Editor’s Note: This story is part of a series profiling American youth killed this year by guns, a leading cause of death of children in the US. Read more about the project here.
CNN
—
Yeah my name Lil Zah, G.
Bout to hop on this beat.
At the top,
You can’t take my spot.
I’m all the way up,
You cannot.
Delivered in an excited pre-pubescent voice, this untitled rap song is a lasting memory of the joy and bravado 8-year-old Zahmire Lopez always brought to the world.
“I was like, ‘Wow!’ I was shocked when I heard it,” his mother, Leontine Niangara, told CNN. “It’s like a real song. I think it’s at least two minutes long. So I’m like, OK!”
There won’t be another one like it. Zahmire, or “Zah,” was shot and killed at his home in Newark, New Jersey, in May.
“It’s very hard,” Niangara said. “It’s not an hour goes by that I don’t just think about him. It’s hard. Some say when time goes by it gets easier but it doesn’t get easier.”
The shooting took place in Niangara’s Newark home on the night of May 3, according to the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office. Police received a 911 call that people had been shot inside a Johnson Avenue residence and responded at just after 8:30 p.m., the office said.
Inside, police officers found Zahmire had been shot, and he was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 9:14 p.m., the office said.
Wyleek Shaw, 27, was also killed in the shooting, according to the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office. Tajion Simmons, 24, of Fords, New Jersey, was treated for non-fatal injuries, the office said.
Outside the home, police officers say they encountered a man, later identified as 29-year-old Everett Rand, leaving and discarding an item in a dumpster, the NJ Attorney General’s Office said. Police gave chase and during the pursuit, two officers shot at Rand, fatally wounding him, according to the office.
A handgun that did not belong to law enforcement was recovered from the scene, and a semi-automatic handgun with a large capacity magazine was later found in the dumpster, the office said.
The office on September 18 released footage from four police body-worn cameras showing the foot chase and shooting. After the shooting, one officer kicked a handgun away from Rand, and another officer told his colleagues, “I got shot at, but I shot him,” according to the footage.
The investigation is ongoing.
Niangara said Rand, the suspected shooter, was her boyfriend, who had spent considerable time with her son at school dropoff and getting their hair done. Shaw was Rand’s best friend, she added.
Niangara said the shooting happened “very fast” and that Rand was on drugs.
“We were all laughing and then it just turned into hearing gunshots,” she said.
“Everybody’s body or everybody’s mind can’t handle drugs, or you don’t know how your body is gonna react to drugs, and it just happened to react badly,” she added.
The death was particularly difficult for her given that Zahmire was born prematurely and weighed just 1 pound, 8 ounces at birth.
“He fought to even get in this world, so then for his life to end short, it’s just devastating,” she said.
In his life, Zahmire and Niangara were adjoined at the hip; she described him as her “shadow.”
He was outspoken, the life of the party, a comedian and a dancer bursting with laughter and energy. He celebrated his 8th birthday in January with a trip to American Dream Water Park in East Rutherford, New Jersey, with his best friends and cousins.
He loved to play basketball and football, and he was particularly excited to put on pads and a helmet and play tackle football this year. Perhaps too excited.
“Sometimes they had to remind him, ‘Zahmire you’re on flag. You don’t have to get too excited. It’s just flag football,’” Niangara said.
After his death, his football team presented his mother with the equipment and helmet that would have soon been his. “They knew how much Zahmire wanted to play tackle football,” his mother said.
More about Zahmire Lopez
Death: May 3, 2023.
Age at death: 8 years old.
Cause: Gun violence.
Zahmire loved to be around music, football and family, and he got his biggest smile from his dog, Ghost, a blue nose pitbull. He took some warming up though.
“Zahmire used to be scared of dogs, so I got a dog so he could get over his fear of being scared of dogs,” his mother said. “And it worked.”
For Niangara, a nurse at University Hospital in Newark, his death has left her lonely and has made her own home a reminder of his loss.
“At first I didn’t want to move because his last memory was here, and I feel like I didn’t want to leave him,” she said. “But I feel like for my state of mind, I need to (move) because every time I close my eyes, I just relive that night.”
She’s left with the memories, bolstered by photos, videos and, of course, that rap song. At another point in Zahmire’s rap, he offered up a bar that now reads as tragically prophetic.
A Chicago-area landlord has been arrested and charged with murder and hate crimes after authorities said he stabbed and killed a 6-year-old boy and seriously wounded his mother, allegedly because the tenants are Muslim.
According to the Will County Sheriff’s Office, Joseph M. Czuba, 71, has been charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, two counts of a hate crime and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.
Authorities say they were called to the residence in unincorporated Plainfield Township, Illinois, approximately 40 miles outside Chicago, just before noon on Saturday after a woman called 911 saying her landlord had attacked her.
When deputies arrived, they found Czuba sitting outside and the victims in a bedroom. The boy had been stabbed 26 times, and his mother had been stabbed over a dozen times, the sheriff’s office said.
The victims were taken to the hospital, but the boy later died from his injuries, authorities said. His mother is recovering in a local hospital and expected to survive.
The sheriff’s office said Czuba did not make a statement to detectives after being brought to the Will County Sheriff’s Office Public Safety Complex, but investigators were able to determine the victims were “targeted by the suspect due to them being Muslim and the on-going Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and the Israelis.”
The Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) issued a news release identifying the victims as Hanaan Shahin, 32, and her son, Wadea Al-Fayoume.
CAIR said they had lived on the ground floor of the house for two years without trouble with Czuba, but in texts to the boy’s father from the hospital after the attack, Shahin said he “knocked on their door, and when she opened, he tried to choke her and proceeded to attack her with a knife, yelling, ‘You Muslims must die!’” according to the CAIR statement.
On Saturday, Israel’s military said its forces are readying for the next stages of the war in response to the unprecedented October 7 attacks by the Islamist militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza. At least 1,400 people were killed during Hamas’ rampage, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told CNN on Sunday.
Nearly 1 million Gazans have been forced from their homes in the week since the Hamas attack and the ensuing Israeli retaliation, UNRWA, the UN agency that assists Palestinians, said Saturday.
Czuba was transported to the Will County Adult Detention Facility and is awaiting his initial court appearance, according to the sheriff’s office. It is unclear if he has an attorney.
Police have arrested a 17-year-old in connection with the mass shooting at Morgan State University in Baltimore on October 3 that injured five people, the Baltimore Police Department said in a news release Friday.
He was taken into custody without incident Thursday, and faces charges of multiple counts of attempted murder, police said.
Police said a warrant has been issued for another suspect, Jovan Williams, 18, in connection to the shooting. He remains at large and should be considered armed and dangerous, police said.
The shooters were identified from surveillance video obtained from the shooting, police said.
“BPD has been working tirelessly on the investigation into this incident and are grateful for the many partners that assisted us in identifying and capturing one of our suspects,” said Commissioner Richard Worley said in the release. “We will not rest until Williams is in custody. While this arrest cannot undo the damage and trauma caused that day, it is my hope that it can bring some peace and justice to the victims, the Morgan community and our city.”
The shooting happened as a popular homecoming week event was letting out. It was among at least 543 mass shootings with at least four victims so far this year in the United States, according to the Gun Violence Archive, and one of at least 17 shootings this year at a US college or university, including in North Carolina, Oklahoma and Michigan.
Students and teachers were ordered to shelter in place for hours as a SWAT team combed the campus dormitories at the school where 9,000 students enrolled last fall.
The mayor has said he does not believe the shooting was racially motivated, noting the investigation is ongoing.
Misinformation has run rampant on Elon Musk’s social media platform X in the 48 hours since Hamas militants’ surprise attack on Israel, with users sharing false and misleading claims about the conflict and Musk himself pointing users to an account known for spreading misinformation.
Multiple users over the weekend shared a fake White House news release falsely claiming the US was sending billions of dollars in new aid to Israel in response. Accounts on X with hundreds of thousands of followers in total quickly spread the doctored White House press release after it appeared online on Saturday. Social media influencer Jackson Hinkle, who was among those shared the fake release, claimed it was a slap in the face to Ukraine, which has been pleading with Washington for more money to defend itself from Russia.
Musk himself added to the information chaos on Sunday by recommending X users follow the Israel-Hamas conflict by following an account known for spreading misinformation, including a fake report earlier this year of an explosion at the Pentagon.
Musk and Hinkle later deleted their posts. Musk later posted: “As always, please try stay as close to the truth as possible, even for stuff you don’t like.”
Elsewhere on X (formerly known as Twitter), an account impersonating the Jerusalem Post shared a bogus report that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been hospitalized. (The account was later suspended.)
CNN has requested comment from Musk and X on the posts related to the Israel-Gaza conflict.
A slew of mischaracterized videos and other posts went viral on the platform over the weekend.
One video that is purported to show Israel generals after being captured by Hamas fighter was viewed more than 1.7 million times by Monday. The video however actually shows the detention of separatists in Azerbaijan.
Another post viewed more than 500,000 times on X purported to show an airplane getting shot down with the hashtag #PalestineUnderAttack. The video is in fact a clip from the video game Arma 3, as was later noted in a “community note” appended to the post.
Community notes allow users on X to fact-check false posts on the platform. While notes were appended to both of these false posts, they often come after a false post has been viewed thousands – or in some cases millions – of times.
X has relied more heavily on community notes to moderate content since Musk laid off thousands of the company’s employees, including many responsible for detecting and addressing false claims, following his takeover of the platform last year.
Israel’s National Cyber Directorate, one of the government’s main cyber defense agencies, on Monday took to X to urge people not to spread unverified information. “[T]he rumor mill is overflowing,” the directorate wrote in Hebrew. The Anti-Defamation League also raised concerns in a statement Saturday about false and antisemitic claims being spread on the platform, including posts by a verified user falsely claiming that Israel helped to facilitate 9-11 on US soil, which have been viewed thousands of times.
The viral nature of the misinformation has alarmed experts on information operations, offering a fresh example of social platforms’ struggle to deal with a flood of falsehoods during a major geopolitical event.
“In times of war, social media becomes a propaganda battlefield; there is always an element of disinformation and exaggeration,” said Emerson Brooking, senior resident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab. “Today, X is the main platform where this online battle plays out.”
Brooking said changes to X policy under Musk’s ownership have incentivized propagandists and scam artists. Any user can now purchase a “verification” checkmark on X by signing up for the platform’s $8 per month subscription program, and their posts are then boosted by the platform’s algorithm and eligible for monetization.
“Paid verification means that you cannot distinguish between a vetted journalist and a scam artist,” Brooking told CNN. “The for-profit ‘views’ system incentivizes accounts to impersonate news outlets and to post as frequently as possible, drawing from whatever source they can or just making things up.”
Twitter has long played a pivotal role in information sharing during conflicts, from the Arab Spring to the 2014 and 2022 invasions of Ukraine, and during previous violence in Israel and Gaza.
Viral misinformation has always existed on the platform, but it has become particularly pronounced under Musk’s stewardship, experts say.
“In the past decade, every conflict has inevitably bred a digital “fog of war,” where both sides, and their supporters, try to use social platforms to spin the narrative in their favor,” Joe Galvin, a journalist who has specialized in open-source intelligence for more than a decade, told CNN Monday.
“The volume and reach of misinformation today, though, far exceeds what we saw in the early social media era conflicts, and is exacerbated by platforms like X, which has taken the guardrails off and allows the most egregious types of disinformation to run rampant,” Galvin said.
He said other platforms that have little or no guardrails including the social media messaging app Telegram are also hotbeds of misinformation, but X is unique given Musk’s behavior.
“Even the owner of X takes part in the chaos, promoting accounts that are known to spread falsehoods to his 150 million followers. The fact is that malicious users, state-backed and otherwise, have become better at spreading falsehoods, with more sophisticated networks being built and better technology – including AI – being used. The platforms are in a perpetual state of catch-up.”
Five people were shot Tuesday night at Morgan State University in Baltimore and police have yet to locate a suspect as the investigation into the shooting continues, officials said.
University police heard gunshots around 9:25 p.m. local time and responded to find multiple gunshot victims on campus and saw multiple shattered windows, Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley said in a media briefing.
The victims, four men and one woman aged 18 to 22, were taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries, according to the commissioner. Four of the victims are Morgan University students, according to Morgan State University Police Chief Lance Hatcher.
A SWAT team and officers from several agencies responded to search for the suspect at the university – a small HBCU in northeast Baltimore – while students and teachers were urged to shelter in place and avoid the area.
“We did not locate the suspect at this time,” Worley said. No suspect description was provided by police as of early Wednesday morning and it’s unclear whether the person is affiliated with the university.
Officials said the incident is no longer considered an active shooter situation and lifted a shelter in place order.
Footage from CNN affiliate WJZ showed multiple emergency response vehicles surrounding a taped-off student dormitory building. The glass of one of the building’s upper-floor windows appears to be shattered.
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott was on scene at the university early Wednesday as law enforcement and school officials were handling the ongoing investigation, he posted on X.
ATF Baltimore said its agents were assisting police in responding to the shooting.
As police combed the university for a suspect Tuesday night,they also asked concerned family members of students to continue toavoid the campus area.
“Please stay clear of the area surrounding Thurgood Marshall Hall and the Murphy Fine Arts Center and shelter in place,” the university said in a notice on its website. Police said they were responding to the 1700 block of Argonne Drive.
Morgan State is a historically Black university and had about 9,000 students enrolled in Fall 2022. The shooting occurred at the beginning of its Homecoming week as it prepared to welcome alumni and community members to campus for celebratory events including a pep rally, gala and parade.
It also falls just days before a scheduled candlelight memorial service intended to honor university members who have died over the past year.
Morgan State University President David Wilson announced that classes will be canceled Wednesday and counselors will be available to students.
Michael Duane Zack III, who was convicted of the 1996 killings of two women he met at bars along the Florida panhandle, is scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. at the Florida State Prison, according to the state’s Department of Corrections.
The US Supreme Court on Monday denied a request to halt the execution of the death row inmate after attorneys for Zack filed a stay of execution last week, court records show.
In the filing, Zack’s lawyers allege a lower court was wrong to “deny his claim that he is intellectually disabled.”
“At trial, Zack’s defense counsel argued that Zack suffers from fetal alcohol syndrome and posttraumatic stress disorder which are classified as a brain dysfunction and a mental impairment respectively,” according to a state capital case summary.
On Thursday, attorneys for the state of Florida filed a response opposing the stay of execution, court records show.
The nation’s highest court denied the appeal Monday afternoon without comment, court records show.
In 1997, Zack was convicted and sentenced to death for the June 1996 murder of Ravonne Smith, whom he violently killed in her home after meeting at a bar near Pensacola, according to a state capital case summary. Zack received a life sentence for the murder of Laura Rosillo at an Okaloosa County, Florida, beach, whom he also met at a bar before killing, according to the case summary.
“After his arrest, Zack confessed to the murder of Ravonne Smith,” said the case summary.
Zack’s execution will be the eighth under Gov. Ron DeSantis and the sixth in the state this year, according to state death row data.
Top Senate Republicans look at the prospects of a Donald Trump primary victory with trepidation, fearful his polarizing style and heavy baggage may sink GOP candidates down the ticket as their party battles for control of the chamber.
The Montana Republican, who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, has spent the past year working to ensure Trump and Senate Republican leaders don’t clash about their preferred candidates in key primaries, after the 2022 debacle that saw a bevy of Trump-backed choices collapse in the heat of the general election and cost their party the Senate majority. So far, the two are on the same page.
Daines argues that Trump is “strengthening” among independent voters and that could be a boon for his Senate candidates – even in purple states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada and Pennsylvania. The senator says that his down-ticket candidates should embrace the former president, even as he’s facing four criminal trials with polls showing that he remains a deeply unpopular figure with wide swaths of voters.
“What’s key is we want to make sure we have high-quality candidates running with President Trump,” Daines said. “Candidates that can again appeal beyond the Republican base – that’s my goal.”
In an interview with CNN at NRSC headquarters, Daines detailed his latest thinking about the GOP strategy to take back the Senate, saying his candidates need to have a stronger position on abortion, signaling he’s eager to avoid a primary in the Montana race and arguing that neither Sens. Kyrsten Sinema nor Joe Manchin could hold onto their seats if they ran for reelection in their states as independents.
And as Kari Lake is poised to announce a Senate bid in Arizona as soon as next week, Daines has some advice for the former TV broadcaster, who falsely blamed mass voting fraud for her loss in last year’s gubernatorial race in her state.
“I think one thing we’ve learned from 2022 is voters do not want to hear about grievances from the past,” Daines said. “They want to hear about what you’re going to do for the future. And if our candidates stay on that message of looking down the highway versus the rearview mirror, I think they’ll be a lot more successful particularly in their appeal to independent voters, which usually decide elections.”
Daines, who called Lake “very gifted” and said he’s had “positive” conversations with her, added: “I think it’s just going to be important for her to look to the future and not so much the past.”
Asked if Trump’s repeated false claims of a “stolen” election could be problematic down-ticket, Daines instead pointed out that Trump was the last GOP president since Ronald Reagan to win Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan in 2016, though he lost those states in 2020.
“As we continue to watch the president strengthen, we’ll see what happens here in ’24, but I’ll tell you he provides a lot of strength for us down ballot in many key states,” said Daines, who was the first member of Senate GOP leadership to endorse Trump.
Daines’ assessment comes as he is benefitting from a highly favorable map, with 23 Democrats up for reelection, compared to just 11 for the GOP. Democratic incumbents in three states that Trump won – Ohio, Montana and West Virginia – are the most endangered, while the two best Democratic pickup opportunities – Texas and Florida – remain an uphill battle.
“We’ll have to keep an eye on Texas – the Ted Cruz race,” Daines said. “Just because he’s Ted Cruz he’ll draw a lot of money from the other side to try to defeat Ted Cruz.”
Beating incumbents is usually a complicated endeavor, plus Republicans are facing messy primaries that could make it harder to win a general election, including in Daines’ home-state of Montana. There, Daines has gotten behind Tim Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL who owns an aerial firefighting company. But there’s a possibility that Sheehy could face Rep. Matt Rosendale in the primary, something that Republicans fear could undercut their effort to take down 17-year incumbent Sen. Jon Tester.
Rosendale, a member of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, narrowly lost to Tester in 2018 and is considering another run in 2024.
“I’ve known Matt a long time. He’s a friend of mine. I like Matt Rosendale,” Daines said. “I think it’s best if he were to stay in the US House and gain seniority.”
Unlike in the last cycle when the NRSC stayed neutral under previous leadership, the campaign committee now is taking a much heavier hand in primaries, picking and choosing which candidates to endorse. While Daines declined to say how his committee would handle the Arizona primary, he indicated they would stay out of the crowded Ohio primary, arguing the three GOP candidates battling it out there are on solid footing in the race for Sen. Sherrod Brown’s seat.
While West Virginia remains perhaps the best pickup opportunity for the GOP, the NRSC will have a much harder time if Manchin decides to run for reelection. In an interview, Manchin signaled that if he runs again, it may be as an independent – not a Democrat.
“I think everyone thinks of me as an independent back home,” Manchin told CNN. “I don’t think they look at me as a big D or a big R or an anti-R or anti-D or anything. They say it’s Joe, if it makes sense, he’ll do it.”
Daines said that wouldn’t make much of a difference.
“It’d be very difficult for Joe to get reelected in West Virginia based on looking at the numbers,” Daines said, pointing to Manchin’s support for the Inflation Reduction Act.
Similarly, Daines said that if Sinema runs in Arizona, he doesn’t believe she can win as a third-party candidate, as she faces a GOP candidate and the likely Democratic nominee, Rep. Ruben Gallego.
“I think Sinema will have a difficult path if she gets in the race,” he said.
In addition to facing weaker candidates last cycle, many Republicans continue to sidestep questions on their positions over abortion – a potent issue in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.
But Daines says he doesn’t think abortion will be “as potent this cycle,” indicating he is pressing candidates to do a “better job” messaging on the issue to suburban women. He said that Republicans need to impress upon voters that they support limits on late-term abortions, with exceptions for rape, incest or life of the mother, arguing that’s a “more reasonable position” in line with most Americans – all the while rejecting calls for a national ban on all abortions.
“I think we actually had candidates who just kind of ran away from the issue and kind of hoped it went away,” Daines said. “And when you do that, if you don’t take a position, the Democratic opponents there will define the issue for them. And that’s a losing strategy.”
Daines is also in the middle of another internal party war – between Trump and Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, as the two men have been at sharp odds since the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Asked if he believed the two could work with each other if Trump is president again and McConnell returns as Republican leader, Daines said: “It’d be a privilege to have a Republican president and a Republican majority leader working – that’d be a nice problem to have.”
Built on the land of the Wakka Wakka people, Cherbourg’s modern motto of “many tribes, one community” reflects the varied origins of its 1,700 residents, descendants of people once forced to live there under laws of segregation.
Between 1905 and 1971, more than 2,600 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders were forcibly moved from their land to Cherbourg, then known as Barambah, according to the Queensland government.
Some were marched barefoot through the Australian bush by colonial settlers under a law that called for the removal of Indigenous people from their traditional lands to be housed and educated in colonial ways.
Today residents live in neat rows of single story houses, their rent paid to a council that’s determined to turn the former government reserve into a thriving community where people want to live – and it seems to be working.
“We’ve got around 260 people waiting on our waiting list,” said Cherbourg Council CEO Chatur Zala. “There’s a huge demand for social housing because our rent is pretty reasonable.
“The rent in the big cities is so expensive, people can’t afford it.”
Life has changed for people in Cherbourg, but a divide still exists in Australia between non-Indigenous and Indigenous people on a whole range of measures – from infant mortality to employment, suicide and incarceration.
Indigenous people have proposed an idea they say may help close the gap, and on October 14 the entire country will vote on it.
A Yes vote would recognize First Nations people in the constitution and create a body – a Voice to Parliament – to advise the government on issues that affect them. A No vote would mean no change.
So how does Cherbourg, a community created from policies of segregation andassimilation, feel about what’s being billed as an historic step forward for Indigenous reconciliation?
“My community is very, very confused,” said Mayor Elvie Sandow, from her air-conditioned office in the center of Cherbourg. “They’re confused with the Voice, and then the pathway to [a] treaty.”
The mayor said residents will vote because if they don’t, they’ll be fined under Australia’s compulsory voting laws, then she immediately corrects herself.
“Well, they probably won’t vote,” she said. “They’ll just go out and get their name ticked off the [electoral] roll, so that avoids them getting a fine.”
A record number of Australians – some 17.67 million of a population of 25.69 million – have registered to vote in the country’s first referendum in almost 25 years, according to the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC).
Early voting has already started in remote communities, with AEC staff traveling vast distances by 4WDs, helicopters, planes and ferries to reach them.
Campaigners for both sides – Yes and No – have also been traversing the same routes, speaking to locals, organizing rallies and spending millions of dollars on radio, television and online advertising to win their votes.
“I think this is one of the most important events of my life,” said Erin Johnston, who was among thousands of people marching at a recent Yes rally in Brisbane, organized by the charity Australians for Indigenous Constitutional Recognition.
“We have an opportunity to right a big wrong,” Johnston said.
But with two weeks to go before the vote, polls are showing that the referendum is on track to fail, a potential blow for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who made it an election pledge.
The prime minister has stressed that the Voice is not his idea but a “modest request” made by representatives of hundreds of Aboriginal nations who held meetings around the country in 2017.
Together they agreed a one-page statement called the Uluru Statement from the Heart which calls for “a First Nations Voice enshrined in the Constitution.”
“We seek constitutional reforms to empower our people and take a rightful place in our own country. When we have power over our destiny our children will flourish. They will walk in two worlds and their culture will be a gift to their country,” it said.
Aunty Ruth Hegarty remembers her early days as a child in Cherbourg. There, children did not flourish, they did not walk in two worlds, and their culture was not seen as a gift but something to be erased.
Now 94, Aunty Ruth has written an award-winning book about growing up in the settlement. She was just a baby when her parents moved there from the Mitchell district in southwest Queensland looking for work during the Great Depression.
On arrival, the family was separated into different areas of the settlement. Then they realized they couldn’t leave.
Aunty Ruth was allowed to stay with her mother in the women’s section of a crowded dormitory until she was 4-and-a-half years old.
But after her first day at school, she was told she wouldn’t be living with her mother anymore. “You’re a schoolgirl now,” she was told, before being directed to the girls’ section where she shared beds, baths, towels and meals with other students.
“We were not allowed to cry,” Aunty Ruth wrote. “Crying always resulted in punishment.”
Punishment meant being caned, having their heads shaved, or being locked alone in a wooden cell at the back of the property, she wrote.
Mothers were sent to work as domestic staff for settlers while the men did manual labor, and when she was 14, Ruth was also sent away to earn money. At 22 she applied for permission from the state to marry, and when restrictions eased in the late 1960s, she moved with her husband and six children to Brisbane to start a new life outside the settlement.
“We escaped all right. But we had to convince my husband,” she told CNN at her home in Brisbane. “I said to him, there’s no jobs for the kids. Even if they went through high school, they wouldn’t get a job in our town. Every office in Cherbourg had White people working in it, so there’d be no jobs for them. So I had to tell him, we’re going,” she said.
Sitting beneath a pergola surrounded by flowers in her garden, Ruth still has the energy of an activist who has spent much of her life working to improve the lives of her people.
She wears an orange Yes badge and says she hopes the referendum will produce change.
“All I want is my constitutional recognition for me and my kids,” she said, leaning forward. “We need a change. We need change.”
Sitting to her right, her daughter Moira Bligh, president of the volunteer Noonga Reconciliation Group,said, “We’ve overcome disadvantage, but unless we’re all at our stage, we won’t stop.”
“I won’t stop,” Aunty Ruth added, “because I think it’s the right thing for us to do.”
Across town on a Wednesday night, an audience of No voters at an event organized by conservative political lobby group Advance gives an indication of why this referendum is so contentious.
Wearing No caps and T-shirts handed out at the door, they cheer loudly as the leaders of the No camp urge them to reject division.
“The Yes campaign focuses on the past. We focus on the now and the future, the making of Australia the envy of the world,” said Nyunggai Warren Mundine, a member of the Bundjalung, Gumbaynggirr and Yuin people.
Sitting in the back row, carpenter Blair Gilchrist says Indigenous people wouldn’t need a Voice if politicians were doing their jobs properly and spending money where it was needed. He’s not a fan of Albanese’s Labor government.
“Money has got to be scrutinized better. I think that’s probably the main thing. That the money is spent well,” he said.
Successive governments have spent billions of dollars to close the persistent gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians in national health and welfare statistics, yet many targets aren’t being met. And on some measures, the gap is widening – including rates of incarceration, suicide and children in care.
The Voice seeks to give non-binding advice to government about what might work to end the disparity – but critics say it’s not needed.
“Infant mortality has dropped, life expectancy has increased, it might not be at the levels we need it, but it’s heading in that direction,” Northern Territory Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, a descendant of the Warlpiri people, told the audience.
The death rate for Indigenous children ages 0-4 was 2.1 times as high as the rate for non-Indigenous between 2015 and 2019, according to government figures. On average, non-Indigenous men live 8.6 years longer than Indigenous men – for women it’s 7.8 years. The gap’s even wider in remote communities, statistics show.
“The Voice, it suggests that Indigenous Australians … are inherently disadvantaged, for no other reason but because of our racial heritage,” Price said. “It’s suggested that every one of us needs special measures and [to be] placed in the constitution. That again is another lie. I mean, look at me and Warren, we’re doing all right, aren’t we?” she said.
Boththe Yes and No camps want more accountability – some proof that the billions of dollars spent each year on Indigenous programs are being used to help the most vulnerable. And both want a brighter future for the most disadvantaged Indigenous people, though they disagree about how to get there.
Many in the Yes camp say that future needs to start with recognition that, as the world’s oldest continuous civilization, First Nations people occupied the land for 60,000 years before the arrival of British settlers just over 200 years ago.
The official No camp believes nothing separates Australians – from First Nations people to new migrants – and changing the constitution embeds division. For the Yes camp, Indigenous people do hold a special place in the country’s history and their existence must be acknowledged, along with a permanent body that can’t be dissolved on the political whim of future governments.
Other Indigenous people are voting No because it’s not enough – they want treaties negotiated between the land’s traditional owners and those occupying it.
Back in Cherbourg, visitors walk through the old ration shed, where people from hundreds of Aboriginal nations once queued for their weekly allowance of tea, sugar, rice, salt, sago, tapioca, slit peas, porridge, flour and meat.
It’s now a museum, where elders share stories of life in those days.
Zala said Cherbourg Council has made gains in recent years, since Mayor Elvie was elected in 2020. The number of council jobs has doubled to 130, mostly filled by local staff, Zala said.
“The highest employment rate of any Indigenous community,” he boasted.
They’ve opened the first recycling center in an Indigenous community, which handles waste from surrounding areas; and the first Digital Service Center staffed by Indigenous workers, who gain experience and qualifications.
Plans are afoot to expand the water treatment plant beyond upgrades unveiled last year. But most of all, the council is working on ways to provide new homes for the hundreds of people wanting to move there.
It’s a tough task – Cherbourg still operates as a Deed of Grant in Trust (DOGIT) community, meaning it relies on government funding. There’s very little private ownership – almost all homes there are owned and maintained by the council.
For years, the council has encouraged residents to buy the homes their families have lived in for decades, but few financial incentives exist – there’s no market for houses, meaning no capital gains, and some prospective homeowners balk at the cost of private upkeep after so many years of council support, Zala said.
As a lifelong resident, Mayor Elvie knows the issues well. Her mother lived in the Cherbourg dormitory until she was old enough to marry. By the time the future mayor was born in the 1970s, restrictions were being phased out.
She is not afraid of change, but she doesn’t see how a Voice to Parliament in Canberra is going to help address the daily challenges she faces to keep her community employed, housed and educated.
For that reason, she’s going to vote No.
“I don’t make my decision lightly,” she said.”I have had a number of conversations with different mayors and communities and some mayors are for the Yes vote. It’s very divided right up the middle.
“I’m going No because I just feel it’s a duplication. At the end of the day, I am the voice of Cherbourg because I’m the elected mayor for this community.”
Zala is one of the newer Australians the No camp says would be done a disservice if the country’s Indigenous population was given special recognition in the constitution. Born in Gujarat, India, he moved to Australia in 2006 and has been working to close the gap in Cherbourg since 2011.
“That’s still my motivation every day when I come here. I don’t accept why we have to be different than any other community. I always believed that we don’t want to create a community which is so much behind,” he said.
Of the Voice, he said he’ll be voting Yes.
“At least by voting Yes, you have hope. We don’t know the detail [of] what’s going to happen after the Voice, but it’s best to get it through and see if there might be something good come to the community,” he said. “And I think lots of people are going to do the same.”
Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said he will meet the national army and police chiefs on Friday to combat a surge in gang violence, as the country reels from record shooting deaths this month.
“Tomorrow I will meet the national police chief and the commander in chief to see how the defense force can help the police in their work against the criminal gangs,” Kristersson said in an address to the nation on Thursday.
“I hope all parties in the Swedish parliament can come together in support of those strong and pattern-breaking actions that need to be taken.”
The Scandinavian nation has been rocked by a record number of shootings this month, amid a spread of gang violence from larger urban areas to smaller towns, Reuters reported.
There were 11 gun killings in September, making it the deadliest month since December 2019. Police said about 30,000 people in Sweden are directly involved with or have links to gang crime, according to the news agency.
On Wednesday, three people – two men and a woman – were killed in just 12 hours in incidents related to gang violence near the Swedish capital, Stockholm, Swedish police told CNN.
Children and innocent people are affected by the serious violence, Kristersson added.
“I can’t emphasize enough how serious the situation is. Sweden has never seen anything like it, no other country in Europe is experiencing anything like this,” the Swedish prime minister said.
“We will hunt the gangs, and we will defeat the gangs. We will take them to court. If they’re Swedish citizens they will be locked up for a long time in prison and if they are foreign citizens, they will also be expelled.”
China is behaving like a schoolyard bully toward smaller countries, the Philippine defense secretary told CNN Friday during an exclusive interview in which he warned his nation, and the wider world, had to stand up to Beijing’s territorial expansion in the South China Sea.
“I cannot think of any clearer case of bullying than this,” said Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro Jr. “It’s not the question of stealing your lunch money, but it’s really a question of stealing your lunch bag, your chair and even enrollment in school.”
While tensions between China and the Philippines over the highly-contested and strategic waterway have festered for years, confrontations have spiked this summer, renewing regional fears that a mistake or miscalculation at sea could trigger a wider conflict, including with the United States.
The region is widely seen as a potential flashpoint for global conflagration and the recent confrontations have raised concerns among Western observers of potentially developing into an international incident if China, a global power, decides to act more forcefully against the Philippines, a US treaty ally.
Teodoro characterized the Philippines’ refusal to back down in the waters within its 200 nautical-mile exclusive economic zone as a fight for the very existence of the Philippines.
“We’re fighting for our fisherfolk, we’re fighting for our resources. We’re fighting for our integrity as an archipelagic state… Our existence as the Republic of the Philippines is vital to this fight,” Teodoro said in a sit down interview at the Department of National Defense in Manila. “It’s not for us, it’s for the future generations too.”
Video purportedly shows Chinese ship firing water cannon at Filipino vessel in disputed waters
“And if we don’t stop, China is going to creep and creep into what is within our sovereign jurisdiction, our sovereign rights and within our territory,” he said, adding that Beijing wont stop until it controls “the whole South China Sea.”
Beijing says it is safeguarding its sovereignty and maritime interests in the South China Sea and warned the Philippines this week “not to make provocations or seek troubles.” It accused Philippine fishing and coast guard vessels of illegal entry into the area.
China claims “indisputable sovereignty” over almost all 1.3 million square miles of the South China Sea, and most of the islands and sandbars within it, including many features that are hundreds of miles from mainland China. Along with the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and Taiwan also hold competing claims.
Over the past two decades China has occupied a number of reefs and atolls across the South China Sea, building up military installations, including runways and ports, which the Philippines says challenges its sovereignty and fishing rights as well as endangering marine biodiversity in the resource-rich waterway.
In 2016, an international tribunal in The Hague ruled in favor of the Philippines in a landmark maritime dispute, which concluded that China has no legal basis to claim historic rights to the bulk of the South China Sea.
But Beijing has ignored the decision and continues to expand its presence in the waterway.
Video released of diver cutting China’s floating sea barrier
In his first sit-down TV interview with an international news outlet since he took the position in June, Teodoro was keen to stress whatever happens in the South China Sea impacts the globe.
Crucially, the waterway is vital to international trade with trillions of dollars in global shipping passing through it each year. It’s also home to vast fertile fishing grounds upon which many lives and livelihoods depend, and beneath the waves lie huge reserves of natural gas and oil that competing claimants are vying for.
With nations already suffering from inflation brought about by Russia’s war in Ukraine, there are concerns that any slow-down in travel and transporting of goods in the South China Sea would result in significant impact to the global economy.
“It will choke one of the most vital supply chain waterways in the whole world, it will choke international trade, and it will subject the world economy, particularly in supply chains to their whim,” Teodoro said, adding that if this were to happen, “the whole world will react.”
The defense secretary warned that smaller nations, including regional partners, rely on international law for their survival.
“Though they need China, they need Russia, they see that they too may become a victim of bullying. If they (China) close off the South China Sea, perhaps the next target may be the Straits of Malacca and then the Indian Ocean,” Teodoro said.
Why it matters who owns the seas (April 2021)
Only a few years ago the Philippines was treading a much more cautious path with its huge neighbor China.
But since taking office last year, Philippine President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr has taken a stronger stance over the South China Sea than his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte.
Marcos has also strengthened US relations that had frayed under Duterte, with the two allies touting increased cooperation and joint patrols in the South China Sea in the future.
In April, the Philippines identified the locations of four new military bases the US will gain access to, as part of an expanded defense agreement analysts say is aimed at combating China.
Washington has condemned Beijing’s recent actions in the contested sea and threatened to intervene under its mutual defense treaty obligations if Philippine vessels came under armed attack there.
US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Lindsey Ford reiterated Washington’s commitment to the mutual defense treaty in testimony before a US House subcommittee on Tuesday.
She said the treaty covers not only the Philippine armed forces, but also its coast guard and civilian vessels and aircraft.
“We have said repeatedly and continue to say that we stand by those commitments absolutely,” Ford said.
Defense secretary Teodoro has concerns about a possible escalation “because of the dangerous and reckless maneuvering of Chinese vessels” but he was clear that any incident – accidental or otherwise – the blame would lie with China “squarely on their shoulders.”
And he called global powers to help pressure Beijing over its moves in the South China Sea.
“Peace and stability in that one place in the world will generate some relief and comfort to everyone,” he said.
As part of the Marcos administration’s commitment to boost the Philippines defense and monitoring capabilities in the South China Sea, Teodoro said further “air and naval assets” have been ordered.
“There will be more patrol craft coming in, more rotary aircraft and we are studying the possibility to acquiring multi-role fighters,” he said, adding that would “make a difference in our air defense capabilities.”
Preferring cooler heads to prevail, Teodoro said that diplomacy would provide a way forward providing Chinese leader Xi Jinping complies with international law.
“Filipinos I believe are always willing to talk, just as long that talk does not mean whispers in a back room, or shouting at each other, meaning to say there must be substantial talks, open, transparent and on a rules-based basis,” he said, while also adding that talks cannot be used as a delaying tactic by Beijing.
The Philippines, he said, has “no choice” but to stand up to China because otherwise “we lose our identity and integrity as a nation.”
But conflict, he added, was not the answer or desired outcome.
“Standing up doesn’t mean really going to war with China, heavens no. We don’t want that. But we have to stand our ground when our ground is intruded into.”
President Joe Biden on Friday unveiled a new White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, a step he said was part of an effort “to send a clear message about how important this issue is to me and the country.
In a speech in the White House Rose Garden, the president detailed his experience traveling to the sites of mass shootings across the country, including after the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012 as vice president.
“Anyone who doesn’t think that these kinds of engagements have a permanent effect on young children … these were hardened, tough cops, asking me, could I get them psychiatric help?” he asked, raising his voice.
An official told reporters on a call Thursday previewing the announcement that the office’s mandate will be twofold – it will be tasked with implementing and expediting last year’s Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the president’s signature gun legislation, and with finding additional actions within the president’s purview to stem the flow of gun violence.
The announcement comes just days after a group of congressional Democrats in a letter called on Biden to leverage “the full power of the executive branch” to combat gun violence. In March, a day after a mass shooting left six dead in Nashville, Biden told reporters, “I have gone the full extent of my executive authority to do, on my own, anything about guns.”
Biden on Friday took the opportunity to tout the steps his administration had taken to address the scourge of gun violence.
“To date my administration has announced dozens of executive actions to reduce gun violence – more than any of my predecessors at this point in their presidencies, and they include everything from cracking down on ghost guns, breaking up gun trafficking, and so much more,” he said.
“And last year with the help – with your help I signed into law the bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the most significant gun safety law in almost 30 years. It expanded background checks, expands the use of red flag laws, improves access to mental health services and so much more. This historic law will save lives. It’s a really important first step.”
Vice President Kamala Harris will head the new office, Biden said.
Biden said Harris “understands this more than any vice president ever – no, really. That’s not hyperbole, that’s a fact. She’s been on the front lines of this her entire career as a prosecutor, as an attorney general and as a United States senator. Her deep experience will be invaluable for this office.”
And he thanked the gun safety advocates assembled in the Rose Garden for their work.
“We’re never going to forget your loved ones, we’re never going to get there unless we remember. You know, I know we will do this because I know you – heroes, heroes proving that even with heavy hearts, you have unbreakable spirits,” he said.
CORRECTION: This headline and story have been updated to reflect the correct name of the office.
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.”
Former President Donald Trump, who paved the way for the undoing of federal abortion rights protections, said that some Republicans “speak very inarticulately” about the issue and have pursued “terrible” state-level restrictions that could alienate much of the country.
While avoiding taking specific positions himself, Trump said in an NBC interview that if he is reelected he will try to broker compromises on how long into pregnancies abortion should be legal and whether those restrictions should be imposed on the federal or the state level.
“I would sit down with both sides and I’d negotiate something and we’ll end up with peace on that issue for the first time in 52 years,” he said.
The former president targeted GOP primary rival Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in his criticism of how the Republican party has handled the issue, calling Florida’s six-week ban “a terrible thing and a terrible mistake.”
DeSantis’ camp hit back on Sunday, taking aim at the former president for saying he’d be willing to work with both parties on abortion.
“We’ve already seen the disastrous results of Donald Trump compromising with Democrats: over $7 trillion in new debt, an unfinished border wall, and the jailbreak First Step Act letting violent criminals back on to the streets. Republicans across the country know that Ron DeSantis will never back down,” tweeted spokesperson Andrew Romeo.
Trump also warned Republicans that the party would lose voters by advancing abortion restrictions without exceptions for cases of rape, incest or risks to the mother’s life.
“Other than certain parts of the country, you can’t – you’re not going to win on this issue,” he said.
Trump’s comments made plain the challenge for 2024 Republican presidential primary contenders: trying to balance the priorities of their conservative base, for whom the Supreme Court’s June 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade was a victory decades in the making, and those of the general electorate, which has consistently supported abortion rights – most recently in the 2022 midterms and the Wisconsin Supreme Court race this spring.
Abortion could also be a pivotal issue this fall in Virginia’s state legislative elections, which are widely viewed as a barometer of the electorate’s mood in the lead-up to next year’s presidential election.
Trump’s appointment of three conservative Supreme Court justices paved the way to the reversal of the 1973 decision that guaranteed abortion rights across the United States through the first 24 weeks of pregnancy.
That reversal left abortion rights up to the states, which has led to a patchwork of laws – including bans on abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy in Florida and Iowa, the first state to vote in the GOP presidential nominating process.
Abortion rights have been a major fault line in the 2024 Republican primary. Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence, has advocated a federal abortion ban after 15 weeks. DeSantis, Trump’s top-polling rival, has touted the six-week ban he signed into law. However, other contenders, including Nikki Haley, have taken more moderate approaches, warning of the political backlash Republicans could face among the broader electorate by pursuing strict abortion restrictions.
Trump would not commit to a specific policy preference in the interview. He deflected questions about whether he would support a federal ban – and if so, after how many weeks – or would rather the issue be left to statehouses.
“What’s going to happen is you’re going to come up with a number of weeks or months, you’re going to come up with a number that’s going to make people happy,” Trump said.
Trump said he believed it was “probably better” to leave abortion restrictions up to the states instead of trying to pass federal legislation on the issue.
“From a pure standpoint, from a legal standpoint, I think it’s probably better. But I can live with it either way,” Trump said. “It could be state or could it federal, I don’t frankly care.”
The intra-GOP debate over abortion took center stage at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition gathering, attended by many of the state’s leading conservative evangelical activists.
Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, one of the most vocal Trump critics among the GOP contenders, told reporters Saturday in Iowa that Trump has “taken evangelical voters for granted” and is “waffling on important issues.”
“I think he is looking at the abortion question as not whether it’s going to win evangelical support, but what that’s going to look like down the road, and as he said he wants everybody to like him,” Hutchinson said.
Asked about federal legislation on abortion, DeSantis continued not to engage on the topic of a national ban, instead pointing to new restrictions in states such as Iowa and Florida.
“I’ve been a pro-life governor. I’ll be a pro-life president,” DeSantis said. “Clearly, a state like Iowa has been able to move the ball with pro-life protections. Florida has been able to move the ball.”
Pence reiterated his support for a federal ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy as a minimum, saying, “It’s an idea whose time has come.” He said Trump and other GOP candidates want to relegate the abortion issue to the states, “but I won’t have it.”
‘Personal for every woman and every man’
However, other contenders more focused on the general electorate, including Haley – the former South Carolina governor and US ambassador to the United Nations – have sought to thread the same needle as Trump.
Haley on Saturday told attendees at the Faith and Freedom Coalition in Iowa that her beliefs are the “hard truth.” She said pursuing a federal 15-week abortion ban would have “everybody running from us.”
While Haley opposes abortion, she has emphasized she believes Republicans and Democrats need find a consensus on abortion issues, such as banning later abortions and agreeing not to jail women who get them.
“This issue is personal for every woman and every man. And we need to treat it that way. I don’t judge anyone for being pro-choice any more than I want them to judge me for being pro-life,” she said.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said on CNN last week that he would be open to signing a federal abortion ban “if it represented consensus,” while admitting the current setbacks to reaching that consensus within the US Senate and across states.
“I want all of the 50 states to be able to weigh in if they want to, and what their state laws should be, and then let’s see if it’s a consensus,” he said.
Democrats, meanwhile, are eyeing abortion as one of the most important issues in the 2024 presidential election.
CNN previously reported that President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign earlier this month made a digital advertising buy highlighting the positions of Trump and other GOP 2024 contenders on the issue.
“As Donald Trump visits states where women are suffering the consequences of his extreme, anti-abortion agenda, this ad reminds voters in states that have passed some of the most extreme abortion bans of Trump’s key role in appointing conservative justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade,” Biden’s campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, said in a statement to CNN.
This story has been updated with additional information Sunday.
Minnesota Vikings running back Alexander Mattison said he received racist messages following the team’s loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday Night Football.
Mattison shared two screenshots of messages via Instagram on Friday, saying that he received more than 60 “disgustingly disrespectful messages.” Both screenshots contained racial slurs and told Mattison to take his own life.
“Y’all can come at me all you want about fantasy and ‘you suck’ blah blah blah,” Mattison wrote on Instagram. “I really could care less. But this sh*t is unacceptable. … Really reflect on WTF you say and how it could affect someone. Under the helmet, I am a human.. a father.. a son. This is sick.”
The screenshots were later deleted from his account.
The National Football League and the Vikings both issued statements on social media in support of Mattison.
“We are sickened by the hatred and racial slurs directed toward Alexander Mattison following last night’s game,” the Vikings said in the statement.
“There simply is no room for racist words or actions in sports or society. The Vikings will continue to fight to eliminate hate, to educate and to foster a diverse, equitable, and inclusive community that respects and values our unique backgrounds. We stand with Alexander and all players who, unfortunately, experience this type of ignorant and prejudicial behavior, and we ask our fans to continue to fight to eliminate racism.”
The NFL added it “strongly condemns” the racist comments, calling the behavior “completely unacceptable in the NFL or anywhere else.”
“We stand firmly with Alexander and remind fans to remember the humanity of all players and celebrate their contributions to the game we all love,” the league said.
CJ LaBoy, Mattison’s agent, posted on social media in support of his client, saying he was “proud” of him for sharing.
“These types of messages hit these players inboxes all the time. This type of hate, vitriol has no place in our society, period. As disgusting as this is, I’m proud of @AlexMattison22 for sharing,” LaBoy said.
LaBoy additionally told CNN in a statement, “We fully support Alexander and family and what he’s dealing with privately. There is no place in this world for that kind of vitriol, period. But these types of comments are not uncommon for African American athletes. They’ve been dealing with this filth throughout their lives and certainly experience more often than anyone realizes or cares to admit. Not only from the Twitter tough guys, but also from the sidelines.”
“Universities, stadiums, teams should ban anyone that uses such language for life. There’s no place in our world for that disgusting behavior and there’s certainly no place in sports,” LaBoy said.
The 25-year-old Mattison rushed for 28 yards and lost a fumble in the first quarter during Thursday’s 34-28 loss.
Mattison was drafted in the third round of the 2019 NFL Draft by the Vikings out of Boise State. Currently, in his fifth season, Mattison has rushed for 1,732 yards and 11 touchdowns in his career. He was named the starter this season after backing up Dalvin Cook who left for the New York Jets this past offseason.
The Vikings’ next game is on September 24 when the team hosts the Los Angeles Chargers.
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.
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.”
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.
President Joe Biden faces continued headwinds from broadly negative job ratings overall, widespread concerns about his age and decreased confidence among Democratic-aligned voters, according to a new CNN Poll conducted by SSRS.
There is no clear leader in a potential rematch between Biden and former President Donald Trump, who is widely ahead in the GOP primary. And nearly half of registered voters (46%) say that any Republican presidential nominee would be a better choice than Biden in 2024.
Meanwhile, hypothetical matchups also suggest there would be no clear leader should Biden face one of the other major GOP contenders, with one notable exception: Biden runs behind former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
Since Biden announced his reelection bid earlier this year – where he framed the 2024 contest as a fight against Republican extremism – his approval ratings have remained mired below the mid-40s, similar to Trump’s standing in 2019, and several points below Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton at this point ahead of their reelection campaigns.
Still, Biden’s prospective opponents face challenges of their own: 44% of voters feel any Democratic candidate would be a better choice than Trump. Among the full public, both Biden’s and Trump’s favorability ratings stand at just 35%.
Views of Biden’s performance in office and on where the country stands are deeply negative in the new poll. His job approval rating stands at just 39%, and 58% say that his policies have made economic conditions in the US worse, up 8 points since last fall. Seventy percent say things in the country are going badly, a persistent negativity that has held for much of Biden’s time in office, and 51% say government should be doing more to solve the nation’s problems.
Perceptions of Biden personally are also broadly negative, with 58% saying they have an unfavorable impression of him. Fewer than half of Americans, 45%, say that Biden cares about people like them, with only 33% describing him as someone they’re proud to have as president. A smaller share of the public than ever now says that Biden inspires confidence (28%, down 7 percentage points from March) or that he has the stamina and sharpness to serve effectively as president (26%, down 6 points from March), with those declines driven largely by Democrats and independents.
Roughly three-quarters of Americans say they’re seriously concerned that Biden’s age might negatively affect his current level of physical and mental competence (73%), and his ability to serve out another full term if reelected (76%), with a smaller 68% majority seriously concerned about his ability to understand the next generation’s concerns (that stands at 72% among those younger than 65, but just 57% of those 65 or older feel the same).
A broad 67% majority of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters now say it’s very or extremely likely that Biden will again be the party’s presidential nominee, up from 55% who felt that way in May. But 67% also say the party should nominate someone other than Biden – up from 54% in March, though still below the high of 75% who said they were seeking an alternative last summer.
That remains largely a show of discontent with Biden rather than support for any particular rival, with an 82% majority of those who’d prefer to see someone different saying that they don’t have any specific alternative in mind. Just 1%, respectively, name either of his two most prominent declared challengers, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. or Marianne Williamson.
Much of the hesitation revolves around Biden’s vitality rather than his handling of the job. While strong majorities of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters continue to say that Biden cares about people like them (81%) and to approve of his overall job performance (75%), declining shares see him as inspiring confidence (51%, down 19 percentage points since March) or having the stamina and sharpness to serve effectively as president (49%, down 14 points from March).
Asked to name their biggest concern about a Biden candidacy in 2024, 49% directly mention his age, with his mental acuity (7%) and health (7%) also top concerns, along with his ability to handle the job (7%) and his popularity and electability (6%). Just 5% say that they have no concerns.
“I think he’s a trustworthy, honest person. But he’s so old and not totally with it,” wrote one 28-year-old Democratic voter who was surveyed. “Still love him though. But I also wish he was more progressive. It’s complicated.”
Others see both positives and negatives to his age. “His age is a bit worrisome, but I would like to see a good strong Democrat as a consideration,” wrote a 66-year-old Democratic-leaning independent voter. “Otherwise I and husband will stick with Biden. He has wisdom many younger do not have nor understand.”
Asked directly about the potential effects of his age, majorities of Democratic-aligned voters say they are seriously concerned that Biden’s age might negatively affect his current level of physical and mental competence (56%), his ability to win the 2024 general election if nominated (60%), and his ability to serve another full term as president if reelected (61%). Fewer, 43%, say they’re seriously concerned that his age would negatively affect his ability to understand the concerns of the next generation of Americans, although that rises to 59% among Democratic-aligned voters younger than 45. If reelected, Biden would take office in January 2025 at age 82.
Most Democratic-aligned voters younger than 45 say they approve of Biden’s job performance overall. But in a break from older partisans, substantial majorities also say that Biden does not inspire confidence (63%), does not have the stamina and sharpness to serve effectively (64%), and that his policies have failed to improve the economy (64%).
In an early gauge of a hypothetical Biden-Trump rematch, CNN’s poll finds, registered voters are currently split between Trump (47%) and Biden (46%), with the demographic contours that defined the 2020 race still prominent. Biden sees majority support among voters of color (58%), college graduates (56%), voters younger than 35 (55%) and women (53%), while Trump has majority support among Whites (53%), men (53%) and voters without a college degree (53%). Independent voters break in Biden’s favor, 47% to 38%, as do suburban women (51% Biden to 44% Trump). Trump holds wide, though not unanimous, support among voters who currently disapprove of Biden’s job performance, with 13% in this group saying they’d back Biden over Trump regardless.
Presidential elections are decided by the state-by-state votes that determine the makeup of the electoral college rather than by national preferences, and given the distribution of electoral college votes among the states, a near-even race in the nationwide ballot is more likely to tilt to the Republican candidate in the electoral college count than the Democratic one.
Nearly 6 in 10 registered voters say that their vote in a matchup between Trump and Biden would be largely motivated by their attitudes toward the former Republican president – 30% say they’d vote for Biden mostly to express their opposition to Trump, and 29% that they’d vote for Trump mostly in an affirmative show of support. Only about one-third, by contrast, said they’d see their votes mostly as a way to cast judgment on Biden.
The criminal cases against Trump loom large over his candidacy, with both those motivated by support and those driven by opposition to him offering strongly held views on the charges. Those who say their support for Biden is more of an anti-Trump vote are near universal in saying the charges related to his role in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol (96%) and to efforts to overturn the 2020 election (93%) are disqualifying if true, while about seven in 10 of those who say their backing for Trump is to show support for him say the former president faces so many charges largely due to political abuse of the justice system (69%).
Despite voters’ strong opinions toward Trump, Biden fares no better against any other Republican hopefuls tested in the poll. He is about even with Ron DeSantis (47% each), Mike Pence (46% Pence, 44% Biden), Tim Scott (46% Scott, 44% Biden), Vivek Ramaswamy (46% Biden, 45% Ramaswamy), and Chris Christie (44% Christie, 42% Biden). Haley stands as the only GOP candidate to hold a lead over Biden, with 49% to Biden’s 43% in a hypothetical match between the two. That difference is driven at least in part by broader support for Haley than for other Republicans among White voters with college degrees (she holds 51% of that group, compared with 48% or less for other Republicans tested in the poll).
As of now, Republican and Republican-leaning voters are more deeply driven to vote in 2024 (71% extremely motivated) than Democratic-aligned voters (61% extremely motivated).
The CNN Poll was conducted by SSRS from August 25-31 among a random national sample of 1,503 adults drawn from a probability-based panel, including 1,259 registered voters and 391 Democratic and Democratic-leaning independent voters. The survey included an oversample to reach a total of 898 Republicans and Republican-leaning independents; this group has been weighted to its proper size within the population. Surveys were either conducted online or by telephone with a live interviewer. Results among the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 points; among registered voters, the margin of sampling error is 3.6 points, and it is 6.0 for Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters.
A Saudi court has sentenced a retired teacher to death over his comments online, say his brother and advocacy group Human Rights Watch.
Muhammad al-Ghamdi, a 54-year-old retired Saudi teacher, was sentenced “following 5 tweets criticizing corruption and human rights violations,” his brother Saeed bin Nasser al-Ghamdi tweeted last week.
According to Human Rights Watch, Muhammad al-Ghamdi was arrested last year and given little access to a lawyer before his conviction in July “under article 30 of Saudi Arabia’s counterterrorism law for ‘describing the King or the Crown Prince in a way that undermines religion or justice,’ article 34 for ‘supporting a terrorist ideology,’ article 43 for ‘communication with a terrorist entity,’ and article 44 for publishing false news ‘with the intention of executing a terrorist crime.’”
“Repression in Saudi Arabia has reached a terrifying new stage when a court can hand down the death penalty for nothing more than peaceful tweets,” Joey Shea, Saudi Arabia researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in a Tuesday statement.
According to the European Saudi Organization for Human Rights, Saudi Arabia has executed at least 92 people this year so far. In 2022, UK-based human rights organization ALQST cataloged 148 executions in Saudi Arabia – more than twice the number of executions it recorded in 2021.
The death sentence comes amid an “escalating crackdown” on free speech in the country, said Lina Alhathloul, ALQST head of monitoring and advocacy and sister of released Saudi political prisoner Loujain al-Hathloul.
“They are sending a clear and sinister message – that nobody is safe, and even a tweet can get you killed,” she said.
Al-Ghamdi’s brother Saeed, a well-known Saudi Islamic scholar and government critic living in self-imposed exile in the United Kingdom, said he believe the severity of the sentence is designed to punish him as well.
“The Saudi authorities asked me several times to return to Saudi Arabia, but I refused to do so. It is very probable that this death sentence against my brother is in retaliation for my activity. Otherwise, his charges wouldn’t have carried such a severe penalty,” he said.
CNN reached out to Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Interior for comment but had not received a response at the time of publication.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused deep disruptions in the global food supply, raising prices and increasing the risk of food insecurity in poorer nations in the Middle East and North Africa, America’s top spy agency said in an unclassified report released by Congress on Wednesday.
The direct and indirect effects of the war “were major drivers of one of the most disruptive periods in decades for global food security,” the eight-page report found – in large part because Ukraine and Russia were among the world’s largest pre-war exporters of grain and other agricultural products.
Although food security concerns have abated since the start of this year, according to the report, the future trajectory of global food prices likely will depend in part on what happens with the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which Russia ended in July. The deal, facilitated by the United Nations, had allowed Ukrainian agricultural shipments to safely exit Black Sea ports and reach the international market.
How much acreage Ukraine is able to cultivate as the war continues to rage and the cost and availability of fertilizers will also have an impact on global food prices, the report found. Global fertilizer prices reached near-record levels in mid-2022 as global oil and natural gas prices rose.
“The combination of high domestic food prices and historic levels of sovereign debt in many countries – largely caused by spending and recessionary effects of the COVID-19 pandemic – has weakened countries’ capacity to respond to heightened food insecurity risks,” the report said. “These factors probably will undermine the capacity of many poor countries to provide sufficient and affordable food to their population through the end of the year.”
Droughts last year in Canada, the Middle East, South America and the United States also compounded the war-related stress on global food supplies, according to the report.
Intelligence officials have accused Russia in the past of weaponizing food supplies by blocking Ukrainian exports, destroying infrastructure and occupying Ukrainian agricultural land.
Citing satellite imagery and open-source reporting, the report said that Russia stole nearly 6 million tons of Ukrainian wheat harvested from occupied territories in 2022. Cargo ships used to transport the stolen grain out of Russian-occupied territories in 2022 would steer along the coast of Turkey to deliver shipments to ports in Syria, Israel, Iran, Georgia and Lebanon, the report said.
“We cannot confirm if the buyers of the Russian cargoes were aware of the grains’ Ukrainian origin,” the report said.
The report was mandated by the annual intelligence authorization bill and released by the House Intelligence Committee.
“This report casts light on the war’s broader disruption to global food security and reveals how (Russian President Vladimir) Putin has intentionally used food security and the threat of starvation as a negotiating chip,” committee leaders Reps. Mike Turner and Jim Himes said in a statement. “Russia’s recent refusal to renew the Black Sea Grain Initiative will worsen this crisis, driving vulnerable nations into food shortages that could leave millions struggling to eat.”
The suspect in the fatal shooting of a faculty member at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Monday is a graduate student at the school, UNC police said in a news release Tuesday.
Tailei Qi, the grad student, is in custody on charges of first-degree murder charge and having a gun on education property, according to police.
Qi was a grad student in the same department and Yan was his faculty adviser, according to Qi’s UNC biographical page, which has been deleted but is available on the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. Qi entered the school in 2022 and listed his previous education as Louisiana State University and Wuhan University, the page said.
Police still are looking for the weapon and the motive behind the fatal shooting.
The early afternoon shooting sent the university of more than 30,000 students into lockdown for hours. The suspect was detained about 90 minutes after the gunfire interrupted activities at the school’s Caudill Laboratories, a chemistry studies building.
“We want to ensure that we gather every piece of evidence to determine exactly what happened here today and why it happened,” UNC Police Chief Brian James said at a news conference Monday evening. “It is too early in this investigation to know a motive for the shooting.”
Qi will have his first court appearance in Hillsborough at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, said prosecutor Jeff Nieman, whose district covers Orange and Chatham counties.
Detectives looking for motive and firearm
Detectives won’t get clues into the motive until they speak with the suspect, James said. Investigators have not found the firearm that was used in the shooting and it’s not known whether it was legally obtained, James said.
No one else was injured, officials said.
“This loss is devastating and the shooting damages the trust and safety that we so often take for granted in our campus community. We will work to rebuild that sense of trust and safety within our community,” UNC Chapel Hill Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz said.
James said it was unclear whether the victim and the assailant knew each other.
“That will hopefully be uncovered through interviews of the suspect as well as any witnesses that may be available,” he said.
Classes and campus activities were canceled Monday and Tuesday, officials said. This is the second week of fall semester classes at the flagship university of the 17-member UNC system.
After 911 calls about the shooting came in shortly after 1 p.m., university police issued an alert advising students to go inside immediately, close windows and doors and to wait until further notice, according to an email. A witness on campus told CNN they were locked down in their building and saw armed officers searching campus.
Video from CNN affiliate WRAL showed a large number of police vehicles at the campus with their emergency lights flashing. At times, people walked out of nearby buildings in a single-file line with their arms in the air.
Police detained one person before the suspect’s arrest but they determined “very quickly” it was not the gunman, James said.
The suspect was taken into custody shortly after 2:30 p.m., Guskiewicz said. The university continued in lockdown for a couple hours after the suspect was detained because authorities were working to confirm they had the right person and trying to find the firearm that was used, James told reporters.
The university has a student body of about 32,000, along with more than 4,000 faculty and 9,000 staff members.
The FBI is assisting in evidence gathering, officials said.
Forty-nine school shootings have happened in the US this year, including the UNC shooting – 34 have been reported on K-12 campuses and 15 on university and college campuses – according to a CNN tally.
