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Federal Judges Have Shown Leniency in Nearly All Jan. 6 Cases

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:19:46 GMT

Federal judges handling the criminal cases of hundreds of people charged in connection with the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol have overwhelmingly issued sentences far more lenient than Justice Department prosecutors sought, an analysis by The Intercept reveals.In 82 percent of the 719 January 6-related cases that have been resolved, and in which the defendants have either pleaded guilty or been convicted, judges have issued lighter sentences than federal prosecutors requested, the analysis of Justice Department data through December 4, 2023, shows. They imposed the same sentences sought by prosecutors in just 95 cases and harsher sentences in only 37. Illustration: Daniel Zender for The InterceptNearly every one of the 24 federal judges handling the massive docket of January 6 cases has shown leniency toward the defendants, regardless of whether the judges were appointed by Democratic or Republican presidents, the data shows. Perhaps the most surprising finding ...

Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius freed on parole after serving nearly 9 years for girlfriend’s murder

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:19:46 GMT

PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) — Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius was released from prison on parole early Friday morning and was believed to be at his uncle’s mansion after authorities secretly moved the world-famous double-amputee athlete who killed his girlfriend at an undisclosed time to avoid the glare of news crews waiting outside the jail.South Africa’s Department of Corrections announced in a two-sentence statement at around 8:30 a.m. that Pistorius had been released and was “now at home.” It gave no more details other than to confirm Pistorius’ new status as “a parolee.”Pistorius, 37, served nearly nine years of his murder sentence of 13 years and five months for the fatal shooting of model and law graduate Reeva Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day 2013. He became eligible for early release from prison having served at least half his sentence and was approved for parole in November.Department of Corrections spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo told The Associated Press that Pist...

Libre tras matar a su novia: el deportista Oscar Pistorius sale de la cárcel luego de 9 años

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:19:46 GMT

PRETORIA, Sudáfrica — El deportista sudafricano Oscar Pistorius salió de prisión bajo libertad condicional y se encuentra en su casa, informó el Departamento de Prisiones de Sudáfrica el viernes.Las autoridades no ofrecieron más detalles acerca de la liberación de Pistorius. El anuncio se produjo alrededor de las 08:30 a.m., lo que indicaba que los funcionarios penitenciarios dejaron libre a primera hora al famoso corredor olímpico y paralímpico, que tiene las dos piernas amputadas, del Centro Correccional Atteridgeville, en la capital sudafricana, Pretoria.Pistorius ha cumplido casi nueve de los 13 años y cinco meses de condena que recibió tras asesinar a su novia, Reeva Steenkamp, en el día de San Valentín de 2013. Su libertad condicional se aprobó en noviembre. El exatleta olímpico Oscar Pistorius podría recibir la libertad condicional Niegan la libertad condicional a Pistorius, el atleta con doble amputación que asesinó a su novia ...

Miraculous rescue after boat sinks off Miami coast; 4 fishermen saved

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:19:46 GMT

A night of leisure and fishing took turned into a stressful situation for four fishermen off the coast of Miami on Thursday night when their 27-foot boat sank. Miraculously, all four were rescued after facing the perils of the open sea.Around 11:30 p.m. Thursday, the incident took a dramatic turn when two large wave flipped their boat, submerging them underwater. One of the stranded fishermen shared his experience, stating that he swam for two hours in search of help. “I found one gentleman with Miami-Dade Police — I think his name was Castillo — he helped me a lot,” said the rescued man. “He called the helicopters right away.”Another survivor, who had spent about 40 minutes in the water, was located shortly after the initial contact with the police officer. However, two of the men remained missing for several hours.Nicholas Digiacomo, a firefighter with Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, provided insights into the search and rescue efforts. “We were s...

Macron keeps France guessing as reshuffle rumors swirl

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:19:46 GMT

PARIS – French politics is in limbo as ministers eagerly wait to hear news of a rumored cabinet reshuffle. The mounting speculation over recent days once again highlights President Emmanuel Macron’s nerve-wrecking methods of managing his team.Macron fueled the uncertainty after cancelling the first scheduled 2024 cabinet meeting this week, with a member of the president’s entourage stating that there was “no absolute necessity” for a government get together to kick off the new year. The president extended his say at one of his official retreats, La Lanterne, and did not reveal any specific agenda items other than a ceremony in honor of Jacques Delors on Friday.It remains unclear whether Elisabeth Borne will stay on as Prime Minister but odds are against her after a series of crises left the Macron’s governing coalition seriously bruised. Political divisions in the presidential camp were on full display just before the holidays when Borne’s governm...

UK slams Putin over use of North Korean missiles in Ukraine

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:19:46 GMT

LONDON — Britain accused Russia of using North Korean missiles in Ukraine in an act of “desperation.”The White House on Thursday said it had intelligence indicating “the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea recently provided Russia with ballistic missile launchers and several ballistic missiles,” and that Russian forces had launched “at least one of these North Korean missiles into Ukraine” on December 30.Spokesperson John Kirby said further Pyongyang-supplied missiles had been launched in subsequent days.In its own statement issued Thursday night, the U.K.’s Foreign Office backed that assessment and urged North Korea “to cease its arms supply to Russia.”“Russia is turning to North Korea for its weapons in pursuit of its cynical and ill-conceived military aims in Ukraine,” a spokesperson for the department said.“This is symptomatic of its isolation on the world stage and a sign of its desperation,” they added. “Furthermore, this...

Mob of German farmers accosts top Green as protests escalate

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:19:46 GMT

BERLIN — Tensions over Germany’s budget crisis escalated significantly late Thursday as a group of angry farmers protested against tax hikes by blocking Greens Economy Minister Robert Habeck from disembarking from a ferry as it docked in northern Germany.The mob of more than 100 people harangued Habeck in a scene local police described as “very, very tense.” The incident underlines growing discontent and political tensions over spending cuts that the leaders of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition have proposed amid the country’s still-roiling budget crisis. The government had to significantly reduce spending in a new draft budget for 2024 after a constitutional court ruling in November blew a €60 billion hole in its finances.As part of their budget plans, ruling coalition leaders proposed removing key tax privileges for farmers, including a tax break on diesel fuel. Those plans have stoked outrage, leading to big protests.Farmers on Thursday...

Biting Cold to Weekend Snow

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:19:46 GMT

Brrrr! The winter winds are certainly in charge this morning as wind chills start off the day in the single digits and air temps run in the teens to lower 20s. Highs rebound into the lower 30s this afternoon under a partly to mostly sunny sky. Winds will gust 15-25mph through early afternoon, then taper off. It’ll be dry and cold tonight and dry during the daylight hours tomorrow. Highs reach the low to mid 30s tomorrow afternoon as clouds thicken up. That colder air will set the stage for the first significant snow of the season for a large portion of southern New England tomorrow night into Sunday. As an area of low pressure traverses the country over the next couple of days, it’ll pick up moisture from the Gulf of Mexico as well as the Atlantic and push it into the cold air across the Northeast. As it does so, snow will break out across the region late Saturday evening and through the day Sunday. A snowy Sunday is likely at Gillette! Snow breaks out tomorrow evening, with...

In newly unsealed court documents, a detective describes recruitment of dozens of girls for Epstein

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:19:46 GMT

(CNN) — Nineteen unsealed documents from a lawsuit connected to Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted pedophile who died in jail before he could face trial on federal sex-trafficking charges, were publicly released on Thursday.This is the second batch stemming from a December 18 court order from the judge overseeing the lawsuit, a response to media’s legal efforts to publicly release the documents. The documents on Thursday night total more than 300 pages.The documents are part of a 2015 civil defamation suit brought by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, an American woman who claimed Epstein sexually abused her as a minor and that Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend, aided in the abuse.Thursday’s release follows hundreds of pages of documents unsealed on Wednesday, with more expected in the coming weeks.The documents in total, including material yet to be unsealed, are expected to include nearly 200 names, including some of Epstein’s accusers, prominent businesspeople, politicians a...

Bill Ackman’s wife is accused of plagiarizing part of her dissertation

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 20:19:46 GMT

New York (CNN) — Neri Oxman, an academic and wife of billionaire investor Bill Ackman, plagiarized parts of her doctoral dissertation at MIT, according to a report from Business Insider.Ackman has become one of the most prominent critics amplifying a series of accusations, including plagiarism, against Harvard’s leader, who resigned this week.The Business Insider report, which CNN could not independently verify, said Oxman “plagiarized multiple paragraphs of her 2010 doctoral dissertation.” The report “found at least one passage directly lifted from other writers without citation.”Oxman, an American–Israeli designer, wrote a more than 800-word response to Business Insider on social media Thursday. Oxman acknowledged that there were four paragraphs in her 330-page dissertation in which she correctly cited her sources but “did not place the subject language in quotation marks, whic...