Tuesday, September 17, 2024 Top Stories
It is Tuesday, September 17, 2024. Here are today’s top stories.
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Sean Combs indicted by grand jury
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, a well-known musician and businessman, was indicted by a grand jury on charges of sex trafficking and racketeering and arrested in Manhattan. The New York Times explained that federal prosecutors accused Combs of being the boss of a yearslong criminal enterprise that threatened and abused women, coercing them to participate against their will in drug-fueled orgies with male prostitutes. Combs’ attorney said he will plead not guilty and fight the charges.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/17/arts/music/sean-combs-diddy-indicted.html
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Exploding pagers kill 9 and injures many across Lebanon and Syria
AP News said hundreds of handheld pagers exploded at almost the same time in Lebanon and Syria, killing at least eight people, including members of Hezbollah and a girl. An Iranian ambassador was injured. AP said people there believe that Israel is behind the attack and that it used advanced technology to cause pagers being used by those linked to Hezbollah to explode. A witness said the pagers started to heat up and then exploded. Over 2,800 people were injured with many sustaining serious wounds. Videos on social media showed a hospital filled with people with serious injuries. One video showed a man’s pocket exploding while he was at a food store. AP said the Israeli military declined to comment on this incident. Israel has been fighting with Hezbollah in Lebanon for over 11 months and the clashes are related to the war in Gaza because Hezbollah is an ally of Hamas. An expert told CNN that it seems like Israel was able to have operatives working within Hezbollah who tampered with pagers and made them explode whenever they received a certain message. Another possibility is a widespread hacking operation that caused the pagers to overheat and explode, but this is less likely. The Lebanese government said the incident was “criminal Israeli aggression.”
https://apnews.com/article/lebanon-hezbollah-israel-exploding-pagers-8893a09816410959b6fe94aec124461b
https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/lebanon-pagers-attack-hezbollah/index.html
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Instagram new changes for teen accounts
Instagram has introduced changes for its teenager users that is aimed at making the platform safer. AP said beginning today in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and Australia, anyone under 18 who signs up for Instagram will be placed into restrictive teen accounts and those with existing accounts will be migrated over the next 60 days. The teen accounts will be set to private and this means they can only get messages from people they follow or are already connected to. Teens will get notifications if they are on Instagram for more than 60 minutes. Instagram will filter out sensitive videos such as people fighting or videos where influencers are promoting cosmetic products. Those 16 or 17 years old can turn off the new settings while those under 16 will need their parents’ permission.
https://apnews.com/article/instagram-meta-teen-accounts-kids-425a05cc37f81b6ff2b7439d3884c54a
https://about.fb.com/news/2024/09/instagram-teen-accounts/
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Updates on Trump’s 2nd assassination attempt
Former President Donald Trump shared his experience of going through his second assassination attempt while he was playing golf in Florida. He said he suddenly heard shots being fired and was grabbed by Secret Service agents. He later realized that the gunshots came from a Secret Service agent who opened fire towards bushes where a gunman was at. Trump said the Secret Service and local law enforcement were fantastic in protecting him and arresting the suspect.
The suspect, Ryan Routh, waited outside of the golf course for almost 12 hours with food and a rifle. He never fired any shots.
Routh wrote a self-published book last year that urged the Iranian government to kill Trump. He said he once voted for Trump but became disappointed with him.
Routh was previously convicted of possessing a weapon of mass destruction — a machine gun — in 2002. He fled a traffic stop and barricaded himself for three hours. Because of this felony, he is not allowed to possess a gun.
The rifle he had with him at the golf course was a SKS-type rifle. It was previously said that it was an AK-47 rifle. The SKS rifle had its serial number obliterated, which makes it harder to trace and suggests that it was an illegally-obtained weapon.
Routh was charged with gun-related crimes but will probably face more charges as the investigation into his actions unfolds.
https://www.axios.com/2024/09/17/trump-assassination-attempt-x-spaces-crypto-platform
https://apnews.com/article/trump-fbi-assassination-attempt-fee81d8bcf737bfcde2ee8e5cea88465
https://abcnews.go.com/US/fbi-recover-suspected-trump-gunmans-obliterated-rifle-serial/story
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Jordan Chiles files appeal to reclaim Olympic medal
American gymnast Jordan Chiles filed an appeal in an international court to get her bronze medal back from the Paris Olympics. If you remember, during the Paris Olympics, Chiles finished just outside of the medals in the individual floor exercise but after her coaches made an appeal that she did not get full credit for a certain skill that would have given her more points, the judges adjusted her score and she won the bronze medal. A Romanian gymnast who “lost” her medal asked the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to block the score adjustment, arguing that the Americans made the appeal four seconds past a deadline. The CAS agreed with the Romanians and stripped Chiles of her medal. USA Gymnastics said it has video evidence that the appeal for the score adjustment was made prior to the deadline but the CAS did not agree to reconsider the ruling. Now, Chiles has made an appeal in a different court in Switzerland, where the CAS is also located in, and said the CAS violated Chiles’ right to be heard. So it is a sustained fight for this bronze medal.
https://sports.yahoo.com/jordan-chiles-files-appeal-with-swiss-court-in-attempt-to-reclaim-olympic-gymnastics-bronze-medal-043931920.html
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That is all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light.
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