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  • Bodies of 2 Mexico kidnapping victims expected to be returned to the US for further autopsies, source says | CNN

    Bodies of 2 Mexico kidnapping victims expected to be returned to the US for further autopsies, source says | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    The bodies of two Americans killed in an armed kidnapping in Mexico are expected to be returned to the US on Thursday, a source from the Mexico Attorney General’s Office tells CNN, after two survivors of the attack returned to the US for treatment at a hospital.

    The remains of Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brown likely will be transported to a funeral home in Brownsville, Texas, a US official familiar with the investigation said. The repatriation would come two days after the bodies were discovered alongside their two surviving friends in a house around the Mexican city of Matamoros.

    Autopsies were completed Wednesday morning in Mexico, an official from the Tamaulipas Prosecutor’s Office told CNN, though Mexican authorities have not released causes of death. Second autopsies will be performed in the US, the US official said.

    CNN has reached out to the US State Department about the repatriation of remains.

    The deceased were part of a group of four friends from South Carolina who had driven Friday into Matamoros so one of them, Latavia Washington McGee, could undergo a medical procedure, two family members told CNN. But their trip was violently interrupted when unidentified gunmen fired on their van, then loaded the Americans into a vehicle and drove them away, the FBI said.

    An innocent Mexican bystander was also killed by a stray bullet almost a block and a half from where the Americans were kidnapped, according to Tamaulipas Gov. Américo Villarreal.

    Survivor Eric Williams was shot three times in the legs, his wife Michele Williams told CNN. When he and McGee were discovered alive Tuesday, Williams was taken to a hospital in Texas for surgery, she said.

    Washington McGee was also taken to the hospital, her mother, Barbara Burgess, told CNN, though Mexican authorities said she was uninjured.

    “She watched them die,” Burgess said, recounting what Washington McGee told her about the kidnapping. “They were driving through and a van came up and hit them, and that’s when they started shooting at the car, shooting inside the van. … She said the others tried to run and they got shot at the same time.”

    Washington McGee and Brown are cousins who were raised together as closely as siblings, Burgess said.

    “He was a good person, and I miss him,” Burgess said of Brown. “I loved him. (There’s) nothing I wouldn’t do for him.”

    Investigators believe the group was targeted by a Mexican cartel who mistook them for Haitian drug smugglers, a US official familiar with the investigation told CNN on Monday, and the kidnapping has renewed attention to efforts by US and Mexican officials to combat organized crime in Mexico.

    During a Wednesday news briefing held by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a government-sponsored fact-checking agency claimed reports of the Americans being mistaken for Haitian drug traffickers are false. The president said “adversaries” in Mexico and the US are attempting to make a “scandal” of the case.

    CNN has reached out to investigators in the US and Mexico, as well as the fact-checking agency.

    Mexican authorities are still investigating the kidnapping. One person, identified as 24-year-old Jose “N,” was detained when the Americans were found Tuesday, according to Villarreal, though officials would not confirm whether he is connected to a criminal organization.

    The kidnapping of the four friends on Friday spurred a days-long investigation by local and federal Mexican officials, who say they were in almost-constant contact with US authorities until the two survivors and the victims’ bodies were finally discovered.

    The four friends had booked a hotel in Brownsville, Texas, and were planning to drive to a doctor’s office in Matamoros on Friday for Washington McGee to undergo a medical procedure, a close friend who did not want to be identified told CNN.

    matamoros mexico kidnapping scene

    Video shows Americans kidnapped in Mexico being loaded into pickup truck

    At about 9:18 a.m. Friday, the group crossed into Matamoros, Villarreal said. But on their way to the clinic, the group became lost and were struggling to contact the doctor’s office for directions due to a poor phone signal, the close friend said.

    Suddenly, another vehicle collided into the group’s van and gunmen began shooting at the group, sending some of the friends running, according to Burgess, who recounted her daughter’s experience. “They all got shot at the same time,” she said.

    A video obtained by CNN shows Washington McGee being shoved onto the bed of a white pickup truck by a group of armed men, who then begin dragging at least two other limp bodies into the truck. Burgess, when asked about the video, said her daughter was treated “like trash.”

    The Americans were then taken from the scene in the vehicle, according to an FBI account of the kidnapping.

    Over the next few days, the groups was moved to several different locations to “create confusion and avoid rescue efforts,” Villarreal said.

    Meanwhile, Mexican investigators were searching for the missing group, sifting through surveillance footage and processing the vehicles and ballistics found at the scene, officials said.

    After noticing the Americans’ van had North Carolina license plates, Mexican authorities reached out to US officials, who were able to run the plates, according to Tamaulipas Attorney General Irving Barrios Mojica. They were also able to identify the gunmen’s truck, he said.

    “Several searches” were then initiated across multiple agencies, and the group was ultimately found in a “wooden house” in or near Matamoros on Tuesday morning, Villarreal said.

    Though US law enforcement were not involved in the search on the ground, federal and local agencies in Mexico were cooperating in the effort and a joint task force was created to communicate with US officials, Barrios Mojica said.

    The fatal kidnapping – and the possibility it was carried out by a cartel – has brought increased attention to ongoing efforts by US and Mexican officials to curb cartel activity that is a primary driver of the fentanyl trade between the countries.

    A US delegation traveled to Mexico this week to “discuss our governments’ ongoing cooperation in combating illicit fentanyl,” a national security council spokesman told CNN Wednesday.

    The visit comes as fentanyl – a potent synthetic opioid – fuels a record number of overdose deaths in the US, with Mexico being the “dominant source” of the drug in the US, according to a government report released last year.

    The delegation plans to address the kidnapping and discuss a “fundamental strategy to attack the cartels,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Wednesday.

    President Joe Biden promised “strong penalties to crack down on fentanyl trafficking” in his State of the Union address last month. His administration has since sanctioned several cartel members and associated groups for their participation in the drug trade.

    López Obrador said there was “good cooperation” underway between the two countries on anti-drug efforts, but resisted calls from some Republican lawmakers in the US to designate cartels as terrorist organizations, saying it would infringe on Mexican sovereignty.

    “We do not get involved in seeing what the gangs in the United States that distribute fentanyl are doing or how the drug is distributed in the United States,” López Obrador said at his daily news conference in Mexico City.

    Ongoing talks between the US and Mexico are “working in a coordinated manner with respect to sovereignty,” he said.

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  • Senate votes to block controversial DC crime bill | CNN Politics

    Senate votes to block controversial DC crime bill | CNN Politics



    CNN
     — 

    The Senate passed a Republican-led resolution on Wednesday to block a controversial Washington, DC, crime bill that opponents have criticized as weak on crime. The measure will next go to President Joe Biden, who has said he won’t veto it.

    The effort to block the crime bill divided Democrats and highlighted the difficult balance the party is attempting to strike as Republicans accuse them of failing to tackle the issue of crime.

    While a large number of Democrats ultimately supported the resolution, Biden’s announcement that he would not veto it surprised and upset members of his party as many believe Congress should not interfere in the political affairs of the district.

    Democrats control a narrow 51-to-49 majority in the Senate, where most legislation requires at least 60 votes to pass to overcome a filibuster. The resolution of disapproval to block the DC crime bill, however, required only a simple majority vote in the Senate. The final vote was overwhelmingly bipartisan with a tally of 81-14.

    The DC Council chairman attempted to withdraw the legislation from congressional review after it became clear the resolution of disapproval was on track to pass the Senate with widespread support. But that attempted withdrawal did not stop the Senate vote from moving forward.

    The vote marked the latest effort by Republicans to put vulnerable Senate Democrats on the spot and expose divides within the party over politically charged issues.

    Earlier this month, the Senate passed a resolution to overturn a Biden administration retirement investment rule that Republicans claim pushes a liberal agenda on Americans and will hurt retirees’ bottom lines. Democrats have countered, saying it’s not about ideology and will help investors, and the administration has said the president will veto the measure.

    Biden’s announcement that he would not veto the effort to block the DC crime bill caught many congressional Democrats off guard – and came after the administration had earlier put out a statement saying it opposed the resolution of disapproval. “Congress should respect the District of Columbia’s autonomy to govern its own local affairs,” the statement said.

    The House passed the resolution in February before Biden’s veto announcement, with 173 Democrats voting against it. At the time, the understanding among Democrats was that Biden opposed the bill – in no small part because of the White House statement saying it opposed it.

    In an apparent effort to outline his rationale, Biden tweeted in early March, “I support D.C. Statehood and home-rule – but I don’t support some of the changes D.C. Council put forward over the Mayor’s objections – such as lowering penalties for carjackings. If the Senate votes to overturn what D.C. Council did – I’ll sign it.”

    The controversial crime bill was initially vetoed by DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, with Bowser saying in a statement at the time that the bill “does not make us safer.” In a letter to the DC council chairman, Bowser expressed concern that “the council substantially reduced penalties for robberies, carjackings and home invasion burglaries.”

    The council, however, voted to override the mayor’s veto. “Decades of dramatic increases in incarceration have not been a solution to rising crime,” a release from the council said on the veto override.

    Some Democrats contend that public debate over the crime bill has lacked nuance, pointing to policies that run counter to the “weak on crime” messaging around the bill.

    “The debate over the DC crime law has gone a bit off the rails. It lowers the carjacking maximum to 24 years, but that’s IN LINE with many states. And the bill INCREASES sentences for attempted murder, attempted sexual assault, misdemeanor sexual abuse and many other crimes,” Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy tweeted earlier this week.

    Republicans, meanwhile, have called the DC crime bill dangerous and irresponsible.

    “Congress is tasked with overseeing Washington, D.C.—a federal district where people should be safe to live and work. The district should set a nationwide example by enacting legislation that makes its residents and visitors safer—not less safe,” Republican Sen. Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, a lead sponsor of the resolution in the Senate, said in a statement.

    This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.

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  • Indonesian court jails soccer officials for role in deadly stadium crush | CNN

    Indonesian court jails soccer officials for role in deadly stadium crush | CNN


    Jakarta, Indonesia
    CNN
     — 

    Two Indonesian soccer officials were sentenced up to 18 months in prison by a court on Thursday over a deadly stadium crush last year that killed more than 130 people and injured hundreds more in what was one of the sport’s worst disasters.

    The sentences were the first jailings handed down by Indonesia’s courts over a tragedy that shocked the nation and sparked widespread anger toward local police who fired tear gas into a dangerously over-crowded stadium in the East Java province last October.

    Abdul Haris, Chairman of the Organizing Committee for soccer club Arema FC, was found guilty of negligence and responsible for selling too many tickets, exceeding the maximum capacity of the stadium. His sentence was significantly below the more than six years jail time that prosecutors had asked the court for.

    Arema FC’s security officer Suko Sutrisno was sentenced to one year in prison. The maximum imprisonment for negligence in the southeast Asian country is five years.

    Sutrisno told the court in January that he had been a security officer for only about three months when the tragedy occurred, according to CNN affiliate CNN Indonesia. A freelancer paid $16.19 per match, he said he had not been trained to ensure safety during soccer matches, CNN Indonesia reported.

    Three police officials who are also charged with negligence will have their cases heard at a later date.

    A number of the 42,000 Arema FC supporters ran onto the pitch following their loss to rival Persebaya Surabaya, clashing with police and prompting security forces to fire tear gas into enclosed areas of the stadium – a crowd control measure banned by world soccer governing body FIFA.

    Most of the deaths were found to have occurred as panicked fans attempted to flee the choking smoke, triggering a crush at the exits.

    Several gates were still locked minutes after the referee blew the final whistle on the night of the disaster, the Football Association of Indonesia said in a statement last year.

    The game’s organizers and police authorities faced mounting criticism and allegations of mismanagement, with survivors and victims’ loved ones demanding answers.

    “It was a big mistake,” Andi Hariyanto, 32, who lost several family members in the crush, told CNN at the time.

    “Don’t they know that there were many women and children who were also watching the match? I still don’t understand. What did we do to make them want to shoot us?”

    Last year, Indonesia’s President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo vowed to “thoroughly transform” the sport in the soccer-crazy nation, adding the football stadium where the crush took place would be demolished and rebuilt “according to FIFA standards.”

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  • Hundreds of US lawmakers and staff affected by data breach | CNN Politics

    Hundreds of US lawmakers and staff affected by data breach | CNN Politics



    CNN
     — 

    Hundreds of US House members and staff had their personally identifiable information stolen in a breach of a DC health care insurance service, the House chief administrative officer told lawmakers Wednesday in a letter obtained by CNN.

    The FBI is investigating the “significant data breach,” which occurred Tuesday and potentially involved thousands of enrollees in the DC Health Link marketplace, House Chief Administrative Officer Catherine Szpindor told lawmakers in the letter.

    “It is important to note that at this time, it does not appear that Members or the House of Representatives were the specific target of the attack,” Szpindor wrote.

    DC Health Link confirmed in a statement that “data for some DC Health Link customers has been exposed on a public forum.”

    “We have initiated a comprehensive investigation and are working with forensic investigators and law enforcement. Concurrently, we are taking action to ensure the security and privacy of our users’ personal information,” the statement said, adding that DC Health Link will provide identity and credit monitoring services for impacted customers as well as credit monitoring services for all of its customers “out of an abundance of caution.”

    The FBI said in a statement Wednesday that it is “aware of this incident and is assisting. As this is an ongoing investigation, we do not have any additional information to provide at this time.”

    House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told CNN that the breach, which was first reported by Punchbowl News, is a “real concern.”

    “Leader Hakeem Jeffries and I sent a letter to the DC Health about the concern we have here,” the California Republican said, noting that he does not know how many members may have been affected.

    On a popular cybercrime forum this week, someone claimed to have sold the data belonging to DC Health Link. The advertisement for the stolen data, which CNN reviewed, claimed the leak affected 170,000 people and included Social Security numbers.

    CNN was unable to independently verify those claims. The user advertising the data did not immediately respond Wednesday night when CNN asked in an online chat how much they sold the data for.

    The advertisement was removed from the cybercrime forum later Wednesday night. It was not immediately clear why.

    The user has been on the cybercrime forum for months and earned a reputation for selling compromised databases, Michael DeBolt, chief intelligence officer at security firm Intel471, told CNN.

    “Like other financially motivated actors, (this actor) is opportunistic rather than seeking to target specific regions or sectors,” DeBolt said.

    Contractors that store data belonging to US lawmakers could face greater scrutiny following this week’s breach.

    The Committee on House Administration Republicans tweeted that Chairman Bryan Steil “is aware of the breach” and is working with Szpindor, the House chief administrative officer, “to ensure the vendor takes necessary steps to protect the (personally identifiable information) of any impacted member, staff, and their families.”

    The top Democrat on the panel, Rep. Joe Morelle of New York, told CNN the data breach is “egregious” and that the FBI discovered it because the information ended up on the “dark web.”

    He said in addition to investigating what happened, Congress needs to figure out how to allocate more resources so those who contract with the government can better protect this type of information.

    “We are deeply concerned about DC Health Link’s data breach and the impact on our Members and staff. We will continue to communicate any updates we receive from law enforcement to impacted Members and staff,” a CAO spokesperson said in a statement.

    This story has been updated with additional information.

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  • Former congressional candidate pleads guilty to accepting an illegal campaign contribution | CNN Politics

    Former congressional candidate pleads guilty to accepting an illegal campaign contribution | CNN Politics



    CNN
     — 

    A former Republican congressional candidate pleaded guilty Wednesday to accepting a campaign contribution that violated campaign finance law.

    Lynda Bennett – who was backed by then-President Donald Trump and his chief of staff Mark Meadows in her 2020 run for Meadows’ former House seat in North Carolina – pleaded guilty to one count of “accepting contributions in the name of another,” according to the Justice Department.

    Bennett faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison, though the Justice Department has agreed to recommend a sentence of probation.

    In announcing the plea, the Justice Department said that Bennett transferred $25,000 – which a family member had loaned her – to her federal campaign committee. The sum was part of an $80,000 transfer, and Bennett reported that entire amount as a personal loan rather than disclosing that it included the family member’s loan.

    “Under the FECA, Bennett was required to report a loan from a third-party individual as a campaign contribution,” the department said, referring to the Federal Election Campaign Act.

    Bennett is scheduled to be sentenced on June 20.

    “Lynda is grateful for the support of her family and friends, and glad to move on to the next step in the process,” Bennett’s attorney, Kearns Davis, told CNN.

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  • Is it safe to travel to Mexico? Here’s what you need to know | CNN

    Is it safe to travel to Mexico? Here’s what you need to know | CNN

    Editor’s Note: Sign up for Unlocking the World, CNN Travel’s weekly newsletter. Get the latest news in aviation, food and drink, where to stay and other travel developments.



    CNN
     — 

    The kidnapping and killing of US travelers this week in the Mexican city of Matamoros, just over the border from Brownsville, Texas, has put a glaring spotlight on violence in a country that millions of international visitors flock to each year.

    And as spring break gets under way in popular beach resorts hundreds of miles away in the country’s west and south, the question of safety is likely top of mind.

    Here’s what to know about travel safety in Mexico:

    There are 32 states in Mexico, and the US State Department has “do not travel” advisories in place for six, including Tamaulipas state, where Matamoros is located.

    Zachary Rabinor, founder and CEO of travel company Journey Mexico, points out that this week’s violence happened far from some of the most sought-after tourist destinations in Mexico, in a state that has long held a US State Department “do not travel” warning.

    “To put things in perspective, Matamoros is about 1,360 miles away from Cancun; that’s about the equivalent distance from the Texas side of the border to Chicago, Illinois,” said Rabinor, whose company creates tailored luxury trips.

    Seven Mexican states are listed one tier down in the State Department’s “reconsider travel” category and 17 are listed under “exercise increased caution.”

    “Crime and kidnapping” is listed as the cause for advisories in some states in each of those three categories, including Tamaulipas. The rest of the advisories list “crime” as the reason to either not travel, reconsider or exercise caution.

    “Exercise normal precautions” is the guidance for the states of Campeche and Yucatán on the Yucatán Peninsula.

    Countries including Canada and the United Kingdom also have detailed travel warnings related to Mexico.

    What is medical tourism and what are the risks

    Playa del Carmen and Cancún, which are welcoming an influx of spring break travelers, are located in the state of Quintana Roo, where the State Department advises travelers to “exercise increased caution due to crime and kidnapping.”

    Rabinor highlighted other popular destinations carrying the “exercise increased caution” advisory, including France and the Bahamas. France receives the caution because of possible terrorism and civil unrest. Crime is listed as the reason for caution in the Bahamas.

    The State Department notes in its Quintana Roo advisory that violence and criminal activity may occur anywhere, “including in popular tourist destinations.”

    “Travelers should maintain a high level of situational awareness, avoid areas where illicit activities occur, and promptly depart from potentially dangerous situations,” the advisory warns.

    Those popular resort areas are still reasonably safe, says Jaime Lopez-Aranda, who is a senior security manager at travel risk management firm International SOS.

    “It is relatively safe for travelers to head to tourist destinations and major urban centers such as Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey,” Lopez-Aranda told CNN Travel.

    The US State Department advises travelers to

    Lopez-Aranda lives in Mexico City, where petty crime is a persistent risk and precautions should be taken, he said, “but the most popular locations are relatively safe for all kinds of travelers.”

    Journey Mexico has more than 50 employees based in the country who are always monitoring for potential risk, Rabinor said.

    “We are confident that with proper preparation and information, travel to and within Mexico continues to be a great option,” he said.

    If January’s international flight arrivals are any indication, the risks associated with travel to parts of Mexico aren’t keeping visitors away from the country as a whole.

    Passenger arrivals on international flights were up by 13% in January compared with January 2019, before the pandemic took hold around the world.

    Caution and situational awareness are key all over the country – and the world for that matter.

    For travel in Mexico, Lopez-Aranda says precautions could include:
    • Traveling with a trusted driver in a private vehicle
    • Traveling only in daylight hours outside urban centers or in higher-risk locations
    • Avoiding trouble spots in major cities
    • Avoiding traveling alone
    • Staying up-to-date through news and government alerts
    • Making sure your mobile device is charged

    All of those tips are measures to take at a destination, but much of the work that goes into ensuring the safest possible trip happens before anything is even booked.

    You’ll want to research the security and medical risks of destinations you’re considering and make sure that you have confidence in your accommodations, transport, means of communication and security arrangements, says Lopez-Aranda.

    “It is important that you share all plans with friends and family at home. While traveling, you should also keep constant communication to ensure safety and discuss any potential risks that may arise,” he says.

    And you should have copies of your documents, contact information for your country’s embassy or consulate and the location of the closest hospital with you. Insurance that covers you in your destination is also key.

    Journey Mexico links to the US State Department advisories on its website, as well as travel guidance for the citizens of other countries including the United Kingdom and Australia.

    The company also notes conflicts between rival criminal organizations in various areas of Mexico in its own “Is Mexico Safe?” safety assessment.

    “Though these conflicts can be unpredictable, they are almost always among and between organized crime groups” and are very rare in tourist areas, the posting says.

    The site also includes precautions travelers can take to avoid pickpocketing or robbery, including using ATMs only in secure locations, hiring reputable private transportation, not wearing expensive jewelry and avoiding deserted, unlit areas.

    If you’re uncomfortable, try to get away from the situation or environment immediately, says Lopez-Aranda.

    Because “intuition is often right.”

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  • Memphis officials to release more video from Tyre Nichols’ deadly beating today, after saying a 7th officer was fired | CNN

    Memphis officials to release more video from Tyre Nichols’ deadly beating today, after saying a 7th officer was fired | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Officials in Memphis are expected Wednesday to release about 20 more hours of video relating to January’s deadly police beating of Tyre Nichols – as well as some records of the city’s now-finished internal probe into 13 police officers and four fire department personnel, a Memphis official said.

    The anticipated release comes a day after the official revealed that a seventh police officer has been fired and others were suspended or left the force after the brutal encounter in the western Tennessee city. Previously, authorities said six officers were fired, five of whom have been criminally charged.

    The city’s internal investigations into the beatings have finished, so the city intends to release the additional video footage Wednesday afternoon, Memphis Chief Legal Officer Jennifer Sink told a city council committee Tuesday morning.

    The unreleased footage most notably will include audio of what was said after the beating and after an ambulance took Nichols to a hospital, and it could play an investigative role as his office contemplates additional charges, the county prosecutor previously told CNN.

    Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, was repeatedly punched and kicked by Memphis police officers following a traffic stop and brief pursuit on foot on January 7. Nichols was hospitalized after the beating and died three days later.

    Five police officers, who are also Black, were fired following an internal investigation and were indicted on criminal charges January 26.

    Body camera videos and surveillance footage from the arrest were released on January 27, showing the severity of the beating to the public and drawing widespread condemnation from residents and police officials alike. The video shook a nation long accustomed to videos of police brutality – especially against people of color – and spurred protests and vigils in Memphis and other major US cities.

    The video released in January contradicted what officers said happened in the initial police report filed after Nichols’ beating, the county prosecutor said, and spurred renewed national debate on justice in policing and reform.

    In early February Shelby County prosecutor Steven Mulroy told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer the video released in January are “the relevant parts” of the initial stop and the beating after the foot chase, but the yet-to-be-released footage could play a role in investigations.

    Potential charges of “false reporting” related to the initial police report were being investigated, Erica Williams, a spokesperson for Mulroy’s office, told CNN around the same time.

    When asked whether anyone new will face criminal charges now that the city’s investigation is finished, Williams told CNN on Tuesday: “Not at this time.” Mulroy’s office previously told CNN it would wait for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to conclude an investigation before deciding on more charges.

    The city will also release Wednesday some records related to the internal probes of the 13 police officers and four fire department personnel, including documents indicating what they were being investigated for, Sink said.

    Other investigative files have information that needs to be redacted, and will be posted online when that is completed, she added without giving a timeline.

    But Sink already announced the bottom line on Tuesday: Seven police officers were fired, three were suspended, one retired and two had their investigations dropped as result of the probes, she said.

    That was the first time the city announced a seventh officer was fired. That person’s name, and details about what the officer is accused of doing, weren’t immediately released.

    Also, the officer who retired likely would have been terminated, Sink said without elaborating about what that officer was accused of doing.

    The city has previously said that three Memphis fire department personnel who responded to the scene – two emergency medical technicians and a fire lieutenant – were fired, though none was criminally charged. On Tuesday, Sink said a fourth fire department worker was suspended. Sink did not elaborate.

    The two fired EMTs did not conduct a primary examination of Nichols for the first 19 minutes they were on scene, and the lieutenant stayed in a fire truck, according to a state emergency medical services board.

    A council member asked Sink whether anyone who struck Nichols was still part of either the police department or fire department.

    “No. All of those officers … have been charged criminally,” Sink said.

    Those five former Memphis police officers indicted in January were arraigned February 17 on criminal charges.

    Five former Memphis police officers face criminal chagres in connection with the death of Tyre Nichols. Top: Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III. Bottom: Desmond Mills Jr., Justin Smith.

    Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Justin Smith, Emmitt Martin III and Desmond Mills Jr. each face charges of second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression. Second-degree murder in Tennessee is considered a Class A felony punishable by 15 to 60 years in prison.

    Their attorneys entered not guilty pleas on their behalf. They are due back in court on May 1.

    The five charged officers were part of the department’s SCORPION unit, which was launched in 2021 to take on a rise in violent crime in Memphis. Shortly after video of Nichols’ arrest was released in January, Memphis police announced the unit would be permanently deactivated as a sign the department was taking “proactive steps in the healing process for all impacted.”

    Police in February identified a sixth officer who was fired. Preston Hemphill, who is White, saying he was accused of violating departmental policies including those covering personal conduct and truthfulness.

    Sink said February 7 that seven officers – beyond the six who’d been fired at the time – were facing disciplinary action for policy violations. Tuesday’s announcement covers the discipline decisions for all 13.

    In addition, two Shelby County Sheriff’s Office deputies who were at the scene were suspended for five days each without pay for their parts in the case, according to a sheriff’s office news release obtained by CNN affiliate WHBQ.

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  • What to know about the Tucker Carlson January 6 footage | CNN Politics

    What to know about the Tucker Carlson January 6 footage | CNN Politics



    CNN
     — 

    Fox News host Tucker Carlson aired newly released footage on his show Monday from the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack, that included images of the rioter known as the “QAnon Shaman,” as well as of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died following the attack.

    House Speaker Kevin McCarthy granted Carlson access to more than 40,000 hours of the Capitol security footage from January 6. CNN and other news organizations have also requested access to the security footage. McCarthy’s office said it is still working out the process to make the footage “more widely available” but did not comment further.

    Capitol Police have continuously warned that release of all security footage from the Capitol could pose a potential security risk for the building. CNN has reached out to Capitol Police for comment.

    Carlson, who used the footage in an attempt to downplay the violence and defend the pro-Trump mob, claimed he had Capitol Police review the footage before airing it.

    “We do take security seriously, so before airing any of this video we checked first with the Capitol Police,” Carlson said. “We’re happy to say their reservations were minor and for the most part they were reasonable. In the end, the only change that we made was in blurring the details of a single interior door in the Capitol building.”

    Multiple sources on Capitol Hill, however, told CNN that Carlson’s show provided only one clip to review and not the others.

    Here’s what was in the footage that aired Monday:

    Carlson claimed that new Capitol security footage taken on January 6 shows Jacob Chansley, known as the “QAnon Shaman,” walking through the Capitol without pushback from police.

    In one clip, Chansley is shown with two officers who attempt to open a door near the Senate chamber. In a second clip, Chansley, still flanked by the two original officers, walks between a group of about half a dozen officers and none appear to try to step in.

    There is no audio in the videos, and it is not clear whether the officers and Chansley are talking to each other.

    In court documents, however, prosecutors say that Capitol Police officers repeatedly tried to engage with Chansley and others in the crowd, asking them to leave.

    Prosecutors say that Chansley disobeyed that request and walked to the Senate floor. Video from that day shows officers following Chansley around the building, and an officer walks into the chamber with Chansley and continues to ask rioters to leave.

    Additionally, Capitol Police officers have testified at several January 6 trials that after the initial wave of rioters entered the building, they felt outnumbered and were afraid of escalating violence by engaging with the mob. Members of the crowd were therefore able to walk into the building without much, or any, physical resistance, according to the officers.

    Chansley pleaded guilty to a felony charge of obstructing the Electoral College proceedings on January 6 and was sentenced to 41 months in prison.

    Judge sentences ‘QAnon Shaman’ Jacob Chansley for role in Capitol riot

    Carlson aired never-before-seen surveillance footage that he said showed Sicknick, who died one day after the January 6 insurrection. Carlson said he focused on this because Democrats have turned Sicknick into a “prop” and a “martyr” by overstating the links between his death and the insurrection.

    Carlson used the new video to try to undermine the known facts surrounding Sicknick’s death, and to argue that January 6 was less violent and “deadly” than it has been portrayed.

    The video shows Sicknick in the crypt of the Capitol, appearing to give instructions to some of the nearby rioters who are milling around the area, repeatedly waving his arms. Carlson argued that Sicknick looks “healthy and vigorous” in the video, and therefore “it’s hard to imagine” that he was severely injured by the rioters or that he died because of the insurrection.

    On January 6, Sicknick was attacked with pepper spray and physically fought with members of the mob. An officer testified that she saw Sicknick in significant distress after he was sprayed. He died one day later after suffering a series of strokes. The DC medical examiner ruled that he died of natural causes but said, “all that transpired (on January 6) played a role in his condition.”

    Sicknick Family

    Mother of fallen Capitol Police officer shares why she snubbed GOP leaders

    According to Carlson, the new tape of Sicknick was recorded after he was attacked on the frontlines of the Capitol steps, earlier in the day. CNN does not have access to the footage and cannot verify Carlson’s claims, and it’s unclear how Fox News determined that it’s Sicknick in the video.

    The new Sicknick footage does not disprove the medical examiner’s conclusion that January 6 influenced Sicknick’s death, and it doesn’t erase the fact that Trump supporters assaulted Sicknick that day.

    Two rioters pleaded guilty to crimes related to the pepper spray attack against Sicknick, though neither were accused of killing him. Julian Khater, who deployed the spray, is currently serving a six-year prison term. His friend George Tanios spent five months in jail and has been released.

    Sicknick’s mother, Gladys Sicknick, previously blamed Trump supporters for his death. In a statement Monday, after Carlson’s show, the Sicknick family blasted Fox News and argued that the footage shows how he was able to valiantly “resume his duties” after being attacked by the mob.

    “Every time the pain of that day seems to have ebbed a bit, organizations like Fox rip our wounds wide open again, and we are frankly sick of it,” the Sicknick family said in the statement.

    According to statistics released by the Justice Department earlier Monday, more than 999 people are facing federal or local charges related to the January 6 attack, 326 of whom have been charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers or employees.

    According to the department, 140 officers were assaulted at the Capitol that day, including 60 Metropolitan Police officers and 80 Capitol police officers.

    And 518 of those charged have pleaded guilty to various charges related to that day, including 60 defendants who have pleaded guilty to federal charges of assaulting officers.

    Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday strongly criticized Carlson for diving “deep into the waters of conspiracy” to tell “the bold faced lie” that the Capitol attack was not violent.

    He also strongly condemned McCarthy for sharing the footage with Fox, arguing McCarthy is “every bit as culpable” as Carlson.

    “To say January 6 was not violent is a lie – a lie pure and simple,” Schumer said in a speech on the Senate floor. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a prime time cable news anchor manipulate his viewers the way Mr. Carlson did last night. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an anchor treat the American people and American democracy with such disdain and he’s going to come back tonight with another segment.”

    The pushback didn’t just fall along party lines. Several GOP senators rejected the notion that January 6 was “mostly peaceful chaos” as Carlson had contended.

    “I think it’s bullsh*t,” GOP Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina told CNN Tuesday of Carlson’s portrayal of the attack, adding, “I just don’t think it’s helpful, but I do think it’s important to point out that that’s happened on both ends of the political spectrum and they’re both wrong.”

    Sen. Kevin Cramer, a North Dakota Republican, similarly told CNN, “I think that breaking through glass windows and doors to get into the United States Capitol against the orders of police is a crime.

    “I think, particularly when you come into the chambers, when you start opening the members’ desks, when you stand up in their balcony, to somehow put that in the same category as a permitted peaceful protest is just a lie,” Cramer said.

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  • 4 Americans missing in Mexico identified by family members as a South Carolina mother and her friends who were traveling for a medical procedure | CNN

    4 Americans missing in Mexico identified by family members as a South Carolina mother and her friends who were traveling for a medical procedure | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    The four Americans who authorities say were kidnapped in Mexico on Friday were a tight-knit group of friends traveling from South Carolina so one of them – a mother of six – could undergo a medical procedure across the border, two family members told CNN.

    Latavia “Tay” Washington McGee, 33, drove to Mexico with Shaeed Woodard, Zindell Brown and their friend Eric for the procedure but she never made it to her doctor’s appointment on Friday, her mother Barbara Burgess told CNN.

    On Sunday, Burgess said she was informed by the FBI that her daughter had been kidnapped and was in danger. “They said if she calls me to call them,” she said.

    Mexican authorities are still searching for the missing Americans, who drove into the border city of Matamoros on Friday, where they were fired upon by unidentified gunman and “placed in a vehicle and taken from the scene by armed men,” according to the FBI.

    An innocent Mexican bystander was also killed in the encounter, US Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar said.

    Investigators believe the Americans were mistakenly targeted by a Mexican cartel that likely mistook them for Haitian drug smugglers, a US official familiar with the ongoing investigation tells CNN.

    The US citizens have no concerning criminal history that has been identified by investigators, the source said.

    The group of friends, who were bonded “like glue,” grew up together in South Carolina, Brown’s sister Zalandria Brown told CNN. She added, that she and her brother are also close. “Zindell is like my shadow, he’s like my son, he’s like my hip bone. We’re just tight like that.”

    This was the second time Washington McGee, a mother of six children, had gone to Mexico for a medical procedure, her mother said. About two to three years ago, Burgess said, her daughter traveled to the country for a surgery.

    Mexico has become a popular destination for “medical tourism,” attracting travelers who may be seeking cheaper alternatives or medical treatments that are unapproved or unavailable in the US. But the CDC warns the growing trend can carry dangerous risks depending on the destination and facility, including infection and possible post-procedure complications.

    Receipts found in the group’s vehicle also indicated the Americans were in Mexico for medical procedures, a US official with knowledge of the investigation tells CNN.

    Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Monday that the group had crossed the border to “buy medicines” and assured the “whole government” is working to resolve the case.

    Federal and local Mexican authorities are participating in the effort to locate the missing Americans, Tamaulipas Attorney General Irving Barrios Mojica said Monday.

    The White House and US State Department are “closely following” the case, spokespeople said in briefings Monday.

    “These sorts of attacks are unacceptable. Our thoughts are with the families of these individuals and we stand ready to provide all appropriate consular assistance,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Monday, adding that the State and Homeland Security departments are coordinating with Mexican authorities.

    “We will continue to coordinate with Mexico and push them to bring those responsible to justice,” Jean-Pierre said.

    CNN has reached out to the FBI, the Tamaulipas Secretary of Public Security’s office and the Mexican Attorney General’s Office for more information.

    Washington McGee’s aunt, Mary McFadden, told CNN that when the family hadn’t heard from the group of friends by Sunday, they began searching online for any news related to their travel destination. Then, the family saw a video McFadden described as showing her niece being kidnapped.

    “We recognized her and her blonde hair,” McFadden said. She said she also recognized her niece’s clothing from a live video Washington McGee had posted to Facebook earlier Friday.

    “This happened in plain daylight. We don’t know if she is dead or alive. The last picture we saw, she was walking alive,” McFadden said.

    “She is a mother and we need her to come back here for her kids,” she said, adding that Washington McGee’s children range in age from 6 to 18 years old.

    A video obtained by CNN shows a woman and other unidentified people being roughly loaded into a white pickup truck. CNN has confirmed the video matches the incident but has not independently confirmed it is the four Americans shown in the video.

    The video shows the woman being pulled or pushed onto the bed of the truck by two unidentified people as a third visibly armed man watches. The three men then appear to drag at least two limp people onto the truck bed, the video shows.

    Additionally, photos obtained by CNN appear to show fragments of the scene where the situation occurred, including the car believed to have been driven by the Americans crashed with another vehicle before they were taken at gunpoint from the scene.

    The US citizens were driving a white minivan with North Carolina plates, according to the FBI in San Antonio.

    The FBI would not confirm the authenticity of the photos, but CNN has geolocated the images and confirmed their authenticity with a US official with knowledge of the investigation.

    Two vehicles rest in Matamoros, Mexico, at the scene which a US official said is connected to the missing Americans.

    The photos also show a woman looking at and then sitting next to three people lying on the ground outside a white minivan. All the doors of the van are open. It is unclear whether the four people in the photos are the US citizens.

    The woman then appears to have been loaded onto the bed of a white pickup truck, beside which several people can be seen lying on the street, the photos show.

    One photo shows that an ambulance arrived, but it’s unclear if medical attention was being provided.

    Investigators trying to locate the US citizens and identify those involved in the alleged kidnapping have been working to gather surveillance footage, collect ballistics and fingerprint evidence, take biological samples for genetic profiles and process the vehicles involved, Tamaulipas officials said.

    A joint task force of federal and state agencies has been created for “processing all the information related to the case” and maintaining constant communication with US officials, Barrios Mojica, the Tamaulipas Attorney General, said.

    “Given the presumption that they are American citizens, a line of direct communication was established with US authorities to exchange information and dedicated to locating them. These communications are being carried out at the highest level between the State Government, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the United States Embassy in Mexico,” Barrios Mojica said.

    The FBI is also requesting the public’s help in finding the Americans and identifying anyone involved in the incident. The agency announced a $50,000 reward for the return of the victims and the arrest of those responsible.

    Ongoing violence has plagued some Mexican cities as they become the backdrop of organized crime and drug trafficking operations, which the country’s government has been battling since at least 2006.

    Matamoros, a city in the state of Tamaulipas, has a population of more than 500,000 people and is located just across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas. The city has recently been the site of a large encampment of asylum-seeking migrants hoping to cross into the US.

    The US State Department has issued a “Level 4: Do Not Travel” advisory for US citizens thinking of going to Tamaulipas, citing crime and kidnapping.

    “Criminal groups target public and private passenger buses, as well as private automobiles traveling through Tamaulipas, often taking passengers and demanding ransom payments,” the State Department advisory says.

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  • After a man is fatally shot near Indianapolis stadium, police lock down convention center in search for suspect | CNN

    After a man is fatally shot near Indianapolis stadium, police lock down convention center in search for suspect | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    A man was fatally shot near Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium and downtown convention center on Monday night, prompting a lockdown of the convention center as officers searched for a suspect, police said.

    Officers responding to reports of the shooting found the man injured on a sidewalk outside the stadium – home to the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts – and he was later pronounced dead, Indianapolis police said.

    Investigators had reason to believe a suspect entered the nearby Indiana Convention Center, so the center was put on lockdown and police began searching the center Monday night, Indianapolis police spokesperson William Young said.

    No suspect was in custody as of late Monday, Young said.

    “Those inside of the convention center were asked to shelter in place,” Young told reporters shortly after 11 p.m. ET.

    “Right now officers are preparing to clear the convention center to ensure that it is safe and no one else is injured,” Young added.

    All streets around the stadium were closed for an investigation, police said. Residents were asked to avoid the area.

    The name of the man who was killed and details about what led to the shooting weren’t immediately available.

    Police didn’t say precisely where the shooting happened, but Young stressed it did not happen at the stadium or the convention center.

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  • US imposes visa sanction on Syrian military official over massacre that killed at least 41 unarmed civilians | CNN Politics

    US imposes visa sanction on Syrian military official over massacre that killed at least 41 unarmed civilians | CNN Politics



    CNN
     — 

    The US State Department on Monday imposed a visa sanction on a Syrian military official whom it says killed at least 41 unarmed civilians in a neighborhood of Damascus in April 2013.

    Amjad Yousef, a military intelligence officer for the regime of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, and his immediate family will be blocked from entering the United States, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

    Video evidence of the massacre in Tadamon, which Blinken described as being “carried out coldly and methodically,” publicly emerged in 2022 “after a long and comprehensive investigation by independent researchers.”

    “Today, we are taking action to promote accountability for this atrocity,” the top US diplomat said.

    The announcement of the visa restriction comes as a growing number of countries have renewed at least some level of contact directly with the Assad regime, particularly in the wake of last month’s devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria.

    “The footage of this massacre, coupled with the ongoing killing and abuse of countless Syrians, serves as a sobering reminder for why countries should not normalize relations with the Assad regime absent enduring progress towards a political resolution,” Blinken said.

    “The United States calls on the Assad regime to cease all violations and abuses of human rights, including but not limited to extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, and torture,” he said.

    Blinken noted that March “marks the twelfth year of conflict in Syria during which the Assad regime has committed innumerable atrocities, some of which rise to the level of war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

    In an April 2022 article published in “New Lines Magazine,” the two researchers who helped expose the massacre said that the videos, which were “already shocking for their atrociousness, stand out in their brevity and callousness among the thousands of hours of footage that we have examined throughout our respective careers as researchers of mass violence and genocide in Syria and elsewhere.”

    “Particularly shocking about the Tadamon videos is the fact that the intelligence officers who committed the massacre were on duty and in uniform; they report to President Bashar al-Assad himself, and yet they chose to show their faces in the incriminating footage. At several points during the video, they looked straight into the camera seemingly relaxed and smiling. In documenting their own actions, they used HD video quality,” Annsar Shahhoud and Uğur Ümit Üngör wrote.

    Yousef, the official who was sanctioned by the State Department Tuesday, “is focused, stoic and precise, and he works efficiently toward completing the task within a matter of 25 minutes,” the researchers wrote.

    “After a few months, we confronted him with the massacre and let him know that we had seen the footage,” the researchers described.

    “First, he denied it was him in the video. Then, he said he was just arresting someone,” they wrote. “Finally, he settled on the justification that it was his job and expressed his content: ‘I am proud of my deeds.’”

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  • 1 dead, 9 injured after what appears to be the ‘result of a large crowd pushing’ at a concert in Rochester, New York | CNN

    1 dead, 9 injured after what appears to be the ‘result of a large crowd pushing’ at a concert in Rochester, New York | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    A 33-year-old woman is dead and nine others are injured “as a result of a large crowd pushing” during a concert Sunday night in Rochester, New York, police said.

    Police initially responded to a report of shots fired inside the Main Street Armory event venue during a concert around 11:05 p.m.

    Officers found several people injured inside but saw no evidence of a shooting, Rochester police said.

    “Upon further investigation … none of the injuries sustained to any of the victims were consistent with a person being shot,” Rochester police Lt. Nicholas Adams said.

    “The injuries appear to be as a result of a large crowd pushing towards the exits following accounts of individuals hearing what they believed to be gunshots.”

    Atiya Holley was leaving the concert with her sister when she got caught up in the deadly stampede, she told CNN.

    She heard what sounded like muffled gunshots outside the venue, she said.

    “It sounded like they were shooting outside, so everyone started running back in. Then when everyone tried to exit again it got crazy,” Holley said.

    Several people started running toward the main and emergency exits, According to Holley.

    “I didn’t know where to go so I went through an emergency exit on the side of the venue. That’s when I was pushed down the stairs and my sister had to pick me up from the ground. We just kept running to the parking lot after that,” Holley said. There, she said, she saw injured concertgoers.

    The tragedy follows a series of deadly crowd surges at entertainment events.

    In 2021, eight people died at the Astroworld music festival in Houston.

    Last fall, 158 people were killed in a crush of people during Halloween festivities in a nightlife district of Seoul, South Korea.

    Authorities in Rochester have not publicly identified the woman who died.

    Two of the nine people hurt were in “critical, life-threatening condition,” police said. The other seven people had non-life-threatening injuries.

    It’s “too early to say what precipitated the event,” Rochester Mayor Malik Evans said Monday.

    “You do not expect to be trampled,” at a concert, the mayor said, saying the tragedy “breaks my heart” and is “totally unacceptable.”

    Police are interviewing concertgoers and security agents, Rochester Police Chief David Smith said. Investigators are also working with fire marshals to help determine the number of concertgoers in relation to the venue’s capacity.

    The venue, which has a 5,000 person maximum capacity, is “current and compliant” with all fire codes, according to a statement released by the City of Rochester Monday afternoon.

    The Main Street Armory has two city code violations, one involving an unapproved business operation at the rear of the property and an unapproved “dwelling unit” the statement said.

    Eight Rochester police officers were posted outside the building, which is why police were on the scene so quickly, according to the statement. Those officers were placed there at the request of the venue, which paid for their services.

    The investigation is in its early stages, and police are asking anyone with video of what happened to come forward, Smith said.

    Rapper GloRilla, who was performing at the venue Sunday night, offered prayers to those affected.

    “I’m just now hearing about what happened … praying everybody is ok,” she tweeted.

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  • Man arrested after allegedly trying to open emergency door on plane and stabbing flight attendant | CNN

    Man arrested after allegedly trying to open emergency door on plane and stabbing flight attendant | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    A Massachusetts man was arrested for allegedly stabbing a flight attendant in the neck with a broken metal spoon three times during a flight from Los Angeles to Boston on Monday, after attempting to open an emergency exit door, according to the Justice Department.

    Francisco Severo Torres, 33, faces one charge of interference and attempted interference with flight crew members and attendants using a dangerous weapon. Torres was arrested at Boston Logan International Airport Monday and will remain detained pending a hearing set for Thursday.

    During a United Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Boston, the flight crew saw an alarm that a door in the plane had been disarmed and, after inspection, a flight attendant saw the door’s locking handle had been pushed out of the fully locked position and an emergency slide arming lever had been disarmed, according to the Justice Department.

    A flight attendant who saw Torres near the door went to talk to Torres about the door, according to the department, who asked if there were cameras showing he had tampered with the door.

    “According to court documents, the flight attendant then notified the captain that they believed Torres posed a threat to the aircraft and that the captain needed to land the aircraft as soon as possible,” the Justice Department said.

    Soon after, Torres allegedly got out of his seat, mouthing something, before thrusting “towards one of the flight attendants in a stabbing motion with a broken metal spoon, hitting the flight attendant on the neck area three times,” the Justice Department said.

    Torres was then tackled by other passengers on the flight and was immediately taken into custody after the flight landed.

    United Airlines says it has banned Torres from flying on future flights following this incident.

    “Thanks to the quick action of our crew and customers, one customer was restrained after becoming a security concern on United flight 2609 from Los Angeles to Boston,” United said in a statement.

    United says the flight was able to land safely and without any reported injuries.

    “We have zero tolerance for any type of violence on our flights, and this customer will be banned from flying on United pending an investigation. We are cooperating with law enforcement in their investigation,” the statement says.

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  • London police officer who killed Sarah Everard sentenced for indecent exposure | CNN

    London police officer who killed Sarah Everard sentenced for indecent exposure | CNN


    London
    CNN
     — 

    Wayne Couzens, the former London police officer who abducted, raped and murdered Sarah Everard in 2021, has been sentenced to 19 further months in prison for indecent exposure incidents that took place while he was serving in the force.

    Couzens, 50, was already serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for the killing of 33-year-old Everard, which sparked outrage towards the Metropolitan Police and began a national debate about violence against women.

    He was additionally sentenced on Monday for exposing himself to women on three occasions in the months prior to the murder. Two occurred at a fast-food restaurant – the latter of which was just days before he murdered Everard – and another took place while Couzens was on shift with the police.

    Couzens appeared via video link from prison during Monday’s hearing. The court heard that he stepped into the path of a female cyclist while naked and masturbating, in a woodland area of Kent in November 2020, while he was supposed to be working from home.

    Then, on two dates in February 2021, Couzens displayed his erect penis to staffers at a fast food drive-through, while picking up food in his car.

    The second incident took place on February 27; days later, on March 3, Couzens kidnapped Everard in south London.

    On Monday, Couzens also pleaded not guilty to a fourth indecent exposure charge from an alleged incident in June 2015. The UK news agency PA Media reported that he will not face trial over that charge as it was left on file.

    Confidence in the Met police force has plummeted following a series of scandals, including cases of violence against women and allegations of a misogynistic and protective culture among officers.

    The crisis began after Couzens’ murder of Everard, which stunned Britain and drew sharp scrutiny towards Scotland Yard. The 33-year-old was walking to her London home on March 3 when Couzens used his police identification and handcuffs to deceive her into getting in his car under the pretense that she had violated Covid-19 pandemic rules. He raped her and strangled her with his police belt later that evening.

    Police were subsequently criticized for their heavy-handed tactics at a vigil for Everard in Clapham, south London, near where she went missing, and for not acting upon red flags in his behavior sooner.

    Two police officers are currently facing misconduct hearings over their handling of two separate indecent exposure reports related to Couzens, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) confirmed last month.

    In January, former Met senior officer David Carrick admitted 49 offenses, including 24 counts of rape, over an 18-year period, sparking another round of anger. Critics have called for a root-and-branch inquiry into its the Met’s operations and its process in dealing with complaints.

    Met Commissioner Mark Rowley apologized for the failings that led to Carrick not being caught earlier, in an interview distributed to UK broadcasters in January.

    Announcing a review of all those employees facing red flags, he said: “I’m sorry and I know we’ve let women down. I think we failed over two decades to be as ruthless as we ought to be in guarding our own integrity.”

    A report last fall found that when a family member or a fellow officer filed a complaint, it took on average 400 days – more than an entire year – for an allegation of misconduct to be resolved.

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  • Dozens detained after a construction vehicle was set ablaze and bricks were thrown at the proposed ‘Cop City’ police training site in Atlanta, authorities said | CNN

    Dozens detained after a construction vehicle was set ablaze and bricks were thrown at the proposed ‘Cop City’ police training site in Atlanta, authorities said | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    At least 35 people were detained after a construction vehicle was set on fire and rocks and bricks thrown at officers Sunday evening as violent protests continued at the sprawling site of a planned police training facility in Atlanta opponents have dubbed “Cop City,” authorities said.

    Orange flames rose from a construction tractor and at least four other fires burned in and around the fenced site as people in black swarmed on both sides of the barricade before squad cars and armed officers arrived, surveillance videos released by the Atlanta Police Department shows.

    “A group of violent agitators used the cover of a peaceful protest of the proposed Atlanta Public Safety Training Center to conduct a coordinated attack on construction equipment and police officers,” the police department said.

    The group changed into black clothing, went into the construction area and threw large rocks, bricks, Molotov cocktails and fireworks at police officers, destroying construction equipment “by fire and vandalism,” the agency said in a statement. “The illegal actions of the agitators could have resulted in bodily harm.”

    “Appropriate charges” are being coordinated with DeKalb County prosecutors and the Georgia Attorney General’s office, Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said Sunday in a news conference, adding some detained are not from Atlanta and no officers were hurt.

    “Officers exercised restraint and used non-lethal enforcement to conduct arrests,” the police statement added.

    Sunday’s scrap follows at least two “clearing operations” – one in which officers fatally shot a protester – this year by police at the forested site slated to host the $90 million, 85-acre law enforcement facility. Opponents with the “Stop Cop City” group and others object, saying the project would propagate police militarization and harm the environment.

    Atlanta police now will implement a “multi-layered strategy,” including “reaction and arrest” as more protests are planned in coming days, it said in its statement, adding it “asks for this week’s protests to remain peaceful.”

    “When you throw commercial-grade fireworks, when you throw Molotov cocktails, large rocks, a number of items at officers, your only intent is to harm, and the charges are going to show that,” Schierbaum said.

    Some arrested last year at the site were charged with domestic terrorism.

    Despite concerns from protesters and some neighbors of the DeKalb County site, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens backs development of the training facility, which is due to include a shooting range, a mock city and a burn building. More than 200 acres around it will be protected greenspace, he has said.

    “The city of Atlanta has the most extensive training requirements in the Southeast,” Dickens said this year. “Our training includes vital areas like de-escalation training techniques, mental health, community-oriented policing, crisis intervention training, as well as civil rights history education.

    “This training needs space, and that’s exactly what this training center is going to offer.”

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  • 4 US citizens missing after being assaulted and kidnapped in Matamoros, Mexico, FBI says | CNN

    4 US citizens missing after being assaulted and kidnapped in Matamoros, Mexico, FBI says | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Four US citizens were assaulted and kidnapped after crossing the border into northeastern Mexico on Friday, according to the FBI, which is working to locate the missing Americans.

    Soon after the US citizens drove into the border city of Matamoros, Mexico, on Friday they were fired upon by unidentified gunmen, a release from the FBI in San Antonio said. The agency did not identify the victims.

    “All four Americans were placed in a vehicle and taken from the scene by armed men,” the release said.

    The US citizens were driving a white minivan with North Carolina license plates, according to the FBI.

    The FBI is seeking the public’s help in locating the Americans and identifying those responsible for the kidnapping. The agency announced a reward of $50,000 for the return of the victims and the arrest of those involved.

    The FBI said it is cooperating with other federal partners and Mexican law enforcement agencies to investigate the kidnapping.

    Anyone with information related to the incident is encouraged to call the FBI San Antonio Division or submit a tip online.

    Matamoros is located in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, for which the US State Department has issued a “Level 4: Do Not Travel” advisory for US citizens, citing crime and kidnapping.

    CNN has reached out to the FBI for further information on the victims and has also sought comment from the government of Tamaulipas, the Tamaulipas Secretary of Public Security’s office and the Mexican Attorney General’s Office.

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  • Woman missing more than 30 years and thought to be dead found living in Puerto Rico nursing home | CNN

    Woman missing more than 30 years and thought to be dead found living in Puerto Rico nursing home | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    A Pennsylvania woman who disappeared more than 30 years ago and was believed to be dead by her family was recently found living in a nursing home in Puerto Rico, her family and police said at a news conference Thursday.

    Patricia Kopta, 83, was last seen in Pittsburgh in the summer of 1992, according to a missing person flier posted by the Pennsylvania Emergency Response Center.

    Her husband, Bob Kopta, reported her missing a few months later in the fall. At the time, he advised authorities that it wasn’t uncommon for his wife to “drop out of sight for short periods,” according to the flier.

    “I come home one night and she’s gone, and nobody knew where she was at,” Kopta said at the news conference with Ross Township Police.

    Police said they were first informed about the discovery of the missing woman when an agent from the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) and a social worker from Puerto Rico contacted them last year saying that they believed Patricia was living in an adult care home in Puerto Rico.

    “What they reported to us was that she came into their care in 1999, when she was found in need in the streets of Puerto Rico,” Ross Township Deputy Chief Brian Kohlhepp said.

    INTERPOL and the social worker said Patricia was found wandering the streets and through the years she had “refused to ever discuss her private life or where she came from,” Kohlhepp said.

    In her advanced age, Patricia started revealing nuggets that would eventually spur those around her to contact Ross police, Kohlhepp said.

    When she was in Pittsburgh, Patricia was a “well-known street preacher,” according to the missing person flier. She would approach strangers, telling them she had visions of the Virgin Mary and that the world was coming to an end, the flier said.

    Police said her disappearance wasn’t overtly suspicious because they “knew she had a mental health history and she had made statements to other family individuals that she was leaving, that she was concerned that she was going to be placed into a care facility here,” Kohlhepp said. Kohlhepp said police knew she had likely left of her own volition.

    Her husband said that his wife had talked about wanting to go to Puerto Rico to live in a tropical environment.

    “I even advertised in the paper down in Puerto Rico looking for her,” Kopta said at the news conference, adding that he spent a lot of money over the years searching for her.

    Patricia and Bob were married for 20 years before she went missing, Kohlhepp told CNN. He added that Patricia had no known family or connections in Puerto Rico.

    Police determined the woman was in fact Patricia through a nine-month-long process in which they compared DNA samples provided by her sister, Gloria Smith, and her nephew.

    “We really thought she was dead all those years,” Smith said at the news conference.

    Even before DNA testing was completed, the family knew it was Patricia as soon as they saw her photo, Kohlhepp said.

    Smith said that she has called the adult care home in Puerto Rico several times but has been unable to hold a conversation with her sister because she has dementia.

    “We didn’t expect it. It was a very big shock to see – to know that she’s still alive,” her sister said. “You know, we’re so happy and I hope I can get down to see her.”

    CNN has not been able to directly contact the woman’s family.

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  • Fact check: Trump delivers wildly dishonest speech at CPAC | CNN Politics

    Fact check: Trump delivers wildly dishonest speech at CPAC | CNN Politics


    Washington
    CNN
     — 

    As president, Donald Trump made some of his most thoroughly dishonest speeches at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference.

    As he embarks on another campaign for the presidency, Trump delivered another CPAC doozy Saturday night.

    Trump’s lengthy address to the right-wing gathering in Maryland was filled with wildly inaccurate claims about his own presidency, Joe Biden’s presidency, foreign affairs, crime, elections and other subjects.

    Here is a fact check of 23 of the false claims Trump made. (And that’s far from the total.)

    Crime in Manhattan

    While Trump criticized Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who has been investigating Trump’s company, he claimed that “killings are taking place at a number like nobody’s ever seen, right in Manhattan.”

    Facts First: It isn’t even close to true that Manhattan is experiencing a number of killings that nobody has ever seen. The region classified by the New York Police Department as Manhattan North had 43 reported murders in 2022; that region had 379 reported murders in 1990 and 306 murders in 1993. The Manhattan South region had 35 reported murders in 2022 versus 124 reported murders in 1990 and 86 murders in 1993. New York City as a whole is also nowhere near record homicide levels; the city had 438 reported murders in 2022 versus 2,262 in 1990 and 1,927 in 1993.

    Manhattan North had just eight reported murders this year through February 19, while Manhattan South had one. The city as a whole had 49 reported murders.

    The National Guard and Minnesota

    Talking about rioting amid racial justice protests after the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020, Trump claimed he had been ready to send in the National Guard in Seattle, then added, “We saved Minneapolis. The thing is, we’re not supposed to do that. Because it’s up to the governor, the Democrat governor. They never want any help. They don’t mind – it’s almost like they don’t mind to have their cities and states destroyed. There’s something wrong with these people.”

    Facts First: This is a reversal of reality. Minnesota’s Democratic governor, Tim Walz, not Trump, was the one who deployed the Minnesota National Guard during the 2020 unrest; Walz first activated the Guard more than seven hours before Trump publicly threatened to deploy the Guard himself. Walz’s office told CNN in 2020 that the governor activated the Guard in response to requests from officials in Minneapolis and St. Paul – cities also run by Democrats.

    Trump has repeatedly made the false claim that he was the one who sent the Guard to Minneapolis. You can read a longer fact check, from 2020, here.

    Trump’s executive order on monuments

    Trump boasted that he had taken effective action as president to stop the destruction of statues and memorials. He claimed: “I passed and signed an executive order. Anybody that does that gets 10 years in jail, with no negotiation – it’s not ’10’ but it turns into three months.” He added: “But we passed it. It was a very old law, and we found it – one of my very good legal people along with [adviser] Stephen Miller, they found it. They said, ‘Sir, I don’t know if you want to try and bring this back.’ I said. ‘I do.’”

    Facts First: Trump’s claim is false. He did not create a mandatory 10-year sentence for people who damage monuments. In fact, his 2020 executive order did not mandate any increase in sentences.

    Rather, the executive order simply directed the attorney general to “prioritize” investigations and prosecutions of monument-destruction cases and declared that it is federal policy to prosecute such cases to the fullest extent permitted under existing law, including an existing law that allowed a sentence of up to 10 years in prison for willfully damaging federal property. The executive order did nothing to force judges to impose a 10-year sentence.

    Vandalism in Portland

    Trump claimed, “How’s Portland doing? They don’t even have storefronts anymore. Everything’s two-by-four’s because they get burned down every week.”

    Facts First: This is a major exaggeration. Portland obviously still has hundreds of active storefronts, though it has struggled with downtown commercial vacancies for various reasons, and some businesses are sometimes vandalized by protesters. Trump has for years exaggerated the extent of property damage from protest vandalism in Portland.

    Russian expansionism

    Boasting of his foreign policy record, Trump claimed, “I was also the only president where Russia didn’t take over a country during my term.”

    Facts First: While it’s true that Russia didn’t take over a country during Trump’s term, it’s not true that he was the only US president under whom Russia didn’t take over a country. “Totally false,” Michael Khodarkovsky, a Loyola University Chicago history professor who is an expert on Russian imperialism, said in an email. “If by Russia he means the current Russian Federation that existed since 1991, then the best example is Clinton, 1992-98. During this time Russia fought a war in Chechnya, but Chechnya was not a country but one of Russia’s regions.”

    Khodarkovsky added, “If by Russia he means the USSR, as people often do, then from 1945, when the USSR occupied much of Eastern Europe until 1979, when USSR invaded Afghanistan, Moscow did not take over any new country. It only sent forces into countries it had taken over in 1945 (Hungary 1956, Czechoslovakia 1968).”

    NATO funding

    Trump said while talking about NATO funding: “And I told delinquent foreign nations – they were delinquent, they weren’t paying their bills – that if they wanted our protection, they had to pay up, and they had to pay up now.”

    Facts First: It’s not true that NATO countries weren’t paying “bills” until Trump came along or that they were “delinquent” in the sense of failing to pay bills – as numerous fact-checkers pointed out when Trump repeatedly used such language during his presidency. NATO members haven’t been failing to pay their share of the organization’s common budget to run the organization. And while it’s true that most NATO countries were not (and still are not) meeting NATO’s target of each country spending a minimum of 2% of gross domestic product on defense, that 2% figure is what NATO calls a “guideline”; it is not some sort of binding contract, and it does not create liabilities. An official NATO recommitment to the 2% guideline in 2014 merely said that members not currently at that level would “aim to move towards the 2% guideline within a decade.”

    NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg did credit Trump for securing increases in European NATO members’ defense spending, but it’s worth noting that those countries’ spending had also increased in the last two years of the Obama administration following Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea and the recommitment that year to the 2% guideline. NATO notes on its website that 2022 was “the eighth consecutive year of rising defence spending across European Allies and Canada.”

    NATO’s existence

    Boasting of how he had secured additional funding for NATO from countries, Trump claimed, “Actually, NATO wouldn’t even exist if I didn’t get them to pay up.”

    Facts First: This is nonsense.

    There was never any indication that NATO, created in 1949, would have ceased to exist in the early 2020s without additional funding from some members. The alliance was stable even with many members not meeting the alliance’s guideline of having members spend 2% of their gross domestic product on defense.

    We don’t often fact-check claims about what might have happened in an alternative scenario, but this Trump claim has no basis in reality. “The quote doesn’t make sense, obviously,” said Erwan Lagadec, research professor at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs and an expert on NATO.

    Lagadec noted that NATO has had no trouble getting allies to cover the roughly $3 billion in annual “direct” funding for the organization, which is “peanuts” to this group of countries. And he said that the only NATO member that had given “any sign” in recent years that it was thinking about leaving the alliance “was … the US, under Trump.” Lagadec added that the US leaving the alliance is one scenario that could realistically kill it, but that clearly wasn’t what Trump was talking about in his remarks on spending levels.

    James Goldgeier, an American University professor of international relations and Brookings Institution visiting fellow, said in an email: “NATO was founded in 1949, so it seems very clear that Donald Trump had nothing to do with its existence. In fact, the worry was that he would pull the US out of NATO, as his national security adviser warned he would do if he had been reelected.”

    The cost of NATO’s headquarters

    Trump mocked NATO’s headquarters, saying, “They spent – an office building that cost $3 billion. It’s like a skyscraper in Manhattan laid on its side. It’s one of the longest buildings I’ve ever seen. And I said, ‘You should have – instead of spending $3 billion, you should have spent $500 million building the greatest bunker you’ve ever seen. Because Russia didn’t – wouldn’t even need an airplane attack. One tank one shot through that beautiful glass building and it’s gone.’”

    Facts First: NATO did spend a lot of money on its headquarters in Belgium, but Trump’s “$3 billion” figure is a major exaggeration. When Trump used the same inaccurate figure in early 2020, NATO told CNN that the headquarters was actually constructed for a sum under the approved budget of about $1.18 billion euro, which is about $1.3 billion at exchange rates as of Sunday morning.

    The Pulitzer Prize

    Trump made his usual argument that The Washington Post and The New York Times should not have won a prestigious journalism award, a 2018 Pulitzer Prize, for their reporting on Russian interference in the 2016 election and its connections to Trump’s team. He then said, “And they were exactly wrong. And now they’ve even admitted that it was a hoax. It was a total hoax, and they got the prize.”

    Facts First: The Times and Post have not made any sort of “hoax” admission. “The claim is completely false,” Times spokesperson Charlie Stadtlander said in an email on Sunday.

    Stadtlander continued: “When our Pulitzer Prize shared with The Washington Post was challenged by the former President, the award was upheld by the Pulitzer Prize Board after an independent review. The board stated that ‘no passages or headlines, contentions or assertions in any of the winning submissions were discredited by facts that emerged subsequent to the conferral of the prizes.’ The Times’s reporting was also substantiated by the Mueller investigation and Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee investigation into the matter.”

    The Post referred CNN to that same July statement from the Pulitzer Prize Board.

    Awareness of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline

    Trump claimed of his opposition to Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Germany: “Nord Stream 2 – Nobody ever heard of it … right? Nobody ever heard of Nord Stream 2 until I came along. I started talking about Nord Stream 2. I had to go call it ‘the pipeline’ because nobody knew what I was talking about.”

    Facts First: This is standard Trump hyperbole; it’s just not true that “nobody” had heard of Nord Stream 2 before he began discussing it. Nord Stream 2 was a regular subject of media, government and diplomatic discussion before Trump took office. In fact, Biden publicly criticized it as vice president in 2016. Trump may well have generated increased US awareness to the controversial project, but “nobody ever heard of Nord Stream 2 until I came along” isn’t true.

    Trump and Nord Stream 2

    Trump claimed, “I got along very well with Putin even though I’m the one that ended his pipeline. Remember they said, ‘Trump is giving a lot to Russia.’ Really? Putin actually said to me, ‘If you’re my friend, I’d hate like hell to see you as my enemy.’ Because I ended the pipeline, right? Do you remember? Nord Stream 2.” He continued, “I ended it. It was dead.”

    Facts First: Trump did not kill Nord Stream 2. While he did approve sanctions on companies working on the project, that move came nearly three years into his presidency, when the pipeline was already around an estimated 90% complete – and the state-owned Russian gas company behind the project said shortly after the sanctions that it would complete the pipeline itself. The company announced in December 2020 that construction was resuming. And with days left in Trump’s term in January 2021, Germany announced that it had renewed permission for construction in its waters.

    The pipeline never began operations; Germany ended up halting the project as Russia was about to invade Ukraine early last year. The pipeline was damaged later in the year in what has been described as an act of sabotage.

    The Obama administration and Ukraine

    Trump claimed that while he provided lethal assistance to Ukraine, the Obama administration “didn’t want to get involved” and merely “supplied the bedsheets.” He said, “Do you remember? They supplied the bedsheets. And maybe even some pillows from [pillow businessman] Mike [Lindell], who’s sitting right over here. … But they supplied the bedsheets.”

    Facts First: This is inaccurate. While it’s true that the Obama administration declined to provide weapons to Ukraine, it provided more than $600 million in security assistance to Ukraine between 2014 and 2016 that involved far more than bedsheets. The aid included counter-artillery and counter-mortar radars, armored Humvees, tactical drones, night vision devices and medical supplies.

    Biden and a Ukrainian prosecutor

    Trump claimed that Biden, as vice president, held back a billion dollars from Ukraine until the country fired a prosecutor who was “after Hunter” and a company that was paying him. Trump was referring to Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son, who sat on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings.

    Facts First: This is baseless. There has never been any evidence that Hunter Biden was under investigation by the prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, who had been widely faulted by Ukrainian anti-corruption activists and European countries for failing to investigate corruption. A former Ukrainian deputy prosecutor and a top anti-corruption activist have both said the Burisma-related investigation was dormant at the time Joe Biden pressured Ukraine to fire Shokin.

    Daria Kaleniuk, executive director of Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Action Center, told The Washington Post in 2019: “Shokin was not investigating. He didn’t want to investigate Burisma. And Shokin was fired not because he wanted to do that investigation, but quite to the contrary, because he failed that investigation.” In addition, Shokin’s successor as prosecutor general, Yuriy Lutsenko, told Bloomberg in 2019: “Hunter Biden did not violate any Ukrainian laws – at least as of now, we do not see any wrongdoing.”

    Biden, as vice president, was carrying out the policy of the US and its allies, not pursuing his own agenda, in threatening to withhold a billion-dollar US loan guarantee if the Ukrainian government did not sack Shokin. CNN fact-checked Trump’s claims on this subject at length in 2019.

    Trump and job creation

    Promising to save Americans’ jobs if he is elected again, Trump claimed, “We had the greatest job history of any president ever.”

    Facts First: This is false. The US lost about 2.7 million jobs during Trump’s presidency, the worst overall jobs record for any president. The net loss was largely because of the Covid-19 pandemic, but even Trump’s pre-pandemic jobs record – about 6.7 million jobs added – was far from the greatest of any president ever. The economy added more than 11.5 million jobs in the first term of Democratic President Bill Clinton in the 1990s.

    Tariffs on China

    Trump repeated a trade claim he made frequently during his presidency. Speaking of China, he said he “charged them” with tariffs that had the effect of “bringing in hundreds of billions of dollars pouring into our Treasury from China. Thank you very much, China.” He claimed that he did this even though “no other president had gotten even 10 cents – not one president got anything from them.”

    Facts First: As we have written repeatedly, it’s not true that no president before Trump had generated any revenue through tariffs on goods from China. In reality, the US has had tariffs on China for more than two centuries, and FactCheck.org reported in 2019 that the US generated an “average of $12.3 billion in custom duties a year from 2007 to 2016, according to the U.S. International Trade Commission DataWeb.” Also, American importers, not Chinese exporters, make the actual tariff payments – and study after study during Trump’s presidency found that Americans were bearing most of the cost of the tariffs.

    The trade deficit with China

    Trump went on to repeat a false claim he made more than 100 times as president – that the US used to have a trade deficit with China of more than $500 billion. He claimed it was “five-, six-, seven-hundred billion dollars a year.”

    Facts First: The US has never had a $500 billion, $600 billion or $700 billion trade deficit with China even if you only count trade in goods and ignore the services trade in which the US runs a surplus with China. The pre-Trump record for a goods deficit with China was about $367 billion in 2015. The goods deficit hit a new record of about $418 billion under Trump in 2018 before falling back under $400 billion in subsequent years.

    Trump and the 2020 election

    Trump said people claim they want to run against him even though, he claimed, he won the 2020 election. He said, “I won the second election, OK, won it by a lot. You know, when they say, when they say Biden won, the smart people know that didn’t [happen].”

    Facts First: This is Trump’s regular lie. He lost the 2020 election to Biden fair and square, 306 to 232 in the Electoral College. Biden earned more than 7 million more votes than Trump did.

    Democrats and elections

    Trump said Democrats are only good at “disinformation” and “cheating on elections.”

    Facts First: This is nonsense. There is just no basis for a broad claim that Democrats are election cheaters. Election fraud and voter fraud are exceedingly rare in US elections, though such crimes are occasionally committed by officials and supporters of both parties. (We’ll ignore Trump’s subjective claim about “disinformation.”)

    The liberation of the ISIS caliphate

    Trump repeated his familiar story about how he had supposedly liberated the “caliphate” of terror group ISIS in “three weeks.” This time, he said, “In fact, with the ISIS caliphate, a certain general said it could only be done in three years, ‘and probably it can’t be done at all, sir.’ And I did it in three weeks. I went over to Iraq, met a great general. ‘Sir, I can do it in three weeks.’ You’ve heard that story. ‘I can do it in three weeks, sir.’ ‘How are you going to do that?’ They explained it. I did it in three weeks. I was told it couldn’t be done at all, that it would take at least three years. Did it in three weeks. Knocked out 100% of the ISIS caliphate.”

    Facts First: Trump’s claim of eliminating the ISIS caliphate in “three weeks” isn’t true; the ISIS “caliphate” was declared fully liberated more than two years into Trump’s presidency, in 2019. Even if Trump was starting the clock at the time of his visit to Iraq, in late December 2018, the liberation was proclaimed more than two and a half months later. In addition, Trump gave himself far too much credit for the defeat of the caliphate, as he has in the past, when he said “I did it”: Kurdish forces did much of the ground fighting, and there was major progress against the caliphate under President Barack Obama in 2015 and 2016.

    IHS Markit, an information company that studied the changing size of the caliphate, reported two days before Trump’s 2017 inauguration that the caliphate shrunk by 23% in 2016 after shrinking by 14% in 2015. “The Islamic State suffered unprecedented territorial losses in 2016, including key areas vital for the group’s governance project,” an analyst there said in a statement at the time.

    Military equipment left in Afghanistan

    Trump claimed, as he has before, that the US left behind $85 billion worth of military equipment when it withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021. He said of the leader of the Taliban: “Now he’s got $85 billion worth of our equipment that I bought – $85 billion.” He added later: “The thing that nobody ever talks about, we lost 13 [soldiers], we lost $85 billion worth of the greatest military equipment in the world.”

    Facts First: Trump’s $85 billion figure is false. While a significant quantity of military equipment that had been provided by the US to Afghan government forces was indeed abandoned to the Taliban upon the US withdrawal, the Defense Department has estimated that this equipment had been worth about $7.1 billion – a chunk of about $18.6 billion worth of equipment provided to Afghan forces between 2005 and 2021. And some of the equipment left behind was rendered inoperable before US forces withdrew.

    As other fact-checkers have previously explained, the “$85 billion” is a rounded-up figure (it’s closer to $83 billion) for the total amount of money Congress has appropriated during the war to a fund supporting the Afghan security forces. A minority of this funding was for equipment.

    The Afghanistan withdrawal and the F-16

    Trump claimed that the Taliban acquired F-16 fighter planes because of the US withdrawal, saying: “They feared the F-16s. And now they own them. Think of it.”

    Facts First: This is false. F-16s were not among the equipment abandoned upon the US withdrawal and the collapse of the Afghan armed forces, since the Afghan armed forces did not fly F-16s.

    The border wall

    Trump claimed that he had kept his promise to complete a wall on the border with Mexico: “As you know, I built hundreds of miles of wall and completed that task as promised. And then I began to add even more in areas that seemed to be allowing a lot of people to come in.”

    Facts First: It’s not true that Trump “completed” the border wall. According to an official “Border Wall Status” report written by US Customs and Border Protection two days after Trump left office, about 458 miles of wall had been completed under Trump – but about 280 more miles that had been identified for wall construction had not been completed.

    The report, provided to CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez, said that, of those 280 miles left to go, about 74 miles were “in the pre-construction phase and have not yet been awarded, in locations where no barriers currently exist,” and that 206 miles were “currently under contract, in place of dilapidated and outdated designs and in locations where no barriers previously existed.”

    Latin America and deportations

    Trump told his familiar story about how, until he was president, the US was unable to deport MS-13 gang members to other countries, “especially” Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras because those countries “didn’t want them.”

    Facts First: It’s not true that, as a rule, Guatemala and Honduras wouldn’t take back migrants being deported from the US during Obama’s administration, though there were some individual exceptions.

    In 2016, just prior to Trump’s presidency, neither Guatemala nor Honduras was on the list of countries that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) considered “recalcitrant,” or uncooperative, in accepting the return of their nationals.

    For the 2016 fiscal year, Obama’s last full fiscal year in office, ICE reported that Guatemala and Honduras ranked second and third, behind only Mexico, in terms of the country of citizenship of people being removed from the US. You can read a longer fact check, from 2019, here.

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  • 2 dead, 6 injured after shooting at Georgia house party that had more than 100 teenagers in attendance | CNN

    2 dead, 6 injured after shooting at Georgia house party that had more than 100 teenagers in attendance | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Two people were killed and six others were injured after a shooting at a house party in Douglas County, Georgia on Saturday that had more than 100 teenagers in attendance, police said.

    Officials said the shooting stemmed from a confrontation at the house party in Douglasville, a city about 20 miles west of Atlanta.

    The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office (DCSO) asked that anyone with information about the assailant to contact its office as information about the incident is “very limited,” the agency said in a news release.

    Wounded partygoers were seen in neighboring yards after the shooting, according to CNN affiliate WXIA. The owner of the home told WXIA they held a Sweet 16 party for their daughter and they chose to end the party at 10:00 p.m., claiming some of the attendees were smoking marijuana.

    It’s unclear whether there were any adults present at the time of the shooting, which the owner told WXIA happened in a cul-de-sac outside the home.

    DCSO said the incident remains a “very active investigation.”

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  • 5 people shot near a gun buyback event at a Los Angeles beach | CNN

    5 people shot near a gun buyback event at a Los Angeles beach | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Five people were injured in a shooting at a Los Angeles beach Saturday – a few miles from where city officials had hosted a gun buyback event earlier in the day, according to the Los Angeles Police Department and City Councilmember Tim McOsker.

    The LAPD’s Harbor Division responded to a radio call of a shooting at Royal Palms Beach around 5:45 p.m. Saturday.

    “Five male Hispanic victims were at a barbeque, at the beach, with a group of approximately 10-20 people,” Los Angeles police said in a written statement Sunday.

    Two suspect approached the group and got into a physical altercation. “The suspects then produced a handgun and fired multiple rounds, striking the victims,” police said. “The suspects then fled the location in a vehicle.”

    Five victims were struck by gunfire. “Last information we received was two victims are in critical condition, two victims are in serious condition and one victim is in stable condition,” the police statement said.

    Previously, police said one victim was in critical condition, and four were in stable condition.

    “We’re outraged and saddened by the shooting at Royal Palms Beach in San Pedro that has left 5 people injured,” said a joint statement by McOsker and Janice Hahn, chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

    “It’s tragically ironic that today we hosted a gun buy-back event just a few miles away from this location. Gun violence is wreaking havoc on our community.”

    Royal Palms Beach will be closed Sunday and will close earlier on weekends as city officials work on plans “to ensure safety and peaceful community use,” the joint statement said.

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