P Diddy: Raids on Sean Combs’s homes were ‘unprecedented ambush’, lawyer says
Police raids on two properties owned by rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs were an “unprecedented ambush” and a “gross use of military-level force”, his lawyer has said.
Combs’s homes in Los Angeles and Miami were searched by Homeland Security Investigations agents on Monday.
The searches were connected to a sex trafficking investigation by federal authorities in New York, US news outlets reported on Tuesday.
In the first statement released on behalf of the rapper and music mogul since Monday’s raids, his lawyer Aaron Dyer said: “Yesterday, there was a gross overuse of military-level force as search warrants were executed at Mr Combs’ residences.
“There is no excuse for the excessive show of force and hostility exhibited by authorities or the way his children and employees were treated.
“Mr Combs was never detained but spoke to and cooperated with authorities.
“Despite media speculation, neither Mr Combs nor any of his family members have been arrested nor has their ability to travel been restricted in any way. This unprecedented ambush – paired with an advanced, coordinated media presence – leads to a premature rush to judgment of Mr Combs and is nothing more than a witch hunt based on meritless accusations made in civil lawsuits.
“There has been no finding of criminal or civil liability with any of these allegations. Mr Combs is innocent and will continue to fight every single day to clear his name.”
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Diddy’s homes raided
Sean Combs’s home in Los Angeles is raided by federal law enforcement.
Sky’s US partner network NBC News understands that several phones were seized from Combs in Miami on Monday before he was scheduled to depart on a trip to the Bahamas.
According to NBC News, three women and a man have been interviewed by federal officials in Manhattan in relation to the sex-trafficking investigation and further allegations of sexual assault, solicitation and distribution of illegal narcotics and firearms.
Representatives for Combs did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment.
The American music mogul, 54, has been the subject of several lawsuits, including for sexual assault, in recent months.
Sean Combs’s Los Angeles home is raided by federal law enforcement.
In February, a music producer filed a lawsuit alleging Combs coerced him to solicit sex workers and pressured him to have sex with them.
Combs’s lawyer said that for those allegations, “we have overwhelming, indisputable proof that his claims are complete lies”.
The rapper’s former protege and girlfriend, R&B singer Cassie, sued him in November alleging she was trafficked, raped, plied with drugs and beaten by Combs over a 10-year period.
The lawsuit said he forced her to have sex with male sex workers while he filmed them. The suit was settled the day after it was filed.
Also in November, Combs was sued by Joie Dickerson-Neal who claimed he drugged and sexually assaulted her when she was a psychology student at Syracuse University in January 1991 and filmed the attack.
But rejecting the claims as “made up and not credible”, a spokesperson for the star branded them “purely a money grab and nothing more”.
Another of Combs’s accusers is a woman who claims he “gang raped” her two decades ago after she was plied with drugs and alcohol when she was 17 years old.
Combs has denied all the allegations.
In a statement in December, he described the claims as “sickening” and said his accusers were “looking for a quick payday”.
“Let me be absolutely clear: I did not do any of the awful things being alleged. I will fight for my name, my family and for the truth,” he said.
Combs is among the most influential hip-hop producers and executives of the past three decades.
Also known as Puff Daddy and P Diddy, he built one of hip-hop’s biggest empires, blazing a trail with several entities attached to his name.
He is the founder of Bad Boy Records and a three-time Grammy winner who has worked with several top-tier artists including Notorious B.I.G., Mary J Blige, Usher, Lil Kim, Faith Evans and 112.
His latest album, The Love Album – Off the Grid, was released last year days after Combs was honoured at the MTV VMAs. It was nominated for best progressive R&B album at February’s Grammy Awards, which he did not attend.
R Kelly’s challenge against a 20-year sentence for child sex convictions has been quashed by an appeals court.
The singer was correctly sentenced to 20 years in prison, a Chicago court ruled on Friday.
He was convicted in 2022 on three charges of producing child sexual abuse images and three charges of enticement of minors for sex.
In his appeal, Kelly, 57, argued Illinois’ old statute of limitations – which required prosecution of child sex crime charges within 10 years – should have applied, rather than the current law permitting charges while an accuser is still alive.
The appeals court rejected this, labelling it an attempt by Kelly to elude the charges entirely after “employing a complex scheme to keep victims quiet”.
He also argued that charges involving one accuser should have been tried separately from the charges tied to three other accusers due to video evidence that became a focal point of the Chicago trial.
Prosecutors have said the video showed Kelly abusing a girl. The accuser, only identified as Jane, testified for the first time that she was 14 when the video was taken.
The three-judge panel from the appeals court noted jurors acquitted Kelly on seven of the 13 counts against him “even after viewing those abhorrent tapes”.
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In a written statement, Kelly’s attorney Jennifer Bonjean said they plan to seek a US Supreme Court review of the decision and “pursue all of his appellate remedies until we free R Kelly”.
“We are disappointed in the ruling, but our fight is far from over,” she said.
Entertainment
ITV newsreader Rageh Omaar ‘receiving medical care’ after on-screen behaviour worries fans
ITV News presenter Rageh Omaar is “receiving medical care” after becoming “unwell” live on-air, the TV channel says.
Omaar, 56, was presenting News At Ten on Friday when he appeared to be struggling to read the news bulletins, stumbling over words, prompting concern online.
ITV pulled the show from its scheduled re-run on ITV+1, telling viewers that the channel was “temporarily unable to bring you our +1 service”.
Afterwards, an ITV News spokesperson said: “We are aware that viewers are concerned about Rageh Omaar’s wellbeing.
“Rageh became unwell while presenting News at Ten on Friday and is now receiving medical care.
Rageh Omaar in 2021. File pic: PA
“He thanks everyone for their well wishes.”
No further details were given and it is unclear what was happening to Omaar during the broadcast.
Omaar covers major news stories as ITV’s international affairs editor, while also presenting the channel’s current affairs programme On Assignment.
He was previously a senior foreign correspondent for the BBC, rising to prominence during the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
A new update has been released for the nine-year-old video game Fallout 4, the first of its kind for the hit title since 2017.
It follows the roaring success of the Fallout TV show, which this month became the most-watched programme on Amazon Prime Video, overtaking both The Grand Tour and Clarkson’s Farm.
Game publisher Bethesda issued free next-generation iterations for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles, to boost graphics, frame rates and fix bugs.
PlayStation players are the biggest winners from the update, as the Xbox Series X already upscales graphics and framerates of older titles, while PC gaming giant AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution product achieves the same effect.
The release of the TV show has propelled Fallout game titles back into the Top Sellers category on the PC game platform Steam, with two Fallout games in the top 10 most-sold, with Fallout New Vegas even beating Call of Duty Warzone (which is free), at time of writing.
HBO’s smash hit, The Last Of Us, based on Sony Interactive Entertainment’s platinum intellectual property raised the bar for future game adaptations, but producers breathed a sigh of relief when pre-release reviews were universally positive.
The franchise is a jewel in the crown of publisher Bethesda, which was purchased by Xbox in a $7.5bn (£6bn) acquisition in 2021. Other popular titles include The Elder Scrolls and their latest release Starfield.
The Fallout story begins in 1997 when the first iteration was released by a North American publisher, Interplay, on Windows MS-DOS to critical acclaim and successful sales.
Fallout 2 followed just a year later (developed in a third of the time of its predecessor) to an equally positive reception and was deemed to be a worthy successor.
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Walton Goggins plays The Ghoul in the Fallout show. Pic: Amazon/Everett/Shutterstock
The award-winning move to 3D
The first-ever 3D version came in 2008 following the partial sale of the Fallout IP to Bethesda, in the form of Fallout 3.
It beat the sales records of both its predecessors in the first week alone, and received outstanding reviews across the board.
By the end of the following year, Fallout 3 had won multiple awards, and in 2012, was displayed in The Art of Video Games exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, earning the franchise a permanent place in the public’s cultural consciousness.
The notable spin-off Fallout: New Vegas was released swiftly afterwards, quickly cementing itself as a fan favourite. Following the release of the TV programme, New Vegas is currently out-selling Diablo IV, Elden Ring and Grand Theft Auto V on Steam.
Fallout 4 was released in 2015 to a mixed but largely positive reception, introducing some new features such as base-building and managed to please a majority of players.
The Brotherhood of Steel in the Fallout show. Pic: Amazon/Everett/Shutterstock
‘Historically bad’ and ‘pointless’ release
Then Bethesda published Fallout 76.
The first 3D multiplayer outing for Fallout ever released also turned out to be the most controversial.
It drew criticism from the press and players alike. Game-breaking bugs, an initial lack of content and poor design – coupled with a fanbase who were more accustomed to the single-player format, made it a victim to ‘”review-bombing”. Forbes called it a “historically bad launch”, while the Guardian branded it “pointless”.
Imperfect game launches can badly damage reputations, as exemplified by titles such as No Man’s Sky, Star Wars Battlefront II and Cyberpunk 2077. All three games have since largely rehabilitated themselves, though a stigmatic miasma remains.
A revival
Thanks to Prime Video’s TV adaptation the very same has now happened to Fallout 76.
The TV series has spurred players on to try it one more time, leading them to discover the updates, bug fixes and content releases that have greatly elevated Fallout 76 in the opinion of many fans, and led to positive recent player reviews.
At the time of writing, Fallout 76 occupies Steam’s eighth most-sold position, beating the award-winning Baldur’s Gate 3, EA Sports FC 24, and Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare III. At its peak this week the game boasted a million active players across all platforms, the highest number since its release.
It may come as a surprise to some to learn Fallout 5 is slated for seven to 10 years’ time, though some industry voices theorise Microsoft may use the series’ success to justify commissioning an intermediary instalment in the meantime to capitalise on the unexpectedly high levels of public interest.
Fallout show is proof of concept
Fallout’s TV success is proof of concept that companies can capitalise on (and sometimes rehabilitate), the public familiarity of their franchises – the box-office-hit Barbie movie being another example.
Games, like toys, will likely continue to spawn more cinematic adaptations, with The Last Of Us and Fallout receiving second seasons, while Bob the Builder, Polly Pocket and Barney The Dinosaur will all be immortalised in film.
Video games are arguably even easier to adapt for television given the narratives and universes are conveniently pre-existing, as opposed to the arduous job of inventing completely original storylines for Bob and his fellow construction workers.
Which game franchise gets the TV treatment next, however, remains to be seen, by players and non-gamers alike.
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