Tag: survivors

Illinois stabbing survivors describe attack and Evan Gershkovich detained for a year: Morning Rundown


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. 

This is Morning Rundown, a weekday newsletter to start your morning. Sign up here to get it in your inbox.

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.

Read more Israel-Hamas war coverage: 

  • Recent polling suggests most Jewish Israelis support Israel’s offensive in Gaza. But at a Ramadan meal with Palestinian Bedouin, some shared a different view.
  • A State Department official’s resignation and increasing disapproval of Israel’s conduct in Gaza shows how U.S. ire toward its ally is growing.
  •  Israel’s Supreme Court on ordered an end to state funding for ultra-Orthodox students who do not serve in the army, a blockbuster ruling that could imperil the leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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.

Want more politics news? Sign up for From the Politics Desk to get exclusive reporting and analysis delivered to your inbox every weekday evening. Subscribe here.

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

Select: Online Shopping, Simplified

If you want a good cardio session but don’t want to brave the elements, an indoor exercise bike may be the way to go. Here are the 13 best budget exercise bikes on the market, all priced under $500. 

Sign up to The Selection newsletter for exclusive reviews and shopping content from NBC Select.

Thanks for reading today’s Morning Rundown. Today’s newsletter was curated for you by Elizabeth Robinson. If you’re a fan, please send a link to your family and friends. They can sign-up here.



Source link

Rwanda genocide survivors criticize UN court’s call to permanently halt elderly suspect’s trial


KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) — Survivors of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide criticized Tuesday a call by appeals judges at a United Nations court to indefinitely halt the trial of an alleged financer and supporter of the massacre due to the suspect’s ill health.

The ruling Monday sends the matter back to the court’s trial chamber with instructions to impose a stay on proceedings. That likely means that Félicien Kabuga, who is nearly 90, will never be prosecuted. His trial, which started last year at the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague, was halted in June because his dementia left him unable to participate in proceedings.

Appeals judges at the court also rejected a proposal to set up an alternative procedure that would have allowed evidence to be heard but without the possibility of a verdict.

The U.N. court’s chief prosecutor, Serge Brammertz, said the ruling “must be respected, even if the outcome is dissatisfying.”

Kabuga, who was arrested in France in 2020 after years as a fugitive from justice, is accused of encouraging and bankrolling the mass killing of Rwanda’s Tutsi minority. His trial came nearly three decades after the 100-day massacre left 800,000 dead.

Kabuga has pleaded not guilty to charges including genocide and persecution. He remains in custody at a U.N. detention unit in The Hague, but could be released as a result of Monday’s ruling.

“I think the world does not mean good for us. What mattered to us survivors following Kabuga’s arrest was at least justice,” said Francine Uwamariya, a genocide survivor, who says she lost her entire family at the hands of Kabuga’s henchmen.

“Look, the trial should have continued even without Kabuga. He was the planner and financer of the genocide. The court appears to be on the side of the killer, when it should be neutral,” Uwamariya said.

Uwamariya’s sentiment was echoed by Naphatal Ahishakiye, another genocide survivor and executive secretary of Ibuka, a Rwanda survivors’ organization, who said there was enough evidence to convict Kabuga.

“It’s extremely disturbing on the side of survivors, who will see Kabuga walking free. Justice should be felt by those wronged,” Ahishakiye said.

Ibuka has filed a case against Kabuga in Kigali, seeking court permission to sell off all of Kabuga’s properties to fund reparations and help survivors.

Brammertz expressed solidarity with victims and survivors of the genocide.

“They have maintained their faith in the justice process over the last three decades. I know that this outcome will be distressing and disheartening to them,” he said. “Having visited Rwanda recently, I heard very clearly how important it was that this trial be concluded.”

Brammertz said that his team of prosecutors would continue to help Rwanda and other countries seek accountability for genocide crimes and pointed to the arrest in May of another fugitive, Fulgence Kayishema, as an example that suspects can still face justice.

Kayishema was indicted by a U.N. court for allegedly organizing the slaughter of more than 2,000 ethnic Tutsi refugees — men, women and children — at a Catholic church on April 15, 1994, during the first days of the genocide. He is expected to be tried in Rwanda.

Brammertz said his office will significantly boost assistance to Rwanda’s Prosecutor General, “including through the provision of our evidence and developed expertise, to ensure more genocide fugitives stand trial for their alleged crimes.”

___

Associated Press writer Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, contributed.



Source link

Tulsa Massacre survivors appeal dismissed case to the Oklahoma Supreme Court


A group of descendants and survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Massacre filed an appeal to the Oklahoma Supreme Court on Friday, requesting it to pick up a case that a lower court dismissed last month. 

The group is calling for reparations for the century-old attack on the city’s prosperous Black neighborhood, nicknamed “Black Wall Street.” Lawyers representing the Tulsa survivors announced the appeal in a news conference Monday in front of the Oklahoma Judicial Center in Oklahoma City, stating that the lower court wrongly dismissed the case last month.

“We stand on the shoulders of so many,” said Damario Solomon-Simmons, civil rights attorney and founder of the Justice for Greenwood Foundation. “The thousands that suffered the massacre and the hundreds that have been fighting for justice since that time,” he continued.

​​Solomon-Simmons, who brought the lawsuit under Oklahoma’s public nuisance law, said he wants the high court to return the case to the district level for discovery, and for a judge to decide the case on its merits.

Survivors Lessie E. Benningfield Randle, Hughes Van Ellis and Viola Fletcher — all of whom are over 100 years old — previously had filed a lawsuit labeling the 1921 massacre as one of “the worst acts of domestic terrorism in United State history since slavery” and said the attack robbed thousands of Black residents of their self-determination, which continues to have harsh impacts on the community today.

Their suit, filed in 2020, sought reparations for the victims and descendants of the massacre, including an unnamed amount for punitive damages, a compensation fund, a scholarship program for descendants of those living in the Greenwood district at the time of the massacre, mental health and education programs for Greenwood residents. 

Ellis, Fletcher and Randle did not attend Monday’s news conference.

Tulsa’s Greenwood neighborhood thrived with Black-owned businesses in 1921, when white rioters looted and burned 35 blocks, destroying more than 1,200 homes and businesses. As many as 300 people were killed and at least 800 others were injured. The tragic event also left more than 9,000 Black residents without homes, with the property damage throughout Greenwood estimated to be between $50 million and $100 million in today’s money, according to the lawsuit.

Burned remains of the Greenwood District
Burned remains of the Greenwood District after the Tulsa Race Massacre in June 1921.GHI/Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images file

The city and insurance companies never compensated victims for their losses, and the massacre ultimately resulted in racial and economic disparities that still exist today, the lawsuit argues.

Some of the defendants named in the original lawsuit are the City of Tulsa, Tulsa County, the Tulsa Development Authority and the Oklahoma Military Department. Oklahoma Judge Caroline Wall sided with the defendants in her July ruling and dismissed the suit with prejudice, so it could not be refiled in state court.

A spokesperson for the City of Tulsa, Michelle Brooks, declined to comment, citing the pending litigation, according to The Associated Press.

Regina Goodwin, a member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives for the 73rd District, said during Monday’s press conference that Wall’s decision perpetuates the pain and injustice for the massacre survivors.

“We have trials just to get into trials,” said Goodwin, whose great-grandfathers survived the massacre. “That’s what has been the history of many Black folks as long as I’ve been living and before I was born and long after I’ll be gone.”

Claretta Bellamy

Claretta Bellamy is a fellow for NBC News.

The Associated Press contributed.



Source link

Pope Francis starts Catholic Church’s “World Youth Day” summit by meeting sexual abuse survivors


Lisbon, Portugal — Pope Francis is in Portugal this week for what’s been called the “Catholic Woodstock” — the church’s “World Youth Day” festival. Hundreds of thousands of young people are taking part, and while the festival is a celebration, the pontiff started his visit by confronting the dark legacy of clergy sexual abuse in Portugal.

Francis wasted no time in addressing the biggest stain on today’s Catholic Church, meeting with sex abuse survivors behind closed doors on the first day of the summit. 

Arriving in Lisbon for the international celebration of faith, the pope quickly addressed the elephant in the room: A report issued earlier this year saying that nearly 5,000 minors had been sexually abused by Portuguese clergy since the 1950s.


Pope Francis apologizes for Catholic school abuses during trip in Canada

03:51

Addressing a group of bishops, Francis blasted them for the “scandals that have marred” the church, and called for “ongoing purification,” demanding that victims be “accepted and listened to.”

It’s a painful topic, and one that most of the young Catholics from around the world didn’t come to Portugal to deal with. For the vast majority of the World Youth Day attendees, the summit is a festival — and Pope Francis is their rockstar.

CBS News met a group of kids from Norwalk, California — members of the St. John of God Parish from the Los Angeles archdiocese. Each of them had to raise $3,500 to get to World Youth Day.


Pope Francis in Portugal for World Youth Day, first trip since June surgery

03:30

Some have parents without legal residency documents in the U.S., and all of them have dealt with hardships. 

George and his parents paid his way to Portugal with tacos and tamales. He told CBS News how his family spent many Sundays in the preceding months getting up early to be ready for the post-mass rush at their local church.

“Go to the church and set up, and then sell every time the mass would finish,” he said. “People come out and we would just sell all the food.” 

Francis is one of the world’s most outspoken champions of migrants. Like George and his friends, the leader of the Catholic Church is also Latino.

Pope Francis visits Portugal
Pope Francis and Scholas Occurrentes director Jose Maria del Corral take part in a meeting with young members of Scholas Occurrentes educational foundation, during the pope’s five-day visit to attend the World Youth Day (WYD) gathering of young Catholics, in Cascais, Portugal, August 3, 2023.

MARCO BERTORELLO/Pool/REUTERS


“He realizes that we’re all one people,” said George’s friend Andres. “There’s no real borders in Christ. There’s just — there’s people. There’s love. That’s important, and that’s why I love Pope Francis.” 

World Youth Day is a snapshot of the Church’s future, “whether they are from Latin countries, from Asian countries, from African countries,” the boys’ parish priest, Father Raymond Decipeda, told CBS News. “So, we’re just blessed that this is the face of the church.”

The jubilation from so many young Catholics in Portugal this week will be welcomed by many, as the church continues grappling with its legacy on youth, and how to move forward. 

The Holy See said the pontiff met Wednesday night with 13 abuse survivors for more than an hour at the Vatican’s embassy in Lisbon.

World Youth Day events run through Sunday, and as many as 1 million Catholics were expected to take part.

Chris Livesay

Chris Livesay

Chris Livesay is a CBS News foreign correspondent based in Rome.



Source link

Florida woman sentenced to 4 years in romance scam that stole Holocaust survivor’s savings


A Florida woman who swindled the life savings from an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor in a “romance scam” was sentenced to over four years in prison Thursday, federal prosecutors said.

Peaches Stergo, 36, stole over $2.8 million in the scam, which lasted years. She was arrested in January and pleaded guilty to wire fraud in April.

Stergo met the victim, whom authorities have never publicly identified, on a dating website and asked for money that she said was needed to help get funds from a legal settlement, according to court documents.

She then told a series of more lies, fabricating stories that she needed money to gain access to a TD Bank account or else she would never be able to repay the victim, prosecutors said.

Stergo also sent heartless text messages, the U.S. attorney’s office for Southern New York said in a statement.

Stergo called the scam her “business” and told her real lover in a text that the elderly man said he loved her; she added “lol” to that message, the prosecutor’s office said. She also remarked that he had become “broke.”

Stergo was sentenced to 51 months in prison, or four years and three months, the prosecutor’s office said. She was also ordered to pay $2.8 million in restitution.

She also will forfeit the home she bought in a gated community, as well as over 100 luxury items, including Rolex watches and jewelry, prosecutors said.

Stergo’s attorney, Ann Fitz, said the 51-month sentence was fair. Prosecutors sought 96 months, according to court documents.

Stergo suffered childhood instability and trauma, which caused compulsive behaviors like past drinking and gambling, and the scam was also a compulsion, Fitz wrote in a sentencing submission.

Fitz said in an email Thursday night, “Ms. Stergo has expressed remorse for her actions and will make every effort to repay the restitution in this case.”

The scam lasted from around May 2017 until October 2021, prosecutors said.

The man’s son eventually found out what was going on and put a stop to it, but it was too late. The man lost his life savings and had to give up his Manhattan apartment, according to the indictment.

In a scheme to persuade the elderly man to send more money, Stergo created an email account to pose as a TD Bank employee and created fake letters and invoices.

At one point Stergo wrote to her real significant other that she needed money and a car, and “I don’t want you to work like you are it’s too hard,” prosecutors wrote in their sentencing submission. Prosecutors called the texts “jarring in their callousness.”

“Not only did she manipulate the Victim’s emotions for a period of years, she secretly mocked the Victim for saying he loved her,” prosecutors wrote. “She thought it was hilarious that she was destroying his life for her own benefit.”

The victim lost both his parents in the Holocaust and moved to the U.S. in his 20s for a better life, he wrote in a letter to the court, which is excerpted in the government’s sentencing request.

“Over the next 60 years, I worked tirelessly to establish a successful business, family, and home in New York,” the victim’s letter reads. “I am now 88 years old, and the last thing I expected was to finish my days in the same manner that I started them — penniless and betrayed.”

The FBI warns that romance scammers sometimes use fake profiles to gain people’s trust on dating websites, which eventually leads to asking for money. In some cases they ask to invest in cryptocurrency by falsely claiming insider knowledge and using fake websites.

Last year there were around 19,000 victims of romance scams in the U.S., with almost $740 million in losses, the FBI said.

There were around 24,000 victims in 2021, with losses reported at around $1 billion, it said.

Phil Helsel

Phil Helsel is a reporter for NBC News.





Source link