Trump to call for unity, face skepticism in SOTU address,
The actor Liam Neeson said in an interview last month that he once spent a week walking the streets with a club looking for a black man to kill after a woman close to him was raped by someone she said was black.
“My immediate reaction was, did she know who it was? No. What color were they? She said it was a black person . ... I went up and down areas with a cosh, hoping I’d be approached by somebody,” Mr. Neeson said, using a British word that describes a clublike weapon. “I’m ashamed to say that, and I did it for maybe a week — hoping some black bastard would come out of a pub and have a go at me about something, you know? So that I could kill him.”
The remarks were immediately met with public outrage.
“It’s unfortunate and sick that Liam Neeson would in response to a tragedy simply seek out any black person to murder,” Malik Russell, a spokesman for the NAACP, said in an email. “Pain suffered is not an excuse for racism.”
El Chapo’s fate
NEW YORK — After nearly three months of testimony about a vast drugsmuggling conspiracy steeped in violence, a jury began deliberations Monday at the U.S. trial of the Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
The day ended without jurors reaching a verdict for Guzman, who faces life in prison if convicted. They were to resume deliberations Tuesday.
Prosecutors say he is responsible for smuggling at least 200 tons of cocaine into the United States and for a wave of killings in turf wars with other cartels.
No charges for Avenatti
Michael Avenatti, who rose to fame as the outspoken lawyer for the pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels in her lawsuits against President Donald Trump, will not face criminal charges over an alleged episode of domestic violence involving a former girlfriend, law enforcement officials said Friday.
Mr. Avenatti, 47, a persistent critic of the president in his capacity as the lawyer for Ms. Daniels, was arrested in November on suspicion of domestic violence. He has denied the allegations.
Frank Mateljan, a spokesman for the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office, said Friday that the city attorney, Mike Feuer, would not file charges against Mr. Avenatti at this time but reserved the right to do so in the future.
Activist to attend SOTU
WASHINGTON — The activist who confronted a Republican senator in an elevator during the debate over Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court will attend President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address as a guest of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.
Ana Maria Archila made headlines in September after she and another woman blocked the doors of an elevator to speak with then-Sen. Jeff Flake, RAriz., about his support for Mr. Kavanaugh, who faced several allegations of sexual misconduct.
The women described themselves as survivors of sexual assault and tearfully urged Mr. Flake to reconsider his position. The encounter was carried live on CNN and became an iconic moment in the controversy over Mr. Kavanaugh’s nomination.