Category: US

CNN
 — 

Authorities in southwestern Oregon are warning that a man suspected of kidnapping a woman and beating her unconscious may now be using dating apps to evade capture or find potential new victims, according to police.

The suspect, 36-year-old Benjamin Obadiah Foster, has so far evaded capture but he appears active on online dating services, the Grants Pass Police Department said in a statement Friday.

“The investigation has revealed that the suspect is actively using online dating applications to contact unsuspecting individuals who may be lured into assisting with the suspect’s escape or potentially as additional victims,” Grants Pass Police said.

The search for Foster began Tuesday after officers found a woman who had been bound and severely beaten into unconsciousness, Grants Pass Police said. She was taken to a hospital in critical condition and is being guarded while the suspect remains at large, police said.

The man fled the scene before officers arrived, but investigators identified Foster as the suspect and asked members of the public to call 911 immediately if they see him, warning he “should be considered extremely dangerous.”

Police said Foster “likely received assistance in fleeing the area.” A 68-year-old woman was arrested “for Hindering Prosecution” as authorities searched for the suspect, according to the department.

As the search continues, a $2,500 reward has been offered for information leading to Foster’s capture. Police said he is wanted on suspicion of kidnapping, attempted murder and assault.

Prosecutors accused Foster of attempting to kill the victim “in the course of intentionally torturing” the woman, according to charging documents filed in court and obtained by CNN affiliate KDRV.

“This is a very serious offense – a brutal assault on one of our residents that we take extremely serious and we will not rest until we capture this individual,” Grants Pass Police Chief Warren Hensman said in a news conference Thursday.

This is not the first time Foster has been accused by authorities of violence against women.

Court records in Clark County, Nevada, show that Foster was charged in two different cases years earlier, accusing him of attacking women.

In the first case, Foster was charged with felony battery constituting domestic violence, court documents show. Foster’s ex-girlfriend testified in a preliminary hearing that he had attempted to strangle her in a rage in 2017 after another man texted her.

While that case was still pending in court, Foster was charged with felony assault, battery and kidnapping for allegedly attacking another woman – his girlfriend at the time – in 2019, charging documents show.

The victim told police “Foster strangled (her) to the point of unconsciousness several times” and kept her tied up for most of the next two weeks. She said she was only able to gain her freedom after convincing Foster they needed to go shopping for provisions, and escaped while in a store, according to the court records.

The woman was left with seven broken ribs, two black eyes and abrasions to her wrists and ankles from being tied up, according to a Las Vegas police report.

Foster ultimately agreed to plea deals in the cases, the documents read. He was sentenced to a maximum of 30 months in prison but given credit for 729 days served in the first case.

“Am I troubled by what I know already? The answer is yes,” Hensman said when asked about the previous charges in Nevada.

“We’re laser focused on capturing this man and bringing him to justice,” Hensman said.

CNN
 — 

The West’s decision to finally send tanks to Ukraine has caused some to ask the uncomfortable question: Does this mean that NATO is now in direct conflict with Russia? 

This narrative, which is being pushed hard by the Kremlin, undoubtedly helps Russian President Vladimir Putin and his allies deflect from the fact that Russia launched an unprovoked attack on Ukraine and illegally occupied parts of a sovereign state.  

It also, perhaps more conveniently for Putin, gives the NATO allies pause for thought when it comes to deciding exactly how much military assistance they should give Ukraine.  

First things first: the consensus among experts is that no NATO member is anywhere near what could be considered to be being at war with Russia by any internationally accepted legal definition. Therefore, the idea that the alliance is at war with Russia is a non-starter.  

“War would require strikes carried out by US or NATO forces, in uniform, attacking from NATO territory against Russian forces, Russian territory, or the Russian populace,” explains William Alberque, from the International Institute for Strategic Studies.  

“Any fighting by Ukraine – with any conventional weapons, against any Russian forces – is not US/NATO war on Ukraine, no matter how much Russia wants to claim it so,” he adds.  

Alberque points to the United Nations Charter, which states that nothing “shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security.” 

Russia is a permanent member of the UN Security Council and has used its veto to block condemnation of its actions in Ukraine.  

The Kremlin has certainly sought to exploit certain grey areas that are inherent in any modern warfare to incorrectly claim that NATO is the chief aggressor in the Ukraine conflict. 

Those grey areas might include the use of Western intelligence to carry out attacks on Russian targets.

They could also include the US launching the war on terror and invoking NATO’s Article 5 after the 9/11 attacks, in which America was attacked by terrorists rather than a nation state.

Russia’s Security Council secretary, Nikolai Patrushev, has claimed that the West is trying to “destroy” Russia. Anatoly Antonov, Russia’s ambassador to the United States, has said that the US administration is pushing Ukraine to “carry out terrorist attacks in Russia.” 

Of course, whatever slim merit there might be to these dubious claims, they pale in comparison to the documented brutality and illegal actions of Russian forces in Ukraine since Putin ordered the invasion. 

But the fact that they exist and are being taken seriously by analysts and commentators outside of Russia, including in Washington DC, plays into the Kremlin’s hands in more ways than one. 

John Herbst, former US ambassador to Ukraine and senior director of the Eurasia Center at the Atlantic Council, explains that promoting the idea of this being a NATO-Russian war helps explain to Putin’s domestic audience why the invasion has not succeeded as quickly as Russia had hoped. 

“Because the Russian military has been such a failure in Ukraine, it is helpful to explain this as a war with NATO rather than Ukraine. This also helps justify whatever steps Putin might take next, and Russia has been very keen to play up the idea that this might mean going nuclear,” Herbst told CNN. 

Herbst believes that Russia’s information war on the West has been more successful than its military campaign, in the sense that it has caused credible and rational people in Washington, DC to self-deter from backing increased military support to Ukraine because they overstate the prospect of Putin using nuclear weapons, which would be disastrous for Russia too. 

“I can’t tell you how many experts have said we really can’t provide Ukraine with certain weapons because Putin will go nuclear. What we’ve seen in the past six months is Russian think-tankers contacting their colleagues in the West to say that Putin could really do it. Sadly, Washington and Berlin, especially, allowed themselves at times to be deterred by this threat,” he says. 

The reason long-term Putin-watchers think there is little threat of Russia escalating to the point of provoking NATO to respond with force is simply that Moscow knows it couldn’t survive the confrontation. 

“One of the few objectives that the Russian and US leadership share at the moment is avoiding a direct conflict between the two powers,” says Malcolm Chalmers, deputy director general at the Royal United Services Institute think tank in London. 

“Russia knows that a conventional confrontation with NATO would be over very quickly for them. However, there is some sense in ratcheting up the idea that it is willing to take that risk, if it means it can extract more concessions from the West,” he adds.  

Multiple European officials and NATO sources agreed with the analysis that Putin going nuclear was unlikely, though the possibility had to be taken seriously and avoided. The question is, avoided at what cost? 

Ukraine will very likely continue to ask for more weapons and greater support from its allies the longer the war drags on. Each time, every NATO member will have to weigh up whether or not it’s worth the risk, or if dragging its feet actually plays into the Kremlin’s hands.  

Herbst believes that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has served as a sharp reminder of what dealing with an aggressive Kremlin is like and that Western officials had temporarily forgotten the tactics of the Soviet Union during the Cold War.  

“The soft-headedness of the West has happened because we’ve had peace between the great powers for the best part of 30 years,” he says. “We are currently in the process of discovering stuff that we knew in our bones at the height of the Cold War. And the only reason why we are seeing this now is because one of the great powers has decided it doesn’t like the world order that now exists.” 

As the war progresses, the West and NATO are being forced to learn hard lessons in real time.  

But each time Russia warns of escalation – either by itself or NATO – Western capitals must keep sight of the fact: Russia is the aggressor in this conflict and the West is nowhere near being at war with Russia.   

And no matter what noises Kremlin officials make about the West trying to destroy Russia, only one sovereign state has invaded another sovereign state and illegally claimed parts of its territory by force.

CNN
 — 

The GOP-led House Judiciary Committee and select subcommittee on the so-called weaponization of the federal government plan to adopt a rule that will allow Republican members to issue subpoenas without consulting Democrats days ahead of time, according to three sources familiar with the matter.

The plan, articulated to GOP members of the select subcommittee by its top Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio during their first meeting Friday, will expedite the subpoena process as both panels move forward with probes of the Biden administration, two of the sources said.

It reflects the “urgency” of Republican plans to investigate the Biden administration on several fronts, the sources added.

A third source told CNN that the move will effectively allow Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee and select subcommittee to unilaterally issue subpoenas.

In doing so, Republicans say they are taking a page from Democrats, including former House Oversight Committee chairman Elijah Cummings of Maryland, asserting he had previously waived rules that required members of the opposite party be consulted before subpoenas were issued.

At the time, Republicans slammed Democrats for violating the bipartisan agreement that governs the subpoena process for certain House committees.

Democrats argue that what the Republicans are doing now is a return to the practices employed by Republican Rep. Darrell Issa of California, who served as chairman of the House Oversight Committee from 2011 top 2015. Issa used this authority to issue a barrage of unilateral subpoenas to investigate the Obama administration, Democrats say.

The plan to adopt the subpoena rule comes after Friday’s meeting, hosted by Jordan, of the Republicans appointed to serve on the select subcommittee. The appointees discussed how to prioritize their work and how to tackle the many investigations the members want to pursue.

Issa, now a member of the select subcommittee, emerged from the meeting holding a binder full of what he described as “reading material.” He told CNN that Republicans have already scheduled interviews as part of the panel’s work.

Jordan “has given us a road map … some of which is very public, and some of which we’ll discover as time goes on,” he said.

“[Jordan] charged all the members of the committee to come with where they thought there was weaponization, where they believe that the committee should look, and so on,” Issa said. “We have 50, or 47 weeks, ahead of us this year, and the ability to only have so many hearings. But we do have the ability to hold transcribed interviews and depositions – several, which have already been scheduled.”

CNN
 — 

Progressive and State Farm, two of America’s largest auto insurers, are refusing to write policies in certain cities for some older Hyundai and Kia models that have been deemed too easy to steal, according to the companies.

Several reports say the companies have stopped offering insurance on these vehicles in cities that include Denver, Colorado and St. Louis, Missouri. The insurance companies did not tell CNN which cities or states were involved.

The Highway Loss Data Institute released insurance claims data last September that confirmed what various social media accounts had been saying: Some 2015 through 2019 Hyundai and Kia models are roughly twice as likely to be stolen as other vehicles of similar age, because many of them lack some of the basic auto theft prevention technology included in most other vehicles in those years, according to the HLDI.

Specifically, these SUVs and cars don’t have electronic immobilizers, which rely on a computer chip in the car and another in the key that communicate to confirm that the key really belongs to that vehicle. Without the right key, an immobilizer should do just that – stop the car from moving.

Immobilizers were standard equipment on 96% of vehicles sold for the 2015-2019 model years, according the HLDI, but only 26% of Hyundais and Kias had them at that time. Vehicles that have push-button start systems, rather than relying on metal keys that must be inserted and turned, have immobilizers, but not all models with turn-key ignitions do.

Stealing these vehicles became a social media trend in 2021, according to HLDI, as car thieves began posting videos of their thefts and joyrides and even videos explaining how to steal the cars. In Wisconsin, where the crimes first became prevalent, theft claims of Hyundais and Kias spiked to more than 30 times 2019 levels in dollar terms.

“State Farm has temporarily stopped writing new business in some states for certain model years and trim levels of Hyundai and Kia vehicles because theft losses for these vehicles have increased dramatically,” the insurer said in a statement provided to CNN. “This is a serious problem impacting our customers and the entire auto insurance industry.”

Progressive is also cutting back on insuring these cars in some markets, spokesman Jeff Sibel said in an emailed statement.

“During the past year we’ve seen theft rates for certain Hyundai and Kia vehicles more than triple and in some markets these vehicles are almost 20 times more likely to be stolen than other vehicles,” he wrote. “Given that we price our policies based on the level of risk they represent, this explosive increase in thefts in many cases makes these vehicles extremely challenging for us to insure. In response, in some geographic areas we have increased our rates and limited our sale of new insurance policies on some of these models.”

Progressive continues to insure those who already have policies with the company, he said. Progressive is also providing them with advice on how to protect their vehicles from theft.

Michael Barry, a spokesman for the Insurance Information Institute, said it was very unusual for auto insurers to simply stop writing new policies on a given make or model of vehicle.

“They generally want to expand their market share depending on where they’re doing business,” he said.

Hyundai and Kia operate as separate companies in the United States, but Hyundai Motor Group owns a large stake in Kia and various Hyundai and Kia models share much of their engineering.

Engine immobilizers are now standard on all Kia and Hyundai vehicles, the companies said in separate statements. Both automakers also said they are developing security software for vehicles that were not originally equipped with an immobilizer. Kia said it has begun notifying owners of the availability of this software, which will be provided at no charge. Hyundai said its free software free update will be available next month.

Hyundai also said it is providing free steering wheel locks to some police departments around the country to give local residents who have Hyundai models that could be easily stolen. Hyundai dealers are also selling and installing security kits for the vehicles, the company said.

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the cost of Hyundai security kits.

The Memphis police chief deserves credit for doing her part to charge the five former officers involved in Tyre Nichols’ police beating death with crimes — and also now must take accountability and help rebuild community trust, the city council chair said Saturday.

“Starting with the head of the police department all the way down to the recruits in the class right now, they have a vast responsibility to go out into this community to rebuild trust,” Martavius Jones told CNN’s Jim Acosta.

“It’s going to be incumbent upon them to be visible, to listen,” added Jones, noting he was the “lone” council member to vote against Cerelyn “CJ” Davis’ confirmation as chief but is “willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.” 

The civil rights attorney representing Nichols’ family also applauded Davis for arresting and, with Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy, charging the five Black officers within 20 days of Nichols’ vicious encounter with officers near his home.

“When you see police officers commit crimes against citizens, then we want you to act just as swiftly and show, as the chief said, the community needs to see it,” Ben Crump said. “But we need to see it, too, when it’s White police officers.”

Some background: Davis took charge of the Memphis Police Department only 20 months ago. Known nationally as an advocate for police reform, she touted big plans, including forging new ties with community leaders and working to reduce violent crime — with hopes to elicit trust in law enforcement in Tennessee’s second-most populous city.

Now, Tyre Nichols’ beating death puts her leadership to a crucial test.

Read more about Davis here.