Headline

Jury Selection Begins In Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sex Crimes Trial

Published

2 months ago

May 5, 2025

Jury selection begins Monday in New York in the blockbuster federal sex trafficking trial of music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, who stands accused of years of harrowing abuse.

Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty on all counts, insisting that any sex acts were consensual — but prosecutors say for years he coerced victims into drug-fueled sex parties using threats and violence.

At a recent hearing, his attorney Marc Agnifilo offered a preview of his team’s defence by describing the artist’s free-wheeling “swinger” lifestyle.

The prosecution said it had offered Combs a plea deal — the specifics were not disclosed — but that he had rejected it.

Combs faces one charge of racketeering conspiracy, the federal statute known by its acronym RICO that was once primarily used to target the mafia but in recent years has been wielded in cases of sexual abuse, including against the fallen R&B star R. Kelly.

It allows government attorneys to project a long view of criminal activity rather than prosecuting isolated sex crimes.

If convicted, the one-time rap producer and global superstar, who is often credited for his role in ushering hip-hop into the mainstream, could spend the rest of his life in prison.

Over the decades, Combs — who has gone by various stage names including Puff Daddy and P. Diddy — amassed enormous wealth for his work in music but also his ventures in the liquor industry.

He was arrested by federal agents in New York in September 2024 and denied bail multiple times.

Combs is being held at Brooklyn’s notorious Metropolitan Detention Centre, a facility plagued by complaints of vermin and decay as well as violence.

High-profile inmates there included Kelly, Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, and Sam Bankman-Fried, the cryptocurrency entrepreneur convicted of fraud.

Combs has appeared in pre-trial hearings looking remarkably aged, his once jet-black, styled coif now overgrown and grey.

The jury selection start date is notably the first Monday in May — which annually marks New York’s Met Gala, a glittering celebrity charity bash where Combs was once a red carpet mainstay.

Just two years ago, he posed for the cameras at that event uptown — but on Monday, he will be downtown in federal court, as the panel of citizens tasked with determining his fate face a barrage of questions from lawyers on both sides.

Jury selection is expected to wrap up in about a week, with opening statements tentatively scheduled for May 12.

The proceedings are estimated to last eight to 10 weeks.

– ‘Freak-offs’ –

Core to the case is Combs’s relationship with his former girlfriend, the singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, who is expected to be a key trial witness.

A disturbing surveillance video from 2016, which was aired by CNN last year, shows Combs physically assaulting Ventura at a hotel.

Prosecutors say the encounter occurred following one of the “freak-offs” they argue were a feature of his pattern of abuse.

The so-called “freak-offs” were coercive, drug-fueled sexual marathons including sex workers that were sometimes filmed, according to the indictment.

It is unclear how much of the CNN video will be shown to jurors as evidence in court — the footage’s quality has been a sticking point between the opposing legal teams — but Judge Arun Subramanian has ruled that at least some of it will be admissible.

The floodgates opened after Ventura filed a civil suit alleging Combs subjected her to more than a decade of coercion by physical force and drugs as well as a 2018 rape.

That 2023 suit was quickly settled out of court, but a string of similarly lurid sexual assault claims against the Grammy winner from both women and men followed.

– ‘Perfect storm’ –

Industry watchers are monitoring Combs’s case as a potential inflexion point in the music world which, beyond the case of Kelly, has largely evaded the #MeToo reckoning that has rocked Hollywood.

Caroline Heldman — co-founder of the Sound Off Coalition, which is focused on sexual violence in music — said Combs’s case is a flashpoint of a broader pattern of industry tolerance and cover-up of abuse.

“In the music industry, I think it’s the perfect storm of what celebrity does to people and what power does to people. It gives them an empathy deficit where the rules don’t apply to them,” she said.

When it comes to Combs’s case, she told AFP she’s “optimistic that justice will be served.”

“I hope that this inspires other survivors to come forward.”

AFP

Headline

US Says Strikes ‘Devastated’ Iran’s Nuclear Program

Published

8 hours ago

June 22, 2025

Editor

Unprecedented US strikes have wrecked Iran’s nuclear program, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Sunday as Washington sought to assess what remained of the three targeted sites.

The surprise strikes threaten to deepen conflict in the Middle East after Israel launched a bombing campaign against Iran, with Tehran vowing to retaliate against US involvement.

But the United States said President Donald Trump wanted peace and urged Iran to end the conflict after strikes on a key underground uranium enrichment site at Fordo, along with nuclear facilities in Isfahan and Natanz.

“We devastated the Iranian nuclear program,” Hegseth told a Pentagon press briefing, adding that the operation “did not target Iranian troops or the Iranian people.”

Trump “seeks peace, and Iran should take that path”, Hegseth said. “This mission was not, and has not been, about regime change.”

Standing beside Hegseth, top US general Dan Caine said that “it would be way too early for me to comment on what may or may not still be there.”

“Initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction,” he told reporters.

– Protests in Tehran –

People gathered in the center of Tehran to protest against US and Israeli attacks, waving flags and chanting slogans, state TV showed.

Trump claimed total success for the operation in an address to the nation hours after the attack, and Vice President JD Vance followed up on Sunday morning.

“We know that we set the Iranian nuclear program back substantially last night, whether it’s years or beyond,” he told ABC.

“We’re not at war with Iran — we’re at war with Iran’s nuclear program,” he added. “The president took decisive action to destroy that program last night.”

In Tehran, AFP journalists said the roar of aircraft flying over the city was heard repeatedly for the first time since Israel’s initial attacks.

The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency said it had not detected any increase in radiation levels at the nuclear sites and Tehran said Sunday there were no signs of contamination.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told reporters in Istanbul the United States and Israel had “crossed a very big red line,” asserting Iran would continue to defend itself “by all means necessary.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the US strikes, saying Trump’s decision to “target Iran’s nuclear facilities with the awesome and righteous might of the United States will change history.”

The Israeli military was also checking the results of the US raid on the deeply buried nuclear facility in Fordo, with a spokesman saying it was “too soon” to know if Iran had removed enriched uranium from the site.

The main US strike group was seven B-2 Spirit bombers flying 18 hours from the US mainland to Iran with multiple aerial refuelings, Caine said.

– Global concern –

In response to the US attack, Iran’s armed forces said they targeted multiple sites in Israel including Ben Gurion airport, the country’s main international gateway near Tel Aviv.

Israeli rescuers said at least 23 people were wounded.

In Jerusalem, Claudio Hazan, a 62-year-old software engineer, said he hoped the US intervention would hasten an end to the Iran-Israel war.

“Israel by itself would not stop… and it would take longer,” he said.

Israel said it had launched fresh strikes on western Iran and in Qom, south of Tehran. Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported four Revolutionary Guard members were killed in strikes on a military base in the city’s north.

The Israeli military said it had “struck missile launchers ready to launch toward Israeli territory, soldiers in the Iranian Armed Forces, and swiftly neutralized the launchers that launched missiles toward Israeli territory.”

Iran’s Shargh newspaper reported that a “massive explosion was heard” Sunday in Bushehr province, home to Iran’s only nuclear power plant.

Iranian news agencies also reported strikes in Yazd province.

The United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Oman, which had been mediating Iran-US nuclear talks, criticized the US move and urged de-escalation.

The European Union called on all sides “to step back,” while stressing Iran must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.

The Iranian foreign minister said he would travel to Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday.

Following his address, Trump warned Iran against retaliation. Iran and its proxies have previously attacked US military bases in Iraq and elsewhere in the region.

Iran’s Huthi allies in Yemen on Sunday repeated their threat to resume attacks in the Red Sea if Washington joined the war, saying they were ready to target US ships and warships.

The US president had stepped up his rhetoric against Iran since Israel first struck the country on June 13, repeating his insistence it could never have nuclear weapons.

Tehran denies seeking an atomic bomb. On Saturday, President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran’s right to pursue a civilian nuclear program “cannot be taken away… by threats or war.”

Headline

US Struck Iran With B-2 Bombers, Submarine-launched Missiles – Top US General

Published

8 hours ago

June 22, 2025

Editor

Seven stealth bombers were used in the US attack against Iranian nuclear sites, which apparently saw little response by Iran’s military, top general Dan Caine said Sunday.

Describing the complex operation, dubbed “Midnight Hammer,” Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine said the “main strike package comprised of 7 B-2 Spirit bombers” flying 18 hours from the US mainland to Iran with multiple aerial refuelings.

“Iran’s fighters did not fly, and it appears that Iran’s surface to air missile systems did not see us throughout the mission. We retained the element of surprise,” Caine added.

Headline

UK ‘Was Informed Of US Strikes’ On Iran, Plans Evacuating Briton Out of Israel

Published

8 hours ago

June 22, 2025

Editor

Britain was notified in advance of the US airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear sites, though it played no part in the military action, Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds confirmed today.

“We were informed, as you might expect, by a key ally,” Reynolds told Sky News, adding, “We were not and have not been involved in these attacks.”

The strikes—launched overnight by US B2 stealth bombers and submarines—targeted Iran’s Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan nuclear facilities. President Donald Trump hailed it as “a spectacular military success,” a claim Tehran swiftly denied.

The UK government is now working to evacuate British nationals trapped in Israel, after Iran launched a wave of retaliatory missiles. Reynolds said it would take “hours, not days” to evacuate them, citing airspace closures as the main delay.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer backed the US operation, describing Tehran’s nuclear programme as “a grave threat to international security.” He noted that the US acted to “alleviate that threat,” despite previously urging Trump to avoid military escalation.

Reynolds acknowledged public anxiety about the developments and warned of a possible rise in terrorism threats at home: “It would be naïve to say that that wouldn’t potentially increase.”

Opposition figures supported the strikes. Kemi Badenoch said the US had acted “decisively against a regime that fuels global terror.” Reform UK leader Nigel Farage posted: “Iran must not be allowed to have nuclear weapons. The future of Israel depends on it.”

Iran’s Foreign Minister, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, condemned the US operation as “lawless and criminal behavior,” warning of “everlasting consequences.”