Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime Alerts (b)
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – A North Carolina man was sentenced for attempted enticement of a minor, announced U.S. Attorney Prim F. Escalona and Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge Carlton L. Peeples.
U.S. District Court Judge Anna M. Manasco sentenced Jonathan Allen Norris, 45, of Carolina Beach, North Carolina, to 120 months in prison, followed by a life term of supervised release. In October 2024, Norris pleaded guilty to attempted coercion and enticement of a minor. This conviction will require Norris to register as a sex offender in accordance with the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.
According to the plea agreement, in December 2022, an undercover law enforcement officer posing as a 15-year-old girl responded to an ad posted by Norris on a social media application. On January 6, 2023, Norris arrived in Birmingham from New Mexico to engage in a sexual act with a minor.
If you suspect or become aware of possible sexual exploitation of a child, please contact law enforcement. To alert the FBI Birmingham Office, call 205-326-6166. Reports can also be filed with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) or online at www.cybertipline.org.
The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched by the Department of Justice in May 2006 to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
The FBI investigated the case along with the Homewood Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel S. McBrayer prosecuted the case.
Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI Crime News (b)
On February 24, 2025, the FBI Safe Streets Violent Crime Task Force, with assistance from the Utah County Major Crimes Task Force and the Orem Police Department, arrested 20-year-old Jose Antonio Cedeno-Ponce, wanted in connection with a homicide that occurred on January 10, 2025, in King County, Washington. Law enforcement encountered Cedeno-Ponce at a business in Utah County and took him into custody without incident.
“Task forces allow law enforcement to seamlessly work together with the shared goal of keeping our communities safe,” said Special Agent in Charge Mehtab Syed of the Salt Lake City FBI. “It’s important that the defendant face the serious charges brought against him.”
Cedeno-Ponce has been charged in the Superior Court of Washington for King County with Murder in the Second Degree. According to the court documents, Cedeno-Ponce drove to a location in Tukwila to engage in a fight with high schoolers and armed himself with a knife before anyone approached him. During the fight, he fatally struck the victim. Cedeno-Ponce subsequently left the state and abandoned his vehicle in Idaho.
Cedeno-Ponce is currently being held at the Utah County Jail where he will await extradition to Washington state. The public should be reminded that the above are merely allegations and that all persons are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
The FBI Safe Streets Task Force is made up of agents and law enforcement from Salt Lake City, West Valley City, and Springville Police Departments. The Task Force investigates violent crime and gang violence in the greater Salt Lake Metro area.
Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime News
CAPE GIRARDEAU – U.S. District Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr. on Tuesday sentenced a registered sex offender caught with child sexual abuse material to 130 months in prison.
Thomas O. Stroud Jr., 43, of Wappapello, in Wayne County, Missouri, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Cape Girardeau in November to possession of child pornography.
According to court documents, Stroud has a prior federal conviction for possessing child pornography in 2009. Following his release from federal prison, Stroud was required to register as a sex offender. He was also placed on a 40-year term of supervised release. In March 2024, while Stroud was serving his term of supervised release, Stroud’s probation officer discovered that he had been using a cell phone to communicate with someone in Indiana. During the communications, Stroud obtained several images of child pornography.
After serving his 130-month sentence, Stroud will once again be placed on supervised release.
This case was investigated by the U.S. Probation Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jack Koester prosecuted the case.
Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime News
ST. LOUIS – A former St. Louis County, Missouri middle school teacher on Wednesday admitted possessing hundreds of images and videos containing child sexual abuse material.
Scott R. Ellis, 38, pleaded guilty to one felony count of possession of child pornography. Ellis admitted possessing 72 images containing child abuse material on his cell phone and about 700 videos and more than 900 images in his Mega cloud storage account.
The investigation began with two cyber tipline reports to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about child pornography in Ellis’ Google account.
Ellis is scheduled to be sentenced on June 3. The charge carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.
The FBI and the St. Louis County Police Department Bureau of Special Investigations investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jillian Anderson is prosecuting the case.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.
TYLER, Texas – A Montana man was found guilty of a cryptocurrency money laundering conspiracy, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Abe McGlothin, Jr.
Randall V. Rule, 73, formerly of Kalispell, Montana, was found guilty by a jury on all counts following a three-day trial before U.S. District Judge Jeremy D. Kernodle on February 26, 2025.
“We will not stand by as our citizens are victimized by financial crimes and their life savings are stolen,” said Acting U.S. Attorney McGlothin. “We will aggressively pursue cases against scammers and against those who facilitate their crimes by laundering the criminal proceeds.”
“The U.S. Secret Service extends our appreciation to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Texas, for their efforts and partnership in this case,” said Resident Agent in Charge Brad Schley. “This case culminates the work of a great team of investigators and prosecutors that works tirelessly to protect the financial infrastructure of the United States.”
On November 16, 2022, Rule and Gregory C. Nysewander, formerly of Irmo, South Carolina, were named in an indictment returned by a federal grand jury, charging them with money laundering conspiracy, money laundering, and a conspiracy to violate the Bank Secrecy Act.
According to the indictment, Rule and Nysewander were alleged to have conspired with others to launder the proceeds of wire fraud and mail fraud schemes through cryptocurrency. The defendants converted funds from romance scams, business email compromises, real estate scams, and other fraudulent schemes into cryptocurrency and sent the cryptocurrency to accounts controlled by foreign and domestic co-conspirators. The defendants and their co-conspirators made false representations and concealed material facts, in order to avoid discovery of the fraudulent nature of deposits, wires, and transfers, such as providing instructions to co-conspirators and victims to label wire transfers as “loan repayments” and “advertising.” The defendants also made false representations and concealed material facts when completing account opening documents and when communicating with financial institutions and cryptocurrency exchanges. During the course of the conspiracy, Rule, Nysewander, and their co-conspirators laundered more than $2.4 million. Rule and Nysewander were also charged with willfully violating the money services business requirements of the Bank Secrecy Act.
At sentencing, Rule faces up to 20 years in federal prison on each money laundering charge and up to 5 years in federal prison on the conspiracy to violate the Bank Secrecy Act charge. The maximum statutory sentence prescribed by Congress is provided here for information purposes, as the sentencing will be determined by the court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the U.S. Probation Office.
This effort is part of Operation Crypto Runner, an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF.
This case was investigated by the U.S. Secret Service and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys D. Ryan Locker, Dustin Farahnak, and Nathaniel C. Kummerfeld.
Source: The White House
ADDRESSING THE WEAPONIZATION OF GOVERNMENT: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed a memorandum to suspend security clearances for Covington & Burling LLP employees involved in the weaponization of government, pending a review of their roles and responsibility in the weaponization of the judicial process. This action also initiates a comprehensive review of all Federal contracts with the firm to ensure alignment with the interests of the American people.
Security clearances held by Peter Koski and potential other members of Covington & Burling LLP who assisted former Special Counsel Jack Smith will be suspended, pending a review of their roles and responsibility in the weaponization of the judicial process.
The Federal Government will review and terminate engagement of Covington & Burling LLP by the United States to the maximum extent permitted by law.
All contracts with Covington & Burling LLP will undergo a detailed evaluation to ensure agency funding decisions align with American citizens’ interests and the priorities of this Administration, as detailed in executive directives.
PRIORITIZING CITIZENS OVER PARTISAN GAMES: President Trump remains steadfast in his commitment to restoring trust in government by ensuring that public resources and privileges are not exploited for political gain.
Individuals who hold government-issued security clearances bear a responsibility to uphold impartiality and the national interest. These privileges should not be leveraged to interfere in U.S. elections or advance partisan objectives.
Covington & Burling LLP provided former Special Counsel Jack Smith with $140,000 in free legal services prior to his resignation from the Department of Justice.
Jack Smith and his staff spent more than $50 million in taxpayer dollars to target President Trump—an egregious misuse of judicial authority for political ends and part of the prior administration’s unprecedented weaponization of prosecutorial power to upend the democratic process.
A RETURN TO ACCOUNTABILITY: President Trump is sending a clear message that the Federal Government will no longer tolerate the abuse of power by partisan actors who exploit their positions for political gain.
President Trump is refocusing government operations to its core mission – serving the citizens of the United States.
President Trump revoked security clearances held by dozens of intelligence officials who falsely claimed in a 2020 letter, during the height of the U.S. presidential election season, that Hunter Biden’s laptop was tantamount to Russian disinformation.
President Trump signed an Executive Order to end the weaponization of the Federal Government on his first day in office after promising to “end forever the weaponization of government and the abuse of law enforcement against political opponents.”
Detectives who are investigating a fatal collision at 21:19hrs on Monday, 24 February on Bessborough Road in Harrow have named the victim.
Chithra Vanmeeganathan, who was 46 years old and from Wembley, sadly died following a collision involving a car, a bus and pedestrians.
Officers, the London Ambulance Service and London’s Air Ambulance all attended. Despite the best efforts of emergency services, Chithra sadly died at the scene.
Her next of kin has been informed and is receiving support from officers.
Detective Sergeant Paul Jackson, from the Roads and Transport Policing Command, said: “Our thoughts remain with Chithra’s family at this difficult time.
“The investigation into this tragic incident is ongoing, and we are continuing to appeal for anyone with footage of the incident, including from a doorbell camera or dashcam, or anyone who witnessed the collision to come forward.”
Two other pedestrians, a 12-year-old boy and a woman in her 30s, were taken to hospital for treatment – their conditions are not life changing.
The driver of the car stopped at scene and he was arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving. They have since been released on bail.
Officers are appealing for witnesses or anyone with footage of this incident, including drivers with dashcam footage, to contact police on 101 or ‘X’ @MetCC quoting CAD 7193/24Feb.
You can also provide information anonymously to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
Louisville, KY – On February 19, 2025, a federal grand jury in Louisville charged 13 Kentucky residents in six indictments involving methamphetamine and firearms offenses.
U.S. Attorney Michael A. Bennett of the Western District of Kentucky, Acting Special Agent in Charge A.J. Gibes of the ATF Louisville Field Division, Special Agent in Charge Jim Scott of the DEA Louisville Field Division, Special Agent in Charge Rana Saoud of Homeland Security Investigations Nashville, Special Agent in Charge Karen Wingerd of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, Cincinnati Field Office, Commissioner Phillip Burnett, Jr. of the Kentucky State Police, and Chief Paul Humphrey of the Louisville Metro Police Department made the announcement.
According to the first indictment, Johnathan Hankins, 34, and Tremell Smith, 33, both of Louisville, are each charged with two counts of possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine between March 11, 2024, and May 22, 2024.
According to the second indictment, Shawn Beason, 35, of Louisville, and Justin Cummins, 28, and William Willis, 54, both of Mount Vernon, Kentucky, are charged with one count of possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine on April 5, 2024.
According to the third indictment, Ejai Shanklin, 22, of Louisville, is charged with three counts of possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine and one count of possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime between April 6, 2024, and June 6, 2024. Daryl Horton, 22, of Louisville, is charged with one count of possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine on May 20, 2024.
According to the fourth indictment, Jeffrey Bradley, 33, Britney Calloway, 39, and Curtis Wright, 66, all of Louisville, and Jeffrey Holder, 49, of Ferguson, Kentucky, are charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. Beginning as early as June 26, 2024, and continuing through August 7, 2024, the defendants conspired to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine.
Bradley is also charged with three counts of possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine. Calloway and Wright are also each charged with one count of possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine. Holder is also charged with one count of possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine, one count of possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, and one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. On June 26, 2024, Holder possessed an Inter Ordnance, Hellcat, .38 caliber handgun, an Imperial Metal Products, Model IMP .22 caliber revolver, and a Remington Arms Company, Model 1100, 12-gauge shotgun. Holder was prohibited from possessing a firearm because he had been convicted of the following felony offenses.
On March 19, 2008, in Powell Circuit Court, Holder was convicted of flagrant nonsupport.
On March 19, 2008, in Powell Circuit Court, Holder was convicted of trafficking in a controlled substance in the first degree.
On September 8, 2014, in Powell Circuit Court, Holder was convicted of theft by unlawful taking.
On September 8, 2014, in Powell Circuit Court, Holder was convicted of theft by unlawful taking.
On December 17, 2014, in Powell Circuit Court, Holder was convicted of trafficking in a controlled substance in the first degree (two counts).
On May 20, 2016, in Powell Circuit Court, Holder was convicted of flagrant nonsupport.
On March 29, 2017, in Pulaski Circuit Court, Holder was convicted of flagrant nonsupport and bail jumping in the first degree.
On November 27, 2019, in Pulaski Circuit Court, Holder was convicted of fleeing or evading police in the first degree, wanton endangerment in the first degree, trafficking in a controlled substance in the first degree, and possession of a controlled substance in the first degree.
On January 7, 2021, in Pulaski Circuit Court, Holder was convicted of fleeing or evading police in the first degree (two counts) and wanton endangerment in the first degree.
According to the fifth indictment, Honesty Davis, 35, of Louisville, is charged with one count of possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine on August 26, 2024.
According to the sixth indictment, Jaquan Tooley, 28, of Louisville, is charged with one count of possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine on September 13, 2024.
Eight of the 13 defendants have been arrested and made their initial court appearances this week before a U.S. Magistrate Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. One defendant will make his initial appearance on March 3, 2024. Ejai Shanklin, Daryl Horton, Jeffrey Holder, and William Willis are in state custody and will make initial appearances before a U.S. Magistrate Judge at a later date.
If convicted, the defendants each face minimum sentences ranging from 10 to 25 years, and all face a maximum sentence of life in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors.
There is no parole in the federal system.
The cases are being investigated by the ATF, DEA, HSI, IRS-CI, KSP, and the Louisville Metro Police Department.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Erwin Roberts is prosecuting the cases.
This effort is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at www.justice.gov/OCDETF.
An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
MINNEAPOLIS – A Minneapolis non-profit executive and business consultant pleaded guilty to leading a scheme to defraud a number of federal, state, local, private programs and other sources of funding, resulting in a loss of over $6 million, and also to illegally possessing a firearm after a felony, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Lisa D. Kirkpatrick.
According to court documents, from 2020 until 2024, Tezzaree El-Amin Champion, 28, engaged in a fraud scheme through two Minneapolis-based entities he founded and controlled: a marketing company he owned, Futuristic Management LLC, and a non-profit organization he led, Encouraging Leaders.
Encouraging Leaders, under Champion’s direction, submitted at least 42 grant and public-contract applications with related follow-up correspondence containing material false misrepresentations, in order to obtain funding. Fraudulent applications were submitted to the U.S Department of Justice, Hennepin County, the City of Minneapolis, the Center for Disease Control Foundation, the Minnesota Department of Education, the Minnesota Department of Human Services, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Otto Bremer Trust, the Greater Twin Cities United Way, and others. False statements included false rosters of Encouraging Leaders’ board of directions; false assertions that Encouraging Leaders had been independently audited; false claims that certain local governments, companies, and community organizations had agreed to partner with Encouraging Leaders; requests for payment based on overstated hours of work; and false claims that Encouraging Leaders administered events that either never occurred or were organized by others. Champion misused significant portions of the funds that Encouraging Leaders received in response to the applications, for example by transferring funds to himself and using organizational funds for personal matters. Based on the fraudulent applications, Encouraging Leaders sought more than $3.8 million in funding through 42 grants, was awarded 27 grants for more than $2.7 million in funding. Encouraging Leaders actually received approximately $1.5 million in funding as part of the scheme.
Through Futuristic Management, Champion recruited and assisted clients in submitting fraudulent applications to Hennepin County’s Small Business Relief grant program as well as the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection and Economic Injury Disaster Loan programs. The applications dramatically overstated applicant incomes and expenses, and were supported by fake tax records and fake lease documents that Champion obtained. Champion also submitted nine fraudulent applications on his own behalf. Simultaneously, Champion defrauded Hennepin County, for whom his company was serving as a business advisor under the County’s Elevate Business program. As part of the program, Champion agreed to provide free marketing services to local small businesses. But rather than provide free services, Champion billed and received payments from the County for services for which he had already been paid by his clients. Many of these clients were the same businesses and individuals Champion had assisted with false PPP, EIDL, and SBR applications. Champion also used his company to fraudulently obtain loans marketed by PayPal Business Loan and issued by WebBank. In the PayPal applications, Champion overstated his company’s gross sales and attached fake Wells Fargo bank statements inflating his bank balances and deposits. In total, the part of the scheme relating to Futuristic Management resulted in a loss of more than $2.1 million.
During the investigation of Champion’s offenses, law enforcement searched Champion’s home. Officers found Futuristic Management financial records, a safe containing $127,000 in U.S. currency, and a Ruger LCR .357 revolver with Champion’s DNA on it. Due to a 2018 conviction in Hennepin County for second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon, Champion is prohibited under federal law from possessing firearms or ammunition at any time.
Champion pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court yesterday before Judge Katherine M. Menendez to one count of wire fraud, one count of money laundering, and one count of illegally possessing a firearm as a felon. Champion agreed to pay restitution of at least $3,479,575 to the victims of his offenses. Earlier this month, Champion’s co-defendant Marcus A. Hamilton pleaded guilty to participating in the Futuristic Management part of the scheme. Sentencing hearings for both defendants will be scheduled at a later date.
This case is the result of an investigation conducted by IRS-Criminal Investigations, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and the Minneapolis Police Department’s Special Crimes Investigations Division.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew D. Forbes and Joseph H. Thompson are prosecuting the case.
Governor Kathy Hochul today announced that New York State has permitted 25 large-scale renewable energy projects over the last four years, representing 3.6 gigawatts of new solar and wind power in the state’s clean energy pipeline. The New York State Office of Renewable Energy Siting and Electric Transmission (ORES) has issued a final siting permit for the White Creek Solar project to develop, construct, and operate a 135-megawatt (MW) solar array in the towns of York and Leicester in Livingston County. This marks the 20th clean energy project approved by ORES since 2021, when it was created to accelerate permitting for renewable energy generation.
“The White Creek solar array in Western New York exemplifies New York State’s progress toward creating a clean energy economy,” Governor Hochul said. “With refined siting protocols through the establishment of ORES four years ago, New York is expediting permitting for clean energy projects to achieve a clean energy economy while creating good-paying jobs that benefit communities throughout the state.”
The new solar facility will consist of the solar array and associated support equipment, along with an interconnection substation, fencing, access roads and an operations and maintenance building. The facility will interconnect to the New York electrical grid via a new point of Interconnection, located on a Rochester Gas & Electric transmission line.
The host community benefits include the creation of permanent jobs during operations, local property tax spending, local and regional spending, and host community agreements with the towns of York and Leicester, all without significantly increasing costs to local authorities, school districts, or emergency services. Benefits will also include public road enhancements, increased tax revenues to fund local infrastructure and public services, schools and other community priorities.
Office of Renewable Energy Siting and Electric Transmission Executive Director Zeryai Hagos said, “With the issuance of the siting permit for White Creek Solar, ORES continues to advance New York’s nation-leading clean energy policies while being responsive to community feedback and protecting the environment.”
The Office’s decision for this facility follows a detailed and transparent review process with robust public participation to ensure the proposed project meets or exceeds the requirements of Article VIII of the New York State Public Service Law and its implementing regulations. The solar facility application was deemed complete on July 21, 2024, with a draft permit issued by the Office on September 13, 2024.
White Creek Solar is the 20th siting permit issued by ORES since 2021, which cumulatively represents over 2.9-gigawatt (GW) of new clean energy. The solar power meaningfully advances New York’s clean energy goals while establishing the State as a paradigm for efficient, transparent, and thorough siting permitting process of major renewable energy facilities.
Today’s decision may be obtained by going to the ORES website at https://ores.ny.gov/permit-applications.
New York State’s Climate Agenda
New York State’s climate agenda calls for an affordable and just transition to a clean energy economy that creates family-sustaining jobs, promotes economic growth through green investments, and directs a minimum of 35 percent of the benefits to disadvantaged communities. New York is advancing a suite of efforts to achieve an emissions-free economy by 2050, including in the energy, buildings, transportation, and waste sectors.
Incest porn is finally facing long overdue scrutiny. The government’s porn review recommends strengthening the extreme porn law to include incest porn and mandate its removal. The review also calls for much more proactive regulation of the porn industry, and bans on misogynistic, degrading and violent pornography, including sexual strangulation.
These proposed changes address a glaring gap in regulation. While pornographic videos depicting incest porn are unlawful offline, there are no controls over its online distribution or possession. Strengthening extreme porn laws to include incest would signal a shift towards a society no longer willing to normalise and trivialise child sexual abuse and incest.
Any cursory visit today to the most popular porn websites reveals a continuous stream of incest material.
To be clear, I’m talking about porn depicting sexual activity between family members, particularly the vast swathes of material with (step)fathers and (step)brothers having sex with very young-looking girls. They may be actors over 18, but they are often in children’s clothes, surrounded by children’s toys, with pigtails, braces and other markers of childhood.
The scenarios are often about creeping into young girls’ bedrooms, coercing or grooming them into sex. The graphic titles of videos describe sex between (step)fathers and daughters. Alarmingly, they often reproduce the justifications of real-life abusers, such as “little secret between daddy and his girl”. These videos are viewed and given the thumbs up online by millions.
The new proposals target the depiction of unlawful sexual activity between family members. This includes any daddy-daughter or brother-sister scenarios as this is always a sexual offence. But it would not cover consensual sexual activity between step-parents and step-children over 18, as this is not currently unlawful. Nor would it cover instances where terms like daddy or stepmom are simply used as descriptors for older actors.
Growing popularity
Incest porn wasn’t always so common. In the 1980s, porn content studies found only 3% of material was incest-related. One of the first studies of internet porn, in 2006, found only 1% portrayed incest. But by 2014, incest porn was on Pornhub’s list of most popular searches.
My own research with colleagues revealed that one in eight titles on the homepages of the most popular porn websites described sexual violence, with sexual activity between family members the largest category of abusive content. Professor Elaine Craig’s recent study also confirms the prevalence of incest-related themes on the most popular porn platforms.
The changing business model of porn in the internet age means that the prevalence of incest porn is as much about platforms promoting it, as it is about users seeking it out. The largest porn websites use algorithmic models to maximise user engagement, keeping users hooked, collecting more data and selling more advertising. Just like social media, porn websites prioritise extreme, shocking, exploitative and divisive material, such as incest content.
Pornography writes our sexual scripts
Porn, therefore, shapes our sexual scripts, the norms we internalise about what is expected, normal and acceptable in sexual relationships. Research on sexual strangulation, for example, finds that more frequent consumption of porn leads to greater exposure to pornographic depictions of sexual strangulation which, in turn, predicted a higher likelihood of strangling sexual partners.
The largest study to date of men who have sexually offended against children found that they were 11 times more likely to watch violent porn and 27 times more likely to view bestiality porn.
Porn consumed by millions (there are 130 million visitors a day to Pornhub) necessarily shapes our social environment, and in turn our attitudes and sexual practices.
The prevalence of incest-themed content matters, as it normalises and legitimises ideas of sexual activity between family members – particularly involving young girls. When these messages are consumed by millions every day, the influence extends beyond individual users and filters into broader cultural attitudes.
In time, we may become desensitised, less likely to understand the prevalence of child sexual abuse, or its seriousness. The claim that incest porn is fantasy without real-world effects assumes incest is rare, abhorrent. But it’s not.
It’s commonplace, with 500,000 children in England and Wales sexually abused each year. These are predominantly girls, with (step)fathers accounting for up to half of the perpetrators.
From my work in this field, it is clear to me that these sexual scripts influence society in various ways, including making us less likely to believe survivors. We may blame the victims, having internalised that girls entice family members into sex. And it seems we become less concerned about government inaction on child sexual abuse as it no longer seems serious.
Time for change
Critics demand evidence of direct causation, asking for proof that watching specific videos of incest porn leads to specific acts of incest. But this narrow framing (I argue, deliberately) misses the point. Sexual violence is complex and influenced by a range of factors. No study can isolate porn as the sole cause of any particular act, nor should we expect it to.
Rejecting a direct causal relationship is not the same as rejecting any relationship. We need to ask, in a culture saturated with incest porn, are we more likely to tolerate, excuse or dismiss the realities of incest and sexual abuse? Probably – and I would argue that is enough.
If we continue to allow incest porn to proliferate, we risk perpetuating a culture that trivialises abuse, undermines survivors and distorts our understanding of what is acceptable in sexual relationships. It is time to stop debating whether pornography causes direct harm in a narrow sense, but to confront the broader reality that it is shaping our attitudes and society in profoundly damaging ways.
Clare McGlynn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
When Donald Trump called Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator” for his failure to hold elections, it was a shocking moment. Even by the topsy-turvy standards of the current US administration, this looked like deliberate ignorance of the facts. Ukrainian law and the electoral code state that elections cannot be held while martial law is in place. That leaves aside the practical impossibility of ensuring fair, free and secure elections during war on the scale Russia is inflicting on Ukraine.
In making this dangerous intervention, the US president was simply repeating a well-established trope of Russian propaganda. For some time, the Kremlin has been casting aspersions on the legitimacy of Zelensky. Vladimir Putin has been using this as a pretext to allow him to sidestep any direct contact with the (legitimately elected) Ukrainian president.
It is not the first time that Russia has cited a concern for constitutional propriety in its Ukraine policy. The Kremlin condemned both the orange revolution of 2004 (which forced a rerun of a rigged presidential election) and the Euromaidan protests of 2013-14 (which chased out the Russia-friendly president Viktor Yanukovych) as cases of anti-constitutional mob rule ousting a legitimately elected leader.
Russia’s defence of constitutional legitimacy has been selective and self-interested. For two decades, it has energetically – and often unconstitutionally – meddled in the political processes of Ukraine and other neighbouring states. Electoral outcomes are sacrosanct only when they confirm pro-Russian candidates in power. No matter if these results were secured by massive fraud and intimidation.
Meanwhile, when Putin found his own constitution an inconvenience, he had it changed in a referendum which handed him the opportunity to retain power until 2036.
Making things ‘legal’
But there is more than pure cynicism to the Russian government’s embrace of constitutional rhetoric. This belief in the need for power to have a legal framework has a long tradition behind it. Russia imposed rapid-fire referendums in Crimea in 2014 and then in four regions of occupied Ukraine in 2022 in an attempt to give a legal basis to its military occupation of these territories.
There were echoes of the shotgun plebiscites conducted in 1939-41 in eastern Poland, Bessarabia and the Baltic states. Almost immediately after it annexed these territories, the Soviet state forced the population into participating in the Stalinist version of democracy. These were votes with only one candidate on the ballot paper. The Soviet Union was desperately poor, its state apparatus was overstretched and underresourced – but money and personnel were found for these choreographed elections.
The same logic applied in the Soviet Union “proper”. In 1918, at the very start of the civil war that followed the October revolution, the Bolsheviks adopted a constitution for the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. This was amplified by a Soviet constitution in 1924 that established the elected Congress of Soviets as the supreme organ of state power (even if the Communist Party really pulled the strings).
Just over a decade later, Stalin found it necessary to update the constitution. He wanted it reflect what he saw as the progress made towards socialism in the first two decades after the revolution. The result, after extensive if largely orchestrated public discussion, was the 1936 constitution. This, among other things, enshrined universal suffrage elections to a national representative body: the Supreme Soviet.
This was not to be the end of the Soviet constitutional road. A generation later, in the early 1960s, the post-Stalin leadership felt the need to refresh and amplify the 1936 document. It took until 1977 for a new constitution finally to be agreed and adopted, but it was clear that this authoritarian state took “socialist legality” very seriously indeed. Constitutional law might have been considered malleable by the Communist party, but it was important for it to exist and to withstand challenge, whether from internal dissidents or from cold war adversaries.
Why have a constitution?
To understand the significance of constitutions and political institutions in the USSR and post-Soviet Russia, it’s worth considering what function constitutions actually perform. Western nations tend to think of them as documents setting out the relationship between different branches of government: executive, legislative, judicial. They contain some limitation on the powers of the executive. Certainly, this is how the US constitution – which is often seen as the archetype of a western state constitution – is most commonly viewed.
Defining a new country: the US constitution. https://pixy.org/1262083/
But there has long been another way of viewing constitutions: as a symbol of the integrity and robustness of the state. As British historian Linda Colley has shown, between the mid-18th and the early 20th centuries, constitutions became perhaps the main currency of legitimacy for a nation state. To have a constitution was, above all, a way to stake a claim to exist in a dangerous world inhabited by predatory empires.
For some of those empires, constitutions served as a way of holding together their own large and disparate territories. This tended to work by, for example, conceding a degree of representation to minority groups in the hope of preempting separatist movements. On close inspection, this was also true of the US constitution. It was a document designed to bring and hold the original 13 states together and establish the US as an international power.
Constitutions and elections have always been as much about power, legitimacy and state integrity as about representation – democratic or otherwise – or limitations on government. For states that are not major powers, the legitimacy needs to be projected externally as much as internally.
Ukraine now finds the legitimacy of its constitution under threat from both the dominant regional power – Russia – and the world power of the US. It falls on Europe – a region almost defined by its commitment to constitutional democracy – to articulate and defend an alternative vision.
European leaders – and their electorates – need to act on the belief that democracy and sovereignty are not on separate tracks but belong together. Ukraine deserves to retain its free elections, but it also deserves a state.
Stephen Lovell is currently at work on a project on the history of voting in the Russian Empire and USSR funded by a Major Research Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust.
Source: Government of the Russian Federation – An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
The government continues comprehensive work to improve the quality of data in the Unified State Register of Real Estate (USRRE). Since 2020, the number of land plots without recorded boundaries in Russia has decreased by 9.1 million, Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin reported.
The entry of information on the boundaries of land plots, as well as on administrative boundaries and boundaries of territorial zones into the Unified State Register is carried out by Rosreestr within the framework of the Complete and Accurate Register project, which has been implemented since 2020 at the direction of the President of Russia on ensuring the reliability of information in state information resources.
“The efficiency and quality of services in the field of land and real estate, as well as the spatial development of the country, depend on filling the USRN with complete and accurate information. The result of this work primarily depends on activity and involvement in processes at the regional level. In this regard, interaction has been established with the offices of the Plenipotentiary Representatives of the President of Russia in the federal districts and with the heads of the subjects. Today, the USRN contains information on 60.9 million land plots in the country, of which 43.5 million (71.5%) have a coordinate description of the boundaries. Since 2020, the share of plots without clearly defined boundaries has decreased by 9.1 million. As part of the state program “National Spatial Data System”, by the end of 2025 we plan to increase the share of plots with boundaries to 72%, and by the end of 2030 – to 95%,” said Marat Khusnullin.
According to the Deputy Prime Minister, the largest increase in the number of land plots with coordinate description of boundaries was recorded in ten regions. The leaders include the Republic of Tatarstan, the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol, Moscow, Sverdlovsk regions and Stavropol Krai.
The increase in the number of land plots with registered boundaries was influenced by the implementation of comprehensive cadastral works. This is one of the effective mechanisms for filling the USRN with complete and accurate data. Thus, over the past five years, such works have been carried out in relation to 4 million real estate objects.
“A significant increase in the figures for entering boundaries into the Unified State Register of Real Estate was facilitated by the adoption in August 2023 of a law aimed at eliminating the intersections of the boundaries of settlements, territorial zones, forestries with the boundaries of land plots. As part of the implementation of this law, Rosreestr initiated the project “Verification of information in the register of boundaries of the Unified State Register of Real Estate”. In 2024, we processed almost 3 million intersections (96.5%), of which 512 thousand were eliminated. 2.5 million intersections are not subject to adjustment in accordance with the law. The remaining 3.5% will be processed in the first quarter of 2025,” said Oleg Skufinsky, head of Rosreestr.
The process of entering information on the boundaries of land plots into the Unified State Register of Real Estate will also be accelerated by the entry into force on March 1 of this year of a law that provides mechanisms to stimulate the registration of land plots, buildings and structures by citizens and legal entities. In particular, registration of rights or transactions will be possible only in relation to land plots with precise boundaries.
Marat Khusnullin also noted that stable dynamics are observed in the inclusion of information on the boundaries of administrative-territorial entities in the real estate register. Since 2020, the share of boundaries between constituent entities of the Russian Federation in the USRN has increased by 53% and amounted to 87%. The share of boundaries of municipalities, information on which is included in the USRN, amounted to 94% – 29% more than in 2020. The share of boundaries of settlements reached 78% – 48% more than in 2020. A significant increase occurred in terms of entering information on the boundaries of territorial zones into the USRN, which is an important criterion for investment attractiveness and further development of regions. This figure was 74%. This is 61% more than at the beginning of 2020 (13.4%).
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
A man has been jailed for life following his conviction for the murder of teenager Kacem Mokrane in east London.
Christopher Wilson, 23 (24.07.01) of Templar Drive, SE28 was sentenced on Thursday, 27 February. He will serve a minimum of 16 years.
Wilson was found guilty on 12 December 2024 following a retrial at the Old Bailey.
Kacem’s family said: “There are no words to express the unimaginable grief that we have suffered. The manner in which Kacem was murdered, has had a life changing impact on our family.
“We will never share another meal with Kacem or watch him achieve his dreams. His caring and funny personality will only be a painful memory to us all.
“As a family we have discussed the topic of ‘forgiveness’. We consider that the actions of Christopher Wilson, his lack of remorse and the cowardice he has shown by denying his guilt do not deserve our forgiveness. The family do not feel that there should be any alternative to Christopher Wilson’s punishment other than a lengthy custodial sentence. He is a dangerous individual and should be taken off the streets for as long as is legally possible.
“We will be eternally grateful for the persistence and commitment of the police and legal team. In seeking justice for the murder of Kacem they have demonstrated extreme professionalism, compassion and often great patience towards our family.”
Kacem, who was 18 years old, was killed on 16 November 2017 as part of an ongoing feud between two rival east London gangs.
Wilson is the fifth person to be convicted of Kacem’s murder, with four others convicted in June 2023.
On the night of the murder, police were called at around 23:15hrs to Mount Pleasant Road in Walthamstow to reports of an altercation and a group of males armed with weapons including knives, machetes and swords. Kacem was ambushed by the group, who stabbed him at least twice, before fleeing from the scene.
Kacem was taken to Royal London Hospital where he received emergency surgery. Sadly, following complications, he died in hospital on 20 November 2017.
A post-mortem examination gave cause of death as multi-organ failure caused by hypovolemic shock and complications arising from a stab wound to the abdomen.
Detective Inspector Ben Dalloway, from the Specialist Crime Command, said: “Kacem’s family have waited seven-and-a-half years for this moment. They have had to relive the events of that day but today we have witnessed the jailing of a fifth person in connection with the murder.
“This was a complex investigation involving a number of crimes that were linked.
“Wilson’s conviction and sentencing should act as stark reminder to anyone who is involved in this level of violence that we will continue to search for you in order that you can be put before the courts.”
+ In June 2023, Hamza Ul-Haq, Luca Griffiths, Abdirisak Ali, and Kamil Kazmierski were all jailed for Kacem’s murder.
Source: Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe – OSCE
Headline: OSCE reaffirms its full support for the Dayton Peace Agreement and the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Mission reaffirms its full support for the Dayton Peace Agreement and the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina. (OSCE) Photo details
SARAJEVO, 27 February 2025 – The OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina (Mission) reaffirms its full support for the Dayton Peace Agreement and the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina. A peaceful and prosperous future for everyone in Bosnia and Herzegovina requires respect for the rule of law and democratic institutions, stewarded by responsible leadership.
The Mission calls upon the Republika Srpska National Assembly not to adopt the laws and measures proposed by the government of Republika Srpska that would undermine the constitutional order of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Any unilateral transfer of competences, or threats of doing so, from the State to the entity level with the aim of creating parallel systems contravene the rule of law and the constitutional order of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This includes proposals for the establishment of parallel institutions, the banning of the work of critical State-level institutions, and the potential criminalization of the basic functions of a democratic state.
The Mission further reiterates its previously stated concerns that the adoption of the Proposal of the Law on the Special Registry and Publicity of the Work of Non-Profit Organizations would run counter to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s international human rights obligations and OSCE commitments, in particular in the areas of freedom of association, freedom of expression, media freedom and prohibition of discrimination.
We urge the political leaders to uphold the rule of law and their constitutional and legal obligations to respect the sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The administration accidentally fired civil servants who were responsible for safeguarding the country’s nuclear weapons, preventing a bird flu epidemic and overseeing the nation’s electricity supply. A Veterans Administration official told NBC, “It’s leading to paralysis, and nothing is getting done.” A spokesperson at a nationwide program that provides meals to seniors, Meals on Wheels, which the government helps fund, said, “The uncertainty right now is creating chaos for local Meals on Wheels providers not knowing whether they should be serving meals today.”
Our recent book, “How Government Built America,” shows why the administration’s aim to eliminate government could result in an America that the country’s people have never experienced – one in which free-market economic forces operate without any accountability to the public.
The U.S. economy began in the Colonial era as a mix of government regulation and market forces, and it has remained so ever since. History shows that without government regulation, markets left to their own devices have made the country poorer, killed and injured thousands, increased economic inequality, and left millions of Americans mired in desperate poverty, among other economic and social ills.
Government funding and regulation have yielded countless economic benefits for the public, including the launch of many efforts later capitalized on by the private sector. Government funding delivered a COVID-19 vaccine in record time, many of the technologies – GPS, touchscreens and the internet – that are key to the functioning of the cellphone in your pocket, and the highway system that enables travel throughout the country.
Yet government has addressed these failings as Americans’ understanding of equality has evolved. Over the past century, rights for women, racial and ethnic minority groups and people with a range of sexualities and gender identities have been recognized in constitutional amendments, federallaws, state laws and Supreme Courtdecisions.
As our book shows, the responses haven’t always been immediate, but the president and Congress have addressed policy mistakes and incompetent administration by making appropriate adjustments to the mix of government and free markets, sometimes at the behest of court cases and more often through congressional action.
Many Trump voters cited economic factors as motivating their support. And our book documents how policies supported by both political parties – particularly globalization, which led to the flood of manufacturing jobs that went overseas – contributed to the economic struggles with which many Americans are burdened.
But based on the history of how government built America, we believe the most effective way to improve the economic prospects of those and other Americans is not to eliminate portions of the government entirely. Rather, it’s to adopt government programs that create economic opportunity in deindustrialized areas of the country.
These problems – economic inequality and loss of opportunity – were caused by the free market’s response to the lack of government action, or insufficient or misdirected action. The market cannot be expected to fix what it has created. And markets don’t answer to the American people. Government does, and it can take action.
Sidney Shapiro is affiliated with the Center for Progressive Reform.
Joseph P. Tomain does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Down a slight hill towards the West entrance of the W.B. Young Building sits a unique tree. Recently planted and already blending into the landscape, many UConn students, faculty, and staff probably walk right by without registering the young tree.
But rooted in this addition to UConn’s nationally accredited arboretum is a “forever friendship” between two emeriti faculty members, their families, and the University that served as the backdrop for much of their lives.
Sidney and Florence, Rudy and Joy
If you are at all familiar with the fields of horticulture or landscape architecture, the names Sidney Waxman and Rudy Favretti are well known to you. Both men are considered to be pioneers in their respective fields, and both called the University of Connecticut home for their professional pursuits.
Sidney Waxman, standing among his unique dwarf conifer cultivars. (UConn Photo)
They were also great friends since their graduate school days at Cornell University, where they graduated in the mid 1950s.
Sidney Waxman, born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1923, is best known for creating nearly 40 new types of dwarf conifers and trees, including the one outside the Young Building.
“This tree is a symbol of the strong friendship between Sidney, his wife Florence, Rudy, and myself,” says Joy P. Favretti, Rudy Favretti’s widow. “We had known each other at Cornell. Later when we had all gotten married and moved to Connecticut, we would watch each other’s children when they were small, and they played together here in Storrs. Rudy and Sidney appreciated each other’s work. It really was a forever friendship in so many ways.”
Waxman founded UConn’s experimental plant nursery, where he focused much of his research on developing new and interesting plants from witches’ brooms. These are abnormalities in a tree or woody plant where a cluster of shoots develop at a single point. Sometimes caused by fungus or other pathogens, the resulting deformities can look like a witch’s broom or a bird’s nest.
Waxman and his wife Florence often joined forces to collect samples as they traveled around Eastern Connecticut and the New England region.
“Florence was great at spotting the witches’ brooms,” says Joy Favretti. “Sid would hike into the woods and shoot them down with his rifle. Eventually he had to use other methods and have a crew climb up and cut them down.”
Many of Waxman’s specimens can be viewed as part of a special collection within UConn’s campus-wide arboretum.
A New Branch in UConn’s Family Tree
To say that the young tree developed by Waxman that sits outside the Young Building is special may be an understatement.
“Sid’s plants are harder and harder to find commercially, so preserving this specimen where the public can enjoy it is really special,” says Sean Vasington, University landscape architect and director of site planning with University Planning, Design & Construction.
In fact, this tree may be one of the last that Waxman ever created.
“Rudy’s Joy” may be a one-of-a-kind specimen development by Waxman. (Jason Sheldon/UConn Photo)
After Waxman’s death in 2005, his son Paul brought the one-of-a-kind specimen to the Favrettis, in accordance with his father’s wishes.
“When Paul brought the tree, it was very meaningful,” says Joy Favretti. “He told us that it originated from a witches’ broom Rudy had identified.”
With a nod to the Favrettis’ 60-plus-year romance and based on his admiration for Rudy’s immense contributions to landscape design, Waxman had named the cultivar “Rudy’s Joy.”
Beyond its sentimental story, there’s a lot that makes the little tree special from a horticultural perspective too.
The witches’ broom discovered on a Norway Maple was grafted onto a Sugar Maple, New England’s native maple. The tree is well known for its fall colors and sweet syrup. Mark Brand, the chair of UConn’s arboretum and professor of horticulture and plant breeding, is confident the tree won’t reproduce since it doesn’t seem to produce flowers or fruit.
“Sydney was smart,” says Joy Favretti. “He recognized there was a need for lower growing foundation plants, as many of the new homes being built at the time were only one story or a story and a half. The Connecticut nursery industry and many others were pleased to make them available in their nurseries.”
While there are still lots of questions surrounding what “Rudy’s Joy” will become, it is likely to be very tall, about 50 feet, and round.
Part of this uncertainty was by design. Waxman often incorporated fungus strains into his new species, which can cause unique forms to develop. For instance, “Rudy’s Joy” has unique branching and is of an unusual shape.
“Its globose form and single stem should be very distinctive as the tree matures, especially during the fall when its foliage will turn bright yellow,” says Vasington.
“It’s going to be notable and highly unusual, that is one thing we know for sure,” says Greg Anderson, professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology, member of the UConn Arboretum, and friend of the Favrettis.
For the Love of the Landscape
Along with reflecting the genius of Waxman’s experiments, as it grows, “Rudy’s Joy” will be a tangible monument to the contributions Rudy Favretti made to UConn, the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources (CAHNR), and the field of landscape architecture around the globe.
Rudy Favretti ’54 (CAHNR) professor emeritus of landscape architecture speaks at an event to celebrate the Great Lawn, held at the Wilbur Cross North Reading Room on Sept. 26, 2012. (Peter Morenus/UConn Photo)
Born in 1932 in Mystic, Connecticut to Italian immigrant parents, Favretti’s UConn career began as an undergrad who, in 1955, was hired as an Extension garden specialist. He would later become a professor of landscape architecture and develop UConn’s program, which was nationally accredited with his participation, guidance, and support, nearly 10 years after his departure from UConn.
“Rudy Favretti’s contributions within our field are renowned and immeasurable, but he is also a big part of UConn’s history and that of the College,” says Vasington.
While he was a devoted resident of Mansfield, his legacy goes far beyond UConn’s main campus and the surrounding area.
In 1989, Favretti retired from teaching to build a private design firm with a specialty in preservation.
Favretti’s influence can also be seen at some of the most important historic gardens in American culture. Nicknamed the “Dean of historic restoration,” Favretti served as the consulting landscape architect for the Garden Club of Virginia for 20 years, from 1978 to 1998. In this role, he conceived of and oversaw the installation of preservation and restoration projects at Monticello, Mount Vernon, and Montpelier, some of Colonial America’s most important landmarks.
His contribution has had such an impact on the field of landscape architecture that he was inducted as a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects in 1992, and his collected works are stored in the Smithsonian Institute’s Archives of American Gardens Collections and in UConn’s Dodd Center for Special Collections and Archives.
During his “retirement,” Favretti found time to serve as head of the Mansfield Planning & Zoning Committee and published books for the Mansfield Historical Society dealing with the history of each of the original town school districts.
“Rudy’s love of learning and sharing that love with others never stopped,” says Anderson.
UConn Homecoming
In the months leading up to Favretti’s passing, the arboretum committee and the University had hoped to record and honor his contribution to UConn. Unfortunately, a scheduled interview that would have allowed Favretti to speak personally about his beloved university and field of landscape architecture wouldn’t come to pass.
But his friends, colleagues, and wife Joy kept thinking of a way to honor these “forever friends.”
In the summer of 2023, Joy offered to donate “Rudy’s Joy” to UConn as a memorial and to have it moved to an appropriate spot on campus for planting. So, in November 2023 the special tree was moved by one of Rudy’s former students from its overcrowded place in the Favretti garden to a welcoming spot where it can grow and develop on UConn’s Storrs campus. Here, the tree looks across to the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources, where both Waxman and Favretti devoted so much of their energy and intellect.
“Here, in this spot, it is a fitting memorial to our forever friendship,” says Joy Favretti.
The injunction, led by the City of Wolverhampton Council on behalf of Dudley Council, Sandwell Council and Walsall Council and supported by West Midlands Police, prohibits people from: participating in, as a driver, rider or passenger, street racing; from promoting, organising or publicising gatherings; or from participating as a spectator.
The injunction covers the whole of the boroughs of Wolverhampton, Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall and anyone found to be breaching it will be in contempt of court and may be imprisoned, fined or have their assets seized. They may also be ordered to pay the council’s legal costs of any hearing.
The High Court originally granted the full and final injunction in February 2024 with the injunction and power of arrest remaining in force until at least 2027 subject to annual review.
At yesterday’s review hearing, Mr Justice Ritchie permitted the injunction to continue, with minor amendments to the wording, after hearing evidence from the Claimant councils that there was a “pressing need for a continuance” of the injunction.
Pardip Nagra, Wolverhampton Anti Social Behaviour Team Leader, told the court that the injunction had reduced racing and led to 7 people being found in contempt of court following committal applications for breach of the injunction in the Black Country over the last 13 months.
Meanwhile PC Mark Campbell from Operation Hercules, West Midlands Police’s tactical response to street racing, described how there had been a 38% decrease in complaints relating to street racing in the Black Country between 2023 and 2024.
Mr Justice Ritchie said: “Street racing involves speeding, loud noise, convoys, racing, stunts and obstructions.
“I find that the order has been very effective in protecting the public, catching criminals, bringing them before the court quickly, and giving them a punishment which seems to be working.
“This action has probably saved lives and very probably prevented injuries – and the councils and police should be congratulated on doing it.”
Mr Justice Ritchie added that the injunction will remain in place in its current form until the revised order comes into effect in the coming weeks.
Speaking on behalf of the Claimant councils, Councillor Obaida Ahmed, the City of Wolverhampton Council’s Cabinet Member for Digital and Community, said: “We very much welcome the High Court’s decision to allow the street racing injunction to continue.
“The court was presented with a wealth of evidence about the impact that the injunction has had, not only in bringing the perpetrators of street racing to justice but in preventing meets from occurring in the first place, and we hope it will continue to restrain this anti-social and dangerous activity across the Black Country.”
For more information about the street racing injunction, please visit the street racing pages of the applicants – Wolverhampton, Walsall, Sandwell or Dudley – which are in the process of being updated.
Incidents of street racing should be reported via asbu@wolverhamptonhomes.org.uk or to West Midlands Police on 101. In an emergency, always dial 999.
Police are also inviting members of the public to submit dash cam or mobile phone footage of street racing events or dangerous driving via its Op Snap website.
A further annual review of the injunction will be held by the High Court in around 12 months’ time, on a date to be fixed in due course.
The data snapshot – taken once a year and based on one night – puts rough sleeper levels in Wolverhampton at 8.
The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government has published the latest figures following a count in October 2024. It shows Wolverhampton has fewer rough sleepers than most cities in the country and one of the lowest levels in the region.
Across England the number of people estimated to be sleeping rough on a single night in autumn 2024 was 4,667. This has risen for the third year in a row, increasing 20% since 2023. The West Midlands region saw a 35% increase in rough sleepers in 2024 compared to 2023, according to the single night figures.
City of Wolverhampton Council heads a multi agency approach with the P3 Charity, Good Shepherd Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton BID, Wolverhampton Homes, Recovery Near You, West Midlands Police and others.
Support offered by partner agencies not only addresses housing issues but also helps with reducing debts, improving skills, controlling substance use and managing mental and physical health issues. All those identified as rough sleeping during the count were offered support, including accommodation.
Councillor Steve Evans, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for City Housing at City of Wolverhampton Council, said: “The low figures are a testament to work that goes into supporting our most vulnerable people all year round.
“Our revised 5 year Homelessness Prevention Strategy underpins our commitment, through a joined up approach, to ensuring no-one is left behind.
“We will build on partnership work to tackle the root causes of homelessness while working to deliver good homes in well connected neighbourhoods that support strong families where children grow up well and achieve their full potential.”
Councillor Jasbir Jaspal, City of Wolverhampton Council Cabinet Member for Adults and Wellbeing, said: “People who sleep rough also often have complex and multiple health and care needs. An important part of our work in this area is to help people improve their health and social wellbeing, supporting them to find long term solutions and break the cycle.”
P3 Charity Head of Support & Community Services, Sam Bailey, said: “We’re proud of the collective difference we’ve made to rough sleeping in Wolverhampton, but we can’t rest on our laurels.
“In collaboration with our partners, we’ll continue the exceptional, people centric approach that we’re known for, ensuring our interventions are effective and long lasting. Our commitment continues until we’re confident there is no longer anyone in Wolverhampton who needs to spend a night on the streets.”
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
Speech
Minister for Gambling Baroness Twycross’s speech to the Betting and Gaming Council AGM 2025
Minister for Gambling Baroness Twycross’s speech to the Betting and Gaming Council Annual General Meeting 2025
Good morning everyone. Thank you for the invitation to speak today. It is great to be here to speak to so many of you.
It was a huge privilege to be appointed as the Government’s gambling minister last year. I would like to thank everyone I have met so far for sharing your knowledge and perspectives on your sector. I am particularly grateful to Michael and Grainne for their constructive engagement on key issues facing your industry.
I have also enjoyed meeting a range of people from the wider gambling sector, such as John from Bacta, and Miles from the Bingo Association.
Whilst you are all facing different issues, I recognise there are key similarities, one thing you also do have in common is the experience and passion there is in the industry.
In my short time in post, I have seen the value this sector brings. Not just in tax receipts and jobs created, but as a leisure activity, for example through a day at the races, enjoying a game of bingo, or time spent in a seaside arcade.
I have enjoyed being shown round the Grosvenor casino in Liverpool last year and the Hippodrome earlier this month, and look forward to visiting more venues as soon as possible.
You will know that the Government is focused on economic growth. I believe that a growing gambling sector is compatible with creating an even safer one. I want a gambling sector in this country that is one we can be proud of – one that offers good jobs, interesting careers, brings social value, and is one that people enjoy while having vital protections in place.
As set out in our manifesto, and as you will be aware, we are also committed to reducing harmful gambling. The licensed, regulated gambling industry is a crucial part of that.
I want to work with you to see a safer, more responsible gambling industry.
I know that the vast majority of people who gamble do so without experiencing harm, but it is in all our interests that we do better for those customers who could be vulnerable to gambling harm. I have found it helpful to hear from a number of you about measures you are already taking.
I am pleased to be able to update you on significant progress on key reforms that deliver on the Government’s agenda.
I am sure many of you will have followed the progress of the statutory gambling levy in Parliament over the last few weeks. The legislation has been affirmed by both Houses and became law on Tuesday this week. It will come into force on the 6th of April and operators will be required to make their first levy payments by the 1st of October.
I know the BGC has been largely supportive of the introduction of a levy, and we recognise the work done by the sector through the voluntary levy previously. This is a huge step forward for the sector and will see increased investment to expand projects and services to reduce harmful gambling. I know that we have a shared aim in this area.
The financial support that BGC members have given to research, prevention and treatment services has enabled people in need access to crucial treatment services, and laid a foundation which the levy can build on. It is vital that funding for these services is maintained in the transition to the levy. I welcome the BGC’s commitment that this will be delivered.
We have now appointed the commissioning bodies for research, prevention and treatment.
We are working at pace with the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, NHS England, UK Research and Innovation, and with partners in Scotland and Wales, to build robust foundations for the future system.
It is crucial we put the right commissioning, accountability and governance arrangements in place.
We want to build on the successes of the current system. But the levy will mean funding certainty. This will allow the expert bodies we have appointed to boost efforts to further understand, tackle, and treat gambling harm. We and the commissioning bodies will be led by the best evidence to get funding where it is needed most.
The online slots stake limits statutory instrument was also made into law on Tuesday. I know you are all keen to understand exactly when these stake limits will come into force.
I can confirm the five pound limit will be in force on the 9th of April, while the two pound limit for younger adults will be in force on the 21st of May. I know that implementing these stake limits is a technical challenge and I am grateful for all the work you have done in preparation for this moment.
I can confirm that we are moving forward with measures to modernise the regulations for land-based casinos. These changes will allow casinos to offer up to 80 gaming machines, mirroring the rules for small 2005 Act casinos. There will be a sliding scale of machine entitlements, meaning that smaller casinos can also benefit from more machines, commensurate with their size.
We will also allow sports betting in all casinos, giving operators the opportunity to expand their product offering. These changes will unlock investment in the casino sector and should provide an economic boost for both operators and machine manufacturers. We are working as quickly as we can to ensure that legislation is laid in Parliament as soon as possible. I know the significance of these measures to many of you here today.
Turning now to advertising and sponsorship, which you will know has been of significant media and Parliamentary interest in recent months.
One of the biggest issues raised with me as Gambling Minister is advertising.
I have tasked the industry with doing more to work together to ensure that gambling advertising and sponsorship is appropriate, responsible, and does not exacerbate harm.
I am grateful to the BGC for coordinating this work across your membership, and I completely understand that the ability to advertise is an important activity generally, and key advantage that licensed operators have over the illegal market.
We know that some people can feel they are being inundated with gambling advertising – and this can be especially true whilst watching sport. Crucially, we know that advertising can have a disproportionate impact on those who are already suffering from gambling harm. We must also be vigilant to any adverse impacts on children and young people.
So I am keen for the industry to take the lead in making a robust assessment of the scale and impacts of advertising, so that we are working with the best available evidence.
Lastly, I want to touch on the issue of the illegal market, which I know is of concern to many of you here today.
Illegal gambling is a concern for us all. And we are committed to working closely with the Gambling Commission, to ensure that illegal gambling, in all its forms, is addressed. I have heard your argument that overregulation leads to, or risks, displacement to the illegal market. This is something that was carefully considered in the development of the white paper and in the decisions that have been made since.
We believe the reforms we have introduced together with the Gambling Commission are proportionate and targeted interventions.
However, I agree that vigilance is vital when the illegal market threatens revenue for the licensed sector and player protections for vulnerable customers. That is why I have been pleased that the Gambling Commission has increased disruption activity and has a renewed focus on finding innovative ways to tackle the illegal market.
On Tuesday, the Crime and Policing Bill was introduced to Parliament. One of the provisions in this Bill will give the Commission greater powers to move quickly and effectively to take down IP addresses and domain names associated with illegal websites. This is an important step in equipping the Commission to tackle the illegal market and protect legitimate businesses.
Thank you again for the invitation today, and the time many of you have given me since I took up my role.
I will keep listening and look forward to working with you all to realise our shared vision of a better, safer gambling industry. I hope you are all as keen as I am to take these challenges on.
New figures, show that as of 31 December 2024, the families of 326,080 children under 16 years of age were receiving vital support from Scottish Child Payment.
Over £1 billion has now been paid to parents and carers since the payment was introduced in February 2021.
Scottish Child Payment is unique to Scotland and provides financial support for families, helping with the costs of caring for a child. It is a weekly payment, currently worth £26.70, for every eligible child that a parent or carer looks after who’s under 16 years of age.
While visiting Craigour Park Primary school in Edinburgh, to talk to parents who receive Scottish Child Payment, Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said:
“Eradicating child poverty is the Scottish Government’s top priority and a national mission.
“Our investment in Scottish Child Payment has seen over £1 billion worth of these payments issued by 31 December 2024; that is money directly in the pockets of those families who need it most.
“Modelling published in February 2024 also estimates that the Scottish Child Payment could keep 60,000 children out of relative poverty this year.
“Scottish Child Payment is actively improving the lives of hundreds of thousands of children in Scotland – helping their families to access essentials and experiences they might otherwise miss out on because they live on a low income.
“In the coming year it is forecast we’ll invest a further £471 million, ensuring that this support continues to reach even more families and children who need it.”
Head Teacher of Craigour Park Primary, Sally Ketchin, said:
“We welcome payments like Scottish Child Payment and Best Start Grants. We can see the real difference this money makes to families in our community.”
Case study
Ashley Forbes lives in Glenrothes with her three children. She said:
“The two-child cap came in for Tax Credits when I was pregnant with my third child. That meant I would be losing £60 a week when the baby was born so, obviously, that was quite a scary moment. It was huge.
“I wasn’t working and my partner at the time was only working part-time so money wasn’t great. It felt like £60 was so much to lose, you know, when you have a baby with milk and all that stuff to buy.
“And then when Scottish Child Payment came in, it was a huge relief. I have three kids and they grow so fast. It’s new shoes, new coats and new clothes all the time.
“My eldest two do swimming as well which is a really important skill that you need in life. We wouldn’t be able to do this stuff without Scottish Child Payment.
“I think Scottish Child Payment is great. We couldn’t do without it.”
A 32-year-old man has pleaded guilty to manslaughter through diminished responsibility, after he stabbed his stepfather in his own home.
Adejuwon Olufemi Alexander Jnr Oyekan, 32 (08.11.1992) of Melina Close, Hayes, pleaded guilty to manslaughter through diminished responsibility at the Old Bailey on Monday, 24 February 2025.
Officers were called to a residence in Hayes in the early hours of Tuesday, 11 July 2023, to reports Oyekan had stabbed his 54-year-old stepfather Jason Thompson.
When they arrived, officers were faced with Oyekan still armed with the knife which he had used to attack Jason.
After the first responding officers had gained entry to residence they challenged Oyekan, initially using their tasers in an attempt to disarm him. When this was unsuccessful, they then left the address to await support from armed response officers to detain him.
When officers returned to the property, they made it their priority to assist Jason. However, sadly and despite the best efforts of the emergency services, Jason died from his injuries at the scene.
Detective Chief Inspector Laura Semple from the Met’s Public Protection Partnership, said: “Our thoughts remain with Jason’s family throughout this difficult time.
“I’d like to thank the first responding officers who attend the scene and demonstrated huge bravery to challenge the suspect, who was armed and acting aggressively.
“Their quick thinking, to use the tools at their disposal, guaranteed Oyekan was admitted to custody from the scene, and did not go on to pose a wider threat to the public.”
Oyekan was arrested at the scene and charged with murder on Wednesday, 11 July 2023.
Office of the Governor — News Release — Gov. Green Considers Judicial Nominations
Posted on Feb 26, 2025 in Latest Department News, Newsroom, Office of the Governor Press Releases
STATE OF HAWAIʻI KA MOKU ʻĀINA O HAWAIʻI JOSH GREEN, M.D. GOVERNOR KE KIAʻĀINA
GOVERNOR GREEN CONSIDERS JUDICIAL NOMINATIONS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 26, 2025
HONOLULU — Four nominees for Circuit Judge for the Circuit Court of the Third Circuit (Island of Hawaiʻi) have been announced for consideration. Governor Josh Green, M.D., will nominate a successor to fill the vacancy left by the retirement of Circuit Judge Robert D.S., Kim in July of 2024.
The State Judicial Selection Commission transmitted the list of nominees to Governor Green following a thorough review of the qualifications and backgrounds of all applicants.
The nominees are:
Mark D. Disher; currently Deputy Corporation Counsel in the County of Hawaiʻi Office of the Corporation Counsel. He is a graduate of the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
Brandon K. Flores; currently Assistant Administrator of the Child Support Enforcement Agency in the state of Hawaiʻi Department of the Attorney General. Flores is a graduate of the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
Kauanoe A.D. Jackson; currently a Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, county of Hawaiʻi Office of the Prosecuting Attorney. Jackson is a graduate of the Chapman University School of Law (known now as the Dale E. Fowler School of Law).
Scott K.D. Shishido; currently the Hawaiʻi Island Managing Attorney for the Legal Aid Society of Hawaiʻi. Shishido is a graduate of the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
Governor Green must make his appointment within 30 days, or by Friday, March 28, 2025.
The public is invited to provide comments on the nominees via the Governor’s website https://governor.hawaii.gov/contact-us/contact-the-governor/.
# # #
Media Contacts: Erika Engle Press Secretary Office of the Governor, State of Hawai‘i Office: 808-586-0120 Email: [email protected]
Makana McClellan Director of Communications Office of the Governor, State of Hawaiʻi Cell: 808-265-0083 Email: [email protected]
New PSNI report shows 1,777 racist incidents and1,150racist crimes in the year to end of December 2024
Level of race hate incidentshit new high during the summer period ofJune, July and August, peaking at 351 incidents in August
Hate crimes now represent more than 1 in 50 of all crimes in Northern Ireland
More than half of recorded race hate crimes were in Belfast
‘Years of complacency about the rise of racism here left bigoted thugs, including paramilitaries, emboldened to carry out an ever-greater number of attacks’ – Patrick Corrigan
Amnesty International has expressed concern at the level of racist hate crime in Northern Ireland, as new figures published today show attacks hit an all-time high during summer 2024.
The figures were published today in areportby the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA), which tracked recorded hate crimes and incidents for the twelve months to the end of December 2024.
The report reveals that there were1,777 racist incidents and1,150 racist crimes recorded by the police during 2024. There were 454 more race incidents and 292 more race crimes recorded in 2024 than the previous year.
Six of the eight highest monthly levels of race incidents since records began in 2004 were recorded between May and October 2024.
The summer period ofJune, July and August recorded a new highest monthly level of race incidents, peaking at 351 incidents in August, the highestsince police records began in2004.
More than half (604) of recorded race hate crimes in 2024were in Belfast. The second highest area for recorded race hate crimes during the year was Antrim and Newtownabbey (133).
Racist crimes represented 1.3% of all recorded crime during 2024. Hate crimes now represent more than 1 in 50 (2.15%) of all crimes in Northern Ireland.
Patrick Corrigan, Amnesty International’s Northern Ireland Director, said:
“The last year has seen a devastating surge in hate crime in Northern Ireland, with thousands of victims left feeling afraid and unprotected, and race hate incidents hitting an all-time high during the summer.
“Years of complacency about the rise of racism here left bigoted thugs, including paramilitaries, emboldened to carry out an ever-greater number of attacks, particularly during the far-right violence in the summer.
“That hate crime now represents more than one in fifty of all recorded crimes in Northern Ireland must be a wake-up call to both police and politicians.
“Tackling racism and hate crime in Northern Ireland will require not just a more consistent response from the police but unambiguous political leadership and effective strategies from the Executive, something which has hitherto been lacking.”
Responding to the vote of confidence in the new Lebanese government passed by the country’s parliament today, Kristine Beckerle, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said:
“Today’s vote marks a crucial opportunity for Lebanon to break with the shortcomings of past governments and place human rights at the centre of much-needed reforms.
“Today’s vote marks a crucial opportunity for Lebanon to break with the shortcomings of past governments and place human rights at the centre of much-needed reforms” – Kristine Beckerle, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa
“In the past five years alone, government failings led to an unprecedented financial and economic crisis and one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history. Yet, the Lebanese people have yet to see any justice or accountability.
“More recently, the escalation in hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel resulted in mass displacement and thousands of civilian casualties. Israeli military attacks, some of which may amount to war crimes, killed healthcare workers, journalists, and civilians. Justice will remain elusive as long as Lebanon fails to join the International Criminal Court.
“The new government must go beyond rhetoric and prove its commitment to human rights by taking decisive steps to address these and other longstanding issues. This includes ending the crisis of impunity by enabling independent and transparent investigations into the Beirut port explosion. It also means pursuing accountability for grave violations committed on and from its territory by joining the ICC and ensuring reparation for victims of violations.
“We further call on the new government to reinforce social and economic rights protections, including through the establishment of a universal social protection scheme. It also must take meaningful steps to safeguard free expression, combat gender-based violence and discrimination, and protect the rights of all individuals, including migrants, refugees, and detainees.”
Background
On 9 January 2025, Lebanon’s Parliament elected a new president, Joseph Aoun, after a more than two-year presidential vacancy. On 13 January 2025, President Aoun designated the former president of the International Court of Justice and Lebanon’s former ambassador to the United Nations, Nawaf Salam, to form and lead a new cabinet of ministers.
The government’s ministerial statement, presented to Parliament by Prime Minister Salam, pledged to “rescue, reform, and rebuild” the crisis-hit country. The statement promised an “independent judiciary that is immune to interference… and plays its role in ensuring rights and safeguarding freedoms,” including preventing obstruction of investigative judges’ work, particularly in the Beirut port explosion investigation. The government also committed to economic reforms and advancing rights, including access to health care, social security, and the inclusion of persons with disabilities.
The ministerial statement, however, is non-binding and only presented government plans in key areas, for example to address the country’s ongoing financial and economic crisis, at a general level. Amnesty International examined the devastating impact the financial and economic crisis on people’s socio-economic rights, and put forward specific recommendations for reform, in a recent report. It now falls to the new government to develop plans to implement human rights-based reforms and put those plans into practice.
2024 was the worst year for settler violence across the occupied West Bank
Violent settler attacks rosefrom an average of two a day in 2022 to four a day in 2024
Spike in state-backed settler violence due tonew military seizure orders and failure to prevent and punish settler attacks
‘Once they broke our door and beat our children with their rifles’ – Hadeel Jabareen, resident
‘Israel is deliberately creating a coercive environment that as a result drives Palestinians like those in the Shi’b Al-Butum off their land’ – Erika Guevara Rosas
The Palestinian community of Shi’b Al-Butum in Masafer Yatta is at imminent risk of forcible transfer due to increasing state-backed settler attacks, as well as home demolitions, restrictions on access to land and illegal settlement expansion by the Israeli authorities, Amnesty International said today.
The herding community, home to some 300 Palestinians, is one of the 12 communities that make up the area of Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, and that for decades has been subjected to growing state-backed settler attacks and oppressive measures by the Israeli authorities. Since 7 October 2023 the situation has significantly worsened. Unless measures are immediately taken to hold violent settlers accountable, stop home demolitions and the expansion of nearby settlements, this community – like others in the area – will be forcibly displaced.
Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns, said:
“The situation of the Shi’b Al-Butum community is a microcosm of what Palestinians, in particular herding and Bedouin communities, are facing across most of the occupied West Bank. Settlers trespass on their land, vandalise and steal their property, harass and physically assault them with total impunity.
“Through the cumulative impact of decades of occupation and apartheid, including violence, institutionalised discrimination and illegal settlement expansion, Israel is deliberately creating a coercive environment that as a result drives Palestinians like those in the Shi’b Al-Butum off their land. Unlawful transfer –the forced removal of civilians against their will – is a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention and amounts to a war crime.
“Deeply entrenched impunity for settler violence and the longstanding failure of the international community to act to halt the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements or to end Israel’s occupation are facilitating the unlawful transfer of Palestinian communities. Instead of continuing to enable Israel’s relentless land grab, with devastating consequences for Palestinians, world leaders must press Israel to end its unlawful occupation and dismantle its system of apartheid against Palestinians.”
The spike in state-backed settler violence along with measures by the Israeli authorities have resulted in the forced displacement of Palestinians across the West Bank. These include implementation of new military seizure orders, a sharp increase in the destruction of Palestinian property as well as the participation in, support for, or failure to prevent and punish settler attacks against Palestinians.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 2024 was the worst year for settler violence across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since the organisation began keeping records 20 years ago. Between 7 October 2023 and 31 December 2024, OCHA documented 1,860 incidents of settler violence that led to the displacement of over 300 families (1,762 people, including 856 children).OCHA also recorded a rise in the number of violent settler attacks in the West Bank from an average of two a day in 2022 to four a day in 2024.Israeli human rights organisations, including Yesh Din and Haqel, have also documented the failure of Israeli law enforcement to protect Palestinian residents in the unlawfully occupied West Bank.
Amnesty has documented how the intensification of the coercive environment created by Israel, including through state-backed settler violence, has already led to the forcible transfer of the herding community of Zanuta, in the south Hebron Hills. Shi’b Al-Butum is now facing a similar fate.
Evidence of forcible transfer in Zanuta
Amnesty visited the abandoned site of Zanuta, previously home to some 250 people, including 100 children in March and conducted interviews with five community members who previously lived in Zanuta, who said the frequency and violence of settler attacks against them intensified following the Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on 7 October 2023, forcing the entire community to leave.
They described how settlers from a nearby outpost, Meitarim Farm, have regularly attacked and harassed them since 2021. Despite the fact that such outposts are also considered illegal under Israeli law, settlers also built structures and began herding their sheep on Zanuta’s farming land, causing damage to the crops.
After 7 October 2023 residents said settler attacks escalated occurring almost daily leading many Palestinians to leave. On several occasions, settlers set property on fire or pumped sewage water into farming land.
Hadeel Jabareen, said:
“Settlers attacked us at our home more than once after 7 October 2023. Once they broke our door and beat our children with their rifles. They broke the windows as we were sleeping.”
The community was fully displaced by 22 October 2023. The Israeli Supreme Court ordered that the residents of Zanuta be allowed to return to their community in July 2024. However, after some families returned in August 2024, settler attacks resumed swiftly, forcing the residents to leave once again. The last families left Zanuta on 18 October 2024.
Adel A-Tal, former resident, said:
“The settlers were armed and kept attacking us. We were the last family there. Everyone else had left, so we had to leave as well, for the safety of our children and livestock. We were afraid, it was terror.”
Shi’b Al-Butum: a community at risk
Amnesty also documented a rise in Israeli settler violence targeting Palestinian shepherds in grazing areas surrounding Shi’b Al-Butum since 7 October 2023 who now risk a similar fate to Zanuta. Amnesty interviewed six people from the community and verified 38 videos of the attacks. Residents told Amnesty that settlers from the nearby outpost of Mitzpe Yair and the settlement of Avigayil harass and attack them almost on a daily basis. Avigayil is one of 10 outposts the Israeli security cabinet retroactively “legalised” in February 2023.
The residents described how settlers regularly approach herders threatening them, using abusive language and often falsely reporting to Israeli law enforcement that Palestinians stole their sheep. Similar incidents have been reported in other communities in the South Hebron Hills area and elsewhere in the West Bank.
Instead of protecting Shi’b Al-Butum’s Palestinian herders, the Israeli military ordered them not to use these areas, confining them to their village where there is not enough food for their flocks. This has placed a huge financial burden on many shepherds who cannot afford to buy animal feed all year round and are forced to sell some of their sheep, their main source of livelihood, to make ends meet.
One shepherd, Khalil Jabarin, told Amnesty:
“No one dares to go herd outside the village anymore. They took everything they wanted, but it’s still not enough for them…they want us to leave. They come here and tell me that I have no land here and that I should go to Yatta [a nearby Palestinian city].”
Residents described how in particular, since early September 2024, one settler from Mitzpe Yair outpost regularly enters the village at any hour of the day or night, armed with a gun and dressed in military uniform. He walks around, takes photos and vandalises property, especially agricultural land and structures. In videos recorded by the residents, he is seen destroying gates and fences around their agricultural lands. As a result, community members live in constant fear. In other videos, verified by Amnesty armed settlers are seen walking around the community or speeding through on their motorbikes to intimidate Palestinians.
Iman Jabarin, who resides in the community and has seven children, said:
“We don’t feel safe at home. We don’t have security or safety, not me, nor my children or my husband.”
In a video verified by Amnesty from 19 July this year, a group of eight settlers, accompanied by one soldier, attacked members of the Najjar family who were sitting outside their house. According to the family, the settlers beat them with sticks as the soldier stood by. Video footage also shows the soldier pointing his gun at the Palestinian family, then shooting in the air. Two members of the family were hospitalised for their injuries. One of them, 64-year-old Wadha Najjar, said ongoing impunity for such attacks means they have no hope of justice within the Israeli legal system.
Israeli authorities have also carried out demolitions of Palestinian homes and property in Shi’b Al-Butum. On 22 November 2023, Israeli forces demolished eight structures in the community due to lack of Israeli building permits, which are virtually impossible to obtain. According to OCHA, demolitions caused the displacement of 19 Palestinians from Shi’b Al-Butum, including 11 children. On 8 July 2024, Israeli forces demolished two residential structures citing lack of permits, displacing 14 people. According to Israeli organisation Peace Now!, which monitors settlement expansion, Israeli planning authorities did not approve a single building permit or appeal for residential purposes for Palestinians in Area C of the West Bank.
Settlers above the law
Settlers continue to enjoy near-total impunity for the violence they perpetrate against Palestinians. Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights group, found that around 94% of police investigations into settler violence against Palestinians across the West Bank between 2005 and 2024 concluded with no indictment. These numbers back Palestinian residents’ conviction that the Israeli law-enforcement system is designed to privilege the interests of settlers at their expense.
International inaction has also allowed Israeli settlement policies and settler violence to thrive and has entrenched impunity. On 21 January, President Donald Trump revoked all US sanctions on violent Israeli settlers. The very existence of all Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) – regardless of their status under Israeli law – flagrantly violates international law, yet states have repeatedly failed to stop their expansion or to ensure protection for the occupied population in the OPT. Even after the International Court of Justice’s Advisory Opinion of July 2024 declared Israel’s presence in the OPT unlawful and called for its dismantling with 12 months, states have failed to act.
In addition to Shib al-Butum, nine other communities in Masafer Yatta are at imminent risk of forced displacement as the Israeli military declared their villages part of a military training zones. The plight of these communities, and their struggle to remain on their ancestral lands are featured in the documentary “No Other Land“, recently nominated for the Oscars.
The Palestinian community of Shi’b Al-Butum in Masafer Yatta is at imminent risk of forcible transfer due to increasing state-backed settler attacks, as well as home demolitions, restrictions on access to land and illegal settlement expansion by the Israeli authorities, Amnesty International said today.
This herding community, home to some 300 Palestinians, is one of the 12 communities that make up the area of Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, and that for decades has been subjected to growing state-backed settler attacks and oppressive measures by the Israeli authorities. Since 7 October 2023 the situation has significantly worsened. Unless measures are immediately taken to hold violent settlers accountable, stop home demolitions and the expansion of nearby settlements, this community – like others in the area – will be forcibly displaced.
“The situation of the Shi’b Al-Butum community is a microcosm of what Palestinians, in particular herding and Bedouin communities, are facing across most of the occupied West Bank. Settlers trespass on their land, vandalize and steal their property, harass and physically assault them with total impunity,” said Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns.
“Through the cumulative impact of decades of occupation and apartheid, including violence, institutionalized discrimination and illegal settlement expansion, Israel is deliberately creating a coercive environment that as a result drives Palestinians like those in the Shi’b Al-Butum off their land. Unlawful transfer –the forced removal of civilians against their will – is a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention and amounts to a war crime.”
“The situation of the Shi’b Al-Butum community is a microcosm of what Palestinians, in particular herding and Bedouin communities, are facing across most of the occupied West Bank,”- Erika Guevara Rosas, Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns
Since 7 October 2023, a spike in state-backed settler violence along with measures by the Israeli authorities have resulted in the forced displacement of Palestinians across the West Bank. These include implementation of new military seizure orders, a sharp increase in the destruction of Palestinian property as well as the participation in, support for, or failure to prevent and punish settler attacks against Palestinians.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 2024 was the worst year for settler violence across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since the organization began keeping records 20 years ago. Between 7 October 2023 and 31 December 2024, OCHA documented 1,860 incidents of settler violence that led to the displacement of over 300 families (1,762 people, including 856 children). OCHA also recorded a rise in the number of violent settler attacks in the West Bank from an average of two a day in 2022, to four a day in 2024.
Israeli human rights organizations, including Yesh Din and Haqel, have also documented the failure of Israeli law enforcement to protect Palestinian residents in the unlawfully occupied West Bank.
Amnesty International has documented how the intensification of the coercive environment created by Israel, including through state-backed settler violence, has already led to the forcible transfer of the herding community of Zanuta, in the south Hebron Hills. Shi’b Al-Butum is now facing a similar fate.
Evidence of forcible transfer in Zanuta
Amnesty International visited the abandoned site of Zanuta, previously home to some 250 people, including 100 children, in March 2024. The organization also conducted interviews with five community members who previously lived in Zanuta, who said the frequency and violence of settler attacks against them intensified following the Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on 7 October 2023, forcing the entire community to leave.
They described how settlers from a nearby outpost, Meitarim Farm, have regularly attacked and harassed them since 2021. Despite the fact that such outposts are also considered illegal under Israeli law, settlers also built structures and began herding their sheep on Zanuta’s farming land, causing damage to the crops.
After 7 October 2023 residents said settler attacks escalated occurring almost daily leading many Palestinians to leave. On several occasions, settlers set property on fire or pumped sewage water into farming land.
“Settlers attacked us at our home more than once after 7 October 2023. Once they broke our door and beat our children with their rifles. They broke the windows as we were sleeping,” said Hadeel Jabareen.
The community was fully displaced by 22 October 2023. The Israeli Supreme Court ordered that the residents of Zanuta be allowed to return to their community in July 2024. However, after some families returned in August 2024, settler attacks resumed swiftly, forcing the residents to leave once again.
The last families left Zanuta on 18 October 2024.
“The settlers were armed and kept attacking us. We were the last family there. Everyone else had left, so we had to leave as well, for the safety of our children and livestock. We were afraid, it was terror,” said former resident, Adel A-Tal.
Shi’b Al-Butum: a community at risk
Amnesty International has also documented a rise in Israeli settler violence targeting Palestinian shepherds in grazing areas surrounding Shi’b Al-Butum since 7 October 2023 who now risk a similar fate to Zanuta. The organization interviewed six people from the community and verified 38 videos of the attacks.
Residents told Amnesty International that settlers from the nearby outpost of Mitzpe Yair and the settlement of Avigayil harass and attack them almost on a daily basis since 7 October 2023. Avigayil is one of 10 outposts the Israeli security cabinet retroactively “legalized” in February 2023.
The residents described how settlers regularly approach herders threatening them, using abusive language and often falsely reporting to Israeli law enforcement that Palestinians stole their sheep. Similar incidents have been reported in other communities in the South Hebron Hills area and elsewhere in the West Bank.
Instead of protecting Shi’b Al-Butum’s Palestinian herders, the Israeli military ordered them not to use these areas, confining them to their village where there is not enough food for their flocks. This has placed a huge financial burden on many shepherds who cannot afford to buy animal feed all year round and are forced to sell some of their sheep, their main source of livelihood, to make ends meet.
One shepherd, Khalil Jabarin, told Amnesty:“No one dares to go herd outside the village anymore. They took everything they wanted, but it’s still not enough for them…they want us to leave. They come here and tell me that I have no land here and that I should go to Yatta [a nearby Palestinian city].”
Residents described how in particular, since early September 2024, one settler from Mitzpe Yair outpost regularly enters the village at any hour of the day or night, armed with a gun and dressed in military uniform. He walks around, takes photos and vandalizes property, especially agricultural land and structures. In videos recorded by the residents, he is seen destroying gates and fences around their agricultural lands. As a result, community members live in constant fear. In other videos, verified by Amnesty International, armed settlers are seen walking around the community or speeding through on their motorbikes to intimidate Palestinians.
Iman Jabarin, who resides in the community and has seven children, said: “We don’t feel safe at home. We don’t have security or safety, not me, nor my children or my husband.”
In a video verified by Amnesty International from 19 July 2024, a group of eight settlers, accompanied by one soldier, attacked members of the Najjar family who were sitting outside their house. According to the family, the settlers beat them with sticks as the soldier stood by. Video footage also shows the soldier pointing his gun at the Palestinian family, then shooting in the air. Two members of the family were hospitalized for their injuries. One of them, 64-year-old Wadha Najjar, said ongoing impunity for such attacks means they have no hope of justice within the Israeli legal system.
Israeli authorities have also carried out demolitions of Palestinian homes and property in Shi’b Al-Butum. On 22 November 2023, Israeli forces demolished eight structures in the community due to lack of Israeli building permits, which are virtually impossible to obtain. According to OCHA, demolitions caused the displacement of 19 Palestinians from Shi’b Al-Butum, including 11 children. On 8 July 2024, Israeli forces demolished two residential structures citing lack of permits, displacing 14 people. According to Israeli organization Peace Now!, which monitors settlement expansion, Israeli planning authorities did not approve a single building permit or appeal for residential purposes for Palestinians in Area C of the West Bank.
Settlers above the law
Settlers continue to enjoy near-total impunity for the violence they perpetrate against Palestinians. Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights group, found that around 94% of police investigations into settler violence against Palestinians across the West Bank between 2005 and 2024 concluded with no indictment. These numbers back Palestinian residents’ conviction that the Israeli law-enforcement system is designed to privilege the interests of settlers at their expense.
“Instead of continuing to enable Israel’s relentless land grab, with devastating consequences for Palestinians, world leaders must press Israel to end its unlawful occupation and dismantle its system of apartheid against Palestinians”- Erika Guevara Rosas
International inaction has also allowed Israeli settlement policies and settler violence to thrive and has entrenched impunity. On 21 January, President Donald Trump revoked all US sanctions on violent Israeli settlers. The very existence of all Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) – regardless of their status under Israeli law – flagrantly violates international law, yet states have repeatedly failed to stop their expansion or to ensure protection for the occupied population in the OPT. Even after the International Court of Justice’s Advisory Opinion of July 2024 declared Israel’s presence in the OPT unlawful and called for its dismantling with 12 months, states have failed to act.
“Deeply entrenched impunity for settler violence and the longstanding failure of the international community to act to halt the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements or to end Israel’s occupation are facilitating the unlawful transfer of Palestinian communities, which is a war crime. Instead of continuing to enable Israel’s relentless land grab, with devastating consequences for Palestinians, world leaders must press Israel to end its unlawful occupation and dismantle its system of apartheid against Palestinians,” said Erika Guevara Rosas.
In addition to Shib al-Butum, nine other communities in Masafer Yatta are at imminent risk of forced displacement as the Israeli military declared their villages part of a military training zones. The plight of these communities, and their struggle to remain on their ancestral lands are featured in the documentary “No Other Land“, recently nominated for the Oscars.
Community Radio Content Challenge Amplifying Local Impact
Posted On: 27 FEB 2025 4:34PM by PIB Delhi
Introduction The Community Radio Content Challenge aims to highlight the creative, impactful, and innovative content from community radio stations, emphasizing their role in empowering local voices and addressing region-specific issues. In collaboration with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the Community Radio Association (CRA), this platform recognizes the contributions of stations under the first season of the Create India Challenge at WAVES. So far, 246 participants, including 14 international entries have registered for the challenge.
The World Audio Visual & Entertainment Summit (WAVES) in its first edition is a unique hub and spoke platform poised for the convergence of the entire Media and Entertainment (M&E) sector. The event is a premier global event that aims to bring the focus of the global M&E industry to India and connect it with the Indian M&E sector along with its talent.
The summit will take place from May 1-4, 2025 at the Jio World Convention Centre & Jio World Gardens in Mumbai. With a focus on four key pillars—Broadcasting & Infotainment, AVGC-XR, Digital Media & Innovation, and Films-WAVES will bring together leaders, creators and technologists to showcase the future of India’s entertainment industry.
Community Radio Content Challenge under the Broadcasting and Infotainment pillar, celebrates the vital contribution of community radio in fostering informed, engaged and connected communities.
Objectives of Competition
The competition aims to celebrate the power and potential of community radio stations encouraging innovation and fostering collaboration.
Categories to Submit Entries
The WAVES Competition invites Community Radio Stations (CRSs) to submit entries in five distinct categories, each focused on a crucial aspect of community development. These categories aim to highlight the impactful work CRSs are doing to drive positive change across diverse sectors.
Public Health and Safety: CRSs can showcase innovative programs that address public health issues, emergency preparedness, disease prevention, hygiene practices, and mental health awareness.
Education and Literacy: Programs that promote education and literacy, especially in rural areas, empowering individuals with knowledge and skills to improve their quality of life.
Women and Child Development/Social Justice and Advocacy: Programs that focus on gender equality, child rights, empowerment and social justice, advocating for marginalized communities and fostering an equitable society.
Agriculture and Rural Development: Programs that support sustainable farming, agricultural innovations, and rural entrepreneurship, promoting the socio-economic growth of rural communities.
Cultural Preservation: Programs dedicated to preserving and promoting India’s rich cultural heritage, celebrating traditional art forms, languages and practices for future generations.
Registration Guidelines
The registration for the competition will remain open until February 28, 2025. It was available to all registered Community Radio Stations (CRS) in India approved by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) and holding a valid or renewed license. Each station was allowed to submit only one entry under one of the five categories. Submitting multiple entries, either within the same or different categories would result in disqualification.
Submission Requirements
The program submissions must meet specific criteria including format, duration and supporting materials to highlight their content and impact.
Program Criteria: Each submission must be a half-hour program or a single episode from a series.
Program Formats: Entries can include talk shows, documentaries, music programs, educational content, Live Shows, Phone in Program or any other genre.
Supporting Materials:
Program descriptions: Provide a brief overview of the program’s content and objectives.
Impact reports: Detail the program’s reach and impact on the community.
Listener testimonials: Include feedback and comments from listeners.
Submission Process
Evaluation Criteria
To ensure fair and comprehensive evaluation of the submissions for the WAVES Competition, the following parameters will be used to assess each community radio program:
Final Selection
The WAVES Competition will be judged by a panel of experts including media personalities and Community Radio Association of India (CRAI) representatives, through a two-stage evaluation process.
Final Selection: Winners will be chosen from the shortlisted entries and advance to the final round based on the evaluation criteria.
Conclusion
The Community Radio Content Challenge as part of the WAVES Competition offers a valuable platform to recognize and celebrate the impactful work of community radio stations across India. By encouraging innovation and collaboration, this competition highlights the essential role of community radio in empowering local communities and addressing critical issues.
DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL
The Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, is in Cape Town, in the Republic of South Africa, representing the Secretary-General at the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting. She also attended the Finance in Common Summit of National Development Banks.
In her remarks, Ms. Mohammed conveyed the UN’s support for South Africa’s G20 presidency and stressed the importance of G20 action to shepherd the global economy and improve prospects for sustainable development. She called for proactive steps to support developing countries overwhelmed by debt service, to expand development finance, and to create a stronger global financial safety net that protects all countries. She also stressed the need for strengthening tax systems, and making them fairer and more efficient.
Ms. Mohammed also met with ministers and principals of international financial institutions and development banks ahead of the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, that will take place in Sevilla, in Spain in July. She will be back in New York tomorrow.
TRIP ANNOUNCEMENT
The Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, will be travelling to the Democratic Republic of the Congo from tomorrow [27 February] until 1 March. He will first go to Kinshasa, where he will engage with Congolese authorities as well as international partners, to discuss the ongoing situation in the eastern part of the country and the next steps in implementing Resolution 2773 – which was adopted last week.
He will then head to the East and travel to Beni, in North Kivu, where he will engage with provincial authorities, as well as with the newly- appointed Force Commander for the peacekeeping force, Lt. Gen. Ulisses De Mesquita Gomes, and as well, of course, with peacekeepers deployed in the Beni area. He will be there to assess first-hand recent developments and will also visit UN Peacekeeping positions.
On 1 March, he will go to Entebbe, in Uganda, where he will pay a visit to MONUSCO personnel who were evacuated to Uganda from Goma last month, following the advances of the M23.
And as we mentioned – Mr. Lacroix is currently wrapping up his visit to New Delhi, in India, where he attended an international conference on Women, Peace and Security, hosted by the Government of India to address barriers and discuss solutions to women’s participation in peacekeeping efforts.
While in India, Mr. Lacroix also discussed the future of peacekeeping with Indian senior government officials and visited the National War Memorial.
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
Staying in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs say they are alarmed by escalating violence and insecurity in recent days in the city of Uvira, about 100 kilometers south of South Kivu’s provincial capital Bukavu.
Clashes and rising violence in Uvira put local communities and humanitarian workers in extreme danger, with our humanitarian partners reporting multiple incidents of looting and sexual violence.
Elsewhere in South Kivu, humanitarian assessments over the last ten days indicate that more than 10,000 displaced people have returned from Idjwi island in Lake Kivu – due to dire conditions there – they returned to villages in the areas of Minova and Kalehe. More than 100,000 people had fled to the island since late January.
Our partners also report that people have been returning to parts of North Kivu, where a recent assessment found that 80,000 people have returned to villages in the territory of Masisi, about 80 kilometers northwest of Goma. Infrastructure in these villages was largely destroyed by recent fighting, and returnees urgently need humanitarian assistance. Ongoing clashes in Masisi also expose people to risks of violence and rights violations.
For its part, our colleagues at the UN Children’s Fund said today they are deeply worries by the significant increase in reports of grave violations committed against children in parts of the eastern DRC. They say the number of incidents has tripled since the end of January.
The data collected reveals that cases of sexual violence have risen by more than two and a half times, abductions have increased sixfold, killing and maiming is up sevenfold, and attacks on schools and hospitals have multiplied by 12.
Full Highlights: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/noon-briefing-highlight?date%5Bvalue%5D%5Bdate%5D=26%20February%202025
1. Sweden, Finland and Estonia have different levels of legal protection[1] for their wolf populations under the Habitats Directive[2]. Consequently, the constraints and the possibilities for wolf culling in the mentioned Member States are not the same. As regards Sweden, an infringement procedure has been opened in 2010[3] in relation to their wolf management practices. In Finland, the derogations granted by national authorities under Article 16(1) of the directive to allow killing of wolves have been the subject of a preliminary ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), in Case C-674/17[4], in which all the conditions for such practices have been clearly defined. On 12 October 2021, the Commission adopted a guidance document[5] providing clarifications of the legal provisions under Articles 12 and 16 of the Habitats Directive and reflecting the latest legal interpretations of the CJEU, including the above-mentioned ruling concerning wolf derogations in Finland.
2. Following the adoption of the EU proposal[6] to reduce the protection status of the wolf under the Bern Convention[7], after its entry into force, the Commission will present a targeted legislative proposal to implement this change in EU law and to modify accordingly the regime of the wolf under the Habitats Directive, moving the wolf from Annex IV (strict protection) to Annex V (protection).
[1]Protected (Annex V) in Estonia and in the Finnish reindeer management area. Strictly protected (Annex IV) in the rest of Finland and in Sweden.
[2] Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora, OJ L 206, 22.7.1992, p. 7-50.
