Latest news with #2003
News.com.au
3 days ago
- Business
- News.com.au
Sean ‘Diddy' Combs accuser sues Harvey Weinstein for sexual assault
Crystal McKinney, a former model, accused the disgraced movie mogul of sexually assaulting her and a friend at a hotel in New York City in 2003. The lawsuit against Weinstein was first filed anonymously on 28 February. It claimed that a modelling company executive set up a meeting for McKinney to "discuss a potential business opportunity" with Weinstein one evening on the pretence that meeting Weinstein would allow McKinney to "make it big". In her lawsuit, she alleged that the executive told her, "Don't f**k him until he puts you in a movie'.
Fox News
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Diddy accuser sues Harvey Weinstein for sexual assault
Crystal McKinney was named Friday in an amended lawsuit first filed against Harvey Weinstein in February, according to documents obtained by Fox News Digital. McKinney, a former model, accused the disgraced movie mogul of sexually assaulting her and a friend at a hotel in New York City in 2003. She previously sued Sean "Diddy" Combs in May 2024, and accused the "Last Night" rapper of sexual assault during a Men's Fashion Week event in 2003. "Harvey Weinstein categorically denies the outlandish and fantastical claims made against him by Crystal McKinney in her complaint," Weinstein's lawyer, Imran H. Ansari, told Fox News Digital. "Made late in time and suspiciously on the heels of her complaint against Sean 'Diddy' Combs, Mr. Weinstein is ready to refute and defend against the salacious claims, that are believed to have been made with an opportunistic motive." The lawsuit against Weinstein was first filed anonymously on Feb. 28 under the pseudonym A.P. McKinney claimed that a modeling company executive set up a meeting for her to "discuss a potential business opportunity" with Weinstein at the PM lounge one evening, on the pretense that meeting Weinstein would allow McKinney to "make it big," according to the complaint. In her lawsuit, she alleged that the executive told her, "Don't f--- him until he puts you in a movie." She noted that she was "bothered" by the executive's "crass comment," but was interested in the possibility of "working with the biggest producer in Hollywood." McKinney brought her roommate, "Jane Doe," to the meeting with the hope Weinstein would consider her for a movie role as well. She claimed in the lawsuit that during the meeting, Weinstein "repeatedly told them that he wanted to get to know both of them better." He allegedly asked to go somewhere quieter as the lounge was too loud, and the women agreed to "go to his place to discuss potential acting roles." After arriving at Weinstein's hotel room via his chauffeur, McKinney claimed the former Miramax honcho "plied the women with alcohol, ordering them bottles of Boulevardier and Dom Perignon, several gimlets for Plaintiff, and vodka cocktails for Jane," the complaint stated. As McKinney sat on the couch, she alleged Weinstein grabbed her breasts and tore at her tank top. "In Plaintiff's efforts to avoid being groped, drinks were sloshed onto her shirt," according to the complaint. "Plaintiff fled to the bathroom and Jane followed suit." Weinstein then allegedly "barged into the bathroom and continued to leer at Plaintiff's visible breasts through her soaked tank top. Weinstein demanded that the women strip and take a bath with him." McKinney claimed that Weinstein then "exposed himself to the women before entering the tub," and then commanded the women to join him in the tub. "Plaintiff and Jane complied with his request, as they felt backed into a corner and feared that he would retaliate against them if they refused his sexual advances," the complaint stated. Weinstein then allegedly "directed the women to engage in same-sex sexual conduct with each other." He then allegedly "grotesquely watched, taking perverse joy from forcing the women to engage in sexual acts with each other." "At some point, Weinstein dragged the intoxicated women out of the tub and into the bedroom," the complaint stated. "Weinstein, then, pushed Plaintiff onto the bed, and raped her." After Weinstein "ceased assaulting Plaintiff, he forcibly penetrated Jane as well," the documents alleged. Following the incident, Weinstein left the hotel room. The hotel phone rang, and Weinstein's assistant allegedly told the women to leave the hotel room immediately. In May 2024, McKinney filed a lawsuit against Diddy in a Manhattan federal court. She claimed that the powerhouse producer "plied Plaintiff with alcohol throughout the dinner as he repeatedly refilled her glass with wine." After the meal, Combs allegedly asked McKinney to meet him at his studio on 44th Street, and she felt "reassured that she would be with others at the studio rather alone in a personal residence." Upon arriving, she found Combs with several other men passing around "a bottle of Hennesy and joints." "One of Combs' associates asked her, 'Do you smoke weed?' to which she responded affirmatively," the documents stated. "Combs' associate replied: 'You've never had weed like this before.'" The complaint stated that "Plaintiff later came to understand that Combs had laced the joint with a narcotic or other intoxicating substance." McKinney said she felt "pressured" to imbibe by Combs, who told her that she was "acting too uptight." "Seeing Plaintiff was very intoxicated, Combs demanded Plaintiff follow him and he physically led Plaintiff to the bathroom," the suit stated. "In the bathroom, Combs forced himself on Plaintiff and began kissing her without her consent." He allegedly forced McKinney to "perform oral sex on him." McKinney allegedly "lost consciousness" and awoke in shock to find herself in a taxicab. She noted that modeling opportunities "quickly began to dwindle and then evaporated entirely" following the alleged assault. McKinney believed that Combs "blackballed" her in the industry. "The assault led Plaintiff into a tailspin of anxiety and depression," the suit claimed. "In or about 2004, Plaintiff attempted suicide and was hospitalized." She claimed to experience alcohol and drug addiction in an attempt to cope "with the emotional trauma of being assaulted." Diddy is currently on trial, and faces 15 years to life in prison if convicted of sex crimes and racketeering. Weinstein received a retrial after his 2020 sexual assault conviction was overturned. In a 4-3 decision, the court found that Weinstein's trial judge allowed prosecutors to call women who said Weinstein had assaulted them to testify, even though their accusations did not specifically relate to the entertainment mogul's charges.
Al-Ahram Weekly
4 days ago
- Politics
- Al-Ahram Weekly
Egypt announces five-day paid holiday for private sector on occasion of Eid Al-Adha - Society
Minister of Labour Mohamed Gobran announced on Sunday that private sector workers will receive paid leave for Eid al-Adha, from Thursday, 5 June, to Monday, 9 June, according to a statement issued by the ministry. This decision is part of the government's effort to unify official holiday dates across all sectors whenever possible to uphold the social and national significance of public holidays and celebrations. The ministry also issued a circular granting paid leave to workers covered under Labour Law No. 12 of 2003. It instructed heads of central departments and directors of labour directorates to circulate the decision at workplaces and ensure its enforcement. This circular aligns with Prime Ministerial Decree No. 1803 of 2025, which declared the same five-day period as official paid leave for employees in ministries, government offices, public authorities, local administration units, public sector companies, and state-owned enterprises. Examination schedules, where applicable, will continue as planned by the competent authorities, read the statement. On Thursday, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly announced the same five-day Eid holiday for public sector employees. Eid Al-Adha, also known as the Festival of Sacrifice, is one of the two most significant Islamic holidays, alongside Eid Al-Fitr. It celebrates Prophet Ibrahim's (Abraham's) readiness to sacrifice his son in obedience to God. The holiday also marks the start of Hajj, the yearly Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam and must be done at least once by Muslims who can afford it and are physically able to do it. Follow us on: Facebook Instagram Whatsapp Short link:
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Why am I filled with nostalgia for a pre-internet age I never knew?
A video went viral on X a few months ago that I can't stop watching. It's 2003: the band that later becomes MGMT are performing their song Kids to their peers, years before they become a pop sensation, in a dusty quad at Wesleyan University, Connecticut. Social media doesn't exist yet. There is something about the way people look and behave and inhabit the space that tugs at my heartstrings and fills me with nostalgia. No one is dressed that well; the camera zooms unsteadily to capture the crowd's awkwardness, slumped shoulders and arrhythmic bopping. Beyond the footage we're watching, no one seems to be filming. I was only four when the video was filmed, so why does watching it make me feel as if I've lost a whole world? A recent survey suggests I'm not alone – that almost half of young people would prefer a world without the internet. If anything, I expected a higher percentage. This doesn't mean my generation really would like to reverse everything that's happened in the last few decades, but there's clearly something we feel we're missing out on that older people have had, and we attribute it to the internet – or at least to its current form, dominated as it is by social media. What exactly do we think we're missing? Personally, I assume that before the social internet people behaved in more authentic and idiosyncratic ways. Social media has sped up trend cycles, resulting in an eerie uniformity across styles and personalities: we buy the same products, wear the same clothes, act in the same way, reference the same memes – even quirkiness itself or more 'unique' behaviour can be ascribed to trends. I also imagine that if we weren't on display all the time, our friendships and interactions could be less commodified. Now, spending time with friends is material to be documented and then demonstrated to a faceless audience. I'm sure these are rose-tinted assumptions, and I'm conscious too of the things I take for granted about an age of connectivity. Having to trawl through a few measly books and encyclopedias to find anything useful, or growing up in a remote area with little connection to the wider world, surely must have felt both inhibiting and claustrophobic. But it may be that these 'negative' aspects are what young people yearning for disconnectivity actually want – we have a sense that there was a value, now largely lost, in the practical effort required for social interaction, for finding good music, or joining a subculture. Life now in comparison seems streamlined, efficient, more yassified, in a phenomenon that writer Michael Harris calls a 'loss of lack'. Recently, my office manager showed me the technology he and his friends used to 'watch' the football on: Ceefax. The football score would load on a television screen via the changing of a single digit. They would spend the afternoon just sitting on the sofa, waiting for the digit to change (or not). I felt envious of this. Why? If anything, this is clearly a case where an experience has improved exponentially. And yet I'm captivated by the sense of mystery: if they weren't watching the game or reading the updates, what were they doing? What were they occupying their thoughts with? The reality might be that they were bored, another scarce experience in a connected age. At least, if bored, they would have entertained themselves with internal rather than external resources. It doesn't even matter if that was really the case - it is precisely because this experience is unknowable that it is compelling to me. I am haunted by the feeling that spending so much time on our phones has stolen something human and vital from our lives. It is of course true that each era experiences a crisis about the new wave of tech destroying people's souls – when it wasn't the internet, it was TV, or the radio, or the printing press, even papyrus scrolls, and nostalgia is common across every generation. But I don't think any previous generations were ever so down on their own era, in such large numbers, to the point they'd erase its major salient feature. We feel nostalgic for a world that can't be brought back. As Donald Trump said, now 'everything is computer'. Ironically, my nostalgia for a pre-internet age is being fed by the internet itself: the machine constantly feeding me clips of the past, footage of young people operating decades ago where everything seems refreshingly unobserved and carefree. So the very engine of this nostalgia is the thing half of us wish to do away with, despite the fact that it's an incredible resource, that has allowed unparalleled access to older music, knowledge, ways of living – and is also by nature democratic, questioning traditional media outlets on global affairs and challenging convention. If this survey is a canary in the mine, what should we do? Enjoyable as it is, I don't think being misty-eyed about the past is the solution; neither is fetishising a perceived authenticity of the past. 'Authenticity', I think, looks like the power to opt in or out, perform or not, when you want to – in other words: freedom. So when it comes to the internet, if switching off entirely isn't possible any more, then surely the words of MGMT can be useful: control yourself, take only what you need from it. Isabel Brooks is a freelance writer
Hindustan Times
29-05-2025
- Hindustan Times
Bengaluru Police to launch crackdown on illegal tobacco sales ahead of World No Tobacco Day
In the lead-up to World No Tobacco Day on May 31, Bengaluru City Police have announced a city-wide enforcement and awareness campaign targeting illegal tobacco sales. City Police Commissioner B Dayananda warned that shops selling cigarettes and other tobacco products without valid licenses from the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) will face strict action. Also Read - Bengaluru man with three wives, nine children held for serial burglaries with teenage son as accomplice: Report The initiative, running from May 27 to June 2, will include intensified enforcement of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003 (COTPA). Police will be on high alert for violations including public smoking, sale of tobacco to minors, and sale of tobacco within 100 meters of educational institutions. 'As part of our observance of World No Tobacco Day, we aim to create a healthier public environment and ensure tobacco control laws are strictly followed,' Commissioner Dayananda said. Special emphasis will be placed on eliminating the sale and use of banned Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems such as e-cigarettes and vaping devices. Also Read - BMTC launches 'Divya Darshana' spiritual tour across Bengaluru's 8 iconic temples. More details The commissioner also revealed that surprise checks will be conducted at malls, cafés, and local stores to catch violators. Ongoing action against illegal hookah bars will continue, with more inspections planned to shut down unauthorised outlets operating across the city. The Karnataka government has already announced blanket ban on serving hookah at public places and most of the cafes that serve hookah were asked to shut the shop or eliminate the service from their business establishments. However, there were many instances where some cafes were caught secretly serving hookah to the customers earlier. In a coordinated effort with the BBMP, police personnel will also conduct awareness drives in major commercial zones. These sessions will educate vendors about the legal requirements for selling tobacco and assist them in obtaining the necessary BBMP licenses.
