Inquirer.com – Zurich DR

Category: Nation & World

  • Brooklyn man is convicted of fatally stabbing a Philly dancer at a gas station

    Brooklyn man is convicted of fatally stabbing a Philly dancer at a gas station

    A Brooklyn man has been convicted in the killing of beloved Philadelphia dancer O’Shae Sibley, who was stabbed to death at a New York City gas station in 2023.

    Dmitriy Popov, 20, was convicted of manslaughter as a hate crime and other charges related to “taunting, stabbing, and killing” Sibley, which included “hurling homophobic and anti-Black slurs,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement.

    Sibley, 28, was a gay Black man, while Popov, who was 17 at the time of the killing, is white. Popov, who was tried as an adult, faces up to 25 years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for June 30.

    O’Shae Sibley at the Ailey Extension dance school in Manhattan.Courtesy Whitney Brown & Alvin Aliey

    While filling up their car with gas on a Saturday night in July 2023 after a trip to the beach, Sibley and four of his friends blasted music by Beyoncé and started dancing, according to Joan Myers Brown, founder of the Philadelphia Dance Company and Sibley’s former teacher.

    Popov and two associates approached the car and threatened the group with racist and homophobic slurs, telling them they did not want to see gay men dancing in their neighborhood, Gonzalez said.

    His associates left the gas station, but Popov remained and continued to taunt the group of dancing friends. Ultimately, he stabbed Sibley on the side of his chest with a knife, puncturing his heart, Gonzalez said. Sibley was pronounced dead a short time later at a nearby Brooklyn hospital.

    “O’Shae Sibley moved to New York to pursue his dream of being a dancer and choreographer, and his life was cut short when he was killed by this defendant, who couldn’t stand the sight of O’Shae and his friends just being themselves and living their lives openly as Black gay men,” Gonzalez said, offering his hope that the verdict would “bring O’Shae’s family, his friends, and the larger community some measure of solace.”

    O’Shae Sibley’s parents Jake Kelly (left) and Onetha Sibley visit their son’s casket at The Met in Philadelphia on Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2023.Allie Ippolito / Staff Photographer

    A North Philadelphia native, Sibley moved to New York before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and landed a job as a dancer and choreographer with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Ailey Extension. He danced in several music videos and performed at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York.

    During a celebration of O’Shea’s life at the Met in Philadelphia in 2023, Otis Pena, who was with Sibley the night he was killed, recalled his friend as authentic and unapologetically himself.

    “O’Shae was a beacon of light for a lot of us in our community that was engulfed in darkness,” Pena said then. “But O’Shae rejoiced. O’Shae was O’Shae.”

  • Ukraine is ready to share drone technology with Nordic and Baltic countries, Zelensky says

    TALLINN, Estonia — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with Nordic and Baltic leaders who were in Estonia for a regional summit Tuesday, a visit that comes amid friction over Ukrainian drones straying into the region in recent months.

    The drones have crashed into the chimney of a power plant in Estonia, hit empty fuel tanks in Latvia, and been shot down by Romanian fighter jets stationed in Lithuania. Ukrainian officials apologized, saying the drones had been aimed at military targets in Russia but were sent off course by Russian electronic interference.

    Estonia hosted the summit in its capital of Tallinn amid Russia’s 4-year-old, full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Estonia holds the rotating presidency of the NB8, a regional grouping of the five Nordic and three Baltic countries, and brought together the bloc’s prime ministers, along with Zelensky.

    Sharing Ukraine’s drone expertise

    Zelensky and Estonian President Alar Karis agreed to work on cheaper ways to shoot down drones that have flown over Estonia, including one that a NATO fighter jet shot down over the south of the country in May.

    “We have shown that we can shoot the drones down with the planes,” Karis said at a news conference. Using fighter jets to shoot down the drones is expensive, he added, so he hopes to partner with Ukraine for its technology and expertise to do it more cheaply.

    Zelensky said Ukraine was ready to do so, drawing on its experience with helping countries in the Middle East, where it had sent experts to train local forces, shoot down drones. “We did this in the Middle East, and it worked,” he said.

    He said Ukraine could offer the low-cost interceptor drones it has deployed at home to build an inexpensive shield against Russian drone attacks, and that Kyiv could send experts to its European partners “at any moment.”

    Karis said he expects drones to cross into Baltic airspace as the war continues and urged the public to remain calm. Estonia and the other Baltic nations are among Ukraine’s staunchest supporters in its war against Russia.

    Ukraine’s bid for EU membership

    Zelensky said his talks with the leaders had focused on advancing diplomacy, strengthening air defenses, and Ukraine’s path to European Union membership. He said Kyiv had met the conditions to open its accession negotiations and urged the bloc to approve them this summer.

    European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in Brussels that Ukraine is “making extraordinary progress” on reforms to allow it to join the EU and that “it’s high time for us also now to deliver.”

    Prospective members must complete negotiations in 35 policy areas, or chapters, ranging from agriculture to trade in a process that can take years.

    Zelensky also said Ukraine and Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs signed a drone deal to deepen joint defense and coproduction.

    Russia’s deadly strikes on Ukraine

    Russia, meanwhile, kept up its strikes across Ukraine. In the northeastern Kharkiv region, three people were killed and 25 others, including three children, were wounded in attacks in the past 24 hours, said Oleh Syniehubov, head of the regional administration.

    In the Dnipropetrovsk region, three people were wounded when several districts came under attack overnight, said regional administration head Oleksandr Hanzha.

    Russia launched 166 long-range strike drones and two guided missiles at Ukraine overnight, Ukraine’s air force said, with air defenses shooting down 146 of the drones.

    Russia’s Defense Ministry said its defenses downed 140 drones overnight. A woman was killed when a Ukrainian drone hit an apartment building in the Belgorod region neighboring Ukraine, regional emergency officials said.

    Seeking more sanctions on Russia

    Zelensky said he had pressed for tougher sanctions on Russia, including its shadow fleet. He also held talks with Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre on bolstering Ukraine’s air defenses.

    “All of our partners now note that Ukraine’s positions on the front are significantly stronger, and so our diplomacy, which we are working to step up, must proceed from that,” Zelensky said. “Unfortunately, Russia is trying to make up for its enormous battlefield losses with strikes on our cities and communities, and on civilian infrastructure.”

    In Brussels, Von der Leyen announced proposals for new sanctions against Russia targeting its energy, financial, and trade sectors, including fisheries for the first time with a ban on cod, among other measures.

    She also proposed banning EU entry for “anyone who has served in the Russian armed forces since the beginning of the war” to ensure that Europe stays off-limits “for anyone who has participated in the invasion of Ukraine.”

    The sanctions must be endorsed by the 27 EU member countries before they can come into force.

    On Monday, Zelensky said he had held positive talks with U.S. representatives Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner during a stopover at an airport in Moldova’s capital, describing them as focused on ending the war. In a social media post, he said the two sides discussed diplomatic prospects ahead of this month’s Group of Seven summit, and that he had briefed the U.S. side on Ukraine’s assessment of Russia’s intentions.

  • Gates said to have hired ex-Oversight chief to advise on Epstein testimony

    Gates said to have hired ex-Oversight chief to advise on Epstein testimony

    WASHINGTON — The former chief investigations counsel for the House Oversight Committee has been helping to prepare Bill Gates, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft, to testify privately in the panel’s Jeffrey Epstein investigation today, according to two people affiliated with the Gates Foundation who are familiar with the arrangement.

    Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the Republican chair of the committee, formally requested in March that Gates appear before the committee for a transcribed interview. His request came after files released by the Justice Department showed that Gates met with Epstein, the convicted sex offender, multiple times and that his closest advisers were in frequent contact with the disgraced financier until 2019, the year of his death in prison.

    In preparing for the deposition, Gates has turned to Jake Greenberg, who until December was spearheading the oversight panel’s Epstein inquiry in his role as the committee’s top investigative official. The people who disclosed his involvement insisted on anonymity to discuss Greenberg’s previously undisclosed function.

    The arrangement, while not uncommon, raised eyebrows among government ethics experts who said it could create questionable optics for the deposition in a high-profile investigation.

    A spokesperson for Gates Ventures did not respond to multiple requests for comment about Greenberg’s role advising Gates. Greenberg also did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

    Gates’ close relationship with Epstein has roiled his foundation, which has authorized an outside review of its ties to Epstein. Gates apologized to foundation staff members in an all-hands meeting this year for his associations with Epstein.

    House Democrats say they want to grill Gates behind closed doors today about the nature of his relationship with Epstein.

    “We need accountability for those in power and answers for survivors,” said Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D., Ariz.). “No one — regardless of power, political party, or wealth — is above justice.”

    Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D., Va.), said in an interview that he wanted to know what Gates “knew of Epstein’s crimes, and the nature and extent of their relationship.” He added, “Epstein was known for befriending and even blackmailing rich and powerful men, and I want to know if Gates was one of them.”

    Gates has sought out powerful inside players to help him weather the scrutiny. He hired John Moran, a former lawyer for the Justice Department, who helped him secure an agreement with the committee for him to appear off camera, the Wall Street Journal reported.

    A spokesperson said the committee was not filming voluntary transcribed interviews for witnesses who agreed to come in quickly. The committee released filmed interviews with other witnesses whom it had subpoenaed, including Bill and Hillary Clinton and Les Wexner.

    Government watchdog experts said it was not unusual for a former top committee official to be hired by a person under scrutiny by the panel and that it would not necessarily violate ethics rules — as long as Greenberg was not dealing directly with the committee he had previously worked for.

    Former members of Congress and top aides have a one-year “cooling-off” period after leaving those jobs, during which they are barred from lobbying or communicating directly with lawmakers or committees. Greenberg would not be allowed, for instance, to negotiate with the oversight panel about the terms of Gates’ appearance. But there is no rule prohibiting him from privately sharing with a client what he knows about how the committee operates, or his knowledge of how it is approaching a particular investigation.

    Still, the ethics experts said it could give the appearance of an unseemly revolving door.

    Donald Sherman, the chief counsel for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonpartisan government watchdog group, said Greenberg’s role could potentially raise questions, including whether he had been a part of any discussions when he was still working for the committee about potentially inviting Gates to testify.

    “Certainly someone with Bill Gates’ money can afford to hire the people who he believes are going to set him up for navigating the congressional oversight process — and it is a unique process,” Sherman said.

    But, he added, “optics matters a great deal in congressional investigation. Certainly it raises questions that the public and the minority might ask about whether the investigation is independent or arm’s length, separate and apart from whether he is technically complying with the rules.”

    Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, the interim vice president of policy and government affairs at the Project on Government Oversight, also said the arrangement raised concerns.

    “Hearings are supposed to be serious attempts at fact-finding,” he said. “You would want a process that is free of any sort of conflicts of interest or influence peddling. There’s a lot of using the position you used to have, the leverage and the juice you bring, using that to benefit whoever you’re working for and tilt the playing field.”

    Until December, Greenberg served as general counsel and chief investigations counsel for the House Oversight Committee. In that role, he led the investigation into former President Joe Biden’s mental acuity, taking the lead in the transcribed depositions of top Biden administration officials like Annie Tomasini and Karine Jean-Pierre, the former White House press secretary.

    Greenberg was working on the committee last year when it deposed William Barr, the former attorney general, in the Epstein investigation.

    After leaving Capitol Hill, Greenberg joined the law firm DLA Piper.

    The firm now highlights his expertise in congressional oversight with glowing accolades from Comer on its website.

    “Jake Greenberg proved to be one of Washington’s most capable oversight investigators,” Comer says in a testimonial prominently displayed.

    DLA Piper did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the committee, Jessica Collins, said the committee had not worked with Greenberg in any capacity since he left and that the panel has worked only with Moran regarding Gates’ appearance.

    Greenberg is not expected to be with Gates at the deposition Wednesday, according to a person familiar with the proceedings who insisted on anonymity to discuss them in advance.

    Gates is not the only witness to turn to a former staff member for the committee before his appearance before Congress. When the Clintons were fighting the subpoenas in the Epstein investigation, they brought on Ashley Callen, a co-chair of the congressional investigations practice at Jenner & Block, to deal with GOP members of the Oversight Committee. Callen had previously worked as general counsel for Speaker Mike Johnson and other top Republicans. She also had worked as a deputy staff director on the House Oversight Committee under Comer.

    But Callen had never worked on the Epstein issue, and her departure from Capitol Hill exceeded any cooling-off period, so she was able to interact directly with the committee in her official role as a lawyer for the Clintons. She also appeared at the April deposition of Ted Waitt, the co-founder of Gateway computers who for years dated Ghislaine Maxwell and was called to testify before the committee, acting as his counsel.

    This article originally appeared in the New York Times.

  • Largest ICE detention facility wasted millions and put detainees at risk, report finds

    WASHINGTON — Mismanagement at a massive Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Texas created unsafe conditions that contributed to detainee deaths and suffering even as millions of wasted tax dollars enriched contractors, according to a federal report released Tuesday.

    The Government Accountability Office report documents serious problems at Camp East Montana, a sprawling tent facility at Fort Bliss in El Paso where three detainees have died in little more than six months. Evidence in one of those deaths, of a 55-year-old Cuban migrant who died in January after being held down by guards, was “missing or destroyed,” the report found.

    ICE rushed to open the camp in August before construction was complete and failed to conduct required oversight to ensure detainees were held in sanitary conditions and receiving adequate medical care, according to the report.

    The Department of Homeland Security noted that ICE has replaced the contractor running the facility. “This new contractor will allow Camp East Montana to continue abiding by the highest detention standards with the ability to provide more medical care on-site,” said DHS spokesperson Lauren Bis.

    The GAO’s findings echo past reporting by the Associated Press and other news outlets about dangerous conditions at Camp East Montana, which quickly became the nation’s largest immigration detention facility.

    But the government report also details previously undisclosed incidents, including that a detainee escaped in October due to what ICE called the contractor’s oversight failure. In January, a security guard lost a loaded firearm inside the facility that was never recovered.

    The contractor failed to administer skin tests to screen detainees for tuberculosis, relying on a questionnaire instead, the report said. The inadequate screening allowed a detainee with tuberculosis to be housed with the general population, which later suffered an outbreak.

    GAO is an independent, nonpartisan agency in Congress that investigates how federal funds are spent and evaluates whether programs and policies are operating effectively. The office opened its review into Camp East Montana at the request of Democrats in the House and Senate.

    Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois called the report’s findings “damning.”

    “We now know even more details of how dangerous and irresponsible the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign truly is,” said Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, adding that “those detained are experiencing conditions that shock the conscience.”

    A rush to build led to an inexperienced contractor

    Facing pressure to increase its detention capacity, the Trump administration routed the contract to build Camp East Montana through the Army to speed construction after ICE twice failed to successfully award one. That resulted in selecting a small, little-known contractor, Acquisition Logistics, for the $1.3 billion deal despite it having no prior experience operating detention facilities and facing what ICE called a “significant learning curve.”

    The Army — and later ICE after the camp was transferred to the agency — wasted millions of dollars paying for services it did not need because the contract did not account for fluctuations in the detainee population, the report said.

    The Army blew up to $11.5 million paying for guards, medical services, transportation, and meals in the weeks before the camp held detainees. The agencies wasted millions more because it was contracted to pay the cost of meals for the camp’s maximum population of 5,000, even when the number of detainees there dropped to around 1,600, the report said.

    Facility didn’t initially meet detention standards

    The facility did not meet ICE detention standards or the contract’s requirements in several ways when it opened, in part because it had not been inspected as required by ICE policy, the report said. The camp lacked security cameras on the perimeter and had other surveillance blind spots that raised the risk of sexual assaults or escapes.

    The camp could not accommodate detainees using wheelchairs and had no showers compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, resulting in the disabled being held in medical care rooms.

    The recreation area wasn’t available for several days, and after one yard was opened, it wasn’t enough space to provide required time for detainees. The law library, space to meet with attorneys, and a visitation area did not open for weeks, resulting in detainees being deprived of legal resources and contact with family and friends, the report found.

    The problems persisted as ICE began transporting more detainees there from across the country, the GAO found. While it was built to house up to 5,000 immigrants for short-term stays, its population has averaged about half of that from October until April, according to ICE’s most recent data.

    Missing evidence and other problems

    Detainees held at the facility didn’t receive comprehensive health assessments, which meant that those with chronic conditions received substandard care, the report said.

    The contractor cleaned the dormitories weekly rather than daily as required, resulting in unsanitary conditions. Some guards offered detainees cookies if they would clean their own rooms. Acquisition Logistics didn’t reply to messages seeking comment.

    The GAO report says investigations into the January death of Geraldo Lunas Campos were undermined after “evidence associated with the incident was missing or destroyed.” It did not elaborate. Campos died after he was restrained by guards and an outside autopsy report ruled the death a homicide due to asphyxia. The contractor at the facility did not provide use-of-force and death reports to ICE as required, according to the new report.

    An investigation by ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility into the death is on hold pending a criminal investigation by the FBI.

    On Jan. 14, Nicaraguan detainee Victor Manuel Diaz, 36, died of suicide after staff put him in a medical holding room instead of a suicide-resistant cell and left him unattended for intervals longer than 15 minutes, the report said. Staff could not see into the room because the contractor had failed to install vision panels that had been requested months earlier, it found.

    “These are huge discrepancies in their failure to prevent suicides,” said Diaz family attorney Randall Kallinen, noting that the report strengthens a potential wrongful death claim he’s considering. “They are part of an entire laundry list of problems at Camp East Montana.”

  • Vance demands Justice Department probe of Minnesota officials as White House presses ‘war on fraud’

    WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance is pressing federal prosecutors to investigate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and state Attorney General Keith Ellison over allegations they failed to stop widespread social services fraud, amplifying concerns the White House will use a new Justice Department division to target political rivals.

    Vance, who has been tapped to lead the Trump administration’s anti-fraud efforts as he seeks to raise his political profile as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, cited in a letter to the Justice Department a report from the Republican-led House Oversight Committee that alleges Walz and Ellison were aware of pervasive abuse of government programs for years and let it flourish.

    The Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to questions Tuesday about whether it would open an investigation. It was unclear what, if any, potential violations of federal law could support a probe into the Democratic Minnesota officials, who have defended their efforts to combat fraud and have characterized a separate Justice Department investigation involving state leaders as politically motivated.

    Minnesota has long been under a microscope for staggering amounts of fraud in programs for children and other social services, with dozens of defendants charged under the administrations of President Joe Biden, a Democrat, and President Donald Trump, a Republican. Vance’s referral for an investigation into state leaders, however, marks an escalation in the Trump administration’s stated “war on fraud” that officials have said would not be political or partisan.

    Vance is seeking an investigation by a new Justice Department division that has drawn intense scrutiny over the potential for political influence given its close relationship with Trump’s White House. The White House announced the division’s formation in January and initially said its leader would answer directly to the president instead of the typical Justice Department command.

    Walz spokesperson Teddy Tschann derided the House committee as “nothing more than a joke” that continues to “rehash COVID-era fraud.”

    “Governor Walz is glad to see fraudsters are going to prison,” Tschann said in an email. “If the committee is concerned about corruption, they should investigate why President Trump continues to let fraudsters out of prison.” Trump has granted clemency to numerous defendants convicted of financial crimes, including a man sentenced to 50 years in prison for orchestrating a more than $200 million Medicare fraud scheme.

    Ellison called the allegations unfounded and dismissed Vance’s referral as “a political stunt from an administration that uses the machinery of government to target its perceived opponents while extending leniency to those aligned with its interests.”

    “It is deeply troubling to see official powers and public resources diverted away from serving the people and instead aimed at pursuing political adversaries,” Ellison said in a statement. “That is not what government is for, and it diminishes public trust in our institutions.”

    The House committee alleges that “fraud warnings were elevated to the most senior levels of the Minnesota state government” and payments continued “long after credible signs of fraud emerged.” In his referral, Vance wrote that officials in Minnesota or anywhere else in the country “must be held accountable” if they facilitated fraud, prevented officials from stopping it, or retaliated against whistleblowers who tried to report it.

    “Minnesota state officials are not above the law,” Vance wrote in a post on X.

    The Trump administration has clashed repeatedly with Minnesota officials not only about fraud but also the massive federal immigration crackdown that swept across the Minneapolis-St. Paul area and other communities and led to widespread protests.

    The Justice Department in January served grand jury subpoenas to Minnesota officials as part of an investigation into whether they obstructed or impeded federal law enforcement through public statements they made. The status of that investigation is unclear.

    The Trump administration has touted the creation of the National Fraud Enforcement Division as a crucial step in its efforts to prevent the misuse of taxpayer dollars. The division’s leader, Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald, is a veteran prosecutor who has vowed to pursue cases “without fear or favor.”

    Critics, however, have questioned the administration’s motives behind the new division given that fraud was already prosecuted by the agency’s Criminal Division, which last year announced the largest coordinated takedown of healthcare fraud schemes in Justice Department history.

  • Social Security’s retirement trust fund faces funding shortfall one year earlier than expected

    WASHINGTON — Social Security‘s retirement trust fund is projected to face a funding shortfall in 2032, a year earlier than last year’s projections, according to an annual report released Tuesday, while Medicare‘s hospital insurance trust fund will be unable to pay full benefits in 2033, which is unchanged from last year’s estimate.

    Rising healthcare costs and government spending have contributed to a projected depletion date that is less than 10 years from now.

    The looming challenge for the programs is a partial funding gap, not a collapse. Even after trust fund depletion, the system will continue issuing benefits, albeit at reduced amounts.

    Last year, Medicare’s hospital insurance trust fund go-broke date was pushed to 2033 from 2036, according to the report from the programs’ trustees.

    Meanwhile, Social Security’s combined trust funds — which cover old age and disability recipients — will be unable to pay full benefits beginning in 2034, unchanged from the 2025 report. After that, incoming revenue would cover about 83% of scheduled benefits.

    Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano said the Trump administration is “committed to protecting and strengthening Social Security” and “eliminating waste, fraud, abuse and ensuring program integrity.”

    The report states that the new funding shortfall is mainly the result of lower projected birth rates, reduced immigration, and reduced trust fund revenue due to the costs of Republicans’ massive tax and spending bill that was signed into law by President Donald Trump last summer.

    Nancy Altman, president of the Social Security Works advocacy group, said the latest report takes “Donald Trump’s second term policies into account: A tax bill that largely benefited the wealthy, economy-wrecking tariffs, a needless war with Iran, and hostility to immigrants. All of these have reduced the amount of money going into Social Security, weakening the system’s finances.”

    The trustees, who include the treasury secretary, labor secretary, health and human services secretary, and the Social Security commissioner, say the latest findings show the urgency of needed changes to the programs, which have faced dire financial projections for decades. But making changes to the programs has long been politically unpopular, and lawmakers have repeatedly kicked Social Security and Medicare’s troubling math to the next generation.

    AARP’s CEO Myechia Minter-Jordan said in a statement that the latest numbers “should be a wake-up call. Congress needs to act.”

    “Americans have worked hard and paid into Social Security their entire lives, and they deserve to count on it when they retire,” she said. “No family should see any cuts to what they’ve earned in Social Security. ”

    About 70.1 million people are enrolled in Medicare, the federal government’s health insurance that covers those 65 and older, as well as people with severe disabilities or illnesses.

    Social Security benefits were last reformed roughly 40 years ago, when the federal government raised the eligibility age for the program from 65 to 67. The eligibility age of 65 has never changed for Medicare.

  • Rob Reiner’s son Nick seeks money from trust parents left him for his defense in their killings

    LOS ANGELES — Rob Reiner’s son Nick Reiner is seeking unpaid money from a trust his parents established for him, saying he needs it to help in his defense against charges that he killed them.

    A petition filed by the 32-year-old Nick Reiner’s civil attorneys in a Los Angeles County court on Monday says that trustees overseeing the funds have denied them to him without legal justification, and he needs and should get them now.

    “Nick loved his parents, and he is devastated by their deaths. But the facts about what did and did not happen to them are not at issue in this Trust litigation,” the petition says. “Like anyone accused of a crime, Nick is presumed innocent, and he is entitled to mount his defense with the resources that are lawfully his own.”

    The director and Hollywood luminary Rob Reiner and his wife, photographer and producer Michele Singer Reiner, were stabbed to death in their home in the upscale Brentwood section of Los Angeles on Dec. 14. Nick Reiner was arrested hours later and has since pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder.

    Reiner retained high-profile private lawyer Alan Jackson to represent him, but less than a month later Jackson left the case for reasons he said he couldn’t share. The new filing reveals that Reiner’s siblings, Jake and Romy Reiner, had initially agreed to pay for Jackson, but reversed course.

    In a declaration included with the petition, Jackson said “my firm stands ready, willing, and able to resume representation of Mr. Reiner” if the funds become available.

    The filing says that apart from the larger Reiner family trust, which is not at issue, Rob and Michele Reiner established smaller individual trusts for Nick Reiner and his siblings. It says they left “unambiguous instructions” in Nick Reiner’s trust, established in 1993, that he was to receive half its money when he turned 30 and the rest at 35.

    But, the filing says, Reiner never received the funds he was entitled to at 30, and that the trustee overseeing them since February — attorney Paul R. Kanin — has given “a shifting series of excuses and justifications” to deny Reiner the money, including concerns about Reiner’s competence that have no bearing on a payout that is mandatory.

    Reiner says he should also get the money he was to receive at 35 immediately because his defense and his need for basic necessities in jail require it.

    The petition says the trust has at least $1.5 million in assets, but that Kanin will not share the exact amount of its value.

    Kanin did not immediately respond to an after-hours email seeking comment.

    Proceedings in Reiner’s murder case are moving slowly. He is scheduled to return to court for a pretrial hearing in September. He is eligible for the death penalty, but District Attorney Nathan Hochman has said his office has not yet decided whether to seek it.

    Authorities have said nothing about possible motives, and leaks in the case have been virtually nonexistent on both sides. A court order has kept most details of the autopsies secret. Many of the most basic questions about the killings remain unanswered publicly.

    On the day he left the case, Jackson, speaking outside court, declared adamantly that “pursuant to the laws of California, Nick Reiner is not guilty of murder.”

    In April, Jake Reiner gave his first detailed account of the experience of losing his parents and having his brother at the center of it, calling it “a living nightmare” that is “too devastating to comprehend.”

    Rob Reiner was a prolific director whose work included some of the most memorable and endlessly watchable movies of the 1980s and ’90s. His credits included This Is Spinal Tap, Stand By Me, A Few Good Men, and When Harry Met Sally… , during the production of which he met photographer Michele Singer. They wed soon after and were married for 36 years.

  • A government-commissioned study found drinking risks. U.S. guidelines didn’t feature its findings

    A study commissioned by President Joe Biden’s administration to investigate alcohol-related health harms was released independently on Tuesday, after President Donald Trump’s administration decided not to feature the researchers’ findings in new dietary guidelines as it faced pushback from the alcohol industry and a congressional committee.

    The findings of the study, in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, were in line with years of research, saying that health risks go up with just one drink a day and no level of alcohol has a protective effect on mortality. Even levels considered “moderate” raise the risk of premature death and more than 200 diseases, including heart disease and cancer, researchers found.

    The new study was one of two government reviews meant to help inform the new dietary guidelines. Released earlier this year, the guidelines advised consuming “less alcohol for better overall health.” The authors of the independently released study say that didn’t provide detailed practical advice about the risks of drinking.

    One of the officials involved in the study commissioned by Biden’s Democratic administration accused Trump’s Republican administration of “sidelining” the research — an allegation the Trump administration denies.

    Robert Vincent, a former Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration alcohol policy official who led the yearslong effort, made the accusations in an editorial published alongside the study. Vincent was laid off last year as part of a government reduction in force.

    “The challenges confronting alcohol policy today are not rooted in scientific uncertainty,” Vincent wrote. “What remains contested is whether evidence will meaningfully inform policy when it conflicts with commercial interests.”

    The dispute over the study underscored the increasingly tense relations between the medical and scientific community and the Trump administration, which has questioned or ignored longstanding science in its policymaking, fired a slew of veteran scientists from the federal workforce, and cut scientific grants that proponents say help keep the U.S. at the forefront of medical innovation.

    Industry and congressional Republicans pushed back

    After the study’s researchers released a draft report last year, the alcohol industry mobilized against it, launching campaigns to discredit its work. The House oversight committee also criticized the study, releasing a report earlier this year that called it “fraught with bias” and accused the study authors of having predetermined conclusions based on their past research and affiliations.

    Emily Hilliard, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, denied any notion that the study wasn’t considered.

    HHS and the U.S. Department of Agriculture “reviewed the study alongside the broader body of available scientific evidence and followed the established process for developing the 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans,” she said. “The Guidelines are informed by the totality of the scientific record, not any single report or analysis.”

    Vincent told the Associated Press in an interview that the researchers were thoroughly vetted for conflicts and the findings were scientifically sound. He said that while he was in the Trump administration, he was “asked to kill the study” but did not. HHS didn’t immediately respond to that claim. The department said the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration wasn’t involved in the review or the clearance of the study for publication.

    Amanda Berger, senior vice president of science and research for the alcohol trade association the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, said in an email to the AP that the congressional committee’s findings showed the study was “irretrievably flawed.”

    Findings support more forceful alcohol intake recommendation

    The Trump administration earlier this year released new dietary guidelines that advised consuming “less alcohol for better overall health.” The researchers said that they don’t dispute that advice but that their findings support a more detailed and forceful recommendation that current adult drinkers consume one drink or fewer a day.

    “I’m glad that they had a message that corresponds with our science, and that is that less is best,” said Timothy Naimi, director of the University of Victoria’s Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research and one of the study’s authors. “But giving people quantity information is necessary to make a truly informative guideline.”

    The study differed from the other research commissioned by the government to help inform the dietary guidelines on the issue, which said moderate alcohol use was associated with a decreased risk of mortality from all causes but also an increased risk of some diseases.

    Priscilla Martinez-Matyszczyk, one of the authors of the new study and a deputy scientific director at the Public Health Institute’s Alcohol Research Group, said their study didn’t look at mortality from all causes but instead examined mortality specifically attributed to alcohol to avoid confounding factors.

    Martinez-Matyszczyk also addressed an issue raised by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz in his explanations of the new guidelines: that drinking is “a social lubricant that brings people together” and that even though not drinking is preferred, being social has health benefits.

    “I don’t know of any studies that have teased out the social effect from the health effect,” she said.

    Research aligns with other recent findings

    The new findings are “in line with the latest science that basically shows less is better when it comes to health,” Naimi said.

    For example, a 2019 study in Lancet found that moderate drinking slightly raised the risk of stroke and high blood pressure and offered no protective effects on health.

    Moderate drinking was once thought to have benefits for the heart, but better research methods have thrown cold water on that idea. Older studies compared groups of people by how much they drink instead of randomly assigning people to drink or not, so they couldn’t prove cause and effect. When researchers adjusted for things like education levels, income, and healthcare access, the benefits tended to disappear.

    About half of Americans age 12 or older had a drink in the past month, researchers said, making it the most commonly used addictive substance in the U.S. One drink is the equivalent of about one 12-ounce can of beer, a 5-ounce glass of wine or a shot of liquor.

  • Pentagon labels tech giant Alibaba and electric car maker BYD as aiding Chinese military

    WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has added several prominent Chinese businesses, including the tech giant Alibaba, electric car maker BYD and search engine Baidu, to its list of Chinese military companies, preventing them from getting U.S. defense contracts.

    The list, updated and published Monday by the Pentagon, now sanctions well-known, non-state-owned Chinese companies that are not traditionally considered to be in the defense or security sector. It reflects growing wariness of Beijing’s strategy of tapping the strength of non-state businesses for military purposes.

    Created in 2021 by a congressional mandate, the list seeks to identify Chinese companies that the Pentagon considers to have links to the Chinese military — not only those directly controlled by the Chinese military and security forces but also those contributing to the country’s defense industrial base.

    When updating the list last year, the Pentagon said the Chinese military sought to acquire advanced technologies and expertise developed by Chinese companies, universities and research programs that “appear to be civilian entities.”

    The Chinese Embassy on Monday accused the U.S. of “overstretching the concept of national security and making discriminatory lists to go after Chinese companies.” It said Chinese companies observe the laws and regulations of the countries where they do business. “The U.S. should stop its wrong practice and create a fair, just and non-discriminatory environment for Chinese companies,” the embassy said in a statement.

    Alibaba, BYD and Baidu said there is no basis for including them on the list. “Alibaba is not a Chinese military company nor part of any military-civil fusion strategy,” a statement from the leading e-commerce company said. Baidu, which has expanded into artificial intelligence and self-driving taxis, said the suggestion that it is a military company is “entirely baseless.”

    BYD said in a statement it is “not a military enterprise” and that the determination “seriously contradicts the facts.” It also said it “will actively safeguard its legitimate rights and interests through all feasible administrative and legal means.”

    This year’s list has grown to 188 Chinese entities, up from last year’s roughly 130 named by the Pentagon. It already had covered companies such as DJI, a major maker of consumer drones. While a company on the list can still do business in the U.S., it faces reputational damage and could be subject to more restrictions.

    After the Pentagon released the updated list, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party called it “a warning to American businesses, all levels of government, and the American people.” It said the companies on the list that are traded publicly on U.S. exchanges should be delisted and no American company should do business with those on the list, “otherwise they are enabling China’s military ascendance.”

    In naming Alibaba, the Pentagon said the tech giant helps boost China’s defense industrial base because it is affiliated with the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Alibaba is traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

    The Pentagon said BYD and Baidu are affiliated with the same ministry, which oversees China’s technology and industrial policies. BYD is dominant in the global electric vehicle market, and President Donald Trump said in January that he would welcome Chinese carmakers such as BYD if they built plants in the U.S. and hired American workers.

    However, a number of U.S. lawmakers have said they will seek a ban on Chinese electric vehicles.

    Another addition is the Chinese robotics company Unitree, whose dancing robots impressed Simon Cowell on NBC’s “America’s Got Talent.” The Pentagon said the company “knowingly received assistance” from the Chinese government through its designation as a small or medium-sized company that is highly innovative, highly competitive globally and critical to the country’s supply chain. Unitree did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

  • U.S. says it has begun strikes against Iran following crash of Army Apache helicopter off Oman coast

    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The U.S. military said Tuesday that it carried out strikes on Iran following the crash of an Army helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz that President Donald Trump blamed on the Islamic Republic.

    U.S. Central Command said on social media that the strikes would be “a proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression.” Iranian state media reported that explosions were heard on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping lane that Iran has effectively closed during the war, before saying that the wave of American attacks in the south has “subsided.”

    Trump said earlier in a social media post that Iran had shot down the aircraft while it was on patrol over the strait and declared that the U.S. “must, of necessity, respond to this attack.” Iran’s top diplomat said foreign military forces near the country’s territory “are at constant risk.”

    The downing of the helicopter and the resulting strikes by the U.S. military further strained a two-month ceasefire a day after Iran and Israel exchanged fire for the first time since the fragile truce took effect. Iranian state television said Tuesday that the Israeli attacks killed at least two members of the country’s air-defense units.

    Since the U.S. and Israel began striking Iran on Feb. 28, the war has shaken the global economy, driven up energy prices around the world, and made many basics, including food, more expensive.

    Officials have been unable to turn the April ceasefire into a deal to permanently end the conflict, particularly as Israel intensifies and expands its military campaign in Lebanon against the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah.

    U.S. helicopter collided with Iranian drone, official says

    The Army AH-64 Apache attack helicopter went down after colliding with an Iranian drone, according to a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

    It wasn’t clear whether the collision was intentional, and official statements only said the crash is under investigation. CNN, CBS News, and other outlets earlier reported the collision.

    In the first known operation of its kind by the American military, a drone boat rescued the two aviators who were aboard the Apache attack helicopter when it went down near the critical shipping lane that Iran has effectively closed during its war with the U.S. and Israel.

    Trump said in a social media post that military officials told him “the Iranians shot down one of our highly sophisticated Apache Helicopters.” Both service members “are safe and uninjured,” he added.

    “Nevertheless, the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack,” Trump wrote.

    Soon after Trump made his accusation, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said in a social media post that the strait is “thousands of miles away from U.S. shores.”

    “Foreign forces in proximity to our territory are at constant risk on account of their own human errors, plain accidents, or potentially being caught in crossfire,” Araghchi wrote. “To reduce risk, best solution is for them to leave.”

    The downing of the helicopter further strained a two-month ceasefire a day after Iran and Israel exchanged fire for the first time since the fragile truce took effect. Iranian state television said Tuesday that the Israeli attacks killed at least two members of the country’s air-defense units.

    Since the U.S. and Israel began striking Iran on Feb. 28, the war has shaken the global economy, driven up energy prices around the world, and made many basics, including food, more expensive.

    Officials have been unable to turn the April ceasefire into a deal to permanently end the conflict, particularly as Israel intensifies and expands its military campaign in Lebanon against the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah.

    Army crew members picked up by drone boat

    The Army aviators were rescued at 3:30 a.m. local time Tuesday, about two hours after their helicopter went down during a patrol off the coast of Oman, U.S. Central Command said.

    The U.S. service members were spotted and picked up by a drone boat that took them to another location on the water, where they were picked up by a helicopter, said Capt. Tim Hawkins, a spokesperson for U.S. Central Command. Hawkins initially said the drone took the two to shore, and he did not elaborate on the updated timeline.

    It was the first known drone rescue at sea by the U.S. military, Hawkins said.

    AH-64 Apache helicopters have been a key asset for the American military as it enforces a blockade on Iranian crude oil shipments and tankers, seeking to pressure Tehran into a deal. The helicopters have also been used by the United Arab Emirates to shoot down Iranian drones.

    The drone used to perform the rescue was a 24-foot vessel called a Corsair, Hawkins said. It’s manufactured by Saronic Technologies.

    The drone was assigned to the Navy’s Task Force 59, established in 2021 as the Navy’s first uncrewed and artificial intelligence unit that focuses on maritime security in the Middle East, including the Strait of Hormuz and the Suez Canal.

    Trump insists an Iran deal is coming

    Before he accused Iran of downing the U.S. helicopter, Trump had expressed renewed optimism over negotiations with Iran.

    “We have a good chance” of signing a deal in “two or three days,” Trump said late Monday. But he did not provide any details on why there was reason for new optimism. In the two months since the U.S. and Iran agreed to an initial ceasefire, Trump has repeatedly predicted that a deal is near.

    “We’re very close to having a very, very good, strong, powerful deal,” the president said.

    Mediators, led predominantly by Pakistan, have been trying for weeks to get a deal across the line. However, both Iran and the U.S. have taken hard-line positions.

    The U.S. wants to see Iran give up its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which is believed to be entombed in the aftermath of American airstrikes that happened during the 12-day war in 2025. But Iran is refusing that and demanding relief from sanctions. It also wants the release of frozen assets even before a final agreement is in place, something rejected by Trump.

    Before Trump’s comments on negotiations, Qalibaf said Monday that Trump’s remarks so far on a possible deal “contradicted the agreed-upon sections,” showing that the U.S. is “neither seeking a ceasefire nor dialogue.”

    The continued fighting between Israel and Hezbollah is still a top Iranian priority as well. Lebanon’s army chief, Gen. Rodolphe Haykal, traveled to Pakistan on Tuesday. There, he met Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, who has been a key figure in the Iran-U.S. talks.

    Haykal’s visit comes as Lebanon’s government takes an increasingly hard line on Hezbollah but remains unable to disarm the powerful militia. Hezbollah thanked Iran on Tuesday for attacking Israel “in defense of our Lebanese people,” suggesting that Lebanon’s government should take this opportunity to improve relations with Tehran.

    Israel issues a warning for Tyre, Lebanon

    Meanwhile, the Israeli military issued an evacuation warning for Lebanon’s southern port city of Tyre, including the Christian quarter, which has so far been spared from airstrikes on the city.

    Last week, Israel warned the Christian neighborhoods in Tyre that it believed Hezbollah members were among them. Many Lebanese Shiite Muslims fled to those areas as Israeli strikes hammered the Mediterranean coastal area over the past two weeks.

    After last week’s warning, the Lebanese army deployed to the Christian district of Tyre in an effort to prevent Israeli attacks there and to show that Hezbollah has no armed presence in the area. But Avichay Adraee, the Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesperson, posted on X on Monday that the Israeli military “will have to act against their terrorist activities in the neighborhood soon.”