July 15 (UPI) — As South Korea’s special prosecutor’s office expands its investigation into the Unification Church’s alleged political lobbying and financial misconduct, rising attention is turning to Won-joo Jung, deputy director of the Cheonmu Institute — the church’s top administrative body.
According to a report by The Hankyoreh, Jung is widely recognized as the de facto second-in-command, operating directly under church head Hak-ja Han.
In a notarized letter to church authorities, Young-ho Yoon, the former director-general of the church’s World Headquarters and now under investigation, named Jung in connection with the delivery of luxury gifts — including Chanel handbags and a Graff diamond necklace — to former First Lady Keon-hee Kim, wife of the recently impeached former President of South Korea Suk-yeol Yoon.
The gifts allegedly were funneled through Seong-bae Jeon, a spiritual figure known publicly as “Geonjin Beopsa.”
Yoon claimed to submit internal records linking Jung to the operation and requested that she face equivalent disciplinary action. His statement challenges the official church narrative that the gift transfer was merely an isolated case of individual misconduct.
The Hankyoreh reported that Jung, as deputy director of the Cheonmu Institute, is considered internally to be “the effective No. 2 figure in the church hierarchy,” suggesting she wields considerable influence over the organization’s strategy and finances.
Although subject to a travel restriction, Jung was granted permission to leave South Korea to visit her critically ill husband in the United States. It appears she has not yet returned from the United States to South Korea.
Meanwhile, in South Korea, there is ongoing investigation and growing public demands for accountability. Her prolonged absence amid escalating legal exposure has led to speculation that she may be avoiding potential legal consequences.
While she has not yet been formally indicted, prosecutors are believed to be examining her role in key decision-making processes and internal coordination, including allegations of document destruction tied to ongoing investigations.
Public scrutiny of Jung has intensified due to her close connections to major media outlets affiliated with the Unification Church. Her younger brother, Hee-taek Jung, is currently the president of Segye Ilbo (Segye Times), a South Korean daily owned by the church’s media arm. Jung’s husband’s younger brother is Tom McDevitt, the current chairman of The Washington Times, the U.S. newspaper funded by the church.
These family ties have raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest and the influence of internal media networks in shaping narratives surrounding the ongoing investigation.
Prosecutors have already executed search and seizure operations at the National Police Agency and Chuncheon Police Station on July 8, targeting communications and financial records tied to earlier church-related investigations.
While no formal indictments have been announced against Jung, Special Prosecutor Sang-jin Park confirmed — according to a DongA Ilbo report on July 8 — that his office is preparing to summon senior Unification Church figures, including Won-joo Jung and former World Headquarters director Young-ho Yoon, for questioning as part of its expanding investigation into alleged bribery, embezzlement, and obstruction of justice.
Though Hak-ja Han remains the public face of the Unification Church, insiders and former members describe Jung as a behind-the-scenes operator with sweeping authority over the church’s administration, finances, and crisis management. She has reportedly been involved in overseeing responses to allegations involving the misuse of church funds — some of which were allegedly spent on gambling trips in Las Vegas.
Her high-level authority, absence abroad, and looming summons suggest she may be a pivotal figure in unraveling the deeper structure of influence within the church’s leadership.
Cape Town, South Africa – When Patricia Blows heard a senior police official’s explosive allegations against South Africa’s political and law enforcement elite last week, her thoughts went straight to the stalled investigation into her son’s killing nine years ago.
Angelo, an apprentice boilermaker, was about to turn 28 when he was shot in an apparent robbery on a Sunday afternoon in March 2016 while walking home from work in Langlaagte, Johannesburg.
To this day, the investigation has gone nowhere despite Blows providing the police with evidence they said they lacked, including witness statements she collected herself.
The lack of progress in the case began to make sense last week when the police commissioner in coastal KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province, Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, claimed he had uncovered a crime syndicate involving politicians, senior police officers, correctional services officials, prosecutors, the judiciary and businesspeople in his province.
According to Mkhwanazi, speaking at a news conference on July 6, the systemic corruption rises all the way to the country’s police minister, Senzo Mchunu, whom he accused of disbanding a task force set up to investigate political killings in KZN to protect his shady associates.
Like millions of South Africans, Blows was outraged by Mkhwanazi’s allegations – but not entirely surprised.
“I immediately thought of our battle for justice. I just couldn’t find an open door. It still hurts like hell,” said Blows, a community activist from Blackheath on the Cape Flats, a part of Cape Town plagued by violent drug-trafficking gangs.
“I had fresh hope in Mchunu. Now this? Then doubt drifted in, and I had an overwhelming fear for [Mkhwanazi’s] safety,” Blows said from her suburb on the outskirts of the Cape Flats, where a police station came under attack about a month ago, presumably in retaliation for the arrest of a local crime boss.
‘Hands off Mkhwanazi’
Mkhwanazi’s revelations triggered an outpouring of support from crime-weary South Africans and politicians alike, who almost universally admire his no-nonsense approach to crime. Last month, after a series of police shootouts with criminals, he was quoted as saying he cared more about impact than strategy.
His popularity reflects a national malaise as well as a regional one that is particular to volatile KZN. The province regularly features among the country’s crime hotspots and is notorious for its history of political violence that dates back to the 1980s when the apartheid regime fomented tensions among the Black supporters of the African National Congress (ANC) and its rival Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) in an attempt to undermine the planned transition to democracy.
National quarterly statistics for January to March indicated a decrease in violent crime compared with the same quarter in 2024. Murders decreased by 12.4 percent to 5,727, or an average of 64 per day, according to the Institute for Security Studies.
Still, violent crime is a major problem. According to the World Population Review, South Africa has the fifth highest crime index in the world, following Venezuela, Papua New Guinea, Afghanistan and Haiti.
South Africa also ranks 82nd in the world on the corruption perception index compiled by the NGO Transparency International.
In this context, Mkhwanazi has become a hero to many South Africans who are fed up with the government’s failure to address chronic social ills.
Not even an investigation into his conduct in March could dampen the support for Mkhwanazi. The Independent Police Investigative Directorate dropped the case after a “Hands off Mkhwanazi” campaign, which was revived on social media after his July 6 news conference.
Dressed in special operations fatigues and surrounded by armed guards, Mkhwanazi told journalists: “I am combat ready. I will die for this badge. I will not back down.”
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa [Reuters]
Ramaphosa’s legacy at risk
Much to the frustration of many South Africans, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s response to the unfolding crisis has been in sharp contrast to Mkhwanazi’s gung-ho attitude.
In a brief and carefully crafted televised address on Sunday, Ramaphosa announced that Mchunu had been placed on special leave and he would establish a judicial commission of inquiry to look into the allegations raised by Mkhwanazi.
Kagiso Pooe, a senior lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand’s School of Governance in Johannesburg, was hoping for Mchunu to be suspended or fired and the country’s seemingly compromised security structure to be overhauled, especially after the recent arrest of a senior crime intelligence official and several officers for fraud.
Pooe believes Ramaphosa played it safe to preserve himself and his ANC party, which was forced to form a coalition government with rivals after it failed to secure an outright majority in last year’s general election. It was a historic defeat for Nelson Mandela’s party, which has dominated domestic politics since the democratic era began in 1994.
Before local government elections next year, Pooe believes the last thing Ramaphosa wants is to alienate an ally like Mchunu, who has a strong support base in the highly contested KZN and helped secure Ramaphosa’s presidency in 2017.
“He doesn’t rock the boat. It’s not in his nature,” Pooe said, pointing out that Ramaphosa is determined to accomplish what no president has managed to do since 1994 – complete a second term in office.
“I give the president 33 percent, which is the average score for everything he does,” he said.
Pooe bemoaned the idea of yet another commission of inquiry under Ramaphosa. In May, the president even appointed a commission to investigate the by-product of a previous commission set up in 1996 that failed to deal with apartheid-era crimes. Decades on, more than 100 cases that arose from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, headed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, have yet to be prosecuted.
The most high-profile commission under Ramaphosa was established shortly after he took office in 2017. The Zondo Commission was meant to investigate corruption that was so deeply entrenched under Ramaphosa’s predecessor Jacob Zuma that it became known as “state capture”.
After millions of dollars and years of highly publicised testimony, the findings of the commission have yet to deliver a major prosecution.
Toyin Adetiba, a professor at the University of Zululand’s Department of Political and International Studies, said Ramaphosa could pay a dear price for failing to act decisively, especially at a time when he is trying to burnish South Africa’s international reputation and fend off the threat of potentially damaging tariffs from the United States.
“Remember, he will soon be out as the president of the country and that of the ANC. The respect that he commands among political leaders across the continent will suffer a setback, and for him to play the role of elder statesperson after leaving office will be a Herculean task as no one will respect his opinion, no matter how important and genuine it might be,” Adetiba said.
In a strange twist of timing, this crisis comes as the country marks the anniversary of the July 2021 unrest when riots broke out in two of the country’s most populous provinces – KZN and Gauteng – after Zuma’s imprisonment for contempt of court following his refusal to testify before the Zondo Commission.
The leader of the minority party Freedom Front Plus, Pieter Groenewald, blamed the unrest on a failure of the intelligence services. Pooe said Mkhwanazi’s allegations supported the view that the country’s intelligence has been compromised.
“South Africa is literally naked intelligence-wise. Think about it from the perspective of foreign entities and criminals,” Pooe said. “If this [the allegations of corruption] is happening, don’t you think criminals also know that you can take advantage of a country like South Africa?”
As the country processes Ramaphosa’s much-awaited speech in response to Mkhwanazi’s allegations and wonders what is to come, Blows is recovering from the shock of another shooting in her neighbourhood, reported on a community WhatsApp group. This time, it sounded like an automatic weapon was used.
“I seriously pray daily against the high crime. Many parents suffer as I do,” Blows said. “Our lives are controlled by crime.”
President Ramaphosa’s move follows accusations that Senzo Mchunu interfered with sensitive investigations.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has suspended his police minister “with immediate effect” over corruption allegations, a week after a provincial police chief made the accusations.
In a country facing endemic corruption, Sunday’s announcement was highly anticipated after a week of speculation over the fate of Senzo Mchunu, who became police minister a year ago after the general elections.
Mchunu, 67, who local media had suggested as a potential candidate from the centrist faction of the African National Congress (ANC) to succeed Ramaphosa, has rejected the allegations as “insinuations made without evidence or due processes”.
Ramaphosa also established a judicial commission of inquiry, with reports expected after three and six months.
“The commission will investigate the role of current or former senior officials in certain institutions who may have aided or abetted the alleged criminal activity, failed to act on credible intelligence or internal warnings, or benefitted financially or politically from a syndicate’s operations,” Ramaphosa said during a televised address.
Widespread corruption claims
KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi alleged on July 6 that Mchunu received payments from a corruption suspect.
Mkhwanazi also accused him of having played a role in dismantling a team investigating killings that shielded politically connected people.
The commissioner, speaking at a media briefing flanked by armed security forces, some with their faces masked, said he had opened a criminal investigation into the minister. He also accused other officials of obstructing police work against organised crime.
Mkhwanazi himself is under investigation for allegations of corruption in the awarding of a bulletproof vest contract, the weekly Sunday Times reported.
Firoz Cachalia, a law professor and member of the governing ANC, has been appointed as the interim police minister.
South Africa ranks 82nd in the world, according to the corruption perception index of the NGO Transparency International.
Most opposition parties on Sunday criticised Ramaphosa for putting Mchunu on a leave of absence instead of firing him.
“This was an opportunity to take South Africans into confidence, and to deal with these issues decisively. Instead, he calls for a commission of inquiry and expects South Africans to be patient when people are dying on a daily basis,” said Nhlamulo Ndhlela, the spokesperson of the opposition MK Party.
In the aftermath of a magnitude 5.7 earthquake, the five men were accused of robbing damaged homes in the Santa Maria de Jesus municipality.
Five men have been lynched after rural community members accused them of robbing damaged homes following an earthquake that struck Guatemala and caused widespread damage.
Police spokesperson Cesar Mateo told the AFP news agency on Friday night that the men were accused of using the dark of the night to break into homes following the tremors, which led people to sleep in shelters or with relatives.
“While it’s true that robbery is illegal, lynching is also a crime,” Mateo said.
Guatemala’s Ministry of the Interior said residents of Santa Maria de Jesus municipality searched for the men late on Thursday and then blocked authorities who tried to detain and take them away.
Residents beat the men with sticks and stones and then burned them in the community, which lies in the Sacatepequez department southwest of the capital.
Santa Maria de Jesus was the worst-affected area by the earthquake that created tremors of up to 5.7 magnitude. At least seven people were killed across Guatemala after Tuesday’s earthquake.
Vigilante violence is a recurrent response to criminals who are not prosecuted in Guatemala.
According to a local civil society organisation, between 2008 and 2020, vigilante justice left 361 people dead and 1,396 injured in the country.
The earthquake left Santa Maria de Jesus, home to an Indigenous Mayan community, without power, while access to roads was cut off by landslides.
The government flew in humanitarian aid to Santa Maria de Jesus to help residents.
The disaster coordination agency, Conred, which has been evaluating the level of damage in affected areas, said a delivery of solar lamps, buckets, mats, mosquito nets, blankets and kitchen kits has been received from the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR).
In a separate statement on Friday, the agency said it was continuing to assist, including the “mobilisation and delivery of humanitarian aid” to parts of the country.
MasterChef’s Gregg Wallace was reportedly rushed to hospital for a suspected heart attack, just days before the TV presenter faced fresh misconduct accusations from 50 people
23:09, 08 Jul 2025Updated 23:18, 08 Jul 2025
A close friend of Gregg Wallace has said that he’s ‘in a bad way’ after being accused of misconduct by 50 more people(Image: BBC)
Shamed MasterChef host Gregg Wallace has been sacked after 50 more people complained about him – but he has vowed to fight back. The 60-year-old accused BBC News of “peddling gossip” after it claimed to have received dozens of new complaints about him, ranging from sexual comments to groping. Wallace accepts his humour was “inappropriate” on the show. And a source close to him admits a social media video in which he lashed out at “middle-class women of a certain age” was a sackable offence.
But he still believes himself to be a victim and called the new claims “baseless and sensationalised”. He insisted: “I will not go quietly. I will not be cancelled for convenience.”
Gregg Wallace has been accused of misconduct by 50 more people(Image: BBC /Shine TV)
It comes just days after the TV presenter was reportedly rushed to hospital with a suspected heart attack. The 60-year-old was treated at a hospital in Ashford, Kent, after two days of agonising chest pain. A friend told The Sun: “The stress of this betrayal brought on my suspected heart attack. It’s been hell.” It is reported that two days after leaving hospital, Wallace was told that his contract would be terminated.
MasterChef production company Banijay is expected to release the findings of a six-month review into his behaviour tomorrow or on Friday. The review, by law firm Lewis Silkin, was ordered after allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour on the set of the BBC cooking show were made against Wallace last year. His lawyers said then: “It is entirely false that he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature.”
A Banijay insider said many of the BBC’s latest allegations are likely to have already been examined during the review. One source who has read the 200-page report said Wallace’s worst mistake was his December 2024 video about the initial allegations, in which he said: “The complaints [are] from a handful of middle-class women of a certain age.” The source added that alone was a “dismissible offence”.
Yesterday, the presenter posted a five-page statement on social media. Wallace said: “I recognise my humour and language, at times, was inappropriate. For that, I apologise.
Gregg Wallace has been axed from MasterChef(Image: Dave Benett/Getty Images)
“I have now been cleared by the Silkin report of the most serious and sensational accusations. The most damaging claims, including allegations from public figures which have not been upheld, were found to be baseless after a full and forensic six-month investigation.”
The presenter said he had taken the decision to speak out ahead of the publication of the Silkin report because: “I cannot sit in silence while my reputation is further damaged.”
Wallace claimed the new BBC News allegations included “legally unsafe accusations” which had been “found not credible by Silkin”.
He said allowing the stories to run ahead of the report was an attempt to derail the process. And in response to claims that the BBC had “fired” him, a spokesman said that this was impossible, because it was not his employer. Wallace, whose young son Sid has autism, argued that he should have been better looked after.
He added: “I was hired by the BBC and MasterChef as the cheeky greengrocer. A real person with warmth, character, rough edges and all. For over two decades, that authenticity was part of the brand.
“Now, in a sanitised world, that same personality is seen as a problem. My neurodiversity, now formally diagnosed as autism, was suspected and discussed by colleagues across countless seasons of MasterChef.
“Yet nothing was done to investigate my disability or protect me from what I now realise was a dangerous environment for over 20 years. That failure is now being quietly buried.”
He added: “I was tried by media and hung out to dry before the facts were established. The full story of this incredible injustice must be told.”
A source close to Wallace insisted he had been made the fall guy. They added: “This is about protecting a format, one of the most valuable formats that Banijay and the BBC has. And what they should be doing is having a clean start and not just chucking one bloke under the bus. Gregg has employed a lawyer and he’s going for blood. The report talks about him being odd – the guy has got autism and it was never addressed. It’s been a trial by social media and a big pile-on.
“All these things, when they’re looked at by a lawyer, are not true. Bullying Penny Lancaster? Not true. Vanessa Feltz? No evidence. It’s about him having a terrible sense of humour and telling rude jokes.”
The pal said that dad-of-three Wallace was “in a bad way”, warning: “This guy is fragile. When everything has been taken away like this, it’s quite overwhelming.”
One MasterChef insider said that no conversation over Wallace’s future employment had yet taken place. The latest allegations include two women who said Wallace exposed himself to them, a student who says he put his hand up her skirt in 2013 and another woman who claims he groped her the previous year.
It is not clear how many of the 50 allegations have been examined by the review lawyers, who looked only at allegations relating to MasterChef. The BBC said: “We are not going to comment until the investigation is complete and the findings published.”
Reform UK MP James McMurdock has given up the whip over allegations against him related to business propriety, the party has said.
Chief whip Lee Anderson said McMurdock, MP for South Basildon and East Thurrock, “removed the party whip from himself” pending an investigation into allegations since published by the Sunday Times.
“At Reform UK we take these matters very seriously and James has agreed to cooperate in full with any investigation,” Anderson said.
Reform UK said it would carry out an internal investigation into the allegations.
The BBC has approached McMurdock for comment. Reform said he denies any wrongdoing.
Anderson said the allegations relate to business propriety during the pandemic, before McMurdock became an MP last year.
The Sunday Times alleged that McMurdock borrowed tens of thousands of pounds under the government’s Bounce Back loans scheme, which was designed to help struggling businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The newspaper said the loans were worth a total of £70,000 and were applied for through two companies – JAM Financial Limited and Gym Live Health and Fitness Limited.
JAM Financial Limited is alleged to have taken out the maximum loan of £50,000, a level of loan that required a turnover of at least £200,000.
Gym Live Health and Fitness Limited is alleged to have taken out loans worth £20,000, which would have required a turnover of £100,000.
The newspaper claimed that JAM Financial Limited had no employees and negligible assets until the pandemic, and that Gym Live Health and Fitness Limited was dormant until January 31, 2020.
BBC News understands Reform’s internal investigation is likely to be led by someone from outside the party and will take at least a few weeks.
When approached for comment by the Sunday Times, the newspaper said McMurdock warned “be very, very careful” and said “a technical expert” would be needed for anybody to understand the business dealings.
McMurdock won his seat in July by 98 votes, beating Labour into second place, and taking the seat from the Conservatives.
A since-deleted profile published on Reform’s website quoted McMurdock as saying he worked in business prior to standing for the party, including at the banks Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers.
He is the second of the five Reform MPs elected in 2024 who have since lost the party whip, after Rupert Lowe was suspended in March.
That came after the party alleged the Great Yarmouth MP had made “threats of physical violence” against then-chairman Zia Yusuf.
The Crown Prosecution Service later said Lowe would not face criminal charges over the claims, which he called “false” and a “brutal smear campaign”. He now sits in the Commons as an independent.
Reform’s Sarah Ponchin won the Runcorn by-election in May, taking the party’s Commons cohort back to five.
However, McMurdock quitting the party whip means Reform now has four sitting MPs.
Veteran NBA player Malik Beasley is under federal investigation relating to gambling allegations in connection to league games, according to multiple media reports.
According to ESPN, which was first to report the investigation, the allegations are from the 2023-24 season when Beasley played for the Milwaukee Bucks. ESPN cited a gambling industry source who said that at least one prominent U.S. sportsbook noticed unusually heavy betting interest on Beasley’s statistics starting around January 2024.
“There have been no charges against Malik,” Beasley’s attorney, Steve Haney, told the Associated Press. “It’s just an investigation at this point. We hope people reserve judgment until he’s charged — or if he’s charged. It’s not uncommon for there to be a federal investigation.”
Haney told ABC News that he understands that the U.S. attorney’s office in the Eastern District of New York is leading the investigation. A spokesperson for that office declined to comment for this article.
On Sunday, NBA spokesman Mike Bass said in a statement that the league is “cooperating with the federal prosecutors’ investigation” into Beasley.
Beasley has played for six teams during his nine-year NBA career, including a stint with the Lakers during the 2022-23 season. He played for the Detroit Pistons last season, averaging 16.3 points a game and setting a franchise record by making 319 three-point shots during the regular season.
In April 2024, the NBA banned then-Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter after finding that he had violated numerous league rules in relation to sports betting, including limiting his participation in one or more games and disclosing confidential information to bettors. Porter eventually pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and has yet to be sentenced.
Fat Joe calls out what he says are ‘disgusting lies’ nearly a week after his former hype man sued him for alleged coercion, intimidation and sex with minors.
BALTIMORE — A federal lawsuit could open a new chapter in an escalating legal battle in Maryland, where officials are struggling to address an unexpected onslaught of claims alleging child sexual abuse in state-run juvenile detention facilities.
With thousands of similar claims already pending in state court, the litigation has raised questions about how Maryland will handle the potential financial liability.
The new federal suit, filed Wednesday on behalf of three plaintiffs, seeks $300 million in damages — an amount that far exceeds caps imposed on claims filed in state court. It alleges Maryland juvenile justice leaders knew about a culture of abuse inside youth detention facilities and failed to address it, violating the plaintiffs’ civil rights.
A message seeking comment was left Thursday with the state’s Department of Juvenile Services. The department generally doesn’t comment on pending litigation. The Maryland Office of the Attorney General declined to comment.
An estimated 11,000 plaintiffs have sued in state court, according to the attorneys involved. Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson said Wednesday that he believes negotiations for a potential settlement are ongoing between attorneys for the plaintiffs and the attorney general’s office. Officials have said the state is facing a potential liability between $3 billion and $4 billion.
Lawsuits started pouring in after a state law passed in 2023 eliminated the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse claims in Maryland. The change came in the immediate aftermath of a scathing investigative report that revealed widespread abuse within the Archdiocese of Baltimore. It prompted the archdiocese to file for bankruptcy to protect its assets.
But Maryland leaders didn’t anticipate they’d be facing similar budgetary concerns because of claims against the state’s juvenile justice system.
Facing a potentially enormous payout, lawmakers recently passed an amendment to limit future liabilities. The new law reduces caps on settlements from $890,000 to $400,000 for cases filed after May 31 against state institutions, and from $1.5 million to $700,000 for private institutions. It allows each claimant to receive only one payment, instead of being able to collect for each act of abuse.
Suing in federal court allows plaintiffs to sidestep those limits.
“Despite Maryland’s recent unconstitutional legislative efforts to insulate itself from liability for the horrific sexual brutalization of children in its custody, Maryland cannot run from liability under Federal law,” plaintiffs’ attorney Corey Stern said in a statement. “The United States Constitution was created for all of us, knowing that some would need protection from the tyranny of their political leaders.”
The three plaintiffs in the federal case allege they were sexually abused by staff at two juvenile detention centers. While other lawsuits have mainly presented allegations of abuse occurring decades ago, the federal complaint focuses on events alleged to have happened in 2019 and 2020. The plaintiffs were 14 and 15 years old.
The victims feared their sentences would be extended if they spoke out, according to the complaint. They accuse state officials of turning a blind eye to a “culture of sexual brutalization and abuse.”
Stern said he anticipates more federal claims will be forthcoming.
Governing body Fifa’s three-step process for racist incidents is stopping a match, suspending it and abandoning it if the problem continues.
Speaking after the game Real Madrid boss Xabi Alonso said Rudiger had complained of a racist incident.
“In football there is no tolerance for this, and if it happened, then measures should be taken,” he said. “This is what Antonio has told us and we believe him. It’s being investigated now”.
Cabral said: “It was a fight. We collided. He said that I hit him with my hand, and then there was an argument and the referee made the racism sign, but I was telling him the same thing the whole time.”
In 2021 Rudiger, then at Chelsea, said “nothing ever really changes” after anti-discrimination campaigns in football, but that he will “continue to fight” against racist abuse.
Last week, campaigners criticised Fifa after it appeared to drop anti-racism messaging at the Club World Cup.
For years, Los Angeles City Councilmember John Lee declined to publicly discuss a fateful Las Vegas trip he took in 2017 with his then-boss Mitch Englander and a trio of businessmen.
That trip led to an FBI investigation of Englander, then a City Council member, who accepted an envelope of cash in a casino bathroom from one of the businessmen and later pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators.
Last week, in court to address allegations from the L.A. Ethics Commission, Lee finally broke his silence, divulging details of the high-rolling trip and insisting that he paid for his share.
There was his comped Aria hotel room — a standard room, not a suite, he said. There was the Hakkasan Nightclub, where he sipped whiskey and danced as hostesses paraded out $8,000 bottles of booze. And there was the casino, where he played blackjack — after losing $1,000 at the baccarat table — because he preferred the lower-stakes game.
Over and over, Lee, who was then Englander’s chief of staff, denied accepting gifts in violation of city ethics laws. Under grilling by a city enforcement officer, Lee described stuffing $300 into the pocket of one of the businessmen, Andy Wang, to cover his share at the nightclub. At dinner earlier that night, he said, he paid for his own drinks.
“I believe I made a good-faith effort to repay what I consumed that night,” Lee testified.
In 2023, the Ethics Commission accused Lee, who occupies Englander’s former seat representing the northwest San Fernando Valley, of accepting “multiple gifts” in violation of ethics laws, including free hotel rooms, poker chips and food, from a businessman and a developer during the Vegas trip.
The businessman and the developer were not named in the complaint, but details indicate that one was Wang and the other was Christopher Pak, both of whom testified as witnesses.
The commission has also accused Lee of helping Englander backdate checks to repay the businessman who comped the hotel rooms.
Federal prosecutors never criminally charged Lee, and he has said he was unaware of any wrongdoing by Englander.
At the time, city officials, including high-ranking council aides, could accept gifts with a value between $50 and $470 from a single source but had to disclose them, according to city and state laws. They were not allowed to accept gifts over $470 from a single source.
The Ethics Commission alleges that Lee violated both provisions.
Attorneys for Lee, who denies the allegations, have repeatedly tried to block the commission’s case, arguing that the statute of limitations had expired.
Witness testimony concluded last week, and Administrative Law Judge Ji-Lan Zang is expected to make a recommendation about what, if any, ethics violations Lee committed.
Then, a panel of ethics commissioners will vote on whether violations occurred and what the financial penalties, if any, should be.
In 2023, Englander agreed to pay $79,830 to settle a similar Ethics Commission case.
At last week’s hearing, city enforcement officer and attorney Marian Thompson sought to cast doubt on Lee’s version of events. She zeroed in on his insistence that he joined the group at an expensive Chinese restaurant, Blossom, but didn’t eat because he arrived late.
She read aloud the bill for the nearly $2,500 dinner — Kobe beef, Maine lobster, Peking duck, sea bass and more. Surely Lee, who had previously described himself as a “meat and potatoes” guy, liked Kobe beef? Thompson asked.
Lee said he tried only the bird’s nest soup. He described taking a spoonful of someone else’s bowl and saying, “Absolutely not” — it was “gelatinous,” he told Thompson.
Lee acknowledged drinking at the restaurant, giving someone — he couldn’t remember whom — $100 to cover the tab.
According to Englander’s 2020 federal indictment, a “City Staffer B” received some of the same perks as Englander during the Vegas trip. That staffer was widely presumed to be Lee, prompting calls for the newly elected council member to resign. Since then, questions about the Vegas trip have dogged Lee, though he easily won reelection in 2024.
Englander was sentenced to 14 months in federal prison. In his plea agreement, he admitted lying repeatedly to federal investigators and receiving a combined $15,000 in cash — $10,000 in a casino bathroom in Las Vegas, plus $5,000 at the Morongo Casino Resort & Spa from an unnamed businessman.
That man, Wang, ran companies that sold cabinets and home technology systems, was seeking relationships with real estate developers and others to increase his business opportunities in the city.
During his testimony last week, Lee said he followed city ethics laws during the Vegas trip. At the Aria hotel-casino, Englander showed Lee poker chips that Wang had given him, Lee testified.
“I told him immediately that he needed to give those chips back to Andy,” Lee said.
Lee also said he gave Englander a blank check with the understanding that Englander would reimburse Wang, who had comped Lee’s room.
But in a declaration in the ethics case, Englander wrote that neither he nor Lee reimbursed Wang “for any of the gifts we received at the Aria,” including the room, meals and drinks.
“While in Las Vegas, NV, Lee did not give me a check to reimburse Wang,” Englander added.
Thompson asked Lee about Englander’s statements.
“He’s lied before,” Lee replied.
In addition to Wang, two others — Michael Bai, a lobbyist who formerly worked at City Hall, and Koreatown developer Pak — came on the Vegas trip. Bai also testified as a witness last week.
Lee and Englander gave Wang separate checks for $442 on Sept. 14 that year. The ethics commission has accused Lee and Englander of backdating the checks to Aug. 4 — before they were interviewed by the FBI.
Lee disputed that during the hearing, saying he gave Englander his check on Aug. 4, after he said Englander had lost the earlier one.
At the Hakkasan club, Wang spent $24,000 on bottle service, with Pak spending an additional $10,000.
According to an estimate by the commission, the share Lee drank was worth $5,666.67.
But Lee’s attorney, Brian Hildreth, challenged that assertion. Dozens of revelers streamed through the group’s VIP booth that night, Lee and Pak both testified.
Lee said he had only two to four drinks and suggested that many people drank from the bottles.
Addressing questions about the casino, Lee acknowledged accepting $1,000 in poker chips from Wang, saying he thought he was playing on Wang’s behalf. Lee said he would have given any winnings to Wang.
But Lee testified that he didn’t know how to play baccarat and warned Wang that he wasn’t doing well, ultimately losing all the chips.
During questioning by Hildreth, Lee described withdrawing a total of $1,500 from ATMs in Vegas, with a bank statement listing the three withdrawals over two days.
Lee testified that he wanted “to make sure that I had my own money and paid for everything that I was a part of.”
Thompson pursued a counternarrative, describing the spectacle of nightclub hostesses bringing out bottles.
“You got VIP treatment?” Thompson asked.
“Treatment I’d never received before,” Lee answered.
A second Love Island star has spoken out to dismiss claims after it was reported that he was questioned by police after he was accused of stealing a phone on a night out
He denied wrongdoing and accused the person behind the allegation of attempted extortion.
Yesterday Surrey Police confirmed there was insufficient evidence to proceed over claims of rape.
Mr Blunt, who stood down as MP for Reigate last year, remains under investigation for drug possession.
A second man, in his 50s, is being investigated for the same alleged offence.
A Surrey Police spokeswoman said: “An investigation was launched following a report of rape in October 2023.
“Extensive enquiries have been carried out and a man in his 60s and a man in his 50s were arrested on 25 October 2023 in Horley in connection with the offence.
“It has since been determined that there is insufficient evidence to proceed and that no further action will be taken against either of the men in relation to the report of rape.
“However, both men will remain under investigation on suspicion of possession of controlled substances pending further enquiries.
“Enquiries into this matter are ongoing.”
Crispin Blunt confirms he’s Tory MP arrested over rape allegation and says he’s been interviewed twice by cops
One fateful October decision to trim two convoluted sentences from a “60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris has snowballed into a full-blown corporate crisis for CBS’ parent company, Paramount Global, and its controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone.
President Trump’s $20-billion lawsuit — claiming “60 Minutes” producers deceptively manipulated the Harris interview to make her look smarter — has festered, clouding the future of Paramount and the company’s hoped-for $8-billion sale to David Ellison’s Skydance Media.
The dispute over the edits has sparked massive unrest within the company, prompted high-level departures and triggered a Federal Communications Commission examination of alleged news bias. The FCC’s review of the Skydance deal has become bogged down, according to people familiar with the matter who weren’t authorized to comment.
The agency, chaired by a Trump appointee, must approve the transfer of CBS television station licenses to the Ellison family for the deal to advance.
A lawsuit resolution, through court-ordered mediation, remains out of reach. And last week, three Democratic U.S. senators raised the stakes by suggesting, in a letter to Redstone, that a Trump settlement could be considered an illegal payoff.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) warned in their letter that any payment to Trump to gain favorable treatment by the FCC could violate federal anti-bribery laws. Paramount’s dealings with Trump “raises serious concerns of corruption and improper conduct,” the senators wrote.
“Under the federal bribery statute, it is illegal to corruptly give anything of value to public officials to influence an official act,” the senators said.
President Trump during a signing ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House.
(Drew Angerer / Getty Images)
Redstone is desperate for the Paramount-Skydance deal to go through.
Her family’s holding company is cratering under a mountain of debt. Paramount’s sale to the Ellison family would provide the clan $2.4 billion for their preferred shares — proceeds that would allow the Redstones to pay their nearly $600 million in debt — and remain billionaires.
Paramount, Skydance and a spokesperson for Redstone declined to comment.
While recusing herself from granular and final decision-making, Redstone has made it clear that she wants Paramount to settle with Trump, rather than wage an ongoing beef with the sitting president, according to people familiar with the matter but not authorized to discuss internal deliberations.
Figuring a way out of the dispute has divided the company, according to insiders.
For CBS News professionals, apologizing to Trump over routine edits of a lengthy interview is a red line. Tensions have spilled into public view.
Redstone has been cast as the villain. The Drudge Report, created by journalist Matt Drudge, who got his start at CBS in Los Angeles, last month published a photo of 71-year-old heiress, identifying her in all caps as “The woman who destroyed CBS News.”
Two top CBS News executives have resigned. Both refused to apologize to Trump as part of any settlement, the knowledgeable sources said.
Most CBS journalists and 1st Amendment experts see Trump’s lawsuit a shakedown, one seemingly designed to exploit Paramount’s vulnerability because it needs the government’s approval for the Skydance deal.
“Settling such a case for anything of substance would thus compromise 1st Amendment principles today and the broad notion of freedom of the press in the future,” prominent press freedom lawyer Floyd Abrams said.
Paramount has stressed that it sees the Trump lawsuit and the FCC review of the Skydance deal as separate. “We will abide by the legal process to defend our case,” a Paramount spokesperson said.
But “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley connected the two for viewers during an extraordinary April broadcast, in which he rebuked Paramount management on air at the end of the program. That, according to sources, angered some of Paramount’s leaders.
While “60 Minutes” has received additional corporate oversight, some insiders pointed to Pelley’s acknowledgment that “none of our stories have been blocked.”
All the high-level scrutiny has put Paramount and Redstone in a box, and the Skydance deal looks less certain than it did months ago.
“Who’s going to sign that settlement, knowing that you could be accused of paying a bribe?” asked one person close to Paramount.
Paramount Global’s path to peril began long before the infamous “60 Minutes” edits. The company was diminished by management turmoil and years of cost-cutting, which would eventually force Redstone to find a buyer for one of Hollywood’s most storied studios.
Should New York-based Paramount, which also owns Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon and the famed Melrose Avenue movie studio, fail to complete its sale to Skydance by its October deadline, the deal could collapse.
Paramount then would owe $400 million to Skydance as a breakup fee, putting the company in further dire financial straits. Skydance and its investor RedBird Capital Partners have agreed, once they take over, to inject $1.5 billion into Paramount, helping it pay down some debt.
Redstone would also be on the hook to repay her financiers. Two years ago, a Chicago banker rescued the Redstone family investment firm, National Amusements Inc., with a $125-million equity investment.
The family’s finances were strained after Paramount cut its dividend to shareholders that spring during the Hollywood writers’ strike. The family’s dire financial situation was a leading impetus for Paramount’s sale.
If the deal fell through, Redstone would also have to repay a $186-million loan from tech mogul Larry Ellison. The billionaire Oracle co-founder and father of David Ellison extended the loan so National Amusements could make a looming debt payment.
National Amusements holds 77% of Paramount’s controlling shares, giving the Redstone family enormous sway over Paramount management.
Paramount Chairwoman Shari Redstone in 2023 in New York.
(Evan Agostini / Invision / Associated Press)
Critics privately note Redstone’s role in setting up the company for the current drama. It took nearly a year for Redstone and Paramount’s special board committee to negotiate a deal with Skydance. The independent directors spent months searching for an alternate buyer, adding to the delays that now haunt both sides.
Had the parties reached agreement sooner, the companies could have asked the FCC for approval earlier last year during the less hostile Biden administration.
Instead, weeks were spent haggling over various demands, including having Skydance indemnify Redstone and her family against shareholder lawsuits. In the end, the Ellisons also agreed to help Redstone pay for her New York apartment and private jet after the deal closes, according to the knowledgeable people.
Paramount petitioned the FCC for review in September.
By that time, political environment was caustic for mainstream media companies. Conservatives were upset over ABC News’ handling of the Sept. 10 debate between Trump and Harris after ABC anchors fact-checked Trump in real time, including pushing back on his false claim that Haitian immigrants in Ohio were eating pets.
Trump reportedly backed out of a “60 Minutes” appearance — long a traditional stop for presidential candidates — because CBS intended to fact-check his remarks. Conservatives viewed such formats as a double standard and as an example of how news bias has seeped into major networks’ coverage of Republicans.
“This was an issue we were already sensitive to and focused on,” said Daniel Suhr, president of the conservative Center for American Rights legal group, which filed an FCC complaint against Walt Disney Co.’s ABC after the debate.
Redstone, who had previously urged news executives to bring more balance to CBS’ coverage, was livid after managers scolded “CBS Mornings” co-host Tony Dokoupil for his sharp questioning of author Ta-Nehisi Coates about Israel during an interview segment. Coates’ book, “The Message,” compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to the Jim Crow South in the U.S.
Redstone, who is Jewish and has focused her philanthropy on battling antisemitism in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, publicly rebuked CBS News managers for their treatment of Dokoupil.
The controversial exchange in the Harris “60 Minutes” interview also happened to concern Israel.
Harris gave a long-winded three-sentence response.
CBS broadcast the convoluted first sentence on its Sunday public affairs show, “Face the Nation,” on Oct. 6. The following night — the anniversary of the Hamas attacks — “60 Minutes” aired only her most forceful and succinct third sentence: “We are not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end.”
Conservatives zeroed in.
“CBS created this mess for itself. … The conservative ecosystem was outraged when they saw the two different clips because it vindicated everything,” Suhr said. “Folks had always believed the media was selectively manipulating interviews like that.”
Journalists routinely cut extraneous words to provide clear and compact soundbites for audiences. CBS released a statement saying that it had not doctored the interview. Rather, news producers said they trimmed Harris’ response to cover more ground during the broadcast.
Internally, CBS debated whether to release the full transcript to quell the furor — but it stopped short at first. Some people close to the company have been particularly critical of CBS for not immediately releasing the unedited video.
One of Trump-appointed FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s first moves was to revive a separate news distortion complaint against “60 Minutes,” which Suhr had filed shortly after the broadcast. The matter had been dismissed by the previous Biden-appointed chair.
“It’s become clear that the company and I do not agree on the path forward,” McMahon told her staff in a note last week.
Insiders note other McMahon decisions, including the introduction of a new “CBS Evening News” format, which has led to plummeting ratings, as factors in her fall. McMahon could not be reached for comment.
Redstone and others hope the mediation with Trump’s attorneys will produce a truce.
But several questions remain: What will it take for Paramount to appease the president? And could the company’s leaders be prosecuted if they pay the president a multimillion-dollar settlement?
In “normal times,” officials might be alarmed by a president’s demand for a big check, said Michael C. Dorf, a Cornell Law School professor.
“These are not normal times, however, so the president will likely be able to get away with soliciting a bribe from Paramount, just as he is getting away with extortion of law firms and universities,” Dorf said.
Staff writer Stephen Battaglio contributed to this report.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has opened a criminal investigation into Motown singer Smokey Robinson after four of his former staffers accused him of sexual assault and wage theft.
Robinson, 85, was sued earlier this month by three former housekeepers and a former personal assistant who allege that the singer, whose legal name is William Robinson, forced them to have sex with him and also failed to pay minimum wage or overtime pay.
The suit, which was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, also accuses the singer’s wife, Frances Robinson, of regularly screaming at the employees, using ethnically pejorative words and failing to do anything to prevent her husband’s sexual abuse despite allegedly being aware of his actions.
The couple’s attorney, Christopher Frost, has denied the allegations. Details of the Sheriff’s Department’s probe were not immediately provided Thursday.
“The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Special Victims Bureau is actively investigating criminal allegations involving William Robinson, a.k.a. ‘Smokey Robinson,’” said department spokesperson Nicole Nishida. “The investigation is in the early stages, and we have no further comment.”
Frost said the Sheriff’s Department is required to investigate the allegations because the women filed a police report after filing the lawsuit.
In a statement, Frost called the police report “a desperate attempt to prejudice public opinion and make even more of a media circus than the Plaintiffs were previously able to create” and said his clients welcome the investigation.
“The record will ultimately demonstrate that this is nothing more than a manufactured lawsuit intended to tarnish the good names of Smokey and Frances Robinson, for no other reason than unadulterated avarice,” the statement read.
The lawsuit states that the women previously had reservations about reporting Robinson’s alleged abuse to authorities for several reasons including fear about immigration status, losing their livelihoods, public humiliation and intimidation by Robinson and his influential friends.
Attorneys representing the four woman — who filed the lawsuit as Jane Does — said they were pleased to learn that the Sheriff’s Department had opened an investigation into their clients’ claims of sexual assault.
“Our clients intend to fully cooperate with LASD’s ongoing investigation in the pursuit of seeking justice for themselves and others that may have been similarly assaulted by him [Robinson],” attorneys John Harris and Herbert Hayden said in a statement.
The civil lawsuit accuses the Robinsons of negligence, sexual battery and sexual assault, false imprisonment, intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, gender violence, and a hostile work environment, in addition to labor violations related to wages, breaks, meal periods, and holiday and overtime pay, according to the complaint.
The women allege that the “Tracks of My Tears” singer required them to have various types of sex with him — vaginal, oral and digital — over the years at his houses in Chatsworth, Bell Canyon and Las Vegas.
Jane Doe 1 worked for the Robinsons from January 2023 until February 2024. Jane Doe 2 worked from May 2014 to February 2020. Jane Doe 3 worked from February 2012 to April 2024, and Jane Doe 4 worked from October 2006 to April 2024.
Times staff writers Christie D’Zurilla and Richard Winton contributed to this report.
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