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  • Thunder on verge of NBA championship after holding off Pacers rally to win Game 5

    Thunder on verge of NBA championship after holding off Pacers rally to win Game 5


    If the lesson of these NBA playoffs is how quickly fortunes can change, then the latest example is the Oklahoma City Thunder.

    Three days after the Thunder appeared seemingly out of offensive options, fatigued and headed toward a 3-1 series deficit in the best-of-seven NBA Finals, they’re now just one win away from claiming an NBA championship.

    Summoning the same offensive heroics and defensive tenacity that saved their season in the final quarter of Friday’s Game 4, the Thunder on Monday burst open a double-digit lead to start Game 5 on their home court, then held off Indiana’s attempted comeback to win 120-109 and lead the series 3-2.

    Oklahoma City can close out the finals, and win the franchise’s first championship since it relocated in 2008, as early as Game 6 on Thursday in Indianapolis.

    It is the first time since March that Indiana has lost consecutive games and the first time at any point during the postseason that it has trailed in a series. It was done in by its 23 turnovers, which Oklahoma City turned into 32 points.

    “That’s the game,” Carlisle said.

    That, and Thunder wing Jalen Williams. In a career-making performance, the third-year All-Star scored 11 of his 40 points in the fourth quarter. Nine of his 14 baskets were scored at or within feet of the rim, his aggression continually punching holes into an Indiana defense that, only days earlier, had continually frustrated Oklahoma City.

    “He was on the gas the entire night,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “Applied a ton of pressure.”

    Image: 2025 NBA Finals - Game Five Jalen Williams Tony Bradley
    Jalen Williams of the Oklahoma City Thunder drives to the basket against Tony Bradley of the Indiana Pacers on Monday.Matthew Stockman / Getty Images

    Williams and co-star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander also combined to take 26 free throws, to 30 attempts by Indiana’s entire team.

    The Pacers, after having fallen behind by 16 points early in the quarter, were down just two with 8:11 left in regulation, setting the stage for yet what looked like another improbable road comeback in a postseason full of them. This would have been among the most stunning, because little had worked in the Pacers’ favor all night — with nothing as damaging as the ineffectiveness of star guard Tyrese Haliburton, who played through a nagging injury and finished without a field goal, missing all six of his field-goal attempts. Haliburton finished with four points, seven rebounds and six assists.

    “He’s not 100%, it’s pretty clear,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “But I don’t think he’s going to miss the next game. We were concerned at halftime, and he insisted on playing, and I thought he made a lot of really good things happen in the second half.”

    Midway through the first quarter, Indiana had already committed six turnovers and trailed by 10. It wasn’t the only ominous sign for the Pacers; in the waning seconds of the first quarter, Oklahoma City had already made more 3-pointers (four) than it had in all of Game 4, and Haliburton, reportedly playing through tightness in a calf since Game 2, left the game to return to the locker room for treatment.

    As he walked out of the tunnel, away from the court, Indiana’s hopes of winning appeared to retreat with him. When Haliburton eventually returned nearly six minutes later, wearing a brace around his right leg on the bench, Indiana was still down 10. As the Pacers missed free throws and shots at the rim, Oklahoma City was pulling ahead by as many as 18 points late in the first half and 14 at halftime.

    The gap between the teams was the product of many factors, but it was most evident in the comfort levels of their respective All-Star guards, with Gilgeous-Alexander scoring 13 points before halftime to zero for Haliburton — the first time he’d failed to score during the first half in 36 career playoff games. He scored his first points with 7 minutes to go in the third quarter.

    Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 31 points, including 10 assists — notable given that he had mustered zero in Game 4, as Oklahoma City made a tactical shift to limit his opportunities to initiate his team’s offense as a way to keep him fresher for the fourth quarter. It worked: Gilgeous-Alexander’s flurry of points late in Game 4 evened the series coming back to Oklahoma City on Monday.

    With its assortment of double-digit comebacks this postseason, Indiana was the last team to be daunted by a double-digit deficit. And when it had pulled within nine points halfway through the third quarter, then just two early in the fourth quarter, Oklahoma City’s control became tenuous, and the exuberance of the home crowd quieted.

    Yet within the next three minutes, Indiana committed four turnovers and Oklahoma City scored off each, a sequence that quickly doubled the Thunder’s lead.

    “That fast, it went away from us,” said Indiana’s Pascal Siakam, who had 28 points, but also six turnovers.



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  • Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani makes long-awaited return to the mound after elbow surgery

    Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani makes long-awaited return to the mound after elbow surgery



    Shohei Ohtani gave up a pair of two-strike hits and a run in his Los Angeles Dodgers pitching debut against the San Diego Padres on Monday night, 21 months after the two-way superstar had elbow surgery.

    Ohtani threw 28 pitches — 16 for strikes — in the first inning as fans hung on every one of them. They oohed when a fastball was clocked at 100.2 mph — the second-hardest pitch thrown by a Dodgers hurler this season.

    Ohtani appeared to be laboring on the mound, his face sweaty. He warmed up to his usual music, Michael Bublé’s version of “Feeling Good.”

    After retiring Xander Bogaerts on a grounder for the third out, Ohtani walked over to an umpire who checked his hands and glove. He didn’t enter the dugout. Instead, he put on his batting gloves and other equipment near the railing and walked to the on-deck circle to prepare to lead off the bottom of the inning.

    Ohtani struck out swinging against Padres starter Dylan Cease, but then tied the score at 1 with an RBI double to left-center in the third.

    “He’s ready, he’s adamant, he feels good, strong, ready to pitch a major league game,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said before the game. “I think everyone in that clubhouse, I think the fans, media, we’ve been waiting for this moment.”

    Ohtani faced Fernando Tatis Jr., Luis Arráez, Manny Machado, Gavin Sheets and Bogaerts in the first. Tatis flared a single to center field and went to second on Ohtani’s wild pitch. Arráez singled and Machado’s sacrifice fly scored Tatis. Sheets and Bogaerts grounded out.

    That was it for Ohtani on the mound. Anthony Banda replaced him in the second.

    “I think I got the best seat in the house to watch it and to watch this guy start and then take an at-bat,” Roberts said. “This is bananas. I’m thrilled.”

    Major League Baseball made the game available for free on streaming site MLB.tv.

    The Japanese right-hander was pitching in a big league game about three weeks after facing hitters in simulated at-bats for the first time. All the while, Ohtani was still wielding his powerful bat in the lineup for the NL West leaders.

    “It got to the point where, hey, it feels like we should take that next step and almost look to finish the rehab at the major league level because of the taxing nature of what he was doing,” Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes said.

    Typically, pitchers returning from injuries go on minor league rehab assignments, but Ohtani is an exception.

    “It’s been really encouraging overall the way he’s bounced back and been able to continue to feel good doing both,” Gomes said.

    Roberts said: “You’ve got to hear the player and trust the player.”

    Roberts briefly considered not having Ohtani bat leadoff, but the slugger assured his manager he was fine with it.

    “It could change going forward,” Roberts said, “but right now he feels very comfortable with taking the mound and coming in the dugout and getting on his stuff to go take an at-bat.”

    Gomes acknowledged the team is in a unique situation, trying to balance Ohtani’s offensive prowess with his pitching ability while erring on the side of caution.

    “We don’t know how he’s going to come out, if his legs are going to be tired. We have to make sure that we’re also keeping one of our best hitters in the lineup,” Gomes said. “It has to be an ongoing conversation and making sure that Shohei is the one driving this conversation.”

    The three-time MVP began the night batting .290 with 25 homers, which led the National League, 41 RBIs and 11 stolen bases in the leadoff spot.

    While Ohtani won’t be throwing deep into games at first, just his presence on the mound figures to bolster a staff that has been decimated by injuries. The Dodgers have eight starters, including Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell and Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki, and six relievers on the injured list.

    Roberts said he and the coaches would watch Ohtani’s command, delivery, and ability to repeat his mechanics.

    “Like he always does, he’s going to give everything he has and we expect a high-quality outing,” Gomes said.

    Ohtani is already on the roster as the designated hitter, so the Dodgers are essentially adding an extra pitcher without having to make a corresponding roster move.

    “It’s not going to be a once-every-five-day situation, so there’s going to be plenty of time to recover,” Roberts said. “We also have the luxury of pitching him as much as we want as far as in a particular outing.”

    Ohtani helped the Dodgers win their eighth World Series title — and his first — last season, the first of a $700 million, 10-year contract. He earned his third MVP award and first in the National League.

    He hadn’t pitched since 2023 with the Los Angeles Angels. He was 10-5 with a 3.14 ERA and 167 strikeouts in 23 starts that season. His last mound appearance was on Aug. 23, 2023, when he got hurt during an outing against Cincinnati.

    Ohtani had Tommy John surgery on Oct. 1, 2018, and is recovering from a second major operation on his right elbow Sept. 19, 2023.

    As a pitcher, he entered 38-19 with a 3.01 ERA and 608 strikeouts in 481 2/3 innings during his major league career.

    “The main goal is obviously to have him strong down the stretch run and through October,” Gomes said.



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  • Georgia man indicted and accused of threatening Sens. Ted Cruz and Deb Fischer

    Georgia man indicted and accused of threatening Sens. Ted Cruz and Deb Fischer



    A Georgia man was arraigned Monday on charges of communicating threats in interstate commerce in connection with threats of sexual violence against Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Deb Fischer of Nebraska, federal prosecutors said.

    Robert Davis Forney, 25, of Duluth, left voicemails in January threatening sexual violence against the two senators, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia alleged. He is also accused of threatening Cruz’s family.

    A federal grand jury in Georgia indicted him last week, prosecutors said.

    Spokespeople for Cruz and Fischer did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday night.

    U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg condemned political violence against elected officials in a statement.

    “Threatening our elected officials and their families is an act of violence that undermines our entire democracy,” Hertzberg said. “Political discourse and disagreements never justify resorting to vile attacks against our nation’s leaders.”

    FBI Atlanta Special Agent in Charge Paul Brown offered a similar sentiment, saying in a statement that there “is no place for political violence or threats of violence in the United States.”

    U.S. Capitol Police, who are also investigating the case, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday night.

    The arraignment follows a growing trend of political violence against elected officials.

    A Minnesota man was arrested Sunday night in connection with the fatal shooting of Democratic state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband. Another Democratic state lawmaker and his wife were also injured in what authorities have called “politically motivated” attacks.

    Capitol Police said in February that the number of threat assessment cases grew for a second consecutive year last year, highlighting their investigations of 9,474 concerning statements and direct threats against members of Congress, their families and staff members last year and 8,008 threats in 2023.

    “The men and women of the United States Capitol Police work around the clock to investigate thousands of threat cases every year — a number that only seems to be growing,” said Acting U.S. Capitol Chief Sean Gallagher in a statement Monday. “Our Department’s mission to protect the Members of Congress is critical and we will not tolerate any threat to their safety.”

    After the attacks Saturday in Minnesota, the Senate is holding an all-members briefing Tuesday focused on security for lawmakers.



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  • Tina Smith says she confronted Mike Lee over ‘cruel’ social media posts on the Minnesota shootings

    Tina Smith says she confronted Mike Lee over ‘cruel’ social media posts on the Minnesota shootings


    WASHINGTON — Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., said Monday that she confronted Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah over his social media posts about the suspect in shootings that killed a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband.

    Smith said she confronted Lee after his “cruel” posts Sunday, in which he included a photo of the suspect and wrote, “this is what happens When Marxists don’t get their way.”

    “I wanted him to know how much pain that caused me and the other people in my state and I think around the country, who think that this was a brutal attack,” Smith told reporters in the Capitol.

    She added that Lee needed to hear from her “directly” and think about the “impact his actions had.”

    “I don’t know whether Sen. Lee thought fully through what it was, you’d have to ask him, but I needed him to hear from me directly what impact I think his cruel statement had on me, his colleague,” Smith said.

    A gunman fatally shot state Democratic Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and injured Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, early Saturday. Vance Boelter, the suspect, was arrested Sunday night.

    Authorities have described the killing of Hortman as a “politically motivated assassination.” The top federal prosecutor in Minnesota told reporters that notebooks found in Boelter’s car included more than 45 federal and state elected officials’ names. Several Democratic members of Congress have said their names were on the list.

    Lee’s posts sparked condemnation from other Democrats, as well, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.

    Asked by NBC News about the confrontation with Smith, Lee declined to answer, and an aide tried to shield him from cameras as he left the Capitol.

    In an email to Lee’s office after the confrontation, a top Smith aide blasted him and his staff for using the “awesome power of a United States Senate Office to compound people’s grief” and of causing “additional pain … on an unspeakably horrific weekend.”

    “Is this how your team measures success? Using the office of US Senator to post not just one but a series of jokes about an assassination—is that a successful day of work on Team Lee?” Ed Shelleby, Smith’s deputy chief of staff, wrote in the email, which the senator’s office shared with NBC News.

    Shelleby went onto recap Saturday’s events, accusing Lee and his office of having “exploited the murder of a lifetime public servant and her husband to post some sick burns about Democrats.”

    “I pray to God that none of you ever go through anything like this. I pray that Senator Lee and your office begin to see the people you work with in this building as colleagues and human beings. And I pray that if God forbid, you ever find yourselves having to deal with anything similar, you find yourselves on the receiving end of the kind of grace and compassion that Senator Mike Lee could not muster,” Shelleby added.



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  • Minnesota shootings reignite security concerns for members of Congress

    Minnesota shootings reignite security concerns for members of Congress



    WASHINGTON — The targeted shootings of two Minnesota state lawmakers has renewed an urgent debate on Capitol Hill as members of Congress raise alarm bells about their safety amid escalating political rhetoric and violent threats.

    Law enforcement officials have begun holding a series of security briefings with groups of congressional lawmakers that will continue into Tuesday. Lawmakers have been told that they can spend money from their office budgets on home security systems and campaign cash on private security. Only a handful of congressional leaders get 24-hour protection from Capitol Police security details, though members can request extra protection, which is assigned based on whether Capitol Police determine there is an active threat.

    But so far, those assurances have done little to calm nervous lawmakers, who have been harboring such concerns amid a string of violent attacks on American politicians over the past 15 years — a period that has included assassination attempts on a presidential candidate and members of Congress and a riot at the U.S. Capitol.

    “It’s scary as sh–,” a senior House lawmaker said, describing how members of Congress feel after the Minnesota shootings. “We have had new safety and security procedures in place since Jan. 6, 2021. They include coordinating my district travel with local law enforcement. We will review those in light of the assassination in Minnesota.”

    Authorities said Monday that the suspect, Vance Boelter, visited the homes of four elected officials early Saturday impersonating a police officer. Authorities say he shot and killed state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, shortly after he seriously wounded state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife in a separate shooting at their home. He was arrested Sunday night.

    A lengthy list of names of Democratic officials found in Boelter’s vehicle included those of several members of Congress, such as Sens. Tina Smith of Minnesota and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Reps. Angie Craig of Minnesota, Debbie Dingell of Michigan and Greg Landsman of Ohio.

    “Both with the president and his administration and with members of Congress … we need to bring the temperature down,” Baldwin told reporters in the Capitol on Monday night. “There’s no place for political violence ever. Words matter.”

    Rep. Hillary Scholten, D-Mich., said Monday that she was canceling a town hall Monday evening after she learned her name was also on the suspect’s list.

    “Open, honest dialogue with West Michigan is at the heart of my service–and I will not be deterred from standing up for this community,” Scholten said in a statement. “Out of an abundance of caution and to not divert additional law enforcement resources away from protecting the broader public at this time, this is the responsible choice.”

    Lawmakers press congressional leaders about security

    After the Minnesota shootings, House Democratic leaders pressed their Republican counterparts Monday to do more to protect members of Congress.

    House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and Rep. Joe Morelle, D.N.Y., the ranking member of the House Administration Committee, asked Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to boost House members’ official budgets “to support additional safety and security measures in every single office.”

    Some members of Congress have complained that there isn’t enough money in the office budgets to go around and that spending it on security can take away from other critical needs. To raise the budget for offices, Congress would need to approve an increase in the annual legislative branch appropriations bill.

    “While we differ in many areas related to policy and our vision for America’s future, Member safety must be an area of common ground,” Jeffries and Morelle wrote in a letter. “Representatives from both sides of the aisle have endured assassination attempts that changed their lives and careers forever. Too many other patriotic public servants have left Congress because they no longer felt safe carrying out their duty as elected officials.”

    In response to the attempt to assassinate U.S. District Judge Esther Salas of New Jersey in 2020, Congress passed a bill in 2022 to protect judges’ personally identifiable information and allow them to redact personal information in certain cases online.

    In the wake of the Minnesota shootings, lawmakers have renewed discussions about passing a bill that would give themselves the same protections, according to a source with knowledge of the talks.

    “I have long advocated for data privacy for everyone, including the residences of lawmakers, and I have encountered resistance in the past,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said in a statement. “Maybe these horrific murders will change the sentiment within Congress.”

    On Saturday, House Republicans held an hourlong virtual call with House Sergeant at Arms William McFarland and Capitol Police leaders to discuss security concerns.

    The call got tense, according to two members who were on it. Ten to 15 lawmakers spoke up, expressing concerns about their safety, particularly when they go home to their districts.

    A Republican lawmaker told NBC News the call was “terrible,” adding that leaders have detail protection but that “nothing has changed” for other members, despite concerns about security before the Minnesota shootings.

    Another source said the call, which happened to take place on the eighth anniversary of the shooting at a congressional baseball practice in 2017, was almost entirely about lawmakers’ needing police protection at their homes and concerns that their personal information is so readily available.

    McFarland walked through some of the security options that are allowed for members. And leadership assured members that further avenues will be explored to see whether more can be done to protect lawmakers at home.

    House Democrats are expected to hold a similar virtual briefing on security Tuesday. Senators will have an in-person briefing Tuesday, as well.

    “I’ve been worried about lawmaker security for quite a while. People are just getting more and more brazen all the time,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., who said his first cousin lives “two doors down” from the shooting in Champlin, Minnesota. “It’s too close to home. It’s so sad.”

    “Everybody in my family, you end up putting your head on a swivel, and you hate to live that way,” he added.

    Elected officials face growing threats

    Threats to lawmakers have been steadily rising in recent years. Last year, the Capitol Police Threat Assessment Section investigated 9,474 concerning statements and direct threats against the members of Congress, their families or their staff members, an 18% increase from the previous year. The only year when more threats were recorded was 2021, in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, when police investigated 9,625 threats.

    On Monday, a 25-year-old Georgia man was arraigned on federal charges of making violent threats against Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Deb Fischer, R-Neb., the Justice Department said.

    But providing around-the-clock protection for all 535 members of Congress would be financially and logistically impractical. And Capitol Police have struggled to recruit and retain officers, even before the Jan. 6 attack, though in recent years the department has launched an aggressive recruitment effort.

    Instead, officials have pointed to security resources already available to lawmakers. After the Jan. 6 riot, the House sergeant at arms created a program allowing each member to use up to $10,000 to install and maintain security systems at their homes.

    And given threats on the campaign trail, the Federal Election Commission recently began allowing House and Senate candidates to spend campaign funds on security, including private security guards, cybersecurity and home security systems.

    During the 2024 election cycle, House and Senate candidates spent $8.5 million on security-related expenses, according to an NBC News review of FEC statements. That’s an increase from the more than $7.5 million congressional campaigns spent in the 2022 cycle. Former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., led all senators, spending more than $1.2 million on such security expenses, while Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., led House members by spending $432,241.

    There have been several high-profile examples of political leaders who have been targeted for attack in recent years.

    In January 2011, Rep. Gabby Giffords, D-Ariz., was shot in the head while she was meeting with constituents at a Tucson grocery store. Giffords survived, but six of the 18 other people wounded in the shooting died.

    In June 2017, a gunman opened fire on Republicans as they practiced in Alexandria, Virginia, for the annual congressional baseball charity game. Four people were shot, including Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., then the House majority whip, who nearly died.

    Members of the House and the Senate, along with Vice President Mike Pence, were targeted by pro-Donald Trump rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in a bid to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

    In October 2022, a man broke into the San Francisco home of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., then the House speaker, and attacked her husband with a hammer. The man was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

    And last July, just months before the presidential election, Trump narrowly survived an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally after a gunman fired multiple rounds and struck his ear. Trump survived another attempt on his life in September while he was golfing in Florida.

    “It clearly looks like a political assassination, and there’s just no room for that in this country,” GOP Sen. Eric Schmitt, the former attorney general of Missouri, said of the Minnesota shooting. “I think it’s a moment for the country to take a step back and everybody to condemn it.”



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  • Chelsea beats LAFC 2-0 in their opening match

    Chelsea beats LAFC 2-0 in their opening match



    ATLANTA — Pedro Neto scored in the first half and Enzo Fernández in the 79th minute to give Chelsea a 2-0 win over Los Angeles FC in Group D’s Club World Cup opener on Monday.

    Chelsea put pressure on LAFC goalkeeper Hugo Lloris early in the match. Neto scored in the 34th minute, picking up a pass from Nicolas Jackson and cutting onto his left foot for a near-post finish.

    There were 22,137 fans in attendance at the 71,000-capacity Mercedes-Benz Stadium, many of them backing LAFC. The Black and Gold had positive sparks of energy and possession throughout the first half, but struggled to find any real opportunities in front of goal.

    LAFC almost got one back just before the 60-minute mark, but Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sánchez came up with a save to keep Denis Bouanga off the scoresheet. The Black and Gold aimed to get some more experience onto the pitch at the half, bringing on former Chelsea man Olivier Giroud.

    Coming in off the bench, Fernández made no mistake finishing Liam Delap’s cross, adding an insurance goal for The Blues.

    Key moment

    Chelsea’s day was made even more positive by the debut of Delap, a promising 22-year-old English striker signed from Ipswich Town.

    Takeaways

    While Chelsea is the favorite to top Group D, LAFC’s next two matches become essential to moving on to the knock-out rounds. LAFC vs. Flamengo will prove to be an entertaining game, with the two sides most likely battling it out for the group’s second spot.

    “It’s a high level against a quality team. If you give them a moment, they’ll punish you. They had two chances, and they punished us.” — Marky Delgado, LAFC midfielder.

    “We know they’ve got amazing players and they’re a really good team, but we’ve got to play our football. No matter who we’re playing, we play our football really confident. … You’ve got to pick your moments, and I think we’ve done that well today.” — Levi Colwill, Chelsea defender.



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  • Diddy trial judge tosses juror as prosecutors lay out more evidence

    Diddy trial judge tosses juror as prosecutors lay out more evidence


    This is a free article for Diddy on Trial newsletter subscribers. Sign up to get exclusive reporting and analysis throughout Sean Combs’ federal trial.

    Today, U.S. government prosecutors laid out more of their evidence, including text messages and flight records underlying their racketeering conspiracy and prostitution charges. The prosecution team is expected to rest its case by Wednesday.

    Here’s what you need to know:

    • Ananya Sankar, a paralegal for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, walked jurors through some of the evidence she reviewed, including text messages and call logs. The text messages entered into evidence showed that Diddy’s employment of male escorts for drug-fueled “freak offs” was a running joke among his employees. Diddy also asked employees to pick up illegal substances, such as “15 pills of molly,” according to the texts.
    • Meredith Foster, one of the prosecutors, showed jurors text messages sent by Diddy’s ex-girlfriend “Jane” to his former chief of staff, Kristina Khorram. In the messages, Jane said Diddy had threatened to release sex tapes — suggesting that Khorram knew about at least one of her employer’s alleged blackmail attempts.
    • U.S. Attorney’s Office special agent Deleassa Penland confirmed flight records belonging to Jules Theodore, a male escort hired to engage in “freak offs” with Diddy and Cassie Ventura. The line of questioning about the records seemed designed to bolster one of the three charges Diddy faces: transportation to engage in prostitution.
    • For the first time, jurors today saw videos of the “freak offs” that have been mentioned dozens of times in testimony. The videos, involving Diddy, Cassie Ventura and sex workers at a New York City hotel were from 2012 and 2014 and were shown in short clips. Some jurors reacted visibly to the graphic tapes. The video was shown only to jurors and not to the gallery or the media.

    🔎 The view from inside

    By Adam Reiss, Chloe Melas, Katherine Koretski and Jing Feng

    Big news: Judge Arun Subramanian dismissed Juror #6 this morning, saying he had “concerns about his candor and whether he shaded answers to get on and stay on the panel.” The defense made a last-ditch appeal to keep the juror on the panel, filing a 14-page letter yesterday arguing there wasn’t a valid basis to toss him, and that doing so would be discriminatory.

    Juror #6, a 41-year-old Black man, will be replaced by an alternate, a 57-year-old white man who lives in Westchester County.


    👨‍⚖️ Analysis: Juror #6’s removal, explained

    By Danny Cevallos

    The judge decided that Juror #6’s conflicting statements about his residence raised serious concerns as to the juror’s candor. Let’s take a closer look at how this played out.

    Initially, during voir dire, the juror said he lived in the Bronx. That’s a county within the Southern District of New York (SDNY). But later, he apparently told court staff he spent time in New Jersey — which is definitely not in the Southern District of New York. It’s not even in the same federal circuit as the state of New York.

    When jurors are kicked off mid-trial, you get a really good look at how each side feels about a juror. Diddy’s defense liked this juror, for whatever reason, and they objected, citing racial diversity concerns. Subramanian countered that his decision was based solely on the juror’s inconsistency.

    Federal law mandates that jurors in the SDNY must reside within the district for at least one year, but it doesn’t really define what “reside” means. Apparently, a court’s determination of “residence” can be guided by a particular juror’s perceived lack of credibility.


    🗓 What’s next

    Tomorrow: We expect to hear from Brendan Paul, one of Diddy’s former personal assistants, as well as two summary witnesses.

    PSA: Every night during Diddy’s trial, NBC’s “Dateline” will drop special episodes of the “True Crime Weekly” podcast to get you up to speed. “Dateline” correspondent Andrea Canning chats with NBC News’ Chloe Melas and special guests — right in front of the courthouse. Listen here.



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  • ICE detains Utah college student in Colorado after brief traffic stop, raising questions

    ICE detains Utah college student in Colorado after brief traffic stop, raising questions



    Questions are surfacing about the immigration detention of a 19-year-old college student from Utah after a traffic stop in Colorado this month.

    Caroline Dias Goncalves, a student at the University of Utah, was driving on Interstate 70 outside Loma on June 5 when a Mesa County sheriff’s deputy pulled her over.

    The Mesa County Sheriff’s Office did not say why. Relatives told The Salt Lake City Tribune the deputy claimed she was driving too close to a semi-truck.

    The stop lasted less than 20 minutes, and “Dias Goncalves was released from the traffic stop with a warning,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release Monday.

    Then, shortly after she exited the highway, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents stopped her, arrested her and took her to an immigration detention center.

    “She has no criminal record and she was not shown a warrant,” her attorney, Jon Hyman, said in an email.

    Dias Goncalves is one of nearly 2.5 million Dreamers living in the United States. The word “Dreamer” refers to undocumented young immigrants brought to the United States as children.

    Dias Goncalves was born in Brazil and was brought to the United States as a 7-year-old. She has lived in Utah since she was 12 and has an asylum case pending.

    Friends and relatives question how immigration authorities were alerted to her location.

    As part of an ongoing “full administrative review,” the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office determined that the deputy who stopped Dias Goncalves was part of a communication group that included local, state and federal law enforcement partners participating in “a multi-agency drug interdiction effort focusing on the highways throughout Western Colorado.”

    “We were unaware that the communication group was used for anything other than drug interdiction efforts, including immigration,” the sheriff’s office said. “We have since removed all Mesa County Sheriff’s Office members from the communication group.”

    Colorado law restricts coordination between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities, but it does not fully prohibit it.

    Online records show that Dias Goncalves remains in ICE custody at the Denver Contract Detention Facility.

    ICE did not respond to a request for comment.

    Dias Goncalves’ immigration detention mirrors that of fellow 19-year-old Dreamer Ximena Arias-Cristobal in Georgia.

    Police in Dalton wrongly pulled Arias-Cristobal over last month, putting her on the radar of immigration authorities and making her susceptible to deportation.

    Since her release from immigration detention, Arias-Cristobal has been speaking up about the growing risks Dreamers face as the Trump administration steps up the pace of deportations of immigrants who do not have criminal charges or convictions, despite Donald Trump’s campaign promises to prioritize deporting violent criminals.

    Arias-Cristobal and Dias Goncalves are recipients of the highly regarded TheDream.US national scholarship, which helps undocumented youths with financial needs go to college.

    Dias Goncalves said in a TheDream.US survey of scholars, “I want to succeed, have a family, make a change living in America.”

    Gaby Pacheco, president of TheDream.US, told NBC News on Monday that scholars like Dias Goncalves are doing everything in their power “to regularize their status.”

    “She has a pending case, which is the aggravating and terrible thing that we’re seeing,” Pacheco said, adding that the organization is in contact with Dias Goncalves’ family.

    Polls and surveys have consistently found that most U.S. adults favor granting permanent legal status and a pathway to citizenship to Dreamers. Trump even said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” in December that he wanted to work with Democrats and Republicans on a plan “to do something about the Dreamers.”

    Asked about possible plans for immigration protections for Dreamers, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told NBC News in a statement June 4, “The Trump Administration’s top priority is deporting criminal illegal aliens from the United States, of which there are many.”



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  • Prosecutor reveals chilling details of attacks on Minnesota lawmakers

    Prosecutor reveals chilling details of attacks on Minnesota lawmakers


    The man suspected of fatally shooting a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband and wounding another and his wife had “stalked his victims like prey” before opening fire at their homes, elaborately disguised as a law enforcement officer, prosecutors said Monday.

    Vance Boelter, 57, was allegedly wearing a “hyper realistic” silicone face mask, a tactical vest and body armor when he arrived at the Champlin home of state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette Hoffman, early Saturday, according to Joseph Thompson, acting U.S. attorney for the District of Minnesota.

    Footage shows a man matching the description of shooting suspect Vance Luther Boelter attempting to gain access to one of the victims' homes.
    Footage shows a man matching the description of shooting suspect Vance Luther Boelter attempting to gain access to one of the victims’ homes. FBI

    Wielding a flashlight and a handgun, Boelter allegedly knocked on the Hoffmans’ door around 2 a.m. and shouted, “This is the police! Open the door!”

    His black SUV had emergency lights and a license plate that read “police,” Thompson said.

    The couple answered the door together, the prosecutor said at a news conference. He said Boelter shined his flashlight in their faces, said there had been a shooting reported in the house and asked them if they had weapons.

    When Boelter lowered his flashlight, the couple shouted that he was not a police officer. Prosecutors said Boelter then announced “this is a robbery” and tried to force himself into their home.

    Hoffman tried to push Boelter out of his home, but the suspect shot him and his wife repeatedly before fleeing to his next target’s home, Thompson said.

    State Sen. John Hoffman
    State Sen. John Hoffman at a hearing in 2024, in Saint Paul, Minn. Glen Stubbe / Minnesota Star Tribune via Reuters

    The Hoffmans’ daughter called 911. The couple were severely injured and remained hospitalized.

    Meanwhile, Boelter continued on his alleged rampage, which he appeared to have plotted for “quite some time,” though it’s still unclear why, officials said.

    Authorities said there were more than 45 names of state and federal elected officials in multiple notebooks found in the suspect’s SUV and home.

    “Boelter planned his attack carefully,” Thompson said. “He researched his victims and their families. He used the internet and other tools to find their addresses and names, the names of the family members. He conducted surveillance of their homes and took notes of the location of their homes.”

    After allegedly shooting the Hoffmans, Boelter went to the homes of at least three other Minnesota state politicians with the intent to kill them, Thompson said. The next two were not home, and prosecutors declined to identify them Monday.

    But Democratic state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, were at their Brooklyn Park home when Boelter arrived around 3:30 a.m., authorities said.

    A photograph of Melissa Hortman and her husband amongst flowers
    A photograph of state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, at the Minnesota state Capitol on Sunday.Selina Guevara / NBC News

    By that time, two local police officers were dispatched to conduct wellness checks on the homes of local officials, including the Hortmans. The officers arrived at the Hortmans’ home just as Boelter was standing in front of it, officials said.

    Boelter rushed into their home through the front door and repeatedly opened fire, killing the couple, Thompson said. The suspect fled out the back door, dropping his mask and body armor on the way, Thompson said.

    He called the alleged crimes “the stuff of nightmares.”

    After the attacks, Boelter allegedly texted his family: “Dad went to war last night… I don’t wanna implicate anybody,” according to an affidavit.

    In a message to his wife, Boelter apologized and appeared to warn her about an incoming police presence, the affidavit said. “Words are not gonna explain how sorry I am for the situation,” the text read. “There’s gonna be some people coming to the house armed and trigger-happy and I don’t want you guys around.”

    Police searched his wife’s car and recovered two guns, $10,000 in cash and passports for her two children, who were in the car at the time of the search, according to court records.

    After a two-day manhunt, which was the state’s biggest, the suspect was found crawling in a field Sunday night, authorities said.

    Minnesota Lawmakers Shot
    FBI agents sweep a neighborhood in Brooklyn Park on Saturday.Alex Kormann / Star Tribune via AP

    He cooperated with law enforcement officers and “gave up peacefully,” authorities said.

    Boelter faces multiple federal charges, including two counts of stalking and two counts of murder.

    The murder charges are punishable by life in prison or death, officials said. Thompson said it’s too soon to determine whether prosecutors will pursue the death penalty.

    At his federal court hearing Monday afternoon, Boelter said he understood what he is being charged with.

    Boelter told a judge he makes $540 a week through his part-time job and could not afford a lawyer.

    A judge said he would appoint a federal defender and scheduled the next hearing for June 27.



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  • How Israel’s Iran strikes might supercharge the global nuclear arms race

    How Israel’s Iran strikes might supercharge the global nuclear arms race



    Kelly is among the expert watchers who worry that Israel’s attack on Iran will trigger proliferation both “horizontal” — nuclear states building more weapons — and “vertical” — nonnuclear states trying to get them.

    That would accelerate an existing trend, according to watchdogs such as the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the Sweden-based weapons monitor known as SIPRI.

    “The signs are that a new arms race is gearing up that carries much more risk and uncertainty than the last one,” SIPRI Director Dan Smith said in a statement Monday as his group released the findings of its 2025 yearbook.

    Cold War adversaries America and Russia are both modernizing their weapons, while the fastest warhead production is happening in China, SIPRI said. Meanwhile India and Pakistan have developed new systems, with their decadeslong enmity almost spilling over into conflict earlier this year.

    In terms of potential new members of the nuclear club, “the most obvious is Iran itself,” Kelly said. “As soon as this war is over, I think it’s pretty clear they’re going to go back and build these things again. I’d be really shocked if they didn’t.”

    That chimes with what former U.S. officials told NBC News this weekend: there could be a scenario in which Israel’s strikes prompt Tehran to rush toward building a bomb.

    That could start what experts call a “cascade” effect.

    A nuclear-armed Iran would cause great anxiety in Israel — which is estimated to have around 90 nuclear weapons, although it has never publicly admitted this.

    But it would also provoke grave fears in Iran’s historical Sunni Muslim adversaries, such as Saudi Arabia, despite a recent tentative rapprochement.

    “Although Saudi Arabia does not possess weapons of mass destruction, Saudi officials have expressed that they will acquire nuclear weapons if their regional rival, Iran, does,” according to the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C.

    Meanwhile North Korea will likely see Israel’s strikes as a ringing validation.

    They “must be patting themselves on the back right now,” Decker Eveleth, an analyst at the Washington nonprofit CNA Corporation focusing on Pyongyang’s weapons program, posted on X. Israel’s bombardment “is precisely the sort of air campaign” North Korea “anticipated for decades and the reason why they wanted nuclear weapons,” he said.



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