Justin Timberlake’s DWI case adjourned until Aug. 2
Sag Harbor Village Police Department
Justin Timberlake’s DWI case in Sag Harbor, New York, has been adjourned until Aug. 2.
At that time Justin will be arraigned on misdemeanor charges of driving while intoxicated and failing to keep right, WABC-TV reports. The new arraignment is due to a problem with the way Justin was initially charged. He did not appear in court on Friday, according to WABC-TV.
Justin will now appear virtually Aug. 2 in Sag Harbor Village Justice Court. He’s been accused of running a stop sign and swerving out of his lane while leaving The American Hotel in his BMW.
According to WABC-TV, in his first public comments since the arrest, Timberlake’s attorney Ed Burke contended Justin “was not intoxicated,” adding, “I’ll say it again. Justin Timberlake was not intoxicated. And we are very confident that charge, that criminal charge, will be dismissed.”
Burke argued in court that the case should be thrown out due to a “defective accusatory instrument,” which is another way of saying there was an issue with the way that Justin was charged.
“The police made a number of very significant errors in this case … and there are many others,” Burke continued. “Sometimes the police, like every one of us, make mistakes. And that’s the case in this very instance.”
According to the criminal complaint, Justin “was driving drunk, had bloodshot, glassy eyes, slowed speech, was unsteady on his feet and performed poorly on a field sobriety test.” He told the arresting officer he’d only had one drink and refused to take a chemical test, WABC-TV reports.
The next date of Justin’s Forget Tomorrow World Tour is Friday in Poland.
A queue of Palestinian vehicles waits at the Beit Furik checkpoint, east of the city of Nablus in the West Bank, July 7, 2024. (Nasser Ishtayeh/SOPA Images via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A Palestinian human rights activist has accused Israeli soldiers of being involved in a series of alleged offenses against him and his property in the occupied West Bank, amid a spike in violence since the Oct. 7 terror attack in southern Israel by Hamas.
These allegations follow a probe by the U.S. State Department into a string of other alleged human rights abuses by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers in the West Bank, prior to Oct. 7.
ABC News spoke to Issa Amro, a Palestinian human rights activist, at his home in Hebron, the West Bank’s second-largest city. Amro spoke on his back porch, from behind the wire fence that now blocks his spectacular view of the Old City.
Amro said he needs the fence for protection and alleges Israeli soldiers have repeatedly failed to protect him from run-ins with right-wing settlers — his neighbors — who he says have threatened him. He also highlighted one particularly frightening encounter.
“He came here with a gun, he was very happy to show his power,” Amro said of an encounter with a neighbor. “He went around, he pointed the gun and said, ‘I will shoot you if I want.’”
This incident happened a few feet away from an Israeli military outpost, according to the activist.
“In spite of the presence of the soldier, I was attacked many times,” he said. “They do nothing about it. I’m afraid to stand here in the middle of the night – I feel they may shoot me.”
Amro first connected with ABC News in 2023, after the IDF put parts of Hebron under lockdown in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks. Months before that, an Israeli soldier was caught on video attacking Amro in the street. The IDF jailed the soldier for 10 days, they said.
After those incidents, Amro reinforced his windows with concrete stones to act as protection.
“From the settlers and the soldiers,” he said. “I see them the same now.”
He highlighted security camera footage that appears to show a soldier walking onto his property in November. The man stole a GoPro and CCTV cameras, Amro alleged.
“Then he told me that he would come to kill me on the night,” he said.
Amro alleged that soldiers took him from his home and interrogated him for 10 hours on Oct. 7. He held up a strip of cloth he said was used to gag him, putting it in his mouth to demonstrate his alleged treatment.
“I’m keeping it as a souvenir,” he said.
The Israeli military told ABC News that Amro had not filed a formal complaint alleging violence by its soldiers, and accused him of being linked to “illegal disturbances” in the area.
He highlighted security camera footage that appears to show a soldier walking onto his property in November. The man stole a GoPro and CCTV cameras, Amro alleged.
“Then he told me that he would come to kill me on the night,” he said.
Amro alleged that soldiers took him from his home and interrogated him for 10 hours on Oct. 7. He held up a strip of cloth he said was used to gag him, putting it in his mouth to demonstrate his alleged treatment.
“I’m keeping it as a souvenir,” he said.
The Israeli military told ABC News that Amro had not filed a formal complaint alleging violence by its soldiers, and accused him of being linked to “illegal disturbances” in the area.
In the wake of the Oct. 7 attack, the IDF says it has conducted “over 200 operations” in the West Bank, “eliminating over 500 terrorists.” They claimed that more than 17,000 people they’ve arrested are linked with Hamas.
Palestinian officials say Israeli operations have killed 140 children in the West Bank and Jerusalem since the October violence. Israel argues that the raids are necessary to prevent terror attacks.
A U.S. State Department investigation into IDF conduct in the West Bank concluded that three Israeli Army battalions committed “gross human rights violations” against Palestinian civilians before Oct. 7.
One such unit was Netzah Yehuda, a unit made up primarily of ultra-Orthodox men. A 2019 video allegedly shows some of its soldiers abusing a pair of blindfolded Palestinian detainees.
An Israeli court convicted an officer and five soldiers for their roles in mistreating the two men.
Yossi Levi is the CEO of Netzah Yehuda Organization, which represents soldiers in the unit. They refer to the West Bank as Judea and Samaria, a reference to ancient Israelite kingdoms as some Israelis assert that the area is a historic Jewish homeland.
“It’s too complicated to deal with civilian people in Judea and Samaria, to deal with thousands of operations, success operations, by the way,” he said of the incidents. “So sometimes you have bad events.”
However, such events have sometimes turned deadly. In 2022, Omar Assad, a 78-year-old Palestinian-American, died while in Netzah Yehuda’s custody. He and Mamdouh Abu Aboud were arrested at random as they drove through the village, according to Aboud.
“That night there were no security incidents, there were no confrontations between us and them,” Aboud said, speaking in Arabic.
He lay on the ground to demonstrate the position soldiers allegedly held Assad in, before he suffered from a heart attack and died, according to Aboud.
“The soldier came and hit me. I looked left and right and see Omar on the ground. I got close to him and put my hand here,” Aboud said, indicating his neck. “I knew him and called him. He didn’t respond. I checked his pulse, he had no pulse.”
In response, the IDF said the soldiers “violated” a core value of protecting human life and two of the commanders involved were suspended from their positions for two years. After the unit’s misconduct came to light in 2022, Netzah Yehuda was redeployed out of the West Bank.
That hasn’t stopped the alleged abuses. In June, video showed Mujahed Abbadi — an injured Palestinian — tied to the front of an IDF unit’s jeep. The IDF said soldiers had violated orders and standard operating procedures during a counterterrorism operation.
Former tank commander Ori Givati, who is now part of an Israeli nonprofit called “Breaking the Silence,” is among the Israelis trying to highlight the IDF’s alleged abuses in the West Bank, and says the problem is the occupation itself.
“When you occupy millions of people with the military, you go through a process of dehumanization,” Givati said.
He acknowledges that the soldiers stationed in the West Bank are working under extremely difficult circumstances — soldiers and settlers in the area are constantly threatened with attack. However, he highlights Israel’s role in creating that tension.
“Occupying the Palestinians for almost 57 years now is not helping our security,” he said. “Militarily occupy them, invade their homes, disperse their protests, build settlements on their lands. Maybe that is something that is creating a lot of hostility and we should change course.”
Amro, the Palestinian human rights activist, doesn’t understand why the Israelis see him as an enemy, saying he isn’t a security threat.
“I am here to resist peacefully the inequality, the injustice, and try to give hope,” he said.
(WASHINGTON) — The Pentagon is aware of reports Wednesday that an American service member was recently detained in Venezuela, a U.S. official told ABC News.
The Department of Defense is “working closely” with the State Department on the matter, according to a statement from the official.
“We are aware of reports that U.S. Navy Sailor was detained on or about August 30, 2024, by Venezuelan law enforcement authorities while on personal travel to Venezuela. The U.S. Navy is looking into this and working closely with the State Department. We refer you to the State Department for additional questions,” the U.S. defense official told ABC News.
The U.S. Navy believes the sailor was detained by Venezuelan law enforcement on or around Aug. 30, another U.S. defense official confirmed to ABC News.
The sailor is based on the West Coast and was not on authorized travel to Venezuela, according to the official.
The news was first reported by CNN.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — As the Israel-Hamas war continues, tensions are escalating after the assassinations of two Hamas and Hezbollah leaders this week.
Here’s how the news is developing:
Israel, Hezbollah exchange fire, killing at least five in Lebanon and injuring two in Israel
Hezbollah fired a barrage of rockets and drones toward northern Israel on Tuesday morning and afternoon, injuring at least two people, after an earlier Israeli airstrike killed at least five people in southern Lebanon, according to authorities on both sides.
The Lebanese militant group said in separate statements that Tuesday’s attacks against Israel — at least four so far — were carried out both in support of the Palestinian people in the war-torn Gaza Strip and in response to recent Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon.
One of those drones was intercepted by Israeli air defense and the falling shrapnel injured “several civilians” south of Nahariya, the northernmost coastal city of Israel, according to the IDF.
Israel’s Magen David Adam rescue service said its first responders were deployed to the scene and treated a 30-year-old man in serious condition and a 30-year-old woman in mild-to-moderate condition with shrapnel injuries to the lower limbs. Both patients were transported to the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya.
“We saw the male unconscious in the car with a severe head injury from shrapnel. A female who was fully conscious with shrapnel injuries to her lower limbs was in a parking lot nearby,” paramedic Roi Vishna and senior EMT Noam Levi said in a joint statement released by MDA.” We treated the male including ventilating him and providing medications, and evacuated him by MICU in very serious condition to hospital. The female casualty was evacuated in mild to moderate condition.”
Hezbollah launched the counterattacks after an Israeli airstrike on the town of Mifdoun in southern Lebanon killed at least five people on Tuesday morning, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. It was not immediately clear whether civilians were among the casualties.
Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged near-daily strikes for the past 10 months amid the ongoing war in Gaza. But regional tensions have soared following last week’s assassinations of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran’s capital and Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukur in Lebanon’s capital.
Israel kills another Hezbollah commander
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed on Monday they had killed another Hezbollah commander in a strike on Lebanon. Ali Jamal Aldin Jawad, a commander in Hezbollah’s Radwan Force, was killed in the strike.
The death was also confirmed by Hezbollah.
“His elimination significantly degrades the capabilities of the Hezbollah terrorist organization to promote and carry out terror activities from southern Lebanon against northern Israel,” the IDF said.
Israel’s killing of a Hezbollah official in Beirut, Fuad Shukr, and a Hamas official in Iran, Ismail Haniyeh, has pushed the Middle East to the brink of further war.
Remains of about 80 deceased Palestinians returned after being taken by IDF
The deceased remains of an estimated 80 Palestinians — which Israeli forces took from Gazan cemeteries to identify whether hostages had been buried there — were returned by the Israel Defense Forces.
The bodies were decomposed beyond recognition, with Gazan officials saying between three and four bodies were in each bag. They will be reburied in a mass grave in Khan Younis.
A Gazan civil defense official on the ground said there is no data as to who these individuals were.
“I wished I could find him, to be at peace,” Suwa Abu Rajilah, a mother who traveled to the site to see if her son, killed in the war, was there. “To say I buried him, but I couldn’t find him.”
-ABC News’ Dia Ostaz
9 UN employees fired after investigation into ties to Oct. 7 attack
The U.N. has fired nine employees following a lengthy investigation into ties to the Oct. 7 attacks, the organization said.
The U.N.’s Office of Internal Oversight Services investigated 19 staff members with the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East as part of the probe.
For nine of the staffers, evidence was found that they “may have been involved in the armed attacks,” the U.N. said.
“The employment of these individuals will be terminated in the interests of the Agency,” the organization said in a statement.
There was no evidence or insufficient evidence that the other investigated staffers had been involved, they added.
At least 7 Hezbollah attacks Monday
In another active day on the northern Israeli border, Hezbollah launched at least seven attacks on Monday.
The IDF said they “successfully intercepted” the projectiles, and no injuries were reported.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying in a statement they had launched them “in support of our steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and in support of their valiant and honorable resistance.”
The IDF also said Monday that they had “identified a terrorist cell operating a drone in the area of Meiss El Jabal in southern Lebanon.”
“Shortly following the identification, the IAF struck and eliminated the terrorists,” they said.
Israeli officer and soldier injured in aerial attack from Lebanon: IDF
An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officer and a soldier were injured after an aerial attack in northern Israel’s upper Galilee region near Ayelet HaShahar early Monday morning local time, the IDF said in a statement.
The aerial targets crossed from Lebanon, the IDF said.
“Israel Fire Services are currently operating to extinguish a fire that was ignited in the area as a result of the attack,” the IDF said.
Netanyahu says Israel will strike wherever necessary
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel is prepared to stand against attacks from Iran and its proxies.
“Iran and its detractors seek to surround us with a choke ring of terrorism on seven fronts. Their open aggression is insatiable,” Netanyahu said during a state memorial service commemorating the death of Revisionist Zionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky in 1940.
Netanyahu added, “We are determined to stand against them on every front, in every arena, far and near. “
Netanyahu’s comments came just days after the assassination in Iran of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh. He was killed in an explosion on Wednesday at a guest house in Tehran that he was staying in while attending the inauguration of Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian. Israel has not claimed responsibility for Haniyeh’s death.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called for “revenge” against Israel.
Haniyeh’s assassination followed the death of Mohammed Deif, commander of Hamas’ military wing, in a “precise, targeted strike” in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis on July 13. Deif was allegedly one of the masterminds of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
IDF officials also announced that they killed top Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr in a precision missile strike Tuesday in Beirut, Lebanon. Officials claim he had been orchestrating drone and rocket attacks on northern Israel, including one on July 27 in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights that killed 12 children and teenagers playing soccer.
“Anyone who murders our citizens, anyone who harms our country, will not be cleared of responsibility,” Netanyahu said Sunday. “He will pay a very heavy price. Our long hand strikes in the Gaza Strip, in Yemen, in Beirut, wherever necessary.”
Netanyahu said Israel’s goals are to “secure our future” and the ensure that hostages taken by Hamas terrorists during the Oct. 7 attack in Israel are returned home.
“We will continue to press the pedal,” Netanyahu said. “We did not let up from the pressure in all combat areas. We will take an offensive, creative, persistent initiative — until victory comes.”