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  • Southern Baptist Convention votes to uphold removal of Saddleback Church over women pastors after appeal by Rick Warren | CNN

    Southern Baptist Convention votes to uphold removal of Saddleback Church over women pastors after appeal by Rick Warren | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention voted to affirm a decision made earlier this year to remove Saddleback Church, a major southern California congregation founded by the pastor and author Rick Warren, due to its having women pastors.

    Representatives at the conference in New Orleans overwhelmingly supported the decision to expel the church, according to the vote count reported Wednesday morning, despite pleas a day earlier by Warren, the author of “The Purpose Driven Life.” The representatives, known as messengers, also voted to affirm the ousters of two other churches, including Fern Creek in Louisville, Kentucky, which has had a female pastor since 1993.

    The vote to uphold those removals came just a few hours before a two-thirds majority of the Southern Baptist Convention – the largest Protestant denomination in the United States – separately voted to approve an amendment to its constitution that would more broadly prohibit churches from having women hold any pastoral title.

    The amendment must pass by a two-thirds vote two years in a row, with Wednesday’s vote marking its first.

    The Baptist Press, which describes itself as the SBC’s official news service, reported Saddleback was found “not to be in friendly cooperation” with the SBC’s “statement of faith,” which says in part that “the office of pastor is limited to men.”

    Warren was among those who asked the SBC to reverse the February decision on Tuesday. He appealed to the representatives to “act like Southern Baptists who have historically ‘agreed to disagree’ on dozens of doctrines in order to share a common mission,” per the Times, which reported Warren appointed a husband and wife to succeed him after his retirement in 2021. Three more women were ordained as pastors at Saddleback that year, according to Baptist Press.

    Voters were unconvinced: Per the Baptist Press, 9,437 votes were cast in favor of upholding the decision, compared to 1,212 against. Fern Creek Baptist’s appeal was similarly rejected, with 9,700 voting in favor of upholding the decision and 806 voting against.

    CNN has reached out to the SBC, Saddleback Church and Fern Creek Baptist for comment.

    The ousting of a third church, Freedom Church in Vero Beach, Florida, was also upheld. That church was expelled for a separate reason unrelated to the question of female pastors.

    Churches not found in friendly cooperation effectively lose their affiliation with the wider convention, though they could still operate congregations.

    The fight at one of the nation’s most important evangelical bellwethers is playing out against the backdrop of broader political and cultural battles over the rights of women and LGBTQ people.

    In the wake of the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade, an energized, conservative faction within the GOP has pushed for strict abortion restrictions and limits on gender-affirming care for transgender people in statehouses across the country. That push has also triggered a backlash among the broader electorate, with Democrats notching victories in competitive 2022 midterm races and 2023 elections where those cultural clashes have taken center stage.

    Andy Wood, who currently pastors Saddleback Church, pushed back after the SBC’s decision to remove the church in a video in March, noting that all the church’s elders were men but that they could “empower women and mobilize women to use their spiritual gifts in the local church.”

    “This is a historic moment,” Wood said. “The church at large, the global church is looking for good Bible believing examples of empowering women for ministry. So Saddleback, we want to lead the way in that conversation.”

    “If we can be a part of mobilizing and empowering a whole generation of women, we would love nothing more than to lean into that conversation and empower women for ministry.”

    The proposed amendment taken up Wednesday would add a qualification to Article III of the SBC Constitution, saying churches will be considered in friendly cooperation only if they do “not affirm, appoint, or employ a woman as a pastor of any kind.”

    Mike Law, the pastor of Arlington Baptist Church in Arlington, Virginia, has identified himself as the person who introduced the amendment. In a video, he explained the goal was to “encourage Southern Baptists to keep in step with the spirit and the scriptures on the subject of the Pastoral office.

    “The Baptist faith and message announces our belief that the office of Pastor is limited to men as qualified by scripture, and this amendment would clarify that our cooperation as churches is in accord with this particular belief.”

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  • Pedro Pascal says an angry driver spat on his car amid wild road rage incident | CNN

    Pedro Pascal says an angry driver spat on his car amid wild road rage incident | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Steven Yeun is quite familiar with how volatile and angry drivers on the road can be, thanks to his starring role in hit series “Beef,” and it turns out Pedro Pascal can relate.

    During a segment for Variety’s Actors on Actors discussion published on Monday, Pascal recalled a wild road rage incident that involved a driver spitting on his car.

    “It was my fault,” the “Last of Us” star admitted, going on to tell Yeun that he “cut somebody off.”

    Then, Pascal said, “I look over, and there’s a big glob of saliva – like visual effects put it there, man – just dripping down the side of the passenger window.”

    “He spit at me,” Pascal added.

    When Yeun asked what happened next, Pascal said that it didn’t solicit any rage out of him, but rather “absolutely humbled me and shocked me, scared me a little bit, disturbed me.”

    Yeun stars alongside Ali Wong in Netflix’s “Beef,” a series that follows two strangers entangled in a road rage incident that sets them on a path of chaos, and he shared with Pascal that he got “flipped off” in his own recent road rage incident.

    Pascal gushed to Yeun about how much he admired his performance in “Beef,” saying the show reflects “such a living truth that can happen anywhere but was happening to me yesterday in Los Angeles.”

    He added to Yeun that his experience on the road that day made him “admire your performance even more because I was like, ‘You’re nailing it.’”

    Both incidents, they said through a fit of laughter, took place on the same day in April, which happened to be the day before they sat down for their Actors on Actors chat in Los Angeles – a city known for tumult on the road.

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  • ‘Pretending to live a civilian life’: How pro-Ukrainian residents of occupied Melitopol feel daily fear | CNN

    ‘Pretending to live a civilian life’: How pro-Ukrainian residents of occupied Melitopol feel daily fear | CNN

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    Kyiv
    CNN
     — 

    Editor’s note: The southern Ukrainian city of Melitopol has long been known for its sweet delights. The name “Melitopol” means “the Honey City” in Ukrainian and the city’s official logo features a cherry, a nod to the deep red fruit the region is famous for.

    But life in Melitopol is anything but sweet. The city was captured by Russian troops shortly after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year. Pro-Ukrainian partisans have remained active in the city, orchestrating several attacks against the pro-Russian administration installed in the place of its elected leaders. The Zaporizhzhia region in which the city lies is partially occupied by Russia and was illegally annexed last September.

    Below is the account of a Melitopol resident in her early 30s who has refused to flee the city and is living under Russian occupation. CNN is not naming her because of concerns for her safety. Her testimony was translated from Ukrainian and edited for brevity. 

    There is terror in Melitopol. But it’s quiet, you don’t see it in the streets.

    For partisans, the situation here is terrible. For those of us who rejected Russian passports and are now known as “the unreliable,” the situation is terrible. But if you go to the market, you wouldn’t think that anything is going on.

    The Russians are trying to force everyone here to get Russian passports. It’s easier to manipulate people when they have Russian citizenship. Not getting the passports makes our life very difficult. They are refusing to give us access to hospitals and so on. We are a family of farmers and we are losing our land because we don’t have any Russian documents.

    I’m afraid I will eventually have to get it. But we are delaying this moment. One relative went to the office and the queues were huge because everyone was intimidated into getting a passport. The process has sped up. Previously, you had to wait a month or two, but now they can print a passport in a week.

    Everyone was given cash welfare payments until February, but starting in March, only people with Russian passports get them. That’s why many pensioners started getting passports now because there was no need for it before. Disabled people, people on low incomes, and those who wanted to use free healthcare took the passports immediately after the Russians started offering them, because they didn’t want to lose the benefits.

    All in all, a large percentage of the population already has Russian passports. If you don’t, you’re a black sheep, and you can be subject to a frisking.

    Here in Melitopol, searches are usually conducted after shelling and after guerrilla attacks on pro-Russian collaborators. My grandmother’s house was searched because a Russian soldier deserted when he was in the village. They searched the houses in the village, trying to find him.

    The people who remained in Melitopol can be divided into several categories. There are those who are basically satisfied with the current pro-Russian government. There are those who don’t care and who would support whoever gives them more money in cash payments.  

    Those who stayed mostly support the pro-Russian government. They are convinced that it is here to stay.  

    Obviously, there are also Ukrainian patriots, those of us waiting for Ukraine to win this war. We whisper to each other in the market. You can tell that someone is supporting Ukraine at the market when you ask for high quality produce. Vendors start cursing Russia because they now have to choose between selling bad products and worse products.

    There are still a lot of partisans, God bless them, but we are in the minority. Most of the Ukrainian patriots have left, especially those who actively participated in rallies, because there was a direct threat to their lives.

    Our neighbor turned us in for supporting Ukraine, but we are not being touched, at least not yet. My neighbor works for the new government and she knows that we actively opposed Russia during the first phase of the war.

    I think we will be issued some kind of document that they give to “the unreliable” which says we have refused the passports. This means nothing except showing that we refused to take Russian passports. It’s a temporary certificate of non-citizens, but you either take this piece of paper or you have to leave Melitopol. So, we are going to take it.

    Until April, it was possible to move freely throughout the occupied zone without documents. Now you need a Russian passport or the non-citizen document, but they keep issuing warnings and saying that you need to get a Russian passport by June or you will not be allowed to leave.

    People here are encouraged to send their children to summer camps in Crimea, like they were last year. Some parents on our street voluntarily sent their children to Crimea for a month and the children came back. But our neighbors, who have since left for Germany, did not want to send their son to a Russian school or to a camp, and it was okay. Their son stayed at home all year, studying online at a Ukrainian school. Children are not taken away by force here. You have to understand that parents send them there voluntarily.

    In this file photo, Russian passports are being issued to residents in the occupied city of Melitopol.

    It’s true that the occupiers are worried about the counteroffensive. The mood in the city has changed dramatically over the past month, from “Melitopol is forever with Russia” to thinking where and how they will build defense lines.

    Of course, this is just what the ordinary soldiers in the city are saying, but there is no longer that victorious mood. I feel that something is going to happen here soon. Ukrainian hryvnias are being bought up in the market, and farmers are refusing to sell their products, because they are waiting to give it to Ukraine. And all the neighbors who are in favor of Russia have stopped communicating with us, because they are no longer sure that Russia will stay here forever and are afraid to talk.

    There are more or less no problems with getting food. There is no variety, but there are no shortages either. The standards and packaging have completely changed since the invasion started. Butter that is made at the same factory tastes so bad now that we don’t know what to do to mask the taste.

    Everything that is imported from Russia contains palm oil. That’s not an exaggeration, the ingredient list of a candy lists palm oil three times. It’s in everything. Sausages, cheese, candy, cookies, butter.

    But the biggest problem is with medicines and household goods, as well as baby food. Russia doesn’t have good quality medicines and there is no choice. You go to a pharmacy and they give you one option, take it or leave it. People inquire about medicines for 10 minutes and in the end, they only have iodine. A woman in front of me was trying to buy Nestlé baby food, but the price was out of this world. She ended up buying some Russian-made equivalent.

    My mother and grandmother have diabetes. The Russian medicines have the same active ingredient but they affect them in completely different ways. They have different dosages and excipients and my mother and grandmother started feeling much worse when they began taking them. We received some Ukrainian medicines from Ukraine through Crimea, enough for a month and a half.

    The cynicism of doctors and pharmacists here is overwhelming. No one says anything directly. We call the war a “situation” here. So, they just answer: “Well, this is the situation, if you need it, go to Ukraine or Europe.” When I told the doctor that I needed specific medication, I was told to go to the city of Zaporizhzhia to buy it. And just so you understand, to go to Zaporizhzhia, you have to go via Moscow. That’s the only way.

    A Russian flag flies in the occupied city of Melitopol on October 13, 2022.

    In Russia, they don’t have the same standards and regulations for products. Nothing like that. Russian soaps, shampoos, and toothpastes are of terrible quality. Belarusian ones are a little better, and the best option for us here is Turkish shampoo. There are a lot of Chinese and Turkish products on the market. Russian and Chinese products are of the worst quality, while Belarusian and Turkish products are more or less okay, but more expensive.

    The problem is that only the military here have a lot of money, and often they buy everything decent. The rumours that Russians themselves do not want to buy Russian products are true. Until September, Ukrainian products were smuggled to Melitopol and the Russian military bought everything themselves. Soldiers stood in line in front of me and asked for Ukrainian socks and soap. Now there are no Ukrainian goods anymore.

    Everyone is pretending to live a civilian life. There’s no talk of evacuation. People are used to the explosions and to the fact that from time to time there are burnt-out cars of pro-Russian collaborators on the main street. People are used to the fact that Russian troops and authorities can come to your house and kick you out.

    People have gotten used to everything over the year.

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  • Trump hits campaign trail as indictment roils 2024 race | CNN Politics

    Trump hits campaign trail as indictment roils 2024 race | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Former President Donald Trump is set to return to the campaign trail Saturday, traveling to Georgia and North Carolina for speeches at a pair of state Republican conventions as news of his federal indictment roils the party’s 2024 presidential race.

    The pre-planned stops come the day after the Justice Department unsealed its indictment laying out the government’s case that Trump and aide Walt Nauta mishandled classified national security documents.

    Trump’s speeches will mark his first public outings since he was indicted for a second time in less than three months, with probes into election interference efforts in Georgia and his actions surrounding January 6, 2021, in Washington threatening to pose further legal troubles.

    The visits will give Trump a chance to respond to the charges in a campaign-style as he mounts battles on both the political and legal fronts. The former president is scheduled to appear Tuesday in a federal courtroom in Miami, where he will be read the charges against him.

    So far, Trump has cast his prosecution as a politically motivated effort to stop his bid for the presidency. He has described special prosecutor Jack Smith as “deranged” and the case against him as a “hoax,” while accusing President Joe Biden of similarly mishandling classified documents.

    “I had nothing to hide, nor do I now. Nobody said I wasn’t allowed to look at the personal records that I brought with me from the White House. There’s nothing wrong with that,” he said Friday on his social media platform Truth Social.

    Trump released a four-minute video Thursday evening repeating many of his past claims, including that the Justice Department is being weaponized and that the investigations into him represent “election interference.”

    “I am an innocent man. I did nothing wrong,” Trump said in the video.

    News of the former president’s indictment Thursday was met at his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey with a belief that he would benefit politically as conservatives rallied around him.

    Trump spent Friday morning in Bedminster playing golf with Florida Rep. Carlos Gimenez as his allies made rounds of phone calls to shore up support for the former president.

    After the indictment was unsealed Friday, concern began to settle in, a source familiar with the mood at Bedminster told CNN, as Trump aides began to acknowledge the legal implications. His team still thinks Trump will likely benefit politically – at least in the short term – the source said, but aides have grown more wary of how the indictment will play out legally.

    Trump has long avoided legal culpability in his personal, professional and political lives. He has settled a number of private civil lawsuits through the years and paid his way out of disputes concerning the Trump Organization. As president, he was twice impeached by the Democratic-led House but avoided conviction by the Senate.

    But after leaving office, the Justice Department’s criminal investigations into the alleged retention of classified information at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election cast dark clouds over the former president. Smith’s investigation into January 6, 2021, and efforts to overturn the election is still ongoing.

    In March, the Manhattan district attorney in New York indicted Trump on charges related to hush-money payments to a former adult star. In Georgia, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is expected to announce in August whether there are any charges in her investigation into attempts by Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election in the state.

    On the campaign trail, many of Trump’s Republican 2024 presidential rivals responded to the news of his indictment by attacking the Justice Department – another indication that they see advantage among conservative primary voters in defending a former president who remains popular with the party’s base.

    Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday accused the DOJ of “weaponization of federal law enforcement” while vowing, if elected president, to “bring accountability to the DOJ, excise political bias and end weaponization once and for all.”

    Former Vice President Mike Pence had called on the Justice Department to release the indictment against his former boss. After it did so, he did not comment on its contents while campaigning in New Hampshire.

    Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and Trump’s United Nations ambassador, characterized the indictment as “prosecutorial overreach” in a statement Friday, adding that it was time to move “beyond the endless drama and distractions.”

    North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who entered the GOP race earlier this week, said Saturday that Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents is not something voters want to spend their time on.

    “When we’re on the road in Iowa the last two days and here in New Hampshire talking about the economy, energy policy, national security – those are the things that are hitting every American every single day,” Burgum told Fox News.

    Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, another onetime ally and close adviser to Trump who has emerged as his chief critic in the 2024 race, described the details of the indictment as “damning.”

    “This is irresponsible conduct,” he told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Friday, adding that “the conduct that Donald Trump engaged in was completely self-inflicted.”

    “The bigger issue for our country is, is this the type of conduct that we want from someone who wants to be president of the United States?” Christie said.

    Another Trump critic, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, said the former president should drop out of the race “for the good of the country.”

    “This is unprecedented that we have a former president criminally charged for mishandling classified information, for obstruction of justice. This obviously will be an issue during the campaign,” Hutchinson told Tapper on Friday in a separate interview.

    “For the sake of the country, he doesn’t need this distraction. The country doesn’t need this distraction, as well.”

    This story has been updated with additional information.

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  • Right-wing media wages war on U.S. justice system after Trump’s historic federal indictment | CNN Business

    Right-wing media wages war on U.S. justice system after Trump’s historic federal indictment | CNN Business

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    Editor’s Note: A version of this article first appeared in the “Reliable Sources” newsletter. Sign up for the daily digest chronicling the evolving media landscape here.


    New York
    CNN
     — 

    The attacks on the rule of law have begun.

    Moments after news broke on Thursday that disgraced former President Donald Trump had been indicted on federal charges, Fox News and the rest of the MAGA Media universe revved up into attack mode, denigrating the U.S. justice system and characterizing it as prejudiced against conservatives.

    The assault on the American justice system was swift and savage.

    On Fox, the historic legal action was portrayed as President Joe Biden weaponizing the Justice Department to target his political opponent.

    “BIDEN ADMIN INDICTS A PRESIDENTIAL RIVAL,” one on-screen banner read.

    “Yes, it is a dark day in America,” Sean Hannity declared. “We have said it often. There is no equal justice, there is no equal application of our laws. There is one set of rules for Democrats and another set of rules for Donald Trump and conservatives and anybody especially in his orbit.”

    Despite the indictment not being made public, Hannity went on to tell his audience that the “system of justice” in the U.S. has “been weaponized beyond belief” and that the country is “in serious trouble.”

    Throughout the night, Fox welcomed guests who echoed the Trump talking points and disparaged the justice system.

    In effect, Fox News is once again platforming those who are leading vicious and irresponsible attacks on the country’s criminal justice system.

    The defense of Trump, of course, was not just limited to Fox News.

    Across the right-wing media ecosystem, the narrative that a sinister deep-state was unfairly targeting Trump to knock him out of the 2024 presidential contest was pervasive.

    “PEAK WITCH HUNT,” the homepage banner on the right-wing Breitbart blared, adding “POLITICAL PERSECUTION INTENSIFIES.”

    Elsewhere, on the far-right Gateway Pundit blog, more than a half-dozen stories were published Thursday night defending Trump.

    The coverage harkened back to the years after the 2016 election, when Trump aimed to discredit and destroy institutions such as the FBI for investigating him.

    News organizations covered the story by delivering fact-based reporting and analysis, while propaganda outfits such as Fox News disseminated hyperbolic commentary to their audiences.

    Thursday night’s coverage did serve as a good reminder that outlets like Fox News can quickly fall under Trump’s hypnosis and snap into MAGA mouthpiece mode.

    While Rupert Murdoch might personally hold great contempt for Trump, documents revealed as part of the Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit showed that he is terrified that airing critical coverage of Trump will result in his supporters abandoning the channel.

    And at the end of the day, that is what motivates such outlets. Their business models are not designed to provide fact-based news to audiences.

    And that means giving voice to dangerous, dishonest commentary — despite knowing, after the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the real-world violence that it has the potential to incite.

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  • Takeaways from CNN’s town hall with Mike Pence | CNN Politics

    Takeaways from CNN’s town hall with Mike Pence | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Former Vice President Mike Pence staked out a series of clear differences with boss-turned-2024 rival Donald Trump, and needled other Republican contenders, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, in a CNN town hall in Iowa on Wednesday night.

    Hours after he launched his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, Pence broke with the former president on immigration policy, entitlement spending, US support for Ukraine in its war against Russia and more.

    He said he would not reinstate the policy of separating migrant families at the border – a widely criticized practice that Trump didn’t rule out reviving in his own CNN town hall last month.

    Pence also said that other Republican rivals were wrong to put changes to Social Security off the table, telling the crowd at Grand View University in Des Moines that seriously reducing federal spending will require changes to entitlement programs.

    He sharply rebuked Trump for describing Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “genius” for his invasion of Ukraine, while casting DeSantis as naive on the issue. And he continued to criticize the former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

    Pence said he and Trump don’t just disagree about the past; the two have “a different vision for our party.”

    “I’m somebody who believes in American leadership in the world. Our party needs to lead on fiscal responsibility and stand without apology for life. We’ll have those debates,” he said.

    Still, Pence said, he will “support the Republican nominee in 2024,” a pledge he said he felt comfortable making because he doubted Trump would win the primary.

    “Different times call for different leadership,” Pence said. “The American people don’t look backwards; they look forward. … I don’t think my old running mate is going to be the Republican nominee for president.”

    Here are six takeaways from Pence’s CNN town hall:

    Pence urged the Justice Department not to indict his onetime boss, saying such an indictment would fuel division inside the country and “send a terrible message to the wider world.”

    While Pence said that “no one is above the law,” he said the DOJ could resolve its investigation into Trump’s potential mishandling of classified documents without resorting to an indictment, just as the department informed Pence’s attorney last week that there would be no charges brought in the case of the classified documents discovered in his home.

    But in Pence’s case, the former vice president immediately contacted the National Archives and the FBI to return his documents, while Trump resisted handing over his classified material and failed to return all classified documents after receiving a subpoena last May.

    Pence’s response underscores the tightrope the former vice president is walking when it comes to the numerous probes into his former boss. CNN reported Wednesday that the Justice Department had informed Trump he’s a target of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the mishandling of classified documents and possible obstruction, a sign that prosecutors may be moving closer to indicting the former president.

    While Pence criticized Trump for his actions on January 6 at his campaign kickoff Wednesday and at the town hall, he sought to distinguish those actions from the documents probe, protesting that there were “dozens” of better ways that the FBI could have handled Trump’s case before resorting to an unprecedented search the former president’s residence.

    So far, Pence’s sharpest criticism of Trump came when he was asked about the United States’ role in helping Ukraine in its efforts to repel Russia’s invasion.

    After arguing that the US should accelerate its support for the Ukrainian military, Pence pointed to Trump’s description of Putin in a February 2022 radio interview as a “genius” for his invasion of Ukraine.

    “I know the difference between a genius and a war criminal, and I know who needs to win the war in Ukraine,” Pence said. “And it’s the people fighting for their freedom and fighting to restore their national sovereignty in Ukraine. And America – it’s not our war, but freedom is our fight. And we need to give the people of Ukraine the ability to fight and defend their freedom.”

    Pence’s comments align him with Nikki Haley, Trump’s United Nations ambassador and a 2024 rival, and against their former boss and DeSantis, who entered the GOP race last month. The former vice president echoed Haley’s veiled shot at DeSantis – who described the war as a “territorial dispute” – casting such characterizations as naive.

    “Anybody that thinks Vladimir Putin will stop if he overruns Ukraine has what we say back in Indiana, another thing coming,” Pence said. “He has no intention of stopping. He’s made it clear that he wants to recreate that old Soviet sphere of influence in Eastern Europe.”

    Pence participates in a CNN Republican Presidential Town Hall on Wednesday.

    Pence repeatedly highlighted his support for “parents’ rights,” especially when it comes to schools. But he said the judgment of those same parents should not apply to situations when a minor is seeking gender transition care.

    “I strongly support state legislation, including, as we did in Indiana, that bans all gender transition, chemical or surgical procedures, under the age of 18,” he said – even when parents support their child’s decision to go forward.

    Republican presidential candidates have all railed against what Pence on Wednesday described as “radical gender ideology,” language that by definition falsely suggests there is a movement of people seeking to convince young people to change their gender identities.

    “However adults want to live, they can live,” Pence said. “But for children, we’re going to protect kids from the radical gender ideology and say no chemical or surgical transition before you’re 18.”

    Pressed on the age question, Pence compared gender transition to body art, saying, “There’s a reason why you don’t let kids get a tattoo before they’re 18.”

    When Bash asked what he would say to children and families who feel targeted by his position and those of his ideological allies, Pence offered an olive branch of sorts.

    “I’d put my arm around them and tell them I love ‘em,” he said, “but (tell them) ‘Just wait.’”

    Pence speaks during a CNN Republican Presidential Town Hall moderated by CNN's Dana Bash at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa, on June 7.

    Pence has been a fierce anti-abortion advocate his entire adult life. On Wednesday night, he made clear he would not deviate from that position.

    “I couldn’t be more proud to be vice president in an administration that appointed three of the justices that sent Roe v. Wade to the ash heap of history,” Pence said, “and gave America a new beginning for life.”

    On the question of a federal ban on the procedure, Pence said he supported exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother. But he did not tap dance around the fundamental question, even as voters around the country – in the midterms and in referendums – have registered their anger over the Supreme Court’s decision and the subsequent passage of state laws to sharply restrict abortion rights.

    “We will not rest or relent until we restore the sanctity of life to the center of American law in every state in the country,” Pence said.

    Still, the former vice president acknowledged that his side had a “long way to go to win the hearts and minds of the American people” and encouraged his allies to show both “principle and compassion.”

    To that end, he offered qualified support for social spending programs to help support newborns and new parents.

    “We have to care as much about newborns and mothers as we do about the unborn,” Pence said. But he stopped short of specifically endorsing paid family leave for all Americans or subsidized child care.

    Pence said he would “take a step back” from the approach of the Trump-era landmark sentencing reform law, known as the First Step Act.

    “We need to get serious and tough on violent crime, and we need to give our cities and our states the resources to restore law and order to our streets. And I promise you, we’ll do that, if I’m your president,” Pence told Bash.

    Under the First Step Act, thousands of federal inmates, most of them serving sentences for drug offense and weapons charges, were released from prison early, either for good behavior or through participation in rehabilitation programs. The law also eased mandatory minimum sentencing for certain drug offenders.

    Asked about DeSantis’ promise to repeal the First Step Act if elected president, Pence again conceded that he would take a different approach than the First Step Act.

    “We ought to be thinking about how we make penalties tougher on people that are victimizing families in this country,” he said.

    Pence repeated the criticism he has leveled at his former boss for more than a year, insisting that Trump was wrong to ask his second-in-command to overturn some states’ 2020 Electoral College votes in his ceremonial role presiding over Congress as it counted those votes on January 6, 2021.

    Pence said he “frankly hoped the president would come around” since early 2021. Though he said he agreed that some states inappropriately changed their election procedures during the coronavirus pandemic.

    “But at the end of the day, I think the Republican Party has to be the party of the Constitution,” he said.

    Pence also broke with Trump over the legal fates of those who rioted at the US Capitol on January 6 – and have since faced criminal charges and convictions. Trump said he would consider pardoning many of those rioters, who he said were being treated “very unfairly.”

    Pence, though, said the United States “cannot ever allow what happened on January 6 to happen again in the heart of our democracy.”

    “I have no interest or no intention of pardoning those that assaulted police officers or vandalized our Capitol. They need to answer to the law,” he said.

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  • Opening statements begin in the trial of Parkland school resource officer who stayed outside during shooting | CNN

    Opening statements begin in the trial of Parkland school resource officer who stayed outside during shooting | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The trial of the former school resource officer who remained outside a Parkland, Florida, high school five years ago while 17 people were gunned down inside started in earnest Wednesday, as prosecutors began presenting their opening statement.

    The state has accused retired Broward Sheriff’s Office Deputy Scot Peterson of failing to follow his active shooter training by staying outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018, taking cover for at least 45 minutes while a former student carried out what remains the deadliest high school shooting in US history. Among the slain were 14 students and three staff members; 17 others were injured.

    The case highlights the expectations for officers responding to active shooters as the country faces a seemingly endless scourge of gun violence, with schools such as those in Parkland; Uvalde, Texas; and Newtown, Connecticut, etched in public memory as the scenes of some of the most devastating massacres.

    Peterson has pleaded not guilty to 11 counts – including seven of felony child neglect, three of culpable negligence and one of perjury – and maintains he did nothing wrong. The 60-year-old, who retired as criticism of his alleged failure mounted, has said he didn’t enter the unfolding scene of carnage in the school’s 1200 building because he couldn’t tell where the gunshots were coming from.

    Before the shooting, Peterson was a dedicated and decorated officer who had served for more than three decades, his attorney, Mark Eiglarsh, told CNN.

    “After a 32-year career, this loving husband and father of four went from hero, and in 4 minutes and 15 seconds, he went to criminal,” the defense lawyer said.

    Jury selection began last Wednesday, yielding a panel of six jurors and four alternates tasked with weighing the state’s unusual case, which experts have described to CNN as the first of its kind and a legal stretch.

    The Broward State Attorney’s Office charged Peterson under a Florida statute that usually applies to caretakers, arguing the then-deputy, in his capacity as a school resource officer, was a caregiver responsible for the protection of the high school’s students and staff.

    Peterson was at the school administration building on February 14, 2018, when the shooter opened fire on the first floor of the 1200 building, according to a probable cause affidavit. Peterson got to the building’s east entrance about 2 minutes later, per a timeline in the affidavit.

    Peterson moved about 75 feet away and “positioned himself behind the wall of the stairwell on the northeast corner of the 700 Building” – a third campus structure – the affidavit says, calling it a “position of cover” he held for the duration of the shooting.

    In a blow to both the state and the defense, the judge last week ruled jurors will not make a trip to the scene of the shooting, as the jury in the shooter’s trial did, CNN affiliate WPLG reported. Eiglarsh wanted the jury to see the exterior of the 1200 building, which has been preserved pending the trials of the shooter and Peterson, while prosecutors had wanted jurors to see the building’s interior, too.

    Beyond the child neglect and culpable negligence charges, Peterson was charged with perjury for telling investigators he heard only two or three gunshots after arriving at the scene of the shooting, the affidavit says, while other witnesses said they’d heard more.

    Peterson’s attorney intends to argue, in part, that his client’s confusion about the location of the shooter was reasonable and shared by others at the scene, including members of law enforcement, teachers and students, Eiglarsh told CNN. The lawyer also contends Peterson’s actions at the scene illustrate he was not negligent but reacting as well as he could with the information he had, he said.

    Additionally, Eiglarsh disagrees with the decision to charge his client under the caretaker statute, he told CNN, calling the choice “preposterous.”

    “He’s not a legal caregiver,” Eiglarsh said, acknowledging he understands the argument. “But he’s not a teacher, he’s not a parent, he’s not a kidnapper who’s responsible for the well-being of a child. He’s not hired by the school system.”

    In the past, Peterson and his attorneys have argued the caretaker statute does not apply to him, emphasizing one person is responsible for the deaths and injuries that day: the gunman, then-19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, who pleaded guilty to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder and was sentenced last year to life in prison without the possibility of parole after a jury declined to unanimously recommend the death penalty.

    That outcome angered and disappointed many victims’ families, including some who see Peterson’s trial as another opportunity for justice.

    “We should not portray or allow the defense team or the deputy who failed to act properly to portray himself as a victim,” Tony Montalto, the father of 14-year-old victim Gina Montalto told CNN before jury selection. “He was charged with keeping the students and staff safe, and he failed to do so.”

    “Regardless of the outcome in the trial,” he said, “I hope he’s haunted every day by the fact that his actions cost lives.”

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  • A mass shooting after a high school commencement ceremony leaves 2 dead, including an 18-year-old graduate | CNN

    A mass shooting after a high school commencement ceremony leaves 2 dead, including an 18-year-old graduate | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A shooting after a high school commencement ceremony in Richmond, Virginia, killed two people Tuesday evening – an 18-year-old man on his graduation day and a man who’d attended the event – and wounded five others, spreading terror among hundreds who were celebrating, police say.

    The gunfire happened in Richmond’s Monroe Park, where graduates and guests were reveling and taking photographs after Huguenot High School held its commencement at a theater across the street, officials said.

    The shooting sent people running in all directions, and a 9-year-old girl was injured by a car that struck her during the chaos, the city’s interim police chief said in a news conference.

    A suspect – a 19-year-old man – was taken into custody after the shooting. Police intend to seek charges of second-degree murder against him, and other charges could follow, Edwards said. The names of the suspect and those killed and injured were not immediately released.

    “This should have been a safe space,” the interim chief, Rick Edwards, said Tuesday night. “It’s just incredibly tragic that someone decided to bring a gun to this incident and rain terror on our community.”

    It’s unclear what motivated the attack. The chief said it was unknown Tuesday whether the suspect is a student.

    “We think the suspect knew at least one of the victims,” the interim chief said, without elaborating.

    Huguenot High’s ceremony was the second Richmond high school commencement to happen Tuesday at Altria Theater, and a third graduation ceremony scheduled there that day was canceled after the shooting, school officials said.

    Though Edwards said the 18-year-old who died had graduated Tuesday, Edwards did not say from which school. The other man who died was a 36-year-old who’d just attended the ceremony, the interim chief said.

    The other gunshot victims were a 14-year-old boy and four men ranging in age from 31 to 58. The 31-year-old had life-threatening injuries as of Tuesday night and the rest did not, Edwards said

    The 9-year-old girl who was hit by a car was being treated at a hospital Tuesday night with non-life-threatening injuries, he added.

    The shooting marks one of at least 279 mass shootings in the United States so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as one in which at least four people are shot, excluding the shooter.

    The violence added Richmond to a list of communities across the country to grapple with the terror of mass shootings in recent months, including shootings at a mall in Texas, a school in Tennessee, a bank in Kentucky and near a beach in South Florida.

    The shooting happened just before 5:15 p.m. ET, when three off-duty officers who were working security at the ceremony heard gunshots and reported them on their radios, and officers working traffic duty nearby responded, Edwards said.

    “The initial officers indicated there was a barrage of gunfire, but it was over quickly,” he added.

    The suspect fled on foot and was found and detained nearby by security officers with Virginia Commonwealth University, nearby, Edwards said. Monroe Park is part of VCU’s Monroe Park campus.

    Police initially announced detained two people but later said one of them was not involved in the shooting.

    Police seized several guns following the shooting, the interim chief said.

    Turmoil unfolded when the shooting happened, Edwards said.

    “I heard the call come over my radio, and you can hear the chaos and the screaming,” Edwards said.

    “People were having panic attacks, falling on the ground screaming,” Edwards added. “Some people fell. One child was hit by a car.”

    Naomi Wade was outside the Altria Theater selling flowers and teddy bears for the graduates, she told CNN affiliate WTVR. Images of smiling graduates in caps and gowns turned to scenes of panic as gunshots were heard, she said.

    “Everyone literally started running for their lives, trampling each other. Trampled me. Trampled our whole entire stand. It was scary,” Wade said.

    Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney decried the shooting Tuesday and promised whoever was involved would be brought to justice.

    “Is nothing sacred any longer?” Stoney said at a news conference.

    “This should not be happening anywhere,” Stoney said “A child should be able to go to their graduation and walk at their graduation and enjoy the accomplishment with their friends and families.”

    Richmond Public Schools is closing all its schools Wednesday out of an abundance of caution, the system announced on its website.

    The rest of this week’s high school graduations in the district also have been canceled.

    “We’ve been preparing for an event like this. We’ve prepared for it with our partners and hoping that this day would come,” Edwards said. “But it came to Richmond.”

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  • Mother of 6-year-old who shot teacher will plead guilty to federal felony charges in deal with prosecutors | CNN

    Mother of 6-year-old who shot teacher will plead guilty to federal felony charges in deal with prosecutors | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The mother of a 6-year-old boy who brought a gun to school and shot his first-grade teacher in January in Newport News, Virginia, will plead guilty to new federal felony charges as part of a deal with prosecutors, her attorney said Monday.

    Deja Taylor, the 26-year-old mother, was charged with unlawful use of a controlled substance while possessing a firearm and with making a false statement while purchasing the firearm, specifically a semiautomatic handgun, the federal complaint states.

    Her attorney, James Ellenson, said Taylor’s guilty plea was an “agreed procedure which eliminated the need for the government to take the case to a grand jury.”

    “Our action follows very constructive negotiations we had with federal authorities. The terms of the agreement, which we believe to be fair to all parties, will be disclosed when we enter the guilty plea,” Ellenson said.

    In addition to the federal charges, Taylor has been indicted on state charges of felony child neglect and one count of recklessly leaving a firearm to endanger a child.

    The federal charges come about five months after the shooting at Richneck Elementary School in which the 6-year-old shot his teacher, 25-year-old Abigail Zwerner. She suffered gunshot wounds to her hand and chest but survived.

    The gun was purchased by Taylor and kept on the top shelf of her bedroom closet, secured by a trigger lock, Ellenson told CNN in January. The child brought the gun to school in his backpack, police said.

    The child will not be criminally charged, Newport News Commonwealth’s Attorney Howard Gwynn has said.

    Taylor has no criminal record and has cooperated since the shooting occurred, Ellenson said in an earlier statement.

    “As always, first and foremost is the continued health and wellbeing of all persons involved in the incident at Richneck Elementary School, to include both the teacher and Deja’s son,” the statement said.

    The Commonwealth’s Attorney said the office has asked the Circuit Court to assemble a special grand jury to investigate “any security issues that may have contributed to the shooting.”

    Zwerner filed a $40 million lawsuit in April alleging school administrators and the school board were aware of the student’s “history of random violence” and did not act proactively amid concerns over a firearm in the boy’s possession the day of the shooting.

    The boy has an “acute disability” and was under a care plan that required a parent to attend school with him, though he was unaccompanied on the day of the shooting, the family has said in a statement. “We will regret our absence on this day for the rest of our lives,” the statement read.

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  • Kathleen Folbigg: Mother who served 20 years for killing her four babies pardoned | CNN

    Kathleen Folbigg: Mother who served 20 years for killing her four babies pardoned | CNN

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    Brisbane, Australia
    CNN
     — 

    A woman condemned as Australia’s worst female serial killer has been pardoned after serving 20 years behind bars for killing her four children in what appears to be one of the country’s gravest miscarriages of justice.

    New South Wales Attorney General Michael Daley intervened to order Kathleen Folbigg be freed, based on the preliminary findings of an inquiry that had found “reasonable doubt” as to her guilt for all four deaths.

    Daley told a news conference Monday that he had spoken to the governor and recommended an unconditional pardon, which had been granted, and she would be released from Clarence Correctional Center the same day.

    “This has been a terrible ordeal for everyone concerned and I hope that our actions today can put some closure on this 20-year-old matter,” said Daley, who added that he had informed Craig Folbigg, the babies’ father, of his decision. “It will be a tough day for him,” he said.

    Kathleen Folbigg was jailed in 2003 on three counts of murder and one of manslaughter following the deaths of her four babies over a decade from 1989. In each case, she was the person who found their bodies, though there was no physical evidence that she had caused their deaths.

    Instead, the jury relied on the prosecution’s argument that the chances of four babies from one family dying from natural causes before the age of 2 were so infinitesimally low as to be compared to pigs flying.

    They also noted the contents of her diary, which contained passages that in isolation at the time were interpreted as confessions of guilt.

    As recently as 2019, an inquiry into her convictions found there was no reasonable doubt she had committed the crimes. But another inquiry began last year after new scientific evidence emerged that provided a genetic explanation for the children’s deaths.

    In her closing submissions, Sophie Callan, the lead counsel assisting the inquiry, said that “on the whole of the body of evidence before this inquiry there is a reasonable doubt as to Ms Folbigg’s guilt.”

    She also told the inquiry that in its closing submissions, the NSW director of public prosecutions had indicated she was also “open to the Inquiry to conclude there is reasonable doubt as to Ms Folbigg’s guilt.”

    Folbigg was just 20 years old when she married Craig Folbigg, who she’d met in her hometown of Newcastle on the northern New South Wales coast.

    Within a year she fell pregnant with Caleb, who was born in February, 1989 and lived only 19 days. The next year, the Folbiggs had another son, Patrick, who died at eight months. Two years later, Sarah died at 10 months. Then in 1999, the couple’s fourth and longest lived child, Laura, died at 18 months.

    The police investigation into the deaths of all four children began the day Laura died, but it was more than two years before Folbigg was arrested and charged. By then, the couple’s marriage had fallen apart, and Craig was cooperating with police to build a case against her.

    He handed police her diaries, which prosecutors argued contained the deepest thoughts of a mother tortured by guilt for her role in her children’s deaths.

    Examination of the babies’ remains failed to find any physical evidence they’d been suffocated, but without another plausible reason to explain their deaths, suspicion focused on Kathleen, their primary carer.

    In 2003, as he sentenced Folbigg to 40 years in prison, Judge Graham Barr recalled her troubled past. Folbigg’s father had killed her mother when she was just 18 months old, and she had spent many of her formative years in foster care.

    According to court documents, Barr said Folbigg’s prospects of rehabilitation were “negligible.”

    “She will always be a danger if given the responsibility of caring for a child,” he said. “That must never happen.”

    The death of Laura Folbigg at 18 months triggered the police investigation.

    That initial conviction ruling now stands in stark contrast to the latest inquiry, which looks set to paint a far different picture of Folbigg as a loving mother who was devastated and confused by the successive deaths of her babies.

    As he ordered her release Monday, Daley distributed a memorandum of the findings by retired judge Tom Bathurst, who said after reviewing the evidence he was “unable to accept … the proposition that Ms Folbigg was anything but a caring mother for her children.”

    In the case of the two girls – Sarah and Laura – Bathurst found there was a “reasonable possibility” a genetic mutation known as CALM2-G114R “occasioned their deaths,” and that Sarah may have died from myocarditis, inflammation of the heart, identified during her autopsy.

    In the case of Patrick, who had an unexplained ALTE, an apparent life-threatening event, when he was 4 months old and died at 8 months, Bathurst found that it’s possible his death was caused by an underlying neurogenic disorder.

    During Folbigg’s 2003 trial, the prosecution used “coincidence and tendency” evidence to allege that Folbigg had also killed Caleb. In other words, that having been allegedly responsible for the deaths of three children, it was likely she killed him, too.

    However, Bathurst found that the reasonable doubt over Folbigg’s role in his siblings’ deaths meant that the prosecution’s case against her for Caleb’s murder “falls away.”

    Kathleen Folbigg walks into the New South Wales Supreme Court in Sydney May 19, 2003.

    In relation to her diaries, Bathurst said the “evidence suggests they were the writings of a grieving and possibly depressed mother, blaming herself for the death of each child, as distinct from admissions that she murdered or otherwise harmed them.”

    Bathurst also expressed doubts about evidence from Craig Folbigg, who had claimed his wife had been “ill-tempered” with their children and had “growled at them from time to time.”

    “The balance of evidence … (was) that she was a loving and caring mother,” wrote Bathurst, whose full report will be released at a later date.

    Folbigg’s case has been compared to that of Lindy Chamberlain, who swore a dingo took her baby Azaria from the family’s campsite at Uluru in 1980.

    The case polarized public opinion and Chamberlain was jailed before evidence emerged that she was telling the truth.

    In 1986, Azaria’s matinee jacket was found half-buried in the dirt, prompting officials to free Chamberlain, later known as Chamberlain-Creighton. Two years later, a court overturned her conviction, and in 2012 a coroner ruled that a dingo was indeed to blame for Azaria’s death.

    Like Chamberlain-Creighton, Folbigg’s release from prison could be the start of a long process to clear her name.

    Daley told reporters Monday that Folbigg’s pardon only meant she did not have to serve the rest of her sentence, and that it would be up to the Court of Criminal Appeal to quash her convictions.

    He said it was too early to talk about compensation, as that would require Folbigg to initiate civil proceedings against the New South Wales government, or to approach it seeking an ex-gratia payment.

    Daley acknowledged that after 20 years of believing Folbigg’s guilt, some people may not accept her innocence.

    “There will be some people who have strong views. There’s nothing I can do to disavow them of those views, (and) it’s not my role to do that,” he said.

    But he suggested the events of the past two decades should elicit some compassion for a woman who has lost so much.

    “We’ve got four little bubbas who are dead. We’ve got a husband and wife who lost each other. A woman who spent 20 years in jail, and a family that never had a chance. You’d not be human if you didn’t feel something,” he said.

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  • A tearful Romelu Lukaku opens up about his rise from poverty to the Champions League final | CNN

    A tearful Romelu Lukaku opens up about his rise from poverty to the Champions League final | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Every time Romelu Lukaku scores, he thinks of his grandfather who passed away when he was 12, four years before he made his professional debut for Belgian club Anderlecht as a talented 16-year-old.

    “I promised (him) that I would look after my mum, when I was 12, I did that. So every time when I look at my mum and I see her in the stands, I look at him after every goal,” Lukaku tells CNN Senior Sport Analyst Darren Lewis, pointing towards the sky, emotion crackling through every syllable. “And I say, I did it.”

    Lukaku has scaled some of soccer’s highest heights – he is Belgium’s all-time top goalscorer, has won the FA Cup with Chelsea, the Serie A title with Inter Milan, and will now play in the Champions League final for Inter Milan on June 10 – but all that pales in comparison to looking after his family.

    “It doesn’t matter, wins or losses, I take it in my stride, this is real family issues. So (my grandfather) meant the world to me,” he says, his voice breaking as he is unable to hold back the tears.

    Playing in a Champions League is the pinnacle for any player in club soccer and when asked what this moment would mean to his grandfather, Lukaku is almost unable to answer.

    “A lot,” he says, before pausing to collect his thoughts and attempt to express almost two decades of emotion as words. “When I see my son, I see so much of him…My grandfather, for me was my number one. He was my biggest fan.”

    As a child growing up in Belgium, Lukaku missed 10 years of watching the Champions League. His family couldn’t afford it. Instead, he would watch the finals on school computers or pretend to his classmates that he had seen them, he recalls smiling and shaking his head.

    In a Players’ Tribune article published in 2018, he wrote about his family’s poverty, remembering that his mother used to add water to milk to make it last longer.

    “I couldn’t watch (the Champions League final), but now, by the grace of God, I can play one,” he adds. “To be in this position now, to have my family there, it would be a beautiful thing because then it’s like (full circle).”

    On loan from Chelsea, Lukaku returned to Inter Milan in June 2022 for a second stint at the Italian club, after a period playing there between 2019 and 2021.

    Inter’s experiences together during the Covid-19 pandemic, Lukaku says, solidified a “brotherhood” between the players, many of whom still form the core of the team.

    “It was an emotional time because we really as a team, we spent so much time together,” he says. “At that time I really spent much more time with my teammates than with my oldest son…playing a game, going back to the hotel, staying in the room, watching games together, stuff like that.”

    That bond, in some ways, emulates the spirit of the 2010 Inter Milan squad that completed an unprecedented treble, winning the Serie A title, Coppa Italia, and the Champions League.

    “It’s very similar,” Lukaku says. “And to be honest, the funny thing is a lot of those players from that 2010 band, they come and watch our games and they feel the same thing.”

    Inter Milan emerged from one of this year’s most difficult Champions League groups, also containing Bayern Munich and Barcelona, before defeating Porto, Benfica and crosstown rival AC Milan on route to the final.

    But it faces the toughest opposition of all next weekend. Manchester City has swept all before it in a light blue wave this season and sits on the cusp of a ‘treble,’ fresh from winning the Premier League title and the FA Cup.

    “It’s a beautiful thing, playing probably against the best team in the world. I just want to enjoy it, not having pressure, just enjoy the moment, enjoy the buildup, go there to have the best result possible,” Lukaku says.

    Spearheading City’s attack is striker Erling Haaland who has enjoyed a record-breaking season, seemingly scoring goals at will, at a pace never seen before in the Premier League.

    Erling Haaland has set a new Premier League goalscoring record.

    “I think he will dominate, with Mbappé, world football for the next 10 years. They will be fighting from the new generation…They will really take over (from Messi and Ronaldo) in the next two years.”

    It is not just Haaland who will pose a threat to Inter Milan next weekend for City is a team stacked full of superstars.

    “Man City is a well-drilled team…Guardiola is such a good coach because every game is a different game plan,” Lukaku observes.

    “It’s not the same. They have different patterns every game… And you know (Haaland) with these movements and the way how they open defenses up at the end, he will get those chances because those movements and the patterns that they do, they synchronize very well.”

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  • Son and 8-year old grandson of former Red Sox star George ‘Boomer’ Scott found dead in apparent murder-suicide | CNN

    Son and 8-year old grandson of former Red Sox star George ‘Boomer’ Scott found dead in apparent murder-suicide | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The son and 8-year-old grandson of a former Boston Red Sox player were found dead in an apparent murder-suicide in their Massachusetts home Friday as authorities searched for clues about the boy’s mother – who was reported missing more than four years ago, according to local officials.

    Police found the bodies of George Scott III and his son, Dante Hazard, at their New Bedford home after a relative couldn’t reach Scott and asked authorities to do a welfare check Friday morning, according to a news release from the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office.

    Scott is the son of the former Boston Red Sox player George “Boomer” Scott, according to Gregg Miliote, a spokesperson for the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office.

    Scott played first base for the Red Sox from 1966 to 1971 then again from 1977 to 1979, winning three of his eight career Gold Glove Awards with the team, according to the MLB. He died in 2013 at age 69.

    The discovery of his son and grandson comes only weeks after a search warrant was executed at the same home in connection to Dante’s mother, who remains missing.

    Scott “appears to have killed the boy with a sharp object before taking his own life,” according to the district attorneys office. Officials are waiting for more details from the medical examiner’s office on the deaths, the release said.

    Lisa Hazard, Dante’s mother, has been missing for more than four years, according to a list of missing persons cases on the district attorney’s website. The office said in the news release that Scott is considered a “person of interest” in her disappearance.

    In March 2019, Hazard, who was 28 at the time, went missing after leaving Scott’s home. She was supposed to leave to go to a drug rehabilitation center, according to the district attorney’s office. She hasn’t been seen since.

    Detectives investigating her disappearance executed a search warrant at Scott’s residence – the same home where he and his son were found dead – last month, the release states. Her missing persons case is ongoing and the search warrant has been sealed by the court, according to the release.

    CNN has reached out to the New Bedford Police Department for more information.

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  • Armie Hammer will not face charges following sexual assault investigation, according to LA District Attorney | CNN

    Armie Hammer will not face charges following sexual assault investigation, according to LA District Attorney | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Actor Armie Hammer will not face charges following an investigation by Los Angeles police into an allegation of sexual assault against the actor, the LA District Attorney’s Office told CNN on Wednesday.

    “Sexual assault cases are often difficult to prove, which is why we assign our most experienced prosecutors to review them. In this case, those prosecutors conducted an extremely thorough review, but determined that at this time, there is insufficient evidence to charge Mr. Hammer with a crime,” Tiffiny Blacknell, Director of the Bureau of Communications told CNN.

    “As prosecutors, we have an ethical responsibility to only charge cases that we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt. We know that it is hard for women to report sexual assault. Even when we cannot move forward with a prosecution, our victim service representatives will be available to those who seek our victim support services. Due to the complexity of the relationship and inability to prove a non-consensual, forcible sexual encounter we are unable to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.”

    Hammer posted a statement to Instagram following the news:

    “I am very grateful to the District Attorney for conducting a thorough investigation and coming to the conclusion that I have stood by this entire time, that no crime was committed. I look forward to beginning what will be a long, difficult process of putting my life back together now that my name is cleared.”

    The LAPD opened an investigation into the matter in February 2021, after a woman, identified by her attorney at the time as Effie, accused him of raping her in 2017.

    Hammer was not charged in the case and has denied any wrongdoing, at the time saying through his attorney that the allegation was “outrageous” and that his interactions with the woman and other partners have been “completely consensual, discussed and agreed upon in advance, and mutually participatory.”

    CNN reported last month that the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office was reviewing claims of sexual assault made against the actor. They did not specify the identity of the complainant or complainants.

    In a statement made on Wednesday to CNN following the DA’s decision, Effie said in part, “I am disappointed with the LA County District Attorney’s decision not to prosecute Armie Hammer. I felt a duty to speak out and file a report in order to try to hold Armie accountable for all the harm and trauma he has caused me and in order to protect other women from experiencing similar abuse.”

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  • White House expands its playbook for responding to mass shootings in the year after Uvalde | CNN Politics

    White House expands its playbook for responding to mass shootings in the year after Uvalde | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    When news broke of a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, one year ago, President Joe Biden was on his way back from Tokyo following a major international summit.

    Biden watched the news unfold on Air Force One, feeling, like others, horrified and heartbroken for the families, and deciding in that moment to speak upon returning to the White House, a White House official told CNN.

    Moments after landing, a somber Biden – who had been in the Obama White House during the devastating shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School – walked into a briefing in the Oval Office and prepared an address he delivered that evening in the Roosevelt Room.

    “I had hoped, when I became president, I would not have to do this again,” Biden said as he started the speech. He later visited Uvalde.

    Over the last year, Biden has signed legislation called the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act into law and implemented two dozen executive actions to try to reduce gun violence. And on Wednesday, Biden will again deliver remarks to mark the one-year remembrance of the Uvalde shooting.

    But in that same time span, hundreds more mass shootings have gripped communities nationwide.

    Mass shootings have become so common in the United States that the White House has framed their approach as akin to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s hurricane response. Behind the scenes, administration officials have been developing ways in which the federal government can respond in the short and long term after a mass shooting, recognizing the physical, mental and economic ramifications.

    “I think we’ve learned that the needs of these communities are really intense, and they also last long after the immediate hours and days after a mass shooting. If a hurricane devastates a community, you get that immediate White House response, but you also get FEMA deployed on the ground to provide direct services and support to survivors,” one source told CNN.

    This recognition of the long after-effects of mass shootings has prompted discussions within the White House about additional measures, including earlier this month, when Domestic Policy Council Director Susan Rice gathered the first meeting of Cabinet officials and senior staff to discuss steps forward in responding to mass shootings, according to sources familiar with the meeting.

    The reality officials were up against in that meeting came into sharp focus again less than 24 hours later, when another mass shooting unfolded – that time, in Allen, Texas.

    “I don’t think we could feel more urgency than we did on [that] Friday. I think people feel this very deeply. We now work with so many communities that have experienced shootings. It’s devastating, of course, when another gets added to the list,” the source told CNN.

    The Buffalo, New York, shooting last year at a local grocery story was an example of a tragedy that had unanticipated effects as it left a mostly Black community without a crucial grocery store for a period of time.

    “For too long, when we’ve thought about mass shootings and gun violence in general, we’ve only thought about the individuals hurt or killed. What this administration does is certainly attend to survivors and the families of those who have been hurt, but they have a realization that a mass shooting or gun violence in general ripples through the community,” John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, told CNN.

    An operation kicks into gear within the walls of the White House the moment an alert pops up of a potential mass shooting.

    The White House Situation Room and the National Security Council work with the Justice Department and other law enforcement, as well as the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, to track down information and gather the facts as they emerge. Homeland Security Advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall will then brief Biden on what’s known about the situation and the weapon used, according to a White House official, acknowledging that it can be a fluid situation.

    The Domestic Policy Council, meanwhile, assesses patterns and whether there are new lessons to be gleaned and considered in policy making. And the intergovernmental affairs team also races to reach out to the mayor’s office or other local officials to provide a point of contact at the White House.

    Biden’s advisers keep him updated along the way. But the exasperation felt by White House officials after each mass shooting has been reflected in Biden’s statements, which have started with: “Once again.”

    In an op-ed this month, Biden touted the work done by this administration, but called on Congress to do more.

    “But my power is not absolute. Congress must act, including by banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, requiring gun owners to securely store their firearms, requiring background checks for all gun sales, and repealing gun manufacturers’ immunity from liability,” he wrote.

    White House officials have also been sober about the political realities Democrats face with the current makeup of Congress, where Republicans in control of the House have rejected Biden’s calls for an assault weapons ban. Even when both chambers of Congress were controlled by Democrats during the first two years of Biden’s term, an assault weapon ban gained little traction, in part because of a 60-vote threshold necessary to advance bills through the Senate.

    After three children and three adults were killed in a shooting at a private Christian elementary school in Nashville in March, Biden asserted that he’s done all he can to address gun control and urged members on Capitol Hill to act.

    Many Republicans in Congress, including those in positions of leadership and in the Tennessee delegation, had either been reluctant to use the deadly violence in Nashville as a potential springboard for reform or they outright rejected calls for additional action on further regulating guns, arguing that there isn’t an appetite for tougher restrictions. Some Democrats in Congress, meanwhile, slammed House Republicans for their disinterest.

    Advocacy groups have welcomed Biden’s executive actions and the administration’s response in the wake of a shooting, but stress there’s room for more.

    “It’s part of what moves the needle. Seeing the movement at the federal level is encouraging,” said Mark Barden, co-founder and CEO of the Sandy Hook Promise Action Fund. “It’s something. It’s not everything. It’s not enough. We certainly need more.”

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  • Real Madrid player Vinícius Jr. racially abused during Spanish La Liga match | CNN

    Real Madrid player Vinícius Jr. racially abused during Spanish La Liga match | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Vinícius Jr., Real Madrid’s Brazilian forward, was subjected to racist chanting during his team’s defeat to Valencia at the Mestalla Stadium in Spain’s La Liga, according to club manager Carlo Ancelotti.

    The flashpoint of the game came in the second half, where after a stoppage in play, an animated Vinicius Jr. pointed out a fan in the stands for the alleged abuse before engaging with the fans in the section of the crowd in question.

    La Liga TV broadcasters said there was an announcement in the stadium calling on fans to not insult the players or throw objects onto the pitch.

    The referee’s official report from the game described the incident.

    “Racist insults: in the 73rd minute, a spectator from the southern ‘Mario Kempes’ tribune directed himself towards player No. 20 of Real Madrid CF Mr. Vinicius José De Oliveira Do Nascimiento, screaming at him: ‘Monkey, monkey’ which led to the activation of the racism protocol, notifying the pitch delegate so that a corresponding warning over the loudspeaker would be made. The match was halted until said announcement was aired over the loudspeaker of the stadium,” it reads.

    Vinícius Jr. was sent off in the final minutes of the game for his involvement in an altercation with Valencia player Hugo Duro.

    Ancelotti addressed the situation after the game to Movistar Plus, saying, “I don’t want to talk about football today … when a whole stadium is chanting ‘monkey’ at a player and the manager has to think about taking off a player because of it, there is something bad happening in this league.”

    In a separate interview with reporters, Ancelotti suggested referees should call off matches in other instances of racism in the league. The Italian said, “I’m very sad because La Liga is a league with big teams with a good atmosphere. This we have to get rid of. We are in 2023, racism does not have to exist … the only way for me is to stop the game.”

    On his personal Instagram account, Vinícius Jr. posted a story saying, “The prize that racists won was my expulsion! ‘This isn’t football, this is @LaLiga’”

    The Real Madrid player then posted a longer statement on his Twitter. “It was not the first time, nor the second, nor the third,” it said. “Racism is normal in La Liga. The competition thinks it’s normal, the Federation does too and the opponents encourage it. I’m so sorry. The championship that once belonged to Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Cristiano and Messi today belongs to racists.

    “A beautiful nation, which welcomed me and which I love, but which agreed to export the image of a racist country to the world. I’m sorry for the Spaniards who don’t agree, but today, in Brazil, Spain is known as a country of racists.

    “And unfortunately, for everything that happens each week, I have no defense. I agree. But I am strong and I will fight to the end against racists. Even if that is far from here.”

    Real Madrid quoted Ancelotti on its official social media but offered no official statement immediately in the wake of the match.

    Valencia issued a statement shortly after the conclusion of the match on its website.

    “Valencia CF wishes to publicly condemn any type of insult, attack or downgrading in football,” it reads. “The club, in its dedication to the values of respect and sportsmanship, reaffirms publicly its position against physical and verbal violence in stadiums and regrets the events which occurred during the game of Matchday 35 of La Liga against Real Madrid.

    “Although it is an isolated incident, insults towards any footballer of the rival team have no place in football and do not fit with the values and identity of Valencia CF. The club is investigating the events and will take the most severe measures. In the same vein, Valencia CF condemns whichever offense and asks for the maximum respect towards our own fans.”

    Despite other Real Madrid players also saying that monkey chants were made towards Vinícius Jr., including goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, Valencia rejected Ancelotti’s claim that the stadium was chanting ‘monkey’. “Valencia CF can’t tolerate someone accusing our fans of being racist, we strongly reject Ancelotti’s comments,” the post said.

    La Liga issued a statement of their own, announcing an investigation into events at the Mestalla.

    “In the face of the incidents which took place during Valencia CF vs Real Madrid CF in the Estadio de Mestalla, LaLiga wishes to inform that it has requested all the available images to investigate what happened,” it said. “LaLiga will also investigate the images in which racist insults were allegedly uttered towards Vinicius Jr. outside of the grounds of Mestalla.”

    Vinícius Jr. has been subjected to racism repeatedly this season, as noted by the La Liga statement. The league’s authorities told CNN in March they do not have the power to punish fans or clubs for racist abuse. Instead, La Liga can only pass on any incidents of abuse to the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) or regional prosecutors, who deal with them as legal cases before sporting punishments are handed out.

    “LaLiga has been proactive against all racist incidents against the Real Madrid CF player Vinicius Jr,” the league’s statement continued, before listing nine separate incidents from the past two seasons it had reported to the Competition Committee of RFEF, the State Commission against Violence, Racism, Xenophobia and Intolerance in Sport, the hate crimes prosecutors and the courts.

    Several prominent names in football offered their support to Vinícius Jr. Former England and Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand said on his Instagram, “Bro you need protecting….who is protecting @vinijr in Spain?

    “How many times do we need to see this young man subjected to this s***?? I see pain, I see disgust, I see him needing help…and the authorities don’t do s*** to help him. People need to stand together and demand more from the authorities that run our game. No one deserves this, yet you are allowing it. There needs to be a unified approach to this otherwise it will be swept under the carpet AGAIN.”

    Milan forward Rafael Leão tweeted, “When will it end?” in response to the incident.

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  • Arizona student arrested and accused of bringing AR-15 and ammunition to high school | CNN

    Arizona student arrested and accused of bringing AR-15 and ammunition to high school | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A student in Phoenix faces “a number of serious felony charges” after police accused him of bringing an AR-15 weapon and ammunition to a high school, authorities said.

    Phoenix Police Department officers and two school security officers responded Friday afternoon to a call of a student with a gun on campus, the department said in a news release Saturday.

    School administrators called police after learning of a possible weapon at Bostrom High School shortly before 1 p.m., the Phoenix Union High School District said in a statement emailed to CNN.

    “During our investigation, we discovered the report was accurate, and local authorities intervened and confiscated the weapon,” the school district said in an email.

    Arriving officers detained the male juvenile student in the main office of Bostrom High School, authorities said.

    Police said they “acted quickly” to arrest the student, who was found to have brought additional ammunition in his lunchbox and backpack, according to the statement.

    School administrators placed the campus on lockdown during the investigation, according to the high school district.

    The Phoenix Police Department’s Crime Gun Intelligence Unit is assisting with the investigation, and the department said it’s working closely with school and district officials.

    “We commend those who originally reported the possibility of a weapon on school grounds to adults on campus who immediately called police,” police said in the statement.

    The police did not immediately release information on where the semi-automatic rifle came from and why the student allegedly brought it to campus.

    The student’s name and age were not released because he is a minor.

    His arrest comes days after an 18-year-old man in Farmington, New Mexico, used an AR-15-style rifle and two other guns to shoot and kill three people and injure six others, including two police officers, CNN reported.

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  • New York lawmaker connected to nonprofit accused of lying about homeless vets being pushed out of hotel for migrants says he’s no longer affiliated with foundation | CNN

    New York lawmaker connected to nonprofit accused of lying about homeless vets being pushed out of hotel for migrants says he’s no longer affiliated with foundation | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A New York state assemblyman and former volunteer spokesperson for the nonprofit accused of lying about homeless veterans being pushed out of a hotel to make room for migrants is no longer affiliated with the foundation, he told CNN.

    Republican State Assemblyman Brian Maher said in a statement to CNN he was devastated and disheartened” to learn claims homeless veterans were pushed out of the hotel to make room for migrants were false.

    On Friday, CNN reported two homeless men said they were part of a group of 15 who were offered money to pose as veterans and say they were asked to leave the Crossroads Hotel in Newburgh, New York. They claimed Sharon Toney-Finch, a nonprofit leader who houses the homeless, was the person who allegedly offered the money and never paid up.

    Toney-Finch is the founder and chairman of the Yerik Israel Toney Foundation, which helps veterans in need of living assistance. On Friday, she denied the allegations to CNN, saying she never offered money to homeless men to say they had to leave the hotel.

    CNN reached out to Toney-Finch on Saturday regarding Maher’s statement and did not receive an immediate response.

    The situation elevated tensions between the area and New York City, as earlier this week a New York state Supreme Court judge granted a temporary restraining order blocking New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ plan to send asylum seekers to Orange County, where Newburgh is located.

    Maher said in his statement Saturday, “I am devastated and disheartened upon a conversation with Sharon Toney-Finch at approximately 3:15 p.m. Thursday, May 18, where I learned that the information regarding the YIT Foundation about homeless veterans being displaced is false. Their gross misrepresentation of the facts surrounding our homeless veterans is appalling.”

    “The YIT Foundation purports to protect and support veterans, but the dishonest claims and fabrication of the facts by YIT does enormous harm to our homeless veterans by creating mistrust,” the statement continued.

    On Friday, Toney-Finch said, “I never promised to pay anybody,” adding that she only told Maher that she had homeless veterans who were displaced, not that it was because of asylum seekers.

    Maher, who was a volunteer spokesperson for the nonprofit, said he is “no longer affiliated in any capacity with YIT nor offering it any more of my help.”

    The state assemblyman called for an investigation into the nonprofit by the New York State Attorney General’s office and the Orange County District Attorney “based on the new information that came to light today,” his statement said.

    A spokeswoman for New York State Attorney General Letitia James told CNN Friday the office is reviewing the details of the incident to determine whether they will open a formal investigation.

    “While I believed Sharon was telling the truth, I do want to apologize for those that have been negatively impacted since this news broke,” Maher wrote in the statement.

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  • Alabama death row inmate cannot be executed due to intellectual disability, appeals court rules | CNN

    Alabama death row inmate cannot be executed due to intellectual disability, appeals court rules | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    An appeals court has ruled the state of Alabama cannot execute man with an intellectual disability who was sentenced to death for murdering a man in 1997, upholding a lower court’s decision.

    The US Eleventh Court of Appeals’ decision on Friday means that 53-year-old Joseph Clifton Smith cannot be executed unless the decision is overturned by the US Supreme Court.

    In a statement released after the appeals court decision, Amanda Priest, communications director for Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, said, “Smith’s IQ scores have consistently placed his IQ above that of someone who is intellectually disabled. The Attorney General thinks his death sentence was both just and constitutional.”

    “The Attorney General disagrees with the Eleventh Circuit’s ruling, and will seek review from the United States Supreme Court,” the statement concluded

    In 2021, a US District Court judge ruled that due to his intellectual disability, Smith could not “constitutionally be executed,” and vacated his death sentence.

    The judge referenced the district court’s finding that Smith’s “intellectual and adaptive functioning issues clearly arose before he was 18 years of age,” according to the 2021 appeals court ruling, which agreed with the lower court.

    Smith confessed to murdering Durk Van Dam, whose body was found “in an isolated area near his pick-up truck” in Mobile County in southwest Alabama, according to the court’s Friday ruling. Smith “offered two conflicting versions of the crime,” the ruling says – first admitting he watched Van Dam’s murder and then saying he participated but didn’t intend to kill the man.

    The case went to trial and the jury found Smith guilty, the order states. During his sentencing proceedings, Smith’s mother and sister testified that his father was “an abusive alcoholic,” according to the ruling.

    Smith had struggled in school since as early as the first grade, the order says, which led to his teacher labeling him as an “underachiever” before he underwent an “intellectual evaluation,” which gave him an IQ score of 75, the court said. When he was in fourth grade, Smith was tested again and placed in a learning-disability class – at the same time as his parents were going through a divorce, the court said.

    “After that placement, Smith developed an unpredictable temper and often fought with classmates. His behavior became so troublesome that his school placed him in an ‘emotionally conflicted classroom,’” the ruling states.

    Smith then failed the seventh and eighth grades before dropping out of school entirely, the ruling says, and he then spent “much of the next fifteen years in prison” for burglary and receiving stolen property.

    One of the witnesses in Smith’s evidentiary hearing held by the district court to determine whether he has an intellectual disability was Dr. Daniel Reschly, a certified school psychologist, the ruling says.

    The court ultimately determined that Smith “has significant deficits in social/interpersonal skills, self-direction, independent home living, and functional academics,” the ruling says.

    In its conclusion, the appeals court wrote: “We hold that the district court did not clearly err in finding that Smith is intellectually disabled and, as a result, that his sentence violates the Eighth Amendment. Accordingly, we affirm the district court’s judgment vacating Smith’s death sentence.”

    “This case is an example of why process is so important in habeas cases and why we should not rush to enforce death sentences—the only form of punishment that can’t be undone,” the office of Smith’s federal public defender said in a statement after the appeals court decision.

    “Originally, this same District Court denied Mr. Smith the opportunity to be heard, and it was an Eleventh Circuit decision that allowed a hearing that created this avenue for relief,” the statement said.

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  • Iran condemned after executing three men over recent protests | CNN

    Iran condemned after executing three men over recent protests | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Iran has been condemned by international watchdogs after it executed three more men over recent protests that rocked the country.

    Majid Kazemi, Saleh Mirhashemi and Saeed Yaqoubi were executed in Isfahan, judiciary news outlet Mizan News said on Friday. The three were accused of carrying out an attack that killed three security officers in Isfahan in November 2022 during anti-government protests.

    The US State Department on Thursday urged Iran to refrain from carrying out the executions, calling the proceedings “sham trials.”

    And Amnesty International said the men were “fast-tracked through Iran’s judicial system” without due process being observed.

    “These executions are meant to prolong the Islamic Republic’s rule and only a high political cost can stop more protester executions,” Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, the director of the non-governmental organization Iran Human Rights, wrote on Twitter.

    “Unless the Iranian authorities are met with serious consequences by the international community, hundreds of protester lives will be taken by their killing machine,” he said.

    Iran executed at least 582 people last year, a 75% increase on the previous year, according to human rights groups who say the rise reflects an effort by Tehran to “instill fear” among anti-regime protesters.

    It was the highest number of executions in the Islamic republic since 2015, according to a report released last month by the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and the France-based Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM) groups.

    More than half of the executions last year took place after the protests erupted in September.

    The US State Department condemned the latest planned executions of Kazemi, Mirhashemi and Yaqoubi on Thursday.

    “The execution of these men, after what have been widely regarded as sham trials, would be an affront to human rights and basic dignity in Iran and everywhere,” said State Department Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel at a press briefing.

    “It is clear from this episode that the Iranian regime has learned nothing from the protests that began with another death, the death of Mahsa Amini in September of last year,” Patel added.

    The Hengaw Organization for Human Rights, another NGO that monitors human rights violations in Iran, said on Twitter that the three men “had the minimal defense rights of an accused.” The group decried what it called an “unfathomable wave of executions in Iran.”

    Nationwide protests rocked Iran last fall, as decades of bitterness over the regime’s treatment of women and other issues boiled over after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in the custody of the country’s so-called morality police.

    Authorities violently repressed the months-long movement, which had posed one of the biggest domestic threats to Iran’s ruling clerical regime in more than a decade.

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  • NYC bike path terrorist set to be sentenced to life in prison after avoiding death penalty verdict at trial | CNN

    NYC bike path terrorist set to be sentenced to life in prison after avoiding death penalty verdict at trial | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A terrorist convicted of striking and killing eight people with a rented truck on a New York City bike path in an attack for ISIS is scheduled to be sentenced to serve life in prison Wednesday.

    Sayfullo Saipov effectively learned his sentence in March, when the jury in the penalty phase of his trial in Manhattan federal court told a judge it was unable to reach an undivided decision favoring the death penalty on any of the nine capital counts against him.

    The capital counts each carry a mandatory life imprisonment sentence by law after the jury didn’t unanimously vote for the death penalty.

    Saipov’s case was the first death penalty case under the Biden administration.

    About 25 surviving victims and family members of those killed in the attack are expected to give victim impact statements at the sentencing hearing Wednesday morning, according to court filings.

    Of the eight people killed in the attack, five were from Argentina, two were Americans, and one was from Belgium. The majority of those participating in the Manhattan federal court hearing are traveling from Argentina and Belgium, the prosecutors said in a memo.

    The convicted terrorist will have an opportunity to address the court before he is sentenced, but it is unclear if he will do so.

    On Halloween in 2017, Saipov drove a rented U-Haul truck into cyclists and pedestrians on Manhattan’s West Side bike path, then crashed the vehicle into a school bus, authorities said.

    After leaving the truck while brandishing a pellet gun and paintball gun, he was shot by a New York City Police Department officer and taken into custody, officials said.

    The jury convicted Saipov in January of all 28 counts against him for the fatal attack.

    Those counts included murder in aid of racketeering activity, assault with a dangerous weapon and attempted murder in aid of racketeering activity, attempted murder in aid of racketeering activity, provision of material support to ISIS, and violence and destruction of a motor vehicle.

    Saipov is expected to serve his life sentence at the Federal Bureau of Prisons ADX facility in Florence, Colorado, in solitary confinement at least 22 hours a day, his attorneys said during trial.

    Federal prosecutors who say Saipov deserves no leniency want District Judge Vernon Broderick to sentence Saipov to the fullest extent of the sentencing guidelines for his 28-count conviction; eight consecutive life sentences, a consecutive term of 260 years’ imprisonment and two concurrent life sentences.

    “Because Saipov deliberately committed the most abhorrent crime imaginable for which he has expressed no remorse, he deserves no leniency. Only the maximum punishment on each count of conviction will reflect the unimaginable harm inflicted and send the appropriate message that terrorist attacks on innocent civilians will be punished as harshly as the law allows,” prosecutors said in a pre-sentencing court filing.

    The harshest sentence, prosecutors wrote, would be “an exercise of such discretion to hold the defendant fully accountable for his crimes, and to send the appropriate message to the defendant, the public, and any others who might contemplate an attack on U.S. soil.”

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