International
U.S. Department of Justice. The United States will have to pay $100 million to the victims of Larry Nassar
The U.S. Department of Justice will pay $100 million to resolve lawsuits against the FBI for mishandling of the investigation into sexual abuse committed by former U.S. gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
The newspaper said that the agreement involves 100 victims of Nassar, who was convicted in late 2017 and early 2018 for sexually assaulting hundreds of athletes and is serving a sentence of up to 175 years in prison.
Olympic gold medalists Simone Biles, Aly Raisman and McKayla Maroney and other American gymnasts filed a billion dollar lawsuit against the FBI in June 2022 for not having acted properly to reports of sexual abuse by Nassar.
The Journal indicated that the agreement was reached several months ago and was initially accepted by the victims of Nassar, but it has not been finalized.
Citing a report by the inspector general of the Department of Justice, the newspaper said that there were multiple failures in the handling by the FBI of the complaints against Nassar filed by USA Gymnastics to the local FBI office in Indianapolis in July 2015.
The lack of action in the face of the complaints allowed Nassar to continue sexually assaulting dozens of victims before his arrest in 2016.
Nassar worked as a sports doctor at the U.S. Gymnastics Federation (USA Gymnastics) and at Michigan State University for more than two decades.
FBI director Christopher Wray acknowledged the organization’s failures during a testimony before a Senate committee in September 2021, saying that they were “unforgivable.”
Addressing the victims of Nassar, Wray said: “I especially regret that there were people in the FBI who had their own chance to stop this monster in 2015 and failed.”
The victims of Nassar reached a $380 million agreement with USA Gymnastics in 2021, one of the largest ever registered for victims of sexual abuse.
USA Gymnastics filed for bankruptcy in 2018 after a wave of accusations against Nassar flooded the organization.
Michigan State University reached a $500 million settlement with hundreds of Nassar victims in 2018.
Nassar was stabbed by another inmate in July last year in the state of Florida prison where he is serving his sentence but recovered from his injuries.
International
Trump criticizes Panama Canal fees and demands U.S. control over strategic waterway
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump criticized what he described as unfair fees imposed on American ships passing through the Panama Canal and threatened to demand that Washington take back control of the strategic waterway.
“Our Navy and commerce have been threatened in a very unjust and reckless way. The rates that Panama charges are ridiculous,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
The president-elect also denounced the growing influence of China in the canal, a situation he called concerning as U.S. businesses depend on the waterway to transport goods between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
“This complete scam against our country will end immediately,” he stated.
The Panama Canal, completed by the United States in 1914, was handed over to Panama under the 1977 treaty signed by Democratic President Jimmy Carter. Panama took full control of the commercial passage in 1999.
“It was exclusively for Panama to manage, not China or anyone else,” Trump said. “We would never allow it to fall into the wrong hands!”
“If Panama cannot guarantee a ‘safe, efficient, and reliable’ operation of the canal, we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us in its entirety, without a doubt,” the Republican added.
Panamanian authorities did not immediately respond to Trump’s statements. While he will assume office on January 20, Trump has been exerting his political influence in the final days of President Joe Biden’s administration.
Five percent of global maritime trade passes through the Panama Canal, which allows vessels traveling from Asia to the U.S. East Coast to avoid the long and dangerous route around the southern tip of South America.
The countries that use the Panama Canal the most are the United States, China, Japan, and South Korea.
In October, the Panama Canal Authority reported earnings of nearly $5 billion in the last fiscal year.
International
Putin vows retaliation following drone attack on luxury building in Kazan
Russian President Vladimir Putin promised more “destruction” in Ukraine on Sunday, in response to a drone strike that hit a residential building in the city of Kazan, located in central Russia, on Saturday.
Russia accused Ukraine of launching a “massive” drone attack, which struck a luxury apartment block in Kazan, about 1,000 kilometers from the border.
Videos shared on Russian social media show drones hitting a high-rise glass building. No casualties have been reported as a result of the attack.
In his statements, Putin addressed the local leader of Tatarstan, the region where Kazan is located, during a virtual ceremony marking the opening of a road.
The attack in Kazan is the latest in a series of increasingly frequent bombings in this nearly three-year-old conflict. Ukraine has not commented on the attack.
Putin had previously threatened to strike the center of Kyiv with a hypersonic ballistic missile in response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory.
The Russian Ministry of Defense stated that the recent Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities were retaliation for Ukraine’s use of Western-supplied missiles to target Russian territory.
International
Small plane crashes in Gramado, Brazil, killing nine people
At least nine people were killed on Sunday after a small aircraft crashed in a commercial area of the tourist city of Gramado, in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, authorities confirmed.
“There are nine confirmed deaths according to Civil Defense services, and there are no survivors from the plane,” said Cléber dos Santos Lima, director of the Interior Police Department of the Civil Police of the state, in a statement to AFP.
Authorities have not yet confirmed the exact number of passengers and crew aboard the aircraft, a turbo-prop Piper Cheyenne 400. However, Civil Defense had previously stated that “preliminarily, the plane was carrying ten people.”
The plane crashed on Sunday morning “into the chimney of a building, then onto the second floor of a house, and finally fell onto a furniture store,” according to a statement from the Rio Grande do Sul Public Security Secretariat.
Trump criticizes Panama Canal fees and demands U.S. control over strategic waterway
Putin vows retaliation following drone attack on luxury building in Kazan
Small plane crashes in Gramado, Brazil, killing nine people
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
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