US strikes on Syria and Iraq: Sky News experts on why Biden ordered bombing raid

Published

4 months ago

February 2, 2024

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The US has hit 85 targets in Iraq and Syria with airstrikes in a retaliatory attack after three American soldiers were killed at a base in Jordan.

More than 125 “precision munitions” were fired from long-range bombers flown from the US at three facilities in Iraq and four in Syria.

Middle East latest: US begins wave of airstrikes in Iraq and Syria

US Central Command said the strikes targeted Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force and affiliated militia groups.

Here is what our experts have said about the US strikes:

Security analyst Michael Clarke

“What the Americans are trying to do is to offer a big enough series of targets, 85-plus targets, and they’ll do more of it. They’ve said that.

“This will be a multi-layered operation that will be sustained. It will go on.

“A lot of aircraft have come from the United States, some B52s, and some B1Bs.

“The B52s are considerably older than the pilots who fly them but they still work pretty well and they’ll have launched quite a lot of missiles from the ships.

“Tomahawk missiles, the F22, the Super Hornets from the [USS] Eisenhower will have been involved.

“I think they’ll have had everything up tonight, probably, in order to show that they can do this.

“They’ve not gone for personnel, they’ve deliberately given them warning, so that they know they’ll have dispersed and taken whatever equipment with them they can, but they’ve gone for the rest and the fixed sites.

“The message is this is the first instalment and there will be more.

“The idea is, whether it will work or not, we don’t know, that Tehran has got to think again.”

Military analyst Sean Bell

“It is no great surprise that this strike has happened. What is a surprise is that it’s taken so long for it to be enacted.

“I think part of what we’re seeing here is the very, very calculated, measured response.

“America knows that it’s on the horns of a dilemma. It was obliged to take action, following the death of those three servicemen and 40 injured in the northern part of Jordan.

“But the US doesn’t want to make a bad situation worse.

“Targeting equipment rather than populated areas sends a very clear message.

“If you want to take out [military] capability, it’s equipment and people. If you want to send a signal, you focus on equipment.

“The very fact they’ve been targeting out of populated areas, that they’ve been focused on particular military equipment, I think sends a very clear message without actually seeking to escalate.”

US

Scottie Scheffler arrest officer disciplined for not having bodycam turned on

Published

4 hours ago

May 24, 2024

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Scottie Scheffler arrest officer disciplined for not having bodycam turned on

A police officer who arrested world number one golfer Scottie Scheffler has been disciplined for not having his bodycam on during the incident.

Scheffler was dramatically detained ahead of the second round of the PGA Championship last Friday in Louisville, Kentucky, after he reportedly tried to drive around a traffic jam outside Valhalla golf club caused by a fatal accident.

The 27-year-old later said he was “rattled” by the experience, which saw him charged and a police mugshot released of him wearing an orange jail-issue jumpsuit.

Louisville Detective Bryan Gillis has now been subject to “corrective action” for failing to activate his body-worn camera during the pre-dawn encounter in which he claimed he was “dragged/knocked down by the driver”.

Police have already released a video from a street camera that appears to show Scheffler’s car turning into the golf club entrance, prompting an officer to run toward the vehicle and apparently strike it as it comes to a stop.

The camera is too far away to capture the full details of the incident.

Another video released by authorities from a police vehicle dashcam shows Scheffler in handcuffs as he is taken away by officers.

Scheffler was arrested on charges that he injured Gillis and disobeyed commands, but the golfer said “he never intended to disregard any of the instructions” and that the incident was caused by a “big misunderstanding”.

Scheffler’s attorney Steve Romines has said his client was not at fault.

“Our position is the same as it was last Friday, Scottie Scheffler didn’t do anything wrong, we’re not interested in settling the case,” Mr Romines said.

“We’ll either try it or it will be dismissed.”

The city’s police chief pointed out officers are expected to maintain their body-worn cameras in a “constant state of operational readiness”.

Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel, head of the Louisville Metro Police Department, said: “Detective Gillis should have turned on his body-worn camera but did not.

“His failure to do so is a violation of LMPD policy on uniforms and equipment.”

An internal investigation report said Detective Gillis should have at least had his camera on in standby mode while directing traffic before the incident with Scheffler.

Chief Gwinn-Villaroel said the officer had “received corrective action” for the breach.

He had to complete a “failure to record” form as required by policy, was “counselled by a member of his command” and a “performance observation” was completed.

Detective Gillis had said he was requested to respond to a fatal accident at Valhalla when he saw Scheffler’s vehicle “travelling in the opposing lanes coming at me.”

Gillis, who approached Scheffler’s car on foot, wrote in an arrest report that the driver “refused to comply and accelerated forward, dragging” him to the ground.

He said his uniform trousers were damaged in the fall and he was taken to the hospital for his injuries.

Just hours later, after being carted off in handcuffs and a spell in jail, Scheffler returned to the golf course and eventually finished the tournament tied in eighth place on Sunday, which was enough to secure prize money of about $520,000 (£409,000).

He is due to return to Louisville on 3 June to face four charges, including second-degree felony assault of a police officer.

Louisville police’s current body camera policy was introduced following controversy in 2020 after officers shot Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman who was killed during a botched drug raid.

At the time, the plain-clothes officers who served the warrant and fired at Taylor were not required to wear body cameras.

The new policy required all officers to turn on the camera “prior to engaging in all law enforcement activities and encounters.”

The police chief at the time of Taylor’s death was later fired when officers at the scene of another fatal shooting failed to turn on their body-worn cameras.

US

Sean Kingston’s home raided ‘over $150,000 TV payment’ – as his mother arrested

Published

5 hours ago

May 24, 2024

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Sean Kingston's home raided 'over 0,000 TV payment' - as his mother arrested

A SWAT team has raided the rented Florida mansion of singer Sean Kingston and arrested his mother on fraud and theft linked to the installation of a gigantic TV.

Detectives detained his mother, Janice Turner, 61, at the property in a Fort Lauderdale suburb, popular with celebrities and professional athletes, including Dwayne Johnson and Miami Dolphins star Tyreek Hill, on Thursday.

The sheriff’s office said the investigation is ongoing and declined to release specific details about the charges against Turner or whether her 34-year-old son is also being sought.

Local media reported Kingston was out of town and was not present during the raid, in which items were removed and loaded into a van by the authorities.

The Jamaican-American performer is best known for his 2007 single Beautiful Girls, Fire Burning and his collaboration with Justin Bieber on Eenie Meenie.

Federal court records show his mother pleaded guilty in 2006 to bank fraud for stealing more than $160,000 (£126,088) and served nearly a year and a half in prison.

Kingston wrote in an Instagram post on Thursday, which was later removed: “People love negative energy!

“I am good, and so is my mother!… My lawyers are handling everything as we speak.”

Robert Rosenblatt, a lawyer representing the rapper and his mother, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel: “These are fine people, and I’d be surprised if the allegations were true.”

Florida Department of Corrections records show Kingston is on two-year probation for trafficking stolen property.

‘Promise of commercials with Justin Bieber’

Lawyer Dennis Card, who was present at the arrest, said it is partly related to a lawsuit he filed against Kingston in February, accusing him of defrauding a Florida company that installed a 232-inch television.

In the case, Ver Ver Entertainment says Kingston contacted the company in September about buying the television, sold under the brand name Colossal TV, and having it installed at his home. The system costs $150,000 (£118,000).

Kingston allegedly told the owners that if they agreed to a lower down payment and gave him credit, he and Bieber would do commercials for them.

In November, Kingston paid the company $30,000 (£23,631) and the TV was installed, according to the lawsuit, but no commercials or further payments were made.

“He is 100% not involved in this,” Mr Card said of Bieber.

“He had the misfortune of doing some work in the past with Sean, and Sean drops his name like crazy.”

Kingston, whose legal name is Kisean Anderson, has not had a major label release in more than a decade.

In 2011, he suffered life-threatening injuries in a jet ski accident.

US

Ticketmaster owner Live Nation facing monopoly lawsuit – after criticism from Taylor Swift

Published

23 hours ago

May 23, 2024

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Ticketmaster owner Live Nation facing monopoly lawsuit - after criticism from Taylor Swift

The US Justice Department (DOJ) is suing Live Nation, arguing the big concert promoter and its subsidiary, Ticketmaster, have been “monopolising” the live events industry.

The antitrust lawsuit was launched on Thursday by the DOJ, 30 US states, and the District of Columbia, with US Attorney General Merrick Garland saying: “It is time to break up Live Nation.”

The entertainment company merged with Ticketmaster back in 2010. Through Ticketmaster, Live Nation now controls roughly 80% or more of big venues’ primary ticketing for concerts, the suit says.

A Live Nation spokesperson said the company would defend itself “against these baseless allegations” and said the DOJ would lose in court because the case “ignores the basic economics of live entertainment”.

Ticketmaster, which overwhelmingly dominates the ticketing industry, has for years left fans and artists frustrated by hidden fees, rising costs, and limited ticket availability due to presales.

Its dominance in the industry came under scrutiny by US politicians in 2022, when Ticketmaster was forced to cancel its general sale of tickets to Taylor Swift’s much-anticipated Eras tour due to “extraordinarily high demands”.

At the time, the superstar criticised Ticketmaster on social media, saying it was “excruciating for me to just watch mistakes happen with no recourse” after Swift’s fans reported long wait times and site outages during the presales.

The star said 2.4 million fans had been able to purchase tickets, which was “truly amazing… but it really p***** me off that a lot of them feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them”.

Thursday’s legal action underscores the aggressive approach President Joe Biden’s antitrust enforcers have adopted as they seek to create more competition in a wide range of industries, from “big tech”, to healthcare, and groceries.

In March, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Apple alleging that the tech giant has monopoly power in the smartphone market.

“Live Nation relies on unlawful, anticompetitive conduct to exercise its monopolistic control over the live events industry
in the United States at the cost of fans, artists, smaller promoters, and venue operators,” Mr Garland said.

He added that, as a result, fans pay more in fees, artists have fewer opportunities to perform, and smaller promoters get squeezed out.

The lawsuit says Live Nation directly manages more than 400 musical artists and controls around 60% of concert promotions at major venues.

It also owns or controls more than 265 concert venues in North America.

In 2010, the Justice Department approved Ticketmaster’s controversial merger with Live Nation, with conditions intended
to stop the combined company from harming competition.

In 2020, a court extended most of the DOJ’s oversight of the merger to 2025 because, the department said, Ticketmaster
retaliated against stadiums and arenas that opted to use other ticketing companies.

Live Nation has said in the past that it was confident its business practices were legal, and that the probe had been prompted by complaints from rivals, including re-sellers.

A spokesperson for the company said on Thursday that the lawsuit “won’t solve the issues fans care about relating to ticket prices, service fees, and access to in-demand shows”.

Live Nation added that “calling Ticketmaster a monopoly may be a PR win for the DOJ in the short term, but it will lose in court because it ignores the basic economics of live entertainment” – stating that most service fees go to venues.