Headline

Police Drop Charges Against World Number One Golfer, Scheffler

Published

1 year ago

May 30, 2024

Prosecutors in Kentucky on Wednesday dropped all charges against top-ranked golfer Scottie Scheffler, who was arrested after allegedly ignoring police at a traffic stop outside the US PGA Championship.

Scheffler, 27, was handcuffed and led away by officers in the pre-dawn incident on May 17, before having his mugshot taken in an orange jumpsuit and then returning from jail to the Valhalla course and teeing off for his second round.

Scheffler allegedly drove onto a curb near the course entrance after police set up a traffic stop due to a separate road accident in which a local man working at the tournament had been killed.

A police report said Scheffler had disobeyed orders to stop his car and accelerated, dragging to the ground police officer Bryan Gillis, who was hospitalized with bruising and swelling. Attorneys for Scheffler denied Gillis was dragged by the golfer’s vehicle.

On Wednesday, Jefferson County Attorney Mike O’Connell lodged a motion in court to dismiss all charges against Scheffler and the judge agreed.

O’Connell told the court that the evidence against Scheffler did not meet the standard of probable cause.

“Based on the totality of the evidence my office cannot move forward in the prosecution of the charges filed against Mr Scheffler,” O’Connell said.

Scheffler meanwhile reacted with relief in a statement posted on Instagram.

“I hold no ill will toward Officer Gillis. I wish to put this incident behind me and move on, and I hope he will do the same,” Scheffler said.

“Police officers have a difficult job and I hold them in high regard. This was a severe miscommunication in a chaotic situation.”

– ‘Big misunderstanding’ –

Scheffler had been charged with felony assault on a police officer, criminal mischief, reckless driving and disregarding signals from an officer directing traffic.

His lawyer Steve Romines denied any wrongdoing, adding Scheffler was driving a marked player’s vehicle when he received conflicting signals from police officers at the traffic control.

Romines had stressed that his client would fight the charges and was “not interested in any sort of settlement negotiations or anything.”

On the morning of his arrest, world number-one Scheffler released a statement saying “there was a big misunderstanding of what I thought I was being asked to do.”

O’Connell told the court in Louisville that Scheffler’s claim of misunderstanding “is corroborated by the evidence.”

Fans cheered as Scheffler walked onto the course and gave him a standing ovation before he struck his first shot.

Current Masters champion Scheffler, who finished the US PGA tournament in a four-way tie for eighth place, said the day after his arrest “I was shaking. I would say in shock and in fear.”

The officer who arrested Scheffler was reprimanded for not turning on his body-worn camera during the arrest, the local police chief said this week.

AFP

Headline

UK Nursery Worker Jailed For Abusing 21 Babies

Published

23 hours ago

September 26, 2025

Editor

A judge on Friday jailed a nursery worker for eight years for a string of “gratuitous” and “sadistic” attacks on babies.

In one incident, Londoner Roksana Lecka, 22, kicked a little boy in the face several times.

Lecka, who blamed cannabis for her crimes, admitted seven counts of cruelty to a person under the age of 16 and was convicted after a trial of another 14 counts.

Sentencing her for attacks on 21 babies, Judge Sarah Plaschkes said she had committed “multiple acts of gratuitous violence” at two London nurseries where she worked.

“You pinched, slapped, punched, smacked and kicked them. You pulled their ears, hair and their toes. You toppled children headfirst into cots,” she said.

“Often the child would be quietly and happily minding its own business before you deliberately inflicted pain… Your criminal conduct can properly be characterised as sadistic,” she added.

Lecka’s cruelty was revealed in June 2024 after she was seen pinching a number of children.
Police were called in and found multiple incidents recorded on the nursery CCTV.

Victim impact statements submitted to London’s Kingston Crown Court from parents of Lecka’s victims told how they were left heartbroken and guilt-stricken by the attacks.

“These children were so innocent and vulnerable,” one mother told the court.

“They couldn’t speak, they couldn’t defend themselves and they couldn’t tell us as parents that something had happened to them,” she added.

“They were totally helpless and Roksana preyed upon them.”

The hearing was told that she had apologised to the parents in a letter to the court in which she said cannabis had turned her into a different person.

She had been addicted to the drug around the time of the offences, but had not told the nursery.
She was found not guilty of three further counts of child cruelty.

Headline

Italy Fines Six Oil Firms $1bn Fine For Restricting Competition

Published

1 day ago

September 26, 2025

Editor

Italy’s antitrust regulator said Friday it has slapped Italian energy giant Eni and five other companies with fines totalling more than 936 million euros ($1.1 billion) for “restricting competition” in the sale of fuel.

The authority said in a statement that Eni, Esso, Ip, Q8, Saras and Tamoil “coordinated to set the value of the bio component factored into fuel prices”, which tripled between 2019 and 2023.

A probe following a whistleblower’s complaint revealed that “the companies implemented parallel price increases — largely coinciding — which were driven by direct or indirect information exchanges among them”, the authority said.

“The cartel began on 1 January 2020 and continued until 30 June 2023,” it added.

AFP

Headline

Trump Signs Order For TikTok’s Sale, Valued At $14bn

Published

1 day ago

September 26, 2025

Editor

United States President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order declaring that his plan is to sell TikTok’s US operations to American and global investors.

As reported by Reuters on Friday, the order requires companies bidding for TikTok to meet the national-security requirements of the 2024 law that otherwise would ban the app unless its Chinese owners divest.

Speaking to reporters at an Oval Office briefing on Thursday, Vice President James Vance said the newly created US entity would be “valued around $14 billion.

“We actually think this is a good deal for investors, but they will make a determination about what they want to invest and what they think is the proper value,” he said.

The White House on Thursday pushed back the law’s enforcement date to January 20 to allow time for the transaction, investor commitments, and negotiations with Chinese authorities.

The publication of the executive order shows Trump is making progress on the sale of TikTok’s US assets.

However, details remain to be worked out, including how the U.S. company would handle TikTok’s most valuable asset: its recommendation algorithm.

“There was some resistance on the Chinese side, but the fundamental thing that we wanted to accomplish is that we wanted to keep TikTok operating, but we also wanted to make sure that we protected Americans’ data privacy as required by law,” Vance said.

According to Reuters, Trump’s order says the algorithm will be retrained and monitored by the U.S. company’s security partners, and operation of the algorithm will be under the control of the new joint venture.

Trump said Chinese President Xi Jinping had indicated approval of the plans. “I spoke with President Xi,” Trump said. “We had a good talk, I told him what we were doing, and he said go ahead with it.”

Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. TikTok did not immediately comment on Trump’s action.

Trump has credited TikTok, which has 170 million U.S. users, with helping him win reelection last year. Trump has 15 million followers on his personal TikTok account. The White House also launched an official TikTok account last month.

“This is going to be American-operated all the way,” Trump said.

He said that Michael Dell, the founder, chairman and CEO of Dell Technologies; Rupert Murdoch, the chairman emeritus of Fox News owner Fox Corp, and newspaper publisher News Corp, and “probably four or five absolutely world-class investors” would be part of the deal.