Commentary Culture Investigations

The allegations, which are at the heart of a confidential arbitration, signal an aggressive new stance by the Central Asian country toward longstanding international partners.

This article was produced in partnership with MIT Technology Review, with support from the Wayne Barrett Project. One morning in April 2025, employees of a small office in the US State Department got the email many of them had been dreading.  For months, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency had been cutting a wide swath […]
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Kinahan was taken from Dubai to a Dublin court under armed escort and ordered to remain in prison while he awaits trial for his alleged part in running a global drug smuggling empire.

Its USDT crypto token underpins a trillion-dollar market, but cryptocurrency giant Tether won’t answer questions about its ownership.

With The View discussing how the attorney for killer Lindsey Clancy was looking to investigate the holdout juror in the trial, ABC News co-host Sunny Hostin shared a new story with her cast mates. On Tuesday’s episode of The View, Hostin recounted how she was the holdout juror in a major New York City murder trial in the early 1990s, The Butcher of Tompkins Square Park, who killed, butchered, cooked, and served his landlady to the homeless. Hostin wanted him found “not guilty.”The reason Hostin brought up her involvement with the case was to show off how much she believed in the insanity defense. When she mentioned the case, Behar immediately remembered it:HOSTIN: The insanity defense has been around in Massachusetts for 182 years, so I think it’s well established. And I thought absolutely she was not criminally responsible by reason of insanity. And the reason I felt that — I feel so strongly about this holdout juror is became I was a holdout juror in a case in the Daniel Rakowitz case. I don’t know if people remember it, The Butcher of Thompkins Square Park. It was in 199-JOY BEHAR: The guy who ate the victims?HOSTIN: Yes. Sunny Hostin brags about being a holdout juror that prevented The Butcher of Thompson Square Park from going to prison.She admits “once he killed her, he chopped up her body parts, yes, boiled her body parts … and fed her body parts to the unhoused.” pic.twitter.com/sLbElgLuGt— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) September 22, 2026 Hostin bragged about her status as the lone holdout juror, even being featured in The New York Times:When I brought it up at the Hot Topics meeting, I don’t think everyone believed me. And my producer looked it up and I’m in The New York Times and apparently, “several jurors questioned afterwards said one holdout juror was principally responsible for preventing them from returning a guilty verdict.” That was me.Finally getting around to the gruesome details of the killing, Hostin argued: “he did not mean to kill her, and once he killed her he panicked.” “He chopped up her body parts, yes, boiled her body parts, tried to commit the perfect crime and then … he fed her body parts to the unhoused [homeless],” she recalled.“And you got this guy off?!” shouted co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin and a seeming mixture of shock and disgust. “That’s how much I believe in the insanity defense,” Hostin proclaimed.

ABC via SnapStream

While claiming, “one juror threw a chair at me,” Hostin touted how she was able to turn them all. “They were so angry with me and one-by-one I picked them off and said ‘what about this, what about that’ and we ended up, all 12 unanimously voting that he was not criminally responsible by reason [of insanity].”Adding: “But he is still in a mental institution being treated.”Hostin did save some of her typical scorn for Clancy’s attorney over his effort to target the holdout juror in her case:I think this lawyer, you know, who is — wants the juror investigated, that’s going to have a chilling effect on juries. Jury duty is duty. It is one of the most important things I think I’ve ever done in my life. It was extremely difficult. But to investigate a juror for doing his or her duty is despicable.Additionally, Hostin accidently blew up the narrative she had created about her life on the show. Often bragging about how she supposedly grew up in the Bronx, Tompkins Square Park was located in Manhattan’s Stuyvesant neighborhood near the East Village. New York City will only summon a potential juror in the borough they live in. Since Hostin was summoned to be on a jury in Manhattan, she couldn’t be living in the Bronx.While Hostin’s family did live in the Bronx for a short amount of time, she grew up in Stuyvesant, particularly StuyTown, a wealthy private community just four blocks from Tompkins Square Park.The transcript is below. Click “expand” to read:ABC’s The ViewSeptember 22, 202611:15:29 a.m. Eastern(…)SUNNY HOSTIN: The insanity defense has been around in Massachusetts for 182 years, so I think it’s well established. And I thought absolutely she was not criminally responsible by reason of insanity. And the reason I felt that — I feel so strongly about this holdout juror is became I was a holdout juror in a case in the Daniel Rakowitz case. I don’t know if people remember it, The Butcher of Thompkins Square Park. It was in 199-JOY BEHAR: The guy who ate the victims?HOSTIN: Yes.ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: [Gasps] You were on the jury?!HOSTIN: Yes, I was.SARA HAINES: You’re going to need to explain more![Crosstalk]FARAH GRIFFIN: How have we never heard this story before?STAR JONES: Were you a lawyer already?!HOSTIN: It was before I went to law school -JONES: Oh, cause I would have never put you on -HOSTIN: and when I brought it up in –[Laughter]When I brought it up at the Hot Topics meeting, I don’t think everyone believed me. And my producer looked it up and I’m in The New York Times and apparently, “several jurors questioned afterwards said one holdout juror was principally responsible -BEHAR: Asuncion!HOSTIN:  -for preventing them from returning a guilty verdict.” That was me. And it was because I saw clearly that he was psychotic.BEHAR: Of course.HOSTIN: He was in a psycokis – psychosis, he did not mean to kill her, and once he killed her he panicked. He chopped up her body parts, yes, boiled her body parts, tried to commit the perfect crime and then –FARAH GRIFFIN: And you got this guy off?!HOSTIN: No, no, no. But he fed — that’s how much I believe in the insanity defense. And he fed her body parts to the unhoused.JONES: Excuse me, can I move over? I don’t need to be here.HOSTIN: But all that being said, it was so clear to me in the jury room – And we were sequestered for nine day, one juror threw a chair at me. They were so angry with me and one-by-one I picked them off and said ‘what about this, what about that’ and we ended up, all 12 unanimously voting that he was not criminally responsible by reason -[Crosstalk]FARAH GRIFFIN: That’s my issue with the law.HOSTIN: By reason of insanity. But he is still in a mental institution being treated.(…)11:18:00 a.m. EasternHOSTIN: The insanity defense is a real thing and I think this lawyer, you know, who is — wants the juror investigated, that’s going to have a chilling effect on juries.FARAH GRIFFIN: That’s very important.HOSTIN: Jury duty is duty. It is one of the most important things I think I’ve ever done in my life. It was extremely difficult. But to investigate a juror for doing his or her duty is despicable.(…)

Audie Cornish Dave Aronberg CNN This Morning 9-22-26

Despite an exhaustive grand-jury investigation that turned up no evidence of a crime in the death of Nolan Wells, a black 18-year-old Mississippian, CNN This Morning host Audie Cornish didn’t stop stirring the racial pot. The Wells family retained race-hustling lawyer Benjamin Crump for the case. On Tuesday’s episode, Cornish cited social media on other deaths of young black people and used them to insist there’s racism in so many unsolved mysteries involving young black people:CORNISH: One of the things I found interesting when I looked in social media is people were posting the images of other high-profile and, high-profile deaths of young black people, where they haven’t been solved, the deaths were mysterious, some were the case of hanging, right, on, on campuses. When we talk about what drives, you know, these kind of internet narratives, is it this kind of recent history? Is it people feeling like Justice and investigators aren’t going to help them? A Jackson County grand jury had already answered Cornish’s question. It found Wells’ death “consistent with drowning,” declined to charge anyone, and found no evidence that race had anything to do with what happened on Horn Island. In a clip Cornish played, District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath said:McILRATH: Anyone with an internet connection can become an influencer, take fragments of information, construct a narrative without context or first-hand knowledge, and broadcast it to thousands or millions of people with little or no responsibility to the truth or consequences for what they do. What we have seen happen in Nolan’s case, where lives and reputations have been damaged, is reprehensible. Or anyone who hosts a network television show, Audie. Cornish took fragments — other deaths, hangings on campuses, Mississippi’s past — and left the impression that Wells’ death is still a mystery, and that a parent is entitled to ask whether “if my child dies in Mississippi, will anyone find out what happened?”  

CNN’s Cornish Stirs Racial Angle in Nolan Wells Death pic.twitter.com/IxH4rCYTRV— Mark Finkelstein (@markfinkelstein) September 22, 2026

If Cornish was hoping that Dave Aronberg, a former state attorney for Palm Beach County, would back her vague accusations, she picked the wrong guest. Aronberg talked about the actual investigation rather than the atmospherics. The grand jury heard from 43 witnesses and issued 132 subpoenas. Two pathologists reviewed the evidence, including one hired by Ben Crump. The family even had its own phone examiner. “The evidence just did not support the accusations,” Aronberg emphatically stated. The family’s independent examiner called the death undetermined. That, Aronberg added, “does not mean homicide, and suspicion does not mean evidence.” As for the bruising on the back of Nolan’s neck that Cornish mentioned, Aronberg noted that a witness told the grand jury that Wells had slipped awkwardly off a boat, which could explain it. Cornish never named the campus hanging she was pointing toward. But in September 2025, 21-year-old Demartravion “Trey” Reed was found hanging from a tree at Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi. The coroner reported no injuries consistent with an assault. The state medical examiner ruled the death a suicide by hanging. Reed’s family and Ben Crump rejected that conclusion, but a year later, suicide remains the official ruling. That is not an unsolved campus mystery. It is a case authorities closed as suicide. The county’s investigation into the death of Nolan Wells was extensive. And notably, the grand jury report said the family’s lawyers advised that their investigation turned up no witnesses or evidence they believed warranted referral. But Cornish chose to use the segment to spread suspicion and ill feeling, suggesting race is why people should doubt the result: “People feeling like justice and investigators aren’t going to help them. People feeling like, wait a second, if my child dies in Mississippi, will anyone find out what happened?” That goes beyond poor journalism and into the realm of reprehensible racial suspicion-mongering. CNN This Morning 9/22/26 6:00 am EDT AUDIE CORNISH: Good morning, everybody. I’m Audie Cornish, and here is where we begin: the latest news and the death of Nolan Wells. Right now, no foul play, no criminal charges will be filed in the 18-year-old’s death. This after a grand jury hearing. Wells died on a boating trip with friends on the 4th of July in Mississippi. The grand jury found his death was, quote, consistent with drowning. Ben Crump, the lawyer for the family, said in a statement, quote, We don’t know how Nolan died, and neither does the State of Mississippi. Mississippi must keep investigating, and if it will not pursue this to the end, the Department of Justice should.” So the death of Wells has sparked all sorts of questions, especially after photos circulated of the black teen surrounded by three friends. ANGEL MYERS MCILRATH: The narrative that three white boys and a black boy went to an island, and only three white friends returned, spread like wildfire. This was false. There is absolutely no evidence to support the allegations that Nolan’s disappearance and death were racially motivated. The family, the Crump team, and anyone close to Nolan knew that his disappearance and death were not the result of racial hate or violence. Yet the flames of that narrative, set against the backdrop of Mississippi’s terrible history, were fanned by both people who knew the truth and those who didn’t. CORNISH: So bringing in Dave Aronberg, he’s a former state attorney for Palm Beach County, Florida. So, you’ve seen some grand juries, and this one, for instance, found that there was bruising on the back of Nolan Wells’ head, that they found it was not a fatal injury. And at the time, Crump added this in his statement, that he believes the grand jury report didn’t determine how Wells actually suffered that injury, and quote, to this date, not one person has explained how they got there. Can you talk about the distinction he’s making, about the cause of death versus the question mark about what happened? DAVE ARONBERG: Good to be with you, Audie. When it comes to that injury, that discoloration in the back of the neck, that was partially explained, at least by one grand juror witness who said that they saw that Nolan had fallen on a boat, and that could have explained that injury. But when it came to the grand jury, I, I get it that my friend Ben Crump wants answers, the family wants answers. But you had 43 witnesses before this grand jury. You had 132 subpoenas. You had two different pathologists, and the family even had its own phone examiner, and the evidence just did not support the accusations, right? And, and even though Dr. Mitchell, the separate independent medical examiner hired by the family, said it was an undetermined cause of death, and you hear what Ben Crump said, that does not mean homicide, and suspicion does not mean evidence. . . . MCILRATH: Anyone with an internet connection can become an influencer, take fragments of information, construct a narrative without context or first-hand knowledge, and broadcast it to thousands or millions of people with little or no responsibility to the truth or consequences for what they do. What we have seen happen in Nolan’s case, where lives and reputations have been damaged, is reprehensible. CORNISH: One of the things I found interesting when I looked in social media, is people were posting the images of other high-profile and, high-profile deaths of young black people, where they haven’t been solved. The deaths were mysterious. Some were the case of hanging, right?, on, on campuses. When we talk about what drives, you know, these kind of internet narratives, is it this kind of recent history? Is it people feeling like justice and investigators aren’t going to help them? ARONBERG: That’s part of it. Mississippi has a long history, and that’s why it has had so much attention paid to it. CORNISH: But this is 2025 and 2026. That’s why I’m asking, right? This is recent history of people feeling like, wait a second, if my child dies in Mississippi, will anyone find out what happened?

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a document Monday debunking “lies spread by the mainstream media, far-left activists, and sanctuary politicians regarding the shooting of a criminal illegal alien” by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent in Austin, Texas.Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, an illegal alien from Venezuela who entered the U.S. during the Biden Administration, was shot Sunday by an ICE officer who tried to arrest him, prompting a hailstorm of anti-ICE media and accusations, prompting DHS to issue a statement correcting the record.“Sanctuary politicians and the mainstream media have wasted no time in spreading lies about an ICE officer-involved shooting of an illegal alien in Austin, Texas,” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in the statement:“Contrary to their claims, this person is an illegal alien who has no legal status to be here and has been given some of the best medical care he’s ever received in his life.“No amount of smears and false narratives will slow down ICE from doing its job by removing dangerous illegal aliens from our communities and making America safe again.”The statement specifically fact-checks and refutes seven false claims promoted by media and other anti-ICE propagandists regarding the incident.Regarding his treatment by ICE:ICE refused to remove the bullet from Perez’s body: FalsePerez received no pain medication: FalsePerez was forced to sleep on the floor: FalseDHS also debunks false narratives about Perez’s status and detention:Perez had a valid work permit: FalsePerez is actually legally present in the U.S.: FalsePerez was indiscriminately targeted by ICE: FalseFinally, DHS refutes the claim that “ICE needs to get out of Austin,” by explaining why it should not and will not abandon its duty to enforce federal law and protect legal residents.The statement concedes the claim that Perez “was ordered removed in absentia” – explaining that doing so is standard procedure if an illegal alien fails to fulfill his legal obligation to show up for his removal proceedings.DHS’s list of “Claims” and full “Fact” explanations appears below:CLAIM: ICE refused to remove the bullet from the illegal alien’s body.FACT: This is false. ICE does not and would not advise, nor be the authority on, a medical procedure for an illegal alien at a hospital. CLAIM: The illegal alien had a valid work permit.FACT: This is false. The illegal alien’s work permit expired in 2025. Furthermore, a work permit does NOT grant legal status.CLAIM: The illegal alien was ordered removed in absentia.FACT: Yes. This is why aliens must show up to their removal proceedings. Legal obligations do not end because someone’s address changed.CLAIM: This illegal alien is here legally.FACT: This is false. This person is in the U.S. illegally. He entered illegally under the Biden Administration. The illegal alien had no valid work permit, had no protective status, and had a final order of removal from a Department of Justice (DOJ) Immigration Judge.CLAIM: This illegal alien has received no pain medication.FACT: This is false. This illegal alien is receiving medical care around the clock, including pain medication.CLAIM: The illegal alien has been forced to sleep on the floor.FACT: This is false. This alien was released from the hospital and arrived at the detention facility just a few hours later, where he slept on a bed. Aliens in ICE custody receive a higher standard of living than most prisons that hold U.S. citizens.CLAIM: This illegal alien was indiscriminately targeted by ICE.FACT: This is false. This illegal alien was the subject of a targeted vehicle stop. What makes someone a target for immigration enforcement is whether or not they are illegally in the U.S.Resisting officers and evading arrest is dangerous for our officers, illegal aliens, and the public. We remind the public that resisting officers and evading arrest is a felony and a federal crime. Sanctuary politicians need to stop encouraging this dangerous behavior that puts our officers and the public at risk.This dangerous attempt to evade arrest comes after sanctuary politicians held webinars and provided resources and tips for how to openly defy ICE:Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hosted a webinar providing tips for illegal aliens to evade arrests at homes, workplaces, or in public.Dan Goldman posted a video online calling on illegal aliens to make a plan for ICE encounters.Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued multilingual flyers and online resources advising illegal aliens on how to evade arrest.California Governor Gavin Newsom released guides and sanctuary laws advising illegal aliens how to recognize ICE, block entry, and defy arrest.CLAIM: That ICE needs to get out of Austin.FACT: This is false. ICE will not be slowing down nor leaving Austin. DHS is tasked with enforcing the laws passed by Congress. We do not pick and choose which laws to enforce or where to enforce them. We will continue to enforce our nation’s laws.

The network of liberal billionaire Michael Bloomberg appears to have taken a page from the George Soros playbook by backing groups specifically engineered to install radicals in state prosecutors’ offices who conform to his agenda.

YouTube

The Washington Free Beacon reporter Thomas Catenacci released a damning report September 21 finding that the State Energy and Environmental Impact Center — backed by Bloomberg — quietly shut its doors following mounting congressional scrutiny. The Center, which was housed at New York University School of Law, was designed specifically to provide “legal, analytic, and communications support, as well as facilitating coordination across multiple offices of state attorneys general” on the climate change boondoggle. As Catenacci noted, the radical group’s “signature initiative involved placing paid, climate-focused ‘fellows’ in Democrat-controlled state attorney general offices nationwide as those offices sued the oil industry and other energy providers.”This is especially revealing given that Bloomberg himself committed at least $1 billion over the past 10 years or so to completely eradicate the coal industry through his “Beyond Carbon” campaign. Apparently, the Bloomberg regime was looking to give this extremist effort some serious legal bite. In 2017, NYU School of Law stated in a press release that “Bloomberg Philanthropies has provided initial support for the State Impact Center.” Catenacci noted that the seed funding amounted to two grants worth “$2.8 million each” in 2017 alone. Catenacci broke down the shady nature behind the Center shuttering its doors:The center, which did not announce the closure in a press release or social media post, now states on its website that it is ‘historical material as it existed on August 31, 2026.’ While much of the website remains intact, its contact email is now listed as a private non-NYU address, and a page identifying members of the center’s advisory board has been removed. Its now-former executive and deputy directors no longer list the center as their current place of employment on LinkedIn, according to a Washington Free Beacon review.The timing of Bloomberg’s involvement with the group is also interesting. In August 2016, almost exactly a year prior to the Center’s founding, Politico reported that Bloomberg’s fellow extremist in the lefty billionaire class — Soros — was in the middle of a “quiet overhaul of the U.S. justice system.” This culminated in the years that followed into a vast multimillion-dollar vendetta into installing and controlling radical, soft-on-crime prosecutors across a variety of major jurisdictions. In total, per a groundbreaking MRC Business special report, Soros had spent a total of $117 million between direct election spending on local prosecutor races and philanthropic grants funneled into leftist legal groups that manipulated the prosecutors’ agendas. According to Catenacci’s reporting, it appears Soros wasn’t the only player trying to “overhaul” the criminal justice system into his personal plaything.

‘It’s a hollow apology.’

Abdul El-Sayed gets really defensive when you mention his height. The Democrat from Michigan is 5-foot-8 (at most) in thick-soled shoes. He’d be one of the shortest men to serve in the U.S. Senate since the Spanish-American War. We haven’t had a sub-5’8″ president since William McKinley, who was elected in 1896 and born before the California Gold Rush.
He might be even more sensitive about his weird facial hair. (Technically a beard, but just barely.)
Last week, for example, El-Sayed issued a bizarrely aggressive response after Vice President J.D. Vance mocked his “patchy beard.” In a tone that liberals used to denounce as “toxically masculine,” El-Sayed challenged Vance, whose beard is full and normal, to a weight-lifting contest.
“How much paste did you have to put on your face to get that little beard?” he said, defensively. “At least mine, what you see is what you get. And at the end of the day, with my beard, I’m happy to say, look. If he thinks that my beard is somehow indicative of my strength, I’m happy to invite him to any weight room, in any place … I’d love to see him on a bench.” (Context: Short arms confer a mechanical advantage when bench-pressing.)
El-Sayed, who has never publicly admitted using steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs, went on to accuse Vance of being “juiced up” on testosterone replacement therapy, and questioned whether the VP’s comparatively thicker, lusher beard was “actually real.”
It was merely the latest manifestation of the candidate’s beard-related insecurities.
El-Sayed has repeatedly told the (unverified) story of an angry confrontation with a Muslim gas station clerk who told him his beard was “too short.” An early version ended with El-Sayed smashing a bottle of vodka on the ground before walking out. He removed that detail in subsequent retellings after Republicans suggested, not unreasonably, that this was the behavior of a “deeply disturbed man with anger management issues.” Just last month, El-Sayed threatened to tackle his GOP opponent.
There are many examples of El-Sayed airing his “beard” insecurities on the campaign trail, usually in the context of wishing it wasn’t so patchy. He keeps suggesting that his critics are obsessed with his stubble for Islamophobic reasons.
Back in April, while discussing the “racist” attacks on campaign surrogate Hasan Piker, El-Sayed randomly changed the subject to his facial hair. “You know, I’m surprised they didn’t come for my beard,” he said on Sam Seder’s podcast. “Because, like, as a Muslim dude, as an Arab dude, you’re supposed to have a nice beard. Like, I got a weak-ass beard. I don’t know what it is. My dad’s got an incredible beard, right?”
Once El-Sayed started talking about how envious he was of his father’s beard, he couldn’t stop. “My brother has a different mother than me, and both of us got weak-ass beards,” he rambled on. “If I had a nice beard, I’d be like, ‘Damn, like, come at me for my beard,’ but I’d have an awesome beard, though.” 
That same month, El-Sayed predicted that AIPAC would try to scare voters by giving him “the beard of [his] dreams” in campaign ads. “My wife will turn down the volume and just be like, ‘Baby, that’s the beard I could have had,'” he said like a normal person who definitely does not suffer from a deep-seated beard inferiority complex.
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