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Danny Masterson Rape Case Ends in Mistrial After Jury Deadlock

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Danny Masterson Rape Case Ends in Mistrial After Jury Deadlock

A judge declared a mistrial in the rape trial of “That ’70s Show” actor Danny Masterson on Wednesday after jurors deadlocked following the monthlong trial in which the Church of Scientology played a supporting role.

Prosecutors allege that Masterson raped three women, including a former girlfriend, in his Hollywood Hills home between 2001 and 2003 and that the church kept them quiet for years. Masterson, 46, pleaded not guilty, and his lawyer stated that all acts were consensual.

“I find the jurors hopelessly deadlocked,” Judge Charlaine Olmedo declared after the jury foreman stated that the court could do nothing to move them closer to a unanimous decision. She scheduled a retrial in Los Angeles Superior Court for March.

Olmedo had ordered jurors to take Thanksgiving week off and continue deliberating after they said they couldn’t reach an agreement on Nov. 18. A jury of six women and six men resumed deliberations on Monday after two jurors were diagnosed with COVID-19 during the break.

According to the foreman, the jury voted seven times on Tuesday and Wednesday without deciding on any of the three counts. Two jurors supported conviction on the first count, four on the second count, and five on the third count.

As a result, prosecutors and the three women who said they were seeking long-overdue justice and gave emotional and graphic testimony over several days suffered a significant setback.

“Masterson has evaded criminal accountability for his deplorable acts,” two of the alleged victims in the case said in a statement. However, we are determined to continue our fight for justice.”

Danny Masterson Rape Case Ends in Mistrial After Jury Deadlock

At the time, all three women were church members, and Danny Masterson is still one.

Two of the women and one of their husbands are suing Masterson, the Church of Scientology, its leader, David Miscavige, and others for allegedly stalking, harassing, and intimidating them after they attempted to expose Masterson.

Masterson walked out of the courtroom with his wife, actress and model Bijou Phillips, without speaking to reporters. Members of his showbiz family, his sisters-in-law, actor Mackenzie Phillips, singer and actress Chynna Phillips, and her husband, actor William Baldwin, accompanied him to court for several days.

The proceedings took place amid a flurry of #MeToo-related cases on both coasts, including Harvey Weinstein’s trial in Los Angeles, just down the hall from Masterson’s. In New York, Kevin Spacey won a sexual misconduct lawsuit brought by actor Anthony Rapp, and in a civil case there, a jury ordered director and screenwriter Paul Haggis to pay $10 million.

But, as with the Haggis trial, the specter of Scientology overshadowed the #MeToo implications, despite the judge’s insistence that the church not become a de facto defendant.

According to Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller, the church attempted to silence the women, which is why the case took two decades to reach trial.

Danny Masterson Rape Case Ends in Mistrial After Jury Deadlock

Masterson’s lawyer, Philip Cohen, claims the church was mentioned 700 times during the trial and claims it became an excuse for the prosecution’s failure to build a credible case against Masterson, a prominent Scientologist.

According to Karin Pouw, a church spokesperson, Mueller misrepresented church doctrine and beliefs, and Jane Does make false claims about Scientology.

“There is absolutely no truth to any of the testimony that the church harassed or stalked the Jane Does,” Pouw said.

Cohen stated that he would file a motion to dismiss the case based on the jury’s decision. He stated that jurors provided additional beneficial insights after the mistrial ruling, but he refused to discuss what they told him.

“As a lawyer, you always wonder if what you’re doing in court every day is making any inroads… with the jury,” Cohen explained. “We made inroads.”

The district attorney’s office expressed disappointment with the outcome and said it would consider its next steps. It praised the women for “stepping forward bravely and recounting their harrowing experiences.”

Jurors were led out of the courtroom without speaking to reporters.

Masterson did not appear in court. Cohen did not present any defense testimony, instead focusing on inconsistencies in the accounts of the three accusers, whom he claimed changed their stories over time and spoke with each other before going to the police.

During closing arguments, Cohen stated, “The key to this case was not when they reported it.” “That’s what they said when it was reported, what they said after reporting it. And what they said in court.”

Masterson, according to Mueller, was a man “for whom ‘no’ never meant ‘no.'”

Danny Masterson Rape Case Ends in Mistrial After Jury Deadlock

Masterson allegedly served two women drinks, causing them to become woozy or pass out before being violently raped. One woman said she thought she would die as Masterson covered her face with a pillow.

An ex-girlfriend claimed she awoke to find Masterson having sex with her against her will. According to the defense, her claims were undermined because she later had sex with him after they split up.

Cohen told jurors that if they believed Masterson “actually and reasonably believed” the women consented to have sex, they could acquit him.

Mueller countered that no one would believe the acts described were consensual, reminding jurors that one woman told him “no,” pulled his hair, and tried to get out from under him repeatedly.

Mueller warned jurors not to be swayed by defense speculation and said contradictions in the victims’ testimony were signs of authenticity rather than scripted accounts.

The charges stem from when Masterson was at the pinnacle of his career, starring as Steven Hyde on Fox’s “That ’70s Show” from 1998 to 2006. The show, which made Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis, and Topher Grace stars, is getting a Netflix reboot with “That ’90s Show.”

Masterson re-joined Kutcher on the Netflix comedy “The Ranch” but was fired when an LAPD investigation was revealed in December 2017.

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United CEO Tries To Reassure Customers Following Multiple Safety Incidents

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United Airlines is attempting to reassure passengers following a spate of accidents on its Boeing jets this year. In a statement to customers, the airline states that safety is “at the center of everything that we do.”

“While they are all unrelated, I want you to know that these incidents have captured our attention and sharpened our focus,” CEO Scott Kirby wrote in a Monday morning statement to customers.

united

United CEO Tries To Reassure Customers Following Multiple Safety Incidents

On Friday, a United Boeing 737-800 landed in Medford, Oregon, missing an underside fuselage panel.

Earlier this month, United experienced four mishaps, all involving Boeing jets. A United Boeing 737-900ER blew flames from its engine after takeoff from Houston, a Boeing 777 lost a wheel during takeoff from San Francisco, a Boeing 737 Max slipped off a runway in Houston, and a United Boeing 777 trailed hydraulic fluid as it left Sydney.

“Our team is reviewing the details of each case to understand what happened and using those insights to inform our safety training and procedures across all employee groups,” Kirby continued.

The airline is extending pilot training by one day, retooling training for new mechanics, and “dedicating more resources to supplier network management.”

Passengers witnessing a run of negative articles about the airline and its Boeing jets may consider booking elsewhere. In its letter, the airline is attempting to keep consumers from departing. As of the end of last year, 81% of the jets used on United’s mainline operations were manufactured by Boeing, compared to little more than half of the jets in rivals Delta and American Airlines’ mainline fleets.

Aside from the problems on  flights, the most dramatic Boeing incident this year featured an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9, which lost a door stopper on a January 5 flight, resulting in a gaping hole in the plane’s side. And last week, a Latam Airlines flight from Sydney, Australia, to Auckland, New Zealand, fell unexpectedly, throwing some passengers to the cabin ceiling.

united

United CEO Tries To Reassure Customers Following Multiple Safety Incidents

Investigators are still investigating the causes of both events, but a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board showed Boeing left the bolts required to keep the door plug in place on the 10-week-old Alaska Air jet. Boeing asserted that an incident in the cockpit rather than a problem with the aircraft’s systems may have caused the Latam accident.

The age of the aircraft in the United incidents suggests that the problem could be with their staff rather than Boeing’s well-documented quality faults. For example, Boeing purchased the jet that lost its panel on a Friday trip in 1998. So, Boeing’s quality difficulties are likely unrelated to that occurrence.

However, Boeing’s issues have impeded United’s operations. Due to the FAA’s production slowdown, it has halted hiring a new class of pilots since it will receive fewer new planes from Boeing this year, as previously promised. In January, the Alaska Air incident grounded its 737 Max 9 jets for three weeks.

united

United CEO Tries To Reassure Customers Following Multiple Safety Incidents

Furthermore, approval of a new generation of Boeing jets, the 737 Max 10, ordered by United, has been delayed due to the company’s quality and safety issues.

Kirby told investors last week that United is considering purchasing more jets from Boeing competitor Airbus. He also stated earlier this year that the Alaska Air incident was the “straw that broke the camel’s back” on United’s plans to receive deliveries of the Max 10 in the near future.’

SOURCE – (CNN)

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For The Past Year, Global Ocean Temperatures Has Set New Records On A Daily Basis.

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According to new data, the world’s oceans have now been subjected to an unprecedented year of heat, with new temperature records being smashed every day.

Global water surface temperatures began breaking daily records in mid-March last year, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer, raising fears about marine life and extreme weather worldwide.

ocean

For The Past Year, Global Ocean Temperatures Has Set New Records On A Daily Basis.

“The amplitude by which previous sea surface temperature records were beaten in 2023, and now again in 2024, is remarkable,” said Joel Hirschi, associate head of marine systems modelling at the National Oceanography Centre in the United Kingdom.

Gregory C. Johnson, a NOAA oceanographer, reported that the global average ocean temperature in 2023 was 0.25 degrees Celsius higher than the previous year. That increase “is equivalent to about two decades’ worth of warming in a single year,” he told CNN. “So it is quite large, quite significant, and a bit surprising.”

According to scientists, human-caused global warming, along with El Niño, a natural climate trend characterized by higher-than-average water temperatures, is accelerating  heat.

The biggest repercussions are for marine life and global weather. As the global waterwarms, hurricanes and other extreme weather phenomena, such as blistering heat waves and heavy rains, may gain more force.

High temperatures are already wreaking havoc on coral. In March, based on aerial observations, authorities declared that Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is witnessing its seventh mass bleaching episode.

Bleaching happens when heat-stressed corals release the algae that dwell in their tissue and serve as a food supply. If water temperatures continue too high for too long, corals will starve and die.

ocean

For The Past Year, Global Ocean Temperatures Has Set New Records On A Daily Basis.

Data from NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch program suggest that the crisis extends far beyond Australia, with the world potentially facing a fourth worldwide mass coral bleaching event in the coming months.

Ocean heat creates the conditions for more powerful hurricanes. “The warmer the ocean, the more energy to fuel storms is available,” said Karina von Schuckmann, an oceanographer at Mercator Ocean International in France.

Temperatures in the North Atlantic, an water area important for storm generation, have been unusual, startling some scientists who are still investigating the specific causes.

“At times, the records (in the North Atlantic) have been broken by margins that are virtually statistically impossible,” Brian McNoldy, a senior research associate at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School, said to CNN.

If water temperatures remain high in the second half of 2024 and a La Niña event intensifies the Atlantic hurricane season, “this would increase the risk of a very active hurricane season,” Hirschi explained.

The oceans contain around 90% of the world’s excess heat generated by burning planet-heating fossil fuels. “Measuring water warming allows us to track the status and evolution of planetary warming,” Schuckmann stated in an interview with CNN. “The ocean is the sentinel for global warming.”

El Niño is expected to weaken and fade in the coming months, perhaps reducing record water temperatures if La Niña replaces it.

ocean

For The Past Year, Global Ocean Temperatures Has Set New Records On A Daily Basis.

“In the past, surface temperature values have decreased after the passage of El Niño,” Schuckmann said. However, she cautioned that it is now hard to forecast when water temperatures will fall below record levels.

While natural climatic variability will cause water temperatures to vary, NOAA’s Johnson predicts that in the long run, they will “continue to break records as long as greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere rise.”

SOURCE – (CNN)

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Reactions As Vladimir Putin Secures A Fifth Term As Russia’s President After Tightly Controlled Vote

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Vladimir Putin won a historic fifth term as Russia’s president on Monday, as the electoral commission announced the results of a referendum in which he faced no serious challenges and took place amid the toughest crackdown on dissent and free speech since Soviet times.

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Reactions As Vladimir Putin Secures A Fifth Term As Russia’s President After Tightly Controlled Vote

Putin claimed that the landslide majority demonstrated Russians’ “trust” and “hopes” in him, while lawmakers throughout Europe blasted the vote as a hoax and Russia’s efforts to conduct elections in seized portions of Ukraine that it claims as its territory.

Here’s what Putin, European leaders, and others say:

“Of course, we have a lot of work ahead. But I’d like to clarify one thing: no one has ever been able to intimidate or stifle our will or self-conscience since our consolidation. They have failed in the past and will fail in the future. Vladimir Putin, President of Russia.

“The elections took place in an ever-shrinking political space, which has resulted in an alarming increase of violations of civil and political rights, and precluded many candidates from running, including all those opposed to Russia’s illegal war of aggression.” – Statement from the European Union.

“These Russian elections highlight the intensity of repression under President Putin’s administration, which tries to stifle all dissent to his illegal war. Putin eliminates his political opponents, controls the media, and declares himself the winner. “This is not a democracy.” — David Cameron, UK Foreign Secretary.

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Reactions As Vladimir Putin Secures A Fifth Term As Russia’s President After Tightly Controlled Vote

“Searches at voting stations’ entrances, attempts to examine ballots before voters place them in ballot boxes, and detentions of voters who arrived at noon. According to reports, at one voting location in Moscow, police asked that the chairman of a commission (of poll workers) unlock a ballot box and hand them a ballot with anything inscribed on it. This is the first time in my life that I have witnessed such ridiculousness.” — Stanislav Andreychuk, co-chair of Golos, the independent election watchdog, on Telegram.

putin

Reactions As Vladimir Putin Secures A Fifth Term As Russia’s President After Tightly Controlled Vote

“The Russian election was one without a choice. Holding so-called elections in portions of Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia violates international law. It is all the more amazing that so many Russians made it known over the weekend that they do not agree with this Russian president. That you go to a polling station even if you’re surrounded by military earns me the highest respect.” — German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.

SOURCE – (AP)

 

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