Inside the hunt for
the Idaho killer
In the weeks after four University of Idaho students were found slaughtered last November, a growing roster of investigators had yet to identify a suspect. Then, investigators announced an arrest in late December on the other side of the country: Bryan Kohberger. He was identified only after investigators turned to an advanced method of DNA analysis rarely used in active murder investigations. The case has shown the degree to which law enforcement investigators have come to rely on the digital footprints that ordinary Americans leave in nearly every facet of their lives.
Unanswered in indictment’s details on Trump’s hoarding of documents: Why?
For all the detailed evidence laid out in the 38-count indictment accusing former President Donald Trump of holding onto hundreds of classified documents and then obstructing the government’s efforts to retrieve them, one mystery remains: Why did he take them and fight so hard to keep them? Trump’s motive wasn’t addressed directly in the indictment, but it did offer hints, describing how Trump brandished a classified “plan of attack” against Iran to rebut perceived criticism from Gen. Mark Milley, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and simply kept the sensitive records because he saw them as “mine” and likes acquiring “trophies” he can show off.
Trump’s case puts the justice system on trial, in a test of public credibility
History’s first federal indictment against a former president, Donald Trump, poses one of the gravest challenges to democracy the country has ever faced. It represents either a validation of the rule-of-law principle that even the most powerful face accountability for their actions or the moment when a vast swath of the public becomes convinced that the system has been irredeemably corrupted by partisanship. While 60% of all adults surveyed by CNN approved of the charges, 76% agreed that politics played a role in the prosecution. As for the effect on America’s system, 31% said the indictment strengthened democracy, while 31% said it weakened it.
Trump casts his campaign
as an existential fight
against his critics
Former President Donald Trump on Saturday cast both his indictments by prosecutors and his bid for the White House as part of a “final battle” with “corrupt” forces that he maintained are destroying the country. The apocalyptic language came in Trump’s first public appearance since the 38-count federal indictment against him and a personal aide were unsealed. It was Trump’s second indictment in less than three months. “This is the final battle,” Trump said in the speech to several thousand activists, delegates and members of the media who gathered in Columbus, Georgia. “Either the communists win and destroy America, or we destroy the communists,” Trump said.
At Pride event,
Biden vows to protect
rights of LGBTQ Americans
Standing on a stage decorated with rainbows and speaking to a crowd that included survivors of gay nightclub shootings and transgender rights advocates, President Joe Biden on Saturday said his administration would work to counter a recent series of Republican-led bills and laws targeting the LGBTQ community. At the Pride Month event held at the White House, Biden said that his administration had taken steps to protect the civil rights of LGBTQ Americans, including appointing an official within the Department of Education who will monitor and address the growing number of local bans on books with references to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people.
Ted Kaczynski, ‘Unabomber’ who attacked modern life,
dies at 81
Theodore J. Kaczynski, the so-called Unabomber, who attacked academics, businessmen and random civilians with homemade bombs from 1978 to 1995, killing three people and injuring 23 with the stated goal of fomenting the collapse of the modern social order — a violent spree that ended after what was often described as the longest and most costly manhunt in American history — died Saturday in a federal prison medical center in Butner, North Carolina. He was 81. A spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons said Kaczynski was found unresponsive in his cell early in the morning. Three people familiar with the situation said he died by suicide.
With probes of Russian lines, Ukraine’s counteroffensive
takes shape
In the south, Ukrainian soldiers are fighting on an unforgiving landscape with little cover for troops trying to advance. Farther east, they are targeting Russian positions on the hills outside Bakhmut, a city that fell to Russian forces last month after the longest and bloodiest battle of the war. After days of silence on the extent of the fighting, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy offered the strongest confirmation yet on Saturday that the long-awaited counteroffensive had begun. “Counteroffensive and defensive actions are being taken in Ukraine,” he said at a news conference. “At what stage, I will not disclose in detail.”
Suspect in Natalee Holloway’s death
pleads not guilty to extorting her mother
Joran van der Sloot, who has been linked to the 2005 disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway, pleaded not guilty to extortion and fraud charges in Alabama on Friday after he was temporarily extradited from Peru to the United States. Van der Sloot, 35, had been serving a prison sentence in Peru, where he pleaded guilty to the 2010 murder of Stephany Flores, 21. Around the time of his arrest in the Flores case, van der Sloot was indicted by a federal grand jury in Alabama on charges of trying to extort Beth Holloway for $250,000 for information about how her daughter died and the location of her body, which has never been found.
Appeals Panel is examining Guantánamo
judge’s next job on ethics grounds
An appeals panel in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, on Friday limited the authority of the judge presiding in hearings in the USS Cole bombing case while it considers an ethics challenge. At issue is whether Col. Lanny Acosta Jr., the judge, had a duty to step down earlier this year when he lined up a civilian job at the Defense Department to follow his retirement from the Army on Sept. 30. Lawyers for Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri portray Acosta’s pursuit of his next job — as a clerk at the Air Force judiciary — as a conflict of interest. Nashiri is accused of orchestrating the 2000 bombing of the destroyer Cole off Yemen that killed 17 U.S. sailors.
Syrian refugee charged with attempted
murder after stabbing
in France
A homeless Syrian refugee in his 30s was charged with attempted murder and detained in France on Saturday in connection with a violent stabbing attack this past week that injured two adults and four young children, a prosecutor said. There was no indication that the attack was an act of terrorism, said Line Bonnet-Mathis, the public prosecutor in Annecy, where the attack unfolded Thursday. The attacker, now in custody, has also been charged with resisting arrest with a weapon. Investigators have yet to determine the motive of the assailant, whom they have not publicly identified. Bonnet-Mathis said that the six victims were expected to recover.
Pope’s doctors say he’s on the mend, but advise rest and no events
Pope Francis is recovering well after undergoing abdominal surgery this past week, his surgeon said Saturday, but his doctors advised him not to give his traditional public blessing on Sunday so he can rest. Dr. Sergio Alfieri, who operated on Francis on Wednesday, told reporters that it was important that the pontiff, 86, try to limit movement to avoid straining his abdomen. He also said that Francis’ medical team had suggested that he remain in the hospital for at least another week. He said that he hoped the pope would take the advice, but that “he’s not the kind of person you can force something on.”
By wire sources
