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  • Clayton Kershaw carves name into baseball history books with 3,000th career strikeout

    Clayton Kershaw carves name into baseball history books with 3,000th career strikeout



    LOS ANGELES — On a warm July evening at Dodger Stadium, underneath the glow of the bright lights and the weight of baseball history on his shoulders, Clayton Kershaw did what he’s done better than nearly anyone for the better part of two decades: he struck someone out.

    Kershaw caught Chicago White Sox third baseman Vinny Capra looking on an 85 mph slider to carve his name into the record books.

    Strikeout No. 3,000.

    Cue the roar. Play the celebratory montage.

    Dodger Stadium shook — not with surprise but with reverence.

    Eighteen seasons. 439 starts. One team. One city. One legend.

    Kershaw, now just the 20th pitcher in Major League Baseball history to reach 3,000 strikeouts, joins an exclusive pantheon of greatness. More than 23,000 players have appeared in the big leagues. Only 19 before him had reached that hallowed milestone. Only three left-handers — Randy Johnson, CC Sabathia and Steve Carlton — had ever done it. And only two other pitchers — Bob Gibson and Walter Johnson — did it while wearing a single uniform.

    Now, make room for No. 22.

    “I think I can speak for everyone. We witnessed history,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts about Kershaw’s milestone. “It’s the last box for Clayton to check in his tremendous career. To be able to do it at home in front of our fans is something we were all looking forward to. I can’t wait to celebrate him.”

    Baseball has always revered longevity, dominance and the kind of endurance that turns “could be” into “all-time great.” On Wednesday night, Clayton Kershaw didn’t just rack up another strikeout — he chiseled his name alongside legends and will forever be known as the Dodgers’ King of K’s.

    What made it sweeter? He did it in front of a sold-out crowd at home, at Dodger Stadium — the same cathedral of baseball where Max Scherzer, wearing Dodger blue, notched his own 3,000th strikeout back in 2021.

    But this one felt different.

    This was Kershaw’s cathedral. His clay. His mound. His legacy.

    From his debut at 20 years old to now at 36, Kershaw has done more than defy Father Time — he’s danced with it, adjusted, reinvented and outlasted generations of hitters and pitching philosophies.

    “He’s been playing in the big leagues since I was 9,” said rookie teammate Jack Dreyer. “The way he’s adapted through every version of himself … that’s what makes him special. That’s what makes him eternal.”

    For nearly two decades, Kershaw has been the heartbeat of a franchise and the face of consistency in a game that changes by the day. He dominated with a blazing fastball and a cartoonish curveball in his early years. When the velocity dipped, the command sharpened. When the arm needed rest, the mind took over.

    “I think he encapsulates the idea of adapt or die,” Dreyer continued. “Most guys fall off. He evolved.”

    It’s true. Baseball now favors bullpen arms that light up radar guns and analytics departments that warn against facing hitters a third time through the lineup. But somehow, Kershaw has endured.

    Manager Dave Roberts said it best: “Guys don’t punch out 12 or 13 guys a game anymore. They don’t get 33 starts. This just isn’t supposed to happen.”

    Yet, it did.

    Consider this: Only two active pitchers — Max Scherzer (3,419) and Justin Verlander (3,471) — have crossed 3,000 strikeouts. Gerrit Cole (2,251) and Chris Sale (2,528) are the next closest. And neither is a guarantee to ever get there, thanks to injuries, innings limits and a game that doesn’t let starters go deep anymore.

    There have been 326 no-hitters recorded and 24 perfect games, and 33 different players have recorded 3,000 hits. That means 3,000 strikeouts is a category with even more rarified air.

    To even flirt with 3,000 strikeouts, a pitcher needs more than stuff. He needs time. He needs health. He needs brilliance. And he needs opportunity.

    “It’s just a product of the game changing,” Kershaw said earlier this week. “There are a lot of guys who could do it. They just won’t get the chance. At the end of the day there’s a lot of guys capable of striking out 3,000 people. They just need the opportunity.”

    Which is why this moment matters.

    In a sport increasingly allergic to longevity, Kershaw stood tall, stubborn, and is still spinning sliders that hitters can’t touch.

    Kershaw’s résumé was already ticketed for Cooperstown — three Cy Young Awards, an MVP, a World Series ring, 10 All-Star selections, a no-hitter, a career ERA hovering around 2.50 and now a new badge: 3,000 strikeouts.

    But the numbers only tell half the story.

    Kershaw gave everything to the Dodgers. Every fifth day. Every postseason. Every spring training bullpen session at Camelback Ranch. He’s the kind of pitcher who never had one foot out the door, no matter the injury, no matter the contract, no matter the suitors.

    “Best left-handed pitcher I’ve ever seen,” said rookie southpaw Justin Wrobleski. “It’s crazy. We might never see this again.”

    As Kershaw walked off the mound, the sold-out crowd of nearly 53,536 fans rose to their feet to give him a standing ovation. Kershaw stood in front of the Dodgers dugout, hat off, waving to the crowd, overcome by emotion.

    He tipped his cap to the crowd that’s adored him since 2008. The scoreboard lit up in bold white letters: 3,000 STRIKEOUTS — CLAYTON KERSHAW.

    The ovation lasted minutes. Fans stood. Teammates hugged. Cameras flashed.

    His wife, Ellen, wiped tears from her seat in the stands. Beside her, his kids beamed with pride. His teammates stood and applauded, whether they were in the dugout or on the field.

    And the entire baseball world paused for a man who’s never craved the spotlight, but never shied from the moment.

    On July 2, 2025, inside the iconic ballpark beneath the palm trees and cotton candy sky, Clayton Kershaw etched himself into baseball eternity.

    One pitch. One strikeout. One milestone.

    Forever a Dodger. Forever a legend.



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  • Congressional intern killed in Washington shooting

    Congressional intern killed in Washington shooting



    A 21-year-old intern in a congressman’s Washington office was fatally shot Monday in the city after gunmen opened fire on a group of people, authorities said.

    Eric Tarpinian-Jachym was not the target of the shooters, who got out of a vehicle at 7th and M streets NW and started firing at around 10:28 p.m., the Metropolitan Police Department said.

    Also hit were a woman and a 16-year-old boy, who survived, police said in a statement.

    Tarpinian-Jachym was unconscious when first responders arrived, and he died at a hospital Tuesday, the police department said.

    Rep. Ron Estes, R-Kan., said he and his wife, Susan, were sending their condolences.

    Tarpinian-Jachym was a senior at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst who was majoring in finance with a minor in political science, Estes’ office said.

    “I will remember his kind heart and how he always greeted anyone who entered our office with a cheerful smile,” Estes said in a statement.

    “We are grateful to Eric for his service to Kansas’ 4th District and the country,” he said. “Please join Susan and me in praying for his family and respecting their privacy during this heartbreaking time.”

    The vehicle the shooters used has been found, police said, but no arrests have been announced. Police said “multiple suspects” fired at a group of people.

    The police department said it is offering a reward of up to $25,000 for information that leads to the arrests and convictions of those responsible. The department offers that reward for each homicide in the district.



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  • Judge ends order blocking deportation of Boulder firebomb attack suspect’s family

    Judge ends order blocking deportation of Boulder firebomb attack suspect’s family



    DENVER — A federal judge on Wednesday ended an order blocking the deportation of the family of the man charged in the fatal firebomb attack in Boulder, Colorado, noting government lawyers say the man’s relatives are not being rushed out of the country as the White House originally stated.

    Hayam El Gamal and her five children were detained by immigration agents on June 3, two days after her husband Mohamed Sabry Soliman was accused of throwing two Molotov cocktails at people demonstrating for awareness of Israeli hostages in Gaza. Prosecutors announced Monday that an 82-year-old woman who was injured in the attack had died.

    U.S. District Judge Orlando L. Garica dismissed the family’s lawsuit challenging their detention by immigration authorities. The ruling noted that El Gamal and her children ages 4 to 18 are not eligible for expedited deportations because they have been in the country for over two years, which he said lawyers for the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement have acknowledged.

    Soliman is an Egyptian national who federal authorities say was living in the U.S. illegally. He is being prosecuted in both state and federal court for the attack, which prosecutors say injured a total of 13 people. Investigators say he planned the attack for a year and was driven by a desire “to kill all Zionist people.” He has pleaded not guilty to federal hate crimes charges but hasn’t been asked to enter a plea in the state case, which now includes a murder charge.

    On the day El Gamal and her children were arrested, the White House said in social media posts that they “COULD BE DEPORTED AS EARLY AS TONIGHT” and that six one-way tickets had been purchased for them, with their “final boarding call coming soon.” Those statements led a federal judge in Colorado to issue an emergency order temporarily blocking the family’s deportation, Garcia said.

    The case was later transferred to Texas, where the family is being held in an immigration detention center for families. Garcia is based in San Antonio.

    Because the family is in regular deportation proceedings, there is no longer any reason to block their deportation, Garcia said. Regular proceedings can take months or even years if decisions are appealed. He also turned down the family’s request to be released from the detention center in the meantime, saying they can pursue release through the normal bond process in the immigration system.

    Lawyers for the family had challenged their detention as unconstitutional because they said it was intended to punish them for Soliman’s actions. According to a court filing by El Gamal’s lawyers, one of the immigration agents who arrested them told her, “You have to pay for the consequences of what you did.”

    Garcia said immigration authorities have discretion in deciding who to detain and he did not have authority to review their decision to detain El Gamal and her children. Lawyers for the government said they are being lawfully held because they are accused of overstaying their visas.

    One of the family’s attorneys, Niels Frenzen, said they hoped to get the family released from the detention center while the deportation proceedings continue.

    An email seeking comment from the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement was not immediately returned.



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  • Skydiving plane goes off New Jersey runway into woods, sending 15 to hospital

    Skydiving plane goes off New Jersey runway into woods, sending 15 to hospital


    Fifteen people were taken to a hospital when a skydiving aircraft went off a runway and crashed in the woods near an airport in southern New Jersey on Wednesday evening, according to authorities.

    The incident at the Cross Keys Airport, about 21 miles southeast of Philadelphia, involved a Cessna 208B carrying 15 people, according to a Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson, who said it’s under investigation.

    Aerial footage of the crashed plane shows it in the woods, with several pieces of debris nearby. Firetrucks and other emergency vehicles surrounded the scene.

    US Plane Off Runway
    A small skydiving aircraft that went off the end of a runway at Cross Keys Airport is surrounded by trees, in Gloucester County, N.J., on Wednesday.WPVI-TV/6ABC via AP

    Three people are being evaluated at Cooper University Hospital’s trauma center in Camden, New Jersey, and eight people with less severe injuries are being treated in its emergency department, Wendy A. Marano, a spokesperson for the hospital, said. Four other patients also with “minimal injuries” are waiting for further evaluation, she said. She wasn’t able to provide the exact nature of the injuries.

    Members of the hospital’s EMS and trauma department were at the crash site, she said.

    A person who answered the phone at Cross Keys Airport on Wednesday said he had no information and referred questions to Skydive Cross Keys, a commercial skydiving business located at the airport. Skydive Cross Keys didn’t immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press requesting comment.

    Gloucester County Emergency Management warned the public on its Facebook page to avoid the area in order to let emergency vehicles access the site.



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  • CIA declassifies review of intelligence report on 2016 Russia election interference

    CIA declassifies review of intelligence report on 2016 Russia election interference



    WASHINGTON — CIA officials failed in some cases to follow standard procedures in an intelligence analysis of Russian interference efforts in the 2016 election, according to an internal review declassified Wednesday.

    Intelligence officers were given an unusually short timeline for the analysis, there was “excessive involvement” by senior leaders, and staff members were given uneven access to crucial intelligence about Russia, the “lessons-learned” review said.

    But the review did not refute the findings of the 2017 intelligence assessment that Russia waged an information warfare campaign designed to undermine Americans’ confidence in the electoral process, damage Hillary Clinton and boost Donald Trump’s prospects in the 2016 election.

    “While the overall assessment was deemed defensible, the identified procedural anomalies and tradecraft issues highlight critical lessons for handling controversial or politically charged topics,” the review said.

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    Trump and his allies have long rejected intelligence and other reporting indicating that Russia employed false information and propaganda to try to influence the 2016 election and tip the scales in his favor. They have accused intelligence and law enforcement officials of plotting to tie Trump to Russia and cast doubt on the legitimacy of his victory in 2016.

    A special counsel appointed during the first Trump administration looked extensively into how the CIA crafted its assessment but filed no criminal charges and reported no clear evidence that political bias tainted the process.

    A bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee investigation in 2020 concurred with the 2017 intelligence assessment and found no reason to dispute its conclusions.

    In Trump’s second presidential term, his deputies have vowed to bring more transparency to the intelligence community and prevent any attempt to politicize its work.

    CIA Director John Ratcliffe ordered the internal review this year and declassified it Wednesday, according to the CIA.

    The intelligence assessment of the 2016 vote, which President Barack Obama requested after the November election, found that Russia sought to undermine public faith in the democratic process and denigrate Clinton and that Moscow “aspired” to help Trump win the election.

    Two senior leaders of a CIA mission center focusing on Russia objected to including the conclusion that Russia aimed to help secure Trump’s victory, according to the internal review. They argued that the view was supported mainly by a single intelligence report while other judgments were backed up by more information.

    The review said the assessment was conducted on an unusually short timeline. Instead of having months to prepare a complex and politically sensitive analysis, the authors had “less than a week to draft the assessment” and “less than two days to formally coordinate it” with other intelligence officers.

    Multiple intelligence officers “said they felt ‘jammed’ by the compressed timeline,” according to the review.

    The review said top CIA officials were heavily involved in the assessment effort, which “was highly unusual in both scope and intensity.” As a result, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research were “entirely shut out” of the analysis, which was a “significant deviation” from standard practice in the intelligence community, according to the review.

    Authors of the 2016 assessment and other CIA officers also “strongly opposed” including a reference in the analysis to the so-called Trump dossier compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele. The dossier included unverified allegations about Trump’s colluding with Russia.

    In the end, a summary of the dossier was included in an annex, with a disclaimer that it was not used “to reach the analytic conclusions” in the assessment.

    The review also found reasons to praise the 2016 assessment, saying that much of the team’s work showed “robust” tradecraft with extensive sourcing and that there was no sign of systemic problems.

    ​​John Brennan, who was CIA director at the time of the assessment, told NBC News on Wednesday he was aware of the review but had not had a chance to read it yet.



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  • Nearly 368,000 pounds of Oscar Mayer turkey bacon recalled over possible listeria contamination

    Nearly 368,000 pounds of Oscar Mayer turkey bacon recalled over possible listeria contamination


    Nearly 368,000 pounds of Oscar Mayer turkey bacon products are being recalled over possible contamination with listeria bacteria that can cause food poisoning, federal health officials said Wednesday.

    No illnesses have been confirmed to date, U.S. agriculture department officials said.

    Kraft Heinz Food Company of Newberry, South Carolina, announced the recall of the fully cooked turkey bacon that was produced from April 24 to June 11. The problem was discovered when the company’s laboratory testing indicated potential listeria contamination.

    turkey bacon oscar mayer product recall
    The packaging of recalled Oscar Mayer turkey bacon.USDA via AP

    The recall includes the following products, which were shipped to U.S. stores nationwide, as well as the British Virgin Islands and Hong Kong:

    • 12-ounce packages of Oscar Mayer Turkey Bacon Original with the UPC code 071871548601 printed on the package under the bar code. They have use-by dates from July 18 to Aug. 2 and the lot code RS40.
    • 36-ounce packages of Oscar Mayer Turkey Bacon Original containing three 12-ounce packages of product with the UPC code 071871548748 printed on the package under the barcode. They include use-by dates from July 23 to Sept. 4 and lot codes RS19, RS40 and RS42.
    • 48-ounce packages of Oscar Mayer Turkey Bacon Original containing four 12-ounce packages of product with the UPC code 071871548793 printed on the package under the barcode. They include use-by dates from July 18 to Sept. 4 and lot codes RS19, RS40 and RS42.
    turkey bacon oscar mayer product recall
    USDA via AP

    Consumers shouldn’t eat the products, which may be in their refrigerators or freezers. They should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase.

    Listeria infections can cause serious illness, particularly in older adults, people with weakened immune systems and those who are pregnant or their newborns. Symptoms include fever, muscle aches, headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance and convulsions.

    About 1,600 people get sick each year from listeria infections and about 260 die, the CDC said.

    Federal officials in December said they were revamping protocols to prevent listeria infections after several high-profile outbreaks, including one linked to Boar’s Head deli meats that led to 10 deaths and more than 60 illnesses last year.



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  • At Wimbledon, stars like Coco Gauff exit with ‘shocking’ losses

    At Wimbledon, stars like Coco Gauff exit with ‘shocking’ losses



    No one in women’s tennis was better than Coco Gauff in early June.

    Standing on a clay court in Paris, Gauff lifted a silver trophy after winning the French Open, the second major championship of the 21-year-old’s career and the first time an American had won it since Serena Williams in 2015.

    Just three weeks later, chasing her second major title of the season, Gauff didn’t even make it out of her opening match on the grass courts of Wimbledon, however. It was a stunning result — one made all the more surprising because it wasn’t an outlier.

    In all, 23 seeded players combined between men and women were beaten during Wimbledon’s first round, the most since the current seeding format began in 2001. In addition to Gauff, who entered with the second-highest seeding, the women’s singles draw saw third-seeded Jessica Pegula lose. Their losses marked the first time since 1968, a turning point in the sport’s history when professionals began competing alongside amateurs at major tournaments, that two of the top three women’s seeds had been knocked out during the first round of a Grand Slam tournament.

    “This is why tennis is the best reality show on earth,” said former U.S. Open champion Andy Roddick on his podcast Tuesday. “There’s no script.”

    Thirteen seeded men’s players lost in the first round, tying a record at Grand Slams, the sport’s four most prestigious tournaments. Carlos Alcaraz, the 22-year-old Spanish superstar who entered Wimbledon as a two-time defending champion but needed the full five sets to survive his opening match, recited that statistic a day later after advancing out of the second round.

    “It’s kind of shocking,” Alcaraz said. “Everything can happen in tennis, even in the first round.”

    Like Alcaraz, another past champion, seven-time winner Novak Djokovic, remains alive in the men’s singles bracket. But their competition has been thinned out. Among those to lose in the first round included third-seeded Alexander Zverev, seventh-seeded Lorenzo Musetti, and ninth-seeded Daniil Medvedev, a former No. 1-ranked player and U.S. Open champion.

    Asked about the string of upsets, Zverev didn’t see a throughline that connected his match with the losses of Musetti, Medvedev and others.

    “I don’t think tennis is the problem right now for me,” Zverev said after losing to an opponent who had been just 8-17 this season. “It’s something else that I have to find within me at the moment.”

    Yet Roddick, who described the scale of the upsets as “carnage,” and Gauff both left the opening rounds with theories for why Wimbledon’s draw had become so riddled with upsets that centered on style and timing.

    “I would say the quick turnaround,” Gauff said after her first-round exit. “I think most of the seeds are going deeper in Roland Garros, and then you spend a long clay season and then you have to come and adjust to grass.”

    In the annual tennis calendar, the number of tournaments played on grass are outliers. That leaves relatively little time to get comfortable for playing on the surface, where the ball bounces lower and moves slower, before Wimbledon arrives. Yet how to best prepare for Wimbledon opens up another wrinkle for players who must decide whether to play the week before in other tune-up tournaments on grass but risk fatigue or whether to rest up.

    Just 12 days after winning on the clay court at Roland Garros in Paris, Gauff played on grass in Germany, and lost. After her defeat, she questioned whether she would play the same tournament again because of the quick turnaround.

    “It’s a tricky thing and it seems like Carlos and Novak are the ones to figure it out and even (Alcaraz) had a tough first-round match,” Gauff said. “I really just think it’s that this turnaround, I think, this Slam out of all of them is … the most prone to have upsets just because of how quick the turnaround is from clay.”

    Though Gauff’s playing style is not particularly suited for success on grass, Roddick said on his podcast, Pegula’s loss was “most shocking” because it is. Pegula’s quick exit at Wimbledon came only three days after she had won another grass-court tournament in Germany that was seen as a warmup for Wimbledon.

    “This is what happens when you actually play tournaments outside of the monosurface where it’s all kind of the same,” Roddick said. “… You allow different styles in. …This is what we get. We don’t get a six-week lead-in where we’re getting a data set from (tournaments in) Monte Carlo through Geneva that matter in predictions and knowing what’s going on.

    “I would say there are fewer people that know what they’re doing on grass, like really really know what they’re doing, than on any other surface.”



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  • Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs verdict is a blow to federal prosecutors, analysts say

    Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs verdict is a blow to federal prosecutors, analysts say


    U.S. government prosecutors repeatedly told jurors that Sean “Diddy” Combs was the ruthless ringleader of a criminal conspiracy, the key figure in a sprawling racketeering and sex trafficking scheme. Combs must be convicted on all five criminal counts, the prosecutors argued, and only then can justice be served.

    In the end, the jury was not convinced.

    The panel of 12 New Yorkers returned a mixed verdict at the climax of Combs’ federal trial Wednesday, convicting the music mogul on two interstate prostitution counts but acquitting him on the vastly more serious charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking, which each carried a maximum prison sentence of life behind bars.

    In interviews, legal analysts and former federal prosecutors said the verdict was a blow to the Southern District of New York, which spent seven weeks unwinding an expansive narrative, introducing reams of graphic evidence and calling more than 30 witnesses to the stand. In contrast, the defense team did not call a single witness.

    “This trial was a major gamble, and Combs won that bet,” said Anna Cominsky, an associate professor of law and the director of the Criminal Defense Clinic at New York Law School. “Everything is stacked against the defendant going into a federal case, in particular one like this.”

    “His attorneys were smart and they owned the bad facts,” Cominsky added. “They fought on the things that mattered, and it paid off.”

    Sean "Diddy" Combs confers with his lawyers in a courtroom sketch
    Sean “Diddy” Combs confers with his lawyers in New York on June 12.Jane Rosenberg / Reuters

    Combs’ defense team never disputed their client’s history of domestic violence — including his physical assault of ex-girlfriend Casandra Ventura at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016. They also readily acknowledged that Combs arranged drug-dazed, marathon sexual encounters in luxury hotels called “freak offs.”

    But the rapper’s lawyers always insisted that Ventura and another ex-girlfriend, identified in court under the pseudonym “Jane,” willingly participated in freak offs. The lawyers highlighted text messages in which both women expressed romantic affection for Combs and sometimes conveyed enthusiasm for their “hotel nights.”

    In acquitting Combs of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking, jurors effectively rejected the prosecution’s assertion that the music mogul oversaw a criminal enterprise encompassing sex trafficking, forced labor, drug distribution and other acts to fulfill his sexual desires. They may have been persuaded by the defense team’s characterization of Combs as a “swinger” who had been unfairly persecuted for his lifestyle.

    In sometimes sarcastic closing arguments last week, defense attorney Marc Agnifilo said the case against his client was “badly exaggerated.” Jeffrey Harris, a former prosecutor with the Southern District of New York, said jurors might have agreed that the prosecution’s case was overwrought from the start.

    “Juries expect more from prosecutors than they do from defense attorneys,” Harris said, “and when prosecutors lose credibility by over-charging it usually does not end well.”

    Berit Berger, a former federal prosecutor in both the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, disagreed with the suggestion that prosecutors had over-charged Combs, but acknowledged that the defense team may have been successful in puncturing the government’s narrative, especially when it came to the question of consent.

    “It’s easy to say that when there’s an acquittal on some counts, but I do think that they [prosecutors] presented evidence that met the legal elements for each of these statutes,” Berger said. “I think the defense really wanted to paint this as a situation where grown woman had agency, and could have left this relationship at any time, and they chose to stay, because there were benefits to that.”

    “My guess is that resonated with some of the jurors,” Berger added.

    In an interview, another former Justice Department prosecutor said the Combs verdict was a “big loss” for the office, adding that juries can get hung up on the technical elements in large racketeering conspiracy cases outside of the typical mafia and gang conduct. The jurors in Combs’ case were asked whether prosecutors had proved he had been involved in underlying racketeering acts such as kidnapping, arson and bribery.

    “In those traditional contexts, witnesses can tell you why it all relates to the charged enterprise,” said the former federal prosecutor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to express candid views. “Without that narrator from inside the enterprise or clear explicit ties, it is very hard.”

    The former prosecutor said they were curious what a judge would do in post-trial motions, saying a judge could still sentence Combs severely if moved by the evidence, noting that the statutory maximum on each of the two counts he was convicted of is 10 years in prison.

    Misty Marris, a defense attorney and legal analyst, said the prosecutors ultimately failed to provide a robust explanation of how Combs’ alleged criminal enterprise worked.

    “They never established what the criminal enterprise was, its purpose, how it operated, who was really involved in it,” Marris said. “That really never gelled for me, and clearly the jury agreed.”

    Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Ricky J. Patel, the special agent in charge of the New York Field Office of Homeland Security Investigations, did not directly address the outcome in a statement released after the verdict.

    “Sex crimes deeply scar victims, and the disturbing reality is that sex crimes are all too present in many aspects of our society,” Clayton and Patel said. “Victims endure gut-wrenching physical and mental abuse, leading to lasting trauma. New Yorkers and all Americans want this scourge stopped and perpetrators brought to justice.”

    “Prosecuting sex crimes requires brave victims to come forward and tell their harrowing stories,” they added. “We and our law enforcement partners recognize the hardships victims endure and have prioritized a victim-centered approach to investigating and prosecuting these cases.”

    When the verdict was being read inside the courtroom this morning, Combs got on his knees and prayed. The prosecutors remained seated, subdued and by all appearances despondent.



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  • Doctor charged with murder in 4-year-old daughter’s drowning, sheriff’s office says

    Doctor charged with murder in 4-year-old daughter’s drowning, sheriff’s office says


    A mother is charged with first-degree murder in the drowning death of her 4-year-old daughter in El Portal, according to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office (MDSO).

    Dr. Neha Gupta, who is a pediatrician, is accused of killing her daughter, 4-year-old Aria Talathi, who was found “floating in a pool” behind a home at 156 NW 90 Street on June 27.

    Video showed police investigating after Miami-Dade Fire Rescue performed CPR on the child.

    She was rushed to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead, the sheriff’s office said.

    Police cars with lights on in front of a house outside
    Miami-Dade police at the scene of a drowning in El Portal, Fla., on July 2, 2025.WTVJ

    Gupta, 36, and her daughter had traveled from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and were staying at a short-term rental, MDSO said. Someone called 911 to report that the girl was drowning in the overnight hours.

    “Through investigative means and consultation with the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, detectives obtained an arrest warrant for Dr. Neha Gupta and traveled to Oklahoma City. With the assistance of the Oklahoma City Police Department’s Homicide Unit and the United States Marshals Service, they were able to locate and take her into custody,” a new release from MDSO reads.

    Authorities did not immediately provide more details about Gupta’s alleged involvement in her daughter’s death.



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  • Judge blocks Trump asylum ban at southern border, says he exceeded authority

    Judge blocks Trump asylum ban at southern border, says he exceeded authority



    WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Wednesday blocked President Donald Trump’s asylum ban at the U.S.-Mexico border, saying Trump exceeded his authority when he issued a proclamation declaring illegal immigration an emergency and setting aside existing legal processes.

    U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss said in a 128-page opinion that Trump’s January 20 proclamation blocking all migrants “engaged in the invasion across the southern border” from claiming asylum or other humanitarian protections went beyond his executive power.

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    The ruling is a setback for Trump, a Republican who recaptured the White House promising a vast immigration crackdown. Since Trump took office, the number of migrants caught crossing illegally has plummeted to record lows.

    The American Civil Liberties Union brought the challenge to Trump’s asylum ban in February, arguing it violated U.S. laws and international treaties.

    Trump’s border restrictions went beyond a similar ban put in place by former President Joe Biden, a Democrat, in 2024. Key parts of the Biden ban were blocked by a separate federal judge in May in a lawsuit also led by the ACLU.

    Moss said he would stay the effective date of his order for 14 days to allow the Trump administration to appeal.



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