Headline
Jury Selection Begins In Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sex Crimes Trial
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.
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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.
READ ALSO: Judge Rejects Diddy’s Request To Postpone Trial
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.
READ ALSO: Kanye West Begs Trump To Free Detained ‘Diddy’ Combs
– ‘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
Afghanistan’s Taliban Release US Citizen
Afghanistan’s Taliban government released an American citizen from detention on Sunday, a week after freeing an elderly British couple.
In a statement, the ministry identified the detainee as Amir Amiri and said he had been handed over to Adam Boehler, Washington’s special envoy on hostages.
Boehler made a rare visit to Kabul earlier this month to discuss the possibility of a prisoner exchange with the Taliban government.
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan released an American citizen named Amir Amiri from prison today,” the Foreign Ministry on X, using the official name for the government.
“The Afghan government does not view the issues of citizens from a political angle and makes it clear that ways can be found to resolve issues through diplomacy.”
READ ALSO:Taliban Detains 14 For Playing Music, Singing At Afghanistan Private Gathering
Little is known about Amiri’s case, as it has not been widely reported.
An official with knowledge of the release said Amiri, who is 36, “had been detained in Afghanistan since December 2024”.
The official added that Amiri would stop briefly in Doha, Qatar for medical checks before continuing back to the United States.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio welcomed the release of Amiri, said he had been “wrongfully detained” in Afghanistan, and thanked Qatar for helping to get him freed.
President Donald Trump “has made it clear we will not stop until every American unjustly detained abroad is back home,” Rubio wrote on X.
In January two Americans were freed in exchange for an Afghan fighter, Khan Mohammed, who was convicted of narco-terrorism in the United States.
READ ALSO:Taliban Court Publicly Flogs Woman For Illicit Relationship, Running Away From Home
Another American, airline mechanic George Glezmann, was freed after more than two years in detention during a March visit to Kabul by Boehler.
At least one other US citizen, Mahmood Habibi, is being held in Afghanistan. The United States is offering a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture.
The Taliban authorities deny any involvement in his 2022 disappearance.
Just a week ago, Britons Peter Reynolds, 80, and his wife Barbie, 76, were released from a Kabul prison after almost eight months in detention. The Taliban authorities did not say why they were detained.
The couple was arrested in February and first held in a maximum security facility, “then in underground cells, without daylight, before being transferred” to the intelligence services in Kabul, UN experts have said.
READ ALSO:1.4 Million Girls Banned From Afghan Schools Since Taliban Return – UNESCO
The couple married in Kabul in 1970 and have spent almost two decades living in Afghanistan, running educational programmes for women and children. They also became Afghan citizens.
All the releases have been mediated by Qatar.
Both the US and the UK, like many other Western nations, warn against all travel to Afghanistan.
Russia is the only country to have officially recognised the Taliban government, which has imposed a strict version of Islamic law and been accused of sweeping human rights violations.
Dozens of foreign nationals have been arrested since the group returned to power in August 2021, when most embassies withdrew their diplomatic presence.
The Taliban government says it wants to have good relations with other countries, notably the United States, despite the 20-year war against US-led forces.
Headline
One Dead, Several Injured After US Shooting, Fire At Mormon Church
One person was killed and several others injured Sunday after a shooter targeted a Mormon church in the US state of Michigan, where the building was also set on fire, authorities said.
The suspect, a 40-year-old man from a nearby town, was shot dead by law enforcement after the attack, police said, without specifying any possible motive.
President Donald Trump called the shooting “horrendous” and said on his Truth Social platform it “appears to be yet another targeted attack on Christians in the United States of America.”
Images from the scene showed emergency services escorting people on stretchers and a large plume of dark smoke at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc Township.
READ ALSO:Head Of Mormon Church Is Dead
Local police chief William Renye told reporters the suspect drove his vehicle through the front doors of the church and then began firing at people inside with an assault rifle.
He said the service was active with “hundreds of people within the church.”
Authorities believe the gunman also deliberately set fire to the church before he was killed by responding police officers, Renye said.
Ten gunshot victims were transported to hospital, including one who has died, the official said.
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He added that the fire had been extinguished but that “we do believe that we will find additional victims once we have that scene secure.”
A woman who lives near the church told AFP: “My husband heard people screaming, one lady yelling for help.”
FBI agents are on the scene to assist the investigation, chief Kash Patel said on X.
“Violence in a place of worship is a cowardly and criminal act. Our prayers are with the victims and their families during this terrible tragedy,” he wrote.
Attorney General Pam Bondi also said she had been briefed on the incident.
Headline
Head Of Mormon Church Is Dead
Russell Nelson, who headed the Mormon church since 2018, died on Saturday night at age 101, the church announced.
“With sorrow we announce that Russell M. Nelson, beloved President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, passed away peacefully… at his home in Salt Lake City,” it said in a statement, using the church’s official name.
The former heart surgeon was “the oldest president in the history of the Church,” the statement added, without specifying a cause of death.
Utah Republican senator Mike Lee lauded Nelson as a “bold, visionary leader prepared by God to testify of Jesus Christ in the very times in which we now live.”
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Nelson became the 17th president of the Church in January 2018 at age 93, succeeding Thomas Monson.
Before becoming president, Nelson successfully pushed for the church to label same-sex married couples as “apostates” and bar their children under the age of 18 from religious rites, including baptisms — though that policy was scrapped after he took on the role.
He also broke with his predecessors and cautioned against using shorthands “LDS” or “Mormons” to refer to the church.
Nelson’s successor will be chosen after his funeral by the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who like the church’s president are considered prophets by believers.
READ ALSO:Brazilian Jazz Legend, Hermeto Pascoal, Is Dead
The religious leader is survived by his wife, eight of his children, 57 grandchildren and more than 167 great-grandchildren, according to the church.
Founded in 1830, the Mormon church considers itself a Christian body, but bases its doctrines on the Book of Mormon, a text purporting to contain a fuller version of the words of Jesus Christ than that recorded in the Bible.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints claims a total membership of more than 17.5 million people.
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