From a White House Rose Garden podium this afternoon, President Donald Trump declared that he has been “100 percent right” on continued Iran nuclear development and brand new evidence from the Israeli Prime Minister proves that.
Moments before President Trump and Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari held a joint press conference in the White House Rose Garden on Monday afternoon, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took to television airwaves. Netanyahu announced that he was in possession of intelligence that proves Tehran has been running a secret nuclear weapons development program.
President Trump was asked about Netanyahu’s announcement moments later during the joint press conference. He was also asked if he had made a decision on whether to pull out of the Iranian nuclear deal and if Trump does decide to pull out, does it send the wrong message to North Korea regarding a potential nuclear deal there.
“No, I think it sends the right message,” remarked Trump. “In seven years that deal will have expired and Iran is free to go ahead and create nuclear weapons. That’s not acceptable. Seven years is tomorrow.”
“If anything it’s proven right, what Israel has done today with the news conference and Prime Minister Netanyahu just gave a very … I got to see a little bit of it,” said Trump. “That is just not an acceptable situation.”
“I’ve been saying that’s happening,” said Trump. “They’re not sitting back idly they’re setting off missiles which they say are for television purposes. I don’t think so.”
“We’ll see what happens,” said Trump who remarked that many have said they believe they know what he’s going to do, hinting that they believe he is going to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal. A decision on whether to pull out will be made on or before May 12.
“That doesn’t mean we won’t negotiate a real agreement,” President Trump assured. He added that the current agreement “wasn’t approved by too many people and it’s a horrible agreement for the United States, including the fact, Mr. President [Buhari], that we gave Iran 150 billion dollars and 1.8 billion in cash. Nigeria would like some of that.”
“You know what we got? We got nothing,” Trump said of the Iran deal.
Trump concluded, “I think if anything, what’s happening today and what’s happened over the last little while and what we’ve learned has really shown that I’ve been 100 percent right.”
The estranged daughter of Jackie Chan, Etta Ng, has made claims she and her girlfriend are homeless due to ‘homophobic parents’.
Ng, who is Chan’s daughter via an affair, spoke in a YouTube video how her and her girlfriend, Andi Autumn – a social media influencer from Canada, are living rough and sleeping ‘under a bridge’.
The two are now appealing for help from the online community after being homeless for a month. The 18-year-old is Chan’s daughter, via an affair he had with Hong Kong actress Elaine Ng. However, the international action star rarely acknowledges her in public.
Last week Ng and Autumn recorded a two-minute long video, which was uploaded to YouTube, letting people know their situation.
In the video Ng introduces who herself as ‘Jackie Chan’s daughter’ alongside her ‘girlfriend Andi’, she claims:
We’ve been homeless for a month due to homophobic parents. We pretty much slept under a bridge.
The couple claims they’ve reached out to the police, food banks and LGBTQ+ centres for help but they keep getting turned away. Autumn says authorities may force the two to be separated if they get help from a shelter.
Ng goes onto say:
… all of them just don’t give a shit. So that’s why we’re making this video because we don’t know what to do at this point.
We just want to let people know what’s going on because at this point it seems ridiculous that no one can help. I don’t understand.
In an interview with The Express back in 2015, Ng claimed she and Chan don’t have much of a relationship, she regards him as a stranger who is far from earning her forgiveness ‘after all these years’.
In the interview she also says:
He is not my dad. I have no feelings for him. He is my biological father but he is not in my life.
He never existed in my life. I will never regard him as a father.
I would not say that he is my dad. I would say, ‘Oh, Jackie Chan, an actor’.
Embraer
Chan himself has been very reluctant to mention his estranged daughter, according to MailOnline one of the rare occasions he spoke about her was during a promotion for 2004’s Around The World In 80 Days.
Chan said:
I know I have failed my daughter, but since her mother is that kind of a person, I don’t know how to treat [my daughter].
Getty
In her video with Autumn, which has amassed over 64K views on YouTube, Ng said:
Two people in love that share true love are trying not to get split apart and they’re trying to f**k us over just because – I don’t understand it – I love her.
According to Asian Correspondent, same-sex marriage and civil unions are not recognised in Hong Kong. Furthermore the LBGT+ experience constant discrimination and ‘social stigma’.
Ng came out publicly last October about her sexuality. Making the announcement via her Instagram account she wrote after ‘years of negativity, living in shame’ and fear she came to realise ‘it’s easier to accept that I am never meant to love or be loved’.
The 80-year-old comedian was accused of drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004.
Comedian Bill Cosby was found guilty on Thursday on three felony counts of aggravated indecent assault by a Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, jury.
Cosby, 80, was retried on three felony counts of aggravated indecent assault for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004. Constand, 44, was a former women’s basketball coach at Temple University where Cosby was a trustee and major donor during the time he assaulted her.
“This is an extraordinary case to have jury service,” Judge Steven O’Neill told the jurors after announcing the verdict. “You have sacrificed much, but you have sacrificed in the service of justice.”
A sentencing date for the comedian has not been set. Each count of felony aggravated indecent assault carries a sentence of five to 10 years. The maximum Cosby could be sentenced to is 30 years, though it could be as little as five.
According to reports, people in the courtroom gasped as the guilty verdict was handed down. Lili Bernard, who was allegedly assaulted by Cosby, and her friend Caroline Heldman fled the courtroom in tears, hugging one another.
Cosby lashed out at prosecutors after they requested to revoke his bail, with District Attorney Kevin Steele pointing out that Cosby owns a plane. The comedian reportedly shouted in response: “He doesn’t have a plane, you asshole!”
Constand was seen hugging friends and family and smiling as she walked out of the courtroom. Cosby exited the courtroom swiftly, holding onto the arm of his spokesman, Andrew Wyatt.
A few of Cosby’s accusers spoke at a news conference after the guilty verdict was handed down.
“It is a victory for womanhood,” said Lili Bernard, an accuser and former actress on “The Cosby Show.” “It is a victory for all sexual assault survivors, female and male.”
Another accuser, Janice Baker-Kinney, said she felt “vindicated.”
“We are vindicated, we are validated and we are now part of the tsunami of women’s power and justice,” she said. “We are not shutting up and we’re not going away. Get over it!”
Attorney Gloria Allred, who represents 33 of Cosby’s accusers, also spoke after the trial.
“We are so happy that finally we can say that women are believed and not only on hashtag MeToo, but in a court of law where they were under oath, where they testified truthfully, where they were attacked, where they were smeared, where they were denigrated, where there were attempts to discredit them,” Allred said. “When all is said and done: Women were finally believed.”
Allred read a statement on behalf of one of the witnesses, Chelan Lasha, whose testimony was used as evidence of Cosby’s prior bad acts to establish a pattern of behavior. “Thirty-two years of nightmares and tears are over,” Lasha’s statement said.
Cosby’s attorney Tom Mesereau said the defense team is “very disappointed” by the verdict, adding that “the fight is not over.” He said Cosby’s defense team plans to appeal the verdict.
In June of last year, a jury failed to reach a unanimous decision on the charges and the judge declared a mistrial. Cosby reportedly paid Constand $3.4 million in a civil lawsuit settlement in 2006.
GILBERT CARRASQUILLO VIA GETTY IMAGESCosby outside of the Montgomery County Courthouse during the fifth day of his retrial on April 13, 2018.
The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network released a statement applauding the jury’s decision.
“RAINN is pleased with the jury’s decision in this case. There are many forces that discourage victims from reporting these crimes,” RAINN President Scott Berkowitz said. “Let’s hope the legacy of this case is that victims feel empowered to come forward, knowing that it can truly make a difference in bringing perpetrators to justice.”
“[R]emember this case is about trust, betrayal and the inability to consent,” Assistant District Attorney Kristen Feden said in her closing arguments on Tuesday, according to Deadline.
Assistant District Attorney M. Stewart Ryan added during his closing arguments that “it is time for each and every one of you to stand with Andrea Constand and tell the truth about what he did.”
Throughout the prosecution’s closing arguments, Cosby was reportedly smiling. Feden called out the comedian’s smirks during her closing arguments.
“He’s laughing like it’s funny,” Feden said. “But there’s absolutely nothing funny about them being stripped of their capacity to consent.”
In the defense’s closing arguments, Cosby’s attorneys attempted to sway the jury by blaming the recent Me Too movement.
“When you join a movement based primarily on emotion and anger, you don’t change a damned thing, which is why each single case must be examined on its merits. All of the evidence must be weighed,” defense attorney Kathleen Bliss said, according to ABC News.
“Yes, we do have to deal with sexual assault. We do. It’s a worldwide problem,” Bliss continued. “But questioning an accuser is not shaming a victim. Gut feelings are not rational decisions. Mob rule is not due process, and just as we have had horrible, horrible crimes in our history, we’ve also had horrible, horrible periods of time where emotion and hatred and fear overwhelmed us: witch hunts, lynchings, McCarthyism.”
This trial was slightly different from last year’s because O’Neill allowed five additional accusers to testify, as their stories closely resembled the claims made by Constand. Their testimonies were used as evidence of Cosby’s prior bad acts and allowed the prosecution to show a pattern of predatory behavior by Cosby.
The five other accusers who testified were former supermodel Janice Dickinson, Janice Baker-Kinney, Heidi Thomas, Lise-Lotte Lublin and Lasha.
Dickinson testified that Cosby drugged and raped her after the two had dinner at a Lake Tahoe, California, hotel.
“Here was ‘America’s Dad’ on top of me ― a happily married man with five children. And I remember thinking how wrong it was ― how very, very wrong,” she testified, adding later that she wanted to “punch him in the face.”
Cosby’s lawyers unsuccessfully sought a mistrial during the hearing. On April 11, a visibly emotional Lasha took the stand to testify that Cosby had drugged and assaulted her in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 1986 when she was 17 years old.
As the courtroom was being dismissed for a lunch break after Lasha’s testimony, Lasha looked at Cosby and said, “You know what you did” or “You remember, don’t you, Mr. Cosby?” according to various reports. O’Neill denied the defense’s mistrial request.
Warning: The image below contains nudity.
JESSICA KOURKOUNIS/REUTERS
Protester Nicolle Rochelle is subdued by police after breaking through the barriers as Cosby arrived on his first day of his sexual assault retrial.
The three-week trial was the first high-profile sexual assault case in the Me Too era and tensions were high. Dozens of protestors flocked to the Pennsylvania courtroom outside of Philadelphia.
One protestor named Nicolle Rochelle, who appeared on “The Cosby Show” in the 1990s, lunged at Cosby outside of the courtroom on the first day of the trial. Rochelle was topless and had the names of Cosby’s alleged victims written all over her body, with the words “women’s lives matter” written on her chest.
“He’s a man who’s disempowered women’s bodies for decades. It doesn’t seem to be recognized,” Rochelle told People at the time. “The case is being publicized with this narrative of race. He’s being painted as the victim. I wanted to emphasize that this is about rape. I wanted to make him uncomfortable and to make people think about women’s bodies.”
Other demonstrators protested in support of Cosby, claiming the entertainer is innocent. One protester passed out fliers at the courthouse throughout the trial that warned of “mass demonstrations” if Cosby is convicted.
More than 50 women have accused the veteran entertainer of sexual assault, with many saying he drugged and raped them.
Alfie Evans's parents have lost a last-ditch appeal in their fight to take the toddler to Italy for further treatment after his life support was removed.
Tom Evans, 21, and Kate James, 20, have challenged a High Court judge’s decision that their seriously ill son could not be taken to a hospital in Rome.
This evening, the Court of Appeal rejected both appeals.
The judges gave rulings on the appeal grounds brought by the father first and then by Alfie's mother.
They rejected all grounds raised by the parents.
Little Alfie is still "fighting" more than 40 hours after his life support was withdrawn, his family say(Image: Facebook)
Sir Andrew McFarlane, who is one of the highest-ranking family court judges in the UK, headed a panel of three judges at the London-based court.
He said: "This is awful for everyone concerned.
"We are in the middle of palliative care plan at Alder Hey Hospital. I can see no basis that judge was wrong."
The judges were told during the hearing that Alfie was “struggling” since being removed from life support on Monday evening.
Lord Justice McFarlane pointed out during the hearing that “the only determining factor is the best interests" of the little boy, adding: “What rights others have, particularly the parents, falls into a subsidiary category...”
The Court of Appeal in London heard today that Alfie (pictured with his dad Tom Evans) was "struggling"(Image: Internet Unknown)
Tom, 21, and Alfie's mum, Kate James, 20, had challenged a High Court judge’s decision that their son could not be taken to a hospital in Rome(Image: PA)
Earlier, Alfie's dad had said he would fight "all the way" to take his little boy abroad, saying he hoped the judges would overturn the previous decision.
However, Alfie's parents appealed against the judge's decision, claiming a German air ambulance team was "ready" to transport him to the city.
Speaking earlier today, Tom, from Liverpool, said he was still adamant that it was in his son's best interests to be transferred to an Italian hospital.
"Get him to Italy and we'll come back with him in a better condition than he's in now and I know they're not going to do that," he told the Liverpool Echo.
"They're not going to give him that chance.
"So I'm going to have to fight, legally, for that chance. I will all the way."
Alfie's parents posted this picture of him on social media after "19 hours breathing on his own"(Image: Internet Unknown)
Tom is pictured speaking to the Liverpool Echo outside Alder Hey Hospital this morning
The dad said he believes the little boy's breathing was being 'suppressed' while he was on life support - but now he's "content"(Image: Facebook)
Last night, the dad had claimed that an German air ambulance team was also "ready" to transport his son, who has a mystery brain condition, abroad.
And this afternoon, two people, believed to be members of the alleged air ambulance crew, were asked to leave Alder Hey Children's Hospital.
The man and woman, seen speaking to members of the Evans family, were escorted from the hospital by police and security staff.
More than 40 hours after Alfie's life support was withdrawn, the little boy continues to "fight" and has been breathing unassisted, his family say.
Tom told the Echo that he believes the toddler's breathing was being 'suppressed' while he was receiving life support - but now he's "content".
"He's more comfortable now he's got no tube and he's breathing for himself," the father told reporter Joe Thomas ahead of the Court of Appeal hearing.
Alfie's parents took their legal battle to the Court of Appeal this afternoon
High Court judge Mr Justice Hayden yesterday ruled out plans to fly Alfie to Rome, but urged British doctors to consider letting the tot go home(Image: Facebook)
He added: "He's off what people say is 'God's replacement'.
"No God no more, it's just Alfie - it's always been Alfie.
"I believe that ventilator was suppressing the breathing with the drugs.
"We have Alfie stable and ready to go. No sign of deterioration, no sigh of oxygen loss. No sign of suffocation or anything like that.
"He's stable, he's breathing, he's receiving water and some treatment and he's receiving his oxygen which is the most important thing."
Alfie, who has an undiagnosed degenerative brain condition, had his ventilator removed on Monday night following a series of court rulings upholding the decision that continued life support was not in his best interests.
Alfie has been at the centre of a life or death treatment battle for months(Image: Liverpool Echo)
The little boy, who has an undiagnosed brain condition, had his ventilator removed on Monday night(Image: AFP)
This afternoon, two people, believed to be members of a German air ambulance crew, were asked to leave Alder Hey Children's Hospital(Image: Daily Mirror)
But two days on, Tom said his son was still "fighting".
"He's comfortable, content, fighting - the three words I've used all the way through this case," said the dad, standing outside Alder Hey.
"He's more comfortable now he's got no tube and he's breathing for himself.
"I don't want to be big-headed and say 'I told you so' but we had to fight hard against this to say 'remove the drugs, remove the machine' and he's doing it now.
"He ain't showing no sign of suffering or that he needs support or anything."
Apparently positive about his son's condition, he added: "The nurses have been coming in to review him and they're happy he looks comfortable.
"He looks chilled. And that's what's the most important thing right now."
Protesters gathered outside the Liverpool-based hospital to protest against Alfie's life support being removed(Image: Getty Images Europe)
Speaking earlier today, Tom said he and Kate were "happy" with how their son was doing(Image: Daily Mirror)
Tom told the Echo he and Kate are "happy" with how their son is doing.
Alfie has been at the centre of a life or death treatment battle for months, with his parents repeatedly trying to block doctors from withdrawing life support.
After failing in their bid, they have been trying to take him to Italy for treatment.
Tom said earlier today: "We hope that at two o'clock the judge says this has got to be overturned. We hope Justice Hayden allows us to go Italy and if not we still keep on with what we're doing and are allowed to get him home."
The dad confirmed he would not be attending today's hearing.
