Three members of an Eastern European crime group were arrested in a thwarted murder-for-hire plot targeting a U.S. journalist and human rights activist of Iranian origin who is a prominent critic of Iran, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Friday. One of the men, 24-year-old New York resident Khalid Mehdiyev, was apprehended in late July with an AK-47-style assault rifle near the victim’s home in Brooklyn as he was about to “execute the attack on the victim,” according to an indictment unsealed Friday in Manhattan federal court. Authorities said the plot was conducted at the behest of unidentified individuals in Iran.…
Author: Michael Johnson
As the Texas Rangers got ready to face the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday, pitcher Patrick Corbin’s lead-up to the game was out of the ordinary to say the least. Corbin suffered a bite by an unknown insect two days before the contest, which had him doubting he’d play – but by what? “Something bit me, but I still don’t know what,” Corbin told reporters Thursday, per MLB.com Rangers writer Kennedi Landry. Such was the severity of the bite, Rangers manager Bruce Bochy was even unsure if Corbin would be able to start the game due to his lack of mobility. “He had a bite.…
A U.S. journalist has been detained in Russia, her employer said, the second such case since the war in Ukraine started. Alsu Kurmasheva, a dual Russian-American reporter with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), was detained in the southwest Russian city of Kazan on Wednesday while awaiting the return of her passports, her employer said in a statement released on Thursday. RFE/RL said Kurmasheva, who is based in Prague, has been charged with failure to register as a foreign agent, a designation Russia requires of any organizations or individuals that it perceives as receiving foreign funding. It has been used to target journalists and people who…
“Cheap goods” sold on Temu and Shein aren’t as cheap as they were 24 hours ago. On Friday, the two companies raised prices on many goods in advance of new tariffs set to take effect next week. The companies had informed shoppers of the coming price hikes last week. American customers of Temu and Shein, which source most of their products from China, have largely been able to avoid paying tariffs due to an exemption on shipments of goods worth less than $800. That exemption, known as “de minimis,” is expiring on May 2, the result of an executive order President…
As Rory McIlroy sunk to his knees in celebration, the party of all parties was about to begin. McIlroy ended his long wait to win the Masters last Sunday, joining an exclusive list of golfers to complete golf’s career grand slam – winning each of the four majors. And back in his native Northern Ireland, the celebrations were just about to begin, despite the late hour. Images from inside the Holywood Golf Club clubhouse – the place where McIlroy began his golfing journey and where he is an honorary member – show the pure delight at seeing one of their own finally banish…
American journalist Evan Gershkovich will stand trial in Russia on charges of spying for the CIA, prosecutors announced Thursday. Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter, was arrested in March 2023 on what many in the West consider trumped-up charges by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s repressive government. President Joe Biden has repeatedly called on Putin to release Gershkovich, 32, who was arrested while on a reporting trip in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg. Gershkovich, his employer and the U.S. government have all vehemently denied the allegations. After more than a year in pretrial detention, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office said Thursday that Gershkovich’s case would be sent…
The King has thanked journalists working in local media for shining “a light in dark corners” – even though they don’t “always get it right”. Charles praised the regional press for its “vital role” in society in a time when “too much focus is given to that which divides us”. The monarch shared his tribute ahead of a reception for regional media at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday evening, thanked those in the industry for helping to “amplify and reaffirm the rights and responsibilities we all share”. He did however note mistakes sometimes made by the press, but remained certain the industry at its best is a “cornerstone…
When Jeffrey Goldberg published a bombshell story outlining how some of the most senior US officials had mistakenly shared sensitive information with him, he obtained the biggest scoop of the year. The Atlantic editor also became the prime target for every senior Trump administration official in Washington. In the last couple of days, he’s been called a “loser” and a “sleazebag” by President Donald Trump, as well as a liar and “scum” by US National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, who appeared to have mistakenly added Goldberg to a group chat earlier this month. Before he became a political lightning rod,…
The White House reacted furiously on Wednesday after The Atlantic magazine published messages between national security officials in a Signal group chat in their entirety. President Donald Trump called the reporting “all a witch hunt” and declared the publication a “failed magazine”. Jeffrey Goldberg, the journalist who was inadvertently included in the chat among senior cabinet leaders, shared texts in which US defence secretary Pete Hegseth provided sensitive information such as detailed timetables and unit information ahead of a US strike in Yemen. Goldberg said he decided to publish the information after the Trump administration accused him of lying that classified information…
health correspondent Rebecca Thomas has been named the best health journalist in the British Journalism Awards, and commended for the “huge impact” of her work. Ms Thomas’s work revealed the scandal of rape and sexual assault of patients within NHS mental health trusts, a “culture of fear” allowing nurses to abuse their patients, and the case of an autistic man who was repeatedly locked up in dementia care units and abused by nurses. Judges at the prestigious awards named Ms Thomas the winner of the Health and Life Sciences category, describing her work as “three significant examples of dogged journalism which had a huge impact”. Ms Thomas said: “I’m…