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A tearful Kevin Spacey has told a court that he was “shocked”, “frightened” and “confused” by accusations that he made an unwanted sexual advance on a teenager in the 1980s.

Anthony Rapp says he was 14 when an intoxicated Spacey, then 26, climbed on top of him at a party in his Manhattan apartment in 1986.

Both were acting in Broadway plays at the time – Rapp in Precious Sons, and Spacey co-starring in A Long Day’s Journey Into The Night.

Photo by: NDZ/STAR MAX/IPx.2022.5/6/22.Anthony Rapp at the GLAAD Media Awards in New York City on May 6, 2022.
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Anthony Rapp. Pic: NDZ/STAR MAX/IP

Rapp, now 50, said he squirmed out from underneath Spacey in the fully clothed encounter before running from the apartment, only to have the actor follow him and ask if he was sure he wanted to leave.

Spacey told a civil trial in Manhattan on Monday that he was “shocked” by the allegations, which were made public in a 2017 news report.

He said that, at the time, the #MeToo movement was gaining momentum and “the industry was very nervous”.

“There was a lot of fear in the air about who was going to be next,” he said.

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“I was shocked. I was frightened and I was confused.

“I knew I had never been alone with Anthony Rapp.”

Spacey ‘regrets entire statement’

Spacey, 63, insisted he never had “any sexual interest in Anthony Rapp or any child – that I knew”.

Rapp, who was in the original cast of the musical Rent, filed his lawsuit in 2020, seeking compensatory and punitive damages up to $40m (about £35.9m).

After the allegations Spacey was edited out of the film All The Money In The World and replaced by Christopher Plummer as J Paul Getty. He was also sacked from the political drama series House Of Cards.

In court on Monday, he dabbed his eyes as he described being pressured into making a statement saying he did not remember anything happening with Rapp, but would be sorry “if” the allegations were somehow true.

He said he had since come to “regret my entire statement”, adding that his managers had said “it was the best way to contain a crisis that was going to get worse” and to avoid being accused of “victim shaming”.

‘My father was a white supremacist’

His account of the night was that he had met Rapp and another aspiring actor, John Barrowman, who was 19 at the time, backstage after a performance.

He had taken them to dinner, a nightclub and then to his apartment, where he had flirted with Barrowman but not with Rapp before the visitors left, he said.

Earlier, Spacey had told the court that he grew up in “a very complicated family dynamic”, describing his father as a “white supremacist and neo-Nazi”.

“It meant that my siblings and I were forced to listen to hours and hours of my father lecturing us about his beliefs,” he said.

“Everything about what was happening in that house was something I had to keep to myself.

“We never, ever, talked about it.

“I have never talked about these things publicly ever.”

As Spacey became interested in theatre, he said he endured the screams of his father, who “used to yell at me at the idea that I might be gay”.

The trial, which is in its third week, continues.

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Two dead after multiple people were injured in shooting at church in Kentucky

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Two dead after multiple people were injured in shooting at church in Kentucky

Two people are dead after multiple people were injured in shootings in Kentucky, the state’s governor has said.

Andy Beshear said the suspect had also been killed following the shooting at Richmond Road Baptist Church in Lexington.

A state trooper was earlier shot at Blue Grass Airport in Fayette County on Sunday morning, the Lexington Herald-Leader local newspaper reports.

Mr Beshear has said a state trooper “from the initial stop” and people who were injured in the church shooting are “being treated at a nearby hospital”.

The extent of the injuries is not immediately known.

State troopers and the Lexington Police Department had caught up with the suspect at the church following the shooting in Fayette County, according to Sky News’ US partner network NBC News.

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Mr Beshear said: “Please pray for everyone affected by these senseless acts of violence, and let’s give thanks for the swift response by the Lexington Police Department and Kentucky State Police.”

The Blue Grass Airport posted on X at 1pm local time (6pm UK time) that a law enforcement investigation was impacting a portion of an airport road, but that all flights and operations were now proceeding normally.

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.

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Donald Trump threatens to revoke Rosie O’Donnell’s US citizenship

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Donald Trump threatens to revoke Rosie O'Donnell's US citizenship

Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.

In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”

He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.

O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.

“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.

“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”

Rosie O'Donnell arrives at the ELLE Women in Hollywood celebration on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)
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Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP

O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.

She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.

O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.

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This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.

But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.

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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.

“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.

“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”

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Farmer becomes first person to die during Trump’s ICE raids

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Farmer becomes first person to die during Trump's ICE raids

A farmer who fell from a greenhouse roof during an anti-immigrant raid at a licensed cannabis facility in California this week has died of his injuries.

Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first person to die as a result of Donald Trump’s Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) raids.

His niece, Yesenia Duran, posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe to say her uncle was his family’s only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to his wife and daughter in Mexico.

The United Food Workers said Mr Alanis had worked on the farm for 10 years.

“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorise American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,” the union said in a recent statement on X.

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Who is being targeted in Trump’s immigration raids?

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it executed criminal search warrants at Glass House Farms facilities on Thursday.

Mr Alanis called family to say he was hiding and possibly fleeing agents before he fell around 30ft (9m) from the roof and broke his neck, according to information from family, hospital and government sources.

Agents arrested 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally and identified at least 10 immigrant children on the sites, the DHS said in a statement.

Mr Alanis was not among them, the agency said.

“This man was not in and has not been in CBP (Customs and Border Protection) or ICE custody,” DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said.

“Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30ft. CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.”

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Four US citizens were arrested during the incident for allegedly “assaulting or resisting officers”, the DHS said, and authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents.

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In a statement, Glass House, a licensed Cannabis grower, said immigration agents had valid warrants. It said workers were detained and it is helping provide them with legal representation.

“Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,” it added.

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