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Vernon drug trafficker linked to heroin shipment hidden in lamps out on day parole
By Makiko Yanada and Shinji Abe / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondents 7:00 JST, December 12, 2024 ZURICH/OSLO — Next year will mark 80 years since atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but the risk of nuclear weapons being used again is greater than ever — despite the wishes of A-bomb survivors and others who continue to call for their abolition. Nihon Hidankyo (Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Victims Organization) received the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize at an award ceremony in Oslo on Tuesday. At a press conference in the city the day before, cochair Terumi Tanaka, 92, was asked to deliver a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has repeatedly threatened to use nuclear weapons. “I don’t think President Putin has ever thought about or truly understood what nuclear weapons mean for human beings,” Tanaka said. Since the start of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine in February 2022, Putin has repeatedly mentioned the use of nuclear weapons. In his address to the nation in February, Putin touted Russia’s nuclear capabilities, which can reach the United States and Europe. “[Western nations] must understand that we also have weapons that can hit targets on their territory,” Putin warned. “All this really threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons and the destruction of civilization. Don’t they get that?” In November, Putin lowered the threshold for Russia’s use of nuclear weapons from a threat to the “existence of the state” to a “critical threat” to the “sovereignty and territorial integrity” of Russia. Momentum is slowly growing in Russia for accepting the use of nuclear weapons. In a public opinion poll conducted in November by the Levada Center, an independent polling organization not affiliated with the government, 39% of Russians said the use of nuclear weapons by Russia in its aggression against Ukraine could be “justified.” This was an increase from 29% in April 2023 and 34% in June this year. There are also concerns that Russia will transfer nuclear-related technology to Iran and North Korea, which provides support to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary General Mark Rutte said at a press conference on Dec. 4 that Russia supports North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs in exchange for weapons and soldiers Pyongyang provides for its war against Ukraine.
The 37-page report by the bipartisan panel includes explicit details of sex-filled parties and vacations that Gaetz, now 42, took part in from 2017 to 2020 while the Republican represented Florida's western Panhandle. Congressional investigators concluded that Gaetz violated multiple state laws related to sexual misconduct while in office, though not federal sex trafficking laws. They also found that Gaetz “knowingly and willfully sought to impede and obstruct” the committee's work. “The Committee determined there is substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated House Rules and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress,” the report said. Before the report came out, Gaetz denied any wrongdoing and criticized the committee's process. “Giving funds to someone you are dating — that they didn’t ask for — and that isn’t ‘charged’ for sex is now prostitution?!?” he posted on X, the website formerly known as Twitter. “There is a reason they did this to me in a Christmas Eve-Eve report and not in a courtroom of any kind where I could present evidence and challenge witnesses.” Gaetz , who was first elected in 2017, spent the majority of his time in Washington enmeshed in scandals that ultimately derailed his selection by President-elect Donald Trump to lead the Justice Department . Gaetz abruptly resigned from Congress last month. His political future is uncertain, although Gaetz has indicated interest in running for the open Senate seat in Florida. The committee painted a damning portrait of Gaetz's conduct, using dozens of pages of exhibits, including text messages, financial records, travel receipts, checks and online payments, to document a party and drug-fueled lifestyle. The committee said it compiled the evidence after issuing 29 subpoenas for documents and testimony and contacting more than two dozen witnesses. In addition to soliciting prostitution, the report said Gaetz “accepted gifts, including transportation and lodging in connection with a 2018 trip to the Bahamas, in excess of permissible amounts.” That same year, investigators said, Gaetz arranged for a staffer to obtain a passport for a woman with whom he was sexually involved, falsely telling the State Department that she was his constituent. In some of the text exchanges made public, he appeared to be inviting various women to events, getaways or parties, and arranging airplane travel and lodging. At one point he asked one woman if she had a “cute black dress” to wear. There were also discussions of shipping goods. One of the exhibits was a text exchange that appeared to be between two of the women concerned about their cash flow and payments. In another, a person asked Gaetz for help to pay an educational expense. Regarding the 17-year-old girl, the report said there was no evidence Gaetz knew she was a minor when he had sex with her. The woman told the committee she did not tell Gaetz she was under 18 at the time and that he learned she was a minor more than a month after the party. But Gaetz stayed in touch with her after that and met up with her for “commercial sex” again less than six months after she turned 18, according to the committee. Florida law says it is a felony for a person 24 or older to have sex with a minor. The law does not allow a claim of ignorance or misrepresentation of a minor's age as a defense. Joel Leppard, who represents two women who told the committee that Gaetz paid them for sex, said the findings “vindicate” the accounts of his clients and “demonstrate their credibility.” “We appreciate the Committee’s commitment to transparency in releasing this comprehensive report so the truth can be known,” Leppard said in a statement. At least one Republican joined all five Democrats on the committee earlier this month in voting to release the report despite initial opposition from GOP lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, to publishing findings about a former member of Congress. While ethics reports have previously been released after a member’s resignation, it is extremely rare. On behalf of the Republicans who voted against making the report public, the committee chairman, Rep. Michael Guest of Mississippi, wrote that while the members did not challenge the findings, “we take great exception that the majority deviated from the Committee’s well-established standards,” to drop any investigation when a person is not longer a member of the chamber. Guest added that releasing this report sets a precedent that “is a dangerous departure with potentially catastrophic consequences.” But Maryland Rep. Glenn Ivey, a Democratic member of the committee, said that for transparency, it was crucial for the public and Congress as an institution to read the findings. "I think that’s important for my colleagues here in the House to know how the committee reviews certain acts," he told The Associated Press. "Some of these were obviously conduct that crossed the line, but some of them weren’t.” Mounting a last-ditch effort to halt the publication of the report, Gaetz filed a lawsuit Monday asking a federal court to intervene. He cited what he called “untruthful and defamatory information” that would “significantly damage” his “standing and reputation in the community.” Gaetz’s complaint argued that he was no longer under the committee’s jurisdiction because he had resigned from Congress. The often secretive, bipartisan committee has investigated claims against Gaetz since 2021. But its work became more urgent last month when Trump picked him shortly after the Nov. 5 election Day to be the nation's top law enforcement officer. Gaetz resigned from Congress that same day, putting him outside the purview of the committee's jurisdiction. But Democrats had pressed to make the report public even after Gaetz was no longer in the House and had withdrawn from consideration for Trump's Cabinet. A vote on the House floor this month to force the report’s release failed; all but one Republican voted against it. The committee detailed its start-and-stop investigation over the past several years, which was halted for a time as the Justice Department conducted its own inquiry of Gaetz. Federal prosecutors never brought a case against him. Lawmakers said they asked the Justice Department for information about its investigation, but the agency refused to hand over information, saying it does not disclose information about investigations that do not result in charges. The committee then subpoenaed the department for records. After a back-and-forth between department officials and the committee, the department only handed over “publicly reported information about the testimony of a deceased individual,” according to the committee's report. The report said Gaetz was “uncooperative" throughout the committee's investigation. He provided “minimal documentation” in response to the committee’s requests, it said. “He also did not agree to a voluntary interview.”By MICHELLE L. PRICE and ROB GILLIES NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump’s recent dinner with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his visit to Paris for the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral were not just exercises in policy and diplomacy. They were also prime trolling opportunities for Trump. Related Articles National Politics | Trump names Andrew Ferguson as head of Federal Trade Commission to replace Lina Khan National Politics | Biden issues veto threat on bill expanding federal judiciary as partisan split emerges National Politics | Trump lawyers and aide hit with 10 additional felony charges in Wisconsin over 2020 fake electors National Politics | After withdrawing as attorney general nominee, Matt Gaetz lands a talk show on OANN television National Politics | What will happen to Social Security under Trump’s tax plan? Throughout his first term in the White House and during his campaign to return, Trump has spun out countless provocative, antagonizing and mocking statements. There were his belittling nicknames for political opponents, his impressions of other political figures and the plentiful memes he shared on social media. Now that’s he’s preparing to return to the Oval Office, Trump is back at it, and his trolling is attracting more attention — and eyerolls. On Sunday, Trump turned a photo of himself seated near a smiling first lady Jill Biden at the Notre Dame ceremony into a social media promo for his new perfume and cologne line, with the tag line, “A fragrance your enemies can’t resist!” The first lady’s office declined to comment. When Trudeau hastily flew to Florida to meet with Trump last month over the president-elect’s threat to impose a 25% tax on all Canadian products entering the U.S., the Republican tossed out the idea that Canada become the 51st U.S. state. The Canadians passed off the comment as a joke, but Trump has continued to play up the dig, including in a post Tuesday morning on his social media network referring to the prime minister as “Governor Justin Trudeau of the Great State of Canada.” After decades as an entertainer and tabloid fixture, Trump has a flair for the provocative that is aimed at attracting attention and, in his most recent incarnation as a politician, mobilizing fans. He has long relished poking at his opponents, both to demean and minimize them and to delight supporters who share his irreverent comments and posts widely online and cheer for them in person. Trump, to the joy of his fans, first publicly needled Canada on his social media network a week ago when he posted an AI-generated image that showed him standing on a mountain with a Canadian flag next to him and the caption “Oh Canada!” After his latest post, Canadian Immigration Minister Marc Miller said Tuesday: “It sounds like we’re living in a episode of South Park.” Trudeau said earlier this week that when it comes to Trump, “his approach will often be to challenge people, to destabilize a negotiating partner, to offer uncertainty and even sometimes a bit of chaos into the well established hallways of democracies and institutions and one of the most important things for us to do is not to freak out, not to panic.” Even Thanksgiving dinner isn’t a trolling-free zone for Trump’s adversaries. On Thanksgiving Day, Trump posted a movie clip from “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” with President Joe Biden and other Democrats’ faces superimposed on the characters in a spoof of the turkey-carving scene. The video shows Trump appearing to explode out of the turkey in a swirl of purple sparks, with the former president stiffly dancing to one of his favorite songs, Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.” In his most recent presidential campaign, Trump mocked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, refusing to call his GOP primary opponent by his real name and instead dubbing him “Ron DeSanctimonious.” He added, for good measure, in a post on his Truth Social network: “I will never call Ron DeSanctimonious ‘Meatball’ Ron, as the Fake News is insisting I will.” As he campaigned against Biden, Trump taunted him in online posts and with comments and impressions at his rallies, deriding the president over his intellect, his walk, his golf game and even his beach body. After Vice President Kamala Harris took over Biden’s spot as the Democratic nominee, Trump repeatedly suggested she never worked at McDonalds while in college. Trump, true to form, turned his mocking into a spectacle by appearing at a Pennsylvania McDonalds in October, when he manned the fries station and held an impromptu news conference from the restaurant drive-thru. Trump’s team thinks people should get a sense of humor. “President Trump is a master at messaging and he’s always relatable to the average person, whereas many media members take themselves too seriously and have no concept of anything else other than suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome,” said Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director. “President Trump will Make America Great Again and we are getting back to a sense of optimism after a tumultuous four years.” Though both the Biden and Harris campaigns created and shared memes and launched other stunts to respond to Trump’s taunts, so far America’s neighbors to the north are not taking the bait. “I don’t think we should necessarily look on Truth Social for public policy,” Miller said. Gerald Butts, a former top adviser to Trudeau and a close friend, said Trump brought up the 51st state line to Trudeau repeatedly during Trump’s first term in office. “Oh God,” Butts said Tuesday, “At least a half dozen times.” “This is who he is and what he does. He’s trying to destabilize everybody and make people anxious,” Butts said. “He’s trying to get people on the defensive and anxious and therefore willing to do things they wouldn’t otherwise entertain if they had their wits about them. I don’t know why anybody is surprised by it.” Gillies reported from Toronto. Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – , Mike McDaniel and the may be peaking at the right time. Just in time to make the Thanksgiving night game entertaining later this week. Tagovailoa threw three of his four touchdown passes in the first half, and the at Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday. After beginning this season losing 6 of 8 games, Miami is riding a three-game winning streak. The are now 5-6 and staring down .500, heading into their primetime Thanksgiving Day matchup at the on Thursday night. Can Tagovailoa and the Dolphins win a cold-weather game? The Hawaiian native surely has that knock again him during his five-year career. And the temperature could be in the teens by primetime. Can the Dolphins beat a team with a winning record? They were close against the and , losing by three points or less, before they rattled off this recent win streak. The Dolphins are 2-14 in their last 16 games against opponents with a .500 record or better. The Packers were 7-3 in this season ahead of Sunday's game against the . “I’m excited to kill narratives, so let’s go,” Tagovailoa said after the game. “Bring it on.” The will do the heavy lifting against in the 12:30 p.m. game. The tryptophan from Thanksgiving lunch should settle in by time the lowly and just-as-lowly kick off at 4:30 p.m. But, Tagovailoa and the Dolphins bring enough intrigue against the Packers to save the NFL’s holiday tripleheader from an entertainment standpoint. “Our record now is 5-6, and the Packers aren’t going to care about our three-game win streak,” McDaniel said. “The Packers are going to want to make us the team that can’t win in the cold or beat a good team. And we’ll have an opportunity on Thursday to either prove them right or wrong, as well as everybody else, in front of a bunch of families that are digesting and judgmental.” Could Miami upset Green Bay on Thursday? They’ll need to capitalize on what’s made them successful in their recent streak if they hope to make the playoffs in the final six weeks of the season. Tagovailoa finished 29 of 40 for 317 yards against New England, improving to 7-0 all-time against his AFC East rivals from Foxborough. Tagovailoa is 82 of 105 (78%) with eight touchdown passes in his last three games during Miami’s winning streak. Overall, he’s completed 130 of 170 passes (76.4%) since his return in Week 8. The Dolphins have converted 18 of their 34 third-down attempts (52.9%) in the last three games – before Tagovailoa was pulled with 11:01 left in the fourth quarter Sunday. Tagovailoa threw his first touchdown pass to tight end Jonnu Smith, and his second of two touchdowns to running back De’Von Achane on third down against the . “We’re still below the .500 threshold and it’s a long way to where we want to get to,” Tagovailoa said. “We’ll enjoy this win, but this next one is going to be big for us.” McDaniel has also identified a third receiving target to open the passing game. Teams are focusing on Dolphins receivers Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle, leaving windows open for others. It’s become Smith, the former Titans tight end who has three touchdowns in the last two weeks. At times, it’s also Odell Beckham Jr., who draws the attention of secondary defenders despite missing all three of his targets against the . Smith finished with nine catches for 87 yards against the Patriots, one week after he had six catches for 101 yards against the Las Vegas Raiders. His performance Sunday opened the window for Waddle’s best game of the season with eight catches for 144 yards and a touchdown against New England. Achane had 48 total yards, and two touchdown catches in the victory. Hill finished with five catches for 48 yards. “When you have a lot of playmakers on the team, it’s hard to stop us,” Achane said. Patriots rookie quarterback Drake Maye threw a 38-yard touchdown pass to tight end Austin Hooper, and New England’s Christian Gonzalez returned a fumble 63 yards for another score within a 3:33 stretch early in the fourth quarter. The Dolphins did their work early in this one. Now, they have three days of rest before their holiday game this week. “We have a tough task ahead of us. Short week, on the road, night game, cold weather. All that stuff is really going to test our mental toughness,” Dolphins edge rusher Calais Campbell said. “We’re going to see what kind of team we are.” Added Tagovailoa: “We’re excited to go down to Green Bay and show everybody on primetime what we can do.”
AP News Summary at 6:21 p.m. EST