Kim Kardashian to testify in Paris robbery trial
PARIS (Reuters) - Reality TV star Kim Kardashian is set to testify on Tuesday afternoon at the trial of a gang accused of robbing her at gunpoint in her Paris hotel room in 2016 and stealing jewellery worth millions of dollars.
The suspects are accused of tying up the billionaire celebrity with zip ties and duct tape before making off with jewels, including a $4 million engagement ring given to her by her then-husband rapper Kanye West (now known as Ye), according to investigators.
Early on Tuesday, hours before Kardashian's testimony, dozens of journalists queued up to get into the tribunal.
Kardashian told David Letterman about the heist in a 2020 interview, fighting back tears as she recalled her fears of being raped that night.
"They kept on saying 'the ring, the ring'," Kardashian said.
"I kept looking at the concierge," she continued, referring to the concierge of the exclusive hotel who had been forced at gunpoint to lead the gang to her apartment.
"I was like, 'Are we gonna die? Just tell them I have children, I have babies ... I have to get home'."
Yunice Abbas, 71, who is among the 10 suspects standing trial, many in their late 60s or 70s and dubbed "the grandpa gang," has told French media that he and others who took part in the robbery did not know who Kardashian was.
"It's not her, it's her diamond we targeted," Abbas told C8 TV a few years ago. Abbas has admitted his participation in the robbery - writing a book about his role. In interviews with French media, he said he was sorry for what he did and wanted to apologise to Kardashian. There is no possibility of a guilty plea in such cases and Abbas is standing trial despite admitting to playing a role in the robbery.
Frank Berton, a lawyer representing 68-year-old Aomar Ait Khedache, nicknamed "Omar the Old," said last month he hoped the fact that Kardashian is a global star won't affect the trial. Khedache is accused of being the gang's ringleader, which he denies.
"This trial attracts international attention because of who the plaintiff, the victim, is," Berton said.
"What we hope is that it won't change anything in the way the facts are judged," he said.
(Writing by Ingrid Melander, reporting by Juliette Jabkhiro; Editing by Michael Perry)
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New York Times
32 minutes ago
- New York Times
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Forget the scoreline in the top corner of the screen. The image of the distraught Inter Milan supporter who flashed up on television screens around the world, as his team prepared to take a meaningless corner in the 76th minute, told the story of the Champions League final. Crestfallen and broken, his bottom lip was quivering and tears were streaming down his face. A fourth Paris Saint-Germain goal had not long been scored at the other end of the stadium and it was all too much for a man who looked like his world had come to an end. 'Imagine getting like that about football?' It's hard to explain to people who have no interest in the game why so many of us are so immersed and emotionally invested in this sport that it leads to the kind of behaviour — uncontrollable tears (of joy as well as despair), hugging total strangers, or even turning the air blue after something totally innocuous — that would be almost unthinkable in a public space anywhere else. 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With or without a heartbreaking personal story, football's capacity to stir the emotions is extraordinary. Carrying our hopes and fears, the game plays with our feelings in a way that few things in life can and, at the same time, provides a form of sanctuary. The video features crying. A lot of crying. It lasts for one minute and 24 seconds and was filmed at Wembley Stadium on the day of the FA Cup final. The referee's whistle had just blown after 10 minutes of stoppage time and Crystal Palace, after 164 years of waiting, had beaten Manchester City 1-0 to finally win the first major trophy in their history. Joao Castelo-Branco, ESPN Brazil's correspondent in the UK, had decided to leave his seat in the press box moments earlier to try to get some footage of the Palace supporters. To describe what follows as scenes of celebration doesn't come close. It's so much more than that. It's raw. It's magical. It's moving. It's genuinely heart-warming. 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As I joined in the stands to film this video, there were hardly any fans with their phones out. Grown men and women hugging and crying. Amazing atmosphere. #CrystalPalace beautiful ⚽️#Wembley #FACup — Joao Castelo-Branco (@j_castelobranco) May 18, 2025 Following Palace's triumph at Wembley, there were similar scenes a few days later in Bilbao, where Tottenham Hotspur beat Manchester United to win the Europa League. A couple of months earlier, it was Newcastle United's turn after they defeated Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final. But it doesn't have to be a long wait for a trophy that tips people over the edge at a football match. Gary Pickles remembers being in the away end at Brighton in 2019, when Manchester City were on the verge of winning their fourth Premier League title in eight seasons, holding up his phone, filming the fans all around him, and suddenly being stopped in his tracks. 'I noticed my son, Niall, had his hands on his head and tears were streaming down his face. 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Associated Press
43 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Key moments from the fourth week of Sean 'Diddy' Combs' sex trafficking trial
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Eddy Garcia, 33, recounted how the deal came to be, saying he first heard from a fast talking, stuttering and 'very nervous' Combs on a phone call seeking to obtain the video of him kicking and dragging Cassie from the hotel's elevator bank into a hallway because 'if this got out it could ruin him.' Days later, Garcia said, he was the nervous one when he was greeted in an office building by a smiling Combs who called him 'Eddy, my angel' before Garcia turned over a USB drive containing the security footage. Combs then made him sign a nondisclosure agreement promising it was the only copy of the video and that Garcia would never speak of it, he said. Then, Combs, with a bodyguard at his side, fed stacks of cash from a brown bag into a rectangular money counter machine until it reached $100,000, Garcia said. He said he pocketed $30,000 and gave $50,000 to his boss and $20,000 to another hotel security guard. Garcia testified under immunity. 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The judge sternly responded: 'If it happens again, if it happens even once, I will hear an application from the government to give a curative instruction to the jury, which you do not want. Or I will consider taking further measures, which could result in the exclusion of your client from the courtroom.' Mia says she was 'brainwashed' to send Combs loving texts after rape A former Combs personal assistant who testified under the pseudonym 'Mia' told jurors that Combs had sexually assaulted her multiple times over her eight-year career, though the attacks were 'random, sporadic, so oddly spaced out' so that she thought each was the last. She said he first molested her and forcibly kissed her at his 40th birthday party before raping her months later in a guest room at his Los Angeles home. On cross examination, defense lawyer Brian Steel's suggested that she fabricated her claims to cash in on 'the #MeToo money grab against Sean Combs.' Steel confronted her with loving texts she sent Combs long after her employment ended and asked how she could tell him, as she did in a 2019 text, that she had imagined Combs rescuing her from a nightmare in which she was trapped in an elevator with R. Kelly, the singer who has since been convicted of sex trafficking. 'I was still brainwashed,' Mia explained. Defense has success with questioning of Cassie's friend The defense had one of its most successful moments of the trial when attorney Nicole Westmoreland cast doubt on the credibility of a graphic designer who says Combs once dangled her from the balcony of a 17th-floor apartment in Los Angeles. Bryana 'Bana' Bongolan, a friend of Cassie who is suing Combs, had taken a cellphone image of a softball-size welt on her leg that she said occurred when Combs held her over the balcony for 10 to 15 seconds and then threw her into furniture. After it was shown to the jury, Westmoreland showed the jury cellphone metadata revealing that the photograph was taken while Combs was on tour in September 2016, staying at a Manhattan hotel. 'You agree that one person can't be in two places at the same time?' Westmoreland asked. 'In, like, theory, yeah,' Bongolan responded. 'You're not sure?' Westmoreland asked. 'Hard to answer that one,' she said. Later, Bongolan said she did not recall the exact date, but she had no doubt the balcony episode happened. Woman recalls sex performances during three years as a Combs' girlfriend A woman testifying under the pseudonym 'Jane' fought through tears and sobs to recount frequent sexual performances she participated in with male sex workers to please Combs and keep their three-year relationship alive until his September arrest. Jane's testimony, which is likely to continue deep into next week, is identical in many ways to the four-day testimony in the trial's first week by Cassie. Jane said she never wanted to have sex with other men but did it to please Combs because she loved him. Cassie described having hundreds of drug-fueled sexual performances known as 'freak-offs' in which she had sex with male sex workers for days at a time while Combs watched, sometimes directed the activity, and pleasured himself. Jane described having nearly the same experiences from 2021 until last August, though she called them 'hotel nights.' She said her relationship with Combs began with romance but later became reliant upon the sexual performances, especially after Combs began paying rent for her apartment. Defense attorneys have insisted that Jane and Combs only engaged in consensual sex and that Jane's protests to Combs in text messages were fueled by jealousy.
Forbes
3 hours ago
- Forbes
Marina Shows She's The ‘Princess Of Power' On New Album
Marina Welsh singer Marina has taken full control of her creative output since the release of her 2021 album Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land. The following year, she completed her contract with Atlantic Records and created her own Queenie Records label, stepping into her power as an independent artist. It's only fitting, then, for her first independent album to be titled Princess of Power. Marina first teased that she was coming out of her cocoon in February with lead single 'Butterfly,' an appropriate metaphor for an artist emerging into a new phase of her life and career. She followed it up with the attitude-packed 'Cupid's Girl' and 'C*ntissimo,' further showing that she was coming back with a vengeance and isn't a malleable pop star bending to the whims of the music world. Look no further than songs like 'Digital Fantasy' and 'Princess of Power.' 'I livеd the sweet and I lived the sour / Been living lifе locked up in a tower / But now I'm blooming like a flower / Welcome to my world, princess of power,' she sings on the album's titular track. 'Stuck in a loveless generation / Ready to go through a transformation / I'm gonna glow like a meteor shower / Welcome to my world, princess of power.' When discussing the project with Rolling Stone, Marina described a creative process unlike anything she's experienced before in her career. 'There's a weird spaciousness in me that hasn't been present in previous album releases, and I think it's because I feel so happy and confident with what I've created,' she said, adding, 'I don't like forcing things anymore.' 'I was trying to access this euphoric energy that I wanted in my everyday life,' she added. 'That was the blueprint for this record energetically.' Tracks like 'Rollercoaster" speak to that state of mind. 'I wanna swim topless in the ocean / Have sex on the sand, on the grass, in the garden / Spread me like a picnic on the floor in the forest / 'Cause I don't wanna live if I can't be honest,' she croons. As she approaches her 40th birthday later this year, Marina has flipped her perspective on what it means to be an 'aging' woman in pop music, confessing that women in music face an unfair double standard despite women in their 40s, 50s, and beyond proving that they can continue to enjoy successful careers. 'We've been told that it's something that's going to take our value from us, whilst men get to age and gain power, and wisdom, and respect, and better pay. Why's it the reverse for women?" she said. "Youth is usually where the fresh new things are happening, but I want to disrupt that.'
