enough to buy and operate small electric pumps have running water.

    While some still farm the surrounding fields, most Yaquis work as gardeners, bricklayers or laborers in neighboring cities. They farm corn and wheat on only about 42,000 acres (17,000 hectares), because they don’t have enough water for irrigation, despite a 1930s presidential decree that guarantees them enough water to irrigate more than three times that much land.

    That lack of water threatens the survival of Yaqui culture, whose traditional costumed Lenten-season dance performances are portrayed in statues across the state — even as the people themselves and their culture die off.

    With little water, widespread poverty and no farm work available, younger Yaquis have begun to migrate to nearby cities and the U.S. border city of Nogales, and seldom return to fulfill their roles in traditional dances. Drug cartels moved in because they view Yaqui territory as a lucrative path to smuggle drugs to the U.S. And lithium deposits lie to the north of the Yaquis, and reportedly into their territory, as well.

    “They have already granted about seven mining concessions in our territory, without ever having consulted us,” said Jiménez. “The violence started in our communities, with the rival gangs, abductions and everything led to a decline in Yaqui society. Addiction increased, with the use of methamphetamines undermining our young people.”

    Rojo’s father shook his head and added, “Before, they tried to exterminate us with guns. Now they are trying to exterminate us with addiction.”

    The drug violence unleashed in Sonora has cost many Yaqui lives. In September 2021, just a few months after Rojo was killed, one of the cartels rounded up five young Yaqui men in the village of Loma de Bacum and massacred them.

    The cartel had set up clandestine landing strips for drug flights on Yaqui land. When the Mexican army found and destroyed the landing strips, the cartel blamed the Yaquis for reporting the runways to authorities. The Yaquis say that isn’t true, and that the young men were just innocent victims.

    But the Yaquis’ main complaints have gone unanswered by the government, which has defended the use of water for industrialization in Hermosillo, which has a huge Ford automotive plant and rapidly expanding industry and suburbs.

    The Yaquis themselves won’t say who they think ordered the killing on Tomás Rojo; they live in a largely lawless state where a drug cartel, corrupt politician or powerful businessman can order such a murder with impunity.

    “It’s like it is in every case, here in Mexico and everywhere else in the world,” said Jiménez. “Governments always tend to conquer the strongest leaders, the strongest voices disappear.”

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  • Teen had been staying with father before mother’s slaying

    Teen had been staying with father before mother’s slaying

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    LOS ANGELES — A Southern California man who was accused of killing his estranged wife and abducting their 15-year-old daughter had been living with the teenager out of his pickup truck and hotels for weeks before the violence, authorities said Wednesday.

    Anthony John Graziano and his daughter, Savannah Graziano, were killed Tuesday in a shootout with law enforcement on a highway in the high desert after a 45-mile (72-kilometer) chase. The girl, wearing a tactical helmet and vest, ran toward deputies amid a hail of gunfire. Authorities are investigating whether she was shot by deputies or her father, or both.

    While many questions remain regarding Tuesday’s gunbattle, police in Fontana — where Graziano’s wife, 45-year-old Tracy Martinez, was killed Monday — offered some details about the family’s life before the bloodshed erupted this week.

    Graziano, 45, had moved out of the family’s home a month or two before the mother’s killing, as the couple went through a divorce, Fontana Sgt. Christian Surgent told The Associated Press. Savannah Graziano left with her father, while her younger brother stayed with their mother.

    Police issued an Amber Alert after Martinez’s killing, saying Savannah Graziano had been abducted by her father. Now, detectives are trying to determine whether or not she was coerced into leaving Fontana.

    “Did she go willingly?” Surgent said. “Or was she actually abducted? We haven’t been able to prove that just yet.”

    Fontana police had not received any reports of domestic violence at the home before the slaying, Surgent said, and child services had not been involved with the family. Neither parent was on probation or parole at the time and investigators believe Savannah was being home-schooled while she lived with her father, whom police said liked to camp out in the desert and mountains in his pickup truck.

    On Monday, witnesses saw Martinez walking in Fontana when Graziano picked her up in his truck. Surgent said it was not clear whether she was forced into the vehicle or got in on her own.

    “And immediately that’s when they started arguing and yelling and domestic violence was occurring,” he said.

    Martinez got out of the truck — potentially to escape — and Graziano opened fire on her with a handgun, striking her multiple times, Surgent said. The shooting on the street near an elementary school during morning drop-off forced students and parents to duck for cover.

    Graziano fled the scene and drove to get Savannah, who had been somewhere else at the time — likely wherever they had been staying that day, Surgent said. The son was at the family’s home at the time and was not involved.

    The next day, a 911 caller reported seeing the suspect’s Nissan Frontier around Barstow, nearly 70 miles (112 kilometers) north of Fontana.

    San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies located the pickup truck and chased it on the highway for around 45 miles (70 kilometers) to Hesperia. Throughout the pursuit, Graziano — and possibly his daughter as well — was “constantly shooting back at the deputies” with a rifle through the truck’s rear window, San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus said Tuesday during a news conference.

    A firefight in Hesperia ensued, with dozens of bullets flying. Savannah ran toward deputies — who did not realize it was her — in the chaos and went down amid the gunfire. She was taken to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead shortly before noon.

    Her father was found in the driver’s seat and pronounced dead at the scene.

    The Sheriff’s Department declined to release any additional information Wednesday.

    In Fontana, mourners contributed flowers, balloons and candles to a small memorial.

    ——

    Associated Press News Researcher Jennifer Farrar in New York contributed.

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  • Guilty plea in hit-run death of ‘Gone Girl’ actor Lisa Banes

    Guilty plea in hit-run death of ‘Gone Girl’ actor Lisa Banes

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    NEW YORK — The man charged with fatally striking “Gone Girl” actor Lisa Banes with an electric scooter last year pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Wednesday and is expected to be sentenced to one to three years in prison.

    Brian Boyd, 27, will be sentenced on Nov. 30 in the death of Banes, who was hit by the scooter Boyd was operating as she crossed a New York City street in June 2021.

    Banes was hospitalized and died on July 14, 2021, at age 65. She had appeared in movies including “Gone Girl” in 2014 and “Cocktail” in 1988 and on TV shows including “Nashville,” “Madam Secretary,” “Masters of Sex” and “NCIS.”

    Boyd, who fled after crashing into Banes, was arrested weeks later. He pleaded guilty on Wednesday to second-degree manslaughter and leaving the scene of an incident without reporting,

    The sentence promised to Boyd was less than the three to nine years that prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney’s office had sought.

    Boyd’s attorney didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

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  • Kurdish officials: Death toll climbs in Iranian drone attack

    Kurdish officials: Death toll climbs in Iranian drone attack

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    KOYA, Iraq — An Iranian drone bombing campaign targeting the bases of an Iranian-Kurdish opposition group in northern Iraq on Wednesday killed at least nine people and wounded 32 others, the Kurdish Regional Government’s Health Ministry said.

    The strikes took place as demonstrations continued to engulf the Islamic Republic after the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman who was detained by the Iranian morality police.

    Iran’s attacks targeted Koya, some 65 kilometers (35 miles) east of Irbil, said Soran Nuri, a member of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan. The group, known by the acronym KDPI, is a leftist armed opposition force banned in Iran.

    The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in a statement said the attacks “impacted the Iranian refugee settlements” in Koya, and that refugees and other civilians were among the casualties.

    Iraq’s Foreign Ministry and the Kurdistan Regional Government have condemned the strikes.

    Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency and broadcaster said the country’s Revolutionary Guard targeted bases of a separatist group in the north of Iraq with “precision missiles” and “suicide drones.”

    Gen. Hasan Hasanzadeh of the Revolutionary Guard said 185 Basijis, a volunteer force, were injured by “machete and knife” in the unrest, state-run IRNA news agency reported Wednesday. Hasanzadeh also said rioters broke the skull of one of the Basij members. He added that five Basijis are hospitalized in intensive care.

    The Iranian drone strikes targeted a military camp, homes, offices and other areas around Koya, Nuri said. Nuri described the attack as ongoing.

    Iraq’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said the government in Baghdad was expected to summon the Iranian ambassador to deliver a diplomatic complaint over the strikes.

    In Baghdad, four Katyusha rockets landed in the capital’s heavily fortified Green Zone on Wednesday as legislators gathered in parliament.

    The zone, home to the U.S. Embassy in Iraq, is a frequent target of rocket and drone attacks that the United States blames on Iran-backed Iraqi militia groups.

    The Iraqi military earlier said in a statement that one rocket landed near parliament, another near the parliament’s guesthouse, and a third at a junction near the Judicial Council. Two security officials told the AP that the fourth rocket also landed near parliament.

    Iraqi state news reported four security officers were wounded.

    The office of Iraq’s caretaker prime minister, Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, in a statement said security forces were pursuing the assailants who fired the rockets, and asked protesters to remain peaceful.

    Cellphone footage circulating on social media showed smoke billowing from a carpark near the parliament building.

    Following the first series of strikes in northern Iraq, Iran then shelled seven positions in Koya’s stronghold in Qala, a KDPI official told The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity in order to speak publicly. The Qala area includes the party’s politburo.

    An Associated Press journalist saw ambulances racing through Koya after the strikes. Smoke rose from the site of one apparent strike as security forces closed off the area.

    Meanwhile, security forces lobbed tear gas and fired rubber bullets at protesting Iranian Kurds in Sulimaniyah.

    On Saturday and Monday, Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard unleashed a wave of drone and artillery strikes targeting Kurdish positions.

    The attacks appear to be a response to the ongoing protests roiling Iran over the death of a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman who was detained by the nation’s morality police.

    The U.S. Department of State called the Iranian attacks an “unjustified violation of Iraqi sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

    “We are also aware of reports of civilian casualties and deplore any loss of life caused by today’s attacks,” said spokesperson Ned Price in a statement. “Moreover, we further condemn comments from the government of Iran threatening additional attacks against Iraq.”

    The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq said in a tweet that the country cannot be treated as “the region’s “backyard” where neighbors routinely, and with impunity, violate its sovereignty.”

    “Rocket diplomacy is a reckless act with devastating consequences,” the U.N. agency said.

    Meanwhile, Britain’s State Minister for the Middle East said the attacks “demonstrate a repeated pattern of Iranian destabilizing activity in the region,” while the German Foreign Ministry and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez also condemned Iran for the strikes.

    The U.N. secretary-general called on Iran early Wednesday to refrain from using “unnecessary or disproportionate force” against protesters as unrest over a young woman’s death in police custody spread across the country.

    Antonio Guterres said through a spokesman that authorities should swiftly conduct an impartial investigation of Amini’s death, which has sparked unrest across Iran’s provinces and the capital of Tehran.

    “We are increasingly concerned about reports of rising fatalities, including women and children, related to the protests,” U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric in a statement. “We underline the need for prompt, impartial and effective investigation into Ms. Mahsa Amini’s death by an independent competent authority.”

    Protests have spread across at least 46 cities, towns and villages in Iran. State TV reported that at least 41 protesters and police have been killed since the demonstrations began Sept. 17.

    An Associated Press count of official statements by authorities tallied at least 14 dead, with more than 1,500 demonstrators arrested.

    Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard in a statement called for an international investigation over the deaths of protesters.

    “Dozens of people, including children, have been killed so far and hundreds injured,” the statement read. “The voices of the courageous people of Iran desperately crying out for international support must not be ignored.”

    The human rights organization added that it has documented cases of Iranian security forces sexually assaulting women protesters.

    Meanwhile, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said it documented the arrests of at least 23 journalists as the clashes between security forces and protesters heated up.

    CPJ in a Wednesday statement called on Iranian authorities to “immediately” release arrested journalists who covered Amini’s death and protests.

    Dujarric added that Guterres stressed the need to respect human rights, including freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and association during the meeting with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on September 22nd.

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  • Biden looks to win over Pacific Island leaders at summit

    Biden looks to win over Pacific Island leaders at summit

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    WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is hosting Pacific Island leaders for a two-day summit as the U.S. looks to counter China’s military and economic influence in the region. Pacific Island leaders, meanwhile, see an even more pressing concern: climate change.

    Secretary of State Antony Blinken kicked off the summit on Wednesday with a luncheon for the Pacific Island leaders and other senior officials from the region. U.S. climate envoy John Kerry will hold a climate roundtable with the leaders, and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan will join them for a dinner hosted by the U.S. Coast Guard.

    Biden is set to address the leaders at the State Department on Thursday and will host them for a dinner at the White House. The leaders also are to meet with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and U.S. business leaders.

    Leaders from Fiji, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Cook Islands, French Polynesia and New Caledonia are attending. Vanuatu and Nauru are sending representatives, and Australia, New Zealand and the secretary-general of the Pacific Island Forum sent observers, according to the White House.

    “This summit reflects our deep, enduring partnership with the Pacific Islands; one that’s underpinned by shared history, values, and enduring people-to-people ties,” Blinken told leaders as he opened the summit. Talks are expected to touch on climate change, the coronavirus pandemic and economic recovery, maritime security, environmental protection and the Indo-Pacific.

    The first-of-its-kind summit comes as the administration has sought to demonstrate that the U.S. remains committed to being a enduring player in the region.

    While the high-level gathering is welcomed by the region’s leaders as a signal of Biden’s commitment to the Pacific, there’s also a healthy skepticism about whether the United States will remain engaged for the longer term in the Pacific Islands. The area has received diminished attention from the U.S. in the aftermath of the Cold War and China has increasingly filled the vacuum, analysts say.

    The Solomon Islands has signaled it was unlikely to sign on to a joint statement that the U.S. hoped to have hashed out by the end of the summit, according to a diplomat familiar with summit planning.

    The diplomat, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the resistance is driven in part by the Solomon Islands’ tightening relationship with Beijing and in part is seen as an effort to press the U.S. for greater economic assistance.

    A senior Biden administration official who briefed reporters before the summit said discussions on the joint statement are still ongoing.

    For the Biden administration, stemming the growing influence of China is a high priority. But for many of the Pacific Island leaders, climate change is the existential crisis that demands attention above all else.

    Last week at the U.N. General Assembly, Prime Minister Kausea Natano of the tiny island of Tuvalu described how rising sea levels have affected everything from the soil that his people rely on to plant crops, to the homes, roads and power lines that get washed away. The cost of eking out a living, he said, eventually becomes too much to bear, causing families to leave and the nation to disappear.

    “This is how our islands will cease to exist,” Natano said.

    In June, Inia Seruiratu, Fiji’s minister for defense, said at the Shangri-La Dialogue that “machine guns, fighter jets, gray ships and green battalions are not our primary security concern.”

    “The single greatest threat to our very existence is climate change,” he said.

    Plans for the summit were announced earlier this month, just days after the Solomon Islands called on the U.S. and Britain not to send naval vessels to the South Pacific nation until approval processes are overhauled. The Solomons in April signed a new security pact with China — a moment that analysts say has created increased urgency for the Biden administration to put greater focus on the region.

    The United States and Britain are among countries concerned that a new security pact with Beijing could lead to a Chinese naval base being constructed less than 1,200 miles (2,000 kilometers) off Australia’s northeast coast.

    Darshana Baruah, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said Beijing has been more present in the region in the last decades.

    “The first questions from the islands to the United States are, ‘Is this going to last beyond the current tense cycle? Are you going to keep showing up,?’” Baruah said. “The second question is, ‘What kind of messaging is this sending across the Indo-Pacific? Are you mistakenly giving the impression that if you want Washington’s attention you must grab Beijing’s purse?’”

    In the leadup to the summit, Pacific Island leaders made clear that they want increased U.S. assistance on battling the impacts of climate change and help for their economies recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a senior Biden administration official.

    The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, acknowledged that the “lapse” in the U.S. efforts in the region comes up in “every meeting” with Pacific Island leaders. The White House plans to announce its first U.S. Pacific Island Strategy and announce that the Democratic president will appoint a U.S. envoy to the Pacific Islands Forum.

    The U.S. will also be seeking to mend relations with the Marshall Islands, which for decades has been a strong ally but which is in a bitter dispute over a treaty that’s up for renewal.

    Just last week, the Marshall Islands pulled out of a negotiating session with the U.S. over their Compact of Free Association, which expires next year. The Marshall Islands says the U.S. isn’t engaging in its claim for proper reparations from the legacy of U.S. nuclear testing in the islands.

    The Marshall Islands says there was extensive environmental and health damage from the dozens of tests in the 1940s and ’50s, which a settlement in the 1980s fell well short of addressing.

    The U.S. has treated the Marshall Islands, along with nearby Micronesia and Palau, much like territories since World War II, and observers worry that a weakening of those ties would play into the hands of China.

    The administration in recent months has sought to have greater presence in the region. In February, Blinken became the first U.S. secretary of state to visit Fiji in 37 years. And in recent months, the U.S. along with Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the U.K. created an informal group aimed at boosting economic and diplomatic ties with Pacific Island nations dubbed Partners in the Blue Pacific.

    During the Fiji visit, Blinken announced the U.S. would open an embassy in the Solomon Islands. The U.S. operated an embassy in the Solomons for five years before closing it in 1993. Since then, U.S. diplomats from neighboring Papua New Guinea have been accredited to the Solomons, which has a U.S. consular agency.

    Guadalcanal, the largest landmass in the Solomon Islands, was the site of the crucial battles between Allied forces and Japan early in World War II.

    —

    Associated Press writers Matthew Lee in Washington and Nick Perry in Wellington, New Zealand, contributed reporting.

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  • NKorea test launches missiles on eve of Harris trip to Seoul

    NKorea test launches missiles on eve of Harris trip to Seoul

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    SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles toward its eastern waters on Wednesday, its neighbors said, a day before U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is to visit South Korea.

    Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the North Korean missiles lifted off 10 minutes apart on Wednesday afternoon from its capital region and flew toward the waters off its east coast.

    Japanese Vice Defense Minister Toshiro Ino said Japan’s military also detected the launches and that the weapons flew in an irregular trajectory.

    Ino said that “North Korea’s repeated missile firings amid (Russia’s) invasion of Ukraine is impermissible.” The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea’s provocations would only deepen its international isolation while pushing South Korea and the United States to strengthen their deterrence.

    The launches follow a missile test by North Korea earlier this week.

    Harris is to arrive in South Korea on Thursday for talks with President Yoon Suk Yeol and other officials. She also is to visit the tense border with North Korea, in what U.S. officials call an attempt to underscore the strength of the U.S.-South Korean alliance and the U.S. commitment to “stand beside” South Korea in the face of any North Korea threats.

    U.S. and South Korean navy ships were also conducting drills off South Korea’s east coast in a show of force against North Korea.

    The four-day exercise, which began Monday, involves the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan. It is the first training exercise by the allies involving a U.S. aircraft carrier near the Korean Peninsula since 2017.

    South Korea-U.S. joint military exercises often draw a furious response from North Korea, which views them as an invasion rehearsal. A short-range North Korean missile launched Sunday was seen as a response to the U.S.-South Korean training.

    South Korea and Japan estimated that the North Korean missiles fired Wednesday flew 300-360 kilometers (185-220 miles) with a maximum altitude of 30-50 kilometers (19-30 miles). The low trajectories resembled the flight of the missile fired on Sunday, which some analysts said was likely a nuclear-capable, highly maneuverable weapon modeled after Russia’s Iskander missile.

    In recent years, North Korea has been adding Iskander-like missiles and other solid-fuel weapons to its arsenal. Some experts say the weapons are designed to carry battlefield nuclear warheads to counter the stronger conventional forces of South Korea and the United States, which stations about 28,500 troops in the South.

    North Korea has dialed up its missile testing activities to a record pace in 2022, launching more than 30 ballistic weapons, including its first intercontinental ballistic missiles since 2017. North Korea’s Sunan area where Wednesday’s launches occurred was the site of various missile tests this year, including two ICBMs.

    Earlier this month, North Korea adopted a new law authorizing the preemptive use of nuclear weapons in some situations, as it continues to escalate its nuclear doctrine. U.S. and South Korean officials have also said the North may soon conduct its first nuclear test in five years.

    North Korea’s torrid run of weapons tests this year is seen as exploiting divides in the United Nations Security Council over Russia’s war against Ukrain300300e and the U.S.-China rivalry. In May, China and Russia vetoed a U.S.-led bid to impose new sanctions on North Korea over its ballistic missile tests this year, which violate U.N. Security Council resolutions.

    Earlier Wednesday, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers that a North Korean nuclear test could happen between mid-October and early November.

    According to some lawmakers who attended the meeting, the National Intelligence Service said if the test occurs, it is likely to come after China, North Korea’s last major ally, holds a key Communist Party congress on Oct. 16 but before the United States votes in midterm elections on Nov. 7.

    The spy service also said North Korea recently began administering COVID-19 vaccines to its people for the first time, Yoo Sang-bum, one of the lawmakers present at the briefing, said without elaborating.

    Earlier this month, leader Kim Jong Un told his country’s rubber-stamp parliament that North Korea would begin its rollout of vaccines. In August, he made a widely disputed claim that his country had overcome its first COVID-19 outbreak and ordered an easing of pandemic-related restrictions.

    ———

    Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.

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