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Published by AFP Alex Jones, a promoter of multiple debunked conspiracy theories, has been sued for years by parents of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting in Connecticut New York (AFP) – Alex Jones, the US conspiracy theorist who faces multiple defamation lawsuits by parents of victims of a massacre that he called a hoax, has declared bankruptcy for his far-right website Infowars, documents seen Monday showed. The filing for bankruptcy protection, also known as “Chapter 11,” is intended to freeze the civil court proceedings while recovery plans are prepared for the company, which can continue to operate. The well-known but deeply controversial figure on America’s rightwing fringe and promoter of multiple debunked conspiracy theories has been sued for years by parents of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting in Connecticut. Jones claimed the massacre, which left 26 people dead including 20 children, was a fake event staged by anti-gun activists. The parents had demanded Jones produce accounting documents which they say would show that he made millions of dollars by spreading such disinformation. Jones has since acknowledged that the Sandy Hook murders were real. The 48-year-old, accused by many as a provocative disinformation agent and huckster, is being sued in courts in Texas and Connecticut, where he has suffered legal setbacks. In November a judge in Connecticut ruled he was civilly liable and could be subject to damages. The bankruptcy, filed in a Texas bankruptcy court, also involves Jones’s companies IWHealth and Prison Planet TV. View the full article

Published by Radar Online Mega Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has a stark warning for the world. The leader warned his nation and the rest of the world to “prepare” for a possible Russian nuclear attack at any moment, Radar has learned. In a grim message issued Saturday night, the 44-year-old actor-turned-politician expressed his concern regarding what Vladimir Putin might do in retaliation after Ukrainian forces reportedly sunk a major Russian naval vessel. Mega Zelenskyy shared the frightening revelation on Saturday during an interview with the Ukrainian media that was subsequently broadcast across not just the nation, but the world as a whole. “We shouldn’t wait for the moment when Russia decides to use nuclear weapons…We must prepare for that,” the Ukrainian leader said before expressing interest in gathering anti-radiation medicine and building air-raid shelters in preparation for a possible nuclear attack. Mega Making Zelenskyy’s message even more jarring is the fact that the Kremlin has already reportedly started their retaliation for the sinking of the Russian vessel last week, as eight Ukrainian towns have been bombed, it’s claimed. This is just the latest development in the ongoing fight between the two nations that started nearly two months ago when Russian forces invaded Ukraine, an invasion that is reportedly stalling as Putin becomes ever-more desperate to finish his “special military operation” sooner rather than later. As Radar reported, beyond just sinking Russia’s flagship naval vessel, there are also fears that the sunken ship contained two nuclear warheads that would have perished with the rest of the wreckage. “On board the Moskva could be nuclear warheads – two units,” Mykhailo Samus, the director of a Lviv-based military think-tank, said on Friday while calling upon Black Sea nations like Turkey, Romania, Georgia, and Bulgaria to help with the recovery of the nuclear weaponry. “Where are these warheads? Where were they when the ammunition exploded?” Mega Mere hours after the sinking of the Moksva, Russian forces carried out eight separate attacks on specific Ukrainian targets – including the city of Kharkiv, which is nation’s second-largest city after the capital city of Kyiv. Other targets hit in retaliation include the city of Lviv, as well as a tank factory in the Kyiv suburb Darnyts’kyi. Zelenskyy has since claimed that upwards of 2,500 to 3,000 Ukrainian troops have perished in the ongoing war, while more than 10,000 have reportedly been injured since the invasion started on February 24. View the full article

Published by Reuters SHANGHAI (Reuters) – The tensions of lockdown have exposed divisions among Shanghai residents, pitting young against old, locals against outsiders, and above all, COVID-negative against COVID-positive people. Shanghai’s 25 million people, most of whom live in apartment blocks, have forged new communal bonds during the city’s coronavirus outbreak, through barter and group buying and setting up food-sharing stations. But with no end in sight to a lockdown that for some has lasted four weeks, frustrations are also mounting behind the shuttered gates of the city’s tower blocks, often playing out within WeChat message groups. In one, conflict erupted when a woman who had been taken to centralised quarantine – where she tested negative – accused her neighbour of reporting her to authorities. It is not unusual for test results to be shared and positive cases announced in building WeChat groups, as authorities try to get to grips with China’s largest outbreak since the virus was first identified in Wuhan in late 2019. One U.S. citizen was told she would be sent to a quarantine centre after results from a mixed test, including hers, came back positive last week, sparking panic. Three others whose samples were in the batch were taken to quarantine, but her own at-home tests continued to be negative. “In the group chats, they were saying things like, ‘oh are the positive people still here, are the positive people still here?’,” she said, declining to give her name. Older residents, more vulnerable to COVID-19, have also been more likely to call for the immediate expulsion of positive cases from their compound. “Because of the media’s exaggeration about the disease, and since old people have weaker immune systems, they are more afraid of the virus than young people,” said one resident who had seen this happen. Another foreign resident, who only wanted to be identified as Alexy, was suspected by neighbours of being COVID-positive when his test result failed to upload to his health app. His building’s management tried to block his family’s food deliveries unless they shared home test results with the rest of the residents – a demand that several Shanghai residents have said is widespread and violates privacy. “They have no guidelines and CDC (Center for Disease Control) services are overwhelmed,” he said. “They felt invested with the most important mission of their life, being able to play doctor, policeman and judge at the same time.” LOCKED-OUT Some people were refused entry into their homes and ordered to stay in hotels after release from central quarantine, violating state guidelines. Another foreign resident who tested positive said she was confined in her apartment rather than sent to central quarantine, much to the chagrin of her neighbours, who asked her to leave, tried to exclude her from group grocery orders and even demanded she make a formal apology. One neighbour called her “foreign trash” while another spread lies about her mental health, and the residential committee was no help, she said. “I saw screenshots of them telling the residents to continue calling to get me out,” she said, adding that she would move out as soon as she could. (Reporting by David Stanway, Josh Horwitz, Andrew Galbraith, Engen Tham and the Shanghai newsroom; Editing by Stephen Coates) View the full article

Published by Reuters LONDON (Reuters) – Days after Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, Andrei Shestakov opened a set of files in a WhatsApp group chat for history teachers like himself in his town in east Russia. The files – which Reuters reviewed and contain dozens of pages of documents and presentations as well as video links – are instructions on how to teach teenage school children about the conflict. It’s unclear who shared the files to the group chat, but many of the documents carry the crest of the education ministry in Moscow. The material includes lesson guides stating that Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine were heroes, that Ukraine’s rulers made common cause with people who collaborated with World War Two Nazis, that the West was trying to spread discord in Russian society, and that Russians must stick together. Shestakov said he leafed through the files during one of his lessons. The slim-built 38-year-old said that before becoming a teacher in January he had spent 16 years as a police officer. But he had growing doubts in recent years, he said, about whether Russia’s rulers were living up to the values they professed about democracy, influenced in part by prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. He decided not to teach the modules to his pupils at the Gymnasium No. 2 school where he worked in Neryungri, a coal-mining town in eastern Siberia, some 6,700 km (4160 miles) east of Moscow. Instead, Shestakov told his pupils about the contents of the teaching guide and why they were historically inaccurate, he told Reuters. For instance, he said he explained that the materials claimed Ukraine was an invention of Bolshevik communist Russia yet history textbooks discussed Ukrainian history going back centuries. He went further. On March 1, he told pupils during a civics class he would not advise them to serve in the Russian army, that he opposed the war against Ukraine, and that Russia’s leaders exhibited elements of fascism even while saying they were fighting fascism in Ukraine, according to a signed statement taken by police and reviewed by Reuters. In the following days, the local police and the Federal Security Service, known as the FSB, summoned Shestakov for questioning, according to the March 5 signed statement about his classroom comments. He said he has not been charged in relation to those comments. The FSB and local police didn’t respond to requests for comment. A court did fine him 35,000 roubles (about $420) on March 18 for discrediting the Russian armed forces after he re-posted videos online of interviews with Russian soldiers captured in Ukraine, according to a court ruling seen by Reuters. He said he quit his job last month because he believed he would be fired anyway for his public opposition to the war, he told Reuters. The local education authority and the education ministry didn’t respond to requests for comment on Shestakov and the teaching guide. When Reuters reached the school by phone, a woman who identified herself as acting head teacher said she declined to comment on Shestakov’s case and ended the call. Teachers across Russia have received the same or similar teaching guides, according to two teacher’s union officials, two other teachers and social media posts from two schools reporting they had taught the modules. Olga Miryasova, an official with a trade union called Teacher, said regional education authorities circulated the teaching guide Shestakov received to multiple schools around the country. Reuters was unable to determine independently how many schools received the modules. One of the teachers said they received a different teaching pack from the one Shestakov did, though it contained similar content. The initiative shows how the Russian state — which has been intensifying its grip on the mainstream media — is now extending its propaganda effort about the Ukraine war into schools as the Kremlin seeks to shore up support. Since the war started, many Russian schools have posted images on social media showing pupils sending messages of support to troops fighting in Ukraine and standing in formation to spell out the letter “Z,” a symbol of support for the war in Russia. Teachers who disagree with the war are now joining the ranks of opposition activists, non-governmental organisation campaigners, and independent journalists in feeling the pressure of the Russian state, with fines, prosecutions, and the prospect of forfeiting their jobs. President Vladimir Putin in early March signed into law legislation that makes the spread of “fake” information about the Russian armed forces, an offence punishable with fines or jail terms of up to 15 years. Even before the invasion, the Kremlin had been tightening the screws on its opponents using a combination of arrests, internet censorship and blacklists. The Kremlin didn’t respond to requests for comment about its handling of opposition to the war, the teaching guide and Shestakov’s case. Russia’s Education Minister Sergei Kravtsov told a parliamentary committee in March that his ministry had launched a nationwide drive to discuss Russian-Ukrainian relations with pupils, amid questions from children about the situation in Ukraine and sanctions. The Kremlin has said it is enforcing laws to thwart extremism and threats to stability. It says it is conducting what it calls a “special operation” to destroy its southern neighbour’s military capabilities and “denazify” Ukraine and prevent genocide against Russian speakers, especially in the east of the country. Kyiv and its Western allies have dismissed this as a baseless pretext for war, and accuse Russian forces of killing civilians. WEST’S ‘HYBRID WARFARE’ The teaching guide that Shestakov received says it is aimed at pupils aged between 14 and 18 years. It comprises detailed lesson plans for teachers, links to videos of speeches by President Putin and short films to illustrate the lessons. According to the teaching materials, the West is waging information warfare to try to turn public opinion against Russia’s rulers, and that all Russian people need to stand firm against that. One lesson plan explains Russia was fighting a cultural war against the West which had destroyed “the institute of the traditional family” and was now trying to foist its values on Russia. It says that since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine had conducted an anti-Russian policy. “There were attacks on the Russian language, our common history was falsified, war criminals and criminal groups from World War Two were turned into heroes,” according to the document, which refers to Ukrainian nationalists who made an alliance with Germany during that war. Another lesson says that the West is deploying “hybrid warfare” — a mixture of propaganda, economic sanctions, and military pressure — to try to defeat Russia by fomenting internal conflict. “That is precisely why they urge us to attend unsanctioned demonstrations, they incite us to break the law, and try to scare us,” it reads. “We must not succumb to provocation,” the document says. The modules include a game where pupils have 15 seconds to decide if a statement is true or false. One statement reads: “The organisation of protests, provocations of the authorities and mass gatherings are an effective way of resolving a hybrid conflict.” According to the lesson guide, the correct answer is “false.” Reuters found social media posts from a school in Samara, on the Volga river, and a school in Minusinsk, southern Siberia, showing slides from the same presentations being used. Danil Plotnikov, a math teacher in Chelyabinsk, the Ural mountains, told Reuters he had been asked by his bosses to teach similar content but from a different teaching pack than the one Shestakov received; Plotnikov didn’t identify who the bosses were. Tatyana Chernenko, a math teacher in Moscow, said colleagues in other schools told her they had been asked to teach similar modules but they had not been taught in her school. The teachers Reuters spoke to said that some regions and schools pushed the lessons harder than others. None of the five teachers said they had heard of cases where teachers were explicitly ordered to teach the modules. They said it was usually framed as a request, or a recommendation by a school or regional education authorities. Some had said no, and faced no consequence, said Daniil Ken, chair of an independent teachers’ trade union called Teachers’ Alliance. Others did not teach the lessons but told bosses they had, said Ken. He added refusing was a risk, with teachers not knowing if their head teachers would pressure them to quit. Ken said his union has heard from about half a dozen teachers a week who say they are quitting because they didn’t want to promote the Kremlin’s line – something Reuters wasn’t able to independently verify. POLITICAL AWAKENING Shestakov wears his hair close cropped and practices sambo, a martial art developed in the Soviet army. He said his career in the police included a one-year stint in the interior ministry special forces, an arm of law enforcement whose officers are now fighting in Ukraine. The interior ministry didn’t respond to a request for comment. By 2018, when he was a community officer working with juvenile offenders, he had a political awakening, according to Shestakov. He said he started watching videos put out by Navalny, the opposition figure who is now in a Russian jail, alleging corruption by Kremlin leaders. “I became a real opposition person,” Shestakov said. He said when the war in Ukraine started, the images of casualties disturbed him and he spent hours watching videos of the fighting on social media. Under a pseudonym, he re-posted the videos of interviews with Russian soldiers captured in Ukraine to the comments section of a local media outlet that has about 5,200 subscribers, according to Shestakov and the March 18 court ruling seen by Reuters. The court said his actions were a violation of a law forbidding the discrediting of the Russian armed forces. Shestakov said he suspects the FSB has in recent weeks been eavesdropping on his phone conversations, though he did not have evidence of that. He also said that he has seen people he recognises as undercover FSB officers three times in recent days. The FSB didn’t respond to requests for comment on whether it is monitoring him. Now, Shestakov plans to leave Russia because he says he fears further penalties from authorities. He would join tens of thousands of Kremlin opponents who have also fled the country since Putin began cracking down hard on opposition in 2018. He said he planned to go to Turkey, unless the authorities bar him from leaving the country. Staying and dropping his public opposition to the war was not an option for him, Shestakov said. “It will be hard for me to keep my mouth shut,” he said. (Editing by Christian Lowe and Cassell Bryan-Low) View the full article

Published by DPA A nun stands among Ukrainian refugee children at the train station on Easter Sunday as a long line of people waits to leave the station. Poland's border guard counted more people leaving Polish territory for Ukraine on Sunday than entering Poland from its war-torn neighbour. Amy Katz/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa Poland’s border guard counted more people leaving Polish territory for Ukraine on Sunday than entering Poland from its war-torn neighbour. The border guard said on Twitter on Monday that some 19,300 people had left Poland for Ukraine in 24 hours. Some 17,300 people entered Poland from Ukraine in the same period, 10% fewer than the previous day. According to UN figures, more than 2.81 million people have fled Ukraine for neighbouring Poland since the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24. Ukrainian returnees mostly travel to areas that the Ukrainian army has recaptured as Russian forces have retreated east. There is no official information on how many refugees have stayed in Poland and how many have travelled on to other EU states. Ukraine had more than 44 million inhabitants before the Russian invasion. Poland and Ukraine are connected by a border more than 500 kilometres long. View the full article

Published by Reuters By Philip Pullella ROME (Reuters) – A Ukrainian mayor described hours of “hard” interrogations when held for almost a week by Russian forces last month and said he had appealed to the pope for help to stop a war that had wrecked swathes of his city in southern Ukraine. “It was a dangerous six days because I understood that for Russians my life and the lives of civilians were worth zero,” Ivan Fedorov, mayor of Melitopol which is now under Russian control, said in an interview in Rome a month after his release. Ukraine said Fedorov was abducted on March 11 after Russian forces seized Melitopol, which lies west of the besieged city of Mariupol in a southern region that Russia seeks to control. Kyiv announced Fedorov’s release in a prisoner exchange on March 16. Russia, which calls its actions in Ukraine a “special military operation”, has made no comment about the mayor’s detention or the prisoner swap reported by Ukraine. Fedorov, who met Pope Francis and Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin on Saturday before attending an Easter eve service, said he had asked the Vatican to intercede with Russian President Vladimir Putin to guarantee humanitarian corridors for Mariupol, which has faced devastating bombardment. Describing his detention by Russian forces in Melitopol’s police department, Fedorov said: “They came to me at night with five or seven soldiers and spoke for about four or five hours, hard dialogue.” “They wanted to make an example of me about what would happen if we did not agree to what the Russians wanted,” the mayor told Reuters and the Italian newspaper Il Messaggero, saying he had faced “psychological” but not physical torture. “Russian soldiers assumed that they would be welcomed but they were not … and that is why the Russians were very, very angry,” he said, speaking on Sunday night. “There is no food in my city. There is no pharmacy. Half of my city is wrecked. More than 200 people have been kidnapped. It is not safe to walk the streets,” he said. Russia denies targeting civilians and rejects what Ukraine says is evidence of atrocities, saying Kyiv has staged them to undermine peace talks. Moscow says it launched its military action almost two months ago to demilitarise Ukraine and eradicate what it calls dangerous nationalists. Seizing Melitopol, Mariupol and the southern coast would give Russian forces a land link between pro-Russian separatists in east Ukraine and the Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014. Russia has said it almost has full control of Mariupol. Fedorov, who said he remained in regular contact with the people of Melitopol, said he had invited the pope to visit Ukraine because “maybe he can stop this war”. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has also invited the pope, promising to guarantee his security. Pope Francis has implicitly criticised Russia, calling for an end to a war that involved unjustified aggression and invasion. Addressing Fedorov and other Ukrainians in the Easter eve service, the pope said: “Have courage, we accompany you”. (Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Edmund Blair) View the full article

Published by Reuters By Richard Cowan WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Then-President Donald Trump attempted a coup on Jan. 6, 2021, and that will be a centerpiece of committee hearings in Congress next month, said Democrat Jamie Raskin, a committee member who led the prosecution of Trump’s second impeachment. On that day in 2021, Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building, encouraged by the Republican president in a speech outside the White House to protest formal congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in a November 2020 election. “This was a coup organized by the president against the vice president and against the Congress in order to overturn the 2020 presidential election,” Raskin said in an interview with Reuters, National Public Radio and The Guardian newspaper, when asked what he has learned so far from the committee’s probe. U.S. Representative Bennie Thompson, who chairs the special House of Representatives committee organized by Democrats to look into events leading up to the Jan. 6 assault, has told reporters he expects public hearings to resume in May. “We’re going to tell the whole story of everything that happened. There was a violent insurrection and an attempted coup and we were saved by (then-Vice President) Mike Pence’s refusal to go along with that plan,” said Raskin, a member of the House special committee. It was unclear whether Raskin, during the interview, was expressing only his thoughts or the thinking also of fellow lawmakers serving on the special committee made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans. In July 2021, a new book said senior uniformed military leaders had been concerned about a potential coup, but in a statement then Trump said he had never threatened or spoken to anyone about a coup. Shortly after organizing last year, the House panel held an initial hearing with testimony from four police officers who said they were beaten and taunted with racial insults as they tried to defend the Capitol from attackers. The violence capped months of Trump arguing the election had been stolen from him through massive voter fraud, a claim he still asserts despite its rejection by numerous court rulings, Trump’s own Justice Department and recounts sanctioned by his fellow Republicans. ‘TO SEIZE THE PRESIDENCY’ Raskin said the hearings will lay out for the public the steps the former president and his associates took to try to stay in power despite a clear-cut defeat. Had the rioters succeeded in preventing the certification, Raskin said, Trump “was prepared to seize the presidency” and likely declare martial law. He said the committee had yet to decide whether to try to seek testimony from Trump or Pence. Every four years, the vice president is charged with overseeing the formal count in Congress of presidential elections. Pence rejected pleas to set aside the November 2020 result, which would have paved the way for the House of Representatives to in effect conduct a second election, with Republicans holding an advantage that could have installed Trump for a second term. The attack left four people dead on Jan. 6. One Capitol Police officer who fought with rioters died the next day. About 800 people have been charged with crimes relating to the attack. The House panel has collected more than 100,000 documents, with investigators conducting more than 800 interviews, according to lawmakers. “We don’t have a lot of experience with coups in our own country and we think of a coup as something that takes place against a president,” Raskin said. But Jan. 6, 2021, was different, he said, because it did not involve the military or other faction attacking the president. “It’s what the political scientists call a self-coup … it’s a president fearful of defeat, overthrowing the constitutional process,” Raskin said. The House of Representatives twice impeached Trump, the second time following the Capitol assault. The U.S. Senate acquitted Trump both times. At political rallies since then, the former president has dropped hints he might run again in 2024. (Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Howard Goller) View the full article

Published by Reuters By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis implicitly criticised Russia for dragging Ukraine into a “cruel and senseless” conflict and urged leaders to strive for peace as he marked what he called an “Easter of war” on Sunday. The 85-year-old pope made the comments in his “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) address – traditionally an overview of world conflicts – to about 100,000 people in St. Peter’s Square. It was the first Easter since 2019 that the public was allowed into the square to hear the twice-yearly address following two years of COVID-19 restrictions. Francis dedicated much of the message to Ukraine, comparing the shock of another war in Europe to the shock of the apostles when the gospel says they saw the risen Jesus. “Our eyes, too, are incredulous on this Easter of war. We have seen all too much blood, all too much violence. Our hearts, too, have been filled with fear and anguish, as so many of our brothers and sisters have had to lock themselves away in order to be safe from bombing,” he said. “May there be peace for war-torn Ukraine, so sorely tried by the violence and destruction of the cruel and senseless war into which it was dragged,” he said. Moscow describes the action it launched on Feb. 24 as a “special military operation”. Francis, who did not mention Russia by name, has already rejected that terminology, calling it a war and previously using terms such as unjustified aggression and invasion. “Let there be a decision for peace. May there be an end to the flexing of muscles while people are suffering,” Francis said on Sunday, going on to thank those who had taken in refugees from Ukraine, most of whom have gone to Poland. Earlier this month in Malta, Francis implicitly criticised Russian President Vladimir Putin over the invasion, saying a “potentate” was fomenting conflict for nationalist interests. NUCLEAR SPECTRE Francis again raised the spectre of the war leading to a nuclear conflict, something he has spoken of several times since the Russian invasion began. This time, he quoted the 1955 manifesto by philosopher Bertrand Russell and physicist Albert Einstein: “Shall we put an end to the human race, or shall mankind renounce war?” Francis, who suffers from leg pain, appeared comfortable during the long Mass that preceded the “Urbi et Orbi” address, and then toured the crowd in the square and a nearby street while sitting in an open white pope mobile. Afterwards, he read most of the address from the balcony sitting down, standing only at the start and for the final blessing. On Saturday night, he attended but did not preside at an Easter vigil service, apparently to rest up for Sunday, the most important day in the Christian liturgical calendar. “Please, let us not get used to war,” Francis said, looking down on the square bedecked by tens of thousands of flowers donated by the Netherlands. “Let us all commit ourselves to imploring peace, from our balconies and in our streets. May the leaders of nations hear people’s plea for peace.” “I hold in my heart all the many Ukrainian victims, the millions of refugees and internally displaced persons, the divided families, the elderly left to themselves, the lives broken and the cities razed to the ground,” he said. He also called for reconciliation among Israelis and Palestinians and among the people of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Myanmar, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which he is due to visit in July. (Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and Helen Popper) View the full article

Published by AFP Actor Eddie Redmayne, who plays 'magizoologist' Newt Scamander in 'Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,' poses at a film promotion event in New York on April 06, 2022 Los Angeles (AFP) – “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” had a slightly less than fantastic North American opening this weekend, at least by Wizarding World standards, taking in an estimated $43 million, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations reported Sunday. Ticket sales for the Warner Bros. fantasy film, the third in the “Fantastic Beasts” series, were the lowest of any of the 11 films in the Wizarding World franchise, even while topping the weekend box office, industry outlet Variety said. “Fantastic Beasts was never going to maintain Harry Potter’s success,” said David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research. “That was a once-in-a-generation phenomenon.” Some of the early Potter gloss has been lost as author J.K. Rowling faces criticism over statements on sex and gender identity. But Gross said the series remains strong overseas — as it will need to do, with Covid-inflated production costs of some $200 million. In second place, down sharply from last weekend’s $71 million opening, was Paramount’s family friendly “Sonic the Hedgehog 2,” at $30 million. The hybrid film features Jim Carrey in a live-action role, while Ben Schwartz, Idris Elba and Colleen O’Shaughnessey voice animated characters. The original Harry Potter, likable British actor Daniel Radcliffe, has embraced the dark side as a villain in Paramount’s “The Lost City,” which took in $6.5 million to place third for the Friday-through-Sunday period. Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum also star. Sci-fi comedy film “Everything Everywhere All at Once” from indie production company A24 came in fourth, at $6.2 million. The movie has enjoyed strong reviews — with a 97 percent rating on the Rotten Tomatoes site — with critics lauding its originality. Its unlikely plot has Michelle Yeoh playing a woman being audited by tax authorities who learns that she must jump between versions of herself in different multiverses to save them all. And in the fifth spot was new Sony/Columbia Pictures release “Father Stu,” at $5.7 million. Based on a true-life story, Mark Wahlberg plays a boxer who gains religion and becomes a priest after suffering a muscular disease. The film has drawn mixed reviews but strong audience ratings. Mel Gibson also stars. Rounding out the top 10 were: “Morbius” ($4.7 million) “Ambulance” ($4 million) “The Batman” ($3.8 million) “KFG Chapter 2” ($2.9 million) “Uncharted” ($1.2 million) View the full article

Published by Radar Online Democrat political donor Ed Buck will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars for injecting people with drugs leading to two deaths. MEGA Democrat political donor Ed Buck will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars for injecting people with drugs leading to two deaths. On Thursday, a federal judge sentenced Buck to 30 years in prison. He was convicted during a trial in July 2021 of nine counts, including distribution of methamphetamine resulting in death. It was less than the life sentence that prosecutors asked for, but will likely leave the 67-year-old Buck behind bars until he dies. “Buck thought his victims’ lives didn’t matter and that he could act with impunity. He was wrong about both,” prosecutors wrote in a document detailing the government’s sentencing recommendation. “His depraved conduct warrants the most severe sentence of life imprisonment.” Buck, who lived in California, had a practice of luring people, typically young Black men, to his West Hollywood apartment to “party and play,” prosecutors stated. The victims were typically experiencing homelessness or addiction. During the gatherings, Buck injected victims with methamphetamine and drug them with other compounds, according to prosecutors. The drugging was sometimes done without consent. Twice Buck gave lethal injections. On July 27, 2017, Buck killed Gemmel Moore. Then on Jan. 7, 2019, he killed Timothy Dean. Police at the home of Ed Buck in 2018. MEGA One victim testified at trial that he let Buck inject him with drugs because he was homeless, and it gave him a place to rest. When Buck couldn’t get someone to agree, he simply injected the drugs without permission. “A chorus of victims bravely shared their harrowing experiences with Buck, who treated them like lab rats in his twisted experiments,” prosecutors noted. “He rendered them unconscious, and then continued to inject – and sometimes sexually assault – them while they were incapacitated.” The defense asked the judge for a sentence that was less than life. They argued Buck is elderly and ill. Attorneys for Buck also claimed that a sentence that focused on rehabilitation instead of punishment was the proper course of action. Buck was a big donor to the Democratic, LGBTQ and animal rights groups, according to CBS News. He worked as a male model and made a fortune in business. Ed Buck Prison on Towleroad Ed Buck, Apex Meth Predator, Convicted in Serial Deaths by Overdose of Young, Black Gay Men; Will Get Minimum 40 Years in Prison More Grand Jury Hits Serial Predator Ed Buck with 4 Additional Felonies in Drug Den Death Cases More Ed Buck Indicted by Federal Grand Jury in Two Drug Overdose Deaths, Faces Decades in Prison More Meth Predator Ed Buck Evicted from Apartment as Victim’s Mother Speaks Out About Police Negligence: ‘It Was Black Gay Men … I Got the Runaround’ More Prominent Democratic Donor Ed Buck Arrested, Charged with Running Meth Drug Den After Third Man Overdoses at His Home: WATCH More ‘parTy boi’ Director Micheal Rice Talks About Ed Buck And Meth In The Black Gay Community: WATCH More 2017 Film ‘parTy boi’ Exposed Ed Buck As A ‘Serial Predator’: WATCH More 2nd Black Gay Man Found Dead Of Meth Overdose At Prominent California Democratic Power Player’s Apartment More Load More View the full article

Published by AFP Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed into law a measure that bans abortions after 15 weeks except if the mother's life is at risk or if the fetus has a fatal abnormality Miami (AFP) – Florida on Thursday signed into law a 15-week abortion ban, becoming the latest US state to further restrict reproductive rights in a nationwide push by conservatives. Tighter restrictions in states including Texas and Idaho come as the Supreme Court looks poised to re-examine the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that cemented a woman’s right to abortion. The court is now dominated by conservatives following the nomination of three justices by former president Donald Trump. “We are here today to defend those who can’t defend themselves,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said as he signed the law which reduced the abortion limit from 24 to 15 weeks. “This will represent the most significant protection for life that’s been enacted in this state in a generation,” DeSantis, a potential Republican presidential candidate in 2024, added. Right-wing politicians have launched an assault on abortion, with Democrats, led by President Joe Biden, fighting back to protect access to the procedure. The Florida law, which comes into force on July 1, includes exemptions if the mother’s life is at risk or if the fetus has a fatal abnormality, but not in cases of rape, incest or human trafficking. “This abortion ban is an attack on our most fundamental freedoms — the right to control our own bodies, our own futures,” said Stephanie Fraim of Planned Parenthood. A recent bill passed in Idaho allows families of women who have had abortions — and the father of the fetus — to sue providers, taking enforcement out of the hands of the state, in a move modeled on a controversial new Texas law. Other bills are in the works in Missouri, Oklahoma and Wisconsin, with California, Washington state and Vermont taking an opposing stance and promoting pro-choice abortion rights. View the full article

Published by Radar Online Mega The hacking collective organization Anonymous claims that they have successfully hacked the Kremlin’s spy satellite program and say they used Russian tools to do it. Mega The Anonymous affiliated hacker group Network Battalion 65 (NB65) shared tweets and alleged files of server information from the Russian space agency Roscomos, claiming that Russian President Vladimir Putin “no longer has control over spy satellites.” After investigating the stolen files by cybersecurity, experts suggests that NB65 were actually able to make a modified version of Conti, a form of ransomware virus used by Russian hackers to allegedly steal money from hospitals and health services across Ireland, Europe as well as the United States. They claim that they have been able to turn the system against Russian space satellites. Roscosmos’ chief and one of Putin’s closest allies Dmitry Rogozin denied the claims, calling the hacking collective “scammers” and nothing but a group of “petty swindlers.” In a response to the report, Rogozin tweeted: “All our space activity control centers are operating normally.” However, after an analysis of the leaked files by Intezer Analyze, the organization has claimed that the Anonymous hackers have used “65% of the source code” of Conti and have indeed been able to break into Roscosmos to steal files. Mega The attack comes as part of an intensifying campaign by Anonymous against Russia as the country’s invasion of Ukraine continues to escalate in unsettling ways. Reports have been coming out of Russian military leaders ordering for soldiers to open fire on Ukrainian citizens as well as invading troops writing notes of revenge on the sides of missiles fired at local train stations filled with refugees. Anonymous declared a ‘cyber war’ with Russia in February shortly after the invasion began. The group took credit for taking down the website of Russia Today, the country’s main state broadcaster, early Thursday morning. They’ve also gone on to target the websites of the Russian government, the Kremlin, and the Russian defense ministry. Mega The Anonymous affiliated group NB65 released a message on the hacked Russian website which read, “We warned you that no internet-facing technology is off-limits to us. We’ve warned you repeatedly that until you stop we will press harder and harder until we cripple every single piece of tech, every information system, and every network we find.” View the full article

Published by Reuters By Jan Wolfe WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A jury on Thursday convicted an Ohio man who claimed he was following former President Donald Trump’s orders when he looted items from U.S. Capitol during last year’s riot, handing another notable win to prosecutors. A federal jury in the District of Columbia found Dustin Thompson, 38, guilty on all charges he faced, including obstruction of an official proceeding and theft of government property. Thompson had admitted to entering the Capitol and stealing a bottle of liquor and a coat rack during the riots. But in a novel legal strategy, Thompson argued to the jury that he was acting at Trump’s behest and that the former president is ultimately responsible for the mob that stormed the Capitol. “Besides being ordered by the president to go to the Capitol, I don’t know what I was thinking,” Thompson told the jury, according to CNN. “I was caught up in the moment.” U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton, who oversaw the trial, will sentence Thompson at a hearing in July. The judge ordered Thompson detained in jail until that hearing. The U.S. Justice Department has now won all three Jan. 6 prosecutions that have gone to a jury trial. One defendant was acquitted in a non-jury trial. About 800 people have been charged with crimes relating to the Jan. 6 attack. (Reporting by Jan Wolfe; Editing by Alistair Bell) View the full article