familys

Bianca Perry complained her family were ‘left abandoned’ after their journey home as they were struck with stomach issues after ‘eating meat casserole’ on plane

A family’s journey home to Leamington Spa turned into a nightmare that resembled a “scene from The Exorcist”, leaving them feeling abandoned and unwell.

Bianca Perry, 45, her husband David, also 45, and their three children Lauren, 15, Belle, 11, and William, eight, had spent six blissful weeks in Brazil before disaster struck on their return flight.

The horror began mid-flight when young William suddenly fell violently ill after eating the in-flight meal, and it wasn’t long before Belle, David and Bianca were similarly affected.

Only eldest child Lauren, who had avoided the meat casserole served, managed to escape the gut-wrenching illness.

Upon landing at Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado Airport in the early hours of 2 September, the family were seen vomiting uncontrollably at the gate as shocked fellow passengers looked on.

However, instead of rushing to help them, they claim airline staff treated them like a “problem”, allegedly refusing Bianca’s desperate pleas for assistance and a wheelchair for her husband, who was still recovering from painful dental surgery.

“The whole dinner was on the floor in front of everyone,” said Bianca, who hosts her own cooking show, speaking to NeedToKnow. “When we got off the plane, my daughter was sick in front of everyone.

“It was like a scene from The Exorcist. The airline staff weren’t looking at us like, ‘Are they okay? Can we do something?'”.

“They were looking at us like we were a problem.”

The family claims that TAP Air Portugal staff advised them against boarding their connecting flight due to their illness.

They were suggested to take the next flight, but the family claims they were not informed that this wouldn’t be until 7pm the following day on 3 September. This left them scrambling to find and pay for their own £330-a-night hotel and transport without any assistance.

Bianca stated: “We were scared to be sick on the plane; we weren’t sure if we had a bug and didn’t want to share it around the flight.

“When we accepted the offer of the new flight, we didn’t think it would be at 7pm the next day. They were so rude on another level.

“They just had no empathy – and thank Goodness I can speak Portuguese.”

At the hotel, the nightmare only got worse.

Bianca had to help David – still in agony with stitches in his mouth – through the lobby as he was sick repeatedly. Both Belle and William were still poorly too, leaving the family desperately washing vomit-covered clothes in the bathroom sink and trying to rest between bouts of illness.

And when they finally got back to the airport the following day, the ordeal wasn’t finished. Back in the UK, Bianca’s suitcase containing vital menopause medication had reportedly vanished whilst another turned up damaged.

When it was later discovered, she was informed she would either have to retrieve it herself or fork out a £45 delivery charge. Left with no alternative, David made the trek to collect the suitcase, knowing the medication was desperately required.

Bianca revealed: “There was no assistance whatsoever from them. We had to hand-wash vomit-covered clothes in the hotel.

“We were vomiting in the lobby. It was a nightmare.”

The family firmly believe their sickness stemmed from the airline meal – alleging they observed other passengers also falling ill following the flight.

Bianca continued: “Our experience with TAP Air Portugal was truly distressing on many levels. Despite being in a vulnerable and difficult situation, we were left to deal with everything ourselves.

“The lack of empathy and assistance was shocking – we were treated with disregard, not even as people, let alone as customers. No one deserves to be treated this way, especially not by a company of this size and visibility.

“It’s not just disappointing – it feels inhumane.”

TAP Air Portugal has been approached for comment.

In a compound nestled in Gitata, a remote community in Nasarawa State, North Central Nigeria, life has slowed to a crawl for the children of the late Mr and Mrs Bawa Danladi. Here, adulthood doesn’t begin with the wings of independence but with the sudden stillness of limbs.

In this house where joy once rang and children laughed freely, a strange affliction casts its long, silent cloud, stealing mobility, dignity, and dreams. The only shared pattern? The affliction grips every family member after they turn 18.

Eighteen is pegged as the age of majority in Nigeria. For some people, turning 18 connotes ‘leaving their nests’; however, for Danlami Dalandi and his siblings, it means being robbed of their coming of age.

Of the eight children born to the late Danladi, seven have been struck by a relentless and mysterious condition. Six are now completely paralysed, while another has lost her sight. For a family once filled with life and energy, the tragedy is not just that their bodies have failed them, but also that nobody seems to know why.

Danlami, who is now in his mid-forties, sits slouched, needing help to eat or shift even slightly in his chair. His voice cracks with exhaustion, but he presses on, determined to speak for himself and his siblings. They have become ghost versions of their former selves, slowly caving under their helplessness.

“I thought turning 18 would bring freedom,” said Danlami, the family’s eldest son, his voice heavy with sorrow. “Instead, it was the beginning of our end.”

As he explained his condition, Danlami’s gloomy face needed no interpretation of the emotional exhaustion it carried. While speaking to HumAngle, he described how he moved from a boy filled with energy to a man who couldn’t walk or stand.

He was the first in his family to encounter the enigmatic illness in 2001. It quietly took hold, showing no fever or noticeable symptoms, but slowly drained his strength. Activities that used to be simple started to feel overwhelmingly difficult. Years later, his younger brother Pious began to show the same symptoms, following the same unsettling pattern.

The illness didn’t strike in childhood. Instead, it waited until they crossed into adulthood, then everything began to deteriorate. Their strength faded, and mobility became a struggle. Even their eldest sister, Asabe, seemed spared at first. She married and gave birth before the sickness took hold. Unable to move without assistance, she shares the same fate as her brothers, who are all trapped in a body that no longer obeys.

The major setback

In 1990, when their father passed away, their mother became their anchor. She carried their burden, pushing wheelchairs, cleaning them up, feeding grown children, and wiping tears no one else saw. In a community with no formal support system, she became nurse, caregiver, and breadwinner at the same time.

When asked if the disorder has a historical origin within the family, Danladi told HumAngle that the condition is alien to them, as their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents were known to be hale and hearty until their demise.

“Our parents never had this sickness. We even asked if our great-grandparents or grandparents had such illnesses, but none of them did. It is only we, born of the same mother, that are afflicted by this sickness,” he said.

For years, their mother carried this weight of care. When she died in 2017, the siblings were left not just physically immobilised but emotionally adrift. 

Danlami said that despite their condition, they still bear the guilt of being unable to assist their mother. “She was our world,” says Danlami quietly. “She believed we could get better, even when we didn’t. She died in 2017, and that was when it truly felt like everything stopped.”

A rare disease

Their only formal visit to a proper medical facility happened in 2018, and no diagnosis was shared. They were taken to the Federal Medical Centre in Keffi courtesy of the Berekete Family, an Abuja-based reality radio and television programme. Tests were conducted, but no diagnosis was shared. They never saw the results, though they received some financial assistance.

When the broadcast station spotlighted the issue, the Nasarawa State Ministry of Health sent its representatives, including doctors, to conduct additional tests, suspecting polio. But according to Danlami, the only thing the officials told them was that “it’s not polio.”

Dr Douglas Okor, a consultant neurosurgeon at the Federal Medical Centre, Abuja, told HumAngle that the family might be experiencing a type of muscular dystrophy, a rare and often misunderstood genetic condition that quietly ravages the body’s muscles, starting in adolescence and worsening with age.

According to Dr Okor, the most familiar kinds, like Duchenne and Becker, typically affect boys early in childhood. But a lesser-known group called Limb-Girdle Muscular Dystrophy (LGMD) can surface in late adolescence or early adulthood. LGMD begins in the hips and shoulders and steadily disables the body, just like in the case of the late Danladi’s family.

“LGMD often appears in families with no known history. It can be inherited silently until two parents, both carrying the mutated gene, pass it to their child,” he noted. “Over time, patients lose the ability to walk, feed themselves, or even breathe without assistance, in some cases.”

Rare diseases such as LGMD affect a small percentage of the population, but they pose daunting challenges, especially in low-income countries where awareness, diagnostic tools, and specialised care are limited. While thousands of rare diseases exist globally, many of them genetic, accurate data on their incidence in Nigeria remains scarce, largely because of underreporting or misdiagnosis. 

A study at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, southwestern Nigeria, uncovered 11 cases of Duchenne muscular dystrophy over five years. One key finding was that scarce medical resources and early warning signs were routinely overlooked, leaving patients to arrive late and already deep into the disorder’s grip.

Like Danlami said, they were active children when they were younger. “I used to climb trees, play football, and help on the farm. Then, slowly, it became hard to move. And it never got better.” Their condition kept deteriorating because they were never diagnosed.

His brother, Danjuma, was the family’s powerhouse. Known around Gitata as “the Usain Bolt of the block”, he could out-sprint his peers when he was younger. He later worked as a mechanic, fixing generators, rewiring appliances, and bringing light to homes. Today, he cannot even brush his teeth without assistance.

Dr Okor explained that the symptoms often mask themselves as ordinary fatigue. Unlike infectious diseases, muscular dystrophy doesn’t produce visible inflammation or fever. “That makes it harder to detect, especially in low-resource settings like Gitata, where most people have never heard of the condition.”

Although rare, he noted, the illness can be managed if detected early, with input from multiple specialists and continuous rehabilitation. “It can be managed by a combination of a neurologist, physiotherapist, and occupational therapist,” Dr Okor said.

However, for the Danladi family, such options remain beyond reach, both financially and geographically; there is virtually no system in place to lean on. 

Nigeria has a National Commission for Persons with Disabilities, set up to protect rights and prevent discrimination, but there is no specific programme or policy dedicated to rare neuromuscular disorders like muscular dystrophy. Experts have long urged the government to create a framework for early diagnosis, registries, and specialised support services, but so far, these calls have gone unanswered.

One still standing

Since their mother’s death, the family has been left with one carer: Hannatu, their youngest sister.

The 25-year-old is the only sibling untouched, at least physically. Each day, she cares for her brothers, helping them bathe, eat, and reposition their stiffened bodies when necessary. 

But fear stalks her.

“I don’t know if it will reach me too,” she said, her voice barely audible. “In 2018, our youngest brother was fine. Now, he can’t lift his arms.”

Every tick of the clock reminds her she could be nearing the family’s invisible threshold. Though she has passed the age, she wonders constantly if she’s merely living on borrowed time.

Beyond that dread, the condition carries additional emotional scars for the women in the family. 

Her older sister, Cecilia, 28, is already living with the burden. The 28-year-old has already lost vision in one eye and movement in one of her legs. But what haunts her more is loneliness. Her and her sister’s futures are not just on pause; their love lives are equally hanging in the balance.

“Suitors don’t come our way. I think they’re afraid. They think it’s contagious. Honestly, we’ve all given up on the idea of marriage,” she told HumAngle.

Hannatu nods in silence as Cecilia speaks. Their dreams of families, weddings, careers, and travel have all withered into survival routines. The family’s closest neighbour feels a blend of heartbreak and helplessness. 

“We’ve watched this unfold over 20 years,” Shuaibu Adamu, a neighbour and family friend, said. “First, it was Danlami. Then the others followed. No one knows what this sickness is. We just pray for them to heal.”

In a country battling an overstretched healthcare system and public scepticism of rare diseases, families like the Danladis often slip through cracks too wide to fill. Without consistent intervention or support, their fate remains unchanged.

For now, Hannatu stays vigilant, her hands full, her heart heavy. But she sometimes wonders how long she can keep holding everyone up without falling herself.

The glass partition wall in Lisa Hanawalt’s office is lined with reference sheets dedicated to the members of the central family in “Long Story Short.”

Each page lists a character’s name, birth month and year — along with their zodiac sign — and a dated timeline of full body images that tracks how they look at different ages. Depending on the character, this includes their designs as children, teens and middle-aged adults.

During a mid-August morning at ShadowMachine studio, Hanawalt sits at her desk, pulling up different looks of earlier incarnations of the characters that she did before their final designs were set along with newer works in progress. Raphael Bob-Waksberg sits just behind her as they point out little details that they’re fond of and bounce their thoughts back and forth on whether certain characters might drastically change their appearance one year, as people tend to do.

“It’s a fun thing you don’t get to do on a lot of animated shows,” says Bob-Waksberg, the creator and showrunner of “Long Story Short.” “To evolve with our characters and dress them up and have so many different looks for them.”

On most animated sitcoms, characters are trapped in time: perpetually the same age, usually wearing the same clothes, rarely even getting a haircut — no matter how many holiday episodes they get through the years. Not so on “Long Story Short,” where the passage of time is a feature.

“It’s really fun to get to know the characters and to think about their aesthetic,” says Hanawalt, the show’s supervising producer. “We have to draw a lot of different versions of everybody.”

Siblings Shira, left, Yoshi and Avi Schwooper in “Long Story Short.”

(Netflix)

Launching Friday on Netflix, “Long Story Short” follows the Schwoopers, a Bay Area family whose portmanteau last name is a blend of the parents’ Schwartz and Cooper, through the ups and downs of their lives. The show’s cast includes Lisa Edelstein and Paul Reiser, who voice the parents Naomi and Elliot, respectively, and Ben Feldman, Abbi Jacobson and Max Greenfield as the Schwooper children, Avi, Shira and Yoshi.

Their story unfolds over time across both everyday happenings and milestones, with each self-contained episode jumping between moments that reverberate from anywhere in the 1950s to 2020s.

“It feels cumulative, even though the episodes themselves are not necessarily connected directly,” Bob-Waksberg says. “We thought a lot about emotional arcs more than narrative arcs. Can we feel like these characters have gone on a journey, even though we’re seeing the [story] out of order?”

“Long Story Short” is Bob-Waksberg’s first new show since the conclusion of “Bojack Horseman,” the acclaimed adult animated series that ended in 2020, about a washed up former sitcom star and his struggles set in an alternate Hollywood where humans lived alongside anthropomorphic animals. While “Bojack” didn’t shy away from showing how terrible parents were the root cause of various characters’ troubles, “Long Story Short” is a more nuanced take on dysfunction where it’s not as easy to place blame.

“As you get older, you kind of realize, we’re all screwed up in different ways and most of us didn’t have parents that bad,” Bob-Waksberg says. “We had parents who were trying and in some ways succeeding, and in other ways, not quite giving us what we needed.”

The show marks the pair’s third animated series together. Hanawalt served as the production designer and producer on “Bojack” before developing her own series, “Tuca & Bertie,” on which Bob-Waksberg served as an executive producer. But their easy rapport as they comment on a short clip of sauce exploding and whether a character is the type of person to only own one suit — as well as when the conversation detours into listing actors they insist the other likes after a missed film reference — makes it obvious that their friendship runs much deeper.

Longtime friends Raphael Bob-Waksberg and Lisa Hanawalt have previously worked together on “Bojack Horseman” and “Tuca & Bertie.”

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Bob-Waksberg and Hanawalt explain that even during their high school years in Palo Alto, where they crossed paths as theater kids and became friends, they would talk about working on projects together and dream up TV show ideas. Describing Hanawalt as one of his favorite people and artists, Bob-Waksberg says she is the first person he thinks of whenever he needs someone for artistic work.

After hearing Bob-Waksberg’s idea for “Long Story Short,” “I just immediately felt like I knew what it should look like,” says Hanawalt. “That it should look like Sunday funnies, comics and ‘Peanuts.’ … I thought this should be more hand-drawn and loose. The warmth of the show, but also playing against how serious some of the subject matter is, I thought [that style] would help warm it up a bit.”

Though Hanawalt says backgrounds are not her forte, she had a vision of what she saw for the world and started drawing houses and buildings that resembled those they grew up in. Bob-Waksberg credits that as the reason for the show being set in Northern California.

Another reason Hanawalt wanted to work on the show was because it involved designing humans — something she’s leaned away from in the past.

“All the other stuff I get sent is for animals [and] animal people,” she says. “People see me as the animal lady, which I am — I do love anthropomorphic animals and plants. But I was actually leaning toward something more realistic. … I don’t want to get pigeonholed. And doing the same thing over and over, it gets really boring to me. So this was a fun challenge, drawing humans that are as cute as animals.”

Hearing this, Bob-Waksberg is amused by how aspects from their past have come to define them.

“I was just thinking about how 13, 14 years ago, I was developing a whole bunch of TV shows,” he says. “The one that went was the animated one and now I’m a cartoon guy, which I don’t resent. It’s been very good for me. But it’s so funny, [to think that] there’s another universe in which this other show went and then I’d be known as that kind of writer.”

The Schwooper family in an episode of “Long Story Short.”

(Netflix)

Both Bob-Waksberg and Hanawalt acknowledge it’s still a tough time for the industry, including for writers looking for work and creatives trying to get things made. Both mention having pitched different ideas that they were certain would be their next projects that ultimately went nowhere.

“I’m glad to work on this because I’m happy to not be a showrunner right now,” Hanawalt admits. “‘Tuca & Bertie’ wiped me out [and] I didn’t have enough juice to keep pitching.”

Still, Bob-Waksberg believes animation is one of the few places were shows based on original ideas have a chance, and for that he and Hanawalt are both grateful because they’d rather work on their own ideas than play in someone else’s sandbox. In other spaces, studios appear to only show interest on ideas based on existing IP like a book, news article or podcast. They also remain hopeful that, in time, things will get better.

“The appetite for original, good shows and animated shows is always there,” Hanawalt says. “That’s consistent. The audience is there. It’s just a matter of getting it to them.”

Although the show centers a Jewish family in Northern California and includes nods to his upbringing, Bob-Waksberg has been clear that “Long Story Short” is not autobiographical. But it is deeply personal. He explains that discussing the novel “Interior Chinatown,” which confronts the interplay of representation and identity, with author Charles Yu was one of the things that made him think about what it would be like to address his own identity in his work.

“It felt like it opened up this new door of story possibility that I hadn’t considered before,” Bob-Waksberg says. “One of the interesting things about working on this show is unpacking [how], especially in conversation with my other writers and the actors and other people, some things that I attributed to being Jewish is just my family.”

“Long Story Short” showrunner Raphael Bob-Waksberg and supervising producer Lisa Hanawalt.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

While the series addresses the “trauma” — in quotes depending on which character you ask — rooted in people’s upbringing, it’s also filled with plenty of humor and heart. Most episodes are zoomed in on whatever more personal issue the Schwoopers are facing, and the passage of time is conveyed through characters’ ages and appearances rather than by referencing specific happenings and headlines that might be associated with that story’s era.

But one global event the series does acknowledge is the COVID-19 pandemic. For Bob-Waksberg, it was important to do so because it’s a collective trauma that affected everyone and should be remembered as such.

“This was a real dividing point for our world and for us all as individuals,” Bob-Waksberg says. “I feel like it’s been underrepresented in pop culture in a weird way [and] we all were very quick to move on.”

“Let’s not pretend that it never happened,” he continued. “I do feel like, as a storyteller, it is in some ways my job to be a document of the world.”

Recalling how important it was for him to hear stories from Holocaust survivors about their experiences when he was younger, Bob-Waksberg adds: “I don’t want to forget about these things.”

SACRAMENTO — State Food and Agriculture Director Clare Berryhill, a charter member of Gov. George Deukmejian’s Cabinet and an aggressive promoter of California farm exports, resigned Tuesday, effective May 22.

Deukmejian, who made the announcement in a prepared statement released by his office, did not name a successor to the 61-year-old Berryhill, a rough-hewn grower and former state legislator known for his candor. He said Berryhill wanted to spend more time on his family’s farming operations in Butte and Stanislaus counties.

The announcement was not entirely unexpected. For some time Berryhill had indicated privately that he was tiring of the $85,552-a-year position and was considering returning to his farms full time.

“He has been thinking about it for a long time. Each time, we’d talk him out of it,” said a colleague. “This time he did it.”

One top-level Administration official who asked not to be identified said a successor to Berryhill probably would be chosen from outside the Department of Food and Agriculture. Mentioned in speculation as a possible replacement is Jack C. Parnell, state director of fish and game and a one-time assistant to Berryhill in the agriculture department.

Berryhill, who as food and agriculture director is a member of the governor’s Cabinet, traveled with Deukmejian to Japan in January and to Europe earlier this month to promote California as a good place to do business and to seek more markets for state agricultural products.

In a statement, Deukmejian said Berryhill’s “expertise and knowledge, particularly in the area of promoting agricultural exports, will be missed.”

Berryhill, a lifelong resident of the Stanislaus County community of Ceres, where he and his family grow grapes, was narrowly elected to the state Assembly in 1969, winning by only 38 votes out of 60,569 cast. In 1972, he was elected to the Senate but refused to seek a second term because it had “become obvious that a legislative career and the proper management of my business interests are incompatible.”

Deukmejian named him to direct the Department of Food and Agriculture shortly after he took office in 1983.

After they were forcibly displaced multiple times during Israel’s war on Gaza, the Sobh family has taken refuge in a coastal camp west of Gaza City.

Street vendor Fadi Sobh, 30, describes his tent as “unbearably hot during summer”. His 29-year-old wife, Abeer, collects seawater because clean water is in short supply.

The children bathe in turns, standing in a metal basin as their mother pours saltwater over them. Nine-month-old Hala cries when the salt irritates her eyes, while her siblings bear the discomfort without complaint.

Abeer feeds Hala water from a baby bottle. On good days, she has lentils to grind into powder and mix with the water. “One day feels like one hundred days, because of the summer heat, hunger and the distress,” she says.

Fadi travels to a nearby soup kitchen, sometimes with one of his children. “But food is rarely available there,” he said.

The kitchen operates roughly once a week, never meeting demand. Often, he waits an entire day only to return home with nothing “and the kids sleep hungry, without eating”.

Abeer sometimes goes to aid trucks near the Zikim crossing alone or with Youssef, one of her children. The crowds are mostly men – stronger and faster than she is. “Sometimes I manage to get food, and in many cases, I return empty-handed,” she said.

When unsuccessful, she begs those who secured supplies. “You survived death thanks to God, please give me anything,” she pleads. Many respond kindly, offering her a small bag of flour to bake for the children.

During the hottest hours of the day, the six children stay in or near the tent. Their parents encourage them to sleep through the heat, preventing them from using energy and becoming hungry and thirsty.

As temperatures drop, the children go outside. Some days, Abeer sends them to ask the neighbours for food. Other times, they search through Gaza’s ruined streets, sifting through rubble and rubbish for anything to fuel their makeshift stove.

After spending the day seeking life’s essentials – food, water, and cooking fuel – the family occasionally gathers enough for Abeer to prepare a meal, usually a thin lentil soup. More often, they have nothing and go to bed hungry.

Abeer says she is growing weaker, frequently feeling dizzy while searching for food. “I am tired. I am no longer able,” she said. “If the war goes on, I am thinking of taking my life. I no longer have any strength or power.”

EDINBURGH, Scotland — Lashed by cold winds and overlooking choppy, steel-gray North Sea waters, the breathtaking sand dunes of Scotland’s northeastern coast rank among President Trump’s favorite spots on Earth.

“At some point, maybe in my very old age, I’ll go there and do the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen,” Trump said in 2023, during his New York civil fraud trial, talking about his plans for future developments on his property in Balmedie, Aberdeenshire.

At 79 and back in the White House, Trump is making at least part of that pledge a reality, landing in Scotland on Friday as his family’s business prepares for the Aug. 13 opening of a golf course bearing his name.

Trump will be in Scotland until Tuesday, and he plans to talk trade with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

The Aberdeen area is already home to another of his courses, Trump International Scotland, and the Republican president is also visiting a Trump course near Turnberry, about 200 miles away on Scotland’s southwest coast. Trump said upon arrival Friday evening that his son is “gonna cut a ribbon” for the new course during his trip. Eric Trump also went with his father to break ground on the project back in 2023.

Using a presidential overseas trip — with its sprawling entourage of advisors, White House and support staffers, Secret Service agents and reporters — to help show off Trump-brand golf destinations demonstrates how the president has become increasingly comfortable intermingling his governing pursuits with promoting his family’s business interests.

The White House has brushed off questions about potential conflicts of interest, arguing that Trump’s business success before he entered politics was a key to his appeal to voters.

White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers called the Scotland swing a “working trip.” She added that Trump “has built the best and most beautiful world-class golf courses anywhere in the world, which is why they continue to be used for prestigious tournaments and by the most elite players in the sport.”

Tee times for sale

Trump went to Scotland to play his Turnberry course during his first term in 2018 while en route to a meeting in Finland with Russian President Vladimir Putin. But this trip comes as the new golf course is already actively selling tee times.

“We’re at a point where the Trump administration is so intertwined with the Trump business that he doesn’t seem to see much of a difference,” said Jordan Libowitz, vice president for the ethics watchdog organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, known as CREW. “It’s as if the White House were almost an arm of the Trump Organization.”

During his first term, the Trump Organization signed an ethics pact barring deals with foreign companies. An ethics framework for Trump’s second term allows them.

Trump’s assets are in a trust run by his children, who are handling day-to-day operations of the Trump Organization while he’s in the White House. The company has inked many recent lucrative foreign agreements involving golf courses, including plans to build luxury developments in Qatar and Vietnam, even as the Trump administration negotiates tariff rates for those countries and others.

Past legal fights

Trump’s existing Aberdeenshire course has a history nearly as rocky as the area’s cliffs.

It has struggled to turn a profit and was found by Scottish conservation authorities to have partially destroyed nearby sand dunes. Trump’s company also was ordered to cover the Scottish government’s legal costs after the course unsuccessfully sued over the construction of a nearby wind farm, arguing in part that it hurt golfers’ views.

The development was part of the massive civil case, which accused Trump of inflating his wealth to secure loans and make business deals.

Trump’s company’s initial plans for his first Aberdeen-area course called for a luxury hotel and nearby housing. His company received permission to build 500 houses, but Trump suggested he’d be allowed to build five times as many and borrowed against their values without actually building any homes, the lawsuit alleged.

Judge Arthur Engoron found Trump liable last year and ordered his company to pay $355 million in fines — a judgment that has grown with interest to more than $510 million as Trump appeals.

Weissert writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Chris Megerian in Washington contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Monday released records of the FBI’s surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr. despite opposition from the slain Nobel laureate’s family and the civil rights group that he led until his 1968 assassination.

The digital document dump includes more than 240,000 pages of records that had been under a court-imposed seal since 1977, when the FBI first gathered the records and turned them over to the National Archives and Records Administration.

In a lengthy statement released Monday, King’s two living children, Martin III, 67, and Bernice, 62, said their father’s killing has been a “captivating public curiosity for decades.” But the pair emphasized the personal nature of the matter and urged that the files “be viewed within their full historical context.”

The Kings got advance access to the records and had their own teams reviewing them. Those efforts continued even as the government granted public access. Among the documents are leads the FBI received after King’s assassination and details of the CIA’s fixation on King’s pivot to international anti-war and anti-poverty movements in the years before he was killed. It was not immediately clear whether the documents shed new light on King’s life, the civil rights movement or his murder.

“As the children of Dr. King and Mrs. Coretta Scott King, his tragic death has been an intensely personal grief — a devastating loss for his wife, children, and the granddaughter he never met — an absence our family has endured for over 57 years,” they wrote. “We ask those who engage with the release of these files to do so with empathy, restraint, and respect for our family’s continuing grief.”

They also repeated the family’s long-held contention that James Earl Ray, the man convicted of assassinating King, was not solely responsible, if at all.

Bernice King was 5 years old when her father was killed at the age of 39. Martin III was 10.

A statement from the office of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard called the disclosure “unprecedented” and said many of the records had been digitized for the first time. She praised President Trump for pushing the issue.

Release is ‘transparency’ to some, a ‘distraction’ for others

Trump promised as a candidate to release files related to President John F. Kennedy’s 1963 assassination. When Trump took office in January, he signed an executive order to declassify the JFK records, along with those associated with Robert F. Kennedy’s and MLK’s 1968 assassinations.

The government unsealed the JFK records in March and disclosed some RFK files in April.

The announcement from Gabbard’s office included a statement from Alveda King, Martin Luther King Jr.’s niece, who is an outspoken conservative and has broken from King’s children on various topics — including the FBI files. Alveda King said she was “grateful to President Trump” for his “transparency.”

Separately, Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi’s social media account featured a picture of the attorney general with Alveda King.

Besides fulfilling Trump’s order, the latest release means another alternative headline for the president as he tries to mollify supporters angry over his administration’s handling of records concerning the sex trafficking investigation of Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself behind bars while awaiting trial in 2019, during Trump’s first presidency. Trump on Friday ordered the Justice Department to release grand jury testimony but stopped short of unsealing the entire case file.

Bernice King and Martin Luther King III did not mention Trump in their statement Monday. But Bernice King later posted on her personal Instagram account a black-and-white photo of her father, looking annoyed, with the caption “Now, do the Epstein files.”

And some civil rights activists did not spare the president.

“Trump releasing the MLK assassination files is not about transparency or justice,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton. “It’s a desperate attempt to distract people from the firestorm engulfing Trump over the Epstein files and the public unraveling of his credibility among the MAGA base.”

The King Center, founded by King’s widow and now led by Bernice King, reacted separately from what Bernice said jointly with her brother. The King Center statement framed the release as a distraction — but from more than short-term political controversy.

“It is unfortunate and ill-timed, given the myriad of pressing issues and injustices affecting the United States and the global society,” the King Center, linking those challenges to MLK’s efforts. “This righteous work should be our collective response to renewed attention on the assassination of a great purveyor of true peace.”

Records mean a new trove of research material

The King records were initially intended to be sealed until 2027, until Justice Department attorneys asked a federal judge to lift the sealing order early. Scholars, history buffs and journalists have been preparing to study the documents for new information about his assassination on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tenn.

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which King co-founded in 1957 as the civil rights movement blossomed, opposed the release. The group, along with King’s family, argued that the FBI illegally surveilled King and other civil rights figures, hoping to discredit them and their movement.

It has long been established that then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was intensely interested if not obsessed with King and others he considered radicals. FBI records released previously show how Hoover’s bureau wiretapped King’s telephone lines, bugged his hotel rooms and used informants to gather information, including evidence of King’s extramarital affairs.

“He was relentlessly targeted by an invasive, predatory, and deeply disturbing disinformation and surveillance campaign orchestrated by J. Edgar Hoover through the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” the King children said in their statement.

“The intent … was not only to monitor, but to discredit, dismantle and destroy Dr. King’s reputation and the broader American Civil Rights Movement,” they continued. “These actions were not only invasions of privacy, but intentional assaults on the truth — undermining the dignity and freedoms of private citizens who fought for justice, designed to neutralize those who dared to challenge the status quo.”

The Kings said they “support transparency and historical accountability” but “object to any attacks on our father’s legacy or attempts to weaponize it to spread falsehoods.”

Opposition to King intensified even after the Civil Rights Movement compelled Congress and President Lyndon B. Johnson to enact the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. After those victories, King turned his attention to economic justice and international peace. He criticized rapacious capitalism and the Vietnam War. King asserted that political rights alone were not enough to ensure a just society. Many establishment figures like Hoover viewed King as a communist threat.

King’s children still don’t accept the original explanation of assassination

King was assassinated as he was aiding striking sanitation workers in Memphis, part of his explicit turn toward economic justice.

Ray pleaded guilty to King’s murder. Ray later renounced that plea and maintained his innocence until his death in 1998.

King family members and others have long questioned whether Ray acted alone or if he was even involved. Coretta Scott King asked for the probe to be reopened, and in 1998, then-Atty. Gen. Janet Reno ordered a new look. Reno’s Justice Department said it “found nothing to disturb the 1969 judicial determination that James Earl Ray murdered Dr. King.”

In their latest statement, Bernice King and Martin Luther King III repeated their assertions that Ray was set up. They pointed to a 1999 civil case, brought by the King family, in which a Memphis jury concluded that Martin Luther King Jr. had been the target of a conspiracy.

“As we review these newly released files,” the Kings said, “we will assess whether they offer additional insights beyond the findings our family has already accepted.”

Barrow writes for the Associated Press. AP journalist Safiyah Riddle contributed to this report from Montgomery, Ala.

Victoria Finnigan, 25, has instructed lawyers to investigate the cause of the E.coli infection after her daughter Freya Finnigan-Haynes was left needing emergency surgery

A mother has shared her harrowing tale of a dream holiday to Egypt that turned into “one of the worst experiences of her life” when her two-year-old daughter contracted deadly E.coli..

Victoria Finnigan, 25, has asked lawyers to investigate whether she has a claim after her little girl, Freya Finnigan-Haynes, required emergency surgery following their luxury trip to Hurghada. The toddler was diagnosed with a severe bacterial infection that resulted in both her kidneys failing after she fell seriously ill during the £2,000 holiday last November.

Victoria and her partner Thomas Sloan, 24, had taken Freya away for some winter sun, but all three fell ill with gastric symptoms following their holiday in Egypt.

Upon their return to the UK, Thomas recovered within a few weeks, however, Victoria and Freya were diagnosed with E.coli..

Freya’s condition worsened over the next two days, with her hands, feet and lips turning blue, leading to her being rushed to hospital by ambulance. Both of Freya’s kidneys failed and she was moved to another hospital for surgery to insert dialysis tubes.

READ MORE: Livid parents call for adults-only holidays ban as ‘no kids is discrimination’

She underwent dialysis for three weeks and received four blood transfusions, remaining in hospital over the Christmas period. Freya now has to take folic acid daily and will need annual check-ups until she turns 18.

Victoria, a home carer, and Thomas, a car body repairer, have since hired lawyers to investigate their illnesses. “We’d been looking forward to our holiday for a long time and couldn’t wait to get out there and enjoy some winter sun,” Victoria, from Twickenham, London, said.

“Instead, it turned into one of the worst experiences of our lives. It was awful when Thomas and I fell ill, but I hoped that Freya had escaped it. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. To see my darling girl so unwell was incredibly traumatic, and to be told that she was suffering kidney failure devastated me.

“All I wanted to do was make her better. Sadly, she’ll have to have regular check-ups for a long time. We know we can’t change what happened but the least we deserve are some answers, especially for Freya.”

The family’s dream trip turned sour when Victoria and Thomas were struck down with sickness and diarrhoea shortly after their holiday began between November 29 to December 9 last year. Their daughter Freya started showing similar symptoms on the flight back home a week later.

While Victoria and Thomas got better within weeks of returning to the UK, Freya’s condition led to hospitalisation due to kidney failure, and she remained in care until New Year’s Eve.

Jatinder Paul, an international serious injury solicitor at Irwin Mitchell representing the family, commented on the ordeal: “The first-hand accounts we’ve heard from Victoria and Thomas are deeply concerning. The impact of gastric illness should never be underestimated. That Freya went on to develop kidney failure and had to undergo dialysis as a result, demonstrates the severity of what can happen.

“Understandably, Victoria and Thomas have a number of concerns over how their holiday was ruined by illness. We’re now investigating those concerns and are determined to provide the family with the answers they deserve.”