What I saw in LA-area fire evacuations: Caring for people and their safety
The wind-fueled fires around Los Angeles destroyed many homes. Our West Coast reporter reflects on finding safety and community amid the danger.
Trump’s Secret Weapon
Last week, President-Elect Donald Trump nominated Morgan Ortagus, a longtime State Department official, to serve as a deputy special envoy for Middle East peace—and immediately
Judge releases woman who stabbed a classmate to please Slender Man from a psychiatric hospital
A Wisconsin woman who at age 12 stabbed her sixth grade classmate nearly to death to please online horror character Slender Man is set to be released from a psychiatric hospital, a judge ordered Thursday.
Morgan Geyser has spent nearly seven years at the Winnebago Mental Health Institute. She has petitioned Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren, who committed her, for release four times since June 2022. She withdrew her first two petitions and Bohren denied her second request this past April, finding she still presented a threat to the public.
Geyser filed her latest petition in October. Bohren decided to grant her release after a day-long hearing Thursday, finding that she had maximized her treatment options at the facility. He ordered the state Department of Health Services to set up a plan for housing her in a group home and supervising her subject to his approval at a hearing within 60 days.
Geyser and Anissa Weier were 12 years old in 2014 when they lured their classmate, Payton Leutner, to a Waukesha park after a sleepover. Geyser stabbed Leutner 19 times while Weier egged her on. Leutner barely survived.
The girls later told investigators that they attacked Leutner to earn the right to be Slender Man’s servants and they feared he would harm their families if they didn’t follow through.
Geyser pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree intentional homicide and was sent to the psychiatric institute due to mental illness in 2018. Weier pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree intentional homicide. She was also sent to the psychiatric center but was granted release in 2021 to live with her father and was ordered to wear a GPS monitor.
Trudeau: Trump talk of annexing Canada a distraction, won’t happen
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Thursday he thinks President-elect Trump’s public musings about annexing the neighbor to the north is a distraction from Trump’s threat to impose steep tariffs on Canadian imports.
“What I think is happening in this is President Trump, who’s a very skillful negotiator, is getting people to be somewhat distracted by that, by that conversation, away from the conversation around 25 percent tariffs on oil and gas and electricity and steel and aluminum and lumber and concrete,” Trudeau said in an interview on CNN’s “The Lead” with Jake Tapper.
“Everything the American consumers buy from Canada is suddenly going to get a lot more expensive if he moves forward on these tariffs,” Trudeau continued. “And that’s something that I think we need to be focusing on a little bit more.
Trudeau said he’s not concerned that the U.S. would actually follow through with annexing Canada .
“That’s not going to happen,” Trudeau said. “Canadians are incredibly proud of being Canadian. One of the ways we define ourselves most easily is, well, we’re not American.”
“There is such a depth of pride that that’s not actually an issue,” he added.
Trump has repeatedly mused about the idea of Canada becoming the 51st state and has taunted Trudeau by calling him “governor.”
Trump on Tuesday doubled down on his suggestion of merging the U.S. and Canada following Trudeau’s announcement that he would resign in the coming months. On Tuesday, he threatened “economic force” to annex Canada.
Trudeau said in the CNN interview Thursday that his resignation has nothing to do with Trump’s victory in the U.S. He said he worked well with Trump during his first term in office, pointing to the renegotiated USMCA trade deal as a “win-win” for both countries.
Asked whether his decision to resign was related to Trump’s reelection, Trudeau said, “No. On the contrary, what we were able to do during the first, first presidency of Mr. Trump was work together in a very challenging situation, to come out with a very strong win-win in Canada-the US relations with the renegotiation of the USMCA.”
“Working together concretely is something that we’ve been able to do in the past, and I’m looking forward to continuing to work with him for the next two months while I’m still in office.” Trudeau added.
‘We cannot rest yet’: South Koreans react to deepening political crisis
More than a month after President Yoon Suk Yeol’s botched martial law attempt infuriated a nation, South Koreans are still in the street, demanding he