The Algorithm Age

Of the five charges Sean 'Diddy' Combs faced trial over, he was only found guilty of two — and they were the least serious ones. A relieved Combs celebrated in court and told his family he would be home soon, but the matter is not over yet. And the verdict is not the end of the road for alleged victims, with dozens of civil lawsuits accusing him of sexual abuse which are yet to be dealt with. Here's what happens next. What was Diddy found guilty of? Two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution These were the least serious charges against Combs. What was Diddy found not guilty of? One count of racketeering conspiracy Two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion One of the trafficking charges was related to Combs's ex girlfriend Casandra "Cassie" Ventura. The other trafficking charge related to another ex-gir...

A woman walks her dog down a street in Clayfield. It’s windy, but sunny, and tradesmen rush about renovating multimillion-dollar homes. Most of the houses are empty on this weekday afternoon. A scattering of teenagers, having ditched their private school blazers during the holiday weeks, roam palatial properties barefoot and carefree. In a nearby park, small children laugh and squeal in the playground. But just days earlier, flashing sirens and homicide detectives swarmed the streets, slicing through the gentle holiday buzz following reports of a brutal stabbing. Halfway up the road, a towering white wall wraps around a property protecting the home from peering eyes. Behind it is a sprawling home with bay windows lapping up vistas from Brisbane’s city skyline. The events inside this $5.4 million home reverberated beyond the close-knit neighbourhood and captured the nation’s attention. Greg Josephson, the co-founder of clothing chain Universal Store, w...

The family of the Egyptian national who carried out the antisemitic attack in Boulder can be deported, a US federal judge ruled. On June 1, Mohamed Sabry Soliman threw Molotov cocktails at a pro-Israel demonstration in Boulder, Colorado, while yelling “Free Palestine.” One of the people wounded on the day, 82-year-old Karen Diamond , died of her injuries on June 25. Soliman now faces over 70 charges, including first-degree murder. Following his arrest, Soliman was found to be in the United States illegally on an expired visa, and his wife and five children are also illegal immigrants. On June 4, the District of Colorado issued a temporary restraining order preventing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from deporting the mother, Hayam El Gamal, and her five children, ages 4 to 18, from the United States. The case was then transferred to the Western District of Texas on June 18, where the court extended the order for an additional 14 da...

Would you play a video game with the police? In Denmark, a special team of police officers stream online gaming to connect with young people and combat crimes such as fraud and sexual harassment. “We try to be very aware of the evolution of online crimes,” Jeppe Torup, a police sergeant at the National Special Crime Unit of the Danish Police, told Euronews Next. “It becomes a lot easier to commit crimes across language barriers and across countries and we need to be very aware of what is going on in the technosphere,” he added. They also “patrol” on popular platforms such as Discord, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, where they say they receive leads about suspicious behaviour from the communities. The team was set up in 2022 to tackle the rise in online crime in Denmark. “It was needed because we saw that a lot of the children are actually online most of the time – 99 per cent of the kids in Denmark are using social media or gaming platforms on a daily basis. So we...

Would you play a video game with the police? In Denmark, a special team of police officers stream online gaming to connect with young people and combat crimes such as fraud and sexual harassment. “We try to be very aware of the evolution of online crimes,” Jeppe Torup, a police sergeant at the National Special Crime Unit of the Danish Police, told Next. “It becomes a lot easier to commit crimes across language barriers and across countries and we need to be very aware of what is going on in the technosphere,” he added. They also “patrol” on popular platforms such as Discord, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, where they say they receive leads about suspicious behaviour from the communities. The team was set up in 2022 to tackle the rise in online crime in Denmark. “It was needed because we saw that a lot of the children are actually online most of the time – 99 per cent of the kids in Denmark are using social media or gaming platforms on a daily basis. So we have to ...

Ten times more cyclists than drivers have been fined for running red lights in one of London 's busiest districts, new figures have revealed. And one in six bike riders admits to frequently ignoring traffic light signals to stop, according to a new poll for electric vehicle firm Lime. City Of London Police say they are carrying out a new crackdown on cyclists who flout regulations - with many more doing so compared to drivers in the area. Some 284 people have been fined so far this year for not stopping at traffic lights while riding bikes in the City of London , compared to just 25 drivers. The figures were revealed by City of London Police, at the same time as a separate study by Lime on the attitudes shown by cyclists across the UK's capital city. Fines for cyclists running red lights are set at £50, while drivers must pay £100 - with the money going to the Treasury - and receive three points on their licence. City of London Corporation figures show c...

Former Irish Olympic swimming coach George Gibney, who was arrested in the US on Tuesday, will appear before a US court on July 11 to either fight or accede to extradition to Ireland. Mr Gibney, who is now in his 70s, is facing a total of 79 charges relating to historical sex abuse allegations. Of these, 78 are for indecent assault while one is for attempted rape, court documents filed at the District Court of Orlando, Florida, have shown. These charges relate to allegations made by four girls. They were all aged between eight and 15 at the time and were being coached by Gibney at the time of the alleged abuse. Gibney remains in custody in the US. Speaking yesterday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin praised the cooperation of members of the gardaí with the US justice system. The allegations regarding Gibney were highlighted in a BBC podcast which was released over five years ago. The Garda National Protective Services Bureau has been wo...

A Chinese national has been found guilty in the ACT Supreme Court of his part in a brutal attack during a violent home invasion where the victims said their attackers suggested they were from Chinese special forces. Xiantao Shang, 38, has been found guilty of aggravated burglary and assault by joint commission after he went to the apartment with a second man in June 2023, looking for a woman known as 'Linda'. Shang said she owed him over $100,000, with more owed to the other man, 46-year-old Wengao Zheng. The debt appeared to be gambling related. 'Linda' had not been answering their calls and had left town for a while. Before the home invasion the pair discovered she had returned to Canberra. Justice Verity McWilliam said in her judgement 'Linda' had once been the lover of Zheng, who did some "detective work of his own" tracking her to the apartment through a site advertising sexual services. Zheng pleaded guil...

Bryan Kohberger has pleaded guilty to the murders of four University of Idaho students , more than two years after the grisly quadruple stabbing that shocked the nation. The decision to enter a plea this week allows Kohberger to avoid the death penalty. During a court hearing, lead prosecutor Bill Thompson laid out key evidence that painted a dramatic picture of the investigation. Among the details revealed was the discovery of a DNA-laden Q-tip retrieved from the garbage, a getaway car described as "essentially disassembled inside" to strip it of evidence, and a fateful early-morning DoorDash order that may have inadvertently placed one of the victims in Kohberger's path. These insights offered a clearer understanding of how the crime unfolded on 13 November 2022, and the meticulous efforts by investigators to solve the case. Their methods included extensive use of surveillance footage, cell phone tracking data, and DNA matching. Despite the guilty plea, the...

No prison term will be long enough for a meth-addicted car thief who ran over and killed a young policeman while trying to escape arrest, the officer's grieving widow says. Reagan Ainslie Chown, 25, was convicted of manslaughter over the late-night chain of events in June 2023 that led to Constable Anthony Woods' death. He was sentenced in the Western Australian Supreme Court on Thursday to a head sentence of 15 years and six months and a minimum term of 13 years and six months. Const Woods' widow Emily said Chown's prison sentence would "never be enough because Anthony has lost his whole life". "He had so much ahead of him," she said outside court while fighting back tears. She thanked the dozens of police officers who turned out for the sentence, including WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch. "It's been a really big journey, but today was an important day in helping us moving forward," she said. Const Woods' m...

A class action lawsuit could be launched on behalf of families caught up in a horrific child sex abuse investigation that has rocked Melbourne. Former childcare worker Joshua Brown, 26, is facing 70 charges for the alleged sexual abuse of eight victims aged between five months and two years old. The charges relate to offences police allege occurred at Creative Gardens Early Learning in Point Cook between April 2022 and January 2023. READ MORE: Melbourne family risk being deported to South Korea over 'misunderstanding' Police continue to investigate Brown's conduct at 19 other childcare centres he worked at between 2017 and 2025. The investigation has prompted Victorian authorities to urge 1200 families to send their young children for precautionary STI testing. A dozen families have already reached out for legal advice from Arnold, Thomas & Becker lawyers, who said it has "not ruled out" the possibility of a class action. ...

After two agonising years of court hearings, headlines and documentaries, Bryan Kohberger has admitted to the “wilful, unlawful, deliberate” murder of four US college students inside their Idaho home . Sitting expressionless in an Idaho courtroom, he admitted to circling the neighbourhood in the early hours of the morning on November 13, 2022. He admitted to entering the off-campus residence at 1122 King Road, Moscow, at 4.05am. He admitted to killing Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, both 21 years old, in a third-floor bedroom. He admitted to then going downstairs and stabbing Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, both 20 years old. He admitted to leaving through the sliding kitchen door and driving away at speed through the back roads of Moscow, leaving two surviving roommates terrified and hiding in the home. He admitted to going back to his apartment and taking a selfie of himself giving a thumbs up. He will never have to explain any ...

Disgraced MMA fighter Conor McGregor could face up to ten years in prison after allegations of perjury were referred by a court to the Director of Public Prosecutions. At the Court of Appeal yesterday, Judge Isobel Kennedy said she would pass on material to the DPP concerning McGregor’s dropped allegation that Nikita Hand was assaulted by her own partner. Ms Hand, a 36-year-old mother-of-one, was awarded just under €250,000 in damages by a High Court jury last year after claiming she had been violently raped by McGregor in a Dublin hotel, fearing she would never see her children again . Earlier this year, McGregor had said he would call fresh evidence from two of Ms Hand’s former neighbours in Drimnagh, Samantha O’Reilly and Steven Cummins, in support of his appeal against the verdict. The pair had signed sworn statements saying Ms O’Reilly had seen her being physically attacked by her partner at the time, Stephen Redmond, on December 9, 2...

A drug-affected car thief who ran over and killed a young policeman while trying to escape arrest will spend more than a decade in prison. Reagan Ainslie Chown, 25, was convicted of manslaughter over the late-night June 8, 2023 incident that led to Constable Anthony Woods' death. He was sentenced in the Western Australian Supreme Court today to a head sentence of 15 years and six months, and a minimum term of 13 years and six months. READ MORE: ACCC's warning about 'ghost stores' luring customers online Woods' mother Natalie said her heart was "ripped" away the day her son died. "My beautiful son Anthony was so full of life, energy and ambition," she said as she read her victim impact statement to the court. "He was doing his duty and he was protecting his community and his future was taken away." Ms Woods said her family continued to suffer and "each anniversary, birthday and any moment we sha...

A father who carried out the "honour" stabbing of his daughter for dating a man of a different faith has had his prison sentence reduced by almost four years, after a court noted the victim had since offered her forgiveness. The woman's mother and brother will also spend less time behind bars, with the Court of Appeal also granting their appeals against sentence. The trio, and other family members, were charged after a 21-year-old woman was held down and stabbed outside the Sefton Plaza Shopping Centre, in Adelaide's north, in November 2021. She was repeatedly stabbed in the abdomen with a large kitchen knife before being driven to the family home and put into the shower. The woman suffered significant internal injuries in the incident. The court had previously heard her traditional Pashtun Muslim family disapproved of her relationship with a Christian man and worked together to track her down in the lead-up to the stabbing. ...

When Grant Stevens was confronted by waiting journalists as he left the ABC's Adelaide studios following a radio interview on Wednesday morning, he smiled wryly. "I'm not armed. It's OK," the SA Police Commissioner said. The quip was in reference to an incident from the commissioner's professional past in which he had, he said, accidentally discharged his firearm during a raid on the house of an alleged drug dealer. A recent newspaper story had drawn attention to the episode, which dates back to the early 1990s when the now-commissioner was a young criminal investigator. Here's a look at what happened, why it has now made headlines, and why an Office for Public Integrity assessment will be conducted. What's the story? Earlier this week, Adelaide's Sunday Mail newspaper published a report containing allegations relating to a "high-ranking South Australian police officer". The story claimed th...