HellsBelle

Two violent Israeli settlers on whom sanctions were imposed by the UK government this week have joined a campaign to drive Palestinians from their homes in the West Bank village of Mughayyir al-Deir.

Neria Ben Pazi’s organisation, Neria’s Farm, had sanctions imposed by London on Tuesday, as the UK suspended negotiations on a new free-trade deal with Israel over its refusal to allow aid into Gaza and cabinet ministers’ calls to “purify Gaza” by expelling Palestinians.

The British foreign secretary, David Lammy, attacked the “impunity” of violent settlers as he announced sanctions designed to hold them and Israeli authorities to account. “The Israeli government has a responsibility to intervene and halt these aggressive actions,” he said.

The head of the Palestinian Red Crescent said on Thursday that a paramedic who survived an attack that killed 15 aid workers was spared because he asked Israeli soldiers for mercy in Hebrew, adding that he hoped the man's testimony would help win justice.

Assad Al-Nassasrah, a Red Crescent paramedic, survived shootings that killed 15 emergency and aid workers on March 23 in southern Gaza in an incident that drew international condemnation. Their bodies were found buried in a shallow grave a week later by Red Crescent and U.N. officials who accused Israeli forces of killing them.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission dropped a case that sought to block Microsoft's $69 billion purchase of "Call of Duty" maker Activision Blizzard, saying on Thursday that pursuing the case against the long-closed deal was not in the public interest.

FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson is seeking to use the agency's resources for cases that fit with President Donald Trump's agenda, such as a probe related to whether advertisers colluded to spend less on X first reported by Reuters on Thursday.

OnlyFans owner Fenix International Ltd is in talks to sell the porn-driven company to an investor group at a valuation of around $8 billion, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The group is led by the Forest Road Company, a Los Angeles-based investment firm, the sources said. Reuters could not identify the investors in the group.

The investor group and current deal value have not previously been reported.

In the year ended November 2023, the company generated $6.6 billion in revenue, according to a filing with British regulators. That is up from $375 million in 2020, and this rapid growth has attracted investor interest.

The U.S. social safety net would be jolted if the budget bill backed by President Donald Trump and passed Thursday by the House of Representatives becomes law.

It would require many low-income adults to work to receive Medicaid health insurance coverage and more to work to get food assistance, require hospitals to verify the citizenship status of patients, and cut funding for services like birth control to the nation’s biggest abortion provider.

Supporters of the bill say the moves will save money, root out waste and encourage personal responsibility.

A preliminary estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the proposals would reduce the number of people with health care by 8.6 million over the decade.

Frank Taylor’s idea for the Stable Recovery program was born six years ago out of a need for help on his family’s 1,100-acre farm that has foaled and raised some of racing’s biggest stars in the heart of Kentucky horse country.

The area is also home to America’s bourbon industry and racing has long been associated with alcohol.

“If a horse won, I drank a lot,” Taylor said. “If a horse lost, I drank a lot.”

The basic framework for the program at Taylor Made Farm came from a restaurant he frequents whose owner operates it as a second-chance employment opportunity for people in recovery. Taylor thought something similar would work on his farm, given the physical labor involved in caring for horses and the peaceful atmosphere.

Decades before transgender became a household word and “RuPaul’s Drag Race” became a worldwide hit — before visibility brought rights and recognition — there was Bambi, the Parisian icon who danced for Hollywood.

The moment that changed queer history occurred on a sweltering summer day in early 1950s Algeria. An effeminate teenage boy named Jean-Pierre Pruvot stood mesmerized as traffic halted and crowds swarmed around a scandalous spectacle unfolding in the conservative Algiers streets.

All had stopped to look at Coccinelle, the flamboyant “transvestite” star of Paris’ legendary cabaret, the Carrousel de Paris, who strutted defiantly down the boulevard, impeccably dressed as a woman, sparking awe and outrage and literally stopping traffic.

What Pruvot — who would become famous under the female stage name “Bambi” and Coccinelle’s best friend — witnessed was more than mere performance. It was an act of resistance from the ashes of the Nazi persecution of the LGBTQ+ community in World War II.

A private jet crashed into military housing in San Diego during foggy weather early Thursday, igniting cars parked along a suburban neighborhood block and killing multiple people on board the plane, authorities said.

The plane could hold eight to 10 people but it’s not yet known how many were on the aircraft, Assistant San Diego Fire Chief Dan Eddy said at a news conference. Authorities will be investigating whether the plane hit a power line, he said.

The aircraft crashed just before 4 a.m. into the U.S. military’s largest housing neighborhood. It appeared to strike at least one home that had a charred and collapsed roof and smash through half a dozen vehicles. About 10 homes suffered damage.

Alexus Byrd-Maxey had just finished her second month at the Chicago police academy, well on her way to fulfilling her childhood dream.

The South Side native wanted to become a detective so she could bring closure to families who have lost loved ones to homicides by arresting those responsible.

But on March 17, 2023, an encounter with a fellow recruit derailed that dream. On that day, she was leaning over a classmate’s computer, helping him log on to do their lesson. As another recruit walked behind her, she said she felt his hands on her waist and his body pressed up against her. He was close enough, she told reporters, that she felt “his penis on my butt.”

The following week, when Byrd-Maxey reported the incident to her class leader, he talked to fellow recruits and they downplayed the encounter. A recruit who allegedly witnessed the incident and was friends with Tabb later told investigators that Byrd-Maxey was “trying to victimize herself.”

The academy instructor never filed a sexual misconduct complaint. Two and a half weeks later, Byrd-Maxey was fired from the academy for supposedly cursing and using gang language — allegations she has denied. Tabb soon became an officer and began patrolling streets.

Eight months after Byrd-Maxey was fired, Tabb was arrested for allegedly grabbing a fellow officer’s genitals repeatedly over her uniform after roll call in their police precinct.

Tabb now faces multiple felony charges, including aggravated criminal sexual abuse.

The country's military police watchdog is launching its first public interest hearing in over a decade into an alleged negligence case involving a defence intelligence analyst in Ottawa who died by suicide.

A complaint alleges military police may have played a role in the death of Master Corporal Shaun Orton in April 2024 by failing to conduct a welfare check sooner and delaying going into his home and performing first aid.

"The allegations in this complaint are serious," wrote the watchdog's chairperson Tammy Tremblay in her decision to hold a public hearing.

"If substantiated, they could amount to a failure to conduct a welfare check in an adequate and timely manner which could have potentially saved a life."

What should the future of policing in Winnipeg look like? It's a question the Winnipeg police board is exploring. It is seeking feedback and opinions on policing in Winnipeg.

The winding series of Senate procedural votes that went late into the evening could have profound implications for California’s longstanding efforts to reduce air pollution. It also established a new, narrow exception to the Senate filibuster even as Republicans have insisted that they won’t try to change Senate rules.

Democrats strongly objected to the move, delaying the votes for hours as Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., cleared the way procedurally for Republicans to bring up three House-passed resolutions that would block the rules. The Senate could pass the resolutions later this week.

At issue are the three California rules — phasing out gas-powered cars, cutting tailpipe emissions from medium- and heavy-duty vehicles and curbing smog-forming nitrogen oxide pollution from trucks.