Category: Nation World News Wires

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Two separate mass shootings in South African townships within hours of each other have left at least 27 people dead, police said on Sunday.

South Africa has struggled with violent crime for years, but recent shooting incidents have shocked a country used to some of the highest homicide rates in the world.

In the first attack, eight gunmen armed with AK-47 rifles and pistols opened fire at a bar near Johannesburg late on Saturday. The South African Police Service said 17 people were killed at the small venue in Wedela township, southwest of South Africa’s biggest city.

The attackers fired at patrons outside the bar before moving inside and continuing to shoot. The victims included 13 men and four women, with at least 15 other people injured, police said.

The gunmen searched some of the patrons and took their mobile phones before escaping in two vehicles. Two cars were set alight outside the bar during the shooting.

Around four hours later, 10 people were killed and 11 wounded in a shooting at a store linked to what police described as an entertainment venue in Lwandle township, near Cape Town, South Africa’s second biggest city. Police said they were searching for multiple suspects, though they didn’t give an exact number.

No arrests have been made in either case. Police deployed specialized units to both townships and surrounding areas in the hunt for the gunmen.

The attacks came five days after another mass shooting in a township near Durban killed at least 11 people, including a pregnant woman, when multiple gunmen attacked a house party in KwaMakhutha township. Police have not reported any arrests.

South Africa’s gun violence problem

Wedela resident Siyabonga Nondabula said there had been shootings in the area in the past involving illegal mining gangs, but none of them targeted so many people.

“Seventeen people and (maybe) even more have died, this has never happened here,” he said. “So I feel very sad and traumatized.”

A high rate of killings is a longstanding problem for Africa’s most advanced economy, but the phenomenon of mass shootings is becoming more common, according to experts, with recent killings often being carried out by multiple gunmen.

Gun homicides mostly affect South Africa’s poorest communities in townships and informal settlements made up of shacks and small homes on the edges of many big cities. Police have linked some of the recent shootings, including last week’s house party killings near Durban, to criminal gangs.

Other recent mass shootings include one in June in a poor neighborhood of Johannesburg that killed 12 people, and two in the space of two weeks in December that left a total of 21 people dead.

Soldiers deployed to help police fight crime

South Africa’s violent crime problem prompted President Cyril Ramaphosa to deploy soldiers on the streets in March in a yearlong operation to combat crime in some of the country’s worst-affected areas. The deployment included high-crime areas around Johannesburg and Cape Town, as well as other areas.

Announcing the deployment, Ramaphosa said crime by organized gangs was the biggest threat to South Africa’s democracy and economic development. Some critics viewed the use of soldiers on the streets as an admission that police were failing.

Soldiers were deployed Sunday to the scene of the bar shooting in Wedela.

South Africa has on average 60 homicides a day

South Africa recorded 5,427 homicides in the three months ending June 30, an average of nearly 60 a day, according to police statistics.

Shootings are the most common method of homicide in the country. Police and crime experts have long identified the large number of illegal firearms in circulation as a major problem.

Firearm ownership is legal in South Africa but heavily regulated and subject to strict competency requirements. Estimates from political parties and the country’s national gun owners association suggest that between 2 million and 6 million illegal firearms are in circulation. Those groups say the weapons are used in the vast majority of gun homicides.

The Palestinian death toll from the nearly three-year Israel-Hamas war has surpassed 74,000, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says Tehran has not been formally notified of U.S. President Donald Trump’s rejection of its proposed deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. And the World Health Organization says nearly 700 people have been killed in Yemen since fighting escalated last month.

Iran’s top diplomat says they await word from mediators

Araghchi said Tehran awaits a U.S. response through mediators after Trump rejected Iran’s proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and resume negotiations.

Speaking from New York, Araghchi told NBC that Iran is “fully prepared for the war to be resumed.”

He added, however: “At the same time, we stand ready for diplomacy. It is up to President Trump to choose.”

Trump told Axios he expects U.S. negotiators to engage in more talks this week.

Araghchi, who had described the proposal on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, earlier told Iranian state media that Tehran’s conditions for reopening the strait remained unchanged and there would be “no backing down from them.”

Israel to expel Dutch diplomats over settlements-related ban

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the government had notified the Dutch embassy in Israel that its diplomats in Ramallah had to leave within one week.

Saar said the decision was in response to a Dutch ban that went into effect on Sept. 22 on the “import, purchase, and sale of goods” originating from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, which the Netherlands, like most of the international community, considers illegal.

Israeli news outlets reported Sunday that Dutch authorities searched the luggage of passengers on a flight from Tel Aviv to Amsterdam to ensure compliance.

“Any country that acts in a hostile and unilateral manner against Israel will lose influence and relevance in the region,” Saar said in a statement.

Israel also ousted the Dutch delegation from the International Gaza Support Center last month.

In Gaza, over 1,100 killed since ceasefire

Gaza’s Health Ministry on Saturday said the Palestinian death toll has risen to 74,016, with 175,068 wounded. The war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants invaded Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 others hostage.

While a ceasefire that took effect last Oct. 10 has halted the heaviest fighting, Israeli strikes have continued in what the military has said are responses to threats or attacks.

Since the ceasefire, 1,145 Palestinians have been killed, said the ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government. It maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and international organizations. It does not distinguish between civilians and militants. Meanwhile, seven Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ceasefire.

Next steps in the U.S.-brokered ceasefire remain largely stalled. Israeli forces now control over half of the territory, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says they will not withdraw until Hamas disarms.

Israeli strikes in Gaza kill at least 2

Israeli strikes in central and southern Gaza killed two Palestinians and wounded several others, according to hospital officials.

In Gaza City, a strike hit a car, killing one person and wounding several others, according to Shifa Hospital. Video showed a chaotic scene around the charred vehicle.

Israel’s military said it targeted a military operative.

A separate Israeli strike in the Muwasi area of Khan Younis killed one person and wounded three others, according to Nasser Hospital.

Israeli’s military said it targeted a Hamas militant.

Houthi rebels accuse Yemeni forces of a deadly strike

Iranian-backed Houthi rebels accused Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces of striking a market in Yemen’s Taiz province, killing at least seven people.

Anees al-Asbahi, a spokesperson for the Houthi-run health ministry, said the strike hit shops in a market in the district of Taiziyah. He said at least other 40 people, including five children, were wounded.

The military of Yemen’s internationally recognized government rejected the Houthi claims, saying it attacked Houthi “warehouses and positions” in northern, southern, and western Taiz and left “dozens of dead and wounded” among the rebels.

There has been fierce fighting on Yemen’s Red Sea coast as government forces attempt to reverse recent Houthi advances. The WHO says almost 700 people have been killed since the escalation last month.

Hezbollah supporters mark Nasrallah’s death

Thousands of people gathered in Beirut’s southern suburbs to mark the two-year anniversary of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s death in an Israeli airstrike. In a video address, his successor, Naim Kassem, reiterated the militant group’s refusal to disarm while Israeli forces occupy southern Lebanon.

“With regard to disarmament, we have told (the government) that we are ready for dialogue, but first the south must be liberated and its people return,” he said.

The latest Israel-Hezbollah war began when the Iran-backed group fired missiles across the border, two days after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran. Israel responded with bombardment and a ground invasion and now occupies a large swath of the south.

Lebanon’s government signed a U.S.-brokered agreement in June under which Israeli forces would gradually withdraw in exchange for Hezbollah disarming. Hezbollah was not a party to the negotiations, and implementation of the agreement has stalled.

MADRID — Protesters outraged by the eviction of an 87-year-old woman camped overnight in Madrid’s historic Puerta del Sol plaza, where more demonstrators — including multigenerational families — joined them on Sunday for a second day of protests over Spain’s housing crisis.

Tens of thousands marched through Madrid on Saturday to protest the eviction of María del Carmen Abascal from the apartment in the upscale Retiro neighborhood where she had lived for more than seven decades.

The demonstrators are demanding stronger tenant protections, measures to combat fraud, and a ban on evictions when alternative housing is unavailable.

Many refused to leave after Saturday’s march and pitched tents in Puerta del Sol for the night.

“The housing situation is unsustainable,” said Natalia Navarro, a 27-year-old actor who was among those camping out at the plaza. “We are all out on the street because we are fed up.”

“The wave of indignation and anger that has been unleashed is now unstoppable,” said Alicia del Río, a spokesperson for the Madrid Tenants’ Union, which led the protests.

“We will remain here” until the government passes new laws, including indefinite rental contracts, and stops evictions like Abascal’s, del Río told journalists at the plaza on Sunday. Spain’s Socialist-led government is expected to announce new measures in its weekly cabinet meeting next Tuesday.

Eviction ‘sparked this social unrest’

On Sept. 23, Abascal was carried from her apartment on a stretcher and placed in an ambulance as supporters — who had tried unsuccessfully to stop the eviction — chanted her nickname, “Maricarmen.”

“I haven’t managed to defend my home, but I have fought so that others can learn to fight for what’s theirs,” Abascal said in a video recorded from her hospital bed after the eviction.

Images of the eviction spread widely across Spain, fueling outrage and criticism of public authorities and real estate investment companies accused of pricing residents out of their homes. Critics often refer to such companies as “vulture funds.”

“Maricarmen has been, in a way, the last straw that sparked this social unrest,” said Simón de la Riva, 43, a teacher who took part in Saturday’s protests.

Speaking at a Socialist Party rally in Madrid, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez addressed Abascal directly: “I have a message for you, Maricarmen: The government is working around the clock to bring a Royal Decree on housing next Tuesday. And I ask parliamentary groups to make one last effort to have it validated in the National Parliament for Maricarmen.”

Abascal has criticized Sánchez and blamed him for her ordeal.

“Does he not realize the quantity of evictions that there are daily?” she asked during an interview with Spain’s state broadcaster RTVE the day before she was forcibly removed from her home. “Does he not realize, or does he not want to realize?”

A home for seven decades

Spanish media reported that Abascal’s father first rented the apartment in 1956 and that she remained there as a tenant under rent controls after her parents died.

The building changed ownership in 2018, and Abascal was offered the opportunity to buy the apartment but could not afford it, according to the Madrid Tenants’ Union.

Urbagestión, an investment fund that later bought the unit, raised her monthly rent from 500 euros ($570) to 2,650 euros.

It subsequently lowered the rent to 1,650 euros, which Abascal still could not afford on her pension, the union said.

Rising costs and a growing housing shortage

Rising costs and a housing shortage are pricing many Spaniards out of the market, despite strong economic growth in Europe’s fourth-largest economy. Incomes have not kept pace with the rising housing costs, and analysts say tourism and immigration-driven population growth in cities have placed further pressure on the limited housing supply.

The Bank of Spain estimated that the country had a shortage of about 550,000 homes last year, with Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia accounting for a substantial share.

The demonstrations in the symbolic Madrid plaza this weekend reminded many in Spain of the historic demonstrations starting May 15, 2011, when members of the “indignados movement” camped for 28 days straight, sparking similar sit-ins across the country and the world. That movement was a reaction to evictions and other issues following a global economic crisis, including unemployment, austerity measures, and corruption.

Estefania Molina, a political scientist and columnist, said the stakes of popular frustration are growing. In 2011, “people protested because they couldn’t buy an apartment.”

“Today, the protest is about not being able to rent a room in someone else’s home,” she told Spanish television.

Spain ranks near the bottom of countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development for subsidized public rental housing, which represents less than 2% of the country’s housing stock. The European Union average is 8%.

LONDON — Tensions ran high in Northern Ireland on Sunday after a contentious parade was blocked from making its way through the town of Portadown by thousands of protesters.

The demonstrators, many wearing balaclavas, congregated on a street in the town, where many favor unification with the Republic of Ireland. They came after an early hours decision from the High Court in Belfast to give the parade the go-ahead.

It’s the first time in nearly 30 years that the Orange Order parade has been allowed to go down the Garvaghy Road, which had been a notorious flashpoint between the communities in the years before the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 largely ended the bloodshed in Northern Ireland. During the so-called Troubles, some 3,600 people were killed while some 50,000 were wounded.

Ending the Troubles meant balancing competing identities in Northern Ireland, which remained in the United Kingdom when the rest of Ireland won independence a century ago. Irish nationalists in the north — most of them Catholic — seek union with the Republic of Ireland, while largely Protestant unionists want to stay part of the U.K.

Both sides appeared to be adhering to calls from across the political spectrum, including from British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, to avoid stoking tensions further.

“I am hoping we will bring all of today’s events to a sensible and peaceful conclusion,” said Jon Boutcher, the head of the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

Boutcher said there had been many “sensible voices” calling for calm which he thought had been “listened to by all parties.”

Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill, who represents Sinn Fein, the party historically linked to the Irish Republican Army, faced criticism for attending the unlicensed protest on the Garvaghy Road to support the local community.

“She’s the head of an executive and she is prepared to willfully disregard the ruling of our courts, the determination by the statutory body charged with determining parades in Northern Ireland,” said Gavin Robinson, who is the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, the largest pro-U.K. party in Northern Ireland.

O’Neill, whose government is made up of a cross-section of Northern Ireland parties as part of the power-sharing agreement within the Good Friday Agreement, defended her actions, saying “the progress of the last 28 years have been brought into question by the actions of the Orange Order and those within political unionism that want to drag us backwards.”

For days, there had been uncertainty about whether the parade, which celebrates Northern Ireland’s Protestant heritage and links with the U.K., would happen. It was given the final go-ahead at a court hearing concluded at 2:15 a.m. Sunday, a move that prompted the protesters to take to the street.

The Orange Order is named after William of Orange, a Protestant prince of Holland who defeated the Catholic King James to take over the British throne in the 17th century.

BANGKOK — Two giant pandas arrived in Atlanta on Sunday morning as part of an agreement between the Chinese and American governments.

Ping Ping and Fu Shuang departed Chengdu in southwestern China early Sunday aboard a dedicated “FedEx Panda Express” Boeing 777 aircraft, officials said. A new agreement between Zoo Atlanta and the China Wildlife Conservation Association makes Atlanta one of three zoos in the U.S. to house giant pandas.

“This is a thrilling day for Zoo Atlanta and a historic moment for the City of Atlanta, the state of Georgia, and beyond,” Zoo Atlanta President and CEO Raymond B. King said in a statement. “We are elated to welcome Ping Ping and Fu Shuang and could not be more excited about sharing that joy with our Members, guests, city, and community in the coming weeks.”

Zoo visitors will have to wait awhile to see Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, officials said. The bears will be quarantined for about a month in a biosecure area of the wildlife park’s new giant panda complex. Park officials haven’t confirmed a specific opening date.

The pandas’ arrival was announced Thursday by Chinese President Xi Jinping during a three-day summit with U.S. President Donald Trump. The loan of the pandas was one of the few concrete outcomes to come out of the state visit, which saw expressions of goodwill between the leaders, but no fixes to any of the long-standing differences between the two countries.

Atlanta said farewell to its last pandas in 2024, leaving the zoo without the bears. The new agreement was announced back in April, but without any dates.

Ping Ping and Fu Shuang will be on loan to Zoo Atlanta for 10 years as part of the agreement. Both pandas were born in 2020 and were kept at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. Ping Ping, the male, has dark black circles around his eyes, while Fu Shuang, the female, has a forehead that protrudes a bit, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

China has long used the pandas as part of its diplomacy globally, deploying the bears in loan programs as expressions of goodwill and letting loan agreements lapse when tensions arise.

Xi had said the loan program was an example of “friendship between the Chinese and Americans.”

LONDON — U.K. police said that five men arrested in the early hours of Sunday near an air base used by the United States during its war against Iran are being held on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act that appeared to involve three trucks.

London’s Metropolitan Police, which takes the lead on potential terrorist activities, said police received a call at 12:45 a.m. related to the three suspicious vehicles that appeared to be traveling toward RAF Fairford, a U.K.-owned base that is operated by the U.S. under an agreement dating back to the Cold War.

Base is home to U.S. bombers striking Iran

The arrests come at a time of heightened tensions around the threat from hostile states to the U.K., with Russia and Iran among those that have used proxies to commit crimes on their behalf on British soil. In March, officials said the number of national security cases involving activity by hostile states including Iran increased 50% in the six months to December 2025.

Fairford has been used by American bombers for strictly limited strikes against Iranian missile sites under an agreement with former British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who voiced opposition to the war after it was launched by the U.S. and Israel on Feb. 28.

Authorities are investigating a link between the Fairford arrests and Iran as one possibility. Iran has previously indicated that a base used to attack its territory is a legitimate target.

U.S. President Donald Trump praised those who were involved in making the arrests.

“It was an amazing job. We had them under investigation. They were looking to do big damage to our fort. And working with the British worked out great,” he told reporters in Chicago on Sunday. “We had them under view for a long time and we got them.”

Police feared an explosion

The five men were initially arrested on suspicion of committing offenses under the Explosives Act in the Whelford area, which backs onto RAF Fairford, which hosts the headquarters of the U.S. Air Force’s 501st Combat Support Wing and the 420th Air Base Squadron.

Aerial footage from Sky News appeared to show a bomb disposal robot roaming between three white trucks. The rear doors of two of the vans were open and large black items could be seen scattered around. The robot appeared to be working toward getting access to the third truck.

Police gave no details as to the nationality of those arrested. Suspects arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000 can be detained for up to 14 days without charge, compared to the 24-hour limit for standard arrests, without an extension application.

“We are in the early stages of an investigation, and five men remain in custody,” said Vicki Evans, the Met’s counterterrorism policing senior national coordinator.

Evans said a 400-yard cordon was put in place around the three vehicles that raised suspicion while the army conducted examinations. As a precaution, around 85 households were evacuated while the examinations took place. Some were taken to a nearby recreation center.

The U.S. embassy in London warned Americans to be cautious and mindful of their personal security.

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he knew the incident would be “deeply concerning” for many. In a post on social media, Burnham thanked police and the armed forces for their response and said he was grateful to the residents who have been evacuated from their homes “while precautionary checks are carried out.”

He urged people “not to speculate while the authorities establish the full facts.”

The defense secretaries of the U.S. and the U.K., Pete Hegseth and Wes Streeting, have also spoken about the incident.

British security officials say proxies linked to Iran have been behind a string of arson and sabotage attempts in the U.K. and other countries, many of them targeting the Jewish community. They have previously warned that Tehran could expand its targets in the U.K. if conflicts in the Middle East continue.

Local residents evacuated

Gloucestershire police said the situation appeared to be “contained” and urged residents to follow official advice while the investigation continues.

Julian Tudsbery, who has lived in Whelford for 30 years, said another resident had reported seeing three “suspicious vans” in the village early on Sunday.

“There were several police, three police cars in the drive, and they said you need to evacuate, there’s been a major incident, said he couldn’t elaborate,” he said.

The White House left CNN off Air Force One for President Donald Trump’s trip Saturday to a college football game in Tennessee, marking the latest media restriction from the administration in an ongoing dispute with First Amendment implications.

CNN, a member of the U.S. network video pool that rotates duties shooting and sharing video coverage of the president, reported it had been scheduled to fly aboard the president’s plane Saturday for a visit to a midday game between the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and the University of Texas. But White House guidance issued Friday night instead included Real America’s Voice, a conservative outlet.

The White House guidance was issued after journalists from CNN, along with MS NOW and Politico, which Trump banned last week from the White House grounds, returned to the executive complex with TV cameras in hand after a judge handed the organizations a reprieve.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly temporarily struck down the president’s ban in an overnight ruling early Thursday, but his decision dealt with “hard passes” to the White House grounds and didn’t directly address pool duties.

The judge’s temporary order also said nothing directly about Air Force One.

The spot meant for CNN on the flight has long been saved for a member of the U.S. network video pool; Real America’s Voice is not a part of that group. The White House did not respond to emails from the Associated Press requesting comment about the decision.

CNN declined to comment.

A written pool report Saturday morning confirmed there was “no TV pool” for the travel, though Real America’s Voice celebrated its inclusion in the trip and said it would make feeds available to other news outlets.

“CNN is not here; we have taken over that responsibility. We are so excited to be here,” correspondent Taylor Mitchell said in a video that the outlet posted on social media.

On Saturday morning, the president addressed the broader debate in a post on social media, writing: “FAKE NEWS SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED IN THE WHITE HOUSE!!! IT HAS GONE ON FAR TOO LONG, AT A TREMENDOUS COST TO OUR COUNTRY.”

Fans at the game caught a low-altitude flyover as Air Force One came into town while the teams were warming up. The president’s motorcade arrived just as the national anthem was being sung, and the president was later shown on a jumbotron and greeted with cheers, according to a text pool report.

Media organizations believe the court decision covers the ‘pool’

Theodore Boutrous Jr., an attorney for CNN, MS NOW, and Politico, did not respond to phone calls or emails Friday evening or Saturday morning. Earlier Friday, on The Lead with Jake Tapper, Boutrous said the plaintiffs believe the recent court ruling also covers the issue of pool access.

For a while Friday, the U.S. network video pool for the White House was back in operation for the first time since Trump banned the three news outlets in an extraordinary showdown over media access.

At noon on CNN, viewers could see Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping touring the National Archives, along with Melania Trump and Peng Liyuan, Xi’s wife. The banner along the bottom of the screen read: “Trump and China’s Xi Visit National Archives.” It was a routine report from a state visit — except that CNN had not aired live video of Trump in several days.

“As of now, all systems are go,” said a person familiar with the pool, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the fluidity of the situation.

Pool participants showed solidarity this week

The TV pool consists of five major U.S. broadcast outlets. When the White House banned CNN from the White House grounds, along with MS NOW and Politico, the other four pool providers declined to participate in a show of solidarity.

CNN did not comment directly Friday, referring instead to its editorial coverage. It did the same Saturday. But Brian Stelter, the network’s media analyst, posted on X Friday that CNN had a pool assignment at the National Archives event and that the White House had approved the network’s credentials.

The outlet on Saturday covered its exclusion from Air Force One, writing that the move “represents the Trump administration’s latest salvo against CNN and the broader White House press corps.”

Throughout his second term, Trump has increasingly targeted media outlets whose coverage irritates him, taking administrative or legal action against several. Early last year, he banished AP reporters from White House events because the organization wasn’t abiding by his executive order changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America.” The AP’s guidance says to acknowledge the new name when relevant.

The case is on appeal after a federal district judge ruled in AP’s favor.

The press pool was created decades ago by the White House Correspondents’ Association, a group of journalists who cover the president, to make sure a rotating roster always travels with the president. The pool distributes in-person reports and imagery to the broader press corps and is designed to hold the nation’s chief executive accountable on behalf of the American public.

The association did not respond to emails requesting comment.

JACKSON, Miss. — Tasia Fortune was apparently killed in a drug dispute before her body was hung in a tree in a “staged” lynching behind an abandoned home in the Mississippi capital this summer, a detective testified Friday.

Fortune was killed in a disagreement about drugs, and she fought hard with her attackers before she was killed, Jackson police Detective Samuel Dukes told the court. Citing the medical examiner’s opinion, he also said the hanging was “staged.”

Fortune was Black, and the Aug. 3 discovery of her hanging body stoked fear and drew widespread attention because the scene recalled actual lynchings in the Southern state, which has a long and troubled history of racial violence.

Authorities haven’t disclosed the exact cause of Fortune’s death or said why they think her body was hanged afterward, but they ruled it a homicide and arrested two men, both of them also Black, on murder charges. They also issued an arrest warrant for an unnamed third person.

Outside court, Fortune’s mother, Christy Spivey, told reporters that she had been aware that her daughter died before her body was hanged.

“What bothered me was they said Tasia fought for her life. I know she did. I know my daughter,” Spivey said.

The hearing was meant to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to send the case against the first man arrested, Jarques Ratliff, to a grand jury for a possible indictment. It will resume Sept. 30.

Ratliff, 51, was arrested in mid-September and has pleaded not guilty. He remains jailed without bond. Police arrested a second defendant, 25-year-old Earnest Lloyd Jr., this week.

During Friday’s hearing, Ratliff blurted out in court that he and Fortune were friends.

“It sounded sincere. Tasia had a lot of friends,” Spivey said later. ”I hope if he is innocent that he can prove he’s innocent. We don’t want any innocent people going to jail.”

Ratliff’s stepdaughter, Lashuna Jones, was among her father’s supporters at court.

“He didn’t do it, and I’m behind him,” she said.

Spivey has said her daughter, who had four children, struggled with homelessness in recent years, and that she wasn’t sure where Fortune was living at the time of her death. She said Fortune had talked about starting a cleaning business and was trying to get her life in order.

The U.S. network video pool for the White House was back in operation Friday, for the first time since President Donald Trump banned three news outlets in an extraordinary showdown over media access.

At noon on CNN, viewers could see Trump and President Xi Jinping touring the National Archives, along with Melania Trump and Peng Liyuan, Xi’s wife. The banner along the bottom of the screen read: “Trump and China’s Xi Visit National Archives.” It was a routine report from a state visit — but for the fact that CNN had not aired live video of Trump in several days.

“As of now, all systems are go,” said a person familiar with the pool, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the fluidity of the situation.

The pool consists of five major U.S. broadcast outlets that take turns shooting and sharing video. When the White House banned CNN — which belongs to the pool — from White House grounds, along with MS NOW and Politico, the other four pool providers declined to participate in a show of solidarity.

A judge temporarily struck down the ban in an overnight ruling early Thursday, but his ruling didn’t directly address the pool. The networks continued to refrain from covering Trump as part of the pool, even as reporters from all three outlets were allowed back in the White House.

CNN was not commenting directly on Friday, referring instead to its editorial coverage. But Brian Stelter, the network’s media analyst, posted on X that CNN had a pool assignment at the National Archives event and that the White House had approved the network’s credentials.