Rapper Tory Lanez has been found guilty of three firearms offences over the shooting of hip hop star Megan Thee Stallion.
Lanez, 30, was convicted of assault with a semi-automatic firearm; having a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle; and discharging a firearm with gross negligence.
The charges related to an incident in the Hollywood Hills in July 2020, which left Megan Thee Stallion injured with bullet fragments in her feet.
The pair had been in a car together after leaving a house party in the area, and got into an argument.
Canadian star Lanez, whose real name is Daystar Peterson, was found guilty by a jury of seven women and five men after one day of deliberation.
The convictions could see him jailed for up to 22 years.
Dressed in a powder pink winter coat, with matching trousers, a handcuffed Lanez showed no reaction as the verdict was delivered in a Los Angeles courtroom.
Megan Thee Stallion praised for bravery
Lanez’s lawyer alleged during the trial that the shots had actually been fired by a best friend of Megan Thee Stallion, Kelsey Harris, during a jealous fight over Lanez.
“She lied about everything in this case from the beginning,” attorney George Mgdesyan said of the hip hop megastar, who told the trial that Lanez had told her to “dance” before shooting at her feet.
Megan Thee Stallion, whose legal name is Megan Pete, said last week: “I’m in shock. I’m scared.
“I hear the gun going off, and I can’t believe he’s shooting at me.”
She said the pair’s argument had become especially heated when she began insulting his music.
Harris denied being the shooter and previously identified Lanez as the one holding the gun.
Prosecutors had dismissed Mr Mgdesyan’s contention that Megan Thee Stallion had “lied”, and praised her bravery for coming forward about the incident.
Deputy district attorney Alexander Bott said the 27-year-old had endured “a stream of hate” and was a “victim of domestic violence”.
After the jury left the courtroom, Lanez’s father, Sonstar Peterson, leapt up and began shouting, pointing at the prosecutors and declaring them “evil, wicked people”.
He was removed and continued to shout in the hallway.
Megan Thee Stallion. Pic: AP
Who is Tory Lanez?
Lanez began releasing mixtapes in 2009 and eventually moved on to major-label albums.
His last release, Sorry 4 What, debuted at number 10 in the US Billboard charts in September.
One of his previous albums, Daystar, generated significant controversy following its release in September 2020, as Lanez used the record to deny the allegations that he had shot Megan Thee Stallion.
Her success has far outstripped Lanez’s since the incident, including winning a Gramy for best new artist in 2021.
She has had number one singles in the Billboard charts and collaborated with the likes of Beyonce and Cardi B.
Iran says “indirect talks” over the country’s rapidly advancing nuclear programme have taken place with US officials, with more to come next week.
The discussions on Saturday took place in Muscat, Oman, with the host nation’s officials mediating between representatives of Iran and the US, who were seated in separate rooms, according to Esmail Baghaei, a spokesperson for Iran’s foreign ministry.
After the talks concluded, Oman and Iranian officials reported that Iran and the US had had agreed to hold more negotiations next week.
Oman’s foreign minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi tweeted after the meeting, thanking Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi and US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff for joining the negotiations aimed at “global peace, security and stability”.
“We will continue to work together and put further efforts to assist in arriving at this goal,” he added.
(L-R) Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi meets his Omani counterpart Sayyid Badr Albusaidi. Pic: Iranian foreign ministry/AP
Iranian state media claimed the US and Iranian officials “briefly spoke in the presence of the Omani foreign minister” at the end of the talks – a claim Mr Araghchi echoed in a statement on Telegram.
He added the talks took place in a “constructive atmosphere based on mutual respect” and that they would continue next week.
American officials did not immediately acknowledge the reports from Iran.
Mr Araghchi said before the meeting on Saturday there was a “chance for initial understanding on further negotiations if the other party [US] enters the talks with an equal stance”.
He told Iran’s state TV: “Our intention is to reach a fair and honourable agreement – from an equal footing.
“And if the other side has also entered from the same position, God willing, there will be a chance for an initial agreement that can lead to a path of negotiations.”
Reuters news agency said an Omani source told it the talks were focused on de-escalating regional tensions, prisoner exchanges and limited agreements to ease sanctions in exchange for controlling Iran’s nuclear programme.
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Trump on Monday: ‘We’re in direct talks with Iran’
President Donald Trump has insisted Tehran cannot get nuclear weapons.
He said on Monday that the talks would be direct, but Tehran officials insisted it would be conducted through an intermediary.
Mr Trump also warned Iran would be in “great danger” if negotiations fail.
“Hopefully those talks will be successful, it would be in Iran’s best interests if they are successful,” he said. “We hope that’s going to happen.”
He added Iran “cannot have a nuclear weapon, and if the talks aren’t successful, I actually think it will be a very bad day for Iran”.
The comments came after Mr Trump’s previous warnings of possible military action against Iran if there is no deal over its nuclear programme.
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Saturday’s meeting marked the first between the countries since Mr Trump’s second term in the White House began.
During his first term, he withdrew the US from a deal between Iran and world powers designed to curb Iran’s nuclear work in exchange for sanctions relief.
He also reimposed US sanctions.
Iran has since far surpassed that deal’s limits on uranium enrichment.
Tehran insists its nuclear programme is wholly for civilian energy purposes but Western powers accuse it of having a clandestine agenda.
Mr Witkoff came from talks with Russian president Vladimir Putin on Friday, as the US tries to broker an end to the war in Ukraine.
Palestinian student activist Mahmoud Khalil can be deported from the US, an immigration judge has ruled.
Mr Khalil, a postgraduate student at Columbia University’s school of international and public affairs, has been a prominent figure in the university’s pro-Palestinian student protest movement.
The 30-year-old has held a US permanent residency green card since 2024 and his wife is a US citizen.
Mahmoud Khalil. Pic: AP
Mr Khalil was detained at his Columbia apartment building in Manhattan on 8 March, as agents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told him his student visa had been revoked.
It marked the first arrest in President Donald Trump’s crackdown on students who joined campus protests against the war in Gaza.
Mr Khalil, who acted as a mediator between protesters and university officials during pro-Palestinian demonstrations at New York’s Columbia University last year, is not accused of breaking any laws.
But the Trump administration says noncitizens who participate in demonstrations like he has should be expelled from the country for expressing views that the administration considers to be antisemitic and “pro-Hamas”.
On Friday, immigration judge Jamee E Comans ruled that the government had the right to deport him, saying its belief that his presence posed “potentially serious foreign policy consequences” was enough to satisfy requirements for his deportation.
Mr Khalil, centre, surrounded by reporters outside the Columbia University campus in April last year. Pic: AP
He said the government had “established by clear and convincing evidence that he is removable”.
Mr Khalil’s lawyers have said they plan to fight the ruling via the Board of Immigration Appeals and can also pursue an asylum case on his behalf.
The judge gave them until 23 April to seek a waiver.
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His lawyer Marc van der Hout said after the ruling: “Today, we saw our worst fears play out: Mahmoud was subject to a charade of due process, a flagrant violation of his right to a fair hearing, and a weaponisation of immigration law to suppress dissent.”
Mr Khalil, who was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria and holds Algerian citizenship, remains in the Louisiana immigration detention centre where federal authorities transferred him after his arrest.
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Jewish protesters against war in Gaza chant ‘Bring Mahmoud home now’
His defence team has said it is seeking a preliminary injunction from the federal court in New Jersey, which would release him from custody and could block the Trump administration from arresting and detaining people for supporting Palestinian people in Gaza.
The Trump administration has been cracking down on pro-Palestinian protesters at universities across the country.
After his arrest last month, the president said: “This is the first arrest of many to come. We know there are more students at Columbia and other universities across the country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump administration will not tolerate it.”
There have also been protests over the arrest of Mr Khalil, including by a Jewish group against the war in Gaza who stormed Trump Tower in New York last month.
Local police said 98 were arrested on charges including trespassing, obstruction and resisting arrest.
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