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  • 2023 In Review Fast Facts | CNN

    2023 In Review Fast Facts | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Here is a look back at the events of 2023.

    January 3 – Republican Kevin McCarthy fails to secure enough votes to be elected Speaker of the House in three rounds of voting. On January 7, McCarthy is elected House speaker after multiple days of negotiations and 15 rounds of voting. That same day, the newly elected 118th Congress is officially sworn in.

    January 7 – Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, is pulled over for reckless driving. He is hospitalized following the arrest and dies three days later from injuries sustained during the traffic stop. Five officers from the Memphis Police Department are fired. On January 26, a grand jury indicts the five officers. They are each charged with second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression. On September 12, the five officers are indicted by a federal grand jury on several charges including deprivation of rights.

    January 9 – The White House counsel’s office confirms that several classified documents from President Joe Biden’s time as vice president were discovered last fall in an office at the Penn Biden Center. On January 12, the White House counsel’s office confirms a small number of additional classified documents were located in President Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, home.

    January 13 – The Trump Organization is fined $1.6 million – the maximum possible penalty – by a New York judge for running a decade-long tax fraud scheme.

    January 21 – Eleven people are killed in a mass shooting at a dance studio in Monterey Park, California, as the city’s Asian American community was celebrating Lunar New Year. The 72-year-old gunman is found dead the following day from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

    January 24 – CNN reports that a lawyer for former Vice President Mike Pence discovered about a dozen documents marked as classified at Pence’s Indiana home last week, and he has turned those classified records over to the FBI.

    January 25 – Facebook-parent company Meta announces it will restore former President Donald Trump’s accounts on Facebook and Instagram in the coming weeks, just over two years after suspending him in the wake of the January 6 Capitol attack.

    February 1 – Tom Brady announces his retirement after 23 seasons in the NFL.

    February 2 – Defense officials announce the United States is tracking a suspected Chinese high-altitude surveillance balloon over the continental United States. On February 4, a US military fighter jet shoots down the balloon over the Atlantic Ocean. On June 29, the Pentagon reveals the balloon did not collect intelligence while flying over the country.

    February 3 – A Norfolk Southern freight train carrying hazardous materials derails in East Palestine, Ohio. An evacuation order is issued for the area within a mile radius of the train crash. The order is lifted on February 8. After returning to their homes, some residents report they have developed a rash and nausea.

    February 7 – Lebron James breaks the NBA’s all-time scoring record, surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

    February 15 – Payton Gendron, 19, who killed 10 people in a racist mass shooting at a grocery store in a predominantly Black area of Buffalo last May, is sentenced to life in prison.

    February 18 – In a statement, the Carter Center says that former President Jimmy Carter will begin receiving hospice care at his home in Georgia.

    February 20 – President Biden makes a surprise trip to Kyiv for the first time since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine almost a year ago.

    February 23 – Disgraced R&B singer R. Kelly is sentenced to 20 years in prison in a Chicago federal courtroom on charges of child pornography and enticement of a minor. Kelly is already serving a 30-year prison term for his 2021 conviction on racketeering and sex trafficking charges in a New York federal court. Nineteen years of the 20-year prison sentence will be served at the same time as his other sentence. One year will be served after that sentence is complete.

    February 23 – Harvey Weinstein, who is already serving a 23-year prison sentence in New York, is sentenced in Los Angeles to an additional 16 years in prison for charges of rape and sexual assault.

    March 2 – SpaceX and NASA launch a fresh crew of astronauts on a mission to the International Space Station, kicking off a roughly six-month stay in space. The mission — which is carrying two NASA astronauts, a Russian cosmonaut and an astronaut from the United Arab Emirates — took off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

    March 2 – The jury in the double murder trial of Alex Murdaugh finds him guilty of murdering his wife and son. Murdaugh, the 54-year-old scion of a prominent and powerful family of local lawyers and solicitors, is also found guilty of two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime in the killings of Margaret “Maggie” Murdaugh and Paul Murdaugh on June 7, 2021.

    March 3 – Four US citizens from South Carolina are kidnapped by gunmen in Matamoros, Mexico, in a case of mistaken identity. On March 7, two of the four Americans, Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brown, are found dead and the other two, Latavia McGee and Eric Williams, are found alive. The cartel believed responsible for the armed kidnapping issues an apology letter and hands over five men to local authorities.

    March 10 – The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation announces that Silicon Valley Bank was shut down by California regulators. This is the second largest bank failure in US history, only to Washington Mutual’s collapse in 2008. SVB Financial Group, the former parent company of SVB, files for bankruptcy on March 17.

    March 27 – A 28-year-old Nashville resident shoots and kills three children and three adults at the Covenant School in Nashville. The shooter is fatally shot by responding officers.

    March 29 – Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich is detained by Russian authorities and accused of spying. On April 7, he is formally charged with espionage.

    March 30 – A grand jury in New York votes to indict Trump, the first time in American history that a current or former president has faced criminal charges. On April 4, Trump surrenders and is placed under arrest before pleading not guilty to 34 felony criminal charges of falsifying business records. Prosecutors allege that Trump sought to undermine the integrity of the 2016 election through a hush money scheme with payments made to women who claimed they had extramarital affairs with Trump. He has denied the affairs.

    April 6 – Two Democratic members of the Tennessee House of Representatives, Rep. Justin Jones and Rep. Justin Pearson, are expelled while a third member, Rep. Gloria Johnson, is spared in an ousting by Republican lawmakers that was decried by the trio as oppressive, vindictive and racially motivated. This comes after Jones, Pearson and Johnson staged a demonstration on the House floor calling for gun reform following the shooting at the Covenant School. On April 10, Rep. Jones is sworn back in following a unanimous vote by the Nashville Metropolitan Council to reappoint him as an interim representative. On April 12, the Shelby County Board of Commissioners vote to confirm the reappointment of Rep. Pearson.

    April 6-13 – ProPublica reports that Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife, conservative activist Ginni Thomas, have gone on several luxury trips involving travel subsidized by and stays at properties owned by Harlan Crow, a GOP megadonor. The hospitality was not disclosed on Thomas’ public financial filings with the Supreme Court. The following week ProPublica reports Thomas failed to disclose a 2014 real estate deal he made with Crow. On financial disclosure forms released on August 31, Thomas discloses the luxury trips and “inadvertently omitted” information including the real estate deal.

    April 7 – A federal judge in Texas issues a ruling on medication abortion drug mifepristone, saying he will suspend the US Food and Drug Administration’s two-decade-old approval of it but paused his ruling for seven days so the federal government can appeal. But in a dramatic turn of events, a federal judge in Washington state says in a new ruling shortly after that the FDA must keep medication abortion drugs available in more than a dozen Democratic-led states.

    April 13 – 21-year-old Jack Teixeira, a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard is arrested by the FBI in connection with the leaking of classified documents that have been posted online.

    April 18 – Fox News reaches a last-second settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, paying more than $787 million to end a two-year legal battle that publicly shredded the network’s credibility. Fox News’ $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems is the largest publicly known defamation settlement in US history involving a media company.

    April 25 – President Biden formally announces his bid for reelection.

    May 2 – More than 11,000 members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) go on strike for the first time since 2007. On September 26, the WGA announces its leaders have unanimously voted to authorize its members to return to work following the tentative agreement reached on September 24 between union negotiators and Hollywood’s studios and streaming services, effectively ending the months-long strike.

    May 9 – A Manhattan federal jury finds Trump sexually abused former magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll in a luxury department store dressing room in the spring of 1996 and awards her $5 million for battery and defamation.

    June 8 – Trump is indicted on a total of 37 counts in the special counsel’s classified documents probe. In a superseding indictment filed on July 27, Trump is charged with one additional count of willful retention of national defense information and two additional obstruction counts, bringing the total to 40 counts.

    June 16 – Robert Bowers, the gunman who killed 11 worshippers at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in 2018, is convicted by a federal jury on all 63 charges against him. He is sentenced to death on August 2.

    June 18 – A civilian submersible disappears with five people aboard while voyaging to the wreckage of the Titanic. On June 22, following a massive search for the submersible, US authorities announce the vessel suffered a “catastrophic implosion,” killing all five people aboard.

    June 20 – ProPublica reports that Justice Samuel Alito did not disclose a luxury 2008 trip he took in which a hedge fund billionaire flew him on a private jet, even though the businessman would later repeatedly ask the Supreme Court to intervene on his behalf. In a highly unusual move, Alito preemptively disputed the nature of the report before it was published, authoring an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal in which he acknowledged knowing billionaire Paul Singer but downplaying their relationship.

    June 29 – The Supreme Court says colleges and universities can no longer take race into consideration as a specific basis for granting admission, a landmark decision overturning long-standing precedent.

    July 13 – The FDA approves Opill to be available over-the-counter, the first nonprescription birth control pill in the United States.

    July 14 – SAG-AFTRA, a union representing about 160,000 Hollywood actors, goes on strike after talks with major studios and streaming services fail. It is the first time its members have stopped work on movie and television productions since 1980. On November 8, SAG-AFTRA and the studios reach a tentative agreement, officially ending the strike.

    July 14 – Rex Heuermann, a New York architect, is charged with six counts of murder in connection with the deaths of three of the four women known as the “Gilgo Four.”

    August 1 – Trump is indicted by a federal grand jury in Washington, DC, in the 2020 election probe. Trump is charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights.

    August 8 – Over 100 people are killed and hundreds of others unaccounted for after wildfires engulf parts of Maui. Nearly 3,000 homes and businesses are destroyed or damaged.

    August 14 – Trump and 18 others are indicted by an Atlanta-based grand jury on state charges stemming from their efforts to overturn the former president’s 2020 electoral defeat. Trump now faces a total of 91 charges in four criminal cases, in four different jurisdictions — two federal and two state cases. On August 24, Trump surrenders at the Fulton County jail where he is processed and released on bond.

    August 23 – Eight Republican presidential candidates face off in the first primary debate of the 2024 campaign in Milwaukee.

    September 12 – House Speaker McCarthy announces he is calling on his committees to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Biden, even as they have yet to prove allegations he directly profited off his son’s foreign business deals.

    September 14 – Hunter Biden is indicted by special counsel David Weiss in connection with a gun he purchased in 2018, the first time in US history the Justice Department has charged the child of a sitting president. The three charges include making false statements on a federal firearms form and possession of a firearm as a prohibited person.

    September 22 – New Jersey Democratic Senator Bob Menendez is charged with corruption-related offenses for the second time in 10 years. Menendez and his wife, Nadine Arslanian Menendez, are accused of accepting “hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes” in exchange for the senator’s influence, according to the newly unsealed federal indictment.

    September 28 – Dianne Feinstein, the longest-serving female US senator in history, dies at the age of 90. On October 1, California Governor Gavin Newsom announces he will appoint Emily’s List president Laphonza Butler to replace her. Butler will become the first out Black lesbian to join Congress. She will also be the sole Black female senator serving in Congress and only the third in US history.

    September 29 – Las Vegas police confirm Duane Keith Davis, aka “Keffe D,” was arrested for the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur.

    October 3 – McCarthy is removed as House speaker following a 216-210 vote, with eight Republicans voting to remove McCarthy from the post.

    October 25 – After three weeks without a speaker, the House votes to elect Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana.

    October 25 – Robert Card, a US Army reservist, kills 18 people and injures 13 others in a shooting rampage in Lewiston, Maine. On October 27, after a two-day manhunt, he is found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot.

    November 13 – The Supreme Court announces a code of conduct in an attempt to bolster the public’s confidence in the court after months of news stories alleging that some of the justices have been skirting ethics regulations.

    November 19 – Former first lady Rosalynn Carter passes away at the age of 96.

    January 8 – Supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro storm the country’s congressional building, Supreme Court and presidential palace. The breaches come about a week after the inauguration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who defeated Bolsonaro in a runoff election on October 30.

    January 15 – At least 68 people are killed when an aircraft goes down near the city of Pokhara in central Nepal. This is the country’s deadliest plane crash in more than 30 years.

    January 19 – New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Arden announces she will not seek reelection in October.

    January 24 – President Volodymyr Zelensky fires a slew of senior Ukrainian officials amid a growing corruption scandal linked to the procurement of war-time supplies.

    February 6 – More than 15,000 people are killed and tens of thousands injured after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake strikes Turkey and Syria.

    February 28 – At least 57 people are killed after two trains collide in Greece.

    March 1 – Bola Ahmed Tinubu is declared the winner of Nigeria’s presidential election.

    March 10 – Xi Jinping is reappointed as president for another five years by China’s legislature in a ceremonial vote in Beijing, a highly choreographed exercise in political theater meant to demonstrate legitimacy and unity of the ruling elite.

    March 16 – The French government forces through controversial plans to raise the country’s retirement age from 62 to 64.

    April 4 – Finland becomes the 31st member of NATO.

    April 15 – Following months of tensions in Sudan between a paramilitary group and the country’s army, violence erupts.

    May 3 – A 13-year-old boy opens fire on his classmates at a school in Belgrade, Serbia, killing at least eight children along with a security guard. On May 4, a second mass shooting takes place when an attacker opens fire in the village of Dubona, about 37 miles southeast of Belgrade, killing eight people.

    May 5 – The World Health Organization announces Covid-19 is no longer a global health emergency.

    May 6 – King Charles’ coronation takes place at Westminster Abbey in London.

    August 4 – Alexey Navalny is sentenced to 19 years in prison on extremism charges, Russian media reports. Navalny is already serving sentences totaling 11-and-a-half years in a maximum-security facility on fraud and other charges that he says were trumped up.

    September 8 – Over 2,000 people are dead and thousands are injured after a 6.8-magnitude earthquake hits Morocco.

    October 8 – Israel formally declares war on the Palestinian militant group Hamas after it carried out an unprecedented attack by air, sea and land on October 7.

    November 8 – The Vatican publishes new guidelines opening the door to Catholic baptism for transgender people and babies of same-sex couples.

    November 24 – The first group of hostages is released after Israel and Hamas agree to a temporary truce. Dozens more hostages are released in the following days. On December 1, the seven-day truce ends after negotiations reach an impasse and Israel accuses Hamas of violating the agreement by firing at Israel.

    Awards and Winners

    January 9 – The College Football Playoff National Championship game takes place at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. The Georgia Bulldogs defeat Texas Christian University’s Horned Frogs 65-7 for their second national title in a row.

    January 10 – The 80th Annual Golden Globe Awards are presented live on NBC.

    January 16-29 – The 111th Australian Open takes place. Novak Djokovic defeats Stefanos Tsitsipas in straight sets to win a 10th Australian Open title and a record-equaling 22nd grand slam. Belarusian-born Aryna Sabalenka defeats Elena Rybakina in three sets, becoming the first player competing under a neutral flag to secure a grand slam.

    February 5 – The 65th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony takes place in Los Angeles at the Crypto.com Arena.

    February 12 – Super Bowl LVII takes place at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. The Kansas City Chiefs defeat the Philadelphia Eagles 38-35. This is the first Super Bowl to feature two Black starting quarterbacks.

    February 19 – Ricky Stenhouse Jr. wins the 65th Annual Daytona 500 in double overtime. It is the longest Daytona 500 ever with a record of 212 laps raced.

    March 12 – The 95th Annual Academy Awards takes place, with Jimmy Kimmel hosting for the third time.

    March 14 – Ryan Redington wins his first Iditarod.

    April 2 – The Louisiana State University Tigers defeat the University of Iowa Hawkeyes 102-85 in Dallas, to win the program’s first NCAA women’s basketball national championship.

    April 3 – The University of Connecticut Huskies win its fifth men’s basketball national title with a 76-59 victory over the San Diego State University Aztecs in Houston.

    April 6-9 – The 87th Masters tournament takes place. Jon Rahm wins, claiming his first green jacket and second career major at Augusta National.

    April 17 – The 127th Boston Marathon takes place. The winners are Evans Chebet of Kenya in the men’s division and Hellen Obiri of Kenya in the women’s division.

    May 6 – Mage, a 3-year-old chestnut colt, wins the 149th Kentucky Derby.

    May 8-9 – The 147th Annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show takes place at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, New York. Buddy Holly, a petit basset griffon Vendéen, wins Best in Show.

    May 20 – National Treasure wins the 148th running of the Preakness Stakes.

    May 21 – Brooks Koepka wins the 105th PGA Championship at Oak Hill County Club in Rochester, New York. This is his third PGA Championship and fifth major title of his career.

    May 22-June 11 – The French Open takes place at Roland Garros Stadium in Paris. Novak Djokovic wins a record-breaking 23rd Grand Slam title, defeating Casper Ruud 7-6 (7-1) 6-3 7-5 in the men’s final. Iga Świątek wins her third French Open in four years with a 6-2 5-7 6-4 victory against the unseeded Karolína Muchová in the women’s final.

    May 28 – Josef Newgarden wins the 107th running of the Indianapolis 500.

    June 10 – Arcangelo wins the 155th running of the Belmont Stakes.

    June 11 – The 76th Tony Awards takes place.

    June 12 – The Denver Nuggets defeat the Miami Heat 94-89 in Game 5, to win the series 4-1 and claim their first NBA title in franchise history.

    June 13 – The Vegas Golden Knights defeat the Florida Panthers in Game 5 to win the franchise’s first Stanley Cup.

    June 18 – American golfer Wyndham Clark wins the 123rd US Open at The Los Angeles Country Club.

    July 1-23 – The 110th Tour de France takes place. Danish cyclist Jonas Vingegaard wins his second consecutive Tour de France title.

    July 3-16 – Wimbledon takes place in London. Carlos Alcaraz defeats Novak Djokovic 1-6 7-6 (8-6) 6-1 3-6 6-4 in the men’s final, to win his first Wimbledon title. Markéta Vondroušová defeats Ons Jabeur 6-4 6-4 in the women’s final, to win her first Wimbledon title and become the first unseeded woman in the Open Era to win the tournament.

    July 16-23 – Brian Harman wins the 151st Open Championship at Royal Liverpool in Hoylake, Wirral, England, for his first major title.

    July 20-August 20 – The Women’s World Cup takes place in Australia and New Zealand. Spain defeats England 1-0 to win its first Women’s World Cup.

    August 28-September 10 – The US Open Tennis Tournament takes place. Coco Gauff defeats Aryna Sabalenka, and Novak Djokovic defeats Daniil Medvedev.

    October 2-9 – The Nobel Prizes are announced. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to jailed Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi for “her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all,” according to the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

    November 1 – The Texas Rangers win the World Series for the first time in franchise history, defeating the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-0 in Game 5.

    November 5 – The New York City Marathon takes place. Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola sets a course record and wins the men’s race. Kenya’s Hellen Obiri wins the women’s race.

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  • Woody Allen Fast Facts | CNN

    Woody Allen Fast Facts | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Here’s a look at the life of Oscar-winning filmmaker Woody Allen.

    Birth date: December 1, 1935

    Birth place: Brooklyn, New York

    Birth name: Allan Stewart Konigsberg

    Father: Martin Konigsberg, worked various jobs

    Mother: Nettie (Cherry) Konigsberg, bookkeeper

    Marriages: Soon-Yi Previn (December 22, 1997-present), Louise Lasser (divorced), Harlene Rosen (divorced)

    Children: daughters adopted with Soon-Yi Previn: Manzie Tio Allen (2000), Bechet Dumaine Allen (1998); with Mia Farrow: Satchel Farrow (1987, now goes by Ronan), Dylan O’Sullivan Farrow (1985, adopted daughter), Moses Farrow (1978, adopted)

    Education: Attended New York University and City College of New York.

    He legally changed his name at 17 to Heywood Allen.

    Allen has worked as a comedy writer, stand-up comic, screenwriter, actor, playwright, musician and director.

    He has 24 Oscar nominations and four wins: 16 for writing, with three wins; seven for directing, with one win; and one nomination for acting.

    Allen has one Emmy nomination for writing.

    Allen has appeared in dozens of the movies he’s directed and claims to have never watched his films once they are released.

    Although Allen is best known for comedies, he has explored different genres including dramas (“Interiors”), thrillers (“Match Point”) and musicals (“Everyone Says I Love You”).

    Most of his movies have been filmed in and around New York.

    He plays the jazz clarinet and piano.

    1950-1960 Comedy writer.

    1961-1964 A standup comic.

    July 1964 Releases his first comedy album, “Woody Allen.”

    June 22, 1965 – The first movie he wrote and performed in, “What’s New Pussycat?” is released.

    November 17, 1966 “Don’t Drink the Water,” Allen’s first play, opens on Broadway.

    February 12, 1969-March 14, 1970 – “Play It Again, Sam,” his second play, runs on Broadway with Allen in the lead. In 1972, he reprises his role in the movie adaptation.

    1978 – “Annie Hall” wins four Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay Written for the Screen and Best Actress. Allen earns two of the four Oscars as writer and director. He is also nominated for Best Actor but does not win.

    1987 Wins the Academy Award for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen for “Hannah and Her Sisters.” He is also nominated for Best Director for the same film.

    1992 His 12 year relationship with actress Mia Farrow ends when she discovers his affair with her adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn. Subsequently, allegations of sexual molestation are made by their adopted daughter, Dylan, 7. A two-year custody battle for their three children Satchel, Dylan and Moses ensues, which Farrow wins.

    April 1998 The documentary, “Wild Man Blues,” is released, showcasing Allen’s love for the jazz clarinet and his association with the Eddy Davis New Orleans Jazz Band.

    2002 – Makes his only appearance at an Academy Awards ceremony. He appeals for the continued use of New York as a setting for movies after September 11, 2001.

    2012 – Wins an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for “Midnight in Paris.”

    February 1, 2014 – An open letter written by Dylan Farrow is published in the New York Times, recounting her allegation that Allen sexually assaulted her when she was a child. A representative for Allen releases a statement the next day, denying the charges.

    February 7, 2014 – Allen responds in an op-ed column released by The New York Times. He says the allegations are untrue and rooted in his acrimonious breakup with Mia Farrow.

    September 30, 2016 – Allen’s first video streaming series, “Crisis in Six Scenes” debuts on Amazon.com.

    January 2018 – Several actors who appeared in Allen’s latest film, “A Rainy Day in New York,” announce they will be donating their salaries to charity amid questions about longstanding sexual abuse claims against Allen. The movie has yet to be released.

    September 16, 2018 – In a New York magazine profile, Soon-Yi Previn defends Allen against allegations of molestation.

    February 7, 2019 – Allen and his production company file a lawsuit against Amazon claiming the company backed out of a $68 million four-picture deal.

    November 8, 2019 – Allen and his production company reach a settlement with Amazon in a breach of contract lawsuit.

    March 23, 2020 – Allen’s memoir “Apropos of Nothing” is published by Arcade Publishing. Grand Central Publishing, a division of Hachette Book Group, originally acquired the rights to the book but canceled their plans to publish it after employees walked out in protest.

    February 21, 2021 –Allen v. Farrow,” a four-part HBO docuseries that examines Allen’s relationship with Farrow and sexual-assault allegations by their daughter Dylan premieres.

    March 28, 2021 – In an interview for “CBS Sunday Morning,” Allen denies the sexual abuse allegation by his daughter Dylan.

    June 7, 2022 – “Zero Gravity,” Allen’s new essay collection is published.

    September 27, 2023 Allen releases his 50th film and first French-language film, “Coupe de Chance.”

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  • Internal documents show the World Health Organization paid sexual abuse victims in Congo $250 each

    Internal documents show the World Health Organization paid sexual abuse victims in Congo $250 each

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    LONDON — Earlier this year, the doctor who leads the World Health Organization’s efforts to prevent sexual abuse travelled to Congo to address the biggest known sex scandal in the U.N. health agency’s history, the abuse of well over 100 local women by staffers and others during a deadly Ebola outbreak.

    According to an internal WHO report from Dr. Gaya Gamhewage’s trip in March, one of the abused women she met gave birth to a baby with “a malformation that required special medical treatment,” meaning even more costs for the young mother in one of the world’s poorest countries.

    To help victims like her, the WHO has paid $250 each to at least 104 women in Congo who say they were sexually abused or exploited by officials working to stop Ebola. That amount per victim is less than a single day’s expenses for some U.N. officials working in the Congolese capital — and $19 more than what Gamhewage received per day during her three-day visit — according to internal documents obtained by The Associated Press.

    The amount covers typical living expenses for less than four months in a country where, the WHO documents noted, many people survive on less than $2.15 a day.

    The payments to women didn’t come freely. To receive the cash, they were required to complete training courses intended to help them start “income-generating activities.” The payments appear to try to circumvent the U.N.’s stated policy that it doesn’t pay reparations by including the money in what it calls a “complete package” of support.

    Many Congolese women who were sexually abused have still received nothing. WHO said in a confidential document last month that about a third of the known victims were “impossible to locate.” The WHO said nearly a dozen women declined its offer.

    The total of $26,000 that WHO has provided to the victims equals about 1% of the $2 million, WHO-created “survivor assistance fund” for victims of sexual misconduct, primarily in Congo.

    In interviews, recipients told the AP the money they received was hardly enough, but they wanted justice even more.

    Paula Donovan, who co-directs the Code Blue campaign to eliminate what it calls impunity for sexual misconduct in the U.N., described the WHO payments to victims of sexual abuse and exploitation as “perverse.”

    “It’s not unheard of for the U.N. to give people seed money so they can boost their livelihoods, but to mesh that with compensation for a sexual assault, or a crime that results in the birth of a baby, is unthinkable,” she said.

    Requiring the women to attend training before receiving the cash set uncomfortable conditions for victims of wrongdoing seeking help, Donovan added.

    The two women who met with Gamhewage told her that what they most wanted was for the “perpetrators to be brought to account so they could not harm anyone else,” the WHO documents said. The women were not named.

    “There is nothing we can do to make up for (sexual abuse and exploitation),” Gamhewage told the AP in an interview.

    The WHO told the AP that criteria to determine its “victim survivor package” included the cost of food in Congo and “global guidance on not dispensing more cash than what would be reasonable for the community, in order to not expose recipients to further harm.” Gamhewage said the WHO was following recommendations set by experts at local charities and other U.N. agencies.

    “Obviously, we haven’t done enough,” Gamhewage said. She added the WHO would ask survivors directly what further support they wanted.

    The WHO has also helped defray medical costs for 17 children born as a result of sexual exploitation and abuse, she said.

    At least one woman who said she was sexually exploited and impregnated by a WHO doctor negotiated compensation that agency officials signed off on, including a plot of land and health care. The doctor also agreed to pay $100 a month until the baby was born in a deal “to protect the integrity and reputation of WHO.”

    But in interviews with the AP, other women who say they were sexually exploited by WHO staff asserted the agency hasn’t done enough.

    Alphonsine, 34, said she was pressured into having sex with a WHO official in exchange for a job as an infection control worker with the Ebola response team in the eastern Congo city of Beni, an epicenter of the 2018-2020 outbreak. Like other women, she did not share her last name for fear of reprisals.

    Alphonsine confirmed that she had received $250 from the WHO, but the agency told her she had to take a baking course to obtain it.

    “The money helped at the time, but it wasn’t enough,” Alphonsine said. She said she later went bankrupt and would have preferred to receive a plot of land and enough money to start her own business.

    For a visiting WHO staffer working in Congo, the standard daily allowance ranges from about $144 to $480. Gamhewage received $231 a day during her three-day trip to the Congolese capital Kinshasa, according to an internal travel claim.

    The internal documents show that staff costs take up more than half of the $1.5 million the WHO allotted toward the prevention of sexual misconduct in Congo for 2022-2023, or $821,856. Another 12% goes to prevention activities and 35%, or $535,000, is for “victim support,” which Gamhewage said includes legal assistance, transportation and psychological support. That budget is separate from the $2 million survivors assistance fund, which assists victims globally.

    The WHO’s Congo office has a total allocated budget of about $174 million, and its biggest funder is the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

    The U.N. health agency continues to struggle with holding perpetrators of sexual abuse and exploitation to account in Congo. A WHO-commissioned panel found at least 83 perpetrators during the Ebola response, including at least 21 WHO staffers. The youngest known victim was 13.

    In May 2021, an AP investigation revealed that senior WHO management was told of sexual exploitation during the agency’s efforts to curb Ebola even as the abuse was happening but did little to stop it. No senior managers, including some who were aware of the abuse during the outbreak, were fired.

    After years of pressure from Congolese authorities, the WHO internal documents note it has shared information with them about 16 alleged perpetrators of sexual abuse and exploitation who were linked to the WHO during the Ebola outbreak.

    But the WHO hasn’t done enough to discipline its people, said another Congolese woman who said she was coerced into having sex with a staffer to get a job during the outbreak. She, too, received $250 from the WHO after taking a baking course.

    “They promised to show us evidence this has been taken care of, but there has been no follow-up,” said Denise, 31.

    The WHO has said five staffers have been dismissed for sexual misconduct since 2021.

    But in Congo, deep distrust remains.

    Audia, 24, told the AP she was impregnated when a WHO official forced her to have sex to get a job during the outbreak. She now has a five-year-old daughter as a result and received a “really insufficient” $250 from WHO after taking courses in tailoring and baking.

    She worries about what might happen in a future health crisis in conflict-hit eastern Congo, where poor infrastructure and resources mean any emergency response relies heavily on outside help from the WHO and others.

    “I can’t put my trust in (WHO) anymore,” she said. “When they abandon you in such difficulties and leave you without doing anything, it’s irresponsible.”

    ___

    AP journalists Krista Larson in Dakar, Senegal, and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.

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  • Omegle shuts down online chat service amid legal challenges

    Omegle shuts down online chat service amid legal challenges

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    Omegle, an online chat service that billed itself as an anonymous forum to “talk to strangers,” has shut down amid allegations it served as a hotbed for criminal activities. 

    In a lengthy statement Thursday, Omegle founder Leif K-Brooks said the service is closing because combating misuse of the platform is “no longer sustainable, financially nor psychologically.” In recent years, Omegle has faced a slew of lawsuits alleging the platform, which connected people via text and video chat, became a breeding ground for sexual harassment and facilitated the sexual exploitation of minors by pairing underaged users with sexual abusers.  

    “The stress and expense of this fight – coupled with the existing stress and expense of operating Omegle, and fighting its misuse – are simply too much,” Brooks said in the statement.  

    The website shut its anonymous chat function Thursday.

    Omegle, founded in 2009, rapidly rose to prominence, becoming a mainstay of 2010s internet culture alongside similar anonymous chat services such as Chat Roulette. Since its launch, the platform had racked up tens of millions of monthly visitors, Similar Web data shows. However, that popularity made the platform a magnet for bad actors whose conduct posed profound content moderation challenges for the company.

    “There can be no honest accounting of Omegle without acknowledging that some people misused it, including to commit unspeakably heinous crimes,” Brooks said in the statement. 

    Legal Liabilities 

    Rampant misuse of Omegle spurred several lawsuits against the service, including one in which lawyers alleged the chat service paired an 11-year-old girl with a sexual predator, a court filing shows. Omegle settled that $22 million civil suit last week, Gizmodo reported.  

    “By failing to take action to prevent predators from carrying out these crimes against helpless children on Omegle and failing to cure its negligent design and manufacture, these predatory users felt empowered and incentivized to continue their abusive and malicious use of the product,” a lawyer alleged in the complaint.

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  • Jason Derulo Accused Of Dropping Woman From Record Label For Refusing Sexual Advances

    Jason Derulo Accused Of Dropping Woman From Record Label For Refusing Sexual Advances

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    A 25-year-old singer is accusing pop star Jason Derulo of sexual harassment, alleging that he pressured her to drink and have sex with him after signing her to his record label and then dropped her when she refused his advances.

    In the lawsuit filed Thursday, Emaza Gibson said that after Derulo had signed her with the promise of collaborating on several albums, he used physical aggression to intimidate her and then refused to record with her once she insisted on maintaining a strictly professional relationship with him.

    As a result, Gibson claimed, she was deprived of the resources and funding to complete and promote the planned album.

    “I worked really hard,” she told HuffPost. “I shouldn’t have to sleep with anybody to secure a deal.”

    Derulo’s representatives did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.

    Singer Jason Derulo performs onstage at the Lollapalooza Festival Berlin on Sept. 10, 2023.

    Britta Pedersen/picture alliance via Getty Images)

    Derulo was acting as Gibson’s mentor and supervising agent in a deal he struck for her with Atlantic Records and his own label, Future History, Gibson said.

    Her lawsuit claims that before they recorded any music, Derulo advised her that in order to succeed, she would have to participate in “goat skin and fish scales,” which she interpreted as “conducting sex rituals and doing cocaine.”

    Derulo invited Gibson to dinner and drinks “on multiple occasions,” according to the lawsuit, but she turned him down because she wanted to keep their relationship “purely professional.” But at the studio, she said, he pressured her to drink alcohol with him, even though she told him she doesn’t drink.

    “Compounding the sexualized nature” of his drink invitations, Gibson claimed, he deliberately scheduled their recording sessions for late at night, when he continued to pressure her to drink.

    In November 2021, Gibson met with Derulo and Atlantic executives in New York City. Another woman, who is not identified in the lawsuit, allegedly told her privately that Derulo only invited Gibson to the meeting because he wanted to have sex with her.

    Gibson said that when she asked Derulo about the other woman after the meeting, he “lost control,” waving his arms across her face and screaming, which made her feel “trapped and afraid” in the car.

    Gibson was alone, she told HuffPost, on several other occasions when she claimed Derulo was “being aggressive” and yelling at her. She said that her mother, who was her manager, was with her in her final recording session with him in June 2022, when Gibson alleges that he yelled and “charged towards” her because he was angry that the two women were late. He calmed down and tried to hug her, she said, but she ran to the bathroom, crying, she said.

    One of Derulo’s engineers tried to comfort her, describing his behavior as “just tough love,” Gibson’s lawsuit claims.

    “It’s not tough love,” she told HuffPost. “I know about abusive men. I shouldn’t be in that predicament in a professional setting … I could have been pulled to the side to talk about these things or approached differently. And I was embarrassed.”

    Emaza Gibson claims in a lawsuit that Jason Derulo pressured her to drink and acted aggressively toward her before he dropped her from his label.
    Emaza Gibson claims in a lawsuit that Jason Derulo pressured her to drink and acted aggressively toward her before he dropped her from his label.

    The next day, Gibson’s mother contacted Derulo’s manager, Frank Harris, who responded that Derulo “is going to do whatever he’s going to do” and that “I’m not his master,” according to the suit.

    Harris and Atlantic Records, also named in the lawsuit, did not respond to HuffPost’s requests for comment.

    As a result of Derulo’s aggression, Gibson said, she feels uncomfortable around other men.

    Gibson’s attorney, Ron Zambrano, called Derulo’s behavior “despicable” and “another example of the music industry’s dark underbelly.”

    “He not only broke promises and breached contracts, but his threats of physical harm and unconscionable sexual advances toward this young woman who is just trying to break into the industry were outrageous and illegal,” Zambrano said in a statement shared with HuffPost. “Executives knew of Derulo’s behavior without a care. No one should have to suffer through such treatment by their employer, and in this case, by someone who preyed on the plaintiff’s vulnerabilities and desire to succeed, then just threw her away like garbage when he didn’t get his way.”

    Gibson is seeking a jury trial and compensation for lost wages and benefits, legal fees and medical expenses related to the emotional distress she claims she suffered.

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  • Forced kiss claim leads to ‘helplessness’ for accuser who turned to Olympics abuse-fighting agency

    Forced kiss claim leads to ‘helplessness’ for accuser who turned to Olympics abuse-fighting agency

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    DENVER — When Kirsten Hawkes, a one-time elite fencer, reached out to her childhood coach for advice about starting her own fencing club, their meeting turned awkward right away.

    It began, she said, with an unwanted kiss on the lips when the two met at a bar during a fencing tournament in Minneapolis last October. A few hours later, as she and the coach were saying good-bye, Hawkes said he forcibly kissed her — “stuck his tongue in my mouth,” she told investigators.

    Hawkes filed a complaint against the then-assistant coach with the U.S. Paralympic team to the U.S. Center for SafeSport, whose mandate is to combat sex abuse in Olympic sports. But it didn’t take long for her to realize she was pitted against not just the coach, but one of the most renowned sports attorneys in the United States.

    “It just led to a sense of helplessness,” Hawkes, 36, told The Associated Press about the process that led to her allegations against the 52-year-old coach ultimately being rejected.

    “The whole point is, it shouldn’t be an undue burden for a victim to come forward. But that’s how it ended up.”

    To Hawkes, the 10-month-long ordeal illustrates why the Denver-based SafeSport Center has come under increasing scrutiny for what critics, from athletes to high-ranking Olympics officials, contend is an opaque, confusing process that often takes far too long to resolve cases.

    A draft report in September by a congressionally appointed commission obtained by the AP concluded the center was “in potential crisis.” More than half of the 1,756 athletes, coaches and administrators in the Olympic movement surveyed said SafeSport wasn’t meeting its goals; nearly 25% disagreed or strongly disagreed when asked whether the center was successful in its mandate to sanction sex abuse in Olympic sports.

    Formed in 2017 as the depths of former gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar’s crimes were being exposed by hundreds of his victims, SafeSport is responsible for resolving abuse cases involving not just Olympians but all athletes in Olympic-related sports down to the grassroots level — a scope that covers more than 11 million athletes, including those like Hawkes.

    Since then, more than 1,900 offenders have been placed on SafeSport’s disciplinary database — showing, it says, that efforts to corral abusers who might otherwise go unchecked have been successful.

    But Hawkes’ former coach never went on that list — not after SafeSport handed him a three-month probation in May, six months after its initial hearing in December, nor after he was immediately removed from his Paralympics coaching job by USA Fencing. Then, an eight-hour arbitration hearing in August overturned the probation and other sanctions.

    In her ruling, the arbitrator noted her decision was partly influenced by the “different and contradictory messages” sent by the kiss that began the evening.

    The AP is not identifying the coach because his name never landed on SafeSport’s disciplinary database. His probation only meant he had to disclose his status to anyone he worked for and faced harsher punishment if he committed another violation.

    Hawkes’ complaint also included abuse accusations against the coach when she was a child in Huntington, New York. She told SafeSport investigators he touched her between her legs, squeezed her thigh, poked and touched her breasts using his fencing foil, and made comments about her breasts, starting when she was 12.

    SafeSport told Hawkes those allegations were not pursued because New York state law and fencing rules at the time would not have resulted in charges or sanctions.

    That policy undercuts what SafeSport touts as one of its biggest strengths — its authority to pursue cases without regard to statues of limitation.

    “It’s frustrating to the center, as it is rightly to claimants, when rules or laws did not exist that prohibited conduct in the past” that SafeSport rules would punish today, communications director Hilary Nemchik said in an email.

    Nemchik said the center is constantly exploring ways to improve and next year will announce changes stemming from feedback and internal review “on how to make its processes more timely, understandable and trauma-informed.”

    Hawkes said the center’s response fed into her belief that the process is flawed if it won’t even consider older allegations like hers.

    “It has to be consistent,” she said. “If it doesn’t work for everybody, then it doesn’t work for anybody.”

    Hawkes said as a kid, with her father not in the picture, her reaction to the coach’s alleged behavior was less horrified than it it should have been.

    “I think about it now and it’s really disturbing,” she said. “There are a lot of things that happened when I was a kid and young adult where it was just less awkward” to let it pass, “than to just say ‘No.’”

    Hawkes also said she was thinking about good memories from her childhood fencing days when she decided to meet with the coach to pick his brain about a business venture she was considering to open her own fencing center in San Diego.

    Both said the evening began with the kiss on the lips, but in arbitration testimony, they disagreed over who initiated it.

    Hawkes testified the coach began talking to her about her sex life and interlocking legs with her under the bar. She said she was uncomfortable, but tried to make the best of a difficult situation because she knew they would cross paths again at the tournament.

    She said she answered “No” when the coach asked if she would invite him to her hotel room. As they parted ways in front of her hotel, Hawkes said she reached out for a hug and the coach leaned down and forcibly stuck his tongue in her mouth.

    “I was like, ‘No, no, no, no, no, no, no,’” she testified, adding that she pushed him away.

    The arbitration decision says the coach “acknowledged kissing claimant that evening, stating he thought she wanted him to kiss her” — something Hawkes adamantly maintained was far from the vibe she was putting out.

    In seeking evidence the kiss was unwanted, Hawkes said she asked the hotel for surveillance video and was told it was caught on camera. But the hotel refused to hand it over without a subpoena.

    Hawkes said she filed a report with Minneapolis police but was told an unwanted kiss — the likes of which has dominated headlines in recent weeks following Spain’s Women’s World Cup soccer victory, prompting an international outcry and the resignation of the Spanish soccer federation chief — did not rise to the level of sexual misconduct needed to open an investigation.

    SafeSport, though chartered by Congress and acting as a quasi-legal agency, does not have the authority to compel the hotel to turn over the surveillance video. Hawkes said she realized she would have to hire an attorney and initiate a civil proceeding to access it, which she couldn’t afford.

    Nemchik said because the center isn’t designed to act like a criminal or civil court system, it limits respondents’ ability to call witnesses and subpoena evidence — powers she said wouldn’t “be appropriate and would potentially lead to more trauma for those involved.”

    But to Hawkes, the arbitration hearing prompted by the coach’s appeal of SafeSport’s sanctions was, in fact, traumatic. It included cross-examination and what she described as “slut shaming” by the coach’s lawyer, Howard Jacobs, a top sports attorney involved in some 100 SafeSport cases over the agency’s six years.

    In arbitration cases, a SafeSport attorney is tasked with defending the agency’s sanctions. Claimants such as Hawkes are not required to participate, but she said she thought it was important to be heard.

    The coach “was still working with children, and working with other fencers and athletes, and justice hadn’t been served,” Hawkes said.

    It put her in a position to field what Jacobs concedes were tough-but-necessary questions — about Hawkes’ sexual history and her actions the night she met the coach.

    It also led Hawkes to wish she’d hired her own attorney — something she said she believed was unnecessary according to SafeSport rules and a center intake coordinator.

    Also playing a key role was USA Fencing, which removed the coach from his Paralympic team job and limited his one-on-one contact with athletes after the complaint.

    This was the latest in a line of cases in which a national agency overseeing an Olympic sport has been at odds with SafeSport, which has primary jurisdiction over abuse cases. In this instance, SafeSport imposed less-stringent sanctions than USA Fencing. The coach did not get his job back after the arbitration, but USA Fencing’s other penalties were lifted, meaning the coach was able to return to training fencers who might make the Paralympic team.

    USA Fencing CEO Phil Andrews expressed frustration about cases in which SafeSport rules sometimes hamstring his agency and others that “wish to act in the interests of safety and abuse-prevention of its members and are prevented to do so because of jurisdictional control.”

    At a September hearing in Washington by a congressionally appointed committee looking into the Olympics, witnesses took special aim at SafeSport’s arbitration process.

    “It has routinely resulted in re-traumatization of victims and reversal of well-founded claims,” said Marci Hamilton of the advocacy group Child USA.

    SafeSport CEO Ju’Riese Colon called arbitration “one of the stickiest pieces we have to deal with.”

    Even Jacobs, who estimated that about two-thirds of the 40 cases he’s taken to arbitration have resulted in sanctions being overturned or reduced, thinks the SafeSport system is broken.

    “I certainly wouldn’t say the arbitration process is perfect, but they have to give somebody who’s accused some reasonable process to challenge it,” he said.

    Hawkes called arbitration the final step of a frustrating process that left her feeling overmatched and barely heard.

    “I didn’t feel like I could trust anyone,” she said. “I felt like I was dealing with this useless, for-show organization that didn’t solve anything.”

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  • Russell Brand Faces New Allegation, Woman Says He Exposed Himself To Her And ‘Laughed’ About It On Radio Show

    Russell Brand Faces New Allegation, Woman Says He Exposed Himself To Her And ‘Laughed’ About It On Radio Show

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    By Corey Atad.

    Another woman has come forward with accusations against Russell Brand.

    BBC News reported this week that a woman is claiming the comedian exposed himself to her and then laughed about it on his BBC radio show minutes later.


    READ MORE:
    YouTube Suspends Russell Brand From Making Money Off The Streaming Site After Sex Assault Claims

    According to the woman, the incident occurred in 2008 in the same building as BBC’s office in Los Angeles, and that she was stunned in the moment.

    Brand had shown up at her door with his team to pre-record an episode of Radio 2’s “The Russell Brand Show”.

    While in the bathroom searching the medicine cabinet for sinus drugs, the woman said that she felt someone behind her.

    She turned around to find a man’s crotch in her face, recalling, “I was startled and got up and I realized it was the man that I’d let in — Russell.”

    Brand allegedly told her he was going to call her Better, and when she told him that was not her name, he replied,  “Well, I’m gonna f**k you.”

    “And I said: ‘No, you’re not,’” she recalled, at which point she claimed that Brand pulled his penis out and onto his hand, adding that he “pretty much served it to me as you would be serving someone some food.”

    Feeling trapped in the bathroom, the woman said that she bantered with Brand a bit, before he finally put his penis back in his pants, and he was called away by his team.

    Only minutes later, Brand seemingly joked about the encounter laughing with his co-presenter Matt Morgan who said, “It’s been 25 minutes since he showed his willy to a lady.”

    “Very easy to judge! Very easy to judge!” Brand said.

    “The receptionist…” Morgan said, adding, “Receive this!”


    READ MORE:
    Katharine McPhee Responds As Resurfaced Clip Shows Russell Brand Bouncing Her On His Knee During ‘Tonight Show’ Appearance

    The woman, who never worked as a receptionist, said, “I feel ashamed, but more so I wonder had something been done, perhaps there would have been fewer women he would have done horrible things to, which we’re reading about in the papers now.”

    In a statement about the allegations, Morgan said, “I was not aware until now of the nature of this encounter. I have expressed my regret now looking back at the impact of the show, and this is a further example. The recent coverage has been very distressing to read and I reiterate my absolute condemnation of any form of mistreatment of women.”

    While the BBC was informed of the incident in 2019, the woman never made a formal complaint, and no formal action was taken by the network.

    The network has said that the allegations will be investigated as part of their general review into Brand’s tenure at the BBC.

    Earlier this month, The Times UK and Channel 4 published a years-long investigation into allegations against Brand, including four women who have accused him of rape, sexual assault and other misconduct.

    Brand has denied the allegations.

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    Corey Atad

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  • World must learn from Bosnian war in dealing with sexual violence in Ukraine conflict, report says | CNN

    World must learn from Bosnian war in dealing with sexual violence in Ukraine conflict, report says | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The world must learn from the mistakes made after the war in Bosnia to avoid putting Ukrainian victims of rape and conflict-related sexual violence through decades of trauma, a new expert report has warned.

    Ukrainian prosecutors and independent investigators from the United Nations and other international organizations have said there is mounting evidence that Russian troops are using rape and sexual violence as part of their campaign of terror in Ukraine – similar to the systematic use of rape by the Bosnian Serb army during the Bosnian war in the early 1990s. Russia has denied the allegations.

    The report by the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, a US-based think tank, is set to be released and discussed in a debate in the UK Parliament on Thursday.

    It says that if the world wants to avoid the repeat of the trauma faced by the victims in Bosnia, it needs to focus on the victims first in Ukraine. Many in Bosnia have waited for decades before coming forward and the vast majority of sexual crimes committed there have gone unpunished.

    “Rape was one of the main aspects of the war in Bosnia and yet when we look at the Dayton Peace Accords, there were no women around the table, there were no survivors of conflict-related sexual violence,” said Emily Prey, one of the report’s lead authors, referring to the 1995 agreement that ended the Bosnian war.

    “They didn’t have a say in the peace (negotiations), and so instead of a real, sustainable, lasting peace, the Dayton Accords actually only froze the conflict,” she told CNN.

    Prey said that when considering survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, it is crucial to put aside biases and stigma and make sure everyone who is impacted is included.

    “We often think sexual violence is a crime that only happens to women, but it’s a crime that happens to everyone. Women and girls, men, boys, people with diverse gender identities,” Prey said.

    “Men who were victims of conflict-related sexual violence in the Bosnian war are only just coming forward to say that they survived this crime, and so they have gone decades without receiving the support that they need. And we’re seeing this in Ukraine as well.”

    Prey added that children born of wartime rape are often forgotten as well. Between 2,000 and 4,000 children were born just from the documented cases of wartime rapes in Bosnia, although the real number is likely much higher.

    “If we don’t really think about conflict-related sexual violence enough, then we especially don’t think about children born of wartime rape. In Bosnia, they were called the ‘Invisible Children’… and they have been fighting for years to get recognition because they’ve faced barriers and difficulties throughout their lives,” she added.

    The report also says it will be crucial for Ukraine’s allies to be ready to prosecute perpetrators on behalf of Ukraine. This can happen either under the UN’s Genocide Convention or in national courts under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows national or international courts to prosecute individuals for crimes against international law committed in other territories.

    Prey said a recent case of a Bosnian Serb soldier charged with murder and rape that was transferred from Bosnia to Montenegro, where the accused was living, was a good example of this mechanism working well.

    The International Criminal Court has already issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and launched an investigation into alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine. Several countries including Lithuania, Germany, Sweden, and Spain have all opened their own investigations into alleged Russian atrocities.

    However, Prey said these cases could be costly and lengthy, which means there needs to be an extra focus on providing immediate help to the victims, including psychological and social support, free health care and free legal aid.

    “They might not see any conclusion to a court case for 10 or 20 years,” she said. “And survivors of conflict-related sexual violence, they deserve more than that. They deserve justice for themselves, accountability, but they also need to live, they need to take care of their families, they need to pay their bills and they need the support for this.”

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  • ‘Sound of Freedom’ Subject Tim Ballard Denies Sexual Misconduct Claims

    ‘Sound of Freedom’ Subject Tim Ballard Denies Sexual Misconduct Claims

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    Weeks after the blockbuster release of Sound of Freedom, a controversial film about the anti-child-trafficking activist Tim Ballard (played onscreen by Jim Caviezel), director Alejandro Monteverde told Vanity Fair’s Eve Batey that he was taken aback by the discord the film provoked. “I never intended to make a movie to glorify Tim Ballard. It was a movie to call attention to the problem, the subject matter, the darkness,” Monteverde said. “I always thought this was a movie that was going to bring people together.”

    Months later, the film—which has grossed more than $210 million worldwide, partially due to a pay-it-forward model that asks audience members to help combat child trafficking by purchasing additional movie tickets for people who wouldn’t otherwise see the film—has been in the cross fires of two separate sexual misconduct scandals, along with a charge involving one of its backers.

    Ballard himself, who is mulling a Senate run for the seat Mitt Romney is vacating, has been accused of sexual misconduct. On Monday, a Vice News report unearthed allegations made against Ballard relating to his departure in late June from the anti-child-trafficking organization Operation Underground Railroad (OUR), which he launched in 2013. Ballard, a former Department of Homeland Security official, was accused of misconduct by seven female OUR employees while on undercover overseas missions to expose child trafficking.

    Ballard reportedly invited women to pose as his “wife” on these operations, and “would then allegedly coerce those women into sharing a bed or showering together, claiming that it was necessary to fool traffickers,” per Vice. He is also accused of sending at least one woman an explicit photo of himself and of asking another “how far she was willing to go” to save child victims of sex trafficking.

    Ballard denied the allegations after the report’s publication. “As with all of the assaults on my character and integrity over many years, the latest tabloid-driven sexual allegations are false,” Ballard said in a statement released through The Spear Fund, an organization combating child sex trafficking for which he is a senior adviser. “They are baseless inventions designed to destroy me and the movement we have built to end the trafficking and exploitation of vulnerable children. During my time at O.U.R., I designed strict guidelines for myself and our operators in the field. Sexual contact was prohibited, and I led by example. Given our meticulous attention to this issue, any suggestion of inappropriate sexual contact is categorically false.”

    More reporting by Vice journalists Anna Merlan and Tim Marchman dropped on Tuesday. According to their reporting, one of the film’s executive producers, Paul Hutchinson, touched the naked breasts of a presumably underage trafficking victim during a 2016 undercover operation in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Their piece cites footage of the incident captured by those working with OUR on a 2016 documentary and a 2019 TV series featuring Hutchinson and later obtained by the Davis County Attorney’s Office.

    The Vice piece quotes from descriptions the Attorney’s Office provided as part of a federal criminal probe into Ballard and OUR. The FBI’s investigation was closed this year without any charges being brought. Documents related to the incidents, which can be found here, show Hutchinson voicing concern over whether he’d be prosecuted by Mexican authorities for touching the apparently underage woman’s breasts.

    In another video, Hutchinson can be seen asking a trafficker, who was displaying pictures of sex workers, for younger girls. “There is no suggestion in the files that Hutchinson’s behavior was aimed at anything but identifying and exposing traffickers, but federal agents with extensive experience working undercover overseas told Vice News that Hutchinson’s methods ran contrary to best practice,” the piece states. The article also raised experts’ concerns that Hutchinson could have helped create demand for victims rather than exposing their perpetrators.

    “There is a lot to the story, a very dangerous situation and I am happy to let the world know the details when the time is right,” Hutchinson wrote in an email to Vice. “Every operator who was present stands behind me in how I reacted to the situation. I have zero reservations as to how I handled myself undercover. You don’t find trafficked children in the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton. We had to go to the most dangerous places on the planet to find the children. All my undercover work was done with integrity and honor.” Hutchinson also said that he had a sworn affidavit from Mexican federal police to prove that the female whose breasts he touched was over 18. Vice noted that, despite multiple requests, Hutchinson never provided a copy of this document.

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    Savannah Walsh

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  • Police probe report of dad being told 11-year-old girl could face charges in images sent to man

    Police probe report of dad being told 11-year-old girl could face charges in images sent to man

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    Columbus police say they are investigating a report that a father was told by officers that his 11-year-old daughter could face charges after he called to report that she had been the victim of an “online predator.”

    ByThe Associated Press

    September 18, 2023, 7:00 PM

    COLUMBUS, Ohio — Columbus police say they are investigating a report that a father was told by officers that his 11-year-old daughter could face charges after he called to report that she had been the victim of an “online predator.”

    A video posted on social media shows the unidentified man talking to officers who came to his door in answer to his complaint of a man having manipulated his daughter into sending images. The man says he wanted someone to talk to her to get her “to realize what this was” and then suggests “reality is” there isn’t much he can do.

    One officer is heard in the video saying his daughter “could probably get charged with child porn” if she produced the images. Told the girl is only 11, the officer replies “Doesn’t matter. She’s still making porn.” After the man says she is being manipulated by an adult on the internet, the same officer asks whether the girl is taking pictures, and the man then breaks off the conversation and the officers depart, according to the video.

    It’s unclear when the interaction took place, but the social media poster said the police response occurred six hours after the man’s call to police.

    Columbus police said Monday that the city’s Department of the Inspector General, “which investigates complaints of misconduct and/or excessive use of force by sworn personnel, has opened an inquiry into this incident.” The department said it is investigating the video posted on social media “involving two officers responding to a call for service.”

    Police said they regard all sexual misconduct allegations” with the utmost seriousness” and “incidents involving minors are handled with the highest degree of concern.” Detectives with the sexual assault unit were immediately notified and have since initiated an investigation.

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  • Larry Nassar survivor says Michigan State’s latest mess shows it hasn’t learned from past

    Larry Nassar survivor says Michigan State’s latest mess shows it hasn’t learned from past

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    EAST LANSING, Mich. — EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan State missed an opportunity to provide some clarity about who was aware of sexual harassment allegations against Mel Tucker and what school leaders knew about them when its athletic director and interim president announced the coach was being suspended without pay.

    It was just the latest misstep in a long line of them.

    The institution has stumbled from scandal to scandal in recent years, none bigger or more devastating than the one it enabled with disgraced sports doctor Larry Nassar. After a female Michigan State graduate filed a complaint about Nassar’s abuse in 2014, a school investigation found he didn’t violate school policy.

    Nassar went on to shatter more lives and it cost the school priceless damage to its reputation along with more than $500 million, including a $4.5 million fine from the Education Department for failing to adequately respond to sexual assault complaints.

    And now, Michigan State has another mess.

    “It’s a repeat of 2014,” Rachael Denhollander, the first woman to publicly identify herself as a victim of Nassar, said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. “One of the biggest questions back then was what did the school president and board know.”

    Brenda Tracy, an activist and rape survivor, alleged Tucker sexually harassed her during a phone call in April 2022. Tracy filed a complaint with the school’s Title IX office eight months later and that is when athletic director Alan Haller was informed an allegation sexual misconduct had been made against Tucker, school spokeswoman Emily Guerrant said Tuesday.

    While the investigation into the allegations was completed July 25, Michigan State interim President Teresa Woodruff and the school’s board of trustees did not know the details until Sunday, when USA Today published its report, Guerrant said.

    “They’re either lying or grossly ignorant,” Denhollander told the AP. “They’re using victim protection to cover their own ignorance and that’s nonsense.”

    Johanna Kononen, the law and policy director with the Michigan Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence, said Michigan State’s Title IX procedures are confidential and the only people privy to information in the report and investigation are the parties themselves, their advisers and the finder of fact.

    Still, Kononen said the process is not completely confidential.

    “It seems unlikely, in a case involving such a prominent respondent, that university officials were not aware of the allegations against coach Tucker for the last 10 months,” she told the AP. “This defensive posture is disappointing where MSU is very aware of its historical failure to prioritize and protect its community from sexual impropriety.”

    The 51-year-old Tucker, who is married and has two children, said the allegations against him are “completely false” and the intimate phone call he had with Tracy was consensual and outside the scope of both Title IX and school policy.

    Tracy’s attorney, Karen Truszkowski, said her client’s identity was disclosed by an outside party, leading to the USA Today report that exposed explicit details of the investigation.

    “Brenda Tracy had no intention of publicly disclosing her identity,” Truszkowski said Tuesday. “She was and continues to be committed to complying with and concluding the MSU internal investigative process.”

    Guerrant said the university wanted to ensure a fair and comprehensive process and create a safe environment for individuals to come forward without a fear of institutional retaliation or breach of privacy.

    “We are dismayed to learn the confidentiality was broken in this case,” she said.

    A hearing is scheduled for the week of Oct. 5 determine if Tucker violated the school’s sexual harassment and exploitation policy.

    Tucker is in the third year of a $95 million, 10-year contract and if he is fired for cause, the school would not have to pay him what’s remaining on his deal. Michigan State may fire Tucker for cause if he “engages in any conduct which constitutes moral turpitude or which, in the University’s sole judgement, would tend to bring public disrespect, contempt or ridicule upon the university,” according to his contract.

    Officially, the school said “unprofessional behavior and not living up to the core values of the department and university,” was the reason Tucker was suspended.

    Tracy is known for her work with college teams, educating athletes about sexual violence. Michigan State paid her $10,000 to share her story with the team.

    “By any metric, even if it was consensual, what he did was a violation of the school’s ethics policy because he initiated sexual relations with a contracted employee,” Denhollander said. “When he admitted that in March, he could have been immediately fired if the proper processes were in place at Michigan State and if the board was trained — or if they cared about this.”

    ___

    Follow Larry Lage at https://twitter.com/larrylage

    ___

    AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll

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  • A new documentary reexamines the Louis CK scandal, 6 years later

    A new documentary reexamines the Louis CK scandal, 6 years later

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    TORONTO — Louis C.K. came to the Toronto International Film Festival six years ago with the hotly anticipated “I Love You, Daddy,” just as allegations of sexual misconduct against the comedian were gaining new prominence.

    The movie sold at TIFF for $5 million, but before it could reach theaters, its premiere was canceled and its release scuttled. After years of rumors, a New York Times article in November that year detailed the allegations of several women who described incidents in which C.K. masturbated in front of female stand-up colleagues.

    Now, a new documentary premiering in Toronto, where C.K.’s downfall began, is delving into one of most debated #MeToo cases. “Sorry/Not Sorry,” directed by Caroline Suh and Cara Mones and produced by the Times, examines the allegations, the fallout for those who came forward and C.K.’s comeback in comedy.

    “In the early years, the advice I was given was: Don’t make this movie,” says Suh, who directed the Barack Obama-narrated docuseries “Working: What We Do All Day.”

    Suh, herself, was a big fan of Louis C.K. and she didn’t immediately register the allegations against the comedian as damning — especially in comparison to other #MeToo cases like Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby.

    “Honestly, my first reaction was: Is it that bad?” Suh recalls.

    “Sorry/Not Sorry,” which was acquired by Greenwich Entertainment for distribution after its TIFF premiere, reexamines the scandal and its aftermath, particularly in light of C.K.’s thriving comeback. The comic, who acknowledged “these stories are true” in his 2017 apology, won a Grammy for best comedy album last year and in January sold out Madison Square Garden.

    To Mones, it appeared that many people seemed hesitant to talk about the thorny issues of consent and power when it came to C.K. — and that was a good reason to make the film.

    “This lived in a gray area for so many people. That felt unusual among all the stories that were starting to come out,” says Mones. “There are a lot of questions to explore.”

    The filmmakers especially wanted to detail the experience of the women who went public with their encounters with C.K. Some struggled to find success in comedy afterward or were heckled online by his supporters. Comedian Abby Schachner, who notes C.K. didn’t ask permission before masturbating while talking to her on the phone in 2003, speaks about her fears of being publicly defined by the scandal.

    “There were questions to be asked and perspectives to be brought forth. And those perspectives are really of the women who came forth,” says producer Kathleen Lingo. “What happens when a woman says the truth? What happens to her?”

    There are several notable people from the comedy world interviewed in the film, including comedian Jen Kirkman, who first alluded to some of C.K.’s behavior in a podcast in 2015. Comedian Megan Koester, “Parks and “Recreation” co-creator Michael Schur and Noam Dworman, owner of New York’s Comedy Cellar, also appear in the film.

    But it’s also notable who isn’t in the film. Louis C.K. isn’t interviewed and didn’t respond to the filmmakers’ requests to comment. And the filmmakers say nearly every prominent comic they reached out to didn’t want to be interviewed.

    At the same time, C.K. has returned to stand-up and often performed material about the scandal. In his 2020 self-distributed special “Sincerely Louis C.K,” he began by asking the crowd about their last few years. “Anybody else get in global amounts of trouble?” he said.

    Later in the special, he more specifically addressed the misconduct incidents.

    “If you want to do it with someone else, you need to ask first,” said C.K. “But if they say yes, you still don’t get to go ‘Woo!’ and charge ahead. You need to check in often, I guess that’s what I’d say. It’s not always clear how people feel.”

    Whether comments like these have been enough to constitute atonement is one of the overarching questions of “Sorry/Not Sorry.”

    “Our intent was to make a film that was very fact-based,” says Suh. “We don’t want to speculate: Why did he do this? Just laying out the facts might be helpful.”

    “Sorry/Not Sorry,” which is expected to be released next year, arrives after a series of setbacks for the #MeToo movement. The filmmakers are hoping to refocus the conversation.

    “It feels like every time there’s a news event, it’s like: ‘#MeToo is failing’ or ‘#MeToo is succeeding,’” says Lingo. “It’s been, what, six years, and I think it’s an incredibly groundbreaking movement. We’re still in the middle of it.”

    ___

    Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP

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  • Suspended Michigan State coach calls harassment allegations false and outside scope of Title IX

    Suspended Michigan State coach calls harassment allegations false and outside scope of Title IX

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    Suspended Michigan State coach Mel Tucker said Monday that allegations of sexual harassment against him are “completely false” and the intimate phone call he had with activist and rape survivor Brenda Tracy is outside the scope of both Title IX and school policy.

    In a two-page statement released by a Detroit law firm, Tucker sharply criticized Tracy for suggesting their relationship was anything but consensual and ripped the months-long investigation into his behavior as deeply flawed.

    “I can only conclude that there is an ulterior motive designed to terminate my contract based on some other factor such as a desire to avoid any Nasser taint, or my race or gender,” said Tucker, who is Black.

    The university was fined $4.5 million four years ago by the Education Department for failing to adequately respond to sexual assault complaints against Larry Nassar, a campus sports doctor who molested elite gymnasts and other female athletes. The school has also settled lawsuits filed by Nassar victims for $500 million.

    Michigan State athletic director Alan Haller suspended Tucker without pay Sunday, less than 24 hours after Tracy’s allegations became public in a USA Today report.

    The university hired a Title IX attorney to investigate Tracy’s complaint and the investigation concluded July 25. A hearing is scheduled for the week of Oct. 5 to determine if Tucker violated the school’s sexual harassment and exploitation policy.

    “The proceedings initiated by Ms. Tracy are devoid of any semblance of fairness for any matter of this importance,” Tucker said. “That is why I share some truth with you now.”

    Tucker is in the third year of a $95 million, 10-year contract and if he is fired for cause, the school would not have to pay him what’s remaining on his deal.

    The school may fire Tucker for cause if he “engages in any conduct which constitutes moral turpitude or which, in the University’s sole judgement, would tend to bring public disrespect, contempt or ridicule upon the university,” according to his contract. The school also was able to suspend Tucker, without pay, if he “materially breaches” his contract.

    “Ms. Tracy’s attorney told us from the very beginning that I should not lose my job over her allegations, but that it would take a lot of money to make it go away,” Tucker said. “Her twisting of our personal relationship months after it concluded is designed to revive her career and destroy my life, precipitated by her greed.”

    Tracy became friends with Tucker over her advocacy work, but that relationship took a turn in April 2022 when Tucker masturbated during a phone call with her, according to USA Today.

    Tucker acknowledged to investigators last spring that he masturbated during the phone call with Tracy, but insisted it was consensual “phone sex.”

    “We developed a mutual friendship that grew into an intimate, adult relationship,” said the 51-year-old Tucker, who is married and has two children. “At this point, my wife and I had been estranged for a long time.”

    Tracy is known for her work with college teams, educating athletes about sexual violence. She has spoken to Michigan State’s team multiple times. She has not returned multiple messages seeking additional comment.

    “While I am saddened by Ms. Tracy’s disclosure of the sensitive nature of this call, let me be perfectly clear — it was an entirely mutual, private event between two adults living at opposite ends of the country,” Tucker said. “She initiated the discussion that night, sent me a provocative picture of the two of us together, suggested what she may look like without clothes, and never once during the 36 minutes did she object in any manner, much less hang up the phone.”

    ___

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  • Michigan State University football coach Mel Tucker suspended without pay amid investigation into reported accusation of sexual harassment | CNN

    Michigan State University football coach Mel Tucker suspended without pay amid investigation into reported accusation of sexual harassment | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Michigan State University announced Sunday it has suspended head football coach Mel Tucker without pay, less than a day after USA Today reported he has been under investigation about alleged sexual harassment.

    Vice president and director of athletics Alan Haller said at a news conference Tucker is the subject of an ongoing investigation that began in December. An investigative report was submitted in July and a formal hearing will take place the week of October 5, Haller said.

    According to the USA Today report, published Saturday night, Tucker is alleged to have made sexual comments and masturbated while on a phone call with Brenda Tracy, an advocate and rape survivor.

    Tracy reported the call to the university’s Title IX office, USA Today reported. “The idea that someone could know me and say they understand my trauma but then re-inflict that trauma on me is so disgusting to me, it’s hard for me to even wrap my mind around it,” Tracy told USA Today. “It’s like he sought me out just to betray me.”

    In a letter to investigators, Tucker characterized his and Tracy’s relationship as “mutually consensual and intimate,” according to USA Today.

    “I am not proud of my judgment and I am having difficulty forgiving myself for getting into this situation, but I did not engage in misconduct by any definition,” he wrote, according to USA Today.

    CNN has not independently verified the details of the report.

    An attorney for Tracy, Karen Truszkowski, said no police report was filed. She declined to share any documents or comment further.

    “As you can imagine, this is a delicate issue and I have to balance the public interest with protecting my client,” Truszkowski said.

    CNN also reached out to Tucker’s agent following the announcement of his suspension but has not heard back.

    Tracy started the nonprofit Set The Expectation, where she speaks to athletes about ending sexual violence, according to her website. Tracy was raped in 1998 by four college football players, leading to her advocacy.

    She served as an honorary captain for Michigan State’s spring football game in 2022, and the football team posted a photo on Instagram of Tucker and Tracy together.

    “We are excited to welcome (Tracy) back to campus as our honorary captain for Saturday’s spring game!” the team wrote.

    Tucker, a longtime coach in college and the NFL over the past two decades, became Michigan State’s head coach in 2020. In his second season, the team went a sterling 11-2, and he signed a massive 10-year, $95 million contract that made him one of the highest paid coaches in all of college football. Last year, though, the team finished a disappointing 5-7, including blowout losses to rivals Michigan and Ohio State.

    During Tucker’s suspension, secondary coach Harlon Barnett will fill in as acting head coach, Haller announced, and former MSU head coach Mark Dantonio will become an associate head coach. The Spartans play the Washington Huskies at home this Saturday.

    The long shadow of Larry Nassar

    The investigation comes as the university has continued to face scrutiny over its past handling of sexual abuse allegations against Larry Nassar, the former Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics doctor who abused hundreds of young girls and women.

    At Nassar’s sentencing in Michigan in 2018, dozens of women came forward with stories of his abuse and the ways Michigan State University ignored their claims and enabled his actions. The university agreed to pay $500 million to settle lawsuits brought by 332 victims.

    Nassar was sentenced in Michigan to up to 175 years in prison after pleading guilty to seven counts of criminal sexual conduct. A total of 156 women gave victim impact statements in court.

    An attorney for a group of Nassar’s victims sued Michigan State University in July, alleging the school’s board of trustees held “illegal secret votes” to prevent the release of thousands of documents in the case, according to the court filing. A spokesperson for the university declined to comment at the time.

    The university pushed back on comparisons between the two cases.

    “This morning’s news might sound like the MSU of old; it was not,” interim president Teresa K. Woodruff said Sunday afternoon. “It is not because an independent, unbiased investigation is and continues to be conducted.”

    Woodruff made note of counseling resources available for anyone who may be affected by this news and mentioned the Center for Survivors and Office for Civil Rights on campus.

    “If you have heard or experienced or know of behavior that does not seem appropriate, please know that you have the support and resources here at MSU,” Woodruff said.

    Kenny Jacoby, the USA Today reporter who broke the story, told CNN’s Poppy Harlow and Phil Mattingly on “CNN This Morning” on Monday how the Nassar case has left a long shadow on campus.

    “There is deep mistrust on the MSU campus from students, from employees, from alumni and in the East Lansing community after the betrayal that was the Larry Nassar scandal,” Jacoby said. “They repeatedly missed opportunities to stop one of the most prolific sexual abusers in American history.

    “So when MSU takes this long to suspend the coach without pay – people tend to think of that as they’re covering this up, and that doesn’t sit well with most of these people.”

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  • Danny Masterson sentenced to 30 years to life in prison in rape case | CNN

    Danny Masterson sentenced to 30 years to life in prison in rape case | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Actor Danny Masterson was sentenced on Thursday to 30 years to life in prison after he was convicted on two counts of rape in a Los Angeles courtroom in June, according to Deputy D.A. Reinhold Mueller of the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office.

    CNN has reached out to representatives for Masterson for comment.

    The “That ’70s Show” star, 47, was found guilty in June on two of three counts of rape. The jury was deadlocked on the third count.

    Masterson was taken into custody following the verdict earlier this year, and on Thursday received the maximum penalty for the crimes.

    Masterson had pleaded not guilty to raping three women at his home in separate incidents between 2001 and 2003.

    The sentence on Thursday stems from the second trial in the case, which began on April 24 and went to jury on May 17. Masterson was represented by defense lawyers Shawn Holley and Philip Cohen. Deputy D.A. Ariel Anson and Deputy D.A. Mueller prosecuted the case.

    The first trial began in October 2022, and a mistrial was declared the following month after the jury remained deadlocked, the District Attorney told CNN at the time.

    Alison Anderson, the attorney representing two of the three accusers, told CNN in a statement on Thursday following the sentencing that her clients “have displayed tremendous strength and bravery, by coming forward to law enforcement and participating directly in two grueling criminal trials.”

    Masterson is best known for his role as Steven Hyde on “That ’70s Show,” which aired for eight seasons on Fox from 1998 to 2006, and co-starred Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher, Laura Prepon, Topher Grace and Wilmer Valderrama.

    Kutcher and Masterson also starred in Netflix’s “The Ranch” beginning in 2016, but Netflix and the producers wrote Masterson off the show amid the rape allegations. At the time, Masterson said he was “obviously very disappointed” by the decision in a statement to CNN.

    News of the allegations date back to March 2017, when journalist and former Village Voice editor Tony Ortega wrote on his site “The Underground Bunker” that Masterson was being investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department.

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  • Woody Allen Doesn’t Know What It Means to Be Canceled

    Woody Allen Doesn’t Know What It Means to Be Canceled

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    Like it or not, Woody Allen is back at Venice. The controversial filmmaker received a mixed welcome at the Venice International Film Festival on Monday: Attendees at a press conference reportedly spontaneously applauded for him, and his film, Coup de Chance, received a five-minute standing ovation. At the same time, protesters reportedly gathered outside the film’s premiere, criticizing the festival for giving him a platform. 

    Allen’s appearance at Venice marks his first major film festival appearance since 2016, when he premiered Cafe Society at Cannes. Allen has largely retreated from the public eye in the years since. In 2014, Dylan Farrow—his adopted daughter with ex-partner Mia Farrow—wrote an open letter in which she accused Allen of sexually assaulting her when she was a child, an allegation first made in 1992, when she was seven years old. Allen has repeatedly denied the allegations; he has never been charged with a crime. “It’s so preposterous and yet the smear has remained and they still prefer to cling to if not the notion that I molested Dylan, then the possibility that I molested her,” Allen told Lee Cowan in an interview on CBS Sunday Morning in 2021. “Nothing that I ever did with Dylan in my life could be misconstrued as that.”

    At the Venice Film Festival press conference, the 87-year-old auteur reflected on his life and his career. “I have been very, very lucky. I have been lucky my whole life,” said Allen, according to Deadline. “I had two loving parents and good friends. I have a wonderful wife and marriage, two children,” he added, referring to his wife, Soon-Yi Previn, another of Mia Farrow’s adopted children, whom Allen married in 1997, when she was 27 years old and he was 62. Allen and Previn have two daughters, Bechet Allen and Manzie Tio Allen.

    Allen’s Coup de Chance is a French-language thriller that stars actors Lou de Laâge, Valérie Lemercier, Melvil Poupaud, and Niels Schneider. The film, which premiered out of competition, follows a married couple, Fanny and Jean, whose seemingly perfect lives in Paris get upended when Fanny falls in love with an old schoolmate, Alain. Despite not speaking any French, Allen had no misgivings about directing a film entirely in another language. “If you watch a Japanese film, you can tell if the acting is good, realistic and natural or if it’s dramatic and silly, or too exaggerated,” Allen said. “The same thing here. I could tell by the body language and the emotion of the actors without understanding the language, when they were being realistic, and they weren’t.”

    Allen said he was inspired to make the film in French due to his enduring love of European cinema. “When I was younger the films that were most impressive to us when we were all starting out and aiming to be filmmakers were European cinema, all the French films, Italian films, Swedish films,” he said. “We all wanted to make films like Europeans.” In the wake of Dylan Farrow’s renewed allegations, several major American stars have said they regret working with Allen in the past, and would not work with him again. In 2019, Allen and Amazon settled a lawsuit the director brought against the company after it scuttled a four-picture deal it had signed with Allen.

    In an interview with Variety published over the weekend, Allen was asked if he feels as though he’s been canceled. “I feel if you’re going to be canceled, this is the culture to be canceled by,” Allen said in response. “I just find that all so silly. I don’t think about it. I don’t know what it means to be canceled.”

    Coup de Chance reportedly received a five-minute standing ovation from attendees at Venice. But while Allen and his film were generally well-received at the festival, both also attracted vocal detractors. Per The Hollywood Reporter, about 20 protesters took off their shirts and marched past the Venice premiere of Coup de Chance, shouting phrases including “no rape culture,” “a rapist is not a sick man, he is the healthy son of patriarchy,” and “no spotlight for rapist directors.” The protest reportedly began when Allen stepped onto the red carpet, and lasted for only a few minutes before it was broken up by police.

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  • Pentagon review calls for reforms to reverse spike in sexual misconduct at military academies

    Pentagon review calls for reforms to reverse spike in sexual misconduct at military academies

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    WASHINGTON — The U.S. military academies must improve their leadership, stop toxic practices such as hazing and shift behavior training into the classrooms, according to a Pentagon study aimed at addressing an alarming spike in sexual assaults and misconduct.

    U.S. officials said the academies must train student leaders better to help their classmates, and upend what has been a disconnect between what the cadets and midshipmen are learning in school and the often negative and unpunished behavior they see by those mentors. The review calls for additional senior officers and enlisted leaders to work with students at the Army, Navy and Air Force academies and provide the expanded training.

    Several U.S. officials described the report on condition of anonymity because it has not yet been publicly released. They said that too often discussions about stress relief, misconduct, social media and other life issues take place after hours or on the weekends. The report recommends that those topics be addressed in classes and graded, to promote their importance.

    The study comes on the heels of a report this year that showed a sharp spike in reported sexual assaults at the academies during the 2021-22 school year. It said that one in five female students said in an anonymous survey that they had experienced unwanted sexual contact. The survey results were the highest since the Defense Department began collecting that data many years ago.

    Student-reported assaults at the academies jumped 18% overall compared with the previous year, fueled in part by the Navy, which had nearly double the number in 2022, compared with 2021. The anonymous survey accompanying the report found increases in all types of unwanted sexual contact — from touching to rape — at all the schools. And it cited alcohol as a key factor.

    In response to the spike in assaults, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered on-site evaluations at the U.S. Naval Academy in Maryland, the Air Force Academy in Colorado and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in New York, to explore the issues and identify solutions. The new report, expected to be released Thursday, makes several immediate and longer-term recommendations to improve assault and harassment prevention and eliminate toxic climates that fuel the problems. Austin is ordering quick implementation of the changes.

    In a memo, Austin acknowledges that the academies “have far more work to do to halt sexual assault and harassment.” He says the increase in assaults and harassment “is disturbing and unacceptable. It endangers our teammates and degrades our readiness.”

    Officials familiar with the study said that while the academies offer a lot of strong programs, toxic and unhealthy command climates make them less effective. When cadets and midshipmen learn one thing about leadership or prevention in the classroom, but they don’t see it reinforced in other settings, it sends mixed messages about what to expect, about how to be treated and how to treat others, said one official.

    Such mixed messages, they said, create cynicism and distrust.

    The officials pointed to the Air Force Academy’s longstanding system that treats freshmen differently and badly, promoting hazing and an unhealthy climate. They said those students may leave the academy with a poor sense of what good leadership looks like.

    They added that a contributing factor to the behavior problems is that — like other college students around the country — many more cadets and midshipmen are arriving at the academies with previous bad experiences, ranging from assaults and harassment to thoughts of or attempts at suicide. On top of that, the report says incoming students then face a lot of stress as they grapple with their education and the military training.

    In many cases, the report says that student leaders aren’t trained or equipped to handle those issues or provide proper support to the students.

    Another problem, officials said, is the ever expanding influence of social media, where bullying and harassment can go on unchecked. The report pointed to Jodel, an anonymous social media app that focuses on a specific location and is in wide use by academy students.

    The report said students can get inaccurate information about assault prevention, reporting, resources and military justice from the app, making them less likely to seek help.

    It said training at the academies has not kept pace with change, including the ever-evolving social media platforms and how students differ today from in the past.

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  • Accounts of ‘body checks’ at Miss Universe Indonesia shock the nation as contestants speak out

    Accounts of ‘body checks’ at Miss Universe Indonesia shock the nation as contestants speak out

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    JAKARTA, Indonesia — Their dreams of representing Indonesia in the 2023 Miss Universe pageant turned to nightmares when they were forced to undergo “body checks” in front of local organizers. Now seven contestants have filed complaints with the police, accusing the organizers of sexual harassment, their lawyer said Tuesday.

    During the July 29-Aug. 3 Miss Universe Indonesia contest in the capital of Jakarta — and ahead of the show’s Grand Final event — the contestants were told to strip to their underwear for “body checks” for scars or cellulite, said lawyer Melissa Anggraini.

    The checks took place in a ballroom at the downtown Sari Pacific Hotel, where the contest was held, with about two dozen people present, including men. Five of the contestants said they were then photographed topless, Anggraini said.

    “We have obtained some evidences, even videos showing that the organizer had carried out ‘body checks’,” she added.

    One of her clients, 23-year-old model Priskila Ribka Jelita who represented West Java province in the pageant, recounted her “body check” ordeal in an interview with The Associated Press.

    “When they asked me to open my bra … I was shocked! But I couldn’t speak or refuse,” she said. “When I tried to cover my breast with my hand, I was even scolded and yelled at.”

    “I was totally confused, nervous and humiliated, especially when I was told to lift my left leg on the chair and let them examine my leg,” Jelita said. The “examination” continued up her leg to “my private intimate part,” she added.

    After news of the “body checks” leaked out, the Miss Universe Organization cut its ties with its Indonesian franchisee. The New York-based organization said in a statement late Saturday that it had decided to sever ties with PT Capella Swastika Karya, the franchisee, and its National Director Poppy Capella.

    “In light of what we have learned took place at Miss Universe Indonesia, it has become clear that this franchise has not lived up to our brand standards and ethics,” the Miss Universe Organization said on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

    The organization also said it would be cancelling this year’s Miss Universe Malaysia as the Indonesian franchisee also holds the license for the neighboring country’s pageant.

    It said it would make arrangements for the Indonesia 2023 title holder, Fabienne Nicole Groeneveld, who won in Jakarta, to compete in the upcoming Miss Universe pageant, to be held in El Salvador later this year.

    Groeneveld was not among the contestants who filed a complaint.

    Jelita’s mother, Maria Napitupulu, said she found out what happened to her daughter only after reading her daughter’s post on Instagram, where she recounted the ordeal.

    “It’s very sad and this really hurts me,” Napitupulu said, tears streaming down her cheeks.

    In March, Indonesian beauty company PT Capella Swastika Karya took over the license for Miss Universe Indonesia from Yayasan Putri Indonesia, or YPI, an Indonesian foundation that had held the license for 30 years.

    Capella, a former singer and the franchisee’s manager, could not be reached for comment.

    In a post on the franchisee’s Instagram account, Capella on Saturday denied she had any knowledge of or was in any way involved in any “body checking” of the contestants. She also said that she was against every form of “violence and sexual harassment.”

    In its statement, the Miss Universe Organization said no measurements of height, weight, or body dimensions are required to join the pageant, and thanked the Indonesian contestants who have shown “bravery in speaking out.”

    Since the “body checks” news broke, controversy over the pageant has been mounting in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation. The country has a reputation as a tolerant, pluralist society that respects freedom of expression.

    Most Muslims in Indonesia, a secular country of 277 million people, are moderate, but a small hard-line fringe has become more vocal in recent years.

    In 2013, several conservative Muslim groups staged a massive protest against the Miss World competition in Indonesia, prompting the organizers to move the contest from Jakarta to the resort island of Bali. All of the more than 130 contestants were required to wear Bali’s traditional long sarongs instead of the bikinis that have historically been a symbol of the competition.

    ___

    Associated Press writer Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.

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  • Miss Universe cuts ties with Indonesian organizer as sexual harassment allegations swirl

    Miss Universe cuts ties with Indonesian organizer as sexual harassment allegations swirl

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    JAKARTA, Indonesia — The Miss Universe Organization has cut its ties with its Indonesian franchisee and will cancel an upcoming pageant in Malaysia after contestants complained to police, accusing local organizers of sexual harassment.

    The New York-based organization said in a statement late Saturday it had decided to sever ties with PT Capella Swastika Karya, and its National Director, Poppy Capella.

    Six contestants of a Miss Universe Indonesia pageant recently filed complaints with police, accusing local organizers of asking them to strip to their underwear for “body checks” for scars or cellulite, in a room with about two dozen people present, including men. Five of the contestants said they were then photographed topless.

    “In light of what we have learned took place at Miss Universe Indonesia, it has become clear that this franchise has not lived up to our brand standards and ethics,” the Miss Universe Organization said on the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter.

    The organization also said it would be cancelling this year’s Miss Universe Malaysia as the Indonesian franchisee also holds the license for the pageant. It said it would make arrangements for the Indonesia 2023 title holder to compete in Miss Universe pageant to be held in El Salvador late this year.

    The Miss Universe Indonesia pageant was held from July 29 to Aug. 3 to choose Indonesia’s representative to the 2023 Miss Universe contest, and was won by Fabienne Nicole Groeneveld.

    PT Capella Swastika Karya is an Indonesian beauty company which took over the license for Miss Universe Indonesia in March from Yayasan Putri Indonesia or YPI, an Indonesian foundation that held the license for 30 years.

    The company founder, Poppy Capella, denied her involvement in the physical examination during the contest and said that she is against any kind of “violence and sexual harassment.”

    “I, as the National Director and as the owner of the Miss Universe Indonesia license, was not involved at all and have never known, ordered, requested or allowed anyone who played a role and participated in the Miss Universe Indonesia 2023 process to commit violence or sexual harassment through body checking,” she posted on social media late Saturday.

    Hengki Haryadi, the Jakarta police director for general crimes, said Sunday that during a Miss Universe Indonesia pageant held in the capital, Jakarta, from July 29 to Aug. 3, the victims were forced to remove their clothes and were photographed naked for physical examination in a hotel ballroom.

    “These victims feel forced to take off their clothes and pose inappropriately for body checking that traumatized them,” Haryadi said.

    He added that police are still examining surveillance cameras from the scene. Investigators will interview the victims and provide psychological assistance, he said.

    In its statement Saturday, the Miss Universe Organization said there are no measurements such as height, weight, or body dimensions required to join a Miss Universe pageant worldwide, and thanked the Indonesian contestants “who have bravery in speaking out.”

    “To the women who came forward from the Indonesian pageant, we are sorry that this was your experience with our organization,” it said, adding that they are also evaluating their current franchise agreement and policies to prevent this type of conduct from occurring in the future worldwide.

    Controversy over the pageant has been mounting in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, which has a reputation as a tolerant, pluralist society that respects freedom of expression. Most Muslims in Indonesia, a secular country of 277 million people, are moderate, but a small hard-line fringe has become more vocal in recent years.

    In 2013, several conservative Muslim groups staged a massive protest against Miss World competition in Indonesia, prompted the contest moved from Jakarta to the resort island of Bali, and all of the more than 130 contestants required to wear Bali’s traditional long sarongs instead of the sexy bikinis that are historical part of the competition.

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  • Archdiocese of Philadelphia agrees to pay $3.5 million to settle sexual assault case, plaintiff’s attorneys say | CNN

    Archdiocese of Philadelphia agrees to pay $3.5 million to settle sexual assault case, plaintiff’s attorneys say | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has agreed to pay $3.5 million to settle a case alleging one of its priests sexually assaulted a 14-year-old boy nearly 20 years ago, according to the plaintiff’s lawyers.

    “This latest settlement holds the archdiocese accountable for failing to protect our client and other children,” David Inscho, an attorney for the plaintiff, said in a statement Wednesday.

    The incident took place in 2006 when the plaintiff was 14 years old and in seventh grade, serving as an altar boy and attending religious school at a parish in a Philadelphia suburb, according to court documents filed in the civil case.

    The plaintiff said he was taken to the office of pastor John Close, who was overseeing children’s religious education classes at the parish for counseling around 2006, the complaint said.

    Close told the boy he needed to be “cleansed” and then raped him, according to the complaint. Then, Close said the boy would “suffer eternal damnation” if he did not stay quiet about the assault, according to a pre-trial memorandum.

    The following year, the boy stopped serving as an altar boy after Close cornered him before mass while he was changing clothes, according to the complaint. Close retired in 2012 and died in 2018, according to the archdiocese.

    In a statement, the archdiocese acknowledged the settlement and said it had no knowledge of this allegation prior to Close’s death, adding it reported the allegation to law enforcement when it was brought to their attention by the plaintiff’s attorneys in 2019.

    “With today’s announcement, the Archdiocese reaffirms its longstanding commitment to preventing child abuse, protecting the young people entrusted to its care, and providing holistic means of compassionate support for those who suffered sexual abuse at the hands of our clergy,” the archdiocese said.

    “We deeply regret the pain suffered by any survivor of child sexual abuse and have a sincere desire to help victims on their path to healing.”

    The victim’s lawyers said the rape had a “catastrophic” effect on their client’s life, resulting in “severe psychological effects, substance abuse and the loss of educational, economic and personal opportunities throughout his life,” according to a pre-trial memorandum.

    The complaint, filed in 2020, accused the archdiocese of “negligence, recklessness and outrageous conduct” for “failing to observe and supervise the relationship” between the plaintiff and Close, failing to identify the priest’s “prior sexual abuse of children” and failing to remove Close from the ministry despite allegations he had abused children.

    The complaint alleged the archdiocese was made aware of two reports of sexual assault against Close prior to the 2006 incident. In both instances, the archdiocese did not report the allegations to law enforcement or remove the priest from ministry, the court document said.

    “The Archdiocese received an allegation in 2004 from an adult serving a prison sentence for murder alleging that he had been sexually abused by Close from 1967 to 1969. The Archdiocese determined that the allegations were unsubstantiated after an investigation by a former FBI agent and submission of the results to the Archdiocesan Review Board,” the archdiocese said in its answer to the complaint.

    The plaintiff’s lawyers alleged in the complaint the archdiocese was aware of Close’s abusive behaviors.

    “However, the Archdiocese consciously disregarded this risk and failed to act to protect future children,” the lawyers’ statement said.

    In 2011, another victim told the archdiocese that Close had sexually assaulted him in the 1990s, prompting the archdiocese to put the priest on administrative leave pending an investigation, according to the court document.

    But the following year, the archbishop determined the alleged abuse was “unsubstantiated” and Close was “suitable for ministry,” the complaint said.

    In its response to the complaint, the archdiocese said it did not breach any duty of care to the plaintiff and “was not on notice of any substantiated claims of sexual abuse against Close before the time of the alleged abuse.”

    The victim’s attorneys noted that at the time of his death, Close was in good standing with the Catholic Church and held the honorary title ‘Monsignor.’

    Beyond the specific allegations against Close, the client’s lawyers allege in the complaint the archdiocese’s decades-long pattern of covering up predatory behavior by a number of its priests contributed to the victim’s assault.

    The victim’s lawyers cite a Philadelphia grand jury report finding “credible allegations” against 300 “predator priests.” The grand jury report said over 1,000 child victims were identifiable from the church’s records.

    “We believe that the real number of children whose records were lost or who were afraid ever to come forward is in the thousands,” reads the grand jury report, which was released in 2018.

    “Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing; they hid it all,” the report states. “For decades. Monsignors, auxiliary bishops, bishops, archbishops, cardinals have mostly been protected.”

    If you suspect child abuse, call Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in over 170 different languages.

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