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Ghislaine Maxwell appeals sex trafficking conviction and sentence

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Ghislaine Maxwell appeals sex trafficking conviction and sentence

Maxwell, who a decide mentioned performed ‘instrumental’ function in abuse of ladies by Jeffrey Epstein, received 20-year sentence in June.

Ghislaine Maxwell has appealed her intercourse trafficking conviction and 20-year jail sentence for facilitating the abuse of underage women by disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein.

The enchantment was filed on Thursday, 9 days after her sentencing by US Circuit Decide Alison Nathan in Manhattan.

After a monthlong trial, a US jury in December convicted Maxwell on 5 expenses, together with intercourse trafficking of minors, discovering that she had recruited and groomed 4 women for abuse by Epstein, then her boyfriend, between 1994 and 2004.

Maxwell’s attorneys had argued that she was unfairly scapegoated for Epstein’s crimes, however Nathan mentioned Maxwell performed an “instrumental” function within the abuse and had induced “incalculable” injury to the victims.

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At her sentencing in June, Maxwell known as assembly Epstein “the best remorse of my life”.

However prosecutors had argued that Maxwell made her personal selections and mentioned that she had expressed little regret for her participation in what Nathan known as a “horrific scheme to entice, transport and visitors underage women, some as younger as 14, for sexual abuse by and with Jeffrey Epstein”.

Maxwell, the daughter of the British media powerhouse Robert Maxwell, might be imprisoned into her late 70s.

She has been jailed for 2 years on the Metropolitan Detention Heart in Brooklyn, New York.

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Maxwell’s enchantment was anticipated, and her attorneys have mentioned that her conviction was tainted as a result of the proof didn’t show her guilt past an affordable doubt, prosecuting attorneys took too lengthy to indict her, and one of many jurors failed to say that he had been sexually abused as a baby.

Nathan rejected these arguments in April, and it’s not clear what points with the decision Maxwell and her authorized group plan to convey ahead.

Maxwell’s attorneys even have argued that jail officers didn’t permit Maxwell to adequately put together for the trial and that the rules Nathan used to resolve her sentence ought to have been completely different.

The appeals course of will most certainly final a number of months.

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Lithuania ramps up power grid security ahead of Russia decoupling

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Lithuania ramps up power grid security ahead of Russia decoupling

Lithuania’s government says it will boost security on its power grids with Poland ahead of planned decoupling from Russian energy system next month.

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Lithuania says it’s ramping up security around the country’s electricity link with Poland ahead of their planned disconnection from the Baltic region’s power systems, a Soviet-era grid shared with Russia and Belarus.

Lithuanian Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas says the government has asked police forces to protect the power link shared with Warsaw.

After recent incidents and suspected sabotage in the Baltic Sea, Vilnius believes it’s crucial to ensure security measures around the LitPol Link are intensified.

Last month, the former Lithuanian government decided to increase security of the LitPol’s converter and transformer station near the city of Alytus in southern Lithuania. That mission was outsourced to a private security company, who were contracted to protect the premises until spring. They would then handover the protection duty to the country’s Public Security Service.

Paluckas, who assumed office on 12 December, announced on Wednesday that his cabinet has decided to begin the transition process next week.

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“We evaluate every possible version of sabotage, from cybersecurity to physical actions. Therefore, we deploy the Public Security Service, because it has the most experience in protecting the critical objects. They will replace private security services that have been protecting these objects,” said Paluckas at a press conference.

Lithuania says the Baltic Sea has for some time been “very peculiar” as incidents of undersea infrastructure damage and destruction increased.

“Either it’s intentional or unintentional, the number of these incidents will increase. The Baltic Sea is very peculiar, it’s relatively shallow and cables are not that deep. Therefore, these incidents will repeat, because Russia is using the shadow fleet,” said Giedrimas Jeglinskas, Chairman of Parliament Committee on National Security and Defence.

Vilnius says it is observing “clear and unambiguous attempts by opponents to disrupt” their planned decoupling from the Russian energy systems, according to the office of the Lithuanian prime minister. They offered no further detail as to what those attempts are or who could be behind them.

The government did however provide assurances to the public asserting that there are no scenarios in which the country would be left without power. Officials also added that if disruptions do indeed occur, they will not steer the country away from its long-time goal of disconnecting from the Kremlin’s electricity grid.  

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“There is no scenario in which Lithuania would be left without electricity. We’ve evaluated all scenarios, including operating without any interconnections. Those reserves have been assessed, and scenarios A, B, C, D and so on have been worked out. Perhaps the most important message that we want to communicate is the following: Despite any provocations that could occur, any incidents, the disconnection from BRELL [Belarus, Russia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania] – the Russian electricity grid – is inevitable and will happen in exactly one month,” noted Arnoldas Pikzirnis, Lithuanian Vice Energy Minister.

The Baltic states expect to decouple from the Russian energy grid shared with Belarus on 8 February.

They then plan to take-over the responsibility for running their own national grids which have been seeing years of steady upgrades. The development of those grids was supported by €1.6 billion of European funding.

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Dwight Howard’s ‘Free Palestine’ Tweet Delete Claim False, NBA Says

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Dwight Howard’s ‘Free Palestine’ Tweet Delete Claim False, NBA Says

Dwight Howard isn’t telling the truth, at least according to the NBA.

The eight-time NBA All Star recently said he was told to delete a 2014 tweet supporting Palestine during a call with league commissioner Adam Silver. That claim is “categorically false” and Silver did not contact the former Orlando Magic star, NBA spokesman Mike Bass said in an email on Wednesday. Howard, who was a member of Houston Rockets at the time, said the tweet jeopardized his playing career.

“I tweeted Free Palestine,” Howard said during a recent podcast appearance on The Gauds Show podcast. “Less than 10 minutes (later), I get a call from the commissioner of the NBA, agents, people working with my foundation at the time … [telling me] ‘you have to erase this tweet, you have to take it down’.”

Howard and his media rep didn’t immediately respond for comment when contacted on Wednesday.

The former NBA champion, who last played in the NBA during the 2021-2022 season with the Los Angeles Lakers, took his career overseas in 2022 and most recently played for the Taiwan Mustangs, teaming up with ex-NBA star DeMarcus Cousins and former Lakers teammate Quinn Cook. His deal with the Mustangs also reportedly made him part owner of The Asian Tournament (TNT) team. The 39-year-old, who won the Defensive Player of the Year award three times and has Hall of Fame worthy career numbers, has previously said that he still wants to return to the NBA despite his age.

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“It’s because I went against the grain and said something that people didn’t like,” Howard told Gauds host Ray Daniels. “When you’re in the league, you’re in a place where if (you) say too much, (you) may not get a job anymore. I got to hold my tongue which is so hard to do.”

@DwightHoward/X

Howard’s claim that the NBA tried to suppress his attempt to raise awareness around the plight of Palestinians has drawn wide attention on social media and online with multiple Middle East publications reporting on his statement. Several pro-Palestine activists have chimed in on Howard’s claim while denouncing the league, which separately has been criticized for its complex business relationship with China.

Howard, who was aiming to support the Palestinian community he met in Houston, says the tweet situation which came during the 2014 Gaza war highlights the pressure players regularly face to remain silent on controversial topics. His recent claim involving the NBA a decade later comes amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Hamas-led Palestinian military groups, which has resulted in the death of more than 45,000 Palestinians since the attack on October 7 in southern Israel, according to Reuters.

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Howard, who reignited his beef with Hall of Famer turned sports analyst Shaquille O’Neal over what he views as O’Neal’s lack of respect for him during the same podcast appearance, separately has made off-the-court headlines over the last year. Businessman Calvin Darden Jr. was convicted in October of scamming Howard out of millions of dollars in a false scheme with help of his former agent Charles Briscoe, who pleaded guilty to his role in perpetuating the fraud back in 2023.

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UK lawmakers vote against inquiry into 'rape gang scandal' as Musk keeps up pressure

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UK lawmakers vote against inquiry into 'rape gang scandal' as Musk keeps up pressure

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British lawmakers voted against launching a national inquiry into the U.K. grooming gang scandal on Wednesday, after objections to the way the vote was being put forward – and amid international scrutiny of the crisis spearheaded by Elon Musk.

The House of Commons voted on an amendment to hold a statutory inquiry into the scandal – where it was revealed that men of predominantly Pakistani heritage had sexually abused girls for years in towns in northern England.

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The measure was an amendment to a children’s well-being and schools bill backed by the Labour government. U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned that a vote in favor of the amendment would kill the overall bill to which it was attached. The amendment was voted down by 364 votes to 111 in the Labour-controlled chamber, Sky News reported.

UK PM STARMER HITS BACK AGAINST MUSK ATTACKS ON CHILD GROOMING GANGS

“What we need now is action. What can’t be tolerated is the idea that this afternoon members opposite will vote down a bill which protects children,” Starmer said ahead of the vote, calling it a “wrecking amendment.”

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer addresses members at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, England, on Tuesday. (AP)

Conservative Party Leader Kemi Badenoch pushed back.

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“Be a leader, not a lawyer,” she told him, as she said that a new inquiry should investigate the connected issues between the towns. 

“The reason why a national inquiry is important is because this issue is systemic,” she said, involving “local and national officials, the police, prosecutors and politicians.”

“These interlinked issues cannot be covered by local inquiries alone,” she said.

Previous reports had found evidence of “appalling” abuse, with more than 1,400 girls abused between 1997 and 2013 in Rotherham alone. Reports also found that authorities had been scared of fueling racism in their handling of the crimes given the ethnic makeup of the perpetrators. The scandal tapped into brewing concerns about multiculturalism and mass immigration.

The issue came back to the spotlight recently after local officials in Oldham called on the government to launch a national inquiry into the town’s handling of the crisis. A 2022 report had found that children had been failed by officials, but had found no cover-up despite concerns that it would be capitalized on by right-wing activists.

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ELON MUSK DEMANDS UK ACT ON GROOMING GANG SCANDAL AMID GROWING CALLS FOR PROBE

The U.K. government rejected the request, saying that any inquiry should be organized locally. That, in turn, drew calls from Badenoch and Elon Musk for a national inquiry.

Parliament in London

The Palace of Westminster, the Houses of Parliament, in the heart of London.

“Across the country, thousands of girls were tortured and sexually abused at the hands of men who treated them as things to be used and disposed of, destroying many lives forever. The prime minister has mentioned previous inquiries. He is right, there has been an inquiry into child sexual abuse. But it wasn’t about the rape gang scandal,” Badenoch said.

Musk, who has been hammering away at the issue on X – even calling for the prosecution of top U.K. government officials, including Starmer – appealed again to the British public before the vote.

Elon Musk and Donald Trump

President-elect Trump and Elon Musk attend a SpaceX Starship launch on Nov. 19, 2024, in Brownsville, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

“Please call your member of parliament and tell them that the hundreds of thousands of little girls in Britain who were, and are still are, being systematically, horrifically gang-raped deserve some justice in this world,” Musk said on X on Wednesday.

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“This is vitally important, or it will just keep happening,” he said.

BRITAIN HIT BY ANOTHER ASIAN GROOMING GANG SCANDAL AS REPORT EXPOSES CHILD SEX ABUSE IN MANCHESTER

Starmer had previously slammed “lies and misinformation” without naming Musk directly, and had accused U.K. politicians of jumping on a “bandwagon of the far-right.”

On Wednesday, he again accused Badenoch of jumping on a bandwagon and urged lawmakers to make sure the broader bill passed.

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“One of the provisions in the bill is to protect children vulnerable today who are out of school to prevent abuses ever taking those children out of school. I implore members opposite to defy the misleading leadership of the Leader of the Opposition and vote for a really important bill.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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