Witnesses

Husamettin Dogan is the only defendant to appeal his conviction for assaulting Pelicot, a French woman whose case drew international attention.

Witnesses have testified that defendant Husamettin Dogan was “fully aware” that Gisele Pelicot was asleep while he was assaulting her, as his appeal unfolds in a French court in the southern city of Nimes.

Dogan, a 44-year-old construction worker, was one of 50 men convicted of sexually abusing Pelicot in a landmark case last December.

But he has since sought to overturn his conviction, claiming he was not a “rapist” and insisting he thought he was participating in a consensual sexual activity.

He is the only defendant from that case to appeal. He has been sentenced to nine years in prison, lower than the 12 years initially sought by prosecutors.

Tuesday marked the second day of his appeal, and prosecutors presented evidence to contradict his claims.

Witnesses included Pelicot’s ex-husband Dominique Pelicot, who previously received a prison term of 20 years, the maximum sentence, for orchestrating the assaults in the former couple’s home in Mazan.

During trial last year, Dominique Pelicot admitted that, for more than a decade, he drugged his then-wife of 50 years so that he and strangers he recruited online could abuse her. He also filmed the assaults, which included at least 50 men.

In Tuesday’s hearing, he denied ever coercing or misleading Dogan. “I never forced anyone,” he said. “They never needed me.”

He also refuted Dogan’s assertion that his invitation was to participate in a sexual game. “I never said that,” he said.

“I have no interest in speaking ill of anyone, except to tell the truth,” Dominique Pelicot added.

Dogan visited the couple’s home on June 28, 2019, where he is accused of assaulting Gisele Pelicot for more than three hours. Dogan, however, has said he only realised that something was wrong when he heard the woman snoring.

Investigator Jeremie Bosse-Platiere also testified on Tuesday. He cited video footage of Gisele Pelicot’s assault to assert that Dogan was fully aware Gisele had not consented.

“Anyone who sees the videos understands this immediately,” Bosse-Platiere said.

The police commissioner described a video in which Gisele Pelicot was seen moving slightly, causing Dogan to immediately withdraw.

“We understand that he is worried that his victim might wake up and freezes in a waiting position,” said Bosse-Platiere.

“After 30 seconds, seeing that it was a reflex caused by pain or discomfort, he reintroduces his penis into her vagina.”

Investigators found a total of 107 photos and 14 videos from the night Dogan visited the couple’s home in the southern town of Mazan.

Gisele Pelicot herself is set to take the stand on Wednesday morning, with the verdict expected later that day or Thursday.

Her decision to waive her right to anonymity during the initial trial was celebrated as a bold move for transparency, raising awareness about the prevalence of sexual assault and domestic violence in France and around the world.

She also attended the proceedings in person and faced her abusers in court. She was named a knight of the Legion of Honour, France’s top civic honour, in July.

Her case has resulted in greater momentum to reform France’s laws about rape and sexual assault.

Lawmakers in France’s National Assembly and Senate have pushed for an update to the definition of rape under the country’s penal code, in order to include a clear reference to the need for consent. A final bill is expected to pass in the coming months.

COPS have launched a hate crime investigation after reports of a suspected arson attack at a mosque.

CCTV footage shows two men with face coverings pull up to the Peacehaven Community Mosque, in East Sussex, on Saturday night.

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The video appears to reveal one yob, wearing a black jacket, walking up the front steps holding a green container.

He appears to douse the entrance steps with an accelerant before they go up in flames.

Within seconds the car has also turned into a fire ball.

A man who was inside the mosque runs out in terror, seeking safety.

It is not known how many people were in the building when the inferno was sparked.

Fire crews were called out to the chaotic scene and a large police presence remains in the area.

Footage from the scene shows a burnt-out vehicle being dampened by firemen.

A member of the Mosque told The Sun Online: “There was an attack on the mosque, a few individuals came with balaclavas on and blew up a vehicle outside the mosque and set the front a light.”

“It was a targeted attack,” he claimed.

“There’s a large police presence here now.”

Sussex Police Detective Superintendent Karrie Bohanna said: “This is a fast-moving investigation, and we are urging anyone with relevant information to report it to us.

“This includes anyone with CCTV, ring doorbell, dashcam, and mobile phone footage in the area at the time.

“We understand the concerns this has caused within the community, and the impact that will be felt by the Muslim community as a result.

“There is already an increased police presence at the scene and there are also additional patrols taking place to provide reassurance at other places of worship across the county.

“Sussex Police takes a zero-tolerance approach to hate crime and there is no place for hate across the county.

“If you have concerns for your safety or experience any hate or criminal behaviour, please speak to an officer or contact us online or by calling 101. Always dial 999 in an emergency.”

Anyone with information about the arson can report it to Sussex Police online or on 101, quoting Operation Spey.

Alternatively contact CrimeStoppers anonymously by calling 0800 555 111.

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Hundreds of Palestinians risked their lives to reach aid trucks as they arrived in northern Gaza. Amid volleys of gunfire, crowds of people climbed onto moving trucks to grab whatever food they could to feed their starving families. Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim Al Khalili was there.

COPS have launched an urgent probe after a woman was allegedly sexually assaulted near a church as they urge any witnesses to come forward.

The shocking attack is reported to have taken place in Liftondown, Devon, at the weekend sparking a police investigation.

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The woman was sexually assaulted by a man at around 1am on Saturday, August 2, Devon and Cornwall Police say.

The attack allegedly happened near the Methodist church on the A388 in Liftondown.

Officers, who said the woman is being supported by specially trained staff, are appealing for dashcam footage from anyone driving in the area at the time.

Detective Inspector Neil Lloyd said: “The female victim is being supported by specially trained officers as our enquiries are continuing.

“We are currently appealing for dashcam footage from anyone who was driving in that area between midnight and 2am on Saturday 2 August.

“Incidents of this nature understandably cause great concern in the local community, and we urge anyone with any information to contact us.”

Felix Baumgartner’s fatal paragliding crash was preceded by large boom as it spun to the ground, according to witnesses.

Beachgoers knew something was wrong when they heard a loud boom ring out as a paraglider spun out of control, before killing its only occupant, extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner, when it crashed next to a swimming pool near the Adriatic Sea.

A 30-year-old mother watched the deadly descent unfold Thursday afternoon from nearby with her two young children, who were entranced by the constant traffic of paragliders above the beach town of Porto Sant’Elipido in central Italy’s Marche region.

“Everything was normal, then it started to spin like a top,’’ Mirella Ivanov said on Friday. “It went down and we heard a roar. In fact, I turned around because I thought it crashed on the rocks. Then I saw two lifeguards running, people who were running toward” the crash site.

When she saw people trying to revive the occupant, she hustled her two children away.

The city’s mayor confirmed the death of 56-year-old Baumgartner, who was renowned as the first skydiver to fall faster than the speed of sound. The cause of the paragliding accident was under investigation. Police did not return calls asking for comment.

“It is a destiny that is very hard to comprehend for a man who has broken all kinds of records, who has been an icon of flight, and who travelled through space,” Mayor Massimiliano Ciarpella told The Associated Press.

Ciarpella said that Baumgartner had been in the area on vacation, and that investigators believed he may have fallen ill during the fatal flight.

Baumgartner’s social media feed features videos of him in recent days flying on a motorised paraglider – known as paramotoring – above seaside towns, and taking off from a nearby airfield surrounded by cornfields.

The Clube de Sole Le Mimose beachside resort where the crash occurred said in a statement that an employee who was “slightly injured” in the accident was in good condition. No guests were injured, and the pool has been reopened.

In 2012, Baumgartner, known as “Fearless Felix,” became the first human to break the sound barrier with only his body. He wore a pressurised suit and jumped from a capsule hoisted more than 24 miles (39 kilometres) above Earth by a giant helium balloon over New Mexico.

The Austrian, who was part of the Red Bull Stratos team, topped out at 843.6 mph (1,357.6km/h) – the equivalent of 1.25 times the speed of sound – during a nine-minute descent. At one point, he went into a potentially dangerous flat spin while still supersonic, spinning for 13 seconds, his crew later said.

In 2012, millions watched YouTube’s livestream as Baumgartner coolly flashed a thumbs-up when he came out of the capsule high above Earth and then activated his parachute as he neared the ground, lifting his arms in victory after he landed.

Baumgartner’s altitude record stood for two years until Google executive Alan Eustace set new marks for the highest free-fall jump and greatest free-fall distance.

Baumgartner, a former Austrian military parachutist, made thousands of jumps from planes, bridges, skyscrapers and famed landmarks, including the Christ the Redeemer statue in Brazil.

In 2003, he flew across the English Channel in a carbon fibre wing after being dropped from a plane.

In recent years, he performed with The Flying Bulls, an aviation team owned and operated by Red Bull, as a helicopter stunt pilot in shows across Europe.

Red Bull paid Baumgartner tribute in a post Friday, calling him “precise, demanding and critical. With others, but above all toward yourself.”

The statement underlined the research and courage with which Baumgartner confronted “the greatest challenges.”

“No detail was too small, no risk too great, because you were capable of calculating it,’’ Red Bull said.

The Nasser hospital in southern Gaza has said 24 people have been killed near an aid distribution site.

Palestinians who were present at the site said Israeli troops opened fire as people were trying to access food on Saturday.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said there were “no known injured individuals” from IDF fire near the site.

Separately, an Israeli military official said warning shots were fired to disperse people who the IDF believed were a threat.

The claims by both sides have not been independently verified. Israel does not allow international news organisations, including the BBC, into Gaza.

Footage seen by the BBC later on Saturday showed what appeared to be a number of body bags at Nasser hospital’s courtyard surrounded by nurses and people in blood-stained clothes.

In another video, a man said people were waiting to get aid when they came under targeted fire for five minutes. A paramedic accused Israeli troops of killing in cold blood.

The videos have not been verified by the BBC.

Reuters said it had spoken to witnesses who described people being shot in the head and torso. The news agency also reported seeing bodies wrapped in white shrouds at Nasser hospital.

There have been almost daily reports of people being killed by Israeli fire while seeking food in Gaza.

Israel imposed a total blockade of aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip in March, and later resumed its military offensive against Hamas, collapsing a two-month ceasefire. It said it wanted to put pressure on the Palestinian armed group to release Israeli hostages.

Although the blockade was partially eased in late May, amid warnings of a looming famine from global experts, there are still severe shortages of food, as well as medicine and fuel.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, says there are thousands of malnourished children across the territory, with more cases detected every day.

In addition to allowing in some UN aid lorries, Israel and the US set up a new aid distribution system run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), saying they wanted to prevent Hamas from stealing aid.

On Friday, the UN human rights office said that it had so far recorded 798 aid-related killings, including 615 in the vicinity of the GHF’s sites, which are operated by US private security contractors and located inside military zones in southern and central Gaza.

The other 183 killings were recorded near UN and other aid convoys.

The Israeli military said it recognised there had been incidents in which civilians had been harmed and that it was working to minimise “possible friction between the population and the [Israeli] forces as much as possible”.

The GHF accused the UN of using “false and misleading” statistics from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Earlier this month, a former security contractor for the GHF told the BBC he witnessed colleagues opening fire several times on hungry Palestinians who had posed no threat. The GHF said the allegations were categorically false.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas’ cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 57,823 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

SACRAMENTO — Two prosecution witnesses said Tuesday that then-Sen. Paul Carpenter pressured them for campaign contributions when they went to see him about legislative business in the mid-1980s.

One of those witnesses, Daniel Haley, a former lobbyist for the Western Growers Assn., told jurors at Carpenter’s political corruption trial that Carpenter handed him a list of the association’s campaign contributions during a meeting in 1984 or 1985 in the lawmaker’s Capitol office.

Haley said Carpenter told him, something to the effect, “Based on that (list) do you expect me to help you or listen to you?”

“I certainly got the message that we had not contributed to him or his compadres, and he was not interested in the issue I was trying to present,” said Haley, who now heads the Agricultural Marketing Service for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“I felt if we had contributed to Sen. Carpenter I would have had an opportunity to address him about my views on the issues,” Haley added.

Carpenter, a Long Beach Democrat who is now a member of the State Board of Equalization, is facing racketeering, extortion and conspiracy charges that accuse him of seeking campaign contributions in exchange for political favors. The trial began Monday.

He has pleaded innocent.

The charges relate to a series of incidents that allegedly took place before Carpenter, 62, left the Legislature in 1987 to take a seat on the tax board.

Another former senator, Joseph Montoya, a Democrat from Whittier, is serving a 6 1/2-year prison sentence on charges stemming from the same FBI investigation at the Capitol.

Haley said he went to Carpenter’s office to see the then-senator about a bill or the appointment of former Republican Assemblyman David Stirling to be chief prosecutor for the state Farm Labor Board.

Instead of discussing legislative issues, Haley said, Carpenter handed him the contribution list. “I was a little shocked, a little embarrassed and a little uncomfortable,” Haley said.

Under cross-examination from defense attorney Gerard Hinckley, Haley said he has a “somewhat blurred recollection” of the meeting and can’t remember precisely what was said and exactly what he wanted to discuss with Carpenter.

But he said he remembered the incident because “of the position I was put in with regard to contributions.”

Another witness, Jeff Thompson, chief lobbyist for the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn., said he felt that Carpenter was suggesting a quid pro quo during a 1985 meeting at Carpenter’s office.

Thompson said he and another police lobbyist, Gavin McHugh, went to see Carpenter about a bill that their organization was backing. Carpenter quickly changed the subject to campaign contributions and why the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn. hadn’t contributed to him, Thompson said.

“The fact that he switched the conversation at that point directly to money put us in a really unusual position,” Thompson said. “That was the most uncomfortable meeting I ever had in my nine years as a lobbyist.”

Hinckley suggested during cross-examination that Thompson didn’t believe when he left the meeting with Carpenter that it was a shakedown.

“Oh, no, quite the contrary,” Thompson said. “We were shaken down in that meeting.”

But Thompson acknowledged telling a federal grand jury that he came to view the meeting as a shakedown only after learning of the FBI investigation of Capitol corruption. He said he never reported the incident until a federal agent telephoned and asked if he had ever been victimized by Carpenter.

Thompson said Carpenter never actually stated that he wanted money for his vote, but the lobbyist said he believed that was what the former lawmaker was suggesting.

“It certainly was weird,” Thompson said. “It was the most unusual pressure (for contributions) I had ever had. I would say his behavior was uncalled for.”

Thompson said Monday that his group gave Carpenter a $1,000 contribution about three months after the meeting.

McHugh testified that he attended the meeting with Carpenter and Thompson.

Carpenter had a document in his hands and told the two lobbyists, “I see you have given significant contributions to Sen. Richardson,” McHugh told jurors.

Carpenter and former Sen. H.L. Richardson (R-Glendora) had a well-publicized clash in 1985 after Carpenter suggested that Richardson was involved in an earlier corruption scandal. No charges were ever filed against Richardson.

“I got the distinct impression . . . that he (Carpenter) was angry with us,” McHugh said, adding that Carpenter “kind of scowled and had a frown on his face” although his voice was soft.

“I was a little shocked and I think I was a little bit intimidated,” McHugh added.

“It was not like any other meeting I had had before or since,” McHugh added. “I had never been asked for any kind of financial support . . . by anyone in the Capitol.”

McALLEN, Texas — Adults fighting kids for clean water, despondent toddlers, and a child with swollen feet denied a medical exam: These first-hand accounts from immigrant families at detention centers included in a motion filed by advocates Friday night are offering a glimpse of conditions at Texas facilities.

Families shared their testimonies with immigrant advocates filing a lawsuit to prevent the Trump administration from terminating the Flores settlement agreement, a 1990s-era policy that requires immigrant children detained in federal custody be held in safe and sanitary conditions.

The agreement could challenge President Trump’s family detention provisions in his massive tax and spending bill, which also seeks to make the detention time indefinite and comes as the administration ramps up arrests of immigrants nationwide.

“At a time when Congress is considering funding the indefinite detention of children and families, defending the Flores Settlement is more urgent than ever,” Mishan Wroe, a senior immigration attorney at the National Center for Youth Law, said in a statement Friday.

Advocates with the center, as well as the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, RAICES and Children’s Rights contacted or visited children and their families held in two Texas family detention centers in Dilley and Karnes, which reopened this year.

The conditions of the family detention facilities were undisclosed until immigration attorneys filed an opposing motion Friday night before a California federal court.

The oversight of the detention facilities was possible because of the settlement, and the visits help ensure standards of compliance and transparency, said Sergio Perez, the executive director of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law. Without the settlement, those overseeing the facilities would lose access to them and could not document what is happening inside.

Out of 90 families who spoke to RAICES, an immigration legal support group, since March, 40 expressed medical concerns, according to the court documents. Several testimonies expressed concern over water quantity and quality.

Emailed messages seeking comment were sent to the office of U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi and to CoreCivic and Geo Group, the private prison companies that operate the detention facilities in Dilley and Karnes, respectively. There was no response from Bondi’s office or the operators of the facilities as of midday Saturday.

One mother was told she would have to use tap water for formula for her 9-month-old, who had diarrhea for three days after. A 16-year-old girl described people scrambling over one another for water.

“We don’t get enough water. They put out a little case of water, and everyone has to run for it,” said the declaration from the girl held with her mother and two younger siblings at the Karnes County Immigration Processing Center. “An adult here even pushed my little sister out of the way to get to the water first.”

Faisal Al-Juburi, chief external affairs officer for RAICES, said Friday in a statement that the conditions “only serve to reinforce the vital need for transparent and enforceable standards and accountability measures,” citing an “unconscionable obstruction of medical care for those with acute, chronic, and terminal illnesses.”

One family with a young boy with cancer said he missed his doctor’s appointment after the family was arrested after they attended an immigration court hearing. He is now experiencing relapse symptoms, according to the motion. Another family said their 9-month-old lost more than 8 pounds while in detention for a month.

Children spoke openly about their trauma during visits with legal monitors, including a 12-year-old boy with a blood condition. He reported that his feet became too inflamed to walk, and even though he saw a doctor, he was denied further testing. Now, he stays mostly off his feet. “It hurts when I walk,” he said in a court declaration.

Arrests have left psychological trauma. A mother of a 3-year-old boy who saw agents go inside his babysitter’s home with guns started acting differently after detention. She said he now throws himself on the ground, bruises himself and refuses to eat most days.

Growing concerns as ICE ramps up operations

Many of the families in detention were already living in the U.S., reflecting the recent shift from immigration arrests at the border to internal operations.

Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff and main architect of Trump’s immigration policies, said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers would target at least 3,000 arrests a day, up from about 650 a day during the first few months of Trump’s second term.

Leecia Welch, the deputy legal director at Children’s Rights, said that as bad as facility conditions are, they will only get worse as more immigrants are brought in.

“As of early June, the census at Dilley was around 300, and only two of its five areas were open,” Welch said of her visits. “With a capacity of around 2,400, it’s hard to imagine what it would be like with 2,000 more people.”

Pediatricians such as Dr. Marsha Griffin with the American Academy of Pediatrics Council said they are concerned and are advocating across the country to allow pediatric monitors with child welfare experts inside the facilities.

Challenge to Flores agreement

The Flores agreement is poised to become more relevant if Trump’s tax and spending legislation, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, passes with the current language allowing the indefinite detention of immigrant families, which is not allowed under the Flores agreement.

Trump’s legislation approved by the House also proposes setting aside $45 billion in funding, a threefold spending increase, over the next four years to expand ICE detention of adults and families. The Senate is now considering the bill.

Under these increased efforts to add more detention space, Geo Group, the corporation operating the detention facility in Karnes, will soon be reopening an infamous prison — which housed gangsters Al Capone and Machine Gun Kelly — for migrant detention in Leavenworth, Kan.

Immigration advocates argue that if the settlement were terminated, the government would need to create regulations that conform to the agreement’s terms.

“Plaintiffs did not settle for policy making — they settled for rulemaking,” the motion read.

The federal government will have a chance to submit a reply brief. A court hearing is scheduled for mid-July.

Gonzalez writes for the Associated Press.

Witnesses have described the “horrendous” moment a car “rammed” into a crowd of people who were attending Liverpool FC’s victory parade following their Premier League win.

Merseyside Police said a number of pedestrians were hit by the vehicle in Water Street, Liverpool just after 18:00 BST. Dozens were injured, two of them seriously, with 27 treated in hospital.

A 53-year-old white British man from the Liverpool area was arrested, police said, adding that he is believed to have been the driver.

One eyewitness, BBC reporter Matt Cole, said the car missed him and his family “by literally inches”.

“We had just moments before watched fireworks going off, the celebrations of the Liverpool bus passing us on the Strand,” he said.

He said an ambulance had just made its way through the “dense” crowd he was part of on Water Street, when “there were screams ahead of us and suddenly this dark blue car just came through the crowd”.

“It just wasn’t stopping – I managed to grab my daughter who was with me and jump out of the way.

“It missed myself and my family by literally inches.”

He said the ambulance acted like a “natural barrier… that slowed the car down”, but that it had “no intention – it appeared – of stopping”. He added that the car looked to be travelling at “more than 20 [mph]”, but that he could not be sure it was not 30mph.

“As it passed me, it was being chased by a group of men who were trying to bang on the side of it and throw things at it,” he explained, adding that the rear windshield had been “completely smashed in”.

Having moved to safety down a side street, he saw police “running from all over, ambulances, police vans… more and more ambulances, more and more police vans – at one point then an entire squad of armed police cars stopped and people jumped out with rifles and again big medical packs on and began running towards the scene of the incident.”

He said his initial assumption was that the driver just wanted to “barge through crowds because they didn’t want to wait”.

“But suddenly then, the speed registered and the shouts of the people and the screams of the people registered, and at that point, yeah, adrenaline very much just kicks in”.

Harry Rashid, 48, from Solihull, was at the parade with his wife and two young daughters when he witnessed the car pull up before it “just rammed into all the people at the side of us”.

He told PA news agency: “It was extremely fast. Initially, we just heard the pop, pop, pop of people just being knocked off the bonnet of a car…. I saw people on lying on the ground, people unconscious.

“It was horrendous. So horrendous.”

Off-duty BBC reporter Dan Ogunshakin, who was in the city for the parade, said “suddenly a lot of people started to surround” a car, which was front of an ambulance that was moving through the crowd.

He said he and his friend then noticed “people were hitting the car and shaking the car and we wondered why this was suddenly happening”.

The car then reversed and knocked people away from it, he explained, then “it suddenly accelerated forwards” straight towards the crowd of people. “People scattered like bowling pins.”

“What had once been an atmosphere of celebration and joy and happiness suddenly turned into fear and terror and disbelief,” he said, adding it become “hell on Earth”.

Matthew O’Carroll, 28, from Runcorn said he had approached the top of Water Street when the car “came past a parked police van at a decent speed”.

“People managed to get out of the way as he was beeping as he went through but as he went past, people were obviously very angry and so started running after the car.

“The back window of the car was already smashed.

“I thought that once it went past us, it was just someone that was trying to get away from something and would slow down when he got to more people.”

Another witness, Mike Maddra, was walking with a group of friends, when he saw a car “speeding up” and hitting pedestrians.

He said the “car turned left, mounted pavement, come towards us and runs towards the buildings”.

He added that he thought he saw two people being hit, and that “it looked deliberate”.

“It has just ruined the day really,” he said.