Four people, a 43-year-old woman and three boys, aged 15, eight and four, have been killed in a house fire in Brent, north-west London.
The emergency services were called to the blaze in Tillett Close, Stonebridge, at about 01:20 BST.
A 41-year-old man was arrested at the scene in connection with the fire and remains in custody, the Met Police said.
A further two people were taken to hospital by the London Ambulance Service, the Met said. Their conditions have not been disclosed.
Supt Steve Allen, from the force’s local policing team in north-west London, said: “This is an extremely tragic incident and our thoughts are with everyone involved… we continue to work alongside investigators from the London Fire Brigade to establish the cause of the fire.”
Police say four victims face life-threatening injuries, suggest suspect may have have suffered a ‘psychological emergency’.
Authorities in Germany have arrested a woman after at least 17 people were injured in a knife attack at the main train station in the northern city of Hamburg.
At least four of the victims sustained life-threatening injuries in Friday evening’s mass stabbing incident, which took place in the middle of the city’s evening rush hour, emergency services said.
The suspect, a 39-year-old German woman, was arrested at the scene by law enforcement, a Hamburg police spokesperson said.
Officers “approached her, and the woman allowed herself to be arrested without resistance”, spokesman Florian Abbenseth told journalists in comments carried by public broadcaster ARD.
“We have no evidence so far that the woman may have had a political motive,” Abbenseth said.
“Rather, we have information, based on which we now want to investigate, whether she may have been experiencing a psychological emergency.”
The suspect was thought to have “acted alone”, Hamburg police said in a post on X.
Four of the victims have suffered life-threatening injuries, Hamburg’s fire department spokesman said, revising down an earlier figure.
The suspect was thought to have turned “against passengers” at the station, a spokeswoman for the Hanover federal police directorate, which also covers Hamburg, told the AFP news agency.
Ambulance and police outside the central station in Hamburg following Friday evening’s knife attack [Daniel Bockwoldt/EPA]
Images of the scene showed access to the platforms at one end of the station blocked off by police and people being loaded into waiting ambulances.
Four platforms at the station were closed while investigations were ongoing, and railway operator Deutsche Bahn said it was “deeply shocked” by the attack. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz also expressed his shock in a call with the mayor of Hamburg following the attack.
Germany has been rocked in recent months by a series of violent attacks that have put security at the top of the agenda.
The most recent, on Sunday, saw four people injured in a stabbing at a bar in the city of Bielefeld. The investigation into that attack had been handed over to federal prosecutors following the arrest of the suspect, who is from Syria.
He played a major role in the BBC soap’s 40th anniversary episodes when his wife Cindy’s Christmas Day attacker was revealed.
They couple were reunited after Adam’s hiatus from the soap in 2021.
When he returned to Albert Square last year, Ian was reunited with his presumed dead wife Cindy (Michelle Collins), who was revealed to have been in witness protection.
Throughout his long tenure in Walford, Ian has been married six times to five women and had two failed engagements.
He has also fathered three children and acted as a father figure to much younger half-brother, Ben Mitchell.
Brigham Young quarterback Jake Retzlaff has been accused of raping a woman at his Utah residence in November 2023.
In a civil lawsuit filed this week in state court in Salt Lake County, a woman identified in documents as Jane Doe alleges that Retzlaff “raped, strangled, and bit” her after she and a friend came over to his place to play the video game “Fortnite.” The claimant is asking for more than $300,000 in damages over claims including assault, battery and “emotional distress, humiliation, embarrassment, mental distress and anxiety.”
Retzlaff’s attorney, Mark Baute, said on Wednesday in a statement to media outlets that Retzlaff is “factually innocent.”
“We look forward to proving that innocence,” Baute said. “Jake’s focus this year will be on football. We don’t try cases in the media, we will respect the process and establish Jake’s innocence through the judicial system.”
Retzlaff played two years at Corona Centennial High before spending a year each at Riverside City College and Golden West College in Huntington Beach. He has played 17 games in two seasons at BYU and led the Cougars to an 11-2 record last year. He has one year of college eligibility remaining.
BYU said in a statement to The Times that it learned about the lawsuit Wednesday.
“The university takes any allegation very seriously, following all processes and guidelines mandated by Title IX,” BYU wrote. “Due to federal and university privacy laws and practices for students, the university will not be able to provide additional comment.”
According to the lawsuit, Doe and Retzlaff met via social media in October and began messaging. They met in person in late November when Retzlaff invited the Salt Lake County resident to his place in Utah County. She and a friend came over “that evening and went to his room to play Fortnite,” the lawsuit states.
The filing states that Doe interacted with “Retzlaff’s friends and teammates” while playing the video game. Later, after her friend left, Doe and Retzlaff were kissing while watching a movie when “Retzlaff began escalating the situation, attempting to touch her breasts and genital area,” according to the complaint.
The lawsuit states that Doe “tried to de-escalate the situation and attempted to slow things down, trying to pull away, and saying ‘wait.’ She did not want to do anything sexual with him.”
Retzlaff’s physical contact started “causing her pain,” the complaint states, and Doe objected — saying “no” and “wait, stop” — and “wanted to leave, but was scared and felt like she could not get away.”
According to the lawsuit, Retzlaff would go on to allegedly pull Doe’s hair, forcefully kiss her, bite her lip (which allegedly caused a cut) and “put his hands around her neck and started to press down so that she could not breathe,” among other alleged actions before raping her.
Doe left after Retzlaff fell asleep, the lawsuit states. She went to a hospital “a few days later,” according to the lawsuit, and had a rape kit performed and photos taken of her injuries. She also spoke with the Provo Police Department but initially did not give Retzlaff’s name because “she was scared and in shock and not ready to confront him,” the lawsuit states.
“At some point after speaking to the police, an officer reached out to her asking for the name because someone else filed a complaint against a football player and the police wanted to see if it was the same person,” the lawsuit states.
“At that point, [Doe] shared Retzlaff’s name, and the Provo police then encouraged her not to do anything because, as they claimed, ‘sexual assault victims never get justice.’”
In a statement released Wednesday night, the Provo Police Department said it “is aware of a civil suit involving an allegation of rape made by an anonymous plaintiff against a BYU football player” but “has not been served any legal filing relating to this civil case.”
The department said it was able “to identify a possible correlating case report” based on the details of the civil case. The initials of the woman who called in that report match those of Retzlaff’s accuser. The Times does not name victims of sexual assault unless they choose to be identified.
“Our records show that on November 27th, 2023, our department received a phone report from a woman … who gave a similar account. She was treated with courtesy and care,” the department stated.
“The complainant in that case was given several opportunities to identify her abuser. She declined to do so, as is her right, and the case was subsequently closed. Collected evidence was examined, and it revealed no actionable investigative leads. Our victim advocates followed up several times to offer services but received no response.”
The department continued: “The civil suit states that Provo Police personnel discouraged the victim from proceeding, by telling her there is no justice for victims of sexual abuse. From everything we have reviewed, this is not true. We have a team of dedicated investigators and victim advocates whose sole mission is to provide justice to victims of sexual abuse. They do not send people away, warning them there is no justice for victims.
“Our Special Victims Unit investigations regularly result in criminal accountability for offenders. We hope the plaintiff chooses to make a statement to further the criminal investigation if desired.”
NEW YORK — Sean “Diddy” Combs demanded $20,000 from Casandra “Cassie” Ventura’s mother and threatened to release explicit sex tapes of his longtime girlfriend when he became angry that she was dating someone else, the mother testified Tuesday at the hip-hop mogul’s sex trafficking trial.
Regina Ventura said she felt “physically sick” when she received an email from Cassie in late 2011 saying Combs was planning to release two explicit videos of her and send someone to hurt her and the man she was seeing, rapper Kid Cudi.
“I did not understand a lot of it. The sex tapes threw me,” Ventura told the Manhattan federal court.
Ventura, of New London, Conn., said she then received a demand from Combs for $20,000 “to recoup money he had spent on her because he was unhappy she was in a relationship with Kid Cudi.”
“He was angry that he had spent money on her and she went with another person,” she said.
Ventura said she used a home equity loan to make the payment because “I was scared for my daughter’s safety.” Days later, she said, the money was returned, and before long, Cassie was dating Combs again.
Ventura testified for less than a half-hour, in part because defense attorney Marc Agnifilo declined to cross-examine her. During her testimony, the jury was shown photographs of bruises on Cassie’s body that Ventura testified were taken when her daughter came home for Christmas in 2011.
Before the jury arrived Tuesday, Agnifilo tried to persuade Judge Arun Subramanian to disallow the testimony, saying it was “purely prejudicial” because it illustrated the wide difference between the financial status of the Ventura family and Combs. The judge allowed it though, saying the threats to release sex tapes and harm Cassie made it an instance of “potential extortion.”
The testimony came during the second week of the trial, which is scheduled to last up to two months. If convicted of the charges he faces, including racketeering, the Bad Boy Records founder could be sentenced to at least 15 years in prison.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he used threats and his powerful position in the hip-hop world to abuse women and others, and force Cassie to take part in drug-fueled sexual performances with other men that she said left her too drained to pursue her singing career.
Earlier Tuesday, David James, Combs’ personal assistant from 2007 to 2009, told the court that the job seemed to come with increasing perils. He said he quit when he realized that his life had been put in danger after he was forced to drive a car in which an angry Combs sat in the back seat with three handguns on his lap.
James said his job sometimes required him to ensure that hotel rooms where Combs stayed under the name “Frank Black” were stocked with the musician’s comforts, including fresh underwear, an iPod, apple sauce, vodka, baby oil, Viagra and condoms.
There were also surprising moments, James said, like one in 2008 when Combs asked him to bring an iPod from his Miami home to a hotel room. Upon entering, James said he saw Cassie on the bed with a white comforter pulled up to her neck and an unfamiliar naked man running from the room.
Another time, he said Combs summoned him to his office to show him video he’d recorded at a party of James dancing wildly and told him: “OK. I’m going to keep this footage in case I ever need it.” James said he took it as a threat to keep him in line.
Cassie testified last week that Combs threatened to release videos of her having sex with male sex workers during so-called freak-offs Combs orchestrated if she didn’t do as he said.
James also described being required to take lie detector tests twice when Combs was trying to find out who stole cash in one instance and a watch in another.
He said Combs was on drugs nearly every day, often taking Percocet by day and ecstasy by night. When he stocked Combs’ hotel rooms, he said, drugs were in a bag dropped off by security, including the pill meant to look like then-President Obama.
The moment when James saw the three guns on Combs’ lap came when he testified that he was involved in Combs’ attempt to confront his music industry rival Suge Knight at a Los Angeles diner in November 2008 — an incident that Cassie also testified about. He said he quit soon afterward.
“I was real shook up by it,” James testified. “This was the first time being Mr. Combs’ assistant that I realized my life was in danger.”
Before Tuesday’s lunch break, Sharay Hayes, an exotic dancer known as “The Punisher,” testified that Combs and Cassie brought him into the freak-offs world. He said a woman — Cassie using a pseudonym — called and told him it was her birthday and that her husband said she should hire a dancer.
Hayes said he arrived at a Manhattan hotel room expecting to perform a striptease for a small group of people but instead found the woman who hired him — whom he later found out was Cassie — alone with an otherwise naked man who hid his face with a burqa-like cloth. That man, he said, turned out to be Combs.
Hayes recalled seeing bottles of baby oil in bowls of water and getting handed a stack of $800 in cash. Later, after Combs watched him have a sexual encounter with Cassie, he said he was handed an additional $1,200. He said he was a fan of Combs but didn’t realize it was him in the room until a subsequent encounter at another hotel where the message on the TV screen said: “Essex House would like to welcome Mr. Sean Combs.”
Sisak and Neumeister write for the Associated Press.
An Israeli air strike on the Musa bin Nusair School in Gaza City has killed at least a dozen Palestinians, including children and a pregnant woman. The school had been sheltering forcibly displaced families.
A WOMAN who stabbed her boyfriend to death after she found him speaking to his wife has been jailed for 16 years.
Joanna Wronska plunged a kitchen knife into partner Marcin Koziol’s heart – only to ring the emergency services and tell them he “injured himself”.
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Joanna Wronska has been jailed for 16 years for killing her partnerCredit: WNS
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Wronska stabbed her partner Marcin in the heartCredit: WNS
Wronska was jealous and “possessive” of Marcin’s ongoing contact with his estranged wife and attacked him in an “explosive loss of temper”, the court heard.
She then made a 999 call claiming her partner had “injured himself with a knife”.
When the cops arrived, they found Marcin naked and bleeding on the bed in the flat in Wrexham, North Wales.
And despite the best efforts by the paramedics, Marcin tragically died from the wounds.
Wronska is said to have gone to great lengths to cover her crime.
She maintained that her partner stabbed himself in an attempt to take his own life.
But Home Office forensic pathologist Dr Brian Rodgers said it was “highly unusual” to sever your own ribs when stabbing yourself.
Cops also found a large “freshly washed” knife in the kitchen sink, which matched the wounds inflicted on Marcin.
Prosecutor Andrew Thomas KC said: “This was a knife with an eight-inch blade that was thrust with severe force towards the chest and through the rib cage – penetrating the heart and lung.
“Her actions, in removing the knife and washing, “strongly suggest” she stabbed Mr Koziol and tried to hide the evidence of her involvement”.
Knifeman on loose as 5 stabbed ‘at London party’ in early hours sparking major hunt
In the 999 call played to the jury, Wronska is heard saying: “My partner dead…please help me now.”
She kept saying “Marcin, Marcin, Marcin” over and over again before saying the word “gone”.
It is believed that in a drunken temper, Wronska took the knife and stabbed her partner.
Judge Rhys Rowlands said: “[The attack followed] an explosive drunken loss of temper on your part, to which you stabbed the victim to the chest with a kitchen knife, you then washed the knife in the sink.”
He said the blow from the knife had been delivered “with severe force”.
Detective Chief Inspector Eleri Thomas said: “Joanna Wronska senselessly and needlessly ended Marcin Koziol’s life – her partner whom she claimed she loved deeply.
“It was a cruel and violent attack on a man who had sought support from her.”
Marcin’s wife Marta said: “Joanna has taken all of this from me, I have seen no remorse, she has not even admitted the fact she has done it and I can’t understand this senseless crime
“I can’t understand why she has done it, Marcin was harmless and wouldn’t hurt anyone. I can’t understand why someone would do this and that Marcin has been taken away and I can never bring him back.”
The court heard Marcin and Marta had separated after he suffered an injury at work and fell into depression after losing his career.
But she said he was a “gentle giant” who would not hurt anyone, and they had remained in contact.
Wronska was jailed for life and told she must serve a minimum of 16 years behind bars less the time she had spent on remand.
Domestic abuse – how to get help
DOMESTIC abuse can affect anyone – including men – and does not always involve physical violence.
Here are some signs that you could be in an abusive relationship:
Emotional abuse – Including being belittled, blamed for the abuse – gaslighting – being isolated from family and friends, having no control over your finances, what you where and who you speak to
Threats and intimidation – Some partners might threaten to kill or hurt you, destroy your belongings, stalk or harass you
Physical abuse – This can range from slapping or hitting to being shoved over, choked or bitten.
Sexual abuse – Being touched in a way you do not want to be touched, hurt during sex, pressured into sex or forced to have sex when you do not consent.
If any of the above apply to you or a friend, you can call these numbers:
Remember, you are not alone.
1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men will experience domestic abuse over the course of their lifetime.
Every 30 seconds the police receive a call for help relating to domestic abuse.
For her seventh time hosting “Saturday Night Live” (the most times ever for a woman, NBC says), actor Scarlett Johansson closed the show’s historic 50th season.
It was a night that didn’t deliver any news on the rumors that Johansson’s husband, Colin Jost of “Weekend Update,” or his co-host Michael Che, would be leaving the show. Instead, the two engaged in their joke exchange ritual, and multiple guest stars showed up in sketches, including Mike Myers, Gina Gershon and Emily Ratajkowski in a video piece, and musical guest Bad Bunny.
Johansson did her usual ace job throughout the show, bringing her crisp delivery to sketches about a New York morning show where puns about hard-news stories land very badly, a Please Don’t Destroy video about a vacation flight to Newark Airport (it also lands badly), and a barroom sketch about two men (Marcello Hernández and Bad Bunny) who commiserate in Spanish about the terrible relationships they’re in with characters played by Johansson and Ego Nwodim.
The trio of sketches were followed by another video chapter in the “Bowen Yang’s Not Gay” series, in which Johansson has an affair with Yang before finding out how many other women he’s having sex with, including Gershon, Ratajkowski and cast members Nwodim and Heidi Gardner.
After a strong “Weekend Update” finale featuring Johansson in the joke exchange, the show took a hard dive with four sketches in a row that just didn’t work. There was a very dated and awkward elevator sketch about Mike Myers running into Kanye West (now Ye, played by Kenan Thompson), one about intimacy coordinators who don’t know how lesbians have sex, a TV interview panel in which female actors get asked more personal questions than their male co-star, and a gross-out season-ender about Victorian women eating disgusting foods including eels and BLTs (bunnies and little turtles).
On top of the bad run of sketches, Johansson was cut off while giving a tribute to Lorne Michaels as the show ended on broadcast and Peacock with no closing credits or cast hugs (the full goodnights were later posted online). That’s no fault of Johansson (who received a bouquet of roses and a kiss from her husband before that goodbye snafu), but it was a sloppy way to end an otherwise strong season of TV featuring a host who’s always proved solid.
Musical guest Bad Bunny, who appeared in the bar and Newark airport sketches, performed “NUEVAYoL” and “PERFuMITO NUEVO” with RaiNao.
The majority of Season 50’s cold opens have leaned on James Austin Johnson’s uncanny President Trump impression, and the finale followed suit. The president’s recent Middle East trip was the topic, with Trump having some friend time with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (Emil Wakim). “We are vibing,” Trump said, “dipping our fingers into various goops and spreads,” although he says he ended up eating at a mobile McDonald’s set up for him nearby. Trump addressed the $400-million plane he wants to accept from Qatar (“It’s a pre-bribe”), saying he prefers it to flying an American plane. “No thanks, sonny. Have you seen what’s going on … screen is blank. Newark!” Trump narrated himself breaking the fourth wall by going out into the audience and commenting on the attractiveness of women in the front rows and promised audiences they wouldn’t forget him while “SNL” goes on summer hiatus. “I’m everywhere, even in your dreams, like the late, great Freddy Krueger. See you in the fall if we still have a country, right? It’s a coin toss.”
In her monologue, Johansson led the cast in a song with lyrics about the show set to the tune of Billy Joel’s “Piano Man.” “Sing us a song, it’s your monologue / sing us a song tonight. / ‘Cause we’ve made 50 years of great memories / every Saturday Night.” At one point it looked like Joel himself might join in when Johansson announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, Billy Joel… wrote this song!” The host took audience questions while still singing and jokes were made about a surprised Sarah Sherman finding out she’s leaving the show (it was a joke). The cast (with Jost and Che absent) concluded the song with, “The 50th season is through / it lasted forever / we did it together / and we got to spend it with you.”
Best sketch of the night: Let’s go home for some soup made from cow feet
Two men (Hernandez and Bad Bunny) on dates at a bar with women they don’t particularly want to be with (Nwodim and Johansson) get into a fight at their girlfriends’ urging, but instead they tell each other in Spanish about their problems and become friends. The two realize they’re both attracted to volatile relationships and will probably end up back in bed with the women they should break up with. The subtitles are on point and the attempts by the girlfriends to chime in with Spanish (“Nipple crazy cafeteria!”) also work nicely. For some reason, a couple of men (Andrew Dismukes and Johnson) sit at another table and serve as the sketch’s Greek chorus.
Also good: ‘Is something going on at Newark?’
The Please Don’t Destroy boys are visited by Johansson, who asks why they’re so down. “Are you sad the season’s over and you only did like two videos?” she asks. The actor invites them to fly first class with her and a Lonely Island-style rap video is interspersed with the reality of the situation: They’re on a very bad flight to Newark airport, which has been having some problems. There are some great visual jokes like a prayer symbol on the overhead panel and a Microsoft blue screen of death on the TV panels. But then Bad Bunny shows up as an air traffic controller who helps save the day all alone and on his first day at work. It might say something that the two best sketches this week featured Johansson as well as Bad Bunny; he didn’t get a chance to host this season but did a great job in 2023.
‘Weekend Update’ winner: Did Lorne Michaels know about this?
Miss Eggy (Nwodim) returned with another fire monologue similar to the one from last month, but it was the traditional joke exchange, in which Jost and Che force each other to read racist and/or embarrassing material that is taken to new heights (lows?) each time. Jost was forced to tell the show’s producer, “Retire, bitch, let me run the show,” while Che was given the line, “I haven’t been that excited since I saw a white woman drinking unattended.” Jost had to ridicule rap feud master Kendrick Lamar and with Jost’s wife sitting next to him, Che was forced to apologize and say about his time on the show, “I’ve told thousands of jokes and gotten dozens of laughs,” and of Jost, “I love you.” But it was Jost who got the worst of it, getting tricked into saying the name Nick Kerr, son of Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr, and applying lipstick to tell Michaels, “I’ll do anything to run this show.” If this is the last time we see Jost and Che as “Update” hosts, at least we’ll know they left no depths unplumbed.
Tasha, who has been travelling the world for two years, recently visited the Maldives and was left amazed by the paradise islands – and how affordable they can be
Dhigurah is a beautiful island(Image: @ Didier Marti via Getty Images)
A savvy traveller has taken to TikTok to share how to enjoy the Maldives on a budget, proving that paradise doesn’t have to cost the earth.
Tasha, a seasoned explorer who’s been trotting the globe for two years, unveiled the truth about affordable Maldivian adventures, stating: “Why don’t more people know this about the Maldives? And that is that you don’t have to be a millionaire to visit here.”
Keen to share her knowledge, Tasha explained that swerving the costly private resorts in favour of cosier, more economical options is the key.
Reliving her visit to Dhigurah, one of the archipelago’s local islands, she called it “just the most beautiful island paradise surrounded by palm trees and blue water”.
This scenic bliss could slash your trip expenses by half since digs can be scooped up starting at just £50 per night – a fraction of the overwater villa prices often flaunted online.
Over-water villas tend to be pricey(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Tasha divulged: “There are hundreds of local islands that you can choose from.”
She explained how public ferry transportation is a bargain at merely £1, and pointed out beachfront accommodation deals starting at around £50 per night; local fare can be found at about £5, while outings are pegged at £50, astonishingly less than resort equivalent excursions.
“I don’t know why more people aren’t discovering the local island of the Maldives, because this is the way you can discover paradise on a budget,” Tasha gushed enthusiastically.
She continued: “So next time you’re thinking of a tropical island getaway, forget Thailand, forget the Philippines, Maldives needs to be number one on your bucket list.”
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Tasha did point out some constraints when visiting local islands, like the requirement to dress modestly and avoid alcohol due to the Maldives being a predominantly Muslim nation with specific public decorum.
Opting for a private beach or island allows for a more laid-back vibe and lenient rules, but be warned – it comes with a heftier price tag.
Tasha’s insider info has struck a chord with other globetrotters; comments poured in with one travel enthusiast sharing, “I loved Dhigurah! So gorgeous,” and another chimed in, saying, “Dhigurah is the best place. I miss it so much!”.
One commenter expressed surprise: “I had no idea. Always wanted to go to the Maldives but thought it wouldn’t happen for a long time.”
While yet another grateful wanderer added: “Maldives is honestly so amazing, thanks so much for the tips.”
How to do Maldives on a budget
1. Go off peak – The Maldives’ off-season is from May to October, which overlaps with the monsoon season. Although you might experience occasional rain, you can enjoy significant discounts on flights, accommodations, and activities.
2. Stick to local islands – Instead of staying at luxurious private island resorts, opt for budget-friendly guesthouses or boutique hotels on inhabited local islands. Popular local islands for budget travellers are Maafushi, Dhigurah, Fulidhoo, Thoddoo, and Hulhumalé.
3. Take the ferry – The Maldives has a reliable ferry network connecting Malé (the capital) to local islands. Public ferries are incredibly affordable, costing as little as £1 per trip.
4. Eat like a local – Skip the pricey resort restaurants and eat at local cafés (called “hotaa”). Traditional meals cost around £5. Traditional Maldivian dishes include mas huni (tuna and coconut), fish curries, and roshi (flatbread).
5. Book affordable trips – Excursions (like snorkelling, diving, or sandbank trips) from resorts are usually quite expensive, but guesthouses on local islands offer budget-friendly packages starting at about £20-£50 per activity.
ATLANTA — The case of a pregnant woman in Georgia who was declared brain-dead and has been kept on life support for three months has given rise to complicated questions about abortion law and differing views about whether a fetus is a person.
Adriana Smith, a 30-year-old nurse and mother, was about two months pregnant on Feb. 19 when she was declared brain-dead, according to an online fundraising page started by her mother. Doctors said Georgia’s strict antiabortion law requires that she remain on life support until the fetus has developed enough to be delivered, her mother wrote.
The law, one of a wave of measures enacted in conservative states after the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade in 2022, restricts abortion once cardiac activity is detected and gives personhood rights to a fetus.
Smith’s mother says the law has left her family without a say in a difficult situation, and with her due date still months away, the family is left wondering whether the baby will be born with disabilities or can even survive. Some activists, many of them Black women like Smith, say it raises issues of racial equity.
What does the law say?
Emory Healthcare, which runs the hospital, has not explained how doctors decided to keep Smith on life support except to say in a statement that it considered “Georgia’s abortion laws and all other applicable laws.”
The state adopted a law in 2019 to ban abortion after cardiac activity can be detected, about six weeks into pregnancy, that came into effect after Roe was overturned.
That law does not explicitly address Smith’s situation, but allows abortion to preserve the life or physical health of the pregnant woman. Three other states have similar bans that kick in around the six-week mark, and 12 bar abortion at all stages of pregnancy.
David S. Cohen, a professor at Drexel University’s Thomas R. Kline School of Law in Philadelphia, said the hospital might be most concerned about part of the law that gives fetuses legal rights as “members of the species Homo sapiens.”
Cohen said that Emory may therefore consider Smith and the fetus as two patients and that once Smith was on life support, the hospital had a legal obligation to keep the fetus alive, even after Smith was considered brain-dead.
“These are the kind of cases that law professors have been talking about for a long time when they talk about fetal personhood,” he said.
State Rep. Nabilah Islam Parkes, an Atlanta-area Democrat, said Friday that she sent a letter to state Atty. Gen. Chris Carr asking for a legal opinion on how Georgia’s abortion law applies when a pregnant woman is brain-dead.
Divide within antiabortion movement
Antiabortion groups are divided over whether they should support personhood provisions, which are on the books in at least 17 states, according to the advocacy group Pregnancy Justice.
Some argue that fertilized eggs, embryos and fetuses should be considered people with the same rights as babies after birth. This personhood concept seeks to give them rights under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which says a state can’t “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process or law; nor deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
Some saw personhood as politically impractical, especially after personhood amendments to state constitutions were rejected by voters in Colorado, Mississippi and North Dakota between 2008 and 2014. Those who steered away sought laws and restrictions on abortion that stopped short of personhood, although they were often informed by the concept.
Personhood proponents argue this lacks moral clarity. Some personhood proponents have been sidelined in national antiabortion groups; the National Right to Life Committee cut ties with its Georgia Right to Life affiliate in 2014 after the state wing opposed bills that restricted abortion but allowed exceptions for rape and incest.
Unequal access to care for Black women
The Associated Press has not been able to reach Smith’s mother, April Newkirk. But Newkirk told Atlanta TV station WXIA that her daughter went to a hospital complaining of headaches and was given medication and released. Then, her boyfriend awoke to her gasping for air and called 911. Emory University Hospital determined she had blood clots in her brain and she was declared brain-dead.
It’s not clear what Smith said when she went to the hospital or whether the care she was given was standard for her symptoms. But Black women often report that their pain isn’t taken seriously, and an Associated Press investigation found that health outcomes for Black women are worse because of circumstances linked to racism and unequal access to care.
Monica Simpson, executive director of SisterSong, the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging Georgia’s abortion law, said: “Black women must be trusted when it comes to our healthcare decisions.”
“Like so many Black women, Adriana spoke up for herself. She expressed what she felt in her body, and as a healthcare provider, she knew how to navigate the medical system,” Simpson said, noting that by the time Smith was diagnosed “it was already too late.”
It’s unclear whether the clots in Smith’s brain were related to her pregnancy.
But her situation is undoubtedly alarming for those seeking solutions to disparities in the maternal mortality rate among Black women. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Black women had a mortality rate of 50.3 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2023. That’s more than three times the rate for white women, and it is higher than the rates for Latino and Asian women.
What is Smith’s current situation?
While Smith is on a ventilator and probably other life-support devices, being declared brain-dead means she is dead.
Some experts refer to “life support” as “maintenance measures,” “organ support” or “somatic support,” which relates to the body as distinct from the mind.
Emory has not made public what is being done to allow Smith’s fetus to continue to develop.
In another case in Florida, doctors successfully delivered the baby of a 31-year-old woman who was declared brain-dead while 22 weeks pregnant, but not without weeks of sustained monitoring, testing and medical care. The woman’s family wanted to keep the fetus, physicians with the University of Florida College of Medicine said in a 2023 paper.
On her first day of admission, doctors administered hormones to raise her blood pressure and placed a feeding tube. After she was transferred to an intensive care unit, an obstetric nurse stayed by her bedside continuously to monitor the fetus’ heart rate and movements.
She was on a ventilator, regularly received steroids and hormones, and needed multiple antibiotics to treat pneumonia. Her medical team encompassed multiple specialties: obstetrics, neonatology, radiology and endocrinology.
Doctors performed surgery to remove the fetus at 33 weeks when its heart rate fell, and the baby appeared to be in good health at birth.
“We don’t have great science to guide clinical decision-making in these cases,” said Dr. Kavita Arora, an obstetrician and gynecologist in North Carolina who raised concerns about the effect of prolonged ventilator use on a fetus. “There simply aren’t a lot of cases like this.”
The 2023 paper warned that “costs should not be underestimated.”
It is not clear whether Smith, whose mother said she was a nurse at Emory University Hospital, had health insurance. But JoAnn Volk, a professor, founder and co-director of the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University, said that for people with health insurance, it’s generally up to the insurer to determine whether care is medically necessary and covered under the plan.
While it is unclear how much it will cost to keep Smith on life support until the fetus can be delivered, or who will be responsible for that cost, her mother’s GoFundMe page mentions Smith’s 7-year-old son and notes that the baby could have significant disabilities as the effort aims to raise $275,000.
Associated Press writers Brumback and Thanawala reported from Atlanta and Mulvihill from Cherry Hill, N.J. AP writer Jeff Amy in Atlanta contributed to this report.
She already felt “trapped” in a cycle of physical and sexual abuse by him, she told a New York federal jury this week, outlining 11 years of alleged beatings, sexual blackmail and a rape.
She claimed Combs threatened to leak videos of her sexual encounters with numerous male sex workers while drug-intoxicated and glistening with baby oil as he watched and orchestrated the events, known as freak-offs.
“If I pleased him with a freak-off, then my premiere would run smoothly,” she said, according to reporting from inside the Manhattan courtroom from the Associated Press.
What happened next could end up being the beginning of the end of Combs’ public life.
Video footage from that March 2016 night shows Combs punching and kicking Ventura as she cowers and tries to protect herself in front of an L.A. hotel elevator bank. He then drags her down the hall by her hooded sweatshirt toward their hotel room. A second angle from another camera captures Combs throwing a vase toward her. She suffered bruising to her eye, a fat lip, and a bruise that prosecutors showed was still visible during the movie premiere two days later. She donned sunglasses and heavy makeup on the red carpet.
Ventura’s testimony is at the center of the federal trial accusing Combs of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation for prostitution.
Sweeping allegations
The federal indictment alleges that Combs and his associates lured female victims, often under the pretense of a romantic relationship. Combs then allegedly used force, threats of force, coercion and controlled substances to get women to engage in sex acts with male prostitutes while he occasionally watched in gatherings that Combs referred to as “freak-offs.” Combs gave the women ketamine, ecstasy and GHB to “keep them obedient and compliant” during the performances.
The freak-offs, which prosecutors say sometimes lasted for days, were elaborately produced sex performances that Combs arranged, directed, masturbated during, and often recorded, according to the indictment. Prosecutors allege in a detention memo filed in court that the freak-offs occurred regularly from at least 2009 through 2023 and that the hotel rooms where they were staged often sustained significant damage.
Combs’ alleged “criminal enterprise” threatened and abused women and utilized members of his enterprise to engage in sex trafficking, forced labor, interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution, coercion and enticement to engage in prostitution, narcotics offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice, prosecutors said. In bringing so-called RICO charges, prosecutors in opening statements said Combs was helped by cadre of company employees, security staff and aides. They allegedly helped organize the crime and “freak-offs” and then covered up the incidents. Thus far, Combs is the only one facing criminal charges related to the investigation.
Combs’ attorney this week said her client was far from perfect but that the charges were overblown.
“Sean Combs is a complicated man. But this is not a complicated case. This case is about love, jealousy, infidelity and money,” Combs’ lawyer Teny Geragos told jurors. “There has been a tremendous amount of noise around this case over the past year. It is time to cancel that noise.”
How Ventura and Combs met
Jurors heard that Ventura was 19 when she met the 37-year-old Combs in 2005, and she signed a 10-year contract with his Bad Boy Records label. About two years later, he had Britney Spears come to her 21st birthday party, where Ventura and Combs kissed and their relationship began, she said. She testified that the freak-offs became a way of life, and she even stepped away from her own birthday party for one.
Cassie Ventura, left, and Sean “Diddy” Combs arrive at the Los Angeles premiere of “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: A Bad Boy Story” at the Writers Guild Theater on June 21, 2017, in Beverly Hills.
(Chris Pizzello / Invision / AP)
Combs, she told jurors, required her to let a male sex worker urinate in her mouth. That man and others were paid thousands of dollars to have sex repeatedly for 36 to 48 hours, she told the jury.
On the stand, Ventura identified 13 male sex workers through photos presented by prosecutors that she said Combs’ had her recruit for the freak-offs. Hers and Combs’ relationship would end on a day in 2018 when she met him for dinner and he raped her on her living room floor, she testified.
Violence
During four days of testimony, Ventura, who is eight and a half months pregnant, described being raped, beaten at least six times, most severely in 2009.
In the 2009 attack, she testified that Combs was “stomping” on her face after he discovered she was dating rapper Kid Cudi. Kid Cudi, whose real name is Scott Mescudi, had his car torched a short time afterward. Prosecutors allege in court papers that Combs ordered it.
Legal analysis
Legal experts say the testimony is designed to build the federal case against Combs, even if on the surface it does not appear directly related to the charges he’s facing.
“Why is the government talking about rape and assault when the charges are RICO and sex trafficking?” said former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani. Well, he said, “what separates sex trafficking from consensual sex between adults — which the defense is arguing — is force, fraud or coercion.”
“Ventura’s testimony that she was given drugs to the point of throwing up … and forced to have sex when she was menstruating or had a UTI is evidence of coercion,” he said.
Rahmani said that Ventura’s portrayal of Combs as a gun-brandishing mogul who beat her on multiple occasions, tracked her movements and sent a security team to find her is evidence of force.
Then there were the alleged threats. She recounted that during a commercial flight in 2013, Combs pulled out his laptop and began playing a freak-off recording as they sat together. She said Combs told her that he was going to embarrass her and release them.
“I feared for my career. I feared for my family. It’s just embarrassing. It’s horrible and disgusting. No one should do that to anyone,” Ventura said.
Authorities raid Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Los Angeles home as part of an ongoing sex trafficking investigation
(Eric Thayer / Associated Press)
Rahmani said the racketeering charge against Combs requires prosecutors to prove the existence of a criminal enterprise.
“People typically think of the mob, street gangs, or drug cartels, but any loose association of two or more people is enough like Combs’ entourage,” the former federal prosecutor said. They must show two or more predicate acts over 10 years.
“That is why the evidence of bribery, kidnapping, obstruction, witness tampering and prostitution is important,” he said.
LAPD officer testimony
Israel Florez, a hotel security guard who confronted Combs in 2016, now a Los Angeles Police officer, testified Combs flashed a bundle of cash at him — something he believed was an attempted bribe. He rejected it, he said.
Combs’ defense is seeking to paint Ventura as participating in the behavior, recruiting and paying sex partners, acquiring narcotics and texting to push for freak-offs that were part of a swingers’ lifestyle. She is one of four alleged victims in the case, with jurors expected to hear from at least three of them.
On Thursday, defense attorney Anne Estevao had Ventura read a series of loving texts to Combs and got Ventura to testify she’d watched Combs have sex with another woman on multiple occasions. To support the swingers’ defense, the lawyer produced a 2009 text where the singer declared, “I’m always ready to freak off.”
Ventura sued Combs in the fall of 2023, accusing him of years of physical and sexual abuse, triggering a cascade of lawsuits and allegations by others who say they’re victims of Combs and eventually, a raid by Homeland Security on his L.A. and Miami homes and his arrest. Ventura acknowledged Wednesday that she got a $20-million settlement within days of filing her lawsuit.
Combs attorney pushes back
During opening statements in a Manhattan federal courtroom, Geragos, one of Combs’ defense attorneys, drew a distinction for jurors between the violence they would hear testimony about and the charges Combs was facing, saying “domestic violence is not sex trafficking.”
She said the video of Ventura’s assault in the hotel was indefensible, but that the singer “made a choice” to stay with Combs for 11 years.
After the attack, a friend called police to Ventura’s home, she testified. But when officers arrived, she did not identify Combs as the culprit.
The prosecutor asked her why she did not talk. “In that moment, I didn’t want to hurt him that way. I wasn’t ready,” she replied.
On Thursday, the defense cross-examining Ventura sought to change the narrative using dozens of text messages between Combs and Ventura. In a July 2013 text message exchange, Comb’s defense lawyer noted that Cassie raised the idea of having a “freak-off,” writing to Combs: “Wish we could’ve FO’d before you left.”
Using the text message exchanges, the defense lawyer highlighted Ventura’s admitted jealousy over the attention he gave other women.
“You’re making me look like a side piece and that is not what I thought I was,” Cassie told Combs in a 2013 text message.
Estevao tried to recast the hotel incident as the result of the two taking a “bad batch” of the psychedelic stimulant MDMA during a “freak-off” before the hotel beating.
During her testimony this week, Ventura testified that Combs allegedly overdosed on opioids while partying at the Playboy Mansion in 2012. While she wasn’t there, she said, he told her about it.
Ventura’s testimony ended on Friday.
The Associated Press contributed court testimony for this analysis.
May 16 (UPI) — A 27-year-old Georgia woman missing nearly three weeks in the California mountains has been found alive, according to authorities.
Tiffany Slaton of Jeffersonville was reported missing by her family on April 29 after they had not heard from her for nine days. She had gone on a solo camping trip in the Shaver Lake/Huntington Lake area on April 20.
The Fresno County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that the woman was found Wednesday near Lake Edison in a cabin belonging to Vermilion Valley Resort.
According to authorities, the owner of the wilderness resort found her while inspecting the property in preparation for opening it to the public for the summer season.
Snowplows had only cleared nearby roads that day, which permitted the owner to access the property, the sheriff’s office said.
“The owner said he had left a cabin unlocked as a precaution for this exact situation, where someone who is lost could seek shelter and increase their chances of surviving the outdoor elements and harsh weather,” the sheriff’s office said.
After finding Slaton, the unnamed owner contact the sheriff’s office, and deputies drove to meet them.
Slaton was reportedly in good condition, though she was dehydrated. She was transported to a hospital for further treatment, and her family in Georgia has been notified.
“Detectives are now arranging to meet with Tiffany to learn more about her timeline of events and overall experience,” the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office said.
Vermilion Valley Resort celebrated Slaton’s discovery on social media.
“We are so happy Tiffany is safe! It is amazing what she went through. It is incredible what she has accomplished,” the resort said in a statement. “We went in to open the resort, found her using our cabin and brought her down the mountain to safety.”
The sheriff’s office had launched a search for the woman, during which it was discovered that she had last been seen April 24 at a general store.
From May 6 to Saturday, the sheriff’s search-and-rescue team conducted a full-scale search of the mountains for Slaton that spanned nearly 600 square miles, it said, adding that efforts were hampered by snow.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has opened a criminal investigation into Motown singer Smokey Robinson after four of his former staffers accused him of sexual assault and wage theft.
Robinson, 85, was sued earlier this month by three former housekeepers and a former personal assistant who allege that the singer, whose legal name is William Robinson, forced them to have sex with him and also failed to pay minimum wage or overtime pay.
The suit, which was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, also accuses the singer’s wife, Frances Robinson, of regularly screaming at the employees, using ethnically pejorative words and failing to do anything to prevent her husband’s sexual abuse despite allegedly being aware of his actions.
The couple’s attorney, Christopher Frost, has denied the allegations. Details of the Sheriff’s Department’s probe were not immediately provided Thursday.
“The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Special Victims Bureau is actively investigating criminal allegations involving William Robinson, a.k.a. ‘Smokey Robinson,’” said department spokesperson Nicole Nishida. “The investigation is in the early stages, and we have no further comment.”
Frost said the Sheriff’s Department is required to investigate the allegations because the women filed a police report after filing the lawsuit.
In a statement, Frost called the police report “a desperate attempt to prejudice public opinion and make even more of a media circus than the Plaintiffs were previously able to create” and said his clients welcome the investigation.
“The record will ultimately demonstrate that this is nothing more than a manufactured lawsuit intended to tarnish the good names of Smokey and Frances Robinson, for no other reason than unadulterated avarice,” the statement read.
The lawsuit states that the women previously had reservations about reporting Robinson’s alleged abuse to authorities for several reasons including fear about immigration status, losing their livelihoods, public humiliation and intimidation by Robinson and his influential friends.
Attorneys representing the four woman — who filed the lawsuit as Jane Does — said they were pleased to learn that the Sheriff’s Department had opened an investigation into their clients’ claims of sexual assault.
“Our clients intend to fully cooperate with LASD’s ongoing investigation in the pursuit of seeking justice for themselves and others that may have been similarly assaulted by him [Robinson],” attorneys John Harris and Herbert Hayden said in a statement.
The civil lawsuit accuses the Robinsons of negligence, sexual battery and sexual assault, false imprisonment, intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, gender violence, and a hostile work environment, in addition to labor violations related to wages, breaks, meal periods, and holiday and overtime pay, according to the complaint.
The women allege that the “Tracks of My Tears” singer required them to have various types of sex with him — vaginal, oral and digital — over the years at his houses in Chatsworth, Bell Canyon and Las Vegas.
Jane Doe 1 worked for the Robinsons from January 2023 until February 2024. Jane Doe 2 worked from May 2014 to February 2020. Jane Doe 3 worked from February 2012 to April 2024, and Jane Doe 4 worked from October 2006 to April 2024.
Times staff writers Christie D’Zurilla and Richard Winton contributed to this report.
PARIS — French movie star Gérard Depardieu ’s fall from grace is now complete.
Depardieu further moved down from the pinnacle of French cinema Tuesday as he was found guilty of sexually assaulting two women on the set of a movie in which he starred in 2021 and given an 18-month suspended prison sentence. He was also fined a total of 29,040 euros (around $32,350), and the court requested that he be registered in the national sex offender database.
The actor, 76, has been convicted of having groped a 54-year-old set dresser and a 34-year-old assistant during the filming of “Les Volets Verts” (“The Green Shutters”). The case was widely seen as a key post-#MeToo test of how French society and its film industry address allegations of sexual misconduct involving prominent figures.
Depardieu, who has denied the accusations, didn’t attend the hearing in Paris. Depardieu’s lawyer, Jérémie Assous, said that his client would appeal the decision.
“It is the victory of two women, but it is the victory of all the women beyond this trial,” said Carine Durrieu Diebolt, the set dresser’s lawyer. “Today we hope to see the end of impunity for an artist in the world of cinema. I think that with this decision we can no longer say that he is not a sexual abuser. And today, as the Cannes Film Festival opens, I’d like the film world to spare a thought for Gérard Depardieu’s victims.”
Accused by more than 20 women
Depardieu’s long and storied career — he told the court that he’s made more than 250 films — has turned him into a French movie giant. He was Oscar-nominated in 1991 for his performance as the swordsman and poet Cyrano de Bergerac.
In recent years, the actor has been accused publicly or in formal complaints of misconduct by more than 20 women, but so far only the sexual assault case has proceeded to court. Some other cases were dropped because of a lack of evidence or the statute of limitations.
During the four-day trial in March, Depardieu rejected the accusations, saying he’s “not like that.” He acknowledged that he had used vulgar and sexualized language on the film set and that he grabbed the set dresser’s hips during an argument, but denied that his behavior was sexual.
The court, composed of a panel of three judges, concluded that Depardieu’s explanations in court were “unpersuasive” and “not credible” and stressed both accusers’ “constant, reiterated and substantiated declarations.”
The court also said that both plaintiffs have been faced with an “aggressive” defense strategy “based on comments meant to offend them.” The judges therefore considered that Depardieu’s lawyer comments in court aggravated the harm to the accusers and justified higher fines.
The two accusers testified in court
The set dresser described the alleged assault, saying the actor pincered her between his legs as she squeezed past him in a narrow corridor.
She said he grabbed her hips then started “palpating” her behind and “in front, around.” She ran her hands near her buttocks, hips and pubic area to show what she allegedly experienced. She said he then grabbed her chest.
The woman also testified that Depardieu used an obscene expression to ask her to touch his penis and suggested he wanted to rape her. She told the court that the actor’s calm and cooperative attitude during the trial bore no resemblance to his behavior at work.
The other plaintiff, an assistant, said that Depardieu groped her buttocks and her breasts during three separate incidents on the film set.
The Associated Press doesn’t identify by name people who say they were sexually assaulted unless they consent to be named. Neither women has done so in this case.
“I’m very moved,” one of the plaintiffs, the set dresser, told reporters after the verdict. “I’m very very much satisfied with the decision, that’s a victory for me, really, and a big progress, a step forward. I feel justice was made.”
Some expressed support for Depardieu
Some figures in the French cinema world have expressed their support for Depardieu. Actors Vincent Perez and Fanny Ardant were among those who took seats on his side of the courtroom.
French media reported last week that Depardieu was shooting a film directed by Ardant in the Azores archipelago, in Portugal.
The actor may have to face other legal proceedings soon.
In 2018, actor Charlotte Arnould accused him of raping her at his home. That case is still active, and in August 2024 prosecutors requested that it go to trial.
For more than a half-century, Depardieu stood as a towering figure in French cinema, a titan known for his commanding physical presence, instinct, sensibility and remarkable versatility.
A bon vivant who overcame a speech impediment and a turbulent youth, Depardieu rose to prominence in the 1970s and became one of France’s most prolific and acclaimed actors, portraying a vast array of characters, from volatile outsiders to deeply introspective figures.
In recent years, his behavior toward women has come under renewed scrutiny, including after a documentary showed him repeatedly making obscene remarks and gestures during a 2018 trip to North Korea.
Corbet writes for the Associated Press. Samuel Petrequin contributed to this report.
Retired Rams defensive lineman Aaron Donald has been granted a five-year restraining order against a woman he alleges has stalked him, threatened his son’s life and claimed to be his wife.
The restraining order against Janelle Anwar was issued during a Los Angeles County Superior Court hearing Wednesday in downtown L.A. Donald appeared remotely while his attorney attended in person. Anwar, who is representing herself in the matter, did not attend.
Donald, a three-time defensive player of the year and 10-time Pro Bowl selection, filed for a restraining order April 15, expressing concern for his own safety as well as that of his wife Erica; their children, ages 3 and 1; his children from a previous relationship, ages 12 and 9; and his brother, Archie.
“Respondent … has been harassing and stalking me and my family through various methods since 2020,” Donald wrote in the filing. “I have never met Respondent and have no idea who she is, however, she knows who I am.”
Donald alleged that Anwar has sent him “threatening, harassing and numerous emails” over the last several years, as well as packages and gifts to his home. In the month before to his filing, Donald wrote, Anwar’s messages “have been relentless” and have included what he perceived to be a threat to the life of his 3-year-old son.
“Respondent is delusional and I fear that Respondent’s delusions will lead to her attempting to harm me, my wife, my children, and my brother,” Donald wrote.
Also in the filing, Donald alleges that Anwar “falsely believes that we are married and … has filed a dissolution action against me.” L.A. County Superior Court records show that Anwar filed for divorce from Donald in November 2024 — a filing that was voided the following month after Anwar failed to pay the required fees — and again on March 7. That case, in which Anwar seeks a “settlement” of $6.5 million, remains open.
On April 17, Anwar filed a response declaration to Donald’s request for a restraining order. In it, she denies threatening the life of Donald’s son, states that she feels threatened by Donald’s family and says she “would like to plea the 5th amendment” about the issue moving forward.
Anwar said she did not appear in court “due to the nature and content of the petition,” as well as her decision to take the Fifth Amendment, she wrote in an email to The Times. She added that she is “OK with the enforcement of a restraining order simply because I fear for my own safety.”
PALM SPRINGS — In a ballroom packed with more than 1,000 people raising money for LGBTQ+ youths, veteran California legislative leader Toni Atkins didn’t mince words: To be a gay or transgender teenager right now, she said, must feel like “a rug has been pulled from beneath your feet.”
In her fiery speech at the annual Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast, Atkins, who is running for California governor, said President Trump and other Republicans are working to “legislate our trans siblings out of public life.”
“These aren’t just political stunts: These are acts that put lives in danger and strip away basic human dignity,” Atkins said. “So hear me, as I say: Trans people belong. Trans youth deserve love, joy and our protection.”
Atkins’ speech, which drew rousing applause, offered a glimpse of how Trump’s efforts to undermine California’s liberal values — including support for transgender Americans — will be at the heart of the state’s 2026 campaign for governor.
In his first 100 days, Trump issued executive orders banning trans women from women’s sports and barring the federal government from recognizing genders other than male or female.
Trump is also pushing to ban transgender Americans from the U.S. military, writing in an executive order that transgender identity is a “falsehood” inconsistent with the “humility and selflessness required of a service member.” The Supreme Court cleared the way last week for that ban to take effect.
“Cruelty, and an attempt to humiliate, seems to be the point of what they are doing,” said Lisa Middleton, a transgender woman and former mayor of Palm Springs.
The LGBTQ+ community has become a political force in shaping statewide policy and campaigns.
Other top Democrats running to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom have also voiced strong support for LGBTQ+ rights, including Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter, former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, former Controller Betty Yee and Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond.
About 2.8 million lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people live in California, more than in any other state, and Californians overwhelmingly support laws that protect the LGBTQ+ community, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.
Last year, California voters overwhelming passed a ballot measure to enshrine the right to same-sex marriage into the state Constitution. A proposed ballot initiative that would have limited transgender youth medical care and required schools to notify parents about their child’s gender identity failed to get enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot.
Polling by the Los Angeles Times last year found that more than 3 in 4 Americans see issues related to transgender and nonbinary people — which affect a fraction of the American population — as a distraction from more pressing policy matters.
“It is a trap that conservatives are utilizing to distract from the real issues at hand,” said Evan Low, a former California Assembly member and the new president of the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund.
Atkins, a former state Senate president pro tempore, former Assembly speaker and the only gay major candidate in the governor’s race, said in an interview that she’s “mindful that as a woman and as a member of the gay community, what I do matters.” She said she supported the bill passed by the California Legislature a decade ago that allows students to play on sports teams that match their gender identity.
“This administration is using that as a weapon and politicizing it,” Atkins said. “That’s just cruel.”
An Associated Press poll found in early May that Trump’s handling of transgender issues is more popular with Americans than his job performance overall. And polling done in January by the New York Times found that nearly 80% of Americans, including more than two-thirds of Democrats, opposed the idea of trans women competing in women’s sports.
“The Democrats, who are trying to find their voice on so many things right now, don’t know how to handle it,” said Hank Plante, a political journalist and former fellow at the USC Center for the Political Future who lives in Palm Springs with his husband. “They want to be true to their base and to their principles of equal rights. But at the same time, it’s a loser politically when you start talking about nonconforming gender issues and young people.”
One of the Trump campaign’s most bruising attack ads last fall showed a clip of former Vice President Kamala Harris saying she would support gender-transition surgery for inmates in California’s prisons, then concluded with: “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you.”
“She didn’t even react to it, which was even more devastating,” Newsom said on a recent episode of his podcast. “Brutal. It was a great ad.”
On the same episode, Newsom told conservative commentator Charlie Kirk that it was “deeply unfair” for transgender girls to play on girls’ sports teams. Newsom previously supported a California law signed by former Gov. Jerry Brown that allowed trans students to compete in sports and use bathrooms based on their gender preference.
The uproar that followed Newsom’s comments underscored the complexities Democrats face on the issue, with some Democrats alleging that Newsom strategically abandoned a vulnerable group of people to prepare for a future presidential run.
Assemblymember Christopher M. Ward (D-San Diego), the chair of the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus, said the governor’s remarks left him “profoundly sickened and frustrated.”
But Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, one of the best-known Republicans running for governor, said he agreed with Newsom — and, if elected, would sign an executive order banning “boys competing in girls’ sports.”
Ron deHarte, the first gay Mexican American mayor of Palm Springs, warned in his speech at the Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast that the LGBTQ+ community and its allies will “march with greater fervor — we will do more than ever before.”
“If you are a member of the military — transgender or not — if you are willing to fight for me, then I must be willing to fight for you,” deHarte told the crowd.
In an interview, deHarte said that elected officials are now facing an ethical test over whether to speak out against Trump administration policies that they see as hurting their communities, at the risk of losing federal funding.
He said all eyes are on Maine, where the Trump administration stopped all federal education funding after Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, refused to comply with Trump’s directive to ban trans girls from girls’ sports.
“It’s a challenging line to walk,” deHarte said. “You have to make sure you have not only the right moral standing, but the right legal standing too.”
Since Trump’s inauguration, federal officials have targeted California over laws aimed at protecting trans students.
The U.S. Department of Education is investigating the California Interscholastic Federation, which oversees sports at more than 1,500 high schools, and the California Department of Education over a law that bars schools from automatically notifying families about issues related to students’ gender identities.
Gay and trans high school students right now are experiencing fear that is “like being a little more closeted,” said Delana Martin-Marshall, 38, an art teacher at A.B. Miller High School in Fontana.
She and her wife, a physical education teacher at the school, drove a dozen students from the school’s gay-straight alliance in two vans to the Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast.
“Students are really scared,” she said. “Scared of being themselves.”
There’s little that state-level officials can do to reverse decisions from the White House on issues like military eligibility and passports, but the state can still be a refuge for gay and trans students, attendees said, including shoring up funding and legal protections for gender nonconforming students and for gay couples.
“The state has to prepare for what’s coming,” Plante said. He pointed to Justice Clarence Thomas’ concurring opinion when the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade, which said that the court “should reconsider” past rulings codifying Americans’ rights to contraception, same-sex relationships and same-sex marriage.
Christopher Martinez, 32, attended the Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast with fellow students from College of the Desert who said they hope the next governor will focus on the day-to-day issues that affect transgender and gay college students, including the rising cost of living and housing insecurity.
“Everything is getting really expensive,” Martinez said.
