Detained: The heartbreaking ordeal of journalist Alsu Kurmasheva

An Illinois mother credits her son and dog with saving her life during a stabbing spree that left four people dead. Two former presidents — and dozens of protesters — attend Joe Biden’s fundraiser. And shadowy Russian actors were all too happy to spread Princess Kate conspiracies.

Here’s what to know today.

Family attacked in Illinois stabbing spree describes the fight to survive

When Rockford, Illinois, resident Darlene Weber came face-to-face with an attacker who entered her house, she said, “He looked like the devil incarnate.” A day later, Weber said that if it wasn’t for her son, she might not have survived.

A 22-year-old man is accused of going on a rampage through Rockford, Illinois, on Wednesday afternoon, ultimately killing four people and injuring seven others — including Weber and her two kids.

Recalling the attack in an interview yesterday, Weber said it felt like “it all happened in such a blink of an eye.” She took her pit bull, Brandy, out the back door, she said, and heard a man say “hey” to her before he stabbed her in the face. As Weber crawled through the house screaming for her son to help her, Brandy bit the man. It gave her enough time to escape.

When Weber’s son, 21-year-old Jacob Vollman, went to find his mom, he was confronted by the attacker. “And he literally looks at me and says, ‘Come here,’ and starts charging at me,” Vollman said.

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After a couple of minutes fighting with Vollman, the attacker turned his attention to Weber’s daughter, 23-year-old Cathy Gilfillan — but Vollman was able to keep fighting him off. “If it wasn’t for him,” Gilfillan said, referring to Vollman, “me and mom would not be here.”

Read the full story here.

Authorities identified the suspect as Christian Soto. He was arrested on charges of murder, attempted murder and home invasion. Soto’s attorney said he admitted to the crimes and that he had taken marijuana he believed was “laced with an unknown narcotic,” causing him to become paranoid.

Among those killed are Jay Larson, a mail carrier who was on the job when he was attacked, and 15-year-old Jenna Newcomb, who died saving her sister, officials said. Here’s what else we know.

Pro-Palestinian protesters pressure Biden at NYC fundraiser

Former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton joined President Joe Biden in a star-studded campaign fundraiser last night that was hosted by actor Mindy Kaling, featured photos taken by Annie Leibovitz and raised over $25 million. But anti-war protesters made their presence known at the event.

Image: Pro-Palestinian Protesters Gather Outside Biden Fundraiser At Radio City Music Hall — Demonstrators rally before President Joe Biden’s fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, on March 28, 2024.Alex Kent / Getty Images

Over 100 people crowded outside Radio City Music Hall with Palestinian flags and signs with anti-war slogans. “We cannot idly sit by as our president aides and abets genocide in Gaza,” one protester said. Inside the fundraiser, protestors interrupted a moderated discussion between Biden, prompting late night host Stephen Colbert to ask Biden about the U.S. role in a peaceful future for Israelis and Palestinians.

Biden responded with talk of diplomatic efforts towards a two-state solution and acknowledged that more needed to be done to shepherd relief into Gaza but added that Israel’s existence was at stake. Here’s what else happened at the fundraiser.

Baltimore bridge workers were on break at time of collapse, family member says

Just days after the container ship Dali collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge, details about the incident and what happened to the workers are still unfolding. Julio Cervantes was one of two workers rescued following the collapse — a miracle, his wife said, because “my husband doesn’t know how to swim.”

“All of the men were on a break in their cars when the boat hit. We don’t know if they were warned before the impact,” Cervantes’ wife, who did not disclose her name, said in an exclusive interview. Cervantes was taken to a nearby hospital after the rescue with a chest wound and later released.

Cervantes’ wife says her brother-in-law was one of the two victims recovered near the wreckage site earlier this week. And her nephew is one of the four victims still missing, she said.

The shadowy actors that spread Princess Kate conspiracies

Before Kate, Princess of Wales, announced she had been diagnosed with cancer, #KateGate conspiracies speculating about her whereabouts ran wild on the internet. British security experts say social media accounts linked to a prominent Russian disinformation campaign capitalized on the rumors.

Roughly 45 accounts that posted about Kate on X were identified as belonging to the disinformation campaign, known as the Doppelgänger, an analysis found. While these actors didn’t originate the rumors, they contributed to the rumors’ rampant spread.

Experts say they see #KateGate as an alarming test case for what can happen when fake news and disinformation is supercharged by artificial intelligence, particularly on social media.

‘We want him home’: Family of U.S. reporter jailed in Russia for a year tries to stay hopeful

Even as a child, Evan Gershkovich seemed destined to be a reporter. He was always curious, liked a good story, and was deeply interested in Russia, the country his parents had emigrated from.

He was there, as Russia instituted the biggest crackdown on the free press in decades — one that would ensnare him, left awaiting trial on espionage charges that many in the West decry as punishment for doing his job. NBC News spoke to his family and some of his closest friends as his detention reached a year today.

Michigan GOP lawmaker falsely labels March Madness athletes ‘illegal invaders’

A Michigan state lawmaker involved in former President Donald Trump’s election denials is being widely criticized making false claims that buses carrying college athletes to Detroit for March Madness were shuttling illegal migrant “invaders” into the city.

State House Rep. Matt Maddock made the claim Wednesday night in a social media post accompanied by photos of three buses near an Allegiant plane at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. Maddock wrote that the buses “just loaded up with illegal invaders.” Four college basketball teams traveling to Detroit for the second weekend of the NCAA basketball tournament arrived by plane Wednesday evening, the Wayne County Airport Authority said in a statement.

Politics in Brief

Biden impeachment probe: Joe Biden was formally invited to testify in the impeachment inquiry led by two Republican-led House committees — during the same week one of Donald Trump’s trials is set to begin.

South Carolina politics: The same federal court that previously ruled a Charleston-area district was unlawfully drawn decided yesterday that the map must be used for this year’s congressional election. The reason for the decision: The Supreme Court delayed the case for too long.

Arizona politics: Kari Lake, a self-proclaimed “Trump in heels” who lost the Arizona gubernatorial race in 2022, is working to win over voters in her Senate bid. But several key Republicans in the state say her campaign faces an increasingly uphill battle as she struggles to shed her MAGA instincts.

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Staff Pick: Multiple women report being punched in broad daylight

Reporter Mirna Alsharif was among the first to cover this story of women in New York City sharing videos on social media in which they said they were punched by men while they were walking the streets in broad daylight. With help from the NBC News’ social newsgathering team (more on what they do here), she verified that NYPD was investigating two incidents. She also highlighted how many women online have since expressed feeling uneasy. — Saba Hamedy, culture & trends editor

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Authorities in Russia have detained six journalists across the country this month, including a journalist who covered the trials of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny for several years, media freedom organization Reporters Without Borders said Thursday.

Antonina Favorskaya was detained and accused by Russian authorities of taking part in an “extremist organization” by posting on the social media platforms of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, the Russian human rights group OVD-Info said. Navalny died in an Arctic penal colony in February.

Favorskaya covered Navalny’s court hearings for years and filmed the last video of Navalny before he died in the penal colony. She is one of several Russian journalists targeted by authorities as part of a sweeping crackdown against dissent in Russia that is aimed at opposition figures, journalists, activists and members of the LGBTQ+ community.

Two other journalists, Alexandra Astakhova and Anastasia Musatova, were also temporarily detained after they came to meet Favorskaya in the detention center where she was being held, Reporters Without Borders said, adding that their homes were searched and equipment seized.

Ekaterina Anikievich, of the Russian news site SOTAvision, and Konstantin Yarov from RusNews, were also detained by police while covering the search of Favorskaya’s home. Yarov was beaten by police, threatened with sexual violence and taken to a hospital, Reporters Without Borders said. Yarov is accused of “disobedience” towards police and risks 15 days of detention, the group said.

In Ufa, 1,300 kilometers (around 800 miles) east of Moscow, Russian authorities detained Olga Komleva, a reporter for RusNews, on Wednesday. They also accused her of extremism and involvement with Navalny and his organization, Reporters Without Borders said.

OVD-Info said that Favorskaya was initially detained on March 17 after laying flowers on Navalny’s grave. She spent 10 days in jail after being accused of disobedience towards the police, but when that period of detention ended, authorities charged her again and ordered her to appear Friday in Moscow’s Basmanny District Court, OVD-Info said.

Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation has been designated an extremist organization by Russian authorities, which means that people associated with it potentially face prison sentences if they continue to be involved in its work.

Kira Yarmysh, Navalny’s spokeswoman, said that Favorskaya didn’t publish anything on the Foundation’s platforms and suggested that Russian authorities targeted her because she was doing her job as a journalist.

“What darkness,” Yarmysh wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

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KADUNA, Nigeria (AP) — An executive of cryptocurrency exchange Binance has escaped custody in Nigeria, where a criminal investigation has been launched against the platform accused of being used for money laundering, authorities said Monday.

Nadeem Anjarwalla, the regional manager for Binance in Africa, “fled Nigeria using a smuggled passport,” the office of Nigeria’s National Security Adviser said in a statement, calling for “whatever information that can assist law enforcement agencies to apprehend the suspect.”

Nigeria is Africa’s largest crypto economy in terms of trade volume with many citizens using crypto to hedge their finances against surging inflation and the declining local currency.

Anjarwalla, who holds dual British and Kenyan citizenship, had been detained in Nigeria along with another colleague since Feb. 26 when they arrived in the country following a crackdown on the crypto platform. Tigran Gambaryan, the colleague who is an American citizen, remains in captivity.

Binance stopped all trading with the Nigerian naira currency on its platform in early March after authorities accused it of being used for money laundering and terrorism financing —without providing evidence publicly.

It was not clear how Anjarwalla fled custody. The Abuja-based Premium Times newspaper, which broke the news of his escape, reported that he fled from a guest house in the capital city after guards led him to a nearby mosque for prayers.

“The personnel responsible for the custody of the suspect have been arrested, and a thorough investigation is ongoing to unravel the circumstances that led to his escape from lawful detention,” Zakari Mijinyawa, spokesman for the office of Nigeria’s National Security Adviser said in a statement.

The Binance executives were being detained on court order and are due to appear in court on April 4, the statement said.

Nigeria’s tax agency, meanwhile, filed a four-count charge on tax evasion against the crypto exchange, accusing it also of “complicity in aiding customers to evade taxes through its platform.”

“The charges further detail specific instances where Binance purportedly violated tax laws, such as failing to issue invoices for VAT purposes, thus obstructing the determination and payment of taxes by subscribers,” the local Federal Inland Revenue Service said in a statement.

____

Follow AP’s Africa coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

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Detained: The heartbreaking ordeal of journalist Alsu Kurmasheva – CBS News

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Alsu Kurmasheva, an American-Russian journalist working for Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty, was visiting her mother in Russia when authorities there confiscated her passports and jailed her. Kurmasheva faces charges that could lead to years of imprisonment because she edited a book of people’s opinions about Russia’s war with Ukraine. Correspondent Seth Doane talks with Kurmasheva’s family and colleagues about the increasing dangers that journalists are facing from governments trying to mask the truth – what Jodie Ginsberg, chief executive officer of the Committee to Protect Journalists, calls “state-sponsored hostage-taking.”

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Johannesburg, South Africa — A U.S. has suspended security cooperation with military forces in Niger and Americans have begun escaping the country, but U.S. officials have stopped short of describing the detention of the African country’s elected president by his own elite guard as a coup.

Under U.S. law, using that designation could require a complete halt to American security and economic assistance to the land-locked state, which has become a key democratic ally in northern Africa’s tumultuous Sahel region, where the U.S. has significant counterterrorism-focused military operations.

Americans escape on European evacuation flight

U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters this week that the Biden administration was monitoring the situation “literally by the hour” after what he called an “attempted power grab,” but he said there was no indication of a direct threat to U.S. citizens in Niger and no evacuation operation was being carried out by the U.S. government.

That didn’t stop a group of Americans from boarding an evacuation flight to Italy, however, as that country and other European nations raced to get their citizens out of Niger.

An image taken from video shows civilians, including 36 Italians, 21 Americans and one Briton, coming off a military plane that landed in Rome, Italy, early on August 2, 2023, as part of European evacuations from Niger following a coup in the African nation.

Reuters

The first of three French planes sent to evacuate European nationals arrived back in Paris Tuesday night carrying more than 250 people, and an Italian plane, carrying Europeans along with 21 U.S. citizens, mainly from a Texas Christian group, landed in Rome early Wednesday morning.

The evacuations quickly ramped up after demonstrators attacked the French embassy in Niger on Sunday.

Neighbors warn coup leader, U.S. backs detained president

Senior defense officials from the western African economic bloc ECOWAS, which includes Niger, were set to meet Wednesday in Abuja, Nigeria, to discuss what most of the world is referring to as the coup in Niger.

The bloc has warned the military commander behind the putsch, who declared himself Niger’s new ruler on Friday, that he has until August 6 to reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum to power. If Bazoum, who’s effectively been under house arrest for a week, is not allowed to resume his work as the country’s leader, ECOWAS will consider the use of force, the bloc said.

Pro-coup demonstrators in Niger attack French Embassy, wave Russian flags

05:33

On Sunday, ECOWAS announced tough sanctions against the coup leaders, as well as on all trade and financial transfers between Niger and its 14 other member states.

The military junta now ruling Niger has said it will defend against any “acts of aggression” by ECOWAS, and the regional bloc’s position was not completely unified. The rebellions generals are supported by the military regimes in Mali and Burkina Faso, both also ECOWAS members which have said they’d treat an attack on Niger as a declaration of war on them, too.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Bazoum by phone on Tuesday and conveyed the U.S. government’s “unwavering support” for the Nigerien president and his country’s democracy and its people, according to the State Department.

Sources have told CBS News that neither the U.S. nor the French militaries have plans to evacuate their soldiers at this time. U.S. troops number close to 1,000 in the country, while former colonial power France has about 1,500 deployed. The U.S. operates out of two jointly-run military bases in Niger.

A look at Camp Lemonnier Djibouti, the only U.S. military base in Africa

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djOne U.S. official told CBS News the challenge to Niger’s elected leader came unexpectedly, and that it was worrying development in a region plagued by extremism that some fear could become a global security threat.

An African region plagued by coups and extremism

The July 26 toppling of Niger’s government was only the most recent coup in a volatile, insurgency-plagued region. There have been nine coups over the last three years in West and Central Africa, most recently the ones that brought the current regimes to power in Mali and Burkina Faso.

Niger alone has had four coups since it gained independence from France in 1960.

Bazoum has been the nation’s president since a peaceful transition of power in 2021 following his election.

Despite his detention on July 26, Bazoum has been on the phone with foreign leaders and he was recently photographed with Gen. Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, the leader of Chad who traveled to Niger’s capital Niamey at the behest of ECOWAS.

Abdourahmane Tchiani, 62, the head of the presidential guard, declared himself Niger’s new leader in a national television address on Friday, giving himself the title “President of the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland.”

Head of Nigerien presidential guard Tchiani declares himself new leader after coup — Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, second from the right, and other army commanders are seen in Niger’s capital, Niamey, July 28, 2023, after claiming control over the country.

Balima Boureima/Anadolu Agency/Getty

He claimed the takeover was necessary to “avoid the demise of the country,” and then he suspended the Niger’s constitution.

Several Russian flags were seen at pro-junta demonstrations on Sunday, prompting speculation that Russia or its Wagner Group private mercenary army might have had a hand in the coup, but Kirby told journalists the U.S. saw “no indication that Russia was behind this in anyway.”

It’s believed that Wagner has close to 1,000 mercenaries operating in Mali, which borders Niger.

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Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, was “briefly detained” by law enforcement while attending a rodeo Saturday, his office said.

A spokesperson for the congressman said in a statement that Jackson, who was trained as an emergency room physician, was detained by law enforcement amid a “very loud and chaotic environment” at the rodeo.

Jackson was summoned by someone in the crowd to assist a 15-year-old girl who was having a medical emergency, his office said.

Jackson’s office said in a statement that a nurse who was a relative of the girl was already providing assistance when the congressman arrived at the scene. When Jackson asked if she needed help, she said yes, his office said, noting “there were no uniformed EMS providers on the scene at that time.”

“While assessing the patient in a very loud and chaotic environment, confusion developed with law enforcement on the scene and Dr. Jackson was briefly detained and was actually prevented from further assisting the patient,” his office said in the statement. “He was immediately released as soon as law enforcement realized that he, as a medical professional, was tending to the young girl’s medical emergency.”

Jackson’s office also noted that the congressman sat in the stands during the entire rodeo and was not drinking. It is unclear why the office made the statement. In 2021, Jackson was found by a Pentagon inspector general’s report to have engaged in “inappropriate conduct” while serving as the top White House physician, including allegations that he drank on the job, which he denied.

The Carson County sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment. County Sheriff Tam Terry said in a statement to The Texas Tribune that one person was “temporarily detained” while authorities responded to calls during a concert at the rodeo Saturday night. Terry did not release the person’s identity. He said his department was “reviewing the incident” and would withhold any names until the review was complete, the Tribune reported.

Jackson previously served in the White House Medical Unit during the George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump administrations. In 2019, Trump appointed him as chief medical adviser and assistant to the president.

Jackson was elected to Congress in 2020 and was re-elected in 2022. He is among Trump’s most vocal allies in Congress.

Summer Concepcion

Summer Concepcion is a politics reporter for NBC News.

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Sweeping “exit bans” and arbitrary detentions in China are having a chilling effect, among not just the Chinese diaspora with ties to their homeland but also international businesses increasingly anxious about operating there, Western experts and human rights watchdogs say.

Under President Xi Jinping’s decadelong rule, China has become more authoritarian by seeking to control many aspects of public life, from internet censorship and rewriting high school textbooks to imposing ideological crackdowns on the music and entertainment industries.

The Chinese government rejects these characterizations. But for many people and businesses with links to China, operating there has only become more difficult. Its increased use of so-called exit bans and sweeping new counterespionage laws are creating a hostile environment for foreign business, according to experts.

These changes have altered the life of one naturalized American citizen from Shanghai who asked not to be named to protect family and friends still living in China.

Before the pandemic lockdowns, he would travel to Shanghai every two years to visit his family and friends. But post-Covid things started to change, he said, and after a recent State Department advisory against traveling to China, combined with news reports about people being detained for no reason, he now thinks twice before booking a flight.

“Before Covid we used to go there every other year. And every time we went back it changed so much, generally in the right direction. There were more people and the city was getting fancier,” he said. “But since Covid, there were so many things that happened, especially the lockdown in Shanghai, and the political situation is very different.”

He said he would return in the event of a family emergency but wants to avoid it if at all possible.

“I don’t just want to go back” because officials can “stop you for whatever and you cannot leave,” he said. “I’m not saying I’m sure I’m going to be stopped, but there is a possibility and that’s a concern, especially as I have a family here.”

It was against this backdrop that the State Department issued its advisory in late June, urging Americans to “reconsider travel” to mainland China because of “arbitrary enforcement of local laws, including in relation to exit bans, and the risk of wrongful detentions.”

U.S. citizens of Chinese descent “may be subject to additional scrutiny and harassment,” the advisory reads, with officials potentially using these bans to pressure the family members of alleged dissidents abroad and gain leverage over foreign governments.

Andrew Scobell, a distinguished fellow at the United States Institute of Peace, an independent Washington think tank funded by Congress, said China has “really ratcheted up the intimidation and it’s meant to cow people into silence.”

“But it will have adverse effects, including intimidating people to the extent that they won’t go back” and “intimidating CEOs and other business leaders,” he added.

Part of the issue is that China does not recognize dual citizenship, creating complications for naturalized Americans of Chinese descent.

A man talks to another person through a makeshift barricade to control entry and exit to a residential compound on March 8, 2020 in Wuhan, China. — A man talks to another person through a makeshift barricade to control entry and exit to a residential compound in Wuhan, China, in March.Getty Images

Beijing believes the global Chinese population have a “shared cultural background, irrespective of their nationality anywhere else” and they “owe a debt of cultural obligation to China,” according to David Lampton, a professor emeritus at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington.

These people feel “particularly vulnerable” to arbitrary action by China, which feels “perfectly unconstrained to do with you what they want — irrespective of what other nationality documents you may hold,” he said. People with “dual travel documents don’t necessarily know what the rules are,” he added. “You can think you’re subject to American consular protection and so on but that may in fact not be the case.”

This comes as relations between Washington and Beijing continue to cool off, with President Joe Biden characterizing his presidency as a U.S.-led democratic struggle against the autocracies, namely China. He and others want to “de-risk” their relationship with Beijing, in theory continuing lucrative trade but restricting some exports, such as microchips, while retaining the right to criticize China over human rights and other alleged malpractices.

China frequently bristles at what it sees as foreign meddling and has denied the allegations made in the travel advisory.

“China welcomes the people and businesses of all countries,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said when asked about it on July 10. “We are committed to protecting their safety and lawful rights and interests in China in accordance with the law, including their freedom of entry and exit.”

On the same day, China’s Foreign Ministry issued a warning to Chinese people in the U.S.

“There have been frequent incidents of gun violence and discrimination against Asians in the United States,” it said. It reminded “Chinese citizens in the U.S. to pay close attention to the local social security situation” and “beware of falling into the tricks and traps of the U.S.”

Human rights watchdogs and independent international analysts say the evidence suggests Beijing’s protestations of innocence are unfounded.

Since 2018, Xi’s China has passed or amended five laws authorizing exit bans, bringing the total to 15, according to the Spain-based human rights group Safeguard Defenders. Mentions of exit bans have skyrocketed eightfold in China’s Supreme People’s Court database, it said.

These bans have been used for years to target Uyghurs, the mostly Muslim ethnic group that Washington and others say Beijing persecutes. But the bans’ reach is widening, according to Safeguard Defenders, encompassing relatives of activists and “so-called fugitives” living outside of China, as well as “human rights defenders, businesspeople, officials and foreigners,” the group said in an April report. These bans are often complex, vague and impossible to appeal, it said.

Furthermore, on July 1, China updated its counterespionage law, broadening the definition of spying and banning the transfer of any data the government deems related to national security. Fear is rife within the international business community that this could be used to target anyone indiscriminately.

Even before it was updated, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce warned in April that the law was “a matter of serious concern for the investor community.” It said in a statement that it cast “a wide net over the range of documents, data or materials considered relevant to national security.” This additional scrutiny “dramatically increases the uncertainties and risks” of doing business in China, it added.

The reach of Xi’s China does not end at its borders. In April, two people in New York were arrested on charges of operating an illegal Chinese police station, part of what Safeguard Defenders says is a global network to monitor dissidents that stretches to the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands, all of which have opened parallel investigations. China denies this, saying the facilities are volunteer-run sites assisting Chinese nationals with renewing driver’s licenses and other services.

This landscape risks mainland China going the way of Hong Kong, which saw an exodus of intellectuals and entrepreneurs when Beijing introduced a new national security law in 2020 that critics said eroded its historical freedoms.

“It isn’t just ideological suppression, it can be a tool in business relations gone sour,” said Lampton at Johns Hopkins. Chinese officials “could snatch” someone involved in a business deal “off the street and say, ‘You’re not leaving until we’ve resolved this.’”

For the unnamed naturalized American citizen from China, all of this presents an uncertain future, with his homeland subject to the chaotic whims of geopolitics.

“I think it’s going to get better, maybe in a year or two,” he said. “It depends on what happens between the U.S. and China.”

Alexander Smith

Alexander Smith is a senior reporter for NBC News Digital based in London.

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Family attacked in Illinois stabbing spree describes the fight to survive

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