- Sen. Katie Britt acknowledges anecdote used to criticize Biden’s border policies didn’t happen during his presidency CNN
- Sex trafficking victim says Sen. Katie Britt telling her story during SOTU rebuttal is ‘not fair’ CNN
- GOP Rep Says His Party Threw Katie Britt ‘to the Wolves’ The Daily Beast
- Election Updates: Trump mocks and attacks Biden as the two ended their frenzied week in Georgia, kicking off the general election campaign. The New York Times
- Transcript of the Republican response to the State of the Union address The Associated Press
Tag Archives: Acknowledges
EU Foreign Affairs chief acknowledges that war between Israel and Hamas is already affecting support for Ukraine – Yahoo News
- EU Foreign Affairs chief acknowledges that war between Israel and Hamas is already affecting support for Ukraine Yahoo News
- Ukraine’s Zelensky nixes visit to Israel today in wake of leak The Times of Israel
- How the Israel-Hamas war benefits Putin, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine Business Insider
- Yermak claps back at Italy’s Meloni for comments to Russian pranksters – ‘Remember your history’ Yahoo News
- Russia tests missile and ramps up Ukraine shelling as Zelenskyy faces ‘stalemate’ claims | The World ABC News (Australia)
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Jennifer Coolidge Acknowledges WGA Strike In 2023 MTV Movie & TV Awards Acceptance Speech: “Almost All Great Comedy Starts With Great Writers” – Deadline
- Jennifer Coolidge Acknowledges WGA Strike In 2023 MTV Movie & TV Awards Acceptance Speech: “Almost All Great Comedy Starts With Great Writers” Deadline
- Jennifer Coolidge Supports WGA Strike While Accepting 2023 MTV Awards’ Comedic Genius Award PEOPLE
- Jennifer Coolidge shows support for writers’ strike in MTV Movie & TV Awards acceptance speech CNN
- Jennifer Coolidge receives Comedic Genius Award at 2023 #MTVAwards #Shorts MTV
- Jennifer Coolidge Defends WGA Strike While Accepting Comedic Genius Honor at MTV Movie & TV Awards Hollywood Reporter
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Chicago Prosecutor Drops R. Kelly Sex-Abuse Charges, Acknowledges the Decision ‘May Be Disappointing’ to Accusers
Disgraced musician R. Kelly and his legal team have been fighting for his freedom since 2019 when he was arrested on federal sex abuse charges. His latest case involving some charges was a legal victory for Kelly and his representatives, as the prosecutors in the case decided to drop the charges they were bringing against the “I Believe I Can Fly” singer.
R. Kelly received a 30-year sentence in 2022
R. Kelly’s charges were brought in the aftermath of Lifetime premiering its docuseries Surviving R. Kelly, which chronicled Kelly’s years of abuse in the words of some of the survivors themselves. After Surviving R. Kelly, Kelly was charged in Chicago with 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse in February 2019, followed by another 11 charges in May. (In March 2019, he gave his now-infamous interview with Gayle King where he asserted his innocence, exclaiming, “I’m fighting for my f***ing life.”) In July 2019, a Chicago grand jury indicted him on 13 counts, including child pornography, enticement of a minor, and obstruction of justice.
In 2021, a New York jury found Kelly guilty on charges including sexual exploitation of a child, racketeering, bribery, and sex trafficking. The jury found that the prosecutors proved Kelly was at the head of a criminal conspiracy to recruit and coerce girls, boys, and women into sex. In 2022, he received a sentence of 30 years in prison.
R. Kelly’s abuse charges in Chicago were dropped
Kelly has continued to face charges after his sentencing in New York, including a case in Chicago involving the sexual abuse of four people, three of whom were minors. But in January 2023, the prosecutorial team decided to drop the charges.
According to the Associated Press, Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx announced that she would ask a judge to dismiss the indictments Kelly was facing. Foxx, who back in 2019 had asked women and girls with stories about Kelly to come forward so she could bring charges against him, acknowledged that her decision “may be disappointing” to his accusers who told their stories.
“Mr. Kelly is potentially looking at the possibility of never walking out of prison again for the crimes that he’s committed,” the prosecutor said, referring to Kelly’s federal convictions. “While today’s cases are no longer being pursued, we believe justice has been served.”
Reactions to the case being dropped
Kelly’s attorney Jennifer Bonjean was “pleased” with the prosecution’s decision to drop the charges and leave her client alone. “He only has one life to give. So I don’t know how many sentences upon sentences would satisfy people,” she said.
Meanwhile, Lanita Carter, who claimed she was sexually assaulted by R. Kelly in 2003, said she was “extremely disappointed” with the prosecutor’s decision.”I have spent nearly 20 years hoping that my abuser would be brought to justice for what he did to me. With today’s announcement, all hope of justice for my case is gone,” she said, adding that she trusted Foxx and her office with her story and the hope that she would bring him to justice. “Justice has been denied for me,” she said.
In December 2022, Kelly released an album from prison titled I Admit It.
Putin acknowledges Russia’s war in Ukraine could be a long one
LONDON/KYIV, Dec 8 (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has acknowledged that his army could be fighting in Ukraine for a long time, but said for now there will be no second call-up of soldiers.
Putin has rarely spoken about the duration of a war that he began more than nine months ago but told loyalists in a televised meeting on Wednesday it could go on for some time yet.
“This can be a long process,” he said.
Russia has been forced into a series of significant retreats in the face of Ukrainian counter-offensives, waged with increasing stocks of Western weaponry, in the east and south since July.
Russia launched what it calls its “special military operation” in February, saying Ukraine’s deepening ties with the West posed a security threat. Ukraine and its allies say the invasion amounts to an imperialist land grab.
Putin, in his remarks, said the risk of a nuclear war was growing but Russia would not recklessly threaten to use such weapons.
“We haven’t gone mad, we realise what nuclear weapons are,” Putin said. “We have these means in more advanced and modern form than any other nuclear country … But we aren’t about to run around the world brandishing this weapon like a razor.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in an interview published on Thursday that the risk of Putin using nuclear weapons had decreased in response to international pressure.
‘NO SENSE’
About 150,000 of the 300,000 reservists called up in September and October had been deployed in Ukraine, 77,000 in combat units, Putin said. The remaining 150,000 were still at training centres.
“Under these conditions, talk about any additional mobilisation measures simply makes no sense,” Putin said.
Russia’s economy has overcome the short-term slump caused by the partial mobilisation order, but the disinflationary impact it had in reducing consumer demand has practically disappeared, the central bank said on Wednesday.
Despite recent retreats on the battlefield, including the loss of Kherson, the one Ukrainian provincial capital Russia captured, Putin has said he has no regrets about launching a war that has become Europe’s most devastating since World War Two.
[1/3] Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with members of the Security Council via a video link in Moscow, Russia December 6, 2022. Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel/Pool via REUTERS
He said Russia had achieved a “significant result” with the acquisition of “new territories” – a reference to the annexation of four partly occupied regions in September that Ukraine and most members of the United Nations condemned as illegal.
Russian shelling killed 10 people and wounded many in the town of Kurakhove in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
“These were peaceful people, ordinary people,” said Zelenskiy, who was on Wednesday named Time magazine’s 2022 “Person of the Year” for his leadership.
Fighting was fierce around the nearby town of Bakhmut.
“The enemy has become very active recently, it is on the offensive, their aviation is more active, there are continuous air intelligence missions,” said a Ukrainian unit commander using the nom de guerre Bandera.
“All day yesterday, our positions were being shelled, their unmanned aerial vehicles were in the air all day.”
‘APOCALYPSE’
Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said Russia had resumed using Iranian-made drones, with Ukrainian forces downing 14 of them in 24 hours as they attacked settlements in west and central Ukraine.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the United Nations was examining “available information” about accusations Iran supplied Russia with drones as he faces Western pressure to send experts to Ukraine to inspect downed drones.
Iran denies supplying the drones to Russia, which has denied its forces use Iranian drones to attack Ukraine.
Russian forces have fired more than 1,000 rockets and missiles at Ukraine’s power grid, which is still working despite taking major damage, Interfax Ukraine news agency reported on Wednesday, citing the chief executive of the Ukrenergo grid operator.
Eight recent waves of Russian air strikes on critical infrastructure have seriously damaged the grid and led to emergency and planned outages across the country, including in the capital Kyiv, a city of three million.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko warned of an “apocalypse” scenario without power, running water or heat this winter if Russian air strikes on infrastructure continue. He said there was no need for residents to evacuate now, though they should be ready to do so.
Kyiv could be left without central heating at a time when temperatures can fall as low as -15 Celsius (5 Fahrenheit), Klitschko said in an interview with Reuters.
Reporting by Reuters bureaux; writing by Grant McCool; Editing by Cynthia Osterman, Robert Birsel
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
ISIS acknowledges the death of its leader, announces his successor
CNN
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ISIS acknowledged the death of its leader on Wednesday and confirmed his successor.
The group’s media affiliate al-Furqan published an audio message by an ISIS spokesman announcing the death of its leader who was appointed in March.
“I announce and mourn for the Islamic state and the fighters of almighty Islamic state, (the absence) of the Amir of believers and the Calipha of the Muslims Abu al-Hasan al-Hashmi al- Qurayshi … he was killed while struggling against the enemies’ of God,” spokesman Abu Omar al-Muhajer said in the message released Wednesday.
ISIS didn’t make it clear who killed the group commander or where.
The group announced his successor, who goes by Abu al-Husain al-Husaini al-Quraishi. Little is known about him, but the group described him as an “old fighter” without mentioning any further details.
The deceased leader was appointed by ISIS in March 2022 after US President Joe Biden announced the death of Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi in a military operation in the northwest of Syria.
This is a breaking story, more to follow.
Iran acknowledges drone shipments to Russia before Ukraine war
Nov 5 (Reuters) – Iran acknowledged for the first time on Saturday that it had supplied Moscow with drones but said they were sent before the war in Ukraine, where Russia has used drones to target power stations and civilian infrastructure.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said a “small number” of drones had been supplied to Russia a few months before Moscow’s forces invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.
In Iran’s most detailed response to date on the drones, Amirabdollahian denied Tehran was continuing to supply drones to Moscow.
“This fuss made by some Western countries that Iran has provided missiles and drones to Russia to help the war in Ukraine – the missile part is completely wrong,” the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.
“The drone part is true and we provided Russia a small number of drones months before the Ukraine war,” he said.
In recent weeks Ukraine has reported a surge in drone attacks on civilian infrastructure, notably targeting power stations and dams, using Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones. Russia denies its forces have used Iranian drones to attack Ukraine.
Last month, two senior Iranian officials and two Iranian diplomats told Reuters that Iran had promised to provide Russia with surface-to-surface missiles, in addition to more drones.
The official IRNA news agency quoted Amirabdollahian as saying Tehran and Kyiv had agreed to discuss allegations about the use of Iranian drones in Ukraine two weeks ago but the Ukrainians did not show up at the agreed meeting.
“We agreed with the foreign minister of Ukraine to provide us with documents they have that Russia used Iranian drones in Ukraine,” Amirabdollahian said, but the Ukrainian delegation pulled out of the planned meeting at the last minute.
In a response on Facebook, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko said Amirabdollahian was spreading “insinuations about an alleged refusal by the Ukrainian side” and added that “Ukraine is taught to trust only facts”.
The Iranian foreign minister repeated that Tehran would “not remain indifferent” if it were proven that Russia had used Iranian drones in the war against Ukraine.
The European Union last month agreed new sanctions on Iran over its drone deliveries to Russia, and Britain imposed sanctions on three Iranian military figures and a defence manufacturer for supplying Russia with drones to attack civilian and infrastructure targets in Ukraine.
Reporting by Gulf newsroom; Additional reporting by Dan Peleschuk; Editing by Jon Boyle
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Herschel Walker acknowledges check to woman, denies it was for abortion
Walker said it was his signature on the check but rejected the allegation from the woman, who is the mother of one of Walker’s children, that it was to pay for an abortion.
“It’s a lie,” said Walker, who has opposed abortion in all cases as a Senate candidate. “Prove that I did that. Just to show me things like that does nothing for me.”
He also said he has “no idea what that could be for” when presented with a copy of the check.
Asked why voters should trust him, Walker said, “I’ve been very transparent about everything I’ve done.”
The woman said that Walker paid for her to have an abortion in 2009 and that he ended a relationship with her in 2011 after she refused to have the procedure again. The woman has told The Washington Post that reports in the Daily Beast, which first reported the story, and the New York Times accurately described her experiences. She spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect her privacy and that of her child, who is now 10.
Walker has denied that he paid for an abortion or knew about one at the time. The woman and one of Walker’s adult children by a different woman have accused him of failing to be present as a father.
Walker has campaigned as an opponent of abortion in all cases, including rape, incest and to protect the life of the mother. He also has endorsed a proposal by Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) for a federal ban on abortion at 15 weeks.
But Walker has shifted his position in recent days while insisting that he hasn’t changed his views.
During his debate with Sen. Raphael G. Warnock (D-Ga.) on Friday night, Walker said he supported a Georgia abortion ban with exceptions. But days later, he denied that he was reversing his “no exception in my mind” stance.
“I will always support life, but I also support what the people’s voice is,” Walker said. “The people’s voice is the Georgia heartbeat bill, which has exceptions in it. Well, I’m a senator for the people. And I said, one of the problems we have [is that] senators in Washington forgot about the people who put them there.”
In the NBC interview, which was conducted over the weekend, Walker also defended pulling out a sheriff’s badge during a debate Friday, calling the badge “legit.”
“This is from my hometown. This is from Johnson County from the sheriff from Johnson County, which is a legit badge,” Walker said in the NBC interview.
Walker displayed the badge — which apparently is honorary in nature — during Friday’s debate after Warnock said that Walker had “pretended to be a police officer,” a reference to claims by Walker about working with the FBI and a local police department.
Rather than verbally responding, Walker pulled out the badge, drawing a rebuke from a moderator for using a prop, which was not allowed under debate rules.
“Everyone can make fun, but this badge gives me the right … if anything happened in this county, I have the right to work with the police in getting things done,” Walker said in the NBC interview.
“I never embellish,” Walker added. “I’ve never done it. I work in law enforcement.”
Chicago Bears’ Justin Fields acknowledges ‘terrible’ performance after posting career-worst 27.7 passer rating in win
CHICAGO — The Chicago Bears escaped Week 3 with a 23-20 win over the Houston Texans on Sunday, thanks in large part to a late interception by linebacker Roquan Smith that set up Cairo Santos’ game-winning 30-yard field goal as time expired.
But quarterback Justin Fields continued to struggle.
After tallying 48 net passing yards in a loss at Green Bay in Week 2, he completed just 8 of 17 passes for 106 yards and two interceptions against Houston. He also fumbled twice and tallied a 27.7 passer rating, the lowest of his NFL career.
Following the game, Fields offered a harsh assessment of his performance.
“Straight up, I just played — I don’t want to say the A-word, but I played like trash,” Fields said. “Really just got to be better.”
Fields said he was most upset by his two interceptions and planned to begin the process of correcting his mistakes immediately.
“I’m going to go see the film tonight. I played terrible,” he said. “See what I could have done better and get better.”
Fields’ first interception came with 2:54 remaining in the first quarter when he tried to connect with Cole Kmet on a seam route and missed the tight end, whom he said was wide open. The second interception happened in the third quarter and was the byproduct of what Fields described as a poor decision coupled with a poor throw to wide receiver Darnell Mooney with three defenders around him.
“I got pressure, saw Cover 2, (the middle linebacker) running with Darnell,” Fields said. “When I saw that, I got hit while I was throwing, so next time I’ve got to take the check-down. So that’s one thing that I’m going to work on this week: getting pressure — boom — check down.”
The Bears attempted only six passes in the second half and leaned heavily on their run game while Fields struggled. Khalil Herbert, who finished with 20 carries for 157 yards and two touchdowns in place of an injured David Montgomery, shouldered the load for a run game that eclipsed 281 yards.
Chicago’s offense sought more balance after a paltry outing against the Packers and struggled to move the ball effectively with its passing game.
Bears coach Matt Eberflus addressed Fields’ shortcomings postgame and how the team can continue to instill confidence in his its young quarterback.
“I think when you are working with a young quarterback in a new offense, I think the people around him have to be solid,” Eberflus said. “So that’s important for us, meaning that the protection has to be good, the run game has to be good, the defense has to be really good and special teams, we’ve got to be awesome.
“What you do is you support that quarterback while he’s growing. And while he’s going through this, and there’s going to be good and there’s going to be things that he has to improve on, but that’s on the whole football team. The whole football team is like that.”
Despite Fields’ struggles, the Bears still were able to pull off a win to improve to 2-1. Fields pointed to the way he fought in Week 3 as a positive and emphasized his desire to win by any means necessary.
“After two picks, the score is 20-20,” Fields said. “The picks are not going to do anything for me now. It’s like at that point, I’m going to do whatever I can to help us win the game. Of course, I want to play better but — I can’t be out here sulking, this and that. Got to win the game.”
Columbia University acknowledges submitting inaccurate data for consideration in college rankings
CNN Business
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Columbia University said that it relied on “outdated and/or incorrect methodologies” in submitting data to U.S. News & World Report for consideration in the publication’s 2021 college rankings, according to a statement released by the university Friday.
“The Columbia undergraduate experience is and always has been centered around small classes taught by highly accomplished faculty. That fact is unchanged. But anything less than complete accuracy in the data that we report – regardless of the size or the reason – is inconsistent with the standards of excellence to which Columbia holds itself,” the statement reads. “We deeply regret the deficiencies in our prior reporting and are committed to doing better.”
In February, Columbia Mathematics Professor Michael Thaddeus questioned the Ivy League school’s rise in rankings from 18th place, on its debut in 1988, to 2nd place in 2021. In a statement posted on Columbia University’s Department of Mathematics’ website, Thaddeus noted that “few other top-tier universities have also improved their standings, but none has matched Columbia’s extraordinary rise.”
Thaddeus pointed to data submitted by the university to U.S. News & World Report in questioning Columbia’s seemingly meteoric rise in rankings.
“Can we be sure that the data accurately reflect the reality of life within the university?” Thaddeus rhetorically asked. “Regrettably, the answer is no.”
The math professor then tabulated data on “undergraduate class size, percentage of faculty with terminal degrees, percentage of faculty who are full-time, and student-faculty ratio” submitted by Columbia University to U.S. News & World Report and compares the data “with figures computed by other means, drawing on information made public by Columbia elsewhere.”
In his findings, Thaddeus said there were “discrepancies sometimes quite large” which seemed to always work in Columbia’s favor.
In response to Thaddeus’ findings, Columbia University Provost Mary Boyce said in a June statement that the university would “refrain from submitting data to U.S. News and World Report” for consideration in the publication’s 2022 undergraduate college rankings.
“On two of the metrics questioned by our faculty member [Thaddeus], class size and faculty with terminal degrees, we determined we had previously relied on outdated and/or incorrect methodologies. We have changed those methodologies for current and future data submissions, as reflected in the newly posted Common Data Sets,” Boyce noted in June.
Boyce said starting Fall 2022, the university would start participating in the Common Data Set (CDS) Initiative, “a collaborative effort among data providers in the higher education community and publishers” to provide accurate information to students seeking information on institutions of higher education, according to the initiative’s website.
The CDS Initiative, represented by U.S. News & World Report, the College Board and educational services company Peterson’s, was launched in 1997 to provide institutions of higher education with “a set of standards and definitions of data items rather than a survey instrument or set of data represented in a database.”
U.S. News Chief Data Strategist Robert Morse told CNN Monday that schools report most of the information for their Best Colleges rankings directly to U.S. News.
“Each year, U.S. News sends an extensive questionnaire to all accredited four-year colleges and universities,” he explained. “U.S. News, a founding member of the Common Data Set initiative, incorporates questions from the CDS and proprietary questions on this survey. U.S. News relies on schools to accurately report their data.”
Coupled with the commitment of participating in the CDS Initiative, Boyce also announced the launch of a new webpage providing detailed context and analysis of the Columbia University undergraduate experience.
In July, U.S. News & World Report unranked Columbia University “from a number of rankings in the 2022 edition of Best Colleges (first published September 2021)” saying that the university “failed to respond to multiple U.S. News requests that the university substantiate certain data it previously submitted,” according to a blog post by U.S. News. It is unclear whether Thaddeus’ publication of his investigation into the data that Columbia presented to U.S. News & World Report may have contributed to the university being unranked.
In Friday’s statement, Boyce said the university posted two Common Data Sets, one for the Columbia College and Columbia Engineering, and one for Columbia General Studies.
“The information included in the two Common Data Sets reflects the University’s work in recent months to review our data collection processes, following questions raised by a faculty member regarding the accuracy of certain data the University submitted to U.S. News and World Report in 2021 for its ranking of undergraduate universities,” Boyce said.
“U.S. News publishes annual rankings for more than 11,500 schools and hundreds of individual programs as part of the Best Colleges, Best Graduate Schools, Best Online Programs, Best Global Universities and Best High Schools rankings,” Morse said in a statement Monday.
“To produce the rankings, U.S. News collects tens of thousands of data points from the schools themselves and other sources, including the U.S. Department of Education, state and local governments and higher education associations. A very small proportion of the total number of schools that are ranked – typically less than 0.1% each year – inform U.S. News that they have misreported data that were used to calculate their school’s ranking.”
U.S. News & World Report released a breakdown of how their publication calculated the 2022-2023 Best Colleges Rankings in an article Monday.