Asian Games – Hangzhou 2022 – Breaking – Gongshu Canal Sports Park Gymnasium, Hangzhou, China – October 6, 2023 Mongolia’s Dulguun Chuluunbaatar performs during the men’s pre-selection REUTERS/Ann Wang
The funky beats, fast feet and head spinning moves of breakdancing made their debut at the Asian Games in the Eastern city of Hangzhou on Friday less than a year before the sport enters the Olympic programme for the first time at Paris 2024.
Under bright lights and ear-splitting, subwoofer hungry mixes more akin to a nightclub or indoor hip-hop concert the “b-boy” and “b-girl” dancers performed their tricks in a circle on a stage in front of judges and several thousand spectators.
Sporting baggy pants and beanie hats and using stage names including “Think”, “K” and “Quake”, the dancers span and shimmied on their heads, shoulders and hands in performances familiar to tourists in city squares across the world.
This time the prize was not a wad of notes in a hat but a gold medal and exposure to millions.
“It’s very special,” said one of Taiwan’s female breakers, 25-year-old Yang Jia-li, who added that breaking had massively boosted her confidence.
“A lot of friends are asking when I will perform or asking about the Olympics. I am also very happy that people in different fields care about breaking.”
Along with esports’ debut as a medal event in Hangzhou, organisers hope “breaking” can help lure young viewers turned off by traditional Games sports.
A counter-cultural art-form born in the streets of New York City decades ago, breakdancing is judged against broad criteria in competition.
“Now it has become a sport, its culture is becoming less and less because after all we have to cooperate with some sports norms,” said Yang’s 24-year-old male team mate Sun Zhen.
JUDGING AN “ART”
DJs played clips for the breakers from a “mix cut” of around 200 songs prepared for the Games which the dancers did not know in advance, said technical operation director of the competition, Meng Changqing.
The contestants then had to react quickly to “feel” the music as they entered the circle to perform their moves.
Judges give contestants marks out of 20 in five categories: skill, musicality, diversity, completion and quality and personality, for a total score out of 100, Meng added
The dancers were widely very positive about the experience and its potential to encourage others to take up breaking.
At issue is how to handle the classified materials at the center of the case.
The judge overseeing the probe into former President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents has paused any litigation involving the classified materials in question as she considers a request from Trump to extend deadlines in the case, according to a new order.
At issue is how the classified materials at the center of the case are to be handled by the defendants and their attorneys, based on national security requirements.
After Judge Aileen Cannon established several deadlines for ruling on those issues, Trump’s legal team last month filed a motion asking her for a three-month extension, saying that Trump and his co-defendants have still not had access “to significant portions of the materials that the Special Counsel’s Office has characterized as classified and conceded are discoverable — much less the additional classified materials to which President Trump is entitled following anticipated discovery litigation.”
Cannon’s order on Friday temporarily pauses the upcoming deadlines as she considers Trump’s motion.
Former President Donald Trump sits in the courtroom before the continuation of his civil business fraud trial at New York Supreme Court, Oct. 3, 2023, in New York. Seth Wenig/AP, FILE
Special counsel Jack Smith’s ‘s office said in a recent filing that some documents are so sensitive that they cannot be stored in a secure facility in Florida with the other documents in the case. Smith’s team has told the court that the documents can be made available in a secure facility in Washington, D.C., for review.
The campaigner, 51, was awarded the prize “for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all”.
Narges Mohammadi. Pic: Mohammadi family archive photos/Reuters
Jailed Iranian women’s rights activist Narges Mohammadi has won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2023.
The 51-year-old campaigner was given the award “for her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her fight to promote human rights and freedom for all”.
The award also recognised the hundreds of thousands of people who have demonstrated against Iranian discrimination and oppression of women.
Anoosheh Ashoori, who spent five years in Iran’s notorious Evin prison – the same prison where Ms Mohammadi is serving multiple sentences – told Sky News he is worried about her even more now she has won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Mr Ashoori said he met “many other innocent people” there, adding that some “are still there, just going through that hell right now”.
He said he saw broken glass and blood on the floor of a medical centre during his time there and was told Ms Mohammadi had been pushed and thrown into a glass door by the prison’s director, adding: “He was quite famous for his brutalities.”
Asked if he thought the award might have a negative impact on her treatment and time in the jail, he said: “I am worried about it because I know how these beasts behave. It can have repercussions and I’m really worried about her safety.”
Responding to the news of the award, Ms Mohammadi vowed to be “more resilient, determined, hopeful and enthusiastic”.
“I will never stop striving for the realisation of democracy, freedom and equality,” she said in a statement to the New York Times.
“Standing alongside the brave mothers of Iran, I will continue to fight against the relentless discrimination, tyranny and gender-based oppression by the oppressive religious government until the liberation of women,” she added.
Her family said in a statement that while the honour could “never compensate” them for the time she had spent imprisoned, it was a “source of solace for our indescribable suffering”.
Who is Narges Mohammadi?
Ms Mohammadi is one of Iran’s leading human rights activists, and has also campaigned against the country’s death penalty.
She has been in prison almost continually over the last 13 years, having been jailed for 11 years in 2011 for “acting against the national security”.
That sentence was for her work with the Iranian human rights group, Defenders of Human Rights Center, of which she is vice-president.
Museum photos show the marble head of the goddess Athena knocked off its pedestal onto the floor, and a statue of a pagan deity shattered into fragments.
Pic: AP
An American tourist has been arrested after allegedly smashing two second-century Roman statues at the Israel Museum – with his lawyer claiming he was experiencing a mental disorder called “Jerusalem syndrome”.
Israeli police have said initial questioning suggests the Jewish-American suspect destroyed the statues in Jerusalem because he considered them to be “idolatrous and contrary to the Torah”.
The Torah is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible.
Museum photos show the marble head of the goddess Athena knocked off its pedestal onto the floor and a statue of a pagan deity shattered into fragments.
The damaged statues were being restored, museum staff said.
Nick Kaufam, the suspect’s lawyer, has denied the man acted out of religious fanaticism.
Instead, Mr Kaufman said the 40-year-old tourist was suffering from a mental disorder that psychiatrists have labelled “Jerusalem syndrome”.
The condition – a form of disorientation believed to be induced by the religious magnetism of the city, which is sacred to Christians, Jews and Muslims – is said to cause foreign pilgrims to believe they are figures from the Bible.
Pic: AP
The defendant has been ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. Officials did not release his name due to a gagging order.
The vandalism late on Thursday raised questions about the safety of Israel’s priceless collections and stirred concern about a rise in attacks on cultural heritage in Jerusalem.
The painting depicts Marie-Therese Walter – his “golden muse” – who was the subject in many of the Spanish painter’s portraits.
Femme A La Montre
One of Pablo Picasso’s masterpieces is going on sale next month and is expected to fetch almost £100m.
The Spanish artist’s 1932 work, Femme A La Montre, depicts his “golden muse” Marie-Therese Walter.
She had an affair with the painter and was the subject of many Picasso portraits.
Pablo Picasso in 1959.
He met Marie-Therese, widely held to be one of the most significant women in the painter’s life, while he was in a relationship with Russian ballerina Olga Khokhlova.
The oil on canvas work is owned by art patron and collector Emily Fisher Landau and is one of many pieces in her collection.
They will be exhibited at Sotheby’s in London from Saturday until Wednesday before going to Paris, Taipei and Los Angeles.
Ms Fisher Landau, who began collecting after receiving an insurance settlement for a jewellery robbery at her home, bought the Picasso painting in 1968 at the start of her collecting journey.
American painter and sculptor Jasper Johns, Dutch-American artist Willem de Kooning, American painter and printmaker Robert Rauschenberg and abstract painter Mark Rothko are among the other artists featured in The Emily Fisher Landau Collection: An Era Defined.
Works by Andy Warhol and Edward Ruscha, who were both associated with the pop art movement, are also included.
Rauschenberg’s 1962 silkscreen could go for as much as £6.5m to £10m.
The government’s policy is to keep income tax and national insurance thresholds frozen until 2028, meaning many will be pushed into higher tax bands as a result of inflation.
The UK is on course for the biggest tax rise in at least 50 years because of the freeze on personal thresholds and soaring inflation, according to new analysis.
The Resolution Foundation said taxpayers are set to hand over about £40bn a year by 2028 – up from a forecast of £30bn at the time of Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s budget in March.
The government’s policy is to keep income tax and national insurance thresholds frozen until 2028, meaning many will be pushed into higher tax bands as a result of inflation.
“Chancellors of all political stripes like this kind of stealth tax, but the scale of increase in how much it will now raise is totally unprecedented,” said Torsten Bell, chief executive of the Resolution Foundation.
“Forget about all the tax cuts being floated, they’ll pale into insignificance besides this tax rise.”
The Institute for Fiscal Studies said the freeze will also compound challenges facing many workers whose earnings are not keeping up with inflation.
Dengue fever will become a major threat in the southern United States, southern Europe and new parts of Africa this decade, the WHO’s chief scientist said, as warmer temperatures create the conditions for the mosquitoes carrying the infection to spread.
The illness has long been a scourge in much of Asia and Latin America, causing an estimated 20,000 deaths each year. Rates of the disease have already risen eight-fold globally since 2000, driven largely by climate change as well as the increased movement of people and urbanization.
Many cases go unrecorded, but in 2022 4.2 million cases were reported worldwide and public health officials have warned that near-record levels of transmission are expected this year. Bangladesh is currently experiencing its worst-ever outbreak, with more than 1,000 deaths.
“We need to talk much more proactively about dengue,” Jeremy Farrar, an infectious diseases specialist who joined the World Health Organization in May this year, told Reuters.
“We need to really prepare countries for how they will deal with the additional pressure that will come… in the future in many, many big cities.”
Farrar previously spent 18 years working in Vietnam on tropical diseases including dengue. He later headed up the Wellcome Trust global health charity and advised the UK government on its COVID-19 response before joining the WHO in May this year.
Farrar said the infection is likely to “take off” and become endemic in parts of the United States, Europe and Africa – all regions where there has already been some limited local transmission – as global warming makes new areas hospitable to the mosquitoes that spread it. That will put acute pressure on hospital systems in many countries, he warned.
“The clinical care is really intensive, it requires a high ratio of nurses to patients,” he said. “I really worry when this becomes a big issue in sub-Saharan Africa.”
Mosquitoes are seen on stagnant water on the roadside during countrywide dengue infection, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, August 24, 2023. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain/File Photo
Most people who get dengue do not have symptoms, meaning case rates are thought to be far higher than the reported numbers. Those who do can experience fever, muscle spasms and joint pain so severe it is known as “break-bone fever.” In severe cases – less than 1% – it can be fatal.
There is no specific treatment for dengue, although there is a vaccine available. Earlier this week, the WHO recommended Takeda Pharmaceuticals’ (4502.T) Qdenga vaccine for children aged 6 to 16 in areas where the infection is a significant public health problem.
Qdenga is also approved by the EU regulator, but Takeda withdrew its application in the United States earlier this year, citing data collection issues. Takeda said it was still in talks with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration about the vaccine.
Preparing new regions of the world to deal with dengue means ensuring that any public health funds get spent in the right areas, Farrar said, including on the best way to control the mosquito.
Dengue is spread by infected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which behave differently to the malaria-carrying kind. For example, they bite people indoors, and they bite all day rather than overnight. They also breed in very shallow water.
In a burial plot next to a field outside the remote Ukrainian hamlet of Hroza, residents removed undergrowth and cleared away litter to make space for more graves.
Working quietly, it was something to distract them from the horror of what happened the day before.
As dozens of people gathered in the local cafe for a meal to honour a soldier who died in the war against Russia, a missile struck, killing at least 52 people.
It was one of the most deadly attacks during 20 months of fighting, and one that has devastated the tiny, tight-knit community.
Shock is giving way to grief, as well as questions about how the Russians could have known about the gathering in what some Hroza residents say was a deliberate attack.
Among those killed was Olya, 36, who is survived by three children. Her husband died too.
Her father, Valeriy Kozyr, was at the cemetery preparing to bury her and his son-in-law.
“It would have been better if I had died,” he said quietly as he wept. “Oh God, you cannot punish me like this. To leave the father and take the children!”
Wiping tears from his face, the 61-year-old explained that he must now work out how to care for his three grand-children aged 10, 15 and 17. Kozyr wants to bury Olya and her husband side-by-side in a single grave.
He told Reuters he was not in the cafe on Thursday because he worked night shifts as a security guard, and so was spared.
Nearby, three brothers were readying a plot in which to bury their parents, both killed in what President Volodymr Zelenskiy has called a deliberate Russian assault on civilians.
Moscow denies targeting civilians in its full-scale invasion, a position it repeated on Friday in response to the Hroza strike. Thousands have been killed in a bombing campaign that has hit apartment blocks and restaurants as well as power stations, bridges and grain silos.
One brother began to dig while another picked up discarded plastic bottles.
“We lost 18 people on one street, where our parents lived,” said the third, 41-year-old Yevhen Pyrozhok. “On one side, the neighbours are gone, and on the other side a woman is gone.”
The men said they did not know when they would be able to have the funeral because their parents’ bodies were still being examined by investigators in Kharkiv, the closest big city in northeastern Ukraine.
Valeriy Kozyr, 61, cries as he sits next to graves after losing his daughter and other relatives in a Russian military strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, at a cemetery outside the village of Hroza, Kharkiv region, Ukraine October 6, 2023. REUTERS/Thomas Peter Acquire Licensing Rights
Not all of the victims have been identified. Regional police investigator Serhiy Bolvinov told reporters late on Thursday that authorities would have to use DNA to identify some of the victims, because their remains were beyond recognition.
“Corpses lay there in that yard, and nobody could identify them,” said Valentyna Kozienko, 73, speaking near her home close to the site.
‘HALF THE VILLAGE GONE’
As darkness fell on Thursday, dazed emergency crews carried bodies placed in white bags on to the back of a pickup truck. A local man knelt down and wept as he lay his hand on the remains of a loved one before they too, were taken away.
Local resident Oleksandr Mukhovatyi said he lost his mother, brother and sister-in-law.
“Someone betrayed us. The attack was precise, it all landed in the coffee shop.”
On Friday, rescue workers continued to sift through the rubble of the flattened cafe and nearby shop, while diggers pushed away debris.
On a low table set up a few metres (yards) away, members of the emergency services and local community laid flowers and lit candles in small coloured jars to commemorate the dead.
55 Chinese sailors are feared dead after nuclear submarine ‘gets caught in a trap intended to snare British and US vessels in the Yellow Sea’
• Twenty-two officers were among the 55 reported to have died in the Yellow Sea
• China denies it happened – and apparently refused international assistance
Fifty-five Chinese sailors are feared dead after their nuclear submarine apparently got caught in a trap intended to ensnare British sub-surface vessels in the Yellow Sea.
According to a secret UK report the seamen died following a catastrophic failure of the submarine’s oxygen systems which poisoned the crew.
The captain of the Chinese PLA Navy submarine ‘093-417’ is understood to be among the deceased, as were 21 other officers.
Officially, China has denied the incident took place. It also appears Beijing refused to request international assistance for its stricken submarine.
The UK report into the fatal mission reads: ‘Intelligence reports that on 21st of August there was an onboard accident whilst carrying out a mission in the Yellow Sea.
‘Incident happened at 08.12 local resulting in the death of 55 crew members: 22 officers, 7 officer cadets, 9 petty officers, 17 sailors. Dead include the captain Colonel Xue Yong-Peng.
‘Our understanding is death caused by hypoxia due to a system fault on the submarine. The submarine hit a chain and anchor obstacle used by the Chinese Navy to trap US and allied submarines.
‘This resulted in systems failures that took six hours to repair and surface the vessel. The onboard oxygen system poisoned the crew after a catastrophic failure.’
As yet there is no independent confirmation of the suspected loss of the Chinese submarine in the public domain.
Beijing has dismissed open source speculation about the incident as ‘completely false’ while Taiwan has also denied internet reports.
Mail Plus approached the Royal Navy to discuss the details contained in the UK report but official sources declined to comment or offer guidance.
The UK report, which is based on defence intelligence, is held at a high classification.
“It’s an apocalyptic scene. I am speechless,” Mayor Luigi Brugnaro posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
A gondola is pictured on Grand Canal in front of Rialto bridge in Venice, Italy, October 20, 2021 (photo credit: REUTERS/FABRIZIO BENSCH)
At least 20 people died on Tuesday after a coach crashed off an overpass near Venice in northern Italy, the city’s mayor was quoted as saying by the Italian newspaper la Repubblica.
The coach veered off the road and fell close to railway lines in the district of Mestre, which is connected to Venice by a bridge, Italian news agencies and television reported, but the cause of the accident was still unclear.
“It’s an apocalyptic scene. I am speechless,” Mayor Luigi Brugnaro posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
For Parul, it was a second medal at the continental championships after she had claimed a silver in the women’s 3000m Steeplechase on Monday.
Parul Chaudhary (L), Annu Rani (R) Credit: Reuters/ PTI
Parul Chaudhary pulled off a heist for a sensational women’s 5000m gold while Annu Rani conjured up her season-best performance to claim the top prize in women’s javelin throw as Indian athletes bagged six medals from track and field at the Asian Games, here on Tuesday.
The 28-year-old Parul was behind Japan’s Ririka Hironaka in the closing stage but stunned her rival with a stunning dash in the final 40 metres to claim the yellow metal with a timing of 15:14.75.
The stunning performance earned Parul her second medal in Hangzhou after claiming a silver in the women’s 3000m Steeplechase on Monday.
Kazakhtan’s Caroline Chepkoech Kipkirui won the bronze clocking 15:23.12.
The 31-year-old Annu, who hails from Meerut, produced a season-best effort of 62.92m in her fourth attempt to win gold.
Sri Lankan Nadeesha Dilhan and China’s Huihui Lyu claimed the silver and bronze with efforts of 61.57 and 61.29 respectively.
The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday conducted searches at the residence of AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh in connection with the Delhi liquor policy case. Singh’s name was mentioned in an ED chargesheet in the case.
ED searches residence of AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh (Credits: PTI)
A team of the Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday conducted searches at the residence of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh, in connection with the Delhi liquor policy case.
Earlier, the premises of several others close to the MP were searched in the case.
A video shared by news agency ANI showed a team of probe agency ED at Sanjay Singh’s residence in Delhi.
Sanjay Singh’s name was mentioned in the chargesheet filed in the liquor policy case.
Reacting to the searches, Sanjay Singh’s father said, “The department is doing its work, we will cooperate with them. I will wait for the time when he gets clearance.”
Meanwhile, the party alleged the probe agency was ‘targeting’ Singh for raising the Adani matter in Parliament.
Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi took to X and wrote, “The only dependent allies BJP has in NDA fold are ED, IT, CBI. What a fall for these agencies to reduce their credibility to become a tool for those in power. Condemn the raids being carried out at Sanjay Singh Jis home, it’s nothing but intimidation tactics.”
On ED raids, AAP spokesperson, Reena Gupta, said, “The ED raid is a result of Sanjay Singh being vocal about the Adani issue and the black money invested in his company. Neither they (ED) found anything earlier, nor will they find anything today. None of us is afraid.”
Nothing was found earlier, nothing will be found today. Raids were conducted yesterday at the residence of some journalists and today raids are conducted at the residence of Sanjay Singh…”
ALLEGATIONS AGAINST SANJAY SINGH AS PER ED
According to the ED chargesheet, Delhi-based businessman Dinesh Arora, who was named as an accused in the Delhi liquor policy scam case, had earlier met Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal at his residence, in the presence of Sanjay Singh.
In a statement, Arora told ED he had met Sanjay Singh during an event, following which he also came in touch with former Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia.
Sources said the event was organised to raise funds before the Delhi elections.
According to the ED chargesheet, “He (Dinesh Arora) initially met Sanjay Singh through whom he came in contact with Manish Sisodia during a party at his own restaurant, namely Unplugged Courtyard. On request of Sanjay Singh, he spoke with many of the restaurant owners and arranged cheques amounting to Rs 32 lakh (handed over to Sisodia) for collection of party funds for upcoming elections in Delhi.”
The financial probe agency has also alleged that Sanjay Singh resolved one of Dinesh Arora’s long-pending issues with the liquor department.
Electronic voting machines (EVMs) are being used for the first time for the council elections. (File Photo: PTI)
The voting for the fifth Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC)-Kargil is set to take place today. This is the first time polls are being held in Ladakh since Article 370 was revoked. The hill council election in Kargil is the first local poll in Ladakh since it was split from J&K in August 2019 and made a UT.
The counting of votes is scheduled for October 8 and the new council will be in place before October 11. The existing council, headed by National Conference’s Feroz Ahmad Khan, completed its five-year term on October 1.
A total of 95,388 voters, including 46,762 women, are eligible to exercise their franchise from 8am to 4pm.
A total of 85 candidates are contesting on 26 seats of the 30-member Hill Council.
The National Conference and Congress have announced a pre-poll alliance but have put up 17 and 22 candidates, respectively. The arrangement has been restricted to areas where there is a tough contest with the BJP.
BJP, which won one seat in the last election and later took its tally to three with the joining of two PDP councillors, has fielded 17 candidates this time.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is trying its luck from four seats while 25 independents are also in the fray, the officials said.
The forum also stressed their concern at the restrictions imposed by the Taliban on women’s employment and girls’ education and urged the group to promote modern education in schools
The Moscow Format was established in 2017 to promote national reconciliation in Afghanistan. (ANI)
Members of a Russia-led forum on Afghanistan, including India, have urged the Taliban setup in Kabul to eliminate terrorist groups active on Afghan soil and to prevent the country being a “terrorism and instability hotspot”.
The Kazan Declaration, issued at the conclusion of the Moscow Format consultations on Afghanistan on Friday, pointed out that the Taliban regime has made no progress in forming a “truly inclusive government” that reflects the interests of all ethno-political groups of the country.
India was represented at the talks held in the Russian city of Kazan by the country’s ambassador in Moscow, Pavan Kapoor. The Moscow Format was established in 2017 to promote national reconciliation in Afghanistan and other members of the forum are Russia, Iran, China, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
The Kazan Declaration said the forum had called on the Taliban setup to “take effective measures to dismantle, eliminate and prevent placement of all sorts of terrorist groups based in Afghanistan and to prevent the country from being the terrorism and instability hotspot and spreading to the regional states”.
The declaration regretted that “there had been no progress in forming a truly inclusive government in Afghanistan, reflecting the interests of all ethno-political groups”. It said: “Despite the appointment of some individual representatives of various Afghan ethnicities to the Kabul administration, the parties observed no political pluralism in it.”
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who shattered glass ceilings during her more than three decades in the U.S. Senate, has died at the age of 90.
Feinstein cast her last vote in the Senate late Thursday morning, according to Senate records. According to a statement by her chief of staff, James Sauls, she died at her Washington, D.C., home Thursday night.
“Senator Feinstein never backed away from a fight for what was just and right,” Sauls said. “At the same time, she was always willing to work with anyone, even those she disagreed with, if it meant bettering the lives of Californians or the betterment of our nation.”
She was the longest-serving woman in the Senate, as well as the longest-serving senator from California. But in recent months and years, questions about her health have clouded her governing profile.
Feinstein’s legacy
Feinstein was the first woman to chair the Senate Rules and Administration Committee and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the latter of which she ran for six years. Feinstein served as the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and was also the first woman to serve in that role, from 2017 to 2021.
In the Senate since 1992, Feinstein fought for what she called “sensible gun laws,” worked to preserve the environment and improve her state’s water infrastructure, and she championed LGBTQ+ rights and the legalization of same-sex marriage.
Feinstein authored and helped pass the federal assault weapons ban in 1994. The law expired in 2004, and along with other Democrats, including President Joe Biden, Feinstein advocated to reinstate it.
The California senator also helped establish the nationwide Amber Alert network to alert the public to missing children.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California, arrives for a Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, December 6, 2017, in Washington. DREW ANGERER/GETTY IMAGES
In 2014, Feinstein, as chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, released a controversial and much-disputed 6,700-page report on the interrogation methods used by the CIA after the 9/11 terror attacks. The report, which took five years to complete and publish, found that the CIA’s enhanced interrogation techniques did not lead to the collection of critical intelligence that disrupted a plot; that the CIA provided inaccurate information about the program and its effectiveness; and that it was far more brutal than the CIA led lawmakers and the public to believe once it was revealed in 2006.
President Obama ended the practices portrayed within it early in his administration. But Feinstein’s great hope in publishing the report was that the harsh light it shone on the CIA’s practices in the early years after the 9/11 attacks would help ensure that those practices remained in the past. Asked by CBS News at the time whether it was fair to revisit what was done, given that the techniques are no longer used, she responded, “Read the report, and you tell me if you think this is how you want the country to behave.”
Born in San Francisco on June 22, 1933, she was the daughter of a former model and a doctor. She graduated from Stanford University with a bachelor’s degree in 1955.
She served on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in the 1970s and rose to national prominence at a moment of crisis in the city — when Mayor George Moscone and fellow Supervisor Harvey Milk were shot and killed at City Hall by a disgruntled former colleague on Nov. 28, 1978. Feinstein heard the gunshots and saw the gunman leaving the supervisors’ offices.
“He whisked by, everybody disappeared. I walked down the line of supervisors’ offices. I walked into one and found Harvey Milk – put my finger in a bullet hole trying to get a pulse,” she told CNN in an interview in 2017. “But you know, it was the first person I’d ever seen shot to death, and you know when they’re dead.”
It was Feinstein who announced the news of the tragedy to the public.
Feinstein succeeded Moscone as mayor and went on to hold the office for a decade. She lost a race for governor in 1990 before winning a special election for the Senate seat in 1992 — an election cycle that became known as the “Year of the Woman” for the record number of female candidates elected to Congress.
Feinstein’s health struggles
Feinstein was absent from the Senate for about three months earlier this year because of a difficult bout with shingles and complications related to the virus. Feinstein returned to the Senate in mid-May, appearing in public for the first time since February. She was wheeled into the Capitol, looking frail and with one eye nearly closed. She said in a statement that she’d made “significant progress” but was “still experiencing some side effects from the shingles virus.”
A few days later, her office said that her health issues were more serious than had been previously disclosed. The 89-year-old Democrat was suffering from encephalitis, or swelling of the brain, and a condition known as Ramsay Hunt syndrome.
A conversation with reporters suggested she was not aware she had been absent for months. “I haven’t been gone,” she said, according to the Los Angeles Times and Slate. When asked whether she had been working from home, Feinstein said, “No, I’ve been here. I’ve been voting.”
Her lengthy absence from Washington for health reasons had become a point of contention for Democrats, as confirmations of President Biden’s judicial nominees slowed without her presence on the Judiciary Committee. Democrats needed all the votes they could get in a narrowly divided Senate, prompting some in her own party to call for her resignation.
President Biden’s dog Commander attacked yet another Secret Service agent Monday — marking the 11th known time the 2-year-old canine chomped down on the Executive Mansion’s staff.
“Yesterday around 8 p.m., a Secret Service Uniformed Division police officer came in contact with a first family pet and was bitten. The officer was treated by medical personnel on complex,” USSS chief of communications Anthony Guglielmi told CNN in a statement.
The agent is reportedly in good condition and has since spoken with Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle about the incident.
The White House did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
The latest bite comes just two months after shocking internal Secret Service records revealed what an aggressive and violent nuisance the young pup has been.
Commander attacked personnel on at least 10 other occasions at the White House and in Delaware between October 2022 and January 2023, sending at least one agent to the hospital with lacerations on his arm and thigh.
Seven of the German shepherd’s victims were bitten within a four-month span just after first dog Major was ousted from the White House over similar bad behavior.
Commander attacked another Secret Service agent Monday evening. EPA
Commander, a gift from Biden’s brother James Biden and sister-in-law Sara Biden, was welcomed the same day Major was given to family friends after biting many Secret Service members in 2021.
Many of the Secret Service agents reported being attacked without provocation, with multiple desperately grabbing nearby objects such as chains and chairs to block the dog from inflicting further damage.
The 11 documented attacks are likely just the tip of the iceberg for the dog’s disturbing behavior — the internal correspondence didn’t include Commander’s first nine months at the White House or the last nine months of 2023.
Former President Donald Trump has not passed away, despite his son’s social media feed claiming as much. It appears Donald Trump Jr.’s X/Twitter account was hacked.
Just after 8 a.m. Wednesday morning, Don Jr. announced that he will, as a result of the death, be seeking the nation’s highest office instead of his father.
Mediaite cannot confirm the current health of the former president, but judging by other messages put up shortly after, it seems apparent that the former “first son” has been victim to a hacker. To wit, “Don, Jr.” then proclaimed the innocence of controversial crypto-king Richard Heart:
There was also a warning that “North Korea was about to get smoked”:
And then this Jeffrey Epstein “joke”:
The hacker was NOT afraid to offer some searing criticism of current President Joe Biden:
And nothing reveals the mindset of a hacker than a Logan Paul reference:
A Seattle police watchdog agency is investigating after a body-worn camera captured one Seattle Police Department union leader joking with another following the death of an Indian student.
A photo of Jaahnavi Kandula is displayed at the intersection where she was killed by a police officer in Seattle on Sunday. (AP Photo)
A Seattle police watchdog agency is investigating after a body-worn camera captured one Seattle Police Department union leader joking with another following the death of an Indian student, Jaahnavi Kandula, who was struck and killed by a police cruiser as she was crossing a street.
The 23-year-old Northeast University graduate, who was from Andhra Pradesh, was struck and killed in January this year by a Seattle cop, Kevin Dave, while driving 74 mph on the way to a report of an overdose call.
The investigation is related to a body-camera audio in which they laugh, joke about and downplay the death of the woman, suggesting her life had “limited value” and that the city should “just write a check.”
Officer Daniel Auderer, vice president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, accidentally left his body camera running as he called guild President Mike Solan to report what happened when another officer, Kevin Dave, struck and killed Kandula, The Seattle Times reported.
In a recording released by the police department Monday, Auderer laughs and suggests that Kandula’s life had “limited value” and the city should “just write a check.”
He laughs about the deadly crash and dismisses any implication the officer might be at fault or that a criminal investigation was necessary.
“I don’t think she was thrown 40 feet but she is dead”.
He was then heard laughing.
“No, it’s a regular person, just write a check,” responded Auderer.
He then burst into laughter again and said, “Eleven thousand dollars. She was 26 anyway, she had limited value”.
The recording, however, did not capture Solan’s remarks.
Auderer acknowledged his role in the investigation as an impairment recognition officer but said the conversation was “private” and meant to be part of his duties as a SPOG representative, according to what Jason Rantz, a conservative KTTH talk-show host, described as a self-reported complaint to Seattle’s Office of Police Accountability.
