Sean “Diddy” Combs has apologised and taken “full responsibility” for “all of the hurt and pain” he has caused others in a letter to the court, less than 24 hours before he is due to be sentenced.

The hip-hop mogul did not give evidence during his trial earlier this year, so this is the first time he has addressed Judge Arun Subramanian.

Combs was convicted of two prostitution-related charges in July, following a trial lasting almost eight weeks, but was cleared of more serious charges of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.

In the letter, the 55-year-old admits “past wrongs” but says he is no longer running from his “many mistakes”.

He also addresses the infamous CCTV footage from an LA hotel in 2016, which showed him attacking his former girlfriend Cassie Ventura.

“First and foremost, I want to apologise and say how sincerely sorry I am for all of the hurt and pain that I have caused others by my conduct,” Combs writes. “I take full responsibility and accountability for my past wrongs.”

The rapper describes the last two years – which started with a civil lawsuit filed by Cassie in November 2023 – as the “hardest” of his life, but admits: “I have no one to blame for my current reality and situation but myself.”

Since his arrest in September 2024 and subsequent time in prison, the rapper says he has “had to look in the mirror like never before” and admits his “downfall was rooted in my selfishness”.

Combs is due to be sentenced on Friday and faces a maximum of 20 years in prison.

Prosecutors have called for at least 11 years, while his defence team argues he should serve no more than 14 months. The latter would see him walk free almost immediately after time already served.

His letter comes after several filed by witnesses who testified during the trial, including Cassie, who has urged the judge not to be lenient and expressed fears for her safety.

She alleged on the witness stand that she was coerced and sometimes blackmailed into taking part in sex sessions with male escorts. Combs has strenuously denied allegations of sexual abuse, and jurors cleared him of sex trafficking, only finding him guilty of the charges relating to hiring the sex workers.

However, his legal team admitted from the beginning that he had been violent in the past.

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‘I could not forgive anyone putting a hand on one of my daughters’

Talking about the 2016 CCTV footage – which showed Combs, wearing only a towel and socks, attacking Cassie in a hallway – he says in his letter: “The scene and images of me assaulting Cassie play over and over in my head daily.

“I literally lost my mind. I was dead wrong for putting my hands on the woman that I loved. I’m sorry for that and always will be. My domestic violence will always be a heavy burden that I will have to forever carry. The remorse, the sorrow, the regret, the disappointment, the shame.”

He goes on to say he feels sorry “for something that I couldn’t forgive someone else for: if they put their hands on one of my daughters.”

The footage was played several times during his trial after first being made public by CNN in May 2024.

The hip-hop mogul also references “Jane”, another former girlfriend who testified against him in court, who did not give her real name.

“I thought I was providing for Jane concerning her and her child, but after hearing her testimony, I realised that I hurt her,” he writes. “For this I am deeply sorry. I lost my way … Lost in the drugs and the excess.”

‘The old me died in jail’

Combs goes on to describe his time in prison, saying he has been “humbled and broken to my core” and that there “have been so many times that I wanted to give up”.

“The old me died in jail and a new version of me was reborn. Prison will change you or kill you – I choose to live.”

Combs says he has had therapy and has been “working diligently to become the best version” of himself, and that there has been some good to come out of his time in prison.

“For starters, I am now sober for the first time in 25 years. I have been trying my best to deal with my drug abuse and anger issues and take accountability as well as positive steps towards healing.”

Asking Judge Subramanian for “mercy” for himself, his seven children and his 84-year-old mother, he says: “I have failed my children as a father. My father was murdered when I was three years old so I know first-hand what it is to not have a father. More than anything, I just want the opportunity to return home and be the father that they need and deserve.”

Combs goes on to say he is “scared to death” at the thought of spending more time away from his family, and that he no longer cares “about the money or the fame”.

And as previously detailed by his lawyers, he describes conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn as inhumane – but says he is not looking for “pity or sympathy”, and that his time there has “changed me forever!”.

Combs concludes by vowing to never commit another crime again: “I can’t change the past, but I can change the future … I’m committed to the journey of remaining a drug free, non-violent and peaceful person.

“Today, I humbly ask you for another chance – another chance to be a better father, another chance to be a better son, another chance to be a better leader in my community, and another chance to live a better life.”

An Alaskan climber fell to his death from Yosemite National Park’s El Capitan while livestreaming on TikTok.

Balin Miller, 23, died in a climbing accident on Wednesday, his mother Jeanine Girard-Moorman confirmed in a statement.

“He’s been climbing since he was a young boy,” she said. “His heart and soul was truly to just climb.

“He loved to climb and it was never about money and fame.”

While details of the incident are not clear, Balin’s brother Dylan Miller said that he was lead rope soloing – a way to climb alone while still protected by a rope – on a 2,400ft (730m) route named Sea of Dreams.

He had already finished the climb and was hauling up his last bit of gear when he likely rappelled off the end of his rope, the older brother said.

“He said he felt most alive when he was climbing,” Dylan added. “I’m his bigger brother but he was my mentor.”

Many posted tributes to the Alaskan climber on social media, saying they had watched him climb on a TikTok livestream and calling him “orange tent guy” because of his distinctive camp setup.

On Facebook, Michelle Derrick said Balin was livestreaming during the fatal incident, and he was attempting to retrieve his bags that were stuck on a rock when he fell.

Another climber, Tom Evans, also posted he was climbing at El Capitan at the time, and saw a man rappel off his lead line.

“He was a young man,” Mr Evans added, “highly regarded among the best climbers here.”

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Balin was an accomplished alpinist who gained international attention for claiming the first solo ascent of Mount McKinley’s Slovak Direct.

He posted photos of his ascent up the technically difficult route that took him 56 hours to complete on his Instagram in June.

It marks the third death at the national park in California this year: In June, an 18-year-old from Texas died in the park while free-soloing, or climbing without a rope, on a different formation.

In August, a 29-year-old woman died after being struck in the head by a large tree branch while hiking.

Balin’s death also came on the first day of the US government shutdown, which leaves national parks “generally” open but with limited operations and closed visitor centres.

The National Park Service said in a statement that they are investigating the incident and “park rangers and emergency personnel responded immediately”.

“Listen man, we’re a narco state, it’s just how it is, if you want to see drug deals, I’ll show you drug deals – it’s Colombia.”

I’d only asked one of our Colombian producers in passing if it was possible to see drugs being traded on the streets of Medellin. I didn’t realise it was that simple.

Medellin is synonymous with drugs and cartels. The home of perhaps the most famous of all the drug lords, Pablo Escobar, it seems to revel in its notoriety.

There are pictures of Escobar everywhere, on posters, on caps, and on t-shirts. There are even guided tours to his grave, and a museum in his honour.

This is where the big business drug cartels were born, invented by Escobar himself, the original Latin American “Godfather”.

In an infamous district in Medellin, we were instantly confronted with the sounds of dealers on the streets shouting out their products for sale as we drove through.

“Cocaine! Pills! Ecstasy! Tusi!” they shouted. All available to a traffic jam of cars waiting to buy.

Motorcycle delivery drivers queued to make the pick-up for their clients waiting in high-end apartments and nightclubs elsewhere in the city, while buyers on foot discreetly scored their drugs, before moving on.

‘Narco’ culture

It was chaotic and noisy, a place where lookouts use whistles to send signals to the dealers.

Two toots mean it’s all clear, a single toot is a warning – it means the police are nearby.

In the middle of this big open-air market for drugs, dimly lit restaurants and cafes served dinner. We passed one café where we saw a family sat at a table outside, celebrating a woman’s 70th birthday.

This neighbourhood runs a 24-hour drug selling market alongside the usual shops and cafes that spill over on to the pavement.

Although Colombia has a long history and fascination with “narco” culture and drug-taking, its immediate problem is that President Donald Trump has launched a war on Latin American drug cartels, manufacturers, and the nations the drugs come from – and through.

Venezuela is at the top of his hit list; he has launched strikes on boats off the Venezuelan coast that he says were carrying drugs. He has boosted American military presence in the Caribbean – sending ships, marines, helicopters, drones and jets into the region.

There is speculation he may be looking for regime change in Venezuela, and that the war on drugs is a front to remove President Nicolas Maduro from power, claiming the Venezuelan government is basically a drug cartel. Something they of course deny.

None of this bodes well for Venezuela’s neighbour Colombia, indeed President Trump has made it clear Colombia is high on his list of troublesome nations.

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There are other countries on his list, like Mexico, that he says has demonstrated willingness to clean up their act and take the war to Mexico’s deadly cartels.

Mr Trump’s gripe with Colombia isn’t necessarily that its society has a relaxed attitude to drug use – it is widespread across all classes – no, his problem is that Colombia is one of the biggest producers of cocaine in the world, and it feeds the biggest market, which is the United States of America.

Hidden away, miles from people

It seems that the president’s view is that the supplier is the problem, not necessarily the user.

Cocaine is extracted from the coca leaf, which is grown in abundance in Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia.

Growing the coca plant in these countries is not illegal, and the leaf itself is often used for other purposes. The plant only becomes illegal when it’s used for cocaine production.

I wanted to meet the farmers who grow coca to find out if they are the masterminds of a multi-billion-pound international drugs business, or just farmers meeting international demand.

My journey began just after dawn in pouring rain on the Amazon River in Colombia.

Perhaps unsurprisingly the plantations are hidden away in remote areas, miles away from people.

We travelled for hours in the rain, on a small boat with a guide, passing indigenous communities who have nothing to do with the business hiding in their forest.

The river narrowed as we got closer to our destination, and five hours later, after navigating through broken tree trunks and low hanging branches, we arrived at an eight hectare coca plantation hacked into the rainforest bordering Colombia and Peru.

The crop, which is two-and-a-half years old, is hidden by the trees and the river.

They are about to start harvesting it, but it’s incredible just how many leaves they need.

The farmer says that for every 70 grams of cocaine produced, the cartel producers need 30 kilograms of leaves.

Only way to provide for his family

That’s a lot of picking – and the farmer will earn just $7 for those 30 kilograms of leaves.

The cocaine business might be incredibly lucrative for the cartels that control it, but at the very bottom the farmers hardly get paid a thing.

And though he is worried about getting caught, the farmer I meet sees it as the only way to provide for his family.

“For me it’s very valuable, it’s my sustenance, the way for sustaining life,” he told me.

“We are aware that illegal processing isn’t good for anybody, not exactly, you can’t say I am doing this, and this is good for people, no, this harms the entire community, everyone,” he explained when I asked him if he was at all conflicted about his crop.

“But we all make sacrifices, and we struggle to make our way in life.”

It’s hard to believe that the global business of manufacturing and shipping cocaine around the world all starts with these fairly innocuous looking coca leaves.

And whatever Donald Trump says, they will keep producing as long as users in America, Europe, and indeed the world, demand it.