Tag: World

Controversial Rapper, Tekashi 6ix9ine was arrested in the Dominican Republic on Sunday night, October 15, after being accused of assaulting two music producers.

Tekashi, 27, arrived at a studio early Friday morning with five other men, according to witnesses who spoke with Dominican newspaper Diario Libre. The group entered the studio and attacked two producers, the witnesses said. Surveillance video captured the crew leaving on foot.

The New York born rapper, whose legal name is Daniel Hernandez, attempted to book a charter flight out of the country after the attack, TMZ reported. However, the charter company checked with police and learned there was a warrant for Tekashi’s arrest.

According to TMZ, Tekashi was transported to a police station in Sanchez. He arrived at a chaotic scene, as people mobbed the police cruiser and officers had to shove them aside to get Tekashi safely into the station.
 

According to reports, Tekashi was jealous that the producers were spending time with his girlfriend, Dominican artist Yailin La Mas Viral. She was reportedly recording songs at the time.

“Yailin had just left,” producer Diamond La Mafia told Diario Libre in Spanish. “[Tekashi’s crew] lost it on my producers, though they were not at fault, and they did not know them.”

One of the victims reportedly suffered a broken jaw. Police are also searching for a second suspect in the attack, Diario Libre reported.

Tekashi has been arrested multiple times before. In 2018, he was detained on racketeering charges for his connection with the Nine Trey Gangsters in New York. Tekashi infamously flipped on his gang and testified for the prosecution, earning himself a lenient two-year sentence.

Recently, Tekashi was arrested in Florida in August for failing to appear in court for a traffic violation. He was accused of driving 136 mph in a 65 mph zone.

The European football governing body, UEFA, has confirmed that the 2024 European Championship qualifying match between Belgium and Sweden has been abandoned after two Swedish fans were killed in a suspected terrorist attack in Brussels on Monday evening.

“Following a suspected terrorist attack in Brussels this evening, it has been decided, after consultation with the two teams and the local police authorities, that the UEFA EURO 2024 qualifying match between Belgium and Sweden is abandoned,” UEFA said in a statement.

The incident occurred before the kick-off of the important match at King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels on Monday. The game initially started, but players from both teams refused to return to the pitch for the second half after reaching an agreement during half-time, abruptly ending the match.

The shooting took place three miles away from the stadium where the game was being played, leading authorities to lock down the stadium, which was filled with thousands of Belgian and Swedish fans. UEFA announced that “further communication will be made in due course.”

Local media reported that the attacker carried out the shooting on behalf of the terrorist organisation Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Prosecutors have confirmed that they are treating the shootings as acts of terrorism.

Meanwhile, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and local media have confirmed that the victims were Swedish.

Belgium, like other Western nations, has raised its terrorism alert level to the highest. This move is believed to be connected to the ongoing conflict between the State of Israel and the terror group Hamas following last week’s attacks in Israel.

Most countries around the world, especially those that have shown support for Israel, are now preparing for the possibility of retaliatory attacks by sympathisers of Hamas.

US Republican presidential candidate,  Donald Trump has been issued a gag order by a Federal judge, limiting what he can say about special counsel Jack Smith’s federal prosecution into his alleged attempt to subvert in the 2020 presidential election.

The order issued Monday, October 16 restricts Trump’s ability to publicly target court personnel, potential witnesses, or the special counsel and his staff. The order did not impose restrictions on disparaging comments about Washington, DC, – where the jury will take place – or certain comments about the Justice Department at large, both of which the government requested.

Following the two federal indictments against the former president, Trump has lashed out against prosecutors, potential witnesses and the judge overseeing the election subversion case in Washington. Prosecutors with special counsel Jack Smith’s office say these comments are enough to warrant a narrow restriction on Trump’s speech around the case.

“This is not about whether I like the language Mr. Trump uses,” Judge Tanya Chutkan said. “This is about language that presents a danger to the administration of justice.”

 

“His presidential candidacy does not give him carte blanche to vilify public servants who are simply doing their jobs,” the judge added.

Chutkan noted that any violation of her orders could result in sanctions.

Trump will appeal Chutkan’s order, he said in a post on his social media website Truth Social.

“WILL APPEAL THE GAG ORDER RULING. WITCH HUNT!” he wrote.

Judge Chutkan, often the target of Trump’s attacks, warned the former president that comments he or his attorneys make could threaten the case.

“Mr. Trump is a criminal defendant. He is facing four felony charges. He is under the supervision of the criminal justice system and he must follow his conditions of release,” Chutkan said Monday during the hearing.

 

“He does not have the right to say and do exactly what he pleases. Do you agree with that?” she asked Trump attorney John Lauro, who responded: “100%.”

In social media posts, Trump has attacked Chutkan as a “biased, Trump Hating Judge” and called Smith “deranged” and a “thug” as well as attacked individual members of his team.

“When you start to use a word like ‘thug’ to describe a prosecutor doing their job, that wouldn’t be allowed by any other criminal defendant,” Chutkan said. 

 

“Just because the defendant is running a political campaign does not allow him to do whatever he wants.”

She added: “If the message Mr. Trump wants to express is ‘my prosecution is politically motivated,’” he can do so without using “highly charged language.”
 

The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Monday adjourned further proceedings in the case filed by the Deputy Governor of Ondo State, Mr Lucky Aiyedatiwa to October 30, 2023.

This was after the Hon. Justice Emeka Nwite took extensive arguments from the lawyers representing the parties on the issue of service of court processes and the alleged disobedience to the subsisting order of the court made on September 26, 2023, against the impeachment of the deputy governor.

At Monday’s proceedings, the court first delivered its pending ruling on the arguments canvassed by the parties on the last court date on October 9, 2023, on the effect of the reconciliation committee set up by the All Progressives Congress and the petition to the National Judicial Council by the House of Assembly of Ondo State.

The court held in its ruling that it would hear all pending applications since some of the said applications involve the issue of jurisdiction of the court. The court further held that since all parties in the case do not share mutual agreement on the issue of reconciliation and settlement, it would not adjourn the case on that ground alone but would proceed to hear the case.

The court then proceeded to take arguments on the status of pending applications.

On the part of the deputy governor, it was argued by his counsel that the application of the Governor of Ondo State challenging the jurisdiction of the court was not ripe for hearing as it was only served on the plaintiff on the last hearing date of October 9, 2023, and that the plaintiff had seven days to respond to it, which he had already filed.

It was further argued that the plaintiff was still within the time permitted by law to serve their processes on the Department of State Services and the Inspector-General of Police, as a matter of law.

The plaintiff also raised the issue of the press release issued by the counsel for the House of Assembly on October 14, 2023, to the extent that the House had not suspended the impeachment proceedings when indeed there was a subsisting order of the court to the contrary.

The court was then urged to deny the House of Assembly the right to audience based on the press statement of their counsel.

It was argued that even if a party was challenging the jurisdiction of the court, it still had a duty to obey any order made by the court and the court would prioritize the issue of compliance with its order above the issue of its jurisdiction.

On the part of the governor, the counsel argued that the court could not wait for the DSS and the IGP since they had been served hearing notices from the court.

It was argued that since the court had already decided to hear the applications, the presence of the DSS and IGP could be dispensed with. The counsel argued that the issue of contempt of court could not be raised with an affidavit except to follow the procedure laid down in the Rules of the Court for initiating contempt proceedings.

For the House of Assembly, the counsel argued that the issue of disobedience to the order of the court had been settled on the last court date when the counsel for the Assembly apologized to the court and gave an undertaking for compliance. The counsel argued that the press statement that was complained about by the plaintiff did not contain any contemptuous issue at all as it only sought to affirm the resolve of the Assembly in following due process of law.

In reply, the counsel for the deputy governor urged the court to hear the substantive originating summons of the plaintiff along with all objections raised by the defendants, as that is the directive contained in the rules of the court and the practice of the Supreme Court, in order to save time.

After listening to all the lawyers involved in the case, the court directed that all processes filed should be served on all the parties.

It stated further that given the legal submissions made by the various counsel for the parties, it would be proper to take time to go through them and deliver a well-considered ruling. It added that the court would be fair to all the parties in the case.

The case was then adjourned to October 30, 2023, for ruling.

The court on September 26, 2023, granted an order of injunction against the defendants in respect of the complaints of the deputy governor. The defendants include the Ondo House of Assembly and the Chief Judge of the state.

A group, the Ondo Masses Solidarity Movement, has accused Deputy Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa of being behind the protest organised by members of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Akure on Monday.

The PDP staged a protest to inquire about the whereabouts of Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, who has been absent from the state since his return from a medical vacation abroad.

Peoples Gazette had previously reported on how the protest was almost halted by heavily armed security agencies who had laid siege to the party’s secretariat on Alagbaka Road in Akure.

The protesters, mainly comprising the youth wing of the PDP, expressed their concern that Mr Akeredolu’s prolonged absence in the state was hindering progress and developmental projects. They also demanded that the governor “resume or resign” within the next three days and cease governing the state by proxy.

In a statement, the group alleged that Mr Aiyedatiwa, who is currently facing an impeachment plot by the state house of assembly legislators, was using PDP members to incite a crisis in the state.

Jeremiah Ogunyemi, the coordinator of the group, specifically claimed that the state’s deputy governor had been reaching out to opposition parties and the youths to incite street protests against his boss, Mr Akeredolu.

“We have it on good authority that the deputy governor, Aiyedatiwa, instigated the protest and had already sponsored some youths to join it. A meeting was held at a hotel in Alagbaka, Akure last night, during which money was distributed among the youths.

“As stakeholders in this state and voices of the masses, we strongly condemn the activities of the embattled deputy governor. We are astonished by the actions of the deputy governor and his determination to set the state on fire,” Mr Ogunyemi alleged in the statement obtained by The Gazette on Monday night.

The group commended all the security agencies for promptly intervening to prevent the protest from escalating beyond the opposition party secretariat, noting that today’s protest could have led to the wanton destruction of lives and properties.

They revealed that part of the protesters’ plans allegedly included setting a petrol-filled lorry on fire in the state capital and potentially burning down the state house of assembly, but this was thwarted by the deployed security agencies.

“We call on well-meaning Nigerians and the people of the state to warn the deputy governor to desist from these attempts to destabilise our dear state. We should learn from history and guard against any actions that could jeopardise our state’s security.

“Where were these people when the masses needed a voice? Where were they when we faced insecurity and felt helpless even in our own homes? Where were they when Governor Rotimi Akeredolu was confronting the federal government and speaking for the people of Southwest and Southern Nigeria?

“We are convinced that this induced protest is not in the interest of the masses. We will not stand idly by and allow a group of people who were motivated by a small sum of money to disrupt the relative peace in the state,” the group alleged.

All attempts by The Gazette to reach Mr Aiyedatiwa for a response proved unsuccessful, as his phone lines were not connecting.

However, a source close to him denied the allegation, stating that the deputy governor would not have sponsored a protest against his boss.

“No matter what challenges the deputy governor may be facing, even in the hands of those in government and those close to the governor, he would not have sponsored such a protest.

“The Aiyedatiwa I know is far too busy and occupied to organise a protest against his boss. Therefore, it is a baseless fabrication aimed at maligning the deputy governor,” said the source, who wished to remain anonymous.