World news in brief
Kanye West met Kushner amid White House bid
Kanye West met with White House senior adviser Jared Kushner last weekend, according to a new report, after launching a presidential campaign that he has openly indicated was aiming to siphon votes from Joe Biden. The rapper announced a presidential campaign earlier this year but has yet to secure a spot on the ballot in some states amid accusations that his petitions contained fake signatures.
West has received help from Republican operatives, and he reportedly “expressed comfort” with his campaign undermining the former vice president’s bid for the White House in a recent interview. When asked by the magazine about possibly hurting the presumptive Democratic nominee’s odds of unseating president Donald Trump in the upcoming vote, West replied: “I’m not denying it; I just told you.” The meeting, first reported by The New York Times yesterday, took place in Colorado last weekend.
Three killed in protests over Islam Facebook post
Three people have died in India during protests that were sparked by a Facebook post insulting the Prophet Mohammed. A senior police official confirmed that there were three fatalities after officers opened fire on demonstrators in the southern city of Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore).
The deaths came after thousands of people had taken to the street over an Islamophobic meme shared on social media by the account of a nephew of local Congress party politician R Akhanda Srinivas Murthy. Murthy was not at home during the protests, the Indian Express reported, but he later appealed to his “Muslim brethren” for calm in a video shared on social media. At least 60 officers were injured as demonstrators attacked a police station and set fire to vehicles along a road. Bengaluru City Police said on Twitter that officers used live ammunition to break up the crowd after teargas and batons had failed to disperse them.
French police investigate ‘barbaric’ horse killings
French police are investigating an unprecedented spate of horse killings, which have seen a number of animals mutilated across the country. A recent case in Cortambert, a village in the central-eastern department of Saone-et-Loire, on Friday involved a horse that had its right ear cut off, one of its eyes gouged out and its genitals cut away. A local official told Reuters that the unexplained attack was “absolutely barbaric”.
There have been about 10 similar cases across France since the start of the year, often occurring in the north of the country, according to a Paris police spokesperson. The spokesperson said there had also been cases between 2014 and 2016, with similar killings and mutilations reported in Belgium and Germany, but the recent spike in incidents in France was extremely unusual. Cruelty to animals is punishable in France with up to two years imprisonment and a maximum fine of 30,000 euros.
Three men charged in R Kelly abuse case
Federal prosecutors have announced charges against three men accused of threatening and intimidating women who have accused US singer R Kelly of abuse, including one man suspected of setting fire to a vehicle in Florida. A long-time friend of the indicted R&B performer offered to pay a victim $500,000 to keep her from cooperating in Kelly’s prosecution, authorities said, while a manager and adviser of Kelly threatened to release sexually explicit photographs of a woman who sued Kelly.
The Grammy-award winning musician has denied abusing anyone and has pleaded not guilty to dozens of state and federal sexual misconduct charges in Illinois, Minnesota and New York. The charges range from sexual assault to heading a racketeering scheme aimed at supplying Kelly with girls. He is also accused of having unprotected sex with a girl in 2015 without disclosing he had herpes.
Prosecutors described a third man accused of intimidating witnesses as being related to a former Kelly publicist. They said Michael Williams, 37, of Georgia, travelled to Florida in June and set fire to a car parked outside a residence where one of Kelly’s victims was staying. Williams also conducted internet searches for “the detonation properties of fertiliser and diesel fuel, witness intimidation and witness tampering and countries that do not have extradition with the United States”, authorities said in a news release.