At least nine people were shot in California after a gunman opened fire at a family gathering, police say. Several people have been killed while others have been taken to hospital in critical condition.
Family and friends were watching football in the backyard when someone started shooting at them. No one has been arrested so far.
#BREAKING MASSIVE police response in a neighborhood by Peach/Pine in Fresno. Streets clogged with cars/ambulances…a lot of people being put on stretchers. Waiting to learn more. pic.twitter.com/HUT03Cdryp
In the wake of explosive revelation that ABC News allegedly knew the extent of Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes years ago but chose not to report them, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has demanded answers from the network’s execs.
In his letter to ABC News president James Goldston, McCarthy demanded the names of those involved in the decision not to run the story, as well as their motives. In a video clip leaked earlier this month, ABC News anchor Amy Robach is caught on a “hot mic” speaking to colleagues about the alleged cover-up.
“I’ve had this interview with Virginia Roberts…we would not put it on the air,” Robach says about the woman who now three years later publicly accuses Epstein of using her as a sex slave, and pimping her out to his powerful friends, including Britain’s Prince Andrew.
The network rushed to defend its coverage (or lack of thereof), clamming that the story was killed only because their journalists could not corroborate the details – and immediately launched a hunt for the whistleblower who leaked the video to conservative group Project Veritas. McCarthy’s letter, signed by several GOPS and obtained by journalist Megyn Kelly, slammed ABC’s damage control of the situation.
We believe that uncovering the source of the information is incomparably less important than the possibility of exposing the source of a human trafficking operation.
The lawmakers also want to know what additional information ABC executives may have learned about Epstein following the first interview with the victim – and whether they informed authorities of it at any point.
Who was involved in deciding this story was not of public interest, and what were their reasons for deciding so?
Another question urges Robach to “expand on the ‘outside forces’ she mentioned as potentially responsible for the story not running.” In the clip she said: “First of all, I was told ‘who’s Jeffrey Epstein.’ Then the Palace found out that we had her whole allegations about Prince Andrew and threatened us a million different ways.”
American soldiers are well trained to never commit war crimes, the Pentagon insists. When they sometimes do, the military always holds them accountable… and then the US president is free to pardon them to boost the morale.
“I have great faith in the military justice system,” US Defense Secretary Mark Esper told reporters, carefully avoiding any direct mention of Trump’s controversial decision to pardon two Army soldiers charged for war crimes in Afghanistan, and reinstate the rank of a Navy Seal demoted over similar war crimes accusations.
Our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines are trained from day one about the laws of armed conflict and how to conduct themselves during wartime.
“If they don’t, then the United States military will take action… to make sure that they are held accountable,” Esper claimed.
The US fiercely defends American soldiers’ immunity from any international or local law, and on Friday Trump demonstrated that even the Pentagon’s rather lenient internal probes and court martials aren’t much to worry about.
Trump intervened in the cases of three men. Former Army 1st Lieutenant Clint Lorance was convicted of second-degree murder in 2013 and sentenced to 19 years in the military prison, for ordering his platoon to open fire on two civilians in Afghanistan. The second pardon was granted to Army Major Mathew Golsteyn, who faced court-martial after admitting to killing a freed Afghan prisoner and disposing of the body in a burn pit. The third, Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher, who stabbed a wounded enemy fighter in the heck with a hunting knife and posed with the corpse, was reinstated in his rank.
The Pentagon failed to explain how exactly mercy in such high-profile war crimes cases sits with the notion of justice, only saying that the US President as “part of the military justice system” has constitutional right to pardon whoever he finds worthy.
While Trump insists his resolution ensures that members of the “most feared fighting force in the world” have even more confidence in battlefields in dozens of countries across the globe, in reality it only creates more enemies for the United States, believes Joe Lombardo from the United National Antiwar Coalition.
“It is a terrible decision, it tells the worlds that that the United States can be lawless with impunity in countries all over the world… How do you think people in other countries feel about this?” he told RT adding however that such position of a global bully is nothing new and was similarly held by the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations.
Using comprehensive firsthand interviews, transcripts and court reports, a disturbing new book, ‘All the President’s Women’, discovers at least 67 separate accusations of inappropriate behaviour, including 26 instances of unwanted sexual contact by US President Donald Trump.
Massive fires raged at the campus of Hong Kong Polytech University, where anti-government protesters have holed up, pelting petrol bombs and fearing an imminent riot police raid amid clashes with authorities.
The campus turned into a battleground between the rioters hurling Molotov cocktails and rocks, and police deploying tear gas and water cannon, as videos from the scene early Monday morning show an inferno rising near the staircase to the building.
Hundreds of protesters, hiding inside the building set the entrance on fire, either on purpose or due to ‘mismanagement’ of petrol bombs, when a police raid seemed imminent.
However, after sealing the campus off to prevent ‘reinforcements’ from reaching the area, and detaining a number of protesters, authorities apparently chose not to storm the building.
The flare-up comes after two days of standoff during which protesters threw petrol bombs, stones and javelins – and even shot arrows at police.
This video went viral on China’s internet. HK looks like a battlefield tonight. Rioters attacked armored police vehicle with petrol bombs, causing it to catch fire.But police still exercise restraint. Police should be permitted to fire live rounds in this case to counter rioters. pic.twitter.com/dD9Qxl1AUf
Over the weekend, protesters attacked a group of volunteers who tried to help authorities clear the roadblocks and debris outside the PolyU. A man and a woman were hospitalized with head injuries as a result.
The PolyU campus became one of the recent hotspots of riots in Hong Kong that started with demonstrations against an extradition law in March. Although the legislation was scrapped, protests went on with violent groups among protesters vandalizing property and attacking citizens who support the government.
