Anissa Weier, 19, will be released from a Wisconsin mental hospital after being admitted over charges she stabbed a classmate in 2014 at the age of 12 to please the fictional character Slender Man.
Weier requested her release this year from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute, claiming she no longer poses a threat, and Waukesha County Judge Michael Bohren has agreed and ordered her release in 60 days. Another hearing will take place in September.
Bohren said Weier presents no “substantial risk of harm to others [or] herself, or serious property damage.” She will be granted conditional release and be held at the institute until her hearing in September, where a plan for her release will be put in place.
Weier and friend Morgan Geyser lured classmate Payton Leutner into a park in May 2014, when all three were only 12 years old. Geyser stabbed Leutner repeatedly and Weier reportedly encouraged the violence. Geyser and Weier told investigators after the attack that the stabbing was carried out so they could become followers of the fictional Slender Man character and so he would not harm their families. Leutner survived the attack.
Geyser is serving a minimum 40-year sentence at a mental health facility, while Weier was sentenced to 25 years in 2017 after she pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree intentional homicide.
Slender Man is a tall, faceless, fictional character that gathered a following online through the numerous horror stories written by various amateur writers. The character became a popular ‘creepypasta’ horror story – user-generated legends that are typically short and meant to come across as true.
Weier and Geyser’s case is partly what helped the term ‘creepypasta’ reach the mainstream, as their story was covered in an HBO documentary and later partially inspired a horror film, ‘Slender Man.’
TikTok has been banned in Pakistan for a third time following a court ruling on the back of a citizen’s complaint that the platform promotes obscene and immoral content, with access to the app suspended for at least a week.
The Sindh High Court’s ruling comes after criticism within Pakistan about adult nudity and sexual activity being shared on TikTok. The company has previously sought to abate concerns within the Muslim-majority country by removing more than six million videos from its service in Pakistan within the past three months, following complaints by both users and the government.
Responding to the latest ban, TikTok expressed disappointment that despite its efforts to “work with regulators” and “diligently to review and take action” on problematic content, Pakistani authorities still believe the platform should be restricted.
The latest legal action was reportedly launched after concerns were raised with the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority. A lawyer for the complainant told local media that the agency had failed to address the issues raised, and so a court petition was filed.
The citizen alleged that the site was displaying “immoral” videos that were “against the teachings of Islam” and, therefore, should not be available within the country. It’s the third time in nine months that the app’s service has been barred in Pakistan following complaints that it was hosting allegedly indecent content.
The Sindh High Court’s judgement will remain in place until at least July 8, when another hearing will be held, allowing the site to argue for access to be reinstated.
TikTok is one of the most popular social media platforms in Pakistan, with millions of users across the country. With the ban taking effect on July 1, users in Pakistan reportedly could not access their accounts or view footage on the site as of Thursday morning.
Hunter Biden’s laptop shows he brought his Mexican business partners to a meeting with his then-VP father in Washington, while his emails list favors he did for them – including one sent from Air Force Two with Joe Biden on board.
Now president, Biden has steadfastly denied involvement in his son Hunter’s business schemes, most of which appear to involve trading on the family name to score lucrative deals abroad. Yet the newest batch of information from his laptop, published by the New York Post, shows him posing with Hunter, his US business partner, and three Mexican magnates at the official vice-presidential residence after a breakfast meeting in 2015.
Column’s up: Breakfast with Mexican billionaires at the VP’s residence, flights on AF2: Hunter Biden’s laptop shows the extraordinary access VP Joe gave his son’s business associates. https://t.co/ApTBjP71ER
Post columnist Miranda Devine, whose book about the ‘Laptop from Hell’ is coming out in September, laid out the information in an opinion piece on Wednesday evening. She said five photos date-stamped on November 19, 2015 show Joe Biden, Hunter, his business partner Jeff Cooper, and Mexican billionaires Carlos Slim and Miguel Aleman Velasco.
There is no mistaking the background of the photos: the living room of the Naval Observatory residence, painted in a color chosen by then-Second Lady Jill Biden, and decorated with distinctive paintings and family photographs.
Slim is best known as the telecommunications mogul that rescued the New York Times from bankruptcy in 2008 and became its largest single shareholder in January 2015. One photo also features Velasco’s son Miguel Aleman Magnani, founder of the budget airline Interjet – whose Acapulco villa Hunter and his wife stayed in earlier that year.
Hunter had done favors for Magnani, too. In 2013, he secured him three tickets to the Obama-Biden inaugural ball. In March 2014 and January 2015, he set up meetings with Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and called him to “let him know we are buddies,” according to emails on the laptop.
In an email to Foxx’s scheduling director, Laura DeCastro ahead of the second meeting, Hunter wrote that Aleman “is a close family friend, but I have no business with the company.” A separate meeting was set up with the Federal Aviation Authority administrator as well.
Yet when Hunter expected Magnani to help smooth out visa problems for Ukrainian oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky – owner of Burisma, which hired the younger Biden to sit on its board after the 2014 coup in Kiev – the Mexican magnate did not come through.
“Going to have to do some serious back pedaling with Burisma,” Hunter emailed Cooper on February 16, 2015, adding it would “most likely” jeopardize his board position, though in the end it did not.
“I am shocked Miguel didn’t come through at crunch time,” Cooper replied, adding that “they clearly value the relationship with your family AND they know they could sustain serious damage here by making enemies with you… Maybe a call from you or your dad to his dad? Maybe that shakes things loose.”
“I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings”
On February 24, 2016, Joe Biden flew to Mexico City for an official visit. Hunter was traveling along, and sent an email to Magnani from Air Force Two complaining about how they’d been talking about business deals “for 7 years” and how he brought “every single person you have ever asked me to bring to the f’ing White House and the Vice President’s house and the inauguration” only for the Mexican magnate to “go completely silent.”
Devine and the New York Post first published some of the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop in October 2020, a month ahead of the US presidential election – only to be censored by social media platforms who claimed the materials had been “hacked,” and denounced by former spies as “Russian disinformation.” The newspaper’s Twitter account was locked for weeks.
After the election, Hunter admitted the laptop – abandoned in a Delaware repair shop and turned over to both the Post and the federal authorities – “could be” his, but said he couldn’t remember, referring to the time period when he was addicted to crack cocaine. He maintained it could have been hacked or altered by “Russian” spies or someone, but independent forensic experts have concluded its contents are authentic.
Investigators in France have raided the country’s Ministry of Justice as part of an inquiry into Eric Dupond-Moretti, the man appointed by President Emmanuel Macron to shake up the legal system, his lawyer has said.
Dupond-Moretti, who was made justice minister in July 2020, is being investigated after conflict-of-interest complaints were filed against him by France’s largest magistrates’ unions.
They argue that some of his work as a high-profile lawyer prior to his government role makes him biased against certain judges.
The minister has claimed the unions are seeking to stop his intended changes to the justice system, including televising court events and updating judges’ training handbooks.
His legal representative, Christophe Ingrain, said on Thursday that his client was “calm” after the search, which he said had involved 20 armed gendarmes in what was a “totally disproportionate” use of force.
Speaking to reporters outside the Ministry of Justice, Ingrain accused investigators of a “violation” of Dupond-Moretti’s privacy.
Ingrain said he did not know what material investigators were seeking, but told the media on Thursday evening that the raid was ongoing.
He said the search efforts had been complicated by the discovery of safes without keys which dated back to the 1960s and had to be broken into by a locksmith.
Before Dupond-Moretti took up his role, he claimed the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) had unlawfully seized his and other lawyers’ phone records as part of a corruption investigation into former French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
He filed a complaint – which he later dropped – against a magistrate in the PNF who he said had used “cowboy methods” to access evidence.
Dupond-Moretti’s efforts to file a case against the judge are one of two matters unions see as a potential conflict of interest.
The other is that he represented a Monaco police officer who was being investigated by a local magistrate for suspected corruption.
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Jason Miller, a former spokesperson for Donald Trump, has launched a new social media network called GETTR, which will directly challenge “social media monopolies” and battle “cancel culture.”
The app quietly went live in mid-June and there have been approximately a thousand downloads thus far across platform stores such as Google and Apple, according to Politico, without much advertisement. The platform will be officially launched on July 4, Miller tweeted on Thursday.
GETTR’s description on the Apple Store describes it as a “non-bias social network for people all over the world” who wish to “express their opinion freely.”
The app, which is rated ‘M’ and aimed at those aged 17 and above, has a near-perfect score in the store, based on some 1,100 ratings. Users describe it as similar in function to Twitter, which was just one of many social media platforms to boot Trump from their service following the January 6 Capitol riot.
GETTR’s mission statement declares it is “fighting cancel culture, promoting common sense, defending free speech, challenging social media monopolies, and creating a true marketplace of ideas.”
Such a statement suggests Trump may have potential involvement in the new platform, given his frequent criticisms of existing social media companies and their alleged bias against conservative users. Since getting booted from Twitter, he communicated for a short time from a blog page set up for the former president.
There is no word yet as to whether he has any involvement in GETTR, or if he plans on being a future user, but Miller’s relationship with the former president suggests the app could be the answer to his lack of a social media platform to use as an pulic outlet. Last week, Trump joined Rumble, a video-platform service that has become popular among conservatives, with his eldest son, Donald Jr., being one of many who have frequently posted there.
Like Twitter, GETTR includes feeds by individual users, a search function, and a sidebar on which trending topics are listed. Some of those topics have included Trump’s name and other conservative interests such as the National Rifle Association and the origins of Covid-19.
Liberals on social media have been quick to dismiss the new platform and its unusual name.
GETTR? What if we want to help her, support her, listen to her, assist her efforts to overcome the patriarchal barriers that have been in place for generations and that try to knock her down and stifle her potential and say she is not capable when she can do anything? https://t.co/Iq7kY8un1Z
Some conservative users, however, have already been celebrating GETTR, and right-leaning outlets, such as Newsmax, have announced their arrival on the platform.
ITS FINALLY HERE! The social media app we have all been waiting for!
Sign up NOW for early access to GETTR—a new social media platform created by Trump Advisor @JasonMillerinDC. https://t.co/jEnuErL0WN
Others noted that some accounts have content dating back years. When signing up for the app, the platform gives the option to import content from Twitter if the same username is being used.
Critics were keen to point out the large number of followers garnered by new users of the service, and questioned the authenticity of the count. Newsmax, for example, has more than 906,000 followers on GETTR, but only 905,000 on Twitter.
Newsmax supposedly already has 900K followers on Gettr (Team Trump's Twitter knockoff) but if you go through the list, a bunch are just the same "people" repeated over and over again pic.twitter.com/aQdmeOdgja
Senatorial candidate and conservative author Sean Parnell, similarly, has 2,000 more followers on GETTR than Twitter, while Daily News, an account that does not appear on Twitter, has only some 2,700 in total, suggesting counts may include Twitter followers for users moving from one platform to another.
A group of cat burglars who stole millions of dollars' worth of goods from the Paris residences of big names in sport, television and music, including ex-PSG stars Thiago Silva and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, have been sentenced.
The eight criminals, including one known as 'The Cat' for his agility and another who vowed to escape and repeat his crimes, carried out a series of seven burglaries from 2018 to 2019.
In addition to the two footballers, their victims included TV host Patrick Sebastien, rapper Booba, celebrity chef Jean-Pierre Vigato, a Saudi Arabian businessman and a high-profile law firm.
Aged between 27 and 31, seven of them were men who took part in the burglaries while a woman was convicted of receiving stolen goods and possession of a weapon.
Thiago Silva's house in France was robbed when he was away with PSG. €1m worth damages; including a €600,000 worth watch.
In her home, they found a handgun and handwritten notes that contained the names and addresses of other intended targets including TV presenters Laurent Ruquier and Thierry Ardisson, as well as French sports commentator Pierre Menes.
The court heard how the gang broke into their victims' residences when they were away, either through windows or bay windows, by employing gutters and cornices.
Stealing jewelry, luxury watches and leather goods, their haul totaled an estimated $5 million.
The longest of the sentences were given to two men: Mohamed S., known as 'The Cat', and Abdelazim G, who both received six years' imprisonment in addition to a $23,700 fine.
The five other men were given sentences ranging from one to four years' imprisonment and fines of around $6,000 to $18,000 for their part in the burglaries.
In total, the seven men copped as many as nine to thirty convictions each. On trial, they claimed they made mere tens of thousands of dollars from reselling the stolen items – blowing the spoils on cars, traveling and living the high life in nightclubs.
As Mohamed was led away by a police escort, Abdelazim reportedly shouted: "I'm going to get out of prison. I'm definitely going to do it again."
The man rumored to be in talks to lead Russian champions Zenit is in St. Petersburg on Friday, but Vladimir Petkovic insists he is fully focused on shocking Spain – including Man City star Aymeric Laporte – with Switzerland.
Impressive Bosnian-Swiss boss Petkovic was tight-lipped when asked by RT Sport about a potential switch to the Champions League regulars, who reportedly made a move for the 57-year-old after Switzerland's stunning shoot-out win against pre-tournament favorites France on Monday, scoring twice in the final ten minutes of normal time before holding out and going through courtesy of five excellent penalties.
Zenit manager Sergei Semak has consistently come under pressure, not least because of a dismal second successive group stage exit from Europe's most prestigious club competition last season, losing five and drawing one of their games in a limp showing despite their expensively-assembled squad.
Petkovic prefered to talk about his return to Russia, where he oversaw a fine World Cup campaign three years ago, with an unbeaten group stage that included a win over Serbia and draws with Brazil and Costa Rica.
Switzerland visited the Gazprom Arena once, losing 1-0 to Sweden in the round of 16 – and Petkovic would love to exorcize that defeat by recording another sensational victory over three-time Euro champions Spain.
"Coming back to Russia is always nice," said Petkovic ahead of the intriguing quarter-final clash. "I have more positive feelings than negative [about the World Cup].
"I can’t remember exactly how the matches went. I’m focused on tomorrow to improve and get better. We want to prove ourselves and not hide. What we’ve shown so far was good. From today, we need to be hungry again."
Even if they can match the magnificent performance that ousted World Cup winners France, Switzerland will have a strong chance of eliminating a Spain side who have frequently looked fragile in the finals.
On a manic, memorable Monday, fans thought they had seen ample drama for one evening when Spain survived Croatia coming back from 3-1 down to force a period of extra-time in which La Roja scored twice without reply.
Asked #Sui manager Vladimir Petkovic about the rumours of an offer from Zenit at today's presser, got fobbed off but he did admit it was 'always nice' to be in Russia though. #Euro2020pic.twitter.com/lXqe98C0Cs
Looking destined for an expected exit after falling 3-1 behind with 75 minutes played, Switzerland produced a thrilling, unlikely riposte through Haris Seferovic and a 90th-minute Mario Gavranovic leveler, then watched Kylian Mbappe miss the decisive spot kick.
"[The players] have to put aside [the France game], but you need these emotions and satisfaction," reflected Petkovic, asking his players for more despite the draining nature of their remarkable win and the enforced omission of suspended captain Granit Xhaka. "We had video analysis of the game and training.
"We need to be physically fit after three days [from the last game]. I’m confident that we’ll show this hunger [against Spain].
"I think we’re a team that works well. If someone like Xhaka is missing, we could miss him a lot – but everyone has to give 10 percent more, not just to replace Xhaka but to win the game. It’s a great opponent; they’ve scored 10 goals in their last two games."
Petkovic has an admirer in counterpart Luis Enrique. "[He] has coached over 70 games – he’s a top coach," said the Spain coach.
"Regardless of the players, you know they will cause you problems. They’re a tough team to beat. They can do anything, just like us."
Spain have won only once in 90 minutes in four matches at the finals, yet Enrique is bullish about their chances despite their near-capitulation against Croatia, claiming that he has not seen a better team than his at the showpiece.
Enrique hopes zero-to-hero goalkeeper Unai Simon will forget the howler that saw him miscontrol a pass to gift Croatia the lead, concentrating instead on the inspired performance he delivered during the remainder of the game.
"You don’t have to beat yourself up about things like that," said Enrique. "The important thing is how to react to mistakes.
"He did a fantastic job of that. I think it was Rafael Nadal who said that [sportspeople] have to have memories like fish, so you don’t remember things.
"Of course you have to look at mistakes, but Simon’s mistake wasn’t a conceptual mistake – it was about execution.
"We saw what we wanted from him; he dominated in the air and allowed us to defend far from our box, which is what we needed from him."
Premier League winner Laporte will be in front of Simon. "We need to approach these games as if they were finals," he warned. "We can’t slip up because that would mean going home.
"I don’t know if we’re the favorites or not [against Switzerland]; time will tell. We’ve shown we’re a very good side in the past few games.
"We’ve shown we’re a tough team to beat. We’re really looking forward to going further now.
"Obviously we need to be more alert and improve some things, but the most important thing is winning, and that’s what we did [against Croatia]."
The winners of the showdown will face Belgium or Italy in the semifinals at Wembley.
The Russian Foreign Ministry is awaiting explanations from Berlin following a reported top-secret meeting with Luxembourg officials over a broadcasting license for RT’s planned German-language TV channel.
The media outlet is attempting to secure the license in Luxembourg for a TV channel under the provisional name RT auf Deutsch. The signal would be coming from a studio in Moscow, with existing sister company RT DE Productions GmbH, which is based in Berlin, providing talk shows, exclusive interviews, and news reports.
Meanwhile, the plan to expand the news coverage is facing a pushback from the media in Germany. For instance, newspaper Der Tagesspiegel alleged in June that RT was waging a smear campaign against Annalena Baerbock, the candidate for the German chancellorship from the Green party. Tagesspiegel claimed Baerbock’s critical views on the policies of the Russian Federation had angered President Vladimir Putin.
While not singling out this particular report, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, on Thursday lambasted media attacks against the outlet, saying the German media is essentially behaving “beyond any professional ethic line.” She recalled RT being labelled ‘‘Kremlin’s mouthpiece” as well as a “weapon of propaganda.”
“It’s not even a negative [coverage]… It’s an outright information war that has been declared to the Russian channel by the German media.”
According to the spokeswoman, among those taking part in the campaign are outlets like Spiegel and Focus, as well as tabloid Bild. The latter is notorious for its Russia-bashing publications.
On top of the media pressure, RT seems to be facing a serious pushback from “state services” in Germany.
“Isn’t it time to just stop? Isn’t it time to get back to the high values, which Berlin has been preaching to the world when it comes to free speech,” Zakharova remarked.
RT DE Productions GmbH has for some time been facing intense pressure in its hosting country, with German banks, for example, refusing to service it, or drastically changing their terms for the worse.
In mid-June RT applied for a broadcasting license in Luxembourg, in accordance with EU rules on foreign media. However, that same month the newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported that the issue had been discussed by German and Luxembourg officials via a secure link.The report begs further questions about Berlin’s involvement and Russia would like to hear some explanation, Zakharova said.
“We found it strange and regretful seeing how the fundamental right of the German people to disseminate and consume information is being violated,” she remarked.
The Russian government earlier said that attempts to obstruct the work of RT-affiliated media outlets in Germany were perceived as hostile by Moscow. German journalists working in Russia may face “tough reciprocal measures” because of it, the Foreign Ministry warned.
RT is set to launch its German-speaking TV channel in December this year.
Allen Weisselberg, chief financial officer of Trump Organization, has pleaded not guilty to charges of grand larceny, tax fraud, falsifying business records and conspiracy brought by New York prosecutors.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance and New York Attorney General Letitia James, both Democrats, attended the court hearing on Thursday. Weisselberg was brought into the courtroom in handcuffs, having surrendered himself to the authorities earlier in the day.
Prosecutors alleged the CFO, who has been with the Trump Organization since 1973, engaged in “a sweeping and audacious illegal payment scheme.” The charges focused on benefits payments that were allegedly made to evade taxes.
JUST IN - Trump chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg pleads not guilty to criminal charges. He is charged with scheme conspiracy, grand larceny, criminal tax fraud, falsifying business records. pic.twitter.com/YOwojzXrkr
In a statement released on Thursday, the Trump Organization said Weisselberg was being targeted "as a pawn in a scorched-earth attempt to harm the former president.”
“The District Attorney is bringing a criminal prosecution involving employee benefits that neither the IRS nor any other District Attorney would ever think of bringing. This is not justice; this is politics,” said the statement.
The investigation began two years ago – while Donald Trump was president – and spiraled out from alleged hush payments sent by his personal attorney Michael Cohen. It saw prosecutors go all the way to the US Supreme Court in order to obtain Trump’s tax returns. Trump has denounced it as a politically motivated witch hunt.
Prosecutors were hoping to pressure Weisselberg into cooperating with their “wide-ranging investigation” of Trump, according to CNN.
However, Weisselberg’s attorneys said he intended to fight the charges in court.
The OPEC+ alliance expects a significant overhang of oil supply on the market after April 2022 when the current production cut pact expires, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing an internal report of an OPEC+ panel it had seen.
“In 2022, a significant increase is seen, leading to an overhang of 181 million barrels by the end of the year,” the Joint Technical Committee (JTC) of the OPEC+ group said in the report.
While OPEC+ sees commercial oil stocks in OECD nations below the five-year average for the rest of this year, it expects the oversupply to return in the second half of next year, according to the JTC’s internal report Reuters has seen.
This assessment of the panel, whose meeting on Tuesday launched this week’s decision-making gatherings of the coalition, suggests that OPEC+ may opt to continue the ongoing deal in some form after April 2022 to ensure a balanced oil market.
Currently, the group keeps around 5.7 million barrels per day (bpd) off the market under an agreement reached in April 2020 and set to expire in April 2022.
OPEC+ is set to decide on July 1 how to proceed with its oil supply management policy in August.
The alliance said on Tuesday that the overall conditions in the oil market had significantly improved in an optimistic assessment of fundamentals and prospects ahead of Thursday’s decision.
“The overall brighter picture in relation to the pandemic recovery efforts has led to significantly improved oil market conditions and prospects for future growth,” OPEC Secretary-General Mohammad Barkindo said at the meeting of the Joint Technical Committee (JTC) on Tuesday.
Analysts largely expect OPEC+ to decide on Thursday to further ease the cuts as of August 1, with most experts gravitating toward a 500,000-bpd increase for the month of August.
Reports emerged on Tuesday that the leaders of the OPEC+ group, Saudi Arabia and Russia, are once again at odds about the easing of the cuts, with Moscow pushing for a more aggressive supply boost and Riyadh preferring a more gradual approach.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping urged his compatriots to “smash” any attempts at independence from Taipei, calling for “reunification” with the island in an address marking the 100th anniversary of the ruling Communist Party.
In an extensive speech from Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on Wednesday, Xi hailed China’s progress at home, such as rooting out “absolute poverty,” and warned foreign powers against attempts to “bully” or lecture China.
Speaking on the issue of Taiwan, which has become a bone of contention between Beijing and Washington, with the latter routinely sending warships into the sensitive waters of the Taiwan Strait, Xi called “the complete reunification of the motherland” one of the most pressing challenges Beijing faces.
Solving the Taiwan question and realizing the complete reunification of the motherland are the unswerving historical tasks of the Chinese Communist Party and the common aspiration of all Chinese people.
Xi added that the endeavor will require people in mainland China and Taiwan to pool their efforts and “move forward in solidarity, resolutely smashing any ‘Taiwan independence’ plots.”
While the Chinese leader urged third parties not to “underestimate” the ability of the Chinese people to protect the nation’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, he stressed that Beijing looks forward to a “peaceful” reunification with the self-governing island, which Beijing considers to be an integral part of the country.
In response, Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council asked Beijing “to respect Taiwan’s persistence in the development of cross-strait relations and to abandon the imposed political framework and military intimidation.”
Although the US has not formally recognized Taiwan, it has not hidden its apparent support for Taipei’s independence, inflaming the already strained relations with Beijing by regular shows of force in the Strait. Under the Joe Biden administration, Washington has stepped up its diplomatic contacts with the island, drawing anger from Beijing. In April, an unofficial delegation of US diplomats visited Taiwan to send a “personal signal” from Biden.
Last month, Washington rallied the G7 members to issue a communiqué critical of China, which also sounded the alarm over the situation in the South China Sea, prompting Beijing to fire back at the “clique.” Shortly afterwards, Taipei accused Beijing of sending 28 military jets to the island in what was reported to be the largest flyover to date, while Beijing vowed to respond to any attempt at “collusion” with Taiwan aimed at undermining the “status quo.”
Nine people were injured after an enormous stockpile of illicit fireworks erupted in a violent blast in South LA, following a police raid that seized thousands of pounds of pyrotechnics from a black market seller.
The explosion occurred on Wednesday night during a botched disposal operation, after LA police confiscated around 5,000 pounds in hand-made fireworks from a suspect earlier in the afternoon. Nine were wounded in the blast, according to the LA Fire Department, though their condition was not immediately clear.
Local media outlets and at least one bystander captured the incident on video, showing an armored box containing the fireworks as it erupted, destroying both the container and the flatbed truck that was carrying it. Nearby cars – including one that was knocked onto its side – homes and other buildings also sustained significant damage.
WATCH: Sky9 was overhead when police attempted to detonate a stash of illegal fireworks that ended in an explosion in the 700 block of East 27th Street in South L.A. https://t.co/KpWiAEoyqvpic.twitter.com/UbIXLDoZjh
Video: The moment a truck carrying illegal fireworks, which was confiscated by the LAPD, exploded in South Los Angeles. At least 9 people were injured and multiple buildings were damaged. pic.twitter.com/Scx8BswqlQ
While the exact cause of the blast remains unclear, police said the fireworks were placed in the armored container as a precaution after they were seized from a 24-year-old suspect. The man was arrested on suspicion of possessing fireworks and destructive devices, as well as child endangerment, according to KTLA.
