fell

In January, 1991, as America stood on the edge of its first war in a generation, a quiet, bespectacled man stood in the well of the U.S. Senate and forced the nation to hesitate and think. George J. Mitchell, a former federal judge who was then Senate majority leader, had successfully pressed the Bush Administration into something Presidents had ignored for half a century: allowing Congress its constitutional authority to vote on making war.

Mitchell’s maneuver was politically perilous. Anyone who opposed the Gulf War risked appearing disloyal to the country and its then enormously popular President. Yet what followed, people in both parties now recall, was one of the finest moments in Senate history, a high-minded and highly emotional debate of conscience by a nation about to send its young people to war.

During George Bush’s four years as President, it was only one of many incidents when Mitchell, an intellectual politician in the era of three-second attack politics, drew sharp lines between Congress and the Republican Administration. For a time, the stoic New Englander, who avoided flashy TV sound bites and had a strong commitment to lighthouses and waterfowl, was the most important Democrat in the country.

Mitchell had risen to majority leader with historic speed. He was in only his eighth year when the Senate picked him as its leader. The former political protege of legendary Maine Democrat Edmund S. Muskie, Mitchell had spent much of his time in the Senate fighting to pass two liberal bills, a Clean Air Act and a law to clean up oil spills. He struck colleagues as uniquely decent and fair, disciplined, unemotional and deeply intellectual.

Early in 1994, he stunned Washington by announcing he would not seek almost certain reelection for a third term. He then turned down a seat on the Supreme Court in the spring of 1994. Some speculated that he was holding out to become commissioner of baseball. Still others linked his court demurrer to the fact that the 61-year-old divorce would marry 37-year-old Heather MacLachlan, a manager of professional athletes.

He dedicated the rest of his Senate career to passing health-care reform, but by October, that effort had collapsed. Then, on Election Day, his chosen successor for the Senate lost, the seat going to Republican Olympia Snowe. His party had lost the Senate after six years in the majority and the House after 40. On election night, Mitchell says, he never saw it coming.

During his last week in Washington, Mitchell sat down a t the polished conference table in his elegant Senate office to reflect on his leaving. He was still busy, juggling plans for his marriage in December and managing the passage of GATT , always dressed in crisp white shirt and dark suit, even on Saturday. But over the course of three long sessions, his reserve began to ease and his hands to wave as he reflected on what is right and wrong with the U.S Congress, on President Clinton, the Republican and Democratic parties, and about why so many Americans feel the nation is in political crisis.

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I was taken by surprise. I’d hoped that we would retain control of both the Senate and House, although I knew that we would suffer some losses. In off-year elections, the party of the President usually loses about four seats in the Senate. We lost eight.

In retrospect, if the Administration and the congressional leadership had decided to forgo health care for this year and concentrated on welfare reform, it might have produced a different result.

But I think the Democrats are also suffering the effects of larger cultural, political and economic upheaval. Whenever a society is in transition, there’s uncertainty, anxiety, even fear. Clearly, we are a society undergoing major transition now. For most American families, incomes have either declined or remained stagnant. People see now that it is not inevitable or likely that incomes will continue to rise. Whenever there is a major transition, there is a natural desire, even a longing, for a simple, easy answer–Why is this so? How can it be corrected? There is a nostalgia for the past, often an inaccurate glorification of the past. We’ve had in our history times when seemingly simplistic answers have been offered, which in retrospect look ridiculous. The Know-Nothing movement flourished in the mid-19th Century; the Ku Klux Klan flourished early in this century; we’ve had a lot of Red scares; we’ve had a lot of things we look back on and wonder now how they happened. But at the time, given the state of anxiety and fear, it’s understandable.

I want to make very clear that I do not equate what happened this year with the Ku Klux Klan or the Know-Nothings. I’m simply describing a phenomenon of a society in transition being (susceptible).

What the Republicans did was very skillful. They developed a clear and simple message–that if we can somehow stop this expansion of government authority, then family values will be restored. It has an appeal. It’s simple, it’s comprehensible, it appears to be logical. Of course, it isn’t going to restore those values. It certainly isn’t going to do the really essential thing of promoting economic growth. Indeed, they also labeled the Democrats as the party of high taxes. In fact, the President’s economic plan passed in 1993 raised income-tax rates only on the highest-earning 1.2% of all Americans and cut taxes for most lower- and middle-income families. Polls show people don’t know that. But the Republicans didn’t make up their argument out of whole cloth. Democrats helped them.

For too many in our party, government became a first resort rather than a last. There was an inability to distinguish between principle and programs–we became committed to programs. Democrats have succeeded when we have seen the difference and when we have been perceived as the party of economic growth. But in recent years, we’ve become increasingly perceived not as the party trying to make the economic pie grow but as the party trying to make sure that every single person gets an absolutely equal slice of the pie. That has coincided with a polarization of income concurrent with the polarization by race.

In Congress, meanwhile, the Republicans have been very skillful, cynical but skillful, in creating a gridlock from which they have benefited.

Perhaps the best example is the first item in the House Republicans’ contract with America, which would require that all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply to Congress. That’s a good idea, isn’t it? It’s so good, in fact, that we Democrats have promoted this legislation even longer than Republicans. That bill passed the House of Representatives when it was controlled by Democrats.

When I tried to bring it up in the Senate, Republican senators objected. They prevented the Senate from considering the legislation that their party said was No. 1 on its contract. That’s cynicism and, I’m sorry to say, successful cynicism. Now next year they’ll pass the legislation, and they’ll say, “Look here, we’re honoring our contract.”

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Though they barely knew each other before Election Day in 1992, Mitchell was one of President Clinton’s closest allies during the past two years. He fought for Clinton’s deficit-cutting budget in 1993 and battled for health care reform in 1994 even when most Democrats thought the battle was lost. Since the Democratic defeat in November, many in Mitchell’s party have laid most of the blame on Clinton.

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I think the problems the President has encountered are largely the result of too ambitious an agenda. If we had had just a few items, I think we’d have been a lot better off.

In retrospect, moreover, if I had known that health care would not be enacted, it would have made sense to discontinue the effort and to go on to welfare reform. But nine months ago, (passing health care) looked pretty good.

I didn’t know then-Gov. Clinton very well prior to the election, but I came to consider him extremely intelligent, very knowledgeable on issues, hard working, and the policy positions he has taken are mostly, not always, consistent with my own.

I recall one meeting last year, when he had a group of us to the White House for dinner to talk on health care, bipartisan, maybe 10 or 12 senators. Usually at these meetings, the members of Congress know all the details because the President speaks in general terms. It became evident quickly that the President knew much more about the details than did any of the members. It was a complete reversal in terms of knowledge of the subject.

I also disagree that the President is vacillating and indecisive. Historian Garry Wills has compared Clinton to Lincoln and said that the difference is Clinton does it all publicly in advance, and Lincoln did it all privately, behind the walls of the White House. I think one of the problems that has depicted this White House as vacillating is that they do their thinking out loud.

It is unfair, too, to have suggested that President Clinton has no bedrock principles on which he will not compromise. Look at the things he’s taken on. Why does he have political problems? In the South, they say it’s because of the policy on gays in the military. Is this a man without conviction? I don’t see how critics can have it both ways. On the one hand they say he pursued unpopular policies, on the other he doesn’t have convictions.

I have a theory, though it’s entirely subjective and personal, that economic matters are more important to the electorate in presidential elections than they are in off-term elections. I think if the economy stays strong, he’ll be in a much better position to gain reelection than he is now. Right now he’s being measured not against another person, but against each citizen’s individual subjective idealization of the presidency. When he runs, he’s going to be running against a person, (who will) have a personal life and a business background that will be relentlessly scrutinized. I’m convinced that Ross Perot will be running, and that will help President Clinton–even more than in ‘92, because the Perot supporters are much more Republican now. I think Bill Clinton will be reelected.

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Mitchell said he began thinking about retiring the day of the 1994 State of the Union speech in January. There were many factors, but important among them was the realization that if he didn’t leave now, at 61, he would become too old to take up anything else–such as, for instance, baseball commissioner.

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In 1993, when I turned 60, I decided to celebrate by climbing the highest mountain in my home state of Maine, Mt. Kitahdin. It’s one of the toughest non-technical climbs in the East, a mile high and about a 4,000-foot vertical climb.

There are two peaks on Mt. Kitahdin: Pamola Peak and the summit. The distance between them is a narrow ledge that stretches more than a mile, called the Knife’s Edge; I have a fear of heights.

Late that night, after we finished, I told my friends that the climb reminded me of Charles Darwin’s trip around the world, during which he first conceived the theory of evolution. It was a physically rough trip for him; he was sick for a large part of the time. He never made another such trip, and he spent the rest of his life talking about that one. That’s the way I felt about climbing Mt. Kitahdin.

That is also how I feel when I reflect on what it took to pass major legislation in the U.S. Senate, including one of my highest priorities, the Clean Air Act.

I had run for majority leader in 1988, in significant part so that we could pass some of the legislation that I had tried for six or seven years to make into law and failed. After I was majority leader, and we finally got the clean air bill onto the floor, it became obvious it couldn’t pass. I didn’t want it to die, so I decided we should negotiate. We spent over a month in my conference room–members of the Bush Administration and senators, groups of 10 or 12, sometimes 50 or 60. There were many 16- to 18-hour days. We went over every provision, negotiating in good faith, and we finally reached a consensus.

That’s what it takes to enact major legislation. And that is one of the few tools available now to the Senate majority leader: the ability to get people together, to get them to listen to each other. No longer can a leader order senators to follow. Lyndon B. Johnson centralized power in the majority leader. He was able to exert influence on his colleagues for three reasons. One was his personality. Second, he had the power to appoint all senators to committees and to remove them from committees. That can make or break a senator’s career. The other was that if you wanted a roll call vote, you had to get his approval. He used those powers very effectively, but in the minds of many of his colleagues, he abused them. When he left, those powers were taken away from the majority leader, so majority leaders since have had very little in the way of institutional tools to impose discipline (over their party or the institution).

I have advocated that some of these powers be restored. Bob Dole, the new majority leader, disagreed. I expect he may change his mind now. Of course, the Senate could make these changes simply by operating with a resumption of the self-restraint that existed among its members for most of our history but no longer does.

In the entire 19th Century there were 16 filibusters in the U.S. Senate–an average of one every 6 1/2 years. For most of this century, filibusters occurred fewer than once a year. In the 103rd Congress just concluded, there were 20 filibusters attempted and 72 motions to end them.

It is harder to govern now, I think, because of the tone in politics today, which debases public discussion. Distrust of Congress and elected officials is not new in our society, but I think several factors have contributed to the increase in negativism in politics.

First, the press has abandoned many of the traditional restraints it imposed on itself with regard to reporting on the personal life of public officials. Second, television. The viewer, the voter, hears candidate Tom say that his opponent Diane is a bum; Diane responds that Tom is a crook, and so the voters come to believe that they have a choice between a bum and a crook. A third factor, I believe, is partisan. Until Bill Clinton was elected, there seemed a nearly permanent state of affairs in which the presidency was held by Republicans and the Congress by Democrats. So for nearly two decades, Republicans bashed the Congress.

All of those things have combined to create a highly negative discussion in which issues are oversimplified and reduced to slogans.

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In his own career, Mitchell was unusually fair and bipartisan when it came to dispensing the rules of the Senate. Among his first acts as majority leader was ending the practice of tactical surprise . Before that, both sides had to keep one senator on the floor at all times . But Mitchell could also be scorchingly partisan when it came to policy differences.

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We Democrats bear responsibility for the failure to deal more effectively with the nation’s problems. But so do Republicans. Their policy in the Senate in 1994 was one of total obstruction. Let me give you an example.

We passed earlier this year in both houses the gift- and lobbying-disclosure legislation. The Republicans really didn’t want it, so when the bill came up for final passage in the House, Newt Gingrich concocted this argument that it will have some effect on grass-roots lobbying, and they got Christian organizations to come out against it. That same excuse was used in the Senate. So I offered to take that provision out and vote on the same bill that we had passed by a vote of 95 to 2 a few months earlier. Which, of course, all the Republicans had voted for. But they refused. When you prevent legislation that you’ve actually voted for, you’re engaged in a policy of total obstruction. But it worked. The Republican (complaint) was, well the darned place isn’t functioning. The Democrats are in charge, so let’s change the people in charge, and maybe we’ll get some action.

Now they are in a different position. I think the Republicans will soon learn that it’s easier to campaign against something than to govern. You actually are responsible for acting. I think we Democrats suffer the burden more because we believe that government can produce beneficial results and conditions in our society. But we didn’t do a very good job of making that case this year.

I don’t know Newt Gingrich very well. Most of my dealings have been with Bob Michel, who was the Republican leader in the House for all of the time that I was majority leader. Newt sort of took over during the latter stages of this Congress. My impression is that he’s very smart and appears to be committed to an ideology. But I wonder if he is smart enough to recognize that in order to be a successful Speaker, he will have to use an approach different from that which got him to be Speaker–basically the difference between campaigning and governing.

I believe people can change. In general terms, I think people grow in office. I think people become more responsible with increased responsibility, become more active with increased demands on them. But I have no way of knowing in his particular case.

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For all his frustration, even anger, Mitchell wanted to assert that he does not feel jaundiced about politics and the future. He also remains, in the parlance of Washington, an unreconstructed liberal, though not without complaints .

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For all this, the problems of the party and the historical forces the Republicans have capitalized on, I don’t share the view that the country is shifting ideologically. Nor do I fear that the Democratic Party is somehow marginalizing itself. I am, on the contrary, very optimistic.

I’ve written a lot of bills that have become law, and many of them are meaningful to me. I’m the author of something called the Lighthouse Preservation Program. It’s a very small bill, but I regard it as a great accomplishment.

It’s ironic that at this moment, when American ideals and culture are ascendant in the world, when the American economy is the most productive and efficient in the world, when unemployment in America is less than that in virtually every other developed industrial democracy of the world, that Americans should be so anxious and fearful, such easy prey for demagoguery and scapegoatism. I think the Democrats still are the party of opportunity and economic growth.

What we have to do is to narrow our focus to economic-growth policies as opposed to trying to solve every other problem. I can sum up my philosophy in a sentence: In America, no one shouldbe guaranteed success, but everyone should have a fair chance to go as far as talent, education and will can take them.

Shares of database and cloud giant Oracle (ORCL -6.72%) plunged as much as 8.1% on Friday, before recovering slightly to a 6.9% decline on the day.

Oracle held an analyst-attended Investor Day presentation yesterday, where the company clarified some of its long-term targets. While the guidance to 2030 was fairly impressive, it appears investors are “selling the news” after the stock’s tremendous gains over the past couple of months.

Oracle lives up to some of the hype, but investors wanted more

In the presentation, Oracle gave some more detail around its cloud infrastructure growth and margins out over the long term. Oracle’s cloud growth has been a subject of some debate, especially after the company announced a massive 359% growth in its cloud RPO in September to $455 billion, with the majority of that growth coming from a single contract with OpenAI.

Some were skeptical about that projection, as well as the margins on the project, given the huge customer concentration around OpenAI, with one analyst noting that Oracle was only making a 14% gross margin on its cloud infrastructure services today.

However, Oracle disclosed yesterday that it predicts between 30% and 40% gross margin on its large cloud infrastructure deals, which is higher than what was feared. Moreover, Oracle projected a whopping $225 billion in revenue by 2030, as well as $21 per share in earnings. Of that revenue, management expects about $166 billion to come from Oracle’s cloud infrastructure unit by that time.

Those targets were actually above the analyst consensus heading into the day. And yet, the stock still sold off on that news. After today’s plunge, Oracle’s stock trades around $291 per share, or 13.9 times that 2030 earnings figure.

That seems strikingly cheap, but investors should remember that it’s only 2025, and there is a time value of money to account for when valuing a stock through the discounted cash flow method.

Moreover, a 30% to 40% gross margin on the cloud operations may still be disappointing to some, given that leader Amazon Web Services has already achieved a 36.8% operating margin — not gross margin, but operating margin — over the past 12 months.

Image source: Getty Images.

Oracle made its big AI play, and investors are divided

It should be noted that while investors are selling the news today, analysts are actually raising their Oracle price targets, with sell-side analysts at Guggenheim and T.D. Cowen both raising their price targets to $400, up from $375, after the event.

Oracle has made its AI gambit by partnering with OpenAI, betting big on the success of the current industry leader. OpenAI has committed to hundreds of billions in cloud contracts, even though it’s currently losing money, having made a reported $4.3 billion in revenue in the first half of 2025 and burning through $2.5 billion in cash.

So, Oracle’s anticipated growth may carry more risk than the typical cloud giant, and it appears investors took some of that risk off the table on Friday.

Shares of Sezzle (SEZL 0.77%), the high-flying BNPL (buy now, pay later) stock, were pulling back in September as part of a broader retreat among fintech stocks.

Investors sensed a weakening in the credit market as downbeat employment data and a pair of bankruptcies in the auto sector sent Sezzle and a number of its peers lower last month, even as the broad market gained. Sezzle is a recent IPO, and investors have yet to see it go through a full credit cycle. Therefore, it’s not surprising for it to show some sensitivity to rising credit risk.

According to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence, Sezzle stock finished the month down 16%. As you can see from the chart below, the stock was volatile but steady through the first few weeks of the month before sinking toward the end, following the Federal Reserve’s rate cut.

SEZL data by YCharts

Sezzle pulls back again

Sezzle has been a standout performer in the BNPL sector, though the stock is now down more than 50% since its peak in July, as concerns about its ability to maintain its growth rate seem to have taken over.

In addition to worries about rising credit risk on the macro level, one Wall Street analyst weighed in on the stock last month.

TD Cowen initiated coverage of the stock with a hold rating and a price target of $82. Cowen noted the company’s rapid growth, but credited that to the strength of the BNPL sector, and said that the sector is trading in a narrow valuation range. Based on the price target, the analyst expected a pullback in the stock, and Sezzle stock fell 1.6% on Sept. 11, the day the report came out.

Additionally, Shopify asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed against it by Sezzle which alleges that Shopify’s BNPL product is anticompetitive and violates antitrust laws.

That news seemed to contribute to the sell-off at the end of the month as the Fed rate cut and other macro-level news added to worries about rising credit risk.

Image source: Getty Images.

What’s next for Sezzle?

Sezzle continues to grow at breakneck speed, with the company forecasting 60%-65% revenue growth for 2025. However, growth in charge-offs outpaced revenue growth in the second quarter, rising from $8.2 million to $20.3 million. That could be a sign that its customers are having more challenges in paying Sezzle back, but it still seems too early to tell.

While its revenue growth and profitability are impressive, rising delinquency rates would spoil the bull case for the stock.

A few metres away from the piles of stones that were once the first homes as you entered their small village, three men sat on a traditional woven bed.

One of them was Hayat’s cousin, Mehboob.

“When the earthquake happened, my 13-year-old son Nasib Ullah was sleeping next to me. I woke up, got out of bed, and started looking for the torch. Then, suddenly, the whole room moved from the falling rocks. When I tried to reach my son, the wall and the floor slid down, and I couldn’t catch him,” the 36-year-old explained.

“[It was] worse than the day of judgement.”

“Houses collapsed, boulders from the mountain came crumbling down; you couldn’t see anything, we couldn’t see each other.”

Everyone was injured, he explained. Some had broken ribs and broken legs.

“In the dark, we took our kids who were still alive to the farmland below, where it was safer from the boulders.”

That night, he counted more than 250 tremors, he said: aftershocks that continue to shake the valley even weeks after the earthquake.

When daylight came, he tried to dig through the rubble to find his loved ones. “But my body didn’t want to work,” he said.

“I could see my son’s foot, but the rest of his body had disappeared under the rubble.”

His 10-year-old daughter, Aisha, had also been killed.

“It was the worst moment of my life,” he said.

It took two days for villagers and volunteers to recover the bodies.

When Hayat’s brother, Rahmat Gul, received a message from his brother telling him that the entire village was gone, he immediately rushed there from his home in Parwan province, some 300km (185 miles) away.

When he finally reached Aurak Dandila, the surviving villagers asked him to wrap Mehboob’s dead son in a blanket.

“Mehboob asked me to show him the face of his son, but I could not do it,” Rahmat Gul explained as Mehboob, sitting beside him, looked out over the farmland in the valley below.

Nearby, Hayat stood up and began pacing.

“God has taken my sons from me, and now I feel like I have left this world as well,” he said.

In Aurak Dandila, a small cornfield has become a graveyard. “Here is where we buried our loved ones,” Hayat said. The graves are marked by stones.

He remembers how he had urged Abdul Haq to stay in the village. “The next day, everything was gone, and he lost his life.”

Now, Hayat believes, “there is nothing left to live here for”.

“How can I continue living here?” he asked, pointing at the debris of what was once his home.

“The stones are coming from above; how can anyone live in this village?”

“We will settle somewhere else, and we will look for the mercy of God. If he has no mercy on us, then we will also die.”

DINERS who were rushed to hospital after an “excruciating” meal suspect one ingredient was the cause of their torment.

After tucking into a family meal at the Dosa Kingss eaterie in Sale, Manchester, on September 6, 11 diners had to be treated by medics.

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A massive emergency response was sparked by the incident with fire crews, police and paramedics called to the chaotic scene.

Customers inside the restaurant became violently unwell after eating some of the food on offer and have now blamed one ingredient for the disastrous dinner.

The incident sparked a Greater Manchester Police investigation.

Two of the 11 diners suffered severe reactions to the food and had to be hospitalised while several others were treated inside the restaurant.

Police said a number of people were treated for “minor reactions” to the dodgy food.

One of the lines of inquiry being probed blames yams for the diners illness.

Some types of the root vegetable can contain toxins that can be harmful if undercooked.

It is believed to have been part of one of the dishes served from the restaurant’s set menu.

The exact cause of the violent reaction to the food has yet to be confirmed.

One diner, Amrita Kapadia, who was dining with her young son and her family at the restaurant, was among the customers served the food.

She said the Aviyal, which is a thick stew of mixed vegetable, contained yams.

Amrita was one of the two diners to be hospitalised after the meal made her feel like she was “chewing glass.”

She claims the food left her suffering a severe reaction with her mouth and throat burning.

She was unable to speak following the “frightening” ordeal and said it felt as though she had been “stung by bees.”

Amrita told Manchester Evening News: “The table next to us started complaining that something was stinging or spicy in their mouths.

“The restaurant folks brought them water and, while that was going on, two of us at our table of five had the same dish at the same time, which was a mixed vegetable dish called Aviyal.

“As soon as we ate it, we had this stinging sensation in our mouths. It was like chewing glass, it was excruciating. It felt like I had been stung by bees it was just so painful.

“We couldn’t taste anything and our tongues went bizarre. The sensation travelled to our gums, cheek and throats.”

Before her own situation deteriorated further, Amrita instructed her son, who thankfully avoided any serious reaction to the food, to stop eating immediately.

Diners began to call 999 and ask for paramedics to be sent as they began to lose the ability to speak and felt paralysed.

The harrowing ordeal left diners with increased heart rates, dizziness, pain and swelling.

Amrita was hospitalised for four hours after she was given two shots of adrenaline that did nothing to combat her extreme symptoms by paramedics.

She received a form from Trafford Council to complete detailing what each member of the party had consumed.

Police remained at the scene for hours after the incident as their investigation got underway.

The scale of the emergency response sparked fears of a serious gas leak which was quickly ruled out by the probe.

Dosa Kingss posted a brief statement on social media following the chaos.

It reads: “Dear valued customers, due to unforeseen circumstances, we are temporarily closed.

“We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and truly appreciate your understanding and support. We look forward to serving you again.”

A spokesperson for GMP previously stated: “At around 12.40pm today (6 September), we received a report of people becoming unwell at a restaurant on Northenden Road, Sale.

“Emergency services quickly attended and several people were treated at the scene for minor reactions. Enquiries into the incident are currently ongoing.”

Kavan Markwood wakes up in pain every day and has no feeling in two of his fingers.

Still, the 20-year-old McKeesport, Pa., resident knows it could be much worse.

“I don’t know how I’m alive,” Markwood told “Inside Edition” this week, more than four months after he fell 21 feet from the stands to the field at PNC Park in Pittsburgh during a game between the Pirates and Chicago Cubs.

Video footage from the April 30 game shows Markwood falling headfirst over the railing above the Clemente Wall in right field. He appears to flip head over heals multiple times before landing on the warning track.

Play was stopped for several minutes as the training staffs for both teams tended to Markwood. He eventually was carted off and taken to Allegheny General Hospital in critical condition. According to “Inside Edition,” Markwood broke his back, neck, every rib and punctured a lung.

“I’m doing better than what I was, that’s for sure,” said Markwood, who was shown during the interview walking around outside PNC Park wearing a cast on his left forearm.

Markwood told “Inside Edition” that he had jumped out of his seat to cheer and came down awkwardly on the railing and careened off of it. Although Pittsburgh Public Safety has labeled the incident an accident, 21-year-old McKeesport resident Ethan Kirkwood has been arrested for allegedly providing alcohol to Markwood at the game.

Kirkwood faces two misdemeanor counts of furnishing alcohol to a minor and is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Sept. 29. A police report viewed by WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh indicates that Markwood’s girlfriend told police that he hadn’t had anything to drink before arriving to the stadium and had two beers while there.

“I feel terrible because it wasn’t his fault,” Markwood said of Kirkwood, who can be seen on the footage from the accident climbing over the railing from a section closer to field level and jumping onto the ground to help his friend.

Markwood added that alcohol had nothing to do with what happened. It was, he said, “a tragic accident.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

SHE was just seven years old when she landed a job on Emmerdale – catapulting her to fame almost overnight.

But without warning, Daisy Campbell’s career was ‘ripped’ away from her when she was brutally axed, after dedicating 13 years of her life to the soap – leaving her ‘in a dark hole’ and questioning her future.

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Suddenly Daisy, now 22, who played Amelia Spencer, found herself without steady work, struggling to find purpose and reflecting on how much of her childhood she had sacrificed for the ITV soap.

Now, Daisy has opened up to The Sun for the first time about her shock exit, telling us: “When it’s been ripped away from you, because that’s what it genuinely felt like, it was so out of the blue – you do just get into a bit of a hole of, oh god, like, can I do this?”

Remembering the moment her world as she knew it fell apart, she recalls: “It was weird, because it was so abrupt, obviously Liam Fox, who played Dan, my dad, he left the year before (in 2023), and I just had a feeling… I always get gut feelings.

“It was at the beginning of the year, things were quiet. Obviously, we had the new producer come in. And then when it came to contracts, nothing came through, so I was like, “oh”… and then obviously it happened.

“It was upsetting, because I loved it, and I loved the job.

“You always think selfishly, like, why is this happening? Like, why me?

Daisy says she ‘fell into’ acting after her dance teacher suggest she tried a drama school because she was so confident.

She says: “I feel like if I were to look back on myself now at younger me – I would have always been an actress because it’s what I love doing – performing.”

Daisy, who lives near Pontefract, West Yorkshire, suddenly found herself looking back over the past 13 years, admitting: “You have so much time to reflect when you’re not working, especially this year.

“I feel like I did miss out a lot during my childhood – with friends and stuff. I used to want to stay at school with my friends rather than be on set.

“But I wouldn’t change it. I was in such a privileged position. 

“It was always such a hard job, but I never wanted to leave because Emmerdale’s the most stable job you will have in an acting career.”

Daisy’s was written out of the soap after her character Amelia decided to move to Leicester and leave the village following her manipulative boyfriend Tom King’s conviction.

Not long after her exit, Daisy landed a role on Casualty – she played Georgina Birch for just one episode, but it was enough to make the young actress feel confident she would be OK.

However, it wasn’t long until she was struggling to find work and unsure about what her next step should be.

She says: “I left Emmerdale in October, and then I filmed Casualty November, and it’s a depressing month, it’s darker nights, and I had a lot of time to think.

“At first, I liked just having my own time, being a bit free and not really having a schedule. Working there from being seven, I’d never had freedom before.”

When the new year came round, Daisy landed a number of auditions after being approached by some ‘amazing people’ but none came to fruition. 

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“I found it hard,” she admits. “I love my acting, I do, but I wanted something stable for myself, because I’m so, like, wanting to keep myself busy all the time. I was like, what can I do that’s gonna make me not just want to sit at home all the time?”

After a trip to New York and having some space to think, Daisy then came up with the idea of her own studio, named That Pilates Place, which will be officially opening next month. 

Using the money she had saved up from being on the soap, Daisy and her grandad spent hours transforming a 200-year-old court house in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, into a stylish and practical work out space – as well as training to be a teacher.

Her boyfriend Nick, who she has been dating for over a year, has been ‘incredibly supportive’ and she says he’s delighted she’s found a purpose.

“I passed both my exams first time,”  she explains. “And I really wanted to do a studio. I want to use what I’ve got from Emmerdale and put that into something positive that can give me longevity.

“I was always so good with my money and I was just saving, saving, saving, saving, putting it away, and then I was like wait, what do I do with this now?  I don’t want to spend it on crap, that I just don’t need.

“I couldn’t touch it until I was 18, so that’s why it’s nice to put it into something that hopefully will grow into something nice and big.”

She adds: “I want to build a community of people. I think from being on a soap and having that attention on you all the time, I feel like people don’t really know you… I want to take a bad situation, because it was a bad situation last year, and put it into something positive and just bring people together.”

And it seems that is exactly what Daisy is going to do. But does that mean she’s given up acting for good?

“Acting is something I can never let go of, but for now this business comes first, ” she says.

“When you’ve been in the industry for such a long time, you never really get sick of it. It’s just that sometimes you need that little bit of a break to focus on something else.”

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Shares of Salesforce (CRM -5.27%) took a significant hit on Thursday. Following the company’s release of second-quarter results, the stock fell as much as 8.5% in the morning session. By 11:30 a.m. ET today, Salesforce had recovered to a 5.7% overnight price drop.

Image source: Getty Images.

Another earnings beat for Salesforce, but wait — there’s more

Wall Street’s average analyst had expected second-quarter earnings to rise about 8.6% year over year, landing near $2.78 per share. Revenue was targeted at roughly $10.1 billion, reflecting an 8.7% increase. The enterprise software giant exceeded the consensus analyst targets across the board, posting earnings of $2.91 per share on sales of $10.2 billion.

Looking ahead, management set full-year guidance targets just above the current analyst projections. So it was a beat-and-raise performance, but the stock still took a tumble.

Why investors wanted more from Salesforce’s AI moves

Salesforce investors were probably looking for stronger guidance targets. After all, CEO Marc Benioff recently said that his company is removing roughly half of its customer support staff in favor of artificial intelligence (AI) tools. Specifically, deploying agentic AI systems to support human customer service specialists can deliver top-notch support outcomes at a faster pace and lower cost.

But this report highlights how the company isn’t exactly laying off that redundant support staff. Instead, the workers are being redeployed into sales and marketing operations, where the human touch makes a bigger difference these days. So, if you were hoping for a large cost-cutting effect from Salesforce’s agentic AI moves, the reported financials told a different story.

Shares of Circle Internet Group (CRCL -8.71%) took a 28.1% hit in August 2025, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. The group behind the USDC (USDC -0.00%) stablecoin posted its first earnings report as a public company in the middle of the month, and it wasn’t strong enough to support Circle’s early price jump.

Circle’s earnings landed with a thud

From the initial public offering (IPO) on June 4 to the end of July, Circle’s stock had gained a hair-raising 492%. Investors were watching the first earnings report closely, looking for signs that Circle’s business could sustain a $42.0 billion market cap.

But that bullish outcome wasn’t in the cards. Sure, the results were impressive, given that Circle’s core business is based on an asset that will always be worth $1 per coin. Revenue rose 53% year over year to $658 million as the active circulation of USDC nearly doubled to $61.3 billion. But Circle still posted a net loss of $482 million in the second quarter, largely due to costs associated with the IPO. The price spike itself was the root cause of these charges, as the skyrocketing stock price changed the value of Circle’s convertible debt and stock-based compensation policies.

Image source: Getty Images.

The boring banking secret behind Circle’s exciting revenue

It may sound strange that Circle generated a $658 million revenue stream in the second quarter, even though the USDC stablecoin neither gained nor lost any value. But the company operates much like a classic bank — it earns interest on the dollar-based funds that provide direct backing for the stablecoin. These interest payments accounted for 96.4% of Circle’s total revenue in the second quarter.

As for the stock’s price drop, it should be noted that the slide started well before Circle’s earnings report. As of Sept. 2, Circle’s share price is down 54.4% from the absolute peak on June 23. The big surge followed by a steep price drop is pretty common for big-name IPOs, and Circle was one of the most anticipated market launches in recent memory.

Only CoreWeave (CRWV -9.41%) and Figma (FIG -6.70%) have seen splashier IPOs in 2025, and they have indeed followed similar charting patterns. Figma’s stock is down 46.2% from a soaring peak just after its IPO in July, while CoreWeave took a couple of months to build a 359% gain and then lose nearly half of it.

I rarely jump on IPO launches, because early investors tend to get burned rather quickly. Circle provided yet another example of a well-worn charting drama. And I’m not entirely convinced that Circle’s cool-off period has ended yet. You should probably avoid this red-hot financial technology stock until it stabilizes at a more plausible valuation.

Shares of donut maker Krispy Kreme (DNUT -3.48%) fell on Wednesday, down as much as 10.2%, before reverting to a 3.6% decline on the day.

Krispy Kreme has had a tough 2025, which has seen the stock plunge 64% on the year. Tepid sales, falling profits, and the cancellation of a high-profile partnership with McDonald’s have all been headwinds for the company.

Today, a Wall Street analyst piled on, lowering his rating on the stock from neutral to underweight, following the company’s recent unveiling of its turnaround plan.

J.P. Morgan says to sell the turnaround enthusiasm

For reference, Krispy Kreme unveiled its turnaround efforts on Aug. 7, during its second-quarter earnings. The plan has several components, including cutting costs associated with the now-defunct McDonald’s partnership, as well as others. The most notable proposed change has to do with refranchising Krispy Kreme’s international store footprint. Krispy Kreme also seeks to outsource its logistics to a third party.

While each franchise agreement is different, franchising one’s stores means typically means offloading the operations and bulk of profits (or losses) to third parties, while the brand makes revenue on sales of ingredients along with a franchise fee, which is usually a single-digit percent of sales.

But J.P. Morgan analyst Rahul Krotthapalli sees a risk to the plan, as it will take time to execute, while current sales trends remain negative. Last quarter, the company’s organic growth rate declined 0.8%. And while franchising lowers operational risk, it also lowers revenue and profits. Krotthapalli sees that as another risk, given Krispy Kreme’s existing $957 million in debt.

Image source: Getty Images.

Krispy Kreme is a risky turnaround play

Krotthapalli may be a bit harsh in his assessment of the plan, given that it focuses on cost cuts and return on invested capital, which should at least lead to profitability improvements. Nevertheless, Krispy Kreme remains growth-challenged at the moment, so all the focus on streamlining costs won’t amount to much until revenues stabilize and get going back in a positive direction. It’s pretty hard to predict such a turnaround, so investors should probably steer clear of this high-risk story for now.

Some of the relationship journeys are never shown

A Love Is Blind UK couple have shared their “epic” love story that was not shown on TV, and how it very nearly all fell apart.

Love Is Blind UK has returned for a second season, with five newly engaged couples navigating their lives together after an extensive dating period on their pods. The latest batch of episodes (August 20) have seen the couples move on to the next phase of their journey.

But of course, not every love story has been shown on screens. Stars Amy and James found their way to one another, despite not being seen on screens.

Primary school teacher Amy, from Wales had been single for two years after her last relationship broke down when she suggested they started a family. Despite living in Dubai for the last few years, now back on home soil, she was ready to find her life partner.

Similarly, real estate manager James had been married before and has two daughters. The 33-year-old used to divide his time between the UK and Thailand where his mum is from.

According to Netflix’s Tudum, Amy initially said yes to another proposal but a twist of fate soon found her back to James. She said: “I’m a big believer in the universe, everything unfolds exactly how it’s meant to unfold.”

It has been revealed that during their dating period, Amy and James had actually found a lot in common, including the fact she recently returned from a trip to Thailand, where James had been living.

However, despite getting on in the pods, they were also forming other relationships. Amy admitted: “That day we missed was key because by day three, I had a strong bond with somebody else.”

Amy had started to build a connection with Ross M, whilst James was dating both Holly and Laurie. However, James admitted they were both “playing it safe” as he told Tudum: “In hindsight, I should’ve laid it on a bit thicker with Amy, but I didn’t want to propose and then have her say no.”

When it came to making a decision, Amy was left “crying”, unable to decide, until she said yes when Ross M had proposed. However, it was James who could not bring himself to propose to another woman.

After their first night out together, Amy and Ross soon called their relationship off, but a few days later she found herself chatting to James on Instagram. At the time, she was in Spain, and so James drove six hours to the airport to pick her up upon her UK return.

He added: “It was pretty epic.” They made their relationship official around two weeks later before James declared his love, and they have gone from strength to strength since, even meeting James’ children.

The two have now spent the last three months living together in Malta. Amy added: “Love Is Blind sets a foundation where you have to be vulnerable and emotional because there’s nothing else you can offer.

“Communication has been a strong point in our relationship, and I think that has genuinely come from starting in the pods.”

Love Is Blind UK season 2 is streaming on Netflix

Let’s unpack our need to unpack the whole “woman on TikTok who fell in love with her psychiatrist” saga.

First the facts: Kendra Hilty recently posted 25 videos on TikTok in which she discussed her decision to end four years of 30-minute monthly sessions (most of them on Zoom) with a male psychiatrist who prescribed her medication. At some point during their sessions, Hilty revealed her romantic feelings for him, feelings that she now — supported by comments she says were made by her therapist and a ChatGPT she has named Henry — believes the psychiatrist willingly fostered, leveraged and enjoyed.

Millions of people tuned in, though the fascination appears to have been less about the alleged actions and motivations of the psychiatrist (who has wisely chosen, thus far, to remain silent) and more focused on Hilty’s detailed description of certain encounters and her deep subtext readings of what they might have meant.

Many responded so negatively that Hilty turned off her comments for a while as hundreds made posts across social media eviscerating or satirizing the series. Soon enough, as happens with viral content, legacy media got involved and all the catch-up “unpacking” began.

Unlike Reesa Teesa, whose multi-post tale of marriage to a pathological liar went viral on TikTok last year and led to a TV adaptation, Hilty hasn’t become a universal figure of sympathy and courage. As she recently told People magazine, she has received “nonstop bullying” and threats along with the dozens of DMs thanking her for sharing her story. She has been accused of racism (the psychiatrist is a man of color), narcissism and, well, insanity. (She says she is, however, open to having her story adapted to film or television.)

To say the posts are troubling is an understatement. I was alerted to them by a friend who had previously expressed concern about young people using ChatGPT as a de facto therapist — a trend alarming enough to draw warnings from Open AI Chief Executive Sam Altman and move Illinois, Utah and Nevada to ban the use of AI in mental health therapy. “There’s a woman on TikTok having a full-blown ChatGPT-induced meltdown,” this friend texted me. “This is a real problem.”

Certainly, Hilty appeared to be having real problems, which ChatGPT, with its programmed tendency to validate users’ views and opinions, undoubtedly inflamed. But given the viral reaction to her posts, so are we.

Even as countless studies suggest that social media is, for myriad reasons, detrimental to mental health, its users continue to consume and comment on videos and images of people undergoing mental and emotional crises as if they were DIY episodes of “Fleabag.”

So the question is not “who is this woman obsessing about her relationship with her psychiatrist” but why are so many of us watching her do it? It’s one thing to become transfixed by a fictional character going down a scripted wormhole for the purposes of narrative enlightenment or comedy. It’s another when some poor soul is doing it in front of their phone in real life.

It’s even worse when the “star” of the video is not a willing participant. Social media and the ubiquity of smartphones have allowed citizens to expose instances of genuine, and often institutionalized, racism, sexism, homophobia and consumer exploitation. But for every “Karen” post that reveals bigotry, abuse or unacceptable rudeness, there are three that capture someone clearly having a mental or emotional breakdown (or just a very, very bad day).

With social media largely unregulated, they are all lumped in together and it has become far too easy to use it as the British elite once purportedly used psychiatric hospital Bedlam: to view the emotionally troubled and mentally ill as if they were exhibits in a zoo.

Hilty believes she is helping to identify a real problem and is, obviously, the author of her own exposure, as are many people who post themselves deconstructing a bad relationship, reacting to a crisis or experiencing emotional distress. All social media posts exist to capture attention, and the types that do tend to be repeated. Sharing one’s trauma can elicit sympathy, support, insight and even help. But “sadfishing,” as it is often called, can also make a bad situation worse, from viewers questioning the authenticity and intention of the post to engaging in brutal mockery and bullying.

Those who are caught on camera as they melt down over one thing or another could wind up as unwitting symbols of privilege or stupidity or the kind of terrible service/consumer we’re expected to deal with today. Some are undoubtedly arrogant jerks who have earned a public comeuppance (and if the fear of being filmed keeps even one person from shouting at some poor overworked cashier or barista, that can only be a good thing).

But others are clearly beset by problems that go far deeper than not wanting to wait in line or accept that their flight has been canceled.

It is strange that in a culture where increased awareness of mental health realities and challenges have led to so many positive changes, including to the vernacular, people still feel free to film, post, watch and judge strangers who have lost control without showing any concern for context or consequence.

I would like to say I never watch videos of people having a meltdown or behaving badly, but that would be a big fat lie. They’re everywhere and I enjoy the dopamine thrill of feeling outraged and superior as much as the next person. (Again, I am not talking about videos that capture bigotry, institutional abuse or physical violence.)

I watched Hilty for research but I quickly found myself caught up in her minute dissection and seemingly wild projection. I too found myself judging her, silently but not in a kind way. (“No one talks about being in love with their shrink? Girl, it’s literary and cinematic canon.” “How, in all those years in therapy, have you never heard of transference?” “Why do you keep saying you don’t want this guy fired while arguing that he abused the doctor-patient relationship?”)

As the series wore on, her pain, if not its actual source, became more and more evident and my private commentary solidified into: “For the love of God, put down your phone.”

Since she was not about to, I did. Because me watching her wasn’t helping either of us.

Except to remind me of times when my own mental health felt precarious, when obsession and paranoia seemed like normal reactions and my inner pain drove me to do and say things I very much regret. These are memories that I will continue to hold and own but I am eternally grateful that no one, including myself, captured them on film, much less shared them with the multitudes.

Those who make millions off the mostly unpaid labor of social media users show no signs of protecting their workers with oversight or regulation. But no one goes viral in a vacuum. Decades ago, the popularity of “America’s Funniest Home Videos” answered the question of whether people’s unscripted pain should be offered up as entertainment and now we live in a world where people are willing to do and say the most intimate and anguished things in front of a reality TV crew.

Still, when one of these types of videos pops up or goes viral, there’s no harm in asking “why exactly am I watching this” and “what if it were me?”

THE tragic final moments of a mum-of-four who died in a skydive with her instructor have been revealed at an inquest today.

Belinda Taylor was taking part in the tandem jump with Adam Harrison when the horror took place.

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The 48-year-old’s partner, who watched the tragedy unfold, had bought the skydive as a gift for “adrenaline junkie” Belinda.

An inquest opening heard today how both Belinda and Adam, 30, suffered multiple injuries.

Their bodies were discovered in a field near the Dunkeswell airfield in Devon on June 13.

Senior Devon coroner Philip Spinney said the pair had exited the aircraft for the 1,500ft freefall jump strapped together.

He added: “The parachute did not open as expected and they died as a consequence of the injuries sustained in the fall.”

The coroner adjourned the inquest until a later date while inquiries continue.

It was previously revealed that other skydivers had seen Belinda “full of smiles and jokes” before the tragedy.

Her son Elias, 20, said his mum had mentioned the jump was taking place on Friday the 13th in a “jokey way”.

While partner Scott Armstrong revealed she had been “absolutely buzzing” about the jump.

Paying tribute, he added: “She was a lovely person, she was my best friend. She was an absolute nutcase who just loved adventures.”

Belinda, from nearby Totnes, had three adult sons and a teenage daughter and was also a grandmother of two.

A probe by police, British Skydiving and East Devon District Council Environmental Health and Safety Office is ongoing.

The Civil Aviation Authority said it was aware of the incident but could not comment any further due to it being an active investigation.

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AN influencer and extreme sports enthusiast died after “tumbling through the air” in a 60ft plunge off a British mountain

Maria Eftimova, 28, went hiking up the 3,000ft peak before slipping on rocky ground and tumbling down the mountain to her death.

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Maria suffered fatal head injuries and, despite the best efforts of medical staff, was tragically pronounced dead at the scene.

The influencer, with more than 10,000 followers, was tackling the notorious Tryfan mountain in Snowdonia, North Wales, when she fell to her death.

An inquest into her death heard she was climbing the mountain’s notorious north ridge – a popular but dangerous scrambling route.

Maria was an experienced mountaineer and had completed an ice-climbing course in Norway shortly before the horror unfolded.

The inquest has heard how she posed for a “Mexican wave” with friends before she fell to her death.

Fellow climber Harry Jones said the group were going up the face one-by-one when he witnessed Maria’s tragic fall.

He added: “I could see on one particular ledge Maria stopped in order to get a handhold to pull herself up, I was six ft below her, to the left.

“She swung her right leg up to pull herself up. I asked ‘Got it well?’ and she said ‘I think so.”

He said moments later he witnessed Maria “flying over me” and down the mountainside.

The 60ft plummet left Maria with horrific injuries, including a fractured skull..

Coroner Kate Robertson returned a conclusion of accidental death and passed on her condolences to Maria’s family and friends.

Maria, of St Helens, originally from Sofia, Bulgaria, showcased her outdoor lifestyle online.

Following her tragic death a fundraiser was set up by friends to help cover repatriation costs.

Maria’s tragic death on February 22nd came less than a week after Dr Charlotte Crook, 30, also died while climbing in the same region.

An inquest heard Dr Crook plunged 30ft to her death while walking on Glyder Fach with a fellow medic.

Both women were attended to by Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Organisation.

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Speaking of Maria’s accident, the Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue team said: “A group was ascending the north-ridge when one of them fell 20 metres into steep terrain.

“Passers-by with climbing equipment abseiled down and made her safe, and a team member already nearby made his way down and started CPR.

“Colleagues from Welsh Ambulance Service stood by at base while the Coastguard helicopter dropped team members onto the mountain.

“Unfortunately, the casualty had not survived her injuries, and she was brought down to Oggie base.

“The thoughts of all involved are with the casualties families and friends, thank you to all the members of the public who tried to help.”

Neil Oakes, who was on a slightly different route up the mountain at the time Maria fell, told of his horror at witnessing the tragedy unfold.

He said: “I turned and saw Ms Eftimova tumbling through the air below me. She was already in freefall.

“I knew there was going to be an impact on the rocky outcrop below so I turned away for a split second. I was shouting ‘No, no, no, no.’

“When I turned back she was on the ledge below. I knew that it was serious.

“I said ‘She’s gone. She’s fallen.’ I was in shock.”

A claim by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that an immigrant threatened the life of President Trump has begun to unravel.

Noem announced an arrest of a 54-year-old man who was living in the U.S. illegally, saying he had written a letter threatening to kill Trump and would then return to Mexico. The story received a flood of media attention and was highlighted by the White House and Trump’s allies.

But investigators actually believe the man may have been framed so that he would be arrested and deported from the U.S. before he got a chance to testify in a trial as a victim of assault, a person familiar with the matter told the Associated Press. The person could not publicly discuss details of the investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

Law enforcement officials believe the man, Ramon Morales Reyes, never wrote a letter that Noem and her department shared with a message written in light blue ink expressing anger over Trump’s deportations and threatening to shoot him in the head with a rifle at a rally. Noem also shared the letter on X along with a photo of Morales Reyes, and the White House also shared it on its social media accounts. The letter was mailed to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office along with the FBI and other agencies, the person said.

As part of the investigation, officials had contacted Morales Reyes and asked for a handwriting sample and concluded that his handwriting and the threatening letter didn’t match and that the threat was not credible, the person said. It’s not clear why Homeland Security officials still decided to send a release making that claim.

In an emailed statement asking for information about the letter and the new information about Morales Reyes, the Department of Homeland Security said “the investigation into the threat is ongoing. Over the course of the investigation, this individual was determined to be in the country illegally and that he had a criminal record. He will remain in custody.”

His attorneys said he was not facing current charges and they did not have any information about convictions in his record. The revelations were first reported by CNN.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s records show Morales Reyes is being held at a county jail in Juneau, Wis., northwest of Milwaukee. The Milwaukee-based immigrant rights group Voces de la Frontera, which is advocating for his release, said he was arrested May 21. Attorney Cain Oulahan, who was hired to fight against his deportation, said he has a hearing in a Chicago immigration court next week and is hoping he is released on bond.

Morales Reyes had been a victim in a case of another man who is awaiting trial on assault charges in Wisconsin, the person familiar with the matter said. The trial is scheduled for July.

Morales Reyes works as a dishwasher in Milwaukee, where he lives with his wife and three children. He had recently applied for a U visa, which is carved out for people in the country illegally who become victims of serious crimes, said attorney Kime Abduli, who filed that application.

The Milwaukee Police Department said it is investigating an identity theft and victim intimidation incident related to this matter and the county district attorney’s office said the investigation was ongoing. Milwaukee police said no one has been criminally charged at this time.

Abduli, Morales Reyes’ attorney, says he could not have written the letter, saying he did not receive formal education and can’t write in Spanish and doesn’t know how to speak English. She said it was not clear whether he was arrested because of the letters.

“There is really no way that it could be even remotely true,” Abduli said. “We’re asking for a clarification and a correction from DHS to clear Ramon’s name of anything having to do with this.”

Balsamo, Bauer and Licon write for the Associated Press.

A BODY has been discovered amid a major hunt for a schoolgirl who fell into the water whilst out on a walk with her dad.

Emergency crews had been frantically searching for the 13-year-old who vanished under the water at Baitings Dam yesterday afternoon.

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A cordon was put in place at the reservoir in Ripponden, West Yorkshire, after cops were called at around 1.20pm on Wednesday.

Search teams worked around the clock in an attempt to find the youngster, with two RIBs (rigid inflatable boats) spotted at the site this morning.

The teenager, from Halifax, had been posing for pictures with her dad when she tragically fell into the 140ft-deep water.

It is understood she hit the water after falling roughly 30ft from the parapet of the dam.

Local resident Sue Ferris helped comfort the girl’s family, who told her that the youngster had a “bright future“.

The 80-year-old said: “She had just got into grammar school, they told me.

“She wanted to walk round the reservoir with her dad because it was half term, but the rest of the family didn’t want to go.

“It was just dad and daughter at the reservoir when she fell in. The rest of the family came after the accident.

“Dad had been taking photographs, according to a witness, and he also heard dad screaming and shouting her name after she fell in – but he did not go into the water.

“He had some kind of heart problem and was clutching his chest soon afterwards and was taken away by ambulance.

“They were very proud of her. She had a really bright future.”

Mrs Ferris, who has lived in the same house overlooking the reservoir for 20 years, slammed officials for a buoyancy aids around the water.

She added: “It is disgraceful that there are no life rings anywhere on the parapet.

“Yorkshire Water added the white metal railings on top of the stone structure some years ago now.

“But it only adds about half a foot to the barrier height and actually helps people to climb onto the wall.

“It gives them something to grip on to.

“All it is doing is helping people to stand on the wall.”

Four West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue crews were sent out to the dam on Wednesday, assisted by Littleborough crew.

Yorkshire Ambulance Service also confirmed they sent officers from their Hazardous Area Response Team.

Speaking on Wednesday, a West Yorkshire police spokesperson said: “Shortly after 1.17pm this afternoon police were called to a report a girl had fallen into water at Baitings Dam near Ripponden.

“Emergency services are currently on the scene, with searches ongoing to locate the girl.”