While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Sept 14
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Laura Loomer's presence on the campaign trail with Donald Trump has drawn criticism, from fervent Trump supporters as well as the White House.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Trump refuses to disavow far-right activist Loomer
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Sept 13 refused to disavow far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, whose presence on the campaign trail this week has drawn criticism from fervent Trump supporters as well as the White House.
“She is a strong person, she’s got strong opinions,” Trump told reporters, at his Southern California golf club.
He called Ms Loomer a ”free spirit.”
Ms Loomer says she does not work for Trump. She has travelled on his campaign plane, showing up at his debate in Philadelphia on Sept 10 against Democratic rival Kamala Harris and then in New York on Sept 11 to commemorate the 9/11 attacks on the US.
Russia’s RT conducting intelligence activities overseas
Countries should treat the activities of Russian state broadcaster RT as they do covert intelligence operations, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sept 13, as he unveiled new sanctions aimed at alleged Russian overseas influence campaigns.
The US last week filed money-laundering charges against two employees of RT and imposed sanctions on editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan over what officials said was a scheme to hire an American company to produce online content to influence the 2024 US election.
Mr Blinken told reporters at the State Department that Russian media entities were “functioning like a de facto arm of Russia’s intelligence apparatus.”
Three US citizens sentenced to death over failed Congo coup
Three US citizens are among 37 defendants sentenced to death by a military court on Sept 13 for their role in a May failed coup in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Armed men briefly occupied an office of the presidency in capital Kinshasa on May 19 before their leader, US-based Congolese politician Christian Malanga, was killed by security forces.
His son, Marcel Malanga, was among the Americans on trial, along with Marcel’s friend, Tyler Thompson, who played high school football with him in Utah. Both are in their 20s.
Ukraine’s Kursk offensive ‘slowed’ Russian advance in east
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sept 13 Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s border region of Kursk had produced the desired result of slowing Moscow’s advance on another front in the east of his country.
Mr Zelensky told a conference in Kyiv that Russia’s counterattack in the Kursk region had also had no major successes - contradicting President Vladimir Putin’s accounts of Russian advances on both fronts.
Ukraine launched a surprise incursion in the Kursk region on Aug 6, pushing into the Russian territory and claiming control over dozens of settlements.
Timberlake given community service in drink driving case
Pop star Justin Timberlake was handed a sentence of community service on Sept 13, after he changed his plea to guilty following his arrest for drink driving, US media reported.
On June 18, the 43-year-old entertainer was pulled over in the town of Sag Harbor, about 160km east of New York City, after police observed his BMW go through a stop sign and struggle to stay within road lanes.
Sag Harbor Village Justice Court judge Carl Irace handed Timberlake a community service sentence and ordered the star to make a public statement after the singer pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of driving while alcohol impaired, broadcaster NBC reported.
