Category: US

CNN
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The Memphis Police Department has terminated five police officers in connection with the death of Tyre Nichols, who passed away in a hospital after being arrested by police earlier this month, according to a post from the department’s verified Twitter account.

“The egregious nature of this incident is not a reflection of the good work our officers perform, with integrity every day,” Police chief Cerleyn “CJ” Davis said in a statement.

Investigators working on an internal review of the arrest found the officers violated policies for use of force, duty to intervene and duty to render aid, the chief said.

Nichols’ family voiced its approval of the terminations, according to a statement from their attorneys.

“We join Tyre’s family in supporting the Department’s decision to terminate the five officers who brutalized him, ultimately causing his death. This is the first step towards achieving justice for Tyre and his family,” attorneys Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci said. “They must also be held accountable for robbing this man of his life and his son of a father.”

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is looking into whether the officers’ actions were criminal in nature.

“Due to the ongoing criminal investigation, the Memphis Police Association will not comment on the termination of officers in the Tyre Nichols case,” the union representing the officers said. “The citizens of Memphis, and more importantly, the family of Mr. Nichols deserve to know the complete account of the events leading up to his death and what may have contributed to it.”

Also, the Department of Justice and FBI have opened a civil rights investigation.

On January 8, the police department announced officers pulled over a motorist for reckless driving the previous day. “As officers approached the driver of the vehicle, a confrontation occurred and the suspect fled the scene on foot,” officials said in a statement posted on social media.

Officers pursued the suspect and again attempted to take him into custody when another confrontation occurred before the suspect was apprehended, according to police.

“Afterward, the suspect complained of having a shortness of breath, at which time an ambulance was called to the scene. The suspect was transported to St. Francis Hospital in critical condition,” officials said.

The man, identified as Nichols, died a few days later, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

Details about the injuries Nichols suffered or his cause of death have not been released. CNN has reached out to the Shelby County coroner.

On Tuesday, city officials said the video record by the officers’ body-worn cameras will be released publicly after the police department’s internal investigation ends and after the family is given a chance to review the recordings.

Crump said Friday the family will get a chance to see the footage “in the coming days.” He and the family have planned a news conference for Monday afternoon.

CNN
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At least one person was wounded in a shooting at a Walmart in Evansville, Indiana, on Thursday night, with the suspected gunman later shot and killed by responding law enforcement, according to the Evansville Police Department.

Police identified the suspect as 25-year-old Ronald Ray Mosley II, who was fired from Walmart in May, according to police spokesperson Sgt. Anna Gray said in a Friday afternoon news conference.

Mosley was fired after being arrested for multiple battery charges against other employees, Gray said.

He left a suicide note at his house on Thursday night, Police Chief Billy Bolin said.

Mosley had regularly attended mental health court hearings after being arrested on battery charges, Vanderburgh County Prosecuting Attorney Diana Moers said in Friday’s news conference.

Individuals who are admitted to a mental health court participate in a supervised treatment plan with regular reviews of progress hearings, according to an Indiana state website.

Mosley attended mental health court nearly every two weeks and had attended a hearing on Thursday afternoon related to the battery cases, Moers said.

Police first heard reports of a shooting at 9:59 p.m., Gray said at a news conference late Thursday night.

The shooting started after Mosley went into a break room in the back of the store when a meeting was about to begin, Bolin said Friday. Roughly 40 shoppers were in the store at the time, police said.

“He told everybody to line up against the wall, he had a gun in his hand, and he told two of them to stay in the middle. He ends up shooting a female at this point,” the chief added. The woman was shot in the face and is still being treated at a hospital in stable condition, according to police.

Bolin said there was another male in the room that was also an “intended target” but he took off running during the shooting. Authorities did not identify the man and woman that the shooter pointed out nor their relationship to Mosley.

When officers arrived, they encountered the suspect who fired multiple times at officers, Gray said. Officers fired back, killing the suspect.

No officers were injured during the encounter with the suspect.

During Friday’s news conference, Bolin called the store’s team lead a hero.

He said that when the shooter began firing, the shift lead “took off out the door and she ran and called 911.”

The team lead later ran back into the break room after seeing the suspect leave the area and helped the wounded woman go into another room and hide.

The investigation remains ongoing, police said.

CNN
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Chris Hipkins, New Zealand’s education minister, is bidding to replace Jacinda Ardern as prime minister, after her shock resignation announcement earlier this week.

Hipkins emerged as the only candidate to be nominated for the leadership of the ruling Labour party on Saturday morning.

The Labour Party caucus is due to meet on Sunday to formally endorse and confirm Hipkins as leader, party whip Duncan Webb said.

New Zealand’s next general election is expected to be held on October 14.
Hipkins is a career politician who entered Parliament in 2008, and became a household name leading New Zealand’s pandemic management as Covid-19 response minister in Ardern’s cabinet. Aside from being education minister, he is also minister for police and the public service, and Leader of the House.

Speaking to reporters after nominations closed at 9 a.m. local time in the capital of Wellington, he said he aims to reach consensus about who is “best to lead the Labour party, and therefore, New Zealand forward.”

“I am absolutely humbled and honored,” he said, then added, “there is still a bit to go in this process. There is still a meeting tomorrow and a vote, and I don’t want to get too far ahead of that.”

The minister went on to thank his party members, saying “we have gone through this process with unity and we will continue to do that.”

He committed to leading the country in a “strong, stable and unified” way but cautioned there were challenges ahead.

“I acknowledge that at the moment, we’re going through some economic turbulence and we’re going to have to navigate our way through there,” he said.

Hipkins also told reporters that he is “incredibly optimistic about New Zealand’s future” and is “really looking forward to the job. I am feeling energized and enthusiastic.”

He served almost two years as Covid-19 response minister in a country that kept infections and deaths relatively low after shutting its borders. He also oversaw New Zealand’s phased reopening before fully welcoming back all international travel last July.

Ardern said Thursday that she would stand aside for a new leader, saying she doesn’t believe she has the energy to seek reelection.

Speaking at a news conference then, Ardern said her term would end by February 7, when she expected a new Labour prime minister would be sworn in – though “depending on the process that could be earlier.
Hipkins said Ardern – whose tenure coincided with a terrorist attack, natural disasters and a global pandemic – was “the leader that we needed at the time that we needed it.”

And he acknowledged that, like Ardern, he would be opening himself up to “a lot scrutiny and a lot of criticism” by putting his name forward.

“I go into this job with my eyes wide open, knowing what I’ve what I’ve stepped into,” Hipkins said.

CNN
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A search of property records reveals that Ana Walshe had a valuable real estate portfolio and that she sold one property shortly before she disappeared.

Walshe owned at least four residential properties, according to publicly available property assessment records and tax records in Massachusetts, Maryland and Washington, DC, where she worked for a real estate firm. Her husband, Brian Walshe, is not listed as owner or co-owner of any of the properties.

Those properties include two apartments in Lynn, Massachusetts, a rowhouse in Baltimore, and a 2,500-square-foot home in DC.

At the time of her disappearance, Ana Walshe, whose husband is charged with her murder and in jail without bail, had a real estate portfolio worth nearly $2 million, according to CNN’s analysis of publicly available documents.

Ana Walshe sold at least two properties since March 2022, including one just days before her disappearance.

In March, she sold a home in Cohasset, Massachusetts, for nearly $1.4 million and purchased a home in DC for $1.3 million.

Since 2018, she sold at least four properties worth more than $2.7 million and had at least four remaining with an estimated value of $1.88 million.

The Cohasset home where she lived with her husband and her three children was rented, according to the Cohasset assessor’s office.

Property records examined by CNN include those in both her married name and the name she used before marrying Brian Walshe, Ana Knipp, but may not be an exhaustive picture of her real estate holdings.

Prosecutors have been poring over Google searches they say Brian Walshe made in the days before and after he allegedly killed his wife, dismembered her body and disposed of her remains in dumpsters around suburban Boston.

Prosecutor Lynn Beland read aloud the disturbing searches in court Wednesday as Brian Walshe, 47, was charged with murder and disinterring a body without authority. He had previously been charged with misleading investigators looking into his wife’s disappearance. He has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges, and his defense attorney suggested the evidence against him was not strong.

In particular, the searches showed prosecutors Brian Walshe’s focus on dismemberment and disposing of a body as well as insight into his motive, including a search about divorce and one about inheritance, Misty Marris, a defense attorney, told CNN.

“The story is really coming together, and those Google searches, they were essential to putting together the pieces,” she said.

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CNN
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Paris is a city beloved for fine food, fine art and fine fashion.

But a new index from the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) also says that Paris is the world’s most powerful city for tourism.

The WTTC, a nonprofit travel industry body based in the UK, analyzed tourism data from the year 2022 to see where travelers were spending the most money.

The overall list of most powerful tourism cities didn’t only take museum tickets and hotel rooms into account, though. The other factor was how much local and national governments and businesses are investing in these cities as tourist destinations.

Take list-topper Paris for example: the city is preparing to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. Although fewer than 5% of the facilities will be newly built for the Games, the city is pouring resources into infrastructure, security and other measures that will help them get ready to host the world.

By that accounting, the French capital’s overall tourism total came to $35.6 billion.

So, who else made the list?

Two countries each had three cities on the WTTC list. One was the United States, with Orlando, New York City and Las Vegas representing the nation.

While each city makes a significant chunk of cash from tourism, they cater to different kinds of travelers – Orlando is popular with families visiting the city’s theme parks, Las Vegas is an internationally known gambling and nightlife hub and New York attracts foodies and art lovers, among others.

Of this group, Orlando was the highest earner, raking in $31 billion for 2022. That’s a whole lot of Mickey Mouse ears.

Three Chinese cities – Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou – landed in the top 10 for 2022.

Other Chinese destinations are working their way up the index. In particular, the beach getaway of Sanya – on sunny Hainan Island in southern China – and Macao were cited as places to keep an eye on in the future.

China has invested heavily in tourism and is advertising to international travelers now that its border has reopened. Macao is the only city in China with legal gambling, and it’s easier for most tourists to go there without a visa – unlike the mainland.

The WTTC predicts that by 2032 China will dominate its rankings.

“Major cities such as London, Paris and New York will remain global powerhouses but over the next few years, Beijing, Shanghai, and Macao will be moving up the list of top city destinations,” Julia Simpson, WTTC President & CEO, said in a statement.

Of course, there are more than two countries represented in the WTTC list. Tokyo, Mexico City and London placed in seventh, eighth and ninth respectively to round out the rankings.

In some ways, it was just as interesting to see who didn’t make it on the list.

Two surprising omissions were in the Middle East, which has skyrocketed in popularity over the past decade.

Although luxury-packed Dubai and soccer World Cup host Doha topped the list of most amount of tourism revenue, they didn’t score as highly in the other categories and wound up outside the top 10.

Amsterdam, Barcelona and Singapore also fell victim to the same phenomenon, scoring highly for amount of money spent by visitors but not landing on the overall “most powerful” list.

1. Paris, France

2. Beijing, China

3. Orlando, Florida

4. Shanghai, China

5. Las Vegas, Nevada

6. New York, New York

7. Tokyo, Japan

8. Mexico City, Mexico

9. London, UK

10. Guangzhou, China